After an agonizing wait, Netflix has finally announced the premiere date for the third season of Santa Clarita Diet. The premiere date announcement was accompanied by a video of episode clips edited into wedding vows. The significant changes: Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore) adds “and snap off his jaw and feed him his balls” after Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant) utters “to love and to cherish.” She then suggests they’ll be together for the next thousand years or so to which Joel can only reply, “Wow.”
Season three of the zombie-loving comedy will premiere on Friday, March 29, 2019.
“Roses are red. ?
Sheila and Joel’s love is sweet. ?
Santa Clarita Diet Season 3 will soon be here…⏳
Bon Appétit!” ?
In addition to Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant, the cast includes Liv Hewson as Abby Hammond and Skyler Gisondo as Eric Bemis. Barrymore and Olyphant executive produce along with Victor Fresco, Aaron Kaplan, Tracy Katsky, Chris Miller and Ember Truesdell. Fresco is the showrunner and Nancy Juvonen is a producer.
Season one introduced the world to the Hammonds, realtors who find their lives forever transformed after Sheila transforms into a zombie. The series premiered on February 3, 2017. Season two followed on March 23, 2018, and both seasons consisted of 10 episodes.
In Santa Clarita Diet, Joel (Olyphant) and Sheila (Barrymore) are husband and wife realtors leading vaguely discontented lives in the L.A. suburb of Santa Clarita with their teenaged daughter Abby (Hewson), until Sheila goes through a dramatic change sending their lives down a road of death and destruction…but in a good way.
Fox is set to introduce the legal drama Proven Innocent on February 15, 2019. Proven Innocent will air on Fridays at 9pm ET/PT and in support of the series premiere, the network’s released photos and details of what viewers can expect when they tune in.
The cast features a batch of veteran television stars including Grimm‘s Russell Hornsby, Under the Dome‘s Rachelle Lefevre, and Frasier‘s Kelsey Grammer. Frequency‘s Riley Smith, Mad Men‘s Vincent Kartheiser, and The Good Wife‘s Nikki M. James also star in season one.
Two-time Emmy Award winner Danny Strong (Game Change) executive produces along with series creator David Elliot, Stacy Greenberg, and Adam Armus. Armus is the first season’s showrunner.
The Plot:
Proven Innocent follows an underdog criminal defense firm led by Madeline Scott (Lefevre), a fierce and uncompromising lawyer with a hunger for justice. There is no one who understands the power of setting an innocent person free more than Madeline. At age 18, she was wrongfully convicted, along with her brother, Levi (Smith), in a sensational murder case that made her an infamous media obsession, a household name and a national cause célèbre.
Madeline runs the firm with her partner, Easy Boudreau (Hornsby), the very lawyer who helped set her free after 10 years in prison. Their team also includes investigator Bodie Quick (Kartheiser) and communications director Violet Price (James), who runs a true-crime podcast that follows each investigation.
While a hero and a victim to some, Madeline’s bold and bullish tactics earn her a number of enemies – especially Gore Bellows (Grammer), the prosecutor who initially put her away and still believes in her guilt. Despite Bellows’ ceaseless quest to see her behind bars again, Madeline will continue to defend others, even as she fights to maintain her innocence and searches for the real killer in her own case.
Udo Kier plays Konrad, Christoph Waltz plays Dusan and Matt Damon plays Paul in ‘Downsizing’ from Paramount Pictures.
European actor Udo Kier, now living in Palm Springs, has been terrorizing audiences in films since his starring role in Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein in 1973. But that wasn’t his first film. Youngsters probably know him from Madonna’s music video of her song “Deeper and Deeper” from the 2009 album, Erotica.
Udo Kier began life on October 14, 1944 in Cologne, Germany before the end of World War II. That makes him both a Libra and a European by origin. His native language is, of course, German. By the time he was 18 he moved to London to learn English. Because of his piercing blue eyes and startling looks, it was suggested he study acting. He eventually enrolled in some drama classes in 1962 to see what it was all about.
Good luck followed him as he was cast by director Michael Sarne in Road to Saint Tropez in 1966. This was his first film. He picked up a few other films and then was cast in the sensational Mark of the Devil as Count Christian von Meruh in 1970. People ran screaming from the theater and were given vomit bags, like on a plane! The film was so violent and sexually explicit that it was banned from showing in more than 30 countries. Other European films came his way through the early 1970s.
By pure luck, Kier met cult film director Paul Morrissey during a plane flight. It was a fortunate meeting because Morrissey cast him in the horror classic Flesh for Frankenstein in 1973 in 3D. The film was so terrorizing that it got an “X” rating and became a sensation. It was followed by Blood of Dracula in 1974. Although sometimes known as “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Dracula,” he apparently had nothing to do with the films. Kier, himself, became a cult figure, mostly in Europe, and began being known for his horror pictures.
Kier worked extensively in Europe on such favorites as The Blood of Dr. Jekyll (1981), The Island of the Bloody Plantation (1983), and the Columbia Pictures comedy, Moscow on the Hudson (1984), starring Robin Williams.
