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The Twilight Zone (TOS): “The Mirror”

Actor Peter Falk -- of all people -- got cast as a Latin American dictator who looked and talked like Fidel Castro. Unfortunately, the ending of the story -- as philosophically appropriate as it may be -- seems in retrospect to be more like wishful thinking on Rod Serling's part than anything else. After all, the real-life Fidel Castro lived to be an old man and ultimately died of natural causes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of his many real-life victims.

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NCIS: New Orleans: “Tick Tock”

So now the Angel of Death is a regular character on this show? She's been on three episodes so far this season -- including this one. I don't suppose the writers are trying to tell us something...

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Arachnids in the UK”

In this latest episode, Yaz, Graham, Ryan and the Doctor leapt out of the rabbit, catching the French by surprise -- not only by surprise but totally unarmed.

Oh, wait. That must be another episode.

In this one, all they did was investigate an epidemic of giant spiders. And deal with an English bigwig who looked and acted like a certain American politician we all know and -- er -- I'm not sure love is the right word to use here.

On the plus side, the name "Team Tardis" had a nice ring to it. Too bad they don't use it more often.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Rosa”

Yes, I get that Rosa Parks was a very famous person and she justly deserves to have her story told and retold. But I can't help but find it a tad amusing that this show's writers assume that the average TV viewer will think of only one person whenever they mention the name "Rosa." After all, Rosa is a popular name among Hispanics even if it's not so popular with Britons.

Oh, well. There were worse things to worry about in this episode -- one of them being the bizarre philosophical questions raised by this episode. After all, the episode's premise revolved around the idea that an alien time traveler was trying to interfere with the American civil rights era by seeing to it that Rosa Parks' famous protest never happened. So the Doctor and her friends were put in the position of -- what? -- making sure Rosa Parks had something to protest about? There was something not quite kosher about that scenario.

I just hope that this doesn't become a trend. I'd hate to tune in each week to see the Doctor and her friends do their damnedest to make sure that a depressing episode of man's cruelty to man goes ahead right on schedule.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Ghost Monument”

It's The Amazing Race: Outer Space Edition in which two aliens from different worlds compete to win an almost impossible challenge with the help of the Doctor and her friends. Along the way, the Doctor teaches the two aliens the virtues of cooperation and the aliens teach the Doctor -- well, actually I'm not sure about that part. I may have to watch this episode again some time.

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Last Man Standing: "Pilot"

I was never the biggest fan of Tim Allen in the past and now that I've had a chance to see more than a few episodes of his latest show... I still am not a fan.

But now that The Middle is officially over, Last Man Standing is one of the few sitcoms on prime-time TV that comes even close to having a conservative point-of-view. Unfortunately, it is not as well-written as The Middle. Nor is its main star -- the above-mentioned Mr. Allen -- as generous with the spotlight as his counterpart on The Middle, actress Patricia Heaton.(Ms. Heaton was smart enough to let the rest of her cast -- particularly the actors who played her kids -- have the lion's share of the laughs and the sympathy while Mr. Allen insisted on hogging almost all the good jokes -- and all too many bad ones -- for himself). This is not to say that there aren't parts of the show that are actually watchable (especially the parts featuring actress Nancy Travis, who plays the thankless role of Tim's wife) -- but I keep getting the feeling that the show would be a lot funnier if Mr. Allen would just get out of the way.

Oh, well. The show managed to last six seasons without my support -- and it recently began its seventh season on another network. So obviously someone out there likes it.

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Night Gallery: "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes"

It's no big secret that director Steven Spielberg originally got his start directing TV show episodes and made-for-TV movies but I often forget that director John Badham -- best known for such iconic movies as Saturday Night Fever and WarGames -- got his start in the same way as well.

One of his more famous TV episodes was a certain memorable episode of Night Gallery that creeped me out the first time I saw it. It's based on one of the few screenplays by Rod Serling that actually attempted to argue that ignorance was bliss, a screenplay which in turn was inspired by a short story by Margaret St. Clair.

The episode was about a boy (played by Clint Howard) who literally predicted events like earthquakes and who ended up getting his own TV show as a result. But alas, complications set in and the boy decided he didn't want to do predictions anymore. When he was persuaded to do one anyway, he gives the TV audience a prophecy so offbeat that it just had to be false. And as you might guess, there turned out to be a reason why that was so...

There is not much else to say about this episode apart from noting that you may not want to think too much about this episode before you go to bed lest you have nightmares. If nothing else, you could always consider this episode to be the ultimate comment on global climate change...

