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School Days is a sadistic perversion of the High School Romance genre - out is the usual staple of charming characters, sensitive moments and budding romance replaced by lust, cheating and vengeance. To this end the show has to be given credit for it's new take on a well worn story dynamic - taking people in with it's cutesy exterior and presumed love triangle set-up before shattering their expectations with a slow but carefully executed increase in both drama and cruelty.

It's also unparalleled in it's ability to make you despise it's characters; chief among them is the main male protagonist Itou who shows such selfishness and inability to emphasize throughout you wonder if he has genuine mental impairment! Other characters are more multi-layered, showing good aspects (at least at first) but they too also succumb to the general depravity as the show meanders on from one deranged low to another. Towards the end, things start getting a bit too depraved - which almost takes you out of the narrative entirely but then the brutal conclusion rears it's ugly head with all the force of a steam train and you realise now why the depravity was necessary - it had all led us to this one point. The cathartic moment where the people in question get what they deserve.

School Days is a short, sharp jolt out of the nice cutesy preconceptions we have about High School Romance stories. It's unforgiving, sadistic and depraved - but all the while strangely compelling. It has to be applauded for its creativity and how it manages to conjure up strong feelings of hatred towards it's characters. While it couldn't be universally recommended, it's worth watching to those who can stomach it as something that's very unique and different.

This show is every Hipster girl's fantasy; sharing an apartment with 3 thoroughly metro-sexual men who are all willing to shower her with attention whilst all the while being perfectly willing to ignore her eccentric behaviours. And heck, even finding some of them endearing from time to time.

Forgive my cynicism, but New Girl is a show steeped in idealistic notions and well meaning but badly executed cliché. But in it's defence I'm willing to bet that I'm far from the intended target audience - a weak defence though if anything but one none the less. This is because in my mind good writing, plot development and characters should transcend the genre that it finds itself in. People who are not particularly partial to said genre should still enjoy it on some level - that's a sign of generalised quality.

Watched mainly under the pretence that this had Zooey Deschanel in it (or was it Katy Perry?) which I make no qualms about admitting; the show already had a certain amount of pedigree from the get go. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Miss Deschanel has made a living out of playing off kilter, eccentric but cute characters on the big screen. Something that could perhaps show case these attributes in a more expansive TV format would not have been a bad idea... at least on paper.

However everything is just badly over baked; the characters, the jokes, the set-up's. It's like someone just turned all the dials up to 11 and forgot to turn them back down again. Put another way, it just feels like it's trying way to hard - strongly encapsulated by the pristine back drops that are used that look like they came straight out of an Ikea catalogue. There are some good things now and then however; the odd well delivered one-liner, a cute awkward event or the occasional genuinely heart warming moment - but they seem just way to far in between.

After all said and done though it's not a terrible TV show, just very middle of the road. Perhaps they were counting to much on the star power of Zooey Deschanel to carry them through, a wasted opportunity in my mind given her ability in past work. Maybe though, in the second season (if there is one) some of these problems will be ironed out; which would be nice, because underneath all these issues and 'emotional baggage' there's a genuine and interesting girl trying to get out.

Grown from the roots of 'Fast Food Nation' and 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' - the former of which spawned a highly engaging narrative-based film in it's own right; Food inc. represents the efforts of 3 years of dedication, which was made all the more harder with it's depicted industry for the most part at least not wanting to play ball with anything resembling a camera crew.

The industry in question is the food industry, whose rise to power in recent years has been almost unprecedented - power that it has to be said that's been concentrated into the hands of a few very influential corporations. The film sets out to cast a light on the practices and behaviours inherent of such a monopoly, and indeed some rather unsavoury things have transpired.

The bleakness that comes across from the showing of these unethical practices are at least tempered with some success stories sandwiched in between. The rise of organic products into public awareness and farmers who stay true to their roots being the most prominent. That's not to say that there is a overall melancholic tone to this piece, you are left at the end feeling more enlightened and that you can do something to change the whole situation. But the moments where ordinary people are thrown against the rocks of adversity with little help from those higher up are really quite something.

With clever pacing, smooth narration and a point that certainly seems pertinent today more than it's ever been - food inc. is absolutely unmissable to anyone interested in the field of documentary, and for the rest of us probably even more so.