Paul Coleman

“Luck with Rainbows” (𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙩 S4E13, 1965) addresses moral injury in the context of military service. Lieutenant Hanley treats the disorder’s manifestation in a British major with a tough love approach that borders on mocking. The contrast in cultural sensibilities plays an interesting role.

Allen Baron, ‘Blast of Silence.’ (1961). Are noirs set in New York as dark and suspenseful as those set in L.A.? You can count on it. (Click link to read.) #filmnoir
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The raw despair of “A Kid Up There” (𝙈 𝙎𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙙 S3E27, 1960) is deepened by the episode’s depiction of mid-century contempt for the urban fabric: a neighborhood being obliterated for a freeway.

𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙞𝙭 𝙋𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 (Jules White, 1947), of the haberdashery comedy genre, sports droll turns by Harold “Tiny” Brauer hiding in plain sight as a mannequin and Virginia Hunter as a chic moll surrounded by frumpy mugs. For lunch, Moe presses some flapjacks, and serves them with shears.

In 1761, James Otis, alluding to rebellion, denounced administrative “warrants” of the type ICE uses today for search and seizure. His story is portrayed in “A Bolt of Lightning” (𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 𝙊𝙣𝙚 S4E9, 1951), with Charlton Heston as Otis and Harry Townes as Sam Adams. The current relevance is sobering.

“Out of the Shadows” (𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙖 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙬𝙮𝙘𝙠 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙬, 1960) is a lurid tale of gaslighting, patriarchy, PTSD, and psychosis, torridly delivered. The plot is a bit too much for a thirty-minute running time to bear, but William Eben Stephens’s spooky performance should have made him a cult legend.

A Real Man should have only one pair of jeans that he renews every 10 years like a passport

Robert Duvall excels as a figure of tortured guilelessness in “Joby” (𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝘽𝙪𝙧𝙠𝙚 S1E23, 1963).

Sure, Marvin Miller is sometimes surprisingly sang-froid as 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚’s narrator, but in “Dante’s Inferno” (𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 S1E2, 1952), he shows us he can play a full-on bad guy.

In “No Fault Affair” (𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙨 S6E8, 1979), our anti-hero is even more than usual at the mercy of circumstances, finding himself both buffeted and buoyed by the choppy sea of louche characters, cheap corruption, and low-rent sensibilities he benignly habituates.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙮 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙬 is a cringeworthy oddity—a seeming attempt by the renowned performer to cling to lost adolescence—but you can’t look away. In “Seven Days to Doom” (S1E23, 1955), an intriguingly thanatological episode, Guy Williams, pre-Zorro, cameos as a doctor-on-TV.

A crime show with the Blake Edwards touch, like “The Hard Way” (𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 S2E9, 1953), always leaves me thinking maybe things aren’t all that bad.

As your constituent, I'm asking you, Councilman Catena, do the right thing. Say you'll support this bill, and do what you can to bring it to the floor.

Diana Douglas and Barry Atwater confront change in physical appearance as a destabilizing factor in a new marriage in “Reach of the Giant” (𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤 S2E27/28, 1956). Scott Forbes excels as a quietly driven surgeon. The crafting of a schematic for a spinal osteotomy lends a certain objective allure.

The vibe of the Jack Cassidy/Harry Townes match-up scene in “The Photographer and the Undertaker” (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳 S3E21, 1965) resides somewhere between 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘻 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥 and the “Spy vs. Spy” strip in 𝘔𝘢𝘥 magazine.

“Atomic Attack” (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘢 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳 S1E15, 1954), while shrill in execution, is commendable for reminding us that reactionaries repress academic science, and recommending to us to the remarkable writings and humane activism of author Judith Merril.

For a few minutes there, you think it’s going to be a riff on 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘠𝘢𝘭𝘦, but it ends up as 𝘗𝘦𝘺𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘮𝘣 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘥. “Not with a Whimper, But a Bang” (𝘐𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 S2E26, 1969).

Just own it, America, you elected a criminal racist piece of shit twice by some quirk in the Constitution, his entire financial life built off housing discrimination, his entire political life built off wanting to execute innocent teenagers and questioning the birthplace of our only Black President.

“Where the Woodbine Twineth” (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳 S3E13, 1965) is an eerie parable of that distance between the sensibilities of childhood and adulthood which, in some cases, cannot be bridged.

“A Personal Matter” (𝘈𝘭𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 S4E15, 1959) considers masculine honor, trust, and bonding of convenience. Joe Maross and Wayne Morris supply noteworthy characterizations.

Series executive producer Gordon Oliver, no stranger to the boards, mind you, acquits himself ably in “The Hunt” (𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘶𝘯𝘯 S2E21, 1960), but what’s memorable are the absence of dialogue, artsy photography, and cubist sets that comprise the last half of the show.

He may have been “Banana Brain” to the honcho who left him holding the bag, but Luke Askew’s Barney had the look and demeanor of death’s own emissary in “This Lady Is Murder” (𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘵, S2E3).

I’m still not sure if enough Americans fully understand how hard it is for the rest of us to continually see polls showing “how unpopular Trump is” when he’s he’s still ridiculously and shockingly more popular than he should be in any sane nation.

In “The George Dale Case” (𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥, S2E10), Jean Willes’s Madge is a classic double-crossing dame, who earns our (and Diamond’s) trust with an appetizing intellect.

𝘐𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 (Robert Hamer, 1947) is cautionary, but about what? The perils of social immobility in an industrialized society? Overcrowded housing as the bleak underside of a lively city? The plot and pace engage, but are overshadowed by a foreboding mood.

From a management standpoint, the thrill of an 𝘐𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧 episode like “The Packager” (S2E6) comes from seeing strategic planning compressed into a matter of seconds, and motivation of personnel distilled into authoritative, convincing one-liners.

Arthur Franz delivers a remarkably sympathetic reading of a socially inept but perfectly reasonable cynic in “The Frank Harrigan Story” (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦, S5E13).

“Ticket to Alaska” (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, S1E9) is a cozy little shipboard murder mystery, its plot pirouetting on embezzlement, philandering, and the Red Scare. Kimble forthrightly defends his right to anonymity, ship-to-shore technology be damned.

If ever there were a time you might want a separate but equal branch of the United States government to run a check on the president, it would be now ….

We journalists would appreciate it if Apple would put a little screen on the back of the phone near the camera that displays which publication people are reading, so they can show off their subscriptions to fellow commuters/coffee shop patrons etc