Jillaroos fullback Abbi Church was electric in her test debut, running 197m, while halfback Jesse Southwell did a great job steering the team around the field. For the Kiwi Ferns, co-captain Georgia Hale was excellent again, making a game-high 50 tackles, along with 100 run metres.
The match was always set to be a physical battle, after the Kiwi Ferns laid down a strong haka, where they advanced to be within metres of the Australian players.
The Jillaroos lost Keeley Davis early in the match with an arm injury in the opening set and both sides were guilty of errors in the opening exchanges, but once the match found its rhythm, it was a enthralling battle.
It took the Kiwi Ferns nearly 25 minutes for their first real attacking opportunity where they managed to force a repeat set but couldn’t capitalise, and eventually the Jillaroos broke the deadlock in the 32nd minute when Jessica Sergis broke three tackles to dive over in the corner and give her side a deserved 6-0 lead at the break – the third straight game New Zealand have failed to score in the first half.
The Ferns made a strong start to the second half, forcing a repeat set, but it was the Jillaroos who extended their lead after Apii Nicholls spilt the ball and Church swooped on it to claim her first test try.
New Zealand eventually got the breakthrough they needed when Annessa Biddle made a break deep inside their half and outraced Australian captain Ali Brigginshaw to score, but Raecene McGregor couldn’t convert.
The try set up a thrilling finish, and New Zealand had one last throw of the dice but couldn’t make it count, meaning Australia will be firm favourites in the Pacific Cup final next Sunday.
Ben Francisis an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.
The story begins, like so many today, with a social media post. Confusion, as is sometimes the case, soon followed. Still, this story may have a happy ending.
On Friday, July 5, Revival Food Hall announced on Instagram that it would be closing at the end of the month, citing an inability to reach “better business terms from our landlord [CBRE]” as the cause. At the time, it was assumed the food hall and its 14 vendors would be shutting down permanently. As it turns out, the venue will remain open but will be under new management, Atlanta-based STHRN Hospitality, with a new name to come.
When it opened in 2016, Revival was a first of its kind for the city and featured 15 local food vendors. Local also applied to much of the space’s fixtures, metalwork, and furniture, which was crafted by Dock 6 Collective, a group of independent Chicago artisans.
Located in the lobby of The National, a 1905 Daniel Burnham-designed building, Revival Hall was the brainchild of Bruce Finkelman and Craig Golden. The duo and their 16” on Center company are also responsible for Thalia Hall, Empty Bottle, Longman & Eagle, and The Promontory among others. Since then, they’ve grown their hospitality group to include Salt Shed, From Here On (another food hall inside the Old Post Office), and Manhattan’s Olly Olly, the last two are food halls as well.
“It was a labor of love and when we started eight years ago, we had no idea what we were doing,” says Finkelman of Revival Hall’s early days. “We had an understanding of our mission of treating the Loop like a neighborhood like nobody else had done, and also being able to showcase some of the great local culinary talent that we had in Chicago.”
With the changing economic environment, Revival had been in discussions with their landlord to figure out a way to continue and operate for the long term, says Finkelman. “It was communicated to us recently that that was not going to be a possibility and we didn’t have a choice but to move on.”
Enter STHRN, a consulting and management company that formed in 2020 — a partnership with George Banks of real estate consulting firm Revel, Elizabeth Feichter (Atlanta Food and Wine Festival), and Kelly Campbell of culinary consulting business Southern Culinary and Creative (Gather ‘round, Epicurean Atlanta hotel). They’ve been behind a few Atlanta restaurants, and food halls in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and LA.
For Ravi Nagubadi, owner and founder of Art of Dosa, getting a spot in Revival was a dream come true. “When I first came to Revival in 2016, and I was dreaming about setting up a business of my own, I said to myself, this is the place to be,” he says, citing the vibe, the food stalls curated, and the crowds.
Art of Dosa came on board the day after Christmas 2019. While it’s been “a struggle,” he says, the pandemic notwithstanding, in the last few months Nagubadi has seen an improvement in business. So he was surprised when he got a call from Tim Wickes, manager of Revival, giving him the heads up about the transition.
