The Season 1 Moment That Changed Stranger Things Forever

Stranger Things might now be known for its irresistible mix of humor and scares, but when the Duffer brothers started putting together the first season of their hit Netflix show behind the scenes, it apparently had a much more dramatic tone that soon evolved after one particularly surprising revelation.

During a recent “Fix It in Post” panel at Netflix’s FYSEE LA festival (via Deadline) Stranger Things editor Dean Zimmerman revealed his part in altering the tone of the show in season 1, noting that the Duffer brothers may write “very tight scripts and are very specific on how they want their tones” but that they were taken aback by some early tweaks in the edit room, which ultimately caused a domino effect on the rest of the series.

“The interesting thing is in season 1, when we first started, it was all about the drama,” Zimmerman said. “Everything was super intense, and kept you on the edge of your seat. And there was a scene in particular that I decided to cut as a comedy instead of a drama, and when I showed it to them, they freaked out and didn’t know what to do. And the one thing they did say was, ‘Now we have to go back and rewrite all the scripts to put more comedy into it.’”

Zimmerman added, “You know what I said to them? Obviously through all the years that I’ve been working in this business, I was like, you need to have those moments of levity, and you need to have those moments where you can let the audience sit back before you punch them in the face with something super scary or super dramatic and it’s something they learned very quickly. That was a big tonal shift in season 1 that then carried out throughout the rest of the seasons. So, when you talk about tone with them, it all stems from the writing. But that flexibility that we all have in the cutting room is to create something completely different than what’s on the page.”

Without Zimmerman’s guidance, it seems Stranger Things may have turned out a little differently, with fewer moments of levity to set up its scares. Though Zimmerman didn’t break down which scenes were intended to elicit more laughs, some of Stranger Things‘ funniest moments ultimately grew out of the friendship between Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson, and Erica Sinclair’s razor-sharp sarcasm during its five-season run.

Why a Wildly Underrated Crime Thriller Is Dominating Comic Sales Right Now

Southern Gothic has never looked as good as it does on the pages of That Texas Blood. The Image Comics-produced neo-Western series, written by Chris Condon and illustrated by Jacob Phillips, combines the blood-and-dust stained fiction of Cormac McCarthy with the nihilistic noir of a Frank Miller graphic novel.

Despite its phenomenally twisted storyline and intense visual style, That Texas Blood has largely flown under the radar of mainstream audiences. Recently, however, the acclaimed comic flew to the top of the aftermarket sales charts, beating out multiple issues of heavyweight titles such as Absolute Batman and Amazing Spider-Man.

This sudden surge in popularity is not a fluke in the system; That Texas Blood is getting the television adaptation treatment from FX and filmmakers Jim Mickle and E. L. Katz, taking the gritty, dread-inducing series to the small screen. News of the adaptation has driven collectors, long-time fans, and new readers back to the comic.

News of its upcoming adaptation has largely been credited with the renewed interest in That Texas Blood. However, Condon and Phillip’s masterclass in storytelling scratches many itches for contemporary comic fans. While recent releases focus on bringing the audiences of superhero blockbusters into their fold, That Texas Blood brings a tightly-paced visceral journey to life. Set in Ambrose County, Texas, the series follows Sheriff Joe Bob Coates as he attempts to find his place in an increasingly violent world where brutality reaches even his rural Texas home.

Readers don’t have to worry about crossovers or prior reading necessary to understand the characters in Condon and Phillip’s tight yet intense arcs — all you need to enjoy That Texas Blood is on its pages. In a landscape where reunions and crossovers are increasingly a narrative crutch, comics like That Texas Blood provide an enjoyable escape.

Some fans feel the series has largely been abandoned by Image Comics. With the recent popularity of Invincible (both the comic and TV show), it seemed Image was largely focused on bringing more popular titles back to life. Additionally, the last issue of That Texas Blood hit shelves in December 2022 — a Christmas special mostly separate from the central schemes of its nexus in Ambrose County. Its critical acclaim was seemingly not enough to keep the attention of readers until recently.

Now, with its sudden jump back into the comic zeitgeist, Image and FX have the opportunity to capitalize on the oversaturation of superhero burnout. That Texas Blood re-enters the scene as Marvel and DC flood the comic market with traditional titles and tame storylines. Movies and TV shows adapted from comics are still largely superhero-based. Even the “subversive” takes on superhero media are starting to hit their limit; the warped superhero dramedy The Boys recently came to a close, ending its once culturally dominant run with mixed reviews.

That Texas Blood certainly got at least some attention again because of the TV adaptation announcement, but there is no denying this attention is certain to be a result of readers searching for unfamiliar stories. In an era where it often feels like publishers are unsure of where to go, readers have decided to take a trip back to Texas.

Celebrating the Most Ludicrous Moments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4

In the years following the release of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios was in a tight spot. It had to rebuild, and it had to do so during a time when both fan hunger and the Disney+ content machine demanded more, more, more.

As a result, Marvel had a long string of hits and misses in Phase 4, some of which amounted to cutting its own bangs in the mirror and cry-laughing at the aftermath. It had broken up with its long-term boyfriends like Iron Man and Steve Rogers and decided to go speed dating. What would be a good match for this post-Endgame Marvel? Only time, and a lot of throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck, would tell.

Phase 4 sure was messy. Seven films, eight TV shows, and two specials messy. But y’know what? I’m starting to look back on those times and really appreciate all that nonsense. Not the standout stuff like WandaVision, Loki, Werewolf by Night, and Hawkeye. I already appreciated those. No, I’m talking about some of the absolutely ludicrous Phase 4 moments that certainly raised a few eyebrows at the time but can now finally get their due as gloriously weird occurrences in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Minus She-Hulk twerking. We’ve heard enough about that for a lifetime.

Please note that the following moments will not be addressed in a professional manner.

Ray Winstone’s Russian Accent Revealed

It’s no secret that I love a terrible accent, but in a movie filled with questionable Russian accents, Ray Winstone’s reigns supreme in Black Widow. Landing somewhere between Cockney and South African instead of any kind of Russian dialect, it’s clear that Winstone might have ordered his accent from Temu, and we were all left to deal with the consequences.

As the villainous overseer of the Red Room, Winstone’s turn as Dreykov is aurally challenging, to say the least, but while everyone was chuckling at his efforts to portray the Russian general we’d been hearing about since the first Avengers movie, he had a surprising supporter in dialect coach Adrienne Nelson, who seemed to enjoy it regardless. “Dreykov, his acting was so mesmerizing that the dialect issues became not so much a distraction as a curiosity,” she told Slate. “I wondered if the British and Russian colors I was hearing had to do with his backstory.”

The British colors? Certainly not a part of Dreykov’s backstory in the MCU, no, but the accent itself is so much fun! How can you stay mad at it? And though I should mention that Russell Crowe later gave Winstone a run for his money in Phase 4’s Thor: Love and Thunder, the latter’s Russian efforts win out as the best worst accent in MCU history.

Harry Styles Arrives

Eternals had a lot of problems, but its most enduring one was being the first Phase 4 movie to have a post-credits scene that was set to go absolutely nowhere. It took the cake because it briefly introduced Starfox, Thanos’s adopted brother, who was a prince and a space outlaw or something. It doesn’t really matter, let’s be honest. He never came back, nor did the Eternals themselves.

Starfox was played by pop singer and sometimes actor Harry Styles in a bit of stunt casting so blinding it that it actually hurt to look at it directly. To fully survive it, you’d have had to close your eyes like Indy and Marion at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even then, you’d be cursed with less than 20/20 vision for all eternity.

It didn’t help that Starfox was accompanied by a Patton Oswalt-voiced Pip the Troll in some of the worst CGI the MCU has ever done, but now that all this is in my rearview, I feel like I can take almost any stunt casting Marvel can throw at me. Have Britney Spears come out at the end of Avengers: Secret Wars and blow up the multiverse, yelling, “It’s Britney, bitch.” I am now immune. I can take it. Harry Styles has prepared me for anything. Only fear is the mind-killer.

Stormbreaker’s Jealous

Stray to any Marvel Reddit thread about the worst MCU films ever and you’ll see a lot of people crowning Thor: Love and Thunder. They’ll tell you there’s no one who likes the God of Thunder’s fourquel, and that it should be consigned to the bin of Marvel Studios mistakes where it belongs. But there are people who like it! There are tens of us who didn’t really mind how silly the movie turned out after returning director Taika Waititi decided to lean much further into the wacky humor of Thor: Ragnarok, and I’d argue that one of the best bits of the film is one that its detractors bring up time and again as genuinely diabolical: Waititi’s notion that Thor’s weapons might be sentient.

During Love and Thunder, there’s a moment where Thor retreats to the bow of his Viking longship, the Aegir, and discusses Mjolnir coming back into his orbit with Stormbreaker, wondering if the latter might be jealous of the former. “Are we good?” he asks, pouring a beer on the axe. “Sorry we’ve been fighting lately.” Though there’s no indication that Thor’s doing anything other than anthropomorphizing both weapons, his banter with them is so silly that I genuinely find it delightful. You may not agree, but that’s alright. We can agree to disagree.

However, I think this kind of back-and-forth throughout Love and Thunder complements Gorr’s opposing struggle with All-Black the Necrosword, a powerful, corrupting weapon that binds his lifeforce to its blade. Positing that Mjolnir or Stormbreaker also might be sentient is a nice touch, given that all the weapons are key parts of the story.

Eh, like I said, maybe we’ll just agree to disagree on this one!

Shang-Chi Rides a Dragon

This is perhaps a controversial one because I think a lot of people very much enjoyed the final act of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and so did I! Still, at the end of the movie, when Shang-Chi eventually mounts The Great Protector, a giant fuck-off dragon who guards the hidden realm of Ta Lo, it’s easy to ask yourself what the hell is even happening anymore, especially when this climactic moment follows a sudden run-in with Iron Man 3’s Trevor Slattery, who is bounding around with an inexplicable CGI creature, and some painful BMW product placement in the middle of an impossible forest.

All that said, I can’t be mad at a fuck-off dragon emerging from the depths and reviving our hero so that he can beat a demon hell-bent on absorbing some souls because the hero’s dad thought his dead mum might be in there somewhere. Wait, what was this movie about?

Egypt Kaiju Fight

During a final showdown between Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) and Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) in Marvel’s divisive Moon Knight, Egyptian gods Khonshu and Ammit get in on the action by blowing up to kaiju size and fighting each other under Cairo’s night sky. Destroying pyramids and all sorts while Spector blips in and out of his different personalities, he and Khonshu eventually emerge triumphant from the battle because of course they do; yet no one in the MCU ever mentions the wonders and consequences of this kaiju face-off ever again.

Why? Because there will be no further reason to refer to it again. Moon Knight was a “one-and-done” show for Marvel, and unlike Civil War’s key plot point that the Avengers are causing too much damage or Brave New World finally telling everyone that Tiamut’s massive Celestial corpse is rich in Adamantium, there’s simply no need to address it. What happened in Egypt stays in Egypt.

And hey, y’know what I don’t love about a kaiju fight? Nothing. Every single one is a gift. Moon Knight’s is a bit of fun nonsense that lends even greater stakes to Spector’s showdown with Harlow and the special effects aren’t terrible either. It’s ludicrous, but frankly, if all this happened in a Moon Knight comic I was reading, I’d be delighted.

Red Means Go

Back when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was first released in 2022, I found myself infuriated by it for various reasons. Some of those reasons were narrative and some were character-based, but there were also little things that bothered me like the fact that, given the chance to explore the big, wild multiverse, the bulk of Stephen Strange’s walking-around time was monopolized by a jaunt where he and America Chavez could revisit old memories, eat pizza balls, brush up against a wink-wink Bruce Campbell street vendor and learn that red actually means go when it comes to traffic control. It’s no three seashells.

But in the years since the sequel’s debut, I’ve come to be less annoyed by all of its missed opportunities and reliance on Raimi-isms and stunt cameos. “Red means go” is the absolute least they could do in Strange and Chavez’s multiversal bonding time, but my moaning about it actually came back to haunt me when I got a new Bosch fridge freezer and called the company’s maintenance team out to fix it, only to be told that a permanent red light glowing from the front panel was no cause for alarm and simply meant the power was on. Alas, this effectively removed my ability to complain about “red means go” forever.

Let’s Fix a Boat

Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier explored what happened after Sam Wilson received Captain America’s shield and poor Bucky Barnes was left behind on the lawn like an abandoned puppy following Steve Rogers’s return from putting back the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame. As Sam and Bucky teamed up to stop an anti-patriotism group called the Flag Smashers, they bickered their way across the world and clashed with new Cap John Walker in several action-packed sequences, pausing in the penultimate episode to bond and fix up the Wilson family boat in a montage that could least damningly be described as fine and most damningly described as cringe.

In the midst of dealing with a pissed-off Walker stripped of his Captain America title, and a Flag Smasher group planning god knows what as their next explosive statement, Wilson and Barnes’s inevitable bonding sesh comes at the most irritating possible moment in the series, but I’ve started looking back at the “let’s fix a boat” scene with much less annoyance than I did at the time. After all, it was important to make sure the audience knew these guys had properly buried the hatchet of being mildly peeved with each other so they could reunite them for two minutes in Brave New World and assure us that Bucky didn’t really need all that therapy for going through decades of torture and abuse. Sometimes, fixing a boat with a new pal is just as effective. Probably. Actually, never mind.

The MCU’s Briefest Mask

We’re not leaving The Falcon and the Winter Soldier behind just yet, because the limited series also gave us one of the most “oh, come on” moments ever when it first streamed on Disney+.

Having previously released a teaser video of Baron Helmut J. Zemo’s return following the carnage he caused in Captain America: Civil War, I was initially delighted to see that Daniel Brühl, reprising his villainous role from that MCU threequel, would be sporting his iconic purple mask in the upcoming show.

Technically, Marvel delivered. Zemo pops his mask on for about 30 seconds during a shootout in Madripoor with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier after retrieving it from his family’s storage garage. But 30 seconds wasn’t enough for me. As a longtime Zemo fan, thrilled that he was coming back to the MCU, I just felt utterly deflated that he only wore his mask for as long as it took to close some browser tabs.

But hey, at least I did get to see Baron Zemo in his purple mask, albeit briefly. And since the character is still alive in the MCU, maybe I’ll get to see it again one day. Here’s hoping.

