In a few short weeks, DC Universe will stream the Stargirl TV series that will also air on the CW. As with the Harley Quinn animated series, this trailer suggests that DC Universe has recovered from its Swamp Thing stumble while lighting the superhero flame for a new generation. Not that the younger crowd needs incentive to enjoy comic book stories, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The special effects in this trailer also look improved over a previous trailer while promising badassery from a budding teenage heroine, Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger). And Joel McHale is there, too, doling out a variant of his famed sarcastic shtick, and that’s never a bad thing (unless you’re a diehard Tiger King devotee who doesn’t realize that McHale has a shtick).

In this trailer, we McHale’s Starman character informing Courtney’s stepdad (Luke Wilson), who was once his superhero sidekick (the Star-Spangled Kid), that his torch must be passed. Despite Starman clearly being in peril — and we don’t know if he survives, disappears, or lives on in flashbacks or as an apparition, maybe even as a cardboard cutout — he expends the effort to reveal that, nope, stepdad cannot take the torch. It must go to Courtney, who will be Stargirl, and as this trailer more-than-reveals, she’s up for the task and seizes the cosmic energy staff. From there, she begins to assemble a new Justice Society, including Hourman (Lou Ferrigno Jr., who grew up with The Incredible Hulk at home, so it really is a new generation here) and Wildcat (Yvette Monreal), to take down the Injustice Society.

Previously, McHale told us that his first superhero role will see him fly and shoot energy with the staff, which is kind-of like Thor’s hammer because only certain folks are worthy to hold the thing. That’s cool, but whichever incarnation of Starman that he’s playing isn’t quite clear, so things are obviously tweaked for 2020:

Starman was invented, well, I guess he premiered, in 1941 for real. The same exact year that Captain America premiered, and it’s a very interesting — because I didn’t know this about comic books — that competing companies would kind of release the same character… My character is resurrected from back then, and he’s had different incarnations over the years. I have a friend who’s a serious comic book aficionado, and he’s a big fan. At some point, he had an overcoat, and he always had a powerful staff. Anyway, Stargirl is the name of the series, and I am indirectly related to this girl. She plays a high schooler, so it’s a whole new universe that they’re introducing with some old characters.

Stargirl will debut on the DC Universe streaming service on Monday, May 18, and then on Tuesday, May 19 on The CW.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” enjoyed a nice run at the top of the charts until recently, although it’s still near the No. 1 spot. He hasn’t been afraid to push the song, and other After Hours material, since the album’s release. Shortly after the record came out, The Weeknd shared a remix of the track featuring Lil Uzi Vert, and now he’s back with another new iteration of the song: Today, he has shared a “Heartless” remix by Major Lazer.

Diplo and company flipped the track into a dancehall-inspired banger, replacing the dark vibes with a more upbeat disposition, which shows just how possible it is to totally re-contextualize a song while retaining its core elements.

The Weeknd has greatly expanded After Hours since its initial release. Aside from the aforementioned remixes, he also shared remixes from Oneohtrix Point Never (who provided the music for the Weeknd-starring Uncut Gems), Chromatics, and The Blaze. Additionally, he added a trio of brand new songs to the deluxe version of the album: “Nothing Compares,” “Missed You,” and “Final Lullaby.”

Listen to the Major Lazer remix of “Blinding Lights” above, and read our review of After Hours here.

After Hours is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.

Killing Eve is back and deadlier than ever.

The show’s season three premiere kicked off with a couple of gruesome deaths, and some plot. There was plot, guys. In fact, this show often finds creative ways to combine character subtext with stylish murder sequences, and it’s about time we acknowledge that, which is why we’re going to be breaking down the best kills of every episode this season. Who committed them? How were they done? And what clues can they offer for the story moving forward? We’re about to find out.

Consider us your digital crime scene investigators (who rely entirely too much on GIFable aids).

The Spice Kill

“Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” began here …

That’s a young Dasha, training at a facility in Russia. We know she’ll go on to become Villanelle’s trainer and handler, but for now, she’s just a young woman with fanboys lurking off the mat, ruining her concentration and causing her to misstep on her landing. If you’ve seen any spy movie involving beautiful young Russian women, you know they always begin their careers in espionage with exceptional athletics, which seems to be the case here. We learn Dasha was plucked from her impoverished existence because of her skill, and she could easily be thrown back in the gutter if she disappoints.

