Interrogation (2020) s01e08 – P.I. Charlie Shannon vs Eric Fisher 1996
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 18, 2020
There’s no “Interrogation” this episode. Nothing based on a recording or a transcript, just one hundred percent dramatization. “Interrogation” is like a true crime show only with recognizable (if not better) actors and no interviews with the actual people. It’s an exemplar of how not to read more
All Rise (2019) s01e15 – Prelude to a Fish
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 17, 2020
It’s a Valentine’s Day episode and romance is in the air around the courthouse. Maybe a little bit too much romance because “turns out they didn’t forget about her” D.A.’s office law clerk Audrey Corsa is back and she’s got her eyes on J. Alex Brinson, who’s starting his clerk job in read more
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e04 – Slay Anything
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 17, 2020
“Legends” does a double homage this episode–Slay Anything is simultaneously an eighties John Hughes homage and an eighties slasher movie homage. High school prom killer Garrett Quirk is the latest condemned soul sent back to Earth to reign Hell or whatnot. So what does a spree killer become read more
Queen of the Sea (2019)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 16, 2020
I spent the first ten minutes of Queen of the Sea underwhelmed. The book’s set in the mid-1500s—maybe—it’s unclear because creator Dylan Meconis isn’t doing a straight historical fiction thing. Meconis is sort of doing Elizabeth versus Mary but not exactly. The world is a lot like fourteenth read more
Grantchester (2014) s05e06
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 16, 2020
This episode serves as a possible pilot for sixth “Grantchester” and a second full season for new vicar Tom Brittney. Lots gets resolved, both in regards to recent events and season-long subplots. The show’s sparing in the schmaltz, instead going for knowing smiles and warm feelings, and it feels read more
Star Trek: Picard (2020) s01e04 – Absolute Candor
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 14, 2020
Let’s get the elephant out of the way: show co-creator, episode single credited writer, and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon. He’s really, really, really bad at writing dialogue. At some point in this episode, I realized Akiva Goldsman—the profoundly hacky screenwriter of Batman read more
The Ref (1994, Ted Demme)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 14, 2020
Every once in a while, The Ref lets you forget it’s just a comedy vehicle for stand-up comic Denis Leary and so doesn’t need to actually be a good drama and just lets you enjoy the acting. Demme’s direction is simultaneously detached, thoughtful, and sincere. He and editor Jeffrey Wolf craft these read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e07 – Det. Carol Young & Det. Brian Chen vs Melanie Pruitt 2005
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 13, 2020
The year is 2005, so twenty years after the first episode—1983—and, therefore, Kyle Gallner playing closer to his actual age. It doesn’t really help with his performance. With his shaved head and serious prisoner eyeglasses and seventies porn ‘stache, every once in a while—when he’s not read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #3
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 13, 2020
Hansen introduces a whole new character—or two, actually—but one with history with Weird Melvin; his sidekick, reformed monster Shag. Shag hangs out in Weird Melvin’s abandoned headquarters. Seems like he’s been there a while… but he’s finally ready to walk out. But Shag doesn’t come into read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #1
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2020
Weird Melvin is a gloriously weird comic. Creator Marc Hansen brings the weird to the art—not just the muscle-bound grotesques (Melvin and, later, a regular human) but also Melvin’s cyclops nemesis, Sy Cyclops. The comic starts from Sy’s perspective, as he nitrous ups his car and hits Weird Melvin read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e06 – Henry Fisher vs Eric Fisher 1992
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2020
The reason you can watch “Interrogation” in any order you want—according to the opening titles—is because cold case detectives don’t pick at old cases linearly. So, by watching “Interrogation,” you’re a cold case detective too! Eye-roll emoji. This episode doesn’t feature any recorded read more
Weird Melvin (1995) #2
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2020
Leave it to Hansen to make it weirder. The issue starts with a bookend—Melvin’s still unnamed comic fan sidekick is berating Weird Melvin for not stopped Monster Fanboy (who owns every comic every published and hordes them in an underground lair and is, actually, a monster when it comes to collecti read more
Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (2019)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 11, 2020
Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass is a Young Adult graphic novel reimagining of Harley Quinn, set in high school, with Harley making friends and enemies while living with a delightfully supportive group of drag queens, fighting gentrification and 1% incels. It’s also almost two hundred pages of Steve Pu read more
Interrogation (2020) s01e01 – Det. Dave Russell vs Eric Fisher 1983
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 11, 2020
Poor Kyle Gallner. Thirty-four years old and still playing a seventeen year-old, which—at one point—would’ve been some kind of record (or near one). But playing half his age is nothing compared to Gallner’s wig. It’s 1983 L.A. and Gallner’s got a full… what would it be called, metalhead? read more
Grantchester (2014) s05e05
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2020
It’s an exceedingly unpleasant hour of “Grantchester,” full of revelations and character developments, some to the point where it’s hard to imagine what next week’s episode is going to bring. Will (Tom Brittney) ends the episode in a rather dark place, which is to be expected given how things read more
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018, Susanna Fogel)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2020
The Spy Who Dumped Me has, rather unfortunately, a punny title. It’s an accurate title—the film’s about spy Justin Theroux dumping his civilian and not aware he’s a spy girlfriend Mila Kunis—but it doesn’t capture the mood of the film. No doubt, it’s a hard one to title—because even read more
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e03 – Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2020
It’s a strong episode. Like, really strong; great pacing too. It starts with Constantine (Matt Ryan), who teleported to Hell at the end of last episode, getting to Hell and having a chat with lost soul turned season villain Olivia Swann. It’s a welcome scene not so much for the content—Swann is read more
Atomic Blonde (2017, David Leitch)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 9, 2020
Far more often than not, Atomic Blonde is not more than it is. Atomic Blonde is not a “realistic” late eighties spy thriller à la Graham Greene or even John le Carré (see, I can do nineties “New Yorker” levels of extra too). It’s not a James Bond movie with a female lead (Charlize Theron). read more
The Night Court Theme Fits All #4: The Witcher
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 8, 2020
Joey Batey really does belong in the eighties as a sitcom sidekick, doesn’t he? Opening credits for the Netflix series, “The Witcher”, done “Night Court”-style read more
Star Trek: Picard (2020) s01e03 – The End is the Beginning
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 8, 2020
This episode ends where the second episode should’ve ended, with the Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme (i.e. “The Next Generation” theme) and a starship going into a very boring warp. It took Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his band of sidekicks all episode to get into space; apparen read more