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    Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat

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    The Paris Games began with a new look and sparkled with Celine Dion. But the show suffered from bloat similar to TV’s other spectacles.About six hours before Celine Dion gutted out the final number of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the streaming service Peacock emailed a promo for its coverage with the headline, “We’ll all be crying by the end of this.” So maybe they knew more than they were letting on.The homestretch of the marathon four-hour broadcast, when the celebrating athletes and dance extravaganzas and speeches were out of the way, had some starkly lovely images and moving moments: the speedboat carrying former champions up the Seine in the dark (like a real-life echo of Leos Carax’s great water-skiing scene in “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf”). The grand scale and dramatic lighting of the Louvre as the torch was carried, like a firefly’s flame, through its courtyards. The torch coming to the hand of a 100-year-old French cyclist, steady in his wheelchair, and Dion defying her illness to belt out “Hymne à l’Amour” on the Eiffel Tower.Celine Dion’s performance of “Hymne à l’Amour” provided a triumphant finale.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBut it took endurance to get there — for the athletes, performers and spectators drenched by the summer rain, and for the viewers at home watching the ceremony as it was conceived by the French organizers and packaged by NBC and Peacock.The decision to abandon the event’s traditional format — the long, formal parade of athletes marching into a stadium — for a waterborne procession along the Seine intercut with performances had a twofold effect. It turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle, like a halftime show or awards show or holiday parade that exists to promote and perpetuate itself.Those spectacles can be fun, of course, and the traditional Olympics opening ceremony could feel dull and interminable. But it was not quite like anything else, and it played a key part in making the Games feel special.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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      Scandal Hits U.K.’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing,’ the Original ‘Dancing With the Stars’

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      The BBC said it would add chaperones to rehearsals after allegations of abusive behavior at a hugely popular dance show that inspired international versions.For almost two decades, viewers in Britain have watched celebrities jive, waltz and cha-cha-cha on “Strictly Come Dancing,” a BBC reality television show that inspired the international “Dancing With the Stars” franchise.The format, which has been licensed to 61 other territories including the U.S., pairs professional ballroom dancers with people who are famous in other fields, from athletics and acting to politics and journalism. The amateur dancers then train intensively with their professional partners and compete in weekly live performances.Introduced in 2004, the show quickly became one of the BBC’s most popular programs, widely loved as a glitzy, family-friendly watch on weekends.But in recent months it has grabbed headlines because of a growing scandal: allegations that two professional male dancers exhibited bullying or abusive behavior toward their female dance partners during rehearsals.One former contestant, the actor Amanda Abbington, has alleged in interviews with the British media that her dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, displayed “bullying” and “aggressive behavior” and was “abusive, cruel and mean.” She declined to give further details of the behavior in interviews, saying the ongoing nature of a BBC investigation into the allegations prevented her from doing so.Ms. Abbington, who appeared in the British series “Sherlock,” cited “personal reasons” last year for leaving the dance competition during filming, but said this week that she had flagged the behavior to producers before filing an official complaint with the BBC. She said she believed that there were 50 hours of rehearsal video that could bolster her case, though they have not been made public.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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      Saying Goodbye to the Messy, Murderous World of ‘Elite’

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      A diverse cast of characters and a murder to solve each school year have helped make this teen drama one of Netflix’s longest-running original shows.Shooting the eighth and final season of Netflix’s teen crime drama “Elite” last November, crew members yelled “silencio” so often it could have been mistaken for a chant.Dozens of young actors, dressed in black tie, talked and laughed as they milled around a set on the outskirts of Madrid that depicted a nightclub. The Brazilian actor André Lamoglia seemed used to the chaos as he waited, perching on the bar in a black suit with white trim, to lead another of the show’s rowdy party scenes.After the cameras finally started rolling, and with the extras making much less noise, Lamoglia’s character, Iván, took a seemingly casual selfie with his half sister Chloe (Mirela Balic) that was actually part of a scheme to discover who murdered his friend.Unruly teenagers, expensive clothes and mysterious dead bodies are all typical for the Spanish-language show which, since its premiere in 2018, has become one of Netflix’s most popular original titles, and one of the longest-running. (The final season is being released Friday.)In its first season, “Elite” used a setup familiar from other successful teen shows, including “Gossip Girl” and “Beverly Hills, 90210”: inserting beautiful outsiders into an exclusive social setting. In this case, three scholarship students join Las Encinas, an expensive private high school. But at Las Encinas, every year (and season) there is also a murder for students and the police to investigate.This blending of soapy teen drama and tense murder mystery has helped the show run for eight seasons, and by its fourth, “Elite” was ranking in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 chart in more than 70 countries, according to data from the streamer.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 New Batman Is Less a Dark Knight Than a ‘Weird and Creepy’ One

