Bad TV Shows

I was talking about bad TV shows the last time I blogged, but I was getting tired of writing about them after dissing my once favorite TV show, The Blacklist. Another one I was going to condemn is the reboot of Lost in Space, now airing on Netflix. And yeah, what a joke that is.

Original cast for the original show, (minus the robot.)
Set a precedent.

Lost in Space, when I was little, was one of my favorite TV shows. SciFi adventures were an intriguing concept and I was thrilled to watch anything on TV or the movies that dealt with futuristic stories, especially when they were about space travel and alien worlds. The 1960s Lost in Space series filled that bill.

It featured strong male characters such as the leader of the family, Professor John Robinson. He was a family man with a dominant personality, leading his family, as a father should. The image to the left describes actor Guy Williams as Professor Robinson to a tee: "...the ultimate father figure symbol, powerful enough to handle himself in perilous situations, yet sensible and compassionate in matters of the heart..."




In today's Hollywood, this kind of actor (or the role he played) is shunned. In fact, it's the opposite of what they want to portray. But in the Sixties, even secondary male characters held their own. As in the pilot of the spacecraft, Major Don West. He was another strong and competent male character. And there was the "boy wonder" Will Robinson, who was just an adolescent, and the family's only son, but he was a progeny of sorts, as he was a scientific genius even at that age.

But wait. There were strong female characters too. Maureen Robinson, the mother of the family, was a strong personality, herself. Meaning she was not a whimpering, frightened female that would draw the ire of women's libbers. Not at all.

There were the two older daughters as well. I might confess here that their roles were minimal, and that was a shame because the oldest daughter, a beautiful blonde woman named Judy was the love interest for Major Don West. There could have been many story arcs that featured these two, but again, sadly, the producers or writers missed that one. Then there was the middle child, the teenage daughter Penny. She had more interactions with her younger brother Will than any other cast member and her role was never elaborated as it should have been.

And there was the "bad guy" Dr. Smith. He was the traitor hired by the enemy faction of the world order at the time to sabotage the spacecraft upon launching. But he was stuck in the ship at take off and became a permanent crew member and cast member from then on. He was always the one trying to do whatever he could to get back to earth even at the expense of the safety of the others. I remember thinking back then that if I were the captain of that ship, I would have killed the dude from the get go. And there were several times he should have been offed, but I guess the writers figured the story needed his comedic element. (It didn't.)

Lastly there was the robot, which was an important element of the cast as well. It was one of the first shows to feature a robot as a main character, and the precursor to later "robot characters" like the android "Data" from the Star Trek Next Generation series.

So the show was great, until it wasn't. Meaning it devolved into a farcical tale of goofy antics fit for a slapstick comedy. The show phased out all the serious elements of an adult SciFi series and turned it into a weird (and stupid) tale of Will and Dr. Smith. They even turned the robot into a joke. That wasn't what I ordered. And it faded into obscurity. Which was a shame.

Cast of Lost in Space the movie.
(Minus Judy, Will, and the robot.)
No complaints here.

But it had a legacy from which a movie some years later was released. It featured pretty much the same cast of characters who were all pretty much true to the original series. There were some differences in the way the story evolved, but it was a one and done story so what the heck. It passed.

But the Netflix reboot is a sham. Because they are doing what the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises have done. Which is they turned the men into weak and incompetent characters. It's the women who lead and who are the heroes now. I quit watching when it was revealed that Maureen Robinson is the professor now, and she is the one with the brains and she is the leader of the crew. And John Robinson is just another idiot, much like we've been seeing in pretty much every show from Hollywood over the last twenty years.

The new leader and hero of the crew of
Lost in Space from Netflix. The professorship has been
transferred from the man to the woman.
I wouldn't have minded if both were professors.
But Hollywood doesn't work like that.
Not anymore.

