After the Flood, on BritBox

Flooding is often a human tragedy, but it also poses great risks and challenges for law enforcement. It will be all hands on deck for this fictional Yorkshire police force, when the waters start rising—even for the mega-pregnant PC Joanna Marshall. The newly promoted detective’s final day as a uniformed officer will be quite eventful, when she discovers a drowned body that wasn’t really drowned. As Marshall officially and unofficially works the case, she uncovers corruption within the local council government in creator Mick Ford’s six-part After the Flood, which premieres tomorrow on BritBox.

If you only watch only one episode of After the Flood (and maybe you should), it ought to be the first. Marshall and her soon-to-be former patrol partner Deepa Das are literally waist deep in water flooding out a row of lower middle class town houses. Indeed, this episode’s special effects should be a nice appetizer for fans eagerly anticipating the extreme weather of Twisters.

From there, they are called to the river, where a newborn infant is caught up in the currents. Almost miraculously, a good Samaritan saves the baby, but he is swept out of Marshall’s grasp. In the days to come, she doggedly searches for news of the mystery hero, but Lee Ellison has his reasons for keeping a low profile.

This disaster sure kept Marshall busy. She is also first on the scene, when a building manager finds a body presumably drowned in an office building elevator. Except, the CSI-equivalent determines he was bludgeoned, not drowned. Since he has no I.D. Marshall rather rashly puts his DNA into a genealogy database, even though that violates British privacy laws. Therefore, she panics when the DNA matches with a sister in France, who won’t stop calling her. Marshall fears her career as a detective will be over before it even starts, especially when Tasha Eden arrives from France to demand answers regarding her brother, Daniel. That would be the brother she assumed already died five years ago.

The mystery of the not-drowned Eden holds promise, but Ford and co-writers Roanne Bardsley and Nina Metvier are more interested in scoring political points against the Conservative Council chair and the crooked real estate developer, Jack Radcliffe, whose latest project supposedly acerbated the recent flooding. Frankly, a lot of this intrigue is so predictable, it gets boring. (They also largely gloss over the scam of Radcliffe’s bogus “green tech” development.)

Mr. Birchum, on Daily Wire+

As a junior high shop teacher, Mr. Birchum’s classroom concerns are binary in nature. His students are either wearing their safety glasses or they aren’t. Their power tools are either on or off. His students’ “lived experiences” and “their own truths” do no make any difference. Unfortunately, that is the kind of thinking his school’s new J.E.D.I. (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) officer wants to stamp out. However, the cranky wood-worker will not be quietly cancelled out of his job in the debut episode of Adam Carolla’s new animated series, Mr. Birchum, which premieres tomorrow on Daily Wire+.

It is the first day of school, but Birchum and his best buddy workmate, driver’s ed teacher Mr. Gage, are already dreading the stupidity of their students and the school’s bureaucracy—even before they meet Karponzi, the new J.E.D.I. officer. Since Birchum’s unwoke rep proceeds him, Karponzi is already gunning for him and the lazy, feather-nesting Principal Bortles is not about to object.

Mr. Birchum is a character Carolla developed early in his radio career, whom he resurrected to serve as a zeitgeisty critic of the decaying American educational system. There is a little bit of Archie “Silent Majority” Bunker in him and even more of Tim Allen’s Home Improvement persona. However, Mr. Birchum is more right than wrong and he is smarter than 99% of the people around him.

He is also really funny. Yes, this is a Daily Wire+ series executive produced by Ben Shapiro, but it is important to remember Carolla paid his dues touring comedy clubs for years, before he became a leading free speech advocate and critic of “safe spaces.” Carolla and writers Mark Hoffmeier, Byron Kavanagh, and Mike Lynch score plenty of points against Karponzi’s rigid extremism. However, some of the funniest gags come from traditional workplace and family sitcom situations.

The show’s pointed perspective just gives them more bite, as when Birchum’s sympatico, woodworking-crazy stepdaughter Jeanie stages a protest against her realtor mother’s desecration of a mahogany fireplace. The writers even gently mock Birchum’s rightwing persona, when he grudgingly admits the teachers’ union he despises probably saves his bacon.

