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      ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Season 1 Episode 3 Recap: The Meaning of Sacrifice

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      “Sisterhood above all” is the motto of Valya and Tula’s secretive organization, but its meaning seems to depend on which sister is saying it.Season 1, Episode 4: ‘Sisterhood Above All’They share a last name and a mission, but Valya and Tula Harkonnen are two very different women. At least that’s what “Dune: Prophecy” primed us to believe until this week’s episode.Tula, played by Olivia Williams as an adult and Emma Canning as a young woman, is the sensitive one, the sister who goes along to get along. Her older sister, Valya (Emily Watson all grown up, Jessica Barden in flashbacks), is the one who rages against House Atreides for slandering her great-grandfather as a traitor. She is equally angry with her own family, especially her mother, Sonya (Polly Walker), and her uncle, Evgeny (Mark Addy), for meekly accepting their fate of exile on Lankiveil, a frozen wasteland of a planet. Sonya warns Tula and her brother, an aspiring politician named Griffin (Earl Cave), to stay away from their sister, a “wolf” who will devour them both with her ambition.But both siblings are fond of Valya. Why wouldn’t they be? For one thing, the three of them seem to be the only members of the family willing to show one another consistent affection. For another, Valya saved Griffin from drowning by using the Voice on him, forcing his muscles to swim through icy water to the surface.So when Griffin is murdered, allegedly by an Atreides, after Valya encourages him to get involved in Imperial politics, her thirst for vengeance consumes Tula as well. The younger sister poses as the lover of a young Atreides, then massacres him and the entire male side of his family the night before a big traditional hunt. She spares only a disabled young teenager named Albert (Archie Barnes, whom you may remember as the bold young Lord Oscar Tully from “House of the Dragon’), to whom she had been friendly the day before.Thus, House Harkonnen has its vengeance — not that Tula and Valya’s older relatives are anything but aghast. It’s not only the murders they object to; it’s also the involvement of Tula, of whom they clearly have a higher opinion than they do of Valya.But the Harkonnen sisters weren’t out to curry their family’s favor with this mission; Valya, at least, was more interested in scoring points with the Sisterhood’s mother superior, Raquella, who had encouraged her to go home and take care of family business so that she could fully commit to the order. Her disgraced surname hangs around her neck like a millstone — Raquella’s granddaughter and apparent successor, Dorotea, hates Valya for being a Harkonnen as much as for anything else. You can almost feel Valya’s defiance as she makes her move via Tula: Fine, Dorotea. I’ll give you something to hate me for.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Wayne Northrop, ‘Days of Our Lives’ Actor, Dies at 77

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      He was best known for playing two characters, Roman Brady and Dr. Alex North, in more than 1,000 episodes on the daytime soap opera.Wayne Northrop, an actor who played two roles on the long-running daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” as a good-hearted detective and then as a shadowy doctor, died on Friday. He was 77.Mr. Northrop, who learned six years ago that he had early onset Alzheimer’s disease, died at the Motion Picture and Television Woodland Hills Home in Woodland Hills, Calif., according to a family statement from his publicist, Cynthia Synder.He appeared in several television shows throughout his career, including the prime-time legal drama “L.A. Law” in the 1980s. He gained notoriety on ABC’s “Dynasty” as the handsome and mysterious chauffeur Michael Culhane who drove around the Denver business titan Blake Carrington, who was portrayed by the actor John Forsythe. Mr. Northrop appeared in 35 episodes.Mr. Northrop was probably best known for his roles on “Days of Our Lives.” The show, which premiered in 1965 on NBC, follows various characters in the fictional Midwestern town of Salem.Mr. Northrop portrayed two characters on the show. He was the tough but loyal detective Roman Brady from 1981-84 and again from 1991-94, according to his publicist.Beginning in 2005, he played Dr. Alex North, a one-time medical school classmate of Dr. Marlena Evans, a psychiatrist and the town’s matriarch, played by Deidre Hall. The Dr. North character was an amnesia specialist and a shadowy figure who manipulated, blackmailed and even committed murder on the show, according to soaps.com.Mr. Northrop appeared in more than 1,000 episodes from 1981-2006. The show moved to the network’s Peacock streaming service in 2022.Wayne Northrop was born on April 12, 1947, in Sumner, Wash. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Washington before pursuing acting.Mr. Northrop’s career began in theater, with his first big break in 1975 when he joined the Los Angeles Actors’ Theater.He made his television debut with a small part in “Police Story,” an anthology crime drama about the lives of police officers. His other television credits include appearances in “Eight Is Enough,” a show about a newspaper columnist and his eight children; “Baretta,” about a New York City detective; and “The Waltons,” about a Virginia family in the 1930s and ’40s; and “You Are the Jury,” about actual courtroom trials.He also landed roles in the made-for-television films “Beggarman, Thief,” (1979) about the Jordache family, adapted from the novel by Irwin Shaw; and “Going for Gold: The Bill Johnson Story” (1985) about the first U.S. men’s skiing gold medal winner.Mr. Northrop also appeared as Rex Stanton in 121 episodes of the “General Hospital” soap opera spinoff, “Port Charles” from 1997-98. That show also starred his wife, Lynn Herring Northrop, who has been an actress on “General Hospital” since 1986.He is survived by his wife, their sons, Hank Northrop and Grady Northrop, and stepmother, Janet Northrop, according to the family statement. More

