Erika and Steven catch up with each other about their holidays, including everything they watched, and talk about what TV, movies, music, etc. they’re excited for in 2024. Then they do some personal ins/outs for the new year.
If you want to share any culture you’re excited to experience in 2024 or your ins/outs for this year, email us at whataboutyourfriendspod@gmail.com.
Hosts: Erika Ramirez and Steven Othello Producer: Sasha Ashall
Echo season 1 ends with a bang, with Echo (Alaqua Cox) going up against Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) again after confronting him in Hawkeye. Along the way, she reconnected with her roots, her family, and her sense of self, putting her on the track to becoming a hero.
It’s enough to make you wonder where Echo might show up next. So far, Echo has only appeared in Hawkeye and Echo, but with the MCU branching farther than ever, it seems like there are a lot of places a hothead superhero could pop up — including, potentially, a second season of her own show?
Here’s everything we know about Marvel’s future plans for Echo and Echo:
Is there going to be an Echo season 2?
As of this writing, Disney hasn’t confirmed if there will be a season 2 of Echo. For now, the show is being billed as a miniseries, just like Hawkeye before it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the show won’t be coming back.
When will Echo show up next in the MCU?
So far, neither Alaqua Cox nor Echo have been confirmed to show up anywhere else in the MCU. But there is a Daredevil show in the works (and in the reworks) that seems like an opportunity for her; after all, they had a pretty great fight in Echo.
And if Hawkeye is any indication, this doesn’t have to be the end for Cox’s Maya Lopez. Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop showed up in a teaser scene at the end of The Marvels as Hawkeye’s heir apparent, meaning Echo could find an analogous slot somewhere in the MCU. (Even if, for now, it’s still unclear what Kate will be doing as part of Kamala’s team.)
When might Echo season 2 debut on Disney Plus (or Hulu)?
If there is an Echo season 2, it might be a while before it actually comes out. Echo was first announced in November 2021, right after Cox showed up as Echo in Hawkeye. With the show only getting released some two years later, the earliest we’re likely to see Echo season 2 would be 2026.
What does this mean for the Marvel Spotlight?
Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios
Echo was a unique release for Marvel, not just because it was the first one to drop on Hulu (and in full) instead of Disney Plus. It was also the first entry in the new Marvel Spotlight umbrella, something Echo producer Richie Palmer says Echo was the right show at the right time to be.
“I think it was us saying, You know what? Echo wants to be its own thing. So let’s allow it to be,” Palmer tells Polygon. “We wanted to figure out, when we were bringing Maya Lopez to life, how do we honor that aspect of the comics? How do we keep it dark and gritty and separated from everything else that was going on?”
“And then Kevin [Feige] came in, as we were editing the show, and we were seeing how dark we were pushing it. And he was saying, Don’t hold back on the violence, don’t hold back on the grit and this grounded tone, it’s what’s making this show so unique and special. So Marvel Spotlight kind of came from Kevin.”
With Spotlight offerings being framed as an opportunity for more casual viewing, even sans any other MCU knowledge, it’s unclear if shows like Echo are being designed (or promised, or even considered for) a second season.
Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay start today’s episode by bringing back a previous topic to talk about the disappointing update and regrets (02:48). They give their take on the internet’s reaction to Druski’s Omega Psi Phi–inspired skit (33:25) and Jonathan Majors’s interview (49:35). They are then joined by Molly White—researcher, writer, and Wikipedia editor—to give us more insight into the Neri Oxman plagiarism accusations (01:30:56).
Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Additional Production: Aleya Zenieris
It’s easy to think of Denzel Washington as the best actor of his generation, and in conversation with the greatest actors who have ever lived. He already has two Oscars, and has deserved many more. And with the recent release of The Equalizer 3 on Netflix, it’s the perfect time to look back on his body of work and legitimately pose the question: Is he also the greatest action star of his generation?
If Denzel is on screen in a movie made this century, he’s likely got at least one gun on him. Perhaps you’d conclude that, like Liam Neeson, that means Denzel has been on autopilot. But from the beginning, Denzel has had coinciding populist taste, multiplex butter-flavored syrup infused in his cinematic DNA. Amid historical biopics, Civil War epics, and Spike Lee’s formative romantic meditations, there have always been gleeful crowd-pleasers in Denzel’s body of work: noirs, heists, erotic thrillers, and serial killers.
You may ask, is The Manchurian Candidate really an action flick? And the answer is that once, yes it was. Not that long ago, movies could be more than one thing. A prestige drama could have a great tension-packed car chase. A vigilante movie could be about socialized medicine. A noir could also be a time-traveling sci-fi. By cataloging his hits over decades, through Denzel’s resume, we can chart a devolution in what kinds of genre/spectacle films are being made in Hollywood.
If this is the end of that kind of film, it is fitting to celebrate it by honoring Denzel’s great action flicks, and his best moments in them. He remains one of the best who ever did it. Let’s kick some ass.
Honorable mentions that aren’t quite action movies: American Gangster, Cry Freedom, The Tragedy of Macbeth
26. The Taking of Pelham 123
Image: Columbia Pictures/MGM
Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Starz, AMC Plus, or for digital rental/purchase
Every one of these movies is a good idea on paper, but this is the most disappointing, because it had the potential to be really special. It’s Denzel and Tony Scott with James Gandolfini, and maybe the last good Tony Manero performance, taking on one of the greatest detail-rich, lived-in New York movies ever made. The original Pelham 123 is a film that really embodies that cliche about the city as a character, and it utilizes it like few movies ever had. It’s about a city of pressed-together schnooks that speak and think like neurotic piece-of-work Jews like me, arguing with each other through the duration of a crisis they all seem more annoyed by than concerned about. This film is entirely drained of that energy, focusing on Scott’s continuing experiments with digital photography instead of the liveliness of the city. Denzel gets to play hostage negotiator versus a scene-chewing John Travolta, and even though Travolta is supposed to be the dominant force in the conversation, Denzel bodies him in most of their exchanges by thinking through his lines.
Best Denzel moment: Confessing to Travolta that he took a bribe to save a hostage’s life, leading to a masterful controlled breakdown over the phone.
25. Safe House
Image: Universal Pictures
Director: Daniel Espinosa Where to watch: Netflix, or for digital rental/purchase
An actually admirable attempt that’s better than what you may remember, Safe House features an old-school Tom Clancy plot about a house cat itching for a taste of the field who finally gets his monkey-paw wish granted. Unfortunately, the movie has either no feel or no time for character development. It’s reaching for the intimate kinetic grit of Paul Greengrass’ Bourne movies via Sam Peckinpah, and of course it doesn’t get there, but I have to respect a movie that pays this much attention to its spycraft. The fun of the film is watching Denzel’s endlessly resourceful old agent think his way out of a series of seemingly impossible dead ends by leaning on his experience and reflexive improvisation. The Achilles heel is that we’re forced to care about a perfunctory Ryan Reynolds love story C-plot when what we want is more Reynolds and Denzel face-offs. For whatever you may feel about Ryan Reynolds’ “gifts,” this humorless film wastes them. Safe House is better than the next three films in many ways, but they have the courage to be weird and take some swings.
Best Denzel moment: The hint of a smile after Denzel comes up from a first session of being waterboarded.
24. The Bone Collector
Image: Universal/Everett Collection
Director: Phillip Noyce Where to watch: Digital rental/purchase
Solely based on the title and poster, this feels like it should’ve been Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. But it’s Denzel and young Angelina Jolie, and it is so much worse and stranger than the Morgan/Judd movies. Denzel is quadriplegic and waiting for a seizure that will put him in a vegetative state, and he is desperate to be euthanized. Instead, he becomes the cuddly cop version of a bedridden Hannibal Lecter, with Jolie as his Clarice. The movie anticipates CSI, as the genius and his protege study the crime scenes left by the killer, who has a research-loving crime fiction writer’s interest in historical New York City trivia and lore and communicates directly with forensic investigators via obscure clues. It also presents an alternate universe where most of the NYPD seems to give a fuck about doing their jobs.
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel, who doesn’t have the ability to move his arms or legs, destroys a serial killer’s hand and rips off his ear using only his mouth.
23. Virtuosity
Image: Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
Director: Brett Leonard Where to watch: Paramount Plus, free with a library card on Kanopy, free with ads on Pluto
A riff on Frankenstein and the Stallone/Snipes dystopian face-off classic Demolition Man, this is a pretty silly and absurd sci-fi trifle about society, technology, and humanity in the form of a goofball summer thriller. They used to make these inadvertently hilarious techno-thrillers in the ’90s both by and for people with no understanding of how computers work. Virtuosity wins the award for worst CGI on this list, and maybe ever in the history of film? Russell Crowe, as a VR serial killer composite, is made of some cybernetic material that manifests on screen as hair gel tendrils, so he can grow his finger back when it’s chopped off, bullet holes fill back in immediately, etc. You want to give them a pass for the technology not being quite there to execute the vision, but they’re attempting to rip off Terminator 2, a film that was released four years earlier. It’s a more interesting iteration of Denzel’s standard, upstanding, dour straight cop because his character is an ex-cop, ex-con with a dead family and an edge to him, released to track down and kill the film’s true saving grace: young Russell Crowe having more fun than anyone besides Denzel gets to have on this entire list. In fact, here’s a list within a list:
Best Denzel moment: I’d conservatively estimate Denzel shoots cybernetic serial killer composite Russell Crowe 300 times.
