Disney Plus

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      ‘WandaVision’ Fills In Gaps in Marvel History

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘WandaVision’ Fills In Gaps in Marvel HistoryThis week, the series drew from many other Marvel shows, movies and comics. Here’s a breakdown of some of the key references.Elizabeth Olsen, left, and Kathryn Hahn in “WandaVision.”Credit…Disney+Feb. 26, 2021, 5:52 p.m. ETGrief and personal loss fill in gaps in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Friday’s episode of “WandaVision,” the eighth of the season and, at 48 minutes long, the longest to date. Titled “Previously On,” it is the installment that most clearly ties the show’s events to other Marvel movies and TV shows, like “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”At the same time, it is an origin story for the disorienting sitcom world that much of “WandaVision” has inhabited. Through a series of extended flashbacks, the tortured superheroine Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) relives the traumatizing events that led her to transform the contemporary New Jersey suburb of Westview into the Hex, a TV-addled neighborhood that she has surrounded with a mysterious energy dome and cut off from the outside world.More often than not, Wanda’s flashbacks suggest that she is consistently motivated by the death of her loved ones, especially the loss of her parents, Iryna and Olek Maximoff (Ilana Kohanchi and Daniyar) and her brother, Pietro (Evan Peters). “Previously On” also hints at what motivates Wanda’s witchy rival, Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), whose antagonistic behavior in “WandaVision” contrasts with her cryptic but benign personality from earlier Marvel comics.Here are some of the key comic book and movie references in this week’s “WandaVision” episode. Major spoilers follow.Agatha Harkness’s Salem Witch TrialsThe episode begins by flashing back to Salem, Mass., in 1693, when Agatha was confronted and almost burned at the stake by a coven of witches. Evanora (Kate Forbes), the group’s leader and Agatha’s mother, accuses Hahn’s villainess of betraying her fellow spellcasters. This flashback parallels the beginning of Vision and the Scarlet Witch No. 3, when the aggrieved members of Salem’s Seven, Agatha’s coven, successfully burn her alive. (She had previously revealed to the Fantastic Four the location of New Salem, a secretive witch community, in Fantastic Four Annual No. 14.)Beyond that association, Agatha Harkness is otherwise distinct from how she’s depicted in the comics: She casts a spell on and destroys her mother and her fellow witches, a jarring change from the comics’ general narrative that also immediately announces this week’s focus on revisionist history.Wanda’s Parents and the Unexploded BombWanda first revisits the death of her parents, Iryna and Olek, which happens when the American military destroys their Sokovia hometown, Novi Grad, with bombs manufactured by Stark Industries. Wanda’s parents were first mentioned in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and in that movie she and her brother, Pietro (played in that movie by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), blame the industrialist turned superhero Tony “Iron Man” Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) for their parents’ death, which leads them to ally with the megalomaniacal robot Ultron (James Spader).Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”Credit…Jay Maidment/Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesWanda also relives another moment that is mentioned, but not shown, in “Avengers: Age of Ultron”: During the bombing of Novi Grad, she and her brother were pinned under rubble for two days, waiting for one of Stark’s bombs to detonate. In “Previously On,” we learn that the bomb never exploded because Wanda defused it with her “chaos magic” powers. This unexploded bomb resembles the drone missile that was sent into the Hex by the superhero-regulating government agency S.W.O.R.D. (or, Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Department) in “On a Very Special Episode …,” the fifth episode of “WandaVision.”HYDRA, the Mind Stone and Loki’s ScepterAfter revisiting her childhood Novi Grad home, Wanda remembers when she, as an adult, volunteered to be a test subject for deadly experiments that were conducted by HYDRA, a Nazi-like terrorist organization that served as the main villains in most of Marvel’s recent movies as well as the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” TV series.Wanda recalls and expands on the post-credits scene from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” when she and Pietro were imprisoned by the HYDRA leader, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. (Strucker’s name might ring a bell with “WandaVision” fans: There’s an ad for Strücker brand wristwatches in the show’s second episode.)In the comic book tie-in “Avengers: Age of Ultron Prelude — This Scepter’d Isle,” Strucker and his men explain how, just before the “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” post-credits scene, they gave the Maximoff twins superpowers using a magical scepter that they swiped from the Norse trickster god Loki (played in the films by Tom Hiddleston).Loki’s staff also connects Wanda with her android husband, the Vision (Paul