Television

While fan response to the Disney STAR WARS films has been more starkly divided than the philosophies of the Jedi and the Sith, one thing everyone can seem to agree on is that the first ever STAR WARS live-action series, THE MANDALORIAN, is a unifying (wait for it) force. A western adventure set in another galaxy, the series is an original to the Disney Plus streaming service, and has been pleasing fans since its debut -- perhaps, in no small part, due to the presence of The Child, universally known to all as "Baby Yoda."

It's not often that I can start a review of a home video release before actually opening the product, but HANGIN' WITH MR. COOPER, The Complete Third Season, is one of those rare cases. Going by the Amazon listings for previous releases, Warner Brothers is consistent with the trade dress of these covers to tie them together uniformly. However, that's where any thought to design quality stops. The image of leading man Mark Curry is rendered with all the photographic quality of an inkjet printer working with a picture that has been blown up beyond the integrity of its resolution. The image is cloudy, as though soft-light filtered, but lacking any definition. Similarly, the images from the back cover are stills cropped from the show given no pre-printing treatment to clean them up. Even the text has a slightly blurry look to it, as though the entire thing might have been printed clean and sharp for the back of a trading card, and was then printed in an area larger than intended.

The end of the fifth season of Peaky Blinders left fans in a state of shock. They watched on as Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) put together a carefully crafted plan to assassinate Oswald Mosley (Sam Clafin) and bring an end to his destructive plans for the country.

However, there was a twist in the tale, and Mosley was tipped off about the plan that the Shelby clan had pieced together, and that resulted in the plot failing spectacularly. Tommy’s old army comrade, Barney, was shot just as he was about to bring an end to Oswald’s Nazi-esque rally. Viewers were left bemused as to who pulled the trigger on Barney, while there was also a tragic end for Polly’s (Helen McCrory) fiancé, as Aberama Gold (Aidan Gillen) was brutally murdered on the side of the stage by the Billy Boys.

Welcome back to another episode of "Iris West-Allen and her Amazing Friends." Not that The Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) doesn't make an appearance -- it's his show, titularly. Yes, if a waitress drops another tray at CC Jitters, you can bet The Flash will use his amazing speed to make sure it doesn't hit the floor. He's good for that.

"Marathon" is the first episode post-Crisis, and I end up walking away from it with several questions. I'll try to parcel them out through this recap rather than dump them all at once, tempting as it is.

There's a perverse appeal to YOU, the nigh un-Google-able creation fo Sera Gamble (SUPERNATURAL) and Greg Berlanti (every CW superhero show we love). The protagonist is a very disturbed individual who does for stalking what DEXTER did for serial killing.

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley, GOSSIP GIRL) is a reclusive book store manager who specializes in old and rare volumes. When Guinevere Beck (ONCE UPON A TIME's Elizabeth Lail) walks in, he zeroes in on her, immediately interested, and revealing his analysis to the audience through way of his inner dialogue, a narration medium used to great effect throughout the season. He pays attention to the way she moves, the way she dresses. And when she leaves, he turns to social media to fill in the gaps.

Me: RIVERDALE couldn't possibly get any darker or more bizarre.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Hold my beer.

Alright, so let's get the larger plot points out of the way.

Archie (KJ APA) is trying hard to give a second chance to his long lost uncle, Frank (RYAN ROBBINS) by giving him a job at Andrews Consruction. But he doesn't just give him any job -- he makes him foreman, replacing Tom Keller (MARTIN CUMMINS) who, as Riverdale's former sheriff, has intimate knowledge of Frank's sullied history. The crew is further demoralized when they don't get their annual Christmas bonuses, something Frank sets out to rectify but in the worst possible way. This one is a train wreck waiting to happen, not a redemption story, and everyone can see it being broadcast, except Archie.

Throughout its freshmen season, I have defended BATWOMAN as being a good series in the face of all the criticisms that it existed only for the purpose of establishing identity politics over storytelling and plot.

