This review creates spoilers.

3.4 Jeremy Bearimy

What would you do if you found out you were hell bound?

That’s the kind of big existential question that The Good Place was created in part to explore. Earlier this month, The New York Times did an exhaustive feature on Michael Schur and his ambitious TV endeavour. In it, Schur said that the central idea of The Good Place has always been simply the question “what does it mean to be a good person?”

That’s a hard enough question to begin with, impossible in fact. None of us have the answer to it and despite how high I am on this show; I can’t see The Good Place producing on a universally accepted answer in the end. This question is particularly hard because goodness doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There are seemingly an infinite number of experiences and various life configurations that a human being can endure. Jeremy Bearimy just happens upon one of the most philosophically complex: what does it mean to be a good person when it’s already been divinely ordained that you’re not?

Seeing Michael and Janet about to exit this plane via a transdimensional door has more brutal implications that we first imagined. Things are much more complicated than Michael having to explain how he can be Zack Pizzazz, Gordon Indigo, a friendly barman, and a wise librarian all at once. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t at first try.

Michael goes with the cover story that he is FBI Agent Rick Justice and Janet is his partner Lisa “Frenchie” Fuqua. They’re with that special demon fighting task force within the FBI that you always hear about. Unfortunately that story doesn’t quite stick.

“I used to work at a place that was raided by the FBI pretty frequently and these jamokes aren’t feds,” Eleanor says.

“Serious question: should we kill them?” Michael asks Janet. 

After Janet talks him out of it, Michael decides the only remaining option is to tell the truth. So he does. It then becomes clear why Michael tried so hard to make Rick Justice work in the first place. Discovering the rules of the Good Place and the Bad Place’s strange point scoring game automatically precludes you from participating in it. You can’t do good things to receive your “good person” points if you’re aware that you’re receiving good person points when doing them.

That’s a sound enough argument, I suppose. Though it does seem unnecessarily harsh to condemn these people to the Bad Place on a technicality like this. What is the Medium Place for if not for this exact scenario? 

Regardless, to the best of Michael and our understanding, this is the new reality for the gang. It’s up to them on how to react to it. Spoiler alert: they don’t react very healthily. 

The Good Place’s greatest tool is undoubtedly its moral complexity. The mere fact that it wants to ask questions like this gives it a simple leg up in this unbearably crowded TV comedy economy. It bears repeating, however, that this also may be one of the most purely hilarious shows on television. Despite (or probably because) the grand eternity-ratting implications of its premise, Jeremy Bearimy is also potentially the funniest episode of The Good Place Season 3 yet.

It starts with the very title. What or who exactly is Jeremy Bearimy? Oh, that’s just how time works in the after life. The humans are rightly confused as to how they could spend over 300 years in the Bad Place only to return home to their usual lives. That’s because while time may move in a straight path on Earth, it moves in a more roundabout way elsewhere. The closest approximation of the Good and Bad Places’ timeline resembles the words “Jeremy Bearimy” written in English cursive. What’s the dot on the “i” for? That is Tuesdays, Julys, and sometimes nothing, obviously.

This is honestly the kind of delirious madness that makes turning on a television worth it. Hell, it’s worth waking up in the morning for. Even better though are Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason’s reactions to the news.

William Jackson Harper gets to flex his comedic muscles like never before in Jeremy Bearimy. Hearing that his whole life’s pursuit has been completely pointless and all that pain in his stomach meant nothing completely and utterly breaks Chidi. We’re talking taking his shirt off to go grocery shopping and screaming “God is dead!” in drug dealers’ faces levels of emotional devastation here. 

In seemingly no time at all, Chidi is cooking chili in front of his class, while adding Peeps and M&Ms to the concoction and wearing the “Who What When Where Wine” women’s t-shirt he picked up at the grocery store. His students are understandably concerned. They ask for some with their upcoming exams so the now nihilistic Chidi decides to give them a rundown of the three major approaches to modern ethics. It just so happens that his three friends are following them to a “T.”

Tahani decides to give virtue for virtue’s sake a shot. This is actually pretty telling for Tahani’s mental state in her second time around on Earth. She still behaves like a cartoon because all of the characters do to a certain extent. But it’s kind of striking still to see the level of unhappiness raging within her. Let’s not forget that just one year ago, she got rid of all her belongings and made an earnest attempt to live an ascetic monk lifestyle. Now when confronted with the news that no amount of money, fame, or influence will get her into heaven, she just decides to give that shit away.

Tahani donates $2 million to the Sydney Opera House and insists that it be anonymous. Jason has an even better idea for all of Tahani’s millions though (which amounts to 131 million British pounds to be exact). Give that money to passersby on the street. Since, I’m not a distinguished professor of ethics, this seems like a pretty novel approach to Tahani’s damnation. As we eventually find out thanks to Chidi’s unhinged lesson: this is virtue ethics. Even though all hope may be lost, Tahani is trying to prove that she has moral character even if only for herself. 

Jason, whether he knows it or not (and he most certainly does NOT know it), is partial to the consequentialism school of though. While Tahani was at first content to give a big chunk of her money to an opera house that probably doesn’t even need it, Jason from his time on the mean streets of Jacksonville knows that there is a world of people out there who could use Tahani’s money - the morality of an action is to be judged solely by its consequences, you see. Little does Jason know that one of those consequences will be getting married to Tahani. At first she tries to give him all of her money but the bank simply won’t allow it. “We’re technically supposed to shut down the bank if someone from Florida even walks in,” the banker says. So she settles for giving him half instead.

Eleanor, American that she is has perhaps the most stubbornly American approach to her new damned existence. At first, Eleanor is content to try to swindle a local bar out of free birthday margaritas. This almost backfires because the bartender is simply too nice to give a shit. It’s clear that this American woman is clearly going through something. Eleanor is prepared to head to the airport to leave Australia forever… and then she finds a wallet.

She wants to pocket the cash from the wallet and move on with her life but she just can’t seem to. She has to return it because…she just has to. Deontology, as Chidi will explain over his big pot of peeps and M&Ms chili, is an approach to morality through duty or obligation. The right thing is simply the right thing. You know it; now do it, you lazy asshole. Whether she’s aware of it or not, this is the school of thought that Eleanor has been following her whole life. That little voice in the back of the head knows what the right thing to do is - she just has to trust it.

Trusting that voice appears to be a particularly good move this time around. Despite the journey to return the wallet becoming a big chore (“Ha! That address is right by the bar that I picked you up at.”), the payoff is massive. Fred Booth is ecstatic to get his wallet back, not because it contains his money or his ID, but because it has a hand-written “good lucky, daddy” picture that his daughter drew for him. 

“A lot of people wouldn’t have tried so hard to give this to me,” Fred says. “I hope she ends up like you when she grows up.”

The Good Place has benefitted immeasurably from its time on Earth. Not only does the scope feel bigger (which is weird given that heaven and hell are technically infinite), but more importantly it gets to incorporate other people. Michael has been so singularly focused on the eternal souls of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason that he’s neglected to fully appreciate just how unfair the system is for everyone else.

While the humans are off, lost in their feelings, Michael sits down to a computer to write his manifesto (one agonisingly slow keystroke at a time). He’s doing it because he knows his experiment has failed but he wants to leave some reliable research for the next demon or angel bold enough to try. 

It’s people like Simone and now the loving father Fred Booth that show us that there are a lot of good souls on Earth primed for saving. Thankfully, Eleanor comes to a similar conclusion. 

“The six of us are doomed. But I think we have one move left. We can try,” Eleanor tells Michael, Janet, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason when they all find themselves back at the University. The stupid little voice in the back of Eleanor’s head couldn’t help but notice how happy she made Fred Booth with her simple act of kindness. The Good Place isn’t an option for them but it is for billions of other people. The Brainy Bunch is now the Soul Squad.

So far The Good Place season three appears to be following a similar path to season two. The first quarter of the season is a madcap, creative exploration of new ideas before the show eventually settles on one and lets its characters live within a new status quo for a bit. If the Soul Squad is to be our new normal, then this season is in great shape. There are a lot of souls out there. Perhaps they can start with poor Larry Hemsworth.

Read Alec's review of the previous episode, The Snowplow, here.

As everyone knows, the real star of Alien is not Ripley or the xenomorph, but Jonesy the ginger cat. Jonesy (who was actually played by four different, uncredited, moggies) is the only survivor of the Nostromo besides Ripley and his story needs to be told dammit. 

After almost 40 years, Ridley Scott’s ship’s cat is finally getting his chance thanks to an 80-page illustrated book by Rory Lucey called Jonesy: Nine Lives On The Nostromo.  

As you can see by the cover, Jonesy looks like he’s having a ball with a facehugger, but we all know it can’t have been easy for him running around that ship of nightmares, popping out of crates at all the wrong times. 

