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      Donald Trump Lost His Battle. The Culture War Goes On.

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      #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 storyCRITIC’S NOTEBOOKDonald Trump Lost His Battle. The Culture War Goes On.The reality-TV president was a practitioner, and a product, of a style of pop-cultural grievance that will outlast him.President Trump gloried in inviting conservative celebrities like Kid Rock, right, to the White House.Credit…Gabriella Demczuk for The New York TimesDec. 14, 2020You could say that the Trump presidency effectively ended when the polls closed election night or when news outlets called the contest for Joseph R. Biden Jr. four days later. You could say that it ended when the Electoral College voted on Monday to make Mr. Biden the president, or that it will end when Mr. Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.But by one measure, the Trump presidency ended in mid-November, when online conservatives went bonkers over a picture of Harry Styles in a dress.The photo of the British singer on the cover of the December Vogue prompted the YouTube personality Candace Owens to tweet, “Bring back manly men.” To Ben Shapiro, the photo shoot was an assault on the concept of manhood itself: “Anyone who pretends that it is not a referendum on masculinity for men to don floofy dresses is treating you as a full-on idiot.”What does all this have to do with the president’s impending exit? First, it suggests that other conservatives are retaking the role of Troll-Warrior-in-Chief that Mr. Trump conferred on himself.But it’s also a reminder that the kind of button-pushing cultural politics that predated him — that in many ways helped make a President Trump possible — will survive his tenure.‘Duck Dynasty’ PoliticsA million years ago in the Obama era, proxy wars over culture were handled on the periphery of conservatism, in social media and right-wing talk. It was the era of the Gamergate attacks on feminists in the video gaming community, of umbrage over the foreign-language lyrics of a Coca-Cola commercial and over a female-cast reboot of “Ghostbusters.”With the election of President Trump, a pop-culture figure himself who intuited the connection between cultural fandom and political tribalism (he himself made a “Ghostbusters” outrage video the year he announced his campaign), the political and culture-war wings of conservatism merged.For four years, we had a president whose portfolio of concerns included protests at N.F.L. games, speeches at TV awards ceremonies, the loyalty of Fox News and the reboot of “Roseanne.” He scoured and fretted over Nielsen ratings — his own and those of shows he saw as allies and enemies — with the intensity a wartime president might devote to troop movements.Now, with a waning Mr. Trump self-soothing with OANN and Newsmax and tweeting out the elaborate sci-fi serial that the election was stolen from him, command of that battle is returning from the White House to the field.Phil Robertson, who was briefly suspended from the reality show “Duck Dynasty” in 2013 for homophobic and racist comments, with Mr. Trump at a 2019 rally.Credit…Larry W Smith/EPA, via ShutterstockFor decades, the expression of politics through culture war has been a staple of conservative media. Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing online publisher, declared that “politics is downstream from culture” (borrowing an idea from Marxist theorists like Antonio Gramsci). Fox News made an annual production of the “war on Christmas” (with occasional spinoffs like “Santa Claus and Jesus are white”).The appeal was emotional; people have a personal connection to family holidays and their favorite shows that they don’t to, say, marginal tax-rate policy. But it was also a way to appeal to a specific audience in a country where, increasingly, people had not just different political beliefs but entirely different cultural experiences.As far back as the early 1970s, the “rural purge” in TV — which eliminated bucolic sitcoms like “Green Acres” to make room for urban ones like “All in the Family” — reinforced the idea that there were different Americas with different, and even competing, popular cultures. This dynamic only spread with cable TV and the internet, which sliced and diced us into a nation of niche demos, sharing a geography but occupying different psychic spaces.As the historians Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer write in “Fault Lines,” their study of American polarization since the 1970s, all this led to “a world with fewer points of commonality in terms of what people heard or saw.” This was true in politics and in entertainment, and the two often overlapped.There was now identifiable red and blue pop culture. A 2016 Times study found a TV divide that mirrored the rural-urban split in the election. “Deadliest Catch,” the reality show about Alaskan crab fishing, was popular in red America; in blue zones, “Orange Is the New Black,” the Netflix drama and critique of the prison system.The brief suspension of Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the “Duck Dynasty” clan, had divided the country.  Credit…Gerald Herbert/Associated PressA 2014 poll found that 53 percent of Democrats, compared with 15 percent of Republicans, believed “Twelve Years a Slave” should win the best-picture Oscar. Neither party had taken a position on the movie; the culture war was just well-enough ingrained that people could intuit where their side would land, just as the Iraq War movie “American Sniper” became a conservative favorite and liberal target.Knowingly or not, audience members enlisted in the culture war as volunteers. For conservatives in particular, the liberal tilt of Hollywood was a useful font of grievance, allowing them to claim cultural victimhood no matter how much political and judicial power they held.And people increasingly saw their favorite stars as their proxies and champions. When Phil Robertson, the bayou patriarch of “Duck Dynasty,” was briefly suspended from the reality show in 2013 for homophobic and racist comments, one America saw it as political correctness taking down a beloved star for speaking his mind. Another America — if they had ever heard of “Duck Dynasty” at all — saw a bigot getting what he had coming to him.The Culture-Troll-in-ChiefAll of this, in retrospect, was an advance trailer for the it-came-from-“The Apprentice” Trump era.Politicians, especially on the right, have dabbled in culture war before: George H.W. Bush vs. “The Simpsons,” Dan Quayle vs. “Murphy Brown,” Bob Dole vs. rap. But their forays tended to be awkward, tone-deaf and often as not, self-defeating.But Mr. Trump, a child of TV who made himself into a TV character as an adult, understood media instinctively. It was where he lived, ever since he gave up his youthful fantasies of running a movie studio, vowed to “put show business into real estate” and forged his tabloid persona in the 1980s.Having used media to build a reality-show career and a business-success myth, having experienced the rush of primetime celebrity, he knew that culture makes the kind of gut connection that mere politicians can only dream of. Ordinary politics argues: Those