One thing I really like about this show is its use of flashbacks. These prisoners, and the people still aboard the Ark, are more than walking, talking tropes (Clarke, the selfless one, Raven, the rebellious one, Finn, the wild one, and so on). Tonight’s flashback takes us back 17 years—to Octavia’s secret, forbidden birth. His sister is literally only minutes old when a very young Bellamy is told, “Your sister, your responsibility....
3.4 Watch The Thrones Despite the Sky People being welcomed by the grounders as the thirteenth clan last week, it appears that this is only binding as long as Lexa is in power. Her bias towards Clarke is well known among her people and most likely the source of a lot of salacious gossip, so it makes sense that any deal made between the two would be a little tenuous....
The 100 Season 4 Episode 4 “A Lie Guarded” stepped up the tension, made me scared for my favorite warrior woman, and brought back some great elements from Season 1 and Season 3 in a stronger way than any other episode has so far this season. Clarke’s storyline had the added bonus of finally giving Jaha a narrative purpose (however small) and tying in last season. While there was a lot that was a mess, not everyone can pull a Community and cry “gas leak....
Den of Geek has picked the 25 best robot masters in the franchise’s history: 25. Tengu Man Mega Man 8 Mega Man 8’s anime-inspired art style isn’t fondly remembered among too many fans, but it did at least give us a couple memorable bosses, including Tengu Man. Though tengus are viewed as sort of benevolent demons in Japanese folklore, the villainous Tengu Man incorporates the long-nosed mask of the legendary creature into a design that looks straight out of Voltron, making him one of the more unique robot masters in the series....
In honour of Simon’s footy match exploits, here is a blow-by-blow account of the episode’s highlights, of which there were many. 21:01 – No “I don’t like bullshitters” this year, which is a shame as Lord Alan of Sugar’s grand entrance has been watered down somewhat. Still a deeply scary chap, however. I often wonder why anyone would want to work for ‘Britain’s most belligerent boss’, but there you go....
Friends, I have to confirm something to you that you’ve long suspected. I’ve sold out. As those who followed the reviews of the last series of The Apprentice on this site will know, they tended to descend into a bit of a drinking session, centred around whatever bottles of wine happened to be in the Spar three for £10 offer in any given week. Wine was drunk, paint was stripped, and reviews were written....
4.16 Friends And Enemies Last week’s Star Wars prison break adventures continues, and finds Obi-Wan Kenobi, in disguise as bad boy Rako Haardeen, onboard a vessel with bounty hunter Cad Bane and criminal mastermind Moralo Eval. The tone remains downbeat and unrelenting as the untrusting trio crash-land their ship into the choking bogs and swamps of Nal Hutta – a planet that’s not unlike a cross between Dagobah and Tatooine....
Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz One thousand years before the movie begins, a race of beings shattered a giant crystal, losing a single shard and splitting themselves into the gentle, wizardlike Mystics and the ugly, dinosaur-like Skeksis. The evil Skeksis take over the castle where the crystal hangs over a pit of fire, and they rule their world for a thousand years, turning it into a wasteland. Now, the Great Conjunction is about to take place....
“They didn’t tell me anything past the first two episodes of Iron Fist,” Jones says with a laugh. “That’s what Marvel is like. They’re very secretive. I just took it on good faith that the showrunners at Marvel were going to do me right.” Critics of Iron Fist noted how Danny Rand’s arc felt incomplete. As it turns out, this may be by design, and Danny could be the hero who learns the most from his time with The Defenders....
Georges Méliès’ A Trip To The Moon was the earliest, though it followed the events of its source only loosely. 1964’s First Men In The Moon, which featured a sparkling script from Quatermass writer Nigel Kneale and unforgettable stop-motion creatures courtesy of Ray Harryhausen, came closest to capturing the tone of the book, even if it did take certain liberties with its characters and plot. It’s 1909, and failed businessman Julius Bedford (Rory Kinnear) is holed up in a peeling country retreat, trying unsuccessfully to write a play that he hopes will provide some much needed cash....
