The longer Fringe goes on, the more I like it, even if season two has been somewhat inconsistent in places. Last week we got a half decent monster-of-the-week episode, and this one a very sharp take on the classic Outbreak plotline. In the real world, biologists recently have found a fungus that zombifies ants in the rainforest, which it does when the spores land on the insect and infect it....
Whatever you think about Fringe, you can hardly accuse it of turning out the same thing every week. As if to make that as unambiguous as possible, the show runners created Brown Betty as both a means to do something totally different, but also to make more interesting Walter’s emotional state regarding Peter leaving. In Walter’s mind he creates a Mickey Spillane-like detective story, where Olivia is the gumshoe on the trail of a stolen heart, taken by Peter from Walter....
3.15 Subject 13 While possibly a little late in the day for backfilling characters, the episode rather brilliantly tells the story of how Peter adapted to life in this dimension after a very difficult period where he obsessed about going home. What we didn’t know about the events that take place about six months after Walter brought him back, was the part that Olivia played in his rehabilitation, and how the science of transporting him back was the basis for the experiments that he performed on Olivia and other children....
Wow, a story that starts off as a Police Academy parody, jumps into both Tron and Avatar pastiches, with plot and imagery borrowed from Minority Report, whilst all under the umbrella of television show, Law & Order. It’s an absolute belter from Futurama this week. Don’t worry, though, there’s some ‘brain’ laughs in there, too, with a wonderful Schrödinger’s cat skit that has not one, but two gigglesome punchlines, neither of which you’ll see coming....
In came a relatively unknown director, Jon M Chu, as well as a script by Zombieland’s Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and out went almost everything from Rise Of Cobra, including the majority of the cast, with only the likes of Ray Park’s Snake Eyes and Channing Tatum’s Duke making it through to the next round. Thankfully, the winds of change also brought in one other substantial factor, Mr Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who seems to have found himself saddled with the expectation that his mere presence will improve any film, or sequel that he appears in, a factor that I really was counting on for G....
This week, we’re handing over to Luftmentsch, who approached us wanting to write a piece about OCD. We’re very glad that he did… While these are indeed forms of OCD, in reality, OCD covers many other forms of behaviour. What they all have in common is the involuntary and distressing nature of the obsessions and compulsions (if someone enjoys their obsession or compulsion, it is not OCD). OCD lives in the world of doubt, in the realm of uncertainty, in those horrible words, “But what if…?...
This week, though, we’re cheating. Earlier this week, we interviewed Matt Lucas on the site, and at the end of the piece – that you can see here – we asked him what his advice would be for those going through tough times. We had such a response to his words, that we thought it right to give them their own post. For me, it’s a hard piece of advice because the thing I’m going to suggest is not necessarily an easy thing, inactivity is the enemy....
Anthem Sports has lost their chance to make a first impression. Period. Whatever you want to call the company — and with an apparent controversy over the GFW name, I’m not even sure what to call them right now — they’re a lite version of WWE. Nothing they do stands apart from WWE, and there is a group of wrestling fans who have given up on their product. They’ve turned to ROH, New Japan or UFC....
Sir Elton John serves as executive producer on Gnomeo & Juliet, and provides much of the soundtrack too, from that extensive back catalogue of his. As high concepts go, they don’t get much higher. The film is a ceramic retelling of a certain Shakespearean tragedy, set in the adjoining gardens of two semi-detached houses. Believe it or not, the 2B and Not 2B stuff is the clearest indicator that you’re in for more than you’d expect from this thing....
Gotham Season 3, Episode 7 Oh, Gotham. Did you really have to backtrack on so many of the bold choices you have made so far this season? There’s still a lot to like about the super trippy “Red Queen,” but it’s tough to see the show bring Jim back to the G.C.P.D. after his time as a freelance bounty hunter has proved so lucrative, backtrack on its bold decision to have Jim choose Vale over Lee, and go all-in with its Vertigo-themed sidelining of the Ed/Oswald relationship....