“At the scary moments I tried to either diffuse the situation with cat hijinks, like Jonesy licking his butt in the escape pod during the final showdown, or play into the tension and have Jonesy be scared,” Lucey told io9. “Cats don’t exactly react to situations in human-appropriate ways, so just staying true to that helped bring the humour in naturally.”

So is it suitable for kids? Not exactly. “What I’ve said to my art students is that they should pay attention to the context clues of what is happening around Jonesy in the book,” says Lucey, who teaches art in a New Jersey high school. “And see if they, one, really want to see a movie like that and then two, have a conversation with their parents about if it is the right time.”

With any luck, Jonesy: Nine Lives On The Nostromo will kick-start a new sub-genre in illustrated fiction that the literary world has been crying out for, and we’ll see plenty more horror movies retold from the perspective of pets. We want to see Chips the dog’s take on Dawn Of The Dead, or find out what that German Shepherd really thought of The Hills Have Eyes. Then there’s Harry in Amityville Horror, Barney in Gremlins, Muffin in Friday the 13^th Part 2…

The third season of Daredevil once again pits the eponymous hero Matt Murdock against Wilson Fisk, the self-styled Kingpin of crime. Matt, who barely survived death at the end of the Defenders mini-series, finds himself questioning his faith and his desire to live a normal life. Meanwhile, the Kingpin has made a deal to secure his own freedom.

We caught up with incoming showrunner Erik Oleson for a spoiler-free chat about the upcoming season.

So Erik, I was wondering if you could just tell us how you came to the project.

Oh, I'm a huge fan of the comics, and the show in fact. I met with Drew Goddard in season 1 and came very close to writing it, and I've been kicking myself that I didn't ever since, so I was very excited to do season 3. I love the character of Matt Murdock - he's got all these built-in contradictions, the lawyer who's a vigilante, the faithful catholic who goes out and acts as if he's god… It's a dream come true to write my version of that.

And so you're the third showrunner on Daredevil now and you had an extra challenge in that you had to also address some major events from Defenders, so I'm interested in how you approach that - what's it like having to incorporate what's come before while trying put your own stamp on it?

I wanted to treat season 3 in the spirit of the comics - like it was my own run of the comics, like Loeb and Sale's Yellow, or Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil. I wanted to put my own stamp on the show. Marvel had their ideas - they knew that Wilson Fisk would be back, and they’d cleared the rights for me to incorporate pieces of my favourite comics. Obviously at the end of Defenders a building falls on Matt so THAT had to be part of it. But from that, I wanted to make the show about something. Not just continuing the story, that's not how I think and not what the great comic runs do.

One of the things I wrote on the wall was our season's controlling idea: "We can only be free when we confront our fears because our fears are what enslave us." That became the guiding principle for everything every single character does in the season, they all have a fear that is fuelling their actions.

I wanted to relate it to the real world in some way, and this year the show's about a tyrant who manipulates people against one another using their fears. But as well as reflecting this circumstance, I wanted the show to be a prescription for how to defeat that sort of person and how we can use the power of the free press and compassion to defeat those personalities who are pitting us all against one another in real life.

It's interesting that you mention the free press, because I've seen the first few episodes I'm really interested in how you're using Karen - as you probably know there's no real precedent for her working as a journalist in the comics but now I see why you might have picked that thread up.

One of the things I wanted to do was really flesh out the supporting cast. I'm a big fan of TV shows with well-realised characters, things like The Sopranos, so the first thing I really wanted to do was fully understand Karen Page, and why she never finished the flirtations she started with Foggy, and Matt, and for that matter Frank Castle. I wanted to know who IS this person and what makes her tick? I could not be more proud of Deborah Ann Woll and how she nailed her storyline this season.

And speaking of supporting characters... you created a new character, Agent Ray Nadeem, for Jay Ali. Why did you decide to go that route rather than use an established Marvel figure?

So yeah, the character of Ray Nadeem is an FBI agent who is Wilson Fisk's handler as he cuts a deal with the government to get out of prison. In many ways he's the heart of the show, it's a story about an honest man who is affected by his proximity to Fisk. I wanted to create a character where we really didn't know what was going to happen next - there's nothing about him that springs from the comics so anything can happen to and with him.

And another part was that honestly, I wanted to diversify the cast. And Jay Ali is a terrific British actor, he carries a huge amount of weight this season. I'm looking forward to seeing where the character goes.

One thing I've noticed about what I’ve seen is that the show seems like it's become a lot more intense, but also a lot less graphic. Is that something you were consciously doing?

Oh, definitely. When I took over as showrunner there were some guiding directions I gave to everyone on the crew, and that's to tell the story as if the audience is experiencing the story within the shoes of the character, rather than watching it. When you approach the story from the outside you're not necessarily emotionally connected to everything that's happening in the scene. I'm a huge fan of deep storytelling of emotional bond between great actors, and being inside their heads like that... it allows the audience to really feel as if they are Matt Murdock, or Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson.

So this this might be getting ahead a bit. But assuming you told the story you want to tell in season 3, would you be interested in coming back for season 4? Is that something you've thought about?

I'd love to. I can't talk about it in any way, but I'd be very excited to.

Okay, so the other the other Marvel shows since Defenders have been exploring the idea of crossovers and guest stars from other shows. Without spoiling anything major, what's your feeling about that opportunity?

I didn't want to do crossovers. I wanted to get back to the core characters and re-focus the show. I love the other shows, but they have different tones and for the story that I wanted to tell it would've just been a distraction from the story I was doing.

And speaking of the other shows, Iron Fist was ten episodes and I believe Daredevil is the full thirteen again?

Yeah.

Was that a choice you made? Was it something given to you by Marvel?

The decision was made even before I joined the show, but I'm a real student of pacing and structure, and I was cognizant of the criticism some of the other shows had with regards to their pacing. I designed season 3 to keep that in mind. It has nothing people can call filler, put it that way. I use every inch of real estate that they gave me to tell a moving story and dig deeper into the characters. If I didn't have 13 I wouldn't have been able to do some of the really cool and forward-pushing material that we did.

Erik Oleson, thank you very much!

Daredevil season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 19th

“How do you make a man do something without nagging? That is the billion-dollar question," Liane Moriarty wrote in her novel The Hypnotist’s Love Story. Writing, directing and starring in your own movie might help. Which Heather Graham wrote did for the romantic comedy Half Magic. Graham worked her magic on ABC, which will adapt Moriarty's book into a series, according to Variety.

ABC bought the adaptation as a put pilot. The series is being produced by ABC Studios and David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Laurie Zaks of Mandeville Television. Graham will star, and executive produce the series along with Katie Wech (Star), who will write the series.

Graham will play Ellen O’Farrell, a "professional hypnotherapist who works out of the eccentric beachfront home she inherited from her grandparents," according to the book's official synopsis. "It’s a nice life, except for her tumultuous relationship history. She’s stoic about it, but at this point, Ellen wouldn’t mind a lasting one. When she meets Patrick, she’s optimistic. He’s attractive, single, employed, and best of all, he seems to like her back. Then comes that dreaded moment: He thinks they should have a talk. It turns out that Patrick’s ex-girlfriend is stalking him. Ellen thinks, Actually, that’s kind of interesting. She’s dating someone worth stalking. She’s intrigued by the woman’s motives. In fact, she’d even love to meet her."

Graham has come a long way since License To Drive, her debut film in 1988. Graham is best known for her roles the films Drugstore Cowboy, Boogie Nights, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Hangover and Bowfinger. She appeared on the TV series Get Shorty, Twin Peaks, Scrubs, Californication, Law & Order: True Crime, Angie Tribeca and Flaked. Graham was also one of the women to speak out against Harvey Weinstein.

Moriarty wrote the best-selling novels The Husband’s Secret, Truly Madly Guilty and Big Little Lies, which was turned into an Emmy-winning series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman for HBO.

There is no word yet on when The Hypnotist's Love Story will premiere.

Manifesthas just procured more flight hours on NBC in the form of a full-season order.

In what has to be considered an auspicious sign for the series, NBC has extended its order of Manifest by three, increasing the inaugural season to 16 episodes from its original 13. While technically, a full-series order tends to range around 22 episodes, the increase is, nevertheless, being billed as a “full-season” order.

Manifest debuted stateside in September, depicting the vexing ordeal of Montego Air Flight 828, which took off from Jamaica in 2013 and landed in New York City in 2018; a five-and-a-half-year flight that felt instantaneous for the passengers, but rendered them missing to their loved ones for the entire time. The series, like another famous ensemble-rich, plane-disaster-centric supernatural-esque genre series in ABC’s Lost, works with the (J.J. Abrams style) “Mystery Box” approach, slowly and circuitously unravelling the mystery of the phenomenon that affected the flight and the bizarre clairvoyance-like side effects experienced by the passengers.

