DCU Blog - February 2026 Edition: WB/Paramount, Puppy Bowl And Little Else

Disappointingly enough, this wasn't the most eventful month for DC, except for maybe the future implication of a newly announced merger. Anyways, let's get on with it, shall we?

Warners Brothers have been bought by Paramount for $111 billion after Netflix decided to step aside and not match their offer.

Clayface will now be released on October 23rd. David Dencik has also been cast in an undisclosed role.

Man Of Tomorrow (July 9th 2027) is in pre-production. Filming will begin in April, so expect more cast announcements soon.

The recent Puppy Bowl put the focus on Krypto, including a clip from Supergirl (June 26th) showing a younger version of the character.

Junkie XL will now compose the music for Supergirl. He's previously composed Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The Batman - Part II (October 1st 2027) will start filming in late May. We'll be getting more casting soon.

The logo for upcoming HBO series, Lanterns was revealed this month. The show will premiere after the third season of House Of The Dragon has finished airing.

James Gunn has stated that The Brave And The Bold will come out before Matt Reeves does a third movie for The Batman universe.

DC Next Level will see releases for the likes of Zatanna, Batwoman, Lobo and Firestorm to name a few over the next few months.

The Absolute DC Universe comic books have continued to sell well, have warranted several reprints and will continue well into 2026.

Zack Snyder has recently expressed interest in continuing his Justice League through comics or animation. That's not saying it'll happen btw.

Quick reminder that we've got upcoming season of both of My Adventures With Superman and Batman: Caped Crusader to look forward to. Hopefully we'll get release dates for both in the next few weeks.

That's it for the month. Hopefully more exciting news for next month.

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Evolution"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Crystle Roberson Dorsey

Cooper: "I'll do it but not like this."

Oh fuck. There's two episodes left and while it was always possible that Cooper would eventually have a transformation of his own, I didn't think it would go this way.

I actually thought with the way this episode was going down, we were going to end up with Cooper being dead. Fortunately that didn't happen. Instead he ended up looking like a teenager and will now be played by Hudson Barry. I already miss Evan Peters in the role.

Anyways the black ops team from the last episode came to rescue Cooper, Jordan, the Assassin and Jeremy and it was revealed rather quickly they're both Deacons and working for Dr. Diana Sterling. She wasn't wasting any time this episode.

For a character who made her debut this week, Diana was determined to bring four people together in order to assassinate Byron. Yup, that woman's motives for Byron being dead might be as a result of him shutting her robotics down but she's making a strong impression in this final hurdle of episodes. I'm partially rooting for her.

Now, the reason why Cooper needed the transformation was that he was the only one who could take out Byron but he needed a new look. Cooper opted to sleep with Jordan in order to become a new person. Granted, it also felt like a culmination of their "will they, won't they" dynamic and then that ending happened.

The show definitely has done a lot of ludicrous things but turning Cooper into a teenager might be the strangest one yet. Will he succeed in taking out Byron? Can Diana actually be trusted or are her Deacons another disaster waiting to happen? 

- I did laugh at Jeremy calling Diana "White Mama" because he couldn't remember her name. 

- Cooper was losing both teeth and nails during his much longer transformation scene.

- Standout music: Cinema Orchestra and Patrick Watson's To Build A Home.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off and two days until Byron's big launch.

Beautiful Evolution certainly upped the horror with Cooper's transformation. I was shocked by the end results but I liked his scenes with Cooper. Diana's also an interesting conundrum. Right now, she's a beneficial ally but could be a future threat.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Brothers"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Meyer (to Cooper): "Do as you're told."

We're in the final two weeks of the show and it's tine to go into double bills. It feels like the show only just started but here we are. After last week's episode, there's more focus on Byron and a new player added into the mix.

The new player being Dr. Diana Sterling (Ari Graynor). It turned out that prior to The Beauty itself, Byron was very much interested in robotics being the future of preserving humanity. Robotics are now out of fashion and Diana's pretty miffed about being replaced as a direct result.

Keeping with Byron, he opened the episode by waxing lyrical about his upcoming Beautiful Day launch for the Beauty with another big ad campaign. Franny was once again not remotely interested in Byron's lofty ambitions.

There was also the arrival of their sons - Tig (Kevin Cahoon) and Gunther (Eric Peterson). Honestly, I can see why Byron didn't respect them. They're both idiots and clearly Franny had a massive blind spot towards their stupidity. Their idea for a bro themed streaming service sounded absolutely pointless as a pitch.

Saying that, they did serve a purpose when both of them ended up falling victim to another drug overdose and Byron had them transformed into Ray Nicholson and Brandon Gillard respectively. Franny swore revenge but maybe Byron did their idiot children a favour, even if it was a selfishly motivated.

As for Cooper and Jordan, it was funny to see that they ended up in a begrudging alliance with the Assassin and Jeremy. Byron screwed over the latter two and Meyer tried to get Cooper to do what he was told. Then we had some black ops swoop and the episode ended on an abrupt note.

- Byron was 5% Nigerian, which was used to explain why Gunther was now biracial. The costume choices for Tig and Gunther was something else.

- Diana admitted to sacrificing a family in order to continue her work with the Deacons. She's unsurprisingly cold in nature for someone into robotics.

- Jeremy was given a lot more information in between Cooper and Jordan trying to outsmart both him and the Assassin.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Beautiful Brothers did live up to its title on the shallow end of the scale. Will bring beautiful suddenly make Tig and Gunther smart? Byron better hope not or they'll usurp. The episode was good but too short and so was the next one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Hitcher (1986)

 

Written by Eric Red

Directed by Robert Harmon

Jim Halsey: "What do you want?"

John Ryder: "I want you to stop me."

Sometimes there's a lesson to be had. The lesson being that it's probably not a good idea to give a stranger a lift. Especially when it's a rather unhinged looking guy to begin with.

This would be a lesson that Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) learned in the worst way possible. Jim was delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego and in the West Texas desert, he made the big mistake of trying to be a help to a mysterious hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer), also known as John Ryder.

