TV

Are you into drama shows? Well, Amazon Prime Video might be your next home this holiday. The streamer just unveiled an addition to its plate of drama content with the first season of Riches, a British TV show created by Inventing Anna’s Abby Ajayi. Drama shows have a way of representing nearly everyone’s life, personality, and character on screens, as they can never run out of ideas to talk about.

Apple TV+ is back with the second season of Slow Horses seven months after the first installment was completed. Slow Horses launched its debut season in April 2022, attracting plenty of reviews and critics, revealed by an 89% average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes supported by a 95% average Tomatometer and 7.7 out of 10 stars on IMDb. The first season is based on Mick Herron's book of the Slough House series, entitled Slow Horses, while its successor is adapted from the sequel Dead Lions. Apple TV+ initially ordered two seasons of Slow Horses in October 2019 before adding two more in June 2022, set to be derived from other books from the series.

Hulu just provided a first look and trailer for its upcoming dating show, Back in the Groove, starring Brooke, Steph, and Sparkle. The show will be hosted by Taye Diggs, an American actor popularly known for his incredible performance in All American, The Best Man franchise and Chicago. 

We can agree that nothing hits better than a holiday movie during the holiday season. Disney+ just knows how to combine the two, evident from its current package of holiday movies ahead of the December holiday. Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays marks the most recent addition to Disney Plus’ plate.

The Territory is a documentary film directed and produced by Alex Pritz for National Geographic and Disney Plus. The film launched on National Geographic in August 2020 before it recently acquired a Disney+ December release date. National Geographic's The Territory managed an outstanding 7.6 out of 10 stars- meaning it's worth it for Disney+ subscribers to try it.

Antonio Banderas returns once again as the voice of the titular feline in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The upcoming animated film is a sequel to the 2011 Puss in Boots that focused on Puss's adventures and mishaps from childhood as an abandoned kitty alongside Humpty Alexander Dumpty.

Paramount Pictures has lined up the eccentric drama film Babylon this holiday, which is described as “The Great Gatsby on Steroids”, featuring an all-star studded cast and the craziness of the golden age in Hollywood. Crafted by Damien Chazelle, Babylon depicts the entertainment industry's evolution in the 1920s from silent films to the audio version as it sees the rise and descent of Hollywood bigwigs. The preview video captures the indulgence of early Hollywood, consisting of drug overuse and hard partying. We see topless women and Brad Pitt’s character plummeting from a balcony in his undies but surprisingly gets up unharmed as he retires for the night.

Scarlett Johansson has signed a deal with Warner Bros. TV to executive produce and star in the limited thriller series Just Cause for Amazon Prime Video. The series marks Johansson's first lead role in a TV show, which has received the green light for a straight-to-series production.

We've all met her. She'll call you crying, recounting her last fight with her boyfriend. He'd drink, storm out, then come home smelling like another woman. She'd have her life planned out, the exact shade of white for their picket fence, her career, and their kids' names. If she could only do better, get him to stop drinking, and prove her worth. You'd tell her to hit the road and find a place of her own. She'd be so much happier with someone else, or with nobody at all. She didn't need him. She'd agree, nod along, and talk about how it probably would be better if he was out of her life. Then his carlights would show up in her driveway, and she'd have to go. She'd hang up, fight some more, and call you the next evening, ready to tell you what happened when he got home from the bar. Who are we to blame someone like that? The best of us have entered into a toxic relationship, and bad love is so hard to walk away from. It might be irritating, getting those calls every night, urging your friend to leave. But it's human nature. We develop a sense of loyalty towards those who treat us the worst. But what if she was a terrible person? A slave owner or the philosophical founder of a theocratic regime, and you were her handmaid or her martha, offering her a drink late at night, or withstanding a visit from her in your room? Would you still feel bad if her husband was abusive? Would it sting just as much seeing her beaten and yelled at? From a detached perspective, it's easy to say that it wouldn't, but in Gilead all women are second-class citizens--subhuman, seen as stupid and frivolous. They have no choice when it comes to their future or their circumstances, even as wives. There's no such thing as bodily autonomy. What he wants, he gets, whether she wants it herself or not; that's the case in the bedroom, in the kitchen--in every aspect of life, and abuse is the norm. That's on top of a long list of societal prejudices and pseudo-scientific biases, destroying their self-confidence and forcing them to accept that they are in fact inferior. How do you look at a wife, even one as cruel as Serena, and not feel a flash of pity? We could say that we wouldn't, but if we were face to face with that level of oppression, things could get complicated. We are talking about someone who wasn't allowed to read or write. She had duties to perform. Her free time was confined to a short menu of government-approved activities, and she wouldn't be allowed to leave--even after years of infidelity and beatings. In truth, wives are slaves just like handmaids and marthas. They're trapped and forced to work. They're monitored and belittled. They're certainly not protected. Guardians could hurt them. Their husbands treated them like property. Just like with Rita, someone could've cracked Serena's jaw and nobody would have even flinched.

Channing Tatum takes his shirt off again as an exotic dancer for a third installment of the Magic Mike franchise. Warner Bros. Pictures recently released a trailer for Magic Mike’s Last Dance, revealing steamy scenes between Tatum’s Mike and Salma Hayek, who will be taking a primary role in the upcoming sequel. Check it out!

Late last month, The Witcher announced that Henry Cavill, will be handing over his role as Geralt of Rivia to Liam Hemsworth after the show’s third season. Since then, fans have expressed some pretty strong opinions about the news. Let’s see what some of them are:

The concept of a detective with supernatural abilities is one of the oldest tropes in crime drama TV shows. But a detective who relies on his faith to solve crimes is something else. That's what Peacock's new series, The Calling from Barry Levinson and David E. Kelley, tries to explore. The crime procedural drama premiered on November 10 2022, and it tells the tale of NYPD detective Avraham Avraham, a religious Jew who’s guided by his faith to solve mysteries. If you like investigatory series, this could be the one for you but let's bog down into its details, including whether The Calling is worth watching.

Prime Video has been working tirelessly to deliver the best shows, especially mystery, detective, and crime dramas. The streamer recently added Three Pines, an adaptation of Louise Penny’s book series, Chief Inspector Gamache. Three Pines joins other Prime Video crime drama shows such as Outer Range, The Outlaws, The Terminal List, Sprung, and Reacher, among others.

If you’re into adventure shows, then Netflix should be your new home for this upcoming holiday. The streaming platform recently unveiled an addition to the category with Hot Skull season one. Hot Skull is based on Afşin Kum’s book of the same title, published in 2016. Like any other novel-to-TV show adaptation, Hot Skull appears to have promising advancements from its mother source.

The year 2023 is looking to be even better for comedic movies. There are many fascinating comedies coming out next year, and among them are Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie, Taika Waititi's soccer film, and Ari Aster's satirical horror epic with Joaquin Phoenix.