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The Salisbury Poisonings–New British drama on AMC a riveting account of Russian spy event

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January 26, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

British television series that make their way to America tend to be refreshing in that each new show is incredibly different from the last. No matter how many times Americans catch the latest Brit/Irish/Scot police procedural, it’s nearly impossible to follow how each level of government polices, and manages the policing, of its citizenry. That quirk doesn’t get more pronounced than in the opener to The Salisbury Poisonings, a four-part series airing Monday evenings on AMC. The series will likely mean less to those on this side of the pond, although the real-life attempt on the lives of a Russian spy and his daughter living in Salisbury was international news in March 2018, victims of Vladimir Putin’s spy network. But the first episode has the kind of TV writing that should bring the show to the attention of anglophiles.

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The Big Spooks List – Halloween TV listings for October 2020

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September 30, 2020

October is almost here!

Your annual list of scary, ghostly, spooky, creepy, slashery, and generally monstrous films is back. The goal? Not to miss your favorite Halloween movies in October, and maybe find some new favorites. You’ll be able to find many staples of the holiday season. Need even more recommendations? Check our borg lists of past recommendations here–Halloween doesn’t arrive each year until we’ve watched The Watcher in the Woods and Silver Bullet. Below we’ve provided hundreds of movies scheduled to air–hundreds to choose from with a mix of classics and modern fare. Syfy′s “31 Days of Halloween” is back, along with Freeform′s “31 Nights of Halloween.” AMC has its “Fear Fest” again, and as with last year you can get caught up on The Walking Dead airing throughout the entire month (you’ll have to check the AMC website for the last few days of the month, as the network doesn’t release its listings this far in advance). Best of all, TCM hosts a day of monster movies on October 12 and 23, plus movies all month featuring Peter Cushing. You’ll find this year all the usual suspects: Stephen King, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Kruger. Disney channel will be releasing its listings for Monstober later in the month so you may want to check the Disney website for updates.

New for this year–check out the new remake of Hitchcock’s Rebecca, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Ratched, the brilliant zombie series Kingdom, the monster-filled October Faction, The Babysitter, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Enola Holmes on Netflix, The Vast of Night on Amazon, the horrors of love on Soulmates on AMC, Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island on Starz and Vudu, or 2019’s Ready or Not on Vudu. If you missed 2018’s Halloween movie with Jamie Lee Curtis, or Get Out, find them streaming on Vudu and other services–it’s not to be missed (and you can catch all the past entries in the series on AMC). Also, if you missed Netflix’s latest seasons of Stranger Things or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, now’s a great time to catch up. (Note: AMC and Syfy’s listings don’t always mention which versions of the movies are being aired (original or remake?), so your guess is as good as ours).

All month long on streaming services and premium channels like Netflix and Starz you can watch horror movies including The Sixth Sense, The Lost Boys, The Boy, Cloverfield, Coraline, Children of the Corn, Cult of Chucky, Van Helsing, John Carpenter’s The Thing, They Live, and Ghosts of Mars, Young Frankenstein, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Underworld: Blood Wars, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Zombieland, Life, Scream, Amityville: The Awakening, Sleepy Hollow, Hollow Man, The Craft, and many more, plus series like The Twilight Zone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Requiem, Bates Motel, and The Frankenstein Chronicles. Everything you see in AMC’s listings are offered via their on-demand services, so watch those whenever you’d like. If all else fails, you can find your favorite ghost story or other horror classic on Vudu and Amazon Prime, where you can buy or rent recommendations like The Fog (both versions), The Birds, The Shining, Orphan, Let Me In, The Others, The Woman in Black, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Ring, Grimm, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (all these are highly recommended, and you can catch many of these airing this month, too).

So take notes and put your watch list into your DVR now so you don’t miss anything, especially useful for many of the marathons, which often play in reverse order (?!). We’ve bolded some of our recommendations. All times listed are Central Time:

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Dispatches from Elsewhere delivers engaging performances and promising beginning

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March 3, 2020

Dispatches from Elsewhere Lindley Segel

Review by C.J. Bunce

For anyone still in withdrawals and languishing from the news that AMC’s Lodge 49 did not get renewed for a third season, a new show premiering this week may help fill the void. It also hails from AMC, and carries over many of the same themes as that drama/comedy masked as fantasy about a group of people stuck in a similar place in their lives who find that spark of magic to get them back on track. It’s writer/director/star Jason Segel’s Dispatches from Elsewhere—the first two episodes are now available on AMC and at AMC’s website, with new episodes airing each Monday night at 9 p.m. Central.

