Robert Lee | Through the Shattered Lens

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week, Friday the 13th features an international adventure!

Episode 3.11 “Year of the Monkey”

(Dir by Rodney Charters, originally aired on January 15th, 1990)

Mushashi (John Fujioka) is a modern-day samurai who owns a cursed tea kettle. When Jack, Micki, and Johnny come by his dojo in search of the kettle, Mushashi says that he will give it to them if they can prove that they are “honorable” by retrieving three cursed monkey statues that are currently in the possession an elderly businessman named Tanaka (Robert Ito).

Tanaka, however, has given the three wise monkey statues (“See No Evil,” “Hear No Evil,” and “Speak No Evil”) to his three children, Michiko (Tia Carrere), Koji (Leonard Chow), and Hitoshi (Von Flores). Tanaka explains that each statue will challenge it’s owner. Those who react in an honorable way will inherit Tanaka’s fortune. Those who are dishonorable will get nothing.

Jack, Micki, and Johnny split up to retrieve the monkeys. Johnny goes to New Yok to get Hear No Evil from Hitoshi. Micki goes to Hong Kong to retrieve See No Evil from Koji. Jack gets to stay in Canada (or Chicago or wherever this show is supposed to be taking place) so that he can retrieve Speak No Evil from Michiko. What they don’t know is that Tanaka is several hundred years old. Every time one of his children fails a monkey test, Tanaka gets a little bit younger.

It’s all about honor and dishonor and the code of the samurai in this week’s episode. To be honest, it’s a bit of a mess. First off, the title refers to the Chinese Zodiac but, other than our three regulars, all of the characters are meant to be Japanese. Secondly, it’s never really clear how the cursed monkeys decide what is honorable and what is dishonorable. Hitoshi uses his monkey to hear the thoughts of those around him and to take advantage of them. That’s definitely dishonorable. But then Koji is declared to be dishonorable even though his monkey did something on its own, without Koji telling it to. Michiko refuses to use her monkey to her own advantage and is judged to be honorable. She is told that it is now her duty to kill her father but instead, she commits suicide because killing her father would be dishonorable. Then, Tanaka is eventually judged to be dishonorable because he stabs Musashi while Mushasi is not holding a weapon but that’s just because Mushashi dropped his sword at the very least minute. It seems like Mushashi should be the dishonarable one for going out of his way to trick Tanaka.

My point is that this was a confusing episode. The monkey were actually kind of cute but their powers made no sense. I’m also not sure why experienced world traveler Jack decided to send Micki to Hong Kong instead of going himself. In the end, this episode was pretty silly, despite the cool monkeys and the samurai-themed finale.

Bruce Greenwood stars as Dennis Wilson and Greg Kean plays his brother Brian in this made-for-TV movie about the history of the Beach Boys. The movie focuses on Dennis and his struggle with his abusive father (Arlen Dean Snyder) and his ultimately fatal addictions. Bo Foxworth plays Carl Wilson, who doesn’t get a line until half an hour into the movie. Andrew Myler plays Al Jardine and Casey Sanders plays Mike Love, both of whom are portrayed as being bystanders while Brian and Dennis create the Beach Boys sound. (Jardine doesn’t get a single line in the movie.) An actor named Michael Reid MacKay shows up briefly as Charles Manson, wearing a fake beard and crashing at Dennis’s pad in the 60s. The movie portrays the Beach Boys transformation from being a clean-cut group of California teenagers to psychedelic pioneers by putting everyone in a wig once the late 60s arrive.

Summer Dreams claims to be The Story of the Beach Boys but next to no time is spent on the recording of Pet Sounds and Smile isn’t mentioned at all. (Don’t go looking for Van Dyke Parks.) Admittedly, this film was made before Brian Wilson made his touring comeback so I guess it would make sense that the story would focus on Dennis, who had died seven years previously. (Brian is portrayed as being neurotic and sensitive but not mentally ill.) Bruce Greenwood doesn’t do a bad job as Dennis and there definitely is a place for a movie that takes a real look at Dennis Wilson and his contributions to the group. Dennis was, in many ways, as serious an artist as Brian but, due to his early death, he’s often overlooked. But this film, mired as it is in biopic cliches and bland recreations of the 60s and 70s, doesn’t do justice to either Brian or Dennis or the group as a whole.

Watch Love & Mercy instead.