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‘Stranger Things’ season finale succeeds by leaning into excess

by Eric Deggans STRANGER THINGS. (L to R) Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner in STRANGER THINGS. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022 One of the toughest things for an established TV show to do is surprise you. Specifically, to surprise by revealing something new about characters fans think they know, after years of watching episodes and growing attached to their…

Architect behind Googleplex now says it’s ‘dangerous’ to work at such a posh office

by Bobby Allyn For more than three decades, Clive Wilkinson has been among the most sought-after office designers in the world. He has planned spaces for the likes of Microsoft, Disney, Intuit and other companies seeking unorthodox approaches to work life. But he now has regrets about what is perhaps his most famous work: Googleplex, the tech giant’s posh headquarters in Mountain View,…

In ‘Hawkeye,’ an also-ran Avenger becomes a mentor — eventually

by Glenn Weldon (L-R): Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Mary Cybulski. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved. In the Marvel series Hawkeye, the stakes are low. Comfortably so. Cozily so, even. The planet isn’t in peril (well, any more than baseline), and the multiverse doesn’t hover on the…

A Disgraced Interrogator Gambles On Redemption In ‘The Card Counter’

by Justin Chang The signature Paul Schrader image is of a lonely middle-aged man nursing a glass of booze and writing in his diary, pouring out all his dark thoughts and guilty secrets. In the 1992 film Light Sleeper, it was a drug dealer having a midlife crisis. In the more recent First Reformed, it was a minister radicalized by the threat of climate change. Schrader likes to burrow deep…

The Peculiar Case Of Dark Matter

by Rebecca Ramirez and Emily Kwong The universe is so much bigger than what people can see, and astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan is trying to figure out that which we can not see. Producer Rebecca Ramirez talks with Priya and reports on the theory about some of the secret scaffolding of the universe: dark matter. Our team would love to hear your episode ideas. Email us…

A Boy Aims To Save His Mom — And Himself — In ‘The War For Gloria’

by Martha Anne Toll Atticus Lish’s second novel, The War For Gloria, is an ambitious book with a lot to say about family loyalty and love. The War For Gloria follows the author’s impressive debut, Preparation for the Next Life, a heart-wrenching story of love between an Iraq war vet and an undocumented immigrant, both extremely down on their luck. In his second novel, Lish dives into a…

Surfers Are Trading Natural Waves For Artificial Ones In Waco, Texas

by Jon Hamilton Nearly 200 miles from the nearest ocean, nine surfers are bobbing beneath the Texas sun in what looks like a tropical lagoon. Then a sound like a muffled jet engine fills the air, overwhelming a reggae song coming from shore. One surfer starts to paddle, and a head-high wave rises seemingly from nowhere to carry him down the line toward the sandy beach. Seconds later, two more…

In HBO’s ‘Scenes From A Marriage,’ Acting Is Everything

by Linda Holmes It’s fitting that the best promotion for the approaching premiere of HBO’s Scenes From A Marriage was a seemingly candid exchange between its stars. The slow-motion clip, which went viral, shows Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac sharing an electric(-looking) moment on the red carpet at the Venice International Film Festival. The reason it’s so fitting is that this is a series that…

You Haven’t Read A Heist Novel Like This Before

by Jessica P. Wick A rag-tag band of criminals must come together for one last heist; of course, they didn’t part on good terms after the last job … You might know this story, but you don’t yet know it in the hands of Cassandra Khaw. They transform one last heist into The All-Consuming World: a visionary, foul-mouthed, gory sci-fi adventure, dripping viscera, violence, and beauty in equal…

The Flowers For Olympic Medalists Carry Deep Meaning In Japan

by Merrit Kennedy TOKYO — If you’ve been tuning in to Olympic events, you might have noticed that every medal winner carries a small bouquet of yellow, green and deep-blue flowers tied with a blue bow. But they’re more than just flowers. The elements of the bouquet carry a deeper story, and they are years in the making. They’re meant to symbolize Japan rising from the devastating earthquake…

Prime Day Is Here. Watch Out For Fake Reviews

by Savannah Sicurella Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event has begun with the largest number of discounted items in its history. Over the next two days, customers can snag discounted big-ticket items, Amazon-branded products or any tchotchke they desire. One thing to keep in mind when shopping during Prime Day: fake product reviews on Amazon and across social media. Fake reviews often show up…

‘The Woman In The Window’ Locks Amy Adams Inside

by Linda Holmes The Woman In The Window has been a little … snakebit, let’s just get that out of the way first. Filmed in 2018 (!), it was scheduled to come out in 2019 (!!), but it was pushed to 2020 for reshoots (!!!) and then to 2021 because of the pandemic (!!!!). That’s a long road. Meanwhile, the writer of the novel on which the film is based was the subject of an explosive article in The…

Ani DiFranco – 32 Flavors

Check out this week’s video featuring Ani DiFranco performing 32 flavors on McQsJazz.com

Meet America’s Newest Chess Master, 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa Adewumi

by Mary Louise Kelly and Karen Zamora NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 03: Tanitoluwa Adewumi attends the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards during the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on May 03, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival) Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a 10-year-old in New York, just became the country’s newest national chess master. At…

She Has Style, She Has Flair And We’re There For ‘The Nanny’

by Linda Holmes and Saeed Jones LOS ANGELES – NOVEMBER 3: The Nanny, a CBS television situation comedy. Premiere episode aired November 3, 1993. Pictured from left is Daniel Davis (as Niles), the butler; Fran Drescher (as Fran Fine); Charles Shaughnessy (as Maxwell Sheffield), theatrical producer; Lauren Lane (as C.C. Babcock), Maxwells business partner. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) Fran…

Selena’s Legacy Lives On, In ‘Selena: The Series’ And Beyond

by Stephen Thompson and Maria Garcia SELENA THE SERIES (L to R) CHRISTIAN SERRATOS as SELENA QUINTANILLA in Trailer of SELENA THE SERIES Cr. NETFLIX © 2020 Selena Quintanilla was known as the “Queen Of Tejano Music,” a major Latin star who was crossing over into the mainstream U.S. pop world when she was shot and killed in 1995. She was 23 years old. Her story spawned a 1997 movie starring…

Fandom Can Be A Lot Like High School — Here’s How To Avoid The Bad Stuff

by Alan Yu The first thing Kristen Lopez remembers being a fan of is Disney, specifically the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. “I remember celebrating my birthday … and we all went and saw it, full disclosure, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean16 times in theaters to the point that I could memorize swaths of this movie,” she says. “I look back on it now and I was like, ‘god we were nerds,’ but…