The Walking Dead Season 9 Finale Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for The Walking Dead's Season 9 finale, "The Storm."

"The Storm" may not have given me exactly what I needed/wanted, regarding my asinine wish list for a Season 9 finale, but it did lift us up and out of the death toll-heaviness from last week's "The Calm Before." It's still technically aftermath, but we've skipped ahead a few months later. We're not dealing with instant ramifications of Alpha's brutal beheadings.

Sure, the end of "The Calm Before" established that a few days had gone by before the credits rolled, but getting an actual mini-jump this week helped the story immensely. And I really liked the staging of these final three Season 9 chapters: The flashback-heavy ep followed by the shocking body count (which would usually be a finale) followed by a totally different adventure/crucible altogether.

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Netflix's Mercy Black Review

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Owen Egerton’s Mercy Black is a Schrödinger’s Cat of a movie. Is it a realistic horror thriller about homicidal delusions, or is it a supernatural thriller about a malevolent specter? You’ll have to watch the film to find out, but you may not want to, since it’s not particularly good.

Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) stars as Marina, a young woman who, fifteen years ago, when she was just a child, stabbed another little girl in the woods. She and her co-conspirator, allegedly, convinced themselves that a fictional spirit named “Mercy Black” demanded a sacrifice, and in exchange all their pain would be taken away.

In the years that followed, Mercy Black has become a viral phenomenon a la Slender Man, and Marina has been institutionalized under the care of Dr. Ward (Janeane Garofalo). As the movie begins Marina gets released under the care of her sister, Alice (Elle LaMont, Alita: Battle Angel), and struggles to adjust to “normal” life.

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Justice League vs. The Fatal Five Review

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Note: this is a spoiler-free review of Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, which is screening at WonderCon today and is also available in Digital HD. The Blu-ray will be released on April 16.

Justice League vs. The Fatal Five has multiple selling points for DC animation fans. On one hand, it features the return of the much-loved DC Animated Universe (the setting of classic shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited). On the other, it ventures off the beaten path to spotlight heroes who don't normally get their due in DC's animated projects. Both of these make DC's 34th "DC Universe Original Movie" worth watching, even if this effort never quite realizes its full potential.

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MLB The Show Review

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Sony’s MLB The Show series has been coasting on its past success for a few years now, but the 2019 version has finally broken that slump by introducing some substantially improved modes on top of the usual fine-tuning and polish. Yes, the core gameplay is very familiar and Franchise Mode remains nearly identical to last year’s, but Road to the Show serves as the culmination of years of improvements and a new mode, March to October, is a novel way to experience the MLB season.

One of the areas that sees the most improvement in 2019 is defensive play, which has often been considered a weaker part of the MLB The Show’s gameplay in recent years. In the past, issues like animation oddities and a lack of player variety made me eager to get back up to bat. Most of these problems have been addressed this year, most obviously because color-coded fielding icons now clearly indicate how good a player is at fielding his position. Gold indicates an elite fielder, while gray and blue icons let you know you might be dealing with an error-prone defensive liability.

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Netflix's The Dirt Review

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It’s easy to assume that everyone would be interested in watching a biopic about famous musicians. Being able to witness the events leading to stardom, learning how some of their hits were made, gaining new insight about a particular scandal – all of it is fascinating to a degree. And as long as there’s a good balance between factual events and dramatized moments, the film should resonate with viewers. Or at the very least, be tolerable. Thankfully, Netflix’s The Dirt is more than just tolerable. It’s mostly entertaining.

Directed by Jeff Tremaine and based on the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, the film provides a seemingly unfiltered look into the past exploits of Mötley Crüe – an American rock band in every sense of the notion. There’s sex, drugs, and of course Rock and Roll. Beyond that, though, is the depiction of real people. People who’ve struggled with vices, experienced heartache, and through it all, managed to create some (arguably) timeless music.

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Doom Patrol Does a Lot With Very Little

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Warning: Full spoilers for Doom Patrol Season 1, Episode 7 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 1, Episode 6.

Doom Patrol has a unique ability to render plot unimportant and and almost meaningless. Normally I consider myself a stickler for pacing and react poorly to shows that don't progress at a steady clip. But Doom Patrol consistently proves that some projects don't need much narrative momentum, so long as they have compelling, extremely damaged characters worth exploring.

Granted, it took a little while for "Therapy Patrol" to click. There's a slight "Haven't we been here before?" quality to the early scenes, as we see Rita and Larry continue to grapple with their respective tragic pasts. With Larry in particular, I don't know that "Therapy Patrol" had all that much to add in terms of his backstory and his struggles as a closeted gay man in 1960's suburbia.

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Hanna: Season 1 Review

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This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review of the first season of Hanna. All eight episodes are currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. 

Over the past 5 years, there has been an influx of TV shows based on popular films: FX's pulpy Fargo, YouTube's hilarious Cobra Kai, and A&E's creepy Bates Motel. All of the previously mentioned series are entertaining and worth checking out, but before you do, consider binging all eight episodes of Hanna on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, March 29. The streaming provider's gamble to develop this show based on the 2011 film of the same name definitely paid off.

