Gospel, on PBS

It became the music of the Church, but it developed out of elements that came from the old devil blues and the sinful nightclub music that was jazz. Eventually, gospel influenced jazz in return, with the rise of Soul Jazz and spawned Soul music through its fusion with R&B. Gospel music became a revered institution, yet it continues to evolve, in ways writer, host, and executive producer Henry Louis Gates chronicles in the four-part Gospel, which airs Monday and Tuesday on PBS.

Technically, it did not all start with former (or reformed) blues musician Thomas A. Dorsey, because gospel evolved out of traditional spirituals, but he was its W.C. Handy. Dorsey wrote and promoted many of gospel’s original classics. Rev. J.M. Gates, who was a bestselling recording artist in his own right, for his sermons, championed Dorsey within his considerable Church network. His close collaborator, Sally Martin also played a critical behind-the-scenes business role. In fact, Dorsey’s music was his business. Unlike so many jazz and blues artists, Dorsey was incredibly shrewd when it came to copyrights and publishing.

Logically, Mahalia Jackson is the heroic touchstone figure in Gospel, in much the same way Louis Armstrong was in Ken Burns’ Jazz. If anything, fans might argue she deserves even more screen time, considering her pivotal role supporting the Civil Rights movement. Fiftysome years after her death, she continues to be the greatest crossover success in gospel history.

Given their focus on Dorsey and Jackson, the first two episodes of Gospel are clearly the best. It also covers Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who probably also deserves more screen attention (since she inspired Elvis Presley), but at least Gayle Wald, the author of her excellent biography, Shout, Sister, Shout appears as an on-camera expert. The second episode also introduces Aretha Franklin (who needs no introduction), but Gospel presents her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin in a radically different light than did Genius: Aretha.

The third episode is still pretty solid, covering the explosion of popularity for Gospel on the international festival circuit, Franklin’s return to gospel with the Amazing Grace concert and live recording, and the rise of Andrae Crouch.

Submitted by Bhutan: The Monk and the Gun

America ought to pursue closer ties with Bhutan, considering their long history of border disputes with Communist China and their cultural and religious affinity with occupied Tibet. Traditionally, the nation has been isolationist. They do not have official diplomatic relations with many countries, including the U.S. and both Chinas (but we do have “friendly” consular relations). That said, this American arriving on mysterious business is probably not the best person to bring our countries closer, especially as he pursues the titular robed Buddhist in director-screenwriter Pawo Choyning Dorji’s The Monk and the Gun, one of 15 films shortlisted for the Best International Film Oscar, which opens today in New York.

Much to his bafflement, Tashi’s abbot requests he obtain two guns by the next full moon. That would be in four days. This will be a tall order in the isolated and overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, even though they are in the process of modernizing.

Indeed, 2006 was a confusing time for many traditional Bhutan citizens. The King has voluntarily abdicated, setting the stage for the nation’s first democratic elections. Since campaigning is new to everyone, the King scheduled a “Mock Election,” to familiarize voters with the process. It is Tshering Yangden’s job to register voters in Tshomo’s village. Unfortunately, Tshomo already knows plenty about the upcoming election. Her husband has dramatically broken with the rest of her family to support a candidate advocating greater industrialization. Nevertheless, the village assigned her to serve as Yangden’s assistant.

Meanwhile, Ron Coleman (possibly a sly reference to Ronald Colman, the star of Lost Horizon?) arrives on a strange mission. He has traced an extremely rare Civil War-era rifle to Bhutan. He is willing to pay top dollar for it, but if a monk like Tashi requests it, the devout hardscrabble owner could never refuse him.

Monk and the Gun captures a fascinating and possibly unprecedented period in history, in which an absolute monarch voluntarily relinquished power and established a democratic system of government that almost none of his countrymen demanded. Dorji evokes the mood of uncertainty quite vividly. Viewers also get a sense of Bhutan’s isolation and its striking, but lonely natural vistas.

Kim Jee-woon’s Cobweb

It was a time of censorship, but not necessarily Puritanism. Director Kim Yeol is a 1970s Korean filmmaker was a long stretch of lurid sexual potboilers under his belt. His first film was critically acclaimed, but many suspect it was greatly shaped by his mentor, Director Shin, who died during its production. He now has a vision for how to make his latest film a masterpiece, but neither his studio boss nor the censors want to let him recall the cast for reshoots. He will just have to work around them in Kim Jee-won’s Cobweb, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on VOD.

