As part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations for Doctor Who, the BBC made this film about the beginnings of the series. It is a lovely, well-made thing that will likely only appeal to fans, but I am one and I quite loved it.
You can read my full review of it here.
I’ve been enjoying reading all my old reviews, and I hope you have too. Part of the enjoyment for me is thinking about how my writing style has changed – sometimes that embarrasses me, but mostly I enjoy reading my old stuff (does that make me a narcissist?). But I also enjoy seeing what I thought about something many years ago. Sometimes I’ve revisited the stuff and my opinion has changed.
Sometimes, as is the case with Jack Taylor I barely remember watching it in the first place. I have only the vaguest memories of watching this show, mostly I remember Iain Glen who was starring in the immensely popular at the time Game of Thrones. He’s probably the reason I agreed to review this set in the first place.
In my review, I made a crack about how I’d probably sell this DVD set as I didn’t enjoy it all that much. But I didn’t sell it as it is still sitting on my shelves. I kind of want to watch it again as I’ve softened quite a bit on these old mystery shows. I wonder if I’d enjoy it now.
Anyway, you can read my review here.
Classic Doctor Who ran from 1963 to 1989. It included some 311 stories told over 695 episodes of television. The Doctor was portrayed by seven different actors. While I have watched every episode of the New Doctor Who series, I’ve not yet made it through all the classic stories.
I have seen at least a few stories from each Doctor, but I’ve always watched it fairly randomly – watching one story from this era and then another one from a different era with a different Doctor, etc.
They are now releasing complete seasons of the classic series on Blu-ray but for ages they released single stories on DVD. I reviewed a few of them for Cinema Sentries including this one starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor (and in this case the story’s central enemy).
I’ve come to love Troughton’s version of the Doctor, but this was the first time I’d seen him in the role and my opinion of him was not yet solidified. Anyway, you can read the review here.
Maverick, the television series, ran for several seasons in the late 1950s to the early 1960s. It starred James Garner (amongst others) as a wise-cracking, woman-chasing gambler in the old west who gets in lots of trouble every episode. In 1994 they made a movie out of it starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner. I’ve seen the movie multiple times. Every few years I put it on thinking that I like it. Every time I’m disappointed. The cast is charming and the story isn’t bad, but something about it just annoys me.
I probably ordered this DVD set misremembering how much I liked the movie. The series isn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t for me. You can read my full thoughts here.
One of the many reasons Doctor Who has had such a fantastically long run time as a series is that The Doctor regenerates. That wasn’t always supposed to be true but when the First Doctor (William Hartnell) got sick the show was such a huge success the producers came upon this idea to keep it running.
The Doctor is an alien, who says when he dies, he doesn’t really die, but becomes someone else? Well, he’ll always be The Doctor, but he can be played by a different actor and have a different personality. Patrick Troughton took on the role of The Second Doctor and the rest is history.
It was a genius idea. Whenever an actor gets tired of playing the role someone else will take his (or her) place. A new Doctor is born with an updated personality. This also allows the series to change with the times.
It also allows fans to constantly argue over which Doctor is the best.
A Doctor’s regeneration is always a big deal. Matt Smith was one of the most popular Doctors ever and so when he decided to leave the character you just knew his departure would be huge.
It was. So huge in fact they tied it into a Christmas Episode (an annual tradition). The Time of the Doctor wrapped up several storylines and more. And then some more. As you can read in my review it is a lot of fun, but also an overstuffed mess.
Here we are again with another review of a Sesame Street DVD. It is strange to look back on these reviews. When my daughter was younger we watched Sesame Street nearly every day. It was a huge part of our lives. But then she grew up and grew out of Sesame Street and I haven’t thought about them in several years.
And now I’m reading my old reviews – brings back memories.
I never found Elmo to be as obnoxious as some parents. But I will admit that trying to watch multiple episodes of Elmo’s World back to back was a bit more than I could take.
Here’s my review.
We subscribe to the BritBox streaming service. As you might guess from the name Britbox serves up lots of British television. The Brits are great at crime stories. My favorite type of crime story is what I’ll call cozy mysteries. These show solve mysteries – usually murders (but not too gruesome murders – in exotic locales and are led by usually gentle, kind detectives. They are the kind of show you can turn on after a long day at work and just kind of drift off into them.
Vera is one such show. I reviewed the DVD of Set 3 many years ago and you can read that here. It does make me want to go back and watch some more of it. I know there are many more series of it on Britbox.
Jane Campion has made some interesting films like The Piano (1993), The Power of the Dog (2021), and the criminally underrated In the Cut (2003). In 2014 she wrote and directed Top of the Lake a wonderful little mystery set in rural New Zealand. It stars Elisabeth Moss as a detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl.
They made a Season Two, but I’ve yet to watch it. I think I may need to rewatch Season One and then give the next one a go very soon.
You can read my review here.
When my daughter was little she absolutely loved Sesame Street. At the time we lived way out in the country, in the middle of Tennessee, and we had terrible Internet. So I used to request Sesame Street DVDs to review (and entertain my kid when nothing was on).
As I found out it is difficult to review Sesame Street. The show is funny and clever. It is wonderful for kids and there is enough pop cultural references to keep parents interested, but it is also extremely repetitive. There isn’t a larger storyline or big plot twists…
Anyways I said a few nice things about this one which ties together a bunch of sports-oriented stories. You can read it here.
There was a time back around 2013 when I was regularly reviewing DVDs of non-American crime dramas. They were released by companies like Acorn and MHZ. I was reviewing them so often that I seriously considered making it my beat, so to speak. Like I thought I could just be a reviewer of non-American television.
If I’m being honest I don’t really remember East West. I have the vaguest of memories of reviewing it, but reading my actual review doesn’t stir anything up. That’s not to say it is a bad show, as I did give it a good review, but at the time I was watching a lot of crime dramas and they do tend to blend together.
Anyway, you can read that review here.
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