Indeed, this episode felt more like a transitory passage to the next series, and the dialogue wasn’t always sharp enough to get it by. As always, a caveat the size of Wales needs to be placed on claims that The Thick Of It isn’t operating at full strength; it still leaves it several degrees stronger than pretty much everything represented at the British Comedy Awards that were being screened at the same time....
4.15 Stand By Me Killing off one of your central characters, and one who’s been around since the first episode no less, is not something many television shows get away with lightly. The Vampire Diaries, on the other hand, used to do things like that all of the time, but seemed to lose their nerve somewhere around the middle of their third season. Now we’re half-way through season four, and the show has pulled their trump card out at a pivotal moment....
Dr. Venture has certainly shown some moments of sheer stupidity in the past (after all, he wouldn’t have grown up to be the failed super scientist he is now if he was just all common sense all the time), but “Momma’s Boys” takes things to an even more extreme level of idiocy. But you know what the funny thing is? I’m completely okay with that. The inherent ridiculous nature of the story that drives along the plot of “Momma’s Boys” is prime feeding ground for all sorts of offbeat humor, which this episode has in spades....
The event that will have everyone talking for this episode is the revelation of Daryl’s past. Daryl has been seen as the savior of the group, the angelic protector of the survivors that can do no wrong, the wings on his signature leather vest symbolic of his status as a warrior with a purity of purpose. “Still” postulates that heroism exists in everyone, even a redneck drifter from the fringes of society....
6.1 First Time Again Rick took control of Alexandria last season. He knows how to survive, and his people know how to fight, and it’s up to them to keep Alexandria safe. As experienced walker-killers, they know that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. After a brief reminder of Rick’s fateful words last season, we jump from black and white to colour, with a whole mass of zombies hanging out in what looks like an old quarry....
8.7 Time For After I can only provide conjecture on the process of writing for Eugene, but I imagine it’s something like write the script straight, then embellish the hell out if it with interesting, funny turns of phrase that sound great coming out of Josh McDermitt’s mouth. I can only imagine McDermitt adds to the process himself, considering his background in improv and comedy, but whatever the process is, it works spectacularly and it allows Eugene to be one of the few bright spots in a show typically full of frowning and sweating and blood....
Like the first volume, this book is illustrated throughout by Mark Beech, whose style is clearly influenced by Quentin Blake’s work, especially his work on Roald Dahl’s books – it work very well here, immediately signalling the tone and style of the stories to the reader. His portrait of a waving Pratchett for the Introduction is particularly nice, and his interpretation of a small man in a big black hat is also, touchingly, distinctly Terry-like....
Crucially, it’s another very good hour of telly. It won’t convert anyone who hasn’t warmed to the show thus far. But, for those who are enjoying what Miracle Day has to offer, us included, then it more than does the job. There’s certainly no shortage of folks lurking in the shadows, either (you can see the benefit of an X-Files writer, certainly), and the Torchwood team doesn’t get things its own way at all this week....
After Sam’s etiquette faux pas last episode – never appear naked on a friend’s bed without a prior invitation – he’s got some explaining to do. Sookie, more open-minded than most, has a hard time taking in all the shifting talk, not least because Sam kept it from her for so long. He offers the best explanation he can, considering he never knew his real parents, and his adopted family abandoned him when he was a teenager; he also gets a little touchy when compared to a werewolf because, apparently, they exist....
After an agonising two week wait True Blood, the best thing on TV, returned on Sunday. Picking up where we left off, the much talked about road trip to Dallas finally goes ahead, but with one addition – in a stunning display of generosity, Bill agrees to let Jess tag along. It’s the least he could do after threatening to throw the incredibly sweet Hoyt “out of a window that is closed”....
1.5 The Secret Fate of All Life The passage of time, and our relationship with it, was key to The Secret Fate of All Life, an episode that was the best demonstration yet of True Detective’s own curious time signature. The show’s central format of examining a case through flashback and two different perspectives gives some of the narrative a woozy, uncertain quality, a feeling that is made even more intense when we’re given doubt on the passing of minutes, hours and years....
The original Twin Peaks featured loads of spooky synth and jazz composed by Angelo Badalamenti, complementing nearly every scene. With the Twin Peaks revival, co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost made a point of not retreading old ground and the soundtrack was a huge part of that. In total, the series featured a combination of live band performances, music from the original series, new compositions from Badalamenti, and other oddball selections besides....
Underworld: Awakening starts with one of those “previously on Underworld” montages, which is basically a whole bunch of action scenes/killing with a voice over by Selene, and then it leaps directly into the story of the capture of the infamous death dealer and the hybrid vampire/werewolf monster that she loves. Not that you’ve got a lot of plot to catch up on. There are vampires and werewolves, and they’ve been at war for centuries....
4.19 On The Eve & 4.20 The Reckoning And this is essentially where most of the weaknesses that we saw in the previous two weeks have come from. For the majority of missteps, it is a matter of the writer trying to tell too many stories in too small a space and thus expecting the audience to accept being told about what is going on with characters rather than being able to see it with our own eyes....
It was all going so well. The devil had been staked, the gang had become human, and Antiques Roadshow was just about to start on the telly. Then, in a moment of sheer wickedness, Toby Whithouse snatched it all away with a Dutch angle and some Japanese paper folding. After giving Being Human fans precisely the ending they’d asked for (sofa, teapot, humanity, antiques), Whithouse subverted the lot, showing us… well, what exactly did he show us?...
Persuading a work colleague or good friend that the pint-sized burger-loving miniature is more worthy of praise than Mario or Sonic is what most would compare to a rather large hole. One I dig for myself. Those brave enough to challenge my choice of videogame crush can be guaranteed a lengthy fight, more often than not culminating in derogatory insults, and possibly a tea and biscuit. In fact when confronted over my less than best-chums relationship with Mario, I never tire of justifying myself....
However, not everyone linked with the first film ended up being in it. Danny Trejo’s name was banded around when the project was first being talked about, but the actor – who will be headlining another ensemble film we’re looking forward to later this year in the shape of Machete – has been revealing why he’s not involved in Stallone’s movie. Trejo added, “That’s one of Hollywood’s ploys to… how do you say it?...
When Addy and Mack splintered off from the rest of the gang I became vaguely concerned that we would never see them again. This worry was quickly replaced with eye-rolling on my part when this week’s episode moves forward with a joyous, technicolor montage of their Natural Born Killers-style assault on all zombie-kind, pausing to bone each other merrily along the way. We’re only seconds past this montage when Addy undermines everything we know about the couple by asking a fundamental question: What is their future, and do they even know each other that well?...
Over the past three weeks, the show has definitely moved into a more serious dramatic tone. There’s nothing I don’t love about that. Anything on television that can balance honest-to-god gut-wrenching moments along with radioactive zombies deserves my unadulterated adoration. That said, it does make the stark difference in quality between the show’s dramatic and comedic beats harder to stomach. Less effective this week was 10K working out (or, more appropriately failing to work out) his daddy issues with reclusive nuke expert, Homer Stubbins (arguably the greatest name of any character anywhere)....
Hastened by the success of Hitchcock’s back-to-basics thriller, Psycho, in 1960, the latter part of the decade saw an explosive rebirth of the horror genre, thanks in large part to the low budget, groundbreaking Night Of The Living Dead. As before, the BBC’s corporation clout allows Gatiss to stalk around the sets of Psycho, and interview such horror luminaries as Tobe Hooper, George A Romero and actor David Warner, the latter providing the documentary’s biggest laugh....
