Falling Skies: "Love and Other Acts of Courage" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

After some questionable decisions soured last week's instalment of Falling Skies, smarter heads finally prevail. The pacing is a little slower however and there is a major focus on Maggie and Hal's relationship, which I didn't expect to like as much as I did.  The big bombshell, the potential of a Human-Skitter alliance, is the real highlight and should have a lot of people talking.

Maggie and Hal have been flirting with one another for quite some time now so it was good to finally see their sexual tension develop into something more, sort of.  There are a lot of barriers written into Maggie’s character and it seems like it may take Hal some effort to work through them all before they can have any sort of sustained relationship.  The car scene was cute and Hal did a great job of handling the situation.  Their first kiss ended up pretty much how I expected though, with Maggie throwing up a barrier and distancing herself from Hal.  It makes sense considering some of the things we know Maggie went through with Pope’s group.  Maggie and Hal did end on a strong note though.  I don’t think I need as much time devoted to their budding relationship again, we got a lot of scenes with them this week, but they’ve established an interesting dynamic between the two and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.  Will it end badly?  Probably.

It was good to see Tom getting pissed off at both Hal and Ben about keeping secrets regarding Ben’s strange behavior.  Ben has a reasonable excuse but Hal really should have known better.  Hal keeping Ben’s situation a secret almost seemed out of character last week so I’m glad he decided to do the right thing now, even if Maggie had to push him into doing it.

The big news this week is that the scarred Skitter is apparently the leader of a resistance group fighting against the Overlords.  This has the potential to be a huge turning point for the series but I get the impression we will see this storyline dragged out for a little while.  Especially with Ben planning on jumping ship and running back to the Skitters.  I loved how Weaver handled the situation and that he brought up the ruthless nature of the Skitters that we’ve seen in the past.  Allowing Weaver, Tom and the 2nd Mass to forget what the Skitters have done so soon would be disappointing.  Hopefully Tom continues to approach this proposed alliance with a healthy bit of pessimism.

Actually, an exciting twist would be to have the Skitters proposed alliance turn out to be a clever trick.  The alliance seems to be wrapped up a little too neatly and I’m starting to smell a swerve coming out of nowhere in the next few weeks.  I’ve seen some speculation that the Harness creatures may actually be the ones leading this invasion.  That’s an interesting idea but what if the Skitters are the ones really in charge and the Overlords are the slave race.  Ok, that’s just crazy, but I’m hoping for something a little more exciting than a simple Skitter/Human team up.

Rick’s return was a neat surprise.  Not much to his character though - he played the part of mouthpiece for a Skitter once again and ended up getting shot in the chest.  I swear that kid could never catch a break.

There’s a great scene between Tom and Weaver at the end of the episode.  Their candid conversation about what may have to happen to Ben if he proves to be a liability had some strong emotion to it.  Tom was on the verge of breaking down at the thought of his son being a potential traitor and Weaver wasn’t handling it much better either.  I like that their tackling the potential of this issue early and it was a good lead in to the final scene with Ben planning to leave the 2nd Mass.

What bugs me about Ben is that he likes to get his brothers into trouble.  Last week he asks Hal to keep a secret for him, now he’s asking Matt.  Hopefully Matt has the good sense to tell someone before Ben runs off.  I don’t need to see another episode with Tom tracking down one of his missing kids.

While one less Maggie and Hal relationship scene might have helped with the pacing, “Love and Other Acts of Courage” was an improvement over last week.  A little less action but the developments this week could have huge repercussions over the course of the rest of the season.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Newsroom: "112th Congress" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Not unlike the previous two installments, tonight's episode of The Newsroom focused on fantasy – a sort of what if scenario -- as Will McAvoy's rebooted News Night 2.0 launched, with a rousing opening speech from McAvoy that rivaled his rant from the pilot in both brilliance and passion.

McAvoy immediately begins targeting groups attempting to confuse and corrupt politics and news media. This week, in particular, the episode set its sights directly on the Tea Party, a controversial political power that emerged quite quickly within the Republican party, and took the world by storm during the November 2010 elections.

It's really in “The 112th Congress” where The Newsroom establishes it's hardline, sometimes latching on to ideas, theories and facts that don't sit well with others, namely those with a fondness for the Tea Party or radical neocon values.

That's not to say the show is wrong or bad for taking the stances it does. As many characters reiterate throughout virtually every episode thus far, news isn't about appeasing both sides -- it's about presenting the facts, even the harsh ones. And the show's facts are actually pretty accurate, sometimes unfortunately so.

Fact checking the episodes has become a key part of prepping for these reviews, and the show's points largely hold true. With that in mind, anyone with a sweet tooth for the Tea Party, “The 112th Congress” is not going to be your episode – in fact, it'll probably be the last episode you watch, or at least enjoy.

It'll be interesting to see how this show will evolve as we inch closer to real time (this episode spanned about six months). Will The Newsroom lose it's edge, or will it go off air long enough to soak up a few fresh news stories and angles to dissect and analyze? For some, the focus on past issues has been a sticking point of this series, so perhaps moving the show into a fictional universe, where McAvoy is doing good and actually changing how we look at news, will be an interesting deviation. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

There's a fine balance of Sorkin-isms going on throughout this series thus far, and episodes like “The 112th” define what people both love (and potentially hate) about his work. The execution, like the previous two episodes, is quite stunning, though. Performances remain sharp and focused, dialogue is top notch, and direction is tangible and entertaining.

The big highlight here was the scene between producer Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) and Leona Lansing, the head of the network (played by Jane Fonda). Fonda delivers a speech so staggering, so biting, cynical and tragic (for the whole of TV news journalism), it's likely to earn her some acclaim down the road. And Waterston's drunken, morally righteous fire matches her candid, frank nature. Their final scene together stands out among an already great episode, filled with wonderfully rich monologues and snappy dialogue.

But some of Sorkin's cliches do shine though. Again, the episode spends some time on romance, though it is dialed back much more than last week's episode. While the romantic elements are certainly well written, each subplot continues to feel borrowed from other Sorkin shows.

This series would be better served to perhaps drop one of these subplots, unless of course it's attempting to draw a parallel between Will and Mackenzie and Maggie and Don. Regardless, there is more to life outside of work than romance and dating. It would be nice to see the show step outside that arena for its human interest segments.

So, after all the Tea Party bashing and “leftist” theories the show has explored thus far, are there are any Republicans left? Naturally, The Newsroom is going to be a bumpy road for both sides of the fence, but with sketchy politics corrupting the playing field, that's to be expected. Let's hope McAvoy and his news team can fend them off long enough to actually make a difference (in their tragically fictional world).

Source : ign[dot]com

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - "Infiltration" Review

Note: Full spoilers for this episode follow.

This week's installment of Earth's Mightiest Heroes tended to wear its influences on its sleeve, drawing material from a number of comics involved in Marvel's Secret Invasion storyline. As in the Black Panther story  "See Wakanda and Die," Panther was charged with repelling an invasion of his homeland. As in several issues of Mighty Avengers, Nick Fury struggled to uncover which of Earth's heroes had been replaced. And as in Secret Invasion itself, a crashed Skrull ship revealed an entire crew of what appeared to be escaped Avengers. It was a packed episode, but luckily the end result was less choppy than might be expected.

Ms. Marvel of all characters proved to be the star of the show this time. She served as the voice of moderation between the crashed "Avengers" and Black Panther's forces. Her ongoing struggle to reconcile her duties to S.W.O.R.D. with her status as an Avenger is serving the show well. And seeing Carol unleash her powers later in the episode is a treat. As much as the character has suffered a rocky history in the comics, Earth's Mightiest Heroes continues to do right by Ms. Marvel.

The battle for Wakanda was also enjoyable, albeit not quite at the scale I was hoping for. What should have been a siege of a massive and highly advanced city instead played out as a brawl between a handful of Skrull impostors and Wakandan footmen, with a few tanks and cannons thrown in for good measure. One area DC shows like Young Justice continue to dominate Marvel's efforts is in animation quality. It's hard not to wonder what this battle might have looked like with Young Justice-caliber animation. Still, the individual character match-ups were fun. The only thing cooler than one Black Panther kicking ass is two Panthers battling each other. There was also something strangely satisfying about seeing Wasp revert to full size in order to deck the Skrull Giant-Man. Call it payback for the infamous spousal abuse storyline in the comics.