22. Ricochet
Photo: Warner Bros./Everett Collection
Director: Russell Mulcahy Where to watch: Cinemax
You really have to see this movie to believe it, particularly if your only relationship to John Lithgow is 3rd Rock from the Sun or Love Is Strange. Ricochet is just a completely unhinged, borderline slapstick exploitation film. It’s Cape Fear on meth, and ironically came out the same year. Denzel matches Lithgow’s energy here. He begins the movie stripping to his drawers and shooting a hostage-holding Lithgow with a behind-the-back trick shot, then spends a portion of the movie on drugs ranting and raving in a pink robe. It’s wild shit, and wildly entertaining.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel, to his wife, after handing both of his daughters off to drug-dealing gangster Ice-T’s bodyguard for protection before going after Lithgow for the final showdown, and after his wife finds out he has tested positive for gonorrhea:
“Listen, you were right before. I should’ve trusted you with everything, but now you gotta trust me with everything too. Now, if you don’t love me, tell me right now, because I’m fighting for what used to be my life, and you are all of it. Are you with me?”
[Instant nod from his wife] “Yes.”
21. The Manchurian Candidate
Image: Paramount Pictures
Director: Jonathan Demme Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase
So you get Streep as Hillary Clinton and my guys Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, and Bruno Ganz, all directed by Jonathan Demme, in a political thriller about literally incestuous cronyism in party politics, phony patriotism, PTSD, the American war machine, the prison of ambition, and the nefarious influence of special interests on our representatives. Unfortunately, this Manchurian Candidate is unbearably goofy and nothing lands. No one is doing their best work, including Demme. And because it’s a Denzel film, which almost always have tidy resolutions, there isn’t even the conviction to go through with the standard cynical conspiracy thriller ending.
Manchurian provides an interesting opportunity to discuss Denzel and what makes him great. It’s not the worst movie on this list by far, but this is probably my least favorite performance of his, maybe ever. He’s playing this broken, paranoid guy, and it completely robs him of his warmth and charisma. I can’t even really think of another dramatic performance that does that. If you’re into over-the-top metaphors for late-’90s/early-aughts liberal politics, there’s another film down this list I greatly prefer.
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel takes his first shot at Liev, trying to convince him they’ve been compromised.
20. Deja Vu
Image: Touchstone Pictures
Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Free with ads on Tubi, or for digital rental/purchase
Very silly shit. The film doesn’t always respect or really even seem to understand the rules of time augmentation it sets up for itself. It turns into a series of Choose Your Own Adventures where Denzel goes out into the field, then the team back in the lab debates what happened and why and the nature of fate and time. It’s a pretty dry and joyless Denzel performance in a pretty dry and joyless film. Tony Scott gets the game ball for elevating the material. If you want to see a much, much better version of this, I’d recommend the brilliant and heavily slept-on Source Code.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel, watching helplessly from the future, reacting to his partner getting killed because he inadvertently led him to his death by meddling with the past.
19. Fallen
Image: Warner Bros./Everett Collection
Director: Gregory Hoblit Where to watch: Digital rental/purchase
What is this movie? A detective stumbling upon, then attempting to fight, a demonic consciousness of an evil angel passed by physical touch? What is its objective? To destroy humanity at the rate of one detective in a cabin in the woods every few decades? This is a borderline horror flick, but we’ve decided to classify it as a supernatural thriller. Unlike some of the films above, it’s pretty good at staying faithful to its dumb conceit and sticking to the rules it establishes. I also believe it’s probably the only film on this list where Denzel actually loses. But it’s Denzel doing his version of a Philip Marlowe — up against an angel-demon, of course, but still a good time.
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel thinks he’s killed the demon and starts singing its own theme song back at it.
18. The Equalizer
Image: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Director: Antoine Fuqua Where to watch: Starz, or for digital rental/purchase
A fine action film, I guess. It’s Denzel’s bid for his own Mission: Impossible, another old piece of TV IP barely tethered to its superstar’s modern, globe-trotting franchise machine. You could also call it his John Wick, but unlike that film, it’s a movie that’s both too serious and not serious enough. Wick just had its best installment by far because it leaned into the over-the-top giddy spectacle of a phantasmagoric blood opera. The Equalizer is no fun. It also doesn’t have any real stakes. Denzel simply, methodically kills his way through an army of bland Russians with no tension, or any remote sense of danger or threat. Denzel is an inevitable guardian angel of death, with no flaws or weaknesses, so none of the kills mean that much to him, or to the film, or to us. The result is a competent slog, but as the rest of his body of work proves, we used to demand more from our “mindless” blood-soaked genre movies.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel gets one speech, at dinner with a Russian bad guy whose full-body tattoos make Master Gardener appear modest by comparison, and obviously nails it.
17. The Book of Eli
Image: Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection
Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase
A pretty fascinating, high-concept misfire: a Kung Fu dystopian Western about Christianity. Denzel is the lonely wandering ronin who lives simply and humbly off the land after a human-made apocalypse. He adheres to his own code, navigating an American wasteland overrun by scavengers and cannibals. Denzel doesn’t make many films about his faith, but this one is clearly deeply felt by both the directors and their star. The only “disappointment” for me is Gary Oldman, who is fine, but casting him as your bad guy means you’re walking on sacred ground, and through no fault of his own we get maybe 60% of the way to a The Professional/True Romance/Fifth Element-level performance.
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel, gut-shot and dying, recites the entirety of the King James Bible by heart so it can be committed to page and reintroduced to society.
16. The Magnificent Seven
Image: Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
Director: Antoine Fuqua Where to watch: Digital rental/purchase
Denzel on a horse! If Fallen is Denzel channeling Bogart, here he channels John Wayne, albeit in the classic Badass Black Cowboy’s mustache-and-mutton-chop pairing. He has a death wish, and he’s enjoying himself. Can’t understate how special it is seeing one of the greatest movie stars of this era imprinting on a nearly extinct form of American cinema, even if it’s not the great film the cast list and trailer promised. It gets maybe 70% of the way there. Needed some shock and awe, some Eli Wallach energy. Instead, it typifies this tier on the list of competent and unspectacular popcorn flicks.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel eats a heart.
15. The Equalizer 2
Image: Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
Director: Antoine Fuqua Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase
Improved on the original because of a crucial plot point that actually lends the story purpose (killing Melissa Leo), but not by much. I don’t really have much else to say about it, so for fun:
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel demands, and gets, a five-star Uber rating from the women-abusing frat bros he beats the shit out of in their apartment.
14. The Little Things
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: John Lee Hancock Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase
Notable because Denzel really leans into being paunchy and washed. We’re not quite hitting Roman J. Israel levels, but we’re not far off. The headline is a three-hander with Denzel and two weirdos with Oscars. But it’s Denzel’s dumber and less meticulous diet-Fincher. A film about obsession and the inability to live with life’s mysteries. The ball is fumbled in the red zone, and its resolution is problematic to say the least, but for much of its run time it’s atmospheric and well paced, and Denzel is unsurprisingly great as a detective battling madness and the mess he made of his life.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel has a heart-to-heart with the corpse of a murder victim that is legitimately some of his best work.
13. 2 Guns
Image: Universal/Everett Collection
Director:Baltasar Kormákur Where to watch: Free with ads on Tubi, or for digital rental/purchase
This one’s based on a series of graphic novels by Steven Grant, with a screenplay from Blake Masters, who has worked primarily as a network TV workhorse, and there’s the issue. It needed to be 20-30% funnier. You see from the beginning what they’re going for, two frenemies bickering over a diner breakfast order and how much to tip as they cooly set the building on fire and head to their muscle car without looking back just before it explodes. It’s Avary/Tarantino/McQuarrie-in-the-’90s quippy action comedy territory. There’s still fun to be had: a heist, a lot of Mark Wahlberg with his eyebrows raised, ending his sentences with upspeak. For the most part, Wahlberg gets to have the lion’s share of the fun, except…
Best Denzel moment: Denzel, whose characters have sex surprisingly rarely considering how much of a sex symbol he has been, has sex with Paula Patton!
12. The Siege
Image: 20th Century Fox
Director: Edward Zwick Where to watch: Starz, or for digital rental/purchase
A messy movie with fraught politics, but generally good ideas: The liberal resistance to the coming fascist post-9/11 Patriot Act world, but also one that is not above the fearmongering, stereotyping, and profiling that made it possible to exist in the first place. The Annette Bening character is probably the focus of an NYU poli sci class this semester. In a lot of ways this is a reprisal of Crimson Tide, with Denzel attempting to posit himself as the voice of liberal reason in the face of a black-and-white fascist.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel makes a stirring but hilariously quaint and naive argument against torture and why it will compromise the constitution and American way of life.
11. Unstoppable
Image: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Digital rental/purchase
An admirable simplicity of purpose. This might be the only movie on this list with no gun and no bad guy. It’s a disaster movie, ThePerfect Storm for trains. Purely in terms of direction, it’s Tony Scott’s best work throughout the partnership. Working-class Denzel is the best. How many people in action movies have actual jobs anymore?
