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    ‘Billions’ Season 6, Episode 6 Recap: I’ll Be Watching You

    Prince takes a hit, and Taylor makes a hit job. The gamesmanship is getting expensive, in more ways than one.Season 6, Episode 6: ‘Hostis Humani Generis’There are few things on television I enjoy more than a good “Billions” fake-out. The sine qua non comes from the stellar Season 2 episode “Golden Frog Time,” in which a Chuck Rhoades who at first appears to be sobbing is actually laughing hysterically because his plan to undermine his enemy Bobby Axelrod worked like a charm. (At the expense of his best friend and his father, but still!)The sleight-of-hand that occurs in this week’s episode isn’t nearly as momentous, but it provides that thrilling frisson nonetheless. For a moment, it looks as if Chuck has put the screws to Mike Prince’s alma mater, Indiana A&M, to prevent it from investing in his firm. How? By blackmailing the university’s endowment chair, Stuart Legere (Whit Stillman alum Chris Eigeman), who has been embezzling.But it turns out that the opposite is true. Chuck is blackmailing Legere and the endowment into investing with Prince by threatening to expose the embezzlement. Having previously rejected his father for the role as too obvious a choice, Chuck wants an inside man who will report back on Prince’s every move, and now he has found one. The needle drop of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” that accompanies the maneuver is no mere music cue. It’s a mission statement: No matter what Mike Prince does, the watchful eyes of Charles Rhoades Jr. will be on him, whether he knows it or not.Why? Because Chuck really and truly seems to have gotten religion where the billionaire class is concerned. He calls Prince “a robber baron.” He denigrates Prince’s seemingly charitable donation of a new fleet of high-tech subway cars (funding for which was the purpose for reopening the exclusive Prince List to new investors, like his alma mater) as a new form of “noblesse oblige.” He characterizes Prince’s seeming benevolence as an attempt “to further his own ends, whatever they may be, while he enjoys ten thousand, a hundred thousand times” the resources of anyone ostensibly benefiting from his largess. He has deemed all billionaires “hostis humani generis,” an old designation for pirates: enemies of the entire human race.And how will Chuck defeat Prince’s latest gambit? In large part by relying on the acumen of his new lieutenant, Dave Mahar. In a brief meeting with her predecessor, Kate Sacker, Dave discerns that speed is of the essence where Prince Cap’s plan to purchase those new subway cars is concerned. So she threatens to tie it all up in red tape related to the cars’ Chinese manufacturer — an end-run around the Transport Workers Union, which has been bought off with half a billion dollars’ worth of re-education and training for members who lose their jobs to newwer, more automated subway cars. Kate actually tenders her resignation to Mike over the gaffe, though he doesn’t accept it.Then there’s the matter of Leon Sherald (Okieriete Onaodowan) to consider. Sherald is a football star who has started a blockbuster home fitness franchise, and he wants in on the reopened Prince List’s exclusive list of investors. It’s Taylor Mason’s former underling-slash-friend-with-benefits, Lauren (a returning Jade Eshete), who brings Sherald’s offer to the firm, despite the awkward interpersonal dynamics.But when Sherald finds out that the public-sector pension fund to which the Transport Workers’ Union belongs also includes the New York police union, he demands Prince drop it, or he’ll nuke the list’s reputation in the all-important court of public opinion.This is where Taylor comes in. Having been tipped off to an app that suppresses problematic social-media posts by Rian, Taylor reverse-engineers the procedure and digs up damning information about Sherald, neutralizing his ability to tank the Prince List in the process. Rian, once again, is aghast, but the firm wins the day.In the end, Prince agrees to fund public transport, even without his futuristic Chinese subway cars. But what is the endgame here? Well, remember when Chuck talked about Prince’s “own ends, whatever they may be”? At multiple points in the episode, there are tantalizing hints that there’s a play behind the play, a maneuver by Prince for which the Olympic Games are merely a pretext.Scooter warns Prince that his gamesmanship is getting expensive, but it’s perhaps permissible if “there’s no other way to everything you want.” Later, Prince tells Scooter “You’re know where we’re headed — you’re the only one — but when we leave to do the thing, we need to install someone who’ll run the place right.” The dialogue seems to rule out the simple matter of getting his estranged wife a plum coaching gig; it points to something larger, more secretive.The near-term ramifications are clear enough: Scooter’s nephew Philip is being groomed for leadership. The long game, though? The thing Prince is aiming for above and beyond the Olympics? That’s anybody’s guess. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy a drama that keeps me guessing.Loose ChangeUntil I heard them open and close this episode, I’d never really made the thematic connection between the Police songs “Synchronicity I” and “Every Breath You Take,” despite their both being on the album “Synchronicity.” The first song is a sort of mystical paranoiac fantasy that everything is connected; the latter is a stalker’s message that it’s right to be paranoid.In this week’s “appearing as themselves” rundown, we see the Warby Parker chief executive, Neil Blumenthal; the Greenlight Capital founder, David Einhorn; the Wharton professor and TED talker Adam Grant; the dot com pioneer Seth Godin; and the philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz as members of Prince Cap’s board.No “Godfather” references that I spotted this go-round, but Al Pacino’s monologues in “Any Given Sunday” and “Scent of a Woman” get a (literal) shout-out from Philip. Hoo-ah!Your pro-wrestling reference of the week: Dave threatening to pull off a Bobo Brazil “Coco Butt,” one of the most feared head butts in the art form’s history, on the Transit Workers’ Union boss Tony Plimpton (Kevin Chapman).Important Prince Cap maneuverings to remember: Tuk begins to develop some real money-making instincts while working as Philip’s gofer; Philip refuses to be poached even after his uncle Scooter sets him up for a plum job far away from the firm.Your latest sign that “Billions” has evolved past Bobby Axelrod: Comptroller Leah Calder (Wendie Malick) congratulates Chuck on taking down Axe, and Chuck replies that his one-time nemesis “is firmly in my rearview.” Adios, Axe. More

