2.13 The Devil Is Damned I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Kol needs to stick around on this show, and he needs to have Daniel Sharman’s face while he does. Season two of The Originals has done a fantastic job of making us care for some of the lesser loved Mikaelson siblings than we would have thought possible back when they were villains on The Vampire Diaries but, after this episode, it’s clearer than ever that Kol is the linchpin in all of it....

“Boy, does this feel familiar…” The similarity seems to be intentional, as it’s lampshaded on several occasions – Sky even gets to wear Luke’s clothes – and it comes across as a fond callback to the show’s beginnings rather than lazy writing. In most respects, it’s a vast improvement on that pilot episode. The regulars are a lot more confident (and regular), with Elisabeth Sladen in particular putting in a great performance as she tries to protect the child....

First the good stuff. This show looks amazing. Some of the visuals are pure Guillermo Del Toro, artistic shots of burning cityscapes, surrealistic, moody, dramatically lit tombs and basements, sewers and tunnels, this series certainly knows how to frighten. Everything looks great and the cast sells the hell out of everything, creating an atmosphere of pure believable terror. The scene this week of Eph and Setrakian giving Zach a sword, preparing him for the coming battle with the Master and his hordes could have been utterly ridiculous....

After spending a couple of frantic weeks playing cat and mouse with the Truth Terrorist’s second truth, The Tunnel moved along to begin dealing with the next of TT’s lessons, but in a rather different fashion to the one we’d become accustomed to. There was no shortage of pace and story stuffed into this fifth instalment but whereas we’d been learning about TT, now the show shifted its focus back on to our detecting duo, Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann....

5.3 Original Sin So Stefan has gone pretty nuts during his summer holiday in the quarry, but he still remembers enough of himself to stop completely chowing down on the unsuspecting barmaid. Meanwhile, Elena and Katherine are now sharing dreams about their long lost beau and Damon’s trying desperately to not be bothered by his girlfriend’s perpetual preoccupation with his brother. So far I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how long they’ve maintained the new relationship, but that goodwill is going to evaporate pretty quick if Stefan’s return ruins it straight away....

1.6 TS-19 This week, the survivors got a respite from the perils of running from zombies in the hills, as well as a respite from ice-cold sponge baths in Dale’s RV. The CDC means electric lights, a whole library of books, and much-needed hot water, as well as a secure place to let the old guard down and tie one on with the gang’s new best friend and savior, Dr....

3.16 Welcome to the Tombs It’s fitting that the final episode of the third season of The Walking Dead gets credited to the show’s departing head honcho, Glen Mazzara. After all, he’s the man who shepherded the show through some very rough patches in season two with the departure of Frank Darabont and who remade it in the image of his previous work on The Shield, a rougher, bloodier show that wasn’t leaner but was definitely meaner....

Please let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anything! – Hospitalizing Agent Scully has been a standard go-to scenario for most mythology episodes of The X-Files and has been going on since season two. Mulder typically runs off on an emotional crusade of some sort in order to save her life, chasing members of the syndicate and confronting the Cigarette Smoking Man during the climax. So if “My Struggle III” feels more like a traditional X-Files than the previous two chapters in this arc, that’s part of the reason why....

The Sea Devils (Malcolm Clarke) Admittedly, this burbling synthesizer score isn’t the kind of thing you’d throw on your stereo to romance any would-be girlfriend, and is better served as a theft deterrent for your car. But in the show, it works weird wonders. Recorded on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s then-new Delaware PCS-3 (taking up the length of a wall), the Sea Devils score allowed composer Malcolm Clarke to play with all sorts of buttons and knobs....

Yes, Martha’s back and she’s qualified as a doctor. Apparently upon qualification she received a ‘feisty’ upgrade, seeing as she’s now full of sassy backchat to anyone and everyone. That’s probably the result of taking a character that was previously part of a double act and making them go solo. It’s not… bad, but it does take a bit of getting used to. Actually, this is the third time that someone has been introduced as a sort-of extra team member this series and made it better – James Marsters, Rhys, and now Martha (not Adam....

