This week’s episode focused on the Scimitar, a horribly named Iranian terrorist. As far as villains of the week go, he didn’t have an exceptional amount to offer. Outside the elaborate machinations of the fake hospital, his other primary function was to pull agent Navabi into the central action. Given her murder of the dude, I guess you could argue that this was successful. But I’m not sure. The only thing Liz has going for her is her wavering about whether or not she should kill Tom....

Produced completely in Japan, these series were often viewed by fans as somewhat inferior to the American series that had come before. The plots weren’t as strong, the animation wasn’t anything to write home about, and they didn’t tie into the legendary G1 continuity. When these Transformers anime were brought over to America they were all dubbed, sticking very close to the original Japanese versions. In 2005 the last of these ‘Anime Transformers’ was released, titled Transformers: Galaxy Force in Japan and Transformers: Cybertron in America....

For the latest story rumour has turned up at Badass Digest, which follows on from the confirmation from Anne Hathaway that she will, indeed, be playing Catwoman as well as Selina Kyle in the movie. However, believe the word doing the rounds, and Catwoman will be fighting side by side with Batman by the end of the film, as they team up to battle the return of The League Of Shadows....

Keith Chegwin is in town to talk about his new computer game, Cheggers Party Quiz. But he’s also granted us a good half hour to talk about all things Cheggers. So that’s just what we did. In this first part, we talk about the game, and his love of technology…It seems logical, as you’re here promoting your game, to start with computer games. How much are you a fan of gaming?...

Shankar is no stranger to space-based science fiction television, having been on the writing and production staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the cult classic Farscape, but he took a “science detour” during his time producing the mega-hit CSI. “I find myself drawn to the genre constantly,” admits Shankar. “After I left CSI, I really was feeling that pull of genre because I absolutely adored Battlestar Galactica....

2.1 The Man Who Saved Central City Can it maintain the quality or, better still, build on it to become something not just fun, diverting and occasionally emotional but also something more? There’s always been potential for that, for it to be as much fun for a wide audience as it is for the hard-core comic book and television fans. We start where we left off, with the fun, campy gosh-darn-heroes series we all fell for, but this time we can’t take any of it at face value....

The Flash, particularly its first season, is a shining example of a network superhero TV series surpassing expectations. After Barry Allen’s plainclothes introduction during Arrow season two, the plan was for a later episode of Arrow to serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential Flash TV series. But the CW’s confidence in The Flash was so high that they bypassed the “backdoor” and went straight for a traditional pilot, and now here we are on the cusp of a third season....

1.2 Chapter Two After all, he’s an author and a college professor, and what two professions put you on a pedestal higher than that? Especially when speaking to young people in their formative years? Taking a page from Charles Manson’s playbook, the four followers of Joe Carroll we’ve met either last week or this week are impressionable youngsters like college-age Emma aka babysitter Denise (Valorie Curry), a couple of handsome fellows who seem to be in it mostly for the killing like Jacob and Paul (Nico Tortorella and Adan Canto), and a portly/dim-witted law enforcement type,Jordy (Steve Monroe)....

A remake of the 1974 film starring James Caan and written by James Tolback, The Gambler sees Wahlberg’s Jim Bennett in debt to the tune of $260,000 due to his tendency to lose at games of blackjack in exclusive casinos. “I think you’re the kinda guy who likes to lose,” observes Neville (Michael K Williams), the ruthless gangster who’s more than keen to see Jim hand over the $60,000 he owes him....

2.13 The Word Conjuring the illusion that a character’s decisions are being made in the moment and before our eyes instead of having been plotted out months ago is the central trick of a TV drama. For viewers to feel tension, we can’t be afforded certainty about which way a character will turn. But when a character does turn, it also needs to feel as though that decision was inevitable....