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    ‘Euphoria’ Star Angus Cloud Offers Hints About Season Finale

    The actor plays Fezco, the kindhearted drug dealer who watches over Rue.Name: Angus CloudAge: 23Hometown: Oakland, Calif.Now Lives: In a light-filled home in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles that he shares with friends.Claim to Fame: Mr. Cloud had never acted before playing Fezco, the lovable drug dealer in “Euphoria,” who has emerged as a fan favorite. Fezco was meant to die in Season 1 but was kept alive, according to a casting agent, after Sam Levinson, the show’s creator, saw Mr. Cloud’s performance. Fezco has a bigger role in Season 2, including a budding romance with Lexi (played by Maude Apatow) that has fueled lots of online chatter.“I think Fezco’s relationship with Lexi is cool,” said Mr. Cloud, who speaks as slowly and softly as his character. “It’s not rushed and it’s not onscreen every single episode, but when it is, it’s truly something special.” He offered a sneak preview of this Sunday’s finale. “In the last episode, Fezco is action packed,” he said. “There’s a lot happening, I just hope the fans are ready.”The unlikely romance between Fezco and Lexi (played by Maude Apatow) has spurred lots of online conversation.Eddy Chen/HBOBig Break: In 2018, Mr. Cloud was walking on Mercer Street in Greenwich Village when he was approached by Eléonore Hendricks, a casting agent for “Euphoria.” “We were still scouting for some lead characters, Fezco especially,” Ms. Hendricks said. “So when I clocked Angus, I stopped him and his friend. This kind of thing happens in New York City, but it can be hard to believe.”At the time, Mr. Cloud was a waiter at Woodlands, a restaurant near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He thought it was a scam, but his friend convinced him to follow through. “Before this, I didn’t have any desire to act,” he said. “I guess I was just at the right place at the right time.”Latest Project: Madison Avenue has come calling. Last year, Mr. Cloud appeared in a cheeky advertising campaign for Fila called “Falling in Love Again” that featured a short film directed by Mark Seliger and also stars Luke Wilson and Adesuwa Aighewi. Mr. Cloud also appeared in an ad for the Gap last fall directed by Christian Weber.“The costume designers at ‘Euphoria’ do a great job at keeping Fezco’s style aligned with my personal style,” Mr. Cloud said.Pat Martin for The New York TimesNext Thing: Mr. Cloud’s acting career looks bright. “We wrapped the second season on Nov. 23, 2021, and since then, I have booked three new movies,” he said. They include “Your Lucky Day,” a horror film set in a convenience store that involves a $156 million lottery ticket, and “The Line,” a coming-of-age thriller set at a university, starring John Malkovich, Alex Wolff and Halle Bailey.Fashion Darling: “The costume designers at ‘Euphoria’ do a great job at keeping Fezco’s style aligned with my personal style,” said Mr. Cloud, who likes Polo shirts, tracksuits, thick hoodies and colorful street wear. “They know what I like and don’t like, and we work extremely well together.” That may also explain why Mr. Cloud was invited to several fashion events in New York this month, including for Thom Browne and Coach. More

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    ‘The Daughter-in-Law’ Review: Sons and Wives

