Posts Tagged ‘Ken and Robin Consume Media’
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mesopotamian Artifacts, Mr. Moto, and The Department of Queer Complaints
May 19th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History (Nonfiction, Moudhy Al-Rashid, 2025) Artifacts found in the temple of 6th century BCE princess and moon priestess Ennigaldi-Nanna, which might have comprised a museum or antiquities collection, highlight such aspects of Mesopotamian life as commerce, education, warfare, and the role of women. Engaging overview of an ancient society that seems especially relatable because the cuneiform tablets they left behind preserve so much of their workaday correspondence, including the complaints.—RDL
BlackBerry (Film, Canada, Matt Johnson, 2023) Fumbling tech savant (Jay Baruchel) and his protectively overbearing ubernerd buddy (Matt Johnson) team with shouty business shark (Glenn Howerton) to usher in the BlackBerry mobile device and ride out a rise and fall of epic proportions. So much better than any film with this subject matter could possibly be, thanks to a brilliant structure giving in-depth treatment to a handful of major developments, driven forward by bubbling suspense beats.—RDL
The Department of Queer Complaints (Fiction, John Dickson Carr, 1940) Seven of the short stories in this collection feature Colonel March of the titular Scotland Yard department dealing with impossible reports to the police; annoyingly only two of them count as properly queer complaints, though for the most part they’re all entertaining puzzles, and “The Silver Curtain” ranks with top-tier Carr. The rest include one fun legal tall tale, and three borderline ghost story mysteries that make me wish Carr had pursued his Gothic tendencies in that direction more often.—KH
Undercurrent (Film, Japan, Kozaburo Yoshimura, 1956) Independent-minded silk artisan (Fujiko Yamamoto) yearns for a university professor (Ken Uehara). Romantic drama of turbulent contained emotion with a stunning palette of muted colors.—RDL
Warfare (Film, US, Alex Mendoza & Alex Garland, 2025) During the US Occupation of Iraq, Navy SEALS in a besieged, commandeered house on a tightly packed street attempt to evacuate wounded comrades. Recreates without broader context a specific engagement with obsessive detail and visceral you-are-there immediacy. Cast includes Will Poulter, Michael Gandolfini and Charles Melton.—RDL
Good
Cold War 1994 (Film, Hong Kong, Lok Man Leung, 2026) OCTB chief (Terrance Lau) and his Special Branch counterpart (Daniel Wu) clash over the kidnapping of a business magnate’s heir apparent in pre-handover Hong Kong. Police conspiracy thriller prequel packed with cameos from 90s HK stars outshines the rest of the franchise.—RDL
The Pre-War Mr. Moto Novels (Fiction, John P. Marquand, 1935-1942) Each of these five novels follows the same basic structure: an American (usually morally broken, sometimes just feckless) gets caught up in dangerous machinations in an exotic location, usually with a mysterious, beautiful woman involved. He resolves to do the right thing, and discovers that the polite gentleman Mr. Moto who gave him a bit of help or advice was actually an agent of Japanese intelligence. Mr. Moto comes out looking much cleverer, usually with his (and Japan’s) position strengthened. Marquand’s great strengths are travelogue and internal character; Mr. Moto is So Sorry and Last Laugh, Mr. Moto are fairly strong Ambler-esque spy novels as well. [CW: Period racism, unfortunately worse and more foregrounded in Last Laugh, Mr. Moto, set in the Caribbean.]—KH
Sailor’s Luck (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1933) Brash but jealousy-prone sailor (James Dunn) woos down-on-her-luck blond (Sally Ellers). Careening romcom stuffed with stock characters shows off Walsh’s ability to wrest entertainment from the slimmest material.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Reality Horror Super Spies, a Belle Epoque Superstar, and Murderous Hair
May 12th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Obsessed with Light (Film, US, 2023) Documentary profile reveals the life, technological innovations, and lingering influence of Loie Fuller, the American dancer whose fabric and light performance art made her a star in Belle Époque Paris. Fuller appears in The Yellow King RPG, leading one to nod knowingly at plot hooks shown here, like the one involving radium and her friendship with Marie Curie.—RDL
Reflections in a Dead Diamond (Film, Belgium, Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, 2025) The glint on a diamond nipple ring prompts an old man at a luxury beach resort (Fabio Testa) to recall his past exploits as a suave super-agent (Yannick Renier) locked in a deadly game against Serpentik, a female catsuit-clad assassin with a thousand faces. Deconstructed homage to the 60s euro spy genre blurs the line between meta-fiction and reality horror.—RDL