After filming another 10 or so movies in Europe, he got his big American break in Gus Van Sant’s cult hit My Own Private Idaho (1991), starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. In 1993 he was again cast in a Van Sant film, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, starring Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves.
More American pictures came his way when he was featured with comic Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995) with Dolph Lundgren and Keanu Reeves, Barb Wire (1996) with Pamela Anderson, the box office blockbuster Armageddon (1998) with Ben Affleck, and End of Days (1999) with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In the new decade of the 2000s, Udo Kier has appeared in more than 70 films, both in Europe and in the United States. He has worked with many of the top directors, such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Dario Argento, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, to name only a few.
In recent years, he has had roles in Downsizing with Matt Damon and in Storm: A Star Wars Story. Released in 2018 were Daughter of Mine, Haymaker, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Dragged Across Concrete, and The Painted Bird.
One of the most prolific actors in films, Udo Kier was most recently seen in the Joaquin Phoenix film, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot.
Amazon’s released a new official trailer for the series, Hanna, based on Joe Wright’s 2011 film of the same name. The action thriller which reunites AMC’s The Killing stars Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos will premiere on March 29, 2019 on Amazon Prime Video.
In addition to Kinnaman and Enos, the cast features Esmé Creed-Miles in the title role. Joanna Kulig plays Johanna, Rhianne Barreto is Sophie Quatri, Stefan Rudolf is Rudi, Peter Ferdinando is Lukas, and Katharina Heyer is Elsa. Benno Fürmann, Felicien Juttner, Gamba Cole, Justin Salinger, Khalid Abdalla, Yasmin Monet Prince, and Noah Taylor also star in season one.
Season one was shot in Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Morocco, Spain and the U.K.
The eight episode first season was written by David Farr, co-writer of the original Hanna film. (Anna Ingeborg Topsoe penned the script for episode five.) Sarah Adina Smith, Jon Jones, Amy Neil, and Anders Engstrom each directed two episodes.
NBCUniversal International Studios, Working Title Television, and Amazon Studios produced the series. David Farr, Tom Coan, JoAnn Alfano, Andrew Woodhead, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, and Scott Nemes executive produced.
A scene from ‘Hanna’ season 1 (Photo Courtesy of Amazon)
The Plot:
Raised in total seclusion in the remote woods of Eastern Europe, 15-year-old Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles) has spent her entire young life training to fight those who hunt her and her mercenary father, Erik Heller (Joel Kinnaman). Her survivalist skills are finally tested when she and Erik are separated upon their discovery by a rogue CIA operative, Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos) and her team of agents.
Hanna has no choice but to embark on a perilous journey alone across Europe as she seeks to reunite with her father and evade – and ultimately take down – the dangerous agents who target them. Hanna’s isolated upbringing leads her to face particularly daunting physical and emotional challenges along the way, as she navigates an ever-deepening conspiracy – one that could be the undoing of both her and her father.
While building on the driving action-conspiracy narrative of his feature script, Farr has also reimagined Hanna’s world for the small-screen with compelling intimacy. Having a wider, longer scope in which to tell her story, Farr has woven a compelling coming-of-age story about a young woman learning about – and experiencing – for the first time what it is to be female in the modern world. Her strength and power as a trained fighter doesn’t preclude her from navigating the awkwardness of her burgeoning sexuality, changes in her body, relationships and other challenges that remind the audience that, underneath Hanna’s grit, is a young woman who ultimately yearns to feel normal.
“Why can’t I fix this?!” exclaims an extremely upset Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) as she’s been reversing time to try to save members of Team Flash while Barry (Grant Gustin) is in the Speed Force in season 5 episode 14 of The CW’s The Flash.
Episode 14 titled “Cause and XS” begins with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) finalizing the meta cure and checking out Kamilla’s photos on her professional photographer’s website. Unfortunately, he’s forced to breach back to S.T.A.R. Labs with some bad news. In order for the cure to work, they have to wait for it to synthesize and that will take 29 days. Barry’s not okay with this news saying if Cicada (Chris Klein) goes after another meta or comes after them, they need the cure to be ready.
Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) suggests Barry can speed up the process by taking the cure into the Speed Force, which would reduce the wait to only an hour according to Cisco and Caitlin’s (Danielle Panabaker) calculations. Barry suits up and prepares to enter the Speed Force and Nora follows her dad. However, Barry doesn’t need her help and won’t let her handle this task. Nora’s nervous for Barry to be gone for an hour. “The city will have no Flash for an hour,” she reminds him, and he assures her he trusts her to protect the city and the team while he’s gone.
Nora heads back to the cortex and spots Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) looking for Cisco. She says she hasn’t seen him but thinks he’s in the cortex. Ralph finds Cisco and wants to discuss his date with Kamilla. It turns out Ralph’s been cyberstalking her and Iris (Candice Patton) has heard enough, excusing herself by saying she has an article to write.
Once at her office Iris is kidnapped by Cicada. She wakes up on the rooftop and Cicada reveals he knows who she is and that she’s part of Team Flash. “You said you were going to beat me, but I’m going to beat all of you tonight,” he warns.
