Eclectic Pop

FOX Mid-Season: Backstrom | Rainn Wilson stars in his first television role since “The Office” wrapped in 2013. FOX’s crime procedural sounds like a cross between “Monk” and “House”. It could potentially get lost in the shuffle of similar procedurals that also star an eccentric detective solving cri…

Crazy, kooky and ferociously goofy, Johnny Depp’s latest is a send-up to the 70’s caper movies and the genre that parodied them. Striking a similar if distant cord to “The Pink Panther”, “Mortdecai” features a bungling lead character whose charm lies in being larger than life. The situations are over the top, the characters zany to the hilt and the laughs more frequent than anticipated.

Journeying to a dark place of magic, characters find something tragic. A Baker and his wife try to end their childless strife. Cinderella avoids her pompous fellow, as disastrous glitches plague a witch’s sinister wishes. Now that we have the rhyming portion of this review out of the way, it’s time…

With a lot of series returning from their mid-season hiatuses (“Pretty Little Liars” is already back); Eclectic Pop has made some resolutions for several series’ respective seasons. The final installment continues with the CW's "Reign". If you missed Part 1 (click here)

Reign: With any luck Mary/Conde will remain a courtly love, at the most. It would be out of character for Mary to disrespect her marriage and Francis by carrying on with Conde, no matter how upset she is with her husband. 

James Marsh’s biopic tells the “loved” story of Stephen Hawking and his first wife Jane. Meeting at Cambridge in the early 1960’s, the two academics meet at a party and are quickly smitten with each other. Stephen (Eddie Redmayne), a scientific minded atheist, falls for the humanities oriented and religious Jane (Felicity Jones), opposites as the saying goes; attract.

Best Pop Artist/Best Album: Taylor Swift, '1989'

Swift struck gold again, producing an album flawless in its neo-bubblegum abandon. There's not a bad or middling song on this record, the work of a true artisan. Swift had already cemented herself as a pop culture fixture with her 4 previous albums and with ‘1989’ she proves she’s a pop culture icon to be reckoned with.

From "Blank Space" to "I Know Places" to the bonus track "Wonderland", every song is an intricately produced delicacy that avoids complacency. Her crowning achievement is in balancing the album between fast-paced confections ("Shake It Off") and breathy ballads ("Wildest Dreams") with unwavering ease. '1989' is 80's music supercharged with pop sophistication and the results are her strongest yet.

When ABC’s tale of revenge and blood feuds began it was as an ode to Alexander Dumas’ classic novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” with the twist being the beleaguered victim’s daughter would take up the mantle to avenge her dead father and clear his name.

One of the series’ greatest challenges has b…

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Actress Gina Rodriguez broke the mold as she became the first actor from a CW series to win a Golden Globe for her work on the network’s freshman series, “Jane the Virgin.” Rodriguez’s win paves the way for other unheralded actors from the network to achieve future ackno…

Grecian born and UK-based singer/songwriter Hellena’s single ‘Dream Big’ does just that by featuring exotic instrumentation that combines touches of R&B, pop and soul. A song about the ambition to live up to one’s potential, her lyrics embody the message as she sings “The fire’s still burning,…

The latest single from Bristol-based singer/songwriter Tom Mitchell stays the course of his previously lovely works. Featured in last year’s Sonic Assembly for his terrific EP ‘Things That I Need to Undo’ (read about it here); Mitchell has once again regaled with his special brand of melodiously h…

Best Show: Bates Motel | "Expectations were high and Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin delivered...In the course of 10 episodes, they took viewers on a roller coaster ride, bringing them conflict, romance, treachery, action and family drama.

Immaculately written, performed and directed, watching an episode of  "Bates Motel" unfold should feel inevitable given we all know how it ends and yet its beauty is in making one hope we don't." For more on why defending champ “Bates Motel” earned the title for the second year in a row, click here

Worst Movie: Need for Speed | Over the top ridiculousness that never let up, Aaron Paul’s big starring vehicle proved a lemon. You couldn’t even enjoy the exhibition of high performance cars. Instead viewers were treated to the ludicrous sight of a monster truck outrunning a souped-up sports car, an utter absurdity. Read Eclectic Pop’s Review here