Director Kim is absolutely not based Kim Ki-young, the late cult filmmaker best known for the original The Housemaid, as his heirs and the producers of Cobweb clearly established through an arbitration agreement. No, this “Director Kim” has been grinding out trashy thrillers since his tragic debut made a notorious splash. After wrapping his latest movie, also titled Cobweb, he literally has a flash of inspiration, prompting him to rewrite most of the second half.

President Baek, the studio boss and Director Shin’s widow, does not want the additional expenses and the state censors will not approve his new pages, because they are weird, especially the ending (which is true). However, Shin Mi-do, Director Shin’s niece and the studio finance chief, recognizes the brilliance of his revisions. She also has an in with the head of the censorship office, so she approves his reshoots while her aunt is out of the country on business. Since they are revising extensively, the one promised day of reshoots will not be sufficient, so Mi-do literally locks cast and crew inside the soundstage. Chaos and tension ensue.

Cobweb is sort of like Noises Off with the pressure of state censors looking over everyone’s shoulders. The manic farcical action is a bit of throwback to Kim Jee-woon’s zany The Good, the Bad, the Weird, from the filmmaker better known for darker horror and thrillers like I Saw the Devil, The Age of Shadows, and Dr. Brain. Some of the supporting characters are maybe a bit too wacky, like the method actor playing a detective, who pretends to investigate Director Kim, to stay in character. However, the way the film-with-the-film evolves and takes on greater significance as we learn Director Kim’s backstory is quite clever.

In fact, the black-and-white retro-horror-looking scenes from the fictional film are wonderfully stylish and affectionately droll. Director Kim’s “weird ending” lives up to its promise. Kim Jee-won and cinematographer Kim Ji-yong stage some incredible sequences, like Director Kim’s long climatic tracking shot, which we see from an incredibly messy behind-the-scenes perspective and as a finished product. In fact, their use of the sealed soundstage and its impressively designed sets is consistently inventive.

Ghostwritten

As someone who has worked in the book publishing industry, believe it when I say most people would be surprised how many books are actually written by ghostwriters. Usually the ghostwriters are still living. It is the ostensive authors who are dead, like V.C. Andrews and Robert Ludlum. The relationship gets reversed when a possible ghost starts writing a struggling novelist’s latest book in director-screenwriter Thomas Matthews’ Ghostwritten, which releases this Friday on demand.

Guy Laury wrote one well-regarded and modestly successful autobiographical first novel, but the words just will not come for his follow-up. His exasperated publisher arranged a residency for him in a Nantucket-like island, over the winter off-season. Staying at his publisher’s house, Laury uncovers a strange manuscript under the floor boards that happens to be far better than anything he has recently written.

It appears, through flashbacks, this novel-in-progress was a collaboration between the island’s year-round literary celebrity resident, Martin Cline and his girlfriend, while Cline was doing the very same residency as Laury. Initially, Laury has no intention of plagiarizing the mystery pages, but they inexplicably start appearing on his laptop. Laury suspects it is the work of the ghost-like entity he seems to be seeing. His suspicion of the supernatural is reinforced by the only two townsfolk who talk to him, the unnamed bartender and prop-pilot who flew him in and Julie Coffin, the local librarian and folklorist.

Ghostwritten is shrewder than most films that think they know something about book publishing. Matthews either did his homework or fakes it convincingly. He also starts with a promising supernatural premise that he takes in an interesting direction. However, mainstream horror fans should be warned that Ghostwritten is easily the most experimental horror film since Mark Jenkins’ Enys Men. Ghostwritten is somewhat more accessible, but it is definitely style-heavy.

Matthews extensively experiments with sound, incorporating weird soundscapes and seemingly unrelated but still significant audio tracks. There are also extensive flashbacks, but they are often “untrustworthy.” Honestly, it gets to be a little too much, but Matthews’ ambition is impressive. In fact, Ghostwritten heralds him as a filmmaker to watch, because if he tries something similar with his next film, but dials it down a notch or two, it could really be something.

Divided We Stand, in The Epoch Times

MHz Choice's DIVIDED WE STAND is a taut post-German Re-unification thriller, following the search for former East German officials' hidden arms caches and incriminating paperwork. There is a lot of baggage left over from Communist oppression for the special ZERV cops to deal with, but it makes for smart drama. Exclusive EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Out of Darkness: Prehistoric Horror

In horror movies, nothing is scarier than the unknown. During the Stone Age, nearly everything was unknown. It logically follows, these homo sapiens will be scared witless. They should be, because something is preying on them in Andrew Cumming’s Out of Darkness, which opens Friday in theaters.

Motivated by hunger, Adem’s small band of six have migrated to northern Europe, in search of food. Unfortunately, they have yet to find any in the harsh tundra landscape. Beyah is starting to doubt his judgment, but as a stray taken in by the group, it is not her place to question him. Adem’s younger brother Geirr tries to look out for her, but Adem’s young son and heir Heron has first dibs on any food.

