Tag Archives: The Master

Scenes That I Love: Freddie and Dodd’s Final Meeting From Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from 2012’s The Master, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (who celebrated his birthday yesterday).

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix were never better than they were in Anderson’s enigmatic story of two very different men who become unlikely friends.  Phoenix plays Freddie Quill, a World War II veteran who has never figured out how to adjust to life during peacetime.  Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a writer who claims to have all the answers but who is actually a charlatan.  In this scene, Freddie and Dodd meet for one last time and, though they are both characters about who most viewers will have mixed feelings, there’s something undeniably poignant about their final moments together.  Both of them realize that the time they had is over.  And indeed, watching this scene today is all the more difficult because it reminds us of what a talent we lost when we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman.

From Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master:

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Paul Thomas Anderson Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Yesterday was the birthday of one of our greatest filmmakers, Paul Thomas Anderson!  It’s never too late for….

4 Shots From 4 Paul Thomas Anderson Films

Boogie Nights (1997, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Robert Elswit)

The Will Be Blood (2007, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Robert Elswit)

The Master (2012, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Mihai Mălaimare Jr.)

Phantom Thread (2017, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Retro Television Reviews: The Master 1.13 “A Place To Call Home”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing The Master, which ran on NBC from January to August of 1984.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, The Master comes to an end.

Episode 1.13 “A Place To Call Home”

(Dir by Gordon Hessler, originally aired on August 31st, 1984)

The Master ends in much the same way that it began, with Max and John Peter McAllister in a small town that is controlled by an evil businessman.  In this case, land developer Mark Richards (Jock Mahoney) wants to run the local orphanage out of town so that he can steal the land and expand his uranium mine.  Max and McAllister not only help Kim Anderson (Susan Woollen) save her orphanage but they also provide some much-needed mentoring to two of the orphans, Mike (Doug Toby) and Bobby (played by Kane Kosugi).  Bobby, it turns out, has some martial arts skills of his own!  It’s amazing how McAllister and Max were always traveling to small towns that just happened to be home to other people who knew karate.

Though his son plays Bobby, Sho Kosugi does not appear in this episode, which is a shame considering that it would be turn out to be the show’s finale.  For that matter, the show ends with McAllister having yet to find his daughter.  In fact, Terri McAllister is only mentioned briefly at the end of the episode, when McAllister says that he and Max have to get back on the road because “I’m looking for my daughter.”  Considering that the whole premise of the show was that McAllister was searching for Terri while Okassa was searching for McAllister, it seems like neither was really in a hurry to accomplish their goals.

A Place To Call Home feels like a greatest hits package, duplicating the plot of the pilot while tossing in a bit of the union episode‘s political subtext.  Even the scene where McAllister attempts to hop onto a helicopter feels a bit reminiscent of the ghost town episode.  The Master ended with an episode that resolved nothing and didn’t really bring anything new to show’s format.

Why did The Master end after thirteen episodes?  When taken as a whole, the show wasn’t as bad as its reputation.  While the stunt doubles did most of the work, Lee Van Cleef and Tim Van Patten still managed to develop a likable chemistry over the course of 13 episodes.  At first, the show’s writer stried too hard to play up the idea of Max Keller being a rebel with a chip on his shoulder but, after the first few episodes, it appears that they realized that Van Patten’s greatest strength as an actor was that he had a sort of amiable goofiness to him.  The stories were predictable but the fight scenes were usually (if not always) well-choreographed and entertaining.  The stunt people earned their paycheck.

In the end, though, I think The Master never quite figured what it wanted to be.  Did it want to be a straight action show?  Did it want to be a goofy buddy comedy?  In some episodes, McAllister was apparently a famous and well-known figure.  In others, he was a total unknown.  In some episodes, finding Terri was the most important thing in his life.  In others, he really didn’t seem to care.  The best episodes were the ones that winked at the audience and acknowledged just how ludicrous the whole thing was.  But, far too often, The Master became a generic crime show that just happened to feature martial arts.

The Master is finished and, to my surprise, I’m going to kind of miss it.  It had potential.  But, it’s time to move on to a new series.  Get ready because next week, it’s time for T & T!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/23/23 — 7/29/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother starts next week and I’m going to have a lot less free time.  (I probably should have made better use of my free time this week!)  That said, I skipped the Big Brother special that CBS aired this week because I knew there wouldn’t be anything interesting revealed.  Big Brother is a show that I both love and hate in equal measures.  I never find myself looking forward to it but I always watch once it starts.

