There are lots of special swords in Tolkien’s mythology – Narsil, the broken blade that Isildur used against Sauron; Glamdring and Orcrist, ancient Elven swords found in a trolls’ cave by Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield; and Sting, Bilbo’s short sword from the same cave. But The Rings of Power seems to have introduced a new special sword into the story – and this time, it’s an evil one. Back in episode 2 of The Rings of Power, young Southlander Theo found a mysterious sword hilt with the symbol of Sauron on it in a barn near his home in the Southlands (the land that will become Mordor)....

The TV sitcom family was undergoing the kind of radical change it hadn’t encountered since the force of Norman Lear. Roseanne Barr was breaking very different ground on her show over at ABC. Bill Cosby had the authority at the time to declare The Simpsons a sign of social decline sent to destroy NBC’s The Cosby Show. Fox responded by scheduling The Simpsons against Cosby, casting Bart as a little David against a Jello pudding Goliath....

The Simpsons Season 34 Episode 12 The Simpsons season 34 episode 12 “My Life as a Vlog,” highlights the family’s addiction to clickbait, which could be seen as a grasp for relevancy in an Instagram world, but is really a ratings grab because YouTube is easier to satirize and monetize. It’s not quite the latest thing, but it’s not passe, and it’s more fun to navigate. “My Life as a Vlog” resembles “Lisa the Boy Scout,” because it is pieced together by snippets of the interconnecting, but standalone, clips which propel the Simpson family into a viral sensation, so much so their ratings move the family to a much bigger house....

With The Walking Dead: World Beyond only getting a two season run, there’s a certain expected economy of storytelling. There’s not an opportunity to drag anything out past a few episodes, so big reveals tend to come faster and character arcs tend to bend more quickly than they might on other programs with more hours to fill and more opportunity for long-form stories. As such, there’s a lot of stuff that changed during the two-episode finale event to drill down into....

Based on the comic book storyline of the same name by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, “Here’s Negan” plays largely like an origin story for the villain. Those of you who’ve wondered about Negan’s past will get to see a big and vital chunk of it in the finale, which also stars Hilarie Burton as his long-dead wife Lucille who later inspired the villain’s trusty bat. The comic not only explored who Negan was before he became the megalomaniacal leader of the Saviors but also explained just how he ended up crushing people’s skulls with a bat....

The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 16 I’m not sure why The Walking Dead keeps trying to stretch its season finales to 90 minutes. After a typical hour of fluff, the last thirty minutes finally got to the point in tonight’s “Last Day on Earth,” and even those last few moments turned out to be terribly anticlimactic. It does seem that everyone on the planet knew to expect a big death tonight, thanks to the hype surrounding Negan’s introduction, so to not deliver that essential moment by the time the credits rolled, didn’t do this slow burn any favors....

The Commonwealth setting will also usher in quite a few new characters to the show, including military officer Mercer (Michael James Shaw), who commands the faction’s defense forces as well as protects the settlement’s leadership. If the comic book is any indication, Shaw will be front and center as the biggest addition to the cast when the show returns in August. But Walking Dead fans won’t have to wait that long to get a first look at Shaw portraying Mercer on the show....

There’s a moment in the first episode of The White Lotus in which a character heads up to the front desk at the eponymous Hawaiian resort and asks the manager for some activity recommendations. Can he jet ski? Nope, a hurricane came through a few days ago and the water is still too dangerous. Can he water ski? Nope. See aforementioned hurricane. The guest gets visibly peeved, but due to the unflagging hospitality of the harried manager, he shakes it off and keeps searching for something to do....

There are many good reasons why The Witcher doesn’t feature Geralt of Rivia beheading a vampire and then quipping, “Fangs for the memories.” His sense of humor is more cutting and direct, definitely not as snarky as when his mentor Vesemir fights the leshen in the opening scene of Netflix’s animated spinoff, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. That difference may partly be explained by the movie’s ending, which enlightened fans about a number of worldbuilding details that cross over into the main series....

Nobody would say that The Witcher season two ended happily. After all, the season saw not only the death of Geralt’s beloved mare Roach, but also the revelation that the warlike Emperor Emhyr of Nilfgaard is in fact Duny, Ciri’s father. And yet, the season’s close found Yennefer’s magical abilities restored after expelling the demon Voleth Meir, and Ciri continuing her apprenticeship under the close eye of Geralt. The trio, separated over time, came together again to form something of a found family....