So the Netflix version of Lost in Space is great if you're a women's libber and you love to see weak men dominated by strong and heroic women. But that's not me. I will say once again, that I believe women are strong. They can be just as strong and just as heroic as men. BUT....that doesn't mean that when they are strong, the men have to be weak and dominated by them. That's a very tiring element from Hollywood, and I'm wondering when they will figure it out. The answer is they won't as long as the money keeps rolling in. And such is life, full of goose-steppers willing to call a show good just for its title.

Good Movie, Bad TV Shows

I saw the new Midway movie with my sons and it was pretty good. I know there have been a lot of movies about Pearl Harbor and such, but this time, the focus was on Midway. Yeah, they had the Pearl Harbor attack in there, and they had the Doolittle raid in there, and they had the Japanese perspective in there, which was great.

But the new deal this time was the depiction of the Battle of Midway. I know there's already a movie called Midway, in which Henry Fonda and other great actors of the past had starred. But the modern special effects really put this one over the top.

Seeing the dive bombers closing in on the Japanese aircraft carriers from the perspective of the pilots was quite a spectacle. Seeing all those anti aircraft rounds flying by, knowing that any moment one could strike was a harrowing experience. And the success the Americans had made the viewer understand why this battle was so important.



On the other hand, my one time favorite TV show, Blacklist continues to disappoint. I watch it anyway because of James Spader, and of course I'm hoping it will give me the same enjoyment it used to give me from watching it during the first three seasons. But for the fourth year in a row, now, I'm shaking my head in disgust.

In Season Four, I had to watch a one-time loyal ally of Red's turn against him. And even though Red ended up on top at the end of that season, it was a premise that was complete bullshit. Season Five was a throw-away season that carried over the same "suitcase of bones" premise from Season Four. And it sucked. Season Six was even worse. Because here we go again with Red's allies turning against him. This time it was  Lizzy herself. Again.


As I have already pointed out, Red had already saved Lizzy's life on multiple occasions, and saved the lives of her closest friends and coworkers, as well as saving their careers, and still there she goes vowing to "bring him down" and "destroy him."

Sheesh, talk about bullshit, that topped the bullshit of the prior seasons. But then at the end of the season, Lizzy was over all of that, and back on board with Red. But no. Now in the current season, Season Seven, there she goes again plotting against him because her mother is in the picture now opposing Red for who knows what reason. The writing seems to be trying to create a reason, but it makes no sense at all. She wants to know who's coming after her. She already knows. She wants to know why. But she already knows why. She wants to know what Red knows. But why? And what the heck does Red know anyway?

Lizzy's mom. I doubt she could break Halle Berry's
neck, let alone a Russian agent in his fighting prime.

It's all complete bullshit writing. To make matters worse, we have to watch a frail, sixty-year-old woman break the neck of a man in his fighting prime, a Russian agent, with her bare hands in a hand to hand fight. Really? Come on, this is more bullshit. I've blogged at length with my problem with that scenario.

And even though this woman has two FBI agents murdered, Lizzy once again chooses to oppose Red and side with her to "find out the truth" about Red.



What truth? Well, we've learned at this point that he's not really the man Lizzy thought he was: a former lover of her mother's, and this seems to be a thing Lizzy just can't get over. She just has to know who he really is.

So, The Blacklist show is pure crap at this point, but I might say there's something that might save it for me. That would be if they finally reveal somehow that Red really is Red, the real father of Lizzy. They had shown burn scars on his back once, which might suggest that this is the case. And if it is, then and only then might I return to liking this show again. But until then, it's a show that features bullshit. And that's too bad. But we'll see...

As far as the other bad TV shows, of which there are many, that will have to wait until later. This post is already long enough.

Rambo V - Great Movie

I have not been so enthralled with the Rambo franchise over the years. For me they didn't rate up there with The Transporter franchise or John Wick, but they were fun enough.

Actually, for me the John Wick franchise took a fall with the third chapter as I've blogged about.

As for Rambo V, I suspect it's the last and final episode for the Rambo franchise and it was a great one. I mean, finally we have men acting like men and women acting like women. And that is not to be mistaken as men are strong and women are weak. No. Women are strong too. But in real life they're not going around beating up and/or killing everyone. Not like in a Halle Berry fantasy, anyway.


