We’re late to the party, of course, but that’s the nature of our Weekend Reviews. This time, we look back to last autumn’s addition to the Marvel Cinematic/TV Universe, Luke Cage, Powerman, Hero for Hire.1
Author Archives: JD DeLuzio
Riverdale Review: “A River’s Edge”
So it wasn’t one heart that broke that night; it was two. And the night was far from over…
Riverdale wasn’t the same town as before.
–Jughead
The CW’s alternative take on Archie premiered last night, and it will almost certainly be a hit. It currently scores over 80% at RottenTomatoes.
Forget Trump and Putin. This may be the real reason scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward. If this show isn’t a portent of an Apocalypse, I don’t know what is.
CW-DCU Discussions: “Borrowing Problems from the Future,” “Raiders of the Lost Art,” and “Who Are You?”
I have to admire Legends of Tomorrow for completely embracing the crazy. This week, the Legends face off against the Legion of Doom in 1967 over the spear that pierced Jesus’s side– in order to save the career of George Lucas!
Seriously. That was the plot.
A rather grim scene involving the still-living Rip Hunter ends the ep on a different tone.
Meanwhile, on Flash and Arrow….
Supergirl Review: “Supergirl Lives”
…or she returns, at least, with a Kevin Smith-directed episode, heavy on the Silver Age Sci-Fi.
Astronaut Eugene Cernan has passed away
Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon (so far) and the second man to walk in space, died January 16 at the age of 82.
Peter Blatty dead at 89, Dick Gautier at 85
Peter Blatty, a writer who was best-known for his comedy work until he penned The Exorcist, died on Thursday, January 12 at the age of 89.
R.I.P.
UPDATE: We have also lost Dick Gautier. The actor, nominated for a Tony as the original “Conrad Birdie” in Bye Bye Birdie, is best known to TV viewers as “Hymie the Robot” from Get Smart. He was 85.
Weekend Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane
We missed reviewing the genre-twisting thriller when it came out, so here’s a Weekend Review of this beguiling and suspenseful 2016 film.
Novel Review: Last Year
Two events made the first of September a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant.
The part about saving Grant’s life was speculative. Even without Jesse’s intervention, the pistol might have misfired or the bullet missed its mark. Jesse felt uneasy about taking credit for an act of purely theoretical heroism. But the loss of the Oakleys, that was a real tragedy. He had loved those Oakleys. The way they improved his vision on sunny days. The way they made him look (9).
The final great SF novel of 2016, Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year, gives us time travel, the Gilded Age, old-west San Francisco, and timely reflections on politics, social change, America, and the fact that technological progress has “not abolished vindictiveness or petty jealousy”(323).
Happy Newspace!
We live in interesting times, but as 2016 finally comes to its conclusion, I’m hoping for a happier future. Enjoy whatever you might be doing this evening and, before I head out, I have gathered, with the Bureau’s help, a few Newspace stories for ya:
NASA’s Jeff Williams has posted this amazing video of earth from space. It seems like a good way to end the year, so take a good, long look:
And, below:
Richard Adams, dead at 96
Richard Adams, best-known as the author of Watership Down, died at the age of 96 on Christmas Eve, 2016. He joins Carrie Fisher and a host of other beloved and celebrated individuals to leave before the end of this problematic year.