Latest news with #Spiegelman
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Texas Longhorns look to capitalize on star-studded recruiting weekend
Texas Longhorns look to capitalize on star-studded recruiting weekend The Texas Longhorns and coach Steve Sarkisian hosted a weekend of huge official visits. This was the second of three weekends in June for official visits and Texas just hosted one of the most star-studded in the nation. recruiting analyst Sam Spiegelman has the intel on several of the prospects that were on the 40 Acres in the past few days, including some predictions. Spiegelman predicts five-star OT Felix Ojo (Mansfield, TX) will commit to Texas. Last week, Ojo cancelled an official visit to Oklahoma before heading to Austin for the UT OV. "There is a sense that Texas closed strong on this official visit and left a big enough impression on the elite OT ahead of his July commitment," Spiegelman said. "There is a strong sense that Ojo wont leave the state to play college football." The Austin-based recruiting expert also projects five-star LB Xavier Griffin (Gainesville, GA) will end up a Longhorn too. "It's down to Texas and Alabama with a June 26 commitment on the horizon," Spiegelman said. "No team has come on stronger with the four-star EDGE than the Longhorns. There's a sense Texas made another step forward with Griffin and his mother back in Austin this weekend." Another elite prospect in Austin this weekend was four-star DB Samari Matthews (Cornelius, NC), who was on campus for the second time. "My experience in Austin was amazing -- from the staff and players to the energy of the city itself," Matthews told Rivals. "What excites me most about the chance to play for Coach Sark is knowing he pushes his players to be their best in every way -- both on and off the field. At Texas, I know I'll be challenged to grow into the best version of myself, which aligns with the goals I've set for my future." Texas' main competition for Matthews is South Carolina. "The opportunity to learn from Coach Orphey and Coach (Duane) Akina ... I got to do some board work with both of them and let's just say we had a time. That experience made the idea of becoming a Longhorn even more exciting," Matthews said. "I'm feeling really good. I got a good look at the vision they see for me. My comfort with Coach Sark and Coach O is high. Those are my guys. Austin is nice city for sure." Spiegelman says he's close to calling it for the Longhorns. Four-star OT Zaden Krempin (Prosper, TX) is emerging as a Texas lean. He tells Rivals UT is rising to the top of his list. "I'm a perfect fit here," Krempin said. "Texas is only doing 45 official visits. They told us how they only wanted to bring guys that fit their program." LSU and Texas A&M both made a good impression on the North Texas prospect, but the Longhorns knocked it out of the park with Krempin over the weekend. "It was incredible, he said. "Texas has something special happening here. You can just feel it. I got to see a detailed plan for me from the strength and development piece to the OL room. Overall, it was awesome from the moment we got here. It was a good time. Austin is a cool place." Four-star LB Brayden Rouse (Marietta, GA) was also in town this weekend. Spiegelman says Texas is trending with the blue-chip. "They did a great job making me a priority for them and showing that," Rouse said. "Texas impressed me." Texas is battling Tennessee of Rouse. "The visit was great," he said. "It was good for me to get my family on campus and see what the school has to offer. I was impressed on their presentation on how they see me fitting in their scheme and program. I also had a great time spending time with the coaches and continuing to strengthen those relationships ... Texas has always been a school I could potentially see myself going to." Four-star DL Bryce Perry-Wright (Buford, GA) was on the 40 Acres for the sixth time this weekend. He says Texas is at the top of his list with Texas A&M and Clemson. "The overall visit was great," the Georgia native said. "I really felt like I could see myself fitting in at Texas — not just as a player, but as a person. There was a strong sense of belonging being on campus this weekend. The energy was good and I could honestly picture myself there." Perry-Wright tells Rivals he's very comfortable with the coaches, the city of Austin and principles of the Texas program. "It's a system I feel like I'd thrive in," he continued. "Bonding with the players and coaches, and just being around everybody again was a real highlight. The city itself and the atmosphere around Austin are special and the overall vibe from the people I was around this weekend made a strong impression. They showed real belief in me and my ability to make an impact early. That meant a lot. The coaches made me feel welcomed, valued and like they truly want me to be a part of what they're building." Follow us on X/Twitter at @LonghornsWire.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though—Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' [Read: PBS pulled a film for political reasons, then changed its mind] Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. [Read: Don't look away from Philip Guston's cartoonish paintings of Klansmen] Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though— Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game 's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.'
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang Turn 75. Good Grief!
