Skipped having a fourth April post for this 'My Current Watches' series which I've been enjoying and think so don't you viewers as these posts have been getting many more views than I predicted. That third April post would have been a continuation of the "Recipe for Love" Korean drama which has been one of the best shows I've seen in a while. But the point of this monthly series was to have mini recaps of what I've been viewing as far as dramas and movies from America, Japan and Korea go. But think I was slightly getting away from having mini reviews and the posts were getting much longer than planned. So because of that passed over the drama mentioned and will try to think of some other way to do posts for the show. One change I did make which has worked out well is focusing on one country for a post, today it'll be for a trio of American dramas which I've watched but was lazy on beginning this post. Then will have a pair of older horror movies and both were ones I had never heard of so hoping those will be decent and I've been lucking out with my choices. The next post will be for some older Japanese films and was also thinking of adding in at least one newish drama, that would be in about ten days after this is published and beginning this on May 7th. EDIT: It's not even 24 hours later and I somehow have already finished writing this up, after writing up the three drama sections viewed a pair of movies so thought this post wouldn't be complete for 3-4 days.
Been using the intro section to this series to talk about so many different topics but all involve my favorite Japanese women and that's quite a huge amount! Often have discussed my two fave's lists, the yearly one plus the upcoming All Time list but have talked enough about them recently. Also like to revive the memory of a forgotten favorite but aren't many left that I haven't revived and so far this year has been quite terrific as far as some favorites making a reappearance. However that hasn't been the case for Haruka and like many of you reading this wonder what she's been up to? Haruka is one of the most popular women I've ever done posts for and her first was done about nine years ago, she'll be hitting the age of thirty in September. After leaving HKT Haruka had taken a long breather and came back looking better than ever in mid-2022, she did confess two years later she had spent 10 million yen on surgery! But I had liked Haruka quite a bit before that and it's a mystery why she spent so much money on improving her looks yet hasn't done any gravure modeling since the Autumn of 2024?
After the photobook pics will begin on my recent watches and the first drama could be my second favorite American show of all time! That's "Person of Interest" and I bought the DVD boxset on a whim as the story looked so unique and I had never heard of the series, once again Lady Luck smiled down on me! Did give a brief review for season one and today will quickly look at season two, that will be followed by another series I've talked about before. Which is of the original "Superman" show from the 1950's, I'm not a huge fan of American superhero series and much prefer the Tokusatsu/Sentai shows from Japan. But Superman is a show I enjoyed and maybe a big reason is that his alter ego Clark Kent isn't much different than us and that first series led into the third show you'll be reading about, will keep that a mystery until you get to it below. Then have a pair of old horror flicks and to me the ancient ones in B&W from the 1950's/60's are my favorites, can also say that about Japanese movies. The point of this monthly series was to have mini reviews of what I've been viewing and not to have them longer than three paragraphs, for the most part that plan has worked out well to date and would like to hear from you viewers about what I've viewed or any recommendations.
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But Harold did care and so didn't his ex-partner Nathan who had been killed in a government bomb explosion which killed many more innocent people and was made to look like a terrorist attack! That death took place in 2010, the series began in 2012 and now we're in the year of 2013, Harold does care about the lives of everyday people and wants to prevent as many deaths as possible. What The Machine does is print out Social Security Numbers of a person but doesn't reveal if that person will be the victim or the perpetrator. Harold had been injured in that bombing and walks with a limp, he can't do field work or protect someone well physically so recruited was the man above on the left, his name is John Reese though that last name is also an alias. John is around forty in age, if I'm going into a battle the one person I would choose to back me is John and that would even be over Superman! Reese was in an elite army unit in the Middle East, he also worked with the CIA and another unknown government group. However there's nothing that Harold can't discover via his computer magic, John had fallen upon some hard times as the CIA tried killing him and his ex-partner so John had been hiding out until found by Harold and given a new lease on life. At first it was more of a business connection but the pair have become good friends, John may be such an elite fighter but is also very intelligent. The pair are located in NYC so of course The Machine gives them the names of plenty of local people who need to be protected or of killers that need to be stopped!