That last bit is crucial to understanding why Dasha later went full Tarantino on that poor boy making puppy dog eyes at her. Dasha is ruthless and willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve her personal endgame. She’s also a legend, a particularly sadistic assassin who likes to leave ingenious calling cards, like a dusting of chalk for her dead lover to choke on.

This death scene felt raw, like the work of an experienced killer, but it also hints at Villanelle’s own messy return to her life of crime. When Dasha pulls her from civilian life — and a particularly lavish wedding — she baits her into working for the Twelve again by weaponizing her own career. Dasha was an original, her jobs are still being studied by professionals, she’s considered the best. And she knows how that will dig at Villanelle, whose ego and delusions of grandeur often influence her behavior.

Which is how we get to the spice kill. Villanelle is sent to eliminate a spice shop keeper… for reasons. (Really, where’s the logic behind these assassinations? Is Morgan Freeman’s character from Wanted running this charade?)

Dressed in a delivery uniform with a pixie cut, Villanelle makes a delivery to a store on a busy street in Girona. She sells an imaginative sob story about a sick grandfather, gaining the woman’s sympathy. When she climbs a ladder to retrieve a spice said to help with heart problems, a glassy-eyed Villanelle simply nudges her off, causing her to fall presumably to her death.

Except, the shopkeeper isn’t dead, and she attacks Villanelle from behind. It’s a shocking moment for fans who’ve seen the assassin in action dozens of times. She’s impulsive and prone to improvising, but she’s rarely sloppy. She’s forced to beat the shopkeeper with a jar of spice in much the same way that Dasha ferally attacked the boy in the locker room decades earlier. It’s brutal and visceral and unorganized, which might point to a weakness for Villanelle this season. She’s been out of the game, she’s being roped back in by a woman who serves as an unwelcome reminder of her past. She’s becoming emotional when it comes to her jobs, staging a scene by sprinkling paprika over the woman’s dead body before muttering, “Untouchable,” and referencing Dasha’s earlier comment.

If anything, this first directive hinted at Villanelle’s instability, her uncertainty over what she wants in life: does she want to retire to the Italian countryside with a rich wife, become a handler like Dasha, usurp her mentor’s legacy, or get back with Eve?

Villanelle, like young Dasha, feels like she’s on the ropes a bit, being forced to find a way to survive in a world that won’t let her find her own agency. If she were smart, she’d reconcile with her wife (?) and find a private island to stow away on, but Villanelle is ruled by her greed, her hunger for more, and this kill proved that what she really wants is to become more powerful than her makers. And she’s willing to execute anyone she has to in order to do it.

BBC America’s ‘Killing Eve’ airs on Sundays at 9:00 PM EST with simulcasting on AMC.

In February, Variety reported that Sam Raimi was “in talks” to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange, after original director Scott Derrickson left the project due to ever-vague “creative differences.” Two months later, there still hasn’t been any official word from Marvel, although in a conference call on Tuesday, the Evil Dead trilogy director all but confirmed his involvement.

“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” Raimi said. “He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2, I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.” Raimi is referring to this scene, with J. Jonah Jameson’s brainstorming names for Spidey’s new nemesis, but more importantly, it sounds like the 50 States of Fright producer is returning to comic book movies for the first time since Spider-Man 3, which is both better and worse than you remember it.

Again, Raimi for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t official until Marvel says it is, but that hasn’t stopped fans of the director’s work, from Evil Dead II (the greatest horror movie sequel ever?) to Spider-Man 2 (the greatest comic book movie sequel ever?) to A Simple Plan (extremely underrated!), from celebrating the news.

If it’s a Sam Raimi movie, you know what means? Bruce Campbell, welcome to the MCU.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled to come out on November 5, 2021.

(Via Coming Soon)

As the streaming wars begin to take shape, one of the biggest selling points for a lot of these services — both new and old — are the beloved comfort sitcoms of our past. However, while most of the headlines have gone to who gets the rights to Seinfeld, The Office, and Friends, a beloved cult sitcom that may be better than all three has quietly resurfaced on Netflix.

