Tonight’s episode, “Grave Doubts” offered a closer look into some of the chief characters in the series. Brenda’s father has discovered she’s “living in sin” with Fritz, her FBI boyfriend. She’s beside herself and doesn’t know quite what to do. In fact, halfway through this episode Brenda’s mother tells her that her father doesn’t want to talk to her, but he has written her a letter. Brenda’s reaction is totally Southern female no matter what the age.

Brenda has always been a daddy’s girl, and her current situation leaves her mortified. She doesn’t know what to do. The last time her daddy wrote her a letter, she had been a freshman in college and had received a B- in a history class. She had disappointed him. Living with a man she’s not married to is a really big deal in her father’s eyes.

The murder of this week revolves around the corpse of a young black male who disappeared back in 1992. He’s so mummified that he’s unrecognizable and potentially can’t be identified. He has a driver’s license on him, but they don’t know if that’s who he really is.

The real kicker is that the corpse has Lieutenant Provenza’s card on him. Provenza gave out a lot of cards fifteen years ago and doesn’t remember the name or the face on the driver’s license.

Before long, though, Brenda and her team start making headway. The forensics doctor lets them know that whoever the dead man is, he was murdered. They find a bullet lodged in his chest where his heart would have been. All indications are that he was shot during a struggle.

After they get a tentative ID on the corpse, Brenda goes down to a local gang rehabilitation center to interview Father Jack, a legendary figure in the neighborhood who has worked for years to get gang members off the streets. This avenue of the investigation immediately grates on Sergeant Gabriel’s nerves. Father Jack is an iconic figure to him, a man who has done immense good in the neighborhoods.

Not only that, but the investigation draws fire from a political figure who happens to be the dead man’s younger brother and a huge supporter of Father Jack. Before Brenda knows it, nobody seems to like her. Her superior, Pope, warns her to handle the case with kid gloves. Brenda takes that suggestion into consideration for about five seconds (a long time for her), then handles the case the way she wants to handle it.

The usual deep background investigation takes place, and all the truths, lies, and half-truths spill out. While the action in this episode is more low-key than in many, the emotional stakes are pumped through the roof. Sergeant Gabriel and Brenda – for the first time ever – end up on opposite sides of the fence in what is almost a grudge match.

The ongoing anticipation of finding out what exactly Brenda’s father has said to her in the letter is well done and doesn’t deliver on that until the final few minutes of the episode.

Especially nice, because he’s one of my favorite characters on the show, are the gentle touches done with Lieutenant Provenza. You can see the way he’s hurting and confused over what he might have missed fifteen years ago. A cry for help went out and he failed to follow up on it. When they tell the mother that her son’s body has finally been found, Provenza’s sorrow and silent support of the woman is almost painful to watch. Brenda remains totally clued in as to what’s going on and the torturous path that the lieutenant is following.

All in all, tonight’s episode was emotionally gratifying. I didn’t learn as much about police work or other background stuff that I usually do during episodes, but I had a good time with this one. It yanked at the heartstrings and left me in a good place when it was finished.

However, we’re going to have to wait to see how the fallout from this case affects Brenda’s relationship with Sergeant Gabriel.

When I heard that a Nancy Drew movie was being made, I had envisioned something along the lines of Veronica Mars on the big screen. Of course, I knew that it wouldn't be anything like that, but the Kristen Bell character is similar to what I think a new version of Nancy Drew would be like. What we got was a movie that wasn't quite sure how to handle the character or how to deal with the tone. The end result is a movie that is not terribly bad, but it smacks of a missed opportunity.

The story, which had the working title of Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills, has the young sleuth moving, temporarily, with her father to Los Angeles for some unspecified job-related reason. Nancy got to select where they were going to live, and true to form, she has chosen this old neglected mansion, which plays host to an unsolved Hollywood mystery. The spacious home was once owned by Dehlia Draycott, a top Hollywood actress who had disappeared for a number of months, only to be murdered shortly upon resurfacing. The long unsolved mystery has tickled Nancy's sleuthing itch and she sets out to find out the truth behind the mystery.

