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Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
Mr. Mike, they’re out there....
Added: February 21 2018 03:22:01 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
Seriously off-topic:
Last night, I came into the other room in my basement where I found my cell phone was ringing over and over. Typically if somebody phones me and I am not around to answer it, the phone goes to voice mail after about 5 or 6 rings, but it would not stop. What was even worse -- there is an interface with the phone app where I can answer the phone or hang up the call, but this was not showing. It was more like the "second page" of the app, and I could not get back to the main page, no matter what I did. I had to reboot the phone to stop it from ringing. Even this made me worried, because while the rebooting was going on, the phone kept ringing far too long. Eventually it did reboot and the ringing stopped. It looks like this mysterious number (604-210-6652) had left a voice mail message but it was only a few seconds long and there was actually no message, just some ambient noise in the background -- very strange. Later I Googled the number, which revealed that others had also reported being called (almost 400 people) and they categorized the call as either a "scammer" or "telemarketer." Looking at my phone logs, it looks like the phone may have been ringing for 12 or 13 minutes in total. It's almost as if the phone was taken over by some mysterious entity. All of this is happening while I'm watching a second season X-Files episode which was about some mysterious entity taking control in an old folks' home, by the way.
Added: February 21 2018 09:27:30 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
I don’t know who that is but that ain’t no Magnum.
P.S. And where’s the stache?? Though I suppose in this day and age Magnum wouldn’t have a stache. He’d have abundant facial hair.
Added: February 20 2018 03:08:51 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
And Magnum is...
http://tvline.com/2018/02/20/magnum-p-i-jay-hernandez-cast-cbs-reb oot/
Added: February 20 2018 01:48:49 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
Oh no, season 4 is the season that hooked me! That’s when I started watching the show. It’s still one of my favorites. I loved Arnold Vosloo as Habib Marwan and especially Mia Kirshner as the femme fatale assassin Mandy! William Devane as Secretary of Defense James Heller was a great addition as was Kim Raver as his daughter Audrey. The suburban Muslim family that turned out to be terrorists was a great touch. Nestor Serrano and Shoreh Aghdashloo were superb in their performances! That was also the first season without Kim who I think we had had enough of. What I especially loved about the season is that it started somewhat new and fresh (a slight reboot, if you will) with a mostly new cast (with the exception of Chloe who was in season 3), but then as the season progressed they slowly brought back our favorite characters. First Tony, who comes to Jack’s rescue in spectacular fashion. Then Michelle, which immediately leads to friction with Tony (which only makes their later reconciliation that much more moving and powerful). Then our favorite ex-President Palmer, who comes to the aid of VP Logan who can’t lead the country after the president goes down in Air Force One. And of course along with Palmer we see the return of Mike Novick and Aaron Pierce (such underrated characters, especially Novick!). The conspiracy then at the end to eliminate Bauer (tacitly approved by Logan to eliminate any embarrassment with the Chinese embassy fiasco) is the icing on the cake. Palmer warning Bauer and then saying his goodbyes to him (this would be the last time they would speak - we know what happens at the start of season 5) and Jack walking off into the sunrise along the railroad tracks (with Sean Callery’s swelling score) is one of my favorite endings in the series, if not my favorite. I always thought that would have been a perfect series finale. It’s definitely better than what we ultimately got. Oh and how about the sacrificial death of Paul Raines, Audrey’s husband? What a wallop that scene was! So yeah season 4 is a very emotional experience for me. Plus it’s such a great segue into season 5.
Ultimately seasons 1 and 2 and then 4 and 5 are my favorites. 1 leads perfectly into 2 and 4 into 5. The other seasons aren’t as fluid or consistent for me. Though 7 and 3 would be next on my list. Then 8 (second half was great, thanks to Logan’s return) and finally 6. That was definitely the weakest. Some fine individual episodes but they don’t add up to much as a whole. The season storyline as a whole is a mess. Basically Jack’s daddy and brother were the masterminds behind Logan and the whole cabal from season 5. Yes Peter Weller was answering to Jack’s kinfolk too. Yeah right, puhleeze! That’s like saying that George W. Bush answered to Cheney and Rumsfeld and those 2 answered to my mom and dad (who were the REAL string-pullers). Yeah, uh-huh, right. And the season finale finds Jack chasing his daddy (James Cromwell, who looks nothing like Kiefer) and the Chinese on an oil rig while trying to rescue his little nephew who Papa Bauer wants to take with him to China. And I’m like what the heck is this garbage?????? Who wrote this crap?? How did we get from the Logan conspiracy to some soap opera family squabble involving a kid? Definitely smells like Lenkov, even though apparently he wasn’t involved in this season. Whatever it was it was really lame!!!
Added: February 13 2018 09:27:30 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
Ringfire, did you think that "24" ever started to get bad? You mention season 6; I don't remember that one specifically, though I have watched a couple of seasons more than once (I used to own the actual DVDs of seasons 1-3). I always thought that season 4 was where "24" started to go in the dumper, and guess who was associated with that season? Yes, the Reboot King himself!