Good
Exte: Hair Extensions (Film, Japan, Sion Sono, 2007) Freaky morgue attendant (Ren Ôsugi) sells hair extensions harvested from a zombie-like corpse, endangering a protective apprentice stylist (Chiaki Kuriyama) and her traumatized niece (Miku Satô). Outre body horror lets the momentum flag in stretches between disturbing hair attacks.—RDL
Sapphire (Film, UK, Basil Dearden, 1959) Briskly professional police superintendent (Nigel Patrick) leads the investigation into a young woman who was passing as white. Social issue police procedural in a mold that has become a television staple isn’t the most dated anti-racist film of its era. Features lushly muted Eastmancolor cinematography by Harry Waxman.—RDL
Okay
Killer Nun (Film, Italy, Giulo Berruti, 1979) A string of murders enforces the reign of a delusional nun (Anita Ekberg) over the long term care ward she cruelly domineers. Visually undistinguished mix of nunsploitation and hospital horror, loosely based on a real case, plays like grindhouse Buñuel.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Magic Shirt, the Last Mr. Moto Novel, and the Yellow King in Minecraft
May 5th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
The Bowery (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1933) Two gamblers, a big lug (Wallace Beery) and a dapper charmer (George Raft), pursue an epic rivalry on the hardscrabble side of Gilded Age New York. Walsh’s ultimate salute to roughneck knuckleheads features a franker-than-usual depiction of period racism and a looser-than-usual performance from Raft.—RDL
Elena and Her Men (Film, France, Jean Renoir, 1956) A much-adored Polish princess (Ingrid Bergman) who specializes in assisting men with their ambitions sets her sights on a general touted for the presidency (Jean Marais), to the consternation of a rival suitor, a suave aristocrat without other aspirations (Mel Ferrer). Renoir fills the screen with people and keeps them in motion in a color-drenched, farcical reimagining of the Belle Époque’s Boulanger Affair, featuring Bergman at her most glamorous and charming.—RDL
The Golden Fern (Film, Czechoslovakia, Jiri Weiss, 1963) Handsome but thin-skinned 18th century shepherd (Wit Omer) takes up with a beautiful forest nymph (Karla Chadimová), who fashions a magic shirt to protect him when he is hauled off to war. Starkly atmospheric folk tale of unheeded warnings and untrustworthy nobles could have made our Fantasy Film Essentials series had I seen it back then.—RDL
A House of Dynamite (Film, US, Kathryn Bigelow, 2025) After an ICBM launch of unknown origin, US government officials, from the personnel at an anti-missile station to mid-level analysts to the Defense Secretary (Jared Haris) and President (Idris Elba) struggle to assemble the information needed to decide whether to trigger global nuclear war. Bigelow marshals her mastery of the stiff-lipped procedural in a speculative docudrama told in three repeated slices of nail-biting time. A telling acknowledgment that the technothriller genre only makes sense if set before the end of the Obama years.—RDL
Right You Are, Mr. Moto (Fiction, John P. Marquand, 1957) American spy Jack Rhyce is sent to Japan to uncover a Communist assassination plot and the elusive “Big Ben,” but complications arise in the form of last-minute spy partner Ruth Bogart and mysterious manipulator Mr. Moto. The only postwar Mr. Moto novel combines genuinely thrilling espionage minutiae and Marquand’s habitual command of the travelogue with reveals that of course “Moto” is an alias, and of course Mr. Moto’s cartoonish English is a cover.—KH
Searching For a World That Doesn’t Exist (Film, US, Wifies, 2025) YouTuber Avery (Owen Yarnold) finds a world he didn’t build inside his Minecraft instance, and tries to track down the mysterious builder and crack his enigmatic message. By far the most-watched Yellow King Mythos work is a tight 42-minute reality horror tale taking place inside Minecraft. This does mean lots of watching Avery walk through Minecraft tunnels, but even that can turn chillingly interesting on a dime.—KH
Good
Beijing Watermelon (Film, Japan, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, 1989) Stubborn greengrocer (Bengal) fixates on helping Chinese exchange students, threatening his business, family, and health. Somewhat overlong drama of obsessive altruism takes a surprising late swerve from naturalism to metafiction. A huge contrast with the director’s best-known film outside Japan, the berserk horror flick House.—RDL
