Rachel

Antony Starr's Homelander seeks God mode in the final season.

Key Points

• Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins reunite in The Boys season 5 trailer.
• The final season preview shows Antony Starr's Homelander seeking immortality and Karl Urban's Butcher rampaging to stop him.
• It's the final countdown as we barrel towards the series finale, dropping May 20 after a season premiere on April 28.

The Supernatural men are officially back together on The Boys.

The trailer for the fifth and final season of Amazon's R-rated superhero satire reveals a first look at the onscreen reunion of Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins — casting which was announced back in February 2025.

The footage shows Homelander (Antony Starr), who's hellbent on reaching immortal god status, waking up his father, Soldier Boy (Ackles), from cryogenic stasis. "Did you f--- me?" Soldier Boy wants to know upon waking up in his underwear and a "Sorry, Snowflake" Homelander top.

Soldier Boy's team-up with his son for total domination will lead to an encounter with two characters played by Padalecki and Collins. Details on those roles are still elusive, but the Supernatural gents, who portrayed Sam Winchester and Castiel, are seen now in gaudy button-downs within a massive mansion.

The Boys season 5 trailer provides us a first look at Collins' character getting choked out by Soldier Boy. It's a reunion that's been years in the making. Eric Kripke, The Boys showrunner who created Supernatural, has been working to get his boys back together, but schedules proved to be an issue.

Multiple other alumni from the long-running series have already made the jump to The Boys, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

The final season, which takes place after the events of Gen V season 2, will realize the final battle for the soul of America. With Homelander exacting an iron, dictatorial will across the country, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) are imprisoned in a "Freedom Camp." Meanwhile, Annie (Erin Moriarty) attempts to mount a resistance against the supes, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) — who's now talking! — is nowhere to be found.

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During this low point for our heroes, Butcher (Karl Urban) reappears with his sights set on acquiring a virus that will wipe all supes off the map.

The first two episodes will premiere on Amazon's Prime Video streaming platform on April 8, following by a weekly release. The series finale is set for May 20.

Watch the trailer above.

The quirky comedy-drama series starred Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker who has the ability to bring dead things back to life with just his touch.

Pushing Daisies is pushing for more.

Bryan Fuller, creator of the short-lived series, which aired its final episodes 16 years ago, was recently asked during a press tour for his latest film, Dust Bunny, about his desire to revisit the show.

“Absolutely,” Fuller told ComicBook. “We have a season 3 pitch, and the entire cast wants to come back, and we’re hoping we get to return to them. We just have to find somebody who wants to make it.”

The quirky comedy-drama series first aired on ABC from 2007 to 2009, and starred Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker who has the ability to bring dead things back to life with just his touch. There's a few catches, however — if he revives someone for more than one minute, someone else nearby will die instead, and if he touches someone he's revived a second time, they die forever. Unfortunately for Ned, this includes his formerly deceased love Chuck (Anna Friel).

The series also follows Ned's coworker, Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), and private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), with whom Ned teams up to use his unique capability to help solve murder cases. Ellen Greene, Swoosie Kurtz, and Field Cate also star, with Jim Dale serving as the story's narrator.

Fuller echoed this positive update for more of the show and even expressed a desired timeline for its return during a different interview on the same recent Dust Bunny press tour.

"We’re working on a season 3, and the whole cast wants to come back. And, we’ve got a whole story — we’re trying to do another season this year," he told The Mary Sue.

A rep for Fuller didn't immediately respond to an Entertainment Weekly request for comment Tuesday.

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Fuller's update comes a few months after Pace expressed a desire to return to the character, but didn't have any concrete updates at the time.

“I haven’t heard anything definite,” the actor said to TV Insider. “I love those people. I love Bryan, so I love that character. We’ll see.”

The outlet also asked the actor whether he had thought about where the story could go in a potential season 3, and Pace confirmed that Fuller had already filled him in on that. “Bryan Fuller is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met, and he’s told me where he sees it going,” the actor explained. “I obviously can’t say that here, but it’s so fun and so wild. And then, the story between Ned and Chuck is such an interesting love affair.”

He also explained why he thinks the show developed such a cult following over the years.

“Sometimes magic just happens in that way,” he said. “The cast seems to be right and has a chemistry, which we did. We adored each other and worked really hard on that show, and so I think that’s part of it. I think the writing was so unique, and there was a real current of love inside the show, which I think has drawn people to it.”

A chorus of more than 200 voices, ranging from young newcomers to Hollywood stars, will bring new life to all seven of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” book series in a new production for Audible. The first audiobook in the bunch, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” is dropping in November. Audible and Rowling’s Pottermore Publishing […]

The actor was nominated for his role on Apple TV+'s "Shrinking."

Over 60 years in the business and Harrison Ford is still collecting firsts.

On Tuesday, Running Point star Brenda Song and What We Do in the Shadows alum Harvey Guillén revealed that Ford is among the 2025 Emmys nominees vying for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his role as Dr. Paul Rhoades on the Apple TV+ series, Shrinking.

