The renewal is not much of a surprise, though there was a time when the fate of this series was less certain—at least from the outside perspective. The series premiered on Lifetime in September of 2018 but floundered on the cable network. It began streaming on Netflix in December of that year where it found both a critical and commercial audience. The second season was launched exclusively on Netflix in December 2019....
Deutch is chatting to us via Zoom – the norm during lockdown – but for some reason we can’t get his camera to work. No wall of books to nose at, or Californian skies to envy, just a blank screen. But in a weird way perhaps it’s fitting – we’re flashing back to the ‘80s to recall the story of Pretty In Pink, a love story in many ways, not just for Andie, Duckie and Blane on screen but for the actors and creators in real life, for audiences watching at the time and viewers falling in love all over again decades later....
On the “New World,” an alien planet only recently colonized by humans, the all-male settlement of Prentisstown has ascribed varyingly demanding interpretations of masculinity and morality to their members’ handling of the Noise. Todd Hewitt, the community’s sole boy, must come of age when he faces something even more chaotic than his Noise: the first girl he’s ever seen, a silent space traveler named Viola. Over a decade later, the book’s dual commentary on information overload and toxic masculinity remains relevant....
Chiba was his stage name. He was born as Sadaho Maeda and adopted “Chiba” after Japan’s Chiba prefecture where he grew up. His Japanese stage name was Shinichi Chiba, but he was known internationally as Sonny. Chiba was a natural athlete and a contender for Japan’s Olympic gymnastics team until he was sidelined by an injury. He pivoted to study Karate under the venerated master Mas Oyama, a hardened full-contact fighter who was famous for killing bulls with his bare hands....
Yes, at a time before the video game industry was nearly as standardized as it is now, developers would regularly release entirely different versions of the same game in various regions. While those different versions were usually the result of censorship requests, cultural confusion, or even copyright issues, some games were changed due to concerns about their difficulty level. While you probably know a few stories about some retro games that were deemed to be “too difficult” and were ultimately changed out of fear that people wouldn’t buy them, you may be surprised to learn that quite a few NES games were ultimately changed because their developers worried that they weren’t difficult enough....
Artists sang the news, sometimes causing it, other times reacting. Rock and roll had grown up and rock musicians took on responsibilities. Rhythm and blues got loose and soul musicians took to the streets. A former University of California philosophy professor named Angela Davis was charged with aiding and abetting the murder of a judge and Aretha Franklin personally offered to post bail. The documentary series points out how The Beatles took the lead on youth culture movement during the 1960s, and how the elder society tried to beat it down in the 1970s, only to have John Lennon read the news and write “Gimme Some Truth,” before breakfast....
But if the initial doubters learned anything, it’s to never bet against a Nintendo handheld. Not only did the DS go on to be a massive success; its final sales figures made it Nintendo’s most successful console ever, handheld or otherwise. The addition of a second screen worked remarkably well and inspired developers to create one of the best libraries in gaming history. These are the 20 best Nintendo DS games ever....
While my research into this topic revealed quite a few N64 titles that were indeed as successful as they were innovative, I also quickly discovered that the N64 library ran so much deeper than I initially suspected. Personal ignorance aside, maybe it’s a testament to the innovations of some of the N64’s most overlooked titles that I only recently appreciated how ahead of their time some of those games were....
While it’s foolish to think that every PS2 game that was at least interesting enough to deserve a sequel would eventually get one, it’s sometimes tough to look at the PS2’s library and not wonder what could have been. At a time of yearly sequels and live-service games, the PS2’s collection of truly unique titles looks better than ever. Call it nostalgia or wishful thinking, but it’s just a bit too easy to dream of what modern versions of some long-ignored PS2 games might look like....
An episode as fun as this one almost makes it a shame that A Discovery of Witches is a continuing story and not a case-of-the-week romp. Imagine it: Matthew and Diana through the centuries, tracking down magical items, exposing historical figures as massive, Anti-Semitic prongs, having punch-ups with the royal guards and, at the end of every episode, readying the horses for a swift getaway. Exhilaration itself! Enjoyable as that arrangement might be, we’d miss out on so much....
It is also so much more than these films, dripping with artistry, and yet considerably less, with masturbating aliens, pussy ping pong, and sphincter-pinching obelisks. Richard Elfman’s sci-fi comedy has an abundance of experimental fun and a happily reckless disregard for taste. It owes as much to Frank Zappa as it does to Frank Capra, and can in some ways be seen as a screwball comedy take on the 1955 film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly....
