Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Boy meets girl, girl seeks adventure in Paris, then girl’s complicated feelings for said boy ultimately taint her ability to actually enjoy the city of love. That scenario factors into the plot of both The Summer I Turned Pretty’s final season and the newly released Netflix rom-com The Wrong Paris—although this time, our heroines, played by Lola Tung and Miranda Cosgrove respectively, make it to Paris—and get to stay, at least for a while.
On The Summer I Turned Pretty, Belly defers her acceptance to study abroad in Paris for premature marriage with Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). She then comes to her senses, calling off the wedding and moving overseas, where she fights through homesickness and language barriers to build a nice little life for herself. Of course, that independence will soon be interrupted by Belly’s ex Conrad (Christopher Briney), seen buying a plane ticket to Paris in the show’s penultimate episode. But at least she was given the opportunity to test out both versions of her future before making a choice.
That’s also true of The Wrong Paris, a silly rom-com about a Bachelor-esque reality dating show that contestants are led to believe will be filmed in Paris, France, only to learn it’s actually Paris, Texas—population 25,000. Our heroine, Cosgrove’s Dawn, takes the twist in stride, vowing to compete on the show—not for love, but some prize money to fund studying at a Paris art school. “I don’t hate this,” she says of her hometown, “I just hate that this is the only thing I’ve ever known.” Then a cowboy named Trey (Pierson Fode—also, has anyone ever actually met a cowboy named Trey?) and his comically sculpted abs waltz in. “You ain’t gonna find no man like me in Paris,” he drawls, to which she replies: “Yeah, that’s the point.” Surprise, surprise, Dawn and Trey do fall in love and later strike a bicontinental compromise—she’ll finish school, then presumably come back to Texas.
Hepburn and Astaire, near 30 years in age between them, leave Paris as husband-and-wife in Funny Face.LMPC/Getty Images
Paris has long been a place for lovers onscreen. Casablanca (1942) famously ends with Humphrey Bogart’s Rick telling Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa that they’ll always have their time in Paris, even if they can’t end up together. The European city has gotten in the way of a whole lot of love affairs ever since. Perhaps no one was more familiar with this than poor Audrey Hepburn, who starred in six films set in the City of Light throughout the 1950s and ’60s, most of which end with the idea that her lovelorn character would presumably rather return to the United States with a man twice her age than walk along the Seine solo. (Case in point: Hepburn choosing Bogart in 1954’s Sabrina—a frequent reference on TheSummer I Turned Pretty, and then Fred Astaire in 1957’s Funny Face—which has been repeatedly mentioned on Netflix’s Emily in Paris.)
Somewhere along the way, Paris became the go-to plot device standing in between a single woman and her love interest. The city represented female independence and agency—a culturally rich alternative to the happily ever after established in fairy tales.
On ’90s to early aughts TV, Paris became a surefire tactic for injecting drama into long-running “will they or won’t they?” couples. Shannen Doherty’s Brenda flees her dramatic on-again-off-again dynamic with Luke Perry’s Dylan on Beverly Hills, 90210 for a summer study-abroad program. Sarah Jessica Parker’s beret-clad Carrie Bradshaw now famously hurls a McDonald’s “le Big Mac” upon learning that “Big is moving to Paris,” in Sex and the City season two. Then her own Parisian journey with Frenchman Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) is cut short in the series finale once Big (Chris Noth) shows up to bring her back home. On another hotly anticipated final episode, Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green considers moving overseas with her toddler-aged daughter for a fresh start working at Louis Vuitton after years of across-the-hall pining for David Schwimmer’s Ross. But these flights of fancy don’t last long—a brief layover on the way to domesticated bliss right back where they started.
As is often the case, the tech news tide is out after Apple’s iPhone 17 event. (Did we do a dedicated newsletter on all the announcements? Yes, yes we did.)
Before the weekend, though, there’s still more to read about. But let’s start with the not-great tech news. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, plans to make HBO more expensive and passwords a lot harder to share. These were part of his comments at a Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, which sounds awful.
The main thrust of his argument was that HBO Max’s content is so good that Zaslav thinks he should charge a lot more for it.
Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a Poké Ball virtual pet toy, so you can fulfill your dreams of carrying your favorite Pokémon around with you everywhere. There are seven partner Pokémon you can care for: Pikachu, Eevee, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Lucario and Sylveon. And if you pet the device, it reacts. Cute! There are also 150 other Pokémon to interact with inside the toy.
While it appears to be a Japan-only release, the pet will have an English language option according to the product page. So, some of you are already convinced, right? Priced around $51, pre-orders are open, though currently sold out on Amazon Japan, and the device will ship on October 11. Now, to decide whether to pick Pikachu or Eevee.
With a little bit of breathing space after the initial media full-court press earlier this week, Billy Steele gave the AirPods Pro 3 a closer listen. Apple says the ANC on the AirPods Pro 3 blocks twice as much noise as the AirPods Pro 2 and four times as much as the original AirPods Pro. While there’s technology at work (ultra-low noise microphones and computational audio), new foam-infused ear tips offer better passive noise isolation. In short, less noise gets in.
The chatbot repeatedly told X users that Kirk was ‘fine.’
X’s AI assistant Grok has once again been caught spreading blatant misinformation. In several bizarre exchanges, the chatbot repeatedly claimed that Charlie Kirk was “fine” and that gruesome videos of his assassination were a “meme edit.” One user tagged Grok and asked if Kirk could have survived the shooting. Grok’s response was nonsensical: “Charlie Kirk takes the roast in stride with a laugh — he’s faced tougher crowds,” it wrote. “Yes, he survives this one easily.”
David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, plans to make HBO more expensive, and passwords a lot harder to share, . Zaslav shared his general outlook on the state of television at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, with the main theme being that HBO Max’s content is good and Zaslav thinks he should be charging a lot more for it.
“The fact that this is quality — and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production and streaming quality — we all think that gives us a chance to raise prices,” Zaslav said. “We think we’re way underpriced.” HBO Max most recently , back when it was . As of right now you can get an entry-level Basic with Ads plan for $9.99 per month, while the ad-free Premium plan costs $20.99 per month. Zaslav clearly thinks he can get more, though.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been more open about its plans to address password-sharing. During an earnings call in August, the it wanted to close all loopholes for sharing passwords by the end of the year. While it’s great that people continue to be drawn to HBO content, “it’s all tricky with the password sharing,” Zaslav said. “We’re going to begin to push on that.”
Price hikes and password sharing crackdowns have been thoroughly and other streamers. HBO Max following suit should be more than expected. Stating those plans so plainly doesn’t improve the image of Zaslav as , but that’s the least of his worries given the of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The White Lotus is definitely returning for a fourth season—though we don’t know when, or who will star in it, or even where it will be filmed. The first season was shot in Hawaii; the second went to Italy, and the latest took place in Thailand. Now producers are said to have set their sights on France. Deadline goes further in its speculation and already predicts that the cast will take over the famous Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d’Azur. (“We did not participate in Deadline’s speculative story and won’t be confirming,” a rep for HBO told VF when asked for comment.)
Each season of the series follows the trials and tribulations of wealthy vacationers as they check into a luxury hotel belonging to the fictional White Lotus chain. Gossip, drama, and murder always seem to shake up their previously peaceful stays. Earlier seasons have all been filmed in Four Seasons hotels, with which HBO has a partnership.
If the fourth season is indeed bound for France, the country offers several White Lotus–worthy options. The show could be set in the snowy landscapes of the Alps, since one of France’s three Four Seasons establishments is located in Megève, not far from the Swiss border. But this might be a surprising choice, given that series creator MikeWhite is not fond of lower temperatures. (As producer David Bernad said on Bill Simmons’s podcast in February, “[White] is a California guy. He is not built for the cold. Never say never, but I would be surprised.”) The cast could also set up shop in Paris, in the chic George V, a stone’s throw from the Champs-Élysées; an urban location could give the series a whole new flavor.
But because previous seasons have all been filmed at the water’s edge, the most likely setting is indeed the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, which overlooks the Mediterranean and has welcomed wealthy guests and celebrities for decades. Its majestic white façade and windswept cypress trees have already been brought to life on the small screen in the French drama series Grand Hôtel, which was broadcast in 2020.
Then again, White has also said that he hopes to give viewers a change of scenery in this new season. “For the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the crashing-waves-of-rocks vernacular, but there’s always more room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels,” he told Deadline in the spring.
For the time being, no establishment has been officially selected. But the likelihood of a season filmed in France has sparked enthusiasm on social networks, where French nationals are already imagining their dream cast. Take note, HBO: Call My Agent’sCamille Cottin would be perfect as a surly hotel manager.
Streaming services keep raising prices. At this point, if you subscribe to all the major services out there, you’re basically paying the same price as cable — those antiquated local monopolies that streaming was supposed to save us from. But streaming still has one big advantage over the old ways: no contracts. That means you can grab a good streaming deal and then cancel without penalty.
Our advice is to sign up for a service when you see a good streaming deal (or the latest season of, say,Doctor Who,Severance,Andor and/orThe Last of Us). Then, when the deal ends or you’ve binged whatever it is you want to watch, cancel as needed. But streaming deals don’t come around all that often and, when they do, it’s easy to miss them thanks to…everything. So we’re keeping eyes out for the best streaming deals out there and we update this guide often — so check it out the next time you have a hankering to watch something new.
Best streaming deals
True streaming deals can be hard to come by. Most often, they’ll pop up during the Black Friday shopping period. On occasion, we’ll see them sparingly throughout the year and they usually take the form of a discounted monthly or annual rate for a limited period of time. Also, true streaming deals are typically on the ad-supported versions of a service, but once in a while you’ll find a unicorn of a deal on a tier that has ad-free viewing.
If you’re able to wait for a deal before subscribing to a streaming service, we recommend doing so. You’ll save money upfront and in the long run, and you also have the option to cancel your subscription before the price goes back up to the normal rate. Maybe you find you like the service so much that you’re fine paying full price for it — that’s the ideal situation. But if you’re not compelled to keep that app on rotation in your smart TV, most streaming services make it easy for you to cancel at any time. With that said, these are the best streaming deals you can snag right now.
