Author: John Stark

Blogger. EIC of macthemovieguy.com. Contributor to mjsbigblog.com and houseofgeekery.com. Previously featured on starpulse.com.
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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/23/26

John Stark

Apple announced that the upcoming fifth season of The Morning Show, slated to land in 2027, will be its last. TV Shows Watched: Big Mistakes: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Deli Boys: S2E5 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Sheriff Country: S1E16 (Paramount) with audio description, Star City: S1E7 (Apple) with audio description, The Comeback: S1E13 (HBo MAX) with audio description, and Who Wants To Be A millionaire: S5E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description Big Mistakes- 1 episode away from finishing the season. Thank God this is human. I at least started my day with wonderful, human written, human narrated audio … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/23/26

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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/22/26

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: X-Men 97: S2E6 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Legends- S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Widows Bay: S1E8 (Apple) with audio description, Scarpetta: S1E7 (Amazon) with audio description, St Dennis medical: S2E11 (Peacock) with audio description, Stranger Things: Tales From 88- S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, and The Daily Show (Paramount) no audio description X-Men 97- So, this episode is nuts. But,at least the AD is complete, and also Disney fixed the AD on the previous episode. I think it’s synthetic, but I can’t prove it, so much like the female narrator I refer to as She-Ra. X-Men … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/22/26

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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/21/26

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Man On Fire: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Your Friends And Neighbors: S2E8 (Apple) with audio description, Tales Of The TMNT: S2E9 (Paramount) with audio description, The Bear: S5E6 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Daemons Of The Shadow Realm: S1E7 (CrunchyRoll) with audio description, The Audacity: S1E5 (AMC Plus) no audio description, and The Rookie: S8E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description Man On Fire- Finished. Fully intend to review. Excellent work by IDC, Steven Christopher, and Sri Gordon. Your Friends And Neighbors- I give Amanda Peet a lot of shit sometimes, but she’s very good in this … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/21/26

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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/20/26

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: House Of The Dragon: S3E5 (HBO MAX) with audio description, Unconditional: S1E6 (Apple) with audio description, Million Dollar Secret: S2 Top 6 (Netflix) with audio description, The Miniature Wife: S1E7 (Peacock) with audio description, The Beauty: S1E11 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Life Larry And THe Pursuit Of Unhappiness: S1E3 (HBO MAX) with audio description, and Elzabeth: S3E17 (Paramount) with audio description House Of the Dragon- I’ll throw my sword down right now. Best AD to a show I’m currently watching. There’s just so much going on here, so much detail, now we have cats to track. … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/20/26

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Mortal Kombat (2021)

John Stark

The year is 2026, and Mortal Kombat 2 is finally upon us. As such, it led me to revisit Mortal Kombat, the 2021 reboot of the classic video game franchise. I wasn’t just revisiting it out of some completionist need either, because I definitely had seen the film before. I know I had. The pandemic years were kind of a blur, but I remembered enough to know I’d watched it, while somehow remembering almost nothing about what actually happened. That’s never a great sign for a movie, and it’s exactly why I wanted to give it another shot before diving … Continue reading Mortal Kombat (2021)

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Vladimir: Season 1

John Stark

Vladimir is one of those shows where there’s something quirky and ambitious going on, and I’m not entirely sure it all works. For me at least, I actually think this limited series would have worked even better if it had been even more limited. Stay with me here, because I promise I’ll explain. The plot revolves around the Professor, played by Rachel Weisz, who is clearly sexually unfulfilled, even if she’d very much like not to be. When a younger professor named Vladimir, played by Leo Woodall, joins the faculty at her liberal arts college, she quickly becomes consumed by … Continue reading Vladimir: Season 1

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Going In Blind: Middle Life

John Stark

Since this movie is called Middle Life, of which I would currently identify, I felt triggered by the simple existence of the movie. Being in the middle part of my life, being asked to review Middle Life is like living through some weird curse. I get it. I have not yet achieved all that I should have, and likely never will. The insignificance of humanity. The idea that we will go on to do far greater things than we ever actually do. For the main characters in Middle Life, Andy and Ryan, they just have to get through a movie … Continue reading Going In Blind: Middle Life

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The Small Screen Diaries:07/19/26

