Skyfall for the performances, and new direction

Done playing dead, James Bond returns after ostensibly being taken out by a fellow MI6 agent's ill-aimed bullet. But the badly considered shooting, and the overall weight of years, take their toll on 007. This welcome but, for some fans, hard-to-swallow development mirrors the reservations about the relevance in political circles about his shadowy

 agency, which is constantly engaged

 in invisible wars with unknown evils.

Dylan McDermott returns to 'American Horror Story' for another run of sexy terror

 "American Horror Story" is adding a very familiar face for its second season - and it's quite the last-minute addition.

Dylan McDermott, who starred as philandering husband Ben Harmon in the first season, and met his demise in the season finale, is coming back to the series.

'Taken 2' breaks necks, not new ground, critics say

One of the lessons to be gleaned from sequels like "Taken 2" is that bad guys never learn. You'd think, for example, that anyone privy to the bloody rampage carried out by concerned father and ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) to save his daughter from Albanian slavers in the first "Taken" would think twice before messing with the guy. Alas, the villains in "Taken 2," being relatives of the slain thugs from the previous film, are out for revenge, forcing Bryan to engage in another round of family-saving and neck-snapping.