HBO
The Rehearsal Confirms Nathan Fielder Is a Comic Visionary: Review
The Pitch: Comedy has long mined the rich vein of desire running within most average citizens for fame — or at least some kind of recognition. That yen for the spotlight is what allowed ’60s duo Coyle and Sharpe and modern day bellower Billy Eichner to turn “man on the street” interviews into improvised gold and fed the creation of far too many prank shows. It’s also a craving that Nathan Fielder has spent the last decade twisting to absurdist ends, both on his acclaimed Comedy Central series Nathan For You and in his behind-the-scenes work on shows like How To with John Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? In each one, everyday people willingly put themselves under the eye of a TV camera, often revealing too much of themselves in the process. The results are either damning, hear...
Succession Details Season 4 as Production Begins
It looks like Succession fans may not have to wait too long for the next installment, as HBO has announced production is underway for Season 4. In addition to revealing it spans 10 episodes, the network shared some details about the show’s upcoming plot. “The sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer,” reads the official logline. “The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.” Succession will of course continue to center around media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his children, Kendall (...
Kit Harington to Reprise Jon Snow in Game of Thrones Sequel Series
The legend of Jon Snow has yet to be fully told. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kit Harington has signed on to reprise the character in an upcoming Game of Thrones sequel series. It’s the first known Game of Thrones spin-off series that’ll take place after the events of the original series. In the case of Jon Snow’s character, he was last seen heading North of the Wall after killing Daenerys Targaryen. Needless to say, the news is surprising for a variety of reasons. For one, HBO programming president Casey Bloys previously ruled out a spin-off series featuring the original GoT stars. “Nope, nope, nope. No. Part of it is, I do want this show — this Game of Thrones, [David Benioff and D.B. Weiss]’s show — to be its own thing. I don’t want to take characters from this world that they d...
The Janes Is a Timely, Tight-Knit Oral History of Underground Abortions: Review
The Pitch: On May 3, 2022, a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked to Politico detailed the Court’s majority decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. The Roe v. Wade decision, which was declared in 1973, guaranteed the constitutional right for a pregnant woman or person to receive an abortion if they choose. In the years that followed, the ruling had allowed more Americans to have greater access to birth control and other forms of pregnancy-prevention measures without the risk of them losing their lives in the process. Given how integral Roe v. Wade has been to people across the country, the fact that it could be struck down is terrifying, to say the least. This landscape makes the release of The Janes, HBO’s latest documentary directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, so much more critical. B...
Method Man To Host New Podcast ‘The Wire At 20’
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Duffy-Marie Arnoult / Getty The Wire has stood the test of time regarding police and crime dramas, with many believing it is the best show of its kind. Method Man will serve as the host of a new podcast that takes a look back at the iconic series with interviews with the cast, creators, and more. The Wire Gets Another Podcast Series The Wire At 20 is a partnership between HBO and Campside Media and will look back at the genesis of the series. The show will also memorialize those actors who’ve passed away since its debut. Set in Baltimore, Md., the series at its core a police and crime drama. However, as Method Man notes in the trailer for the podcast, the inner workings of the drug trade, politics, employment, and more depict a deeper story. The original ...
Jodie Foster to Star in True Detective Season 4
Jodie Foster is set to star in season four of HBO’s True Detective. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the veteran actress will join the crime anthology as Detective Liz Danvers. Dubbed True Detective: Night Country, the fourth installment of the HBO drama takes place in the isolation of Alaska. A statement describes the season as follows: “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.” While HBO has yet to reveal who will portray Navarro, Night Country marks a bit of a shake up for True Detective. Creator...
The Leaders of Westworld Reap What They Sow in Season 4 Trailer: Watch
HBO is about to welcome us back to Westworld, and the theme park is not looking good. In the newly released trailer for Season 4 of the sci-fi drama, officially premiering on June 26th, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and her fellow Hosts continue to deal with their Human feelings — and as all humans know, it’s a pretty rocky ride. Perfectly set to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day,” the cinematic Season 4 trailer begins calm enough — Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) takes a casual stroll, Caleb (Aaron Paul) drinks Sangria in the park (so to speak) — but chaos quickly ensues as the song swells. The Man in Black (Ed Harris) and Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) come closer to death, and as allegiances blur, Reed’s hex seems inevitable: the characters are all going to reap just what they sow. Watch the trailer for...