We’ll just dig right in this week. “The Flash is Born” is a fairly basic episode with a strong beginning and an even stronger finish. So, what the hell, I may as well start right at the beginning, right? While I’m enjoying Barry/Iris, what I really think is special is the way they’re handling Flash/Iris. It’s something I’m not sure we’ve ever really seen explored in live action before. The hero isn’t being mysterious for the sake of it, he’s genuinely doing it to protect the person he loves, and I do believe that, at least as it’s been laid out in these two episodes, Barry has no real desire to tell her the truth, as it would just put her in more danger....
2.19 Back To Normal My main problem with Back To Normal, predictably, was Caitlin. I’m obviously not thrilled that she’s been kidnapped yet again, but I went over that last week, and the outcome of that cliffhanger not only takes an entire episode to become apparent but also means Zoom is an absolute idiot. We knew he was mad, but isn’t he also supposed to be an evil genius? He has to be both if he’s going to be a formidable big bad....
2.9 Running To Stand Still We begin with Zoom running Wells down before wishing him a particularly threatening ‘Merry Christmas’, setting the tone for the rest of the episode before we flit back to our main gang. It wasn’t much of a secret that Mark Hamill would be returning as the Trickster, but pairing him up with the Weather Wizard was a stroke of genius. The Trickster is threatening enough in his madness but, combined with the guy who actually managed to win last year makes it more than just the run-of-the-mill meta-threat....
1.5 The Frankenstein Murders Like a few other beats in the show so far, the business of who was going to be strapped to the reanimation machine to be brought back Flatliners-style wouldn’t have been a surprise to canny viewers, but was quickly followed with something that was. Prepared to get a glimpse of galvanism in process, we were instead shown the Science Squad not being able to bring James back after suffocating him with a throw cushion, the switch to realism bringing us back down to the mundane....
The Gifted Episode 5 With the glut of comic book shows out there right now, it’s hard for new ones to break through the noise. The way they do that tend to focus on one thing and try to do it well – Legends of Tomorrowis an action comedy, The Flashis an ensemble show, Inhumansis terrible, Arrowis about action, etc. It took a few episodes to clarify what The Giftedwould focus on, but with “boXed in,” it seems that the show is going to be vastly more plot-heavy than the others on television....
1.8 Jezebels It’s a lie. The whole thing. The Commanders no more believe in Gilead’s tenets and rites than they believe in liberty and justice for all. They’re power-grabbing hypocrites operating under cover of scripture. They know full well they’re not making the world better, only better for them. They’re bigoted charlatans, rapists and murderers. Worse than that, they’re ad men. Episode eight exposed that lie grippingly by taking us out of the muted palette of the Waterford home and into a Gilead brothel, and Nick’s past....
The strike, now in its third month, is over a new contract with studios for more money when their work is sold on DVD – they want a rise from 5 to 8 cents for every $19 DVD sold – and downloaded from the Internet – they earn nothing at the moment and they’re asking for 2.5%. At the moment only David Letterman’s independent production company, Worldwide Trousers, and Tom Cruise’s Untied Artists have signed deals with the writers but the major studios, always keen to hold onto their money, are not budging from their spot, even thought they could lose up to $7billion in revenue....
An old friend from Leighton’s past shows up in Lochnafoy and wants to relive their violent youth. Annie’s forced to investigate Leighton further when his alibi for Niall Swift’s murder proves to be a bit dodgy and Alan is dragged into the situation. Craig Petrie is invited back for further questioning when it is revealed that it is his handwriting on the newspaper, but manages to rile up Blake a little too much....
The Magicians Season 1 Episode 12 For the arrival in Fillory to have happened in the penultimate episode of season one is not all that surprising, but no one could have predicted it would be Quentin and Julia who would make it there first. This is just one of the unexpected dangers and twists in this week’s episode of The Magicians. On the one hand, the meandering story felt chaotic and convoluted, but on the other it felt like realistically jumbled happenstance....
1.1 The Man In The High Castle (Pilot) The Man In The High Castle has an instantly gripping premise. It’s a world in which the United States lost World War II and now finds itself divided up into three portions: The Pacific States of America, the Nazi-dominated United States of America, and a vast, rocky neutral zone separating the world’s two remaining powers from one another’s American holdings. It’s 1962, and the world is in a fragile peace held together by one dying dictator in Berlin....
