After the tragic confrontation with Professor Pyg, Detective James Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE) is called into the mayor's office, where Mayor Burke (LARRY PINE) offers him the paperwork that will promote him to Captain. However, Gordon doesn't want the job, particularly as the current captain is his partner, Harvey Bullock (DONAL LOGUE). But Bullock has lost the faith of his men, and even Gordon realizes this, so he promises to at least mull the offer over.

Little Pip-Pip is the smallest of the penguins on his corner of the Antarctic. But it's not his size that's a problem for him, but his intense fear of doing what all the other penguins are doing: getting into the water.

Pip-Pip is laughed at by his peers, but encouraged by his mother. We learn there are all sorts of very good reasons why Pip-Pip should be afraid of the water. It's cold. It's dark. And there are things that live beneath the water that might eat him. Sounds like good reasons to me for staying on the ice! But then, what kind of lesson would that be for young readers?

Told in an engaging rhyming meter and illustrated with edge-to-edge color illustrations, BE BRAVE, LITTLE PENGUIN is an adorable tale, designed in an easy-to-read fashion that encourages children to follow along and vocalize the verses.

At the rate the Hollywood sex scandals -- particularly the under-age sex scandals -- are proliferating, Hollywood is going to be holding its award ceremonies in a high school gymnasium and even then have plenty of room to accommodate the crowds.

The Black Hood begins a torturous mental game with Betty (LILI REINHART) when he begins calling her with demands. He's already told her that he's begun this mission all because of her inspiration, cleansing Riverdale of sin by getting rid of the sinners. To co-opt Betty's loyalty, he tells her he knows the secret of her sister Polly's pregnancy, and he knows where she went. If Betty doesn't cooperate, he'll kill her. But Betty sets up a return flow of information. If she does what is asked, she gets to ask the Black Hood a question (other than his name) and he has to answer.

The secret is out! All PRETTY LITTLE LIARS msut come to an end!

The mystery begins in the small town of Rosewood when four teenage girls -- Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, Spencer Hastings and Emily Fields -- receive threatening messages from someone named "A" after the murder and disappearance of their queen BFF, Alison DiLaurentis. What follows are seven suspenseful, scandalous and terrifying seasons, as the girls spin a sticky web of secrets and lies in order to unearth the very not pretty truth about what happened to Alison.

The Halloween candy bucket is about half-empty now, and the freezer is getting stocked with the groceries we'll need for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. That means it's time to think about getting that advanced shopping done for everyone on your Christmas list (or at the very least, dropping heavy hints to everyone else for the things you want Saint Nick to put under your tree).

For media buffs like us, Blu-rays and DVDs will always be a welcome thing to unwrap, especially when they're completely binge-worthy. Fortunately, Warner Brothers Home Video has a plethora of items being released now that will more than satisfy any good pop-culture geek's tastes! Here's a sample of what we suggest you might want to look at for your shopping/registration lists!

While perhaps not the "flashiest" of THE FLASH episodes, "Girls Night Out" is a fun bit of personal introspection and partying, as the members of Team Flash split up into boys and girls for the respective bachelor and bachelorette parties of Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN) and Iris West (CANDICE PATTON). And just to give it that extra bit of fun, we get a guest appearance from ARROW's Felicity Smoak (EMILY BETT RICKARDS).

Team Iris -- Iris, Felicity, Caitlin Snow (DANIELLE PANABAKER) and Cecile Horton (DANIELLE NICOLET) have planned a quiet little dinner at a fancy restaurant. Team Barry -- Barry, Cisco (CARLOS VALDES), Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN), and Harry Wells (TOM CAVANAGH) are enjoying a quiet brandy and home movies at the West household. Both parties get crashed by unwelcome guests that throw the whole evening into disarray.

HBO's WESTWORLD is a first-class, grade-A mindf*ck of epic proportions.

The future is populated by people who have reached the pinnacle. And now they're bored. To that end, they have created a diversion -- WestWorld, a theme park populated by automatons designed and programmed so realistically that they begin to achieve consciousness. To prevent this from happening, the hosts are gathered every night for analysis. Those who have been killed are reset and their memories wiped, while others have their programming altered so that they follow their storylines, with allowable variations based on logarithms for improvisation.

If you're a dog lover (or know someone who is -- this is the Christmas season, after all), then you'll want to check out Andrea Yerramilli's

children's book, RALPHIE, ALWAYS LOVED from About Something Good press.