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Tropico 6 Review

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There aren't a lot of city builders that let you roleplay a specific type of leader, so I immediately took a liking to the freedom Tropico 6 gives you to do just that. There's nothing stopping you from trying to build a communist paradise where everyone lives in haciendas and banana pickers make as much money as tech executives, or a brutal military dictatorship that only cares about how efficiently human lives can be turned into profitable exports. Nothing, that is, besides an unwieldy economic simulation that can quickly go belly up without giving you easy access to information on how to fix it.

There's a lot going on across the inviting white sand beaches, bungalows, and lush jungle interiors of the latest version of Tropico, which look great except for the waterfalls, which seem lifted out of a 10-year-old game. Despite its relaxing environment, its politicking, trade, and mission systems kept me busier than any of its predecessors as I strived to stay in power and accomplish objectives that would advance me from the colonial era all the way up to the modern day – many of my own making in sandbox mode, as well as pre-made ones in its 15 story missions.

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Discovery Review: Burnham's Real Origin Revealed

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Full spoilers follow for this episode.

Star Trek: Discovery regains its stride with "Perpetual Infinity" after last week’s exposition-heavy outing, and while this segment is also chockfull of plot and technical techings of the tech, it’s got enough action and character to balance things out nicely.

It all starts with a flashback to Burnham’s childhood, and more specifically to that fateful day when her parents were killed by marauding Klingons while she hid in a closet and listened to them die. It’s nice to see the family just being a normal family at first -- until it all goes horribly wrong and Michael’s life is irrevocably altered. But whereas we previously believed Michael’s folks were both killed that day, we see here that her mom attempted to escape via the Red Angel time-travel suit that she was working on. Alas, her plan went awry, and she essentially wound up lost in time.

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Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Review

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Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a great example of how far rock-solid mechanics and strong characters can take a fighting game, even when everything else is working against it. This nostalgia-fest has the look of a free-to-play mobile game, a complete lack of voice acting, a barebones set of modes and features, only nine characters, only five stages, repetitive and generic music, all on top of the stigma of being based off a licensed property not known for having a great video game track record. But against all odds, underneath all of that beats the heart of a fighting system developed with thought, care, and an obvious love for 2D tag fighting games.

Battle for the Grid is a 3-on-3 tag fighter with a four-button combat system consisting of light, medium, heavy, and special attacks, much like Dragon Ball FighterZ. Also, like FighterZ, there are no complicated button inputs for special moves, with every move being performable by pressing a direction and a button. The result is a fighting system that all but removes the executional barrier of entry and focuses instead on fundamentals, which is great because the simplicity of the combat system is complemented by much more complex tag mechanics and a wild array of special moves that will have skilled players mixing opponents up like batter.

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Samsung Galaxy S10 Review

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What makes a Galaxy phone a, well, Galaxy phone? Up until recently, I didn’t have an answer for that question. They’re Samsung’s crown jewel with state-of-the-art specs, but it's been difficult to pinpoint their defining characteristics. I believe that’s starting to change though as Samsung has veered away from replicating the iPhone’s design decisions—and the further they get from the iOS devices, the better they've become. This year, Samsung released three new Galaxy phones. These phones feature bezel-less curved AMOLED displays, impressive cameras, high-end specs, and a high price tag. The cheapest is the 5.8” S10E, which starts at $749, the most expensive is the 6.4” S10+ which starts at $999 (which can be kitted up to 1TB of storage, if you’ve got $1600 to drop). Right between the two sits the now "midrange" S10, at 6.1” and starting at $899 for a 128GB (See it on Amazon), or $1149.99 for 256GB. I hate to give Samsung any ideas, but after testing the phone, I think the S10 is worth every penny.

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Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered Review

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A lot has happened to the Assassin’s Creed series in the seven years since Assassin's Creed 3 first came out. It was quickly overshadowed in 2013 by the follow-up, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which remains one of my all-time favorites – but that’s in part because of how well AC4 built upon the naval combat concepts introduced by its Colonial predecessor. Since then, our expectations for the series have been changed yet again by the RPG-influenced Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey, which revamped combat control in a way that’s hard to go back from. So while I'm glad to say Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered does do a great job bringing the appearance of this 18th-century world and its characters of this 2012 game up to 2019 standards, there's a lot of creakiness to it that even the gameplay tweaks it makes can’t entirely smooth out.

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FX's What We Do in the Shadows Series Premiere Review

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This is a spoiler-free review of FX's What We Do in the Shadows TV series.

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement may not have been household names back in 2014, when the multitalented New Zealanders debuted their indie vampire mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows — but in the years since its release, you’ve likely seen Waititi’s directorial talents on display in Thor: Ragnarok or The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, or admired Clement’s performances in projects as varied as FX’s Legion and Disney’s Moana. (Or maybe you were ahead of the curve and watched their earlier collaboration, Flight of the Conchords, in which case, you get bonus points.)