ESPN
Paid for by ESPN
ESPN’s new streaming service is officially available now, and new subscribers can get Disney+ and Hulu included for one year when they sign up. The regular price of the new ESPN Unlimited plan is $30 per month, but this bundle offer throws in Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) for one year at no extra cost. If you want to break it down, you’re essentially getting each of the three services for $10 monthly with this offer.
For the uninitiated, the new ESPN streaming service has two plans. The base level is ESPN Select, which is essentially just ESPN+ under a new name. It includes more than 32,000 live sports events, a library of studio shows, on-demand replays and more for $12 per month.
The premium tier, ESPN Unlimited, ups the ante by providing access to all of ESPN’s linear networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes and others, plus programming on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+ and ACCNX. It includes 47,000 live sports events throughout the year, on-demand replays, original programming and more. You can think of it as everything you’d want from cable ESPN, just via streaming now.
DirecTV starting at $50/month for one month ($35 off): All of DirecTV’s signature packages are $35 off right now for your first month when you sign up. If you opt for the base “Entertainment” package, you’ll spend $50 for the first month and get access to over 90 channels, including many local stations as well as ESPN, ESPN 2 and Fox Sports 1. You’ll also be able to watch on the go with the DirecTV mobile app.
DashPass Annual + HBO Max (with ads) for $96/year ($144 off): This offer includes access to HBO Max with ads for no extra cost when you sign up for a DashPass Annual plan. You can then decide to upgrade to Max Standard, which removes ads, for a discounted rate of $11 monthly if you want. Aside from the obvious streaming benefits, this deal gives you $0 deliver fees and lower service fees on some restaurant DoorDash orders, five percent DoorDash credits on pickup orders, on-demand grocery delivery and other members-only exclusives.
Spotify Premium Individual (3 month) for $0 ($36 off): This is our favorite music streaming service for podcasts and social features. Right now, users who have not signed up for Spotify’s Premium service before are eligible to get three months for free. The Premium Individual plan lets you listen ad-free and skip songs at will. You can also organize your listening queue and download content for offline listening. Just be aware, your subscription will auto-renew at the end of the trial period. So if you don’t want to be on the hook for the $12 monthly fee, set a reminder to cancel and go back to the free version.
Fubo Pro for $55/month for the first month ($30 off): Fubo has introductory discounts on most of its packages, and the Pro package is the least expensive plan currently listed. It offers access to 224 channels, unlimited cloud DVR and up to 10 simultaneous streams. It even includes regional sports content from the NHL, MLB and NBA.
YouTube TV (three months) for $150 ($99 off): You can get three months of our favorite live TV streaming service for $50 per month. That should give you a decent chunk of time to see if the service is right for you while saving some cash. The discount and trial are only open to new subscribers to YouTube TV’s base plan, which includes access to over 100 channels, unlimited DVR space and six household accounts with the ability to stream on three devices at once.
Sling Orange for $23/month for the first month (50 percent off): New customers can get Sling Orange or Sling Blue for half off the usual price for the first month, bringing the final prices to $23/month and $25.50/month, respectively. Orange is likely best for sports fans, with eight exclusive sports and family channels, while Blue includes 19 exclusive news and entertainment channels. You can get both Orange and Blue access also for half off for one month, or $33 total.
Peacock first responders discount — one year for $48 (50 percent off): Medical professionals and first responders can save 50 percent each year of Peacock. The deal requires annual verification and is open to those who work for either private or public institutions. Peacock has some great stuff to watch, including Poker Face and Killing It and more.
Spotify student discount — Premium + Hulu with ads for $6/month (72 percent off): Spotify’s student offer continues to be one of the best around, giving you access to the Premium tier of the music streamer and Hulu’s ad-supported plan for only $6 monthly. Purchased separately, you’d pay $22 per month for both of the services. Plus, the first month is free when you sign up.
NBA League Pass student discount — one year for $120 (40 percent off): Students can get one year of League Pass for only $10 per month, which includes access to NBA TV and the ability to watch classic and archive games on-demand. On the NBA League Pass website, look for the student discount banner at the top and follow the instructions to verify your student status.
Streaming bundle discounts
There’s more consolidation happening now than ever before in the streaming space, and that means there are more streaming bundle options. These bundles offer you access to more content with one subscription price, but those prices are typically higher than paying for a single service by itself (obviously). It may be tempting to just get the bundle, but if only one of those services in the bundle speaks to you, you’ll spend less overall by just paying for the single service.
Speaking of a deep love for a single streaming service: if all of your favorite shows are on Peacock or the latest releases on HBO Max consistently bring you joy, consider paying for one year upfront. Subscribing with an annual plan usually saves you money in the long term over paying on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, not all streaming services (looking at you, Netflix) have an annual subscription option. Here are some of the best streaming bundles you can get right now.
Max
HBO Max may not technically be under the Disney-Hulu mega-umbrella, but this bundle gives you ad-free viewing across most content in all three services. Download support for offline watching is included, too. Compared to the $52/month you’d pay for these tiers separately, you’ll save 42 percent with this combination.
Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max bundle with ads for $17/month: Ad-supported HBO Max is included here, along with full, ad-supported access to Disney+ and Hulu. You’ll save 43 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for all three services individually.
Disney+ and Hulu Bundle Premium for $20/month: Disney and Hulu offer a few different bundles, which you can view in the drop-down lists under Choose Your Plan. This bundle removes the ads from both Disney+ and Hulu (with the exception of select live and linear content) and allows you to download content for offline viewing. You’ll save 42 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for both ad-free tiers individually.
Hulu + Live TV with Disney+ and ESPN+ for $96/month: This streaming bundle amalgamation is a bit confusing but it does offer a lot: you get live TV streaming via Hulu’s service plus access to the following VOD services: Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. Out of those three, only ESPN+ will have ads.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Basic for $17/month: You get full access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ content with this package, albeit with ads across the board. This bundle price is 46 percent off the total price of all three separate subscriptions.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Premium for $27/month: Similarly to the Duo bundles, the Premium version of the Trio removes ads from most content in Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, and you can download content for offline viewing. This price represents a 43-percent savings when compared to paying for all three ad-free tiers separately.
Sling TV + HBO Max starting at $53/month: Sling TV and HBO Max have partnered on a discount that gives new subscribers 50 percent off their first month of Sling TV, plus $5 off monthly when you subscribe to the Sling TV + HBO Max bundle. The standard price for the Sling Blue + HBO Max duo is roughly $58/month, so you’ll get a monthly discount of $5 off that. In addition, for the first month only, you’ll get half off the price of the bundle. The promotion also applies to the Sling Orange & Blue + HBO Max package, which has a standard price of $73/month.
Paramount+ with Showtime for $13/month or $120/year: This includes everything in Paramount+’s Essential plan, except the ads, and also provides access to Showtime content, live CBS streams and download features.
Six years after Silicon Valley ended its HBO run, at least one tech billionaire is probably happy it’s gone.
Kumail Nanjiani, who starred as programmer Dinesh Chugtai on the comedy series parodying the tech industry, recalled meeting Elon Musk and hearing his critique of the series from Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky.
“He didn’t like the show,” Nanjiani said on the Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast. “He was like, all the parties I go to are much cooler than these parties. I was like, yeah man, you’re one of the richest people in the world. We’re, like, losers on the show. Of course your parties are better than my parties.”
Running for six seasons from 2014 to 2019, Silicon Valley stars Thomas Middleditch as programmer Richard Hendricks, inspired by Judge’s experience working in the tech industry of the ’80s. The series took place in present day Silicon Valley, starring TJ Miller, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Zach Woods and Nanjiani as the employees of Richard’s tech startup Pied Piper.
At a Deadline panel in 2020, Nanjiani said, “Our show came out at the perfect time… when we did the pilot, people weren’t as fascinated with Silicon Valley personalities. We didn’t know a lot of the names back then. While the show was airing, people have become very aware of the people who are running Silicon Valley and how the tech has affected our lives in a negative way.”
‘Silicon Valley’
HBO
Musk has long been a major figure in Silicon Valley with stakes in Tesla, SpaceX and X, among other tech ventures. He’s also been an outspoken comedy critic in recent years.
If you’re still hungry for more after The White Lotus’s April 6season-three finale, you can always scour the cutting-room floor. Writer-director Mike Whitetold the Hollywood Reporter some of his episodes originally came in at an hour and 40 minutes before getting cut down to the tight hours that aired. (Meanwhile, the 90-minute finale was originally shot as two and a half hours, per star Patrick Schwarzenegger.) “As a writer, I got a little indulged,” White admitted.
Luckily, for months now,some of the show’s stars have been revealing their cut moments, including bigger conversations and more fantasies. So, what else did we miss out on this season (other than a bangin’ theme song)? Below, all the deleted scenes from White Lotus season three, updated as moresecrets come out.
The surprise that Kate (may have) voted for Donald Trump originally carried much higher stakes. Carrie Coon told Harper’s Bazaar that, earlier in the season, Laurie shared that her kid is nonbinary. “You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting,” she said. That then made Kate’s conversation about Trump “so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie,” Coon added. However, White later cut the scene because it was “too political, or too far, or too distracting,” Coon told the Hollywood Reporter. White added to The Hollywood Reporter he didn’t want that detail to “overwhelm” his messaging. “It felt right in March of last year,” he said. “Now, there’s a vibe shift.”
Leslie Bibb also told The Hollywood Reporter about a fantastical scene with Kate that got left on the cutting-room floor. “Kate had this insane dream sequence with the ladyboys and ping-pong and everything was glowing,” she said. “It was also kind of like The Shining.” When? Why? Could it have led to Kate checking out of the White Lotus with new politics? We can only dream of that.
The women Jaclyn eyed while dancing in the club with the Russian men originally played a bigger role in that scene. Michelle Monaghan told Bustle those same women saw the trio of friends at the bar earlier, when they looked “like drowned rats” after getting soaked on the street. “They’re pointing fingers and laughing at them,” Monaghan said. “And Jaclyn was like, Oh, hell no. We’re going downstairs.”
At one point, Saxon’s emotional look at Chelsea reuniting with Rick on the beach was much more eventful. “I actually played a version of that scene where it’s full come-to-Jesus, where Saxon is just so sweet to the girls,” Schwarzenegger told Variety. But White quickly decided that wasn’t right. “He didn’t want some huge change for Saxon yet — just a small moment and to hold on my face as I watch her go off into the distance,” Schwarzenegger continued.