Anyways, here some thoughts on what I did watch this week!

City Guys (YouTube)

I wrote about City Guys here!

Claim To Fame (Monday Night, ABC)

I have to admit that Cole was one of the players who I thought had a really good chance of winning the game so I was a little surprised to see him leave the show this week.  For the record, he was Alicia Keys’s brother.  At this point, I’m just rooting for Olivia.

Degrassi High (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Sunday.  Everyone was smoking weed.

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Tubi)

I watched a few random episodes on Sunday.  Most of them were from the superlong tenth season, which isn’t really Degrassi’s best season but it is one that I occasionally like to revisit just because it’s not one of those seasons that really demands that you put a lot of effort into concentrating on what was happening on-screen.  The tenth season of Degrassi is perfect for background noise.

Fantasy Island (YouTube)

I wrote about Fantasy Island here!

Jenny Jones (YouTube)

The episode that I watched on Thursday was entitled “I Want My Child To Stop Listening To Marilyn Manson.”  The kids loved Marilyn and the parents were panicking.  Jenny Jones told her audience, “Now, you know, Marilyn Manson is a guy, right?  He’s a male.”  One of Jenny’s guests was a cutter.  The audience booed her, which I doubt helped.  “He is far from being one of the beautiful people!” one parent said, “He is a sadistic pig!”  I think this episode was from 1996.

On Friday, I watched an episode in which Jenny revealed the results of DNA tests.  As a host, Jenny Jones was so flustered and spent so much time stumbling over her words that I actually got a headache while watching her.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I wrote about The Love Boat here!

The Master (Tubi)

I wrote about The Master here!

Sally Jessy Raphael (YouTube)

On Thursday, I watched an episode about young people with lovers who were old enough to be their grandparents.  Many of them had angry family members who wanted to yell at them on national television.  The audience did a lot of booing.

I followed this up with an episode in which women were encouraged to dump their “cheating boyfriends.”  One of the boyfriends had cheated on his girlfriend with a 13 year-old!  Hopefully, they broke up after the show.

I then watched a third episode, in which bratty teenagers talk about how much they disliked the men that their mother dated.  I cringed as I was flooded by memories of my own bratty behavior whenever my mom started to date someone new.

On Friday, for reasons that even I can’t quite fathom, I watched another episode in which Sally gave updates on out-of-control teens, the majority of whom were still out-of-control.  The boot camps did not work.

Stars on Mars (Monday Night, Fox)

The silliest reality show on television right now continued this week, with Rhonda Rousey asking to be sent back to Earth.  Fortunately, since no one on the show had actually left Earth to begin with, it was a quick journey home.  As for who I hope wins Stars on Mars …. eh, whatever the prize is, give it to William Shatner.  I know he’s the host and he probably only had to spend a day or two pre-taping all of his scenes but he’s still the most entertaining part of the show.

The Steve Wilkos Show (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Thursday.  Two brothers with really deep acne scars were on the show, trying to figure out which one was the father of a baby.  Their annoying mother came out and screamed at everyone.  It was so incredibly trashy that it become oddly fascinating.

I followed this with a second episode, in which Steve tossed an abusive boyfriend off of his stage.  That was satisfying to see.  Believe it or not, I do think that Steve was perhaps a bit more sincere than his fellow daily talk show hosts.  The dislike that he felt towards abusers and cheaters always seemed real in a way that Maury Povich’s similar outrage did not.

On Friday morning, I watched two episodes while doing some work in my office.  The first episode featured a woman with a scummy, abusive boyfriend.  She dumped him at the end of the episode and the entire audience chanted her name.  This was followed by an episode featuring a woman who claimed that her ex-boyfriend had stolen the ashes of her deceased and cremated child.  That was weird and depressing.

Welcome Back Kotter (Tubi)

I wrote about Welcome Back Kotter here!

Retro Television Reviews: The Master 1.12 “Rogues”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing The Master, which ran on NBC from January to August of 1984.  The show can be found on Tubi!

Max and McAllister continue their trip through California!

Episode 1.12 “Rogues”

(Dir by Gordon Hessler, originally aired on August 10th, 1984)

This week’s episode finds Max and McAllister on Los Angeles’s famed Rodeo Drive.  We know that this episode takes place on Rodeo Drive because every single establishing shot opens with a close-up of the street sign.  It’s as if someone in production said, “Do not let them forget that this episode is not only set on Rodeo Drive but we filmed it there as well!”