Depending on your perspective, your tolerance of the unusual, and your openness to new things, like the four lead characters on the screen, you may think the series is about a game, a hoax, a conspiracy, or something very real. Dispatches on Elsewhere is a ten-episode limited series that challenges its characters (and the viewers at home) to examine their own lives. Our on-screen heroes each have their own personal issues–at the core is the average person dealing with the monotony of the daily grind, with the first four episodes spotlighting each member of an unusual assemblage. Not so self-indulgent like dramas with a similar off-center sort of production design and story like Legion or [insert any Charlie Kaufman screenplay here], the show searches out the honesty of lost and lonely souls at work on the street corner or at home, all searching for more meaning from their lives.

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Writer/director Jason Segel plays a near extension of his character in How I Met Your Mother named Peter, this time he’s single, living in an apartment in Philadelphia, disengaged from everything, and embarrassed of the boring nature of his data assembly job in the music industry. But he brings to the table a vivid imagination, working out in his head (and brought to the TV screen for viewers) those things he ponders, beginning with his reactions to a string of flyers taped to street posts. On a whim he pursues one of the brochures, calling a number he tears from the bottom. This leads him to the beginning of his journey with this strange Jejune Institute–the exact place for someone who doesn’t think he’s special. He meets a transgendered woman named Simone, played by Eve Lindley, whose endearing enthusiasm is simply stellar, especially in the Simone-focused second episode (consider this series her breakout role). Her imagination finds her carrying out a conversation with a painting of a woman in a museum. She becomes his partner, and the team expands to include a kindly older lady played by Oscar-winning actress Sally Field, and an uptight genius played by André Benjamin.

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Tags: AMC, André Benjamin, Charlie Kaufman, Cynthia Von Buhler, Dispatches from Elsewhere, Dispatches from Elsewhere review, Eve Lindley, Illuminati Ball, Jason Segel, Legion series, Lodge 49, Michael Douglas The Game, Richard E. Grant, Richard E. Grant roles, Sally Field, scavenger hunt, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Wizard of Oz, Wonderfalls

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Dispatches from Elsewhere is AMC’s next quirky, strange drama

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January 18, 2020

You’ve all been selected as Agents of Nonchalance.

With its critically acclaimed series Lodge 49, which starred Wyatt Russell, Brent Jennings, and Sonya Cassidy, apparently canceled after only two series, the cable network AMC looked to fill the quirky drama niche it left behind. It found Jason Segel′s quirky dramedy Dispatches from Elsewhere, releasing its first trailer this week. This is labeled an anthology series, which typically means individual stories in each episode and different characters, yet it lists its five leads in all ten episodes. So what’s going on here? It’s an anthology to the extent that the series gets renewed–meaning you’ll likely only see the billed cast of characters in the first season, with a new story and characters in subsequent seasons. It’s billed as “a transcendental series about a group of ordinary people who stumble onto a puzzle hiding just behind the veil of everyday life.” That describes Lodge 49 perfectly, too, right?

Dispatches from Elsewhere has similar bits going for it compared to AMC’s departed Lodge 49. It looks like it was filmed on the same paneled set and it, too, features a directionless guy lost in his own world, detached from a meaningful existence, with How I Met Your Mother and The Muppets co-star Segel in that role (along with serving as show creator, director, and producer). And like Lodge 49, with its street cred of actors like Paul Giamatti, Bruce Campbell, Cheech Marin, Bronson Pinchot, and Brian Doyle-Murray, Dispatches from Elsewhere has its own style of actor cred, co-starring Academy Award winner Sally Field, Academy Award nominee (Doctor Who star, new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker villain) Richard E. Grant, and Grammy-winning musician André Benjamin. Mr. Robot’s Eve Lindley rounds out the main cast.