He joins a star-studded category that includes Shrinking costar Michael Urie, Ike Barinholtz for The Studio, Colman Domingo for The Four Seasons, Jeff Hiller for Somebody Somewhere, Ebon Moss-Bachrach for The Bear, and Bowen Yang for Saturday Night Live.

It's the 83-year-old's first-ever Emmy nomination, which seems wild considering he's been nominated for over 70 accolades throughout his career, including nods for an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Critics' Choice Award, six Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

While it is Ford's first Emmy nod, he's received plenty of critical acclaim for his portrayal of the grumbling, senior therapist battling his Parkinson's diagnosis and forging ahead with a new relationship with Julie (Wendie Malick), the doctor treating him.

His often tear-inducing work on Shrinking has previously earned him nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series.

Shrinking, from co-creators Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel, has thus far aired two seasons on Apple TV+. The show's second season saw some of Ford's most emotional work, as the therapist is forced to face his mortality due to his worsening condition.

"You're going to see increasing difficulty that arises from his disease and complications from his disease," Ford told Entertainment Weekly ahead of the season's premiere. "He's going to meet those challenges with what we know is in his quiver, personality-wise. But it's a very challenging and difficult disease and we're not going to sugarcoat it."

In the season 2 finale, during which the characters celebrate Thanksgiving, Paul shares what he's thankful for in a moment that became one of the show's most heart-wrenching scenes.

Segel and costar Jessica Williams — who play therapists Jimmy and Gaby on the comedy — lauded the scene as the "definition of art" while speaking with EW's The Awardist podcast in June.

"This storyline is, without being one-to-one, so meta around Harrison and Paul," Segel said. "These are things that we, Jessica and I, are going to get to have in our minds for the rest of our lives."

Williams added, "It was the best acting I've ever seen in person. And it was just an honor. And sometimes a lot of times he does stuff and I'll think, oh, that's Harrison f---ing Ford. That's actually what I'll think. And that was one of those days where he just took a room full of people and made all of our jobs really easy, where we just had to witness him."

"I remember after filming that, I needed a moment separate from everything where I could just sit with the weight of the moment and the work that he did," Williams recalled. "And I remember, it was funny, I was sitting somewhere on the lot and after that and found me, and he just sat next to me. And we just sat together in silence."

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

Ford will undoubtedly have more of those speeches to come in Shrinking's third season, which will feature Michael J. Fox's return to acting as a guest star in an undisclosed role. The part will mark Fox's first on-camera acting since his retirement in 2020.

Shrinking season 3 will also feature new guest star Jeff Daniels, who'll play Jimmy's father. Sherry Cola (Joy Ride) and Isabella Gomez (One Day at a Time) will also appear in the upcoming season.

The 77th Emmy Awards, hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze, air Sunday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.

The 1970s crime series “Duster” has been canceled at HBO Max after just one season, Variety has confirmed. The news comes less than a week after the show aired the Season 1 finale, with “Duster” having originally premiered on the streamer in May. The series starred Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson and hailed from co-creators […]

“Mindhunter” star Holt McCallany recently revealed to CBR that he has spoken with David Fincher about the potential return of the acclaimed Netflix serial killer drama, which ran for two seasons in 2017 and 2020. The show centered on FBI agents in the late 1970s as they launch a task force to interview serial killers […]

At the subreddit /r/StarTrek, my fellow Trekkies are playing a game of adding "...if you know what I mean" to the end of favorite lines from Star Trek.

It works rather well. Such as the above line from a scene in the first episode of The Next Generation. Or, below, one from The Wrath of Khan. The results are salacious for those of us with corrupted minds.

Who doesn’t love a good crossover? Some of audiences very favorite episodes are the ones where characters from an entirely different show pop up, like when two “ER” doctors showed up on “Friends,” when Sam and Dean got sucked into an episode of “Scooby-Doo,” or, most recently, when “9-1-1” LAPD sergeant Athena Grant took an unplanned cruise aboard the Odyssey.

Most of the time, these special episodes happen because they are on the same network, or are from the same producer, but sometimes they just happen because they are entertaining as hell … or the show’s creators are big fans of each other, as was the case with Quinta Brunson of “Abbott Elementary” and Rob McElhenney of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Here are some of our favorite TV crossovers:

“Newhart” and “The Bob Newhart Show” (1990)

In what is still considered one of the most clever series finales of all time, when “Newhart” wrapped up in 1990, star Bob Newhart woke up in bed not with his current TV wife Joanna (Mary Frann), but with his wife from his 1970s sitcom, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette). He tells her about the “strange dream” he had where he ran an inn in Vermont. She tells him, “That settles it — no more Japanese food before you go to bed.”

“Friends” and “ER” (1995)

When Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) needed medical attention in 1995, who else should appear but hunky “ER” stars George Clooney and Noah Wyle (with different names than their characters, but still) “Aren’t you a little cute to be a doctor?” Rachel asks, before amending it to, “I meant young, young to be a doctor!” In the episode, Rachel pretends to be Monica (Courteney Cox) so they have to keep up the name switch when the hospital visit turns into a date.

