Alan Rapp

Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers
  • IMDb: link

Half of the first episode of Special Ops: Lioness offers insight into the life of an agent of the CIA (Zoe Saldana) on one of her worst days in the field and the immediate aftermath. The various aspect of the story hints at spy craft and the need to route out terrorist cells overseas but really is about the human toll on Joe following the events. The rest of the episode is devoted to Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) who leaves an unhealthy relationship to join the Marines and eventually get tasked into Joe’s program. It’s this half of the episode where Special Ops: Lioness leans its overtly patriotic messaging and imagery to such a degree it feels more like an Armed Forces recruitment film than drama. By the end of the episode the two women are working together, hopefully removing some of the fractured narrative found here, but the less stylish, but no less simplistic, Michael Bay-ish view of world politics is a tad concerning.

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Rio Bravo

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Rio Bravo
  • IMDb: link

A collaboration between John Wayne and director Howard Hawks, 1959’s Rio Bravo features Wayne as an Old West sheriff with the unlikely allies of a former gunslinger turned town drunk (Dean Martin), a crippled old man (Walter Brennan) who never shuts up, and a young hot shot (Ricky Nelson) who together attempt to keep a prisoner (Claude Akins) locked up in the town jail until the local U.S. Marshal can arrive.

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Justified: City Primeval – The Oklahoma Wildman

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Justified: City Primeval – The Oklahoma Wildman
  • IMDb: link

Justified: City Primeval doesn’t wait to bring Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) together while using Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis), who apparently is the only lawyer in Detroit, to tie the two separate storylines from the first episode together. While the first meeting between the pair isn’t memorable, the second leaves an impression as Givens beats Mansell up after finding him with his daughter. My guess would be Wilder would return with a legal angle to keep Givens, and th local cops, away from her client, but I’m also guessing egos on either side won’t allow that to last. The episode also sneaks in Maureen (Adelaide Clemens) doing a little thinking for herself and likely Sweetie (Vondie Curtis-Hall) working on an educated guess potentially providing one or both leverage against Mansell later in the series.

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Darkwing Duck #7

/ / Comics

Fans who enjoy seeing Darkwing Duck get riled up need look no further than Darkwing Duck #7 and his first foray through the city’s new museum of super-heroes which leads to in increasingly agitated state. The issue plays on the pettiness of DW who is perturbed not only by how much credit other heroes get in the museum but the lackluster state of his own exhibit as well.

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