- Lisa Kudrow Makes An Extremely Welcome “Comeback” to HBO (March 17, 2026)
In the first two seasons of “The Comeback,” sitcom actress Valerie Cherish was defined by her almost panicked need for publicity. In season one, which debuted in 2005, she was thirsty to reignite her career with a role in a new sitcom, “Room and Bored,” and a foray into the pre-“Real Housewives” era of reality television.
In the second, which arrived in 2014, her desire to stay relevant led her to portray a barely veiled version of herself in an HBO series based on her experience on “Room and Bored.” That project put her in front of the camera in a prestige dramedy for the first time, which obviously outweighed the fact that it forced her to revisit some traumatic experiences that were exaggerated for dramatic, unflattering purposes. That’s because Valerie Cherish’s life mantra consisted of just seven words and an ellipsis: “Attention must be paid … to Valerie Cherish.”
Twelve years later, Valerie is back in a third season of “The Comeback” that, to my deeply pleasant surprise, is the mockumentary’s best. As co-created by Lisa Kudrow, who brilliantly brings Valerie to self-absorbed life, and Michael Patrick King of “Sex and the City” and “And Just Like That…”, these eight episodes play like a time capsule of what it feels like in 2026 to work in Hollywood, or in any creative field, really.
Where the previous two seasons emphasized how desperate Valerie was to get and keep a good job, the third season of “The Comeback” understands that literally everyone in Hollywood is now equally desperate to get and keep a good job. It doesn’t matter if you’re above the line or below it. Everyone can sense that the business is on the verge of hitting an iceberg and doing whatever they must to get their ass into a deck chair, no matter how nonsensically it’s been rearranged.
HBO
Jane (Laura Silverman), the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who produced Valerie’s reality show, also called “The Comeback,” now works at Trader Joe’s to make ends meet, but nevertheless agrees to start shooting behind-the-scenes footage of Valerie again. Sharon, a casting director played by actress and actual casting director Marla Garlin, quite literally trips over herself in a restaurant while trying to ask Valerie if she can get her some work. Even Mark (Damian Young), Valerie’s chill, non-showbiz husband, is currently appearing in a reality show about finance dudes, a gig he took after being dismissed from an actual job in finance. Once upon a time, Valerie Cherish seemed uniquely shameless. Now, having a sense of shame is a luxury that no one can afford.
“I’m just trying to get me and my kids out of this town before it explodes,” a veteran TV writer named Mary (Abbi Jacobson) tells Valerie. Unfortunately, Mary and her husband Josh (John Early) are the showrunners on Valerie’s new streaming sitcom “How’s That?!,” a show that the head of the network (a perfectly blasé Andrew Scott) insists will be scripted by Mary and Josh, with occasional help from artificial intelligence. But A.I., the unabashed villain in season three of “The Comeback,” turns out to be more “in charge” than Valerie anticipates, a fact that she is told to keep secret from the rest of the cast and crew.
That set-up enables King and Kudrow to create some very funny gags—“I’m pretty sure I did this sheriff’s joke way back on ‘Mama’s Family,’” says one of Valerie’s puzzled co-stars upon receiving a new script—and generate moments of genuine drama. “This is an extinction event,” legendary showrunner Jack Stevens (Bradley Whitford) tells Valerie regarding the rise of A.I. That reality is palpable in almost every scene of “The Comeback.” You can practically smell the fear emanating from Valerie and everyone else in her L.A. orbit through your digital device’s connection to HBO Max.
HBO
Of course, Kudrow is still the ringmaster of this studio lot circus; she is, once again, fantastically layered in her portrayal of Valerie, whose persistence feels less like a character flaw in this media landscape and more like a superpower. Valerie is still privileged, self-involved, and obsessed with putting herself out there. But where Valerie seemed like a try-hard striver in previous seasons, those qualities now underline how much of a fighter she is. An often inept fighter, but still: a fighter nonetheless. There’s a set piece in the fourth episode that involves Valerie trying to navigate the Warner Bros. lot in a golf cart while Doechii’s “Anxiety” plays on the soundtrack that ranks right up there with the “Get On Your Feet” ice-skating rink scene from “Parks and Recreation.”