Any ludicrous but fun Phase 4 moments lingering for you? As always, let me know in the comments!

Supergirl Trailer Shows Off Upgraded Big Bad

Criminal. Liar. Thief. A Kingsagent sent to test the loyalty of the citizenry, who killed a good man for criticizing the ruler. That’s how Krem of the Yellow Hills is described in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. We knew that Krem would get an upgrade to be the big bad of the upcoming movie Supergirl, directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueir, but until the final trailer released, we weren’t sure how much more imposing Krem would become.

The trailer shows off Krem and his group the Brigands, space marauders like the Ravagers from Guardians of the Galaxy, only worse. Played by Matthias Schoenaerts, Krem now has a face adorned with steel rivulets and wears imposing body armor. Most impressively of all, he seems capable of catching a whole tank with one hand and tossing it aside. This is not the same low-life from the comics.

Krem’s upgrade doesn’t totally come as a surprise. Already, we knew that Supergirl would deviate from the comics in some ways. It still seems to follow the basic True Grit-derived plot of Woman of Tomorrow, with Supergirl (Milly Alcock) being recruited by Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) to hunt down Krem for killing her father. But it also seems to move away from the colorful, fantasy-influenced world designed by Evely in favor of a more gritty sci-fi setting. Further, Supergirl features Jason Momoa as the bounty hunter Lobo, a welcome and sensible addition, but an addition nonetheless.

Still, even an upgraded Krem is better than pitting Supergirl against someone like Rampage, Toyman, or Livewire, Superman enemies that Clark lends out to his cousin. As seen in the largely enjoyable CW series Supergirl, Kara often does battle with Superman villains, as her own rogues gallery isn’t nearly as recognizable as Clark’s. While the decision makes sense from an audience engagement perspective, it tends to relegate Supergirl to B-tier status, despite the fact that she does have some pretty good enemies in the comics.

Supergirl will already be partially about living in the shadow of Superman. As the trailer shows, Kara may share Superman’s heritage, but she has a very different perspective, in part because she grew up on Argo City, a portion of Krypton that survived the planet’s explosion. Where Clark was raised by the Kents and only learned about his parents through garbled (and, it turns out, kinda scary) video messages, Kara knew her parents and knows what it’s like to lose them.

Yet, if Supergirl follows the themes of Woman of Tomorrow, then Kara will figure out how to fight for truth and justice in her own way. And with Krem’s upgrade, she’ll do it by beating a suitably-powerful villain.

Supergirl arrives in theaters on June 26, 2026.

Supergirl Movie Walks Among the Ghosts of Krypton: A Set Report

It’s a warm spring day outside of London when I step onto a backlot at Leavesden Studios. Yet as judged by the rubble and ruin falling down around me and a group of fellow journalists who traverse the debris before our eyes, it might as well be another planet. One that’s on it’s last legs.

Across the way, over a previously grand but now grimy thoroughfare, the bitterest of goodbyes is taking place. Walking beneath a row of colonnades that would not look out of place in ancient Rome or the Pharaohs’ Thebes, a young girl and her father in cream-colored knitwear lead a procession of what appear to be Kryptonian nuns. A humble casket stands atop the cruel affair. They are here to bid farewell to a woman who was of the House of El. Her daughter Kara Zor-El, played on the day as a teenager by 24-year-old Milly Alcock, and the deceased’s husband (Oppenheimer’s David Krumholtz) look despondent. These are the last days of the last city of Krypton, and the atmosphere is rife with tragedy.

A moment later, though, the spell breaks and director Craig Gillespie calls cut. The dying Argo City is again a (stunning) backlot built atop a field in England, and the actors reset for another take. In this gasp between shots, reality rushes back in, and production designer Neil Lamont quickly supervises another pass on a set that we were told a week ago looked pristine for a different flashback of Kara’s homeworld, back before the ruin of Krypton descended. For those shots, the waters of Argo City were a clean, inviting blue, as opposed to the shade of green I see today. It looks like Kryptonite Presumably the pond also was not polluted by fallen tree limbs that will perhaps have special significance for readers of Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, one of the greatest superhero graphic novels ever written and a major source of inspiration on the new film.

It’s day 70 of an 80-day shoot, and the second to last before Gillespie, Alcock, and a parade of other film artisans travel to Scotland and Iceland for the final round of production. When we briefly meet with Gillespie and Alcock during our visit to the set, the pair compare the atmosphere to the hours before graduation.

“It’s like the last week in school, and we gotta tell the kids they’re still working,” Gillespie muses.

Perhaps not to get senior jitters, Alcock even declines to watch a rough cut of sizzle reel dailies prepared for the press. “I don’t wanna watch,” she nervously laughs, acutely aware that she’s in the last stretch of her first film, Hollywood or otherwise, and it’s time to bring the thing home.

Yet for those of us who stayed to see the footage, we got something compelling, haunting, and frankly unlike much of the marketing Supergirl has revealed to the public in the 13 months since our stopover in Leavesden. Scored to a moody, female-fronted cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” the loneliness and isolation of Kara Zor-El, Last Daughter of Krypton—who unlike her more famous boy scout cousin can remember Krypton—is put in full context.

Some of the same trailer footage you’ve seen of Kara waking from a hangover to don sunglasses is present, but when juxtaposed with shots of her leaning over a shotglass, or looking glassy-eyed while staring down bad men, it takes on a different cadence. Here is a young woman still stalked by the memory of what she left behind when, also in a scene we saw, Superman (David Corenswet) discovers her in a downed crystal spaceship straight out of Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman. She’s alone in the universe except for the puppy in her arms when she finally lands on Earth. All of which evokes a melancholy closer in temperament to King and Evley’s graphic novel.

“I hope what you’ve seen so far, and what you’re going to see, just shows you the breadth of what we’re doing at DC,” executive producer Chantal Nong Vo says near the beginning of our tour. “They’re very different films, obviously, different characters, and very different filmmaking styles.”

On the day, the promise of this approach departing from producer James Gunn’s previous superhero movies—from last year’s Superman to Guardians of the Galaxy, although both are clear influences on Supergirl—was clearly visible. As clear as a little girl standing in the ruins of her home, forced to say goodbye.

Road Trip in Space!

This is not to say Supergirl appeared on the set, or is expected to be, a funereal experience. The film is indeed from director Gillespie, whose filmography often threads the needle between skewed irreverence and blunt sentimentality. Previous efforts like I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl, and Cruella are gamely name-dropped during the visit. And then there is the popcorn-pooping alien that many a colleague ate shit from.

No, really.

In a bit that might be considered far out for even the iconic Mos Eisley cantina sequence in Star Wars—an obvious reference point for both Guardians of the Galaxy and now Supergirl—one of the intergalactic rest stops that Kara finds herself at in the film features a chunky space slug in a terrarium that excretes technicolor popcorn of a shade reminiscent of Kids WB products back in the ‘90s. And I can attest, it’s quite edible.

It’s one of the more bizarre alien creatures to expect in Supergirl, all of which will apparently be achieved using practical effects, but it’s par for the course in a film that seems to heavily lean on the Woman of Tomorrow comic book story.

Like in that tale, writer Ana Nogueira’s Supergirl screenplay is a departure from the traditional depiction of Kara in most comics or the CW TV show. Set almost entirely in space, it is the story of a traumatized and bitter Kara, who escapes Earth as often as possible to go drinking in star systems that have red suns (it weakens her powers which allows her to get drunk). Hence on her 24th birthday, she finds herself incognito in a rustic world filled with brigands and bad men at the local watering hole.

“She’s off the job when you meet her,” Nong Vo says while explaining why in the film version, Kara will not put on her famous costume until the third act. “Obviously she’s been fighting crime, if you will, on Earth. But is she doing it as her whole full self? That’s a different story. We would argue that she isn’t. So in this journey she’s already been a hero, but not in the way where she’s her full self and her whole self.”

She might even be a shadow of it when she’s discovered by Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley, who was 12 when production began). Ruthye’s a young girl who, like Kara, has lost everything, albeit she has an easier target to blame: Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) murdered her parents after attacking her farm. Taking more than a few pages out of True Grit, Ridley’s Ruthye is as much a protagonist as Kara. It’s Ruthye who recruits Kara to help her avenge her parents on Krem, as well as discover a vital antidote following… an unfortunate crime committed against Kara’s only remaining childhood friend, the dog Krypto.

So it is that Kara and Ruthye wind up traveling the red-sun cosmos in search of Krem via dilapidated public space transportation, and meeting sights as unsavory as the neon-corn pooping space slug, or intergalactic bars that serve eyeballs as delicacies—also quite tasty, as confirmed by the fact 12-year-old Ridley reportedly tested a couple dozen of the glorified desserts.

“Think of the worst possible Greyhound you’ve ever been in, but in galactic terms,” unit publicist Sophie Scott tells us of Kara and Ruthye’s transit, which looks like a perfect distillation of every indignity you’ve ever endured on an airplane. It is the steed, of sorts, that takes our pair to a 7/11-inspired way station bedecked in neon lights and a tone that will likely up the levity in between flashbacks of Argo City and Kara’s time on Earth. (Apparently the only sets built for her new home in the film are the Fortress of Solitude and Kara’s Metropolis apartment.)

One can ascertain from the sets made available to the press which scenes will lean into the humor and which will definitely not. Ruthye’s home planet, for instance, will be represented almost entirely by wood and an old world sensibility.

“It’s got a real Western vibe to it,” says Scott. “[Production designer Neil Lamont] had just come back from Japan. So there’s some Japanese influence in that design, but it also feels like the frontier. Very simple. Lee Sandales, who [decorated] it, described it as very much his planet of wood. So everything in those sets feels very homemade and handmade.”

The only element that might feel like a luxury is Ruthye’s sword, which she brings on her journey with the intent of running it through Krem of the Yellow Hills. Supervising hands prop supervisor Charlie Horwood tells us it’s modeled after Middle Eastern metal work, representing perhaps the one thing of great, ancient value from Ruthye’s humble farming background.

“There’s a lot of the way the Afghanis used to make their weapons with really detailed golden filigree,” says Horwood, “so we used that as a lot of inspiration. But the shape of Ruthye’s sword was from the comic book.”

Conversely, Krem and his brigands take on a more Nordic and Viking aesthetic aboard their brigand battleship, which like the last remnants of Argo City occupies a substantial amount of backlot space in what can best be described as a cross between a Star Destroyer and Dennis Hopper’s barge in Waterworld. “The brigands were very much heavily influenced by Vikings and Celtic, stuff like that,” Horwood says.

The most impressive indoor set we viewed, however, was the utter chaos of another dying world that does not appear in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow but will be vital to the Supergirl movie (and with a name comic book fans should still appreciate): Evely, the capital city of Bilquis.

“It’s a dying planet, and the people are barely surviving,” Scott explains. “So criminals from across the galaxy have seen it as a really good place to set up and hide, and Krem’s brigands have swooped in, as the Space Vikings they are, to pillage that planet and use it as a base because it’s dying.”

The scale of the set is genuinely impressive too: an entire town square and accompanying back alleys that look like they’ve endured a World War II era bombing. More than once Saving Private Ryan crossed my mind while stepping through the rubble of a village that’s been trashed by space tanks apparently belonging to Krem—including one that is tipped over. The production built six of these suckers, three of which are functionally drivable. Presumably it’s not the one we discovered Kara leaving in tatters.

Well, Kara or someone else…

Lobo Rides Out

The other big addition to the Supergirl movie not from the Woman of Tomorrow graphic novel involves the DC character that Jason Momoa wanted to play since before he was cast as Aquaman: the wise-cracking space biker they call Lobo. He too will be on Evely in Bilquis, and when he gets there, expect him to look good.

Appearing in the film with a flowing, long leather trenchcoat, which is worn over a vest with a flaming skull on the back and real silver biker chains draped around his neck, Lobo has been something of a dream role for Momoa.

“We had a chain around his neck, which was a pretty big chain,” recalls costume designer Michael Mooney, “and Jason said, ‘I’ve got bigger chains on my wallet!’ So we went a lot bigger with that, and then we added the grenade on it.” Similarly, the leather coat is modeled after a real 1918 vintage number, but Momoa suggested adding silver spiky “fingernails” to Lobo’s accoutrements. He wanted the character to have claws.

It’s a flashy addition to the story, but one that made sense to the DC team after Momoa started lobbying to play the character before the curtain was even officially lowered on the DCEU and the Hawaiian actor’s Aquaman.

“Obviously it’s public now that Jason raised his hand very early when James [Gunn] and Peter [Safran] started the job to say he loved the character,” says Nong Vo. “When we were developing the story, it became a go from A to B to C to D [thing]. We felt with a story like this, you generally want somebody to twist it up and change the game unexpectedly.”

Scott would seem to agree, suggesting Lobo is not necessarily the most trustworthy character in the film.

“He is pursuing a bounty who is amongst Krem’s brigands and who’s worth a lot of money to him,” the unit publicist explains. “So in pursuit of that bounty, sometimes he and Kara and Ruthye align in their mission, but then it’s also whatever works for him. I wouldn’t trust him, necessarily, in a fight.”

While he is not technically a major element of the film, the executive producer promises he is in a “high impact 15 percent” of the movie.

The Woman of Tomorrow

There is much to take in during a visit to a film production, yet during my own time with Supergirl, the through-line of everything I witnessed was how much of this is channeled via Kara Zor-El’s sense of grief and guilt, even down to the pop affectations.

When the first Supergirl trailer dropped last Christmas, plenty was made in the press about how similar its use of a classic rock song—in this case Blondie’s “Call Me”—echoed producer Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. And there certainly are elements of that, including Kara rocking out to what prop supervisor Horwood calls a “space iPod” (although it is designed as something unique in the film, with its orange fuzzy ear-covers and a sci-fi ability to rock out on the other side of the galaxy). Still, even that graphic T-shirt Kara rocks in all the trailers and its incorporation of Blondie has a careful logic to it.

“We went through hundreds of different bands, and then Craig settled on Blondie,” costume designer Michael Mooney says of the shirt. “We occasionally put up some mainstream bands and he just went, ‘No, no, it’s not that.’” Instead it’s a telling throwback, with Kara herself seeming to be modeled after Debbie Harry in the film due to both her punk personality and her apparent allergy to the kind of square goodness we associate with most Superman characters. It speaks to a hero who actually seems to be dealing with things that echo the immigrant and refugee experience of today.

