John Hansen

Time to meet another Darth — sort of — in Drew Karpyshyn’s ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic – Revan’ (Book review)

“Star Wars” novels have been on quite a Darth kick lately. “The Old Republic: Deceived” introduced us to Darth Malgus, and the much-hyped upcoming “Darth Plagueis” will explore Darth Sidious’ mentor.

John’s top 10 TV shows of 2011

For me, this was the year of “What’s going to happen next?” Who killed Rosie Larsen? Will Emily get revenge? How long can Bridget fool people into thinking she’s Siobhan? What would you do in a zombie apocalypse? And … how is Amber going to pay the rent? While many of the best plots of […]

A&E doing a beautiful adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Bag of Bones’ (TV review)

“Bag of Bones” (1998) is one of my favorite Stephen King books, so it’s refreshing to see A&E doing a beautiful job adapting it. (Part one was on Sunday, and the final two-hour installment will be at 8 p.m. Central Monday. If you missed part one, you can catch it at 6 p.m., or at the […]

Dash Rendar returns in ‘Star Wars: Shadow Games.’ Yay? (Book review)

Is there a “Star Wars” character that evokes a less passionate response than Dash Rendar? Boba Fett will get a “Love him,” Jar Jar will get a “Hate him,” and heck, even Kitster and Ben Quadinaros have obsessive supporters. Dash, on the other hand, will get an indifferent “Meh” from most fans. And that’s about […]

Jason Segel shows us the Muppets have aged well (Movie review)

After a batch of truly terrible previews for Disney-Pixar movies (not only did the movies look bad, the trailers themselves were interminable), my screening of “The Muppets” (a franchise that Disney now owns) finally began — and, mostly, it was worth the wait. Although the Muppety messages about self-confidence and following your dreams don’t do much for […]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3

All 22 episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 3 (1998-99), ranked

TV review” “Buffy” Season 3 is about the end of a first love, and it also marks my first love: the first time I was hooked on a whole TV season.

‘Cold Vengeance’: From monsters to human monsters, Pendergast-verse keeps getting richer (Book review)

There’s a great human monster in “Cold Vengeance” (August, hardcover), the latest Pendergast novel from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He’s Falkoner, a German assassin with an ugly looking mole under one eye who disgusts even his own henchmen for the way he enjoys torturing his targets.

What happened to ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Sophia? (and 6 other burning TV questions) (Commentary)

Part of why it’s been a great TV season is that there are so many compelling questions that keep us watching from week to week. And these aren’t just a matter of “Oh well, I’ve followed it this far so I might as well keep going” like I sometimes felt with “Lost.” A lot of […]

I should like ‘Community.’ But I don’t quite get it. Sorry (TV commentary)

I made it only a few seconds into the first episode of “2 Broke Girls,” one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the fall. It wasn’t the immature, sex-obsessed guys or the snarky, intent-on-those-guys-not-having-sex-with-her girl that made me lower the quick ax (although those cliched elements didn’t help). It was the laugh track. I haven’t been […]

Is ‘The Secret Circle’ secretly one of TV’s best new shows? (Commentary)

With a great midseason finale this week, “The Secret Circle” (8 p.m. Central Thursdays on The CW) put itself in the company of the best new shows. Entertainment Weekly might not have noticed, since it dropped the show from its weekly recaps awhile back, and it’s probably destined to never be a huge darling of the media […]