villains

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who spent the week Googling Ed Gein.

“Monster,” the gruesome and graphic anthology series from longtime collaborators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, has dramatized the chilling story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and the highly publicized and complex case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers who were convicted for the 1989 murder of their parents. The third installment of the Netflix series, which was released last week, puts its twist on the legend of Gein, a killer who inspired fictional villains like Norman Bates and Leatherface. Brennan, who wrote the season, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the fantastical approach to the season and that “Mindhunter” hat tip.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a “Frontline” documentary that continues its chronicle on the lingering impact of poverty and a spinoff of “The Boys” set at America’s only college for superheroes.

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Must-read stories you might have missed

Illustration of John Candy with his hands on his cheeks.

(Brian Lutz / For The Times)

‘You never stop thinking about John Candy’: How a pair of projects keep his legacy alive: The beloved actor, who would have turned 75 this month, is the focus of an eponymous biography and “John Candy: I Like Me,” a documentary directed by Colin Hanks.

With the help of advisors, ‘Boots’ co-stars challenged themselves to portray military life authentically: Actors Miles Heizer and Max Parker trained like Marines and utilized the experiences of the show’s military advisors to ground their characters.

She’s used to finding laughs in catastrophe. But Rose Byrne is only now going to the edge: After stealing focus in everything from “Bridesmaids” to “Insidious,” Rose Byrne unravels beautifully in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

Victoria Beckham sheds Posh persona, gets candid about eating disorder in Netflix doc: The three-part docuseries chronicles the Spice Girls alum’s pivot from pop stardom to high fashion.

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

A still from “Frontline: Born Poor,” which filmed over 14 years with kids from three families, from adolescents to adults, to explore how poverty has affected them.

(Frontline PBS)

“Frontline: Born Poor” (PBS.org)

Television is glutted with “reality,” but there are still filmmakers who prefer to look at how people live when they’re not contestants in a dating game or bunked up with competitive strangers. Jezza Neumann’s “Born Poor” is the third installment in a moving documentary series that began 14 years ago with “Poor Kids,” and, like Michael Apted’s “7 Up” films, has visited its subjects in intervals over the years since. Set in the Quad Cities area, where Illinois meets Iowa along the Mississippi River, it follows Brittany, Johnny and Kayli from bright-eyed childhood into chastened, though still optimistic adulthood, as they deal with life on the margins — power lost, houses lost, school impossible, food unpredictable. Now, with kids of their own, all are concerned to provide them a better life than the ones they had. With Washington waging a war on the poor to protect the rich, it’s a valuable watch. — Robert Lloyd

Derek Luh (Jordan Li), from left, Jaz Sinclair (Marie Moreau), Keeya King (Annabeth Moreau), Lizze Broadway (Emma Meyer) in “Gen V.”

(Jasper Savage / Prime)

“Gen V” (Prime Video)

Just two weeks out from its Season 2 finale and the satirical superhero series continues to deliver merciless dark humor and sharp topical commentary on America’s great crumble — inside of a tale about misfits enduring the rigors of college life.

Spun off from the brilliant “The Boys” franchise, this series from Eric Kripke, Craig Rosenberg and Evan Goldberg follows a group of students at Godolkin University, an institution designed to identify and train the next generation of superheroes. But the co-eds soon discover that their supposed higher education is in fact a clandestine operation to create “Supe” soldiers for an impending war between the super-powered and non-powered humans. Returning to the fold is Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), who emerges as the rebel group’s most powerful weapon against the school’s nefarious plot. Working alongside her are Emma (Lizze Broadway), Cate (Maddie Phillips), Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh) and Sam (Asa Germann). The wonderfully unnerving Hamish Linklater (“Midnight Mass”) joins the cast as the school’s new dean.

Is “Gen V” just as gory as “The Boys”? Absolutely. Watch with caution. But nothing else is quite as fearless in calling out the contradictions and absurdities of our times, be it corrupt politics, corporate domination or false religiosity. — Lorraine Ali

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in an episode of “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.”

(Netflix)

“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” stars Charlie Hunnam as the so-called “Butcher of Plainfield,” whose gruesome crimes in 1950s small-town Wisconsin went on to inspire pop culture classics like “Psycho” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The season leans into Gein’s diagnosed schizophrenia and his legacy in Hollywood to present a deeply fictionalized version of his horrifying activities. All eight episodes of the season are now streaming. Ian Brennan, who co-created the anthology series with Ryan Murphy and helmed the latest installment, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the season’s approach to fact vs. fiction, that “Mindhunter” nod and the documentary that earns his rewatch time. — Yvonne Villarreal

We often hear from actors about the roles that stay with them long after they’re done filming. Are there elements of “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” that you still can’t shake?