Meanwhile, Cisco meets Kamilla at Jitters and since he’s let Ralph get into his head, instead of being himself he tries to act like a hotshot business tycoon which turns Kamilla off right away. Cisco receives a text alert during their lousy date and apologizes, explaining he has to go and asking for a do-over date. Kamilla doesn’t seem that into the idea of another meet-up.
An alarm goes off at S.T.A.R. Labs and Nora speeds herself and Killer Frost to the roof where Cicada’s holding Iris. Cicada has already thrown his dagger which is on its way back to him like a boomerang. It comes flying up behind Killer Frost who’s about to unleash an icy blast at Cicada when she gets stabbed in the back by the dagger and falls dead. “Caitlin!” screams Nora, speeding off and reversing time to when she was at S.T.A.R. Labs right after Barry went into the Speed Force.
Nora heads to the cortex, sees Ralph looking for Cisco, exchanges the same words with him, and then enters the cortex to see Caitlin alive and well. (WHEW!)
This time when Iris is about to leave for her office, Nora suggests she work in the lounge. Nora claims Barry would be back by the time Iris gets to her office. Plus if she stays, she’ll make her some coffee. Iris agrees to stay put.
Cicada goes to Iris’ office but doesn’t find her. He checks next door only to find Ralph in his office. Ralph sends an alert before getting knocked out and brought up to the roof. Again, Cisco’s date goes badly as this time he acts like a gym rat and once again he gets an emergency text.
S.T.A.R. Labs’ alarm blasts and Nora speeds off with Killer Frost to save Ralph. Again, the dagger’s coming up behind them but Ralph yells at them to move. Nora shoves Killer Frost out of the way just in time for it to miss Frost and land in Ralph’s chest, killing him. “Ralph!” calls Frost before battling with Cicada. Nora’s forced to speed off – again – reversing time to the spot where Barry just entered the Speed Force. (It’s The Flash version of Happy Death Day…groan).
Each time Nora tries to save a member of Team Flash, a different member ends up dying up on the roof including Vibe and even Cecille (Danielle Nicolet). Also with each do-over Cisco has yet another disastrous first date (which is the best part of the episode). He begins having vibes of past dates and eventually figures out Nora’s messing with time.
Not knowing how to fix things, Nora decides to go into the Speed Force and bring Barry back so he can save the day. However, the Speed Force won’t let Nora in. Finally out of ideas and desperate, Nora enters the cortex and before she can tell Team Flash what’s been happening Iris asks her daughter, “You’ve been reversing time, haven’t you?”
Nora comes clean and tells them why and that no matter what she does, someone from Team Flash dies. They ask how many times she has reversed time and she says 52. Nora, upset, decides the best option is to pout in the pipeline.
Cisco finds her and admits he should have realized sooner what she was doing because of the déjà vu, but his break-up from Gypsy left him feeling unsure of himself. He confesses he had 52 horrible first dates because he wasn’t being himself. This gives Nora the idea to go through her journal where she kept notes about her 52 attempts to see what she needs to do to fix everything. She also works with Team Flash – finally – to come up with a plan, which they do.
Sherloque figures out that with Vibe and Killer Frost’s powers working against Cicada as a distraction, Nora must focus and control her power. She has to slow it down to be able to stop Cicada’s dagger.
Iris lures Cicada to the rooftop as bait while Vibe, Elongated Man, and Killer Frost breach through with two breaches and their powers aimed at Cicada. XS uses the two breaches to position herself and slow down time so that Cicada’s dagger will miss Team Flash. They’re exiting through a breach as the dagger heads for them, and it ends up wounding Cicada who flies off.
So with Cicada off licking his wounds once again, Team Flash encourages Cisco to go on his date, albeit late. Ralph tells him he can handle it and to be himself. Barry returns from the Speed Force and sees everyone’s faces. “Something happened while I was gone, didn’t it?” he asks.
Over at Jitters, Cisco meets Kamilla and is just himself which works like a charm. Seems Kamilla is into his nerdy passion for his tech toys and the newest project he’s working on.
Nora fills Barry in on what happened and he warns her about the dangers of time travel. Barry gives Nora the same speech Jay Garrick gave him in season three, using a coffee cup to show that once he phases and breaks it, even when he pieces it back together there will still be cracks in it. The same with time changing. It changes things and events, especially around those you love. “We’re not gods, Nora. We’ve just been given extraordinary abilities,” says Barry.
Sherloque starts to make a breakthrough decoding Nora’s journal code.
The last scene takes place in 2049. Nora visits Thawne, worried about making things worse with the time travel. Thawne reveals he’s the only one who knows how to change the timeline and not have it backfire. Thawne tells Nora to stick with his plan: destroy Cicada’s dagger and then save Barry Allen.
