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  • Industry Recap: Selling Worthless Positions

    Industry Recap: Selling Worthless Positions

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    Industry

    Useful Idiot

    Season 3

    Episode 7

    Editor’s Rating

    5 stars

    Photo: Nick Strasburg

    Years ago, a writing instructor told me writers should avoid party scenes. They’re often chaotic, introduce too many characters, and, in general, are very, very hard to do well. That’s why I’ve always taken Industry’s party scenes as proof of the show’s excellence. Some of my favorite episodes are party episodes: Seb’s failed sushi dinner party, the Christmas party where Greg ran into the doors, and Harper and Yasmin in the club in Berlin. In Industry, parties are opportunities to showcase subterranean tensions alongside ludicrous set pieces. “Useful Idiot” is no exception, though no one is at the actual party in this episode.

    It’s Pierpoint’s 150th birthday, and the traders are supposed to be celebrating. But no one is celebratory because Pierpoint’s share price has plummeted. The end is nigh. The bell is tolling, etc etc. Eric is telling Rishi (who has a broken arm and Vinay breathing down his neck) to sell everything he can and make money wherever possible. The light on the floor is flickering and hellish, like a real-life version of Robert’s hallucinatory trip.

    The mood is even grimmer on the 13th floor, where Eric and Bill Adler are summoned for a summit on how to save Pierpoint. It’s a curious scene. As a viewer, I’m so used to seeing last-ditch hail-Mary attempts to save this or that thing, and usually, I am meant to care if the thing is saved. (Westeros from frozen zombies, the known world from an alien who got rid of half the population by snapping.) In this case, I do not care if Pierpoint lives or dies. Instead, I’m watching these scenes for pure drama. I want to see building tension and release. I want to see Eric shake off his sticky midlife mess. I want to see the ruthless, wide-grinned man from season one who out-maneuvered Daria to return in the final moment.

    And at first, Eric sort of waffles. He’s confused about why he’s at the illustrious table, as is the new Pierpoint CEO, Tom. Eric is a bit of an ingenue, blinking in the bright lights as the head honchos of Pierpoint look for someone, anyone, to infuse the bank with enough cash that it doesn’t completely unravel.  Their first stop is, of course, the government. It’s an American bank, so they call the assistant secretary to the U.S. treasury, who is hilariously wheezing away on the phone, flatly rejecting Pierpoint’s pleas. Thank goodness — I just remembered that I do care if a big bank survives or fails if it means the little guy (a.k.a. us) has to pay for a government bailout of said bank.

    As the group moves on to other possible sources of cash, Bill Adler pitches his big idea. He’s been warming up a relationship with Mitsubishi and wants to bring the Japanese bank in to solve Pierpoint’s problems. There’s a manic glint in his eye, and it’s clear that Adler sees this move as his way to the top. To me, it sounds like the ravings of a very ill man, which is deeply sad.

    Maybe Eric has been so lackluster and gross all season because there wasn’t anyone exciting enough to knife in the back. In the conference room, watching Adler and Wilhelmina battle over their succession in the bank, something starts to flicker back to life in Eric. He’s assessing the room, seeing what cards he could play. This horrible moment in the bank’s history could be just the opportunity for him to launch his career forward. But who will he screw over? Wilhelmina or Adler?

    When a Barclays acquisition backed by Wilhelmina falls through, it looks like Adler’s suggestion of bringing the Japanese in is the only viable option. Before they arrive, Eric meets Bill in the bathroom to review the proposal deck, which has a discrepancy that Eric notices. He chooses to say nothing about the deck — Nature is healing, Eric is being underhanded for his own gain again. When Mitsubishi is at the table, Eric throws Adler under the bus, apologizing for the inaccuracy on page 12. It’s not something that could throw the deal itself off, but it’s enough to throw Adler out of his game. Eric gaslights Adler into thinking that they talked about this in the bathroom, which causes Adler to unravel, confessing his brain tumor at the table. Of course, the Mitsubishi deal falls through, but more importantly, as Bill is sent home to convalesce, Eric twists the knife, dropping the act. This elicited a complex set of feelings in me. On the one hand, I’m happy to see Eric stop messing around with his incestuous psycho-sexual drama with Yasmin and turn his attention to more grown-up matters at hand. On the other, I think he may have just killed Bill Adler, which, uh, does not say great things for his personal growth.

    No matter! Eric has a backup plan to save Pierpoint, which involves calling up Ali, the Arabic-speaking trader plopped unceremoniously on his desk this season. He turns out to have ties to the Egyptian royal family. In a graceful series of moves, Eric maneuvers a deal where Ali’s family floods Pierpoint with cash for a controlling stake in the bank. It’s not lost on me that Eric’s idea was simply Bill Adler’s idea, just dressed up in a different kind of sovereignty. That is to say, it’s not that Eric won because he had a better idea, but because he was more willing to play dirty than Adler was. Am I happy for him? I don’t know.

    Braided into this storyline of Pierpoint’s possible failing is Rishi struggling to survive by essentially selling himself out to Harper, saying he’ll act as her mole on the inside to help time when she sells and buys back the Pierpoint stock she’s hoping to short. There’s also a storyline of Harper being chewed out by Petra when Petra finds out how Harper actually got the information necessary to short Pierpoint, i.e., illegally. I must confess these two storylines felt like mere threads to me, which indicates just how un-Harper focused this season has been. We’re in the penultimate episode, and Harper is a blip who barely gets her comeuppance. I don’t even care about what’s happening with her! I am sad because I want to see more of Myha’la, but I am not sad because this episode’s second half is about Rob and Yasmin.

    Where to even begin with these two. At first brush, it seemed like a case of garden variety workplace horniness, but over the course of three seasons, these characters and their will-they-won’t-they-mostly-won’t-they have developed a complex, cynical tragedy. Robert never seems to feel man enough to make a move on Yasmin. Yasmin can’t see Robert as a viable romantic option because he isn’t deeply awful to her. Not to mention the giant chasm of class that separates the two of them and the way they see the world.

    Yasmin, unemployed, is blindsided by yet more horrible news. Though Hanani Publishing is willing to take care of all of the damages caused by her father’s embezzlement, they want Yasmin to be the public fall person for Charles’ inappropriate (dare I say abusive) relationship with women who he paid off across his lifetime. Sins of the father, sins of the daughter, etc etc. Ought Yasmin take their urging and accept culpability for her family? While I am in favor of Yasmin facing the music and growing up, this seems cruel to me. She isn’t Charles. In fact, she is a victim of Charles. Even after she “killed” him, he seems to keep on winning.

    To take Yasmin’s mind off of the new clusterfuck, Robert invites Yasmin along with him to Wales, where he is interviewing for a job as the finance guy for a hallucinogen startup. That passing moment two episodes ago where Henry said someone should monetize tripping — well, Robert seems to have taken that to heart. While the two are on their road trip, Yas gets a call from Maxim, who you may remember from last season as her sometimes-fuck-buddy/family friend who handles the Hanani family assets. Hi Maxim! Maxim is calling from a retreat in San Francisco (??) to tell Yasmin he somehow knows about the blackmail ploy the Hanani Publishing people are pulling, and he wants to give her leverage: Hanani Publishing was in on Charles’ payouts to the women. Yas could potentially blackmail Hanani Publishing into covering her father’s embezzlement damages if she were willing to throw the women Charles/Hanani Publishing paid off under the proverbial bus.

    Before Yas can do anything with this information, she and Rob get to their destination, a quaint little bed and breakfast. I am reminded of season two Yas, who sneered at staying in a Marriott; oh, how times have changed! After checking in, they get a bite to eat, or rather, Robert gets a battered sausage for them to share, which he declares perfect. Oh, Robert! Your definition of perfect is not Yasmin’s definition of perfect! She needs Michelin stars and luxury oozing out of every pore; you are a humble man happy to eat carby meat on a nice night. It’s never going to work.

