Wednesday 31 July 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.7 – 'In the Evening'


written by Kate Barnow | directed by Scott Winant

We're now in the second half of True Blood's truncated sixth season and "In the Evening" was an unfortunate drop in quality, for the usual reason: too much emphasis on the weaker plots, and not enough forward movement with the ones we genuinely care about. I've made peace with this vampire drama and now just accept I'm going to momentarily lose interest every five minutes, much as you do when watching a soap. Not everything about True Blood works and results in a fun time, but at least this year's core 'vampires vs human' storyline continues to have merit.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

DEXTER, 8.5 – 'This Little Piggy'


written by Scott Reynolds | directed by Romeo Tirone

This was a bad episode, let's not claim otherwise. It would have shaken my optimism about Dexter ending strong after season 7's impressive comeback, too, were it not for the fact it ended with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) establishing a twisted family dynamic with sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and their pseudo-mother/therapist Dr Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling). It feels like season 8's first stage is completed here, which comes as a relief because these five episodes have been very inconsistent, but hopefully the remaining hours will stop disappointing me as readily.

Monday 29 July 2013

TV Picks: 29 July – 4 August 2013 (CSI:NY, I Love My Country, Last Leg, New Tricks, Southcliffe, etc.)


Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV shows, returning/premiering on UK screens...

Sunday 28 July 2013

DEXTER, 8.4 – 'Scar Tissue'


written by Tim Schlattmann | directed by Stefan Schwartz

This episode covered two important bases very well: Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) undergoing therapy at the hand of Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), who's determined to make her see her serial-killing brother as a positive force; and Dexter (Michael C. Hall) continuing his search for the elusive Brain Surgeon and finding cable guy A.J Yates (Aaron McCusker), a former patient of Vogel's who underwent a lobotomy at her insistence. While I'm a little jaded when it comes to Dex's almost weekly stalking of villains, Yates had a few quirks that made him more interesting than most—like being the first person to detect Dexter during his reconnaissance with the help of a secret room equipped with CCTV, and avoiding capture by threatening the life of his own ailing father in a hospital. I'm not convinced Yates is the Brain Surgeon just yet, however; mainly because it feels too early in the season to settle on someone.

Saturday 27 July 2013

Trailer: THE WALKING DEAD – Season 4


I've embedded the first trailer of The Walking Dead's fourth season above, which premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con last week. It looks like fun, but I'm a little surprised and slightly disappointed events don't seem to be moving on from the prison setting of last year. I'd like each season to find the characters setting up a different base, if only to keep things fresher. I have no idea if the comics move things on, but how long can you hang around a prison for?

The Walking Dead returns 13 October on AMC, and most likely within a week later on Fox in the UK.

Comic-Con's BREAKING BAD recap


I just had to share this epic recap of Breaking Bad's past four-and-a-half seasons, which was shown at the San Diego Comic-Con last week. It's a phenomenal piece of work and effortlessly condenses all of the show's best moments and overall trajectory. Please don't watch unless you're completely caught up with the show, because it's obviously crammed with extensive spoilers.

It's also worth mentioning that UK fans have a legal way to watch Breaking Bad's final eight episodes, as Netflix UK will have the remainder of season 5 available to stream a day after its US broadcast on AMC. The show returns 11 August in the US, 12 August in the UK.

Friday 26 July 2013

LUTHER, 3.4 – episode four

written by Neil Cross |
directed by Farren Blackburn


The third series of Luther came rattling to an end with an air of ridiculousness too heavy for my liking. I long ago accepted this show has inherent weirdness and comes dosed with camp horror, but there does come a time when you want to see things reach a half-realistic conclusion. Unfortunately, too much of this finale didn't hang together very well and I didn't agree with some of the storytelling decisions. The biggest complaint was bringing fan-favourite serial killer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) back from her European vacation, having heard about Luther's (Idris Elba) problems and now determined to help her "friend" in his greatest time of need. Alice was a terrific character in series 1, but it's clearly a case of diminishing returns with her. She's closer to a cartoon than ever before, which Wilson nevertheless seems to relish playing that way, and her appearance here felt like a cheap way to give Luther some human backup. At least she was used sparingly in series 3, but rumours of an Alice-based spin-off show get less enticing as times passes.

