2022: Year In Review

Final blog of the year and fittingly enough, it's one where I run down some of the shows that piqued my interest. 

Without further ado, here goes. It's not in a specific order and yes, there are some shows that didn't make my list because I didn't like them or watch them, lol.

House Of The Dragon (HBO): Easily my favourite show of the year. This prequel series breathed some old life into George RR Martin's ongoing Fire & Ice saga.

American Horror Story: NYC (FX): This season might have shamelessly ripped off Cruising with a side order of Angels In America but it also delivered one of the best seasons in it's eleven year run.

The White Lotus (HBO): Moving from Hawaii to Sicily certainly proved this series wasn't a flash in a pan with this season proving to be even better than the first one. 

Stranger Things (Netflix): The fourth season saw the gang going up against Vecna and delivered their best season yet. 

Interview With The Vampire (AMC): A beautiful retelling of the classic book/movie, which managed to up the gay content and then some. 

Pam & Tommy (Hulu): Lily James and Sebastian Stan both  delivered with their performances as the consequences of a sex tape played out for the world.

Doctor Who (BBC1): Specifically The Power Of The Doctor. An excellent bit of fanservice to end Jodie Whittaker's era while providing a nice lead in the 60th anniversary specials for 2023.

The Boys (Amazon): The Twitter memes might be exhausted at this point but this show delivered a hell of a third season, especially with Soldier Boy and the Herogasm episode. 

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix): Evan Peters. That's all I'm saying. Give the man his Emmy already. 

Chucky (SyFy): A bunch of killer dolls, a Catholic school, a murder mystery, a meeting of survivors both past and present and a very bloody Christmas finale made this second season a must see.

Only Murders In The Building (Hulu): Our intrepid trio of podcasters back for a second season solving the murder of their landlady with Paul Rudd providing a hook for the third season.

Wednesday (Netflix): Another gothic treat from Netflix with Jenna Ortega providing a new spin on the deadly but cynical teenager.

The Sandman (Netflix): This gorgeously gothic fantasy series might have taken a long time to make it to live action but the wait was definitely worth it.

Doom Patrol (HBO Max): Immortus might be taking their time to rise but this season has hit it's stride with the groups dynamic and a potential romance between Negative Man and Mister 104.

Legends Of Tomorrow (CW): Alas, the show ended on a cliffhanger never to be resolved but those last few episodes were nothing short of enjoyable, especially for Gwyn Davies.

Superman & Lois (CW): Not quite as impressive as the first season but the use of Bizarro world was a highlight throughout the season.

Peacemaker (HBO Max): I wasn't expecting a show with one of the most annoying characters from The Suicide Squad to be so good but both John Cena and James Gunn really delivered with this one.

Titans (HBO Max): This show has always been a mixed bag but this season has surprisingly stepped things up with the Brother Blood and Mother Mayhem storyline.

Big Boys (Channel 4): This lovely coming of age series focusing on the friendship of a gay man and his straight best friend provided plenty of laughs and some rather heartfelt moments.

Derry Girls (Channel 4): The third series of this Northern Irish show ended with the Agreement and in between that saw our leading girls grow up as they headed into the big world. Oh and Liam Neeson too.

Neighbours (Channel 5): The only soap highlight with a jam packed final episode, only for Amazon to pick up the show a few months later.

Wreck (BBC3): A nautical horror slasher on a cruise liner and several LGBT leads. BBC3 really justified their terrestrial return with this one.

Welcome To Chippendales (Hulu): Although yet to finish up, this series focusing on the rise and fall of the Chippendales creator has been an interesting one nonetheless. 

Ms. Marvel (Disney+): 2022 wasn't a great year for the MCU on streaming but this show was probably the best of a mixed bunch.

Some honourable mentions also would be Bridgerton, Love Victor, Harley Quinn, Werewolf By Night, The Gilded Age and The Watcher.

Yes, there are some omissions from the list but this year had a lot of shows to watch and by the looks of it, so will next year. 

DCEU Blog - DC Studios Logo Revealed Along With Superman's Fate And So Much More

Well, this has certainly been an eventful year for DC and this last month alone really ramped up the chaos even more. What a way to end 2022 for DC.

Let's kick off things lightly with the reveal of the DC Studios logo. Notice the characters on it. Needless to say, they're going to be the main focus moving forward with DC.

Speaking of the Trinity, let's break some stuff down for a bit. For now, both James Gunn and Matt Reeves have confirmed The Batman will remain in it's own universe. Assuming this remains true, then they're going to have two live action versions of the Dark Knight on the big screen.

Patty Jenkins third Wonder Woman movie will not go ahead but the Amazonian remains a priority for DC and Gal Gadot's fate has to be confirmed beyond her cameo appearances in both Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and The Flash.

As for Superman, it appears that James Gunn has written a script for the next movie, focusing on a younger version of the character and while it won't be an origin story, it does mean one thing.

Henry Cavill is officially out as Superman after filming cameos for both Black Adam and The Flash, with rumours that his scenes from the latter have been removed.  

The Flash meanwhile will now get released on June 16th, moving up a week from it's previous release date.

Blue Beetle had a nice poster released at CCXP as well as a tagline talking about the movie being the beginning of things. 

Black Adam managed 1.2 million during it's first weekend on HBO Max but Dwayne Johnson has confirmed that he will not be coming back as part of James Gunn's future DC plans.

Joker: Folie A Deux began filming this month but fans of Lady Gaga will have to wait until next year for her to start working on the sequel.

Both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton's Batman scenes have been removed from Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Yup, they're both gone for good after The Flash movie.

James Gunn has admitted that he will be revealing some upcoming projects next month while Zachary Levi publicly appealed to fans to trust both James Gunn and Peter Safran in an Instagram live last week.

The script for The Batman is now officially available online to read. Here's hoping we get some sequel news next year.