No. In Rambo V, women are strong and determined individuals who, as adults, have their shit together, but as teenagers, they don't. (Kind of like in real life.) And that is the basis of this story. In Rambo V, you have an adult woman and a teenaged girl (her niece,) who live with Rambo, and the niece makes a choice that is not the right choice. Imagine that...


They're both strong women, but neither one of them go around beating up twenty men all at the same time. I mean they don't beat anyone up. And that was a refreshing twist in the Hollywood universe these days. I have grown very weary of watching women beating up and killing men left and right, at every turn, and sometimes as many as fifty men all at the same time.

So no. This movie was realistic. Gritty, and quite brutal. Because in the Rambo character, we have an ex special ops military man. He's trained to kill, and trained to survive. He's a veteran of wars and, of course, a veteran of the four  previous Rambo experiences to his credit.



And as an older man, the Rambo character still exudes toughness. He looked strong. Probably because of Stallone's workout ethic and yes even the steroids he doesn't lie about taking, unlike other Hollywood musclemen, (i.e. The Rock,) But whatever...

Rambo V Last Blood worked, and it was great. It was refreshing and I'll take it any day. And at this point I'll take it even over John Wick. At least over John Wick Chapter 3. No wanna be tough chicks in the Rambo franchise. Thank god.

Music Time Again

I know this blog was dedicated to my novels. But you might have noticed there hasn't been a lot to post about regarding those novels for a while. It's like, right now, those novels are in Limbo. Only my two Killer Books are in print, but I have a lot of satisfaction in the other books, too.

Especially now, since I've rewritten them in the days since the respective publishers went under. All three books are in a far superior form in regards to writing and the prose. I mean The Vase, Second Chance, and John Dunn are so refined and polished now, I can't wait to see them in print again in their current states.

But like I said. All three books are in Limbo. Which means waiting on agents, waiting on publishers, and all at a snail's pace, you see. And I move faster than a snail I'm glad to say.

So instead of writing more, I'm back to my music. I had composed 13 plus albums averaging about ten songs per album, and I was very proud of that music I had written. My only set back or hold up was that I can't sing worth .... You get the idea.

Even though I tried singing on volumes 12 and 13, I was not satisfied with my voice or my singing. At all. I have no range and I am missing the notes often. It's better if you don't listen to it.

But I had always wanted to get back to it. I was particularly proud of volumes 3 and 4, so I went back and recorded those with me singing....yuck.

Then the man who had been making the CDs for me told me to try a different machine....meaning a machine other than the old-fashioned cassette tape recorder. It was time I crossed into the 21st Century and recorded everything digital. So I did and wow, what a difference!

I'm using digital devices now and all my songs are being recorded onto an SD card rather than old cassette tapes. Everything sounds better and even my voice sounds better. I almost sound like a real singer. Mind you I said almost. I am still no singer. But hey, whatever. I'm not sending these to Sony Records or Warner Records, or Atlantic Records, or MCA for that matter.

I know I'm never getting anything done professionally. This is all for fun. But you know what? I like my songs a lot better than MOST songs that are out today. I'm not saying I can compete with real singers out there. I can't. How many times do I have to say it. I'm not a singer. But again, I like my songs a lot better than a lot of songs that HAVE been professionally recorded. So there.

So what all this means is that I am going to redo Volumes 2, 12 and 13, with this new digital device, and go from Volume 2, then Volume 3, 4, 5 and all the way through Volume 13. Then I might just keep on going. What about volume 1 you might ask? Well, Volume 1 was simply a compilation of all the songs I had written in my early years. Early, like in high school, I mean. Yeah, I like the songs, sure, but those songs are not the rockin' riffs I've put together since then.

The funny thing is, and I suppose it's quite coincidental, but I've re-established contact with a couple of my old high school band mates. Both are still playing music and were glad to hear I was too. Who knows. Maybe one day we'll get the old band back together. Or not. I suppose we'd need to be on a mission from God for that to happen.

But hey.... In the meantime, I'm still rockin' out. And lovin' it.

