Thursday, June 30, 2016

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #6


Another tale of Rocket Raccoon and Groot's adventures shows off the competitive nature of the two best-friends. Starting simply with a game of pool, things escalate quickly as Groot continues to beat out Rocket at everything from drinking games and darts to a galactic space race.

Usagi Yojimbo #155


Rain-soaked and road-weary, Usagi arrives at the Temple of the Golden Buddha (home to a most unusual piece of art depicting the nature of Hell). At first turned away by a over-zealous guard, Usagi refuses to leave which leads to a reunion with his old friend Inspector Ishida who has arrived to investigate a murder an decide the fate of the temple. With factions wanting both the temple to remain open or to be closed, and the victim killed in a manner Ishida can't identify, the inspector asks for Usagi's help on the case.

That Cosplay Show - LA Cosplay Con

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Pretty Little Liars - Bedlam


With Mary Drake (Andrea Parker) choosing to return Hanna (Ashley Benson) to her friends the Liars are left questioning whether Jessica DiLaurentis' twin-sister is friend or foe. Choosing to place her trust in Mary, Emily (Shay Mitchell) uses the family connection to see an increasingly disturbed Alison (Sasha Pieterse) whose husband has cut-off all non-family visitors at the mental institution where he continues to torture his wife. And here the worm begins to turn as Emily and the rest of the Liars finally begin to question the true motivations of Elliot (Huw Collins) who the episode seems to confirm as the main brain behind A.D. and not Mary Drake.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #28


While the most interesting, and humorous, parts of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #28 are the interludes of Dawn and Xander dimension-hopping to find their way home, the latest issue also focuses on Buffy and Spike working through their relationship issues while finding a way to prevent the threat of the super-powered D'Hoffryn.

10 Cloverfield Lane

I had very mixed reactions to 2008's shaky-cam monster movie Cloverfield which kept me from seeing this sequel of sorts in theaters. Only tangentially connected to the first film, 10 Cloverfield Lane is an old school psychological thriller which begins when Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is run off the road one night and wakes up chained to a mattress in an underground bunker with a pair of strange men (John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr.).

When the owner of the bunker (Goodman) explains that the world is under attack from aliens, which he saved her from, Michelle can offer only skepticism and struggle to escape. However, as events unfold and she gleans the truth of what happened to the outside world and her captor, the story will take several interesting turns. The first-third of the film plays out like a classic Twilight Zone episode with Michelle struggling to escape only to discover that everything which Howard has told her is true. Although the middle of the film drags at times, tension ramps up in the final act with another discovery by Michelle which once again will alter the status quo.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Houdini & Doyle - Necromanteion


After briefly stopping home to bury his mother, Houdini (Michael Weston) joins Doyle (Stephen Mangan) and Adelaide (Rebecca Liddiard) in Canada where a murder suspect (Lara Jean Chorostecki) insists her husband was killed by a poltergeist. Also present are a spirtual medium and Thomas Edison (Peter Outerbridge) who hopes to use his invention, a Necromanteion, to speak to the recently deceased from across the veil. While Houdini dismisses the entire premise, and derides Edison over such a ridiculous invention, both Adelaide and Doyle suspect their friend has conflicting purposes for leaving his family to join this particular murder scene.

Wonder Woman #1


The first issue of Wonder Woman's new series features two separate stories set in just miles apart in Africa. In the main tale, following the events of Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1, our heroine traipses through the jungles looking for an old acquaintance in hopes of discovering what has happened to Themyscira. Finding, and battling her way through a small army of creatures, the final panel of the comic reveals just whose help Diana needs.