Wow, a television program filmed in Los Angeles!  The Master was all about spoiling their audience.

Here’s my thing with Rodeo Drive — the word is pronounced Ro-Dee-O.  Get out of here with all that Roe-Day-O nonsense, you yankees.

Anyway, this episode continues last week’s theme of McAllister and Max dropping in on people from Max’s past.  Apparently, the hunt for John Peter McAllister’s long lost daughter has been abandoned so that Max can drop in on his old high school buddies.  Seeing as how it hasn’t even been ten years since Max graduated from high school whereas McAllister has never even met his daughter and it’s totally possible that McAllister’s ninja rivals may be trying to kill her, it seems a bit odd that this is what Max and McAllister are concentrating on but whatever.  We’re nearly done with this show anyway.

Max visits his ex-girlfriend, Talia (Cindy Harrell), at the health club where she works.  Talia is an aerobics instructor, which means that there’s a lot of spandex in this episode.  While McAllister deals with a trainer who takes one look at him and declares him to be in terrible shape (and she has a point because, unlike his stunt double, Lee Van Cleef was noticeably overweight and often seemed to be winded on The Master), Max talks to Talia and discovers that Talia’s brother, Jerry (Paul Tulley), became a cop and is now missing!  Max promises to help her find Jerry.

However, it turns out that Jerry is just hiding outside the health club.  When he sees Max’s van, he tosses a note inside of it, asking Max and McAllister to meet him.  (How exactly did Jerry know that Max and McAllister would be able to help him?)  It turns out that, while investigating a series of Rodeo Drive robberies, Jerry discovered that the culprits were rogue cops who had been hired by a local gallery owner.  Now, the crooked policemen are after Jerry!  Needless to say, it’s time for McAllister to put on his black ninja outfit so that Lee Van Cleef’s stunt double can beat up some corrupt law enforcers!

This was not a particularly memorable episode.  The corrupt cops were generic villains and even the fight scenes, which were usually The Master‘s saving grace, felt sloppy and rushed.  While it was always obvious that this show was dependent on stunt doubles, it was especially obvious in this episode as the stand-ins for both Van Cleef and Van Patten didn’t even resemble their respective actors.  There was a brief moment of hope when the action moved to one of those police academy shooting ranges, full of fake buildings and cardboard targets but the show never really took advantage of the location’s potential.  This was one of those episodes where it felt like the basic plot could have been used for a dozen other shows without having to make anything more than a few cosmetic changes.  It could have just as easily been an episode of Half Nelson.

(L.A. — you belong to me!  No, no, we’ve moved on….)

Next week …. The Master ends!  Will McAllister even mention his missing daughter during the show’s final episode?  We’ll find out!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/16/23 — 7/22/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

City Guys (YouTube)

I wrote about City Guys here.

Claim To Fame (Monday Night, ABC)

Claim to Fame is a show where 12 relatives of celebrities compete to be the last relative standing.  If someone guesses who you are related to, then you’re out of the show.  If someone incorrectly guesses who you are related to, they are out of the show.  It’s all really, really silly but it’s also a lot more fun than it probably has any right to be.  It helps that the show is hosted by the totally charming duo of Kevin and Frankie Jonas.

I watched the first three episodes of the second season on Sunday morning.  The highlight, of course, was the epic meltdown of Tom Hanks’s niece, who really only had herself to blame for being eliminated because she literally had a panic attack whenever anyone mentioned that someone on the show might be related to Tom Hanks.  As I finished the third episode, I decided that Olivia and Chris were my two favorite players and that Hugo was least favorite, largely due to the fact that Hugo just seemed awfully impressed with himself.

I watched the latest episode on Monday night.  Eddie Murphy’s daughter was finally sent out of the house.  I say finally because everyone pretty much figured out who she was during the second episode.  That said, she seemed to be a nice person.

Degrassi High (YouTube)

Old school Degrassi!  As much as I hate to admit, I haven’t seen much of either Degrassi Junior High or Degrassi High but I intend to remedy that soon.  On the two episodes I watched, the school bully discovered that he was HIV+ and Joey’s attempt to raise money for a new car failed.  It was interesting seeing Joey when he was younger and still had hair.

Fantasy Island (YouTube)

I wrote about Fantasy Island here!

