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Season 10, so far, has been a bit of a Doctor Who selection box. It’s aimed to include all the classic story formats, so far – a modern day opener, a futuristic alien planet and a period romp, and while this classical approach has come at the expense of narrative originality, it’s also allowed the … >
Doctor Who is a show that has always been flanked by controversy of one kind or another. It’s that typical divisiveness, the utter separation between views of what the show should be, that’s come to be a fact of the discourse around it in recent years. That makes Season 10 all the more of an anomaly … >
The second episode is often the hardest. Many seasons of Doctor Who have come racing out of the blocks with a strong opening episode that have emphatically put forward a change in approach, before a second instalment that slipped back into the familiar formula for very standard results. Look at ‘The Eleventh Hour’ into ‘The … >
“It means… what the hell.” One of the joys about Doctor Who is that it has an infinite capacity to reinvent itself, beyond even the sea change of bringing new lead actors in. In its time, the show has been a domestic drama with genre elements, an Earth-bound spy thriller, or an intricate puzzle box … >
It’s been a memorable first season for Legion. We’ve had multiple dance sequences, a short silent film, a classroom lecture, a giant ice cube floating in the astral plane, multiple alternate realities and a man gruesomely folding in on himself. Noah Hawley hasn’t held back from exploring David Haller through a deeply disorientating, often surrealist … >
The world of Legion is a world of uncertainty. David Haller has always been a man (or a mutant) at odds with his own infinitely complex mind. Syd’s powers have left her uncertain about whether her body truly belongs to her. Melanie is unsure of whether to grieve her husband or hope for his imminent … >
Legion has taken us on a mad, brilliant rollercoaster of shocks and scares in the last few episodes, but it was inevitable that the ride would have to slow down eventually. ‘Chapter 6’ brings Legion to something of a chapter break before the season’s endgame, pausing the manic momentum of recent episodes to take stock … >
“Beware, there’s a chance we’ve left the real world and we’re now in David’s one.” Melanie Bird utters this line in ‘Chapter 5’, and she proves to be correct and false at once. But the quote begs a question. Just what exactly is David’s world if David isn’t in control? Who is David if he’s … >
The X-Men franchise is a strange, haphazard juggernaut with a continuity that’s impossible to explain, but there’s always been a few constants amidst the chaos. Chief among them is Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, who’s clocked an appearance of some kind in every single X-Men movie since the series began in 2000. No other actor has played … >
In the final scene of Legion’s fourth episode, there’s a sign by the side of the road that reads ‘Slow down: uncertainty ahead’. No-one ever told Legion that. ‘Chapter 4’ is a rapid step up in every way for Legion, accelerating the pace of the season while throwing in a dizzying amount of baffling stylistic … >