Okay, maybe I’m still in my post-Daredevil season 2 orgasmic happy malaise, but could anyone else not keep track of all the different Russian characters on tonight’s Agents of SHIELD? We had some military general that could control a shadow, we had a dead attaché, we had a prime minister, and we really didn’t get a solid explanation to who everyone was or what they were after. Maybe I missed it because I was still thinking of the glory of Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, but I think tonight’s episode of SHIELD tried to stuff a little too much into its run time....

First off, let’s deal with the giant teleporting bulldog in the room, or not in the room, as nowhere were the words Attilan, Inhumans, or Royal Family uttered anywhere in the episode. Yes, Coulson and company discovered a hidden city connected to the Kree (it was in Puerto Rico, not the Himalayas like in the comics), but while the series is tip-toeing around introducing the Inhumans and Attilan, it hasn’t done so just yet....

When a series has been on for as long as American Dad has, it makes sense to begin scrambling to find any loose threads of story that can still be explored or expanded upon. Francine’s sister Gwen has been mentioned a number of times throughout the series, but never before seen, and so it’s only appropriate that she finally make her appearance now, and that it’s one that fills Francine with worry....

4.7 Test Of Strength I though it was safe to tune into American Horror Story. I really did. After last week’s threatening stance towards Ma Petite, I figured she would be safe. Test Of Strength only reinforced that, as Dell went around the camp looking for an innocent victim to avoid further blackmail by Stanley, who knows that Dell frequents Jupiter’s one gay bar. The episode teases it perfectly. Dell first goes after Eve, who promptly beats the crap out of him because she’s 6’8 and possibly the worst possible target for Dell’s violence....

2.10 The Name Game Even the opening credits contribute to this uneasiness. Every week, they’re different, but not so different that you immediately pick out what’s changed. It’s subtle, as far as this show can be subtle, and immediately puts you in the right mindset for the program because you find yourself questioning if the credits are always like that, or if some particular scene or allusion is new. It also leaves you questioning if what you’ve seen is real (in the AHS universe)....

With a title like “League of Assassins” and recent revelations involving everyone from Black Canary (which was to be expected) to Ra’s al Ghul (which was totally NOT expected), it seemed like this episode was a sure thing. It’s certainly been the most anticipated one for the last few weeks. And while “League of Assassins” didn’t skimp on the action (we’ll get to that in a minute), it felt like a step backward in several other departments (we’ll get to those, too)....

Arrow Season 6 Episode 18 Review Arrow attempts to give its villain some depth with a straightforward backstory, a quest to climb the ladder of a stereotypical criminal enterprise, and flirtation with evil Laurel. Sadly everything wrong with this episode feels emblematic of the season’s larger problems, from the lack of a villain we can sink our teeth into to a refusal to dig into the moral depths of Oliver’s quest to save the city, the other Laurel’s attempt to make good, and the other interpretations of what it means to be a hero....

Was it The Bill of the past, or the next Quantum Leap? The series defied description, creating its own little niche filled with out of time modern policeman, bent coppers and cars that collectors would die for. Now things have moved on and the status quo has shifted, John Simms character Sam Tyler in the ‘real world’ has committed suicide and in the ‘Life-On-Mars-Verse’ was mysteriously killed off in a car accident (but no body was found)....

2.7 A Fate Worse Than Death To start, a brief recap of this week’s action: with news that the Queen is to marry Jason, Pasiphae is not happy, not only because she is Jason’s mother, but moreover because of her desire to seize the throne for herself from Ariadne and take her – in her mind – rightful place as ruler of the kingdom of Atlantis. It’s not from Pasiphae and her cronies that Ariadne must defend herself, her desire to marry a low-born is causing trouble internally....

It is by definition a bleak ending. Our eponymous collection of resilient, undaunted, and sometimes plucky (sorry, Peter Quill) heroes have been defeated. Severely and for the first time. Half of them have even ceased to exist after Josh Brolin’s Thanos snapped his fingers and disintegrated them into dust. Scarlet Witch is gone; Falcon is no more; Star-Lord and Mantis have joined Gamora in that big disco in the sky… and even Spider-Man, Marvel’s very own mascot superhero, died as a pile of ash in Tony Stark’s arms....

