AppleTV may seem like Netflix’s less appealing knockoff, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While Netflix dominates when it comes to big-budget crowd pleasers like Stranger Things, Apple offers the antidote to television fatigue. In 2022, a truly unique series hit the streamer — Severance.

Created by Dan Erickson and produced by Ben Stiller, Severance is a response to corporate culture gone amok. Erickson has always been upfront that the puzzle box mystery came about from his desire to skip through the workday at his desk job. What resulted, however, was a series far stranger and more captivating than any corporate job. Severance follows Mark S. (Adam Scott), one of four Microdata Refiners who elects to undergo the severance procedure. In a desperate attempt to cope with the grief over his dead wife, Mark severs his home memories from his work memories.

Lumon claims that the severance procedure is to protect sensitive material at the tech company, so even their employees don’t know about it. The reality is weirder and largely unexplained at this point. The series requires Severance to have specific dialogue, which makes it one of the most quotable shows on television. There is one line, however, that stands above the rest.

Ms. Cobel Delivers a Stone-Cold Line In the Premiere of ‘Severance’

It would be one thing if Dan Erickson just wrote a piece of great speculative fiction. The reality is much different than that. Severance exists in a world unlike any other. The humor, dialogue, and tone of the series are equally humorous and eerie, making it a rabid success with fans. The show establishes this in the first episode when Mark S. is promoted to team leader after the departure of his best friend, Petey.

Mark comes face-to-face with his floor manager, Ms. Cobel, played with haunting somberness by Patricia Arquette. Over the years, Cobel has delivered some harsh lines like “a handshake is available upon request” and “if you want a hug, go to Hell and find your mother.” However, her early line in Severance not only contextualizes her character, but also the entire thesis of the series. In the first episode, “Good News About Hell,” Cobel nails what Lumon is all about in one cold line.

Cobel explains that her mother is an atheist and told her that there was good news and bad news about Hell. “The good news is Hell is just the product of a morbid human imagination. The bad news is whatever humans can imagine, they can usually create.”

This quote perfectly sets up Cobel’s complex relationship with her mother and the lore being Lumon’s founder, Kier Egan. More importantly, however, it establishes the bedrock on which Severance is built. Lumon is, for all intents and purposes, Hell. The series is a social commentary on the capitalist landscape that has everyone in its grips. Workers like Mark. Helly, Irv, and Dylan are all constrained in a corporate nightmare.

Severance very purposely shows that Lumon, like many companies, only considers its workers property. Lumon severs employees’ memories, condemning them to only experience a life inside the walls of the sterile building. They can never see the sky, have a family, or read literature that isn’t corporate propaganda, like Lumon’s nine core principles. For many, that is the definition of Hell, and corporate America created it.

This dependence on capitalism has turned humans into commodities to be bought and sold. There is no clearer definition of Severance and it comes from Cobel herself. Mark and the rest of the Microdata Refiners are supposed to toil in the hellscape until they are dead or retired. The great gift of Severance is demonstrating this theme in a unique way that challenges most other stories on television.

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Release Date

February 17, 2022

Network

Apple TV

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Showrunner

Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

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Writers

Anna Ouyang Moench, Wei-Ning Yu

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As his legendary tenure at Paramount nears its end, Taylor Sheridan isn’t stepping off the gas. In fact, his signature franchise, Yellowstone, has been in aggressive expansion mode ever since the flagship show ended in 2024. Sheridan had already released two critically acclaimed prequels — 1883 and 1923 — but the post-Yellowstone era has been dominated by follow-ups to the Dutton family saga. Initially, it was reported that Sheridan’s The Madison would be set in the same universe. But following news of his departure from Paramount in 2029, it was revealed that The Madison‘s ties to the Yellowstone franchise had never existed. However, it’s a different story for the two other shows Sheridan has delivered since then.

The latest is Dutton Ranch, which is slated to premiere on Paramount+ in just over one week. The show follows the characters of Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser from the flagship series, alongside newcomers Annette Bening, Ed Harris, and Jai Courtney. Dutton Ranch will premiere on May 15, and it is all but guaranteed to claim the platform’s crown, taking over from its predecessor in the Yellowstone universe. The show preceding Dutton Ranch premiered on March 1 and will conclude its first season later this month. Unlike every other installment of the franchise, this show premiered on CBS and is presented more like a network procedural than a streaming series. Perhaps this is why fans haven’t taken to it as readily as they had with the other titles.