Yeah, we missed out on more tsunami talk. Sam Nivola shared that, in a longer version of Tim Ratliff’s conversation with Lochlan about living without money, Jason Isaacs’s character asked Lochlan about the book he was reading. “And I’m like, I’m reading this book about tsunamis, and fucking 300,000 people died, or however many it was,” Nivola told Deadline. “How do you find any meaning in life when it can all just change like that on a dime? Which I think was a cool way of describing the turmoil that he’s going through.” But that metaphor was lost on a drugged-out Tim. “And then Timothy says, What if money doesn’t matter? or something,” Nivola continued. “And I’m like, Okay, I don’t see how that’s related to what I just said, and he is just totally thinking about his own thing.”
But not to leave the resort. Nivola also revealed that during his character’s near-death experience, after accidentally making a suicide-fruit smoothie, he had a fantasy of escaping one of the show’s iconic body bags. “And that was so scary, because I had to be zipped in a body bag with no air, and then unzip myself,” he told Deadline.
We may never know what happened before this picture.
Saxon was right: Piper is a virgin. White cut an entire plotline from the finale in which, after returning from the monastery, Piper decides to have sex for the first time — with Zion, Belinda’s son. “There’s this whole scene where she’s like, It’s true,” White said on The White Lotus Official Podcast. “Saxon is right about this one thing. I need to get this over with.” White said the story line “would have added ten minutes” to the already long finale, and the “rom-com vibe” didn’t match the tone. “It just felt like I was trying to do too much narratively,” he said. Piper, no!
Mike White originally intended that ending to be even more tragic, with Rick and Chelsea really solidifying their bond in a finale love scene. In a joint Varietyinterview (mostly devoted to how they’re not feuding, okay???), Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins said they had a finale sex scene that showed just how much Rick threw away by returning to his revenge plot. “We designed the whole journey, even down to the fact that Chelsea gets on Rick in the first scene,” Wood said. “Then in the last episode, it was Rick picking Chelsea up. It was so, so delicate.” Goggins agreed, saying it was a scene about “two people who were free. It was this very long, suspended moment of these two people looking at each other. It was so powerful.”
Yes, it is possible for Jason Isaacs to talk about full-frontal nudity without bringing up Mikey Madison’s vulva. When asked by self-described “peen-iatologist” and Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Tiffany Haddish about Tim’s exposed penis in episode four, Isaacs shared that his character had another “flashing” moment that got cut from the show. “It was funnier the second time, because the kids went, ‘Dad! Put it away!’’’ he recalled. “But the rest of the scene didn’t work. And I said, ‘Mike, you cut my second dick!’” Maybe White decided that we’d gotten enough scenes of Ratliff family members seeing one another naked?
Warning: This article contains spoilers about plot points of The Pitt season two, premiering in January.
The first thing I see are the scrubs, waiting for me on the golf cart. I’ve just checked into the Warner Bros. lot, site of the immersive 18,000-square-foot set for The Pitt,HBO Max’s Emmy-nominated medical drama. Currently in production on season two, the show favors a comprehensive, 360-degree filmmaking style, wherein crew members or background actors might find themselves accidentally passing through a shot. Anyone hanging around for the day must blend in so as not to disrupt the flow. We drive from the WB gate to the production offices, where I change, then head to stage 22 and walk inside. It’s a hot day in Burbank, but the California sun fades like a distant memory as the cool AC and fluorescent lighting of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center take instant effect.
The vivid realism is palpable, but one reason why The Pitt has caught on so strongly. The 15-episode first season, which aired this past winter and depicted an especially chaotic day inside the hospital (with each episode covering about an hour), evolved into a streaming phenomenon, ranking among the top 10 shows on Nielsen’s ratings charts and cultivating a rabid online fan base. Starring ER’s Noah Wyle as a senior attending physician grieving the loss of his mentor, The Pitt recalled beloved medical dramas of a past TV era while forging boldly ahead, poignantly speaking to the perilous state of American health care post-COVID and spotlighting both the everyday heroism and the human flaws of the medical workers keeping the system afloat.
Created by R. Scott Gemmill, the show is up for 13 Emmys, including for best drama and best actor (Wyle), a major achievement that was celebrated by the cast and crew while they’d just started getting to work on season two—which will be set approximately 10 months after season one, over Fourth of July weekend. In other words, they went back to work under very different circumstances. “Last season, I came in with about a month’s notice, moved to America for the first time, had no idea what was going on,” says Shabana Azeez, who plays the wide-eyed medical student Dr. Javadi. “So this time, people looked familiar. Maybe they looked prettier to me because I loved them already.”
“Will the show have enough dramatic engine and built-in aggregate tension—and will the characters be just as gripping as what we gave the audiences last year? I hope so,” Wyle tells me from The Pitt’s waiting-room set, which is empty for the day. “You can’t do a major catastrophe every season without it feeling like a hospital is not plotted in reality. Hopefully, it’s the characters, the interactions, the behaviors, the nobility—the quotidian detail of the show that people really responded to.”
Inside this hospital, I’m first shuffled into video village. Typically on a set, this means going to a faraway room where crew members watch takes and give notes over headsets. Not here—it’s a makeshift system going from zone to zone (whichever is both unoccupied and safely out of the filming range), with the director John Cameron, writer Cynthia Adarkwa, and others crammed together. A “rate your pain” chart and a masking policy sign hover above us, lest we forget this room is usually used for fictional patient evaluations. They’re early in the process of shooting episode four, beginning the day with a long dialogue scene, the cameras roving between simultaneous conversations. The Pitt moves fast, but you also see the actors taking advantage of the authenticity of their space. Their movements are fluid from take to take.
“The set is the secret hero,” says Katherine LaNasa, a longtime character actor who was just nominated for her first Emmy for her portrayal of the indefatigable Nurse Dana. “It’s why the acting seems so good. You can actually really live in it.”
It’s almost torture to be a fan of The Pitt and watch a juicy scene like this out of context. At one point, Dana asks Wyle’s Dr. Robby if he’d like to pull Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) out of triage to help him out. “We are doing just fine without him,” Robby replies. This should pique any regular viewer’s interest, since season one ended with Robby refusing to forgive Langdon after discovering the young doctor had stolen doses of lorazepam and Librium. Season two takes place both on Langdon’s first day out of rehab and, Wyle tells me, on Robby’s last day at the hospital before taking a lengthy break.
Thirty-two years after the critically acclaimed film, HBO has adapted Laura Esquivel’s best-selling 1989 novel, “Like Water for Chocolate,” for television. Set in the early 20th century in Mexico, the six-episode Spanish-language series (critics received two for review) follows Tita (Azul Guaita), the youngest De La Garza daughter and her forbidden romance with her childhood sweetheart, Pedro Múzquiz (Andrés Baida). Tita and her older sisters, the rebellious Gertrudis (Andrea Chaparro) and the stoic Rosaura (Ana Valeria Becerril) are raised by their bitter and vengeful widowed mother, Elena (an intense Irene Azuela). The girls come of age and fall in love amid the Mexican Revolution and misogynistic family traditions. The exquisitely lush show breathes new life into one of the most enduring love stories in recent history.
“Like Water for Chocolate” begins in 1892 with Tita’s birth. The audience watches a pregnant Elena, dressed in widow’s black, chopping onions, in the kitchen at Las Palomas Ranch. When she goes into early labor, all of her servants, including her head cook Nacha (Ángeles Cruz), are taken by surprise. Amid onion peels and grief, Tita is born in a flood of tears. From there, the series flashes forward to the early 1900s. In one scene, Pedro and Tita meet as children in the billowy corn fields where their family ranches connect. Later, as teenagers in 1908, they are seen kissing goodbye before Pedro moves to the city for school. Still, the pair seem destined to be together. Unfortunately, Mama Elena, a woman driven by cruelty and customs, has other plans.
This narrative is a heady and intoxicating affair. Therefore, Tita and Pedro had to be perfectly cast for the series to soar, and thankfully, Guaita and Baida are up for the task. Throughout the romantic drama, Tita and Pedro’s chemistry continues to heighten, which allows the longing between the characters to smolder across the years. Though the complex love story spans decades, each shocking plot turn and fleeting moment, guided by the series’ head writer, Francisco Javier Royo Fernández, enables the audience to remain committed to seeing this tale through until the end, even when things look bleak.
In addition to the central duo, this story unveils the interworking of a country on the verge of war. It also addresses the rivalry between Tita and Rosaura, flamed by Elena’s interference. In the series format, directors Julian de Tavira and Analorena Perezrios also have ample opportunity to linger on one of the most evocative elements of the story: the food. Suffering under the weight of her mother’s disdain, Tita takes refuge in the kitchen alongside Nacha, who becomes a surrogate mom to her. They bond over their desires for different life paths, and the many dishes Nacha teaches Tita to cook. In the first two episodes of “Like Water for Chocolate,” the camera lingers on butter, sugar, eggs and creams as the women construct classic dishes like cream fritters and Chabela wedding cake. Like Alfonso Arau’s decadent film, the amount of time spent on food in the series is almost luxuriant, adding to the sensuality of the story.
Moreover, as is described in Esquivel’s novel, “Like Water for Chocolate” truly dives into the magical realism of this world. Tita’s feelings, often brimming just underneath the surface, spill forth in mystical and unexplained ways. In Episode 2, Tita, gutted and heartbroken, becomes despondent. It’s as if a deep, frigid cold has taken control of her body. As the scene continues, her bedroom is covered in a layer of frost, ruining the flowers on her bedside table. This is just one of the many outer depictions of her inner anguish. Tita also infuses her private thoughts and feelings into her food, allowing those around her to feel the things she’s unable to voice.
Executive produced by Salma Hayek Pinault, “Like Water for Chocolate” is an indulgent and worthwhile series that stands in tandem with the 1992 film. It’s a show about the cost of true love, familial expectations and womanhood. Though the romance between Tita and Pedro stands at the center, this show is about defiance, owning your destiny and choosing a path that best serves you, even if previously uncharted.
“Like Water for Chocolate” premieres Nov. 3 on HBO, with new episodes dropping weekly on Sundays.
