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Boston Globe
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The 15 best TV shows of the year so far
'Adolescence' (limited series, Netflix) Where to begin? The long, cinematic camera takes that make you feel like you've intruded on a reality already in progress? The searing performances from Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, Erin Doherty, and a stable of largely unknown UK actors? This tight, four-episode drama, about an adolescent (Cooper) accused of killing a female classmate, is a gut punch that diagnoses a world of contemporary problems without ever feeling like a sociological treatise. Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks in "The Better Sister." JOJO WHILDEN/Jojo Whilden/Prime ' ' (season 1, Amazon Prime Video) The apple doesn't fall far. TV luminary David Milch's daughter, Olivia Milch, created this high-grade pulp drama with Regina Corrado, a key writer on David Milch's series 'Deadwood' (speaking of peak TV). Jaggedly funny and compulsively watchable, it follows two adult sisters (Jessica Biel and Pittsfield native Advertisement 'Black Mirror' (season 7, Netflix) A funny thing happened to Charlie Brooker's future-shock sci-fi anthology series on the way to 2025. It now feels more wickedly plausible than ever, and it therefore cuts closer to the bone. The season opener, starring Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd, is a soul-crushing masterpiece in which life and death become a matter of coverage tiers. It's still engineered to make you laugh until it hurts really, really bad. Matthew Goode in "Dept. Q" on Netflix. Jamie Simpson/Jamie Simpson/Netflix (season 1, Netflix) Scott Frank, who made chess exciting and sexy with his 2020 Netflix limited series ' Brian Tyree Henry in "Dope Thief." Apple TV+ 'Dope Thief' (season 1, Apple TV+) Brian Tyree Henry has been doing killer supporting work for a few years now on TV (' Advertisement ' ' (limited series, HBO) From the Department of Good Timing: At a moment when the principles of the civil rights movement are under attack, HBO released the third installment of a vital project that started back in 1987. These six chapters cover the period from the late 1970s to the present, exploring issues including fair housing, the war on affirmative action, the AIDS crisis, the Obama years, and more. It plays like a series of deeply reported feature stories. 'Forever' (season 1, Netflix) The Judy Blume renaissance continues with this series inspired by her 1975 novel about two teens dealing with raging hormones, societal expectations, and, yes, first love. Series creator Mara Brock Akil has moved the action to Los Angeles in 2018, where two Black high school athletes (Michael Cooper Jr. and Lovie Simone) fall head over heels and face highly realistic obstacles. Few series have so viscerally captured the pains of being a teenager. 'Inside the NBA' (TNT) Gone, but not forgotten. In fact, not exactly gone. TNT's freewheeling pregame and halftime show is the most spontaneous and entertaining sports enterprise on the air. Now Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal, and ringmaster Ernie Johnson are moving (for NBA broadcast rights reasons) to ESPN and ABC, where the flavor promises to be a little different. But hopefully not too different. Here's hoping the new bosses let the mountainous Shaq tumble into some more Christmas trees. Advertisement Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Courtesy of HBO ' ' (season 2, HBO) It takes nerve to kill off the main character early in the second season of a hit series. It takes skill and imagination to keep the train rolling along in the aftermath. You won't find a more assured mix of prestige and popular appeal than HBO's zombie apocalypse drama, which, of course, is about far more than a zombie apocalypse. And you won't find better evidence for the blurring of high and 'low' culture than the fact that one of HBO's best series is based on a video game. ' ' (season 2, Netflix) Palestinian-American actor/comedian ' ' (documentary, HBO) A penetrating study of what it means to have a popular alter ego, and what happens when that alter ego takes over. The late Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman, makes for a controlling, passive-aggressive, but somehow still appealing subject as he thrusts and parries with filmmaker Matt Wolf. The end results, in two parts and about four hours, ask probing questions about identity, fame, and the many guises we try on to get ahead. Advertisement 'The Rehearsal' (season 2, HBO) Comedian Nathan Fielder's first-person docuseries has moved well beyond the point of stunting. The recently completed season culminates in a surreal plane flight, with Fielder at the controls and the plane full of actors, all coordinated to make a point about cockpit communication and preventable crashes. It makes for riveting television and deadpan advocacy, delivered in a self-conscious monotone that belies a passionate sense of purpose. 