The superhero team series follows Negative Man, Cyborg, and Robotman after their confrontation with the Brotherhood of Evil.
This remake of Paul Schrader’s 1980 male escort film stars Jon Bernthal and features lots of sweat and abs.
The Oppenheim twins are back with a sequel to their reality-TV hit about hot real estate agents whose cutthroat attempts at flipping homes rub up against their messy personal lives.
The Good Fight
When The Good Fight first premiered, it took an audacious approach to procedural drama. The show, produced by The Good Wife creators Michelle and Robert King, didn’t just cover the legal minutiae of Diane Lockhart’s shady career; it used those cases to explore the larger issues of our fractious political culture. Often, the episode would start with Diane gobsmacked by Trump’s inauguration and then shift into the real-time chronicle of her ailing psyche. Along the way, it threw in an eerie dose of therapeutic micro-psilocybin and made it clear that even the best lawyers sometimes need help to sort out reality from chaos.
As the series grew, it expanded its scope to explore broader issues. It did so while never losing sight of the need to give viewers a jolt. It was easy to see why the series became one of the most popular shows on TV, with a cast that includes Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald.
Whether it was an exploding building or a sudden death, the show’s characters were often facing existential doom and fighting to stay afloat. That sense of rupture gave the show a unique jolt, particularly in a time when other TV was trying so hard to be deep that it ended up being shrill and boring.
As the show nears its end, it has reverted to its roots with its sixth and final season, which debuted Sept. 8 on Paramount Plus. It’s stripped of the giddy, gleeful surrealism (COVID hallucinations, Hal Wackner’s copy-house courtroom) and even the Jonathan Coulton Schoolhouse Rock-style interstitial cartoons that explained things like Russian troll farms and nondisclosure agreements. The Good Fight is now a surprisingly sober and grounded series about the numbingly bleak state of our current cultural climate, and it’s one of the most interesting—and well-acted—of its kind.
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale has been a phenomenon since it debuted in 2017. Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel, the show details a future in which a violent religious coup has turned the United States into a totalitarian state known as Gilead. In this society, women are stripped of their rights and those deemed more fertile are conscripted to bear children for the elite. The series, starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred, follows her life in Gilead and her attempts to find the daughter taken from her years ago.
Unlike Atwood’s book, the TV show often provides insight into Offred’s past life through flashback scenes. This gives viewers a more in-depth view of how Gilead came to be and the brutal nature of its rule. For instance, a scene in which a man is attacked by handmaids demonstrates the escalating sexism of this regime more vividly than June’s brief mention of a slut-shaming in a grocery store in the book.
The story is also a cautionary fable that highlights how quickly the freedoms of women—such as speech, religion, and the ability to reproduce—can be snatched away with the simple changing of laws or governmental intervention. The Handmaid’s Tale’s extreme nature has caused it to resonate in today’s political climate, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Handmaid’s Tale returns with a fifth season on Hulu in September. Moss and co-stars Yvonne Strahovski (Serena Joy), Bradley Whitford (Commander Waterford), Samira Wiley (Moira) and O-T Fagbenle (Luke) celebrated the news of the show’s renewal with a video post in early September. The series is available to stream on Hulu, as well as through its iPhone and Android apps.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Ryan Murphy’s wildly successful anthology series has returned for a second season, this time tackling the murder of fashion icon Gianni Versace. Darren Criss, who earned an Emmy nomination for his role on Glee, is Andrew Cunanan, the pathological liar who killed the designer. Each episode begins with Versace’s brutal shooting and then works backward, introducing us to each of Cunanan’s victims.
The show breaks the usual TV crime-drama mold by focusing on what happened to the victims rather than to the killer himself. As a result, the story feels less like an examination of a famous murder than an exploration of the titanic struggle of gay identity, as we are forced to choose between Versace’s creative warmth and Cunanan’s corrosive shame over his own closeted life.
Unlike many of the other shows that have graced our screens in recent years, The Assassination of Gianni Versace has a real moral clarity. But it also works hard to be entertaining, balancing the demands of its subject with those of television storytelling.
This is a compelling, disturbing drama that takes its fair share of liberties with the truth, but it still speaks to the conversations we’re having about race, class and gender in our society. And though the episodes sometimes feel too long, it’s worth it to watch this riveting work. The Assassination of Gianni Versace airs on FX.
The Wizard of Oz
A tornado rips through Kansas and Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, are whisked away into the magical land of Oz. They meet a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who needs a brain, a Tin Man who longs for a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who wants courage. If they can reach the Emerald City, the Wizard may grant them their wishes. But the Wicked Witch of the West, who wants to be king of Oz, will not let that happen.
The Wizard of Oz is an iconic figure in the world of film and TV. The movie was not a major box office success when it first released in 1939, but its popularity increased over time. Udaariyaan Written Update is now considered to be one of the best films in history. The Wizard is a brooding and powerful character, and he is not portrayed as bumbling or incompetent. The character has become an icon of magic and good versus evil, and he is often associated with the color red.
TV fans can also see The Wizard of Oz in the Supernatural season 10 episode There’s No Place Like Home. The episode features the personification of the Wizard as Clive Dylan who was sent into the Land of Oz and split himself into two characters, Dark Charlie and Good Charlie. Sam Winchester was able to use the Inner Key of Oz to merge both Charlies back into the same body.
Other famous Wizard of Oz characters include the Tin Woodman, the Nome King, Princess Langwidere, and Quox, a bug-eyed dragon with rows of seats on his back. The film is also known for its diverse cast of characters, many of which were created by Baum.
Bombshell
The women at Fox News might seem an unlikely group to become the face of one of the first major dramas to stem from the #MeToo movement. But Jay Roach’s film, by focusing on Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and fictional new hire Kayla Pospisil, proves that these white conservatives are just as complicated as anyone else.
Carlson, Kelly, and Pospisil all fought back against the network’s CEO Roger Ailes, who created a toxic culture that encouraged his female staffers to be submissive to him and dismiss his sexual assault allegations as “false.” Ailes ultimately lost his position when three of the most powerful female news anchors in America decided to stand up to him.
The film doesn’t shy away from condemning Ailes but it also points out that plenty of women enabled him to continue abusing his power — from his wife, who defended him, to other Fox personalities like Greta Van Susteren and Jeanine Pirro who attacked Carlson, Kelly, and others who came forward. It’s a bold, provocative drama that reminds viewers that the fight for gender equality didn’t start at the White House; it began in conservative hallways and conservative TV studios.
Despite being a highly-acclaimed movie, Bombshell, starring Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie, performed poorly at the Box Office. This could be partially attributed to the time of year that it was released. However, the films’ Director, Jay Roach used a variety of media conventions to convey the ideology of the story to the audience. For example, the use of the Instrumental Score was a key feature in depicting the themes of Toxic Masculinity. The sound of a violin, trombone and cello was a recurring motif throughout the narrative.
