Harriet

While watching director Kasi Lemmons' take on the story of Harriet Tubman (played by Cynthia Erivo) I was constantly reminded of Walt Disney's old tall tale cartoons exploring characters such as Paul Bunyan. While Erivo is terrific in the leading role, Harriet's main struggle is the director and screenwriters (Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons) stalwart refusal to simply tell the fascinating life of a slave turned abolitionist in favor of building up Tubman's legacy to mythic proportions by spending so much time focusing on her visions from God and refusing to acknowledge (even after showing on-screen) those who helped Harriet escape the South be immediately rewriting events in favor of a single-handed narrative.

Lemmons' style of filmmaking also adds very little to the film's production leading to a rather bland cinematic experience any moment where the camera isn't on Erivo. The choice of visually representing Harriet's "spells" comes off rather amateurish as well. Because the legend of Harriet Tumban smothers every frame of film, it leaves little air for any of the actors who come across mostly as cliched slave owners or unremarkable side no

tes to history.

Jack Ryan - Cargo

Set an indeterminate length after the the show's First Season, "Cargo" opens with Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) and Greer (Wendell Pierce) both investigating the same case from different angles. In Moscow, Greer struggles to uncover intelligence about a secret satellite launched from a ship in the China Sea. In Washington, Ryan links the same ship to Russian weapons smuggling and a secret government facility in the politically-unstable Venezuela where the two will meet up once more. Benito Martinez guest-stars as Jack's longtime friend Senator Moreno who, along with Jack, confronts the Venezuelan President (Benito Martinez) who denies any knowledge of the ship, the secret compound, or any smuggling into the country.

Hellmouth #1

Hellmouth #1 officially begins the five-issue crossover event that has been building in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Drusilla has the key and the Hellmouth is open. Get ready, 'cause Hell is literally set to break loose. And if you missed anything, Cordelia is here to sum up things for you.

The Flash - There Will Be Blood

The looming Crisis continues to loom large in "There Will Be Blood" as Barry (Grant Gustin) enlists the help of Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Harrison Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh) in an attempt to save Dr. Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) by stealing an alien cure. Even before learning that the scientist is a crazed killer whose victims turn into zombies, Cisco makes a choice putting Barry's life before the mad scientist's that creates some friction between the pair for most of the episode. Don't worry, they'll work things out before the credits roll. The cure (itself a call back to an earlier crossover) isn't successful as goes full on murdery confirming the character's role as the season's main villain pre-Crisis (begging the question, what happened to the serum... and will we be seeing it again?).

Arrow - Leap of Faith

Oliver Queen's (Stephen Amell) this is your life tour takes him to Nanda Parbat and a reunion with Thea (Willa Holland) where the pair will race both Taila al Ghul (Lexa Doig) and Athena (Kyra Zagorsky) to an ancient tomb. While Talia and Athena are both after a sword each believes can be used as a symbol to reform the League of Assassins, Oliver is after the League's knowledge of the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) in order to confirm he is backing the right side in the coming Crisis. After some fun (but really not all that difficult) tomb raiding, Oliver doesn't get the clarity he hoped (although the show does offer the first mention of the Anti-Monitor - even if the reference is lost on the Queen children).

Villains Cosplay Cinematic

Ghost-Spider #3

The third issue of Ghost-Spider could be called "The Jackal of Two Worlds" as it showcases not one but two versions of Miles Warren obsessed with young Miss Stacy. There's not much action here, although we do see Gwen break-up a robbery at one point and we do get to see a little web-slinging as well. Instead writer Seanan McGuire and artist Takeshi Miyazawa focus more of our heroine fitting in on a new world and in a new school. In whatever world he exists, it appears the Jackal is obsessed with Gwen Stacy.