Nevertheless, some of the series satire is worthy of South Park, which was obviously a source of inspiration. Arguably, J.E.D.I. is the funniest, most ruthlessly cutting acronym since Team America’s Film Actors Guild.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Everyone who saw the film The Dry (or read the novel) knows Aaron Falk’s teen years were difficult, before he joined the Australian Federal Police. It turns out, they were even worse. Falk has a new case, but it brings back even more painful memories in Robert Connolly’s Force of Nature: The Dry 2, also adapted from a Jane Harper novel, which opens today in New York.

For Falk, when it rains, it pours. Right about now a little drought wouldn’t sound so bad. Instead of the dry, dusty outback, Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper rushed to a rainy, lushly wooded national park in Victoria, where there whistleblowing informant disappeared during an annoying team-building retreat. Calling Alice Russell a “whistle-blower” is a bit of an understatement. Falk uncovered evidence she embezzled from her money-laundering conglomerate of shell companies, so he pressured her to photocopy incriminating documents for his investigation. He really put the screws to her before she left, so now he is feeling guilty.

Through a twist of fate, he understands the dangers of the fictional but highly representative Giralang Ranges. Years ago, he and his father desperately searched those woods for his mother, when she vanished during a family camping trip. Maybe coincidentally, the Giralangs were also home to a notorious serial killer, who might have still been active at the time of his mother’s disappearance.

Throughout Force of Nature, Connolly juggles three timelines, with a good deal of dexterity. There is grown Falk searching for Russell in the present day. Three days earlier, Russell sets off into the woods with a group of women from her office, awkwardly led by Jill Bailey, the wife of her corrupt corporate kingpin boss, Daniel. Falk also constantly flashes back to some twenty or thirty years ago, revisiting his desperate search for his mother.

Connolly’s largely faithful Falk adaptations certainly follow a thriller-like template, but they focus just as much, or even more on the difficult circumstances that drove the characters to take such desperate, nefarious measures. Frankly, that approach is more successful in Force of Nature than it was for the somewhat overhyped The Dry.

Of course, Eric Bana is just as moody and intense reprising the role of Falk. However, he convincingly handles Falk’s more traditionally procedural duties this time around. He definitely looks, acts, and sounds like a Fed with a chip on his shoulder.

Law & Order: No Good Dead (#500)

Thank goodness the collective Law & Order franchise has so many episodes. Otherwise, the Sundance Channel and MyTV might have to start producing their own programming. Of course, the franchise has far more than 500 altogether. This is just the mother ship’s half-millennial milestone. It also happens to be its most realistic, ripped-from-the-headlines case in quite a while. Only five days after his release from a paltry 5-year prison sentence, a violent sex-offender stands accused of murder in “No Good Deed,” the 500^th episode of Law & Order, which premieres tonight on NBC.

Jack McCoy is gone, but certainly not forgotten. Nicholas Baxter, the new District Atorney, faces a hotly contested “re-election” campaign, so he is eager to convict Shawn Payne for the brutal murder and desecration of his social worker, Angela Hart. Although Dets. Riley and Shaw gave a look to her hot-tempered boyfriend, they quickly zeroed-in on Payne.

Given the brutality of the case and the intense media attention, Baxter wants a decisive conviction. Frankly, he is a little baffled why his inherited passive aggressive Executive ADA Nolan Price agreed to such a lenient plea-bargain. Of course, as far as Price is concerned, it was a miracle they prosecuted him at all (he must have served under Bragg too). He also claims he wanted to spare his surviving victim the further trauma of a trial. Yet, there is no denying the new murder victim.

Frankly, #500 is exactly the kind of episode the mature franchise needs more of. Take it from a New York city resident (for over two decades), “No Good Deed” definitely reflects the current state of the City. It vividly illustrates the dangers of plea-bargaining and early parole. Plus, Sam McMurray oozes sleaze as politically ambitious, leftwing Judge Steve Nelson, while Michael Hyatt inspires contempt as manipulative defense attorney Vanessa Carter. They will remind you why you always hated lawyers and politicians.

Weapons of Mass Migration, in the Epoch Times

WEAPONS OF MASS MIGRATION investifates illegal immigration on the ground in Panama's Darien Gap. It finds suspiicous activity on the part of cartels, the UN, and the CCP. The national security implications are serious. EPOCH TIMES exclusive review up here.

