Oscars 2023 Review: A Ho-Hum Affair Loses Its Magic by Playing It Too Safe

Grade CNo, no one got slapped at this year’s Oscars — but then again, there’s something to be said for a little bit of unscripted chaos.

It’s been a strange couple of years for the Academy Awards: The 2021 ceremony was an awkward, socially distanced COVID-era affair that sunk to a new ratings low (just 10.4 million total viewers), and last year’s ceremony featured an all-time shocker when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock live on stage — and saw a huge 60 percent surge in total viewership. It’s too early to tell how this year’s broadcast will do, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it dip again, since it was a mostly safe, by-the-numbers affair that was woefully short on buzzy watercooler moments.

Oscars 2023 Host Jimmy KimmelThe show kicked off in solid if unsurprising fashion, with host Jimmy Kimmel literally parachuting in after a brief Top Gun spoof. Kimmel has this hosting thing down cold after two previous stints as emcee: He used his monologue to work the room, with friendly jabs at Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg, and the mood in the room seemed upbeat as they celebrated a box-office resurgence and a host of first-time nominees. Some of Kimmel’s jokes did draw blood (that Babylon crack earned some groans), and we all knew he’d throw in a few gags about #TheSlap, too. But his Will Smith material felt a little flat and almost obligatory… not to mention about a year old at this point. (It’s not his fault: Twitter already took all the best jokes that night.) His later comedy bits where he peppered the stars in attendance with inane questions also felt more schticky than funny, and a questionable Robert Blake reference landed with a thud.

The set design was immaculate, with the Oscars stage bathed in gilded, Great Gatsby-style glamour. But the broadcast noticeably cut corners in an effort to reduce the running time, even though it still ran well over three and a half hours. (The Best Picture nominees were honored with brief montages rather than individual tributes, and several winners were abruptly cut off mid-sentence.) We still had time for plenty of emotional speeches, though, including a teary Ke Huy Quan, capping off a remarkable career rebound by taking home the Oscar for best supporting actor for Everything Everywhere All at Once. (Having Spielberg and Harrison Ford, who worked with him as a kid in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in the room cheering him on was a beautiful full-circle moment that only the Oscars can provide.) Jamie Lee Curtis’ supporting actress win also echoed nicely back through decades of Hollywood history as she nodded to her iconic parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

But the night’s big winners were mostly pre-determined — EEAAO‘s Best Picture win was practically etched in stone before the night began — so any sense of suspense was conspicuously missing. (We’ve already heard versions of the winners’ speeches on all the other awards shows.) Add that together with a largely bland ceremony, and I wouldn’t blame any viewers whose attention started wandering around the one-hour mark. It left me lots of time to ponder mysteries like: Is it even fair to expect the Oscars to reach the monumental viewership it once reached, with the audience hopelessly fragmented and social media making a glimpse of celebrity an everyday occurrence rather than a special treat? And where can I get my own set of hot dog fingers?

This year’s Oscars were at their best when they threw us a curveball, like John Travolta’s voice welling up with genuine emotion when introducing the “In Memoriam” segment after the passing of his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John and the vivacious performance of Best Original Song winner “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, with dozens of dancers tearing up the stage with colorful costumes and breathtaking choreography. That performance may have even inspired a few viewers to check out the movie on Netflix — and that’s what the Oscars are all about, right?

Alright, now it’s your turn: Give this year’s Oscars ceremony a grade in our poll, and hit the comments below to give us your full take on the festivities.

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Swarm Review: Donald Glover’s Bloody Stunner Boasts a Killer Performance

TV lost a true visionary when Donald Glover’s Atlanta wrapped up a spectacular four-season run on FX last year. Lucky for us, he’s not done making great television yet, and Atlanta fans will feel right at home with his new horror thriller Swarm, premiering this Friday on Prime Video. (I’ve seen all seven episodes.) Brutally violent and darkly hilarious, Swarm is a stunning statement on the dangers of extreme fandom, anchored by a terrific and terrifying lead performance from Dominique Fishback that’s destined to rank as one of the year’s very best.

Amazon Prime Video - March 2023Fishback (The Deuce) stars as Dre, a devoted super fan of a Beyoncé-like pop idol named Ni’Jah, whose fanatical followers are known as The Swarm. (As one character notes: “Talk about Ni’Jah, you get stung.”) Dre and her sister Marissa (Chloe Bailey) used to be huge Ni’Jah fans together, but now Marissa has grown up and moved on, while Dre is still stuck in teenybopper mode, obsessing over Ni’Jah’s every move. When tragedy strikes, it sends Dre spiraling down into a very dark place… and launches her on a savage cross-country killing spree, exacting vengeance on anyone who dares to question Ni’Jah’s supremacy.

Glover (credited as co-creator and executive producer) reteams with Atlanta writer Janine Nabers, who serves as showrunner here, and they bring Atlanta‘s unsettlingly surreal tone and dark humor with them to Dre’s story. Swarm is vividly rendered and thick with atmosphere, taking place in mundane settings that make the violence stand out all the more. It also puts us in a queasy moral position: Dre is funny and even sympathetic at times… but then she snaps and sees red, with a disturbing buzzing sound ringing in her ears. (She asks her victims, “Who’s your favorite artist?” and anyone who doesn’t say Ni’Jah soon regrets that decision.) We’re not exactly rooting for her, but she’s undeniably fascinating all the same.