Somehow, despite their increasingly busy schedules, the actor-writer-directors managed to stake out (get it?) enough time to adapt their quirky horror comedy for television, relocating the supernatural shenanigans from Wellington, New Zealand, to Staten Island, New York, and introducing us to a new cast of bloodsuckers - and you don't need to have any familiarity with the movie to follow along with their hijinks. Waititi and Clement stay off camera this time around, but still divide directorial and executive producing duties on the FX series, with Clement also writing a number of episodes alongside executive producer Paul Simms.

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Spider-Man's Hunt Is Going Nowhere Fast

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"Hunted" is clearly shaping up to be the most significant story in Nick Spencer's Amazing Spider-Man run so far. It features a massive scope, with Spider-Man and nearly every other animal-themed super-person in the Marvel Universe trapped like fish in a barrel as an army of hunters descend upon them. The problem is that after all the intriguing buildup, this story doesn't seem in much of a hurry to get anywhere. Issue #17 got things off to a sluggish start, and the second chapter is even more sluggish.

It's difficult to understand why writer Nick Spencer and artist Humberto Ramos are employing this plodding, methodical approach. one would think after all the setup and foundation-building that's taken place over the past year, the duo would be able to hit the ground running in the main event. But instead, this issue is content to linger on the initial chaos as dozens of Spider-man rogues come to terms with the plight they're in. There's a whole lot of running around in this issue and very little in the way of plot. There's also plenty of bland narration that ruminates on cliched notions of predators and prey and all the expected hunting metaphors.

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DC's Heroes in Crisis Finds Humor Amid Despair

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You can't truly judge the quality of a story until it's truly complete, which is a good lesson to keep in mind when reading Heroes in Crisis. Despite the quality of the series to date, it raises some significant concerns regarding the future of beloved characters like Wally West, Poison Ivy and Booster Gold. Issue #7 raises more questions than its answers as the series moves toward its big finish. However, it does offer some major reassurance that these toys aren't being carelessly broken and discarded.

Issue #7 casts further doubt on the events surrounding the massacre at Sanctuary. Every time the series seems to point to a culprit behind the killings, it veers off on a different course and leaves readers second-guessing everything they've read. Heroes in Crisis doesn't quite capture the same whodunit appeal of Identity Crisis, but in many ways it's better off because of that. Writer Tom King is clearly more concerned with the emotions fueling these characters than he is generating shock value. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that while the first issue relied on shocking plot twists, subsequent chapters have worked to show us there's much more to this conflict that initially met the eye.

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Razer BlackWidow Gaming Keyboard Review

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Razer has introduced a stripped down version of its legendary BlackWidow mechanical gaming keyboard, simply dubbed the Razer BlackWidow. At $119.99 (See it on Razer's site) it's the most affordable mechanical keyboard yet from Razer, and aims to offer everything the BlackWidow line is known for at a bargain price.

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DC Throws Batman an Epic Birthday Celebration

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DC had a tough act to follow with last year's Action Comics #1000. That issue brought together an all-star lineup of creators for a true celebration of the Man of Steel's 80th anniversary. Yet somehow they've managed to do even better by the Dark Knight. Detective Comics #1000 is a jam-packed comic that pays loving tribute to the legacy of Batman and his supporting cast. Anyone who likes Batman needs to buy this comic, which is basically the same as saying everyone should buy this comic.

Looking back, my one real knock against Action Comics #1000 is that the stories frequently felt too short to live up to their full potential. That issue opted for quantity over quality in that sense. Whether because this issue is longer (96 pages as opposed to 80) or because Batman inherently lends himself better to the short story format, Detective Comic #1000 is able to deliver a more satisfying and cohesive lineup of tales.

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Yoshi's Crafted World Review

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True to form, Yoshi’s Crafted World is exactly what I expected it to be. It’s a very enjoyable and delightfully charming Yoshi platformer that doesn’t really strive to be much more, like Breath of the Wild did for Zelda, nor does it hone the series’ ideas to a razor-sharp edge like Odyssey did for Mario. It’s formulaic, and at times that can make it feel as thin as its realistic-looking cardboard sets, but that didn’t stop me from having a ton of fun running around them.

Yoshi’s Crafted World isn’t a tough platformer, so that fun wasn’t usually from a sense of overcoming a challenge. In fact, apart from the four levels that unlock at the end of its campaign, most of its 40+ stages pose little threat to complete at all. Enemies are mostly passive, Yoshi’s adorable new costumes offer a huge amount of damage protection, and his signature mid-air hover can be chained almost indefinitely, allowing for some extremely forgiving platforming.

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Generation Zero Review

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Conceptually, Generation Zero has a lot of big ideas. Its setting, a 1980s alternate history where robots have taken over the Swedish countryside, is fresh and stylish in its specificity. Though it fits into a clear-cut niche – the co-op survival first-person shooter – it draws clear mechanical inspiration from a range of sources, from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as more directly comparable open-world shooters like Far Cry 5. It is incredibly ambitious, and I really want to be able to tell you that it’s among the most exciting games published in 2019.