As they trudge forward, they start to hear strange noises. Then something attacks. It soon becomes clear the hunter-gatherers are the ones being hunted.

Out of Darkness is an unusually immersive film, produced in “Tola,” a language developed by Dr. Daniel Andersson, based on Arabic and Basque, expressly for the film. The Stone Age setting looks legit and the dank, torch-lit landscape radiates a sinister vibe. There is definitely tension, peril, and menace, but it might not precisely scratch the itch of hardcore horror fans. Instead, this kind of primordial eeriness is perfect for fans of films like Valhalla Rising and The Norseman. Indeed, cinematographer Ben Fordesman’s evocative lensing skillfully builds the atmosphere of mystery and unease.

Frankly, as the severe Adem, Chuku Modu is almost as scary as whatever it is out there. He is most certainly an “Alpha male,” that’s for sure. Arno Luning is appropriately slimy portraying the shrewd older forager, Odal. In contrast, Kit Young looks a bit “soft” as Geirr, considering the early 20’s constituted middle age at that time. However, Safia Oakley-Green is convincingly tough, mentally and emotionally, as Beyah, a true Stone Age survivor.

Molli and Max in the Future

In the future, you might have your own personal spaceship or a mecha robot suit, but there are still plenty of annoying people around to bother you. At least this irritating duo self-selects their own company, which should make them easier to avoid. They are supposed to be a futuristic “Harry and Sally,” but they should get together to prevent innocent people getting stuck with them. The future sure is verbose in director-screenwriter Michael Lukk Litwak’s Molli and Max in the Future, opening Friday in theaters.

Molli and Max sort of have a meet-cute in an asteroid belt. Technically, he crashed his ship and had no insurance, but they still start hanging out. Right from the start, he maybe sort of feels something for her, but they decide to friend zone each other, before she joins a space cult.

The next time they meet, it is kind of awkward, because she is involved with her creepy space deity and he has become a famous mecha robot gladiator. Of course, neither is happy with their choices and both realize it thanks to their reunion.

If any of that sounds funny, it is because you didn’t have to listen to them explaining it. That is what they do: talk and talk and talk. In addition to their personal lives, they also discuss the genocide of the fish people. Even though Max looks human, he is part fish person, so it understandably disturbs him when Turboschmuck, a candidate for Galactic Emperor, advocates another round of mass murder.

Presumably, Turboschmuck was intended to satirize Trump, but jokes about genocide (ha ha, geocide, super funny) land quite differently after the 10/7 terrorist attack. Trump is a disaster, but at least he is not chanting genocidal slogans like “from the river to the sea.” Anti-Semitic hatred and violence has exploded post-10/7, which really casts a pall over these tongue-in-cheek bits.

Beyond that, it is hard to tell whether Litwak was deliberate going for a campy ultra-DIY-Ed Wood look, or if Molli and Max was simply cobbled together on the cheap. It is a problem that viewers have to guess. Regardless, all the mumblecore chatter gets to be like fingernails across a blackboard.

Air Force One Down: Protecting the President from Terrorists & Environmentalists

Fictional "Astovia" sounds a lot like Estonia, especially when characters say it quickly. Instead, it probably ought to sound more like Azerbaijan, except oil-rich Astovia is trying to democratize and turn towards the West. Rather logically, the President of the United States wants to encourage that process, but he is opposed by a paramilitary Astovian warlord and anti-petroleum extremists in his own administration. Fortunately, he has rookie secret service agent Allison Miles guarding him when his presidential ride is hijacked in James Bamford’s Air Force One Down, which releases this Friday in theaters.

Maj. Miles has always been patriotic, so when her Uncle Sam Waitman finally recruits her for the Secret Service, she leaps at the chance. That is right, he is “Uncle Sam.” It is a name that suits him—and she is her uncle’s niece. She still instinctively salutes recently elected President Edwards (codename: “Falcon”), even though she is skeptical of his privileged background. Nevertheless, Waitman constantly reminds her and their colleagues: “they serve the chair, not the man.” Miles will get her chance to serve both when she is attached to Edwards’ state visit to Astovia, to sign the petroleum treaty. Astovia gets political stability and we get affordable petroleum, so, of course, Vice President Hansen is opposed, as are others in the administration.

As fate would have it, Miles has her first flight on Air Force One exactly when “General” Rodinov launches his attack. Since Waitman was taking her on a tour to soak up how cool it is, they happen to be the only agents not liquidated. They also happen to be the most likely to foil his plans. Soon, Miles must bail out with Falcon, to take their chances, in the Astovian countryside. There is also the matter of the traitor, who compromised Air Force One.

