It’s 2010 Florida, two years post-financial crash, and Rick Carver, Michael Shannon’s disreputable realtor, makes a killing buying foreclosed properties dirt-cheap then flipping them quick. He uses the word more than anyone else, letting you know he’s well aware what a home means to its owner, even as he dispassionately turfs them and their belongings out into the front garden. We see him first when he pitches up at the family doorstep of Dennis Nash and his mother Lynn (Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern)....

Agents of SHIELD Season 4 Episode 21 And things seemed so hopeful. Let’s start with the best big bad in the series’ four year history. AIDA/Madame HYDRA is absolutely terrifying and if the series does end after next week’s finale (please no), our team is going out on a bad guy high note. This week, AIDA fully realizes her humanity as she experiences heroism, love, and pain for the first time, proving herself to be the greatest and most complex threat SHIELD has ever faced....

For example, Monday’s Raw was highlighted by returning stars and then a big show-closing angle with Braun Strowman, Kane (really?) and Brock Lesnar. SmackDown featured a lackluster women’s match, a very generic singles match to highlight a tag-team feud and then some other miscellaneous pieces. SmackDown suffers from less hype. The match quality I’d actually argue is better, for the most part, but Raw has been and will always be booked as the “A” show....

2.8 Falling We see a YouTube video of some kids taking a drug called ‘jump’ and then throwing themselves from high buildings, yet remaining unharmed. Frankly, if the Alphas team investigated every video like this from that source they never find Stanton Parish in the next thousand years, but I rolled with that one. We’re later told that the drug gives the taker a ‘Kevlar’ like protection, which makes no sense whatsoever....

The episode begins with a return to the modern storyline, but we’ll get to that information later. Back in the ‘60’s, Lana is meeting with Sister Mary Eunice to discuss her progression. Mary Eunice uncharacteristically begins in a comforting way, divulging that she believes Lana really has been rehabilitated from her sexual deviancy, before her devilish grin returns and she alerts Lana that Lana is with child. Mary Eunice begins bombarding Lana with questions about the father, bringing up the rape that she had claimed and Threadson’s guilt, but Lana just stands in disbelief....

3.2 Boy Parts Ditto Angela Bassett, too. There’s an interesting power struggle coming together on the show, with Marie Laveau, Fiona Goode, and Madame LaLaurie all working at cross-purposes against one another while still working with one another. I imagine Goode and LaLaurie will end up siding together, if only because they seem to have a mutual enemy and LaLaurie’s history with race relations isn’t a positive one. But I like the idea that European witches like Goode and company have a history with the African witches like Laveau, too....

Afterbirth It goes without saying that there are a lot of ghosts out there with an axe to grind against Dr Harmon, especially Hayden. Meanwhile, Vivien has to come to terms with her new status as a member of the non-living; fortunately, she’s got a good guide in Moira and the help of Violet to allow her to transition into her new status. There’s only one problem, she still loves her husband and is having a hard time letting him go....

This episode sees a lot of significant changes for all our main characters, Nathan’s hearing seems to have deteriorated so badly he can’t hear anything, which is upsetting, but his family seem to cope with it, even Daniel in his aloof teenage way. It’s been interesting to see how their relationship has progressed over the series. S.Mouse! also makes huge progress in this episode. He suffers from an incredibly cringey first performance of his new album, “The Real Me”, to an empty club full of haters, but then actually manages to write a decent song that, although still isn’t poetry, is heartfelt and catchy....

Take for example tonight’s episode “Palace Intrigue Part 1,” which instantly notifies viewers that the plot building over the last three episodes will be going into next week as well (that is certainly a record for the series). The Isis gang has left cocaine behind in favor of gun running in a fictional Iran-Contra setting that takes almost as full advantage of the series’ new 1980s-ish setting as the fact that they have all seen The Breakfast Club....

But did you know that one of these moms that Ashy Slashy had loved for half a minute and left to go grab some Carl’s Jr. immediately afterwards actually bore his child? As in, the fruit of his loins were successfully weaved upon her love loom? As in, he put one in her George Forman grill and she squeezed out all the sweet and salty love juice to sear up a tender piece of meat?...