Nicole Maines will reprise her role as Nia Nal/Dreamer in the ninth season of The Flash, due to air on the CW from February 8th 2023.

The CW will also air upcoming seasons of both Superman And Lois and Gotham Knights from March 14th 2023.

The fourth season of Harley Quinn will stream on HBO Max in 2023 with a Valentine's Day special due for release in February.

Both The Penguin and the second season of Peacemaker will film in 2023 for HBO Max while James Gunn has confirmed that the Green Lantern series will still go ahead. 

Well, this month was a chaotic ending to what has been a very chaotic year for DC in general. Imagine what 2023 will be like when James Gunn's vision for the DCU will be unveiled? Expect a lot of fireworks. 

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x05: "Youth Patrol"

 

Written by Shoshana Sachi

Directed by Christopher Manley

Willoughby (to the gang): "There are no depths to your collective stupidity, are there?"

The last episode of 2022 but actually not the last episode of the first half of this season and things certainly took an interesting few turns here. After the previous episode's detour with Dorothy and Casey, this one was more focused on the gang royally fucking up yet again.

Okay, so Immortus is basically looking for something that Niles had put into most of the Doom Patrol, which was why they were ageing slowly and hence the little trinkets he's been getting others to collect at his behest. Niles also had an experimental deageing spell of sorts that Rita accidentally used due to Cliff's interrupting her and shenanigans ensued. Oh and Willoughby came to the manor to warn everyone about Immortus and comment on the gang being fuck ups for food measures.

Excluding Larry who had his own storyline going, everyone including Willoughby got turned into a teenager and as teenagers, it did not take long to separate from each other, fight and go party with other teens at a swimming pool of all locations. Willoughby, Cliff, Jane and Victor really embraced their younger selves with predictably mixed results.

However while some fun was had, Willoughby's attempts to reverse the spell by finding a woman named April were derailed and only Willoughby got changed back due to Bunbury needing him with the Knights of Templar. Jane on the other hand got turned into a baby, Cliff got too lost in being a party animal and kid Victor ended up trying to reconnect with Derek. 

As for Rita and Laura, well being turned into teenagers gave both characters a chance to work through their own issues. For those hoping that Laura's attempts of turning over a new leaf was genuine, well this episode gave you what you wanted and them some. Michelle Gomez delivered her best performance of the season so far as Laura's breakdown with Rita was heartfelt, sincere and touching in one go.

However the highlight of the episode for me was actually Larry's storyline with Rama aka Mister 104. Both men learned far more about one another than expected and there's definitely a romantic connection burgeoning with the two of them. It also seems that Larry offering to help Rama was the thing to get Keeg to reconnect with him too. Then things ended with the both of them being sucked into a portal, so that can't be good, right?

- Rama can turn his skin into lead, making him able to touch Larry and can also augment the air around him. 

- Jane was about to do some self love before she got pulled into the underground. She also had a great scene with Kay later in the episode.

- The episode had fun referencing teen shows such as Euphoria, Freaks And Geeks and Riverdale.

- Chronology: Not long from where the third episode had left off.

Youth Patrol had fun with it's premise and really took things up a notch too. The episode really had so many highlights - the effect of the main premise but it's really the scenes between Rita and Laura as well as Larry and Rama that were my favourite moments this week.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Paper Is Paper"

 

Written by Jenni Konner

Directed by Richard Shepard

Steve (to FBI Agent): "I have everything and regret nothing."

Except in this episode, Steve, you ended up losing your club, more money and your family in one fell swoop and due to your more serious actions, your freedom. Yup, we've gotten to that point of this messy saga.

I had a feeling the penultimate episode would be the one where Nick would be killed off and of course, it happened when everything was going Nick's way. Nick had been successful in preventing Steve from launching a counter Chippendales tour, business was better than ever and while he did somewhat piss off Denise, Nick was about to take his relationship with Bradford to the next level.

Unfortunately for Nick, Steve's burning jealousy of him had gone too far and the latter ended up hiring a gun for hire in order to kill Nick with Bradford being the one to find Nick's dead. It also took Denise not time to openly accuse Steve of being the one who had Nick killed and of course, Irene also quickly realised that Steve had blood on his hands.

In the previous episode, Irene was actively encouraging Steve's worse impulses but here with the reality of the business going under, she was back to pointing out that Steve made terrible decisions. Her response to remove herself and her child away from Steve when she knew what he had done was one of her better moments in the episode.

As for Steve, he's already attracted the FBI's attention and they were pretty clear to him that they believed he was involved in Nick's death. Steve even knew himself the walls were closing in on him and keeping the gun used in Nick's murder wasn't his best idea either.

- I loved the cheesy opening sequence highlight the success and excess that Nick, Bradford and Denise were experiencing. 

- There was a good unicorn on Nick's table. I noticed it before he was killed off screen.

- Standout music: Nice use of Footloose at the start of the episode.

- Chronology: August 1987, given the main plot of the episode.

Paper Is Paper with an added ten to fifteen minutes probably would've served as the finale but there's one more episode to go in order to wrap up the series. It's a strong episode though with all four main cast members giving it their all.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x04: "Casey Patrol"

 

Written by Tom Farrell

Directed by Kristin Windell

Dorothy (to Casey): "I could do with a change of scenery. Need any help?"

Speaking of a scenery change, this episode went for it's biggest one by scrapping the entire main cast and taking the audience back to Danny the Street. Did you miss them? I did, so this little detour along with the returns of both Dorothy Spinner and Maura Lee Karupt was surprisingly welcomed.

Last time we saw Dorothy, she had made friends with the Dead Boy Detectives. Since then those roles have been recast and one of them ended up on Heartstopper but here, Dorothy has made her way back in Danny's world and has been struggling to connect with people. Even Maura Lee has had difficulties snapping Dorothy out of her funk and she certainly did her best with Dorothy.