other people don’t believe what you believe. Culture-war politics argues: Those other people don’t love what you love.So Mr. Trump’s campaign, as much as it was about wall-building or Islamophobia or “law and order,” was also about a promise to defend and uphold his followers’ culture over the enemy’s. His rallies combined a concert vibe with the theatrics of pro wrestling (another genre Mr. Trump had experience with).To an audience that had been told for years that showbiz celebrities disdained their values, here was one of their celebrities, a real celebrity from TV, taking their side. An alt-rightist essay on Breitbart.com hailed the erstwhile NBC host as “the first truly cultural candidate for President” since Patrick J. Buchanan, the CNN “Crossfire” co-host who declared a “cultural war” for “the soul of America” at the 1992 Republican National Convention.Ted Nugent performed at a campaign event for Mr. Trump in Michigan in October.Credit…Rey Del Rio/Getty ImagesTrump’s 2016 RNC didn’t have a lot of high-profile politicians, but it did have a “Duck Dynasty” star. As president, he gloried in inviting conservative celebrities like Kid Rock and Ted Nugent (who once called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel”), as well as the newly conservative-curious Kanye West, to take photos in the Oval Office.The pictures felt like spoils of war, a political end-zone dance. And his fiercest celebrity critics often played into his me-vs.-Hollywood narrative, cursing him out at the Tony Awards or feuding with him on Twitter.He praised Western culture as superior because “we write symphonies,” tooting a white-nationalist dog whistle from the orchestra pit. And he threw himself wholeheartedly into fights like the one over ABC’s reboot of “Roseanne,” whose star, Roseanne Barr, had become a real-life, vituperative Twitter Trumpist, and which worked her politics into the story lines.He didn’t, like previous presidents attending the Kennedy Center honors or sharing a something-for-everyone Spotify playlist, see culture as a way to find common ground. He saw it as a battleground with winners and losers, and one full of opportunities to inflame divisions.When the “Roseanne” premiere dominated the ratings, he crowed about it as his team trouncing the enemy. “It’s about us!” he told a crowd of supporters.Later, when ABC fired Ms. Barr from the show over a racist tweet, Mr. Trump joined the argument, not to condemn Ms. Barr’s remarks but to accuse the network of hypocrisy because of “HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC.” It echoed his Twitter attack on the network in 2014 when it picked up the sitcom “black-ish”: “Can you imagine the furor of a show, ‘Whiteish’! Racism at highest level?”His bellyaching against Hollywood wasn’t just a bread-and-circuses distraction. It was political messaging. Pushing back on Ms. Barr’s firing — for likening a Black former Obama aide to an ape — echoed the right’s fixation on “cancel culture.” The message: Your stars are being canceled. Your shows are being canceled. You are being canceled. Only I am the network executive who can ensure your renewal.After ABC fired Roseanne Barr from the reboot of “Roseanne” over a racist tweet, Mr. Trump accused the network of hypocrisy.Credit…Brinson+Banks for The New York TimesHis fixation on ratings (dating back to “The Apprentice,” whose ratings he routinely lied about) vibed with his worldview of competition and scorekeeping. Fights about representation, American identity and the boundaries of acceptable speech aligned with messages expressed, in more blunt and ugly ways, by Mr. Trump’s campaign and supporters — especially the insidious language of “replacement.”“Now they’re making ‘Ghostbusters’ with only women. What’s going on!” was a way of telling men that he would protect them from becoming superfluous. “We can say ‘Merry Christmas’ again” was a way of saying: Your culture used to be the assumed default in America, and I’m going to bring that back. The enemy wants to demote you to a supporting player; I’m going to make you the star again.The Tug-of-Culture-War Goes OnMuch of this, of course, was a reaction to the expansion of the American story implied by the election of America’s first Black president and by the representative pop culture of Obama’s era, like “black-ish” and “Hamilton.” Often, there’s a sense (at least in retrospect) of a new cultural era beginning with a new presidential administration: JFK, the New Frontier and youth culture; Reagan, “Family Ties” and “greed is good.”Though the Biden administration has yet to begin, it doesn’t feel like that kind of definitive shift at the moment, so much as the flag moving to the other side of the centerline in a continuing tug of war. Things may get quieter on the surface; Mr. Biden is neither as big a pop-culture guy nor as zealous a culture warrior as the president he’s replacing.But as every tempest over a Vogue cover proves, the fight goes on. The divides are too deep, the incentives for widening them too great. Whether Mr. Trump continues to have a major part in this after he leaves office, or whether his ratings ragetweets simply echo in some musty corner of the internet, the ongoing narrative he has left us with will continue.The secret of a long-running show, after all, is that it can survive a cast change.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The Art of Political Murder’ and CBS Specials

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘The Art of Political Murder’ and CBS SpecialsA documentary about the murder of the Guatemalan bishop Juan José Gerardi debuts on HBO. And two celebrity benefit shows air on CBS.A funeral parade for Bishop Juan José Gerardi, as seen in “The Art of Political Murder.”Credit…HBODec. 14, 2020, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Dec. 14-20. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE SHOT: RACE FOR THE VACCINE — A SPECIAL EDITION OF 20/20 10 p.m. on ABC. The recent rush of news regarding coronavirus vaccines has given some hope to a weary world. The process of getting here hasn’t been easy, to put it mildly, and there’s still an enormous amount of work to do. This special looks at the efforts by scientists and government officials to get a vaccine created and distributed in record speed. Its interview subjects include Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and one of the chairs of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Covid-19 task force, the Yale professor Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.TuesdayFrom left, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby — the Highwomen — in 2019.Credit…Cody O’Loughlin for The New York TimesPLAY ON: CELEBRATING THE POWER OF MUSIC TO MAKE CHANGE 8 p.m. on CBS. A grab bag of musical acts including the Highwomen, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and Sheryl Crow are set to perform in this benefit concert, which raises money for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the nonprofit WhyHunger. The variety of acts comes with a variety of venues: performances will be filmed at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, the Apollo Theater in New York and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.WednesdayTHE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER (2020) 9 p.m. on HBO. This documentary from the British director Paul Taylor (“We Are Together”) investigates the killing of Juan José Gerardi, a Guatemalan bishop who was murdered in April 1998, days after he released results of an investigation into human rights abuses committed during the country’s decades-long civil war. The film is built around interviews with the investigators who worked on the case; it’s based on the book of the same name by Francisco Goldman.MARNIE (1964) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. A year after Tippi Hedren broke out with her debut screen role in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” she acted opposite Sean Connery in this Hitchcock thriller about a bad romance and sexual abuse. (The story was adapted from Winston Graham’s 1961 crime novel of the same name.) Connery was also a rising star: He’d broken out just couple years earlier, in “Dr. No.” Initial reception for “Marnie” was mixed. In his review for The Times, Eugene Archer took issue with most every aspect of it, including Connery and Hedren’s performances (“their inexperience shows”); Hitchcock’s direction (“the timing of key suspense scenes is sadly askew”); the set (“the most glaringly fake cardboard backdrops since Salvador Dalí designed the dream sequences for ‘Spellbound’”); and the script (“reduces this potent material to instant psychiatry — complete with a flashback ‘explanation scene’ harking back to vintage Joan Crawford and enough character exposition to stagger the most dedicated genealogist”). Still, some contemporary critics have been more kind to “Marnie” — including Richard Brody of The New Yorker, who has written that he considers it Hitchcock’s best film.ThursdayDenzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”Credit…Glen Wilson/Columbia PicturesTHE EQUALIZER 2 (2018) 5:30 p.m. on FX. The Times’s chief film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott recently released their list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century so far, and they placed Denzel Washington at the very top of the pack. Dargis wrote that Washington makes acting “look like breathing,” adding that he’s “played a lot of characters who embody law or criminality, and some who exist in the space dividing the two.” Washington’s character in “The Equalizer 2” falls into that second category. In the film — the most recent of several high body-count collaborations with the director Antoine Fuqua — Washington plays Robert McCall, a former military officer who gets pulled into vigilantism after a friend and former colleague is killed. In her review for The Times, Dargis wrote that the movie helps solidify Washington’s place in the pantheon of American screen actors like John Wayne, who played violently avenging heroes. “Like so many of the greatest American male stars,” she wrote, “violence becomes him.”THE GENTLEMEN (2020) 8:05 p.m. on Showtime. It takes a very particular kind of director to helm a live-action “Aladdin” for Disney, then follow it up months later with a lavishly brutal crime caper. Guy Ritchie is that kind of director. In “The Gentlemen,” he casts Matthew McConaughey as a pot kingpin whose talk of retirement kicks up a power struggle. McConaughey is surrounded by a slate of other famous performers whose characters are bad actors, in the criminal sense: Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong and Colin Farrell.FridaySHREK (2001) 7 p.m. on Syfy. The mostly young voters who participated in the 2002 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards had a difficult call to make: Was it Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz or Eddie Murphy who delivered the very finest vocal performance in “Shrek”? (All three were nominees for the “favorite voice from an animated movie” award, along with Billy Crystal for his role in “Monsters, Inc.”) The honor ultimately went to Murphy. Tune in Friday night to judge whether the kids made the right choice.SaturdayMaya Angelou in “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise.”Credit…Wayne Miller/ARC EntertainmentAMERICAN MASTERS: MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE (2016) 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The life of the poet, writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou — also sometimes a performer, and more — is revisited in this documentary, which explores Angelou’s many talents. The film may be too broad for those already deeply familiar with her work, but newcomers diving into her prolific life will find a wide overview here. “This is a documentary interested in breadth rather than depth,” Ken Jaworowski wrote in his review for The Times, “and on those terms it succeeds.”Sunday22ND ANNUAL A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 9:30 p.m. on CBS. CBS’s annual foster care adoption benefit show will include several virtual adoption ceremonies this year. As usual, it will also include performances from many celebrities, including Josh Groban, Miranda Lambert, Meghan Trainor, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Andrea Bocelli. Gayle King will host.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Saturday Night Live’ Sends Up Fauci and Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout

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      #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 story‘Saturday Night Live’ Sends Up Fauci and Covid-19 Vaccine RolloutThe episode, hosted by Timothée Chalamet, also featured musical performances by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.Kate McKinnon added Dr. Anthony Fauci to her repertoire this weekend on “Saturday Night Live.” (With Heidi Gardner as Dr. Deborah Brix.)Credit…NBCDec. 13, 2020While the pandemic has made Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, a highly visible figure in American life, “Saturday Night Live” has been circumspect about satirizing him in comedy sketches. When Fauci first turned up as an “S.N.L.” character this past spring, during one of the show’s remotely produced at-home episodes, he was given a mostly glowing treatment and played by none other than Brad Pitt (after Fauci himself had made the suggestion in a CNN interview).Presumably Brad Pitt had other commitments this weekend — instead, the “S.N.L.” cast member Kate McKinnon added another role to her ever-growing roster of celebrity and political impressions and played Fauci in the show’s opening sketch.McKinnon was joined by Heidi Gardner, playing Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, as they explained to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (Beck Bennett) how Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, newly approved for emergency use, would be distributed to the American public.Following some applause from the audience, McKinnon said, “Let’s try to keep the woos to a minimum, please. As you all know, woos spread droplets.”McKinnon proudly announced that “the vaccine is approved and I am officially joining the Biden administration to continue the fight against Covid.”With some hesitation, Gardner added, “And I think I’ll be joining as well, right? Remember when Trump said to inject bleach and I did a stanky little face? And I almost whispered, ‘No’? Remember?”McKinnon said that “we’re doing this vaccine World War II-style,” and further explained: “We made England go in first, see what’s what. And then we swoop in at the end and steal the spotlight. Tom Hanks will make 10 movies about it and when it’s all over you can kiss any nurse you want.”Asked by Bennett to evaluate Trump’s performance during the pandemic, McKinnon answered, “I try not to comment, but this president has done about as good a job with this rollout as I did throwing out that first pitch at the Nationals game.” “S.N.L.” played video of Fauci’s pitch from July, which markedly missed home plate. (We’re not saying we could do any better.)McKinnon’s Fauci explained that the ultimate aim was a return to relative anonymity.