hamnh Reviews

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (2006– )

This Show is Losing it's Tastefulness

[4/10 · 9 January 2010]

I started watching this show and found it very informative. Andrew Zimmern would go to other countries and eat things that, to us, would seem "Bizarre." BUT he would explain and inform.

Then the show continued and Zimmern started hamming it up, eating more bugs, worms, and things that we Americans (of course) would never eat. His hamming got on my nerves because he looked more like one of the three stooges. He became Zimmern the clown. He also made fun of the food he ate. The show lost my attention. I also feel that Zimmern goes out of his way to find these food in remote places. For the most part, the places are extremely remote, but in countries that their own people otherwise do NOT eat them.

I've been to the Phillipines and if you haven't seen or eaten "Balut", you haven't seen Bizarre Foods. However, I just said "no thanks" to the long-dead chicken embryo in the shell. The people were always gracious and kind. I learned a lot from them. This Bizarre Food is NOT a staple in the Filipino diet.

By the way, I LOVE "Hogs Head Cheese" (I'm half Cajun). And most of my friends wouldn't touch the stuff with a 10 foot pole. So we have our own food prejudices in our own country.

It's all relative.

Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye (2008) Season 4, Episode 1

Julia McKenzie Terrific in Pocketful of Rye

[10/10 · 27 July 2009]

I truly enjoyed Julia McKenzie's first role as Miss Marple! Not only does she carry the role very well, but the story is true to Agatha Christie's book, down to the very end. I've had difficulty accepting the changes to Christie's works, some of them in this new series being absolutely dreadful. But I've come to terms with it and have enjoyed most of them. If they must make such radical changes to Christie's stories, I hope they at least keep good actors like McKenzie around. With "Pocketful of Rye," there were more views of the English countryside and less garish colors and background music as in the past. These are very good improvements indeed.

Marple: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (2009) Season 4, Episode 4

McKenzie is Terrific in a flawed re-write

[10/10 · 27 July 2009]

It has taken me a long time to bite down the horrid re-writes of Agatha Christie's books. This series has done many hatchet jobs and made her books into garish, horrible episodes. However, I've accepted this and focused mainly on the visuals and the acting, not the story.

With that in mind, I actually enjoyed "Why Didn't They Ask Evans." Yes, there are many issues like the first 30 minutes barely showing Miss Marple at all, and the story re-writes. But that was done to Geraldine McEwan in "Bertrams Hotel", with a created hotel maid summing up the crime. Yes, I have the book and it wasn't a Marple story, but neither were many done in the first three seasons.

I do enjoy Julia McKenzie in this role and think she is almost as good as Joan Hickson, who did a superb job. The young actors sleuthing the crime with her were also very good. They kept the actual ending of who was "Evans." The visuals of the English countryside were stunning! And they kept the background music appropriate.