    In this D.H. Lawrence play, a production by the Mint Theater, men are trouble, “pure and simple.”In the darkness before dawn, a sleepless woman and her daughter-in-law keep each other company.There is no love lost between these two — Mrs. Gascoyne, a miner’s widow who keeps her miner sons close in their small English town; and Minnie, a former governess who, just weeks earlier, had the gall to marry one of them. But late in D.H. Lawrence’s play “The Daughter-in-Law,” the women are gentle enough with each other to have a heart-to-heart.“A child is a troublesome pleasure to a woman,” Mrs. Gascoyne tells Minnie, “but a man’s a trouble, pure and simple.”If that’s unfair as a generalization, it certainly applies to Mrs. Gascoyne’s Luther, who has passed 30 without exhibiting the slightest twinge of ambition.An enduring mystery of the play is why Minnie, a go-getter with some money of her own, elected to marry him. As a spousal choice, he seems a distant second even to his aimless brother Joe, who still lives with their mother and, in the play’s opening minutes, sits down to a supper that she cuts up for him.In Martin Platt’s diverting revival for the Mint Theater Company, at New York City Center Stage II, the men are not what’s captivating about this play. Rather, it’s Lawrence’s women, drawn with a capacious, conflicted sympathy that recognizes how frustrating it is for a keen-minded person to try to carve satisfaction from a stifling domestic world.Portrayed with a fine ferocity by Sandra Shipley, Mrs. Gascoyne nurtures a bitterness about Luther’s “hoity-toity” new wife — a resentment that’s about class and clannishness, but also about loss of control, because what if her boy doesn’t need her anymore? When an acquaintance, Mrs. Purdy (Polly McKie), breaks the news that her daughter is four months pregnant with Luther’s child, Mrs. Gascoyne’s desiccated heart swells in anticipation of the humiliation this will bring to Minnie.The gentle-mannered Minnie, in a beautifully nuanced performance by Amy Blackman, has trouble enough already. Her new marriage has descended into bickering, and Luther (Tom Coiner) is a self-pitying grump. Still, when she says in the heat of anger that she would have preferred “a drunken husband that knocked me about” to a mama’s boy, it seems a stretch.Written in a thick, distinctive dialect of the East Midlands, where Lawrence grew up, the text leaves room for Luther to have some appealing qualities, but here he is all roughness and no complexity. There’s not even a sexual spark that would make sense of Minnie’s choice to be with him — which is a problem, because we are meant to have a stake in their relationship’s success.His brother Joe (Ciaran Bowling) is at least kind to her, mostly; when he isn’t, the change of tenor is more confusing than anything.As with many Mint productions, the play’s back story is part of the allure. Lawrence’s father was a miner; his mother, to whom he was exceptionally close, came from a slightly higher class. He wrote the script in the years after her death in 1910, around the time he wrote his novel “Sons and Lovers,” which has similar themes.Not staged in Lawrence’s lifetime (and previously directed by Platt for the Mint in 2003), “The Daughter-in-Law” feels at times like a purgation — a 20-something playwright rebelling at last against the beloved mother who demanded too much of him emotionally. When Minnie blames Mrs. Gascoyne for hobbling Luther, as if he had no agency, she can sound like she is channeling the playwright’s own wounded outrage. Rebellion, though, is not the same as revenge.“The world is made of men for me, lass,” Mrs. Gascoyne tells Minnie.But in the world of Lawrence’s play, the women are the stars.The Daughter-in-LawThrough March 20 at New York City Center Stage II, Manhattan; minttheater.org. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. More

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    Review: Conversation and Conflict, as Warhol Meets Basquiat

    Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope give memorable performances as the odd couple artists in Anthony McCarten’s new play, “The Collaboration.”Jeremy Pope, left, and Paul Bettany will also star in the forthcoming film version of “The Collaboration.”Marc BrennerLONDON — Opposite art world titans attract in “The Collaboration,” a new play that opened Thursday at the Young Vic Theater here. Chronicling the creative partnership between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat during the 1980s, Anthony McCarten’s play offers bravura performances from Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope as the two cultural icons.And if the writing isn’t fully the equal of its star turns, well, a film version of this play is already planned. A movie should give McCarten the opportunity to sharpen a script that, as of now, only begins to deliver on its promise in the second act.This writer’s track record with biopics certainly bodes well for Bettany and Pope when they transfer to the screen: The movies McCarten wrote about Stephen Hawking (“The Theory of Everything”), Winston Churchill (“The Darkest Hour”) and Freddie Mercury (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) brought Oscar wins for each of their leading men. His 2019 film, “The Two Popes,” earned nominations for the co-stars Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins and is the closest of those movies in structure to “The Collaboration.”Like that film, with his new play McCarten imagines a duo’s conversations and conflicts. At the beginning, Bettany’s lean, languid Warhol isn’t sure about the commingling of talent that the Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger (an excitable Alec Newman) has in mind for him and Basquiat: a joint exhibition to decide which of the two is the world’s greatest artist. Bischofberger has an eye on publicity and regards painters, he says, as boxers.Bettany’s Warhol reveals an insecurity and disgust that take the part well beyond caricature.Marc Brenner“Gee,” Warhol objects to the gallerist, “you make it sound so macho, like a contest.” Pope’s initially indrawn, pouty Basquiat, 30 years Warhol’s junior, isn’t any more certain that he wants to be part of a double act: “He’s old hat. Does anyone really care about Warhol now?” One man traffics in brands and pop culture iconography (we see Warhol’s signature Marilyn Monroes on the walls of Anna Fleischle’s flexible, white-walled set), the other sees logos as the enemy. Art, Basquiat maintains, “has to have a purpose.”The material follows a dramatically predictable course from mutual wariness to admiration, leading eventually to love. In fact, that very word is voiced in the penultimate line. Dismissive of Warhol’s attraction to surfaces at the expense of substance, Basquiat comes to adore him as a protective rival turned father figure, of sorts.“I hope you don’t die, Jean,” Warhol cautions, insisting that the addiction-prone Basquiat clean up his act. The younger artist’s reply is to insist on his own immortality, unaware, of course, that both men would die not long after, within 18 months of each other. When they do actually collaborate — on a sequence of paintings — it’s given surprisingly little stage time; you miss the specific attention to the artistic process that fueled a play like John Logan’s Tony-winning “Red,” about Mark Rothko.The director Kwame Kwei-Armah gets up close and personal with Warhol and Basquiat as the duo move beyond some fairly labored exposition (like when Basquiat, on cue, details his Haitian-Puerto Rican parentage) to achieve real power. The two actors manage to find something primal beyond the boilerplate writing.As Basquait, Jeremy Pope is a springy, restless stage presence.Marc BrennerPope, an Emmy and two-time Tony Award nominee, fills with fury as we see Basquiat at work on “Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart),” a painting created in response to the police brutality that resulted in the death of a young graffiti artist in 1983. The canvas inevitably chimes with the Black Lives Matter movement Basquiat never got to see, and lends “The Collaboration” a wrenching topicality.A springy, restless stage presence, that sweet-faced actor communicates the heightened edginess of a man hurtling toward disaster. It’s a shame, therefore, that the belated arrival into the play of Basquiat’s girlfriend Maya (Sofia Barclay) seems perfunctory, as if McCarten weren’t sure quite how to broaden the story beyond the artist duo.Bettany, in turn, is a marvel in his first stage role in several decades. The Englishman, a longtime U.S. resident, has starred in Marvel movies and recently impressed as a forbidding Duke of Argyll in the BBC TV show “A Very British Scandal,” which will come to the United States in April.A figure of white-wigged insouciance still reeling from having been shot by Valerie Solanas some years before the play starts, this Warhol reveals an insecurity and disgust that take the part well beyond caricature. Survival, you sense, is no less precarious for him than it is for Basquiat. The two legends are hellbent on self-laceration, reminding us that, no matter how great our cultural legacy, we’re all mortal.The Collaboration.Through April 2 at the Young Vic in London; youngvic.org. More

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    Musical Comedy ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ to Open on Broadway Next Fall

    The new musical, by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori, will star Victoria Clark as a teen girl who ages too quickly.“Kimberly Akimbo,” a musical comedy about a young girl with a medical condition that causes rapid aging, will transfer to Broadway next fall.The show, based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire, had an initial Off Broadway run that opened late last year at the Atlantic Theater Company, where it ran through the peak of the Omicron surge of the coronavirus and was greeted with strong reviews. Jesse Green, in The New York Times, called it “funny and moving.”The musical stars Victoria Clark, a 62-year-old actress playing a 15-year-old girl who is managing not only her affliction — a condition that limits her life expectancy — but also life with a ludicrous family.“It’s a coming-of-age story, but an unusual one because the clock is ticking from the get-go,” Clark said in an interview. “She has a limited amount of time left, and what draws me to her is her joie, and watching how someone can triumph who you least expect to succeed.”Clark, who stars alongside a company of much younger actors, said playing an adolescent had deeply affected her.“There is a boldness and a rawness to adolescence, and at the same time a balance between holding back and going for it that is so beautiful,” said Clark, who won a Tony Award in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.” “This character has taught me the beauty of impulse, and the beauty of being present, and not just accepting one’s fate. After the show I just wanted to run and find everyone I loved and tell them how much they meant to me.”The show features music by Jeanine Tesori, the Tony-winning composer of “Fun Home,” and a book and lyrics by Lindsay-Abaire, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his play “Rabbit Hole.” It is directed by Jessica Stone, a longtime actress making her Broadway directing debut, and choreographed by Danny Mefford (“Dear Evan Hansen”).The Broadway cast will feature the same actors as the Off Broadway production, including Steven Boyer (“Hand to God”) and Alli Mauzey (“Cry-Baby”) as the protagonist’s parents, Bonnie Milligan (“Head Over Heels”) as her aunt, and Justin Cooley making his debut as one of her classmates.“Kimberly Akimbo” is scheduled to begin previews on Oct. 12 and to open on Nov. 10 at an unspecified Shubert theater. The lead producer is David Stone, who is also the lead producer of “Wicked”; other producers include the actress LaChanze and the theater owner James L. Nederlander, as well as Patrick Catullo, Aaron Glick and the Atlantic Theater Company. More

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    ‘Killing Eve’ Is Back for a Final Season. Here’s Where We Left Off.