Altered Carbon Episode 5 “How does it feel to be a few hours away from freedom?” Ortega asks Kovacs in this installment of Altered Carbon, hinting that in discovering Isaac Bancroft’s scheme to take over his father’s sleeve, the case is somehow solved. But of course it’s not that easy as new mysteries arise just as Kovacs and Ortega are growing closer. As a turning point in the series, “The Wrong Man” definitely had a lot to love and even more to wonder about, but the closure for some characters as the story shifted was still very satisfying....
Altered Carbon Episode 6 With alliances shifting and convictions being tested left and right, this episode of Altered Carbon played out as though someone were shuffling a deck of cards but still laying out each hand with plenty of showmanship and flair. We are introduced to new characters, learn more about those we already know, and find that not everything is as we thought it was with those on the periphery....
A League of Their Own, the TV adaptation of Penny Marshall’s 1992 movie, is set to premiere on Aug. 12. Like the movie before it, the series will dramatize the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League which saw women playing America’s pastime while the major leagues were on pause for World War II. Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) co-created the show alongside Will Graham and will star as catcher Carson Shaw. Other Prime Video Originals of note this month include season 2 of British comedy The Outlaws on and the Ron Howard-directed Thirteen Lives, both premiering on Aug....
Other library movies include Antz, Moulin Rouge, The Prestige, The Village, and Dazed and Confused, all of which arrive on Feb. 1. Sonic the Hedgehog is set to arrive later on Feb. 18. February 1Antz (1998)Australia (2008)Be My Valentine (2013) (Hallmark Movies Now)Burn Motherf**ker, Burn! (2017) (Showtime)Coming To America (1988)Courageous (2011)Dazed And Confused (1993)Down To Earth (2001)Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019) (Showtime)How She Move (2008)Imagine That (2009)Just Wright (2010)Kiki (2017) (IFC Films Unlimited)Love by Accident (2020) (UP Faith & Family)Love by the 10th Date (2017) (Lifetime Movie Club)Moulin Rouge (2001)Notes On A Scandal (2006)Shanghai Noon (2000)SMOOCH (2011) (Hallmark Movies Now)Spy Next Door (2010)The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)The Ides Of March (2011)The Last Appeal (2016) (UP Faith & Family)The Prestige (2006)There’s Something About Mary (1998)The Village (2004)Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) (Showtime)19-2: Season 1 (Acorn TV)African American Lives: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)Billions: Seasons 1-3Black in Latin America: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)Butter and Brown: Season 1 (UP Faith & Family)City on a Hill: Season 1 (Showtime)Civil War Journal: Season 1 (History Vault)Faster With Finnegan: Season 1 (MotorTrend)Finding Your Roots: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries/PBS Living)For the Love of Jason: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel)Genealogy Roadshow: Season 1 (PBS Living)I Killed My BFF: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central)I Married Joan: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)Mercy Street: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)One On One: Season 1-5Raiders of Ghost City: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)Safe House: Season 1 (Sundance Now)The Game: Seasons 1-3The White Princess: Season 1 (STARZ)What’s New Scooby-Doo?...
Prime Video kicks off the month with The Terminal List on July 1. Though everything about that name screams “MOVIE” to me for some reason, the Chris Pratt-starring action property is actually a series. Pratt will portray James Reece, a Navy SEAL who returns home after his team is ambushed on a covert mission only to discover that the threat might still persist. Then Prime Video closes out the month with Paper Girls on July 29....
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a year since Animal Crossing: New Horizons came into our lives and became a social phenomenon. While we’re a little removed from that time when it felt like everyone was playing and talking about New Horizons, millions are just waiting for an excuse to get lost in the game yet again. Will they find that excuse in this upcoming update? Well, it’s certainly not the most extensive update that we’ve seen so far, but it does include some long-awaited features, fancy duds, and what appears to be the unlikely addition of a fart animation....
Both Momoa and director James Wan are back for the sequel, with Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Temuera Morrison also reprising their roles. But there are also plenty of new things to look forward to in the sequel, including a darker tone that Wan has said is inspired by cult-classic Italian horror movie Planet of the Vampires. This influence goes hand in hand with the title of the movie itself, which some eagle-eyed fans have pointed out could be a reference to Necrus, a militaristic rival underwater kingdom introduced in the comics in the ’60s....
But the movie almost went in the opposite direction, further winking at the interchangability between the two. Early concept art posted to Reddit shows Strange wearing Iron Man’s Mark 50 armor while facing off against Thanos’s minion the Ebony Maw. Created by Phil Saunders, who has worked on several MCU films, the images show Strange deflecting Ebony Maw’s needle attacks while wearing the armor, his Eye of Agamotto glowing in the center....
“I can’t say I remember the first time I saw it,” he recalls. “But as I’ve said before, I’m the only cast member who was born when I Love Lucy was still on the air, the original series. I think I was born during Season 4 and absolutely grew up on it. It was on my parents’ crappy little black and white TV when I was a preschooler and in elementary school....