Destroying a World That Doesn’t Exist (Film, US, Wifies, 2026) Avery (Owen Yarnold) tracks the supposed builder, D3rLord3 (Wifies), and we watch D3rLord3 try to seal up the King in Yellow, who he unleashed by exploring the mysterious instance. Two hours plus runtime and explanations for many of the first film’s brilliantly elliptical mysteries lessen the tension and horror in the sequel, although we get far more explicit Yellow Mythos in this one. The Minecraft scenery is if anything even better and more evocative this time around, though.—KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Golden Dawn, Chekhov at Tunguska, and Daffy & Porky
April 28th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Bellflower (Film, US, Evan Glodell, 2011) Shy slacker (Evan Glodell) who with his more outgoing buddy (Tyler Dawson) is building a Mad Max car and homemade flamethrower falls for an outgoing blond (Jessie Wiseman) who warns him she’ll hurt him. Disturbing indie drama with artfully degraded cinematography turns the misfit buddy movie into a spiraling alcoholic nightmare.—RDL
Chekhov’s Journey (Fiction, Ian Watson, 1983) An attempt to hypnotize an actor into narrating the life of Anton Chekhov for a Soviet film on his 1890 journey to Sakhalin goes awry when he starts narrating Chekhov’s journey to the Tunguska blast 18 years before it happened. Watson enjoys his big concept almost as much as he enjoys his version of carping, doubtful Chekhov narration, and the intertwining of both (plus more weirdness as things get going) remain enjoyable to the slightly anticlimactic end.—KH
Ginza Cosmetics (Film, Japan, Mikio Naruse, 1951) Overly generous, middle-aged single mom who works as a hostess in a fading bar (Kinuyo Tanaka) perseveres as prospects for a better life elude her. Drama of beautiful disappointment favors realistic character study over heightened stakes.—RDL
Naked Ambition (Film, US, Dennis Scholl & Kareem Tabsch, 2023) Arts documentary profiles cheesecake photographer Bunny Yeager, who helped define the early Playboy style and took the shots that made Bettie Page iconic. Parallels an argument for Yeager’s importance in photography history with a family story of rise and fall and rise synchronized to changing sexual mores.—RDL
Good
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Film, US, Peter Browngardt, 2024) Taking jobs at a chewing gum factory, adoptive brothers Daffy and Porky (Eric Bauza) stumble into a zombie plan from outer space. A team that deeply loves and understands the source material draws on the 30s Bob Clampett versions of the characters, not quite overcoming the fact that they were built to be enjoyed in seven-minute bursts.—RDL
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Magic Arts and the Occult Revival (Nonfiction, Felix John Taylor, 2026) Taylor attempts to tell the story of the Golden Dawn as artistic movement, mostly sticking to the “greatest hits”: Florence Farr, Yeats, Crowley, Machen, Waite, Dion Fortune (plus welcome sidelights on Pamela Colman Smith and Charles Williams). The trouble is that this is still a “greatest hits” book on the GD, which means that if this is your first such book, it’s Recommended for its narrative thrust, plentiful illustrations, and relative clarity, but if not, it’s a Good effort that leaves you wanting more about the art: not just of Yeats or Machen, but much more on the less-picked-over GDs, e.g., J.W. Brodie-Innes, or Algernon Blackwood, or Isabelle de Steiger, or the Pagets.—KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Fight or Flight, Queen of Chess, Rental Family
April 21st, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Fight or Flight (Film, US, James Madigan, 2024) Booze-soaked, cashiered Secret Service agent (Josh Hartnett) is reactivated to apprehend a prolific hacktivist (Charithra Chandran) on a plane of assassins seeking to kill her. Yep, it’s 2022’s Bullet Train on a plane, with superb fight choreography and Hartnett fully morphed into his rumpled charmer Pokémon form.—RDL
Rental Family (Film, Japan/US, Hikari, 2025) Isolated expat actor living in Tokyo (Brendan Fraser) reluctantly accepts a gig at an agency that supplies performers to insert themselves into client’s personal lives. Fraser brings his reservoir of sadness to a reassuring, well-judged drama based on a heightened version of an actual Japanese phenomenon.—RDL
Queen of Chess (Film, US, Rory Kennedy, 2026) Trailblazing chess great Judit Polgár, raised alongside her sisters by a dad determined to mold them into champions, doggedly battles over many years to best nemesis-turned-mentor Garry Kasparov. Documentary profile invests its game recreations with energy and suspense.—RDL
Okay
Tee Yai: Born to be Bad (Film, Thailand, Nonzee Nimibutr, 2025) A notorious armed robber with reputed supernatural powers (Apo Nattawin Wattanagitiphat) stays a step ahead of the cops as his running buddy (Wisarut Himmarat) falls for an abused sex worker (Supassra Thanachat). Thailand’s answer to John Dillinger gets a down-the-middle treatment in a crime docudrama that flirts with heroic bloodshed themes but never releases the doves.—RDL
Ken was on the road this week.
