Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” is a sadly funny film that tells the story of an old man whom no one really knows or cares about. When he falls ill and needs medical treatment, he faces a team of busy doctors who are concerned because they have to be, not because they really care.
The seventh season of “Everybody Loves Raymond” serves up a delightful mix of comedy and pathos as the Barones deal with cults, theft, marriage, and death. The season opener (which aired on CBS in 2002) starts where season 6 ended: with Debra (Patricia Heaton) and Marie (Doris Roberts) feuding, and Ray (Ray Romano) and Robert (Brad Garrett) conjuring up a plan to get them to make up.
Equal parts drama, slapstick comedy, and soap opera, this third season of Las Vegas is all fun. Welcome to the Montecito, a casino and hotel that’s so desirable that the only thing more attractive than its clientele is its smoking-hot staff. Each episode contains some kind of crime–a victim whose kidney was stolen, a woman pretending to be a deceased man’s fiancée, an employee who chops off his own finger and serves it up in a shrimp cocktail. That kind of thing.
“Broken Bridges,” starring country superstar Toby Keith, is the Country Music Channel’s debut entry into the world of feature films. Though it plays more like a televised movie of the week–complete with an opaque plot, much tears, and a happy ending–“Broken Bridges” is a guilty pleasure, thanks in large part to the surprising likeability (though not believability) of Keith.
The sixth and final season of HBO’s prison drama Oz–which aired in 2003–is brutal, passionate, and gritty. Compellingly addictive with taut storylines and superb acting, each of the eight episodes on this 3-disc set nicely paves the way for the series finale, which wraps the show up in a satisfying (and surprising) manner. Often told through the eyes (and voice) of deceased prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau, Lost), Oz isn’t an easy show to watch. Inmates are routinely raped, tortured, and killed–not out of need, but out of boredom and cruelty.
The fourth season of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” finds Will (Will Smith) and Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) as college freshmen trying to fit in on campus. Carlton’s mom, Vivian, who was played by Janet Hubert-Whitten, is now portrayed by the attractive but not-as-funny Daphne Maxwell Reid. And supermodel Tyra Banks shows up as Will’s latest girlfriend, Jackie.
“The Proposition” at times is a difficult film to watch. But thanks to a compelling story by rocker Nick Cave and a supporting cast (including Emily Watson as the Captain’s gentle wife), the film is a classic in the making.
The lives of two stoic cowboys and five abused Chinese women become intertwined in Walter Hill’s sprawling miniseries Broken Trail. Print Ritter (Academy Award winner Robert Duvall) and his nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways) agree to deliver a herd of 500 horses from Oregon to Wyoming. Along the way, they rescue the young women–most of them still just girls–who’re being transported to a brothel to have their virginity auctioned off. When the madam sees she is about to lose the girls, she screams at Tom, “What about my property?” He shouts back, “That’s the price of being a capitalist, lady.”
Created by Dick Wolf, the seemingly unstoppable mastermind behind the Law & Order franchise, Conviction tells the stories of a group of young, driven, and genetically gifted prosecutors working for the New York District Attorney’s office, which is led by Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March). Cabot was last seen as a young gun assistant district attorney herself on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. There she was a crusading and idealistic lawyer fighting to buck a corrupt system. But on Conviction, her character has turned into the type of bureaucrat she used to despise–one who thinks more about the bottom line than the true meaning of justice.
The overall strength of the second season of House, M.D. proves that its first-year success wasn’t a fluke. This season starts with Dr. House (Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie) pursuing his ex-wife Stacy (Sela Ward) and ending with a tragedy that could potentially be deadly for himself and two colleagues. The premise of each show follows a set routine–a patient is brought in with unusual symptoms; House challenges his trio of underlings to diagnose the problem; they treat the patient, usually incorrectly the first few tries; and then at the very last minute–through a revelation that often has little to do with the patient–House figures out what’s wrong and saves the day.