“The Simpsons” and “The X-Files” (1997)

When Homer thought he saw an alien, naturally it caught the attention of FBI agents Mulder and Scully in the stellar Season 8 episode “The Springfield Files.” Hard to pick a favorite moment, but we will go with Mulder flashing his FBI badge with a photo of himself in a red Speedo, droning on about the “mysteries of mysteries” as Scully rolls her eyes and leaves and the reveal of Moe the bartender’s secret whale smuggling ring. Bonus: “Star Trek” and “In Search of…” star Leonard Nimoy narrates the episode. The animated series also memorably crossed over with other Fox series like “24,” “The Critic” and “Futurama.”

“Homicide: Life on the Street” and “The X-Files” (1997)

The late Richard Belzer’s conspiracy-obsessed detective John Munch surprisingly turned up 10 different shows, (including a long run on “SVU”), but his meet-up with the techie trio The Lone Gunmen of “The X-Files” in “Unusual Suspects” was a match made in geeky TV heaven. A 2000 episode of the sci-fi series that channeled the long-running reality series “Cops” was also a highlight.

“Scooby-Doo” and “Supernatural” (2018)

One of the funniest things to ever hit TV found Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) getting sucked into a “Scooby-Doo” cartoon in the hilarious “Scoobynatural” episode. Non-stop snacker Dean bonded with chowhounds Shaggy and Scooby, Velma developed a huge crush on Sam and the typical masked-villain mystery got a whole lot bloodier. And yes, there was the traditional goofy chase sequence that had the whole gang hiding in conveniently right-sized urns.

“Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” (2018)

Sparks flew when these two Emmy-winning actresses crossed paths in this epic Shonda Rhimes crossover: Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) comes to Washington, D.C. to solicit Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington)’s help, but they do not get off to a good start. Olivia calls Annalise a “hot mess,” and the Philly law professor snaps back that Olivia is a “bougie-a– Black woman.”

“Abbott Elementary” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (2025)

The Sunny crew volunteers at Abbott — as part of a court-ordered community service and it goes just as awry as you would expect: Charlie (Charlie Day’s) hilariously wrong interpretation of history somehow includes aliens, Frank (Danny DeVito) butts heads with Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) when assigned to help raccoon-proof the garden, which leads to Mr. Johnson and Frank calling each other “trash.” Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) recognizes them: “Did you ever get into a fight at an Eagles game?” Of course they did.

The post 7 Great TV Crossovers, From ‘Newhart’ to ‘Abbott Elementary’ Meets ‘Sunny’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The new documentary 'Pee-wee as Himself' reveals Paul Reubens' complicated life, but he was never a joke to the queer people who loved him.

The post Pee-wee Herman Should Never Have Been a Punchline appeared first on Autostraddle.

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 4.

That was not a trick of the light, Josh Peck did in fact have a quick cameo in “The Last of Us.”

The actor appeared in a quick scene to open up Season 2, Episode 4 of the HBO adaptation. Like many people in the post-apocalyptic landscape of “The Last of Us,” the “Drake and Josh” alum is not long to survive but his appearance is likely to turn some heads and raise some eyebrows.

Here’s what you need to know about Peck’s cameo.

Who does Josh Peck play in “The Last of Us”

Peck is part of a flashback to 2018 and plays an unnamed FEDRA soldier. He spends most of his screen time telling a crude story to the other members of his squad while riding in the back of a military vehicle. This isn’t just a bit of flavor to flesh out the world — it’s to introduce a new character that will stand between Ellie (Bella Ramsay) and her revenge plot.

Peck’s character is interrupted by Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), the leader of the squad. He tells the truck to stop while he and another soldier get out the back. Another group of survivors, led by a woman, are waiting for Isaac. The two shake hands – clearly working together on a deal — before Isaac turns back to the truck, drops in a couple grenades and slams the door shut. Peck’s character and the rest of his squad are all stuck inside and killed.

What other cameos has “The Last of Us” featured?

Most of the cameos in “The Last of Us” up to this point have been honoring the many voice actors who worked on the game. Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker (who voiced Ellie and Joel) appeared as Ellie’s mom and a member of David’s cannibal crew respectively. Laura Bailey (who voiced Abby in “The Last of Us Part II”) played a Firefly nurse and Jeffrey Pierce (who voiced Tommy) played Perry — the second-in-command for Kathleen’s (Melanie Lynskey) rebels.

Johnson also appeared in a way in Season 2. The song “Through the Valley” that played through the credits at the end of Episode 2 was performed by the actress.

Wright playing Isaac joins Season 1’s Merle Dandridge as an actor who voiced their character in the game and reprised their role for the show. Dandridge appeared in the first season as Marlene.

“The Last of Us” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.

The post Yes, That Was Josh Peck in ‘The Last of Us’ appeared first on TheWrap.

King called Patterson a "terrible" yet "successful" writer in 2009, prompting Patterson to announce, then shelve, a novel called "The Murder of Stephen King."

