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Reviews
Endeavour (2012)
Much to like, but so many....Buts
Had I not first encountered Endeavour in S3 (USA showings) I would have written it off. After going back to the start to binge from S1 Ep 1, I would have chucked it for one main reason: Reggie -- ooops sorry, REGINALD Bright. His mood vine-swings from trite, cliched, pablum to brittle, strident histrionics. Kojak he ain't. Every episode, and sometimes more than once per episode. Tosh. Rant. Repeat. Overlay this with Morose, sorry Morse and his Uriah Heep-worthy pining for Joan Thursday. So what then, the stones he lacks to so much as kiss her, he compensates by insubordinate mouthing off to Bright, Thursday, or even the affable Strange?
I stuck with it, as a lad who grew up a few miles away in the 1960s and '70s. Oh my giddy aunt, the filmography makes Oxford the splendid, noble glamour girl that she is, was, ever will be. The spires are dreaming, and still dreamy. Challenging plots, superior casting and fine acting make the ride worthwhile -- I hope, even for those not watching it as a snapshot into nostalgia. I wonder.
Side note on the acting: Almost no character in the entire series talks with the same accent they have IRL. I haven't seen this discussed, let alone mentioned, anywhere at all in the past decade. Sean Evans most notably of course, but Dr. DeBryn and even Strange (Sean Rigsby) are all admirably adopting an accent, pitch and timbre nowhere near their own. Perhaps this helps the dialogue - vernacular, dialect, slang, colloqualisms -- ring true to this local lad of that era, with the small exception of the odd Americanism almost Easter-egged into the scripts. (Pantyhose? No, no more than there'd be a run -- it's a ladder, Yank.) But IYKYK the lingo, it's a bit jarring.
Enjoy the ride. It'll gladden you even as it might madden you.
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: The Arizona (2020)
Good but it's no Call to Silence
I've watched every episode since the first in 2003, many of them twice. If you're new or newer to the series, this is definitely one of the better ones. BUT it is basically a recycled Call to Silence, the episode with the incomparable Charles Durning. Other reviewers have mentioned it and I agree: Call to Silence is far more layered and richly textured; it will make you cry AND laugh, because that's the magic of Charles Durning and the writers of the early episodes. It's riveting. The Arizona is superior but not by comparison to that, and for my money, Broken Bird and Heartland. Those are the three best episodes in the 18+ years that don't involve prolonged story arcs. I also agree with other reviewers that Christopher Lloyd, as good as he is, tends to be the same guy in every role: slightly wild/unhinged, same vocal inflection and intonations. Other reviewers have also wondered why the admiral's wife is not credited; she is on this site: Jessica Tuck. Bottom line: Best episode in years, but eclipsed by two or three others -- including the one it ripped off.
Nova: Universe Revealed: Big Bang (2021)
Unwatchable thanks to cutesy-poo narration
I have watched two of the last three of this latest NOVA series; one fully, one about half, and this one about two minutes. NOT HER AGAIN. Never heard this woman before, but she is wrong for this series. It needs the authoritative timbre of frequent NOVA narrator Jay O. Sanders, or at least someone who doesn't get in the way of the script. I have worked in the field of voice talent since 1980. This narrator's delivery belongs in a 30-second TV ad. It lacks authority, and her read sounds like she's auditioning for a role or somehow trying to pitch us on how amazing it all is. Wrong cadence, wrong phrasing, wrong vocal pitch. NEXT.
Nova: Universe Revealed: Black Holes (2021)
Narration makes this unwatchable
Never heard this woman before, but she is wrong for this series. It needs the authoritative timbre of frequent NOVA narrator Jay O. Sanders, or at least someone who doesn't get in the way of the script. I have worked in the field of voice talent since 1980. This narrator's delivery belongs in a 30-second TV ad. It lacks authority, and her read sounds like she's auditioning for a role or somehow trying to pitch us on how amazing it all is. Wrong cadence, wrong phrasing, wrong vocal pitch. NEXT.
Nova: Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds (2021)
Narration ruins this particular series
I can't watch this series because of the highly irritating narrator. She sounds like an asthmatic space cadet. I know not every NOVA series can be narrated by the great Jay O. Sanders (if ONLY) but this woman's delivery belongs as narrator of Hair or Aquarius or a 30-second ad for toys. Not a 50-plus minute monologue on science. Madam Trying Too Hard should have been given direction that the science and the facts are wondrous enough (which is why we are watching) without middle-school-play level efforts to instill that wonder with juvenile pitch and phrasing. Please bring back Jay O. Sanders, or at least someone who doesn't get in the way of the script.
The Fugitive: This'll Kill You (1966)
So many good little touches
Most of the many little things that add up to make this a great episode are mentioned in other reviews. From the dialogue to the guest stars' acting, it's all outstanding. Having Kimble, a fugitive, saunter into a crowded hotel bar is an unlikely plot contrivance, but it pays off with an amusing scene (and let's face it, not many scenes in this series are funny) with a palm reader, and it allows for the introduction of Nita Talbot, who gives her usual captivating performance. Talbot may be one of the USA's most under-appreciated actresses. She never made it as a top star, but no matter the role, it's impossible to take your eyes off her. Side note: Unlike almost everything else, it's amazing how little coin washers have changed in 55 years!
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Legend (Part I) (2009)
Ridiculous plot point
So Gibbs has had an 18-year grudge against Mace ...because she investigated him as part of a JAG case when he murdered the man responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. Gibbs faced NO consequences, which means she (Mace) either cleared him or found out the truth, and buried it. Either way, he got away with it and went on with his life. (As it turns out, she buried it.) ZERO basis for a grudge for 18 minutes, let alone 18 years. But hey, it makes for a contrived, tense plot point, allowing Mark Harmon to do some more trademark squint-staring. Stupid.
Hotel Paranormal (2020)
Pure fiction
Although I have experienced a paranormal event at a hotel famous for having a ghost, I watched this show expecting to learn something, or even just where other hotels have such events. Although this series could have taken a legitimate path, I can say as a fact that they, at best, exaggerate and embellish if not make up the events. It seems as if they might be combining events from other properties in with the hotel they're profiling. Ask yourself, for example, why they do not actually name the hotel specifically. Just "a hotel in the southeast" for example. Before my own experience, I considered 95% of these stories to be fake. I still do, and programs like this are the reason. Usually someone is trying to sell you something. In this case (as with all such programs) it's ratings and advertising dollars. And hey, at least some B-grade actors get a little work for a while. Watching this series is generally a waste of time. It's not entertaining, and definitely not fact-based. It's easy enough to Google hotels known for ghosts. Go. Take a trip. Stay in one. You may or may not have an experience, but your time will be better spent than watching this crap.