1.1 Pilot Now, though, the trendy thing is to have your protagonist be the monster, and iZombie – Rob Thomas’ latest – sees the zombie sub-genre finally reach that crucial point in its cycle. Our set-up is this – promising, over-achieving doctor Liv (Rose McIver) goes to a boat party that happens to be hit by a sudden zombie outbreak. She wakes up in a body-bag, realises she’s (un)dead, and we then pick up with her months later when her once-perfect existence has more or less imploded....

iZombie Season 3, Episode 11 Has anyone found this season of iZombie a bit scattered? I still enjoy the show on an episode-to-episode basis, but I often find myself a bit too bogged down in plot overall, like the show has been a bit too ambitious in scope. “Conspiracy Weary” is a classic example of this. While there were some laugh out loud moments in tonight’s episode (I don’t usually enjoy Liv’s brains-of-the-week as much as the average viewer, but was delighted by her conspiracy brain), the focus was all over the place, which meant none of the plot points really hit as hard as they should have....

You begin in a shop which contains all of the basics you need to get you going. In each level, you can either make the cupcakes that are suggested, or create your own design. Make cakes from funky coloured sponge, with bright icing and mad toppings. Pick and choose what you want to serve your customers. Then you’ll have a certain amount of time to fill up your display case with cakes before your shop opens to the public....

5.1 The Letters Of Septimus Noone When a West End star ends up stabbed in her locked dressing room, it is up to Jonathan, his wife Polly (played by Sarah Alexander) and his overly enthusiastic young sidekick Ridley to solve the case. Unlike in previous episodes of Jonathan Creek, the machinations and devices used to pull off the stabbing are revealed straight off, along with who committed the crime and why....

Killjoys Season 4 Episode 3 “Being Hullen hasn’t improved your taste in music.” War inevitably changes people, and now that she’s been separated from Aneela for an extended period of time, Delle Sayeh Kendry has undergone a notable transformation from the evil ice queen to a woman who recognizes the uncertainty of her future despite her pedigree as head of The Nine. It’s possible impending motherhood changed her, and even though we know that she and D’avin did not create this child in the traditional way, there’s a developing closeness with the Jaqobis that’s difficult to miss....

Knightfall Episode 1 After the phenomenal and sustained success of Vikings, History dips into the scripted historical drama well once again to examine the exploits of one of the most enigmatic military orders the world has known. Knightfall makes a solid debut as it follows a band of Knights Templar on its quest to recover the Holy Grail lost some fifteen years earlier during The Siege of Acre at the hands of Muslim invaders....

Jackie Chan was never the same after he moved to America and only a fool would prefer the Hollywood remake of Internal Affairs. And as every self-respecting martial arts movie fan knows, the soundtracks were almost as important as the action, which makes Kung Fu Super Sounds a very special CD indeed. Put simply, it is 43 unreleased cuts from various Shaw Brothers martial arts films, all from between 1976 and 1984....

One of the best things about Little Britain USA is the pacing. This show is excellently paced, especially episode two. Since they’ve set up some of their recurring characters in the first episode, they can breeze right into those recurring sketches without a lot of palaver. This balances out really well with the new characters they introduced this week, making the show flow a little bit better than last week....

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 5 During its three year run, Lucifer has examined the delicate balance most families struggle to achieve, but “Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards” takes that dilemma to a profound, yet delightful new level. The long awaited return of Tricia Helfer opens a wealth of narrative possibilities as Lucifer sees his immoral, lawyerly mum in an entirely new light, but it’s her recognition that actions have real consequences that causes her to reexamine her values....

That’s not so strange because he’s already used magic to remotely attack Morgana so that she becomes ill and falls into a coma. So Uther decides they need someone with those sorts of medical abilities, even if he does look like he’s a failed fire breather. They also need him because Gaius doesn’t realise that the cause of her ailment is magically induced, and why she’s not getting any better....

I have to confess: I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about watching The Goblin’s Gold. I was thinking that the writers would follow the ‘monster-run-amok’ storyline that has been prevalent more than once in the last two seasons. However, Richard Wilson’s wicked, cantankerous wit, a mischievous Gollum-like Goblin with a cockney accent (voiced by Mark Williams), and some truly hilarious one-liners had me hooked right from the outset. Merlin consults Gaius who warns him that the situation must be resolved as quickly and quietly as possible, and that a goblin is a dangerous creature that will stop at nothing to get what it wants, which is gold....

