Throughout the first season, the underlying message of Star Trek is not to assume anything about creatures you don’t understand, and that all lifeforms should be respected. But you might get the hint that such softy behaviour is ditched in favour of a more aggressive approach in Operation: Annihilate! An away team beams down to Deneva and discovers that it appears deserted. Four men appear and tell them “Go away!...
The three stories are entirely separate from one another and serve as neatly packaged vignettes that illustrate one aspect of each character. Finn’s empathy makes him stand out among the Stormtroopers of the First Order, and not in a good way. Rey’s resourcefulness wars with her desire to find her parents, and the unwillingness of the New Republic to fight the First Order grates on Poe. Before the Awakening is a fun, illuminating quick read, and for fans looking for answers about The Force Awakens, might even be more essential than the film’s actual novelization....
Appearing on The Howard Stern Show, Suicide Squad cast member Ike Barinholtz (The League, The Mindy Project) opened up about his experiences on set with Jared Leto during his full Joker phase, which also seemed to be mirrored by his on-screen paramour, Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn. Barinholtz confessed that his own still-unnamed role in the roguish DC Comics mega-movie is apparently so minor that he was “like number 10 on the call sheet....
Supergirl Season 3 Episode 12 This season of Supergirl has struggled to find its feet after losing two of the relationships that defined Season 2. But this episode found a way to be both sweetly moving and a fun superhero caper at the same time. Importantly, it struck the right balance between the growing number of important relationships on the show. It certainly helps that this older, wiser Mon-El is a better listener, team player, and leader....
When I was on the set of Supergirl with the Television Critics Association, producers of the show announced the episode, and Laura Vandervoort joining the cast as Indigo. They also shared stories of girls coming to the set to visit Melissa Benoist as Supergirl. I actually managed to get some one-on-one time with producer Ali Adler to talk about “For The Girl Who Has Everything. If only I could introduce her to seven-year-old Fred who has loved Supergirl since the 1984 movie… Ali Adler: Oh my God, it’s such a beautiful, emotional episode....
Supernatural Season 11 Episode 12 It was so fulfilling seeing a family-centric episode with Jody Mills as adoptive mother to Alex and Claire. The Winchesters got to see how the girls have progressed since being sent to live with Sheriff Mills, while on a hunt that doesn’t at first look like a hunt. For those who don’t remember, Alex was a slave to a nest of vampires in a town called O’Neil in the episode “Alex Annie Alexis Ann” in Season 9, Episode 13....
Sam and Dean infiltrate the Christian abstinence group under the guise of becoming born-again virgins. Of course, during the meeting, all eyes fall on Dean as he describes in excruciating detail how wonderful sex is…succeeding in making his presence in the group both awkward and a major temptation for the ladies there who appear noticeably “bothered” by Dean’s erotic descriptions. It was a little headstrong, even for Supernatural. Sex, except for the rare exception, usually happens behind closed doors and as a funny nod to Dean’s promiscuity....
Supernatural Season 13 Episode 6 It’s the episode that both Dean and Jensen were waiting for, since they’re both avid western fans. We see Dean relishing in his knowledge of cowboys and outlaws as soon as the guys check into their Wild West themed hotel. That cowboy love is put to good use when Dean recognizes their monster as Dave Mather, a wild west outlaw and gunslinger for the Dodge City gang....
See, while they’re trapped, they talk. And then they bond (you didn’t think the bonding was between the brothers, did you?) This is the possibly the frankest discussion about Dean’s fate that we’ve had so far. He asks what hell’s like and we can actually see nervousness through the bravado. It’s so bad that the demons want to get out to earth. So unpleasant that they’re actively looking forward to Dick Cheney’s appearance....
6.8 All Dogs Go To Heaven Again, another busy episode. This time, the demon Crowley instructs Sam and Dean to investigate a mysterious animal attack in the hope of catching an Alpha Werewolf. Realising that they have no alternative, the brothers reluctantly do Crowley’s bidding, but as they pursue the case, they find that the attacker isn’t quite what they thought. Personally, I really enjoyed this episode, especially the reveal of the attacker....