In season one the above pair had teamed up and for the most part solved a case or two for each show but things did change towards the end and carried over to season two. It's hard to keep anything a secret these days and the existence of The Machine has become known, there's actually two of them. One the American government has to help them locate possible acts of terrorism, the other Harold has and there will be attempt to steal it. Which first happened at the end of season one as a woman who goes by the name of Root kidnapped Harold, it was either give up his creation or die!!!! Much more on Root in the next section and there's a good reason for that. Harold had been saved by Reese by the third episode and that's mainly because John is much smarter than everyone thinks, never underestimate him! As the season went on another agency has The Machine in their sights which will continue on for two more seasons. It's an unknown company named Decima and they are so powerful, the leader is an older English gent named Greer and after this season they're the main focus of the series. You do need a scorecard when you view the show as there's so much more going on besides keeping The Machine safe and protecting innocent lives plus the newish part about Decima. Harold and John have two allies working at the NYPD, both are homicide detectives who are named Fusco(male) and Joss(female). They're proved many times over to be so invaluable to our two stars and have saved their lives on a few occasions. Joss and John do make such a strong team and know that Reese would have loved to have her join him and Harold, their HQ is an abandoned NYC library. But tragedy will strike her in the third season and will explain all then. Fusco had once been a corrupt cop but had cleaned himself up so can be trusted by Harold and John. At the station is another storyline where there is an evil organization called HR, Fusco is working undercover for John in it and what a brutal group of cops and politicians they are.
Final paragraph and it's impossible to keep these at three for this series. Will talk more about the female character Root in the next section, she'll be joining the cast FT for the last three seasons. So won't one other woman who is in two screenshots below, one she's giving something to Harold and John plus is in the screenshot after that. Her name is Sameen Shaw, like Reese was in the military and had been stationed in the Middle East. Shaw also worked for the covert ISA aka Intelligence Support Activity but like John's situation with the CIA they did a Benedict Arnold on her. She met up with John by accident on a case trying to prove she wasn't a criminal, she didn't trust him at first but soon the pair became the ultimate fighting machine. Shaw is played by Sarah Shahi who is just so darn alluring, more on her in the next post for this series. One other character to mention is the crime boss Carl Elias and he's my favorite character of this show. For the first two seasons he only appeared in about half the episodes and had been waiting trial at Rikers for being a crime boss. Elias was the target of the corrupt HR group who secretly whisked him from prison and were going to kill him in a forest outside of NYC, they would have made it appear he was gunned down escaping. But of all people the homicide detective Joss saved Elias and took out three HR goons, she was the one who had arrested him! In season three Elias will be such an important part of the show but he too won't make it to the end of the series, think only four characters will. So that's enough for today and even though I could write up ten more paragraphs it still wouldn't be enough! Of all the American shows and movies I've viewed will give this one my highest recommendation though in a way "Gunsmoke" may be my top TV series.
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Her Root character has a real name which is Samantha Groves who had originally been from Texas but all presumed she had died as a teenager. Not so and there was an episode devoted to Root's background, she is such a stunner yet deep down is one cruel woman yet does have a good side to her. Plus Root is close to being Harold's equal as far as technology goes, she came so close at the end of season one to hacking into The Machine and becoming it's new ruler! In the first two seasons Root only appeared in about 8-10 episodes, beginning with the third season she'll become a FT member of Harold and John's team. One thing not to underestimate Root at is her fighting skills, she's a bit thin but is an ace shooter plus does know Judo and some other martial arts, she's not in the same league as John Reese but could beat about 98% of the other males out there!!!! When Root joins the team she mainly will be working with Harold for after him she may know more about The Machine than any other human. At first she wasn't to be trusted but that quickly changed, more than once Root will end up saving Harold's life and can't think of any other superlatives for Root! After the pics is a short clip from episode ten of the third season, it also has the newbie Shaw and those two gals are mightier than a troop of Green Berets!