“I don’t even want to venture into the specifics of it,” says Nagubadi, adding that the words “court decision” were in the letter they were given. “It’s one of these things where you’re the kids and your parents made it seem like everything was okay, but all of a sudden they told you they’re getting divorced.”
While Nagubadi has nothing but praise for Revival Hall — “It was the model for all food halls in the country and was a revelation when it came out and still is, so kudos and credit to them,” he says — he’s hopeful for the future. “As a business owner, my number one thing has to be do whatever I have to do to continue the business,” he says. “I’m excited for what that new chapter’s going to bring.”
Matt Sussman of Danke, one of two of the original Revival vendors still there, has also seen an increase in business of late. “I don’t think it’s ever been busier than it is now,” he says, especially during peak times, Tuesday through Thursday during lunch.
Sussman (who also owns two Logan Square restaurants — Table, Donkey & Stick and the new Bar Parisette) also expressed confidence about the future of Revival after meeting in person with representatives from STHRN. “While no one was very forthcoming about what happened — and I don’t know if and when that information would be public — I expect things will continue in a way that is conducive to us operating there as we always have.”
STHRN is no stranger to running food halls. “Collectively, we saw an opportunity to create a business that didn’t exist, which is running bars, restaurants, and cafes in food halls on behalf of building owners,” says Banks, one of the company’s founders.
“We are excited to get involved with an iconic asset that’s been a real stalwart for the Loop community for years now,” says another founder, Campbell, adding that a different name should be the only difference post-July 31 when STHRN takes over. “To the patron who comes in one day, it will look the same the next.”
For their part, the Revival Hall folks have reached out to the building to offer their help in the transition.
“The most important thing is that whoever the new folks are in there, that they really take care of these great businesses and the people who want to stay,” says Finkelman. “While we’re sad to see it go, we hope that whatever happens that they honor what we’ve tried to bring there.”
And this may not be the end for Revival Hall. Says Finkelman, “We have so many projects on the docket right now that who’s to say that Revival can’t find its way to another building or another area.”
Meanwhile, vendors like Danke and Art of Dosa are trying to battle misconceptions. A group of vendors collaborated on a Thursday, July 11 Instagram post hoping to get the word out that their businesses aren’t disappearing. Despite 16” on Center’s announcement that they’re not closing their doors and that they’ll be around when the new operators take over: “Let’s clear this up…WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE. Same Space. Same Restaurants. Same Hours. The Space is simply changing management groups.”
Sony has delisted Helldivers 2 in more than 170 countries that don’t have dedicated regions in PSN, which was the main argument against the change. These countries no longer have the ability to buy the game or activate a retail key. Steam is refunding the game even with more than 100hrs of playtime.
Cousin Sal is joined by Jimmy Kimmel to discuss hosting the Oscars, the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight, and the glory years of UNLV basketball before being joined by the D3 to debate which former NCAA basketball player would’ve made the most NIL money.
Host: Cousin Sal Guests: Darren Szokoli, Brian Szokoli, Harry Gagnon, and Jimmy Kimmel Producers: Michael Szokoli, Joel Solomon, Jack Wilson, and Chris Wohlers
Peter Smith, owner of Starlight Cinema Taupō for 43 years (centre) with new owners Tammy and Charlie Prince.
Taupō’s only movie theatre is shutting at the end of the month and the operators have yet to secure a viable alternative venue.
Starlight Cinema’s closure has as much to do with a series of unfortunate events and bad timing as financial viability.
The building which houses the theatre and five retail shops, comes up well short of modern earthquake standards and is set to be demolished, as early as next month.
Previous cinema owner Peter Smith had plans for a brand new purpose-built theatre building in Taupō, but then Covid-19 struck and put a halt to proceedings.
In the meantime, with plans for a new theatre in place, landlord Glynn Pointon purchased the building to knock it down and replace it with three shops at ground level and six subterranean shops accessible from a fully enclosed Starlight Arcade.