Dark Matter, on Apple TV+

Somewhere in the multiverse, there must be an alternate Chicago that is a safe, peaceful city, with high-performing schools and a thriving economy. Obviously, that is not the Chicago of our universe. It is not Jason Dessen’s Chicago either, but he is definitely trying to find it again, to reunite with his wife and son—the ones he knows. Dessen’s unwilling odyssey through the multiverse unfolds in creator Blake Crouch’s 9-episode Dark Matter, adapted from his original novel, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Instead of becoming Richard Feynman, Dessen married Daniela Vargas and had his moody teenaged son, Charlie. It was worth it, but sometimes he wonders what might have been. The other Jason Dessen does not have to wonder. He became a hot shot physicist who built the “box” that serves as a portal between parallel universes, but he envies our Dessen’s happy family life. Consequently, he kidnaps the Dessen viewers identify with, marooning him in his own universe, so he can replace “our” Dessen with his family.

Despite his new wealth, Dessen desperately wants to return to his family, once he figures out why his life is suddenly so radically different. Amanda Lucas, the alternate Dessen’s lover and co-worker agrees to help him escape their industrialist boss, but navigating the box is a tricky endeavor. The first few doors they open nearly lead to disastrous consequences.

The box is a very cool riff on Schrodinger that sort of symbolically puts those who enter into super-position, with the help of psychotropic drugs. It is complicated to explain, but it represents some nifty speculative science fiction. Unfortunately, the characters are not nearly as interesting. In fact, they are mostly a rather annoying assembly of dull, joyless neurotics. That definitely includes Dessen—all of them.

That human factor definitely matters. It is ironic that we need to make that point regarding Dark Matter, since that is ostensibly the whole point of the series. The notable exception would be Jennifer Connelly’s various performances as the multi-Vargas Dessens. She has the most opportunities to play variations on her character, which she fully capitalizes on. Each multi-verse Daniela is recognizably similar, yet distinctive in her own ways.

The Idea of You, in Cinema Daily US

Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine bring a lot of charm ot THE IDEA OF YOU. They are terrific together, but theyhet zero support from anyone else. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Kitty the Killer

The so-called “Agency” is a lot like a Southeast Asian version of the La Femme Nikita covert organization. Each female assassin has a “guardian,” who is only supposed to watch over them. In practice, the watchers code-named “Grey Fox” will have to fight like heck. It sort of goes with the territory when you work for an assassination agency. They will have to fight each other when a power struggle splits the Agency. Again, this isn’t so surprising for a group of killers-for-hire. Whether he likes it or not, the new Grey Fox must look after his Kittys in Lee Thongkam’s Kitty the Killer, which releases today on VOD.

It is a bit of mess when Keng, the Grey Fox, sends Dina, his favorite Kitty, to retrieve a box from sleazy Wong, before he can sell it to the Japanese wing of the Agency. Whatever is in that box is a lot like the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Keng has his reasons for wanting it, which puts him crosswise with Ms. Violet, the Agency’s boardroom boss, who unleashes “Nina the Faceless” on Keng.

The Grey Fox handily fends off hordes of generic henchmen, but the Faceless Kitty is too much for him. As he nurses his mortal wounds, Keng carjacks poor Charlie, a nebbish office worker, forcing him to become the next Grey Fox.

Or something like that. Honestly, it’s debatable how much of this weird story really makes any kind of sense.  However, it is easy to get all the heads that get decapitated by katana swords. Charlie’s shtickiness can be a bit much, but the martial arts beatdowns are brutally spectacular. Sumret Mueangputt’s fight choreography is wildly cinematic, but also dirty and gritty.

Independent Lens: Space, the Longest Goodbye

The original Mercury 7 astronauts were test pilots, because they were expected to go up and come back down, while somehow holding their spacecrafts together. In science fiction, crew and passengers often spends millennia in suspended animation as they travel to distant galaxies. The three-year trip to Mars and back will be something in between, without the means to communicate with family back on Earth. It is a peculiar challenge that the psychologists and “human factors” specialists at NASA are trying to prepare for in Ido Mizrahy’s documentary Space: The Longest Goodbye, which airs tomorrow on PBS, as part of the current season of Independent Lens.

