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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 5 When we last left our patriotic heroes, Captain America’s replacement, John Walker, had just publicly chopped a man to death with his shield. Between this and the way Mysterio edited footage to make Spider-Man look like a mass murderer, it’s a really bad time for Avengers replacements. There’s probably footage of Valkyrie biting someone’s face off to fulfill the trifecta. Recently, Marvel released a trailer to hype up the last two episodes, and the long-awaited fight between our titular protagonists and the unhinged Walker came off as some kind of climactic final battle....

To be fair, it feels like The Flash has been teasing Cisco’s departure forever by now. Cisco took a hiatus from the team last season to go investigate post-Crisis on Infinite Earths anomalies and to visit Atlantis. The show has been trying out potential new Team Flash members in the form of Brandon McKnight’s generally delightful Chester P. Runk and Kayla Compton’s Allegra Garcia. But recent developments have seen the prospect of Cisco’s permanent departure become increasingly real in recent weeks....

Benoit Blanc is not a man to be confused or befuddled. And to be sure, he is not by the final reel of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the second Blanc adventure from writer-director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig. However, the hero is frustrated—infuriated even. Midway through the classic expository reveal where the detective puts all the pieces of the puzzle together during the climax, our fair Benoit slumps his shoulders and places his hands in his pockets....

The Good Lord Bird Episode 2 During several moments of tonight’s The Good Lord Bird, my mind was whisked back to thoughts of My Fair Lady—or at least George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. In those texts, two confirmed old bachelors in Edwardian England think it is their privilege, if not duty, to remake a poor flower girl into their perfect image. It’s a tale of possessive manipulation and outright obliviousness. And it’s given a distinctly American flavor in the first few hours of Ethan Hawke’s Good Lord Bird....

All I could think was: Wouldn’t this rise to the level of an international incident? Yet for the film’s main character, played stoically by Ryan Gosling, and the person helping him, played with as much verve as can be mustered by Ana de Armas, it’s just an excuse to dust themselves off and head to the next set piece. That’s how generic and hermetically sealed a movie The Gray Man is....

In Antoine Fuqua’s new Netflix film, The Guilty, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Joe Baylor, a police officer forced to work in a Los Angeles Emergency Call Center due to an ongoing investigation into misconduct that occurred while Baylor was on the job. The film gives us scarce details about what went down, with Joe’s ex-partner Rick and his former sergeant alluding to a court date, as well as a reporter from the Los Angeles Times repeatedly calling Joe for comment, but no one spells out exactly what Joe did to get the punishment of working the phones....

There are some specific fears being played upon here, like home invasion, the dark, and threatened masculinity. We’re with Clare and Adam (Bojana Novakovic and Game Of Thrones’ Joseph Mawle), new arrivals in a rural Irish community, and we’re not quite sure if we like them or not. He’s a conservationist, here to inspect the forest and sentence a few sickly trees to death (“That’ll have to go,” he says, spraying an ‘X’ on one): his is a dispassionate fascination with nature, not a love for it....

It doesn’t matter what you thought of the previous Kingsman movies directed by Matthew Vaughn. Nor is it particularly important what you think of the new film’s trailers and overall concept about a goofy spy adventure set during World War I. Believe it or not, the one crucial thing you need to understand about The King’s Man is it has the most delightfully batshit fight scene you’ll see at the cinema this year....

If you ask me, though, Link’s first name has always been more interesting than his last name. After all, why did Nintendo decided to name Link…well…Link in the first place? What’s makes that question even more fascinating is that the origins of most other major Nintendo characters’ names are pretty well-known. For instance, Mario was named after an old Nintendo of America landlord, and Donkey Kong’s name is really just a way to tell American audiences that he’s a “stubborn ape....

