Although barely caught on camera, studio co-founder and director Isao Takahata was working on his own film at the same time: The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya. Originally intended to be released theatrically on the same bill with The Wind Rises – just as My Neighbour Totoro and Grave Of The Fireflies were in 1988 – Princess Kaguya was repeatedly delayed. One of the documentary’s running jokes was that Takahata didn’t want to finish it – he wanted to labour away, furtively perfecting it, forever....

And breathe. Wow, that was intense. 2013 has hardly been short of dramatic television, but this week The Tunnel proved it could hang with the best of them, by providing a final fifteen minutes that were heart-stoppingly compelling. The involvement of children in mystery dramas can sometimes set a few alarm bells ringing. Some shows use children as a cheap way of being shocking (Utopia, I’m looking in your direction) but thankfully The Tunnel had the sense to realise that it doesn’t need to stoop to such levels....

This review contains spoilers. Last week on The Vampire Diaries’ Alaric lovers were given a bit of a shock when we found out it was Elena’s step-father to blame for several deaths around Mystic Falls. The fallout of that revelation is dealt with this week, and some of the new reveals, which will most probably carry over into future episodes, shove the storyline into some unexpected directions. For one, we find out Jeremy might be involved at some point, given that he’s in possession of the other Gilbert ring, and I’m not sure Alaric is completely out of the woods yet, either....

4.10 After School Special This was a great episode of The Vampire Diaries for a number of reasons. For one, it’s always nice to see the characters in high school, even if it isn’t during the day or in class. Rebekah and April have hatched a plan to get information out of the group (useful when no one seems to be talking to each other), and compels Stefan, Elena and Caroline into obeying her orders....

If those Parisians ran away from a flickering black and white image soundtracked only by the clack-clack-clack of the projector, they didn’t do it for self-preservation; they did it as willing players in a thrilling game. The train wasn’t real. They knew the train wasn’t real. And yet, perhaps, they ran. Ask Zemeckis what distinguishes his film, which has been a decade in the pipeline, from Man On Wire, James Marsh’s celebrated 2008 documentary on the same subject, and he’ll say it’s a matter of perspective....

2.3 Save The Last One The main weapon in the arsenal of the remnants of humanity is hope. Some people, like Rick, still have it. Others, like Andrea and Lori, are struggling to hang onto it. Some, like the hangman zombie from this week’s episode and Jacqui from the first season of the show, gave up entirely and decided to take the easy way out. Is there hope in a world where the hungry dead outnumber the scared, hungry, and weary living?...

4.15 A That’s a good description of tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead – a series of punches each more violent than the last, countered with lulls that last just long enough to remind you how long it’s been since something happened to the core trio of Rick, Carl, and Michonne. Each event, from the gnawing hunger to the maze-like chase, only serves to increase the tension throughout the episode, and the cuts back to a more idyllic past (something that has never been said about time spent locked in a prison) only serve to make that tension even more profound....

At the end of episode seven we had three main story threads that centre on Marlo. Omar is hunting Marlo and his crew, McNulty has his fake serial killer investigation which is opening up resources for Lester in his illegal investigation into Marlo. The third story is Scott Templeton at The Baltimore Sun. Despite my cynicism I was taken by surprise this episode. It started conventionally with McNulty briefing senior Police officers and Carcetti about progress on the serial killer....

The X-Files Season 11 Episode 2 Review Welcome to 2018, Mulder and Scully. For the first time during The X-Files revival, an episode finally felt like it accomplished what Chris Carter and his writing buddies set out to do in the first place. They maintained that bringing the show back from the dead (or is this all just a simulation?!) wasn’t a reunion tour, but a chance to tell fresh new stories with old friends....

The second season followed our heroes as they discovered an unlikely ally in their quest to ruin Rittenhouse, even though Lucy’s family has been a part of Rittenhouse for centuries. As they went after sleeper agents hidden throughout history, they have visited 1692, 1917, 1941, 1981 and more. The team visited with the likes of Marie Curie, Hedy Lamarr, William Randolph Hearst, Harriet Tubman, and a multitude of other influential people of the past....

Finally, the wait is over. After what seems like centuries, True Blood‘s third season kicked off with a kick ass (emphasis on the ass) premiere on Sunday night. Sookie, understandably worried, has called the police, but as always with the Bon Temps’ finest, enthusiasm is a little thin on the ground. Bill, after all, is a grown man, and considering Sookie’s initial reluctance to accept Bill’s proposal, the police blame her....

After a spring break trip to Mexico that involved a late-night game of truth or dare in an abandoned church with a mysterious stranger, a group of friends find themselves in a deadly supernatural version of the game. There are very specific rules: if you don’t choose between truth or dare, you die. If you don’t do take your turn, you die. The friends then race against the clock to outsmart the demon possessing their game and ruining their lives....

A few episodes back, viewers learned the danger of a simple fire under the dome; the latest episode reveals the terrifying truth of what would happen to a town, cut off from the rest of America, if it were to suffer an infectious outbreak. The creative handling of the meningitis outbreak in Chester’s Mill was briskly paced and disturbing. It served as a reminder how much society relies on being part of a whole, and if something were to cut off a part from the societal body, the part would be in danger of withering....

The second movie bowing this weekend was the new Mike Myers vehicle, The Love Guru. Myers has been everywhere lately promoting his movie, and the best he could come up with was a fourth-place $14 million total. Maybe people are finally getting a better nose for avoiding crap at the cinemas, or maybe Mike Myers’ time as Mr. Goofy Character has come to an end. It’s been a long time since the last Austin Powers film (and he’ll go back to Austin Powers in a hurry, mark my words), and this particular movie makes Goldmember look like Caddyshack....

There was a lot of stuff going on in tonight’s episode of V. There are wheels within wheels, double-crosses and triple-crosses, and the long-awaited reveal of the presence of the Fifth Column (which feels like it needs initial capitalization due to being an awesome name of a resistance group in general, as well as a reference to the specific anti-fascist resistance group from the Spanish Civil War). However, before I get into that, I need to take a moment to praise the breakout star of V....

3.5 The Usurper Luckily, this week’s The Usurper was so much about who’s good and who’s bad that I get to return to it. In that scene, Ragnar is looking for a little reassurance, likely, in part, because Floki has been undermining his confidence by telling him he’s turned his back on the gods, and because he’s now cheated on his second wife (as he did on his first wife) with a woman of dubious morality and even more dubious sanity....

Life is like riding a bike, said Albert Einstein, a thesis that went on to receive widespread support among the fridge magnet community. He meant that in order to keep your balance, you have to keep moving, but the comparison is also valid in that sometimes in life, you fall off. After going along blithely for ages, you’re hit out of nowhere and knocked to the ground. Joy’s injuries provide some gentle laughs in a couple of Wanderlust’s much-publicised sex scenes....

One of the reasons we love science fiction is that it puts characters into wild, unthinkable situations and then must imagine how they would respond. The answer in the real world is obviously “…or naw.” But this isn’t the real world. This is Westworld, baby. And Elsie’s only realistic choice might be to trust Bernard. First let’s recap some of what we know about Elsie Hughes (portrayed by Shannon Woodward) since this is his first appearance in Westworld Season 2....