From the Couch Hole: ‘Cause When You’re Not Here Nothing’s Any Fun

Previously on FTCH, Batman begins on the dark side of genius during the night of the owl. The family plot was just the way you are when you are eating Confetti Cherrios. This week the calendar turns to May and it’s time to get things moving. It’s been summer weather here for weeks, but the playoffs, summer blockbusters, and graduations tell the story of our move into the next season. This week King Sorrow says, “Welcome to Matheson,” which has little sentimental value. I believe our time is going to come when the Dark Knight brings Peanut Butter Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. Remember, FTCH is finally a long-term solution to deal with incontinence.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Joe Hill – King Sorrow (2025) (Published by William Morrow and Sons): “The dark man fled across the snow and Arthur Oakes followed.” This was my first Joe Hill novel, and I was happy to find more than a few Easter Eggs to Stephen King’s (his father) Universe. The secret government groups of the middle act feel like they could exist in Firestarter or The Institute. The book is almost 900 pages, so that might be the biggest nod to his father. Like most books I’ve read of this length, there’s almost three distinct books that make up the story.
  
  At the very basic level, it’s a book about five college-age friends who summon an evil being (think of the clown in IT) that happens to be a dragon, King Sorrow. They have to deal with his return every Easter. It’s a mixture of The Hobbit, King Arthur legends, Firestarter, Faust, and the C.S. Lewis novels. There aren’t many 900-page books that can’t use some editing and this book went through a period just over halfway when it felt like it started to repeat itself. It is a better balance of fantasy and horror than I imagined from Hill. This wasn’t a perfect story; it might have been a masterful 600-page story. This was enough for me to explore more of Joe Hill’s works.

Buy King Sorrow

• Locke & Key – “Welcome to Matheson” (S.1 E.1) (Netflix) (2020): “Death is not as final as you think.” – Echo. I bought the first few trade paperback collections of this title and never got around to reading them. I saved this to my Netflix queue when it debuted thinking, “I’ll watch this after I read the comics.” I finished reading King Sorrow and called it close enough.
  
  The Locke family moves back to Matheson, MA (actually filmed in Nova Scotia) after the murder of their father. His wife, Nina, and the three children, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, arrive at the family home, Keyhouse, at the start of the first episode. The house looks like the Bates Motel home from the outside, and the magic things that happen inside more resemble a combination of The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher. Scripted to be a three-season series, I’m forgiving for some of the slower elements of this first episode. I’m intrigued with where it will go. I’ve read enough reviews to know that after this when I get around to the books, I’ll find enough differences to make it still a surprise read.

Buy The Essential REO Speedwagon

• REO Speedwagon – “(I Believe) Our Time Is Gonna Come” (from REO Speedwagon) (1976): “You left me confused when you said you couldn’t stay / But now I know what you were trying to say.” My deep dive into this album comes to another important entry. This song has so many elements of what we will later call arena rock. This tune and “Keep Pushin'” are where the band reaches the tipping point of being Kevin Cronin’s band, and their sound that will generate huge hits in the ’80s is solidified. My favorite elements of the song are in the last 90 seconds when the band gets to shine. It’s easy to imagine this song lasting about 15 minutes in concert. The prog rock background of the band pays off as they transition to modern rock.

• Sentimental Value (2025) (Directed by Joachim Trier): “I don’t know who I said it to, but, I said it out loud, ‘Help me, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do it alone. I want a home. I want a home.'” – Rachel Kemp. This completes my Best Picture nominees from the 2026 Academy Awards, just over a month late. This film and Train Dreams (2025) are two of my favorites from last year for similar reasons. They are these slow, emotional builds that don’t rush to a conclusion. You know there are going to be an emotional breakthrough, but it’s allowed to play out naturally. The thing that struck me is how the past informs the present, and the present reflects the past. If you like this film, pick any of about a dozen well-known Ingmar Bergman movies to discover how we got to this point in cinema. This is a great piece of art. This film shines because of great acting and writing, as opposed to Train Dreams, where the camera allows the setting and sound design to be the star. This is a film that has the depth to show me more upon multiple viewings.

