Starz

While the show presents some very interesting ideas over the course of its season, it fails to properly follow through or develop several of them, leading to the sum of the series adding up to less than a whole and leaving Flesh and Bone as, ultimately, a disappointment.

While the pilot hits many of the expected story beats, a central character with a compelling backstory and a supporting cast with promise elevates the show.

Ash Williams is back, and he’s still spitting out catchphrases and firing off his boomstick in Ash vs Evil Dead.

Playing with perspective is a common trope in TV. Lost, and countless imitators, used this as its primary storytelling device, telling its story from a different character’s point of view in every episode. This can be an incredibly rewarding way of unravelling episodic stories, allowing individual stories to briefly take precedence, giving them greater significance and nuance, and letting the overarching plot move forward incrementally. This approach is not suitable for all shows, however, which Outlander learned all too well last week when it returned from a six-month hiatus.

While this episode’s title reminds us that great things are destined for Spartacus, “Great and Unfortunate Things” focuses more on the unfortunate things in the wake of Sura’s murder.

Daggers and deceit seem to run rampant in Spartacus, and not just in the Roman storylines.

…And while the series is not defined by any one ideal, the role of glory has certainly played a huge role thus far…

Spartacus fight in the pits of the underworld, where rabble clashes against itself in death bouts while spectators have the chance to make money off bets.

Though Spartacus claims interest in neither fame nor glory, “Legends” submerges him into the storied tradition of the gladiator he is being trained to become.

Following a pilot that enabled the world of Spartacus: Blood and Sand to come together, “Sacramentum Gladiatorum” is the beginning of a new life for the man now known as Spartacus. Even as he denies that identity, trying to say his true name out loud, Blood and Sand kicks him from behind and holds him down on his knees.

Our hero, who is given the name Spartacus by the episode’s end, knows little of this world yet. He hails from the land of Thrace and is thrust into the land of Spartacus through a series of great and unfortunate events.

We reported a few months back that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were in the early stages of developing an Evil Dead TV series and now Variety has given an update that the show is officially moving forward and will air on Starz in 2015. The show will be called Ash vs. Evil Dead. The show …

Here’s the thing about the novel, at least the first one in Diana Gabaldon’s series (and I say this understanding the instant hatred I will earn): it’s tripe. The bare-bones plot of Gabaldon’s series is fantastic – a fiery 1950’s nurse who time-travels back to 18th century Scotland, is plunged into the conflict there, and …

Already halfway through its first season, Power has shown no interest in leaving its story in fifth gear. There are moments when the pace quickens to what you might expect from a thriller, but they are few and far between–and for good reason, it seems.

“This is Real” mostly deals with the reverberations of Ghost’s actions in Power to this point. That may take the form of the key chain that his daughter chokes on, but it is also represented in how all the groups involved in the crime plot–police forces included–are responding to the message that Ghost sent via severed body parts.

There’s a clear path this first season is taking and no indication that it should have any trouble reaching its end. It could afford to take more risks, but that’s hardly the most egregious of flaws, especially for summer programming.

As was the case last year, Da Vinci’s Demons concludes its season with a somewhat frustrating cliffhanger that leaves plenty of doors open but fails to satisfy enough by not paying off certain season-long threads.

After a thoroughly entertaining departure from the series norm by visiting the New World, Da Vinci’s Demons brings several of its central characters back to Italy–Leo to Florence and Riario to Rome.

The gradual build in quality, the most impressive aspect of which has been balancing several different point-of-view characters across multiple episodes lately, isn’t astonishing; however, it is noticeable and worth appreciating.

The problem in this case is that this is an episode of DVD that needed to be completely focused on Leonardo’s trip into the Vault of Heaven.

Starz knows exactly what it needs. “The Rope of the Dead” is that thing. It is the perfect blend of high octane action, visual spectacle (enhanced by a little bit of sexiness, of course) and powerfully emotional character beats.

After introducing the idea in its first season, Da Vinci’s Demons showed a great deal of narrative potential in the journey that would take Leo across the ocean to find the Book of Leaves.

What strikes me most when considering “The Ends of the Earth” is how the episode (and this season, by extension) manages to engage the viewer while Leo and Riario–arguably the series’ two most compelling characters–are so far removed from the events occurring in Italy.