There are many elements of Black Lightning that will set it apart fom the rest of The CW’s superhero line-up: Rather than an origin story, it is about a middle-aged man returning to a life of crime-fighting after a nine-year break. It is a superhero story that confronts not simply crime, but the institutions and systemic oppressions that create and support it. And, most importantly, it is unabashedly black. This isn’t simply a story about Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), high school principal, father, and superhero....

4.2 Resignation ‘When you see your kids remember they didn’t cost you anything’. He might have a tendency towards the sentimental, but Richard can’t half make a point when he wants to. He had, quite literally, a captive audience, but his statement about money stands. It’s a lesson that most of his fellow characters have yet to heed. It’s a natural result of the focus on gangsters, politicians and wannabes (sometimes all three in the same person) that money is the first thing reached for to fix things....

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 9 OR. Literally everyone, even random ass kids, ship Sakura and Syaoran. Now we’re still getting some of that although it’s been shifted to “will Syaoran actually ask Sakura to be his girlfriend?” Unlike before though the entire world is shipping it. Sakura’s dad ships it. Yukito def ships it. Tomoyo ships it to a somewhat alarming degree. EVEN A RANDOM ASS KID, HIS MOM, AND TWO FOREIGNERS SHIP IT....

The episode begins with an obvious setup for what we’re about to endure. Kate gets a wedding invitation from an ex-boyfriend (who sends out a wedding invitation to their ex?), and she and Rick briefly and playfully ponder where they would be without each other. Quickly, the two leave the kitchen and head off to their latest crime scene where they find clues that lead them to an abandoned coal plant where a shootout ensues after Rick picks up an odd looking artifact that sets off an alarm after it is removed from its case....

The upper classes were all but guaranteed places, due to the financial freedoms they enjoyed, and they too graduated and dutifully reproduced, without ever having the general wherewithall to disregard members of their extended families with whom to do so, which kept the higher education system in a state of centrifugal equilibrium for many happy centuries. In recent years, however, the higher educational system has atrophied and rotted to such an extent a working class simpleton like me was even able to get a place in one....

Children of the Fleet tells the story of Dabeet Ochoa, a highly intelligent but somewhat arrogant young lad of 11 years who desperately wants to transcend the stifling confines of his gifted school in Indiana for the glories of Fleet School, the new name for Battle School where the International Fleet trained its soldiers in Ender’s time. These days, the station situated at the L5 Lagrange point is where the future leaders of colonies are trained to navigate the difficulties of life on the barely habitable planets left behind in the wake of the Formic Wars....

Cast your mind back to the opening weekend of DreamWorks’ colour explosion, Trolls. It’s a decent enough film, that I never have much urge to rewatch, but my offspring do. The news that Trolls 2 is on the way was greeted with some joy by them too. The problem – and you can see where this is heading – is that when we went to take our seats, there was someone in them....

This is a brilliant thing in many ways, but sometimes I wonder where it might lead. Is there room for us to learn new rules when it comes to cinema? What lies ahead, as technological developments bring new opportunities? Film Past, Film Future is prepared to have a stab at answering some of those questions, and not in a vague, predictive way. Instead Tim Cawkwell looks back through the years of film-making and uses varied examples to bring together an argument that led to a very interesting conclusion about where film is going that I won’t spoil here....

Initially concerned with mystery, Confessions soon finds itself lost in relentless revelation, a feature-length third act, where characters narrate motivation either before or alongside the action itself. In a compelling, nightmarish opening sequence, a bereaved teacher (Takako Matsu) lectures her unruly class of teenage yahoos about life. Her daughter was found dead on school grounds and, worse, she believes that it was no accident, but a harsh act on the part of two of her students....

I mean Sonmanto with its weaponized waste is as reprehensible as they come, and the fact that both Kiera and Travis were fooled by the company’s supposed heroics in 2066 makes it that much more despicable. And as corporate as Piron Alec has become, even he is anxious to help Kiera take down these low-lifes (with the help of a team of scientists, of course). Time-traveling Alec’s decision to leave for good with Emily is also hard to swallow....