Bestselling author James Patterson says that after writing over 200 books, he's still evolving. You hear that, Stephen King?

In a ranging interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger on Wednesday, the prolific novelist touched on his past beef with the master of horror, which kicked off in 2009 when King referred to Patterson as "a terrible writer, but he's very successful."

"That's just silly," Patterson said.

When pushed to speculate why King may have lobbed the insult his way, however, Patterson reasoned, "I don't know. He might have read something that was terrible. Season of the Machete is a terrible book that I wrote, so if he read that, I could see calling me a terrible writer. Virgin is also not terribly well written, The Jericho Commandment... I could go along with that. I don't know about 'terrible,' but I've evolved, and I'm pretty good now."

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to King for comment.

In addition to writing between 5 and 20 books per year (Patterson has already published three in 2025), the New York-born author, 78, has also been publishing conversations with authors like Bob Woodward and Michael Connelly on his Substack blog.

Patterson indicated that his people have "talked to [King's] people" about sitting down for a conversation. "I would love to do it, I think it would be great. One of the things that I said to his people was, 'Look, we could do some good in the world. We could get more kids reading. There's a lot of things we could do if we collaborated a little bit,'" he said.

The author has clearly buried the hatchet with King, but it's unclear if King's done the same, as the past mudslinging went two ways.

In 2016, Patterson announced the title of his latest novel: The Murder of Stephen King. Then he shelved it.

"My book is a positive portrayal of a fictional character, and, spoiler alert, the main character is not actually murdered," Patterson said at the time. "Nevertheless, I do not want to cause Stephen King or his family any discomfort. Out of respect for them, I have decided not to publish The Murder of Stephen King."

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Recalling the saga of The Murder of Stephen King, Patterson explained, "I guess, trying to be nice, the publisher sent him a note and sent him a book, and his people called, and he said, 'Well that wouldn't be good.' Because I think his wife, Tabitha, said somebody showed up, broke into their house and stuff."

Patterson says he "thought it would be funny," but agreed to withhold publication of the book "out of respect." Jokingly, Patterson told Bensinger, "I'll sell you one. I have 20 copies. I'll sell it to you for $10,000."

You can watch the rest of Patterson's interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger above.

With “Sinners” now in theaters, Ryan Coogler is turning his attention back to his “X-Files” series reboot. “I’ve been excited about that for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it,” Coogler said during a recent interview with “Last Podcast on the Left,” confirming that that project is “immediately next” on […]

Investigators discovered evidence of rodent activity throughout the late couple's sprawling property, though none of that evidence was found in their primary residence.

Investigators looking into the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, uncovered evidence of rodent activity on the couple's sprawling property in Santa Fe, N.M., according to newly released records from the New Mexico Department of Public Health.

The news comes in the wake of health officials announcing that Arakawa died at 65 from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare condition that comes from contact with rodents, and Hackman subsequently died at 95 from heart disease, with Alzheimer's as a significant contributory factor.

According to a health department report obtained by Entertainment Weekly, investigators found rodent feces in one attached garage, three detached garages, three sheds, two casitas, and two vehicles on the couple's property on March 5. The report further indicates that there was one dead rodent in the attached garage, and across the three detached garages, investigators encountered one live rodent, one dead rodent, one nest, and one building with gnaw marks.

However, investigators concluded that there were "no signs of rodent activity" in the couple's main dwelling.

Hackman and Arakawa were discovered dead in their home alongside one of their three dogs on Feb. 26. Arakawa's body was found in the bathroom, near a variety of scattered pills that were later determined to be a thyroid medication, Tylenol, and diltiazem, a prescription medication used to treat chest pain and high blood pressure.

Hackman's body was found in the mudroom near a pair of sunglasses and a walking cane, and an investigating officer suspected that the Unforgiven star had "suddenly fallen," according to a police affidavit reviewed by EW.

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Although they were found by authorities at the same time, Arakawa most likely died from her illness several days before her husband. According to the CDC, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome causes respiratory issues anywhere between one and eight weeks after the patient's initial contact with rodents, and is fatal in 38% of reported cases after patients develop respiratory symptoms.

Hackman's specific cause of death was determined to be hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiac disease. Authorities did not indicate that he had contracted hantavirus.

Despite its commitment to the realities of queer Asian American experience, immigrant experience, and lesbian motherhood experience, The Wedding Banquet is less the indie dramedy of the original and more the rare gift of a big queer comedy.

The post ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Is the Next Great Queer Romcom appeared first on Autostraddle.

Daniel Radcliffe will star opposite Tracy Morgan in an upcoming NBC comedy pilot, Variety has learned. The untitled single-cam pilot was originally announced earlier in March. Per the official logline, “A disgraced former football player (Morgan) is on a mission to rehabilitate his image.” Radcliffe will star as Arthur Tobin, described as “an award-winning filmmaker […]

"It's going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I'm afraid."

John Lithgow is heading to Hogwarts.