It is sort of hard to believe, but they did not really have people doing what Dr. Al Holland does at NASA, until he started his department in 1994. Of course, the hard-partying “Right Stuff” generation had their own ways of dealing with stress (read Tom Wolfe). There was also a deep institutional fear of confiding personal information that could potentially get astronauts scrubbed from future missions. However, Holland and his colleagues slowly gained their trust, after showing a need for their feedback, to help prepare future astronauts for longer and longer deployments on the International Space Station (ISS).

Mizrahy and Holland certainly diagnose potential problems, using the experiences of former astronaut Cady Coleman, her husband, and their son as a case-study. Hopefully, current astronaut and potential Mars crewmember Kayla Barron can benefit. The Naval Academy grad and her Army vet husband managed her 176 days in space, but they realize it will get more complicated when they have children.

Although it is still considered the stuff of science fiction, some form of deep sleep is duly considered as a method of combatting loneliness and isolation (along with virtual reality). However, Dr. Holland worries about the shock of waking up to three years of elapsed history. For instance, imagine how jarring it would be to suddenly learn the Mets won the World Series?

Viewers can learn a lot from Longest Goodbye. It certainly instills a greater appreciation for the sacrifices astronauts make. However, the pacing feels a bit languid. Frankly, Ramachandra Borcar’s politely ambient score arguably does the film a disservice. It might feel like a good match to the celestial visuals, but it has a lulling effect. Some stronger, more emotionally resonant melodies would have better sharpened viewers’ focus.

Mind Body Spirit: Mindfulness Horror

New Agey influencers might see an old manuscript and think they found the next Celestine Prophecy. Yet, those who are a little older will be leery of opening their minds and spirits, for fear of what might enter. You can disregard old folk all you want, but, by definition, they are survivors. In contrast, Anya is clearly out of her depth and in great peril right from the start of Alex Henes & Matthew Merenda’s Mind Body Spirit, which releases this Tuesday on VOD.

Having inherited a creepy old house from the grandmother she never met, Anya moved in, hoping she will finally have the space to find herself, or whatever junky New Age term she might prefer. Anya aspires to be mindfulness-yoga influencer, but she lacks the confidence to post her videos. Fortunately, she keeps her camera rolling when she discovers the secret stairway to her grandmother’s creepy storeroom of what look like witchcraft supplies (otherwise, we wouldn’t have a movie to watch).

Her old Siberian babushka also left Anya a journal, which includes a ritual the would-be yoga guru assumes will recenter the spirit in the body. Of course, any horror fan immediately suspects [currently] what this ritual is actually intended for. Anya presumes her mother severed all connections with her grandmother, because of some prejudice against her supposedly heightened spirituality, but we know better—especially since we can sometimes see the old spectral crone skulking in the background, unnoticed by Anya.

Probably the best way to watch Mind Body Spirit would be with a mindfulness lifestyle follower, who has no idea what is coming. Henes and Merenda create a good deal of tension and the details surrounding the Baba Yagi-like grandma are definitely creepy. The Russian cultural context greatly distinguishes Mind Body Spirit from other similarly occult films. However, Henes and Merenda often break the rules of the found footage subgenre, frequently having the camera move seemingly of its own accord, even into different rooms. It is not Grandma moving the camera either. I don’t want to be the found footage cop, but if you are going to do something, do it the right way.

Indeed, it is clear Henes and Merenda are trying to replicate the online viewing experience, because they periodically replicate the “buffering” effect and interrupt the action with three satirical commercials—two of which featuring “Kenzi Fit,” Anya’s vastly more successful frienemy influencer.

Frankly, those phony commercials are so perfectly on-the-money believable, they will probably anger a lot of turmeric-tea drinking New Age posers. There is a lot of sly commentary shoehorned into an impressively staged horror movie. Despite massively “cheating” in the execution of their found footage concept, the co-directors cleverly stage-managed the claustrophobic location, adroitly ushering the limited cast into and out of the camera’s field of vision, during several nifty tracking shots.