The Flash Season 5 Episode 14 Review:
For the second time this season the writers sidelined Barry so that Nora could be the focus and struggling hero. Again, this isn’t a good move because it doesn’t even feel like the same show when Barry’s not front and center. The show is called The Flash after all, not Daughter of The Flash. Also as talented an actress Jessica Parker Kennedy is, she’s not ready to take center stage as the main hero the way Grant Gustin does as Barry. Nora comes off like a whiny, well-meaning kid in this episode and fails to convey the sense of panic, fear, and desperation she should be feeling trying not to lose a member of Team Flash to Cicada’s dagger while her dad is in the Speed Force.
As far as originality, the writers seem to be mimicking the main plot from films like Happy Death Day and Edge of Tomorrow for this episode. Also, repeating dialogue and scenes that were originally done in earlier seasons comes across as tired, repetitive, and uninspired. A perfect example of this is the speech Barry gives Nora that Jay gave him in season three…only two seasons ago.
When The Flash returns from its mini-break on March 5th, it will be with the big match-up fight between King Shark and Gorilla Grodd. Now, that’s original. Can’t wait.
The opening of the official teaser trailer for Frozen 2 has a Game of Thrones-ish vibe, if you replace Elsa with Daenerys standing on the shore and facing unknown dangers. The foreboding ocean waves that pound the shore in front of Elsa are incredibly realistic looking. In fact, it appears Disney animators have taken their work to a whole new level throughout the two minute teaser.
Disney’s new video for the much anticipated sequel finds Elsa attempting to cross the ocean and Kristoff and Swen leading a herd of charging reindeer. We also see Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff together before the trailer ends with Anna grabbing Kristoff’s sword and facing off against an unseen enemy. No Olaf, but that’s okay for an early teaser trailer.
The official teaser wasn’t accompanied by a detailed – or even brief, for that matter – plot description. What is known is that Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad are back as the voices of Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf. The Oscar-winning team of Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck also returned to direct the sequel, and Peter Del Vecho returns as a producer. New catchy tunes will be provided by Oscar winners Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
The first film opened on November 27, 2013 and took in $400+ million domestically over its theatrical run. Frozen collected an additional $875+ million from foreign markets, leaving theaters with a grand total of $1.2 billion. It also collected two Academy Awards in the Best Animated Feature Film of the Year category and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song category. In addition, Disney added a Golden Globe, two BAFTA Awards, two Critics’ Choice Awards, two Grammys, and an Alliance of Women Film Journalists award to its lengthy list of film honors.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen 2 will be released in theaters on November 22, 2019, just in time to drive parents crazy over the holidays with more impossible to get out of your head songs.
Valentine’s Day always baffles me. I can never understand why a saint who was clubbed to death and beheaded was deemed the perfect person to represent a manufactured holiday for love and romance. Unless the idea of losing one’s head is what most people equate with how love affects them.
Since I do not react well to the saccharine sentimentality of this holiday, I have come up with what I consider the perfect antidote to the dopey romantic slop – Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle, The Notebook – that often gets served up for Valentine’s Day. I will confess a weakness for romantic comedies made in the ’30s and ’40s but very few romantic films from more recent decades have touched my heart.
For this Valentine’s Day I have composed a list I’m calling Impossible Love because it’s all about romance between monsters and human where there are distinct challenges to the two protagonists actually getting together. You think Romeo and Juliet had it tough, well at least they were the same species.
If you want a less traditional way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here are the perfect films for you. Please note there are some spoilers.
King Kong (1933)
There is no greater love story in the monster world than the unrequited love Kong had for the lovely Ann Darrow (Fay Wray). He risked all for her and sacrificed his life to prove his love. This pre-Code Hollywood film had a naughty scene of Kong undressing Fay Wray and sniffing her suggestively. Not sure where that would have ended up had they not been interrupted but the big ape had an obvious crush on the blonde ingénue.
It took me years to understand why I always hated Wray but I finally realized it was because I never forgave her for not insisting Kong pick her back up in order to make the planes stop shooting at him atop the Empire State Building. Over Kong’s dead body Carl Denham proclaims that it wasn’t the planes that brought down Kong, “It was beauty killed the beast.” I don’t cry at movies but I always cry at this. As a kid, I fell in love with Kong and could not understand why Wray’s Ann kept screaming her head off and trying to get away from Kong. This is the ultimate tragic monster love story and perfect for a romantic evening.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
In 1931, James Whale created a compassionate portrait of Frankenstein’s monster. He gave us a monster that was lonely and easy to feel empathy for. In Frankenstein, the Monster never experiences love and is rejected by his father/creator. But when he’s brought back for a sequel called Bride of Frankenstein, the doctor tries to address the Monster’s need for companionship and creates a female creature from dead body parts to be his mate. But when she comes to life, she’ll have none of her arranged “marriage” and rudely rejects the Monster.
This is yet another tragic monster love story that is effectively moving in its portrait of an undead creature desperate for some kind of love. Boris Karloff as the Monster and Elsa Lanchester as his bride are superb. Technically this isn’t a monster and human romance but it’s close and it is such a beautifully tragic tale of love. But if this isn’t happy enough for your Valentine’s Day then try Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein where Peter Boyle’s Monster gets to hook up with Madeline Kahn’s Elizabeth with much better results.
