2.7 A Marriage Of Inconvenience Directed by Edward Bennett (Waking The Dead, Silent Witness) and written by, Steve Bailie (Casualty, Primeval), A Marriage Of Inconvenience is a surprising episode in that it had me raging for the first half hour, but then as the twist became more clear it forced me to see it in a new light. This was an episode that caught me unawares and I liked it the more for it....
3.5 To Play The King If we can but hope that last week’s The Queen’s Diamonds was this season at its lowest, then at least To Play The King shows some improvement, but unfortunately is still some way short of the quality of those opening few episodes and the series as a whole. Written by Ellen Taylor (who is credited with many, many Coronation Street episodes as well as other British staples like Casualty), the story has a solid central plot and one I don’t think we’ve seen in The Musketeers before – a good, old fashioned heist....
Naz’s mother, played by Poorna Jagannathan, is in a lethargic funk. Huddled inside the “Murder suspect’s home” in Queens, as the NY1, report says, the Khan family are hostages of the dark side of fame. Already labeled “Muslim” in a non-committal, but still damning way, they are under as much scrutiny as their son, who still doesn’t look or act like a murderer. The media attention arouses parental concern and the school Naz’s honor roll brother goes to takes a hard line....
2.20 City Beneath The Sea His decision in this episode to work with Dahlia may cause him to cross this line, and that’s worrying. The difference is that, even when his logic is flawed and skewed by past experiences and characteristic paranoia, we can usually rely on his intelligence to keep things aligned. The audience will find it hard to believe anything that came out of this week’s trip down memory lane, because everything Dahlia showed Klaus about her past was a product of her own mind....
That Michaël Dudok de Wit’s Ghibli-backed The Red Turtle is entirely without dialogue takes it necessarily to a rarified place – look, you knew you weren’t seeing Transformers – but what could’ve been a clever-clever experiment that left you applauding the form but checking your watch succeeds in accentuating all the little nuances that sweep you off your feet. It’s quite lovely. We don’t know this man’s name or how he got here; there’s no explanation of his life beforehand, which by traditional narrative standards should be essential to make us care about him....
1.5 Reaper In an especially welcome move, Reaper finally begins to clean up the mess of main protagonist Amberle’s characterisation. Not only are viewers treated to a flashback depicting a watershed moment in her life: her father’s death but the ‘road trip’ format of the episode provides a more stable environment in which to showcase Amberle’s personality. Such development is perfectly showcased in her relationship with Crispin who repeatedly defies her wishes in spite of her royal status, yet as the episode progresses, is forced to submit to the Princess’ will as she learns to stand up to the arrogant elf captain....
As you more than likely know, Sony Pictures, as well as several other companies since, has been the victim of a major online hack on its servers. At first, this hack seemed to just affect the company’s web page, but in the past week, it’s been clear it’s a lot more serious. Several of the firm’s movies have leaked online, as well as a bunch of documents and e-mails regarding projects that Sony was and is working on....
Nicolas Cage is the star of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (he’s the sorcerer), which is the tale of a weasel-y little social misfit named Dave, who spends most of his time locked away in an old subway turnaround, performing experiments on Tesla coils as part of his pursuit of a physics degree at NYU. He doesn’t get out much, despite the best efforts of his roommates. However, Dave is special. Not special in the way in which special is a pejorative term, but special in an actual sense....
The film tracks the Stooges through three stages of their life, starting with their young days at the orphanage, then later as they try to raise the money needed to save it. Along the way the boys live in a dumpster, get involved in a murder plot, and somehow become reality television stars. Three dimwits with a casual disregard for their own health, an uncanny ability to absorb violence, and no fear of being foolish in public?...
3.8 Ordinary People The ‘Lockwood diaries’ is an idea stolen from many other mythology-rich genre shows like Smallville, but it doesn’t look like it’ll outstay it’s welcome. In Smallville, for example, it took the hero several years to figure out what the different drawings in the native American caves meant, but here we see Elena take charge almost straight away. It’s just another example of Vampire Diaries taking other shows’ bad ideas and executing them more efficiently....
