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The opening section of the episode was very nicely handled; I liked the repetition of the mealtime scenes and the differences in attitudes to the saying of grace. It was a handy slice of forced formality which established the different ways the characters responded to having to behave nicely. Gillian’s little scheme for Roger was finally revealed, and while it was a relief that she wasn’t totally twisted, merely brutally practical, the killing of poor Roger still has a scent of weirdness to it....

The home secretary: shag, marry or kill? Sgt David Budd can’t decide. “Nothing complicates my job,” he tells the Rt. Hon. Julia Montague between thrusts on the console table of an anonymous London hotel room. “It’s” thrust “to protect” thrust “you.” From the way they tucked greasy-fingered into those fish and chips, sucking Sarson’s Original Malt from their thumbs and moving onto first-name terms, it was clear that David and Julia were destined for the sack....

5.13 To’hajiilee I think the showrunners of Breaking Bad are well aware of this, however. There have been plot points and moments that have stretched credibility in recent episodes – even accounting for the fact that Breaking Bad has always placed verisimilitude way down on its list of priorities. But the fact that we as viewers know that we are heading into the final straight, where anyone can die and anything could happen – on a show already famous for being one where anything could happen – means that the writers know we’ll be too junked out on adrenaline to quibble with some of the more comic-booky flourishes: like minute-long, close quarters shootouts where everybody demonstrates stormtrooper-levels of aiming ineptitude, for example....

Flash forward six years later and the Russos have come an incredibly long way. Not that they were exactly nobodies back then either; but their vast (and Emmy-winning) experience directing shows like Community and Arrested Development, as well as a handful of feature film comedies, did not give any hint that The Winter Soldier would end up being one of Marvel’s best movies and an entry that upped the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe game....

Welcome back to Broadchurch, or, to call it by its Chinese translation, Terrible Things Happen in Beautiful Rural Locations. This week, a gorgeous cornfield joined the bucolic, rolling grounds of Axehampton House as a site of human misery. Following new testimony and a fresh lead thanks to Beth’s mentor, it’s looking as though the man who attacked Trish is a serial rapist. Laura’s scenes were a sensitive start to a solid episode that showed simmering tensions coming to a head and relationships breaking down....

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 15 TV can often be about the spectacle. Fantasy and science fiction especially. Explosions. Giant fights. Huge world shattering revelations. Many TV shows thrive on this and can pull them off well. However the mark of a truly great show is one that can just have its characters talking in a room and have it be engaging. Meiling has quickly become the best part of Clear Card....

So of course when we had the chance to listen in on the two of them talking about their craft, we jumped at it. What follows is an email interview the two conducted with each other, edited only for inconsequential punctuation. Glenn Head: A few months ago I had the great honor of being a guest at CAB (Comic Arts Brooklyn), one of the very best comix festivals extant (says me!...

Castle Rock Episode 5 How exciting to finally see the great Sissy Spacek front and center in “Harvest,” but poor Ruth Deaver who is falling deeper into her illness and the darkness that’s spreading through Castle Rock as the Kid takes his first steps as a free man. For the second week in a row, Castle Rock continues to perform as a perfect distillation of Stephen King’s work. While last week’s “The Box” challenged viewers with its shocking climax — the culmination of a string of episodes that effectively commented on the dangers of a privatized prison system (social commentary being a major part of King’s writing) — the show points its lens at two other important facets of the writer’s work in “Harvest”: character drama and horror....

6.20 That ’70s Show I think I’ve made my case in past reviews that Castle’s one ongoing problem is that the writers tend to be inconsistent at best. So based on this, I was certain that this week’s episode, That ’70s Show, was going to join that much larger and more disappointing group. Which it doesn’t. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that it falls into the smaller category either. And, considering the inconsistency I mentioned, should have been no surprise....