The 3rd Rock From the Sun star confirmed recent rumors that he'll be playing Professor Albus Dumbledore on HBO's forthcoming Harry Potter TV series in an interview with Screenrant published Tuesday. "It came as a total surprise to me," Lithgow said. "I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it's going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I'm afraid."

The actor continued, "I'm very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That's why it's been such a hard decision. I'll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I've said yes."

Lithgow is the first actor to confirm their involvement in the series, and no official casting has been announced at this point.

Representatives for Lithgow and HBO didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's requests for comment.

Related: Harry Potter director Chris Columbus weighs in on TV adaptation and Voldemort casting

Lithgow is 79, and the Harry Potter series is expected to premiere in 2026 and adapt one of J.K. Rowling's seven books per season. That means we'll receive about one season per year if all goes according to plan, and Lithgow will wrap in 2033, when he's 87.

Though Lithgow is American, he's no stranger to playing British (and English-accented) characters. Some of his most recognizable performances include his turn as Winston Churchill on The Crown and voicing Lord Farquaad in the original Shrek.

That said, Lithgow's casting could signify a key creative distinction between the upcoming HBO Potter series and the prior Warner Bros. film franchise. The movies opted to exclusively cast British actors as its witches and wizards, following an agreement between Rowling and Chris Columbus, who directed the first two installments. (One of the only exceptions was Columbus' daughter, Eleanor, who played Susan Bones and ultimately never spoke on screen.) Lithgow's casting suggests that more Americans and international actors might be a part of the new series' ensemble.

Related: Harry Potter TV show holds open casting call to find new Harry, Ron, and Hermione, bans franchise text in auditions

Lithgow is a prolific and decorated actor, with more than 130 screen credits to date and dozens of stage performances to boot. He has two Oscar nominations under his belt, for his supporting roles in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment, and has six Emmys to his name, for his work on 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dexter, The Crown, and Amazing Stories. In recent years, he's played key supporting roles in films like Conclave, Killers of the Flower Moon, Bombshell, and Pet Sematary.

Related: Harry Potter series aiming for 2026 premiere on Max after J.K. Rowling meeting

Dumbledore was originally played by Richard Harris in the first two Potter films. Michael Gambon took over the role following Harris' death in 2002, and Jude Law played a young version of the character in two Fantastic Beasts prequel films.

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Francesca Gardiner (Succession, His Dark Materials, Killing Eve) is serving as showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the upcoming series, which has been described as a "faithful adaptation" of Rowling's seven-book series. Mark Mylod (Succession, The Last of Us, Game of Thrones) will direct multiple episodes and executive-produce. Rowling is also executive-producing the series, which has stirred significant controversy due to her persistent transphobic comments.

Megan Follows is coming full circle: After breaking out as Anne Shirley in “Anne of Green Gables,” she will now play its author Lucy Maud Montgomery in upcoming series “Lucy. Maud.”  “I’ve always been incredibly grateful to be introduced, as a young woman, to the power of a character who was a central figure in […]

Key Huy Quan thinks the last time he was in the same room with most of his “The Goonies” co-stars was at least 20 years ago. Corey Feldman thinks it was more like four decades ago at the film’s Los Angeles premiere in 1985. Whatever the case may be, Quan was joined Monday at his […]

Harrison Ford is not too upset over “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” flopping at the box office. His fifth and final turn as the iconic archeologist opened in theaters in summer 2023 and lost Disney a reported $130 million after its global box office haul fell well below the $400 million mark. In […]

When a TV series is very good, you expect it to be renewed for a second, third, or fifteenth season, and sometimes the quality suffers in later seasons. But there are also series that were perfect despite being short, or more likely because they were short. Andor is so critically acclaimed that it could easily be renewed for several seasons, but the second season will be its last, because it's a prequel and will eventually run into the timeline of the movie it spun off from. The classic 1970s British show Fawlty Towers only had 12 episodes in total, because each episode was so painstakingly constructed that it could take four months to get it ready to air. The Queen's Gambit was a complete story told in seven TV episodes, which we used to call a miniseries. And believe it or not, there have been a couple of great shows that were canceled quickly. All these really shouldn't be compared to each other, but as a list, they serve as a recommendation for something you can binge on without committing too much of your future. Read a list of 21 short-lived but perfect TV series at Cracked. There are video clips.

In her documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” the star continues to explore the at times lonesome space she has occupied since bursting on the scene in 1986: that of being a representative for deaf people, and being herself. For more than three decades, Matlin was the only deaf performer to have won an Oscar, […]

When the trailers for Hot Frosty—a film about a snowman coming to life at Christmas to romance a struggling widow—dropped prior to the holiday season, the brief seemed clear enough: Let’s take something wholesome (a vague sense of the Frosty the Snowman tale) and make it horny. No, much hornier than that. Keep going. This isn’t for Hallmark, we don’t have to be coy about it. He’s a snowman with a sixpack, created from a sculpture at the center of town, and he comes to life naked. With a scarf.