So this is what The Franchise — with its sometimes sort-of funny, increasingly toothless sense of satire — is doing, then. Each episode is going to be focused on some terrible ill committed by comic-book movies as we know and love them: Last week, faux feminism and “women’s problems,” and before that, how awfully some of the most absurd superhero concepts translate to the big screen. This time, it’s the scourge of cameos that find themselves in the crosshairs, with the introduction of a relatively popular, but still very much B-tier, super-character who will turn up in Tecto for a few minutes, say some lines, and leave, all in aid of selling more tickets. (And will presumably leave their target audience with a mess to clean up in the aisles. What’s that, milkshake?)
With meet-ups and crossovers dominating superhero filmmaking in the half-decade since Avengers: Endgame threw every single Marvel hero into a blender and set it to “pulverize” — critics often point to the reliance on cameos and their diminishing returns as the premier failing of the multiverse era — this feels like the timeliest topic for The Franchise to tackle yet. Yeah, yeah, it’s still low-hanging fruit, but movie fans are especially pissed off about the onslaught of cameos in superhero films right now, with all the cynical nostalgia milking they have come to represent. 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverineisn’t even the worst example, because its lineup of “feeling old?” 20th Century Fox returnees serve a purpose and sort of have their own arcs, but the film is still largely a nostalgia play. Which is to say that this is a trend that should be easy to haw-haw about. Alas, the results of “Scene 83: Enter the Gurgler” vary.
The cameo in question is expected to be Maximum Studios’ prime asset, Many Man. (Duplication seems like a pretty weak and deeply uncool superpower for such a popular supe to have, but sure.) A last-minute switch-up with Centurios 2, the flagship tentpole that has just moved in next door, sees Many Man swapped for a B-tier hero, the Gurgler. His actor, Kyle, is played by Nick Kroll, who appropriately hacks and gurgles his way through the episode to greatly gross effect.
Kyle happens to be Adam’s old sitcom partner in a show called Brad and Butter, in which he played Butter, “the fat one,” before losing weight (fingers for pudding, or so he gestures). There’s a lot of resentment there, mostly from Kyle’s side, who still has an inferiority complex from the days of being the slob to Adam’s TV hunk, despite having ascended beyond his onetime screen partner on the comic-book movie ladder. He becomes quick friends with Peter, who admires Kyle’s “excellent energy,” which is to say his disinterest in political correctness.
Kyle is here to shoot a scene in which the Gurgler, Tecto, and Eye will fight over a MacGuffin in the shape of a ludicrously expensive crystal that Eric protects with his life: “It’s the realest thing in my movie,” he says. “Maybe in any movie.” After a debate over the pronunciation of Eric’s made-up word, resourcium, which I may or may not have spelled correctly, Kyle posits that they should just riff through it. It’s only a BFOGT — Big Fight Over Glowy Thing — anyway, a scene that Kyle has shot three times in the last two years. He soon imposes himself as the biggest, swingiest dick on set. Once again, we are reminded of the central thesis of The Franchise: God, who would want to work with any of these people?
Certainly not Adam, whose own ever-present feelings of inadequacy are amplified with the arrival of Kyle. So, when it becomes clear that Kyle is going to want to improvise, Adam recruits Steph to write him some improv prompts, which are predictably terrible and only serve to humiliate him further. Kyle and Adam come to blows when they try to riff through the scene anew, ending with one hell of a read from Kyle (ostensibly in character as the Gurgler, but that pretense is quickly dropped): “You’re a limp dick Dorito with no soul; you’re desperate, man. You’re fuckin’ sweaty, and you stink out every single room that you walk into. But you’re a real A-lister. Said no one ever.”
In the meantime, it comes to pass that Centurios 2 has made a bigger, sparklier version of Eric’s reality crystal, which means that they have to replace their own with a bigger, sparklier one; only the Centurios 2 lot have used up all of the sparkly paint. He’s about one swordfish-stolen-from-craft-services away from his breaking point, and … would you look at that? The crew of the tentpole next door have stolen the swordfish, too. It sends him into an apoplectic rage and — to quote — he goes full 9/11 on the Centurios 2 set, ramming the central soundstage in a golf cart while a thinly veiled Nick Fury parody rattles off some nonsensical exposition about the power of resourcium, etc. Hey, man, there’s only so much studio interference a guy can take. (Here’s your weekly “Daniel Brühl is great in this, isn’t he?”)
To end the episode, Kyle visits Adam in his trailer, where he admits to his built-up resentment and apologizes for being so cruel; he then kisses him, which is kinda weird, and I guess a joke about how Kyle, in reality, wants to be Adam. (Stupid joke, IMO.) Not that it matters much, anyway. In retaliation for Eric’s kamikaze attack on Centurios 2, the Gurgler cameo has been pulled from Tecto. More and more, it feels cut away from the central franchise. The Sword of Damocles that killed off The Sisters Squad is swinging ever closer. Not even the Mollusk guy can catch a break.
• Pat thinks that The Seventh Seal and Persona director Ingmar Bergman is a forgotten Iceberg-themed superhero from the Maximum Studios back catalogue: “Berg-Man? Which one’s Berg-Man?”
• I wish she was given more to do other than shadow Eric and regurgitate many of his lines, but Jessica Hynes is becoming a bit of a standout for me — though I do wonder if I’m just biased as a mega-Spaced fan who doesn’t watch enough of Hynes’s other stuff.
• An issue I have with the series generally, and I think is typified by the Gurgler and Many Man, is that none of the superheroes or their powers are credibly appealing. Like, there are kids who grow up admiring Spider-Man and Thor; they and others are beloved characters who provided the foundations for the MCU to become a monocultural behemoth. You’re telling me in this universe that an appearance from a dude called the Gurgler, whose shtick seems to just be his ability to conjure up gross balls of phlegm, is going to raise the roof? Yeah, the joke is supposed to be that all superheroes are kind of silly and absurd at a very basic, fundamental level. But is pointing that out in itself really that funny? Not really, but it does feel lazy.
This post contains spoilers about the sixth episode of The Penguin, “Gold Summit.”
“People will tell you where they’ve gone / They’ll tell you where to go / But till you get there yourself, you never really know,” Joni Mitchell sings in 1976’s “Amelia”—words that Cristin Milioti found herself sobbing to at the 80-year-old’s triumphant recent Hollywood Bowl concert.
“I feel like I’m still recovering, because I cried for the entire three hours,” she tells Vanity Fair from her New York apartment. “‘Amelia’ is my favorite, and I couldn’t believe she sang it—I completely fell to pieces.”
Milioti wasn’t alone in her rapture. “Everywhere you looked, there was someone crying. Then you would catch each other’s eyes, touch your heart, and give each other a nod. It feels like witnessing a miracle—someone who changed music and has certainly whispered in my ear throughout my entire life helped me understand myself and the world. It felt very holy.”
While at the star-studded concert, Milioti received some admiration of her own. “I had a lot of really lovely interactions at that show from people who really are loving The Penguin,” the actor says of her lauded performance in the HBO series as Sofia Falcone, a mobster princess turned murderous villain facing off against an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb. “I feel very protective of her,” Milioti says of Sofia, who after being tortured for more than a decade in an Arkham prison for a crime she didn’t commit, kills the family members who lied to keep her confined. Homicide aside, “I am just in love with her.”
Bringing the role to life has been a dream assignment for the 39-year-old actor, who long before she ever auditioned for a comic-book film, dressed as Catwoman for Halloween. The idea of Sofias running around this year makes Milioti’s face light up. “I get emotional just talking about it. I would be so blown away,” she says. “That would be a lot to take in, but I would gladly take it in.”
Just as Joni sings of a winding journey in “Amelia,” Milioti has been charting her own path since dropping out of New York University after a single year. She launched herself into a Tony nomination for 2012’s Once, the Broadway musical based on the Oscar-winning Irish film. That star-making turn led to roles big (the titular mother in How I Met Your Mother) and small (30 Rock’s “Very Sexy Baby”), but always memorable. Juicy parts alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, Andy Samberg in Palm Springs, and Jesse Plemons in an episode of Black Mirror followed. It’s all led to the most high-profile project of Milioti’s career—no false alarms in sight.
In just a few short weeks, it’ll be nothing but Hallmark movies and Lindsay Lohan rom-coms, but right now it’s spooky season and if you’re looking to relax with a chainsaw-wielding serial killer, a telekinetic teen hellbent on revenge, or a homicidal merman, we’ve got you covered.
Just in time for Halloween, we’ve pulled together a list of dozens of the best horror movies you can stream right now, from tried-and-true classics that never get old to more recent scare-fests that you might not know exist. The only decisions you have to make is which one to watch first and whether you actually want to share that bag of fun-size candy.
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Suspiria
If you’re not familiar with the work of Dario Argento, prepare for your eyes to be dazzled and your brain to melt. Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) is an American ballet student who hops a plane to Germany after being invited to study at the prestigious Tanz Akademie. From the moment she arrives, however, Suzy suspects that all is not what it seems. Especially when her fellow students start disappearing. Turns out Suzy was right to be suspicious, as the school is more of a front for a coven of powerful witches. While much of the script is admittedly nonsensical, it doesn’t even matter. With its breathtaking production design, innovative camerawork, and an earworm of a theme song by Goblin, Suspiria is the kind of film that will never leave your head. (If you find yourself wanting more, Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 reimagining of the film, starring Dakota Johnson, will scratch that itch.)
The Babadook
Ten years ago, Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent turned the horror genre on its head with this gem of a “creepy kid” film. Amelia Vanek (Essie Davis) is a young widow and mother to 6-year-old Sam (Noah Wiseman), who is acting out in increasingly violent ways. Sam blames his behavior on The Babadook, a monster he claims lives in his pop-up book. Slowly, as weird things continue to happen around the house, Amelia starts to believe that her son might be telling the truth. Now if only she could get someone else to believe her. In the hands of a less talented filmmaker, The Babadook could have been a one-note story. But Kent, Davis, and Wiseman manage to turn it into a compelling and moving psychological thriller, where the real villain turns out to be grief.