Kudrow is surrounded by an extremely talented cast of familiar regulars, including Young, Silverman, and Dan Bucatinsky as her manager, Billy, but the absence of Robert Michael Morris, who died in 2017, as Valerie’s hair stylist and head cheerleader, Mickey, is certainly felt. (Valerie explains that Mickey died of COVID; in one shot of a dressing room she briefly occupies, there are two photos on her make-up table: one of Mickey and one of Lucille Ball.)
The series also boasts an impressive array of guest stars, including Jacobson, Early, Whitford, Scotts both Andrew and Adam, and James Burrows, the revered sitcom director who worked with Kudrow on “Friends.” He plays a version of himself, a celebrated TV director who advises Valerie that only real, flesh-and-blood writers can make the kind of television audiences will want to watch. “Val, those beautiful, broken souls are what make something great,” he says.
In many ways, “The Comeback” comes across as both a love letter to and a eulogy for the television comedy. It can also been seen as a TV-focused complement to “The Studio,” Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ series about the insanity of working in the modern movie business, except “The Comeback” does an even better job of reflecting the panicky energy that has become the norm for anyone who makes a living in Los Angeles—or anywhere, for that matter—trying to tell stories. Valerie Cherish has always been panicked. Her default setting has always been “survival mode.” Or as she puts it: “I think you have to agree to be humiliated, and I never signed up.” Both she and this season of “The Comeback” are made for this moment.
All eight episodes were screened for review.
- SXSW 2026: Imposters, Sender, Monitor (March 17, 2026)
Who are we? Why are we doing this? The existential dread hangs thick in the air in several films at this year’s SXSW, reflecting a country that seems increasingly uncertain about its identity. It’s not a coincidence that multiple films this year feature characters for whom reality quite literally fractures, creating impossible situations fraught with thematic tension. Sadly, several of them sacrifice filmmaking in pursuit of an undercooked idea, but I’m happy that young filmmakers are trying to hold a mirror up to where we are through genre film in 2026. It’s long been the best way to see ourselves reflected.
The best of this kind of existential horror in this dispatch is Caleb Phillips’ “Imposters,” starring two people who have done twisty projects like this before in Jessica Rothe (“Happy Death Day”) and Charlie Barnett (“Russian Doll”). They play Marie and Paul, relatively new parents of a baby boy who have moved to an old house that’s pretty far off the grid after Paul was shot in the line of duty. He survived the shooting, but it gave him a new appreciation for life’s randomness, so much so that he’s taken to flipping a coin when he makes major decisions. One of those recent decisions led him to sleep with a co-worker, hinting at trouble in this marriage long before the unthinkable happened.
During a neighborhood block party, Paul puts their baby down for a nap, but he’s not there when Marie checks on him just a couple of minutes later. Of course, panic ensues, and the local cops (led by an always-effective Yul Vazquez) search the area for weeks, but it’s as if the baby just vanished into thin air. The number-one suspect is a local named Orson (Bates Wilder), who has a connection to the house and tells Marie and Paul they can get their baby back if they go into a cave in the woods behind their property. Paul can’t bring himself to do it, certain he will find the body of his child. Marie does, returning with a healthy kid just an hour later. Except maybe that’s not their kid.
With echoes of projects like “Coherence” and “The Endless,” “Imposters” plays with ideas of identity, commitment, randomness, and parenthood, but struggles at times to tie them together in a thematically satisfying way. While the unclosed parentheses of “Imposters” can be forgivable (and often even preferable in an era when too many genre films over-explain), my biggest issues come with the look of the film, one that’s too clean, too sterile, almost too commercial. This is a film that lacks texture, grit, and reality, too often feeling like actors on a set. The cave doesn’t even look dirty enough.
Having said that, it’s a film rich with ideas, and its two leads never falter. Barnett understands a man who was already struggling to figure out what he wanted and who he was before the impossible clarified his inadequacies; Rothe has always been a deeply present and engaged performer. Some will fall for “Imposters,” and I won’t blame them, even if I long for a few tweaks in the version of this project that exists through the other side of the cave.
Another film with a confident actress performance arguably undone by some filmmaking choices is Russell Goldman’s abrasive “Sender,” a movie that sometimes feels like a cinematic anxiety attack. Goldman introduced the film at SXSW by revealing that it emerged from a time he opened a package at his door to find shin guards he never ordered. Why were they there? Who sent them? And what could their presence in his space mean? He takes this idea of almost-cursed objects being sent to someone who never wanted them to extremes in this genre experiment, a movie about a woman being crushed by the world of online retail. Aren’t we all?