Bettany), since the scepter’s reality-altering powers come from the same Mind Stone that Ultron used to give life to the Vision in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” This week, Agatha suggests that the Mind Stone significantly “amplified” Wanda’s psychic powers, which would have “otherwise died on the vine.”The Snap: S.W.O.R.D. HeadquartersWhen Wanda remembers retrieving the Vision’s body from S.W.O.R.D. headquarters, TV news tickers in the lobby announce “families reunite” and “[celebrations] for the returned.” This alludes to a cataclysmic event from “Avengers: Infinity War” known as “The Snap.” That was when the philosophically inclined alien warlord Thanos (Josh Brolin) halved the world’s population simply by donning his all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet and snapping his fingers.This means Wanda took the Vision’s body some time after “Avengers: Endgame,” which was when Wanda and her teammates undid the Snap’s effects.Paul Bettany as the Vision in “Avengers: Infinity War.”Credit…Marvel/DisneyThe Vision’s Vibranium BodyDuring Wanda’s visit to S.W.O.R.D. headquarters, the S.W.O.R.D. director, Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg), explains that the Vision’s body must be destroyed because he is “one of the most sophisticated sentient weapons ever made.” That’s because the Vision’s body is made of Vibranium, an alien element that crash-landed in the African nation Wakanda (the main setting of “Black Panther”) during a meteor shower and was subsequently developed into an indestructible metal — it is used in some of the Marvel world’s most sophisticated and highly sought after technology and weaponry, including Captain America’s shield. Ultron created the Vision’s body in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” using Vibranium stolen by the deranged and questionably accented South African arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis).The Snap: LagosEagle-eyed viewers will also note that Thanos’s fateful snap is subtly referenced twice this week. The first time is on a Westview mural advertising something called “Snap,” which can be seen briefly after Wanda uses her superpowers to transform the town into a sitcom fantasy. That same mural also mentions the Nigerian city Lagos, a reference to a scene from “Captain America: Civil War” when Wanda accidentally destroyed a building full of Wakandan civilians while trying to disarm a bomb.The Vision’s New LookThe real Vision comes back to life during a mid-credits scene this week, but he doesn’t look the way he used to. He was destroyed twice in “Avengers: Infinity War”: first by Wanda, who was trying to stop Thanos from taking the Vision’s Mind Stone, and then by Thanos, who later used the Infinity Gauntlet to travel back in time and steal the stone.Outside of Westview, Hayward reanimates Vision’s body using the chaos magic that rubbed off on the drone missile back in Episode 5. Comics fans might recognize the Vision’s new off-white costume from West Coast Avengers No. 45, when an international team of spies deleted the android’s old personality and redesigned him after he, under the influence of the evil supercomputer I.S.A.A.C., tried to take over the world.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      Gina Carano Is Off ‘Mandalorian’ Amid Backlash Over Instagram Post

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyGina Carano Is Off ‘Mandalorian’ Amid Backlash Over Instagram PostLucasfilm’s statement came hours after a new backlash against the actress, who on Instagram compared “hating someone for their political views” to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.The actress Gina Carano as Cara Dune in the second season of “The Mandalorian,” Disney’s hit “Star Wars” spinoff series.Credit…Disney+Feb. 11, 2021Updated 4:56 p.m. ETThe actress Gina Carano, who starred as Cara Dune in the “Star Wars” spinoff series “The Mandalorian” on Disney+, on Wednesday compared “hating someone for their political views” to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust in an Instagram post, her latest social media post to create a fan backlash.Lucasfilm, the company within Disney that owns the show and the rest of the “Star Wars” franchise, condemned her comments and said in a statement that she was “not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future.”“Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable,” Lucasfilm said in a statement.Ms. Carano was also dropped by her agency, UTA, according to The Hollywood Reporter.The Instagram post, which re-shared an image from a different account, is no longer visible on her page. It led to thousands of complaints on social media, where many people used the hashtag #FireGinaCarano, not for the first time. (Some conservatives, who viewed her posts as a matter of free speech, countered with #CancelDisneyPlus.)In September, Ms. Carano added “beep/bop/boop” to her Twitter bio, which many saw as mockery of people who list their pronouns. She denied that accusation and said she was responding to people who asked her to list her pronouns, “exposing the bullying mentality of the mob that has taken over the voices of many genuine causes.”She said she talked with her “Mandalorian” co-star Pedro Pascal, who “helped me understand why people were putting them in their bios.” (Mr. Pascal would later publicly support his sister, Lux Pascal, an actress who came out as transgender this week.)Ms. Carano has also mocked the use of masks and the need for vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic, and embraced baseless claims of voter fraud after the presidential election.Before she shifted to acting, she was one of the world’s top female mixed-martial artists and performed for two years on “American Gladiator” under the stage name Crush. She appeared in seven episodes of “The Mandalorian” as a trusty ally of the protagonist, played by Mr. Pascal, and is otherwise known for roles in “Haywire,” “Deadpool” and “Fast & Furious 6.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      Iceland Has a Request for Disney+: More Icelandic, Please

