TV
Showtime’s American Gigolo Is More Sad than Sexy: Review
The Pitch: Male prostitute Julian Kaye’s leisurely life of bedding wealthy older women and driving nice cars around southern California is suddenly disrupted when he’s framed for the murder of a client. It’s the role that made Richard Gere a household name in Paul Schrader’s 1980 film American Gigolo, but in Showtime’s new series of the same name, Julian is played by Jon Bernthal, the sensitive tough guy who’s become a burgeoning sex symbol in his own right with a string of memorable TV roles in The Walking Dead, The Punisher, and this year’s We Own This City. Julian, who has no memory of the night of the murder, confessed to the killing, and was sentenced to 15 years of prison. After Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell) uncovers evidence that exonerates him, though, Julian is a free man who...
Cobra Kai Strikes Hard Through an Operatic, Over-the-Top Season 5: Review
The Pitch: As the Bard once wrote, things are rotten in the San Fernando Valley. Under the mentorship of obscenely wealthy karate villain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), Cobra Kai won last year’s All-Valley tournament — due in no small part to Silver’s illegal intervention. Plus, Silver’s money has given the dojo a facelift, and he plans to expand its no-mercy ethos to kids all over the country. Moreover, he’s framed former sensei Kreese (Martin Kove) for assault, leaving him unfettered control over the dojo while his mentor rots in prison. Our heroes aren’t exactly equipped to combat him, either: The loss at All-Valley months prior has broken Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) spirit, driving him further into paranoid obsession over Silver’s influence on his life. Johnny Lawrence (Willi...
House of the Dragon Episode 3: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 3, “Second of His Name.”] Game of Thrones was a show that became famous for the shades of grey to be found in its heroes and villains alike, and so far the prequel series House of the Dragon has shown every indication of following in that proud tradition. Thus, Consequence is happy to introduce Who’s the Worst Person in Westeros, a weekly ranking of House of the Dragon‘s most important characters, and just how unsavory they ended up being each week. Everyone on screen, including dragons, is eligible for this list (though expect the show’s series regulars to be heavily featured as we progress). In “Second of His Name,” we go on arguably the worst family road trip since that Vacation remake where Chris ...
The 9 Most Shocking Revelations From House of Hammer
Warning: The following article contains potentially triggering material relating to sexual assault. If you are a victim of sexual assault, call RAINN at 1-800-656-4673. If you’ve got a Discovery+ account and are comfortable viewing dark subject matter, then House of Hammer is a must-watch this weekend. While the series begins by focusing on disgraced actor and current Cayman Islands timeshare agent Armie Hammer, this three-part docuseries reveals some terrifying truths about his notorious family. For the multiple allegations of abuse levied against Armie, as the documentary reveals, are just small parts of a much larger and disturbing pattern of violence within the Hammer family. The series may be an extremely difficult watch for some people, and as stated above, there are highly graphic d...
The Osbournes Returning to Reality TV with New Series Home to Roost
The Osbournes are making a return to reality TV with a new docu-series titled Home to Roost. The UK program will chronicle Ozzy and Sharon’s move from Los Angeles back to England, as well as other aspects of their lives. Home to Roost is set to air in 2023 on BBC One and its VOD service iPlayer as a 10-part series of 30-minute episodes. The announcement comes 20 years after the family’s groundbreaking reality series The Osbournes first aired on MTV. Per the BBC press release, like The Osbournes, Home to Roost will also document Sharon and Ozzy’s children Jack and Kelly. It appears that their more reclusive daughter, Aimee, has chosen to stay out of the spotlight, as she did with The Osbournes. A full description of the new docu-series reads as follows: “Home to Roost will document Ozzy and...
Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor Depart Saturday Night Live
Three more bite the dust at studio 8H: Saturday Night Live cast members Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor — as well as featured player Aristotle Athari — won’t be returning for the show’s 48th season. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, Moffat, Villaseñor, and Athari follow Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney, all of whom said their goodbyes during the season 47 finale back in May. Longtime producer Lindsay Shookus also departed in August. Moffat and Villaseñor joined SNL as featured performers in 2016 and were promoted to main cast members two years later. Moffat became known for impressions including Joe Biden, Eric Trump, and Beto O’Rourke, as well as original characters like Guy Who Just Bought a Boat on “Weekend Update.” Adverti...
