TV
Westworld Composer Ramin Djawadi on the Exciting Musical Twists Promised by Season 4
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 2, “Well Enough Alone.” To read about the music of Episode 1, click here.] There might not be a big epic cover in the newest episode of Westworld, but there’s still plenty to discuss, music-wise, with composer Ramin Djawadi. That’s because Episode 2, “Well Enough Alone,” continues exploring key questions for Season 4, ending with the revelation that Delos Destinations, the corporation behind the high-tech amusement parks where this future dystopia was born, is up to its old tricks — with a brand new theme park setting that made Djawadi very happy. “I love jazz and actually studied jazz in college as well, and I never get to do much jazz in score. So whenever there’s opportunity, I jump on it right away,” he tel...
Friends Creator Marta Kauffman Feels Guilty the Show Was So White, Donates $4 Million to an African Studies Program
It took her a while, but Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman is finally ready to face the criticism about her sitcom’s lack of diversity. In an attempt to “course-correct,” Kauffman has donated $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University, to establish an endowed professorship in the school’s African and African American studies department. Brandeis’ African and African American studies department was established in 1969 and is one of the oldest such departments in the country. The Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies will help the department recruit more students and teachers, as well as support one distinguished scholar in the program. Friends has long been criticized for featuring almost zero people of color in the show, whic...
Metallica Help Shred Some Demons In Stranger Things Season 4
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things, “The Piggyback.”] For a show already known for killer needle drops, Stranger Things Season 4 took things to a new level with its season finale. In the epic-length Episode 9, “The Piggyback,” our heroes decide to venture into the Upside Down to take down the malevolent demon known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). The plan: Use Max (Sadie Sink) as bait to lure the demon into making a psychic attack, while the rest of the gang attacks Vecna’s comatose body. Vecna isn’t defenseless, though, as he’s guarded by an army of demonic bats. That’s when Eddie Munsen (Joe Quinn) — and his guitar — come into play. Eddie pulls out an amp and electric guitar and, with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) headbanging beside...
Stranger Things Season 4, Part 2 Serves Up Oversized Blockbuster Cheese for the Fourth of July: Review
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things, “The Piggyback.”] The Pitch: This year’s super-sized season of Stranger Things felt, if anything, a confirmation of Netflix’s confidence in the series — marking it as their true blockbuster tentpole, the thing to keep people subscribing amid price hikes and a nagging sense of doubt in their catalog. The first seven episodes (all nearly feature-length) set up our rapidly growing set of chess pieces along four branching storylines: Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her attempts to get her powers back, Joyce’s (Winona Ryder) quest to get Hopper (David Harbour) back from Russia, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and crew fleeing from the authorities in California, and the kids of Hawkins facing down a sp...
R.I.P. Joe Turkel, The Shining and Blade Runner Actor Dead at 94
Joe Turkel, the prolific character actor best known for his roles as the bartender in The Shining and creator of replicants in Blade Runner, died on Monday, June 27th at the age of 94. The actor’s death was announced by his family, who said he died peacefully at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica with his sons Craig and Robert by his side. Born July 15th, 1927 in Brooklyn, Turkel saw action in the US Army during World War II before moving to California to pursue an acting career upon his return. His first credited film role was 1948’s City Across the River, but perhaps one of the main catalysts for his career was an appearance in the 1953 B-picture Man Crazy. Advertisement Related Video Stanley Kubrick spotted Turkel in the latter film, as the actor tol...
Conservatives Lash Out at Disney for Depicting a Trans Man Buying Period Products
Since American conservatives aren’t too worried about the Supreme Court’s disbelief in global warming or dismantling of abortion rights, they have to find some nit-pickier topics to get their panties in a wad — like a man shopping for menstrual products in a children’s television show. This week, infamous right-wing writer Christopher T. Rufo — aka the guy who drummed up last year’s partisan uproar over critical race theory. — tweeted his outrage over Disney+’s Baymax! for one very brief inclusion of an openly transgender background character, sending much of conservative Twitter into a pathetic tizzy. Baymax!, a spinoff of the film Big Hero 6, is a six-part series in which the titular “personal healthcare companion” extends his helpful deeds to the youths of San Fransokyo....
Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring to Make Acting Debut in New Apple TV+ Series The Changeling
After winning us over back in 2014 with a musical guest appearance on The Late Show, Samuel T. Herring is coming back to the small screen — albeit under different circumstances. The Future Islands frontman will be making his acting debut in The Changeling, the upcoming Apple TV+ drama series, alongside LaKeith Stanfield. The Changeling is based on Victor LaValle’s bestselling book of the same name, adapted for TV by Kelly Marcel. Per Deadline, the series is billed as a “fairytale for grown-ups,” blending elements of fantasy, horror, and the real-life trials of parenthood. Stanfield will star as Apollo, a new dad who searches for and resells rare editions of books for a living, while Herring will play William Wheeler, a man who befriends Apollo as part of his journey to win back h...
Vince Staples Joins Reboots of White Men Can’t Jump and The Wood
Having already brought back the coming-of-age rap record on Summertime ’06 and house music on Big Fish Theory, Vince Staples is ready to save the ’90s buddy comedy. The West Coast MC will star in Showtime’s series reboot of the 1999 movie, The Wood, and as Deadline reports, he’s also joined the remake of 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump. Directed and co-written by Rick Famuyiwa, The Wood was a coming-of-age comedy following three young Black men in Inglewood, California. The new series appears to be something of a sequel with at least two returning characters: Richard T. Jones as Slim and Tamala Jones as Tanya. Famuyiwa is executive producing and directing the pilot from a script by Justin Hillian (The CHI). But this series revamp...
What We Do in the Shadows Glides By on Vampiric Charm in Its Fourth Season: Review
The Pitch: When we last left the Staten Island mansion of What We Do in the Shadows in Season 3, the house felt a little emptier — Nandor (Kayvan Novak) had just departed for his “Eat, Prey, Love” (sic) tour of self-discovery, and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) swanned off to England in a wooden crate to join the Worldwide Vampiric Council, with Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) in unwitting tow. Laszlo (Matt Berry), for his part, chose to stay behind, not least because the dead body of Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) gave way to a new, childlike form (also Proksch, pasty round adult features grinning eerily atop a child’s body), which he had to take care of. Cut to a year later, and all that potential energy is lost: All Nandor got from his tour was an erstwhile friendship with a nice family from ...
Westworld Composer Ramin Djawadi on That Epic Lana Del Rey Cover in the Season 4 Premiere: Exclusive
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 1, “The Auguries.”] The return of Westworld for its fourth season means a whole new set of challenges for series composer Ramin Djawadi, who’s been with the series since the beginning, and thus responsible for the soundtrack’s compelling blend of classical and electronic sounds (not to mention its always exciting covers of pre-existing tracks). “I feel like the show always pushes forward,” he says, in the first of a series of episode-specific conversations with Consequence this season. “With the characters, musically speaking, we always talk about, ‘Okay, do we need new themes? Or are we staying with old themes, and should we arrange them differently?’” Advertisement The season premiere, “The Auguries,” a...
Alyssa Milano and Tony Danza Officially Returning for Who’s the Boss? Reboot
The Who’s the Boss? reboot has found a home at Amazon Freevee, Deadline reports. Original stars Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano will return for the sequel, while Norman Lear is executive producing. Set 30 years after the original Who’s the Boss?, which ran on ABC from 1984 to 1992, the reboot will see Samantha Micelli (Milano) once again living with her father, Tony (Danza) — only this time, she’s a single mom herself. Mike Royce will write and co-executive produce the series alongside Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz for Sony Pictures Television, marking a reunion for the two with Lear and his producing partner Brent Miller after they collaborated on Netflix’s reboot of One Day at a Time. Advertisement Related Video Who’s the Boss? is joining ALF at Amazon’s ad-suppor...
Kyle MacLachlan Joins Prime Video’s Fallout TV Series
It’s the end of the world all over again, and when Prime Video finally cracks The Vault on their upcoming Fallout TV series, Kyle MacLachlan will be there to make sure that traveling nuclear wastelands never feels like a waste. As Variety reports, the Twin Peaks and Portlandia star has joined the Fallout cast as a series regular alongside Xelia Mendes-Jones and Aaron Moten. Few details are known about plot or characters, except that, as previously reported, the show stars Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell. The first Fallout video game launched in 1997, and across four titles in the main series, two spinoffs (New Vegas and 76), and a small collection of side-shoots, the franchise established a one-of-a-kind aesthe...