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      Best TV Shows of 2024

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      “English Teacher,” “My Brilliant Friend,” “Shogun,” “Babylon Berlin” and “Somebody Somewhere” were among the series that stood out in a year when television felt more mid than ever.As you browse, keep track of how many shows you’ve seen or want to see. Find and share your personalized watch list at the bottom of the page.Best Shows of 2024 | Best International | Best Shows That EndedJames PoniewozikBest Shows of 2024We live in the Age of Like. You can click stars and hearts from one end of the internet to the other to express your contentment. Like is fine. Like is good. But like isn’t the same as love. Love is more challenging. It asks more of you and it risks more. Like can’t break your heart.The good news is, there was a ton of TV to like in 2024. But it was harder this year than most to find those special, challenging, distinctive shows to l-o-v-e, which is what I think year-end lists like this are all about.All this is an outgrowth of a phenomenon I wrote about earlier this year: “Mid TV,” the burgeoning category of well-cast, professionally produced shows that look like the groundbreaking TV of the past but don’t actually break ground of their own. This TV has its place — I watch a lot of it, happily — but that place is not on this list. (The shows that did make it are arranged alphabetically.)Farewell, 2024; here’s to a more-than-mid 2025!‘English Teacher’ (FX)There’s a popular “Simpsons” meme in which the school principal, Seymour Skinner, wonders to himself, “Am I so out of touch?,” and concludes, “No, it’s the children who are wrong.” What the rookie-of-the-year sitcom “English Teacher” posits is: Maybe the children are wrong, and so are the adults, but we’re all also sort of right, and all this is part of life. Less apocalyptic than “Euphoria,” more acerbic than “Abbott Elementary,” the series surveys the post-Covid educational culture wars with more curiosity than judgment. That, it turns out, is one of the best ways to learn. (Streaming on Hulu.) More

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      Earl Holliman, Rugged, and Familiar, Screen Presence, Dies at 96

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      Earl Holliman, an iron-jawed actor who earned a star on Hollywood Boulevard for a prolific career that included a corral full of Westerns, an appearance on the first episode of “The Twilight Zone” and a turn as Angie Dickinson’s boss on the 1970s television drama “Police Woman,” died on Monday at his home in Studio City, Calif. He was 96.His death was confirmed by his husband, Craig Curtis, who is his only survivor.While never a household name, Mr. Holliman was a seemingly ubiquitous presence on both the big and small screen, collecting nearly 100 credits over a career that spanned almost five decades.Ruggedly handsome, he was a natural choice for Westerns, war movies and police procedurals. Among his many notable films were “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” (1954), starring William Holden and Grace Kelly; “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957), starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas; “The Sons of Katie Elder” (1965), with John Wayne and Dean Martin; and “Sharky’s Machine,” the 1981 Burt Reynolds detective thriller.Over the years, he also popped up in many television series, including “Gunsmoke,” “CHiPs” and “Murder, She Wrote.”Mr. Holliman’s career started with promise. He broke through in the Depression-era romance “The Rainmaker” (1956), winning a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for playing the impulsive teenage brother of a lovelorn woman (Katharine Hepburn) who encounters a grifter (Mr. Lancaster) promising rain in drought-ravaged Kansas.A relative unknown, Mr. Holliman managed to win the role over Elvis Presley, who was then rocketing to fame as a rock ’n’ roll trailblazer, but who took time out to read for the role. (Mr. Holliman apparently had little to worry about: “Elvis played the rebellious younger brother with amateurish conviction — like the lead in a high school play,” Allan Weiss, a screenwriter who saw the audition, recalled.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Margo Martindale Pours It On in ‘The Sticky’