John Wick 3 - Almost Ruined - Almost

I took my time before I went to see John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Of course the big news was that Halle Berry was going to be in it. It was no big news to me. In fact when I heard she was going to be in it I was disgusted.

Why? Because the John Wick franchise had become one of my favorite movie franchises. Right up there with The Transporter franchise. I thought Chapters one and two were terrific. I was so glad that Hollywood was preserving at least ONE tough guy that was still a dude.

I've lamented recently here on the blog that Hollywood had been turning men into wimps in just about every medium. We've had to see women become the new "tough guys" and the men turned into pussies in every TV show and movie franchise from Star Wars to Star Trek to Flash, Arrow, Person of Interest, and the list just goes on and on.

When The Transporter franchise tanked, thanks to Jason Statham leaving the franchise, I was glad that the John Wick franchise was still going strong. I couldn't wait for Chapter 3. Then I heard Halle Berry was going to be in it. Worse still, she had petitioned to be in it. Here's the link. And here's another. So I suppose the producers figured she was an A-list actress with an academy award in her resume. How could they refuse? Well, if they found a good part for her, I'd have had no problem.

But my fear was they were going to do the same thing to John Wick that they did to the Jim Caviezel character in Person of Interest. Meaning they had two seasons as Jim Caveizel being the show's bad-ass, then in the third season they introduce another bad-ass character in a little chick. Yeah, and she was an even tougher bad-ass than Jim Caviezel. Sheesh.

So I saw the show, and sure enough. Halle Berry is in there beating up and killing fifty dudes all at once, a la John Wick. I mean she was using the same moves and the same type of styles that John Wick had been using in the two prior movies. Did she train with the same people? No. She was just a female version of John Wick. Yeah. All 5' 2" and 110 pounds of her.

Fifty-two-year-old Halle Berry as "tough guy" Sofia in John Wick 3.
Yeah. A real tough guy. She looks about as tough as a middle school girl.
She couldn't take on 50 middle school kids, let alone 50 trained
killers all at once. Her character was a complete piece of crap.

That scene almost ruined the movie. Thankfully, it was just that scene and then she was gone. But not until after spitting in an empty water bottle as Wick is about to undergo a romp in the Sahara desert. And like a pussy, Wick takes it. The scene with Berry was nothing more than gratuitous violence inserted for her egotistical benefit. It was like placating a spoiled child. The movie would have been better without her. And yet the goose-steppers are out there claiming how great she was, which, of course, is bullshit. The fact is she almost ruined the movie.

There were so many holes in that scene and when it was all said and done the scene made no sense at all. They killed her dog? Yeah, where had we seen that before? Except wait...they didn't kill her dog. Whatever. It didn't stop her from going all John Wick on them, and completely ruining the concept that she had laid out of not wanting them going after her daughter. It made no sense for her to go into a killing frenzy for no reason at all. Her dog wasn't dead.

So yeah. Halle Berry sucked in this movie. She did not fit at all. Her character was lousy, and her acting was the worst. What happened to that great acting ability that won a best actress academy award for her role in Monster's Ball? It wasn't displayed in John Wick 3, that's for sure. Her acting sucked. And because of these reasons, John Wick 3 was almost ruined. The best thing about Halle Berry is when we didn't have to see her anymore after that horrible scene was over.

I have to admit this was the worst of the three John Wick movies so far. Will John Wick 4 get back on track? We'll have to wait another two years to see. I won't hold my breath. As far as I'm concerned, the John Wick franchise sucks now. Thanks to Halle Berry.

Maybe it can be great again. As long as Halle Berry is no longer in it. Or maybe if her character is killed off that could fix the problem they created. But I don't expect that to happen. Berry's scene and her privileged demand which was unconditionally granted, proved she has a huge ego belying her diminutive and very NON-intimidating frame. And I wouldn't doubt it if she is one of those actors and actresses who has the kind of ego that refuses to let any of the characters she plays from ever getting killed in a movie she's in. And I'm probably right.

