Growing up, Al Roker loved animation. His Saturday mornings were devoted to Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, and he would spend hours studying Preston Blair’s book on how to draw cartoons. He dreamed of becoming an animator for Walt Disney. But when he grew up and became the “Today” weatherman instead, he had the idea to combine his love of weather with his love of animation into a children’s TV series.
“Weather Hunters,” premiering Monday on PBS Kids, follows 8-year-old Lily Hunter (Tandi Fomukong) as she, her younger brother, Benny (Lorenzo Ross) and her older sister, Corky (Kapri Ladd), investigate the weather with the help of their parents, Dot (Holly Robinson Peete) and Al (Roker). The children in the series are based on Roker’s own three children: Courtney, Leila and Nick. And in a case of art fondly imitating life, Roker’s Al Hunter is a local weatherman with a penchant for dad jokes.
“This really is one of those instances where everything that you love in your life comes together,” Roker says. “The show reflects what my childhood was. My parents were very supportive of their children and what their dreams were.”
Roker has been developing the show since his now-adult children were the ages the Hunter kids are in the series. “Good things come to those who wait,” he says with a laugh.
“This is a real passion project for him,” says Sara DeWitt, senior vice president and general manager of PBS Kids. “We love to have a creator who is so excited about getting kids interested in the world.”
For PBS Kids, a series rooted in weather exploration was a natural extension to its current slate of programming. “Weather plays such a big part of kids’ lives,” DeWitt says. “What should I wear today? What if it rains and I can’t do the thing I was planning to do? Where does that thunder come from? It just immediately opened up so many ideas and possibilities for us about ways we could really connect with families and get them more excited about the scientific topic.”
“Weather Hunters” centers on Lily Hunter and her family, which includes her father, Al, who, like Roker, is a weatherman.
(Weather Hunters Inc.)
Over the course of the first 10 episodes, all of which will premiere digitally on PBS Kids at launch, Lily and her family will investigate things like fog, clouds, leaves changing colors, thunderstorms, snow and the moving rocks of the desert. Sara Sweetman, an associate professor at University of Rhode Island, is an educational advisor for the series. “Weather is such fantastic content because it is very relevant to the kids’ lives,” she says. “They understand why it’s important and how it impacts them.”
But weather science, like all science, can get complex pretty quickly. “I was really adamant that there’d be one takeaway message [in each episode],” Sweetman says. “What we really want is [for] kids to watch the show and then run into the kitchen to find their dad or their mom and say, ‘Guess what?’ and be able to state that one idea really clearly.”
Sweetman was involved in each 22-minute episode from the very first pitch. “The ideal situation for educational media is that we hit the learning moment at the same moment as the emotional arc of the story,” she says. “We know from research when we can do that, that kids take that meaning away and hold on to it.”
Peete, the voice of Dot, has been friends with Roker for years. She starred in Hallmark’s “Morning Show Mysteries,” which Roker produced and was based on Roker’s novels. For Peete, whose father, Matthew Robinson Jr., was the original Gordon on “Sesame Street,” starring in the series is a “full-circle moment.” “PBS just meant so much to me,” she says. “It’s one thing for your dad to be on TV. It’s nothing for your dad to be on like the best TV children’s TV show ever. I wish my dad could see that I was actually on PBS doing this type of show with Al. He would be very, very proud that I would continue this legacy of children’s entertainment and education.”
Executive producer and showrunner Dete Meserve says animation allows the series, which is aimed at children ages 5 to 8, to have flights of fancy like the flying mobile weather station known as the Vansformer that the family explores in combined with “reality-based scientific explanations for what’s happening.” The episode on clouds explains how even though Benny can no longer see the sun behind the clouds, the sun is still there.
All kids are scientists, says Meserve, and it’s particularly nice that the character at the center of this series is a young girl interested in science. “There’s research that shows that if she can see it, she can be it,” Meserve says. “And Lily is surrounded by her siblings who have an equal interest, but the way they interact with it is different. Corky wants to film and document it. And then you have Benny, who’s more the artistic part of it. He wants to draw.”
The show also seeks to make some weather phenomena like hurricanes or thunderstorms less scary by helping the young audience understand the science behind what is happening. “We’re explaining what it is and how it works,” Roker says. “Kids can feel some sense of empowerment. In the show we talk about, how do we, as a family, prepare? How do we protect ourselves? How do we keep ourselves safe?”
Throughout the series Lily will form hypotheses and test them to see if the facts fit what she originally thought. “Those are all things that I think the show excels at — helping create those skills for critical thinking that kids can take forward as they get older,” Roker says.
He also hopes children walk away with a sense of the true beauty of weather. “There’s really this magic that happens around us,” he says. “And it’s based in science.”
In “NCIS: Tony & Ziva,” premiering Thursday on Paramount+, two popular characters from the CBS military procedural “NCIS,” have been brought back after several years and given a series of their own. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, as special agents Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo and Ziva David, so occupied the romantic fantasies of viewers that their names were portmanteaued into “Tiva.” (You can find thousands of instances of Tiva-themed fan fiction online.) As to the will-they, won’t-they of the relationship, they finally did, before they didn’t, and now they have a 12-year-old daughter, Tali (Isla Gie), whom they’re amicably co-parenting.
I have looked in on the franchise now and again, professionally, as new iterations have extended the length and breadth of the brand, which technically reaches back into “JAG,” from which it was spun off. But I’m not even going to attempt to pretend to have any real expertise in the adventures of a large rotating cast over 22 seasons. (It’s been renewed for a 23rd.) But I respect the institution — the original of which has been and may be now America’s most watched series — and its longevity, as I will salute your long marriage.
At the same time, once you know the basic premise of the show — it’s an elite military police procedural — it’s not hard to figure out where you are, wherever you drop in. The characters may be heroic or eccentric, but they’re heroic or eccentric within a recognized mold, with enough individual personality to make them lovable over a long run, and you can pick up on the interpersonal vibes pretty quickly.
Unlike earlier “NCIS” series, all based on broadcast television, “Tony & Ziva” is platformed on Paramount+, which means that characters utter a bad word now and again — it doesn’t get much edgier than that, and despite the sexual heat it’s hardly racy — and that there’s a budget which allows for foreign locations and big action scenes. And where the earlier shows, notwithstanding soap operatic long arcs, are fundamentally episodic, “Tony & Ziva” is a serial story, stretched over 10 episodes. Whether it’s stretched to breaking, we’ll have to wait and see; only four episodes out of 10 were offered for review.
The crime-fighting combo of a roguish guy and a no-nonsense gal is familiar from “Moonlighting” and “Castle.” Even the fact that the title joins Tony and Ziva with an ampersand and not an “and” indicates a certain lightness of tone, and when Tony, speaking of his company, says, “We try to walk that fine line between techno thriller and workplace comedy,” he is, of course, describing the very series he’s in. A strain of comedy is common to team-based procedurals, and it’s certainly part of what’s kept “NCIS” going strong all these years.
Given that the American brand hasn’t been as toxic, internationally and domestically, since the Vietnam era, possibly, and that “NCIS” series show around the world, it’s just as well that the presumed villains are (apparently) not the anti-American, freedom-hating terrorists one often finds in these things, but Bond-type stateless actors merely seeking power and money.
Additionally, the series — whose earlier iterations have been based in Washington, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawaii, Sydney and, in last year’s prequel, “NCIS: Origins,” exotic Oceanside, Calif. — is set in Paris, where, having gone civilian, Ziva has opened a fancy language school and Tony runs a high-end security service. (Among his clients: Interpol. You can’t get more European than that.) Along with easy access to croissants and café au lait, our heroes have the benefit of not having to wax patriotic about a country in which they no longer live. It feels very 2025.
The series’ MacGuffin is a magical thumb drive that, when plugged into a computer system, can seemingly do anything at all; possessing it, therefore, is an issue for both the good guys and the bad, into whose respective hands it goes in and out. When villains use it to frame Tony for extorting money from a hospital and threaten Tali’s life, Tony and Ziva are dragged back into a life of running, shooting, reckless driving and fisticuffs. “Two words,” says Tony, observing Ziva take apart a thug endangering her daughter. “Jewish mother.”
Most important, it puts the pair on the run together — the opening episodes find them (ostensibly and/or actually) in France, Italy, Switzerland and Hungary — and into constant close quarters, where old tender feelings simmer and the question of sharing a bed arises, as in “The 39 Steps,” the greatest of all innocent-and-on-the-run romances.
Ziva, whose pre-NCIS employment was as an assassin for the Israeli secret service — perhaps not the best job for a TV heroine to have on her resume nowadays, but it’s not an issue here — has hung on to an arsenal and plural safe houses. (“Have I ever told you how deeply I appreciate your paranoia?” Tony tells her.) And they’ve both kept their old NCIS badges, which they will flash to dazzle security guards and the like.