One thing that has offered Dorothy solace though was the adventures of Space Case, aka Casey Brinke (Madeline Zima) and the latter's battles with her purple skinned father, Torminox (Tyler Mane). However for Dorothy her comfort soon became more trouble than expected when both Casey and her father along with his own army came into existence and even Danny the Street wasn't able to protect everyone.

Having Dorothy and Maura Lee teaming up with Space Case/Casey and getting her up to speed on the real world and things such as death being permanent was great to see. These three characters made for a delightful team and Torminox made for a good guest baddie as well, willing to take out his own daughter in order to get Dorothy's necklace.

The necklace being something that Dorothy had lied about in how she acquired it and also in the closure it supposed'y gave her and Niles. In the end, Torminox got the necklace and it somewhat less surprising news, it appeared that Torminox was working with Dr Janus and the Author as part of Immortus's overall scheme. In his own way, Torminox really does love his daughter after all.

As for Dorothy, the events of this episode made her realise she needed a change of scenery and both her and Casey decided to leave Danny the Street to head back to Cloverton. Because the show doesn't reveal a lot in terms of marketing, I'm assuming that both Dorothy and Casey will be sticking around for the most of the season to help the Doom Patrol with Immortus.

- In spite of none of the main characters appearing in this episode, all the actors were still credited nonetheless.

- Despite so many DC projects getting scrapped this year, we're still apparently getting the Dead Boy Detectives series for HBO Max. 

- That's two necklaces that Immortus has collected for whatever their overall scheme will be. 

- Chronology: A few months since Dorothy's last appearance on the show. 

Casey Patrol easily became the best episode of this season so far with a fantastic turn of events here. Much as I love the main cast, I really didn't miss them for this one episode and the episode continued to push the Immortus storyline ahead. Excellent stuff all round.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

Doctor Who - 15th Doctor Costume Reveal, Christmas Day Trailer (Spoilers)

When I said now is a good time to be a Doctor Who fan, I really do mean it. If we're getting spoiled now, then 2023 is going to be quite the year for the show.

First of all, last week finally gave us a look of Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor in costume with some nice promo pictures and a social media video where both Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson showed off their looks in style. 

Filming for the festive special next year began early this month. The episode written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Dylan Holmes Williams will debut both Gatwa and Gibson as the 15th Doctor and Ruby Sunday, though specific details about the episode itself will likely be revealed in due course. However before both of them make their festive debut, we have three specials prior to their arrival.

On Christmas Day 2022 and in the most advanced bit of marketing from the BBC in the longest time ever, we got a trailer for the three specials making up the 60th anniversary celebrations and it was the perfect nostalgia hit while hinting at some very new ad exciting stuff to come for the series. 

David Tennant will of course being playing the 14th Doctor with Catherine Tate reprising her role as Donna Temple-Noble along with the late Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble and Karl Collins as Shaun Temple-Noble. These specials will also see the debut of Yasmin Finney as Rose Temple-Noble.

The three specials, all written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Rachel Talalay, Tom Kingsley and Chanya Button are definitely going to be offering a lot of interesting surprises for viewers. Along with a new Doctor in a former body, the returning of a former companion and her extended family since their previous appearance in 2010, we also have Ruth Madeley playing a new character named Shirley Anne Bingham, whom I'm suspecting might be a recurring character in Russell T. Davies second run. Madeley also plays a Sixth Doctor companion named Hebe for the Big Finish audios.

In terms of potential threats though, there's Neil Patrick Harris's yet to be revealed character (I still think he's a version of the Celestial Toymaker), while the trailer itself revealed both Beep the Meep (who has scenes with Rose) and the Wrarth Warriors. Could there be more villains yet to be revealed? I'm not sure but either way, these three have massive potential against the 14th Doctor, Donna and the latter's extended family.

Doctor Who has had a bit of a divisive time in recent years but the marketing since Russell T. Davies has taken over certainly has injected a lot of enthusiasm for the upcoming specials, along with the steady flow of information we've been getting these last few months. 2023 is going to be a big comeback for the series.

The 60th Anniversary specials for Doctor Who will debut on BBC1 and Disney+ from November 2023. Filming for Series 14 will commence next year for a 2024 debut.

My Review of In From The Side (2022)

 

Written by Matt Carter And Alan Silver

Directed by Matt Carter

Mark: "You think I like having to hide this from everyone we know while you parade around with him?"

Warren: "It's not the same."

Mark: "Like what is it you want from me?"

Touted as the a first gay rugby movie, this certainly had something to live up to  as a film and fortunately I can say, it definitely did that and then some. Premise would seem simple - one rugby lad, in the case Mark (Alexander Lincoln) found himself getting involved with rival team member, Warren (Alexander King). Not too complex, except for the fact that not only are the pair on rival teams so to speak, but both of them have their own partners.

For Mark that seems to be a rather distant relationship with his more affluent partner, Richard (Alex Hammond) with the latter being openly dismissive of Mark's rugby life while Warren's relationship with fellow team member John (Peter McPherson) seems to be one of obligation than any real love attached to it. Both of these are hard to root for, which somewhat makes the connection that Mark and Warren seem believable enough.

However their relationship itself while genuinely gripping with to watch with some strong chemistry between Alexander Lincoln and Alexander King does have it's own problems. One being that it's a relationship born out of deceit that even Mark's own mother, Alice (Mary Lincoln) while lamenting about her own union with Mark's father, Leonard (Nigel Fairs). It's something that clearly stuck with Mark as the consequences of his affair with Warren come out during a New Year's Eve party.

Those consequences being the breakdown of his own relationship with Richard, which I didn't really are as a bad thing in itself as his teammates initially being somewhat disappointed in him but there was his relationship with Warren too. Ultimately, while an interesting relationship between the pair, it became something of a doomed love affair nonetheless.

With our lead male not ending up with either Richard or Warren, you could think this was a film with a bleak ending but in reality, it was one with a surprisingly mature one. Mark made a reckless choice to have affair, it had consequences but there was a sense of him learning from his mistakes and maybe not repeating his own parents pattern. That in itself could be seen as a good thing.