NBC has been touting the series as a ratings winner, with its debut episode, which experienced a substantial increase from its initial numbers, thanks to delayed viewings. Consequently, the Manifest pilot grew to 4.2 from 2.16 in the coveted 18-49 demo and 18.4 million viewers from the 10 million banked from the initial airing. The increase represents the biggest seven-day gain of any series premiere. The series has since been holding steady with 8.4 million same-day viewers. Thus, NBC’s increased episode investment is clearly justified.

Manifest is created by Jeff Rake, who’s delved into genre TV work with The CW’s The Tomorrow People and Beauty And The Beast. Amongst the array of producers on the series is the legendary Back To The Future filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. The series cast consists of names such as Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Dallas, Athena Karkanis, J.R. Ramirez, Parveen Kaur, Jack Messina and Luna Blaise.

Venturing into virtual worlds has gone from science-fiction to science-fact, with a huge amount of VR headsets coming to market in recent years. VR these days isn’t quite up to the standards of the Oasis from Ready Player One, but it can add an exciting new dimension to your gaming and social experiences.

Knowing which VR headset to buy isn’t always easy, though, so we’ve gathered some of our favourites into this handy guide. Read on to discover which one is the perfect VR headset for your needs, and feel free to click away at any point if you fancy making a purchase…

Here’s our rundown of the best VR headsets to buy

Oculus Go: a great way to get your first taste

Price the last time we looked:£318 on Amazon

If you’re looking to try VR, but don’t know where to start, the Oculus Go is a great place to look. Unlike many VR headsets on the market, this beauty doesn’t need to physically hook up with a laptop, phone, games console or any other device in order to function.

This standalone VR headset, with its breathable materials and adjustable straps, can connect you to over 1,000 VR experiences – including video games, social apps and 360-degree panoramas. The ergonomic handheld remote is included as standard, too, allowing you to easily take control of your virtual surroundings. And as for any eyesight issues, you can use the headset with glasses or insert bespoke lenses. Snazzy, ey?

HTC Vive VR: room-scale VR done right

Price the last time we looked:£600 on Amazon

The HTC Vive kit includes the snazzy headset, two beacons and two spatially tracked controllers – that’s everything you need to scale your VR experience to fit in your living room, creating a truly immersive and interactive experience in the heart of your home. Or if moving around sounds like too much effort, it also works as a seated VR experience.

You will need a fairly powerful PC in order to be able to run it, but if you do have the processing power necessary, you’re in for a treat. It may not be the most affordable option on the market, but it is one of the best.

PlayStation VR: a portal to some awesome games

Price the last time we looked: £199.99 deal price at GAME (with loads of cool stuff thrown in)

If you’re looking for a VR headset that’s perfect for gaming, look no further than the PSVR. This beauty can connect with your PS4 to bring you immersive gaming experiences such as Resident Evil 7, Batman: Arkham VR, Doom VFR and Star Trek: Bridge Crew.

The PSVR doesn’t quite have the resolution to match some of its more expensive rivals, but that library of games is truly top-notch. You do have to buy games separately, though, which does, of course, add to the cost.

Super Savings Sidebar: GAME is currently selling a PSVR bundle that gets you the headset, Resident Evil 7, Astro Bot and two months of Now TV Entertainment for £199.99. That's a saving of over a hundred quid, compared to the separate buying costs. You can click here to go to the product page, if that sounds tempting!

Oculus Rift: a classic, and an all-rounder

Price the last time we looked:£499 on Amazon

The biggest name in VR, the Oculus Rift is a true all-rounder. Offering a really straightforward user experience, the Oculus Rift has a snazzy tracking system to capture your head movements, custom display and optics, integrated audio and an ergonomic design.

Buying the Oculus Rift through the link above also snares you an Xbox One controller, a sensor and a remote, which is basically everything you need to get your VR experience started. The basic Oculus Rift is a great place to begin your VR journey, and, if you’re able to pay a bit more, you can add extra levels of interactivity by chunking an Oculus Touch into your bundle.

Samsung Gear VR: an affordable option, if you have the right phone

Price the last time we looked:£24 on Amazon

If you’re a Samsung phone user, this incredibly affordable VR headset can connect you to basic virtual reality apps without breaking the bank. You can immerse yourself in videos, submerge into social experiences and even dip into VR games (albeit ones that aren’t as snazzy as the PSVR offerings).

The Samsung Gear VR headset has a super AMOLED display, precise head-tracking technology and lenses made by Oculus. All you need to do is slot your phone in, pick the VR experience you want, and prepare for an amazing journey. It’s a shame that only Samsung users can get it, because this is a really excellent example of how much a phone can achieve with VR.

Homido VR V2: The best VR headset for iOS users

Price the last time we looked:£52 on Amazon

For iPhone users, finding a VR headset that works well with your phone isn’t quite as easy. There isn’t an official Apple product to turn to, but there are still quality headsets that will do the trick. We’re particularly fond of the Homido VR V2, which isn’t too pricey and has a nice big frame for fitting your phone.

There isn’t that much to do in terms of VR experiences on iPhones, but this natty piece of kit can connect you up to YouTube 360 videos, Facebook panoramas and bespoke experiences through other apps. Homido also has its own VR Centre, which offers some decent content.

Acer Windows MR headset: entry-level VR for PC

Price the last time we looked:£250 on Amazon

Or if it’s your PC that you’re hoping to use while traversing virtual realms, this headset from Acer contains everything you need. Compatible with over 20,000 Windows apps, this mixed-reality headset can even bring your emails into a digital world (if that’s something you’d want to do).

In terms of features, the Acer headset has impressively high pixel resolution and inside-out tracking, meaning you’ll get really HD visuals and a nice steady image. It also comes with controllers included, allowing you to interact with your environment. And it has integrated graphics cards, which should allow even modest laptops to be able to run it.

Do you have a VR headset that you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments below, if so...

Netflix confirmed last year that it was pressing ahead with a kinda-reboot of its hit drug cartel drama Narcos in season 4.

Michael Peña (Crash, Ant-Man) and Diego Luna (Rogue One, Y Tu Mamá También) are the new powerhouse stars, and filming has now wrapped up over in Mexico, which is where season 4 is set. Furthermore, season 4 has been re-titled as Narcos: Mexico.

The streaming giant has now released a huge first trailer...

More as we get it.

Narcos season 4 release date

We can expect Narcos on 16th November on Netflix UK.

Narcos season 4 story

Here's the official synopsis for Narcos: Mexico, which is looking like it'll be dead good:

Narcos: Mexico will launch as a new Netflix original series later this year. Shifting away from Colombia, where Narcos spent three seasons, Narcos: Mexico will explore the origins of the modern drug war by going back to its roots, beginning at a time when the Mexican trafficking world was a loose and disorganised confederation of independent growers and dealers. Witness the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s as Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna) takes the helm, unifying traffickers in order to build an empire. When DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña) moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post, he quickly learns that his assignment will be more challenging than he ever could have imagined. As Kiki garners intelligence on Félix and becomes more entangled in his mission, a tragic chain of events unfold, affecting the drug trade and the war against it for years to come.

Michael Peña will play Kiki Camarena, a family man and an undercover DEA agent who garnered valuable intel through a series of informants around Félix and his newly minted Guadalajara cartel, but quickly found himself in c as he realized he had completely underestimated the sophistication of Gallardo's system.

Diego Luna will play Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (“Félix”), the leader of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the biggest narcos in the history of Mexico and the founder of the modern Mexican drug trade. Quiet but bold, inscrutable but sharp-minded, to all appearances he is a benevolent leader, loyal to his friends, associates, and employees...but his ambition comes before all else.

"We always knew that we would get to Mexico eventually," showrunner Eric Newman admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. "A key team comprised of myself and the guys I really trust and work very closely with — [director] Andi Baiz, [co-creators] Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro — have been discussing how to best transition to Mexico as early as season two. We decided on the Guadalajara cartel because it represents the beginning of the modern Mexican drug trade. It makes sense to start there."

Newman also added that "The design was always to finish out the Colombian story and the players that we’ve come to know there, and then start anew in Mexico."

But should you be wondering if we've seen the last of season 3 star Pedro Pascal, the answer is...well, let's just say 'hazy'.

"I’d like to think that he still hasn’t made up his mind about whether he wants to come back. It is after all an intersecting universe — the Mexicans did a lot of business with the Colombians," Newman went on, but wouldn't give a straight 'yes' or 'no' on Pascal's return, only confirming that season 4 is "not about him."

Hmm.