Buy Sentimental Value (Criterion Collection)

• The Dark Knight (2008) (Directed by Christopher Nolan): “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” – Harvey Dent. It’s a sequel that rightly lives in the pantheon of the best sequels of all-time. I think that to be in that top-tier of sequels you need to follow a really good film with a really great film. It’s certainly in the discussion with The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
  
  Batman Begins (2005) was myth building. It was part Joseph Campbell, part Star Wars with a dash of social messaging to give it more gravitas. The Dark Knight turns the story into Shakespeare. The best plays, like Hamlet, don’t make big distinctions between the actions and motivations of the good guy and the bad guy. The duality of Batman as reflected in the duality of the villains that the fights has always been an important part of the Batman mythos. My two favorite characters that illustrate the conflict have always been the Joker and Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Heath Ledger (Joker) and Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent) take the lead thematically now that we know Bruce’s origin. Heath Ledger is Oscar worthy in the way he pushes boundaries while his face tells the story of a conflicted man. Watching it again, I’m surprised it only clocks in at #28 of The NY Times Best Films of the Century.

Buy The Dark Knight

Best of the Rest

• It’s like reaching into my pocket and just stealing my money. I have seven months to watch Godzilla Minus One (2023) a couple more times. In November, I’ll be at the IMAX theater (the first thing I’ll research when I get to Mass.) in the middle of a middle row for this release. That last shot in the trailer is goosebump worthy. As much as I like some of the new American treatments of the character, we just can’t capture the Japanese flair.

• I’m conflicted about the Netflix reboot of Little House on the Prairie. It looks to be a full season instead of a film. The cinematography looks good, but the acting and plots are my main concern. This touts itself as being closer to the books than the original television series. I haven’t read the books, but rarely is “closer to the books” a bad thing.

• What is happening out there in California? We’re up to three snake bite deaths this year. The headline talks about a snake invasion. Thanks, Newsom. The victims have been 25, 46, and 78 years old just to show you that no one is safe.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 5/16/2010, I remember the special kind of tiredness coming off a week of book buyback and a 13-hour Graduation Saturday. I don’t miss that feeling. I was less than enthused about the last episode before the final episode of Lost (ABC). I was much more excited that Parenthood (NBC) and V (ABC) had been greenlit for second seasons. The list of the week is a term that I don’t use any longer (but will for the context of what I thought of it in 2010). I’m more convinced that the genre of Soul Cinema encompasses more of the variety of films that were being leased in the late ’60s through late ’70s era. I think the list may change slightly.
  
  My #63 Top TV Show of All-Time was Life on Mars (BBC) (2006-2007): This two-season show is well written and holds up as an entertaining, genre-expanding show. Sam Tyler (John Simm) is transported from 2006 back to 1973. This science-fiction concept (as Sam tries to figure out what happened and how to get back) is wrapped up in the detective genre. Sam and his partner Gene (Phillip Glenister) solve crimes in 1973 that all seem to revolve around clues that might lead Sam back to his own time. I liked but didn’t love the United States version where the science-fiction concept was portrayed more as a dream. I don’t know if this is still rated as highly as this, but it’s a great show to recommend to someone who wants a short-ish series to binge.
  
• BEST BLAXPLOITATION FILMS OF ALL-TIME (2010)
  • 10. Shaft in Africa (1973) (Directed by John Guillermin)
  • 9. Across 110th Street (1972) (Directed by Barry Shear)
  • 8. Coffy (1973) (Directed by Jack Hill)
  • 7. Cleopatra Jones (1974) (Directed by Jack Starrett)
  • 6. Superfly (1972) (Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.)
  • 5. Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) (Directed by Ossie Davis)
  • 4. Foxy Brown (1974) (Directed by Jack Hill)
  • 3. Trouble Man (1972) (Directed by Ivan Dixon)
  • 2. Shaft (1971) (Directed by Gordon Parks)
  • 1. Black Caesar / Hell Up In Harlem (1973) (Directed by Larry Cohen)
    