Nancy Drew is not a deep movie, there is little in the way of character development. Actually, there's no character development — what you see is what you get. From the requisite introductory scene through to the final reveal of who was behind everything, you are clued in at every step of the game. Of course, I was not expecting this to be the next Double Indemnity, nor was I expecting to be drawn in by its conventions, since I am clearly not within the target audience. I was just hoping to watch a movie that knew what it was, rather than the scattershot result.

The tone of Nancy Drew seems like a cross between The Brady Bunch Movie, Scooby-Doo, and low rent film noir. While the movie is set in the present day, Nancy is perpetually locked in the 1950s, attitudes, clothing, and all that goes with it. This would certainly open things up for a little comedic bite, but no, not going to go that route, which is a good thing, as I never really pictured her as a comedic target. Then there is the mystery, which does not have a lot of depth and is easy to follow, and the way Nancy and her little gang go about unraveling the clues is not unlike your typical Scooby mystery. During the final third, as the pieces all fall into place, it takes a brief darker turn which seems to be clearly inspired by '50s-era detective stories.

For all of its faults, I did find it somewhat endearing. It wasn't entirely dumb, it wasn't boring, and had a nice colorful look that the young girls at the screening seemed to really enjoy. The performances were decent, if unspectacular. I found myself lulled by the upbeat way in which the movie bounced along. Would I have preferred a movie that was a bit more serious? A bit more focused? Maybe a mystery that felt a little more substantial? Yes on all accounts. Still, It was inoffensive and delivered what the target audience desired. Just, be warned if you are outside the 7- to 13-year-old girl range.

Bottom line. It was an enjoyable diversion that, while nowhere near being perfect, was still enjoyable enough. There was also the cameo by Bruce Willis which may have been the best scene in the film. Not the train wreck I was expecting, but definitely a missed opportunity for something more.

Mildly Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

This week The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A small Planet takes aim at the world of sports, and what some companies and individuals are doing to make equipment sustainable and eco-friendly. Following their usual format, Big Ideas For A Small Planet zooms in on three story segments.Craig Calfee, of Calfee Designs is a well known designer of high end bicycles for discerning enthusiasts. Back in 1997, due to the high cost and shortage of carbon fiber, he started to explore alternative materials. One day while teasing his dog with a piece of bamboo he had a ‘EUREKA’ moment. Bamboo is very light, very plentiful, and incredibly strong — the bamboo bike was born. It turns out that bamboo is actually stronger than carbon fiber, and it is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet; here is a truly sustainable raw material.

Craig takes us through the building process, and it is amazing. To join the pieces together a combination of hemp fiber and epoxy is used. The finished product is superb, and according to riders, the bamboo absorbs the kinks and ruts, giving a very smooth ride. This eco-friendly bike now represents about 20% of sales for the company.

Jason Salfi is the co-founder of Comet Skateboards. He points out that skateboarding is becoming more and more popular, annual sales have been growing every year, yet many of the skateboards on sale use non renewable wood resources, and lots of toxins in the manufacturing process, in the forms of glue and lacquers. Comet uses water-based paints and is also experimenting with a soy-based polymer that will be used to protect the deck. Jason wants to create a ‘closed loop’ recycle process. When you are finished with the product, it is compostable. I had the pleasure of chatting With Jason about Comet Skateboards.

Comet Skateboards has been around for ten years; have you always been eco-friendly or is this a recent development?

We never said we want to be the “greenest company’’, we just want to make the best boards possible. For us that includes making a minimal impact on the forest, the air, the water, etc. From day one we have used FSC woods, water coatings, and inks… We feel like these are the best materials available. After all we are making things for young people, if we offer them a product that compromises their future, what good are we to them?

Most manufacturers are motivated by cost of raw material. How does your manufacturing cost compare to using more traditional materials?

We pay a little more at times. Our product is part of our marketing and our values drive everything. There is more of a good vibe about our boards and the return on the investment is loyalty from the skaters.

Do people buy because it is eco-friendly, or is just because it is a damn fine product?

People like our boards because they last several times as long as other boards and skate great. When they dig a little deeper and find out about our core values, they are extra stoked. In the last year, however, many sales have been driven by our commitment to less impactful materials/eco edge.

How close are you to using your soy-based protective covering?