Supergirl has done more than its share of bringing characters from Superman's world into the fold. For starters, Jimmy Olsen is in each and every episode, and we had an entire season with Cat Grant making Kara's life a little bit more anxious, and another with Metropolis' own Maggie Sawyer. The show brought Tyler Hoechlin in as Superman himself in the season two opener, which itself was loaded with Man of Steel lore. We've had plenty of one-and-done villains and minor recurring characters who come right out of the pages of Superman comics, but one has cast the longest shadow...

...Lex Luthor.

The Luthor family is inescapable on Supergirl, with Kara's increasingly uneasy friendship with Lena Luthor taking the spotlight during season three, and her mother Lillian Luthor spending a considerable chunk of season two giving everyone headaches. Lex Luthor has been mentioned plenty of times, one of those awesome purple and green warsuits showed up once, and we even visited his mansion late in the third season. Still, we have yet to see his bald head.

That's about to change.

Supergirl season 4 is officially looking to cast Lex Luthor. Executive Producers Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller offered in a statement that, “we’re beyond excited to introduce iconic villain, Lex Luthor, to Supergirl and to weave him into our story this season. We’ve talked about having Lex on the show since it’s inception and we’re excited to have him finally arrive. We can’t wait for him to shake things up in National City and watch him go toe to toe with not only Supergirl, but his sister Lena Luthor.”

And while everyone is excited for the return of Tyler Hoechlin as Superman and the introduction of Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane during the upcoming Elseworlds crossover, WB TV is quite clear that Lex Luthor will not appear in any of those episodes.

Lex's arrival makes perfect sense this year. Supergirl season 4 has already cast two characters with direct links to Superman's greatest enemy. Rhona Mitra is Mercy Graves, familiar to Superman fans as Lex Luthor's super strong personal bodyguard. Mercy first appeared on the indispensable Superman: The Animated Series in 1996, and has since made her into the pages of DC Comics and even on the big screen for the regrettable Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (where she was played by Tao Okamoto).

The show also has Robert Baker as Otis Graves. That would be Otis, as in Gene Hackman bellowing "Otis!" in his most annoyed tones in Superman: The Movie and Superman II. That bumbling Otis, who was played by the brilliant Ned Beatty never had a last name, but Supergirl has paid tribute to the Richard Donner Superman movies every chance it gets, and you don't name a character Otis in this world unless you mean it.

It's not clear when Lex Luthor will be introduced on Supergirl. Considering that the "Elseworlds" crossover is already filming, and that will air the week before the Supergirl midseason finale, it is unlikely he'll appear on the show before 2019. Anyway, there are already enough villainous types lined up already with both Agent Liberty (Sam Witwer) and Manchester Black (David Ajala) lining up to lower the property values in National City.

Having met Kal-El and assorted other members of the Superman supporting cast and extended family, it will be great to see what this universe's take on Lex Luthor might be. Will he be a Michael Rosenbaum type or a Gene Hackman? Whoever he is, he'll be the ninth actor to play the role in live action, and Lex has quite a screen legacy of his own.

Who do you want to see play Lex Luthor?

Here's the first trailer for season 4...

Supergirl season 4 air date

Supergirl will be back for season 4 on 14th October on The CW. A UK air date has been set on Sky One for 22nd October.

Flip over to page 2 for more on season 4's main villain and cast changes...

Supergirl season 4 villain

At the Supergirl panel at San Diego Comic Con, the show's cast and crew confirmed that they were following through with their teased bad guy for season 4. Manchester Black, the telepathic bastard who has plagued Kara's cousin for almost 20 years, is joining the show. He'll be played by David Ajala (The Dark Knight, Doctor Who).

Manchester Black was created by Joe Kelley and Doug Mahnke in 2001 for Action Comics #775. He was originally a pastiche of Jenny Sparks and the rest of The Authority, a Wildstorm Justice League analogue that was ultra violent and cynical about the purpose of superheroes. Kelley and Mahnke created him as a direct expression of that millieu for Superman to rebut in "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?"

Black continued to appear in Kelley's Justice League Elite and was eventually converted into a full Superman bad guy. His most recent appearance was in Superman around his 25th post-Rebirth issue, corrupting Jon and several cows in an attack on Clark.

He is a telepath and telekinetic, with very precise, fine control over his telekinesis, something Superman has turned around on him on multiple occasions. This should be an interesting villain for Kara to fight - his cynicism is actually his defining trait.

Supergirl has done more than its share of bringing characters from Superman's world into the fold. For starters, Jimmy Olsen is in each and every episode, and we had an entire season with Cat Grant making Kara's life a little bit more anxious, and another with Metropolis' own Maggie Sawyer. The show brought Tyler Hoechlin in as Superman himself in the season two opener, which itself was loaded with Man of Steel lore. We've had plenty of one-and-done villains and minor recurring characters who come right out of the pages of Superman comics, but one has cast the longest shadow...

Lex Luthor.

The Luthor family is inescapable on Supergirl, with Kara's increasingly uneasy friendship with Lena Luthor taking the spotlight during season three, and her mother Lillian Luthor spending a considerable chunk of season two giving everyone headaches. Lex Luthor has been mentioned plenty of times, one of those awesome purple and green warsuits showed up once, and we even visited his mansion late in the third season. Still, we have yet to see his bald head.

But Supergirl season 4 is now introducing two more characters with direct links to Superman's greatest enemy. The show just cast Rhona Mitra as Mercy Graves, familiar to Superman fans as Lex Luthor's super strong personal bodyguard. Mercy first appeared on the indispensable Superman: The Animated Series in 1996, and has since made her into the pages of DC Comics and even on the big screen for the regrettable Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (where she was played by Tao Okamoto).

The show isn't stopping there, also introducing Robert Baker as Otis Graves. That would be Otis, as in Gene Hackman bellowing "Otis!" in his most annoyed tones in Superman: The Movie and Superman II. That bumbling Otis, who was played by the brilliant Ned Beatty never had a last name, but Supergirl has paid tribute to the Richard Donner Superman movies every chance it gets, and you don't name a character Otis in this world unless you mean it.

Right now, there have been no announcements or indications that the show is looking to cast Lex for this season. And to be perfectly clear, there are already enough villainous types lined up already with both Agent Liberty (Sam Witwer) and Manchester Black (David Ajala) lining up to lower the property values in National City. But adding two more characters with direct connections to Lex, and who have an on screen history with him (despite being blood relatives, you can't really say that about Lillian or Lena), seem to push things about as far as you can go without actually doing it. After all, the first season of Supergirl invoked Clark's name so often that it would have felt like a cheat if they didn't actually introduce the character by the time we got to season two. We might be approaching that point with Lex, as well.

We're not suggesting they use Lex as a crutch or a season long villain. But having met Kal-El and assorted other members of the Superman supporting cast and extended family, it would be great to see what this universe's take on Lex Luthor might be. And while there seem to be no plans to bring Tyler Hoechlin's Superman back any time soon (although we can't help but notice that the third episode of the season is called "Man of Steel"), having Kara and Clark take on Lex and whatever he cooked up could make for a fine two-part episode at some point in Supergirl season 4. It would probably be a little too much if they brought Michael Rosenbaum in (although we wouldn't complain).

In the meantime, we'll just have to content ourselves with Mercy and Otis. And considering how little these characters have been explored beyond their most basic traits, maybe that will be enough this season.

Who would you want to see play Lex Luthor if he were introduced to the DC TV universe?

Supergirl season 4 cast

Right now, all we know is that Jeremy Jordan will no longer be a series regular, instead he'll be a recurring character. TV Line also reports that Chris Wood won't be back as Mon-El, but that the show is in the process of casting a transgender character. More details on that are available at comicbook.

The CW superhero show had cast Brent Spiner in a recurring role in the upcoming season. The actor, best known in nerd communities for his iconic work as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was set to appear as Vice President Baker, but now he'll be replaced by Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5). Scheduling conflicts and family matters were cited in the swap.

The official description for the character of Vice President Baker states: "Adept and politically minded, Vice President Baker makes for an unlikely leader, but steps up in a big way when his country needs him most." Does this mean that something might be happening to President Marsdin? Given that the role is recurring, I do worry.

In other exciting Supergirl season 4 casting news, the show will bring the first transgender superhero on television in the form of Nicole Maines' Nia Nal, who is "the newest addition to the CatCo reporting team."

Jesse Rath's Brainiac 5 has also been upped to a series regular.

Like Line Of Duty before it, Peaky Blinders has been given a promotion in the schedules and will be moving for its fifth series to BBC One.

BBC Two developed the early twentieth century gangster show in 2013 and has been its home ever since. From series five onwards though, the Shelby family will reside in new digs over on the BBC's mainstream drama channel, a sign of Peaky Blinders' rising popularity.

