John Hansen

Darth Maul on ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’: Cyborg, ghost or clone? (TV commentary)

In the Jan. 21 episode of “The Clone Wars” (7:30 p.m. Central Fridays on Cartoon Network), the Nightsisters send Savage Opress off to the Outer Rim to be trained by one of his brothers. We see in the Nightsisters’ crystal ball that his brother looks suspiciously like Darth Maul.

Life Unexpected

‘Life Unexpected’ bows out with unappealing epilogue

TV commentary: The rushed ending makes me miss the days when prematurely canceled TV shows ended smack-dab in the middle of their stories.

One-season wonders: ‘Miracles’ (2003) (TV review)

I thought I’d take a break from my “X-Files” seasonal reviews to look at “Miracles” (2003, ABC), which I consider to be part of the “X-Files” family. It’s noteworthy because it was the first network show after the end of “The X-Files” in 2002 to attempt to fill the void.

‘Star Wars’ fans: Are you OK with George Lucas rewriting established lore? (TV and movie commentary)

The fictional franchises I like most are the ones that have an ongoing, non-contradictory, canonical storyline — “Star Wars,” “Buffy” and “The X-Files” being my big three. These are franchises that aren’t driven by remakes, adaptations, re-inventions, re-imaginings and alternate timelines.

Glau makes mediocre ‘The Cape’ worth tuning in for

First episode impressions (TV review): NBC takes its crack at superheroes with a two-hour premiere of “The Cape.”

First episode (of midseason) impressions: ‘Pretty Little Liars’ (TV review)

Here are my first impressions of the winter premiere of “Pretty Little Liars” (7 p.m. Central Mondays on ABC Family).

‘X-Files’ flashback: Mulder and Scully step up to the big screen in ‘Fight the Future’ (1998) (Movie review)

I enjoyed watching “The X-Files: Fight the Future” (1998) more on this viewing than on previous viewings. I think my method of watching the episodes in order, at a fairly brisk clip, and not dwelling too much on the details of the mythology is paying off.

All 20 episodes of ‘The X-Files’ Season 5 (1997-98), ranked

TV review: Here are my rankings of the 20 episodes of “The X-Files’ ” fifth season — an appetizer for the main course that is the first “X-Files” movie.

A look back at 2010, and ‘2010: The Year We Make Contact’ (Movie commentary)

With 2010 winding down, I decided to take a look back at “2010,” the 1984 movie, to see how prescient Peter Hyams (the film’s director) and Arthur C. Clarke (the book‘s author) were in predicting the future.

John’s top 10 movies of 2010

I’d like to see “Somewhere” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” before making my top 10 movies list, but such is life in a small town, and I assume you don’t want to read a year-end list in May. So here are my top 10 movies of 2010, with the caveat that it’s subject to change. 1. “Machete” (on DVD […]