Kate Winslet does a great job of portraying long suffering, unlucky in love, sharp business woman, and often incredibly dim Depression era damsel Mildred Pierce. Mildred’s husband leaves her, one of her two daughters dies, and she starts her own business selling her famous pies. Mildred is a proud woman. Too proud to work as a housekeeper for a super snob and too good to be a lowly waitress. Until she has no choice and takes a job waiting tables. One thing leads to another and she starts to sell her pies to local restaurants and then decided to open…
Category: tv review
Falling Skies
I’ll watch just about any science fiction that doesn’t feature giant robots that turn into cars. Falling Skies from TNT and Steven Spielberg is the story of Earth after the fall of humankind to an alien invasion. The aliens are called Skidders and most closely resemble one of the twisted toys from the original Toy Story. They have an upper body with a head and two arms, but then have a lower body composed of several legs. We learn that the key to killing them is to disable as many legs as possible. Falling Skies is basically a post apocalyptic…
You Don’t Know Jack
Barry Levinson’s made for HBO movie is about the completely eccentric retired Doctor Jack Kevorkian, who believes that it is his duty to put people out of their misery. With the help of his sister and his only friend in the world, who happens to run a medical supply business-Doctor Death starts to help people who no longer want to live, kill themselves. Each death has a small number showing how many people died with Dr Kevorkian’s assistance. We end around 130. The cast of You Don’t Know Jack is impressive. Al Pacino, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and blast from…
The Borgias and The Game of Thrones
It’s unfortunate that these two medieval costume dramas are airing during the same time-they are near clones of each other. They are both about intrigue, betrayal, infidelity, and the sordid underbelly of the world of Kings. I like them both, but they are very similar in their story lines-at least, so far. George R R Martin is a famous Sci Fi writer, though to be honest I am not familiar with much of anything he has written. But I like fantasy and science fiction, so I was a bit excited to see that Game of Thrones was going to be…
Stargate Universe-Chevron Three Will Not Engage
When Stargate Universe first started, I had my doubts about yet another show dealing with heroic folks hopping from planet to planet every week. The whole premise of the series seemed a little silly. The Ancients wanted to find out the answer to the question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Only, wait a minute, didn’t they all becomes gods themselves and find all the answers already? The Syfy channel, which was once upon a network that featured science fiction programing but has lately been fond of wrestling and ghost busting, canceled Stargate Universe and let the cast find out…
Being Human on Syfy
Being Human is the story of three friends sharing an apartment-one vampire, one werewolve, and one ghost. The show started out on the BBC, which makes sense since having a flatmate is the normal state of affairs in cities like London and Bristol. I had my doubts about the basic premise working in America, where everyone has their own place. But it looks like it will be fine. One of The Wife’s complaints is a simple one-NBC Universal is run by idiots. Or as my hero Rickey Gervais would say, NBC Universal is run by fucking idiots. They have a…
Downton Abbey comes to PBS
Downton Abbey is one of those rare shows that was able to surprise me. Not once, not twice, but almost constantly. The writer did a brilliant job of directing my expectations in one direction and then doubling back and surprising me. The story is a familiar one, another tale of that fantasy world that existed in the British Empire for about thirty or forty years where a rich family owned an Estate and a Staff of fifty were needed to run the House of that Estate. Downton Abbey is the story of The Lord of The Manner, his rich America…
The Family Guy Star Wars Trilogy
Lois (Princess Leia): Aren’t you a little fat to be a stormtrooper? Chris (Luke Skywalker): Well, stay here and rot, you stuck-up bitch! The Family Guy Star Wars stories are pretty much literal translations of the Star Wars movies. There are countless shot for shot sequences, only with a bit of nitpicking thrown in-such as the fact that Leia seems to be the only woman in the Galaxy and Yoda is pretty much a coward hiding out in his swamp. I was surprised that I got the same kind of feeling from watching these silly little cartoon parodies that I…
Stargate Universe Canceled by Syfy
The Syfy channel seems to be more interested in Wrestling and Paranormal BS than actual science fiction. Maybe that’s why they changed their name. The Syfy channel canceled Stargate Universe only weeks after canceling Caprica. The only shows remaining are Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, and Eureka. Tick tick tick That’s the sound of your life running out. I never liked Caprica, it was too much a show about The Matrix and too little a show about Battlestar Gallactica. But it was starting to get a little interesting, just when they axed it. I didn’t like Stargate Universe either, for similar reasons. …
Plan B with Conan O’Brien
Conan’s new show is much like Conan’s old shows. Conan comes out and makes a few jokes. He gets some support and heckling from sidekick Andy Richter. He feeds off the energy of the audience. He chats up random famous and semi-famous and wanna be famous people. If you like Conan, you’ll like his new show. By far the best bit I’ve seen is a commercial where Conan goes to India to create the perfect set of red curtains for his show. I have no idea what this commercial is for, or if it is, in fact, for anything. But…