    Yasmin gets coy with Robert and says there will be no room hopping, to which Robert calls her on her weird sexual mind game. For once, Yasmin gets honest with him, saying that her first instinct with love is to make it ugly as quickly as possible. I mean, yeah, I get it. Your dad weaponized intimacy. Of course, you want to transform love into something despicable. It’s what Yasmin knows best, and what she imagines keeps her safe.

    When the pair share a clandestine kiss in the hallway between their rooms and no room swapping indeed occurs, the lack of sex between them is somehow the most intimate, romantic thing. But Yasmin ruins it all by taking way too many mushroom pills and cutting her hand open, requiring Rob to come in and clean up her mess as she moans about wanting to be a good person. Yasmin! WHY! ARE! YOU! LIKE! THIS!!!

    The next morning, Yasmin decides not to take the high road. She will throw those women under the bus if it means her hide is saved. I am disappointed by this decision. Sure, Yasmin might not be popular if she takes the face of the Hanani Publishing scandal, but how many people are aware of the publishing house scandals? Surely her money would have insulated her from any real harm? Rob, on the other hand, kind of gets the job and kind of doesn’t. The University associated with the psilocybin startup has put the kibosh on funding, which sounds like it might be bad news but instead means Rob now has a job looking for funding from venture capitalists. The two of them in the car is a study in opposites. Yasmin has firmly mired herself in her father’s mess, engaging in the sort of selfish tactics that he might have. Robert, on the other hand, has found something to lift him out of Pierpoint and into another life. I can’t imagine these two will end up together.

    • Shout out to the Pierpoint bathrooms. Seriously, these stalls have seen nearly all of the vital drama of this show, from Hari’s death in season one to Harper and Yasmin’s small power struggles. I like the way they are used by the series, such as de facto confessionals, a place where the traders are stripped down under harsh LED lighting.

    • I must confess I was afraid when I learned Yas and Robert were going on a road trip. There have been so many allusions made to Princess Diana this season when it comes to Yas and her being hounded by the paparazzi (for example, her charity day costume); once she and Rob got in their car, I felt sure they were both going to die in a horrible pap-driven accident. I am happy to report that this was merely a case of me looking way too far into the subtext.

    • In EXTREMELY important news, Industry was renewed for a fourth season! I was beginning to think this was the final season based on how these character storylines were shaping up, so I am surprised. My face is the surprised Pikachu meme. I can’t believe I read this so wrong!

    • While I, too, found the check-out girl at the bed and breakfast annoying, Yasmin was so condescending and awful to her. I suppose it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she decided to do the un-feminist thing with HP.


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    Nina Li Coomes

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  • Oz’s Foot in The Penguin Was Important to Show the ‘Level of Pain’ He ‘Doesn’t Speak About’

    Oz’s Foot in The Penguin Was Important to Show the ‘Level of Pain’ He ‘Doesn’t Speak About’

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    While the Penguin has been a long-standing supervillain in the Batman comics since 1941, Oswald Cobb was creatively birthed in a simpler time when we didn’t care so much about villain origin stories. HBO‘s limited The Penguin series sets to change all of that, including providing the reason for what happened to his foot that causes his limp.

    In episode one, we see the reason for Oz’s waddle, so to speak, as he arrives home and removes his shoes (and let’s point out that he most certainly does not appreciate the nickname, Penguin). “I had sculpted like 20 minutes before [Colin] came—a foot that I thought was crazy,” Mike Marino, prosthetic designer, told The Wrap. “He sat in the chair and I was working in the corner and I showed him and I was like, ‘What do you think of this thing?’”

    Farrell was a fan instantly. “It’s so lo-fi and yet so highly brilliant. It’s real hands-on art the way artisans envision it,” he said. “Not to deny the advent of technology and the benefits of it as well in all sorts of realms of experience—but the hands-on makeup that this guy designs and applies, what Dick Smith did, what Rick Baker did, all these geniuses. I just hope that all filmmakers choose to use practical, in-camera stuff.”

    As showrunner Lauren LeFranc explained to IGN it was important to show why he limps—due to having clubfoot, a congenital foot deformity—in the first episode of The Penguin to, rather poetically, “firmly establish why and to show the level of pain that he puts himself through, but doesn’t speak about it.”

    She continued, “This is nothing that we’ve ever put on camera but in my mind, because if you have a clubfoot, now there’s a surgery you can get, and that often people do. And so, for my reasoning as to why he doesn’t, he grew up with very little money. He didn’t come from anything, and his mother didn’t decide to spend the money on a surgery like that,” she said. (According to Mount Sinai, clubfoot is rather simply corrected through lengthening or shortening the Achilles tendon.)

    Colin Farrell in The Penguin episode 2

    “Also, because she doesn’t see it as a disability. She doesn’t see it as a problem. She sees it as a way for him to strengthen himself. Something I was conscious of are the sort of comic book tropes that have come before, of those who are other, those who have disabilities, those who have scars on their face. They’re often easily depicted as the villain, and I think it’s just an unfortunate thing in our comic book history, and I wanted to try to disrupt that as much as possible.”

    “So for me, it was important to show that Oz, psychologically, is a damaged person. Who he is inside is what informs the choices and the darker choices he makes. It’s not because he has a disability. It’s not based on the way that he looks. Of course, that’s an aspect of his character, but that’s not solely and predominantly why. So that was something that was always very important to me.”

    The Penguin premieres on MAX on Thursday, September 19, and then airs episodically each Sunday from September 29.

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    Sophie Hanson

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  • How Carmine Falcone’s Death ‘Created a Power Vacuum in Gotham’s Underworld’ Ripe for the Penguin’s Taking

    How Carmine Falcone’s Death ‘Created a Power Vacuum in Gotham’s Underworld’ Ripe for the Penguin’s Taking

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    Carmine Falcone is a key antagonist in The Batman, both in the film directed by Matt Reeves and the comics on which the film is based. A mob leader and supervillain, his murder kicks off the events depicted in HBO‘s gritty drama The Penguin—and sets up a power struggle between the families of Gotham’s underworld, just ripe for Oswald Cobb (not Cobblepot as he’s known in the comics because that would be far too whimsical) to take advantage of.

    Episode 1 of the limited series is set a week after Carmine’s death. Oz (Colin Farrell, yes, it’s him) eyes young Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) as a potential recruit; and Sofia (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) work to unite their family and find new, ahem, revenue streams after their father’s death.

    Who killed Carmine Falcone?

    In the closing scenes of The Batman, Carmine Falcone is arrested and escorted by Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Oz confronts Carmine, accusing him of being a rat and threatening him, saying, “Enjoy your night at Blackgate Carmine, it’ll probably be your last.” (Unlike Arkham Asylum, Blackgate is where non-insane criminals such as Catman, David Cain, Monsoon, Ernie Chubb, KGBeast, and various henchmen, mobsters, and mafia bosses are incarcerated.)

    THE BATMAN, John Turturro, 2022.

    “To me, Oz, you were always just a gimp in an empty suit,” provokes Carmine, and Oz whips out a gun from his jacket pocket. Shots are fired, but not from Oz’s gun. Falcone is, instead, shot by the Riddler with a sniper rifle and he dies in Batman’s hands.

    It’s a slightly different scenario portrayed in The Penguin because, in the opening montage of news reports, Carmine lies dead outside The Iceberg Lounge—a posh nightclub and Oz’s base of operations—with a sheet draped over his body. Carmine is also played by a different actor in flashbacks.

    Why isn’t John Turturro in The Penguin?

    John Turturro played Carmine in The Batman but was unavailable to return for The Penguin so he was recast with Mark Strong. “Practically, John was just unavailable to us. He had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn’t make it work, but honestly, I’m so thrilled that we brought Mark Strong on,” showrunner Lauren LeFranc told IGN.

    “I think he’s really good. Even though, maybe in the beginning when you first meet him, you might think, ‘Oh. Well, for fans of The Batman, I’m so used to John Turturro,’ and obviously, John’s a great actor, but I feel like the gravitas that Mark brings, it’s different. It’s very specific, and I hope, by the end of that episode, you’re just thinking, ‘That’s Carmine Falcone,’ and you’re engaged in what Mark brings to it.”