'Saturday Night Live' (season 51, NBC) Maybe it was the re-election of Donald Trump, or just the right meshing of cast and writers. Whatever the reason, 'SNL' felt energized this season, like a big league pitcher getting his fastball back. The 'White Potus' sketch melded pop culture heat with political satire. The Please Don't Destroy team found a groove with its digital shorts (go to YouTube and search for 'First Class'). Michael Che and Colin Jost refined their vibe of friendly antagonism on 'Weekend Update.' And a big, 50-year-old dog showed it can learn some new tricks. Seth Rogen in "The Studio." Apple TV+ ' ' (season 1, Apple TV+) Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen's painfully funny send-up of the current movie business is certainly insidery, but it's also madcap, slapstick fun, a tasty poison pill and a lament for the difficulty of making art in a world defined by fast commerce. Throw in cameos from a weeping Martin Scorsese, a frustrated Sarah Polley, an enraged Ron Howard, and more, and you've got the satire that contemporary Hollywood deserves. Advertisement ' ' (season 3, HBO) At some point Mike White's formula of narcissistic tourists behaving horribly in paradise will wear out its welcome. But that point hasn't arrived yet. The writing and the acting — this season's standouts include Walton Goggins, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, and the returning Natasha Rothwell — are still top-shelf, and the American idiots abroad motif carries a little extra oomph in this day and age. The coconut milk is off! What do you think the best show of 2025 is? Sound off in the comments and let us know.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Money and status aren't everything. Try telling TV that
Status comes in many forms, but the quickest shorthand for status on TV is wealth. The clothes. The real estate. The private jets and other markers of affluence. Early in the Amazon series 'We Were Liars,' a family convenes at their sprawling beachfront estate on a private island near Martha's Vineyard and, like numerous wealthaganda shows of the moment — 'The Perfect Couple,' 'Sirens' and 'The Better Sister,' among many — this version of luxury is East Coast old money. So much so, it might as well be an ad for Ralph Lauren come to life, a sensation that becomes even weirder when Ralph Lauren is indeed namechecked in the script. Wealthy people — their absurdities and their pains, their endless wants and needs and human foibles — have dominated streaming's output over the last several years. Even so-called satirical depictions manage only the thinnest of critiques, while ensuring that characters who could mount a meaningful challenge to the status quo remain firmly off screen. The central players are miserable or odious, but even so, we're meant to want this life because look at the glorious trappings! Surely wouldn't be unhappy if we had this lifestyle at our disposal. We're being seduced into a world largely stripped of color in terms of the interior design, but also the people who inhabit these spaces. It's a portrait disconnected from the lives of most Americans and where we are, existentially, as a country. It's a genre filled with status markers selling us on certain ideas, says Dominique J. Baker. A professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, she studies the real-world effects of status, and we talked about recent TV offerings that reflect — or shape — our notions of status. Q: You've dubbed these 'Nicole Kidman gauzy wealth shows' — quiet luxury manifested as television — because Kidman has become the face of this trend, and it's such an apt description, capturing how they reinforce notions of what status is supposed to look like. There are all kinds of sources of wealth in this country, but the big, fast and blatantly destructive money at the moment is from Silicon Valley. That's not the version of status we're being shown on our screens. A: Right, we're being fed Cape Cod, the Vineyard. And that's because, for example, if you're lusting for the tradwife life, you're not lusting for Silicon Valley. I would argue that when we think about East Coast money, regardless of how the money was obtained, we think of it as Old Money — people who've had wealth for generations — and we imbue that with a goodness that we don't with Silicon Valley. Q: With a show like 'Succession' or 'The White Lotus,' their money and status insulate them from consequences, which is probably true enough in real life. But the characters are insulated from consequences in these fictional depictions. These stories aren't interested in anything that pushes back on how the wealthy operate and exist. A: We understand how the world works, right? Yes, having money means you can avoid certain consequences. But if you have a narrative aim with your fictional work, it doesn't make sense for there to be no consequences. Conversely, one