Iron Man also returned to the spotlight briefly for an unexpected team-up with Doctor Doom. This episode expertly captured the uneasy relationship the two have always shared in the comics. Doom may have disdain for all humans, but even he has to begrudgingly respect Tony's scientific acumen. It's also nice to be reminded that this show isn't limited by the same character rights issues as the Avengers movies are. That fact was further emphasized with the glimpse of Nick Fury's Skrull candidate charts. These charts offered a who's who of Marvel cameos, including everyone from Wolverine to Magneto to Luke Cage. Aside from fan service, the Fury scenes worked nicely as a means of tying some loose threads together. Fury revealed the myriad ways in which Skrull agents like Captain America and Mockingbird have been manipulating recent events towards the Skrulls' end. Unfortunately, Fury was taken down before he and his remaining allies could go on the offensive. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see his abbreviated Secret Warriors squad in action before this storyline wraps up.

Much in the same way Secret Invasion itself did, I felt this episode missed some potential with the impostor Avengers. It would have been exciting to see at least one of the characters revealed as the real deal. But with the invasion plotline still unfolding over the next couple episodes, there's plenty of time yet for more Skrull-related shocks and surprises. I only hope these next chapters do a better job of capturing the full scale and scope of this conflict.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and various other IGN channels. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

True Blood: "Let's Boot and Rally" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

I'm glad we actually got to see Russell at the end of "Let's Boot and Rally," as I was half-expecting - what with the arbitrary time limit placed on Eric and Bill's hunt - that they'd come up empty handed and the episode would end with their stake-vests flashing red. That being said though - what did happen at the end? I mean, I guess I know. Alcide wolfed out. But it was shot so weird. He just kind of bent down behind Sookie, who was blocking the whole shot, and then we heard a wolf growl. Kind of awkward. Plus, hasn't it been established that wolves are no match for vamps unless they're in a pack?

Anyway, this episode was still a bit better than the previous four and although it's no longer fun to watch the characters on True Blood meta-out and call attention to how insane their lives are, Sookie was more fun to watch back in the saddle with Bill and Eric. It's funny. They make her more interesting, but she makes them less interesting. Strange dynamic. Also, she was extra pissy and still partially drunk, so her sass made it feel like a "Scooby Gang" reunion, True Blood-style. Also, given that we've all known for a while how much Alcide's been in love with Sookie, it was amusing to see Bill and Eric show up right as she vomited on his shoes.

Kiss me deadly...

I really liked the Jessica/Tara scene at Fangtasia. It seems as though they didn't decide to soften Pam as Tara's maker, but instead had Tara bond with another baby vamp. Jessica's "It gets better" speech was a well-intended, in not obvious, allegory and I liked that the two of them were bonding over the fact that being immortal isn't a completely terrible concept. It helped distract me from the fact that Tara was bartending at a vampire nightclub a mere two days after being turned. Too bad the two of them had to have that silly super-speed bathroom brawl at the end. And too bad for Hoyt that the latest in Fangbanger fashion is dressing like the drummer from Spandau Ballet. I noticed too that Jessica had to tease up her hair, Lita Ford-style, to go out on the prowl. It reminded me of how Buffy was able to spot a vampire, in the pilot episode of that series, based on the a guy's outdated clothes.

So things were better here, even though we still had to spend an extended amount of time with Terry and Patrick. Who now seem to be victims of a curse that invokes a vengeful Ifrit (yes, I googled it like the soldier dude did). And even though I don't care about Terry, or this side story, at all we at least got to see a big smoke demon frizzle-fry someone to death. And who doubts a curse on True Blood? How can Patrick think that a giant fire demon is fake when vampires exist out in the open? He lives in a world where unholy monsters walk freely among humans.

I suppose my least favorite part of "Let's Boot and Rally" was Jason...once again hating vampires! Oh, and seeing things that aren't there. Also "once again." But instead of bullet holes in between people's eyes, it's fang marks on their necks. It's as if he's only got two or three stories and he just keeps cycling through them. On the flip side of that, things took a more dramatic turn with Sam and Luna; the two of them getting gunned down in front of her house. Yes, Sam is fine, but I'm not curious to see if the show's getting rid of Luna. Someone in the comments last week pointed out that these "shifter murders" were also a part of the Charlaine Harris books, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a redneck posse committing them. So it's been changed, and for the better, I think. A major theme of this series since the beginning has been prejudice and it sort of vanished for a while. I'm curious to see what has humans filming themselves killing shifters and not vamps. Is it just less dangerous?

Oh, and while the Lafayette/Brujo stuff is a waste, I wasn't expecting to see Alfre Woodard back as Ruby. Or Kevin Alejandro back as Jesus' head. It's still not good, mind you. But sometimes, on True Blood, all I'm looking for is a few "WTF?" moments to push me through an episode

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Louie: "Telling Jokes/Set Up" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

First off, I was very happy to see Lilly and Jane back this week. This show gets a tremendous amount of wonderful material out of the scenes between Louie and his two daughters, with none of the cloying, saccharine crap regular sitcoms use when it comes to cute little kids. Young Ursula Parker is especially funny and natural, and had me cracking up as Jane exclaimed, “I don’t get it! I just don’t get it!” at a knock knock joke that went over her head.

The way we first heard Louie talk about her “Who didn’t let the gorilla in the ballet?” joke early in the episode in his standup routine and then actually saw her say it at the end was a really nice touch. The standup bit was hysterical, as he analyzed her thought process when she said this joke, while the payoff was just a sweet scene between father and daughter.

Of course, the main story here was Louie’s friends trying to set him up with a woman named Laurie (perfectly played by The Fighter’s Oscar-winning Melissa Leo), without bothering to tell either of them about it. What followed was an expertly-done Louie scenario – and a much more typically strong episode for the show than the season premiere. The way Louie and Laurie were both pissed off, but then had a sense of shared bemusement about the situation seemed to be heading towards a, “Hey, maybe there will be some sparks here after all…” situation.

Her then matter of factly giving him a blow job inside her truck was a surprise (to Louie as well), but it’s what followed that brought this to that special hysterical and yet pretty messed up place Louie can go.

Her proclamation, “I just sucked your d**k. You’re gonna eat my p**sy” was just one small segment of their very funny, very on point back and forth, as she demanded satisfaction, and Louie made things worse by saying stuff like, “If I had done what you did, I would feel like a whore,” while saying that going down on her would be too intimate. This was a classic male double standard of course (he had no objections to him doing something so “intimate” to him), but made all the more direct and graphic (and amusing) by the specific acts they were so openly discussing.

But it got really messed up when she went from calling him gay (seemingly to goad him into going down on her to prove his sexuality) to simply smashing his head into the window and forcing his face into her crotch. It’s one of those fascinating things… I have no doubt if the situation were reversed with a male character doing those exact actions to a female character (the initial sex act included), it would play as a ghastly, brutal sexual assault. But when Melissa Leo does that to Louis C.K., it’s a very funny moment… even though it still is, you know, a ghastly, brutal sexual assault. In fact, it’s funny almost because it’s so f**ked up. Damn if Louis C.K. doesn’t know how to tap into that weird place others wouldn’t think of going for humor. “Lick it! Lick it!”, indeed. This is a show not afraid to go to very uncomfortable and even twisted places, and I continue to admire it for that.

Despite Louie saying he’d be up for “going out” with Laurie again, I’m guessing that he won’t be seeing her again… But this is Louie, so you never know.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Making Sense of Amazing Spider-Man's After Credits End Scene

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY.

SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED ON THE FILM.

The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony's reboot of the wallcrawler, just hit theaters today, but some fans are already buzzing about the planned sequel to the film. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is already being written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek), so it would seem logical that the studio would want to tease that follow-up in some way to the many, many fans who are seeing the film this summer.

The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

Additionally, Chronicle director Josh Trank has been rumored to be up for a Venom solo movie. So clearly Sony wants to mine the Spider-Man universe. And let's assume they've at least taken notice -- as has the rest of the world -- of the very successful Marvel Studios movies, and in particular the resounding success of The Avengers. An Easter egg or after-credits scene of course makes sense for Amazing Spider-Man -- and we in fact do get one in the middle of the end credits of the new film. But what does it mean exactly?

Does whatever a spider can

The brief scene features Dr. Curt Connors, the once and future Lizard, who has now been imprisoned. As he sits in his cell, a shadowy figure appears from out of nowhere -- did he teleport into the cell? -- and a brief exchange takes place between the two regarding Peter Parker's father. The mysterious character asks Connors if he told Peter about his father, and then shortly thereafter he seemingly disappears once again. Actually, you can catch a glimpse of this scene in the third Spider-Man trailer:

Scrub to 1.24 to see Dr. Connors' mysterious pal.

Who is this guy? Is he Connors' boss, lurking in the dark corners of the film, but actually the real villain of the piece? We know that Connors works for Oscorp, and we know who runs Oscorp, don't we? Norman Osborn, of course! A.k.a the Green Goblin -- or at least, the guy who will become the Green Goblin one day -- Osborn is one of the big bads of the Marvel universe. He's Spidey's arch foe much as the Joker is Batman's, and let's not forget that Chris Nolan decided to save the Joker for his second Batman movie. And of course, Osborn is named-dropped throughout Amazing Spider-Man... though doesn't it seem a bit too obvious for it to actually be him?

