Sam Richardson
Velma Goes to High School in Trailer for HBO Max’s Scooby-Doo Prequel Series: Watch
Better find your glasses, because HBO Max has unveiled the official trailer for Velma, their new origin story of the spectacled Scooby Doo character. The adult animated series premieres today, January 12th. In Velma, executive producer Mindy Kaling voices a teen version of Velma Dinkley — an outcast at her high school who gets roped into an eerie on-campus tragedy. “This is my story told my way,” she says at the beginning of the trailer. “And it starts with a murder.” The series offers a backstory into how Mystery Inc. came to be, told from Velma’s perspective. Along the way, she meets a vain Daphne (Constance Wu), a cocky Fred (Glenn Howerton), and a new Shaggy-esque character named Norville (Sam Richardson) who definitely doesn’t smoke weed. Notably, ho...
The Nostalgia of Hocus Pocus 2 Only Serves Itself
Hocus Pocus 2, the long-awaited-by-some sequel to the 1993 fantasy comedy horror film rocking the same name, is best summed up with a stray fart joke. A newly resurrected Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy), one of the three nefarious Sanderson sisters (Salem witches whose 1600s reign of terror over the town ended by the noose) stumbles into a Walgreens. She and her siblings, Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Winifred (Bette Midler), are in search of provisions, and lured into entering the pharmacy by the film’s teen heroes. One by one they walk in. Mary, awed by the automatic doors, steps through and immediately, casually, unwarrantedly trumpets her flatulence. End scene. Farts are funny when they have a point. Hocus Pocus 2’s fart has no point. Mary farts because the filmmakers, producers, and ...
Action, Murder, Musical and Romance: The Afterparty Cast and Creator on the Art of Genre-Bending
Technically, The Afterparty is one show, a murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie that tracks what happens when the celebration following a high school reunion becomes the site of tragedy for an obnoxious pop singer (Dave Franco). But it also could be said to be many different shows, as every member of the all-star cast, including Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Ben Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer, and Jamie Demetriou, is a suspect, and as Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) interviews them, their version of events mimics a popular genre of entertainment. Each episode thus focuses on one genre, from rom-com to action movie to musical and more, as meticulously recreated by creator Chris Miller, which he says evolved organically out of his original concept for the series. Advertiseme...
The Afterparty Review: Apple TV+’s Comedic Murder Mystery Might Be the Most Inventive TV Show of 2022 (So Far)
The Pitch: For those familiar with the work of 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord, there are a few constants, a major one being their talent for taking a premise and making it simultaneously very clear and simple and also deceptively complex. Apple TV+’s The Afterparty is a perfect example of this, presenting itself initially as a fairly straightforward murder mystery out of the pages of Agatha Christie, with Tiffany Haddish in the Hercule Poirot role. On its own merits, that’s an idea that would be enough to inspire interest, and then Miller (who created the series and directs every episode; Lord serves as an executive producer) adds an additional layer: Every episode, which focuses on one potential suspect’s version of events, also utilizes a different...