Best Denzel moment: I know it had to be a mix of stunt work and green screen, but it’s Denzel hopping from car to car on top of the train, setting the individual brakes, trying to slow it down.
10. The Mighty Quinn
Image: MGM Home Entertainment
Director: Carl Schenkel Where to watch: Prime Video, free with a library card on Hoopla, free with ads on Tubi and Pluto TV
By no means a perfect film, The Mighty Quinn is a product of the late ’80s and feels very much like one (complete with a harebrained, nonsensical resolution). Denzel and the great Robert Townsend are doing borderline parody accents. It’s obvious there was no budget or experience behind the camera to really know how to shoot action. From fistfights to car accidents, those moments are rife with bad transitions and continuity errors. But it’s a fun and original bizarre hybrid: a musical noir set in Jamaica about race, class, imperialism, and corruption. And Denzel is great! He’s a rebel, beset on all sides by superiors who want to sweep a mess under the rug, and he manages a blend of determined, defiant, charming, and dignified while telling his elders to go fuck themselves.
Best Denzel moment: Dezel sings the blues in a piano bar/shack.
9. Out of Time
Image: MGM/Everett Collection
Director: Carl Franklin Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase
A blend of Bad Lieutenant and Body Heat. Notable in Denzel’s oeuvre because Matt Lee Whitlock is arguably the biggest loser he’s ever played, a piece of shit constantly working off his back foot (perhaps aside from another cop, Alonzo Harris in Training Day). The film is essentially a series of unlikely narrow escapes a sweat-drenched Denzel has to pull off to fix an escalating pile of fuck-ups and loose ends. Everyone’s slimy and dumb and depraved — a perfect old-school erotic thriller.
Best Denzel moment: When the book is finally closed and we gather to tell the tales and sing the songs, the real Johnny Appleseed, Bunyan, John Henry shit will be the time Denzel literally cucked Superman.
8. The Equalizer 3
Photo: Stefano Montesi/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Director: Antoine Fuqua Where to watch: Netflix
I’m as shocked as you are, but the third installment of The Equalizer is not just the best of the series, it’s one of Denzel’s best action flicks. If I wasn’t afraid of recency bias, I might’ve ranked it higher. It starts with the fun grindhouse smut I requested in discussing the first installment of the franchise. It’s also much slower, a shockingly patient film that isn’t just about being washed, but actual mortality. It really leans into Denzel, who looks every day of his then 68 years, being old and frail. It’s at times moving, not just about protection or revenge, but rather about finding peace and preserving a way of life in a coastal Italian village.
But the true genius of the film is casting Denzel’s old co-star, Dakota Fanning, as his young protege, which essentially makes the film a Man on Fire sequel. It made me think about Ghost Protocol and Fast Five, two films that elevated their respective franchises by embracing all the old characters who had passed through and reveling in the lore. Why not turn The Equalizer into the Denzel extended universe? Obviously not the same characters across the non-canon films, but let’s bring them all back, Cheadle and Snipes and Owen and Wahlberg and Patton and Pine and Streep. I’ll watch 10 more of these.
Best Denzel moment: The reunion tea with Dakota Fanning.
7. Training Day
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Antoine Fuqua Where to watch: Free with ads on Tubi, or for digital rental/purchase
One of my hotter takes is I think the Oscar has unduly raised the appraisal of this pretty goofy film whose message has aged terribly. A great cartoon Denzel performance, full of his most memorable (and I think crucially, quotable) line readings, and cartoons are obviously a lot of fun, but it’s not close to his best, so I won’t belabor the point. All I will say is on this latest rewatch, the “Not All Cops” message embodied by Ethan Hawke’s Boy Scout dignity was particularly grating. Also, I will just never get over the leap off the roof onto the hood of Denzel’s car. Bird-brain shit.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel making Ethan Hawke get wet.
6. Man on Fire
Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase
Obviously a great film, but Scott’s visual language hasn’t aged well. It’s treated and cut like a Nine Inch Nails video or a Fincher credit sequence. But aside from that, Scott is near his peak here. The camera rarely stops moving, even when it’s two people talking in a room, which adds to the film’s restless, manic energy of pissed-off pulp. Man on Fire is a quasi-religious text about a broken sinner killing his way to redemption. Denzel is that sinner, awash in layers of alcohol and nihilism, attempting to drown his regret. The chemistry with young Dakota Fanning jumps off the screen, and totally sells the extremes he goes to in order to bring her home.
Best Denzel moment: The film-long touching bond between an adorable little girl and her father figure.
5. Inside Man
Image: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Director: Spike Lee Where to watch: Starz, or for digital rental/purchase
At the outset of this list, I criticized Pelham for not honoring the Jewishness of its text. This film does that. It’s a multi-ethnic and bilingual melting pot of annoyed, annoying, combative, neurotic, and stubborn people getting on each other’s nerves in a high-stress and cramped environment. Or, they’re all “Jewish” New Yorkers. It’s the texture of New York that Pelham completely missed the boat on. Another in a rare sort of Denzel performance: Denzel the dumbass, always a step behind and a second late.
Best Denzel moment: It’s a cooperative with Spike Lee and his calling card, but the revved-up dolly shot might be Lee’s best. Denzel has just fallen for a gag execution, and his laser-focused anger in the shot is a microcosm of the film: He’s a marionette reacting to each step of Clive Owen’s meticulous plan.
4. The Pelican Brief
Image: Warner Bros/Everett Collection
Director: Alan J. Pakula Where to watch: For free with ads on Pluto TV, or for digital rental/purchase
A great, fascinating adaptation from the John Grisham era of ’90s Hollywood blockbusters, when a thought-provoking legal thriller could still be a blockbuster. Two Supreme Court justices are simultaneously assassinated, and a plucky law student (prime Julia Roberts) hacks the plot by studying case histories and following threads in a conspiracy that goes all the way to the Oval Office. Denzel is a determined, dickhead politico journalist who goes on the run with her (but infamously, in what is the film’s only glaring flaw, doesn’t have sex). It’s Pakula’s last great film, and the likes of Sam Shepard, John Lithgow, and Stanley Tucci show up to cook for perhaps three minutes each. It’s a pure piece of nostalgia for a better, lost age of movies.
Best Denzel moment: I’mcurrently working on a tough story with a lot of moving parts, and I greatly appreciate watching Denzel work a source.
3. Crimson Tide
Image: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection
Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase
A chamber drama conveyed through cheesy Dutch angles about fascism and Cold War-era nuclear paranoia, but really on a very short list of the greatest all-time “actors at the top of their games face off” films. Coming off Malcolm X, this movie signaled Denzel becoming the greatest actor in America. He’s riveting as a rebellious son who actually has the upper hand on his father figure and refuses to give an inch. It’s a deceptively simple film — as the two men trade mutinies for control of a nuke — that doesn’t need the scaffolding of a B-, C-, and D-plot. There’s no spouse at home for Denzel to sneak off and spend five minutes with here and there to distract from the basic core of the story. It knows exactly what it is and what it wants to do, and lets its incredible talent fill in the rest.
Best Denzel moment: The shouting match when Denzel backs down Hackman and takes control of the sub.
2. John Q.
Image: New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Director: Nick Cassavetes Where to watch: Starz, or for digital rental/purchase
Could hear arguments for this not being an action movie, but I won’t listen. It’sa good old-fashioned Chayefsky-esque message film as agitprop, taking down capitalism, told by a working-class schlub trying to get his son a heart transplant and socialize health care in one Chicago hospital by any means necessary. There is some sermonizing infotainment, but it’s a righteous cause and doesn’t bog down the film or break the tension. It’s moving and thought-provoking, heady stuff for a dumped-out February popcorn thriller, and quite possibly the most emotional Denzel performance on this list and beyond.
Best Denzel moment: Denzel pleading for James Woods to take his heart out of his chest and give it to his son so he can live, and then when he says goodbye to him before the surgery. There’s zero chance you won’t cry.
1. Devil in a Blue Dress
Image: Sony Pictures
Director: Carl Franklin Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase
In these films, it can be easy to lose sight of Denzel’s Blackness. Many of the roles on this list could’ve been played, by design, by any leading actor. Among many, many other elements in this incredible noir, what makes Devil in a Blue Dress special is that Liam Neeson couldn’t play Easy Rawlins. It’s Chinatown for race in America, a raw, sad, thrilling movie that showcases Denzel’s full complement of gifts and the very unique space he’s held in American cinema for 40 years. It’s channeling Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but also Nella Larsen. There are great performances all around, with an outrageous, all-cylinders Don Cheadle being fairly recognized and winning a SAG Best Supporting Actor Award that should’ve been attached to an Oscar. But Denzel is center frame in every shot, and it’s unlike any of his other detective films because when the movie starts, he’s not established, not even a detective. It’s an incredible origin story, as we watch Easy discover his gifts and his calling. If this isn’t his very best performance, it’s on his Mount Rushmore.
Best Denzel moment: When Denzel is so caught up having sex with his friend’s girl that he completely forgets about the information he’s ostensibly having the sex to obtain.
