It’s not clear when the movie industry will reopen like it once was, with cast and crew unworried about social distancing. Maybe we’ll get more movies where human thespians interact with CGI hedgehogs — like, say, a sequel to this year’s Adam Sandler-approvedSonic the Hedgehog, which opened and made a mint just before the nation’s theaters closed due to a rampaging pandemic. That, as per The Hollywood Reporter, is what may be happening.
THR reports that Paramount is in the early stages of development for the follow-up, which managed to make around $150 million in the U.S. alone, and in only about a month in release. (The studio claims it’s since sold around 2 million units in our current PVOD world.) There are no details about what the story would be, whether human stars James Marsden and Jim Carrey and voice star Ben Schwartz would return. But director Jeff Fowler, who managed to make the rare well-reviewed video game movie, will at least be back.
The first Sonic, based on the classic Sega Genesis side-scroller, ran into some trouble in post-production, facing a barrage of mockery over the design of its titular spikey mammal. The release was bumped a handful of months — right to the cusp of a viral outbreak, as it turned out — but at least it mostly worked out in the end. Sort of.
If you’re trying to figure out what to watch next, a great place to start are the 40 best shows on Amazon Prime Video right now, and none of these titles are currently available on Netflix.
The Americans follows Russian spies (Keri Russell and Mathew Rhys) posing as a married couple living in America, and while the missions are enjoyable, and the glimpse into the early 1980s is fascinating, the real pull in this show is the relationship drama, both between the married spies — who are often pulled between their love for one another and their love of country — an FBI agent (Noah Emmerich) who is pulled between his own relationship with his family and country, and the children of the Russian spies, pulled between their family and their love of America. Well-crafted, engrossing, and hypnotic, The Americans is one of best TV shows — if not the best TV show — right now, and its phenomenal recently completed fourth season finally gained the series the Emmy recognition it so richly deserves. The series has unfortunately finally reached its end, but that means there’s no better time to start binge-watching The Americans than now.
The Wire gave us Omar Little. It gave us Stringer Bell. And Bunk, McNulty, Kima, Bubbles, and so many other characters. The Wire examines the Baltimore drug scene from the perspective of the police and the drug dealers, and it humanizes both sides of the war on drugs. It confronts deep-seated problems in the inner city in accessible ways, and it unpacks the bureaucracy surrounding those issues in a way that makes us understand the struggles of law enforcement in their efforts to tackle the drug problem and the plight of the dealers. Spanning five seasons, The Wire is like a series of interconnected novels featuring deeply flawed, but deeply human characters. It’s a one-of-a-kind series, a show that is not only entertaining, thoughtful, and insightful, but also necessary.
The godfather of prestige dramas, David Chase’s series follows the life of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), as he struggles like so many of us with the work-life balance, only his work is running a criminal organization and his life involves a complicated, suburban Italian family. Spanning six seasons, The Sopranos may be the best-written series of all time and often places first or second on lists of the greatest television series of all time. (This author would place it third, behind The Wire and Breaking Bad, though both of those shows owe a great debt to The Sopranos, which created the template for the modern anti-hero and kicked off the Golden Age of television.) Regardless of where it is placed among the greatest of all time, it is essential television viewing, a masterpiece rich with nuance, comedy, brutality, and emotion, as well as some of the best-drawn characters in any medium.
There simply isn’t a better show to binge watch when you need a pick me up than this one. Hilarious, smart, and relentlessly sunny, Parks and Recreation is a balm to weary viewers. Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope has joined the ranks of television icons, but the supporting cast is no less wonderful. If you’re looking for a show about good people trying to do good things while making good jokes, this will be your new-old favorite show. While the first season feels a bit too much like a riff on The Office, it finds its feet in season two and never relents. While so much of today’s comedy is mired in cynicism, Parks and Recreation will make you want to do better. It also gets better with each rewatch, so pour yourself some Snake Juice and enjoy.
