1.11 Skinny Dipper But before I talk about what I liked, I’ll warn you that I’m also going to discuss the identity of ‘Adam’. So if you’ve not seen this episode, I’d watch it before reading on. Skinny Dipper dovetails directly into the final events of The Man In The Killer Suit when Henry is abducted by ‘Adam’ in yellow cab. Actually, it goes back a little to explain how he got the cab, and what unfortunate things happened to the driver....
1.22 The Last Death Of Henry Morgan As conclusions go, Forever‘s finale wasn’t half bad, even though they really only gave themselves 42 minutes to wrap up lots of plot threads. Given the very short timescale the episode was extremely tightly written, and managed to nail both of the big issues: Adam and his secret. But it also explained how Abigail found out that he was immortal, and the significance or otherwise of the gun....
‘The one place on Earth that guarantees a quiet life… it’s the safest place on Earth’. It’s a bold statement that would tempt fate in any circumstance but in the opening episode of a mystery thriller, Governor Hildur Odegard’s quote comes across as pretty much a reckless invitation to evil. She can’t be too genre-savvy. As one of the permanent lynchpins of popular culture – particularly of the dramatic variety – the problem with crime is that it’s extremely familiar....
There’s a real sense of the epic as the current season of Futurama comes to an end. And when I say ‘epic’, I don’t mean it in the rather overused and redundant way we get constantly these days (bloody young people). I mean truly awe inducing and magnificent. Reincarnation (originally written as the show’s final finale) features a rare pre-title sequence, featuring an introduction from God, no less. More shockingly, however, the titles dispense with the tagline gag for the episode; simply stating ‘Reincarnation’ under the Futurama logo....
Thus says Neil Gaiman about one of Britain’s great comics institutions, 2000 AD. Since its founding in the late 70s, the comic’s given birth to some of the country’s most famous characters and strips – most obviously Judge Dredd, but also such stories as Strontium Dog, Nemesis The Warlock and Rogue Trooper. It’s been the breeding ground for some now famous writers and artists, including Brian Bolland, Grant Morrison and, of course, Gaiman himself....
This time, though, we’re talking about problems that you don’t necessarily face yourself, but know someone who does. Be it a friend or family member who may be going through tough times, physical illness, mental health challenges, or a mixture of those and more. How, then, can you be a good friend? Sometimes, it can be tricky. Is what you’re doing being helpful? Are you getting in the way? How can you help if you don’t fully understand what they’re going through?...
This week, just a gentle hug for those nursing friends and relatives through long term illness. It comes with an added bolt-on, too: guilt. That constant nagging feeling of am I doing enough? Am I neglecting the people around me? Am I getting worse at my job because I need to care for someone? Am I a bad person for thinking any of this, and not just concentrating on the person who’s ill?...
Right then. Someone around you is having a terrible year. It may actually be you who is having a terrible year. It might be lots of people. It might be people just having a pretty bad day. Behind the guard and shield that lots of us put up simply to get through the day, there’s a story going on to which most people aren’t privy. I had a chat this week about someone I worked with some ten years ago....
This week, we’re handing over to the brilliant Katie Wong. And she wants to have a natter about eczema… In my case, it is a 33-year old issue. Definitely not short-term. My personal experience with eczema started when I was a child when my brother and I had a bad allergic reaction after eating some eggs. Panic quickly ensued and there was no WedMD that could provide a quick answer, and no quick treatment....
This week, we welcome back the brilliant Sarah Myers. And we’re going to hand over to her… I am tired of crying – my head hurts and I feel sick. Maybe a cup of tea will help. And I still need to fill out that autism assessment form. My blister is about to burst, so I should tend to it. Wait, Simon Farnaby just Tweeted, better check what he said....
Well, Generation War does a great job with the emotions in particular. Other WWII movies may have the action sequences to amaze, but this three-part German drama concentrates on the feelings of five friends who meet up in Berlin in 1941, on the night before three of them depart for the Eastern front. Charlotte will become a nurse. Brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm are soldiers. Staying in Berlin are lovers Greta and Viktor....