Swarm Trailer Amazon Donald GloverBailey and Snowfall star Damson Idris do nice work here in small roles, but this is Fishback’s show all the way, and she runs away with it. Dre is an odd duck: socially awkward and utterly lacking in recognizable human emotion, but almost childlike, too. (When she hears a song by Ni’Jah playing, she looks as if she’s possessed.) Fishback masterfully switches from Dre’s public discomfort, with twitching legs and sudden eye darts, to her secret bloodlust with admirable ease. By the end, Dre completely transforms, taking Fishback’s already superb performance to incredible new heights. If there’s any justice in this world, her name will be remembered come Emmy time.

Swarm gets episodic as Dre crisscrosses the country, falling in with a friendly group of strippers and then a NVIXM-like “female empowerment group,” with a stealth appearance from a real-life pop superstar that makes the whole thing very meta. It does grow a bit repetitive — yet another recent example of a limited series that probably could’ve just been a movie. (A detour into true-crime parody, while fun, only serves to blunt the main story’s momentum.) But Fishback’s performance never grows stale, and though Glover and Nabers’ tale takes some pretty wild turns by the end, it’s one hell of a ride that I won’t forget anytime soon.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Donald Glover proves he can do horror too with Swarm, anchored by a dazzling lead performance from Dominique Fishback.

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Daisy Jones & the Six Review: A ’70s Throwback Where the High Notes Drown Out the Rock Star Clichés

It’s fitting that Prime Video’s new series Daisy Jones & the Six charts the rise and fall of a popular ’70s rock band, because the show actually feels like a double album from that era: overly long and often self-indulgent, but with scattered bits of greatness that make the whole thing worthwhile. Daisy Jones — premiering this Friday; I’ve seen the first five episodes — takes a while to get started and falls victim to quite a few rock biopic clichés along the way, but the vibrant music scenes and an array of strong performances and memorable original songs are enough to make me a fan.

Daisy Jones and the Six Amazon Daisy BillyBased on the Taylor Jenkins Reid bestseller, Daisy Jones is framed as a look back at the explosive demise of the fictional title band, with each member sharing their unique perspective decades later in a music documentary. The formation of the band follows two paths: a promising but struggling rock band led by singer Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), and a talented but prickly chanteuse named Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) blessed with a head full of songs. When those two paths cross and Billy and Daisy start to make music together, they become superstars… but of course, superstars fall back down to earth eventually.

Anyone yearning for the good old days of rock and roll will find a lot to like about Daisy Jones; it’s a sun-dappled love letter to a bygone musical era, combining the giddy joy of Almost Famous with the passionate creative spark of A Star Is Born. There’s a fine line, though, between nostalgia and cliché, and this show wanders back and forth on either side of that line. We get clumsy family drama, alcoholism (with characters drinking Jack Daniels straight out of the bottle, of course), jealousy, infidelity and just about every other rock indulgence you can imagine. The pacing here is bloated and meandering, too: a two-hour story stretched to 10. Daisy doesn’t even meet Billy and the Six until Episode 3, and Daisy and Billy waste a lot of time bickering when we all know they’ll eventually work it out and write hits together.

Daisy Jones and the Six Trailer Amazon SeriesThe solid cast does a lot to help sell the clichés, however. Keough — a gifted actress whose stellar work on The Girlfriend Experience didn’t get enough attention — nails Daisy’s ethereal yet wounded vibe (she’s basically Stevie Nicks, right down to the twirling with scarves on stage), and though Claflin looks about a decade too old to play Billy, he flashes serious rock star presence. (Timothy Olyphant makes a cameo as tour manager Rod Reyes, looking like he’s wearing a Halloween costume wig and mustache.) Plus, it’s crucial that the original songs sound authentic, and thankfully, they’re the real deal. (I found myself singing the band’s breakout hit “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” days later.)

Watching Billy and Daisy have their “Shallow” moment while performing that song together for the first time is when Daisy Jones really takes flight; it captures that feeling where music transcends genre and melody and speaks directly to our souls. They may take their sweet time getting there, but when the band finally gets into the studio and hammers out a hit, or when they have a candlelit sing-along to Faces’ “Ooh La La” during a blackout, we forget about all the clichés that came before and just groove along with the vibe, man.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Amazon’s Daisy Jones & the Six is hampered by rock star clichés, but it captures a vibrant creative spark that’s hard to resist.

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Party Down Review: Is Starz’s Revival Having Fun Yet? Or Is the Party Over?

We’re flooded with so many revivals these days that it’s hard to get too excited about any one of them, but the return of Party Down does warm my heart… and surprise me a bit. The cult comedy about showbiz wannabes moonlighting as L.A. caterers is one of TV’s great gone-too-soon shows, getting the axe at Starz after two little-watched seasons despite a savagely sharp wit and a cast stacked with future stars. The fact that it’s back with nearly all of the original cast intact is a minor miracle, and the revival — premiering Friday, Feb. 24 at 9/8c; I’ve seen the first three episodes — does recapture a lot of what made Party Down so good… even though I have a nagging feeling that the show’s best days might be behind it.