Few shows have as many jokes per minute as 30 Rock. The brainchild of Tina Fey, 30 Rock shows the daily madness of an SNL-like variety show, which Fey’s Liz Lemon at the helm. As she tries (sometimes failing) to wrangle her writers and her actors (Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski), Lemon also attempts the ever-elusive dream of “having it all.” Her quest will feel very, very familiar to viewers, particularly women, as they try and balance, work, life, love, and even a small bit of success. With Alec Baldwin turning in his best performance to date (come at me, Glengarry Glen Ross fans) as Jack Donaghy, Lemon’s boss, mentor, and eventual friend, 30 Rock has the perfect blend of weirdness, sharp writing, and genuine laughs that will make it a favorite for years to come.
By now, we should just know to expect great things from showrunner Amy-Sherman Palladino. The woman who gave us Gilmore Girls and Bunheads also brought a fast-paced, wit-infused drama about a 1950s housewife with a hidden talent for stand-up to Amazon, and the awards season voters ate it up. The show follows Rachel Brosnahan as she plays Midge Maisel, a Jewish housewife disillusioned with her marriage to a cheating, joke-stealing scumbag and ready to break out on her own in the comedy world.
USA Network’s Mr. Robot follows Elliot, a hacker with an acute social anxiety disorder who suffers from delusions and paranoia. During the day, he works as a computer programmer for a company that protects other companies from cyber threats. Elliot has other designs in mind, too, namely taking down one of the biggest corporations in America, E Corp, unsettling America’s financial system, and taking power away from the rich and giving it back to the people. Heavily influenced by American Psycho, Fight Club, the films of Stanley Kubrick, and Taxi Driver, among others, Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot is an unnerving mindf*ck full of conspiracy theories and misdirections. Nothing is ever as it seems in Mr. Robot, and much of the fun is in trying — and mostly failing — to stay ahead of the twists.
Arguably the best comedy on television in recent history, and easily the smartest, Veep is the rare political satire that still works in the post-Trump political environment because it’s not about electoral politics, it’s about the futility of politics. It’s about how people stumble into positions of leadership, not because they are good people, or smart people, or even politically savvy people, but because the system rewards mediocrity and dysfunction. It is a sharp, profane, and intensely funny series, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus — winner of six consecutive Emmy awards for her role in Veep — turns in the best comedic performance of the decade, and she is surrounded by television’s best ensemble.
In television’s greatest all-time Western series, David Milch creates a brilliantly distinctive universe peopled with characters who speak their own language, a pungent one that is Shakespeare, profanity, and gunslinger all rolled into one. Set in 1870’s South Dakota, Deadwood charts the growth of Deadwood from a small camp into town, basing many of the characters on real-life historical figures like Al Swearengen, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, and George Hearst. It also stars an incredible collection of talent — Timothy Olyphant, Anna Gunn, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, John Hawkins, Kim Dickens, and John Hawkes, among many others — who bring the town alive with all its danger, corruption, and family struggles. Those sensitive to profanity, however, should steer clear — in three seasons, nearly 3,000 utterances of the word “f*ck” are employed, and not one is ever wasted.
The long-running HBO series about a fictionalized version of Larry David is as uncomfortable as it is funny, as misanthropic as it is clever. David, of course, was the inspiration for George Constanza on Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm often feels like a Constanza spin-off (which makes the Seinfeld reunion season within the show complicated). Like Seinfeld, Curb is about nothing — or more specifically, the minutia of daily life — with a particular attention paid to daily annoyances. It’s a brilliant show for the way it unpacks trivialities — as its dozens of Emmy nominations attest — but it should be binged in short bursts because the show’s cynicism and general disdain for humanity are often hilarious, but it may also weigh heavily after several hours.
Titus Welliver stars in this police procedural from Amazon about a renegade detective charged with solving some hauntingly grisly murders. Harry Bosch is a former military man with a healthy respect for the rules and an unquenchable thirst for the truth. Each season, he’s presented with a case that threatens his carefully molded view of the world, often leading him to uncover conspiracies, corrupt cops, and even his own mother’s murderer. The subject matter might be dark, but Welliver is clearly having fun playing the brash, give-no-f*cks badass, which is why you should give this crime series a watch.
