After serving in World War II, Rick O’Connell (Fraser) and wife Evie (Maria Bello, taking over for Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz, who is now too good for this franchise) have retired to a plush estate in the English countryside. Stealing a plot point directly from The Jewel of the Nile, Evie is now a famous author with two books based on her adventures with her husband. To take more from The Jewel of the Nile, she can’t get her third book started because she’s settled down to boring domestic life....

3.3 Brother In Arms Simon Allen takes over writing duties from Simon Ashford as this week we see The Musketeers come to grips with Louis’ brother Gaston, grapple with their consciences and do some basic derring-do. However, that doesn’t even get close to the revelation of the week: King Louis is dying from the White Plague (tuberculosis, for those that care). Wow. That came from nowhere, but is a welcome surprise that adds much and explains even more....

The capacity to surprise has long been one of the strongest attributes of the US Office – consider Jim’s sudden declaration of love at the end of season two; his unannounced departure at the beginning of the next; Ryan’s getting the corporate job at the end of the third; or the fact that having Pam and Jim finally together in the fourth didn’t ruin the show – but even so, you’d expect that after three and a half years, that ever-present threat of the unexpected might have begun to diminish....

Once upon a time, there was a movie called Shrek. Back in 2001, the world was introduced to the titular ogre, a not-so-jolly green giant, as he literally wiped his arse with the traditional fairytale and burst through his outhouse door. Cue All Star by Smash Mouth, and a generational obsession that ripened with the emergence of mashup culture. The resulting 3 minute 21 second earworm didn’t quite match the band’s first single after all, in tone or eventual chart success, but its cultural influence was all-pervading....

The fourth episode of The Prisoner could be called ‘Whispers And Mumblings’. Several lines of dialogue are incomprehensible. But this is a visually driven show, with looks and actions telling us as much as words, so it’s still possible to follow the plot. Throughout the series, we’ve been cutting to scenes in Six’s New York apartment where he’s been getting to know an attractive young woman called Lucy (Hayley Atwell)....

Although the 52-minute film was almost made with the involvement of Disney France – an airing on ABC was even on the cards at one point – the directors ultimately wound up shooting Marvel Renaissance without the cooperation of its subject. For those unfamiliar with Marvel’s recent history, the documentary shows just how close the entire American comic book industry came to collapse in the mid-90s; by this point, a decade of slowly ebbing sales had been joined by an even greater threat: the arrival of Wall St executives, and a procession of puppetmasters who had little to no interest in comics....

So important is Illumnation’s animated output to Universal Pictures’ slate that, with DreamWorks Animation now also part of the Universal empire, Illumination boss Chris Meladandri is to creatively oversee both firms’ animated output. Not bad, considering Illumination is under a decade old. Sold off the back of some legitimately excellent, charming trailers, The Secret Life Of Pets poses the question as to what our pets do when we head off to work....

This The Simpsons review contains spoilers. Life at the Springfield nuclear plant is fraught with danger. Forget the radioactive particles that are slowly shrinking the seminal energies out of the quickly shrinking testicles. The workers live at the whim of their boss, C. Montgomery Burns. The richest man in Springfield and a founding member of the ancient Knights of St. Caucasian, can take away their livelihoods, their hopes and dreams, knee-caps, hub-caps or their very lives....

Still, when he absolutely has to step up and do something nice for someone else, he eventually comes around. He always comes around in an attempt to please the people around him, starting with agreeing to babysit the children of his mother’s friends Dr and Mrs. Pedulla: Slater (Max Records) the sensitive early teen with a lot of anxiety, Blithe (Landry Bender) the wannabe celebutante who sings along to foul-mouthed rap songs and wears too much makeup, and adopted Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez) the adopted foreign kid who slicks his hair back and has a thing for fireworks....

At least “Superhero” is full of, um, action (including some between Cara and John, who are back together). The weird device Stephen found may lead him to his father, but Russell has the brilliant young male idea to get Stephen drunk and “weird.” Of course, as per formula, there’s a new breakout using her powers to save people, and she happens to be someone Russell met four years before and is now known as the Red Avenger....