Something something thumpity… thump thump? (Look at my sense of self-respect go. O’er the hills of snow….)

I thought it would be good for a laugh, so my partner and I cued it up a couple weeks back. Sometimes the best way to get into holiday mode is via absurdity, right? In any case, I miss the romcom heydays of my youth—even the bad ones. Often especially the bad ones. Maybe Hot Frosty would bring a little of that old magic back…

…I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

There is something very wrong with the world Hot Frosty occupies. In fairness, it not just one overarching something, but a slew of smaller issues that coalesce into a much larger sense of inherent wrongness. And perhaps I should start with the town of Hope Springs, New York: A quaint snowy hamlet that lives in terror of its law enforcement.

But not in a realistic sense, of course—that would be too heavy for magical Christmas fare. This is terror of law enforcement in a lighthearted, chuckling way. An aw-shucks Americana way. A “take that one guy from The Office and that other guy from Brooklyn 99 and everyone will know we’re being cute” way. My only assumption can be that the folks creating this film think we’re still living in an Andy Griffith Show-watching era where local town sheriff shenanigans are labeled as endearing. There are a few retro hints that lend credence to this theory—our heroine, Kathy Barrett, owns a cafe in town that has an extremely vague ‘50s-ish diner feel to it, for starters—but there’s not enough cohesion to make that feel like a deliberate choice.

Hot Frosty (who goes by the name Jack in the film for boring reasons) is born in the usual manner: He is sculpted for a snowman-building competition at the center of town by no one we ever meet, and is brought to life via a magic scarf that Kathy leaves draped about his shoulders. As the only snowperson who in any way resembles a living human being in this display—the rest are just regular boulder-stacked snowfolks—we have to assume that he was modeled off someone the sculptor knows. This is not relevant to the story in any way, but if you’re like me, it will linger in the back of your mind throughout the entire film. Where is the man whose face (and abs) Jack has borrowed? Doesn’t this create an incredibly wacky consent issue?

Digression, sorry, I’ll get back to the plot.

Jack comes to life in the middle of the night, naked, and stumbles through town crashing into things—one being a shop window (of the place owned by the couple who gifted Kathy the magic scarf) where he grabs a pair of galoshes and coveralls. We later learn that Jack doesn’t know much of anything, and also that he can’t get cold on account of still being a snowman, so why he feels the need to dress himself is actually a very good question that the film neglects to answer. Unfortunately for Jack, he did accidentally streak in front of an elderly couple. (The wife is fine with this because all older women are randy menaces in this world, which is something else that the film also neglects to comment on.)

When Kathy sees a confused, under-dressed guy with incredible arms talking to snowpeople the next day, she assumes there’s something wrong with him and brings Jack inside the diner to feed him. When her friend suggests that they get Jack some help by calling in the law, Kathy’s immediate response is, “We can’t tell Sheriff Hunter. He overreacts to everything.” She then proceeds to tell a story about how the sheriff once arrested someone in their local movie theater for “excessive candy unwrapping.”

Haha. Everyone laugh, it’s a funny joke!

But it’s about to get a lot worse, you see, because Jack did break a store window and streak naked through the center of town. Sheriff Nathaniel Hunter heads into Reclaimed Rags, the store with the shattered pane, and tells the unconcerned owners that he will find the perpetrator because everyone knows he’s tough on crime. They offer to take him out to breakfast, which mortifies him—they’re trying to sway his investigation! When they ask why they would want to do that, he makes up an elaborate plot about them breaking their own store window for insurance money. He also likes to ad-lib a blues song about fighting crime that he plays on his keyboard down at the police station. His deputy Ed Schatz’s primary job is running around after him, telling the denizens of Hope Springs that he knows the sheriff is a little over-zealous but they are just trying to help and obviously everyone can trust him.

Hilarious!

As all of this is ramping up, Kathy has a brand new problem: Jack purports to be in love with her and won’t leave her side. Her doctor pal Dottie is pretty sure Jack is a snowman come to life on account of his impossibly low body temperature, so Kathy keeps the guy in her house and tells him to lay low so the sheriff doesn’t find his smash-and-grab culprit. When Jack is persistent in his declarations of love, Kathy shuts him down and explains that saying you love someone over and over robs the phrase of its meaning, which is a helluva belief to lob in there and never really challenge in your romantic comedy.

It’s hard to blame Kathy for cutting Jack off for a couple reasons; for one, she happens to be recently widowed and is clearly still grieving her husband. Her house is full of dozens of fix-it projects that she doesn’t tackle because her husband was the handyman and she can’t bear to do these things without him. (This is partly useful because her house has no heat, making it the perfect haven for a snowman who cannot handle moderate temps.) But also… Jack is basically a child. He has no past to draw on, and no knowledge of the world. He picks things up quickly—he figures out how to make her pizza from scratch by watching one program on TV—but he is effectively a blank slate.

This is where the limits of the original story butt heads against romcom clichés. It’s fine for Frosty the Snowman to be a childish blank—he’s supposed to be hanging out with children and having fun playing games. And it’s common for romantic leads in romcoms to have misalignments in their views of the world—but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to make the love interest a male version of the “born sexy yesterday” trope.

