Posts

2.10 Palindrome Unpleasant as it must have been from the inside, the fall of the Gerhardt empire has been a satisfying and well-executed narrative arc, deployed with thrilling action and softer reflection in equal measure. It’s a testament to Fargo’s mastery of tonal balance that neither element felt forced, unnatural or like it had been thrown in. It may be a show with stylised dialogue, certain visual trickery and a flying saucer, but it nevertheless feels true to life where it matters....

However, like a shining V-8 engine Dodge Charger roaring into the opposite flow of heavy traffic, there’s Fast & Furious 6, a fifth sequel that gives the enterprise of sequels a good name, and the idea of experiencing summer movies a definitive purpose. Wanting more of a franchise storyline doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially if it’s a follow-up to the amazing Fast Five. And for franchises with rising budgets, more money can mean even more greatness....

Fear The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 10 Being a fan of Fear The Walking Dead is sort of like being a fan of your hometown team. You stick by them through their many ups and downs, weathering wins and losses as favorite players come and go. But at the end of the day, no matter what the roster looks like, you’re still a fan. This is especially true of Fear’s uneven fourth season, which has delivered some lackluster episodes....

Not wanting to sound perverse, but I’ve sort of missed this show the week it was off. Maybe it’s the curious pleasure I get deriding its wafer thin characters and laughable attempts at storytelling. But it’s actually more than those; it’s the anticipation of what utter rubbish they can summon up next. For pure and unsullied by common sense WTF moments, FlashForward has been in a league of its own this season, and the madness continues unrefined this week....

1.8 The Ecstasy Of Agony As if to celebrate its new longevity, Forever delivered a much stronger episode than we’ve had for a while with The Ecstasy Of Agony. As the title implies, it’s thematically about sadomasochism, though it actually encompasses a wide range of situations where people are drawn to things that they know will hurt them. But the powerhouse behind this plot is the wonderful Hilarie Burton as Iona Payne, S&M mistress, therapist and chief suspect in the murder of Richard Gaines, a businessman with domination issues....

So last week, Josie’s world came crashing down around her as she was finally forced to face up to her misdeeds. But rather than stay remorseful, she cheerily brushes it all aside and continues to attend her dental course as if she hadn’t been excluded at all. Until her course leader drills it into her (geddit?) that she’s out for good that is. (It was a dentist joke). Rather than spin out this review any longer than necessary, I’m just going to come out and say this is possibly the weakest episode yet....

I was glad to see the return of Fringe, as I thought that it got very short thrift from Fox last year when they gave it a mid-season hiatus just when the series was building momentum. Although, in retrospect, the show did come back with more sense of purpose, and the finale exceeded my expectations on so many levels. Fans of the show expect some craziness in the opening pre-credit sequence, but the insanity produced for A New Day In The Old Town reaffirmed the premise that this is a show where just about anything can happen....

The main group gets separated fairly early on, as Seth found his way to Richie, thinking they’d found a way outside but it was actually a … hallucination(?). The depths of the temple, the labyrinth, is a mental one and as they had flashes of past events and knowledge in previous episodes, the labyrinth makes those within find their way through memories and ‘puzzles’ in order to make it through....

Earlier today, after the appointment of PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) as the administrators handling the case, Game CEO, Ian Shepherd, announced his resignation, stating that he always indented to let the administrators take charge of the business. All stores in Ireland have ceased trading, and many big city Game stores have already closed, including Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool and Coventry. This initial round of closures isn’t the end, though, and it’s expected that around half of Game and GameStation stores will be closed over the next few days....

What a pleasure, then, to report that Geostorm captures that spirit. I’m not sure if that’s by luck or design, either. Still, I happily confess it had me early on, with the idea that a raging weather movie was being crossed with a presidential assassination thriller. As it turns out – and this ain’t spoiling anything – the film also throws in an estranged father/daughter tale, a brotherly rivalry, and Gerard Butler pressing keys on a computer with the swagger of a man who’s never seen a keyboard in his life....

