And so we have reached the end of the road, or garden path, for Swamp Thing. After 10 consistently good episodes, the series finale is dirty, but largely paydirt – even though the unceremonious early cancellation still rots. Titled “Loose Ends” (Springsteen really has a song for everything, doesn’t he?) the episode attempts to precisely tie them all up. For the most part the mission succeeds, but it’s a rushed affair....
It is the penultimate episode of Swamp Thing and yet, rather than building to an epic series finale, “The Anatomy Lesson” stumbles with a story that feels patched together, and rushed. While a show shifting its signature aesthetic can be invigorating, the noirish vibe and overuse of deep focus cinematography jarringly disrupts the flow that has heretofore been established. Unfortunately the writing also stumbles. Frankly, this reviewer wouldn’t be surprised to learn everyone involved in Swamp Thing (who learned during the filming of Episode 10 that it would be the final shoot for the season, rather than the planned 13 episodes) had to go back and re-work much of this story to wrap things up....
(No, it’s still not Richard Ayoade. Maybe we should try a gov.uk petition.) It’s a very solid line-up of up-and-coming comics flanked by two household name comedians, and follows on from the second Champion of Champions special and Series 13’s excellent collection of Ardal O’Hanlon, Bridget Christie, Chris Ramsay, Judi Love (JUDI. LOVE.) and Sophie ‘Don’t call me Ducker’ Duker. That series finished with crowning Sophie Duker rightful queen, with Judi Love never even winning a single episode despite winning every episode for the quality of her blagging, and with Bridget Christie having coined an unsettling knee-based Taskmaster dance, henceforth to be performed by schoolchildren around the UK on bank holidays....
The 100 Season 4 Episode 13 Once again, The 100 sets up an inevitability at the beginning of the season and does exactly what they promised they would: the death wave came and the world became uninhabitable for five years. Four seasons in and it sure is fun to watch them drop that axe. That said, while the finale set up some interesting story possibilities for next season, it wasn’t as action-packed or emotionally wrought as others....
It’s of course been a foregone conclusion that The Batman would get a fast tracked sequel ever since the picture dropped a mere 50 percent in its second weekend off a solid (if not spectacular) $134 million opening. It has since proven to have incredibly strong word of mouth, grossing $755 million globally in only 45 days ahead of its expedited HBO Max premiere last week. So the studio was always going to make The Batman 2....
When Earth is gone and the aliens have arrived one day, perhaps the only evidence that we were ever here will be images of SpongeBob emoting on a recovered hard drive. And you know what? I’m quite alright with that! SpongeBob memes are great. Thankfully, the voice behind the sponge agrees. Tom Kenny has been voicing the cheerful titular SpongeBob since the show first premiered in 1999. He’s followed the undersea fry cook through more than a dozen seasons, several movies, and the Paramount+ prequel Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years (which returns for more episodes on July 22)....
Say what you will about the overall quality of The Book of Boba Fett, there’s absolutely no doubt that it’s leaning heavily on fan service in its final episodes. Tons of easter eggs, callbacks to famous Star Wars moments, and a whopping number of character cameos have turned this show into yet another major streaming event for Disney+. In fact, chapter 6, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger,” takes the kitchen sink approach to big cameos....
The Crown and historical accuracy enjoy a fleeting rather than steadfast acquaintance. Peter Morgan’s Netflix drama concertinas history and jumps between time periods to follow emotional and symbolic through-lines rather than sticking to the recorded facts and timelines. “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization…” goes the proviso at the top of Season Five. School pupils shouldn’t rely on it to do their history homework, is the general consensus. That established, below is the timeline of the 1991 – 1997 period depicted in Season Five according to the TV drama, with the odd note on where episodes diverge from what we know to be the real-life sequence of events....
Many fans of The Expanse on Prime Video who haven’t already read the James S. A. Corey novels upon which the series is based probably have at least thought about checking out the books at some point. But the floodgates likely opened after the series finale aired for those looking to answer the questions left unresolved by the show’s untimely cancelation with books seven through nine still unadapted. For those still on the fence, we’ll attempt to outline the plot of the remaining story without spoiling the big moments that should be experienced firsthand....
