The week in TV: The Crown weighs heavy, and The Curse comes to life

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off review: Much, much weirder than a mere nostalgia trip

[Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers of the first episode of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.]

When Netflix announced that it was making an anime version of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels—and, more specifically, Edgar Wright’s cult classic film version of O’Malley’s books, complete with every major cast member from the movie returning to voice their characters for the show—it felt a bit like a victory lap. Although Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World remains a financial black mark on Wright’s career—it lost more money, in a budget-vs.-box office sense, than the director’s Last Night In Soho, which was released into the tail end of the COVID-19 lockdowns—its critical reception has only gotten rosier, as whole new generations of fans have cottoned on to Wright’s energetic, hilarious attempts to channel O’Malley’s strangely affecting blend of video games, Canadian rock music, and young romance for the screen. Getting the (now enormously more famous) cast back together for a cartoon version that would directly translate the books’ anime-inspired art for streaming TV felt like a natural, nostalgic fit. Read More

The Crown season 6, part 1 review: The show puts all its eggs in Diana’s basket

Well, here we are, at the beginning of the end. When we all started watching Peter Morgan’s The Crown in 2016, wasn’t the anticipation of this moment in the back of our minds? The tragic death of Princess Diana? If you’re a viewer over 30, Diana is likely the royal who has loomed largest in your conscious, in life and in death. Read More

The Curse recap: This is unlike anything else on television right now

There is something so revealing about Whitney Siegel (Emma Stone) casually deleting Instagram comments that accuse her of, quite rightly, aping the design of her reflective home from artist Doug Aitken only for her to then complain that such attacks bear no weight given that she’s trying to reflect community while Aiken only reflected nature. She at once understands the critique and yet regurgitates it in a way that’s self-deprecating and self-deflecting. She’s no artist, she insists. But she’s also not not an artist. She may be inspired by Aiken but she’s totally doing something wholly different. If maybe kind of the same. That this all happens during a dinner with an up and coming Native artist (Nizhonniya Luxi Austin’s Cara Durand), who she intends to hire as a cultural consultant for Flipanthopy to better launder her reputation as they deal with checkerboard land that’ll require her to deal with the local Native tribes, is…well, just perfect. Read More

Peacock’s Ted takes shots at both Peacock and itself in first teaser

To quote The A.V. Club’s Sam Barsanti, “Who was the first person to walk into a movie studio executive’s office and say ‘it’s like a movie for kids, but it has a hard-R rating,’ and does that person now have more money than God?” Whether or not that evil genius was actually Seth MacFarlane or not, he’s certainly the one receiving the windfall. Ted and Ted 2—his raunchy, 2010s-era films about a Teddy bear with a Boston accent who loves to rip bongs and say “fuck”—brought in a collective $700 million at the box office. Now, whether anyone asked for it or not (they probably didn’t), he’s doing it again. Read More

Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story review: Keanu Reeves-led docuseries is phenomenal

Formula 1 is more popular in the United States now than probably ever before, but it’s not because of the staggering three races held in the U.S. this season, it’s not because the boss of the one American F1 team is a perfect and wonderful character, and it’s not because there’s a new young American F1 driver who actually has a handful of points in the world championship standings. No, it’s because of Netflix’s Drive To Survive, a thrilling docuseries that has charted the “plot” of the last few Formula 1 seasons with cleverly selective editing and a slight reframing of facts in order to make things more dramatic and easier to follow for people who don’t watch the actual races. Villains are created, heroes are highlighted, and viewers get the gist of what’s going on in F1. Read More

20 great gifts for the TV fans on your holiday list

As we brace ourselves for the holiday season, we need to gear up for holiday shopping. And there’s nothing more fun than browsing gifts that will entertain the TV fans in your life—and it’s okay if that person is you, of course. To help everyone get started, The A.V. Club has put together a guide of 20 perfect presents to celebrate television, from Stranger Things and Love Is Blind to Succession and The Last Of Us, we’ve got you covered. Read More

6 things you have to watch on TV this weekend

Welcome to the weekend edition of What’s On. Here are the big things happening on TV from Friday, Nov 17 to Sunday, Nov 19. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekly What’s On publishes on Sundays.] Read More

Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters review: A surprisingly good Godzilla series

In movies where there are big, cool things (dinosaurs, Transformers, etc.) and also regular little humans, it’s safe to assume that the humans will always, always, always be less interesting than a big, cool thing. That’s not to say that any movie with a dinosaur is better than any movie without one, but if a movie has a dinosaur, everyone’s going to be more interested in seeing the dinosaur than the dinosaur’s human friends. That, naturally, also applies to Legendary and Warner Bros.’ series of “MonsterVerse” movies, which have featured loads of very talented/famous actors—Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, Charles Dance, Millie Bobby Brown—but only really pop when there’s a monster onscreen doing cool monster stuff. Read More

New Percy Jackson And The Olympians trailer finally gives us some actual Olympians

After 20th Century Studios’ dismal stab at the Percy Jackson series in 2010, Disney+ series co-showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg and and Dan Shotz knew they one job: don’t fuck it up. Based on the latest trailer for Percy Jackson And The Olympians (and everything else we’ve seen), it seems they’ve completed their quest with flying colors. Read More

FBoy Island is like douchebag Agatha Christie (and we’re hooked)

“Every murderer is somebody’s old friend.”—Agatha Christie

“They’re all psychos deep down.”—Benedict Polizzi, FBoy Island

Call me a cynic, or a realist, or just a begrudging fan of Lifetime’s Unreal, but there are no “right reasons” to find a partner on television. There are good reasons: to develop a brand, to become famous, and, yes, to find a partner who values those same things. I suspect there are fake reasons too, like that you want to have a warm, long-term marriage like your grandparents had. I can only presume, then, that your grandmother was a TikTok influencer and your grandfather was a Crypto investor. Read More