From 2010-2015, you couldn’t have a conversation about favorite TV shows without someone in your friend group mentioning Downton Abbey. The British series about the inner workings of an aristocratic English family and their manner full of servants became the biggest thing to invade America from across the pond since The Beatles. Watching the crusty Crawley family navigate historic events like the sinking of the Titanic and the First World War while their servants dealt in gossip, intrigue, and scandal below stairs was as entertaining and juicy as any good British drama should be.
Maybe the bleakest, grittiest cop show you’ll ever see, Luther is so intense that it may at times rattle your brain stem. It’s got the best elements of other of its ilk as it follows a genius detective who struggles to separate his personal and professional lives. But it is also pummeling great drama, and Idris Elba is a tour de force (Ruth Wilson is fantastic, too).
Fleabag was co-produced by Amazon and England’s BBC Three. Set in London, it stars the magnificent Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who also created the show) as “a young woman attempting to navigate modern life in London.” That description hardly does the series justice. It’s a hysterical, dirty, sexually devious and surprisingly thoughtful meditation on grief and loneliness that goes by so quickly (there are only six half-hour episodes in each season) that viewers will wish they savored it more before it ends. It’s truly one of the most distinctive, original comedies of the last several years — think Tig Notaro crossed with Broad City — and if we’re lucky, Waller-Bridge will become one of the leading creative voices of her generation.
Nominated for 57 Emmys (winning 20), Boardwalk Empire takes a simmering, novelistic approach to its storytelling. Brilliantly acted and meticulously plotted, Boardwalk Empire can be a slow burn while the audience waits for the pieces to come together, but they always do with near-perfect execution. With a sprawling cast spread out geographically and numerous plotlines flowing away from the series’ main character, Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), the Terence Winter-created series is historical fiction at its best. Loosely based on the life of Nucky Johnson, Boardwalk Empire examines the bootlegging industry in Atlantic City during Prohibition, and it brings in a host of familiar names including Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Arnold Rothstein. However, it’s often the series-created characters played by Michael Pitt, Jack Huston, Charlie Cox, Michael Shannon, Michael K. Williams, and Kelly Macdonald that prove most riveting. It’s a fascinating series from a historical standpoint (it tracks the rise of the modern mafia), absorbing as a work of storytelling, and a remarkable acting showcase. There are no weak seasons here; it’s an incredible series from start to finish and, if anything, it’s only gotten better as it’s aged.
Fans of Suits will love The Good Wife, as it’s essentially the rich man’s version of that show, dealing with the same brand of interoffice politics while mixing in some legal procedural elements to its ongoing serialized storylines. The Good Wife also covers the conflicts that arise between work and relationships, as well as the marriage between a law firm associate and her husband, a state district attorney — and later governor — caught early on in a prostitution scandal. Having just completed its seven-season run on CBS, The Good Wife was one of few Emmy-worthy dramas remaining on the broadcast networks, and no show on television filled its guest roles better — it had 13 Emmy nominations and two wins in the guest acting categories alone. The show began to run out of steam near the end of its run, but it remained mostly entertaining throughout.
Binge watchers love their medical dramas, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a show about the ill that’s as fun as House. Hugh Laurie plays the episodic’s anti-hero, an opioid-addicted, dry-humored, uncaring genius and doctor with a knack for solving unsolvable cases. He’s joined by a rotating team of famous faces (Olivia Wilde, Jesse Spencer, and Jennifer Morrison all starred on the show at some point) but they usually just end up getting in the way of his natural prowess with mysterious illnesses.
For the eight seasons that Psych was on the air, it entertained a kind of cult following. Fans tuned in religiously to watch this buddy-cop drama about an eccentric police detective who claimed “psychic” abilities and his reluctant, by-the-book partner. Stars James Roday and Dule Hill have incredible chemistry on the show which pushes the worn-out, fun-cop-boring-cop trope past its usual limits.
BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and writer Kate Purdy reunite for this adult-animated series starring Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk. The show follows the journey of Alma, a young woman involved in a car accident who slowly begins to lose her mind. She’s forced to question her perception of reality when her father (Odenkirk) reappears years after his death, pushing her to discover how he died and why she seems to have a newfound ability to travel through time. It’s a bit of a mindf*ck, in the best possible way, with Purdy and Waksberg employing rotoscoping, a realistic animation technique never before used on TV, to take viewers on a surreal trek through space and time, along with dark humor and musings on grief, trauma, and mental health.
Doctor Who companion Jenna Coleman trades in time-travel for managing a monarchy in this BBC drama that recounts the reign of Queen Victoria. Victoria’s early years were plagued with problems — she was only 18 when she took the throne and had many challengers — but the show pairs the more political machinations with the swoon-worthy tale of Victoria’s courtship with Prince Albert, who would later become her husband. If you like The Crown, you’ll like this.
The British sitcom is essentially You’re the Worst if the couple at the center of it were 10 years older. Like the FX series, it’s another anti-romcom romcom, although this one involves pregnancy, children, and culture clash (he’s an American wanker, she’s an acerbic, potty-mouthed Irish school teacher). However, the constant bickering and sexual disagreements between Rob (Rob Delaney) and Sharon (Sharon Horgan) are what makes Catastrophe so exhilarating. A more apt name for the series would be Amazon’s other series, Transparent, because the relationship between Sharon and Rob — warts and all — is the most open and honest in television, and maybe the funniest. The only downside to Catastrophe is that its three seasons are each only six half-hour episodes long, and nine hours is not enough time to spend with these characters.
J.K. Simmons stars in this sci-fi thriller which blends a whole bunch of genres as it tells the story of a clueless U.N. employee, who discovers his agency is hiding a world-altering secret. Simmons plays said employee, Howard Silk, who uncovers a parallel universe that’s engaged in a covert war with our own, and he meets his A.U. self, a top spy intent on destroying him. It’s trippy stuff.
Frankly, any of the Star Trek shows make a good binge watch. Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and, hell, even Star Trek: Enterprise are all available to stream on Prime, and they all have their merits (except for Enterprise), but the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy-starring original series is where it all began. To admit to watching one or all of the other programs cited above, but not Star Trek: The Original Series would be a crime against yourself and the rest of sci-fi fandom. This is where Gene Roddenberry’s vision first got its start on broadcast television, after all.
This sci-fi space epic based off a series of beloved books found new life on Amazon for its fourth season after being canceled by Syfy in 2018, good news for fans who wanted more adventures for the show’s rag-tag band of anti-heroes. Set in the future when humanity has colonized the Solar System, The Expanse follows a trio of leads: United Nations Security Council member Chrisjen Avasarala, police detective Josephus Miller, and ship’s officer James Holden as they unravel a conspiracy that could break the uneasy peace. It’s full of action and thriller-like twists, but it’s the memorable, well-rounded character work that makes this a must-see.
Amazon may not stack up favorably against Netflix in the original series department, but Transparent is as good or better than most of Netflix’s original series. It sees Jeffrey Tambor decide, late in life, to transition into a woman, and we see how that decision affects her family in the most hilarious and poignant ways imaginable. It’s a light series with heavy themes, and it has racked up 28 Emmy nominations and eight wins, so far.
The U.K. version was the original cringe comedy, starring Ricky Gervais as clueless boss David Brent, whose desperate attempts at connecting with his underlings are a painful exercise in futility. Martin Freeman is also a stand-out, playing a role that John Krasinski inhabited in the American remake, but it’s the British sarcasm that really elevates this series and makes it worthy of a watch.
Tatiana Maslany plays several clones variations of the same woman in the sweeping conspiracy thriller Orphan Black, and she breathes so much life and so many distinct personalities into each clone that viewers often forget that one woman is playing all the characters (and it’s impossible not to pick a favorite). The supporting cast is mostly great, as well, and for a Canadian series, the production values are excellent. Unfortunately, Orphan Black suffers from a great first season that the rest of the series can’t quite live up to. It gets so bogged down in its own confusing mythology that it begins to run out of steam, although it picks up its momentum again in the fourth season before reaching its fifth season finish line.
Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal is a perfect series to binge-watch, as the ability to watch the episodes back-to-back evens out some of the slow pacing. Hannibal is dark, macabre, and brilliantly creative, and while it has many of the same characters viewers know and appreciate from the movie/book series, it also has an entirely different and unique tone (some would even say better). The murder scenes are equally gruesome and gorgeous, the series’ long arc is as disturbing as it is engrossing, and the acting from Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelson, and Laurence Fishburne is superb. It’s a slow, morbidly addictive burn, and viewers must stick around for Michael Pitt’s Mason Verger in season two, if only for one of the most beautifully unsettling sequences ever seen on network television.
Goliath is an old-school legal thriller from an old-school television writer, David E. Kelley (The Practice, Boston Legal), who is still the reigning king of legal dramas. It’s a meat-and-potatoes show driven by an entertaining storyline and compelling, flawed characters led by Billy McBride, a character played Billy Bob Thornton, who won a Golden Globe for the role. McBride is an alcoholic has-been lawyer who, in typical Grisham fashion, has a case against a big tech firm fall into his lap. On the other side of the case is McBride’s former firm, his ex-wife (Maria Bello) and his old legal partner turned nemesis (William Hurt). There’s nothing new or novel about Goliath except for the fact that it doesn’t try to be new and novel: It’s an old-fashioned, well-made, well-acted and gripping television show with bad guys, morally questionable good guys and a strong supporting cast that also includes Olivia Thirlby, Kevin Weisman (Alias), Dwight Yoakum, and Harold Perrineau.
A legal drama that almost never steps inside a courtroom, Suits stars Gabriel Macht and Patrick Adams as a brash, big-league attorney and his whiz-kid protégé, who is practicing illegally without a law degree. Suits, which has a tenuous understanding of the law, deals week-to-week mostly with settling disputes with cocky threats and yellow manilla folders. It’s rounded out by a fun, USA Network-perfect cast (Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres, Meghan Markle, and Rick Hoffman) and later seasons of the series are more serialized in nature, dealing primarily with interoffice politics and relationship drama. Nothing about Suits is altering the television landscape (in fact, every episode is the same), and the show is certainly not any threat to television’s heavier dramas. However, over the course of the series, it’s become a rock-solid show, one that was willing to break out of the typical USA Network procedural format years before Mr. Robot came along.
This latest mind-bending sci-fi offering from Amazon Prime Video was created by Nathaniel Halpert — one of the minds behind FX’s Legion and Netflix’s The Killing. So yeah, it’s weird. It’s also dramatically rich in ways few sci-fi series are these days. The basic premise revolves around a group of people who live in a small town built on top of “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock the mysteries of the universe. When they start experiencing strange phenomena, they’re forced to dig into the real reason the machine was created and what their role in the grander scheme of things might really be.
Loosely based on the exploits of the 9th century Viking ruler and king, Ragnar Lodbrok, Vikings doesn’t match the level of complexity in Game of Thrones — the universe is smaller, there are fewer characters, and the plotting isn’t as dense — but it’s a solid, if not sometimes spectacular drama that gets progressively better over the course of the series. There’s crunching violence, lots of axe play, and frequent battles as Ragnar extends his rule over parts of Europe. Compared to Game of Thrones, it’s less about mind games and schemes, and more about brute force — and Ragnor’s victories are seldom in doubt. Nevertheless, It’s entertaining to watch the unrelenting violence unfold and revel in the demise of Ragnor’s rivals. While Travis Fimmel is excellent in the lead role and Gustaf Skarsgård’s Floki provides the often necessary comic relief, it’s Katheryn Winnick — as Lagertha — who is the show’s biggest draw.
John Krasinski’s return to television marks a dramatic departure from his The Office days. He plays famed CIA analyst Jack Ryan in this series that explores the character’s beginnings as an up-and-coming agent whose confidence in his abilities often lead to him clashing with higher-ups like his boss, James Greer (a fantastic Wendell Pierce). Ryan infiltrates a terrorist cell with nefarious plans after uncovering how the criminal communicate with each other, but when he’s thrust into the field, things get dangerous.
