The Flash: "Elongated Journey Into Night" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

The Flash seems to be in decent shape right now. It’s lighter and sillier than it’s been in a while and finally breaking the mold with its main, season-long villain. But I wish I could muster up a better adjective than “decent.” There’s just something missing with the show’s current direction, and nothing about this guest star-driven episode did much to change that.

“Elongated Journey Into Night” introduced two new characters to the Arrowverse, one of whom seems like a fun but forgettable one-off guest star and the other who promises to play a big role in the unfolding Thinker conflict. The former is Gypsy’s superhumanly cranky father, Breacher (Machete’s Danny Trejo). The latter is Ralph Dibny (The Young and the Restless’ Hartley Sawyer).

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American Horror Story: "Drink the Kool-Aid" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

As we creep closer toward the end of this Cult season we must ask ourselves, almost constantly: How much is Kai in control?

When Kai was trying to have a "messiah baby" last week with his sister using that weird made-up sex ritual, it felt like it was a test for Winter. And while Kai, most of the time, has a clear-headed nature and acute self-awareness, there are also times when he seems to be going totally mad. His tears at the end of "Drink the Kool-Aid," when he was confronted with the lie that he was Oz's dad, felt genuine - as if he really did believe in the "messiah baby" (that he'd seemingly made up in last week's episode). So is Kai just full of s*** at all times or is he actually succumbing to his own madness and starting to buy into the lies he's spreading?

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DC's Legends of Tomorrow: "Phone Home" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Sometimes I wonder if Legends of Tomorrow will ever become too cute and lighthearted for its own good. The trailer for "Phone Home" made it seem as though this episode might go over the top, with its depiction of the team joining forces with young Ray Palmer for a saccharine-sweet spoof of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. But as always, the series manages to temper its goofy, earnest sense of humor with a touch of serious drama and a strong, if very dysfunctional team dynamic. "Phone Home" captures Legends at its most charming and lovable.

This episode makes no bones about the fact that it's lampooning E.T. Sure, there are plenty of other amusing references and callbacks to other films (including a great Aliens reference courtesy of Amaya), but this isn't a Stranger Things-style mashup of all things '80s. That said, the E.T. formula lent itself very well to this episode. The whole point was to explore the root of Ray's inflappably cheerful and optimistic personality. Who else would befriend a hungry alien he met in a sewer pipe?

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 113 Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

It’s all about the Super Saiyans this week as Goku is forced into battle with the ladies from Universe 6. The action was delightful, with the golden warriors throwing fast punches and intense Ki blasts. Unfortunately awesome fights can’t make up for the fact the action made little sense as we watch a warrior with decades of experience barely hold back two brand new warriors.

Flashy is one thing Dragon Ball has always done well, and this episode is no different. Caulifla and Goku both looked awesome as they battled in Super Saiyan 2, although I was particularly impressed with Caulifla. The attention to detail on her during the fights was wonderful, and her strange red Ki blasts are a wonderful counter to the sharp golden ones that Goku throws. Kale stepped in later, and although her time in this episode didn’t hit the same peaks as Caulifla’s, the attention to detail was no less. The way her and Caulifla fight together is great, bouncing Goku between their attacks and splitting his attention so he can’t focus on one person at a time. Their teamwork reminded me of Goku and Vegeta, making me wish we could see our two primary heroes someday work together in the same way.

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First Strike Creates Huge Fallout for G.I. Joe and Transformers

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IDW's crossover comic First Strike wrapped up last week by introducing the biggest threat yet to their shared Hasbro universe.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for First Strike #6!

First Strike chronicled a massive team-up between the heroes of G.I. Joe, Transformers, Rom, MASK, Action Man and Micronauts as they joined forces to stop the villain Baron Ironblood (secretly the original G.I. Joe himself, Joe Colton) from launching a devastating attack on Cybertron.

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The Gifted: "boXed in" Review

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Last week’s episode was a big one, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this follow-up was a bit underwhelming in comparison. On the plus side, there’s a new energy now that Reed and Polaris are back among friends and they’re all working together to figure out how Sentinel Services were able to turn Pulse against them. However, the weakest element of the show -- Dreamer meddling with people’s memories -- not only continued but became an even bigger part of the main story.

Emma Dumont and Sean Teale are bursting with so much chemistry as Polaris and Eclipse that it’s enough to make you blush. Whether they’re taking out a drone together and debating about interrogating Agent Turner or wistfully talking about their future together as parents and holding hands to make their lovey-aura appear, they’re just so darn watchable. There’s a tenderness to their relationship that balances out the whole tough-as-nails, mutant freedom-fighter part of their lives. And while they are enjoying being reunited in this episode, it surely won’t be long until Eclipse has to explain what it cost him to pull off that rescue mission.