      by

      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyIceland Has a Request for Disney+: More Icelandic, PleaseDisney brought its streaming service to Iceland last year. Now, the country’s education minister has sent a letter of complaint over the lack of Icelandic dubbing and subtitling.Iceland’s education minister urged Disney+ to work with the country’s efforts to preserve its language.Credit…Steven Senne/Associated PressFeb. 3, 2021Updated 10:05 a.m. ETREYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland, like much of the world, has embraced Disney’s popular streaming service, Disney+, since it arrived there late last year, with characters from Mickey Mouse to Mulan now available to watch on demand in homes across the country.But there is a problem, the government says: None of the movies or shows are dubbed or subtitled in Icelandic.The country’s education minister sent a letter of complaint to Bob Chapek, The Walt Disney Company’s chief executive, this week, urging the company to cooperate in the country’s efforts to preserve its language.“We work hard to maintain it, especially among children and young people who are heavily exposed to other languages daily, mainly English,” the minister, Lilja Alfredsdottir, wrote in the letter, which was also posted on social media. She noted that, particularly for children, it is vital to have as much exposure to the language as possible.Since then, the campaign has picked up steam, with many Icelanders adding their voices to calls for their native tongue to be featured. The move is part of a broader push to preserve the Icelandic language, a source of identity and pride for many, that some fear is being undermined by the widespread use of English.“I have never experienced reactions this strong,” Ms. Alfredsdottir said in an interview after publishing her letter on Facebook. “People are clearly passionate about our language.”The Disney+ service offers subtitles and audio dubs in up to 16 languages, according to its website, although the availability varies by title. The company also says it plans to add more languages as the service becomes available in more countries.The service’s uptake has risen steeply during the pandemic as people across the globe spend more time at home. By December, the company had reported about 87 million subscribers worldwide, after only a year in operation.And Icelanders have long adored Disney characters, many of whom are given names in Icelandic: Donald Duck is Andrés Önd, and Winnie the Pooh is Bangsímon.Many of Disney’s classic films were also dubbed into Icelandic when they were first released. But those versions are absent from Disney+, and people in the country want to know why.“I do wonder why they don’t at least offer the old versions,” Thorarinn Eldjarn, an author who has translated dozens of children’s books into Icelandic over his long career, said in an interview. “Either they think Iceland is too small and unimportant to bother with, or they assume everyone understands English.”Icelandic is a version of Norse that has remained largely unchanged on the island nation since it was settled about 1,100 years ago. But many people worry about the future of the language, which is spoken by only a few hundred thousand people in an increasingly globalized world.Some protections have been put in place: Local broadcasting rules require foreign shows to be subtitled at all times. But that has not been extended to streaming services, and exceptions are also made for international sports events.Among the nation’s children, English is being embraced at a rate that few people could imagine even a decade ago.Some of Iceland’s youngest children now speak English without an Icelandic accent.Credit…Lucas Jackson/ReutersSchools have had to rethink their curriculum because many students can no longer fluently read volumes from the Sagas of Icelanders, the medieval literature that chronicles Iceland’s early settlers and is considered the bedrock of the language.And many Icelanders have made the point that without the preservation of ancient Icelandic scripts and people’s ability to read them, some of the best-known tales of Norse mythology would have been lost. (That would mean no foundation for the lucrative Marvel Thor series, which is streamed on Disney+ and based on the Norse god of thunder.)Now, some of the country’s youngest children speak English without an Icelandic accent, and when communicating in Icelandic their syntax is influenced by that of English.Evidence also suggests that young Icelanders’ vocabulary is shrinking and blending with English, particularly regarding technical terms. Some people, for instance, will know the English word civilization but not necessarily the Icelandic equivalent (it’s “siðmenning”).Even so, researchers who have documented the effects of globalization on Icelandic insist that the status of the language is still strong.Ms. Alfredsdottir said she planned to follow up with foreign media companies, but declined to say whether streaming services could face fines for not adding subtitles.