It’s been almost two months since Vance was killed off in a recent episode of NCIS, marking the end of Rocky Carroll’s nearly 20-year run with the show. While last week’s episode provided closure with the avenging of Vance’s death by Leroy Jethro Gibbs, viewers are still wondering who will take over as the new director of NCIS.
Marvel Studios’ newest special presentation focuses on Jon Bernthal reprising his role as the Punisher, almost ten years after his popular Netflix show concluded. “The Punisher: One Last Kill” takes the character in new and thrilling directions, which is a welcome change in a genre that can sometimes feel predictable. Fortunately, this addition to Phase 6 of the MCU feels fresh and avoids simply retreading familiar ground.
Many fans were surprised to see Frank Castle return so quickly after the events of Born Again. The Punisher: One Last Kill shows the violent anti-hero at his most vulnerable, offering a compelling look into his psyche. However, while attempting to give Frank a path towards recovery, the story also inadvertently brings attention to some long-standing issues fans have had with the character.
From the creator of Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley, comes I’m a Virgo. The show follows Cootie, a young Black man from Oakland who has lived a sheltered life due to his extraordinary height – thirteen feet tall! Feeling stifled, Cootie steps out into the world, making friends and attracting attention, both positive and wary, including from Jay Whittle, a billionaire who moonlights as a vigilante known as The Hero.
Steampunk aesthetics in film have a long history, appearing as early as 1902 in Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon, and continuing in adaptations of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis over the next fifty years. The genre has since branched out into styles like dieselpunk and clockpunk, and films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The City of Lost Children, Brazil, Hellboy, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen have successfully used its signature elements. Despite this, many worthwhile steampunk or steampunk-influenced movies deserve to be rediscovered.
Although Attack on Titan is a very dark series, most of the main characters find some hope by the end. However, Eren Yeager was always on a path to self-sacrifice. He was fated to become a tragic hero, even if he didn’t realize it from the beginning. Isayama planned for Eren to ultimately cause widespread destruction, and his own demise was always the inevitable result.
This applies to other characters who first appeared in Netflix’s Defenders series as well. Some of them will even be in The Punisher: One Last Kill, although the cast list is currently quite limited. This is because Marvel hasn’t revealed information about several characters who will be part of the TV special.
The sci-fi series The Expanse, a critically acclaimed space opera with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, wrapped up its six-season run four years ago. Remarkably, the show overcame early cancellation and even continued on Prime Video after originally airing on SyFy.
Although it’s not known as the scariest episode of the series, a memorable X-Files crossover with Cops, created by Vince Gilligan, is gaining attention online for an unexpected reason. Called “X-Cops,” the episode starts like a typical Cops show, with a regular police case that quickly turns into an X-File. To mimic the look of Cops, the episode was intentionally filmed with a low-budget, videotape aesthetic. Interestingly, despite being set in the 1990s, the episode feels remarkably relevant today, centering around a term frequently in the news: hantavirus.
George Lucas had a vision for Star Wars that wasn’t always written down as strict rules, but everyone has generally followed it. Every Star Wars film, including the newer ones from Disney, centers around the conflict between good and evil and always offers a positive message. They’re all suitable for families, combine elements of fantasy, science fiction, Westerns, and samurai films, and feel distinctly like Star Wars. While these core principles remain untouched, Disney is planning to deviate from another important aspect of Lucas’s original plan.