Greg Daniels — the genius behind shows like The Office and Parks and Rec — serves up a darker bit of comedy with this sci-fi series about death. Well, it’s about what happens after. Robbie Amell plays a man who dies and chooses to have his consciousness upload into a digital afterlife, a serene “living facility” called Lake View. But things aren’t as idyllic has he’d hoped, and his existence becomes more complicated when he ends up falling for his living customer service rep.
A short, intense series, The Fall tracks Superintendent Sarah Gibson (Gillian Anderson) as she hunts serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). The elevator pitch of the series sounds a bit like Silence of the Lambs, but Gibson is no Clarice, and The Fall‘s focus on the nitty-gritty of building a case against someone accused of a horrendous series of crimes is contrasted with the slow, worrying turn of the screw as Paul befriends the woman who may be his next victim. The series falls apart a bit after awhile, but that first season is well worth the watch.
Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston star in this limited series from AMC. Laurie is the big bad, a criminal and arms dealer with a ruthless way of doing business. Hiddleston is the night manager of a Cairo hotel, recruited to spy on the guy and infiltrate his inner circle. He’s clearly way out of his depth and most of the edge-of-your-seat action comes from watching Hiddleston lie, cheat, and steal his way through a bogus cover and a convoluted plan hatched by higher-ups happy to sacrifice him for the greater good.
Blake Anderson, Adam Devine, and Anders Holm star in this office comedy about three buddies who work 9 to 5’s at a telemarketing agency and live together on their downtime. The bros clash with their boss and coworkers while getting into all kinds of shenanigans at home, mostly because they try to extend their hard-partying days into adulthood.
Created by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Paul Weitz, Mozart in the Jungle stars Gael García Bernal as an orchestra conductor and Lola Kirke as an oboist/protégé. The cast is rounded out with beloved actors like Malcolm McDowell and Bernadette Peters, and familiar faces like Safron Burrows. Mozart is sweet and low-key. Viewers who like Canada’s exceptional Slings and Arrows will like Mozart in the Jungle because it’s essentially Slings and Arrows with classical music instead of Shakespeare. It is frothy and fun, and an absolute pleasure to watch, even if it is not exactly essential television.
Loosely based on Phillip K. Dick’s 1962 novel of the same name (it also bears some resemblance to Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America), The Man in the High Castle is set in an alternative, dystopian world where Germany won World War II. Basically, the East Coast is occupied by the Germans, and the West Coast is occupied by the Japanese, and there’s a no-man’s land in between. Exec-produced by Ridley Scott and Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), the series sees various characters working to form a resistance against their occupation by collecting “forbidden newsreels” that show the alternate history in which the Allies won the war in an effort to reveal a larger truth about how the world should be. A dark exploration of what it means to be American, TheMan in the High Castle is a well-acted, tense, and often violent dystopian thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep viewers guessing.
This early aughts spy drama from JJ Abrams is responsible for putting Jennifer Garner on the map. In it, she plays Sydney Bristow, a gifted secret agent who discovers she’s been unknowingly working for the enemy. She then becomes a double agent for the CIA, working alongside her dad of all people, and along the way, she uncovers disturbing truths about her family, her past, and the people she’s chosen to trust.
Recent Changes Through May 2020:
Removed: The X-Files, Damages
Added: Victoria, Counterpart, House, Upload, The Fall, Alias, Star Trek: The Original Series
A few hours after Johns Hopkins University recorded the 100,000th death from the COVID-19 pandemic, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released a solemn speech.
“My fellow Americans, there are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they are forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments,” said Biden, speaking directly to the camera from his office.
“One-hundred thousand lives have been lost to this virus here in the United States alone. Each one leaving behind a family that will never again be whole,” the former vice president said.
“It’s made all the worse by knowing that this is a fateful milestone we should have never reached — that could have been avoided,” he continued.
He then cited a study that showed if the Trump Administration would have acted one week earlier, over 36,000 American lives could have been saved.
Biden concluded his message sharing some wisdom he’s learned after overcoming with the traumatizing loss of two children and a spouse.
“I know there’s nothing I, or anyone else, can say or do to dull the sharpness of the pain you feel right now, but I can promise you from experience,” Biden said, “the day will come when the memory of your loved one will being a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes.”