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)
The Creature sets his sights on Julie Adams’ sexy scientist Kay Lawrence but once again the monster finds his love unrequited. There’s a moment that suggests their impossible love as Adams (in her famous white bathing suit) swims suggestively above the Creature in his Black Lagoon. He mirrors her every move in a romantic even erotic water ballet. He chases her throughout the whole film and even gets a hold of her a few times. And even though Kay expresses fear whenever she sees the Creature, she does convey a certain underlying compassion when she is on the boat listening to the sounds of life from the lagoon.
The other scientist dismisses the sounds as “hunting calls” of animals out for the kill. But Kay has a more poetic interpretation suggesting, “Some of them are cries of fear like people who whistle in the dark.” In a sense, this Creature of the Black Lagoon represents a dark sexual yearning that a ’50s heroine just wasn’t ready to embrace.
La Belle et la Bête (1946)
This is perhaps the most lushly romantic monster film of all time. Jean Cocteau enchants us with this fairy tale about Belle (Josette Day), a beautiful young woman who shows her devotion to her father by volunteering to take his place as the prisoner of the mysterious Beast (Jean Marais as a most stunning and attractive Beast). The Beast of course falls in love and wants to marry Belle but her initial response is fear and repulsion. But over the course of the film his kindness, desire, and tragic soul win her love.
In expected fairy tale fashion, the Beast gets to turn into a Prince before marrying Belle and taking her to some heavenly future. But Belle expresses what appears to be her own and the audience’s initial dissatisfaction at the transformation when upon seeing the Prince she sweetly and sadly asks where is her Beast. There is a happily-ever-after ending but it is not one that has a victory for the monster.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Guillermo del Toro’s film is almost like a reaction to all the films already mentioned. Del Toro has clearly expressed his own love for the monster starting with the one created by Mary Shelley and James Whale. Although the characters of these early horror films did not openly express a love for the monster, del Toro and many of us in the audience felt immediately drawn to the monsters and creatures on the screen. The Shape of Water serves up a valentine to all those monsters who didn’t get the love they deserved.
In del Toro’s film, Sally Hawkins not only rescues Doug Jones’ amphibious monster (an homage to the Creature From the Black Lagoon) but she falls in love with him. In del Toro’s enlightened film the monster does not have to change in order to get the girl. Instead, she discovers something in herself that allows her to live happily ever after with the creature. The film also allows for the consummation of their love that was only implied in The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
I had to include one werewolf film but was torn as to which one. The original The Wolf Man from 1941 has the great Lon Chaney, Jr. but Chaney was less of a romantic monster than Oliver Reed’s highly sexualized werewolf in this bodice-busting Hammer film. The British Hammer Films specialized in boldly colored horror films in the ’60s and ’70s that emphasized blood and heaving bosoms. Reed makes a very sexual, attractive, and of course tragic werewolf hero. Another contender for this spot is An American Werewolf in London.
Fido (2006)
Similarly, I could not do a monster romance list and ignore zombies. Perhaps the zombie like the werewolf is more human than some of these other monsters on this list because both begin as human beings. The werewolf suffers from a curse that forces him to change whereas the zombie is infected by a bite or virus of some sort.
Warm Bodies is clearly a rom-zom-com with a very attractive Nicholas Hoult as a zombie who is brought back to his humanity through love, but the zombie romance I am going with is the Canadian Fido. The reason for this is that Fido (played to perfection by Billy Connolly) doesn’t have to change back to human form or be “cured” to get the love of Carrie Anne-Moss’ perfect suburban housewife. She realizes the shortcomings of her spouse and chooses the family pet zombie over him. A smart, brainy choice.
Swamp Thing (1982)
Wes Craven’s film, based on the comic book by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, is a precursor to del Toro’s The Shape of Water. In less romantically poetic terms Craven gives us a film where the monster is sympathetic and wins the love of the girl. In this case, though, Swamp Thing was once human and a scientist, and he knew the girl (the luscious Adrienne Barbeau) when he was in his human form.
Swamp Thing recalls The Creature From the Black Lagoon as well as Frankenstein, and reveals the more modern trend of making the love between a human and a monster more overt and acceptable. I could have also mentioned either of the two versions of The Fly (1958 or the David Cronenberg remake in 1986) for films about scientists who transform into monsters and how that affects their relationships with the women who knew them when they were human. But The Fly films are more about the agony of seeing a loved one transformed into a monster that loses his humanity whereas Swamp Thing feels more like a monster romance film so that’s what got it on this list over The Fly movies.
Hellboy I and II (2004 and 2008) Guillermo del Toro gets a second spot on this list because Hellboy gives us a pair of monster love stories in these films. First, we get Hellboy (the great Ron Perlman who also played the TV monster in the ’80s series Beauty and the Beast) and Liz (okay she’s not entirely human) who despite being out of the ordinary they have a relationship that is all too mundane in its petty day-to-day problems. That’s part of the charm of this romance; it’s rooted in the real world despite all the supernatural elements. And in Hellboy II the couple has to cope with impending parenthood while Hellboy’s sidekick Abe Sapien gets a chance to fall in love too.