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      “Batman: Caped Crusader,” a new animated series, is not concerned with making its hero likable — either to the citizens of Gotham or to its audience.The story of Batman has been told in comic books and onscreen many times. But if there’s one person who should get the chance to tell it again, it is Bruce Timm.Timm is a veteran artist, animator and producer who helped create “Batman: The Animated Series,” which made its debut in the Fox Kids programming block in 1992. Following on the heels of Tim Burton’s hit 1989 film, this “Batman” show — often abbreviated as “BTAS”— brought a somber atmosphere and sophisticated storytelling to the adventures of Gotham City’s costume-clad vigilante.The show dove deep into the colorful rogues’ gallery of its title hero and helped stoke the flames of Bat-fandom when the movie franchise started to run aground. There were more than 100 episodes in its initial Fox Kids run and further installments titled “The New Batman Adventures” that ran on Kids’ WB.So a few years ago when Timm was asked if he would like to develop a new Batman animated series that would rekindle the spirit of that venerated, foundational show, he knew exactly how he felt.“I went, ‘Not really,’” Timm said in a recent interview. “I was terrified of it. People love the old show so much that I didn’t want to mess with it. You know, it’s not 1992 again.”Even so, Timm was eventually persuaded to make “Batman: Caped Crusader,” whose 10-episode first season will be released Aug. 1 on Amazon Prime Video.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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      ‘Deadpool’ Refresher: What to Know Before Seeing ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

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      The new installment draws on decades of Marvel and X-Men history. It helps to know the back stories ahead of time.In the new “Deadpool & Wolverine,” two beloved superhero franchises will finally come together in a frenzy of irreverent jokes, gory action and Easter eggs. Drawing on decades of movie history and featuring a dizzying array of characters and references to past plots, it’s the kind of film that rewards longtime fans. For those who haven’t seen the X-Men or Deadpool films in a while, here’s what you need to know before watching.What’s Deadpool’s back story?Before he got his own Deadpool movies, Ryan Reynolds debuted the character in the X-Men franchise, appearing in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” in 2009. The role didn’t go over well with fans — his mouth was sewn shut in the film — and Reynolds wanted a separate movie to explore the character more fully.Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.20th Century Fox“Deadpool” (2016), the first of three films in the franchise, introduces Wade Wilson, a foul-mouthed mercenary who falls in love with a woman named Vanessa. After getting a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Wilson volunteers for a shadowy program that promises to heal him. There, he is tortured by the villainous Ajax until his body mutates and receives self-healing powers, similar to those possessed by Wolverine. Aided by an elderly sightless woman, Blind Al, and two other X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Deadpool eventually hunts down Ajax and reconciles with Vanessa.His relationship with Vanessa is short-lived, however, as “Deadpool 2” (2018) opens with her being killed by one of Wilson’s old mercenary targets. Grieving her loss, he joins the X-Men and works to stop a time-traveling soldier named Cable from killing a young mutant. In that film’s mid-credits scene, Wade uses Cable’s time-traveling device to journey through the past, reversing the death of his friends and the murder of Vanessa.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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      In Shows Like ‘Love Island USA,’ the Setting Is Another Character