“If enough Americans get this vaccine, you’ll all forget who I am,” McKinnon said. “That’s my goal, to have zero name recognition with Americans. Because that means I’ll have done my job well.”She added, “You have my promise that no matter who is in charge, I’ll do everything possible to ensure that you are able to see your loved ones safely once again.”Gardner chimed in: “And I’m taller.”Celebrity Bellwether of the WeekSometimes an “S.N.L” sketch offers a helpful snapshot of which famous figures its cast members deem worthy of being impersonated at a particular moment in time. That was the primary role fulfilled by “The Dionne Warwick Talk Show,” which featured Ego Nwodim as that enduring pop singer and newly-minted star of social media.While she didn’t necessarily recognize who most of her guests were, Nwodim played host to Harry Styles (played by Chalamet), Billie Eilish (played by Melissa Villaseñor and introduced as “Ms. William Eyelash”), Machine Gun Kelly (Pete Davidson) and, in a neat bit of meta-commentary, Timothée Chalamet (played by Chloe Fineman as an exuberant goofus).Weekend Update Jokes of the WeekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on the Supreme Court’s swift rejection of a lawsuit, filed by the Republican attorney general of Texas and supported by numerous G.O.P. officials, that vainly sought to undo the results of November’s presidential election.Jost began:Guys, I’ve got to be honest. I’m beginning to think that Donald Trump didn’t win this election. This week, the Supreme Court dismissed two different Trump lawsuits to overturn the election results. They were the first rulings by the Supreme Court that were just the eyeroll emoji. Don’t worry, Trump isn’t throwing in the towel because he’s been a fighter his whole life. At least that’s what it looks like on his brain scans. I just love how the media keeps telling us, OK, this time, it’s over. Nothing is ever over as long as Donald Trump can make money off it. Even when he dies his tombstone is just going to have his Venmo info. Also, he’s a billionaire and he keeps asking his supporters for five dollars. Isn’t that just sad? It’s like saying, for the price of a cup of coffee a day, you can help a desperate old man pretend he’s still president.Che continued:The Texas lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to invalidate election results in four other states. Which is a plan so crazy, only Texas would try to execute it.Many Black doctors are saying that they are having a hard time convincing their patients to take the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Which is weird, because Moderna Vaccine is my favorite Tyler Perry character.Fake Cable Channel of the WeekPivoting off the insurgent success of cable channels like Newsmax, which have supported President Trump’s false claims that he won the election, “S.N.L.” introduced us to a new companion channel, Sportsmax, where failing New York sports teams like the Jets and the Knicks somehow find ways to emerge victorious.As a sports anchor played by Alex Moffat explained, “A lot of mainstream sport networks like ESPN are saying that the Jets have not won a single game this year, that they’re 0 and 12.” A commentator played by Bennett added that this was “is very interesting because the truth is, the Jets have already won 11 games this season.” Revisiting an October matchup that the Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, Bennett said, “After the first quarter, the Jets were winning the game 3 to 0. But then something very suspicious happened. The Bills start getting all these points out of God knows where. Either the Jets won, 3 to 0, or this whole game’s rigged.”Musical Performance of the WeekIt’s been a long week, a long month and an especially long year. So here, to offer a few minutes’ respite from reality, are Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with a rousing rendition of their song “Ghosts.” (They also came back later in the program to deliver an equally stirring performance of their song “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Biggest Casting News From Disney’s Investor Day

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Biggest Casting News From Disney’s Investor Day“Black Panther 2” will not recast King T’Challa. Harrison Ford is picking up the hat and whip again. And “Star Wars” recruited Rosario Dawson for her own show.Lupita Nyong’o, Chadwick Boseman and Danai Gurira in the 2018 film “Black Panther.” Disney will not recast King T’Challa in the wake of Mr. Boseman’s death, the company announced.Credit…Marvel Studios/Disney, via Associated PressDec. 11, 2020Updated 6:27 p.m. ETIn unveiling a huge raft of content coming to theaters and its streaming service at a four-hour investor presentation on Thursday, Disney announced major cast news for many of its highest profile properties, including Pixar, Marvel and “Star Wars.”Each division of Disney’s entertainment empire brought big names to the table, though some landed with a bigger splash than others. Film and TV fans will have a hard time missing what’s coming.Here are some of the biggest casting announcements for Disney’s film and streaming projects:Marvel will not recast King T’Challa in “Black Panther,” first played by Chadwick BosemanPerhaps the biggest news at the event was a decision not to make a casting announcement. Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, said that, after the indelible mark that Chadwick Boseman, who died this year, made playing King T’Challa in the 2018 movie “Black Panther,” Marvel would not recast the role out of respect for the actor’s legacy. The film’s sequel, however, is still scheduled for release on July 8, 2022, with the director Ryan Coogler and much of the original cast returning.Mr. Boseman died at 43 on Aug. 28 of colon cancer. The news stunned the industry and fans, some of whom mounted a campaign demanding that Disney not recast the role. In a tribute shared with The Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Coogler wrote, “It is with a heavy heart and a sense of deep gratitude to have ever been in his presence, that I have to reckon with the fact that Chad is an ancestor now. And I know that he will watch over us, until we meet again.”Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” Credit…ILM/Lucasfilm LTD, via 20th Century FoxHayden Christensen will again play Darth VaderIn the upcoming “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series for Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, the actor Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker, this time behind the mask of Darth Vader. The series will take place 10 years after the events of the 2005 movie “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” with Mr. Christensen starring opposite Ewan McGregor’s title character.After starring in two of George Lucas’s prequels to the original “Star Wars,” Mr. Christensen largely moved on to other projects. He did not completely part from the franchise, though: Die-hard fans could make his voice out at the end of last year’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” “Obi-Wan Kenobi” will debut in 2022.Amy Adams returns as Princess GiselleAmy Adams — who has been nominated for six Academy Awards — will reprise her role from the 2007 revisionist fairy tale “Enchanted” in a follow-up titled “Disenchanted” for Disney+.In The New York Times’s review of the original film, the critic Manohla Dargis called Ms. Adams “superb,” adding that she was an “irresistibly watchable screen presence and a felicitous physical comedian.”Harrison Ford in the 2008 film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”Credit…David James/Paramount PicturesHarrison Ford will play Indiana Jones one last timeThe fifth and final “Indiana Jones” film is officially in preproduction, and Harrison Ford will, of course, play the title role. The director of “Logan” and “Ford v Ferrari,” James Mangold, will lead the project. Not much else is known about the film so far, other than that there will need to be a hat and a whip.The new Indy film is set to reach theaters in July 2022.Chris Evans will play Buzz Lightyear. No, the real Buzz Lightyear.Chris Evans, best known for playing Captain America and that guy with the great sweater in Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out,” will play the starring role in Pixar’s “Lightyear,” set for a release on June 17, 2022. The film will set out to explore the back story of the human whose likeness was turned into the toy that Tim Allen played in the “Toy Story” series. You get it.Rosario Dawson gets her own “Star Wars” seriesRosario Dawson will star in “Ahsoka,” a Disney+ series that, along with “Rangers of the New Republic,” will be a spinoff from “The Mandalorian.”Ms. Dawson first appeared in a “Star Wars” feature, “The Mandalorian,” only weeks ago, as Ahsoka Tano, a character whose exploits “Star Wars” fans have followed from the 2008 film “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” to the more recent animated series “Star Wars Rebels.” The new series doesn’t yet have a release date.Whoopi Goldberg, right, in “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.”Credit…Buena Vista PicturesWhoopi Goldberg signs on for “Sister Act 3”Whoopi Goldberg, who played the iconic Deloris Van Cartier in “Sister Act” nearly 30 years ago, will star in and produce “Sister Act 3” for Disney+. The writer-director Tyler Perry will produce alongside her.“Sister Act” was one of the top grossing movies of 1992, and went on to inspire a sequel and a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. “Ms. Goldberg starts out with some tough talk, but this turns out to be one of her ultra-lovable roles,” the Times critic Janet Maslin said in a review of the original.John Mulaney and Andy Samberg will play Rescue RangersThe “SNL” alumni John Mulaney and Andy Samberg will play the title roles in “Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers,” a live-action-animated hybrid heading to Disney+.The film will be an update on the 1989 animated series of the same name, wherein two chipmunks start a detective agency. It was a different time. Akiva Schaffer, a member of The Lonely Island with Samberg, will direct.Tatiana Maslany in “Orphan Black.” For Disney, she will play the character She-Hulk, a lawyer.Credit…Ian Watson/BBC AmericaTatiana Maslany will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as She-HulkTatiana Maslany, best known for award-winning turns as several clones on the BBC’s “Orphan Black,” will star in the upcoming Marvel series “She-Hulk” on Disney+. The series will involve her character, Jennifer Walters, taking on superhero-related legal cases.Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk in the Marvel movies, will also appear, along with Tim Roth, who played the Abomination in the 2008 movie — pre-Ruffalo entry in the series — “The Incredible Hulk.”HBO meets Marvel in Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaThe stars of a few recent prestige dramas on HBO will appear in the next “Ant-Man” film. Jonathan Majors, a lead of “Lovecraft Country,” will appear as the villain in the movie, playing the classic Marvel character Kang the Conqueror. Kathryn Newton, who played a rebellious teenager opposite Reese Witherspoon in “Big Little Lies,” will play Cassie Lang, who comic fans know goes on to become the superhero Stature.Warwick Davis will reprise his role from WillowWarwick Davis will star as the title character in a sequel series to the 1988 cult classic “Willow” on Disney+, set to air in 2022.The original film, conceived by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard, involved a farmer and would-be sorcerer, Willow Ufgood, tasked with helping an infant — the future empress of the realm — fulfill her destiny. Val Kilmer helps them out. The series will take place years after the film’s events.Christian Bale goes from Dark Knight to God ButcherChristian Bale, who donned superhero tights for three Batman movies, has officially joined the cast of “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth installment in the “Thor” series and the second from the director Taika Waititi. Mr. Bale will play Gorr the God Butcher, a being who wants to kill all of the gods. Straightforward stuff, really. The film is scheduled for release on May 6, 2022.Hailee Steinfeld may be the next HawkeyeHailee Steinfeld, who could last be heard in “Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse” as Gwen Stacy, will appear alongside Jeremy Renner in Marvel’s “Hawkeye” series, airing on Disney+ next year. She plays Kate Bishop, who in the comics takes the Hawkeye name for herself.Ms. Steinfeld has already been spotted in set photos from the series:Happy birthday, Ms. Steinfeld.Multiple series will deal with Tony Stark’s legacyDon Cheadle, already busy picking up Emmy nominations for his work in the Showtime series “Black Monday,” will star as James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, in a new series called “Armor Wars.” No longer playing second fiddle to Iron Man after Tony Stark’s death in “Avengers: Endgame,” his character will instead have to deal with, according to Mr. Feige, what happens when Stark’s tech falls into the wrong hands — something of a trend for Stark Industries.Dominique Thorne, whose film debut was in “If Beale Street Could Talk,” will star in “Ironheart,” Marvel’s first series featuring a Black female lead. The actress will play Riri Williams, a young inventor who reverse-engineers Iron Man armor to protect her neighborhood.Finally, Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn will return as Nick Fury and Talos in a Disney+ series based on Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” comics event. The series explored what happened when Marvel’s superheroes were replaced by Skrulls, the aliens first seen in the 2019 film “Captain Marvel.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Same-Sex Kisses Under the Mistletoe: Holiday Movies Rethink a Formula