La Bête (1975)
To end this list here’s an odd erotic French film from Polish filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk. The film begins with an explicit and lengthy scene of horses copulating. That is a none-too-subtle foreshadowing of what’s to follow. A young woman and her aunt arrive at the crumbling mansion of her husband-to-be. There they discover strange rumors about the family’s past and tales of a beast. The sight of the horses mating along with the young woman’s awakening sexual desires leads to a series of scenes that are either a dream fantasy or perhaps a flashback to the roots of the family curse. But either way, the viewer is exposed to some soft-core porn of a woman having sex with a very well-endowed beast.
This is less a love story/romance and more a sensational look at repressed desires and bestiality. We get a Cardinal rendering his verdict on the events by saying, “copulating with an animal is the most odious crime because it debases man created in the image of God. It is most contrary to the laws of nature.” Well, all these tales of impossible love seem to challenge those laws of nature with varying results. But any one of them is a far more romantic film than what Hollywood generally serves up as romance for Valentine’s Day.
The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico season one episode four ended with Michael confessing to murdering Rosa and the other girls. We pick up the story in season one episode 15 with Isobel (Lily Cowles) waking up in the middle of the nowhere, stunned and confused.
Max (Nathan Dean Parsons) tells Michael (Michael Vlamis) he’s not going to let him turn himself in. Max doesn’t want his brother to expose the whole family, aware if Liz finds out what happened that’s it for the family. Noah (Karan Oberoi) arrives to interrupt their conversation, looking for his wife. She didn’t come home and he knows that means she was with her brothers. Max and Michael lie and say she spent the night with them, and then begin their search for her location in earnest after Noah leaves.
Over at the hospital, Kyle (Michael Trevino) is impressed with Liz who’s dressed very professionally. She’s going for an interview for the position he told her about. Kyle’s distracted by a box of his dad’s things, still unsure if there was anything going on between his dad and Rosa. He decides he needs to concentrate on work for now, and they agree to stop the murder investigation until they have more time. Or at least Kyle thought they agreed…
Liz (Jeanine Mason) goes through the box after Kyle leaves the room and spots a tape recorder with a note saying the recordings are from the night Rosa died. She’s listening to it and learning nothing when she’s called into the interview. She’s impressed with the work being done and says it’s all she’s ever wanted to be involved with.
Following the interview, Liz continues to listen to the recordings. It’s a series of 911 calls, most of which are not actual emergencies. Then she hears a caller saying he’s working on a documentary in the mines and can see people floating in the desert. He describes the floaters as three teenagers.
Back at the café, Liz plops down opposite local alien conspiracy theorist Grant Green (Peter Diseth) while he’s doing his podcast. Liz recognized his voice as the person who called in the floating teens and she demands to know what exactly he witnessed. She then confesses she believes him and asks for the video. When he claims it doesn’t exist, she reminds him he said he was making a documentary. He continues to protest, enigmatically suggesting people who talk wind up dead and then hustles out of the café.
Kyle shows up at an isolated cabin with a keychain etched with the same design as is carved into the cabin’s door. The key doesn’t work and as he picks up a piece of wood to break a window, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) appears and catches him by surprise.
Meanwhile, Noah’s still hunting for his wife. He runs into Liz outside a theater that is being renovated into Grant Green’s UFO Emporium. They introduce themselves and then Noah reveals that if Liz is into aliens, she can visit Grant’s storage facility. He’s sure Grant will give her a tour.
Inside the cabin, Kyle explains he just wanted to know what happened to his dad’s old cabin. Alex is surprised that Kyle didn’t know Kyle’s dad, Jim, left the place to him. Kyle wonders why his dad would have done that, but Jim died before Alex could ask him. Alex returned from serving in Iraq to discover the place was now his.
Kyle asks to look around to see if he can find the lock that the key belongs to. Alex leaves, telling him to go nuts.
Michael and Max continue their search out in the desert by an old windmill. That’s where Isobel’s car was picked up, and the brothers argue about whether Isobel is in trouble or is the trouble. Max believes she’s freaking out over the Liz stuff, and Michael asks him to call their sister. He does so by simply using his mind and figures out her location is nearby.
Max and Michael race to retrieve their sister. Isobel’s in bad shape when they get to her and she’s still confused as to how she got there. She admits “it’s happening again, just like before.”
Alex returns and Kyle’s sitting on the floor goofing off with a fishing rod. They reminisce about old times, their childhood, and how Kyle became a jock and stopped hanging around with Alex. Alex was gay and that just wasn’t cool with Kyle’s circle of friends.
As they’re talking, Kyle discovers a hidden door in the floor. Neither knew about it and Alex jokes that now’s the time in most horror films when the audience would be screaming at the screen for the heroes not to open the door. Kyle’s not worried, but Alex worries there might be actual skeletons buried in the cabin.