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      The esteemed character actress has spent decades enlivening films and series in just a few scenes or episodes. In this new Amazon heist comedy, she is first on the call sheet.Let’s say you need a woman who can slit someone’s throat, who can poison someone’s whiskey, who can smash her son’s fingers with a hammer, who can commit armed robbery with precision and glee. Perhaps you are responsible for “The Sticky,” a new Amazon heist comedy, premiering on Dec. 6, and you require an actress who can reliably crash most of a maple tree through the glass doors of a provincial office building.Then you should absolutely call the three-time Emmy winner Margo Martindale.So it was a mild shock, one morning in mid November, to find Martindale — just back from Toronto, where she is shooting a Richard LaGravenese series — tucked away at a tasteful Manhattan brunch spot. A further surprise: Martindale, 73, has lived nearby since 1978. She arrived for breakfast looking elegant in a black-and-white caftan, the picture of an Upper West Side matron, a matron without a sizable body count.“I am a wimp,” Martindale confessed as she pushed some eggs around her plate. “I’m scared of my own shadow. I’m afraid of the dark.” Those dangerous women? That’s acting.An esteemed character actress — in the Netflix animated comedy “Bojack Horseman,” in which she voiced a felonious version of herself, she was typically introduced as “Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale” — she has spent the last two decades playing a deluxe assortment of baddies, women with steel wool and spite where their hearts should be. She’ll often show up for only a few scenes in a movie or a handful of episodes on a show, just long enough to make the extremes of human behavior seem wholly plausible.In “The Sticky,” Martindale plays a farmer seeking revenge on the bureaucrats trying to take her farm.Jan Thijs/Amazon StudiosBut in “The Sticky,” she is the star of the series, first on the call sheet. Martindale plays Ruth Landry, a reluctant maple syrup farmer who plots to steal millions of dollars of syrup from the bureaucrats who are trying to seize her farm. (Landry is an invented character, but the series is based — very loosely — on actual events.) To hear her tell it, Martindale approached this lead the same as she would any of her character parts — all acting should be character work, she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Agency’ Is a Slick and Pleasing Spy Drama

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      Based on the French show “The Bureau,” the new Showtime series stars Michael Fassbender as a spy who must readjust to life after living undercover.Pity the C.I.A. agents deploying their enhanced interrogation techniques, beating hostages and meddling; truly it is they who suffer. It’s hard work being a spy — but the hardest work of all is loving yourself.“The Agency,” beginning Friday on Paramount+ (and debuting on Showtime at 9 p.m. Sunday), is set mostly within the London office of the C.I.A., where one of the primo dudes (Michael Fassbender), code name “Martian,” has been abruptly yanked back from a mission in Ethiopia. He was undercover there for six years, living as Paul and falling in love with Sami (Jodie Turner-Smith), a Sudanese historian and political activist. He wasn’t ready for the mission to end, and he is definitely not ready for their relationship to end — but c’mon, what are a few bent rules in the interest of hot-people diplomacy?“This isn’t national security; this is personal,” Martian insists to his boss (Jeffrey Wright). “It’s the agency,” the boss bellows back. “Nothing is personal!” Ooooh!The series is based on the terrific French show “The Bureau,” and in the four episodes (of 10) made available for review, it deploys a lot of spy-show standards: the rookie to whom everything must be explained, the ambitious but naïve flunkies, the secretly cooperative foreign attaches, the higher-ups who seem institutional and out of touch until they drop some monologue wisdom on our heroes.Fassbender’s mesmerizing performance is the biggest draw here, giving viewers a real taste of what it’s like to love a liar. We’re never quite sure what his angle is, how much of his seemingly vulnerable moments are all part of the game. He finds an intriguing sparring partner in the agency’s therapist (Harriet Sansom Harris), with whom he is required to meet on account of how hard it is to reintegrate into real life after living undercover for so long. Other story lines for secondary and tertiary characters feel comparatively unmoored.But on the whole, it’s all very slick and overtly, pleasingly fancy-schmancy. The show’s reflective-surfaces budget alone puts some national G.D.P.s to shame. The London of “The Agency” is a pallid grayscape where even the mall is dreary, where real life is the same color as CCTV footage. Every move here is surveilled, and the show revels in that constant unease. As the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you. More