7.22 Dead From New York You see, when you review something, you’re not supposed to be objective, because honestly, that’s impossible. A review is inherently an opinion. And there are no objective opinions, right? But you are supposed to come at it with as little baggage as you can in order to at least give the episode a fair shake. So I’m gonna just fess up now and admit it: I have a lot of baggage when it comes to this week’s Castle, Dead From New York....

We’ve heard her name plenty, but episode six of the second season finally puts a face to ‘Jill’, and it’s the same one worn so well by Jordana Brewster (Fast and the Furious). How does Chuck do it? Chuck is given a mission to ‘get close’ and find out what she knows. But actually, he has his own plans to find out why she dumped him for Bryce and if she still cares for him....

I’ve worried about Chuck on a few occasions. It hit a bad patch in season two, I recall. But its current problems appear to be entirely self inflicted wounds to do with breaking the cycle of mutual affection between Chuck and Sarah. As much as this had become passé, it was always where Chuck was at its best. That and the utterly crazy stuff in the Buy More. In Chuck Versus The Nacho Sampler the writers decided they wanted to move the concept of Chuck becoming a real spy on, to the extent that he gets a sobering lesson in how disposable civilian ‘assets’ are, and it’s all carefully constructed to mirror how he was once one....

Alternatively, it could just be because there’s something weirdly appealing about the idea of big-game hunters tiring of animals and moving on to human prey. The rules of their games and settings are often exotic or weird enough to add spice and, invariably, the hunted always become the hunters, the net result of which is normally a metric assload of extreme violence. Win! As you can imagine, the remaining two issues flip between the ‘game’ and the mystery of Kraven’s apparent resurrection and, yeah, it’s a blast....

Class is back on at Greendale with another important life lesson: drinking is bad. But not for the reasons you think… Having accidentally discovered on Troy’s twentieth birthday, that he is, in fact, 21 (apparently repeating fifth grade means you stay 10 for years), the gang (read Daddy Jeff and Mommy Britta) decide that, as Troy is now legal, the only way to celebrate is with copious amounts of alcohol....

Ill at ease with his legacy yet born with the blood of a boxer in his veins, the hot-headed Adonis (or Don, as he’s known to his friends) coaxes Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, as loveably hangdog as ever) to turn him into a top-rate contender. Coogler brings an unvarnished, tough edge to Creed, dragging it closer in style to the original 1976 Rocky than its glossier sequels – Rocky IV fans will be disappointed to learn there aren’t any gratuitous robots skulking around here....

1.3 The Prisoner This week’s episode takes a bit of a side-step from the pursuit of the Book of Leaves and the conflict between Rome and the Sons of Mithras and emphases the conflict between Rome and the people of Florence, specifically their Medici leadership. That means spies, intrigue, and… possessed nuns? Indeed, in one of the show’s many running themes, Leonardo the great humanist squares off against the superstitiousness of the fifteenth century Catholic Church and the people of Florence when a rash of demonic possessions wracks a nearby nunnery....

But the two films have put lots of money into the bank for Sony, and even the previously sequel-shy Tom Hanks (Toy Story aside) came back on-board easily enough. And thus, the cinematic adventures of Robert Langdon and his haircuts are set to continue, as Sony is pushing ahead with the film version of Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol. The book is apparently the fastest selling adult novel of all time, and hence Sony is keen to capitalise on that as soon as it can....

How did you come to be involved in the project? Were you a fan of Robert Rankin beforehand? You built up a quite a double act with Andy Serkis; did you two hit it off quickly? Yeah, Andy and I hit it off with each other straight away. Andy’s a real gentleman and a very generous actor. He displayed no signs of ‘Hollywood’ and was clearly still a Londoner at heart....

Essentially though, it seems to be setting up a standard episode. We see Daredevil fighting crooks, hanging out with Foggy, working at the law firm with Karen, hitting up Turk for information and finally clocking off in the evening at Josie’s Bar. There’s a sense of routine – which is then interrupted when someone decides to kill an entire mob family unexpectedly, leaving the only survivor to call in Nelson & Murdock....