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WRITERS: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof[SPOILERS] The fifth episode offered another heady array of answers, in the shape of strong nods and important discoveries made by the characters. While this should be a good thing, the problem rests with the manner in which answers are being made known. In seasons past, the characters were either oblivious to the bigger picture mystery (which we, the audience, could see coming together), or struggling to make sense of what's going on and making incremental headway. It was compelling, fun and fascinating to watch. But so far this season we've had characters being led around by the mystical ghost of Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), who's one of those deities that won't explain things outright, but will instead show people pieces of the puzzle and hope they'll come to understand. Thing is, I preferred it when Lost didn't have supernatural characters like Jacob, or his "enemy", to lean on and things were being revealed in a more natural way...
DIRECTOR: Jack Bender
GUEST STARS: Dylan Minnette, Veronica Hamel, Mark Pellegrino, Hiroyuki Sanada & Dayo Ade
WRITER: Sean Buckley[SPOILERS] You might have thought that a random guest appearance by Pop Idol Will Young as a school staff member would be bizarre and jarring, but the fifth episode of Skins is so drenched with surreal moments and melancholic music that his appearance felt like one of the more sane aspects of the episode...
DIRECTOR:Esther May Campbell
GUEST CAST: Will Young, Simon Day, Dudley Sutton, Rick Shaw & Morwenna Banks
WRITERS: Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman[SPOILERS] After a bumpy sophomore season that didn't connect with me on an emotional level and became a slog, I'm relieved to see Damages hit back with a strong and nimble third season premiere, set nearly a year later. Over this hour, some of my concerns about last season were swiftly addressed: the multiple flashforwards/-backs that swamped season 2 have been downsized to just the one, and this year's legal battle is more personal and less corporate in nature...
DIRECTOR: Todd A. Kessler
GUEST CAST: Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Len Cariou, Ben Shenkman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tom Noonan, Michael Gaston, Reiko Aylesworth, J. Tucker Smith, Michael Laurence, Robert Sedgwick, Darren Goldstein, Ana Reeder, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Campbell Scott & Martin Short
[*] A Ponzi scheme is a type of investment fraud where investors are repaid using their own money, or that of the other investors, and not from any actual profit being made. Familiarize yourself here.
WRITERS: Robin Veith & Matthew Weiner[SPOILERS] The title sounds like the setup to a joke, and a grisly punchline is definitely delivered towards the end of this tremendous episode, which undoubtedly ranks as the most enjoyable installment of Mad Men's considered third season. "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" gave us the Anglo-American clash I've been anticipating all season, but was thematically about people's unwarranted hopes and fears...
DIRECTOR: Lesli Linka Glatter
GUEST CAST: Ryan Cartwright, Kiernan Shipka, Judy Kain, Christa Flanagan, Sam Page, Patick Cavanaugh, Charles Shaughnessy, Jamie Thomas King, Chelcie Ross, Carol Locatell, Jared S. Gilmore, Julie McNiven, Alexa Alemanni, Edin Gali, Mark Kelly & Neil Dickson
WRITER: Jamie Gorenberg[SPOILERS] Much like America's other mainstream comedy/drama with voice-over narration, Desperate Housewives has always used the disembodied voice of Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) to link together each episode's many plot strands into a (sometimes contrived) cohesive whole. Episode five's spectral audio prologue establishes perhaps the most glaringly unsubtle theme to resonate through an ABC series outside of the walls of Sacred Heart Hospital: never judge a book by its cover. I said it was glaringly unsubtle, I didn't say it was mould-breaking.
DIRECTOR: Larry Shaw
GUEST CAST: Orson Bean, Aisha Hinds, Dennis Cockrum, David Bickford, Barbara Alyn Woods & Mackenzie Smith
"Odeon and UCI Cinema group is pleased to announce that, following detailed negotiations with the Walt Disney Company Ltd, an enduring agreement has been reached encompassing all the different aspects of both companies' commercial relationship. Odeon is pleased to announce that it will now be showing Alice in Wonderland beginning March 5 in its cinemas in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria."I have no idea what what caused this U-turn, as I assume Disney still intend to fast-track Alice's DVD/Blu-ray release, but they must have offered Odeon some kind of financial sweetener. A bigger cut of theatrical revenues to compensate for the loss of five weeks business, perhaps? We can only speculate. But it's great news for your average moviegoer who just wants to see the film as quickly as possible, in 3D.
"As a result of this agreement, Odeon is pleased to confirm that it will be able to continue with its plans for significant investment in new cinemas, in digital technology in 3D capability and the other exciting developments designed for the increased enjoyment of all its customers."
"Grant Morrison and myself are working on, I wouldn't call it a secret project, but a project with Stephen Fry and it's a thriller set in Scotland. Me and Grant have been friends for a while and we wanted to do something together, and Grant went off and wrote a treatment, so it's at the treatment stage at the moment... It's seven episodes. It takes place over seven days around an event that happens in Scotland. It's a modern take on an old fable or fairy story. If you know Grant's work you might have an idea of what it will be like. It's like Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon! It's off the wall and smart but in a watchable commercial way. It's still in the early stages but I'm very excited about it."I'm always delighted when a British TV genre series comes along, particularly when there's credible writing/directing talent involved. No offense to other writers with a background in soaps or cop/doc dramas, but it's just easier to get psyched when a renowned comic-book writer and successful British film director are involved in a project.
"Brigadoon tells the story of a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, though to the villagers, the passing of each century seems no longer than one night. The enchantment is viewed by them as a blessing rather than a curse, for it saved the village from destruction. According to their covenant with God, no one from Brigadoon may ever leave, or the enchantment will be broken and the site and all its inhabitants will disappear into the mist forever. Two American tourists, lost in the Scottish Highlands, stumble upon the village just as a wedding is about to be celebrated, and their arrival has serious implications for the village's inhabitants."
WRITER: Adrian Hodges[SPOILERS] Adrian Hodges returned to bookend Survivors' second series with an episode that worked as a decent finale with engaging action sequences and a fun coda, but it was a little disappointing to have so much of the mystery explained as, well, what most people's first thought had been. I guess that's one of the key problems with Survivors as a sci-fi drama: it flirts with potential, sometimes developing a sense of intrigue, but it's ultimately content to tell formulaic end-of-the-world storylines with ruthless scientists creating a vaccine (including the usual "end justifies the means" mentality), a secret Noah's Ark-like project to protect the "great thinkers" of the world, and a mutated virus killing survivors that's spread by birds, etc.
DIRECTOR: Farren Blackburn
GUEST CAST: Nicholas Gleaves, Geraldine Somerville, Patrick Malahide, Jack Richardson & Robyn Addison
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