Thursday 25 July 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.7 – 'The Initiative' & ANGEL, 1.7 – 'The Bachelor Party'

Spike: I always worried what would happen when that bitch got some funding.

I know we're only seven episodes into Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fourth season, but because I'm also reviewing Angel it seems like events have taken a much longer time to reach this point. So it was even more of a relief that "THE INITIATIVE" finally revealed the secret behind Riley (Marc Blucas) and Professor Walsh (Lindsay Crouse), and the SWAT team that's been glimpsed patrolling Sunnydale U.C all these weeks. Now, confession time: through cultural osmosis, I knew the answer to both questions going into this season. For that reason this episode didn't surprise me in the same way, so I'm not sure how effective these reveals were back in 1999. My guess is quite a few people predicted something along these lines, though.

Tuesday 23 July 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.6 – 'Don't You Feel Me?'


written by Daniel Kenneth | directed by Howard Deutch

My feelings on season 6 have waxed and waned because each episode offers a different combination of good and bad storylines, and your overall thoughts on any True Blood hour tends to be determined by how strongly the good stuff lingers in your mind. There are still some monumentally pointless and boring stuff going on here (the werewolves, the 'shifters, Terry Bellefleur), but the core idea of putting the emphasis back on the friction between humans and vampires is working very nicely. And as silly as it sometimes gets, the whole thing with Warlow (Robert Kazinsky) and Bill (Stephen Moyer) as "super-beings" with Sookie (Anna Paquin) in common is quite fun, and I like how this season's been about fathers losing daughters: Sheriff Andy (Chris Bauer) and his three quarters of his fairy girls, Governor Burrell (Arliss Howard) and his vampire-turned daughter Willa (Amelia Rose Blaire), Sookie's father (Jeffrey Nicholas Brown) being disowned by his daughter, and even the situation with Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) and dead Luna's child carried the same undertone.

Monday 22 July 2013

Here are some of my favourite San Diego Comic-Con 2013 panels

The annual San Diego Comic Con is over for another year; so as the geek mecca goes quiet, I've compiled a run-down of my favourite panels from 2013:

Community, Dexter, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Hannibal, the Marvel Universe, and Sherlock.

Feel free to embed some of your own in the comments below. There's a chance I'll promote the best to include in this post.

TV Picks: 22-28 July 2013 (Burton & Taylor, The Cafรฉ, Love/Hate, PhoneShop, Who Do You Think You Are?, etc.)


Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV shows, premiering/returning to UK screens...

Sunday 21 July 2013

Time for a well-deserved summer break

It's been very hot this July, so I'm taking advantage and having a well-deserved break. A genuinely good summer doesn't happen often in the UK, and I need something to replace my disastrous non-trip to Spain a few months ago!

As always, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do while I'm "away" (i.e. still in the UK, but doing other things). I'd usually provide videos from the San Diego Comic-Con that's currently happening, but may not have time to now. I'll try and catch-up with all the television I've missed when I get back on 29 July, of course.

My weekly Angel/Buffy reviews will go ahead as usual this Thursday (but I'll probably take a fortnight's break from those when I get back), as will Monday's regular TV Picks. In the meantime, I hope some of you take this opportunity to peruse DMD's extensive archive of film and TV reviews. If that doesn't appeak, please follow me on Twitter. Or how about following me on Letterboxd if you like short-form film reviews? There's a chance I'll catch Pacific Rim, The Wolverine and The World's End while I'm away, after all. Or one of those.

I hope you enjoy your week! Feel free to use this post as a place for any questions or off-topic discussions, as I really don't mind maintaining a commenting presence while I'm away.

