The crime/mystery genre has a mighty fine—and very long—history on the small screen, the genre and its myriad forms a solid, even primary, fixture of television schedules. Indeed, it’s not hard to reel off a list of famous series that are not just good crime shows, but which shine as some of the greatest examples…
Where exactly does Tango & Cash belong in the pantheon of cop movies? Let's take a moment to review the accolades it received on its release in 1989. A negative review in the New York Times that damned the plot, screenplay, and acting. Three nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards, including both Worst Actor and…
In the opening to Sergio Leone’s 1971 film, Duck, You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite),there’s what one might consider a nod to Sam Peckinpah. All you see is Rod Steiger’s bare feet spread apart as he urinates on a tree trunk that’s crawling with ants. The camera pans down as the tiny insects are…
The Pawnbroker by David and Aimee Thurlo is the series debut of Charlie Henry, now owner of a New Mexico pawnshop after returning from special ops work in Iraq (available January 28, 2014). Looking for a new spin on the good cop/bad cop, buddy action story? Then The Pawnbroker by Aimee and David Thurlo is…
I love the mainstream, popular, and critically acclaimed films as much as the next person. The last thing I’d consider myself is a cinematic snob. But there are times when a truly amazing movie slips into—and out of—theaters without much buzz before fading into obscurity. So I’d like to bring a few of those gems…
According to TV Guide, there are fifty-seven new shows premiering this fall. Fifty-seven. That’s a lot of shows. Clearly, not all of them will succeed, but there are five new shows with criminal elements (ha) that I am excited about. So, I thought I’d share a bit about each one. Here are my top five,…
Let’s face it. When you think of sociable people, the fictional private eye is not the person you think of first. PIs are supposed to be loners. The TV PI will tell you he is a loner, but then every week you meet another old close friend now in trouble. He spends quality time every…
There are few bromances that are more epic than the one between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson (or more than just a bromance if you choose to read between the lines that way). When Clare Toohey and I went to the Daintiest Thing Under a Bonnet Sherlockian charity ball in January, we told you we…
The drug thriller Savages, based on the book by Don Winslow, is just a little more than a week away from its cinematic debut and the Internet is soaking up images of Salma Hayek as femme fatale-cum-drug lord. Hayek, who in recent years I’ve associated more with family-friendly roles than the Oscar-nominated intense characters for…
I’m uniquely qualified to discuss this series; not because the main character shares my surname, or because I’ve read nearly every Kathy Reichs book, or even because I’ve seen every episode of the television series. It’s because I watched all seven seasons in less than four months, finishing only days before the second half of…