Then there's the actual rugby itself. We saw both the Stags and A Team play off each other and then former against another major team in which they emerged as the victors. We got plenty of training sequences, lads nights out after the match, talks about the need for more inclusiveness in sports and some focus on some of Mark's fellow team mates.

The team mates in question being the likes of Pinky (Pearse Egan), Henry (Will Hearle), Gareth (Carl Loughlin), Jimmy (Christopher Sherwood) and coach Stuart (Chris Garner). All of them were written well as supporting characters with both Pinky and Henry standing out the most out of all of them. As someone who doesn't have the biggest interest in rugby, this movie did a great job fleshing out the game along with the characters and central romance.

- As well as co-writing, directing and providing music for the soundtrack, Matt Carter also is a rugby coach himself and had played the sport foe years. 

- We got some nice Christmas scenes away from London with Mark and Warren in which the latter proved not be great at skiing.

- Standout music: Matt Carter's By Your Side and Christmas Time With You with Tashara.

- Chronology: Despite this film being released in 2022, it was actually filmed in early 2019, prior to lead actor Alexander Lincoln joining ITV soap, Emmerdale.

In From The Side is a triumph of a movie, telling a very compelling if doomed love story with the two leads. Both Alexander Lincoln and Alexander King are excellent to watch as Mark and Warren. There's plenty of drama, male nudity/sex scenes, general camaraderie and team spirit, humour and so much more. One of the best movies I've seen this year.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "February 31st"

 

Written by Annie Julia Wyman

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

Steve: "I'm not the failure, you're the failure."

After this episode, nope, Steve, you definitely are the failure. Your attempts to make more money pretty much plunged your club into declaring bankruptcy and losing out in more money from your very creation doing world tours. In other words, you got played and badly played yourself here.

The episode started with Steve being somewhat childish and going out to New York in order to humiliate Nick and remind everyone he created Chippendales. Then Bradford got the idea for the Chippendales tour and Nick used it as a perfect means to partially help Steve but mostly to get even with the latter for embarrassing him so much.

Steve should've realised that signing a napkin contract without getting a lawyer to read over it was a very bad idea along with his attempts to evade responsibility over the VIP cards debacle. Then there was the calendars themselves. Going from 300,000 to 500,000 without checking the print was a spectacular blunder for Steve and the thing that forced his hand into declaring bankruptcy.

In the midst of all this, Steve had that gut wrenching call with his mother where she basically declared him to be a failure while both Irene and Ray enabled some of his recklessness in the episode too. It was more surprising from Irene as she spent some of the episode annoyed with his deceit, only to have that heel turn where she encouraged more shady behaviour from him. 

As for Nick he might have gotten the last laugh with Steve but given what this show is depicting, that level of deception on his part will not end well for him. If Steve was getting bad advice from Ray and Irene, then so was Nick with Bradford. Not in terms of profit, but more in terms of what will transpire as we head into the final two episodes of this series.

- Nick was schmoozing an agent of a famous client when Steve barged into his space. Steve also seemingly met Valerie Bertenelli. 

- Denise mentioned having a brother who she found as annoying as Nick does with Steve. She also seems to have warmed up to Bradford since the previous episode.

- The title came from all the months on the calendars having thirty one days, thus tipping Steve over the edge.

- Chronology: A couple of weeks since the events of the previous episode.

February 31st definitely had a lot of blunders for Steve but it was a great episode in depicting how this guy has gotten himself into so much of a mess, due to his own recklessness and listening to the wrong people. Just two more to go now.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x03: "Nostalgia Patrol"

 

Written by Tanya Steele

Directed by Kristin Windell

Laura (to the gang): "I think Rita is in the movie."

Talk about a double meaning there. Not only did we get a nice look at three of Rita Farr's movies but most our main characters even got to star in them and all because a certain emotional vampire needed Rita's emotional juice for the Immortus plot. Nice to see the latter bit wasn't forgotten about at all.

Rita started the episode watching a movie and commenting on the lead actress's lack of emoting, only for a flyer about a retrospective of her own movies got her in a rather emotional mood. To be fair, it looked like a trap even before Rita stepped into the empty venue and low and behold, it turned out to be a trap.

Having Rita being transported in her movies - Secret Rendezvous, The Haunting Of White Manor and Spartacus 4052 was a pretty clever twist and April Bowlby delivered a brilliant performance throughout the episode. Rita had felt abandoned by her friends but most of them spent this episode trying to help her. Even Laura in her own way was trying to make amends for her own past misdeeds towards Rita.

The best part of the episode might have resulted in giving the mysterious Dr Janus (Timeca Seretti) and Mister 104 (Sendhil Ramamurthy) exactly what they wanted and putting Rita in a coma but seeing Rita and the gang really step up for one another too. Now it's just up to them as well as Victor and Laura to get Rita out of her coma by next episode.

Speaking of the gang, as per usual they had their own shit to deal with. Larry had gotten increasingly frustrated with Keeg not talking to him while Cliff had been annoyed about feeling the wrong things. Then there was Jane's encounter with a jigsaw piece of Shelly and Laura reconsidering being the team after the way things panned out this week during her trust building exercise.

As for Victor, he had an awkward reunion with Deric and two of his former school friends but things seemed to smooth between everyone during a game of laser tag. It was a nice subplot for the episode, even though it kept Victor out of the main action until the last scene.

- Anyone else got a tiny bit of a flirty vibe between Larry and Mister 104? I wasn't a fan of the latter as Bloodwork in The Flash but he was a lot more interesting here.

- Jane and Cliff bonding over Top Gun was rather sweet along with Jane exploring the creepy kid horror trope to Cliff. 

- Did Keeg end up bonding with Mister 104? Why did he do that?

- Chronology: From where the previous episode more or less left off.