In May 2022, with plans for a new theatre building shelved, Smith – who had run the cinema for 43 years – sold it to local couple Tammy and Charlie Prince. Charlie said they were fully aware at the time that the lease on the building would be short-lived.
“So it was coming down either way. We were only guaranteed 12 months in here so we got lucky and got an extra nine months. I didn’t pay a lot for the business. I basically bought the equipment and the stock.”
The building that houses Starlight Cinema in Taupō is old, not up to…
With three elegantly simple words, Josh Bowen spoke for millions of NFL fans:
“This shit sucks.”
The Kansas City native, who owns John Brown Smokehouse in Queens, had no clue that Saturday’s Chiefs-Dolphins wild-card game was airing exclusively on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, until we spoke this week. When I told him, he didn’t believe me at first. “I was just assuming this was gonna be on TV like a normal playoff game would be,” he said. “So I’m gonna have to pay for a subscription to watch a playoff game?”
The idea of being forced to sign up for a streaming service in order to show playoff football to the hundreds of Chiefs fans packing his restaurant doesn’t just annoy Bowen. It offends him. “It’s un-American to be charging for playoff games,” he says.
On the other hand, money grabs are actually an American tradition (as is complaining about paying for something that used to be free). But this specific money grab is new. Last year, NBCUniversal reportedly shelled out $110 million to the NFL for the rights to broadcast one playoff game on its digital platform. Unless you live in the Kansas City or Miami areas, there will be no way to watch Chiefs-Dolphins on traditional, local television. It’s the first NFL playoff game that will only be available on a streaming service.
Sure, having to pay six bucks to catch a single game (and then maybe a few episodes of The Office) isn’t a grave injustice. But pay-per-view football is impossible not to rail against. It’s the kind of nakedly cynical concept that unites us all. On his podcast, sports radio legend Mike Francesa dubbed it an “utterly disgraceful, greedy reach by the NFL.” Founder of The Ringer, Bill Simmons, called it “one of the all-time sports television disasters.” Wichita Eagle opinion editor Dion Lefler opened his column on the subject by quoting Tom Petty’s “The Last DJ”: “As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see / how much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free.”
Hell, even Chiefs defensive end Charles Omenihu weighed in: “Us playing on peacock ONLY is insane I won’t lie,” he tweeted before offering to pay for three-month subscriptions for 90 people. And right on time, apoplectic fans started to blame Taylor Swift for the NFL’s decision to put the weekend’s marquee matchup on a platform that most of the country doesn’t have.
The numbers-juicing conspiracy theories are exhausting and easy to dismiss, but it’s just as easy to understand the anger behind them. As the entertainment industry has fractured and live events have become the last remaining reliable draw for mass viewership, sports leagues—particularly the NFL, which astonishingly accounted for 93 of the 100 most-watched programs in 2023—have found themselves in a position of pure leverage. They’re the last working well in town, and everyone’s thirsty. But by letting the NBCUniversals, Amazons, and Netflixes of the world break their bank accounts for broadcast rights, leagues like the NFL have also jeopardized the viewer experience.
“It’s all take and no give,” says Leigh Nelson, a Chiefs fan who lives in Denver. She’s not naive. She understands the NFL’s digital push. It’s 2024, after all. “That part isn’t necessarily new,” she says. But she can’t shake that this is a playoff game. “There’s something about a playoff game that feels like it kind of belongs to the fans a little bit more than a regular game does.”
The fact that fans are basically being given no choice but to buy a Peacock subscription is, of course, ironic. The promise of streaming was that it would give viewers endless choices. But in practice, the shattering of TV’s old (yet profitable) model has led to an impossible one in which being a (law-abiding) completist requires a host of recurring monthly payments. To watch the full slate of NFL games this season, you needed access to the major TV networks, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN, the NFL Network, YouTubeTV (the only place you can buy the Sunday Ticket package), and sometimes Peacock (the streamer broadcast a game between the Bills and Chargers during Week 16). The league has also stretched out its schedule like pizza dough over the last decade, strategically sprinkling games throughout the week. Simply figuring out how to watch can be a pain in the ass.
