The writing makes a larger effort to be less contained than the second season, with Aniq & Danner and Zoe & Grace enacting their own frantic investigations, creating more comparable momentum. This sequel, which has the likes of Anu Valia, Eric Appel, and Peter Atencio directing in place of season one’s Miller, moves a little … Read more
At the top of the fifth season’s premiere episode, “The Mall”—where you guessed it, the vampires go to the mall for the first time and get into wacky hijinks, something that’s hard to believe hasn’t happened yet—Guillermo does the deed but the stakes (pun intended) are dire and unexpected. A few weeks following the incident—framed … Read more
The TV version starts off slow, focusing on character development and building a sense of place. We’re in the Washington Heights of today, a famously Latino neighborhood gentrified to the point where only a few local businesses are left. Even the drug dealers have changed, but they’re still there, mostly serving a white professional class. … Read more
Deon Cole, standup comedian and actor who reigned as the king of deadpan on “Black-ish,” stars as the titular Joe Washington, a plumber in Pittsburgh who loves his wife Angela (Tammy Townsend) and teenage daughter Jennifer (Ashley Olivia Fisher) . The trio is grieving the death of Joe’s father, and at his celebration of life, … Read more
“The Lincoln Lawyer” works well in that space. The off-camera murder of someone we don’t care about allows our hero to remain fundamentally good, with the plot revolving more around who goes to jail than who died. Heightening the stakes is that the person on trial for Bondurant’s death, Lisa Trammell (Lana Parilla), is a … Read more
Blissfully, “The Witcher” remains watchable (witchable?) when it turns its camera back to our happy witching family; the show works best when it’s more “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” than “Game of Thrones.” The dialogue remains delightfully arch, much of the humor still lands (fret not, dear reader, comic relief bard Dandelion [Joey Batey] is back … Read more
Buy it here Special FeaturesInside Pandora’s Box (A series of featurettes on the challenges facing cast and crew as filmmakers motto new technologies to push the limits of cinema)Building the World of Pandora – James Cameron and a team of talented artists combine years of research with their design skills to build the world of … Read more
In the second season of creator Christopher Storer’s Chicago-set tragicomedy “The Bear,” every character must not only grapple with loss, but whether their striving for greatness, for a near-unattainable patch of perfection, is worth the sacrifice. We witness the weight of that choice early on: The first episode opens, surprisingly, on a quiet note, with … Read more
The other performances are lacking as well, with dull dialogue being uttered by tired faces, but Olivia Colman saves “Secret Invasion” from being a complete slog. Her performance as MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth adds some life to an overly tedious first two episodes, striding into rooms with an air of charisma that’s lost on most … Read more
Although the core cast is incredible, the series’ supporting actors truly help the material shine. In Season Two, Jason Schwartzman and Eric André joined the show, providing its biggest laughs. This time, the roster includes Kristen Johnston as May-May Montgomery, Eli’s estranged sister; Steve Zahn as Peter, Eli’s ex-con brother-in-law, who runs a vaguely libertarian … Read more