Netflix

27 Sep

Midnight Mass: Where is Crockett Island?

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This article contains light spoilers for Midnight Mass. As far as vacation spots go, Crockett Island on Netflix’s Midnight Mass doesn’t seem to be a bad choice. The weather is chilly, but a nice cable-knit sweater will take care of that. There are also plenty of feral kitties to attempt to pet. Best of all, the community of 127 people knows how to throw a mean potluck…or “Crock Pot Luck” as they like to call it. If it weren’t for the, you know … creature, Crockett Island would be a fun trip. So when can we all go visit it? …

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27 Sep

Cobra Kai Season 4: Can Daniel and Johnny Make Amends?

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Aristotle said, “A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.” In the upcoming season 4 of Cobra Kai, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) may finally bury the hatchet, or the axe kick, in their battle to save the valley from Cobra Kai’s villainous Sensei Kreese (Martin Kove). During Netflix’s global fan event, TUDUM, the latest sneak peek at Cobra Kai revealed a few clues about where season 4 might go. The next season of the breakout reboot hit premieres on December 31 so fans can nurse their New Year’s Eve hangovers with a Karate Kid binge.  …

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26 Sep

Netflix’s The Midnight Club Is Not a Midnight Mass Sequel (But There Is Cast Crossover)

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Between booze and cigarettes, says Mike Flanagan, he’s shed a lot of addictions by this point in his life, but work isn’t one of them. “I cannot eliminate work,” the writer-director tells Den of Geek and other press over Zoom. “That is the addiction I haven’t escaped and it’s running amok in the absence of all the others.” He’s not kidding. In the last five years, Flanagan has directed, written or co-written and edited five feature films (Hush, Before I Wake, Ouija: Origins of Evil, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep) as well as directing, co-writing and executive-producing three Netflix series…

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25 Sep

The Witcher Season 2 First Look Asks What Kind of Father Geralt Will Be

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The fate of Geralt of Rivia and Ciri, the Lion Cub of Cintra, were forever linked when the law of surprise was invoked in The Witcher season 1 after the monster killer saved the life of the princess’ father. But when Ciri finally found the man her dying grandmother, Queen Calanthe, urged her to seek out, a question arose: what sort of role would the two play in each other’s lives as the story of season 2 unfolds? The multiple first look previews that Netflix shared for The Witcher season 2 during its TUDUM event seems to indicate that Geralt…

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25 Sep

The Sandman First Look and Character Posters Introduce Dream, Death, and Desire

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The Sandman author Neil Gaiman has famously fought off numerous attempts to adapt his most famous graphic novel series, but in Netflix’s TUDUM event, a sneak peek clip and some character art for a few of the most recognizable characters give fans a glimpse of the vision the author finally brought to life along with executive producer David Goyer. The first look at Dream, Death, and Desire illustrate the conceptual personifications that Gaiman became known for even in later works like American Gods. The first image is of the sandman himself, Morpheus the Dream King, Lord of the Dreaming, played…

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25 Sep

Stranger Things Season 4 Trailer Introduces … a Full-on Haunted House?

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By its very title, Netflix horror hit Stranger Things has promised some, well, stranger things.  Still, through three seasons of nostalgia-tinged spookies, Stranger Things has mostly stayed in the realm of monsters. Whether it was the Demogorgon, its “Demo-dogs”, or the skyscraper-sized Mind Flayer, Stranger Things’ big bads have been more Dungeons & Dragons style creatures from the Upside Down rather than your traditional things-that-go-bump-in-the-night spirits. Perhaps, however, that is all set to change with Stranger Things season 4. During Netflix’s global fan event, TUDUM, Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers and actors Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) and Joe Keery…

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25 Sep

Midnight Mass Ending Explained

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This article contains spoilers for Midnight Mass. Ending a horror story is hard. Perhaps no one knows that better than Mike Flanagan, the writer-director behind horror hits like Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Haunting of Bly Manor. After observing the occasional less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the endings of some of his other projects, Flanagan decided to end his latest, Netflix series Midnight Mass, on his own terms. “I didn’t want to come up with an ending that I thought would please people,” Flanagan told Den of Geek and other outlets prior to Midnight Mass’s premiere. “I wanted…

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25 Sep

Midnight Mass Is Creative, Bold, and Flawed Horror

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This review contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. Don’t you dare even think of reading one word before you watch. Mike Flanagan, the maestro of horror responsible for Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and this spooky season’s entry, Midnight Mass, has always taken a novelistic approach to storytelling.  The man knows his way around a jump-scare, sure, but he excels in crafting deep, rewarding themes, richly drawn characters, and ornate dialogue. It’s what has drawn him toward adapting novels from horror legends like Shirley Jackson, Henry James, and Stephen King. And it’s perhaps what’s…

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25 Sep

The Starling Review: Melissa McCarthy Netflix Movie Doesn’t Fly

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The Starling is a movie that can be held up as a good example of why Netflix should not get behind every single project that comes its way. The streaming giant probably thought that a tragicomic drama starring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Kevin Kline (making one of his rare onscreen appearances these days) would be a sure bet. But like the CG-created bird that gives the movie its title, the movie never once approaches anything resembling reality. What makes it worse is that the movie deals with some intensely painful and very real subjects: depression, grief, and that most…

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25 Sep

Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist

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This article contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. So help me God if you read this without watching the series first… The version of Midnight Mass that Netflix advertised still would have made for a compelling horror series.  An isolated, insular island community? Great. A young, charismatic preacher suddenly coming to town to shake things up? Perfect. That preacher proving capable of performing minor miracles? Love it, no notes!  Of course, as viewers who have watched at least four episodes of the seven-episode series now know, Midnight Mass has one extra supernatural twist in mind that elevates an already interesting…

