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24 Season 8 – 1:00-2:00am With Jack back on point, Hastings is beginning to look a lot more like a real CTU boss, and after a bit of a chinwag, updating the President on current events, he flat out refuses Rob Weiss’ orders to detain Renee Walker. Good going, Brian! Walker, now free, contacts Jack and the two swap niceties, both agreeing that they want to be together. This is surely a major case of tempting fate, though, and I won’t be surprised if Renee ends up biting the big one before the day is out....

In Tina Fey’s memoir, Bossypants (good read, that), she revealed that 30 Rock‘s creators didn’t set out to make a critical darling for a niche audience. Rather, they were after mainstream success. I’m guessing, however, from the outright weirdness of this week’s episode, that those dreams have now well and truly fallen by the wayside. Everything Sunny All the Time Always was unashamedly odd, and all the better for it....

Loosely based on the Japanese legend of the same name, 47 Ronin stars Keanu Reeves as “half-breed” orphan Kai, who’s raised and trained in martial arts by demonic warriors in 18th century Japan. Subsequently taken in by the kindly Lord Asano (Min Tanaka), Kai falls in love with her daughter Mika (Ko Shibasaki), though his outsider status means that they can never marry. Then, a power-hungry rival Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) and his shape-shifting witch sidekick (Rinko Kikuchi) carry out a cunning plan to frame Lord Asano for murder, allowing Kira to seize control of the former’s kingdom....

In Tracie’s Story, the first of four new one-off dramas from Jimmy McGovern’s Accused, Sean Bean did just what he presumably took the job to do; reminded anyone who needed reminding that he’s no rent-a-sword Richard Sharpe, Steward of Gondor or Lord of Winterfell, he’s a consummate actor. As good a sword-wielding hard man as Bean is, his role as a transvestite English teacher in the courtroom drama was captivating, human, and – if you’ll forgive the vulgarity – showed more balls than any of his chainmail and tunic incarnations....

But here we are with a mid-season finale that somehow successfully combined a Captain America story arc (SHIELD vs. HYDRA) with the history of the Inhumans with the revelation that Skye’s father is actually a classic Thor villain. For a series that was panned for existing outside the Marvel Universe, there certainly is enough Kirby and Lee magic to go around now isn’t there? While she was a HYDRA prisoner, Skye’s daddy revealed that his real name is Cal....

APPEARANCEAirwolf: Bell 222Blue Thunder: Aérospatiale Gazelle The sleek appearance of Airwolf was actually intentional, because the original premise of the show was that it could appear to be a civilian copter. This was reflected in the Airwolf badge logos worn on the flying suits, which featured a flying wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ironically, the changes that they made to Blue Thunder also made it nose heavy and reputedly very difficult to fly....

Well, it’s difficult to articulate fully why this is such a big deal, but let me put it this way – if Shakespeare were alive today and he released another play, wouldn’t you be interested? If Elvis were still going and had a new album out, wouldn’t you understand the hype? The comics industry, without hyperbole, is living this situation whenever Moore releases a new comic, and that, simply put, is why it’s such a big deal for comic fans....

Flora is missing. The hunt for a missing girl, after three days or so, becomes more of a hunt to recover a body. A body is discovered, just… the wrong body. Mason, Lee’s ex-husband, becomes the latest victim of the malevolent spirits and/or murderous hillbillies who have been menacing the Miller family since they moved into the big white farmhouse. However, there seems to be a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a diminutive psychic with a big ego and a bigger gift in the form of Cricket Marlowe....

American Horror Story Season 8 Episode 2 Things always go badly in an apocalypse survival bunker. I cannot tell you that from personal experience, but if television and movies have taught me anything, it’s that trapping a bunch of people in a facility for long-term survival is just asking for someone to eventually go off the deep end, even without supernatural interference. Not even a fresh bowl of snake stew can brighten that kind of environment, especially considering that the environment is lit only by candles and fires and the occasional red-tinted Edison bulb....

