TV

#1122: “I think an ambulance might be a bit optimistic.” – Death Goes by Bus in Murder on the Blackpool Express (2017) [Scr. Jason Cook; Dir. Simon Delaney]

/ JJ / 3 Comments

In much the same way that movies like Murder on the Orient Express (1974/2017) draw in audiences with their roster of famous names, this humorous take on the murder mystery first captured my attention on account of the sheer wealth of British comedic talent it had attracted. But, like, is it any good?

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#1107: “You really are a sly one, Lieutenant.” – Sour Grapes Aplenty in Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm (1973) [Scr. Stanley Ralph Ross; Dir. Leo Penn]

/ JJ / 30 Comments

I’ve not watched Columbo — in which Peter Falk’s eponymous, crumpled Lieutenant outwits murderers the viewer has watched commit and then cover up their crimes — in years, and would probably have gone years more but for stumbling over two references in a week to ‘Any Old Port in a Storm’ (1973) apparently being the very pinnacle of the long-running series. So, let’s take a look.

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#287: The Equivocation of the Fiend That Lies Like Truth – Colloquialisms, Idioms, and Fair Play

/ JJ / 21 Comments

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I’ve spoken a lot about fair play in detective fiction.  I defined it, I defended it (twice, in fact), we voted for the books that best exemplify it, and here we are again.  See, the idea of presentation and declaration (which, yes, I’ve also spoken about before) occurred to me in a new way, and this blog operates on a sort of “Hey, I wonder what people would think about this thing I just thought of?” principle — so here we go…

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#284: Lament for a Maker – Logical Fallacies Abound in The Mentalist Season 1, Episodes 1-8 (2008)

/ JJ / 29 Comments

The Mentalist Season 1

I don’t watch much TV.  I’m not going to be pompous about it, I just don’t.  Recently, however, I came into possession of the complete run — seven seasons, approximately 800 DVDs — of the US show The Mentalist and was intrigued enough to give it a look.  If this is new territory to you, it stars Simons Baker as Patrick Jane, an ex-psychic who following a personal tragedy now helps the seemingly-autonomous California Bureau of Investigation with his keen insight into the crimes they are called to solve.

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#186: On Daemons’ Roost (2016) and the Sad Decline of Jonathan Creek

/ JJ / 44 Comments

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Aware of my fondness for the programme itself and an impossible crime in general, people keep asking me what I thought of the recent Jonathan Creek Christmas special ‘Daemons’ Roost’.  And I keep having to relive it by telling them.  The only sane response is therefore to write it all down here and direct all future enquiries to this post on my blog (which might at least get me some readers…).  I apologise in advance.  This is not going to be pretty.

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