This week, I was rewarded by the Batwoman writers through their decision to establish identity politics over storytelling and plot.

Batwoman has a secret identity. (Psst. Don't tell anyone. It's Kate Kane, played by RUBY ROSE.) Not that secret identities last in the CW Arrowverse. Star City was told countless times that Oliver Queen was a vigilante, and kept forgetting, and so many people know Barry Allen is The Flash that one wonders why he even bothers with a mask unless it's to avoid windburn.

Holy cow, is it 2020 already? 2019 seems to have gone by in a blur, with so much happening in the world of movies, television, and comics. It's hard to believe we've reached the point where we now have the unenviable task of deciding which was the best in every category to recognize the producers of entertainment for their efforts.

So below you will find the voting form, featuring our nominations for the best film, film actor, television series (which includes streaming until we come up with a word to replace television), series actor, comic book storyline, comics writer, comics artist, and -- last but certainly not least -- the selection of our Critical Blast Bombshell of the Year from the list of 2019's Bombshell of the Month candidates.

I love a good conjecture. Take what we know, add in a pinch of what we don't know, shake it well, and voila: conjecture, the third cousin of "What if" and "Maybe."

That's why I enjoy watching ANCIENT ALIENS -- and with twelve seasons under their belt on The History Channel, I'm apparently not the only one.

The producers of ANCIENT ALIENS never fail to intrigue and provoke, applying new interpretations to ancient lore while simultaneously keeping abreast of the most current events in ufology, and this twelfth season is no exception. From Antarctica to Canada, from early American druids to subterranean lizard people, ANCIENT ALIENS excels at drawing lines between disparate data points to make entertaining connections.

"In Treatment" is sort of a jumping-on point for new viewers of RIVERDALE. It's a nice bit of catching up done without the crutch of flashbacks or "best of" moments.

The setup is that, given the multiple tragic events in recent days plus the stress of college acceptance -- and rejections -- coming in the mail, the students of Riverdale High could all use counseling. So Principle Honey (KERR SMITH) has asked the school guidance counselor to keep extended hours to meet the students' needs.

Enter Mrs. Burble (GINA TORRES), a licensed psychologist who, at first blush, seems to be the only adult in Riverdale other than Mary Andrews who does not have an ulterior motive or sinister agenda. (This being RIVERDALE of course means that she will be revealed somewhere down the line as being a serial-murdering Satanist vigilante witch.) She has all the major players' numbers, and gets our heroes to confront the issues that have been driving them.

On the eve of the impending Crisis, Central City has its darkest night. Bloodwork (SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY) is making fast work of turning the citizens into mindless zombies -- fast work because he has a fast friend: he's infected Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN), aka The Flash.

But all is not lost as Black Lantern Flash... I mean, Dark Flash... helps terrorize the city. Because it turns out, Barry had a plan all along. And while Bloodwork has infected Barry, Barry in turn has infected Bloodwork, able to resist some of the commands and surreptitiously get coded communications to Iris (CANDICE PATTON) and Cisco (CARLOS VALDES), clueing them into just what needs to be done to defeat Bloodwork and save the city. It all hinges on the particle accelerator -- which also figues into Bloodwork's plans for infecting the entire city at once -- and newcomer to the team, Allegra (KAYLA COMPTON) and her radio wave powers.

With only two days before the predicted Crisis hits (that's two weeks for us in audience land), Ralph (HARTLEY SAWYER) finds himself suddenly confronted by Ramsey Rosso (SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY), a battle that takes them diving out a window to the street below. In the ensuing struggle, Ralph becomes infected with Rosso's sentient blood. It takes some fast action -- and some speed healing in order to save his life, thanks to a blood transfusion from The Flash (GRANT GUSTIN).