Looking out the window to yet another grey, miserable day, summer seems to be a million years ago, but thankfully, the end of summer means the beginning of the new television season. And if you are looking for something on the old telly box which could bring you a bit of cheer through the upcoming winter months, you could do a lot worse than Glee, which is back for its second season....
Happily, Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla, released in time for the kaiju king’s 60th birthday, is a far more fitting tribute to Japan’s most famous giant monster. Viewing the movie again on its home release, it’s interesting to note just how different it is from Guillermo del Toro’s own kaiju movie Pacific Rim, which came out last year. Where Pacific Rim was a knowingly broad, camp sci-fi action film, with del Toro clearly revelling in childlike glee with every brutal punch from its colossal robots and equally humongous beasts, Godzilla is more sombre and introspective....
If you’re a fan, you might have imagined that a movie version of Goosebumps might take on the anthology style of something like Twilight Zone: The Movie, given how the source novels are generally much too short to spawn full-length features on their own. Just in time for half-term, Rob Letterman’s Goosebumps instead takes a portmanteau approach, cherry-picking from several of Stine’s books and doing an entertaining mash-up in which an author’s creations come to life and terrorise small-town America....
Gotham Season 3 Episode 10 “Time Bomb” was a particularly bloody episode of Gotham,but it balanced the gore by tying together multiple plotlines in satisfying ways. Though, in many ways, “Time Bomb” felt like a transitionary ep — Mario and Lee race closer to the altar, Bruce and Selina discuss their relationship, the noose tightens on Oswald’s secret — it was elegantly told. Something Gothamcan’t often boast. Here’s everything that went down in “Time Bomb”…...
The Grimm Christmas episode centers on prepubescent Greek boys who are more than a little naughty during the holidays. Their behavior leaves no doubt that they won’t get any gifts for Christmas, if Team Grimm has anything to say about it. When boys or girls misbehave on Grimm, their inner demons and/or goblins rear their unattractive heads and temperament. Let’s hope their transformation is only temporary, or they’ll have to deal with Nick’s arsenal of remedies and tools....
Though the season of the witch lies smashed and moldering under a layer of toilet paper and shaving cream all across American lawns, there is no time that isn’t ripe to revisit Haddonfield for a reexamination of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween. This holiday favorite was released in 1978, on the eve of the decade that marked Carpenter’s heyday. But however gracefully (or not) his films may age, they become especially potent in times of economic turmoil....
Who says he isn’t? Oh sure, while Pacino is technically on the set of this film, sauntering from scene to scene like the emcee of a particularly baroque game of after-dinner charades, he generally isn’t any more present here than he’d be on the back of a boat somewhere watching a fishing lure bob up and down in the surf. And it’s not like there’s anything even that exciting at risk of occurring in this painfully by-the-numbers serial killer thriller that, if not for the digital photography, might’ve convincingly passed for a ‘90s B-movie someone forgot to take off the shelf 20 years ago....
This week, on Day 8, Helix officially jumps the shark. They jump it hard, they jump it fast. Day 8 opens with a vector noisily traversing the gigantic ventilation shaft over the lab where Farragut, Jordan, and Walker are eating. It appears the vector can see everyone’s nervous/skeletal system, except for Walker. While this might explain why she was attacked by a vector a few episodes back (since she was in the early stages of infection she still showed up on their ‘radar’), it does not explain why she is sitting in the lab, eating....
Hell on Wheels Season 5 Episode 10 – Thomas ‘Doc’ Durant. A good example of this is the renewed romantic relationship between Cullen and Mei Mei. There’s inherent danger for both, however she would suffer more as a Chinese immigrant whose sole purpose is to help build the railroad. Cullen would temporarily endure sneers and jeers as a white man, but he’d rebound. The scale is tipped in his favor. Mei Mei would be an outcast, possibly beaten and made to work in Chang’s brothel for her betrayal and subterfuge....