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Supergirl: "The Faithful" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Supergirl doesn’t handle its villains very well. That’s been the show’s most glaring flaw from the very beginning. As compelling as the Team Supergirl dynamic is, the two-dimensional antagonists have rarely ever measured up by comparison. That’s why “The Faithful” gives me such hope for the future of Season 3. At long last, the series seems to be building up a threat worthy of the Girl of Steel.

Between this episode and last week’s “Far From the Tree,” there’s a pretty clear theme emerging for this season. Season 3 is developing into an examination of faith and the way it can both lift people up in their darkest moments and blind them to the reality of the world around them. In “Far From the Tree,” faith was a weapon that kept M’yrnn strong and defiant for centuries, yet it also blinded him to the fact that his son stood before him, alive and whole. In “The Faithful,” we meet a group of National City residents whose prayers were answered at their most desperate hour, but have now channeled that into a misguided obsession with the city’s greatest heroine.

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Acer Predator Z35P Curved Gaming Monitor Review

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Over the last couple of years, Acer has doubled down on PC gaming hardware with its highly-respected Predator line of laptops and monitors. The Predator Z35P (See it on Amazon) is the company’s latest flagship offering in its display lineup, and with a 35-inch curved panel, 3440 x 1440 resolution, G-Sync, and a native 100Hz refresh rate it’s an absolute monster. Unfortunately, a giant screen and slick features don't come cheap. But if you’ve got around $1,000 to spare—and prefer a 21:9 aspect ratio—the Z35P is incredible for gaming. Let's get into the details:

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The Walking Dead: "The Damned" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

After seven seasons, I can't fault The Walking Dead for trying something different. A show like this, that deals with a lot of "sameness," almost has to. But the change up, here in Season 8, comes via structure not themes or story. Stretching out this one meticulous assault over several episodes (what are we thinking here, four? Five? All the way to the midseason finale?) offers viewers a new way to process things, but it doesn't mean we're not retreading over well-worn territory. There's still a stillness, an inertness, to the the story right now and changing the format and visuals isn't going to fix it.

Starting things off here though on a more positive note: I really dug the Morales twist right at the end. In fact, some of the best elements of "The Damned" involved how much it actually strayed from the comics. Last week's opening shot across the bow more or less synced up pretty well with the "All Out War" arc from the comics (and the Sasha twist from Season 7's finale is kind of from that story too). The return of Morales is "all show," and it fits in nicely with this season's running tribute to first episodes.

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Star Trek: Discovery Review

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Full spoilers follow for this episode. Click here if you want to learn how to watch Star Trek: Discovery.

The party never ends on the USS Discovery… thanks to the return of Rainn Wilson’s Harry Mudd, who in his quest for revenge against Captain Lorca traps the crew in a time loop pulled straight from the shooting script of Groundhog Day, not to mention the TNG episode “Cause and Effect.”

It’s always a risk for any sci-fi show, let alone Star Trek, that high concept ideas like this will have been done elsewhere, and possibly better. And “Cause and Effect” is one of the classics of the Next Generation, so it’s kind of surprising that Discovery would go to that well so soon in its run. At the same time, the show really hasn’t relied much on more gimmicky (to use the term in the best possible way) plots like this yet, so it’s interesting to see them give it a try while also working in the ongoing character- and plot-beats of the series.

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Review

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Martin McDonagh is no stranger to suffering. Indeed, the writer and director has made a career out of writing characters who are each struggling in their own unique, bone-shaking ways. Seven Psychopaths followed a group of men, some murderous and some not, finding themselves unable to accept the difference between the world they wanted and the one they got, while In Bruges centered around a clumsy hitman dealing with a sudden wave of suicidal depression, following his unintended murder of an innocent altar boy. But with his latest film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, McDonagh has decided to tackle loss in the most direct and painful way yet.

Set in the titular Missouri town, Three Billboards follows Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) when she discovers three old, blank billboards sitting on the side of a gravel backroad leading to her house. Entranced by them, Mildred decides to pay for her own message to be put up on the billboards, reminding the town that her daughter had been raped and murdered seven months prior, and that the Ebbing police department has made little-to-no actual breaks in the case.

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The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

It's not surprising that NBC found a way to capitalize on the unexpected popularity of Tom Hanks' breakout Saturday Night Live character, David S. Pumpkins. The network has a long, not necessarily proud history of taking amusing SNL sketches and stretching them them out into full-fledged movies. We should probably count ourselves lucky "Haunted Elevator" only spawned a half-hour animated special and not a feature-length project. Even so, it's difficult to understand why anyone at the network thought The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special was something worth greenlighting.

