Becker (1998) s01e16 – Limits & Boundaries
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 29, 2020
Limits & Boundaries refers to Ted Danson’s uninformed parenting philosophies. The episode opens with him yelling at a woman in the diner (Victoria Kelleher), who is sitting reading a book while her baby cries. Now, she’s not doing anything to get the baby to be quiet, which either is a nineties read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #6
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 28, 2020
Weird Melvin #6 gives the series a conclusion, but definitely not the one I’d been hoping for. The story title is something like part five, so—for whatever publishing reason—last issue’s fill-ins were really fill-ins. This issue opens with Melvin and the Kid headed back to base with some stolen read more
Cronos (1993, Guillermo del Toro), the U.S. theatrical version
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 28, 2020
Cronos opens with an English-narrated prologue about a sixteenth century alchemist making a device to prolong his life. The uncredited narrator is wanting, the music isn’t good—it doesn’t seem like the rest of Javier Álvarez’s score, but who knows (well, the distributor would); it’s a change read more
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e06 – Mortal Khanbat
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 27, 2020
Not sure why Dominic Purcell isn’t in the episode save a scene—he’s still off nursing catching feelings for an ex-girlfriend with lots of beer–but Caity Lotz uses her time off camera to direct this episode. She’s pretty damn good. The episode’s split between a series of John Woo homages read more
Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights (2019)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 27, 2020
There are a sea of faces in Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists. Sea of faces, sea of names, which is the point. The book is a history of women ignored in history books, though not always. Writer Mikki Kendall doesn’t avoid the awkward subjects, like Susan B. Anthony’s White supremacy or the sign read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #5
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 26, 2020
Weird Melvin #5 is a flashback issue. Only, not really. There’s clearly some publication history trivia to the series; the cover says this issue has the first two Weird Melvin comics in it, previously unpublished. They present a new origin story for both Melvin and the Kid, who have much different read more
Shadow of the Batgirl (2020)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 26, 2020
Shadow of the Batgirl is a bit of a bummer, though I’m not exactly sure why. It’d be nice if it were good. It’s not bad… not if you’re getting it from the library versus spending the sticker price. And there’s a big library subplot in the book so it’s appropriate. It just feels stretched read more
All Rise (2019) s01e16 – My Fair Lockdown
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 25, 2020
This episode of “All Rise” has this super juicy White man part for guest star Ben Browder. Survivalist holds courtroom hostage; the cops came to kick him out of his home, which is apparently somewhere in the County of Los Angeles but remote enough you don’t see people and no one pays attention read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #4
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 24, 2020
There is a very good chance Weird Melvin might gross me out next issue. Hansen gets pretty close in the cliffhanger, which features two lady monsters (a mother and daughter) pregnant with half-mutated giant insects, half-monsters. What’s most surprising is the grossness isn’t in Hansen’s detail read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e10 – I.A. Sgt. Ian Lynch & Det. Brian Chen vs Trey Carano
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 23, 2020
The last episode. Finally the last episode. One could come up with the best order to watch the show, which isn’t the episode number order but also doesn’t work entirely randomly because some episodes jump ahead six years and whatnot—also there’s no point in making the order because you shouldn’t read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e04 – L.A. County Psychologist Marjorie Thompson vs. Eric Fisher 1984
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 22, 2020
One of the few benefits of watching “Interrogation” in a non-linear fashion is initially missing out on certain trope episodes, like this one. This one is the trial, with a very poorly exposited look at Kyle Gallner’s trip through the criminal justice system as a minor. Albeit as a thirty-four read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e05 – Det. Dave Russell vs Chris Keller 1983
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 22, 2020
Still the eighties, still the investigation. Though we do get to see David Strathairn and Peter Sarsgaard facing off after the murder. Sarsgaard is very whispery with Strathairn, who’s telling him to investigate Kyle Gallner’s friend, third-billed but rarely onscreen for very long Kodi Smit-McPhee. read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e03 – Det. Dave Russell vs Kim Decker 1982
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 21, 2020
Nine months before the murder, we discover what a great kid thirty-four year-old sixteen year-old Kyle Gallner was before drugs. This episode doesn’t just—finally—give Joanna Going something to do as the eventual murder victim, it also introduces the history between Peter Sarsgaard and Gallner. read more
Source Code (2011, Duncan Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 21, 2020
Source Code is very much MacGuffin as movie. Numerous plot details exist solely to justify (and qualify) certain creative decisions; the film takes a bunch of familiar and somewhat familiar—depending on the viewer’s preferences—sci-fi tropes, devices, and gimmicks, streamlines them, then combines read more
Star Trek: Picard (2020) s01e05 – Stardust City Rag
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 21, 2020
I wonder if the “Picard” producers tried to track down Brian Brophy to appear on this episode. He originated the Bruce Maddox role on “Next Generation” Season Two, in 1989. I don’t have particularly good memories of his performance but whatever. Did they at least ask? Though he doesn’t have read more
Still of the Night (1982, Robert Benton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 20, 2020
At the end of Still of the Night, the film puts aside the “whodunit” to give second-billed Meryl Streep—who’s playing the femme fatale part but not at all as a femme fatale—a lengthy monologue. It’s all one take, Streep just acting the heck out of this mediocre thriller monologue. It doesn’t read more
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e05 – A Head of Her Time
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 20, 2020
Continuing whatever this season is doing with its creative Arrowverse accounting, Dominic Purcell and Caity Lotz mostly sit out this episode. Lotz is in Star City on some kind of bland personal business, which leaves Jes Macallan in charge. Macallan, who used to run an extra-dimensional time agency read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e09 – P.I. Charlie Shannon vs Amy Harlow 2003
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 19, 2020
As I continue putting way too much thought into “Interrogation,” this episode stands distinctly in the “anti” non-linear department. This episode sets up both the pilot—so the penultimate episode loops back to the first—but also seems to be setting up the next—last—episode. It’s all read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e02 – I.A. Sgt. Ian Lynch vs Eric Fisher 2003
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 19, 2020
Now let’s rewind “Interrogation” to the second episode and see what would be getting introduced if you watched the show in episode order and not randomly, even though the timeline is fractured randomly in regular episode order too. This episode takes place in 2003 and fully introduces Vincent read more
Jonah Hex (2010, Jimmy Hayward)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 18, 2020
If you ever find yourself not believing in the idea that White people of wanting talent can fail upward, watch Jonah Hex. Every one of the principals from the film worked again when, based on the film as evidence, maybe John Malkovich should’ve gotten another job. Sure, Josh Brolin isn’t terrible read more