All 20 episodes of ‘The X-Files’ Season 5 (1997-98), ranked
TV review: Here are my rankings of the 20 episodes of “The X-Files’ ” fifth season — an appetizer for the main course that is the first “X-Files” movie.
A look back at 2010, and ‘2010: The Year We Make Contact’ (Movie commentary)
With 2010 winding down, I decided to take a look back at “2010,” the 1984 movie, to see how prescient Peter Hyams (the film’s director) and Arthur C. Clarke (the book‘s author) were in predicting the future.
John’s top 10 movies of 2010
I’d like to see “Somewhere” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” before making my top 10 movies list, but such is life in a small town, and I assume you don’t want to read a year-end list in […]
Classic Christmas TV episodes: ‘Amends’ (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’)
Show: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (Season 3, episode 10) Airdate: Dec. 15, 1998 Overview: This episode is the structural midpoint of the franchise; it’s sort of a backdoor pilot for “Angel” and it introduces the First […]
Classic Christmas TV episodes: ‘Xmas Story’ (‘Futurama’)
Show: “Futurama” (Season 2, episode 8) Airdate: Dec. 19, 1999 Overview: In the year 3000, Christmas is known as Xmas and Robot Santa Claus has been programmed with too strict of a “naughty or nice” […]
Classic Christmas TV episodes: ‘So-Called Angels’ (‘My So-Called Life’)
Show: “My So-Called Life” (Episode 15) Airdate: Dec. 22, 1994 Overview: Rickie’s getting beat up at home, Angela wants to help him and a homeless guitar-playing girl, Brian’s lonely and Danielle doesn’t know what’s going on […]
Classic Christmas TV episodes: ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire’ (‘The Simpsons’)
Show: “The Simpsons” (Season 1, episode 1) Airdate: Dec. 17, 1989 Overview: This is a classic not only because it’s a Christmas episode, but also because it’s the very first episode of “The Simpsons.” Sometimes […]
These were the catchiest singles of 2010 — for better or worse (Music commentary)
I don’t actively seek out mainstream pop hits like I used to, so when two songs are bouncing around my brain at the end of 2010, you know they were the two most ubiquitous songs […]
John’s top 5 albums of 2010 (Music commentary)
1. Jenny and Johnny, “I’m Having Fun Now” — When two musicians in a relationship make an album together, it rarely results in good music; at least that’s the stereotype. We think of John and Yoko or […]
‘Family Guy’ writers run out of inspiration as they wrap up ‘Star Wars’ trilogy (DVD review)
Seth MacFarlane probably had the idea for “Blue Harvest” kicking around in his head for a while, and when it became an actual episode of “Family Guy” in 2007, he probably thought, “Wow, we really did a […]