 

Nostalgia Patrol had some great fun with the movie throwback to Rita's career, a strong secondary story with Victor while also introducing new players like Dr Janus and Mister 104 and continuing on with the Immortus plot. This was a great episode.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Nevermore, The Gays Are Trying To Kill Me

Well, nearly all the shows I'm covering have some rather murderous gay content as I'm doing my last TV Jumble Blog for 2022. There will be a year overview blog on New Year's Eve though.

Chucky: If ever there was a movie horror franchise that proved it could be as successful as a TV series, it was certainly this one. The first season turned out to be an unexpected delight with Jake, Devon and Lexy making for a strong group of protagonists. Transferring them into a religious school and giving them characters like Father Bryce, Nadine and Sisters Catherine and Ruth along with Dr Mixter and a few different versions of Chucky certainly made the season into exciting television. It wasn't just them though. Tiffany became more unhinged as her fixation on Nica intensified, the returns of Glen and Glenda were delightful to watch and even Andy and Kyle had their moments as did Caroline finally embracing her dark side. This season started with Halloween and ended on a Christmas note and with any luck, a third season will be announced fairly soon.

Interview With The Vampire: Speaking of movies that made a successful television transfer, the first season of this Southern Gothic classic certainly hit all the right notes. The absolute perfect castings of Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid and Bailey Bass as Louis, Lestat and Claudia to the highs and lows of the trio's turbulent relationship in the seven episode first run was gripping to watch from start to finish. Not to be outdone was the present day interview itself between both Louis and Daniel as the two of them managed to get under each others skin while the reveal of Armand and his relationship with Louis was a fantastic way to set up the second season. Easily one of the best vampire shows we've had since True Blood and pretty damn gay as hell too.

The White Lotus: HBO have certainly been living the high life these last few months. Not only did House Of The Dragon blow up the way they hoped it, but the second season of this show (formerly intended as a one off series) gained a somewhat bigger audience than before. Audiences might have loved the events of Hawaii in the first season but moving the action to Sicily and the slew of new characters along with a returning Tanya definitely did the show the world of good for round two. We had dysfunctional couples such as Ethan/Harper and Cameron/Daphne, a generational look at womanisers with Bert, Dom and Albie, a flustered assistant in Portia, the scheming duo of Mia and Lucia, hotel manager Valentina, Jack the rent boy and some killer gays to boot. This season was a joy to watch from start to finish and I can't wait to see where creator Mike White takes things next season.

Wednesday: Netflix might be a bit too cancel happy for their own good these days but that doesn't mean there aren't shows they really want people to get behind. This delightful take on Wednesday Addams certainly felt like Riverdale met Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina but a captivating lead performance from Jenna Ortega, a decent group of supporting characters along with Christina Ricci as a strong enough baddie and this show was rather enjoyable to watch. I mean there's definitely room for some improvements (notably the CGI) but I definitely feel like Netflix have a hit on their hands with this one so I expect it'll be renewed fairly soon.

• HBO have renewed Industry for a third season. The show also airs on BBC2 for UK and Irish viewers.
• HBO however have cancelled the likes of Westworld and The Nevers as well as removing them from their service.
• House Of The Dragon will begin filming it's second season in March 2023.
• The White Lotus third season will take place in Asia and will explore the theme of death.
• Netflix have cancelled shows such as Warrior Nun, Blockbuster and The Bastard Son And The Devil Himself.
• Mayfair Witches, starring Alexandra Daddario will premiere on AMC from January 8th. It is a spin off of Interview With The Vampire.
• Queer As Folk US reboot has been cancelled after one season.
• Paramount+ have renewed Tulsa King for a second season.
• Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes, Isaac Powell and Lolly Adefope are among the cast for Sam Mendes HBO superhero movie themed series, The Franchise.
• The Last Of Us premieres on HBO from January 15th and the next day on SkyAtlantic.
• Henry Cavill will star and executive produce a Warhammer 40, 000 series for Amazon. 
• The Never Game, starring Justin Hartley has been ordered to series by CBS.
• Showtime have renewed Yellowjackets for a third season. The second season will premiere on March 24th.

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Leeches"

 

Written by Jacqui Rivera

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

Steve (to Ray, re Electric Tomato): "I'm going to burn that place to the ground."

Well someone was a wee bit pissed off this episode, wasn't he? Steve was seeing people leeching off his success everywhere and went for the smaller threat in order to vent his rage first. I bet Ray might be somewhat regretful of pledging his undying loyalty after all. 

Speaking of Ray, I'm still trying to figure out what his deal actually is here. There's no denying he enjoyed stirring the pot here with getting Steve even angrier about Nick, while Irene was trying to do the exact opposite but the minute Steve somewhat embraced his dark side, Ray realised he had bitten off more than he could chew with Steve.

Ray found himself in the position of having to commit arson and burn down a rival nightclub because Steve had him by the balls. Steve also looked far too pleased with himself with Ray actually carrying put his request. The Electric Tomato night have an easy obstacle to take out but Nick undoubtedly will prove to be a lot more difficult.

At the start of the episode, it looked like things might have softened between Nick and Steve. The latter seemed to be impressed with Nick's Hunkenstein idea actually working and almost remorseful that he had dismissed it. Even the snowball fight between Steve and Nick seemed like a great way of breaking the tension, only to have it amplified even more between them.

I guess some people just cannot get along but while Irene and Denise seem to have fallen into the ropes of trying to be peacemakers with Steve and Nick, it's the likes of Ray and Bradford who were doing everything to drive them further into battle with one another. Going by the events of this episode, they succeeded big time.

Nick was a natural on the talk show circuit in hyping up Chippendales and making the nation believe that he was the brains behind the operation whereas Steve's attempts to counter this on one talk show was a complete car crash to watch. If anything, I think Steve has well and truly lost the plot here.

- Irene wasn't pleased with Steve's VIP card idea and the very idea opened them to a lawsuit from a black customer.