Bottom line is it's a damn shame the producers of the John Wick franchise bent to the will of this privileged and self-serving actress who can demand to be in a movie that had already established itself as a great success without her. She brought nothing to the franchise. And like I said. She almost ruined it. Please, no more Halle Berry. Or if she does return, please, kill her off.

Avengers Endgame -- Sucked

It sure seems like I'm hard to please. At least that's what one might think when reading my blog. But  whatever. I'm not going to say a movie is good when it's not. And even though Avengers Endgame made billions of dollars, it sucked. Big time.

So why did it make so much money? I've said it before...the goose-steppers. For those of you who don't know what that means, goose-steppers are the rabid fans who will like anything, or any movie, that has their favorite heroes in it.

Jack Kirby's rendition of the Scarlet Witch

Like Star Wars for instance. Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas for four billion dollars, a price he couldn't refuse, I suppose, even though I heard he donated the money. But whatever. In selling his franchise to Disney, he surrendered what little integrity the franchise had left after its atrocious prequel trilogy.

Disney studios proceeded to destroy the legend of Star Wars. First by doing nothing more than rehashing the original story line, albeit with a female "Luke Skywalker" this time. And then by delivering prequels and sequels that totally sucked with boring scripts, tired plots, and bad casting. But the Star Wars die hard fans had been waiting so long for anything Star Wars, they ate it up. These are the "goose-steppers" and Disney made billions off of them.


The same thing was true for most Star Trek fans. So hungry for anything Star Trek, even the stupid movies and TV shows couldn't fail. The goose-steppers soaked it all up and still are. I said "most" fans because once upon a time I was a Star Trek fan. I thought the original series was terrific as did millions of other people. But the second series "Next Generation" was a total load of crap, and so were the ensuing movies...nothing but crap. I didn't buy it. I quit watching The Next Generation soon after it aired, and even though I admit to seeing the movies, I couldn't stand any of them. Therefore I am removed from the "goose-stepper" status.

The Scarlet Witch as drawn by Jack Kirby

But one might argue that since I paid for seeing the movies, doesn't that make me one of the goose-steppers? No. Because a fan will go to see a movie hoping it will be good. The goose-stepper will come out of that theater raving about how great the movie was, even if it sucked. Why? Well, because it was a "Star Trek" movie. Not me. I loved the original Star Trek. But after seeing the movies, I realized I wasted my time and money. So no. I'm not a goose-stepper.

I had been a Marvel superheroes fan since I was a kid and I can call myself an expert on the characters and the Marvel universe, at least so far as the Silver Age is concerned. I still have quite the collection to this day.

Elizabeth Olsen is NOT the Scarlet Witch

I have been critical of the casting and the story lines of most of the movies. Yeah, Robert Downey, Jr. is good as Tony Stark. Yeah, Chris Hemsworth is good as Thor. Jeremy Renner was fine as Hawkeye, and I didn't mind Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange. Chris Evans is a better Captain America than he was the Human Torch. But just about every other actor was horribly miscast.

That means from the first movies like the X-Men to the last one...Spider-man Far From Home this summer. They all have been miscast. And they ruined the characters, too. I remember seeing the first Conan movie. I was a Conan fan and I was thrilled they were making a movie. I saw it, and even during the movie I remember thinking to myself..."That isn't Conan."

But of course the goose-steppers were thrilled just to see a dude dressed up as Conan with a broadsword riding a horse. Never mind the dude had nothing else in common with the character created by Robert E. Howard. Never mind the story completely sucked.

Mila Kunis is the perfect Scarlet Witch

So it's the same thing with Avengers Endgame. The characters are all there. There's Captain America, ending up as an old man, passing the torch to a new Captain America. There's Thor, but with a pot belly and wasting his days playing video games. Yeah, that's right. A pot-bellied Thor doing nothing but playing video games all day. Everyday. I mean, um, that's supposed to be the "god of thunder" but yeah. He's a pot-bellied couch potato now. What was worse was the completely ridiculous story. The bad guy kills half of life in the universe, because... Well, there really was no reason. Balance, he said. What does that mean? The story, plot, and script sucked big time.