Happy Hour (YouTube)

I watched the 2nd episode of this old 90s game show on Saturday morning.  Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa hosted.  Ahemt had a bit too much energy for his own good but at least Mario Lopez was one of the contestants.  There was an extremely creepy moment when a woman was brought out of the audience and talked about how obsessed she was with Mario.  Also interesting was to note that this episode was nearly 30 years old but Mario Lopez looked exactly the same as he does today.  The man seriously does not age.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I wrote about The Love Boat here!

The Master (Tubi)

I wrote about The Master here!

Night Music (YouTube)

I watched an episode of this 90s late night music show on Friday night. Bootsy Collins performed and it was very entertaining.

The Simpsons (Weekdays, FXX)

I watched two episodes of this long-running show on Thursday afternoon.  In the first episode, Bart was expelled from Springfield Elementary but, fortunately, he was allowed to re-enroll after he exposed the truth about whacking day and saved the lives of a bunch of snakes.  This was followed by an episode in which Marge forgot to pay for a bottle of whiskey and was sent to jail for 30 days.  Needless to say, the entire town fell apart without her and was forced to settle for a Jimmy Carter statue when they couldn’t afford one of Lincoln.  This led to riots, as one would naturally expect.

Stars on Mars (Monday Night, Fox)

I binged and got up-to-date with this stupid, stupid show throughout the week.  As dumb as it is, it’s compulsively watchable.  On the one hand, it was great to see William Shatner hamming it up as the host.  On the other hand, is it really time for Lance Armstrong redemption tour?

Welcome Back, Kotter (Tubi)

I wrote about “The Sit-In” here!

 

 

Retro Television Reviews: The Master 1.11 “Failure to Communicate”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing The Master, which ran on NBC from January to August of 1984.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, we meet Max Keller’s father!

Episode 1.11 “Failure to Communicate”

(Dir by Sidney Hayers, originally aired on May 4th, 1984)

This week’s episode of The Master opens with McAllister (Lee Van Cleef) teaching Max (Tim Van Patten) how to fight even while blindfolded.  McAllister explains that, when one’s sight is taken away, the other senses become even stronger.  Hmmm…. I wonder if this will prove to be relevant to their next adventure?

Having apparently given up on trying to find McAllister’s daughter (not that they ever seemed to be trying that hard to begin with), Max and McAllister head to Los Angeles so that Max can visit his father.  Max’s father, Patrick (Doug McClure), has been estranged from Max ever since the death of Max’s mother and older brother.  However, under McAllister’s guidance, Max has learned the importance of forgiveness.

However, before Max can drop in on his father, he and McAllister have to rescue Kathy Hunter (Ashley Ferrare), who is being chased by three men in a cemetery.  McAllister is impressed when Kathy uses some martial arts skills of her own to fight off the men.  (Kathy explains that she has been in training for six years.)  McAllister takes Kathy home to her father, a wealthy bunker named Jason Hunter (J.D. Cannon).  Max, meanwhile, goes to his father’s law office.

However, Patrick is not at his office.  Instead, Max meets Patrick’s administrative assistant, Laura Crane (Rebecca Holden).  Laura is blind but, as we saw at the start of the program, that just means that all of her other senses are now superhuman.  As soon as she meets Max, she knows that he recently stopped off at a gas station and that he drives a van.  All it takes is for her to touch his face for her to realize that she is Patrick’s son.

Patrick, unfortunately, is not doing too well.  He is now an alcoholic and he’s more likely to be found in the local cocktail lounge than in court.  He’s in danger of losing his license and he’s also struggling financially.  In fact, at the cocktail bar, Patrick is meeting with Straker (Marc Alaimo), one of the men who previously tried to abduct Kathy in the cemetery.  Straker is blackmailing Patrick into helping with Staker’s next attempt to kidnap Kathy.  Of course, when Max arrives at the bar looking for his father, all Hell breaks loose when Max sees the men from the cemetery.  Patrick can only watch as Max and a late-arriving McAllister chase the men out of the bar.

After the bar fight, Max and Patrick have a tense meeting at Patrick’s office.  Max accuses his father of being a bitter drunk.  Patrick says that Max is irresponsible.  Patrick tells Max to get out of his life.  Meanwhile, McAllister escorts Laura back to her apartment.  Okassa (Sho Kosugi) shows up and we get yet another fight, this time between Sho Kosugi and Lee Van Cleef’s very busy stunt double.