“Severance” star Britt Lower is excellent as Julia, a recovering alcoholic in Santa Clarita who begins receiving unsolicited packages from a delivery man played by the great David Dastmalchian. More packages from a company called “Smirk” (an Amazon stand-in right down to box and logo design) keep arriving at Julia’s door. At first, they seem relatively harmless and random. Protein powder? Cymbals? But some of the packages start to feel personally targeted, like a blender meant to replace the one Julia used to make drinks. And why is there a masked man in her cul-de-sac? Her paranoia rises with the packages, then reaches another level when she finds reviews of these products on the Smirk site attributed to her. She didn’t write them.
The idea that a vulnerable woman could get caught up in an existential version of online retail, becoming part of an influencer/shopper system she never wanted to be part of, is a great one. Think of the data libraries out there of everything you’ve bought, and what a system could know about you through them. We gave up so much of our privacy years ago, and that’s one of many themes of a film that’s partially about how the product pipeline has dehumanized us all.
The problem is that too many of Goldman’s choices as a director seem to actively be working against what Lower brings to his interesting script. The loudest and most hyperactive film I saw at SXSW (and might see all year), “Sender” is cut to death, edited so frenetically that it becomes abrasive instead of panic-inducing, and given a score that’s meant to rattle but too often annoys. The aesthetic approach was clearly to use craft to amplify Julia’s decline, but it has the opposite effect, constantly reminding us of itself, turning Julia’s story into one that’s too hard to hear through the noise.
My issues with the craft of “Sender” are amplified tenfold in the frustrating “Monitor,” a film that wades into the increasingly crowded genre of how the internet is going to kill us, but with too little thematic exploration or impressive craft. A hybrid of “American Sweatshop” and “Slender Man,” it loosely suggests that our obsession with the ugliness of what we see online will be the end of us. In this case, it’s a Tulpa, a demonic entity that comes to life through online monitors and projections, able to kill anything that has looked into its digital eyes. It makes for a few interesting set pieces wherein the villain of the piece can only be deadly if its victim is being recorded by something, but it’s an idea of a new kind of boogeyman that isn’t embedded into a film that feels like it’s doing enough with its loose themes and thin characters.
“Monitor” is led by Brittany O’Grady (“The White Lotus”) as Maggie, an online monitor who works for a shady video company like YouTube or TikTok. She has to watch the worst of the worst and decide whether to reject or upload submitted clips. It’s clearly draining the souls of her and her co-workers to look at truly awful clips all day in the basement of an office building, but their jobs get much worse when Maggie rejects a creepy clip of a shadowy figure coming toward the camera and staring into it. She gets a message insisting she reverse course. And then people start dying.
Chief among my issues with “Monitor” is that the film falls into that common genre hole of recent years in which you want to yell at someone to turn on a light. Yes, the low lighting is meant to reflect a group of people who basically live their lives underground to protect us from internet demons, but it has so little texture and range that it ends up washing out the entire film. A movie can be shadowy and dark without looking flat and drained of color. It’s hard to even see what’s happening sometimes in “Monitor,” which sometimes feels intentional to contrast against the bright lights of the projected monitors that give this film’s villain life, but also just looks awful.
I couldn’t get past the drained aesthetics of “Monitor” to appreciate what it was trying to do, but that does feel like an aspect that directors Matt Black and Ryan Polly could easily rectify with a future project. Like so many genre films screened at festivals, “Monitor” is one of those projects that doesn’t live up to its potential, but offers just enough conceptual hope to make me curious about what the filmmakers do next.
- SXSW 2026: Black Zombie, Serling, Stormbound (March 16, 2026)
The buzz around the non-fiction program at SXSW this year has been pretty strong, with many people picking documentaries as their favorites of the fest. (Discuss amongst yourselves if this is also a sign that the narrative program seems weaker than usual, but I digress.)