We are finishing the prototyping of the soy polymer and bio-composite boards in August and launching them in the fall. We have been working on this with E2E Materials in Ithaca, New York for two years to make sure it will live up to the Comet performance standards before we launch.

I was talking to a friend of mine about natural-based lubricants; have you tried any of these as a replacement for oil-based?

I was just on a panel with Jeremy Ridenaur from Wise Solutions in Watsonville, California. We may collaborate on a bio lube for skateboard bearings.

The final third of the show concerns Alison Gannett, a well known ‘free skier’, best known for throwing herself of the top of really scary looking mountains! She has set out on her “Global Cooling Tour”. With CO2 emissions growing, and global warming being the result, the winter sports industry is in danger. Alison cites a study that claims that within 15 years ski resorts under 5,000 feet will cease to exist. Like most of the people featured in Big Ideas, she is just one person trying to make a small difference. Use energy efficient bulbs, campaign for energy producers to cut back on the use of coal and move to sustainable energy resources, are among her messages.

Big Ideas For A Small Planet airs Tuesday at 9pm on the Sundance Channel; don’t worry if your cable provider does not carry Sundance, you can see most of the action on their website.

Here’s a film for those old enough to recall a resurgence of interest in monasticism in the late 1980s when records – yes, records – and tapes of Gregorian chants were bought and played for an uncommon peace. And if you were one of those who has read all the books by and about Thomas Merton, then this film is for you. If you had dreams of wearing a nun’s habit, or toyed with the idea of being a priest or monk, then this film is for you. If you love and understand meditation and silence, then Into Great Silence was made for you. Why? Because it has almost no dialogue or music. And when there is dialogue it consists mostly of prayers. The rare music comes from mass or reading from the Bible.

It is a detailed and divining look at cloistered life inside the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps. The conversation as well as the prayers are in French, with English subtitles. But its rarified atmosphere is more like Lourdes than Paris. Filmed by German filmmaker Philip Gröning in 2006, the film runs for 162 minutes and is available on DVD.

Silence is a typical vow of those who enter cloistered orders. It is based on the belief that the five senses and the portals of the body are sources of evil, or where evil can gain a foothold and thus pull one down and away from God. Those who follow an order and its “rules” must shun any sort of stimuli that might lead to impurity in thought, word or deed — a truly holy life the goal. So when the world is offered this rare glimpse into such a life, don’t expect a party or even a sound.

The very stillness of this film made it akin to watching great art at the Louvre in Paris. But instead of the watcher moving around the picture, the picture moves around the watcher.

The audience is taken by the hand inside the cell (a small walled-off space) of the monk and inside his life. The grounds are also on display, an alpine view of snow-covered mountains, valleys, woods and streams. Throughout the film each of the monks, from applicant to abbot, is introduced. We are not told their names, nor do they talk on camera. It is only a face that we study. Monks who appear in the film are not actors, but people living a group life, bien difficile, especially by modern standards. But the difficulty is more than physical, it is also emotional and spiritual. The men are seduced into following Christ and they are fully aware and welcome this seduction. We are reminded of this, along with other aphorisms (spelled out in French, German and English) throughout the film.

I live in a small town with only one theater that regularly accommodates the “artsy film.” This film, which I was lucky to catch, was screened only four times over the past weekend. I thought I would be only among a handful of people there. I was wrong. The show let out while we waited and a full house emerged from the darkness. And there was a good-sized crowd waiting for the last show offered. People left before the movie ended, realizing that they could not deal with so much silence and stillness, but that was okay. I thought I was going to be the only one there in the first place.

I have closely studied French medieval monasticism for the past seven years. It was from the lives, letters, lectures, and writings of Heloise and Abelard that the university system was born, first near Paris and later disseminated throughout Europe. Monasteries have long been the repository of a treasure trove of the world’s knowledge, especially the Classics. The very Western tradition we enjoy was imported from the great minds and philosophies of the ancient world: Greece and Rome, the place where the Bible was translated from Aramaic to Greek, where it was then able to be translated into Latin.