Michelle de Swarte on the Challenges of Yelling at Infants in HBO’s The Baby
Michelle de Swarte isn’t a mother, and she doesn’t play one on TV either. Instead, in the HBO horror-comedy series The Baby, she plays Natasha, a woman whose happily child-free existence gets complicated when a mysterious infant literally lands in her arms. That’d be enough for anyone to handle, but things get even more complicated when Natasha realizes that the baby might be, well, evil. Certainly people keep dying when he’s around. It’s a whole thing. De Swarte didn’t have much acting experience prior to the series — as she tells Consequence, she booked the job thanks to her work as a stand-up. “I speak about myself, my past experiences, and how it informs the decisions that I make now ultimately,” she says of her typical set. “I speak about therapy, living in the States — as I lived out...
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and More Smell the Bullshit in Trailer for George Carlin’s American Dream: Watch
As the world continues to burn in a ridiculous socio-political dumpster fire, George Carlin’s brand of cynical, no-holds-barred comedy proves all the more relevant. That means it’s the perfect time for George Carlin’s American Dream, a new documentary honoring the late comedian by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. Watch a trailer for the two-part film below. Among the comics who sing Carlin’s praises include Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Jon Stewart, who appear in the documentary’s trailer to spit off the legend’s seven dirty words with childlike glee. Elsewhere, Jerry Seinfeld puts Carlin’s influence simply: “I wanted to be just like him.” The documentary covers the comedian’s full life story, from his early, foul-mouthed success to his latter-day comeback and all the cocaine ...
Nicholas Braun Writing HBO Series About a Struggling 2000s Indie Band
Succession star and NYC nightlife darling Nicholas Braun is ready to put his music nerddom in the spotlight. The actor is teaming up with producer Chris Buongiorno to develop a half-hour series for HBO about an indie band in the early 2000s, Variety reports. Titled One for the Road, the series is described as a “candid and intimate story of a talented but dysfunctional band struggling to survive the rapidly changing landscape of independent music” in the aughts. “If anybody wants us to join their band for research please let us know,” Braun wrote on Instagram. Will this band embody the post-punk revivalism of The Strokes and Interpol? Will it initiate a much-needed electroclash renaissance by emulating long-forgotten greats like Fischerspooner or Ladytron? Or will ...
Anthony Carrigan Loves Surprises
Polite and cheerful Chechen mobster NoHo Hank is so singular a character that it’s easy to forget that Anthony Carrigan, the actor who portrays him on the HBO comedy Barry, actually hails from Boston. When SPIN caught up with Carrigan about what’s in store for the upbeat murderer on the series’ third season, it seems like even Carrigan loses the distinction for a second. “I almost slipped into Hank there,” he laughs as the Chechen accent slithers into a description of Hank’s complicated friendship with discharged Marine-turned-hitman Barry Berkman, played by series co-creator Bill Hader. Not that anyone can get enough of the character that, at one point, was going to be offed in the pilot. Regularly referred to as the show’s scene-stealer, NoHo Hank has become the character whose storyline...
Bill Hader Faces His Demons in Trailer for Barry Season 3: Watch
Barry is going back in for the kill. HBO has shared the official trailer for Season 3 of the Bill Hader-starring black comedy, which premieres on April 24th. During this go-around, Barry (Hader) is fully committed to ditching his former life as a hitman in order to pursue his newfound dream of professional acting. But it isn’t easy to get out of a past as dark and violent as his; while Barry has physically extricated himself from the circumstances that pushed him toward killing, he still has many psychological demons to face. In the trailer, a desperate Barry has tough conversations with major people from both his past and present, including his former handler Monroe (Stephen Root), and his former acting teacher Mr. Cousineau (Henry Winkler). Meanwhile, Barry’s girlfriend Sally (...