Paul Dano plays Hank, a young man seemingly stranded on a desert island, ready to take his own life to end the loneliness, when a corpse washes up on the shore. Hank quickly forms a bond with it similar to that of Tom Hanks and Wilson in Cast Away. But then the corpse reveals he can talk (saying his name is Manny), and is capable of superpowered farts, chopping through wilderness and shooting birds out of the sky....
If you’ve spent the sort of money that Ascension cost to make, and employed some of the actors in it, you’d think that would go hand-in-hand with a plan of sorts. But having seen Ascension there appeared to be no plan other than to come up with a unbelievable, nay preposterous idea and then hope that somewhere in production something magical might happen. It didn’t. But how could some of the people involved in this, with their track records, come so unstuck?...
3.24 The Divine Move Teen Wolf‘s third season may have been its version of the divine move. Stretched across 24 episodes, Teen Wolf took on a larger cast, more story lines at once, a new addition to the show’s mythology, and a move from the friendly confines of summer to winter, where it competed directly against first-run television shows rather than repeats. It found and cemented its breakout star (Dylan O’Brien), it moved shooting locations from Atlanta to California without losing too much atmosphere in the process....
We do crazy things for love. There’s no denying that. Wars have been started and ended over such things, and we’ll be falling victim to it until the end of the universe. Love makes us do stupid things. It can also make us do beautiful things, and it’s interesting that in a show that’s so clinical and distant a lot of the time, that all of this would come down to infatuation in the end....
2.5 Human Trials If you’re The 100, you completely overhaul that character, shift the rest around to fulfil whatever roles are open, and make him the most morally ambiguous and troubled character on the show. That’s what they’ve done with Finn, anyway, and it’s drawn a fair amount of criticism. It’s fairly safe to say that his actions in this episode, Human Trials, are the major point of no return for him, but it’s something that’s been in the making since the beginning of season two....
The assumption that obsessed geeks will buy anything with Star Trek written on the box has caused some truly terrible releases. But then and again, in Kirk-like moments of brilliance, there are games that really shine through in this universe. In fact, there are so many offerings in general, that it’s a wonder how the Star Trek franchise hasn’t quite solidified its place in the video game industry. Warp speed ahead…...
As we move ahead past the very strong pilot that was offered up last week, The Affair makes it abundantly clear that it has a lot to say on the topic of infidelity beyond what was hinted at in the premiere. Several times through this episode characters pose the question, “What does marriage mean to you?” and if the construct of switching perspectives and chronology was jarring to you last week, we’re only going deeper down the parallel rabbit holes in the second episode, getting deeper and deeper into the filthy muck of an affair....
The Americans Season 6 Episode 9 With only two episodes left to go, The Americans has started to flex. Elizabeth’s stalking of Nesterenko and his crew gets a primary spot in the pre-credits portions of the show alongside Philip leaving a message for Oleg (that will eventually be his undoing) and Stan having some fun typing “Jennings, Elizabeth” and “Jennings, Philip” into the FBI’s Automated Case Support Database. Elizabeth even gets the “spot of honor” in the pre-credits sequence as her low-speed pursuit of Nesterenko eventually leads into the musical swell accompanying the main credits sequence....
For the last few weeks, it’s been blatantly clear that she’d become cannon fodder, to the point where it became all about when, rather than if, Sralan pulled the trigger. But in the context of the admittedly-edited compilation of the TV selling task, she should have been sipping champagne rather than counting her BFH. She was merely mediocre in this episode. Simon, meanwhile, was quite spectacular in his failure. It was, to be fair, a cracking episode, all the better because both teams made collosal arses of themselves....
You still have to wonder just what business lessons the new Lord Sugar has been drafted in by the Government to teach. Setting impossible goals and berating young, inexperienced candidates when they fail to meet them? Growling and generally being miserable at the first opportunity? Injecting businesses with such a pervading focus on negativity that only the clinically insane would consider it a good place to work? On the basis of The Apprentice, that’s just what he’d do on day one....
