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AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017)
After the death of his girlfriend at the hands of terrorists, a young man is drawn into the world of counterterrorism, mentored by a former US Navy S.E.A.L…
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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, 1.10 – ‘Despite Yourself’
There’s a compelling argument against doing a “Mirror Universe” episode of Star Trek: Discovery this early, as it’s less fun seeing bizarro versions of characters we don’t know very well. Thankfully, “Despite Yourself” seemed to agree, because the crew of the USS Discovery didn’t encounter any of their counterparts throughout the entire episode, beyond a…
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BLACK MIRROR, 4.3 – ‘Crocodile’
I spend every episode of Black Mirror hunting for signs of a technology the story will revolve around, but “Crocodile” kept its tech hidden for a long time. The story began with a straightforward horror scenario, as young clubbers Rob (Andrew Gower) and Mia (Andrea Riseborough) travelled back home after a night partying, only to…
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BLACK MIRROR, 4.2 – ‘Arkangel’
Black Mirror is in an unenviable position. While the first couple of series were well received on Channel 4, it was really Netflix’s third series that took the show to new heights of popularity. While it didn’t completely abandon its quintessentially British feel on the streaming platform, it did up the stakes and took on…
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THE X-FILES, 11.1 – ‘My Struggle III’
When The X-Files returned to TV in 2016 (eight years after X-Files: I Want to Believe, fourteen years since it was cancelled on Fox), the world was a very different place and the adventures of a middle-aged Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) felt outmoded. It was certainly fun to see these characters again,…
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BLACK MIRROR, 4.1 – ‘USS Callister’
The great thing about many Black Mirror stories is how they often have multiple layers, with even the concept appearing to be one thing before contorting into something twice as disturbing. “USS Callister” is a fine example of that, because when the promotional photos were released it seemed like Charlie Brooker was doing a Star…
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2017: Favourites of the Year
While it’s customary to write ‘Best Of’ lists at the end of each year, the risk is that the more highbrow and arthouse movies get all the acclaim, while popular mainstream successes are snubbed. How to counter that? We’ve decided to instead broaden the scope, by asking some of the Frame Rated writers to reveal…
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2017: Disappointments of the Year
There seems little point in compiling a list of the worst television shows or films of 2017, as it would be stating the obvious in many cases. Most truly terrible things are well avoided, or slip by unnoticed. No, it’s more interesting to reflect on things that were memorable disappointments because they could have been…
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DOCTOR WHO – ‘Twice Upon a Time’
And so we bid farewell to Peter Capaldi and the Twelfth Doctor. A shame really, as Capaldi was not best served by his writers to begin with and it took the whole of 2014 for Moffat and his team to realise that turning The Doctor into a rather unlikeable person wasn’t a wise move. Eventually,…
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ROUGH NIGHT (2017)
Things go terribly wrong for a group of girlfriends who hire a male stripper for a bachelorette party in Miami.
