Can you think of anything better than Christmas with the Muppets? How about Christmas with the Muppets as they bring quirky but affecting life to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, his immortal tale of festive redemption and renewal in which cruelly fossilised businessman Ebenezer Scrooge, played in this heartwarming iteration Continue Reading
Movie review: No Time to Die
Farewells are never the easiest of things to pull off. So much emotional baggage, so much pressure to make them count and be memorable in all the right ways and a host of jagged loose ends to tie up, the kind that don’t always lend themselves to neat and tidy Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I listened to A Sentimental Christmas with Nat “King” Cole and Friends – Cole Classics Reimagined
It is possible for a Christmas album to actually feel like the season after which it is named? Almost as if Christmas has taken on some sort of gloriously heartwarming, reassuring form and come to us complete with all the love, happiness and hope of the season decanted into a Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: S7, E 7 & 8 review + World Beyond: S2, E 9 & 10 review
THE WORLD BEYOND: “Death and the Dead” / “The Last Night” SPOILERS AHEAD … IT’S THE END, MY FRIEND, THE END … AND THE BEGINNING … The final two episodes EVER of World Beyond – unlike its stablemates, the show was only ever designed to be a limited series and Continue Reading
On 3rd day of Christmas … I watched Single All the Way (movie review)
It is never easy to remake any movie genre in your own creative image. Stray too far from the formula that audiences know and love and you risk killing the goose that laid the golden box office egg; cleave too closely to it however, and you lose any spark of Continue Reading
Book review: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
It is never any easy thing straddling the chasm-like divide between heritage and intent. Some people, of course, make it look effortless, bringing together who they were raised to be with who they innately are, or at least, desire to be, their lives barely raising a ripple of existential tension. Continue Reading
On 2nd day of Christmas … I listened to When Christmas Comes Around … by Kelly Clarkson
Coming back around for a second go at creating a warm-and-huggable Christmas vibe – her first festive record Wrapped in Red (2013) made quite the seasonal impression when it landed, anchored by that powerfully emotive voice and a gift for somehow sounding traditional and original all at once – powerhouse Continue Reading
Will the Robinsons finally get home? Thoughts on Lost in Space (season 3 – final)
The Robinsons have been, and will always be, the beating heart of Lost in Space. By necessity, that was the case in the original Irwin Allen-produced 1960s original version of the show where, wacky aliens and strange contrivances aside such as the time the family went back to 1947 thanks Continue Reading
On 1st day of Christmas … I put 15 pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. The Rescuers, UP, Toy Story, Ahsoka Tano, Peanuts, Dr Seuss + Scooby-Doo
We all know history repeats itself thanks to the ongoing presence of human being in the process who alas have shown a freakish propensity for making the same mistakes over and over and over again, but did 2021 really have to ape 2020 so completely and absolutely? I think we Continue Reading
Christmas classic review: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
There is no doubting the universal appeal of Charles Dickens’ 1843 A Christmas Carol. Interpreted by just about franchise going, including the Muppets, and even run in reverse by the likes of Blackadder and Scrooged, A Christmas Carol appeals because it maintains with exuberant moral certainty that the hopes and Continue Reading