The Secret Life of Pets 2

A sequel to the 2016 film that showcased what pets get up to when their owners aren't around, The Secret Life of Pets 2 offers three separate storylines featuring the characters from the first film along with a few new faces. The neurotic Max (Patton Oswalt) learns to relax about the child of his owner, the would-be hero Snowball (Kevin Hart) goes on a mission to save a tiger from the circus, and the flighty Gidget (Jenny Slate) enlists the help of Chloe (Lake Bell) to recover a toy from a cat woman's home. Each provides some humorous moments here and there, but the stories are only loosely connected (as if a trio of TV-specials were combined into a single film).

Batwoman - Who Are You?

Kate (Ruby Rose) learns that vigilante work is Kryptonite to burgeoning relationship in "Who Are You?" This likely means we've seen the last of Reagan (Brianne Howey) as a love interest for Kate, which is too bad as Howey and Rose have good chemistry on-screen and the character's bubbly optimism was a nice (albeit short) addition to the show. For the villain of the week, the show brings in Rachel Matthews as the jewel thief Magpie who steals, among other things, Martha Wayne's pearl necklace. The pearls mark another instance where the show works twice as hard to set-up an over-complicated series of events rather than Kate simply choose to use the pearls and lure Magpie into a trap.

Titans - Jericho

Another flashback episode, "Jericho" finally reveals the events surrounding the Titans befriending and using Jericho Wilson (Chella Man) in order to find Deathstroke (Esai Morales). Long alluded to, fans finally see the sequences of events which led to the end of the Titans. There does seem to be a disconnect between Dick's (Brenton Thwaites) admission to Jason Todd (Curran Walters) at the end of the previous episode (saying "non one" knows the truth) and the events shown here (where all of the Titans are aware of what happened). That rather clumsy inconsistency aside (which has shown up before, I'm guessing because the show's writers didn't make a definitive decision until this episode), "Jericho" does more than any other episode of the season to frame Deathstroke as a legitimate threat to the team as he is able to take down both Robin and Donna (Conor Leslie) separately.

Hawaii Five-0 - He 'oi'o kuhihewa; he kaka ola i 'ike 'ia e ka makaula

Halloween comes to Hawaii Five-0 with its usually odd events. This year's episode includes two strange cases. The first, involves a home robbery, murder, and the escape of a man living in a locked vault for the better part of three decades. While offering a bizarre situation for the team to bicker about, the truth behind the events turns out to be far less interesting than their initial theories. The other case involves the theft of the corpse of a recently-recovered murder victim from the morgue by a killer who wants to prevent an autopsy. The case seems personal to Noelani (Kimee Balmilero), but there's no set-up to events here (although the episode kinda, sorta, but not really hints at this being more than just a normal case to her), and (other than the body being stolen from her morgue) no apparent motive for the medical examiner to take events so personally. Although it's unusual to have an episode without Danny (Scott Caan), Hawaii Five-0 does bring back Masi Oka to allow for Max Bergman's Keanu-themed Halloween costume (and to make use of his adopted son to wrap-up on of the two cases).

Once and Future #3

Zombie Arthur has arisen and it's now up to Duncan, his grandmother, and his recent blind date (you remember? the one that ended disastrously in the comic's first issue?), to save the world. No pressure.

Legacies - You Remind Me of Someone I Used to Know

"You Remind Me of Someone I Used to Know" works as a callback to last season's "Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn" as once again the Salvatore School prepares for its annual game against Mystic Falls High, although the new headmaster (Alexis Denisof) has a far more open mind towards his students using their powers, in moderation, to compete (which won't turn out well for one Mystic Falls student). The episode continues reversal of fortunes between the Saltzman sisters as Josie (Kaylee Bryant) continues down a darker path and Lizzie's (Jenny Boyd) bright outlook continues as she searches for clues about the mysterious Sebastian (Thomas Doherty).

Nancy Drew - The Curse of the Dark Storm

In a (literally) stormy episode, Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) and Nick (Tunji Kasim) will lay their cards on table and do some sleuthing while Nancy mulls over the offer of throwing Nick to the police in order to have her own pending criminal charges expunged. Two more characters get haunted by Dark Alice (Stephanie Van Dyck) in the episode while George (Leah Lewis) gets a visitation of another kind as the "curse" foreshadowed at the end of the previous episode appears to be asserting itself. While the show acknowledges Nancy knowing her father got rid of the old bloody dress (which, why the fuck was he keeping it anyway), it skirts the issue of the older murder for now instead concentrating on more recent events.

