Snarky Tom's Rants, Raves and Ruminations

As a child and an adolescent, I had curious interests in the macabre. Vampires, werewolves, witches and all other creepy crawlies. During the Coronavirus lockdown, I have been in a deep binge watch of Dark Shadows, a 1960s Gothic soap opera that used to air on ABC. Besides housewives there was a great following by elementary school children like myself. Aside from the "icky" romance parts, there was the most interesting and fantastic ghosts, vampires and reanimated humans.  Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows Today, I got to thinking about the subject of Vampires. Who (or What) are they? How did they come to exist?  Blood drinking undead beasts. Hollywood has made films and television programs of vampires for nearly 100 years. The first one was Nosferatu (1922). Many authors have written vampire stories and novels. Bram Stoker, Stephen King, Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer to name a few. For the most part, each story gave vampires the same traits. They only come...

After the week we've all been through and the ongoing shitstorm of Covid-19, we need to think of something more pleasurable. Betty White. I've been binge watching Community (2009-15), a sitcom that ran five seasons on NBC and it's sixth (last) season through Yahoo's short lived video service, Yahoo! Video (Yahoo! Screen). The cast also had a Table Read of fifth season episode four via Zoom this year during the Coronavirus quarantine. What's any of that got to do with Betty White? Betty White Betty White is a television national treasure. At 98 years old, she's been in everything. Her career started in 1945. 1945! That's 75 years in the "Business." Her last few projects have been voice work, but that counts. Her first regular starring series was Life with Elizabeth (1953-55) as Elizabeth.  In the first show of the second season of Community, she played the Anthropology community college professor, June Bauer, for two episodes where in the first epis...

This could be a Coronavirus post but it's not really, even though, it is. Sort of. Because we are quarantined, I've been binge watching TV shows that I've always meant to give a chance but have never made the time. Now that we have the time, I've been watching Superstore. It's quirky. It's funny. It's a little bit, well, maybe, more than a little bit obscene. There's swearing albeit bleeped out and pixelated, but I know what they're saying. The current episode I'm watching is Season 4 Episode Major Crimes. In this episode, the manager, Glenn, steps down and the District Manager has hired her son. In the end, Amy played by America Ferrera gets the job because she blackmails the DM who she caught snorting cocaine. But that's not the point I'm about to make. I was thinking a real megastore would not allow the DM to hire a family member for store manager. But then I got to thinking, of course, they could or would. Nepotism started in ret...

There's been a lot of murmur and talk about this Netflix documentary about a group of people. This group has one thing in common. No, it's not the tigers. It's that they are all fahken nuts. Seriously. If you haven't read my post on zoos , click it. The long and short of it is: I don't fahken like them. Animals don't belong behind bars in habitats unnatural to their real life. These clowns, they are all clowns too, buy, sell and breed tigers, lions and a Liger, a Lion (male) and Tigress mating. I'm not even sure how that's possible. Or if it should be possible. Or legal.  I went looking and found that there are several other animal classifications that have this anomaly. Whether by design or an accident of nature, it's just plain weird. From a website known as Twisted Sifter in 2012, they listed 10 bizarre hybrid animals. Check it out . I don't get it. Why to we have to fahk with nature? Speaking of nature. The nature, or more precisely, t...

I have never been a supporter of PETA or any animal rights groups or movements of any kind. I think most of these people are wackadoo nutcases. However, they sometimes have some very strong valid points of view. Truthfully, I just don't have enough time or care to put forth the effort it takes to be valuable to any movement. I'm just not passionate enough about it (or much of anything for that matter) to get involved. This is about as involved as I will get. With anything. Period. There's this new Documentary on Netflix, "Tiger King" that seems to be the much watch program this month. I have only seen the first episode. When I get a little more free time, I'll watch more. I will reserve my opinion of the show or characters, because they are a bunch of "characters," until I'm all caught up. However, I do have an opinion on their livelihood. I don't like it. No, no, no, no, no, goddammit, no! Not one freaking bit. I don't like fahken zo...

Some time back I critiqued or skimmed the surface of James Bond  (#9). Last weekend I found myself in a funk. I was melancholy and in need of something to pull me out of my doldrums. As a guy, chick flicks are not the cure. Action, manly-man, adventure, overkill kills, spies, and SEX!!! James Bond was the answer. Bond has always been a male oriented film product specifically designed and targeted for men. I am sure there are many women who like the sex appeal of the Bond character (actors), but most women could live without the violence and excessive naked and/or dead body count. More on body count later. So. Starting last Saturday I began my binge watching Bond Fest. I started with the first film, Dr. No (1962) and finished up this afternoon with the most recent film (I own) Skyfall (2012). I intend to get SPECTRE (2015) shortly. There is, to-date, a total of twenty-four Broccoli and Saltzman (EON Productions) produced films. There are two other non-EON films, but I ...