Where the original sketch presented Pumpkins and his skeleton entourage as overzealous performers in a really lousy Tower of Terror-ripoff, this special re-imagines the trio as enchanted do-gooders tasked with saving Halloween through the power of... whatever it is they do. The goal seemed to be to combine the timeless charm of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials with a dash of The Cat in the Hat and a spooky, self-aware flourish. On paper, that actually sounds like a pretty swell combination. But in order to pull it off, you really need a character with a bit more meat on the bones.

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Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Review

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Everything that made Wolfenstein: The New Order an excellent single-player first-person shooter is dialed up for round two. With a cast of instantly likeable heroes and bone-chilling villains giving emotional context to its bloody uprising against high-tech Nazis, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus has come to play.

It really is incredible how well this story works, considering how absurd its sci-fi version of 1961 is and how wildly the tone shifts from scene to scene. One moment it’s ultra-serious and delivering a sickening dose of venomous racism, abuse, and cold-blooded cruelty. Not that we needed another reason to want to overthrow an alternate-reality Third Reich who won World War 2 and conquered the world, but it’s hugely effective in getting the blood boiling. And yet, the next moment it’ll transition to scenes of laugh-out-loud comedy before pivoting back to BJ Blazkowicz dealing with his own mortality as he withers away from the wounds he received at the end of The New Order.

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Jigsaw Review

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The good news is, Jigsaw is not the worst horror movie of the year. The bad news is, it’s still bad enough that that’s the good news.

The long-running slasher series about a serial killer who puts his victims in elaborate death traps, and gives them opportunities to escape if they overcome their worst instincts, has long been one of the most consistent and reliable horror franchises on the market. If you were watching these movies to see Rube Goldberg murder machines, you were bound to leave satisfied. If you were watching to see how the absurdly intricate storyline unfolded, you were likewise probably happy, every single time.

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MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI Gaming Notebook Review

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If you were to write down what specs a dream gaming laptop would have, that list and the MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI (See it on Amazon) would match perfectly. With one exception: your budget. The MSI GT83VR 7RF Titan SLI doesn’t care about budget. It just crams every single possible wish list feature under the sun into one heavy (but technically still portable) package. MSI took every high-end component it had on-hand and stuffed them into a portable housing without worrying about the cost. After the dust settled, the total came to $5,399. Talk about sticker shock.

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Stranger Things: "Dig Dug" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “Dig Dug” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

“Dig Dug” is the first of two episodes directed by the Academy Award-winning director behind Pixar’s WALL-E. Andrew Stanton has proven over the years that he is an astute filmmaker. Even the financial disaster that was 2012’s John Carter wasn’t horrible, just poorly marketed.

With a resume this impressive, it seemed like Stanton would easily knock this episode out of the park, and he did... sometimes. This was the most uneven hour of Stranger Things this season, which has been all but stellar up until this point. It’s not that this episode was a disaster, it’s that the tone was all over the place.

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Stranger Things: Season 2 Review

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Before moving on to the full season review, below are links to the (spoiler-filled) reviews of all nine episodes of Stranger Things: Season 2.

Stranger Things: Episode 1 - "MadMax" Review

Stranger Things: Episode 2 - "Trick or Treat, Freak" Review

Stranger Things: Episode 3 - "The Pollywog" Review

Stranger Things: Episode 4 - "Will the Wise" Review

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Stranger Things: "The Gate" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “The Gate” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

There was nothing easy or convenient about the Season 2 finale of Stranger Things, entitled “The Gate.” Everyone involved had to go through their own trial by fire to save Hawkins from catastrophe. Like any good finale, the Duffer Brothers provided us with lots of thrills, tears, and laughter, while doing a good job at setting up season 3.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but I have a feeling that the ending is going to be divisive, so let’s start there. No, not the 1984 Snow Ball. That was the cutest things ever. We’re talking about the reveal that the shadow demon (Mind Flayer) is once again the primary villain moving forward. The Upside Down isn’t going anywhere.

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Stranger Things: "The Lost Sister" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “The Lost Sister” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Since we were deprived of Jane (Eleven) in the previous outing, “The Lost Sister” gave us an episode full of surprising twists and turns that were dazzling to watch. The mystery surrounding that band of misfits from Pittsburgh is answered in one of the better episodes of the entire series. It might seem a little out of place with all of the events going on in Hawkins, but let’s not forget, the Duffer Brothers are playing the long game here.

Like any good Marvel or DC film, whenever you introduce a new character, you have to find a way to tie him/her into the ever-expanding world around them. For our latest heroine, Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), she is now a part of the Stranger Things universe, which has only just begun. While her reveal was triumphant, it’s probably the last time we’ll see her this season. We’re going to have to wait until next year before learning more about her.