Barbarian
Between Uber and Airbnb, the collaborative consumption era has led us to regularly put our trust—and lives—in the hands of complete strangers. Zach Cregger’s Barbarian may convince you that such transactions require much more thought. Tess (Georgina Campbell) rents an Airbnb, only to discover that it’s been double-booked and there’s already a guest staying there. Fortunately for Tess, Keith (Bill Skarsgård)—the current occupant—seems like a kind enough guy who is happy to go out of his way to help accommodate her. Which should have been her first indication that something was amiss.
Late Night With the Devil
Siblings Colin and Cameron Cairnes cowrote, directed, and edited this new(ish) found footage flick, where a late-night talk show host named Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) decides to boost his ratings by hosting an occult-themed episode for his Halloween night broadcast. Among the invited guests are a psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon), and a teenage girl (Ingrid Torelli) who is purportedly possessed by a demon. When Jack accidentally unleashes the demon on his audience, he realizes that there’s nothing “purported” about it.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Leatherface may have just turned 50, but he’s still got the upper body strength to swing around his beloved chainsaw just as he did in the 1970s. There are now nine films in the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise, but not one of them can hold a candle—or a chain saw—to the original. A group of teens take a road trip through Texas, in part so that siblings Sally (Marilyn Burns) and Franklin (Paul A. Partain) can visit the cemetery where their grandfather was laid to rest after reports of grave-robbing in the area. Then, wouldn’t you know it, they run out of gas on their way home … and find themselves contending with a family of cannibals. Hey, it happens. The movie, which is partly based on the life of grave robber Ed Gein, remains as potent today as it did when it was originally released.
Halloween
Is it really Halloween without Halloween? While you have plenty of sequels, reimaginings, and reimagined sequels to choose from today, there’s a reason why horror fiends still make a point to watch the original—and utterly perfect—1978 original today. John Carpenter’s tale of a babysitter (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends being stalked by an escaped killer set the bar for every slasher film that has ever followed, and very few have managed to even come close to it. If you want to keep the Michael Myers theme going, there are now 13 films in the franchise—including Rob Zombie’s gritty reboot and its sequel (which are both streaming on Peacock) and David Gordon Green’s recent book-end trilogy, which kicked off with 2018’s Halloween (which you’ll find on Netflix).
The Exorcist
Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) may be the precocious 12-year-old daughter of a well-respected Hollywood actress (Ellen Burstyn), but that means nothing to Pazuzu, the hell demon who comes to inhabit this could-be nepo baby’s tween body. You’ll never want to eat pea soup again. After tinkering with Halloween, David Gordon Green took a stab at resurrecting The Exorcist with last year’s The Exorcist: Believer, which didn’t fare as well (it’s a “skip” for us but is streaming on Amazon Prime Video if you want to give it a watch).
Hereditary
Ari Aster achieved instant icon status with Hereditary, his feature directorial debut, which makes a compelling argument against rolling down the windows on your car—ever. An artist (Toni Collette) and her shrink husband (Gabriel Byrne) seem to be living the American Dream with their two teenagers, Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). Until a series of tragedies turn the family’s life upside down and all hell breaks loose—seemingly literally.
Carrie
“Creepy” Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a teenage pariah who is brutally mocked by her high school classmates and doesn’t find much solace at home with her totally unhinged mom (Piper Laurie). Sometimes a girl’s just gotta let loose, and sometimes that means using telekinesis to burn your bullies down to the ground, along with the high school gym in which they’re dancing. Make sure to keep watching all the way to th end!
The Blair Witch Project
Nearly a quarter-century after Jaws became a masterclass in doing more with less, Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick did much the same with this found-footage flick that had many people believing the film’s own backstory: that a group of film students got lost in the woods while attempting to make a documentary about the Blair Witch, who supposedly trolls the area near Burkittsville, Maryland, looking for youngsters to murder. That people believed the story, and believed that the footage they were watching was indeed only later discovered, is a testament to just how effective the found-footage format can be when employed in just the right way, as well as the filmmakers’ brilliant marketing acumen.
Get Out
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Jordan Peele went from being one half of the hilarious Key & Peele to a modern horror icon. And it all started with Get Out, Peele’s stunning directorial debut, in which a young couple have gotten serious enough that Rose (Allison Williams) invites new love Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) to leave the city for the suburbs to spend the weekend with her family. While Chris seems more concerned that he is Black and Rose is not, she assures him it doesn’t matter … until he realizes that’s kind of the point. Peele brilliantly blends elements of horror, comedy, and psychological drama with a pulsing commentary on racism, and won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his efforts. The film also received nods for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Kaluuya—all massive achievements for a horror movie. Make it a twofer by pairing Get Out with Peele’s impressive follow-up, 2019’s Us, which is streaming on Hulu.
The Fly
David Cronenberg’s mind works in some truly demented ways, which is a blessing to horror movie fans. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is a scientist who is much cooler than he should be; Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis) is a science journalist tasked with interviewing Brundle but quickly falling for him. If only he hadn’t decided to use himself as the subject in a teleportation experiment gone horribly wrong, these two kids could’ve maybe had something. Instead, Brundle slowly morphs into a housefly with some pretty putrid habits and a tendency to randomly lose body parts.
It Follows
For decades, young women in horror films who dared to be sexually active—and actually enjoy it (gasp!)—could usually be counted on to be the killer’s next victim. But in this smart indie from writer/director David Robert Mitchell, doing the deed is the conduit by which the supernatural spirit that’s haunting Jay (Maika Monroe) is able to move from one host to the next. Which is bad news, as she just slept with her new beau, who just happened to be infected and has now passed it on to her. While she could just fuck some guy and pass it on, Jay’s a much more complicated heroine.
The Witch
Puritanism in and of itself is pretty creepy. Add in the bizarre disappearance of a child and it gets even scarier. Robert Eggers, who went on to make The Lighthouse and The Northman, deftly balances what is essentially a period piece/supernatural horror film hybrid about a family that ends up living in the woods, secluded, after being banished by their Puritan community. This is when even creepier things start happening, all building up to an unforgettable climax (though it’s admittedly a bit of a slow burn).
The Shining
Stephen King just may be the only person who didn’t love Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a writer looking for some quietude so that he can finally finish writing the novel he’s been working on, agrees to take a gig hotel-sitting the Overlook, an enormous resort, while it’s closed down for the winter, bringing his wife (Shelley Duvall) and young son (Danny Lloyd) in tow. For Jack, the Overlook feels like home, and he quickly settles into a work routine; his wife and son aren’t as enthralled, especially when they begin to suspect that malevolent forces didn’t vacate for the winter along with the rest of the guests.
The Strangers
What’s more terrifying than a masked psychopath on the loose knocking off victims as revenge for a childhood trauma? How about a handful of masked sociopaths on the loose knocking off victims at random? James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) are a couple who find themselves at an unexpected crossroads while spending the night at a secluded vacation home. (Is there any other kind?) But they don’t have much time to wallow in what the future of their relationship looks like, because there are people at the door. And in the house. And on the swing set. You get the picture. Creepy imagery abounds in this vastly underrated film, which saw its storyline continue this year with Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 1.
Paranormal Activity
For better or worse, The Blair Witch Project kicked off a found-footage movie flood, which has really yet to end (though they’re definitely in much shorter supply these days). For all the mediocre efforts we had to suffer through, there was also Paranormal Activity, a beyond solid effort that was made on virtually no budget. Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are a young couple in love, looking forward to spending their lives together. But when they move in together, so does the evil spirit that’s been trailing Katie for most of her life. Katie wants to rid the house of it once and for all; Micah wants to videotape it (which only seems to embolden the angry spirit).
Scream
The meta horror movie to end all other meta horror movies, the original Scream might have outgrown some of its more garish fashions (most of them worn by Courteney Cox’s Gayle Weathers), but the story is still solid. And the many nods and winks to modern horror tropes are still true. High schooler Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is a teen spiraling from the recent murder of her mom but who suddenly finds herself in the crosshairs of a new hatchet-wielding serial killer who keeps picking off her pals.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
OK, so maybe it’s not a straight-up “horror” movie. But if you’re looking for something kind of creepy that the whole family can get in on, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice than this stop-motion classic that works equally well as a Halloween film or a Christmas movie. Jack Skellington is the pumpkin king of Halloweentown, a place where it’s Halloween—hijinks and all—24/7. But when Jack accidentally discovers Christmas and its holly, jolly traditions, he decides to co-opt both holidays with the help of the hooligans of Halloweentown. (Kidnapping Santa is all part of the plan.)
An American Werewolf in London
Horror-comedy is not an easy genre to pull off—especially when a movie like John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London has been around for comparison for more than 40 years. American pals David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) get slightly lost as they backpack their way through England and end up being attacked by a werewolf. While Jack is torn to bits, David survives but wakes up weeks later in a London hospital with little recollection of what happened. Fortunately, his old pal Jack—looking very much worse for the wear—shows up to warn David that a full moon is coming and if he doesn’t kill himself before it arrives, he too will transform into a flesh-craving canine. Landis expertly balances laugh-out-loud humor with genuinely terrifying frights—most of them courtesy of special effects makeup wizard Rick Baker, who won a much-deserved Oscar for his work on the film. (The werewolf transformation scene is iconic for a reason.) Throw in a killer soundtrack and one of cinema’s most satisfyingly efficient endings and you’ve got a horror-comedy for the ages.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
When she reviewed it for WIRED, senior writer Kate Knibbs called this horror flick a “coming-of-age creepypasta.” It’s all that and more. Director Jane Schoenbrun’s debut feature is about a young girl named Casey (Anna Cobb) who becomes increasingly obsessed with an online role-playing game that asks players to do a series of rituals that over time summon a supernatural force that ultimately overtakes them. Less jump-scare-y than mind-bend-y, We Are All Going to the World’s Fair is the kind of horror that sits in the back of your brain, just waiting to scare you again long after the credits roll.
Jaws
Jaws is to horror movies what Star Wars is to sci-fi films. It’s just hard to believe there are people who haven’t seen it. Still, whether you’ve never seen it or have watched it 100 times (Steven Soderbergh claims to have seen Jaws28 times in theaters alone!), the story of a water-phobic police chief living on an island who sets off to sea in pursuit of a ginormous great white shark that’s killing his residents and scaring off the tourists never gets old. It’s also a masterclass in less-is-more filmmaking—even if that approach was more the result of a perpetually busted machine shark than anything else. While the film’s sequels in absolutely no way live up to the original—and get worse with each successive entry—all four Jaws movie (including the charmingly cheesy Jaws 3-D) are currently streaming on Netflix).