...But it’s not. It’s really not. For all its great ideas, only a few of these concepts – namely the art and a spooky 80s mystery vibe – play out as well as you’d hope or expect. From exploration to combat, much of Generation Zero feels out of whack. Enemies can sense your presence from across a field or forest and break up a carefully laid-out ambush in an instant, and too often the resulting chaos is a jerky, janky shootout where the victor is dictated by attrition rather than skill or foresight. Likewise, progress comes slowly and it’s often unclear what you should be doing and where you should go. Moreover, all of these problems are compounded by gratuitous glitchiness – just about every kind of bug you can think of, you will likely see roaming rural Sweden. All of these problems blend into an incredibly frustrating grind in which I – whether I was playing alone or as part of a team – constantly felt like I was butting heads with the universe for every measly inch of progress (in a bad way).

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Dumbo Review

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Filmmaker Tim Burton's later-stage offerings have been a mixed bag, with his directorial choices replacing visual ingenuity with a lot of CG. The early trailers and promos for Dumbo hinted that this might be the film to buck the trend, but alas the faded palette and what looks like massive amounts of post-production work take away much of the visual charm that a circus film by Burton starring Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito promises.

Disney's current trend of adapting their classic animated films to live-action has thus far served them pretty well. A mix of nostalgia, brand recognition, and curiosity have made box office smashes out of Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book. The success of those explains Disney’s eagerness to continue that streak with three flagship 'live-action' releases just this year, beginning with Burton’s Dumbo. The film was first announced a few years ago, but sadly for fans of the original and the lauded director, the uneven and uninspiring offering wasn't worth the wait.

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HyperX QuadCast Streaming Microphone Review

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HyperX has made a name for itself with its gaming headsets, so when it announced its first-ever standalone streaming microphone at CES 2019, my ears perked up. A dedicated mic is a very different beast from a gaming headset but having enjoyed so many of their other products, I was curious to see what a HyperX microphone would offer. Priced at $139 (See it on Amazon), the HyperX QuadCast is pricier than some of its more established competitors, like the Blue Yeti or Samson G Track Pro, but it also offers features the competition doesn’t. Did HyperX get it right with its first mic out of the gate and, more importantly, is it worth the extra money? I’ve spent the last week putting it through its paces to find out.

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The Walking Dead: The Final Season Review

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As a whole, The Walking Dead: The Final Season makes its farewell to Clementine by debating the thought-provoking idea of knowing when to break a cycle. For years, Clementine has been compelled to protect her young companion A.J. at any cost, exactly as Lee did for her in the first season. The cycle of survival, of carrying on the lessons imparted to her, is wired into every fiber of her being. It’s what has kept them alive. In the final four episodes of the series started by the now-shuttered Telltale Games and finished by part of the same team (now at Skybound Games) we’re asked what happens when Clem and A.J. might no longer need to run and begin to have some semblance of a normal life, and after a bit too much exposition and padding it leaves them in a satisfying place.

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Arrow Sets Up a Compelling New Villain

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Warning: Full spoilers for Arrow Season 7, Episode 17 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 7, Episode 16.

As much as Arrow Season 7 has been a clear improvement over Season 6, the series has been in need of a good villain for a while. Ricardo Diaz and the Longbow Hunters fit the bill for a while, but they were clearly never intended to carry the show all the way into May. But now, thanks to the rise of dante and the Ninth Circle, we finally have that villain. In fact, we now have two worthy opponents for Team Arrow.

I was pleased with just how Dante-heavy this episode turned out to be. The character made a strong impression in his debut a few weeks back. Adrian Paul has just that right blend of charisma, menace and physicality to stand against Oliver Queen. This episode served as an even stronger showcase for Paul and his character. Arrowverse villains don’t come anymore suave than Dante.

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Mad Catz E.S. Pro+ Gaming Earbuds Review

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If you’re a gamer you probably use a gaming headset. Although they can provide excellent comfort, sound, and a microphone, the one drawback to gaming headsets is their portability, or lack thereof. With bulky housings and a protruding mic, you’ll look pretty odd wearing these outside the house. Enter Mad Catz’s solution, the E.S. Pro+ (See them on Newegg), a pair of “true” gaming earbuds. With its angled tips, earhooks, durable housings, and a built-mic alongside a detachable, omnidirectional one, Mad Catz claims its new earbuds “pack the performance of full-size headsets for PC into a small form.” But can a pair of earbuds really replace your gaming headset?

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Analogue Mega Sg Review

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Clone console hardware has come a long way over the past 15 years. What used to be the domain of sketchy shopping mall kiosks offering off-brand NESes claiming to contain 1,000 games (990 of which were strangely named hacks of Super Mario Bros. and Contra, and none of which were legally licensed) has become a booming, legitimate business, thanks in part to the huge success off the NES Classic and Super NES Classic. Analogue Co.'s new Mega Sg—a high-end Sega Genesis clone—arrives amidst heavy competition, and it comes with a fairly steep price tag of $189.99 that anybody looking for a quick and simple hit of nostalgia may find off-putting. What Analogue promises in return, however, is something no other Genesis clone on the market can offer: Total fidelity to the original hardware, with zero barriers to a perfect plug-and-play gaming experience on high-definition and 4K televisions. While it turns out the Mega Sg doesn't quite achieve that lofty goal either, it comes remarkably close and offers the best Genesis experience on the market.

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The Walking Dead Just Mercilessly Thinned the Herd

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Well now...that was certainly something!

