I can't believe it's 30 years since Stand By Me came out. I went to see it on its initial release with my parents (I was in my early 20s at the time), and my dad said, coming out of the theatre, that River Phoenix reminded him of a young Steve McQueen. The only thing that he said didn't ring true for him was the…

True story: Margot's brother John lives in the same small Canadian town I do (the Kidder family has lived here, on and off, for a long time), and he's quite an accomplished singer, actor, and musician (although he didn't come to acting until late in life). I've had fun acting opposite John in several plays here in…

Operation Avalanche (because Canadian), Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (because Eva Green), and Denial (because Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall) are about the only films here I have much interest in seeing. And while Miss Peregrine might open in the multiplex an hour away, the other two probably won't get…

Yes, Helen's struggle during her closing statement was beautifully done (kudos to Jeannie Berlin, as well as the scriptwriters).

Good point; I'd forgotten that.

I didn't feel it was unsatisfying as a finale - far from it - but while a part of me cheered when Box decided to pursue the gambling financial adviser/boyfriend angle (and then when Helen said to him she wanted Box to help her get him), a part of me was a little annoyed that someone appeared to think the last episode…

Huge shout-out not only to actor Riz Ahmed, but the make-up and costume people for Naz's physical transformation between when we first see him and when he leaves Rikers. Ahmed is obviously in pretty good physical shape, but the way Naz walked and moved, as well as what he wore when we first saw him, managed to make…

I think I must be allergic to cats, because I developed a snuffly nose and my eyes got watery at the end there. I was really hoping that would be the final shot, but it still choked me up when it happened. John Stone, the patron saint of lost causes.

When Madison and Strand scrambled into what I think was behind a bar, did anyone else think of when Shaun and Liz did the same thing in Shaun of the Dead? And if so, did anyone else wish they were watching that instead of this?

Don't know if this quite fits, but comedian Sid James died while on stage during the production of a farce called The Mating Season in 1976. It was dramatised in the 2000 film Cor Blimey, about the relationship between James and actress Barbara Windsor; the scene is at 1.25.00.

Well, it's still the only Nazi zombie movie I've seen, so I'd have to agree.

Love the shout-out at 1.14 to one of my favourite low-budget horror films, Shock Waves. Peter Cushing! John Carradine! A young Brooke Adams! Reanimated Nazi killing machines on a remote island! Characters who (for the most part) act like sensible, rational human beings and still get killed! What's not to love?

Chilliwack is about 90 minutes east of Vancouver on Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada), and is the last goodish-sized (pop. about 80,000) community you go through for a while (quite a while, depending on which way you're headed after that). In my case my route takes me on through Hope (pop. 5,000), Boston Bar (pop. 860),…

Stand By Me. That feeling of 'summer is almost gone, what can we do?' The feeling I always got as a kid, that last week of summer holidays: so many games of pick-up baseball and kick-the-can and hide-and-seek left undone, so in those last few days before Labour Day we had to cram them all in, outside until way past…

Harlan Ellison phoned our house one night, to talk about a Gerald Kersh collection we were about to publish (my husband and I run a small press dedicated to weird/horror/ghost/macabre fiction). He's a big Kersh fan, it turns out. Very nice man on the phone, and he was very happy to talk about the collection.

Non-essential/essential medical things.

Yes, I'd rather wait a bit for non-essential things (essential issues get dealt with immediately), than bankrupt myself.

Ouch. . . .

I came to the show late, after reading all sorts of comments from Americans (in a discussion about the series on this site) saying how weirdly Ellen pronounced 'Sorry.' When I watched the show I listened out for this weird pronunciation, and was taken aback to hear that she says it the same way I and millions of…

I'm a man, but I can change. If I have to. I guess.