The Lighthouse

The was a moment a little more than halfway through The Lighthouse where I was forced to look at the movie from an entirely different perspective and reconsider what I was watching. More than anything else, the nebulous nature of the proceedings provide the greatest strength of the latest film from writer/director Robert Eggers.

The script, penned by Robert Eggers and Max Eggers offers a simple premise of two strangers assigned to a lighthouse for a period of weeks. Cut-off from the world, the grizzly veteran (Willem Dafoe) and newbie (Robert Pattinson) struggle with the solitude of the remote outpost far from any other living souls.

The Lighthouse is a tense psychological drama presented mostly from the view of Pattinson's character as we see one, or possibly both, men descend into madness. Set in the late 19th Century, there's no outside communication of any kind as the pair are completely isolated. As odd things begin to happen, who do we believe? Are any of the bizarre hallucinatory sequences real? Or is it nothing more than fevered madness?

This is Colosalcon 2019 Cosplay Music Video

Arrow - Welcome to Hong Kong

The second episode of Arrow's final season works better than last week's premiere as it becomes obvious that the common theme of these early weeks will be putting Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) on a road trip of hitting up various locales important to the show over the years. "Welcome to Hong Kong" takes Oliver, Diggle (David Ramsey), and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) back to Earth-1 on a search for a scientist who fits into the larger plans of the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett. The return to Hong Kong (where most of the flashbacks from Season Three occurred) offers a call-back to the Alpha-Omega virus and the return of both Tatsu Yamashiro (Rila Fukushima) and China White (Kelly Hu). Following this theme, next week offers a return to Nanda Parbat and more familiar faces.

Treadstone - The Cicada Protocol / The Kwon Conspiracy

USA Network's new series breathes some new live into the Jason Bourne series with a TV series that acts both as a prequel and sequel to the events of the films starring Matt Damon as a highly-skilled assassin trained by a secret government program known as Treadstone. The events in the present revolve around sleeper Treadstone agents being reactivated by an unknown organization. These include Alaskan oil rigger Doug McKenna (Brian J. Smith) and North Korean music teacher SoYun Pak (Hyo-Joo Han). The events in the past follow CIA Agent J. Randolf Bentley (Jeremy Irvine) who escaped a KGB lab where a mad scientist planned to make him the first super-spy. The two storylines are joined in the present by a North Korean defector, a disgraced former journalist (Tracy Ifeachor), and the female agent (played by both Emilia Schüle and Gabrielle Scharnitzky) who lost Bentley years ago and is now babysitting a nuclear missile for Mother Russia.

The Current War

The Current War is a neutered look at the race for control of electricity between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his Direct Current model and Alternating Current favored by both George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) and Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult). Refusing to pick a horse in the race, but definitely setting aside more screentime for Edison, the film sands off the rough edges of all three men in an attempt to make all likable. The result is a mostly harmless, but ultimately not very informative, film that sat on the shelf for two full years before its release.

Of the main characters, Edison obviously captured screenwriter Michael Mitnick's attention. While the film shows off the less than pleasant side of the inventor at times, including his vanity and harsh business practices, it goes out of its way to excuse and explain away those behaviors and turn Edison into a cliched misunderstood genius and family man. Westinghouse and his wife (Katherine Waterston) are allowed to steal more scenes in the second-half of the film, although they are really not much more than supporting players to Edison's story. Meanwhile, far less time is devoted to Tesla (whose inclusion feels like an afterthought).

