Sunday’s Mad Men was a bit of a doozie, and I’m late to the ball due to a crazy weekend. So here we go. The women of Mad Men are what make the show worthwhile for me – and this was a very lady-centered episode. Particularly, the focus was on mothers and daughters, on seeking [...]

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That wasn’t as bad as I feared. Wilson’s alive (for now) and it looks like next week he buys himself a shiny red corvette. The other patient of the week is a little girl with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill her, and while the team can’t fix that, they do cure her current illness, and her feuding parents are able to make at least a temporary peace. All in all, this was a sweet – at times almost saccharine – and fairly low-key episode, not the grim horror I feared.

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The whip-smart dialogue, as fans of the series well know, forms a giddy counterpoint to an operatic plot featuring just about every permutation of sex and death imaginable. There’s also John Hurt as Caligula, in a gold bikini and makeup Hurt applied himself, because the BBC makeup girls couldn’t make it tasteless enough, dancing the role of goddess of the dawn in a ballet of Caligula’s own devising before a terrified audience who know they must applaud or die.

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A recap/review of The Killing: Openings (Season 2, Episode 6)

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The director came over between takes and said, “I like what you’re doing, I’m seeing plenty of emotion, but I want you to end with fierce rage; there was something you did in the audition…” and that is when I knew, for sure, that she really had chosen me.

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For those who haven’t seen the show, Grimm starts from the premise that all the supernatural beings in the tales by the Brothers Grimm were real creatures. In the pilot, young Portland (Oregon) homicide detective, Nick Burkhardt, learned from his dying aunt that he is a direct descendant of the Grimm Brothers. His forebears were not just storytellers, they were hunters. The Grimm bloodline enables Nick to perceive the many “wesen” (the German word for “creatures,” pronounced “vayzen”) among us through their human disguises, and he has a responsibility to protect the human race from the dangerous ones.

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The Five-Year Engagement Directed by Nicholas Stoller Screenplay by Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller Starring: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Alison Brie, Chris Pratt How long is The Five-Year Engagement? 124 minutes. What is The Five-Year Engagement rated? R for sexual content, and language throughout. CLR Rating: Emily Blunt and Jason Segel in The Five-Year Engagement Photo: [...]

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Meanwhile, the West Indies are buzzing with the imminent Pirate Of The Year Awards. The most fearsome captains are caught up in furious last-minute plundering for a shot at the coveted prize. The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is one such contender, but his lovable antics and luxuriant beard are beginning to pale against his modest record of villainy. To distinguish himself from his flamboyant rivals, he must lead his loyal crew of knuckleheads into an adventure like none other. Who could imagine that a chance encounter with Charles Darwin, sailing homeward on the Beagle, would provide the opportunity?

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The Raven is a piece of historical fiction about what happened during Edgar Allan Poe’s (John Cusack) mysterious last days. The film theorizes that he spent his final week, give or take, working as a consultant to the Baltimore Police Department who were trying to capture an unstoppable madman whose kills were inspired by Poe’s works.

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A recap/review of The Office: Fundraiser (Season 8, Episode 22)

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Writer-director Michael Corrente took the title and setting for his first movie from the Italian-American section of Providence, Rhode Island. Corrente grew up nearby, and he clearly knows his territory.

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This was the fifth-to-last episode, by my count. Tonight we had nightmare visions, erotic dreams, an exorcism, the collapse of House’s green card marriage, and a real bombshell, after weeks of teasers.

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The rites themselves have changed in practice if not in spirit, and the movie rekindles enough of its ancestor’s spirit that it’s hard to imagine a better result. What more were all the naysayers expecting?

This article is filed under Best Movies, Death, Great Britain, Horror, Movies, Mystery, Mythology, Religion, Satire, The Fourth Wall, Thrillers.

In last night’s surreal episode of Mad Men, everybody was taking trips, with or without their loved ones. There’s trouble in paradise with Peggy and Abe, and Peggy’s dancing ever closer to the edge of her patience with being a lady in a man’s world. Roger and Jane take a trip together and come back [...]

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A recap/review of The Killing: Ghosts of the Past (Season 2, Episode 5)

This article is filed under Television, The Fourth Wall.