I never had a problem with the absurdities of the show. I remember there was one episode where people had to go from the naval station at Point Mugu, which is about a 2-hour drive to downtown Los Angeles and they took a lot less time than that. The Internet company where I worked actually provided service to Point Mugu.
The thing that bothered me the most about Kim was when she was suddenly a geek working at CTU with no explanation as to how she achieved this status. These days, Elisha Cuthbert seems to largely retired from the world of entertainment. Pity!
Added: February 13 2018 04:35:00 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
Just released by Warner Archive:
THE LAZARUS MAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1996)
Robert Urich stars as The Lazarus Man in this unique Western mystery thriller about a man's quest for vengeance... and his own identity. After the close of the Civil War on Halloween night, a stranger that would come to be called Lazarus digs his way out of the grave - alive. Nursed back to health, his memory remains shattered - fragments and visions of a past filled with menace like the "Derby Hat Man," and promises like the "Dark-Haired Woman" who pledged her devotion. And so the Lazarus Man rides alone, in search of his own dark past.
Added: February 13 2018 04:17:33 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
Ok, I figured you wouldn’t be interested. Just thought I’d throw it out there. We’re always giving you suggestions of old shows. In the meantime I totally forgot about “24”.
Added: February 13 2018 12:52:28 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
Yes, Ringfire, I was a fan of "24," and watched it to the bitter end -- at least all of the shows starring Kiefer.
But the answer to your suggestion that I should do a WWW site for this is, as you expected, a big fat "NO!" What would the point of this be? The show has already been analyzed to death, having started in 2001. There are books about the show itself, its cultural significance, etc., etc. I'm sure there are WWW sites too, aside from IMDb. By the way, although IMDb closed down their discussion forums, if you have some crackpot opinions about the show (I'm not talking about you personally), you can still submit them under "User Reviews"!
When I did some of my "anal-ytical" sites, I checked first to see if anyone else had already covered them. I would like to do Danger Man/Secret Agent, the Patrick McGoohan show, for example, but there are already people in England, where the show was made, who have looked at the show in great detail, including stuff like shooting locations and other trivia.
Kojak, The Invaders and Peter Gunn -- shows which I have done -- all had little or no coverage, at least as far as sites which were totally devoted to them were concerned. Streets of San Francisco, I discovered when I started my site, has another site (http://thestreetsofsanfrancisco.net), but the person in charge does not go into detail in the manner which I do.
When I had DVDs of the David Janssen show Harry O (which I have since sold), I did a couple of episodes which you can see here: http://www.mjq.net/harryo -- this series is a classic example of how executive and other meddling can totally derail a series (which has been covered by Ric Meyers in his book Murder on the Air: Television's Great Mystery Series -- see http://fiveohomepage.com/meyers.htm for his chapter on Five-O). I also did a few episodes of Ironside (at http://ironsidetv.com -- waste of another domain name!), before I decided that there were too many episodes and the show was just too "meh." And the premise of The Sentinel, a show I was interested in for a few minutes, was really dumb, even if there were only four seasons to deal with (and I found the episode where my family were extras, even though they are not seen).
Added: February 13 2018 09:17:32 AM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
Hey Mike, if ever you need a challenge maybe you could review my other favorite show “24” (which I understand you were a fan of as well). I call it a challenge because unlike all your other shows that you’ve reviewed this one is heavily serialized. So it’s a different format than what you’re used to. Rating each episode might be a challenge because each episode is part of an overall season-long story. Each episode is integral to the main story as a whole. Some episodes may cover more than others or might be more gripping or exciting than others, but no episode will be outright bad or unnecessary or crappy for whatever reason. Typically the season as a whole might be lackluster (as was the case with season 6) but it’s difficult to single out a particular episode as being bad. Once the roller coaster starts it’s pretty darn exciting to the very end! And you can’t complain about stupid stuff like carguments or Spiderman feats like scaling skyscrapers or beers on the beach. I suppose you could complain about the Kim scenes, if those bother you. I was never too bothered by them. There was always enough tension to look past them.
Anyway, food for thought... though I imagine I know what your answer might be 
Added: February 12 2018 11:16:42 PM
Submitted by: ringfire211
From: Philadelphia
I’m a big DIE HARD fan and I actually really enjoyed Len Wiseman’s LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. A great hard-hitting old school action flick! His Five-Zero pilot? Nope, not so much.
As for Justin Lin? I have no time for him or his yearly FAST AND FURIOUS junk output.
Added: February 08 2018 02:49:22 PM
Submitted by: Mr. Mike
From: Vancouver
https://www.avclub.com/justin-lin-to-ensure-the-new-magnum-p-i-pilot-has-the-1822820619
http://deadline.com/2018/02/justin-lin-direct-magnum-p-i-cbs-pilot-reboot-1202280712/
This news scores very high on the "Oh My God" meter...
Just a note: the pilot for Five-Zero was directed by Len Wiseman, who was in charge of one of the later Bruce Willis Die Hard movies.
Added: February 07 2018 10:43:58 PM
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