Party Down Season 3 Cast PreviewSeason 3 picks up a decade after we last saw the Party Down catering crew, and tireless boss Ron (Ken Marino) is still running the business with a fresh set of young caterers. The old team has mostly moved onto bigger and better things — except for Martin Starr’s “hard sci-fi” writer Roman, who’s older now but no less bitter — and a party in the premiere serves as an affectionate but awkward reunion for the former coworkers. After a series of unfortunate calamities, though, a few of them are forced to put the pink bow ties back on and pass around appetizers again. (The story has to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get them back on the job, but we don’t really mind as long as they’re back.)

Party Down‘s unforgiving brand of Hollywood satire is as finely honed as ever, including lots of meta nods to the very idea of reboots and revivals. (Comic book movies take a serious beating here, too, so Marvel fanboys, avert your eyes.) But it’s all a bit sadder and less funny this time around. There’s a distinct strain of melancholy running throughout Season 3, now that the team’s once vibrant showbiz dreams have been snuffed out by the harsh realities of middle age. The extra years seem to weigh heavily on each character, and as a result, the laughs are harder to come by.

Party Down Trailer Season 3 Starz RevivalTo their credit, the returning cast members slip right back into their old roles, with Adam Scott employing his usual deadpan world-weariness as Henry and Ryan Hansen in fine, dumb form as Kyle. We also get star cameos from the likes of Jennifer Garner, Quinta Brunson and James Marsden, but the new caterers — Tyrel Jackson Williams as an aspiring influencer and Zoe Chao as an avant-garde chef — don’t quite have the same sparkle as the originals. Season 3 does give us a chance, though, to appreciate Marino, who is truly an unsung gem as Ron: utterly clueless, hopelessly hopeful and achingly pathetic. If this season serves as nothing more than a showcase for Marino’s inspired buffoonery, it’d still be well worth it.

There is one major piece missing here, and that’s Lizzy Caplan, who played snarky comedian Casey during the show’s original run. Casey’s absence makes sense, story-wise — and Caplan was so terrific in Fleishman Is in Trouble, we can forgive her for skipping the revival — but the lack of Henry and Casey’s hipster-Jim-and-Pam workplace romance leaves an emotional void that the revival can’t adequately fill. (Henry does get a surprising new love interest, I should note.) We also don’t get much of Jane Lynch as Constance and Megan Mullally as Lydia; in one episode, Lynch only appears via Zoom, so the reunion isn’t quite as robust as you might have hoped. Still, I’m happy to stick around for the rest of this party, even if it’s noticeably dwindling down a bit.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Starz’s Party Down revival isn’t quite as fun as the original run, but it still has a great cast and plenty of satirical bite.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Review: A Mix of Old Friends and New Blood Makes the Final Season the Best Yet

I’m issuing a red alert to all Star Trek fans, especially the Next Generation faithful out there: If you’ve already abandoned ship on Star Trek: Picard, it’s time to beam back onboard. The upcoming third and final season on Paramount+ — premiering Thursday, Feb. 16; I’ve seen the first six episodes — is easily the best season yet: a rip-roaring, crowd-pleasing return to form that finally gives us what we’ve wanted all along, bringing back all our Next Generation favorites for a beautiful and emotional reunion. But it also adds new dimension to those old favorites while sprinkling in a host of intriguing new characters… including the best new Star Trek villain in ages.

Star Trek Picard Season 3 WorfSeason 3 opens with Jean-Luc receiving an urgent distress call from his old friend — and flame — Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden). His mission to save her brings him back into the orbit of his former Enterprise shipmates, including first officer Riker (Jonathan Frakes, who made a cameo in Season 1), security officer Worf (Michael Dorn) and engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). The old gang not only needs to rescue one of their own, but they also have to untangle a complicated and deadly conspiracy that reaches the highest ranks of Starfleet. Oh, and there’s a vengeful villain with a powerful warship tracking Jean-Luc through space, too.

It’s almost a total reboot from previous seasons of Picard — and frankly, that’s not a bad thing. The first two seasons had their moments, but too often, they got bogged down in convoluted stories and characters that didn’t grab us like the originals did. Season 3 fixes a lot of these issues, streamlining the story and politely jettisoning most of the original Picard cast. In fact, if you haven’t watched Picard at all, you could probably just jump in here with not much of a learning curve. Michelle Hurd is thankfully back as Raffi, though, and she and Worf make a great pair as they dig up the roots of the Starfleet conspiracy.

Showrunner Terry Matalas guides the Season 3 ship with great reverence and affection for Star Trek history, and it’s a pleasure to watch Jean-Luc and his friends back on the bridge again; there’s a giddy energy to the actors as they get the band back together. Their banter is laced with sly teases and inside jokes, and the scripts are packed with nods, references and deep-cut cameos that will delight TNG super fans. This is more than just a nostalgia tour, though. Jean-Luc and company have to confront age-old grudges and long-forgotten dreams as they face their mortality, leading to some highly emotional scenes three decades in the making. (There’s one big twist I can’t reveal that changes everything we know about Jean-Luc and rocks his very foundation.)