I speak, of course, of six seasons (and no movie) of Community. Across two networks (or one network and one now defunct streaming service), Community gave us 110 fantastic episodes , or rather, 97 fantastic episodes, plus the 13 episodes NBC produced in season four without creator and showrunner Dan Harmon (otherwise known as the gas-leak year). No show has ever rivaled Community in terms of pop-culture riffing, inside jokes, and running gags, and no sitcom has taken on so many targets, from Law & Order to spaghetti westerns to the multiverse! Some of those jokes were so good, and so well hidden that it took years for viewers to pick up on them. Most people also mostly remember the core cast of the series, but in its later seasons, Community actually churned through some fairly remarkable series regulars in Jonathan Banks, Keith David, and Paget Brewster, plus Community assembled an amazing roster of recurring characters, including Magnitude, Star-Burns, Leonard, John Goodman’s Vice Dean Laybourne, and John Oliver’s Professor Ian Duncan.

There was also a lot of behind-the-scenes drama involving Dan Harmon, the cast turnover, and the network’s annual decision over whether to bring the series back. It eventually achieved most of what it set out to accomplish, which was six seasons and a movie (the movie is apparently still in the works, potentially). New viewers of the series on Netflix will not have to endure the stress of that, but they can enjoy one of the best binge-watches of all time. We encourage everyone to watch them all (yes, even the gas leak season), but for those sampling, here are the 15 best episodes of the series of all time.

15. Cooperative Polygraphy (Season 5, Episode 4)

The Story: After Pierce’s unexpected passing, a team of investigators headed by the no-nonsense Mr. Stone arrives at Greendale to subject the study group to lie detector tests before they can be considered for distributions under the will.

Why It’s On The List: Otherwise known as the one with Justified’s Walton Goggins, “Cooperative Polygraphy” is one of only two representatives on this list from season five, and it is the closest that Community comes to a return to form after Dan Harmon takes back his rightful place as showrunner. The episode is ostensibly about Pierce’s investigation from beyond the grave into whether any of the study group might have murdered him, but it reveals itself to be more about the secrets that the study group had held from one another, secrets that Pierce betrayed from beyond the grave. Even in death, Pierce manages to sew discord and turn his friends against each other. It’s not just a fast-paced funny episode, but it also acts as a brilliant illustration of how far these characters have come as people since the beginning of the series.

14. Contemporary American Poultry (Season 1, Episode 21)

The Story: Jeff’s plan to get chicken fingers from the school cafeteria for the study group quickly evolves into a mafia movie-style endeavor with Abed calling all the shots.

Why It’s On The List: “Contemporary American Poultry” is a Goodfellas parody, with Abed in Ray Liotta’s role, and while I am sure there’s still plenty to love about the episode without basic knowledge of the Scorsese mafia film, the episode was definitely one that is immeasurably improved by having seen it. There are a number of episodes like this that parodied specific movies instead of genres (“Critical Film Studies” parody of My Dinner with Andre, for instance), and it was both to the series’ credit and detriment. Dan Harmon almost insisted on having a pop-culture savvy audience, and while that was great for building a cult following, it also alienated a lot of less pop-culture savvy viewers.

13. Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television (Season 6, Episode 13)

The Story: As their sixth year at Greendale draws to a close, Abed asks everyone to imagine pitching a TV show about what they would do in season seven.

Why It’s On the List: After Community was canceled by NBC and picked up by Yahoo’s streaming service, it was never quite the same, and that is inevitable when a show loses a big part of its original cast (especially when one of those cast members is Donald Glover). There aren’t many iconic episodes in the final two seasons, but credit to Harmon for absolutely nailing the series finale. In the series finale, each character imagines what a season seven might look like for Greendale, and it is as meta and self-reflexive as any episode of Community, as much a commentary on if there’d be a season seven than what it might look like. It’s touching and a little bittersweet, but after six seasons, the series finale is the perfect distillation, for better or worse, of what Community can be.

12. Paradigms of Human Memory (Season 2, Episode 21)

The Story: As the study group gathers to assemble their 20th and final Anthropology diorama of the year, they begin reminiscing about their favorite times together, including a trip they made to a western ghost town, a last-minute glee club performance and the array of costumes that Dean Pelton has managed to wear over the year. Meanwhile, Troy’s pet monkey returns only to disappear back into the school’s ventilation system.

Why It’s On the List: In 2011, a network television show featured a monkey named Annie’s Boobs, which gets lost in the community college’s venting system. A search for Annie’s Boobs ultimately leads to a clip show — or rather, a brilliant, hilarious parody of a clip show, complete with several digs at the then-popular Fox series, Glee. Oh, and also a classic Jeff Winger speech that references the Traveling Wilbury’s, which ultimately keeps the study group together. It’s classic Community, only in clip form.

