MY WORD IS MY BOND

Several months ago, I made announcement, that my beloved Summer of Blood was going to be put on hold for 2012, in favor of the more sprawling but less intense Year of Blood (which has so far racked up 13 entries, with another... ah, but that would be telling). Things would become clear in May, I said; and it's May, so I guess I should make with the clarifying.

Last year, you see, I was unexpectedly inundated with comments and e-mails demanding that I review every entry in a film series. And noting that the film series in question had a new entry coming out in 2012, I thought it would be fun to do a weekly series leading up to it. Problem was, the new film was the 26th in this series, at its broadest definition, meaning that I would have to start a whole half-year in advance.

I'm speaking about the James Bond franchise and this November's Skyfall, of course; and when I made this commitment to myself in December, it completely slipped my mind that 2012 would be the 50th anniversary of Bond's big-screen adventures, and therefore everybody else in the English-speaking world would be doing their own 007 retrospective. But I didn't screw with the Summer of Blood just because I could, so I'm sticking with it.

Tonight, we shall begin with a prelude: the third episode of the 1954 American television series Climax!, an adaptation of Ian Fleming's very first Bond novel, Casino Royale. The fun will continue every Saturday for the next 25 weeks, with me having undoubtedly run out of different ways to describe men's formal wear sometime around mid-July.

Update: "Tonight", did I say? Aye, well, sometimes you get home and the internet is out for 9 straight hours and then you fall asleep on the couch waiting for it to come back. The good news is that I have it on good authority that after Monday, these late computer woes of mine will be once and for all, and there should not be any more interruptions in the progression of this series.

Incidentally, I don't recommend going with AT&T as your ISP, for those interested.

Confidential to those asking: I am indeed planning on hitting the 1967 Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again, in their due turn.