It's been interesting to watch how, after a number of years having largely vanished from the radar, conversation about the long-running comedy HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER has picked up in recent weeks. This is, of course, entirely due to the fact that Hulu's quasi-sequel, quasi-remake HOW I MET YOUR FATHER began airing, giving license … Continue reading How I Met Your Mother and the failures of storytelling.
As the pandemic has continued ever onward and I've consequently been forced to spend more and more time at home, I've found myself eating through media material at a much more furious rate. Time that was once devoted to a long commute can now instead be dedicated to entertainment. As a result, I've been casting … Continue reading Money Heist/La Casa De Papel
My pandemic-era deep dive into worldwide shows available to stream in the United States has yielded some occasional standout entries, and none of them has quite had the same stick-to-your-ribs quality as GIRL FROM NOWHERE, a Thai production presently available on Netflix. Before I say another word, I ought to mention right up front that … Continue reading Girl From Nowhere
This is maybe a weird thing to be writing about on this page, but over the past month or so I've become completely enamored with the Japanese reality show TERRACE HOUSE, most of which is available on Netflix. I'm not really a reality show viewer--I've never gotten on board with a domestic reality show with … Continue reading Terrace House
I've run across another show that has captured my attention. It's TOKUSATSU GA GA GA, a Japanese drama airing currently. Based on the manga of the same title by Niwa Tanba, GAGAGA tells the story of Kano Nakamura, a 24-year-old "office lady" with a secret: she's a fanatical devotee of the live action super hero … Continue reading Tokusatsu GaGaGa
I've been an on-and-off follower of the KAMEN RIDER series of Japanese live action super hero shows going back to the mid-1980s when KAMEN RIDER BLACK was on the air. But it's been about ten years since one really caught my fancy--and that one, KAMEN RIDER DECADE, came onto my radar because it guest-starred Kamen … Continue reading KAMEN RIDER ZI-O
In the mid-1980s I was introduced to Japanese live action tokusatsu super hero series by my friend Frank Strom, who was already an avid follower of the genre. I tended to gravitate more to the single hero programs such as Space Sheriff Shaider or Metaldar than the team shows. And the best such show of … Continue reading KAMEN RIDER BLACK
My first experience with plagiarism came as a result of my devotion to THE ELECTRIC COMPANY. THE ELECTRIC COMPANY was the Children’s Television Workshop’s follow-up to Sesame Street, aimed at somewhat older kids in an attempt to teach reading skills and encourage reading. By the time I started watching it in the early 1970s, I … Continue reading THE ELECTRIC COMPANY
It’s hard to know for sure, but I suspect that the first super hero that I followed with any regularity wasn’t Superman or Batman or the Flash–it was Underdog. Produced in 1964 by a portion of the team that worked on Rocky & Bullwinkle as well as a number of cereal commercials, Underdog was a … Continue reading Underdog
Around 1975 or so, my father let me know that we’d be getting a new television station. This was back during the era of antenna television, where the number of choices was slim. So slim, in fact, that this new station wasn’t on the main dial of 13 options, but rather to be found on … Continue reading FANTASTIC VOYAGE
The Tom Brevoort Experience 