    Season 3 ended ambiguously in 2020. We’ve recapped some of the murders and gay drama you may have forgotten about since then.When “Killing Eve” left off, in the spring of 2020, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve (Sandra Oh) had just come together on the Tower Bridge, in London — a handy symbol for the scene, as bridges often are.It was a bridge that allowed two women, whose relationship had been defined by repressed desires, to have an emotionally (and physically) vulnerable conversation. “When I try and think of my future, I just see your face over and over again,” Eve told Villanelle as they leaned over the edge of the bridge. Near the end of their heart-to-heart conversation, the two turned back-to-back — leaning into the moment and each other — and then walked in opposite directions, promising never to look back.“I’ll be yours forever,” Saoirse Ronan sang over the scene, as the two dragged their heels. A moment later, Villanelle and Eve, assassin and assassin-obsessive, broke their agreement and turned around, locking eyes in a shared expression of yearning and heartbreak.Almost two years later, we’ll finally find out whether that lingering gaze led to anything — a proper kiss with no head butts, maybe? Another murder attempt?“Killing Eve” returns on Sunday, bringing its trademark blend of blend of wit, murder, luxurious outfits and queer sexual tension back to BBC America and AMC for a fourth and final season. (The first episode airs Sunday on BBC America and Monday on AMC; the first two start streaming Sunday on AMC+.) Here’s a refresher before the premiere.What’s Eve been up to?Over the last three seasons, Eve went from being an MI6 agent with, as she puts it, “a husband, and a house, and a chicken,” to being single and homeless.Eve lost her job in the Season 2 finale after finding out that her boss, Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), set up Eve and Villanelle to murder a weapons dealer named Aaron. When Eve refused to leave Rome without Villanelle, Carolyn wished her luck and left.When Eve returned to England in Season 3, she got a job in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant. Carolyn’s son, Kenny (Sean Delaney), checked in on Eve after she drunk texted him, and he mentioned that he was investigating “the Twelve,” a shadowy organization that coordinates assassins like Villanelle to commit high-profile murders. He was doing so, he said, for the Bitter Pill, an online publication. He invited her to visit the office.Kenny wasn’t there when she went, but his phone was on his desk. Turned out, that’s because he was busy plummeting to his death from the roof. Eve soon started working for the Bitter Pill herself, looking into Kenny’s death and continuing to research the Twelve.At the same time, Eve’s obsession over Villanelle finally ended her marriage to Niko (Owen McDonnell). During the first two seasons, he had become increasingly frustrated with Eve’s split attention. By the end of Season 2, he left her after Villanelle killed his friend, co-worker and crush, Gemma (Emma Pierson).Eve and Villanelle had a plan to escape to Cuba but as with so much about their relationship, it was stymied. Laura Radford/BBC AmericaAt the beginning of Season 3 — as Niko was ignoring Eve’s calls and texts — Eve saw Villanelle on a bus and finally kissed her for the first time. (Immediately after they kissed, Eve head-butted Villanelle, who then got off the bus.)After leaving Eve, Niko moved to a farm in Poland, where one of Villanelle’s former trainers from the Twelve, Dasha (Harriet Walter), tracked him down in an attempt to drive Eve and Villanelle apart, and she steals Niko’s phone to text Eve, convincing her to visit. When Eve arrived, Dasha stabbed him in the throat with a pitchfork, but she hid so that Eve would suspect Villanelle. Niko survived, but as for his relationship with Eve — stick a fork in him — he was done.Eve continued investigating Kenny’s death, but by the end of the season she seemed to lack a greater mission. Who is she when she doesn’t have a murder (or a murderess) to obsess over?What about Villanelle?After killing plenty of people for the Twelve, Villanelle decided to work undercover for MI6 at the end of Season 2 to catch a weapons dealer named Aaron. Her handler Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) — under orders from