It looks strange in the vein of Lodge 49, Mr. Robot, Russian Doll, or Legion. But is it the good kind of strange? See what you think. Here’s the first trailer for Dispatches from Elsewhere:

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Tags: AMC, AMC's Lodge 49, André Benjamin, Dispatches from Elsewhere, Dispatches from Elsewhere preview trailer, Eve Lindley, Jason Segel, Legion, Mr Robot, Richard E. Grant, Russian Doll, Sally Field

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The Big List – Halloween TV listings for October 2019

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October 1, 2019

Happy October!

Your annual list of scary, ghostly, spooky, creepy, slashery, and generally monstrous films is back. The goal? Not to miss your favorite Halloween movies in October, and maybe find some new favorites. You’ll be able to find many staples of the holiday season. Below we’ve provided hundreds of movies scheduled to air–hundreds to choose from with a mix of classics and modern. Syfy′s “31 Days of Halloween” is back, along with Freeform′s “31 Nights of Halloween” (which continues to be a dozen or so movies played over and over all month, with some kind of world record to be set with its too-many-to-count airings of Hocus Pocus). As always AMC doesn’t kick in with its “Fear Fest” until October 14, and as with last year you can get caught up on The Walking Dead, and The Terror all airing throughout the entire month (you’ll have to check the AMC website for the last week of the month, as they don’t release their listings this far in advance). Best of all, TCM hosts Godzilla with 17 movies airing Fridays in October, and 41 horror classics on Thursdays–really your best bet for the season. You’ll find this year another Stephen King movie marathon, some Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Vincent Price, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Kruger. Disney channel will be releasing its listings for Monstober later in the month so you may want to check the Disney website for updates.

We’ve bolded some of our recommendations and asterisked other notable events in October. If you missed last year’s new Halloween movie with Jamie Lee Curtis, find it streaming on Vudu and other services–it’s not to be missed (and you can catch all the past entries in the series on AMC). Also, if you missed Netflix’s latest seasons of Stranger Things or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, now’s a great time to catch up. And with showings of both Predator and Hellboy movies, you might as well catch the new releases on Vudu, The Predator and Hellboy (2019).

All month long on streaming services and premium channels like Netflix and Starz you can watch horror movies including The Sixth Sense, The Lost Boys, The Boy, Cloverfield, Coraline, Children of the Corn, Cult of Chucky, Van Helsing, John Carpenter’s The Thing, They Live, and Ghosts of Mars, Young Frankenstein, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Underworld: Blood Wars, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Zombieland, Life, Scream, Amityville: The Awakening, Sleepy Hollow, Hollow Man, The Craft, and many more, plus series like The Twilight Zone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Requiem, Bates Motel, and The Frankenstein Chronicles. If all else fails, you can find your favorite ghost story or other horror classic on Vudu and Amazon Prime, where you can buy or rent recommendations like The Fog (both versions), The Birds, The Shining, Orphan, Let Me In, The Others, The Woman in Black, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Ring, Grimm, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (all these are highly recommended, and you can catch many of these airing this month, too). Need more recommendations? Check our past recommendation lists here.

So take notes and put your watch list into your DVR now so you don’t miss anything, especially useful for many of the marathons, which often play in reverse order (?!). All times listed are Central Time:

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NOS4A2–New AMC supernatural series piles on the Stephen King vibe

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June 6, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

You really need to read the promotional information for AMC’s new series NOS4A2 to understand what happened in the first episode, which premiered this week. A slow-starter that meanders more than it should to introduce characters, place, and conflict, NOS4A2 has enough going for it that it should get viewers to at least return to give the second episode a try. The mood is horror, beginning with the murder of a woman and her boyfriend and the kidnapping of the woman’s son. The kidnapper is a take on Krampus, played at first by an unrecognizable Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Hotel Artemis, Heroes), who tells the kid he is taking him to a place called Christmastown, and he de-ages over the course of the episode as he drives north in his vintage Rolls Royce. The show screams Stephen King, complete with Easter egg throwbacks to King’s many stories, the overall feel of IT, and a setting reminiscent of his classic coming of age werewolf movie, Silver Bullet, complete with an old covered bridge as a central plot element.