Ten people dead, some of whom were kind of important. But I'll get to that in a moment.

This series doesn't always follow the comic books exactly, but...it does more than it doesn't. And if it needs to tweak things, it usually just switches characters around. It has different people die in place of others. A notable change-up here in the the back half of Season 9 is that Daryl and Henry filled in for Rick and Carl in the Whisperers arc. Story elements tend to remain while "who does the actual doing" is what tends to change.

Those who read the comics knew something bad was about to go down at the Kingdom's fair. But even if you hadn't read up, the show signaled ahead a few episodes back. If you pick up on things, there were definitely things to pick up. Anyhow, I wrongly had this moment - the ten zombie heads on spikes - pegged for the season finale. I thought this would be the brutal mic drop that takes us out of the season. But it was used here in the penultimate episode. Nicely done, show! Also, the move pairs really well with last week's wickedly harsh episode. I'm enjoying all the ghoulish gloom.

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Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn Review

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Made in Abyss made its premiere as a TV series back in 2017, jolting the anime community with its breathtaking vision on nature and survival. Based off a webcomic, the series became wildly popular, with the comic being licensed into English volumes, and the anime streaming on Hidive and released in the west by Sentai. Now, nearly two years later, the first half of the TV show has been adapted into a film called Journey's Dawn. For new viewers and fans, it's worth the wait: this movie is an absolute thrill to watch on the big screen.

To its residents, it is part myth, part cursed: the Abyss, rich in unknown treasures from ancient civilizations, home to strange and alienish creatures that could easily devour you, and the inevitable journey for any true traveler. Riko is a young girl and resident of the town that lives near the Abyss. While she spends most of her life on the shallow ends of the Abyss, looking for treasure to help her orphanage, it's only when her mother, a famous Abyss-traveler, disappears, and she stumbles upon a strange robot boy named Reg, that she decides to do what no person has done before: travel to the Abyss' fathomless depths and find out what lies below. It's easier said than done though: she'll need wits, great amounts of courage, and luck on her side to not just survive the Abyss' terrifying monsters, but also the strange curses that afflict dwellers as they continue to descend deeper and deeper.

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Shazam! Review

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This is a spoiler-free advance review. Shazam! opens April 5 in the US and UK and April 4 in Australia.

Shazam! is a DC’s most joyful and sweet movie since the days of Christopher Reeve’s Superman, a funny yet earnest coming-of-age story about a boy who learns that, well, with great power comes great responsibility. So obviously, Shazam! doesn’t reinvent the superhero movie, but it’s an undeniably fun time that left me wanting more big-screen adventures with these charming characters.

Where Wonder Woman bore the weight of expectations as the first major modern female superhero film and Aquaman had a load of world-building (and redemption) to do, Shazam! is saddled with no such heavy, external burdens. It’s thus able to be as carefree as a child, to just have fun despite having to inevitably grow up and confront some very adult concerns along the way. Namely, how streetwise orphan Billy Batson must accept responsibility for his behavior if he’s going to prove truly worthy of the magical gifts bestowed upon him.

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The OA Gets Even Weirder in Season 2

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Note: this is a partly spoiler-free review of the second season of The OA, which is currently available to stream on Netflix. I'll avoid discussing major story developments until a marked section at the end of the review.

The OA is a series that truly defies description. It's a science fiction show that often bleeds into fantasy, metaphysics, and teen high school drama territory. It's also a series where the less you know going in, the better. All of which makes it a difficult project to review. But all you really need to know about The OA Part II is that it delivers more of what made Part I so appealing, with an even more concentrated dose of mind-bending weirdness to boot.

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Doom Patrol Loses Its Sense of Humor

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Warning: Full spoilers for Doom Patrol Season 1, Episode 6 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 1, Episode 5.

Doom Patrol is a series with many fine qualities, not least of which being its wicked sense of humor. This week's episode is a test case, then, determining just how well the formula works when the humor takes a backseat to character drama and pathos. The show holds up pretty well under this newer, more serious-minded approach, but there's definitely a sense of something missing in this week's episode.

It's easy to forget that these characters don't actually think of themselves as "The Doom Patrol" yet. This week we learned that the actual Doom Patrol is a failed super-team from the 1950's, an done that Mr. Nobody has a vested interested in dredging back to the surface. The result is an episode that pays homage to the franchise's Silver Age roots, if not one that necessarily pushes the season's larger narrative forward.

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Discovery Review: The Red Angel's Identity Revealed

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Full spoilers follow for this episode.

If last week’s ode to Airiam was a high point for Star Trek: Discovery, this week’s big Red Angel reveal episode is a low point, a talky and dull outing that emphasizes Season 2’s unevenness as well as its biggest weakness: a reliance on mystery plots that pay far too little in emotional dividends for the characters or the viewer.

Things start off with a strange mix of what’s sort of Airiam’s autopsy, complete with the deletion of all her memories… which seems particularly cruel considering how important those memories were to her in last week’s episode. And yet, ultimately that’s exactly what happens to all of us when we go as well. (You can’t take it with you, as they say.) Regardless, seeing her body being handled, her head piece removed and so on, is sort of gruesome.