Air Force One Down is a VOD-action thriller that finally understands its key market demographic. It never insults the Secret Service agents and military personnel who serve and protect the office of the president. Viewers might guess the no-so hidden Judas, but it is refreshing screenwriter Steven Paul does not serve up yet another military coup (which would be derivative of films like Seven Days in May and also besmirch our Armed Services).

The cast is also far stronger than you might expect. Anthony Michael Hall perfectly exudes Waitman’s hardnosed dignity. Katherine McNamara and Ian Bohen have surprisingly good chemistry as Miles and Falcon. McNamara shows off some strong action chops, handling most of the fight scenes. However, even though Falcon is not Harrison Ford in Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One (which this film still isn’t), he is no pushover either. In this case, viewers can buy his Air Force background (before he returned to the good graces of his well-heeled family).

Quantum Leap: The Family Treasure

It is the 1950s, so it is a little late for Indiana Jones-style adventures, as the franchise itself proved. However, Dr. Ben Song finds himself in the middle of an unlikely treasure hunt. He is determined to find a way to warn Hannah Carson to have her husband’s fatal heart defect diagnosed in time, but he probably will not have the opportunity in “The Family Treasure,” this week’s episode of Quantum Leap, which premieres tomorrow on NBC.

Evidently, Song leaped into the least annoying of three sisters. Sarah is the martyr-ishly responsible one, married to a soul-crushing husband, while Dean/Adina is the one who will eventually teach viewers an “important lesson” in nonbinary acceptance. Together, they must work together to find their wastrel father’s treasure hidden somewhere in Mexico.

Most of the episode focuses on the reasonably entertaining treasure hunt. The clues are clever and the somewhat cheap-looking sets are kind of fun, in a throwback kind of way. However, the “serious drama” quickly grows tiresome. Throughout the entire episode, Song’s holographic guide and former fiancée Addison Augustine keeps wringing her hands over how to tell him about her impending marriage to Tom Westfall, the Quantum Leap’s project’s DOD guy. Plus, we all know a big teaching moment is coming.

At least “The Family Treasure” still gives viewers an adventure. In contrast, the previous comparable social issue-themed episode, “Let Them Play” was all lecture and no story. This time around, the nonbinary sermon is still heavy-handed, but it is relatively self-contained, so most viewers can just tune it out or fast-forward.

The Foggy Mountain, sort of Introducing Peter Pham

When a fighter like Phi wants to retire, just let him. But no, slimy crime boss Ba Rang wants him to come back for one last fight, so he can bet against him. You really can’t blame Phi for kicking his final opponent’s butt, but Ba Rang does anyway. We can all smell the feud coming on in Phan Ahn & Ken Dinh’s The Foggy Mountain, which releases Tuesday on digital.

Phi just wants to live quietly, taking care of his blind wife Lanh. Instead, Ba Rang lures him back, but the gangster loses his shirt when Phi wins the match. For those who were watching, it was a pretty good fight, but obviously, only the money matters to Ba Rang. To express his disappointment, he has Phi waylaid and beaten unconscious, but they mistakenly leave him for dead. On the other hand, they make darned sure they finish the job with his wife Lanh.

Of course, Phi is bent on revenge. He knows all about the “dig two graves” business, so he visits one of his former students, now a teacher in a mountain village, as a final act of closure. As it happens, Ba Rang’s human trafficking gang has been active in the area, kidnapping a prostitute and two children. The teacher will be their next victim, but Phi is not having it.

Even by action movie standards, Dinh’s script is pretty bare-bones, but that is not really the point of Foggy Mountain. Essentially, this is a straight-over-the-plate audition film to determine is Peter Pham (with a handful of films under his belt thus far) has the stuff to carry a film as an action star (and also the action director). The answer is yes. He has amazing martial arts chops and he handles the quiet squinty stuff well enough.

It also helps that Pham has a worthy primary sparring partner in Simon Kook (who previously appeared in Ip Man 3). Frankly, kook has a menacingly look that really stands out as Vong Akork. Ba Rang’s chief henchman. Ironically, Kook might get even more career momentum out of Foggy Mountain, but if so, it will be deserved.

The Harlem Hellfighters, on History Channel

James Reese Europe should be a household name for both his music and his military service. Before he shipped off to France with New York’s 15^th National Guard, he was one of the most famous bandleaders in America, both for fronting his own ensemble and backing Vernon and Irene Castle. Europe and his comrades in the 15^th fought like heck for America, even though the armed services were racially segregated during WWI. The 15^th gets the credit they were so often denied in the one-hour documentary special The Harlem Hellfighters (directed by Mandla Dube), which premieres tomorrow night on History Channel.