Star Trek Picard Season 3 VadicPicard‘s final season also introduces a number of new faces like brash do-gooder Jack, played by Downton Abbey alum Ed Speleers, and — best of all — Amanda Plummer as Vadic, the cackling captain of a warship overloaded with advanced weaponry who is dead-set on destroying Jean-Luc. Plummer has an absolute ball with the role, giving Picard the kind of formidable antagonist it has sorely needed, and her spirited scenery-chewing puts her right up there with Khan and Q in the annals of great Star Trek bad guys.

Season 3 moves along a lot more nimbly than the previous two as well, with plainspoken storytelling that doesn’t get lost in overly complicated twists. The season does follow a serialized story, but it still finds time for quiet character moments along the way. This is the rare revival that goes beyond just coasting off what we loved years ago; it actually deepens and enriches the characters and relationships we know so well. It’s kind of what Star Trek: Picard should’ve been from the very beginning — but hey, better late than never.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Picard‘s final season brings back Next Generation favorites and introduces new wrinkles in what is easily the best season yet.

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Poker Face Review: Natasha Lyonne’s Peacock Mystery Is Charmingly Retro

If you went in and digitally removed all the smartphones from Peacock’s new series Poker Face, it could’ve aired right alongside Columbo and The Rockford Files in a 1970s NBC primetime lineup. Co-creators Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne dust off a creaky old format — the guest-star-studded mystery of the week — and put a stylish spin on it, delivering a noir-flavored, tongue-in-cheek homage to TV detective shows past. Even if you weren’t born back then, though, Poker Face (debuting this Thursday; I’ve seen the first five episodes) is still a quirky and clever good time, powered by another charmingly irreverent performance from Lyonne.

Poker Face Episode 2 CharlieShe stars here as Charlie Cale, a beer-swigging cocktail waitress in Reno who has a unique gift: She can always tell if someone is lying. (Charlie calls out “Bulls–t” so often, it practically becomes her catchphrase.) That skill comes in handy in certain situations, but it can get her in trouble, too, and after things get messy in Reno, she hits the road in her vintage Plymouth Barracuda, stumbling into more murders and more colorful weirdos along the way. She’s on the run from a vengeful casino boss, so she can’t stay in any one place for too long, but she can’t help using her gift to bring killers to justice.

Each episode of Poker Face is a new story with a new mystery and new suspects, with Lyonne’s Charlie serving as the connective tissue. We see the full crime first, just like we did on Columbo, so there’s no real suspense about whodunit, but we still want to see how Charlie will figure it out using her superhuman lie-detecting skills. After a premiere that’s densely packed with clues and twists, Poker Face settles into an easygoing groove, with a laidback Lyonne setting the tone. We do get a bit of continuing plot with the aftermath from Reno, but mostly, each week starts fresh, like its own mini movie — which is honestly a nice break from today’s overly serialized TV dramas.

Poker Face Peacock Natasha Lyonne Episode 3Johnson, fresh off the Netflix hit film Glass Onion, directs the premiere, and his camera dances with nimble pans and zooms. The scripts are a hard-boiled throwback spiked with terse threats and dry humor, but Charlie plays the snarky, skeptical fly in the ointment, almost like a modern-day time traveler who finds herself in a ’70s crime drama. As the series’ lone star, Lyonne has to carry the whole thing on her shoulders — and she does so magnificently. She’s a brassy, ballsy delight as Charlie, croaking out accusations and one-liners with her signature Noo Yawk rasp. (She can even share a scene with a dog and make it work.) I should note that after being thoroughly charmed by her on Orange Is the New Black and Russian Doll, I’d pretty much watch Lyonne read the phone book, so your mileage here may vary.

Your tolerance for Poker Face‘s languid pace may vary as well: Episodes routinely run well over an hour, and the extended opening scenes detailing each week’s crime can run close to 20 minutes before Charlie even gets to town. Naturally, some of the mysteries are more intriguing than others, but the guest stars are always a treat: Hong Chau as a street-smart trucker, John Ratzenberger as a kindly car mechanic, Chloe Sevigny as a Courtney Love-esque rocker chick desperate for another hit single. (The fifth episode, with Judith Light and S. Epatha Merkerson as former hippies in a nursing home, is a particular highlight.) Poker Face doesn’t break any new ground, to be sure, but the ground it does cover is still plenty fertile, it turns out. We may have more than three TV channels to choose from these days… but sometimes it’s nice to revisit a classic.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Poker Face is a loving throwback to ’70s detective shows that works, thanks to a winning lead performance from Natasha Lyonne.

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That ’90s Show Review: Watching a Reboot This Lame Is a Major Bummer

Grade D PlusLet me save you some time: If you’re old enough to actually remember the ’90s, then That ’90s Show probably isn’t for you. Netflix is trying to recapture the retro magic of That ’70s Show with an all-new reboot — they’re calling it a “sequel series,” but really, it’s a reboot — with suburban parents Red and Kitty Forman enduring a new generation of unruly teens. But That ’90s Show (debuting today; I’ve seen the first three episodes) is an uninspired buzzkill: half tired nostalgia tour and half mediocre retread.

That '90s Show Netflix New CastIt is disappointing, because That ’70s Show never won a bunch of Emmys, but it was a perfectly good little sitcom, thanks to a cast full of future stars who had instant chemistry together. That kind of chemistry is a tricky thing to pull off, though, and That ’90s Show is a perfect example of just how tricky it can be. The show’s young cast is just not as compelling as the originals, and the weak writing here doesn’t do them any favors, either.

