I'm so grateful to have another virtual visit with Tom and Dana discussing my favorite film The Searchers! You can hear the episode on Greatest Movies of All Time Website and follow GMOAT on Instagram for much more.
Don't forget you can also read the complete Cinema Legacy Poll in which myself and many other podcasters took part thanks to GMOAT!
Follow the Podcast label for more audio appearance or listen to previous guest spots including:
Despite finally having a bout with Covid, there's nothing like a birthday to sit down and chat Guy Pearce with Jaylan Salah on The Jay Days YouTube Channel! This time we discussed the three latest Guy Pearce films that viewers seemed to have missed - The Shrouds, Inside, and Killing Faith.
Visit the Video label for more guest appearances or follow our Kbatz Reviews at The Jay Days Playlist for more Guy Pearce Re-Watch Analysis including:
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert
I had such fun chatting with The Lone Acting Nominee Podcast about Jack Palance & City Slickers!
It's so great to be a part of so many new Podcasts in 2025! Join me on Blue Sky for more collaborations or browse the Podcast tag for more appearances including:
Hateship Loveship on the Female Gaze Podcast
Critic Spotlight: Kristin Battestella on The Women InSession Podcast at InSessionFilm.com
Women's History Month Collab with The Revisionist's Almanac Podcast
It's very exciting to be part of other podcast ventures and appearances! After taking part in The Revisionist Almanac Let's Get Spooky Collab last year, it was my turn to take part in The Almanac's 1956 episode. See and Hear as at long last I rectified the award wrongs for The Searchers!
Thank you Andrew for inviting me to take part! With all the terrible things happening recently, it's a comfort to know my voice has meaning – even if it's in a tiny capacity talking about the movies we love.
You can also pick up some @RevAlmanac swag, but my cat photobombed my show and tell attempt!
Follow our Podcast tag for more and revisit previous guest appearances:
Greatest Movies of All Time – Ben-Hur
Making Tarantino – House of Dark Shadows and Frankenstein Must be Destroyed
The Lone Screenplay Nominee – Stand by Me
Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz talks about holiday loot – including new blu-ray releases, books, and Funkos! I get serious, too, about owning multiple differing versions of films and why physical media remains essential in turbulent times.
It's a Christmas Boon that keeps on giving! Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz discovers a box of DVDs from her late father-in-law and chats about the pros & cons of thrift shopping and film viewing in today's troublesome times.
Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz (and her feline co-host) share some thrift CDs and discount DVD finds thanks to Big Lots' unfortunate closing sales – including science fiction classics, comedies, and new television finds! Also, can we bring back special features and more physical media please?!
You can see more Video Critiques and DVD Hauls in our Therefore Review Playlist! Don't forget we are also on Blue Sky and you can see or hear more Podcasts and Video collabs with our handy tags!
Hear or Read More of our Reviews:
As requested by subscriber @gageman136, Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz chats about the good and bad of Guy Pearce's villainous performances!
Thank you so much for the viewer feedback and comments. Let me know what else you would like to see as well as your thoughts on Guy Pearce as the bad guy. Thank you for Watching!
Remember we are now on Blue Sky as well as Instagram but have reduced our @ThereforeReview Twitter to DMs for audio/visual collabs. Also read our Film articles at InSession Film and TV coverage at Keith Loves Movies or join along in our Great Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch!
See, Hear, Read More:
Guy Pearce Horror Movies Video Review
Underrated Guy Pearce Movies Women InSession Podcast
Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I am neck deep in perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! In the spirit of the Halloween Season, here's a video review of Guy Pearce's Horror Films.
Thank you for watching! See, Hear, and Read More:
Underrated Guy Pearce Movies Women InSession Podcast
Infamous for not alphabetizing her physical media collection, Kristin Battestella shares her budding DVD Snapcase collection – from early video release memories and classic films to horror movies and sentimental favorites.
Thank you for watching!
Follow @ThereforeReview on Twitter or read our reviews at InSessionFilm! You can also hear more with the Women InSession Podcast and follow our television retrospectives at Keith Loves Movies!
