TV Review – Game of Thrones

Arya reveals her identity to Gendry on the road north while Gold Cloaks pursue the party. Tyrion is far from happy with Cersei after the recent bloody actions in the capital. One of Dany’s scouts returns with bad news. Theon Greyjoy finally returns home to his father Balon after years as a Stark ward and hostage. Stannis’ right hand man, Davos, enlists a pirate with a fleet of ships to join Stannis’ cause.

Well things are beginning to heat up, now that we’ve caught up with almost all the season one characters, and been introduced to a few new ones. Continue reading

TV Review – Community – Digital Exploration of Interior Design

Troy and Abed decide to build a pillow fort to rival their old blanket fort, while Jeff finds out he has a locker and Pierce and Shirley send Britta undercover to get dirt on Greendale’s new Subway.

Dean Pelton

Three episodes back into the second half of Community’s run, and it still feels so good to have it back. Continue reading

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Con Gone Wrong / Ink

AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic

Network: AMC

Well, there we go.

There’s not a great deal left to say now that we’ve reached the end of AMC’s niche show Comic Book Men. Comics & collectibles were bought and sold; people talked about superheroes; geeks made fun of each other. If there had been a splash of pornography it would be like someone filming the internet. Continue reading

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Zombies

AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic & Jason Mewes

Network: AMC

I think maybe we’ve run our course with this one.

I’ll maintain what I’ve been saying for the past couple of weeks: this isn’t a bad show; it just sort of exists. It tickles the funny bone a little; appeals to the inner geek a little – but it hardly has any deep essence that makes it sustainable. I’ll hang in there until episode 6, but I don’t have the interest in collecting necessary to sustain much interest. Continue reading

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Commercial

AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic.

Network: AMC

I’m not going to suggest that the show’s turned any kind of creative corner, being that this week is more of the same; I do think, however, that everyone’s really comfortable with what they’re doing at this point, and that makes for some relaxed viewing. I don’t know how you can distinguish that these guys aren’t trying so hard now but… well, maybe Bryan Johnson still is. Continue reading

Comic Book Men – Life After Clerks Review

AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic & Jason Mewes

Network: AMC

After but one episode the amount of vitriol spewed forth against Messer’s Smith, Flanagan, Johnson, Chen and Zapcic rather astounded me. It seems that there is no sense of proportion when examining certain aspects of pop culture. Comic Book Men is apparently not simply bad television, it is the worst kind of insult to true comic fans everywhere; further evidence that Kevin Smith has always, in fact, been worthless; exposes his previous filmmaking efforts to be crap; and is proof that Jesus died in vain. Continue reading

Comic Book Men – Junk Review

AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walter Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen & Mike Zapcic

Network: AMC

Fair warning: About four of you are going to enjoy this show.

The latest offering from geek-made-director Kevin Smith is an unscripted, junk drawer style discussion about the life that surrounds his own slice of fandom (or possible tax shelter) “Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash”, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Considering that only one episode has aired, I’m not sure that the format is set for the entire six-episode series, but since it’s all I have to complain about (since I’m a geek with an online forum) then I guess that will have to do. Continue reading

Spartacus: Vengeance – A Place In This World Review

Under Spartacus’ leadership a villa is liberated. Oenomaus, however, decides to throw himself into the brutal pits.Despite his wife’s protests Glaber decides to support Lucretia’s prophecies.

While the opening of the second (Gods of the Arena was a prequel) season of Spartacus felt like it was trying to play catch up, A Place In This World seems to be laying the ground for things to come. There were some fantastic moments in this episode, but the pacing of the show is suffering from needing to cover too many characters. One of the strengths of the previous series’ was the focus on a very small group of characters that audiences grew to love (or hate) with a passion. Continue reading

Spartacus: Vengeance – Fugitivus Review

Spartacus realizes that becoming the leader of a mass of freed slaves can be challenging and he struggles to keep the rebellious group intact when news of Claudius Glaber’s arrival in Capua reaches him.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand was one of the big surprises of early 2010. Unlike Starz’s other disappointing series Camelot, Spartacus‘ stylised combination of blood and sex served as the flavour of the show rather than the substance. Andy Whitfield’s titular character had great screen presence and a stellar supporting cast including the likes of John Hannah and Lucy Lawless which made for a riveting series of double and triple crosses that led to a satisfying and brutal finale. Unfortunately, it was announced during the gap between Season 1 and 2 that Andy Whitfield had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The show creators, rather than taking the easy route of recasting decided to shoot a prequel series – Gods of the Arena – that turned out even better than the original. Sadly, Andy lost his battle with the disease last September; he did however give his blessing to the man who is filling Spartacus’ big shoes: Liam McIntyre. Continue reading

Californication – Boys & Girls Review

Hank hands a completed draft of “Santa Monica Cop” over to Samurai Apocalypse, but he still finds himself stuck in L.A. when he’s asked to take Kali, his “acquaintance” from the flight to Los Angles, out for a night on the town.

Californication

The fifth season of Californication seems to be having a bit of trouble finding its feet. After an interesting premiere, the second episode did nothing to really advance the story in any way. Boys & Girls is certainly better than The Way of the Fist, but like the premiere it fails to really stand out in any way.

What keeps the show from being completely Continue reading