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Stranger Things: "Will The Wise" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “Will The Wise” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

It’s becoming clear that there is an overwhelming sense of fear and perpetual isolation hovering over the town of Hawkins. With the Upside Down threat gaining more of a foothold, the characters that inhabit this reality are beginning to succumb to the supernatural forces circling nearby, or more specifically, underground.

There’s a lot of moving parts in “Will The Wise,” but the essential cog in the wheel is Will. The episode deftly shows the turmoil Will and his family are going through, as he begins to lose a bit of himself to the shadow demon. Those pleasant thoughts of candy and high scores at the arcade are slowly making way for something more sinister.

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Stranger Things: "The Spy" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “The Spy” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Stranger Things gets back on track with a highly entertaining episode, by further explaining some of the questions we’ve been having concerning Will and his relationship to the Upside Down. Most of the character interactions are strong, and even though this is the first episode this season without Jane (Eleven), her presence isn’t missed due to the strong writing and directing.

Dustin and Steve’s interactions in “The Spy” were magnificent. Joe Keery (Steve) and Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) deliver their best performances yet. Their adventures in Demogorgon hunting were skillfully written, as we gained new insights into both characters. It was enjoyable watching the boys discuss hair product and girls while dumping large chunks of meat along the railroad tracks.

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Stranger Things: "Pollywog" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “The Pollywog” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Giving Dustin a new pet to play with was a great idea, which will most assuredly have far-reaching consequences as Season 2 rolls on. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long to see what was in the garbage can. The arrival of D’Artagnan, or Dart for short, could mean disaster, or success for the inhabitants of Hawkins, depending on two important outcomes.

The first of these outcomes has to do with how the kids will perceive the arrival of such a strange creature. Upon first meeting little Dart, it did not go well, but that doesn’t mean it will stay bad forever. Even though we don’t have a clear picture as to how the Upside Down animal kingdom works, the writers have done a good enough job at giving us clues as to how it all works. Let’s explore that further.

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Stranger Things: "MadMax" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “MadMax” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Stranger Things is expanding in new and exciting ways with its thrilling Season 2 premiere. The Duffer Brothers aren’t simply relying on 80’s nostalgia to give weight to their diverse group of characters, but instead, they are delving deeper into the lore and mythology that make up this strange world we call Hawkins, Indiana.

The reveal of a new group of misfits in Pittsburgh during a high-speed chase with the cops is where we’ll begin our journey. So many questions and implications arise from this sequence. In the show’s first season, we knew that Eleven wasn’t the only youngster experimented on, but the idea that there is another gifted teen out in the open is mind-blowing.

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Stranger Things: "The Mind Flayer" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “The Mind Flayer” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Stranger Things has a way of ripping your heart out at just the right moments. “The Mind Flayer” is a tour de force in the art of agony. As entertaining as this season has been, you just want the anguish to stop, so the town of Hawkins can finally take a breath. This is the most brutal of episodes for our cast, and it was executed to near-perfection.

This is an excellent episode for this season. Superhero Bob Newby deserves an MVP award. Upon first seeing him, I thought he was a spy for the Hawkins Lab, but he’s proven that theory wrong in spectacular fashion. Both Bob and Dr. Owens attempt at escape was a tense and wonderfully atmospheric experience. Our brave Radioshack employee never stood a chance, but it’s hard not to root for the guy. His death was shockingly gruesome.

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Stranger Things: "Trick or Treat, Freak" Review

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Full spoilers for Stranger Things episode “Trick or Treat, Freak” continue below. Make sure to read all of our Season 2 reviews here.

Nothing comes easy for the town of Hawkins, so why would Halloween be any different? On a night usually filled with a few harmless scares and an upset stomach, our colorful cast of characters are forced to deal with real-life horrors after memories from the past come back to haunt them. Since we only spent a short time with Eleven during the premiere, let’s start with her journey.

Eleven’s story throughout this episode is a mixed bag of flashbacks and scenes involving her roommate, Sheriff Jim Hopper. The Duffer Brothers take us right back to the events immediately following last year’s finale, where Eleven is back in the Upside Down after destroying the Demogorgon. Her powers are definitely growing, as she showcases her ability to open doorways to other dimensions.

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Arrow: "Next of Kin" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Sometimes, a great ending can make all the difference. That's really the big takeaway from this week's "Arrow." "Next of Kin" didn't quite sell me on the idea of John Diggle becoming the new Green Arrow. It delivered a fairly formulaic story of one hero trying his best to rise to the challenge and fill another's shoes (or hood, rather). But with the final scene casting everything in a significantly different light, maybe there's hope for Diggle's superhero phase yet.