Wander Over Yonder - The Sky Guy


While searching for a weapon to stop Dominator (Noël Wells) from destroying the galaxy, Wander (Jack McBrayer) and Sylvia (April Winchell) visit the shop of the wizard Neckbeard (Seth Morris) where Wander becomes instantly fascinated with an entire planet of little Bitties living inside one of Neckbeard's artifiacts. Unable to leave the globe alone, as both Neckbeard and Sylvia order him to do. Wander continues to watch the Bitties eventually causing havoc both in the Bitties world (who go to war over their worship of the giant man in the sky) and the magic shop (when Neckbeard finds out what he's done). Choosing to save the Bitties universe rather than their own, Wander and Sylvia continue their wanderings while searching for something to stop Dominator and save the galaxy.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Fox on the Run


Seeking to set right a past wrong, Gamora (Vanessa Marshall) ditches the rest of the Guardians and attempts to return the Gravity Matrix she once stole for Ronan to the planet of Soonevh. Unaware she's walking into a trap set by Ronan (Jonathan Adams) and Nebula (Cree Summer), Gamora is forced into gladiator-style combat to save the planet (if not herself) from Ronan's wrath. Thankfully, her pals don't hold her zapping them into submission against her and show up just in the nick of time.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Preacher - South Will Rise Again


Jesse (Dominic Cooper) is feeling pretty good about himself. His ability to turn Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) towards God has made him the town's new hero (even if neither he, nor the town, see how "well" this turns out for Odin's potential business partners). Continuing to use his gift to increase the size of his flock and help with the questions brought to him by his parishioners, Jesse even goes so far as to bring some peace to Eugene (Ian Colletti) by forcing Terri Loach (Bonita Friedericy) to forgive the man for her daughter's vegetative state. Of course the final scene of Jesse meeting DeBlanc (Tom Brooke) and Fiore (Anatol Yusef) for the first time, and learning what he has inside him may be far more complicated than what he believes, may just damage the preacher's calm.

Detective Comics #935


As the team of young heroes (Red Robin, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain) rebels against the pace of Batwoman's training, Batman is attacked by a large group of Bat-armored warriors who obviously have some connection to the Dark Knight's past.

The Neon Demon


In what is likely going to be one of the more divisive films of 2016, the latest from writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) casts Elle Fanning as a naive 16 year-old girl just breaking into the model business in Los Angeles. Blessed with an ineffable quality no one can quite explain, Jesse (Fanning) soon becomes the hot new girl, much to the dismay of a pair of models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee) seeing their careers flash before their eyes.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

The 5th Wave

Based on the young adult novel of the same name, The 5th Wave feels like a mashup of Zombieland (minus the humor) and I Am Number Four. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, the movie centers around high school student Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) whose world is turned upside down when aliens show up to attack the planet with a series of waves, each more devastating than the last. Through an extended flashback, we learn of the previous four waves (including environmental and biological warfare).

A little too much young adult drama and too little science fiction, the script is mainly an excuse for Moretz to look frightened. With a set-up more appropriate to a television movie, the script includes an extended B-story concerning the remaining human children (including Cassie's baby brother) being turned into a child army by the United States Army. There's also the age-appropriate fashion model (Alex Roe) who saves Cassie's life, while harboring a big secret, and a late twist that's fairly easy to see coming.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Candy

Adapted from Terry Southern's novel (itself an adaptation of Voltaire's Candide), the 1968 psychedellic romp features an alluring but naive young woman from outer space (Ewa Aulin) whose wanderings lead her into sexually-charged situations.

Featuring a who's who of appearances from Marlon Brando to Ringo Starr, Candy's journey will lead her to come into contact with a wide variety of odd characters before deciding to return back where she came from. The script is rather one-note, as is the performance of its leading lady and most of her co-stars, and the cult film is more of a curiosity than anything else after all these years.

Han Solo #1


In his new solo series (heh), everyone's favorite scruffy-looking nerfhereder is badgered into an undercover assignment for the Rebellion. With a leak inside the Rebellion leading the Empire to a network of their spies, and needing a pilot and ship for a dangerous mission, Leia convinces both the reluctant Han and the reluctant Rebel leaders that Han Solo is their man.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Cosplay from LA Cosplay Con 2016

Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #16


When Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel, Jr. go missing while investigating the latest plans of the Monster Society of Evil, Uncle Dudley and Tawnky Tawny call in Mystery, Inc. to help find the missing members of the Marvel Family.

