The race for L.A. city attorney delivered a shock this spring when incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto was ousted, an upset the likes of which hadn’t happened in nearly a century. The pair of candidates who remain have since laid out their widely differing visions of the job.
Here’s what you need to know.
The candidates
John McKinney is an L.A. County deputy district attorney with nearly 30 years of legal experience. He vows to clean up what he calls a blighted downtown and work closely with his boss and backer, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, to reduce crime in the city.
Marissa Roy is a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice. She plans to use the office to fight for tenant and wage workers. Her vision of the city attorney is to be the “people’s lawyer” for L.A.
In their own words
Here are the Q&As with each of the candidates.
State of the race
Roy is leading in the race to become the next Los Angeles city attorney. She was ahead by 10 percentage points in the most recent poll conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.
Still, some local voters don’t know the candidates by name.
Issues
Criminal justice
McKinney is focusing his campaign on tamping down quality-of-life crimes in the city such as organized retail theft, drug dealing and street racing. McKinney would prioritize public safety and vows to go after demonstrators who block freeways or engage in conduct similar to the 2024 pro-Palestine encampments on UCLA’s campus.
Roy wants to funnel nonviolent offenders to diversion programs such as mental health treatment or vocational training.
Hefty legal payouts
McKinney said he’d lean on his long experience as a trial attorney to quickly decide which incoming lawsuits against the city should be fought and which should be settled in order to reduce the city’s legal costs.
Roy wants to bring civil litigation back in-house to rein in the millions spent on outside counsel. She also argues for beefing up the claims process so legitimate suits are settled effectively and frivolous ones are fought.
How each candidate would handle Trump
McKinney would work to balance respecting federal authority as required by law against protecting the constitutional rights of city residents and defending local resources if threatened by federal overreach.
Roy has made fighting the Trump administration a centerpiece in her campaign.
Homelessness
McKinney wants to use the court system as a “last resort” to leverage people into accepting services or shelter.
Roy says renter protections will be vital to stemming the city’s homeless crisis.
Nithya Raman slowly recited the start of her handwritten message to Angelenos.
Llegué de la India con mi madre a los seis años. Sé lo que cuesta empezar de nuevo.
I came from India with my mother when I was 6. I know what it takes to start over.
The mayoral hopeful was in the green room of Univision’s Westchester studios on Thursday, waiting for an interview with anchor Guad Venegas. He would ask each question in both English and Spanish, and Raman could respond in English.
But she hoped to do better than that.
Since the start of her campaign, Raman has sprinkled Spanglish into her speeches and sometimes offered whole sentences in softly accented, lightly stilted Spanish. It’s part of an effort to win over Latinos, nearly half the city’s population and a crucial swing vote , with less than a week to go before election day.
“Can you say the whole thing for me?” Raman asked Lauren Perez-Rangel, her Latino outreach senior director, who read the full message in effortless Spanish. Raman repeated it word for word, accent for accent, with no flubs or pauses.
“You got it!” Perez-Rangel told her boss.
“I hope,” Raman replied.
It was showtime.
Raman, who serves on the L.A. City Council, grinned when someone said “me vale madre” — I don’t give a damn — on the walk to the studio. She cracked in English, “I doubt that’s true!” when I told an Univision producer in Spanish that no one likes my work.
A cameraman proclaimed “¡Muy bien!” when Raman rattled off an “uno, dos, tres” mic check. Venegas responded in English, “It’s always like that” to Raman’s comment in Spanish that her pronunciation is better than her comprehension.
During the interview, Raman raised her eyebrows when Venegas talked about streets filled with “basura,” the word for “trash” that became an insulting pun on Bass’ name hurled by then-candidate Spencer Pratt during the primary. Raman answered questions in English even when Venegas only asked them in Spanish, fully understanding what he said. And she kept saying “sí” to acknowledge Venegas’ points, as a native speaker would.
She never got a chance to read her Spanish-language statement, but that was OK. I saw enough to know that while she isn’t going to write the next “Don Quixote,” she isn’t limited to ordering at Casa Vega.
Supporters have praised her efforts en español. Critics dismiss them as pandering. I see something more interesting at work.
Raman spoke Tamil and Malayalam in India before moving to the U.S. as a child. If she wins, she would be the first immigrant mayor since Canadian-born Frank Shaw in the 1930s. She’d also be the first mayor whose native tongue wasn’t English since Bernard Cohn, who grew up speaking German in Prussia and served as mayor for two weeks in 1878.
Having a non-native English speaker in charge of a world capital such as L.A. — and one who wants to express herself in the city’s second tongue — wouldn’t just be symbolic. A person who’s earnest about learning a language is forever trying to decipher something new, failing far more often than succeeding in the early going — yet always working to master the task.
Isn’t that what we want from any politician, especially in a city where 56% of residents live in a household that speaks a language other than English?
Los Angeles mayoral candidate and city councilmember Nithya Raman prepares to speak at a “Latinos Con Raman” rally at La Cita Bar in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 18.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Familiarity with Spanish has become a prerequisite for L.A. mayors. Antonio Villaraigosa famously took classes to improve his assimilated Spanish. Eric Garcetti described his fluency as “good community meeting Spanish” and often delivered remarks in Spanish. Bass, who was married to a Chicano and treats her ex-husband’s children as her own, isn’t fluent but has a robust Spanish-language outreach for her campaign, complete with ads, mailers and websites.
For Raman, though, learning Spanish isn’t just a way to reach out to constituents. It’s a reminder of “what it means to grapple with a bureaucracy that wasn’t intended for you.”
We spoke outside Univision’s studios after her interview. I asked to speak about her experience with Spanish as a way to show a private side of her to Angelenos. (I had asked Bass to sit down with me and talk about food. The interview was initially scheduled, then campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said it was canceled so Bass could attend a news conference assailing Raman for saying that former LAPD Police Chief Daryl Gates was a “gold standard” in protecting immigrants. Bass’ campaign didn’t reschedule the interview and didn’t provide comment on her Spanish skills in time for publication.)