“I believe we can appeal to mutual interests,” she said. “If Disney embraces Icelandic, I am sure people will reward them for it with a subscription.”Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The absence of Icelandic has not been a deal breaker for other streaming services. Roughly 70 percent of Icelandic households in the country subscribe to Netflix, according to a 2020 Gallup poll — among the highest rate in the world — and its shows mostly do not have Icelandic subtitles.But Eirikur Rognvaldsson, a professor of Icelandic, said the influence of English on children, particularly with Disney+, could be problematic.“Disney films have catchy songs and phrases that children tend to repeat,” Mr. Rognvaldsson said.Much depends on the duration of exposure, he said, citing a large three-year study of 5,000 people from age 3 to 98, that he is involved with.He also said that interactive use of English tended to have more of an influence, such as when video game users chat with players around the world. “Too many children are not exposed enough to their mother tongue,” he said. “And that is causing a range of learning difficulties.”Yet some in the country are working to counter the digital trend.“We are already experimenting with automatic subtitle captioning,” said Johanna Gudmundsdottir, who leads the research center Almannaromur, with a team of 60 experts working to save the language from “a digital death.”The government has allocated $23 million for the project, which is being open-sourced so that tech companies can add Icelandic as a language option without much groundwork.Ms. Gudmundsdottir said the technology still needed to advance to a level of translating English audio in real time. She added, “We will get there.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 200 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in February

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in FebruaryEvery month, streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for February.Jan. 31, 2021, 5:03 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Waldorf, left, and Statler in a scene from “The Muppet Show.”Credit…DisneyNew to Disney+‘The Muppet Show’ Seasons 1-5Starts streaming: Feb. 19Fans of the puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson have been waiting a while for his TV series “The Muppet Show” — perhaps his most enduring masterpiece — to arrive on a subscription streaming service. For five seasons and 120 episodes between 1976 and 1981, Henson and his team of writers, craftspeople and performers brought joy and whimsy to the small screen, through the conceit of a low-rent variety show run by high-strung weirdos. From its catchy songs to its string of A-list guest hosts (including pretty much every big-name entertainer of the era), “The Muppet Show” helped define the popular culture of its time while always remaining family-friendly. The complete series has never been released on any home video format and isn’t currently running on any U.S. cable network, so this addition to Disney+ is a major event.Also arriving:Feb. 19“Flora & Ulysses”Feb. 26“Myth: A Frozen Tale”Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson in “Bliss.”Credit…Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘Bliss’Starts streaming: Feb. 5In his films “Another Earth” and “I Origins,” the writer-director Mike Cahill has pondered big ideas — alternate universes, the existence of God — via muted character studies which skirt the edges of science fiction. In his latest movie, “Bliss,” Owen Wilson plays Greg, a mopey divorcé who is in the middle of one of the worst days of his life when he meets Isabel (Salma Hayek), a homeless eccentric who convinces him they are living in a computer simulation, controlled with the help of special crystals. Is she right? Or are Greg and Isabel both mentally ill drug addicts? Cahill keeps this question unanswered for as long as possible, while making both scenarios seem plausible. What results is a strange trip through multiple realities, moving at a faster pace than Cahill’s earlier films but still ultimately concerned with the existential angst of ordinary people.