Person of Interest - Return 0


After five seasons and more than 100 episodes Person of Interest comes to a close with "Return 0." With both The Machine and Samaritan slowly dying, our ragtag group of heroes have one last mission: destroy the back-up copy of Samaritan to prevent it from ever returning. For Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) this means breaking into the Federal Reserve and infecting Samaritan's air-gaped servers with the ICE-9 virus. For Shaw (Sarah Shahi) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) this means one final shoot-out in the subway. And for The Machine it means chasing Samaritan into space and finding a way to defeat the rival's final copy aboard a satellite once and for all.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Astro City #36


Concluding the two-part multi-generational tale of the three men who have been Jack-in-the-Box, Astro City #36 offers answers about what happened to the original hero as well as delivering two separate super-villain origin stories.

Pretty Little Liars – Tick-Tock, Bitches


Pretty Little Liars begins its Seventh Season with Hanna (Ashley Benson) the prisoner of A.D. and the rest of the Liars given 24 hours to find Charlotte's real killer if they ever want to see their friend alive again. Stopped from going to the police by the sudden appearance of Mary Drake (Andrea Parker), the twin sister of Jessica DiLaurentis who the Liars believe but can't prove is the one holding Hanna, the group races against the clock to find some proof that the the most logical suspect, Alison (Sasha Pieterse), killed Charlotte.

Civil War II #2


So far Civil War II is reminding more of the unnecessary and regrettable Secret War II than any comic should. For a genius Tony Stark makes a boneheaded move by abducting Ulysses from the Inhumans' home of New Attilan. Nearly causing a full-scare war in the middle of New York City only to service his curiosity of how the man's powers work and give into his anger over the death of his friend, only the intervention of Carol Danvers prevents things from escalating.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Houdini & Doyle - Strigoi


A threat against Bram Stoker (Paul Ritter) and the murder of his housekeeper forces Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) to stand-up for his friend while Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard) suspect the Dracula author may be the killer they are looking for. Stoker's behavior of drinking blood and disappearing from a cell in police headquarters don't help the author's case.

Green Arrow #1


Picking up the storyline from Green Arrow: Rebirth #1, Green Arrow and Black Canary continue to investigate the underground human trafficking ring of homeless victims in Seattle. An altercation on the docks leads Ollie to also raise questions about his company which, from what we see teased here, has been corrupted by the shadowy movements of the Court of Owls.

Preacher - Monster Swamp


As Jesse (Dominic Cooper) begins putting his new powers to good use, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) stalls Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) while failing to impress on Jesse the danger the preacher is in from two wayward angels. The episode also provides our first flashbacks to Jesse's childhood and his relationship with his father (Nathan Darrow) and introduces Jackie Earle Haley as the town's most influential man, Odin Quincannon, whose attendance at church in the episode's closing scene is crucial to Jesse's plan to grow and save All Saints' Congregational Church.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Beauty and the Beast - Down for the Count


As Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) gets a promotion to work for Homeland Security, Tess (Nina Lisandrello) sulks over losing both her best friend and detective to the Feds and the fact that her fiance has been keeping a huge secret from her. Following the clues left at the crime scene of a dead bounty hunter, Catherine and Vincent (Jay Ryan) work their way back to the head of the local fight club who the wrongly believe may be behind the bounty on Vincent. Of course over the course of the episode Vincent will expose his secret to a crowded bar room of disreputable individuals as well as the man he helps put in jail to close out the episode. But, hey, I'm sure the guy who was running an illegal fight club won't hold a grudge.

Civil War II: X-Men #1


Honestly, I don't know how X-Men fans keep up on what characters are on what teams (let alone which are wearing white hats this month). It's exhausting. Civil War II: X-Men #1 offers yet another shakeup to the X-Men universe. With a new team of Psylocke, Sabertooth, and M., led by Magneto working to protect mutants from Inhumans, the group comes into contact with another team of X-Men including Jean Grey, Magik, Iceman, Old Fart Logan, and Nightcrawler led by Storm when unleashed Terrigen Mist threatens the lives of several mutants.