The hitchhiker himself came across as creepy from the moment he stepped into Jim's car and when Jim realised that he was a nutcase, he found a good way of getting rid of Ryder. That should've been a good thing for Jim but his day was going to get much worse.

John Ryder managed to get a lift from an unsuspecting family and still went out of his way to terrorise Jim. The family didn't survive and there was some carnage with a trucker before Jim ended up in a restaurant with bad food and a waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh). 

As a character, Nash isn't the greatest but she did try to both be an accomplice to helping Jim with dealing with the overzealous John Ryder when she wasn't being sceptical of Jim's story to begin with. Unfortunately for Nash, she took was a casualty of Ryder's psychotic spree. Her death was gruesome, albeit not graphically depicted. Character wise, she's rather poor.

As for the rest of the movie, Jim had a foil in a series of genuinely incompetent coppers who failed to believe him about Ryder and then failed to keep him behind bars afterwards. There's a great but bittersweet standoff between Jim and Ryder and it's the best part of the whole movie.

- The movie spawned a 2003 sequel titled The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting and a 2007 remake.

- As gory as the movie was, had it stuck to the original script it would've been a much gorier movie.

- Standout music: Mickey Jones Don't Stop Lovin' Me.

- Chronology: Largely set in West Texas over the course of a day. 

The Hitcher (1986) has earned its right as a classic horror/thriller. Rutger Hauer gave a rather unhinged performance and C. Thomas Howell certainly made for a compelling protagonist. Both men played off each other well.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Hamnet (2025)

 

Written by Chloé Zhao And Maggie O'Farrell

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Will:"Is it true, you know everything about a person, by touching them here?"

Anne: "Not everything."

With the Oscars due next month, I had to catch up with this movie. Even if it wasn't being nominated for every award under the sun, I'd still want to watch it. I mean, how could I not? Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are two of the best Irish actors working these days.

In this movie, Buckley took on the role of Anne Shakespeare, formerly Hathaway, the wife of William, played by Mescal himself. Also the mother of his children. Their romance isn't always highlighted in movie adaptations but this movie not only centred on their union but also a very brutal shared tragedy between the couple as well.

The tragedy being the death of their son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Yes, this particular time in their lives saw both Anne and William struggle with their grief over losing Hamnet while unable to console one another. Anne's grief was more straightforward and relatable to the audience as a collective whole.

William's on the other hand manifested in the writing of one of his most infamous plays, Hamlet. William poured his grief, anger and frustration out into that play and even with some of the actors during its rehearsals. One of those actors happened to be the young man playing Hamlet (Noah Jupe) before a live performance of the play took place.

Anne had to find out in the worst way aka through her stepmother, Joan (Justine Mitchell) that William was putting on a tragedy. She certainly felt a lot of anger as the play started off while her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) tried to support her. However as Hamlet played out and she saw William's own grief play out on stage, she able to laugh for the first time.

I've seen more than enough movies, TV shows etc on the topic of grief and there's something genuinely gut wrenching in this one. Both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal absolutely convey the harrowing loss and pain of losing a child and both of them deliver exceptionally heartbreaking performances. Give them all the awards.

- Other strong performances in this movie came from Emily Watson and David Wilmot as William's parents. The actors playing William and Anne's daughters were strong too.

- The movie's based on a book that was written by Maggie O'Farrell. She was the co-writer of the movie.

- Anne was likened to a witch and mentioned being able to see things. She also had a hawk. William was teaching to pay off his father's debts.

- Anne was also referred to as Agnes and the opening scene pointed out that Hamlet and Hamnet were considered the same name.

- Standout music: Max Ritchie's score absolutely elevated the movie along with the use of On The Nature Of Daylight.

- Chronology: Hamlet debuted between 1599 and 1601. The second half of the movie was set in that period. The movie was set in Stratford upon Avon and London, including the Globe Theatre.

Hamnet has now easily become my favourite award contender. What an incredible movie. Absolutely gutting and beautiful to watch, the most compelling performances from both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell also deserve all the acclaim for the writing and directing. Truly exceptional from start to finish.

Rating: 10 out of 10

My Review of Wuthering Heights (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Emerald Fennell

Heathcliff: "I pray one prayer, I repeat it until my tongue stiffens. Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me, then! Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life... I cannot live without my soul..."

Ah, the first real controversial movie of 2026 or is it? I think Emerald Fennell does have aspirations of being a provocateur but at the same time, I feel she doesn't quite commit to the idea in itself. This movie really drove that point home.

There have been countless adaptations of Emily Brontë's infamous romance novel. Some have been more faithful than others and while this one was sort of faithful to the source material, oftentimes it felt like an an adaptation in name only.

The castings of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff respectively certainly brought about it's own discourse. They're both simultaneously miscast and incredibly perfect for their respective roles. At the very least, the chemistry between the two was largely on point. That really did help the movie a lot.

Cathy and Heathcliff met each other as children when played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper. Cathy's father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) adopted Heathcliff and often treated him badly. He wasn't much better to Cathy either. Cathy also had a tendency to treat Heathcliff like a pet. Heathcliff both loved and was rather cruel towards Cathy as well.

Look, Cathy and Heathcliff have never been a literary romance that screamed "couples goals". It's always been toxic, abusive and tragic. In this adaptation, there's also an element of BDSM thrown into the mix but again, it's something that Emerald Fennell never really committed to. I think Fennell's knowledge on the practice isn't that dissimilar to EL James's to be honest.

Anyways Cathy and Heathcliff grew up. Mr. Earnshaw practically drove them into poverty and died and companion, Nelly (Hong Chau/Vy Nguyen) was mostly a foil to the doomed romance between our volatile pairing. In fact, Nelly did as much harm as she thought she was doing good throughout this whole film. 

Then there's Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) and his ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver). The former ended up in a loveless marriage with Cathy and the latter (who's rather infantalised) ended up in a submissive role upon being married to Heathcliff. Both Edgar and Isabella have their moments as characters and play off well with Cathy and Heathcliff. 

As for the rest of the movie, again this was an adaptation that decided not to go with the second half of the book. There are no future generations to break the toxic cycle. In fact Cathy ended up dying from complications of a miscarriage and Heathcliff was haunted by her death. It's a bleak ending but I actually think it worked rather well for this particular adaptation.