Jack’s reason for wanting to stay with Kathy? “Technically I’ve known you my entire life.” He then pouts sadly until she decides to bring him home. And sure, Jack immediately starts picking up the slack in Kathy’s life by learning (far too many hyper-specific) carpentry skills off the TV. He makes her dinner and asks her about her life. He respects every boundary she creates, including her dislike of hugging and her mandate not to say ‘I love you’ all the time. But he also needs to be told all those little things like: “We don’t change [clothes] in front of people, we wait until there’s no one around.” And he greets Kathy in the morning by admitting that he wandered the basement last night and wants to know “What’s cancer?” after finding paperwork about her husband’s death. You know, the way a five-year-old asks mom about a word they don’t understand.

How do you fall in love with a person who literally needs you to parent them through all their basic knowledge of the world? I’m not saying it doesn’t happen (it absolutely does), but who is fantasizing about it? That’s what romcoms are, right? So where’s the fantasy? The film even seems aware of the strangeness it’s created, to the point where Jack gets a job helping at the middle school, and when Kathy comes to get him and asks what she’s doing there, he replies all seriousness: “You’re picking me up from school.” So there’s a joke here, clearly, but I can’t figure out what makes it funny.

And don’t forget, the real terror here is Sheriff Hunter and his obsession with law and… conspiracy? He actually suggests that this “crime spree” is being masterminded by the town’s mayor in the weeks leading up to the sheriff’s reappointment. See, he’s angry with Nate for towing his car a few times, once while he was delivering gifts to a children’s hospital. (We never meet the mayor, by the way.) The sheriff walks around town uttering gems like “I do not tolerate funny business,” and “There is nothing more dangerous than blatant disrespect for law and order,” and redoing catchphrases while removing his sunglasses for cinematic effect. Every time he does this, someone in town makes a snide remark, or Deputy Schatz comes up behind him and makes excuses. Kathy is terrified of Jack getting found out, but he’s too busy becoming everyone’s local handyman and making people happy.

Eventually the sheriff gets his evidence (off a camera from a bank ATM, a thing which takes him ages to consider), and arrests Jack in front of an entire party at the diner on Christmas Eve. He sets the bail at $2000 and ignores Kathy’s pleas over the heat in the station. You see, Sheriff Hunter finds that Jack has no fingerprints, which means that he must be a sleeper agent? (Of where and for whom? It’s clear that Sheriff Hunter doesn’t care.) He tries to claim simultaneously that Jack is in full control of his body, but also sweating like mad because he’s scared that he’s been caught. The entire town has to stand on the precinct steps and gather bail money, and the sheriff still doesn’t listen until his own son contributes to the pot.

The town is on Jack’s side because he’s made their lives better—by being nice and handy, and also hot, of course. And while this finale makes it very obvious that Sheriff Hunter should be on some form of serious medication for paranoia, the rest of the town quickly accepts that Jack is an actual snowman once Dottie backs Kathy up on it. So maybe there’s just something in the water up here.

Of course, Jack was in the heat too long and seems to be dead once they drag him outside (and the sheriff suddenly changes his tune to “I didn’t believe, I’m so sorry” like that makes up for something), leading to a desperate little monologue from Kathy and a kiss goodbye. Jack resurrects, but this time as a human boy with a normal body temperature. But he’s still has no history. And probably looks like the person his sculptor modeled him after. And the sheriff is forgiven by his town for being a little kooky, having learned nothing much. And Kathy embarks on a new life with a brand new guy who used to be a snowman, and she’s okay with that.

There are a few utterances in the movie of “Christmas magic” that are clearly meant to make up for all the strangeness, but no amount of Yuletide chintz can fix this. The town of Hope Springs bills itself as a place rich with small town charm—but the sheriff thinks he’s a half-step away from starring in his own action film and makes it everyone’s problem. The very real grief over the death of a loved one gets usurped by holiday shenanigans. And that empty place in our heroine’s life is supplanted by a partner with the worldly understanding of a toddler and the body of an underwear model.

I’ll pass, thanks. Take me to a different upstate town with weird holiday magic. I’ll cross Hope Springs off the map and never return.[end-mark]

The post Are We Gonna Talk About the Deeply Dystopian World of <i>Hot Frosty</i>? appeared first on Reactor.

Bluesky is the digital place to be for anyone who considers themselves a card-carrying member of “The Resistance” to Donald Trump and/or an Elon Musk hater. Spend five minutes on the app, and that is clear.

In a matter of weeks, the social platform has enjoyed rapid growth as left-leaning X users — including prominent media pundits and Hollywood celebrities — flee Musk’s app. The reason? Trump, who Musk publicly backed and spent more than $100 million to help get back into the White House, won the election.

Now, to boycott the Musk-Trump alliance, disenchanted X users are turning to Bluesky as their new “Blue Heaven,” as “Sons of Anarchy” actor Chad Lindberg put it.

