Homeland Season 7 Episode 4 Tonight on Homeland, things ended how they always seem to when you have men with guns staring at other men with guns. And for all the bluster and talk of non-violence, there was only one sane voice in the proverbial room via Saul Berenson, and without having a single equal on the other side—or even amongst the rest of the FBI leadership inside that mobile command center—there was but one way this hour was going to conclude: catastrophe....

It’s basically the McCoy era. Live. With less money. Fortunately, I like the McCoy era. And if there’s one thing Doctor Who fans should understand, it’s that you can overcome a lack of budget with imagination. Thus we have I Need a Doctor. I Need a Doctor is advertised as a Doctor Who musical, because its creators aren’t stupid. However, it isn’t just a loose collection of songs that reference Timeflight and Planet of the Ood....

Midway through the final part of In the Flesh, it was all going so well. Kieren had cathartically confessed to the parents of his last victim, Amy was off to seek her undead fortune (admittedly a departure more bitter than sweet after she’d been used and abused by the supposedly non-monstrous men of Roarton), and the Walker siblings were pals again. You’d have been wet behind the ears to drop your guard at that point though, as there was anguish aplenty in store....

The obvious answer is to make it personal. And that’s exactly what Iron Man 3 does, to masterful effect. The threat of Ben Kingsley as proselytising terrorist warlord The Mandarin notwithstanding, what gives Stark the most trouble in this film is his sheer inability to process his recent experiences of gods, aliens and interstellar travel. Cool detachment no longer works. Sealing himself inside a suit of armour no longer works....

I’ll readily admit that I was a fair bit apprehensive to check out this show. A lot of this had to do with the prejudices I was placing on the series due to it being a spinoff of a recurring segment from TripTank. The idea is also not the most original premise that I’ve ever come across either. I mean, is there anything really new to say about aliens at this point?...

The game’s legend has survived thanks to the web, however, partly because of its incredibly strange line of humour. While the American version was heavily censored, the Japanese Kato & Ken was infamous for its scatalogical humor, with its characters occasionally breaking wind or going for a surreptitious toilet break behind some bushes. Then there were the questions it raised: who the hell were these two guys in suits, anyway?...

Legion Season 2 Episode 4 If Legion wants to prove to its critics that its aiming to be more than just eye candy in Season 2, then it can immediately point to “Chapter 12” as a shining example. By echoing Season 1’s montage-heavy introduction to David with a deep-dive into the mind of Syd, “Chapter 12” gives us our shortest, yet emotionally compact episode of the new season. For the second week in a row, Legion doesn’t really push its story forward in any significant way, but I do feel like the show is better for examining Syd’s origin and how it relates to her relationship with David....

In fact the whole movie, apart from the opening and the closing, feels more like a serial killer movie than an alien movie. But there’s a reason for that. Well, then two things happened. Hooper fell too far behind schedule, so the producers fired him and brought in former stuntman and actor John “Bud” Cardos, who’d just completed his second feature, Kingdom of the Spiders, to finish the job. Everything seemed to be going quite well until the end of the shoot, when the producers decided that instead of a murderous autistic kid movie it should be a killer alien movie, as killer alien movies seemed to be more popular at the time....

“Something that is so important to remember is that these are people that are colonizing, and they’re not necessarily explorers,” says Sundwall of the Robinson family. “Penny takes this entire mission on a very different note. She is the one non-science person in a science family. She’s interested in literature and philosophy, and she takes on more of this rediscovering and perseverance of humanity. And when you are into language and when you are into speaking and reading and writing on a colonize mission, what do you become?...

A big reason for this is likely that this is in fact only the first part of a six, that’s right, SIX-part episode. I’ve seen people suggest, with multipart episodes of TV shows, that one cannot fairly judge the individual pieces and that we need to wait for the whole thing to be out before we stick an opinion on it. And while I think it may be worthwhile to look back and consider all six (SIX!...

SPOILERS AHEAD! However, things aren’t quite as they seem, as he suddenly jumps up and guns them both down without warning. Bending down over one of their prone bodies, he pauses to swap their patrol radio with one that he was keeping in his pocket, before calmly walking off into the night. The scene then switches to the next day, where we see Luther standing deep in thought on the rooftop of police headquarters whilst his ex-wife’s new boyfriend (whom he assaulted in the last episode) is giving a statement inside....

You can vary it, of course. Perhaps just go for the realism (Mean Creek, Girlfight), maybe overindulge on the quirkiness (Igby Goes Down, The Wackness), or just keep it simple and have a bit of everything (Little Miss Sunshine, A Guide To Recognising Your Saints). Chapter one: make it semi-autobiographical. That “semi” is really important. Critics love to speculate what’s real and what’s fabricated. ‘Did you really know someone who had Lyme disease and went a little bit crazy?...

6.6 For Immediate Release For Immediate Release put a gag in the mouth of anyone who complains that nothing happens in Mad Men. Accounts were lost and gained, relationships were severed and forged, and a brand new enterprise was created from the union of erstwhile rivals SCDP and CGC (a venture that would be wise not to continue with the using-initials-as-names tradition unless they’re happy to end up as a clue from Only Connect’s missing vowels round)....

There’s a good reason for the family resemblance: Studio Ponoc was founded by Hiromasa Yonabayashi, former animator at Studio Ghibli and the director of the company’s latter-day movies, Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. Mary And The Witch’s Flower continues the Ghibli house style, right down to the European literary source material and sumptuous animation. Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has no involvement in Studio Ponoc (he’s been busily taking himself in and then out of retirement again in recent years), but his spirit’s all over the firm’s debut....

The story starts with Merlin mushroom picking (magic mushrooms?) in the forest when he’s attacked by a very average CGI griffin, as usually happens. Then a stranger, Lancelot, turns up and saves Merlin. Although I should point out that the griffin leaves for no obvious reason, as it’s impervious to their weapons and unperturbed by their childish taunts. Perhaps it had a round of golf booked or was late for vet’s appointment....

While walking home for the evening, Gaius and Merlin walk past a cart on which a large cage is set containing a girl in rags. Much to Merlin’s protest that they should find out about her and why she is in that predicament, Gaius suggests they shouldn’t get involved and that there must be a good reason why she is in the predicament she is in. Not wanting Freya to be handed over and executed by Uther, Merlin sneaks out and releases her, and while this is a noble gesture, I am sure that there are other things on his mind as he helps the half dressed nubile young druid escape and hides her in the tunnels below Camelot....

This week’s instalment of Merlin is a rollicking good adventure, steeped in Arthurian lore, black magic, Gywverns and Destiny, and is bolstered by some fantastic performances from the cast. Of course, the vile Morgana soon learns of Arthur’s decision, and meets with a heavily disguised Morgause in the market square (who has obviously taken some tips from The Queen in Snow White), who gives Morgana The Eye of The Phoenix....

So, this review was never going to be a question of whether this first episode would be good or bad. This was always a case of just how bad it would be. I’ll put that to one side though and take a closer look at this opening episode of the series, starting with the awful credits. As a stylised, choppy credit sequence plays out, complete with a typeface taken straight from RocknRolla, a horrific rendition of I Could Be So Good For You is played by Attic Lights, an apparently popular modern indie combo....

The film centres on Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), a ruthless lobbyist who has been hauled in to plead the Fifth in front of an ethics committee (chaired by John Lithgow’s pompous senator), and the three months that led to these proceedings. Miss Sloane has quite the reputation in Washington, and it’s her lethal cunning that brings the gun lobby to her door. As you might expect, this is absolutely Jessica Chastain’s film....