- Cathy seemed a bit turned on by hangings and even stuck her finger rather pointedly into a fish at one point. Isabella picked up on the former bit.

- Various characters like Hindley are excluded here and the role of Joseph went to the much younger Ewan Mitchell.

- If you liked Saltburn, Emerald Fennell had no problem bringing back certain actors for this one.

- Styling the title in quotation marks was an interesting thing to do. 

- Chronology: Charli XCX was the soundtrack for this movie but the standout songs were Everything Is Romantic and Chains Of Love.

- Chronology: It started in 1771 England. Halfway through the movie, Heathcliff left Cathy for five years. Cathy was aged up in nearly being a spinster before marrying Edgar.

Despite some obvious issues, I actually liked Wuthering Heights (2026). Is it the best adaptation? No, probably not. Is it the worst? Definitely not! Could they have gone with more accurate casting? Yes. Are Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi actually good in their roles? Also yes! Will I ever watch this again? Also yes.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: "The Morrow"

 

Written by Ira Parker And Ti Mikkel

Directed by Sarah Adina Smith 

Ser Dunk (to Maekar): "I think I'm done with princes."

And so endeth our first season. It's been a short six weeks but not boring. If there was a show that truly proved that "less is more" can work as an approach, it's this show.

Time moved on since the events of Baelor's death. In fact we got his funeral and a guilt stricken Duncan attended. This led to some choice words from Prince Valarr. Needless to say that Valarr wasn't happy about Dunk surviving over his own father. 

Dunk in general just wasn't happy at all. The Trial had really knocked his confidence and he bluntly told Maekar that he was done serving princes after the latter wanted Dunk to continue to squire Egg. Was the great TV partnership about to end after only six episodes? Of course not.

Egg wasn't going to give up on being a squire. In fact, not only was he determined to be one but by the end of this episode, he abandoned his own family in order to continue being a squire fot Ser Duncan. Given the state of his family, you can hardly blame him.

Looking at the Targaryens so to speak, Egg's hatred for Aerion intensified to the point where Maekar had to stop Egg from killing his older brother. Daeron's a little bit better but even he knew that Egg would be better with Dunk than remaining with the family. It really did say a lot about the Targaryens as a unit.

Last but not least, there was Raymun. He's been the closest to a friend that Dunk's had in the show and he was genuinely touched upon being given one of Dunk's horses to keep. Raymun's also cut out toxic family members and was about to start a family of his own with Rowan. I hope we see him again.

- Egg pointed out to Ser Duncan that there was nine kingdoms and then the title card changed accordingly.

- More flashbacks had Set Arlan failing to tell Dunk about never being knighted. Dunk revisited the tree from that flashback.

- Egg's hair was growing back before his failed attempt to kill Aerion. Dunk refused Lyonel's offer to go to Storm's End.

- Chronology: By the end of this episode Aerion was heading to the Free Cities and Dunk and Egg were heading to Dorne.

The Morrow made for a short, sweet and satisfying finale. This show had modest expectations that it managed to surpass rather well. I liked this show a lot and I'm looking forward to the second season.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Saw X (2023)

 

Written by Peter Goldfinger And Josh Stolberg

Directed by Kevin Gruetert 

John: "Hello, everyone. It's time to play a game. You all pretended to cure me. But what I have planned for each of you, is very real."

In nearly two decades, this franchise has veered into being often needlessly gruesome and also presenting a morally complicated anti-villain main character in John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). He's a complex guy, isn't he?

Anyways with the previous benching the character completely, this tenth installment went for the opposite idea. If ever there was a Saw movie where John Kramer was front and centre to proceedings, it was this one. It's also the best movie in the franchise.

Having cancer has been a huge thing with John's character and in this movie, he was given the opportunity to be cured. Naturally he took it and believed that Dr Cecelia Peterson (Synnøve Macody Lund) could help him. He was more than willing to part with his cash and go to Mexico for the cure.

Of course it turned out that Cecelia and various others, including the likes of Diego (Joshua Okamoto), Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), Valentina (Paulette Hernández) and Gabriela (Renata Vacation) had all scammed him. John wanted his usual bout of revenge and justice and Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) was more than willing to help. This movie was also Amanda at her most likable. John too for that matter.

In fact, I'd almost go as far as to say that John and Amanda were closer to even being heroic. Especially when you look into how absolutely despicable Cecelia turned out to be as a character. She might be the nastiest character ever introduced into the franchise and her boyfriend Parker Sears (Steven Brand) wasn't any better.

As bad as John and Amanda, even they wouldn't intentionally kill a child. Cecelia was more than willing to harm poor Carlos (Jorge Briseño) when she wasn't willing to betray Parker to try and save herself. There was something immensely satisfying in seeing her comeuppance play out the way it did.

- A mid credit scene had Kramer and Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) putting Henry (Michael Beach) in a device as revenge for his role in scamming John.

- John actually fell victim to one of his own traps in order to save Carlos. I'm surprised it took that long for such a thing to happen.

- Standout music: José Miguel Ortegon's Mascara del Diablo.

- Chronology: Predominantly set in Mexico and within the same timeframe as the first two movies.

I think Saw X might be the best movie in the whole franchise. I thought it was a brilliant use of John, Amanda and even Mark as character and Cecelia was such a vile piece of work as a character. The change of location also helped too.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021)

 

Written by Josh Stolberg And Peter Goldfinger

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

William: "John Kramer was right. The spiral: a symbol of change, evolution, progress."

If you ever wanted to know if the Saw franchise could make a movie that didn't feature John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) in any capacity and still work, there's this movie. Aside from a few needed mention, this was a John Kramer free zone.

Even more surprising was the addition of Chris Rock to this franchise. Horror's not something he's done a lot of in his career and I'm surprised he opted for a well known franchise rather than A24 potential critical darling. He's also rather good in this movie.

Chris Rock played a demoted detective named Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks. Zeke's pretty coarse and set in his ways and he's not particularly happy with being paired with the more modern thinking Detective William Schenk (Max Minghella). Nope, he's not happy at all.