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Splitting Family Horrors
by Kristin Battestella
Despite feminine and non-white strides in their scary storytelling, these recent family-oriented household horrors make for some wanted-to-like-it-but split decision viewing.
Imaginary – Returning to the childhood home, titular games, and teddy bears doom a blended multi-racial family in this 2024 Blumhouse yarn starring DeWanda Wise (She's Gotta Have It). Opening spider transformations are just dream scares for our children's author and illustrator; fake startles and the stereotypical texting teen daughter get old fast. A lame boy next door also exists solely for bathroom stupids, and the toy bear zooming down the hallway for a monster fright is more filler than fearful. A break-in by the crazy ex-wife wastes time and our nonentity husband goes away on tour – making viewers question if we need anyone but our writer and the younger precocious stepdaughter conveniently named Alice. Thankfully, hide and seek leads to an ominous basement and our child voices both sides of the disturbing conversation with her new imaginary friend. Serious one on one family moments reveal backstory, feelings, and scars before well filmed video therapy chats make for an eerie psychosis. Psychologist worries, bittersweet visits with dad at the assisted living, uncovering childhood bear drawings, and history repeating itself phrases lead to stuffed animal surprises and missing children. Our bear's scavenger hunt is a spell for crossing over into the imaginary world – doing something that scares you, gets you hurt and in trouble with effigies, bugs, and matches. Unfortunately, it takes an hour to get to this fantastical leap, and the audience may not follow. Our teen does end up believing, however not because of her own family's encounters, but due to outside reinforcement. Obnoxious twists descend into overlong, contrived fun house set pieces, goofy sing songs, laughable creepy kids, and comical giant bears explained via Inside Out references from unnecessary exposition characters who are happy to be on the other side. The nonsensical, unable to see, too dark never world; but wait there's more self sacrifice; and saccharin faux escapes go on and on until burning down the house is the only recourse. Good luck explaining that to the authorities! The husband never comes back asking WTF, either – but there's another kid with another teddy bear that's apparently the same thing. This could have been a psychological versus horror twofer under ninety minutes highlighting Wise's well done repression. If you can chuckle at the silly choices done instead, this can be entertaining. However there's nothing scary about the LOL bug eye monster people.
Kept Woman – A robbery in the city sends our engaged couple to the suburban quaint with a too groovy to be true neighbor in this 2015 ninety minute thriller. The mortgage is precarious, and thus Jessica gets along better with every other man than her fiance. However, she also wastes time with online friends investigating true crimes when she's supposed to be writing a book. Our breadwinner mocks her whodunits, dismissing Jessica's nosy suspicions about their Professor of Men's Studies neighbor Simon. The first half hour is a little long in establishing their dynamic before a weak catalyst gets the weary Jessica alone with Simon – drugged and waking in a retro pink and yellow kitschy basement with the perfectly fifties Robin warning Jessica not to make Simon angry. Simon brings Jessica vintage gifts and insists Robin make her feel welcome while he packs her bags to feign having left her fiance. Her betrothed leaves a jerky voicemail that he'll apologize to her face later, but we shouldn't see anything outside once we are locked in the bunker. Creepy bedroom doo wop, betrayals, and apologies lead to revelations of a previous woman, iron burns, and punishment when you don't listen. Jessica has to play sweet, dress demure, and use her typewriter, but Simon vows to take care of which woman is pretending or lying – leading to sobbing in the bedroom and whirring saws. Unfortunately, the unnecessary, nonsensical outside storyline deflates the congested bunker disturbia. The couple's BFF cop never followed up on Simon admitting to a dalliance with a student, but the online crime group put the missing girls on campus pieces together. Wasting time on more tangents detracts from the lipstick on the collar and foreshadowed signals. We also never learn why the mid-century nostalgia. How did he afford this elaborate home? Why are there two bedrooms with two women when it repeatedly causes conflict – Madonna and Whore mommy issues? It takes our fiance the entire movie to get a clue, for he's more annoyed at her leaving him in a real estate lurch, throwing away her possessions while she's actually being assaulted and believing she found someone else because he cheated before their engagement. It's shitty that Jessica remains with her fiance when he gave up searching for her for almost two months, and the final fight is rushed for a silly one year later prison visit when I'd rather have seen the titular book success.
