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      ‘Industry’ Is Back With Boats, Cocaine and Bigger Ambitions

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      In its new season, the HBO finance drama expands beyond the trading floor and moves into the network’s marquee Sunday-night slot.The creators of “Industry” pitched the Season 3 opener to HBO with three words: “Coke and boats.”“We were like, ‘Don’t kill us, but this is where we want to start Season 3,’” Mickey Down, one of the creators, said in a video call.The HBO executives did not want to kill them. They were thrilled that the show, which follows a chaotic group of young employees at an investment bank in London and often deals with the more specialized details of finance, was going in a broader direction.While illegal substances are nothing new for the show, most of the action had been centered on the trading floor. The new season, beginning on Aug. 11, opens with a hedonistic party on a luxury yacht, filmed in Majorca. It is a flashback with devastating implications for one of the principal characters, a rich woman named Yasmin, played by Marisa Abela.“Coke and boats” was just one of the ways in which Down and the other creator, Konrad Kay, sought to expand the show, in the new season, Down said.HBO hopes that the wider vision will draw a bigger audience. The series previously debuted new episodes on Mondays and now gets a marquee Sunday-night slot, taking the place of “House of the Dragon,” which just finished its second season.“We have high hopes for the show,” said Francesca Orsi, head of drama for HBO, adding that if “the world embraces Season 3 in the way that we have, both in its critical praise but also its viewership, there’s no question that we want to continue moving forward with it.”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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      On Netflix, a Very British ‘Love Is Blind’

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      The creators of a new version of the reality show, in which contestants agree to marry before meeting face to face, sought to challenge a nation’s archetypal reticence.Tom Stroud, a 38-year-old advertising consultant, sits on the floor of a 12-foot-square room on the reality dating show “Love is Blind: U.K.,” facing a blank wall. On the other side is Natasha Waters, a 32-year-old job counselor, who has just told Tom that he’s everything she’s looking for in a man. He’s flattered — but he needs to let her know that he’s interested in somebody else.“I can feel how good you are,” he begins tentatively. “Um … but … I’m thinking about, sort of, um,” he trails off. He stares off into the distance, sighs heavily, fidgets with a ballpoint pen. “I need to be really honest with you …” he says, after a long pause. “I don’t know if it’s romantic love … it could just be friendship.”It may be no surprise to learn that Stroud is from Britain. This is, after all, the country’s archetypal reticence on display — a contrast to the freewheeling earnestness and candor of the six seasons of the American version of “Love is Blind.” The greater emotional restraint of contestants on the spinoff show is one aspect that makes it extremely, unmistakably British.Nazleen Karim, the showrunner and an executive producer of the series, acknowledged that this inhibition had been a possible concern. “Initially, we were like, ‘Will the Brits be able to emote and be as effusive as the U.S. cast?’” she said in a recent video interview.“We knew the format of the show was so strong, and that the emotion would get there, but part of us was thinking, ‘Will they be able to do it? Will it take them more dates?’” Seeing that process play out against “the stereotype of the stiff upper lip,” she said, was part of the attraction of taking the show’s format outside the United States.That format, in which a group of men and women conduct a series of blind dates from different pods to decide whether to get engaged before meeting in person, builds on the success of other American shows, such as “The Bachelor” and “Married at First Sight,” that have combined marriage with reality TV. The most popular British show in the same style, “Love Island,” is not centered around wedlock.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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      Steve Martin Is Out. Who Will Play Walz and Vance on ‘S.N.L.’?

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      Steve Martin is out, and the roles of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seem settled. But the internet has been busy dream-casting the rest of the “S.N.L.” election ticket.The approach of another presidential election brings with it many questions: In what direction is the United States headed? Who will be our next president and vice president? And, most crucially, who will play them on “Saturday Night Live”?Election-season comedy sketches are an “S.N.L.” staple, providing cast members with opportunities to gain visibility for their impersonations of prominent politicians and — increasingly — for the show to tap into its network of celebrity guests, friends and spouses to play these roles. When new political figures come to national attention, we can’t help but indulge our inner Lorne Michaels and imagine who we’d cast to imitate them.The show’s plans were likely scrambled last month when President Biden announced that he would stand down as the Democratic presidential nominee. That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket, and for Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota to join as her running mate. On the Republican side, former President Donald J. Trump offered his vice-presidential slot to Senator JD Vance of Ohio.These are all characters likely to appear on “S.N.L.,” whose 50th season will begin on Sept. 28. And while the show hasn’t officially announced who it intends to cast in these key roles (and NBC declined to comment for this article), there is plenty of history and wild internet speculation to sift through. Let’s take a look at where these races currently stand.Kamala HarrisHarris’s increased prominence in the campaign should lead to the same on “S.N.L.”Doug Mills/The New York TimesRudolph has already won Emmy Awards for playing Harris on the show.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe front-runnerNecessity is the mother of invention, and now that “S.N.L.” needs a Harris impersonator to play a prominent role this fall, Maya Rudolph is clearly the mother to call on. An “S.N.L.” cast member from 2000 to 2007, Rudolph began playing Harris in guest appearances during the Democratic primaries in 2019, racking up some highly GIF-able moments and winning two Emmy Awards along the way. Rudolph appeared as Harris 10 times through 2021, and the woman herself, in social media posts, appeared to approve of the portrayal. “S.N.L.” has not confirmed that Rudolph will play Harris, but Deadline has reported that production on her Apple TV+ series, “Loot,” has been pushed back to make room for her return to the show — as everyone and their mother seems to be clamoring 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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      This Bawdy Dramedy Presents a Fantasy of Online Sex Work