Dr. Connors, a.k.a. the Lizard

Another possibility, though perhaps more of a long shot than Osborn, is -- wait for it -- Peter Parker's dad himself, Richard Parker! Played by Campbell Scott in flashback (along with Embeth Davidtz as Pete's mom Mary), Richard is said to be dead during this film, having been killed when Peter was still a boy -- in the grand Spider-Man tradition. But it also is clear that Richard Parker's dealings with Dr. Connors and Oscorp, of which he was also an employee before his death, tie directly into Peter's origin as Spider-Man in this film. And reportedly, the plan is to continue to flesh out this story arc in future movies. Loyal Marvel zombies will also recall that Spidey's folks did return from the dead in the comics at one point -- kinda sorta. Actually, they turned out to be Life Model Decoys. Ask Tony Stark what that is if you don't know.

One other suggestion -- and this is total fanboyism at work -- is this is a Venom tie-in. The character -- sometimes a villain, sometimes an antihero, and sometimes a hero -- remains very popular. His current incarnation in the comics is as Flash Thompson, Peter Parker's longtime frenemy, and Flash is in fact in the new movie (played by Chris Zylka). And again, Sony is still pushing for a Venom movie… So, yeah. Not sure how that shadowy guy could tie-in to Venom, but that's what retconning is for!

Fans have suggested the Easter egg character might be Electro (flash of light!) or Mysterio (magic tricks!) or any number of other Spidey villains, while others are whispering that it's Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz playing the role. And the bottom line is, unlike The Avengers Thanos Easter egg, the Spidey ending is vague enough that it really could wind up being any of the above when Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits a couple of years from now.

Who do you think the shadowy figure at the end of Amazing Spider-Man is? Discuss below!

Update #1: This story has been updated since it first ran in May, with specific details from the film added.

Update #2: Ain't It Cool spoke to Rhys Ifans, who plays Dr. Connors in the film, and he said that the mystery character is not Norman Osborn. "A representative from OsCorp appears miraculously in the room," he tells the site. "How he gets in there and how he leaves, we don’t know. Maybe we will find out. But it’s not Norman Osborn. ... But it is someone who is in the employ of Norman Osborn without question."

The site followed up by asking, "[It's] someone we're familiar with, who we don’t know is employed by Osborn?" And Ifans replied, "Yeah."

So if it's not Osborn, then who the heck could it be?

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN, and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

Tron: Uprising - "Identity" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Imagine that everything you know, every memory, everything that makes you you, was contained on an external storage device. Now imagine that device was stolen. That's the situation Beck finds himself in when he's duped by a small-time thief and nearly loses everything. You have to feel sorry for him as his memory begins to fade, but it was a pretty dumb mistake for someone who is supposed to be a freedom fighter in the mold of Tron. And considering how important identity discs are in the world of the Grid, and the dire consequences of being without one for any length of time, they're surprisingly easy to steal. But let's overlook that little plot convenience and get right to the heart of the story. Which, as it happens, had a lot to do with matters of the heart.

Since the beginning, Tron has kept Beck at a distance, relating to him solely as the cool, reserved mentor, even at times when Beck really needed a friend. As he explains in a rather exposition-y scene near the end of the episode, Tron once let his friendship with Clu cloud his judgement, and that experience has made him cautious about forming new emotional ties. But in "Identity" he puts it all on the line and risks exposure to bring Beck back from the brink of oblivion. It's an important turning point in their relationship. It's also worth noting that Tron's knowledge of strays and the process of memory loss was too thorough not to have come first-hand. We've seen in the first few episodes that Tron is badly damaged physically, now we know he's got some internal scars to match.

What the creators of this series seem to understand in developing Tron: Uprising so far is that you can have all the ultra cool light cycle chases through spectacular digital landscapes you want, but none of it is going to connect with an audience unless they care about the programs riding those bikes. I appreciate that the writers are taking the time to explore the characters' motivations, even one-shot characters like Lux. Her sacrifice wouldn't have meant as much without the insight that her actions were rooted in her love for Cobol. That she would betray him after learning of Tron's survival is a testament to Tron's power as a mythical figure.

Zed is also turning out to be more than just a minor character whose only purpose is fill out the B story of each episode. Though he hasn't yet had much impact on the greater story arc, he has had some difficult choices put before him. His desire for recognition and respect from guys like Bartik and Hopper clash directly in this episode with his feelings for Mara. Luckily for Beck, love wins this round, but I was a bit disappointed that Zed walked away from the chance to join Paige's task force. I would have liked to have seen him go up against Beck as the Renegade.

All of this character stuff goes hand in hand, of course, with the slick visual design, which continues to impress. By now, it's easy to take the look of the show for granted, but the style is really distinctive from anything else on television. In "Identity" we got more thrilling action, including a cool sequence that climaxed in Beck jumping through a window, and some pretty fluid fight scenes. We also visited a new location, Pergos. It wasn't quite as gritty as I expected from Tron's description as a rundown "garbage heap," but it did have a different aesthetic from Argon City and the other locales we've seen so far.

In just four episodes, we've had a chance to explore more of the Grid than in either of the films, and I look forward to more of that world expansion in the show's future. Based on past experience, I fear that Tron: Uprising is bound to let me down sooner or later, but I'm happy to say that it hasn't happened yet.

Source : ign[dot]com

Young Justice: "Bloodlines" Review

Full superhero sidekick spoilers follow.

It's good news/bad news with the latest Young Justice episode, "Bloodlines." The good news: Impulse has joined the show. The bad news: Impulse has joined the show.

It's an ongoing issue with Young Justice and one that clearly isn't going away. The show's creators insist on continuously adding new characters to the roster, which inevitably means that main players get short shrift (cough, Wally, Artemis, cough) that the newly inducted players are never fleshed out (hack, Rocket, Zatanna, hack).

Having said that, it is undeniably fun to see a character like Impulse in animated form. And the writers and producers more often than not handle these new faces with humor, faithfulness to their comics inspiration (even when reinterpreting them to fit into the YJ timeline, as with Impulse/Bart), and a general kick-ass-ness.

Anyway, "Bloodlines" is a fun Flash Family adventure, and how can it not be when it features not just Impulse -- arriving from the future allegedly to visit his eventual-granddad Barry Allen -- but also Barry himself, Wally's return to the Kid-Flash costume Jay Garrick -- who must be pushing 90 here -- donning the old metal skullcap again, all in a bid to save good old Central City!

Aside from the banter and geek thrills that come from a Flash grouping like this, there are several other nicely handled bits. Among them: Barry's slow-motion (from our perspective) quasi-POV, complete with heartbeat thumping, as he chugs along at "near lightspeed" to stop Neutron; Wally's inability to keep up with Barry and Impulse, including his admission that he can only make out "every fifth word" of their super-fast conversation; and Flash's costume ring, complete with a kinda-musical-callout to the live-action 1990s TV show.

Of course, this is all in service of an ever-deepening puzzle surrounding the Season 2 "Invasion," which it now seems clear is going to take some time to actually get to the real invadin'. Metagene experimentation is taking place, we learn here, supporting several of you alert readers out there who speculated last week that Tye Longshadow and the rest of those kidnapped kids were actually going to be modified to become super-beings. But still, it's all with the mystery and shadowy figures when it comes to who is masterminding this plot. We viewers continue to know more than our heroes, but still not much at all. Ho-hum.

Elsewhere, Red Arrow has cleaned up his act -- being a husband and father will do that to you -- and, together with his nuclear family, actually tracks down the original Roy. Though this is the B storyline of this episode, it definitely has some well-played moments, as when Cheshire tells her husband, "I need you be real. Our daughter needs you to be real." Damn straight! I also love how Cheshire brings their baby with them on a covert op -- and still manages to outfight the bad guys with the kid in a Bjorn the whole time. Mainly, though, it's great that the real Roy has finally been found so that this storyline can move forward now. But wait… that means another new character on the team, doesn't it?

The episode finale is pretty creepy too, as we realize that Impulse actually knew he was on a one-way trip to the past, all in an attempt to save the devastated future world he's from. Perhaps his glib attitude is more of a front than it at first seems. And seeing Neutron in that future, actually working with Impulse to alter the past, is also a nice touch -- though I'm not sure I get why he would remember that Impulse had to alter the past once the past was altered so that, from his perspective, said past never happened in the way that would've Impulse to alter it in the first place. Time travel!

