Now a little ditty to celebrate the return of Doctor Who.
(He pronounces his name “shoo-tee”.)
Ncuti Gatwa
Would you take me by the hand
Ncuti Gatwa
Would you take me by the hand
Can you hear me
Riff on Steely Dan
Play it on your juke box
Can you hear me
Ncuti Gatwa
Ncuti Gatwa
I’m among those who saw the early trailer for and the new extended look at James Gunn’s upcoming Superman and wondered just why so much time was spent on a bloodied, battered Man of Steel.
Of course, I thrilled at the brief glimpses of him being heroic — flying with purpose
and protecting a child. And I get wanting to showcase Krypto; I do have concerns about the film, but not that shaggy fella beyond my perennial problem buying even the most impressive CGI.
One week after his 25-hour speech on the Senate floor began, Cory Booker spoke to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with familiar eloquence.
“You and I are people of faith,” Booker told the host near the end of the conversation, “but there is a Civic Gospel in this country that we need more than ever.” He noted that the Declaration of Independence from a kingdom overseas was a declaration of interdependence among the people of this emerging nation as well. An extended version of the interview is now up on YouTube.
ABC will air Paradise, which bowed in January on its sister platform Hulu, over eight Mondays starting tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
I’m not sure I recommend it even to those who love everything in the pilot because,
for me, it all falls apart too much as the season concludes.
The series has a big twist at the end of its first episode that reviewers have rightly if sometimes backhandedly praised for at least not coming halfway through the season or more. A number of recent shows have belated reveals that reframe their plot or their very premise — for example, 2023’s miniseries The Crowded Room (which I’ve not seen) and the first season of 2024’s Sugar (which I have and I still might write about), both from Apple TV+. Game-changing information can undoubtedly blow a viewer’s mind while blowing up the heretofore perceived status quo in exciting ways: see USA’s Mr. Robot early on, HBO’s Westworld maybe, and for sure NBC’s The Good Place in the hands-down best rule-breaking “Holy shirt!” cliffhanger ever cliffhung on a half-hour comedy. Yet when you take so long to get to a twist, or in another recent trend use most or all of your first season just to set up the actual series premise, you risk not only turning away viewers before they experience full-on the show you ostensibly wanted to make but possibly alienating viewers who enjoyed the series they were watching prior to the colossal switcheroo.
I’ve mentioned before on the blog — 15 years ago, granted — how much I loved Shazam!, Filmation’s live-action series based on the original Captain Marvel that aired Saturday mornings on CBS in the mid ’70s.
Not very long ago it was incorporated into a dream of mine. An immortal Elder from the show appeared to me but (a) he looked more like Batman foe Maxie Zeus as drawn by the great Don Newton than Zeus himself or any of the other legendary figures making up the acronym that is Billy Batson’s magic word — yet still in the style used to illustrate those figures in the ethereal vision sequences in which they appeared, unmoving — and (2) he freaked me out by lifting his arms up instead of remaining static. I think he was giving me a mission that had something to do with cats.
