I think it must be the case that, once baseball season is over, what hours I do devote to watching TV fill with other things, and I catch up on shows or movies I neglected during the six-month summer season (162 games for your own team plus any other games you watch).
As such, I have a lot to report since the last TV Tuesday back in early December — two months’ worth of viewing. Even better, no ranting or venting (well, maybe just a little), and I even have some movies and shows to recommend. Some highly.
Starting with a very good vampire movie.
I refer, of course, to Sinners (2025), written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers “Smoke” and “Stack”, Miles Canton as a young guitar player with transcendental music, and strong cast of others including Delroy Lindo.
The movie has some points in common with the Rodriguez/Tarantino cult favorite From Dusk till Dawn (1996): Vampires, obviously; it takes place in an entertainment establishment out in the middle of nowhere, a 1930s juke joint in this case; and it has lots of gore and a high body count.
The vampires here follow movie canon: Garlic is like acid to them. A vampire biting and killing you makes you a vampire (in a matter of minutes). They have to be invited in — they can’t enter otherwise. (Even when they were first inside, went outside, became a vampire, and tried to come back in, they need an invitation.) Sunlight and wooden stakes to the heart kill them but not much else. The issue of silver never arises because these people too poor to have any.
The movie has been written about extensively, and I have much to cover, so I won’t go into it other than to mention a few points that stood out for me:
☞ I’m head-over-heels for that first scene when Preacherboy’s music transcends time and space and the people dancing in the 1932 juke joint are seamlessly and magically interwoven with not just their ancestors but their descendants. Electric guitars mingle with ancient instruments. An inspired and incredibly powerful scene. I liked the African mysticism in general; this is, after all, a movie about vampires.
☞ The vampires almost come off as the good guys! They make a very good case for why the poor and disenfranchised would be smart to join them and gain power and eternal life.
☞ Note the screen format changes between 1.43:1 and 2.76:1. They serve a purpose.
☞ Awesome ending. I won’t spoil it, but it features Buddy Guy. Given the musical nature of the film, it’s perfect. Also, the movie has a true cookie. (By which I mean it comes after all the credits. Marvel started a whole thing with early cookies because people are too impatient to wait through all the credits. That said, credits these days are ridiculously long.)
I easily give this one a Wow! rating. Recommended for any fan of vampire movies.
§
There’s a new Netflix movie, The RIP (2026), starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, both playing Miami cops who, with their team, stumble upon a huge amount of hidden cash. Many millions huge. Would tempt anyone huge.
The movie involves what they do about it, there’s lots of tension, gunfire, mystery and mayhem. And — of course — there are multiple levels of What’s Really Going On.
Maybe I’m mellowing in retirement, but I found it quite watchable. An engaging story that kept me wondering.
Damon and Affleck are old pros at this, both with action movies and with each other. They play cops who are willing to bend rules, so you’re never quite sure what they’re up to. A delight to watch, and the supporting cast is strong.
I’m torn between a weak Ah! rating and a very strong Eh! rating. Borderline. Definitely worth checking out if you like either actor or action movies in general.
§
A contingent of older Star Wars fans disdain Rian Johnson for “ruining” Star Wars — The Last Jedi (2017) made a lot of them very mad. As such, they disdain everything he does. I lost interest in Star Wars after what we now call Episodes IV, V, and VI — the original trilogy. I’m among those who disliked Episodes I, II, and III. Even more so the Disney Episodes VII, VIII, and IX (and all that followed).
Yes, I heard Andor was good, but it wasn’t enough to subscribe to Disney+.
And to be honest, I’m just not into Star Wars. Kinda like cat people and dog people (and some are both in equal measure). There are Star Wars people and Star Trek people (and ditto). I’m decidedly a dog person and a Star Trek person. (It would be more accurate to say I’m a hard-SF fan.) Star Wars, because of the force, and wizards, and the empire, is essentially a fairy tale (evidenced by how little kids love it).
My point is that I like Rian Johnson’s movies (except The Last Jedi; that was lame). I go back with him to his first movie, Brick (2005), which was widely acknowledge as excellent — award-winning He followed that with The Brothers Bloom (2008), which … I don’t remember. Then came one of the best time-travel movies I’ve seen: Looper (2012). [I know I’ve mentioned that movie many times here, but I don’t recall ever doing a post about it, which seems odd given how much I like it.]
Then he did The Last Jedi, but after that came the three Knives Out movies, most recently Wake Up Dead Man (2025). I’ve enjoyed all three, but I am a sucker for the genre. [See this post for a review of the first one.] I enjoyed this one … almost as much as the first two. I’m not that big on sequels or franchises, and it’s getting a bit old by now. I give it a strong Eh! rating.