    The Penguin premieres on MAX on Thursday, September 19, and then will air episodically on Sundays from September 29.

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    Sophie Hanson

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  • The Penguin’s Nonsensical Name Change Was to Try and Make It More Grounded

    The Penguin’s Nonsensical Name Change Was to Try and Make It More Grounded

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    The Penguin arrives this week on HBO, expanding the gritty crime world of Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie into a spin-off series focused on Colin Farrell’s villainous character. Though his rogues’ gallery moniker remains the same, the Penguin’s real name was changed in the 2022 movie from Oswald Cobblepot, his name since his 1941 Detective Comics debut, to “Oz Cobb.” At long last, we have some details about why that happened.

    As reported in SFX Magazine (via Comic Book Movie), “Oz Cobb” should not be interpreted as the character having shortened his admittedly sort of goofy last name.This guy is Oz Cobb, full stop. Speaking to the magazine, producer Dylan Clark explained what happened, pointing first to an earlier Batman villain name change as a precedent. “They never got around to changing his name in the comics like they did with the Riddler, going from Edward Nigma to Edward Nashton, from an unreal name to a real name. By doing that they grounded the character,” Clark said.

    The Penguin team got what sounds like an enthusiastic go-ahead from DC Comics boss Jim Lee. “They had thought about changing his name at some point but had never done it. Matt asked, ‘Can I call our character Oz Cobb?’ And Jim said, ‘Absolutely!’ So we got a blessing from the king himself. That small change of the name allowed us to look at this character in a grounded way.”

    Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin showrunner and creator, explained that like The Batman, the show is “creating new canon,” bringing its own flavor to familiar characters. “It felt like in the Gotham City that Matt created in his film, Cobblepot seemed less of a real person in the way that Cobb is a real last name. He’s a gangster and it just kind of felt more correct.”

    “Cobb” may roll off the tongue a bit more sharply, but isn’t it actually more terrifying to have a ruthless guy after you who answers to “Cobblepot”?

    DC Comics fans will get to know a lot more about Farrell’s breakout character when The Penguin, which also stars Cristin Milioti (as Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (as Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (as Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (as Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (as Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (as Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (as Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (as Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (as Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (as Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (as Dr. Julian Rush), arrives September 19 on HBO.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Cheryl Eddy

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  • The Creators of ‘Industry’ Know Banking Is a Rigged Game

    The Creators of ‘Industry’ Know Banking Is a Rigged Game

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    Ambition is a curse in the arena of high finance. At the prestigious London investment bank Pierpoint, which doubles as the backdrop for the Gen Z banking drama Industry, a cohort of university graduates vie for money and power. Harper (Myha’la), Yasmin (Marisa Abela), and Rob (Harry Lawtey) are desperate to prove they belong, that they’ve got the mettle to survive the battleground of the trading floor, but Pierpoint is a special kind of hell: Ambition is only as useful as your will to lie, cheat, and outmaneuver your way to the top. As easily as it opens doors, it just as easily gets you stabbed in the back.

    “When you go down the laundry list of what they’ve done and what they did to get there,” cocreator Mickey Down says of his beloved characters, “they can be considered pretty heinous individuals.” But their savory deceit is why we watch. It’s why Industry has become The Show of the Season, the internet’s new meme-machine, drawing expected-but-flawed comparisons to Succession, another HBO supernova. Industry is a beast all its own.

    Now in its third season, its most audacious and anxiety-riddled, Industry occupies the esteemed Sunday night 9 pm slot that Games of Thrones and The Sopornos made famous. The show is still the show many of us fell in love with when it debuted in 2020: all ego and heart and reckless ambition. Only, Down and cocreator Konrad Kay have upped the stakes even more this time around, illustrating how sinister and deep relationships run across media, politics, and finance for London’s privileged class.

    This week’s upcoming episode—deliciously-titled “White Mischief”; fans of Uncut Gems rejoice, this one’s just for you—marks the season’s halfway point. Over Zoom from their respective residences in London, Down and Kay spoke with me about where the show has been and where it’s possibly headed next.

    JASON PARHAM: I read that the initial pitch for this season was “coke and boats.” What was HBO’s response?

    MICKEY DOWN: We had a 30,000-foot view of what the season was going to be in terms of the business story. And then we thought, look, we shouldn’t be scared to have a slight genre element to the show. We were already talking about Yasmin’s father, which we thought was one of the most interesting parts of the second season. We had the idea that her dad’s gone missing, and she’s been bearing the brunt of that in the media. We had all of that. We just hadn’t decided how to show it yet. So we said, what if we have a secondary timeline that has a bit of a mystery element to it? And what if we start the show from there? So we sent an email to HBO with the header “coke and boats” and said this is where we want to start the show.

    Incredible.

    MD: We told them that we want to dip back into this timeline when we feel like it’s good punctuation. We wanted to have this slow drip feel of what actually happened on the boat. And their response was very positive.

    The show is continually testing its limits. Erect penises. Cum scenes. Crazy yacht parties. All kinds of drugs. Did HBO ever ask you to reel it in?

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    Jason Parham

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  • Did Game Of Thrones Stars Help This Weed Trend

    Did Game Of Thrones Stars Help This Weed Trend

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    The stars of Game Thrones had people really chill with this trend.

    While HBO’s Game of Thrones is currently over, the spin offs continue. The next Game of Thrones (GoT) spin-off isn’t until  2025. George RR Martin has confirmed A Knight of Seven Kingdoms will continue the story.  Aside from the merch and memes, it has also spun on “experiences”. But one of the most chill things is did Game of Thrones stars help this weed trend to chill out? Playing characters on GoT could be tense, but it helped bond the cast.  Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams become good friends and to relax from long days of filming Sansa and Arya Stark, they would get stoned and take a bath.

    RELATED: The Simpsons Predicted Legal Weed So What’s Next

    Now they are two ways to take a weed bath. One, like Sophie and Maisie, you can consume some gummies, use a vape or go old school and smoke or you can take one and use a bath bomb. The goal is to relax and chill, so fold in some music and just let the warm water wash over you. Social media extolls the benefits of a relaxing bath, especially if marijuana is blended in.

    A THC bath bomb is the same thing as a normal bath bomb, but with THC. They contain essential oils, extracts, and of course, cannabinoids, which dissolve when they are dropped into your bathwater. They use the same science as a cannabis topical. Your endocannabinoid system consists of an intricate network of receptors that are activated both by our body’s own endocannabinoids and by the marijuana plant’s phytocannabinoids.

    When you submerge your body into water enhanced by a THC bath bomb, you’re coating the receptors in your skin with the cannabinoids inside the bath bomb. While you mentally might get high, it can create a full body effect similar to if you rubbed THC oil all over yourself. This “body high,” as it is sometimes called, can be different for everyone, but most people find it to be relaxing.

    Sophie Turner shared  “We’re kind of like loners on Game of Thrones, just because the past few seasons Maisie and I have sleepovers every night when we’re shooting. Or every night whenever both of us are in town. We just used to sit there and eat and watch stupid videos and smoke weed. I don’t know if my publicist will kill me for saying this. We’d get high and then we’d sit in the bath together and we’d rub makeup brushes on our faces. It’s fun.”

    RELATED: The Best Weed TV To Stream

    Set the mood, drop in the bath bomb and slip into a little piece of heaven. Let the music, weed and warm water water wash over you.

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    Sarah Johns

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  • Zoë Kravitz Says She’s “Waiting By The Phone” For ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 3 News

    Zoë Kravitz Says She’s “Waiting By The Phone” For ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 3 News

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    Sometimes celebrities have more in common with their fans than one might think, and such is the case for Zoë Kravitz, who — like impatient HBO viewers everywhere — is “waiting by the phone” for news on the timeline for the long-anticipated third season return of David E. Kelley‘s Big Little Lies.

    “I’m waiting to see, like everybody else, the third season that’s happening,” the Blink Twice director told People in a new interview. “Waiting by the phone, waiting for the script to be done.” The actress-cum-filmmaker said she knows “nothing” about the forthcoming installment but is “excited” to take part in it.

