At times he is enigmatic, at others he is simply cold or off-putting, and beyond his traumatic nineteen years under confinement, he strikes one as a profoundly strange individual. I have often wondered whether actor Aiden Young’s mumbling, catatonic interpretation has erred too much on the side of weird, rather than letting the writing do its work and finding a more sympathetic side to his character. I’ve tried to imagine what another Daniel Holden might look like – one who smiles every once in a while, who enunciates his words and looks his interlocutor in the eye as he speaks....

There is a difference between portraying the objectification of women characters and actively participating in the objectification. The delight with which Red Sparrow shows graphic, detailed physical, and sexual violence toward women, again and again, far removes any illusions about the film’s priorities. It’s not that violence against women or sexualized violence can never be portrayed—they are an all too real part of the human experience. But they should be included with great care, in service to the story, and not used as a stand-in for a backstory, shorthand for how evil a male character is, or motivation for a man in the victim’s life, like a father, brother, or lover....

Since Buffy and Angel finished, though, I’ve found TV pretty uninspiring. I hate Lost, I couldn’t get into Heroes, Doctor Who leaves me cold, and while Firefly was brilliant, its cancellation and subsequent revival as a subpar movie took the shine off a bit. So, in desperation, I’ve decided to revisit that much-loathed season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to see how bad it really was. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the episodes, with the exception of the finale, since about 2003, and I’ve not watched any episodes of Buffy at all in so long I can’t remember when the last time was....

Sometimes, you don’t need a big budget or fancy gimmicks to make a solid TV show. In the case of Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience, the key to the programme’s success is firmly in the title of the show. Stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert – and if you’ve never had a chance to see him live, you really should try and get a ticket – will be spending the next few weeks tackling some jobs that, it’s fair to say, are tougher than his day job....

No interviews with any of the cast. No retrospectives of Ledger’s powerhouse performance. No audio commentaries. No meaty documentaries studying what went into to production of one of the year’s finest films. So here’s my question: when did Special Edition DVDs become, well, not special anymore? I know there are many examples of fine special edition discs doing the rounds, discs that include interesting audio commentaries, insightful features, interviews with all concerned and quirky extras that raise a smile....

That’s when they see him kill the daughter’s best friend, Faith. Olivia soon finds out that Jeremy is more involved with Kubiak than we thought. Olivia approaches him about it and plays dumb, but when we see him talking to Kubiak, he learns that it’s true. He seemed upset and disturbed, but why are they involved with each other anyway? Once again, we are left in the dark for now....

Jubal Early is, to my mind, the very best of the all-too-small roster of rogues in the Firefly universe. That’s not to take anything away from the operatic grandeur of The Operative, but Early creeps like a spider toward his prey in a way that is so deliberate, sexual, and unsettling. The hunt arouses him, as does the smell of fear. There isn’t a more uncomfortable moment in all of the Whedonverse than that moment in “Objects in Space” when Early betrays his docile tone to ask Kayee Fry, our goofy kid sister, if she has ever been raped....

However, Sarah’s not long for this work. She’s just going to be there a few days to pack up some of her things from childhood, and then she’ll be moving on with her life. Elizabeth Olsen is an incredible actress. For the majority of Silent House, she’s on screen by herself, either wandering through the darkness with a lamp while searching for her father or running through the darkness with a flashlight trying to escape....

So, it’s with no small amount of anticipation that we’ve been keeping an eye on Sisters, which is their first movie together since 2008’s Baby Mama (barring a quick cameo in Anchorman 2). Producing and starring as the Ellis sisters, a pair of very immature ladies who discover an urgent need to recapture their high school glories, the film is a witty and subversive take on the kind of party-centric comedy that has most often been the domain of teenage boys and man-children....

In South Park, progress usually comes out of the ballroom of the Airport Hilton. It’s where the Ginger Kids rallied, Jimmy Buffett sung for AIDS awareness and both NAMBLA organizations assembled. The notion that the religions can’t even agree on ending the world is quickly overshadowed by the realization that the cow is a prophecy agreed upon by all religious leaders. Matt and Trey highlight the unity with a hilariously over-the-top performance by Van Halen in Israel, using real shots of secular crowds to amplify the intensity of rock anthem “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love....