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Deathstalker, Two Thrillers by J. Jefferson Farjeon, and the Queen of Indonesian Horror
April 14th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
The 5.18 Mystery (Fiction, J. Jefferson Farjeon, 1929) A young man falls for a woman on the train to Norfolk and blunders into the middle of a kidnapping plot. Edgar Wallace-style (or Hitchcock-style, in film) thriller rather than an actual mystery keeps the plot moving propulsively despite a delightful authorial tendency to wander from the point and chat with the reader. This “amiable fathead” sort of hero also helps keep the suspense far more real than the competence-porn rescuer a thriller has to have nowadays.—KH
Deathstalker (Film, Canada, Steven Kostanski, 2025) An act of murder hoboism binds a sword-slinging adventurer (Daniel Bernhardt) to a cursed amulet from a doomsday prophecy, sending him on a quest accompanied by a good-hearted thief (Christina Orjalo) and semi-competent kobold wizard (Patton Oswalt/Laurie Field.) Spoofy celebration of VHS-era sword and sorcery flicks loads up on gloriously gory and gruesome creature effects.—RDL
Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (Television, US, Hulu, Abigail Fuller, 2024) Three-part true crime docuseries surveys the multiple careers of soft-spoken juggernaut Ann Burgess, who put the science in the FBI’s Behavioral Science (profiling) Unit, centered victims in the study of sex crimes, and helped bring down Bill Cosby.—RDL
Good
The House Opposite (Fiction, J. Jefferson Farjeon, 1931) Ben the tramp sees strange happenings in the house opposite the abandoned house he’s squatting in, but it’s a girl in danger that spurs him to interfere. The first half of this crime thriller follows Ben’s viewpoint (with plenty of Farjeonian discursion), the second half follows the people in the house opposite and fills in the blanks. Intriguing format and a welcome lower-class hero; somewhat marred by the villain being an entirely stereotypical Indian.—KH
The Queen of Black Magic (Film, Indonesia, Liliek Sudjio, 1981) When the rich louse (Alan Nuary) who seduced her accuses her of witchcraft and rouses a mob to kill her, a young woman (Suzzanna) learns black magic for real and exacts visceral revenge. Root for Indonesia’s answer to Barbara Steele or Robert Englund as she dishes out inventive no-budget kills.—RDL
Okay
Berlin Express (Film, US, Jacques Tourneur, 1948) An assassination attempt on a Berlin-bound train sets an American nutrition consultant (Robert Ryan) and an ad hoc party of his fellow Allied occupying officials in pursuit of revanchist plotters. Interweaves expressionistic spy thrills with invasively narrated quasi-newsreel segments on the state of postwar Germany.—RDL
The Secret Bride (Film, US, William Dieterle, 1934) Dedicated attorney general (Warren William) and devoted governor’s daughter (Barbara Stanwyck) conceal their marriage while they race to clear her father of bribery charges. Plot-driven legal thriller confines its stars to expository dialogue.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Blossoms Shanghai, Ben-Hur, Mel Brooks
April 7th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
The Pinnacle
Blossoms Shanghai (Television, China, Tencent Video, Wong Kar Wai, 2023-2024) Charismatic financier (Ge Hu) and his loyal band of friends, including a self-willed restaurateur (Yili Ma) and an adorable trade office functionary (Yan Tang), weather the booms and busts of China’s early stock market years. Wong’s lyrically rendered, nostalgic melancholy underpins a slick, gorgeous, food-loving, business soap.—RDL
Recommended
Ben-Hur (Film, US, William Wyler, 1959) Unjustly condemned to slavery, Jewish prince Judah ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) seeks revenge on his Roman boyhood friend turned persecutor Messala (Stephen Boyd). Hollywood spectacle combines Roman epic with “a tale of the Christ,” a combination that necessitates a difficult dramatic turn in the final act. Probably as good a film as could be made from the source novel, thanks not least to Christopher Fry’s uncredited dialogue rewrites. The chariot race is, in fact, everything you’ve heard: one of the ten, or maybe five, best action sequences ever filmed. See it on the big screen next Easter if you can.—KH