“While most of humanity is benefitting from the shift to streaming, sports fans are sort of fucked,” says Alan Wolk, cofounder of the media analysis firm TVREV. “It’s like, ‘Where do I watch the game? Where is it? Do I have to subscribe to this new service now that I don’t really care about? And I don’t even know where it is.’ And all that. There’s a lot of anger.”
This season, Bowen had to keep his restaurant open on Christmas because his team had an afternoon game that day. “The person who made this year’s Chiefs schedule is hereby banned from John Brown,” he wrote on Facebook. “Next year we expect a game in Europe at 3 a.m., on a Wednesday, on CSPAN. … Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. Except Raiders and Broncos fans.”
Bowen knows that streaming is “the future,” but the way the NFL treats its viewers bothers him. He also knows that it could be worse. “There are Chiefs bars out there that don’t even have HD TVs yet,” he says. And then there are the millions of aging fans at home who haven’t made the switch to streaming yet. They want to watch the damn game, too.
All of this leads to one obvious question for the NFL: “Is it eventually going to bite them in the ass?” Wolk asks. “Because fans, I think, see it as a money grab. It’s not like you’re making it convenient for me. You’re just trying to make more money. And then that could translate to, ‘Well, to hell with this.’”
It could. Then again, it hasn’t yet. In 2023, NFL ratings shot up. At this point, there may be no controversy that will curb our ravenous hunger for football. No matter how irritating and difficult it’s becoming to consume it, simply not watching isn’t a real option. Our loyalty isn’t to the league. It’s to a sport that, despite its well-chronicled ugliness, gives us more surprising, exciting moments than anything else on TV. It’s to our teams, which are part of our identities. Not tuning in feels like an act of self-betrayal.
So on Saturday night, fans in Patrick Mahomes and Tua Tagovailoa jerseys across America will be scanning the channel listings, screaming “Where the fuck is the game?!” at their 70-inch flat-screen TVs. After a few minutes, though, they’ll forget that they had to subscribe to a streaming service to watch. And the next day, all they’ll think about is who won and who lost. They probably won’t even remember to cancel Peacock.
Have you taken the VHS pill yet? A few years ago I started collecting VHS tapes as kind of a joke. But then I realized you can snag CRT TV’s for next to nothing, if not free on marketplace. Next thing I know I am watching Raiders of the lost ark on a luxury 90s media setup with over 700 more classic titles. My wife and I do weekly movie nights now and the kids are watching magic school bus. N64, pS1, movies, all look better on the native hardware. Take the VHS pill and join us in the last good era the world knew.
It’s been one of those strange, busy years where any of Polygon’s top 10 games of the year could have made the No. 1 slot. Heck, you could expand that outward to include the top 20. There was a wealth of great games throughout the year, making it impossible to keep up with everything — even here at Polygon, where many of our jobs are to keep up with video games. That’s why we’ve created this list of 10 games you might have missed, all from indie studios. They cover a bunch of different genres, from a goofy multiplayer game to an inventory management roguelike.
Like with Polygon’s list of the top 50 games of the year, there are plenty of fantastic games that slipped through the cracks. Think we’ve missed any extra-special indies from the past year? Drop your favorites in the comments.
