Miami Vice -- Dangerous Nights (Little Miss Dangerous brief)

 So I am obsessed with an episode from the second season of Miami Vice, Little Miss Dangerous, but I am currently working and it came on today (Friday early afternoon) on Roku Channel's Universal Action, so I already want to watch it in full, without distraction, to write a review for the blog. It has the score from "Hardware" on it, especially at the end. And the performance, and adult themes of the episode through her, of Fiona as a sex clue act performer (who just might be underage, but she tells Tubbs she's 18) as a serial killer with multiple personalities could be up there with the likes of Bruce McGill in his episode. The second season is a gold mine of great characters. 

American Taboo (1983)

Some films leave me just, I dunno, sad or really stewing about what they have to say. To say this film left me with complicated feelings is an understatement. Today, this subject matter, especially in America, is a huge no-no. Age-gap relationships are very topical today, quite polarizing. To say the YouTube algorithm throws up videos about this subject aplenty is also an understatement. So I don’t think we ever got a specific age for Nicole Harrison’s Lisa (I read the actress was 20 at the time; I’m not exactly sure how she came in contact with those who made this student film), but it indicates she was a teenager with an absent father and mother who is “a dancer” we never see throughout the entirety of the running time. For all I know, that scene where Jay Horenstein’s photography studio employee, Paul, visits a strip club, the dancer on the stage could have been Lisa’s mother. We just never really know. 

Lisa wants a trip to school after visiting Paul’s home to sell him chocolate, encouraging him to take a trip to the beach. Paul even forgoes work, Lisa forgoes school, and the two spend the entire day together. This part of the film was like a travelog for me since I’ll never see Portland, Oregon. There was even a lighthouse, an old fort, coastal jaunt, and cafe talk. A lot of this section of their relationship focuses on his photography, and just the two getting to know each other. Paul’s lonely, but his boss’ wife doesn’t shy away from revealing sexual interest in him. He’s just not interested, but Lisa awakens something dormant in him.

Okay, I never felt – and I could be wrong, I won’t deny that – the film condones or says it was okay for the two to eventually have sex. Their encounter the first time is not romantic, and the minimalist score makes it feel sordid and wrong. Lisa even cries after it's over. Later, she fakes a story about being locked out of her house just to see him, asking to come in. She tells him he is not the first she’s had sex with. And the character of Lisa is written much more mature than typical of the age. Besides some defiant behavior on the beach while posing at the nose of a rusty shipwreck, not wanting to leave, and points where their dialogue reminds us of her age; she actually seems more “together” than Paul. Paul’s house is a mess once the light turns on at the end. Clothes scattered, dishes all over the place, just a house in disarray. And we see him realizing (and regretting) what he had done, coming to terms with it. I thought the film would show Paul eventually selling his house (he had an offer from his realtor but turned it down) and moving on to sort of get away. Instead, they have sex some more and the film evocatively, through inserted shots coinciding with him looking out a window after a rain, conveys an intimate, nowhere near as primal experience.

I wasn’t expecting the film to leave us wondering what would happen with these two. The music, what little there is, paints their relationship with potential. But I just don’t see how this could possibly continue. They look at each other very affectionately. I didn’t see any signs they would stop. 

I had never even heard of Visual Vengeance until they were mentioned on physical media YouTubers I follow. And I never would have even heard of this film unless Amazon Prime recommended it to me. I believe a good majority of people would wish this remained buried in obscurity, its subject matter too repulsive and creepy to ever find an audience today. It isn’t like on Letterboxd this has a lot of reviews, so it might remain mostly obscure. It is not of particularly good quality, neither on Tubi or Prime. It’s murky but very well made. But its pacing will absolutely drive folks nuts, if the subject matter isn’t enough to keep most away. I think it will be a curiosity that might lure some to it, but I feel rather confident “American Taboo” will continue to remain hidden within the vast libraries of streaming services and physical media catalogs. 

SYFY 4th of July Marathon 2024

Sadly, I just couldn't stay awake for the marathon in the wee hours at the start, and I was busy with a family get together during the day. I finally checked in at right as Static was ongoing (never been a favorite, to be honest, as I have documented here plenty of times), so I would say officially, Probe 7: Over and Out was really the first full episode for this marathon. The appeal of the 4th of July marathon has not always been as significant as the New Year's, since a lot of the time you will get two days plus to get in some mini-marathons if not outright blocks of hours on end. The 4th of July marathon was more important in the 90s for me when I would watch them with my deceased uncle before attending our family gathering later in the afternoon. I would record the marathon on VHS tapes and watch them during the next week.

Probe 7: Over and Out, like a lot of others, I have given so much writing to that I have very little left to say. I wish the content of the episode -- Colonel Adam Cook crashlands on a type of "Eden world" along with an alien humanoid woman, hoping to find a new world for his American government while a World nuclear war is about to threaten humankind -- was a relic and not as relevant today, but the threat of global annihilation remains just as prescient. I think I enjoy watching this episode as part of a marathon because it really seems to fit the format of coming and going episodes. It just doesn't hit with much punch except the tragedy of knowing that the earth Cook left is now enduring atomic war and endless suffering and death. Cook actually has a fresh start on a planet seemingly uninhabited much...at least from what we see.

A Hundred Yards Over the Rim is that episode, as I have mentioned before, I usually LOVE watching during the New Year's marathon during the day. I don't like it as much as a night showing as I do during the afternoon. It just feels like an afternoon episode. It's that inexplicable time travel episode where characters who should never meet doing so in an extraordinary way setting forth important events, especially the wagon train frontiersman Robertson and the penicillin he will take back with him to a dying son. Imagine being Joe and Mary Lou, just at their diner working a normal day, encountering Robertson's Christian Horn from 1847, then not long after meeting him, he's gone. Horn will remain that person they met, I'm sure they will never forget.

The Long Morrow, oh man, what a heartbreaking experience every time I watch it. I plan to review this episode in the coming week on its own. I will just say that this episode is like a jab right in the heart. Human sacrifice for love that demands decades of loneliness and forgoing a youth kept viable in cryogenic sleep if so inclined, on a mission that was important at the time of departure later rendered unnecessary.  

The Rip Van Winkle Caper is one of those episodes I just always expect to show up early or mid morning right at the beginning of a New Year's Eve marathon. For me it's one of those fun let's get the party started marathoners. Not a favorite, though: Another cryogenics episode, except this go-around bank robbers fight over gold bars until no one is left to realize that in a hundred years their value is meaningless.

I am so glad I got to watch one of my sleeper gems during marathon time. One of those marathon goodies I always looked forward to back in the 90s, Stopover in a Quiet Town, exploiting the creepy vibes of Where Is Everybody?, has a couple, recovering from a drunk with a big hangover during an out-on-the-night in NYC, trying to figure out why they are all alone within a “facade town”. Everything is “stage”, nothing real, as if they were dropped right into a manufactured “doll town”. When the question shows up on the Reddit subreddit, Twilight Zone, what are the most underrated episodes? I always mention this one.

I love Buster Keaton but, if I'm honest, Once Upon a Time, about the time travel helmet, slapsticky humor as the emphasis has its place right in the early morning when I am asleep. Naw, that's mean. It's the perfect mid afternoon time waster after some intense episodes where its light-hearted nature might be more welcome.

My final episode of the marathon is often one of the last for the New Year's Day: The Fear. Very simple, often very dialogue heavy about dealing with fear and whether to combat it or hide from it, small aliens using technology to appear gigantic as scare tactics, The Fear used to be one of those episodes that is easily forgotten when Twilight Zone is discussed at large. It's a two performer, essentially one location, lower budget story seemingly made to save money.