The next day, Patrick, Laura, McAllister, and Max all end up at a reception for Kathy.  Patrick spots the three kidnappers at the reception and, having had a change of heart, attempts to lead Kathy outside to safety.  However, this just leads to both Patrick and Kathy being kidnapped.  Straker calls Kathy’s father and demands a $3,000,000 ransom but, fortunately, Laura smelled cemetery dirt on the men who grabbed Kathy so Max and McAllister head back to the cemetery, break into a church, and manage to rescue both Kathy and Patrick!

Yay!  I guess the episode’s over, right?

Nope, not even close.

While Max and McAllister are rescuing Patrick and Kathy, Straker is busy kidnapping Laura.  Straker then calls Kathy’s father and announces that he still expects to get his 3 million or “your lawyer’s secretary gets it!”  Kathy’s father is like, “Why would I pay 3 million dollars for someone who I don’t even know?,” which is kind of a fair question even if it’s not a popular one.  McAllister, however, tells Kathy’s father that it’s important to take care of everyone, even the strangers.

Patrick finally breaks down and admits that he was a part of the plot to kidnap Kathy.  He tells Max and McAllister that the man behind the plot is actually Paul Stillwell (Mark Goddard), who is Jason Hunter’s head of security.  (This seems familiar….)  Patrick also explains that Stillwell is holding Laura prisoner on the Princess Louise, a decommissioned cruise ship that has been turned into a floating restaurant.

Accompanied by Patrick, Max and McAllister go to the ship.  Unfortunately, Okassa pops up out of nowhere and gets into another fight with Lee Van Cleef’s stunt double so it falls to Patrick and Max to rescue Laura.  (Patrick suddenly turns out to have some martial arts skills as well, which is a bit odd considering that Patrick is a middle-aged, overweight, out-of-shape, alcoholic attorney.)  The bad guys try to outsmart Max by turning out all the lights on the boat but Laura is able to use her supersenses to help Max beat up Straker’s men in the dark.  Laura is rescued and the bad guys are sent to prison!

As for Patrick, the Hunter family decides not to press charges because they understand that Patrick was being blackmailed.  Swearing that he’s going to live his life the right way from now on, Patrick pours out his last remaining liquor bottle.  Hooray!

This was one of those episodes that was a bit too busy for its own good.  Rather than have Max and McAllister fight against worthy opponents, this episode just had Max and McAllister continually defeat the same three idiots over and over again and you have to wonder why it never seemed to occur to the bad guys to change their strategy when it came to whole kidnapping thing as opposed to repeating the same thing over and over again.  With all of those kidnappings and rescues, there really wasn’t much time left for the emotional heart of the story, which should have been Max mending his relationship with his father.  Considering how much of this series has focused on Max and McAllister’s family issues, it was a bit anti-climatic that Max’s real father just turned out to be some drunk who was being blackmailed.  At least some of the fight scenes were well-choreographed and Rebecca Holden did a good job as Laura Crane, even if the character herself was occasionally too flawless and perfect to be believed.

Next week, maybe McAllister will finally remember that he’s supposed to be looking for his daughter.  We’ll see!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/9/23 — 7/15/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I devoted most of this week to movies so I didn’t really watch a lot of television.  But here’s some thoughts on what I did watch!

All You Need Is Love (Nightflight Plus)

On Saturday morning, I watched the 2nd episode of this 70s docuseries about the history of rock and roll music.  For the most part, the episode took place in Africa and featured interviews with African musicians who discussed how their traditional music was later transformed into both the blues and rock and roll.  It was an interesting documentary.  Needless to say, there was a lot of good music.

The Ashley Madison Affair (Hulu)

I watched this enjoyably tawdry docuseries on Monday morning.  It was a bit too heavy on the talking heads.  I mean, I’m not sure that I really needed to hear every single thought Sunny Hostin ever had on the Ashley Madison hack.  But the visuals were often so over-the-top and literal-minded that it was impossible not to smile at how overwrought it all was.

City Guys (YouTube)

I wrote about City Guys here!

Diff’rent Strokes (YouTube)

Early Sunday morning, I watched a special episode of this 80s sitcom on YouTube.  Arnold and his adopted sister Kimberly were kidnapped by a weirdo who tied-up Arnold and threatened to kill Kimberly.  That was pretty creepy but what really made it bad was that this was a sitcom so there was a laugh track that just felt totally wrong for the episode.  It reminded me a bit of David Lynch’s Rabbits.

