Synopsis: The Quests go to Thailand so Benton can develop drugs that facilitate long-distance space travel. They’re pursued by Zin, whose new plan involves a Race Bannon lookalike. Dr. Quest’s awesome project, some interesting animals and the presence of an honest-to-god adventuress brilliantly distract from one of my least favorite classic plots.
Tip 42: Globetrotting spy-entists with lookalike enemies posing as bodyguards: they’re just like us!
…In the sense that they take animal photos at every opportunity, anyway.
This show does a lot of things that make me stare like that too, lizard.—This nightmare scenario being a case in point.Cute and horrifying at the same time.
Imagine what they could do with iPhones. For that matter, why hasn’t Benton just gone ahead and invented them?
Why Found-Again? Many things can make me unsure about continuing with a TV show:
The characters are mishandled (most every character on Heroes, and I am still a little bitter about it);
A character I like leaves;
A character I dislike arrives (Burn Notice had at least two of these);
The villain gets too awful (see both shows mentioned above);
And then there’s The Flash, which is teetering on the edge thanks to a combination of “Barry keeps acting like an idiot” and “Central City breeds speedsters like ‘Salem’s Lot breeds vampires.”
I tried to stick to older examples above, but my current-season TV viewing took a big hit this year (damn you, The Flash!). I now have time to pick up some of my abandoned Netflix shows, like Death in Paradise, but should I bother?
The Premise:Death in Paradise brings a British detective, the uptight DI Richard Poole, to the tiny island nation of Sainte-Marie when the island’s own head detective is murdered. To his horror, what Richard thought was a one-shot assignment may be a permanent posting in a tropical land with no big cities, cloudy days or proper cups of tea.
Richard Poole, like Rumpole of the Bailey or Inspector Morse or even S. Holmes himself, is a classic detective type from British mystery, whose brilliance is fun to watch, but whose personality, if he were your coworker, might drive you to madness and murder. Fortunately, the rest of Sainte-Marie’s police are more forgiving: young go-getter Fidel; older, laid-back Dwayne; and Poole’s partner Camille, who tries to help Poole assimilate even as they solve some truly intricate murder cases.
The Verdict: I can’t say why I stopped watching Death in Paradise without dropping a giant spoiler, but I now realize I’ve missed the show while I’ve been away from it— much so that I even bought the first book by the show’s creator and may get the next one. The setting is gorgeous, the characters are fun (even Richard), and darn it, I even miss the CGI lizard.
Might go well with: Plantains; rum; your other favorite British crime shows.
Synopsis: The Quests go to Thailand so Benton can develop drugs that facilitate long-distance space travel. They’re pursued by Zin, whose new plan involves a Race Bannon lookalike. Dr. Quest’s awesome project, some interesting animals and the presence of an honest-to-god adventuress brilliantly distract from one of my least favorite classic plots.
Tip 41: Everything old is new again.
You may associate the travelers-in-trouble genre with Hostel or Turistas, but Team Quest is way ahead of you.
Come for the scenery that makes you hum “One Night In Bangkok”…Stay—well, against your will.
Next time: I’m psyching myself up to keep watching a TV show, and I’m taking you all with me.
Next time on TQfM!: So how hard is it to be Race Bannon, anyway?
Synopsis: The Quests go to Thailand so Benton can develop drugs that facilitate long-distance space travel. They’re pursued by Zin, whose new plan involves a Race Bannon lookalike. Dr. Quest’s awesome project, some interesting animals and the presence of an honest-to-god adventuress brilliantly distract from one of my least favorite classic plots.
Tip 40: Imitation is a sincere but often irritating form of flattery.
Why a man who can create robots is messing around with the old lookalike ploy—training a Race of his very own!—will forever confound me.One of the many problems in this plan is apparent here. I’d give you a hint, but that would be gauche.
Next time: Still up in the air, but probably horror-adjacent.
Synopsis: The Quests go to Thailand so Benton can develop drugs that facilitate long-distance space travel. They’re pursued by Zin, whose new plan involves a Race Bannon lookalike. Dr. Quest’s awesome project, some interesting animals and the presence of an honest-to-god adventuress brilliantly distract from one of my least favorite classic plots.
Kind of politically timely…
Tip 39: The art of confidentiality is important in many situations.
…Such as when you have a multivalent government job.
It can, however, go too far.
If it’s need-to-know information, maybe THE BODYGUARD WHO PROTECTS YOU AND YOUR KIDS needs to know. Just a suggestion.
All of which is to say that it looks like Dr. Zin has spies all over the US government, given what happens on this Thai jaunt.
Next time: A musical interlude practically from the womb.
Next time on TQfM!: Welcome to (yet another) jungle.
Synopsis: The Quests go to Thailand so Benton can develop drugs that facilitate long-distance space travel. They’re pursued by Zin, whose new plan involves a Race Bannon lookalike. Dr. Quest’s awesome project, some interesting animals and the presence of an honest-to-god adventuress brilliantly distract from one of my least favorite classic plots.
Tip 38: Animal spotting!
It’s been several episodes since we saw him hanging out with the Po-Hos in the Amazon, but the official Jonny Quest monkey is now here in Thailand!