New York Comic Con 2019 - Cosplayers Invade New York (Part 2)

Supergirl - Blurred Lines

"Blurred Lines" continues the plot thread of J'onn (David Harewood) discovering more about his brother, this week with the help of Nia (Nicole Maines) who helps uncover the reason for the gaps in J'onn's memory and the hatred of Malefic. Malefic also takes the opportunity to use humanity's latest invention to his advantage and recover the use of his full powers as the episodes cements the character as the major pre-Crisis threat for our heroes. The episode is also notable for Lena (Katie McGrath) using her friendship, and Kara's (Melissa Benoist) guilt, to play on favor that looks like its quickly leading her down a dark path well traveled by her brother.

Firefly #9

Things aren't going great for Malcolm Reynolds or the crew of Serenity. Mal is in custody of those who would like to see him hanged for war crimes. Meanwhile, Zoe has pulled together several of the surviving Browncoats to fight to get Mal back. While the cause used to rally them was Mal's capture, the Browncoats are just itching for a fight (which is also the view of the Unificators who have played both sides bringing forces together in a familiar spot for one more battle).

Batwoman - Down Down Down

While Kate (Ruby Rose) buys a temporary truce with Alice (Rachel Skarsten), Batwoman introduces another Bat-character in Tommy Elliot (Gabriel Mann). Like most of Gotham, Elliot is obsessed with the news of the return of Batman. Unlike most of Gotham, Elliot's obsession is to kill Batman (who he knows is actually Bruce Wayne). To that end, he's stolen Wayne technology capable of cracking the Bat-suit and is holding hostages demanding his childhood friend make an appearance. Elliot's obsession to Batman makes Kate realize more than just giving Gotham City hope, putting on the suit is also an announcement to Batman's old enemies that the Dark Knight has returned.

Titans - Bruce Wayne

Iain Glen makes another appearance as Bruce Wayne in the latest episode of Titans, but only inside of Dick's (Brenton Thwaites) conflicted mind. As tensions at the Tower continue to raise, it becomes obvious that someone is gaslighting various Titans. Although many are quick to point the blame at Jason Todd (Curran Walters), though not for being tortured and possibly mind-fucked by Deathstroke (Esai Morales), it is notable that not one member of the tower suggests an obvious alternative. Meanwhile, Dick goes in search of Deathstroke while ignoring the vision of Batman talking to him throughout the episode offering the simplest advice on how to begin repairing the damage being done to the team. Dick's admission to Jason in the final moment should finally set-up the story of what happened between the Titans and Deathstroke five years ago, and reveal how Deathstroke's son died.

Legacies - This Year Will Be Different

While some of the episode deals with relationship struggles between Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) and Josie (Kaylee Bryant), and MG's (Quincy Fouse) chances of wooing Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) getting shot down again with the arrival of a mysterious stranger (Thomas Doherty), much of "I'll Never Give Up Hope" focuses on the girl that time forgot. While hunting a troll, Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) unexpectedly runs into Alaric (Matthew Davis) now the principal of Mystic Falls High School. While adamant about not putting a student in danger, something allows Alaric to trust Hope to help in taking out troll (which leads to Hope's second-first meeting with another important person in her former life).

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Also check out Pack 1.

Lucy in the Sky (Without Diamonds)

Lucy in the Sky offers little for audiences while struggling mightily to bring the life of astronaut Lisa Nowak to the big screen. Director Noah Hawley's film offers a plum role for Natalie Portman and some interesting visuals but lacks a clear purpose. I was also perplexed by a constantly changing camera frame. At first, I thought it was Hawley's attempt to differentiate the parts of Lisa's life that worked at NASA versus those she struggled with at home. However, it soon became apparent that there was no rhyme or reason other than, I suspect, to try and keep the audience's interest through a tedious series of events.