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      A new Norwegian series on Max follows a stifled wife and mother who finds excitement and a new identity by posting explicit photos online.Mariann Hole plays a woman looking for a jolt in a new Norwegian dramedy.MaxThe Norwegian dramedy “MILF of Norway,” (on Max in Norwegian, with subtitles, or dubbed) follows a stifled wife and mother looking for attention, approval, money, pleasure — a jolt. And if all it takes is posting some topless photos on the internet, what of it? “A little change should be fun,” her dry husband tells her. “You need that.” If only he knew.Lene (Mariann Hole) takes a back seat in her life. Truly: Her 14-year-old son, Mons, rides shotgun when her family drives somewhere. She’s fresh off an obnoxious firing from an agency she calls a “pathetic hipster dump,” and she feels undervalued and ignored in her life. Her best friend can’t stop griping about her husband’s online porn habits, and eventually curiosity gets the better of Lene — or maybe it’s a dormant adventurousness stirring back to life. After a mere nipple pic garners 37 likes, she’s all in, scrolling and posting and trying to find her specific niche in the market. Push notifications become her drug of choice, and she starts taking classes and networking.The series plays out a cotton-candy fantasy of online sex work, in which the adoration and cash roll in and nothing bad happens, and Lene can convince herself that she’s the special genius this whole industry has been waiting for. Calamitous dinner parties do not bother her; if others choose prudishness, that’s sad for them, but now she’s more sexual, evolved and interesting than they are. Maybe she’ll just make some new, cooler friends who also post explicit content of themselves. Maybe they’ll all just have a flirtatious, laugh-filled montage together.Some of the beats here feel ordinary, but the show’s cheeky tone brightens the proceedings, giving them a kooky, fun edge. Even better is the set and production design — if you are a fan of interesting lamps, this might be television’s richest bounty. Lene’s house practically glows, as if we’re seeing it in dreamy flashback.“I understand it can be hard to know how you should look at people,” Mons’s teacher tells him after some classmates complain that he is staring. Everyone in this show is struggling with that — some in concrete ways and others more philosophically.Five of eight episodes have aired, with new installments arriving each Thursday. More

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      Gabriel Olds, Los Angeles Actor, Is Arrested on Sexual Assault Charges

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      Gabriel Olds, who played the Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson in the 2021 movie “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” has been accused of sexually assaulting three women.A Los Angeles actor was arrested on Wednesday after three women accused him of luring them into a “false sense of security” on dates and then sexually assaulting them, the police said.The actor, Gabriel Olds, 52, has had roles in television, film and stage productions since the 1990s, including a turn as Pat Robertson, the Baptist minister and broadcaster, in the 2021 movie “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.The Los Angeles police said in a statement on Wednesday that investigators had identified three women whom Mr. Olds sexually assaulted since 2013, as well as two other women who reported “lesser violent sexual conduct.” Mr. Olds, who was charged with seven counts of felony sexual assault, was being held for $3.5 million bail.It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.Because Mr. Olds often traveled for work, detectives believe there may be more victims in other parts of the country who have not come forward, the Los Angeles police said.A New York native and Yale alumnus, Mr. Olds used his status as an Ivy League graduate with a long list of film credits to meet women and arrange dates, the police said. He met some of the women on dating apps, the police said.One of the three women, who was 41, reported on Jan. 19, 2023, that Mr. Olds had raped her at her home in Los Angeles, the police said. The two other women later reported similar assaults dating back to 2013, the police said.“We heard the same story again and again,” Detective Brent Hopkins, a supervisor in the special assault section of the Los Angeles Police Department, said in a statement. “Mr. Olds started off charming, but then used brutal violence to carry out these rapes. Some of these survivors suffered in silence for years before finding the strength to speak up. Now that he’s off the streets, we want to make sure everyone has a chance to be heard.”Mr. Olds’s television credits include appearances in two episodes of “NCIS: Los Angeles” and in a single episode of the NBC series “Blindspot,” according to IMDB. On the New York stage, he played Rodolpho in a 1997 production by the Roundabout Theater Company of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge.” More