Kyle lifts the hatch door and they see a ladder leading into a basement. They climb down to find a bedroom furnished for a female occupant. Max admits he’s at the cabin looking into Rosa’s death. He also admits he believes his dad and Rosa were having an affair. Alex finally confesses the reason Kyle’s dad left him the house was because Kyle was fine and he wasn’t. Jim knew what Alex was going through and wanted to help him. Alex is positive Kyle’s dad would not have taken advantage of a teenage girl.
Kyle and Alex find supplies for detoxing. Maybe that’s what Jim was hoping to do for Rosa. Alex spots a locked chest that could match Kyle’s key. They open the lock and inside are a child’s belongings. There’s also a photo of Jim holding Rosa as a baby. Kyle figures out his dad didn’t have an affair with Liz’s sister, he had an affair with Liz’s mom. Rosa was Jim’s daughter!
Kyle apologizes for dragging Alex into this situation. Alex believes Jim was a father to any child who needed him. He was a decent man, unlike his own father.
Liz breaks into Grant’s storage facility and finds the usual alien memorabilia. An old-time radio broadcast starts playing and she doesn’t realize Grant is behind her with a gun. Grant quickly calms down and Liz reveals she’s seen things and now believes him. She really wants to see his film, but he then explains he was a peyote documentarian and was tripping out of his mind when he called 911.
Liz thinks that because Grant was high, he wasn’t a threat. No one needed to silence him. She goads him into revealing who might have wanted him silenced and he reveals two men showed up later and he gave them a videotape. He adds, “Of course, it wasn’t THE tape.”
Grant shows Liz the video and one of the teens is Rosa. Grant explains he took the money instead of revealing the truth about what happened in the desert. Liz then figures out Grant’s being paid to spout fake alien conspiracies while keeping the truth secret. She demands to know who’s paying him and just then a shot rings out. As they hide from the shooter, Grant runs down the list of people who’ve been killed because they knew about the alien crash. The list includes Rosa and Kyle’s dad, Jim.
Isobel feels slightly better and realizes Michael didn’t turn himself in. She admits she was probably just exhausted from trying to get Liz out of town. She slips up and reveals she had done it once before but it’s harder this time. Michael attempts to cover for his sister but Max quickly realizes Isobel has done this to Liz before and that’s why she left town all those years ago.
“You made Liz leave. After Rosa, after high school…she didn’t abandon me. You sent her away,” says Max, stunned by their deception. Isobel explains she was just trying to help Max, thinking he just had a crush on Liz – they didn’t understand Max loved Liz. In yet another heartbreaking scene involving Max, he reveals he didn’t think he deserved a goodbye since Liz just took off without explanation. Max demands Isobel locate Liz using her mind connection, and Isobel figures out where Liz is and that she’s in trouble. Michael hands over his gun and Max heads off to the rescue.
Liz and Grant are pinned down by the gunman who reloads and continues to search through the rows of shelves. Liz sneaks up on him and uses an alien statue as a weapon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t knock him out and he’s able to turn the tables and knock her out.
The gunman, who Liz recognizes as Wyatt, begins spreading gas around outside the storage area where he now has Liz locked in a wooden box. He soaks the box and sets it on fire. Liz manages to kick it open and runs toward her car, just as it explodes in a massive fireball.
Max grabs her as she runs and she hugs him, telling him Wyatt Long attacked her.
Max and Liz find Grant with a bullet through the middle of his forehead. As they’re trying to escape, Wyatt shoots Max in the shoulder and Liz places her hands over the wound. Wyatt’s also been shot. The police arrive and haul Wyatt into their car.
The next we see, Max has already returned home after leaving the hospital quickly. He did self-surgery and Liz asks to look at the wound. He claims to be fine as he tries to figure out what Wyatt was thinking. He’s a racist but not a killer.
Max asks why Liz is helping him, and she says it’s because he showed up when she needed him.
Back at the cabin, Alex spotted the star design from the keychain and the cabin door on the lamp in the basement. He didn’t tell Kyle what he discovered, but now that he’s alone he investigates. Turning on the light causes the pattern to appear on the wall, and he picks up his cane and hammers through the wall in the middle of the design. A hole appears and inside is an object with alien writing on it.
Noah finally tracks down Isobel at Michael’s place. He believes there’s another man, but Isobel assures him there isn’t. He empties a sack filled with bottles of nail polish remover and begs her to tell him what’s going on. When she doesn’t open up, Noah says he can’t do this anymore. She apologizes but it’s not enough. He hands her a bag with her clothes and tells her he needs time.
Kyle’s back at the hospital, devastated by his recent discoveries. His hand shakes as he pushes the box of his dad’s possessions off the desk, and then breaks down crying.
Now alone, Isobel and Michael admit they’re simply tired of all the lies. Isobel’s upset that everything she does is an act and that her own husband doesn’t know her. Michael believes it’s time they tell the people they love the truth.
Liz confesses she was scared for Max and holds his hand. She also confesses she knew she was safe when he showed up. However, her gut tells her not to trust him. Max explains love makes you do crazy, terrible, beautiful things. The heart isn’t logical, and it makes you do illogical things.