Saturday 20 July 2013

Letterboxd: THE NAKED GUN 33⅓ - THE FINAL INSULT (1994), THE MASTER (2012) & UNSTOPPABLE (2010)

The last entry in the NAKED GUN trilogy is widely considered the least impressive, and that was certainly my recollection after first watching these films back in the day. But seeing as I found myself revising my opinion of the first sequel (um, downward), I was hoping a re-watch would lead to a more positive reassessment of NAKED GUN 33⅓: THE FINAL INSULT.

The first half-hour of this comedy is pretty damn shaky, and you can tell there's someone new behind the camera in Peter Segal—making his directorial dรฉbut ahead of NUTTY PROFESSOR II, ANGER MANAGEMENT, and GET SMART. There are far too many flashbacks and dream sequences that stop the narrative dead in its tracks, seemingly to crowbar in jokes that couldn't occur more naturally. Or were constructed for the trailer. Arguably more frustrating is how the story begins with Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) retired from Police Squad and adjusting to domestic life, while going through marital problems with wife Jane (Priscilla Presley). It sounds like a great way to explore other aspects of Frank's persona and his marriage; but it quickly becomes apparent the character only works in the context of being a dogged cop, and the ongoing Frank/Jane romance perhaps should have been abandoned after the first film.

Friday 19 July 2013

Thoughts on 2013's Emmy nominations


The internet's awash with articles about this year's Emmy nominations, so I'm not going to bore you too much about it here. The key things that interest me about the nominations are below:

Thursday 18 July 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.6 – 'Wild at Heart' & ANGEL, 1.6 – 'Sense & Sensitivity'

Buffy: Clearly we need to get you kicking some monster bootie, stat.

I had no idea Seth Green left Buffy the Vampire Slayer as early as this, but 1999 was the year Green co-starred in box-office juggernaut Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, so it suddenly made perfect sense. I wonder if Green would do the same thing with the benefit of hindsight, because his film career didn't soar to any great heights... and he's now best-known for voicing Chris Griffin in Family Guy and making animated Star Wars parodies.

Joss Whedon apparently wanted to give Oz (Green) a big juicy storyline this season, in the form of a love-triangle between geeky girlfriend Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and rock chick Veruca (Paige Moss), but the actor's abrupt exit meant the whole idea was reduced to a few episodes. I had barely remembered Oz was smitten by sexy Veruca after seeing her perform at The Bronze, so the sudden love affair in this episode did feel rushed, but in understanding the circumstances I can let it slide.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

LUTHER, 3.3 – episode three

written by Neil Cross |
directed by Farren Blackburn

I know a lot of people have flipped over series 3's third episode, and it's easy to see why—considering it climaxed with Luther's most painful and unexpected death, which I won't spoil until further into this review. It was also unashamedly provocative and thorny in its Death Wish-esque tale of a middle-class gent called Tom Marwood (Elliot Cowan), his wife murdered by a scum bag given early release, who duly snapped and now patrols the streets of London with a sawn-off shotgun, exterminating the capital's human vermin. The opening sequence was particularly fun, as the audience's expectations of the scene's villain alternated between the "benevolent-sounding man" taking a woman home after a bowling night, to the street gang that attacked their car looking to rape and kill, to the surprise intervention of unlikely vigilante Marwood.

MSN TV: Sky Atlantic's RAY DONOVAN


Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the UK premiere of Showtime's RAY DONOVAN on Sky Atlantic, starring Liev Schreiber as the head of a Boston family living in sunny Los Angeles, who works as a 'fixer' to the city's rich and famous. (This is an abridged version of my original review, when the show debuted on Showtime three weeks ago.)
Liev Schreiber is the latest big-screen actor to jump on the TV bandwagon; at the moment, there's still a feeling it's the best medium for character-based, ambitious storytelling. He plays the eponymous Ray Donovan, a so-called fixer for Tinseltown's moneyed clientele. I love a good pilot and Ray Donovan's passes muster, although it's a perhaps too familiar in its broader strokes.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

UNDER THE DOME, 1.4 - 'Outbreak'