Some notes: Can anyone explain to me what "crash the mode" means? "Such a Dick Grayson thing to do." Very cool how Neutron kind of pulls a Doctor Manhattan when he reconstitutes his body (and who said Watchmen wouldn't show up in this show?). "Your name's Tim? And yours is… Dick?!" Comic-Con is full of people from the future. It all makes sense now!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/young-justice-bloodlines-review

Mad Men: "Commissions and Fees" Review

Note: Full Spoilers follow for this week’s Mad Men episode! If you haven't seen it yet, beware...

“I feel a bit lightheaded.

“That’s relief. I’ve started over a lot, Lane. This is the worst part.”

If only Lane Pryce were as strong as Don Draper. Look, it’s not like Don is Superman (jokes aside both on and off the show) and we’ve seen him at very, very low points… But it is also true that he’s been resilient and he’s been nothing but determined when he’s needed to reinvent himself. But Lane didn’t see any options. He couldn’t possibly look at this as the “new door opening” that Don was going for.

This was a sad, ignoble end for Lane Pryce, in the midst of another terrific episode of Mad Men. All season, as things got crappier for both Pete and Lane, it’s been hard not to wonder if one of them would hit their breaking point. And we got our answer with Lane here.

Lane tried to give his death a bit more symbolism by killing himself inside the Jaguar his wife had just got him – and while it was predictable that the car wouldn’t start (there had been so many references this season to them being great looking but unreliable), on another show, that failed attempt might have resulted in Lane’s wakeup call and ultimately saved his life. Not here. It was just a cruel final joke on Lane, who simply went to the office and finished the job there – and yes, he “finished the job” in a very literal way, as he left his letter of resignation as a suicide note.

It’s brutal that Don will, presumably, now have guilt over this. Yes, you could argue that he could have looked the other way about what Lane had done, but he really was being pretty damn fair with a man he just found out had embezzled from the company – letting him resign rather than be fired and offering to cover the money Lane had stolen. But considering Lane said the reason he simply didn’t ask Don to loan him the money in the first place (that it would be a “humiliation”) and you have a guy who just couldn’t face looking like a failure, even a temporary one, to his wife, son, father and anyone else of importance in his life.

I’ll certainly miss Lane Pryce and the excellent Jared Harris on this series. It’s easy to forget Lane wasn’t even around until Season 3, as he became such a natural part of the series.

Obviously, Lane’s death dominated this episode, but there was other events going on…

It’s funny how uneasy I get whenever Glen is around, thanks to the creepy scenario he was involved in with Betty years ago. But this episode did a nice job of reminding us that he is a kid – even if he might be a screwed up one. Him confiding in Sally (via attempted nonchalance) about some rather horrible bullying was very well done and helped add some layers to his little insults at her earlier, as he said she looked the same and that his friend had a bigger and better apartment than Don’s.

It was also oddly entertaining to simply have Glen and Megan in a scene together, as they represent very different eras of this show. Of course, that being said, the second Megan started being kind and comforting to Glen, I wondered if he would begin to transfer his revolving door crush on the women in Don Draper’s life to her. But at least this episode ended with a nice moment for Glen, as Don – in the midst of his grief over Lane – let the kid drive his car, after being told that was what Glen wanted to do more than anything.

I’ve noted a couple times this season Mad Men feeling a bit more “TV” than it has in the past, and I’d say that again about Sally getting her period. No, I’m not saying doing a story about Sally getting her first period was what felt a bit contrived, it was more it happened – during her secret date with Glen, as they snuck off together after having not seen each other in over a year.

It’s a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent episode though – and yes, it was amusing to see the continually-thinner Betty first get a semi-sweet moment with Sally, as she comforted her daughter… and then be predictably Betty by lording it over Megan - “I just think she needed her mother.”

The follow up to what happened with Joan last week was very interesting, despite not being a huge part of the episode. Don’s snarky, “Should I leave, so you can all do whatever you want?” during the partners meeting was the most direct reference. But what really intrigued me was the scene with Ken that evoked it…

Ken remains a supporting character on this series, often only popping up for a scene or two. And indeed, he was only in two scenes this week (one of which – the discovery of Lane’s body – he was merely an observer in). But his one big dialogue scene, with Roger, was fascinating.

Ken seems like a really nice guy. Perhaps one of the “best” guys left in the increasingly morally bankrupt Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. And last week, think about the couple of notable scenes Ken was involved in: He was there when the Jaguar guy made his “I bang Joan or you don’t get us as a client” proclamation and then later, his buddy Peggy was incredibly cruel to him, while she was dealing with her own crap – and then went and quit to go to another firm, obviously not honoring their “pact” to stick together. So it was good to see a tougher-acting Ken this week, as his line, “No, I don’t want to be your partner. I’ve seen what’s involved,” to Roger clearly let us know he could put two and two together based on what he’d seen happen with Joan. And then he played some real hardball when it came to how to deal with his father-in-law, including some old-fashioned blackmail and specific demands about leaving Pete out of any dealings. It was very cool to see, and hopefully is setting up some big things for Ken down the line.

Also, the horrible nature of how Jaguar was landed as a client, mixed with the discovery of Lane’s embezzlement, clearly was weighing on Don as he was hitting a “Why do we do this?” crisis he unloaded on Roger. And then… He began to get his fire back again. He talked about how much he wanted to go after true big fish clients and then played things incredibly tough in his meeting with Ed Baxter (Ray Wise) in one of those could-torpedo-things/could-totally-get-them-hooked big moves. But with what happened to Lane, who knows how he’ll process it and whether it will strengthen his resolve to make SCDP more worthwhile or simply make him want out. But I sure am curious to find out.

Lastly, I want to mention the complete lack of Peggy this week. I was talking about Peggy leaving SCDP with IGN’s Matt Fowler the other day and I theorized that while I still firmly believe Peggy will be a part of Mad Men going forward, I could see Matt Weiner leaving her out of these last two episodes of Season 5, as she begins her new job. We’ll see if that continues to be the case next week – though perhaps if Lane’s funeral is a part of the season finale, we will see her. I would certainly hope so, at least…

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/mad-men-commissions-and-fees-review

Game of Thrones: "Valar Morghulis" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Such a big, sprawling season ender. Where to begin?

Oh, I know. ZOMBIE HORSE! ZOMBIE HORSE!  ZOMBIE HORSE! How about that? Yeah, three blasts of the signal horn really does suck, doesn't it? And even though we've all gotten our fill of roaming zombie hordes on AMC's The Walking Dead, there's something to be said about the undead slowly marching through the stark, white blizzard-y conditions that lie beyond the wall. It really does make them seem more ghoulish. Plus, at the heart of the White Walkers (which we also got to finally see atop the mangled horse) and their undead legions is dark magic. Which seems a bit more sinister than a biological plague. And seeing the bone brigade slowly close in on the Fist of the First Men made for a very powerful image to leave us with until next year.

"I miss me mother's farting."

"Valar Morghulis," named after the words Jaqen imparts to Arya, was a great way to close out the season. And much of the finale's format mirrored the Season 1 finale, "Fire and Blood" - with a ton of fallout scenes that dealt with the aftermath of a big penultimate episode, coupled with a big moment from Daenerys. Yes, so far it seems that the big King's Landing stuff goes down in episode nine, leaving Dany to finish off her story, with her biggest moments, in the final chapter. Which is fine. And the Dany bits of "Valar Morghulis" were great. The best of the entire season, in fact. Her trek into the House of the Undying, including her unexpected reunion with Drogo and Rhaego, was fantastic. It really helped remind us of the woman she was back in Season 1, which I think is important given how strong and boastful, to a fault, she's had to be this year. Watching her walk away from the two of them, following the shrieks of her baby dragons, made a powerful statement. Plus, who doesn't love watching three dragons spit fireballs at a creepy old Warlock?

But just because Dany now realizes that Jorah was right, and that Xaro's empty vault was a perfectly-timed metaphor for all his empty promises, that doesn't mean she's gone soft. Locking Xaro and, of all people, Doreah, inside the fault was proof positive that she won't suffer traitors - even ones who merely sleep with the enemy.

One of the Game of Thrones pairings that I was hoping wouldn't get short-sheeted this year was Jaime and Brienne, who only had one brief scene back in "The Prince of Winterfell." But their scene here, as they ran into three Northern soldiers, was great; antagonistic, yet supportive. With both of them willing to protect the other in order to survive the trek to King's Landing. And while Brienne claims to be "no lady," you can see that she does have a soft spot for violence against women. Which I suspect, seeing as how she lives in freakin' cruel-ass Westeros, has made her an extremely angry, unfulfilled person. Her slow, brutal kill of the third soldier ("Two quick deaths" for the others, like the hanged girls) showed us just how vengeful she can be. And it was great to watch Jaime see her do it. Wonder how much sass he'll have to dish out after seeing her do that?

