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7.2 Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark Fortunately for Sarah Paulson, she has a much calmer week this week than she did during Election Night. Rather than screaming and breaking down multiple times, she only has a few crying jags. For most of the episode, rather than being completely irrational, she’s more paranoid and anxious. Ally’s fear turns inward, rather than outward, which allows Sarah Paulson to do more subtle work this week as a woman taken to the very fringes of her ability to withstand life....

The episode begins with a noticeable absence of the present day storyline and dives right into the Briar Cliff, 60’s set action. A new patient has forced her way into the asylum. The woman found herself in police custody after attacking a man who made an anti-Semitic remark. After this, the new patient is writing about the difference between the asylum and concentration camps, when Arden walks into the room and she immediately charges at him....

5.9 She Wants Revenge The inconsistent nature of time has been a big discussion point for the last couple of episodes of American Horror Story, and She Wants Revenge is no different. The show opens with Lady Gaga giving a monologue on the nature of aging, the very physical changes that happen in men and women that don’t happen to someone like her, and a big chunk of the middle of the episode is dedicated to Ramona Royale’s time spent with her aged, ailing parents and her failed attempt at using the vampire virus to arrest her father’s Alzheimer’s disease without success....

The idea is basically an extension of the school debating society. Two teams of two – led by captains Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound – debate a series of topics, and the audience decides at the end who wins each debate. John Sergeant is in charge of reading gags off the autocue, and the show flows really very well. The highlight of this opener though is the debate over whether bodybuilders look fabulous or not....

While ‘Children in Need’, Red Nose day and the like are commonplace now, along with the obsession to ‘give’ to every charity via every conceivable form of payment, back in 1981 those ‘wacky types’ running marathons in a wet-suit or sitting in custard for a month for a good cause were a relatively new trend. As Ray mentions, ‘I hope they don’t start doing this every bloomin year’. When the entire crime is re-enacted by dodgy porn-a-like jobbing actors, and Shaw Taylor once again reminds people to ‘keep them peeled’, you know full well you are onto a good episode....

Anyway, Kara is thrown in the brig and writhes around on the floor shouting ‘WE’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!!!11’, while getting angry at Admiral ‘Atheist’ Adama. That is, until Lee comes in looking terrifyingly City boy (pinstripe suit, excessive Brylcreem). He not only says he believes her, but that he now understands what it is to have a destiny and all this sharing of spiritual quests results in some pretty heavy petting....

They’re playing the autistic kid card, with Scott’s little brother, Jude, possessed by a vengeful spirit. The back-story is a bit confusing and doesn’t matter much (a recurrence this series), and we’re encouraged instead to focus on the themes of family and abandonment the storyline evokes. When Scott considers putting Jude into care after an unfortunate incident with an electric heater in the bath, for example, it’s heavily implied that Ellie herself was put in care when she was younger....

Too often, Batman is just all fists and no brains, a characterization that runs contrary to the true nature of the character. This Batman is always observing, always two steps ahead of his opponents, always in the last rounds of a chess match that his foes don’t even know they’re playing. Magpie seemed to be a better fighter than Batman; she gained the physical edge over the Dark Knight a few times during this episode, but it was Batman’s cunning and patience that defeated her as much, if not more so, than his physical strength....

How did you prepare for the role, and what attracted you to it initially? Beyond The Pole has a genuinely off-the-cuff, natural feel to it – were any of your scenes improvised, or was it more scripted than it appears? That natural off the cuff feel is purely down to the direction and performance as it was all scripted. The only scene we really improvised was the biscuit scene with the Norwegians (but that was still based on a bit of script) and a few lines at the end when we get near the pole – but we had freedom to paraphrase at times to make it feel more natural....

