TV & Streaming

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 11 “Knots Untie” (USA, 2016)

“Knots Untie” was a big, important episode for The Walking Dead, not because anyone of note died, or because any intense action scene occurred, but because the show’s universe has started to an large expansion with more implications than ever before. For five and a half seasons we’ve been following Rick and co. through safe-spot…

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TV Review: 11.22.63 Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 (USA, 2016)

Stan have certainly beefed up their exclusive offerings this year, snagging not only the rights to stream content from Showtime but also currently going through Hulu original series 11.22.63, a period-drama that benefits heavily from having J.J Abrams serving as producer and Bridget Carpenter (of Friday Night Lights) as showrunner. The miniseries event throws James…

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TV Review: Love : The Complete First Season (USA, 2016)

Created and written by comedic auteur Judd Apatow, Love  approaches things from a different place to Netflix’s other efforts. As I said in my impressions piece, Love is best described as a slightly more-grounded You’re The Worst.  It’s not interested in the melodramatic highs of modern relationships – but the long awkward and often-mundane moments between them. It’s a show…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 10 “The Next World” (USA, 2016)

Break out your best portmanteau because The Walking Dead has a big romance going on! After a relentless start to Season six, following by an inconsistent middle, we’re now edging towards the finale with the 10th episode, “The Next World”, taking a breather with a calmer, more relaxed focus on the show’s drama. The tone…

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TV Review: The X Files Season 10 Episode 5, “Babylon” (USA, 2016)

Never one to back away from an occasionally controversial story, this week’s episode of The X Files dabbles in politics, terrorism, communicating with the near-dead, neuroscience, mysticism, love VS hate and magic mushrooms. It’s quite a bit to pack into an episode, and creator, writer and director Chris Carter has a crack at it. It’s…

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TV Review: The X-Files Season 10 Episode 4, “Home Again” (USA, 2016)

One of the strengths The X-Files has had has always been in bringing the occasionally innocuous things in our lives into a horror style setting. Writer and producer Glen Morgan has had his hand in a few of these particular episodes with The X-Files, such as ‘Blood’ the episode where a man kept receiving subliminal…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 9 “No Way Out” (USA, 2016)

“No one gets to clock out today, and hell, this is a story people are going to tell”. What a way to kick off the latter half of season 6. The Walking Dead has always been strongest when the crew are scattering smaller character moments within a big action set piece, and “No Way Out”…

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TV Review: Broad City Season 3 Episode 1, “In Heat” (USA 201)

Abbi and Ilana are back in the newest season of sometimes surreal, always on point TV series Broad City. And it’s just been confirmed by Comedy Central they’re green lighted for Season 4 and 5 as well. (Yass Gaga!) If the sneak peak of the first episode is anything to go by fans are in…

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TV Review: DAFUQ? (Australia, 2016) coming to a laptop near you February 15th

Perhaps one of ABC’s cheekiest web series yet will be launched on iView next week. In a time of Abbotts and Turnbulls squabbling for that prized coffee mug that says World’s Best Prime Minister and in most circumstances failing, and a time of turmoil and unrest all over the globe a show like DAFUQ? can…

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TV Review: The X-Files Season 10 Episode 3, “Mulder & Scully Meet The Weremonster” (USA, 2016)

The X-Files was one of the first procedural shows that even though it was billed as sci-fi it actually transcended that genre by dabbling in so many others. At times it was a drama, or a suspense conspiracy driven thriller, at others it was horror, there were even occasional comedic episodes but it always retained…

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TV Review: Better Call Saul – Season 2 Episode 1 “Switch” (USA, 2016)

As we flow into the second season of Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul we continue to see parallels between the descent of constantly overwhelmed lawyer James McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into master manipulator Saul Goodman, and the transition from Walter White to Heisenberg. At it’s core, Better Call Saul is stripping away yet another good(ish)…

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TV Review: The X-Files Season 10, Episode 2 “Founders Mutation” (USA, 2016)

After the somewhat bumpy first episode “My Struggle” we land right back in the thick of it with Mulder and Scully now officially back on board with the FBI and investigating strange cases. One of the reasons why the show sustained itself for so long was its ability to jump between having “monster of the…

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TV Review: The X-Files Season 10 Episode 1 “My Struggle” (USA, 2016)

I’m not going to lie, undertaking the task of reviewing the new mini-series of The X-Files was a daunting ask. The show in its hey-day was a formative part of my teenage years, an obsession that has always lingered even long after the show finished. But I want to give it a go, I want…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 10 “The Dark One” (USA, 2016)

When I look back on Season 1 of Ash vs Evil Dead, I realise how fantastic the writing has been; how each trivial little plot point has culminated here, in the season finale of this impressive new series. If you’ve followed my reviews over the course of these ten episodes, you may have labelled me bias…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 9 “Bound In The Flesh” (USA, 2015)

