Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 12 “Death In Heaven”
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Michelle Gomez
BBC America
Air Date: Saturday, November 8, 2014

The end has finally come and with it, reckoning. A number of threads were left hanging after “Dark Water” last week. What is Missy/The Master planning? Is Danny really dead? What will happen to Clara? How do the Cybermen fit in? It was all a bit of a mish-mash. It was difficult to see where the dramatic payoff would come from, and how it would finally let viewers look back at this season’s story arc.

While I believe this final episode, “Death In Heaven,” competently checked off all the boxes and answered everything, excellence came only in flashes. Michelle Gomez is responsible for much of it. The scene in which Missy finally pulls back the curtain to reveal the reason for all this to the Doctor comes to mind. The sequence between Missy and Osgood is also quite chilling. The rest of it merely services the arc. Give some credit to Steven Moffat for turning the Cybermen into zombies, and then a platoon of soldiers, but that’s all they are. Likewise, Danny’s part in the finale all fits, but it’s nothing spectacular for all its final flash. In all, it’s been a quality season that set the bar high. This finale meets that bar, but does not dramatically surpass it.

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 11 “Dark Water”
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Michelle Gomez
BBC America
Air Date: Saturday, November 1, 2014

What a difference a week can make, or a writer can make. After coming through an episode like “In The Forest Of The Night,” where everything felt like it was on unsure ground in terms of character and motivation, here we are on bedrock once again. Odd bedrock it is, however. The blows come fast and furious: first there is a death, then a betrayal, and then a mystery. Finally, the little snippets of the Missy story that we’ve seen make sense, and we know who Missy is.

Now whether you like what you see in this episode comes down, as it often does, to whether you like Steven Moffat‘s brand of storytelling on Doctor Who. In his favor, the trademark cleverness is here, and the economical knack for character. We definitely now understand how the crumb trail was left for us, the audience, across the season. The condensed plotting and the penchant for odd ideas that drive parts of the audience nuts are present here too.

Sometimes we hate bad guys. The combination of excellent writing, directing, and acting for a villain can get us lost in the story and in our distaste for the character. I have a huge amount of respect for actors and television shows that can pull this off; however, there is another type of antagonist that I think we can all appreciate just as much, if not more. I’m sure you guessed it by the title: it’s the maniacal big baddies who not only scare us, but also make us laugh with glee. Check out this list below of crazy television bad guys we can’t help but love. I think you’ll agree – but feel free to comment and let us know who your favorites are too!

Here’s 5 Crazy TV Bad Guys We Can’t Help But Love…

Last year, Mondo debuted a collection of Academy Award-nominated posters that were released at random times during the Oscar ceremony. Like all their poster releases, it was a success, so they are doing it again this year.

Once again multiple artists have drawn up their vision of the nominated films and we’ve got the first three Olly Moss, Laurent Durieux, and DKNG that will go on sale this Sunday during the broadcast of the Academy Awards. The first three films featured are Les Miserables, Paranorman, and The Master. Check them out here below, along with details about each poster, including specs and pricing.

2012 was a really exciting year for film. We saw the culmination of a masterpiece world building franchise from Marvel Entertainment, perhaps one of the best 007 movies ever made, and Ben Affleck showed once again that there’s much more to him than haters would have led you to believe. It was actually really difficult to compile just 12 films for a best of list. Some great movies were left completely off my list such as Wreck-it-Ralph. The film is a joy and it truly tickles the funny bone of geeks that grew up with video games in the ’80s and that still play them now. Jiro Dreams of Sushi was a masterpiece documentary that follows the family of one of Japan’s greatest sushi chef’s and the film features some truly beautiful sushi cinematography! There are others, but I’m already giving myself two extra entries in this list just to play with the “12” gimmick.

These sorts of lists are just pure opinion. What I like about them though as a movie fan is by reading them I might discover some gem of a film that I haven’t seen or heard about or I might be convinced to give a movie a chance that I was planning to pass up.

OK, enough babbling, here are my Top 12 films of 2012.