18th Jun2015

‘Steven Universe 2×08: Keeping It Together’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“I wish you hadn’t seen that.” This is a dang kids’ show, y’all. ‘Keeping It Together’ takes a long, unnerving look at something Steven Universe has had on its radar since ‘Frybo,’ season 1’s early gross-out fest: voluntary and involuntary dynamics. The show has bumped up against the idea softly and repeatedly in its portrayals of imperfect people trying […]

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17th Jun2015

‘Steven Universe 2×07: Rising Tides / Crashing Skies’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“I’m so brave to be doing this.” ‘Rising Tides / Crashing Skies’ is that rare character study that offers insight without demanding that the audience render up sympathy. Ronaldo Fryman is a typical teenage boy in that, whether it’s acclaim or love, he believes the world owes him something. The faux-‘Loose Change’ format of his delightfully […]

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17th Jun2015

‘Orange is the New Black: Season Three’ Review (Netflix)

by Paul Metcalf

Stars: Laura Prepon, Taylor Schilling, Lea DeLaria, Ruby Rose, Emma Myles, Lori Tan Chinn, Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox | Created by Jenji Kohan Finally Orange is the New Black: Season Three has made its way onto Netflix, and I’ve binge watched it. I did this for two reasons, one so I can write this review […]

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16th Jun2015

‘Steven Universe 2×06: Sworn to the Sword’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“Why won’t you just let me do this for you, Rose?” After an uneven front end and a lengthy break, season 2’s first week-long Steven Bomb of new episodes starts with ‘Sworn to the Sword,’ a heartfelt success that touches on selflessness, friendship, and the relationship between “special” and “normal” people in science fiction and fantasy. […]

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15th Jun2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×10: Mother’s Mercy’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“…if I might beg just one drop of the Mother’s mercy.” For all that the High Sparrow likes to talk about the laws of gods and men, the truth is that no life in Westeros or the wider world of which it is a part is lived within an ordered set of rules. Whatever the […]

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12th Jun2015

‘Hannibal 3×02: Primavera’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“God can’t save any of us, because… it’s inelegant.” After the sepulchral arthouse horror of last week’s ‘Antipasto’, viewers tuning in to ‘Primavera’ might reasonably have expected a return to form. What the episode gives us instead is, in Hannibal’s words, a rare gift: destruction and rebirth. Like the stunted, deformed stag that emerges from […]

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08th Jun2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×09: The Dance of Dragons’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“Sometimes a person has to choose. Sometimes the world forces his hand.” We do so much because we feel it is impossible to do otherwise. Straying from destiny’s path, we fear we’ll show the world where to find the gaps in our armor. Spare your daughter and the throne slips through your fingers. Give up […]

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05th Jun2015

‘Hannibal 3×01: Antipasto’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“This is posthumous.” The world in which Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal unfolds with dreadful inexorability is one of dreamlike, deathly unreality. Hannibal himself has been a psychopomp, a guide into the world of the dead, for many characters throughout the series’ run. His motives, to be sure, are never selfless, but on multiple occasions he has shepherded enemies, colleagues, […]

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02nd Jun2015

‘WWE: Daniel Bryan – Just Say Yes! Yes! Yes!’ Blu-ray Review

by Chris Cummings

Follow the journey of WWE Superstar DANIEL BRYAN as he prepares for his WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP match in the main event of WRESTLEMANIA 30. In this never-before-seen director’s cut, WWE cameras sit down with DANIEL BRYAN and follow his every move as he looks back on his WWE career and his bumpy road to […]

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02nd Jun2015

‘WWE: It’s Good to be King – The Jerry Lawler Story’ Blu-ray Review

by Chris Cummings

Before Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler became one of the signature voices of WWE he was one of the greatest competitors in all of sports entertainment. For the first time ever, get a glimpse into The King’s illustrious career as he gives insight into all of his most memorable matches and moments. From his early days […]

