Den of Geek: Madeleine Stowe of the original Twelve Monkeys movie did a cameo in the finale. How’d you pull that off? Her character, Lillian, was another Primary. How plentiful are Primaries and why are they all in New York? A great way to look at Primaries is to think of them as if they were parts of a web. So perhaps something — a central event — is tied to how that web spreads out, and that’s all I’ll say....
The last two episodes prove the point. Having raved about it for ages, The Head and the Hair proved to be hi-larious. Even my housemate, who I have already documented as trusting the programme less than a package holiday to Mombasa, laughed out loud when Kenneth asked if pedalling swan boats for tourists was a euphemism for some kind of sex worker. It’s been a busy fortnight for the sexy librarian too, having first off dated someone she is convinced is out of her league but turns out to be in the same genetic pool; and then pretending to date Jack to make his ex-wife jealous, playfully played by Isabella Rossellini....
Around this time of the year, we like to shine a spotlight on the slightly smaller films coming out after most of the box office juggernauts have been and gone. But with each annual feature, we’ve noticed that the year is filling up with blockbusters more and more. The year’s first comic book movie was February’s Deadpool, a surprise box office smash, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice also got 2016’s blockbuster season started much earlier than usual....
Calling himself the Butcher of Sligo and dubbed by Cross and Tommy as Picasso for his charcoal drawings left at the scene of a brutal quadruple homicide, the killer (Matthew Fox, looking absolutely ripped to the gills) seems to be a man on a mission. He’s killing his way up the food chain of a massive company run by Leon Mercier (Jean Reno, who has gained so much weight he even sounds different)....
The story concerns the Marion, a deep space mining ship whose crew is headed by Chris Hooper. The ship’s engineer, Hoop, as he is called, is forced to take command after an accident kills the captain and damages the vessel beyond repair. Making matters worse, the miners on the planet have been killed by aliens. Now, Hoop and the remaining members of his crew must figure out how to survive the bloodthirsty beasties that are now aboard the Marion via the returned dropship....
When two gifted teenage students overdose on a drug designed to strengthen perception, Kennex and Dorian are called into action to solve the murders. The word action is used in the loosest sense as Dorian and Kennex kind of just stand around and listen to parents dramatically confess their shortcomings. Other than his blinky head, the show didn’t even give much of an indication that Dorian was an android. It really was a watered down Murder She Wrote, with some attempts at detective work and a seemingly endless loop of interrogations....
American Dad! Season 13 Episode 6 “Well try harder. He’s carrying your husband after all.” Pregnancy is one of the more overdone television tropes that American Dad has managed to avoid in its thirteen years of crafting stories. So, while the premise of adding a baby to the mix is hardly the most exciting premise, it does gain a certain poignancy when it’s American Dad that’s indulging it. And rather than it being Hayley or Francine as the one that’s expecting, the honor ends up falling on the irritable Roger....
American Gods Episode 7 One might have thought that an episode called “A Prayer For Mad Sweeney” would see Mad Sweeney as its protagonist. However, as we learned in the Nunyunnini “Coming to America” vignette from a few episodes ago, “the gods are greater, but people are greater… for it is in their hearts that gods are born and to their hearts that they return.” The “Coming to America” vignettes are not stories of gods....
Unsurprisingly, the majority of the questions were directed at Cameron – or Jim, as most overly-chummy journos were calling him – about his design inspirations for Avatar, his experiences working with Weaver again after 20 years, the implications of the VFX technology used on the film, and even giving some tantalising comments on the possibility of an Avatar sequel, or trilogy! Read on, true believers! James Cameron: So relieved. We can hold our head high that we’ve got the picture done on time by the skin of our teeth....
Baskets Season 3 Episode 1 What’s fun and exciting about Baskets is how it lets its drama take it to vastly different places from season to season. Much of the second season was about Chip riding trains with a group of hobo friends and then, afterwards, reacclimating to his life back home. It also covered his twin brother Dale’s decline, which ended in his being fired from the board of the community college he founded....