This episode had a distinctly different feel, so different that it made me wonder if I’d been tuning into the right channel for the last four weeks. People reacted like you’d reasonably expect them to, most of what went on made some sense, and despite submitting to those urges for Bourne-esque incidental music it all played reasonably well. Curiously the script is credited to Cameron McAllister, executive producer of ITV’s Primeval, LWT’s Daylight Robbery and a director/writer of Sky One’s Mile High....

1.9 Some Consequence Yet Hanging In The Stars The biggest question mark of this episode, Some Consequence Yet Hanging in the Stars, was left hanging over Castor and Saroya, who both have a very different version of events for the night the Atrian ship crash landed on Earth. While Saroya maintains that Castor broke into the control room and took out the pilot in order to sabotage the ship, Castor just about convinces Roman of his innocence....

Supergirl Season 1 Episode 8 “Hostile Takeover” wasn’t a great episode of Supergirl. But great things happened in it. When I first saw the Supergirl pilot, it seemed pretty obvious that they were going to use Fort Rozz, Astra, and the rogue Kryptonians as the primary story engine for the season. It’s perhaps fitting that they strayed from that pretty quickly. The Flash is the best of the network superhero shows by a considerable margin, but I’ve felt that its reliance on the partice accelerator (season one) and Earth-Two (season two) as virtually the only source of villains each week is sometimes a little…lazy....

I’ll get right into it. Jensen Ackles is scary as Demon Dean. At one point he appears as a lazy, laid-back guy, eyes half shut as if he was bored with the world. The he shifts to a venomous temper, and a low, growling voice that you dare not cross. As Dean lunges at Sam who is trying to administer the cure, his eyes flash black and you again see the monster he has become....

9.9 Holy Terror The problem of the latest Supernatural episode, Holy Terror, is precisely that it’s the midseason finale. This problem lies mainly in the fact that this episode fulfills a very practical function: to establish the seasonal plot arcs that the past half-a-dozen episodes avoided. It was painfully clear that the lack of seasonal storylines in the past six episodes couldn’t bode well, and that turned out to be true: while Supernatural was re-hymenating the Winchesters, chasing Dorothy, having Dean talk to dogs and reminiscing about his past, it was painstakingly avoiding almost everything to do with a seasonal story arc....

2.11 Battlefield Still, that’s a big game, and when Jackson shows up for practice (at the behest of his new master Gerard), it’s a sign for Scott and Stiles to show back up, too, if only to keep an eye on Jackson. Turns out, Gerard’s got quite the potent weapon in Jackson the kanima, and if you thought Scott was in his pocket before, it’s even worse now that Gerard’s got real leverage....

The ancient Greek king ushered in the Hellenistc Age when he managed to take over the majority of the known world, from Greece to Egypt, and through Persia to India. In that time, he saw wonders with an army of about 50,000 men. And despite remaking his era (the fourth century B.C. to be exact), he was dead just days before his 33rd birthday. It is a subject rife with potential and in the early 2000s, two competing Hollywood films attempted to make it a celluloid reality....

So then. As I settled down, I thought that this week, surely, was the episode where Stuart would go? That moment has to be coming? The teams were duly mixed, and I had a little bet with myself that the first “why do you review this” comment would appear seven minutes after this article went live. And we were away. Stella, then, suggesting a Cockney tour, that Stuart didn’t like....

As soon as we got the preview of this week’s episode of The Apprentice at the end of the last episode, the instant feeling of déjà vu kicked in. Sending the candidates off to France? Isn’t this the one where the posh bloke goes off to sell cheap English cheese? It struck me last time The Apprentice went to France, and it struck me again here, that this is a brutally unfair task (and one that, despite the slightly new spin, I felt I’d seen time after time)....

Australian writer and director Jennifer Kent’s film is told largely from the tired, wan perspective of Amilia (Essie Davis), a mother who lost her husband in a car accident just under seven years earlier. That fateful crash occurred while Amilia was being driven to hospital to have her son, Sam (Noah Wiseman), meaning that his birthday has a sad dual significance. Then Sam stumbles on an old pop-up book called Mister Babadook, and things become even spookier....