In 2022, Raman co-authored a motion that introduced live Spanish translation services at city council committee meetings. She wants the city to research whether it can provide the information that’s being lost as the Trump administration increasingly deletes Spanish-language versions of federal websites.
“You have to show them that you’re trying,” Raman told me. “And even if you go out there, and you speak broken Spanish, and you mess it up, and you don’t conjugate it properly, and you get all the endings wrong — ‘a’ versus ‘o’ — the fact that you show up and you say it, and you try it in Spanish, means something to the people that I’ve been talking to.”
Her Spanish journey began with four years of classes at a suburban Boston high school. She chose Spanish instead of French because she felt it “would be more useful for me in the world.”
Raman forgot most of it while attending Harvard and MIT but started practicing with her brother, a Spanish major at UCLA, when she moved to L.A. 13 years ago. She read bilingual books for beginners and streamed shows such asNetflix’s dark comedy “La Casa de las Flores” (“The House of Flowers”) and podcasts such as “Chill Spanish.”
Those lessons have happened “pretty regularly” since she joined the city council in 2020, Raman said, although she scaled back once the mayoral campaign intensified.
I wondered what languages are spoken in her household. Her husband, whose Tamil-speaking parents are immigrants from India, only speaks English. Her twin 10-year-olds “can kind of follow along” when she speaks to her parents in Tamil, but she is no longer fluent in Malayalam.
“I have friends like who speak a different language, and they’re, like, religious about speaking it to their children,” Raman said. While she would love for her children to learn other languages, “life is too stressful trying to make every moment of your time with your family into almost a chore.”
I asked about the pandering charge. Throwing out Spanish phrases in an effort to appeal to Latinos is a political cliché as weak salsa as eating tacos in East L.A. or cruising in a lowrider.
Raman shook her head.
“To try and communicate to people in the language that they speak doesn’t feel like pandering. It feels like what the city should do,” she said. “Why shouldn’t elected representatives here also speak Spanish, or do their best to communicate to people in their language?
“If there was a lot of Tamil speakers here,” Raman continued, “I would appreciate that for me and for my family and for my grandparents.”
Mayor Karen Bass speaks during the “Latinos Con Bass” campaign at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026 in Los Angeles.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Then I tested her Spanish.
Had she heard of one of my favorite words: convenenciero? Someone who goes with what will help them and doesn’t stand for anything but themselves. Haters have never outright called Raman a convenenciera, I said, but that’s what they’re insinuating in almost every other sentence.
In fairness, most politicians have a bit of convenenciero in them.
“People say, ‘She doesn’t stand for anything,’ but people also criticize me for being ideological, so which is it?” Raman calmly responded. “I try and learn. And I don’t come and say, ‘I know what you want.’ I say, ‘I’m trying to learn what you want, and I want to make the city work for you. How can I make it work?’”
So you’re not a convenenciera?
“I don’t feel that,” Raman said, repeating the phrase two more times.
I told her I’d ask three questions in Spanish. First: how was she doing?
“Bien. Un poco nervioso.”
“Poca nerviosa,” I corrected. A bit nervous. She thanked me for correcting her and said, “Sí, sí, nerviosa.”
What was she doing to try and relax during this campaign?
“Yo quiero estar con mi familia. Mis hijos …” I want to be with my family. My children …
She thought about the right phrase.
“… son mi vida.” Are my life.
What’s a word she loves in Spanish?
Perez-Rangel suggested chisme — gossip.
“I do like chisme!” Raman said with a laugh. But that wasn’t it.
“I like the word tomar [to take] and how many different meanings it has,” she said in English, then rattled off definitions and tenses in Spanish. Tomar bebidas. Tomar su tiempo.
“Tomar City Hall?” I asked.
She laughed again and said something that needs no translation: “Yes.”
Steven Soderbergh is stepping in to help finish shooting “The Batman Part II” while director Matt Reeves continues to deal with a personal matter.
“As Matt Reeves continues to attend to an ongoing family matter, Steven Soderbergh, as an admirer of Matt’s work, approached Matt and will step in, with the full support of DC Studios, to help the writer-director complete the final weeks of principal photography on ‘The Batman Part 2,’” the studio said Thursday in a statement first reported by Deadline. “Matt and Steven will work closely together with the actors and crew to fulfill Matt’s vision of the film.”
DC Studios chief James Gunn confirmed the news on social media Thursday while reiterating that Reeves remains the director of “The Batman Part II.”
“Matt is still the director of The Batman 2 and always will be,” he wrote on Threads. “I can’t express how profoundly grateful and moved we are by Steven’s offer to help him complete his vision.”
“Matt has the full support of DC Studios and we look forward to continuing the journey soon,” the studio said in a statement at the time.
The writer-director also took to social media Thursday to express his gratitude and to confirm he would be continuing his work on “The Batman 2.”
“Just to be clear, I am not leaving The Batman Part II,” Reeves wrote in a post on X. “I am profoundly grateful to Steven for coming to my aid during this challenging time to help me finish principal photography. Thank you to all for your concern and well wishes.”
Soderbergh expressed his appreciation for Reeves’ work while addressing his new role Thursday in a widely reported statement.
“I thought Matt Reeves’ work on ‘The Batman’ was stunning; it was intentional, specific, and rigorously coherent,” he said in his statement, first reported by Deadline. “The goal here is to work with Matt and his team to generate footage that will integrate seamlessly with what’s already been shot so Matt can properly finish his film.”
A follow-up to Reeves’ 2022 reboot, “The Batman,” the upcoming film will once again star Robert Pattinson as Gotham’s iconic Caped Crusader. “The Batman Part II” began filming in London in June after a number of previous delays while Reeves and Mattson Tomlin wrote the script. The movie is slated to hit theaters on Feb. 18, 2028.