For those who haven’t explored Blue Heaven yet, here’s a taste of what’s on the app:

“Star Wars” star Mark Hammill joined the app on Sunday. He announced his arrival by sharing a photoshopped newspaper dubbed “The Resistance” (Issue #1) with his picture included. The “paper” includes a write-up that says Hamill is “known for his sharp wit and unwavering support for progressive causes.”

Hamill’s X account, where he was frequently critical of Trump and shared his support for Kamala Harris, hasn’t been active since the day after Election Day. His Bluesky account has nearly 500,000 followers by Tuesday morning.

Other celebs who have made the switch include: Gabrielle Union, who announced her exit from X with a photoshopped letter on Friday, Stephen King, Ben Stiller, who posts a lot about his New York Knicks, and Barbra Streisand.

There’s also a laundry list of media personalities who have taken their talents to Bluesky. The Washington Post’s Jen Rubin, MSNBC’s Katie Phang, former MSNBC host Medhi Hasan, MSNBC’s Joy Reid, and former CNN host Don Lemon. They’ve all had a fair amount to say about Trump, the election, and Musk, since joining Bluesky.

Bluesky is also the new home to a number of politics-focused X users, like former NBA player Rex Chapman and “Brooklyn Dad.” Chances are, if you used X to get political news in the past, these guys made it into your feed one way or another. Now they’re on Bluesky, talking about the need to “fight fascism” and not “normalize” the next Trump administration.

Of course, there are a lot of non-famous users jumping over to Bluesky too. Data provided by Sensor Tower, a market research company, showed Bluesky’s daily active users jumped 62% in the week following the election. That growth continued this week, with Bluesky saying it reached 20 million users on Tuesday.

Here are a few of those “Resistance” members on Bluesky:

And Bluesky users who search for what is going on with Musk or Trump on the app are hit with interesting results — mostly posts bashing the two billionaires. The first two posts when searching “Musk” on Tuesday showcased two posts saying “F— Elon Musk” with a few hundred re-shares each. Another popular post that was recommended when searching for “Musk” said the Tesla boss “appears to be walking proof that penile implants don’t work.”

It’s a similar barrage when users search for “Trump” on Bluesky. Users will see posts from George Conway calling the president-elect “incompetent” and “malevolent,” for example, and the third post recommended when TheWrap searched “Trump” was the following joke from comedian Gabe Sanchez:

“Look, I’m not saying all Trump supporters are Nazis but all Nazis are definitely Trump supporters.”

In short: Bluesky is a safe space for disaffected X users to go and share their anti-Musk and anti-Trump thoughts. It’ll be worth seeing if the app can sustain its post-election momentum and build a formidable alternative to X, which Musk has said is experiencing “all-time high” usage in the past two weeks.

The post Bluesky Is Becoming ‘Blue Heaven’ for ‘The Resistance’ to Trump and Musk appeared first on TheWrap.

The United States Postal Service is honoring Betty White with her own stamp. USPS announced White’s Forever stamp on Friday as part of its new slate of stamps for 2025. “An icon of American television, Betty White (1922–2021) shared her wit and warmth with viewers for seven decades,” USPS said in announcing the stamp. “The […]

Netflix’s next Christmas movie offering of 2024 has arrived, and it might make you melt. Or it might heat you up. Or … both?

“Hot Frosty” is now streaming, following the love story of Kathy and Jack. Their meet cute? Kathy unintentionally brings Jack to life with a magic scarf — because he’s a snowman. Yes, seriously. They spend the movie navigating his secret, all while he attempts to not melt into a literal puddle. Again, seriously.

That said, it’s pretty delightful, and it definitely has a pretty stacked cast. Here are the major players you’ll recognize.

The post ‘Hot Frosty’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who in Netflix’s Christmas Movie? appeared first on TheWrap.

“Good Omens” Season 3 will be just one episode and will move forward without Neil Gaiman, Variety has learned. It was previously announced that Season 3 of the Amazon Prime Video series, which is based on the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett and Gaiman, would be the show’s last. However, production was […]

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have identified one of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin's 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. According to a recent paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, DNA analysis revealed that a tooth recovered from a mandible at one of the relevant archaeological sites was that of Captain James Fitzjames of the HMS Erebus. His remains show clear signs of cannibalism, confirming early Inuit reports of desperate crew members resorting to eating their dead.

"Concrete evidence of James Fitzjames as the first identified victim of cannibalism lifts the veil of anonymity that for 170 years spared the families of individual members of the 1845 Franklin expedition from the horrific reality of what might have befallen the body of their ancestor," the authors wrote in their paper. "But it also shows that neither rank nor status was the governing principle in the final desperate days of the expedition as they strove to save themselves."

As previously reported, Franklin's two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, became icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 129 crew members ultimately died. It has been an enduring mystery that has captured imaginations ever since. Novelist Dan Simmons immortalized the expedition in his 2007 horror novel, The Terror, which was later adapted into an anthology TV series for AMC in 2018.

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