Fantasy Island (YouTube)

Fantasy Island has been removed from Tubi!  Fortunately, quite a few episodes are available on YouTube but it still bothers me that I’m probably not going to be able to review every single episode for Retro Television Reviews now.  Read my thoughts here!

Geraldo (YouTube)

I came across an episode of this 90s talk show on Saturday.  In 1993, Geraldo Rivera interviewed “Girls In Hate Groups.”  The girls were dating skinheads and Klansmen.  The audience was full of people wearing Klan robes and National Socialist uniforms.  It was thoroughly icky.  Geraldo, I got the feeling, was more concerned with bringing in ratings than actually battling the forces of hate.

Gimme A Break (YouTube)

After he read this week’s review of Hang Time, my friend Mark suggested that I watch an episode of this 80s sitcom.  The episode was called “Joey’s Hero” and it featured a 10 year-old Joey Lawrence discovering that his hero — a television host named Captain Jerk (played by Paul Williams) — was not only a real-life jerk but an outright racist as well!  It was very 80s but I did smile at the fact that all of the co-stars of the Captain Jerk Show still wore their television costumes even when they went to visit Captain Jerk in the hospital.

Jenny Jones (YouTube)

On this 90s talk show, Jenny Jones gave polygraph tests to self-declared playas.

Lifestories: Families in Crisis

I watched an episode of the 90s HBO anthology show on Thursday.  A young Ben Affleck played a high school football player who get hooked on steroids and went crazy.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

Read my thoughts on The Love Boat here!

The Master (Tubi)

I wrote about The Master here!

Night Flight (NightFlight Plus)

I watched an episode of this 90s musical anthology show on Friday.  Host Tom Juarez took a look at “eclectic female singers.”  I was happy because they showed a video from Souixsie and the Banshees.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (Hulu)

I watched this two-part docuseries on Sunday.  The first part, which focused on the young Brooke Shields as a symbol and explored how the culture sexually objectifies women while also expecting us to remain chaste and innocent, was far more interesting than the second part, which got bogged down in people insisting that Shields was a better actress than she actually seems to be.

Welcome Back, Kotter (Tubi)

I wrote about Welcome Back, Kotter here!

Retro Television Reviews: The Master 1.10 “The Java Tiger”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing The Master, which ran on NBC from January to August of 1984.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, the action moves off the mainland!

Episode 1.10 “The Java Tiger”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on April 13th, 1984)

Max and McAllister go to Hawaii!

I have to admit that I was really excited about this episode, precisely because it did feature Max and McAllister heading to Hawaii.  I love Hawaii.  Some of my favorite memories come from the summer that me, my sisters and our mom spent in Hawaii.  It doesn’t matter how bad a show or a movie may sound, I’ll give it a chance if it features the promise of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, this episode of The Master never really takes advantage of the beauty of the islands.  In fact, other than for a few generic shots of Honolulu, it appears that this episode was filmed in California.  About the only thing that says Hawaii about this episode are the shirts worn by the bad guys and the lei hanging around Max’s neck when he and McAllister check into their hotel.

Max and McAllister are in Hawaii because McAllister has received a letter from an old friend of his, a private investigator/treasure hunter named Leo Fairchild (Dick O’Neill).  Just as with last week, one has to wonder how McAllister got the letter when he doesn’t have a fixed address and he’s supposedly been laying low in America to avoid getting track down by the ninjas who want him dead.  As well, how does McAllister have all of these old friends in the United States and how do they all know that he’s a ninja?  When the series started, the whole idea was that McAllister had been Japan since the end of World War II and that he had spent the majority of that time either being trained or training others.  And yet, as of last week’s episode, McAllister is now suddenly a minor celebrity.

When Max and McAllister arrive in Japan, they meet Leo’s daughter, Shelly (Cynthia Cypert).  Shelly tells Max and McAllister that her father was killed while searching for the location of a priceless statue, the fabled Java Tiger.  Leo, she explains, was the only person in Hawaii to have a map leading to the tiger’s location.  However, whoever killed Leo, stole half of the map.  Now, if she’s going to fulfill her father’s dream, she needs to get that half of the map back.  She’s pretty sure that Kruger (Kabir Bedi), a notorious and greedy practitioner of the martial arts, has the missing half.  So, once again, it’s time for McAllister to put on his black uniform and break into a compound with Max!  When things don’t go as well as Max and McAllister might have hoped, they’re saved by an old friend of McAllister’s….

