Dev Patel

There are hints of understated charm and elegance sprinkled throughout The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Moments when two people, battered and bruised by life, share some genuine insight about the human condition. Unfortunately, those moments are lost amid a frenzy of unnecessary storylines and cartoonish complications. It’s a treat to see these veteran actors playing off each other, but you’re better off staying at a different hotel.

Writer-director Neill Blomkamp pushes all his chips onto the table with this fascinating sci-fi gamble that dares you not to be entertained. Derivative, ultra-violent, and completely baffling, Chappie also manages to be insightful and sweet at times. This technically-accomplished and thematically-suspect ­­­­­­robot melodrama has something for everyone to love (and hate). Mostly, it offers the giddy exhilaration of a movie that’s determined to tell its story, no matter how bat-shit crazy it is.

With the exposure of News Night’s major story of chemical weapons use by the American army turning out to be a complete fabrication last week, the team as a whole, and Will and Mackenzie in particular, face a long road ahead in rebuilding what they had before the Genoa report, despite the surprising vote of confidence from Leona Lansing. This week’s episode focuses on the aftermath of Leona’s unexpected decision on the news team, examining the toll the story takes on the emotional state and decision-making capabilities of various members of the team, in a well-done setup to the end of the season.

One of the big weaknesses of the first season of The Newsroom, alongside the poor characterisation of many of the show’s women, was the often preachy tone that would accompany storylines, as the writers often struggled to balance the show’s depiction of a fearless news team with an ability to humanise the opponents to the debate, or a portrayal of the core cast as three-dimensional characters rather than simply mouthpieces. The exploration of real-world consequences and conscience attacks suffered by the team at ACN did a lot to mitigate this issue, and while the second season premiere showed promise in further exploring this storyline, this week’s episode manages to fall down the rabbit hole once again, taking a few steps backward from a lot of character progression the show has made, and delivering an unpleasant episode this week, where the bad qualities outweighed the good.

The second season premiere of The Newsroom last week hinted at a major catastrophe that engulfs the station, but buried amidst the discussions of the events that led to lawyerly intervention was the question of why Will McAvoy and the news crew would take on such a volatile story in the first place. This week’s episode dives deeper into the psyche of the individuals who comprise the news team, and their emotional and psychological state leading up to the Genoa revelation, in an episode that unfortunately brings back large chunks of previously problematic storylines, but nonetheless gives a better idea of what makes certain characters tick.

With shows such as Sports Night and The West Wing under his belt, many people were excited to see Aaron Sorkin return to television, particularly after finding big screen success with The Social Network and Moneyball. Tackling journalism, Sorkin’s The Newsroom premiered in 2012 on HBO, with a cast that included Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, and Dev Patel, and ended up receiving uneven reviews throughout the season, with most of the audience qualms coming down on his portrayal of Mackenzie and Maggie, the two key female characters on the show, who often acted out of character when engaged in romantic entanglements, which dominated much of their storylines in the first ten episodes.

While Aaron Sorkin has recently found success in the film world with movies such as The Social Network and Moneyball, he has left his mark on television with highly acclaimed shows Sports Night and The West Wing. His return to television came in 2012, this time with HBO, as he tackled the world of journalism in …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 10: “The Greater Fool″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Greg Mottola Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Season finales are difficult to pull off for any show. The final episode is meant to resolve season-long arcs while still progressing along, or starting, enough story threads to intrigue …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 9: “The Blackout Part 2: Mock Debate″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Alan Poul Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Two-part episodes are never easy to pull off; on one hand, they can be freeing, as writers now find themselves with twice the amount of time to …

About Cherry Written by Lorelei Lee & Stephen Elliott Directed by Stephen Elliott USA, 2012 In trying its best to partially mimic the likes of similar commentaries on the perils of the adult entertainment industry, I’ll start off by saying About Cherry is a colossal failure. Focusing on young Angelina as her naivety and familiarly …

The Newsroom, Season 1, Episode 5: “Amen″ Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Daniel Minahan Airs Sundays at 10:00 PM ET on HBO Journalism can be a dangerous profession. Trying to cover the news in, or tell the story of, volatile or war-torn regions, especially, can be downright fatal, the most obvious example in recent …