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Here's today's second series and about three months ago did a review for the first two seasons, this one will be much shorter than the first drama review. Above is the boxset I have of this show and I much prefer having such DVD sets over streaming or Cable TV which I've never had! Sure most of you know the history/legend of Superman and think he was the first ever American superhero when his comic book debuted in 1938. This was the first major TV show featuring the Man of Steel and to most fans was the best, least George Reeves as Superman most fans still feel was the best. The first two seasons each had 26 episodes or 52 in all, they were in B&W and did have that mini review for them. I zipped through those first two seasons quickly as they were so enjoyable, hadn't heard a lot of good things about the other four seasons. All four consisted of thirteen episodes each for a total of 52, they were filmed in color which back in the 1950's was so expensive and that was a reason for many less episodes per season. Plus back in the 1950's the percentage of homes with a TV was much less than it is today so these kinds of shows weren't too profitable and did notice in season three how cheaply the sets and costumes were but I also noticed how many Superman fans have changed their thoughts about these final four seasons, the show aired from 1952-58.
I will say the first two seasons topped this third as there was more action and Superman seemed to save the day in a more heroic style. But the stories in this season were all top notch, on occasion there were some cheesy moments but all in all enjoyed what I viewed and perhaps I'm too easy to please. The first episode was solid as Clark, Lois, Jimmy and Perry all time traveled to 50,000 BC along with a gangster and scientist. They all mingled with the cavemen though not enough eyebrows were raised when Superman somehow appeared in the scene! There was also an episode where the Daily Planet editor Perry White kept getting visits from the ghost of Julius Caesar, another solid show was when Jimmy inherited a million dollars! So while it was no award winning season to me it was decent and have 39 more episodes to view, will tie those in with what's up next in this post.
George Reeves played Superman aka Clark Kent and he was one of the most likable men I've seen in any TV show or movie. However a year after seasons six ended and the series was cancelled for good George committed suicide and in such an oddity it was three days before he was about to get married. I didn't know much about the man until recently but have been reading many articles about him. George was 45 in age when he died and it appears he was typecast as Superman and that's happened with many other actors, when you look at Bela Lugosi you always think of Dracula. So that was a tragic ending to his life but he's never been forgotten and most Superman fans think he was the best to play the superhero. There's not too, too many photos out there as this show did air seventy years ago and after these few is a clip from season two when Superman first encountered Kyrptonite and that's his only weakness.
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At first Clark had been turned down for that position but quickly was able to snag the job through a lucky break, his editor is and will always be Perry White. Of course many things in a newsroom are different in the year 1993 to forty years prior, such as computers but a reporter still had to hustle to get a scoop. The title of Lois and Clark is because those two are the main story and there will be a budding romance though it hasn't happened yet but you can tell both crave each other. Another major difference is that never once did Lois become suspicious of Clark being Superman unlike the 1950's show where Lois always was trying to prove Clark Kent and Superman were the same person. One other difference is that we did see a lot of Clark's parents and they seem like decent people, Clark may come from Krypton but was raised as a normal lad and never used his powers much in Smallville. He does in this series but Superman's heroics aren't the main focus of the story though of course are very important and he's saved the city many times, once even the entire Earth from an asteroid that was could have destroyed the planet! I really did enjoy this first season and I've gotten in the habit in watching an entire season all at once and glad I chose this show, I like the fact there were no major stars. I did have two minor beefs with this season and think other Superman fans did too. One was the character Cat who played a society page reporter at the Daily Planet, that woman added zero to the show and was actually a negative, she won't be around for season two so that'll be an improvement!