The last time audiences saw Vision, the reconstructed synthezoid was flying off into the distance, and we didn’t know when we’d actually see him again. But he’s finally back.
Premiering Tuesday on Disney+, “VisionQuest” brings Vision (Paul Bettany) back into the spotlight — along with a few of his closest inorganic friends — as he tries to figure out his identity and understanding of humanity. Along the way, he’ll encounter a bounty hunter (Todd Stashwick) and a teenager that just might be his son (Ruaridh Mollica), sort of. It’s a long story.
Created by Terry Matalas, “VisionQuest” is set to wrap up the story set into motion by the 2021 series “WandaVision.” The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first-ever streaming series saw a grief-stricken Wanda magically manifest a happy life for herself and Vision as newlyweds and, eventually, new parents. But that happiness wasn’t meant to last since the actual Vision was gone.
A lot has changed in the MCU since the conclusion of “WandaVision,” so here’s a quick refresher to get you up to speed for everything you need to know before watching “VisionQuest.”
Ultron (James Spader), left, and Vision (Paul Bettany) in “VisionQuest.”
(Marvel)
What is ‘VisionQuest’ about?
Set some time after the events of “WandaVision,” “VisionQuest” will follow Vision as he tries to sort through his understanding of his identity and humanity. The former weapon of mass destruction has been in hiding for some time, but a bounty hunter tracks him down and disrupts his quiet life before also discovering a young man who appears to be Vision’s son.
When was the last time we saw Vision?
Audiences last saw Vision at the end of “WandaVision.” The monochromatic version of the former Avenger had been rebuilt without his memories to be a sentient weapon, but during a showdown with his magically created double, he regained them. He then flew off into the unknown to figure out what having access to these memories means for him.
What happened to Wanda?
After undoing her hex that let her live out a version of a happily ever after with Vision, Wanda had to watch him and their kids — twin boys Tommy and Billy Maximoff — disappear. Her story continues in the 2022 movie, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” where she taps into some dark magic in order to find a way to reunite with her boys somewhere in the multiverse for another attempt at that happy life. But she’s a bit overzealous and things take a (villainous) turn for the worse before she ultimately sacrifices herself and is crushed by a mountain.
Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica) in “VisionQuest.”
(Marvel)
What happened to Wanda and Vision’s kids?
Audiences learned in the 2024 series, “Agatha All Along,” that although Billy and Tommy’s physical forms disappeared when Wanda undid her hex at the end of “WandaVision,” their souls remained. Instead of crossing over into the afterlife, Billy, the magically inclined twin, transferred his soul into the body of William Kaplan, a teenager who had just been involved in a fatal car crash. Billy, now inhabiting the body of and living as William, was then able to use his powers to help Tommy’s soul find a new body to inhabit. At the end of “Agatha,” Billy and his magical mentor, Agatha, headed off to search for Tommy.
Who else is in this show?
Joining Vision in his “VisionQuest” adventures are an array of other AIs created by Tony Stark — all of which essentially now reside inside of Vision’s head. Most of these programs did not have physical forms in their original MCU incarnations, but appear in human form within the world inside Vision’s mind.
J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy) is the AI assistant that Stark originally created to help manage his home and office as well as his Iron Man suit. His core programming was used to make Vision during “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015). F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) is the AI assistant that was created to take over J.A.R.V.I.S.’ duties afterward.
E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) was created by Stark to help manage his company’s security and defense systems and was connected to his glasses. These glasses were passed on to Peter Parker in “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” before they were acquired by the film’s villain for his nefarious plot.
F.R.I.D.A.Y (Orla Brady), J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy), U (Johnathan Sayer) and D.U.M.-E. (Henry Lewis) appear human in Vision’s mind in “VisionQuest.”
(Marvel)
D.U.M.-E. (Henry Lewis) and U (Jonathan Sayer) were a pair of arm robots that helped Stark in his workshop. All of these AI have specific roles and responsibilities within Vision’s home in his mind.
Another resident within Vision’s head is Ultron (James Spader), the misanthropic genocidal AI originally created by Stark and Bruce Banner to help save humanity. He tried to delete J.A.R.V.I.S. during the events of “Age of Ultron,” which led to the creation of Vision, so their dynamic is a bit complicated.
Also set to appear on the show is Mollica’s Thomas Shepherd, an older incarnation of one of Wanda and Vision’s magically created sons who had disappeared when the hex enveloping Westview was undone.
What do I need to watch before watching ‘VisionQuest’?
“VisionQuest” has been touted as the conclusion of the “WandaVision” trilogy, which also includes “Agatha All Along.” The events of “WandaVision” appear to be most central to “VisionQuest’s” story, though.
Those who’d like to see Vision and Ultron’s story from the very beginning should add “Avengers: Age of Ultron” to their queue. Fans who want to delve more into Vision and Wanda’s love story can also check out “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) and “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) — with the latter adding more context to Vision’s current state of being. Those who want to see what happened to Wanda after “WandaVision” should also watch “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
As we head into fall television season, you might notice some familiar titles, not just because a few shows are returning for new seasons, but because they’re prequels, continuations or adaptations of well-known books or films — sometimes both.
The only guide you need for fall entertainment.
Hollywood has leaned into established IP this season, but if you’re seeking an original story, don’t fret, several of those are coming too. Viewers will have plenty to cozy up to, with a slew of series dropping around holidays — a perfect time to binge your new favorite watch.
‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story,’ Sept. 17 (Netflix)
Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden in Netflix’s “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.”