If you’ve read the source material, you know this version has an edge, and a foul mouth, which we’ll see onscreen. In fact, Nong Vo teases that, at least in April 2025, there was still debate over how many f-bombs they can give Kara in a family-oriented superhero movie.

“Obviously this is a PG-13 movie, so it’s limited when it comes to ratings,” the executive producer laughs, “but we have been like, ‘Is this her fuck? Is this her fuck?’ So we have different options, and I think there’s one that’s special in Craig’s heart, but we are having a lot of fun with it.”

Through it all is a take on two young women finding a self-actualization that hopefully could be a bit outre from the traditional superhero movie formula. Kara will not wear her costume until what appears to be the climax of the film aboard Krem’s brigand warship, but when the time comes, it will be the traditional one comic book fans know. One of its chief architects even confirms he and co-designer Anna B. Sheppard sought to make it more like the comic book version.

“[Anna] really wanted to have the skirt have more movement in it,” Mooney says. “So we went very close to the comic. We took some elements from the last suit [in Superman] and then carried that through, but the bell and the skirt, and the cloak, it’s just got so much more movement in it. It just makes the fights more dramatic.”

It also made for one of the least padded or exaggerated superhero costumes in the modern genre. As Mooney tells it, there was only a little padding added in the shoulders, which is a far cry from the supped up musculature he’s seen in so many modern superhero movies (including ones he’s worked on in the past, including several Marvel and DC films). They want to emphasize Alcock’s petiteness and seeming vulnerability, especially when contrasted with Space Vikings and thugs. Even the glyph on Supergirl’s chest was reduced, as the designers found it restricted movement the bigger the emblem became.

Kara is just a young person quite alone out there, and only beginning to find community and kinship when another orphan enters her life.

No one working on the film wants to call Supergirl an origin story or coming-of-age film, but if it lands the promise of that day along the crumbling colonnades of Krypton, it will become something quite special.

Supergirl opens in theaters on June 26.

Backrooms Easter Eggs: The Important Details That Set Up More Stories

This article contains spoilers for Backrooms.

Backrooms, the long-awaited A24 horror movie directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, hit theaters last week with a lot of expectations from the audience of Parsons’ previous short film series, The Backrooms (Found Footage), which has more than 80 million views on YouTube. While Parsons has said that the feature-length movie exists within the reality of his YouTube films, he’s also aware of what he refers to as “lorebloat” a term that describes the internet’s inclination towards incessant theorizing. “[Lorebloat] really does run the risk of totally defeating the ability of this project to actually resonate with who’s not already in that in-group and it becomes inaccessible if it goes too far,” the filmmaker told IGN.

Thankfully, Parsons’ films keeps a healthy balance between easter eggs hinting at his previous shorts and creating a story for a viewer who has never heard of Backrooms’ past internet lore. He also sprinkles in some unanswered easter eggs that are hopefully answered in a sequel, which Parsons has hinted to several times on Backroom’s press tour. Here are some of the most revealing tidbits.

The Handheld Camera Opening Scene

The opening scene of the movie is a very straightforward tribute to Parsons’ original web series. The majority of that project is depicted through its main character holding a VHS camera. The glitching VHS and the audible breath of the character behind the camera in the beginning captures the same nostalgic eerie feeling for fans of the original project while simultaneously serving as a successful hook for the members of the audience experiencing the backrooms for the first time.

Later in the film, when Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is exploring the backrooms for the first time he finds a duffel bag with an Async workers badge and a pile of VHS tapes behind a hole in the wall. This scene not only references the beginning of the movie but the title of his original web series, “Found footage.” Clark in this movie seems to be the one that discovers this former Async employee’s footage.

Captain Clark Is a Tribute to the Original Monster

The original entity in Parsons’ The Backrooms (Found Footage), is a long-legged slender biped that chases the camera while making a loud screeching noise. Many fans expected this to be the main monster of the film, but instead the main monster is the backrooms’ manifestation of Clark in the pirate costume he wore for his Cap’n Clark Ottoman Empire furniture store commercial.

Both entities share similar aspects like height, sound, and mobility. The unbalanced walk of the original entity is emulated through Captain Clark’s peg leg and both creatures make a similar deep inaudible noise while chasing the characters.

Some fans on TikTok speculate that the correlations are not a coincidence but a tribute or prequel to the monster in the original backroom shorts. The origin of how the monster becomes a mimic of Clark is still unclear. At the beginning of the movie, the monster that kills the Async worker can be spotted with a peg leg, similar to Captain Clark, but Clark had not yet entered the backrooms to be remembered. So the answer behind the entity’s original form and origin is unclear and may be answered in future sequels.

The CCTV Footage Date Reveals the Timeline

Backrooms reveals its timeline in the scene where Async employee Phil (Mark Duplass) watches Clark enter a backroom through CCTV footage. Async has placed cameras around the labyrinth next to cardboard cut outs of cavemen to capture creatures in the backrooms or people that may stumble in like Clark and observe them. When the film cuts to the footage of Clark on the TV the date displayed is June 19, 1990.

The date appears to be almost a month after Async had faked the death of employee Peter Tench because of a failed experimental trip in the original Backrooms‘ canon. It is speculated that the acknowledgement of this incident may be the reason behind the Async CCTV cameras. Async upped the surveillance of the backrooms to avoid another Peter Tench situation and monitor the people who discover the backrooms to keep them from revealing their research to the public.

Async’s confidentiality is depicted in the ending through Mary (Renate Reinsve), the second main character in Backrooms. Async captures her after she escapes from Captain Clark and questions her on her experience. When Mary asks what will happen to her, Phil responds “That’s not up to me,” leaving an ambiguous ending for Mary as to whether or not she truly escapes or if she knows too much about the backrooms for Async to let her go.

Can the Backrooms Time Travel?

The aforementioned Peter Trench storyline in the web series episode Backrooms – Informational video represents Parsons’ interpretation of the backrooms complex time and space structure. We don’t know how time works in the backrooms but viewers of the web series can infer it operates differently because Peter Trench transported to May 8, 1990 during his expedition that took place on February 29, of that same year.

The backroom’s unnatural time rules are displayed in the movie as well through Clark’s rapid mental decline during his stint in the paranormal location. When Mary enters the backrooms to find Clark, it seems that Clark has only been in the backrooms for a couple days, but he nevertheless has fully acclimated to the environment, exhibited an altered mental state and a change of clothes. It is not confirmed how much time has passed for either of them, but time does seem to be moving differently between Mary’s outside reality and Clark’s backroom reality.

Similarly, the mural that Mary finds depicts the monster Captain Clark lifting someone up toward a window. This seems to foreshadow the remaining half of the movie. The person being lifted is theorized to be either Clark himself or Mary escaping Captain Clark through the window depicted at the top. Another widely accepted theory from fans on TikTok is that Clark or Captain Clark is the artist behind the mural. In the mural the words, “The floor plan changed again. Roof is wrong, roof is wrong. I don’t know who signed the plans but the handwriting looks like mine.” These words are likely in reference to Clark’s sketched floor plans of the backrooms that he shows to Mary earlier in the film. Clark may have painted the mural in the height of his confused mental state, or Captain Clark painted the mural through the backroom’s tendency to try to mimic reality.

A lot is left to interpretation from this mural, but many of the images depicted do seem to reveal coming events, meaning the future was reflected on the walls of the backrooms. How that is possible is not yet clarified but may be in coming sequels.

Missing Persons Tribute

When Clark is deep into his personal exploration and mapping of the backrooms he asks his employees at the furniture store to come with him. This exploration ultimately leads to both his employees’ deaths and his mental decline prompting him to stay in the backrooms because he finds he likes it better there.

At the end of the movie, during an eerie montage of the backrooms that are mimicking the memories of Mary, there is a room with a row of spiraling electric posts that have missing posters for both of Clarks employees. This signage is a tribute to the intro of Parsons short Backrooms – Missing Persons. The beginning of the short shows a series of missing persons posters that of people seemingly went missing in the backrooms. Clarks employees have become new flyers to add to the stack of Parsons missing characters.

Trailer for Hulu Comedy Never Change! Confirms Millennials Are Old Now

For decades, back-to-school movies were for other old people. You had the Rodney Dangerfield comedy from 1986, Billy Madison in 1995, Never Been Kissed in 1999, and 21 Jump Street in 2012. Millennials could certainly enjoy these flicks, because it’s always funny to see out-of-touch old people get their comeuppance from young, hip people who know better. These movies let the audience laugh at prior generations, and millennials laughed along.

But time only moves in one direction, and now millennials’ moment has come. The first trailer for the Hulu comedy Never Change! features 30-somethings getting hit in the face by a ball during gym, being reprimanded by teachers for misbehaving in their desks, and wearing ugly suits during prom. And they look so incredibly old while doing it.

Directed by Marty Schousboe and written by John Reynolds, Never Change! stars Reynolds, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Carmen Christopher, and more as the 2008 graduating class of North Meadows High School, who saw their senior year come to a sudden end when a tornado destroyed the town, and cut their high school experience down by two weeks. Nearly two decades later, they all must return to North Meadows to finish those final weeks, despite the fact that they’re all in their mid-30s.

The trailer promises everything you’d expect to find in a back-to-school movie. The characters will get a chance to reunite with lost loves, take stock of lives that didn’t turn out the way they had hoped, and try to atone for the mistakes of youth.

But Never Change! has a uniquely millennial quality that sets it apart from its forerunners, lacking the triumphalist fantasy of an ’80s back-to-school movie or the ironic distance that you’d find in a ’90s version. The trailer’s standout joke illustrates the difference, in which one of the returning students invites his new/old classmates to a party because his parents will be gone.

His parents aren’t gone on vacation or on a work trip. They’ve died, so when our grown-up party animal enthuses, “We’ll have the house totally to ourselves, and we’re gonna rage,” he does so with gritted teeth and a false smile, holding back tears, while his friends look on in empathetic confusion.

That mix of earnestness and awkwardness could make Never Change! into something more than a genre exercise. And the movie’s cast doesn’t hurt either. In addition to the aforementioned leads, the film boasts appearances from Severance breakout Zach Cherry, Patti Harrison from I Think You Should Leave, Saturday Night Live alum Ana Gasteyer, and Topher Grace in a wig that is more upsetting than anything he did as Venom.

With such a good cast and compelling premise, Never Change! might make the march of time a little easier for those born between 1981 and 1996. And if not, well, the grave waits for us all anyway.

Never Change! streams on Hulu on June 17, 2026.

Until Dawn 2 Finally Confirmed – But There’s a Catch

Sony had a big surprise in store for fans of Until Dawn during this month’s State of Play, announcing a long-awaited sequel to its 2015 hit survival horror game and dropping a trailer that teased a new nightmare for a fresh gaggle of young adults (and returning cast member Peter Stormare) who will be embarking on a ghost hunt to a mysterious island instead of retreating to a snowy mountain setting this time around. Additionally, it revealed that Stranger Things fan favorite Dacre Montgomery would be leading the cast.

While this was welcome news for everyone who loved saving (or killing) characters through the choices, QTEs, and dreaded “Butterfly Effect” of Until Dawn’s gameplay, it soon became apparent that Supermassive Games, the dev outfit behind the first title, wasn’t behind this new release, having been replaced by Firesprite, the developer of 2018’s VR reality survival horror game The Persistence. Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Firesprite in 2021, and it remains a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios, whereas Supermassive is still a subsidiary of Nordisk Games.

As a result of this developer switch, Until Dawn fans were soon tempering their expectations for the upcoming sequel. Supermassive was instrumental in creating the Until Dawn-style gameplay that lingers not only in this future release but also in its spiritual sequel, The Quarry, and in the Dark Pictures Anthology. The developer’s breakout hit certainly drew inspiration from both teen slasher movies and previous cinematic interactive games like Heavy Rain, yet it crafted Until Dawn’s format and story more savvily around player decisions with long-term consequences. The notion that every character could potentially survive or die, but you’d still have to play on regardless (usually while gnashing your teeth at any minor errors) was simply irresistible, with these small “Butterfly Effect” decisions potentially having huge consequences later on. Ironically, the game was later adapted into a feature film in 2025.

“Excited about Until Dawn 2 and it looks good but also, it not being done by Supermassive Games gives me pause,” posted one fan reacting to the announcement over on X, while another noted, “Until Dawn 2 does not feel like Until Dawn 2 because Supermassive Games has been pumping out games that look just like that for the last decade. Very odd.” Others questioned why Sony hadn’t retained its relationship with Supermassive for a true sequel. “I don’t quite know how Supermassive’s relationship deteriorated with Sony in years since but any game like this NOT made by SM? Not an Until Dawn game sorry. Quarry was a great spiritual successor. This is not it.”

Sony made no comment on the matter, simply teasing Until Dawn 2 with the logline “Ready to die for likes? Join a team of ambitious ghost hunters as they chase their next viral hit on a remote island haunted by a woman’s chilling story of something far darker than they bargained for. When the tale begins to manifest in terrifying ways, survival will take more than a strong signal to get off the island alive. Their lives are in your hands. Make every choice count,” and confirming that the game will be released for PlayStation 5 in 2027.

Whether it will live up to the first Until Dawn remains to be seen.

Tom Holland Ready for R-Rated Punisher Crossover After Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal have been buddies for a long time. The pair first worked together on the 2017 Irish medieval film Pilgrimage and were auditioning for their Marvel roles as Peter Parker and Frank Castle before the indie film’s release. Needless to say, they both landed their respective jobs!

But while Bernthal’s antihero The Punisher has lingered on TV in the years since, first on Netflix in his own solo show and then making the move to Disney+ with the rest of the Netflix-Marvel cast for Daredevil: Born Again and a one-off Special Presentation, Holland’s Spider-Man has gone on to appear in a string of box office smashes. Now, their two iconic Marvel characters are finally about to collide for the first time in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but it might not be the last time we see these two mismatched Marvel heroes onscreen together if Holland gets his way.

“I would love to pop up in one of [Punisher’s] shows,” Holland recently told Empire. “Let’s see what an R-rated version of Spider-Man looks like. I’m so grateful for Jon for taking the leap and being a part of the film, and I would love to repay the favour.”