This time around though it's not ordinary citizens or even criminals being targeted by a new Jigsaw. It's the police themselves, mostly the corrupt and inept ones. This Jigsaw wanted to clean up police corruption and using John Kramer's method of self inprovement was the way to do it.

This obviously made Zeke determined to catch Jigsaw and even had him accepting William's way of thinking as well. It also meant Zeke confronting his retired police captain father, Marcus (Samuel L. Jackson). Marcus wasn't particularly the most likable of characters but there's a joy to be had in seeing Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson share several scenes together.

As for Jigsaw himself, I don't think Schenk was that shocking but the lengths he went to avoid early detection were impressive. The guy even managed to fake having a baby in order to gain Zeke's trust. As a Jigsaw successor, William did seem closer to what Kramer would have wanted but he was also motivated by revenge. He also got away too with Zeke and Marcus being the final casualties of the movie.

- This movie was the lowest grossing in the franchise and fell victim to be released during COVID.

- Various victims included Detective Marv Bozwick (Daniel Petronijevic), Detective Fitch (Richard Zeppieri) and Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols).

- Standout music: Young Nudy's You Ain't Hard.

- Chronology: Present day, July 4th at the beginning of the movie.

I really enjoy this movie. Spiral: From The Book Of Saw effectively was a spin-off movie and it was great. Chris Rock, Max Minghella and Samuel L. Jackson were all on fine form. This would easily be high up in my list of movies for this franchise.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Jigsaw (2017)

 

Written by Josh Stolberg And Peter Goldfinger

Directed by The Spierig Brothers

Jigsaw: "The truth will set you free."

With the first seven months having a group of recurring writers and directors and being released between 2004 and 2010, this franchise certainly needed a new coat of paint. To it's credit, Jigsaw tried to do exactly that.

There's no recurring characters like Hoffman anymore. In fact this movie arguably operated as both a prequel to the first one (through some flashbacks) and a standalone sequel of sorts. I should point out that once again, Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell) isn't alive in this one.

Saying that, his bloody acts of violence under the pretext of justice were an inspiration for yet another copycat/protégé killer. This time that was Logan Nelson (Mark Passmore). Logan claimed to speak for the dead and he certainly added to the Jigsaw legacy body count.

There were many victims in this movie but most were selected from the criminals that Detective Halloran (Callum Rennie Keith) let slip through his fingers. Needless to say as the movie drew to it's bloody conclusion this would be a decision that Halloran wouldn't live to regret.

Like Hoffman before, there's an attempt to humanise Logan. Logan's anger came from a man named Edgar (Josiah Black) killing his wife. It certainly explained why Logan worked through a list to eventually get to Halloran and frame him for the new Jigsaw crimes. It's sound enough as a motive.

As for the flashbacks, more victims of Kramer themselves were revealed. This included a grieving mother named Anna (Laura Vandervoort). She had lost her baby and had a prior connection to John Kramer. Then there was Mitch (Mandela Van Peebles) who caused the death of John's nephew and Ryan (Paul Braunstein), who also caused a death. Those three had a lot of focus on them and it didn't end well for them.

- Other victims in this movie were Carly (Brittany Allen), fangirl Eleanor (Hannah Emily Anderson) and of course, Edgar himself.

- Logan was responsible for mislabeling John's X-Rays, causing his tumour to be undiagnosed.

- Standout music: Great American Canyon Band's Never Fade Away.

- Chronology: Ten years since the events of the last movie.

Jigsaw felt like a much needed shot in the arm for the franchise. While this franchise will never be able to escape from the ghost of John Kramer, I do think this felt like a fresh chapter for the franchise after the Hoffman heavy series of movies. I really liked this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Saw 3D (2010)

 

Written by Patrick Melton And Marcus Dunstan 

Directed by Kevin Gruetert 

Dr. Gordon (to Bobby): "Bravo! To be able to sustain such a traumatic experience and, uh, and yet find a positive in that grizzly act. It's a remarkable feat, indeed. Remarkable... if not a little perverse."

Otherwise known as Saw: The Final Chapter. Yup, this really should've concluded this franchise but there would be three movies to come. Everything about this movie really felt like an ending.

For example, our main focus was on a survivor named Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery). He wrote a book about escaping Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and even held a support group for former victims. Except that there's a problem with Bobby.

The problem being that Bobby was never a victim of Jigsaw's in the first place. In flashbacks, it was revealed that he was something of a loser who pretended to be a victim in order to reshape his life for the better. Unbeknownst to Bobby, he actually did meet the real Jigsaw but that was something he'd come to realise much later in the movie.

The consequences of Bobby's deception however did put him in the firing line. He was tested by current successor, Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). Yes, the latter survived Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) trying and Marl wanted revenge on the former Mrs Kramer. That didn't stop him from making Bobby's life a living hell.

Bobby's suffering came at being unable to save his publicist Nina (Naomi Snieckus), lawyer Suzanne (Rebecca Marshall) and best friend Cale (Dean Armstrong). There was also Bobby's unfortunate wife, Joyce (Gina Holden). Yet again, it ended badly for everyone involved.

However the best part of this movie was of course Mark vs. Jill 2.0 with the former subjecting the latter to what she did to him. Except she actually died and then Mark got bested by Dr Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). I was surprised to see Gordon back into the mix but again, it also felt like a full circle moment for this horror franchise.

- The opening kills were a public event with a love triangle between Ryan (Jon Cor), Brad (Sebastian Pigott) and Dina (Anne Greene). It didn't end well for Dina.

- Another kill sequence involved a group of white supremacists, one of whom was played by Linkin Park's Chester Bennington.

- Standout music: Ozzy Osbourne's Life Won't Wait.

- Chronology: From where the previous movie left off.

Saw 3D really should've been the one to have ended this franchise. It's not perfect by any means but it felt like a good place to end things for Jigsaw and his successors. Oh well.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Living Rooms"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Byron: "Happy endings. They get me every time."

Can a billionaire actually show some genuine benevolence? No, let's be honest, not really. Unless it's Bruce Wayne and he's fictional. Also Byron Forst ain't no Bruce Wayne.