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySame-Sex Kisses Under the Mistletoe: Holiday Movies Rethink a FormulaIn a conservative genre that has mainly told straight stories, six new films, including titles on Hallmark and Lifetime, center on gay or lesbian characters.With Daniel Levy by their side, Kristen Stewart, center, and Mackenzie Davis play a couple in “Happiest Season.”  Credit…Lacey Terrell/Hulu, via Associated PressDec. 11, 2020, 4:36 p.m. ETWill the adorable couple adopt a baby in time to celebrate Christmas with Mom and Dad and the neighborhood kids? Sounds like a delightful holiday TV movie. But this is disruptive 2020, so here’s the thing: the couple are Brandon and Jake and the channel is Hallmark.“The Christmas House” is one of six new original holiday films released since November with something rare: main characters in same-sex relationships. Others include Hulu’s “Happiest Season,” a lesbian coming-out comedy starring Kristen Stewart; “The Christmas Setup,” a Lifetime rom-com debuting Saturday and starring the real-life husbands Ben Lewis and Blake Lee; and “Dashing in December,” a drama starting Sunday on the Paramount Network about two men who fall in love on a ranch.More under the radar but still noteworthy are two indies: “A New York Christmas Wedding,” a drama on Netflix about a woman who has relationships with both a man and a woman, and the scrappy on-demand “I Hate New Year’s” (for rent on major platforms), a lesbian romance set on New Year’s Eve in Nashville.L.G.B.T.Q. characters aren’t new to holiday movies, and six films may not sound like a revolution. But so many leading queer love stories — and same-sex kisses! — is a sea change for Christmas cinema, a conventionally heterosexual universe with more stories about puppies than gay people.“It’s the start of something bigger,” said Clea DuVall, the director and co-writer of “Happiest Season.” She added, “Networks and streamers are starting to see the value in telling these stories that have always been there but were not given the platform to get out to wider audiences.”According to Hulu, “Happiest Season” is the first holiday rom-com about a same-sex couple from a major Hollywood studio. Nicole Brown, the president of TriStar Pictures, which sold “Happiest Season” to Hulu in October, called the queering of the Christmas picture “very organic.” So what took so long?“Film has always been under the assumption that the safest kind of characters are the way to go,” Brown said. “Our studio felt confident that the script and Clea’s vision and her ambition were aligned to make a commercial story, and that the quality of her storytelling would bring everybody in. When something’s great, it’s great.”This shift is most seismic for Hallmark, which has become shorthand for “holiday movie.” “The Christmas House” is one of 40 new holiday films released this year on the Hallmark Channel and its sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, the leaders in the holiday moviemaking machine. What’s most striking about “The Christmas House” is that Brandon and Jake, played by Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder, are unconditionally accepted as part of the family.L.G.B.T.Q. people “work on a lot of these Christmas movies,” said Bennett, who is gay but has played straight in Hallmark films before. “For the first time we feel we belong at the holiday table.”Last December, the Hallmark Channel faced a firestorm when it pulled four television ads with kissing brides after a conservative group petitioned the network to “reconsider airing commercials with same-sex couples” and to refrain from adding L.G.B.T.Q. movies to its schedule. Days later, Hallmark apologized for removing the commercials, and said it would work with GLAAD, the media advocacy organization, “to better represent the L.G.B.T.Q. community.”Michelle Vicary, executive vice president of programming and network publicity at Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company of the Hallmark Channel, said in an interview that her chief goal this year was to make “a bigger holiday table where people can see themselves on TV.” In 2021, Hallmark “will be moving forward, not backward,” she said, with more L.G.B.T.Q. tales at Christmas and during the year.“We are really focused on continuing our commitment to the authenticity in our storytelling for all of our characters, and making sure that everyone can see themselves represented on Hallmark services,” she said. “It’s the right thing to do.”Jonathan Bennett, center, and Brad Harder in “The Christmas House.”Credit…Hallmark ChannelLifetime, Hallmark’s biggest Christmas competitor, has featured original holiday films with L.G.B.T.Q. characters in supporting roles and story lines before; last year for the first time it ran one with a same-sex kiss. But “The Christmas Setup” — one of 34 new holiday movies on Lifetime this year — breaks ground as the channel’s first such film with an L.G.B.T.Q. romance front and center.Tanya Lopez, Lifetime’s executive vice president of movies, limited series and original movie acquisitions, said having gay leading characters in a film was “an incredible positive.” But the real breakthrough?“Remember when we would lower our voices and say a movie has a very special holiday twist?” she whispered. “We’re not doing a very special kind of Christmas.” Gay characters “being treated normal in storytelling is what feels fresh,” she added, “and that’s the norm I want to create.”Holiday TV movies generally follow a formula — a young city gal unexpectedly finds love with a small-town handyman or prince in disguise. Viewers show no signs of fatigue with that basic plot, and it’s a pretty white world. But while racial diversity has become more prevalent in the genre, if only a little, queer representation has not kept pace with even that minimal progress.Guaranteed, aspirational feel-good: that’s the name of the holiday movie game, said Joanna Wilson, the author of the Christmas entertainment encyclopedia “Tis the Season TV.”“These movies are fantasies where the real world doesn’t exist,” said Wilson, who also runs the blog ChristmasTVHistory.com. “Families don’t worry about different political viewpoints or health care. These are very cautious, conservative stories to begin with. But changes are coming, and that matters.”Wilson traces the holiday TV bonanza to ABC’s “Carol for Another Christmas,” a 20th-century “Christmas Carol” written by Rod Serling and broadcast in 1964. Original holiday films blossomed on the networks in the ’70s and ’80s, and in the ’90s, cable TV first marketed them as niche programming, Wilson said. This year, there are an estimated 115 new holiday movies on cable and major streaming platforms, including original films on Fox Nation, the Fox News streaming service.If ratings are an indication, the move toward L.G.B.T.Q. story lines isn’t a fluke. Hallmark said “The Christmas House” attracted over two million total viewers in its premiere last month. “Happiest Season” got the biggest audience for any Hulu original film in its opening weekend, according to Hulu.Complaints remain. One Million Moms, the conservative group that took credit for Hallmark’s decision to pull ads last year, is boycotting the company. Some L.G.B.T.Q. advocates are dissatisfied that the husbands in “The Christmas House” take more of a back seat to the film’s straight romance. There’s also disappointment that trans characters and actors are scarce.But for holiday movie fans like Kevin A. Barry, a higher education administrator in West Hollywood, Calif., there’s joy in knowing the days are numbered for watching only straight people smooch under a snow-coated gazebo.“We’ve always had to fight for love,” Barry said. “These movies remind us that love always wins.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Le Jeu de la dame’ encourage les femmes à se mettre aux échecs

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsThe actress Beth Behrs has been obsessed with chess since watching ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site index ‘Le Jeu de la dame’ encourage les femmes à se mettre aux échecs La série-phare de Netflix montre que “les femmes peuvent être des rock stars” aux échecs; elle suscite de nouvelles vocations auprès de ses fans, dont des adolescentes et l’actrice Beth Behrs. The actress Beth Behrs has been obsessed with chess since watching ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyDec. 11, 2020Read in EnglishLa comédienne Beth Behrs a une nouvelle obsession — les échecs — et c’est la faute de la série “Le Jeu de la dame”, sur Netflix. Elle lui a même attiré des ennuis sur le plateau de la série CBS “The Neighborhood” dans laquelle elle joue le rôle de Gemma Johnson.“Ils m’ont crié dessus hier au boulot parce que je cachais mon téléphone sous mon scénario”, raconte-t-elle. “Au lieu de faire mon métier d’actrice, je jouais à Chess.com.”Behrs est loin d’être la seule à s’être découvert cette nouvelle passion. “Le Jeu de la dame”, ou “The Queen’s Gambit”, raconte l’histoire de Beth Harmon, une prodige aux échecs, qui se fraie un chemin dans le monde des tournois, dominé par les hommes. La série est un succès pour Netflix — 62 millions de foyers ont regardé au moins une partie de la série, selon la plateforme de streaming — et le phénomène a réveillé l’intérêt pour ce jeu, notamment auprès de femmes et de jeunes filles.Chess.com, le site sur lequel jouait Beth Behrs, a enregistré plus de 2,35 millions de joueurs supplémentaires depuis la sortie de la série fin octobre, selon Nick Barton, son directeur du développement commercial. Les inscriptions de femmes sont en hausse de 15% depuis la diffusion du “Jeu de la dame”, précise-t-il.La demande de cours d’échecs monte en flèche. Evan Rabin, le fondateur de Premier Chess, précise que les inscriptions à des leçons virtuelles cet automne ont crû de 50%, en grande partie par des femmes. Chez Maxim Dlugy, un grand maître qui dirige la Chess Max Academy à Manhattan, la demande de cours particuliers a doublé, et lui aussi constate qu’il y a davantage de joueuses.Parmi ces nouvelles adeptes, il y a Leyli Zohrenejad, membre du conseil d’administration de plusieurs organisations à but non lucratif, dont Pioneer Works à Red Hook, un quartier de Brooklyn. Elle a appris à déplacer les pièces lorsqu’elle était jeune, mais ne s’est mise proprement à jouer qu’avec la diffusion du “Jeu de la dame”.“Ça m’a en quelque sorte décidé à passer de ces jeux distrayants sur smartphone à quelque chose de vraiment plus significatif”, explique Zohrenejad.Elle prend jusqu’à quatre leçons par semaine et débute certaines de ses journées en réfléchissant à des problèmes d’échecs, sa tasse de café à la main.Beth Behrs chez elle. Elle et son mari, l’acteur Michael Gladis, se réservent une soirée à deux par semaine pour jouer aux échecs.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times“Ça me réveille le cerveau le matin”, dit-elle. “Il n’y pas grand chose que je puisse faire le matin qui me mettrait dans une disposition d’esprit similaire”. Svetlana Timofejeva, qui vit à Athènes, en Grèce, a débuté des cours d’échecs il y a quelques semaines avec Anastasiya Karlovich, une femme grand maître, après avoir vu sur Facebook une publicité avec la photo de Beth, l’héroïne de la série. Les échecs lui rappellent son père, raconte-t-elle, qui lui avait appris à jouer quand elle était jeune et qu’elle vivait en Lettonie. Il s’y adonnait avec des amis dans un jardin public, tout comme dans les scènes du dernier épisode de la série.Bianca Mitchell, qui a 15 ans et qui vit à Albuquerque, s’est mise à jouer au CP mais a arrêté en classe de cinquième, quand elle est partie un an à Rochester, dans l’État de New York.“J’étais la seule fille à jouer et ça me mettait vraiment mal à l’aise”, admet-elle.À son retour au Nouveau-Mexique, elle n’avait pas envie de reprendre. Mais son état d’esprit a changé en voyant “Le Jeu de la dame”. Apprentie cinéaste, elle est enthousiasmée par la cinématographie et par le personnage de Beth. La série montre les échecs sous un jour “très glamour et luxueux, que les femmes peuvent être des rock stars”, dit-elle. À présent, elle aussi veut devenir grand maître.Lila Field, à gauche, et sa soeur  Rowan Field en 2019; elles ont toutes deux pris part à des tournois internationaux d’échecs.Credit…Carmen FieldLa série a même inspiré des joueuses d’échecs établies. Rowan Field, 12 ans, et sa sœur, Lila, 11 ans, qui vivent à New York (et ont toutes deux auditionné pour le rôle de Beth enfant), sont des juniors bien classées qui ont pris part à des tournois internationaux au Brésil, en Chine, en Espagne et au Chili.Si elles disent ne pas s’identifier à Beth, parce qu’elle est orpheline et souffre d’addictions, elles trouvent que ce personnage “montre qu’il peut y avoir des joueuses d’échecs extrêmement talentueuses”, se félicite Rowan, sa sœur acquiesçant d’un hochement de tête lors d’un appel Zoom. On voir rarement ça dans les séries télévisées ou les films, note Rowan.Pour Marisa Maisano, 13 ans, qui vit à Philadelphie et qui a commencé à jouer aux échecs au CP, Beth est un modèle d’excellence. “Suivre ses progrès au fil du temps et constater à quel point ils sont stupéfiants, et comment elle a réussi, ça a vraiment été une source d’inspiration pour moi”, confie-t-elle. Deux de ses amies qui ne savaient pas jouer aux échecs lui ont demandé de leur apprendre le jeu.Beth Behrs, comédienne et passionnée d’échecs.Credit…Jessica Lehrman for The New York TimesOn n’avait pas vu un engouement pareil pour les échecs depuis 1972, l’année où l’Américain Bobby Fischer est devenu champion du monde en l’emportant sur le Russe Boris Spassky. Une génération de passionnés s’en est suivie mais la vogue est retombée — en grande partie parce que Fischer s’est progressivement enfermé dans la solitude et l’instabilité, tenant des propos antisémites puis renonçant à son titre. Il est trop tôt pour savoir si l’enthousiasme actuel pour ce jeu perdurera et s’il est susceptible d’engendrer de nouvelles Beth Harmon. Mais beaucoup lui ont déjà fait une place dans leurs vies.Pour la comédienne Beth Behrs, savoir jouer aux échecs est une priorité depuis longtemps car son mari Michael Gladis — l’acteur de la série “Mad Men” — est un passionné. Il arrive à ce dernier de jouer plusieurs parties par jour sur Internet. Quand ils se sont mis en couple il y a 10 ans, Behrs a tenté de s’y adonner mais se sentait intimidée.“J’ai mis ça de côté et je ne m’y suis jamais mise”, reconnaît-elle.“Le Jeu de la dame” a tout changé. La série lui a donné confiance et elle trouve le jeu créatif et stimulant.Désormais, Behrs et Gladis se réservent une soirée à deux par semaine pour les échecs. Ils mettent un disque, allument un feu dans la cheminée et commencent la partie.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: Face-off on Morak