• BEST BLAXPLOITATION FILMS OF ALL-TIME (2026)
  • 10. Dolemite (1975) (Directed by D’Urville Martin): It’s not well crafted or filmed with superior skills. It’s here because of the cultural importance. Rudy Ray Moore wrote a film to show off his comedic chops, and I dig it.
  • 9. Shaft (1971) (Directed by Gordon Parks): The genre was around before this film, but lots of people set this as the point where it became legitimate. Richard Roundtree is good as a traditional hard-boiled detective, but I don’t know that we’d still be watching this today without the Isaac Hayes soundtrack.
  • 8. Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971) (Directed by Melvin Van Peebles): The same year as Shaft, this Melvin Van Peebles film shows that the genre could encompass the Art House world too. It’s avant garde in places and brutally honest Black experience in others.
  • 7. Superfly (1972) (Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.): Another film that’s driven as much by the Curtis Mayfield soundtrack as it is by the drug dealer/crime plot. Fun trivia is that it was the film that knocked The Godfather (1972) out of the #1 spot in the weekly box office.
  • 6. Cleopatra Jones (1974) (Directed by Jack Starrett): Tamara Dobson is the anti-Pam Grier. That’s not to say that they both aren’t wonderfully talented actresses. The way they were used in these films of the era was markedly different. Tamara was tall and lean and her way to fight crimes was with her physicality. Pam was curvy and used sexuality to further her investigation of crimes. This film in particular still entertains instead of being a novelty of the era.
  • 5. Truck Turner (1974) (Directed by Jonathan Kaplan): Isaac Hayes plays the lead character in this guilty pleasure. It’s over the top in many ways, but the real reason to watch this film is the work of Star Trek‘s Nichelle Nichols. She plays an exaggerated character of Dorinda, the co-leader of a brothel. This is one that is on the list because of the fun, kitsch factor.
  • 4. Coffy (1973) (Directed by Jack Hill): This nurse turned Charles Bronson Death Wish (1974) vigilante against drug dealers responsible for her sister’s heroin addiction film doesn’t get the same attention as Foxy Brown (1974) (which was originally meant to be a sequel to this one). This is my favorite of the four Pam Grier / Jack Hill team ups. And what film has a better tagline that “Coffy – she’ll cream you.”
  • 3. Three the Hard Way (1974) (Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.): This is the follow-up to Superfly for Parks Jr. It brings together the supergroup of Soul Cinema actors, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, and Jim Kelly. It’s an action film that I can’t figure out if it’s either a parody of James Bond film or simply a Bond-influenced film. The plan to contaminate the water supply to kill the Black population feels right out of a rejected Bond plot. I can’t help but love this film.
  • 2. Trouble Man (1972) (Directed by Ivan Dixon): A traditionally trained directer telling a hard-boiled detective story with a lead actor who was trained as an actor (as opposed to an athlete). The concept actually works. Team that with an incredible Marvin Gaye soundtrack, and this is one of the underrated best films of the genre.
  • 1. Black Caesar / Hell Up in Harlem (1973) (Directed by Larry Cohen): It’s a combination of a remake of Little Caesar (1931) and a reimagining of The Godfather. The two films released in the same year are best viewed as a single film (much like The Godfather). The production is higher quality than most of the films on this list, and the James Brown soundtrack puts this into a different level. I recently watched them together again, and I was impressed how it hold up to similar gangster genre films of the decade.

Buy Black Caesar

1976 in Review

• May – Thor #247 (Marvel Comics): Cover by Rich Buckler. Written by Len Wein. Art by John Buscema. The story continues in Costa Verde with Thor possessed by the Gypsy. He escapes with Jane Foster’s help and he and Firelord defeat the Gypsy. In Asgard, Odin (who we later learn is an imposter) continues to go crazy. This era of Marvel has some of the best covers of the decade.
• May 1 – Ronald Reagan won the Texas Republican Primary over Gerald Ford. Three days later, he would win Indiana and Georgia. For the first time, the assumed nomination of Gerald Ford as a Presidential candidate was in doubt.
• May 15-21 – TV Guide. Cover by Bill Charmatz. I don’t think there was the TV Guide curse like a Sports Illustrated curse. The cast of On the Rocks might argue. They were finishing up their first season when this issue came out. The sitcom set in a correctional facility, Alcoa Minimum Security Prison, is a remake of the British show Porridge. Despite Hogan’s Heroes once being a huge hit, this was criticized and eventually cancelled soon after this cover for the controversial setting. Today, it’s celebrated for such a diverse cast and the way it handled the setting.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“I dream of you through every night
But you’re not risin’ with me, so I don’t wanna see the light
Even if you can’t come over, and I hoping that you might” – REO Speedwagon