While the idea of an R-rated Spider-Man cameo in a Punisher project sounds unlikely, especially if you’ve recently checked out the ultraviolent Disney+ special The Punisher: One Last Kill, Holland holds a lot of sway in what happens with Spider-Man these days. In a recent interview with GQ during press for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the actor revealed that he even convinced Sony to delay the release of Brand New Day so he could star in the forthcoming epic, in which Bernthal also co-stars as King Menelaus of Sparta.

Holland also noted that his experience on Nolan’s film pushed him into a slightly different headspace when he eventually did reach the set of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Marvel fourquel.

“I was really able to lay down the law and say, ‘We are not going to come to set and figure it out,’” Holland explained. “‘We need to know why we are making this movie beyond the fact that it’s Spider-Man 4 and they make loads of money, and we’re going to just have a big summer. Why are we making this movie?’ And Destin was super instrumental in that, but it was just really great to constantly be calling up the studio and [producers] Amy [Pascal] and Rachel [O’Connor], who I love, and be like, ‘Well, Chris is doing it this way. This is how I think we should be doing it.’”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set for release on July 31.

The Best Final Seasons of TV

There’s been a lot of chatter in recent years about great TV shows delivering underwhelming final seasons, but realistically, these seasons tend to inspire mixed reactions rather than outright disgust. Beyond the bubble of the relentless social media dunking they got, many people loved how Stranger Things and The Boys concluded. Game of Thrones, though? We don’t talk about it.

Still, lackluster final seasons certainly aren’t a new TV phenomenon; we’re old enough to remember the absurd plotting of late Dynasty! But it got us thinking about the very best final seasons that live-action television has given us over the years. Not the best finales—there are plenty of those—but whole, terrific last seasons.

As such, you might see some notable absences here. The Wire was a great show, but its last season was arguably the worst of the bunch, even though it was still pretty good. Then there are shows like Justified, Breaking Bad, Blackadder, and Deadwood. They should be on the list, but, following our own (entirely made-up) rules, shows with brilliant final seasons that then went on to have revival series, specials, and movies that were simply just okay were struck from the list. That’s the way the cookie crumbled on this one, folks!

With all that said, and some spoilers ahead, here’s where we landed…

Angel

After four seasons of tumultuous storytelling that took us through the highs and lows of the titular vampire’s new life in L.A. (and the lows were really low) the final season of Joss Whedon’s supernatural drama show shouldn’t have been great, but it was. Without Buffy and Firefly to juggle, creative focus was suddenly on keeping Angel afloat, and it was all change at Angel Investigations as the core team took over law firm Wolfram & Hart in an effort to fight evil from within, only for everything to go massively pear-shaped. Gunn got his mind altered to become a legal expert and took an enormous amount of psychic damage. Fred was killed and her mind taken over by the powerful ancient being Illyria. Angel became a puppet, literally and figuratively. Meanwhile, Spike (James Marsters) was added to the cast, reviving the excellent chemistry between the two clashing vampires of the mothership show.

The season was consistently jolted with these fresh sparks and built to a fantastic but bittersweet conclusion, as Angel and the gang realized they weren’t fighting evil from the inside, but were actually being absorbed by it, triggering a final stand where each character accepted their doom because they understood that the fight would never end, and “winning” was an impossible concept. Yes, the story continued in the (also good) Angel: After the Fall comics, but the show itself went out on a brilliantly philosophical high note. – Kirsten Howard

Better Call Saul

It may be hard to remember now, but it took a minute for Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul to really find itself. Originally conceived as a half-joke in the Breaking Bad writers’ room, the mere notion of a spinoff following the travails of Walter White’s colorful criminal lawyer didn’t come out of the gates fully formed. Midway through its run, however, Better Call Saul would blossom into its own special, tonally unique thing.

By the time its final episodes rolled around, Better Call Saul was truly on a roll. The first half of the season 6 meticulously and entertainingly works towards the execution of Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim’s (Rhea Seehorn) plan to do “something unforgivable” to well-meaning rival Howard Hamlin. After that “something unforgivable” proves to be, like, really unforgivable, the back half of the season spends much of its time on one of the most satisfying extended flash-forwards in television history. – Alec Bojalad

The Good Place

The last season of The Good Place finally saw the main characters actually get to the Good Place, after designing an experiment to prove that flawed people in a simulated Good Place can become better people. But inevitably, they found that once humans reached a place where they could have everything they wanted, there was nothing left to strive for, and their lives became boring and kind of meaningless. This all led to the creation of what was effectively a suicide door, where people could end their existence once they felt their lives were complete. One by one, we saw the characters we’d come to know and love enter the door. That’s when the sobbing started.

Yet The Good Place’s great finale was bolstered by the fascinating moral and ethical questions at work throughout the rest of the season, with the characters proving, bit by bit, that the entire structure of eternal reward and punishment was fundamentally broken, earning them a real chance at happiness. It’s a wonderful batch of episodes; just don’t make us think about anyone’s final speech unless there’s at least one box of tissues nearby. – KH

Twin Peaks: The Return

25 years after the show apparently concluded with a wildly uneven second season (and a terrific finale) Twin Peaks returned for a third one that completely nuked fan predictions and instead presented the notion that fan nostalgia for the series was inherently destructive.

Overseen by creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, The Return was less a third season of Twin Peaks and more a long, experimental movie. Gone were the kooky cherry pie shenanigans and the soapy narrative fans remembered, replaced by unsettling, seemingly disconnected threads and surreal passages, one of which traced back to the detonation of the first atomic bomb.

Lynch and Frost weren’t interested in simply bringing back the Twin Peaks people knew and loved. As such, Kyle MacLachlan’s Dale Cooper was removed from the equation until the final episodes, replaced by a childlike version, Dougie, and Cooper’s evil doppelganger. Even when he finally did come back, Cooper’s efforts to defeat evil and save Laura Palmer ultimately failed.

There is no meaning in a neat ending, the minds behind Twin Peaks told us. On a long enough timeline, certainty collapses. It’s a hell of a message, but we’d be remiss not to note that some fans weren’t happy with what they got in season 3, finding it slow and annoying. Could never be us! – KH

The Sopranos

Every now and then, someone will remember that The Sopranos is basically all I ever want to talk about and ask me what the best season of HBO’s crime classic is. My answer is always the same: Every single passing minute of The Sopranos is better than the minute preceding it. From the first millisecond of the pilot to the sharp cut-to-black in the finale, the saga of Tony Soprano only gets darker, richer, and better.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the series’s frankly astonishing final season (which HBO refers to as “Season 6 Part II but we’ll just view as “Season 7” for simplicity’s sake). Each and every one of these final nine episodes would be the best episode ever for 99% of all other television shows. Things start at a ludicrous high with the impactful “family vacation” episode “Soprano Home Movies” and only get better from there in episodes like “Stage 5,” “Kennedy and Heidi,” and “The Blue Comet.”

Naturally, The Sopranos’ bold ending choice takes up a lot of oxygen in the cultural consciousness. But don’t forget that the episodes preceding that moment are equally nasty, heartbreaking, thrilling, and brilliant.– AB

Six Feet Under

Fans of Six Feet Under will always remember its finale, “Everyone’s Waiting”, as it included a devastating montage that nixed any hopes for a continuation of its main characters’ lives by showing each of their deaths. But the episodes leading up to that iconic montage had been incredibly strong, so the show’s fifth season remains very special overall.

Typically for the world of Six Feet Under, there’s no smooth ride to the finish line. Nate and a pregnant Brenda are finally supposed to be getting married, but Nate is still so fundamentally flawed that he sleeps with Maggie, suffering a massive stroke and leaving Brenda to raise their child alone, while Claire moves to New York and David and Keith embrace parenthood.

Sounds simple enough, yet it’s all absolutely gutting and thought-provoking stuff. The series had always struck a delicate balance between sadness and hope at the Fisher family funeral home, but the final season was one last reminder that everything is temporary and that death is what gives life meaning. After giving us five seasons of such poignant drama, it’s easy to understand why creator Alan Ball moved on to the fresh and entirely ludicrous guilty pleasures of True Blood. As the final season of Six Feet Under indicates, a change can be as good as a rest. – KH

Spaced

Spaced only had two seasons, and it’s not the only show on this list to wrap things up that quickly. However, there’s something to be said for a series that doesn’t drag its story and characters out until they’re exhausted. Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, and Edgar Wright’s British sitcom produced just 14 episodes over two seasons, but every one is an absolute banger, with dialogue that immediately entered the U.K.’s cultural lexicon and a unique style that Wright found enduring success with in his ensuing movie career.

The final season of Spaced starts with Pegg’s character Tim Bisley struggling to process how bad the Star Wars prequels were (fun to rewatch given Pegg’s later involvement with the franchise’s reboot) and ends with everybody getting really mad at each other until Tim and Daisy choose to stay together at Marsha’s house.

Though a planned third season reportedly would have had Tim and Daisy finally hooking up, it’s not the worst thing in the world that it didn’t happen. Instead, this show about occasionally odd but hilarious and ultimately relatable characters got a truly heartwarming conclusion that suggested not every big opportunity has to be followed in life if you’re happier just where you are, surrounded by the people you love. – KH

Mad Men

The best part about Mad Men’s final season* is that it begins where most other series would end. It’s the ‘70s now. Don Draper works on the biggest accounts in the world at elite agency McCann Erickson. The moon has been landed upon. Roger Sterling has a mustache. Give or take a few in-office hangings and lawnmower incidents, the Sterling Cooper folks have not only survived the ‘60s, but they’ve also “won.” So why doesn’t it feel that way?

*As is the case with many “final” seasons on this list. Mad Men’s seventh and final season was split into two parts. We will be referring only to the seven-episode season 7 part 2.

Through seven increasingly brilliant episodes, we delve deep into Don Draper’s sense of ennui as he vainly searches for something real. The journey eventually culminates in a finale in which Don doesn’t achieve self-actualization but does identify the next best thing: an idea for a really good ad. – AB

Schitt’s Creek

There are no major last-minute changes to Schitt’s Creek, unlike some of the other shows on this list. Rather, the beloved Canadian sitcom is quite content to show you just how much the Rose family has changed since we first met them. Johnny is now a really great father, Moira is finally connected to the people around her, David has learned to trust people and accept the possibility of a stable life, and Alexis has become independent after years of being self-centered, spoiled, and pinning all her hopes on the ideal relationship.

As such, there’s no unnecessary drama or conflict getting in the way of creating a satisfying conclusion to the show, just a ton of payoff on an emotional level, all while keeping the comedy just as delightful as it’s always been. It was never about the Roses clawing back their wealth; it was always about how they found real wealth in the weirdest of places.

Saying a proper, satisfying goodbye to the town of Schitt’s Creek was a tall order, but the show’s creators really stuck the landing in the final season and made the whole series endlessly rewatchable as a result. – KH

Andor

Proving that it might take someone who doesn’t give much of a shit about Star Wars to do something new and great within the troubled franchise, Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy followed up the work he did to fix Lucasfilm’s standalone feature film Rogue One by expanding the story of its thief-turned-rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) into a prequel series for Disney+.

Initially, very little of that sounded good. Prequels are notoriously peril-free (we know Cassian makes it out alive to the events of Rogue One) and Star Wars fans weren’t convinced that the character was really that interesting in the first place. How good could a Disney series about the guy be after we’d just seen them launch the adventures of their latest kid-friendly toy in the making?

Well, we were soon eating crow, weren’t we? Andor turned out to be absolutely fantastic. A gritty, slow-burn political thriller that showed us exactly how the Rebel Alliance formed under the crippling might of the Galactic Empire, Andor detailed the sacrifice, radicalization, and violence on the ground that greased the wheels for those iconic battles in the stars, with its final season creeping toward the manifestation of the Death Star and following the fates of both the people in charge and those who would do anything to stop them, even if they had to burn their lives to make a sunrise they knew they’d never see. Phenomenal TV. – KH

Succession

At times, Succession can make you forget that Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is mortal. While the HBO drama’s first season begins with the powerful right-wing media exec in questionable health, he quickly recovers and spends the better part of three seasons as an unstoppable malevolent force…both for his children and the country at large. By the time the fourth and final outing rolls around, the very name of the series seems like a vestigial relic of another show entirely. Succession? What are you talking about? The king is going to live forever.

And then “Connor’s Wedding” happens.

Both unassuming in name and episode order (as the third of 10 chapters), “Connor’s Wedding” is a masterpiece of television and a creative atom bomb tossed into a thrilling final season. Suddenly everything great about Succession (the satire, the cynicism, the characterization, the jokes) is cranked to 11 as the Roy children confront the ticking clock of a GoJo acquisition that threatens their family legacy. An insider trading scandal, a Norwegian company retreat, a Waystar Royco Investor Day, and a whole-ass presidential election – all events that the Roys must conquer before their father’s body is even cold. – AB

Lost

Real ones know that Lost knocked it out of the park in its final season, which used a “flash sideways” approach to create a place where the survivors of Oceanic 815 could reunite one final time in the afterlife and remember what happened to them on the island before moving on. No! They weren’t dead the whole time, and when the audience truly understood that, everything made a lot more sense.

Ultimately, the season was less about the island’s lingering mysteries and more about the characters’ emotional journeys, highlighting the show’s philosophical and spiritual side. Though many fans wanted a detailed explanation of why everything happened the way it did on the island, Lost wanted to show us why those events really mattered, choosing to emphasize thematic closure and underscoring the importance of the relationships and connections that the people on the island formed over the years.

Admittedly, it ended up being a divisive direction for the sci-fi series to go in, but sometimes it serves a show to ignore what the fans want and deliver what the creators intend instead. In that respect, time has been much kinder to the final season of Lost than many people anticipated when it first aired. – KH

Fringe

Fringe had a lot more ups than downs over its five-season run, but the final season was determined to bring a satisfying conclusion to the wild world that J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci had created on Fox.

Once considered a weak X-Files wannabe, Fringe had evolved from a vaguely fascinating mystery-of-the-week show into some of the best sci-fi and fantasy storytelling on TV by season 5, having taken the FBI’s Fringe Division through a parallel universe and timeline and a final jump forward in time to 2036, where the dastardly Observers had taken over the Earth and the central characters needed to work together to undo the horrors that had been thrust upon humanity.