Along the way they pick up Boris (Maximilian Osinski), a non-aligned Russian hacker who made the MacGuffin in the first place, and his chirpy fiancee Fruzsi (Anne-Marie Waldeck), who provide both comedy and the image of a healthy, all-in romantic relationship to contrast with that of our hesitating heroes. Filling out the ranks are Tali’s capable nanny, Sophie (Lara Rossi), and Tony’s resident tech whiz, Claudette (Amita Suman), because you apparently can’t plot a thriller anymore without computers at the center of things. By virtue of being Tony’s friend and Tali’s godfather, Interpol exec Henry (James D’Arcy) is the sort of character you expect to turn out to be bad, though it’s up in the air. I’ll say no more about Martine (Nassima Benchicou), other than that Benchicou is very good at being very bad.
Created by John McNamara (“The Magicians”), not previously part of the “NCIS” world, “Tony & Ziva” can be quite absurd, depending heavily on suspensions of disbelief, or a viewer just not thinking too hard. This does not set it apart from a great many such screenplays, and the series does not shy away from genre tropes — the car chase through a marketplace, a fight with a seemingly unbeatable big bald bruiser. Indeed, it embraces them.
But what makes the show worth watching are Weatherly and De Pablo, two extremely attractive middle-aged people with genuine chemistry; he’s superheroically unflappable without ever seeming anything but a regular Joe. She’s sad and serious and not to be messed with. They’ve been around; they have worn edges, and when they intersect, it generates something authentically sweet, as real as the rest of the series is improbable. There’s a reason for all that fan fiction.
The Jury: Murder Trial has returned for a second series and Channel 4 viewers have taken to social media after recognising one of the actors from BBC One soap EastEnders
22:01, 26 Aug 2025Updated 22:38, 26 Aug 2025
Channel 4 viewers all said the same thing minutes into the first episode of The Jury: Murder Trial series two
Channel 4 viewers all said the same thing as they watched the first episode of The Jury: Murder Trial series two.
This BAFTA-winning show returned on Tuesday (August 26) night with the real-life trial of a young mother called Sophie who stabbed her boyfriend Ryan in the chest with a kitchen knife. She says it was self-defence but is she telling the truth?
The trial has been restaged using original court transcript with actors, but will the jury made up of 12 members of the public agree with the verdict of the original trial?
Watching the trial in Liverpool Crown Court are ordinary people from the local area.
Young mother called Sophie stabbed her boyfriend Ryan in the chest with a kitchen knife(Image: Channel 4)
As the prosecution laid out their case, the jurors immediately started to draw different conclusions from the evidence.
Some suspected the defendant was a victim of domestic abuse but others weren’t so sure.
In the first series, the juries were confronted with a case involving a husband who had killed his wife but denied it was murder and fans have shared their disappointment
EastEnders star Karen Henthorn appeared in the documentary as Sophie’s grandmother Mary(Image: Channel 4)
After listening to the defence and prosecution’s cross-examination, they retreated to the deliberation room to hammer out a verdict – but did it align with the other jury’s decision?
The second series followed a similar patter but this time there’s just one jury instead of two.
Towards the end of the first episode, actress Karen Henthorn appeared in the dock as Sophie’s grandmother Mary and fans quickly recognised her and shared their observation on social media.
Karen recently returned to EastEnders as Julie Bates (Image: BBC)
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one penned: “Julie what are you doing here #TheJuryC4.”
Another added: “Julie from EastEnders turning up on #TheJuryC4!!.”
A third person joked: “Excuse me get back to Nigel bet he’s gone missing now ffs #THEJURYC4.”
Karen recently returned to EastEnders as Julie Bates to find her husband Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) who has Dementia.
The show will air over four consecutive nights.
The Jury: Murder Trial is available to watch and stream on Channel 4 from Tuesday, August 26 at 9pm
Last week’s episode saw Belly (played by Lola Tung) and her ex Conrad (Christopher Briney) close to locking lips after she helped him with an injury.
The couple’s almost-kiss forced Belly’s feelings for Conrad to resurface, despite the pair breaking up four years ago.
Belly was left shocked at the revelation, considering she’d thought her emotions were dead and buried.
After Conrad’s own telling POV episode, Belly’s feelings could cause major problems for her impending wedding to his brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
Episode seven could see the fallout of Belly and Conrad’s near-kiss after Belly already seemed to have got wedding jitters.
She even confided her feelings to Taylor (Rain Spencer), and it looks like things are just going to get worse for her here on out.
Belly realised she still had feelings for Conrad in The Summer I Turned Pretty (Image: PRIME VIDEO)
TV lovers can get 30 days’ free access to tantalising TV like The Boys, Reacher and Clarkson’s Farm by signing up to Amazon Prime. Just remember to cancel at the end and you won’t be charged.
So fans still have a month to wait and see who will be endgame in the show.
Reflecting on Conrad’s arc in season three, author and co-showrunner Jenny Han said: “I was excited for him to go to the West Coast and in some ways start fresh. It’s a lot harder to try out new things when you’re around the same people.
“In a new place, there’s no preconceived notions or expectations on who you are and how you would behave in a situation.
“So being away from everyone, he’s been able to really explore who he could be…. He’s doing things that he used to love and then cut himself off from because he was in a not great place before.”
She added: “In the interim, I think he’s done a lot of healing.”
Although Han didn’t confirm how the show would end and if it would be different from the novels, her words suggest that perhaps Conrad is better placed to deal with his emotions and be with Belly now rather than previously in the aftermath of his grief.
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 episodes air on Prime Video on Wednesdays
Marc Maron is not interested in being just another podcaster in a sea of mediocrity.
In a new interview, the comic — who recently announced the end of his popular and long-lived podcast “WTF” — criticized the current podcast landscape as awash in meh.
“Things were better before everyone had a voice,” Maron told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday. “Now there’s just hundreds of groups of two or three white guys, sitting behind mics, talking about the last time they s— their pants as adults. We live in a world of mediocre afternoon drive-time radio.”
“A lot of yammering in makeshift studios. It’s lowering the bar for everything,” he added.
Maron started “WTF” in 2009 out of his garage, where he interviews guests. Through the years, he has talked to comedians, actors, musicians and even a sitting president. During an episode with comedian John Mulaney in June, he announced the show will come to an end “sometime in the fall.”
Distaste for mediocrity has been a theme for the comic in recent weeks. “The world has changed a bit and, you know, the sort of uniqueness of whatever the hell’s happening,” Maron said during his appearance last week on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast. “There’s enough people yammering in the world.”
In his latest comedy special, Maron pokes fun at how certain podcast hosts are, in his eyes, pandering to the far right.
“If Hitler were alive today, I think he’d probably appear on Theo Von’s podcast,” the comedian jokes in “Panicked,” which premiered Aug. 1 on HBO.
In his podcast, Von explores various topics, including his struggles with drug abuse and mental health, with different guests — who include politicians as well as comedians.
Maron continues by playing out a scene in which the comedian host of “This Past Weekend With Theo Von” questions Hitler about the amount of meth the Nazis consumed. At one point, Maron impersonates Von blaming the hate Hitler had on the amount of drugs he did.
“WTF” continues with episodes coming out Mondays and Thursdays until it ends in the fall. Maron did not respond to a request for a comment before publication.
In an age of changing media consumption (and work-from-home) habits, the phrase “watercooler television” may be something of an anachronism. But as anyone following shows like “The White Lotus” can tell you, discussing, dissecting and debating hit series never goes out of style.
And of all networks, HBO knows how best to capitalize on such buzzed-about moments: The network’s “Inside the Episode” programs have long offered viewers the chance to process shocking plot twists and jaw-dropping deaths. That’s where viewers of Season 3 got to hear creator Mike White break down everything from Saxon and Lochlan’s drunken exploits to Chelsea and Rick’s doomed ending.
“Shows like this are the new watercooler moment,” says Emmy nominee Natalia Echeverria, a creative director at HBO and an executive producer of “The White Lotus: Unpacking The Episode.” “We try to anticipate what beats from the episode people will be talking about and then we dive in, giving audiences an inside peek only we can provide.”
Owing a debt to post-episode talk shows like “The Talking Dead” and podcasts like “Private Joke: The Official How I Met Your Mother Podcast” and “The Good Place: The Podcast,” such companion series, now commonplace across platforms, have risen in popularity in the last decade. This year, in fact, they make up the entirety of the short form nonfiction or reality series Emmy category.
Projects like “Making of: The Last of Us” and “Adolescence: The Making of Adolescence” (also nominated) necessarily straddle the line between creative and marketing. They’re meant to bridge the gap between a show and its fandom. But, in borrowing the familiar format of making-of documentaries, DVD bonus featurettes, even episodic reviews or recaps, they insist on a vision of television as an art worthy of discussion and dissection.
