John’s top 10 movies of 2016
These were my 10 favorite movies of 2016: 1. “The Witch” – This horror film set in Colonial America delivers a striking sense of time and place (so much so that you might want to put […]
Month: December 2016
John’s top 10 TV shows of 2016
These were my 10 favorite shows of 2016: 1. “Atlanta” (Season 1, FX) – Donald Glover’s brainchild is a crazy mix of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-esque wry observations (Earn’s inability to order a kids’ meal), envelope-pushing storytelling […]
Williamson gets groove back with ‘Hidden Palms’ (2007)
One-season wonders (TV review): Kevin Williamson returns to teen drama and adds a juicy mystery in this eight-episode series.
TV shows lost to history: ‘Glory Days’ (2002) (Review)
After “Dawson’s Creek” and before his commercial resurgence with “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Following,” uber-producer Kevin Williamson stumbled through a few interesting failures. Among them was “Glory Days” (2002, WB), which lasted nine episodes before it […]
Cerebral alien visitation yarn ‘Arrival’ lacks a satisfying payoff (Movie review)
Like many alien visitation films before it, “Arrival” asks “What is their purpose on Earth?” After the requisite opening where the world tenses up as 12 giant egg-shaped spaceships take up stations around the globe, “Arrival” zeroes […]
Catching up with ‘The Fall’ (TV review)
When I started watching “The Fall” (2013-present, Netflix) I could hardly remember the names of the characters at the end of each episode. It was just The Killer (Jamie Dornan) and The Cop (Gillian Anderson). The early […]
The 10 best short stories in ‘The X-Files: Secret Agendas’ (Book review)
I’ll take my fix of new “X-Files” material where I can get it, but it’s irritating that in IDW’s third volume of “X-Files” short stories, “Secret Agendas,” Jonathan Maberry and his team (if there is one) still […]
‘Fantastic Beasts’ is an enjoyable expansion of the ‘Harry Potter’ universe (Movie review)
In 2009, I predicted – not particularly daringly – that we’d get another “Harry Potter” novel someday. Seven years later, while that prediction isn’t precisely on point, it’s in the ballpark: This year saw the book release […]