Reviews
Willow Review: Fantasy Television That’s Here For a Good Time
The Pitch: It’s been quite a time for super-serious sci-fi and fantasy epics, as anyone who’s attempted to keep up with House of the Dragon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Sandman, and many, many other shows will tell you. But here comes Disney+’s Willow, with a modern rock song in its heart, a young hot ensemble ready to jump into action, and its own take on swords and sorcery to share. Willow? You Mean Three-Time MTV Video Music Award Nominee Willow, Don’t You? Okay, as a longtime fan of the 1988 film Willow, a person who has spent a lifetime yelling “What do you mean, you haven’t seen Willow?” at people… I know that there’s a good chance that most people are not familiar with the original Ron Howard-directed fantasy adventure. So here’s the deal: In the original movie (w...
Little America’s Second Season Offers a Much-Needed Dose of Optimism: Review
The Pitch: It’s often very difficult to feel optimistic about the general state of things in this country. For people who have grown up and lived through crisis after crisis, the many who were thrust into unsteady job markets and a Sisyphean uphill battle of debt and financial instability, the elusive American Dream sounds like just that — a dream. For the particularly vulnerable, like people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community who face a rapid increase in life-threatening rhetoric, there’s an intersectionality to the frustration and fear that can accompany everyday life in the US. While film and television aren’t an immediate salve for wide-reaching systemic issues, stories do matter, as does representation. Little America, the Apple TV+ anthology series developed by Le...
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Is Sweet, Slight, and (Kevin) Bacon-Flavored: Review
The Pitch: Did you know that in Britain, there’s a long and proud tradition of ongoing series putting out special episodes for the holidays? More often than not, they’re even broadcast on Christmas Day, when it seems that entire nation turns into couch potatoes. In America, though, our more couch potato-y holiday happens to be Thanksgiving, and our biggest ongoing series happens to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thus, this week’s release of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special feels pretty apt. Clocking in at 42 minutes (including post-credits scene), James Gunn’s breezy holiday confection offers a little bit of set-up as to where the titular Guardians, including Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillen), Rocket (Bradley Coop...
Andor Season 1 Told the Star Wars Story We Need for Times Like These
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Andor.] A lot of major plot points are packed into the Season 1 finale of Andor, but really, one of the year’s most powerful episodes of television came down to a speech from a dead woman. Fiona Shaw’s work was the definition of Emmy-worthy in the back half of the season, as Cassian Andor (Diego Luna)’s adoptive mother, fully aware that she was nearing the end of her days, became fully committed to one goal: doing whatever she could to combat the rise of the Empire. Her passing in Episode 11, as seen from the point of view of her loyal droid B2EMO, was already a heartbreaking moment for the show — the childlike sadness of “I want Maarva” jerking tears from anyone who’s ever lost a loved one. But then came her sp...
The Smile Prove They Aren’t Just a Radiohead Side Project at New York City Show: Recap + Setlist
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are many things, but flashy certainly isn’t one of them. Along with drummer Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet, the two Radiohead members quietly re-emerged together earlier this year as The Smile. The trio released their debut album, May’s A Light for Attracting Attention, with relatively little press or social media promotion surrounding it; as with most good things involving Radiohead, the music speaks for itself. With the exception of Greenwood’s prolific output of consistently beautiful film scores, even the most ardent fans would have to admit that many Radiohead members’ side projects (solo endeavors, the Flea-featuring supergroup Atoms for Peace) have up to this point typically paled in comparison to their main band’s discography. But when Yorke, Greenwood,...
With His Final Dodger Stadium Show, Elton John Wrote His Own Happy Ending: Review
Something I never expected to see in Dodger Stadium during Elton John’s last live concert in North America — a peek at his belly. But due to the poor fit of the icon’s first wardrobe choice (a sequined tuxedo jacket with tails, and pants that needed adjusting every time he stood up to acknowledge the crowd), at a certain point a bit of pink skin became visible through a gap in his button-down shirt. This tiny wardrobe malfunction was the only notable misstep during an intense marathon of music seeped in legacy, and it proved to be charming, in a way — a moment of human fallibility that felt all too relatable. Especially because this semi-final stop on the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour” was otherwise transcendent, an invitation into the passion Elton John has for his work...