    While Kravitz has yet to reunite with co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern onscreen, in the gloomy rolling hills of Big Sur, the powerhouse actresses came out to support her at the premiere for Blink Twice, held in Los Angeles at the DGA Theater on Aug. 8.

    The Kimi star said she was “not surprised” the two attended the premiere, adding that it was “still just so cool that they came.” She said, “Everybody’s busy and working, and they have families, and all of that, and so I think … they don’t just talk the talk. They really show up like that, both publicly and privately.

    As Deadline previously reported, hopes of a third season of the Emmy-winning series — also starring Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Meryl Streep (in the second season), Adam Scott and Alexander Skarsgård — abound, with Dern telling Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that the show’s stars are actively planning a junior installment.

    “I can tell you that all of us who are involved in it would never imagine a better time,” Dern said at the time. “We love each other so much and would have the time of our life being back together, and we love our characters so much. I truly know what you know. But I know that it is something that [Witherspoon and Kidman] are working diligently at dreaming up, and I sure hope it comes to fruition.”

    Last year, executive producer Kidman also renewed hopes of a third season, with a casual remark, stating, “We will be bringing you a third one, just FYI.” By now, five years have passed since the premiere of the criminal drama’s second season.

    Big Little Lies unfolds the seemingly perfect lives of a group of upper-class mothers whose children are all students at a prestigious elementary school in a sleepy California seaside town.

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    Natalie Oganesyan

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  • Joel Kim Booster Hopes People Write Fan Fiction About His Naked ‘Industry’ Sauna Scene

    Joel Kim Booster Hopes People Write Fan Fiction About His Naked ‘Industry’ Sauna Scene

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    Joel Kim Booster is well aware that showing skin is part of his personal brand. In his 2022 Netflix comedy special, Psychosexual, Booster jokes about having his nudes readily available on the internet, quipping that he still sends naked photos of himself out “with reckless abandon.” However, the Loot and Fire Island star didn’t expect that his reckless abandon would lead to a steamy guest-starring role on the third episode of the third season of HBO’s breakout series Industry, created by Konrad Kay and Mickey Down.

    “This never happens to me, but they came to me with this role,” Booster says. In episode three, “It,” Booster guest stars as Frank Wade, a Pierpoint employee in the equity research division who has to publish a buy-or-sell recommendation on Lumi, the green energy company run by Kit Harington’s Henry Muck, which recently IPO’d.

    A fan of Industry since it premiered in 2021, Booster tells me that he’s “never had an easier time” booking an acting role than on the series. “The boys are apparently fans,” Booster says, of Kay and Down. “They had this part written and they came to me and said, ‘There’s this creep in a steam room and we immediately thought of you.’ I guess the brand is strong.”

    The steam room wound up becoming a sauna, where Pierpoint banker Rob, played by Harry Lawtey, flirts with Frank in the hopes of influencing his buy-sell recommendation. Their cackling chemistry is reminiscent of the sauna scene in Challengers between Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor except for one major difference—Booster is completely naked. “They said very early on that this would be a requirement,” he says. “It was included with the offer, like, ‘Are you cool with that?’”

    He was so cool with it, in fact, that Booster says it wasn’t even the most nerve-wracking part about the shoot. “I was more nervous about stepping into a prestige HBO drama than I was about the nudity, because the nudity is pretty par for the course for me in my everyday life,” says Booster. “Professionally, this was a big deal for me to be taken seriously as an actor and have people believe that I can do a pretty grounded, dramatic, serious part that’s not comedy heavy. I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”

    Over the phone, Booster chats about the trickiness of looking hot while sitting, working with Lawtey, and what he believes really went down in the sauna.

    Vanity Fair: So, let’s talk about your big scene, which happens to take place in a sauna when you’re butt naked.

    Joel Kim Booster: You know what’s so funny to me? This is not the first interview I have done about my brief appearance on Industry, and you are the only person who’s asked about this scene in particular, explicitly. It’s like, ‘Guys, I’m a one-episode guest star. I have a one episode arc on this show where I’m in approximately three scenes and you are not going to ask me about the reason you really want to interview me about this episode?’ The reason it’s a big deal is because I’m doing full-frontal for the first time. Let’s be real.

    Did you have to think about whether to say yes at all?

    I didn’t think about it at all when I initially said yes. It was an exciting opportunity to do something really different. And as I famously said in my Netflix special, my nudes are out there. If you want to see me naked, it’s readily available if you know the correct search terms and dark web websites to visit. And I continue to this day to send out my naked pictures of myself to random strangers frequently. So it didn’t seem like that big a deal at first to do it, at first I would say.

    Take me to the actual moment where you’re on set, and it’s time, and the camera’s about to roll. How did that feel?

    It is crazy because it didn’t really dawn on me until right before we shot. All of my nudes that have leaked online previously, it is my hard penis, okay? With a flaccid penis, there’s a lot of variables at play. It can look a lot of different ways. Stress is a big factor in that. I woke up and I was like, ‘I cannot think about this because the more I think about this, the more I will spiral.’ And then you lose control of what’s going on down there. I will say Harry Lawtey, who plays Robert on the show, is who I filmed the bulk of my scenes with. [He was] so nice, so welcoming, made me feel truly a part of the team at Industry. He has also been in my position doing full-frontal, and I couldn’t have had a better scene partner who put me at ease and just really made me able to focus on actually doing that scene and not be thinking about what’s going on downstairs.

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  • What to stream: ‘Serengeti III,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘Untold: The Murder of Air McNair’

    What to stream: ‘Serengeti III,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘Untold: The Murder of Air McNair’

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    The end of summer can be a barren landscape for TV, whether it’s because vacationing cuts into couch time or networks and streamers tend to stash their best new releases for the fall. 

    But late August is as good a time as any to try out some shows and movies that might have been overlooked during other parts of the calendar.

    MORE: Temporary repair planned for damaged bridge between Wildwood Crest and Cape May

    Here are a few streaming options to check out:

    Serengeti III

    Now in its third season, BBC’s wildlife documentary narrated by actress Lupita Nyong’o weaves dramatic storytelling into the time-honored natural history format. For viewers grounded in hard science and people who will only take their animal lessons from David Attenborough, “Serengeti” requires a bit of a leap of the imagination. Filmed on a private reserve in Tanzania, one of East Africa’s most biodiverse savanna regions, the show captures stunning footage of numerous species. Its real selling point is the innovative use of drones and other camera techniques to get rare glimpses of animal behavior. The stories can get a bit heavy-handed to drum up emotional reactions, but the drama is meant to foster empathy with the trials of life and survival the animals face.

    The third season of the series hits Max on Aug. 25.

    Room

    It’s a bit unfortunate that 2015’s “Room” is so near in name to “The Room,” Tommy’s Wiseau’s cult classic melodrama that’s known for being endearingly horrible. In 2017, “The Room” went mainstream with a film adaptation of the book “The Disaster Artist,” making it easy to get it jumbled with “Room.” 

    In this gripping drama starring Brie Larson, viewers must imagine how motherly love and hope could persist amid the claustrophobia and trauma of captivity. Larson plays a woman who’s been held in a filthy shed for seven years, including five she spent raising a son she had as a result of being raped by her captor. Based on a novel by Emma Donoghue, “Room” paints a believable picture of how a mother and growing child would find ways to cope in this situation — and how they eventually might plot an escape.

    “Room” is now streaming on Netflix.

    Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

    In 2000, Steve McNair and the Tennessee Titans came within a yard of winning Super Bowl XXXIV in a game remembered for one of the most thrilling championship finishes in NFL history. McNair was a perennial star who was named co-MVP with Peyton Manning in 2003. His life was tragically cut short in a shooting that was ruled a murder-suicide on the Fourth of July in 2009.

    Fifteen years later, the investigation into McNair’s death is examined in a new volume of Netflix’s “Untold” documentary series. McNair was 36 when he was killed by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Jenni Kazemi, who had purchased a gun the night before the shooting at a condo in downtown Nashville. The documentary looks at various circumstances surrounding the shooting and pays tribute to McNair through interviews with those close to him, including former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher.