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Seagate PlayStation Game Drive Review

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If you’re a day one adopter or a digital shopper, it’s possible your PS4 is nearing the limits of its hard drive's storage capacity. Fortunately, it's a problem with many solutions: For instance, you can upgrade your internal storage (it’s easy, trust us). But at this point in the console's lifecycle, it’s likely you’ve got too many saves and too many games to try to transfer everything between drives. Instead, you'll want to consider a solution like Seagate’s officially licensed PlayStation Game Drive (See it on Amazon). Provided your PS4 is upgraded to system software version 4.50+, the Game Drive simply adds to your total storage space when it’s plugged in. It's a 2 Terabyte hard drive that plugs into a PS4’s USB port and allows you to transfer up to 50 games (using the average size of a 40Gb average size of a game).

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Review

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Within the first minutes of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there’s no missing the fact that FromSoftware has built its Shinobi-focused adventure from the DNA of the Souls and Bloodborne series. But this new mutated strain is as much its own stealth-action experience, one that’s more focused, cohesive, and in some ways forgiving, despite retaining its predecessors' trademark difficulty. As I rolled credits after 50 hours of pressurized-blood-geyser executions, fantastical monster fights, split-second swordsmanship, and sprawling, secret-filled areas, I’m left with a deep appreciation for this amazing journey and the skills it demands to master it.

To any Souls veteran, Sekiro’s timing-based lock-on combat of strikes and slashes is familiar, as is the way you weave through the same excellently designed levels that snake, interconnect, and double back on themselves to reveal new shortcuts between little bastions of safety to resupply. Functionally equivalent to bonfires from Dark Souls, or Lanterns in Bloodborne, the Sculptor’s Idols are where you’ll rest, recover your healing draughts, reset slain enemies, access your character progression, and of course, teleport between them for a snappy fast travel.

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Batman's Knightmare Needs to End

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Is there a minimum amount of story content a comic book is obligated to deliver? When it comes to the latest Batman storyline, DC doesn't seem to think so. "Knightmares" has certainly has its moments over the past few months (issue #66 in particular), but the arc as a whole has been a huge momentum killer for the series. Batman #67 is easily the worst offender so far. Why is so much room being devoted to such a seemingly straightforward conflict? Why is this chapter in particular so barren and devoid of meaningful insight into Batman's current state of mind?

This issue is all the more disappointing given that it's basically a sequel to the surprisingly excellent Batman/Elmer Fudd #1. That's true both in terms of certain character cameos and the fact that writer Tom King reunites with artist Lee Weeks. But as fun as it is to see these realistic, noir-flavored riffs on Looney Tunes icons again, they really are just bit players in a story that boils down to one, prolonged chase sequence. This issue is almost entirely devoid of plot and dialogue, instead fixating on Batman's relentless pursuit of his silent, masked foe.

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Marvel Puts a Fresh Spin on Spider-Man's Past

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Marvel has made a number of attempts over the years to revisit the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko/John Romita, Sr. era of Amazing Spider-Man. Some books, like Spider-Man: Chapter One and Spider-Man: Season One, have attempted to remake those original stories for contemporary audiences. Others, like Spidey, have worked to add new tales in between the beats of the originals. But rarely do these books seem to add much of real value to Spider-Man's Silver Age adventures. That's where Spider-Man: Life Story stands apart. This isn't a simple retelling or side-story. It revisits Spider-Man's past from a very different perspective and with a far more ambitious goal in mind.

With Life Story, writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Mark Bagley are retelling the story of Peter Parker with a major wrinkle. This series assumes Spider-Man made his debut in 1962 and tells his story in real time. Each issue will spotlight a different decade as Peter grows older and faces trials and tribulations that simply wouldn't be possible for the normal, un-aging version of the character.

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The Best Smartphone Battery Cases

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There are few more panic-inducing moments in this day and age than suddenly realizing your smartphone is going die without a charger in sight. Amazingly, we used to survive without smartphones, but our modern dependency on those devices means we're constantly draining precious battery life. You could always keep a big power bank with you, but that's just one more thing to lug around. For true mobility and peace of mind, you'll need a battery case. Not only do these battery-infused cases keep your smartphone charged, but they also keep it protected as well. Here's a list of some of our favorites.

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Destiny 2: Season of the Drifter Review

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Season of the Drifter (AKA Jokers Wild) is a big improvement for Destiny 2’s Annual Pass. While it’s still not overly exciting, this bag of new stuff does some interesting things that hit a sweet spot. You’ll get some interesting story pieces supplemented by some new twists on wave-based defense modes and Gambit to earn fancy new armor sets and other gear, plus you’ll make an actual decision with actual consequences. Some of the grinding gets to be a slog, but it’s otherwise a strong entry in this year’s Annual Pass rollout.

