Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Doctor Who (1963) 13.02.01

Planet of Evil - Part One

The Doctor tries to transport himself and Sarah in the TARDIS from Loch Ness to London. They instead land on Zeta Minor roughly 30,000 years in the future. They land there in response to a distress call they receive. There is a scientific mission on the planet looking for resources. Most of the members of the mission are dead, killed by some unknown force. Two more are killed just before the Doctor and Sarah arrive, leaving just Sorenson, the lead scientist.

The two time travelers are found by a Morestran military mission who are there to check in on the scientific mission. The Doctor and Sarah are accused of killing the other members of the scientific mission. They attempt to escape only to find themselves attacked by a ghost like creature.

Bleach 47 / 3.06

The Avengers

Momo Hinamori goes looking for the Shinigami who killed Captain Aizen. Tōshirō Hitsugaya, captain of 10th Division, goes looking for Momo after he learns that she broke out of her cell. He talks briefly to his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, before starting to search for 5th division's lieutenant.

Ichigo continues to train by sparring with Zangetsu. He soaks in a hot spring once Yoruichi decides that he's trained enough for the day.

Hitsugaya runs into Gin Ichimaru and Izuru Kira. He accuses Ichimaru of murdering Captain Aizen but then Hinamori shows up and accuses Hitsugaya of murdering Captain Aizen. Hitsugaya is stunned but sees that she is too distressed to listen to reason. 

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

The Twilight Zone (1959) 1.23

A World of Difference

starring Howard Duff
written by Richard Matheson
directed by Ted Post

Arthur Curtis (Howard Duff) discovers, suddenly, one day that the world he knows isn't exactly what he thinks it is. He is actually an actor named Gerald Raigan. That's what everytone calls him when shooting stops on the movie. He doesn't understand why they keep calling him Gerry. He doesn't recognize Nora, the woman who claims to be his wife. He can't find the home he remembers. He doesn't recognize Brinkley, the man who claims to be his agent.

None of it makes sense to Arthur Curtis. It is like a bad dream for him. Nothing can dissuade him from believing that he is Arthur Curtis. He returns to the studio only to find that the set is being taken apart. He sits back down in the office he knows. His wife Marion enters. He's so happy to see her. He leaves the office with Marion.

Crash Landing on You 1.13

Episode 13

Se-ri and Jeong-hyuk talk about the plans for him to return to North Korea at the end of the World Games, in 5 days. He gives her a ring. He also bought one for himself. She is very moved by the gift. Seo-Dan's mother, Ko Myeong-eun, runs into a couple of women from the village when she returning home. They ask her a lot of questions. She tells them that Alberto (Seung-jung) is her nephew but they don't believe her.

Ko Myeong-eun runs into Alberto when she enters the apartment that was meant for Seo-dan and Jeong-hyuk. He explains that Seo-dan drank too much the night before. When the three of them sit down to eat he explains that he has a crush on Seo-dan even though he knows she loves someone else and is planning to marry that someone else.

Monday, July 20, 2026

Shōgun 1.03

Tomorrow Is Tomorrow

Blackthorne and the others leave Osaka by ship. They encounter many obstacles in getting out away from Osaka. At first it looks like Toranaga is staying behind but he employs a bit of subterfuge to get away from the castle. The deception is discovered before they reach the ships when the Catholic regents send a force to kill Blackthorne.

Buntaro, Mariko's husband, doesn't make it to the boats in time. They don't go back for him. He dies fighting. Once they get to the boat, the same one that brought Blackthorne to Osaka, they discover they have a new problem. There are lots of little fishing vessels in the water filled with men who look ready to board them if they try to get out of the harbor.

Four Star Playhouse 1.19

Shadowed

starring Dick Powell
written by Seeleg Lester, Merwin Gerard, Mary Synon
directed by Robert Florey

Burton Stroude (Dick Powell) learns that Del Martin, a woman with whom he had an affair years before, is on her death bed. He was single at the time but she was not. Del wants to see him one last time. He is hesitant to go. He didn't know that she was married when the affair began.

Rhoda, Burt's wife, already knows about Del Martin, but not because Burt told her. She knows because she opened a letter from Del to Burt, that arrived the day before. Burt and Rhoda talk about it a bit. It hurts her to know that he had such a relationship and never told her about it.

