review

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Gail

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers. What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 3 After constant battles, stakings, stalkings, hauntings, and curses, What We Do in the Shadows  season 3, episode 3, “Gail,” finds love, or something like it. It comes from the past, is completely unexpected, and very hard to maneuver. Yes, I’m going to start with Laszlo’s (Matt Berry) jalopy, which is more than he can do, even with Colin Robinson’s (Mark Proksch) help. Laszlo and Colin haven’t had much alone time on What We Do in the Shadows, but their pairing…
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What If…? Episode 5 Review: Magnificent Marvel Zombie Chaos

This review contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? episode 5. Episode 5 of Marvel’s What If…?, entitled ‘What If…Zombies!?’, is a tremendously fun half hour of television, and is also likely to be a really good time for fans of the Marvel Zombies comics. The installment is packed with laughs and shocking moments, using classic zombie tropes to keep some of the best and most underrated MCU characters on their toes while maintaining an enviable pace as it throws one wild scenario after another at them. As you may know by now if you’ve been reading our weekly What If…?…
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Rick and Morty Season 5 Finale Review

This RICK AND MORTY review contains spoilers. Rick and Morty Season 5 Finale It’s been a while, so let’s first recap the consistent problems with season five of Rick and Morty. Problem one is that characterization feels like it’s either pushed aside in favor of crazy, silly sci-fi nonsense or lost in a muddle of convoluted sci-fi nonsense. Problem two is that episodes are so overloaded with plot and dialogue delivered at such breakneck speed that there’s either no time for jokes or, packed in with everything else going on in these overstuffed episodes, they just don’t land. The missing…
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The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 3 Review: Hunted

This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers. The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 3 “Hunted” opens in a flurry of action. Blades and arrows come flying in out of the darkness. Most of Maggie’s companions stumble and fall, as do their hunters. Some get back up and scramble away towards safety, or in pursuit of someone. Most don’t. At least, not until they presumably turn into walkers and join the omnipresent background noise of the undead. As far as cold openings go, this one runs hot, and while it burns itself out quickly, it’s a perfect set-up for the following…
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Vigil Episode 3 Review: For Bros In Peril On the Sea!

This Vigil review contains spoilers. Well, that got complicated fast. After two action-heavy instalments bracketed by exhilarating ‘Brace! Brace! Brace!’ emergencies, episode three switched gears for some old-fashioned gumshoeing that left us with a truckload of information and new characters. If anyone felt like requesting a paracetamol from the medical officer after that one, you’re not alone. Best check it for tampering first though, eh? Wouldn’t want to end up like Burke – in a body bag, being slid in and out of a torpedo tube every two minutes like a human swanee whistle. Silva was right; Burke was poisoned.…
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My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 22 Review: Sad Man’s Parade

This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers. My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 22 “Even if you stumble in life, you can pick yourself back up again.”  “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.” That’s the central question that the Joker poses in Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke, but it’s a concept that’s been prevalent throughout the histories of many of My Hero Academia’s villains. The events of “Sad Man’s Parade” explore how Twice’s life in particular has had a dark domino effect that progressively pushed him to his life of…
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Dune Review: A Sci-Fi Legend Is Born

The spice melange is a psychotropic substance that floats across the surface of planet Arrakis like puffs of dandelions. This seems right since Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of that world in Dune is similarly all-enveloping for any who lay eyes on it. It’s an experience intended to overwhelm and intoxicate. More than a few years have come and gone since a picture this vast in scope and immersive in intent has found the ambition (and financial support) to conquer multiplexes. But make no mistake, Dune is very much a film with conquest on its mind, both as a narrative and as…
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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 2 Review: The Cloak of Duplication

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers. What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode2 What We Do in the Shadows  season 3 episode 2, “The Cloak of Duplication,” finds Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja of Antipaxos, (Natasia Demetriou) in a battle of will, strength, and endurance as they vie for the top seat of the local Vampiric Council. As the episode opens, it appears there is little middle ground for the two bloodsuckers. Nadja vows to fight to the very last ounce of her being to claw the top position from the former…
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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 1 Review: The Prisoner

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers. What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 1 What We Do in the Shadows season 3 episode 1, “The Prisoner,” moves quickly through the blood and raw meat left over from the slaughter of the season 2 finale, “Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires.” The episode is named for the faithful familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who took out about 70 percent of the most powerful vampires in the Tri-State area. When the episode opens, he is being held in a cage while Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Nadja of Antipaxos,…
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Cinderella Review: Amazon’s Adaptation Isn’t Afraid to Be Absurd