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Mandalorian‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: Face-off on MorakMando joins forces with an old enemy, just one of several major compromises he makes in hopes of rescuing Grogu.Mando and Boba (Pedro Pascal, left, and Temuera Morrison) took on the Empire together again, with a little help this time from a certain red-headed rogue.Credit…Lucasfilm Ltd.Dec. 11, 2020Season 2, Episode 7: ‘The Believer’It was bound to happen. All season long, Mando has been suffering loss after loss. The Child’s floating transport-egg? Totaled. The Razor Crest? Destroyed. Grogu himself? Kidnapped. So it was inevitable that at some point, Mando was going to have to give up what has mattered to him more than anything for most of his life: his helmet.About a third of the way through “The Believer,” Din Djarin realizes that the only way for him to infiltrate an Imperial refinery — and thus to obtain the information he needs to rescue Grogu — is to shed his near-impenetrable beskar shell and go undercover as a stormtrooper. He does get to stay masked, at least. He puts on a pathetic-looking helmet, with the little frown etched into the face-plate that’s common to the Empire’s armor. But as soon as he dons the gear, his body stiffens and he lapses into silence. The Mandalorian no longer feels like a Mandalorian.It gets worse. Once Din arrives in the facility, he discovers that he’s going to have to access a communications terminal that requires a face-scan. He makes one sad, fruitless attempt at keeping his stormtrooper disguise on while doing the scan, but immediately a warning alarm sounds, and he has to remove the helmet. For only the second time in this series, the actor Pedro Pascal — the star of “The Mandalorian” — shows his face.I could quibble with the narrative logic that led to this moment. We’re told early on that the Imperial base on the mining planet of Morak is protected by various devices which identify and weed out wanted fugitives. No one has seen Din’s face, so no scanners would register him as an outlaw. But wouldn’t it make sense for a scanner at an Imperial outpost to make sure the faces it’s scanning belong to actual Empire employees?I have no complaints, though, about the emotional punch of the scanner scene. It pains the Mandalorian to reveal himself — and it’s painful to see him do it. As the title of this week’s chapter, “The Believer,” implies, this is a man of deep faith who doesn’t take the trappings and the rituals of his order lightly. When the Imperial commander Valin Hess (Richard Brake) asks him to sit down and have a drink with him in the refinery’s commissary, Din is so mortified — so soul-sick — that he can barely move or speak.As with most of the episodes this season, this one was primarily made up of a few white-knuckle action sequences. Rick Famuyiwa directed and is credited as the screenwriter. Initially, Famuyiwa introduces a scenario reminiscent of the classic movie “The Wages of Fear,” with Din and the dastardly mercenary Migs Mayfeld (Bill Burr) driving a transport vehicle filled with the explosively volatile starship fuel rhydonium across bumpy roads. Then their transport is attacked by pirates, who keep coming in waves after seemingly every last-ditch effort by Mando to fend them off.Paradoxically, Din and Migs are saved by the Imperial forces, who salute them as they roll into the refinery with potentially enough rhydonium to help the Empire strike back (again). But when Migs hears this boast from Hess, it stirs the criminal’s conscience, reminding him of all the past atrocities he has witnessed. He impulsively shoots Hess before executing a daring escape with the help of Mando, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand and Cara Dune, finishing it with a long-distance shot that blows up the rhydonium and the refinery.But as exciting as all those chases and shootouts are, it’s almost more thrilling this week to hear Migs push back against Din’s understanding of how the galaxy works. Although Migs sabotages the Empire, he’s not really a partisan of any kind. He insists to Mando that folks born on one planet believe one thing and folks born on another planet believe something else, and that none of this matters because in a life-or-death crisis, people will cross any line they have to, just to survive.The action in this episode seems to probe Migs’s point as Mando finds himself delivering vital rhydonium to the enemy — and killing “pirates” who could well be agents of the Republic, for all he knows — in order to further his own personal agenda. It also can’t be too reassuring for the by-the-book Mando to hear Hess argue that the Empire will prevail again because “Everyone thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order.”This is something else that our hero has been losing this season: his certainty about “the Way,” and about what he is and isn’t duty-bound to do. Taking care of Grogu has given him a new perspective on where his loyalty truly lies.That’s why it’s significant that during Migs’s rant about how both the Empire and the Republic routinely wreck the lives of ordinary citizens, Din is shown looking out the window at Morak’s native children. As an orphan himself, that’s who he identifies with the most. And as we head into next week’s season finale, that’s who the Mandalorian is most passionate to save.This is the way:After all the mythology built up around Boba Fett over the decades, it is both strange and awesome to have him just hanging around all the time as part of the Mandalorian’s team. (“Fett, punch in the coordinates!” Mando will say, as though it’s perfectly normal to be barking orders at one of the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunters.) It was also cool this week to see how Fett’s ship, Slave 1, looks from the inside as it’s making the crazy horizontal-to-vertical pivot it does during takeoffs.Even with a stand-up comedian as a guest star, this episode featured fewer moments of comic relief than usual. I think I laughed out loud only once, when Migs shoots Hess, right as a stormtrooper walks into the cafeteria. The tension of that moment is immediately defused by the ridiculous image of a trooper carrying a lunch-tray, looking like a dumbfounded fifth grader.The locations this season have all been pretty spectacular — and impressively varied. This week, we begin in an imposing trash heap patrolled by giant “walkers,” and we end with a fight at a refinery by a towering dam. There’s nearly always something to marvel at on this show.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More