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Ballard 1.03

BYOB

Ballard continues to work the Pearlman case but is forced to spend most of her time on another cold case. The victim was a fraternity pledge who died falling off a second floor balcony in 2006. There was an inconsistency in the injuries which seem to indicate to Ballard that Nick, the cold case victim, might have been involved in an altercation before falling off the balcony. The trail leads them first to some of the other pledges from that year and then to a couple women that Nick slept with.

Samira gets angry with Ballard over how she's handling the disappearance of a piece of evidence. Parker turns to her grandfather, who was also a police officer for advice. Ballard eventually admits she was wrong and that there are signs of a cover up.

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Teen Titans 5.04

For Real

Control Freak escapes from prison and invades Titans Tower only to discover that the Teen Titans are not at home. He leaves but then the Titans East (Bumblebee, Aqualad, Speedy, Más y Menos) arrive at the tower. They are there to keep an eye on the place while the other Titans are off on another mission.

Friday, July 17, 2026

Pearl (2022)

Pearl (2022)

starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet
written by Ti West, Mia Goth
directed by Ti West

102 minutes

Pearl (Mia Goth) lives on a farm with her parents while her husband is in Europe fighting in the First World War. Her father is an invalid. Her mother, a german immigrant, is very strict. Pearl feels trapped. She meets a projectionist (David Corenswet) at the movie theater in town. He encourages her. She has a brief fling with him.

Pearl's mother eventually pushes a little too hard on her daughter. Pearl's life begins to unravel. Pearl turns homicidal. The movie ends with Pearl welcoming home her husband Howard.

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Bleach 46 / 3.05

Authentic Records! School of Shinigami

Momo Hinamori (Lieutenant 5th Division) sits in her jail cell and flashes back to her days in Soul Reaper Academy with Renji Abarai (Lieutenant 6th Division) and Izuru Kira (Lieutanant 3rd Division). She recalls how they met, developed a friendly rivalry with one another, and took part in a training mission that didn't go as planned. Upper classman Shūhei Hisagi (future Lieutenant 9th Division), led them on the mission with a couple other upper classmen. The training area was in the Real World and supposed to be clear of Hollows.

Somehow a big Hollow got into the training area and killed a few Shinigami, including the two other upper classmen. Momo, Renji, and Izuru stepped forward despite having been told to get out of the area, and saved Hisagi from almost certain death. More Hollows appeared but then Sousuke Aizen (Captain 5th Division) and Gin Ichimaru (at that time Lieutenant 5th Division) showed up and dealt with the Hollows.

The episode ends back in the present with Momo, similar to Renji, deciding she's been languishing in a jail cell for too long.

The Outer Limits (1963) 1.20

The Bellero Shield

starring Martin Landau, Sally Kellerman
written by Joseph Stefano, Lou Morheim
directed by 

Richard Bellero (Martin Landau) creates a laser beam that enables an alien to travel to Earth. Richard is fascinated by the alien and shares all kinds of things with him but the alien's time is limited. Richard wants his father, the president of the Bellero Corporation to see the alien. He goes to find his father but Judith, Richard's wife who doesn't get along with her father-in-law, kills the alien before Richard returns his father.

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Star Trek (1966) 2.07

Catspaw

Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, and Mister Spock beam down to Pyris VII in search of Scott and Sulu who have gone missing. Jackson, the only member of the away team to return, was dead when they beamed him back up. Kirk and the others find a castle surrounded by mists. Inside the castle they meet first Korob and then Sylvia. Scot and Sulu are both in the castle but seem to be under the control of Korob and Sylvia.

Kirk unsuccessfully tries to seduce Sylvia. She gets angry at him. Korob fears what might happen and helps Kirk to escape. Korob has the transmuter, a magic wand of sorts. Sylvia kills Korob but Kirk gets it from him and breaks it. The castle vanishes and the others who were under the control of Sylvia and Korob are freed. Kirk and the other beam back up to the Enterprise.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1.25

There Was an Old Woman

starring Estelle Winwood
written by Marian Cockrell, Jerry Hackady, Hal Hackady
directed by Robert Stevenson

Frank and Lorna Bramwell smell an opportunity when they learn about Monica Laughton, a rich elderly woman who lives in town. They go to see her but she seems to be hallucinating all sorts of things, including other guests in her home and the body of a relative for whom she says they are holding a funeral.

