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, 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