Category Archives: TV/Movie Reviews

Haven: Power Review

haven-boat-headerImmediately following the first episode of The Final Season™ of Haven, we got the 12th-last episode. With the town dealing with the fallout of even more Troubles, things are about to get a lot more interesting in Haven. And with this being Syfy’s 31 Days of Halloween, it wouldn’t surprise you if things get a little murdery in Maine.

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Haven: New World Order Review

haven-title-card-bannerHaven is back for the home stretch. Over the summer, and not to many’s surprise, Syfy announced that they would be cancelling Haven at the end of the remaining 13 episodes of the double-length fifth season. New World Order is the first of what has been branded “The Final Season” of Haven. While I might be sad to see Haven go, the final episodes got off to a great start.

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Doctor Who: Before the Flood Review

doctor-who-before-the-flood-headerFor the second story in a row, Doctor Who is a two-part episode. As much as I like the vintage style of a multi-part Doctor Who story, after the Dalek two-parter and this ghost story, I’m not sure that they’ve quite figured out the pacing yet.

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Doctor Who: Under the Lake Review

doctor-who-under-the-lake-headerIf there’s one way to describe Steven Moffat’s run as showrunner, it’s to call it a throwback to classic Doctor Who. He’s mixed in little bits of action, horror, morality, and dry humour to make a fun show just like it was when it first started. Moffat also seems to be bringing back the multi-part stories to Doctor Who. For the second story in a row, we have a two-parter. While the last one was meant to tug at your heartstrings, this one is meant to send chills up your spine.

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Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar Review

doctor-who-the-witchs-familiar-headerAs someone who watched old Doctor Who reruns growing up, I’m quite fond of the multi-episode arc that Doctor Who traditionally used to tell stories. It’s something we rarely see from modern Doctor Who, at least not to the extent that it used to be used as a story telling device. In fact, this is only the second two-part season premiere of Doctor Who since the revival.

The problem with a multi-episode story arc is that you really need to have a good payoff to the individual episodes and the story as a whole. I’m not convinced that The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar two-parter really fulfilled either side of that.

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Doctor Who: Magician’s Apprentice Review

doctor-who-magicians-apprentice-headerNine months on from Christmas, Doctor Who Christmas is upon us. Okay, I’m not sure what a Doctor Who fan would consider to be the biggest event of the year but it’s my review so I’m going to say it’s the season premiere. With no new characters to introduce, we instead get reacquainted with a couple of The Doctor’s old nemeses. What good is a hero without an equally strong villain, after all.

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Game of Thrones: Mother’s Mercy Review

game-of-thrones-mothers-mercy-headerAfter last season and this week’s episode, I’m not sure that the hype over Episode Nines shouldn’t be replaced with hype over Episode Tens. While some big things might happen in Episode Nine, for the second year in a row, it was the season finale that was the best episode of the season. Now that the TV show has reached the end of the books, the story has run out on a number of characters.

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Game of Thrones: The Dance of Dragons Review

game-of-thrones-the-dance-of-dragons-headerThere are two types of Episode Nines in Game of Thrones. The first is the big plot-heavy episodes that bring us to the climax of many of the show’s big stories throughout the season. The other are the more tightly focused big budget battle episodes. The Dance of Dragons was definitely more the former but the ending certainly had the spectacle of the latter.

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Game of Thrones: Hardhome Review

game-of-thrones-hardhome-headerIf you gave up on Game of Thrones two weeks ago, I feel bad for you son. You’ve got 99 problems but one of the best episodes in the show’s history ain’t one.

In the run up to this week’s episode, I was mentioning to my show watching friends that I wasn’t really sure what big events we had to look forward to heading into the final three episodes of the season. I wasn’t expecting the big blowouts we got in seasons two and four but maybe some big events scattered about Westeros like in season three. While I’m still not sure we’ll even get that in episode nine, Hardhome certainly brought the spectacle.

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Game of Thrones: The Gift Review

game-of-thrones-the-gift-headerAccording to Rotten Tomatoes, last week’s episode of Game of Thrones was the lowest rated among critics in the show’s history. The final scene was that controversial, apparently. I guess people who watched all 46 episodes of the show are few and far between. Actually, that makes sense given viewership has grown with each season.

This week’s episode was a lot less controversial but did nothing less to move the plot forward. As the show moves toward this season’s conclusion, The Gift certainly gave us a sharp push towards a thrilling conclusion to stories in King’s Landing and Winterfell.

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