How on earth did the real-life Alfred and Aelswith and Aethelflaed and the rest of them cope without the fictional Uhtred, son of Uhtred? As episode seven proved, they’re utterly lost without him. As the person they turn to when things go wrong, Uhtred is basically everyone’s nice dad. He’s who they call to come and pick them up in his Volvo from a shit party after the last bus....
This review contains spoilers. “This doesn’t make any sense” Julien told Eve this week in his remarkably unfazed response to the news of Alice Webster’s suicide. No, Julien, and it’s not likely to for a couple of episodes yet. The Missing season two is still busy planting mysteries; resolution and answers are a way off. You’d be forgiven for feeling a touch of twist-fatigue at the close of episode four, most of which had delivered precisely what I missed in last week’s packed installment, namely, room to breathe....
Bassist John Lodge, guitarist Justin Hayward, and drummer Graeme Edge, never stopped searching, touring consistently. Founding member and flutist Ray Thomas left the lineup in 2002 and died on January 4, 2018 at the age of 76. Pinder, the keyboardist, left in 1978, replaced by Patrick Moraz but that story is a legal morass best left in the footnotes of music history. The band replaced founding member Denny Laine, whose name rhymes with “Penny Lane,” which might explain why Paul McCartney pulled him into Wings, with Hayward and Lodge....
2.1 Keep Your Friends Close Director John Strickland (his first foray on The Musketeers) and writer Adrian Hodges (the show’s creator), both had a Capaldi-sized hole to fix as their first challenge. Although his Richelieu was at times side-lined by the ‘getting to know you bit’ of the other characters, he deservedly hogged every second of limelight when he was centre stage. Towards the end of the season, Capaldi’s portrayal of Richelieu’s machinations and cunning became the highlight of each episode....
3.6 Death Of A Hero Directed by Nicholas Renton, who’s had an impressive resume of TV classics over the past few decades, the well-conceived opening perfectly set the mood – especially with Feron’s menacing voice-over, which ultimately provided the perfect bookend for the episode. Seeing the Musketeers in moments of joy was always going to herald a fall, but it’s in moments like these when you realise just how short-changed Porthos is....
2.2 The Genoa Tip ‘Do you ever think Will might just be a douchebag?’ This week’s quote is a pretty loaded question, and one that may have met with giggles from The Newsroom‘s less favourable critics. After opening the season on a foreboding note, the framing device of the deposition room gives way to a more sprawling narrative in this second episode. At the top of the episode, we find that Will is still reeling from Charlie’s decision to take him off the 9/11 anniversary coverage, and even sinks so far as to vanity-search for his own hate sites....
1.18 The Big Uneasy It only took 42-minutes for Elijah quest for peace and inter-species party times to go belly up but, boy, was The Big Uneasy fun to watch. Exhausting, but fun. I’ve said it before but, if there’s one thing The Originals seems to have inherited from its parent show, it’s the fast, breakneck storytelling pace; able to explore a potentially season-long arc in just one brilliant episode and then just moving onto the next like it’s no big deal....
1.4 Girl in New Orleans In general, this was a much better example of what The Originals can be than the previous three episodes, and I’m tentatively hoping that this is the beginning of an upswing that will last us through until Christmas. The new characters are becoming more likeable, Klaus and Rebekah have stopped spouting needless exposition at each other quite so much (though there was that very talky pre-credits scene) and, as of the final moments, Elijah has returned....
The Simpsons: Season 29 Episode 7 The Simpsons season 29, episode 7, “Singin’ in the Lane” reunites some of the Pin Pals, the championship bowling team Homer put together with Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Otto Mann, for a state championship competition, but rolls out a 7-2 split. The episode begins with “The Shrimpsons,” a fairly impressive alternative to the usual introduction, with every scene of the opening lovingly played out underwater....
Just ask the poor writers of The Thick Of It, who having already examined a government rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and an excitable opposition looking forward to assuming office in 2007’s special episodes. What is left to satirise now when nothing else has changed? These would be insurmountable problems for another TV show. But that wouldn’t figure on The Thick Of It‘s ability to squirm its way out of such a tricky situation with the slippery finesse of, well, an established politician, and turn those challenges into real strengths....