This final (probably) non-fiction dispatch by yours truly highlights two of my favorites of the Austin event, a pair of films that could be called “pop culture docs,” but they break out of the anecdotal ruts that these kinds of films usually run in by being refreshingly inquisitive and enlightening about their subjects. The third film here can’t do the same, falling victim to over-production and over-direction in ways that derail its intentions.
The best of the bunch is Maya Annik Bedward’s “Black Zombie,” a film that fascinatingly unpacks the origins of one of the most popular horror genres of all time: the zombie movie. Bedward intertwines film clips, historians, and experts on the how we got from “White Zombie” to “Dawn of the Dead” to “Serpent and the Rainbow” to “28 Years Later,” always tying things back to the cultural undercurrents of a genre that not only has roots in Vodou but has often reflected other historical issues like slavery and civil rights. Bedward has a keen eye for assembling a movie like this one, which makes the exclusion of certain aspects of the subgenre’s history forgivable. Zombie movies have also been about war and xenophobia, but this is a movie and not a TV series, and Bedward’s film works best when it really homes in on its main thesis about how Black culture has been warped and shaped into stories of the walking dead.
It doesn’t always do that. There are some unusual tangents like a section on Tom Savini’s breakthrough make-up work on “Dawn of the Dead,” but I’ll let that slide because it’s one of my favorite movies ever made (and one senses Bedward loves it, too). The movie is stronger when it sticks with the projects that really reflect or warp Black history, especially a segment on Wes Craven’s “The Serpent and the Rainbow” and how it distorted its subject for maximum horror impact. As one of Craven’s biggest fans, I can still admit that the film’s undeniably problematic aspects have never been more intellectually unpacked.
Bedward wisely avoids turning “Black Zombie” into a class lecture. She conducts what were clearly buoyant, informed interviews not just with experts on it but with those influenced by the culture, like, believe it or not, Slash. She speaks with Black independent filmmakers who have been trying to reclaim aspects of zombie moviemaking that reflect the truth of their culture more than the Hollywoodization in films like “World War Z.” I still love zombie movies. I think Bedward does, too. She’s just made a film that allows you to love them in a different context.
Jonah Tulis’ “Serling” isn’t quite as ambitious, but it’s still an excellent pop culture doc, in part because Tulis has such a fascinating subject. A progressive, genius, and workaholic, Rod Serling remains a pop culture force to this day, with many still picking “The Twilight Zone” as the best show of all time. It’s certainly one of mine (check out these bona fides), so I came into “Serling” with a healthy adoration of its subject and left satisfied. The only issue with “Serling” may actually be that its subject already told us so much about himself through his work. No one can really watch Serling’s projects without hearing his voice and knowing how he felt about the world.
Of course, Serling’s projects are also known for their unforgettable visuals, and Tulis and team make the interesting choice to recreate shots of Serling in his study—writing, smoking, etc. While I don’t love the practice, in general, it allows the film to be more than just clips and talking heads. In fact, Tulis avoids much of the latter—a burden on so many bio-docs that turn into anecdotes about people who knew talented creatives—by letting Serling tell much of his story through the recordings he made while he was alive. It should come as no surprise to learn that Serling was nearly as eloquent in his private recordings as he was in his writing.
Ultimately, “Serling” will work best for fans of its subject. But, honestly, if you’re not a fan of “The Twilight Zone,” we don’t have much to talk about.
Finally, there’s the disappointing “Stormbound,” a movie that falls victim to the overheated soundbites that often derail documentaries about people who live with a higher amount of adrenaline than you and me. Much like “Free Solo” or “Skywalkers,” “Stormbound” attempts to tell the story of a crazy profession/hobby through its impact on the relatable human lives of its subjects.
In this case, it’s the story of Jeff Gammons, a storm chaser who has been recording and studying pretty much every major hurricane to strike the United States this century. When Gammons is stunned by a near-fatal diagnosis, he questions how much time he’ll have left to chase the storms and what he should prioritize if he doesn’t have much time left.
Of course, the unpredictability of a deadly storm and the human condition are intertwined in Miko Lim’s film, but it’s all done with the subtlety of a cow flying through a tornado. There’s too much to everything: music, drone shots, all of it. And even the sound bites don’t feel genuine as the score pushes past eleven and people say things like “Some people might abuse alcohol or drugs; my escape was the weather.” Lines that feel like they were rehearsed, or at least given multiple takes to get it just right, in a way that drains it of authenticity.
