Category: TV

Doctor Who: The Horror of Fang Rock

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Doctor Who
The Horror of Fang Rock
Season 15, Story 92

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) accidentally land the TARDIS on Fang Rock, a small island off the southern coast of England. When The Doctor notices that the lighthouse is without a light, they go and investigate. Inside the lighthouse they discover a dead guy and two still living lighthouse keepers – Reuben (Colin Douglas) and Vince (John Abbott). They explain that just before The Doctor arrived, they saw a strange light crash into the sea, and ever since the power has been fluctuating as the temperature keeps dropping.

While The Doctor and Leela are investigating the rest of the lighthouse, someone or something moves the corpse. Then, because the lighthouse light keeps going out, a pleasure boat crashes into the rocks. It is owned by a snooty lord, and with him are a lady and two other men.

Legend has it many years ago a monster came to Fang Rock and killed two of the keepers and drove one mad. Now a new creature has arrived, but this time it is from outer space. It is known as a Ruton, and it thinks Earth might be a good strategic place to fight the Sontarans.

The Ruton is a round, blobby thing that looks a bit like an egg yolk with some streamers hanging off of it. Tis not the greatest of Classic Who monsters, I tell you that. The production team made the smart decision to keep it off-screen for the most part, and they made it a shape-shifter so sometimes it appears as the dead keeper.

I am a big fan of base-under-siege stories, and the lighthouse makes for a great setting. The Ruton is not a great villain, but for most of this series four parts, it is off base trying to get in. The addition of the rich, snobby people adds a nice touch of fear and hysteria to the proceedings, while the lighthouse keepers mostly keep it together.

It is a pretty dark story, and Tom Baker eases into that side of the character, showing very little concern for the other characters who keep getting themselves killed. It has been a while since I’ve seen any of the other Leela stories, but she does seem to be transitioning nicely from the “noble savage” she was when she first joined the Doctor to someone who relies a little more on her intelligence than her strength (though she still throws a knife nicely and wields an axe at one point during this story.)

I’ve seen this one many times. It has become one of my go-to Classic Doctor Who stories as it moves at a brisk pace, has a terrific little story, and finds Tom Baker in fine form.

The Last of Us: The Complete Second Season 4K UHD Review

the last of us

The other day I was flipping through our streaming services, and I came across The Last of Us. I turned to my wife and said something along the lines of, “Did we ever finish Season 2?” She said, “No” but then thought that maybe I had watched it on my own.

I literally couldn’t remember if I’d watched it or not. I knew I had watched and reviewed Season One and that we had started watching Season Two, but in my memory we stopped it after a major (and intense) plot point happened. 

Friends, I did in fact finish the season by myself, and I did in fact write a review. One should not think this reflects on the quality of Season Two, as it is excellent, but rather on my incredibly bad memory.  Maybe I should see someone about that.

Anyway, you can read my review here.

Crime Scene Cleaner

crime scene cleaner

My wife and I have recently been enjoying a British series called Crime Scene Cleaner. It stars and is written by Greg Davies (who we also enjoy in Taskmaster). It is based on this German show of the same name. Honestly, I barely remember the German show other than I liked it a lot, but reading my review, I see that the first season of the British show took a lot of the plot points directly from the original.

I definitely recommend both shows if you can find them.

Serangoon Road

serangoon road

Are you like me? When you watch a TV show or a movie and there is an actor that catches your fancy, do you immediately look up what else they’ve been in? Do you get excited when you see them in something else? I do. I find myself rooting for certain actors that I like, especially when they aren’t already big stars.

So it was with Don Hany. I first caught him in an Australian series called East West 101. He was quite good in that, so I was excited to see him in this series for HBO Asia (and now I’m excited to see that Joan Chen – whom I just enjoyed in Twin Peaks – also starred in this series). To be honest, I’ve not seen Hany in anything else, and had kind of forgotten about him until now. But I just looked him up and was happy to see he’s still steadily working.

You can read my full review of this series here.

Lilies

lilies tv

One of the reasons I’m a physical media collector is that I always have access to the DVDs/Blu-rays that I own. I’m not subject to the whims of streaming services deciding which movies/TV series I can watch.

Lilies is a good example of this. It ran for but a single season (just eight episodes) on the BBC. As far as I can tell, it is not available to stream anywhere. Yet I can watch it anytime I want because I own it on DVD.

Not that I want to very often, but I could if I wanted to right now. Anyway, you can read my review of the series here.

Nicolas Le Floch, Vol. 2

nicolas le floch dvd

There was a period of time, back around 2015, when I was reviewing a lot of International Mysteries. These were mostly put on DVD by a company called MHZ. They weren’t all good, but it was fun seeing how other countries handled their murder mysteries. Then I got busy, and the well ran dry.

I’ve recently subscribed to a streaming station run by MHZ and am once again enjoying my international mysteries.

I don’t really remember this French series, but you can read my review here.

Watch A New Trailer For Stranger Things: Season 5

When Stranger Things first came out (back in 2016!) I was an immediate fan. It was such a wonderful amalgamation of all the things I loved growing up in the 1980s: Stephen King (or more importantly, movies based on Stephen King books), John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg, and a million other things. But it wasn’t just nostalgia-baiting either, the Duffer Brothers had created a wonderful story, one that was clearly influenced by all those things, but was also its own, new thing.

I’ve enjoyed the subsequent seasons, especially the addition of several new cast members, but I also have to admit that none of them have quite had the magic of the first one. If I’m being honest, I am ready for it to be over. This is especially true since it has taken them so long to make each season. Those kids aren’t kids anymore. Millie Bobby Brown is married, for Pete’s sake!

When I learned that Season 5, the final season, consisted of several movie-length episodes, I was a little irritated. I don’t need that much more Stranger Things. I hate it when TV shows act like movies.

But apparently, there are only going to be three episodes, so I can dig that. This teaser trailer is basically just an announcement of that fact. It mostly consists of clips from previous episodes and announces the dates of these three episodes/movies. There are a few new bits and I have to admit that it did get me excited.

The Last of Us: Season One

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Just in time for Season Two hitting the small screen Season One of this terrific television series dropped a couple of weeks ago in a swell looking 4K UHD steelbook.

If you don’t know, The Last of Us is based on a popular video game series about a zombie like apocalypse and how two people – a middle-aged man and a teenage girl – survive it. I’ve never played the game but I love the series. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Evil: The Complete Series DVD Review

evil the complete series dvd

Evil is one of those shows I wouldn’t think I would like but it turns out I really love. It is basically a procedural that started out on broadcast TV. I normally avoid that sort of thing. But it was created and show-runned by Robert and Michelle King who have made a habit of taking established broadcast TV tropes and turning them into something original.

The concept – three people, a priest, a lapsed-Catholic psychologist, and an atheist scientist investigate paranormal shenanigans for the Catholic Church – is pretty standard broadcast TV stuff. But they made it really fun. This is especially true after the first season when it was dropped by CBS and became a streaming-only show. Then it gets really good and weird.

You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.