National Geographic Ultimate Explorer: "Killer Crocs of Uganda"
Brady Barr is like Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin without the annoyance. Expressed more succinctly: BB = SCHI - A.
And it turns out most crocs aren't cute and goofy like the one that swallowed the clock and gave Captain Hook his name. Go figure.
What's Joe (Aidan Quinn) fear most? Losing wife Angela (Marcia Gay Harden) and being Mr. Bad Example for son Ben (Will Estes). So what's he do? Behaves like a jerk, forcing Ben out of the house and alienating his wife, thus ensuring his nightmare comes true.
Sounds like a plan, right? Yeah, I thought so, too, so I gave Joe's system a whirl. Since I was afraid my wife would leave me, thus setting a terrible example for our dog, I walked the furry little guy up into Griffith Park and cut him loose.
And life does imitate art after all: Now she hates me.
I'll keep you guys posted as this experiment progresses, but I'm thinking I need better TV-movies to emulate.
So how about that? For once, Nate the walking black-hole-o'-me, does something he wants to do, against the wishes of everyone else in the room, and I agree with him. Sort of.
I mean, Lisa did say she wanted to be buried with nothing between her and the earth. We heard her say it in flashback, albeit in an irritating fashion akin to someone trying out a short story in their first fiction workshop: "You always smell so cold and lonely. And also weirdly sweet, like an old lady's hair." Who talks like that?
Still, I quibble. Poor Bruno Baskerville Walsh is now stuck in a mausoleum with a family that's not his, under a name that's not his. Wasn't there some other way of faking them out? And why leave the container for David to clean up, since, as he said, what Nate did was illegal and could lose the family its license? Did he really need to be burdened with that?
Most likely he did it for plot reasons (no pun intended). And I guess we'll find out this season.
Amongst all the cough-syrup abuse and blood-test chicanery is this informational gem: "You have to use muscle to cut muscle," says Dr. Andy Campbell (Patricia Richardson), putting teeth-gritting oomph into chewing through a woman's chest to get to her heart.
Now, there's a cute little factoid my shamelessly squeamish self would be happy to forget.
Boy, for a series that takes its time developing things, its finale sure moves in a hurry, huh? Seth gets Alma and the sheriff's star. Swearengen, of course, gets his way, though not necessarily with Trixie. And who'd have ever thought the way to a lady's heart would be to knock her daddy's teeth out and send him out of town tied to a mule?
How could this be: A larger-than-life adventure tale involving action, romance, heroism and treasure, and yet it manages to stifle the power that is Swayze? Alas, it is so.
If you're going to utilize the Power of Patrick at its full potential, you gotta give him classic lines like, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" (Dirty Dancing), "Back off, Warchild — seriously" (Point Break) or "Pain don't hurt" and "I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice" (Road House).
When he's merely grieving widower Allan Quartermain, facing down danger, winning a new love and trying to find the new love's dad, all I can say is... eh. Hallmark could've trotted out Richard Chamberlain again for less. If you're gonna spring for Swayze, then let him be Swayze.
Oh, and, yes, I do so giggle like a second-grader at Alison Doody's name, even though she's no Hugh Jackman.
When I was a kid, my mom pelted me with tales of Liza Minnelli's performances, telling me over and over about the gale-force ability evident in her TV special Liza with a Z. I wasn't having it. I was too busy checking out real, built-to-last acts like the Steve Miller Band and Toto.
So I was recently blown away by a restored print of Cabaret, and haven't listened to "Fly like an Eagle" or "Hold the Line" in years. OK, Mom — I'll give you that one.
Here's two hours of solid proof: Liza's had her problems, certainly, but man, does she have talent to match.