Even when Byron showed some compassion, it's because he wanted something in return. For Agent Meyer Williams (John Carroll Lynch/Patrick Luwis), all he had to do was lure Cooper and Jordan into an obvious trap and his family would be whole again. Of course, Meyer agreed to Byron's request.

It's hard to blame him though. His wife Juliana (Kelli O'Hara/Hazel Graye) hated his guts and both of them blamed the other for their daughter Joey (Kaylee Halko/Augusta Liv) having progeria, which was on the verge of killing her. By the end of this episode, the Williams family were reset and Byron seemed oddly touched that he could help them. For a nanosecond, he almost came across as human.

Then I thought about the rest of the episode. We got a needed backstory for Antonio/The Assassin as the latter trusted Jeremy enough to fill him in on the details of his own transformation (Teddy Canez). Yet again, the show struck gold with Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope because the two of them play off each other so well here. I really like this pairing.

More interesting in their scenes together was the new found sense of awareness that Jeremy had about himself and incel culture. He kind of pointed out some of Antonio's toxicity, was philosophical about his father. Jeremy even asked sone relevant questions about his transformation that Antonio managed to give answers to.

Then there's Cooper and Jordan. Aww, they love each other. I don't think that's particularly shocking but I found it funny how being captured by Jeremy and Antonio really drove the point home for them. Will Byron succeed in killing Jordan and Cooper or will he find some other way to keep them in line? Assuming they don't escape first that is.

- There was mentions of The Bear, John Cena, Charli XCX, Dr. Oz, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and football talk in this episode.

- Juliana was 30 when Meyer was 45. Joey's 15 but her progerie gave her the heart of a 90 year old. Juliana also was an editor at a fashion magazine and battled cancer.

- Manny reappeared in this episode to be killed off and used as a human shield during Cooper and Antonio's fight scene.

- Chronology: Not long from where the last two episodes left off.

Beautiful Living Rooms provided a few more answers, back stories, love declarations and alliance shifting. It's another strong episode and the last of the single ones. Next week onwards, we're in double bill domain.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Saw VI (2009)

 

Written by Patrick Melton And Marcus Dunstan 

Directed by Kevin Gruetert

Jigsaw: "You think it's the living who have ultimate judgment over you, because the dead will have no claim over your soul. But you may be mistaken."

I thought upon reviewing the fifth movie that it was a the middle part of a trilogy but perhaps it was the second instalment of a quadrilogy. I said that because this wasn't the ending to the Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) era that I thought it would be.

Yup, Hoffman's cruelty has intensified and he's roping more people into his legacy killings as John Kramer/Jigsaw's (Tobin Bell) successor. The problem being that Hoffman had a few obstacles in his way. Ones that even he struggled to properly deal with.

The movie opened with the gory death of Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) but much to Hoffman's annoyance, Agent Perez (Athena Karkanis) actually survived and was getting close to exposing Hoffman's crimes. In fact, Hoffman's voice was exposed and he murdered everyone, including Perez. Gone was any sympathy this film might have had for him.

Then there was Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell). Her role here was somewhat more expanded on than before. It turned out that Kramer had given her instructions to take out Hoffman and the movie ended with the latter in a classic trap. This really should've ended the character but erm, there's another movie to get through with him.

As for the rest of the movie, the focus on Hoffman's brutality was William (Peter Outerbridge). He was the one who denied Kramer the insurance to help him and throughout the movie, William found himself having to try and save some employees (he failed) as well as Tara (Shauna McDonald) and Brent (Devon Bostick). Oh and there's William's sister, Pamela (Samantha Lemole).

Yup, there's certain moving parts in this movie. I'll admit the flashbacks to previous movies worked here along with the Mark vs. Jill subplot. William's not a particularly sympathetic character, which was why his comeuppance was a bit satisfying to watch here.

- Flashbacks included Hoffman blackmailing Amanda into killing Dr Lynn along with John and Jill's connection to William.

- The opening kills/tortures involved predatory lenders Eddie (Marty Moreau) and Simone (Tandra Howard).

- Standout music: The James Brothers More Than A Sin.

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

Saw VI felt like it could've been another finale to this whole saga had Hoffman actually died. I personally think he shouldn't have made it out of this movie alive but that man refuses to stay dead.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Saw V (2008)

 

Written by Patrick Melton And Marcus Dunstan 

Directed by David Hackl

Jigsaw (to Hoffman): "Everybody deserves a chance."

I'm halfway through this franchise and it's incredible that for the main character still being dead, they keep finding ways to make him relevant to the plot. Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell) - the post death hold you've got on this series should be studied.

Anyways, the previous movie established that Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) was an apprentice/wannabe successor to Jigsaw and we got his origin story in this one. Is he worthy of Kramer's mantle? The obvious answer would be no of course.

The movie opened with a grisly death of killer Seth Baxter (Jordan Jarsky). Let's just say that Edgar Allen Poe inspired the means of Seth's demise but it was credited to Jigsaw. However, it was Hoffman's doing and Jigsaw wasn't pleased about being credited for such a sloppy opening kill.

Anyways Hoffman's motives for murdering Seth were down to the latter killing his sister. I suppose I should give the movie points for trying to make him a bit more sympathetic but it's clear his values are different. With Kramer, there's that warped sense of justice/trying to get people to be better versions of themselves. Like Amanda, Mark clearly just wanted to kill and make his victims suffer before they die.

Speaking of victims, we've got five connecting ones here. Ashley (Laura Gordon), Brit (Julie Benz), Charles (Carlo Rota), Luba (Meagan Good) and Mallick (Greg Bryk). All of them have different professions but all of them played the role in some recent deaths (though not intentionally). To the movie's credit, there's a decent attempt to flesh out these characters before they're all taken out of the mix.

As for the rest of the movie, I was surprised that Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) actually survived the previous movie. Granted, he still had to make a sacrifice and his attempts to catch out Hoffman ended badly for him. He's a decent foil for Hoffman until he wasn't.

- There's more flashbacks to Kramer bequeathing a mystery box to his ex-wife Jill. The latter was also being stalked by Strahm.

- There's brief appearances from Amanda, Eric, David and Agent Perez in this movie.

