The film is set on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in the fictional Mexican village of Santa Cecilia, where 12-year-old Miguel Riviera (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of being a musician like the famous Ernesto de la Cruz, a local legend who became a popular singer and film star before his accidental death a century earlier. But Miguel’s ambitions are banned by his brood, since his own great-great-grandfather–whose identity is a mystery–left the family behind to pursue his musical goals while his late great-great-grandmother Imelda (Alanna Ubach) struggled to turn the family into successful if unremarkable shoemakers....

1.3 The Devil’s Vinyl Aside from laying some ground rules and explaining the seemingly endless string of supernatural goodies in Constantine’s Mary Poppins bag, this third episode dispenses with the exposition that has bogged down the show thus far. This week, the monster of the week isn’t a front for world-building or character development, and it’s scarier and more believable for it. The plot is a little messy—it involves lots of side characters and magical artifacts, some of which could probably have been trimmed—but it’s a wild ride....

This review contains spoilers. 2.8 Who Is Josh’s Soup Fairy? Here’s something I’ve only just noticed. Most of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s episode titles in the first season were exclamations, like “That Text Was Not Meant For Josh!” or “I’m Going To The Beach With Josh And His Friends!” But the second season’s episode titles have all been questions. Maybe even more than the new theme song, that probably says something about Rebecca’s state of mind: last season, she knew what she wanted, and felt like fate was going to help her to get it....

“It’s not impossible that we may at one point do another limited series or something like that,” Goyer told us, “at least three or four years from now.” The idea would be for a single eight-episode event series, which “specifically has to do with the Bonfire of the Vanities and Savanarola and Michelangelo and some other stuff, and it would have been impossible to cram that all into this season....

“The Fall From Heaven” begins with Riario and Da Vinci waxing about their mortality and the irony of facing their doom together at the hands of their Incan jailers. This moment of contemplation allows Riario to inform Da Vinci about his past, a confession that will be completed in shocking fashion later in the episode. As for the duo’s precarious situation, Da Vinci constantly tries to live in to the light of modernity, but he is held prisoner by his new Incan bride, a woman living in the darkness of pagan superstition....

In recognition of their outstanding first season (which is now available on DVD and Blu Ray) and in anticipation of the upcoming second season, Harmon and Roiland came to New York Comic Con to talk about the show and its future during a stellar panel and a roundtable, which we were a part of. On whether we might see the Rick and Morty puppets, used to market the DVD, on the show at some point: Roiland: I don’t think so....

Among the many surprises of Deadpool 2, there is one amazing cameo that happens so fast you might have to see the movie twice to catch it. Deadpool and Weasel literally speak to empty air, plus the guy’s headshot is blank, so we actually don’t know if the Vanisher is even there. Of course, this being Deadpool, he’s hired anyway (and yes, there was a Vanisher in the comics who first appeared in 1963 as a villain in X-Men #2 and later joined X-Force)....

He does look good in the promo shots, though, I’ll give him that. Dexter’s Victim Of The Week is this floppy-haired kid who’s just been released from a juvenile detention centre for killing a man a couple of years ago. Dexter thinks he’s mocking the system, gloating that he wasn’t put away for long and plotting to make another move – a theory which is somewhat reinforced when Dexter stalks the kid to an antiques market where he buys a nasty-looking hunting knife then waves it around like a maniac....

I’d like to flag a spoiler alert from the outset, as the nuances of this story can’t really be discussed without revealing some major plot points. If you’ve not watched it, turn back now! Don’t take this as a complaint, but this story has a markedly different tone than the previous nine in this season. A noticeably darker and more urgent persona, that sees Dexter genuinely massively stressed out by discovering an entirely different and scary facet to Arthur Mitchell’s psychosis....

5.12 The Big One The problem that the Dexter team wrestled with all season, and eventually worked out that there was no solution, was how to top the ending of season 4. With the best will in the world, they couldn’t have another ending like that one, as it was so dramatic that a show only ever gets something like that to happen once. But it would have probably put the character in a mental institution to have a repeat loss of that magnitude, so that avenue was blocked from the outset, which then limited the options available....