Bread & Fred
Image: SandCastles Studio/Apogee Entertainment
Developer: SandCastles Studio Where to play: Windows PC
Bread & Fred is a game you’re going to want to play with a friend. (Only one of you needs a copy of the game, thanks to Steam’s Remote Play Together.) You’ll play as two penguins tied together on a short rope, tasked with climbing a snowy mountain. It’s hard! The rope is very short, meaning there’s little wiggle room. Communication is key to timing each jump precisely — or you might fall down the mountain once again with a splat. So yes, Bread & Fred is hard, but it’s not impossible. Better yet, its challenge is pretty hilarious when playing with a friend you’re comfortable shouting at — or with. The animations have a slapstick element, making the already silly premise even funnier. —Nicole Carpenter
American Arcadia
Image: Out of the Blue Games/Raw Fury
Developer: Out of the Blue Games Where to play: Windows PC
Trevor, an office drone, wakes up one morning and learns his bosses are conspiring to kill him — and also that his entire life is built on a lie. American Arcadia is set in a ’70s-inspired metropolis called Arcadia, but something’s up with Arcadia: It’s a Truman Show-type widespread deception designed to trick thousands of people into living guilelessly for the entertainment of others. But that’s not American Arcadia’s only trick. One minute you’re bouncing across platforms like any other side-scrolling platformer. The next, you’re solving puzzles from a first-person perspective. Video games don’t often deploy multiple perspectives. Here, the shift is jarring but effective; it puts you on edge — kind of, one imagines, like learning the truth about Arcadia. —Ari Notis
El Paso, Elsewhere
Image: Strange Scaffold
Developer: Strange Scaffold Where to play: Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
If you can’t get enough of Max Payne, you won’t want to miss El Paso, Elsewhere. When vampires and werewolves arrive in a mysterious, supernatural motel, vampire hunter James Savage takes them head-on. What you get is a third-person shooter that revels in PlayStation-era graphics and explosive gameplay, with a narrative that sets the stakes especially high. You see, Savage’s ex is a vampire that’s about to perform a ritual — in that El Paso motel — to end the world. Within the mayhem of El Paso, Elsewhere, there’s a beautiful story about addiction and heartbreak that grounds the game’s physical demons within its metaphorical ones.
Yes, I made a Max Payne comparison — and you’ll see that a lot when reading about El Paso, Elsewhere — but the game is something wholly itself. It’s not to be missed. —NC
A Highland Song
Image: inkle
Developer: inkle Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
A Highland Song is one of those 2023 latecomers, sneaking into this year’s release calendar on Dec. 5. From the creators of 80 Days and Heaven’s Vault, it’s not a game to be missed. The stylized art style perfectly renders the Scottish Highlands, where Moira is exploring in order to get to the sea. It’s one of those games, like A Short Hike, where the journey is much more important than the destination. Set to music from Scottish folk artists TALISK and Fourth Moon, A Highland Song has so many lovely, warming moments, even when you’re sheltered up in a cave to escape the cold. —NC
MyHouse
Image: Veddge
Developer: Veddge Where to play: Windows PC
MyHouse.wad is a pretty boring Doom mod. I’m no game designer, and I’m hesitant to repeat a tired line about modern art, but come on: I could have made this! The map is just a typical suburban split-level home. There’s nothing to do but scurry around polygonal furniture, look at tacky domestic art, and shoot some generic Doom enemies. I suspect — if I’m being honest — its elevated reputation stems from its tragic backstory.
A Doomworld user named Veddge released MyHouse.wad on the site’s forum back in March. Veddge was clear from the beginning that MyHouse wasn’t his mod; he’d just polished it up. The original version belonged to Veddge’s childhood friend Tom, who had recently passed away. To honor his pal, he decided to touch up the map into operable shape and share the file with some hardcore Doom nerds — the sort of folks who might appreciate this amateur but lovingly made map.
I appreciate the good intentions. I just can’t understand why anybody would find this normal house all that interesting. I mean sure, the rooms keep moving. And sometimes there’s no way out. And other times I wake up in an empty hospital. But this is just a normal, boring Doom mod. There’s nothing to see here.