As you may have guessed, Leo isn’t actually dead.  He faked his own death so that McAllister would agree to help him find the Java Tiger.  As Leo explains it, he needs McAllister to enter the cave where the Tiger is hidden because the cave is full of booby traps and McAllister, being a ninja, is the only man alive who can dodge falling rocks and darts.  And, of course, time is of the essence because the cave is on an island that is also home to a volcano that is about to erupt.

This is what the volcano looks like:

To be honest, there’s something oddly charming about how fake the volcano looks.  I was pretty annoyed that the episode didn’t have any pretty shot of Hawaii but, as soon as I saw that miniature, plaster volcano spewing smoke, I couldn’t help but smile.

McAllister, Max, Leo, and Shelly arrive at the island with Kruger’s men closely behind.  With the volcano erupting all around them, they find the cave and eventually McAllister grabs the Java Tiger.  But, when it appears that Kruger might be killed by a booby trap, McAllister drops the statue and saves the life of his enemy because McAllister is a man of honor.  As a result, no one gets the tiger but McAllister stays true to his ideals.

To be honest, this episode was so silly that it was almost charming.  Unfortunately, the usually reliable character actor Dick O’Neill gives an annoyingly mannered performance as Leo Fairchild, hamming it up and chewing every piece of scenery in sight.  Leo is one of those characters who never stops talking and it’s hard not to get annoyed both the character and the actor playing him.  In fact, so much time is devoted to Leo talking and talking that the episode almost feels like a pilot for a Leo Fairchild show.  Who knows?  Maybe it was.  All I know is that the episode needed more Hawaii and less Leo.

This was a underwhelming week for The Master.  There’s only three episodes left and Max and McAllister don’t seem to be any closer to finding Teri than when they started.  Get to work, guys!  You’re running out of time!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/2/23 — 7/8/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week was all about getting caught up on the shows that might be nominated for this year’s Emmys.  I ended up watching a lot of TV.  Here’s a few thoughts on it all!

60 Days In (A&E)

I watched this show’s seventh season this week. Sending former criminals undercover was an interesting idea and Carlos, who struggled with the temptation to return to his old ways, was definitely the most compelling character this season.  It really was one of the worst jails that they’ve ever featured on this show.  It’s easy to be dismissive of a show like this and it definitely is a bit exploitive.  But it also does portray why jails fail to rehabilitate its inmates.

Big Beasts (Apple TV+)

I watched an episode on Friday about the great whales!  I enjoyed it.  Whales are fascinating creatures and it certainly didn’t hurt that the whole thing was narrated by Tom Hiddleston.

City Guys (YouTube)

I wrote about City Guys here!

The Crown (Netflix)

I’ve always had mixed feelings about The Crown.  On the one hand, I absolutely love it as a well-made, well-acted, and well-produced royal soap opera.  On the other hand, I have never been comfortable about the idea of turning anyone’s life into a miniseries while they’re still alive.  Of course, Queen Elizabeth passed away last year but the show itself still feels a bit invasive.  That said, the fifth season was as addictive as ever.  Imelda Stauton took over at Elizabeth.  Dominic West made Charles into a far more interesting person than he probably is in real life.  Of all the seasons so far, this season was the most melancholy as it portrayed a world that was suddenly changing faster than ever before.  Not only did Charles and Diana divorce but the UK lost Hong Kong.  The decommissioning Britannia felt like the true end of an era.  It was hard to watch this season without thinking about how the people portrayed had no idea how much worse things were going to get in just a few more years.

Daisy Jones & The Six (Prime)

I binged this miniseries on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Full of music and 70s atmosphere, this series charted the rise and the fall of a fictional rock group.  Riley Keough, who really seems like she should be a bigger star, was wonderful in the lead role.

Dead To Me (Netflix)

Unfortunately, I really haven’t had time to binge the final season of Dead To Me but I did jump ahead and watch the final episode on Saturday afternoon.  Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini were still a great and messy team and I definitely got a bit watery-eyed at the episode’s conclusion.

The Diplomat (Netflix)

I watched the first episode of this show on Wednesday.  It didn’t really hold my attention but Keri Russell was convincing as the title character and it was kind of amusing to see Michael McKean playing an apparently sincere and idealistic president.

Fleishman Is In Trouble (Hulu)

This was an excellent miniseries that I binged on Monday and Tuesday.  Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes were excellent as a divorced couple who struggled with life in New York City.  This miniseries felt like some great 70s movie that just happened to be set in 2016.