Eve’s boss — told another hit man who worked for the Twelve that he could kill Villanelle if she killed Aaron, which, of course, she did.Villanelle killed the other assassin with Eve’s help and made it out of Season 2 alive, and at the start of Season 3, she no longer wanted to work with Konstantin or the Twelve. Soon after, Dasha showed up and talked her into working again, but Villanelle made it clear she wanted to move up the ranks of the organization.In the middle of Season 3, Villanelle returned to Russia to see her mother, Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina), who left her at an orphanage decades before but kept her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman). While there, Villanelle met her stepfather and her two stepbrothers — the younger one loves Elton John and the older one believes the Earth is flat — and spent some quality time with the family at a local fair. But later that night, her mother asked Villanelle to leave.In true Villanelle fashion, she burned down the house, killing everyone but Pyotr and her young stepbrother, whom she gave an envelope of cash and a note encouraging him to see Elton John’s farewell tour.After killing her own mother, Villanelle struggled to complete the Twelve’s assignments. Although she received a promotion, she learned from a higher up named Hélène (Camille Cottin) that she would still be expected to murder for them. After nearly being killed on her next assignment, she decided she wanted out again: By the end of Season 3, she and Konstantin had come up with a plan to escape the Twelve’s web.Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) also have a very complicated relationship.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAs they gathered money and passports, Villanelle invited Eve to a sultry dance hall, and as they danced, she invited Eve to come with her and Konstantin to Cuba. Eve seemed to be on board, but their escape plan was derailed when one of Konstantin’s bosses, Paul (Steve Pemberton), called him to say that he knew Konstantin had been stealing millions from the Twelve. Eve, Villanelle and Konstantin arrived at Paul’s house to find Eve’s former boss, Carolyn, there, aiming a gun at Paul.As Carolyn asked Paul questions, Konstantin admitted that he had been triple-crossing everyone by working for the Russians and the British and by taking orders from Paul. When Carolyn asked Konstantin who was behind the death of her son, he said that he had visited Kenny on Paul’s orders. (Kenny’s death, Konstantin said, was an accident.)Carolyn shot Paul and let everyone else go. Given the circumstances, Eve and Villanelle seemed oddly calm, and they left Paul’s apartment together.Well, who else lived and died?While on assignment with Dasha to kill an American man on a golf course, Villanelle abruptly changed gears, attacking Dasha with a golf club instead. Later, as Eve chased down Villanelle, she discovered Dasha — whom she believed had tried to kill Niko — lying in the grass. Dasha, who seemed close to death, confirmed Eve’s suspicions. Eve stepped on Dasha’s chest, pressing into her ribs until she heard a police siren in the distance.Konstantin, who had a heart attack toward the end of Season 3, wound up in the hospital next to Dasha, but as he left, he heard her die.Konstantin had a heart attack near the end of Season 3 but survived. Not every character was so lucky.Laura Radford/BBCAmericaAbout those finalesFor those of us who have watched “Killing Eve” from the start, the Season 3 finale may have felt somewhat familiar: Season 1 ended as Eve confessed that she thought about Villanelle all the time. Once she lured Villanelle into bed and the two leaned in for a kiss, Eve stabbed her.A similar scene played out in Season 2, which ended with a fight between Villanelle and Eve amid some Roman ruins, where Villanelle told Eve, “You’re mine” — then shot her when Eve disagreed.Although neither was injured when last we saw them, they were still toeing the complicated line between love and obsession on that bridge. This time, each seemed more willing to contemplate what her new life might look like without having to end the other’s.What would happen if Eve embraced her darker impulses? Who would Villanelle be if she weren’t a villain? And could they have a real relationship if they moved beyond the obsession and longing? More