The Least-Liked Installment of the ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise Has Been Renewed for a New Season

We’re talking, of course, about Marshals — the show follows Luke Grimes‘ character from the original, Kayce Dutton, as he tackles crime in Montana. The show holds a 42% critics’ score and a worrying 27% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Marshals confines Kayce Dutton within a dim procedural that lacks the narrative spark and intrigue that Yellowstone managed instantly, making this one ham-fisted trek.” In his review, Collider’s Michael John Petty wrote that the show “carves out its own identity from the get-go.” Despite the poor reviews, Marshals has remained among the most-watched series on the global Paramount+ leaderboard for over two months. According to FlixPatrol, it recently passed the 60-day mark on the streamer’s domestic chart.

Marshals has been renewed for a second season, and all fans can do is to hope for it to improve with age. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

2026 – 2026

Showrunner

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Spencer Hudnut

Writers

Spencer Hudnut, Tom Mularz, Dana Greenblatt

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By Robert Scucci
| Published 22 seconds ago

Getting together with old friends is either a hit or miss kind of scenario. Sometimes, you pick up right where you left off without missing a beat, and it feels like the good old days before life sent you on wildly different paths. Or, if you’re trapped in the kind of plot that Sexy Evil Genius is laying out, it’s the worst kind of reunion. For one thing, you’re not getting together with an old friend. Instead, you’re meeting a group of people who all used to date your most significant ex, and it starts to feel like you’re about to fall into a trap.

The trap, however, has no clear exit. You’re sitting there, dumbfounded, talking to two people you’ve never met before, but still share something in common with. The lover in question shows up fashionably late with her new partner, her defense attorney who successfully got her off murder charges after she (allegedly) poisoned her boyfriend, allowing her to serve time at an institute for the criminally insane.

That’s the kind of fun that Sexy Evil Genius is going for, and in some cases, the humor lands. Overall, it’s an enjoyable watch, especially if you’re a fan of Seth Green or Katee Sackhoff. The film’s limited setting, however, leaves a lot to the imagination, and we don’t get much variation outside of the occasional flashback sequences.

A Table For Five

Sexy Evil Genius kicks off with a salesman named Zachary Newman (Seth Green) sitting down at a bar, seemingly waiting to be stood up on another date. There, he connects with a perfect stranger named Miranda Prague (Michelle Trachtenberg). After talking for a while, they realize they have one thing in common: they both used to date Nikki Franklyn (Katee Sackhoff), the one who got away, and who left an unfillable void in both of their lives. After reconnecting with Nikki through the occasional phone call, Miranda is aware of Nikki’s most recent exploits, namely how she was locked up for murdering her most recent boyfriend.

Zach and Miranda also realize that Nikki, who’s been known to pull elaborate pranks on the people she loves, probably set the evening up this way. Shortly after, another ex-lover, Marvin (Harold Perrineau), shows up, and we get more of the same background on Nikki through their conversations. Nikki, as the stories suggest, is an absolute psychopath who knows how to read the room and use it to her advantage.

For example, Marvin is really into jazz music, and this appreciation was the foundation of his long-term relationship with Nikki, who seemed to know every deep cut, major player, and genre idiosyncrasy, as if she studied jazz her whole life, impressing the professional musician. We learn through Miranda, though, that Nikki actually hates jazz and thinks it’s kitschy, ripping Marvin’s heart in half more than any breakup ever could.

When Nikki does arrive to meet her ex-lovers, she’s in the company of Bert Mayfaire (William Baldwin), her defense attorney from her murder case, who she then announces is now her fiancé.

With no clear motive for the meetup, the stakes eventually become clear when Nikki heads to the bathroom with Miranda to hint at her vague plans for “revenge,” handing her a gun “just in case,” while Bert explains to Zachary and Marvin that she’s legitimately insane and belongs behind bars, but he’s so attracted to her that he lied under oath and bribed multiple doctors and officials to get her sentence reduced. In Nikki’s mind, she’s 100 percent lucid and totally in control, only faking insanity to get out of prison. According to Bert, she’s almost always out of control, but knows how to rein it in when it matters.

A Low-Budget Bottle Thriller

While the mystery in Sexy Evil Genius is pretty basic on its face, it has a lot of fun with the premise by constantly subverting expectations. Every single person who has dated Nikki feels two ways about her: she’s an evil genius and expert-level manipulator, and she’s completely insane. The level of hyperspecificity she conjures while messing with her old flings feels almost superhuman. Her memory recall for even the most mundane details is baffling. Her cracks also show from time to time, demonstrating just how much of a loose cannon she can be if pushed hard enough.