Given the scope and scale of an episode like "BLackwater," you had to wonder just how big things would get in the finale? And so when Theon, surrounded by Northern forces, began to speechify his men into what seemed to be a suicide mission, it seemed unlikely we'd see another battle. Especially given the fact that we haven't even been introduced to Lord Bolton's bastard, come down from The Dreadfort, on the other side of the Winterfell walls. So to see Dagmar knock out Theon, right at the peak of his fervor, was fitting. And yes, it was a good speech.

YOLO!

And while that scene was great, the one between Theon and Maester Luwin that came right before it was even better, as it did a great job of creating even more sympathy for Theon ("Do you know what it's like to be told how lucky you are to be someone's prisoner?") and acted as a great swan song for Luwin. Luwin, who after all that had happened was doing his best to help Theon escape and find a new life in the Night's Watch. ("You're not the man you're pretending to be.")

There were many heartfelt moments in "Valar Morghulis," but Luwin's death was the one that got me. This show did a great job of building up this man's relationship to Bran and ever since Ned and Cat left Winterfell, Luwin had become "the one who stayed." It was very sad to watch him slowly die in the Godswood and his death, eventually at the merciful hands of Osha, personified the destruction of Winterfell itself. A place that, as it turns out, Theon worshiped and identified as being a home to honorable and beloved men.

I'm sure it was a great relief to many of you who haven't read the books that Tyrion was still alive after "Blackwater," even though he's been handed a bit of a demotion. Oh, and his father's getting all the credit for defeating Stannis. Oh oh, and he's now got a nasty diagonal sword slash running across his face. And even though Varys said that the two of them can no longer be seen together, it was still tremendous to hear him tell Tyrion "There are many who know that without you this city would have faced certain defeat." Still, as low as Tyrion is right now, his scene with Shae was first time that I really felt like the two of them were in love. And maybe it was good to save this kind of emotional clarification for a time like this, when he's hit rock bottom and has no Bronn, or Hill Tribes, to protect him. Because even though he tried to, in his grief, push Shae away, she chose to stay. Even though they're both still in danger.

On the other side of the war, and in keeping with the flames-reflected-in-eyeball motif, Stannis almost strangled Melisandre to death ("Where's your God now?") for what he believed to be false visions. And while he eventually became entranced by a flame, and maybe saw some visions of his own, the thing I remembered most about the scene was the regret and guilt Stannis felt, finally setting in, over killing Renly.

Meanwhile, Sansa, thanks to Magaery Tyrell's queenly ambitions, is off the hook and Joffrey, at least in public, is acting fairly King-like. Oh, don't get me wrong. He's still a monster through and through, but it looks like he at least now knows how to act the part in court. Maybe Tywin's presence has something to do with it. And as for the Stark girl who managed to escape Winterfell? Well, Arya's now out and about with Gendry and Hot Pie, taking a mysterious coin from Jaqen - who finally revealed himself to be a "Faceless Man." Which is a person from Braavos that is apparently even more lethal that Arya's old "dancing teacher" Syrio Forel. And with that, Jaqen was no more; magically creating a new face for himself.

"Valar Morghulis" nicely set us up for next season (Jon Snow, now "The Man who killed Quorin Halfhand," seeing Mance Rayder's enormous army, Littlefinger vowing to help Sansa escape, Brienne and Jaime headed to King's Landing, Bran and Rickon headed to the Wall) but it also gave us a cliffhanger with a certain amount of immediacy - the zombie attack on the Night's Watch. And because if that, I believe, the long wait until next Spring will be even more excruciating than is was after last year's finale. The (and this isn't from the books) that I wished had happened was a small scene where Tywin had come to some sort of realization that his cup-bearer girl had been Arya Stark. And then maybe even a small smile could have curled across his lips. I guess I was just looking for something to put a stamp on all those great scenes they had together.

Warning: No BOOK SPOILERS on the comment sections for our Game of Thrones reviews. Please do not post anything that will ruin the series for others. You will be banned. And for everyone else, beware of trolling jerks.

For those who want to talk about the books, with regards to the TV series, why don't you head over to section of IGN's Game of Thrones Wiki Guide focused on the book and TV show differences. Feel free to add to the Wiki while you at it!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/game-of-thrones-valar-morghulis-review

The A-Z of the Alien Franchise

With Prometheus landing in cinemas within days, we explore the deepest, darkest corners of the galaxy to present an unmissable alphabetical guide to the Alien franchise. Just beware of franchise spoilers ahead.

A is for... Alien

The movie that gave birth to a phenomenon. Ridley Scott's second feature film after The Duellists, it's a masterclass in sustained tension and economy of horror - the 'monster' is only on screen for seconds at a time. Written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, and formerly titled Star Beast (catchy), it evolved into the terrifying survival horror we know and love. Inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002, it remains one of the most terrifying and iconic horror films of all time.

B is for... Burke

Burke by name, berk by nature. The 'corporate dickweed' archetype had been hinted at in the first film, with Ash working on behalf of 'The Company' to bring the beast back alive for bio-weapons, but it wasn't until we met Paul Reiser's Carter Burke in Aliens that we realised The Company was almost exclusively staffed by buttheads. Open-handed and queasily chummy on the surface - like a sort of shifty space politician - he nonetheless puts countless lives at risk for his employers, probably to secure a bigger office or something.

C is for... Chestburster

The most startling scene in a film packed full of memorable moments, the 'chestburster' sequence is one of the most shocking deaths in sci-fi history. Having just had an alien get jiggy with his gob, John Hurt's Kane wakes up feeling woozy, but thinks nothing of joining the crew of the Nostromo for a spot of dinner. Turns out that wasn't indigestion he was feeling: after some terrifyingly realistic convulsions, Kane's stomach is punched open from the inside, and an alien embryo bursts forth, spraying the unprepared cast members with blood. That look of shock on their faces is genuine, captured on film forever.

D is for… David

You may have already met Michael Fassbender's Bowie-inspired android David in Prometheus' promotional material. And given his promise that he can carry out directives that human crew members might consider "unethical" we're guessing he's not entirely on the level. Interestingly - and despite the revised chronology post-Prometheus - the 'synthetic humans' in the Alien franchise have all been named alphabetically (Ash, Bishop and Call in that order). We look forward to meeting Eugene, Frank and Gerard in future instalments.

E is for... Eggs

With the design of the alien being kept a secret, the striking image on the Alien poster was the egg, with green pus oozing forth. You may notice that this egg (belonging to a hen, egg fans) looks different to the ones in the movie – that's because the scene in which John Hurt inspects the more organic-looking facehugger egg was added in post-production. The movement that Kane sees inside is Ridley Scott's hand in a rubber glove, and the innards – if you really must know – were made of cow guts and tripe. Anyone fancy an omelette?

F is for... Facehugger

There's something horribly perverse about the design of the facehugger – the first creature created for the movie. It's the combination of its long, spindly, human-like fingers and its whipping tail that still gives us the fear – that and, of course, its penchant for humping your face and laying eggs in your stomach. It's more than just a freaky creepy-crawlie – the facehugger's disgusting "oral invasion" technique as used on Kane in Alien was intended as a riposte to various scenes of abuse suffered by female horror protagonists at the hands of male monsters.

G is for... Giger

Hans Rudolf Giger is the creative (and potentially quite troubled) genius behind Alien's most twisted designs. The Swiss artist studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich before realising his talent lay in creating disturbing, evocative, impossibly dark imagery – a perfect fit for the Alien universe, in other words. Ridley Scott saw potential in Giger's painting, Necronom IV, and commissioned the artist to birth his beast. The finished product – an asexual creature with a long, smooth, curved cranium – was the perfect nightmare. "It could just as easily f*ck you before it killed you" commented producer Ivor Powell.

H is for... Hudson and Hicks

The twin pillars of the Colonial Marines: Corporal Dwayne Hicks, a gruff, lantern-jawed leader of men; and Private William Hudson, a sarcastic technician who talks the talk but breaks down like a little bitch when the odds aren't in his favour. Despite surviving Aliens, Michael Biehn didn't get the chance to reprise Hicks in the threequel – he was killed off during the opening credits, but successfully demanded almost the same amount of cash for the brief use of his image as he was paid for the entirety of James Cameron's movie. Bill Paxton's Hudson saw an undignified end, but did get some of Aliens' best lines, including the eternally over-quoted cry of defeat: "Game over, man! Game over!"

I is for... Ident

Arguably the scariest moment of Alien 3 comes before a single second of footage has been shown. The movie opens with the customary 20th Century Fox fanfare, but holds the penultimate note and transforms it into a discordant wail, putting the viewer at instant unease. Director David Fincher's idea, this startling opening was intended to unsettle audiences and let them know that nothing, not even the company idents, were safe from harm. Shame the rest of the movie didn't quite deliver in the same way.