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    Late Night Gets Serious About Ukraine

    Hosts did their best to bring levity to their shows on an otherwise somber day.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.What Is It Good For?Late night hosts got serious on Thursday discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Stephen Colbert called it “a dark day.”“Over the last five years, we’ve seen democracy repeatedly undermined, tragic, unprecedented firestorms, a global pandemic,” Colbert said. “Well this morning, Vladimir Putin looked at all of that and said, ‘Hold my vodka.’”James Corden forewent any attempt at jokes at the top of his show and delivered a somber monologue instead.“But today, if you are thinking about the news, there is really only one news story, and that news is so dark. That a war has begun, a sovereign country has been invaded, and all day today, and then tonight, and now as I sit here, I can’t — all I can think about is the innocent men and women and children in Ukraine who are terrified for their lives and I don’t know how to process it. Like, I don’t even know how to talk about this to my own children, let alone begin talking to you about it on television. And it’s weird, you know, like just because I wear a suit and I sit behind this desk, it doesn’t really mean anything. I am not nearly qualified enough to speak about these events. I’m not. And I don’t really want to make jokes about any other trivial news story that we found today, because I can’t shake the feeling of how utterly terrifying all of this is, and how scared the people of Ukraine must be feeling today; how scared everyone in Eastern Europe must be feeling today. And I’m sure I can’t fathom that this is happening in 2022 and the ramifications of this are monumental, and we should be under no illusion of how serious and sad the situation in Ukraine is. So, I don’t know what to say other than our thoughts are with every single person in Ukraine tonight.”— JAMES CORDEN“Amidst all this horror, it’s important to keep our eyes on the unhinged fascist lunatic,” Colbert said, referring to former president Donald Trump, who doubled down on his support of Putin.“You know, it’s hard to do a comedy show when there’s a war going on, but we are here while more than 6,000 miles away, women and children are fleeing Ukraine. Men aged 18 to 60 are required to stay and fight as Russian forces continue their unprovoked attack — an attack that has been received here in the United States, like, I don’t remember anything like this, in that some of us seem OK with it. You know, typically we would band together in a situation like this. We’d be united, but that was before the great divider chopped us in half.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war last night against Ukraine, and this is nice: Trump offered to host the after party.” — SETH MEYERS“So, if you were like most people, you were shocked and horrified. But if you were Donald Trump, apparently you were at Mar-a-Lago watching it with a bunch of Palm Beach plastic surgeons and their third wives and thinking, ‘You really got to hand it to Vladimir Putin.’” — SETH MEYERS“While Vladimir Putin is being condemned by leaders and ambassadors from every democratic country around the world, Donald Trump, our former president, was complimenting him and, of course, himself, while bombs were falling on a country that did nothing to provoke an invasion.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Then, as the invasion began, the ex-prez took to Russian state media — sorry, I misread that: Fox News.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It takes a special kind of a son of a [expletive] to see innocent people fleeing their homes and think, ‘How can I make this about me?’ But nobody does that better than Donald Trump.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Can you imagine if any other president behaved this way? This would be like if during World War II, Hoover came out and said, ‘Attaboy, Adolf. Sweet mustache. I love what you’re doing there.’” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Say ‘Aaaah!’ Edition)“As you know, Russia is now at war with Ukraine. It is a crazy world we’re living in. In fact, today President Biden asked the C.D.C. to find a new variant just to lighten the mood.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I think Putin has lost his mind. Even Kim Jong-un was like, ‘You’re not actually supposed to do it.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, World War III, a global pandemic, the queen has Covid, rising inflation. Billy Joel’s already working on a remix of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but one thing’s for sure: Putin should fire those peacekeepers. You had one job!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This is the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II, and the whole world is in shock. That’s why today’s Wordle was ‘Aaaah!’” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingOn “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon, Questlove and Higgins tried to guess if an audience member was hiding a mustache under his mask.Also, Check This OutNaomi Watts in “The Desperate Hour,” directed by Phillip Noyce.Vertical EntertainmentNaomi Watts plays a mother whose morning jog becomes a nightmare in Phillip Noyce’s new thriller “The Desperate Hour.” More

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    Daniel Isaac, 'Billions' Actor, Cedes the Spotlight While Quietly Commanding It