The project has a star, intriguing subject matter in the astronaut's deteriorating mental state after her return to Earth and failure to earn another trip to space, a supporting cast including Jon Hamm, and plenty of budget (the scenes of NASA training being the best of the film). So what went wrong? For starters, the script by Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi is mind-numbing slog that turns on a dime just in time for a bizarre final act featuring Portman's character running far off the rails (and keeps on running) in a series of events that aren't earned or properly established.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Honestly, other than the look of Angelina Jolie as the title character, I could remember almost nothing about 2014's Maleficent walking in to view its sequel. In five years, I'm betting I'll remember even less about Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Jimmy Fallon & The Muppets - The Weight

Jimmy & the Muppets perform "The Weight" by the Band for the last waltz of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Nancy Drew - The Secret of the Old Morgue

Tensions and grudges start to soften among Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) and her fellow murder suspsects in the show's second episode, despite discovering another member of the group had a motive to want Tiffany Hudson (Sinead Curry) dead. Despite being warned to let the police handle the investigation, Nancy can't help but fall back into old habits and do a little snooping on her own (and by snooping I mean breaking and entering and potentially compromising evidence of a murder). As we saw in the first episode, "The Secret of the Old Morgue" continues the ghostly presence of Dead Lucy (Stephanie Van Dyck) albeit only just out of sight, glimpsed briefly, or seen in a reflection. That said, Nancy still sees the apparition on multiple occasions. Between that and what she finds in her family's attic, Nancy has all the motivation she needs to delve into not one but two separate murder cases (which are linked in ways she has yet to uncover).

Star Wars: Target Vader #4

The bounty hunters led by Beilert Valance have successfully cut off Darth Vader from the rest of the Imperial forces and driven him into a trap on Heva. However, the group will soon learn that cornering a Dark Lord of the Sith and killing him are two very different matters. Be careful what you wish for.

Arrow - Starling City

Arrow opens its final season with a somewhat perplexing episode finding Oliver (Stephen Amell) repeating history on a parallel Earth as he's rescued from Lian Yu and taken back to Starling City (eight years later than in his timeline). The episode allows for the show to replay scenes from the show's First Season and return a few familiar faces. What we later learn is that Oliver is on Earth-2, the home of Laurel (Katie Cassidy) who has returned to her Earth as a hero, and his mission involves procuring an important power source necessary in the coming crisis. What isn't ever really explained is why the the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) needed Oliver to procure the Dwarf Star in the first place. The episode ends with Oliver successful but also with the destruction of the Earth as the Arrow offers the first look at what is at stake in the coming crisis.

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #267

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #267 offers the pay-off to the last issue's tease of sleeper cell Cobra units waiting to strike just outside of Staten Island, New York. Although the initial ruse of sneaking in a team using tanker trucks doesn't go off without a hitch, leading to far more casualties than Cobra expected, in the end Cobra makes it down to the bunker and makes it out with their prize - Snake Eyes.

The Flash - A Flash of the Lightning

With Barry (Grant Gustin) travelling first to Earth-3 and then to the future to confirm the truth of the the Monitor's (LaMonica Garrett) statements about what is coming, it falls on the rest of Team Flash to deal with the latest meta-human (Kayla Compton) who, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) believes is innocent of the charges against her. The meta-human story isn't all that memorable, even with the bait-and-switch at the end, although it does seem to tease us with the first appearance of another of the DCU's secret spy agencies (I'm guessing Spyral?).

Prodigal Son - Designer Complicity

"Designer Complicity" sends Malcolm (Tom Payne) and the police after a stalker when a celebrity (Daniela Braga) tuns up dead, her body elaborately staged to recreate a famous media campaign. While initial suspects point to the woman's boyfriend (Julian Elijah Martinez) and a creepy paparazzi, the truth turns out to be a bit more complicated. Sadly, both the search and the reveal of the killer are upstaged by the murder scene itself. And the murder of the week takes a backseat to Malcolm's obsession about his mother (Bellamy Young) and whether or not she was complicit in his father's (Michael Sheen) murders. The show chooses to show the audience the truth, while allowing the protagonist to accept the lie, leading to an unsatisfying ending for all concerned. At least Prodigal Son can stop teasing Ainsley's (Halston Sage) interest in visiting her father as the reporter shows up for an unexpected visit to close out the episode (no doubt leading to more family drama).