“Stormbound” is most interesting when it parallels how “Free Solo” revealed what a life built on adrenaline can do to a relationship. And a lot of the footage, especially in the final act, is undeniably amazing. The power of a storm can be breathtaking on its own. The movie didn’t need to add so much to try to make it so.
- SXSW 2026: Chili Finger, Kill Me, Family Movie (March 16, 2026)
It’s always fun to pick out themes of a festival and wonder what they say about the state of the world. Of course, it seems like every other Sundance has a dozen road-trip movies about families finding each other, but the truly unexpected visual or narrative motifs are often the most fascinating. What does it say about 2026 that people are getting sliced and diced in every other movie at SXSW, often by losing fingers? Discuss amongst yourselves.
The good news is that several of these films in which blades meet flesh have been pretty good, especially two in this particular dispatch. One of the best comedies at SXSW 2026 is the wickedly clever and unexpectedly violent “Chili Finger,” a Midwestern production that echoes early Coen brothers films like “Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” and “Fargo.” It’s funny to be old enough to remember how so many indie filmmakers tried and failed to do the Coen thing in the ‘90s, only to now feel kind of nostalgic for a brand of dark humor that’s not common today.
The truth is that those films dubbed “Coen-esque” usually faltered because filmmakers didn’t realize how difficult it is to balance violence and humor without coming across as glib or exploitative. One of the many joys of Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad’s film is watching them thread that needle: keeping the proceedings both tense and funny at the same time.
“Chili Finger” is extremely loosely based on a true story, the writer/directors taking that tabloid tale and turning it into something both hilarious and even moving, a movie about a mother who is so rattled by becoming an empty nester that she opens a door to the unthinkable and can’t close it again. So many Coen films are about ordinary people who make really bad decisions, usually welcoming violence into their lives and realizing that they can’t take it back. Benda and Helstad turn the story of Anna Ayala, a woman who fraudulently claimed to find a finger in a Wendy’s chili bowl, into something strikingly relatable and funny, thanks in large part to the best work of Judy Greer’s career.
The always-welcome performer shines as Jess, a Wisconsin lawyer who tries (and fails) to hold back the tears as her only daughter goes off to college. Not only does this mean she’s now stuck with only her husband, Ron (Sean Astin), but she’ll also be reminded more often that they don’t have enough money to visit their out-of-state child. They can’t even afford to replace their bed frame. It’s not that Ron is a bad guy—Astin is great at playing a sort of unambitious-but-kind Midwestern dude—but he seems to only find joy in his near-daily visits to a regional fast-food chain called Blake Junior’s. While at lunch there one day, Jess finds a finger in her chili. To say chaos ensues would be an understatement.
At first, it seems like an executive (an effective Madeline Wise) named after her father, Blake, will handle it all. She offers Jess and Ron a sizable amount of money, but it comes with a clause: They can never come to Blake Junior’s again. This is kind of a dealbreaker for Ron, and the negotiations intensify until they walk out with $100k. When Daddy Blake himself (a wonderful John Goodman) finds out about the payout, he gets suspicious, sending an old friend and enforcer named Dave (Bryan Cranston) to investigate. It becomes clear pretty early that something isn’t right here. After all, the finger isn’t cooked.
“Chili Finger” navigates the ridiculous and the relatable, holding both in the same beat. It is a film about ludicrous people making bad choices, but the writing and ensemble keep those choices believable. In particular, Greer has a marvelous immediacy. We can see the wheels turning in her mind when she’s negotiating or navigating her way out of a new bad situation. Much of the joy of “Chili Finger” comes from how it places compiling problems in its protagonist’s way in a manner that makes watching her get around them a joy in itself. We root for Jess, a character who personifies that brand of Midwestern Nice: she wants to do the right thing, but you better not get in her way.
There’s a similar effective rooting interest in Peter Warren’s very good “Kill Me,” which features the best acting to date by the great Charlie Day, giving a performance that’s not just funny but vulnerable and moving, too. It starts with the kind of whodunit open that promises a tense mystery, and there are elements of that that remain throughout Warren’s film, but it’s also a moving character study, a story of depression embedded in a twisting narrative with multiple suspects. It’s ultimately the story of a man who thinks he’s investigating his own attempted murder but may come to learn that he’s the most likely suspect. Overall, despite a stronger first half than second, it’s an engaging thriller-comedy that should open doors for both Warren and Day, and, hopefully, signal to people that Allison Williams has greater range than she’s been allowed to show.