(Netflix)
Described as a “darkly comic spin on a Victorian-era murder,” the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology chronicles the story of Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden, who in 1893 was the prime suspect in the still unsolved ax murders of her father and stepmother inside their Fall River, Mass., home. The 32-year-old “spinster” was tried by an all-male jury who found her innocent of the gruesome crime. Their quaint view of women as meek, docile and powerless clearly worked in her favor. Ella Beatty plays the rage-filled, blood-spattered Borden in this eight-episode series. Charlie Hunnam, who appeared in the third installment of “Monster,” portrays her wealthy but ultimately unfortunate father Andrew Borden, and Rebecca Hall plays his second wife, Abby Borden. The drama reportedly includes the music of modern artists such as Kate Bush, while the trailer simply leans into the haunting Victorian-era nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe …” — Lorraine Ali
‘Brothers,’ Sept. 23 (Apple TV)
Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in Apple TV’s “Brothers.”
(Ryan Green / Apple TV)
Twelve years ago, after their chemistry lit up Season 1 of “True Detective,” stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey became Hollywood’s most beloved bromance. When Harrelson later told a tale in which McConaughey’s mother revealed she had known Harrelson’s father around the time McConaughey was conceived, it made a lot of hot-rumor sense. Also, apparently, a fine pitch for a series, with the two men playing fictionalized versions of themselves. After a family crisis, Harrelson flees with his wife and daughters to McConaughey’s Texas ranch where he hears a similar “I knew your father” story from Ma Mac (Holland Taylor). As he decides what to do, McConaughey decides to run for governor of Texas. The personal eccentricities of the two leads, along with their odd-couple vibe, provide most of the show’s humor, but the best reason to watch is Taylor, who shows both stars how it’s done, by stealing the show from under their feet. — Mary McNamara
‘American Hostage,’ Sept. 20 (MGM+)
Jon Hamm as Fred Heckman in MGM+’s “American Hostage.”
(Steve Ackerman / MGM+ / Sony Pictures Television)
Set in the 1970s, this anthology series based on a scripted podcast of the same name tells the true story of Fred Heckman, a respected radio journalist played by Jon Hamm, who also executive produces. Heckman, the news director of WIBC-AM in Indianapolis, is placed at the center of a story when hostage-taker Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) requests to be interviewed by the newsman as police attempt to negotiate the release of his hostage, mortgage broker Dick Hall (Kristoffer Polaha). The series contemplates topics like shady lending practices by financial institutions — something that will resonate deeply with today’s economy — and the ethics of placing oneself in a news story. Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “The Night Agent”) and Eileen Myers (“Big Love”) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. — Maira Garcia
‘East of Eden,’ Oct. 1 (Netflix)
Mike Faist as Charles Trask, Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask and Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames in Netflix’s “East of Eden.”
(Netflix)
Zoe Kazan has established herself in the past several years as a versatile artist who impressed critics and audiences with her lead role in “Ruby Sparks” and her Emmy-nominated performance in HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge.” The spotlight is likely to get brighter with Netflix’s “East of Eden,” the latest adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel. A previous version of the novel was directed by Kazan’s grandfather Elia Kazan, and is best known as one of three films starring James Dean. Zoe Kazan is the writer and co-showrunner of the Netflix project, which stars Florence Pugh as anti-heroine Cathy Ames — a character sidelined in the 1955 film. Christopher Abbott (“Girls”) and Mike Faist (“Challengers”) co-star. — Greg Braxton
‘Below,’ Oct. 8 (Netflix)
Josh Hartnett as Calvin and Mackenzie Davis as Fonda in Netflix’s “Below.”
(Netflix)
Summer is over, but that doesn’t mean there can’t still be stories about killer creatures under the sea. Netflix’s “Below” joins the watery spectrum already inhabited by “Jaws,” “The Meg,” “47 Meters Down” and numerous other entries as it unveils its premise about a seaside town targeted by a mysterious monster. Josh Hartnett (“Trap”) stars as a fisherman and single father living in a small Newfoundland town who must find a way to protect his family and the community when an unidentified creature starts wreaking havoc. He joins forces with a marine researcher (Mackenzie Davis of “Station Eleven”) who informs him of the town’s mysterious history and buried secrets. — G.B.
‘Cupertino,’ Oct. 8 (CBS)
Rachel Keller as Olivia Siffre, Ella Stiller as Christy Palladino and Mike Colter as Michael Price in CBS’ “Cupertino.”
(Elizabeth Fisher / CBS)
Robert and Michelle King return to the network and territory of their acclaimed series “The Good Wife” with this Silicon Valley-based legal dramedy, replicating that show’s mix of quirk, current events and courtroom nail-biters. To continue the David vs. Goliath comparison the network has put out, it launches its stones at the brow of the tech industry, with Mike Colter and Rachel Keller as lawyers fired with bad cause who team up to defend the little guys from the big jerks. Ella Stiller is their ingenuous aide-de-camp, Busy Philipps a flamboyant investor and Renée Elise Goldsberry as an opposing counsel who has history with Colter. — Robert Lloyd
‘Avatar: Seven Havens,’ Oct. 9 (Paramount+)
Saheli Khan as Pavi, Dee Bradley Baker as Geet/Ruhi and Aishwarya “Aishu” Devan as Nisha in “Avatar: Seven Havens” on Paramount+.
(Paramount+)
When “Avatar: The Last Airbender” premiered over 20 years ago, it introduced audiences to a world inspired by Asian and Indigenous cultures, where certain people can manipulate elements through a martial arts-infused ability known as bending. It also helped show that an animated kids series can tackle weighty themes such as war, genocide, imperialism, sexism, propaganda and political corruption in a serialized story and be a hit. In the world of “Avatar,” there is one special bender who is the master of all four elements — water, earth, fire and air — and is tasked with maintaining balance in the world. Set after the events of “The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra,” “Avatar: Seven Havens” follows the current incarnation of the Avatar, Pavi. Young Pavi and her twin sister, Nisha, live in a world that no longer sees the Avatar as humanity’s savior after it was devastated by a calamity. Pavi and her allies still have to figure out a way to save the world, though. Every Avatar seems to have to deal with problems caused or left unresolved by their predecessors. As a Korra fan, I’m curious to see what sort of legacy she ended up leaving behind. — Tracy Brown
‘VisionQuest,’ Oct. 14 (Disney+)
Paul Bettany in Marvel’s “VisionQuest” on Disney+.
