A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Fairly effective marriage of two separate Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes Cons:  Feels a tad uneven, and the mood is downbeat.  In the middle of the 1991-92 TV season (March 1992, to be precise), ABC and George Lucas's Lucasfilm Limited attempted a daring experiment; to give viewers a mixture of educational material - primarily focusing on early 20th Century history - and entertainment (edutainment for short) in a series titled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.   Like Lucasfilm's 2008-2013 Cartoon Network animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars , The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was an anthology; instead of being a linear narrative which starts in 1908 and ends in 1923, the series jumped around the timeline and alternated episodes with preteen Indy (played by Corey Carrier) and teen/young adult Indiana/Henri Defense/Henry Jones, Jr. (Sean Patrick Flannery).  Each episode was "framed" with prologues and epilogues set in t...

Pros: Good - if a bit overlong - script. Fine cast and great performances. Cons: Leisurely pace might be a turn-off to some viewers. One of the few good things about television and the home video business is that, on occasion, a box-office "flop" that is simply a good movie that didn't find a receptive audience in theatrical release can still make a comeback thanks to repeated airings on cable networks such as TNT and through sales and rentals of videocassettes (remember those?), DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Such is the case of Frank Darabont's first major feature film, 1994's The Shawshank Redemption, which he adapted from a Stephen King novella ( Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ) which had been published in a mid-1980s anthology, Different Seasons . Though it was given good reviews in its initial release back in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption tanked at the box office...badly. Viewers, perhaps puzzled by its strange title or by it...