“I think of these pieces like the movie theater parking lot after a film,” says Badger Denehy, an Emmy-nominated executive producer of “Making of: The Last Of Us” and an HBO creative director. “They remind me of that moment when you turn to your friend and dive into all the biggest moments you just watched. It’s my favorite type of project because we get to create something for fans as huge fans of the programming ourselves.”
For Shannon Ryan, president of marketing for Disney Entertainment Television and an Emmy nominee for “Only Murders in the Building: Unlocking the Mystery,” the decision to produce the show was driven by a desire to better serve fans of the hit Hulu comedy.
“These short-form series offer fans a peek behind the curtain to hear directly from the talented people that bring the show to life,” she says. “And for our creators, this is a meaningful way to share more with the fans, give insight into their work, share some entertaining — and often hilarious — behind-the-scenes stories, and also spotlight some of the critical crew members that make every episode of the show so special.”
To “The Last of Us” viewers, there was likely no bigger moment this season than “Through the Valley,” the jaw-dropping second episode. Fans looking for insights on how that action-packed tragic set piece was orchestrated had to look no further than “Inside Episode 2,” where director Mark Mylod, co-creator Craig Mazin and star Pedro Pascal spoke about shooting Joel’s untimely and quite gruesome death.
Boasting more than 710,000 views on YouTube alone, that featurette showcased both the artistry behind such a high-octane hour of television (with talk of prosthetics and wintry shooting conditions) and candid reflections from cast members about the emotional fallout the episode would undoubtedly create.
The history of this Emmy category alone tracks the increased investment from streamers and networks in this kind of programming. Past nominees have included behind-the-scenes series tied to everything from “30 Rock” and “American Horror Story” to “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Pose.” And the last two winners (“Succession: Controlling the Narrative” and “Shōgun — The Making of Shōgun”) prove that the industry is similarly invested in (and impressed with) them, in turn.
John Wilhelmy, Emmy-nominated creative director of “Hacks: Bit by Bit,” notes that short-form projects now must be produced so they can exist across different platforms. “Certain stories within the conversation lend themselves well to TikTok and [Instagram] Reels, so we’ll pick those out and optimize them editorially,” he says. “They’re often funny outtakes or quick stories that we’ll post on those platforms alongside the full-length episodes hitting HBO Max and YouTube.”
In an era where fan-driven episode recaps, YouTube reaction videos and TikTok explainers contribute greatly to a show’s success in an increasingly fractured media ecosystem, these projects suggest a way to positively harness that engagement in a way that still puts TV creators front and center.
Echeverria puts it more simply: “Fan-made content has a huge place, but there’s nothing like seeing how the sauce is made from the chefs themselves.”
The final season of “Andor” required visual storytellers to craft a stylized tapestry that reflected each episode’s underlying themes while unifying the whole. “We treated every three episodes almost like a movie and gave them their own identity,” says cinematographer Christophe Nuyens, who photographed the first six episodes. In “Harvest,” the challenge was balancing lighting sources and camera movement to link two sharply contrasting storylines: the elaborate wedding of Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma’s daughter and Stormtroopers in search of undocumented workers on Mina-Rau, which climaxes in a surprise death. “It was important visually that everything could fall nicely together, so for the first three episodes, we decided to play in a sunnier environment,” he says. “The Stormtrooper scene was like a jigsaw puzzle. We had to mix a practical location with a staged set and then all the TIE fighter stuff was also shot on a stage.” Adding to the scale was the cinematographer’s use of a large-format camera and Ultra Vista lenses. “It was important to use a big sensor as it gives you the feel and scope almost like in ‘Rogue One,’” says Nuyens. “It was the biggest change we made this season and I think those lenses make it look really nice.”
Star of the show, Jenna Ortega, dazzled attendees with her striking appearance as she shared insights about the upcoming episodes, which she also had a hand in producing. The Tim Burton series has already hinted at some heart-wrenching developments, including the potential demise of Enid Sinclair (portrayed by Emma Myers).
Audiences are also eager to see new additions to the cast, including Billie Piper, Joanna Lumley and Steve Buscemi. Here’s everything you need to know about the episode release schedule for season two.
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Wednesday.
Emma Myers returns as Enid Sinclair(Image: (Image: NETFLIX))
Showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar discussed how season two broadens the world of Wednesday following the global success of its debut.
Millar expressed excitement about the new episodes, revealing: “We have a bigger scope. We had the confidence going in now knowing that people like the show.”
He elaborated on the creative process, saying: “We could explore more, and be more daring in terms of the storylines and the character arcs. The toy box got bigger, and we had the freedom to really do the show we always wanted to do.”
Wednesday season 2 part 1 airs on Netflix on August 6. Part 2 will air on September 3
I will say this: I should be watching more cartoons. It has been harder to indulge this passion for some of the best, most pleasurable work television has to offer with so many ordinary series fighting for my professional time and attention, but here and now I make a more or less midyear resolution to get back to them. Please hold me to it.
Two great animated series are posting new seasons after long hiatuses (neither on the original platform, both on Hulu). “King of the Hill,” which ran on Fox from 1997 to 2009, lives anew with 10 fresh episodes streaming Monday; “The Amazing World of Gumball” (2011-2019), one of the greatest products of a great age of Cartoon Network, is back as “The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball,” in a 20-episode season now available. (Earlier seasons of both shows are available on the platform.) Each is under the protection of their original creators; both are their easily recognizable, extremely different old selves.
Visually, there is little to no difference between one multi-camera sitcom and the next, one single-camera mockumentary sitcom and the next, one single-camera non-mockumentary and the next, one CBS police procedural and the next. But every cartoon creates its individual grammar, its dynamic, its world, its synergy between the image and the actors, its level of awkwardness of slickness. (The voice actors, I mean — animators are also actors.) There are trends, of course, in shapes and line and ways to render a mouth or an eyeball, and much drawing is drawn from the history of the medium, because art influences artists. But the spectrum is wide, and novelty counts for a lot.
“The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball”
(Hulu)
Created by Ben Bocquelet, “Gumball” doesn’t settle for a single style — that is to say, not settling is its style. The characters comprise a hodgepodge, nay, an encyclopedia of visual references, dimensions, materials and degrees of resolution, and include traditional 2-D animation, puppet animation, photo collage and live-action, usually set against a photographic background and knit into a world whose infinite variety seems nothing short of inevitable. (Netflix’s late “The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants” is the only other cartoon with such a range of modes.
Like many modern cartoons (excepting anime, which I would argue is a different, if widely influential, art), its main characters are children. Gumball, currently voiced by Alkaio Thiele, is a blue cat, the son of a cat mother and a rabbit father; he has a pink rabbit little sister, Anais (Kinza Syed Khan), and an adoptive brother, Darwin (Hero Hunter in the new season), a pet goldfish who grew legs and gets around quite easily in the air. Their middle-school classmates include a ghost, a cloud, a banana, an ice cream cone, a daisy, a balloon, a cactus, a T. Rex and a flying eyeball. Gumball’s girlfriend, Penny (Teresa Gallagher) is a shape-shifting yellow fairy. Each is rendered in a different style, and that is just the tip of the animated iceberg.
Like the best cartoons ostensibly made for kids, it doesn’t underestimate its audience, what it might understand or can handle. Many “Gumball” episodes devolve into a sort of authentically disturbing horror movie, including the last episode of the original series, which saw the characters frighteningly transformed into realistic animated children and a void opening just before the closing credits. It also demonstrates an adult skepticism about the world that might profitably infect young minds. There are critiques of capitalism, consumerism and online culture: In the first episode of the new season, an evil talking hamburger controls the corporate universe; in another, mother Nicole (Gallagher again) is seduced into virtual reality by a lonely, jealous chatbot.
The decade and a half since “King of the Hill” went off the air — surreptitiously, if obviously, referenced in a remark about “that cooking show that Fox stupidly canceled 15 years ago” — is not exactly represented in the new season, but time has passed. (The characters did not age 13 years over the original series — but they grew a little.) Hank, voiced by co-creator Mike Judge, and Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy), returning to Arlen, Texas, from Saudi Arabia, where Hank had been exercising his expertise in all things propane, are drawn older by the addition of a few wrinkles but are substantially unchanged. As a character, Hank, of course, distrusts change, though possibly not as much as the friends who gather, as before, in the alley behind his house; indeed, he worries that the love of soccer he acquired while away will reduce his standing in their eyes. Peggy, on the other hand, was enlarged by her time away; she likes to demonstrate a few words of Arabic. Both Hills are dealing uncomfortably with retirement; he looks for odd jobs, takes a stab at making beer (not that fruit-flavored stuff); she exercises.
In the revived “King of the Hill,” Bobby and Hank compete against each other in a home brew competition, to Peggy’s dismay (but eventual delight).