It’s been more than a decade since Crystal Dynamics, the developer best known for the Tomb Raider series, first introduced players to its reimagined take on Lara Croft. 2013’s Tomb Raider painted Lara as someone capable of adapting and overcoming nearly any situation while maintaining a level of emotional depth and self-awareness, a quality the game’s sequels would go on to further explore.
The original was an excellent game that I’ve completed on no fewer than three occasions, and while her most recent outing, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, has its merits, I still stand by 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider as the most engaging and interesting version of Lara Croft for how it emphasizes her vulnerability. The result is a story that combines all the hallmarks of what you’d expect from a great Tomb Raider game: suspenseful supernatural elements and a thrilling and romantic notion of archaeology, all tied together with an intriguing and surprisingly emotional story.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Following the events of the first game, Lara is still traumatized by her trial by fire on the island of Yamatai and her father’s recent disappearance. Her quest to find her father and restore her family’s legacy leads her to the frigid peaks of Siberia and into the path of Trinity, a “Knights Templar meets military contractor” organization with a pseudo-religious goal of world domination. Unfortunately, this places Lara alone in the unique position to foil their plot, by saddling her with a truth that no one else will believe.
Lara fully understands the gravity of the situation, but never lets this inflate her ego. Instead, she’s more preoccupied with the specter of death that inevitably follows her attempts to do the right thing. Lara can never fully atone for how her choices led to the deaths of so many close to her in the past, regardless how well equipped or tough she is. This theme is so pervasive, it even echoes in Rise’s gameplay by presenting us with a Lara who needs to be more resourceful and cunning to overcome her environment.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t quite elevate Lara to the level of apex predator we get in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but she’s clearly far more capable than she was in her first adventure. The result is a character in the midst of becoming the Lara Croft known to players around the world, a more confident and prepared protagonist who can still be humbled. This version of Lara shines when she’s on the back foot, and Rise of the Tomb Raider does everything it can to keep her off balance with a more capable foe and a relentlessly adversarial environment.
I’ll admit that on its standard difficulty, Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t present much of a challenge. Because of that, I consider Survivor Mode, the hardest difficulty, to be the definitive Tomb Raider experience. While you won’t succumb to starvation or dehydration, at this difficulty, the player’s health doesn’t regenerate, checkpoints are disabled, and foes are far more deadly. As if that wasn’t enough, by default, the game also will not highlight interactable items in the environment. While you can turn on the “Survival Instincts” at any time during your playthrough, dialing down the difficulty isn’t an option, which further reinforces that there’s no going back once the journey starts.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
This dialed-up difficulty has the benefit of making the game more immersive and forcing you to carefully consider and prepare for every encounter. A handful of bad guys normally wouldn’t be an issue, but when just a couple of bullets can put Lara in the ground, things get a little more tense. For an added challenge, I like to rely almost exclusively on stealth kills and Lara’s trusty bow during combat, resorting to firearms only when absolutely necessary.
Rise of the Tomb Raider still keeps some of the Metroidvania elements of its predecessor to guide you along its critical path, while the world feels more open and encourages exploration of its various regions. This is further reinforced by a more robust crafting system, which forces you to scrounge and hunt for many of the materials you need to upgrade your gear. The tomb puzzles hidden throughout the world aren’t quite as challenging as those found in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but still do a great job at shaking things up between scavenging and combat encounters.
2013’s Tomb Raider did a fantastic job of establishing Lara as a character, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes for a fitting capstone to the latest trilogy. But for me, Rise of the Tomb Raider was the peak of Crystal Dynamic’s trilogy. Beyond its challenging gameplay, Rise offers a robust and complex narrative that shows us that the personality archetype of badass archeologist doesn’t have to constantly revolve around snappy one-liners.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Xbox Game Pass.
The year 2023 gave fans a standout year in sizzling romance. Baldur’s Gate 3allowed players to fall in love — and then make love — with its sexy and eclectic band of misfits. The Resident Evil 4 remake gave Leon Kennedy a head-to-toe makeover and turned him into a bona fide internet babygirl. Outside of games, longtime fan favorite Satoru Gojo made his long-awaited reappearance in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime.
I love it all, but sometimes the source material isn’t enough. It never hurts to add a bit of extra spice to the stories. We simply want characters to kiss each other! Sometimes… it’s just a little more fun to ship.
Whether it’s a steamy slow-burn fanfic or sharing perfectly edited clips of characters online, shipping characters helps build out our favorite worlds in exciting ways. Ships and all that romance provide the fuel to ignite the roaring engine of fandom. So with that, we’ve decided to round up our favorite ships and romantic pairings from 2023.
Shadowheart and Lae’zel from Baldur’s Gate 3
Image: Larian Studios via Polygon
If I had a nickel for every sprawling RPG with romanceable options that had a super-duper compelling sapphic enemies-to-lovers ship that was so good that I couldn’t find it in my heart to come in between the pairing with my player character, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice.
Anyway, Shadowheart and Lae’zel from Baldur’s Gate 3 have earned a place in my shipper’s heart right next to Miranda Lawson and Jack from Mass Effect. They have such a delicious chemistry, the sort of antagonism that comes from actually being in super similar positions but refusing to acknowledge that, because that would mean acknowledging one’s own faults and shortcomings. Also, I love a spicy knife-to-the-throat scene!!!!!! —Petrana Radulovic
Zelda and Link from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Justice for Link and Prince Sidon shippers!!!!! Nintendo really did the Prince Sidon and Link romance dirty this year when it released Tears of the Kingdom. Apparently Sidon is not only straight, but engaged to some lady named Yona? Link didn’t even ride Sidon AT ALL. Boo! Regardless, I actually do love this game for the way it portrays such a beautiful and unending love between Link and Zelda. It was the first time that I felt like I truly understood Zelink shippers, and why I would now count myself among them. —Ana Diaz
Leon and Luis from Resident Evil 4
Image: Capcom via Polygon
Most people playing Resident Evil 4 — either the original 2005 game or the recent remake — ship its dreamboat protagonist Leon S. Kennedy with either the looks-barely-legal-but-she’s-20-something-actually Ashley Graham or the mysterious femme fatale Ada Wong. These two women conform to the typical Madonna/whore dichotomy, and what’s more boring than that? Furthermore, Leon always seems so awkward as a person that I always saw him as a semi-closeted queer guy who swipes through Grindr on the DL. (OK, back in 2005 it was Craigslist and not Grindr, but you’re following nonetheless.) For all those reasons, I see Leon’s true love in RE4 as Luis, the flamboyant Spanish babe who even gets a few more lines of dialogue in the remake. The only problem with their relationship becoming more serious (because I can only assume they’ve hooked up) is that they won’t have enough room for each of their respective hair products in any ordinary-sized bathroom. —Maddy Myers
Janine and Gregory from Abbott Elementary
Image: ABC
It’s no secret that Janine and Gregory are meant for each other in Abbott Elementary. Sure, this ship is predictable and maybe not that exciting! But also consider this: Both characters fucking rule.
They’ve long been my endgame, like so many other sitcom couples — the same way we all knew Nick and Jesse were fated in New Girl, and that Chidi and Eleanor would end up together in every life in The Good Place. Since those shows ended their runs, I’d waited for another slow-burn romance to come onto the scene. Abbott’s slow burn is refreshing because it doesn’t rely on pure hijinx or plot contrivances to keep its leads apart. Janine and Gregory are both full of heart, carrying around so much (matching) baggage, and trying their best to show up for their students every day. They’re just so profoundly awkward that they struggle to read each other’s signals, and yet they keep trying — because their relationship is built on a bedrock of friendship and trust.
