brucebaskin Reviews

Sherlock Holmes (1954–1955)

Much better than I expected

[8/10 · 9 November 2023]

Confession: After decades of loving both their movies and radio shows together, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce ARE Holmes and Watson to me (although Doyle's Watson was never the bumbler the writers had Bruce portray him as) to the point that I even resisted other actors in those roles. Until now.

I started watching this TV series on YouTube a few weeks ago and while Rathbone and Bruce still hold my virtual crowns, Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford have both charmed me after almost a dozen episodes. The series is much lighter and less dour than the Rathbone/Bruce collaborations could be and while some episodes are nothing close to Grammy material, others are quite decent. As others here have mentioned, Howard and Crawford work very well together and seem to be having fun with their roles. Howard is a younger and more buoyant Holmes than Rathbone and (a real bonus) Crawford's Watson is much closer to what Doyle seemed to have in mind: a step behind Holmes, yes, but nobody's fool and more colleague than subservient. They really carry the series even with the hit-or-miss writing they worked with. Archie Duncan does fine as Lestrade despite HIS role being written as a perpetual bumbler instead of Watson. The fact that episodes are set in Victorian times is a plus...no Nazi-chasing here.

If you're expecting the serious, sometimes darker version of Holmes as portrayed by Rathbone (who grew to hate the role because he was typecast by it) plus myriad plot twists, you won't find that here. What you will find is a more fun version sans plot twists because a 30-minute show is too tight for heavy intrigue. Just give it three episodes for a fair chance because, as mentioned, some scripts are simply not very good (the Texas Cowgirl episode being eminently avoidable altogether). It took three to win me over and I'm glad it did.

The Starlost (1973–1974)

Cheesier than a Velveeta factory

[5/10 · 22 June 2022]

I have to admit that I'd never heard of "The Starlost" when it debuted (I was a 14-year-old at the time), and only discovered it as a stand-alone Roku channel. I figured "Why not?" and bookmarked it, and I've since watched a few episodes.

Where to begin? The production values were, uhhh, "spartan" (think latter-day Roger Corman), exemplified by the use of videotape instead of film for recording. The script-writing was more reminiscent of a hurried "Space 1999" than "Star Trek" and the acting...well, the cast wasn't all that great but it's hard to imagine Shatner and Nimoy making "The Starlost" work under the same conditions.

Many other reviewers have gone at length explaining WHY this show ended up the way it did despite a promising premise...suffice to say that SEVERE budget cuts unraveled Harlan Ellison's original vision to the point that Ellison bailed on the project before the first episode was taped.

With all those minuses, why do I give this a rating of 5 (out of 10) stars? Because (like a Monte Cristo sandwich) the cheese brings it all together. The fact that the cast plays their roles straight with no hint of a wink or a nod actually helps. For me, the result was a so-bad-it's-good show that only requires application of Hillary Clinton's "willing suspension of reality" line to enjoy.

If you take your SciFi with dead seriousness, "The Starlost" is definitely not for you. If you can take your SciFi with a grain of salt, give it a shot...if you just lower your expectations a bit, you'll probably "get" it.

Meeting of Minds (1977–1981)

If I was a history teacher, this would be in my curriculum

[10/10 · 20 April 2020]

I was first turned on to "Meeting of Minds" by my high school Humanities teacher during my senior year in 1977, the year it debuted. I'd had some interest in history and historical figures for a few years but NOTHING I'd ever seen before (or have seen since) brought history to life quite like this show. It's one thing to read about the likes of Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, Teddy Roosevelt, et al., but to actually see them as characters in a talk show/interview format was simply incredible. There has never been a TV program like this one.

It's borderline tragic that this series has never been issued in a DVD format because it's a terrific learning tool and if I was a history teacher, you'd better believe I would incorporate "Meeting of Minds" into my in-class curriculum). Thank goodness several episodes are viewable on YouTube, but it really deserves to be available as a set and I don't know why PBS or Steve Allen's estate (whoever owns the rights) has never issued a boxed set. Some things deserve to be considered beyond rights fees and this series is one of them.

The Iran Job (2012)

Even better documentary than I'd hoped for

[9/10 · 22 December 2018]

I'd never heard of "The Iran Job" but when I saw it listed on a Roku channel, I was immediately intrigued. A former US college basketball player spending a season in Iran??? As a lifelong hoops fan and former newscaster (I got out at the right time), I couldn't resist. As I write this two years later, I've now watched it three times and undoubtedly will watch it again. It is that good.

Short summary: Kevin Sheppard played guard at Jacksonville University, the school that sent Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore to the NBA. The 6-foot Sheppard averaged 13.5 and 16.1 points his last two seasons for the Dolphins before embarking on a peripatetic pro career that took him to 15 teams in several countries from Australia to Cuba to Israel between 2003 and his 2015 retirement. He was a good player who represented his native U.S. Virgin Islands in the Pan-American Games and other international tournaments. Sheppard already had performed for 11 teams over six years when he arrived in Shiraz, Iran in 2008, but this would be a totally different experience.