    The documentary is now available to stream on Netflix. 

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    Michael Tanenbaum

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  • Michaela Coel To Create & Star In Drama Series ‘First Day On Earth’ For HBO & BBC

    Michaela Coel To Create & Star In Drama Series ‘First Day On Earth’ For HBO & BBC

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    I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel is teaming up with HBO and the BBC on her next drama series.

    Coel is writing and starring in First Day On Earth, a ten-part series that she describes as “another very personal story for me”.

    It comes four years after I May Destroy You launched on the WBD network and the British public broadcaster.

    Coel will star as British novelist Henri, who is stuck. Work has dried up, her relationship is going nowhere. So, when she’s offered a job on a film in Ghana, West Africa – her parents’ homeland, where her estranged father lives – she can’t resist the chance to reconnect with him and the country of her heritage. But when she arrives neither the job nor her father turn out the way she expected, and soon Henri has to deal with danger and hypocrisy, form new friendships, lose her illusions, and create a new sense of identity – one that might leave her stronger, but could also break her.  

    The series comes from Various Artists, which was founded by Succession’s Jesse Armstrong, his Peep Show collaborator Sam Bain and former Channel 4 commissioners Phil Clarke and Roberto Troni, and A24.

    Various Artists (VAL) produced I May Destroy You and Coel has worked with A24 on upcoming film Mother, Mary.

    Coel will exec produce the series alongside Armstrong, Clarke and Troni as well as Jo McClellan for the BBC, and Piers Wenger for A24. Filming begins next year.

    Coel said, “I am delighted to be working with VAL, HBO and the BBC again, and to partner with A24; thanks to all of their combined taste, care and expertise, I feel our show is in great hands. First Day On Earth is another very personal story for me which I hope will engage viewers from all over the world, and I can’t wait for audiences to go on Henri’s journey with her.” 

    Amy Gravitt, EVP, HBO & Max Comedy Programming, said, “Michaela’s words have the ability to transport the reader like no other.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue the conversation that began with I May Destroy You, alongside our close collaborators at VAL, A24 and the BBC.  With Henri as our guide, First Day On Earth is as lyrical as it is visceral in its excavation of the idea of home. “ 

    Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, added: “Michaela is one of those exceptional talents whose work I have long admired. I May Destroy You is one of the reasons I wanted to join the BBC. In First Day On Earth, Michaela has created another unmissable series – truly original, heartfelt, hilarious, poetic storytelling and told in a way that only Michaela can. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.” 

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    peterdeadline

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  • A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming

    A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming

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    The House of Mouse is getting a renovation. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that the company will begin a new password-sharing crackdown “in earnest” starting in September. Iger didn’t divulge how the company plans to limit password-sharing, but presumably this will mean the company will be on the lookout for logins outside of the subscriber’s home and prompt those suspected of sharing their accounts to pay a fee to do so. The announcement comes months before the company intends to increase monthly prices on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+—and their respective bundles—in October.

    What this means for most folks is higher bills and tougher decisions. As more and more streaming services enter the fray—and as many of those services also raise prices and/or introduce ad-supported tiers—people who love to watch things are increasingly left to figure out which two or three services they’re willing to pay 10 to 20 bucks a month for. Considering Disney has a pretty strong back catalog (Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars), as well as Hulu shows like The Bear and tons of sports on ESPN+, it’s likely many subscribers will shell out to keep the service—and cough up more to share their passwords.

    “The password-sharing crackdown has worked favorably for other streamers,” says Sarah Henschel, a principal analyst at Omdia who watches the streaming market closely. “It is a strategy that works well to grow revenue. However, it drives a lot of consumer frustration with streaming.” Put another way, subscribers are likely to stick around and perhaps even pay the extra fees to share their accounts, but it may mean they ultimately don’t keep every service.

    And hell, it worked for Netflix. Late last year, after a few shaky quarters and amid the streaming giant’s rollout of both ad-supported tiers and a paid sharing program, Netflix added 9 million new subscribers worldwide. It hasn’t really seen any major dents in subscriber numbers since. So far, it’s the only test case—Max seems poised to roll out its crackdown later this year or early next, and others have yet to test the waters—but it does indicate that paying to share a streaming account doesn’t always send people running for the hills. Or, at least, it hasn’t yet.

    “The password crackdown for Netflix—combined with its ad tier—has been a massive boon to subscriber growth,” says Wade Payson-Denney, an analyst at streaming industry tracker Parrot Analytics. In the year before the streamer started cracking down, Netflix’s global subscriber base grew by 11.8 million; in the four quarters after, that base grew by 39.3 million, according to Parrot. It could lead to similar growth for Disney.

    All Things Must Pass

    This isn’t the first time Disney has warned of such a crackdown. Last year, Iger hinted that the company was looking into limiting the practice; in February, the company said it planned to begin a paid sharing program, but then launched it in only a few markets, in June.

    Disney has been hustling to build up its subscriber base and turn a profit from streaming since it launched Disney+ in 2019. During the past three months, Disney+ netted only about 200,000 new subscribers, for a total of 153.8 million—small potatoes compared to the more than 270 million subscribers Netflix claims, but not bad, and a marked increase over last year. Meanwhile, Max is still looking to break 100 million.

    As part of Wednesday’s earnings announcements, Disney revealed its combined streaming offerings made money for the first time ever during the last quarter, bringing in an operating profit of $47 million. This is a sharp upturn; Disney’s streaming business lost $512 million in the third quarter last year. The recent profits largely came thanks to ESPN+.

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    Angela Watercutter

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  • Industry Season 3 Is Dark, Addictive, and Filled With “Beautiful Fuckups”

    Industry Season 3 Is Dark, Addictive, and Filled With “Beautiful Fuckups”

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    Last season, you introduced Jesse Bloom as an outside provocateur. This season, it’s Sir Henry Muck. What was the inspiration, and did you have Kit Harrington in mind from the start?

    Down: We wanted to show how a bank like this would operate within a real world context, with a company that people can understand. And we wanted to do it through a more cynical lens, like a green energy startup run by this paragon of privilege. We’ve seen the Adam Neumann/Elizabeth Holmes version of a startup CEO, and we tried to think of the British real equivalent of that. They’re always insanely privileged, and then when it gets fucked up, the government’s there to bail them out. But the groundwork’s been laid for success for him, so that when he doesn’t get it I think he feels like an even bigger failure. I think he really has insecurity about his privilege.

    Kit plays Muck with such a great mixture of narcissism and vulnerability.

    Down: Kit found the vulnerability in someone who is, on paper, really without empathy. A right wing billionaire scion of a family that is probably to blame for many of the bad things that have happened in the last 30 years. And for some reason, I think we empathize with him, because he has obviously had all this trauma. There’s this young, vulnerable child wanting to be loved.

    Kay: I think Kit recognized a few things about ambition, but also about the sorts of people that he might have grown up around, and also the sort of people he met post-Thrones. We only spent about 20 minutes in each other’s company before we hired him. He said that in 10 years of Game of Thrones, he never once got to make a joke. He would beg David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] to write him a joke, and they would kind of tease him about the fact that he was so self-serious and honorable. And he’s so funny in this part! The show’s not a comedy, obviously. We were just trying to make sure season three is denser, but also more light on its feet.

    We find out that Henry Muck is notorious for his sexual quirks. I couldn’t help wondering if Henry would get along with Kendall Roy, who probably also has a penchant for being peed on.

    Down: There’s no doubt, if we expand the universe of these business adjacent shows on HBO, that they would be friends.

    Kay: In the real world, 100%.

    If you ever feel like doing a crossover Succession/Industry episode at some point, I give you my blessing.

    Down: I think Jesse Armstrong might have something to say about that. [Both laugh.] There’s slightly more upside for us.

    Yasmin’s journey this season from debauched socialite to embezzler heiress is extremely dark. Can you talk a little bit about shooting the yacht scenes that open the first episode and run through the season?