Nope – Keith David (The Thing) gravitas, Donna Mills (Falcon Crest) humor, and Michael Wincott (The Crow) cranky accent director Jordan Peele's (Us) 2022 weird western metaphors amid dusty California isolation, horses in fear, and fatal objects falling from the sky. Green screen wrangling and safety meeting spins from sister Keke Palmer (Scream Queens) are awkward, and brother Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah) is selling off horses to a neighboring theme park run by former child star Steven Yeun (Minari). The Black struggle for acknowledgment in The West and Hollywood is immediate with minority contributions ignored and animals misused. Flickering electricity and objects above acerbate our realistic, foul mouthed sibling relationship as they debate the preposterous and hook up cameras in hopes of recording the UFO stealing their horses in the moonlight. Freaky shadows in the barn, bugs on the camera, and mists coming down from the sky are a nope on that shit; yet digital versus film, vinyl, and walkie talkies chronicle our obsession with documenting everything. We view our world through a lens be it on television or own recording of our lives, exploited and exploiting ourselves. Daylight hovering increases as our territorial alien gets a taste for more than horses, and motorcycles in the old west theme park and on horseback rescues provide throwback action alongside the simplicity of not looking an animal in the eye and don't look up clues. Phones go down amid trapped in the truck perils and arguments about staying inside, feeding the monsters, and plans to go analog to defeat it. Unfortunately, silly contemporary references will date the social commentary for future audiences, and silence would have been better than the warped music distortions. Intercut restarts are piece meal not ominous – disjointed amid ill fated monkey sitcoms, morbid memorabilia, and unnecessarily drawn out scenes. Too dark to see cutaways break the UFO momentum for theme park pranks, on set detours, and inside the alien perspectives when we should never leave the family viewpoint. Desperation for the money shot results in a typical sacrifice, and anonymous screaming for a phone or camera even in death is bound by TMZ jokes. News reports, superfluous characters, backstory parallels, and public fatalities detract from the sibling encounters, ballooning 100 minute horrors into an overlong two hours plus. Though entertaining with likable characters, this looses steam with redundant elements that stray from the immediate story and taught metaphors.
Kristin Battestella has let her DVD thrift finds and movie hauls pile up again so it's time to take a gander at all the westerns, classics, music, and more! 📀
But 1 week after clearing her DVD pile, Kristin Battestella was at Goodwill again for another movie boon! Criterion, classics, fuzzy slippers, and more show and tell! I know also I keep calling them LaserDiscs, but they are actually the old VideoDisc rivals. Still cool at buy one get one free prices!!
Thank you for watching! Be sure to join us in the Film Discourse on Twitter or Instagram!
Don't forget you can also find our movie reviews at InSession Film and our television retrospectives at Keith Loves Movies.
Peruse More Reviews, Video, and Podcast Appearances including:
Bound Video Guest Appearance with Jaylan Salah
Top Ten Gregory Peck Essentials
Horror and Science Fiction Fare from the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! 😱
Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films.
In interviews, Guy Pearce has claimed horror and genre films aren't his forte, yet over his career, Pearce has nonetheless provided audiences with several entertaining, polarizing, and thrilling genre bending performances.
Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast, and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.
Bad Bonus: The Seventh Day
8. Prometheus – Looking at this 2012 Alien prequel purely from a Guy Pearce standpoint can be somewhat depressing when you think of what his superior Ted Talks 2023 short as Peter Weyland promised compared to the not so secret old man holograms, arrogant foolishness, and god-complex folly the film gave us. We are ripe for a Weyland TV show right now, but the less said of Alien: Covenant, the better. I would have watched a movie with Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Guy Pearce waxing existential in a white room instead of the movie we got.