While this time jump pulled us out of the world we knew, the season sprinkled its dystopian future with callbacks to earlier seasons that felt incredibly earned. They weren’t just there for fan nostalgia; they served the conclusion to the story, and, unlike many sci-fi shows cancelled before their time, Fringe also had the benefit of being able to complete its arc, so this shortened final season didn’t feel rushed, just totally focused on giving fans the ending they deserved. – KH

Fleabag

Though British shows occasionally feel so short compared to those Stateside, Fleabag’s two seasons connected with pretty much everyone, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who watched the final season who wasn’t emotionally shattered by it.

In a nutshell, Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) meets a hot priest played by Andrew Scott in season 2 and falls in love with him, but it turns into one of the most doomed romances ever put on screen, and Scott and Waller-Bridge play its inevitability out with a kind of crushing, raw honesty that you so rarely see on TV, with Waller-Bridge anchoring her performance amidst a tidal wave of grief, guilt and lonliness.

Her messy character gets her heart broken because she finally opens herself up to the possibility of being truly loved. With the worst having now happened, she realizes that she is indeed capable of emotional change instead of constantly seeking ways to avoid it, thus leaving her fourth-wall-breaking coping mechanism behind. Devastating and essential. – KH

Dark

Dark managed the impossible in its swansong: it resolved multiple timelines, parallel worlds, and interwoven family loops, narrowly avoiding collapse under the weight of its extremely complex story.

Recontextualizing its already head-scratching twists rather than muddying them further and threading the needle of its resolution through the families that seemed trapped in its cycles, Netflix’s German science-fiction mystery thriller committed to its themes of determinism vs free will all the way to the end of the line, somehow feeling coherent and planned, despite the intensive puzzle box that it created for its audience. – KH

Friday Night Lights

The fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights represents the end of not only one show, but two. That’s because NBC’s brilliant football drama underwent something of a soft reboot following its third season. Pushed out of his job as the head coach at Dillon High School, Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) takes the reins of the newly created East Dillon football program and tries to elevate the squad of ne’er-do-wells to the same heights as their richer West Dillon neighbors.

Season 5 follows the improbable underdog ascension of the East Dillon Lions (led by future Oscar-winner Michael B. Jordan at quarterback) while still taking time to keep up with Coach Taylor’s former students as they take cautious steps into adulthood. Throughout it all, the two storylines continually comment on each other, serving as a reminder that after the glories of big-time Texas high school football, there’s only just Texas… forever. – AB

Halt and Catch Fire

Four seasons of Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers’s period drama Halt and Catch Fire weren’t enough, but we were certainly lucky to have them, and the final season received the strongest critical acclaim of the series, putting a more optimistic spin on the internet’s early era.

In the last season, the show shifts some of its focus away from the business world to explore what Joe MacMillan, Cameron Howe, and Gordon and Donna Clark have gained and lost through their work. Creating the next big thing is no longer the goal because the show knows that, as time goes on, innovation fades and the humans behind it will have to learn what their lives truly mean in a world where they’ll eventually become irrelevant. As Joe says in the pilot episode, “Computers aren’t the thing. They’re the thing that gets us to the thing,” and the final season of the show ties a satisfying ribbon around that line of dialogue, ending with a hopeful bit of feminism for tech’s future. – KH

Atlanta

Every season of Atlanta could safely be described as “experimental.” As created and led by multihyphenate Donald Glover, the FX comedy leans into magical realism, crafting a North Georgia storytelling universe where anything can happen. Even with those expectations in place, however, the third and penultimate season of the show was, like, really experimental. We’re talking “a season-long European tour that culminates in Alexander Skarsgård eating human hands” levels of artistic exploration.

Atlanta’s fourth and final season takes things back to basics…even if “basic for Atlanta” is anything but. While the series-long plot does inch towards a conclusion here, each episode is a self-contained delight of creative absurdism. From Earn (Glover) venturing to a pocket universe in a Rally’s bathroom in search of reclusive R&B artist D’Angelo to a documentary examination of A Goofy Movie as a seminal text in Black cinema, Atlanta season 4 goes out on top. – AB

Any glaring omissions on this list? As always, let us know in the comments!

The Best Souls-Like Games That Aren’t Actually Dark Souls

You wouldn’t be short of options if you’re looking for a ‘soulslike’ game, since the genre has exploded ever since FromSoftware refined the formula. But considering the commitment their difficulty necessitates, knowing which one to spend time on can be a challenge on its own.

Beyond the Dark Souls saga, Elden Ring, Sekiro and Bloodborne are the other three stand outs, but since they are made by the same developer, that’s a given. Here we’ve collected the best games in the soulslike genre not made by FromSoft, capturing the same vibe while having their own unique twist.

Lies of P

Perhaps the most acclaimed non-FromSoftware Souls-like to date, Lies of P combines precise combat, difficult boss fights, and interconnected level design with a dark reinterpretation of the Pinocchio story. Many fans consider it a genuine peer to the genre’s best.

Nioh 3

Team Ninja’s Nioh 3 builds on Souls-like foundations while adding deep loot systems and complex combat stances. Its fast-paced action and enormous build variety make it one of the most mechanically rich games in the genre.

The Surge 2

Instead of medieval fantasy, The Surge 2 brings Souls-like combat into a sci-fi setting. Its standout feature is targeted limb attacks, allowing players to harvest specific equipment pieces directly from defeated enemies.

Salt and Sanctuary

Often described as a 2D Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary successfully translates the formula into a side-scrolling action RPG. Challenging bosses, character builds, and exploration make it a favorite among genre fans.

Remnant II

Remnant II blends Souls-like difficulty with third-person shooting mechanics. Procedurally generated elements, co-op support, and highly varied worlds help it stand apart from more traditional entries in the genre.

Mortal Shell

While smaller in scope than many competitors, Mortal Shell introduces a clever mechanic allowing players to harden their bodies during combat. The game’s unique approach creates a distinctive rhythm during battles.

YouTube/Bandai Namco Entertainment America

Code Vein 2

Often nicknamed “anime Dark Souls,” Code Vein 2 combines challenging combat with a post-apocalyptic setting and extensive character customization. Its companion system also makes it more approachable than many Souls-like titles.

Blasphemous 2

Drawing heavily from Spanish religious imagery and gothic horror, Blasphemous 2 merges Souls-like design with Metroidvania exploration. Its haunting art style and punishing boss encounters helped it build a passionate following.

Another Crab’s Treasure

At first glance, the colorful underwater setting looks lighthearted, but Another Crab’s Treasure delivers surprisingly challenging Souls-like combat. Its clever use of discarded ocean trash as equipment gives the game a memorable identity.

Lords of the Fallen (2023)

The 2023 reboot significantly improved upon the original game, introducing a dual-world mechanic that allows players to shift between the living realm and the land of the dead during exploration and combat.

Ashen

Ashen offers a more minimalist visual style than most Souls-likes while retaining challenging combat and exploration. Its cooperative focus and unique art direction help distinguish it from the many Dark Souls imitators.

Death’s Gambit: Afterlife

Following a major overhaul, Death’s Gambit: Afterlife became one of the strongest 2D Souls-like experiences available. It combines demanding boss fights with RPG progression and a large interconnected world.

Hollow Knight

While technically a Metroidvania, Hollow Knight borrows heavily from the Souls formula through its challenging combat, environmental storytelling, and risk-reward death mechanics. Its vast interconnected world and memorable boss fights have made it one of the most beloved games in the genre.

No Rest for the Wicked

Developed by Moon Studios, the team behind Ori, No Rest for the Wicked combines Souls-like combat with action RPG systems and detailed world-building. Its deliberate pacing and emphasis on skill-based encounters set it apart from traditional hack-and-slash games.

Asterigos: Curse of the Stars

Asterigos: Curse of the Stars offers a more approachable take on the Souls-like formula while retaining challenging combat and exploration. Its Greek and Roman mythology-inspired setting helps distinguish it from the darker fantasy worlds common throughout the genre.

13 of the Worst Animal Themed Movies

Centering a movie around an animal is not usually a good idea, both from a technical and entertainment point of view. But it is a way to make a movie easy to sell, since children will likely want to go watch the cute funny animal do cute funny things.

When this formula is met with no real originality or effort, however, the film is doomed to fail. These were never meant to be Oscar winners or summer blockbusters, yet the complete lack of effort pushes them far behind mediocrity. These are the worst movies we could find with an animal at its center.

Marmaduke

The 2010 live-action Marmaduke adaptation was heavily criticized for its talking-animal humor, awkward CGI mouth movements, and thin story. Many reviewers felt the movie stretched a simple newspaper comic strip into an exhausting feature-length experience.

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

This sequel doubled down on secret-agent pets, celebrity voice cameos, and heavy CGI. Critics largely found the story dull and overcomplicated, with many arguing the movie lacked the charm that made the original mildly entertaining.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva la Fiesta!

By the third installment, Disney’s talking-dog franchise had become a direct-to-video series many viewers barely remembered. Critics and audiences frequently pointed to its formulaic story and increasingly low-budget feel.

Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts

One of several direct-to-video Dr. Dolittle sequels, Million Dollar Mutts pushed the talking-animal concept well past its limits. Even fans of the original Eddie Murphy films rarely mention this later installment.

Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch

The Air Bud series started as a goofy novelty, but by the baseball entry many audiences felt the formula had worn out. The increasingly ridiculous sports premise became harder to take seriously with every sequel.

MVP: Most Vertical Primate

This family comedy about a skateboarding chimpanzee somehow followed a hockey-playing chimpanzee movie. The bizarre premise earned cult curiosity, but many viewers considered it one of the stranger animal-centered family films ever released.

Monkey Trouble

A capuchin monkey trained to steal wallets sounds like a fun family premise on paper. In practice, Monkey Trouble received mixed reviews and never achieved the lasting popularity of stronger animal-focused movies from the era.

Benji: Off the Leash!

The Benji franchise produced several beloved family films, but Off the Leash! received a far weaker response. Many critics felt it lacked the emotional appeal that originally made the famous dog character work.

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties

Bill Murray famously voiced Garfield again in this sequel, but audiences and critics largely viewed it as unnecessary. The talking-cat humor and royal inheritance storyline struggled to justify a second theatrical movie.

Underdog

Disney’s live-action adaptation of Underdog attempted turning a cartoon superhero dog into a family blockbuster. Instead, the film earned lukewarm reviews and quickly faded from public memory despite its recognizable source material.

Snow Dogs

Disney marketed Snow Dogs heavily around talking huskies despite the animals speaking mostly in dream sequences. Many viewers felt the movie leaned too hard on cheap animal gags rather than genuine comedy.

The Shaggy Dog (2006)

Tim Allen’s remake of The Shaggy Dog updated the classic premise with modern effects, but critics largely found it uninspired. The film became another example of Disney struggling to revive older family properties.

A Talking Cat!?!

This low-budget family film became infamous online thanks to awkward acting, strange editing, and Eric Roberts recording his dialogue from what sounded like a separate room. It has since become a cult bad-movie favorite.

‘Cute’ TV Couples Nobody Actually Rooted For

Television shows often have characters engage with a few romantic partners throughout their runtime, no matter if they stay together or not. These pairings are meant to be endearing, charming, or at the very least cute, but they don’t always have that desired effect on audiences.

Actually finding a given pairing ‘cute’ is complicated, since the story necessitates conflict in order to stay relevant, and said conflict needs to come from somewhere. As such, characters that seemed nice can end up being grating, depending on how the show handles them. These are the couples that, when all is said and done, were not handled well.

Ross and Emily (Friends)

Ross and Emily were clearly intended to be a serious romance, but most viewers knew it was doomed from the start. The infamous wedding mishap involving Rachel made it nearly impossible for audiences to invest in the relationship.

Ted and Zoey (How I Met Your Mother)

Ted and Zoey spent most of their relationship fighting over completely incompatible goals. The show tried to create romantic tension, but many fans felt they worked better as temporary obstacles than an actual couple.

Dawson and Joey (Dawson’s Creek)

The series treated Dawson and Joey as soulmates for years, yet large portions of the audience preferred Joey’s chemistry with Pacey. By the end, many viewers had long stopped rooting for Dawson’s side of the triangle.

Rory and Dean (Gilmore Girls)

Rory and Dean initially seemed sweet, but the relationship aged poorly as both characters changed. Their later attempts to reconnect were particularly unpopular, with many viewers feeling the pairing should have stayed in the past.

Aria and Ezra (Pretty Little Liars)

The show constantly framed Aria and Ezra as a romantic couple worth supporting. However, the teacher-student dynamic made many viewers uncomfortable, creating a relationship that inspired debate far more than genuine rooting interest.

Oliver and Felicity (Arrow)

While initially popular, Oliver and Felicity gradually became one of television’s most divisive couples. Many fans felt later seasons devoted so much attention to their relationship that it hurt the larger superhero storyline.

Jackson and Maggie (Grey’s Anatomy)

Grey’s Anatomy tried turning Jackson and Maggie into a major romance, but the pairing never gained much support. Viewers frequently criticized the lack of chemistry and often preferred both characters with previous partners.

Serena and Dan (Gossip Girl)

Although Gossip Girl repeatedly returned to Serena and Dan as an endgame couple, many fans struggled to overlook the increasingly bizarre revelations surrounding Dan’s identity and actions throughout the series.

Fez and Jackie (That ’70s Show)

The final season unexpectedly pushed Fez and Jackie together despite years of buildup elsewhere. Many viewers felt the relationship appeared out of nowhere and lacked the chemistry needed to justify the pairing.

Deb and Dexter (Dexter)

Few television romances generated more discomfort than the storyline involving Deb developing romantic feelings for Dexter. Even fans who loved the series often viewed the plot as one of its strangest decisions.

Piper and Alex (Orange Is the New Black)

Orange Is the New Black treated Piper and Alex as the emotional center of the series, but their relationship was often defined by lies, betrayals, and toxic behavior. Many viewers found the constant cycle of breakups and reconciliations exhausting rather than romantic.

Lana and Lex (Smallville)

Smallville spent significant time developing Lana and Lex, but many fans found the relationship uncomfortable due to Lex’s manipulative behavior and the long-running rivalry that already existed between him and Clark.