In 1987, local news station WNUF held a special publicity stunt on Halloween night. Reporter Frank Stewart, joined by paranormal investigators and a priest, entered the infamous (and presumably haunted) Webber House, an empty home that was the site of a gruesome double murder. Hoping to get some ratings by doing a live call-in séance and an exorcism, Stewart and the others bit off more than they could chew as the event went completely awry....

The bold, furious, highly effective ITVX drama Litvinenko might have left you wondering where you can find out more about what happened, or where else you can see this tragic, stranger-than-fiction true story brought to life. Believe it or not, the answers to both of these questions includes a modern opera. The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko was written by former banker Anthony Bolton and debuted at Surrey’s Grange Park Opera in 2021: Set over two acts, the opera tells the story using a multitude of flashbacks and flash-forwards, including the Moscow theatre siege in 2002 (which Litvinenko claimed was ordered by Russia’s own security services) to his exile from Russia and eventual assassination in London in November 2006....

Greenlit by Netflix before the pandemic, Thunder Force is the exact kind of half-hearted laugher (read: with no actual laughs) that’s become Adam Sandler’s bread and butter on the streamer. You know, the type where good enough is never particularly good, and the most pressing question from the crew might be “when’s lunch?” Of course the greater shame in this is that a comedian as talented as McCarthy—who has actual Oscar winners like Spencer and Melissa Leo to play against here—is not over the hill....

In the 1986 original, Goose’s death consumes Maverick with guilt, temporarily preventing him from graduating from the Top Gun program or flying a dangerous mission. In Maverick, we learn that Maverick promised Goose’s widow that he would prevent their son Bradley from becoming a fighter pilot. And yet, Bradley not only distinguishes himself as a first-class pilot but also becomes a student in Maverick’s class in the film. Despite a very pronounced mustache, Miles Teller bears little resemblance to the actors who played his parents in the original film, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan....

Edie in Between by Laura Sibson Type: NovelPublisher: Viking Books for Young ReadersRelease date: Aug. 24Den of Geek says: The retro-style cover is charming, but the heartfelt story about family and loss really sells this witchy contemporary fantasy. Publisher’s summary: It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left. According to her GG, it’s tradition that the dead of the Mitchell family linger with the living....

January Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access There are only a few people who embody Star Trek as much as Sir Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, and fans are rightly excited to have him back on the screen through CBS’s All Access. It’s also exciting to have celebrated spec fic novelist Michale Chabon on the writing team alongside Hanelle M. Culpepper (Star Trek: Discovery, The Flash), Kirsten Beyer (Star Trek: Discovery), and Akiva Goldman (Star Trek: Discovery, Titans)....

Below is a selection of our top five highlights plus a bunch of recommendations that will be updated as the Christmas TV schedules are confirmed. Get the central heating on and open a tin of Roses, ‘tis the season. HIGHLIGHTS 1. Doctor Who New Year’s Day Special The first of three Doctor Who specials airing in 2022, the New Year’s Day episode was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Annetta Laufer and promises to see the Doctor “encounter friends and foes (new and old) in an action-packed, thrilling adventure”....

So while the number is down about 10 percent from the $202 million opening of the first Black Panther, Wakanda Forever is nonetheless breaking records and enjoying an enthusiastic reception, as judged by not only the numbers numbers but also its sterling “A” CinemaScore and solid 84 percent “positive” rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. For anyone who saw the movie—or simply watched that first emotionally charged teaser trailer from several months ago—this is hardly a surprise....

Legion opens with Dalton Wolfe, an operative from DedSec, the hacker group featured in the previous two games, dispatched beneath the Houses of Parliament to defuse bombs set up by the rival hacker group Zero Day. (Apparently every story involving terrorists and London needs to reference the Gunpowder Plot in some way.) Wolfe succeeds in saving Parliament, but loses his life in the process while failing to stop other bombs set up around the city....

Following the initial, shocking report that one of the lingering projects left over from the old regime, Wonder Woman 3, had been canceled (“in its current incarnation” according to THR) and director/co-writer Patty Jenkins had departed the franchise, more details have come to light about the situation. According to The Wrap and confirmed by Den of Geek’s own sources, Jenkins quit Wonder Woman 3 after refusing to accept notes from Warner Bros....