With the addition of Johnson as creative lead but not necessarily director of all three movies in the new trilogy (he could direct the first installment), Lucasfilm has the option to bring in more diverse writers and directors — or to double down on the idea that only white men get to call “Action!” for Star Wars. Many fans who want the former have rallied under the Twitter hashtag #SWRepMatters, founded by Swara Salih, Klaudia Amenábar, and others*....

Will & Grace is a comedy about four friends who love each other, yet don’t always agree with each other’s choices, as in real life. The quartet’s bond is as strong as ever in this return episode. The episode doesn’t venture from its usual shenanigans and social commentary about people and causes that matter. It’s no mistake that the season premiere refers to the current occupant in The White House, and then temporarily relocates the main characters to D....

Brian Cox explains the forces of air pressure and gravity in his own relaxed, trendy style, and in his hands potentially overwhelming concepts are described in terms that are easy to grasp, even for those of us who fell asleep at the back of the class during our school science lessons. Elsewhere, we learn of the sulphuric, hostile atmosphere of Venus, a planet choked to death by greenhouse gases, and discover that driving a 4×4 across the sand dunes of the Namib desert is much like driving across the surface of Mars (assuming the 4×4 was airtight, since the red planet is almost entirely free of atmosphere, not unlike a certain well-known chain of pubs)....

Wynonna Earp Season 2 Episode 11 This alternate reality episode is meant to stall us from the eventual face-off between Wynonna and the Widows, but it also gives us some insight into the widows, and how miserable the world would be without Wynonna. We learn some valuable things about the residents of Purgatory in this alternate reality created by the stone witch’s sister. No one likes Doc, and with good reason....

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a very unlikely survivor of the zombie apocalypse. He’s not big and strong, he’s not terribly proficient with firearms, but he has one thing that’s helped him save his own skin: an incredibly neurotic list of rules that have allowed him to flourish in the wasteland that used to be the United States of America. Literally, in every situation, Columbus has a rule, and that’s what’s kept him alive when everyone else around him has dropped undead....

24 Season 8 1:00-2:00pm Events were kicked off as the President’s staff announced Charles Logan’s involvement in the peace process. Logan, getting ready for his meeting with the Russian President, was comfortably smug and pompous, smirking at his grand scheme, even with the knowledge that Bauer is still at large. He’s shaken a little, though, as Pillar informs Logan that the Russian agent/sniper has been brutally tortured and killed by Jack, and that Meredith Reed is still unaccounted for....

If you hadn’t already heard: The CW’s brightest and most jovial superhero shows, The Flash and Supergirl, are set to have a two-part musical episode special as part of the upcoming TV season. As if that isn’t exciting enough, the hot rumour is that Joss Whedon is ‘locked’ in as director. And, on top of that, the speculation mill suggests that Neil Patrick Harris could provide the villainy, reprising his terrific Music Meister performance from the animated series Batman: The Brave And The Bold....

Growing up has never been an easy thing to do. Surviving the trials and tribulations of school is bad enough but then you have to deal with the real world full of responsibilities, work, bills. Finding your place can be difficult. After dropping out of graduate school, Jake and Kristy move to John Hughes’ favourite location of Chicago. Unwilling to become another ‘stay at home wife’ Kristy starts her corporate career while Jake talks his way into a copywriter position at a local advertising agency....

For fans who have watched the movies, but not read the books, Ron Weasley’s role in the defeat of the Dark Lord and in the Golden Trio friendship might seem small compared to Hermione. This is at least partially because many of Ron’s biggest book moments — both in the fight of Light vs. Evil and in the interpersonal life of Harry — were given to Hermione in the movies....

There’s a fair chance that you weren’t really familiar with the character before this weekend. A dim awareness of the cartoon aside, Iron Man hasn’t really entered into the public consciousness in the same way Hulk, Spider-Man and Captain America did. That’s certainly set to change now, especially with a sequel days from being made official. Anyone looking to get into Iron Man will be aware that the comic and movie versions aren’t going to be identical....

