Despite little tension or suspense, “Beauty and the Beast,” is nonetheless season 5’s most entertaining, emotionally satisfying episode to date, with Julia Stiles giving a knockout performance. Playing Lumen Pierce, the final victim of deceased serial killer Boyd Fowler, Stiles is animalistic and raw, vulnerable and utterly convincing.
The love of Howard’s life, Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), returns in 'The Hot Troll Deviation'. In the episode’s opening, Howard’s having lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with Sheldon, Leonard and Raj, when Bernadette—who waitresses there—passes by. He hasn’t seen her since breaking up; unsure how to act—sophisticated and relaxed, friendly, noncommittal or cold and distant—he opts for pathetic and frightened, hitting the floor hard enough to break something and hiding under the table.
“Practically Perfect” opens on a funny note, with Deb questioning a young woman as if performing a police interrogation. “I wasn’t expecting these kinds of questions,” the young woman says and we learn she’s interviewing to become Harrison’s nanny. With Deb’s unrelenting assistance, Dexter eventually settles on Sonya (Maria Doyle Kennedy), an Irish woman with a nursing degree who seems to have a magic touch.
In his almost 40-year Hollywood career, Wes Craven has been responsible for some of horror’s best-known titles. Some of those have become genre classics (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream), while others are remembered—or forgotten—for more notorious reasons (Deadly Friend, Shocker). Unfortunately, My Soul to Take falls into the latter category—and not by a little bit either; this may be the most poorly-written, convoluted, confusing, contradictory film I’ve seen this year; it’s without doubt the worst horror film I’ve seen in 2010.
Amy Farrah Fowler returns in week 3 and then departs, only to return once more in the episode’s final act. We’re reminded from the outset how obnoxious she is—and why we missed her so much in week 2.
Many have noted that The Social Network, like the book upon which it’s based—Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires”—takes broad dramatic license with its true-life subject matter. Whether this film’s an authentic biopic, however, or the biggest work of alternate history since Inglourious Basterds, neither changes the fact that it’s a brilliant film. Regardless of their balance between fact and fabrication, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, working from timeless storytelling themes, reveal a number of basic, universal truths about human nature.
Dexter gains an adversary in week 2, but, as with week 1’s “My Bad,” this episode moves at a measured pace. Granted, “Hello, Bandit” is more peppy than the premiere, but it nonetheless reminds me of last season’s “Blinded by the Light” in that it plays like a steppingstone meant to transition deeper into season 5.
Sheldon gets in touch with his agoraphobic side in week 2 when he realizes, in the opening sequence, he “only” has around 60 years to live. According to his complex calculations (which are sketched on a magic eraser board), that means he’ll die before science conceives a unified field theory and creates functioning cold fusion.
Invoking 2006’s The Departed as part of The Town’s promotional campaign was, at best, a dicey proposition for this Ben Affleck directed pic. The Departed won four academy awards, including best picture, best adapted screenplay and best-director. Why put that kind of pressure on your movie?
The episode picks up where last season’s finale left off. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has just discovered Rita’s (Julie Benz) body in a bathtub of bloody water—Trinity’s grisly parting gift, discovered as Dexter returns from dispatching season 4’s adversary.
