I'll tell you up-front that I've been a Star Wars fan ever since I was sixteen when the first movie came out. I was already a Trekkie and sci-fi fan, so I was just mesmerized by the original Star Wars and its colorful universe. You can't underestimate the effect that movie had on many of us. Good sci-fi films and TV shows were relatively rare back then, and special effects were pretty bad. When George Lucas made the first Star Wars movie, he not only created a completely original universe full of unusual aliens, planets, handsome heroes, and butt-kicking heroines, but he actually created new cameras and other techniques still used in film today. His vision was the most important factor driving the films. When Empire Strikes Back came out three years later, it was not only a great sequel but an even better movie.
Riverdale Avenue Books has recently started a new line of books on television and movies, with the first one in the series being The Bingewatcher’s Guide to Doctor Who by Mackenzie Flohr. With Doctor Who being my favorite show currently on television and given the fact that the twelfth season just finished airing, I was really excited to receive the book for review.
Based on a character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg and taken from the comic book series The Sandman and the subsequent spin-off, Lucifer, the television series Lucifer originally aired on FOX for three seasons. After its cancellation, it was picked up by Netflix for a 10-episode fourth season, which arrived today on DVD and Blu-ray (via the Warner Archive Collection).
Sunday AMC premieres its new anthology series, Dispatches from Elsewhere, with the season based on a real-life alternate reality game, that continues with the second episode Monday in its regular time slot. The ten-hour series focuses on four lonely people who are relatively unhappy and missing something in life, until they each find clues leading to a puzzle that’s everywhere around them. Brought together, the four form an unlikely friendship as they accept the challenges and struggle to piece together the mystery that takes them deeper and deeper into a world of possibilities that could change their lives.