I've had major concerns about the idea of passing the Green Arrow mantle onto Diggle for any significant length of time, as well as reservations about how his post-Lian Yu status quo is being handled. "Next of Kin" seemed to bear out those concerns for a good 95% of its run-time. It followed a very predictable path, with Diggle trying his best to live up to this impossible responsibility, failing hard and then digging deep and overcoming all obstacles to lead his team to victory. Most annoying was the way his struggle seemed to wrap up so neatly and painlessly by the end. Apparently all Diggle needed to overcome his chronic nerve damage and severe psychological issues was a good pep talk and more focus in the battlefield.

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Gotham: "Hog Day Afternoon" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

On this week's Gotham, we got Professor Pyg - the demented butcher-slash-surgeon created by Grant Morrison a decade ago who has  since broken through as one of the most disturbed Batman's baddies ever, quickly joining the pantheon of the Caped Crusader's most malicious villains.

Like Scarecrow, Pyg's getting a two-parter. Also, like Scarecrow, this isn't quite the Pyg we've come to know. No, this isn't a teenage version of Pyg like Jonathan Crane's burgeoning fear-monger, this is simply a differently motivated Pyg. The Pyg we know as the evil, lobotomizing plastic surgeon obsessed with turning innocent victims into "perfect" Dollotrons may be coming - or the show may impart Pyg with that desire when Jim finally busts him - but the Pyg we're getting right now is one who's determined to, um, kill dirty cops and place pig heads over their faces. Meh.

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Logitech G613 Wireless Gaming Keyboard Review

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There are mechanical gaming keyboards, and there are wireless gaming keyboards, but there are no wireless mechanical gaming keyboards. Until now.

Logitech’s G613 is the first wireless keyboard we’re aware of that is both truly mechanical and truly a gaming keyboard. That is, it has real mechanical switches rather than a membrane or dome-switch mechanism, a fast 1ms polling rate, electronics optimized for low input latency, and programmable gaming keys. We’ve seen a few of these features in wireless keyboards targeted at gamers (like the Razer Turret), but never all of them in one product.

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Bomber Crew Review

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Beneath Bomber Crew’s cutesy exterior is a tough-as-nails World War II aircraft simulation with an eye toward historical accuracy. Its frantic real-time gameplay sets it apart from other ship sims, and there are lots of interesting options for tackling its tough levels.

Like the classic roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light, Bomber Crew puts you in charge of a vehicle which you must staff and manage as it goes on missions, but the comparisons end there. That’s mainly because you can’t pause to give orders, so the challenge comes from performing all the duties of a bomber crew, from gunnery to navigation to bombardment, at the same time. Targeting enemy fighters, picking destinations, and lining up bombing runs all work the same way: press the middle mouse button to zoom out into targeting mode, find your target, and hold your sights on it until the circle is filled.

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Suburbicon Review

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Suburbicon, the new dark comedy directed by George Clooney, attempts to examine truths about suburban living in the 1950s, to remove the view that it was a wholly gentle, nice, loving, utopia. It attempts to do this in a dark, none-too-funny comedy filled with intrigue, murder, and racism. Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Clooney & Grant Heslov, it is a troublesome film that rarely manages to be quite as clever as one wants.

It all does start out amusingly enough, with a video advertisement touting the wonders of the Suburbicon community, thereby perfectly transporting the audience back to the film's 1959 setting and offering up a little bit of cheek. However, once the video ends and the audience experiences the reality of the situation, things are quite different. Seldom is the film ever as engaging as it is during that opening and the town itself is instantly shown to be less wholesome than the ads would have one believe.

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Graphic Novel Review: Secret Empire HC

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Following Secret Empire over the past several months was a memorable experience, if not an altogether enjoyable one. Marvel's big summer 2017 crossover started off on a very promising note, building on one of the most significant plot twists in the company's recent history and exploring what happens when the Marvel Universe's greatest hero becomes its worst enemy. But over time, it became apparent that Secret Empire wasn't able to do that prime justice, culminating in a very underwhelming, formulaic finale. And if anything, having the entire story collected in one book only heightens Secret Empire's flaws.

For those who somehow managed to remain unexposed to Secret Empire over the past year, this miniseries serves as the culmination of Nick Spencer's Captain America saga. Thanks to a little quantum tomfoolery courtesy of living Cosmic Cube Kobik, Steve Rogers' life has been rewritten so that he's now been a Hydra sleeper agent from a young age. Secret Empire marks the point where Captain America and the resurgent Hydra rise up and take control of the world, leaving the Avengers to wonder how they ever could have put so much faith in their former ally.