Liz senses he’s not talking about her and instead is talking about Rosa. She deduces that Max didn’t kill Rosa; someone he loved did. She knows Michael had a hurt hand back then and it dawns on her that’s why the bodies were floating outside the cave. Michael had to move them with his mind since he couldn’t use his hand. Liz tosses the photo of her dead sister with the handprint across her face in front of Max. He’s incredulous and says, “The mark. How is that possible?”
Over at Michael’s place, Isobel is shocked there are still more secrets between the siblings. Michael’s poker face sucks and he finally admits he didn’t kill the girls, reminding Isobel she has always known who did. Isobel, eyes wide and glistening, backs away from her brother while denying she knows who murdered the three girls.
Liz has a flashback to Max’s hand over her own mouth and realizes his hand couldn’t have left the mark on Rosa. Max’s hand is too big. Michael’s was broken so that means Isobel did it. Max finally admits that’s the truth.
ABC’s given their new comedy/drama/action series Whiskey Cavalier the time slot immediately after the 2019 Oscars to show off its first episdoe. The special sneak peek will air on Sunday, February 24th at 11:35pm ET and 10pm PT (that could be pushed back, depending on how long the Oscars run.) The series will then air the series premiere once again on February 27th in its regular time slot of Wednesdays at 10pm ET/PT.
The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan and Scandal‘s Scott Foley lead the season one cast as Frankie Trowbidge and Will Chase. Ana Ortiz plays Susan Sampson, Tyler James Williams (also a Walking Dead alum) is Edgar Standish, Vir Das is Jai Datta and Josh Hopkins plays Ray Prince.
Series star Scott Foley is also involved as a producer. The Warner Bros. Television production is executive produced by Bill Lawrence, Jeff Ingold, and writer David Hemingson. Peter Atencio directed the pilot and is also on board as an executive producer.
The Whiskey Cavalier Plot:
The series follows the adventures of tough but tender FBI super-agent Will Chase (code name: “Whiskey Cavalier”). Following an emotional breakup, Chase is assigned to work with badass CIA operative Frankie Trowbridge (code name: “Fiery Tribune”). Together, they lead an inter-agency team of flawed, funny and heroic spies who periodically save the world – and each other – while navigating the rocky roads of friendship, romance and office politics.
Scott Foley, Lauren Cohan and Tyler James Williams in ‘Whiskey Cavalier’ (ABC/Larry D. Horricks)Ana Ortiz, Scott Foley, Vir Das, Lauren Cohan and Tyler James Williams in episode 1 (ABC/Larry D. Horricks)Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan in episode 1 (ABC/Larry D. Horricks)Scott Foley and Vir Das in episode 1 (ABC/Larry D. Horricks)Scott Foley, Tyler James Williams and Lauren Cohan in episode 1 (ABC/Larry D. Horricks)
ABC’s The Good Doctor returns after a two week break with season two episode 15. The new episode titled “Risk and Reward” is set to air on February 18, 2019 at 10pm ET/PT. Episode 15 was directed by series star Freddie Highmore from a script by Liz Freidman and David Renaud.
Guest stars include Daniel Dae Kim as Dr. Jackson Han, Robyn Lively as Diane Monroe, Peter Benson as Nigel Monroe, Ravi Kapoor as Minesh Goyal, and Joe Adler as Larry Childs.
The series’ season two cast is led by Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy and includes Antonia Thomas as Dr. Claire Browne, Nicholas Gonzalez as Dr. Neil Melendez, Hill Harper as Dr. Marcus Andrews, Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman, and Tamlyn Tomita as Allegra Aoki. Christina Chang is Dr. Audrey Lim, Fiona Gubelmann is Dr. Morgan Reznick, Will Yun Lee is Dr. Alex Park, and Paige Spara plays Lea.
The “Risk and Reward” Plot – Shaun’s blunt honesty with a distraught mother of a critically ill newborn baby causes the new chief of Surgery (Daniel Dae Kim) to question keeping him on as a resident.
The Good Doctor Season 2 Plot:
Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocated to San Jose, California, to join the prestigious St. Bonaventure Hospital’s surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, his only advocate, Dr. Aaron Glassman, challenged the skepticism and prejudices of the hospital’s board and staff by bringing him in to join the team. Shaun’s world has begun to expand as he continues to work harder than he ever has before, navigating his new environment and relationships to prove to his colleagues that his extraordinary medical gifts will save lives.
Freddie Highmore in ‘The Good Doctor’ season 2 episode 15 (ABC/David Bukach)Hill Harper and Tamlyn Tomita in season 2 episode 15 (ABC/David Bukach)Antonia Thomas in season 2 episode 15 (ABC/David Bukach)Nicholas Gonzalez, Will Yun Lee, and Fiona Gubelmann in season 2 episode 15 (ABC/David Bukach)Ravi Kapoor and Nicholas Gonzalez in ‘The Good Doctor’ season 2 episode 15 (ABC/David Bukach)
