So, give Luc Besson a rough outline for a plot, a lot of money and loads of armaments and - PRESTO - you have a hit, right?  Sometimes,...  In Lucy, what started out as a distaff remake of the far-superior "Limitless," quickly devolves into blood, gore, chase scenes, cool SFX, more chase scenes, a plot(?) and finally ends in an incredulous denouement.  Hell, at one point, Morgan Freeman LITERALLY phones his part in!  

At least the end of "Limitless" left the story line open for more (hint, hint, CBS,...you could have handled the series better, but I digress).  Lucy ended a whimper, or the beep of an incoming text message. 

Pizza Rustica isn't actually a pizza; it's actually a meat-laden quiche made for Easter. According to the legends passed down from my Abbruzese family, it was a way to use up all the eggs and meats that were hoarded away for Lent. In my family, we called it "Easter Pie."

My son suggested I watch this mess. He now owes me 90 minutes of my life back. If he doesn't pay it back, I'll withhold his next tuition payment!

First, ignore the reviews calling The Expanse "The Game of Thrones in Space." Any decent, multiple-plot show that's written well and keeps the characters in check will draw that comparison.  Watch The Expanse and drill a little deeper.  Why? I'm a die-hard sci-fi fan, but as we advance further into the 21st Century, many of the old standby sci-fi tropes are fast becoming sci-realty. True, The Expanse isn't populated with alien races, phasers and space travel at speeds greater than light.  What drew my eye was the attention to details: the humans raised on Mars, with its different size and relation to the sun, have difficulty orienting themselves in Earth's environment, with our stronger level of sunlight and those raised on "The Belt," with its lower gravity, cannot survive on Earth without being crushed by what we consider "normal" gravity.  All-in-all, this series is on the right track.  The metagenome, the show's "Holy Grail" has the potential to be the show's undoing.  Let's hope not.

So, the final episode of Motive just aired this week on US television and I was saddened to find out that it wouldn't be renewed for a 5th season (it's big financial backer and carrier, the USA Network, declined to pick up the airing rights for another season, essentially leaving CTV alone to pay for a season with limited, in-Canada only viewership). 

As police procedurals went, this one was unique: the killer and victim were both identified in the opening act.  As the show's name tells, the motive for the crime is what played out over the next hour.  The police investigation moved forward, while the relationship and circumstances of the killer and victim were shown in flashbacks.

The show was a great vehicle for it;s stars as well: Kristin Lehman, a ubiquitous presence on Canadian TV, brought charm, wit and pathos to the "gutsy, rebellious single-mom cop" trope. Louis Ferreira, long an actor known for playing heavies and psychotics, was "criminally" understated as Kristin's partner. And American ex-pat actress Lauren Holly, who's career was waning, shined as quirky, sexy Dr. Betty Rogers.

Sadly, only the ION channel is currently airing made-in-Canada TV series (all in reruns and not always a good thing, but I digress)  and they don't appear to have the financial power to support producing another season or two of Motive.

As a child, growing up in a mostly-Italian neighborhood, many of the local grocery stores catered to people like my parents, who emigrated to the US from Italy.  One of my favorite memories was going to one such store every Sunday after attending church and loading up on a week's worth of Italian delicacies and fresh Italian bread!  And best of all?  Getting to pick out the best, soft, round ball of mozzarella from a huge tub of brine in the back of the store!  

So, as with most made-in-Canada TV productions, Slasher takes someone else's original premise, in this case the "Scream movie" franchise,  and drives it straight into its own ultimate level of banality.  

Where do I start?

 - Katie McGrath, late of <i>Merlin</i> and the quickly-cancelled <i>"Dracula"</i> reboot, seemed to have a hard time controlling her native Irish accent (probably not an issue in Anglophone Canadian, especially the Maritimes, but I noticed it.)

 - Hitting on all the pointless Canadianism tropes: a mixed-race marriage, prominent gay couple (hell, one of the victims was discovered by a lesbian couple on a hike!).  Not that there's anything wrong with that,...

 - The villain's ID was telegraphed in Episode 1 - I knew it was either <spoiler>the Anglican reverend</spoiler> or <spoiler>his police officer son</spoiler> in the first 30 minutes!

 - I don't live in Canada, but I would think after the second or third murder would have resulted in the intervention of the O.P.P. (the show was clearly based in Ontario) or the RCMP, instead of a lot of shoe-gazing and existential worry!

- The appearance of every member of <a href="http://www.listal.com/list/the-canadian-ten">The Canadian 10</a> actor.  Even DeGrassi stars Lauren Collins and Paula Brancati got 5 minutes' of pointless face time. 

In all, it was a dozen hours of prime DVR time that could have been better used viewing another series!

So, as with most made-in-Canada TV productions, Slasher takes someone else's original premise, in this case the "Scream" movie franchise,  and drives it straight into its own ultimate level of banality.  

Where do I start?

 - Katie McGrath, late of "Merlin" and the quickly-cancelled "Dracula" reboot, seemed to have a hard time controlling her native Irish accent (probably not an issue in Anglophone Canadian, especially the Maritimes, but I noticed it.)

 - Hitting on all the pointless Canadianism tropes: a mixed-race marriage, prominent gay couple (hell, one of the victims was discovered by a lesbian couple on a hike!).  Not that there's anything wrong with that,...

 - The villain's ID was telegraphed in Episode 1 - I knew it was either (SPOILER ALERT!!)  the Anglican reverend or his police officer son in the first 30 minutes!

 - I don't live in Canada, but I would think after the second or third murder would have resulted in the intervention of the O.P.P. (the show was clearly based in Ontario) or the RCMP, instead of a lot of shoe-gazing and existential worry!

- The appearance of every member of[Link removed - login to see]0 actor.  Even DeGrassi stars Lauren Collins and Paula Brancati got 5 minutes' of pointless face time. 

In all, it was a dozen hours of prime DVR time that could have been better used viewing another series!

I remember seeing this when it first came out in the 70s and seeing a disclaimer that it was "based on real events." The "real event" enacted in the movie was gruesome murder of Kitty Genovese in the early 1960s in New York City.  The fact that more than a dozen people witnessed the murder, either visually seeing it or hearing Genovese's cries for help, but did not summon for help or assist the police in her investigation, became a stark picture of big-city indifference, the divide between Manhattan and the Outer Boroughs and even, a picture of homophobia (Genovese was reportedly a lesbian).

Sadly, because this was a made-for-TV movie, it rarely pops up anymore.  This is one I need to see again.

n Philadelphia, we fight over great food - Pat's vs Geno's for cheesesteaks (D'Allesandro's in Roxborough for me!), ANY local pizza shoppe from YOUR neighborhood vs. some other neighborhood's pizza place (or Neapolitan vs. Sicilian vs. Greek "Boston-style" pizza).  Pork roll vs scrapple for breakfast. We even fought over the best way to wash down all this gastronomy: the late, great Frank's vs Canada Dry's Black Cherry Wishniak.  The term "wishniak" refers to an Eastern European cherry liqueur and, since Philadelphia had a large Polish and Ukrainian population, it was an instant hit.  For me, Canada Dry was always a poor substitute fro Frank's, but its all that's out there these days.