The Hippopotamus, directed by John Jencks, is adapted from the 1994 novel by Stephen Fry, and the author’s dry, PG Wodehouse-esque wit is all over this off-the-wall, cheerfully foul-mouthed movie. If it has the air of an old-fashioned Merchant Ivory production – posh people, rolling hills, horses, that kind of thing – then it’s at least served up with a pleasing side order of acidic humour. Ted, who’s visibly horrified at David’s florid attempts at verse (one of his latest efforts is about pleasuring himself in the woods), is having none of it: he’s far too jaded and world-weary to believe David’s claims, even when the family horse is seemingly rescued from oblivion by the lad’s supernatural powers....

We start with a quick recap of the story so far, as heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, as if it needed to be said) cowers in a dark corner, telling herself the story of her life. Since she improbably survived the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss’s world has fallen apart. Now, she’s living in the underground remains of a place she’d been told no longer existed, a figurehead in a war she never meant to start, with most of her allies either dead, kidnapped, or as broken by their ordeal as she is....

I could be cruel and say that, in looking around at what passes for ‘today’s art’, the race is still on. As neither has arrived yet! Maybe they got held up in the traffic? But I fell over the word ‘concept’ and realised that the modern vogue for concept art requires neither drawing nor design. It would appear that the task of the modern artist is to challenge the audience to ‘understand’, rather than communicate anything....

Back in the office in Corrientes there was more good news. Hector Olivera had returned from Peru and wanted to have a meeting. Of course he did. And la Presidenta, Isabelita Martinez de Peron, had booked us for dinner and films in two days time. I told Olivera about de Benedetti’s interest and our recce in Uruguay. It didn’t seem to faze him. Which was just as well as Perina had laid on a press conference at the splendidly baroque Circulo Italiano to publicise the six films and a TV series which had been agreed with the proprietors of El Pais in Montevideo....

The 1977 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau managed to surprise me. I had a certain idea in my mind of how this amazing HG Wells novel gets turned into movie magic. It seemed the screen had to have its megalomaniacal, twisted weirdo of a mad scientist, and torchlight through the jungle at night, and close-ups of leering, distorted faces to make you shudder. All of these things have tended to detract from the debate at the centre of the novel about what difference there is between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom; everything Dr....

After last week’s solidly entertaining series opener introduced the concept of counselling via Dungeons & Dragons, Graham Linehan’s consistently excellent IT Crowd comes up with an equally engaging idea: crossing a popular Channel 4 quiz show with Fight Club. Meanwhile, Roy’s drawn into a convoluted scenario that is classic Linehan, where he spends much of the episode trying to convince a highly successful old college friend that he’s most definitely not a window cleaner....

What with the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean series and such high-profile hijackings in the popular consciousness, it would appear that the concept of piracy is enjoying a resurgence. Back in the old days when home entertainment meant Watch with Mother or tiddlywinks, there were no worries about piracy. In a pre-secularised, pre-VHS society, children learned that stealing was wrong from Sunday school or from the fact that the films always showed bandits as bad; Disney as usual leading the line with crafty-but-cowardly Captain Hook in Peter Pan....

It’s good to be the king? But I digress. This week finds Dr. Edwards sucking wind and sleeping with giant cockroaches in his boarding house. He gets no rest at home, though, as he is antagonized by both the buggies and his neighbors. He quickly resolves these issues via a rousing bout of fisticuffs. Fisticuffs, that’s the old timey term for beating the snot out of someone, right? Then he goes to work at the Knick, where he has been consigned to the basement....

This review contains spoilers. While we’re grieving, blow a raspberry for the passing of Abbot Eadred, that conniving, woman-punching excuse for a holy man. And finally, have a good, loud shout about swords for the passing of Lord Chair-Wolf (I’m deliberately not looking that one up on the off-chance it isn’t spelled like that). It’s what the aged Mercian ruler would have wanted. Episode three was uncharacteristically bleak for The Last Kingdom....

1.1, 1.2, 1.3 A Breath Of Fresh Air, Rebirth, The Earth Queen Tenzin mentions this during the episode, but to reiterate it here: I wish desperately that Aang had lived to see this. Granted, I do not ultimately believe that this turn of events could’ve taken place had he still been alive; faced with the same choice as Korra, Aang would’ve almost certainly chose differently than she did, and the outcome would’ve been entirely different....