3.2 PTZD But first, back to last week’s cliff-hanger. Despite my doubts last week that Nick would randomly attack an innocent family in their home, he goes ahead and does it. And for the life of me, I can’t work out why. Perhaps the writers were going for ‘edgy’, but the whole attack feels incongruous. It’s so completely divergent from Nick’s character, which on the whole is blandly likeable. Yes, I know he’s infected with a virus that causes massive levels of rage among humans....
4.2 Octopus Head This week’s episode picks up where we left it last week, with doctors seemingly unable to revive Sean Renard after his apparently fatal shooting by Steward. But this is Grimm, and where conventional human medicine fails, Hexenbiest magic can work wonders. Enter the mysterious woman seen briefly last episode who, freeze-framing the doctors working on Renard, administers a powerful spell with a two-headed snake that appears to transfer her own life force into Renard’s body, jump-starting the Captain back to consciousness....
3.13 The Wrath Of The Lamb When we talk about love stories, we inevitably mean stories about falling in love, those first twinges of longing that build into a need that seems to overwhelm both parties. We almost never mean stories about loving someone. The two are not the same, and difference is pretty basic. In the film Creator (1985), Peter O’Toole’s Dr. Harry Wolper gives us the “Love Formula....
One criticism levelled at the Potter films is the generic nature of their structure: Harry goes to Hogwarts, a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher turns up, some schoolyard japes ensue, a mystery is uncovered, Harry solves it and then defeats Lord Voldemort, the end. Half-Blood Prince eschews this formula by throwing you straight into the action from the off. Harry is soon reunited with his chief cohorts Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) and the plot proper begins – which leads directly on from the last Potter outing, Order Of The Phoenix....
3.1 301 I’m going to endevour to write a review full of relevant content and commentary rather than following my impulse – which is to fill six pages with things along the lines of “OMG! AUDREY! NATHAN! DUKE! SHOW! I’M DROWNING IN MY OWN FEELINGS!” as Haven picks up exactly where we left off, with Audrey gone missing and Nathan and Duke grappling for a gun which went off as the credits rolled during the season two finale....
With that in mind, I approached the new series of Hawaii Five-0 with no preconceptions and, as such, was pleasantly surprised. The new series of Alex O’Loughlin (WhiteOut, The Shield) as Det. Steve McGarrett, a top Navy SEAL who is, at the beginning of the episode, tasked with transporting an Irish criminal out of South Korea, which looks strangely like Hawaii. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when the criminal’s older brother (played by Buffy‘s James Marsters) phones up saying he’s holding Steve’s father (William Sadler of The Pacific and Shawshank Redemption fame) hostage....
While the actual robbers go free, Henry is sentenced to three years in prison. During his sentence, his wife leaves him for the guy he stood in for as unwitting getaway driver, and he spends a miserable time doing porridge, enlivened only by a friendship with veteran prisoner Max, played by James Caan. He makes parole after one year behind bars, with a plan in mind. If he did the time, he might as well have done the crime, and so he resolves to rob the same bank he just spent time in prison for not robbing....
Regardless, her father is understandably angered when she tells him about the rape attempt. He pays Brody a visit, and after a rather heated discussion, has a friend of his completely wipe the quarterback’s memory (serves him right for having a name like Brody). Using my amazing deductive skills, I reckon the cheerleader is Claire, in which case I’m tempted to think, ‘Save the cheerleader, save the show’ might be more appropriate....
There have been reports this week that since Pushing Daisies got the big push, its clever show writer, Bryan Fuller, will be coming back to Heroes from episode 20 onwards, i.e. for the season finale. The first thing they get right this week is sticking with characters for a reasonable amount of time, rather than flitting around like a narrative honey bee. This makes the story easier to follow, and invests in the characters more....
Last we saw of these whirling cards, Pennsylvania Congressman Peter Russo had just ruined his political career by drunkenly bombing a radio interview. This was all orchestrated by Frank’s hand, as well as by his number one minion and fixer, Doug Stamper. They set Russo up with the former prostitute Rachel Posner, who more or less conned him into falling off the wagon. Now, the blowback has started and Peter backslides into his demons that lie at the bottom of a bottle....