of my favorite TV shows is the Bravo reality series 'Below Deck,' which is about the staff manning these yachts. The stars of the show are the workers who haul out the jet skis and clean the bathrooms and unpack your suitcase. And frequently, the rich people do get comeuppance, even if it's only for five minutes. They often go on the show and think they can treat the workers like trash and no one will ever know, which is ridiculous because the camera is right there. But because our point of view into the story is from the workers' perspective, the workers get the last word. They get to say, 'Oh, that lady was a 'beep' and a 'beep' and left her garbage all over the place.' And that woman has no idea, until six months later, that everybody sees her for who she is and it's on national TV. Q: These are contemporary portrayals, whereas 'The Gilded Age' takes place in the late 19th century. The title is borrowed from an satirical novel from 1873 by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that took aim at the era's greed, corruption and the emptiness of materialism. Commentary around the show tends to frame it as fun and frothy, because it's clearly not aiming for meaningful critique. It's conspicuous but also surreal to see the original robber barons — the villains of history! — reimagined on TV as endearing or sympathetic at the exact moment we're living through a devastating revival of the robber baron era in real life. A: It irks me that we're meant to root for the characters played by Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector, who are stand-ins for the Vanderbilts and are positioned against the ridiculous snobbery of the Old Money families, who want to keep them out of their society circles. We're meant to think they're scrappy upstarts and how unfair it is that these other rich people don't like them because they're New Money, so we should root for them. That's bananas. The people we should root for are the workers! Q: Do you think audiences are more likely to turn off the critical side of their brains when watching a historical version of this, rather than one set in the modern day? A: Well, I think some people turn their brains off for 'The White Lotus,' too! But I think it's the escapism of other spaces. 'The White Lotus' allows people to escape because most aren't going to five-star resorts in real life. 'The Gilded Age' is like a virtual vacation to the past, it's just a revisionist version of the past. But that ties in with other revisions of the past that have given us the tradwife phenomenon. I would argue that there are a number of people who no longer hold the knowledge that robber barons were the bad guys. I think the century-long project of rehabilitating their names has worked, because we have bigger villains in Silicon Valley, so people look back at the Gilded Age with nostalgia. They don't realize that robber barons actually killed some of their workers who dared to strike. It's interesting to compare 'The Gilded Age' with something like 'Sinners,' because the perspective that takes us into 'Sinners' is not the wealthy couple shopping in the segregated grocery store who are affronted by 'those people' who are shopping across the street. We come into 'Sinners' from the perspective of regular people. And sure, the movie takes some creative license, but we get grounded in an experience of joy and pain and struggle and growth over a 24-hour period in a way that 'The Gilded Age' could have done if our key entry points were not the fictional versions of the Vanderbilts fighting the Astors, but from the point of view of the Ida B. Wells-inspired character and maybe a domestic worker. You still could have the grand balls and all that nonsense, but seen through the eyes of someone who would say, 'This is ridiculous — you spent all that money on lobsters and nobody came to your party?' And on top of that, the people whose stories 'Sinners' thinks have value is completely different. Watching 'The Gilded Age,' you would think New York is only filled with white and Black people, which is not true, even in the late 1800s. This is a show that could have told us a really lush and sumptuous story of that era that actually took up Twain and Warner's satirical ideas. This is what Edith Wharton did so well — actually uncovering why it is satire to call it the Gilded Age. Q: What do you make of the fact that there's a preponderance of these shows right now, when this is so at odds with our lived experiences and what we see unfolding on the news, not just in the last six months but the past several years. These stories of status exist to do in our current moment? A: One, they offer an 'easy' escape from the dreary parts of life. I think there are other ways to imagine entertainment that provides escape, but it requires hard work to create a 'Sinners' or a show like 'Watchmen.' Two, I think there's a real push that's reminiscent of the '80s where 'greed is good' a la Mr. Gekko