‘Tell Me Your Secrets’Starts streaming: Feb. 19The secrets in the title of the mystery/suspense series “Tell Me Your Secrets” are buried deep, and unearthed slowly over the course of the show’s 10-episode first season. Across multiple interwoven plotlines, the creator Harriet Warner follows three main characters: a woman in hiding (Lily Rabe), a mother (Amy Brenneman) doggedly fighting to find out what happened to her long-missing daughter and a psychopath (Hamish Linklater) offering his help to law enforcement to atone for old crimes. The sometimes surprising and often grim details of the connections between these people and the mistakes they are trying to make up for drive the narrative of a crime show that’s about how hard it is for the victims of violence and trauma to move on with their lives.Also arriving:Feb. 12“The Hunter’s Anthology”“The Map of Tiny Perfect Things”Feb. 19“The Boarding School: Las Cumbres”Andra Day, center, as Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”Credit…Takashi Seida/Paramount Pictures/HuluNew to Hulu‘Nomadland’Starts streaming: Feb. 19Likely to be a strong contender at the Academy Awards this year, the slice-of-life drama “Nomadland” is a vivid and emotionally affecting depiction of a growing American subculture: people who live in mobile homes and roam the country, working a succession of seasonal jobs. Frances McDormand plays a recent widow who had worked most of her life at a plant that closed and who now has to adjust to living on the road, with the help of some fellow travelers who’ve turned their paycheck-to-paycheck circumstances into a quasi-communal lifestyle. The writer-director Chloé Zhao — loosely adapting Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book — avoids big confrontations and heavy plotting, instead emphasizing the everyday stresses and unexpected wonders of a life on the edge.‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’Starts streaming: Feb. 26The source material for the historical drama “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” sets it apart from a typical biopic. Instead of covering one person’s entire life, the director Lee Daniels and the screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks have adapted passages from Johann Hari’s book-length exposé, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” in which the author uses profiles of a few well-known addicts, including Billie Holiday, and dealers to critique the ways some governments have tackled the narcotics trade. The Grammy-nominated R&B singer Andra Day gives a bracing performance as the jazz legend Holiday, who so scandalized the establishment with the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit” that — according to this raw and hard-hitting film — some reactionaries in the U.S. government conspired to use her drug habit to stifle her.Also arriving:Feb. 1“Possessor”Feb. 12“Into the Dark: Tentacles”Feb. 13“Hip Hop Uncovered”Feb. 25“Snowfall” Season 4A scene from “Earwig and the Witch” from Studio Ghibli.Credit…Studio Ghibli/HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘The Investigation’Starts streaming: Feb. 1The accomplished Danish screenwriter and director Tobias Lindholm tackles a bizarre recent true-crime story in “The Investigation,” a six-part mini-series about what happened after the Swedish journalist Kim Wall’s dismembered corpse was found scattered around Koge Bay in Denmark in 2017. Lindholm doesn’t dramatize the incident itself, which eventually led to the arrest and conviction of the entrepreneur Peter Madsen, who had invited Wall to interview him on his submarine right before she went missing. Instead, he follows the two cops on the case (played by Soren Malling and Pilou Asbaek) as they doggedly pursue the gruesome clues, sacrificing their personal lives in the name of justice. “The Investigation” is a different kind of procedural, detailing how the time it takes to build a case weighs heavy on both the victim’s family and the detectives.‘Earwig and the Witch’Starts streaming: Feb. 5The animators at Japan’s venerable Studio Ghibli make their first foray into full computer animation with this adaptation of a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, whose book “Howl’s Moving Castle” was previously adapted by Ghibli’s co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. His son Goro directed “Earwig and the Witch,” the story of a plucky and bossy 10-year-old orphan adopted by a pair of curiously gruff adults who teach her more about her birth family’s history with rock ’n’ roll and the occult. Fans of the Miyazakis and Ghibli may balk initially at the look of this film, which is different from classics like “Spirited Away” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” But “Earwig” covers similar themes of spiritual wonder and youthful independence, and there’s something distinctive about Goro Miyazaki’s visual style, which is much simpler than Pixar’s fine detail.‘Judas and the Black Messiah’Starts streaming: Feb. 12In 1969, Fred Hampton — the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party — was killed during a police raid on his Chicago apartment following an extended federal law enforcement campaign to tag him as a dangerous radical. In the political drama “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Daniel Kaluuya gives a knockout performance as Hampton and is matched scene-for-scene by Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, a small-time crook recruited by the FBI to inform on the Panthers. The writer-director Shaka King and the co-writer Will Berson capture the revolutionary fervor of the times, subtly noting the parallels to today in the raging arguments about overzealous cops and systemic racism. The film focuses on Hampton’s complex, passionate and surprisingly open-armed political philosophies, as well as on the circumstances that forced a man who might otherwise have been a devout disciple to betray him.Also arriving:Feb. 2“Fake Famous”Feb. 4“Esme & Roy”“The Head”Feb. 18“It’s a Sin”Feb. 22“Beartown”Feb. 26“Tom & Jerry”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Hit No. 1 in a Week. Here’s How.