Reckoning’s arcadey, wave-based challenge is one of my favorite activities this time around. Its long-term replayability will likely wane similarly to how activities like Blind Well and Escalation Protocol have, but it adds one important tool these types of modes have needed for some time now: Matchmaking. While it’s definitely more of a challenge hopping in with random players, I still was able to successfully complete tier 1 and tier 2 of this event with randoms filling out the fireteam. Tiers will require leveling up a lot and Bungie had an unfortunate new bug at launch that may have caused armor and weapons to drop below your current level. This made hitting the level requirement a frustrating experience, but once you’re in it’s a lot of fun to clear out the Taken and collect your fancy new Gambit Prime armor.

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The Division 2 - Final Review

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More than any freshly launched shared-world shooter to date, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 presents a polished, well-thought-out initial progression path with at least some gas left in the tank after the fact. Its great gunplay, worthwhile loot, and beautiful world brimming with reasons to explore it kept me engrossed for the vast majority of my 60 hours of playtime. After all that momentum, it was a bit of a shock to the system to discover that the difficult endgame content that I had been looking forward to in World Tier 4 didn’t produce any worthwhile rewards or meaningful new mechanical challenges. The Dark Zone, too, was far less interesting that I had hoped it would be. But the good news is that these late-game shortcomings don’t take away from the great journey that I underwent to reach them. The Division 2 gets so much more right than it does wrong.

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New to Netflix for April: New Sabrina, "Bandersnatch"-Style Survival Series

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Netflix in April is...a little spooky? Are we doing Halloween in Spring now?

The creepy vibes aren't simply because Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is back, but also Sabrina's Kiernan Shipka is starring in a new horror flick called The Silence - which looks to be a new entry in Sensory Deprivation Horror, ala Bird Box and A Quiet Place.

Plus, there's a new zombie series starring Jaime King that's a prequel to Syfy's Z Nation, called Black Summer. So things are going to get a bit frosty during the flowery days ahead.

On the movie front, there are classics like All the President's Men, Bonnie and Clyde, and Deliverance, along with empowering flicks like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and P.S. I Love You.

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Fujitsu Realforce R2 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

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Fujitsu has taken up the mantle of being the reseller for Topre’s Realforce brand of mechanical keyboards, and the company has released the Realforce R2 RGB gaming keyboard in the US. It comes in both full-size and tenkeyless models, both complete with 16.7 million color RGB lighting and Topre keyswitches with customizable actuation points.

The Topre brand lends some clout to the new keyboard, but this is not the gaming keyboard for everyone, as at $299 (See it at Amazon) it costs about as much as a brand GPU like the Nvidia GTX 1660Ti, and that’s regardless of whether it’s the full or tenkeyless variant (both models are the same price, oddly).

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Arrow Goes Back to the Future... With Mixed Results

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Warning: Full spoilers for Arrow Season 7, Episode 16 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review of Season 7, Episode 15

There are a few constants with almost every new season of Arrow. A mysterious character from Oliver Queen’s past resurfaces in December. Some costumed yahoo tries to blow up the city in May. And in between, viewers get an entire episode devoted to further the ongoing flashback storyline. That last one hasn’t changed with the transition from flashbacks to flash-forwards. “Star City 2040” takes a much closer look at the embattled state of the city 20 years in the future. And in the process, it showcases both the perks and the drawbacks of the flash-forwards.

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Netflix's Turn Up Charlie: Season 1 Review

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All eight episodes of Netflix's Turn Up Charlie are now streaming on Netflix.

It's not Turn Up Charlie's fault, but it's bittersweet that the new Netflix comedy - co-created by, and starring, Idris Elba - premiered the same week Netflix canceled One Day at a Time. Turn Up Charlie isn't out to offend - certainly not by merely existing in the wake of a beloved, ground-breaking comedy getting the axe - but then again... Turn Up Charlie isn't out to make waves of any kind. And that's the overarching issue.

Big names, mediocre projects. More often than not, that's Netflix's M.O. Usually, it comes at us from the Original Movies side of the equation (Bird Box, Triple Frontier, Cloverfield Paradox, Bright, The Titan, etc), but TV is far from immune. So gone is a funny, important show that addressed today's issues with insight and humor and arrived is a series where a guy is about to take a bite of his dinner but then immediately loses his appetite because the woman next to him simply mentions the idea of a woman on her period. It's not even clinical talk - it's like a flowery euphemism: "The Red Queen is coming to visit" or something. That's all it takes for the dude to stop himself mid-fork-to-mouth. Hilarious, right? That's Idris Elba's Charlie, by the way.

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Logitech G MX518 Legendary Gaming Mouse Review

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If you were a PC gamer between 2005 - 2010, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with the original Logitech MX518 gaming mouse. To hear Logitech tell it, it’s one of their most popular mice ever, and after it was replaced in 2011, it became a product gamers have been clamoring for ever since. Logitech listened, and has updated and re-released this legendary model, appropriately dubbing it the Logitech G MX518 Legendary (See it at Newegg). It features Logitech’s new HERO16K optical sensor and a fresh look atop the same design, but is that enough to bring this classic mouse up to speed for 2019? Let’s dig in and see what this re-release is all about.

