It’s really awesome not only that the airbender kids finally get an episode with them as the focus, but their actions actually impact the plot. This was, by far and away, the most Avatar episode of Korra in the series to date in terms of both content and tone. The focus of the episode was a traveling trio of kids on a mission of great importance, having some goofy humor mixed with poignant character development....
As a sweet-natured and rather innocuous holiday affair, The Man Who Invented Christmas offers a very romanticized and gentle dramatization of how Charles Dickens happened upon a Christmas Eve ghost story in 1843—as well as how it reinvented that Christian holiday for every Dec. 25 thereafter. Yet the movie finds its real Yuletide magic when it steps away from the confines of biographical origins and instead focuses on a man driven mad by his demons....
In the midst of this, though, emerged two brand new movie stars. Get The Mask: Buy the film on DVD and Blu-ray here (doing so via the link supports the site). Or on digital here. For Cameron Diaz, the career impact was arguably even more significant. Her role as Tina Carlyle was reportedly originally one that the late Anna Nicole Smith was being eyed for, until a chance encounter with Diaz on the way out of a modelling agency brought her into contention with producers....
2.4 Statice You’d be forgiven for feeling a touch of twist-fatigue at the close of episode four, most of which had delivered precisely what I missed in last week’s packed instalment, namely, room to breathe. Instead of flitting urgently from one plot development to the next, The Missing took some time this week to let its capable cast do what they do best. Keeley Hawes’ talent for quietly captivating an audience (see Line Of Duty for more of that) was showcased in a couple of monologues that gave an insight into the Webster family, which is so far this series’ most gratifying strand....
2.8 Election Night Part 1 Though it’s hardly a clean mid-season break, The Newsroom comes back from its one-week Labor Day hiatus with all the momentum of the seventh episode. ACN’s News Night team have royally fucked up by accusing the US government of committing war crimes, and even Jane Fonda, their most unlikely supporter, is rallying them for battle. We arrive back on election night 2012. As you’ll know if you tuned in last week, or if you’ve enjoyed living on planet Earth for the last year or so, President Obama is set to be re-elected....
Looking very modern, the entire place is all decked out in chrome, neon and styled around black desks, plasma screens and leather chairs. Downstairs it’s a wide open space that is meant to be a ‘kiddie friendly’ area to surf the web and play games – so there is no GTA, Manhunt or anything 18-rated that can be accessed down there. Upstairs offers a Microsoft-sponsored X-box 360 for console lovers....
The Simpsons: Season 27 Episode 15. The Simpsons’s “Lisa the Veterinarian” is really a life or death episode. Lisa and Marge take on the tragedies of tragedy from opposite sides of the spectrum and still have time to cry and laugh. Bart gets to warn the residents of Springfield about the terrors of those tiny fish that swim up your weenie and Homer declares the ultimate demise of lakes and rivers....
This The Simpsons review contains spoilers. It all starts when Marge finds a book in the car wash magazine section that changes her life. Actually it starts when the book is being mass-produced into a promised best-seller, which even Homer mentions. That book, and the men and robots who committed seppuku, an honorable suicide, to make it possible, changes Marge’s life. Coming as it does from a car wash it is no surprise that it has to do with cleaning house....
The Strain Season 4 Episode 5 Now that the end of The Strain is in sight (five more episodes after this week, I believe), can we just all start begging FX for a Quinlan prequel series? I mean, who wouldn’t watch a series about an immoral, daywalking, altruistic vampire with an Uzi and a bone sword? This week, we get to see what a potential Quinlan spin-off would look like as the episode flashes back to Victorian England and focuses on Quinlan’s past....
Her It’s not a film, however, that lends itself well to a synopsis. It’s about a man who falls in love with a computer operating system, but that doesn’t sell the film at all. It’s a romantic drama that’s so funny, and it’s a science fiction film about personal relationships. Her is the first film Spike Jonze has written alone (in spite of what he told us when we sat down with him to talk about the film)....
With its third episode, The Tunnel seems to entering a phase where it’s hoping the audience is just going to be able to keep up with everything, and trust in the creators that it’ll all make sense in the long run. The show could never be accused of being boring, but the pace is achieved by the introduction of yet more characters who seem to be fighting at times for a few minutes screen time, sometimes with muddy results....
3.6 Smells Like Teen Spirit It’s senior year, and Caroline is still on a mission to inject some old-school pep into her classmates. Understandably, not everyone is receptive to her particular brand of school spirit, with Bonnie, Elena and Matt preferring to dwell on their not so insignificant problems. Elena’s dealing with the new unwanted house-guest from last week’s climax, Bonnie’s brooding about her boyfriends penchant for talking to dead ex-girlfriends, and Matt’s seeing his sister all around school....
6.17 A Bird In A Gilded Cage It’s also completely unprecedented that it would be Stefan and Caroline, the show’s two most moral characters, who would be the bad guys while Damon and Bonnie set about fixing the world’s problems. It’s all a bit crazy to comprehend for those of us who remember the old days, but it’s also a thrill to be able to watch The Vampire Diaries without being able to predict what’s going to happen from minute to minute....
6.22 I’m Thinking Of You All The While So here we have a middle ground – getting Elena out of the picture without actually having her die forever – and, while a little inelegant, it made for a fitting finale for both the character and The Vampire Diaries as we currently know it. Elena won’t wake up as long as Bonnie is alive, and she fully intends for her best friend to live a full and happy life....
After learning the identity of Councilman #4 by Monstroso before the villain’s sudden disappearance in “O.S.I. Love You,” Councilman #4 conveniently winds up soon after. Left with nowhere to go, an O.S.I. stakeout of the funeral results in identifying another one of the councilmen, this time Councilman #1, who turns out to be a cyborg villain named Vendata. After finding a personal ad listing by Vendata, who’s in search of a cyborg personal companion, the O....
The Venture Bros. Season 6 Episode 1 It’s been over a year since Venture Bros.’ “All This and Gargantua-2,” and around two and a half years since the eight-episode fifth season, but the Ventures are back for another eight weeks (before disappearing again for who knows how long). Because of this, the premiere is placed in a somewhat unfortunate position. The episode has to cover the fallout of “Gargantua-2,” set up multiple major plots for the season, introduce a new city filled with plenty of new characters and allegiances, and catch up viewers who don’t remember season five/the special that well....
In some respects this was an odd episode as you can see the threads of the story progressing in parallel but it’s tricky to see how they’re going to come together before the end of this final series in nine episodes time. And you have to hope they will come together as the alternative is the horrendous let-down that was inflicted at the finale of The Sopranos. On the legal side Senator Clay Davis is hauled in front of a grand jury to be accused of corruption and embezzlement....
A century and a half after The Woman In White was first published, what was once sensational about ‘the sensation novel’ now feels rather tame. Victorian readers may have shivered at the image of a ghostly hand being placed on an unsuspecting shoulder, but we’ve all seen that done a million times by now. The same goes for the novel’s scandalous acts. Post-Jeremy Kyle’s “Prove I’m the dad and I’ll prove I haven’t slept with my mum!...
This is Us Season 2 Episode 3 Life is a series of highs and lows, and some people seem to experience more pain than joy. The Pearsons are almost like us, yet slightly different. They’re almost like us because we all have someone in our family, or a friend, struggling with addiction. It’s best to learn to swim and operate a motorized boat when the waves of life rise and fall....