Murky Truths and Murky Waters Collide in the Compelling 1899: Review
The Pitch: Several years ago, German creative/romantic partners Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar made their mark with Netflix’s sci-fi/thriller series Dark. Centered around “A missing child [who] sets four families on a frantic hunt for answers as they unearth a mind-bending mystery that spans three generations,” it was heavily praised by critics and audiences. Thus, the roughly two-and-a-half-year wait to see what the duo would do next has been tough, to put it mildly. That brings us to their second succinctly-yet-enigmatically-titled show for the streaming service, 1899. This time, “multinational immigrants traveling from the old continent to the new encounter a nightmarish riddle aboard a second ship adrift on the open sea.” Along the way, various truths and connections are discovered ab...
Welcome to Chippendales Is True Crime at Its Most Compelling and Unexpected: Review
The Pitch: If you don’t live under a rock, chances are you’ve heard of Chippendales: the elegant, trailblazing first-ever all-male strip-tease troupe that has been bringing delightfully scandalous thrills to audiences since the 1970s. What you may not know, however, is that the burlesque’s history is brimming with conspiracy, racketeering, arson, and murder. Over the course of 10 episodes, Welcome to Chippendales, Robert Siegel’s limited series based on K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca’s 2014 literary exposée Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders, shrewdly examines and unravels the club’s shocking, harrowing history. The show rigorously dissects the troupe’s inception, rise to fame, and subsequent descent into the deepest, most gruesome bowels of corruption. A Killer Strip Tease:...
The Crown Season 5 Review: Tragedies to Come Hang Heavily Over the Penultimate Installment
The Pitch: In Season 5 of The Crown, one unifying theme stands out — being royalty is not a good time. The stately Netflix drama’s penultimate run of episodes has now clearly reached the beginning of the end, as Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton, succeeding Olivia Colman) faces her age, Prince Charles (Dominic West, succeeding Josh O’Connor) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki, succeeding Emma Corrin) face their infamous divorce, and Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce, succeeding Tobias Menzies) faces… getting really into carriage racing. As grey and somber as ever, the fifth season continues the show’s march towards the one seismic event that will shake Britain to its core. But it takes its time, while continuing to explore both the symbolic power of the royal family — as well as the diffi...
I’m a Former Video Store Clerk and I Think Netflix’s Blockbuster Deserves to Go Bankrupt
It’s not a good sign that Blockbuster, a workplace sitcom set inside a literal metaphor for late-stage capitalism, feels the need to call out the problem with its premise seven minutes into the pilot episode. “Isn’t it ironic that the small business taking a stand against the big corporation in this scenario is actually a franchise of a once-huge corporation, named after the exact type of big corporate movies that killed off smaller movies?” Blockbuster employee Eliza (Melissa Fumero) says, as her boss Tim (Randall Park) tries to rally his underdog staff. I’m admittedly coming to the show with a bias, as a former video store clerk who spent about two and a half years behind the counter of independent stores — stores that always struggled to compete with the Walmart of the industry. But des...
This Year’s Treehouse of Horror Proves There’s Still Life Left in The Simpsons
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Simpsons, Season 34 Episode 6, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII.”] The popular attitude for decades now is that The Simpsons, Fox’s beloved, iconic, and seemingly undying animated tentpole, is past its prime — despite regular renewals year after year, as a critic there very rarely feels like much urgency in checking in on the show. However, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII,” arriving in the show’s 34th season, is full of genuine surprises, the least of which being that the annual anthology of horror tales seems like the show has found a spark of new creative energy. Okay, it’s primarily the second two parts of the episode which inspire that statement — not that the initial story, “The Pookadook” is bad, but it’s a pretty straightforward riff on...
When We Were Young: The Festival That Almost Wasn’t
After an eleventh-hour cancellation on Saturday, October 22nd for high winds just moments before the gates were set to open, the debut edition of the When We Were Young festival blasted off Sunday, October 23rd, welcoming 60,000 emo and punk fans with a stacked lineup of 65 acts. The black-clad masses poured inside the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, previously home to hip-hop fest Day N Vegas, around 10:00 a.m., while winds continued to gust and the temperatures dropped well below forecast. Located at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, a prime spot in the corridor between the Strip and Downtown, the famed Bonanza Gift Shop served as the backdrop of the dual Pink and Black stages, which switched off headlining acts until a stunning closing set by My Chemical Romance. Advertis...