With so much time on my hands, I have had the opportunity to watch more television than I really should. This got me thinking about my all-time favorite movies. You know the ones. The movies that when you turn on the TV and no matter how much of the movie you missed, you watch the rest until the end. The list below could be considered my stuck-on-a-desert-island must have Movies.  I know some of you may shrug your shoulders and exclaim, "Meh!", but for me I am captivated. Some of my all time favorites, not in any specific order: Back to the Future Trilogy Star Wars (all of them) Star Trek (all of them, yes, even the reboots. They're really not that bad. They're not Shatner and Nimoy, but they'll do.) Short Circuit (but not the sequel. It sucked.) The Harry Potter series (all of them) Any Clint Eastwood movie (even the Spaghetti Westerns) 48 hours (both of them) Beverly Hills Cop (1 and 2, not 3. It wasn't that good and we may never see 4. It's...

For those of you who are a fan and are waiting to view the final season when it airs on PBS on January 3, 2016, I won't spoil it for you. There were 8 episodes that aired on ITV in the UK which began September 20th with the finale airing yesterday, November 8th. For the most part it did not disappoint. As usual, there was lots of drama all season long. Things that occurred this season: There were two marriages.  One attempted suicide.  One of the two main characters who left at the end of last season returned this season.  A long kept secret is revealed.  Someone becomes pregnant.  One person's status in the community is diminished as another's is elevated. Two characters start a flirtatious, possible relationship, Two servants are nearly "sacked". (Two different episodes) One of the daughter's gets engaged, then disengaged while her sister, after rejecting her suitor, changes her mind and agrees to marry. Someone dies.  The abov...

Anyone who knows me knows I like mystery and crime stories, especially true crime. So, I am a huge fan and viewer of the Investigation Discovery network. I view many programs and have my favorites. One show I recently stumbled upon was "Surviving Evil" hosted by the stunning actress, Charisma Carpenter , who herself a crime survivor. She and two friends suffered at the hands of a violent serial rapist and police officer Henry Hubbard, Jr. on San Diego's Torrey Pines State Beach in 1991. I don't want to go on about her, her surviving her attack or even the ID program, which airs Thursdays at 9 pm and re-airs throughout the week and is available On Demand. Well, actually, I do want to speak about one episode from the current season (the 3rd season), but not the show as much as how the law failed to truly punish the perpetrator of this crime. The show titled "Escaping The Arroyo" interviews the one surviving victim and tells the horrific story about two whi...

I am usually not one to post television or movie reviews. I used to leave that to my sister . However, sometimes there's something that I like that much that I am compelled to share it. Two brothers, Ethan and Joel Coen, have been filmmakers (writers/producers) for 30 years. Their first was Blood Simple in 1984 and most recent, Bridge of Spies (2015). I have seen just about all their films. I would rate each one 4 to 5 stars out of 5. My least favorite would be Raising Arizona (1987). I'd give it 3 stars. I like their storytelling style. One film stands out as one of my all time favorites, Fargo (1996). But I'm not going to go on about that film. I don't want to bore you if you've seen it. I also don't want to spoil anything if you haven't. I want to enlighten you to the FX TV series  (2014-). The Coen brothers are listed as Executive Producers. The series, like the film, opens up claiming that this is a "true story".  It's not. It's fi...

Generally, I don't post Television program reviews, but I thought I'd give it a try. The first one is a current era whodunit. The second is an early twentieth century period piece. Gracepoint is the American version of the British TV whodunit, Broadchurch , that aired last year on BBC America. I watched the first episode of the mini-series. I was not disappointed. It appears the Fox mini-series is following the British series' script. The location has changed. Instead of a Welsh seaside town, it is set in northern Californian. The victim is a murdered preteen boy.  Gracepoint is a ten-episode series whereas Broadchurch was eight-episodes. The reason for the extra two episodes is because Broadchurch was originally created to be ten episodes long. However the British network ITV would only commission eight episodes, forcing the creators to cut two episodes. Fox allowed the creators free choice over how many episodes Gracepoint would be, so they chose to restore the miss...