One last example before I go. The Scarlet Witch, as pictured above (drawn by the original artist Jack Kirby.) She used to be my favorite female superhero. But casting Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch was a disaster. Especially when the PERFECT actress for the part was available and still in her prime.

Imagine that outfit in red-The Scarlet Witch!

Who could argue that MILA KUNIS isn't the PERFECT Scarlet Witch? No one that's who. It's because Mila Kunis is the perfect Jack Kirby drawing of the Scarlet Witch come to life. So why can't the movie people get something right when it's staring them in the face?

I can go on. My point is the actors and actresses are out there. They got Thor right and Iron Man right. But that's like two out of fifty or something. With a little more effort they could get them all right. And with a little more effort they could have great stories, too. I mean it really isn't that hard to figure out. If the movie people went with the stories written by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee during the Silver Age, all of these movies would have been a hundred times better.

Too bad the effort is lacking. But why bother? They're getting their billions. That's all that matters, right? To them, at least.

The Spanish Princess

I enjoyed the first two installments of this series: The White Queen and The White Princess. Both focused on the women, (of course) of the York line, as their male counterparts vied for the throne of England, eventually losing to the Tudors. Ultimately the two bloodlines joined through matrimony, when Henry VII married Elizabeth York, ending the civil wars that plagued England for years.

In the third installment, the timeline of this historically based series takes us to the introduction of Catherine of Aragon, who was famously married to Arthur, (Henry VII's firstborn son,) and after he died, to Henry VIII, (his second son.)

And yes all this is true history, which makes for great story-telling. But being the critic I am, I am not without criticism of this third installment. I've only seen the first two episodes, so far, but right from the start there were some problems. Major ones.

As we know, Catherine's parents, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, had reconquered Spain from the Moors, (Muslims who had occupied Spain for several hundred years.) And they had rid Spain, (and the entire Iberian Peninsula) of all non-Christians. Meaning there were no more Moors or Muslims left in Spain.

But the story starts with Queen Isabella, in full armor, leading a charge to fight off a Muslim insurrection that had ambushed the royal entourage on its way to send off Catherine to England.

Um, say what? Yeah. It wasn't the king leading a charge, it was the queen fighting off Muslim attackers as if she were the top knight of the land. King Ferdinand was nowhere to be seen, once again playing into Hollywood's perverted mandate to elevate women above men in all ways, up to and including military bravery and leadership. Sheesh. So that was a two for one stain on this new show. Muslims still fighting in Spain and the queen leading the charge to fight them.

That's critique number one. Next, we see in Princess Catherine's royal entourage, one of the royal Spanish soldiers is a black Muslim. I have no problem with skin color, but the Muslim part is complete crap. I had already established that all Muslims had been kicked out of Spain or killed. In this show, not only did they portray an army of Muslims still there, but now we see a Muslim is among the royal entourage as one of Princess Catherine's personal guards!

Princess Catherine and her Entourage

Never mind that he's a secret Muslim. I mean how secret can you be when you're kneeling on your Muslim prayer rug five times a day in the ship that's crossing the English channel? It doesn't work. Clearly the show is pandering, not only to women, but to a Muslim audience. Again, it doesn't work, if only because the entire concept is crap.

As if that wasn't enough, to further the Hollywood mandate to diminish male characters, they have one of the English guardsmen, (of the royal palace, no less) trying to molest the top woman of Catherine's entourage, (a black woman, of course.) If any royal guardsman tried to molest anyone he'd be executed on the spot.



So what's next? How about little Princess Catherine bests Prince Henry in a sword fight... Yeah, that's coming next as the show's preview for the next episode portrayed. Never mind that England won every war it ever had with Spain. Never mind that Henry was 6' 3" and athletically inclined, and trained in the military arts. Never mind that Catherine, (at least THIS Catherine) is a tiny thing, standing no more than 5' 2" and weighing 100 pounds.

This is just too much. But it's  been too much for twenty years now. My only conclusion is that the goose-steppers buy into it. But like I said before. I don't.