The premiere kicks off in 1995 over the July 4th weekend, with Eric and Donna’s awkward teen daughter Leia (Callie Haverda) coming to visit Kitty and Red, who still live in the same house in Point Place, Wisconsin. While she’s there, Leia befriends Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide), the cool alt-rock girl next door, and also catches the eye of Kelso and Jackie’s dopey son Jay (Mace Coronel). (Yes, Kelso and Jackie are back together in the ’90s — and getting remarried for the second time.) Leia decides to stick around and hang out with her new friends for the whole summer… and take advantage of her grandparents’ basement, which is still a pretty awesome hangout spot.

That '90s Show Netflix Kitty RedIf you were tuning in hoping to reconnect with your That ’70s Show favorites, though, don’t bother. Most of the original cast members do pop up here and there, but only for brief cameos, and while some actually put in an effort, others are just going through the motions. Kurtwood Smith is in his grumpy, dumbass-hating wheelhouse as Red, and Debra Jo Rupp is still as cute and clueless as ever as Kitty, but they’re mostly confined to the background while the new kids take center stage.

That ’90s Show never lets you forget it’s set in the ’90s, either, with the characters self-consciously name-checking trends from A (Alanis) to Z (Zimas), instead of just existing in that era. (Having lived through the ’90s myself, I can confirm that we didn’t loudly announce it every time we were doing something quintessentially ’90s.) At the same time, the show has a distinctly modern sensibility that doesn’t fit the era at all. Reyn Doi is charming as Leia’s friend Ozzie, but it’s very hard to believe that a gay Asian teen in 1995 in suburban Wisconsin would be thinking about coming out to anyone — let alone his new friend’s grandmother.

If it won’t appeal to That ’70s Show fans, maybe That ’90s Show will find a following among younger viewers — but given the lame punchlines and clumsily manufactured storylines, I doubt it. (Is it as bad as That ’80s Show, which infamously bombed after just one season on Fox? I couldn’t tell you, because I never watched it, and neither did you.) It actually feels like a run-of-the-mill network sitcom from the 1990s, with its brightly lit sets and overly broad performances mugging for laughs from the studio audience. So in that way, That ’90s Show is a throwback… just not the kind of throwback we wanted.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: With tired punchlines and a new cast that lacks the easy charm of the originals, Netflix’s That ’90s Show is a total buzzkill.

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The Last of Us Review: HBO’s Bleak Survival Thriller Masterfully Brings the Zombie Genre Back From the Dead

When The Walking Dead debuted on AMC in 2010, it was a revelation: a high-octane thriller set during a zombie apocalypse that was grimmer and gorier than anything we’d ever seen on TV. But after eleven seasons, several spinoffs and countless knockoffs, the entire zombie genre started to feel like it was on its last undead legs. Thanks to HBO’s new series The Last of Us, though, it’s showing surprising signs of life. Masterfully tense and deeply emotional, The Last of Us (debuting this Sunday at 9/8c; I’ve seen the first three episodes) delivers all the nail-biting action we expect from the genre, but makes sure to ground it in authentic human emotion, too.

The Last of Us HBO Nico Parker Pedro PascalBased on the acclaimed video game, The Last of Us takes its sweet time setting up the pre-apocalypse world in the premiere, with The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal starring as Joel, a single dad living with his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) in Texas. Life seems normal and peaceful enough, but we notice fleeting hints of danger here and there in the background — and then all of a sudden, the world is ending. The culprit is a mind-altering fungal infection that rapidly turns unsuspecting humans into howling zombies known as “the infected” that are frighteningly fast and agile. (These aren’t the limping, lurching zombies we’re used to seeing.) The premiere’s first thirty minutes are a riveting, horrifying set-up, establishing a sturdy emotional foundation for the rest of the series.

Two decades later, Joel is living in a heavily fortified quarantine zone when he’s tasked with escorting a teen girl named Ellie (played by Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey) across the zombie wasteland… and she’s valuable cargo, for some mysterious reason. Pascal and Ramsey immediately have a strong, spiky dynamic as the two reluctant travel companions, and the horrors they face together are very real. The zombies here are vividly grotesque — the landscape is littered with fungally infected corpses, with mushrooms growing out of the eyes, ears and mouths — and highly lethal, too.

The Last of Us HBO Joel Pedro PascalWhat follows is a bleak, moody mashup of The Walking Dead and Pascal’s The Mandalorian. (Here he is, ferrying a gifted child through dangerous terrain again.) Emmy-winning writer Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) adapts the series with a keen eye for human behavior and laces his scripts with chilling parallels to our pandemic times. While the early episodes can get exposition-heavy, the action scenes act like jolts of pure adrenaline: both breathlessly tense and gruelingly intense. This show doesn’t revel in blood and guts like The Walking Dead, though; it prefers to slowly build suspense and let our imaginations run wild.

The Last of Us treads familiar territory at times — it almost can’t help it, due to the sheer explosion in zombie content over the past decade — but there’s an elegance here, a melancholy beauty that sets it apart. (The hollowed-out cities with abandoned skyscrapers overgrown with wild vegetation are just so gorgeously sad.) The third episode, in particular, is a tiny jewel, dramatizing a standoff between a paranoid survivalist played by Nick Offerman and a wayward traveler played by Murray Bartlett. Their story is a big detour and takes some unexpected turns, but it works beautifully, underlining how essential the human element is to a show like this.