Never a particularly concise film to begin with, this new edition of Avatar is nine minutes longer, and puts back a few scenes trimmed from its initial release. And so Pandora returns to the big screen in all its luminous glory. Essentially, a digital playground in which James Cameron plays around with the pet themes familiar from his earlier movies (space marines, heavy artillery, ecological warnings, destruction on a grand scale), the planet is home to the rangy, tree-dwelling Na’vi, whose verdant forest is under threat from a greedy corporation and its high tech army for hire....

The Avatar Returns In last week’s premiere, we saw the Water Tribe camp in real danger as Aang mistakenly gave away the site to a patiently waiting Fire Nation warship. At the start of The Avatar Returns, the camp is pretty angry with Aang, who Sokka believes intentionally let off the flare that caught the Fire Nation’s attention. I guess being a reincarnated Airbender with flying bison in tow doesn’t grant you the benefit of the doubt....

Winter Solstice Part One: The Spirit World You could say that I’m being a bit too harsh on Avatar, which did introduce us to various important parts in the show’s mythology with this episode… but then proceeded to underplay them. There were two big character stories with incredibly dramatic incidents galore, and both were more or less wrapped up by the end of the episode. The Spirit World was an odd episode....

The first introduces Ernest (Michael Shannon, on glowering form) a landowner clinging to his scorched field long after other farmers have fled the area. A prolonged drought has left the plains of America an almost uninhabitable desert, but Ernest has faith that the rains will return and his land will once again grow corn. Until then, Ernest lives in his ramshackle house with his loving son Jerome (Kodi Smit McPhee) and his less-than-loving daughter, Mary (Elle Fanning)....

Let’s discuss Jason Hood, whose mortality was never in question from the moment he tracked down the man masquerading as his father. If there was ever any doubt that Jason might not make it out of Dodge alive, the troubled, on-the-lam youngster definitely sealed his fate after he slept with Proctor’s niece Rebecca—not once, but twice. As we soon find out in “Ways to Bury a Man,” Jason is unceremoniously turned into grade D nacho-flavored ground chuck....

If this was a standard episode of Banshee it would be a pretty damn good one. We got bruising action, surprising tenderness, some punch-the-air Job badassery, a cliffhanger ending that made me jump and the terrible consequence of all Hood and Carrie’s choices; their daughter being dragged into it and forced to kill to save herself, a moment that was beautifully shot and scored to be just as hard hitting as such a huge development deserves....

With the third season of Baskets underway, we got the opportunity to chat with Martha Kelly about the show’s changes this year, having such genuine chemistry with Zach Galifianakis, and if that cast is ever going to come off. MARTHA KELLY: I think that for Christine, Martha is like a fun friend that treats her with more respect than her other friends that are the same age as her. Then with Chip, in the infancy of that relationship it definitely felt like there was a bit of a crush on one of their ends....

1.10 Midnight Psychologically speaking, the episode was full of the little generational playfulness that has been a hallmark of the show. Some were funny. Dylan’s handgun lesson with Norma and his frustration at her refusal to pay attention was like a parent dealing with a wayward child. Others were more serious. Norma’s chat with the psychiatrist was less dramatic than her earlier one, but it revealed some truths about her relationship with her son....

The two share a lot more screen time in Before I Go To Sleep, writer/director Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of the apparently strong book by S J Watson. In fact, they’re in each other’s arms as the movie opens, although we quickly learn that all is not well. Kidman’s character, Christine Lucas, is suffering from memory loss after an unexplained incident. Each day, Firth’s Ben Lucas needs to remind her of where she is, who he is, and her recent history....

For the first bit of this week’s episode, we see everyone at Stonehaven practicing their fighting in pairs. And when I say everyone, I mean Jeremy and Nick, and Elena and Clay. Remember, Antonio and Pete are dead and Logan has firmly planted himself back in Toronto with his pregnant girlfriend. And speaking of people in Toronto, Phillip is still obsessing over the video and the still frame that shows Elena’s clothing and necklace folded, on the ground....