The other minor complaint was with Lex Luthor, in the comics he was an older, bald and very evil scientist. In this version Lex was a billionaire and controlled much of Metropolis, he was constantly thwarted by Superman and thought the storyline could have been better. At the end of this first season Lex did fall from balcony 100 stories high but did survive as in the next three seasons he will make five more appearances. Lex almost married Lois at the end of this season, here's a neat trivial fact which is that the mother of Lois in that wedding scene was Phyllis Coates, she played the first Lois Lane way back in 1952! Teri Hatcher played Lois Lane in this new series and she was one hot looker, will talk more about her in the next post for this series and also about Clark. Dean Cain played him and he came so close to making the NFL back in 1988/89 but an injury derailed his career but think things worked out quite well for him! I like this version of Perry White much more than the one from the 1950's, this new Perry is much smarter plus is a huge Elvis fan! After the pics is a fan made trailer for the first season, there weren't any other decent ones but this version has many different scenes and is fairly enjoyable.
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Will end off with a quick look at a pair of ancient films and hope I can breeze through them quickly. Older movies are my favorites by far, I really don't care too much for the films that have come out in the last twenty years but on occasion there is a good B-horror flick. Both of today's movies are ones I had never heard of and those are the ones I hunt for, both had subtitles which makes it easier for you readers to follow the story better. First up is this 79 minute semi-horror film from 1959, "Curse of the Undead" and it was billed as the first vampire movie set in the West during the times of Cowboys and Gold diggers. The cast had a many faces I've seen make guest appearance in old Westerns, none were too well known except for Eric Fleming who did have the lead role in "Rawhide", I have that boxset so will get to the Western at some point. Playing the evil vampire/cowboy was Michael Pate, I've seen him in many other shows and he has playing the role of a devilish villain down pat! But all in all thought this was just so-so and the second film was much better but glad I viewed this one.
No dates were mentioned but am guessing the action took place during the 1870's and this part of the West was certainly wild. The main story revolved around the Carter family who have had a long time feud with their neighbor Buffer who steals their cattle and has recently built a dam to stop water from flowing onto their land. The elder Carter is a doctor and that's him below with the town's priest Dan who was played by Eric Fleming. A rash of deaths have hit this small unnamed town and Carter had no clue why these deaths are happening, they only involve younger women about twenty or so in age. In the opening scene a young gal named Cora died and the pastor Dan noticed those marks on her neck, there's no way it could be a vampire or could it? Soon after the doctor Carter was also bit and died, that was to prevent him from investigating these deaths further. It was no secret to us viewers who the killer was, the priest Dan was correct in his wild assumption it was a vampire! This creature had been a human and you'll see the villain below in many screenshots dressed so dapper in black, his name was Drake Robey and was newish in town. However Robey was a takeoff from his real name which was Drago Robles, see how the names are so similar? Later on the pastor Dan found a diary belonging to the prior owner of the Carter farm, now that the father/doctor was gone his daughter Dolores is running the place and she's also in many screenshots below. In that diary Dan found out that Drago had killed himself in 1850 by stabbing himself for he had killed his brother who did deserve it because while Drago was on a trip his brother had seduced his soon to be bride!!!!
Even though Drago had stabbed himself to death he continued to live on ass a vampire and the diary was a warning to those in the town as after Drago's death is when the vampire killings began but of course no one could believe such a thing was possible. The pastor Dan could and he had a budding relationship with Dolores who had hired Drago aka Drake to work at her ranch. That was against the wishes of Dan who couldn't quite prove his theory to her of Drake being a vampire, Dolores herself was bitten but neither died nor became a full fledged vampire. Drake did sleep often in a coffin during the day but we did see him on occasion out in the sunlight, neither time was fatal until the end of the movie. Which was a high noon duel between Dan and Drago or good versus evil, of course the pastor came out on top and he had placed a mini cross on his bullet! Twice before Drago had been in a duel and both times had been shot first but an ordinary bullet can't kill a vampire. Much more did take place and these mini reviews just give a quick synopsis on what to expect, I think a movie such as this one will be better with another viewing. With it being in B&W there's not a lot of gore and my one complaint was that there wasn't enough vampire killings and it was more of a Western than a Horror flick though I do enjoy Westerns quite a bit. Below are plenty of screenshots from the film, the bottom one is how it ended with Drake's body disintegrating due to the Sun and being shot with that 'holy bullet', also have the trailer to the movie below. It's not a HQ one but the other four I found were the same way.