6.4 A Horse of a Different Color At the very start of this story, Dexter’s mind becomes focused on the killer who’s making a name for himself in Miami Metro – and that name is Doomsday. The graphic nature of the four horsemen tableau underlines that the series’ characters are dealing with no ordinary killer, and it also provides the first real challenge that Debra Morgan’s been presented since her promotion....

6.5 The Angel Of Death What’s really worrying is that I’m supremely confident that, whichever way that sword falls, I’ll be thrown, because there is undoubtedly something exceptionally weird going on here that’s not all we’ve been shown. My guess is that it’s actually more disturbing than we realise, from the oddment of clues we’ve been provided.
The overall effect is that I’m finding this season of Dexter unsettling in a way that previous ones, with the possible exception of season four, haven’t....

7.3 Buck The System What was good about this was Debra’s realisation that she’s not in control of this situation, and that as well meaning as she’s been, she’s unlikely to convert Dexter into a normal person any time soon. What transpires moves her somewhat from her original position, but not all the way over to Dexter’s end of the scale. It looks like over the course of the season she’ll eventually get there, possibly through the death of someone close to her....

And you get the Silurians too, albeit in greater number than we saw with the story opener, The Hungry Earth. Not too great a number, to be fair – the Excel spreadsheet is still a little bit of a dampener on ambitions. But not for the first time this run, Doctor Who manages to get a lot out of not too much. It’s not as straightforward an episode as you might initially give it credit for, either....

Jenny Colgan’s second Doctor Who story features the Eleventh Doctor and Clara investigating an unknown, peril-laden planet. The second of the new Time Trips series (a tautological title, especially given the series it’s attached to) scores highly in terms of characterisation, does moderately well in terms of originality, but the story logic doesn’t quite hold together. Their journey brings to mind some of the original run’s desolate traipsing, combining quarries, forests and maggots before arriving at a castle of bones....

If you like that sort of thing, the picture quality is distinctly improved: crisp, colourful, enhancing little moments such as laser flashes, skin texture and sideburns. The first episode of a new production team (the legendary Hinchcliffe and Holmes producer/script editor regime), it bares comparison to The Eleventh Hour in terms of bold statements of intent. This is how the show is going to be now, it says, and proceeds to highlight this by having its new Doctor and companion (Harry Sullivan – “I’m not a regressive, I’m a naval officer”) explore a seemingly empty space station while Sarah is apparently euthanised, with Baker’s Fourth Doctor markedly more alien than his predecessor....

Kennedy’s tale begins with a very Doctor Who clash between horror and comedy, a grotesque but scientifically-detailed death sequence written in child-like and child-friendly prose. You can tell Kennedy has read one or two Target novels in her time (and drops in references to The Invasion of Time and Delta and the Bannermen just for good measure). Occasionally, however, sentences get overlong. The whimsy can be trying, but can also result in delightful passages including a description of the Doctor’s smell....

The Snowmen If you were looking for clues that Steven Moffat was taking this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, The Snowmen, as an opportunity to do a bit of freshening up in advance of the show’s 50th anniversary year, you really didn’t have to wait long. A brand new title sequence, with a splash of Matt Smith, and a revised theme tune as well, suggested early on that things had changed a little....

Here’s what we can tell you. Inevitably, that façade doesn’t last too long once the Doctor arrives on the scene, but it’s interesting, logical and well executed as to the reasons why they are in this particular part of time and space. Their current plan also gives Matt Smith – and let’s face it, he’s really looking comfortable in the role – the chance to channel just a bit more of Patrick Troughton....

The Doctor battles a fanged monster in Tooth And Claw, ably assisted by his trusty companion. But it isn’t Rose. It’s Izzy. And again, it’s Izzy assisting him as the Daleks prepare to rip their way into other Universes, not the blessed Donna. On television, the Seventh Doctor was shot down by gangland teenagers. The response of Doctor Who Magazine was to end his comic strip era by killing off popular mainstay Ace, as she and the Doctor saved the world from inter-dimensional parasites....