And he’s thrilled to be here!Also makes a cute window treatment.
Next time: Even now, I am watching Prince of Darkness. If I don’t regret it too hard, that’ll be Friday.
Next time on TQfM!: The plot thickens, in that there is one.
Why Found-Again: Blame Netflix. I started watching Criminal Minds a few weeks ago— what can I say? I guess I’m not depressed enough and/or wish to develop new phobias about driving, going to the park or sleeping in my home. There’s a season 2 episode set in New Orleans, and I found myself comparing the actors’ accents with Dennis Quaid’s often-mocked performance in 1987’s The Big Easy.
The Premise: Remy McSwain (Quaid) is a happy-go-lucky cop and a crook with a heart of gold, so steeped in graft that he barely notices it. An apparent mob murder coincides with the arrival of an investigator from the district attorney (Ellen Barkin), and the case begins to look less like an incipient gang war and more like the police have turned to murder.
Remy (offscreen) tempting Ann Osborn with pizza.
Dennis Quaid often seems to be the salvation and the damnation of The Big Easy at the same time. His character is enormously charming, even when doing awful stuff like taking bribes; if you can’t get past the accent he seems to have stolen from this 1986 potato-chip commercial, however, the movie can be rough going. Quaid’s performance also goes a long way toward selling the movie’s other stereotypes—the random references to Mardi Gras, the voodoo, the gator—and he even takes a turn singing Cajun music at one point.
The gator.
The resemblance to other ’80s buddy-cop movies is obvious; less obvious is The Big Easy’s kinship to the horror-genre staple in which children begin to figure out that all is not right with their families, and here I think the movie shines brighter. Remy’s failure to be suspicious of his fellow officers isn’t because he’s particularly stupid or greedy; it’s because they’ve been literally the background of his existence. There is a level at which this is a fairy tale, with guns and heroin and crime lords as the monsters in the wood.
The Verdict: The Big Easy’s faults are real. There was a (perfectly understandable, says this étouffée and zydeco enthusiast) fad for all things Cajun in the ’80s, and this movie is one of the results. That said, the film has a splash of noir and a lot of heart that make it more watchable, and the cast (Quaid and Barkin are joined by John Goodman, Grace Zabriskie, and Ned Beatty, among others) does a lot to elevate the goofy parts. And though I didn’t mention it above, let’s face it; the movie has some of the most effective sex scenes ever.
Might go well with: You name the Cajun food, it’ll go well.
Next time: Jonny Quest goes someplace with animals again!
Synopsis: A strange aircraft near Dr. Quest’s lab is not an X-File—just Dr. Zin’s latest scheme. The craft contains a spidery robot that can stun people, spy on them, and (Zin hopes) steal an invention intended to harmlessly disarm people. In my opinion, that’s the kind of thing you want supervillains to have, but hey, it’s not my story.
Tip 37: Destroying a robot spy? It takes a village.
Mostly it takes Benton Quest’s invention, though.
It’s a giant pen-holder that shoots, right?
Next time: Still a mystery to me.
Next time on TQfM!: It’s (the female) sex, drugs, monkeys & doppelgangers in “Double Danger.”
Sadly, the timeline doesn’t allow me to line up the Fourth of July with a Jonny Quest explosion.
(Episode: “The Robot Spy”)
Synopsis: A strange aircraft lands near Dr. Quest’s lab, but it’s not an X-File—just Dr. Zin’s latest scheme. The craft contains a spidery robot sent to steal an invention intended to harmlessly disarm people. In my opinion, that’s the kind of thing you want supervillains to have, but hey, it’s not my story.
Tip 36: In praise of multitools.
This episode’s titular robot is wonderfully efficient, especially for the time period in which it was made. It moves about on its own, disarms enemies with a bonk to the head, sports a built-in webcam…
First 15 minutes free?
…diagnostic probes…
Spycraft or AI first date—you decide!
…and, best of all, an ability to hide from children and small dogs.
Happy holiday, everyone!
Next time: Say what you will about the Frankenstein monster, at least I knew what I’d be writing about on Fridays…
Synopsis: A strange aircraft that lands near Dr. Quest’s lab isn’t an X-File—just Dr. Zin’s latest scheme. The craft contains a spidery robot that can stun people, spy on them, and (Zin hopes) steal an invention intended to harmlessly disarm people. In my opinion, that’s the kind of thing you want supervillains to have, but hey, it’s not my story.
Today’s tip is something I routinely yell at my television screen because I watch a lot of action movies… and horror movies… and action-horror movies:
Tip 35: DUCK!
Of course, it’s probably easier to duck when you know Dr. Quest has hauled the mysterious robot into a storeroom…The rest of the adventure suggests this guy’s just stunned, but I remember watching this as a kid and thinking he was getting his brain sucked.
Ducking is one of the most valuable skills you can learn, whether you’re facing down a robot spy or a monster or an ennui-filled immortal guy with a sword. Trust me on this.
Next time: Possibly a horror movie. Yay!
Next time on TQfM!: It’s a multitool! And I’m not even referring to Dr. Quest!