Supergirl - Stranger Beside Me

The latest season of Supergirl continues its slow start with a second episode featuring stories involving Kara (Melissa Benoist) struggling with the new changes at The Daily Planet, the relationships of Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) and Nia (Nicole Maines), and Alex's (Chyler Leigh) and Kelly (Azie Tesfai) both struggling through small cutesy issues, and J'onn (David Harewood) enlisting Kelly's help in searching for answers about the Martian who confronted him at the end of the season premiere. The most interesting plot thread, however, offers the return of Eve (Andrea Brooks) as Lena's (Katie McGrath) lab rat as Supergirl continues Ms. Luthor down a darker path starting with "resetting" Eve's mind and allowing her artificial intelligence to take over the former assistant's body.

Event Leviathan #5

The penultimate issue of the six-issue mini-series begins delivering some answers about Leviathan, although the identity of the person behind the mask is still yet to be revealed. Picking up from issue #4's cliffhanger, Lois Lane gets some unhappy news from the secondary group of detectives who have a theory about what is happening. Event Leviathan #5 will likely be remembered for the death of a major Superman supporting character over the years in Sam Lane (who is revealed to be working with, or at least sympathetic to the cause of, Leviathan).

Batwoman - The Rabbit Hole

The follow-up to the show's pilot episode features Kathy Kane (Ruby Rose) continuing to use Batman's tech while also attempting to convince her family that Alice (Rachel Skarsten) is her sister Elizabeth. By the end of the episode both sisters will know more about each other, and Kathy will save her half-sister Mary (Nicole Kang) from Alice's jealous wrath. In may ways "The Rabbit Hole" feels like the second-half of the show's pilot. Despite using the tech, Kathy doesen't comprehend what the possible return of Batman to Gotham may mean for the dying city as her main focus is preventing her father from shooting Alice on sight before she has a chance to confirm her sister's identity. The tease for next week suggests our first look at Kathy embracing the cowl and adding the necessary flourishes to allow Batwoman to finally step into the light.

Titans - Conner

After being teased about the character since the end of last season, fans finally get their first look at Superboy (Joshua Orpin) in "Conner." Except for the final few minutes, "Conner" is a standalone episode focused on the history of the character which introduces Cadmus Laboratories and Dr. Eve Watson (Genevieve Angelson) who are responsible for the half-human/half-Kryptonian clone that gives the episode its name. With agents of Lex Luthor hunting him, Conner flees to Kansas but ends up at the Luthor farm instead of that belonging to the Kents. Mostly a blank slate, Conner has flashes of memory from both his genetic father's - Superman and Lex Luthor. The former gives him super-powers while the later offers glimpses of scientific knowledge and a dangerous temper.

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Doctor Doom #1

Doctor Doom, reinstated as the absolute ruler of Latveria (although not for long), gets a new comic as Doctor Doom #1 opens with Doom's vocal opposition to using a black hole on the moon as a means of cooling the Earth and dealing with climate change. Ridiculed for his dissenting opinion, Doom is once again cast as the villain when all evidence to an attack on the station points back to Latveria and Victor von Doom.

Stumptown - Rip City Dicks

Dex (Cobie Smulders) attempts to get her new career started by enlisting the help of veteran PI Artie Banks (Donal Logue) to show her the ropes. He ends up showing her far more than she bargained for. The case involves a divorce settlement between their client, a battered wife (Shoshana Bush), and the squeaky-clean husband (Robb Derringer) the pair are hired to find dirt on. The main story works well, although Dex's 70s Starsky & Hutch hallucination misses the mark. Logue turns out to be a nice addition to the cast, and after screwing over both Dex and their client to make some extra money for himself, I'm curious to see where this plot thread goes from here. Of less interest is Hoffman (Michael Ealy) looking into Grey's (Jake Johnson) involvement with the ex-con who just turned up dead, but it doesn't look like this story is getting wrapped-up anytime soon.

