ABC’s ‘9-1-1’ Shocks Fans with the Best Possible Twist

On By Mark PerigardIn TVLeave a comment

Characters on long-running prime-time dramas rarely grow emotionally.

From the first episode to the last, they stand as the same.

Olivia Benson is still the depressed detective apprehending perps on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Dr. Meredith Grey remains the same passionate life-saver that she was in the first season of “Grey’s Anatomy” as she is now in the 43rd season.

It’s part of the appeal of genre TV, what marks them as comfort food.

But the 100th episode of the first-responder show “9-1-1” earlier this month stunned viewers as it pulled on a string lingering for approximately five seasons, give or take, as firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) was kissed by a man.

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Trump Crosses (Another) Line

On By Mark PerigardIn PoliticsLeave a comment

For the last several months, as background for a novel I am working on, I have been researching the French Revolution.

The question that fascinates to this day, historians and lay people alike, is just how it happened: How did the state justify sending so many thousands of people to their deaths?

King Louis and Marie Antoinette were seen as living symbols of despotic rule, and so they were beheaded. Some nobles and clergy also met their ends at the guillotine.

But hundreds and hundreds of average people, from soldiers to journalists to actors to farmers, also were swept up in the Terror and destroyed.

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My Year of Music

On By Mark PerigardIn LifeLeave a comment

When I was in the second grade, I had one violin lesson.

The teacher humiliated me, and I never went back.

So ended my “brilliant” music career.

Now, with the hindsight of an adult, I know the teacher didn’t mean to embarrass me.

He was just trying to show me proper technique, but I felt singled out and shamed in front of my classmates.

Part of me always wondered, though, what I would have been like – what I would have gained – if I had stuck with the lessons.

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Beware the Fury of the Doll Man! Oh, Stop Laughing

On By Mark PerigardIn ComicsLeave a comment

Can we all agree that in the pantheon of super-powers, super-shrinkage is the absolute worst?

More useless than the ability to control a skateboard with your mind. (R.I.P., X-Statix’s El Guapo.)

Lousier than the ability to spew slugs. (Hello, X-Men’s Maggott.)

Super-powers, intrinsic to their nature, are supposed to give you an edge in the unending battle of good vs. evil.

Super-shrinkage makes you susceptible to perils the average person takes for granted: the family cat, an open grate, a stray spider.

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How Leonard Nimoy Saved ‘Star Trek: The Animated Series’ from Becoming One of the Greatest Debacles in TV History

On By Mark PerigardIn TV2 Comments

On its 50th anniversary, “Star Trek: The Animated Series” is finally getting some well-deserved love.

For many years, the Saturday morning series that premiered Sept. 8, 1973, has often been disparaged, if not outright ignored.

And it almost was a mess that very well could have torpedoed “Star Trek” forever, were it not for star Leonard Nimoy.

Continue reading “How Leonard Nimoy Saved ‘Star Trek: The Animated Series’ from Becoming One of the Greatest Debacles in TV History” →