Europe is either one of the earliest jazz musicians or the last of ragtime. Regardless, he could have been as big as Basie or Goodman had he lived to see the era of big band jazz. At the height of his fame, Europe volunteered for the 15^th (which became the 369^th Infantry Regiment when they shipped out overseas), inspiring a wave of enlistments from within his band and throughout New York City. They were under-funded and under-trained, because the top military brass had no confidence in them. Yet, they quickly gained a reputation for battlefield tenacity (and their ferocious nickname) when they were finally deployed in combat roles.

Fittingly, Dube and most of the on-screen commentators focus on Europe and his fellow musicians, most notably including his songwriting partner, Noble Sissle, making the History doc of particular interest to jazz fans. Of course, appropriate time is also devoted to Henry Johnson, who became a media sensation for accounts of his heroism and eventually became a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, eightysome years after his death.

As you would expect, the Hellfighters often endured disgraceful racism from their fellow American soldiers (and those who didn’t even have the decency to serve). However, it is “nice” to hear some of the white Northern soldiers nearly stormed the hotel where Sissle was attacked during their training in the segregated south. Early on, Woodrow Wilson faces some deserved criticism for his racism, but he probably gets off easy considering nobody was more responsible segregation as it was practiced in the early and mid-20^th Century.

Calamity Jane (and Wild Bill)

They were the great did-they-or-didn’t-they question of the Old West. There have always been plenty of stories that claim Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary) and Wild Bill Hickok were a romantic couple and even married, including the assertions of their supposed daughter. Evidence suggests they never tied the knot, but they certainly traveled in the same Deadwood circles. Regardless, Canary would not have taken kindly to the cold-blooded shooting of Hickok, her whatever. In fact, she sets out for some frontier justice in Terry Miles’ Calamity Jane, which releases today on VOD.

Rather awkwardly, Calamity Jane was behind bars for some disorderly conduct during Hickok’s fateful poker game with the no-good, cowardly Jack McCall. Honest Sheriff Mason went to great lengths to deliver her there safely, despite an attempted hold-up of their stage. Frankly, he needed Calamity Jane’s assistance, so he is favorably disposed towards her. Nevertheless, when she slips away during an escape orchestrated by “Abigail,” a psychotic prisoner scheduled to be hung in the morning, Mason forms a posse to capture both her and the fugitive McCall. It is a sad posse of three, including him, but they have grit.

Naturally, McCall enlists Abigail’s gang to deliver him to his well-heeled brother’s mining camp, beyond the reach of the law. However, Calamity Jane gets some help of her own from the undertaker, who usually gets a free pass through outlaw territory. You know how those bodies start to smell.

Emily Bett Rickards does a solid job talking tough and shooting straight as the title gunslinger. However, it its is the colorful supporting cast that really elevates the movie. Tim Rozon’s Sheriff Mason is almost as bad as Calamity Jane, but he also sells the lawman’s tragic backstory. Priscilla Faia is all kinds of dirty and nasty as Abigail. Despite his name over the title on the key art, Stephen Amell has limited screen time as Hickok, but his is appropriately flamboyant as the reckless legend.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith, on Prime Video

The most dangerous weapons these two agents wield are not guns or explosives. No, their whiny, neurotic personalities are far more lethal. Weaker people will yearn for the sweet release of death after a mere five minutes listening to them bicker and kvetch. Supposedly, this series is based on the 2005 Doug Liman film about super-spy assassins, who did not realize they were in the same business, but it is hard to tell from all the changes that were made. This time, the couple knowingly agrees to work undercover together and they might also leave the clandestine service together, feet first, in creators Donald Glover & Francesca Sloane’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which premieres today on Prime Video.

Perhaps you would hope two rookie agents would talk to a live person before killing people for their new agency, but not “John and Jane Smith.” Admittedly, Jane has sociopathic tendencies, so there’s that. Judging from the computer-automated interviews that dominate the first half of the initial episode, “First Date,” the Smiths were matched up because they both like pasta.

Obviously, those are not their real names. It is also clear there are other Smiths out there, like the ones in the prologue, whose fate suggests Smiths have a rather short shelf-life. Regardless, the new couple meshes reasonably okay. Initially, she thinks they should keep it strictly professional, but that caution will not last long.