J is for… Joss and Jean-Pierre

The red-headed stepchild of the Alien franchise, fourquel Resurrection sticks out like a sore thumb – it's not so much a horror as a sci-fi fantasy adventure, complete with underwater sequences, Ripley shooting hoops and a baffling final baddie that looks like crappy fan art brought to life. Joss Whedon claims his tongue-in-cheek script was mostly left intact, but was poorly adapted by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the studio heads, who "executed it in such a ghastly fashion they rendered it unwatchable." We are not entirely disagreeing, although it does have its moments (see 'U').

K is for... K-Y Jelly

If you ever wondered what they used for the slime slithering out of the alien's mouth, well... now you know! Ridley Scott was the first to lube his beast with K-Y Jelly (steady), but James Cameron took slobbering to a whole new level on Aliens, literally dumping buckets of the stuff on the Alien Queen's snout. It apparently made controlling the hydraulics incredibly difficult because the individual components couldn't get a proper purchase. Job well done, K-Y!

L is for... LV-426

Planets way out there in the furthest reaches of the galaxy don't have cool names like Mars or Jupiter – they just get numbers. LV-426 is the interstellar code for the planet on which the distress signal is picked up by the Nostromo in the first Alien movie. Named 'Acheron' in extended universe fiction, the planet is where we first see the crashed ship (known as The Derelict), the Space Jockey and our friends the facehuggers. It is a travel agent-approved vacation recommendation. It's just a few moons over from LV-223, the planet on which Prometheus is set (see 'Z').



Source : http://www.ign.com

House "Everybody Dies" Review

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen the final episode of House, please watch before reading this review. Full episode spoilers follow.

One of the most difficult things in television is to deliver a series finale that summarizes the message of an entire show, ties up loose ends, and gives a satisfying conclusion to the folks who have poured hundreds of hours of their lives into following the story. With that much pressure on a single episode, it's no wonder that many series finales are often divisive or mediocre.

That said, it's doubtful that the final episode of House will inspire much controversy, and that's a bit of a shame. For a show that often pushes buttons and boundaries (or at least features a title character that does), the series finale played things very safe. It didn't ultimately betray the time investment of its audience, but it didn't take any risks, either.

After a prank that threatens to put House back in jail after violation of his parole, House finds himself in a burning building next to a dead body. The episode constantly returns to this location as we flash back to find out what put House in this situation. The gist of the main story is that House takes one last case, a drug addict (James LeGros) who finds more joy in taking drugs than living. House saves the addict (momentarily) even though the man, thinking he has nothing left to lose, offers to take the fall for House's prank. In saving the patient, House damns himself, proving he is less selfish than he claims... at least for the time being.

House takes up with the addict and eventually ends up waking from a heroin haze to find himself in the abandoned building with the dead addict. The main problem with this story line is that ultimately, House's bad behavior end up killing the patient, which undercuts his sacrifice back at the hospital (a main motivating factor in his decision making later in the episode). Of course, it's all just set-up to put House in a life-or-death situation in the burning building (it's never explained why the building is on fire), so he can start reflecting back on his life as the flames creep closer.

This allows the show to trot out a litany of familiar faces in a Scrooge-esque analysis of House's life: each ghost emerges to dig deeper into House's motivations for self-destruction in light of Wilson's impending death. The carousel of guest stars has long been a series finale cliche, but here it feels unnecessary. For some, it may provide closure to see Kal Penn or Olivia Wilde or Andre Brauger return, but it feels like a move that is made purely because this is the last episode of the series, and not because it is essential to bring these characters back to tell this story.

Having everyone back also puts a harsh light on the absence of Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) in this finale. She exited the series between seasons and never got a satisfactory farewell, so it was disappointing that among all of the characters we see, the one who needs her story wrapped the most, and one of the folks who could have helped explore House's fractured psyche the best, does not get a swan song of her own.

Then there's the matter of the ending. Again, if you do not want to be spoiled, do not read further. Just as House has chosen to live, and change his life (it's Scrooge's revelation without the happy running through the streets hugging Tiny Tim bit), the building he is in explodes. Wilson and Foreman have tracked House to the warehouse and are there to see it go up, and by the time all the flames are out, virtually the entire staff is collected outside the smoking building waiting to hear House's fate. Eventually, a stretcher is wheeled out and later House is identified as the body. Dental records confirm it. But it's a little too coincidental that there was another body in the building that is never discovered, and so by the time we get to House's funeral, it's already pretty obvious he is pulling a Huck Finn.

Of course, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the false ending, or with House faking his death to avoid jail time and hang out with Wilson in his last days... it all just feels a bit tidy and safe. There is a braver ending out there, but not one that is as audience-pleasing, perhaps.

And the mere fact that the episode is safe does not make it bad; it just does not make it transcendent. But it does cap a comeback season; after getting bogged down in some wacky, wayward episodes last season, House snapped back to form this season and delivered a solid suite of farewell episodes.

This show has been a great success due to clever writing and great performances, especially the anchoring presence of Hugh Laurie, who has been excellent throughout the show's run. House has become one of the most memorable and unique characters in TV history, in large part due to Laurie. Despite a somewhat disappointing finale, the show will be missed. There's nothing on TV quite like it.

Source : http://www.ign.com

Game of Thrones: "The Prince of Winterfell" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"I will hurt you for this. A day will come when you think you're safe and happy and your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth. And you'll know the debt is paid."

Somehow, I felt as thought we were bound to get an episode like "The Prince of Winterfell" before we headed into the endgame of Season 2. An episode that wasn't bad (this is Game of Thrones after all) but an one that had a lot of moving parts and exposition. And while there's nothing wrong with exposition or dialogue-heavy scenes, this chapter felt like it had a lot of stories that simply began and didn't finish. And I mean actual "episodic stories." Because besides Robb finally forsaking his vow and getting busy with Talisa, and Tyrion's tense scene with Cersei when he thought she might have been holding Shae as a prisoner, everything else felt a bit incomplete.

Even Arya's story, and great scene with Jaqen where he finally lost his smile after she threatened him with his own name, felt too much like a fragment. And yes, I will definitely mourn the loss of Arya and Tywin as a scene-stealing duo. They didn't even get any final words with one another before he impulsively rode out to meet Robb in battle. And even though Tywin clearly likes her, one would think that he'd think of a better fate than leaving her behind with The Mountain. Tywin should know that the odds of her surviving that servitude would be extremely low.

Sure, there were some great moments to be had here; a furious Robb placing Cat under arrest for treason, Tyrion and Bronn quibbling away like an old married couple while trying to come up with a way to defend King's Landing, Yara proudly pleading with Teon to abandon Winterfell ("Don't die so far from the sea"). But there was also a lot of stuff that teased us and gave us no resolution; Jaime and Brienne setting out on a boat, Qhorin wanting Jon to go undercover in Mance Rayder's camp, Sam and Grenn discovering a stash of dragon glass, and that one scene toward the end with Dany and Jorah. So unlike the great, extended sequences of "The Old Gods and the New" and the tremendous one-on-ones from "A Man Without Honor," this episode hopped around a bit too much. Save for Sansa and Melisandre, I think it touched on every single character's story.

Last week, I found that a lot of you who hadn't read the books were able to predict that those two burned corpses were not Bran and Rickon. Just the fact that the murderous act happened off screen was enough to tip some of you off, while others noticed the few mentions here and there of the two orphans that Bran sent to the farm. So I'm not sure how much of a revelation it was to most of you to find out that Bran and Rickon are alive and kicking (well, Rickon's kicking at least). I think, possibly, the bigger surprise here was that Osha had doubled back with them and that they're now sort of hiding right under Theon's nose, in Winterfell. And then there's Theon himself. Still trying to do the respectful thing by offering gold to the farmer only to find out that Dagmar already killed off all the witnesses. Way too little. Way too late.

And so Lord Bolton's bastard is just a few days out from Winterfell and Stannis is a few days out from King's Landing. Which just made this episode feel like a grand set-up for bigger things to come. A bridge episode. And I suppose a lot of your personal enjoyment of it will depend on how invested you are in Robb and Talisa. And Tyrion and Shae for that matter. Again, Shae's portrayed as such a tough, argumentative nut on this show, it's been hard to determine how much Tyrion actually cares for her. But here, after he discovered that Cersei had nabbed the wrong whore, he opened up to Shae, confessing his love. Perhaps it was even the first time Tyrion himself realized he loved Shae. "I would kill for you, do you know that? And I expect I'll have to before this is over."