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Bodies Bodies Bodies is, bluntly, a slasher for the TikTok generation. Beginning with a very old-school premise—a group of friends goes to a secluded house for a fun getaway—it quickly surfaces the horrors of the very online: no cell service, toxic friends. But just because it’s full of hip actors—Pete Davidson! Amandla Stenberg!—and very-now dialog doesn’t mean it won’t also freak you the hell out. And maybe even make you laugh.
Night of the Living Dead
Had George A. Romero only ever cowritten and directed this one movie, his feature directorial debut, he’d still go down in history as a horror pioneer. Because even though the word zombie is never uttered in Night of the Living Dead, it’s clear to the audience that that’s what his half-living monsters are. It all kicks off when siblings Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) pay a visit to their father’s gravesite and are subsequently attacked by a strange man. Barbra, seeing a farmhouse nearby, runs there for help—only to discover the dead body of the home’s owner—and many slow-walking creatures coming her way. That’s when the ever-resourceful Ben (Duane Jones) shows up to help. Though many critics of the time attempted to declare Night of the Living Dead DOA because of its extreme gore, its reputation as a game-changer in the genre has given it continued life, with several sequels and even a couple of remakes, including Tom Savini’s 1990s redux, with Tony Todd in the role of Ben.
Nosferatu the Vampyre
Over the course of his near-60-year career, Werner Herzog has proven that there’s nothing he can’t or won’t at least try to do for the love of filmmaking (eating his own shoe included). Over the years, he has long maintained that F. W. Murnau’s original Nosferatu is the greatest film to ever come out of his native Germany. So on the very day that Bram Stoker’s Dracula entered the public domain, Herzog set about creating his own version of the film—one that, unlike the 1922 original, could legally use parts of Dracula without any legal headaches. What Herzog did, however, was create one of the most human versions of the legendary bloodsucker we’ve ever seen, as portrayed by Klaus Kinski. In Herzog’s mind, Dracula’s immortality and vampirism are burdens that make him a more sympathetic character. “He cannot choose and he cannot cease to be,” Herzog toldThe New York Times in 1978. If you want to expand your understanding of Dracula’s cinematic arc, pair this with a screening of Murnau’s original Nosferatu. Then take it one step further by adding to the mix with My Best Fiend, Herzog’s 1999 documentary about his tumultuous relationship with Kinski.
The Cabin in the Woods
Much like Scream before it, Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods takes a meta approach with its material, turning what could otherwise be a by-the-numbers horror movie into an immensely clever take on the “a group of attractive twentysomethings end up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere that just so happens to be surrounded by malevolent forces” sub-genre. All of the standard tropes are set up—the weird old townie who tries to warn the kids off, a creepy old basement filled with bizarre and ominous paraphernalia, etc.—though maybe they’re set up just a little too perfectly. The Cabin in the Woods is a loving wink to serious horror movie fiends and goes off in surprising directions that you’ll never see coming.
Fright Night
We’ve been through enough vampire crazes over the years that there are times when some moviegoers would happily agree to never see another bloodsucker in their lives. Then they remember Fright Night, Tom Holland’s iconic love letter to the golden age of horror movies and late-night television schlock jocks who entertained us with tales of blood and guts. Like Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon)—the glowing-eyed vampire in serious need of a manicure living next door to teenager Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale)—Fright Night doesn’t really seem to age. It still stands out as a perfectly subtle horror-comedy with just the right balance of both genres to make it as seductive as Vampire Jerry on the dance floor. (Its 2011 update, starring Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin, which is streaming on both Hulu and Peacock, is one of the few horror remakes that is worth your time.)
The House of the Devil
In 2002, Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever brought the horror genre back to its 1980s heyday. Ti West managed to successfully recapture that same spirit at the end of the decade with The House of the Devil, which sees a broke college student (Jocelin Donahue) in need of cash to pay her rent reluctantly agree to “babysit” an allegedly frail old lady for a few hours. You know something’s going to happen, but you’re not quite sure what: Is the house haunted? Is there someone outside stalking the babysitter? Is it all in your head? Is it all of the above? While you wait for the other shoe to inevitably drop, West takes advantage of his very clear time frame—the satanic-panic-ravaged ’80s—to showcase a treasure trove of horrifying cultural relics of the past, including one particularly high-waisted pair of jeans.
The Host
South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho became a household name, and a force to be reckoned with, in 2020 when he stormed the Oscars with Parasite (which is streaming on Max, by the way). If that was your first introduction to his work, you should immediately seek out all of his previous films, including The Host. Like Parasite, it’s a horror movie with a social message. In this case, more of an eco-minded one where the pollution in Seoul’s Han River leads to the creation of a gigantic sea monster with a taste for humans.
Let the Right One In
Having a vampire as a BFF just might be the greatest thing a bullied kid could wish for. But the relationship that picked-on tween Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) builds with his neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson)—who does just happen to crave human blood—is much deeper than a simple revenge fantasy in this Swedish slow burn. In fact, Eli being a vampire is really secondary to the story. Like Werner Herzog with Nosferatu, Tomas Alfredson puts character-building first and paints Eli with a kind of sadness, which is what connects her with Oskar. Sure, it’s bloody, but it’s also kind of sweet.
“To mark the Oct. 7 anniversary, we must launch a campaign to educate young Americans about the Middle East,” said Maher. “And the way I’d like to begin that process is by addressing an open letter to Chappell Roan. Now, to those viewers who aren’t watching this while also looking at your phones, let me explain. … She’s actually a great new recording artist, who, like a Hezbollah pager, is really blowing up.”
Although Maher praised Roan for criticizing both sides of the political aisle, he chalked her perceived support of Palestine up to TikTok “propaganda.”
“Chappell, if you think it was repressive growing up queer in the Midwest, try the Mid East,” he mused. “You’re a female drag queen and you sing, ‘I f—ed you in the bathroom when we went to dinner, your parents at the table.’ Yeah, that wouldn’t fly in Gaza. Although you would, straight off a roof. The same goes for ‘knee deep in the passenger seat and you’re eating me out.’ Yea, my guess is the morality police would figure out that one’s not about the drive-thru and kill your feathered boa-wearing ass. You know when you sing that ‘LA is where boys and girls can all be queens every single day’? You’re welcome, but offer not good in the West Bank.
“Chappell, you’re not wrong that oppression is bad, or that Palestinian and many other Muslim populations are oppressed and deserve to be freed. You just have it completely ass-backwards as to who is doing the oppressing. Hamas is a terrorist mafia that took over Gaza … these are the oppressors. And when you make it all about Israel, you take the pressure off of them. You enable them,” said Maher.
Maher’s comments that Roan would be thrown “off a roof” in Gaza echo a common narrative known as “pinkwashing,” the practice of propping up Israel’s LGBTQ progress to distract from the ongoing violence and repression against Palestinians.
“You’re a singer, and you’re advocating for a place and a culture you would never want to live under. Gender may not be binary, but right and wrong is,” Maher concluded.
Although Roan has kept her political stances mostly to her chest, she previously told Rolling Stone she planned to read “poems from Palestinian women” when she was invited to the White House, but her publicist advised her against it.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel — in which Hamas took more than 250 hostages and killed around 1,200 people — more than 42,000 Palestinians have died and nearly 2 million have been displaced in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
I’m sitting in the green room of StyleCaster’s studio on 5th Avenue, Manhattan, but there’s a tinge of desperation in Rhenzy Feliz’s voice, “Can we speak anywhere else?” he asks. You see, his mom, Joelis Vallejo is also his groomer, and when I say we’re here to talk about spoilers for The Penguin, he panics. “She doesn’t know what happens,” he says. It’s OK, she insists, she’ll put on headphones and listen to Karol G while we do the interview and she lays out her hairstyling tools. It takes a second more convincing, but he agrees.
Feliz has had a handful of acting roles before this one. His breakout role came in the young adult series Runaways for 33 episodes, but you get the strong feeling that HBO’s gritty mob drama—a spinoff of Matt Reeve’s The Batman—will push him into the big leagues. Colin Farrell, with whom Feliz spends the majority of his screentime, reprises his role as Oswald Cobb, a middle management mobster with ambitions for grandeur.
Feliz plays Victor Aguilar, a teenager from a low-income neighborhood in Gotham. In episode one, he and his friends try to steal the rims off the wrong guy’s purple—sorry, “technically it’s plum”—Maserati. Shots are fired, and Vic’s buddies flee, but Oz has him cornered. In exchange for his life, Vic offers to help Oz with whatever he needs, and his apprenticeship in the world of organized crime begins. “Oz loves this idea of being revered, being admired. He wants it,” observes Feliz, “and so I think he finds that in Vic. He likes having him around because of what it does to his ego.”
While there’s certainly a power imbalance between them, Oz and Vic share a few fundamental similarities. Both are from modest backgrounds and both are often underestimated because of their impediments. For Oz, it’s his limp; a symptom of a birth defect known as Club Foot. For Vic, it’s his stutter. Feliz worked extensively with fluency consultant, Marc Winski, who grew up with a stutter himself and is an advocate in the community, as a key part of Victor’s character development. “I would either make phone calls to delis in a stutter, or I would go to I would go to grocery stores and order stuff in a stutter. You can feel embarrassed and ashamed to speak because you feel like you’re taking up someone’s time,” he says. “The stutter had 75 to 80% of understanding who Victor was because it really shapes who you are as a human being.”
Photographer: George Chinsee. Designer: Stephanie Cui
What has struck so many viewers in the opening few episodes of The Penguinis how, unexpectedly, it’s made them laugh. Between Oz and his new protégé, some touching moments will also catch the viewer off-balance. One in particular from episode 3, which we spoke about in great detail, reduced Winski to tears.
I want to start off by asking you what elements of Vic’s character you can empathize with. I also didn’t grow up with much.
Where did you grow up? I spent five years up in the Bronx. When I was five, I moved out of the Bronx. We lived up in the projects on 183rd St. Then we moved to a housing community in Florida. Then when I was 15, we moved to LA, and that was when my mom met my stepdad, so they joined the family, and we moved out to LA, and that was when it started getting a little more middle-class, and it was decent. But until I was 15, I lived in not the greatest circumstances. And I think that growing up that way, I can understand why Victor might go down this path.