Gemini Man

Not finding any living actors worthy enough to share the silver screen with, Will Smith faces off against himself in Gemini Man. The action film with sci-fi underpinnings cast Smith as retiring government assassin Henry Brogan who is targeted by his own government (for mostly unintelligible reasons only important to draw him into the larger story). The man leading the hunt for Brogan is the assassin's former boss Clay Verris (Clive Owen), now the head of a multi-national private security force with an oh-so-cute name chosen to reinforce the movie's ridiculous plot. And with a name like Clay Verris is it any wonder he turned into a villain?

Batman & the Outsiders #6

Batman & the Outsiders #6 ends the comic's opening arc with more failure from the Outsiders, and more absence from Batman. The comic picks up the thread of Ishmael and Cassandra Cain and Signal who appear to have been Ra's al Ghul's targets all along. Lured into a trap by Ishmael, the pair discover Lady Shiva waiting for them with a surprise. Although Cassandra survives her mother-daughter reunion, Signal's fate is left up in the air (although Ra's does allude to his plans for the boy, and the rest of Batman's soldiers, as he has chosen a new tactic in his war against the detective).

Nancy Drew - Pilot

Our introduction to Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann), the title character in The CW's new series which takes its name from the well-known kid detective who has remained popular and in print since her first appearance in 1930, isn't solving a case but hooking up with a boy she barely knows in a garage. It's here that the show's creators break from the tradition of the cute and precocious Nancy Drew template and offer an older, although not necessarily wiser, version of the character. McMann turns out to be a fairly good choice for this version of Nancy who, in the first episode, deals with a murder, a ghost mystery, the lasting effects of her mother's death on her life plans, and the supernatural. It's the last of these that becomes the hardest two swallow, especially as it becomes increasingly clear just how much of ghosts and things that go bump in the night the show's writers are prepared to accept.

Bull - Rectify

When Palmer (Chris Jackson) brings a case to the attention of his friends, Benny (Freddy Rodríguez) discovers that his work for the District Attorney years ago may have led to the incarceration of an innocent man (Malcolm Goodwin). What makes "Rectify" work well is that the show doesn't overreach in terms of a character attempting to fix a past mistake. A minor member of the legal team, Benny isn't solely responsible for the state's case, nor does Eddie (Goodwin) blame him for his incarceration. Instead, the latest episode of Bull focuses on the unusual legal precedent of a former member of the prosecution becoming the lead attorney for the defense on an appeal and searching for the real killer nearly two decades after the original crime.

Usagi Yojimbo #5

Tragedy comes in the conclusion of "The Hero." True to his word, Miyamoto Usagi helps see Lady Mura back to her father, but there is little comfort the honorable elder can offer. Instead honor insists she return home with her husband, whose sudden appearance does nothing to lessen Usagi's opinion of the man.

This is Delta H Con 2019 Best Cosplay Music Video

The Flash - Into the Void

Despite the episode dealing with some weighty issue such as Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) dealing with the loss of their daughter (he by throwing himself in his heroics and her in bottling her feelings) and the threat of a black hole destroying the entire city, there is quite a bit of fun to be had in the show's Sixth Season premiere. (By the way, I'll take busy-bee Barry over brooding Barry any day.) Taking place a few months following Nora disappearing from history, "Into the Void" offers an immediate challenge in the form of a garage scientist (Brandon McKnight) who accidentally creates a recurring black hole around Central City and foreshadow trouble down the line in Caitlin's (Danielle Panabaker) old friend (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who has become obsessed with using dark matter to save himself and others from the disease which took his mother's life (no matter the cost). McKnight turns out to be one of several fun surprises, and hearing that he'll be sticking around Star Labs for the next several weeks makes me hopeful we'll get more of Chester P. Runk.

Once and Future #1

I'm a little behind in taking a look at writer Kieron Gillen's new Arthurian comic, Once and Future. Opening with the discovery of an artifact, an ancient scabbard that once belonged to you-know-who, the issue shifts to man's awkward first date which is mercifully interrupted by his grandmother leaving her nursing home which in turn leads Duncan McGuire down a fantastical rabbit hole.

