Anyone wondering what exactly happened to Jesse Pinkman after the series finale of the AMC popular drama Breaking Bad? I mean, when we last saw him, he was fleeing captivity in a stolen El Camino for parts unknown as police began to surround the place that had been his prison for months. Anyone curious how that story concluded for the fan-favorite character? Well, you’re in luck, as Netflix has answered the request and produced a subsequent film in order to give Jesse Pinkman a more of satisfying ending to his story. Given that he spent a good chunk of his last season in captivity being forced to make meth, I can’t blame them for wanting to follow up. As expected, Aaron Paul reprises his role as Pinkman after a six-year separation from the character. Paul, who has gone on to find greater success since the end of the series, clearly still has great love for the character who helped bring him to prominence, and also garnered him several accolades including three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.  Several familiar faces return in order to give the series the proper sendoff, including Krysten Ritter’s Jane Margolis, Jesse Plemons’ Todd Alquist, Jonathan Banks’ Mike Ehrmantraut, and yes, of course, Bryan Cranston’s Walter White.

Picking up directly after the events of the Season 5 finale, Jesse Pinkman has escaped the Aryan Brotherhood’s custody by fleeing in Todd Alquist’s El Camino. Taking refuge with his friends Skinny Pete and Badger, he is well aware that a manhunt is underway for him and needs to disappear. However, having just escaped captivity, he is without resources. Until he remembers a means to get the funds needed to engage the services of a "disappearer." Unfortunately, he is not the only one after the money, and he has to stay one step ahead of everyone who is after him.

Catherine the Great, born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, is one of the most prominent figures in history. She is a woman who managed to overthrow her husband, Peter III, and succeed him as the Empress of Russia, becoming the country's longest-ruling female leader. Under her reign, the country grew larger, its culture was revitalized, and it was recognized as one of the great powers worldwide. Her life has been the subject of many textbooks, as well as being retold on the stage, in film, and on television. Several prominent people have portrayed the character, including Helen Mirren. Have you ever wondered how she did it? How she managed to take away the birthright of her husband and succeed him? Wouldn’t you like to know how it was done? Well, if that is the case, I recommend you pick up a textbook, as the Hulu series, The Great, will not give you a accurate account of that. However, if you want an entertaining and sometimes factual account, I thoroughly recommend you give the series a watch. Elle Fanning portrays a young Catherine as she marries Peter III, played by Nicolas Hoult, and quickly realizes that he will not do as the ruler of Russia. Though not born in that country, she endeavors to save it from the clutches of her immature and incompetent husband.

As previously stated, The Great is only loosely based on the rise of Catherine the Great, there are obvious flourishes to make the series more entertaining, but even so the events still unfold in a manner that makes it believable. When first meeting her husband, Catherine quickly realizes that he is nothing like she imagined a great ruler to be. He has no real interest outside his own gratification, evident by the consummation of their marriage, which is completed without him even pausing a conversation he was previously having with a member of court. He is also engaged in an extramarital affair with that very same member of court’s wife. Peter goes on to show how little he cares for his wife, by burning down a school that he previously consented to allow Catherine to build when he realized her intention to educate women. The final straw comes when he strikes Catherine after she criticizes his treatment of her. Unwilling to resign herself to her fate as conduit for his heirs, Catherine decides to end her life until a servant, an exiled noblewoman, tells her that in absence of an heir, succession would fall to her if Peter was removed from power. Armed with new knowledge, Catherine staves off ending her life and commences plans for a coup.

The 1988 Batman comic storyline that featured the death of the second Robin, the impulsive Jason Todd, is remembered as one of the most important in the Batman family of comics. It told the story of how after being relieved of his duties as Robin, Jason Todd began a quest to be reunited with his birth mother, only to be kidnapped, tortured, and eventually killed at the hands of Batman’s most notorious nemesis, the Joker. Though Batman did manage to bring the Joker to justice, the loss of Todd had a profound affect on Batman as well as the rest of the Batman family for years to come. Because of it, Batman resolves to continue alone, and while he did eventually take on another Robin, he never was the same. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if Jason didn’t die? How would the Caped Crusader’s life have been different if he’d been able to save his former protégé? We don’t have wonder anymore thanks to the DC Animated Universe, which just introduced Batman: Death in the Family, the first interactive animated movie that allows the watcher to choose Jason’s ultimate fate. With multiple separate storylines, the audience has the power to decide if Robin dies, cheats death, or is ultimately saved by the Dark Knight. So, which will you choose?

This was the best method of telling this story in my opinion. Allowing the audience to pick what happens to Jason Todd is a very immersive experience and in keeping with the legacy of the original comic. For those who don’t know, Jason’s fate in the 1988 comic storyline was decided by a 900-number voting system. Fans called two separate numbers and chose whether Jason would survive the Joker's torture or die because of it. It only seems fitting that the audience have that same power with this animated film.

This is a show that always surprises me because it is so far out of the reaches of the type of project that I am usually attracted to, but every time I watch, the cleverness and sharp-wittedness of it always wins me over. Season 4 is no different. Though it can get very political and the series is unafraid to take shots at the President, this season provided quite possibly one of its most well-balanced episodes with the season’s opening. However, before we get to that, let’s have a brief recap of where we left off in Season 3. The end of the season saw the departure of Rose Leslie’s Maia Rindell, who after a rollercoaster season which included her getting fired from Reddick Boseman Lockhart, departing for the capital to lead her own firm. Meanwhile, Diana and Liz joined an underground political opposition group for the purposes of undermining Donald Trump’s presidency. While they both are start off as enthusiastic members of the group, with Diana going as far as to secretly seize the leadership position when a prominent member disappears. However, the missing member is revealed to be a charlatan, causing Diana’s charade to be exposed. Additionally, the group’s tactics change, becoming darker and more ruthless, prompting Diana and Liz to distance themselves from the group. Threatened by Diana’s potential exposure risk, the season ended on a cliffhanger that saw Diana’s and her husband’s lives in danger.