(Mike Judge/Disney)
The show is set in an awkwardly drawn but highly evocative, extremely ordinary environment that perfectly serves its stories; it feels like an accurate outsider-art rendition of its middle-class Texas suburb. There is little in it that couldn’t be handled as live-action situation comedy; indeed, for long stretches you can close your eyes and let it play in your head like an old-time radio show — “Ozzie and Harriet,” or “Vic and Sade” for the deep cut — which testifies to the quality of the writing and the performances. (Judge’s voice has an unschooled quality that perfectly matches the drawing. I was once almost certain that Hank’s voice was that of my friend Will Ray, a country-music guitar slinger — which would have made sense, given Judge’s interest in the music and his occasional moonlighting as a bass player. That is neither here or there, but I am happy to have found a place to mention it.)
Their son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), is now an adult; little dots on his chin indicate either that he can grow a beard but neglects to shave or that he can’t quite grow a beard; it doesn’t seem exactly like a choice. A formerly established talent for cooking — the final episode of the original run concerned his ability to judge the quality of a cut of meat — has blossomed into his becoming a restaurateur, offering a fusion of Japanese and Texas cuisine; he is evidently good at this, though for whatever reason — more work to draw them? — his restaurant is devoid of customers. The torch he carries for sometime girlfriend Connie Souphanousinphone (Lauren Tom) occupies the other half of his storyline here.
There are light topical references — a sidelong joke about the names billionaires give their children, for example — but the show happily lives in its world of day-to-day annoyances and victories. Hank is excited by a trip to the George W. Bush presidential library, but one can’t imagine him with any affection for the current Oval Office occupant; he’s too common-sense for that. Extreme views and conspiracy theories are loaded into Hank’s pest exterminator friend Dale Gribble. The late Johnny Hardwick, who voiced him for the first six episodes of the new season, was replaced by Toby Huss. (Jonathan Joss, who played the character John Redcorn, died in a shooting this June.) Cartoons have a way of dealing with death — they don’t have to — and time means no more there than the animators want it to. It’s a comfortable state of being.
The current third season of the “Sex and the City” sequel will be its last, showrunner, writer and director Michael Patrick King said in a statement on social media Friday. And it’ll wrap in an exaggerated fashion that would suit Carrie’s style: a two-part finale on HBO Max, taking the season’s original 10 episodes to 12. Episodes 11 and 12 will air on Aug. 7 and 14, respectively, according to an HBO Max spokesperson.
“While I was writing the last episode of ‘And Just Like That …” Season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “SJP [Sarah Jessica Parker] and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn’t want the word ‘final’ to overshadow the fun of watching the season. It’s with great gratitude we thank all the viewers who let these characters into their homes and their hearts over these many years.”
The original “Sex and the City” series, which followed the lives of four friends — Carrie Bradshaw (Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) — premiered on HBO in 1998, ran for six seasons and was the springboard for two subsequent theatrical films. The sequel series reunited Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte and let viewers tag along on their midlife adventures in New York City.
But from its premiere in December 2021, the sequel to the popular HBO series was like a situationship viewers could never fully get a handle on. A crucial member of the friend group was absent (Samantha) and some viewers questioned the cast additions — ahem, Che Diaz — and changes to the characters’ personalities that felt inconsistent to fans who had journeyed alongside them .
Parker, who is also an executive producer of “And Just Like That …,” posted a lengthy, poem-like tribute to Carrie and the show on her Instagram account.
“Carrie Bradshaw has dominated my professional heartbeat for 27 years,” she wrote. “I think I have loved her most of all … MPK and I together recognized, as we have in the past, this chapter complete. AJLT was all joy, adventure, the greatest kind of hard work alongside the most extraordinary talent of 380 that includes all the brilliant actors who joined us. I am better for every single day I spent with you. It will be forever before I forget. The whole thing. Thank you all. I love you so. I hope you love these final two episodes as much as we all do.”
Destination X continued tonight on BBC One, with the remaining contestants trying to guess where in the world the second location was – but did you guess correctly?
The instalment comes after the main story was rounded off in the second and final season of the fantasy epic.
The Sandman, which featured a star-studded cast, ended with a big twist that saw his infant son Orpheus transformed into a fully grown adult (played by Jacob Anderson).
Orpheus would now take on his father Morpheus’ (Tom Sturridge) role as Dream of the Endless.
The bonus episode comes after The Sandman was dropped in two blocks by Netflix with episodes one to six landing on July 3, and the latter seven to 11 arriving on July 24.
Here’s a look at the bonus episode and when you can start streaming it.
The Sandman season 2 features a bonus episode (Image: NETFLIX)
What is The Sandman season 2, episode 12 release time?
The Sandman season two, episode 12 will be coming to Netflix on Thursday, July 31, 2025 at 8am.
This is midnight PST on the Western Seaboard of North America and 3am on the Eastern Seaboard on the day of release.
Netflix generally releases most of its shows at midnight PT as the company’s headquarters are in California, which falls into this timezone.
Titled Chapter 12: Death: The High Cost of Living, the bonus episode will focus on Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), reported Variety.
The bonus episode came as something of a surprise earlier this year and was announced by Netflix after the streamer confirmed the episode titles for season two.
Season one also featured a surprise bonus episode called A Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope.
The episode followed a Siamese cat dreaming about a new world and also an author suffering from writer’s block, who met Morpheus.
A Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope was adapted from Dream Country from issues 17 to 20 of The Sandman comic.
The Sandman season 2 will be the last (Image: NETFLIX)
Get Netflix free with Sky
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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.
Will there be The Sandman season 3?
No, Netflix has confirmed season two will be the last outing of The Sandman.
Showrunner Allan Heinberg always planned for the second series to be the last, prior to the show being filmed in summer 2023. However, his decision was only announced in January this year.
Nonetheless, with the big season two twist, the door could be left open for a fresh story.
Heinberg admitted if he was asked to do season three, he would do it “instantly”.
He went on to tell Variety: “I would write this show for as long as they would let me. This show feels like all TV shows — like you can do anything.
“You can write about anything in the context of The Sandman in funny ways and romantic ways and scary ways.”
He said he was “very sad” to see the show go and described it as a “creative dream” for him.
The writer described The Sandman’s scope for storytelling as huge and where “all manner of stories” could be told from “imaginary realms and time periods”.
He added: “And this has been an education for me, this show, in every way — as all shows are, but more so this time. And I can’t believe Netflix let us make it.”
Netflix fans will spot a familiar face in the latest episode of its Trainwreck documentary series
Netflix fans will spot a familiar face in the latest episode of its Trainwreck documentary series(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Netflix enthusiasts will recognise a familiar face in the latest Trainwreck documentary series.
The anthology of Netflix’s Trainwreck revisits some of the most terrifying and peculiar incidents that once ruled mainstream media. The series and films, from their viewpoint, delve into everything from disastrous festivals and political scandals to and horrific cruises and reality TV catastrophes.
Today’s episode (July 22) was the Trainwreck P. I. Moms, which takes viewers back to 2010 and a reality TV show about a private investigation agency run by soccer mums. Commissioned by Lifetime Networks, the mums were a group of mothers who trained as private investigators for Chris Butler and it was set to air on TV.
The group investigated everything from exposing unfaithful husbands to insurance scams. However, the show never made it to air, reports the Mirror US.
Fans will recognise actor Carl Marino(Image: Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
In the documentary, cast and crew reveal the reality TV show and how Chris Butler was subsequently arrested on multiple felony charges.
At the conclusion of Trainwreck, it states: “On May 4 2012, Chris Butler pleaded guilty to selling drugs, extortion, robbery, and planting illegal wiretaps. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.”
According to Netflix’s Tudum: “In 2010, Lifetime commissions a reality TV series about a private investigation agency staffed by soccer moms. Everyone is convinced they have the next big hit on their hands, until the production crew starts to notice something is off.
“The moms’ investigations keep falling apart, leading to allegations of sabotage. At the same time, a mysterious informant accuses the agency’s boss of running an illegal drug operation on the side, abetted by a corrupt cop. For both the TV series and the criminals dealing drugs, it is only a matter of time before things fall disastrously apart.”
Trainwreck: P.I. Moms hears from Joanna Pernia and Theresa Moore-King(Image: Netflix)
Viewers will recognise a familiar face in the latest episode of Trainwreck. Actor Carl Marino, who was alleged to have “ruined” the show before it had the chance to get off the ground, makes an appearance.
But where might viewers have seen Carl Marino before?
Carl Marino portrayed a young Joe Kenda on Homicide Hunter. Homicide Hunter follows Lt Joe Kenda who spent 23 years in the police department where he caught criminals and solved hundreds of homicide investigations – and he shares his memories on the show.
However, fans will likely recognise Carl Marino from the Trainwreck documentary. One fan expressed their surprise on Reddit, saying: “I’m shocked and disappointed in Joe Kenda.”
Trainwreck: P.I. Moms is available to stream now on Netflix
Love Island 2025 viewers tuning into the latest episode on Monday night all had the same comment to make about the uneventful visit to the villa, calling it ‘the most boring yet’
22:10, 21 Jul 2025Updated 22:12, 21 Jul 2025
Love Island 2025 viewers tuning into the latest episode on Monday night all had the same comment to make(Image: ITV)
The latest episode of Love Island got a repeated reaction from viewers, and it’s safe to say they were far from impressed.