This friendship also means they are excellent scene partners, whose conversations go from flirty banter to serious and consequential very fluidly. Gregory helps pull Janine back from her naive improvement projects, while she helps him gain confidence. I think often of the scene where Janine gently calls out Gregory’s office-supply store decorative classroom posters. Gregory then shares all of the drawings his students make of him; viewers realize he has no idea how beloved he is. Janine — who already knows this — helps him see it, and maybe he starts to believe it a little himself. —Nicole Clark
Literally all of the Owl House ships (Luz and Amity, Hunter and Willow, Eda and Raine)
Image: Disney
I simply cannot pick one! Am I in the mood for a rivals-to-friends-to-lovers where a mean girl goes from being rude to being in love with the plucky hero? Or for a prickly guy who’s secretly super soft and a soft girl who’s secretly a badass, who are both outcasts in their own way but find solace in one another? Or a decades-long friends-to-lovers-to-exes-to-estranged-acquaintances-to-reconciled-allies, all while mutually pining for one another after their relationship fell apart all those years ago? The Owl House kept us fed. —PR
Bronya and Seele from Honkai: Star Rail
Image: Hoyoverse via Polygon
I haven’t even played the other Honkai games, but apparently Seele and Bronya are lesbians in every universe. I literally adore these two. One is a tough punk leader of an underground grassroots organization that helps the poor, and the other is a world ruler who was originally raised to be ignorant of the cruelty of the state. It’s a match made in heaven! —AD
Haymitch Abernathy and Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games
Image: Lionsgate
After I saw The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, I went on a bit of a Hunger Games bender and reread the original trilogy. And let me tell you, reading these books as an adult makes you zero in on Haymitch as the hottest character. The movie trilogy had already seeded some Effie and Haymitch in my mind, but my reread made me want to write a fic from Haymitch and Effie’s point of view, where everything is mostly the same except they’ve been secretly hooking up the whole time. —PR
The player and Rusty from Armored Core 6
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
You simply gotta respect a ship for which almost every single piece of it is something that’s been invented wholesale by the fans. Rusty and the player character in Armored Core 6 have chemistry, don’t get me wrong — but you never even see this character’s face in the game! In the mercenary hellscape of AC6’s post-apocalyptic, corporate-controlled gig economy, though, any friendly voice in your ear is enough to make you fall in love. Every single piece of fan art I’ve seen of Rusty depicts him as gorgeous. But who cares about his literal physical form! No player actually needed that, turns out, in order to believe that Rusty believes in us. —MM
Geto and Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen
Image: Mappa/Crunchyroll
Do you ever love your bro so much that you let it radicalize you into hating the entire human race? No? Well, this is kind-of sort-of not really what happens with SatoSugu, a popular pairing that matches the infamous Satoru Gojo with Suguru Geto in the anime and manga Jujutsu Kaisen. Their love story is one of a teenage bond gone wrong. I’m still sad they broke up, but hey, at least the Mappa is great at delivering us hot characters. —AD
Keefe and Kelvin from The Righteous Gemstones
Photo: Jake Giles Netter/HBO
The best ships sneak up on you, and none more so than Kelvin and Keefe on The Righteous Gemstones. Every character on this show is such a weirdo, not only because the Gemstone family is rich (yeah, rich people are weird, I said it), but because the family business is televangelism. Kelvin is one of the three adult siblings vying to inherit his family’s megachurch mantle, but he’s so far in the closet that he had my gaydar readings going haywire for the whole first season. Super-closeted Christian adults are like this in real life, and it’s not that funny, although The Righteous Gemstones manages to make it funny, and even heartwarming as Kelvin’s reliance on his ex-Satanist BFF Keefe grows stronger and stranger. Will God forgive them? According to me, an agnostic: Yes!! —MM
Kaveh and Alhaitham from Genshin Impact
Image: Hoyoverse via Polygon
Sometimes the best ship is one that feels the most real. This is why I love Alhaitham and Kaveh from Genshin Impact. Together, the two act like an old bickering couple. Kaveh will make snide remarks about the decor and Alhaitham will groan like an old bear. It’s not exactly steamy or hot, but it feels stupidly domestic and entirely possible. It’s basically canon, right? —AD
Stern Pinball just launched a new pinball table based on Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller Jaws. It’s the latest in a long line of licensed movie-based games from Stern, which has released Jurassic Park, James Bond, Godzilla, Star Wars, and Ghostbusters-inspired tables over the past decade.
Jaws — purely based on photos of Stern’s new table; I haven’t played it yet — exemplifies what can be great about adapting properties for pinball. The table, designed by Keith Elwin, incorporates themes like a surprise great white shark appearance, the tension of harpooning said shark, and using a chum bucket to get ol’ Jaws’ attention. Naturally, it has samples of John Williams’ memorable score, and Stern even got Richard Dreyfuss back to record some voice lines for Jaws (e.g., “Shoot again!”).
Here are some of the cooler things about Stern’s new pinball table.
The Bloody Chum Bucket
One of the unique sculpts for Jaws is a chum bucket attached to a Newton ball assembly that, when struck, shakes the bucket to “chum the waters.” Stern illustrates this chumming effect with red LED lights underneath the main playfield; they light up in a pattern that makes it look like blood is streaming through the water.
Photo: Stern Pinball, Inc.
The Shark Fin
When the water is sufficiently chummed, the shark will make its presence known with a fin target that moves left to right, which players have to strike. That’s one thing I love about pinball: Everything is solved with the bash of a pinball.
Photo: Stern Pinball, Inc.
The Orca
On the limited edition and premium versions of Jaws — but not on the “pro” entry-level version — there’s a raised platform that’s supposed to represent the Orca, Quint’s fishing boat. It has its own mini-flipper and a steering wheel spinner. In a nice design touch, there’s also a big shark jaw shaped bite taken out of the boat’s rear signage.
Photo: Stern Pinball, Inc.
The Wave Scoop
One way to launch your ball onto the Orca is this crashing wave-shaped scoop ramp that zooms the ball onto the ship’s deck. (Also, please appreciate the fishing reel-inspired horizontal spinner to the right of the boat.)
Photo: Stern Pinball, Inc.
There are a ton of other details, as highlighted by Stern’s George Gomez and Keith Elwin, in the video below. Warning: It may inspire you to drop a few thousand dollars on a pinball table. The Jaws Pro Edition starts at $6,999, while the Premium Edition costs $9,699; the Limited Edition goes for a whopping $12,999.
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag invite Amanda Hirsch of the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast to discuss her beginnings (09:07) and why she loves the Kardashians (13:58). Then, the trio discuss all things pop culture, including whether Ryan Reynolds follows Spencer or not (21:00), who will be the biggest star of 2024 (31:55), their dating predictions for the year (34:23), and their one wild celebrity prediction (44:13).
Hosts: Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Guest: Amanda Hirsch Producers: Chelsea Stark-Jones, Amelia Wedemeyer, Aleya Zenieris, and Devon Renaldo Theme Song: Heidi Montag
Which could easily make you forget everything else that happened. Below, please find select things that really seriously actually happened over the last 365 days that no one would judge you for forgetting.
The M&Ms had a spokescandy controversy that ended with a Super Bowl
The year kicked off with the de-sexification of the green M&M, conservative pundits yelling about melt-in-your-mouth-not-your-hands candy, and then a Super Bowl commercial that only added to the chaos. 2023 promised to be a year!
Shrek was rumored dead
Image: DreamWorks
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was a late-December 2022 surprise, so we spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant for Shrek in January. Our leading theory: Shrek died. Eventually we got to ask the directors for comment. Believe them if you must.
Two dudes tried to steal $300,000 worth of GenCon goods and got extremely busted
We do not condone theft but if you were gonna walk into GenCon to pilfer a pallet of MTG cards, wouldn’t you wear a mask? Well, two New Yorkers who thought they were the Danny Oceans of the collectible card game scene did… not do that.
E3 imploded
E3 2023 was a no-go, but at least in April 2023, the organizers believed there was hope for the legacy gaming event. But alas, by the fall, E3 was 100% dead. Time to reminisce about the very first E3!
Amouranth, Seinfeld, and the Pope all had an AI moment.
The War Thunder Discord was somehow at the center of another classified document leak
The FBI arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira earlier this year over leaking documents that contained information about Russia’s war on Ukraine, amongst other classified topics. Note to all gamers: Git less gud at leaking!!
People got super weird about Oppenheimer’s sex scene
The Barbenheimer double-feature reinvigorated movie-going, yet a few people left the theater worried that it was unnecessary for Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh to be naked with each other. C’mon folks, it was July and really hot outside.
Post Malone bought Magic the Gathering’s $2 million Lord of the Rings One Ring card
Colleen Ballinger aka Miranda Sings performed a ukulele song to respond to toxic workplace allegations
There’s a lot of sensitive material in this report on Ballinger’s year of controversy, but perhaps the most sensitive thing is your ears as they listen to a classic YouTube response vid backed by a small stringed instrument.
“Planet of the Bass” exploded as a listenable shitpost
Kai Cenat incited a riot in New York City in attempted PS5 giveaway
The streamer power is real, and as Cenat taught us all this year, potentially dangerous if wielded without much thought. Cenat in particular has become a subject of curiosity, and as we wrapped up the year, was worth exploring.
Kojima did a Kojima thing just before calling it a year
With most of the major game releases in the rearview mirror, Hideo Kojima took to The Game Awards to really melt brains with the unveiling of OD, a… game? Experience? Horror thing? Kojima and Jordan Peele babbled for a bit after airing a cryptic trailer and when it was all over we collectively forgot everything that happened in 2023, thus this round-up.
Now, this is your moment: What has the world collectively forgotten from the past year?
Season’s greetings, Polygon readers. We’re smack-dab in the sleepy, liminal interzone between the Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve. Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple new movies on streaming to watch this weekend as we barrell into 2024.
This week, The Holdovers, the new Christmas comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti, is finally available to stream on Peacock. That’s not all: The supernatural horror-thriller It Lives Inside arrives on Hulu this week alongside the new Ray Romano-directed comedy Somewhere in Queens. Finally, a controversial crime thriller starring Jim Caviezel is now streaming on Prime Video. And… that’s it for this week!
Genre: Supernatural horror Run time: 1h 39m Director: Bishal Dutta Cast: Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan
This horror movie follows two young girls at an American high school who each relate to their Indian heritage in a different way: One embraces it, and one rejects it. When a Pishach, a vengeful spirit imprisoned in a strange glass jar, latches onto one of them, the other must reconnect with her past in order to stop it. It Lives Inside is the feature debut from Bishal Dutta, known previously for his work as a writer on the 2017 drama series Triads.