Death of a Corrupt Man (Film, France, George Lautner, 1977) Cops and conspirators target a crooked legislator’s loyal business partner (Alain Delon) when he comes into possession of a diary full of compromising information. Hitchcockian political thriller pits a tarnished wrong man against competing sinister forces.—RDL
Falling in Love Like In Movies (Film, Indonesia, Yandy Laurens, 2023) Middle-aged screenwriter (Ringgo Agus Rahman) pitches his producer a romance about a middle-aged screenwriter pining for his recently widowed high school crush (Nirina Zubir). Winning, dialogue-driven meta-narrative rom com contrasts film conventions with the relationship realities.—RDL
Green Rain (Film, South Korea, Jung Jin-woo, 1966) Smitten young maid (Hie Mun) allows a rich swain (Shin Seong-il) to think she’s an ambassador’s daughter, scarcely suspecting that he’s really a ne’er-do-well mechanic. Ironic romantic drama with an acerbic tone that lives on today in the films of Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho.—RDL
Mel Brooks: the 99 Year Old Man! (Television, US, HBO, Judd Apatow & Michael Bonfiglio, 2026) Celebratory two-part biodoc covers Brooks’ three careers as TV writer, movie director and Broadway darling, plus the beautiful love stories of his marriage to Anne Bancroft and friendship with Carl Reiner.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Nirvanna the Band, Sirāt, The Perfect Neighbor
March 31st, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Keep in Touch: the Serendipitous Life of Canadian Arts Icon David Silcox (Nonfiction, Nancy Silcox, 2025) Confident, accident-prone young lad raised in hardscrabble locations as a preacher’s kid grows up to become a glamorous, personable arts administrator, including top posts in both the federal and provincial culture ministries. Admiring, deeply researched biography by the subject’s sister-in-law provides a glimpse into the personal relationships behind the funding of artists and institutions.—RDL
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Film, Canada, Matt Johnson) In a bid to get themselves booked at a prestigious music club, two perennial wannabes, voluble Matt (Matt Johnson) and reserved Jay (Jay McCarrol) attempt a dangerous stunt at the CN Tower and time travel to 2008. Audacious, surprising comedy made on a shoestring budget, incorporating real bystanders and situations into the action, joins the select sub-genre of films shot in my neighborhood.—RDL
The Perfect Neighbor (Film, US, Geeta Gandbhir, 2025) Bodycam footage reveals months of incidents in which a pathologically territorial Florida woman calls police to complain that neighborhood children are playing on an adjacent property, culminating in her fatally shooting one of their mothers. A masterful formal achievement in documentary construction examines American fear culture while honoring the community devastated by its impact.—RDL
Sirāt (Film, Spain/France, Óliver Laxe, 2025) Searching for his missing daughter, Luis (Sergi López) and his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona) follow two bands of ravers into the Moroccan desert. This existential road movie seems simultaneously real and fantastic, an onslaught of cinematographer Mauro Herce’s images and techno composer Kangding Ray’s soundtrack battering the viewer and enveloping them at the same time. Try and see it in a theater with a good sound system; like EDM it needs a crowd and amplifiers to work.—KH
Good
Fascination (Film, France, Jean Rollin, 1979) On the run from ex-accomplices, an arrogant thief (Jean-Marie Lemaire) hides out at a chateau inhabited by a pair of mysterious, alluring lovers (Franca Maï, Brigitte Lahaie). Gothic horror sexploitation powerfully reminds us to believe women when they make it abundantly clear they are blood cultists and we should leave before their guests arrive.—RDL