Why We Need a Fifth (and Final) Season of Westworld
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 4 finale of Westworld, “Que Será, Será.”] The 2022 television landscape feels, sometimes, a little bit like the Wild West, as the chaos being experienced by the rest of the world trickles into the business decisions being made by men in Patagonia vests. This is why it’ll be exceptionally ironic if, after consistently keeping viewers on their toes for four seasons, Westworld never gets a chance to bring its cyberpunk Western story to its planned conclusion. The twisty mindfuck of a show, a riff on the 1973 Michael Crichton film created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, wrapped its fourth season this month by literally ending the world — or, at the very least, the end of humanity. Advertisement Season 4 began with most of human...
Ben Kingsley Will Reprise Role of Trevor Slattery in Marvel’s Wonder Man Series
Ben Kingsley delighted and deceived his way through Iron Man 3 and Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings, and as Variety reports, he’ll bring back the character Trevor Slatterly in Marvel Studios’ Wonder Man series for Disney+. Wonder Man will reunite Kingsley with the show’s co-creator and executive producer, Destin Daniel Cretton, who helmed Shang-Chi. Some reports have suggested that Cretton is planning an action-packed Hollywood satire; Slatterly’s backstory is struggling actor, and in the comics, Wonder Man worked as a stunt man to try and monetize his invulnerability. Wonder Man has served as both an Iron Man antagonist and Avengers ally, and there’s no indication which way he’ll be leaning at the start of the series. Few o...
How Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal Affirms My Experience with Autism
In a 2017 Rolling Stone profile, comedian Nathan Fielder discussed researching Asperger’s syndrome to shape his character on the popular Comedy Central program Nathan For You. Although Fielder did not disclose that he personally identifies on the autism spectrum, his latest project — HBO’s fascinating and deceptively moving docu-comedy The Rehearsal — reflects an experience that many autistic individuals such as myself have dealt with: masking, a survival mechanism in which autistic individuals suppress their neurodivergent traits in order to adapt to their surroundings. The Rehearsal initially follows Fielder helping people practice difficult conversations and momentous life events by designing intricate simulations for them. To do this, he hires actors to inhabit these sets, and crafts d...
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Cast on Creating Tolkien’s World for TV: “It’s Mind Blowing, What They Did”
Middle-earth, if you weren’t aware, is a big place. The fantasy world created by J.R.R. Tolkien and brought to the screen numerous times, most famously in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy The Lord of the Rings, encompasses many different races scattered across different lands, from sunny forests to bleak winter landscapes to mines buried deep within the Earth — settings which all come to life in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the epic new fantasy series debuting this week on Prime Video. During a recent press day for The Rings of Power, Consequence spoke with 12 members of the cast in groups of four, each group a mix of Elves, Dwarves, Harfoots, and Men. This meant that while everyone was friendly and familiar with each other, the separation between storylines meant that m...
Neil Gaiman Says Michael Jackson Wanted to Star in The Sandman
In the decades before Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman was successfully adapted as a hit Netflix series, Warner Bros. had been pushing the comic book writer to make a film. In an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gaiman mentioned that an executive at the studio once mentioned to him that Michael Jackson wanted to star as the protagonist Dream (aka Morpheus) during the mid-’90s. According to Gaiman, he had previously come to an agreement with Warner Bros. executive Lisa Henson in the early ’90s to not make a Sandman movie because he was “just getting started on the comic” and “it would be a distraction.” In the mid-’90s, however, he took a meeting with a different exec and was told the property was one of Warner’s “crown jewels.” Not only that, Michael Jackso...
Miley Cyrus, Jimmy Fallon, Willie Nelson to Guest on ‘Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas’
Dolly Parton is planning an A-list Christmas special with some of her best friends. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas film will feature appearances from her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus (as well as pops Billy Ray Cyrus), as well as Jimmy Fallon, Willie Nelson, Jimmie Allen and Zach Williams. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The NBC holiday musical movie will air at an as-yet-unspecified time between Thanksgiving and Christmas and star the 76-year-old country icon, alongside actors Tom Everett Scott, Ana Gasteyer and Angel Parker. The meta project is described as a “modern-day movie musical” about the making of a network TV special. THR reported that as Dolly strives to make a show that shares the “mountain ...