The Expanse Season 3 Episode 3 With the war in this season of The Expanse escalating quickly, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that all of the destruction we’ve seen thus far is predicated on Errinwright’s need to regain Earth’s possession of the protomolecule, which he and other factions see as the ultimate weapon. The power of this episode, though, lies not only in the unfathomable disaster of having a nuclear bomb detonate in South America but in the tension between characters as they struggle to see eye to eye on matters that resist compromise....
In fact, let’s start with the explanation of what Marco accomplished through sabotage, piracy, and black marketeering. Much was made of his charismatic power, and that and the strength of his conviction that Belters must throw off the yoke of oppression by the Inners was enough to save his life among his peers. But Ashford was right to hone in on his statement, “Mars isn’t what it used to be....
The Expanse Season 5 Episode 6 The Expanse has reached an interesting threshold where it’s becoming possible for the series to outdo its own source material. Specifically, the dialogue in this week’s more emotional scenes was used to its maximum potential, in some ways surpassing the parallel sequences in the James S. A. Corey novels. The corrosive charisma of Marco Inaros and the flawed charm of Amos Burton are particularly well executed in this regard....
The Gilded Age Episode 9 The final episode of The Gilded Age season 1 answers most of the questions the audience has wondered about while teasing a little bit of what’s to come in season 2. The war between the old guard and the nouveau riche isn’t over yet but Bertha has won a decisive victory over Mrs. Astor. Although many may have already guessed some of the elements, there are still enough plot twists to keep the audience engaged and wishing to see more from the story....
With its backdrop moved from the oppressive Gilead to the comparatively liberal borders of Canada, The Handmaid’s Tale’s fifth season has used these broader horizons to depict a world that, paradoxically, feels more claustrophobic than ever. Though ostensibly free as of Season 4, June’s world seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Her enemy Serena Waterford has set up shop nearby, new followers of Gilead’s regime have made themselves known, and anti-refugee protests are happening on the streets of Toronto....
If Westerns were ever to reclaim their place as cinema’s favorite genre, it would be a movie like The Harder They Fall that would start the sea change. By giving us something new and focusing on Black legends of the West, first time feature director Jeymes Samuel delivers a high-energy and stylish romp of a Western that both puts its stamp on the genre while carving out its own place....
To be one of only three original cast members still standing at the start of the last season (alongside Alexander Dreymon’s lead Uhtred and Eliza Butterworth’s pious Lady Aelswith) clearly means a lot. Cox talks about the character of Brida with affection and compassion – no easy task for a character capable of such sadism. In season five, Brida is Uhtred’s enemy. But it didn’t begin that way. Brida’s suffering began in childhood when she, like Uhtred, was kidnapped and raised by Danes....
Shortly after that trailer was released, HBO confirmed that Lynskey will play Kathleen: the “ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City.” As mentioned above, there is no prominent character called Kathleen in any of The Last of Us games released so far. For that matter, Kansas City has (to my knowledge) never been referenced in any of The Last of Us games. At the very least, Kansas City isn’t a prominent part of The Last of Us games, nor is it a previously revealed Quarantine Zone....
“I think that no game called ‘Factions’ will ever come out, but not in a bad way,” Grubb says “[Naughty Dog] probably just decided they could do more. That’s the stuff I was able to source in multiple places and that I would feel ok in saying…it seems pretty well known in some circles that they are moving beyond their original smaller ambitions to something more and that’s as much as I can possibly say....
That’s what makes the release of Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch so fascinating. Nintendo hopes that they can use quality-of-life improvements to fix most of the mechanical complaints people had about the original version of Skyward Sword and give fans a reason to reevaluate a game that some say deserved so much more the first time around. Did they succeed? Well, we of course know that the final word on Skyward Sword will still be written by the fans, but here’s what some critics are saying about this long-awaited remaster and one of the Nintendo Switch’s biggest games of 2021: Dave Aubrey, The Gamer: Score: 4/5 Chris Scullion, VGC: “While even an excellent remaster such as this can’t make Skyward Sword a perfect Zelda game, this is such a drastically improved version of one of the most overlooked entries in the series, and Switch owners simply mustn’t overlook it a second time around....
Ganon is arguably one of the most iconic villains in video game history, which is especially impressive when you consider he was also one of the first. When gamers were introduced to the character in the first Legend of Zelda game, Ganon was just a big, blue, anthropomorphic boar who teleported around the room and shot fireballs at Link. During that fight, Ganon had neither backstory nor personality, but subsequent entries expanded on the character and revealed he used to be a human (retconned to Gerudo) named Ganondorf....