(Marvel)
When we last saw Vision (Paul Bettany), the reconstructed synthezoid and former Avenger had just regained his memories — thanks to an assist from his magically created double — before flying off into the unknown at the end of “WandaVision.” Much has changed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since then, but I’m ready to dive back into this corner of the multiverse occupied by “WandaVision,” “Agatha All Along” and the upcoming “VisionQuest.” Capping off the TV trilogy, the new series will see Vision navigating life after “WandaVision” along with existential questions about his personhood and identity with the help of some friends in the form of other Marvel AI and robots, including Ultron (James Spader). Both “WandaVision” and “Agatha” were meditations on grief, trauma and motherhood, by way of sitcoms and magical escape rooms, respectively. I’m interested to see how this final installment will explore the patrilineal connection between Ultron, Vision and Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica), one of Wanda and Vision’s long lost twins who were magically created in “WandaVision.” Could the series tee up a full Maximoff family reunion? I hope so. — T.B.
‘Crystal Lake,’ Oct. 15 (Peacock)
Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees in Peacock’s “Crystal Lake.”
(Peacock)
Drew Barrymore made a fatal mistake in the opening scene of the 1996 horror film “Scream” when the creepy murderer on the telephone quizzed her about the name of the killer in the original “Friday the 13th.” When Barrymore answered “Jason Voorhees,” she was reminded that the original killer was actually Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother. Pamela is center stage in “Crystal Lake,” Peacock’s prequel to the bloody franchise launched in 1980. Linda Cardellini (“DTF St. Louis”) plays the grief-stricken mother who seeks revenge after her son drowns at a summer camp. There will be blood. — G.B.
‘The Diplomat’ Season 4, Oct. 15 (Netflix)
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler and Allison Janney as Grace Penn in Season 4 of “The Diplomat.”
(Netflix)
For those of us who stay ready for the Kate Wyler 2028 campaign, it’s time to lock in. The highly competent, intensely impulsive, deeply flawed and incredibly relatable political power player with unapologetically messy hair is back to clean up more backroom deals and betrayals, volatile international crises and unstable government leadership — all while managing a topsy-turvy marriage tangled up in it. The fourth season picks up directly after the Season 3 finale cliffhanger, where Kate (Keri Russell) learned that her husband, Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), and President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) secretly conspired to steal a Russian nuclear weapon. The new season will explore the fallout and tension in domestic and international relationships, and the marital strife in between. Somehow, political chaos feels good in a show like this. — Yvonne Villarreal
‘Nocturne,’ Oct. 30 (Apple TV)
Stephen Graham and Liev Schreiber in Apple TV’s “Nocturne.”
(Dennis P. Mong Jr / Apple TV)
Stephen Graham plays the diabolically cunning serial killer Jurek Walter in “Nocturne,” a chilling psychological thriller that promises “Hannibal”-level creepiness (as in the film). The 10-episode drama stars Liev Schreiber as Jonah Lynn, a former soldier turned homicide detective who moves to a small town in western Pennsylvania after working the tough streets of Philadelphia. But the peace and quiet he hoped for is shattered when his family is targeted by Jurek. Lynn’s surrogate daughter, FBI Agent Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz), steps in the fray, upping the stakes. Based on Lars Kepler’s crime novels “Lazarus” and “The Sandman,” the series also stars Bill Camp, Rory Culkin, Poorna Jagannathan, Chrissy Metz and Gary Carr. The cast alone should make “Nocturne” a killer thriller, but we’ll have to wait until October to see if it slays. — L.A.
‘Yellowjackets’ Season 4, Nov. 20 (Paramount+)
Sophie Thatcher as teen Natalie in the finale of Season 3 of “Yellowjackets.”
(Paramount+ with Showtime)
At the end of Season 3, “Yellowjackets” gave us an on-the-nose cliffhanger: We see young Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) reach a cliff, satellite phone in hand, as Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge” plays. She screams into the receiver, “Can anyone hear me?” Response: “I can hear you.” Over the past three seasons, the Yellowjackets, the New Jersey girls soccer team lost in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash, have been trying to survive harsh weather, a lack of food and medical care — and one another. It appears we’ll finally get to see them rescued, based on the recent trailer for the new season, as well as the aftermath. The series, created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, was originally pitched as a five-season arc, but they announced last year that Season 4 would be the last. The dual timelines in the show, where we see the survivors as teenagers and adults, have felt disconnected at times, but let’s hope this season finally offers clarity. — M.G.
‘Dig,’ Nov. 23 (Peacock)
Hugh Laurie as Neville and Amy Poehler as Elise in Peacock’s “Dig.”
(Colleen Hayes / Peacock)
A new comedy series starring Amy Poehler that she co-created with “Parks & Recreation” executive producer Michael Schur? Sign me up! The workplace at the center of “Dig” is an excavation site in Greece, where Poehler’s Elise is among a team of archaeologists that unearths a rare artifact. According to the logline, this discovery kicks off an “adventure of a lifetime” — and I’m curious what that might mean for people whose careers presumably involve carefully sifting through old dirt all day. The show also stars Hugh Laurie as Neville, a British archaeology professor, as well as Geraldine Viswanathan, Antonia Thomas and Fina Strazza. The series is based on Kate Myers’ novel “Excavations,” and in the book, the four central women have their own issues and hang-ups and don’t really get along, at least initially. If there’s anyone I trust to mine comedy gold with that setup, it’s Poehler and Schur, who is co-showrunning with J.J. Philbin. — T.B.
‘Blade Runner 2099,’ Nov. 25 (Prime Video)
Hunter Schafer as Cora in Prime Video’s “Blade Runner 2099.”