Certainly, The Last of Us isn’t for everyone: It requires a strong stomach, for one thing. (I can’t imagine binge-watching more than one episode at a time.) But for those who are up for it, it’s a highly compelling and artfully crafted step forward for the zombie genre — and for television in general.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: HBO’s The Last of Us revitalizes the zombie genre with gruelingly intense action and deeply humane storytelling.

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Willow Review: Disney+ Sequel Series Is Worth the Wait — Fun, Accessible Fantasy at Its Most Charming

Offbeat fantasy doesn’t get much better than Ron Howard’s Willow. The 1988 film may have played out like a by-the-numbers epic about plucky heroes overcoming despotic evils, but its reputation as an all-ages adventure outweighs its triteness.

Now, with a sequel series on Disney+ (premiering today), Willow Ufgood (again played by Warwick Davis) and the denizens of this quirky universe make their long-awaited return. Luckily, judging by the first three episodes, Disney may have a new family favorite on its hands.

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Willow‘s boiled-down lore and steadfast commitment to fun help reinforce the show’s accessibility, but it’s the new cast members who sell this eight-episode follow-up. The fleshed-out plot, instantly lovable characters and geographically comprehensive conflict reflect the alacrity of a world begging to be revisited. We don’t see much of this universe beyond what’s relevant to the central quest, and that allows the writers to build out this world through its characters. After all, it’s the characters, not necessarily the world itself, that initially sold many of us on the 1988 film.

Willow Review Disney

Joanne Whalley as Sorsha

The plot here is straightforward: Twenty years after Willow and Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) defeated the wicked Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh), Sorsha’s daughter, Kit (played by Ruby Cruz), and a ragtag group of misfits must rally against a new threat hell-bent on their destruction.

On paper, it’s pretty standard stuff. In practice, it’s far better.

One of the things showrunner Jonathan Kasdan does best here is emphasize just how much the new characters run the show. Kit, the ostensible protagonist, is snarky, likable and insecure. Dove (Ellie Bamber) is the classic underdog with more than enough strength and courage to prove herself. Tony Revolori’s Prince Graydon is a sympathetic inversion of the boneheaded, next-in-line archetype, a gentle youngster with a heart of gold and a knack for seeing others’ strengths. This guy doesn’t want this marriage any more than Kit does, and every mention of their imminent union shuts him down.

And as much as we miss Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan, the story doesn’t need him. (Kilmer was hoped to be involved, but health issues and COVID precluded his encore.) Here, it’s two characters, not one, who fill the “quippy swashbuckler” void that his absence creates. The first is Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel), a rogue swordsman imprisoned in the dungeons beneath the city. The second is Jade (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s Erin Kellyman), an ambitious young warrior on the cusp of knighthood who serves as a self-serious foil for the more playful Kit. Together, they scratch this particular itch — and have a blast doing it.

Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Kit (Ruby Cruz), Jade (Erin Kellyman), Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel) and Graydon (Tony Revolori)

Davis is at the top of his game, turning in what may be the series’ standout performance (right and proper). His return as Willow Ufgood proves every bit as gentle, endearing and good-natured as it was in the original, but here he adds layers to the character. As powerful as Willow is, he frequently contends with those who underestimate him. Most of the time, this doesn’t seem to bother him; but sometimes, especially when casting a complex spell, he lets self-doubt slip into his eyes and — very fleetingly — contorts his face into a mask of insecurity. Davis communicates this turmoil beautifully, expertly flitting from comical exasperation to crippling uncertainty before defaulting to his no-nonsense demeanor.

Couple top-notch acting with engaging visuals and you’ve got a sequel that’s shaping up to be even more fun than its predecessor. Everything from the costume design to the resplendence of Willow’s spellcasting oozes passion for the material. Kasdan and company truly care about this story and every detail reflects that.

Even more striking than its characters and its visuals, though, is how inventive Willow is with its perspectives. The opening minutes of the premiere cleverly establish a mystery that fans of the film almost certainly won’t see coming. It’s a classic case of writers taking a concept further than they have to and turning it into a superior version of itself.

Willow is a bouncy, buoyant sequel that leans heavily on the new cast and makes good on the unspoken promise that all great follow-ups inherently make: enrich what came before by diving deeper into why this world and its characters resonated in the first place. The final product is something that stands as well on its own as it does as a continuation of Ron Howard’s classic film.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Disney+’s Willow is a formula-faithful — yet tonally intrepid — sequel series that is absolutely worth the wait.

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Wednesday Review: Netflix’s New Take on the Addams Family Isn’t Altogether Ooky, But It’s More Teen Than Scream

It’s a little late for Halloween, but Netflix’s new spin on the Addams Family franchise, Wednesday, is still a welcome sight. Armed with the backing of Tim Burton and a killer trailer, Wednesday — premiering, when else, next Wednesday, Nov. 23 on the streamer — looks like a worthy extension of the classic creepy family. But based on the four episodes I’ve seen, a potentially fun spinoff has been given the Riverdale treatment, shoving the Addams Family characters into a supernatural teen drama that’d be more at home on The CW or Freeform. It does have a properly macabre tone and a fantastic lead performance from Jenna Ortega, but the choice to go full YA, I’m afraid, might have been a fatal mistake.