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”

Just think. All those years I was growing up, I thought I was just clumsy but now that I've seen this episode and its description of dyspraxia... I was apparently just clumsy.

But seriously, folks.

This was the episode in which Jodie Whittaker officially became the first female Doctor on this show. (Well, she had a brief bit on a previous episode but this is the first episode in which she got to be the Doctor for the entire episode.)

So far, she has done a good job. She is smart and funny and just as fond as long, melodramatic speeches as her predecessors. Plus she has Mickey Smith, Maggie Habib, and Rory's dad as back-ups. Okay, not literally, but it is kinda hard to pretend that Graham, for example, was not just a little inspired by the character of Rory's dad in a previous episode.

Much of the episode was a tad predictable and BBC America didn't help much with their constant spoilers. Then again it was nice to see the casting people put their money where their mouths were as far as diversity was concerned. And it didn't hurt that the show's writers did not feel the need to give the Doctor a sudden shower or bathing scene just to satisfy the most sophomoric of the show's male fans.

So keep your fingers crossed. It looks like it's going to be a bumpy season.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Twice Upon a Time”

The First Doctor met the Twelfth Doctor after which the Thirteenth Doctor (played by Jodie Whittaker) was introduced. (For some reason, I keep wanting to call her Jodie Watley but that, no doubt, is just the aftereffect of having listened to too much 1980s music.) Unfortunately, Ms. Whittaker didn't get much to say in this episode but she should have more to say in future ones.

That said, it was good to see actress Pearl Mackie again even though this seemed to be her last appearance on the show. For that matter, it was good to see Peter Capaldi again that his character has shed all his House-isms.

In any event, I'm guessing we should not take the episode's cliffhanger ending too literally unless it was the producer's way of telling the audience that they changed their mind about Ms. Whittaker. But I really doubt that was the case.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Pilot”

Geez, to listen to some people's reactions to this episode, one would think that biracial lesbians traveled with the Doctor all the time. If so, they really need to show those episodes because I always thought that Bill Potts was the first one to do so.

Anyway, ten or twenty years ago, this episode would have had audience members gnashing their teeth. Now it barely merits a yawn. So I should consider that progress?

Oh, well. At least Steven Moffat hasn't forgotten that dark-skinned girls like to have adventures too.

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Speechless: "Pilot"

A sitcom about a special-needs kid with cerebral palsy and his eccentric family would seem to have the type of premise that has disaster written all over it. But fortunately, Speechless's first episode managed to avoid the dual perils of bad taste and inspiration porn, thanks in part to a talented cast and an inspired writing staff.

As I noted in an earlier post, Minnie Driver was the most famous cast member in the show and while I have never been a big fan of hers, I must admit that the more I watched the show, the more addicted I got to her voice. (And yet I never considered myself much of an Anglophile.)

The opening of the episode showed Driver frantically driving her son J.J. -- a boy confined to a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy -- to a restaurant in order to use a coupon before it expired. The show soon established that Ms. Driver's character -- Maya DiMeo -- had a reputation in her small town for being a very aggressive driver -- so aggressive, in fact, that the local cops dared not pull her over even when she was obviously speeding. Soon afterwards, we also find out that the DiMeo family had changed residences and school districts several times during the past few years and were in the process of relocating one final time so that J.J. could go to a regular public school.

Unfortunately, Maya soon found out that the new school had no special accommodations for handicapped students and that the only way J.J. could enter his new school was by using a ramp usually reserved for moving garbage cans. Needless to say, she was not happy.

At the same time, her other son Ray discovered a potential love interest in a fellow student who also happened to be an astronomy buff while Maya's daughter Dylan joined the school track team because she liked running.

Because J.J. could not speak, the De Meos hired an aide recommended by the school to help him out but the aide proved totally unsuited for the task. Ironically, J.J. ended up bonding with a school janitor named Kenneth and he ended up becoming J.J.'s new aide -- despite having initially gotten off on the wrong foot with Maya.

Sound confusing? Maybe. But the whole thing played better on the small screen and indeed, the more I watched the show, the more I felt sorry that I neglected the chance to keep up with it for so long. Then again not having time to watch all the good shows out there is hardly the worst problem I could have at my age.

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Speechless: "C-E-- CELEBRITY S-U-- SUITE"

Ah, Speechless is another one of those shows that I watch every now and then but never get around to writing about -- perhaps because I've been so backed up on this blog due to various health problems and other complications that it sometimes seems quite foolish of me to even think of trying to catch up.

That said, I must note that the part of me that still remembers the days when movies like Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank were still new releases can't help but feel a bit shocked that actress Minnie Driver is now old enough to be playing a mother. Worse yet, she's playing the mother of teenagers. (I knew it had to happen eventually but still...)