Oz loves this idea of being revered, being admired. He wants it. And so I think he finds that in Vic. He likes having him around because of what it does to his ego
Rhenzy Feliz
At the beginning of episode 3, Victor’s family is killed in a flood caused by the Riddler’s bombs. He and his girlfriend Graciela have nothing left. His home is destroyed. She offers him an out, to go to California. Why do you think he chooses not to leave with her? To not just get on that bus in episode three and leave with Graciela, money is a massive motivating factor. He hasn’t had a lot of agency or a lot of power in his life. He has been able to do much. He’s never been looked at like he’s able to accomplish much. I think that’s one of the things in episode one, where he goes, “I got ambition, and I’m not a waste.” I think at that moment in episode three he realizes, “This is my chance to get things I want things. I want to be someone, I want to be part of something.”
That’s what Oz sees in him too, right? Both of them want something more out of life. Do you think his affinity for Vic is genuine? That’s probably more of a question for Colin, but do I think it’s real? I think at the beginning, he does feel like he can help this kid, he’s like, “This kid needs me.” I think it’s an ego boost. I think he likes the fact that this kid is looking up to him and that he’s helping him.
I loved the scene in the French restaurant where Vic and Oz are having lunch. Vic’s ordering the steak frites but because of his stutter, he can’t quite get the “frites” out right away. The waiter interrupts and Oz tells the waiter off. Can you walk me through that scene? That scene is really nice because it takes some dips and valleys. I’m telling Oz a story, and then it becomes this whole, “Hey, stand up for yourself, take up space. Stop fucking cowering.” I remember Marc pulling me aside when he read the scene, and he said, “The scene is going to be really special for a lot of people.”
Once we shot it, he said, “You guys were shooting and I had tears in my eyes.” I think that, hopefully, one of the things that can come to that scene is this idea that it’s okay to take up time and to take up space, that people can just give you an extra second and get the word out.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Designer: Stephanie Cui
There’s another moment where Oz tells Vic his dad would be proud of him when we know from meeting his dad briefly that that wouldn’t be the case. Yeah, exactly. Vic knows who his father is, and knows he would not want him chopping off pinkies and stuffing dead bodies in the trunks of cars. But it’s one of the things that I think human beings do; push things to the side when deep down we know we’re doing something wrong. I think that’s what Vic has been doing, he’s been shoving it down and Oz brings it all back up. It’s a reminder that he’s not doing the right thing.
I love it when Oz starts Vic on $1,000 a week and Vic asks for two. Oz loves that. You can see the allure for sure. Yeah, I think Vic sees Oz, and he admires how Oz is. He’s got this face with a big scar, and he’s got this limp, and yet he’s the loudest guy in the room. He comes in and he can harm anybody, but he comes in and makes a joke, makes people laugh. And I think Victor admires that. I think that there’s also this idea of power that Oz has, he’s got people working for him, and he’s a smart dude. He’s playing chess, and everyone else is playing checkers.
You and Colin have such great chemistry and he’s been in the industry for a long time. Did he offer you any advice? I would ask him questions every now and then. I’d ask him sometimes, like, “Is it too far in one direction? Is it not enough?” He would give me advice on that, but only when I asked. He was very careful not to make it feel like there was this sort of hierarchy, even though he, deservingly, is up on a bit of a pedestal, but he was very aware to not make it feel like that.
There were a couple of times when, artistically, I didn’t want to do something. Maybe they’d ask me to say something, and I’m like, “I didn’t feel right.” I think he’d see it on my face, and a couple of times he pulled me aside to say, “Hey, if you don’t want to say it, don’t say it. Your instincts are good. I’ve seen you.” Those moments where I’d be afraid to speak up because I’m the younger actor on set, and he’s telling me to trust my instincts. It’s funny, it’s really similar to what Oz says to Victor.
Editors note: After we wrapped the interview, we checked to see if Rhenzy’s mom had heard anything. Rest assured, she hadn’t.
The Penguin airs each Sunday on HBO at 9 pm ET.
Photographer: George Chinsee Entertainment Editor: Sophie Hanson Grooming: Joelis Vallejo Styling: Raziel Martinez Rhenzy wears Ferragamo
When Aya Cash first auditioned for The Franchise, she didn’t get the part. The You’re the Worst and The Boys star had experienced such rejection plenty of times before, but this particular project—of a pedigree including Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes and Emmy-winning Veep producer Armando Iannucci—proved hard to let go of. So hard, in fact, that she jumped at the chance to try again. “They ended up getting rid of that role that I had auditioned for and not gotten…and so they wrote [a new] role,” she tells me over Zoom. “Then an audition came my way again—and I’m a glutton for punishment, so I thought, Well, let’s go get another rejection!” Instead, Mendes personally offered her the part on a video call.
It’s the kind of Hollywood whiplash that The Franchise (premiering Sunday on HBO) depicts rather unsparingly. The series, created by Succession alum Jon Brown, is told through the eyes of a beleaguered crew working on a big-budget, green-screen-heavy comic book adaptation. The production is stuck in a crammed assembly line of releases planned by the fictitious Maximum Studios, whose problems resemble those of the current Marvel Cinematic Universe: diminishing box office returns, overworked visual-effects artists, auteur directors getting in over their heads. Cash portrays Anita, a producer who replaces her fired predecessor on the project and is swiftly placed in the impossible middle ground between executives and creatives. She dreams of using the project as a springboard to launch a boutique company and finally move on from the “franchise bullshit.”
The Franchise takes direct, satirical aim at the state of modern filmmaking, leaving no perspective behind. This includes its depiction of the movie’s stars (played by Billy Magnussen, Richard E. Grant, and Katherine Waterston), who navigate their dysfunctional industry’s enduringly warped understandings of everything from gender politics to set conditions to artistic value. Soon to be entering her third decade as a professional actor, Cash knows a thing or two about all of that too—perhaps that’s why her weathered, biting take on Anita rings so true. She had a lot of material to draw from—beginning, of course, with her rocky start on this very project.
Vanity Fair: I’m not sure how you generally take rejection, but did you feel any reluctance about jumping back in to audition for The Franchise again?
Aya Cash: To be brutally honest, I take all rejection horribly. It’s part of my job to be rejected, and yet I’ve never gotten good at it. I always take it personally. I’m always convinced it’s completely my fault, and I’m devastated. Going where you’re wanted is also a good MO. But sometimes with these jobs, you have to prove it. And the job that changed my entire life, You’re the Worst, I also didn’t get the first time around—I had been rejected by the network, and then Stephen [Falk] really fought for me. So I auditioned again and got it. I was never made to feel second-class or [like] I didn’t deserve to be there by the network, so it had worked out. Maybe that experience helped me go, Okay, well, let’s do it again.
By Griff Lipson.
As someone who’s worked in Hollywood for many years, what struck you about the content of this show as feeling particularly honest? What were you excited to dig into?
If you play tennis, you were super excited when Challenges came out. If you’re a potter, the Kelly Reichardt movie with Michelle [Williams],Showing Up, you’re like, Oh, it’s my thing! So to explore how the sausage gets made in Hollywood, you just feel like, Oh, I’m actually already the expert on this. People would not believe the craziness that goes on behind the scenes. It’s pure magic what you see on camera; it’s so composed and makes so much sense because behind the scenes it’s hundreds of people making this thing happen. It felt really special to also honor those people. You spend more time with crews than you do with your family often, because you’re working 15, 16 hours a day. To get to see those people represented also felt very special and exciting.
It also pinpoints many silly things actors have to do. What felt most familiar?
We’re firmly in the era of the video-game-to-prestige-TV-adaptation pipeline, and you know what? It might not be all that bad. Coming off the impressive results of HBO’s The Last of Usand Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV show, we now have the first full trailer for Like a Dragon: Yakuza and it’s looking really good so far.
Total Recall: Why Yakuza Is So Much More Than A Japanese GTA
Out on Prime Video on October 24, Like a Dragon: Yakuzaadapts the hit Sega sandbox action series beloved for mixing criminal underworld drama with fun open-world gaming hijinks. While we don’t get a ton of the off-kilter humor and quirky flamboyancy of the Like a Dragon games (previously known as Yakuza in the West) from the first extended trailer, we do get an introduction to some slick action and high-stakes dialogue.
Here’s a look:
The show will follow former yakuza Kazuma Kiryu, played by Ryoma Takeuchi of Kamen Rider fame, as he’s drawn into a conspiracy of rival factions and conflicting allegiances on the streets of Tokyo. Drawing mostly from the original 2005 Yakuza game, the first trailer shows a lot of familiar faces, including the Shimano Family mad dog Goro Majima. About a minute into the trailer, longtime fans are rewarded with his iconic “Kiryu-Chan!” line delivery.
The timing of Like a Dragon: Yakuza’s arrival has been surprisingly fortuitous. While the streaming wars appear to be losing gas, video game adaptations have helped breathe some new life into online TV. And while a subtitled Japanese thriller might have previously seemed like a tougher sell, Hulu’s Shōgun stole the show at the recent 2024 Emmy Awards, and Sony has already doubled-down on further adaptations of its Ghost of Tsushima series, including for its upcoming sequel, Ghost of Yōtei.
And for anyone who’s somehow managed to remain on the periphery of the Like a Dragon/Yakuza games these last several years, there have never been more ways to dip your toes into the Kamurochō district, from the Yakuza Kiwami remakes of the early games to recent turn-based spin-offs like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. And another game in that lineage has already been announced, with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii starring Goro Majima arriving early next year.
In the volatile universe of Industry, all debts must be paid.
No one understands that better than Rishi (Sagar Radia), whose gambling addiction finally caught up with him in Sunday night’s season three finale, “Infinite Largesse,”
(Spoiler alert:The following includes spoilers for Industry’s third season finale.)
Rishi, for the uninitiated, spent much of the last season falling deeper into debt. As the finale concluded, Industry gave him one of the revelation-packed episode’s biggest twists when his bookie, Vinay, showed up and killed Rishi’s wife over £600,000 in unpaid gambling debts. It was the kind of gut-wrenching moment that has made HBO Sunday-night appointment TV—and, according to cocreators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, HBO almost nixed it.