4.4. Aithusa Gaius (not of the Baltar variety) knows Julius Bordin, and keeps his eyebrow firmly raised in the presence of the man, even going so far as to warn Bordin that the Triskelion isn’t safe. Together, they explain that the Triskelion will lead to a tomb in which a dragon’s egg is interred. All Bordin needs is the final part from the vaults of Camelot. Gaius doesn’t want any part of this, preferring to leave the old ways where they belong, and sends Bordin on his way....

As you’re probably well aware, this is the film where Illumination Entertainment take the supporting characters from the Despicable Me movies, and put them at the heart of their own feature. It’s an artistic gamble – Blue Sky Studios, for one, has resisted to date doing such a thing with Scrat from the Ice Age movies – and a commercially brilliant one. Things get off to a pacey start, as we get a lengthy voiceover (a very, very lengthy voiceover, with a Marvel-style exposition dump) telling us the history of the Minions, and their hunt to find somebody suitably evil to work for....

Flying to New York to make his fortune as a film director, Self meets Fielding Goodney (ably performed by Mad Men‘s Vincent Kartheiser), a smooth-talking and slick producer who tells John to “put his dick on the table” and “dream big, win big”. There’s a brilliantly awkward moment in which an ageing, massively egotistical actor insists on adding an explicit sex scene to Self’s film. In fact, every actor has his or her own objections to the first draft of the script....

This episode opens with Healy explaining to Miss Rosa that the DOC will not pay for surgery her doctors have recommended. Instead they will continue with the chemo treatments. Miss Rosa tells him to blow it out his ass; he has basically consigned her to die. Outwardly she appears to be resigned to her situation, but in reality she cannot believe she is dying by inches, locked away in the concrete sarcophagus that is Litchfield....

Have I mentioned during these reviews that this show rules? In case I haven’t made it clear, week after week, the general narrative audacity of Orphan Black continues to amaze. Sarah displayed her strength and compassion, a strength that she didn’t have in season one. Sarah’s compassion was what allowed her to permit her daughter Kira to donate her bone marrow in an excruciatingly painful procedure for Cosima. Sarah has truly turned into a selfless soul who would move heaven and earth for her newfound extended and identical family....

Outcast Episode 9 A new day is coming, and what was once deemed normal seems lost forever. Season one of Outcast has focused on internal and external conflicts, and as the town seeks a return to normalcy, the knowledge that something dreadful looms omnipresent overhead of the few that refuse to buy into Sidney’s promise of a better future forms the basis of tonight’s tale. The episode’s horrific, shocking conclusion sets up the first significant showdown between good and evil as Sidney backs Kyle into a corner from which there is only one way out....

As a writer on the internet, one of the worst things you can do is read the comments left on your work. Even for the least neurotic among us, comments left by others make you question your own original feelings and opinions. Reviews are meant to stir debate and discussion, certainly, but after last week’s review, I was surprised at the overwhelming negativity directed towards the opening episode of Peaky Blinders....

Don’t get me wrong: Phantom Thread has many things going for it, including a typically detailed and meticulous performance from Daniel Day-Lewis (which he says is his last), fabulous production design and cinematography, a haunting score from Jonny Greenwood, and a marvelous supporting turn from Lesley Manville. There are also nice bits of humor sprinkled throughout the film, much more than one might expect initially. But the core of the movie–the relationship between Day-Lewis as fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock and Luxembourgian actress Vicky Krieps as his lover/muse/tormentor–never really rises beyond a pseudo-Gothic tit-for-tat that lacks electricity....

Although Hollywood had delved into the genre before, resulting in such films as Forbidden Planet, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Fantastic Voyage, none of them had quite the same impact as director Franklin Schaffner’s Apes. A box-office success, it spawned a wealth of merchandise, from bubblegum cards to action figures, two television shows (one live-action, the other animated) and a string of sequels and prequels. The Apes franchise’s long history is explored in colourful and exhaustive detail in Planet Of The Apes: The Evolution Of The Legend, written by Joe Fordham and Jeff Bond....