Efron is the blue-eyed star of High School Musical, known and loved by tweenage girls the world over. Orson Welles was the stage and screen impresario who, despite being something of an outcast in Hollywood, casts long shadows over every film studies curriculum that academics conjure up and has a stature that commands tremendous respect. At first, the two big names don’t appear to be kindred brethren. With Efron starring in Richard Linklater’s new movie Me And Orson Welles, however, we may actually find that Disney’s boy wonder is maturing to the sort of acting ability and critical renown as the bold-voiced one who appeared in classics like The Third Man and Touch Of Evil....

To put it in lofty highfalutin terms, for me, stop-motion represents the purest expression of the creative spirit on screen. Even if you’re not an animation enthusiast who sees the format in such a misty-eyed magical manner, you can’t help but be impressed by the craft, the inspired dedication and the patience that’s poured into a process that makes miniatures come to life in order to tell entertaining stories. Really, anyone can pick up a camera and crudely cobble together a film....

Phil Lord and Chris Miller are funny, talented storytellers. People are always ranting and raving about Clone High, and rightfully so, but these people are much more than that. The ability to turn something like The Lego Movie or a 21 Jump Street reboot into not only winning franchises, but genuinely good films takes a great deal of skill and versatility. This is why the season has a strangely abrupt ten-episode order....

The Magicians Season 1, Episode 10 Nothing wrong with a little sex humor, but how much is too much? Penny enters Quentin’s sex dream; Alice’s parents are hosting a sex party; Margo’s ex is having sex with a Magolem; and the spell to rescue Penny requires well-orchestrated sex? For an episode of The Magicians that introduced both the Neitherlands and Free Trader Beowulf, two of the hallmarks of the Lev Grossman novels, “Homecoming” sure did have a lot of overshadowing sexual hijinks!...

2.3 Willie Pete The behaviour of certain characters in The Newsroom sometimes reminds me more of Anchorman than of Network. If we were to find some neutral ground between the ridiculous and the sublime, (and call it Broadcast News, maybe) and Sorkin continues to land at least two or three scenes per episode in that space, then we’re going to get along just fine. After last week’s low-point, Willie Pete opens on September 23rd 2011, the day that a town hall packed with Republican supporters booed Captain Stephen Hill, an openly gay soldier serving in Iraq....

A third-person shooter, The Order 1886 liberally borrows ideas from previous games to the point where it can feel like a checklist of conventions from the last decade or so. Lock-picking mini game – check! Sticky cover – check! Slow-mo shooting – check! You can even collect phonograph cylinders to uncover more of the back story! What a novel idea! A few arbitrary button presses are your only interaction for the first ten minutes or so....

1.1 and 1.2 Magus; Marbeley Time was, waterborne adventure and thriller stories cast their characters out on the ocean. From Odysseus to Long John Silver, via the Ancient Mariner and Captain Ahab, the thrill of the sea has been its openness, the capacity for adventure when the characters can go almost anywhere. Rivers are different. Rivers are claustrophobic. With rivers, you have only two choices, forward, or back. Joseph Conrad knew this....

Sandman: Overture is the story of the journey that was alluded to in the pages of Sandman #1 back in 1988 (or, for those reading the collected volumes, Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes), before Dream was captured by an evil magician. Simple enough, really. However, If Sandman: Overture #1 has a flaw (may as well get it out of the way now before the praise begins), it’s simply that despite this taking place before that “first” Sandman adventure, Overture may come off as impenetrable for someone completely new to the Sandman mythology....

The Simpsons: Season 28 Episode 21 The Simpsons Season 28 Episode 21, “Moho House,” sees Homer and Marge’s marriage at wit’s end. Now while you may say, wait, we’ve seen this before. This time someone is vying for Marge’s affections. Not her old and now magnificently successful boyfriend Arty Ziff, but Moe. The barkeep who went from Kid Gorgeous to Kid Presentable to Kid Gruesome to Kid Moe when he was a whatsitsweight and he only got fuglier since then....