Wander Over Yonder - The Sick Day


When Wander (Jack McBrayer) gets sick, Sylvia (April Winchell) struggles to get her best friend to take it easy and rest while attempting to take care of his long list of chores which include hitting Lord Hater's (Keith Ferguson) snooze button and preventing the universe from coming to an end. "The Sick Day" has a simple premise of Wander learning how to let someone else help him for a change (although it takes quite a bit of his increasingly sickly attempts to help for the message to finally sink in). As for Sylvia, she proves capable of stepping in to Wander's shoes (although she is quite surprised by the number of regular duties her best friend performs without her).

Friday, June 17, 2016

Finding Dory


Pixar's first sequel since Cars 2 returns audiences under the ocean for the follow up to 2003's Finding Nemo. This time our story is centered around Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the Pacific regal blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss who helped Marlin (Albert Brooks) find his lost son Nemo (Hayden Rolence) in the original film. With her dim memory sparked, Dory sets out to find her parents with Marlin and Nemo in tow. However, it's not long before Dory and her friends are separated and she must fend for herself.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Finding Nemo

So it's like An American Tail underwater? That was my first response to Pixar's Finding Nemo which stars Albert Brooks as a clown fish named Marlin who is forced out of his comfort zone when his son Nemo (Hayden Rolence) is abducted by scuba divers on his first day of school. While on his journey to save his son, Marlin will meet a host of odd characters most notably Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the Pacific regal blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss, sharks who have sworn off eating fish, and a sea turtle named Crush (director Andrew Stanton). Meanwhile Nemo meets an assortment of odd fish after being placed in the fish tank of an Australian dentist's office before ultimately being reunited with his father.

Finding Nemo isn't my favorite Pixar film. While I enjoy the underwater appeal, the story is pretty basic relying on several cheap gags and body function jokes. It's not a bad movie by any means, but it lacks the depth of the Toy Story series, and I wasn't awed by the design of the world the way I am with Cars.

Titans: Rebirth #1


Wally West's return to the DCU continues in Titans: Rebirth #1. After being pulled back into existence by Barry Allen in DC Universe: Rebirth #1, Wally gets a spiffy new costume and sets out to find his old teammates: the original Teen Titans. Of course this is problematic as none of his old friends knows who Wally is.

Conan: The Complete Quest

The new Blu-ray release collects both original Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the legendary Cimmerian thief and warrior. Focused on Conan's origin story and his quest for revenge against the evil sorcerer (James Earl Jones) who slaughtered his village as a boy and threw him into slavery, Conan the Barbarian is the better of the two movies. It also gives us Mako (who would return in the sequel) as Conan's ally.

Following two-years later, Conan the Destroyer feels every bit the half-baked sequel it is as Conan is hired to protect a princess (Olivia d'Abo) with a terrible destiny. While not as strong as the original, Destroyer does offer some memorable moments.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Detective Comics #934


Picking up its original numbering, Detective Comics returns as more of a Bat-Family book than a Batman solo title. Concerned that a new villain has been keeping tabs on Gotham's vigilantes (Red Robin, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain), Batman enlists the help of Batwoman to get the younger generation trained for the battle yet to come. A Bat Book Camp, if you will. And, to throw a curve ball in the mix, Batman enlists Clayface to be part of the team.

Person of Interest - .exe


The penultimate episode of Person of Interest takes Finch (Michael Emerson) into the heart of the enemy and to the precipice of a decision of how far he's willing to go to destroy Samaritan. Armed with one of the world's most dangerous computer viruses and the need to protect his friends before they face the same fate of Root (Amy Acker), the only decision Harold has to make is would he be willing to harm his own artificial intelligence to stop Samaritan? To help its creator make his decision, The Machine offers a series of simulations of what his life, and the lives of his friends, would have been like if he had never created an artificial intelligence.