Tonight, we get a little bit of John Young’s backstory, as an apparent juvenile delinquent and foster child who has to steal food while his foster dad blows all their money on booze. Who shows up to save him? Uncle Jed. Hm. So, young John fell out of an abusive foster home into the hands of Jedekiah. Stephen and John argue about what to do with Killian, and when Stephen goes back to Ultra, his new supervisor is put in direct charge of him....
6.4 Black Hole Sun There are new villains, new relationships, new dynamics between old relationships and fresh takes on characters we thought we knew inside and out. Of course Matt would take it upon himself to investigate Tripp; of course Stefan has to start over every 30 years or so to avoid suspicion; of course Elena would have left herself a note should she ever discover what she and Alaric did, and of course Jeremy’s cries for help would eventually lead him right to Alaric’s doorstep....
The Venture Bros. Season 7 Episode 1 “Thankfully, as modern men of science we’re immune to such superstitious hokum.” Professor Orpheus was a clever jab at Dr. Strange wellbefore the character had his own blockbuster film or was a part of the Avengersfilm franchise. Even though the Venture Bros. series has fewer than 75 episodes under its belt, it’s still been one of Adult Swim’s most layered, creative programs. The programming block has changed in many ways since the inception of The Venture Bros....
Just as the horror genre is tiring of the found-footage conceit, along comes a Brit comedy to dust it off and have a go. The latest release from Calendar Girls team Nigel Cole and Tim Firth casts comedian Rufus Hound as a best man-cum-wedding-videographer from whose camera unfurls this lightly satirical rom-com. The POV trick recalls Peep Show and the sardonic voiceover for The Inbetweeners, and though The Wedding Video doesn’t match the best of either of those shows, it’s not a million miles away....
Timeless Season 1, Episode 10 Fortunately, this series always plays on its main strength: its characters. Presenting Lucy, Rufus, and Wyatt with the moral dilemma of working with Flynn was a great way to go into the winter hiatus. With the seductive pull of Lucy regaining her family, Rufus getting out from under Rittenhouse’s thumb, and Wyatt finding out the identity of his wife’s killer, who could blame the team for putting their differences aside whatever the consequences?...
Timeless Season 1, Episode 9 That being said, what really worked well in this episode was the chemistry between Lucy and Wyatt, and there’s no denying it: that really carried the episode. Preceding their adventure with an awkward “first date” between Lucy and her stranger of a fiancé, Noah, underscored the closeness of the bond Lucy and Wyatt have formed. Abigail Spencer’s wistfulness and Matt Lanter’s broodiness match perfectly. Their undercover performance as a bank-robbing couple colluding with Bonnie and Clyde was really the only reason to use this particular moment in history; the necklace Flynn sought could have honestly been around anyone’s neck....
Immortal Sins It’s one of the great ironies of Torchwood: Miracle Day that when it does the opposite of what most people are insisting it do, it delivers arguably its best episode to date. Immortal Sins, penned by Jane Espenson, refused to react to the clamour for Miracle Day to push forward faster, and to speed up the development of the assorted story threads that it’s juggling. So we got no overflow camps, only a mild sliver of Oswald Danes, and far fewer people creeping around corridors....
Fortunately for the programme, series two brings some guest parts by actors who should manage to shake things up a bit, and James Marsters played a great opening gambit. Spike strode into the programme dressed in 17th century garb and exhibiting superhuman strength, before exacting a bit of vigilante justice on a mugger (he’s a good guy who doesn’t play by the rules!), and then making notional noises about humping everything in sight, although obviously not getting on with it as there’s some nonsense about gas canisters to spin out for 50 minutes instead....
The head-messin’ began before the programme with a BBC Two trailer interspersed with shots of what appeared to be a giant mosquito. I presume this may be something to do with next week’s episode (which anyone who watched it on BBC Three may therefore already know), and I personally would trail upcoming episodes with Martha Jones in it, so no blame there. But it is pretty darned confusing when it is the first of so many things that were being messed with....
The premise of Travelers is that operatives from an apocalyptic future send their consciousnesses back in time to inhabit the bodies of people just before the moment of their deaths and assume their lives and work together to avoid the disaster in the future. The show follows one of many teams working on different missions at the behest of a mysterious director who’s holding all the cards. Where do they get their flawed information about the lives they’re supposed to take over?...
