Reviews

I really enjoyed "Ezra" I haven't seen such a well-made film in quite a while. Despite some stereotyping (e.g., the father played by Bobby Cannavale who wants his son mainstreamed and no medications) it covers the situation of having an autistic child quite realistically. You are always on, never off.

Of course, there had to be a conflict with the ex-wife who was at least willing to try other options (another stereotype) and that was well-played by Rose Byrne. The trip taken by all of them was a beautiful journey. I couldn't help thinking they were exactly where they needed to be at all junctures.

Another thought: "You aren't autistic, you're just a weird person." A truer statement has rarely been made!

I like the idea of watching real-life investigators doing their work, but I found it frustrating that so many questions were left unanswered. I'm sure it's because of confidentiality that certain information could not be disclosed, but I find the true-life crime shows omit plenty. I've looked up the cases online and have been shocked at what wasn't covered!

In the case of Cheyenne Kircher, I have questions about the other family members whom I'm sure were interviewed but there was nothing said on this episode about them. The uninvolved mediator asked questions and guided the presentation of the case, but I would like to submit questions, maybe in an online interactive format?

Anyway, it's just a thought. Good job. Sad story all around. I think animal cruelty is bad but this case shows how horribly humans treat each other as well.

One of the best episodes, it really gets to my soul. The mournful song at the end, when Agent Namazi is in the boathouse, is "Messenger" by Iranian chant music singer Mamak Khadem. Namazi is grieving the oppression of women in her home country, the whole world actually, where women and girls are so brutally controlled. I'm sorry this series ended it was an amazing NCIS production.

This episode also uses one of my favorite lines in a tv show but I won't give it away because I said this comment doesn't contain spoilers. Again, it is Agent Namazi who utters it after she kicks the perpetrators a##.

One of my favorite episodes it shows the history of Ducky's early romantic life and why he never married. The actors who play young Ducky and young Angus are totally adorable and fun to watch. Still don't quite understand why Maggie chose Angus? Why bother coming to the train station if you aren't going to walk the walk??

Too bad the next episode doesn't follow-up with the romantic potential 50 years later. This happens a lot. A story line is left hanging and we never know what happens next unless the character returns in later episodes (e.g., Col. Mann).

What an amazing career for David McCallum. He worked until he was 90 although the last few times he appeared via video conference. He was having difficulty talking but it was still a surprise when seeing the headline "NCIS Actor Dies." Sad.

I haven't had so much fun watching an episode of Doc Martin as this one. PC Penhale provided great amusement with his efforts to impress his ex-wife. I thought it was sweet he was trying. Doc Martin is evolving as a human being, finally! The show is becoming interesting as a result. Although he starts out being his usual rigid self, the Doc reflects upon things and takes corrective action.

We have seen what influenced Martin to turn out the way he did when we met his parents, especially his cold, verbally brutal mother (played amazingly by Claire Bloom). We also see in flashbacks that Martin's father wasn't a whole lot better. When he and Louisa fight over the Christening, Martin makes a decision, and it really is the correct one and shows he is becoming a good husband.

By asserting herself, Louisa is only trying to maintain her identity and not play the traditional role. Doc Martin is trying to change his destiny by wanting to be a better father to his son than his own father was to him. This is huge! He knows that Louisa, as annoying as she is, is a much better mother than Doc Martin's mother was to him.

When Louisa comes home and finds Martin reading to their son out of a medical journal, "The Cytotoxic Treatment of Cancer" "Here is a picture of Dr. Henry Wolfstein," the baby is loving it! Truly clever writing.

Continuing to watch this show and generally liking it. Maybe the 4 episode binge-a-thon is a little too much of the Doc and the overly dramatic people of Portwenn. Give someone a 10-day supply of meds and they will take all 10 pills at once! Sheesh.

