Lone Star Press

Taking cues from the work of Dashiell Hammett with a little Raymond Chandler, the Rockford Files is one of the better detective series in the history of TV. In a TV landscape littered with tedious police proceedurals and overhyped forensic shows, this collection takes a more hard-boiled approach with the soft-hearted lead character. James Garner shines as Jim Rockford, the ex-convict who would rather crack wise than fight. The DVD has a quick interview with James Garner just for this collection who explains that the action is mostly confined to car chases as a substitute for gun fights to please the network sensors. With scripts by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, the stories mostly concern big insurance payoffs and wrongly accused friends of Rockford.

Much as the Twilight Zone was an indicator of talent, the first season of the Rockford Files boasts work by James Woods, Suzanne Somers, Ned Beatty, Abe Vigoda, Linda Evans, Sharon Gless, Lindsay Wagner, Hector Elizondo, Diana Muldaur, Ron Rifkin and Thayer David, who is better known as the creepy albino guy who ran the spy agency in the Eiger Sanction. The supporting cast is seldom seen, but has veteran character actor Noah Beery Jr as Jims dad, Rocky. Stuart Margolin is in a couple of episodes as Rockfords former cellmate Evelyn “Angel” Martin in the role that eventually won him an Emmy.  Joe Santos plays Rockfords friend on the police force, Sgt. Dennis Becker. Gretchen Corbett plays his lawyer and on-and-off girlfriend Beth Davenport who does an excellent slow burn.

The scenes of Rockford driving get a little tiring over the 23 episodes, but this is a landmark in detective fiction. Charming and clever, The Rockford Files does not disappoint.

  

I missed an issue of this and went back and read a couple back-to-back.  Its still slow-moving, ponderous and way too self-involved.  This still feels like an impression of Johns or Bendis with the hyper-reverence for the original material and the need to make it relevant to the modern Marvel Universe. To that, Iron-Man is all over the third issue wanting Sersi to signup with the Feds, placing this current with the rest of the Civil War trainwreck.  I did not much care for the Eternals the first time around and this has not changed my mind.  This might seem like sacrilege, but not everything that everyone does is golden.  The Fantastic Four is genius, but the Eternals is a premise too distant, too removed from human experience to work.  The Eternals make the Inhumans seem as familar as the next door neighbors. 

So, what’s next, Brad Meltzer on Captain Victory?

  

An agent from the Beyond Corporation summons Dormammu from the Dark Dimension and leases some of the Mindless Ones in exchange for $100 and some girls. But for some reason, the names were changed to Roarkannu and the Dank Dimension. Presumably, the reason for the change is that fanboys have no sense of humor. Anyway, the Mindless Ones go on rampage as The Captain tells of the variations on his name that he tried to use as some of the rest of the team speculates on the sexuality of the Avengers. The Captain even manages to use the term “melon farmer.” The story is fun and told with brilliant dialogue from a grinning gun-toting heroine like, “Oh my God. They explode. My life has taken on new meaning.”

This is easily my favorite comic du jour.

  

All writers cheat. They play tricks on the readers and laugh. I have been guilty of this from time to time and have been proud of the distraction and deceptions pulled on the fans. But some times enough can be too much. Too Many Cooks is like that, one long taunt. Nero Wolfe has traveled out of his beloved brownstone to a meeting of the greatest chefs in the world. One of them is killed and the story unravels from there. In the last few chapters, people go places and do things for Wolfe and the substance is never divulged to the audience who in turn never gets the chance to unravel the mystery. The language flows and the prose works, but the characters drone on and on. Wolfe is long- winded, pretentious, fussy as a little girl and ultimately a little entertaining. The slang is horribly out of date and the mystery took so long to unravel that I lost interest in the thing. I’ll be taking a break from Wolfe for a while.

  

Warren Ellis writes another disturbing little crime story in this unique done- in- one format. There is something about this work that makes me think of the anti-hero movement of the 1970s when we were first convinced that the system was broken. Maybe now we feel we have been let down by the anti-heroes and are just looking for something that works. Fell works.

  

This is one of the best comedies of the year so far. It is well- written and well- acted, quirky and honest. Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin all turn in nice performances as the quirky Hoover family. When little Olive Hoover backs into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant as a last minute alternate, the disfunctional clan has to drive to California for her big break. The scenes at the beauty pageant are hilarious and well observed. The laughs come out of real character interaction and are genuine. We should get more movies like this.

  

For some reason I was dragged to this movie by friends with questionable taste. But Snakes on a Plane is an excellent B-movie with decent technique and a laughable premise. An extreme dude sees a killing in Hawaii and has to be flown to Los Angeles for no good reason other than to get him on a plane. The bad guy loads that plane with exotic snakes that are all hopped up on goofballs and mayhem ensues. There is just enough nudity and gore to get an R rating and everything wraps up by the last act. I was hoping for a little more bad language from Samuel L. Jackson, but overall Snakes on a Plane was a little better than I expected.

  

I hated this book. Not only is it plot- hammered and stilted, but it contains just about every cliche common in the rest of Robert Parkers other books so that it is almost a bad impression or a parody. And half of the cast from the Spenser books shows up to tell you how cool the other lead characters in the other books are. Which has the delightful effect of pulling you right out of the narrative. Coincidences abound and the obvious killers are not addressed. Red herrings are not thrown out and ends are not tied up. The victim had come from Miami to Paradise Harbor. One person said he flew her up there and another said she sailed up. Is than ever resolved? Nah. Another lunch scene and another scene with a shrink later and another clue mysteriously pops up. In short, this book is really two or three characters talking about sex and love with a little mystery going on in the background. And the conversation among the characters is not a particularly bright or new one.

It is one thing for an artist to have influences, but another thing altogether to copy segments of previous works. The copied scenes are derivative of previous superior material as much as the Jesse Stone character is derivative of the Spenser character. It is possible for a creator to get out of the gate and have a magnificent start only to crash back down to earth to slog through hackwork. The Sopranos has proved this. After a high point of the Pine Barrens episode in the third season, that series has choked to the extent that there are now more bad episodes than good. If Parker keeps up this weak work, he will attain that pitiful goal too.

  

Gene Luen Yangs original graphic novel about acceptance and individuality is a study of alienated kids as Jin Yang recalls a tale from his childhood about a Monkey King. Inside of this is a tale of a Monkey King which is a lesson for Jin with a side story about a caricature named Chin-Kee taking center stage for an amazingly insensitive chapter or two. But the three stories are cleverly weaved together in the last act. With the myth and the reality surrounding Jin weaving together, a surprise or two unfolds making for a surprisingly satisfying reading experience. In terms of content and form and format and presentation, American Born Chinese is a model for the future of the medium.