    Daniel K. Isaac, a theater actor with a steady gig on the series “Billions,” is appearing at the Public in Lloyd Suh’s play “The Chinese Lady.”“I’m the type of actor who won’t take up the most space in the room,” Daniel K. Isaac said.This was on a weekday morning, at the Public Theater, an hour or so before Isaac would begin rehearsal for “The Chinese Lady,” a play by Lloyd Suh that runs through March 27. Isaac perched at the edge of his chair — arms crossed, legs crossed, chest concave, occupying the bare minimum of leather upholstery.“It’s a big chair,” he said.Isaac, 33, a theater actor and an ensemble player on the Showtime drama “Billions,” combines that reticence with intelligence and warmth, qualities that enlarge every character he plays. (On this day, he was dressed as a New Yorker, all in navy and black, but his socks were printed with black-and-white happy faces.) With his sad eyes and resonant voice, he is an actor you remember, no matter how much or little screen time or stage time he receives.Isaac, left, and Shannon Tyo in Lloyd Suh’s “The Chinese Lady” at the Public Theater, in a production from Barrington Stage and the Ma-Yi Theater Company.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“The Chinese Lady” is inspired by the life of Afong Moy, a Chinese woman who came to America as a teenager in 1834 and was exhibited as a curiosity before disappearing from the popular imagination. Isaac plays Atung, her translator, who made even less of a dent in the historical record. “He exists as a side note,” Isaac said.Isaac created the role, in 2018, in a production from Barrington Stage and the Ma-Yi Theater Company. Even in a two-hander, he rarely takes center stage, ceding that space to Shannon Tyo’s Afong Moy.“I am irrelevant,” Atung says in the play’s opening scene.Isaac relates. In the first decade of his career, he felt ancillary, in part because of the roles available to Asian American men. He still feels that way. But now, in his 30s — and with his debut as a playwright coming later this year — he is trying to be the main character in his own life.“I don’t think I’ve ever had the big break or the large, hugely visible or recognizable thing,” he said. “My life has been a slow burn, a marathon rather than immediate sprint.” Isaac ought to know: He recently trained for his first marathon, and then posted cheerful selfies — of him in his NipGuards — to Twitter.Isaac with Tyo. “I just want somebody to give him the chance to be like, a small town hero cop,” she said. “There is a range of people I would love to see him take center stage doing.”Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesIsaac was born in 1988, in Southern California, the only child of a single mother who had immigrated from South Korea. At her megachurch, his mother heard a story of a pastor who suffered from stage fright. And because she imagined that Isaac might one day become a preacher — or a lawyer, or a doctor, who might have the occasional lecture — she signed him up for the church’s drama troupe.In high school, he participated for the first time in secular theater, playing a gambler in “Guys and Dolls.” He loved it. “There’s nothing like the community of theater, or what I still call the church of theater,” he said. This was also a time when he was struggling with his attraction to men and voluntarily undergoing conversion therapy. Theater, by contrast, allowed him to experiment with his identity, to try on different ways of being.“It became the safe space that allowed me to grow up, mature, open up more,” he said.He finished high school at 16 and went on to study theater at the University of California, San Diego, where he accepted his sexuality, which led to an estrangement from his mother. (They’re still working on it.) After graduation he moved to New York City and found restaurant work. He had set his sights on classical theater because peers had told him that, as an actor of color, he might find more parts there.“I was trying to imagine, could I be the token Asian in a project?” he said. “And would that be enough?”Seven years, some Off Broadway plays and a few episodes of television later, he landed a small part in the “Billions” pilot. He didn’t think much of it. He knew that plenty of pilots didn’t take. And he’d been killed or written off in ones that did. But “Billions” took, and his character, Ben Kim, an analyst who became a portfolio manager, remains alive. Isaac has appeared in every episode. (Still he didn’t quit his restaurant job until midway through Season 2. And technically, the restaurant told him to go.)Dhruv Maheshwari, left, and Isaac in “Billions.”Christopher Saunders/ShowtimeThe showrunners of “Billions,” Brian Koppelman and David Levien, hadn’t had huge plans for the Ben character. Once they understood Isaac’s intelligence and versatility, they expanded the role. “Daniel is a fearless actor, and that gives us huge freedom,” they wrote in a joint email.There’s a sweetness to his “Billions” character, which contrasts with the macho posturing of his colleagues at an asset management company. And that sweetness, as his co-star Kelly AuCoin said during a recent phone conversation, is all Isaac. “He could not be a more lovely or positive person,” he said. “He emanates love.” AuCoin broke off, worrying that his praise sounded fake. Which it wasn’t, he assured me. Then he broke off again. Isaac had just texted to wish him a happy birthday.For Isaac, who tries to do theater in between “Billions” shoots, taking on the role of Atung felt personal. And it felt important, not only as a way to explore who these characters were, but also as a means to reclaim their history.“Daniel understands the sacrifices made to get him where he is, and it imbues his work with a sense of purpose,” Ralph B. Peña, the play’s director, wrote in an email.Isaac says that theater “became the safe space that allowed me to grow up, mature, open up more.”Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesIn 2018, playing Atung, and reckoning with the weight of what men like him had suffered, felt painful. “I think I took it a lot more personally,” Isaac said. In the intervening years, anti-Asian prejudice, fueled by misinformation around Covid-19, seemed only to increase, which has made the work feel even more necessary.“If art has any capacity to make space for understanding, or empathy, or can be more than just entertainment, which I hope and live by, then I want to share that,” he said.Isaac has a way, in conversation and seemingly in his life, of taking the emphasis off himself and putting it onto the work, his colleagues, the world. That’s why he started writing plays.“Because then I could literally give the spotlight to others,” he said. “And sit in the shadows and still experience something and the joy of creation.” Ma-Yi will produce his first play in the fall, “Once Upon a (Korean) Time,” which explores the Korean War through the medium of Korean fairy tales.Tyo, his “The Chinese Lady” co-star, would like to see him find his light. They often help each other film auditions, so she has seen the range of what he can do. “I just want somebody to give him the chance to be like, a small town hero cop,” she said. “He’s very good at it. He’s very good at surfer bro. There is a range of people I would love to see him take center stage doing.”He is trying, he said. And at the risk of sounding what he called “extra woo-woo,” he thanks theater for helping him to try. “I credit the theater community because that’s where I felt safest and saw people being fearlessly themselves,” he said. “That gave me permission to try to step toward that in my own journey. And I’m still doing that.” More