Stefan and Caroline (The Vampire Diaries)

Stefan and Caroline eventually became a major couple, but the pairing divided viewers. Many felt the characters worked better as friends and never matched the chemistry of some of the show’s earlier romances.

Archie and Veronica (Riverdale)

Despite being one of Archie Comics’ most famous couples, Archie and Veronica often struggled to win over viewers. Constant breakups, reunions, and competing relationships left many fans emotionally checked out.

Lucas and Peyton (One Tree Hill)

While One Tree Hill positioned Lucas and Peyton as a destined romance, their on-again, off-again drama frustrated many viewers. Large portions of the fanbase ultimately preferred alternative pairings throughout the series.

15 ‘Nepo Babies’ Who Actually Have Some Legit Talent

A ‘nepo baby,’ in case you’re unaware, is a child of nepotism; someone that was born with privileges, and part of their success can be attributed to said advantage. In the film industry, it means landing roles because of who your parents are or were, but the connection can go further than just mom and dad.

While this might feel unfair (because it is), just having a chance to do something doesn’t mean you’ll do it right. You still need to take that opportunity, and have the talent and diligence to make it work. They may have more opportunities than us, but at least in my case, they also have more talent.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Hollywood legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, but she built her own reputation through films like Halloween, A Fish Called Wanda, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Few nepo babies have sustained success across so many decades.

Carrie Fisher

The daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher could have lived entirely off family fame. Instead, she became a cultural icon through Star Wars while also earning respect as a talented writer and script doctor.

Kieran Culkin

Technically a ‘nepo sibling,’ Kieran Culkin grew up in the same family as Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin, but his acclaimed performance as Roman Roy in Succession proved he could stand completely on his own as an actor.

Maya Hawke

Maya Hawke, the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, quickly escaped the usual nepo baby stigma through standout performances in Stranger Things and a growing music career that showcased her own creative identity.

Jack Quaid

The son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid has become one of Hollywood’s most likable rising stars. His work in The Boys especially helped separate him from his famous parents’ shadow.

Margaret Qualley

Margaret Qualley is the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell, but projects like Maid, The Leftovers, and The Substance established her as one of the most respected performers of her generation.

Domhnall Gleeson

The son of acclaimed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson earned praise through films like Ex Machina, About Time, and The Banshees of Inisherin. His career feels defined more by talent than family connections.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jennifer Jason Leigh is the daughter of actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner. Despite that Hollywood background, her intense performances in films like Single White Female and The Hateful Eight earned genuine critical respect.

Ben Stiller

As the son of comedy legends Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Ben Stiller had obvious industry connections. Still, directing and starring in projects like Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and Severance cemented his own legacy.

Zoë Kravitz

Zoë Kravitz, daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, gradually built a strong career through projects like Big Little Lies, The Batman, and High Fidelity, proving she was more than celebrity offspring.

John David Washington

The son of Denzel Washington, John David Washington initially pursued professional football before acting. Leading roles in films like BlacKkKlansman and Tenet demonstrated that his career was not solely built on his last name.

O’Shea Jackson Jr.

O’Shea Jackson Jr., the son of rapper and actor Ice Cube, gained immediate attention by portraying his father in Straight Outta Compton. Since then, he has developed a successful acting career of his own.

Wyatt Russell

The son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, Wyatt Russell successfully transitioned from professional hockey into acting. Performances in 22 Jump Street, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Marvel projects boosted his reputation considerably.

Dan Levy

Dan Levy is the son of comedy icon Eugene Levy, but Schitt’s Creek proved his creative abilities went far beyond family connections. As a writer, producer, actor, and co-creator, he became a major force himself.

Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson comes from Hollywood royalty as the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, with Tippi Hedren also in the family tree. Despite skepticism early on, films like Suspiria and Cha Cha Real Smooth earned strong reviews. Not every movie is a hit, but she delivers when it counts.

Avengers: Doomsday – The Russo Brothers’ Comments Have Us Worried About Doom

Doctor Doom is the greatest villain in comic book history, if not in all of American fiction. But you wouldn’t know that if you only watched Fantastic Four movies. In the 2000s, Julian McMahon played the supervillain as a petulant CEO who pouts his way into the experiment that transforms Reed Richards and family into superheroes. In 2015, Toby Kebbell played Victor Von Doom as a moody gamer who also pouted a lot.

Of course, the MCU promised to fix all that. The same people who gave us an earnest Captain America in a star-spangled suit and Thanos donning the Infinity Gauntlet would surely just do classic Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, right? The latest comments by Doomsday directors Joe and Anthony Russo have us thinking that maybe the answer is “no.”

The brothers spoke to attendees at SXSW London today, with Joe saying their Doom hits “that sweet spot between being very specific and unique to the original story that happens within this film but also delivering on what the most awesome things are about Doom in the comics.”

The second part of that statement sounds great, and rare for film adaptations. Since his introduction in 1962’s Fantastic Four #5, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doom has been a gloriously over-the-top character. Benevolent dictator of the fictional European country Latveria, Victor Von Doom is both a master of magic and a genius-level scientist. He blames his former college roommate Reed Richards for the disfigurement that drives him to hide his face behind a mask. He speaks in the third person and burns with hatred for Richards, but also takes seriously his role as godfather to Reed and Sue’s daughter Valeria.

In short, Doctor Doom is a complicated character, but also an over-the-top character. You must embrace his operatic qualities, as only the 1994 Roger Corman-produced Fantastic Four movie has done, or he’ll seem just whiny and lame.

Which makes us worry about the first part of the Russos’ statement. Joe Russo told the crowd that “we always look at it as our job to not tell you a story that you’ve heard before, we’re never translating directly from the comics,” and promised that the Doom in Doomsday will be “what we love most about the comics” and also “what is original to our storytelling, what is brand new.”

We already knew one of those brand new qualities, the decision to bring back former Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. as the MCU Doctor Doom. And outside of a post-credit tease and an empty space for the Latverian delegate at the UN, this Doom seems to have no connection to the Fantastic Four and, therefore, no burning desire to prove that he’s better than Reed Richards.

None of these facts necessarily mean that the MCU Doom will be a failure. But they don’t do much to raise our confidence, despite the fact that the Russos have given Doom a pretty great costume, complete with armored body and a jaunty green tunic. Still, we have our doubts.

Will this Doom speak in the third person? Will he give grandeloquent speeches about how being a god is beneath him? Will he send the Fantastic Four back in time to fight pirates?

If the answer to each and every one of these questions is not “Yes,” then the MCU Doctor Doom will be a failure, and Avengers: Doomsday join the 2000s and 2015 Fantastic Four movies as films that once again botched an amazing character.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18, 2026.

Masters of the Universe Review: A Cute Kids Movie When It Isn’t Trying to Be Barbie

There are two Skeletors living along the backroads of our pop culture landscape. The first is the original Saturday morning cartoon villain that many Gen-Xers and some elder Millennials remember fondly. He sneers, schemes, and otherwise slinks his way through one 30-minute Masters of the Universe adventure after another wherein, invariably, He-Man kicks his ass. The other is an internet creation spawned by those same viewers decades later. This guy is funnier, more acerbic, and basically a chaos agent snarking about whatever daily indignity his creator wants to complain about. He’s both supervillain and meme.

The modest joys and bigger foundational issues inherent in Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe movie, out this weekend, is that it attempts to be both things: the cute (and relatively ancient) kids cartoon that many young kids today don’t even have parents young enough to remember, and the post-modern comedy aware of its own silliness. And whether you like him or not, Jared Leto gets the assignment brilliantly with Skeletor, who alongside Alison Brie’s mischievous Evil-Lyn sorceress, steals much of the movie. This can include traditional Saturday morning moments where Skeletor cackles to himself endlessly about his wicked intentions, or another sequence where the flamboyant fiend—all telegraphed by Leto’s physical gestures (his face is a prosthetic skull)—enters the memories and mind of our hero Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine). Together they wind up back at Adam’s HR office on Earth where Skeletor drinks coffee and smirks about performance evaluations.

The Skeletor portion of Masters of the Universe threads this bizarre tonal needle unexpectedly well. Much of the rest of the movie, however, struggles between being the old-fashioned high-adventure ‘80s movie that Knight so clearly wants to make and the kind of safe, Marvel-ified movie (and Thor: Ragnarok to put a finer point on it) that Amazon or Mattel so clearly hope the project could turn into.

Knight is a definite nostalgist from the decade of shoulder pads and day-glo. A brilliant animator and artist, as demonstrated in his Laika film Kubo and the Two Strings, the director’s only other live-action movie is also the lone good Transformers flick: Bumblebee. Here was a big-hearted throwback to Steven Spielberg-produced Amblin entertainments of the 1980s. Granted, Spielberg produced all the Transformers movies in the 2000s as well, but if Bumblebee had gotten to the screen before Michael Bay turned that brand into something a lot more noxious and brain-dead, our modern idea of what Autobots might be different today.

One senses that Knight wishes to do the same with Masters of the Universe, another cartoon that children of the ‘80s hold dear alongside their Transformers and GI Joe. Toymaker Mattel likewise sees some overlap between a modern He-Man movie and their last plastic-to-screen transfer, Barbie. As with that Greta Gerwig-directed unicorn from three years ago, Masters of the Universe (2026) is rife with post-modern winks, nudges, and allusions to He-Man and Skeletor’s place in the real world, and how adults have grappled with their legacies as they’ve aged out of playing with dolls but not the need for the simple joy such distractions once brought.

Yet the issue for Masters of the Universe is that He-Man is not Barbie, a brand that’s importance spans many generations, and to this day is somewhat ingrained in how young girls process femininity. He-Man belongs to more or less to one era of children who were all in elementary school when Ronald Reagan was president and Maggie Thatcher Prime Minister. And in attempting to make Masters of the Universe a self-aware, endlessly metatextual tome about growing old enough to understand the artifice of gender roles, I’m not sure the filmmakers left enough there for modern kids to understand why their dad (or his older brother) was so into He-Man in the first place.

The thing is that Knight wants to make that classic, old-fashioned He-Man movie, and he does in large swaths of Masters of the Universe. The film’s Eternia is introduced with a gloriously synth-heavy score by Daniel Pemberton, and while much of this fictional land is clearly designed in computers, proudly gaudy sets and props are also on grand display in the homeland of young Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt as a kiddo). The production design has the simplicity of a child’s idea of castles and courts, armors and warriors. In brief flashes, the film even evokes something akin to The Neverending Story, but with a lot more budget and digital trickery.

However, the status quo of this lifestyle is quickly overthrown. We spend only enough time with Adam at his youngest to establish that his father King Randor (James Purefoy) thinks his son is too soft. So he commands his master-at-arms Duncan (Idris Elba) to “make a man” out of him. That education, along with that of Duncan’s daughter Teela (first Eire Farrell, but mostly Camila Mendes), is interrupted when Skeletor invades and conquers Eternia. Young Adam only escapes because his Power Sword takes him through a wormhole to Earth.

We then cut hard to modern day where Adam is now a late twentysomething adult who somehow adjusted well enough to Earth that he has a decent (if dull) job in a local firm, a sassy roommate at home, and some kind of dating life—but still not so well-adjusted that he can understand why every girl he meets practically gallops to the nearest Uber after he starts chatting about magic swords, fallen kingdoms, and a green CGI cat that can talk.

Obviously that time-jump is doing a lot of work to move this narrative along, but it cannot smooth over the tonal dissonance of a film that wants to be a gee-whiz adventure story and also a sheepish self-satire about many adults’ inability to put “childish things” away, including constructs like a regressive view of masculinity that Adam holds onto despite also being a nice Millennial boy. Or “beta,” depending on your disposition. Such discrepancies follow the rest of the movie, even as it quickly pivots back to Eternia after Mendes’ all grown-up Teela finds Adam and brings him back to his homeworld where he will embrace “The Power of Grayskull” in all its beefy, well-oiled, and tiny-loinclothed glory. Together these former childhood besties will lead an uprising against Skeletor.

When Masters of the Universe works, it works fairly well as a child fantasy. This is, again, a property originally designed to sell toys with simple wish fulfillment sequences where a nebbish young man turns into Conan the Barbarian, minus the pillaging and violence bits. In some respects, Galitzine is a better actor than the material calls for, but is more than able-bodied to be a glistening stand-in for ancient ideals of strength. He and Mendes adopt the ridiculous, form-fitting attires of the source material and credibly carry off characters who alternate between sword fights with goblins and laser-shootouts between flying aircrafts. It’s like watching supremely fit Olympic athletes doing a Star Wars-flavored Wheaties commercial.

Truthfully, though, the villains have more fun. I’ve already mentioned Leto’s preening, effete Skeletor, but Brie is delightful in her own right as a cooing and condescending sorceress who on a certain level feels like another hat her Community character Annie Edison would wear while entering the Dreamtorium.

It’s still debatable whether children of today care about He-Man, but if the movie went all-in on attempting to win them over, there’s a sweet if jejune family entertainment here with plenty of beef and cheesecake on the side. But it sits uneasily with adult concerns that range from the interesting but undercooked—such as Adam questioning whether the concept of being a “He-Man” is too simplistic a way of looking at his own masculinity—to the outright ill-conceived—such as three Austin Powers-esque sex jokes about there being a character named Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) in this movie.

Of course post-modern fantasy that works on multiple levels also has ‘80s precedence, but The Princess Bride this is not. Instead Masters of the Universe lands closer to Thor: Love & Thunder, a shaggy comedy that wants to be all things at all times. It cannot let any of its simple, but also primal, emotional beats land for longer than seven seconds before a joke, a gag, or self-aware smirk intrudes.

There is real emotional sincerity in Knight’s approach, and half of the movie delivers on it. The other half caters more to an adult audience that perhaps needs to let go a little. Let the kids enjoy the toys, lest they become museum pieces.

Masters of the Universe opens on Friday, June 5.

The Vampire Lestat Review: Sam Reid Rocks In Ambitious New “Interview” Chapter

The following The Vampire Lestat review is spoiler free.

AMC’s Interview with the Vampire is, hands down, one of the best adaptations in television history, a series that manages to honor the luxurious, emotionally decadent spirit of its source material even as it makes major changes to the events depicted in Anne Rice’s original novel. Full of decadent, often gleeful violence, thorny moral questions about truth and memory, and a central relationship that’s as frequently toxic as it is desperately romantic, the series’s first two seasons are an utter delight, and a powerful reminder of the great things that genre television is capable of.