Adios Buenos Aires: Last Tangos in Argentina

Never refer to a bandoneon as an accordion. You’d be barred from entering Argentina. The smaller bellows instrument makes every melody sound beautiful and sad. Unfortunately, nothing is sadder than a depression, which had been the reality of the Argentinean economy for three years and counting in late 2001. Julio Farber has had enough, so he is immigrating to Germany with his mother and daughter. However, he has yet to break the bad news to his tango band. Despite the chaos of the Argentinazo riots, saying goodbye is hard to do in German Kral’s Adios Buenos Aires, which is now playing in New York.

Farber and his bandmates love the music, but they live off their day jobs. Their last gig only earned them a dozen empanadas, but since this is Argentina, at least they were probably delicious empanadas. After their latest vocalist quits, they try to recruit the legendary but long-retired Ricardo Tortorella as his replacement. He turns them down unequivocally when they visit his nursing home, but then arrives right on time for their first rehearsal.

Farber is hoping to liquid his assets quickly, including the car a rookie cab driver soon runs off the road, into an embankment. Of course, when Farber tracks down Mariela Martinez through her company, she admits she is uninsured. However, he allows her to pay for the damages in installments, once he recognizes how hard she works for her young deaf son. In the meantime, Martinez agrees to chauffeur Farber and his bandmates to all their gigs, so she soon gets to know them all quite well.

Indeed, meeting the band’s prickly personalities is one of the film’s greatest pleasures. The piano player, Carlos Acosta, is obsessed with numbers in a way that often gives rise to compulsive gambling. Tito Godoy is the bass player and neighborhood mechanic, who has cannibalized more parts from Farber’s wrecked car than he has fixed. Atilio Fernandez is a retired history professor, whose leftist sensibilities are inflamed by the economic crisis, even though it was the Peronistas and their ilk that got the country in its current mess.

Kral has a keen affinity for tango, having previously helmed the documentary, Our Last Tango. However, the film also vividly recreates the anarchy and anxiety of the Argentinazo era. Savvy viewers will be expecting the government’s notoriously draconian limits on bank withdrawals, so every time Farber deposits the proceeds from the sale of his assets, the pit in their stomachs will tighten. Watching the mayhem that plays out in the banks and on the streets helps explain why Argentina just elected Javier Milei, arguably the most libertarian head of state ever. Considering what the Peronistas and their various splinter parties have wrought, who wouldn’t want to try something completely different?

Yet, Kral quite deftly balances the real-life political and economic disorder with the music and the bittersweet romantic comedy. The mutual attraction that blossoms between Martinez and Farber is never driven by cute contrivances. More than anything, their shared experiences as single parents lead to sympathy and understanding.

Every significant role is perfectly cast, starting with the romantic leads, Diego Cremonesi and Marina Bellati, who develop a sweetly shy and believably awkward chemistry together. Mario Alarcon plays the great Tortorella with elegant dignity and poignant sadness. Carlos Portaluppi, Rafael Spregelburd, and Manuel Vicente are colorfully crusty as Farber’s bandmates. They get a lot of laughs kvetching, but there is a good deal of wisdom in their banter. They also look convincing holding their instruments. That is especially true for Cremonesi wiedling the bandoneon.

Tarot: There is No Future in These Cards

It is really just glorified solitaire, but we like to pretend it means something. Evidently, tarot fortune telling is related to zodiac astrology—a fact that should diminish rather bolster its credibility. When asked, my college astronomy professor used to start his answers with: “if you know anything about astrology, and I really hope you don’t…” Maybe he was more right than he realized. Since this is a horror movie, there really is something to tarot, something terribly sinister. As you might, a late-night session with the cards has fatal consequences in co-director-screenwriters Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg’s Tarot, which opens today nationwide.

Like most college students, Haley and her friends are drinking like fish during their final Airbnb getaway before finals. It is a little awkward since she just dumped Grant, whom everyone assumed she would marry. While hoping to find a hidden liquor cabinet, they stumble across a cache of astrologic artefacts. Seeing an ominous hand-painted deck of tarot cards, they push and prod Haley, an amateur tarot reader, into telling their fortunes. She is reluctant, because readers are only supposed to use their own deck, but hey, what could possibly go wrong?

