Disc Reviews

NCIS continues to be one of the top dramas on television. After 13 years, that’s a hard trick to pull off. With two spinoffs enjoying a pretty nice run, there are nearly 500 episodes of the franchise. The show just received a rare two-year extension and doesn’t appear to be slowing down. The show has seen a lot of changes over the years. Cast members have come and gone, but a strong core has remained for the long haul. More changes are on the horizon. Michael Weatherly leaves after this season. He’s certainly been one of the more beloved members of the original cast. It will be a tough road, but something tells me the show is going to be just fine. If Season 13 is any indication, NCIS is a long way from slowing down.

Season 12 ended with a shot Gibbs (Harmon) fighting for his life. Of course, he survives, but not without a few changes. For at least the early part of the season, Gibbs becomes a bit more reflective. He also appears to have a better appreciation for the team. Jon Cryer joins the cast as Dr. Cyril Taft, who saves Gibbs’s life. He ends up joining the team as the new guy.

I think for the most part we can all agree that the 90’s were not so kind to horror fans.  Sure, you can find a few gems sprinkled throughout the decade, but as a whole the theater was not where you’d find the good stuff.  In the 90’s you’d end up having to go to your local video store to check out the straight-to-video titles and the independent films  that had just been released.  Unless you lived in LA or New York, there were so many titles you’d be missing out on, but the video store brought films like Carnosaur (1993) to your attention.  This was pretty much how I first stumbled upon Bad Moon, while cruising the titles in the horror section and this cool box art called out to me.  I never heard of the film, but I recognized the writer/director Eric Red as the guy who wrote Near Dark (for the longest time my favorite vampire film), so I just had to rent this.  At the time I had only known of two werewolf films that I had really enjoyed, and they were the staples An American Werewolf in London and The Howling.  Now, nearly two decades later, I’m getting to write up the review of the new Scream Factory release.

As much as the film is about a werewolf and it terrifying a single mother and her child, I really see this more as a story about the bond between a boy and his dog. Brett (Mason Gamble) is just a young boy who doesn’t seem to have many friends, but what he does have is Thor, his loyal canine companion that is a large German Shepherd.  The dog isn’t simply just the family pet but genuinely is part of the family and sees himself as its protector; what’s kind of amazing is how we can see this through Thor’s actions. While the story doesn’t allow for this to have the heart that many ‘boy and his dog’ films do, the relationship is still well established.

"Put your game face on."

When you have the highest-rated drama on television, there is a temptation to milk it for all that you can. We've seen it happen with both the Law & Order and CSI franchises. The results tend to be mixed, with some capturing and even exceeding the popularity of the original. Others never quite seem to connect and are gone while their mother ship is still on the air. It's too early to tell if NCIS: New Orleans will fall in the former or latter category. There's certainly plenty of the tight writing and production value that the NCIS label is known for. The cast is better than average, and we have the addition of an iconic city with plenty of personality to help drive the atmosphere of the show. But how does that translate on a week-to-week basis? In its second year, the jury's still out on that one.