Cass cut an excellent promo on Tuesday’s episode detailing his issues with Daniel Bryan. Cass talked about how he had to rehab through seven months for his ACL injury, and the second he made his return to WWE, all everyone could talk about was Daniel Bryan being cleared for in-ring action. Basically … Cass said that he was small and weak at 16 years old, and then he decided to grow....
Such is my dilemma with Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. Having sat through all 107 minutes of Martin Lawrence’s latest comedy outing, I’m lost for words. Sitting in my plush chair as Big Mommas unfolded on the screen, I became eerily aware of the darkness of the room, the eeriness of the silence. The muffled sighs of three or four dozen journalists all shuffling awkwardly. The faint scritch scritch of fingernails on beards and stubble....
Black Lightning Season 1, Episode 13 Since we first met him in the Black Lightning pilot, Jefferson Pierce has never been completely comfortable with his superhero persona. There are too many people in his life with varying opinions about the matter for him to put his head in the sand and do what feels powerful without wondering if it’s what is right. He’s that kind of man. In many ways, the Black Lightning season finale was anti-climatic—the first half was exposition-heavy with a literally unconscious protagonist to boot—but there were enough wonderful moments tied to Black Lightning’s season-long origin story to make this season-ender if not show-stopping, then cathartic....
When he’s not educating children or being the unrequited love interest of the owner of the Veg-Table, a little food shack in the middle of nowhere, he’s an inventor, working on a wheat-grass engine. It’s not coming along very well, so he decides to down bottle after bottle of vodka, accidentally cutting himself and discovering his engine works when he supplies it with blood. Finally, able to fuel his car for the first time, the women are throwing themselves at him – well, the only two women in the film, thus far – Lorraine (of Veg-Table) and her business- and love-rival, Denise (of Meat, a meat shack....
For Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), the official story is he’s got a marker out on Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks)’s life in the form of a half million dollar insurance payoff, but “not while he’s breathing.” Back in season 2, Rothstein made Doyle and the D’Alessio brother sign off on this as a guarantee they wouldn’t schtup him. Of course, for 20 cents on the dollar Nucky could cash it in himself....
Episode four added some dodgy CG work to the mix – ‘The Cradle of Civilization’ featured graphics that could have been rendered on an Atari ST circa 1989. If you were taken aback by the Captain Pugwash rope swinging from the debut episode, just wait ’till you see the risible killer snakes lurking here – it’s clear the BBC’s effects department spared every expense. And did you know that a snake’s vision is like a 3D movie sans the coloured specs?...
Some have described Steven Spielberg’s latest, Bridge Of Spies, as a B-side entry to his filmography. If we were to agree with that, it would sincerely be in a good way. This is as good as anything he’s made in the last decade and while we know that the B-side comparison is meant to say that this might not crack your top 10 Spielberg films list in years to come, this is one of the best of the year even if it may be considered a minor work next to something like Schindler’s List....
It’s the kind of subject matter that could easily drift into crass sensationalism even from a talented director with the best of intentions, but thankfully, Rønde has managed to achieve the seeming impossible here: he’s made a film which gets into the mindset of a group of isolated teenagers without judging their actions or attempting to offer easy, comfortable answers. Sara, meanwhile, finds herself drawn into a circle of local youngsters who’ve created their own private, hermetic community: without much else to do in the dank Welsh autumn, they get drunk in the woods, go skinny-dipping in silty rivers and dance frenziedly at the local rugby club....
Trish Winterman’s rape may be at the centre of Broadchurch series three, but around it, a thought-provoking case file is being compiled on sex, power and the ways straight male sexuality can harm women and girls. The tacitness is key to its success. Without pounding a podium or shaking a fist, writer Chris Chibnall is building a recognisable thematic context around the rape investigation that confronts his audience with some uncomfortable truths....