She is still as attractive as ever -- in my eyes, at least -- and has the ability to make her lines seem a lot funnier than they should be. Nor does it hurt that she has a good cast backing her up. Plus this week she has assistance from actress Sarah Chalke -- best known for her starring role on the long-running comedy Scrubs -- who plays the mother of a special-needs child who competes with Ms. Driver's character -- Maya DiMeo -- and her special-needs son J.J. for the use of a celebrity suite at the local hospital.

Confused? Don't be.

The episode starts out with Ms.DiMeo staring at a raw turkey and trying to come up with excuses to not go through with the usual Thanksgiving ritual. Unfortunately, when Ms. DiMeo's obnoxious brother-in-law comes for a visit, she gets her wish when J.J.'s caretaker accidentally gives J.J. a pill of her in-law's heart medicine and forces them all to make an emergency run to the local hospital. Ironically, once they get there, Ms. DiMeo immediately starts improvising an impromptu Thanksgiving banquet only to be stymied by the lack of space and supplies. Then she finds out about the celebrity suites. However, only one is available and to get that, she has to compete Sarah Chalke's character Melanie, which is where we came in...

Of course, a lot more than that happens like an encounter between Ms. DiMeo's youngest son Ray and a young single mother (played by actress Azura Skye, best known to me for a memorable guest role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) Since this is a comedy, everything ends on a relatively positive note though I can't help but wonder what happened to Ms. Skye's career that she is now playing such conventional roles. Oh, well. I wish her well regardless.

And I hope my average reader's Thanksgiving holiday goes smoother than that of the De Meo family.

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Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: "Unnatural Habits"

You could tell this was an Australian show and not a British one because when the lead characters were considering a raid on a group of nogoodniks, the characters showed no hesitation in bringing out the firearms.

That said, this show is to be commended for doing a good job of balancing modern and not so modern sensibilities in a believable manner. If a woman like Essie Davis's Phryne Fisher character did not really exist in the Australia of the late 1920s, the stories in this show make a strong case that she should have. Actress Ashleigh Cummings also stars in this series, playing Ms. Fisher's loyal companion Dorothy Williams, a former maid who plays a Catholic Watson to Ms. Fisher's self-described lady detective. And of course, I should not forget to mention actor Nathan Page, who plays Ms. Fisher's would-be love interest Detective Inspector John "Jack" Robinson.

There are other characters, of course, whom I'll probably mention in future reviews but for now, the one regret I have about the episodes of this show that I've watched thus far is that I have not yet managed to find time to read the Kerry Greenwood novels that inspired them. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

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The Wild Wild West: "The Night of the Steel Assassin"

The villain's last name in this episode would be Torres, wouldn't it? And yet when I first saw this episode as a teenager, I thought nothing of that fact. I was more impressed by the fact that he seemed to be somebody's idea of a nineteenth century version of the bionic man -- only he was created long before anyone had heard of bionic men. Then again, The Wild Wild West was dealing with steampunk-style stories long before anyone ever heard of steampunk so I should not have been surprised.

In any event, when I was a kid, I was fascinated by stories featuring characters that were far more stronger and tougher than myself. I suspect most kids are -- hence the popularity of such benign heroes as Superman, the Six Million Dollar Man and the various animated incarnations of Popeye and Hercules. Of course, I suspect the popularity of vampire movies like the 1972 made-for-TV movie The Night Stalker are also based on such fascination. And of course, it is no accident that popular action movies like the James Bond films regularly feature the hero triumphing over villains who are bigger and stronger than him.

Anyway, Torres was out to seek revenge against President U.S. Grant and agent James West had to stop him. Did he succeed? Well, the name of the show was obviously not The Wild Wild Torres so what do you think?

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Flatline”

Wow! How often do you see a TV show or movie nowadays in which the good guys win not by using guns or knives or fists or explosives but by using superior artistic ability?

Plus the show's writers have apparently discovered that the best way to make the Doctor seem likeable is to place him in the same episode as a character who is even more unlikable than he is. Too bad they can't do that every week.

However, I will give the show additional props for giving the Doctor a good speech towards the end.

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Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”

It's dinosaurs. On a spaceship.

Plus Rory's dad. (Wait. Rory has a dad?)

And yes, the Doctor did some stuff, too.

