TV
Caleb McLaughlin Recalls Experiencing Racism from Stranger Things Fans: “It Definitely Took a Toll on Me”
Caleb McLaughlin stars in one of Netflix’s biggest shows, but his experience hasn’t always been positive. At a recent Heroes Comic Con Belgium appearance, the Stranger Things star recalled encountering racism from fans of the beloved series. “It definitely took a toll on me as a younger kid,” McLaughlin said. “My very first Comic-Con, some people didn’t stand in my line because I was Black. Some people told me, ‘Oh I didn’t want to be in your line because you were mean to Eleven.’ Even now, some people don’t follow me or don’t support me because I’m Black. Sometimes overseas, you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger, it definitely affected me a lot.” McLaughlin recalled feeling less popular than his St...
Death Comes Clicking in Teaser Trailer for HBO’s The Last of Us: Watch
September 26th is the anniversary of Outbreak Day within the world of The Last of Us, and HBO is celebrating with an official teaser trailer that offers a hint of the upcoming horrors. The television adaptation of the beloved video game franchise stars Pedro Pascal as smuggler Joel, Bella Ramsey as teenage girl Ellie, plus Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, and more. It’s due out sometime in 2023, and the new teaser gives just a taste of why this could be one of the most expensive series ever made. As Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken” rattles in the background, the preview shows not just a couple of sets, but an expansive dystopian world as humans struggle to contain a dangerous infection: Makeshift cities, vast explosions, green fields, frozen wastelands, and for a few hai...
Lorne Michaels Doesn’t Plan to Retire from Saturday Night Live After Season 50
Saturday Night Live creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels has shared that he still has “no plans to retire” from his duties at the long-running NBC program despite the seismic cast shake-up this summer and the show’s impending 50th season in 2024-2025. In an interview with The New York Times, the 77-year old prefaced the show’s 48th season by calling it “a year of reinvention” and attributed the personnel overhaul as an expected shift that was delayed by the onset of COVID-19. “The pandemic had put us in this position where no one could really leave, because there were no jobs.,” he shared. “And at the same time, if I don’t add new people every year, then the show isn’t the show. There have to be new people, for both our sake and also for the audience.” Michaels has shepherded numerous sea...
James Earl Jones Abdicates Darth Vader Voice Role to AI Technology
James Earl Jones has apparently relinquished the role of lead Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader to AI voice technology. The 91-year old actor and EGOT winner originated the character with his vocal performance in 1977’s Star Wars. In a report by Vanity Fair about the Ukrainian start-up Respeecher, it was revealed that the process of transitioning the vocal responsibilities from Jones to the company’s proprietary AI algorithm has been ongoing since the Sith Lord’s revival in the 2022 Star Wars prequel series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Respeecher programmers employed an algorithm that uses archival recordings to create new dialogue. Jones provided his singular, sinister take on Darth Vader for a number of Star Wars spin-offs throughout the years, but his last contribution came in 2019’s The Ri...
Dahmer Review: Ryan Murphy’s Serial Killer Drama Puts the Victims First
The Pitch: What often gets lost in the lurid stories of America’s most infamous serial killers is how profoundly they expose the cracks in our democracy. Such is the case for Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters), a lonely and disturbed young man who murdered and dismembered 17 young men between the years of 1978 and 1991. The horrific details of those murders gained Dahmer immediate fame when he was finally arrested in 1991 and eventually sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment: this was a necrophiliac, a cannibalistic child molester, a gay man who drugged and killed other gay men at the height of the AIDS epidemic. When the Milwaukee Police Department searched Dahmer’s apartment, they found so many severed body parts that the chief medical examiner described the experience as “more like disman...
Interview With the Vampire Review: AMC Delivers a Proudly Queer Take on the Anne Rice Saga
The Pitch: Vampires are back! Really, our bloodsucking undead brethren never truly go out of style, but it’s been a few years since the sparkly Twilight boom and it’s time for the original kings of the genre to make their way to the forefront. Hence AMC throwing a lot of money behind a lavish adaptation of Anne Rice’s multi-million best-selling gothic saga, The Vampire Chronicles — starting with her most famous work, Interview With the Vampire. The late Rice essentially reinvented the modern vampire, turning them into baroque creatures of sensuality and emotion, and with it, she inspired intense devotion from her fans. It’s no mean feat for any creator to take on this saga for the big or small screen, given that it encompasses hundreds of characters, thousands of years, a total r...