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For the finale have a movie I really enjoyed quite a bit, besides being an older horror flick in B&W the movie was only 62 minutes in length. Too many movies are well over two hours and to me they end up dragging, I much prefer ones that are 60-85 minutes long as there's no filler and the action moves right along, that was the case for this film. As the poster above shows "The Earth Dies Screaming" was released in 1964, this is the first British movie I've given a review to. The only other thing from the UK I briefly looked at were the ninth and tenth doctors from the "Doctor Who" series and should continue on with that review. Once again this movie had no huge stars but Willard Park who played the lead of Jeff Nolan was kind of a popular actor who was in many Westerns and B-movies. Right above is the 'Monster' of this movie and those creatures were never given some sort of name, there was no sequel but there easily could have been one.
Once again what helps this mini review is that the movie had Subs so took a bunch of screenshots with them which are below, I think they make it much easier/better for a reader to follow the storylines. The location was in the north of England in a unnamed small town, arriving in a small jeep was an American pilot/professor named Jeff Nolan. As you can see below the streets were lined with dead humans and how did that happen(?), when Nolan went on a test flight that morning all was normal and when he landed the whole world was seemingly dead! In a mysterious way too as none were bleeding nor had any noticeable injuries, was Nolan the last remaining human on Earth?!!!! No for soon he would be joined by six others, first the pair of people named Taggart and Peggy, they had just met that day. Peggy was played by a British actress named Virginia Field, she was 46 at the time but was extremely attractive in this movie and had a long career but wasn't too well known in America. Soon the trio was joined by two more pairs, the older couple of Otis and Violet who weren't married but were having an affair at their place of work. The following day the group grew to seven with the arrival of a young married couple Mel and Lorna, she was pregnant and could deliver at any time which happene with five minutes to go in the movie. What the American Nolan deduced is that all seven were in a location that had been protected from the Earth's air, he had been in a plane, Mel and Lorna in an air raid shelter, etc. so it was the air that was causing the deaths. That was Nolan's theory and it was a logical one but actually the deaths were caused by something else.
The movie was 62 minutes in length but we didn't see much of these Aliens(?) in the spacesuits, could they have been from another planet or been part of some terrorist group? The creatures can subdue and kill a Human by simply touching them, that happened to Violet but the deaths aren't permanent as she and others had risen to become semi-zombies. Who weren't scary creatures for they moved so slow but perhaps with just one touch they could end the life of a human. Finally Nolan figured out the spacesuit creatures were being controlled and deaths were happening because of electronic waves, if they could find the source then the nightmare may end! Which is what happened as Nolan was such a smart professor, him and the youngster Mel discovered where a transmitting tower was and blew it up, that's in the final screenshot. Soon after the spacesuit creatures stopped moving and all died but Nolan knew this wasn't the complete end of these Aliens. For he surmised there had to be many more of these transmitting towers all over England, as the film ended it appeared he and the other four survivors were going to head south to London to hopefully save the country and/or mankind! With that kind of ending it seemed perfect for a sequel or a series of films with this small group of survivors but they never came about, the current 'Walking Dead' shows are very similar to this fine movie. Which didn't have a lot of action but the limited special effects were solid and so wasn't the story plus when a movie only goes on for 62 minutes there's rarely a dull moment! So this film I do recommend and was better than the above one which was solid in its own way, below are many screenshots to follow the story a bit better plus have a trailer for the film which is quite good.
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