Perhaps it’s the knowledge that the end is in sight, or perhaps it’s a desire to make the final season have some extra import, but it feels like the cast members of Lost have really upped their game this season. With normally tedious characters like Jack and Kate actually sustaining an entire episode’s worth of material in an engaging and entertaining way, when the better characters get an episode, it’s almost better than ever....
Unlike Zwick’s previous attempts, however, Love & Other Drugs finds the director trying to fuse the debate (this time surrounding privatised health care and ‘big pharma’) with the genre of romantic comedy. Does it work? Well, in truth, not really. However, the film hits its first significant stumbling block when we are introduced to Jamie’s family during a ‘quirky’ family dinner. It seems that Zwick expects us to buy the fact that Gyllenhaal, a criminally underused George Segal and the hyperactive, Seth Rogen/Jonah Hill-hybrid Jason Gad are all somehow related....
And then there’s Marchlands, a ghost story spanning three different eras in the same house, that’s running over five episodes. Inevitably, then, this opener had a lot of business to get through, and it battled through the immediate backlog as quickly and gamely as it could. Moving towards the glorious wallpaper and dodgy washing machines of 1987, meanwhile, and there’s Helen and Eddie Maynard, played by Alex Kingston and Dean Andrews....
4.11 Wake Up This week on Agents Of SHIELD, everyone gets a piece of the spotlight as the LMD drama continues. I guess we should start with the double main event, both featuring a different Agent May. Twice the Ming-Na Wen is always a good thing, and this week the LMD May experiences a major identity crisis. Remember last week, LMD May discovered her true robotic nature, and this week, robot May goes all Westworld....
4.9 Broken Promises And that trend continues this week with SHIELD’s return. For those of you hoping for a little catharsis on the Ghost Rider arc, well, no, that doesn’t happen. There is nary a mention of Robbie Reyes or Ghost Rider at all. In fact, it seems like the series is trying to distance itself from the first half of the season by just not mentioning the character at all....
4.7 The Secret Sharer Back in Camelot, Merlin wants Arthur to get up and get a bath, even going so far as dragging the semi-naked monarch out of bed and dumping him, unceremoniously, on the floor. He’s also got a ridiculously long speech for Arthur to learn and a variety of other tasks that Merlin appears to be co-ordinating in his role as King’s secretary. Before this buffoonery can go too far, Agravaine appears to discuss the traitor with the King, dismissing Merlin to discuss the sensitive issue in private....
Having successfully drawn both Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and the new probation assistant into fumbles they couldn’t then remember, Alisha was feeling used and crushed, worrying that her supposed ‘power’ had taken away any chance of her ever having a healthy sex life again. Alongside Alisha’s story ran the ongoing panic over the “stiffs”, as Nathan repeatedly called them, buried under the flyover in the exact spot that is about to be dug up for building work....
It has also given men the world over a cheap way out of fancy dress parties – all you need is your work suit, sunglasses and a pork pie hat – and for that we are all eternally grateful, amen. So what went wrong with The Blues Brothers 2000? The sequel which did not even have the grace to come out in the year 2000 and instead limped onto cinema screens in 1998....
TAKE US FROM THE TOP: None of my favorite Nashville vocalists performed tonight so nothing will be added to my Spotify playlist tomorrow, but Will and Layla performed a cute duet, Sadie Stone did her thing, and Rayna looked amazing per usual in her CMA gown. Before getting to the CMAs, Rayna and Luke built up the tension by discussing a prenup in the Limo, and although the conversation went very adult with neither side getting emotional, it ended with Rayna telling Luke “You know I’d never take anything from you....
Granted, he tells everyone the news in the midst of a balloon-voice joke (you know, when you suck in helium so you talk funny): but I have to say, that was the saddest, most serious balloon-voice chorus I have ever heard. Was it funny? Eh. Maybe a little. I feel they could have left out the comedy for that and just kept the gravity. Nonetheless, Walt died from a heart attack which means Nick, Jess, Winston and Schmidt all flew back to Nick’s hometown to attend the funeral....
