Wow. We’ll get to that final moment in a minute, but first let’s look back to where it all began.
In our review of the first episode we called Tommy Shelby ‘the conquering Alexander wearing a crown of razor blades’ (We did. Honest), and over the past six weeks we’ve watched as Tommy the Great has expanded his Brummie Empire through cunning and violence to the point where he’s a legitimate power in every sense of the words.
With Halloween fast approaching and the glut of hastily cobbled-together releases that fact inevitably brings, CultBox has sifted through the dregs to unearth a few golden nuggets of bloody horror to whet your appetite before the witching hour commences.
Director Paul Greengrass (Green Zone, The Bourne Supremacy) has a habit of making movies that blend his documentary-maker’s sensibilities with his interest in the political situations of the day, leading to films that are both intelligent and unique twists on the action/thriller norms.
While the Expendables franchise has united them previously, Escape Plan is the first genuine double-header between arguably the two biggest action stars in Hollywood history – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. That may come as a surprise – they’re so often mentioned in the same sentence that it’s strange to think they’ve never co-headlined a film together.
It’s not surprising that Scandinavian culture-clash cop show The Bridge has been adapted. What is surprising is that more dramas haven’t been based around The Channel Tunnel. The 31 mile subaquatic claustrophobia pipe filled with hurtling metal and disparate lives is a big concrete sausage of stories, yet to date the most dramatic thing to have happened in it was the denouement to Mission: Impossible. And that was 17 years ago.
After Doctor Who fell from favour at the BBC in 1985, it returned from hiatus in a truncated season comprising a mere fourteen episodes, back in the native 25 minute format.
After the horrific events of last week’s house party, viewers of Downton Abbey will have tuned in this week to see how sensitively Julian Fellowes dealt with the fallout, and whether any kindness could be restored if not to Anna then the programme as a whole.
Episode 3 of Atlantis begins with some amusing banter on the subject of Hercules’ affections for Medusa, but this is soon interrupted. In the act of stepping up to defend an old man, Jason lands the trio in front of King Minos.
With a recent stash of missing episodes recovered, Doctor Who fans may feel their Christmas has come early. But the real thing hasn’t yet. So put down that cracker. Don’t let those advent calendars in the shops fool you: Noddy Holder won’t be defrosted from his regenerative slumber for at least another month.
Just like that, Orphan Black has gone and snatched Paul away from the sidelines of the drama and into a position where he’s genuinely interesting.