Everyone knows that the Lost rule of thumb means that a really bad episode is always followed by a really good one, and given that the reaction to last week’s Kate episode was largely cries of ‘filler’ (though I thought it was alright!), this episode was bound to be something special. And little did we know how special. The big point, then, assuming that Smoke-Locke is telling the truth, is we finally know why the people on Oceanic flight 815 were brought to the island....

Like Sesame Street for grown-ups, every episode of Mad Men has one or two over-arching themes that tie the narrative together. This week’s installment, continuing along its usual lines of crisply delivered brilliance, was brought to us by the subjects of power, ambition, creativity and booze – lots and lots of booze. Don takes the interview to be a joke at his expense – dismissing this unusually short candidate (called Danny, played by Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Danny Strong) as a fantasist, he discovers that this man with one idea and fewer prospects is, in fact, Roger’s cousin-in-law....

An undiagnosed geek from a young age, I quickly became a fan of horror, aided by the fact that my father let me watch The Exorcist and Dawn Of The Dead before I reached primary school. Social services were not involved. Working in publishing, I was delighted to hear that Hammer would be releasing new books with Random House, with novelisation tie-ins and original stories from authors such as Guy Adams, Tim Lebbon and DBC Pierre....

5.19 Option Two Back in season one of Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD, Marvel introduced Doctor Franklin Hall and the element Gravitonium. Marvel fans will tell you that in the comics, Hall becomes the Avengers villain known as Graviton, an ultra-powerful baddie that can control the forces of gravity. Graviton has always been portrayed as a Magneto-level threat with power levels that equal the Master of Magnetism but without the compelling character motivations that make Magneto such a great villain....

4.10 A Herald Of The New Age This week’s Merlin finds that the knights are taking part in some teasing banter, when Arthur suddenly discovers a shrine that Merlin identifies as belonging to the old religion, warning of the curses that hang around such shrines. Heeding the wizard’s warning, Arthur gets them all to leave as quickly as possible. If only Elyan had listened to the warning instead of drinking from the spooky well… Returning to Camelot, there’s clearly something wrong with Arthur as he spends a lot of time being silent and staring into the distance....

Rayna and Luke are doing what they do best on tonight’s Nasvhille; living their lives on camera while filming a Christmas special for charity (and publicity). Toss up between the writers taking Juliette to Crazytown yet again and having her drive around in a motorized scooter that my grandma uses to stalk Avery, and Terry getting drunk within five minutes of leaving the stage off of a brown bagged bottle of liquor—presumably given go him by the group of squatters he found just outside the festival....

This is a huge change for Netflix, who had mostly been bringing Japanese produced series stateside such as Knights of Sidonia and Ajin: Demi-Human to America. Recently Netflix debuted its first original anime series New Yokio, with Jaden Smith lending his voice to Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig’s bizarre blend of Eastern, Western, and online culture. While some hardcore anime fans will undoubtedly question whether American produced animation can be considered anime, it’s still a huge victory for anime fans in general....

All The Way The story began with a fairly standard setup, with Alex getting ready for her first real assignment. The powers that be have decreed her ready to become a full field agent, and all that stands between her and escape from the claustrophobic confines of Division’s training facility is the successful completion of an assignment. This, in gansta speak, means ‘icing some fool’, as we have been told that recruits do not graduate until they take the life of a target, and said target, incidentally, is a rather shady chap with ties to the mafia, who is in no way heading for posthumous sainthood anyway....

Outlander Season 2, Episode 2 After the period-split season 2 premiere, Outlanderstays firmly ensconced in the coziness of the past in “Not in Scotland Anymore,” which looks at Claire, Jamie, and Murtagh’s efforts to settle in amongst French aristocracy. It goes better for some of their number than it does for others… As far as ruses go, Claire only seems to be half-pretending here. She seems to enjoy her new friend’s company, particularly appreciating the new, “modern” perspective Louise represents (much like Geillis Duncan in season 1)....

For Alan Johnson is a complete nut job, the kind of stereotypical manager-type you meet on one of the god-awful training days work sends you on to ‘boost morale’ and ‘maintain high productivity’. Johnson is every worker’s worst nightmare. Mark looks up to him, of course, because he represents a father figure he so longs for, plus Johnson regularly includes him in his big plans. Mark feels wanted; Johnson has his work bitch....