Genre: Comedy Run time: 1h 46m Director: Ray Romano Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward
Ray Romano directs and stars in this new coming-of-age comedy about Leo, a father trying desperately to help his son apply for college and win a basketball scholarship. After going to extreme lengths, from alienating the rest of his family to cajoling his son’s ex (Sadie Stanley) to get back together with him, Leo must learn to allow his son to make his own decisions. From the trailer, it comes across as an earnest comedy about learning to embrace the peculiarities of one’s own family and accepting the uncertainty of what life has to offer.
New on Prime Video
Sound of Freedom
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Angel Studios/VidAngel Studios
Genre: Crime thriller Run time: 2h 11m Director: Alejandro Gómez Monteverde Cast: Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp
One of the most surprising box-office hits of the year, Sound of Freedom purports to be a true story about a mission to stopping child trafficking. The truth is much more complicated than that.
Genre: Comedy drama Run time: 2h 13m Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa
A strong late awards-season contender, The Holdovers is a holiday-themed comedy about three people left at a New England boarding school for Christmas in 1970, all pushing through their own personal drama to survive the holiday. It’s also one half of this season’s best double feature.
The Holdovers is full of sudden twists, mostly backstory reveals suitable for a particularly startling stage play. But the real surprise is how personal and specific it becomes, and excellent writing and acting help it dodge the expected parameters for this kind of story. Eventually, it settles into a three-hander between Professor Hunham (Giamatti), his troubled adolescent student Angus (Dominic Sessa, in an intense star-making performance), and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s head cook, an older Black woman mourning her son’s recent death in the military.
Owlcat Games continues its work on Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, this time with a patch aimed at rectifying some nagging problems. Patch 1.0.88 contains a multitude of changes, including making skill checks easier across the board. The next major patch will release sometime in January 2024.
Patch 1.0.88 also fixes “a vast majority of broken quests and cutscenes that blocked progression or worked only for specific choices,” made sweeping changes to items and abilities, improved optimization, and tweaked companion quests and responses. This includes fixes to system stability, co-op desync, broken narrative quests, weapon damage, and a particularly tricky ladder that served as a one way trip for the Space Wolf companion Ulfar.
Skill checks are also easier across the board, which is useful for players who lean on lore, persuasion, or medicae checks in their playthroughs. The massive RPG campaign still has some bugs and technical issues that make it difficult to progress: I found myself dismayed when I romanced Heinrix van Calox and found that our dalliance locked him in a “sex mode,” where I couldn’t equip any of his gear or use him in combat. I had to break up with the Inquisition agent to restore his combat potency.
That lingering problem notwithstanding, it’s good to see Owlcat Games continue to polish things up.
It’s podcasting’s most exclusive event of the year: The second annual Townie Awards! This is a show made up of awards created by us, based on our own interpretations of the craziest year in Hollywood, maybe ever? In Part 1, Matt is joined by Lucas Shaw, the Amy Poehler to his Tina Fey, to give out the first round of awards, including Most Destructive Behind-the-Scenes Drama, Publicist Fail of the Year, Most Annoying Media Narrative, Deal of the Year, Larry David Spite Store of the Year, Sneaky Success of the Year, and much more.
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, What I’m Hearing …, click here.
The first trailer for Rebel Moon: The Scargiver quietly dropped on Christmas Day, but even with 1 million views and counting, it’s unclear if Netflix got a prized gift in its stocking or lump of coal.
Rebel Moon is currently the #1 movie on Netflix (accounting for 23.9M views as of first six days on the platform, according to the now slightly transparent company). It’s also a blemish on director Zack Snyder’s track record; While he’s not typically a critical darling, the fantasy space opera has garnered some of the sourest reviews of his career, hovering between Sucker Punch and Justice League (the first attempt) on the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator. Is there hope for the Rebel Moon universe?
Netflix has to hope so — not only does the streamer have a Rebel Moon sequel, The Scargiver, locked and loaded for spring 2024, there’s transparent hope for a greater expansion of the universe into other properties. At the very least, we’re getting an R-rated cut of the first film, Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire, and a four-player co-op Rebel Moon video game from Super Evil Megacorp… eventually.
But while it’s hard to imagine “course correction” for the budding franchise — it’s Snyder’s baby through and through — the first trailer for Rebel Moon: The Scargiver could see improvement. A Child of Fire promised a Seven Samurai-esque team movie with a climactic battle of underdogs versus imperial scum… without actually delivering the climactic battle. With the muscle now in place, The Scargiver looks like a third act of the original pitch broken out into a sequel. If it’s all slo-mo action and reference-heavy iconography swirling around in a cloud of action, it might be what Snyder was envisioning all along? At the very least, we’re getting a lot more Djimon Hounsou, which is a good sign.
Rebel Moon: The Scargiver will premiere on Netflix on April 19, 2024. And either before or after that, we’re getting the rated-R cuts of one or both of the movies, which might be worth holding out for. At the very least, Snyder says they take place in a “different dimension” than the PG-13 movies, so there’s that.
Valve offered a peek behind the curtain of Steam’s biggest games of 2023 on Wednesday, revealing which titles dominated the sales charts on PC gaming’s biggest digital platform. Valve also divulged which games Steam users — and Steam Deck owners — played the most this year, with Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and Sons of the Forest appearing in multiple top-12 lists.
Valve doesn’t provide specific sales figures or numbered rankings, but rather reveals the top-100 Steam games across multiple categories, breaking each 100-game list into multiple tiers based on sales or play performance:
Platinum: 1st – 12th
Gold: 13th – 24th
Silver: 25th – 50th
Bronze: 51st – 100th
The company’s data spans Jan. 1 to Dec. 15 of this year, so high-performing 2023 latecomers like The Finals mostly missed out on higher rankings on Valve’s lists. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest, most-played, and best-selling games on Steam this year.
Bestselling games on Steam in 2023
The top 12 (platinum-tier) games on Steam, based on total gross revenue earned in 2023, includes plenty of free-to-play titles like Apex Legends and Lost Ark, alongside paid premium games like Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield. (Publisher Activision also lists Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone as simply Call of Duty on Steam, to explain that naming convention.)
Apex Legends
Baldur’s Gate 3
Call of Duty
Counter-Strike 2
Cyberpunk 2077
Destiny 2
Dota 2
Hogwarts Legacy
Lost Ark
PUBG: Battlegrounds
Sons Of The Forest
Starfield
Appearing just outside of the top 12, in the “gold” sales tier, are stalwart games like Dead by Daylight and Grand Theft Auto 5, alongside newer releases like the Resident Evil 4 remake and EA Sports FC 24.
Bestselling new games on Steam in 2023
Only a third of the top-12 bestselling games on Steam this year were actually released in 2023, so Valve highlights the new-release bestsellers separately. It also bases the following list on the first two weeks of revenue after launching.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cities: Skylines 2
EA Sports FC 24
Hogwarts Legacy
Payday 3
Remnant 2
Resident Evil 4
Sons Of The Forest
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Starfield
Street Fighter 6
Notable 2023 new releases like Dead Space, Mortal Kombat 1, and Party Animals ranked in the gold tier, while Diablo 4, Lies of P, and Six Days in Fallujah ranked in the silver tier. (Valve did not reveal bronze-tier data.)
Most played Steam games of 2023
The most-played Steam games of 2023 is a mostly familiar list, with venerable favorites Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Destiny 2 ranking in the top 12. Newcomers on the most-played list include big hits like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy, alongside challengers like Goose Goose Duck.
Here are the top-12 most-played Steam games of the year, all of which peaked at more than 300,000 concurrent players. (Valve said it excluded games with “brief spikes in player counts due to things like giveaways and free weekends.”)
Apex Legends
Baldur’s Gate 3
Counter-Strike 2
Destiny 2
Dota 2
Goose Goose Duck
Hogwarts Legacy
Lost Ark
PUBG: Battlegrounds
Sons Of The Forest
Starfield
Most played games on Steam Deck in 2023
Steam users played a lot of familiar favorites on the go this year, including blockbusters Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield, alongside smaller fare like Dave the Diver and Vampire Survivors. The original Half-Life also made it to the top 12 most-played Steam Deck games, almost assuredly because Valve made it free for its 25th anniversary.
Valve says the list of most-played Steam Deck games was measured by “daily active player counts throughout the year.”
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077
Dave the Diver
Elden Ring
Grand Theft Auto 5
Half-Life
Hogwarts Legacy
Resident Evil 4
Starfield
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Vampire Survivors
Just outside of the top-12 Steam Deck games are notable 2023 releases like Diablo 4, Dredge, and Risk of Rain Returns.
It’s finally time: the last new TV of 2023. Whether you’re at work or not, this week tends to be a pretty sleepy one, ideally with plenty of time to catch up on new TV.
That’s not to say there’s a ton of new stuff during this period, but there’s certainly something to get excited about. There’s a new Doctor, with the Christmas day Doctor Who special introducing us to the Fifteenth Doctor. And the world of Money Heist is back — at least, partially, with the Berlin spinoff taking us back in time on Berlin himself.