Wednesday Netflix CastWhen we meet Wednesday Addams, played here by Ortega, she’s a student at squeaky-clean Nancy Reagan High School… and no, she doesn’t fit in there. (To exact revenge on some water polo bullies, she drops a bunch of piranhas in the school’s pool.) So Wednesday gets sent away to Nevermore Academy, a private school for outcasts where her parents Gomez and Morticia once attended. The new school is brimming with supernatural freaks, from werewolves and vampires to sirens and gorgons — but somehow, Wednesday still stands out as the morbid, death-obsessed weirdo. The school has plenty of secrets hidden within its walls, though, starting with the mysterious killer in the woods that’s been tearing hapless victims to shreds.

Wednesday does have a sharp bite to it, capturing the Gothic charm of the Addams Family movies. Ortega is terrific as Wednesday, nearly equaling the deadpan perfection of Christina Ricci with her deliciously dark one-liners. (“Sartre said hell is other people. He was my first crush.”) Catherine Zeta-Jones is also exquisitely well-cast as Morticia, but Luis Guzman doesn’t really work as Gomez — and that doesn’t matter all that much anyway, because the rest of the Addams family are limited to mere cameos, except for disembodied hand Thing. This is Wednesday’s show, and the rest of the characters don’t quite measure up, although Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) clearly understands the assignment as the school’s meddlesome Principal Weems. Ricci herself pops up as dorm mom Marilyn Thornhill, which is a cute bit of stunt casting, but she isn’t given much to do.

Wednesday Netflix Gwendoline Christie Principal WeemsThe tone and visual style of Wednesday are absolutely on point, with Burton — who serves as executive producer and directs the pilot — bringing his trademark ghoulish glee to the project. But the storytelling from Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) lags well behind. The plot is cluttered and chaotic, with mysteries piled on top of mysteries. We have Wednesday planning to escape the school, plus her newfound psychic visions, plus the aforementioned mutilated corpses, plus multiple interchangeable floppy-haired love interests, plus Weems’ weird grudge against Morticia… it borders on overkill, as wonderful as that word might sound to Wednesday. (She also has superhuman combat skills somehow, which… OK.) Plus, the show attempts to bring a depth to the character of Wednesday Addams… that I’m not sure we want? As a side character with pithy punchlines, she’s perfect, but as a main character with an emotional arc, she’s lacking. (Wednesday Addams and emotions do not mix.)

In its structure and tone, Wednesday is actually closest to another Netflix drama, the late Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but it’s missing that show’s dark magic. Ortega is truly great as Wednesday — she’s a star in the making — but the show slows to a crawl when she’s off-screen. In the end, it feels less like an Addams Family show than yet another disappointingly familiar YA murder mystery trying to piggyback off of well-known IP. The most damning thing I can say about Wednesday is that Wednesday Addams herself would probably hate it.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Netflix’s Wednesday has a ghoulish tone and a superb lead performance, but the story is strictly cookie-cutter YA mystery.

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Criminal Minds: Evolution Review: Deeper, Darker Revival Ain’t Your Grandma’s 42-Minute Procedural

As a title, Criminal Minds: Evolution refers not just to how a new UnSub upped his game during the pandemic, but also the changes that the series itself has undergone for its rebirth on Paramount+.

Reporting thus far on Criminal Minds: Evolution has regularly labeled it a “revival,” but having screened the first two episodes (of 10), I can attest that, yes, it is that. And then some. We catch back up with friendly faces still solving crime for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, but the very familiar, predictable rhythms of the 42-minute procedural that aired on CBS for 15 seasons/320-plus episodes are gone, at least in the early goings.

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Criminal Minds EvolutionInstead, scenes and moments get to breathe as the crime drama stretches its legs on streaming. Time is made to check in on the agents at home, and not in some “very special episode” manner. Difficult conversations among disagreeing colleagues are had, instead of glossed over following a commercial break. Kill scenes are not so much more graphic, but more intense.

But most notably, not everyone is doing so great post-pandemic.

When Evolution premieres on Thursday, Nov. 24 (with its first two episodes), it is clear that it has not been business as usual for the BAU these past few years. Emily Prentiss (played by Paget Brewster) as Unit Chief is regularly locking horns with bureaucrats who value anti-terrorism efforts far, far above the hunting of pesky serial killers. Because of budget cuts, investigations are no longer team efforts (and don’t even ask about the jet); instead, when we pick back up with the likes of David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Dr. Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler), they are one-man bands that can only hope to compare notes with a cross-country peer over a late-night phone call. (Rossi in particular has apparently been a bit obsessed with a serial slayer of families; were that the only demon he is dealing with….) And yet they, along with JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook) and Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez), continue to fight the good fight. Though in some cases, to the detriment of personal relationships.

Criminal Minds EvolutionAgents Spencer Reid and Matt Simmons are conspicuously MIA (but do merit mentions), whereas keyboard warrior Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) is, very much by design, wholly divorced from the BAU, having traded those dark, dark workdays for something much lighter and brighter. This newfound calling has emboldened the character in an overdue way, so be careful if you try to bark orders at her.

