Glee, Actually

  • Title: Glee – Glee Actually
  • tv.com: link

glee-actually

Christmas comes to McKinley High, and New York City, as the current and former members of the New Directions continue to sing and celebrate the holiday by putting aside their individual issues and the uncertainty of the club following their loss at Sectionals. The episode gives us five different Christmas tales before ending the show with a final group performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by all the members of Glee Club.

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The Santa Simulation

  • Title: The Big Bang Theory – The Santa Simulation
  • tv.com: link

The Santa Simulation

As Christmas grows near Leonard (Johnny Galecki) plans a X-Mas-themed Dungeons & Dragons night for Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Howard (Simon Helberg), and Stuart (Kevin Sussman), which includes Sheldon singing all five verses of “Good King Wenceslas” and the quest party playing “Jingle Bells” on hand bells. Meanwhile, the girls plan their own night out as Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) attempt to find Raj (Kunal Nayyar) a woman.

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Fairest #10

Fairest #10Three issues into “The Hidden Kingdom,” after Rapunzel has been temporarily abandoned by Joel in Japan after fleeing from her former lover Tomoko (by way of orgasm), the storyline finally fills in the back story explaining Rapunzel’s distrust of men (and mother figures), her pregnancy, and the loss of her infant twin daughters whom she has search for over the centuries.

The latest issue, the end of which marks the halfway point of this arc and delivers our first look at Rapunzel’s “children,” includes a pretty cool giant cat (of the Cheshire variety), a long train ride, assassins, Bigby Wolf, quite a bit of back story for our hairy heroine, and Rapunzel facing her revenge.

Although the cliffhanger works pretty well, the story behind it isn’t as clear as I’d like (especially for an issue that finally spends time to explain the past and motives of our main character). However, once again Fairest delivers one of the best comics of the month. I wouldn’t expect anything less. If you aren’t reading this comic you are missing out on one of the few bright spots in comics this year. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

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The Hobbit: An Expected, and Familiar, Journey

  • Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  • IMDB: link

“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.”

hobbit-unexpected-journey-posterAfter several delays, including the director and the Tolkien estate both separately suing New Line Cinema and a brief flirtation with Guillermo del Toro taking over the project, Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth for J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. Roughly one-third of the 300-page children’s fantasy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey feels far too familiar, somewhat less magical, and far more expected, than the title would indicate.

Our story, oddly, begins on the same day as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) beginning to chronicle his adventures for his nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood), while waiting for Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to arrive to celebrate the Hobbit’s 111th birthday. After this somewhat awkward (not to mention completely unnecessary) sequence, our story finally beings in earnest as the younger Bilbo (Martin Freeman) meets Gandalf the Grey and thirteen dwarves for an impromptu dinner which will forever change his life.

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The Return of the King

  • Title: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • IMDB: link

lotr-return-of-the-king-posterAlthough the final entry in director Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the one which took home the Academy Award for Best Picture, I’ve always felt The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the most problematic of all three films (and not only because of the 18 or so separate endings).

We begin with the film shoehorning a big section of The Two Towers into this film (while ignoring more than half Tolkien’s final novel) by including an extended sequence of Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum‘s (Andy Serkis) journey along Cirith Ungol before even reaching the giant spider Shelob‘s lair (all of which actually takes place in The Two Towers), and finally to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.

The rest of the film focuses on Gandalf‘s (Ian McKellen) return to Minas Tirith to unsuccessfully rally the Steward of Gondor (John Noble), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) finally accepting his destiny and journeying through the Paths of the Dead, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields between Mordor and the combined forces of Rohan and Gondor.

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