When Schmidt acts strange about the double date, knowing he can’t possibly date both of them any longer, Cece suspects he’s on drugs. “He just, like, stopped blinking…is that Whippets?” Nick reacts terribly to Schmidt’s polygamous secret: “You get one wife! That’s the way the world works!” Winston pulls a page out of Seinfeld with his ridiculous seat-saving tactics. In recent memory, some comedies have failed in terms of audience awareness: who’s watching, and what do they want to see?...
It turns out, though, that Cage was in line to play a Batman villain as well. The news was revealed by The Playlist, who were talking to director Joel Schumacher. Because in the midst of production on Batman And Robin (when Warner Bros was apparently encouraged by what they were seeing), work had begun on putting together what would have been known as Batman Triumphant, which was being written by Mark Protosevich....
For a solid decade, ninjas were it. If you had a guy who could perform martial arts, you threw a gang of evil ninjas at him, no questions asked. Then, as the movies got cheaper and cheesier, and the ninjas started to dress in solid-color Crayola uniforms of red, blue, yellow, and green, the ninja started to die away. Undoubtedly, this was due in no small part to ninja overexposure and the demise of Golan-Globus/Cannon Films....
There are good moments in the cycle of a series to create what I’m pretty sure the big networks still call ‘event television.’ They name it that for a reason — because something happens. You know, an actual event. Tonight, for two hours, we watched the very opposite of “something happening.” There were no events. There was plenty of fat that needed trimming, plenty of carefully honed characters broken down into broad stereotypes, and worse still — decisions that could have been made in lieu of the ones that were made stood painfully, painfully obvious to everyone watching at home....
4.1 The Collapse Of Nature Starting out the long-awaited season four with Beth’s flashback story is a ballsy move by the creative minds behind Orphan Black. For a year now, Clone Clubbers have been dying to know who shot Delphine at the end of last season. Plus, you know fans have been waiting a long time for more Cosima, Alison, and Helena. Well, we get a bit of a few of the seestras this week, but this is really Beth’s story, a story that has gone untold for three seasons now....
Orphan Black: Season 5, Episode 4 This week we spent more time adding to the Neolution mythos, and enjoyed a good old fashioned con with S and Sarah. Adele made her grand return, Kira is still struggling with who she is, and Cosima poked around the Island of Dr. Moreau. S tells Adele about clones off-camera, which feels like a missed opportunity for some great reaction gifs and folksy sayings, as well as an odd storytelling choice....
Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), an ambitious young man working for a hot technology company, has big dreams of rising above his working-class roots and making waves in the business. Unfortunately, his ambition leaves him vulnerable to blackmail at the hands of his boss, Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman), who recruits him into a corporate espionage scheme intended to steal tech from his rival, Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). Along the way, Adam’s loyalties are tested, and he finds himself caught between the man he fears, the man he respects, and the FBI....
But of course nothing comes easily for the Bellas and they are up against other music acts who are aca-sceptics and aca-doubters who use real instruments (gasp) and don’t appreciate their aca-talents. There’s also the added complication of the surprise appearance of John Lithgow as Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson’s) dodgy, estranged criminal father (and Lithgow looks like he’s having an excellent time hamming it up). Then there’s Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins, the acerbic and consistently hysterical commentators of the Bellas’ story....
Powers Season 2 Episodes 1-3 I said it last year: Powers is at its best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, when it’s poking fun at its increasingly ridiculous storylines and self-indulgent dialogue. Sharlto Copley’s Chris Walker might be the absolute worst cop on television, but I love watching that hurricane take shape, engulfing my screen with increasing force. With things as paper thin as the “cop shit” Walker and Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) partake in, Powers is able to recover from its more serious moments, like the death of Retro Girl (Michelle Forbes), which fails to lend the show’s sophomore season any real gravitas in its first three episodes....
4.22 Cover For Me But then he strode into the Ravenswood lair with his cap and jacket, slammed that wardrobe door shut and reinvigorated my love for and faith in the show. After the double betrayals of Mona and Toby, both revealed to be exactly what the writers said they weren’t, I had optimism that, surely, they couldn’t do it again. But after the interviews following last week’s episode and various scenes in Cover For Me, I no longer hold on to the hope that Ezra could ever be confirmed as the dastardly villain he’s been written as....