What does this NOS4A2 have in common with the 1922 horror film Nosferatu? Nothing yet, and so far it has no vampire appearances, although Quinto’s Krampus-esque villain appears to be sucking the life force slowly from his child victims. There is a reason for the throwbacks and similarity to Stephen King’s works–it’s because the series is based on the novel NOS4A2 (NOS4R2 in the UK) written by King’s son, Joseph King who writes under the name Joe Hill (also known for the IDW Publishing comic book series Locke & Key and the book and film Horns). Unfortunately the first episode takes its time getting anywhere, and before you know it the hour has run and viewers are left with a vague introductory picture of what is happening.

What do we learn? The kidnapping takes place in Iowa. A local librarian who knew the missing boy, played by new actress Jahkara Smith, divines supernatural messages through Scrabble game tiles, which looks like it will soon connect her with an 18-year-old young woman in Massachusetts named Vic McQueen, played by 27-year-old actress Ashleigh Cummings (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries). As her character’s name would indicate, she drives a motorcycle and she’s from the wrong side of the tracks. She favors her wife-beater father, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher, Medium)–who encourages her to follow her dreams of being an artist–over her mom, a bit of a caricature of the disinterested parent, played by Virginia Kull (Big Little Lies, Twin Peaks).

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borg Hall of Fame 2018

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December 31, 2018

It’s been another long year of great entertainment. Before we wrap our coverage of 2018, it’s time for the sixth annual round of new honorees for the borg Hall of Fame. We have plenty of honorees from 2018 films and television, plus many from past years, and a peek at some from the future – 40 in all. You can always check out the updated borg Hall of Fame on our home page under “Know your borg.”

Some reminders about criteria. Borgs have technology integrated with biology. Wearing a technology-powered suit alone doesn’t qualify a new member. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was an inaugural honoree because the Arc Reactor kept him alive. The new Spider-Man suit worn by Tom Holland is similar to Tony’s, but as far as we can tell it’s not integrated with Peter Parker’s biology. Similarly Peni Parker, seen outside her high-tech SP//dr suit in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Black Manta from Aquaman (and decades of comics before), seem to be merely wearing tech suits. We’d love a reason for a Mandalorian to make the cut, like Boba Fett, or Jango Fett, since nobody has more intriguing armor. Maybe Jon Favreau’s new television series will give us something new to ponder next year.

Also, if the creators tell us the characters are merely robots, automatons, or androids, we take their word for it. Westworld continues to define its own characters as androids (like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Lt. Commander Data throughout the TV series), and not cyborgs (going back to Michael Crichton’s original story), so we continue this year to hold off on their admittance unless something changes, like the incorporation of living biological (blood, cells, etc.) materials. Are we closing in on admitting individuals solely based on a breathing apparatus that may allow them to breathe to in non-native atmospheres? Only if integrated (surgically). Darth Vader has more borg parts than his breathing filter. We assume new honoree Saw Gerrera does as well. With more biological enhancements we’d allow Tusken Raiders, Moloch, and Two Tubes from the Star Wars universe, and Mordock the Benzite from Star Trek, but wouldn’t that also mean anyone in a deep sea suit or space suit is a cyborg? Again, integration is key. Ready Player One has humans interacting with a cyber-world with virtual reality goggles and other equipment, but like the Programs (as opposed to the Users) in the movie Tron, this doesn’t qualify as borg either, but we’re making an exception this year for the in-world Aech, who is a cyborg orc character, and two Tron universe characters.

Already admitted in 2017 were advance honorees that didn’t actually make it to the screen until 2018. This included Josh Brolin’s new take on Cable in Deadpool 2 and Simone Missick’s Misty Knight after her acquisition of a borg arm in Marvel’s Luke Cage. New versions of Robotman and Cyborg are coming in 2019 in the Doom Patrol series, but they are already members of the revered Hall of Fame. Above are the new looks for these two earlier honorees.

So who’s in for 2018?