Production has now begun on series 5, and the Beeb has just announced a host of new cast mates for Cillian et al, although details of their roles have not yet been revealed.

Sam Claflin (The Nightingale), Anya Taylor-Joy (Split, The Witch) and Brian Gleeson (Phantom Thread, Logan Lucky) are the biggest names of the bunch, with Neil Maskell (Happy New Year, Colin Burstead), Kate Dickie (The Cry), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) and Emmett J Scanlan (Butterfly) also climbing aboard. Elliot Cowan (The Spanish Princess), Charlene McKenna (Ripper Street), Andrew Koji (Warrior) and Daryl McCormack (A Very English Scandal) have also scored parts in series 5.

Here's a first look at Anya in the show...

“I could not possibly be more excited to be joining such a talented group of people." the actress said in a statement.

More as we get it.

Peaky Blinders season 5 story

A new series 5 synopsis is doing the rounds...

Series five of Steven Knight’s crime family saga finds the world thrown into turmoil by the financial crash of 1929. Opportunity and misfortune are everywhere. When Tommy Shelby MP (Cillian Murphy) is approached by a charismatic politician with a bold vision for Britain, he realises that his response will affect not just his family’s future but that of the entire nation.

Helen McCrory (Skyfall) will once again share the screen with Murphy, Paul Anderson (The Revenant), Sophie Rundle (Bodyguard), Finn Cole (Animal Kingdom), Kate Phillips (The Crown) and Natasha O’Keefe (Sherlock Holmes: The Abominable Bride). Aidan Gillen (Game Of Thrones) and Jack Rowan (Born To Kill) will allso be back as Aberama and Bonnie Gold, along with Charlie Murphy (Happy Valley) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Deep State). Harry Kirton (We Can Be Heroes), Packy Lee (The Frankenstein Chronicles), Ned Dennehy (Good Omens), Ian Peck (Endeavour) and Benjamin Zephaniah will be returning, too.

“The story of the Peaky Blinders and of the Shelby family gets woven into the political fabric of Britain and Europe as the 1920’s end and the thirties begin," teases creator Steven Knight. "Tommy Shelby faces the darkest force he has ever faced and his struggle is as relevant today as it was then.”

Peaky Blinders series 5 air date

"I've had an idea..."

After series 4's epic finale, the BBC almost immediately confirmed that a fifth series of Peaky Blinders was on the cards, but they announced that Tommy Shelby and the gang will be taking a year off, returning to our screens in 2019.

Peaky Blinders series 6 possibilities

Steven Knight has long indicated that he had five series of the show mapped out, but in a recent interview with Deadline, he seemed even less sure that the end is nigh for the Birmingham-set period drama.

“The thought has long been to finish after season 5," Knight mused. "But the momentum and love for the thing seems to still be growing exponentially and this is making us pause before deciding finally.”

Star Cillian Murphy is also there for it. “Listen, you know Steve has so many ideas. He’s so inventive, I wouldn’t be surprised. For me, I’ve always said as long as the writing stays as good as it is, I’m around.”

By now it’s well known that Tim Burton got his start as an animator, working as a concept artist for little or no credit. His early stop-motion projects saw him cut his teeth in the film industry, with the Vincent Price-narrated six-minute short Vincent catching the attention of Hollywood producers eager to find fresh young directors.

Even in those early shorts, Burton’s gothic style is clear to see. Take a look at Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride and Dark Shadows, for instance, and you’ll see shades of his horror-tinged formative work spring to life in big budget features.

Rarely has a modern director characterised a period of film history more than Burton, with his late 90s and early 00s films dominating an era and becoming the obsession of many a film buff. While Hollywood is still littered with interesting visions and voices at a time when franchise installments are lauded over star power, Burton was an anomaly at the time, and remains a refreshing voice in 2018.

Burton’s first feature was Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, having won the gig off the back of Vincent. Here also began his professional love affair with composer Danny Elfman, as important as ingredient to the director’s oeuvre as the stalwart of actors he would later accrue. The term ‘Burtonesque’ had yet to be coined, but watching Pee-wee now is a fascinating window into what was to come.

But Beetlejuice was truly the moment Burton caught the attention of moviegoers, with its strange but effective mix of comedy, horror and fantasy. Even today, as Beetlejuice celebrates its 30th anniversary, Burton’s film still manages to retain its creepy, gothic horror brilliance. Macabre and often ghoulish, his films are also hilarious and playful – Burton wants to disturb and creep out his audience while also making them laugh and sneaking into their soul, and his best films manage to do all of this at once.

The director’s critics often point to Burton as style-over-substance, but in doing so they miss the point of gothic horror as a genre. Focused heavily on atmosphere, symbolism and mystery, films that belong to this subsection of cinema boast a weirdness that is missing from most other corners of Hollywood.

Focusing on loners and those society has shirked serves this idea further, and Burton is nothing if not consistent in his commitment to telling the stories others fail to even consider.

Batman is one of the most striking examples of this, with Burton infusing what could have been a broad, cartoonish take on the Caped Crusader (much like the later Joel Schumacher films) with his unique sensibilities and cementing the character as one of Hollywood’s most reliable box-office draws in the process. We can only guess what he might have done with another hero in the dropped Superman Lives starring Nicholas Cage, but it certainly would have been different.

Batman on screen has never fully detached from what Burton did with the world, picking up on the metaphor and noir aspects of the story, and Gotham City will likely forever have a touch of the director’s trademark style and texture. It ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction, and Burton followed it with sequel Batman Returns three years later.

Burton’s impact at the time is perfectly encapsulated by the still-common assumption that he directed holiday animation A Nightmare Before Christmas, which has all of the Burtonesque characteristics from its grisly and offbeat visual style to the mix of horror and comedy, but was actually directed by frequent collaborator Henry Selick, with Burton acting as producer.

Corpse Bride in 2005 was thus seen by many as the director finishing what he had started, and the stop-motion animated musical brought together all of the most popular aspects of his career to that point. Featuring the voices of mainstays Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and music from Elfman, the film was praised for its imagination and the beauty of its puppetry and animation.

After a brief foray into mainstream or more obviously light-hearted fair with Planet Of The Apes, Big Fish and an adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride was also viewed as a return to what the director arguably does best, and recent years have seen films such as Frankenweenie, Dark Shadows and Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children scratch the same itch in a much more crowded landscape filled with superheroes and cinematic universes.

If there’s anything that defines Burton’s career, though, it’s his early hit Beetlejuice. Its wicked blend of ghoulish gothic horror, a manic lead character and Elfman’s creepy score turned the director into a bona fide A-lister. Plus, let’s not forget that Beetlejuice also paved the way for Burton to cast Michael Keaton in Batman.

Gothic horror is one of our oldest and most enduring genres, beginning in literature long before it hit screens, and the fact that one director has been able to explore it so deeply and richly for as long as he has is something to be celebrated. Burton is a rare director who can still draw a crowd with his name alone and, as long as he’s making movies, he will surely continue to lend his particular touch to a variety of stories.

Bless the gods, old and new - after nothing but rumours about a potential renewal since series two concluded in May 2017, The Last Kingdom will be officially returning via Netflix UK before 2018 is out.

We've now got our first clip from series 3. Have a watch below...

The third series will have ten episodes, two more than usual, adapted from Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom saga by lead writer Stephen Butchard and co.

We'll keep you posted as soon as we hear more. For Bebbanburg!

The Last Kingdom series 3 release date

The series is due to debut later this year exclusively on Netflix. The first two series aired on BBC Two, with Netflix coming aboard for 2017's second run.

The Last Kingdom series 3 cast

Confirmed to be returning alongside Dreymon are David Dawson as King Alfred, Ian Hart as Father Beocca, Emily Cox as Brida and Tobias Santelmann as Ragnar.

In news that will come as a shock to no one, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 will not start shooting next month, as originally planned. 

The future of the franchise has been uncertain ever since director James Gunn was fired by Disney in July – opening up a big can of alt-right worms that saw almost everybody involved in the first two films rallying to offer Gunn support (and even threatening to leave the MCU altogether). Four months later, Gunn has officially moved over to DC, and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is still without a director.

New rumours suggest that Disney might be hurrying Doctor Strange 2 along faster than originally planned to plug the hole left in their release calendar, and now Production Weekly is claiming that the studio has officially bumped the shoot date of Guardians back to February 2021. If true (and it seems to be, since they’re already reporting the working title as ‘Hot Christmas’), the film would likely not come out until at least Christmas 2021 – more likely Spring of 2022. 

Gunn’s name is still listed as “writer”, but that’s probably just an obligatory credit for the characters that are set to appear. If his original script isn’t being used, does that mean Dave Bautista won’t be reappearing as Drax? Disney clearly need to find a director to replace Gunn as quickly as possible, and whoever it is will need to go some way to reassure Bautista, the rest of the cast, and most of the fans, that making a Gunn-less Guardians isn’t a horrible idea.