The Son Episode 2 The Son season 1, episode 2, “The Plum Tree,” spills blood and oil all over the Lone Star state. It opens in the aftermath of the oil rig dynamite sabotage that led to the premiere’s hanging conclusion. The McCulloughs will dig their way to Hades to recover the lost work before their financiers decide Texas is a little too rough for investment. It’s a hard sell, but Eli is tough enough to show the civilized front of the wild west....

1.1 Night Zero I was somewhat concerned that in the first couple of minutes this show managed to deliver at least two WTF moments. But before I get to them, it’s worth noting that the arrival of an aircraft travelling from Germany to the USA where everyone is dead isn’t the most original opening for a TV series. Because that’s exactly how Fox’s Fringe started, as I recall. I’m hoping that’s a good omen of sorts, because that series was inspired in places....

From the onset, there’s something deeply unsettling about AMC’s new, aptly-titled horror series. Like many of the best Gothic horror stories, The Terror begins at the end. In fact, the show gives away much of its ending in the very first minute, as a tale of icy death and a warning is delivered to the man searching for a Royal Navy expedition that’s gone missing in the unexplored Canadian Arctic....

2.1 The Return To briefly summarise, Katherine is back, which was one mystery quickly solved by the Salvatore brothers. Caroline was saved with Damon’s blood. As was John, only in his case it was with Stefan’s blood, accompanied with the threat of being made into a vampire if he didn’t leave town for Elena’s sake. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s vampire plan failed, so he’s still depressed. Katherine is all over town pretending to be Elena, and she is generating all sorts of threats and general commotion in her wake....

3.14 Dangerous Liaisons The surprise of the week might be Matt’s continued presence, as it’s been a while since the resident nice guy have been around two weeks in a row. Last week, things were beginning to heat up between him and old high school squeeze, Elena, and it only gets him into trouble during this hour. As pointless as the character has seemed to most viewers, the girls of the town seem mighty fond of him....

4.21 She’s Come Undone Surprisingly, however, the episode was so good that these quibbles aren’t what dominated my viewing experience. From what I gather, fans of the show have not enjoyed this season at all, so to have a couple of strong episodes leading into the finale might be the only thing to save it from a significantly reduced fanbase going into season five. This was one of those episodes, and all signs suggest that the next two will be just as strong....

6.10 Christmas Through Your Eyes But it was a good episode nonetheless, maintaining the quality that the last nine weeks have brought us. Firstly, let’s just appreciate having a proper bad guy, with no ambiguous motives or mystical connection to our main characters. Kai is evil and crazy in the purest sense of the words and, while that might be awkward and boring on another show, Vampire Diaries really needed to take a break from the doppelgängers and grey-area villains....

3.5 Say The Word Woodbury is like nothing else in The Walking Dead‘s universe. During the cold opening of this week’s episode, all the playing children, grilling food, and people partying seemed like a flashback akin to the second season’s Lori revelations, but no! This is Woodbury; there are zombies outside the walls, armed guards, and a taste of the old way of life. That’s what Andrea loves about it; it’s also what Michonne distrusts about the place....

4.11 Claimed This seems to be a recurring theme in The Walking Dead. Camp one minute, charnal house the next. Hershel’s farm was a haven of peace and quiet until it was a killing field. The CDC? Blew itself up, of course, and the people within it. The prison and Woodbury were both safe places, until one found out about the other. Given Rick’s track record, this house can’t stay safe for too long, and it happens to be discovered by a team of bandits while Rick is all by himself—unarmed, no less....

After last week’s exhilarating season 5 premiere, The Walking Dead slows things down a little and gives us an episode that really introduces what this new season is going to be all about. Robert Kirkman, who penned this one, opens the zombie gates to a larger discussion about faith and survival. These are the two themes that will juxtapose each other for much of the season, I think. How far are you willing to go to survive while still having faith that there is goodness in the world?...

Ooh, finery, confetti and horses, The White Queen (Rebecca Ferguson) has a coronation and there’s dancing in the streets. Well, not quite dancing, even at their jolliest, English revelry doesn’t get down and boogie. That’s reserved for Liverpudlians at soccer matches. The coronation is more to shut people up who don’t like the new queen than it is a passing of a loving cup. Warwick (James Frain) doesn’t want to see his daughter in those horrible dresses bride’s maids have to wear and snubs the new queen by not letting them be her ladies-in-waiting....