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      Reality TV staples like “Love Island” and “Bachelor in Paradise” often take place in luxury resorts to set the mood. But not all resorts love the attention.Last summer, while filming an episode during the fifth season of the hit reality TV show “Love Island USA,” the executive producer Simon Thomas had a stroke of luck that most reality show producers could only dream of. It was golden hour, and two of the contestants — attractive young singles looking for love — were sitting on the veranda of the souped-up luxury resort that was the “Love Island” set. Exquisitely framed, they shared a tender, passionate kiss.“Make no mistake: They did not stay together, and they did not even remain together for the duration of the show,” Thomas said in an interview. “But that moment was magic. You couldn’t have filmed it better for a scripted show.”Since its debut on British television in 2015, “Love Island” and its American remake, “Love Island USA,” have made a unique spectacle of their exotic island settings, from the all-inclusive resorts of Majorca (in the U.K. version) to the coastal villas of Fiji (in the U.S., since 2023). The locale is more than a mere backdrop to the action: To invoke an old movie cliché, the setting is like a character itself.“The whole point of this show isn’t to show some reality TV hopefuls in a box and produce them,” Thomas said. “It’s to find some reality TV hopefuls who want to find love and give them an environment in which they can authentically fall in love.”“What better way to fall in love,” he added, “than on a Fijian beach at sunset?”With its breezy tone and low-stakes drama, reality TV is typically designed to create a feeling of escapism already, and tropical settings can offer an additional layer of satisfying secondhand pleasure. Such locations are appealing particularly for dating shows, which have the added incentive of needing to kindle new relationships — an easier feat on a sun-kissed Caribbean island than on a network backlot. Programs like “Bachelor in Paradise,” “Love Island,” “Perfect Match,” “Too Hot to Handle” and many more have found a great deal of success by following this simple formula: Put men and women together on an island resort to flirt and fall in love.The creator of “90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise” said the tropical settings give the show “a totally different personality” from the original.TLCWe 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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      Stephen Colbert Mocks Trump for Recycling His Old Insults

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      Colbert said the ex-president was “focused on the real issue gripping the country: desperately workshopping a new nickname for Kamala Harris.”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.Who’s the Boss?Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday.Stephen Colbert said Trump spent most of the evening “focused on the real issue gripping the country: desperately workshopping a new nickname for Kamala Harris.”“[imitating Trump] K as in Kamala, A as in Amala, M as in Malala, A as in Ah, L as in Lyin’ Kamala — L-Y-I-N-apostrophe — oh God, I’m back at the beginning again.” — STEPHEN COLBERTColbert blasted Trump for resorting to his old “Apprentice” tagline, “You’re fired.” “That’s a 10-year-old reference!” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Biden Goes Live Edition)“Well guys, last night President Biden gave an Oval Office address and talked about his decision to drop out of the race. Things got off to a fun start when Biden said, ‘My fellow Americans, Kamala is brat.’” — JIMMY FALLON“That humility, that self-sacrifice, is so beautiful, truly patriotic and a refreshing change from the last guy.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Once the speech was done, Biden joined staff out in the Rose Garden for ice cream. Not only was there an ice cream party, sources say President Biden also had a great time in the bouncy castle.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“By the way, can you imagine all the cool [expletive] Biden’s going to take on his way out of the White House? You got your pens, your paper clips, maybe a couple of nuclear warheads.” — LAMORNE MORRIS, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”The Bits Worth WatchingRob Lowe auditioned for the role of Kamala Harris’s running mate on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutDavid Bowie and Rosanna Arquette in “The Linguini Incident.”IsolarRichard Shepherd’s director’s cut of “The Linguini Incident,” his low-budget, hard-to-find ’90s rom-com starring David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette, is soon to be available on Blu-ray. More

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      ‘Playground’ Is Throwback Reality TV, in More Ways Than One