7. Sunrise – Director Andrew Baird opens this 2024 horror drama with warnings of sacrificial appeasement to The Red Coat as a Chinese American family takes in a drifter asking for fresh blood. The horror keeps restarting amid reports of dead animals and rah rah racist speeches, and the narrative is crowded with multiple immigrant struggles and horror vengeance that each deserved more time. We inexplicably never really get to know the “you people” being terrorized by Guy Pearce's pulpit spewing hooligan, and viewers wonder whether this should have been a straightforward drama told in order rather than a piecemeal supernatural tale with flashbacks. Fortunately, Pearce embodies the bloody commentary with his perceived superiority – oozing demented slurs, vile insults, and deep seeded ease. Though uneven and not as cohesive as it could be, Pearce's despicably effortless characterization and the gory consequences are worth seeing.
6. The Time Machine – This 2002 H.G. Wells remake starts great with groundbreaking visuals, Victorian charm, and a steampunk backstory for Pearce's Alexander Hartdegen. Our desperate traveler asks what if he could go back in time to save his late fiancee, but halfway thru the narrative, however, we're thrust into a contrived white savior action hero movie. The injured professor Alex is suddenly scaling towers and jungle cliffs for a new cause that has nothing to do with his original motivation. Though entertaining with choice moments from Pearce, that what if potential isn't fully achieved. (Just like writer John Logan's Catriona Hartdegen in Penny Dreadful – but that is separate ponderance.)
5. Equals – Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom) aide forbidden young lovers Kristen Stewart (Underwater) and Nicholas Holt (X-Men: First Class) in director Drake Dormeus' 2015 dystopian, emotionless future. The austere architecture, nondescript clothing, anonymous SF conformity, and regimented jobs establish this tranquil world well. However we learn nothing about how or why this Collective came to be, and the slow, easy to zone out pacing and often chilly, arms length storytelling imitate the society herein perhaps too well with an overlong, numb mood. Simple names like “Switched-on Syndrome” that would have been cool in the nineties are too bland and derivative of the superior Equilibrium despite up close, intimate filming and improvised scenes. The stolen touches and secret trysts lead to a desire to escape, and the elder allies risk their own hidden emotional selves in a well done finale for fans of the cast – and there is a bonus David Selby (Dark Shadows)!
4. Zone 414 – The superficial, first draft, rushed retreads in this 2021 SF thriller from director Andrew Baird (One Way) try to do too much and will disappoint viewers expecting a tighter sociological examination. Retro futuristic, gritty nineties tech jars with the modern surveillance camera splices; the supporting ensemble is underutilized and the missing girl mystery is a MacGuffin detracting from Matilda Lutz's (Revenge) emotional android Jane. Guy Pearce's detective with a shady past coldly shoots a pleading android and disassembles it's brain core, claiming he's above the Zone depravity but taking this case solely for the paycheck. Scheduling issues forced Pearce and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) to switch their original roles, and although I can see Pearce hamming it up as our megalomaniac robot creator, his David is older, jaded, and rolling his eyes. The best moments here are the existential one-on-ones between David and Jane debating who is the prisoner or the prison, and their introspective point of view should have been the film's focus. Fortunately, interesting possibilities on control, vice, and ubiquitous machines that see and hear our depraved secrets lead to disturbing culprits, blowtorches, and choice demented moments. Standard model female robots are recirculated to creeps who pay not to hurt them...much. Although the sci-fi potential feels incomplete unless you watch this more than once, I like the intriguing nuggets here.
3. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark – Writer Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak) provides a perfectly freaky old house with lots of spooky trappings and an ominous basement for snobby architect Guy Pearce alongside Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) and Bailee Madison (Good Witch) in this atmospheric 2011 remake. The obnoxious adults don't believe the depressed child's creepy encounters, leaving wise viewers with should have done, shout at the TV moments and obviously ignored evidence. There are some typical, tiresome horror clichés, and pat explanations, too; showing the malevolent tooth fairies completely too soon takes away from the monster mystery and otherwise finely done suspense, darkness, and fear. Fortunately, smart uses of shadow, flashlights, and good old fashioned if implausible Polaroids keep up the brooding scares and somber pace as the family dynamics fracture over the increasing horror violence. The very eerie little voices accent some disturbing child in peril scenes – leading to a bone cracking finale.
