Television

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares50 Views

      in Television

      ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 3: The Snake Show

      by

      The guests are getting restless, and Mike White seems ready to start making messes.Season 3, Episode 3: ‘The Meaning of Dreams’In last week’s “The White Lotus,” the three gal-pals — who are supposed to be on a bonding trip in Thailand — took turns pairing off and, in insinuating whispers, tearing each other apart. Kate and Jaclyn muttered anxiously about Laurie’s draining divorce, stalled career and delinquent daughter. Kate and Laurie took shots at Jaclyn’s cosmetic procedures and sham marriage.So who does that leave? Ah yes, Kate. When will she leave the room and get snipped to bits by her oldest and dearest?It happens this week — and it partly happens to her face. And Kate is not the only one who feels a bit bummed out and betrayed in this episode. On Day 3 at the White Lotus, the guests are getting restless. After two hours spent creating a context for various situations to go awry, the show’s creator, Mike White, seems ready to start making those messes.Let’s start with the Kate scenes, which, in a way, represent this episode’s biggest moments of shocking violence — if emotional violence counts. The inciting incident for the Kate takedown is an “energy healing” session Laurie has with Valentin. The other ladies have been urging Laurie to have a fling with the Vladivostok-born Valentin. (It’s a fling kind of weekend, they say. Plus, Valentin insists he left Russia before the Ukraine invasion, so he is not politically problematic … probably.)White goes hard with the sound design and editing during the energy healing session. As Valentin holds his hands just above Laurie’s body, the soundtrack is filled with eruptive moans and sighs, woven through the percussive, chiming musical score. When the ladies reunite, Laurie jokes, “I haven’t been not-touched by a man like that in a long time.”That’s when Kate makes a surprising confession: She finds all this new age healing stuff “goofy,” “spooky” and “kind of witchy.” When Jaclyn suggests that eastern spiritual practices are superior to Christianity because they are more empowering to women, Kate defends the church she has been attending since moving to Texas. This leads to several probing questions. Is this, like, a “real Texan church, with bible-thumpers?” (Kate, noncommittal: “They’re nice people, really good families.”) Does talking politics ever get awkward? (“Why would it?”) Is Kate a conservative now? (“I’m an independent.”) Did Kate vote for Trump? (Long pause, and then, “Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?”)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

    • 125 Shares104 Views

      in Television

      The 9 ‘White Lotus’ Characters We Keep Seeing Every Season

      by

      A luxury hotel marries the exotic and the familiar: The location may be new and the fruits at the breakfast buffet varied, but the thread count of the sheets, the indulgence of the staff, the sumptuousness of the spa — these remain the same.“The White Lotus,” Mike White’s HBO show about the guests and workers of a five-star resort collection, knows this well. Maybe too well? If the surroundings for the third season of this cringingly comic, lightly murderous anthology series are different — with Koh Samui, Thailand, replacing Maui (Season 1) and Sicily (Season 2) — the characters haven’t really changed. (And is there at least one uncomfortable scene aboard a boat? You bet your yachting whites.) So garnish your poolside cocktail, tie on your sarong and see if you can spot White’s favorite types.Handsome Jerk Due for a ReckoningPatrick Schwarzenegger is this season’s obnoxious handsome man.Fabio Lovino/HBOIn Season 1 it was the privileged mama’s boy, Shane (Jake Lacy). In Season 2, it was Cameron (Theo James), a moneyman who managed to be both smarmy and oblivious.Thailand’s entitled jackass, enrobed in family money, is Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a finance bro who eschews local cuisine in favor of protein shakes and complains when his massage doesn’t include a “happy ending.” It is hard to imagine someone more in need of a comeuppance, but just deserts are rarely on White’s hotel menu.Uptight Workaholic Having a Bad TimeJason Isaacs plays a businessman stressing his way through his vacation.Fabio Lovino/HBOWe 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

    • 100 Shares87 Views

      in Television

      The Streaming Rush to Turn Scripture Into Scripts

      by

      After the success of “The Chosen,” Amazon and Netflix are converting Bible stories into films and TV shows with “Game of Thrones”-style intrigue and romantic comedy elements.A once-beloved king slips into madness as wary confidants surround him, breathless for his next maneuver.A soldier wrestles with his dueling loyalties toward family and friendship.A young man from a humble background defeats a brute, not knowing that the victory sets him on a path to ascend into power.With its interpersonal intrigue and battlefield bloodshed, “House of David” looks like it could be an alternate-universe of “Game of Thrones.” But rather than an adaptation of a high fantasy franchise from the 1990s, its source material goes back millenniums.“House of David,” a series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, tells the story of David, the biblical shepherd who used a sling and stone to defeat the giant Goliath before assuming King Saul’s throne. It is part of the original faith-based programming that streaming services are unveiling to court the viewers who have made “The Chosen,” a prestige drama about the life of Jesus Christ, one of the most successful crowdfunded television or film projects of all time.“The sheer size of the audience is enormous,” said Jon Erwin, who pitched “House of David” to Amazon and co-directed several of the first season’s eight episodes. “It is the largest underserved niche audience in the world.”Viewership figures from streaming shows are rarely made public, but the team behind “The Chosen” estimates that the show has been watched by more than 280 million unique viewers worldwide, a third of whom it says are not religious. The hit show feels more like a workplace comedy-drama, a version of “The West Wing” set in Galilee, than the direct evangelism of the widely translated “The Jesus Film” (1979) or the storybook sermons of the 1990s animated series “VeggieTales.”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