in the 1987 movie 'Wall Street.' But it's a flattened version of the '80s because 'Wall Street' is not confused about whether Gordon Gekko is a villain. In our present, we have TV shows that think they're 'Wall Street,' but unlike the end of that movie, they provide no actual consequences. I think that flattening curtails the available options for what entertainment can be. That dovetails with the attention economy of 'hate watching.' You know all those studies that show social media platforms learned that hateful and angry speech gets more engagement and gets people to stay on the platform longer, so they tweaked their algorithms to show more stuff to make people angry? I think that's part of this entertainment push. And, as long as you're hooked on being angry about this one wealthy person snubbing this other wealthy person, you're not thinking about systems and what might be done to change our real world. Three, building off that last point, if our entertainment showed the experiences of most regular people, I think it would radicalize them, especially if you talk about the systems that create our current reality. 'Sinners' showing how real people experienced things like lynchings is a radicalizing act. The powerful in Hollywood seem terrified of the potential for everyday Americans — in cities, in rural locales, and everywhere in between — to be radicalized by our world.
Business Upturn
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Upturn
Is ‘The Better Sister' returning for season 2? Everything we know so far
By Aman Shukla Published on June 16, 2025, 19:00 IST Last updated June 16, 2025, 12:19 IST The Better Sister , a gripping thriller series starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks, premiered on Prime Video on May 29, 2025. Based on Alafair Burke's 2019 novel, the eight-episode limited series captivated audiences with its twisty murder mystery and complex family dynamics. Fans are now eager to know: will there be a Season 2 of The Better Sister ? Here's everything we know so far. Has The Better Sister Been Renewed for Season 2? As of June 16, 2025, Prime Video has not officially confirmed a second season for The Better Sister . The show was marketed as a limited series, and the first season fully adapts the standalone novel by Alafair Burke, resolving the central mystery of Adam Macintosh's murder. However, limited series like The White Lotus , Beef , and Good Omens have been renewed for additional seasons due to strong viewership and fan demand, leaving room for speculation. What Could Season 2 Be About? Since the first season adapts the entirety of Burke's novel, a second season would require an original storyline. Several plot threads from Season 1 could set the stage: Jake Rodriguez's Death: The shocking death of Jake, a key character and Chloe's lover, introduces a new mystery. Unlike the book, where Jake survives, the series alters his fate, potentially linking his death to the Gentry Group, a shadowy organization Adam was investigating. Season 2 could explore whether the Gentry Group targets Chloe's family in retaliation for her role in exposing them to the FBI. The Sisters' Cover-Up: Nicky's guilt in Adam's murder and Chloe's role in framing Bill Braddock could come under scrutiny. Detective Nancy Guidry (Kim Dickens) suspects Nicky's involvement after learning she knew details about the murder only the killer would know. A second season might focus on the sisters' efforts to evade justice while grappling with their moral choices. Ethan's Future: Ethan, caught in the crossfire of his family's secrets, faces ongoing challenges. His attempt to protect Chloe by staging the crime scene and his struggles with addiction could be further explored, especially as he navigates his relationship with both sisters. Where to Watch The Better Sister All eight episodes of The Better Sister Season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video. Interested viewers can catch up on the thrilling drama before any potential Season 2 updates. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This New Thriller Had Me Side-Eyeing Every Character—and Then Bingeing All 8 Episodes
If there's one genre that never fails to reel me in, it's a good old-fashioned thriller—give me suspense, mystery and maybe a murder or two, and I'm sold. I want the kind of show that keeps me up way too late, second-guessing every character and basically gaslighting myself trying to figure out who the real villain is. If you're into that kind of twisty drama too, let me put The Better Sister on your radar. The Better Sister is an 8-episode limited series based on the bestselling novel by Alafair Burke and it digs into the kind of messy, complicated family dynamics that are so fun to watch unravel. Jessica Biel plays Chloe, a successful media exec living what looks like a perfect life with her lawyer husband, Adam (Corey Stoll), and her teenage