Television Reviews

Scarecrow and Mrs. King – Magic Bus

  • Title: Scarecrow and Mrs. King – Magic Bus
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Thursday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. The more technical aspects of “Magic Bus” haven’t aged all that gracefully (even for the time, the episode is pretty goofy). The storyline involves a new prototype disguised as a RV that gets stolen from Amanda‘s (Kate Jackson) driveway by a group of survivalists blackmailing the government to release imprisoned members of their organization. Not exactly Bond-level tech here, even for the 80s, the RV feels even more quaint in 2022. 

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The Pretender – Jaroldo!

  • Title: The Pretender – Jaroldo!
  • wiki: link

Throwback Thursday takes us back to another episode featuring a man who can be anyone he wants to be. To investigate a gang shooting that left a cameraman (Ron Winston Yuan) with the use of only one arm, Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) becomes a Seattle news cameraman where he discovers an unscrupulous news anchor (Gregory Itzin) on the downside of his career arranged for the shootout to take place by egging on the two sides in a turf warrior in order to create a bigger story. With the help of the raw footage editor (Lisa Howard), Jarod arranges another news story involving the gangs to reveal the truth.

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Jack Ryan – Old Haunts

  • Title: Jack Ryan – Old Haunts
  • IMDb: link

Jack (John Krasinski) relies on the help of a couple of old friends while on the run from the CIA, local police, and Russian Intelligence. There’s not yet a plan of action for Jack as the second episode into the season is simply staying one-step ahead of pursuers, something which Tony (Numan Acar) helps him with giving Jack time to later sneak out of the country with Mike (Michael Kelly). Elsewhere we also get Russian politics, the squeeze of the Czech Republic, and a bit of the odd pairing of Greer (Wendell Pierce) and (Betty Gabriel) looking for Jack but, like the Russians, ultimately going home empty-handed. The second episode is also notable for an expected tease suggesting the identity of the source of Jack’s intelligence. A solid episode that keeps its tension high before moving Jack on to set up the next stage of the season.

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Leverage: Redemption – The Walk in the Woods Job

  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Walk in the Woods Job
  • IMDb: link

The apparent murder of Eliot‘s (Christian Kane) old friend sends the Leverage team after a former soldier (Eric Nenninger) turned head of a private security company who bombed the clinic to prevent the victim from sharing damaging information. To find evidence of the man’s misdeeds, the team crashes a gathering of a (rather kooky) secret organization made up of the country’s power brokers which their mark’s company is providing security for.

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