11. Physical Education (Season 1, Episode 18)

The Story: Jeff refuses to participate in a pool class because the teacher forces him to play in gym shorts, and the study group discovers a white version of Abed at the college.

Why It’s On the List: One of the funniest episodes of the series saw Jeff trying to impart a lesson about beating your own path instead of trying to be someone else, which segues into a brilliant impression of Winger by Abed that is part Dick Van Dyke, part Sam Malone, and “40 percent Zach Braff from Scrubs.” I still don’t know if that is an insult or compliment, but I do know that it’s hilarious, as is the episode’s stinger with Tory and Abed playing Bert and Ernie. Oh, and the episode also ends in a completely naked Jeff sprawled across a pool table, because episode 18 is where Dan Harmon discovered the fan service that would fuel the series for five more seasons.

10. Epidemiology (Season 2, Episode 6)

The Story: The study group is left to fend for themselves by Dean Pelton during an outbreak due to tainted food at Greendale’s Halloween party. Basically, the Dean bought a bunch of old Army rations

Why It’s On the List: “Epidemiology” parodied both the pandemic movie and the zombie movie, set to … Abba songs. Yes, Abba songs. Dean Pelton bought some old Army rations for a Halloween party, which unleashes a virus that infects nearly everyone at the party except for Chang — who is outside — and Troy and Abed in the basement, until Abed sacrifices him for Troy so that Troy could “be the first black man to make it to the end.” It’s one of those wonderful Community episodes where it feels almost impossible that this many jokes could be packed into 22 minutes

9. Geothermal Escapism (Season 5, Episode 5)

The Story: As a going-away present to Troy before his around-the-world trip, Abed sets up a high-stakes game of “Hot Lava” at the college, but Britta suspects that the game is just masking his real feelings about Troy’s departure.

Why It’s On the List: “Geothermal Escapism” is the best episode of the last three seasons. It’s also Donald Glover’s last episode, and as Dan Harmon himself has conceded, the show would never quite be the same or as good without him. The episode sees Abed create a campus-wide game of Hot Lava before Troy sets sails across the world, per the instructions of Pierce’s will, and better still: He’s eventually joined by LeVar Burton. The episode, directed by Joe Russo, is a solid, funny episode until the third act, when it gives Troy the big emotional send-off that we all craved, although here the loss of Troy is as much about what it means to the remainder of the characters as it is to Troy himself.

8. Critical Film Studies (Season 2, Episode 19)

The Story:: Jeff’s Pulp Fiction-themed surprise party for Abed is spoiled when Abed tells him over dinner that he’s done with pop culture. But is this confession actually just part of another movie homage?

Why It’s On the List: It’s hard to stress what a brilliant bait-and-switch “Critical Film Studies” is. The episode was billed as a Pulp Fiction parody, but in reality, after the Pulp Fiction wrapping paper was ripped away, the real parody is a My Dinner with Andre spoof that takes place at a high-end restaurant between Jeff and Abed, and it’s all the more satisfying for it. It isn’t one of the funniest episodes of Community, but it is maybe the most layered and emotionally complex episode.

7. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (Season 2, Episode 14)

The Story: The study group plays Dungeons and Dragons with another classmate to improve his spirits, but Pierce’s jealousies cause their good intentions to backfire.

Why It’s On the List: I have never played Dungeons and Dragons in my life, and despite how often the game is referenced as short-hand for a certain kind of nerd/geek in pop culture, I didn’t really even understand how it was played. This episode was my entry point, and while I still don’t fully understand the intricacies (despite the aid of Stranger Things), I understand why the game is so appealing. It’s because the game — like this episode — offers creative opportunities for group storytelling, and there’s a certain kind of bond in that. Here, “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” not only provided an overview of the game and lot of great laughs, but illustrated what a powerfully good ensemble show that Community is.

6. Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design (Season 2, Episode 9)

The Story: Dean Pelton tries to bust Jeff for a phony night school credit, which only unveils a series of conspiracies, plots, and double-crosses between Jeff, Annie, and the Dean.