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  • Who is Lohar on House of the Dragon?

    Who is Lohar on House of the Dragon?

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    Spoilers for House of the Dragon below.

    Say hello to Lohar. In the season finale of House of the Dragon, Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), King Aegon’s Master of Ships, is tasked with shoring up the Triarchy in support of Team Green. But before the Triarchy pledges their men and their ships to Tyland, he must first win over the eccentric Lohar, who commands the fleet. Although making a late entrance into the season, Lohar, portrayed by Abigail Thorn, makes quite an impression in the finale, challenging Tyland to a mud wrestling competition and then making a raunchy request.

    In George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Ice, the reference book which serves as the basis for House of the Dragon, Sharako Lohar is a male admiral that rules over a fleet of ships for the Triarchy. But on House of the Dragon, Lohar’s gender seems to be more fluid. Lohar’s comrades refer to their commander using he/him pronouns when telling Tyland that he needs to win over the admiral to secure the Triarchy fleet. “The commander of our fleet must agree to go with you. His name is Lohar,” says one captain. “The sailors are fiercely loyal to him. If he does not lead them they will not fight.” Tyland Lannister agrees to entertain this Lohar, assuming that he he will meet yet another gruff, male ship captain in Essos.

    Enter Lohar: a tall, female-presenting person with long, Targaryen-adjacent hair and a bit of an attitude. Lohar does not explicitly state their gender, seeming to relish Tyland’s apparent confusion, and adding to the mind games by intentionally mispronouncing Tyland’s name. But Thorn, at least, refers to her character using she/her pronouns. “VERY excited to announce this – I’m joining the cast of HBO’s House of the Dragon I play Sharako Lohar – she’s the Triarchy’s new commander and you can see her in action soon,” she posted on X.

    During their tete-a-tete, Lohar challenges Tyland. “I will not sail with a man who cannot best me,” Lohar says. Later in the episode, we learn that the proposed competition is a wild bout of mud wrestling, with Lohar and Tyland engaging in hand to hand physical combat. By the end of their tussle, it’s clear that Tyland has emerged victorious and won the respect of Lohar.

    Over a celebratory feast, Lohar’s respect for Tyland turns into something deeper and more intimate. After Tyland sings a little ditty before their meal, Lohar is clearly infatuated with the Lannister, and agrees to sail with the Lannister and fight for Team Green. But war is not the only thing on Lohan’s mind. “You are a handsome man and have proven your worth and your virility,” Lohar says to Tyland. “I wish to have children by you.” A confused Tyland asks Lohar to clarify what they mean. Lohar states their intentions plainly: “I want you to fuck my wives.” A bewildered Tyland is nothing but a gentleman, asking, “How many?” The finale ends with the unlikely duo of Lohar and Tyland aboard a ship, leading a fleet of ships into battle.

    Abigail Thorn, who plays Lohar, is a British performer and YouTuber who is relatively new to the acting space. In 2021, Thorn came out as a trans woman in the YouTube video Coming Out As Trans – A Little Public Statement, and has been a vocal advocate for trans rights and healthcare. This year, she also appeared on the Star Wars television series The Acolyte.

    Although Lohar only just joined the fray, we should have more time with them and their wives next season. HBO just announced that House of the Dragon will continue for two more installments, with season three to begin production in early 2025 and season four to close out the series. Fire & Ice might provide a peek at what the future may hold for the Lohar and Tyland. (Warning: spoilers for potential House of the Dragon content follow.)

    In the book, Lohar and Tyland lead a naval attack on Team Black and the Velaryon fleets, led by Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint). The ensuing skirmish, called the Battle of the Gullet, is a bloody and terrible battle that claims the lives of many major House of the Dragon players including Jaceyrs Velaryon and his dragon, Vermax. Lohar makes it out alive, claiming the young prince Viserys as a prisoner and selling him to a Lysene magister named Bambarro Bazanne. While Lohar makes it out of the Battle of the Gullet, according to Fire and Ice, they are eventually murdered due to a personal matter involving a courtesan called The Black Swan.

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  • People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

    People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

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    YouTuber Preston Jacobs wasted no time when he started his House of the Dragon after-party livestream: “I’m going to say right up [top], I think at this point this is my jump-the-shark moment. I don’t think that this show is salvageable anymore.” Sunday’s season finale, he says, “really ruins everything.” Plotlines contradicted each other, some story arcs went nowhere, he said. It was a mess. And while Preston has had divisive Game of Thrones opinions in the past, on this point, lots of fans agreed with him—both in his livestream’s comments and across the internet.

    This is not the place for House of the Dragon Season 2 finale spoilers—you’ll have to watch for yourself for that—but the long and short of it is that the episode abruptly ended just when it was starting to get good. After weeks of promoting a major battle between the Greens and the Blacks of the Targaryen family tree, no such battle materialized. As The Hollywood Reporter put it, “HBO cutting to black hasn’t annoyed this many TV fans since The Sopranos ended.”

    The Sopranos comparison is both hyperbolic and little apropos. House of the Dragon is far from the beloved critical darling that Sopranos was, but it does now get the kind of scrutiny that its prestige predecessor once did. Following Game of Thrones’ womp-womp 2019 series finale some fans have hoped House could regain some of its predecessor’s former glory, while others worried it would make the same mistakes. Sunday’s episode seemed to indicate to many it might be all dragons, no fire.

    “Y’all basically made this season a build up now we gotta wait a whole fkn 2 years” for the next season, wrote @Tata_Onika on X, referring to rumors that the next season won’t come until at least 2026. “Really pissed me off,” wrote another X user. “Did I just watch a 70-minute trailer for Season 3?” asked another—a sentiment that others echoed. Over on Reddit, fans were “mildly butthurt” and lamenting, “I didn’t see a CRUMB of consequential action.”

    Another personal fave: “We had to deal with Freud dreams for this?!!”

    Season 2’s finale may also be a sign of the times. HBO, Max, and all of its affiliated properties have been going through a lot of upheaval since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. While big shows like Dragon and The Last of Us haven’t been hit as hard as other properties, this season was only eight episodes, whereas last season was 10, and this one was shot during the Hollywood strikes, thanks in part to many of its cast being in a different union that wasn’t striking. Deadline also reported last year that a “major battle” was moved from Season 2 to Season 3, and in so doing the show may have been left with a humdrum finale.

    Will House of the Dragon recover? Eh, probably. Season 2 already didn’t quite hit the viewership heights the show’s first season hit. But as the streaming wars continue and people drop services or contemplate, in the case of Max, switching to ad-based tiers that are also going up in price, comparing one season’s numbers to another’s feels like a fool’s errand. HBO greenlit a third season—cocreator Ryan Condal revealed Monday it’ll end with the fourth season—which could very well open with the confrontation fans had hoped for. Until then, everyone is just going to have to wait while this drags on.

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    Angela Watercutter

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  • Who Won the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale?

    Who Won the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale?

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    The queens have come up with their very own gambit. On the finale of House of the Dragon season two, “The Queen That Ever Was,” Team Black and Team Green assemble their armies as Dowager Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) meet once again in secret. During their fateful encounter, Alicent makes an offer Rhaenyra can’t refuse—but it comes at a significant price for the dowager queen.

    Before Alicent and Rhaenyra’s clandestine meet-up, both queens were gearing up for the great war to (finally) begin. After receiving a raven from Ser Simon (Simon Russell Beale) questioning Daemon’s fidelity, Rhaenyra flew to Harrenhal to see herself whether Daemon was loyal. Thankfully, Alice Rivers (Gayle Rankin) granted Daemon (Matt Smith) a vision of the future—including white walkers, war, and even the mother of dragons Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clark)—that inspired him to pledge his loyalty to Rhaenyra and cast his dreams of taking the iron throne aside.

    As Daemon and his army prepare to fight for Team Black, Team Green receives a new crop of soldiers courtesy of Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) and his mud wrestling prowess. Tyland has convinced the Triarchy to pledge their men to King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Team Green, but only if he wins over Lohar (Abigail Thorne), the fighters’ eccentric leader. After an epic mud wrestling battle, Lohar pledges all of their men to Team Green and, as a bonus, is so taken with Tyland that they ask him for another favor: “I want you to fuck my wives,” says Lohar.