The town of Riverdale is hunkering down as an ice storm prepars to bear down, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Archie (KJ APA) doesn't want any of the homeless kids who frequent his community center to be left out in the cold on Thanksgiving, so he plans to keep the center open all day (and night), serving a Thanksgiving dinner to everyone who comes. Is it just me, or does Archie tend to make a lot of these plans lately, that always end up relying on Veronica (CAMILA MENDES) -- or rather, Veronica's checkbook -- to make happen?

It's an episode that is, once again, centered on a team member other than the tituler Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) -- and this time, I'm not even complaining.

"License to Elongate" finds Barry preparing to mentor Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER) to become the protector of Central City in his absence, planning to do so at a special press conference where Ralph will get a special symbol for his suit. Meanwhile, Ralph has a lead on his missing person's investigation, so Barry decides to tag along. Up until this very point, the Ralph we have seen has been played for laughs -- but tonight, in Ralph's world, we see a very different side of him: competent.

The Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens will stage the Super Bowl LIV. Photo: AJ Lipp

The countdown is on for the Super Bowl LIV, the 54^th Super Bowl and the 50^th championship game in the modern-day era of the National Football League (NFL). The location has already been set for Super Bowl LIV, with Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens set to celebrate the seventh decade of Super Bowl action. It will be the sixth Super Bowl staged in Miami Gardens, with Super Bowl XLIV the last time it was staged in this region of South Florida.

Oh, BATWOMAN writers at the CW, why have you betrayed me? After weeks of supporting your show in the face of criticism, after numerous declarations that, "No, the show is not like that awful preview trailer, you should really try it," you go and stab me in the back by churning out an episode that is exactly what the critics excoriate the series for.

The episode, "Tell Me The Truth," finds Kate (RUBY ROSE) struggling with what to do about her former lover, Sophie (MEAGAN TANDY), who has revealed she knows Batwoman's secret identity and threatens to go to Kate's daddy and tell on her. What should Kate do? Continue to deny it? Bring Sophie into the circle of trust and hope that she can keep a secret?

If I'm asked to summarize CATCH-22, the HBO miniseries adapted from the Joseph Heller novel, I would say, "It's M*A*S*H, but earlier and far more tragic."

The setting is World War II, the European theater, where John Yossarian (CHRISTOPHER ABBOT) is a bombardier who goes on missions into enemy territory over northern Italy during the end of the war when the Germans are on the defensive. His goal is to fly the number of missions he's assigned so that he can fulfill his duty and go back home.

I know this show is only an hour long -- technically less than that when you subtract the advertisements -- but it feels like the writers squeezed half-a-season's worth of content into "Hereditary," with each character's arc deserving of at least a couple of episodes.

At the end of the previous episode, the AIMS Team had done something they had never done before: caught something in one of their elaborate traps. Granted, it wasn't a Bigfoot. In fact, it was just some guy in a black cloak, carrying a torch through the woods.

But the guy must have been David Copperfield, because by the time they got to the trap, all that was there was the torch. The cloaked figure had apparently tossed out some Floo Powder and apparated on them. They open the trap and test the floor, which crumbles at the slightest pressure, which tells them this cloaked figure doesn't touch the ground when he walks.

Confused, bewildered, and bumfuzzled, the team decides to get some advice from Merlin.. or rather, what we get is...

As the Crisis looms, Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) has been preparing the members of Team Flash for life without him. And key to doing that is...

...taking a beach vacation with Iris (CANDICE PATTON). Which means it's time for another episode of Everybody But Flash.

Realizing he will have to make difficult decisions as future team leader, Cisco (CARLOS VALDES) had developed the B.A.R.I. -- an AI system that thinks like Barry Allen to help him know the right thing to do. (Because a computer system that knows what The Flash would do in any given situation could never be used for ill intent in the wrong hands.) 

With the focus on Vibe and his new girlfriend, Kamilla (VICTORIA PARK), we learn something new about Cisco: that he hasn't told her he loves her, even though he's sleeping with her. Oh, that, and he's been sleepwalking lately.