John Stark

The Odyssey took up so much of my day, so this list is a bit light for the second day in a row. Mea culpa. TV Shows Watched: The Westies: S1E3 (MGM Plus) with audio description,The Hawk: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Top Chef: Top 4 (Peacock) with audio description, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: S1E6 (Apple) with audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: S2E12 (Netflix) with audio description, and Breaking Bad: S4E5 (Netflix) with audio description The Westies- With one of their own on the line, the Irish have to figure out how to level the playing field, so Sweeney gains favor … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries:07/19/26

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The Odyssey

John Stark

Christopher Nolan has done it again. I feel like you’re waiting to know what is the thing that he has done again. And since there are hundreds upon hundreds of people releasing their opinions about The Odyssey due to a staged backlash against the film ahead of its release, I will say that what he has done again is give me tinnitus. I have only ever gotten tinnitus twice in my lifetime, and both times have been because of Christopher Nolan movies. So I’m pledging right now that whatever Christopher Nolan makes next, I don’t care what it is, I’m … Continue reading The Odyssey

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Not Suitable For Work: Season 1

John Stark

I enjoy Mindy Kaling. I like the things she’s produced so far. I like her as a talent. So whenever I hear she has a new show, I do admittedly have a piqued interest. Not Suitable for Work immediately hit a snag with advocates for people with allergies, since one of the episodes has a rather unfortunate take on someone having an allergic reaction, which admittedly is not the way I think anyone should present something like that. Granted, this isn’t a children’s television series, which would make it even worse if they were trying to sell that kind of … Continue reading Not Suitable For Work: Season 1

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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/18/26

John Stark

Coming up this week on TV: The World Cup final is today! King Of The Hill (Hulu) returns for its 15th season on Monday, Ransom Canyon (Netflix) quickdraws Season 2 on Thursday, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (ABC) plays for charity starting Wednesday. On the new series front, the biggest new swing is Stuart Fails To Save The Universe (HBO MAX), which is now the third spinoff from The Big Bang Theory, following Young Sheldon and Georgie and Mandy, and there’s another set of Housewives, this time in London (Bravo/Peacock) which probably will have audio description. Some new … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/18/26

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Spider-Noir: Season 1

John Stark

Growing up as a kid, I could have probably never dreamed of the way nerd culture would become so widely accepted and break into the mainstream with all of these comic book adaptations constantly arriving. Not only did we get a Spider-Man film with Tobey Maguire in the early 2000s, but they kept making them. They followed with The Amazing Spider-Man, and when the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a reality, they introduced him all over again with Spider-Man: Homecoming. But they weren’t content with just Spider-Man. They expanded into the Spider-Man universe, making a trilogy of Venom films while trying, … Continue reading Spider-Noir: Season 1

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Going In Blind: Test

John Stark

If we’re going to be incredibly reductive, then Test is probably going to be known as the gay bodybuilding movie. Or at least the gay bodybuilding movie of 2026. Let’s face it. Muscular men posing on stage, covered in oil, is far more intertwined with queer culture than some people probably realize, especially when you put it that way. But Brock Yurich doesn’t settle for making a movie that’s content to exist because of its aesthetic. Drawing from his own experiences in the bodybuilding world, he wrote a screenplay that uses that environment as the backdrop for something much more … Continue reading Going In Blind: Test

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Avatar: Fire And Ash

John Stark

I suppose I should start this by admitting that I didn’t experience Avatar: Fire and Ash the way James Cameron probably intended. I didn’t see it on the biggest screen imaginable. I waited until it arrived on Disney+, and then I watched it on my phone. Well, “watched” is a strong word for a blind film critic. I can’t see the screen anyway, so the size of it doesn’t really matter to me. What did matter was finally getting to experience it with the absolutely tremendous audio description track produced by Deluxe and narrated by William Michael Redman. This is … Continue reading Avatar: Fire And Ash

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The Small Screen Diaries: 07/17/26

John Stark

The Emmys, which chose a non-comedian to host, are now dropping categories so they can have more skits and music performances in the live telecast. What I always look forward to at the award ceremony for the best in television every year, are those banger music performances. Unless they are gonna rock out to some familiar TV theme songs, they can eat my shorts (something I learned from television). TV Shows Watched: Silo: S3E3 (Apple) with audio description, Nemesis: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Scrubs: S10E9 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Invincible: S4E7 (Amazon) with audio description, Ted: S2E6 (Peacock) … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/17/26