- Denise doesn't seem to like Bradford at all (or he with her). I thought the use of actual Chippendales chairs for the VIP lounge in the New York location was a very nice touch. Even Steve was impressed with that.

- That Hunkenstein routine was straight up ripping off The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I loved it for that.

- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

Leeches was an apt title where it looked like Steve didn't learn the right lessons, listened to the wrong people (yes, I mean Ray) and made a lot of bad choices as a direct result. The rivalry between him and Nick has certainly reached boiling point.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x02: "Butt Patrol"

 

Written by Eric Dietel

Directed by Christopher Manley

Victor (to Rita): "What would you say to a change in leadership?"

Apparently nothing very complimentary on the idea for a start. I think we all knew that Rita's leadership skills were going to be called into question but not this fast. Freaked out by future events was enough for everyone to demote Rita as leader and give a reluctant Laura the job instead. Needless to say Rita wasn't pleased with this turn of events.

However the only person she could vent her frustrations to were Larry and not only did he call out her bad leadership skills when pushed on the issue of her demotion but he was rather preoccupied with Keeg refusing to bond with him again. By the end of this episode, Keeg still hadn't forgiven Larry for the future but at least Larry was slightly more sympathetic to Rita's own plight than anyone else.

As for Laura taking over the team, she benched the rest of them and got Cliff to go and kill Darren Jones, which turned out to be a bit more complicated than either Cliff or Laura was expecting it to be. Complicated in the sense that Darren had been growing tomatoes in order to stave off his impulses to eat brains but when confronted with the idea of death, he embraced the idea of it.

I found Darren's willingness to die rather amusing with Cliff's reluctance to kill him until Laura had to resort to some drastic measures of her owns in order for Cliff to complete the mission. Then there was another butt to kill and that also proved to be somewhat complicated for Cliff. All the guy wants to do is feel his family but he keeps having to kill were-butts instead.

Speaking of were-butts, it was Victor and Jane working together and tricking the Butt Hunter (formerly the Beard Hunter) into handing over the second zombie butt to them. Victor and Jane made for a good team and it was nice to see the former give her a little insight into her ongoing problem with Kay as well for good measure.

Last but not least there was the return of Dr Yu and her own history with the were-butts. I'm not surprised that she managed to get Nicholas away from the Bureau of Normalcy and I thought their little living arrangement was rather cute. Is it bad that I want Nicholas not to be killed off? At least let one of these were-butts survive in peace.

- Rita's point system of good stars and demerits were definitely a bad motivational tool. Laura should've scrapped them.

- I genuinely thought Cliff and Laura were going to get infected with Darren's blood splattered all over them at one point in the episode.

- None of the jigsaw pieces had edges on them, leading to Jane's own frustration with the thing.

- Chronology: We saw glimpses of 2016, 2017 and 2019 with the Bureau of Normalcy and the were-butts as well as the present day.

Butt Patrol was as strong as the premiere episode and it's nice to see the team trying to be more practice, in between snarly nicknames (Crisis on Infinite Butts, anyone?). Two episodes in, this season has gotten off to a great start.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x01: "Doom Patrol"

Written by Tamara Beecher-Wilkinson

Directed by Christopher Manley 

Rita (to future Victor): "You mean to tell us the world has been taken over by zombie butts?"

It's been over a year since the last finale took our misfits and decided to make them into actual fucking heroes and it's been quite a year for the busted Justice League. Sorry, I mean the Doom Patrol, led by Elastiwoman herself, Rita Farr.

Yup, Rita took on the leadership role that no one wanted and while her team leading skills are questionable at best and the group don't care for some of her ideas, they have managed to become a competent enough team. Even their battle against Codpiece and his butt gun toting sidekick turned out to be less of a disaster than expected.

Of course Codpiece was an amusing side story while the main one took the gang twenty years into the future where things predictably were shit. They were so shit that Laura was missing, Rita, Jane, Cliff and Larry were all dead but had ghosts lingering around and Victor was the sole survivor and fearful of his past self fucking things up royally for everyone.

Seeing the gang talk to their future selves, you'd think/hope they might be able to prevent a future where zombie butts have taken over the world. However, knowing this lot, they're more likely going to make all the mistakes that will lead to this outcome to begin with. Of course, they're not the only ones worried about the future.

Getting to appear a little earlier than usual, Willoughby found himself consulting with the Knights of Templar and their rabbit leader Bunbury. It looks like Immortus Will Rise and I'm assuming that's going to be sooner than later, which means that the Doom Patrol may have to work with the Knights of Templar and Willoughby to prevent this disaster.

Not that they don't have their own shit to deal with. Rita needs to put her hatred for Laura to one side to find out why Isabel Feathers appeared in the timestream while Victor has reached out to someone called Derek. Larry's curious as to why his future self will eventually separate from his parasite, Cliff wants to touch his grandson with his new hand and Jane got a blank puzzle, courtesy of Kay. That's a lot to unpack in itself.

- Michelle Gomez has the 'Special Appearance' credit. She's still effectively a regular this season. 

- Did Kay actually kill Dr Harrison? I thought the latter actually worked well with the Doom Patrol. Silas didn't seem happy about Victor now being relegated to the tech guy of the group. Then again, neither did Victor.

- Standout music: Nice use of Sweet Caroline. 

- Chronology: It's 2022 in the present day and 2042 in the buttpocolypse future.

Doom Patrol was a strong start for the season and like Titans, there's an overwhelming sense that this show is coming to an end. Could the world really be taken over by zombie butts? Will our band of misfits be enough to stop it? Here's hoping.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Just Business"

 

Written by Annie Julia Wyman

Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Steve: "You're not fired."

Otis: "I know. I quit."

With the previous episode being somewhat sluggish, this one actually took a few interesting turns and ended up being a rather solid affair. We're halfway through this season and clear alliances are being made and broken all over the place.