Tuesday 16 July 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.5 – 'Fuck the Pain Away'


written by Angela Robinson | directed by Michael Ruscio

This show is so inconsistent it makes my soul ache. After last week's surprising upswing with "At Last", I once let myself fall into the trap of believing True Blood may have turned a corner and rediscovered its mojo, but "Fuck the Pain Away" was a return to 'situation normal': a few good storylines propped up by bad or pointless filler. Let's examine the wreckage:

DEXTER, 8.3 – 'What's Eating Dexter Morgan?'


written by Lauren Gussis | directed by Ernest Dickerson

The weakest episode of season 8's opening trio, although it's obviously early days and you can sense the writers trying to find their groove now Evelyn Vogel's (Charlotte Rampling) secret was revealed far earlier than you'd usually expect. I think what dragged this episode down for me is the focus on Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) being a big liability for Dexter (Michael C. Hall); getting arrested for DUI and eventually confessing to Quinn (Desmond Harrington) that she killed her boss. Carpenter's doing a brilliant job playing Deb as a rudderless mess, but I find her character a little irritating in this mood. The show could hardly ignore the emotional toll on Deb after shooting LaGuerta dead, but I'm already hoping she finds a way to move past it, because it's beginning to feel like a millstone around the season's neck.

Monday 15 July 2013

TV Picks: 15-21 July 2013 (Community, Falling Skies, Family Tree, Ray Donovan, Run, Secret Life of Uri Geller, Smash, etc.)


Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV, premiering/returning to UK screens...

Sunday 14 July 2013

Is it time to take a Tumbl?

I've been blogging for seven years using Blogger. I chose it because it was the most common blogging software available back in 2006, and remains very popular to this day. It's certainly improved over time and I have no major complaints about what it's capable of doing, or how it's helped me bring Dan's Media Digest to you.

However, I've been impressed and intrigued by the rise of Tumblr over the past few years and, last week, began experimenting with a version of this blog using some of Tumblr's most popular (free) templates. And I have to say, it has features and a usability that Blogger seems to lack. Or maybe I'm just bored with Blogger and Tumblr's the greener-looking grass over the bridge?

MSN TV: BBC2's TOP OF THE LAKE


Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the first part of BBC2's new mystery drama TOP OF THE LAKE, starring Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss as an Australian detective investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl in New Zealand.
Spellbinding, beautifully shot, unpredictable, with great performances amidst spectacularly bleak locations, Top of the Lake is a co-production of BBC2, Australia/NZ's UKTV, and America's Sundance Channel. The seven-part mini-series is written by Jane Campion, best known for her Oscar-winning 1993 film The Piano. It's likewise set in her native New Zealand and follows an investigation into Tui, a young girl found trying to drown herself in a lake.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

Friday 12 July 2013

Review: THE BRIDGE, 1.1 – 'Pilot'


written by Meredith Stiehm & Elwood Reid | directed by Gerardo Naranjo

Great television formats are huge money-spinners, and Scandinavian drama The Bridge (Broen if you're Danish, Bron if you're Swedish) is the latest to find itself honoured with expensive remakes in foreign territories. The show was a hit in its native lands when it debuted in 2011, and later formed part of the 'Danish Invasion' of subtitled programming on BBC Four (hot on the heels of the highbrow channel's successes with The Killing and Borgen). Broen/Bron concerned the discovery of a dead body on the border between Sweden and Denmark; then followed the ensuing investigation of two detectives from each country. The shared jurisdiction thus highlighting the differences between the two countries.

Thursday 11 July 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.5 – 'Beer Bad' & ANGEL, 1.5 – 'Rm w/a Vu'

Buffy: Want beer. Like beer. Beer good.
Xander: Beer bad. Bad, bad beer.


