The divisiveness of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy remains powerful nearly two years after its conclusion. Yet, as topically wide-ranging—and, in some cases, strangely political—as debates over the Disney-dealt follow-ups to the sacred Original Trilogy became, the cold-hard metric of box office grosses confirms their status as Star Wars’ least-lucrative mainline movie (excluding the anemic Solo). Now, the camp of sequel detractors has apparently gained a surprisingly authoritative ally in film editor Marcia Lucas, who, besides being the ex-wife of George Lucas, was a crucially grounding visionary in the franchise’s formation.    One of Star Wars’ early guiding forces, Marcia…

Tom Hardy wore a Spider-Man: No Way Home hat, which means he has to be in the movie, right? Right?! “Tom Hardy was wearing a Spider-Man: No Way Home hat, though… I think? You have to zoom in on the pic to tell what it says. Hardy isn’t alone in the picture, sitting next to him is Lin Oeding (director of Cobra Kai and, for the purposes of this theory, stunt coordinator of Spider-Man: Homecoming). The picture was tweeted by Marvel Updates, and while they credit the account Spider-Man Brasil, that account credits Oeding himself.” Read more at The Mary…

The Nintendo Entertainment System is the most important console in the history of home gaming. After the video game industry crash of 1983 and several years of arcade success, many still wondered whether video games still had a place in homes everywhere. Then, almost out of nowhere, Nintendo and the NES rescued our favorite hobby from the abyss and put it on the fast track to becoming the cultural cornerstone we know it as today.  The main reason for the NES’ massive success story was its enormous library of great titles. Many of Nintendo’s long-standing franchises got their starts on…

This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers. The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 5 One of the appeals of the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead is that there’s no real government except that which is chosen by the people locally. There aren’t people a thousand miles away telling you how to live your life, what you can and cannot do. That’s why you can have democracies like Alexandria existing right next door to death cults like The Whisperers, oligarchies like The Saviors right next to survival of the fittest bands like The Wolves, and why a return to the…

Warning: contains Vigil Episode 5 spoilers. What’s worse – drowning in your own sweat in a drysuit, or drowning in seawater in a torpedo tube? DCI Silva’s in the rare position of being about to find out, having survived the first scenario only to land herself straight in the second. If she gets out of this one, oh, the pub stories she’ll have to tell! Not that you can imagine Silva holding court on a bar stool, one licked finger in the crumbs of a packet of Cheddar and Onion McCoys, the other demonstrating how close she came to inhaling…

Endeavour Series 8 Episode 2: ‘Scherzo’ Warning: this Endeavour review contains spoilers. For those of us who don’t share Morse’s musical bent – and we’ll be due a snooty glare from our man Endeavour, as his wicked(ish) stepmother Gwen (Lynda Rooke) would no doubt be the first to warn us – a word on that episode title is needed. A scherzo’s a movement in a symphony or sonata distinguished by its light, playful tone. Bit of fun on writer Russell Lewis’s part, surely? Well, yes and no.  ‘Light’ and ‘playful’ aren’t words we’d always associate with Endeavour, especially in the current series,…

Television’s biggest night is finally here! No, it’s not the M*A*S*H finale or any of the three Super Bowls Tom Brady lost – it’s the 2021 Emmy Awards ceremony. This is the second Emmys in a row under pop culture’s new normal. The pandemic still trudges along and television now occupies a particularly prominent space in many households While the 2020 Emmy Awards went virtual, this year’s ceremony will be in-person at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater and hosted by Cedric the Entertainer. Hopefully the return to a big ballroom will provide plenty of elbow room for a jam-packed list of…

This Evil review contains spoilers. Evil Season 2 Episode 10 The supernatural investigative team at the center of Evil finally focuses its attention on the one almost-constant element in their probes: the clinic they believe is corrupting fertilized eggs. They believe RSM Fertility is a front for diabolical masters, working behind the scenes to bring about a dark future ruled by a malevolent generation of engineered children. The clinic has been helping women get pregnant for several years, and one of their first clients was Dr. Kristen Brouchard (Katja Herbers). She was so early in the fertility facility’s operations, the…

Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond is coming to an end. This truth has been known ever since it was announced that Craig would reprise the role in No Time to Die, his fifth outing as 007. And yet, given the litany of delays that movie has endured largely due to the pandemic—remember when No Time to Die was slated for November 2019?—the reality of his leaving feels like it’s been almost taken for granted. The curtain really is coming down this month for UK fans, and the No Time to Die marketing team is now making folks aware of…

This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers. My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 24 “I wonder if this itch would have stopped…” Hey, remember when this was a show about plucky heroes? Picking up on the powerful revelations and themes that the previous episode “Tenko Shimura: Origin” establishes, “Tomura Shigaraki: Origin” continues that chilling story in order to tell the grander narrative of the Symbol of Fear’s birth. This episode is a heartbreaking look into Shigaraki’s first steps as a villain that’s contrasted with his current destructive war against the Meta Liberation Army. In the previous episode, Re-Destro teases that…

This SQUID GAME article contains MAJOR spoilers. For a series with a relatively well-worn premise, Netflix’s Squid Game sure does manage to pack a lot of surprises into its conclusion. It does this in large part by recognizing that the series’ success hinges not so much on who wins the game, but on how they win it and what it all means. Like the show’s beginning, much of Squid Game‘s final hour is set outside the world of the arena—this time, a year following the events of the bulk of the show. Let’s break down what happens in the Squid…

This Star Trek article contains minor spoilers for The Next Generation Season 2 and Lower Decks. If you’ve been watching Star Trek: Lower Decks, then you’ve probably noticed that Dr. T’Ana is clearly based on the notorious Dr. Pulaski from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s not that Gillian Vigman is trying to channel the performance of Diana Muldaur—because she’s clearly doing her own thing—so much as the entire vibe of Dr. T’Ana is as though our collective opinions about Dr. Pulaski were channeled into a cranky, sentient cat-alien. Pulaski was human, but if you were going to reboot the…

In our look at the best Super Nintendo RPGs ever, we mentioned that the SNES is arguably the greatest RPG console in video game history. Well, if there is a console that makes that discussion an argument, it would have to be the PlayStation One.  With a lot of help from Square, Sony quickly established the PlayStation as not just the home of incredible RPG experiences but as a console that was capable of effectively convincing people who previously had no real interest in RPGs that they absolutely needed to devote 50+ hours of their life to the next gaming…