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Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood Review

doctor-who-robot-of-sherwood-headerWhat happens when legends meet? I don’t mean two famous people but more what happens when two mythical creatures meet. Sure, we’ve had enough cross-over movies, TV shows and comics that cross-overs have worn out their welcome but there’s still the special moment every now and then.

But what happens when two mythical creatures who aren’t all that mythical get in a battle of egos? That’s the question that is being asked and answered by this weekend’s episode of Doctor Who. The Doctor, a myth throughout space and time, comes face to face with Robin Hood, a myth of Earth. They’re very real and very spectacular.

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Doctor Who: Into the Dalek Review

doctor-who-into-the-dalek-headerSince Steven Moffat has taken over as executive producer of Doctor Who, the Daleks have been used sparingly. There have only really been two Dalek episodes, 2010’s Victory of the Daleks and 2012’s Asylum of the Daleks (which was more a Clara episode than a Dalek episode). This is in stark contrast to the Russell T. Davies era (which I have more than this issue with) which had eight Dalek episodes in four seasons and generally made them look like chumps in all but one of those stories.

For the second episode of the Capaldi era, we’ve already got ourselves a Dalek episode. There’s no better way to throw a Doctor head first into the chaos of the universe than pitting him against his arch-nemesis.

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Wednesday Link-Off: More than PR

camille-rowe-next14-01There’s no getting around the way the Ray Rice story blew up. While we all agreed the suspension was far too light, past precedent notwithstanding. However, we didn’t suspect that the NFL had never really bothered with its due diligence in the matter. Now they’re scrambling, not to make it right, but to save themselves from a complete PR meltdown. What a sad state of affairs when PR trumps doing what’s right.

So let’s get this post underway. Here’s Camille Rowe.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford has scored a key endorsement in his re-election campaign: Mike Tyson. (Yahoo!)

If you’re a Politico reader, their executive editor just left over strategic differences with the site’s founders. (New York Times)

Several months after the incident occurred, the full video of Ray Rice beating his wife made its way to TMZ. Suffice to say that his two-game suspension became a massive PR nightmare for both Rice’s now-former team and the NFL. But that’s all this was about. It’s all about PR. (Sports of Earth)

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Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review

doctor-who-deep-breath-headerWhile I was writing the review for this week’s episode of Doctor Who, I realized that I was behind in posting my Doctor Who reviews over on The Lowdown. I promised Doctor Who reviews over here this season so you’re getting all three episode reviews this week. Today is the season premiere, Deep Breath. On Thursday is the Into The Dalek review. Usual Friday service begins with the third episode review for Robot of Sherwood.

Given the recent explosion in popularity that Doctor Who has seen on this side of the pond, it seems as though that Deep Breath might be the greatest test of the revived Doctor Who. Sure, this is the fourth incarnation of the series but it with Doctor Who becoming more and more popular during Matt Smith’s tenure at the controls of the TARDIS, this will be many fans’ first regeneration.

While Deep Breath won’t go down as the greatest Doctor Who adventure ever, it certainly worked well at showing that the show is changing pace and themes with the new man in the blue box.

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F1 Italian Grand Prix: I Am My Own Worst Enemy

f1-2014-italy-hamilton-checkered-flagRegardless of the drama of the Belgian Grand Prix, this season has been all about the battle of the Mercedes teammates. Nico Rosberg might be leading the championship right now but he still has fewer wins than teammate Lewis Hamilton. He also has fewer retirements than Lewis which is why he’s in the Championship lead.

But that doesn’t mean that Rosberg is untouchable. Just because luck and speed has been on his side for most of the season doesn’t mean that the championship is his. All it took was one big slip up for Rosberg to throw away the lead of this race and hand momentum back to Hamilton.

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Sunday Link-Off: Common Sense Revolution

hailey-clauson-guess14-02I don’t want to say that it’s been a boring week in the world of news but it’s kinda felt very much the same as the week before. Maybe our attention spans are getting slightly longer when it comes to big news. Then again, maybe there is nothing of note happening this week.

So with that happy thought in mind, it’s time for us to do the weekend links. Let’s start with Hailey Clauson.

The continuing attempts to portray Michael Brown as a thug may have run into a snag called “facts.” Unlike the latest right-wing assertion, he wasn’t a felon. (Think Progress)

The current crisis in the Middle East is a leftover of the 2003 Bush campaign against Saddam Hussein. However, President Obama has to treat this crisis differently than his predecessor if he has any hope of succeeding. (National Journal)

But just to show that I’m an equal opportunity windbag, here’s a [adjective redacted] saying that America is still the world’s freedom police. (Daily Telegraph)

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MIFF2014: Life After Beth

DSC_0255.JPGIf you thought there wasn’t much left to chew on for zombie movies, well you might be wrong there. Life After Beth is a smart zombie comedy that retains its central message while it keeps the laughter rolling throughout. The directorial debut of “I Heart Huckabees” co-writer Jeff Baena reminds us all the fact that while we enjoy a good zom-rom-com flick, the mash-up of the three genres is an awfully bizarre monster of its own. Continue reading →

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IndyCar – IndyCar World Championship 500: Always a Bridesmaid, Finally the Bride

indycar-2014-fontana-power-championWe’re used to a certain level of nearly unopposable domination from Will Power since he’s started in the IndyCar series. With only eight full-time seasons in American open-wheel, he’s already made it into the top twenty of all-time winners. Despite all the wins, he couldn’t quite put it all together for a championship.

The 2014 season wasn’t a typical Will Power season. While he started out the season strong, he had a massive slump through June and July that put teammate Helio Castroneves lead the title chase for the second half of the season. However, it wasn’t the typical late Will Power slump but an atypical resurgence that saw Will Power claim his first IndyCar championship.

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F1 Power Rankings: Italian Grand Prix

After the last race, all the Formula One fraternity and fans want to know about is whether Mercedes is about to implode. With Nico Rosberg haphazardly colliding with Lewis Hamilton with the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix, the two seem ready to come to blows on track. I’d imagine that the pair are at great risk of doing something stupid. Daniel Ricciardo for 2014 World Drivers’ Champion perhaps? Well, not according to this week’s power rankings.

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Wednesday Link-Off: A Happening

erin-heatherton-oceandrive14-01It’s a slightly abbreviated edition of the Wednesday links today. Today’s linkdump is basically about one thing. Whether you call it CelebGate or The Fappening or the biggest leak of celebrity nude pictures in the history of the internet, it’s been dominating the news and we have a fairly in-depth set of links about the story. No, there aren’t any links to the pictures but I’m sure that you don’t need help finding them.

Anyway, let’s get to the links with someone not in the scandal. Here’s Erin Heatherton.

While the original story is that The Fappening was a massive iCloud hack, that may not be true. The latest story is that this was a leak from an underground celebrity nude pic trading ring. The funny thing is that’s somehow more plausible than a massive hack of iCloud. (Gawker)

Even though The Fappening caught everyone off guard, warning signs were out there for weeks. Deadspin was approached by someone who had been offered Jennifer Lawrence nude pictures in an exchange. (Deadspin)

Members of Reddit’s CelebGate subreddit, /r/TheFappening, raised money for cancer research because it was supposedly a supported charity of Jennifer Lawrence. Instead, the Prostate Cancer Foundation gave back over $6,000 of donations because of who it came from. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, these guys are actually worse than cancer. (Mashable)

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