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Kolchak: the Night Stalker: "The Ripper"

The opening episode of Kolchak: the Night Stalker was all about investigative journalist Carl Kolchak's efforts to track down a modern-day serial killer who was slaying women in Chicago so naturally the first two murders in this episode took place in Wisconsin. Oh, well. Few people my age watched Kolchak for the plot logic and unfortunately, the TV show in its heyday never really caught on with people older than me.

While I find it a bit surreal to watch the show nowadays -- the older I get, the more I sympathize with the people Kolchak encounters and the less I sympathize with Kolchak himself -- I still had a bit of affection for the TV series -- and not just because it inspired producer Chris Carter to create The X-Files. It doesn't hurt to remember that when Kolchak was created, investigative journalists were still seen as heroes thanks to their role in exposing the Watergate scandal.

In any event, as I noted above the show started off in Wisconsin inside one of those 70s-era topless bars in which all the dancers seemed to have Godiva hair and never faced toward the camera unless they were being filmed above the shoulders. The dancer went back to her dressing room for a brief break, only to encounter an unexpected male visitor with a sword cane. Not long afterwards, another woman was killed by the same gentleman and then the scene shifted to Chicago.

Kolchak was doing his damnedest to get out of an unwelcome newspaper assignment when news of the Ripper killings occurred and then suddenly he was doing his damnedest to track down the killer in hopes of getting a big story. Before long, he realized that the villain in question was no ordinary murderer but the original Jack the Ripper -- a ripper that oddly enough acted much like the vampiric killer Kolchak pursued in the 1972 made-for-TV movie The Night Stalker which first introduced Kolchak to American audiences -- only without all the blood-sucking. Like the vampire, the ripper displayed superhuman strength, an invulnerability to bullets that even Clark Kent would envy and the ability to get out of a locked jail cell as easily as other people walk through a spider web. Kolchak kept insisting that all this proved his theory about the Ripper but for some reason, the Chicago police -- who did not have the best of reputations in the 1970s, thanks to the tactics they used during the 1968 Democratic National Convention -- chose not to believe him.

In any event, his pursuit of the story was hampered by his having to avoid his perpetually frustrated editor and boss Tony Vicenzo -- played by the late Simon Oakland -- as well as his having to outmaneuver his rival co-worker Ron Updyke (played by Jack Grinnage), a financial reporter whose journalistic skills would seem to be in much demand nowadays but on the show were constantly dissed for not being more suited to covering murders. Nor did it help that Kolchak kept crossing paths with various members of the Chicago police department, few of whom seemed particularly happy to see him.

Eventually Kolchak tracked down the Ripper to his lair thanks to the aid he got from a rival reporter (played by Beatrice Colen) and an elderly woman (played by Ruth McDevitt -- who would later join the show's cast as a full-time character). Unfortunately, his confrontation with the Ripper went less well than expected and, well, to say more would be telling.

Suffice to say that Carl Kolchak survived to live another day but lost the chance to file his big story due to lack of proof. Which, considering everything that could have happened in this episode, wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to him.

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666 Park Avenue: “The Dead Don't Stay Dead”

It's Faust: The Series, only this time all the writers' sympathies are with the Devil, so to speak. Apparently the Drake -- the name of the apartment building that is located at the address mentioned in the show's title -- has a history of attracting folks who are prone to make a deal with the Devil. And come to think it, the guy who owns the apartment building just happens to be a man of wealth and taste. What a coincidence!

In this latest episode, we see our old friend Aubrey Dollar from the show Point Pleasant playing an obit writer who discovers via the Drake the power to make her writing come true. Unfortunately, she ends up as a victim of one of her own creations -- or does she?

Inquiring minds want to know. Though chances are very good that anyone who has ever seen a horror movie before can guess where this episode is heading long before it gets there.

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Night Gallery: "The Devil Is Not Mocked"

Now this is a Resistance leader!

But seriously, folks.

The story itself was based on an old Manly Wade Wellman story in which a German officer confronted a legendary evildoer during World War II. Helmut Dantine played the officer. Francis Lederer played his opponent.

For some odd reason, I liked this episode when I first saw it as a small boy. However, how well you might appreciate it probably depends on how seriously you take the info offered in this review -- although if worse comes to worse, you can always consider this tale yet another example of alternative history.

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666 Park Avenue: “Pilot”

You wouldn't think someone could make a dull TV show out of a demon-haunted apartment building but that's what the producers of 666 Park Avenue managed to do. It's a shame, too, because Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams showed great potential as the building's mysterious owners. Unfortunately, the script never really followed up on that potential and it didn't help that O'Quinn's bald head made him look like Mr. Clean in the eyes of at least one snarky viewer I know (i.e., my middle brother).

Oh, well. Better luck next time.