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Tags: 2018 borg Hall of Fame honorees, Aaron Aikman, Adventure Time, Aech, Alien: Covenant, Alita, Alita: Battle Angel, Amanda Seyfried, AMC, Angela the cyborg hunter, Anon, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Aquaman, Augmented Cyborg Monster, Aurra Sing, Bala-Tik, Bellona, Black Manta, Black Panther, borg, Borg Hall of Fame, borg technology, borg.com Hall of Fame, Colr Iron Corruptor, Community season one, cybernetic organism, Cyborg, Cyborg Commando, cyborg hunter, Damaera Mills, Dan Harmon, David 8, Deadpool 2, Doc Ock, Don "The Demon" Donaldson, Dr Klaw, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, Edge of Spider-Verse, Extinction, Finn, Florn, Flynn, Frank Mentzer, Garren Kho, Gary Gygax, Ghost, Grewishka, Guavian Death Gang, Hannah John-Kamen, Honey Badger, Humans, Humans AMC, Inspector Gadget, Iron Man, James Cameron, Jim Mahfood, Johnny Mnemonic, Karen Voss, Kevin Flynn, Last Call at Zero Angle, Lobot, Long John Silver, Machinamancers, Marvel Comics, Marvel's Luke Cage, Marvel's Spider-Man PS4 PlayStation, Michael Peña, Misty Knight, Mohan, Molly Millions, Moloch, Mordock the Benzite, Mort, Netflix, Olivia Octavius, Peni Parker, Predator Killer, Ready Player One, Rhen-Orm biocomputer, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Robotman, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ruth Bradley, Sam Flynn, Saw Gerrera, Shane Black, Solo: A Star wars Story, Spider-Man, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Star Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars Legacy, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Rebels, Synth, The Borg Construct Aj^6, The Empire Strikes Back, The Girl, The Neuromancer, The Predator, Tom Holland, Treasure Planet, Tron, Two Tubes, Ulysses Klaue, Viloet Evergarden, Walter, Westworld, Wolverine, X-23, Zapan, Zelda

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borg’s Best of 2018–The Best on TV

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December 28, 2018

Our borg Best of 2018 list continues today with the best in television. If you missed it, check out our review of the Best Movies of 2018 here and the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2018 here.

Without further ado, this year’s Best in Television:

Best Borg TV Series, Best TV Borg – Humans (AMC). No other series touches on the ramifications of technology, specifically the perils of an onslaught of real-world cyborg technology, like AMC’s Humans. This year three characters stood out, including Gemma Chan’s Mia, the cyborg Synth from past seasons, who sacrificed everything for the liberty of cyborgs in the UK. Then there was Ruth Bradley’s Karen Voss, a Synth who refused to live segregated from the humans, opting instead for a normal life for the cyborg son she assumed care for. And Katherine Parkinson’s Laura Hawkins, a human lawyer who fought so hard for the cause of the Synths all year, only to throw away all the good she had done, failing the first real challenge that was presented to her. This year’s best TV borg is shared by Synths Mia and Karen, as each showed the uphill battle any future outsider must overcome when faced with humans.

Best Sci-fi TV Series – The Man in the High Castle (Amazon). What had been a two-season build-up all came together in the series’ third season with the audacity of killing off key characters, wisely adhering to the framework of the source Philip K. Dick novel. The use of science fiction to tell an often gut-wrenching array of subplots and unique characters has set up a fourth season with plenty to address. Exciting, smart, scary, and even fun, it is an unusual science fiction show that isn’t merely trigger-happy sci-fi. Honorable mention: Humans (AMC), Counterpart (Starz).

Best New TV Series, Best Reboot, Best Ensemble Cast – Magnum PI (CBS). If you would have told us a year ago our favorite show this year would be a reboot of Magnum, p.i. starring Suicide Squad’s Jay Hernandez and an actress in the iconic role of John Hillerman’s Higgins, we wouldn’t have believed it. And yet, even as diehard fans of the original, we had to acknowledge that many elements of the reboot series were even better in the new series. With the dangerous risk of taking on a beloved property, the production maintained loyalty to the original while making it fresh, scoring Magnum PI high marks on all counts. Every character was smartly written–suave and confident Magnum, energetic Rick and TC, and a savvy Higgins–every actor was perfectly cast, and each show was another round of nostalgic fun for fans of the original. Best New TV Series Honorable mention for Best New TV Series: Counterpart (Starz), Lodge 49 (AMC).