Doc Martin was correct to be concerned about Aunt Joan's osteoporosis, but he should have warned her about the consequences of taking prescribed "Eeestrogen," as he pronounces it. As a medical doctor, he should have been aware of the Women's Health Initiative study of 2000 that showed women on replacement hormone therapy had an increased risk of breast cancer. Although the risk was small, it was consistent across all of the studies and ultimately led to the termination of the study. The outcome in this episode was just further illustration of the townspeople's histrionic reactions to just about everything. It resulted in another "H" that I won't give away.

I loved this show when I watched the first episode S1/E1 a year ago, but couldn't keep up with the sequential episodes, so almost gave up. I knew that one day I would be scrolling through the tv guide and find S1/E2 and, low and behold, it happened (better late than never). So, I set about eagerly watching the weekly "binge" episodes. By this 6th episode, I was getting tired of what comes across as cruelty on the doctor's part. I understand he is probably on the spectrum (autism) and maybe putting four episodes in a row just burned me out. Especially at the scene in the taxi ride home, what he said to Louisa is almost unforgivable. Not to mention stupid.

I'll continue watching but maybe I'll walk out of the room when Doc Martin gets to be too much, or when the townspeople get too cruel as well. How could the idiot who sold people tainted water from his spring be self-righteous about the doc's phobia. I would have punched him out, if I was a man.

I have always remembered this off-beat comedy with a youngish Penny Marshall and a young John Ritter. Yes, it moved a bit slow and belabored the aftermath of the separation of the two couples, but it is made-for-tv so does not get all the Hollywood bells and whistles. But there were many memorable lines and moments, for example when Penny Marshall's character Linda Wilson starts dating a younger man and he breaks up with her because she is older and her reaction made me laugh out loud, or when John Ritter's character Danny Loeb tells her that he can have a "cornucopia" of women because younger women are always available to men. Guess who had the egg of their face?

This movie reminds me of why Penny Marshall and John Ritter were so beloved by so many. I truly miss them. The acting was evocative and shined a light on the consequences of families breaking up. Back in the 1980s being divorced was still considered a stigma. Unfortunately, due to its prevalence now in the 2020s, you might be hard-pressed to find someone NOT divorced. My neighbor's teen-age children have known nothing but shared custody their whole lives.

You can look up this movie online and purchase it, so if you enjoy lighthearted romantic comedies with a relevant social message, watch Love Thy Neighbor (1984).

Good episode. Idea similar to NCIS: New Orleans S6 E2 (Conundrum) where "murmuration" was covered. Usually a phenomenon associated with Starlings that fly in formation and is quite dramatic to see, here it is applied to drones. The tension was intense as Fatima gains insight into what is going on and faces the moral dilemma of what to do. So glad to have Roundtree back he is a lovely character. At least they used the term UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) correctly instead of UFO as was used in the New Orleans episode. Another parallel, in the New Orleans episode Special Agent Khouri asks the Navy pilot whether she had a detached retina as a possible explanation for what she saw. Here, Callen asks whether it was a bird strike that took down the F16. Hilarious.

Enjoying this show so far, getting to know the characters, whom I like. That's the key to me continuing to watch the show.

Vanessa Lachey zips through her lines so fast which is the reason I suggested a dialogue coach. The good news, she needs no coach to play a mother, she is the mother of 3 children in real life, she KNOWS. I liked the way she jumped into the surf in the 1st episode. Vanessa is a bada##.

Let's see how this goes, give it a chance.

Since I mostly watch CBS shows - both drama as well as comedies - I have gotten into "B Positive." It highlights kidney disease so is quite unusual, but I'm sure those who experience the illness will be glad for this show. Thomas Middleditch, who plays the main character Drew Dunbar, has excellent physical comedy, which is not easy to do. I also like the character Gina, played by Annaleigh Ashford. Her stilted way of talking is interesting, and she manages to pull it off. My favorite scene is the ending of episode 3 where she and Middleditch dance for a Tik-Tok video. Genius.

I seem to be partial to shows and movies that portray people as different than what they seem. Drew seems uptight, Gina appears ditsy, but what we are witnessing is the growth of both these people as a result of caring for each other and being there for each other. Drew has recently been divorced, as initiated by his wife, Julia (played by Sara Rue). It is clear she has been unhappy with his emotional unavailability, even though he is a therapist (psychologist) in the show. That is the only part I find less plausible. Maybe we will see his growth as a therapist, but the only scene he is shown in with a client left me cringing. Not completely awful, but could definitely have been better.

