In the back half of The Blacklist's second season, the show seemed to get a little comfortable with the conformity of its format: every week Red would bring the FBI the name of a strange and exotic criminal, he would snark as the Bureau bungled the job, and then save the day with a Hail Mary pass. The season finale promised to change all that though, shaking up the entire concept of the show by taking our heroine, erstwhile FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen, and making her the last thing she'd ever expect she would be, one of the FBI's most wanted.
It’s September! And that means it’s time for the new TV season. Granted, nowadays, the TV schedule is more or less year round, as there always seems to be something new debuting, but the majority of it still bows in the fall, as does the majority of comic book-based TV shows. And just like their counterparts at the movies, in this coming TV season, there are more of them now than ever.
It wouldn’t be 100 per cent accurate to put the credit (or the blame) for the impressive slate of superhero shows on our TVs on Arrow, but the success of the CW’s adaptation of the Emerald Archer probably has something to do with the fact that during the 2015/16 season there will be over a dozen comic book inspired series across the television dial.
The Marvel Age of Movies is an ongoing feature that will profile every film produced by Marvel Studios from 1998 to the present. What started as a production company became a Hollywood powerhouse in its own right, and this column will chart the course of that unprecedented success beginning with adaptations across a handful of studios to the creation of a large and expansive cinematic universe involving dozens of characters. Marvel changed comic book movies, and it changed Hollywood in the process. This is the story of the Marvel Age of Movies.
If you’re not sick of comic book movies yet, you might be soon. With nearly 30 of them scheduled to come out over the next five years, and several more in development and jockeying for their own share of the box office pie, there will be no shortage of heroes, villains, and world ending calamities.
It's not too often that The Blacklist surprises, but tonight's adventure, titled "Karakurt" after its primary antagonist, managed to do just that. Although it didn't necessarily take a break from the now well-worn formula where Red hands out a mission, makes a few snarky comments, watches as the FBI fumbles the lead and comes in at the end to save the day, it did deliver a pretty good last minute twist. The endgame of the Cabal comes a little more into focus, but admittedly, it seems rather lame. Meanwhile, Red remains coy about Agent's Keen background if for no other purpose then next week is the season finale, so the stakes for that have to be huge.