To what will likely be the shock of some viewers, the show’s third season, now renamed The Vampire Lestat, takes much of what we know about the first two outings and throws it in the proverbial trash. Blowing up the narrative in the absolute best way possible, the story shifts its focus to the second novel in Rice’s sprawling Vampire Chronicles series, pivoting sharply in tone, visual style, and content as it recenters its story around the titular Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), who responds to the publication of the tell-all memoir that gives Interview with the Vampire its name by forming a rock band and going on tour. A premise that sounds patently ridiculous on the surface, it’s one that nevertheless allows for a near-perfect blend of the franchise’s signature bombastic camp and quiet, unexpected emotional depth.

But we should be clear: This is a change that takes a little bit of getting used to. Tonally and narratively, this is Lestat’s story now, framed from his perspective and driven by his emotional journey. Gone is the lush, haunting setting of New Orleans, and in its place is a constantly-in-flux world of performance, spread across tour buses, hotel rooms, and rehearsal spaces, most often framed through the lens of journalist-turned-vampire Daniel Molloy’s (Eric Bogosian) documentary camera. The AMC adaptation has always leaned into the idea that, at its heart, this show is a story being told, and, as such, its narrative is shaped by unreliable narrators, hazy memories, hidden agendas, long-held griefs, and no small amount of self-delusion. The Vampire Lestat turns that idea up to 11, featuring flashbacks that expand, reframe, and even contradict some of what we’ve seen before.

The story picks up in the wake of the release of Molloy’s infamous book. Its publication enrages Lestat, now living in Montreal, who has some serious bones to pick with the accuracy of his ex/eternal life partner Louis de Pont du Lac’s (Jacob Anderson) recounting of their history together. After barging in to give some performance advice to a (loud, largely terrible) neighborhood garage band, Lestat decides to work his feelings out through the composition of music, ultimately taking over the group, renaming it after himself, and turning the question of his own vampirism into a sort of macabre promotional tool. Each episode moves through various cities on the road, as Lestat contends not only with his growing fame, but the ways in which his newfound career is forcing him to confront the darker aspects of his own immortality. (As well as the vampires who don’t like their dirty laundry being aired quite so publicly.)

Lestat’s rock band is the plot device that makes the wheels of the series turn, but it’s also our clearest view into the character’s emotional state. The many songs featured throughout the six episodes available to critics are less splashy musical numbers (though they do feature Reid in an extraordinary array of tight pants and body glitter) than inward explorations of Lestat’s psyche. The music — written by composer Daniel Hart and featuring lyrics that clearly reference Lestat’s turning at the hands of the vampire Magnus (Damien Atkins), his history and relationship with Louis, and his lingering grief over Claudia’s (Delainey Hayes) death — is better than it has any right to be, and frequently serves as jumping off point for more detailed dives into specific aspects of the vampire’s past.

It’s difficult to overstate the scope and scale of Reid’s performance here, from playing multiple versions of Lestat across various points in his human and undead life, singing all the songs himself, and running a gamut of frequently devastating emotions from overt cruelty to crippling despair. It’s a tremendous achievement, and although award bodies rarely give genre television the respect or attention it deserves when it comes time to hand out statuettes, if there were any justice, Reid would land an Emmy for this. It’s outstanding work on virtually every level, balancing rage, heartbreak, and grief alongside a fairly elaborate mental breakdown as Lestat finds himself haunted by ghosts both literal and figurative.

As Rice devotees already know, neither Louis nor Claudia plays a particularly large role in the novel The Vampire Lestat. Yet the series finds organic, thematically relevant ways to keep both characters at the center of Lestat’s narrative and present in viewers’ minds. But the beating heart of this franchise remains the love story between Lestat and Louis, and their relationship dynamic remains as thorny and fascinating here as it was in the show’s previous outings. Anderson and Reid don’t get to spend all that much screen time together until the back half of the season, where the duo makes a feast out of some exceptionally meaty emotional material as Lestat and Louis work through their shared grief about losing Claudia, and how the circumstances surrounding her death reshaped their relationship to one another.

The series also introduces Lestat’s mother, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle) — known as Gabrielle in the books, but just go with it — one of the more influential and complex figures in Lestat’s life. Lestat’s relationship with his mother is….let’s just call it deeply complicated, a problematic tangle of need, manipulation, desire, and genuine affection that, yes, takes The Vampire Lestat firmly into overt incest territory. It’s a twist that’s as disturbing as it is tragic; Gabrielle is not only Lestat’s mother but also his fledgling, but the strange bond between the two predates either of them becoming immortal. One of the few negatives of the season is that, since the story is being told from Lestat’s perspective, Gabriella gets very little in the way of interiority or emotional depth, and many of her motivations are murky at the best of times. Still, although Ehle’s overbearing accent is an unfortunate and somewhat bizarre performance choice, she more than holds her own against Reid at his most desperate and unhinged, mixing sympathy and cruelty in equal measure.

The season incorporates elements from multiple installments of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles beyond The Vampire Lestat, including Queen of the Damned and Merrick, blending key elements of Lestat’s origin story with a more contemporary exploration of grief, trauma, and loss. It gleefully plays with ideas of perception, memory, manipulation, and the truths we long to believe about ourselves in the stories we tell. It is weird and over the top and, at times, isn’t actually a particularly faithful take on Rice’s novel. Yet, while The Vampire Lestat may not strictly adhere to the letter of the original text, showrunner Rolin Jones proves that he and his team understand the spirit of its story and the larger universe in which it exists down to the ground. The end result is an adaptation that feels darkly magical: ambitious, unapologetic, loud — musically and otherwise — and absolutely unforgettable. Lestat’s “Long Face” may be unlikely to end up as the song of the summer, but The Vampire Lestat is undoubtedly the season’s best show.

14 Shows it’s Really Hard to Actually Watch All the Way Through

Despite being really good, it’s hard for television series to sustain attention across every episode. Certain shows demand patience, even for dedicated audiences. This list looks at series that often get paused, abandoned, or revisited in fragments despite their reputation or quality.

Peaky Blinders (2013)

A stylized crime saga with dense plotting and evolving conflicts that require steady focus to follow fully.

Sons of Anarchy (2008)

A long running crime drama with escalating stakes and complex relationships that build across many episodes.

The Crown (2016)

A historical drama that spans decades with detailed political and personal arcs unfolding at a measured pace.

The Handmaids Tale (2017)

A dystopian drama with a heavy atmosphere and persistent tension that can make extended viewing challenging.

The Leftovers (2014)

An emotionally heavy narrative built on grief and ambiguity that often feels intense to continue without breaks.

The Sopranos (1999)

A character focused crime story with long stretches of quiet tension and introspection that demand consistent attention.

The Wire (2002)

A deeply layered crime drama that demands sustained attention across shifting institutions, characters, and slow unfolding arcs.

Twin Peaks (1990)

A surreal mystery series that constantly changes direction and tone, making long viewing sessions feel unpredictable.

Better Call Saul (2015)

A slow building narrative that carefully constructs its world through detail driven storytelling and gradual escalation.

BoJack Horseman (2014)

A dark animated series that mixes humor with heavy emotional themes that can feel draining over multiple episodes.

Lost (2004)

A mystery driven structure filled with layered questions that kept expanding across its long and complex run.

Mad Men (2007)

A meticulous character study where subtle storytelling and slow progression can test viewer patience over time.

Black Mirror (2011)

An anthology series with intense standalone stories that can feel emotionally heavy to binge in large doses.

Oz (1997)

An intense prison drama known for its raw storytelling and relentless depiction of institutional violence.

14 Movies We Bet You Didn’t Actually Understand

Movies often require repeated viewing for audiences to grasp the whole picture, since their stories aren’t only about what is directly shown. Yet, some films go beyond that, needing much deeper analysis in order to catch a glimpse of what the author was going for.

Thanks to the internet, we can understand these movies far better, but first we need to know to look. Since we don’t always leave the cinema confused; we might think that a simple action movie was, well, a simple action movie. We miss the forest for the trees, and the deeper meaning was hidden in the woods.

mother!

Darren Aronofsky’s mother! confused many audiences because its chaotic story works largely as an extended biblical and environmental allegory. Viewers expecting a straightforward psychological thriller often left wondering what they had actually just watched.

Starship Troopers

Many viewers initially treated Starship Troopers as a dumb alien-action movie, missing that Paul Verhoeven was satirizing fascism, militarism, and propaganda. Its intentionally exaggerated patriotism became much clearer to audiences years after release.

American Psycho

At first glance, American Psycho looks like a stylish serial killer thriller, but much of the film works as satire targeting consumerism, toxic masculinity, and empty corporate culture during the 1980s financial boom.

Mulholland Drive

David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive blends dreams, identity shifts, and surreal symbolism into a deliberately disorienting experience. Even longtime Lynch fans still debate what portions of the movie are real, imagined, or metaphorical.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece remains visually influential, but its symbolism and ambiguous ending still confuse audiences decades later. The final sequence especially launched generations of viewers directly into film-analysis rabbit holes.

RoboCop

Beneath the ultraviolence and sci-fi action, RoboCop functions as a sharp satire about privatization, media sensationalism, and corporate greed. Many younger viewers first saw it simply as a cool action movie with robots.

Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman’s existential drama blurs reality, performance, memory, and identity so thoroughly that many viewers struggle explaining the plot afterward. The film intentionally becomes more emotionally and structurally overwhelming as it progresses.

Fight Club

Large parts of the audience embraced Tyler Durden as a rebellious antihero while completely missing the film’s criticism of toxic masculinity, extremism, and male identity crises. The movie’s satire often became mistaken for endorsement.

Enemy

Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy spends much of its runtime building toward one of modern cinema’s most famously baffling endings. The giant spider imagery alone launched years of interpretation videos and online analysis.

Under the Silver Lake

This neo-noir mystery intentionally buries viewers beneath conspiracy theories, hidden codes, and surreal symbolism. Many audiences finished Under the Silver Lake unsure whether the movie contained a brilliant hidden meaning or complete nonsense.

They Live

John Carpenter’s They Live became famous for its ridiculous fight scene and alien sunglasses premise, but the film actually delivers pointed commentary about consumerism, class inequality, and hidden systems of social control.

The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers’ psychological horror mixes mythology, isolation, madness, and symbolism into an increasingly surreal nightmare. By the ending, viewers often debate whether anything onscreen should be interpreted literally at all.

Annihilation

Alex Garland’s sci-fi film deliberately avoids clear explanations for its alien phenomenon, especially during the abstract finale. The movie became famous for leaving audiences fascinated, unsettled, and deeply confused simultaneously.

The Green Knight

David Lowery’s adaptation of the Arthurian poem focuses heavily on symbolism, honor, temptation, and mortality rather than traditional fantasy storytelling. Many viewers expecting a straightforward medieval adventure instead found themselves decoding metaphors afterward.

14 Lengthy Films Your Grandfather Probably Couldn’t Sit Through

After editing, most movies end up with a similar run time, which is to be expected. After all, we as audience members can’t be expected to pay a ticket for a five minute movie, or to sit through an eight hour epic without breaks. Yet, some movies do end up on the lengthy side of the spectrum, and not everyone can stay hooked for that long.

Among the most challenged to sit through such ordeals, are the elderly. Not because they can’t understand the film, but because they need more frequent breaks than most of us; age takes its toll, after all. These films aren’t bad by any means, but they are better seen from the comfort of home, rather than at the cinema.

The Brutalist

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist immediately became known for its massive runtime, complete with an actual intermission during some screenings. At well over three hours long, it practically dares audiences to prove their attention span still exists.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon runs well past the three-hour mark while telling a slow-burning historical crime story. Even many fans admitted they needed strategic snack planning before sitting through the entire experience.

Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer packed physics, politics, hearings, and existential dread into a three-hour biographical epic. Despite massive success, some viewers joked they needed a college lecture schedule just to mentally prepare for the runtime.

The Irishman

Clocking in at over three and a half hours, The Irishman became one of Netflix’s biggest “I’ll finish it later” movies. The de-aging technology discussions almost competed with conversations about how long the film actually felt.

Avatar: The Way of Water

James Cameron’s sequel spends enormous amounts of time exploring Pandora’s oceans and visual spectacle. Even audiences impressed by the effects often joked they felt like they physically aged alongside the characters during the marathon runtime.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

At four hours long, Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League feels less like a movie and more like an entire television miniseries glued together. Fans celebrated it, while others wondered whether bathroom breaks counted as intermissions.

Lawrence of Arabia

David Lean’s desert epic remains legendary not only for its scale but also for its intimidating runtime. Watching it in one sitting still feels like a cinematic endurance challenge, especially for modern audiences raised on shorter entertainment.

Ben-Hur

The 1959 version of Ben-Hur runs for well over three hours and includes an overture and intermission. It remains one of the classic examples of Hollywood epics that truly committed to exhausting viewers through sheer scale.

Gone with the Wind

Despite being one of Hollywood’s most famous classics, Gone with the Wind is famously enormous in length. Between romance, war, reconstruction, and melodrama, the movie practically becomes a full-day historical event.

Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone’s crime epic stretches close to four hours in its longest version, unfolding slowly across decades of betrayal and regret. Its deliberate pacing makes it critically respected but undeniably demanding for casual movie nights.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)

The theatrical cut already pushed audiences past three hours, but the extended edition goes even further. By the multiple endings, even devoted fantasy fans sometimes start mentally preparing for retirement before the credits finally arrive.

Babylon

Damien Chazelle’s Babylon runs over three hours while throwing nonstop chaos, excess, and Hollywood decadence at viewers. The movie’s exhausting energy became part of the experience, especially during its loud and relentless party sequences.

King Kong (2005)

Peter Jackson’s remake spends so much time building toward Skull Island that audiences sometimes joke the movie contains three separate films stitched together. Once the dinosaurs appear, viewers are already deep into a marathon-length commitment.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Frequently cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jeanne Dielman also has a reputation for testing patience. Its nearly three-and-a-half-hour runtime focuses heavily on repetitive daily routines and extremely deliberate pacing.

