6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning This episode starts at the point where the last episode closed. Sam has collapsed and Dean fears the worst. However, Sam recovers, but is visibly shaken by his near miss. To distract him from this, Dean suggests they investigate a mysterious death. During the investigation, Dean receives a call from Ben, son of Lisa, whom Dean settled down with. Ben tells Dean that there is something wrong with Lisa....

6.21 Let It Bleed Season six of Supernatural comes to a conclusion with a double helping of episodes, the first of which sees Sam, Dean and Bobby searching for Crowley, who kidnaps Lisa and Ben to force them to back off, and a clue to accessing Purgatory is found in the works of one H. P. Lovecraft. In just two episodes, there are a lot of things to tie up, but one of the things I hadn’t considered was the return of Lisa and Ben....

This week we met some “featured freshman extras.” Their introduction was so odd, that I actively wondered why were spending time with these people. That question was answered when one of them, Violet, decapitates a werewolf innocently delivering beer to Lydia’s accidental lake house party (more on that shortly). Whyfore the inexplicable were-murder? Because “the benefactor” paid top dollar for her services. Kids today, I tell ya! The striking differences between Liam’s transition and Malia’s was really well done....

5.17 A Credible Threat However, the element that’s been missing, that reappears in A Credible Threat, is humour. Not just the occasional chuckle, either. I’m talking character-based comedy, from funny people saying and doing funny things. Stiles can lift some of that weight, as can Mason, but there’s not anyone as consistently funny, either as a character or an actor, as good old Coach Bobby Finstock, AKA Orny Adams. He’s a stand-up comedian by trade, so of course he’s going to know how to be funny, and it’s nice to have a character like Coach back on the show, if only for a brief reappearance....

5.19 The Beast Of Beacon Hills Teen Wolf season 5 feels like something of a throwback (perhaps a last hurrah for some of the original cast members), and there’s a reason for that. We’re seeing a lot of the show’s previous elements come back into play. We’ve got a rampaging monster (season 1), an Alpha trying to get his power back (season 4), a kid who is secretly a monster (both season 2 and season 3B), an evil pack of monsters challenging Scott (season 3A), and the constant battle of teens versus their own powers....

I had my doubts, as anyone would, in the days leading up to the premier. Terminator was one of the bloodiest movies of the 1980s, and Terminator 2 was a worthy sequel, which was also liberally soaked in human blood and hot brass. There’s no way the show could have as many killings as the movies, right? The pilot episode, after an opening monologue and a trademark Sarah Connor holocaust nightmare, begins with Sarah and John (Thomas Dekker) settled into a life in the middle of Nebraska....

Anyway, did I say 96? With Jasper at death’s door, we might be splitting rations 95 ways sooner rather than later. Grim times, indeed, for our merry band of juvenile delinquents. But who’s the bigger threat? Is it the mysterious Grounders (who were absent in tonight’s episode)? Is it starvation? Is it that aforementioned toxic cloud? Which reminds me—that acid cloud was awfully similar to the toxic cloud from Catching Fire’s Quarter Quell....

2.11 Coup De Grace But in dealing with all of that, we haven’t actually been able to spend as much time in Mount Weather as we might have liked, our glimpses limited to watching scientists hatch evil schemes and a group of B-characters arguing about how to get out. It hasn’t outworn its welcome yet mostly due to limited screen time, but the time for something huge to happen was fast approaching....

With the art of film scoring becoming ever more processed, driven increasingly by ghost writers, electronic augmentation and temp tracks, prospects looked bleak. However, this shouldn’t shield the fact that there were some blindingly brilliant scores composed during this period. Here’s but a small sampling of them. 24. Unbreakable (James Newton Howard, 2000) James Newton Howard’s collaboration with director M. Night Shyamalan has traversed boundaries and genres, generally eliciting outstanding scores even when the movies themselves fail to hit the mark....

This year, Sralan Sugar added Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady to his panel of ruthless interviewers, and thus it was a welcome return for Paul Kelmsley in particular, as well as Bordan Tkachuck and Claude Littner. Each candidate was then given a grilling by each of them, although you’d be hard pressed to appreciate that, given the way that all the footage was cut together. Interviewing is a real skill, but watching last night’s Apprentice it just felt like the whole process was designed to trip people up....