That’s the situation that sound editor, re-recording mixer and longtime collaborator of director Edgar Wright, Julian Slater, found himself in when Wright told him about next movie. Baby Driver would be the first car chase movie, or really any other movie, scored entirely by one character’s sixth generation iPod. So for inspiration about the new project, Slater tried out some car chase movies. And then when that didn’t work out, he went back to a more familiar well....

Condon’s live action take on the story, firmly using the animated classic as its basis and heart, runs to 129 minutes (including credits), and therein lie its inevitable problems. That a story that had been worked and trimmed and cut to just the right length is now a third longer again. The grumbles that follow are a consequence of that decision. The core story is the same. Belle, played by Emma Watson, is a headstrong girl, living on the fringes of a small French village, where she doesn’t quite fit in....

This whimsical imagining of William Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’ certainly pays one or two playful homages to that other less-than-accurate biopic, but its real heritage can be traced to Monty Python and Blackadder. In the fashion of the former, the sextet of main actors, already known for their ensemble work on CBBC’s Horrible Histories and Sky’s Yonderland, share the majority of the roles between them. Each has a main role, and Mathew Baynton proves a lovably optimistic Shakespeare at the heart of it all....

On Showtime’s popular drama Billions, every episode further complicates things for both U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and billionaire hedge fund manager Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis). The two have been at each other’s throats since the first season, and with season three past the halfway mark, things haven’t changed all that much. Sure, they’re currently working together to save themselves (and Rhoades’ wife Wendy, played by Maggie Siff) from others, but this loose truce won’t last very long....

Steve Buscemi channels Humphrey Bogart for Nucky Thompson. His appraising eye has the same distrust and disbelief we saw in George Haley’s eyes when he couldn’t believe he’d been shot by Eddie Bartlett. Going down yelling “Eddie. Crazy.” You would think Nucky would borrow more from James Cagney because of the Irish connection, but Buscemi captures the physicality of Bogart, himself a product of speakeasies. Having The Onyx on the boardwalk and on Boardwalk Empire gives it a gangster’s legitimacy, cinematic street cred....

5.2 The Good Listener Of the three significant interviews in this episode, it’s the only one concerned with the present. And why wouldn’t it be? Capone, the legend in his own lifetime, is the man of the moment. Everyone wants a piece of him, from the low-level gangsters who encircle him to his many fans around the world, to the federal government,which has dispatched the half lawman, half politician Eliot Ness to pursue him....

After the excitement of Michael Weston’s unexpected homecoming in the Burn Notice pilot episode, it’s time for him to spend some time making it up to his mum, and stopping Fi and Sam from killing each other. Ah, the glamorous life of a spy. She’s spot on, but as the bug was still on, whoever’s on the other end is well aware that Michael is on his way, giving them time to destroy all the equipment and beat a hasty retreat....

Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is a driven and uber capable detective with a code of honor that is above reproach, but while she aims to clear every case that comes across her desk, the murder of her mother has been the beating heart of her personality and some of Castle’s best episodes since the show’s inception. For a little while, during the sometimes silly season six finale, it seemed like Castle might spend its golden years with Kate and Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) pursuing grim cases and mysteries with a tinge of lightness while wrestling with the challenge of making a marriage work both at work and at home....

Ram’s dad, Tanya’s mum… “The Lost” tossed multiple victims on the pile, topping it off with Dorothea (Coal Hill heads evidently share the longevity of Defence Against The Dark Arts professors, Magic Box owners and Spinal Tap drummers), who perished by order of The Governors. By order of The Governors, but not by their hand. That task fell to the Weeping Angels (those evil ‘don’t blink’ monsters from the parent show who’ve surely been rinsed clear of danger through overuse by now), for whose Arrival on Earth The Governors are busily preparing like a good little cult....

Colony Season 2 Episode 4 The ultimate crime one can commit in Colony’s world is to set all feints, pretenses, and gaslights aside and openly communicate with someone else about the truth of their experience. To do so will warrant you a trip to The Factory. Then again, so will lying. But which lies are you permitted to tell, and which are labeled as dishonest according to the standards of The Occupation?...