15 Movies People Only Know from the Memes

There’s a reality in our lives that we need to accept: we spend more time on the internet than doing anything else. That means, inevitably, that we spend more time sharing memes about movies than watching them, oftentimes having us sharing pictures of films we will never see.

With the limited time we have on this Earth, that’s fine, since most of these films aren’t worth our time either way. We can thank the brave souls that saw them in theaters for the jokes we share today, and know that, at the end of the day, that’s all they were good for.

Morbius

Almost nobody actually watched Morbius, yet the internet transformed it into one of the biggest movie memes in years. Fake quotes like “It’s Morbin’ Time” became more culturally relevant than the film itself ever managed.

The Room

Tommy Wiseau’s The Room became infinitely more famous through memes, reaction clips, and internet jokes than through traditional audiences. Even people who never watched the movie probably recognize “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” immediately.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

The hilariously bad visual effects in Birdemic turned the movie into meme material long after release. Endless screenshots of badly animated attacking birds spread online far more successfully than the film ever did in theaters.

Cats

The 2019 version of Cats became a social media phenomenon almost entirely because audiences could not believe the CGI designs were real. For many people, the memes became the entire viewing experience.

Sharknado

The Sharknado movies thrived less because audiences genuinely loved them and more because the absurd concept generated endless internet jokes. Flying sharks became a meme long before most people watched an entire installment.

Cool Cat Saves the Kids

Derek Savage’s Cool Cat Saves the Kids became infamous online through reaction videos and internet mockery. The movie’s awkward performances and strange anti-bullying message turned it into meme material far more than an actual family hit.

The Happening

M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller became meme gold thanks to awkward dialogue and confused performances. Mark Wahlberg talking to plants or asking “What? No!” spread online far more widely than the movie’s original audience.

Madame Web

Even before release, Madame Web became a meme factory through awkward trailers and bizarre line deliveries. Online jokes and reaction images arguably generated more interest than the actual superhero movie itself.

The Fanatic

John Travolta’s bizarre performance in The Fanatic quickly spread online through clips and screenshots. Most people familiar with the movie know it because of memes surrounding its awkward dialogue and unintentionally funny scenes.

Troll 2

The “They’re eating her!” scene transformed Troll 2 into a permanent internet fixture. The bizarre acting and confusing plot turned the movie into meme history despite most audiences never watching it start to finish.

Battlefield Earth

John Travolta’s sci-fi flop became famous online through memes mocking its bizarre costumes, tilted camera angles, and absurd dialogue. The internet kept the movie alive largely as shorthand for catastrophic filmmaking decisions.

The Wicker Man (2006)

Nicolas Cage screaming about bees became so widespread online that many people only know The Wicker Man remake through reaction gifs and meme compilations rather than the actual horror movie.

Fateful Findings

Neil Breen’s surreal thriller achieved cult meme status thanks to awkward editing, bizarre dialogue, and incomprehensible storytelling. Entire YouTube communities formed around laughing at scenes most viewers would never organically discover themselves.

Foodfight!

This animated disaster became notorious online because of its unfinished-looking CGI and chaotic production history. Clips and screenshots circulated for years as examples of how unbelievably broken a movie could look.

Jupiter Ascending

The Wachowskis’ ambitious sci-fi epic struggled at the box office, but internet memes kept it alive for years. Eddie Redmayne’s whisper-screaming performance especially became far more famous online than the movie itself.

15 Times a Movie Thought CGI Could Solve Everything

What we can do nowadays with digital effects is really a thing of wonder, with entire movies planned around actors interacting with impossible things. The problem with these effects is that, more often than not, they don’t land as well as practical effects, particularly when actors have nothing to use as reference.

The problem doesn’t only involve fake spaces, however, since it also has an uncanny effect on certain visuals. Superhero films in particular replace practical costumes with CGI ones, often making actors feel like floating heads on unreal bodies. These are the films that overused CGI the most.

The Flash

The Flash became notorious for unfinished-looking CGI during several multiverse and speed-force sequences. Even emotional cameos were overshadowed by the strange digital recreations, leaving audiences distracted by the effects instead of the story itself.

Cats

The 2019 adaptation of Cats relied almost entirely on bizarre CGI fur technology to transform actors into human-cat hybrids. Instead of solving the challenge of adapting the musical, the effects became the movie’s biggest source of ridicule.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Fans criticized the fourth Indiana Jones film for replacing much of the franchise’s practical stunt work with excessive CGI. The infamous jungle chase and swinging monkeys especially became shorthand for effects overwhelming storytelling.

The Hobbit Trilogy

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films leaned far more heavily on CGI environments and characters than The Lord of the Rings. Many viewers felt the overuse of digital effects made Middle-earth feel less grounded and immersive.

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

George Lucas embraced digital filmmaking so aggressively in Attack of the Clones that entire scenes felt detached from reality. Massive green-screen usage often left actors looking disconnected from their own environments.

Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern attempted to build an entire superhero universe through heavy CGI, including a fully digital costume. Instead of looking futuristic, many effects quickly became dated and unintentionally distracting.

Justice League

The theatrical version of Justice League became infamous for awkward CGI, especially the digitally altered upper lip used to remove Henry Cavill’s mustache. The visual effects controversy overshadowed much of the actual movie itself.

The Mummy Returns

While much of The Mummy Returns worked well as pulpy adventure fun, the fully digital Scorpion King climax became legendary for the wrong reasons. Even audiences in 2001 noticed how unfinished the creature looked.

Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman 1984 received criticism for relying too heavily on CGI spectacle during major action scenes, especially the finale involving Maxwell Lord and Cheetah. Many viewers felt the digital effects overwhelmed the stronger character-driven moments from the first film.

Black Panther

Despite widespread praise for the film overall, Black Panther received criticism for its rushed CGI during the final battle. The underground train fight especially looked noticeably unfinished compared to the movie’s stronger practical scenes.

Spider-Man 3

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 sometimes buried emotional moments beneath oversized digital spectacle. Sandman’s effects impressed audiences initially, but the climax became overloaded with CGI-heavy chaos involving multiple villains and collapsing environments.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Michael Bay doubled down on giant CGI destruction in Revenge of the Fallen, creating action scenes so visually overwhelming that many viewers struggled to understand what was even happening onscreen during robot fights.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The later Pirates sequels increasingly relied on digital effects to escalate action and undead designs. By Dead Men Tell No Tales, many fans missed the practical charm and grounded feel of the original trilogy.

The Matrix Reloaded

While revolutionary in some areas, The Matrix Reloaded also pushed CGI so hard that certain sequences aged poorly. The Burly Brawl featuring dozens of Agent Smith copies often looks more like a video game than live action.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Marvel’s Quantumania surrounded its characters with nearly nonstop digital environments and creatures inside the Quantum Realm. Critics and audiences frequently commented that the overwhelming CGI made the movie feel strangely artificial and visually exhausting.

15 Shows With So Many Characters We Can’t Keep Track

A diverse cast is always something good in a show, letting us see different perspectives of the same setting. To have such diversity, the cast needs to involve multiple people, but some shows take this a step too far. Particularly with shows sporting multiple seasons, keeping track of who’s who becomes virtually impossible.

This becomes a problem when you’re not as invested in side characters as you are on the main plot. With a condensed cast, these side characters add flavor, but in the cases discussed here, they feel like they are in the way of the plot. These are the shows that could’ve learned something from the phrase “less is more.”

Game of Thrones

By the later seasons, Game of Thrones had so many noble families, allies, enemies, and side characters that many viewers needed online maps just to remember who belonged to which kingdom or why two characters hated each other.

Lost

Between flashbacks, flash-forwards, mysterious newcomers, and constantly expanding mythology, Lost became increasingly difficult to track. Entire online communities formed just to organize theories and remember who everyone actually was.

Grey’s Anatomy

After running for decades with rotating interns, doctors, surgeons, patients, and love interests, Grey’s Anatomy eventually reached the point where many viewers forgot half the cast had even existed.

The Walking Dead

As communities multiplied across the apocalypse, The Walking Dead introduced wave after wave of survivors, villains, and temporary allies. Keeping track of everyone became especially difficult once entire groups started disappearing between seasons.

Once Upon a Time

Combining fairy tales, alternate timelines, curses, and multiple versions of the same characters made Once Upon a Time increasingly overwhelming. By later seasons, viewers practically needed genealogy charts to follow the relationships.

Heroes

The first season of Heroes balanced its large ensemble surprisingly well, but later seasons kept introducing more superpowered characters and storylines until many viewers struggled remembering who half the cast even was anymore.

The Wire

Praised for realism and complexity, The Wire constantly shifted focus between police, politicians, dock workers, teachers, journalists, and drug crews. The giant cast helped build Baltimore’s world but could overwhelm first-time viewers.

Westworld

Westworld already demanded close attention because of its timelines and mysteries, but the enormous rotating cast of hosts, humans, and duplicates made the story even harder to follow as the series continued.

The Vampire Diaries

Between vampires, witches, doppelgängers, hybrids, and supernatural family trees, The Vampire Diaries kept introducing new faces and ancient bloodlines until many viewers gave up trying to remember everyone’s connection.

Yellowstone

The Yellowstone universe constantly expands through ranch hands, rival families, politicians, businessmen, and spin-offs introducing even more relatives. Keeping track of the Dutton family tree alone sometimes feels harder than following the actual plot.

Boardwalk Empire

HBO’s gangster drama featured politicians, bootleggers, mob bosses, federal agents, and historical figures spread across multiple cities. The massive cast added authenticity, though viewers often needed refreshers on who was betraying whom.

The 100

What began as a relatively simple survival series gradually introduced dozens of factions, commanders, clans, artificial intelligences, and space survivors. By the final seasons, many viewers struggled to remember which group everyone was fighting for anymore.

The Expanse

With multiple factions spread across Earth, Mars, and the Belt, The Expanse introduced politicians, soldiers, rebels, and scientists at a relentless pace. The detailed world-building rewarded attention but punished casual viewing.

True Blood

By later seasons, True Blood had accumulated vampires, werewolves, fairies, shapeshifters, witches, and countless supporting characters. The supernatural chaos eventually became so crowded that major characters sometimes vanished for long stretches unnoticed.

Downton Abbey

Between the Crawley family, servants, romantic partners, visiting aristocrats, and changing staff members, Downton Abbey quietly built a surprisingly huge cast. Casual viewers could easily lose track of who belonged upstairs or downstairs.

15 Television Couples That Are Actually Super Messed Up in Retrospect

What fictional characters go through is, as expected, far removed from what happens in reality. This is due to a show needing drama, stakes and a continued source of conflict in order to last many seasons, and oddly enough, it works. Until you give the show a rewatch.

Now, viewing these couples again, we start to have second thoughts. In some cases, we overlooked obvious power imbalances involving teachers, bosses, or massive age gaps. Other couples simply spent years emotionally destroying each other while the show insisted they were meant to be together. These are the TV couples that we don’t think work anymore.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy and Angel

At the time, Buffy and Angel were treated like an epic supernatural romance. In retrospect, the relationship involves a centuries-old vampire emotionally bonding with a high school student, which feels considerably stranger watching it today.

Pretty Little Liars, Aria and Ezra

What the show framed as a passionate forbidden romance now reads deeply uncomfortable to many viewers. Ezra was Aria’s English teacher when their relationship began, creating a massive power imbalance the series rarely treated seriously enough.

Friends, Ross and Rachel

Ross and Rachel became one of television’s defining couples, but revisiting the relationship reveals nonstop jealousy, manipulation, and exhausting breakups. Their inability to communicate normally somehow fueled an entire decade of sitcom storytelling.

How I Met Your Mother, Ted and Robin

The series repeatedly insisted Ted and Robin were destined for each other despite years of evidence suggesting otherwise. By the finale, many viewers felt the relationship ignored both characters’ growth simply to force the original ending.

Twin Peaks, Audrey and Agent Cooper

Audrey Horne openly flirted with Agent Cooper throughout Twin Peaks while still a teenager in high school. Although Cooper resisted the relationship, the show still played portions of the dynamic with surprising romantic energy.

Gossip Girl, Chuck and Blair

Chuck and Blair became fan favorites despite a relationship filled with manipulation, emotional cruelty, and betrayal. Some storylines involving Chuck’s behavior feel especially uncomfortable in retrospect given how romantically the series framed the couple overall.

Riverdale, Archie and Ms. Grundy

The first season of Riverdale treated Archie’s relationship with his teacher Ms. Grundy as scandalous drama rather than predatory abuse. Modern audiences were especially disturbed by how the show initially romanticized the situation.

That ’70s Show, Jackie and Kelso

Jackie and Kelso were presented as a chaotic but lovable sitcom couple, yet their relationship constantly involved cheating, manipulation, and emotional immaturity. Rewatching the series makes their nonstop dysfunction much harder to ignore.

The Office, Michael and Jan

Michael and Jan’s relationship gradually transformed into one of television’s most uncomfortable romances. Between emotional manipulation, explosive arguments, and total instability, the dynamic often felt more disturbing than comedic during later episodes.

Sex and the City, Carrie and Big

Carrie and Big defined much of Sex and the City, but revisiting the relationship highlights years of dishonesty, emotional games, and commitment issues. Many viewers now question why the series treated them as an aspirational romance.

Gilmore Girls, Paris and Asher Fleming

Paris dating much older Yale professor Asher Fleming was played surprisingly casually within Gilmore Girls. In retrospect, the relationship’s age gap and academic power imbalance make the storyline far more uncomfortable than the show seemed to realize.

Dawson’s Creek, Pacey and Tamara

Pacey’s affair with his adult teacher Tamara was presented as mature and exciting during early episodes. Today, many viewers see the storyline very differently given the obvious legal and ethical problems surrounding the relationship.

One Tree Hill, Brooke and Felix

Brooke and Felix were framed as a dramatic teen romance, but Felix’s controlling behavior and repeated manipulation made the relationship deeply unpleasant. Even longtime fans often consider him one of the show’s most disliked love interests.

Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith and Derek

Meredith and Derek became one of television’s biggest couples, yet the relationship regularly involved workplace favoritism, emotional manipulation, and poor communication. Derek especially gets viewed much more critically by modern audiences during rewatches.

House, House and Cuddy

Fans spent years wanting House and Cuddy together, but the actual relationship quickly became toxic and unstable. The storyline eventually escalated so badly that House literally drove a car through Cuddy’s dining room wall.