Narrator Iain Stirling announced to fans at the start of the show on Monday night that it was the penultimate week of the show, just weeks before the live final. But there were certainly no winning moments in the latest visit to the villa according to fans.
In the episode there was some minor drama between Dejon and Yasmin who soon cleared the air. Conor and Shakira also had a heart-to-heart, as the latter confessed her fears of being hurt again.
Meg and Dejon enjoyed a date away from the villa too, as they discussed family life, being out of the villa and Dejon even asked her to be his girlfriend. Back in the villa, Harry decided to stick with Helena, telling bombshell Angel he wouldn’t have his head turned, while Toni and Cach appeared to get closer, after his kiss with Billykiss.
The latest episode of Love Island got a repeated reaction from viewers(Image: ITV)
But none of this was enough to keep viewers interested, with many fans calling it “the most boring episode” of the entire series. Viewers kept repeating they were “bored” with some wanting to “skip” to the end of the episode.
Taking to social media, one fan commented: “So obviously today is gonna be the most boring episode of the season.” Another fan said: “Can we skip to the end,” as a third viewer asked: “Is anyone else mad bored?”
Another fan wrote online: “I’m bored and theres still the date to come,” while a further comment from a viewer said: “Can’t lie it’s starting to become boring now.” This was echoed by another fan who posted: “This is such a boring episode.”
The same comments kept on being shared, as one fan said: “This episode is so boring.” Another fan agreed: “Most boring episode to date.”
As the episode came to an end, a tomorrow night teaser revealed a dumping was looming. Not only that but there’s a special guest performing at the Love Island ‘festival’ before the Islanders must say goodbye.
Narrator Iain Stirling announced to fans at the start of the show on Monday night that it was the penultimate week of the show(Image: ITV)
Viewers went back to commenting about the episode after seeing this, making a plea to bosses. A fan posted: “What a waste of my time @LoveIsland. Don’t do that again.” Another fan posted: “What a waste of an episode.”
A third fan, hoping to see who left after the latest public vote, said: “Showing us Meg and Dejon’s pathetic date & wasting valuable time to now waiting till tomorrow night to see who leaves. I’m so maddd.”
Meanwhile there were hints at new drama on the way, as Toni and Shakira appeared to call out Dejon over his gesture to Meg. Some fans backed the pair, claiming the girls had spotted Dejon’s “game playing”. Other viewers called out the pair for being “mean girls”.
Ofcom has found that Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks breached its rules by promoting a financial technology app in an episode of the soap
Zara Woodcock Showbiz Reporter and Lauren Del Fabbro PA Entertainment Reporter
23:35, 15 Jul 2025
Hollyoaks breached Ofcom rules over promotion of fintech app in one episode(Image: PA Media)
Hollyoaks has fallen foul of two Ofcom regulations following its promotion of a financial technology application within the programme, the watchdog has determined. An instalment of the Channel 4 drama came under scrutiny after ClearScore, the show’s sponsor, received both spoken and visual mentions during the broadcast.
The broadcasting authority concluded that the product integration violated two separate guidelines – firstly Rule 9.10 concerning excessive prominence, which stipulates that “references to placed products, services and trade marks must not be unduly prominent”.
The second infringement involved Rule 9.9 regarding promotional content, which declares that “references to placed products, services and trade marks must not be promotional”.
Kieron Richardson’s character Ste Hay discussed the application with his son Lucas Hay(Image: PR)
The controversial product placement featured in the February 18 episode, where Kieron Richardson’s character Ste Hay discussed the application with his son Lucas Hay, portrayed by Oscar Curtis, whilst considering purchasing a laptop.
Viewers witnessed Ste retrieving his mobile device, displaying the ClearScore application prominently on screen whilst demonstrating its various features and capabilities before telling Lucas: “See this? They’ve shown me some options – based on my financial situation and it looks like I can get you that laptop for your studies.”
He continued: “I really want you to make a go of this, Lucas – (gesturing to the ClearScore app on his phone) and these guys are going to help me make it happen.”
The controversial product placement featured in the February 18 episode(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
The report revealed that the broadcaster acknowledged the references were made due to a product placement agreement, separate from an arrangement with the company sponsoring the soap.
Channel 4 informed the regulator that the references were editorially justified and clarified that “part of the sponsorship and product placement agreements, potential integrations into existing storylines were proposed to ClearScore by the programme editorial team, in consultation with the programme compliance team.”
ClearScore had no editorial input into the storyline of the programme”. Channel 4 further explained that Ste’s character was central to the plot at the time, as he was attempting to rebuild his family after the death of a partner and spending a year in a coma.
The broadcaster added: “part of this storyline (was) his return to work to support his family, which (included) rebuilding his relationship with son Lucas and providing for him”.
The investigation concluded that the references exceeded its editorial justifications for the storyline and became more of a “demonstration” of how to use the app rather than a passing remark. Ofcom also determined that the references were promotional as they described and demonstrated how to use the app, thereby promoting the brand.
A Channel 4 representative has acknowledged the regulator’s verdict, stating: “We acknowledge Ofcom’s decision and will review its findings carefully. Our compliance responsibilities are of paramount importance to us and we will continue to engage with Ofcom and our partners to ensure our content remains compliant”.
It’s the biggest question that’s been asked over and over again about the night of Nov. 13, 2022, when four University of Idaho students — Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — were brutally stabbed to death in their off-campus house in the college town of Moscow, Idaho: Why?
With no apparent motive or clue as to who could have committed such a heinous crime, Moscow became the epicenter of an intense investigation and a social media storm that Prime Video’s “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders” delves into over four episodes dropping on Friday.
Liz Garbus (“Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer”) and Matthew Galkin (“Murder in the Bayou”) share directing and executive producing duties on the docuseries, which is based on reporting by author James Patterson and investigative journalist Vicky Ward, and they knew early on what angle their production would take. “We decided that a very interesting and unexplored angle was to see what it was like inside the eye of the hurricane,” Galkin says. “So, for the people, the family members, the friends of the victims that had not ever spoken to the media, that was where we chose to focus our energies as far as access is concerned.”
That included exclusive interviews with Stacy and Jim Chapin, parents of 20-year-old Ethan, and Karen and Scott Laramie, parents of 21-year-old Mogen, who have never talked about the murders — despite numerous projects on the subject — and how it ripped apart not only the town of Moscow but their respective families.
Garbus and Galkin talked with The Times about how they gained the families’ trust, how social media affected the case, and the recent twists and turns that happened just before the series was set to air. For one, on July 2, primary suspect Bryan Kohberger, a former criminal justice doctoral student who was arrested six weeks after the murders, entered a plea agreement with a full confession of the murders — done to avoid the death penalty — just weeks before his trial was set to begin. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What were the origins of your involvement in the production and with crime novelist James Patterson?
Matthew Galkin: This was a story that I started tracking, obviously, when it happened, which was mid-November of 2022, and I didn’t make any outreach to any key people within the story, any of the families, until it was almost spring of 2023. We were tracking it to see how it developed once they made an arrest and once we could see the contours of the story and that things like social media played a major part in the energy created around this story.
Liz Garbus: Concurrently, as Matthew was laying the foundation for this by reaching out and trying to see where the families were on this story, I got outreach from James Patterson’s company about their interest in collaborating on a project around this case. That was quite fortuitous, and we laid some of those building blocks together and shared access and research. The film was made by its filmmakers, and the book [“The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy” by Patterson and Ward, which is being released on July 14] was reported by its writers, so they were operating on parallel tracks. We were able to support and help each other, but, truly, Matthew’s original outreach to the Chapin family is what laid the building blocks for this show and is really the bedrock of it.
Matthew Galkin, co-director of Prime Video’s “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.”
(Matthew Galkin)
How was the gag order for law enforcement and other key people close to the case a challenge in telling your story?
Galkin: In this particular story, there was a probable cause affidavit that was filed in early January of ’23, which really laid out, up to that point, what investigative details existed in order to bring law enforcement toward the suspect and ultimately make the arrest. So we were able, at the very least, to tell that story through the details we learned through the probable cause affidavit.
It’s always a challenge if you don’t have all of the participating members of a story to try to tell the complete story. But in my past work, we tended to pick projects that are victim-centric more than law enforcement-centric. I’ve had experience telling stories through that perspective, so in a lot of ways, the limited access that we had actually lined up with the story we were trying to tell anyway.
Garbus: Even on “Gone Girls,” which was a show I made recently for Netflix, those murders were 10, 20, 30 years old. There were no gag orders, but there were certain people who didn’t want to talk for their own reasons, so sometimes, as documentary filmmakers, you have to pick a lane. What are you bringing to the story? What point of view can you fully express? And we clearly had that lane here.
