In the summer of 1977, when the first Star Wars was released, it went up against a large sword-and-sorcery franchise that had been established for…
CIPC #370: Cheers S5 E15, Spellbound [again]
I have taken a page out of the complete idiot’s guide to Hollywood productions: if you have the material for a strong movie that’s going…
CIPC #369: Cheers S5 E15, Spellbound
Yet another sitcom on the blog. I’ll drink to that! Like so many sitcoms, it ran for well over a decade and had about a…
CIPC #368: Rothmans ad
Hah! I didn’t quit at all! After the utter despair at the end of my last blog post you could have been forgiven for thinking…
CIPC #367: Scorpion S3 E16, Keep it in check mate
Let me start with a quick warning: this is one of the most irredeemably bullshit things we’re seen yet.1 So, Scorpion. It is a show…
CIPC #366: The inspector Alleyn mysteries S1 E3, The nursing home murder
If you want suspense in your murder mystery, you have essentially two options: either you make the victim widely hated, so that you have many…
CIPC #365: Five dolls for an August moon
One of the best things about gialli in general are the wonderfully meaningless but poetic titles: Blue eyes of the broken doll! The case of…
CIPC #364: Horror express
What would you get if Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing played in The Thing?1 A glorious cinematic masterpiece, you would expect, which makes Horror express…
CIPC #363: Van der Valk S3 E12, Diane
Time and time again, when I encounter yet another British detective series with a chess scene, I have to write a paragraph expressing my astonishment…
CIPC #362: Team America: World police
One very popular long running show that hasn’t appeared on this blog so far is South Park. The reason is that, as far as I…