Sony seems to have settled on a spin-off approach as it looks to build on its Men In Black series of movies. Following the template set by Jurassic World, it's pressing ahead with a fourth movie in the series, which will bring in new characters within the same universe. As such, don’t expect Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones to appear in the new film.

Instead, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok) are reuniting to headline Men In Black 4, and is it wrong to be so excited about this already? We're being carried along on a wave of enduring love for the Revengers of Ragnarok!

Anyway, yes, news is starting to leak in from all corners about MiB4 and we've rounded it all up for here. Check back for regular updates as we get them. 

Men In Black 4 plot

Men In Black 4 is a sequel, but it's also very much a reboot - hoping to kickstart the franchise for a whole new generation who might not even have seen the originals. 

At one point, the film was going to be a weird crossover comedy with 21 Jump Street called MIB23 - but that idea seems now seems to have split off into a seperate project that still somehow seems to be sort of in development. 

We don't know much about the plot specifics just yet, but we obviously know that it's going to involve Agent H (Hemsworth) and Agent M (Thompson) working together to fight the scum of the universe. 

"We're developing the script now," Hemsworth told Variety a year ago. "We're basically trying to put a lot of humour in it like the previous ones. These are obviously some big big shoes to fill, so we're working our butts off on it to make something pretty epic and fun.

"They're trying to change up the locations, make it feel unique and different to the last ones as well. So I think you might even see some different countries, maybe. Some different cities than you've seen in the previous Men In Black movies."

Thanks to Hemsworth's wrap-day selfies (see below) we know that those locations include London, Morocco, Italy and New York - making this sound more like a Bond movie than a MiB sequel. 

Men In Black 4 cast and crew

F Gary Gray (The Fate Of The Furious) is directing this one, from a screenplay by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (who wrote Iron Man). Steven Spielberg is on board as Executive Producer too, so the pedigree behind the camera is pretty high.

Obviously, Smith and Jones aren't returning (but don't rule out a cameo), but Hemsworth and Thompson are taking thier place as the film's two mis-matched agents.

Liam Neeson was the first co-star named for the film, joining the cast as the head of the UK MiB. We also know that Emma Thompson will reprise her role as Agent O in this fourth movie, being (possibly) the only link between this film and the three that came before it. 

The Big Sick's Kumail Nanjiani is also set to play "Pawny", a comedy alien sidekick, and Rebecca Ferguson has signed on to play... someone. Since the cast list already seems pretty full, it's a pretty good bet that she'll be playing some kind of baddie. 

Last up, Rafe Spall is also signed-up in a suporting role, alongside French dancing brothers Les Twins, aka Laurent and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois, who are best known for being back-up dancers for Beyoncé... Dancing twins might sound a bit weird, but if the new film doesn't at least try to top this music video, we want our money back:

Men In Black 4 filming

Filming begin in London last July, and wrapped on October 17th.

A couple of behind the scenes pics from the UK shoot leaked online, via Dark Horizons. Embiggen the pics below for a closer look at the (admittedly, fairly fuzzy) snaps...

Hemsworth marked the end of the shoot by posting a set of lovely selfies. Click the pics below to see them all, but honestly they're all just snaps of Hemsworth pouting with his co-stars.

The only thing the post does reveal, is the locations that the film was shot in, with Hemsworth name-checking London, Morocco, Italy and New York. 

"Thanks to all the fantastic cast and crew who took part on this epic journey and our director F. Gary Gray," he tweeted. "Cheers for the fun times, big laughs and solid memories. Can't wait to show what we've put together."

Men In Black 4 release date

A June 14th, 2019 release date has been earmarked for the movie, stateside. We'll update you if that changes over here in the UK.

With the new Sky original production, Curfew - a street racing drama with a generous helping of familiar faces behind the wheel - revealing its exciting first trailer earlier this month, we’ve decided to take a look back at one of those faces ahead of its debut on Sky One early next year.

Sure, he might have shot Bond, punched Nicolas Cage and helped defeat Sauron, but Sean Bean’s greatest achievements have always happened on the small screen – with award-winning, career-defining TV roles bookending every Hollywood success.

Before he grabs Curfew’s wheel to steer another event show into our lives in 2019, let’s take a moment to celebrate the best of Bean on the telly.

Lady Chatterley (1993)

Bean’s first TV role was technically The Bill (like pretty much every other British actor ever), but he quickly followed it up with parts in more prestigious shows – including one of the best episodes of Jim Henson’s classic The Storyteller in 1988. Bigger and better parts followed, and Bean got his first starring role in Ken Russell’s steamy adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s taboo busting novel. Starring alongside Joely Richardson, Bean’s sulky, smoldering turn as the sexy groundskeeper helped to make Russell’s faithful adaptation arguably the definitive version – and won Bean enough attention to launch him to stardom.

Sharpe (1993-2008)

For a big chunk of his early career, Bean was Richard Sharpe. Adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s rollicking history adventure books, the Sharpe series started in 1993 with Sharpe’s Rifles and Sharpe’s Eagle– two TV mini-movies that each had the size and scope of a Hollywood epic. 14 more episodes would follow over the next 15 years, with budgets and ambitions growing to see Bean fighting the battle of Waterloo, waging grand naval warfare and travelling the globe like a Napoleonic Indiana Jones with a Northern accent. It’s been ten years since we last saw Bean in Sharpe’s Peril (2008), so it’s unlikely we’ll see Colonel Sharpe come out of retirement (again), but it’s still impossible to see anyone else play that role.

Red Riding (2009)

Bean spent most of the 90s and 00s building his film career (between occasional Sharpes) with the likes of GoldenEye, Ronin, the Lord Of The Rings, National Treasure and Flightplan making him a household name around the world. But in 2009 he returned to Yorkshire to take on one of the weightiest roles of his career – starring in David Peace’s sprawling true crime trilogy. Basically a Yorkshire version of The Wire, the Red Riding films spanned nine years of police corruption, serial killings and social injustice – with Bean leading an ensemble cast as a seedy property dealer who gets caught up in the Peter Sutcliffe case. It was a brave move for Bean at the time, coming home to a gritty, thoroughly unpleasant character after his glitzy Hollywood roles.

Game Of Thrones (2011)

Is it okay to talk about spoilers now? It’s been seven years since Bean caused a sensation on the first season of Game Of Thrones– during which the show has gone on to become a worldwide sensation, causing millions of jaws to drop every year when something else happens that no one saw coming. The first time the show blindsided everyone, it was Bean’s fault – getting his head chopped off in episode 9. Shocking as it was, it was also a brilliant stroke of casting. If Sean Bean could die, anybody could. And they most certainly did.

Accused (2012)

Bean won his first (and so far, only) Emmy for his part in Jimmy McGovern’s landmark anthology series. Opening Season 2 with the episode “Tracie’s Story”, Bean stars as a secret transvestite who gets caught up in a grisly murder after meeting Stephen Graham’s psychopathically jealous husband on a night out. Seeing Bean in drag got the show a few good headlines at the time, but his remarkably subtle, sensitive performance cut through the makeup and wig to show off a side of his range that we hadn’t seen before. Bean also picked up a Royal Television Society award for the role, as well as a BAFTA nomination, both thoroughly deserved.

Legends (2014-2015)

Legends didn’t get the traction it deserved back in 2014 – cancelled after two seasons when it still had so much to say. The show had a great premise, following Bean as an undercover FBI agent who played a different “character” every week. The show had its problems, but Bean soared in the main role as a Russian gangster, a journalist, an international arms dealer and a dozen other parts – not least a cop with a serious identity crisis. Cut off too short, another season could have saved Legends. If nothing else, we’d have got to see Bean play 10 more different people.

Broken (2017)

Reuniting with Accused’s Jimmy McGovern, Bean took on the role of Father Michael Kerrigan – a Roman Catholic priest in a Northern city trying to sort out everyone’s problems but his own. Broken was a tough watch at times, but it was also one of the most uplifting things Bean has ever made, celebrating the simple act of kindness like nothing else. After a career full of swashbuckling heroes, bent cops, warrior kings and (a lot) of third-act bad guys, Father Kerrigan is the nicest role that Bean has ever played – the guy you’d want to have a drink with. Him and Ned Stark...

LEGO isn't always the cheapest thing to collect, so we're pleased to report that Argos, Amazon, Debenhams and the LEGO Shop are all running reduced prices on some geeky LEGO sets at the moment. Now is a great time to nab a brick-based bargain, basically...