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      The new Hulu series, set at a prestigious Los Angeles dance studio, harks back to the vibes of an earlier age.Alexis Beauregard and Roman Royale in a scene from “Playground.”HuluTime-loop shows are everywhere these days, and now TV itself is looping back, scooping up folks from shows of yesteryear to bring their skills and wisdom to the present fight. “Playground,” which arrives Friday on Hulu, is ostensibly a new reality show set in a Los Angeles dance studio.But the series is also multiple throwbacks in one, a new team reassembled from the people and vibes of earlier reality programming. The second episode includes a 2000s-themed birthday party; meanwhile, “Playground” is itself a 2000s-style show.An awful lot of contemporary reality shows follow a Bravo model of contrivance and repetition, in which seasons use the same segments so many times they feel like reruns of themselves. Based on the two episodes available for review, “Playground” does not, to its tremendous credit, play like a descendant of “Vanderpump Rules” — its closer ancestor is “The Hills.” Oh, the testy al fresco lunches! Oh, the intriguing young women who debase themselves for the attentions of immature men!Long-term fans of dance shows will spot a few familiar faces immediately (in addition to Megan Thee Stallion, who is an executive producer, and Tinashe, among other stars). Robin Antin and Kenny Wormald not only run Playground LA; they’ve also both been on dance reality shows before — Antin on multiple Pussycat Dolls shows in the late aughts and Wormald on the single-season “Dancelife.” (Not to be confused with the recent Australian reality show “Dance Life,” which is also great.) Here, they’re the prickly mom and dad to a family bursting with talent and strife.Part of what makes “Playground” so perfect in its electric garbage way is the conflict between Alexis, the golden child, and Deanna, who proudly describes herself as “Satan’s daughter.” Those of us raised in the faith of days-long “Real World” marathons require angry people on TV shouting “Say it to my face!” in order to have a full life, and “Playground” delivers, largely via Deanna.For all its retro glory, “Playground” also feels refreshingly new in its editing and momentum. Many streaming reality shows mimic the pacing of basic cable (especially now that plenty of streamers also include commercials). But those filler recapitulations that come after each commercial break are tedious enough — and in a streaming context are vestigial at best. “Playground” doesn’t bother with them and is instead filled with real material: dancing, squabbling, vying, gossiping, all the essential food groups of a summer show. More

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      ‘The Decameron’ Review: They Take a Holiday. Death Doesn’t.

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      A loose Netflix adaptation turns Boccaccio’s story cycle into a gleeful satire of class war in plague times.TV audiences have an appetite for a good class-conscious satire of rich people on holiday in a fabulous location — say, a stunning Italian getaway — and the servants who attend them. The new Netflix series “The Decameron” draws on medieval literature to offer a raucous twist on this premise, heightened with the looming threat of bubonic plague.“The White Lotus,” meet the Black Death.In the 14th-century work by Giovanni Boccaccio, a precursor to Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” 10 young people flee to a rural estate from disease-ridden Florence, entertaining one another by telling stories both dramatic and raunchy. The 10 tales per refugee, as told over 10 days, makes for a cycle of 100 stories, proving that even before streaming media, creators know how to stretch out material to series length.The eight-episode Netflix series, arriving Thursday, is a loose adaptation — very loose, like a caftan. It borrows Boccaccio’s character names and setting, with some nods to the source stories. But the creator, Kathleen Jordan (of the gone-too-soon “Teenage Bounty Hunters”), reimagines it as a rollicking social comedy of striving and survival.Jordan introduces four sets of characters, offered respite at a villa in, as the invitation puts it, “the beautiful, not-infected countryside.”We meet Pampinea (Zosia Mamet), a noblewoman anxious about being unmarried as “a shriveled-up, 28-year-old maid,” and her perhaps-too-devoted servant, Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson); Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin), a sickly and pompous young noble attended by his quackish physician, Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel); the devout and secretly randy Neifile (Lou Gala) and her social-climbing husband, Panfilo (Karan Gill); and Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), the eccentric and put-upon handmaiden to the imperious Filomena (Jessica Plummer).The holiday offers a chance at life, solace and social advancement — especially for Pampinea, who has managed a sight-unseen engagement to the villa’s absent lord. But despite the estate’s gorgeous furnishings and manicured maze gardens, there are deceptions and dangers.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