2.1 Home, Sweet Home First, a little recap. Detective Kevin Corcoran and company have foiled the Confederate plot to burn New York City. Elizabeth Haverford was in on the Confederate plot, but no one knows it yet. Corky’s former best friend and partner, Francis Maguire, is in prison for murder. He slept with Corcoran’s wife Ellen and then confined her to an insane asylum. It was Ellen who killed Corcoran’s daughter, by accident....

Colgan’s prose is efficient and readable. Turns of phrase won’t stick out but you’ll speed through the novel with ease. It’s clear that it was fun to write at times, the joy leaping off the page. As ever with original Who fiction, there are nods and winks to past adventures (including The Myth Makers) for those who get them. Before we know what kind of threat the Doctor is facing, the story is reminiscent of early Historicals....

Dark Matter Season 3 Episode 7 Six’s welcome return to the Raza in this week’s Dark Matter was an interesting mix of fascinating revelations and predictable subterfuge, but on the whole, “Wish I Could Believe You” was an admirable step forward toward bringing the corporate war into sharper focus. The dream-within-a-dream format had some easily discernible flaws in the deception but in the end was successful because of a few unexpected elements thrown in for good measure....

When you’re dealing with a flaky, pompous younger brother (Martin Lawrence as Ryan), a baby-maddened wife (Regina Hall as Michelle), a cantankerous old uncle (Danny Glover as Russell), and the rest of the far-flung crew of relatives and friends these sorts of affairs draw, it’s easy to be overwhelmed even when things go off without a hitch. Death At A Funeral will be familiar to the readers of this website, because most of you are Brits, and undoubtedly you remember 2007’s Death At A Funeral, directed by Frank Oz and written by Dean Craig....

Made as part of Universal Studios Home Entertainment wing, it has been pitched perfectly as the kind of action movie night in that so many of us were raised on, aimed directly at its audience with no pretensions and without the extortionate amounts of money that most films have to shell out for any chance of a decent cinematic release. The film itself revolves around the origins of the race itself, as well as contributing towards the myth surrounding Death Race‘s main protagonist from both the old and new versions of the movie....

1.7 Goodbye, Blue Sky In this subplot, where I became confused was in the chronological order of events, because only after Sukar is taken over by the nanites does he take control of the fragment and fly it down to Defiance, yet later exposition by Nolan tells us that the fragment was always on a collision course for the town. So which is it? I think I know the answer, but the inference by the doctor was that Sukar brought the fragment down, which was probably misleading....

Okay, last week I kind of skipped over the details of Dexter’s Victim(s) Of The Week, because it seemed like the least important part of the story. This week, it turns out, it wasn’t: the episode kicks off with Dexter being called to a crime scene – and it’s his own crime scene. You can immediately tell it’s a different director this week, because there’s way too much zoom going on....

In the last two seasons there have been episodes of Dexter that I described as an intake of breath. And in some respects, First Blood is that story this year. But there are two stand-out parts that really grabbed my attention here, and the first was the excellent work of Julia Stiles as the irreparably-damaged Lumen. The track record of the show is now to bring very high quality actors into the playpen (Lithgow last year – awesome) and let them loose, and that is exactly what’s going on with Stiles....

8.11 Monkey in a Box When I watched Monkey in a Box I kept being drawn to something that I was taught at film school about narrative. The journey that all characters must travel must change them in some way, or they’re purely part of the scenery. That change was the focus of the opening scenes where Dexter is cleaning the Vogel death scene of any evidence relating to him....

Whether you like it or not, we’re now halfway through this series of Doctor Who, and it’s time for the stakes to get higher; we now know who’s in the vault (or at least, who the Doctor thinks is in the vault), there’s a massive alien invasion waiting to strike, and oh yeah, the Doctor’s still blind. While you bite your nails waiting for next week’s instalment, here are our viewing notes with all the vaguely interesting things we noticed about this week’s episode....