Reviews

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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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 5 “Now” (USA, 2015)

The last time we were in Alexandria was during The Wolves’ big invasion, leading to chopped up bodies, brutal action, and a whole lot of death. “Now” marks the first time we have properly caught up with Alexandria (Michonne stumbling into a broken down Alexandria, and Morgan entertaining his Wolf hostage with his backstory do…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 8 “The Zygon Inversion” (UK, 2015)

“Since when is Doctor Who political?”, says my Tom Baker adoring mother after seeing the credits roll for “The Zygon Inversion”. Bewildered and a little confused as any long-term fan of the show would be, my mum encapsulates a stark change in the landscape of Doctor Who – that it has the power to transcend…

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TV Review: Let’s Talk About (Presto – Australia, 2015)

From the opening scene – Director, Writer and Star Matilda Brown is found accidentally peeing on her hand while she performs a pregnancy test; the unwitting father sitting by her side, complete in clown make up – it’s clear that Let’s Talk About is going to be far from your typical or predictable pregnancy tale. Balancing…

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

The Evil Dead trilogy is a god damn institution for me. Not only is the 1981 classic my favourite horror movie, it is also hands down one of my most beloved movies of all time. So imagine my elation when Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell announced that they were bringing their wacky creation to the…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 4 “Here’s Not Here” (USA, 2015)

The fallout from “Thank You” will have to wait for a few weeks while The Walking Dead follow their tried-and-tested formula of breaking apart the present storyline and exploring other paths. Here, the path winds all the way back to the Morgan we saw in Season 3’s stand-out episode “Clear” and fleshes the character out…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 7 “The Zygon Invasion” (UK, 2015)

The last time we were treated to an appearance by the Zygons was in the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, titled “The Day of the Doctor”. Foregrounding the episode in recounting that episode, “The Zygon Invasion” had much to live up to. If you don’t recall, “The Day of the Doctor” explored how the Doctor(s)…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 6 “The Woman Who Lived” (UK, 2015)

Another week; another shitty monster. This week marks the third conclusion to Doctor Who’s consecutive two-parter trend, and just like the others, reiterates that it seems that the show may have lost its spark. Last week, we were left with a huge cliffhanger in “The Girl Who Died”; the Doctor left Ashildr (Maisie Williams) immortal, which, through cause and…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 3 “Thank You” (USA, 2015)

Is it a fake-out or did The Walking Dead really just kill off one of the show’s most endearing characters in such a hum-drum and incredibly upsetting way? That’s the main question left in the wake of “Thank You”, another intense and wildly gory episode of AMC’s ratings juggernaut. The big moments in The Walking…

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TV Review: Richard E. Grant’s 7 Deadly Sins “Lust” (Animal Planet – USA, 2015)

Kevin Mitchell once sang about his “animal” and being insufferable whilst in heat but it’s hard to know whether the Jebediah front man considered this “lust”. The latter is one of the seven deadly sins. It’s also the subject of a new TV series which questions whether the seven deadly sins are bad vices or…

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TV Blu-Ray Review: Vikings Season 3 (Canada, 2015)

It was a treat to re-live the glorious and sophisticated historical drama Vikings Season 3 in HD, while the thoughtful extras helped bring a better understanding to what creator and writer Michael Hirst was trying to achieve, leading to a greater appreciation of the show’s production and newest characters. Vikings, as many Australians will know,…

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TV Review: Say Yes To The Dress Canada (Canada, 2015)

What women want is something that has befuddled many men. But what guys don’t realise is that the answer to this question is quite simply a silly little reality program called Say Yes To The Dress Canada. The show is the equivalent of cotton candy in that it’s sugary and superficial but it’s also a…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 2 “JSS” (USA, 2015)

Once again, the writers of The Walking Dead strike a very fine balance between small, interesting character moments and big, thrilling action as “JSS” proves to be one of the most violent and tense episodes to date. On the surface you had one big – and very brutal – siege on Alexandria by The Wolves,…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 5 “The Girl Who Died” (UK, 2015)

Upon first seeing that picture of Maisie Williams in the TARDIS, I was overwhelmed with excitement; ‘the clash of the fandoms’, I call it – Game of Thrones meets Doctor Who. Combined with my high expectations of her ridiculous acting ability and my dissatisfaction of the past few Who episodes, I had mixed expectations for the fifth…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 4 “Before The Flood” (UK, 2015)

“Before The Flood”, the fourth episode of season 9, opened with something that I haven’t quite seen in Doctor Who before – the Doctor talking directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall. The entire first sequence consisted of Peter Capaldi explaining the Bootstrap Paradox. It was fun, unpredictable, and really got you thinking; if a time traveler goes…

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TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 1 “First Time Again” (USA, 2015)

A horde of 30,000 walkers all built up in a large quarry!? So this is the reason Alexandria has managed to get by without being overrun; a nice, clever explanation to illuminate the mysterious history of the gated community, weaved in skillfully without taking away from the balanced amounts of drama and action that “First…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 Episodes 5 & 6 (USA, 2015)

With six episodes to weave a coherent first season, the team behind Fear the Walking Dead certainly took their time, carefully (and sometimes clumsily) building a bunch of everyday characters, spanning three different families, into a distinctive and likeable group of potential zombie apocalypse survivors. Some of this was successful but most was not, with…

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TV Review: My Giant Life Episodes 1 & 2 (USA, 2015)

My Giant Life is a reality show that means well but is far from good. The program is about four white, American women who are six foot, six inches or taller. The program attempts to get audiences interested by offering up their stories but a series of bad camera angles and scenes that highlight their…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 3 “Under The Lake” (UK, 2015)

There are some formulas that, despite it’s fifty-something year reign, Doctor Who can’t seem to shake. The premise for “Under The Lake” is one that we’ve seen time and time again – The Doctor exploring the mystery of a derelict and isolated facility (see “The Impossible Planet” and “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead”). Yet, despite its repetitive…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 2 “The Witch’s Familiar” (UK, 2015)

After last weeks huge season opener, “The Witch’s Familiar” had a lot to answer for – we needed to know what the Doctor decided to do regarding boy Davros, how Missy and Clara would come back from the dead (because they have to), and what would come of Skaro – the planet of the Daleks…

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TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 4 “Not Fade Away” (USA, 2015)

We are now in the second half of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead and the showrunners have decided to flip the script, jumping us ahead nine days to the creation of a safe zone, just one of 12 quarantined areas below the San Gabriel mountains – according to the military anyway –…

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TV Review: Doctor Who Season 9 Episode 1 “The Magician’s Apprentice” (UK, 2015)

It seems that the Doctor Who Gods read my article on the things I really want to happen this season, gifting me with more Missy, a two-parter, a dark tone, and the mother of all nods to past seasons – bringing into question something that the Fourth Doctor said many moons ago – who created Davros?

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