American Dad! Season 13 Episode 5 “It’s different for men. Aging just means that we’re closer to death.” With Hayley and Jeff finding themselves with baby fever, Stan finds himself filling with remorse. He’s none too eager to become a granddad, with the life event only reminding him of his limited mortality and the inevitability of life. This results in some decent jokes that see Stan freaking out or moping while everyone else is celebrating (Offscreen Motors and their aversion to cameras is also such a great, vaudevillian sort of joke)....

American Dad Season 15 Episode 11 Sometimes in order to tell an effective American Dad story it involves finding a situation that incorporates the entire Smith family. Episodes of American Dad will often function by splitting its cast into two or three different storylines. This is just an effective way to structure an episode of television, but it’s always satisfying when the show can slightly skirt these rules and find a piece of insanity that ropes in the whole Smith family....

1.7 The Rules of Engagement He’s still very much in love with Ariadne and, despite her Pasiphae-influenced protestation that she doesn’t love him, he’s intent on entering the competition to risk his life and prove his love. Pasiphae continues her descent into darkness, thanks to her manipulation of Ariadne and Heptarian and a poison that she administers to her own husband. If it works as it should, it’ll be a slow death for the King and she will be able to take her rightful place in the bosom of power....

2.4 The Marriage Of True Mind Convincing Ariadne that he needs his father’s blessing for the marriage, Telemon manages to draw the Queen out of the court, much to the concern of Jason. Unable to convince her she’s doing the wrong thing, Jason, Pythagoras and Hercules set out to ensure the Queen remains safe and join the retinue that will escort her. As chaos ensues, Telemon seizes the opportunity to attack, though has second thoughts, leaving Ariadne betrayed and endangered and Pasiphae enraged....

In this roundtable session, the assembled, hard-nosed journos were intent on grilling Landau about Avatar‘s inflated budget, as well as the price of 3D exhibition, and the production’s dealings with Fox, Murdoch and News Corporation. Here’s a question that no one has answered yet, and it’s about profitability. When will the film break even? Because it has a rumoured negative cost of $300 million… It will break even when the income exceeds the expenditure....

As for this episode however, it’s split between the President seemingly schooling Lee in the ways of politics, and the Demetrius story. Just a thought – it’s not hard to imagine Adama Jr running for President once Roslin’s bought it? She’s certainly not going to let Tory take over if she can, and chastises her for fraternizing with Baltar. If it weren’t Laura Roslin, famous iron-willed airlocker, then I’d be worried about Tory’s revenge....

After complaining about the descending level of quality for the last couple of weeks, Bedlam seems to have upped its game at the last minute, and delivered an episode that’s entertaining and exciting. We get some new characters thrown into the mix, which nicely distracts from the increasingly stale dynamic between existing players, and their intrusion into Bedlam Heights brings about the kind of deadly horror that usually accompanies naively conducted satanic rituals....

This review contains spoilers. Here’s how you know you’ve written a bad episode of television: no one can track your characters’ motivation. I honestly don’t even know where to begin listing what went wrong with this episode, so I’m going to break it down into our three main characters. Josh is probably the least egregious – we know why he wants to kill Ray and it’s perfectly in-character with the Josh we met last year....

You started writing this movie 10 years ago now… Gaiman: 10 and a half! May 1997.So what made you think: hmmm, Beowulf, that’d make a good movie… Gaiman: I can’t remember running into the story and not thinking it would make a good movie. I first ran into Beowulf in a comic called Look and Learn, and I was a 7-year-old, and I remember thinking “that looks cool.” And later I found a copy of the Penguin translation and read it and – it was monster-fighting!...

1.10 Quality Of Life As you no doubt noticed from the helpful tip above, this review of Billions contains spoilers. Unfortunately, there is no such spoiler warning included on episode ten’s official synopsis from Showtime. It reads: “Following a death, Axe and Wendy do some soul-searching; Chuck suffers a setback; a corrupt judge dismisses the case; Axe takes his revenge.” I’ve long made fun of the spoiler-phobic as I’ve yet to encounter a spoiler that has actually “spoiled” my enjoyment of a show before I watch it....