In the Star Wars range, a whole range of bargains there is: the Kessel Run Millennium Falcon is down from £150 to £115; the First Order Assault Walker is down from £130 to £88; the First Order Star Destroyer is down from £130 to £88; the new X-Wing is down from £90 to £75; the Sandcrawler is down from £110 to £87; the Sandspeeder is down from £35 to £24.50; and the Defence Of Crait kit has dropped from £75 to £52.50.

Or if you fancy a snazzy figure rather than a massive vehicle, the Jyn Erso Buildable Figure is down from £20 to £10, the Darth Maul Buildable Figure has gone from £26 to £18, and the Darth Vader Buildable Figure has dropped from £35 to £24. The big BB-8 model, meanwhile, is down from £85 to just £59. Any single one of these sets would make a fine addition to your collection.

If you'd rather make yours Marvel, Amazon has these offers: the LEGO version of the Guardians Of The Galaxy's Milano ship is down from £70 to £46, and the Avengers: Hulkbuster kit is down from £30 to £20.

Elsewhere in the world of geeky LEGO, The Adventure Time LEGO Set is down from £45 to £31, and the LEGO Jurassic World Stygimoloch Breakout has dropped in price from £35 to £27. Or if you just fancy picking up a crate full of colourful bricks, Amazon has knocked 30% off the price of Lego Classic Bricks.

We'll keep this article updated as we spot more awesome LEGO deals. Happy shopping, folks!

Note: Minor spoilers for The Shining and Ready Player One lie ahead…

Think about The Shining. What springs to mind? Is it the river of blood flowing through the Overlook Hotel? The sinister Grady Twins tormenting poor Danny Torrance? Maybe it’s Jack Nicholson crashing an axe through the bathroom door and shouting “here’s Johnny!”?

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror strikes a chord with different viewers in different ways, mainly because it’s just so jam-packed with unforgettable screen moments. That’s a big reason why The Shining has become a legit masterpiece – we keep coming back to it again and again, revisiting these iconic sequences and finding new things to love each time.

The making of The Shining? Well that’s another remarkable story. Sure, putting together any film is a monumental challenge, but Kubrick’s perfectionism meant that The Shining took over a year to film, with the gargantuan Overlook Hotel sets taking over the entirety of the UK’s Elstree Studios.

At the heart of it all was Jack Nicholson as Overlook caretaker Jack Torrance, slowly losing his grip on sanity as winter takes hold. Kubrick did his bit to push his stars to the edge, resorting to wind-up merchant tactics like feeding Nicholson only cheese sandwiches on set for two weeks (which he hated!) and, according to Shelley Duvall, spending three days (and 60 doors!) getting the “here’s Johnny” scene just right.

Incidentally that line – the catchphrase of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon – was improvised by Nicholson. Kubrick had been living in the UK since 1962 and had no idea what the reference meant – but he kept it in the final cut and a legendary movie line was born.

Here, then, are a few extra geeky facts you might not know about The Shining in video form...

Buy now on DVD or Blu-ray  〉

Digital Download  〉

Oh, and those endless pages reading “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? According to editor Gordon Stainforth, they were all painstakingly typed up by the production secretary and several assistants (who sadly didn’t have the benefit of CTRL V and CTRL C at the time!).

The attention to detail didn’t end there. For foreign language versions of the film Kubrick refused to just translate that phrase with subtitles, instead coming up with different sentences to put on the reams of paper. So if you saw The Shining in Italy, you’d have been confronted with “Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca”. Translation? “The morning has gold in its mouth.”

The Shining was first shown to the world on May 23, 1980 and became a box office hit, making back more than double its production budget. It’s lived on far beyond that summer, though – 38 years later and it still casts a spell. Kubrick’s film, to paraphrase the Gradys, invites to you to come play forever and ever and ever…

It helps that the film has celebrity fans who continue to champion it. Martin Scorsese named it as one of his scariest movies of all time, Pixar Oscar winner Lee Unkrich runs a brilliant fansite dedicated to it, and Steven Spielberg counts his viewings in double figures. He even gave The Shining a loving tribute in Ready Player One, taking us on a dazzling virtual reality tour of the Overlook that brought Kubrick’s masterpiece to a new generation.

The final word? Let’s give that to Mr Spielberg. “I have seen The Shining 25 times, it’s one of my favourite pictures,” he says. “Kubrick films tend to grow on you, you have to see them more than once. I defy you to name one Kubrick film that you can turn off once you start it... it’s impossible.”

This review contains spoilers.

There are two types of power in A Discovery of Witches.

There’s political power, held by the Congregation. They make and enforce the rules by which all creatures – vampires, witches and demons – live. Then there’s magical power, and that’s been waning for generations. Diana Bishop has it, but she can’t unlock it. It’s inside her. It has to come out somehow, some time. That time is coming.

Episode six makes a great job of concentrating on this, and the fact that if you can’t or won’t use your power you’re not able to stand against those who will. At the start of the episode Diana (Teresa Palmer) has been kidnapped and flown away to a ruined castle by another witch who still has power; Satu (Malin Buska) is a really menacing figure throughout this episode, and she has no qualms about first trying to lie to get her answers, and then to torture. She levitates Diana, rotates her, then brands her and even attempts to cut her open to see her magical powers. And while this goes in we’re all waiting – waiting for Diana’s magic to spring to life and save her.

A Discovery of Witches is really a coming-of-age story – the classic tale of recognising your own potential and acting upon it. There have to be trials and tribulations before the heroine can emerge from her chrysalis and spread her own wings, and I was really pleased to find this episode embracing that idea fully. Diana’s vampire lover Matthew was, of course, on the way to save her (flying in with his helicopter with his brother like a two-man crack team) but she also had to free herself – from captivity, and from her inability to use her magic. By the end of the episode it looked like both had been achieved.

So we were given lots of magic, lots of action, and lots of one of my favourite elements: the head in the box. Head vampire Gerbert (Trevor Eve) arrived at the ruined castle with the prophesying head of a captured witch, kept that way for centuries, in tow. Her suffering was immense; left alone with Satu, she begged for release. Satu took her away and burned her, and it was a fascinating and moving element of this episode, but I got the feeling that this was merely skimming the surface of a story that needed more detail. Could it be this was given some depth in the books, by Deborah Harkness, that there simply wasn’t time to go into here?

The same could be said of a different power struggle; Matthew’s brother Baldwin tried to take the newly rescued Diana back to the Congregation with him, but Matthew summoned up an old commitment to the order of The Knights of Lazarus to compel Baldwin not to act. Will we find out more about this later? Right now it feels sketchy at best.

Perhaps a lack of time to really investigate all aspects of the book was always going to be a problem, and focusing on keeping things moving along does feel like a good decision at this point in the series, with all these power structures coming together. The raised eyebrows and potent stares of the vampires and witches are still lots of fun, but I find myself more and more interested in the quieter thread of the demons. Sophie Norman (Aisling Loftus) is keeping things real with her small statuette, passed down through her family. She feels certain the statuette belongs to Diana although they’ve never met. Her worry for her unborn baby vied with her certainty that she needed to tell her mother in law, Congregation member Agatha (Tanya Moodie), the truth about her own personal history. Being a demon born of witches makes Sophie everything that the Congregation hates, but Agatha promised to defend her and the baby as family. It was a well played, touching scene.

But back to Diana’s blossoming power, and the intriguing hint of a change to her personality that came along with it. Back in Matthew’s beautiful French castle, she looked at the damage done to her body and a strange expression passed over her face; she was aware that something had changed inside too, and that she had grown stronger. She told Matthew not to take revenge on Satu because she intended to deal with her personally. The further we progress into this series, the more I’ve been enjoying Teresa Palmer’s performance, which is growing to show another aspect of power: the more you have, the more it changes you.

If this stays true then by the end of the series, only two episodes away, Diana should be a very different woman to the one who started on this journey. A showdown with Satu is definitely something for us to look forward to, along with other action and magic-packed events, I hope. My concern is that one or two (or more) elements might well get skimmed over as we head towards resolution, but I’d take a little bit of confusion over a lot of slow explanation any day. A Discovery of Witches continues to be at its best not when people talk, but when they do.

Read Aliya's review of the previous episode here.

Daredevil is back in his third season, and as usual we’re going to be reviewing every episode of the series – one per day – providing analysis, Easter egg spots and speculation for those who aren’t planning to binge it all in one go. All discussion is welcome but please don’t spoil future episodes in the comments.

3.2 Please

One of the good things about truly caring about secondary characters – for example, Wilson Fisk – is that when they’re in danger, you actually feel that danger. Case in point: I had no clue whether Fisk was going to get out of his kidnap attempt unscathed, but I was gripped by the hope that he would. As it turned out, he was fine – but only because of one FBI agent who happened to be an unusually good shot.