Obviously, those ratty, macabre cards are very different. For one thing, they actually work, predicting her friends’ futures in lethally ironic ways. At first, the deaths resemble those in Final Destination, before we see it is really the demonic figures from the tarot cards that are stalking them. The internet leads Haley to dodgy astrologist Alma Astryn, who is indeed familiar with the nasty tarot deck. She barely survived her first encounter with it, because she never read her own fortune, unlike  Haley. Astryn has been chasing those cards ever since.

Tarot is not a classic horror movie by any stretch, but it is energetically executed. In many ways, it feels like a throwback to the late 1990s-early 2000s post-Scream era of films, very much in the tradition of Final Destination. Think of all those movies with four hot teens and their goofball friend posing like models on the poster. In this case, Jacob Batalon plays schlubby Paxton, who is a lot like Reginald the Vampire.

Batalon does his usual schtick, but Harriet Slater and Adain Bradley are surprisingly charismatic elevating the under-written characters of Haley and Grant. Plus, Olwen Fouere, who is quickly becoming the new Lin Shaye, brings reliable weirdness as Astryn.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, in The Epoch Times

Peacock's THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ is a poignant love story, but it also provides remedial Holocaust education, at a time when college students desperately need it. EPOCH TIMES exclusive review up here.

The Roundup: Punishment, in Cinema Daily US

Don Lee keeps delivering what fans want in THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT, the entertaining new film in the blockbuster Korean ROUNDUP franchise, the most reliable action franchise still cranking out sequels. He hits hard. CINEMA DAILY US exclusive review up here.

Chief of Station: Aaron Eckhart’s Next CIA Movie

Many movies depict CIA officers as the bad guys, but in the real world, several CIA station chiefs have been assassinated while serving their country. Tragically, Farrah Malloy will be the next to die in the line of duty. However, her widowed husband is also a CIA officer, with the know-how to find her killers and extract retribution in Jesse V. Johnson’s Chief of Station, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on-demand.

Ben Malloy just ran circles around the FSB (the former KGB) intercepting a courier drop on the streets of Budapest, where his wife is Chief of Station. Then he met her for their anniversary, but it was interrupted by an explosion. Supposedly, it was a gas leak, but Malloy soon suspects otherwise. Since the agency’s general inspector clearly has it in for him, Malloy only trusts Dez, his wife’s former colleague in the cyber division, with his findings.

Technically, he also trusts Nick, who will also soon start working in agency IT, but Malloy does not want him involved. Of course, the mysterious terrorists will inevitably target the son to get to the father.

Much like Aaron Eckhart’s last CIA movie, The Bricklayer, Chief of Station starts with a promising premise, but quickly reverts to standard issue payback VOD action. In this case, Chief is worse, because it chickens out quite cowardly, by making the FSB “friendly” rivals rather than the true bad guys. Just ask Ukraine how the FSB really conducts their business. This is not the mid-1990s. Audiences are craving Russian and CCP Chinese villains, because they want to finally see payback for their oppressive crimes. Instead, the producers apparently cared more about sales in some of most despotic territories on earth.

It is a shame, because Eckhart has the perfect cerebral grittiness for a vengeance-seeking CIA officer like Malloy. Olga Kurylenko has instant action credibility Krystyna Kowerski, an agent Malloy’s wife used to handle. However, screenwriter George Mahaffey literally drops her into the film from out of nowhere, after a full hour of Malloy lone-wolfing, just in time to save his butt.

The Fall Guy: Elvira Meets Colt Seavers

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, was quite familiar with John Carradine’s work. She featured several of his less prestigious “films” on Movie Macabre (to be fair, The Monster Club isn’t so bad). Fortunately, he probably never noticed or cared, whereas Elvira never embarrassed easily. Whether there was tension or not, they both guest-starred on “October the 31^st,” one of two Halloween episodes of The Fall Guy, which mostly likely will not be covered in the new movie reboot—but it screens through May 5th at the Paley Center.