Ed Gein was schizophrenic, and I find the internal life he would have suffered through for decades — alone and hearing voices, primarily that of his dead mother — completely harrowing. He wasn’t medicated until late in his life, and until he was, his mind was a hall of mirrors of images he saw and couldn’t unsee — most shockingly photos of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust. I believe the only way he could cope was to try to normalize these things — digging up bodies, skinning them, making things from them — and the nagging voice of his mother ultimately drove him to murder at least two women, Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, maybe more. Ed Gein wasn’t the local boogeyman — his neighbors didn’t find him scary — he was the guy you’d have watch your kids if the babysitter canceled last-minute. And yet, in those four inches between his ears there existed a bizarre, terrifying hellscape of profound loneliness and total confusion. Every day in this country we see what happens when the lethal combination of male loneliness and mental illness goes ignored. The thought of an Ed Gein living just down the street from me is chilling.

“Based on a true story” depictions typically have a loose relationship with the truth due to storytelling needs. This season of “Monster” bakes that idea into the narrative — whether because of Ed’s understanding of events or the way in which he, or his crimes, inspired deeply fictionalized villains like Norman Bates (“Psycho”), Leatherface (“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”) and Buffalo Bill (“The Silence of the Lambs”) — in trying to unpack the “Who is the monster?” question. What questions were swirling in your head as you tried to weave this story together? And how did that inform where and how you took your liberties?

Ed’s story is, in many ways, fragmented — he didn’t remember many details of the acts he committed, and he passed polygraph tests when interrogated about cold cases police suspected he may have perpetrated. So we knew from the very beginning that there would be gaps to fill in when telling his story — and it seemed the obvious way to do it was to let the true story interplay with the fictionalized versions of Ed Gein that he inspired. There’s a subtle thematic bleed between the versions of Ed we see in the series and the monsters in the movies he inspired — in the first three episodes, we see a “Psycho”-inflected Ed Gein obsessed with his mother; next a much more sexualized, violent Ed Gein that would become “Leatherface”; then an Ed Gein who so fetishized the female body and who was made so ill by the repression of that urge that he became obsessed with building a suit made from women’s bodies. These versions of Ed, to me, are like the blind men feeling different parts of the elephant in the parable — each true in their own way, but each also just a fragment of a shattered whole that will probably never be fully understood.

The season finale features a “Mindhunter” nod. Happy Anderson, who played serial killer Jerry Brudos on that show, reprises his role as the Shoe Fetish Slayer, talking to characters meant to be Holden Ford and Bill Tench, though they’re named John Douglas and Robert Ressler, the real FBI agents who inspired the fictional ones. When and why did you realize you wanted to have that hat tip? Was there an attempt to try to get Jonathan Groff or Holt McCallany?

Having written three seasons of this anthology so far, we’ve realized each time that the emotional climax always comes in the penultimate episode and the finales are always particularly difficult to figure out. We knew we needed to top the episodes that had preceded it by shifting the show’s look and tone — and we had in our hands the nugget that John Douglas and Robert Ressler had, indeed, interviewed Ed Gein in person. Ryan and I both find David Fincher’s oeuvre almost uniquely inspiring, so once we pictured an episode that played as an homage to Fincher’s tone and style and narrative approach, it was something I, at least, just couldn’t unsee. If we were going to go down the rabbit hole of what this chapter of Ed’s story might have looked like, I could only really picture it in Fincher’s terms — so your guess is as good as mine as to why casting the “Mindhunter” pair of Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany in the roles didn’t feel right (we both love both of those actors), but it just didn’t.

There are so many dark moments for the actors. What scene struck you as especially difficult to write and shoot?

I was at once excited and terrified by the challenge of depicting necrophilia on our show. I’m fairly certain it’s never been done before on TV, and I knew it ran the risk of seeming arbitrarily shocking or exploitative (though I think choosing to tell Ed’s story in an easier manner by avoiding this chapter and not showing it would be the actually exploitative choice). Needless to say, even after I’d written the scene, it preoccupied me, as I had to also direct it. I felt greatly helped by the new industry standard of intimacy coordinators on set — and ours, Katie Groves, was spectacular — but still I worried about the scene just playing as cringey or unwatchable. But Charlie Hunnam, as with every scene he acted in on the show, came at the sequence with honesty and deep concern to capture all of the strangeness of the bizarre, disturbing act we were depicting — and what it said about what was going on inside Ed to lead him to commit such an act.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I just saw PT Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” — which was shot by one of our two directors of photography, Michael Bauman — and was just completely floored and delighted. I’m sure it’s rife with homage to films that have gone before, but I could detect no inheritance at all; it felt like a genre to itself — completely original and new. And I still find the time I watched Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone of Interest” to be among the most profound experiences of my life. He took what is maybe cinema’s most settled, well-trodden genres and turned it on its head in a way I found shocking and revelatory. If there is a better portrait of the proximity and ubiquity and the banality of human evil, I haven’t seen it. I think it is as brilliant a slice of human ingenuity as has ever been crafted. I have thought about that movie every day since I first saw it.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