(Clay Enos / Prime)
Having slept on the franchise’s previous sequel, “Blade Runner 2049,” I find myself quite excited by the prospect of this tale of biological and synthetic life forms in a smoggy, next-millennium Los Angeles, not least (and likely most) because Michelle Yeoh stars in it. Yeoh plays an aging replicant detective in search of rogue replicants — here, in a “Planet of the Apes” style twist, the world has turned upside down, with the artificial life forms in power and the people powerless. Hunter Schafer plays Yeoh’s partner, a human masquerading as a replicant. (As to L.A., you will not recognize the old place, which in any case was created in Prague and Barcelona.) — R.L.
‘The Hunting Wives’ Season 2, Nov. 26 (Netflix)
Malin Akerman as Margo, left, and Brittany Snow as Sophie in Season 2 of “The Hunting Wives.”
(Netflix)
For those who are watching the show for the plot, get ready to yeehaw about all the melodrama that’s about to hit your screen. Following its massive breakout success on Netflix, the series about East Texas socialites is back for a twisty and steamy eight-episode second season that will no doubt launch a heavy helping of memes, GIFs and explicit fanfics. For the uninitiated, the series based on May Cobb’s bestselling novel follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a married East Coast liberal who moves to a wealthy Texas town and immediately becomes infatuated with Margo (Malin Akerman), the local queen bee of a clique of conservative women who have a knack for behaving badly. Their toxic, lusty friendship and the show’s crime mystery subplots had viewers hooked. After the chaotic events of the Season 1 finale, the new episodes pick up with Sophie and Margo on the outs but pulled back into another dangerous game of cat and mouse that will make their situationship all the more complicated and angsty. But fear not, Margo’s wig remains a comforting presence through it all. — Y.V.
‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,’ Dec. 25 (HBO)
Ron (Alastair Stout), Harry (Dominic McLaughlin) and Hermione (Arabella Stanton) in HBO’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”
(Aidan Monaghan / HBO)
In the U.K., Christmas Day telly is a much bigger deal than it is in the U.S., which may be why HBO decided to launch its new “Harry Potter” series, beginning with the U.K.-titled eight-episode “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” on Dec. 25. “Highly anticipated” doesn’t even begin to cover it; a quarter century since the film versions began lighting up the box office, the story of “the boy who lived” continues to entrance fans old and new. Starring newcomers Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Alastair Stout as Ronald Weasley and Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, the series promises a richer, more detailed adaptation of the books, along with a more contemporary feel. With John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Hagrid and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, the cast is just as formidable and star-studded as the films. And with a reported $58-million price tag, the production values should burn just as brightly, especially at Christmas. — M.M.
‘North of North’ Season 2, Fall 2026 (Netflix)
Anna Lambe as Siaja in Season 2 of “North of North” on Netflix.
(Netflix)
No news regarding the coming fall season has made me happier than the return of this sunny, aspirational Indigenous comedy, set in a small town among the Inuit people in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory. A luminous Anna Lambe plays Siaja, who in the first season went a long way toward finding herself in a life bounded by a narcissist husband (estranged, but always around), a once-difficult mother, a rambunctious child, a new love interest, a surprising father, a capricious yet not uncaring boss (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and a mythological sea spirit — in other words, lots to go on in a second season. (For even more Canadian content: “Kids in the Hall” alum Bruce McCulloch joins the cast as a first-aid instructor.) — R.L.
‘Pride and Prejudice,’ fall 2026 (Netflix)
Lizzie (Emma Corrin), Jane (Freya Mavor), Mrs. Bennet (Olivia Colman), Lydia (Rhea Norwood), Mary (Hopey Parish) and Kitty (Hollie Avery) in Netflix’s “Pride and Prejudice.”
(Ludovic Robert / Netflix)
Every generation gets its own Mr. Darcy. Experiencing Jane Austen’s most famous work — whether on the page or on the screen — is a cultural rite of passage for many young women. The 1995 BBC miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen, are the two definitive, most popular screen adaptations of the classic novel, often drawing fierce debate from enthusiasts about which is better. (Sorry, but that misty sunrise walk by MacFadyen’s Mr. Darcy changed lives — namely, mine — and will always give the 2005 version a slight edge in my eyes.) Now, the classic novel is getting its streaming-era adaptation. Written by bestselling author Dolly Alderton (“Good Material”), the six-part limited series promises to be a faithful adaptation. Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) and Jack Lowden (“Slow Horses”) take the mantel as the original and ultimate enemies-to-lovers couple, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Will it live up to its predecessors? Will it capture Austen’s witty text and unforgettable scenes of yearning? I don’t know. But I’m going to watch it anyway because — I mean, come on — it’s “Pride and Prejudice” and I’m just a girl who’s always on the lookout for slow-burn tension and hand-flex close-ups. I’m preparing myself now for the hours of sleep I’ll lose getting sucked into the TikTok discourse about it. — Y.V.
The slogan of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, which plays a prominent role in the new LACMA exhibition “Home of the Future, 1925–1985: Designing Domestic Utopias,” was blunt: “Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms.”
Those words capture a central tension in the sprawling show, which occupies interconnected galleries at the far end of the museum’s Resnick Pavilion. Many of the beautiful, sometimes ingenious products and technologies developed with the rise of the modern era gripped the popular imagination and made life easier, healthier and more connected. But they didn’t free people from domestic labor or deliver the prosperity and security heralded by their promoters. They instead often raised expectations, forced dependency and gave rise to a vision of progress that reinforced social exclusion, bred anxieties about status, and concealed the environmental costs of a culture built on consumption.
Sound familiar?
The desire for these transformative products was never innate, and LACMA’s exhibition zeroes in on that idea from the start. “Good design is seldom accepted. It has to be sold,” Midcentury photographer Julius Shulman is quoted as saying in the catalog.