Hunters is the brain child of The Walking Dead producer, Gale Anne Hurd, and 12 Monkeys producer, Natalie Chaidez. With a pedigree like that, Oldford was anxious to take on the role of Agent Regan. “Working with Gale Anne Hurd has been a dream of mine,” she said in an exclusive interview. “I mean, I grew up watching Terminator and Aliens and watching Sigourney Weaver just slay!” Oldford had to undergo extensive training, dubbed “hunter boot camp,” in order to enact the animalistic movements and alien mannerisms of a Hunter, while still remaining very much a human, since the origins of her alien nature are unknown....

After our introduction to the less well-adjusted of the Westen brothers last episode, Nate spends much of the show making Michael look like a super hero. Having gotten a taste for helping the hopeless, the hapless younger Westen decided to start up his own business, and is currently on a case for a friend – how difficult can it be, right? Turns out it’s actually quite tricky, particularly when you’re nosing around in places where you’re not welcome....

Each Chuck story has a pivotal theme, and the one in this story is Valentine’s Day and the finding of love associated with it. I knew this was a classic when Chuck first arrives at his undercover suburban home, and waves at all the neighbours while Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads plays. The words “not my beautiful house” and “not my beautiful wife” get a whole extra dimension, when he walks into the home to find photoshoped images of his marriage to Sarah, her making potato salad, and even a dog!...

Essentially, I’ve forgotten what the point is. And so, it seems, has everyone in the story. Only SIO Stallwood seems to be remotely interested in getting to the bottom of why the collision happened. Tolin’s gone off on a tangential investigation about Karen and the danger she got into with the two men who escorted her from hospital, leading to her apparent suicide or murder. But in the course of him going off on a tangent he actually went off on a tangent, getting all worried about his daughter Jodie (Jo Woodcock) going away to Edinburgh University....

It’s 1980, and a mid-market Texas hotel plays host to an unusual tournament: its participants must pit their chess-playing computer programs against each other to see which is the most advanced, with the winning programmers earning the opportunity to try to beat flesh-and-blood chess champion Pat Henderson (Gerald Peary) at his own game. Although very much an ensemble piece, Computer Chess is largely seen through the eyes of awkward student Peter (Patrick Riester) who wrestles with a sophisticated, bug-ridden chess program even he barely understands....

The film centres on Nick Frost (who also executive produces). He plays Bruce, a man who used to live for salsa, until he was beaten up as a young boy for wearing too many sequins. His dreary routine is forced to change step, though, when a beautiful new boss arrives at his office: Julia (Rashida Jones). She loves to salsa too. And so Bruce decides to put his dancing shoes back on and shimmy his way into her heart....

Damnation Episode 5 Holden County isn’t big enough for Seth and his brother Creeley because they keep bumping into each other at the most inopportune times. I don’t know if one of the glaring problems between them would be solved with additional land or set pieces. Each succeeding episode seems to move further away from the central conflict of two brothers at odds with each other and themselves. I bought into show’s premise of good versus evil set against an arid Midwestern backdrop, but the creative team hasn’t thus far utilized all resources at their disposal....

This review contains spoilers. Another existential threat lurked in the compact form of Mary-Ann Cotton, dubbed ‘Britain’s First Female Serial Killer’. Played here by Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt, Cotton is the subject of two-part drama Dark Angel, adapted from David Wilson’s biography of the prolific poisoner. Dark Angel does a solid job of establishing the wretchedness of life for Victorian working class women – if largely by having characters deliver lines like “Buck up, love eh?...

2.1 The Opposite Of Hallelujah After an eleven month hiatus, Defiance is back, and it’s no less mercurial than before. Calling The Opposite Of Hallelujah a story would be generally inaccurate, because almost none of what goes on is joined up in any way. What we get instead is a snapshot of the main characters, where the last nine months of Defiance time has brought them, and some subtle hints about where the second season might go....

3.6 Where The Apples Fell The upturn in quality and narrative pace seen last week in Defiance continues unabated, in what is undoubtedly the strongest story yet. Though if I’m going to be critical, there isn’t so much a complete story, but significant character development that drives it forward here. It starts with probably the two best actors, Tony Curran (Datak) and Jaime Murray (Stahma) dealing with the fallout from Alak’s return....