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24 Sep

Why Midnight Mass is Mike Flanagan’s Most Personal Work

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This article contains no spoilers for Midnight Mass.  Horror auteur Mike Flanagan is responsible for many excellent spooky sagas since his first major film Oculus debuted in 2013. The writer/director has shepherded films like Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep; and TV series like Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.  Still, even with such a deep resume, there’s room for only one favorite. And according to Flanagan himself, that favorite is definitively his latest TV collaboration with Netflix, Midnight Mass.  “I’m just going to admit it—Midnight Mass is my favorite project…

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23 Sep

Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock

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If you find yourself thinking ‘where have I seen that guy before?’ while watching a Mike Flanagan show or film, the answer may well be ‘in another Mike Flanagan show or film’. The horror writer-director is known for his rep company of actors, many of whom appear in multiple roles across various projects. Below is a spoiler-free rundown of the main players in the Flanagan gang’s new Netflix horror series Midnight Mass, about the ripples caused by the arrival of a mysterious priest in a remote North American island community. There’s also info on who they played in past collaborations,…

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22 Sep

Safe House and Watching Ryan Reynolds Before He Was Deadpool

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There’s a scene midway through Safe House, the 2012 thriller which stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, that hits entirely differently in 2021. As with any number of films starring these leading men, the stars are cultivating an oil and water relationship in the sequence, one built on mutual distrust and loathing as they drive across a countryside. But in the case of Reynolds, it plays differently than how modern audiences likely expect. When Washington begins trying to get under the younger guy’s skin—poking at his insecurities like he’s Ethan Hawke in Training Day or pretty much the entire cast…

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22 Sep

Squid Game’s Most Heartbreaking Hour is Also Its Best

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This Squid Game article includes MAJOR spoilers for all nine episodes of the series, including Episode 6. “Gganbu” isn’t the Squid Game episode with the highest kill count. It’s not the episode when we finally discover the man behind the deadly competition, or its ultimate winner. It is not the most fast-paced or action-driven of the Netflix series’ nine installments, nor is it the bloodiest. Instead, it is a relatively quiet hour that divides its characters into teams of two, with each pair acting as their own mini-social experiment. If the “deadly competition” trope is designed to reflect on the…

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22 Sep

Is Squid Game Based on an Anime, Comic, or Manga?

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If you are wondering if Squid Game has a source material past its script, then you aren’t alone. It’s one of the search terms that trended after the Korean social horror hit Netflix last week, and it’s not hard to understand why. In this era of peak content, a notable chunk of the stories that make it to our screens in the form of TV shows and movies are adaptations of some kind. When it comes to genre storytelling specifically, many of those adaptations have anime, comic book, or manga source material—one look no further than the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

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22 Sep

How Lost in Space Went From Dark Drama to Camp Classic — And Back Again

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For the young child stars of Lost in Space, filming the cult classic was, possibly, the best childhood ever. 56 years later, series stars Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright speak of their time as Will Robinson and Penny Robison, in the kinds of tones that make it sound like their adventures were on par with the Boxcar Children or Nancy Drew.  “We go into the secret places,” they tell Den of Geek. “We would hang out with  Bruce Lee from Green Hornet and the Peyton Place cast.”  Like the upbeat and hopeful franchise itself, the kids of the original Lost…

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20 Sep

Netflix’s He-Man Isn’t for Parents, It’s For a New Generation

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The Masters of the Universe franchise is experiencing a major resurgence, with three new series on Netflix after a drought of animated content after the 2002 MOTU series ended in 2004. The new era has been an altogether unexpected one for the franchise. Leading off with a new version of She-Ra, a character not seen in animation since the ‘80s, the show boldly aimed its stories at a new and more diverse group of viewers. Even with its eschewing of direct connections to He-Man the show delighted in its references and use of the wider MOTU mythology. Then we got…

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17 Sep

He-Man: How Skeletor’s Meme Status Influenced Netflix Series

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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’s most popular character should be He-Man, right? His name is in the title! Anyone who’s watched almost any incarnation of the franchise though knows who the real star of the show is. Skeletor, the big bad of the series. Even if you’ve never watched an episode you’ve now doubt seen a gif rendition of Skeletor’s iconic laugh or heard his “Nyeh!” Compilations of his insults have racked up millions of views on YouTube and his face graces endless memes. The character is etched in pop culture history. Jeff Matsuda, Co-Executive Producer of the…

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15 Sep

How the Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Will Stay Faithful to the Anime

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Ask anybody about their favorite anime and if Cowboy Bebop—a sci-fi Western about the misadventures of a gang of bounty hunters on a ship called the Bebop—isn’t at the top of their list, it probably won’t be too far down. Although the series aired its entire run of 26 episodes on Adult Swim way back in 2001, there’s never been anything else quite like it. With its dynamic animation, its mashup of genres, and its vibrant jazz soundtrack, it’s a singular artistic triumph. The text displayed during the show’s opening titles even asserts that it’s “a new genre itself.” Even…

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13 Sep

Money Heist: How Season 5 Changed the Series Forever

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This Money Heist article contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 5. The long-awaited final season of Netflix’s most popular foreign language series Money Heist blew up everything we though we knew about the show. Every fan has been eagerly waiting to see Gandia (José Manuel Poga) get his just desserts for his cold-blooded killing of Nairobi (Alba Flores) last season. Season 4 ended with the gang chanting “For Nairobi!” at the end, a rallying cry for revenge. But the price of Gandia’s death was way too high. It cost the life of the show’s leading character, Tokyo (Úrsula Corberó), taking Money…

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