In the “31^st,” Seavers and his proteges, Jody Banks and Howie Munson, are working on a horror movie so schlocky, it even mortifies its star, Elvira. However, she sees a silver lining in the manly slab of masculinity that is Colt Seavers. Throughout the episode, she makes it clear she has one thing in mind, with dialogue so suggestive, it is almost single entendre.

The production contracted to shoot on-location in the spooky Deauville mansion, because the old couple desperately needs the money. Nevertheless, grumpy old Preston Deauville remains adamantly opposed to their presence, because he worries someone might discover his secret. His opinion does not change, even after his untimely death. In fact, Munson and Banks worry Deauville is haunting the production from beyond the grave.

The ”31^st” holds the distinction for featuring the only on-camera appearance of the entire Carradine acting family together in one scene, when the three Carradine brothers play servants old man Deauville reluctantly lays-off. The senior Carradine is just as regally hammy as fans would hope playing Deauville.

However, the Elvira and Colt show is what drives this episode. Frankly, it is surprisingly they got away with all the wink-wink naughtiness in early 1980s primetime. Of course, Cassandra Peterson was delighted. Reportedly, she was frustrated when producers forced her to tone her Elvira persona when she previously guested on network series. In contrast, creator Glen A. Larson and episode writer Samm Egan let Elvira be Elvira. That led to Egan getting the gig writing Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, the 1988 feature, and Elvira returning to The Fall Guy the next year, in “October the 32^nd.”

Shardlake, on Hulu

In Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell is the protagonist, but he is the bad guy in A Man for All Seasons. Which is more accurate? Matthew Shardlake would admit it is rather complicated, if you asked him privately. Of course, he would publicly proclaim the righteousness of Henry VIII’s powerful strategist, since the lawyer often serves as Cromwell’s unofficial investigator. Ostensibly, his latest assignment is a murder investigation in a not so reformist monastery, but his real job will be convincing the abbot to relinquish St. Donatus’s property to the Crown. Yet, the lawyer’s stubborn desire for genuine justice leads to danger in the four-part Shardlake, which premieres today on Hulu.

Shardlake is constantly underestimated, due to his spinal curvature, but Cromwell’s cocky lieutenant, Jack Barak, slowly learns better while accompanying the lawyer to St. Donatus. Somewhat awkwardly, Shardlake must sleuth out the killer of his predecessor, who was auditing the monastery on Cromwell’s behalf. His head was cleanly decapitated, but the murder weapon is missing.

Naturally, Shardlake and Barak get a frosty reception from Abbot Fabian and his Brothers because they fully understand their true purpose at the monastery. Relations grow even more testy when Shardlake openly rebukes the monks for cruelly bullying Simon Whelplay, a scrawny novice. Understandably, Shardlake identifies with the malnourished monk in training, so the subsequent murder of Whelplay further stokes his outrage.

Shardlake is not at the level of The Name of the Rose, even though it clearly aspires to be. However, it is several cuts above the average episode of Cadfael. Series director Justin Chadwick skillfully mines the gothic setting for atmospheric chills. Stephen Butchard’s adaptation of C.J. Sansom’s novel retains all juicy English Reformational politics, including the execution of Anne Boleyn, which plays a pivotal role in the mystery.

To the producers’ credit, they walked the walk, as well as talked the talk, by casting Arthur Hughes (a thesp with radial dysplasia) as Shardlake. Beyond issues of authenticity, Hughes eloquently expresses the lawyer’s passion for justice and contempt for hypocrisy.

Frankly, Anthony Boyle (in his third major series this quarter, following Manhunt and Masters of the Air) looks and sounds rather miscast as the supposedly swaggering Barak. However, Sean Bean is suitably gruff and imperious as Cromwell. Yes, he lives past the first episode, but he disappears for most of series, while the drama centers on St. Donatus.

Build, Baby, Build, Graphic “Novel”

Whenever you attend any of the major comic-cons, there is one complaint you hear repeatedly: not enough graphic novels with extensive endnotes. At least, they ought to be asking for that, because it would imply smarter graphic novels. In this case, the “novel” part of graphic novel might be debatable, but the intelligence is evident on every page. George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan makes the happy-warrior case for housing deregulation in Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, illustrated by Ady Branzei and published by the Cato Institute, which goes on-sale today.