Well, well, well. Suddenly season three gets very serious indeed. After something of a meandering start, It Hurts Me Too has some quite stunning revelations contained within, the most stunning of which being that Bill has an entirely hidden and terrifying dark side. Ok, maybe not entirely hidden. Clearly not events easily forgiven or forgotten, and in the knowledge that his continued refusal of the King’s offer would put Sookie’s life in danger once again, he capitulates, and betrays Queenie....

1.2 Seeing Things Marty Harte’s dad had no truck with exploring his feelings. Back in his day, guys didn’t just ‘air their bullshit to the world’ and for men like him, real men, emotions are a concept by which we measure our manliness. It’s bad enough even to acknowledge them, worse still to actually address them. TV, cinema and the hard boiled school of crime fiction have long-standing fixations on the hyper-masculine environments that men build for one another....

1.4 Who Goes There American TV is generally collaborative in nature. Most shows, whether a 20-odd episode network piece or a 12 part cable drama, are the product of a collective pool of talent with several writers and directors contributing to the whole. One of the striking things about True Detective is how it eschews this model in favour of a tighter team. Nic Pizzolatto wrote every single episode of this first season and Cary Joji Fukunaga directed them....

Twin Peaks: Season 3, Episode 15 As we draw close to the end of this limited series, bombshells are dropping more consistently. This part was a rip-roaring cocktail of murder, love, and deeply sad goodbyes. Most of the episode is tragic and violent, so it starts us off with a huge, wonderful reward: the long-delayed union of Big Ed and Norma. I’ll admit, it was abrupt. I suppose we’re meant to understand that Nadine and Jacoby (alias Dr....

Twin Peaks Season 4 News It looks a fourth season of Twin Peaks isn’t likely, so keep that in mind when rewatching these new episodes. These could be the last Twin Peaks episode we ever get. Twin Peaks Season 3 Blu-Ray and DVD Thanks to David Lynch we know that the third season of Twin Peaks will be released on both Blu-ray and DVD on December 5th, 2017. Twin Peaks Season 3 Episode Guide With the episodes having aired, each of their cryptic descriptions were part of their episodes sometimes in very strange ways....

3.1 Move On & 3.2 But I’m Not But like a toddler first learning how to tell a joke, this show just can’t stop fluffing its punchlines. Under The Dome squandered every bit of promise the fake world concept had in record-breaking time, by a line uttered in the episode’s opening minutes. “We hope it takes us home,” said Barbie of the swirly vortex out of which a beckoning Melanie had stepped at the end of the last season, continuing, “but what if it takes us to an alternate reality?...

Based on Richelle Mead’s “worldwide best selling series” (of course), Vampire Academy takes place at St. Vladimir’s, a hidden boarding school attended by Moroi (nice vampires who can come out in the day – sort of – and are generally fun to be around) and Dhampir (half-vampire/half-human guardians who are trained to protect the members of the 12 Moroi families). It is here that we meet spunky 17-year-old Rose (Zoey Deutch), guardian to Lissa (Lucy Fry), the last in line of the royal Dragomir family....

Veep blasts the Beltway like a true insider, yet it’s written by a bunch of foreigners. Brits, coming here taking jobs when America is pulling itself out of an economic hole exacerbated by cheap outsourcing. But there is nothing cheap about Veep, except the shots. This isn’t just a case of outsiders seeing U.S. politics for what it is, these political punsters popped holes in their own Parliament in The Thick of It....

4.3 Mercy For Ragnar, that message was summed up in a single word, “Mercy.” And this communication might initially have seemed to us the clearer of the two: a plea from the Christian monk for his friend to grant clemency to the man who murdered him. Whether it is that Lothbrok is unable to forgive the boat-maker who deprived him of his English friend and therefore only shows compassion in the name of Helga or he knew Aethelstan well enough to know that that’s actually who the monk sought forgiveness for in the first place is not entirely clear....

Pulling up a seat alongside the affably doomed Lawrence, Old Man William is ready to get a little honest. All whiskey breath and salty crustiness, the wonderfully grizzled Ed Harris is clearly relishing a chance to speak some of that infamous Jonathan Nolan poetry. Confessing to Lawrence what he is, and why this park is here, the Man in Black growls, “They wanted a place hidden from God; a place they could sin in peace....