Unless none of this is true. —Chris Plante
Videoverse
Image: Kinmoku
Developer: Kinmoku Where to play: Mac, Linux, Windows PC
Videoverse is a game for those of us nostalgic for the early internet and its intimate communities. When I was a kid, I spent my free time digging into niches on Neopets and talking to strangers about shared interests in AOL chat rooms. I made friends in forums, creating an online world sometimes more enticing than my own real life. Videoverse is all of those things on a fictional forum dedicated to a dying MMO, and it perfectly captures the drama and sadness of letting go. All at once, Videoverse has recreated the frivolous, beautiful, dramatic, and profound ways technology has influenced my life, and maybe yours, too. —NC
A Space for the Unbound
Image: Mojiken/Toge Productions
Developer: Mojiken Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Set in rural Indonesia, A Space for the Unbound is a slice-of-life story of high school sweethearts Atma and Raya, who have a bucket list to fulfill. While A Space for the Unbound is an intimate look into a teenage relationship in ’90s Indonesia, it’s also the backdrop for a larger supernatural power that’s threatening reality — the end of the world. That framing makes for an interesting dichotomy between the scope of the stories: everyday moments paired with otherworldly drama. It’s one of those games that’s so earnest that’s it’s easy to overlook any flaws or bugs while captured by the stakes of the world and its characters. A bonus for pixel art fans: The game is gorgeous! —NC
Tape to Tape
Image: Excellent Rectangle/Null Games
Developer: Excellent Rectangle Where to play: Windows PC
A hockey game, but make it roguelite! Tape to Tape is in early access, so it hasn’t had its full release just yet. But what it is now is very fun: a game about building a hockey team by hiring players and managing the team. Play in games, of course, with different — not actual hockey-legal — abilities, upgrades, and bribes. Tape to Tape screams ’90s Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey, but a lot more wacky. As in other roguelites, losing is fine: It’s an opportunity to upgrade your tools of the trade and get further next time.
Grab some hockey fans in your life for online multiplayer (with Remote Play Together) or on split screen. —NC
Moonring
Image: Fluttermind
Developer: Fluttermind Where to play: Windows PC
Don’t let the old-school visuals fool you: Moonring is one of 2023’s richest video game experiences. Created by Dene Carter, a co-creator of the iconic RPG Fable, the colorful adventure gives players the expansive freedom popularized by games of the 1980s — when graphics played second fiddle to creativity and scope. Trade with unsavory types. Partner with questionable cults. Converse with practically everyone.
Perhaps most importantly for our readers, this Ultima-inspired roguelike is free. Like, free free. At that price, Carter may get his wish of introducing the old ways of game design to new audiences. “I hope Moonring recaptures some of the spirit of those days for you,” Carter writes on the Moonring Steam page. “For those who did not, I hope that the more modern conveniences you find in this game allow you to catch a glimpse of what we did 40 years ago.” —CP
Backpack Hero
Image: Jaspel/Different Tales, IndieArk
Developer: Jaspel Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Mac, Windows PC
When I can’t sleep, I consider the mysteries of the universe. Like, who came up with the whiskey sour? “Whiskey is amazing, but what if we added raw egg whites?” Backpack Hero’s creators took a similarly audacious approach with the classic dungeon crawler, splicing the genre with the Tetris-like inventory management popularized by Resident Evil 4. Much like the foamy cocktail, the results are delicious.
Generally, I’m hesitant to list back-of-the-box bullet points, but I’m tickled by how big the creators have made a game about backpack organization: There are over 800 items and 100 enemies, you can play as five different heroes, and the dungeons are procedurally generated within a overworld map the player constructs. Like its hero mouse, Backpack Hero punches way above its weight class. And it will keep you up at night, because there’s always time for one more run. —CP
Dear diary, today is the fourth day of this logging contract, I have 10 days to go until my first break, my skin is wind burned, the arthritis in my hands means I can barely hold a coffee cup and I think I’m starting to have paranoid delusions. The fae call to me.
Thousands of pro-Palestine protestors have gathered at Aotea Square in Auckland’s city centre this afternoon calling for a ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas war.
Dozens of Palestinian flags were seen among the congregation that included Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and MP Ricardo Menéndez March.
The rally began walking down Queen Street to the US Consulate General on Customs Street shortly before 3pm today.
A large police presence is also monitoring and chaperoning the march down Queen Street which has completly closed the street.
Hundreds of protesters take their march down Auckland’s Queen Street. Photo / Alex Burton
The crowd also chanted: “Casefire. When do we want it? Now.”
A stage has been set up near the Queen Street side of Aotea Square with a “Free Palestine” banner with both the Palestine flag and the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, also known as the national Māori flag.
