After work, I stopped at the grocery store, the Giant off Queen Street. I needed milk and bread and vanilla sandwich cookies. Though we’re three weeks past Christmas, there was a display dump of Christmas books. And it caught my attention. Oh, did it ever! “The boy! In the red poofball hat!” I exclaimed. IContinue reading “Going to Hell”
Category Archives: Television
Stuck in the Middle with You
Sesame Street is coming to an envelope near you; the Postal Service has announced a series of Sesame Street stamps, featuring most of your favorite Muppets. I say “most”; Sherlock Hemlock is nowhere to be found. To promote the stamps, the Sesame Street Twitter account asked this important question yesterday: We’re re-enacting Cast Away, butContinue reading “Stuck in the Middle with You”
Did Elementary Influence Late-Period Sherlock?
Yesterday, Elizabeth Sandifer posted an essay on Sherlock‘s 2016 Christmas special, “The Abominable Bride,” on the Eruditorum Press blog. One issue raised in her essay is the sudden interest in Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes’ drug addiction, an element of the Arthur Conan Doyle canon that Sherlock hadn’t dealt with. What follows is a comment IContinue reading “Did Elementary Influence Late-Period Sherlock?”
Taken: Why Am I Even Watching This?
Why do I keep watching Taken, the NBC television series ostensibly inspired by the Taken film franchise? I use the words “ostensibly inspired” because I have absolutely no idea what this series has to do with Taken. Clive Standen can’t be playing a young Liam Neeson for the simple fact that the television series takesContinue reading “Taken: Why Am I Even Watching This?”
Random Thoughts on Sherlock
What follows is a rambling post about “The Final Problem” and Sherlock overall that I made on Facebook. I don’t guarantee that it will make any sense. It’s a bit random. A coworker said to me this morning, “You either loved it or you hated it.” I didn’t hate it, but I’m not a fanContinue reading “Random Thoughts on Sherlock”
Downton Abbey: A Long-Expected Throwdown
Golly gumdrops! It took six years, the moment has been long prepared for, and at last, it arrived. Edith unloaded on Mary. "A nasty, jealous, scheming bitch." "Don't demean yourself by trying to justify your venom." Wow. #DowntonAbbey #teamedith — Allyn Gibson (@allyngibson) February 22, 2016 The backstory. Last week, Bertie Pelham, a penniless landContinue reading “Downton Abbey: A Long-Expected Throwdown”
Downton Abbey: The Shallowness of Robert Crawley
I have been stymied in my efforts to write any sort of interesting piece on Sunday’s episode of Downton Abbey, the penultimate episode of the sixth season (but the antepenultimate episode of the series as a whole). Things happened, but nothing really grabbed me, at least not in any positive ways. The most notable featureContinue reading “Downton Abbey: The Shallowness of Robert Crawley”
Downton Abbey: The Big Bad, Revealed!
For five years, I’ve liked Charlie Carson, the butler at Downton Abbey. He might be uptight, but he does it because he has standards. He’s a professional, and he’s devoted his life, competely and utterly, to the Crawley family. He has his blinders, especially where Lady Mary is concerned, true, but it’s always to aContinue reading “Downton Abbey: The Big Bad, Revealed!”
Downton Abbey: Explosively Meh
The trouble with Sunday night’s Downton Abbey is that virtually nothing happened — until a scene that one will never forget. Downton is like that. I couldn’t tell you anything else about the episode were Sybil dies. Or the episode where Lavinia Swire dies. Or the episode where Matthew dies. Of course, those were yearsContinue reading “Downton Abbey: Explosively Meh”
Lucifer: The Pilot
Monday night I watched the pilot episode of Lucifer on FOX. Ever since I read Milton in high school I’ve been sympathetic to Lucifer, the tragic anti-hero of Christian mythology. And I’ve read about half of the Mike Carey/Peter Gross comic book series on which the new television series was ostensibly based. I say “ostensibly”Continue reading “Lucifer: The Pilot”