Pete Messum Reviews...

Is Agents of SHIELD improving? Agents of SHIELD is becoming increasingly difficult to review. The series seems to have lost the character focus that Joss Whedon had emhasised when the series started in 2013, and be focused more so on plot and Marvel Cinematic Universe references and build-up. In interviews about the show, the actors seem to be talking about quite a lot that isn't in the show. The parental relationship between Skye and Coulson? That has barely been referenced to in Season 2. Skye and Ward's relationship-gone-wrong? That's got a few lines and little else. The truth about Skye? Hints about her father, a transformation at the end of Episode 10, but nothing otherwise. Last time on SHIELD we saw Skye revealed as Daisy Johnson, who along with Raina and Triplett found an old Kree device hidden in an ancient city - the text on the wall Coulson had been carving that only got revealed a couple of episodes before after lots of waiting around for answers and no act

The Imitation Game is based upon the true story of the life of Alan Turing, focusing in particular on him cracking the German Enigma code in World War II at Bletchley Park while also showing events in the 1950's and in Turing's childhood. Its a truly fascinating film at its heart, focusing as more of a character piece on Alan Turing as opposed to just telling historical events, and this is where it excels. Turing himself is narrating sections of the film, in fact explaining the events of Bletchley Park and his childhood to a detective in 1951, and basing his entire narration around the fascinating Imitation Game devised by Turing is a brilliant way to tell the story from his point of view, especially after so many people believe him to be inhuman throughout the film. Benedict Cumberbatch is absolutely brilliant as Alan Turing, making what could have been an irritating or incredibly rude character come to life as a likeable and sympathetic genius, albeit with his own person

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, FBC Productions reviews 'Rose' - a "fantastic" start to Series 1... Doctor Who: Rose (2005). By Russell T Davies. Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. Plot: Rose Tyler is introduced into the mysterious world of The Doctor - a man from another world...

Inferno has become a famous and very popular Doctor Who serial over the years, being regarded as one of the best with Episode 6's cliffhanger supposedly being the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. Is it as great as its reputation suggests? Inferno follows The Doctor working as an adviser for the Inferno project, run by Professor Stahlman to drill to Point 0 under the Earth's crust. However, all is not as it seems as Stahlman's arrogance threatens the entire project's crew, and an ancient substance begins to turn people into strange creatures... As the situation begins to fall out of control though, The Doctor finds himself in a parallel Universe, where without the TARDIS working properly he can't escape... Jon Pertwee, as usual, is excellent throughout the serial, with The Doctor mostly having to work alone and work out who to trust throughout the parallel segments, becoming more and more worried about the future of Inferno. Nicholas Courtney and Caroline

I haven't done individual episode reviews for Buffy the Vampire Slayer before, for the simple reason that either it was an average, good or fantastic episode, and I have little to say. It also doesn't help that there are so many episodes and that I watch the series pretty much whenever I can, so usually it'll be a few episodes in one go. Watching Buffy's third season so far, there is a drastic improvement over the previous two, with more interesting and complex characters arcs, great themes and definitely the actors' and writers' finest work so far. "The Wish", however, is easily the most interesting episode so far to talk about. Its not the best, not my favourite and by no means the worst, but there's a lot to talk about. "The Wish" sees Cordelia meeting a girl called Anya, who grants her a wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, but all goes horribly wrong when Cordelia finds herself now in her 'wish world' with Vampire

When Marvel's Daredevil was announced, I was intrigued by the idea, although the fact that it would be a Netflix series and the reveal of the costume disappointed me. I had hoped for a proper TV series as opposed to just a Netflix series. However, the first trailer brought up my hopes, even if it was just incredibly teasy, even with the dialogue - "I'm not asking forgiveness for what I've done Father, but what I'm about to do..." and "We don't say his name..." However, the new trailer released today has got me more interested. The look at Kingpin as the series villain and a glimpse at the origin story for Daredevil looks good. The action looks great and despite a rather dull costume, the production values look pretty good throughout. I've grown used to the costume, even if I don't like the fact that its black cloth (red would have been better in my opinion), and Charlie Cox looks to be a fantastic Matt Murdock / Daredevil. Drew Goddar

Back in 2006 (or 2007), BBC Radio 7 aired a few Doctor Who audio dramas featuring Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, the Daleks and the Cybermen. Sadly, with each episode being on at 10 o'clock in the morning or something like that, I never listened to them and almost completely forgot about them until a few years later, when I discovered a free download on Big Finish's website for Blood of the Daleks : Part 1. I listened to it, enjoyed it and wanted to download Part 2 for free, but Part 2 was about £15 at the time and thus I just decided against pursuing McGann's adventures. Back in 2013 though, I bought and listened to Dark Eyes , a brilliant four-part miniseries following an older Eighth Doctor and new companion Molly O'Sullivan as they are brought together by the Time Lords in order to thwart a Dalek conspiracy using Miss O'Sullivan's dark eyes. I really enjoyed it, and when they were released I got Dark Eyes 2 , 3 and the 50th Anniversary audio The Light

"Is that the best you can do?!" "You had to ask..." As April 23rd approaches, Marvel Studios have released a third and probably final trailer for the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. The trailer begins with yet another Ultron monologue, seeming to be talking to Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver - "I was designed to save the world. People could look up in the sky and see hope. I'll take that from them first" - showing just how psychotic and formidable Ultron is, but also just how great a writer Joss Whedon is. Despite this being Number 100001 Ultron speech, it still sends shivers down your spine and still feels fresh somehow. James Spader will make a terrific villain for Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye to fight. As the trailer continues, we see some great action shots, some of which are repeated from the last two trailers, but still with enough teasing in there as well. The shot of Bruce and Natasha together practicall