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOlivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Hit No. 1 in a Week. Here’s How.The debut single from the 17-year-old Disney actress became a TikTok smash, broke Spotify records and topped the Billboard chart thanks to a “perfect storm” of quality, gossip and marketing.“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart following a record-breaking first week across streaming services.Credit…Erica HernandezJan. 19, 2021Updated 3:14 p.m. ETThe music industry’s first runaway hit single of the year is at once a time-tested model — a Disney actress pivoting to pop with a catchy and confessional breakup ballad — and also an unprecedented TikTok-era smash by a teenager.“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo, 17, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on Tuesday, following a record-breaking first week across streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music. Along the way, the autobiographical song kicked up tabloid and social media speculation as listeners tried to piece together its real-life parallels as if it were a track by Rodrigo’s hero, Taylor Swift. TikTok videos led to blog posts, which led to streams, which led to news articles, and back around again. The feedback loop made it unbeatable.“It’s been the absolute craziest week of my life,” Rodrigo, who really did get her driver’s license last year, said in an interview. “My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant.”At a shaky and uncertain time for the music business, amid the pandemic and civil unrest, “Drivers License” was released across platforms and with a broody music video on Jan. 8 by Geffen Records. The song was then streamed more than 76.1 million times in the United States for the week, according to Billboard, the highest total since “WAP,” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, in August (93 million). On Spotify, “Drivers License” set a daily record for global streams for a non-holiday song on Jan. 11, and then beat its own number the next day, eventually setting the service’s record for most streams in a week worldwide.The track reached No. 1 in 48 countries on Apple Music, 31 countries on Spotify and 14 countries on YouTube, Rodrigo’s label said. It also sold 38,000 downloads in the United States, the most for the week, and earned 8.1 million radio airplay audience impressions, Billboard reported.“We definitely had no idea how big it was going to be,” said Jeremy Erlich, the co-head of music at Spotify. “It just ballooned into this monster, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And I think unlike anything anyone’s seen before.”The company, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the song’s global streams in its first week, responded to initial interest by increasing its promotion of the track, which now sits on 150 official Spotify playlists. “It’s definitely not slowing down,” Erlich said. “It’s the topic around the company and around the industry.”The song, written by Rodrigo and produced by Dan Nigro, starts straightforward enough: “I got my driver’s license last week,” Rodrigo sings over a basic piano part, “just like we always talked about.” But by the end of the first verse, she’s “crying in the suburbs,” and the music swells until a cathartic bridge that hits with a type-breaking curse word. The song “successfully balances dark yet crisp melodrama with bold tunefulness, softly pointed singing with sharp imagery,” the critic Jon Caramanica wrote. “It is, in every way, a modern and successful pop song.”“Drivers License” may represent Rodrigo’s proper debut as a solo artist, but she came with a built-in audience thanks to her Disney roles. Born and raised in Southern California, she became a belting talent-show regular by the age of 8 and was cast first on “Bizaardvark,” which ran for three seasons on the Disney Channel between 2016 and 2019. Rodrigo, who learned to play guitar for the role, starred as Paige Olvera, a teenager who makes songs and videos for an online content studio.She currently stars as Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Last year, a song written by Rodrigo, “All I Want,” became the show’s most successful track so far.But like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato before her — and Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera before them — Rodrigo took her experiences within the Disney machine and attempted to translate them for a broader, more adult audience. Fans have speculated that “Drivers License” is about Rodigro’s “High School Musical” co-star Joshua Bassett, who released his own single — and car-centric video — on Friday.Erlich, the Spotify executive, said that there was “a ton of X-factor that made this the perfect storm” for Rodrigo, including the gossip, the quality of her song, the marketing plan prepared in advance by her label and support from celebrities like Swift. “It did align perfectly and quicker than anything we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We’ve seen alignment like that, but typically it’s spread over three to six months — this happened in a day and a half.”Rodrigo called the song “a little time capsule” of a monumental six months she experienced last year. Acknowledging the “archetype” of the Disney star-turned-pop star, she said that she had been nervous about the collision of reactions from “people who have never heard my name before and people who have kind of grown up with me on TV.” But she was thrilled to find both groups interested.