    • 125 Shares105 Views

      in Television

      ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Judge, Jury and …

      by

      The girls (and Travis) put Coach Ben on trial. The stakes are very high, the legal qualifications very low.Season 3, Episode 4: ‘12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis’What does justice look like to the Yellowjackets? It’s not pretty, it’s not logical, it’s often deeply unfair, and it’s all on display in this week’s episode.The centerpiece is a trial in the woods in the 1990s. The girls, having now found Ben, elect to decide his fate by mimicking an episode “Law & Order.” They choose lawyers — Tai is the prosecutor and Misty is the defense — and fashion a makeshift courtroom.It’s unclear what they plan to do with Ben if they find him guilty, but death is surely on the table. And yet, they also seem like kids playing dress up — which they are. As is familiar for “Yellowjackets,” childlike behavior and real stakes make for a potent concoction.We watch as the Yellowjackets’ warped sense of justice extends into the present day. There are two threads that emphasize that. First, there is Jeff and Shauna. Jeff is worried about his and Shauna’s massively bad karma, so he signs them up to volunteer at the senior home where Misty works. That becomes too emotionally intense for Shauna after she winds up locked inside a walk-in freezer, so she decides to replace a local cat that has been missing for years by just adopting a different cat. Sure, that will work.And then there’s Tai and Van, who find themselves wondering whether they should be the arbiters of life and death. They drop a Queen of Hearts from a deck of playing cards on the ground to see if it “chooses” anyone. When a man picks it up, they follow him back to his apartment and Tai nearly makes moves to kill him, thinking that taking his life will give the cancer ridden Van more time.Van stops Tai from going that far, but the mere fact that the possibility was on the table is evidence of how much all this Wilderness woo-woo has affected their minds.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

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      Meghan Markle Channels Lifestyle Mavens in ‘With Love, Meghan’ on Netflix

      by

      The Duchess of Sussex has tried to channel the likes of Martha Stewart for years. Can “With Love, Meghan” get her there?“With Love, Meghan,” the new Netflix lifestyle series premiering next week, is a culmination of sorts for its creator and star, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The show casts the princess as a perfectly groomed domestic goddess, cooking and entertaining for friends at home in coastal California, a role to which she has seemingly aspired for more than a decade.Meghan’s ambitions to be the “millennial Martha Stewart of Montecito,” as a recent New York Times guest essay put it, were delayed first by her courtship and marriage to Prince Harry, in 2018, and then by the couple’s public feud with the British royal family.In 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they would step back from royal duties, causing a flurry of palace gossip and recriminations. The couple spent the next few years cannily telling (and monetizing) their side of the story in a series of media ventures — a sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey; a six-episode Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan”; and a best-selling memoir by Prince Harry, “Spare.”But all along, Meghan displayed flashes of her Ina Garten side. Remember when she showed Oprah her chicken coop? Or when a London bakery posted a photo of the handwritten thank-you note on personalized stationery she had sent to its staff?In a 15-second video on Instagram last year, Meghan finally announced her new kitchen and lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. Details were scant, but a trademark application sought approval for a retail store, cookbooks and tableware, as well as jellies, jams, marmalades, fruit preserves and nut butters.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

    • 213 Shares111 Views

      in Movies

      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Disney+, Amazon, Max, Apple TV+ and More in March