Prodigal Son - Fear Response

A bizarre murder where the victim was frightened to death before the brain was removed from the corpse leads Malcolm (Tom Payne) to a renown psychologist (Sakina Jaffrey) whose off-the-books experiments have come back to haunt her. Spending a bit of time with the doctor, and discussing fear (such as that which has ruled his life since his childhood) allows for Malcolm to make a breakthrough in the memory fragments of his nightmares (though this will likely only force new questions to be answered). Although Malcolm doesn't visit his father, and refuses to discuss the case over the phone, his relationship with Martin (Michael Sheen) becomes the crux of the episode's B-story as concern for Martin's well-being (and perhaps her own) drives Jessica (Bellamy Young) to see her husband for the first time in decades. A question that has been looming since the series' pilot is now at the forefront of Malcolm's consciousness: just how much did his mother know about his father's hobbies?

Batman: The Movie (1966) Honest Trailer

Supergirl - Event Horizon

Much of Supergirl's Fifth Season premiere deals with the friendship between Kara (Melissa Benoist) and Lena (Katie McGrath), who discovered Kara's secret at the end of last season. While continuing to still be oblivious that her best-friend is Supergirl, Lena begins finding ways to get her revenge. First, she sells of The Daily Planet to an old friend (Julie Gonzalo) who wants to take the newspaper in the 21st Century (by gutting any real news reporting in favor of monetization and clicks). Next, she prepares to reveal Kara's secret to the world on the night Kara is set to receive the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting of Lex Luthor's machinations last season. Only Kara's admission prevents Lena from continuing with her plan, in the episode's best scene of Supergirl tearing up while admitting her mistakes to Lena, although Lena's final scene suggests Kara is far from forgiven (whatever Ms. Luthor may say to Supergirl's face).

Batwoman - Pilot

First seen in the Elseworlds crossover, Kathy Kane (Ruby Rose) returns in her own show with Batwoman. Ruby Rose is the show's biggest asset, especially for an episode that doesn't see Batwoman take flight until the final act. Taking place prior to the events in "Elseworlds Part 2," the show's pilot episode introduces us to Kathy before she takes on the mantle of the Bat. We're given flashbacks to Kate's family tragedy (the loss of her sister and mother) and the end of her first romance that didn't fit into her girlfriend's (Meagan Tandy) military career. Sophie's (Tandy) kidnapping by a new super-villain brings Kate back to a Gotham struggling after the disappearance of Batman years before.

Titans - Deathstroke

"Deathstroke" picks up from the cliffhanger of "Ghosts" with the Titans learning of Jason Todd's (Curran Walters) kidnapping, although it isn't until after they discover Dr. Light's (Michael Mosley) body that they will learn who has Jason, and what he wants in return. Tensions continue to rise within Titans Tower with the abduction of Jason, Deathstroke's (Esai Morales) offer to trade the new Robin for Rose (Chelsea Zhang), and Dick (Brenton Thwaites) continuing to keep people in the dark. The arrival of Koriand'r (Anna Diop) helps with the later, but there still plenty of problems for the team to work out. Although Raven's power issues have been put on the back burner this year due to the Deathstroke arc, it looks like they are poised to have a larger impact in the remainder of the season.

Japan Weekend Madrid 2019 Cosplay Music Video (Part 1)

Stumptown - Forget It Dex, It's Stumptown. / Missed Connections

Cobie Smulders stars as a good, if slightly fucked-up, former soldier who falls into the life of an unlicensed private investigator over the first two episodes of Stumptown. "Forget It Dex, It's Stumptown." introduces us to Dex Parios (Smulders), her best-friend Grey (Jake Johnson), and her brother Ansel (Cole Sibus). When the daughter (Blu Hunt) of the love of her life, whose death Dex still blames herself for, goes missing, the grandmother (Tantoo Cardinal) hires Dex to find her. What Dex discovers first looks like a pair of teens running off together but turns out to be something far more sinister as the boy's boyfriend turns out to be one of three criminals wanting to ransom the girl back to her grandmother for a big payday.