- The film didn't end with "Game Over" like previous movies did.

- Chronology: Shortly after the events of the fourth movie but some flashbacks included the third as well.

Saw V made for an okay addition to the franchise. It's very much the middle part of the Hoffman trilogy, giving him a needed backstory. It also separated him from Jigsaw, making him into a more conventional sadist compared to his deceased mentor.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: "In The Name Of The Mother"

 

Written by Hiram Martinez And Ti Mikkel And Ira Parker

Directed by Owen Harris 

Baelor: "Be vigilant. Don't die."

That's perfectly sound advice. Then again, when you're taking part in a Trial by Seven, it's also advice that's hard to take. Oh and as it's a penultimate episode, a sympathetic character had to die. Baelor, we barely knew you.

The consequences of Baelor choosing Team Dunk meant that his own brother inadvertently killed him. Maekar struck a fatal blow and Baelor made a point of telling Dunk that the realm needed good men. Bertie Carvel might not have had a lot of screen time this season but he made the most of what he was given.

As for the battle itself, I love how green Dunk truly was as a wannabe knight. He looked completely out of his depth and it took very little for Aerion to actually incapacitate him. It also led to the majority of this episode being rather flashback heavy for Dunk.

In flashbacks we saw a younger Dunk (Bamber Todd) and his friend Rafe (Chloe Lea) trying their best to get out of Flea Bottom. This meant stealing from dead nobles but it also resulted in getting on the wrong side of Alester (Edward Davis), resulting in the death of Rafe and Dunk going with Ser Arlan.

As flashbacks, they're good and did add a bit more to Dunk's backstory. In the present though, things got even more vicious between Dunk and Aerion with the former forcing the latter to yield. I can't see Aerion letting that public humiliation slide in the future.

Last but not least, there was also Egg. His role was smaller in this episode but Dunk kept him on as a squire and Egg panicked when he thought Dunk was dying. Egg also was clearly upset when he realised that Baelor had also died by the end of this one.

- A few moments where characters were sick in this one to add to the bodily fluids list for this season.

- Beesbury and Hardyng seemed to be the other deaths of the episode, though Raymun took a battering as well.

- Aerion's dragon armour looked fantastic on the battlefield. It really did say a lot about his character.

- Chronology: The flashbacks said it was after Daemon's rebellion. 

In The Name Of The Mother was another triumph as an episode. Great use of flashbacks, brilliant battle moments and a death that genuinely impacted in spite of being telegraphed. I really hope the finale sticks the landing.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

Silver Ladies, Superhero Revivals And No Ninth Episodes

And here's my first TV Jumble Blog of 2026. There's still some shows that I need to catch up but here's a look at what I've seen so far.

Bridgerton: And we're back. Netflix are committing to this split season idea as the fourth season has Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha front and centre. Yes, Sophie Baek is the Lady In Silver and Benedict (our diamond this season), lovestruck as he might be hasn't figured that out in four episodes so far. What else this season? Oh, Sophie's stepmother isn't a nice person, Lady Danbury was trying to prime her own successor for the Queen so she could leave the country, Francesca couldn't reach the pinnacle and Penelope seemed to be struggling with being publicly known as Lady Whistledown. Oh and maid wars.

Stranger Things: New Year's Day for everyone outside the US saw the end of this long running show. Don't worry there's an animated spin off coming soon. Anyways, we got two hours and a lot of characters and arcs to resolve. To get the elephant out of the room, there wasn't a secret ninth episode and that's not a bad thing. I didn't love this finale but I didn't hate it either. I think it did the best it could to give the most important characters satisfying endings. As for Eleven, I have my own belief that she didn't totally perish. 

The Night Manager: I slept on this show for nearly a decade and in the space of a month, I watched both seasons back to back. For the most part, I think I preferred the first season to the second but even the latter was still mostly good. Tom Hiddleston's on fine form as Jonathan Pine and the many aliases he's taken in the show. His best scene partners were undoubtedly Hugh Laurie as Richard Roper and Diego Calva as Richard's estranged son, Teddy. There's some strong supporting roles for both Olivia Colman and Indira Varma to boot.

The Seven Dials Mystery: Normally, I'd assume this would have been a BBC production, considering that they've been the ones adapting Agatha Christie stories for a while now. However, Netflix got this one and made it into a three episode miniseries. It was also written by Chris Chibnall and it's pretty decent. Mia McKenna-Bruce, Martin Freeman and Helena Bonham-Carter are all on fine form. However like a lot of the BBC adaptations of late, it did lag a little bit. Still watchable though.

Wonder Man: I'm not gonna lie - my expectations for this show were low. The trailers were underwhelming and the fact that Disney+ released it all in one day didn't inspire confidence. Then I watched the show and witnessed a brilliant double act with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley and I couldn't have been more wrong. I need more scenes with Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery. This eight episodes series was really enjoyable. I thought the MCU version of The Studio couldn't work but I was wrong. This show definitely is worth watching.

• Stephen Amell has been cast as Hobie Buchannon for the upcoming reboot of Baywatch for FOX.
• HBO Max will launch in the UK/Ireland from March. Sky are also offering a package next month that will include Netflix, Disney+, Hayu and HBO Max.
• David Boreanaz has been cast in the lead of The Rockford Files for NBC.
• Terminator Zero has been cancelled after one season by Netflix.
• NBC have ordered a comedy pilot titled Newlyweds, co-created by Jamie Lee Curtis and starring Tea Leoni.
• Hulu have ordered a legal drama, Conviction, which will star Elisabeth Moss as the lead.
• The 90 minute wrap movie of Good Omens will premiere on Amazon Prime from May 13th.
• Elizabeth Banks and Matthew MacFadyen's The Miniature Wife will premiere on Peacock from April 9th.
• Baldur's Gate 3 is in the works as a series for HBO.
• Ray Romano and Joshua Jackson have been cast in How To Survive Without Me for HBO Max.
• Spider-Noir will premiere on Amazon Prime from May 27th.
• Stranger Things: Tales From 85 confirmed for April 23 on Netflix.
• The second season for FX's Shogun has also begun. 