And when you have that lane so clear early on, does that actually help get people to talk to you, especially those who hadn’t spoken to anyone before?
Galkin: I flew out to Washington state, and the first contact I made was to Jim and Stacy Chapin, who are the parents of Ethan, Hunter and Maizie. I convinced them to let me take them to lunch and just talk through what our vision of how to tell the story would be. I was probably the 50th in line to try to make a documentary project about it. They’ve been inundated at that point, and it was probably five or six months of journalists, documentary filmmakers [and] podcasters just coming out of the woodwork.
I know for a fact they looked at Liz’s track record, they looked at my track record, and I think they felt comfortable in the fact that if we were going to do crime stories, they were not usually from the killer’s point of view or even from law enforcement point of view. It’s usually from family or victim, so I think that gave them some comfort to know that they would have real input in how Ethan’s story was told. They liked the idea of picking one project to really go deep on and be able to help put Ethan’s narrative out to the world through their own voice, as opposed to other people who didn’t know Ethan telling it.
Maizie and Hunter Chapin were Ethan’s siblings. Both were interviewed for the documentary along with their parents.(Courtesy of Prime Video)
Did you know early on that social media would play such a big part in the case?
Galkin: It was actually the two main topics of conversation. My first conversation with the Chapins was our vision of how we were going to tell the story and also their experience dealing with the insane noise and pressures of social media sleuths and people reaching out, going into their DMs, creating theories about their children, about them, about their children’s friends — just the insanity. Obviously, there have been crime stories that deal with social media, but I have never experienced something of this magnitude with this much social media attention.
Garbus: Social media has become much of the atmosphere in the telling and digestion of crimes in the American public’s imagination of them. In some cases, it can be helpful, like the case of the Long Island serial killer, where the victims were not commanding national interest, and social media and advocates can play a huge role. Then there are other times in which the voracious appetites can overtake the story.
In your series, you don’t spend a lot of time dissecting all the gruesome details of the murders. Was that due to the law enforcement gag order?
Galkin: Maybe a little, but it was also a choice of ours. There are many other projects, documentary series or news specials about this case that go into all of the really horrific details of what happened in that house. It was a conversation from the beginning of how do we present this so it’s factual. We’re not necessarily avoiding things, but we didn’t feel like there was a reason to linger on those details because there were other aspects of the story that were of more interest to us.
Garbus: When you’re with these families and you experience the grief and trauma through them, that’s kind of what you need to know. The ways in which the ripple effect of the trauma has affected this entire friend group and all of these young people, that speaks volumes to what happened that day and we wanted to experience it through them.
Given the recent developments with Kohberger’s plea deal, did you change the tag at the end of your show?
Garbus: Thanks to some great postproduction supervisors and assistants, we will be updating the end card to have viewers be up to date with the plea.
Matthew Galkin and director of photography Jeff Hutchens on set of the re-created King Road house, where the murders occurred, in “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.”
(Matthew Galkin)
In the latter half of the series, there’s talk about Kohberger and the notion of him being an incel, or involuntary celibate [where a person, usually male, is frustrated by a lack of sexual experiences]. How did that help understand a potential motive in the murders?
Garbus: That was something that was very interesting to us right at the beginning: Why were these young women targeted? We may never know with this plea deal now and it may remain a mystery, but there were signs, for sure, about involvement in that culture for us to explore that angle. As families watch this and they’re sitting with their sons and wondering what they might be doing online, this is the kind of conversation that people need to be having about the media, the infiltration of messages that young men receive today and it’s only getting more extreme in this moment.
Was four episodes always the amount to tell this story? Obviously, the case is still unfolding with Kohberger’s plea agreement. Could a sequel happen?
Galkin: Four episodes felt like the right amount of space to tell the story that we told. Obviously, there are still chapters unfolding, and if there is an appetite to continue to tell this story with our subjects and all of our partners, then certainly I think we’d be open to doing that. But we feel like we told a complete story here … every episode offers a pivot as to the perspectives that we’re seeing this case through, and every episode has a different lens.
Garbus: Clearly, our filmmaking stops at a certain point. You’ve had this plea deal, and the gag order will be lifted, so it is a capsule of time of what the families knew and understood since this tragedy happened up until a couple of months ago. We will see over the next weeks and months how much more we will learn, but it is a fragment of experience very much rooted in time.
Since there is so much interest in this case with many podcasts, documentaries and news stories out there, do you worry about that at all?
Garbus: In some ways you don’t think about it, but at the same time, when you’re setting off to make a project like this, you want to make sure you are saying something unique. We’re going to spend X number of years of our lives on this, and you want to make sure you’re adding something new to the discourse on the case. And, of course, it matters to us that this is the place where the Chapins and the Laramies will tell their story and that we are able to take care of it for them and the friends in the way that we intended. It matters just in that you want to make sure you have a lane that’s needed in the discourse and I think in this case we felt very clearly that we did.
Galkin: We knew from Day 1, given the access that we had, that our series would be unique to anything else on the market, because these are people that have never told their story before, and the way we were planning on doing it, which was truly from the inside, without any sort of outsider voices. So that was not an anxiety for us.
Former “Love Island USA” contestant Cierra Ortega has spoken out after her abrupt departure from the villa on Sunday following the resurfacing of posts containing a racial slur.
Ortega, who left just one week from the finale of the hit Peacock show’s seventh season, addressed the incident on Wednesday.
“Now that I’ve been back in the U.S. for about 48 hours and I’ve had the chance to process,” she said in a video posted on Instagram, “I now feel like I’m at a space where I can speak about this without being highly emotional because I am not the victim in this situation.”
“Love Island” commentator Iain Stirling broke the news during Sunday’s episode, stating that the 25-year-old Angeleno had left the show to deal with a “personal issue” that arose. Though it was not explicitly stated why Ortega had left, she had recently faced backlash over social media posts that resurfaced containing a racial slur against Asian people.
She used the slur in 2020 on TikTok and in 2023 on Instagram to describe her own appearance.
Ortega initially remained silent on the issue, with her parents taking to addressing the controversy themselves. In a statement Sunday on Ortega’s Instagram story, they said the backlash had resulted in “one of the most painful weeks of our lives.”
“We’ve seen the posts, the headlines, the hurt and the hate,” they wrote, adding that their daughter had been subject to threats and “cruel messages.”
“It’s uncalled for. And no one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what mistake they’ve made,” they continued.
Ortega chose to address the situation via an “accountability video” in addition to a written statement.
“While I was in the villa, there were some posts that resurfaced from my past where I was very naively using an incredibly offensive and derogatory term. And before I get into the details, I want to first start by addressing not just anyone that I have hurt or deeply offended, but most importantly, the entire Asian community. I am deeply, truly, honestly, so sorry,” she said.
“I had no ill intention when I was using it, but that’s absolutely no excuse because intent doesn’t excuse ignorance … this is not an apology video. This is an accountability video.”
She continued by insisting that the “lesson was learned” and, in an additional post made to her Instagram story, said c she was “genuinely ashamed” of her actions.
“Once again, to the Asian community, I am deeply sorry for my thoughtless mistake and the harm it caused,” she added.
Just a month prior to Ortega’s departure, another contestant faced a similar debacle. Yulissa Escobar left the villa by the season’s second episode due to her use of racial slurs against Black people during a podcast conversation
In response, Escobar also took to Instagram on June 6 to make an apology: “I want to apologize for using a word I had no right in using. … The truth is, I didn’t know better then, but I do now.”
Lena Dunham, of “Girls” fame, with her husband Luis Felber, has created a romantic comedy, “Too Much,” premiering Thursday on Netflix. It’s lighter in tone than that previous show but still comes with plenty of dysfunction, self-sabotage and sex. (Drugs too, though it doesn’t make a case for them.) The titles of the episodes establish a negative relation to the genre: “Terms of Resentment,” “Enough, Actually,” “Notting Kill,” “Nonsense and Sensibility,” “Pity Woman,” “Ignore Sunrise,” “To Doubt a Boy.” But in the end, it wants what they’re having.
Dunham, who wrote or co-wrote all 10 episodes and directed several, has elected not to star, but has brought in Megan Stalter, from “Hacks” as her stand-in, Jessica. (Dunham plays Nora, Jessica’s depressed older sister, mostly from a bed.) Like Jessica, Dunham is an American living in England, in a relationship with a musician, so we may credit at least some details to the authority of their shared experience.
Jessica once wanted to direct films, to “say something about the female experience,” but she has been working for 15 years as a line producer for an ad agency, a job at which she is evidently good, but which means little to her. When her New York firm merges with a British company, she’s sent to London for three months to help make a Christmas commercial, starring Rita Ora. Having been left six months before by her longtime boyfriend, Zev (Michael Zegen) for willowy knitting influencer Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski), to whom he’s become engaged, she is ready to go — all the more so because her happy place is “love stories set in pastoral England.”