“The cool thing about ‘Drivers License’ is I’ve seen so many videos of people being like, ‘I have no idea who this girl is, but I really love this song,’ which has been really interesting for me, because for so long I’ve really just been attached to projects and to characters, and that’s how people know me,” she said. “It’s really cool to be introduced to people for the first time through a song that I feel really passionate about.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Office’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Top List of 2020's Most-Streamed Shows

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyViewers’ Streaming Favorites? Old Network TV Shows“The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Criminal Minds” each accounted for more viewing time than any other show or movie on streaming platforms last year, according to Nielsen.Credit…Illustration by The New York Times; Photos via Getty ImagesJan. 12, 2021Updated 4:20 p.m. ETForget buzzy new shows like “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Normal People.” The three series that people spent the most time watching on the major streaming platforms in the United States in 2020 all premiered on network TV more than a decade and a half ago, the research firm Nielsen found.“The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Criminal Minds,” network shows with hundreds of back episodes available to stream on Netflix and other services, each accounted for more viewing time than any other show or movie, new or old, Nielsen said on Tuesday.The most-watched movie of the year was “Frozen II,” one of several movies that attracted viewers to Disney+ in droves. The most-watched series that premiered on a streaming service was the Netflix crime drama “Ozark,” according to Nielsen.The list seemed to confirm earlier findings that Americans favored comfort and escapist entertainment, in addition to news, as the nation confronted a public health emergency, massive social unrest and a searing presidential election.This is the first time that Nielsen — the 98-year old company that provides ratings information for broadcast and cable networks — has ranked the most-streamed shows of the year. It started releasing weekly most-streamed lists in 2020.Most Streamed in 2020 More

    • 200 Shares159 Views

      in Movies

      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in January

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in JanuaryEvery month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for January.Dec. 31, 2020, 6:21 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in “WandaVision.”Credit…Marvel Studios/DisneyNew to Disney+‘WandaVision’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Possibly the most anticipated Disney+ show since “The Mandalorian,” the superhero sitcom “WandaVision” represents the start of a new wave of Marvel Comics TV series and promises to be more eclectic and creative than the grim and gritty action dramas on other networks. In “WandaVision,” two of the odder members of the Avengers — the mutant matter-manipulating Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the superpowered android Vision (Paul Bettany) — go undercover in suburbia, where they try to fit in by making their lives more like what they’ve seen on television. Disney has mostly been keeping the details of this long-in-production show a secret, but the advertising so far has made it look downright surreal — and absolutely unmissable.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Marvel Studios: Legends”Jan. 22“Pixar Popcorn”Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami.”Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘One Night in Miami’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Based on a Kemp Powers play, the historical drama “One Night in Miami” imagines what might have happened during a 1964 meeting at a Miami hotel between Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge). Not long after these four gathered, Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and declared himself to be a Muslim, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, Cooke recorded music informed by the civil rights movement, and Brown started winding down his N.F.L. career to devote himself more to activism and acting. Directed by Regina King, the movie frames an evening of celebration and reflection as one long, energizing bull session between four very different men, arguing and joking, away from the scrutiny of a public judging their choices.