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Super Mario Odyssey Review

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I literally applauded as the end credits rolled on Super Mario Odyssey. I’d spent the last 15 hours with a giant grin on my face, and somehow the climax put the perfect surprising and delightful exclamation point on the plumber’s latest adventure. This is another brilliant redefinition of the very platforming genre he helped popularize 30 years ago.

And best of all, even with the story complete, Odyssey has so much more fun to offer.

Odyssey looks like a straight successor to the Mario 64 and Sunshine line of sandbox 3D Marios, but it is much more than that. Naturally, it evokes, honors, and is sometimes directly inspired by the games that came before it in its characters, music, and mechanics. But it also has new things to say as well, like fusing classic-style 2D gameplay with the 3D world and using a completely new possession mechanic to add constant variety to Mario’s abilities and exploits.

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Assassin's Creed Origins Review

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Assassin’s Creed Origins is a dark, multifaceted, deep dive into one of the series’ most alluring settings yet: ancient Egypt. As Bayek of Siwa, who is simultaneously compassionate, bold, and driven by revenge, you’re strung through a twisted story of pharaohs and corrupt leaders, of love gained and lost, and the plights of the lower class in a time when they were routinely worked to death and nobody batted an eye. It’s a tense journey that challenges your concepts of right and wrong, making you consider the morality of those you kill in the process – and, in a dramatic shift for the series, it’s all part of a full-on roleplaying game.

I spent 30 hours finishing the main campaign, which took me through just over half of the expansive and beautiful map that recreates ancient Egypt’s varied architecture and environments. It’s filled with areas of soft sand that are swept by dynamic sandstorms, ranges of treacherous and rocky mountains, catacombs of towering ancient structures built in the names of the gods, and the decaying shacks of the common people. Refreshingly, I discovered all of these things through an organic drive to explore, rather than through the series’ traditional structure of climbing to viewpoints to have them unveiled for you. There are plenty more secrets to uncover, and the delightful sense of discovery still hasn’t left me.

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South Park: "Sons a Witches" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

It’s been a long time since South Park has done a proper holiday episode (unless you count the Columbus Day-themed “Holiday Special” from a few weeks back). That’s just one more benefit of the return to a less serialized format. Now the series has a solid, entertaining Halloween special that manages to tell a fairly timeless story about Randy and friends acting like idiots while still delivering another dose of topical humor.

When it comes to Randy’s antics, “Sons a Witches” doesn’t necessarily rival the show’s best. It’s pretty hard to top episodes like “The Losing Edge” and “More Crap” in that regard. Still, there’s a definite appeal in watching Randy and the gang dressing in stupid costumes and getting high on “Jack and Crack.” Even if you completely ignore the satirical angle of the witch storyline, those witchy antics made for a pretty amusing storyline. The whole thing was worth it just for that awkward musical routine at the school assembly.

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The Despicable Deadpool #288 Review

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Gerry Duggan's long Deadpool saga is a strong testament to what's possible when a writer remains on board a series for years at a stretch. Duggan has spent years building up Wade Wilson, giving him a defined family unit, helping him win the respect of his fellow heroes and generally making him a more dynamic and critical presence in the Marvel Universe. And now Duggan gets to pay off on all that buildup as he pulls the rug out from under Wade and brings it all crashing down. This darker direction for Deadpool works precisely because it builds on the last five years' worth of stories.

Granted, those hoping for a comedy-driven Deadpool comic may feel a bit left out by this new direction. But it's not as if fans are starved for alternatives these days. And more to the point, Duggan's run has always been at its best when it focuses on the darker, more emotionally raw side of Wade's existence.  There's plenty of absurdity at work in this issue. Wade wearing Cable's cybernetic arm and interacting with his own AI assistant adds a nice bit of comedic punch to the conflict, but ultimately it's mere garnish for a very dark tale of two former allies becoming bitter enemies.

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DC House of Horror #1 Review

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DC House of Horror #1 features tow main selling points. One, it offers a darker, horror-flavored take on iconic characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Two, it features a crop of acclaimed horror novelists working with seasoned artists for what should be a "best of both worlds" situation. Sadly, this issue doesn't live up to its promise at all. nor does it justify the $10 cover price.

Often, House of Horror reads like DC's take on Marvel's dreadfully misguided Ruins mini-series. The point of Ruins was to showcase the grimmest, bleakest, most nihilistic vision of the Marvel Universe possible. That's pretty much the case here, as well. These stories tend to play less like horror tales and more like dark, gritty revamps of popular origin tales. What if Superman crashed in Smallville and murdered the Kents? What if Bruce Wayne was a serial killer? What if Billy Batson was a mentally unbalanced greaser? Don't even get me started on the Wonder Woman story, which reimagines a force of compassion and justice as one of violent revenge.