At least that was the plan. Bah. Last night’s episode though was for the most part a cracker, bringing back memories of the one in series two where they tried to design and pitch calendars. This time, the mission was to create a new occasion, and pitch five cards to celebrate it to Clintons, Tesco and Celebrations. Sralan Sugar once again imposed his project managers, with Michael heading up Alpha, and Kevin from Little Britain leading Renaissance....

11.9 The Bitcoin Entanglement Raj is spoilt by his father, Penny might leave Leonard for another guy at any second, Howard lives with his mother and Sheldon, well Sheldon is what he’s always been. I knew this was going to be a dodgy one when the episode began with an incorrect Avatar joke. First, it’s an Avatar joke. Second, one nerd says to another that he went as ‘Avatar’ for Halloween....

3.4 The Banquet of Chestnuts Meanwhile Mr Lucrezia, aka Whiny Alfonso of Naples, talks to his cousin the king of Naples, who still won’t let Lucrezia bring her son there, about being married. The king is gross and pervy wanting to know what banging the infamous Lucrezia was like, because the king is awful and icky and deserves to be killed by Micheletto in some really unpleasant way (get on that, you murder-crazy cupcake you) and Alfonso makes the terrible mistake of telling his cousin that no, he didn’t consumate....

Anyway, let’s rip off the AV Club. I hit “Shuffle” on the ol’ iPod, something completely unexpected comes up, and I comment upon it. This would really mean something if I were famous or notable! This is that band that kept changing their name with every gig/record. Cute. Do the lyrics follow the plotline of some “Star Trek” episode I’m not aware of? Did Kirk disappear one time? I’m really not up on my Trek trivia....

For those out there who are too young to remember, an arcade was a place filled to the brim with gaming machines of all kinds. You had your classic pinball machines lining one wall, while Pong, Pac-Man and Space Invaders lined the other (usually in the back). The prime locations usually saw your Tekkens, Street Fighters, Mortal Kombats and a plethora of shooting games like Time Crisis and House of the Dead....

The Exorcist Season 2 Episode 7 The Exorcist, season 2, episode 7 “Help Me,” takes place entirely during the performance of an exorcism, but that doesn’t limit its focus. Most of the episode unfolds from the perception of the possessed, Andy (John Cho), and that is a forced perspective at best. In the twisted psychology underlying spiritual hijackings it’s hard to tell the angels from the demons. Of course, Andy’s much too observant a parent and husband, and catches most of the subtle manipulations seducing his decisions....

The film is director Sean Baker’s second movie in two years, following his iPhone-shot breakthrough, Tangerine. This time, he shoots with cameras, and takes us to the edges of the Florida tourism trade. Along a highway lined with souvenir shops, family restaurants and ice cream stalls is The Magic Castle, a tantalising sounding hotel on the internet perhaps. But as one honeymooning couple soon find, it’s not the Magic Kingdom-style luxury retreat its name may suggest....

If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the promos, this film opens with a lone man jogging down a highway early one morning and arriving at the home of a family who have recently had a son, Caleb, die in service in Afghanistan. He introduces himself as David, (Dan Stevens) a comrade of Caleb’s who is fulfilling his friend’s dying wish to check that his family are doing alright. There’s little point in pretending that this isn’t Dan Stevens’ film....

Since November there has been a steady stream of padded envelopes thudding onto the coconut matting. Each containing DVDs of films that the distributing companies want me, as a voting member of BAFTA, to endorse and win them a nice shiny award and a fervent round of applause. Trouble is I’m not sure that I am the best person to give my opinion. There are hundreds of films circulated every year....

The bell rang again. There’s persistence for you. When it rang for the third time I got worried. My daughter, Steffie, her husband and my granddaughter had gone to Venice for a few days before girding up their loins for the slog of the long holiday. Perhaps it was something to do with that. I didn’t dare take the thought any further. That gave me the motivation to stagger to the intercom and croak a “yes”....