Ralphie is a pup who was persistently returned to the animal shelter for doing what comes naturally to puppies -- especially ones who don't get

trained.

When his fourth family picks him out, he finds himself in a whole new environment of love (and rules). He has his good moments and bad, but

experiences growth throughout his life. He learns how to behave around new children and how to take on the responsibilities of the older dog. The only thing he doesn't have to learn is how to return the love given to him -- that comes naturally.

It's Chloe's birthday, and Lucifer (TOM ELLIS) receives a disturbing phone call from the Las Vegas Police Department. It seems his ex-wife, Candy (LINDSEY GORT) has been murdered. It also turns out she's not his ex-wife, since it takes a year to annul these sorts of things. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to go alone, because while Chloe (LAUREN GERMAN) is distracted by the birthday stripper, Ella (AIMEE GARCIA), overhears that Lucifer is going to Vegas and assigns herself to be his travel buddy.

One of the best parts of being a theatre critic is the joy of discovering new venues and new shows. On Nov. 3, 2017, I corrected a long overdue oversight. I grew up in North St. Louis County and lived in Florissant for ten years, yet had managed to somehow never set foot in the James Egan Center, aka the Florissant Civic Center. Thus I had never set foot in the spacious Hawthorne Players home at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre before either. The seats rise high and steep enough to see well over anyone’s head in front of you, but not so steep to be problematic for folks like myself with mild mobility issues. The reasonably large stage boasted a gorgeous set designed by Director Ken Clark, built by Master Carpenter/Technical Director Dennis Dudenhoeffer and assisted by the cast and crew of The Spitfire Grill,  the musical I was about to see for the first time.

From MSNBC:

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports, according to people familiar with the situation.

The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

The original CARS hit theaters in 2006, eleven years prior to this latest entry to the franchise. I suppose eleven years is old for a car. I'm still driving my 2004 Chevy Malibu, and I know I wouldn't want to push it too fast.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics shipping this week

To be honest, I am a few weeks behind on my comics reading, and I am on vacation this week, so I am not going to cover that many books in spotlight.

Laurie Berkner’s latest, THE DANCE REMIXES, is one of those albums that took me by surprise, for a couple of reasons. I have been a long-time Berkner-holic, and as such thought I would know what to expect whenever she would put out a new album. Surprise number 1.

I also thought I knew what each of the songs on this album might sound like as a dance remix, based on the fact I knew the songs so well and also on the first fact above. Surprise number 2.

When I put the CD into the player and turned up the volume, it was instantly apparent that I was not in “Berkner-Kansas” any longer! I was in the midst of a rave! Wait, what did I just type? Laurie Berkner songs remixed into a modern day rave? Yes! And let me tell you, the remixes of these songs, while having vestiges of the originals intact, are in no way like the originals. But that is a good thing.

Disney has been doing quite a few of their animated movies as live-action films the last few years.  Honestly, I tend to like the animated originals better, but the live-action versions have all been pretty good.   They will be releasing THE LION KING in Summer 2019.  Which is a bit strange, since it obviously have have to basically be entirely computer-generated (similar to THE JUNGLE BOOK). 

Disney announced the cast, and it is a hell of a line-up!

Show creator Seth MacFarlane took to twitter to announced that THE ORVILLE has been renewed for a second season on FOX.

A show that combines amazing special effects, stunning Sci-Fi, laugh out loud comedy, and deep moral questions, THE ORVILLE is a clever work-'space' comedy.

The cast of characters are lovable losers who are just trying to make the best of their ongoing mission. All while citing real world issues in the midst of trouble. One such moment, when the Orville is under attack, Lt. Malloy expresses his frustration that there's no way they're getting out at 5'oclock.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

November’s Bombshell of the Month – Bean J. Bunny

Professor Pyg (MICHAEL CERVERIS) continues to plague the GCPD, delivering 44 boxes of severed pigs heads to the precinct -- one for every cop there except for one: Jim Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE). That's because Pyg believes that Jim is the only good cop on the force and the rest are stooges for Penguin (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR). And he's not wrong. With the "Pax Penguina" in full effect, crime has dropped but only because Penguin only allows crimes if he has granted a license, which the police are forced to honor in exchange for the lower crime numbers.