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      Seth Meyers Wishes You a Happy Frozen-Pizza Thanksgiving

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      Meyers tried out a few catchphrases for DiGiorno’s seasonal offering, while Jimmy Fallon suggested some last-minute Turkey Day substitutions.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.It’s Not Delivery, It’s …Seth Meyers tried out several catchphrases for DiGiorno’s frozen Thanksgiving pizza, which features roasted turkey, green beans, cranberries and gravy.“Because some years, Dad gets the kids on Thanksgiving,” Meyers offered.“But don’t worry: I’m sure next year you’ll have something to be thankful for.” — SETH MEYERSFor those going the more traditional route, Jimmy Fallon had a few suggestions for last-minute Turkey Day substitutions on “The Tonight Show.”“For instance, if you can’t find a turkey, you can slap two booties on a Costco rotisserie chicken,” Fallon said.“If you can’t find wine, you can bust out the expired Robitussin — it works!” — JIMMY FALLON“If you can’t find a gravy boat, get this, you can run your neti pot through the dishwasher and call it a day.” — JIMMY FALLON“Next up, if you can’t find mashed potatoes, corn, and mac and cheese, you can DoorDash Boston Market, then put a finger to the delivery guy’s lips and whisper, ‘Our little secret.’” — JIMMY FALLON“And, finally, if you can’t find salad, you can forget about it, ’cause nobody really wants salad.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Black Friday Eve Edition)“Yep, Thanksgiving is just hours away. Right now, people are looking at the turkeys left in the grocery store, like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” — JIMMY FALLON“I read that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1863. During the Civil War, Lincoln saw all the fighting and was like, ‘This, but with cranberry sauce.’” — JIMMY FALLON“A record number of Americans are traveling for Thanksgiving, and today was expected to be the busiest travel day of the year. But here’s the good news: If you’re currently at the airport, you will make it home for Christmas.” — JIMMY FALLON“Bargain hunters are gearing up for Black Friday. In fact, right now at Walmart, there’s already a half-hour wait to get trampled to death.” — TOM SHILLUE, guest host of “Gutfeld”“Organizers have announced that Amazon workers in more than 20 countries are planning to go on strike between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which could affect Amazon’s ability to get your Christmas gifts to you two weeks late.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingBen Stiller and Katie Holmes played a game of “Catchphrase” on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightThe Meyers family will appear on Seth Meyers’s Thanksgiving episode of “Late Night.”Also, Check This OutDaniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey in “Queer.” Yannis Drakoulidis/A24Daniel Craig is sensitive and seductive in “Queer,” Luca Guadagnino’s feature film adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novella. More

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      Rain Expected at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

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      Over half an inch of rain could accumulate throughout Thursday in Manhattan.Spectators attending Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday can expect light, steady rain throughout the event, according to the National Weather Service.Rain will begin before dawn, accompanied by light winds, as the parade travels south through Manhattan, according to William Churchill, a forecaster at the National Weather Service. Rain is expected to end around noon, the same time the parade will come to a close.“We can say confidently it will be more than the average amount for Thanksgiving,” Mr. Churchill said, but mainly because it’s a typically dry time of year.With windchill factored in, temperatures are expected to be in the 30s and 40s. So dress accordingly, and bring a raincoat. (Macy’s said in a statement that spectators should avoid bringing umbrellas.)Early morning rainfall for the area is expected to be less than a tenth of an inch, with a total accumulation of just over a half inch.A light easterly wind of about 10 miles per hour was forecast to become more gusty after the parade, reaching as high as 25 or 30 m.p.h. More