The Smiths get three mission failures before its curtains for them. Unfortunately, they pick up a quick fail in episode two, “Second Date,” when they are ordered to abduct Eric Shane, a shady Epstein-like real estate tycoon, played by Johnn Turturro. In fact, several of the notable guest stars are the best thing about the Glover & Sloane take on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Turturo is both creepy and dryly mordant as Shane. Similarly, Ron Perlman terrific in both funny and sad ways, subverting his larger-than-life image. as Toby Hellinger, a broken-down former wheeler-dealer, whom the Smiths are supposed to “save.”

Probably, Wagner Moura and Parker Posey should have been the stars of the series, because they really liven things up in their two appearances as the “Other Smiths,” who offer the new Smiths some career advice after a chance encounter. The Other Smiths do not waste our time with navel-gazing or pseudo-hip jargon-laden banter, because life is too short, particularly for their targets.

If you thought the Pitt-Jolie movie needed more talky examination of gender-based relationship expectations and less action, than maybe this Mr. & Mrs. Smith is for you. Everyone else will probably put their hands over their ears and start yelling “Shut up! Shut up!” They say the sign of good relationship is an ability to be silent together. Regrettably, the new Smiths never get there.

Fittingly, Perlman’s episode, “Do You Want Kids,” features the best action sequences of the series, wherein the Smiths drag the degenerate Hellinger huffing and wheezing his way through the picturesque towns surrounding Lake Como. Over the course of the series, there are a further three or four well-executed fight scenes interspersed amid the overwritten dialogue, but the talking never stops for long.

A Bloody Lucky Day, on Paramount+

Oh Taek has a hard ride ahead of him and the unfortunate cab driver does not even have one of those beaded seat-covers. His biggest problem will be his customer. The stranger is a talker and also a serial killer, who soon shows his violent side during their long drive to the port city of Mukpo in the ten-part A Bloody Lucky Day, which premieres today on Paramount+.

Oh is an amiable fellow, but mistakes in life left him deeply in debt. He felt “lucky” when he woke up, so he figures it must be coming true when Geum Hyuk-soo offer of one million won for a ride to the notorious smugglers’ port. Of course, there is a reason he is vastly overpaying for the long-haul ride. He needs to get out of town after his recent murder has been discovered. He conveniently happened to be a resident at the hospital where the barely surviving witness was taken, but he still left too much physical evidence behind this time.

At first, Oh assumes Geum’s grisly stories are very bad jokes, but he soon realizes he has a psychopath in his cab. His passenger’s macabre origin story might hold relevant clues for later, but Geum’s claim an accident left him unable to experience the sensation of pain makes him particularly scary, especially when he demonstrates with a sharp knife. However, Oh really starts worrying when Guem hints he knows more about the cabbie than he initially let on.

This is one heck of a dark Korean thriller, almost as grisly as I Saw the Devil. Frankly, bingeing it can take a toll on your soul. It is a visceral white-knuckle ride, but ten episodes is still pushing it. There are a lot of flashbacks, most of which are justified, revealing events and context at moments of maximum impact. Even with a little padding, Pil Gam-sung does a heck helming all ten episodes. Bloody Lucky Day is dark, but its darkly stylish.

Lee Sung-min, who has evolved from a schlubby everyman character actor to gritty middle-aged protagonist in Shadow Detective is perfectly cast as the sad-eyed, angsty Oh. Few thesps could handle the cabbie’s descent from naivety to a very angry place, so convincingly. (Bloody Lucky Day is the kind of show that lends itself to an overuse of the word “dark.”)

Speaking of dark, Yoo Yeon-seok is so creepy and menacing as Geum, each minute the psycho is still breathing will stir-up viewers’ bile. He is maybe the evilest human-monsters you will ever see in a TV/streaming series, including Hannibal. On the other hand, Lee Jung-eun is absolutely heart-wrenching as Hwang Soon-kyu, the grieving mother of one of Geum’s victims.

Argylle: Cats and Spies

You would think an espionage novelist like Elly Conway would be a dog person, rather than a cat lady. She leads a shier, quieter life than Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone, even though she is so tuned into geopolitical realities, her novels have been described as prophetic, much like the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy and David Hagberg. In fact, she her books have become a little too predictive for a shadowy SPECTRE-like organization in Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle, which opens Friday in theaters nationwide.

Conway does not get out much, but when she leaves home for a meeting (like this fateful day), she always brings her fat cat Alfie. She has a tailor-made argyle-print carrier for him, probably because Petco doesn’t have anything big enough for his plump rump. She will cling to his case for dear life while the mysterious Aidan rescues her from a train full of assassins. The shaggy stranger is nothing like suave fictional Agent Argylle, whom we see in action during fantasy segments and book-readings, as well as when he reassures the neurotic Conway, in her mind’s eye.