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Logitech G603 Wireless Mouse Review

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Wireless gaming mice are great. Once you experience PC gaming without dragging a tether around your desk, there’s no going back. There’s just one problem: The high sensitivity, accurate tracking, and rapid report rate of premium gaming mice are all at odds with battery life. If you game for several hours a day, the battery will need charging in less than a week.

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The Amazing Spider-Man #790 Review

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Thanks to Marvel legacy, Spider-Man is about as close to his classic status quo as we've seen since Dan Slott first took over as solo Amazing Spider-Man writer in 2010. Peter Parker is back to being broke, unlucky and hated by everyone around him. This "back to basics" approach is both refreshing and a little worrisome. Two issues into "The Fall of Parker," it's unclear where exactly Slott is headed with this new story direction.

This issue is most successful when it comes to exploring Peter's miserable new lot in life. There's a clever subversion of the usual Peter/Spidey dynamic. These days, Peter Parker is the public menace and Spider-Man is the lone source of respite from that hardship. Slott, co-writer Christos Gage and artist Stuart Immonen craft a great little montage scene as Spidey backs in the affection of New York's residents while shirking his duties as Peter Parker. At the same time, Slott and Gage are diligent about exploring the power/responsibility angle and exploring how Peter is shouldering the burden of his unilateral decision to tank Parker Industries. Responsibility has been a crucial theme in Slott's work to date, and it's encouraging to see that this remains the case now.

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Rick and Morty's 10 Best Cameos & Easter Eggs

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Like many animated sitcoms, Rick and Morty likes to cram in a huge amount of pop culture references. Generally, the series isn't shy about flaunting these references and wearing its influences on its sleeve. After all, the show did basically start life as a parody of Back to the Future.

But there are times when Rick and Morty is much more subtle about its pop culture references. And sometimes the series includes hidden, clever callbacks to its own characters and punchlines. Check out the slideshow below for our favorite hidden cameos, Easter eggs and references in the first three seasons of Rick and Morty...

Rick and Morty just wrapped up its third season, and the show is just as entertaining as ever. Check out our review of the Season 3 finale to find out why we called it, "a fun, memorable way to wrap up the show's most eclectic season to date."

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Fear the Walking Dead: Season 3 Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead's Season 3 follow...

Fear the Walking Dead garnered some new buzz toward the end of its third season when it was announced it would somehow crossover with The Walking Dead. Fans then paid extra attention to Fear's double-sized season finale for clues as to how this might happen (since we were told that a single character would connect the two shows) and came to a mostly unanimous decision about what the connector could be.

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Metadot Das Keyboard 4 Professional Review

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Metadot has come a long way in its effort to stake its claim in the competitive mechanical keyboard market. With the Das Keyboard 4 Professional (See it on Amazon), it feels like the company has really found its niche: making sturdy, reliable keyboards devoid of some of the flashier elements that sometimes feel unavoidable when buying a "gaming" keyboard.

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 112 Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.

It’s a Saiyan filled episode as the team from Universe 6 steps up in the wake of Hit’s defeat. Seeing their struggle and Cabba’s bond with Vegeta made for an entertaining and surprisingly emotional episode. Even with that strength, the action falls short as it simply can’t compete with the spectacle of the last several episodes.

The Universe 6 Saiyans are the standouts this week with Cabba in particular showing considerable growth. Unlocking Super Saiyan 2 is a big step for him, but it’s the growth of character that was the most intriguing. Since his introduction, Cabba has proven to be interesting; he’s the exact opposite of a warrior that the Saiyan race expects him to be. His steps into that warrior bloodline were conveyed well through his actions and words. In many ways, it reminded me of the same growth we saw from Goku years ago as he learned about his own Saiyan heritage and what it meant to be a warrior.

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Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L RGB Keyboard Review

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Cooler Master has made its name over the years by offering quality components like tower cases, CPU coolers, and peripherals. The company's latest keyboards are the MasterKeys Pro line which has spawned full, medium, and tenkeyless varieties. I'm taking a look at the MasterKeys Pro L RGB (See it on Amazon), a full-size board featuring RGB LEDs, and loaded with Cherry MX switches in all the popular flavors: red, blue, and brown.

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The Walking Dead: Season 8 Premiere Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

The Walking Dead opened up its eighth season (which also fortuitously synced up with its 100th episode) with an action-packed episode that dropped us right into the center of Rick's cunning plan to take out the Saviors. "Mercy," like all season premieres since Season 4, was directed by Executive Producer Greg Nicotero, who often tries to bring something artistically different to his episodes - for better or worse.