Now in regards to the season opening, Diana wakes up in a alternative reality where Hillary Clinton won the election. Though initially ecstatic about this change, she quickly learns that not everything is rosy as she learns in this world there is no #MeToo movement, and Harvey Weinstein is still a prominent movie producer, but also her newest client. This was an interesting episode, as it was the first series episode that didn’t feel overly critical of Donald Trump. Granted there were still occasional jabs at the President, usually in the form of someone laughing at the idea of him winning the election, but the acknowledgement that both outcomes have their pluses and minuses was very intriguing.

While I enjoyed the first couple seasons of Rick and Morty, I wasn’t all that sure about the show’s staying power with Adult Swim. I’d talk about the show with some friends, but for the most part this seems to be a show that finds its fan base more in their late teens.  It’s fair to say it’s been more than a few years since I was a teenager, so perhaps it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that  I was a little hesitant with this season (feel free to check out my review of Season 1).  When Season 3 came out, the show blew up in a big way, gaining numerous fans and even managed to make “Pickle Rick” a part of everyday pop culture and make Szechuan sauce at McDonalds a thing.  The show for those who may be unfamiliar is something of a blend between Back to the Future and more than a sprinkle of Futurama.  If that sounds like a fun ride, well, then this may be the animated series for you.

Season 4 kicks off with Rick and Morty going on an adventure that takes them to a planet where they find rocks that when you hold them can show you the numerous outcomes of every decision you make, ones that mostly lead to various forms of violent death or even love.  Once Morty gets a hold of one, he sees that if he follows the will of the rock, he can eventually wind up with his high school crush.  It’s piggybacking off the idea from Live Die Repeat, but giving a fun twist on the idea.  On a technical level this is an impressive episode when you consider how much animation is going on in this episode as well as how many deaths occur over the course of the episode.  It may take a couple viewings to catch them all, but there are some unique kills here.  Everything about this episode is bigger than what we’ve seen from the show in the past, but bigger isn’t necessarily better in this case.

The release of this disc comes a bittersweet time, as a prominent member of the cast announced that she was leaving the show. That’s right, Anna Faris announced that Season 7 would be her final one with the series. Such an announcement of the loss of a pivotal character normally serves as the kiss of death for a series. Had this decision came a few years earlier, it most likely would have been the end of the show. However, the show went through a transition a few years back, and Faris’ central role was shared among the rest of the cast, which includes Allison Janney, Jaime Pressly, Kirsten Johnston, and Mimi Kennedy. The decision for the show to continue has been made, but after watching this latest season, it is hard to imagine that the show will continue past its upcoming season. Even with her role reduced slightly, Faris remained an integral part of the show, and though Chuck Lorre is no stranger to trying to keep a show going following the exit of a cast member (i.e. Two and a Half Men), Faris’ absence is guaranteed to be noticed.

In regards to Season 7, I was at a bit of a disadvantage, having only seen clips of previous season episodes. I did my diligence, though. The show follows Christy Plunkett, a mother of two, who after a lifetime of battling drug and alcohol addiction is on the path to sobriety. Her mother, Bonnie (Janney), also a recovering addict, is a source of frustration in her life. By the time Season 7 rolls around, her children are no longer with her, and she has basically been relegated to the daughter role, living with her mom and her new husband, played by William Fichtner. This felt like a step back for the character in my opinion, a bit of a diminishment from all the progress of the previous season. Though during Season 7 she was working towards her goal of becoming a lawyer, both her professional and personal life are used to beat down the character for the sake of amusement. The use of this trope is akin to how in the latter season of Friends, Matt LeBlanc’s character felt dumbed down. Here we are with a character whose sole purpose was to better herself, and she is being shown to be a constant screw-up and desperate for love.

“My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died. My last look at my world was to be from inside a pressure chamber at NASA’s underground laboratory at Carlsbad Caverns. Our goal was the development of a form of suspended animation which would allow our astronauts to make longer voyages through our solar system. It had been my decision that our method was ready to test on a human so, it seemed that any risks should be mine…”

Gene Roddenberry was riding high as Star Trek began to grow more in popularity during syndication than it had as a prime-time network series. Suddenly television executives wanted more ideas from the Great Bird of the Galaxy, as Trek fans began to know him. One of those ideas was Genesis II. It tells the story of a scientist who is conducting a suspended animation experiment. He expects to be under for only a few days, but a cave-in traps him in his chamber, and he is not rediscovered for 154 years. He awakes to find an entirely different world than the one he remembers. Humans live underground as a group called the PAX. They are a peaceful sort and have left behind most of the science that destroyed the world Hunt knew. Their enemies are a group of mutants, identifiable by having two belly buttons because they have two hearts. They have enslaved humans and live an aristocratic life in the city of Tyranus. Now Hunt (Cord) is being courted by both civilizations. He must choose between them. Attempting to win him over to the Tyranians is Lyra-a (Hartley). She seduces him and tries to taint his opinion of the PAX. But Hunt soon learns from experience which side is the nobler race.