Sheppard is expected to lift an first-year team to their league playoffs, a rarity in basketball anywhere, while adjusting to a Muslim nation ruled by clerics who run a tight ship, to say the least. Iran was just months away from the so-called Persian Spring when this was filmed, creating (in a sense) a what-is-to-come backdrop that hindsight can afford. If you're a basketball fan, you'll see the frustration Kevin feels playing with teammates with physical talent who haven't developed toughness or basketball sense yet. a.s. Shiraz plays in a gym in front of crowds of 3,000 or so on some night and it's clear that Kevin is their best player. Regarding that part of the story, the younger players improve and start winning enough to challenge for a playoff spot after all. I was entertained and as long as you're not expecting the NBA, you'll enjoy it.

What made this doc stand out for me, however, were the three young women who befriended Kevin early in the season. They were all distinct from each other as people, but they were all intelligent and perceptive people who understood what their societal role was in Iran. While they lived with it to varying degrees, they all wanted better for themselves. These were the kinds of spirits who were at the heart of the Green Movement, which ultimately challenged the mullahs openly in 2009 as a protest of the country's recent presidential election but were eventually quelled.

I started watching this out of curiosity from a basketball sense and even if that was the only contex I got out of it, I'd still think it was worth the time. It was what was happening AWAY from the gym that makes "The Iran Job" a superb documentary interpolating sports with a nation mere months before its biggest political uprising since 1979, when a revolution changed it from a monarchy to a theocracy.

I gave this nine stars because not everyone likes basketball AND international politics (some may consider one topic or the other a distraction) but if you have interest in both, it's definitely worth a ten-star rating.

What's Happening!! (1976–1979)

A solid, underrated Seventies sitcom

[8/10 · 18 September 2017]

I was a senior in high school when this show debuted and even though I was a white kid in the 'burbs, I found much of what Raj, Rerun and Dwayne did and talked about easy to relate to because even though my own life was pretty far removed from black kids in the city, I think kids are going to be kids at heart, guys are always going to come up with ideas that seem better at their genesis than they actually end up being and "What's Happening!" seems to have been written with that at the show's core. It's a well-done sitcom that doesn't talk down to its audience.

I'll spare the character profiles and such because there are plenty of other reviewers here who've done a good job of that. What I will say is that 40 years after it first aired on ABC, "What's Happening!" holds up nicely. It was definitely an ensemble comedy that changed when Mabel King left the show, but the actors worked well together and had a good on- screen chemistry. Although "What's Happening!" wasn't as popular at the time as other sitcoms based on black families like "Good Times" or "The Jeffersons," it is definitely in their league in terms of the quality of acting and writing.

I didn't give it a "10" rating because there wasn't a lot of character development (hardly unique for sitcoms), Mabel King's exit meant the loss of the one character who seemed able to create order out of the chaos that usually ensued when the guys got into a jam and a sense of staleness was beginning to set in by its last season. Still, it rates a solid "8" with me and that "8" applies in 2017 as well as for 1977. "What's Happening!" endures as one of the better, if underrated, comedies of the late Seventies. Worth watching.

Julia (1968–1971)

Before the "Mary Tyler Moore Show," there was "Julia"

[9/10 · 25 January 2017]

As I write this, the death of Mary Tyler Moore was announced within the last hour. While MTM is rightfully lauded for her role as a single career woman, Diahann Carroll's role in "Julia" broke more ground on more fronts. Ms. Carroll depicted a black woman trying to balance a job as a nurse with raising a 6-year-old son after her husband in the Vietnam War. Add the fact that this series debuted in 1968, there were a LOT of glass ceilings shattered when NBC began airing it and even though it apparently drew criticism, the network stuck with it for three years until Ms. Carroll had had enough.

On top of that, it was a good show, a "dramedy" that was presented in understated fashion without laugh track but with a nice chemistry between the core cast of Ms. Carroll, Marc Copage as her son and old pros Lloyd Nolan and Lurene Tuttle as her doctor boss and charge nurse, respectively. I rate "Julia" a 9 because it could be a little flat at times, but it deserves far, far more attention than it receives even today.

Rain in the Mountains (2007)

Very well-done cult classic in the making

[10/10 · 5 May 2007]

I attended an independent movie festival with another movie topping my short "must-see" list, but this one (which was almost an afterthought to me) was hands-down the best one I saw. It's a very gentle film with no swearing that does a superb job of depicting the internal conflict of Native Americans raised in mainstream society who want to reconnect with their culture, but never gets preachy or overarching.

The script is well-written, the cinematography is rich, and the casting was inspired. This strikes me as a movie that people of all ages can watch and come away with something. While another indie, "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding" got a lot more notice, "Rain in the Mountains" to me is by far the better film. It has the chance to join such movies as "Harold and Maude" and "King of Hearts" as cult favorites because it is both timeless and very human. Unlike those two, you could take a 10-year-old kid to this one without blushing.

I can't recommend "RITM" highly enough.