§
The lede image is for Mr. Nobody (2009), a slightly surreal science fiction movie I first saw back in 2018. I posted about it then [see Surreal Science Fiction], so I won’t go into it here. Suffice to say I enjoyed it all over again (Wow! rating both times).
§
Ready Player One (2018). I put off watching it because the general buzz from quarters I mostly trust suggested it was very not good.
While I can maybe see why the buzz was so negative, I didn’t hate it. Which for a Steven Spielberg film is saying something. I generally find him shamelessly overflowing with treacle.
One rare exception was Minority Report (2002) — I liked that one a lot. That might be partly due to the source material by Philip K. Dick.
This one is also based on a novel, Ready Player One (2011), by Ernest Cline. His first novel, and it was a big hit. He released a sequel, Ready Player Two (2020), apparently to “widely negative critical reception” (per Wikipedia).
I didn’t hate the movie and give it a low Eh! rating. It was … watchable.
You know me and adaptations: Very possible I’d think otherwise had I read the book. Which I haven’t and don’t plan to.
§
Surprisingly watchable — I was expecting much worse — was the remake The Naked Gun (2025), starring Liam Neeson, who has proven himself versatile as an action star (he has a particular set of skills) as well as a comedy star. He fills Leslie Nielsen’s shoes just fine.
I’m a hard sell when it comes to comedy (because I’ve seen so much of it). I’m especially a hard sell when it comes to idiot clown comedy.
Those original Zucker-Zucker-Abrahams movies were exactly that, but very well done. To this day, I think Airplane! (1980) is one of the funniest movies ever made (along with Holy Grail).
I laughed a lot watching this. Some fresh gags (and some stale ones). It’s self-aware about being a remake, which is fun. Neeson plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. — the son of Leslie Nielsen’s character in the original movies. Paul Hauser plays Capt. Ed Hocken Jr. — the son of George Kennedy’s character.
I thought the owl really stood out.
§
Some movies are good-weird, but some are huh-weird. They’re weird alright, but the huh is whether all the weird came out the way the creator envisioned. Did they view this movie months later and think, “Yes! Nailed it!”
New Rose Hotel (1998) is based on a same-named William Gibson short story. I don’t recall the story specifically; it’s in the Burning Chrome collection from 1986, which I have read (embarrassingly recently), so if I read the story again, my memory might be jogged.
It’s essentially a corporate espionage story that takes place in the near future. It stars Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe as mercenary spies. Asia Argento plays the femme fatale who seduces their target. It’s directed by Abel Ferrara, who is known for provocative and generally sexy movies. (His very first film was pornographic.)
I give it a definite Huh! rating (my first ever, so that’s something).
§
Transitioning from movies to TV shows by way of a live-action adaptation, I’ve been slowly working through the Cells at Work! anime — an adaptation of the original series of what has grown to a franchise with many spinoffs.
The stories depict cells of the body as people and viruses and bacteria as various monsters. The setting — a human body — looks like a city. In the original series, the two protagonists are a red blood cell (an erythrocyte) and a white blood cell (a neutrophil).
The characters all know they are cells in a body. Part of the charm is how both the manga and anime do short asides describing what the cells actually do in the body and providing their proper names.
The cast is huge — 37 trillion, not counting viruses and bacteria — but the stories focus on representative members of the many cell types.
I read four volumes of the manga and watched both anime seasons (on Netflix). It’s really cute and likeable, but a bit twee for me. (At the same time, fairly violent and gory — the various immune cells battling viruses and bacteria — real slasher stuff.) The four manga volumes were enough; I had no desire to read more.
There’s also a live-action movie, also available on Netflix. I was really curious to see how they handled some of the wilder stuff. Not too shabby, I thought.
I give it an Eh! rating.
§
Over on Amazon Prime I’ve been watching a Sherlock Holmes TV series from 1954. It was produced by Sheldon Reynolds and stars Ronald Howard as Holmes and Howard Marion-Crawford as Watson. It’s apparently the first TV series to star Holmes and Watson (they’d been in many movies, though).
Reynolds wanted to present a younger Holmes, one still learning and capable of being rash and making mistakes. In contrast to Basil Rathbone’s high-strung Sherlock, Howard plays him as more bohemian and relaxed. The episodes often have bits of humor in them. Highly recommended for all Sherlock Holmes fans.
Speaking of Basil Rathbone, Prime also has a bunch of his Sherlock Holmes movies. Not any of the major ones, but four lesser-known ones: Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943); The Woman in Green (1945); Terror by Night (1946); and Dressed to Kill (1946). Also highly recommended for fans, especially if you’ve never seen these. Rathbone did a lot of them.
§
Season three of Resident Alien came around on Netflix (it airs on the SyFy network). The show is a live-action adaptation of a comic. I posted about both the show and comic back in 2024.
I think I really have mellowed in my old age, because I didn’t hate it as much as I expected to, based on season two. It could be that forewarned is forearmed — many times I’ve disliked something enough to stop reading or watching but have then come back later, knowing what I was in for, and finding it much easier going.
(A good example is the Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, which I loathed and soon turned off first time through. Months later I was able to watch it all the way through.)
Another possibility is that the current socio-political scene is so insane right now — the ship of state is listing and sinking — so I don’t seem to have much outrage left for something as mundane as a TV show or movie.
§ §
There’s more to report, but I’ve hit my word ceiling and will abruptly stop.
Stay sane, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
Logos con carne 
February 4th, 2026 at 5:50 am
I read “Ready Player One” and liked it surprisingly much. I’m not usually someone who reads dystopian or science fiction, and maybe the book is meant for a younger audience, as the Hunger Games and Divergent novels are, but I did like it. I think there was a sequel, and I may have given it a try, but if so, it wasn’t as good and I don’t think I finished it. But for what it’s worth, I did like “Ready Player One.”
I found myself wondering just now why I am telling you this, as you probably aren’t interested in reading it having seen the movie. But I saw the movie and while I think I liked it, I do also remember thinking the book was better. So you might want to give the book a try if somehow you’ve run through your “to read” list and are searching for something new😀
February 4th, 2026 at 9:02 am
Well, you would be one of those quarters I tend to trust, so if someone who teaches writing and isn’t a fan of dystopic SF liked a dystopic science fiction book, that’s worth taking note of. I’ll keep it in mind, thanks!
Interesting also that you may have read the sequel and found it unmemorable. And that you found the book better (isn’t it almost always). The idea of getting through my book queues is a nice one. If only! 🤪
February 4th, 2026 at 8:41 pm
I loved Sinners. Something about the oppressed conditions those people lived in yet their ability to still find joy in life, combined with others wanting to take even that from them, made the whole thing very compelling. I don’t remember the screen format changes; interesting. And the vampires did have a point.
The Knives Out movies are awesome! I love the scene in the second one where the woman smashes the elaborate puzzle apparatus. The masturbation confession scenes in the latest are hilarious.
I read the Ready Player One book and loved it. Never tried to read anything else by Ernest Cline, since most of the reviews of his other books aren’t good. I didn’t think the movie was bad, but it wasn’t the experience of the book, at least for me.
Cells at Work looks like it might be interesting.
February 5th, 2026 at 8:28 am
Yeah, Sinners was excellent. You make a very true point about joy. The flip side of that is how we can’t buy happiness with money (though it can make our unhappiness very comfortable). And on that level, the movie could be taken as a lesson in how to be happy no matter your circumstances (there are some prisoner-of-war movies or people-in-war movies that offer a similar lesson).
Ha, yeah, confession as aggression. 😂 I’ve really enjoyed those Knives Out movies, too. It would be fun to analyze them in terms of how fair he plays — can you figure out whodunit from the information provided. I’m pretty sure you could in the second because I happened to rewatch it soon enough after watching it to look for the clues (and found them — the glass swap, for instance). My problem is that I tend to have too much fun watching them to remember to pay attention, so I’m not sure about the first (and have only seen the third once).
Ready Player One. Okay, that’s two votes from voices I regard saying [1] the book (but just that one book) is pretty good and [2] the movie was good but maybe not quite as good as the book. Interesting. The movie certainly surprised me by being much more enjoyable than I expected.
Cells at Work! is kinda weird to me. On the one hand, it seems pitched towards a younger audience interested in and learning about human biology, but it’s also as gory as any manga/anime I’ve seen. Come to think of it, though, in contrast to, say, Attack on Titan, this one isn’t filled with tragedy. Cells die, but none of the main characters do that I’ve seen. (One exception is the body cell that becomes cancerous. A major guest character for several episodes until finally vanquished.)
I will say I was glad to finish the anime, and only read four volumes of the manga, all because it gets a bit repetitious. Something happens, the body responds, big battle, happy ending. Kinda typical battle show in that sense. But it was fun until that point. The live-action movie is a little different in that it spends time outside the body of the person who hosts the cells. We see things from both inside and outside.
February 24th, 2026 at 9:22 am
[…] last edition of TV Tuesday ended with the line: “There’s more to report, but I’ve hit my word ceiling […]