Some people have objected to politics being brought into the show, a reference to a "Republican kidney" when the doctor suggests Drew look into family members as possible donors. This illustrates how alienated Drew feels from his family that he doesn't even want to ask them. It also gives a clue to how their expectations of him may have led to his neurosis. Your political values go clear to the bone marrow!

Other characters I like are played by Linda Lavin (at the senior living home where Gina works) as well as the dialysis buddies, and the daughter. Also, Gina's friend, Gabby, who, coincidentally, has that same squeaky voice!! Humorous.

I like this show so much that it has even given me the impetus to use my cable company's On Demand feature to re-watch episodes. Give it a chance, it has potential.

I just re-watched Who's Harry Crumb? Because it is the type of movie that, if you have a free afternoon and want a good laugh, you should pop this movie in the DVD player and enjoy! It is my favorite John Candy, even though I know he has done many other great movies (Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors, Cool Runnings). This underrated comedy gets everything right: good story, good writing, good actors, good directing, good cinematography, attention to detail. Everyone is well cast, down to the supporting roles, and Annie Potts and Shawnee Smith really shine here. This makes the movie timeless. A few years ago, I showed it to my niece and nephew who were teenagers and they loved it.

John Candy plays the private detective Harry Crumb, who is from a long line of Crumb detectives. The name itself is meaningful. He is hired to solve the kidnapping of a wealthy girl, the oldest daughter of P. J. Downing (played by Barry Corbin). Harry Crumb has this obvious bumblingness, but is smarter than he acts. As an actor, John Candy shows us his vulnerability and intelligence - I call him the intelligent man's comic - for example, when Detective Casey (played by Valri Bromfield) tears him a new one calling private detectives lazy, stupid, incompetent (did she talk to Howard Jarvis?) the look on his face as the words stung is so relatable. Then he shrugs it off, "It's just a theory." What resilience!! The delivery of the dialogue - another of John Candy's signature traits - is priceless. When he is driving Nikki Downing, the younger sister (played by Shawnee Smith), Harry Crumb gives her his advice on what is the key to good undercover work: being "inconspicuous." All this while driving an antique roadster, complete with goggles, cap and scarf. Yeah, totally inconspicuous hahaha.

The relationship he forms with the younger sister of the kidnapped daughter should be every girl's dream come true. That he respects her enough to bring her into his investigation and use her skills evokes the feeling that we are less alone in this world. Someone commented the music is wrong, but I find it perfect, especially the chase scene at the end to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero." Another similar movie that you can just slip into your DVD player and enjoy is "Six Days, Seven Nights" (1998) with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. It has all the elements mentioned above: good story, good writing, good acting, etc. Etc.

Everyone should be commended for this film. It is a rare gem!

I want it to be clear that I like the premise of this show and the actors, especially Parker Young and Kelli Goss. The importance of showing the devastation of war on countries, the people and, in this case, also the young American families that are destroyed through no fault of their own, cannot be overstated. We tend to forget the actual individuals involved. I was really looking forward to learning about the Afghani translator and what happened to him and his family, but he is portrayed clownishly rather than seriously with heart and a twist of humor.

I understand some of the writers are Afghani so it should be possible to portray the serious subject of someone who risked his life to translate for the American troops, at great peril to himself and his family, and let us get to know him and his story. I don't believe you have to be from the same, exact ethnic background to play the part, for example, in the Goldie Hawn movie Protocol (1989), not one Arab actor played any of the key middle-eastern characters in the movie, yet they did an excellent job. I have some Arab in my background and I was most impressed because isn't that what acting is? Playing someone you are not.

I really enjoyed Adhir Kalyan in Rules of Engagement (2009-2013) so I know he can act, but he seems out of his element here and unable to find his power. Please give him the material and the direction to do so.