On her first night in town, Jessica discovers that the “estate” she thought she was renting is not Pemberley but public housing; she takes a taxi to a random pub, where Felix (Will Sharpe), the boy in this 30-something love story, is performing a sad song to a few patrons. They meet-cute in the bathroom. He walks her home. They talk. He lends her his coat. (There is, interestingly, no attempt to convince us that Felix is a major talent; indeed, the suggestion is that such career as he had is on a downward slope.)
People fall out of love on television almost as often as they fall into it, sometimes as a prelude to falling back into it, or falling for someone else, and less often deciding that they are in fact happier on their own. From the wealth of self-help books, advice columns, therapists, country songs and, yes, romantic comedies that fill our culture, I reckon the messier elements of “Too Much” will feel familiar to many. There is plenty of chaos in this comedy, but its best moments come in passages of relative calm. (They are something of a relief from the dominant emotional mishigas.) A long, wordless scene consisting of a single overhead shot of Felix and Jess on a bed, as she listens to a mix he made her, is remarkably moving, not least because the actors are doing so much while doing so little.
“Too Much” on Netflix first look.
(Netflix)
Even as she becomes involved with Felix, Jessica continues her practice of recording private videos on her phone, on TikTok, as a sort of therapeutic diary, ranting about Zev; many are addressed directly to Wendy Jones. Meanwhile, she deals with Andrew Scott as a pretentious director (“We’ve got to make this feel like it’s Ken Loach doing a Christmas film”) and mucks in with new boss Jonno (Richard E. Grant) and colleagues Josie (Daisy Bevan), Kim (Janicza Bravo), who is interested in Josie, and chatterbox Boss (Leo Reich), who has published an “experimental PDF novel, to much acclaim” and broke up with someone because “he did not have the emotional intelligence necessary to deal with someone whose love language is being a b— in a fun way.” She confounds them with her loud, childlike American energy, filling empty spaces with words, making jokes that don’t come off. (“Just kidding” is a thing she says a lot.)
Recently sober, Felix has his own complement of bandmates, friends and friendly ex-girlfriends, including three women named Polly — Adèle Exarchopoulos plays the important one — whose history with Felix makes Jess nervous. (Jennifer Saunders is a bit of a surprise.) Sharpe, last seen on TV in the second season of “The White Lotus,” plays him quietly, a little melancholy, perhaps, but not unduly moody; even in a difficult situation — he’s carrying just as much baggage as Jessica — his energy remains low-key and relatively grounded, though he will be called upon to do some panicked running.
If the series has a fault, it’s that there’s possibly too much “Too Much.” In the movies, the business of “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl” (substitute your preferred genders), has traditionally been settled in under two hours. The streaming economy, however, has stretched the narrative timeline, elongated the arc, padding out a predetermined number of episodes with extraneous digressions, giving minor characters things to do that don’t necessarily contribute to the story, while not developing into much on their own. There are brief cutaways to Jonno’s home life, which at least has the benefit of giving us more Grant, plus Naomi Watts as his wife, Ann; scenes back in New York likewise give us unrelated time with Rita Wilson as Jessica’s mother, Lois; Rhea Perlman her mouthy grandmother, Dottie; Dunham’s Nora and Andrew Rannells as her ex-husband, Jameson, who left her in favor of “exploring non-monogamy with a couple both named Cody.”
More problematic, an exasperating character like Jessica, lived with at such length, can become exhausting, and she does. Dunham mitigates this, and the roller coaster of Jessica and Felix’s relationship, by employing an episodic structure, setting whole or nearly whole episodes against different backdrops: a wedding, a work trip, a dinner party, Felix at home with his parents (Stephen Fry and Kaori Momoi), Jess and Felix up all night (having sex, watching “Paddington”) when she has to be fresh for work in the morning, and a flashback to Jess’ history with Zev (he’s been made a “writer,” shorthand for pathetic). Taken individually, as discrete stories, they’re easier to digest. The writing is sharp, the performances spot-on.
Stalter, who is in her fourth season stealing scenes on “Hacks,” plays a character halfway around the world from her character there. Where her Kayla is brash, entitled and self-confident to a fault, Jess is needy, full of second thoughts and self-doubts, even as she projects a kind of frantic cheerfulness. (“I’m a chill girl, I’m normal,” she tells herself, doubtfully.) Dunham often shoots Stalter straight on, filling the screen with her face, which pays benefits; she has great presence. (And sings very sweetly too, better than her boyfriend.)
The endgame, when we get to it, could not be any more conventional — which, I imagine, is the idea. One might think it parodic if it hadn’t been established that this is the dream in which Jessica lives; anything less would be unkind.
I see I’ve neglected to mention the dog. There is a little dog too, who plays an important part.
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” It’s Mary Tyler Moore, of course, and you should know it.
To be precise, it’s Mary Richards, a person Moore played. But the smile was her own, and it worked magic across two situation comedies that described their time in a way that some might have regarded as ahead of their time. Although Moore proved herself as an actress of depth and range and peerless comic timing again and again, on the small and big screen and onstage, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made her a star, and incidentally a cultural figurehead, and are the reason we have a splendid new documentary, “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” premiering Friday on HBO. Were it titled simply “Being Mary,” there’d be little doubt who was meant.
Moore was driven to perform from an early age, which she relates to wanting to impress her father — though that seems too simple. She trained as a dancer, and right out of high school played a pixie, Happy Hotpoint, in a series of appliance commercials. (A visible pregnancy ended that job.) She played a faceless switchboard operator on “Richard Diamond, Private Detective,” from which she was bounced when she asked for more money, and a typical assortment of starlet roles in television and movies. A failed audition to play the older daughter on “The Danny Thomas Show” led to her being called for “Van Dyke,” of which Thomas was an executive producer. Creator Carl Reiner remembers, “I read about 60 girls, and I read the whole script with them. She read three lines, three simple lines. There was such a ping in it, an excitement, a reality to it.” They soon discovered her gift for comedy.
“The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which Moore played Laura Petrie to Van Dyke’s Rob, came into the world in the first year of the Kennedy administration, and there is something of that new White House, torch-passed-to-a-new-generation spirit in the Petries’ New Rochelle, N.Y., home. (Van Dyke was 35 when the show premiered — just old enough to be president himself — to Moore’s 24, but the two never seemed generationally distinct.) They were modern, with modern tastes. This was not the old-fashioned, small-town family comedy of “Father Knows Best” or “Leave It to Beaver.” If you lived in my household, you might have felt right at home with them.
Then again, “Dick Van Dyke” was not really a family comedy; some episodes might involve their son, Richie (Larry Mathews), but many more would not, and when child-rearing was the subject, it would more likely highlight the foolishness of the parents. The Petries were suburban in the sense of being connected to, not remote from, the city — sophisticated, fun, elegant. They threw parties, went out in formal wear, tried the latest dances. They were sexual. And they held the stage with equal strength and force.
If they were well on the safe side of bohemian, they were arty in their way, Rob a comedy writer, Laura, like Moore, a dancer — a former dancer in the show, which was not so ahead of its time to imagine a working mother. Still, the series found opportunities to let her dance. (“I will go to my grave thinking of myself as a failed dancer, not a successful actor,” Moore says in the documentary.)
Famously — and at once realistically and, for TV at that time, radically — she wore pants, tight ones; Moore is nearly synonymous with Capris. I turned on a random episode the other night (Season 4, Episode 1, “My Mother Can Beat Up My Father”), one I’d somehow never seen, in which a drunk at a restaurant bar begins to harass Laura. Rob tries to get him to back off, claiming he knows karate, and gets a punch in the nose — at which Laura, to her own surprise, flips the drunk with a judo move. (She’d learned self-defense when she was entertaining at Army bases.)
It winds up in a society column. Laura finds it funny. Rob, whose ego is as bruised as his proboscis, childishly lashes out.
Rob: “How come you never dress like a girl?”
Laura, incredulous: “What?
“Well, honey, I mean, shirts and slacks, shirts and slacks, that’s all I ever see when I come home.”
“You love me in shirts and slacks.”
“Yeah, well, but whatever happened to dresses?”
“Rob, you know, this is the stupidest conversation we’ve ever had.”
Mary Tyler Moore with Dr. Robert Levine, to whom she was married from 1983 until her death in 2017. Levine is an executive producer on “Being Mary Tyler Moore.”
(From Robert Levine / HBO)
“Dick Van Dyke” stories were divided equally between home and work, with the two worlds frequently intersecting. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” took that model and put Moore in the center of the action, amid a brilliant comic cast. Her move to Minneapolis, which begins the series and lands her in the newsroom at WJM, was not born from tragedy or pressure; she moves on her own initiative, recovering from nothing but the possibility of a life that won’t suit her.
That Mary was a single woman in no rush to be married was something new for television — but it could hardly be said that she lived alone; her apartment was subject to regular incursions from Rhoda (Valerie Harper) and Phyllis (Cloris Leachman), a company of women hashing out their different lives in a sort of dialectical comedy. (There were women in the writing room; Treva Silverman, whose comments are featured prominently in “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” was the first woman to win an Emmy with a solo credit.)