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02nd Jun2015

‘WWE Elimination Chamber 2015’ – Results & Review

by Chris Cummings

WWE decided, in their infinite wisdom, to hold another WWE PPV/Special Event in the month of May, meaning that in just over a month’s space there will have been three WWE supershows. Still, this has potential to be something special, so even though it is a bit of overkill, it’s interesting. With matches featuring many […]

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01st Jun2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×08: Hardhome’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“I’ve seen the army of the dead.” Me too, Sam. Holy hell. ‘Hardhome,’ written by showrunners Benioff and Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik, could easily coast on the strength of its stupendous final quarter, but instead it delivers a melancholic and anxiety-producing hour of television that doesn’t so much scale into insanity as it does […]

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25th May2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×07: The Gift’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“Have you ever sowed the field, Lady Olenna?  Have you ever reaped the grain?” Everybody in ‘The Gift” is trying to lend a helping hand, but from the irascible Olenna to the desperate ser Jorah they’re all operating with one eye squeezed shut against the unpleasant realities of their world. As Myrcella informs her uncle/father Jaime […]

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24th May2015

‘Wrestlemania 31’ Blu-ray Review

by Chris Cummings

It’s time once more for that big show of the year, the show of shows, the grand-daddy of them all, the biggest professional wrestling and sports entertainment event for fans and performers that there is. This year, held in California, the event features many matches featuring big names from the past and present of WWE, […]

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18th May2015

‘WWE Payback 2015’ – Results & Review

by Chris Cummings

Okay, so it’s time for one of those B-shows of the annual WWE calendar, Payback, a show that, on-paper, sounds okay, but isn’t offering too much in terms of fresh or exciting new feuds in my view. We’ll see how the matches go, shall we? The opening match on the “Kick-off” show saw Stardust lose […]

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18th May2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×06: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“What do we do with the bodies after we clean them?” Two people are bathed in the course of ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.’  One is a corpse being laid to rest in the House of Black and White while the other is Sansa Stark, betrothed of Ramsay Bolton.  Arya discovers that the bodies of those who […]

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18th May2015

‘Mad Men 7×14: Person to Person’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“I want to keep things as normal as possible, and you not being here is part of that.” ‘Person to Person’ is Mad Men‘s final hour, and it opens with Don driving as fast as he can through the middle of a blasted wasteland.  He’s running for the sake of making distance, drawing out wild trajectories […]

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14th May2015

‘Fog and Crimes: The Complete Second Season’ DVD Review

by Paul Metcalf

I must admit that I’m starting to like Italian crime series, especially with the likes of Gomorrah and the first season of Fog and Crimes.  Now that Fog and Crimes: The Complete Second Season has been released I’m able to continue the story of Police Chief Soneri (Luca Barbareschi) and his constant struggle to balance his life […]

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12th May2015

‘Penny Dreadful 2×02: Verbis Diablo’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Penny Dreadful‘s redeeming qualities are its sense of shlocky fun and its partially incredible cast.  Its weaknesses are its lousy pacing, its uncertain characterization of several core cast members, and its pursuit of tasteless thrills disguised as, to quote creator John Logan, “pushing the boundaries.”  When the show finds the balance between spectacle and humanity […]

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11th May2015

‘Mad Men 7×13: The Milk and Honey Route’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“You think this town is bad?  Wait until you can never come back here.” You can never go home again.  Not because there’s a shadow on the X-ray, not because your husband broke your family, but because the past is a house that doesn’t exist.  It folded up into nonbeing when the door closed behind […]

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11th May2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×05: Kill the Boy’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“Every time you wear something you made, you can remember her.” Myranda’s phony words of comfort to Sansa pluck uncomfortably at something every human struggles to reconcile within themselves.  What claim do the dead have on us, and is it more important to honor their memory than it is to work toward a better future? […]

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06th May2015

‘Game of Thrones 5×04: Sons of the Harpy’ Review

by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“I could say that our minds are temples to the Seven and should be kept pure, but the truth is, I don’t like the taste.” Laws are what we make of them.  In the High Sparrow’s self-deprecating explanation as to why he doesn’t drink wine is a deeper, darker truth: we obey laws for our […]

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