The “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star plays Jimmy, who wakes up in his bathtub with his wrists slashed. As he starts to drown, he places a call to 911, but it’s not a typical suicide call. The thing is that Jimmy is positive he didn’t do this. Someone has tried to murder him and frame it as self-harm. Without the help of Margot (Williams) on the other end, it might have worked.
Jimmy wakes up in a hospital bed surrounded by family that includes his supportive mother (Jessica Harper) and emotional sister Alice (Aya Cash). You see, Alice found Jimmy four years ago when he tried to take his own life. A past attempt, a recent break-up, a door locked from the inside—it’s all adding up to look like a failed suicide. But Jimmy is insistent that’s not the case. And only Margot might be the one who believes him.
Day has long displayed ace comic timing, but this turn allows him to dig a bit deeper in his arsenal, finding notes of true sadness in Jimmy. Being so distraught that you commit self-harm requires a certain level of acting to be believable, but add to that the frustration that would arise from no one around you believing you were a victim of anyone but yourself. There’s a fascinating subtext in Warren’s script and Day’s performance regarding how we don’t really listen to people going through depression or other forms of mental strife. We blame them more often than we truly engage with them. Even as clues pile up that something weird is going on here, Jimmy remains the #1 suspect because that’s just an easier solution to this mystery. It should also be noted that Williams makes a perfect partner, herself finding a vein of melancholy that she’s not really been allowed to play.
“Kill Me” gets a bit more convoluted because the nature of the mystery requires to do so, but it actually works best when it steps back from the whodunit of it all and captures two semi-broken people becoming whole again through their connection. As someone who has battled depression himself, I often remind myself that for every valley there is a peak. This movie understands that, and we root for Jimmy and Margot to find their mountains again.
Finally, and briefly, there’s the horror-comedy “Family Movie,” a genre exercise starring the easy-to-root-for Bacon family. Kevin Bacon co-directs with his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and the two star alongside their kids, Sosie Bacon (so great in “Smile”) and Travis Bacon, who also provides the score. I bet they had some relatives doing some catering and driving on set, too. There’s a subtext of “Family Movie” that might be suggesting that being a family of actors can only lead to violence, which is the best thing about the project, but it fails to overcome some of the truly clunky filmmaking. It’s a movie that I suspect some people will embrace in part because of its rough edges, but that “DIY family project” aspect holds it back too often, sliding into laziness instead.
Bacon plays a D-movie director, the kind of filmmaker who struggles to hold onto a $10k budget for a cheesy horror flick with 10 crew members. While filming his latest project, “Blood Moon,” a light falls on star Jackie Earle Haley, sending him fleeing. It doesn’t help that a behind-the-scenes filmmaker (Liza Koshy) is documenting the production with her iPhone, while also sleeping with Bacon’s son, Travis. Adding drama to the proceedings is the fact that Bacon’s daughter Sosie is about to take a better part in a bigger project. The biggest problem of all? His wife and star may be a serial killer.
There are individual beats that work in “Family Movie.” There simply has to be with stars as talented as these, but family projects often have an issue with a lack of outside vision, people able to say that a joke or a plot twist isn’t working because they don’t have to go home with half the cast later that day. The film too often feels like talented people aggressively trying to be “goofy” with one another, leaning into genre tropes because they want people to know how much fun they can have together. It’s very cool that the Bacons are so supportive and collaborative. Sadly, that can’t be all to hold onto in a movie.
- “Invincible” Season 4 Is A Thrilling Examination Of Violence and Grief (March 16, 2026)
In the aftermath of the intense showdown with Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in the season three finale, the newest season of “Invincible” doesn’t give its characters, or its audience, time to breathe. With many heroes incapacitated or dead, Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) is left to shoulder the weight of responsibility, not only for The Guardians of the Globe, but for his family as well. The season’s first episode dives right back into the well-crafted action sequences the show has become famous for, but there’s a weight in each hit Mark delivers or takes that feels heavier than it has in previous seasons.