Gen V’s first six episodes are remarkably tight. The Boys’ spinoff series immediately establishes its place in the larger universe, and quickly introduces us to an entire cast of characters, a unique superhero university, and a secret conspiracy in just a few short hours. Despite its relatively large cast of characters, Gen V manages to give each one time to shine in their own storylines, letting them all have problems — both personal and superpowered — that just make for great television. All the while, all of the teen drama seamlessly filters back into the conspiracy thriller literally underneath the school, as the kids discover the mysteries of The Woods. But Gen V’s last two episodes run into a unique problem: They move too fast.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Gen V season 1.]
Gen V’s seventh and eighth episodes cover a lot of ground very quickly. After the cliffhanger twist of episode 6 (that Cate has been manipulating the group the whole time), the gang learns that Indira Shetty’s ultimate plan with The Woods is to create a virus that will kill anyone with Compound V in their system. Cate decides she’s flipping sides completely. She kills Shetty, who had been manipulating her, and frees the kids from The Woods, telling them that they’re better than humans and that humans don’t deserve to live — a message Sam gets on board with fast. For Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre, however, all of this is too much bloodshed to stomach, and they start fighting Cate, Sam, and the kids from The Woods. As chaos breaks out at God U, the powers that be finally call in a little assistance, and Homelander shows up to put a stop to everything.
If this all sounds a little harried, that’s because it is. What started as a carefully plotted series, full of scenes of teens working out complex (and not so complex) emotions and dealing with the moral ramifications of having powers, suddenly devolves into a massive CGI brawl. The huge fight feels out of step with everything that’s come before it. It’s exactly the kind of ending you might expect from a Marvel movie that takes a left turn into punching just as the third act begins.
Image: Prime Video
That’s not to say that Gen V’s first season shouldn’t have ended in a fight — just that it shouldn’t have ended in a fight this quickly. The fight should have been set up better, allowing the teenage characters’ emotions the space to bubble over until all they knew how to do was fight their way out. It’s a bad time for the show’s first emotional shortcut. The eight-episode season abandons the delicate pacing of the show’s fantastic early chapters to rush through plot points and motivation in the back half.
But with just a couple more episodes, which would ultimately give the season a very standard 10 episodes, it might have been much easier to swallow the way that Cate and Sam’s systematic abuse caused them to turn to wanton violence, or why their friends couldn’t talk them out of it and decided to fight them instead. Episodes 7 and 8 feel like the microwave version of Gen V. They’re still pretty good, but not nearly as great as the slow-cooked setup.
The good news for the show is that the too-quick ending doesn’t take away from how great the rest of the season was. And all things considered, there are much worse problems to have than leaving people wanting more — Gen V is the rare show that could be improved with more rather than less. Regardless of the chaotic frenzy that ended season 1, the setup for Gen V’s second season is easy to see and exciting to think about. The core of the heroes being trapped feels like great fodder for a prison break, and Cate and Sam having to figure out what to do now that they’re not under anyone’s thumb should be fascinating. Despite the season’s sudden ending, this series is still filled with fantastic characters, and the deftness of the first half of the season has earned the creative team some benefit of the doubt going forward. But let’s hope season 2 gets all the episodes it needs to do its story justice.
This morning I had to have my dog Skelum put down after he suffered a stroke. He had been with me 15 years, helped me through many hard times, saw me get married and has helped me play with and protect my four children. Goodbye my faithful hound, my best friend. I’ll always love you. I’ll see you in the next place.
A police spokesperson said staff received four reports in which people had been assaulted in the Auckland CBD on Saturday morning. Photo / Dean Purcell
Two people have been arrested following four aggravated robberies in Auckland this morning.
A police spokesperson said staff received four reports in which people had been assaulted in the Auckland CBD on Saturday morning. No one suffered serious injuries, the spokesperson said.
The incidents were between 1.30am and 1.50am in the Wellesley St and Federal St area.
“In the final incident, a vehicle was unlawfully taken. The vehicle was observed by police soon after on Mount Albert Rd and tracked by Police Eagle helicopter as it fled. Police deployed road spikes on Stoddart Rd, Mount Roskill, and the vehicle came to a stop. Two men ran but were quickly arrested”.