Best Series, Best Drama, Best Comedy – Lodge 49 (AMC). Lodge 49 told two stories: a darkly serious drama of real people dealing with real-life 2018 adversity, and the other a comedy farce like no other. Hanging over our heads was the idea that this was going to be a fantasy show, complete with secret codes, hidden rooms, and psychic visions. If you’re looking for all the elements of great fantasy the hint of it all could be found throughout this series. And yet it wasn’t fantasy at all. An oddball Cheers? A southern Twin Peaks without the Lynchian weirdness? Star Wyatt Russell’s hero Dud could be dismissed as a typical young man with no vision, or maybe he’s that idealist that everyone needs to strive to be. Maybe we’ll learn more about that next season. Honorable mention for Best Drama: Counterpart (Starz). Honorable mention for Best Comedy: Baskets (FX).
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Tags: Alexa Davalos, Alfre Woodard, AMC, Anthony Michael Hall, BBC, Bella Heathcote, Best of 2018, borg, borg.com Best of 2018, Bradley Walsh, Bruce Campbell, Chelah Horsdal, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Cindy Sampson, Collateral, Corbin Bernsen, Counterpart, CW Network, Death in Paradise, Doctor Who, Douglas Henshall, Father Brown, History Channel, Humans AMC, Ion Network, Jason Priestley, JK Simmons, Jodie Whittaker, Lodge 49, Magnum PI, Marvel's Luke Cage, Marvel's Luke Cage episode The Basement, Michael Douglas, Michelle Gomez, Mustafa Shakir, Netflix, Private Eyes, Requiem, Riverdale, Riverdale episode The Midnight Club, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Rufus Sewell, Sara Serraiocco, Scooby Doo, ScoobyNatural, Shetland, Sonya Cassidy, Stephen Walters, Supernatural, The Five, The Kominsky Method, The Man in the High Castle, The Man in the High Castle episode The New Colossus, The Toys That Made Us, Theo Rossi, Vikings

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borg’s Best of 2018–Kick-Ass Genre Heroines

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December 24, 2018

It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television. This year we selected 25 characters that rose to the top. Again the studios gave us more to cheer about than ever. We’re highlighting the very best from a slate of fantastic heroines, with characteristics to learn from and cheer on. Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong (and, okay, sometimes evil), you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Over the years we have expanded the list to include any tough, savvy, gritty character played by a woman, so villains are welcome here, too. Some may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against gun and laser fire. And they all showed what a tough, kick-ass character is about.

In 2018 these characters broke new ground, and unlike last year’s great list, this year’s selections would not have worked as well had the characters been swapped for males. We had a former MI-5 agent, bounty hunters, assassins, doctors, defenders, advanced superhumans, superheroines, warriors, witches, and even a few cyborgs–with a roster evenly split between television and movie characters.

Better yet, here’s something we haven’t said before. Several of our selections this year were played by women over 50.

These are the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2018:

Enfys Nest (Solo: A Star Wars Story). For the first half of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Enfys Nest was the leader of a band of pirates, a character as cool and ruthless as anyone Han Solo ever faced. But once she took off her mask, it became clear how important she was, how significant her mission was–even more so than Han Solo’s own pursuit of mere wealth. She foreshadowed what Han would later find with Leia, an early glimpse at a rogue and scoundrel who actually had some good in him. When they joined forces, it made their characters even better. And she became one of the best warriors in the Star Wars universe since the original trilogy. (Disney/Lucasfilm)

Okoye (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War). Is there any woman warrior as powerful and impressive in a fantasy movie this year as Danai Gurira’s Okoye? We can’t think of any. A smart commander, a brave soldier, a loyal ally. Stalwart, devoted, steadfast, strong physically, intimidating and wise, with a keen unwavering ferocity, she represented the best of Wakanda, and fought bravely to defend the world at the last stand against Thanos. (Disney/Marvel)