Belief and religion are probably two of the hardest topics any show can deal with. In fact, thinking back to shows in recent television history, the only one that dealt with faith was 7th Heaven. But then, that only dealt with one type of faith. What if you are Jewish, or Muslim, or an atheist? When Finn finds the face of Jesus on his grilled cheese sandwich, he promptly finds faith in God and asks that his three prayers be answered: that the football team win their first game with Artie, that he can touch Rachel’s boob, and lastly, that he is reinstated as quarterback....

3.16 These Delicate And Dark Obsessions The most successful part of tonight’s episode was the Penguin/Ivy stuff. Picking up from where last week’s midseason premiere ended, Ivy is continuing to nurse Penguin back to health. Oswald handles it for as long as he can (which is not very long) before losing patience with Ivy’s adolescent company, literally laughing in her face when she says she thought they were friends. Lucky for Oswald, Ivy is the forgiving sort....

2.7 The Bottle Imp Also taking her sweet time was beautiful Juliette, who for one glorious moment looked as if she may have been written a clumsy but oh-so-welcome exit from her current storyline. Not so, as her recovery was revealed to be a figment of Det. Burkhardt’s pretty little head, and the first of two rug-pulls executed in the episode. Nick’s subconscious may not be the most sophisticated plotter, but I’d have happily swallowed the old “Hey, I remember you” kitchen scene without complaint if it meant an end to this tediously drawn-out Nick/Juliette/Foxy Renard love triangle....

2.12 Tome-wan The penultimate episode of this season has certain responsibilities and Rymer, with a script by Chris Brancato, Scott Nimerfro, and showrunner/mastermind Bryan Fuller, manages to do everything that is necessary to set up a season finale that promises to explosively establish a dramatic new starting point for the recently announced third season. This week the Vergers’ (Michael Pitt and Katharine Isabel) storyline comes to a grisly conclusion, we discover what really happened between Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Bedelia (Gillian Anderson), Jack (Laurence Fishburne) gives an ultimatum, and Will (Hugh Dancy) plays his final cards....

Catherine Cawood (Last Tango in Halifax alumnus Sarah Lancashire) doesn’t have a great life. “I’m Catherine, by the way,” she says breezily, to a man planning to set fire to himself. “I’m 47, I’m divorced, I live with my sister – who’s a recovering heroin addict – I have two grown-up children. One dead and one who doesn’t speak to me. And a grandson!” It’s just a sample of the dry humour that laced the first episode of Happy Valley....

This review contains spoilers. With the neat and established structure of the hunt for an at-large killer, episode four ticked a lot of boxes too. This was by far Hard Sun’s most coherent hour, and as a result, its most exciting. There was still more going on than at your average circus (MI5, Daniel, Alex Butler’s murder…) but the apocalypse stuff was largely put on pause while Hicks and Renko focused on bringing Thomas Blackwood down....

Is it Arctic Biosystems? Owned and operated by big pharma, they are an obvious choice. Pharmaceutical companies have a long (and sadly not fictitious) history of honing their research and development skills on unwitting human “volunteers.” Who knows, maybe Arctic Biosystems is trying to develop a radical new weight loss drug? I mean, the infected are sweating their balls off while kicking ass in cardio. Does dismemberment count as resistance training?...

Shows are great when they’re all fast paced and action packed, I mean who doesn’t like explosions and sensational plot developments? But sometimes you’ve got to actually slow down and put some flesh on those bones of character development. Every series does it, whether they’ve overspent their budget so decide to set an entire episode in one room (Doctor Who) or try something a little fruitier like having characters switch bodies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)....

Hiro’s poorly-defined illness did at least get a diagnosis of ‘brain tumour’ for the first time this season, though the new, Quantum Leap-style expression of his powers is a disappointing development for viewers eager to see the character in control of things. Having Hiro at the whim of ‘destiny’ was a cute device in the first season, but this far on, it’s become rather stale, and seems to be a way to kill time without any genuine progression in his story – at least if this episode is anything to go by....

Both star ensemble casts. Both feature actors from The Office. Both are raunchy, definitely adult R-rated comedies, and by adult I don’t just mean in content. I mean they’re about adults, who have adult problems, and who just really want to recapture the freedom and fun of youth once more. They do this figuratively in The Hangover, with a last-gasp-of-bachelorhood trip to Vegas, and literally in Hot Tub Time Machine....