Here’s the best TV premieres and finales this week:
Genre: Money Heist spinoff Release date: Dec. 29, with all episodes Showrunner/creator: Álex Pina Cast: Pedro Alonso, Michelle Jenner, Tristán Ulloa, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña, Joel Sánchez, and more
Money Heist fan favorite Berlin (Pedro Alonso) is back, with a look at the big heist from before his Money Heist days: disappearing $44 million in jewels. Touched upon in flashbacks during the later seasons of the show, Berlin will give us a better glimpse at the Professor’s second-in-command (and his savvy cohort).
Letterkenny season 12
Genre: Dirtbag comedy Release date: Dec. 26, with all episodes Showrunner/creator: Jacob Tierney Cast: Jared Keeso, Michelle Mylett, Nathan Dales, Jacob Tierney, Tyler Johnston, Dylan Playfair, and more
The six-episode farewell run of Letterkenny is going out on a high note — possibly literally, with a country music hit being one of the many things teased by Hulu’s news release, which also notes that the small town “contends” with a comedy night at Modean’s, the Degens’ bad influence, a new nightclub, and an encore at the Ag Hall.
New shows on Disney Plus
Doctor Who Holiday Special: The Church on Ruby Road
Image: BBC/Disney Plus
Genre: Timey-wimey sci-fi Release date: Dec. 25 Showrunner/creator: Russell T. Davies Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, and more
After three specials that indulged some nostalgia and brought back an old (well, new) Doctor, we’re finally getting a new new Doctor, with Ncuti Gatwa, whose long-awaited arrival is finally here — it’s gonna feel like it’s Christmas Day! (I know it is on Christmas Day.)
New shows on Apple TV Plus
Slow Horses season 3 finale
Image: Apple TV Plus
Genre: Spy thriller comedy Release date: Dec. 27 Based on books by: Mick Herron Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, and more
It’s all coming to a head in the fantastic third season of Slow Horses. The team has been trying to rescue Standish (Saskia Reeves) while also uncovering the large-scale conspiracy her captors are involved in. Who will make it out alive? Will anyone in the British government face actual consequences for their actions? Will we make it until season 4 without just playing Mick Jagger’s theme song on repeat? The answers to these questions, and more, in the finale.
The Fifteenth Doctor is finally here — at least, for a one-off Christmas special.
After making an appearance in the third anniversary special through a bit of “bigeneration,” Ncuti Gatwa is at last stepping up to the plate as The Doctor. He’ll be joined by new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who lives a quiet life with her grandma and mom until The Doctor shows up. In “The Church on Ruby Road,” they’ll both come face to face with mysterious goblins, and have to riddle their way out of a Christmas adventure.
How to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special on Disney Plus
As with the anniversary specials (and all Doctor Who seasons moving forward), Doctor Who will be streaming its Christmas episode on Disney Plus. That means we can probably expect the same sort of release schedule: Disney will be releasing the special concurrently with its broadcast in the U.K., meaning if you’re watching it on Disney Plus, the new specials will drop on Christmas at 9:55 a.m. PST/12:55 p.m. EST.
Can I watch the Christmas Doctor Who special on BBC?
Yup! You’ll be able to watch Doctor Who’s 2023 Christmas special on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer in the U.K. starting at 5:55 p.m. on December 25 (that’s Christmas).
What do I need to have watched beforehand?
As with the Doctor Who anniversary specials: Technically nothing — the franchise has been going for 60 years and counting, so there’s a lot of Who you could catch up on, but how could you even pick where to start?
If you do want to revisit any older Doctor Who, you’ll want to check out the Russell T. Davies section, as he’s the new (returning) showrunner; so you’re looking for series 1 through series 5. Those won’t be viewable on Disney Plus, though, only Max.
Is there a trailer so I can watch Ncuti Gatwa already?
There is! Here’s an early Christmas present, ya rascal:
And here’s a special look at his new Sonic Screwdriver:
Happy December, Polygon readers! It’s the last weekend before the Christmas holiday, and we’ve got a whole sack full of exciting new releases on streaming and VOD for you!
This week, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, the first installment of Zack Snyder’s epic space opera starring Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service) finally comes to Netflix along with Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi action thriller The Creator finally comes to Hulu, and the black comedy thriller Saltburn arrives on Prime Video. There’s plenty of new movies available to rent this week as well, including The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, and much more.
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Epic space opera Run time: 2h 15m Director: Zack Snyder Cast: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman
Zack Snyder returns to Netflix with an all-new, Star Wars- and Seven Samurai-inspired space opera in the form of Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire. Set in a far-off galaxy besieged by a brutal interplanetary empire, the film follows the story of a soldier-turned-farmer who must recruit a band of warriors to fight alongside her against the regime she once served. Also, Anthony Hopkins shows up as a robot and Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas) has cool definitely-not-lightsaber butcher swords. Neat!
The best that can be said about Snyder is that he’s at least capable of a kind of manic brouhaha that’s not unbecoming in this kind of genre filmmaking. Despite the lack of character or emotion in his films, he certainly can be one of the best filmmakers at capturing the pure excess of a piece of lurid fantasy art, or the distinct flair of a Frank Miller drawing. But in Child of Fire, the results couldn’t even be called stylish. The CGI seems to degenerate as the running time goes on. The production and costume design had this Dune agnostic bumping that film up half a star on Letterboxd. And Tom Holkenborg’s score sounds like Space Enya.
Maestro
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Jason McDonald/Netflix
Genre: Biographical drama Run time: 2h 9m Director: Bradley Cooper Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper
Bradley Cooper directs and stars in this biographical drama about the life of the acclaimed American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and his complicated relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.
Maestro takes on new shades when compared with Cooper’s directorial debut, that Star Is Born remake. It’s the inverse of Maestro in a lot of ways. In A Star Is Born, singer Jackson Maine (Cooper) sees something magical in Ally (Lady Gaga), and struggles to cope as they fall in love and her career eclipses his. Conversely, Maestro is built around Leonard Bernstein’s marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), who Bernstein is captivated by and devoted to — at least, part of him is. Felicia, who first appears on camera in a black-and-white sequence, illuminates the screen with her talents and ambitions, then is ironically suffocated as Cooper widens Maestro’s aspect ratio and fills it with color. Leonard’s ambition, his dueling appetites, and his affairs with men like David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer) edge her out and dim her world.
Operation Napoleon
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Magnet Releasing/Magnolia
Genre: Historical thriller Run time: 1h 42m Director: Óskar Þór Axelsson Cast: Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Jack Fox, Iain Glen
An Icelandic lawyer (Vivian Ólafsdóttir) finds herself drawn into a deadly international conspiracy after her brother accidentally stumbles upon a German World War II plane buried beneath the snow. Hunted by ruthless criminals and a unrelenting CIA director (Iain Glen), she’ll have to get to the heart of the mystery if she has any hope of surviving.
New on Hulu
The Creator
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: 20th Century Studios
Genre: Sci-fi action Run time: 2h 15m Director: Gareth Edwards Cast: John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe
John David Washington (Tenet) stars in Rogue One director Gareth Edwards’ latest sci-fi adventure as an undercover operative in the far-future searching for the mysterious creator of a rogue-artificial intelligence. After being entrusted with the care of a human-like robot named “Alphie” (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), the pair embark on a journey in search of answers and salvation.
The Creator would be a wonderful video game. I mean that earnestly — video games are terrific for interacting with lore, with the bits and bobs of world-building that all storytellers spend years developing, but leave as subtext in the story proper. That can also be true of video games, but games of larger scope often flesh out their virtual worlds with said lore, which players are often free to roam and engage with. There are all sorts of ways that lore can become text — optional conversations with characters, diary and book excerpts to read, video or audio ephemera, all ambient and non-compulsory, a substrate where the player can find meaning whether the main narrative is fulfilling or not. The Creator is a fully realized future in the service of a rote story and flat characters that only gesture in compelling directions; I’d rather not bother with that story at all.
New on Prime Video
Saltburn
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Prime Video
Genre: Psychological thriller Run time: 2h 11m Director: Emerald Fennell Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe
‘What if The Talented Mr. Ripley, but set in a palatial Oxford-family estate with young adults in the mid-2000s?”
That’s essentially the premise of this black comedy about class and privilege starring Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria), from Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell.
Genre: Surrealist tragicomedy horror Run time: 2h 59m Director: Ari Aster Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan
A24 horror maestro Ari Aster returns with a different kind of project in this horror-comedy about a man confronting his fears after the death of his mother.
Genre: Biographical drama Run time: 1h 40m Director: Guy Nattiv Cast: Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, Liev Schreiber
Helen Mirren stars in this biographical drama about Golda Meir, the 4th Prime Minister of Israel, and her role during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
New to rent
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate
Genre: Dystopian action Run time: 2h 37m Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage
Francis Lawrence returns to the world of The Hunger Games to tell the story of the early years of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who would go on to become the president of Panem and the nemesis of Katniss Everdeen.
Set 60 years before the events of the first film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes recalls the fateful meeting between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from District 12 who would leave a profound impact on his life and worldview.
Collins’ book and Lawrence’s movie don’t redo the action of the Hunger Games events; they dissect them, then force us to sit on the Capitol side of the equation. They demand to know why we were even drawn to the love triangle, the pretty dresses, and the themed arenas in the first place. We’ve always been the spectators, after all, watching Katniss’ story from a safe distance. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes shows us what happens if we get too carried away by propaganda, luxury, and the promise of safety. In that way, it’s a fitting end to the franchise — and a fitting end to the way the genre evolved into a beast of its own.
