This review contains spoilers. When is a Christmas episode not a Christmas episode? When it’s a The Big Bang Theory episode aired in January, that flashes back to December with very little reason to back it up. I’m torn on this episode. On the one hand, I enjoyed the format change and the peek into what the gang’s lives might be like when the fictional cameras aren’t on them. On the other, it’s nothing we haven’t seen a million times before and is, as always, concerned primarily with only two of the eight-strong cast....

The Boss Baby isn’t his best film, I’d argue, but reading around some of the critical reactions to it so far, I seem to have enjoyed it a lot more than most. Its setup is explained in a delightful opening, where we get to see where babies come from. Not in a 50 Shades kind of way, rather that babies pop out of Babycorp (not a euphemism), and are duly sorted out, ready for delivery to their families....

In spite of being far more overtly scripted than the previous two films (after all, who wouldn’t hang around now when they see Sacha Baron Cohen and a camera crew approaching), The Dictator is still keen to push similar buttons. Thus, his character, General Aladeen, happily spits out comments designed to get under the collar of Outraged From Tunbridge Wells, or whoever writes complaining letters to your local outlet of choice....

“I [went over] so that we could start a series of really frank conversations about the content of the movie… about the violence or sexuality, or nudity, and things like that,” Francis Lawrence says during a phone interview with Den of Geek. “I wanted her to be a partner in that, so that we’re both super-vigilant in how we approach those scenes. Also just to start talking to her about what it’s going to be like on the day, because shooting stuff like that is very different from what the outcome will be....

First off, let me say that, up until this week, I was the first person to come to The Event‘s defence. Although the formula for the show has been slightly overdone, I still found myself enjoying the first couple of episodes. Episode 5 is where I first started to get worried. The only part of the show that had been entertaining to me was Jason Ritter’s attempt to find his girlfriend, played by Sara Roemer....

After last week’s incredibly effective twists and turns, it’s time for the story to really get going, and that’s exactly what episode four did, in spades. As we get closer to the inevitable final battle, the slow burn of the previous episodes gives way to a frenzy of activity in a place where death is anything but final. We don’t however, know what John’s actual intentions are now that he’s here, outside of eating anything and everything he can get his hands on....

The Flash Season 3 Episode 10 When you think about it, these midseason breaks are really quite long. Ordinarily, by episode 10 of a 22 or 23 episode season, I’ve usually called out about 3-4 episodes as being “disposable” and indicative of why most network TV shows could benefit from moving to the cable model. Anyway, I’m not going to do that tonight, even though Plunder is a completely lame villain of the week....

For one thing, there is finally an actual compelling character on the show. No, it’s not tough talking, mission botching Ryan Hardy, and no, it’s not the enigmatic Joe Carroll. The real break out star that has emerged late in the season is Roderick, the follower who seems to be Joe’s right hand man and the real brains and string puller behind the operation. He’s wry, mysterious, and a hell of a lot more interesting than Joe himself....

3.1 New Blood It’s a lovely wedding for Gina Mendez (Valerie Cruz) and her partner, capped off by a very sweet toast from one Ryan Hardy (the infamous Kevin Bacon). He’s got a lovely new girlfriend named Gwen (Zuleikha Robinson), Max (Jessica Stroup) has a functional relationship with her new man Tom (Gbenga Akinnagbe), and Mike (Shawn Ashmore) is… well, Mike is enjoying his work. Joe Carroll is on death row, Mark (Sam Underwood) has fled the country, and all appears to be well until a wedding guest walks up to Ryan and throws blood on his face in the middle of a toast....

It helps that there are powers on display right away that we haven’t seen on previous superhero-as-outcast shows. Of particular interest is Jamie Chung’s character, Claire a.k.a. Blink, whose ability involves creating writhing purple portals that allow her to travel instanteously from one point to another. Having her character join the Mutant Underground as someone still new to her abilities is something we’ve seen in shows like The Tomorrow People or Alphas, but that trope is usually reserved for the main character....