The show traces the hard sell of a domestic utopia via world’s fair posters, model home catalogs, magazine advertisements, television specials and science-fiction imagery — along with close to 200 physical objects of every sort, including kitchen appliances, electronics and furniture. In each of its four documented eras — pre- and post-Depression, post-World War II, the height of the Cold War, and the counterculture ’60s and ’70s — promoters dressed the same promise in new terms, whether through cleanliness, leisure, security or freedom.
Arthur Radebaugh, “Closer Than We Think! Robot Housemaid,” 1959.
(Chicago Tribune / TCA, photo courtesy San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, Ohio State University)
At every turn a vision of a better life was made to seem desirable and, just as important, inevitable. Like any good advertising, it worked best when soothing our anxieties and tapping into our fantasies.
In the 1920s and ’30s, new discoveries about hygiene inspired products by soaring talents in the nascent field of industrial design who set out to create clean, easily maintained homes — laboratories for healthy living in an age still ravaged by diseases like polio and tuberculosis. Mathias J. Weber and Russell E. Vanderhoff’s seductively streamlined Health-o-Meter scale gave the illusion that homeowners could be scientists, for the first time monitoring their own weight and growth. Kohler’s Integra, introduced as “the toilet of the future” at the Chicago fair, had a dramatic black finish made to equate sanitation with modern design. And Bruce Goff’s gleaming Vitrolite kitchen for Libbey-Owens-Ford glass company, shown in Charles Turzak’s rendering, integrated pigmented structural glass counters and cabinets into a polished, easily cleaned whole.
American Stove Co., Magic Chef stove, series 1400, introduced 1935.
(Lynton Gardiner / The Wolfsonian–Florida International University )
Vast expansions in electricity, telecommunications and production promised to connect the country and ease the tedious work of cooking, washing and cleaning. The American Stove Co.’s Magic Chef stove, one of the first ovens to be equipped with a clock, recast kitchen work as something that could be measured and controlled. Frank G. Brotz’s Kohler Electric Sink, which incorporated a motorized dishwasher into the familiar basin, promised release from the “thrice-daily drudgery” of washing dishes. Western Electric’s clear-cased Model 302 telephone enticed gawkers with an impressively complex system of wires and mechanisms.
George R. Lum for Western Electric Co., Telephone, model 302, desk set 1938.
(AT&T Archives and History Center)
Many of the names who dreamed up these wonders are now etched in design history. Isamu Noguchi created a baby monitor before baby monitors were a thing: the Radio Nurse, a dark Bakelite receiver resembling an abstract face. Walter Dorwin Teague gave corporate products a precise, machine-age polish, while Raymond Loewy brought the same sleek optimism to objects like the globe-shaped New World radio for Colonial Radio Corp., molded in glossy, heat-resistant Catalin and embodying quite literally the new reach of communications.
Selling this promise of a technological future to those clinging to the dream of American prosperity was an especially potent exercise during the Depression. In his illustrated 1932 manifesto “Horizons,” Norman Bel Geddes cast “new design” as a path toward “economy, efficiency, comfort and happiness.” As the economy faltered, an orderly, healthy home could be sold as a form of salvation, with prosperity seemingly within reach. At the Chicago fair, corporations sponsored full-scale model homes and filled them with products already available or soon to be. For rural households still without electricity, Lester Beall’s 1937 Rural Electrification Administration poster “Wash Day” turns federal infrastructure into a household fantasy. Inside the black silhouette of a farmhouse, a pristine white washing machine appears at an almost monumental scale, set against flat fields of saturated color.
Irving Harper of George Nelson and Co. for Herman Miller Inc., Marshmallow Love Seat, model 5670, designed 1956, this example made c. 1960s.
(Jonathan Urban / Museum Associates / LACMA)
By the ‘40s and ‘50s, the postwar home and its many accouterments — powered by wartime advancements, growing abundance and an ethos of “buy now, pay later” — amplified the promise. Plastic, prefabrication and push-button convenience suggested that mass production could bring elegant, futuristic living — and freedom from drudgery — within reach of the masses. George Nelson treated furniture as a flexible system, producing (with designer Irving Harper) the candy-colored Marshmallow Love Seat; replacing conventional upholstery with 18 brightly colored circular cushions mounted on a spare steel frame. Eero Saarinen produced the molded-fiberglass Pedestal chair, sweeping the seat and stem into a single sculptural form intended to eliminate what he called the “slum of legs” beneath tables and chairs.
Eero Aarnio for Asko Oy, Ball Chair, designed 1963.
(Jonathan Urban / Museum Associates / LACMA)
Architects attempted to make the home itself into a sexy product. At Disneyland, Monsanto’s House of the Future, designed by architects Richard Hamilton and Marvin Goody, was a gleaming, cross-shaped structure of molded plastic, raised above the ground on cantilevered supports and partnered (in renderings) with a plastic heliport. Its kitchen featured molded surfaces and electric appliances. Promotional images and films conjured a playful, adaptable and benevolent house — plastic as the building block of family happiness.
Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion house was an aluminum, factory-made “dwelling machine” that could be delivered by air and assembled almost anywhere. Its unified form, modular furnishings, water-recycling system and labor-saving technology promised a more efficient life, less tied to conventional building and household routines.
Hamilton & Goody Architects, Monsanto House of the Future, 1956.
(MIT Museum)
Institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and magazines like Arts & Architecture promoted prototype homes from now legendary industrial designers and modernist architects like Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Marcel Breuer, Albert Frey, Gregory Ain and even Frank Lloyd Wright.
Effective pitches could turn a product, whatever size, into a fantasy of freedom. In the General Motors film “Design for Dreaming” (1956), directed by William Beaudine, a woman enters a fabulous kitchen as if in a magical dream. The promise, said curator Wendy Kaplan, was that the fictional woman would have more time for “tennis and hanging with … friends.” The dream even hinted at a life beyond domesticity — perhaps even freedom to “actually have a profession,” Kaplan added.