The PwC Tower (left) has a zero vacancy factor. Photo / Michael Craig
Don’t call them ghost towers any longer because the chief of a billionaire landlord and a research boss have cited rising numbers of workers back in Auckland’s heart.
On Monday, Precinct Properties chief executive Scott Pritchard talked of office popularity soaring, “work from work” being the latest trend and a study of lift movement in buildings showing many of the approximately 10,000 people on two waterfront blocks returning Monday to Friday.
Gavin Read, JLL research head, backed that up, saying research his business released in May showed Auckland office block vacancies had dropped, as more people returned to work, commercial space made a comeback and more leasing deals were struck.
The ANZ Centre: 22 per cent is empty. Photo / Dean Purcell
Last year, the Herald reported on three big blocks with many empty floors. The ex-Chorus House at 66 Wyndham St was then 59 per cent empty, the former Lumley Centre at 88 Shortland St was 30 per cent empty and the ANZ Centre on Albert St was 22 per cent empty.
But JLL’s most recent survey found 66 Wyndham only 47 per cent vacant in this year’s first quarter, the ex-Lumley Centre now called Shortland and Fort only 5 per cent vacant and the ANZ Centre on Albert St just 7 per cent vacant.
Precinct sold half the ANZ skyscraper on the Albert/Swanson corner to giant American business Invesco in a deal struck in 2018, then the other half…
Police at the crash scene near Te Papa Museum in Wellington. Photo / Ethan Griffiths
Two people are in hospital, one in a critical condition, and two others have been arrested after a serious crash in Wellington early on Sunday morning.
Police were called to Cable St about 1.15am after a report of a car hitting two pedestrians.
The car then fled the scene, which is across the street from Te Papa Museum.
Car fled the scene after hitting and injuring two people. Photo / Ethan Griffiths
The two injured pedestrians were transported to hospital – one in a serious condition, and one critical.
The Serious Crash Unit is attending the bus crash. Photo / Supplied
Two police staff have been left injured this afternoon following a crash in Auckland’s CBD involving a police car and an Auckland Transport bus.
The crash occurred at around 3.20pm on Friday at the intersection of Beach Rd and Tangihua St as police were “responding to an incident”.
Auckland City road policing manager Greg Brand said the police vehicle entered the intersection at “low speed”, under lights and sirens, when the collision with a bus occurred.
“One officer is being taken to Auckland City Hospital with serious injuries, however these are not currently thought to be life-threatening. A second officer has also been taken to hospital with moderate injuries,” he said.
UPDATE 4:45PM The closure is now in place just for southbound lanes on Tangihua Street through to where Beach Road meets Mahuhu Crescent. https://t.co/K05BqhqrOY
— Auckland Transport Travel Alerts (@AT_TravelAlerts) June 9, 2023
Commuters onboard the bus at the time of the crash were also being assessed at the scene and at least one was being transported to hospital with minor injuries.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesperson confirmed that crews from the Auckland City and Parnell stations were attending.
“I would like to acknowledge the members of the public who immediately came to our officers’ aid and assisted at the scene. Police will be ensuring welfare is put in place for…
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165256/ss_a87f88d2ab252704667aa7baa1540ed17bcb07ce.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22643169/ss_d55df573b989984f7d234e977fa51b4777664ca2.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165252/ss_602e8e67e0d786f35411c8a67f3d7b2a222850ea.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165245/screenshot01.png)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165181/ss_1829d82d2db610f5a908400cc3a6eb8d74713c32.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165232/ss_f5cc3f084909ebd610dc4172a8afce857793ae6b.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165229/ss_98b595451cf3317a5fafbde17de75fc6c8511dc4.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165216/ss_f002332a9a280b5a9437ad6c9676696ff0f3bfb7.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165221/ss_34b2c0a700a0b3486233b5d73d0643433593975e.jpg)
/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/VJRWMN7BYBEMJIDA5LFCILBBGQ.jpg)
/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/PX4VETE5KJGH2CLNLJ3TP47COM.jpg)
/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/57GRAD6ERFHUDJWB23YHSDVMOY.jpg)