2. Ravenous
1. Brimstone
What Went Wrong with Legacy
by Kristin Battestella
I never expected to see the blink and you missed it 1998 UPN series Legacy again! The 1880s Kentucky horse family scandalous was preposterous then, and it remains tough to re-watch with guest of the week plots once barely passable for sporadic weekly television now glaring binge viewing problematic. Legacy shoots itself in the foot with modern intrusions, weak characterizations, and fly by night storytelling – rushing itself right off the air at only eighteen episodes.
Rather than period piece Americana wholesome like Little House on the Prairie or Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman; cool music, hip horse racing, sassy daughters, and pretty sons immediately set Legacy's erroneous attempt at style over substance in a very busy pilot with broken engagements, attempted steamy, and supposed interracial romance. Cutthroat racing rivals, leg breaking riding risks, pickpocket accusations, fires in the barn, and a little girl in peril deserving their own episodes instead happen in one scene each because every episode has to have a slow motion dressage event. Do gooder patriarch Brett Cullen (Falcon Crest) expects his farm to be the best yet his entire family are apparently embarrassing misfits with blighted crops, ranch rebuilds, and admonishing sibling rivalries resetting per hour. The rebel daughter contemplating art school and rejecting her debutante debut one day is teaching etiquette and protocol the next while the illiterate learning to read is mentioned twice amid gambling lessons that aren't learned between repeated horse scams. Legacy's lack of writing cohesion is a fascinating mix of disjointed filler, nothing burgers, and everything thrown at the screen. Bad investments and ill advised farm loans made so dire every week leave viewers wondering how the post-war Logan family has survived this long.
Debates with an estranged spinster aunt wishing to have the daughters educated in Boston are resolved immediately when Legacy could have used such meddling all season. Notions of those well to do Boston in-laws looking down on Kentucky horse breeders before and after the Civil War are never brought up again as Legacy burns through storylines with all forgiven quickness and going through the motions exposition. The loser in the back and forth elections is still somehow made a political deputy with an office where he solves people's farm problems a few times, and dad Ned is in a coma for a very special episode with Meatloaf music video flashbacks of his late wife. Not even a guest spot from Melissa Leo (Homicide: Life on the Street) can slow down the rapid fire dilemmas amid new hire housekeeper mistakes, riding lessons, school sessions, colts in training, and petitions for women to enter the all male jockey club. If you've seen one episode of Legacy, you've seen them all, and the poorly written double talk dialogue feigning sophistication, shirtless washing montages, and interracial love triangles so chaste they can't possibly be scandalous are terribly banal to binge today.
Legacy's lookalike, generic ensemble is glaringly superficial – brimming with chiseled chins, furrowed brows, squinting scowls, and pursed lips. Should be the star Cullen yells at the kids in contrived conflicts as high and mighty Ned chastises anyone who isn't. Hot head son Jeremy Garrett (Sweet Valley High) circles the drain in repeated horse strife and Grayson McCouch (As the World Turns) as eldest Sean fails at every business venture. Any awkward tomboy in a corset start for older daughter Lea Moreno (DAG) is dropped for multiple romances, and her kissing the adopted bad boy Ron Melendez (Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest) is weird even if he isn't really her brother. Precocious youngest Sarah Rayne (Quest for Camelot) talks back far too much, and their mother dying in her childbirth is mentioned constantly like it's character development. Ten year old Lexi's mature horse exposition implies the character was intended to be an older tween, and Legacy's characters are perpetually underwritten with no growth, only stereotypes and faux sophistication. Instead of focusing on potential familial pairings like our dad teaching the adoptee to ride or sisters working together, Legacy relies on the rival boys with chips on their shoulders having blonde babes dalliances. The wealthy neighbor/his whiskey corrupt son/nasty farm manager caricatures vary as needed in an unnecessary revolving door of villains. Hammy carpet bagger-styled Lane Smith (My Cousin Vinny) disappears early, yet Lisa Sheridan (Invasion) is strung along all season with nothing to do but switch between brothers.