5.4 For Whom The Bell Tolls In contrast, the storyline I thought I was going to hate this week – Stefan’s amnesia – has actually improved the season for me. Without his memories, Stefan has a pleasing no-bullshit attitude towards his crazy life, his bad friends and the constant quelling of his bloodlust. This isn’t quite the Ripper Stefan we were promised following his escape from the quarry, but it’s good enough....
6.13 The Day I Tried To Live The Vampire Diaries has trouble holding onto its bad guys, largely because its bad guys are often so well done that the writers have no choice but to offer them redeeming features, fold them into some sort of love story and keep them around for longer than ever intended. It started with Damon, but since then we’ve had Klaus, Enzo and a whole host of others....
6.20 I’d Leave My Happy Home For You Elena is human again, folks, and we’ve been transported back to season four – figuratively and literally – for some old-fashioned Delena angst in the process. Yes, suddenly the worst storyline of season six – Elena erasing her memories of Damon but getting back together with him anyway – has a purpose. After taking the cure, a move I honestly didn’t expect despite (or because of) all signs pointing that way, she remembers the last time the McGuffin was around, when Damon refused to take the cure with her because of… reasons....
Every side character involved is at the top of their game, and the sizzling love-hate relationship between Brock and Molotov Cocktease is as commanding to watch as ever. Dr. Venture and the kids happened to be visiting the O.S.I. hover ship that day too, so Sergeant Hatred could look into some breast reduction procedural options (we actually get to see his bare boobs this time around, and I’m still not sure if that image was hilarious, or downright disturbing)....
2.5 ChupacabraThis week’s episode of The Walking Dead might have had the best opening segment of the show. It was, without a doubt, the best flash-back scene of the program thus far. From that opening flashback, we return to the post-walker world. The search for Sophia continues, in spite of all the odds against the little girl being found alive, yet the idyllic Greene family farm isn’t quite as idyllic as it seems....
Marian and Count Fosco’s game of chess was the model for part three. One side attacked, the other defended, and so on and so on until the conspirators had their victims practically at checkmate. Glyde, the Count and the Countess moved steadily across the board, surrounding Laura and Marian and leaving them with very few moves to make. The Count and Countess waged a different kind of war to Glyde....
The New World It basically splits the episode into two bits so that it can do this. In the one half, we get the story of Rhys and Gwen in their Welsh retreat, and hiding deep, deep away. At least for a little bit. They’re the ones who are holding the original fans of Torchwood in place, even if, by the end of episode one, it’s clear that Miracle Day is a far evolved beast from the Torchwood we first saw on BBC Three all those years ago....
The first episode, Everything Changes, has a lot to pack in. Introducing concept, characters and setting, we leap straight from the season finales of both seasons 1 and 2 of Doctor Who, catching up with breakout character Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) after his miracle resurrection at the end of The Parting of Ways (Doctor Who, s1 ep13), and with the Earth after the events of the season 2 finale, which saw – among other things – the destruction of Torchwood One, known to us mere mortals as Canary Wharf....
James Brogden seems like a writer who’s done a fair amount of observing in his time. He has a gift for taking the drab wallpaper that hangs on the periphery of everyday life and turning it into something mindbending. His debut novel, The Narrows, was a phenomenal horror-fantasy that built itself around the geography of Birmingham and – speaking as someone who was born and raised there – I can think of few things that sound as tedious....
Johnny Depp stars as Dr Will Caster, a scientist who plans to make the first sentient computer. Shot and terminally injured by a member of an extremist ‘neo-Luddite’ group who want to derail any attempt to create a thinking machine, Caster’s fragile consciousness is uploaded into the virtual realm by his grief-stricken wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and colleague Max (Paul Bettany). Pfister gives Transcendence the modern sheen you’d expect from the cinematographer of Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy, yet the B-movie trappings are still there below the surface: screenwriter Jack Paglan’s ideas recall those found in such films as The Fly, eXistenZ (anti-technology terrorists) and Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (furtive, scientific goings-on in a remote small town)....