It’s annoying to say it, but I don’t watch a lot of television. It’s like spending all day at the sausage factory then coming home to watch sausage footage. But the big exception is Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary “Get Back” [Disney+] chronicling the making of the film and album “Let it Be.” I basically just watch it over and over again. I came late to the Beatles (I loved the Who and resented that they always sat squarely in the Beatles’ shadow), but when they hit me, they hit me hard, and watching them in this documentary at the height of their powers is a master class in the craft of collaboration and the hard work of genius. Also, everything I thought I knew about the Beatles at the end of their stretch as a band is wrong — fighting all the time? A bit but not really. Paul hated Yoko? He actually seems to really like her. I don’t know how many hours the documentary clocks in at, but I wish it were 10 times as long.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival series is fast approaching and it’s time to revisit some of the show’s most memorable villains.

*Warning – this article contains major spoilers for all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.*

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is chock-full of unforgettable baddies, but while some subtly slay, others just… suck?

With the reboot series led by Buffy icon Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cards, it’s only right to take a nostalgic look back at the good, the bad and the chaos-demon-ugly from all seven seasons of the cult classic, which is currently available to stream on ITVX.

The TV sensation created by Joss Whedon, which originally aired between 1997 and 2003, still boasts a loyal fanbase eagerly awaiting the return of the legendary character, reports Surrey Live.

In the meantime, from the ‘big bads’ of each season to the wicked ones lurking in the shadows, we’ve picked out 12 characters who might give you the heebie-jeebies – and one of them may catch you off guard.

12. Adam

Adam commits plenty of gruesome acts during his short time in season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but his biggest sin is being entirely forgettable.

While we spend the season getting to know Riley, Professor Walsh and other members of the Initiative, we learn almost nothing interesting about this Frankenstein-like creation except that he wants to kill everything in sight.

11. The Master

The Master is the first major villain Buffy ever has to face but, while her season-long struggle to defeat him feels epic the first time you see it, he seems pretty bland on a re-watch.

In the end, the prosthetic effects and his somewhat corny dialogue makes him appear less threatening and, like Adam, we don’t learn much about him except that he wants evil to triumph.

10. The First

The First Evil is billed as the final, ultimate villain Buffy must defeat before the entire town of Sunnydale is swallowed into the hell mouth forever.

The First’s introduction to season 7 is chilling, as it uses imitation to trick Buffy and her friends to exploit their grief and insecurities.

However, as the season goes on its lack of physical presence becomes increasingly unexciting, and we spend far too much screen time with the minions doing its bidding.

9. Buffy’s Dad

While Buffy’s Dad isn’t strictly evil, he is a strong candidate for this list. At first, Hank Summers makes some effort with Buffy and we even see she has stayed with him over the summer between seasons 1 and 2.

However, by the time Joyce dies, it is apparent he barely speaks to his daughters, not even bothering to show up to the funeral despite Buffy ‘leaving messages all over the place’.

During that time, we learn he was in Spain with his secretary – and he doesn’t even notice when Buffy (temporarily) dies.

8. Caleb

Sadistic defrocked priest Caleb has a pathological hatred of women, which makes him one of the most sinister and unlikeable villains on this list.

We know he killed several girls while still in human form, before The First Evil granted him superhuman strength and other abilities in order to do its bidding.

He also nearly overpowers and kills Buffy before the show’s finale, making him one of her most formidable nemesies.

7. Dark Willow

One of the most tragic and painful storylines across Buffy’s run was Willow’s magic addiction battle in season 6, which mirrored many people’s real-life struggles with addiction.

When Warren kills Willow’s girlfriend Tara, this escalates and she goes on a murderous rampage, at first seeking revenge but ultimately attempting to destroy the world as dark magic consumes her.

This is one of the bleakest chapters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it cannot be denied that Willow makes a powerful and complex villain.

6. Warren

Remember the earlier reference to villains who ‘just suck’? That’s Warren. This misogynistic sociopath is so hateable precisely because he’s still very clearly, pathetically human.

We are first introduced to him when he builds himself the ‘perfect’ robot girlfriend only to then discard her for another woman without bothering to tell her.

He then forms ‘The Trio’ alongside Andrew and Jonathan and, while at first they are painted as fairly harmless, things quickly get disturbing.

When Warren convinces The Trio to help him imprison his former girlfriend as a mindless sex slave, he ends up killing her as she tries to escape.

Later, he tries to shoot Buffy, instead killing Tara in the process before being gruesomely murdered by Willow.

5. Faith

Sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain, Faith doesn’t have an easy ride on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – and she often has herself to blame.