The advent of the printing press and the Latin Bible both made “modern” life possible. Many books, I dare call scholarship, have been written lately causing a renewed interest in atheism. Well-meaning men have once again put God on the critical list. Religion is its roommate. Religion and the genetic code that causes us to seek God are espoused as evil, both pegged as the source of war and human suffering. The fragile individual, however, seems to forget one thing: along with the rest of the world, that they owe their very literacy to religion and faith, all faiths. Science was born from religion. Man should not forget that regardless of the status of this relationship, one birthed the other.

However, this film does not extol or count the civilization contributions of the Catholic Church per se, or of any other church. What it does very well is to remind us that simplicity is what we are missing in our lives. And that simplicity can be had for free, just by closing your eyes, turning off the electronics and breathing the fresh air during a walk. Stress reduction never looked so good as watching grown men playing and sliding down snow-covered slopes. The brothers in Christ in this film took group walks as a means of exercising the soulful communion and familial connections one with the other. During all activities however the brothers were never to forget the rules that governed all aspects of this life, even rules to walk by. They could not, for instance, eat or drink while they walked.

Monastic life is governed by the rules of its founder and the particular faith. Therefore there is more than one type of robe a man might wear, and more than one type of abbot that a monk might follow. Thomas Merton belonged to the Trappist Order who have a large monastery in the woods near Louisville, Kentucky. The Carthusians portrayed in Into Great Silence take a different vow, and amend their lives accordingly. But many of the house rules and structure of daily living were similar.

Here the audience walked through and within a grand stone estate where the men lived and slept in a cell, with a stove at its heart and a small area where they could study. Silence, prayer, and study make up the atoms of their existence. The pursuit of knowledge through reading and study after all, wrote Cicero, is the root of true happiness in life. If that is the case then the cloistered are some of the happiest people in the world.

If you were a child sometime between 1960 and 1990 then chances are good that you watched at least a couple episodes of children’s programming starring Bozo the Clown. Depending on where you lived in the country, the look, sound, and line-up of your show might have been any combination. You see, Bozo the Clown was one of a very few shows (including Romper Room) that operated as a franchise rather than in syndication.

Marketing genius Larry Harmon bought the rights to the clown he once portrayed and allowed local media markets to hire their own Bozos. My personal favorite was Chicago area clown Bob Bell, whose show created the kid favorite Grand Prize Game. Harmon’s most loved clown though, was Frank Avruch in the original Boston market.

Now, after many years of speculation on when it would happen, Larry Harmon has offered up 30 episodes (each 23 minutes long) remastered from his original film. Each episode features Avruch as Bozo, The World’s Most Famous Clown, entertaining a studio audience full of elementary school children who seem glued to his every move. Recorded between 1959 and 1970 it is not exactly the Bozo of my early eighties youth, but those of you who watched in earlier years will not be disappointed.

In each episode you get a much expected Bozo game where a child pulled from the audience gets the chance to win a prize, a Bozo cartoon featuring his trusty sidekick Butch, and – if you’re lucky – an appearance by Mr. Lion or Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo. Both Lion and Kookie were portrayed by the amazing Caroll Spinney, who you might remember for his later work as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

I have to say honestly that two things are working against me with this four-disc DVD set. First, being 27, I find that the charm and wonder I experienced as a child watching Bozo is much diminished. I can still sit down and watch an episode of The Smurfs or Fraggle Rock and find them entertaining, but Bozo just does not have that same appeal. I will be calling my mother in just a bit to thank her for watching those hundreds and hundreds of episodes with me.

My other disappointment is that Frank Avruch just does not seem to bring the excitement and energy to the show that my beloved Bob Bell did. Perhaps it is a regional love and Boston fans will appreciate this DVD more than me; however those who did not grow up with this Bozo will find themselves disappointed.

After 47 years on air, making it one of the longest running shows on television, it was time to immortalize Bozo in his own DVD. I just wish that Larry Harmon would have chosen to include a few episodes from each of the major franchised markets, giving us all a little of the Bozo the Clown that we remember.

Kate Harding’s brain contains an abnormal amount of entertainment (read: useless) knowledge. It is the reason that she did not do better in school and why she often can’t remember why she walked into a room. Kate can be found managing a non-profit art gallery and talking endlessly about music.