My Review of Saw IV (2007)

 

Written by Patrick Melton And Marcus Dunstan And Thomas Fenton

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

Agent Strahm (re Jill/John): "Girl loves boy. Boy loves girl. Boy gets girl pregnant. Girl loses baby; boy turns into a serial killer."

If the third installment of this gore happy franchise felt like a natural ending point, this one felt like it was primed as a new era for it. After all, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) was dead and he needed a successor. Amanda (Shawnee Smith) was also dead, so it wasn't going to be her, was it?

Enter Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). He got to look at the dead body of John Kramer and found a microcassette in the latter's stomach. This of course led to a whole new game being set up where Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) was still around.

Yup, both detectives were being held prisoner and both were in desperate need of being rescued before either one of them would end up dead. For Jigsaw, it almost seemed a tad straightforward, post death. Surely, there was a twist to be had? Of course there was but more on that in a bit.

For the most part, there was Rigg (Lyriq Bent). He's given a bigger role in this movie as he's tasked with trying to rescue his fellow detectives while also playing Jigsaw's games. Unfortunate victims in there games included Brenda (Sarah Boylan), voyeur/rapist Ivan (Marty Adams) as well as husband/wife duo Rex (Ron Lea) and Morgan (Janet Land). It's not hard to guess how most of these games played out.

On top of that, there's also an FBI duo in Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Agent Perez (Athena Karkanis). They're brought in as it's been deduced that Jigsaw has another apprentice. Oh and for a dead man, he popped up in a lot of flashbacks. That was mainly to add another tragic backstory involving his estranged wife, Jill (Betsy Russell).

Anyways getting to the other apprentice part of the movie, it was none other than Detective Mark Hoffman himself. I'll admit that it's a good reveal and by the end of this movie, there's a few more deaths added. It's not the only surprise that this particular movie had.

- Characters from the previous two movies reappear during the flashbacks and events playing out at the same time.

- Jill had suffered a miscarriage which eventually caused her and John to separate. She owned the meat factory in which events were taking place in.

- Standout music: Yoshiki's I.V.

- Chronology: The events of this movie were happening as the same time of the third movie.

Saw IV was the start of a new trilogy and it's off to a decent start. The flashbacks were a way to keep Tobin Bell onscreen for a decent amount of time and there's some sympathy for John and Jill's tragedy. I'll admit that I liked the Hoffman reveal as well.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Saw III (2006)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell And James Wan

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

Lynn: "Please, let me go. I saved your life."

Jigsaw: "Maybe my life isn't the one you are saving, after all."

There's a part of me that wonders if this franchise should've just ended with this installment. It felt like a natural ending point, especially considering that the focus was once again on Jigsaw himself, John Kramer (Tobin Bell).

The previous movie had revealed that he had cancer and that Dr Lawrence Gordon was one of his doctors. John's determined not to die, so he got his accomplice Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) to kidnap Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) to keep John alive while another victim had to undergo John's demented tests.

The second victim being Jeff (Angus Macfadyen). Jeff's a grief stricken father who lost his son due to a car accident and had been somewhat distant towards his daughter, Corbett (Niamh Wilson). Jeff's confronted with helping ot hurting people involved in his son's death.

The first was Danica (Debra Lynne McCabe) who witnessed the accident but didn't testify. Jeff did try to help her but she died. Judge Halden (Barry Flatman) got a really disgusting ending and then there was Timothy (Mpho Koaho). Tim was responsible for the accident and although Jeff forgave him, it didn't make a difference in the end.

In fact, there's just wall to wall death here. This movie actually killed John Kramer off, but he'd continue to appear in most of the remaining movies in the franchise. Amanda died. Jeff and Lynn were revealed to be a married couple and they both died and the fates of their daughter as well as Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) were also left unknown. 

- Adam (Leigh Whannell) popped up in Amanda/Kramer flashbacks, more screen time for Billy the Puppet and Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) was killed off at the start of the movie.

- This movie also introduced Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). He doesn't have much to do here but that'll change in later movies.

- Standout music: Slayer's Eyes Of The Insane.

- Chronology: A few days since the events of the second movie.

Saw III felt like an end point to this franchise. It probably should've been as well. I mean, this movie literally killed off Jigsaw and even his successor. Aside from the Corbett cliffhanger, where else could his franchise have gone? Let's find out.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Patient Zero"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl

Clara: "Is this a dream? Did I die?"

Mike: "Actually, Clara, you're the dream now."

We're slap bang in the middle of the show and it was time to mostly step back again and look at some origins. Half this episode focused on Byron Forst and the second half filled some other gaps.

The episode opened with a captive Dr Ray having the misfortune of watching Byron having sex with a stewardess, who would be later killed off in the episode. Byron wasn't pleased that he had 855 days left before he could explode.

In fact Byron nearly killed Dr Ray until the latter persuaded him that he could find a way to keep Byron alive. Then there was Byron monologuing his great plan to Franny. I absolutely love the unbridled hatred that Franny showed Byron but I'd also love to know what made her marry him in the first place and have two children with him? I'm sure we'll find out soon.

Anyways, do you remember Joey Pollari popping up in the second episode in Italy, getting no dialogue and being taken out by The Assassin? Well, the second half of this episode was dedicated to the events that led to Byron wanting Mike McGuinn to suffer as he died. 

Yes, in an unsurprising turn of events, Mike looked a lot different. In fact you could say that he looked like Eddie Kaye Thomas. Mike was working in Zone 1 at the Corporation and was friends with a trans woman named Clara Gardner (Rev Yolanda). In fact their friendship was rather sweet as Mike and Clara both lifted each other up while not being afraid to dish out some needed truths.

Mike also had a crush on Zone 4 worker Jennifer King (Laura Dreyfuss) but learned that she was engaged. I do think Clara might have been a tad harsh about Jen when cheering Mike but an incident involving a chimp named Larry going berserk in Zone 4 gave Mike an idea.

Yes, he stole the Beauty and the boosters needed to prevent combusting and gave it to himself. Then he gave it to Clara and she ended up looking like Lux Pascal. Both of them were happy with their new bodies. Then we circled back to Mike being killed. I would've liked more of Joey Pollari in this show.

