Television Reviews – Page 395

Katy Keene – Pilot

Alan Rapp / February 7, 2020 / Television Reviews

Title: Katy Keene – Pilot
IMDb: link

“Welcome to New York.”

The sunnier and less-murdery Rivendale spin-off is also features modern interpretations of several classic Archie Comics characters starting with personal shopper and aspiring fashion designer Katy Keene (Lucy Hale). The show’s pilot episode features the arrival of Katy’s friend Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) in New York which helps our titular character reexamine the state of her life working for a bitchy boss (Katherine LaNasa) instead of perusing her own dreams (and pursuing one’s dreams seems to be the show’s not-so-subtle primary theme). The other Archie character’s filling out the foursome are aspiring Broadway performer Jorge “Ginger” Lopez (Jonny Beauchamp) and the less developed “it girl” Pepper Smith (Julia Chan).

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Murder, She Wrote – Lovers and Other Killers

Alan Rapp / February 4, 2020 / Television Reviews

Title: Murder, She Wrote – Lovers and Other Killers
wiki: link

Today’s Throwback Tuesday takes us on the hunt for a killer with murder-mystery novelist J.B. Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) who invariably finds herself in the middle of homicide investigations. “Lovers and Other Killers” offers multiple red herrings in the murder of two women with romantic ties to Jessica’s old friend (Peter Graves), her new secretary (Andrew Stevens), and another professor (Andrew Prine) at the school where Jessica is guest lecturing. Of the three, David Tolliver (Stevens) is the most interesting of the lot given his skill, intelligence, and genuine (if off-putting) interest in Jessica. The ending offers plenty of foreshadowing that we might likely see the character again. Although Stevens did return to the show for one more episode five years later, it was as a different character.

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Samurai Jack – Episode XVI: Jack and the Smackback

Alan Rapp / January 30, 2020 / Television Reviews

Title: Samurai Jack – Episode XVI: Jack and the Smackback
wiki: link

Throwback Thursday takes us back to the adventures of the time-displaced samurai and his quest to make his way home. While offering quite a bit of action, “Episode XVI” isn’t one of the series more memorable episodes. The premise is simple enough, Jack (Phil LaMarr) is captured (offering some visuals of Jack in chains which reminded me of 1982’s Conan the Barbarian) and forced to compete in gladiatorial combat in the Dome of Doom. Jack’s first battle is with the talkative Gordo the Gruesome with successive fights against more fearsome competition ending in Jack squaring off against six competitors at once.

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Primal – Spear and Fang

Alan Rapp / January 30, 2020 / Television Reviews

Title: Primal – Spear and Fang
IMDb: link

Genndy Tartakovsky, who gave us the brilliance of Samurai Jack, turns his attention to the “dawn of evolution” for a new series featuring a caveman and dinosaur. The pair are united in the first episode of the series, “Spear and Fang,” through tragedy and shared loss. Presented without dialogue and set to a classic score, the series doesn’t play with aspect-ration like Jack did, but does offer plenty of close-ups and slow-motion to underscore ideas and feelings. While I cringe at the thought of certain people mistakenly believing the show’s plot somehow legitimizes the inane idea that man and dinosaurs ever co-existed, Tartakovsky provides an intriguing set-up here that delivers on the show’s title given the emotions it puts on display.

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Scooby-Doo! – A Clue for Scooby Doo

Alan Rapp / January 30, 2020 / Television Reviews

Title: Scooby Doo, Where Are You! – A Clue for Scooby Doo
wiki: link

Throwback Thursday takes us back to Scooby Doo, Where Are You! for another mystery involving some meddling kids and their talking dog. A trip to Rocky Point Beach leads to the discovery of a glowing ghost haunting the shore in an old diving suit. While legend says the Ghost of Captain Cutler has been making yachts along the coast disappear, it’s actually not all that far from the truth as the ghost is in fact the very much alive Cutler who had been stealing ships to resell them. The episode is notable for Mystery, Inc. doing a bit of underwater investigating, Scooby-Doo (Don Messick) discovering a valuable clue, the simple yet visually-impressive glowing ghost, a trap which (as always) fails to work as intended but still nabs a ghost, a few red herrings (including a book of witchcraft), and the unmasking (notable for even surprising members of the Scooby gang).

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