Whether this was or was not a feminist series is a question that still prompts think pieces. Gloria Steinem thought not, and Moore did not identify herself as such — though in the opening scene of the documentary, in a 1966 interview with a backward David Susskind, she does say, “I agree with Betty Friedan and her point of view in her book ‘Feminine Mystique’ that women are, or should be, human beings first, women second, wives and mothers third.”
For the record:
4:36 p.m. May 26, 2023The co-creator of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is James L. Brooks. He was misidentified as James Burrows in an earlier version of this story.
Unlike the Norman Lear comedies — “All in the Family,” also on CBS, premiered a few months after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — the MTM-produced comedies, which also included the “Moore” spinoffs “Rhoda” and “Phyllis,” were contemporary and “adult” without being issue-oriented. But because they were realistic about their characters, they couldn’t help but engage with their times and the culture. If the feminism of “Mary Tyler Moore,” which is in a sense just a function of its intelligence, is not explicit, it is in the bones of the show. And Mary, like the woman who played her, “inspired as many women as Eleanor Roosevelt,” in the words of series co-creator James L. Brooks.
If Moore never repeated the massive television success of her first two series, well, that would have been practically impossible. Some failed later shows, including the sitcom “Mary,” which found her working at a Chicago tabloid, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Hour,” which blended variety with a backstage sitcom, go unmentioned in the documentary, but are not without interest and may be found floating in cyberspace. Various dramatic roles, onscreen and onstage, demonstrated the subtlety and depth of her acting, though you could find that in most any episode of “Mary Tyler Moore” as well.
Her last great triumph — though not at all the end of her career — was her Oscar-nominated turn in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People,” whose cold mother is deemed closer to her own character; she had a reputation, she says, for being “an ice princess.” Redford decided to cast her having once seen her walking on the beach, looking sad. (“He saw my dark side.”)
It is the point of nearly any show business biography that the person we know from their work is and is not the person who lived the life. Indeed, the very title “Being Mary Tyler Moore” suggests that “Mary Tyler Moore” was both a part she played and a person she was, similar in some respects and markedly different in others. Directed by James Adolphus, with Moore’s widower, Dr. Robert Levine, on board as an executive producer, the film has access to a wealth of family photos and home movies — including footage of her bridal shower, featuring a hilarious Betty White — and does a fine job of illuminating the private Moore, with testimony from (unseen) colleagues, friends and family.
It’s no secret that her life was marked by tragedy. (She was a private person, but she wrote books. And some things you can’t keep out of the papers.) She had a drinking problem. Her sister died from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Her son, Richard, accidentally shot himself. Diabetes led to numerous problems with her health. But “Being Mary Tyler Moore” is a happier story than one might expect, which in itself makes it a moving one. Moore and Levine were married from 1983 to her death in 2017, and they settled into a life filled with dogs and horses; there were good works too, on behalf of juvenile diabetes.
We can too easily measure the worth of a performer’s life by their professional success, as if there’s nothing more terrible than a canceled sitcom, a box office flop or the lack of good roles all but a few actors eventually face. “Being Mary Tyler Moore” reminds us not to make that mistake.
‘Being Mary Tyler Moore’
When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: HBO Streaming:Max Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) __________
Certain elements of Jules Verne’s 1870 novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” have become a TV series, “Nautilus,” premiering Sunday on AMC, which picked up the show after Disney+, which ordered and completed it, let it drop. Created by James Dormer, it’s not an adaptation but a prequel, or an origin story, as the comic book kids like to say, in which Nemo, not yet captain, sets sail in his submarine for the first time.
Verne’s imaginative fiction has inspired more and less faithful screen adaptations since the days of silent movies. (Georges Méliès 1902 “A Trip to the Moon,” based partially on Verne’s 1865 “From the Earth to the Moon,” is accounted the first science-fiction film.) For a few midcentury years, perhaps inspired by the success of Disney’s own “20,000 Leagues” — a film they continue to exploit in its theme parks — and Mike Todd’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” it was almost a cottage industry: “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “In Search of the Castaways,” “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” I grew up watching these films rerun on TV; they are corny and fun, as is “Nautilus,” with fancier effects, anticorporate sentiments and people of color.
We have seen Nemo played by James Mason, Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Ben Cross and Robert Ryan, but in “The Mysterious Island,” Verne’s sort-of sequel to “Twenty Thousand Leagues,” he identified Nemo as an Indian prince, as he is shown here, played by Shazad Latif, deposed by an imperial power, his wife and child murdered. The character is usually a bit of a madman, and this Nemo — pigheaded, bossy — is not wholly an exception, though he is also a young, smoldering, swashbuckling hero and a man more sinned against than sinning. We meet him as a prisoner of the British East India Mercantile Company, “the most powerful corporation to ever exist, more powerful than any country,” which is building the Nautilus in India with slave labor, in pursuit, says villainous company director Crawley (Damien Garvey), of “prying open and exploiting the Chinese market.” I’m not sure how a submarine is supposed to do that, but, eh, it’s a reason.
Nemo has been collaborating with the submarine’s inventor, Gustave Benoit (Thierry Frémont), who had accepted the corporation’s money under the promise that it would be used for exploration — scientists can be so dense. Nemo, whom the professor credits as the mind behind the ship’s engine, has his own use for the Nautilus and executes a hasty escape with a half-random crew of fellow inmates in a deftly staged sequence that borrows heavily from “Indiana Jones,” an inspirational well to which the series returns throughout.
And we’re off. On the agenda: escaping, revenge and finding buried treasure to finance revenge.
Joining the Nautilus crew are Loti (Céline Menville) and Humility (Georgia Flood).
(Vince Valitutti / Disney+)
When the Nautilus, hardly on its way, cripples the ship they’re traveling on — under the impression that the sub is under attack — the crew is joined, unwillingly, by Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood), a science-minded British socialite with super engineering skills, who is being packed off to Bombay to marry the abominable Lord Pitt (Cameron Cuffe). She’s accompanied by a chaperone/warder, Loti (Céline Menville), a Frenchwoman who has a mean way with a dagger, and cabin boy Blaster (Kayden Price). And a little dog too. Sparks obviously will fly between Nemo and Humility — bad sparks, then good sparks, as in an Astaire and Rogers movie — and there are actual sparks from a bad electrical connection Humility works out how to fix.
Apart from Benoit, Humility and Loti, a big fellow named Jiacomo (Andrew Shaw), who hails from nobody knows where and speaks a language no one understands, and a British stowaway, the crew of the Nautilus are all people of color — South Asian, Asian, Middle Eastern, African or Pacific Islander. Few are really developed as characters, but the actors give them life, and the supporting players carry the comedy, of which there’s a good deal. One episode inverts the tired old scenario in which white explorers are threatened with death by dark-skinned natives; here, the captors are Nordic warrior women. The show is anticolonial and anti-imperialist in a way that “Star Wars” taught audiences to recognize, if not necessarily recognize in the world around them, and anticapitalist in a way that movies have most always been. (The final episode, which has a financial theme, is titled “Too Big to Fail.” It is quite absurd.)
It can be slow at times, which is not inappropriate to a show that takes place largely underwater. But that its structure is essentially episodic keeps “Nautilus” colorful and more interesting than if it were simply stretched on the rack of a long arc across its 10 episodes. It’s a lot like (pre-streaming) “Star Trek,” which is, after all, a naval metaphor, its crew sailing through a hostile environment encountering a variety of monsters and cultures week to week; indeed, there are some similar storylines: the crew infected by a mystery spore, the ship threatened by tiny beasties and giant monsters, encounters with a tinpot dictator and semimythological figures — all the while being pursued by a Klingon Bird of Prey, sorry, a giant metal warship.
The greatest hits of underwater adventuring (some from Verne’s novel) are covered: volcanoes, giant squid, giant eel, engine trouble, running out of air and the ruins of a lost civilization (Is it Atlantis? Benoit hopes so). Less common: a cricket match on the ice. Apart from a pod of whales outside the window (and, later, a whale rescue), not a lot of time is devoted to the wonders of the sea — the special effects budget, which has in other respects been spent lavishly, apparently had no room left for schools of fish. But these submariners have other things on their minds.
The odds of a second season, says my cloudy crystal ball, are limited, so you may have to accommodate a few minor cliffhangers if you decide to watch. I did not at all regret the time I spent here, even though I sometimes had no idea what was going on or found it ridiculous when I did, as there was usually some stimulating activity or bit of scenery or detail of steampunk design to enjoy. I mean, I watched an episode of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” recently, a 1960s submarine series, in which guest star John Cassavetes created a superbomb that could destroy three-quarters of the world, and almost nothing in it made any sense at all, including the presence of John Cassavetes. “Nautilus” is actually good.