son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). Meanwhile, Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), Chloe's estranged sister, is struggling to stay clean and keep her life on track. Then—bam—Adam is murdered and everything spirals. Jojo Whilden/Prime I won't reveal everything but I watched the first episode and let me just say this: the series does not drag its feet. It jumps straight into the drama, with Chloe walking into her living room and finding Adam dead just a few minutes into the first episode. It's intense, it's shocking and it completely sets the tone for what's clearly going to be a wild ride. We get a glimpse into the sisters' complicated family history through a flashback—turns out Chloe is married to her sister's ex and the son she's raising? He's actually her sister's. And the drama really kicks off when we find out that very son's DNA was found under the dead husband's fingernails. Oh, and Chloe apparently had a burner phone and texted someone on it right before finding her husband dead. As if that's not enough, there's a shady coworker who wasn't exactly Adam's biggest fan… plus a possible stalker situation brewing. So yeah, things are messy. Did I mention this is all in the first episode? So needless to say, this isn't one of those shows that makes you wait until episode five for something to actually happen. The tension starts building fast and by the time the credits started rolling I was already mentally side-eyeing a handful of characters, each of whom could very realistically be the killer. Episode one left me with way more questions than answers—not just about the murder itself, but about the sisters, their family history and what the heck has actually been going on in all of their lives. Thankfully, all eight episodes were released at the same time, so the binge was fast and furious. You can stream The Better Sister on Prime Video now. Want all the latest entertainment news sent right to your inbox? Click here. 16 Shows and Movies to Watch This Weekend, Recommended by Our Editors
Elle
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Elizabeth Banks on Her ‘Crazy' Skin Care Rituals and the Importance of Sisterhood
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Elizabeth Banks is busy. She's in the middle of a press run for her latest show, The Better Sister, a murder mystery that centers around two estranged sisters (played by Banks and Jessica Biel) reuniting. She's living in Toronto and filming a new series, The Miniature Wife, on Peacock. She even just gave a commencement speech at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Amid all of it, she's trying to get her beauty sleep. 'Our skin does its best repair work at night,' she says. 'I tell my kids that's when your body fixes itself, and when you grow. That's true of our skin too.' Banks is the first U.S. ambassador for skin care brand No7, and she's been using their new Future Renew line every night. Banks joined me on a Zoom call from Toronto. We caught up about her nighttime routine, her love of puzzles and podcasts (of which she has many recommendations, and even pulled up her podcast library to make sure she gave me all of them), and how important it is for her to stay active in today's political climate. Below, our full conversation. It's weird right now, because I'm living alone. I don't have my kids with me. I have a totally different vibe than I normally do when I am home. Last night was a typical night for me [alone]. I've been doing puzzles. I like to puzzle and listen to books on tape. I'm actually listening to A Court of Thorns and Roses right now, which is making me laugh. Last night's [puzzle was] a bunch of popsicles. I also did a Great Gatsby puzzle. This is my third puzzle in about four months that I've done. I leave it on the table and wind down by listening to something and keeping my mind busy. This is the one thing that I feel like is just for me. I do not bother with anything less than 1,000. Um... I think it's pretty good. I don't want to speak ill. It's a fun world to be in. The news is a bit overwhelming right now. I'm finding [that] I just want to be in a fairy tale world right now in my wind-down [time]. I get my news during the day. But at night, I'm also really trying to stay off Instagram. It's really important for my sleep that I am doing something actually relaxing that does not take my emotional life anywhere. The greatest thing about No7 is that you can line all the products up on the countertop, and go through them one by one. I use the Future Renew Peptide Cleanser. Then I do the Future Renew Night Serum, that's really silky, lovely, and yummy. It feels and works great. I got into serums after a conversation with my dermatologist, who was like, You could do more than just moisturizer. Serums are when you get the good stuff, you know? Then I have the Future Renew Night Cream. All of these are formulated for overnight use. They really make the most of your beauty sleep. The other thing I'm most interested in