Vince Gilligan’s Next Series to Star Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan has landed his next series, and it’s set to star a familiar face: Rhea Seehorn. Described as a blended, grounded genre drama, the currently untitled project has already been picked up for a two-season straight-to-series order from Apple TV+. According to Deadline, the show has been compared to The Twilight Zone. Though it is set in our world, the series is said to be focused on “bending reality and focusing on people and exploring the human condition in an unexpected, surprising way.” Advertisement Related Video Gilligan will serve as showrunner and executive producer through his own High Bridge Productions as part of an overall deal at Sony Pictures Television. The series marks a reunion with Apple heads of worldwide video Zack Van ...
Reservation Dogs Renewed for Season 3
Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s FX comedy Reservation Dogs has been renewed for Season 3. The third installment is set to air in 2023, exclusively on Hulu. When it debuted in 2021, Reservation Dogs was the first television series written and directed entirely by Indigenous people. Filmed on location in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the series follows a group of Native American teenagers (Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor) who take to scheming and stealing in order to save up for a trip to California. In its second season, however, that plan began to fall apart. “I couldn’t be more proud of this show that I created with my friend Taika Waititi,” Harjo said in a statement. “It was born out of a conversation in Taika’s kitchen and has now made its way into...
Philadelphia Flyers Mascot Gritty Stirred Up Trouble on Abbott Elementary Season 2 Premiere
School is back in session at Abbott Elementary, and the Emmy-winning show returned with a cameo from hometown hero (or terror, depending on who you ask) Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty. “I managed to get the only celebrity that matters to come and surprise our kids on the first day of school,” Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson’s character Janine Teagues said to open the episode. “America’s favorite orange furry sweetheart: Flyers mascot Gritty!” Apparently, everyone was into the idea except for fellow teacher Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams), who said he doesn’t “get” the fluffy orange monster. And since this a sitcom, there was a mix-up about the timing of Gritty’s visit. Advertisement Related Video Check out a clip from Gritty’s appearance on Abbott Elemen...
HBO Confirms The Case Against Adnan Syed Sequel
HBO is developing a sequel to their 2019 docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed, leading up to and following the infamous Serial subject’s release from prison. The Case Against Adnan Syed explores Syed’s conviction after his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee went missing and was subsequently found dead in 1999. The smash true crime podcast Serial reignited interest in the case, which is garnering media attention again this week after a Baltimore City judge vacated Syed’s conviction and ordered his release from prison. Prosecutors are still deciding if they want to try Syed again after new information was found suggesting the involvement of two more suspects in Lee’s murder: “The State no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction,” said Baltimore State’s Attorney Maril...
QAnon, Citing The Simpsons, Says Something Is Happening September 24th
The Simpsons has a history of predicting the future, but QAnon is taking the animated series’ perceived abilities to the next level. As Vice reports, the conspiracy group is certain that something bad is going to happen on September 24th, and they’re basing their assumptions on one episode of the series and a poor choice of words from a German politician. While no one at QAnon is certain what, exactly, is going to happen on September 24th, followers on different platforms have thrown around the possibility of nuclear war, a financial crisis, water poisoning, and an armed revolution. The conspiracy theorists first got the idea for a fall armageddon when German lawmaker Friedrich Merz, speaking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this month, misspoke and said everyon...
Trailer for Documentary Now! Reveals Stone-Throwing, Monkey-Loving, Art-Making Season 4: Watch
Just under a month away from the return of the hit mockumentary series, IFC has revealed a trailer for Season 4 53 of Documentary Now!. Coming from co-creator Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas, the new season promises insights into the strange worlds of stone throwing competitions, monkey-obsessed documentarians, and the styles of hairdressers in a small coastal village. Along for the ride is an all-star cast including Alexander Skarsgård (The Northman), Nicholas Braun (Succession), August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and even Tom Jones. The newcomers join a number of returning Documentary Now! alum, including Armisen himself and Cate Blanchett, as well as Helen Mirre...