Frank gets increasingly agitated with the Mrs. Laughton. They wind of staying the night. Mrs. Laughton promises to be more cooperative in the morning. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Harakiri (1962)

Harakiri (1962)

starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tamba
directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), in the year 1530, in an era when most samurai were being told that there services were no longer needed, knocks on the door of the powerful Iyi clan. He asks permission to end his life ritually and honorably via harakiri, in the clan's courtyard. They accept his request but before they allow him to go through with it, the man in charge tells him a story about Motome Chijiwa (Akira Ishihama), another samurai who visited the Iyi clan in the not too distant past with a similar request.

Monday, July 13, 2026

Amazing Stories (1985) 1.09

Guilt Trip

starring Dom DeLuise, Loni Anderson, Charles Durning
written by Gail Parent, Kevin Parent 
directed by Burt Reynolds

The Big Guy (Charles Durning) sends Guilt (Dom DeLuise) on a cruise because he's been working too had and screwing things up. Guilt meets Lovely (Loni Anderson) while on the cruise and falls in love with her.

Thoughts

This episode doesn't really go anywhere. I think it might have been a little too cute for it's own good. It didn't help that the characters were kind of paint by numbers.

Shōgun 1.02

Servants of Two Masters

The episode opens up with a flashback to one year prior, when the Taikō was dying but not quite dead. He calls for Toranaga and suggests to him that he could appoint him to be the sole regent while his son is still a minor. Toranaga advises against that course of action. The Taiko concurs.

Blackthorne is called before Lord Toranaga. Father Marin Alvito, a Portuguese priest serves as a translator. Blackthorne explains that England, his country, is at war with Portugal. The priest translates truthfully. The meeting is interrupted by a visit from one of the other regents, Lord Ishido. The result of the meeting with Ishido is that Blackthorne is thrown into a prison cell.

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)

starring Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie
directed by Delmer Daves

101 minutes

Demetrius (Victor Mature) a free man, who was once a slave, is sentenced to the arena after he refuses to help the Roman Emperor Caligula get his hands on Peter (Michael Rennie) or the robe of Jesus Christ. He refuses to fight at first, because he is a Christian, but subsequently decides that he will kill if his survival depends upon it. He continues to be a follower of the faith that Jesus espoused until his lover Lucia is killed by one of the other gladiators.

Saturday, July 11, 2026

The Seven Samurai (1954)

The Seven Samurai (1954)

starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura
directed by Akira Kurosawa

207 minutes

The villagers of a small farming community hire a group of Samurai to defend their village from a gang of bandits who have promised to return once the grain has been harvested to take lion's share of what the villagers gather up.

There are basically three acts to this film. The first focuses on the recruitment of the samurai, the second on the preparation of the village for the return of the bandits, and the third on the fight with the bandits. There is a little more to the story such than that. Most notable to me was the maturation of the youngest of the samurai which is expressed both through his relationships with the other samurai and his romance with one of the women from the village.

Friday, July 10, 2026

Yojimbo (1961)

Yojimbo (1961)

starring Toshirō Mifune, Eijirō Tōno, Tatsuya Nakadai
directed by Akira Kurosawa

110 minutes

A rōnin (Toshirō Mifune), in 1860,  arrives by chance in a small town that would be in in the midst of a gang war if it weren't for the fact that both gang leaders are hesitant to brake the stalemate that currently exists. The rōnin sees an opportunity and, rather than leave town, plays both sides in the gang war off against one another. Eventually they get wise to what he is doing after he pushes his luck by helping a couple and their young son escape town.

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Ballard 1.02

Haystacks

Ballard looks into the death of the cleaning woman from the motel, unofficially. Naylin, the detective working the case, gets prickly about her poking her nose around. She gets a picture of a possible suspect and tracks him down to a crack house. She captures him with some help from Parker and Rawls but he's got mental problems and not very helpful.

A tip from Councilman Pearlman combined with some DNA evidence leads Ballard to believe that Brian Richmond didn't kill Sarah Pearlman or Laura Wilson, a case that Bosch worked years before.

Ballard has a date with Aaron, her lifeguard friend. He sleeps over but the next morning she leaves before he gets up. She was called into a meeting with LAPD Captain Berchem and Detective Naylin. Berchem gives her a hard time for stepping on Naylin's toes but then hands the case over to her because she made some progress on it while Naylin did little to nothing with it.