Who Killed Dick Whittington? and Death of a Frightened Editor (Fiction, E. & M.A. Radford, 1947 and 1959) The sixth and eleventh in the “Doctor Manson” series, featuring the head of Scotland Yard’s Crime Research Laboratory, both feature seemingly impossible poisonings: on stage during a “Dick Whittington” pantomime, and in a Pullman carriage. The language is stilted, especially for the postwar era, and Doctor Manson hearkens back to the Doctor Thorndyke model of the pre-WWI era, full of smugness and amply-described chemical tests. But the stories themselves have a sprightly tone even if they don’t move as rapidly (or puzzle as fairly) as a classic Golden Age novel: the Radfords were apparently feeling their way toward the procedural, which makes the books interesting in themselves.—KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: New Thomas Pynchon, Starfleet Academy, and Norwegian Noir
March 24th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Death is a Caress (Film, Norway, Edith Carlmar, 1949) An assignation between a handsome, peevish mechanic (Clause Wiese) and an older, married rich woman (Bjørg Riiser-Larsen) enmeshes them in a tortured relationship. Domestic film noir recalls Fritz Lang in its use of visual symbolism and its social determinism.—RDL
Shadow Ticket (Fiction, Thomas Pynchon, 2025) Palooka detective in 1931 Milwaukee resists his agency’s determination to send him after the missing daughter of a fugitive cheese magnate. Absurdist prophecy of consolidating fascism starts as a Hammett riff and turns into an Ambler riff, with eliptonic fantasy elements creeping in at the edges.—RDL
Okay
An Expert in Murder and Nine Lessons (Fiction, Nicola Upson, 2008 and 2017) Two crime novels featuring mystery novelist Josephine Tey as (not as the detective, since no detection occurs in either) an interested bystander; the first and the seventh in the eleven-book (so far) series. Set in a kind of fanfic history, they compound “tell don’t show” with authorial intrusiveness. Nine Lessons does feature some cleverly gruesome takes on M.R. James stories as murder methods, though. Personal pet peeve: everyone in the books calls Josephine Tey “Josephine” when that was, of course, one of Elizabeth MacKintosh’s pseudonyms.—KH
Starfleet Academy Season 1 (Television, US, Paramount+, Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, 2026) Quirky, centuries-old chancellor of the revived Starfleet Academy (Holly Hunter) attempts to make up for a past failure of empathy by strong-arming a rebellious buff genius (Sandro Rosita) into enrolling. Though not the weakest or most off-model Trek first season, with Paul Giamatti’s scenery-devouring recurring villain a particular highlight, the teen soap high concept meshes poorly with the franchise’s edict against ongoing conflict between core cast members.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Cagney, Gable, and Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy
March 17th, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy (Nonfiction, Wayne Barlowe and Neil Duskis, 1996) On the same pattern as Barlowe’s earlier Guide to Extraterrestrials, this even more idiosyncratic collection of fantastic heroes and beings covers the ground from griffins (looking nicely ceratopsian) and Grendel to Corum and the Nissifer. Barlowe’s art pops even in the more boring beings, and for illos like the gug and William Hope Hodgson’s swine-thing captures a quality that even their authors might have missed.—KH
Good
Hard to Handle (Film, US, Mervyn LeRoy, 1933) Fast talking promoter (James Cagney) pursues success to impress the gal (Mary Brian) who likes him best when he’s down. Diverting light satire gets extra kick from Ruth Donnelly’s comic turn as Brian’s cash-conscious mother.—RDL
The King and Four Queens (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1956) Raffish adventurer (Clark Gable) inflames suppressed passions at a remote ranch where a rifle-toting matriarch (Jo van Fleet) guards a cache of gold dust and the smoldering wives of her four criminal sons, at least three of whom are dead. Wry hangout Western vibrates with fifties-style sexual repression.—RDL
Okay
Ella McCay (Film, US, James L. Brooks, 2025) Chaos generated by her grasping husband (Jack Lowden) and forgiveness-seeking philandering dad (Woody Harrelson) threaten the surprise ascendance of a charmingly charmless policy wonk (Emma Mackey) to the governor’s mansion. Brooks’ idealism and love for his characters get out of hand in an unfocused, stale-dated look at Obama-era problems.—RDL