‘Flack’ Season 1Starts streaming: Jan. 22Anna Paquin gets her juiciest role since “True Blood” in “Flack,” a sort of lower-stakes version of “Scandal,” following public relations “fixers” who do all they can to keep their desperate celebrity clients out of the tabloids. In nearly every episode, someone needs the help of Paquin’s character, Robyn, or her co-workers after being caught in the wrong bed or found at the scene of a crime. A lot of the entertainment value comes from how these shrewd and nurturing professionals — mostly women — work miracles to save some entitled folks who barely deserve their help. There’s some pathos, too, as Robyn manages her messy personal life, but “Flack” is generally more enjoyably soapy than profound.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Herself”Jan. 15“Tandav”Jan. 18“Alone”Jan. 22“Jessy and Nessy”Hailee Steinfeld, center, as the lead in “Dickinson.”Credit…Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Dickinson’ Season 2Starts streaming: Jan. 8The loopy historical dramedy “Dickinson” was part of Apple TV+’s first wave of television shows; and it remains one of the service’s most acclaimed. The second season has all the charms of the first, beginning with Hailee Steinfeld’s winning performance as the poet Emily Dickinson, portrayed as a headstrong young woman who bucks her family’s ideas of respectable femininity. The clever hook of “Dickinson” is that while it is set in the distant American past, the characters behave like they are in a modern suburban TV household — bickering wryly when they’re all together and then later brooding quietly while melancholy pop music plays. Season 2 opens with an admission that the historical record is vague on this phase of the writer’s life (a period not long after her brother married the woman Dickinson loved), but that doesn’t stop the show’s creators from using her poems as a window into her daily romantic despair.‘Palmer’Starts streaming: Jan. 29Justin Timberlake mutes his big pop star personality considerably for the small-scaled drama “Palmer,” a movie about a chastened ex-con trying to get his life back on track in his small Southern hometown. Alisha Wainwright plays a local teacher who feels drawn to Palmer after she sees how he takes care of a neglected neighbor boy who is teased at school because he loves toys and clothes designed for girls. The “misfits are people, too” message is uplifting, though the film’s real selling point is its cast, which also includes the phenomenal Juno Temple as a well-meaning mother who struggles with impulse control.Also arriving:Jan. 15“Servant” Season 2Jan. 22“Losing Alice”John Lurie in “Painting With John.”Credit…HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘Tiger’Starts streaming: Jan. 10The 2020 docu-series “The Last Dance” set a high bar for in-depth, behind-the-scenes sports stories, filled with glory and scandal. HBO’s two-part “Tiger” isn’t as dazzling, but it’s at least playing in the same league. Though it is missing a central interview with the golfer Tiger Woods himself, this mini-series does include input from many of his friends and colleagues, who speak about the private Woods — good and bad — that few golf fans have ever gotten to see. “Tiger” features remarkable footage from throughout Woods’s career (including his amateur years, which were unusually well-documented thanks to his prescient parents). But in between the scenes of a once-in-a-generation athlete dominating his sport, this documentary also covers the immense pressure that was placed on him. And it is frank about what happened when the man began to crack.‘Painting With John’Starts streaming: Jan. 22In the early 1990s, the avant-garde musician John Lurie created and hosted the lovably bizarre series “Fishing With John,” a low-key nature and interview show that frequently took surreal turns. Lurie’s new project, “Painting With John,” plays things just a little bit straighter. Like an oddball version of Bob Ross, Lurie starts each episode teaching viewers about art but ends up talking more about life, spinning personal anecdotes and sharing his insights and beliefs. He does paint, too; and the colorful close-ups of Lurie’s canvasses combined with the hushed growl of his voice makes this an unusually relaxing show.Also arriving:Jan. 14“Search Party” Season 4Jan. 21“Gomorrah” Season 3Jan. 24“Euphoria” Special, Part 2Jan. 29“The Little Things”New to Hulu‘Jann’ Seasons 1 & 2Starts streaming: Jan. 29Fans of lighthearted and character-driven Canadian sitcoms like “Schitt’s Creek” should enjoy “Jann,” a similarly sweet and dryly satirical comedy about a former jet-setter adjusting to a career downturn. The singer-songwriter Jann Arden plays a cartoony version of herself: a musician who had a few chart hits in the 1990s but has since dealt with health problems, relationship woes, family crises and a changing pop music market. In the show’s two seasons so far — both already hugely popular in Canada — the amiable Arden has been willing to look silly as she spoofs the foibles of a showbiz exile. But she and her fellow “Jann” creators Leah Gauthier and Jennica Harper have also balanced the character’s persistent state of embarrassment with strong and stirring elements of underdog melodrama.Also arriving:Jan. 1“Like a Boss”“Save Yourselves!”Jan. 13“Everyone Is Doing Great” Season 1Jan. 15“Endlings” Season 2“The Ultimate Playlist of Noise”Jan. 22“Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself”“The Sister”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More