Sadly, recurring Steven Williams (21 Jump Street) as former slave Isaac is reduced to the Magical Negro trope – providing evidence or advice as needed with the safest, precious few mentions of his time during the Civil War with Ned. Sharon Leal (Boston Public) as Isaac's daughter Marita is likewise the sage listener to our poor little rich white girls' problems when not waiting with longing, pick me glances at the forbidden white son. A late episode finally gives these Black characters a separate storyline when a respectable Black lawyer woos Marita, yet somehow it's all about Sean – who got his kicks elsewhere all season despite professing Marita his undying love – being a jealous jerk in a drunk driving carriage accident! He says she is the only one he can talk to while she has to silently take the whispers of this barely there courtship ruining her reputation. Legacy probably had too many characters, and if a Black family's experiences in post-war Kentucky were not only not going to be treated equally with the titular family and are in fact never going to be addressed, then they shouldn't have been token shoehorned into a show that today is totally tone deaf.
Although the horses are always pretty, the slow motion racing montages featured almost every episode are heavy handed and over-edited with cutaways, up close hoof beats, and rearing making for poor, cut corners action. The bustles, bonnets, and costumes are Victorian basic, no one really looks like they belong in the nineteenth century, and the ladies hairstyles are far too modern. The masquerade ball in Legacy's hanging finale is also laughable with contemporary Halloween expensive medieval costumes perfect with their 1880s quickness. This is also the first time I've used FreeVee's skip credits option, tiring of the shirtless shots and a billing order that makes little sense compared to the familial relationships and actual screen time in the forty-five minute episodes. Modern pace and slang likewise take over in jarring conversations where no one has the same put on generic Southern accent. The uncomfortable, fake, old speaketh gentility romanticizes their mighty plantations before the war; smooth talking thank you kind sirs wax on those who haven't been land owners for three generations as lesser Kentuckians. By time they have Black people singing negro spirituals at the end of the season, it feels like appropriation, and the overplayed, intrusive contemporary New Age Celtic music makes one wonder why Legacy wasn't just about a farm family in modern Ireland. “Spirited Jig” is the caption every time the music swells – be it for slow motion who burned the barn ominous, boys will be boys rowdy slow motion, or longing glances slow motion slow motion. Thanks to all the playing dress up contemporary styling and said unnecessary slow motion, Legacy looks and sounds like exactly how not to do a period drama.
Ironically, Legacy realizes that the family sticking together isn't as good a drama as the family divided in the second half of the season – dropping the lame teen steamy attempts and even most of the slow motion montages in favor of the older cast, killer widows, duels, and assault accusations. None of the kids have their own jobs and always run to dad for a loan, but Ned finally has something to do thanks to duplicitous women coming between father and sons and Gabrielle Fitzpatrick (Snowy River: The McGregor Saga) as a mysterious damsel in distress who looks like the late Mrs. Logan. Although the arguments, riding accidents, and deceit are still rushing toward the inevitably abrupt finale; schemers scheming together, doctored books, and foalings gone wrong make for what could have been potential. Rival horses enter the race, veterinarian conflicts arise, and sour tobacco company investments have consequences as the third to the last episode finally gets Legacy's tone right. Poison drinks, suspicion, blackmail saucy, and behind closed doors threats escalate once the ill-intentioned are in the house, and even the horses suffer amid rigged events, burned telegrams, and impostors. I don't think I bothered watching all of Legacy when it originally aired – if all the episodes were even shown. However, had the series hit the ground running with the intertwined heaviness of its last five episodes, Legacy may have survived another season. Instead, Legacy wasted most of its lone season on self-righteous plots, contemporary abs, contrived montages, and short sighted writing that understandably saw the series' cancellation.