Darth Vader #21


Sending the murder droids after their missing creator, Darth Vader turns his attention on his new assignment from the Emperor: find rogue scientist Cylo who is building his own cyber-fleet of ships. Finding Aphra drunk in a bar in the Outer Rim, Triple-Zero and Beetee cause murder and mayhem on a large scale before finally convincing their former master to accompany them back to Lord Vader.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Houdini & Doyle - Bedlam


An attack on a priest by a recently-released mental patient believing she may have been possessed and a man at the center of an exorcism left as a vegetable leads Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan), Harry Houdini (Michael Weston), and Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard) to Bethlem Hospital in search of answers. While investigating the case, Doyle stumbles on the doctor's secret concerning his father's death at the hospital which gets him locked away in the asylum with a patient (Ewen Bremner) who believes he is Sherlock Holmes.

Despicable Me Three-Movie Collection

If you don't already own Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, this 6-disc collection offers you an added incentive to buy Minions by including both the other two movies in the series. While Minions is the weakest of the three focusing on the cute henchmen rather then the main characters of the other two films, all thee provide their entertainment value.

Despicable Me introduces us to Gru (Steve Carell) and the three orphans, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Agnes (Elsie Kate Fisher), and Edith (Dana Gaier), he adopts as a means to achieve his villainous scheme before falling in love with all three girls.

Despicable Me 2 returns Gru and his girls for a sequel that puts the former criminal to work for The Anti-Villain League to determine the source of a dangerous chemical which can turn people (or minions) into dangerous killing machines. Set prior to the first two films, Minions focuses on the misadventures of the lovable henchmen before they Gru.

Wander Over Yonder - The Search for Captain Tim


When Lord Hater's (Keith Ferguson) pet Arachnomorph goes missing the super-villain panics and begins a search to find Captain Tim. The Watchdogs prove no help as Hater's army is deliriously happy that violent creature is no longer aboard the ship. Seeking outside assistance, Hater teams up with an Arachnomorph bounty hunter who reveals that it is the animal's mating season and all male Arachnomorphs have been called back to their home planet by their queen.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Preacher - Possibilities


After discovering the power of his new gift, but not its meaning, Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) will choose to confide in Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun). That's not the only surprise for Cassidy who will get a visit from the two men (Tom Brooke and Anatol Yusef)he killed last week, and again this week, looking not for the vampire but the entity inside of the preacher. Meanwhile Jesse will face temptation, first from Tulip (Ruth Negga) who nearly tempts her ex-boyfriend to sign-up to kill an old enemy, and also from Donnie Schenck (Derek Wilson) whose attempt to take some revenge on the preacher nearly gets the idiot killed.

The Flash: Rebirth #1


Because DC Universe: Rebirth #1 centered around Wally West and his connection the lost pre-New 52 DCU, and did such an amazing job of reintroducing the character back into DC Comics, The Flash: Rebirth #1 feels mostly redundant. There's simply nothing new for writer Joshua Williamson to introduce.

Cosplayer Geek Trivia Challenge (WonderCon 2016 Edition)

Beauty and the Beast - Beast Interrupted


With Vincent (Jay Ryan) unable to hide his beast abilities (seriously, how has a guy this incapable of not beasting out in public not be outed at this point in the series?), Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) benches her husband while looking into a hacker who stole classified files from Homeland Security. When it becomes apparent Vincent isn't the target but a celebrity (Amanda Setton) who helped the Federal Government fund witness protection (um... okay?), Vincent and Catherine work together to help save the woman and the witnesses she helped protect from a bomber (Brett Ryan).

Friday, June 10, 2016

Now You See Me 2

The sequel to Now You See Me attempts to pull an Oceans Twelve as the heroes from the first film are constantly thwarted and outmaneuvered. Sadly this movie doesn't have the wit or style to pull off such a move. Taking place three years after the first film, the script makes several odd choices. While the Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco) have gone into hiding, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) has remained with the FBI for the questionable purpose of keeping the Feds off the inactive magicians' trail. His lovely Interpol girlfriend (Mélanie Laurent) is nowhere to be seen, and the adventure he and the Horsemen get trapped in will rewrite several key pieces of the first film.

When the Horsemen do return, except for Isla Fisher who is replaced by Lizzy Caplan, to take down another greedy billionaire, the media darlings are thwarted by an adversary (Daniel Radcliffe) who separates them from their leader and puts them to work in Macau to steal a revolutionary microchip. After an awkward set-up that includes Harrelson in a dual role, the movie begins to pick up a little steam in Macau as the Horseman get back to business stealing the chip and attempt to turn the tables on their tormentor.