The violence he enacted at the end of the previous season weighs heavily on his mind, affecting not only his superhero duties but also spilling out into his personal life, particularly his relationship with Eve (Gillian Jacobs) and his little brother Oliver (Christian Convery). As they navigate the growing pressures around them, Eve’s father complicates matters with his frank disapproval of their relationship, believing Mark’s presence poses a danger to his daughter’s safety. The strain intensifies as Mark tries to protect Oliver from the horrors he grew up with, driving them into conflict. With the stakes higher than ever, the personal and professional pressures begin to suffocate Mark before the threat of a Viltrumite war changes the course of his life.
With its fourth season, “Invincible” dials the action back, replacing these set pieces with some of its most engaging character drama yet. That’s not to say the show lacks its pulsating and often jarring violence; rather, it chooses to engage with what that violence means, rather than simply displaying it. We see this not just with Mark but also with his father, Nolan (J.K. Simmons), who, after two seasons, is finally back as one of the series’ central characters. Re-introduced in the second episode with a cold open detailing how the Viltrumite nearly went extinct, he, too, is grappling with his place in the world after shattering the foundations of his family.
Invincible (Steven Yeun), Omni-Man (JK Simmons)
As the series delves into the fragile core of each of its characters, it becomes a fascinating examination of how violence is passed on through generations, whether it be because of ties to a genocidal nation or the blood one shares with an abusive relative. While these points have been touched on throughout the show’s tenure, never before have they been so closely examined by the show’s writers, and never before has the cast been given such raw material to spit and growl through their clenched teeth. Yeun is fantastic as always, but as the season goes on, and Mark’s inhibition begins to waver, he reaches a depth with his voice acting work that reverberates deep in his chest and ricochets off the walls of each scene he’s in.
With Nolan and Mark coming face-to-face again, the looming weight of his father’s violent legacy plagues each conversation they have. As Mark struggles to get ahold of his urges, “Invincible” confronts its audience with a question that has long troubled generations: is violence inherent, or is it passed down? Despite the very real danger of succumbing to these darker impulses, Mark’s mother and brother often tether him back to earth, as does his desire to be a hero.
This deep-rooted desire is often the only thing that pulls him back from the brink, and when he acts out violently, he is left reeling with a profound sense of shame. Beneath this, though, lies a concerning and unshakable anger that drives him to seek out more bloodshed and slowly transforms into Mark justifying each brutal punch he delivers to an enemy.
Despite some minor pitfalls in its pacing, the latest season of “Invincible” reaches an undeniable series high. This is a show that has always taken risks in its displays of gore and violence, and thankfully, this continues in a bold examination of the impact this has not only on Mark and Nolan but on each character in the series. As an impending war brings this dysfunctional ensemble together in unexpected ways, each of their warring psyches threatens to tear this tentatively put-together team apart before they can even attempt to save Earth from imminent doom. While Mark struggles with the pressure to be the best person he can be, his actions threaten the lives of those he holds close, as well as the “hero” title we have so quickly assigned to him.
Six out of eight episodes were screened for review.