I think "BEER BAD" can be chalked up as a horrible misfire that, qualitatively, felt like an escapee from season 1. There's certainly a message for Buffy the Vampire Slayer to impart to its youthful audience about alcohol abuse, but simply equating it to an evil elixir that turns drinkers into "cavemen" is probably the laziest and stupidest direction to take. Not content with that, writer Tracey Forbes also underscores a belief that being promiscuous and enjoying casual sex with consensual partners is inherently wrong. Alcohol and sex sit in much greyer areas than this episode was prepared to admit and explore, and consequently this hour came across as horribly naรฏve and immature. Oh, and it contained some of the worst drunken acting I've ever seen committed to film. I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah Michelle Gellar and the other actors had never experienced intoxication before making this, because everything about it felt redolent of a child's-eye view. I'm amazed someone didn't hiccup or insist on clutching a brown paper bag.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Fox commission 'LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN' TV pilot

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is one of my favourite graphic novels, but it's best-known as a 2003 Sean Connery film that underwent a critical mauling. However, despite being remembered as a box office dud, the $78m-budgeted movie actually made a profitable $179m at the worldwide box office.

Despite that fact, audience response wasn't favourable and an intended sequel wasn't greenlit. The film's infamously difficult production is also thought to have led to Connery's retirement at the age of 73. The career of director Stephen Norrington also suffered, having publicly clashed with Connery on the League's set, he went into a self-imposed directing exile for 10 years and is only now showing signs of a possible return.

LUTHER, 3.2 – episode two


written by Neil Cross | directed by Sam Miller

Comedy and horror are close bedfellows, but people give you funny looks if you tell them a drama like Luther makes you laugh. But there is gallows humour to Neil Cross's scripts, and you sometimes have to release the tension by finding something to grin over. You don't write a scene where Luther's (Idris Elba) wardrobe is revealed to be hangers of identical shirts and jackets, unless you want to puncture the mood and let levity in. Or how about the moment when DS Ripley (Warren Brown) arrested a sympathetic internet troll killer who tried to avoid justice by sticking his hand in a blender, which meant only his remaining good hand could be cuffed to a hospital bed frame? Well, I laughed...

UNDER THE DOME, 1.3 – 'Manhunt'

written by Adam Stein |
directed by Paul Edwards

I'm not done watching Under the Dome yet, but the third episode confirmed my suspicions that weekly reviews would be both tedious and fruitless.

When you have a great concept like UtD's (a small town finds itself trapped under an impenetrable bubble), the joy as a viewer is seeing something so extraordinary given life in a credible way. I haven't read the Stephen King novel, but if the television series is a fair reflection then UtD isn't doing a very good job. Nobody behaves as you'd imagine any sane person would. Why is nobody already thinking ahead about air supply, fuel, food, and water? I know this is only episode 3, but those are the big things any sensible person would be asking questions about. And why is there no sense of mass panic? If nothing else, the fact the people on the outside of the dome are ignoring the trapped townsfolk would be a very frightening thing. It suggests guilt and a cover-up. But nobody seems to mind too much on this show. People are still eating at the local diner, skateboarding, walking their dogs, etc. It's madness.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.4 – 'At Last'


written by Alexander Woo | directed by Anthony Hemingway

When a show's been under-performing for as long as True Blood, a certain kind of apathy sets in and you tend to approach each episode with critical knives already sharpened. But the aptly-titled "At Last" has made me start to reconsider this sixth season slightly. I'm not saying I'm completely happy, but most of the storylines are actually quite entertaining and some of the characters are starting to behave more logically than ever before. I still tune-out whenever the werewolves or shape-shifters are thrown a bone by the writers, but everything else about this fourth episode was surprisingly enjoyable.

DEXTER, 8.2 – 'Every Silver Lining...'


written by Manny Coto | directed by Michael C. Hall

Michael C. Hall makes his directorial debut with "Every Silver Lining..."; an episode that improved on the uneven premiere and sold this season's big concerns in a more compelling manner. There are two major storylines that are working quite nicely at the moment, and both concern the women in Dexter's (Hall) life, who are moving in different directions. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) revealed she has knowledge of Harry's Code last week, and here most of my assumptions were proven true. With the help of old VHS tapes, Vogel proved to Dexter that she helped Harry (James Remar) deal with a 10-year-old adopted son exhibiting psychopathic behaviour, and essentially thinks of herself as his "creator" and "spiritual mother". But while Dexter's gaining a maternal figure for the first time, he's simultaneously losing a sister...