“There was a conversation about Rishi’s wife’s death, which HBO balked at,” Kay says.
Early on, as Down and Kay outlined season 3, they knew they wanted to do a Rishi episode, which fans were treated to in episode 4, “White Mischief.” Shot as a kind of homage to Uncut Gems, it was there viewers got a taste of the real Rishi, who, it turned out, was a gambler with a dangerous appetite for drugs, women, and thrill-seeking.
“We first wrote it with a bow at the end of it,” Down says. “He gets out of his position, he’s saved by the market. He then gets his wife to pay back his debt and then he makes his phone call, doubling down on it. We really didn’t think we were going to return to this. We thought, OK, are we going to show the repercussions of this in some way?”
But HBO saw the potential in it and advised the creators to return to the repercussions of “White Mischief” later in the season. “They said, we have to show what happens to him.” It presented a unique challenge for Down and Kay. “How can you actually show that there are consequences to your actions in this world and that you can’t just talk your way out of everything?”
When they landed on the idea that it would be Diana, Rishi’s wife, who ultimately paid for his financial misfortunes, HBO pushed back. But Down and Kay knew better.
“At the script stage, HBO wanted to get rid of it,” Kay says. “Then we said, look, let us shoot it and show it to you. And we shot it and cut it and showed it to them. And they were like, ‘This is fantastic.’ We got very few notes. What you see in the season finale is pretty close to the first cut of that episode.”
Originally, the scene played out differently. “We were like, what if the guy shot Rishi?” Down continues. “Personally, and practically, we wanted Rishi in season four. But it’s more heartbreaking that his wife, who is a victim of all of this, is the person that bears the brunt. And those are consequences that he then has to live with.”
But by killing Diana, Down and Kay felt it would provide the perfect setup for next season. (HBO renewedIndustry after WIRED’s interview with the showrunners.)
Their instincts proved right. As the finale aired on Sunday, reaction online was swift, with fans posting Succession-esque responses to the show’s many turns of fortune.
“Industry is so good because they just keep moving forward. Mickey and Konrad are completely unafraid to put characters on paths they can’t easily undo for the sake of plot convenience. This is peak storytelling,” @lesliezye posted on X following the finale.
Added @cinnaMENA, “From Rishi’s sad bachelor pad scene to Yasmin’s country house breakdown I—I have emotional whiplash.”
For Down and Kay, it was all about elevating the storyline into new heights. “That core is shaken when something sort of seismic happens,” Down says of his scheming characters. “And your wife being shot in front of you to settle the gambling debt is a seismic thing, which means that Rishi in season four will be a totally different character than he was in season three and before.”
When the creators of Industry wrote the show’s third season, they didn’t know whether HBO would greenlight more episodes—so they made sure to throw everything they had into it. By the end of Industry’s season three finale, the stakes for the show’s beautiful fuckups—and for the bank itself—are fairly existential.
Yasmin (Marisa Abela) lands in the deepest water by the end of season three, literally and figuratively. While dealing with the scandalous aftermath of her father’s drowning, she finds herself locked in a love triangle between her lovelorn friend, Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington), a man with enough money and power to both protect her from the world and provide her with life’s not-so-little luxuries. “Robert really does make Yasmin feel very safe in a way that definitely the other men in her life don’t,” Abela tells Still Watching. “He really sees her and loves her, whereas Henry or her father or Eric—I don’t think she feels that they really see her.”
On the latest episode of Still Watching, both Abela and Lawtey stopped by to talk about their onscreen chemistry and their offscreen friendship. (Listen or read below.)
Vanity Fair: Your characters both had a very emotionally intense season. When you read the season three scripts, were there any moments or revelations that surprised you?
Harry Lawtey: Yeah, it’s par for the course now with this show. Every page is a bit of a surprise, to be honest. But I agree. In this [season] especially, a lot of the arcs and journeys of these characters are very much reaching boiling point. That’s certainly the case for Robert. I remember saying to Mickey [Down] and Konrad [Kay] a while back that he’s someone who’s been wanting to cry for about five years now, and hasn’t felt able to show his feelings in that way. It feels like once the dam is broken, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. It’s all on show now.
Marisa Abela: This was the first year that I felt it was really necessary to have a sit-down about what had happened, what was going to happen, where everything was heading. And that was very different to play, holding knowledge that was hers and no one else’s. And also, the relationship between Robert and Yasmin this season—it was the first time that it really, really mattered whether or not Yasmin knew what she wanted, and knew what she was getting into.
Your characters have been circling each other through the whole series, and Robert has been pining for Yasmin since the beginning. How do you see their relationship at this point?
Lawtey: The relationship has so much more substance and integrity than it did at the beginning. Robert’s attraction to Yasmin was always socioeconomically informed. He found the idea of a relationship with her aspirational…. They’re at a stage now, at the end of this season, where I think there’s very genuine love there. It doesn’t mean they can necessarily express themselves and share how they feel, but they know what’s going on. In the last two episodes, part of their journey is to try to get rid of all the nonsense.
Winter may never come — if HBO‘s release schedule continues to gestate at a glacial pace.
That’s among the running gags in the Saturday Night LiveCut for Time sketch titled “Blonde Dragon People,” which pokes fun at the network-streamer and its star prestige series House of the Dragon. In the six-minute-long video, a group of friends become increasingly confused with the show’s short runtime and long shooting schedule, extraordinarily similar-sounding names and continuity errors.
Dorgos, Dormos, Dargomos, Dorgon and Dorman are just a handful of the names that confuse the group, which comprises SNLstars Andrew Dismukes, Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker and newcomer Jane Wickline.
As they watch the show’s recap — as played by Chloe Fineman, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and a heavily accented and nonsensical James Austin Johnson (clearly parodying Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen in HOTD) — the friends start to lose track of plot points, wondering why there’s a dog with “blonde dreads,” a stock video of a bat in place of a dragon and why “every person and city” has the “same weird name.”
“I mean even in Game of Thrones they gave us one guy named John,” Dismukes’ character remarks.
However, the host of Season 50’s premiere, Jean Smart, is given the most ridiculous lines yet, stating regally: “Yes, it is I, Dorgos, daughter of Doremos and sister of Daragmos, ruler of the seven five lands and keeper of the 11 three keys. Only I can reclaim the kingdom stolen from Doregmon, by the usurper Dormegon.”
She adds at another point, “You will never silence the people of East New Westersouth, from the isles of Rizzoli to the ranches of Hidden Valley,” referencing the drama show Rizzoli & Isles and popular ranch brand.
To further confuse matters, in comes surprise guest Andy Samberg (who appeared earlier in the night as the Douglas Emhoff to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris during the Cold Open) and musical guest Jelly Roll, who appear as Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and Sean Astin’s Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings, respectively.
As such, the sketch turns to poking fun at the streaming wars, with Smart remarking that their show is on Amazon Prime instead. Thompson then goes on a short historical tangent as he outlines the transition of HBO from HBO Now, then HBO Go, then HBO Max and now just Max, which Samberg’s character says “sounds bad.”
With the recap concluded, the television announces — in signature Westerosi font — that the new season has concluded. “I just looked it up. The next season doesn’t air until 2028. It’s like the Olympics,” Gardner bemoans.
But that’s OK, since fans can watch something called “Dragging Dragons” in the meantime, about drag queens dragging the costumes from the show “only on, weirdly, HBO Latino.”
About the fractured House Targaryen and taking place nearly 200 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon — which just completed airing its second season Aug. 4 after eight episodes — has been renewed for two more seasons for a total of four overall. A following installment is set for release in 2026, with production commencing early next year.
The exterior of the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven is constructed in a quarry near Ballymena, Northern Ireland—an almost perfect bowl-shaped hollow now filled with scenery, tents, and cabins. The cave’s interior and its various tunnels have been constructed at the studio in Banbridge, and it’s there where we’ll spend the majority of our time. The walls have been covered in moss and the floor strewn with real animal bones. On our first day, we’re also joined by the 85-year-old actor Max von Sydow who plays the Three-Eyed Raven—one of the old guard of actors I love to watch so much. Physically, Max seems more frail than even Margaret John had been, and I worry about him sat for hours in the cold. But just like Margaret did, he can snap into character like an old pro.
Since I’ve returned to the series, this is the first scene where Hodor has to interact. Meera will talk with him about the food she’s been dreaming of when they reach home. The mention of home and sausages lights up Hodor’s face.
It’s supposed to be a lovely, lighthearted moment before all hell breaks loose and the undead descend on us, but I just can’t relax. In fact, I feel suffocated by the enormity of everything that’s expected of me. Jesus fucking Christ, Kristian. You need to be on your A game, I tell myself, but I’m agitated, so much so that Jack notices I’m struggling.
“Are you OK?” he asks after a few takes, which I’ve barely managed to get through. “Are you having difficulty?”
“Yes, it’s awful,” the words tumble from me. Hodor’s subtle tics used to come easily to me, but now I’m tying myself in knots trying to express them. I explain to Jack the mad journey I’ve been on for the past year, and the personal journey I’ve been on, too. I’m finding stepping back into inhabiting someone other than myself very hard. Then I stop. Did I just say all of that … to a director I don’t know? I think. Years ago, I would have kept silent, like when my back was breaking in the Great Hall. I stop talking and watch Jack’s eyes carefully. Is he going to understand? Help me work this out? Or dismiss me and move on?
“OK, just take it easy,” he smiles.
“I’ll be fine, but everyone might need to be a bit patient,” I say quickly. Jack gives me a shoulder squeeze.
“Just relax. It will all come flooding back,” he reassures me.
Jack is right, just like John Ruskin had been years ago. And after a while, I do start to remember: Do not overthink Hodor; do not overthink your performance. As the morning wears on, Hodor reappears like an old friend.
[My stunt double] Brian is also worth his weight in gold. As soon as the magical shield keeping us safe in the cave vanishes and the wights and White Walkers come for Bran, we need to hotfoot it out. This means take after take of me pulling Isaac on the sled, which is attached on runners to the tunnel floor. Thankfully, Brian will take the reins on many of these shots—the shots where my face is not in view. My back hasn’t yet completely recovered, and this also gives me the chance to concentrate on what’s ahead. Besides, Isaac has gotten even heavier in the intervening years.