Eventually, Faith finds her redemption and is able to aid Buffy in her final fight against The First.

However, some of the best scenes in the show are when Buffy and Faith throw punches, with their perfectly-matched slayer strength culminating in some pretty epic fight scenes.

4. Mayor Richard Wilkins

Formerly human but now an immortal demon, Mayor Richard Wilkins is one of Buffy’s most memorable villains thanks to his unsettlingly cheery demeanor and wise words of advice.

While ultimately, his primary ambition is to transform into a giant snake and wreak havoc on Sunnydale, he also cares about good manners, cleanliness and forms a meaningful father-daughter bond with Faith.

3. Spike and Drusilla

First introduced in season 2, vampires Spike and Drusilla totally transformed Buffy the Vampire Slayer when they appeared.

Both interesting characters in their own right, they felt decidedly more human than the villains that came before and also introduced plenty of humour and levity to proceedings.

Spike quickly became a fan favourite, being brought back again in season 3 before returning as a main cast member in season 4.

2. Glory

While Buffy is generally in the business of slaying demons, the stakes were raised in season 5 when she came face to face with a literal god.

Glory was a fantastic villain for the show because, while she was capable of witty one-liners, she also had some pretty terrifying powers.

Arguably, the show’s sense of jeopardy never felt stronger than it did in season 5, and Glory’s human weakness (Ben – Ben? I’m sure he was connected to her somehow? Were they roommates?) and backstory made the villain all the more compelling.

1. Angelus

Widely considered to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s ultimate villain, Angelus is one of the most evil characters in the Buffyverse.

However, it is really Buffy’s emotional connection to him that makes the drama all the more intense, as she has already fallen in love with Angel, the version of him with a soul.

After her former lover starts killing her friends and attempting to bring about the apocalypse, Buffy is tragically forced to kill him in order to save the world just moments after his soul is restored.

Rewatch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on ITVX.

Coronation Street fans think a former villain will be revealed as the person who orchestrated the death of Lisa Swain’s wife Becky Swain, and DI Costello could be involved

Becky Swain’s real killer on Coronation Street may have been rumbled according to fans of the ITV soap.

This week’s episodes have left them convinced that an existing character is involved in Becky’s death and a possible cover-up. Not only that, but fans think a past villain may return and be revealed as the reason Becky is dead.

It comes as Lisa Swain continued to dig into her late wife’s demise in recent scenes, after suggestion she may have been a corrupt officer. DI Costello downplayed this as he called out Lisa for sneaking onto his computer to access Becky’s files.

READ MORE: Coronation Street star announces abrupt exit as character ‘killed off’ without warningREAD MORE: Coronation Street Sally Ann Matthews axed as Jenny Connor 39 years after debut

Costello’s reaction, the comments from Logan Radcliffe to Lisa’s partner Carla Connor and a scene with Lisa’s therapist Floyd have now left fans certain a cover-up is confirmed. Not only that, but they think they have figured out how everything ties together.

With Costello appearing to know more than he’s letting on, fans think he is harbouring the true events that led to Becky’s demise, or at least what happened to her. Logan knows something too, with it revealed earlier this year that he and his brother Matty Radcliffe were driving the car that hit and killed her.

Then there’s Floyd’s weird comment to a mystery person on the phone about a “breakthrough” with Lisa during a session, moments after she confessed her fears Becky was corrupt. Fans are now wondering if Floyd is also involved.

But it’s a former villain that some fans are convinced knows something, and could even be Becky’s killer – or the person who made it happen. Costello could also be tied in according to the theory, and it could see said villain return to the soap.

Logan and Matty were revealed to be working for former baddie Harvey Gaskell months ago. He targeted David Platt via the brothers, and now fans are wondering if he was up to no good with either Becky involved, or she figured out what was going on.

Fans have wondered if Costello is corrupt and may have been in cahoots with Harvey, and either he or Harvey had the Radcliffe brothers silence Becky – either because she was about to expose them or because she was involved. Taking to social media, fans theorised Harvey would soon be revealed to be the killer, and this is the “mutual friend” who orchestrated an attack, it seems, on Logan in prison on Friday.

One fan said: “OK so my theory is Costello and Becky were both corrupt, working for Harvey Gaskell. Becky was ‘caught out’, an investigation opened and Harvey, seeing her as a liability gets the Radcliffe’s to kill her and Costello to cover it up.”

Another fan said: “Now I’ve a feeling that either the counsellor guy or Costello are involved in someway in Becky’s death.” A third fan said: “Costello is definitely part of this whole thing. ‘He’s been worried about me since Becky died’. He f***ing killed her.”

A further comment read: “Now I’m thinking Costello knows more than he’s letting on!” as another said: “I think so too. I think he is a big part of the reason the Radcliffe’s got away with so much.”

Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .