A look back at a Christmas special that failed to become a holiday classic.

Kurt Cobain’s first solo record – recently released 21 years after his 1994 suicide and paired with a suspect “documentary” film project of revisionist mythmaking and iconography – is a jumbled, scraping-barrel-bottom mess of an affair. It’s not to say that, for die-hard fans, there are not things to like about it. There are moments of, I’ll go so far as to say, genuine beauty. The opener “The Yodel Song” shows how easily Cobain could toss off a Nirvana-style melody without giving a second thought, and tunes like “The Happy Guitar” make you feel like, alone sometimes, Cobain genuinely just had a good time making music, even if – maybe especially if – there was no audience to intrude sans himself. And, yes, the acoustic take on “And I Love Her” and the instrumental “Letters To Frances” are sweet. But for every engaging moment (an epic “Do Re Mi,” a frequently bootlegged “Sappy” demo, the Melvins-ish “Reverb Experiment”) there’s a lot of grime. The scattered montages and audio collages, while interesting ephemera, are dated sonically and haven’t aged …

Vikings, colossal beasts and evil hypnotists galore: time for another volume of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In the annals of TV history, there are a handful of shows held up as the universal examples of shows gone horribly wrong – high-concept shows so preposterous as to flop and get cancelled extremely quickly. These shows live forever, but not as shows people remember, but as trivia items, because they were quickly cancelled and never seen again. Their names become punchlines and we can only imagine how bad these so-called bad shows truly were…even ones from eras in which TV was universally not very good. (Basically any time before 2007.) Shows like My Mother the Car. Turn On. Cop Rock. Pink Lady and Jeff. And of course, Manimal. It’s at the top of this unique list, and not only because it has the most inadvertently awesome and hilarious title in TV history. Also on that list, even though it ran slightly longer than Manimal and maybe because it’s title isn’t as glorious: Automan. The shows are spiritual cousins, if not actual cousins, because they were created by the same man (Glen A. Larson), …

A new DVD release introduces this groundbreaking series to a new generation.

“Fresh Off the Boat” is a refreshing take on the modern family sitcom.

“The Leftovers” recovers from a so-so first season and comes out swinging in Season Two

Thrilled to see that the Showtime network has sought fit to broadcast the British documentary, The Jam – About The Young Idea, as it’s high time a sizable audience could see/hear/learn about the most important band to come out of the 1977 punk/new wave explosion and be barely known in the United States.  The Jam were a particularly British phenomenon and 33 years after their split, new audiences/new generations are finding out about them.  Which means that a whole new audience in the United States may pick up on this incredible band. I’m not going to waste time giving you their history, etc. – that’s what this very well-done documentary does and I think does it smartly and in an interesting manner.  It’s told in the band’s own words, uses archival footage of The Jam (including some songs that have not been previously heard) and speaks to various people – friends of and fans of the band, amongst them, noted actor Martin Freeman (Fargo, The Hobbit, etc.) and writer Paul Abbott (Shameless – both U.K. …

The beauty of Peanuts exists on several levels:  the warmth of the characters; the sense of empathy one has for Charlie Brown; the sweetness and innocence of these children; the messages contained within both the comic strip and the T.V. specials that have appeared over the years.  Understand, I grew up with and loved everything about Peanuts – from the first moment I’d ever read one of the collections or saw A Charlie Brown Christmas as a child.  Now, even in my 50’s and not a father, I still find joy and pleasure in watching these programs and these beloved characters. And once again, Warner Home Video has offered up this dynamic collection, Peanuts:  Emmy Honored Collection, a 2-disc gathering of no less than 9 Emmy nominated/winning Peanuts specials from over the years.  Although these are cartoons, there are also some very powerfully poignant lessons to be learned, such as with “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?” in which Linus tries to learn how to cope with the serious illness of a friend of his; “Is This …

In “Narcos” Pablo Escobar embodies Machiavelli’s famous phrase: “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”