8.3 The Love Bunker Since Drop the Dead Donkey’s Gus and Damien each headed up a team of GLN’s best and bravest on a paintballing weekender, we’ve seen Tim and Mike, Troy and Abed, and now, Jez and Mark, don goggles and camo-gear to enact personal rivalries on the faux-battlefield. Unlike previous takes on the premise, Peep Show didn’t use the guns and jumpsuits to offer up an action movie parody, but as a showcase for Mark’s paranoia and Jez’s latest inappropriate crush....

She also pines to go live with her older sister Audrey (Alice Eve) and Audrey’s husband and baby daughter, but Audrey isn’t sure Wendy is quite ready, even though she’s smart, growing more independent and even holding down a job at a local Cinnabon. Please Stand By is directed by Ben Lewin from a script by Michael Golamco (based on his play), and as in Lewin’s previous film, 2012’s The Sessions, the director hits the right note in presenting a person with a disability as a whole human being and not just a collection of tics or quirks....

4.9 Into The Deep Starting with the former, Emily has a contender for Worst Birthday Ever when Paige tries to arrange the perfect day for her girlfriend. Sending her for a meeting with an Olympic-level swim coach in the day and putting together a surprise party at night, both turn disastrous when Emily’s told she probably won’t be able to apply to swim scholarships for at least two years. This means that the dream of attending Stanford with Paige is over, and it’ll be state school or nothing next year....

5.4 Thrown From The Ride Now I’m aware that there’ll be people who disagree with me, and have found these villain-free, largely action-free four hours boring and uneventful. For me though, a frustrated fan who has long grown tired of the repetitive A problem and the writers’ seeming inability to mask their make-it-up-as-we-go-along method, this is what I’ve been waiting for, and softens the blow of another three seasons considerably....

This review contains spoilers. Tennison’s curiosity about a murder case isn’t encouraged by Harris, but DI Bradfield (Sam Reid) is impressed by her keenness and brings her on board the investigation. Teenager Julie Ann Collins has been found strangled in the nearby Kingsmead estate’s underground car park. Door-to-door enquiries turn up a few leads from the suspicious residents, and the appearance of the victim’s drug-addicted boyfriend Eddie Philips (Jacob James Beswick) at her squalid flat yields more insight into her bleak life than her devastated parents, living a world away in suburban comfort, can offer Bradfield and Tennison when they visit to break the news....

This review contains spoilers. The autopsy, however – carried out by Dr Martin, whose dogged perseverance with his sandwich during the process earns him a glare from Bradfield – tells a more complicated story. Phillips’s head wound was inflicted post mortem; his death was, in fact, caused by strychnine poisoning. O’Duncie’s fingerprints are found on a bag of rat poison, which contains the fatal substance, while Flowers’ revelation that she watched Phillips die from an overdose after O’Duncie offered him drugs on the house in an act of uncharacteristic generosity only seems to confirm the dealer’s guilt....

After last week’s realisation that the dinos from the series have all been caught and contained by Leek, the team are trapped underground and it seems are all on their way to becoming attractive sabre-tooth snacks. Split up, not trusting each other and with no chance of escape, the outcome looks bleak. Will the team overcome their differences realise they have been played and escape alive? Well season three has been commissioned, so you work it out....

Does anyone remember during the early 1990s, when films were fascinated with underwater monsters? There was the intelligence of James Cameron’s The Abyss, the tentacled Deep Star Six, the shape-changing Proteus, and the Alien copy, Leviathan. Well, this week’s episode of Primeval is sort of like those, an homage to aquatic horror, a sort of Das Boot, only with dinosaurs. Finding that an anomaly has opened in middle of the North Sea, the ARC is contacted by the Admiralty to investigate....

ABC has canceled spy drama Quantico after three seasons. Created by Joshua Safran, the ABC terrorism drama got out of the gates strong in season one but quickly ran out of steam. It starred the very intriguing Priyanka Chopra as Alex Parrish, a talented FBI recruit who joins the agency after training at Quantico. In season one she becomes the prime suspect after a terrorist attack on Grand Central Terminal....

Fortunately, Nick has a special set of skills that makes him coveted by the Rest In Peace Department, or R.I.P.D.. They stop deados, bad souls who have refused to move on to their greater destination by lingering behind on earth, and Nick finds himself paired with Roy (Jeff Bridges), and 1800’s lawman who is quick with a quip and even quicker to pump soul killer bullets into a deado’s head....