It seems fairly clear that we’re witnessing the introduction of Bullseye here, although this is a version of the character who seems unlike anything from the comics. Bullseye first appeared in Daredevil #131 (1976) and was previously portrayed by Colin Farrell in the Daredevil movie, although that version was also extremely unlike the comics version. He’s an iconic villain, though, so I can’t wait to see what they do with him.

Interestingly, if this is Bullseye and these guys really are FBI agents, that’s something the comics Bullseye has never been before. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that Fisk is going to slowly turn the guy who saved his life into the guy he pays to take lives, but I’m looking forward to watching that happen.

Nadeem’s plea to stay close to the Kingpin makes sense for the character as he looks for the big win his career needs, but it’s clear that he’s setting himself up to be exploited. It’s notable that he played up his “rapport” with Fisk even though we know he was just in the right place at the right time. The question is whether he believes that, or whether he’s trying to convince his bosses he’s more valuable than he is.

Seeing Foggy’s family was, for me, a great part of the episode even though it might be easy to dismiss as filler. It seems like we’re going to see Foggy forced to make a fundamental choice at some point as to whether he wants to stick with his own life of high-powered lawyering, or do a duty to his family and come work with them. The tension between those two lives is not unrelated to Matt’s own tension, which is why we shouldn’t immediately dismiss it. These characters are all going through similar things, after all.

Matt’s powers don’t seem to be back at 100%, and his barely-successful fight proves it. That said, I loved him going out investigating, and I’m glad to see that he’s continuing to use the extremely cool casual ninja version of his outfit over the armoured-up spandex version. The man without fear doesn’t look particularly fearless when he’s THAT worried about being hit.

There’s more than a hint of stubbornness to him going back out and using his abilities even when he’s on death’s door, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get it. There are some characters in these shows who you can mock for making stupid decisions, but in Matt’s drive has never been logical. By all rights he should be dead, but he’s not, and he sees that as vindication for his methods. It’s hard to argue with the conviction (and after all, even if you tried… he’s a lawyer.)

As episodes go this is quite slow until the end, but between D’Onofrio’s utterly gripping performance as Fisk and Matt’s continued descent into the well there’s absolutely nothing bad about it. It feels like the show’s never been away.

Read James' review of the previous episode, Resurrection, here. 

This review contains spoilers.

So that’s where baby Noah was laid to rest. Not under a magical tree on an idyllic beach, but in the footings of a new-build housing development. Joanna made the realisation when she saw the photo set as the screensaver on Alastair’s phone. Why else would the hastily taken snap hold so much significance? When Alastair told Joanna that moving there would make them closer to Noah, he’d meant it literally.

In The Cry’s final moments, we saw Joanna, cleared of the murder we watched her commit, return to her son’s burial ground. She had killed Alastair, unlatching his seatbelt and deliberately losing control of the car, but used her own wile and the tricks he’d taught her during their terrible lie to walk free. She didn’t confess to either crime—the cover-up or the murder—and the two Joannas exist to this day.

It was a provocatively complex moral position in which to leave our lead. Joanna wasn’t presented as simply a wronged woman, or as simply anything. She’s not purely victim, rescuer or perpetrator, but in the telling of this tightly spiralled story, like Alastair, has carouselled between all three.

Jenna Coleman has been more than up to the task of each. She’s shown Joanna riven by grief, dazed, shrewd, love-struck, resentful, verging on the imperious... The Cry is Coleman’s showreel now. Unless she does accents, what else could there be to see from an actor?

Ewen Leslie too, has been exceptional as Alastair. Helped by a strong script, he’s made him plausibly charismatic. His cruelty and coercion were convincingly bedded in selfishness and weakness. Underneath his slick arrogance, the root of Alastair, as Joanna identified in the finale, was cowardice. Leslie conveyed the character’s layers in a way that made you ask questions about him. Did Alastair feel any remorse? Did he grieve for his son? Had he really, as he seemed to, convinced himself of his own stream of bullshit?

While answering the plot questions, The Cry finale left us to interpret the character ambiguities. Alastair’s mother didn’t accuse her son outright, but she seemed to know what he really was. A liar, and manipulator - as Alexandra put it “not an easy man to love.” It did that while continually drawing our attention to the ways women are judged in the public eye, and the narrow range of archetypes available in that theatre. The grieving wife. The fallen mother. The adulteress.

With strong performances, solid writing and wise direction, everything about this psychological thriller bore the mark of quality. The Cry’s expressionist flourishes – the dream sequences and fantasy manifestations of social media voices, critics and well-wishes—also made it stand out from the crowd.

The editing though, was the real star, and the real storyteller. The finely tuned, complicated time structure elevated this thriller. It had a practical function, withholding and then revealing information to keep the audience guessing, as well as an artistic one. Splicing together the two scenes of the couple in the car—Alastair in the driving seat in the first, Joanna in the driving seat in the second—showed the switch in status as she realised that Alastair had been lying to her inside the lie he’d built for them together.

The finale, in which the scales finally fell from Joanna’s eyes, was The Cry’s strongest episode. It answered every question, and resolved every thread, while gripping us with Joanna’s gradual awakening from under Alastair’s spell. “I’d forgotten I used to be strong,” Joanna told her psychiatrist. In episode four, unsettlingly, we watched her remember.

Read Louisa’s review of the previous episode here.

We love a good murder. In the last few years true crime telly has absolutely exploded with a raft of mindblowing doc series and TV movies. At the forefront of that is Making A Murderer, which has now got a second series on Netflix.

Addicted to true crime? Love the unravelling of a mystery, or the shocking details of a miscarriage of justice? Check out these amazing series available to watch now.

Making A Murderer

This Netflix series hit the mainstream big time with the frankly incredible story of Steven Avery, a man wrongly accused of sexual assault who is incarcerated for years before DNA evidence comes to the fore proving his innocence. Once released and Avery goes about beginning to sue the local police department. Then a woman named Theresa Halback turns up dead on Avery’s land and Avery’s back in jail… Did he do it? Was he framed? Could both be true? Avery’s case made major headlines and a second season of the show has just landed. If you’ve not seen this yet, get on it, quick!

The Jinx

The movie All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst was a fictionalised version of the bizarre story of property heir Robert Durst whose wife disappeared and who is later accused of murdering his neighbour in particularly odd circumstances. Director Andrew Jarecki screened the movie and the real Robert Durst saw and it. Things get weirder from there. A certain amount of luck and possibly karma combine to make The Jinx one of the most shocking series out there - the last two episodes will blow your mind.

The Staircase

Five new episodes charting the chase of Michael Peterson landed earlier this year on Netflix adding to the original eight which came out back in 2004. Peterson’s wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the family home but her injuries didn’t seem consistent with a fall. The case spans years and focuses on the court case and the evidence for and against. It’s some prime pub argument fodder right there.

The Keepers

A cold case about the horrific murder of young nun brought to the fore by two women who remember being taught by the sister when they were kids, The Keepers rapidly widens into a sprawling story of widespread abuse and corruption within the Catholic church. It’s a bit short on answers but no less shocking for it. Fan of Spotlight should check it out.

Evil Genius

This three part series starts with some very shocking footage of a real crime. Trigger warning: you actually see someone die and it’s pretty horrific. This is the story of a guy called Brian Wells, nicknamed in the press The Pizza Bomber - a pizza delivery guy who arrived to rob a bank with a bomb device strapped around his neck. It goes badly. Was he complicit or just a hostage? Who was behind this bizarre plan and why? An incredible story with a mildly terrifying protagonist.

The Confession Tapes

Six cases over seven episodes this show investigates confessions which could have been false or coerced and offers alternative explanations as to what might have happened. Some are more convincing than others, but it’s a fantastic chance play detective (or jury perhaps) in trying to work out whether the features individuals are lying on not (while always remembering of course that these are actual people’s lives…)

Amanda Knox

Either Amanda Knox is a stone cold sociopath and a murderous liar, or, the documentary posits, she’s basically you. Aged twenty and studying in Italy Knox was accused of murdering her housemate Meredith Kercher as part of a sex game. Knox always maintained her innocence and her Italian conviction has since been overturned but this is Knox’s chance to tell her own story. It’s a story that has a particular fascination after Knox’s trial via the media where she was nicknamed ‘Foxy Knoxy’ and painted as a evil fallen woman. Whether she convinces you is another matter - we were certainly on her side by the end of the film’s feature length runtime.

The Paradise Lost trilogy

Extended documentary series about three young men who became known as the West Memphis Three who were convicted of killing three children as part of an alleged satanic ritual. One of the boys, Damien Echols was actually sentence to death for the crime since he was eighteen - the other two sentence to life in prison. Paradise Lost is one over several docs about this case which became super-high profile and has so many different layers is is probably one of the most famous miscarriages of justice of our era.

Making A Murderer Part 2 is available now on Netflix.