The Young Visiters, or, Mr. Salteena’s Plan (review)

Fans of offbeat British humor will gobble up this BBC production, with all its elegantly silly and piquantly observant social satire, and they’ll be tickled all the more by how it comes by its stunning insight into the romantic games men and women play and the snobbery of late-Victorian England: It was written, with clueless … more…

The Twilight Zone: Season 1 (review)

No, the other one: This is the mid-1980s do-over, not the classic of early television, and yet even though you kinda remember it being pretty cheesy, it’s still compulsively watchable. The very first story of the very first episode hints at why: It stars Bruce Willis, it’s based on a story by Harlan Ellison story, … more…

Sister Helen (review)

“I would like to smoke crack more than anything in the world right now,” reports one recovering addict here. What keeps him from giving in to that urge? One tough Irish-American broad: Sister Helen Travis, a force of nature you cross at your own peril. Yup, she’s a nun. Family tragedy drove Travis to the … more…

MacGyver: The Complete First Season (review)

If you never go anywhere without your trusty pocketknife and can’t look at a paper clip without grinning, then you’re probably a MacGyver fan. It’s nothing to be ashamed of — the show was a worldwide phenomenon, and how many TV characters have seen their names turned into verbs? Hundreds of years from now, when … more…

He Knew He Was Right (review)

Gossip and rumor and love and jealousy and obsession are all dressed up in period costume and going to all the familiar places in this BBC production of an Anthony Trollope novel. Four hour-long episodes follow the emotional misadventures of Louis and Emily Trevelyan (Oliver Dimsdale, and Laura Fraser: A Christmas Carol) — he thinks … more…

Everyday People (review)

I feel like a real heel for not being able to endorse this film enthusiastically and wholeheartedly, but there we have it. This day-in-the-life of a Brooklyn diner, a neighborhood institution, sets for itself the noble goal of “challenging” conventional assumptions about race, ethnicity, gender, age, and religion on a day in which the Jewish … more…

Bertie & Elizabeth: The Story of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth (review)

Two genres of film collide in this workmanlike Masterpiece Theater entry: the Stolid, Plodding Historical Drama 7th Graders Will Be Forced To Watch In Social Studies Class, and Simplistic Valentines To Complicated Real-Life People For Those Who Want Their Sappy Melodramas Drained Of Any Disruptive Emotion. Actually, that may be giving this stodgy movie too … more…

Shortcuts

These reviews have moved — sorry for the inconvenience. Are We There Yet? Bertie & Elizabeth: The Story of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Everyday People Fascination He Knew He Was Right MacGyver: The Complete First Season Nobody Knows Rory O’Shea Was Here She’s One of Us Sister Helen Spartacus Travellers & Magicians The … more…