Trolls: Band Together
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: DreamWorks/Universal
Genre: Adventure comedy Run time: 1h 31m Directors: Walt Dohrn, Tim Heitz Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Kenan Thompson
The Trolls have returned, and they’re getting the band back together! After Branch’s brother Floyd is kidnapped, he’ll have to team up with Poppy to reunite with his other brothers in order to find the culprit and save the day.
Thanksgiving
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Pief Weyman/Sony Pictures
Genre: Slasher horror Run time: 1h 46m Director: Eli Roth Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Gina Gershon
Just in time for Christmas, Eli Roth is back with a brand new holiday-themed slasher! After a tragic Black Friday riot, the quiet town of Plymouth, Massachusetts is terrorized by a Thanksgiving-inspired killer wearing a ghoulish John Carver mask.
Comedic slashers where both halves complement each other are rare, even among the genre’s most entertaining offerings. Movies like Totally Killer or Happy Death Day are too funny and lighthearted to ever really earn a genuine scare, while a movie like House of 1000 Corpses is so dark and gross that the humor isn’t likely to land on a first viewing. Few movies have ever struck that balance quite as well as Craven’s four Scream movies. Thanksgiving doesn’t quite reach that series’ meteoric heights, but it comes far closer than anything else in recent years — including the Scream franchise itself.
Silent Night
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Carlos Latapi/Lionsgate
Genre: Action thriller Run time: 1h 44m Director: John Woo Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Scott Mescudi, Harold Torres
After nearly 20 years, action movie legend John Woo has returned with a Christmas-themed revenge thriller starring Joel Kinnaman as a vigilante who embarks on a mission to exact vengeance on the gang who murdered his son in a Christmas Eve drive-by. Polygon spoke to Woo about the process that went into this film and why he was first attracted to the unique project.
Anatomy of a Fall
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
This Palme d’Or-winning French courtroom drama follows the story of a writer trying to prove her innocence following the mysterious death of her husband outside of their home. Was it murder or was it suicide? Beyond a simple interrogation of guilt, the film is a psychological thriller that delves deep into the complicated circumstances behind the couple’s relationship.
Dream Scenario
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: A24
Genre: Horror comedy Run time: 1h 42m Director: Kristoffer Borgli Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera
Nicolas Cage (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) continues his streak of meta self-referential projects in this horror-comedy about a mild-mannered biology professor who inexplicably becomes famous overnight after appearing in the dreams of people around the world.
Dream Scenario’s vague, nebulous type of fame gives Borgli an avenue to comment on celebrity and its price without taking a specific stand. He’s just exploring the cost of being highly visible, being up for endless interpretation by total strangers, and being disconnected in the public eye from any actual real-world intentions or actions. Once Paul starts deliberately taking a more active role in people’s dreams, the script takes a Charlie Kaufman-esque approach, playing with the ideas around so-called cancel culture as part of the world of instant fame. He also keeps the visuals refreshing and interesting, fully veering into dream-sequence horror, with enjoyably weird results.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom flows into theaters this weekend with the dubious honor of being the final film in the DC Extended Universe. And that means its final scene — its credits scene — is the final shot of Warner Bros. great attempt to equal the Marvel Cinematic Universe with its own pet superhero setting.
But it also means that the typical use of a superhero movie credits scene doesn’t apply here. There aren’t any future franchise events for Lost Kingdom to point to. What’s a blockbuster to do?
If you’ve seen Lost Kingdom, you know, and if you haven’t, maybe you’re just here to rubberneck. But here’s what it did.
[Ed. Note: This piece contains spoilers for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.]
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics
Lost Kingdom’s credits scene isn’t about anything weighty, it’s just a call back to a gross-out gag from earlier in the film. Orm (Patrick Wilson), the redeemed bad guy from the first Aquaman, is enjoying his first surface-world hamburger when he spies a cockroach scurrying across the dock-side picnic table.
Earlier in the movie, his brother Aquaman (Jason Momoa) tricked him into thinking that live cockroaches are an every day surface-world snack. So Orm grabs the roach, slaps it between the layers of his sandwich, and takes a big, happy bite. Good night, sweet DCEU, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
But here I must implore my fellow human beings: We absolutely musn’t make this a metaphor. No matter how resonant, absurd, or funny the credits scene on Lost Kingdom, we must resist.
Orm’s burger is, inevitably, a roachy Rorschach test. The insect can be whatever you didn’t like about the DCEU, and Orm happily eating it is the fans you don’t like lapping it up. Or, Orm is the executives whose meddling ruined the franchise happily choosing their comeuppance (the roach), which is the collapse of the whole thing (an honestly very appetizing burger). Or maybe, the burger is the Snyder Cut, somehow, and Orm is Joss Whedon? I’m sure somebody could flesh out that video essay.
But we have to draw a line in the sand, like Topo the octopus scurrying away from the blood-drinking Deserters and back to the safety of deep water. We have to restrain ourselves, like Orm touching the Black Trident. We have to escape, like the fish in the sea, able to say that in the end, at the end of an era, we didn’t take the bait.
Back when I was running the game for my local Dungeons & Dragons group, I would always pride myself on bringing something handmade each time we got together around the table. Maybe it was a leather-bound book filled with vintage David Sutherland illustrations of the Tomb of Horrors, or a 3D map of a few rooms from Castle Ravenloft with just the right assortment of miniatures from my collection. As a lifelong fan of D&D, Rick Perry knows that impulse well. But as production designer and creative producer on Dropout’s Dimension 20, he’s operating at a scale that’s on another level entirely.
Season 21 of Dimension 20, an actual play program on the streaming television service Dropout, will premiere on Jan. 10, 2024. It’s an incredible run that shows no sign of slowing down, and Perry’s work has been integral in its popularity. To celebrate his impact, Dropout has released a feature documentary titled The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20. In advance of its release, Polygon sat down with the lifelong Texan, now a resident of Washington state, to discuss his work.
A miniature high school dance inside the gymnasium at Fantasy High.Image: Dropout
While world class Dungeon Masters like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Gabe Hicks, and Matthew Mercer lead each game at the start of each Dimension 20 season with a high-level creative direction, it’s up to Perry and his team of skilled artists to bring that vision to life in miniature on the table. That means creating hundreds of inch-tall figures from scratch using clay and sculpting tools; kitbashing dozens of scale models into fantastical landscapes to anchor the viewer in the world; and crafting dynamic, multi-tiered battle maps where skilled improv actors can chew up the set.
Just like the props you bring to your home games, it’s bait, really, that he willfully uses to draw players — and viewers — closer to the center of whatever complex story he’s trying to tell.
“Dimension 20 [requires] a massive amount of creative genesis to create a 20-episode series,” Perry said, “[one that] that takes place in a completely new world where we don’t know what color the sky is, or what food the people are eating. So there’s this massive amount of creative activity that has to start at the beginning of it, and that takes a big chunk of time.”
The documentary details how that creative work begins at his homestead on Lopez Island in San Juan County, Washington at an outdoor sink first cobbled together by his father-in-law in the 1970s. It then moves into a converted three-car garage that once held farming equipment, but is now filled with bins labeled for the miniatures they contain — a box of trolls here, bugbears in the corner. Only after weeks, sometimes months of effort on the farm with a whole team of designers do the larger pieces get crated up and shipped to Los Angeles. Often, Perry said, that’s where the real work begins.
Rick Perry (right) with his team on Lopez Island taking the original Fantasy High Dungeon Master’s screen from storage for the first time in four years.Image: Dropout
The trick, he went on, is to stay nimble — even when you’re building maps for tabletop encounters that won’t happen for weeks.
“It’s part of the DNA of Dimension 20,” Perry said, “because at the very beginning when we decided we wanted these eight battle maps that are custom, that have this mix of say high school and fantasy, it’s not like something we can just crank out really fast. We need to know ahead of time in order to make skater dwarves, and all this sort of stuff.
“That means that we have to map all that out down to every detail — as much as we can,” Perry continued. That sort of on-rails gameplay is, unfortunately, anathema to modern role-play, which emphasizes creative freedom for the Dungeon Master as well as the players at the table. It’s always a challenge, Perry said, to keep things on track. But with a miniature set that, often times, costs just as much as a full-scale one, it’s up to everyone involved to keep the trains running on time.
“That tells the Dungeon Master that these are landmarks,” Perry said. “These [scenes that we are building] are places that you have to pilot the ship through these little hoops. We try to build in as much flexibility, as much opportunity for improvisation as possible, meaning that sometimes where a battle map falls, they could switch places or we could cut one. We try not to cut one because they cost money to make. And it’s a business venture, the show, and we want all that production value to appear on screen.”
The nearly 45-minute film goes even further in its exploration of Perry and his work, delving deep into his childhood and his time spent in college as a member of a troupe of performance artists. For fans of Dimension 20, it’s a rare behind-the-scenes look at how its particular brand of storytelling comes to life. But for artists, craftspeople, or even just casual hobbyists who paint miniatures on the weekend for fun, it’s the story of a kindred spirit who has found a vital, transformative role in the creative industry.
The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20 is now streaming on Dropout.
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