Author: J. A.

It reads. It writes. It watches. It researches. It overdoes many of those things!

Found-Again Friday: Death In Paradise, Seasons 1 & 2

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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.

The Quest For Monday! Part 41: Swap And Meet

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(Episode: “Double Danger”)

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"…
Come for the scenery that makes you hum “One Night In Bangkok”…
Stay—well, against your will.
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?

The Quest For Monday! Part 40: One Copy, No Cat

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(Episode: “Double Danger”)

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—getting a Race all his own!—will forever confound me.
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.
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.

Next time on TQfM!: The ol’ switcheroo.

 

 

Musical Interlude 12: Childhood

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For this Musical Interlude, we’ll go waaaay back in time—most if not all of these are from before I was born—or at least before I had the coordination to adjust a radio dial.

My grandfather used to sing this to me when I was a toddler—getting quite a few of the words out of place, I now realize.

It will amaze regular readers that my mom’s idea of a lullaby wasn’t murder ballads, but I’m not sure this is better:

(I’m still only slightly clear on what a porgy is, outside of opera.)

I’m pretty sure everyone who was a tiny thing in the ’70s has seen this at some point:

And speaking of things that were mandatory in the ’70s…

But if there were such a thing as an award for J.A.’s Most Enduring Favorite Song, it would be for this. 35+ years and counting!

Enjoy your weekend! (And good luck getting the chorus to “Copacabana” out of your head.)

The Quest For Monday! Part 39: Secrets And Lies

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(Episode: “Double Danger”)

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.
…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.
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.

Finally(?)! Friday: Prince of Darkness

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Why Finally? It’s been over a year since I reviewed anything from John Carpenter, who is right up there with Cronenberg for testing my commitment to watching a movie. (I’m not so squeamish that I faint at the sight of blood; in fact, that would probably be less irritating for anyone watching horror movies with me, given that unconscious people tend not to whimper and cover their eyes so much.)

The Premise: The Vatican has been keeping a secret for ages: there’s a big vat of glowing yuck in the basement of a California church, and it just may be the embodiment of Satan. A priest (Donald Pleasance) invites a physicist and his team of students to examine the vat and decipher the ancient book that goes along with it. He does this, as far as I can tell, either because he is a cockeyed optimist or because he really, really hates students, since the body count begins to mount almost at once and the evil liquid begins to possess its victims—literally, by squirting into their mouths like a malign Red Bull. Meanwhile, the entire group begins to have dreams of future evil.

I’ll skip straight to The Verdict this time and say right out that I liked Prince of Darkness (though I’m unsure how deeply), especially for a movie in which swarming bugs briefly animate a corpse.

After rewatching that scene, I find myself wondering if this is one of those movies that would collapse without its tense musical score.

I do enjoy stories that straddle the line between science and the supernatural (H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, the novels of Robert Holdstock), and this seems to be somewhat in that vein, with a passing resemblance to the technologically inclined ghosts of this century’s J-horror. That said, some of the mechanics of the…haunting?…aren’t quite clear: I loved Alice Cooper in his role as a homeless person, but were he and his cohorts zombified or “just” possessed or what? There also aren’t many moments that make us care about the characters, so that for all the (god)matter/anti(god)matter theorizing, Prince of Darkness is at its root a highfalutin slasher.

The real moral of the story: If Donald Pleasance can’t sort something out, for god’s heaven’s pete’s sake don’t go anywhere near it.

Might go well with: End of Days; as for food and drink, that all depends on how much you like bugs, I guess.

 

Next time: A (Benton) Quest for medicinal plants.

The Quest For Monday! Part 38: This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Thailand

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(Episode: “Double Danger”)

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!
And he’s thrilled to be here!
Also makes a cute window treatment.
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.

Found-Again Friday (on Saturday): The Big Easy

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Back to raiding my DVD collection!

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.
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 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.

BigEasyWow

Might go well with: You name the Cajun food, it’ll go well.

Next time: Jonny Quest goes someplace with animals again!

 

 

 

 

 

The Quest For Monday, Part 37: Wham, Bam, Thank You…Dr. Quest

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(Episode: “The Robot Spy”)

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.

BQBannonBlaster

BQTanksALot

BQFlameThrowerMostly it takes Benton Quest’s invention, though.

BQTheBigGun
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.”