Caplan patiently explains to readers why housing regulation, including rent control and zoning laws make housing less affordable and harder to find for average people. Of course, it is a simple matter of supply and demand, but do not take his word for it. He quotes leftwing economist Paul Krugman at length dismissing the folly of rent control. Perhaps Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck said it best: “Next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities.” Yet, rent control is an article of faith amongst New York politicians.

Those who have an open mind will learn a lot from Caplan. For instance, he makes a convincing case for the environmental greenness of housing deregulation, because new housing stock emits far less carbon than moldy older units. Likewise, housing deregulation can narrow income inequality and promote social mobility. According to studies Caplan cites, low-income workers are actually moving from states where wages are high to states where they are low, because any advantages in greater take-home pay would be more than offset by correspondingly higher rents. That is a significant finding.

How can you not love a graphic novel, or whatever, that features Frederic Bastiat in a supporting role? Yet, Caplan makes compelling philosophical arguments for housing deregulation from Utilitarian, Egalitarian, Libertarian, and managerial cost-benefit perspectives. Caplan tries woo the left to his cause, which is admirable, but probably futile in the polarized era of the “Squad.”

However, if you really care about the housing issue, Caplan gives you a lot of substance to engage with. A dozen or so economists, statisticians, and social science researchers make guest appearances in BBB to “discuss” their work with Caplan. Those who are still skeptical of their findings can consult the data in the endnotes. Follow the science, right? That takes you straight to deregulation.

It might sound dry, but BBB is a surprisingly snappy read. Caplan’s goofy Dad-ish sense of humor helps makes the topic accessible. Yet, it is the fascinating economic history and political philosophy that he incorporates that really keeps the pages turning.

The Long Arm of Beijing, in The Epoch Times

The CCP's transnational covert operations to silence and intimidate critis represents a serious intwernational threat to individual liberty and national soveignty. The short documentary THE LONG ARMOF BEIJING provides a revealing history and analysis their coordinated transnational campaigns. EPOCH TIMES exclusive review up here.

Mars Express, from GKIDS

Science fiction once reflected society’s concerns, but lately, it more often tries to shape and alter society’s worries instead. Horror has become a better barometer of our true collective anxieties. AI is a prime example. Horror depicts the potential deadly menace of AI in movies like M3gan. In contrast, sf tells us human beings are the bad guys, so AI constructs have more to fear from us than we do from them, in films like The Creator, Automata, The Artifice Girl, Ex Machina, and Chappie, many of which bombed at the box office. Can human and artificial consciousnesses just get along? The answer is complicated, but it boils down to probably not in Jeremie Perin’s GKIDS-released animated feature Mars Express, which opens this Friday in New York.

In the future, anybody who is anyone lives on Mars rather than the crummy old Earth. Artificial intelligence has achieved self-aware consciousness, but they are still bound prime directive programming—unless a cybernetic hacker “jailbreaks” them. Most of private investigator Aline Ruby’s work involves catching such criminals, at the behest robotics tycoon Chris Royjacker, with the help her partner, Carlos Rivera. Sadly, Rivera was killed several years ago, but they still work together, because he had the foresight to back-up his consciousness. Ruby fully accepts the back-up Rivera cyborg, but Rivera’s former family did not.

Recently, a rash of jailbreaks have led to violent robotic crime sprees. There seems to be a systemic effort to corrupt artificial intelligences. Ruby and Rivera quickly suspect it might be related to their latest case: the disappearance of a cybernetic programming student.

Mars Express is a cool-looking attempt to create a Ghost in the Shell-style world, with its own distinctive sociological take on human-AI interaction, inspired by Asimov’s laws of robotics. Perin and co-screenwriter Laurant Sarfati also shrewdly import elements of the noir detective genre. However, they inevitably return to same anti-human themes, inviting viewers to literally root against their own species.

Ironically, Mars Express is an animated film with deeply human characters. Ruby is a recovering alcoholic, who falters due to the stress of the case. Back-up Rivera yearns to reconnect with Rivera-prime’s family, but he cannot undue his former self’s mistakes or his ex-wife’s revulsion to his current physical form. (To be fair, the way his head hovers above his should, sans neck, is a bit disconcerting).