Warcraft


A good video-game movie is something of an oxymoron. The genre has produced dreadful results over the years including (but not limited to) the likes of Max Payne, Super Mario Bros., Hitman, Alone in the Dark, and Doom. Even the ones that prove watchable fit more into the "so bad they're good" category than on any merit of their own.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1


Still in the early days of DC Rebirth, DC Comics' latest reboot which hopes to combine previous DC continuity with that of the New 52 into a new DCU, it's obvious some characters are more aware of what is happening than others. Diana of Themyscira is aware of both her classic and (shitty) New 52 origins at the same time, using her Magic Lasso in an attempt to find out what is real she discovers she has been deceived. Have I mentioned yet how much I love the idea that the entirety of the New 52 was a super-villain plot to make DC suck?

Person of Interest - Synecdoche


The post-Root era begins as Finch (Michael Emerson) and The Machine (now speaking with Amy Acker's voice) head off on a road trip with ominous ramifications as Harold takes his first step on his path of sworn revenge against Samaritan. Meanwhile Reese (Jim Caviezel), Shaw (Sarah Shahi), and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) head to Washington D.C. to protect their latest number: the President of the United States. Realizing that Samaritan has deemed the President irrelevant, Reese and company realize Samaritan has no regard for individual human life unless he or she is a potential asset or threat to the artificial intelligence's control of the country.

Civil War II #1


Apparently the House of Ideas is out of, well, ideas. Attempting to cash-in on the name recognition of one of Marvel's biggest events, which coincidentally were just adapted for the basis of Marvel's latest summer blockbuster, Civil War II offers a new story of the Marvel Universe heroes splitting into two "surprisingly" equal sides. While Civil War focused on what it meant to be a hero and offered debate about freedom and privacy versus safety and control, it's sequel (as sequels are known to do) feels lightweight in comparison.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Moon Knight #3


Having escaped the mental institution and made it into the subway with his friends and other patients, Moon Knight has to deal with a host of mummies and Egyptian figures attempting to trap him and return him to his prison. Writer Jeff Lemire continues to blur the lines behind what is actually happening and Moon Knight's perception of it. Although the other mentally unstable characters aren't much more reliable than our main protagonist, the fact that they too see the subway station full of mummies helps confirm the odd reality Marc Spector is trapped isn't only in his mind.

Houdini & Doyle - The Monsters of Nethermoor


Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan), Harry Houdini (Michael Weston), and Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard) travel into the country to investigate a murder suspect who claims his missing wife was abducted by aliens. While the town's prejudice to the man forces Harry to champion his cause, Arthur has serious doubts allowing the skeptic and believer to swap places for this particular episode. Eventually there proves to be a rational, although still bizarre, explanation for the woman's disappearance.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Beauty and the Beast – The Complete Third Season

The Third Season of Beauty and the Beast pits Vincent (Jay Ryan) and Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) against the dangerous Liam (Jason "Iron Eagle" Gedrick) who attacks the pair's personal and professional lives to settle and old score. The season also introduces Gloria Votsis as the scientist responsible for engineering Liam.

Despite the introduction of legitimate threat in Liam, the quality of the show's writing continues to be hit-and-miss. Three seasons in we still have the same problems from the show's First Season: Kreuk still hasn't convinced me she can play a cop and a GQ beast is pretty damn stupid.Highlights of the season include a fake wedding, Vincent and Catherine befriending a pair of assassins, and Vincent becoming more beast-like thanks to Liam's influence before a rather disappointing finale.

Collected on DVD in a four-disc set, extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

[Paramount, $45.98]

Will Eisner's The Spirit #11


Setting up next month's conclusion to the twelve-part maxi-series, in Will Eisner's The Spirit #11 our intrepid hero finally tracks down Sachet Spice, and, after putting the woman behind bars, the Spirit gets some answers about the reasons for his captivity in the island prison.