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      With ‘Sprint’ and ‘Simone Biles: Rising,’ Netflix Fills Olympic Content Gap

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      New seasons of documentaries about running, gymnastics and basketball are being filmed this summer as part of a partnership with the International Olympic Committee.The four-person crew from Box to Box Films, the production company responsible for the hit Netflix motorsports docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” has often shot in lavish settings like Monaco and Miami.But one recent morning, it congregated in a far less glamorous spot: a set of flimsy bleachers next to a running track in the Paris suburb of Eaubonne, where it waited about an hour for a practice session to begin.“This is our life,” Warren Smith, a top executive at Box to Box, said of the waiting. It could have been worse: Across town, a second crew was filming a runner having a haircut.The footage from France will eventually be part of the second season of “Sprint,” a Netflix documentary following the American 100-meter stars Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles and a dozen or so other track athletes.The series is one of three projects being filmed during these Summer Games as part of a partnership between Netflix and the International Olympic Committee, a latecomer to the sports-documentary genre that is now an eager participant.Just as “Drive to Survive” forged a deeper connection between fans and Formula 1 auto racing, the I.O.C. hopes these projects will pique awareness and interest among a new (read: younger) generation of Olympic fans. They include the track series, a gymnastics one called “Simone Biles: Rising” and one about the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.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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      Patti Yasutake of ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Beef’ Dies at 70

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      Ms. Yasutake played Nurse Alyssa Ogawa in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”Patti Yasutake, the actress known for her roles in the hit Netflix series “Beef” and in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” died on Monday at a hospital in Los Angeles. She was 70.The cause was cancer, her manager and friend of more than 30 years, Kyle Fritz, said.Ms. Yasutake had a 30-year theater career, but she is most widely recognized for her recurring role as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the television show that aired from 1987 to 1994. She appeared in 16 episodes and later reprised the role in the films “Star Trek Generations” and “Star Trek: First Contact.”In an article on Startrek.com, the website’s managing editor Christine Dinh wrote that Ms. Yasutake’s Ogawa was one of two recurring ethnically Asian characters on the show at the same time, a rarity when there “were so few characters who looked like me on-screen in Western media that I could count them on one hand.”“What stands out about Alyssa Ogawa’s story is that it spoke to the Asian American experience but wasn’t about that,” Ms. Dinh wrote.More recently, she was cast in Netflix’s hit show “Beef,” a dark comedy in which Ms. Yasutake plays Fumi Nakai, the fierce and unapologetic mother-in-law of Amy Lau, played by Ali Wong.Patricia Sue Yasutake was born in Gardena, Calif., on Sept. 6, 1953. She grew up there and in Inglewood. Ms. Yasutake graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a theater degree.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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      A Decade Later, ‘The Leftovers’ Seems Almost Like Prophecy

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      In interviews, the creators, Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, look back at their HBO grief drama and how it plays differently after the coronavirus pandemic.In “Guest,” an episode in the first season of the HBO drama “The Leftovers,” a woman named Nora Durst (Carrie Coon) approaches a disheveled self-proclaimed prophet named Holy Wayne (Paterson Joseph). She is looking for relief from the torment of her entire family disappearing in a Rapture-like event known as the Sudden Departure, and the prophet clutches her head and quotes from the Bible: “For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope.”These words from the book of Ecclesiastes are an ideal summation of the show, which premiered just over a decade ago, in June 2014. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, based on Perrotta’s novel, the series tells a dark story about the aftermath of an inexplicable tragedy in which 2 percent of the world’s population vanishes. But it treats its characters with great care and (eventually) has a wicked, unexpected sense of humor. “The Leftovers” was always joined with all the living, intent on fanning the embers of hope.When the show premiered, it was speculative fiction about an imagined catastrophe. Rewatching it now, it seems more like prophecy, foreseeing an emotional and corporeal reality the world experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. In separate interviews, Lindelof and Perrotta talked about the experience of creating the show, and the ways in which it anticipated our present. These are edited excerpts from the conversations.How did you two come to collaborate?DAMON LINDELOF I think it was 2012. I’m never going to do television again. I’ll never make another thing like “Lost,” so why even chase it? And then, as I was reading the book, I was like, “It’d be really cool to do this as a TV show.”TOM PERROTTA I said, “I’d really like to be in the writers’ room and to have a significant role in writing the show.” But I knew that I needed somebody who could run the show.Damon Lindelof, left, and Tom Perrotta in 2014. They adapted the series from Perrotta’s novel.Sam Comen for The New York TimesWe 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