Direct Beam Comms #159

TV

This time of year I always get into the Christmas spirit and put on some of my favorite holiday movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon as well as rewatch some very special Christmas episodes of my favorite TV shows.

Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

The very first episode of The Simpsons was in fact a Christmas special that aired on December 17, 1989. If you want to see just how good The Simpsons was when it was an animated show about people rather than a cartoon about broadly drawn characters as which it has become you should check out this very first one.

Sherlock — “The Abominable Bride”

While most of the modern Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock episodes were set present day, the special 2015 Christmas episode “The Abominable Bride” was set in a more appropriate Sherlocky year of Christmastime, 1895.

Space: Above and Beyond — “The River of Stars”

Not too many hard-edged sci-fi shows have a Christmas episode, yet “The River of Stars” from Space: Above and Beyond was the exception.

Community — “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”

Right at the height of the greatness that was Community came the fully animated Christmas episode “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” that had lots of laughs along with lots of tears and would go onto cement this series into the annals of history.

Batman: The Animated Series — “Christmas with the Joker”

In this episode that originally aired in 1992 Batman, in fact, did not smell nor does (spoiler alert) the Joker get away.

Black Mirror — “White Christmas”

It really isn’t the holidays without watching one of the most depressing episodes of Black Mirror ever in one entitled “White Christmas.” Divided into three chapters, each starring Jon Hamm and each more downbeat than the last, “White Christmas” begins with murder and ends with a man trapped in hellish loop of December 25th where the song “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day” is on a constant, never-ending loop.

Happy holidays!

True Detective season 3 commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZP6t1FmVO8

Star Trek: Discovery season 2 commercial

Movies

Glass trailer

Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer

What To Watch This Week

Bumblebee
Bumblebee

Tuesday

Last fall’s thriller Bad Times and the El Royale is available on digital download today.

Wednesday

Mary Poppins Returns for a sequel more than 50 years after the original in theaters. Let’s put it this way, when the previous Mary Poppins movie was released The Beatles had only just arrived in the US.

Friday

The one movie I thought would never get made since the character was the butt of many a joke for years, DC’s Aquaman, hits theaters today.

The sixth film in the 11 year old Transformers franchise, this one taking place in the 1980s, Bumblebee is released to movie screens today.

The Netflix original movie Bird Box, about people who kill themselves after seeing some paranormal thing and the survivors having to wander the world blindfolded otherwise they’ll suffer the same fate, is available today.

The second season of the HULU series Marvel’s Runaways is available today.

Cool Sites

Lost Media Wikia — We explore and hunt for lost media and we use teams, and our fellow community members to contribute.

The Reading & Watch List

Cool Movie Posters of the Week

Direct Beam Comms #157

Rumor Control

It’s not quite the end of the year and I’ve already been working on material that will see the light of day in 2019. Actually, I wrote the first thing that will be published in 2019 a few weeks ago. That’s partly because I like to write an article, sit on it for a few weeks and then come back and edit it with fresh eyes and partly because whenever I’m at home and bored I tend to work on my site. And since we’ve, so far, had an early winter where I live it means I’m inside a lot, bored with nothing to do.

So far for 2019 I’ve written my annual “Best of the rest” column as well as one on the upcoming movie Glass. I’m planning on also writing columns on movies like Captain Marvel, Shazam! and Avengers 4 at some point too. And also 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of such movies as The Matrix and Star Wars: Episode I which I’ll probably write about too since they were things I was writing about here 20 years ago so I might as well keep writing about them today. 😉

Generally, I map out all of the dates I have columns due over the course of a year and as movie release dates are announced will “pencil” in things I’m planning to write about. But over the last few years this has become more and more difficult. Before if a big-budget movie was scheduled to come out on a certain date that big-budget movie was going to come out on that date. Period. But that isn’t necessarily the case anymore. Lately, lots of movies have had their release dates pushed around. I think the next X-Men movie has had three release dates so far, and the upcoming New Mutants was pushed back nearly two years from when it was originally set to be released.

So there’s been quite a few times this year when I’ve scheduled something to write about only to have to push it down the line when release dates change.

That’s not a huge deal, what is a bigger deal is when release dates change just a few months before the movie is set to hit theaters. That happened a few times this year with movies like Alita: Battle Angel that was supposed to be out last summer before being pushed to the winter and now isn’t due out until mid-February. I think with that one I had actually started to write my summer movie preview column that featured that movie last spring when that announcement was made.

And that’s not even including the TV series I write about.

Those are much harder to plan ahead for since TV series aren’t announced as far in advance as movies. While I know there’ll be interesting series to write about in 2019 I won’t know when they’ll be out until well into next year.

While I can tell you that next September I’m looking forward to seeing and probably writing about IT: Chapter 2 on September 6, in many cases new TV series that will be airing that same time period won’t even be filming their pilot episodes until early next year, and it won’t be until next May that we learn about the new series that will be airing in 2018–2019.

With returning series I know I’ll be writing about things like Better Call Saul I just don’t know when that will return — will it be the spring like two years ago or fall like this year? Or maybe even next winter?

Comics

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

DC is set to release a new version of the seminal Frank Miller Batman story The Dark Knight Returns this week. Well, “new” as in this edition is hardcover and retails for $50. If you’re looking to pick up a copy of this story, I’d recommend purchasing the $20 softcover version instead of this $50 version, since to me $30 seems a lot to pay for a hardcover.

DC introduces DC Modern Classics, collecting groundbreaking, genre-defining works in new hardcover editions, presented in a beautifully designed slipcase.

In these tales from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS #1–4, it is 10 years after an aging Batman retired, and Gotham City has sunk deeper into decadence and lawlessness. Now, as his city needs him most, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze of glory. Joined by the new Robin, Carrie Kelly, Batman takes to the streets to face the mutant gangs that have overrun his city.

What To Watch This Week

Nightflyers
Nightflyers

Sunday

The ten episode Nightflyers mini-series is set to begin airing today on Syfy, and then every single night until Thursday, December 13.

The Reading & Watch List

The Director’s Cut: A Label Often Redefined, Now by Lars von Trier

Cool Movie & TV Posters of the Week

Mystery Science Theater 3000 poster
Mystery Science Theater 3000 poster