Taking on a slightly larger role this episode was Quentin Plair's Otis, whom this series has emphasized as the most popular dancer at Chippendales. Naturally Otis would be miffed that he didn't make it on Steve's calendar and the latter's excuse about only money mattering wasn't going to be enough to keep Otis in the company line.

I don't blame Otis for going behind Steve's back with Ray to make his own calendar and I also don't blame him for refusing to stay with Chippendales with Steve undermining him. I was however a little surprised that he didn't take up Nick and Denise's New York offer but with four episodes left this season, something tells me he'll be heading for the Big Apple fairly soon though.

As for the Big Apple, Nick spent a large portion of the episode here trying to drum up business for Chippendales and he certainly fell on his luck when he hooked up with investor/lounge singer, Bradford Bartin (Andrew Rannells). Bradford wasted no time in telling Nick to take Chippendales to New York and Nick strong armed Steve into going along with the idea. Though Steve made Irene believe that he was the one behind the whole thing.

With Steve losing Otis, realising his wealth and influence can't buy his way into everything and Nick forcing his hand with the New York idea, having Ray swear his undying loyalty to him was an interesting way to end the episode. Is Ray being sincere in his loyalty to Steve or does he have an agenda of his own? Time will tell of course.

- Steve ended up buying a printers in order to print 10,000 copies of the calendar. Irene wasn't best pleased with that.

- Denise wasn't happy with one of the dancers eating while wearing the costumes. She seemed to have taken over the choreography during Nick's absence.

- Standout music: Bradford belting out Sondheim's Someone Is Waiting had it's moments.

- Chronology: Over five days since the ending of the previous episode.

Just Business emphasised it's title quite a bit with Steve, Nick and Otis all either feeling the brunt of that saying or using it to their advantage. Now at the halfway point, things are picking a bit more and this miniseries has gotten a little more interesting with this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Don't Hang Up (2017)

 

Written by Joe Johnson

Directed by Damien Mace And Alexis Wajsbrot

Mr Lee (re Sam): "He has to understand. He has to suffer the way I have."

First and foremost I have to admit that I generally despise the social media pranking types so in a lot of ways, my sympathies were in favour of the villain of the piece here. Saying that, the more male horror lead films the better.

Our protagonists here were two somewhat douchey frat buddies Sam (Gregg Sulkin) and Brady (Garrett Clayton) who along with two other guys had a streaming channel where they mercilessly pranked unsuspecting people and in the opening faking a home invasion with a distressed mother ended up having some rather fatal consequences.

The consequences of that prank formed the main plot of the movie. The distressed mother ended up accidentally killing her own child and then herself in grief for her actions. As a result, the woman's husband in question decided it was time for Sam, Brady and their brainless friends to get a taste of their own medicine.

However while Sam and Brady resorted to just prank calls, the villain going by the name of Mr Lee (Parker Sawyers) had a more extreme way of getting back at the young men responsible for his family being dead. This meant using both Brady's parents and Sam's estranged girlfriend as hostages/eventual deaths and ultimately putting both lads against one another.

As a scheme, it nearly worked too. Brady was desperate to save his parents and Sam was furious when he learned that Brady slept with his girlfriend. However they managed to put their differences aside to try and beat Mr Lee at his own game. Compared to Mr Lee, both Sam and Brady were amateurs and this became a movie where the protagonists didn't win anything.

Not only did Sam and Brady lose their fellow pranksters and loved ones in some rather brutal scenes but only one of them actually survived the entire movie, only to be sent to prison for Mr Lee's crimes. It's a harsh but surprisingly effective way of ending the movie with Mr Lee having not only gotten his revenge but a taste for his own brand of vigilantism. Yeah, the dude's just a psycho killer.

- It's good to see that most people do ignore 'friend requests' from clearly false accounts. Mr Lee using an image of his own child was creepy though.

- The directors cited both Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer as influences, which isn't that shocking tbh.

- There's also an obvious nod to When A Stranger Calls, including the use of two actors as Mr Lee. Philip Desmueles provided the voice for the character.

- Chronology: I'm assuming around 2017, which was when the movie was released.

Don't Hang Up was a fairly average horror flick with two attractive but not fairly sympathetic leads. There's something oddly delightful in seeing two social media pranksters getting terrorized by the main baddies, which I don't think was meant to be the intention with this one. It's watchable but nothing to write home about.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Spider-Man 3 (2007)

 

Written by Sam Raimi And Ivan Raimi And Alvin Sargent

Directed by Sam Raimi

Venom (to Spider-Man): "I like being bad. It makes me happy."

Ah, yes, has there been a more divisive movie for the webslinger than this one? Well, there was The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but prior to that, there was this movie. After two movies for Tobey Maguire's Spidey that really set a gold standard for Superhero movies, it's not hard to see why in a lot of respects that this one didn't quite cut the mustard.

For a start, it has a lot going on. Often too much for it's own good and there's a certain repetition with some of the character dynamics. Not to mention, it technical'y has three villains fighting for screen time and not enough development among the lot of them.

Let's look at Harry Osborn (James Franco). He was still bitter about his father's death and still held his former best friend responsible for it. Taking on the guide of New Goblin, Harry's attempts of making Spider-Man pay only resulted in temporary amnesia. When he did regain his memory, he made an attempt to keep Peter and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) apart but getting royally humiliated by the former really didn't make it worth it.

Then he got something of a rushed redemption arc when Spider-Man and Mary Jane both needed his help against the real villains of the piece - serial criminal Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and embittered rival photographer Eddie Brock/Venom (Topher Grace). Only the latter really embraced the idea of being a villain and even then, he lagged by comparison, in spite of some great visuals as Venom. Not to mention a really horrible defeat as well.

Villain wise, Sandman's story was far more tragic and it's connection to Ben Parker saw both Peter and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) on the opposite side of things. Ultimately though, Peter showed compassion to Marko and the latter expressed remorse for his involvement in Ben's death. It's a good arc but it's a bit smushed together in a movie with a lot going on for itself.