The promos for Evolution trumpet the fact that the new, season-long UnSub, Elias Volt (Friday Night Lights‘ Zach Gilford), spent his pandemic grooming acolytes of a sort, scattered across the nation. The BAU, however, doesn’t have access to Paramount+ press releases and trailers! Instead, the agents at first are stymied by some seemingly unrelated cases, until the curious contents of a hidden shipping container slowly, gradually starts connecting some dots.

I would not go so far as to say that Criminal Minds: Evolution is the product of “What if Criminal Minds and a prestige cable drama had a baby?” But that wouldn’t be too far off. It’s just wonderfully different, in assorted ways that longtime viewers may not have realized they wanted. From the camerawork to the use of anamorphic lenses, to, yes, the utterance of the occasional expletive. (You just know who gets one of the first cusses.) Showrunner Erica Messer clearly saw an opportunity here to take a known quantity and elevate it, to add texture and rough edges that the steady rotation of Cases of the Week didn’t afford her.

At one point while screening the early episodes, I shared on the TVLine staff Slack, “Guys, the Criminal Minds revival has NO business being this good.” But it kinda is?

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Criminal Minds has evolved.

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White Lotus Season 2 Review: HBO’s Luxury Hotel Dramedy Extends Its Stay With a Sexy (If Stale) Follow-Up

HBO’s The White Lotus took us by surprise last summer… but it shouldn’t have. After all, Mike White crafted another uncomfortably hilarious series a few years back with Enlightened, and here, with a sparkling cast populating his acid-tongued comedy of manners, Lotus ended up garnering more buzz and awards attention than Enlightened ever did. Now it’s become an anthology, and with Season 2 arriving on HBO this Sunday at 9/8c (I’ve seen the first two episodes), the question is: Can White recapture the old magic with a new cast? Or is Season 2 destined to feel like a trip to somewhere we’ve already been before?

The White Lotus Season 2 Jennifer Coolidge TanyaThankfully, the new season does add a few intriguing wrinkles to the formula — enough to help us overlook some of its more repetitive tendencies. Season 2 whisks us away to another White Lotus luxury hotel, a beach resort in Sicily that welcomes a fresh crop of overly pampered travelers, including a mismatched pair of young married couples stuck together on vacation and a newly divorced dad trying to reconnect to his Italian roots with his elderly father and son in tow. There is one repeat guest, though: Jennifer Coolidge reprises her Emmy-winning role as spacey socialite Tanya, bringing along a fleet of luggage, her now-husband Greg (Jon Gries) and a frazzled new assistant, Portia, played winningly by Haley Lu Richardson.

Season 2 hits on a lot of the same themes as last season — rich people wallow in their privilege amid beautiful vistas, while the less fortunate scramble to keep them happy — but White goes heavy on the marital dissatisfaction this time, too. Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe play Ethan and Harper, a newly rich couple sharing a getaway with the cheerfully oblivious Cameron (Theo James) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) while working through nagging issues of their own. The Sopranos vet Michael Imperioli plays the divorced dad Dominic, fighting to keep his family together while indulging in his own self-destructive appetites. Even lovebirds Tanya and Greg are now bickering, with the goofy spark they shared in Season 1 now snuffed out.

The new season is decidedly more amorous as well, with several characters on the prowl for sexual adventure. (We even see Tanya and Greg in the act, although naturally, it’s played for laughs.) But at the heart of The White Lotus is White’s keenly observant eye for awkward social interactions and ear for naturalistic dialogue, where the characters say just as much by what they’re not saying. Yes, Season 2 does bring back its murder-mystery element, opening on another dead body — and more than one this time — but through White’s emotionally insightful writing, the real fireworks come from within.

The White Lotus Season 2 Lucia MiaI’m torn on the return of Tanya: In many ways, it feels like a rerun and a distraction from the other storylines, but Coolidge is so much fun as Tanya that it’s hard to argue with it. (Her presence here is kind of like Season 2 in a nutshell: maybe unnecessary, but still enjoyable anyway.) The new cast is once again studded with gems, highlighted by Fahy as chipper trophy wife Daphne and F. Murray Abraham as Dominic’s dad Bert, a raunchy old codger who flirts with every girl he sees. Actually, a mischievous pair of Sicilian girls, Lucia and Mia (Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Granno), might be the most refreshing additions of all, bringing some vibrant local color to the proceedings. The hotel staff, though, isn’t as interesting this time; the resort’s tightly wound manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) feels too broad for an otherwise subtle series.

Season 1 of The White Lotus was such a breath of fresh air that it’s slightly disappointing at first to see Season 2 playing many of the same notes, just in a different key. But two episodes in, it had already started to grow on me, as long-held secrets and hidden resentments between the guests began to crop up. The season also has an old-world elegance and a continental flair to it that contrasts nicely with last season’s lush Hawaiian dream, indicating that this anthology could keep tweaking its formula for years to come. Even if it repeats itself a bit, The White Lotus is still head and shoulders above the vast majority of TV shows, and with the way it cycles in great new actors and tailors itself to its surroundings, I certainly wouldn’t mind making a stay at The White Lotus an annual trip.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Season 2 of The White Lotus hits on a lot of the same themes as last season, but it still offers a terrific cast and insightful social satire.

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