Higgins (Magnum PI). Few television characters are as beloved as Jonathan Higgins in the original Magnum, p.i. So it was going to be risky having any actor step into the role John Hillerman made famous. So when the show honored the original character and late actor with such a finely tuned, updated character and actor, we took notice. Perdita Weeks’s Juliet Higgins is everything Robin Masters was–the character we all thought Higgins was in secret. We don’t know whether we’ll learn the truth this time around and what that truth will be, but as an ex-British secret service agent, she’s a James Bond for Thomas Magnum to partner with–literally running alongside the show’s star and fighting and shooting her way as an equal. And the result? Every episode of the first season was full of great action and fun. (CBS)
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Tags: 20th Century Fox, Alexa Davalos, Alisa Jones, Altered Carbon, Amazon Studios, Amblin Entertainment, AMC, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Aquaman, Art3mis, Avengers: Infinity War, badass women of 2018, Baldwin, BBC America, best female character 2018, Black Panther, CBS, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Counterpart, CW Network, Danai Gurira, Deadpool 2, Doctor Who, Domino, Emilia Clarke, Enfys Nest, Erin Kellyman, Evangeline Lilly, Gemma Chan, Global Road Entertainment, Hailee Steinfeld, Halloween 2018, Hannah John-Kamen, Hannah John-Kamen movies, History Channel, Hotel Artemis, Humans AMC, iZombie, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet McTeer, Jodie Foster, Jodie Foster movies, Jodie Whittaker, Jodie Whittaker 13th Doctor, Juliana Crain, Juliet Higgins, Kiernan Shipka, Kristin Ortega, Lagertha, Lara Croft, Laurie Strode, Lionsgate, Liv Moore, Liz Dudley, Lodge 49, Lucasfilm, Magnum PI, Martha Higareda, Marvel's Ghost, Marvel's Hellcat, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Mera, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Mia, Michelle Gomez, Miramax, Ms Wardwell, Netflix, Nice, Okoye, Olivia Cooke, Perdita Weeks, Qi-ra, Rachael Taylor, Ready Player One, Rose McIver, Sabrina Spellman, Sara Serraiocco, Sofia Boutella, Solo: A Star wars Story, Sony Pictures Animation, Sonya Cassidy, Spider-Gwen, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Spider-Woman, Starz, The Man in the High Castle, The Wasp, Tomb Raider, Trish Walker, Universal Pictures, Vikings TV series, Vikings TV series History Channel, Warner Brothers, Zazie Beetz

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The Big List–Halloween TV listings for October 2018

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September 28, 2018

Odds are, you’re going to find this year to be the best year yet for accessing your favorite Halloween movies in October. Particularly if you have a DVR and basic cable, you’ll be able to find many staples of the holiday season. Below we’ve provided hundreds of movies scheduled to air–hundreds to choose from with a mix of classics and brand new shows–our annual compilation of the movies you get with the typical national basic cable packages. Syfy’s 31 Days of Halloween is back, along with Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween. AMC’s Fear Fest begins October 14, this year swapping out many movies for reruns of The Walking Dead, leads up to the new season premiere of the series (AMC’s listing below will be updated once they publish their final official schedule). And TCM is back with monster classics and special theme days.

We’ve bolded some of our recommendations and other notable events in October. A new Halloween movie will be in theaters and you can watch all the past entries in the series on AMC. TCM honors the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein with several classic spin-offs. You won’t want to miss Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, too. A Stephen King movie marathon, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Bela Legosi, Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, and lots of exorcisms. Plus lots of animated movies on Freeform, and the Disney channel will be releasing its listings for Monstober later in the month.

All month long on Netflix you can watch horror movies including The Sixth Sense, The Lost Boys, The Boy, Cloverfield, Coraline, Children of the Corn, Cult of Chucky, Van Helsing, plus series like Stranger Things, The Twilight Zone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Requiem, Bates Motel, and The Frankenstein Chronicles. On Starz you can find a mix of sci-fi and horror movies including John Carpenter’s The Thing, They Live, and Ghosts of Mars, Young Frankenstein, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Underworld: Blood Wars, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Zombieland, Life, Scream, Amityville: The Awakening, Sleepy Hollow, Hollow Man, The Craft, and many more. If all else fails, you can probably grab your favorite ghost story or other horror classic on Vudu and Amazon Prime, where you can buy or rent recommendations like The Fog (both versions), The Birds, The Shining, Orphan, Let Me In, The Others, The Woman in Black, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Ring, Grimm, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.