Another huge component of the movie was Peter's temporary influence of the symbiote that would later destroy Eddie. You can tell Tobey Maguire had fun with the bad boy Peter Parker, even going as far as to use Gwen Stacey (Bryce Dallas Howard) in order to make MJ jealous, which was definitely a step too far. The plot is very Superman III in parts and the Peter/MJ drama was definitely the weakest we've seen in the trilogy even if their relationship status quo was restored by the end of this one.

As for Spider-Man himself, he was definitely seen in a more favourable light in spite of J Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) and Eddie's attempts to discredit and even got the key of the city. He might have went through something of a minor bad boy phase but he still remained every one's favourite neighborhood Spidey.

- The movie's opening credits recapped the previous two movies. We even got another Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) cameo for good measure.

- Speaking of cameos, Bruce Campbell as a maitre d and Stan Lee having a brief exchange with Peter Parker. Not to mention appearances from Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) and Flash Thompson (Joe Manganiello).

- Despite being the high grossing movie of the trilogy, plans for another trilogy and a Venom spin-off were all scrapped in favour of a reboot.

- Chronology: A year since the events of the second movie.

Spider-Man 3 without a doubt probably will remain the weakest live action Spider-Man movie we've had to date but it's not a train wreck. It's actually pretty fun in parts but easily could've done with a bit more focus and losing at least one villain. As a final outing of sorts for Tobey Maguire, it's mostly average at best.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Titans 4x06: "Brother Blood"

 

Written by Richard Hatem

Directed by Jen McGowan

Sebastian: "I'm so tired of being nothing."

And by the end of this episode, Sebastian Sanger went from being a nobody into a rather dark somebody. We might have gotten him in his official costume in spite of those promo pictures released before the season was released, but either way, say hello to Brother Blood.

This episode had to result in Sebastian finally embracing his dark side. Mother Mayhem has done well as an antagonist for the Titans but she was always meant to be the warm up act in favour of her son. I am surprised that she made it out of this one alive but I suspect she will not make it past the mid season premiere next year when Sebastian inevitably usurps her.

Even in this episode she came close to death at least twice. In both cases she managed to think ahead. First with outsmarting Conner and then by seemingly killing Jinx, who also got a new costume and was embracing being a Titans member. Is this end of Jinx just before we were getting used to her? I hope not. However there was an ending of sorts in this episode.

Sebastian drinking the blood and tapping into his powers managed to write the Titans (except Gar, more on him in a bit) out of existence. Now that was one hell of a cliff hanger moment for the show. With no magical allies, how the hell are Dick, Kory, Rachel, Conner, Tim and Jinx going to get out of this one? Well, there's likely one solution.

The solution of course being Gar. He's been connecting to the Red more and more and this episode finally saw him able to access the Red just in time to save himself from extinction. Right now, Gar, Bernard and STAR Labs are the Titans only hope when this show does make it's eventual return.

As for the rest of the episode, Conner got one hell of a makeover of his own doing and embraced the Luthor side of himself a bit too much for everyone's comfort. I'm not sure Joshua Orpin entirely pulled it off but it was an interesting side to see with Conner and I'll be curious to see where it will go in the second half of the season.

 - Kory's kinetic energy really went from 8% to 80% in half a season, huh? Rachel also became the White Raven here too.

- Dick's response to when Tim told the group that he kissed Bernard was funny enough. Jinx also uses a pineapple and mango conditioner.

- After the events of this episode, there's no way the show can have Dick remain sceptical about prophecies.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off. The second half of the season will premiere in 2023.

Brother Blood provided a strong cliff hanger to what has easily been the most consistent season so far. I've really enjoyed the scaled back cast, new characters such as Bernard and Jinx, more focused and engaging villains and overall better pacing and the increased supernatural elements. Here's hoping that the remaining six episodes can end this season (and likely series) on a high.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Welcpme To Chippendales: "Velveeta"

 

Written by Rajiv Joseph

Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Steve's Mother: "Some people are not meant to be rich."

Now the above quote was definitely the kind of thing no one would ever want to hear and boy, did this episode certainly have a few things to say. Notably being that Steve's mother wasn't exactly beaming with pride at her son's accomplishments for a start. 

In fact she was lonely resentful f Steve abandoning the family printing business for his own ambitions and very dismissive and ashamed of him running a nightclub. Which made the funeral of Steve's father even more awkward than it already was. Then there was everything else that transpired in this episode. 

Steve really didn't like the fact that Irene (whom he was now married to) went out dancing with Nick and Denise and he certainly didn't like that she indulged in some cocaine on the side as well. In fact he was pretty horrible towards her and it did look like he was about to leave her at one point in the episode.

However he did seem to considerably perk up when handyman/photographer Ray (Robin de Jesus) appealed to his vanity and together, the two of them came up with the painfully obvious idea of doing a calendar for the Chippendales. To be fair, this would've been the sort of thing that Nick and Denise could've been on board had Steve actually bothered to tell them about it.

Instead Steve had purposely gone behind their back and seemed to take a rather petty delight in rubbing Nick's face in it, forcing the latter to head back to New York. Unlike Steve who went overboard with his hatred for Nick and Denise's Hunkenstein idea, I actually think Nick had a right to be mad here. Then again, there's five episodes to go, so we're not rid of Nick just yet.

- Nick compared himself to Sissyphus to Irene when he originally didn't know how he was go to top his bellboy idea at the start of the episode. Irene seemed surprised that he was gay.

- The title came from the brand of cheese that Steve's mother normally liked but rejected here.

- Standout music: Funky Town by Lipps Inc.

- Chronology: Two years since the events of the previous episode.

Velveeta continued with the male flesh on display, both Nick and Denise getting some action as well as both Denise and Irene trying to play peacemaker between a warning Steve and Nick. Not quite as the first two episodes but still a solid episode.

Rating: 7 out of 10