And poor Ros. Not having the greatest time in King's Landing, is she? The scene between Cersei and Tyrion was, of course, great; with Tyrion having to try and hide the fact that she'd hurt someone he actually cared for. But the best part of the whole thing was how well it all played considering the fact that Tyrion and Cersei sort of bonded in the last episode. But with Cersei now thinking that Tyrion purposefully wants to Joffrey to die in battle, her claws came out once again. And we got to hear Tyrion deliver one of the best, threatening lines of the entire series.

And while "The Prince of Winterfell" might not have been this series' best outing, we did get to:  Meet a dude named the "Lord of Bones" who wore a freakin' awesome skull on his face, hear the tale of how Davos saved Stannis from starving at Storm's End during Robert's Rebellion and see Tyrion use the word "pigs***" as a secret code for wild fire. Now, I know that a lot of you who've read the books have some gripes over certain characters being left out of Season 2, but please don't fill up the boards with the names of people who show up on the series. If you didn't get the chance to read my pre-Season 2 interview with Thrones producer David Benioff, he basically said that, after Season 1, they're no longer doing straight book-to-season adaptations. So things that happen in Clash of Kings might show up in Season 3 while things that happen in Storm of Swords might be moved up and show up in Season 2. They're now more interested in adapting the "saga" itself.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/21/game-of-thrones-the-prince-of-winterfell-review

Supernatural: "Survival of the Fittest" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

The seventh season of Supernatural wrapped up with "Survival of the Fittest", an apt title when you look at who was left standing at the end of the episode.

"Carry On Wayward Son" launched us into the episode with a montage of what had happened earlier in the season. Using that song as the intro to each season finale is one of Supernatural's best traditions; the Leviathan storyline itself may have faltered this year, but the song managed to pick up some of the slack in raising the excitement level as the finale began. And for me the level of anticipation needed to be raised from about zero, so that was a very good thing. If the opening song wasn't enough old-school Supernatural for you, the return of the Impala was another great moment with "Born To Be Wild" blasting as Dean's car roared back into the action. It was a short-lived return since it was only used as a distraction, and Meg crashed it almost immediately, but they have fixed that car up from much worse accidents.

James Patrick Stuart as Dick Roman, head of the Leviathans, was the best element of the Leviathan storyline all season, and it was no different in the finale. The scenes of him hammering out the contract with Crowley (the excellent Mark Sheppard) were great; I loved the juxtaposition of modern businessman Roman working through old-school demon Crowley's contract that rolled out on the floor in a long scroll.

Although the Leviathans had been built up at the beginning of the season to be super-powerful villains, in the end, dispatching them wasn't all that difficult for the Winchesters and their allies, something that was a real flaw with the storyline. A simple distraction at the office and Sam and Dean were (apparently) easily into the building. Even chopping the Leviathan heads off didn't seem to be that difficult once the Winchesters discovered that a simple Borax solution would disable them. And although they had to gather a few supplies to make a weapon that would get rid of Roman, even that didn't turn out to be too difficult for them. As for the rest of Roman's plan, Crowley seemed to think that the rest of the Leviathans just needed to be rounded up and Kevin told Sam that they needed to blow up the lab. As unsatisfying as that was as a way to wrap things up, I will take it if it means that we don't need to do anything more with the Leviathans in the future.

All of that aside, where the Leviathans really missed the boat in being effective Supernatural baddies was that there was no sense of an emotional connection for the Winchesters, something that previous villains on the show have had in spades. Maybe the producers thought that having Castiel be the one to bring the Leviathans out of Purgatory would make it personal, but it didn't. The fact that Roman killed Bobby helped to give the Winchesters a direct connection, but even with that there was never the same sense of emotional high stakes that we have had in the past.

Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki Look Towards Season 8

Crowley, on the other hand, did not disappoint. His sarcastic comments were great as usual, a favorite this episode being "text me when Sparkles here retrieves his marbles" after seeing the state Castiel was in. More importantly, Crowley behaved as a "proper psychopath": he betrayed all sides to his own benefit. He worked with the Winchesters to get rid of Roman and also managed to screw over Sam and Dean in the process while getting his minions to collect Meg.

Where the emotion was missing in the fight against the Leviathans, it was present in the goodbye to Bobby. I had not been a fan of the decision to turn Bobby into a ghost, but at least they made the gutsy decision to take that storyline to its proper ending, with Bobby recognizing that he was doomed to turn into a vengeful spirit unless Sam and Dean burned the flask that kept him from crossing over. Jim Beaver was an integral part of the Winchester family and he will be missed, but I was glad they said goodbye rather than ruining the character by having him hang around longer as a helpful spirit sidekick. The scene itself was nicely done - a somber, but not overly emotional goodbye.

I also appreciated the focus that was put on Castiel and his relationship with Dean. Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles have always been great together and while Collins put a new spin on the character of Castiel with his stream-of-consciousness thought process and inability to engage in the battle, his connection to Dean remained strong. "Nobody cares that you're broken Cas, clean up your mess" was a great line.

With a change on showrunners next season (Sera Gamble is out and Jeremy Carver is in) hopefully Supernatural can get back to how good it was a few seasons ago. They left things at a good spot, the betrayal by Crowley may not have been that surprising, he is a demon after all, but what he did was a shock. The weapon that killed Roman also tossed Dean and Castiel into Purgatory, leaving Sam bewildered and alone. Jared Padalecki did a good job conveying Sam's confusion and fear at what had happened. Purgatory was effectively creepy and Dean's predicament was only made worse when Castiel poofed away. That ending was the biggest success of the episode: where they left both Sam and Dean made me want to see what happens next. That is a major accomplishment after the tedious nature of most of the season.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/20/supernatural-survival-of-the-fittest-review

Touch: "Tessellations" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"Dammit!" count: 4

"Tessellations" was a bit of a dud as far as Touch episodes go if you consider that the main strength of this series, and the tipping point regarding whether you're going to get a decent episode or not, resides in its ability to pull together those "global connectivity" stories in clever, unexpected ways. Unfortunately, the show misses way more than it hits in that department, and even when it does hit the chance is more than likely that you've had to endure some insufferable characters along the way.

The most interesting things that this episode had to offer involved the reveal that someone inside Aster Corp, where Jake's aunt works, is behind the sinister plot to keep Jake away from Martin, and test him with numbered blocks in order to bring out his special abilities. That, and Avram's (Bodhi Elfman) explanation of Teller's block test to Clea; the five platonic solids (each shape representing a classical element) and a dodecahedron to represent the universe.

Other than that though, "Tessellations" was filled with more dumb characters and a rather unbelievably dangerous situation for Martin. I know they did their best to explain , but it still seemed like a bit of a stretch, even for this show, to buy that Martin would risk dying and no longer being around for Jake. And what was the point of making Joey, the Mobius shipping employee who lost his job and had the wife with MS, get singled out as a hero on the news if that's not what got him his job back? Martin still had to go talk to Nelson (Stabone from Fast Times!) and threaten him in order to get him to rehire Joey.

Plus, there wasn't even a vast, intricate web connected people here. There were, really, only two stories; the shipping yard and Israeli Tomer with his Palestinian girlfriend. And that story played out in an even more cornball fashion than the heist scenario. Once again, we get a "dreamer." A guy in love who constantly aggravates the girl he loves. A girl who's cold and practical only up until the guy floors her with a grand romantic gesture. But never the first grand dramatic gesture, right? It's always the second one. Didn't we just go through this last week in "Music of the Spheres?" And so, because the girl always winds up sort of just "caving," it becomes hard to believe that the girl really loves the guy at all.

Also, we got another scene where Avram himself has a brief, somewhat inconsequential connection to the "B" story when Tomer called him to randomly ask him about numerology. And since the "B" story, like last week, also involved a man looking for a gift for his girl, Avram was strangely mixed in. The trouble here was that as soon as Avram told Tomer that his message regarding "9808 becoming 2545" meant that something good was going to come from something bad, we knew everything would turn out just fine. Not that we couldn't assume that anyway, with this being Touch and all, but the whole scene felt forced. And it made me roll my eyes at Tomer even more for calling Avram to ask him whether or not the message was a good one or not based on the numbers.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/20/touch-tessellations-review-2

Nikita: "Homecoming" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Nikita fittingly capped off a sensational second season that began with "Game Change" by turning the canvas on its head yet again. "Homecoming" was a bold and satisfying season finale, daring in its unexpected hopefulness and lack of a traditional cliffhanger. Make no mistake about it though, the new balance of power places Nikita and her friends in very real danger - from outside and from within.

The hour's most pivotal event was obviously the death of Xander Berkeley's cruel and vainglorious mastermind, Percy. It's hard to imagine Nikita's world without him in it, even though we know his dragon's head is only one of many. He went out in grand style of course. I particularly loved when he confessed to his faithful Division recruits how he betrayed and used them all and that he wasn't sorry in the least because they were all "pathetic street trash." Ah, Percy. You will be missed. Nikita did deserve this hard-fought victory though, and it was truly thrilling to watch him plunge to his gorgeously gory death, breathing his last word before the end, as she once predicted, "Nikita."