3.17 Because the Night We start with a flashback to Damon’s switched-off period in Manhattan, where he gained a reputation as a serial killer so notorious that Stefan and Lexi heard about him back in Mystic Falls. Enter Lexi, as she tries to show Damon enough of a good time to convince him to turn his humanity back on. This is Damon’s plan for Elena in present day, also, but he didn’t factor in how wily his new and improved girlfriend can be....

Mike Sinterniklaas, the voice of Dean Venture, gave a little insight into where Dean has been, and where he’s going in Venture Bros. Season 7. Dean’s relationship with his father determined much of his path over the course of the show’s first five seasons, but with the sixth, Dean began breaking away from the path that his father and grandfather went down. After spending most of his life being dragged through missions with his family and Brock Samson, Dean seems ready to leave behind the madness he knows for a more serene, peaceful life....

The Venture Bros. Season 7 Episode 2 “Pretty poetic, huh?” “The Rorqual Affair” is quite the important episode of Venture Bros. in the sense that the Monarch’s alter ego of Blue Morpho is finally out in the open and over. The episode even pokes fun at how obvious the Blue Morpho’s identity should have been. On that note, there’s a certain subtext to the installment that explores the inherent unoriginality of superheroes and supervillains, which works as an interesting backdrop to some of this content....

3.6 Hounded Andrea has always been a problematic character for the television show. Whenever someone needs to do something that’s a horrible idea, like sleep with Shane, Andrea’s there. Running off when the zombies raid the farm, abandoning Michonne outside the gates for a chance at a cold glass of lemonade and not being eaten… Andrea’s never met a bad idea she wasn’t willing to try out, though at least the decision to stay in Woodbury makes sense....

4.6 Live Bait I know that The Walking Dead loves to have shades of gray with its characters, and perhaps giving the Governor the potential at having a new life outside of being the Governor is a chance to allow him to redeem himself. Perhaps he’ll make a Merle-like face turn, considering he’s not quite as evil as the comics version of the Governor. I don’t think he’ll quite be able to be redeemed to that extent, and I have a feeling that this diversion will only help to push Blake in the other direction from his current positive trajectory and back into the realm of high evil....

5.5 Self-Help After last week’s surprisingly good Bethisode, The Walking Dead refuses to stick with the storyline that I want to see finished and instead chooses to take a little field trip in the church bus. Yes, rather than seeing the Trojan Carol spring into action with the surprisingly capable Beth at her side (call them Daryl’s Angels), we get something of an Abraham origin story. Of course, it’s spread throughout the episode in little drips and drops to extend the dramatic tension, but everyone’s favorite Fu Manchu gets a little more characterization besides “ginger bad-ass with a stereotypical temper....

One difficulty with historical dramas for anyone who spent their schooldays poring, not scrawling Morrissey lyrics, over Trevelyan’s History Of England is that it’s hard not to have the endings ‘spoiled’. Even the most assiduous avoider of historical fact can’t have swerved the knowledge that Richard III was, you know, a thing, making all that ‘will they crown little Edward?’ intrigue from a week or two ago a bit redundant....

It’s a fine quotation but it wasn’t really appropriate to the episode as Haynes ends up getting screwed by the bosses and Templeton goes on to garner glory and awards. I’m not going to get into a blow-by-blow of the episode but here are the highlights. After Daniels has made the bosses aware that McNulty has faked the serial killer Carcetti is in shock. He’s been beating up the Governor about crime that turns out to be non-existent....

1.3 Autumn ‘Why do they all seem so happy?’, viewers puzzled these past few weeks, ‘What happened to the This Is England we know and love? Where’s the drama that fills your pockets with stones and chucks you underwater, leaving you to gulp and struggle until you eventually emerge, gasping for air, battle-tired and all the stronger for it?’ It’s back, is this week’s answer. Goodbye to hugs and Hulk Hogan’s pants, hello to heart-heavy emotion and a lingering sense of dread....

As Kripke puts it, “Timeless is really different than any of the other time travel shows that are out there because we view ourselves much more as epic, romantic, historical adventure than we actually do a sci-fi show. Really, the time machine is almost literally a vehicle to get our characters into different historical adventures every week.” So if it’s not a sci-fi show, who is more likely to tune in: geeks or Muggles?...