Camila Cabello’s Cinderella is the most ridiculous movie of 2021, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Entering this movie, with its cast of triple (or at least double) threats, it can be easy to let assumptions get the best of you. Cabello is an extremely talented singer, so you can assume there’s going to be some tunes. Billy Porter is fabulous, so you can assume he will continue to be so as this adaptation’s incarnation of the fairy godparent. Idina Menzel, who plays the tale’s stepmother, is a goddess amongst us all, so you can assume she will continue…
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What If…? Episode 4 Review: Doctor Strange Loses His Heart

This Marvel’s What If? review contains spoilers. Marvel’s What If? Episode 4 What If…? episode four is here. While many fans were likely expecting to see Captain Carter show up as soon as they realized it was a Doctor Strange story, that is not the case. Instead, we get a romantic tragedy which pits two versions of Stephen against each other in order to save the woman that they love.  It’s a cosmic ride through Strange’s own arrogance that has absolutely world ending consequences. It’s also, interestingly, the second episode where we see a hero turn to the dark side.…
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Vigil Episode 2 Review: Deeper into the Conspira-Sea!

Warning: this review contains Vigil spoilers. “You’ll be on board for three days, finish your paperwork, then they’ll let you off on a raft,” DCI Silva was told. Small hope of that. More like you’ll be on board for three weeks, have zero time for paperwork between the near-misses with passing tankers, nuclear reactor failures and scheming Lieutenant Commanders, and, if you come any closer to the truth, they’ll only let you off as shark chum.  “They” being the person or persons responsible for the fatal poisoning of Chief Petty Officer Craig Burke. That’s right – poison. Silva’s such a good detective…
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The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 2 Review: Acheron Part 2

This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers. The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 2 So far in season 11 of The Walking Dead, the biggest weapon in the arsenal of the survivors hasn’t been a gun, but the brain. Specifically, the power of observation. Princess used it to good effect to nearly get the group out of Commonwealth processing prison, and now Yumiko is taking the information Princess and others have gathered on the people around them, churns it through her lawyer-trained mind, and comes up with a line of patter so effective it makes Ezekiel’s summation of lead guard…
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Vigil Episode 1 Review: A Top Twist On the Trid-ent Tested Murder Mystery

Warning: This Vigil review contains spoilers. A booming naval salute to Vigil, which marks the return of the Sunday night BBC One drama after a long absence for reasons of football, Olympics, and allegedly, summer sunshine. From the writer of BBC detective series Strike, this thriller is just the thing to take us into autumn. It has it all: peril, intrigue, murder, Suranne Jones being winched from a helicopter onto a submarine like a prize toy in an arcade claw machine, and a conspiracy that (likely) goes all the way to the heart of the top of the uppermost ridge of the establishment. Strap in.  “How…
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Evil Season 2 Episode 7 Review: S Is for Silence

This Evil review contains spoilers. Evil Season 2 Episode 7 Moving from the networks to the more risk-taking Paramount+ brings more fun and experimentation to Evil season 2. Episode 7, “S Is for Silence,” takes its title seriously, but also humorously, as the series presents its first entry into the silent genre of visual storytelling. Half the team go off exploring the shadowy darkness of impressionists, the other explores silent comedies. Not a word has been spoken within the walls of the monastery of St. Thomas in 130 years, reads a sign just inside the gate. The compound and structure…
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Candyman Review: Horror Movie Update is a Missed Opportunity

In 1992, I begged my father to take me to see Candyman. He had already turned me into a horror fanatic so he needed to follow through and take me. After the film was over, I was terrified for weeks. My brain would manifest Candyman in the shadows of my room while I slept. As an adult, I don’t fancy the film as much, but I realized the allure of Candyman was that he was a terror specific to the Black community despite the circumstances of his death. I knew as a child that housing was an issue for poor…
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My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 21 Review: Revival Party

This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers. “What is…a normal life?” “Normalcy” is often viewed like it’s some congenital defect in My Hero Academia and there are plenty of characters in the series who view a lack of special abilities as a confirmation of inferiority. Granted, My Hero Academia exists within such an exaggerated world that there’s a sliding scale of what qualifies as “normal,” especially when it comes to the context of society’s villains. Contrasting opinions are presented on which villains are acting “properly” and have the best vision for not only the state of villainy, but society itself. …
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