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4.2 117 Derek Hale, everyone’s favorite grouchy mentor and foil to Stiles, was found in a teenage state (played by Ian Nelson) last week by the gang in their Mexican cave. This week he’s back in town and back under the care of Scott, Stiles, Dr Deaton, and the rest of the Beacon Hills shifter community. As it turns out, Lil Derek had a little getting trouble to his lycanthropy during his teenage years, and he needed a magical macguffin, the triskelion, to help him focus himself and control his abilities....

5.6 Required Reading One of the strongest points of the third season of Teen Wolf was the fact that, at any point, you couldn’t really be sure if you were looking at something real or if you were looking at some sort of hallucination. Particularly when it came to Stiles and his delusions. The Nogitsune was awesome at making viewers question everything they were seeing, and it’s interesting to see Teen Wolf going back once again to this familiar territory, once again to great effect....

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been building to April becoming a true member since the beginning of the series. April has always been a supporting cast member, although she needed the Turtles’ support more often than the other way around. She’s received ninja training from Splinter and was strong enough to leave the Turtles after they mutated her father in the season premier, but she eventually forgave them when they helped save her....

Well, actually it does that for about 10 minutes while John ponders how his life isn’t normal and what it might be like to be that way. And then once those ideas have surfaced it applies full throttle again with hobnailed boots. The strengths of this episode are the performances of Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker who are occupying their characters of Sarah and John with increasing confidence. They’re good, but I’m less convinced by the Derek Reese persona, who’s now been elevated to the main cast....

That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? This is also one of the most refreshing episodes in a while as Five knows exactly how Nine and Twelve operate and catches them on their patterns immediately. Suddenly these enigmatic ciphers are painted as predictable and careless even, and it’s a welcome change. To have these two strong-minded forces, and then watch them play a literal and metaphorical game of chess with each other is deeply engaging....

The Affair Season 3 Episode 9 “I thought it made sense. I tried to make it make sense.” Jesus Christ, can we just give Maura Tierney an Emmy? Helen’s half of this episode basically had me breaking out into a panic attack. Her segment is a claustrophobic, frightening, honest attack. I was vocal a number of times throughout it. It feels like a nightmare and even plays like a horror film as Helen’s family gangs up on her....

It’s, basically, the one reality show (perhaps outside of The Mole in the States) that we’ve ever got massively interested in, not least the various international flavours of it. And while it’s, inevitably, decreasingly about business and more about people trying to get on the telly, we’ve found ourselves writing about it for the past few years, and feel compelled to carry on. And from the off, the writers this year (and you’re not telling us there isn’t a writer involved somewhere) have pulled a terrific wheeze, by changing the name of the main character....

Set in the 18th-century Middle East, The City of Brass follows Nahri, a young woman living in Cairo who gets pulled into a magical world of djinn, and Ali, a young prince living in the djinn city of Daevabad. Den of Geek: Where did The City of Brass start? Chakraborty: It was very much a private project at first. I had studied history in college and I wanted to go to graduate school, but couldn’t....

Hey, there’s a new Batman movie coming out! You never would have known, though. They’re keeping the ad campaign very low key. I’d still be in the dark had it not been for that Warner Brothers employee who came up to me on Fifth Avenue the other day and glued a picture of Heath Ledger to my chest. At first, I thought they were re-releasing Brokeback Mountain, but then I saw the logo and remembered hearing a long time ago that they were making another Batman movie....

Many time travel stories on television are told from the perspective of those who come to the past wishing to change the apocalyptic future from which they come, but what if the travelers just want to escape to a better place and time to live out their lives? Such is the case with ABC’s The Crossing, which springs from the minds of Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, who introduced their series to viewers through the eyes of 47 survivors, refugees if you will, who were mistakenly dropped deep in the Pacific Ocean by their rushed trip through time....

In said election, Bush grew his vote, won a majority in the popular ballot, increased his electoral vote tally, and was re-elected as President of the United States. At heart, this is an extension of the political conversation Brand has been trying to have for the past couple of years. But by nature of this being a feature, he has your attention for an hour and a half, and it’s clear from the off that he intends to use it....

2.15 King Shark While Oliver Queen opts to endlessly brood and keep things to himself, Barry wears his heart very much on his sleeve. It’s the most endearing thing about him, and thus always feels authentic when episodes like King Shark bring those emotions to the surface. Plus, we all know that Grant Gustin cries really well, so there’s that. Overall it’s smart for the show to carry over emotional consequences from the gang’s adventures on Earth-2, both for Barry and for Caitlin....

We see Luke develop his own hatred for Ryan when he tells Mark that Gisele has been killed, though the necrophilia angle is still unsettling. As always, Sam Underwood’s dual role work is great, transforming from Mark to Luke seamlessly. The chemistry between Mike and Jessica Stroup’s Max is palpable, as Stroup is a lovely addition to the show. In a rare bright spot in Season 2, Mike really goes rogue this week....

2.7 Sacrifice When you watch a lot of television like I’ve done, you get to know a lot of “that guy” actors and actresses who keep popping up on stuff to your surprise. They’re people you kind of recognise from other stuff, but not enough to know who they are at first glance. This week’s episode of The Following ends up being a who’s who of the who’s that set, with guest turns from a surprising amount of identifiable character actors playing a variety of horrible people who are popping up to make Ryan Hardy’s life miserable....

1.12 eXtraction & 1.13 x-Roads Early in the show’s run, I made a list of everything good X-Men media has: soapy non-mutant backstories, melodramatic romance subplots, and visually interesting applications of powers. The one thing that I missed from that list? Villains with a point, and these two episodes go out of their way to build that into the show’s mythos. All but one of the show’s villains take centre stage: Campbell, Jace, Lorna and Andy....

2.3 Baggage The failed escape though, was no waste of time. By introducing the Econopeople rank, it filled in some blank space on our mental map of Gilead, and by leaving June alone with her thoughts, it filled in some blank space on her character. We’ve become used to seeing June as admirably rebellious. This was her third escape attempt so far. She led the passive protest against Janine’s stoning....

Rarely has an episode of a comedy I normally enjoy left me feeling quite so perplexed. To use a lazy, common cliche, this third episode of The IT Crowd was one of two halves – the first filled with the kind of gentle humour we’d expect from the show, the second unexpectedly distasteful. Fulfilling another lazy-yet-common cliche that a fool and his money are easily parted, rich-yet gullible Reynholm Industries boss Douglas has discovered a new religion....

The difference between walking about on the streets of my hometown and sitting in the multiplex is negligible apart from the fact that the flicks have a bit more blood and Jeff Bridges singing a country soundtrack. Because I’ve never seen a talking rabbit in Bolton (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any signs of intelligent life in Bolton) Alice In Wonderland seemed to be the lunacy-fringed film sufficiently removed from real life enough to appeal to me....

Episodes 3.7 & 3.8 Things were looking grim for Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and special branch operative (and new bedroom buddy), Mathias Borch as episode seven began: locked in the warehouse where thirteen-year-old Louise Jelby was held by Emilie Zeuthen’s kidnapper, which was rapidly beginning to fill with exhaust fumes. If they want out, all they need to do is hand over a notebook containing incriminating licence plates from the time when Louise disappeared....

Regan wasn’t shy about teasing some details of the coming season, which will apparently feature a larger cast that includes other military branches. “One of the coolest things was that we teamed up with the Marines this year,” she says. “So we had the help of the real Navy and Marines, and then we had all these fantastic actors playing Marines. And so the cast doubled in size, and we got to pull out all the stops because we got to say, ‘This is our last one....