This weeks episode of Ash vs Evil Dead may as well be seen as a half of a two-parter because it ties in with last weeks episode very closely. Touching on the same themes and utilising the same locations and characters, it serves very well as an accompanying piece. Bound In The Flesh commences mid Ash vs…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 8 “Ashes to Ashes” (USA, 2015)

The time has finally come. El Jefe has arrived at the destination where it all began. The cabin. Which means, shit is well and truly about to go down. After absconding from the group last week, Ash finds his way back to the ill-fated cabin in a last ditch effort to end the evil plague…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 7 “Fire in the Hole” (USA, 2015)

In the fallout from last weeks episode, Fire in the Hole sees Ash, Kelly, Pablo and new recruit Amanda stopping off to get some weapons, courtesy of Ash’s old militia pal Lem. But it seems Lem has gotten there first and he is all types of undead. Fire in the Hole plays like an episode…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 6 “The Killer of Killers” (USA, 2015)

While The Killer of Killers may have served as a pit stop on the road to the seasons inevitable grizzly end, it may well have been the best episode since the pilot. Like many of the best episodes in the season, The Killer of Killers benefits from cramming its narrative and action into one isolated…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 12 “Hell Bent” (UK, 2015)

After last weeks goosebump-inducing episode “Heaven Sent”, this weeks episode “Hell Bent” had a lot to live up to. It had to deliver a compelling conclusion to the season, solve all this hybrid nonsense, and would finally reintroduce the eagerly awaited Gallifery whose disappearance has been teased for several seasons now. With so much to cover, it…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 5 “The Host” (USA, 2015)

There’s a a line in this weeks episode of Ash VS Evil Dead that not only reflects how Ruby views all of these deranged events on her hunt to find Ash but in a much more understated way, how a viewer should approach this new off the wall series. “I used to think everything should…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 4 “Brujo” (USA, 2015)

“Well that was different” I exclaimed as Woodstock-esque music accompanied the credits of this weeks episode of Ash vs Evil Dead. Four episodes in and the horror/comedy series has decided to wreak havoc on its tried and true formula and just dive head long into crazy town. I know, for a review of an episode of an…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 8 “Start to Finish” (USA, 2015)

The Walking Dead just wrapped up it’s mid-season finale for Season 6 and, of course, there are some tense developments to mull over until the show returns next February, mostly in the form of two big cliffhangers. During last week’s hum-drum set-up episode we were left with the very ominous image of the watchtower falling…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 11 “Heaven Sent”

Last weeks episode “Face The Raven” saw the departure of long-term companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) and the return of the angry and uncompromising Doctor that I’ve missed so much. This weeks episode “Heaven Sent” is set only mere seconds from where we left off last week, the opening sequence detailing that the Doctor has…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 10 “Face The Raven” (UK, 2015)

Clara Oswald’s death is something that has been foreshadowed incessantly throughout this season. We’ve caught glimpses into the Doctor understanding that he will inevitably outlive his best friend; we’ve understood that Clara has become dangerously similar to the Doctor; and in the opening chords of this weeks episode “Face The Raven”, it seems that Clara…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 7 “Heads Up” (USA, 2015)

“Heads Up” was not a very good episode of The Walking Dead if we were to consider it in a vacuum, but it certainly made some major moves to set us up for what will no doubt be a big, bloody mid-season finale next week. We also found some closure to what has been the…

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TV Review: The Beautiful Lie (AUS, 2015)

This review contains spoilers following the screening of The Beautiful Lie on ABC1. — “You get away with everything, just because you’re a man. All you ever do is hold a baby and everyone says, ‘Oh, wow! What a great dad.’ People expect so little of you.” “Yeah – and I still disappoint everybody. It’s…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 3 “Books From Beyond” (USA, 2015)

Now that all of the initial dissension and trivial things like loved ones are out of the way, our trio finally embark on a journey that will see them fighting the manifestation of evil the best way they know how: following Ash’s tenuous connections and single vision. Books From Beyond puts our crew on the road, explores how deep…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 9 “Sleep No More” (UK, 2015)

I think I’ve missed something this entire season; when everyone praised “The Witch’s Familiar” as being one of the best episodes in Doctor Who history, I gave it one star. This week, fans are amassed with disappointment after “Sleep No More” – it seems that I’m the only person in all of time space who loved the…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 6 “Always Accountable” (USA, 2015)

As the big mystery surrounding Glenn continues to linger in the minds of viewers, impatience is inevitable when confronted with a slower character-focused episode which takes us far away from the answers we all crave and focuses in on other parts of the now scattered plan from the season premiere. Last week’s “Now” was a…

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TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1, Episode 2 “Bait” (USA, 2015)

After last weeks hour length debut of Ash vs Evil Dead, episode 2 has commenced the standard of half an hour episodes going forward. That isn’t to detract from from the show at all. It’s merely a PSA. In fact the show runners of Ash vs Evil Dead have seemingly accepted this a challenge to…

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