But the housewife in these displays was still expected to remain responsible for the home. Liberation came through a more efficient kitchen, not a change in who cooked. And appliances that reduced some labor often raised the bar: more frequent washing, more cleaning, more elaborate meals, as University of Chicago home economics professor Hazel Kyrk described in “Economic Problems of the Family.”
Frank G. Brotz for Kohler Co., Electric Sink, introduced 1926, this example 1928, Kohler Co.
(Kohler Archives)
That universal “everyone” did not, however, include everyone. Government-backed home ownership and the suburban boom excluded many Black, Latino and Asian Americans through redlining, restrictive covenants and discriminatory lending — a fact reflected in the almost complete absence of minorities in these vast selling campaigns.
A few welcome exceptions on the creators’ side are architect Paul R. Williams’ “Small Home of Tomorrow,” which proposed a simple, well-designed home fitted with gee-whiz appliances; Arthur Elrod and William C. Raiser’s swirling, vivid orange Ebony test kitchen, which treated cooking as creative craft; and the proposed multiracial community of Soul City, founded by Floyd McKissick, which imagined homeownership as a claim to economic autonomy that segregation denied.
The vision of a utopian domestic future took a strange turn during the Cold War, marrying the breathless excitement of the space age with the existential dread of nuclear annihilation. The same scientific power that had transformed lives now produced weapons capable of destroying humanity. The home was imagined as both shelter and command center.
Office of Donald Deskey Associates. Drawing, design for Undersea Lounge: Scheme 3 Interior Perspective, ca. 1960s. Designed by Russell Heston (b. 1929).
(The Estate of Donald Deskey, courtesy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY)
As the age’s potent mix of terror and delirium spun on, designers and illustrators proposed ways to live comfortably in space, underwater or in underground bunkers. Paul László’s “Atomville, U.S.A.,” a vision of suburbia half a century in the future, buried the family home beneath an earthen shell that doubled as a helicopter landing pad. Its sunken gardens and swimming pool promised comfort, while a blast door, escape hatches and air filtration protected against nuclear fallout. Donald Deskey Associates imagined a hypnotic “Undersea Lounge,” a self-contained interior for living beneath the water, while NASA illustrator Rick Guidice vividly depicted physicist Gerard K. O’Neill’s proposed Stanford Torus — an enormous, wheel-shaped suburb in space.
Bob Lerner for LOOK Magazine, Anne Anderson in RCA Whirlpool Miracle Kitchen, 1959, kitchen designed 1956.
(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LOOK Magazine, Photograph Collection / Robert S. Lerner Photography, LLC)
An endless array of products leaned into the public’s awe at the age’s sci-fi possibilities. This included prescient pieces ahead of their time, like the video-enabled AT&T Picturephone, and those that would never come to pass, such as the RCA Whirlpool Miracle Kitchen. The latter’s spread in Look Magazine (displayed for crowds at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow) showcases a Roomba-like vacuum and other astonishing appliances that seem to work by themselves. But men hidden behind two-way mirrors actually operated them. Others, like the two-wheeled Ford Gyron Remote Control Car of the Future, only managed to come to life as children’s toys; and some were just plain ridiculous, like Honeywell’s H316 Kitchen Computer, which required a two-week training course just to retrieve a recipe.
By the late 1960s, confidence in technological progress was fraying. Environmental damage, plastic waste and the conformity of suburbia prompted designers and countercultural communities to imagine other ways of living — up to a point. The residents of Drop City, a Colorado artists’ community, built domes from the curved steel tops of salvaged cars. Architects Barry Simpson and Charles Hosford made a folding stool that could serve as a seat, stepstool or side table. Small, portable, multipurpose designs, from inflatables to cardboard furniture offered a life with fewer possessions. The Whole Earth Catalog, founded by writer and editor Stewart Brand, promoted ecological knowledge and self-sufficiency, but was still a compendium of things to buy.
Companies, too, found ways to sell all natural products, flexibility and individual expression. Zanotta advertised the first beanbag chair, the polystyrene-filled “Sacco,” as “A Big Bag, a Soft Seat.” Its formless body accommodated slouching, lounging or lying down, selling freedom from both conventional posture and the bourgeois living room. Even resistance to consumerism could be packaged as a new consumer ideal.
The pairing of objects with their promotional campaigns is the show’s most illuminating contribution, shedding light on the massive, often strange apparatus needed to drive these incredible designs — some icons, some welcome surprises — forward in each age. It reveals how the country’s 20th century manufacturing prowess expanded into the production of dreams. Corporations, government and the media taught consumers what progress should look like, which anxieties a product might soothe, and what kind of future to desire.
Isamu Noguchi; Zenith Radio Corporation, Radio Nurse receiver and Guardian Ear transmitter with original box, 1937.
( Museum Associates / LACMA)
But the sheer abundance of objects — I haven’t even mentioned the fascinating companion show-within-the-show, “The Kitchen and Its Discontents” — leaves less room for examining those campaigns and the work they performed. The excellent catalog follows those connections further, tracing how often hypnotic visions of the future home both reflected and shaped ideas about lifestyle, progress, gender, race, labor and consumption; in the galleries, those ideas remain largely suggestive.
Still, the exhibition offers a revelatory history — and a telling roadmap to our present. While the future imagined here made life easier, cleaner, more beautiful and more exciting, it did not arrive as advertised. The plastic home didn’t remake housing; the automated kitchen didn’t free women from domestic work; the self-sufficient home gave way to new forms of reliance. Yet a similar techno-utopian pitch survives in today’s smart homes and domestic technologies, from assistants like Alexa to artificial intelligence marketed as a way to make life easier. These tools may offer real benefits even as they addict and distract us. And while the systems sustaining our comfortable, consumption-driven lives launch us toward climate disaster.
These rooms powerfully evoke what Kaplan in the catalog calls America’s “restless forward motion, powered by the conviction that tomorrow’s design would solve today’s problems.” That ingenuity is worth celebrating. But its promises deserve open-eyed scrutiny.