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The Walking Dead: "Scars" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Following in the harrowing footsteps of Season 4's "The Grove," this week's half-flashback episode, all about the morbid events that caused Michonne to close her heart - and Alexandria's doors - to strangers, was a suspenseful and gruesome affair. It wasn't rock solid, but it's been a while since the show's dabbled in extreme violence toward children (Carl doesn't count as he'd aged out and was fair game) so there was a super harsh vibe here, which I dug. And what Michonne endured felt severe enough to, indeed, change her worldview for the years that followed.

It made sense to have Michonne get duped by a close childhood friend (played by True Blood/Queen Sugar's Rutina Wesley), whom she obviously didn't know had turned savage and sinister, but there still really wasn't enough time to establish their previous relationship enough to make the betrayal feel shocking. Also, we knew going into this that bad s*** had gone down, so bitter betrayal was kind of the only option. If the episode had consisted of all flashbacks, we might have gotten a few more scenes with them to sell their past closeness.

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Pet Sematary Review

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This is an advance review out of the SXSW film festival. Pet Sematary opens April 4 in the UK and AU and April 5 in the US.

This new version of Pet Sematary -- an adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel of the same name, which was previously made into a film in 1989 -- is an example where sometimes remakes are better. Whatever one’s feelings are on the original film, though, this new Pet Sematary stands alone a gripping piece of horror entertainment marked by strong performances, an ever-escalating sense of doom, and, as the movie crosses firmly into the ghoulish, a delightfully dark wit.

Skillfully directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, who previously directed 2014's Starry Eyes, Pet Sematary quickly establishes a pervasive sense of dread that extends from the otherworldly woods of the titular burial ground to what should be the safety and sanctity of a family home. And for the film's central Creed family -- doctor-dad Louis, mom Rachel, and kids Ellie and Gage, who recently relocated from Boston to the small town of Ludlow, Maine -- their new home and its unfathomably evil surroundings will impress upon them that death will find anyone, anywhere, anytime.

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The Curse of La Llorona Review

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This is an advance review published out of the SXSW film festival. The movie opens April 19th.

The Curse of La Llorona is set on the outskirts of the blockbuster Conjuring franchise, which may lend it a mainstream commercial appeal but also a by-now deadened familiarity thanks to the series’ well-worn formula. We’ve seen many of this film’s supernatural scenarios before -- in this franchise and in bogeyman/haunting films in general -- but in the end The Curse of La Llorona ekes by due to its occasional playfulness and the sympathy engendered by its main family.

After a brief but brutal prologue set in 1673 Mexico -- where we see how “The Weeping Woman” of Latin American folklore came to be by drowning her own children in a jealous rage, thus cursing herself to roam forever as a specter searching for other kids to kill -- the film resumes in Los Angeles 1973, a period which Conjuring-verse fans will know is not long after the events of the LA-based Annabelle. (A supporting character from that film, Father Perez, pops up here to provide the bare minimum of connective narrative tissue between the films.)

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Doom Patrol Delivers More Bonkers Fun

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Warning: Full spoilers for Doom Patrol Season 1, Episode 5 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's our review of Season 1, Episode 4.

This latest two-episode arc on Doom Patrol has made two important things clear. First, it shows how heavily the series is willing to borrow from Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run. As far as source material goes, you're not going to find a better foundation. At the same time, "Paw Patrol" serves as a reminder that the series can and will blaze its own path even when it directly adapts DC Comics storylines. A series faithful top the source material is great. A series with the brains and ambition to subvert that source material is even better.

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Arrested Development: Season 5, Part 2 Review

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The second half of Arrested Development: Season 5, consisting of 8 new episodes, premieres Friday, March 15 on Netflix.

Though nothing's been announced about the overall fate of Arrested Development, given the way the remainder of Season 5 plays out, it sure feels like the end. And if this is the final countdown for the Bluths, it's really for the best. It's just sad that it couldn't have been a stronger showing.

Did the show change? Did we change? Did the world change? Back when FOX canceled the series, we were all in an uproar. When Netflix rescued it (one of the streaming service's first saves), we rejoiced. Then the hotly-anticipated fourth season was a hit or miss affair. Episodes ran too long, the core cast could barely film scenes together due to other projects they were scheduled for, and the overwhelming consensus was that it was a sub-par offering. It was a hefty blow considering both the fanfare and how beloved the first three seasons were.

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Review: Star Trek Discovery's Airiam Just Got a Great Episode

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Full spoilers follow for this episode.

Oh, Airiam. We hardly knew you.

And now, we love you! Somehow, this episode’s writer Michelle Paradise, director Jonathan Frakes, and Airiam actress Hannah Cheesman managed to take what was, essentially, a glorified extra for the past season and a half and give her a fleshed-out back story and a character arc that ends tragically yet heroically, all in less than hour. It’s a fairly miraculous feat, and continues Discovery’s strong upward swing that began with last week’s visit to Talos IV.

Airiam is one of several bridge characters in Discovery who has served to give the ship (and show) a sense of continuity, always hard at work with the main cast but rarely getting more than a few lines of dialogue here or a reaction shot there. This group, which also includes helmsman Detmer, ops officer Owosekun, tactical officer Rhys, and communications officer Bryce, has gotten a bit more to do in Season 2, but this is the first time that one of them has really been treated as a full character. And man, in Airiam’s case it was worth the wait.

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