Spoilers. It’s always a bittersweet experience when a beloved book is translated into a film, or in this case, a miniseries. Stephen King’s 11.22.63 was a very long book with a lot of small details. So it is not really surprising that whole swaths of the book are left out. Right off the bat there is the odd casting choice of James Franco as Jake Epping, a man from Maine who travels back in time to 1958. This is odd, because while everyone remember black racism in the good old days, they don’t always remember the racism against Hispanics. The…
Category: tv review
Billions
When everyone is evil, who cares who wins? Showtime’s Billions stars Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis as powerful men who have no reason to fear anyone-well, maybe no reason to fear any man. Paul plays U.S. District Attorney Chuck Rhoades, a Submissive we see tied and tortured in the opening scene of the series. It seems he has a perfect conviction record and his father is a crime lord. Paul spends a lot of time frowning and scowling. I got the feeling he didn’t want any fucking merlot. Damian plays billionaire and possible mass murderer and inside trader Bobby Axelrod.…
Knife Fight on Esquire
Esquire is a Network I found while channel surfing in a motel one time. I ran across this show where Chefs cook meals using Mystery Ingredients. The prize, as Chef Ilan Hall of The Gorbals restaurant reminds us in the opening credits, is Bragging Rights. There was a brief moment in my life when I wanted to be a Chef. It may have been shortly after I read Kitchen Confidential. I applied to a couple of schools and even visited a couple of campuses. But it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Too much yelling and too much work. I…
The Leftovers
Leftovers-The Great Disappointment. Leftovers seems to be inspired by the Millerites. In 1844 a cult lead by Baptist Minister William Miller decided that Jesus Christ, the greatest teaser and denier of all time, would be returning to earth to kill all the wicked and hand the keys to the car over to the meek. Miller picked a date and waited, nothing happened. He picked another date, and again, nothing happened. This put into motion the current fad in Christianity that the Good and the Holy will be sucked off the face of the earth and everyone else will be Left…
The Muppets- well, sort of
Not you father’s Muppets-well, not MY muppets. I think the most cringe worthy moment in this first show filled to the gills with cringe worthy moments was when Kermit’s new pig Denise is shown bobbing her head while she sucks a straw. ‘What can I say, I like pigs.’ says Kermit as he turns and watches Denise. At least the straw wasn’t green. Modeled on [easyazon_link identifier=”B00LTO342M” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]The Office[/easyazon_link] or [easyazon_link identifier=”B0000E2PVR” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Curb Your Enthusiasm[/easyazon_link], The Muppets is filled with a lot of camera zooms and shaky movements. Our heroes are nothing but angst ridden muppets who bear…
The Hollywood Reporter Top 100 TV Shows
Best TV Shows Ever? Eh. The Hollywood Report put out a list of Hollywood’s 100 Favorite TV Shows, based on the votes of industry insiders. They had a similar list last year of the Top 100 Movies. Best TV Shows Ever counts down from 100 and gives each entry a short bio and a couple of fun facts. They asked over 2,800 ‘industry people’ what their favorite TV series was. I would be hard pressed to name a favorite, since I tend to break them down by category. Is a great comedy better than a great drama? Is Sci Fi…
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Anyone remember the Chevy Chase Show? That’s what I kept flashing back to while watching Stephen Colbert channel a sleazy used car salesman as his new TV persona. That first episode of The Chevy Chase Show was packed with fans who laughed at every gag the [easyazon_link identifier=”B000JLQPYK” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]SNL[/easyazon_link] alum tossed out, much as the crowd here hooted and hollered and chanted Stephen Stephen Stephen! This was the first episode, so I can cut Stephen some slack, but not much. The Late Show set has been remodeled to resemble the set for [easyazon_link identifier=”B007JVM69Q” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]The Dean Martin Show[/easyazon_link],…
Mr Robot and the New World Order
A couple of years ago the Stock Market crashed. The Big Boys of the banking world, Citibank, Chase, Bank of America, etc were all trading for around a quarter a share. The reason for this was they were, and mostly still are, run by greedy, selfish, cheating bastards. Our fine Government stepped forward and said these Institutions were [easyazon_link identifier=”0143118242″ locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Too Big Too Fail[/easyazon_link]. Everyone who owed them money was more than happy to see them fail. No more bank, no more debt. Which brings us to [easyazon_link identifier=”B00YCVCBRS” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Mr Robot[/easyazon_link], an often brilliant show from the USA…
Star Trek Continues
Boldly Going, More or Less Fans of [easyazon_link identifier=”B002PQ7JQK” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Star Trek[/easyazon_link] have never really been happy with the newer editions of Star Trek. We all have these fantasies where NBC doesn’t cancel Star Trek and we get another season or two of the Original Series. Star Trek Continues is a group of those kinds of fans that are imagining a fourth season of Star Trek. There are four episodes so far and I have to admit that I like them a lot. They are very much in the meladrama format that Star Trek did so well. Tear jerking episodes that…
Blindspot
Prison Break with a woman. [easyazon_link identifier=”B000FKO3GW” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Prison Break[/easyazon_link] was a great one season show about a guy who had his entire body covered with tattoos. These would help him break his brother out of prison. It was a prefect gimmick for one season. That show lost its way as soon as the heroes escaped. Blindspot also looks like a great one season show. The opening bit of a naked woman being found in a gym bag is fun and creative. Soon enough we find out that the woman has no memory and that her body is covered with tattoos…