The most staggering thing about "Mercy," despite all the bullets whizzing and cars exploding, was how dry it was overall. I'll always give The Walking Dead points for the moments when it tries to elevate itself over run-of-the-mill horror fare, and it's given us some truly mesmerizing moments over the years, but this assault on the Sanctuary, in an attempt to take out Negan and his group of marauders from all angles, wound up feeling a touch toothless. Sometimes the show just needs violence to be violence and not an artistically cut-up piece of meandering meditation, overly steeped in the gravity and sentiment of the moment.

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The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" Review

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Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

How did The Simpsons go almost 30 years without attempting a full-fledged Exorcist spoof? It seems crazy given all the other iconic horror properties that have become fodder for the series' annual Treehouse of Horror specials. But it also speaks t why this year's installment worked so much better than most. The writers made some inspired choices when it came to material, and the result in the best Treehouse of Horror in many years.

In the grand tradition of classic Treehouse segments like "The Shinning" and "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace," "The Exor-Sis" took a classic horror film and delivered a faithful (if highly condensed) parody with a lot of self-aware silliness thrown in. Kicking off the segment with a little dose of "Tubular Bells" certainly didn't hurt. Nor did roping in director William Friedkin for a little cameo. Friedkin's character had easily the best line of the entire episode with "If you can't trust a Catholic priest with a child, who can you trust?" It was one of several moments that proved the writers were willing to push the envelope a little further than normal thanks to the Halloween trappings.

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Star Trek: Discovery Review

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Full spoilers follow for this episode. Click here if you want to learn how to watch Star Trek: Discovery.

Man, this show keeps getting better and better. Right off the bat in this latest episode, we get three WTF moments in the cold open alone: Burnham namedrops not just the Constitution Class starships, but the most famous one -- the Enterprise; Lorca and Tyler play shoot ‘em up on a holodeck (wha?!); and Sarek is almost killed by a fellow Vulcan who turns out to be a “logic extremist” on a suicide mission.

Of course, those three tidbits also do a good job of summing up what some folks love, some hate (and some love and hate) about this show. The Enterprise namedrop is fan service of the highest order, while the holodeck is a potentially frustrating addition because basically that tech isn’t supposed to exist during this time period (though more on that below). And the Vulcan suicide attack is the kind of thrilling dramatic twist that Discovery does so well.

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Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Episode 2 - Brave New World Review

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By the end of the second episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm, titled Brave New World, I found myself filled with a hope that everything will turn out okay for these characters – even though I know it won’t. I'm primed to care more than I thought possible, given that anyone who's played the original Life is Strange already know their ultimate fates. Insight into Chloe and her relationships with the other residents of Arcadia Bay has been the strongest element in the series so far, and despite the same awkward dialogue and some dull fetch quests, Brave New World does well by cementing what matters in this story.

Chloe Price’s world continues to crumble around her, with the shining light of Rachel Amber as her only reprieve. School and home life are both thrown into question as Chloe faces expulsion and her mother’s ridiculously antagonistic boyfriend, David, moves into their home. These events come with some unbelievable dialogue, much like the previous episode, but Chloe’s over-the-top reactions feel much more justified and relatable this time around.

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The Jellies: Series Premiere Review

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Note: this is a spoiler-free advance review of the first two episodes of The Jellies, both of which will premiere on Adult Swim on Sunday, October 22.

Adult Swim boasts two of the very best animated sitcoms on the air right now between Rick and Morty and The Venture Bros. (not that the latter comes along very often). But even with those two shows to fall back on, it often seems as though Adult Swim's best days are behind it. Gone are classics like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Home Movies and Sealab 2021, replaced by a new wave of shows that somehow manage to get progressively less memorable even as they grow more bizarre and esoteric. And unfortunately, The Jellies doesn't seem likely to reverse that trend.

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Jungle Review

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Whatever appeal there may have been in trekking through the wilderness, chopping through foliage with a machete and inevitably wading through quicksand has, by now, been thoroughly dashed by movies like Jungle, which seem to have a grudge against survivalism. It’s all fun and games until something’s growing inside you and the fire ants attack.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Yossi Ghinsberg, an Israeli tourist traveling through Bolivia in 1981, who comes across a charismatic adventurer named Karl (Thomas Kretschmann), who has a wild story about secret indigenous tribes and gold by pocketful, deep inside jungle. Naturally, only Karl knows where it is. And since Yossi apparently lost track of that nice businessman who offered to sell him the Brooklyn Bridge, he jumps into this opportunity with both feet, and convinces his new friends Kevin (Alex Russell) and Marcus (Joel Jackson) to join him.

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