Dead Man's Gun Season 2 Falls Apart
by Kristin Battestella
The twenty-two episode 1998-99 Second Season of the Showtime western anthology Dead Man's Gun puts meek farmer Bruce Davison (X-Men) among the bank robbers and shootouts of “Ties That Bind” before chain gangs, deadly prison conditions, and pleas to the governor. Snake bites, bodily clues, rural chases, and set up escape attempts escalate to violence and corruption before revenge and one on one justice. Multiple people possess our titular evil gun, adding to its deadly mystique as some fall prey to its lure while others can resist its bad luck. A boy's school teacher with a fatal diagnosis can't handle his rowdy classroom in “Sheep's Clothing” until our gun in his hand improves his confidence, command, even his ailments. Perhaps more provocative now, this chilling parable on how a weapon creates obsession and threatens the lives in the classroom shows that a gun in the wrong hands is not empowerment to the innocents it harms. It's so easy to pull the trigger once you start, and this Third Episode should have been the season premiere. Irish Catholics and English Protestants likewise bend God's law as they see fit in “Sisters of Mercy.” Our nuns are both angry at blasphemy and the saloon being open on Sunday – not because it is the Lord's day, but it's when they planned to rob the bank next door. They bide their time helping the poor and broken women, pistol whipping the man who beats a working girl. The humor mixed with intrigue, however, is somewhat hollow despite the religious subject matter, and early in the season Dead Man's Gun has several decent, but not quite perfect episodes. Fortunately series producer Henry Winkler's titular “Hangman” calculates weight, scaffold height, and neck snap speed for a quick and easy death as decreed. It would have been intriguing if Dead Man's Gun had a regular character like this traveling in the gun's wake. Mercy is not his to give when an accused minister professes innocence, and the haunting voices and eerie mirrors standout as deeper introspection than “Sisters of Mercy” because the roulette is played serious sans humor. Our gun interferes in giving and taking life amid fear of the noose, perceived miracles, and those once hung who survived and get away with it. Statements about this gun not being for killing versus “all guns are meant for killing” are again provocative to hear now, and this episode would have made a fine series finale.
“The Judgment Of Joe Dean Bonner” premiere would seem to have it all, including a creepy storekeeper who also runs the hotel named “Final Hour” and becomes the judge presenting the eponymous victims and flashbacks. The judge isn't the devil, but says he knows him well. Despite chilling moments and more supernatural aspects than the rest of the season, this contrived trial plays at both justice for the deceased as well as sympathy for their killer. The man versus the devil comeuppance could have been stronger, and it all comes off too modern. Rather than focusing on the evil aspects, Dead Man's Gun often becomes less about the gun and is more often straight western stories. Vintage boxing photographs and bare knuckle fights in “Winner Takes All” lead to shady promoters, rival showman, and the gun as the prize. The period sports had potential, but the training montages and positive orphan inspirations are so wholesome they're on the wrong show. “The Trapper” tries to tackle respectful Native American revenge, but the stereotypical racist white men are cruel and unnecessary. The shape-shifting justice is great – Dead Man's Gun needed more supernatural horror not less – but the gun temptation was there for the taking and this story is all from the wrong perspective. The tribe or location is never stated, and too many episodes are just generic “The” entries playing it safe and the back end of the season suffers most. The murderous but unaware cobbler in “Sleepwalker” could have been fascinating as point of view horror for a psychosis brought out by the gun, however, the silly saucy, jealousy, and motives end up a total snooze. Rather than use the gun, a woman leaves aces calling cards after her elaborate kills in “Four of a Kind” amid precocious little girls, interchangeable thugs and lawman, meek storekeepers, and laughable derivatives. When you put explosives in somebody's walnuts, don't leave the bottle clearly labeled nitroglycerin out for all to see. The new unpopular female doctor in “The Oath” is also overwrought with modern statements complete with snake oil salesmen, Old West anti-vaxxers, and frustrating Dr. Quinn copycats again on the wrong show. An Italian immigrant heading West in “The Vine” also makes for stereotypical characterizations, cliché accents, and sentimental strings laid on thick as Dead Man's Gun inexplicably turns from sinister to sweet and tender. Hopes? Dreams? Religious chorales and miraculous plants? “Bad Boys” offers more nameless sheriffs and hollow standoffs before a trio of kids uses the gun to do good against nasty dads. I was ready to turn this off in first five minutes but ended up watching on 1.5 speed. Quicksand, haberdashers, and the eponymous study of “The Phrenologist” fall flat amid rival suitors, baddies looking for loot, and some kid who grows up to be Thomas Edison. The fancy fast talking performance is obnoxious and laughable for all the wrong reasons.