Monday 8 July 2013

COMMUNITY loses Donald Glover for the majority of its fifth season

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Community fans were in seventh heaven only a matter of weeks ago, when creator Dan Harmon was rehired to take creative control of Community for its fifth season—following a Harmon-less fourth that most people didn't like very much. We knew season 5 wouldn't involve Chevy Chase (who quit last year), but considering how often the sitcom would marginalise Chase's character that didn't really upset too many fans.

But now Vulture have broken the news that Donald Glover will only appear in five of the thirteen episodes NBC have ordered. This is because the actor wants to spend more time focusing on his music career. Glover's reps apparently cut this deal with Sony Pictures Television, which will also save them some money.

MSN TV: DEXTER - season 8


Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the season 8 premiere of serial killer drama DEXTER, which had its UK premiere on Fox last night, seven days after its US debut. (This is a truncated, rejigged version of my original review from last week, so no hard feelings if you don't want to click through.)
Dexter's back for its final season, earlier than usual. I hope this means it will maintain season seven's momentum, which conjured a satisfying comeback after two weak years in which the show fell victim to its refusal to shake things up enough. Last season's decision to have Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) discover that her brother Dexter's a serial killer was a breath of fresh air. Alas, this premiere didn't have anything as gripping. That made the majority of events feel 'business-as-usual', although things improved and the hour ended on a high.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

TV Picks: 8-14 July 2013 (BBC Proms, The Big C, Count Arthur Strong, Dynamo: Magician Impossible, Law & Order UK, Top of the Lake, etc.)


Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV shows premiering/returning to UK screens...

Saturday 6 July 2013

Letterboxd: COMING TO AMERICA (1988)

At the height of his fame in 1988, Eddie Murphy starred in COMING TO AMERICA, directed by John Landis, who had helmed their hit movie TRADING PLACES five years earlier. Landis would later comment that Murphy had gone from "curious and funny and fresh and great" to "the pig of the world" in those intervening years, but thankfully Murphy's off-screen personality change isn't detectable in this film.

It's interesting that both Murphy's movies with Landis involve characters changing their social status; with TRADING PLACES a loose update of THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER story (Murphy as a street hustler who becomes rich), and in COMING TO AMERICA it's the reverse with Murphy as a prince who feigns poverty. I guess the idea of sudden wealth/impoverishment grabbed the public imagination in the era of the yuppie.

It's always fun to watch comedies from decades ago, because they tend to have a different rhythm and sensibility. COMING TO AMERICA feels very lackadaisical compared to its closest modern cousin (Sacha Baron Cohen-starring THE DICTATOR), and didn't contain very many moments where I laughed aloud. That's not to say it isn't a funny movie, it's just aiming for a constant feeling of amusement.

Thursday 4 July 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.4 – 'Fear, Itself' & ANGEL, 1.4 – 'I Fall to Pieces'

Xander: I wasn't scared, I was in the spirit.
Oz: And we back you up on that. Even if they question us separately.


I wish I liked "FEAR, ITSELF" more than I do, because it had a cool concept and funny scenes dotted about. It just didn't come together as strongly as I'd have liked, although I continue to be impressed by the production values of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this year. I'm just not sure if it's down to an increase in budget (now BtVS was a pop-culture icon), or just that TV was improving in the late-'90s.

A Halloween special is ideal stomping ground for a show like BtVS, but this one wasn't as impressive as season 2's "Halloween", where the gang were transformed into the characters they'd dressed as—referenced here by Xander (Nicholas Brendan) attending a party dressed in a smart tuxedo as a precaution against the same shit happening twice. The conceit behind "Fear, Itself" was actually really cool: a fraternity house becoming the location for the accidental summoning of a fear-demon called Grachnar, who can't achieve corporeal form without soaking up the fear of party-goers. Cue a haunted house episode where Halloween paraphernalia came to life and campus kids were scared senseless, before Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends arrived to exorcise the place.