STACK Magazine December Issue 122

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1990 telemovie Psycho IV: The Beginning touched
on the formative years of Norman Bates, but
this new prequel series delves deeper into the
unhealthy relationship between the adolescent
pyscho-to-be and his mother. The always terrific Vera
Farmiga delivers an Emmy-nominated performance
as Norma Bates, and Freddie Highmore (Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory) is nicely brooding as
Norman. While there's the obvious connection to
Hitchcock's classic Psycho, the criminal activity
that's rife in the small town of White Pine Bay, Oregon, where
Norma has opened the eponymous roadside motel, feels like
it's strayed in from another series. But this is a contemporary
reimagination, so anything goes. But stay out of the shower!
American psycho.
BATES MOTEL: SEASON ONE
Season Two turns up the heat on the Firehouse
51 crew, with the station facing budget cuts. This
just adds to the everyday stress for the dedicated
firefighters, paramedics and rescue squads, who
also have to contend with a serial arsonist on the
loose, house fires and apartment fires (it ain't called
Chicago Fire for nothing!), a train derailment, a
drive by shooting, a blackout, and idiots stuck in
woodchippers and clothing donation bins. There's
also a marriage proposal, Dawson and Severide
join the Fire Academy (as student and teacher, respectively), and
Molly's bar is struggling. So, an event-packed season then. There's
also a crossover episode with new spin-off series Chicago PD, the
pilot of which can be found amongst the DVD and Blu-ray extras.
Call the Firehouse.
CHICAGO FIRE: SEASON TWO
084
visit REVIEWS DVD&BD
Format: Release Date: 27/11/14 Format: Release Date: 04/12/14
DECEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
The first season set things up, now we get to the good
stuff. Arrow's second season is much more comic book
in style and tone, and this show is easily the best of the
rapidly growing legion of superhero series (The Flash,
Gotham, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Billionaire playboy
turned avenging archer Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has
revised his crime-fighting MO following the death of best
buddy Tommy: "To honour my friend's memory, I can't be
the killer I once was." But he might have to be, when arch
nemesis Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), aka Deathstroke,
threatens his family and Starling City. Season two packs in lots of guest
appearances from the DC universe, and the Arrow's moody new look raises
the old Clark Kent/Superman conundrum – why can nobody guess this
superhero's true identity when it's so bleeding obvious!
Deathstroke of genius.
ARROW: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
This series has moved so far beyond the events detailed
in Stephen King's source novel that the "based on" credit
no longer applies. The folk of Chester's Mill, who are
still trapped beneath that mysterious, all-encompassing
dome, are now content to do their own thing, and as
situations become increasingly more insane with each
episode, you get the impression that the writing team
doesn't even know what's happening and are making
it up as they go. This freewheeling approach does have
a certain guilty pleasure appeal, though. Will Big Jim
and Junior be the villains or the good guys this episode? Why is there
an underground cavern hidden inside a high school locker? What's the
significance of the butterflies? Why are people suddenly returning from
the dead? Who knows, just don't look to the book for answers.
Dome alone.
UNDER THE DOME: SEASON TWO
TV
Format: Release Date:03/12/14 Format: Release Date: 03/12/14