Baby Yoda has a big adventure ahead of him. In Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, “The Jedi,” the audience and Din Djarin both learn two important pieces of information. First, the kid’s name is Grogu. Perhaps it’ll catch on as well as Baby Yoda did? Second, Ahsoka Tano tells Din to take the Force-sensitive toddler to the old Jedi Temple on the planet Tython, where he’ll be able to reach out to other Jedi across the galaxy....

After a year of speculation, Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, suitably titled “The Jedi,” has finally given fans some of the answers they’ve been searching for. Not only does the episode reveal what fan-favorite hero Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) has been up to since the end of the Rebels animated series but it also gives Baby Yoda/The Child a proper name. Meet Grogu! The straightforward way “The Jedi” answers so many of our questions is actually a bit shocking....

It feels like there’s no stopping the might of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and as we look to Phase 5 (and beyond), the ever-expanding slate grows by the day. Unlike the tumultuous times over at the DC Extended Universe, it’s hard to see the MCU pulling the plug on any of its projects these days. Still, there have been plenty of Marvel movies lost to the Quantum Realm over the years....

The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 13 The Celtic bagpipes which open The Simpsons Season 33 episode 13, “Boyz N the Highlands,” are jarring and misleading, much like Groundskeeper Willie. This is by design, because the journey the installment takes is one long sidetrack. The main story concerns Springfield’s Troubled Truants: Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Dolph Shapiro, and Martin Prince, who claims he volunteered the 18-hour detention trek for extra credit. Each of the young thugs are introduced by their case files....

Certain questions are raised when a franchise gets a prequel. How true will it be to the source material? Who will make an appearance? One of the little joys of watching a prequel series is to meet characters you know will be influential later. When we look at a show like The Winchesters, we must wonder which baddies might play a part when its predecessor Supernatural established 15 seasons of continuity....

The season finale of The Time Traveler’s Wife takes pre-wedding jitters to new metaphysical levels. Henry’s nervousness about the future plus his failure to disclose key information on how time travel would affect normal married couple life makes wedding planning and prep extra complicated. There are also the complications of family expectations and the weight of past memories. Let’s discuss what happens. Older Henry starts the documentary film once again by saying he hates videos....

Another little courtesy is paid at around 04:30 in the remake’s second episode. A gang of comic book fans who’ve been speaking online for months meet up in person at a Chicago convention. They start drinking, and retire to the nearby home of one of their members, paranoid fringe culture survivalist Wilson Wilson (played by Desmin Borges). Naturally, he invites them down to his nuclear bunker and shows them an evidence wall packed with research on the comic book conspiracy that brought them together....

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 When you get past the record store and the ice cream stand, there are some serious issues in The Commonwealth. Even before you start digging deeper than surface level, the inequalities in terms of food access, housing, and healthcare are obvious. In the world of The Walking Dead, with unlimited available housing in various stages of repair, there’s no real reason to cram all of your community’s newcomers into dormitories....

Although the first season of The Wheel of Time departed in many ways from The Eye of the World, the Robert Jordan novel upon which it is based, the elements it included and left out give us some clues as to where the series might be headed in its already renewed second season. Despite proving that its willing to change the plot quite drastically, spoiler-free guesses can be made about what might show up from the books given the way showrunner Rafe Judkins and his writers have made their decisions so far....

Despite the pathos that came with the angry and depressed Thor we met early in Endgame, the film spent some time poking fun at the God of Thunder’s appearance during the “five years later” scenes, with Chris Hemsworth gamely playing the role under considerable makeup and costuming. It’s a mixed bag, to be sure, but it’s aided by a sympathetic and funny performance from Hemsworth, and it does make for a triumphant moment when Thor finally powers up again in the final battle....

Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes Type: NovelPublisher: Bloomsbury YARelease date: Jan. 4 Den of Geek says: This modern take on Back to the Future examines what has changed—and what unfortunately hasn’t—for today’s generation of LGBTQ teens. Publisher’s summary: From lauded writer David Valdes, a sharp and funny YA novel that’s Back to the Future with a twist, as a gay teen travels back to his parents’ era to save a closeted classmate’s life....