At least Aidan claims to be a fan—and a real spy. According to him, an international spy outfit (much like Citadel) just turned to the dark side, exactly like the plot twist of her latest novel. Unfortunately, she ended it with a cliffhanger, which nobody likes, especially not KAOS or THRUSH. He needs her to come up with a real ending to foil the bad guys, but it will not be that simple.

Weirdly, there are a lot of similarities between Argylle and Citadel, but it would be spoilery for both to explain how. Regardless, they are worlds apart in terms of tone. Argylle always goes for laughs and it is not afraid to lean in slapstick. To their credit, some of Aidan’s early fight scenes are impressively choreographed, but they grow increasingly outlandish and silly.

Screenwriter Jason Fuchs throws one crazy plot twist after another at the audience, but the head-spinning revelations are all part of the winking fun. This movie can be a lot, but it knows and appreciates the genre it is spoofing. Plus, it has Alfie, who gets a lot of laughs, even though Chip (the cat who plays him) gives the film’s most deadpan performance.

One of the film’s pleasant surprises is the facility for broad, physical comedy Sam Rockwell shows as Aidan. Fans know he can be sarcastic, but here he gets to act loopy and rubber-boned—and it largely suits him. Bryce Dallas Howard cannot really match his energy as Conway. However, the film as a wealth colorful supporting players, like Bryan Cranston and Catherine O’Hara, who chew the scenery like a Five Guys Burger, as the villainous Ritter and Conway’s overbearing mother.

Son of a Critch: Reach for the Top

As a proud geek, Mark Critch has a passion for Star Trek and trivia. He is also interested in two girls who actually talk to him. They all collide when he and his sort-of-ex Fox compete against his current flirt-more-than-girlfriend on a TV quiz show in “Reach for the Top,” the next episode of Son of a Critch, which airs tomorrow on CW.

Critch and Fox are in a just-friends phase, which is still a real step up from when she used to bully him. Somehow, he convinced her to be a member of his trivia team when they represent St. Bridget’s on Reach for the Top, a TV quiz show for kids. Of course, Critch is a know-it-all, but his pseudo-girlfriend Cara, who captains the team from their Protestant rivals is better at handling pressure. She might also have a talent for mind-games.

As Critch crumbles under the studio lights, he imagines what Kirk would do, in a fantasy sequence set on the Enterprise bridge, with him in the captain’s conn. It looks quite true to the original Trek, as Paramount required, when they granted their permission. Conveniently, the production designer for this episode, Mark Steel, has worked as the art or production designer on six Star Trek: Discovery installments.

Frankly, some fans will be disappointed the fantasy segment wraps up so quickly, because of Steel’s eye for authenticity. Young Mark Critch also definitely has an affinity for Shatner-esque histrionics. Captain Benjamin Sisko is a strong runner-up, but in Star Trek, “Captain” means “Kirk” first and foremost.

Dario Argento Panico, on Shudder

Until the 1990s indie boom personified by Tarantino, Dario Argento might have been the most recognizable director (first-and-foremost working behind the camera), since Alfred Hitchcock. That makes a good deal of sense, considering how he used Hitch as a career role-model, even helming and presenting his own anthology series. Even though his output since the late 1990s has been somewhat hit-or-miss, he is still the grandmaster of all horror filmmakers. Director Simone Scafidi gets the genre legend to sit down and take stock of his career in the documentary, Dario Argento Panico, which premieres Friday on Shudder.

Arguably, Argento was born to be a filmmaker, as the son of a fashion photographer and an Italian film studio executive. Obviously, his daughter Asia, who discusses her father at great length, was similarly born into the family business. In fact, most of the Argentos are present and accounted for, including his ex-wife Marisa Casale.

Scafidi takes a largely conventional approach, chronologically working through the major films of Argento’s oeuvre, eliciting commentary from the master and his friends and family along the way. Scafidi hints at a meta-concept, capturing Argento’s curmudgeonly grumbling in the swanky hotel his assistant checked him into, ostensibly to finish writing a screenplay. However, Argento quickly gives into the luxury and settles into Scafidi’s interviews.

Of course, that is all perfectly fine for Argento fans. Naturally, the film spends a good deal of time on the early Giallos, Deep Red, Suspiria, and Inferno. Opera is singled out as probably his last great masterwork, but The Stendahl Syndrome gets credit as his first and probably best collaboration with his daughter Asia.

There is a lot of glossing over his later films, but it fittingly features several clips from Do You Like Hitchcock, which is underrated and obviously reflects his Hitchcockian influences. We also see quite a bit of his The Phantom of the Opera, to illustrate the awkwardness of father directing daughter in some sexually charged scenes.

