The first season of F/X’s The Shield is a showcase in superb writing and unrelenting storytelling. Make no doubt—this is not for kids or the faint of heart. Also, if you’re looking for a police drama where good guys and bad guys are clearly defined, you need to look elsewhere. Michael Chiklis is superb as Vic Makey, the head of the strike team that lives by its own rules.

Three separate mysteries involving families losing someone—one is a disappearance, two are murders. The story isn’t as concerned with the who done it aspect (thought it is important) as the impact of the loss on the characters. All three stories are linked by private detective Jackson, who is asked to look into all three cases, some years after the fact.

Definitely worth reading.

Touted as a suspense thriller, this one is more like a rather predictable thriller. Part of it is that the central twist of events is way too easy to guess if you’ve ever read any other books in this genre. Add in rather static characters and you get a frustrationg reading experience.

So, this is the biggest comedy hit of 2005?

I missed it in theaters, so I have to admit I was intrigued to see it on DVD. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and I went into with an open mind.

Alas, it’s not that funny. Oh sure, it’s funny in spots, but it’s too damn predictable. It’s like every R-rated comedy cliche in the book thrown together into a script and delivered to the audience. Nothing new here and a movie I have a feeling that will be long forgotten five years from now.

Part of it is that the movie is too long. The jokes are hit or miss to start with and you add in a third-act that is predictable and yuck-free and you’re left feeling drained rather than entertained when it’s all over.

Clocking in at barely over an hour, Garfield the Movie feels a lot longer than that-and that’s not a good thing. In a time when Pixar and other family movies can tell a great story that entertains kids while keeping the adults amused and setting the bar high for family entertainment, this one sticks out like a sore thumb. For one thing-why’d we render Garfield CGI but not Odie?

Of course, I’m probably putting more thought into this film than the filmmakers did since it appears that this one was made to make a quick buck and be easily forgotten.

About the only good thing is Jennifer Love Hewitt looks pretty adorable and hot in the film. But that is not enough to save it.

Until the last 50 pages, “Alone” is a fast-paced, fun suspense/mystery that keeps the pages turning. There are three separate storylines running, each of them interesting and each of them to some extent connected. But then, about 50 pages from the end Gardner throws in a plot twist to try and explain a central mystery of the novel and the whole thing goes out the window. What had been an effortless, entertaining story until that point instead becomes cliched, overdrawn and full of amazingly overdone coincidences to reach the end of the story. It feels as if Gardner’s editor told her—well, Lisa, you’ve got 50 pages so let’s wrap this thing up and she did. A disappointing end to what was, up to that point, an entertaining novel.

Big things come in small packages. It’s an old cliche but it applies here. This small sized book packs quite the thoughtful punch. One part philosophy, one part science fiction this is a series of essays on the nature of time. It sounds a bit cut and dried, but physist Alan Lightman insteads gives us a short essay on a variety of worlds in which time runs at different rates, speeds and works in different ways. The pieces are thought-provoking, interesting and entertaining. This is a book you’ll read and still be thinking about later.

DeCandido has been labeled by Trek fiction fans as the second coming of Peter David, which is an apt description but a bit unfair since it shortchanges the fact that DeCandido is a damn good storyteller. He started out his professional novel publishing career with a Spider-Man novel and he returns to it here with this novel. The storyline follows some of the current comic book continuity with Peter teaching high school science, Mary Jane pursuing an acting career and Aunt May knowing Peter Parker equals Spider-Man. A new gamma-radiation treated version of ectasy is on the market and its killing people left and right-after they “Hulk-out” and Peter realizes that in order to stop the deaths, he’ll have to find the source of the drug and put it out of business. DeCandido’s great strenght in writing novels set in universes not of his own creation is that he’s able to capture the voice and nuances of each character and that strength is on display here. But within that context, DeCandido is able to put his own stamp and interpretation on the characters and, for the most part, that works really well. Make not mistake-this novel is not going to win any awards for best fictional novel published this year, but it’s a fun, fast-paced and enjoyable read that any fan of Spider-Man should enjoy.

I’d argue that most Stephen King stories aren’t so much about the horror or fantastic elements in the story so much as they’re about how those horrific or fantastic elements affect ordinary people. King’s great strength is taking ordinary characters, developing them a bit and then setting them down in some circumstance and watching how they deal with it. For some like Jack Torrence, they go mad. For others, like Roland the Gunslinger, they become a sort of anti-hero. But in all of these stories, the insanity of the worlds King creates are grounded by characters who feel authentic.

For King, it’s less about the destination and more about the journey. Let’s see how these characters react to things, he seems to say.

Such is the case with his latest novel The Colorado Kid.

Really, to call it a novel is stretching the defintion, especially by the tome sized standard King has set with previous novels. Weighing it at just under 200 pages, this one might be better classified as a novella. Luckily, it’s part of the Hard Case Crime series and is published to increase the visiblity of the line (it helped me with as I’ve read half a dozen of the other books published under this banner). Also, it’s offered at a lower price to the consumer. So, if it only takes you a couple of hours to read, you’re only out six bucks and not the price of a hard-cover.

Now, I will warn you-those of you looking for a neat, tidy little mystery might want to look elsewhere. King acknowledges this in his afterward saying this novel will be one that fans love or hate with little middle ground. And I can see why. The story is one of a dead body discovered on a beach in Maine and how the investigation into solving that mystery affects his family, the people around him and two newspaper reporters who have kept the story to themselves all these years. The story is told by the two guys to a young female reporter so they can share the secret and keep it going. Again, let me say that this is not a neat, tidy package where thing will all be resolved in the end. King offers up some solutions and bits of answers, but there is no great denouncement or a smoking gun. In short-this ain’t an Agatha Christie mystery where the culprit is denounced by the final chapter after a lot of red herrings over the course of the novel.

Instead, what you get is a story of how the mystery affects everyone is comes in contact with. Some are forever changed, some aren’t. And King’s greatest strength-creating intersting characters, whether it be for two pages or 180 plus-is fully on display here. There is little or no supernatural stuff happening here, but instead an interesting little story that is a pleasant way to spend a few hours with a good book.

I love DVD. It’s so great to re-discover great series like this one that were cancelled too soon. Season two takes the hilarity of season one and builds on it. Even the obvious jokes work and have me on the floor laughing. One of my favorite “obvious” jokes is in A Bicylops Built For Two as a cyclops looks through a telescope and is asked “How far away is that missile?” and responds “Oh about a trillion miles” as the missile hits the ground next to him. That just cracked me up….and there are so many other great moments in this box set. And the extras…oh the extras….