Movie #26 of 2026: Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas (2021) A largely unnecessary second finale to the series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which had ended its TV run on NBC seven months earlier. As far as I can determine, The Roku Channel picked up this production in the dashed hopes of greenlighting a third season if it performed …
Continue reading “Movie Review: Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas (2021)”
Book #81 of 2026: Doctor Who: Lucifer Rising by Andy Lane and Jim Mortimer (Virgin New Adventures #14) The longest entry in its series so far is also one of the best, delivering a militaristic space opera that in many ways presages later adventures in the franchise such as The Impossible Planet / The Satan …
Continue reading “Book Review: Doctor Who: Lucifer Rising by Andy Lane and Jim Mortimer”
Book #80 of 2026: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (The Belgariad #1) I suppose I’m interested enough to read more of this 80s fantasy saga, but it all feels pretty generic so far, and this initial volume doesn’t build to much of a climax. The teenage hero is your typical orphan farmboy with a …
Continue reading “Book Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings”
Movie #25 of 2026: Mallrats (1995) Kevin Smith’s second picture wasn’t especially good upon release, and hasn’t aged all that well either. It’s a slacker comedy about two guys whose girlfriends dump them, who then spend the day at the local mall and subsequently win them back. In the sidekick Brodie’s case there’s at least …
Book #79 of 2026: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins (The Underland Chronicles #3) I’m definitely not in the target audience for this middle-grade fantasy series, but I liked the first volume (and of course author Suzanne Collins’s unrelated Hunger Games novels) enough that I feel compelled to finish the pentalogy …
Continue reading “Book Review: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins”
TV #26 of 2026: Saturday Night Live, season 51 I think a helpful framework for considering a season of a sketch comedy show like this is not only whether it was funny, but also what it did differently this time around. And in the wake of SNL’s landmark 50th anniversary, this follow-up feels a bit …
Continue reading “TV Review: Saturday Night Live, season 51”
Book #78 of 2026: Ironwood by Michael Connelly (Catalina #2) Author Michael Connelly could probably write a crime novel like this in his sleep at this point, and occasionally I wonder if he has. His latest volume returns to the setting and characters of last year’s Nightshade, where a detective has been punished for still-murky …
Continue reading “Book Review: Ironwood by Michael Connelly”
TV #25 of 2026: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 1 This show is very much Terminator filtered through the particular ethos of a 2000s teen drama, which is not an approach I felt like I needed to watch after the first few episodes back when it originally aired. (The network may have been Fox, …
Continue reading “TV Review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 1”
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) The Terminator (1984) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Terminator Genisys (2015) Terminator Salvation (2009) Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) Overall rating: ★★★★☆ Previously on Film Franchise Fridays: ★★★☆☆ Bill & Ted ★★★★☆ Indiana Jones ★★★☆☆ Jason Bourne ★★★★☆ Rocky / Creed ★★★★☆ The Matrix
Rocky II (1979) Rocky (1976) Creed (2015) Creed II (2018) Creed III (2023) Rocky V (1990) Rocky Balboa (2006) Rocky III (1982) Rocky IV (1985) Overall rating: ★★★★☆ Previously on Film Franchise Fridays: ★★★☆☆ Bill & Ted ★★★★☆ Indiana Jones ★★★☆☆ Jason Bourne ★★★★☆ The Matrix
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