So, after a few episodes now, the shape and feel of the show is set, and this new episode shows it can survive without Gran. Just about. After last week’s new arrival, Blake, whom we later see in this episode, we’re also introduced to another one of Lilley’s creations, Jen Okazaki, an overzealous mother of the famous pro-skater Tim Okazaki . She trained her son from the moment he could walk to skate to be the best....

Arriving on our shores all the way from Down Under is the hotly tipped crime film, Animal Kingdom. Loosely based on the real life Pettingill family and the Walsh Street police shootings of 1988, the film tells the story of youngster J (James Frecheville), who, after watching his mum die of a heroin overdose, finds himself living with his previously estranged family, who are, in fact, a notorious crime family led by grandmother Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody....

The series has chosen to frequently reboot and then “deboot” itself in past years. As far as the show is concerned, there’s absolutely no reason that Archer needs to remain a show that’s about spies, so why not turn it into a film noir, or a drug running operation, or a 1930s adventure serial homage set on against a pirate backdrop? It’s this sort of creativity and fearlessness that allows Archer to stay on the air and remain fresh for so long....

4.1 Green Arrow Suffice to say, season four has a lot to prove, and that starts with somehow backtracking on season three’s happier-than-happy ending in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or piss off any Olicity fans. When we open, we’re greeted with a completely domesticated Oliver (the green jogging hoodie was a nice touch) living in the suburbs with Felicity, having brunch with normal friends and planning another happily ever after in which the two of them get engaged....

Atlanta: Season 2 Episode 9 The general idea of Robbin’ Season is meant to be that the episodes feel standalone, but, when looked back on in full, they tell one, long coherent story (a la Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, according to Donald Glover). And I have to say they’ve managed to pull this off a lot more craftily than I could’ve anticipated. Indeed, it’s been a slow build that, in “North of the Border,” finally results in Earn’s firing....

3.4 Real Life Is The Nightmare I know that Banshee is predominantly a pulp action show, but I really don’t think it gets enough credit for how well it can work in its quieter moments. This week’s episode almost entirely comprised those (while still finding room for an explosion, a fight and a car chase) but it didn’t feel lacking for it. In fact I’d be willing to argue that Real life Is The Nightmare deserves to stand with last week’s instalment as one of the best episodes this show has ever produced, if only for proving that real emotion underpins each one of these colourful characters, and that they can be just as compelling sitting and talking as they can be blowing stuff up....

When Bob Kane first came up with the character in 1939, the original Batman was a pulp hero, not a million miles away from the Shadow. By the 1960s, the Caped Crusader had changed and the camp hi-jinks of the hit television show was matched by the comic strip, which was becoming increasingly childish. Looking back, the original concept behind this story was a brave one. Batman was rapidly approaching his 40th birthday and editors at DC wanted to test the water with fans to see if they wanted the Dark Knight to retain his crime-fighting partner or go it alone for his anniversary....

Murdered for Being Different, then, is exactly the kind of thing BBC Three should be making. Following previous instalments Murdered By My Boyfriend and Murdered By My Father, it takes a real-world event and with it attempts to make a wider statement. Unlike those other episodes’ subject matter, however, the murder of Sophie Lancaster (played here by Abigail Lawrie), which occurred at a skate park in 2007, is something that’s faded into collective memory....

4.3 Lil’ Smokie In this week’s episode of Being Human, Sally and Nora bond over a shared experience while Aidan spends some time with his progeny. We open in the kitchen, where Sally is ghost-dreaming about the night Danny killed her. We’ve all seen it before, so we know exactly how it goes: he shoves her into the wall and then she spills down the stairs before cracking her head on the landing....

On This week’s episode of Syfy‘s new series, Bitten, we pick up where episode one left off: Elena (Laura Vandervoort) standing at the gates to the Stonehaven homestead after being summoned home to help the family track down and deal with a Mutt. With a not so sneaky Clay (Greyston Holt) coming up to her from behind, the hostility between the two is already beyond obvious. A blind person could see the tension between the two!...