    While Tyland is asked to sire children, Alicent is asked to sacrifice one of hers. In an echo of their secret meeting in episode three, Alicent travels to Dragonstone to plead with Rhaenyra to stop the brewing war. Alicent tells Rhaenyra that she no longer wants her family to rule Westeros, and offers Rhaenyra the opportunity to come to King’s Landing and take the Iron Throne without any bloodshed or battle. Rhaenyra points out that if she were to take the throne, she’d be forced to publicly depose and murder King Aegon II—Alicent’s eldest son. In a devastating moment, Alicent is forced to make a decision: will she sacrifice her son for the good of the realm? By the end of their exchange, it seems Alicent has agreed to Rhaenyra’s terms, and she leaves Dragonstone with the knowledge that she sentenced Aegon to death.

    What Alicent doesn’t know is that the crippled Aegon is no longer in King’s Landing. After being humiliated by Rhaenyra’s new, lowborn dragon riders, an embarrassed Prince Regent Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) takes out his rage on innocent citizens, burning down the entire village of Sharp Point with his dragon Vhagar. The regent prince’s warpath inspires Larys (Matthew Needham) to tell Aegon that it’s time to flee the Red Keep. “The prince regent is going to killl you,” Larys tells a bedridden and miserable Aegon. And with that, the unlikely duo set off to escape King’s Landing across the narrow seas.

    The end of season two provides more questions than answers. Which army has the upper hand, Team Black or Team Green? What will Rhaenyra and Alicent do if they come to King’s Landing and find that Aegon has absconded? Will Rhaenyra’s new dragon riders stay loyal to her? We won’t know until the next season of the already-renewed House of the Dragon returns to HBO.

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    Chris Murphy

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  • First Teaser For The Last Of Us Season Two Puts Joel In Therapy

    First Teaser For The Last Of Us Season Two Puts Joel In Therapy

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    Screenshot: HBO / Kotaku

    HBO has released the first footage of the second season of The Last of Us, and it implies that things for Pedro Pascal’s Joel may be a little bit different than they are in the game. No, not that different, but it seems like he might be going to therapy.

    Kotaku’s Hopes For Spyro The Dragon’s (Reported) Comeback

    The brief, 24-second teaser shows a few familiar scenes originating from The Last of Us Part II. These include the dance scene in which Bella Ramsey’s Ellie kisses Dina, flashes of characters like Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac who leads the militaristic Washington Liberation Front, and a few glimpses of the Seraphites, the Seattle cult which also occupies the city. But one character seems to be someone entirely new. This person, played by Schitt’s Creek and Home Alone actor Catherine O’Hara, seems to be Joel’s therapist. She is shown asking if he hurt Ellie, which he denies. Instead, he insists he saved her.

    This seems like a new take on the opening scene of The Last of Us Part II, in which Joel recounts the violent events of the first game’s finale to his brother Tommy. He finishes his story with the same line: “I saved her.” So it seems Joel might be confessing his murder of the Fireflies to someone other than family in the show when it premieres on Max in 2025. The first season played things pretty close to the original, but it did make some big changes to Bill and Frank’s relationship, and added entirely new characters of its own, like Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen.

    Given that HBO plans to cover the events of Part II across multiple seasons of the show, it wouldn’t be surprising if it used all that extra time to riff on more plot points and character threads. The first season put a big focus on Joel’s anxiety, something which the games only hinted at, so the sad dad finally getting professional help seems in line with how the show’s been handling that side of him.

    Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will lead season two, but HBO has announced several new cast members that will play characters from The Last of Us Part II. Most notably, Kaitlyn Dever will play Abby, the co-protagonist of the sequel.

    .

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  • The First Teaser for The Last of Us Season 2 Hints at the Hurt to Come

    The First Teaser for The Last of Us Season 2 Hints at the Hurt to Come

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    We might have to wait a while to see it, but tonight HBO gave us our first good look at The Last of Us‘ return in action, and it looks like we’re in for a world of hurt.

    Released as part of an extended tease of what’s coming in the next year during House of the Dragon‘s season finale tonight (stay tuned for our recap tomorrow!) the new footage is short, but offers some interesting hints at what the sophomore season will adapt from the award-winning Naughty Dog sequel.

    The footage offers not just new glimpses of what Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s Joel and Ellie are up to (having a bad time, for the most part), but glimpses at new and returning major characters, including Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), what appears to be our first glimpses at Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), Dina (Isabela Merced), and Jeffrey Wright reprising his role as Isaac from the game. We also get our first glimpse at Catharine O’Hara’s mysterious new figure, who asks Joel an intriguing question, seemingly about Ellie: “Did you hurt her?”

    Check out the full HBO/Max tease below, which also includes new footage from The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, It: Welcome to Derry, and our first actual look at the next Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, in action.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_fSOMJxgVk

    The Last of Us season 2 is set to hit HBO and Max some time in 2025.

     

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    James Whitbrook

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  • House of the Dragon’s Army of Bastards Takes Flight

    House of the Dragon’s Army of Bastards Takes Flight

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    When we have that shot underwater of Olivia’s beautiful red hair moving into the camera, I wanted everyone to say she’s gone. And then she moves and she opens her eyes. And then there’s this magical thing that happens where you see what she’s seeing and she sees the bird in the sky and you’re like, she’s free as a bird.

    This episode introduced viewers to a brand new character in Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes). He makes a really big splash and puts Daemon (Matt Smith) on the defensive. Can you talk a little bit about that scene?

    Archie, what a young, special talent. It’s so hard to find these young actors that can really own a space. We needed an actor that was going to be Like, how can you stand up to Matt Smith? I remember when Archie and I first started talking about the scene, he was like, “I’m so nervous. How would I ever take control of all of these houses? I’m so young. How would Daemon respect me?” We started talking about the layers of that. “Well, why are you the head of house? How do you think you were raised?”

    If you are growing up in the house Tully, and you are a child of the lord you’re going to work in the room where your masters run the Riverlands. You’re going to have actually been in the room since you were a a little boy.

    You know every one of those river lords better than anyone else in that Godawood. You’ve spent time with every one of them. You’ve heard them barter sheep, barter money, you’ve negotiated fights from the side of that table. So you’re not coming in to meet Daemon cold. You’re coming in to meet Damon as an intelligent, experienced, young leader.

    I got to hand it to Archie, because that’s the homework he did. When he showed up on the day, it was awesome during the rehearsal to see Matt kind of, like, chuckle a little bit. You can kind of see it in his performance. He has this, like, “you’re way more than I thought.” [Oscar] earns the respect of Damon Targaryen and that’s really special.

    What should we come away from this episode thinking going into the finale?

    Coming off of that final shot with Rhaenyra and her army of nuclear weapons, the Queen has more dragons than have ever been held there. I think what we’re worried about is, is Daemon aligned or not? He’s got a big army that just joined his forces. Is that army for the Queen Rhaenyra? Is it for, the King Daemon Targaryen? Or is it for someone else? What’s going to happen there?

    I think Aemond is set up in such a way that he’s lost faith in his small council, and he feels like he needs to take matters into his own hands, and we don’t know how far Aemond is willing to go. And what’s Alicent going to do now that she’s been baptized? She’s heading right back to that Dowager’s suite. What’s her plan? Is she going to do something to stop the war on her end? And what’s her approach in diplomacy?

    When we come out of episode seven, we basically have a loaded gun. That was the concept that Ryan [Kondall] and Sara [Hess] has talked about constantly. The tee up for the finale of this season has to be about all the guns that are pointed at each other in a standoff. We have to feel like the stakes are as high as they can get, and at any second, those guns are going to go off and it’s going to be messy. I’m hoping that we feel really nervous at the end of this episode.

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    Chris Murphy

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  • A Giant Mistake – Philadelphia Sports Nation

    A Giant Mistake – Philadelphia Sports Nation

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    A Giant’s Blunder Will Make Eagles Greatness In 2024.

