When is a kiss not just a kiss? Season 2 of Netflixโs โArcaneโ delivers a long-awaited payoff between two characters with such a deep emotional bond it inspired a โBenniferโ-style portmanteau: CaitVi. Co-executive producer Amanda Overton, who wrote the saga-defining scene, explains that Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) has โlost everyone she loved,โ and itโs…
When casting began in 2020 for the award-winning HBO Max series โHacks,โ its three creators โ Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky โ saw hundreds of actors for the role of Ava Daniels, a 20-something comedy writer who teams up with a Vegas comedian, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), whose act has grown as…
The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction.
Emmy voters have loved Uzo Aduba, who brings a special immediacy to comedic and dramatic roles alike, since her breakthrough on Netflixโs โOrange Is the New Blackโ in 2013. This year, sheโs vying for lead actress in a comedy for her performance as an eccentric gumshoe on the Netflix whodunit โThe Residence.โ 32 The age…
โButterflyโ is actor and producer Daniel Dae Kimโs love letter to Korea and America. Launching Wednesday, Prime Videoโs South Korea-set spy thriller follows David Jung (Kim), a former U.S. intelligence operative who comes out of hiding to reunite with his daughter Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), a deadly agent who grew up believing he was dead. โItโs…
This is Sudan Archivesโ allow-me-to-reintroduce myself era, a reappraisal after drastic personal overhaul, one that refuses to exploit upheaval for material. Sudan, whose birth name is Brittney Denise Parks, is one of the rare souls who remains real in the spotlight and behind the curtain, disarmingly authentic. Her resultant style, of both dress and music,…
Itโs a good thing that โAdolescenceโ and โThe Studioโ arenโt competing head to head for boldly filming every episode as one continuous shot: Itโd be like comparing apples to oranges. The Netflix limited series and Apple TV+ half-hour series are both favored to win Creative Arts Emmys for cinematography. But while Apple TV+โs Hollywood satire…
p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> An inside look at the Maginot spacecraft in FXโs โAlien: Earth.โ (Patrick Brown / FX) For those wondering if theyโll recognize this โPeter Panโ-influenced bit of the โAlienโ universe, well, one of the first choices Hawley had to make was environmental. โAre we doing retro-futurism? Are we doing the the cathode ray tube…
As rock-band relaunches go, Good Charlotteโs was conspicuously ritzy. In April 2023, the pop-punk group known for snotty if smiley Y2K-era hits like โThe Anthemโ and โLifestyles of the Rich and Famousโ โ โIโd like to see them spend a week / Livinโ life out on the street,โ goes a lyric in the latter โ…
Step aside, tortured poets. Itโs a showgirl era now. On Tuesday morning, Taylor Swift announced her new LP, โThe Life of a Showgirl,โ and hereโs everything โ a meager bounty, for now โ that we know about it. When did she announce it? Word arrived after a countdown clock to 12:12 a.m. โ an apropos…