Quantum Leap: Off the Cuff

It is hard to believe Dr. Ben Song has leaped into 1970 to save a slimy lawyer like Kevin Zatt. Even Zatt describes himself as immoral pond scum. At least, as lawyers go, he is an honest one—except maybe when he embezzled from his clients, including a powerful arms dealer. Fortunately, Song had previously leaped into another bounty hunter, so he is somewhat prepared for “Off the Cuff,” the latest episode of Quantum Leap, which premieres tomorrow night on NBC.

Zatt is a fast-talker, who never stops talking. Song’s new bounty hunter host was not a talkative sort, but, of course, Song engages more. However, he is still not very trusting, having learned from “A Decent Proposal.” Nevertheless, as the bad guys keep ambushing them, Song and Zatt form an alliance on their Midnight Run-like trek across Jersey.

Eventually, the odd couple take shelter with Zatt’s grown foster-brother, who made-good, becoming a doctor. Meanwhile, back at Quantum Leap HQ, the team ponders the discovery of a piece of potentially game-changing but-not-ready-for-primetime code from a mysterious DARPA project. The hanging question is where is Hannah Carson, the woman Song is apparently “entangled with,” through love (or something like it)?

“Off the Cuff” is a solidly entertaining bickering buddy episode in the Stephen J. Cannel tradition (as if Song were Rockford and Zatt was Angel). It moves along nicely and also advances the overall storyline more than just a bit (of course, the big secret news drops right at the end, because that is how it always works).

Skin Deep: Modern German Body-Swapping

This is the mysterious island of body-swapping, but the transfers are not funny, like in Vice Versa and Big, or scary like it Freaky or Suitable Flesh, except maybe in an emotional way. A woman with undefined troubles is convinced seeing life through a different body will cure what ails her in Alex Schaad’s Skin Deep, which opens Friday in theaters.

Leyla’s friend Stella has run the weird body-swapping island resort with her father, until he died from an aneurism in her brain, during their switch. Now, she carries on, in his body. Leyla’s boyfriend Tristan was skeptical, but he agreed to try it with her, for her sake. However, his reluctance is vindicated when Mo, his body-swapper, tries to sexual assault him, while in his own body. Yet, Skin Deep helps perpetuate the stigma many male victims of sexual assault feel, by making light of his trauma. Poor Tristan even laughs along with Leyla over the incident, when he tells her about it.

Not surprisingly, Tristan wants out, but Leyla still feels compelled to inhabit another body. Even they were forced to relinquish their swap-couples’ bodies, Roman, the handyman (and the much younger lover of Stella’s late dad) agrees to swap with her, because he is miserable in any body. Of course, she is frisky in Roman’s muscular frame, but Tristan is not so sure how he feels about that, which offends Leyla, who takes it as a personal rejection.

Yes, there is “gender-bending.” Fine, whatever. The thing that is troubling about Skin Deep is the way it suggests your sense of self is defined by your physical body. You have to wonder what the disabled community would make of this film. Would they be welcomed to swap at Stella’s island? That is a question the Schaads (director Alex and his co-screenwriter Dimitrij)  have no interest in answering. Regardless, it is pretty clear Leyla and Roman would laugh at the cliched notion that “its what’s inside that counts.”

The Irrational: Scorched Earth

Many hospitals simply are not equipped with full state-of-the art burn units. That is one of the important take-aways from the documentary, To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story, wherein the horror icon frankly discusses his recover from severe burn injuries. Dr. Alec Mercer, the behavioral psychologist, can relate. He has returned to the unit that treated him to counsel a new burn patient. While talking to her, he concludes she was a victim of arson in “Scorched Earth,” the mid-season return of The Irrational, which premieres tonight on NBC.

Unfortunately, Mercer understands fire only too well. Even though the teen blames herself for partying in an abandoned house (with candles—always a bad idea kids), he knows the flame spread is all wrong. Once he prods the out-of-his-depth deputy fire investigator to take another look, arson is confirmed. Obviously, that prompts the question: who is the guilty culprit?

Mercer, his unpaid teaching assistants, and ex-girlfriend FBI Agent Marissa Clark duly work their way through the procedural stuff. By now, investigating with Clark is not so awkward because Mercer has a new love-interest (traveling abroad for this episode). Most viewers will start rolling their eyes when they hear a local church was interested in the torched property, but The Irrational seems to have a knack for using annoying cliches as red herrings.

In fact, this episode teases a potential plot twist that could be incredibly gutsy—and downright shocking for network television. Most critics will despise, but its inherent logic (in accordance with Mercer’s theories) is what makes it such potentially compelling drama.