Full moons and wolf howls lead to knives, splatter, and murdered prostitutes in “The Ripper,” which almost feels like a fun Halloween episode in what's supposed to be a horror series. Scotland Yard's Peter Firth (MI-5) is on the trail of Jack the Ripper – an American who has fled home and continued killing. Of course we immediately suspect a culprit, but the killing for satisfaction psychology makes for an entertaining what if before newspaper clippings, telegram evidence, working girl dalliances, and winking twists. A feisty writer coming West wants to write the life story of amoral gunslinger Billy Campbell (The 4400) for “The Regulator“ but his exploits aren't exactly legal and their tête-à-tête is tame today. It's disturbing, however, when he talks about the allure of our gun, what it takes to pull the trigger, and how to cull the herd. Any man will use a weapon if given the chance – it's a fairy tale to think otherwise – and it's eerie to see the tables turn on our likable scoundrel who says the terrible things we do now. Kate Jackson (Dark Shadows) directs the sermons, raunchy rides, and husbands chasing after wandering swindler Patrick Duffy (Dallas) in “The Womanizer.” He knows how to play the guitar as well as women, and the tone is sincere or humorous and cavalier depending on his honesty or triumph – save for an incriminating birthmark, that is. Again, the avenging church assassin in pursuit of his gun would have been a neat repeat character, and eventually the ultimate punishment catches our Lothario: marriage. Chez Emil Haute Cuisine also brings class to the West in “The Good Chef” even if the crowd can't pronounce the French names. The home cooking restaurant next door can't compete with the connoisseur who insists food is to dine not merely ingest, and any uncouth customers asking for ketchup, poor table manners, and quitting staff meet our gun. Although the tasty subject been done better on Tales from the Crypt and the temperamental chef feels too silly and modern, this is one of the better latter episodes culminating in the expected secret recipes. Sadly, the hasty series finale “A Just Reward” is a clip show cop out reusing weak moments from Season One and inexplicably the terrible “Bad Boys” from Year Two. This supposedly ominous Mr. Smith looks like a modern man in a black suit amid padding horseback chases, plodding camera panoramas, and mystical double talk suddenly concerned with the gun's effect on all who touch it when most of this lighthearted season the gun had no mind of its own. Mr. Smith says he's the gun's original owner before a laughable grim reaper transformation. It's camp and hokey like a bad Halloween costume, and the devilish judge from the faulty premiere would have been a better bookend to the series.
Thankfully, the outdoor photography is bright and barren or dusty and muddy as needed. Some interiors are slightly plain or dark, but the period clutter does a lot with little – oil lamps, nib pens, pocket watches, wallpaper, and wash basins. Vintage medical equipment or school house ephemera vary per episode as does the saloon piano and shadow schemes. Up close photography clearly cuts corners, but old fashioned gauze on the lens creates eerie overlays in camera as needed. Holsters, horses, and stagecoaches provide action while hats, spectacles, leather, and dusters provide a somewhat eighties meets 1880s style. Though fitting, the stock western facades on Dead Man's Gun all look the same. The town's not meant to be the same locale – it would be better if it were – but the set savings are clear despite careful shooting of specific buildings per episode. Slow motion shots feel dated and production quality varies from hour to hour. Bonnets, corsets and combinations look the part, but the women's dresses are costume modern and the ladies' hair is often terribly straggly – as if Old West look simply means unwashed. Elder actors make for better rustic than the out of place too nineties younger guests, but the repeating familiar faces become as noticeable as the bad generic, incorrect Southern accents. Unlike Year One with creators Howard and Ed Spielman writing, over half the episodes here have more than two credited writers, often as many as four. Combined with numerous directors, it's easy to see where Dead Man's Gun lost its cohesion, and the dragging forty-four minute episodes should have been a taut half hour instead. Dead Man's Gun DVDs are now also elusive and streaming options come and go, but the series works best as aired when you catch a one off weird western. Today this kind of show would be so violent it wouldn't be entertaining, yet dated filler episodes disappointingly stray from the paranormal gun aspects. Despite provocative stories, name stars, and intriguing characterizations, it's not surprising Dead Man's Gun was canceled once it forgoes its own chilling weapon and devilish premise, leaving the series as an awkward transition between the wholesome western television standard and today's serious bleak. Fortunately, skipping a clunker when marathoning Dead Man's Gun now solves any problems.