Forgive or Forget (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Thursday.  Former best friends were demanding apologies.  Very few apologies were given, which I think may have been due to the fact that host Robin Givens kept interrupting everyone so that she could yell at them.  If Mother Love had been there, everyone would have come through the door.

House of the Dragon (HBO)

HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel turned out to be quite a bit better than I was expecting.  That said, I would be lying if I said that I was always able to follow what was happening on the show without the help of Wikipedia.  I had the same problem with Game of Thrones, to be honest.  However, the chaos and the feeling that you could never be sure who was actually plotting what was one of the things that made both the early seasons of Game of Thrones and the first season of this show so intriguing.

The Last Of Us (HBO)

I binged this throughout the week and I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed in myself that I didn’t watch it earlier.  Because I had so much to watch this week, I feel as if I rushed through the show, going from one episode to another so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to really contemplate and savor everything that happened.  That said, The Last Of Us was well-acted and created a convincing dystopian society.  For once, the “zombie” apocalypse felt realistic as opposed to contrived.

The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+)

Enjoyably twisty and melodramatic, this adaptation of Laura Dave’s novel featured great performances from Jennifer Garner, Angourie Rice, and David Morse.  Even though I had read the novel and knew what was going to happen, the show still held my interest

Love & Death (Max)

Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons were great but this limited series’s story was better told by Hulu’s Candy.  As a producer and a writer, David E. Kelly has always had a tendency to rely on easy caricatures and too much of Love & Death felt like a Yankee fantasy of what life in small town Texas is like.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I wrote about The Love Boat here!

The Master (Tubi)

I wrote about The Master here!

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (Netflix)

During the early hours of Wednesday morning, I watched this 3-part docuseries on the Malaysian airline that mysteriously disappeared a few years ago.  (Remember Don Lemmon suggesting it had flown into a black hole?)  It was interesting viewing, though ultimately I think it works better as a look at how quick people are to buy into conspiracy theories than anything else.

Midnight Special (YouTube)

From 1973, the first episode of Midnight Special was hosted by Helen Reddy and featured performances from Ike and Tina Turner, George Carlin, Curtis Mayfield, Don McLean, Rare Earth, Kenny Rankin, The Byrds, and The Impressions.  Helen Reddy was a bit of a boring host but the music was great.

The Old Man (Hulu)

With the Emmy nominations due to be announced next Tuesday, I finally got around to binging The Old Man this week.  On the one hand, it was yet another morally ambiguous thriller featuring the government pursuing a former agent who had gone underground.  On the other hand, Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow, and Amy Brenneman all brought a lot of conviction to their roles and the film was as much about dealing with one’s own morality as it was about dealing with the dark side of the intelligence community.  I liked it far more than I was expecting too.

The Patient (Hulu)

I watched the first three episodes of this miniseries on Monday morning and that was enough for me.  Steve Carell plays a psychiatrist who is being held captive by a serial killer (Domhnall Gleeson) who is looking for help curbing his homicidal impulses.  Carell gave a great performance, proving again that he’s just as capable of doing drama as he is comedy.  But, other than Carell’s performance, I found the show to be tedious and I haven’t felt any real desire to finish binging it.

Real Time With Bill Maher (Max)

I watched the episode where Russell Brand yelled at John Heilenmann.  I was on Brand’s side but a lot of that has to do with Heilenmann just be annoying in general.  Bernie Sanders was also on the show and seemed kind of tired of the whole thing.

Rollergames (YouTube)

On the 2nd episode of Rollergames (which I watched with Jeff and our friend Pat on Friday night), the Thunderbirds competed against Bad Attitude.  Thunderbirds were heroic but Bad Attitude had style.  I’m not sure who actually won.

Slasher: Ripper (Shudder)

I’m always tempted to call this program Canadian Horror Story but Slasher is actually far better than Ryan Murphy’s show.  The fifth season, which I binged throughout the week, has an intriguing mystery, many macabre deaths, a lot of atmosphere, and a wonderfully villainous performance from Eric McCormack.

Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 (Netflix)

I finally watched this docuseries on Saturday morning, after finishing up Midnight Special.  I guess I was in a musical mode.  The mix of hubris, greed, and celebrity that went into making Woodstock ’99 a disaster will never not be fascinating.

Welcome Back, Kotter (Tubi)

I wrote about Welcome Back Kotter here!