The title "Homecoming" refers to Nikita and Michael's return to Division both as star dropouts returning to campus as well as Percy's prodigal progeny returning to the fold. All season we've been teased with Percy's "Luke, I am your father" comments to Nikita, but Percy's last was so over-the-top that it seemed to me to close the door on any literal interpretation of these allusions. Instead, he seemed more like Dr. Frankenstein intent on killing his monster. Once Percy was dead though, Nikita was finally able to stop running from the truth she's been battling all season: Division made her who she is today. Maybe it's just easier without anyone around to say, "I told you so."

"Homecoming" brought the audience back full circle to the beginning of the season as well as the beginning of the series. Starting in "Game Change" and continuing throughout Season 2, Nikita has wrestled with the concept of finding a home, and whether she'd deserve to finally rest there if she could ever find it. Here, she finally accepts that, like it or not, dreaded Division has always been her home. Taking over the organization she once sought to destroy sounds crazy at first, but it actually takes her back to her original mission. In the pilot episode, Nikita said she was the first recruit to get out, and she was going to make certain she was not the last. Now she's been presented with the opportunity to make good on that vow on a large scale, and bring "immunity, identity, absolution" to Division's masses. How could a girl with a guilty conscience matched only by her savior complex ever resist it?

Before he died, Percy also got to demonstrate his magnificent genius one last time. The elaborate satellite particle beam plot turned out to be a con, while his real plan depended simply on his most loyal soldier, Roan, physically placing the plutonium inside a nuclear reactor. This also gave me yet even more respect for last week's layered "Crossbow". Why was it so laden with references to science fiction? Because that's exactly what Percy's "Star Wars" satellite Death Star plan was. Roan's death was also a nice, ahem, shock, though the bigger and more welcome surprise was his moment of genuine grief when he realized that Percy was dead. There a heart beating under that Terminator facade all along.

Michael is my kind of spy... fearless and inventive.

Despite its general awesomeness, I did have a few problems with the episode. First of all, Nikita and Michael blew the hatch open last week and I don't believe anyone had time to reseal it, so why were the Marines struggling to cut through the hatch in this episode? Did I miss something? Also, Sean and Alex got from New Jersey to Maryland in no time. I'm not saying I need to see them chatting in the car or whatever, but there just didn't seem to be any suspense in regards to their tracking down Roan. Even terrific Nikita episodes often feel like they need maybe five more minutes to completely pull off everything that was attempted. I would've rather had one more "Where the hell is Roan?" scene between Sonya and Birkhoff and/or Sean and Alex than the Amanda scene at the end, which felt like an unnecessary reminder of things we all already know: Amanda has a black box, she's still one of the Big Bads on the canvas, she's super evil and so forth.

The almost-happy ending between Michael and Nikita was absolutely beautiful. The sun has come up and they've once again somehow survived the impossible. They're in plain clothes in a pretty pastoral setting, but it's phony. It's a fake farm that recently housed the trained killers who gave their lives for Percy's lie and it's a perfect metaphor for the life-after-espionage fantasy that they've been contemplating all season. Michael would still like to chase after it, but Nikita is not yet capable of believing a real happy ending awaits her, so she'll keep working on that atonement thing.

It was a finale without real cliffhangers, yet everyone's in flux. Can the government really be trusted to let Division sort itself out when killing them all is so much simpler? Will Division's power bring out Nikita's dark side? Can Ryan maintain his integrity? Will Alex be able to pursue a future with Sean or will her painful past continue to haunt her? Can Michael and Nikita's relationship survive this latest major life change? Season 3 (yay!) holds the answers to these questions and many more and I can't wait until fall to see how it all plays out.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/nikita-homecoming-review

The Office: Season 8 Review

Note: Full spoilers for The Office: Season 8 follow.

Looking back at my review of The Office's Season 7, I concluded with the hope that the writing staff would plan the next year out ahead of time because having a destination in mind (in last year's case, sending off Michael Scott) seemed to have done the show some good. Too bad they didn't take that advice. Instead of a heading in a single, coherent direction in Season 8, the stories and the characters were all over the map.

Season 7 ended without revealing the next branch manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, but the question was answered soon enough in the season premiere, "The List," with Andy sitting in the corner office. The choice wasn't out of left field, and it had some potential to bring a new flavor to the show – the insecure manager who is in over his head and knows it, rather than the incompetent manager who desperately wants to be one of the guys – but instead of properly cultivating Andy as a manager, they decided to have him share the spotlight with James Spader's Robert California, who wore out his welcome early on (as I feared he might). Even when Andy did try to flex his managerial muscles, as in "Garden Party" and "Gettysburg," the storylines were too absurd to accept as legitimate character development, yet not funny enough to make it worth pushing the reality of the show to an ever more extreme degree.

Speaking of "Garden Party" and "Gettysburg," there were quite a few outings that took the characters away from the office this year, including an entire arc set in Tallahassee, Florida (more on that storyline later). I suspect the motivation behind this was to change things up and keep them fresh, but it didn't always work. There were times, like in "Pool Party" when it felt like I was watching a different series – an Office spinoff, maybe – instead of the show I know and used to love. It wasn't always a problem with the locations themselves, but with the writing. By the time Andy and Erin crashed a stranger's bachelorette party to break up with his bland girlfriend, I wished they'd been part of a different show.

I haven't made it a secret that I'm not much of a fan of the Andy and Erin relationship. Last season, Andy pined for Erin while she was dating Gabe, so I guess it was Erin's turn to carry the torch. The writers fell back on the old love-triangle trope, giving Andy a girlfriend, but they didn't bother to give her any personality or defining characteristics. So I wasn't rooting for either side, really. There was also a potential romantic entanglement between Andy and Robert's wife (guest star Maura Tierney) in "Mrs. California," but that went nowhere. The last few episodes of the season devoted a good deal of screen time getting Andy and Erin back together, which proved to be a bit of a letdown after a run of some of the best episodes in a long time.

Those episodes made up the previously mentioned Tallahassee arc, which demonstrated that there is life, and laughs, left in this show when they get it right. Beginning with the 14th episode, "Special Project," we got a great business-related arc centered around the launch of the Sabre Store down in Florida. It was a silly idea, but the characters involved made it interesting and fun. Dwight got a chance to experience both the thrill and the stress of leadership while Jim had his hands full fending off the affections of crazy Cathy. That little drama resolved better than I'd hoped. I enjoyed seeing Jim squirm and being forced to turn to Dwight for help (their scenes together were some of the best of the whole season). Poor Cathy was punished for her actions by being banished from the show, never to be mentioned again. Ryan was true to character, talking a big game but ultimately choking when his big moment came. And of course, we'll never forget you, Florida Stanley.

For everyone else in the Office, the stories were relatively minor. Pam and Angela both had babies named Phillip, but the origin of Angela's pregnancy had much more intrigue to it. There were hints all along that the father of Angela's baby was not her possibly gay state senator husband, but the issue resided on the backburner for the majority of the season. It wasn't until the finale, "Free Family Portrait Studio" that Dwight finally took the initiative to get the kid tested. And we still don't even know the outcome (though they left little room for doubt).

The only other plot of note was the subdued and sweet courtship of Darryl and the new warehouse forewoman, Val. Grounded in realism, Val was one of the better new characters introduced this season. I also appreciated the expanded role of Nate, Dwight's former handyman who became a warehouse worker in "Lotto." He's like the Creed of the warehouse, stealing entire scenes with just a line or two (Creed continues to reign supreme in that regard, though).

While we're talking about new characters, I can't avoid mentioning Nellie (recurring guest star Catherine Tate), who first appeared briefly interviewing for the manager job in "Search Committee" and returned as the head of the Sabre Store project in "Tallahassee." I had hoped that Tate would be a colorful addition to the cast, but either the material failed her or she failed the material – I'm not sure which, but there was definitely some fail involved on some level. Hopefully the writers will tone her down next year and make her part of the ensemble rather than trying to make her into the new Michael Scott. And then they can focus on Andy as manager, which they should have been doing all along.

To be sure, every season of The Office has had its ups and downs. It used to be that the peaks were steeper than the valleys; now, it's the opposite. At this time last year I didn't think the writers and cast had another season in them, and yet here we are heading into Season 9. At this point, I'm too invested in the characters to give up on the show entirely – and I am looking forward to seeing David Wallace in charge again – but with the big changes in store and potential departures both in front of and behind the camera, it's hard to imagine that the show will recover the ground it's already lost.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/the-office-season-8-review