Who doesn't love the Peanuts? Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Snoopy and other characters from Charles M. Schulz's popular comic strip have a beloved place in American culture for people who grew up reading about their adventures in newspapers and watching the animated television specials. This year marks 75 years since Schulz debuted the Peanuts gang, and in honor of the occasion, the Miami Children's Museum has created 'Take Care with Peanuts: The Exhibit,' on view until Aug. 17. The exhibit will subsequently travel across the country for seven to 10 years, starting with the Chicago Children's Museum in September, said Deborah Spiegelman, the chief executive of the Miami Children's Museum. The museum designed 'Take Care with Peanuts' in collaboration with Peanuts Worldwide, which manages the brand globally. Spiegelman said that the idea for the exhibit was sparked by a 2019 Peanuts Worldwide initiative, which encouraged children to take care of themselves, others and the planet. 'It's a celebration of values that are fundamental to the well-being of children,' she said. 'Children today are dealing with so many social and emotional challenges, and their mental health has suffered since the pandemic.' 'Take Care with Peanuts' is whimsical and colorful and highlights eight Peanuts characters, including Charlie Brown, Franklin Armstrong, Sally Brown and Linus Van Pelt. They were brought to life by Mike Meyer, the founder of the museum design company Engaged Exhibits, who used acrylic and fiberglass to present the life-size characters as two- and three-dimensional figures. In keeping with the exhibit's sustainability message, Meyer partially relied on recycled materials such as wood, steel and aluminum to create elements such as display stands, trees, a pumpkin patch, desks and shelves. Schulz's characters are each shown in a different setting and aim to relay a value through a hands-on activity. Lucy, for example, stands behind her psychiatric booth from the comics, which gives children a fun way to explore their emotions and understand that talking about feelings is essential. 'We want to relay to children that it's OK for them to express their emotions and share how they feel with a trusted adult,' Spiegelman said. The booth has an embosser machine that displays various feelings, such as 'happy,' 'sad' and 'fearful.' Children can pick the one that best describes their mood, and the embosser creates a stamp of it, which they can take as a keepsake or put in a jar. Schulz's Pigpen character addresses sustainability with his compost bin, where children can learn about composting and why it matters. 'As they spin the barrel and sort items, they start to see how food scraps can turn into something useful for the earth,' Spiegelman said. Then there's Linus' Comfort Zone Book Nook with Lucy's brother. Here, young people take a breather and relax inside a tent lined with shelves filled with Peanuts books. 'They're learning that quiet moments can be just as important as busy ones and exploring what makes them feel safe and at ease,' Spiegelman said. 'Take Care with Peanuts' also includes a 25-minute musical, 'If I Gave the World My Blanket,' that's performed on weekends. Named after a book that Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates released in 2021, the musical was written by the museum's in-house theater troupe and stars Lucy, Linus, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, who entertain kids with songs relating to the exhibit's themes. Arthur Affleck, the executive director of the Association of Children's Museums, said that 'Take Care with Peanuts' is among the more than two dozen exhibits at children's museums nationwide that delve into mental health and sustainability. An example is the 'Storm Center' at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where children can touch the vortex of a 10-foot tornado and learn how solar technology works. The Kindness Gallery at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is another that relays the significance of kindness and empathy. 'These exhibits bring mental health and the environment to the forefront,' Affleck said. 'They've become more common at a time when children are becoming more aware about global warming and are experiencing challenges that negatively affect their mental health.' Similar to other exhibits in the same vein, 'Take Care with Peanuts' is an entertaining and engaging way to help counter these challenges, Affleck said. 'It supports overall well-being, and children who visit the show are likely to see themselves reflected in the characters, which will help them have a better sense of self.' Schulz's widow, Jean Schulz, who is the chair of Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates and calls him 'Sparky,' said that caring for the environment and kindness toward others and to oneself were inherent in who her husband was. 'Sparky always wanted people to learn through his comics, but he presented things with humor and fun,' she said. ''Take Care with Peanuts' is an exhibit mirroring his principles and reflects who he was.'
Los Angeles Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Wheel of Time' boss unpacks the hardest book-to-screen moment in Season 3
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who could use a fantasy getaway. 'The Wheel of Time' concluded it's third season this week and showrunner Rafe Judkins stopped by Guest Spot to tell us about the section from the beloved book franchise that proved most challenging to adapt for the screen. Also in Screen Gab No. 177, TV critic Robert Lloyd looks at the documentary of acclaimed cartoonist Art Spiegelman and culture columnist Mary McNamara shares her thoughts on why 'Government Cheese' is worth your time. Must-read stories you might have missed Bella Ramsey is embracing the difficult parts of Ellie and 'The Last of Us': The star of HBO's postapocalyptic drama said shooting Season 2 was much more grueling, but that it helped the actor understand more about themself. After losing his wife of 43 years, David Cronenberg turned the camera on grief itself: The Canadian director reflects on body horror, Trump, Elon Musk, legacy and his new movie 'The Shrouds' — and whether it might be the last one he ever makes. They found the music of 'Sinners' together — just as they have from the beginning: In their unique collaboration, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson played music together during much of the prep for the film. In 'Étoile,' 'Bunheads' creators return to ballet but with a cross-Atlantic twist: Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino are back with a new Prime Video series that puts their love of ballet in the forefront. Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times 'Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse' ( Presented under the umbrella of 'American Masters,' Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin's film focuses on comics artist Spiegelman, whose landmark work 'Maus,' originally serialized from 1980 to 1991, deals with his family's experience in the Holocaust — portraying the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats — and his own attempts to come to terms with its lingering effects, on them and himself, by drawing his way through it. The film functions also as a lesson in comics structure and as an exciting, strangely moving history of alternative comics — from Mad magazine and Zap! (old friends Robert Crumb and Bill Griffith appear) to Raw, the large-format magazine founded by Spiegelman and wife Françoise Mouly (the art editor of the New Yorker since 1993), and into the age of autobiographical graphic novels 'Maus' made possible. That 'Maus,' with its depictions of fascism, deportation and concentration camps, has been banned from American libraries and schoolrooms is sadly ironic and distressingly timely. — Robert Lloyd 'Government Cheese' (AppleTV+) The word 'kaleidoscope' was coined by the mechanism's inventor from ancient Greek words that add up, more or less, to 'the observation of beautiful forms.' It's a term, and a meaning, that applies to 'Government Cheese,' an ever-shifting bewitchment of a series. Seen one way, it is the story of Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo), a cheerfully charismatic grifter, recently home from prison. Armed with a self-sharpening drill bit of his own invention, he is trying to go straight despite a justifiably dubious reception by most of his family and the fallout from a very unfortunate event that put him in debt to a very peculiar (i.e. French Canadian) criminal family. Twist the image just slightly, however, and 'Government Cheese' becomes more of a spiritual worldview, in which the big picture is blurred at the edges, but the details stand out in brilliant clarity. While in prison, Hampton has God, or at least a form of God, explained to him by a fellow prisoner as a force which makes its grand plan known through a series of small but collectively impactful events. Hampton now believes that the universe is sending him a series of messages — a jumping frog tells him to take a leap of faith, etc. These may or may not be real but certainly resonate with anyone who has searched for similar signs in a chaotic world. Co-created by Paul Hunter and Aeysaha Carr, the series is set in 1969 Chatsworth and based on Hunter's memories of his childhood. The aerospace industry figures heavily as does the hyper-stylized earth-tone fashions of the times. Heavily influenced by the Coen brothers, the show often feels like a cross between a fable and a fever dream, but powerful performances by Oyelowo and Simone Missick as Hampton's wife, Astoria, keep it grounded in its own reality. A well-known director of music videos, Hunter infuses 'Government Cheese' with a cinematic vibrancy — Chatsworth has never looked so cool — that keeps you watching even as you wonder what exactly you are looking at. — Mary McNamara READ MORE >> 'Government Cheese' stays outside the box with a surreal Black family in the Valley A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching The jam-packed Season 3 finale of 'The Wheel of Time,' available to stream on Prime Video, included multiple deaths and plenty of betrayals. It's no small feat adapting the narrative complexity of Robert Jordan's fantasy book franchise for TV. In this week's Guest Spot, showrunner Rafe Judkins discussed the book-inspired moment that was most challenging to adapt for screen, what he's watching and more. — Yvonne Villarreal You're given eight episodes to condense so much book content into a coherent narrative. Three seasons in, what have you learned about adapting a saga like 'The Wheel of Time' for TV in that framework? Do you wish you had more episodes for Season 3? When I originally pitched the show, it was for eight seasons with 10 episodes in each season. I thought that, even though limited, this would be a way to get through all 15 books of Robert Jordan's 'The Wheel of Time' series. Unfortunately, production reality often intersects with creative goals, so we've had to try to pull off the same story with just eight episodes a season. It leads to a lot of condensing and re-building of the narrative to feel smooth for people who aren't at all familiar with the books. But the thing about TV is that you always wish you had more time. I think epic fantasy television is at its best and allows the stories to really build and pay off when there are 10 to 13 episodes per season. Give me an example of an element from the novels that was a challenge to bring to life in Season 3. How did you figure it out? We had to figure out a way to bring a section of the books called 'The Road to the Spear' to life in Season 3. It's incredibly challenging because in the books, it's basically one character who sees an entire culture's history through the eyes of his ancestors, one story after another after another, moving backward in time. It's one of the greatest parts of the entire book series, but to bring it to life on television, we had to find a way to emotionally connect the audience to these disparate stories, so we had the actor (Josha Stradowski who plays Rand al'Thor) actually wear six different full prosthetic makeups and play the lead character in each of the vignettes moving backward through time. I think it worked well to really help the audience emotionally connect to these stories and simultaneously feel and understand their impact on the character of Rand, who's witnessed these visions. What have you watched recently that you're recommending to everyone you know? With my whole life contained in the scripted sphere, I actually usually end up watching comedies or reality TV when I've got time to myself. And because I'm traveling so much for work, I'm usually watching shows from all over the world — right now I'm loving 'Traitors' (UK and U.S. versions!) [Peacock], 'Australian Survivor' and the British show 'Taskmaster.' What's your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again? 'Xena: Warrior Princess' [Prime Video]! It's insane at times (insert clip of Xena doing 70 flips after she's thrown herself out of a pine tree to land on a ship), but it was so different than anything else on TV when it came out. There was also such an emotional core and connection to those characters and I grew up watching them, so it feels like a piece of home when I see it now.