- Aardman's 'Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom' Full Trailer (March 18, 2026)
"Shaun's latest adventure: to catch the more furr-tastic beast around!" Aardman Animation & Studiocanal have unveiled the first official trailer for the next Shaun the Sheep movie arriving in theaters in both the US & UK this September. Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a Halloween-themed stop-motion animated movie 🎃 coming up to watch on the big screen not only for streaming this time. The film is the third stop motion animated feature film from Aardman's globally loved brand of woolly adventures: following Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) + the first sequel A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) – along with other short films & series based on Shaun as well. The Beast of Mossy Bottom is about what happens when The Farmer's pumpkin patch is trashed & Shaun tries to help figure out how to fix it in time for Halloween. "All the ingredients are in place for a monstrously fun family adventure." Featuring the scary "wild beast" of Mossingham. This looks like a delightfully amusing, only slightly scary, all-around kooky fun time at the movies. Always happy to see Aardman keeping stop-motion thriving with their enjoyable movies. // Continue Reading ›
- Lovely Trailer for Series 'Babies' with Paapa Essiedu & Siobhan Cullen (March 18, 2026)
"This isn't gonna change us. I feel like we should start trying again..." BBC has unveiled their official trailer a for new series soon titled Babies, a BBC TV production about a couple. This "gripping, tender, urgent love story" follows one couple as they go through the drama of trying to have a baby. Starring Paapa Essiedu (seen in The Outrun, "Black Mirror") & Siobhan Cullen (seen in "Bodkin") as Stephen & Lisa. They learn to navigate pregnancy loss amid everyday life. Through grief & isolation, their bond grows stronger as they find healing through hope, humor, and love. The series also features Charlotte Riley & Jack Bannon as Amanda & Dave - a new couple navigating their own challenges, testing their compatibility. Their complex relationship, set against Lisa & Stephen's ongoing pregnancy journey, begins to expose cracks in Stephen & Dave's long-standing friendship. I feel there's such a warm, wholesome chemistry between Essiedu & Cullen which makes this so watchable. I'm intrigued even if it all seems a bit cliche & melodramatic. Worth a look. // Continue Reading ›
- Gnarly Full Trailer for 'Beast' MMA Movie Starring Daniel MacPherson (March 18, 2026)
"I fought for my life every day..." Lionsgate has launched the main official trailer for a brutal action movie called Beast, made by Australian filmmaker Tyler Atkins. Yet another MMA movie about a strong underdog fighter who returns to the ring to prove he's still capable of taking on anyone. A fisherman who once fought for a living agrees to a final return in an MMA shodown after his brothers is put in danger — forcing him to confront whether violence can ever set a family free. Pushed to his breaking point, the contender's stakes are simple: win, or lose everything he's built. Of course! The screenplay is actually co-written by Russell Crowe - a very Australian production. Beast stars Daniel MacPherson, Luke Hemsworth, Bren Foster, Amy Shark, Mojean Aria, Kelly Gale, and Russell Crowe as his trainer. Out in theaters this April. Not to be confused with 2017's film also titled Beast with Jessie Buckley. This story about brothers also reminds me of the excellent Warrior film. Looks especially brutal and amped up. Might be damn good! Check it out below. // Continue Reading ›
- Must Watch First Trailer for Marvel's 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' (March 18, 2026)
"We are facing with a danger we can't control, one we can't even see." Sony Pictures + Marvel Studios have revealed the first official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, arriving in theaters starting in July this summer. This is the fourth solo Spider-Man with Tom Holland, produced in partnership with Marvel Studios and made by Sony. Spider-Man: Brand New Day once again stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker, who is trying to move on from being the superhero Spider-Man after his multiverse experience in No Way Home, alas he's back to fight off more villains. The cast includes Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned, Sadie Sink, Liza Colón-Zayas, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk / Brue Banner, Jon Bernthal as The Punisher, Michael Mando as the villain Scorpion, and Tramell Tillman. Plus the voiceover in this sounds like it's from Keith David. So far so good, even if the CGI in this looks rough, the rest of it looks like a proper Spidey rebirth/rebooth. Since this series has been getting repetitive - Holland is finally getting a refresh with Cretton breathing new life into this series again. I'm all for this! Go Spidey, go. // Continue Reading ›
- Official US Trailer for 'Two Seasons, Two Strangers' Japanese Drama (March 18, 2026)
"I wonder what the atmosphere would be like to see us walking in the snow from afar." ❄️ Several Futures has unveiled an official US trailer for Two Seasons, Two Strangers, an acclaimed Japanese drama from filmmaker Shô Miyake. This won the Golden Leopard top prize at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival last year, a prestigious award in the art house cinema festival circuit. It's next playing at the New Directors/New Films Festival in NYC in April before hitting limited US theaters also later in April. Based on mangas, a calm and poetic new Japanese drama. In summer, Nagisa & Natsuo meet seaside exchanging distant looks and clumsy words in the rainy ocean. In winter, screenwriter Li goes to a snowy village meeting Benzo at his guesthouse. Despite disconnected talks they embark together. Two Seasons, Two Strangers is at one and the same time as simple as its straightforward title suggests and immensely, exhilaratingly complex. Starring Shim Eun-kyung, Yumi Kawai, Mansaku Takada, Shirô Sano, and Shin'ichi Tsutsumi. This looks like a truly lovely, unique, intimate film with intertwining stories about relationships & human connection. Take a look. // Continue Reading ›