is sleep. I really am trying my best to hydrate at night and get as much sleep as possible. Your skin always looks improved when it's hydrated [and] after you've had a good night's sleep. I love long walks. I'm really trying to get those steps in. Even after a long day, I'll try and do a walk. I also have a walking pad in my trailer at work. On my breaks, I just walk. That's when I'm usually listening to my podcast. And planning the revolution, obviously. I listen to a lot of NPR, which I still support. I listen to Up First most days. I listen to The Daily. I like Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. I like Mel Robbins. I like storytelling, so I do like a lot of the murder podcasts. I listened to one a while ago that I really still think about called Bear Brook. I [also] listen to The Opportunist. I have a friend, Quinn Emmett, who does The Most Important Question. It's all about environmentalism and the ways that different things cross into climate. You wouldn't think this, but [there's an episode about] women's rights crossing into climate—protecting women, elevating them. Then all the Serials and Nice White Parents. I got into facials more. I do crazy things now. I put my face in ice most mornings to take down inflammation. No7 is great for elasticity, fine lines, hydration, and wrinkles. But physically, I carry a lot of water weight. I like to gua sha and move things around [like lymphatic drainage]. As you get older, things start to fall apart faster, and you really do have to pay closer attention. It's made me more mindful. I loved the themes of it. It felt almost Shakespearean in nature. There's two sisters with a shared husband, and the son [is] living in the shadow of the father [in] this rarefied world. These two daughters who took different paths and now [have] come back together. There's vengeance and revenge. To be honest, I'm a big sister, and I felt a real kinship with this character. A sisterhood at the center of a story is something I'm always drawn to. If you watch Pitch Perfect, it's about sisterhood. It's about a sorority of women who band together and solve something. I made Charlie's Angels, which is about a sorority of women who band together to solve something. It's a theme in a lot of my work. It's a relationship that we don't always see elevated. I love that this was a classic whodunit that also had sisterhood at the center of it. Sisterhood is a shortcut to saying all the women in my life who are getting shit done, who are inspiring me to get shit done, who teach me, and on whose shoulders I stand. It's one of the most important things in my life. Other than my marriage, it's all about sisterhood. I'm the oldest of four. I have two sisters and a brother. I have two sisters-in-law, who I love dearly, too. My mom has five sisters. My dad has four sisters. There's a lot of sisters in my life, but I also have all my friends and my girlfriends. [I have] mom friends. Then I have the sisters that I'm activists with. I have the sisterhood of my fellow actresses in Hollywood, who amaze me and inspire me all the time. Can't do without them. I've really been coming to back to the idea more and more that we are living in a world that was not handed to us. It was fought for—my right to vote, to a 40-hour work week, child care, ability to have a credit card and own property. None of this was God-given to me. It had to be fought for by women who came before me. It's always good to remind women that they live in a world that was fought for by other women. In the women around me and in my kids. I want more freedom for them. I want their lives to be open and enriched. I want people to be educated. We are living in an incredibly interesting time in human history. We're on this exponential curve, with everything going straight up. We've got AI, and all of these incredible technological advancements, especially when it comes to living longer. We're really the first generation of humans to live this long. What are we going to do with all that time? How are we going to spend it, and how are we going to be more inclusive of more people? We have a lot of hard things going on when it comes to climate change and income inequality. We need to be inviting more people to the solutions party, and not less. I do feel hopeful. When it comes to the protests that are going on in Los Angeles, for instance, it's about a sense of safety for everyone in our lives—our neighbors, our friends, our family, our co-workers. I feel like the current administration is making things very unsafe, and people don't like to feel unsafe. The banding together gives me hope that everyone is actually going to fight for one another's safety, and that we actually do live in community. We don't live in a divided place. I live in a community, and I'm going to help keep the people [there] safe. I'm going to continue to try and do that. If I am, I know other people are too. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