The greater part of the bunker appears to be a prison, each cell containing a single, seemingly ordinary child. Melanie (Sennia Nanua) is the smartest of them all; smart enough that she can reel off elements on the periodic table without pausing for thought. But like the other children, Melanie also has a hidden, darker side; if an ordinary human gets too close, her hunger for flesh emerges with a flash of bared teeth....

So I was doing my ’emergency services’ call routine one more time as my kitchen was illuminated by the flames from their window. The following days were enlivened by visits from the fire officers and the police. But, sadly, no charming reporters this time. I guess we are old news now. I’m not sure what made me read the enclosed pamphlet on MMOs, whatever they may be. Probably because I wondered what an MMO might indeed be....

However, when it comes to documentary films, this notion of trustworthiness takes on a deeper meaning. What is willing suspension of disbelief for fictional films is replaced with the assumption that what you are watching is a representation of honest-to-goodness fact. Veracity becomes important, but documentaries still have stories to tell, and many are, in the telling, subject to the same narrative and cinematic strategies as fiction. Unlike in fictional film, where it seems that unreliable narrators and ‘based on true events’ plots lost their impact long ago, the illusion of fact is still a battlefield in documentary....

Series four of Graham Linehan’s techno-baby The IT Crowd got off on the wrong foot for me last week. This week, however, we’re firmly back in IT Crowd country! Roy, however, isn’t faring so well after moving into a new place and having his mumbling window cleaner impose on him by leaving his ladder and bike there. While trying to return said equipment, sod’s law causes him to bump into a much more successful uni friend, leaving Roy looking like a loser window cleaner rather than a loser in IT support....

The doomed humans of the future are, of course, the children of today. Kids, one day this overpopulated, polluted planet torn apart by Terminators will all be yours. Lucky you. Because school only teaches you basic maths, college only teaches you about unrequited love and university only teaches you how to get in debt, it’s up to media like films and books to fill in the gaps. We learn everything from the flicks, from how to behave like a normal person in public to how survive a holocaust....

I hope this column finds you well. To be totally honest with you, it doesn’t find me that well, I’m afraid – at least not well enough to run around in the big wide outside world with its contaminated air, acid rain and hobos with shotguns. On reflection, the film noir fantasy I’m currently trapped is more appealing than the regular nasty world that lies on the outside – a place where, according to Rutger Hauer’s aforementioned Hobo With a Shotgun, “You’re more likely to wind up selling your bodies on the streets, or shooting dope from dirty needles in a bus stop....

Anyway, Avatar is a milestone moment because of its special effects and not because of its ‘outsider-becomes-insider-and-leads-natives’-fight-against-evil-invaders’ plot. Whether people like it or not, they’re going to have to face the truth that this film will leave a lasting mark in cinema history and also, I reckon, in society beyond the screen. Admittedly, when ‘young, dumb and full of cum’ male marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) gets intimate with the beautiful native Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldaña) he’s in his Na’vi avatar form and therefore not engaging in interspecies intercourse in the flesh....

You know, I came to this episode very wary. Just the title alone sent a shiver up my spine, making me dread that it would be a companion piece to “The Sting.” You know, some contrived, slightly noir filler episode to showcase Mako’s cop-ness. Thanks, no. And indeed, the first half of the episode did nothing to dissuade me from these fears. It was slow, not much happened, and I didn’t really see the point of it....

The Living And The Dead delivered the perfect Halloween special this week. Episode five was a typically handsome hour (is there a better-looking show on at the moment?) dripping with classic horror moments. It was the week that saw Shepzoy’s sceptics get what for. Spirits rampaged around the village dripping ghost-blood on the carpets and sending the locals scattering. Even the most rational-minded villager couldn’t convince themselves that a murderous troupe of dead Civil War soldiers was just a trick of the light....

When a tree branch falls on the Hecks’ car and shatters the windshield, the Heck parents contact their insurance agency and rely on their “Act of God” plan to pay off the damages. When their claim is rejected due to “lack of tree care,” Frankie’s temper tantrum lands them back at home without an insurance check or a windshield. Through their own act of God, the church graciously saves the day by letting Frankie use the church van for a few weeks....