Gotham
Season 1 Episode 19: “Beasts Of Prey”
Directed by Eagle Egillson
Written by Ken Woodruff
Created by Bruno Heller
Starring Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, David Mazouz, Cory Michael Smith, Morena Baccharin, Camren Bicondova, Erin Richards, Zabryna Guevara, Andrew Stewart-Jones, Victoria Cartegena
FOX
Air Date: Monday, April 13th, 2015, 8pm

It’s finally back! Before we get to this week’s review, let’s recap how we got here on Gotham.

It has been a banner first season for Bruno Heller‘s hit Gotham. This Batman prequel series has brought us a myriad of characters from the DC universe as well as a major one invented just for the show. Focusing on how everyman Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) shakes up the GCPD and tries to clean up the city, we have seen how everyone and everything is not black and white, but many shades of gray, including the setting. He and his reluctant partner, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) use regular and unorthodox methods to try to bring down the bad guys, including the ones with badges. From Penguin to Riddler to Catwoman to The Joker (Robin Lord Taylor, Cory Michael Smith, Camren Bicondova, Cameron Monoghan), from Poison Ivy to The Ogre to The Dollmaker To Two-Face (Clare Foley, Milo Ventimiglia, Colm Feore, Nicholas D’Agosto), we have been delightfully inundated with future Batman villains. We even got a brand new villain this season in Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith), a powerfully vicious, yet loyal woman who will pluck out her own eye and stomp on it, rather than be controlled. And of course we have young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), whose parents were murdered to kick off the season, leaving him in the care of his more-than-meets-the-eye butler, Alfred (Sean Pertwee).

Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episode 18: “Heart Of Gold”
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Written by Tze Chun & Scott Nimerfro
Created by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle, Sean Maguire, Rebecca Mader
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, April 12th, 2015, 8:00pm

Let’s recap the “Best Laid Plans” from two weeks ago, before we get to Once Upon a Time 4.18 “Heart Of Gold”

The villains are all a twitter trying to find the author so he can rewrite “history” so they can have their happy ending instead of the heroes. In order to do that, they must darken savior Emma’s heart. After much too much effort trying to cover their tracks, Charming and Snow (Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin) finally tell Emma (Jennifer Morrison) what they did in order to ensure her goodness. They took Maleficent’s (Kristin Bauer van Straten) baby and allowed it to be sucked into a portal to another world. I know that means we will eventually run into Maleficent’s spawn, but I’m glad they didn’t outright kill a baby, even though they thought it was just a baby dragon (Khaleesi!). They did release the author who promptly fled.

Marvel Studios has released the first full theatrical trailer for their latest solo comic book adventure, Ant-Man. You can check it out here below.

The teaser trailer, released in January, leaned heavily on setting up the story basics. The latest delivers on the action and visual effects fronts and then some, with Paul Rudd looking mighty badass as the titular incredible shrinking superhero as he encounters insects of an unusual size and takes on Corey Stoll‘s villainous Darren Cross when the latter suits up as Yellowjacket. We also get a sense of the on-screen relationship between Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and the stakes involved in their recruiting thief Scott Lang (Rudd) for their battle against Cross.

The Terminator franchise prided itself in having killer robots sent from the future attempting to kill the future leader of the resistance. Let’s not forget the interesting family dynamic. This has been the premise for at least four of the Terminator films. The fifth, Terminator Genysis, see Kyle Reese go back to the past once again, but Sarah Connor and the Terminator already anticipated his return. We’ve already seen one trailer and a Super Bowl TV spot, both of which didn’t give us any real context.

However, a new trailer from the Alan Taylor-directed film gives more story and puts a twist in the Connor family dynamic as John is also sent back to the past, and he isn’t what he appears to be. Hit the jump to see the second trailer for Terminator Genysis.

Marvel’s Daredevil
Season 1
Created by Drew Goddard
Starring Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ayelet Zurer, Toby Leonard Moore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bob Gunton
Netflix
Premiere: April 10, 2015

First off, let me say that I have been thoroughly impressed with every Netflix Original Series I have seen so far and I had high hopes for Marvel’s Daredevil when I first heard it was in production. As the first of four all-new live-action Marvel franchises, the spotlight was trained on this one when it became available on April 10, 2015. And folks, it was well worth the wait. Dark and gritty, it is everything you would expect of a show that features a blind superhero fighting the good fight in the streets of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City.

But let me expound on that for a moment. The term “superhero” is not really applicable in this particular instance. There’s not much that is super about Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), unless you count his ability to take a beating. He’s highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but he’s not so remarkable that he escapes injury. As a matter of fact, it’s amazing how much Murdock does get hit. It’s his sheer force of will that makes him the formidable opponent that he is in this program.