    In 2024 America, reality TV is peaking. That’s a key reason why, after 20 years, this season of HBO’s NFL reality show Hard Knocks is one of its most popular, with an audience of around 4.4 million people.

    This season, the wildly popular HBO series produced an off-season series of episodes that follow New York Giants General Manager Joe Schoen through the NFL player negotiations, roster management, and the 2024 NFL Draft — highlighting their nearly hundred years of existence started by Tim Mara for a $500.00 investment in 1925. The Giants have always been part of the Mara family.

    Usually, any TV series on the New York Giants would be as interesting to Eagles fans as a time-lapse series on the creation of the Dallas Cowboys.

    The show is complete with Giants’ talent evaluation, salary negotiation, NFL Combine scouting, and minute-by-minute access into the New York Draft Room as they navigate the expanded $255.4 million per team 2024 salary cap rise of north of $30 million from 2023. Sound repulsive?

    Hold the phone.

     PHOTO: —

    One recurring plot that the reality series continues to return to is the ongoing negotiation with their star offensive player — twenty-seven-year-old running back Saquon Barkley. Unable to come to a deal with the All-Pro Philadelphia phenom running back who played at Penn State in college and in whom in 2023 — the Giants placed an adjusted franchise tag with a value of $10.1 million fully guaranteed and up to $11 million, including incentives deal. The tag was adjusted to include a $2 Million signing bonus.

     PHOTO: —

    The Eagles added the former New York Giants Running Back Saquon Barkley. In college at Penn State, Barkley ran for almost 3,900 yards, had nearly 1,200 yards receiving, and over 500 yards in kickoff and returns. He was a 2-time Big Ten Running Back of the Year, six-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, and still holds school records for most rushing yards as a freshman, a sophomore and the most total yards in a game.

    As the #2 draftee by the New York Giants in 2018, Barkley was offensive rookie of the year and a Pro Bowler twice.

    Stumbling through all of the nauseating, negative Eagles slights was well worth it to see Joe Schoen’s horrified New York Giants’s Assistant GMs and scouts watching ESPN’s coverage of Barkley arriving at the Novacare Complex and becoming a Philadelphia Eagle.

    HBO’s Hard Knocks has yet to cover the Philadelphia Eagles. Halfway through episode 3 of the series, New York Giants President and CEO John Mara walks into Schoen’s office and says:

    “I’m going to have trouble sleeping at night if Saquon goes to Philadelphia. He’s our most popular player by far.”

    Yup, it’s definitely worth watching, Eagles Nation.
    You’ll be glad that you did.

    PHOTO: Philadelphia Eagles

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    Michael Thomas Leibrandt

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  • ‘Wild Wild Space’ Blasts Off Wednesday; Entertaining HBO Film Documents Visionaries Battling For Primacy Above Our Heads

    ‘Wild Wild Space’ Blasts Off Wednesday; Entertaining HBO Film Documents Visionaries Battling For Primacy Above Our Heads

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    More than 10,000 satellites are currently spinning around the globe – and there would be even more had a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket not failed in its upper stage last week, preventing the proper deployment of a batch of Starlink satellites.

    That anomalous incident notwithstanding, the number of satellites orbiting Earth, commercial and otherwise, is expected to quadruple in the coming years, a dramatic development explored in the new HBO documentary Wild Wild Space, directed by Oscar winner Ross Kauffman (Born into Brothels).

    Originally, launching satellites was the preserve of governments, beginning with Sputnik 1 in October 1957. But as Wild Wild Space shows, it has become an increasingly commercialized venture, pursued by a fascinating array of visionary entrepreneurs – some eccentric, some perhaps delusional. There’s Elon Musk, of course, CEO of SpaceX; but this is not another Elon Musk documentary. The rocketeers populating Wild Wild Space include Chris Kemp, co-founder/CEO of Astra Space; Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab; Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs; and Pete Worden, a retired U.S. Air Force general.

    Peter Beck (right), CEO of Rocket Lab

    Courtesy of HBO

    “It was the luxury of having these characters who were so weird and willing to open up,” says producer Ashlee Vance. “I just felt like it was a different space story than you’ve ever seen before.”

    Wild Wild Space, which premieres Wednesday on HBO and will be available through Max, is inspired by Vance’s book When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach. It laid out a “frenzied intergalactic land grab” going on above our heads.

    “When I read the book, I loved the tone so much,” Kauffman tells Deadline. “I was thinking, how can I really get this sort of quirky, sardonic tone into the film along with all the rocket science, along with all the issues that are going on. And I just started with the characters, some of the characters that Ashlee had incredibly connected with.”

    Astra Space CEO Chris Kemp in costume at a company event.

    Astra Space CEO Chris Kemp in costume at a company event.

    Courtesy of HBO

    Rocket Lab’s Beck, a brilliant engineer who never attended college, dismisses some of his rocket rivals as making “shit.” Kemp, the dashing, telegenic head of Astra Space, seems eager to self-mythologize to the point he risks comparison to Elizabeth Holmes. Worden, despite the fruit salad of military decorations on his chest, comes off as an affable Yoda to a group of young Jedis eager to make their mark in space.

    Vance also appears on camera throughout the film, providing helpful commentary on the characters and the stakes involved in the satellite space race. We’re talking about technology that underpins our economy and contemporary lifestyle.

    'Wild Wild Space' key art

    Courtesy of HBO

    “The argument we’re making in the movie is that it is already this glue of modern life that we kind of take for granted,” Vance explains. “It is quite fragile, very fragile. It’s not as easy to fix as anything that goes wrong here on Earth, but it seems quite clear — to me at least — that this is only going to increase and we’re building the next step of our modern infrastructure in orbit.”

    Vance adds, “You see it with [SpaceX subsidiary] Starlink, for example. This is the first worldwide telecommunications network that does not have borders on it and is becoming this always-on sort of a fabric that people can depend on. That is the next step as we become ever more connected, and the internet just becomes ever more pervasive.”

    SpaceX launches a rocket carrying a satellite payload in 2020.

    SpaceX launches a rocket carrying a satellite payload in 2020.

    Mega

    Musk might be called a supporting player in the film – if you’re talking rockets and satellites, one can’t ignore him. A section of Wild Wild West is devoted to the war in Ukraine, where Starlink satellites became critical to that country’s defense in the midst of full-scale invasion by Russia. But Musk, reputedly because he wished Starklink to be used for civilian and not military ends, would not allow Ukraine to access the Starlink bandwidth for the purpose of attacking Russian-occupied Crimea.

    “The Ukraine thing is a weird situation where it’s like if SpaceX hadn’t done all this stuff [deploying Starlink satellites], they would’ve been in really, really much worse shape in this war,” notes Vance. “But then it’s so unusual that you have to turn to the whims of one person as you try to conduct this war. Some of this, I think, is the fault of the U.S. government and Western allies. They could have built a satellite network like this. They, in fact, have thought about it for decades and just never had the wherewithal to actually pull it off. And Elon did. But then as a result of that in action, you put yourself in some extraordinarily precarious positions.”

    Director Ross Kauffman

    Director Ross Kauffman

    Courtesy of Ross Kauffman

    “It encapsulates one of the big themes of the movie,” says Kauffman, “which is this huge, this epic shift from governments — whether it’s the internet, whether it’s space — to individuals, to capitalists, to people trying to quote unquote ‘save the world’ or people trying to make money in the world. It’s just a shift.”

    Wild Wild Space also serves as a wakeup call. The documentary points out that Russia has tested missile technology that could shoot satellites out of the sky. Debris from any such explosions could potentially destroy the entire satellite system, especially if and when low Earth orbit whirs with tens of thousands of satellites. And there’s more.

    “I read something the other day saying that the U.S. is woefully unprepared if anything happens to their satellites,” Kauffman says. “China is trying to figure out their own internet and GPS constellation, but the U.S. has no backup plan right now. And that’s scary.”

    Musk, Beck, Marshall, and others to the rescue? We’ll see.

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    Matthew Carey

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