Joe Biden reacts as US coronavirus death toll passes 100,000
Soon after bowing last November, Disney+ ran into complaints from one vocal group: Simpsons fans. They were (righteously!) angry that the first 20 or so seasons were not available in its original aspect ratio. The new streamer then promised they’d fix that…eventually. Cut to over half a year later, and there’s finally an option to watch them as they were originally intended. It just takes a little tutorial on how to do it.
1. Open Disney+, on whatever device you’re watching it, and go to the Simpsons page.
2. Choose the details tab.
3. There’s a toggle switch for “Remastered Aspect Ratio.” It’s switched to “on,” meaning you’re getting the one that re-frames every image. Click on it to “off,” and voilá! You can watch classic Simpsons episodes in the original box shape in which they were created.
Complaints over the incorrect aspect ratio weren’t just an issue of purity, although it’s that, too. The “remastered aspect ratio,” first done by FXX and which streamed on the old, pre-Disney Simpsons site (with an option to watch the original version as well), often ruin or even eliminate visual gags. Watch the version censored to fit your modern widescreen TV and you’re missing jokes! But now that you know how to stop that, you will finally see the “Old Men Yells at Cloud” newspaper headline as God intended.
Both AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT had a bad week in the ratings last week, with the TNT show drawing its smallest live audience ever, though still more viewers that the concurrent episode of NXT. However, that dip didn’t turn into a downward spiral: both shows saw significant increases in viewership on May 27.
This week’s episode of NXT, which featured the Kurt Angle-officiated Cage Fight between Timothy Thatcher and Matt Riddle, had, according to Showbuzz Daily, an audience of 731,000. That’s a big jump from last week’s 604,000, and the show’s biggest audience since February 19.
NXT also experienced a ratings increase. After not making the top fifty last week, the May 27 ranked twenty-fourth out of all Wednesday night cable shows. NXT scored an 0.19 with viewers 18-49 years old and was most watched by viewers over the age of 50, with whom it scored an 0.36.
Meanwhile, AEW experienced even more viewership growth in the wake of Double or Nothing. After last week’s record-low overnight audience of 654,000, the May 27 episode of Dynamite had 827,000 live cable viewers. That’s the show’s biggest audience since March 18, the first Dynamite without fans.
AEW also improved in the ratings. It was ranked third out of Wednesday night cable shows, scoring a 0.32 with viewers 18-49 – that’s up from fifteenth and 0.23 last week. The show was most popular with men in that age ground, with whom it scored an 0.40.
Earlier in the year, Quentin Tarantino shook up cinephiles by declaring Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk to be the “second” best film of the 2010s. Now he’s back to finally name his pick for the best movie of the past decade, and it’s definitely a choice.
While talking to Premiere (via IndieWire), Tarantino didn’t even hesitate when it came time to reveal David Fincher’s The Social Network as his number one movie of 2010, and it’s all because of Aaron Sorkin‘s writing. After referring to Sorkin as “the greatest active dialogist,” Tarantino set aside his normal penchant for lengthy rantings for a blunt declarative statement. “It is number one because it’s the best, that’s all!” the Pulp Fiction director said. “It crushes all the competition.”
Tarantino’s choice couldn’t have come at a more contentious time, though. Facebook is currently making headlines due to Donald Trump’s recent executive order that targets social media platforms for allegedly hampering free speech after the president was fact-checked by Twitter. While filming The Social Network, no one could’ve possibly guessed at the time that Facebook would evolve into massive platform with the power to influence elections, but here we are. And it’s exactly that sort of sociopolitical ramification that has Sorkin constantly toying with the idea for a sequel:
“I know a lot more about Facebook in 2005 than I do in 2018, but I know enough to know that there should be a sequel,” Sorkin told AP Entertainment. “A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends with settling the lawsuit from the Winklevoss Twins and Eduardo Saverin. … I’ve gotten more than one email from [producer Scott Rudin] with an article attached saying, ‘Isn’t it time for a sequel?’”