      by

      “Anora” and “Happy Face” arrive, and “‘Dark Winds,” “The Wheel of Time,” “The Righteous Gemstones” and more return.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of March’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3Starts streaming: March 13Season 1 of this handsome-looking fantasy series introduced the major characters and concepts from the first book of the novelist Robert Jordan’s hefty “The Wheel of Time” saga. Season 2 adapted parts of the second and third books, moving pieces into place for the grand apocalyptic battle prophesied at the start of the story. In Season 3, adapting “The Shadow Rising,” the heroes are tested by a journey into a desert wasteland. Rosamund Pike returns as the mystic Moiraine, who is helping a group of young people escape the shadowy forces pursuing them, leading them on a journey across a magical realm in danger of falling into ruin — just as it did thousands of years ago. Josha Stradowski plays Rand al’Thor, who could be his land’s last best hope to stand up against The Dark One, or the one to usher in a new age of chaos.Also arriving:March 6“For the Win: NWSL”“Picture This”March 11“Iliza Shlesinger: A Different Animal”March 27“Bosch: Legacy” Season 3“Holland”Zahn McClarnon in “Dark Winds.”Michael Moriatis/AMCNew to AMC+‘Dark Winds’ Season 3Starts streaming: March 9The novelist Tony Hillerman’s “Leaphorn and Chee” series provides the inspiration for this combination neo-western and neo-noir. Zahn McClarnon plays Joe Leaphorn, a lieutenant in the Navajo Tribal Police, who looks after his own people while holding a healthy suspicion of outsiders. Kiowa Gordon plays Jim Chee, Joe’s deputy, who used to work undercover for the F.B.I., gaining intelligence on Indigenous political groups. “Dark Winds” combines complex mystery plots with an insider’s take on Navajo culture. Season 3 finds Joe and Jim investigating a mysterious disappearance in their jurisdiction while their colleague Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) begins a new job with the Border Patrol. Guest stars include Jenna Elfman and Bruce Greenwood, in a story that will leave Joe questioning his life’s purpose.Also arriving:March 3“Recipes for Love and Murder” Season 2March 7“Starve Acre”March 10“The Gone” Season 2March 18“Wicked City” Seasons 1 and 2We 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

    • 75 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      The ‘S.N.L.’ Hosts Who Give 110%

      by

      A look back at the pro athletes who have tested their fortitude at 30 Rock. “Sometimes it’s a train wreck,” a producer said. Or an incredible surprise.“Saturday Night Live,” which is celebrating its 50th season this year, has had hundreds of hosts. There are the famous actors, the musicians and the comedians, of course. And then there are the professional athletes who are used to performing on fields, tracks and courts, not on a stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler turned movie star known as the Rock, has hosted five times, the most of any athlete. Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, stiffly sang and danced in a sport coat and jeans in 2005. Chris Evert, the winner of 18 Grand Slam tennis titles, hosted shortly after retiring in 1989, becoming the first of three female athletes to do so. (Nancy Kerrigan and Ronda Rousey are the others.)There is no guarantee an athlete’s monologue will be successful or the sketches funny. But this participation trophy is an exclusive one — only about three dozen have received an invite to flex their coordination and teamwork.A few years ago, Heidi Gardner, an “S.N.L.” cast member and Kansas City Chiefs fan, started a campaign to convince the show’s leadership that the star tight end Travis Kelce had the charisma to succeed as a host. Lorne Michaels eventually agreed, she said, with a catch: The Chiefs had to win the Super Bowl again.One month after they did in 2023, Kelce was making fun of his own monosyllabic motivational speeches and overlooked reality dating show.Lindsay Shookus, who worked on “S.N.L.” for more than two decades, said the show often tries to book athletes after high-profile events, such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics, when they are top of mind for a general audience.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

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Joseph Wambaugh, Author With a Cop’s-Eye View, Is Dead at 88

      by

      In novels like “The Glitter Dome” and nonfiction works like “The Onion Field,” he took a harsh, unglamorous look at the realities of law enforcement.Joseph Wambaugh, the master storyteller of police dramas, whose books, films and television tales powerfully caught the hard psychic realities of lonely street cops and flawed detectives trapped in a seedy world of greed and senseless brutality, died on Friday at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 88. The cause was esophageal cancer, said Janene Gant, a longtime family friend.In “The Glitter Dome,” Officers Gibson Hand and Buckmore Phipps consider it a joy “to kill people and do other good police work.” In “The Black Marble,” Sgt. Natalie Zimmerman and Sgt. A.M. Valnikov are in love, but it can’t last. In “The Onion Field,” his first work of nonfiction, Mr. Wambaugh wrote of what happened to Officer Karl Hettinger when his partner was slain by thugs: He suffered impotence, nightmares and suicidal thoughts, and his body shrunk.Mr. Wambaugh was blunt about the hidden costs of the job: broken marriages, nervous breakdowns, suicides.Before Mr. Wambaugh’s era as a writer, which began in 1971, police dramas like the television series “Dragnet” were implausible stories about clean-cut heroes doing good. He shattered the mold with portraits of officers as complex, profane, violent and fallible, sliding quickly from rookie illusions of idealism into the streetwise cynicism of veterans, who might have feared death but who feared their own emotions even more.Readers discovered an intimacy with Wambaugh’s cops, taking in the gallows humor, the boredom and sudden dangers; being privy to a partner’s bigotry and cruelty, but tagging along for the action and a share of the fatalism about the job — the inevitability of a murder, a rape or a child molested tonight — and then moving on to another sunset shift out of Hollywood Station.Mr. Wambaugh in 1972, the year after his first novel, “The New Centurions,” was published. He wrote it on the job while working as a police officer.Jill Krementz, all rights reservedWe 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