Why It’s On the List: In this episode, Jeff’s fake investigation into a fake conspiracy theory transforms into a real investigation into Professor Professorson, and eventually the episodes falls into a sort of conspiracy inception, but not before taking a grand detour through a massive blanket fort constructed by Troy and Abed. It’s Troy and Abed who mix wide-eyed wonder with the darker elements of this conspiracy-theory parody that makes for one powerfully funny episode of Community.

5. Basic Lupine Urology (Season 3, Episode 17)

The Story: In a homage to Law & Order, the study group investigates a crime when someone sabotages their science experiment. When they discover the perp, Annie plans on prosecuting them to the fullest extent of Greendale’s Code of Conduct.

Why It’s On the List: Pop! Pop! Late in its third season run, Community had a minor creative drought, but it was this Law & Order spoof that brought it fully back to the forefront. “Lupine Urology” dropped some of the meta-commentary, Harmon took a break from using his show as therapy, and the episode completely devoted itself to being a hilarious, gag-heavy, laugh-a-second L&O parody that also managed to take advantage of its huge roster of minor characters. This is one of those terrific Community episodes that’s terrific even as a stand-alone episode to people with no knowledge of the series. For the newbie, this is the perfect entry point.

4. Pillows and Blankets (Season 3, Episode 14)

The Story: Presented in the style of Ken Burns’ documentary, The Civil War, what starts as a casual disagreement over pillows and blankets soon blossoms into all-out war on the Greendale campus. While insults are hurled and the study group chooses loyalties, Jeff tries desperately to negotiate a truce, but with neither Abed nor Troy budging on their principles or real estate, the future looks grim for the duo’s friendship.

Why It’s On the List: There’s a sixth-season episode of Black-ish about how Rainbow and Dre push the exact right buttons to set each other off that I think owes a little to this episode of Community, where Troy and Abed push each others’ buttons in ways that only two best friends are capable of doing. But of course, this is Community, so a very real fight between two best friends takes on the form of a Ken Burns parody set in blanket forts, because that is the genius of Community.

3. Fistful of Paintballs/A Few More Paintballs (Season 2, Episode 23 and Episode 24)

The Story: When the study group learns that there’s a sinister plot behind the paintball tournament, they unite the remaining players to defeat the enemy. In a “spaghetti western” parody, Pierce then tries to get revenge on the rest of the study group.

Why It’s On the List With the huge success of the season one finale, a sequel seemed all but inevitable, and this two-parter basically combined spaghetti westerns with Star Wars with 80s comedies where the good guys had to win to save their school/fraternity/business. The action-comedy aspects of the episodes are great, but it’s that big, rousing finale that seals it, as the episode reveals itself to be less about a paintball match and more about saving Greendale and the family that it represents for the students (including transfers played by Dan Byrd and Busy Phillips, the Cougar Town stars who make cameos).

2. Remedial Chaos Theory (Season 3, Episode 4)

The Story: At Abed and Troy’s housewarming party, Jeff decides to let the decision on who gets the pizza rest on the roll of the dice, leaving Abed to contemplate six alternate realities.

Why It’s On The List: “Remedial Chaos Theory” is easily the most quoted episode of Community of all time, and every time you hear someone refer to the fact that we are living in the darkest timeline, it’s this episode to which they are referring. The premise is simple but brilliantly clever: In each of the six timelines when the study group gets together, a different person has to leave to get pizza, and how we get to see how the group dynamic shifts in the absence of each study group member. The episode’s brilliance is in illustrating the importance of each character to the series in their absence. Plus, Pierce had sex with Eartha Kitt six times.

1. Modern Warfare (Season 1, Episode 23)

The Story: Greendale Community College is transformed into an apocalyptic war zone when the dean promises the winner of a paintball competition priority registration, and it could fan the flames of sexual tension between Jeff and Britta.

Why It’s On The List: “Modern Warfare” brings in every cliche and trope imaginable, referencing — among others — The Book of Eli, Scarface, Boondock Saints, Rambo, The Matrix, “Friends,” “Cheers,” “Lost,” and even “Glee,”ending in a beautiful paint-ball Mexican stand-off and monster green-paint explosion. Oh, and Jeff and Britta have sex. The episodes kills. It’s funny, unexpected, and smart, and not just the best all-time episode of Community, but one of the greatest sitcom episodes ever.

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You can count on these things to pull their weight.

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“I’ve learned that the confidence to look how I wanted was there all along.”

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Money, money, money, money!

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