- Cooper, Jordan and Jeremy all sat out the events of this episode but the trailer for next week showed the latter two meeting.

- I assume we will properly meet both Byron and Franny's children before the season ends, right? They've been mentioned a lot.

- Standout music: Tame Impala's Dracula. Ashton Kutcher basically got his own Patrick Bateman moment.

- Chronology: Two years before the events of the first episode.

Beautiful Patient Zero did fill in a few needed gaps but that was two flashbacks in a row. The Byron stuff at the start just further cemented how awful he is but the Mike and Clara story was better though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Industry - Season 3 (2024, HBO/BBC1)

 

Written by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay And Joseph Charlton

Directed by Isabella Eklöf And Zoé Wittock And Mickey Down And Konrad Kay

Eric/Robert (in unison): "I am a man and I am relentless."

There are a few things I have to got to say about this third season. First of all, it's my favourite season of the show so far and secondly, it felt like it was being primed as a final season for the show. The last episode really did work as a potential series finale.

Of course, this season didn't end the show because the fourth season has been airing but had things been different, this would've been a glorious ending for the show. The stakes felt higher and the writing felt more elevated than it had already been. Not to mention so many dynamics shifted.

For example, Harper Stern was no longer working at Pierpoint. Instead she had moved on to working at FutureDawn. It didn't take Harper long to play partners Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel) and Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg) off each other. Harper was on a roll this season with her bullshit as the likes of Eric, Yasmin and Rishi all got caught in her crossfire. This led to one of the best fight scenes between Harper and Yasmin.

Speaking of Yasmin, how the hell did Marisa Abela not get an Emmy nomination for this season alone? It's easily her best work as Yasmin went through a very public fallout of her father's sex crimes coming to light. On top of that, the season largely teased the idea that she might have murdered him before flashbacks revealed a far murkier answer to that particular question.

Of course this season also addressed the dynamic between her and Robert as both of them got involved with Lumi CEO (a green energy company) Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington). The latter's a spoiled manchild that treated Robert like a dogsbody before eventually getting engaged to Yasmin. It's not a relationship that's really built on love by the looks of it.

By the end of this season, not only are both Robert and Yasmin out of Pierpoint but the former also left the country for his own opportunities in California. Pierpoint itself was also taken out of the equation with Eric being well and truly screwed over. It definitely felt like the end of an era here, adding to my earlier sentiment that this season felt like a final season to me.

As for Rishi, talk about a character journey. Sagar Radia was another actor who I'm shocked didn't get Emmy nominated. There's a whole episode dedicated to Rishi's gambling addiction and it's one of the best episodes of television that I've ever seen. It also came to a devastating head in the finale that made me actively dread where thecshow will go with the character next season.

- Episode titles were Il Mattino ha L'Oro in Bocca, Smoke And Mirrors, It, White Mischief, Company Man, Nikki Beach, or: So Many Ways to Lose, Useful Idiot and Infinite Largesse.

- Eric fired Kenny at the start of the season. Kenny came back with Daria and Jackie at the behest of Harper making her own moves against Eric.

- Yasmin was implied to be abused by her father as a child. Her lawyer, Denise (Fiona Button) was the sister of her former boyfriend, Seb.

- Nicole died at the start of the season and Robert was traumatised by her death. We saw Robert on a drug trip in the second half of the season.

- Other prominent characters this season included Sweetpea Golighty (Miriam Petche), James Ashford (Tom Stourton), Viscount Alexander Norton (Andrew Havill), Ali El Mansour (Fady Elsayed), Vinay Sarkar (Asim Chaudhry) and Tom Wolsey (Harry Hadden-Paton) to name a few.

- Chronology: Some time since the events of the second season. Rishi's episode was set during Christmas.

I absolutely love this season. If the show had ended with this one, it would've been one hell of a note to have ended the show. I'm glad it hasn't ended though because I've really gotten into it over these last few weeks. This show really proves that when a show can be allowed to grow its audience, it can truly deliver.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Saw II (2005)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell And Darren Lynn Bousman

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

John: "Those who don't appreciate life do not deserve life."

Eric: "My son appreciates his life."

John: "But do you appreciate yours? Do you appreciate your son's?"

And I'm on to the first of many sequels for this franchise. If the first movie kept it reasonably simple, then this was the beginning of making this incredibly complicated going forward.

First of all, there's the prominence of John Kramer (Tobin Bell) aka Jigsaw Killer himself. After the brief screen time he had in the first movie, he's a far bigger threat this time around. Oh and he's got cancer, so threatening his life won't do shit to get him to do the right thing.

That was something that corrupt Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) had to find out the hard way. His sins caught up with him when his estranged son, Daniel (Eric Knudsen) was one of many unfortunate people caught up in Jigsaw's second round of torturous games.

Let's look at the batch of victims themselves. There's Daniel and a returning Amanda (Shawnee Smith) being dragged into this mess but they're also joined by Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Laura (Beverley Mitchell), Xavier (Franky G), Jonas (Glenn Plummer), Obi (Timothy Burd) and Gus (Tony Nappo). They're all nearly cannon fodder.

To be fair, they're all people mostly linked with crime and put through the usual tests that fitted their flaws. The emphasis was largely on Amanda and Daniel. Both of them made it out of the movie alive. The not so shocking reveal though was Amanda actually working with John all along.

It's heavily telegraphed in the movie that Amanda viewed John as someone who saved her from herself, so it was fitting that she became his accomplice. Then there's Eric. He was largely a selfish character throughout and his fate ended on a cliffhanger to boot.

- Other characters of note in this movie included Alison Kerry (Dina Meyer), Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Michael (Noam Jenkins). The latter was the opening kill.

- Billy the Puppet had a lot more screen time in this movie.

- Standout music: Marilyn Manson's Irresponsible Hate Anthem.

- Chronology: Not long after the events of the first movie.

I'll admit that Saw II made for a decent sequel. I think this movie helped to cement both John Kramer and Amanda as oddly sympathetic villain protagonists. Meanwhile, the actual protagonist Eric Matthews felt rather unsympathetic by comparison. Funny that.

Rating: 7 out of 10