If Sorkin ever does get around to writing a sequel, clearly Tarantino will be in line to see it, or at the very least, give it a “Like.”
Being the parent of a toddler is a unique joy that only lasts for a fleeting season, which is why you have to take full advantage of it while you can. And one dad is clearly doing just that.
Christopher Kyle is father to adorable, 18-month-old Ava, who treated her dad to a meal at her sit-down restaurant. Only according to Kyle, the service left much to be desired.
In a post on Instagram, Kyle shared a photo of Ava in her play kitchen while he sat waiting for his food in a tiny chair at a tiny table. He wrote:
“So I tried to support another Black Owned Business for lunch today. It’s called Ava’s Kitchen, just opened end of April. It’s a very clean establishment, but whewww let me tell you about this owner.
First off, I asked why there are balloons on my chair, and it’s not my birthday? She talm’bout, mind yah business; those are Mommy’s.
I been waiting on my order to get done for 45 minutes, and I’m the only customer here. She was making good progress at first, then she stopped for 20 minutes to go watch Paw Patrol.
Overall the customer service could be better, but the cook is a cutie; so I’ll give her another chance. Let’s not give up on Black businesses so fast after one mistake. 💕”
People absolutely loved this dad’s humor and clearly stellar parenting skills. Anyone who has sat through a tea party—or any activity with the wee ones—knows that for all of its cuteness, toddler play is an exercise in patience and endurance.
Upworthy shared Kyle’s story well on on our Instagram page and our readers did not disappoint.
Some played right along with the game:
“Starting a restaurant is tough.. give her a chance ❤️❤️”
“I mean, she started a restaurant during a global pandemic, give her a break 😂”
“Is she taking reservations?”
Fans of Paw Patrol had some words:
“Paw Patrol is a must watch so 🤷🏾♀️😂“
“I died at Paw Patrol 🤣🤣🤣 that’s my show though. I don’t have kids I just watch it just because lmao.”
“Paw Patrol break is mandatory. Too cute! ♥️”
Others just gushed over the entire scene:
“Love EVERYTHING about this!! The adorable owner, the custumer’s humor and the incredible love”
“That’s the cutest restaurant owner I’ve ever seen. The dad’s face is priceless! 😂👍❤️”
“LoL the story is funny & beautiful!!! This warms my heart!! This babygirl will grow up to have such a healthy look at men (in any capacity) as long as she & her Daddy keep such a beautiful bond!! Happy Father’s Day (early) Keep encouraging her to do her thing and her confidence will continue to soar!! I just love this!! 😍😍😍”
Well done, dad. And well done, Ava. Can’t wait to see you open your own real business someday, baby girl.
Christopher Nolan has never been shy about his deep love for the James Bond films and how much they’ve influenced his work. But recently, the iconic director revealed that, for the first time, he made the conscious decision to set aside the Bond movies and not partake in a long-standing tradition before filming his upcoming blockbuster Tenet.
In an interview with Total Film (via GamesRadar), Nolan opened up about forgoing his tried-and-true practice of screening specific Bond films before filming. Normally, the director would show his cast the direct inspiration for certain scenes, but for Tenet, he chose to take a different approach despite the movie trafficking in the same sort of globe-trotting espionage that would make 007 feel right at home. Instead, Nolan wanted to reference the spy genre through “a memory and a feeling” instead of the “specifics”:
“It’s totally in my bones. I don’t need to reference the movies and look at them again. It’s about trying to re-engage with your childhood connection with those movies, with the feeling of what it’s like to go someplace new, someplace fresh. It actually has to take them somewhere they haven’t been before, and that’s why no one’s ever been able, really, to do their own version of James Bond or something. It doesn’t work. And that’s not at all what this is. This is much more my attempt to create the sort of excitement in grand-scale entertainment I felt from those movies as a kid, in my own way.”
Again, Nolan’s well-known love for the Bond films is the reason he’s on the short list every time the franchise is in need of a new director. He’s been sprinkling in Bond homages going all the way back to 2005’s Batman Begins, and in a 2018 interview with Variety, Nolan didn’t even try to hide that Inception was an attempt at making his own version of Bond.
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