The real fun comes from trying to figure out what her motives actually are. Is she going to murder all of her past lovers in public to prove some kind of point? Or is she trying to get out of her new relationship, subtly dropping hints to the few people who think they know her, hoping they’ll take out Bert on her behalf? There’s no real way to know until you know, but I can assure it doesn’t play out the way you’d expect.

Sexy Evil Genius is one of those low-budget bottle stories that doesn’t come around too often, but feels like a well-kept secret. Its premise is absurd enough to keep you hooked, but the tension from not knowing, even when you think you’ve figured it out, is what keeps driving things forward. As the mystery unfolds, you’ll get a few solid laughs, mostly stemming from Seth Green’s ability to play things as awkwardly as possible on command. But the real staying power comes from Katee Sackhoff’s performance, as she constantly walks the line between charming, manipulative, and completely unhinged.

As of this writing, you can stream Sexy Evil Genius for free on Tubi.

Beyoncé fans weren’t the only ones having an emotional reaction to seeing the “RENAISSANCE” singer make her first Met Gala appearance in a decade. In a new interview, 44-year-old’s mother, Tina Knowles, admitted she “shed a few tears” watching her and her granddaughter, Blue Ivy Carter, effortlessly make their way up the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art during fashion’s biggest night.

Speaking on The Today Show, Mama Tina opened up about seeing her daughter, Beyoncé, and her 14-year-old granddaughter, Blue Ivy, on the Met Gala red carpet on Monday, May 4.

“Oh, my God, I got really emotional. Shed a few tears,” Tina, who used to style Beyoncé during her early career with Destiny’s Child, said the moment was full-circle, considering the “Lemonade” singer began her career as a teen.

“It was kind of reminiscent, because Beyoncé started, you know, her first red carpet at 15, and Blue is 14. And so just seeing her out there looking confident and beautiful, it just brought tears to my eyes,” she said.

Beyoncé Appeared At The Met Gala In A Custom Sheer Gown For The First Time In A Decade

Beyoncé closed the Met Gala red carpet last night around 8:30 PM EST. The singer wore a custom Olivier Rousteing gown wrapped in crystals that make a skeleton outline. With it, Beyoncé wore a long, feathery cape and a crystal-encrusted crown.

In an interview with Vogue, Beyoncé said she decided to work with the former House of Balmain creative director for several reasons, one of which was their history. “… somebody who has been so loyal to me, and I’ve done so many iconic looks with him,” she said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Beyoncé said returning to the Met Gala since 2016’s event feels “surreal” because she has been experiencing it alongside her daughter.

Beyoncé Had A Wardrobe Change Once Inside The Met Gala

As the night progressed, images from inside the Met Gala were shared online, one of which showcased Beyoncé in a striking new gown.

The black-and-gold ensemble was designed by Robert Wun, according to PEOPLE, and was inspired “by the view from a night plane over a coastal city, seeing Earth as a golden constellation.”

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Like her Rousteing piece, the Wun gown was a striking feat of artistry, featuring over 300,000 embroidered stitches, thousands of Swarovski crystals, and requiring more than 4,300 hours of meticulous handwork.

The dress caught the attention of many social media users, one of whom said it was “perfection.”

Fans Believed Queen Bey Was Going To Use The Met Gala To Announce Her Next Album

Beyoncé fans are also convinced that the singer used the Met Gala to begin the next era of her highly anticipated trilogy, which includes 2022’s “RENAISSANCE” and 2024’s “Cowboy Carter.”

However, a source told The Today Show that Beyoncé wasn’t planning to use the Met Gala as the launching pad for the third album.

“This is what I think. I know people may disagree. I feel like that’s like proposing at someone’s wedding,” Sheinelle Jones said about the theories, to which Jenna Bush Hager agreed.

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Actor Is Getting Slammed By The BeyHive Over Flat Response About Singer’s Music

he’s mid asf and overhyped sorry i’ve been waiting for him to say something dumb to speak my truth https://t.co/SDKU3wxCid

— tigs 🇰🇪🇲🇽 (@danielesibiza) May 5, 2026

One person who didn’t seem worried about whether Beyoncé would tease her upcoming album on the red carpet was actor Paul Anthony Kelly.

The “American Love Story” actor went viral for appearing unfazed upon hearing that Beyoncé was back at the Met after a 10-year hiatus.

“Yeah, wild,” he said on the red carpet. “Super fun.” What rubbed some people the wrong way, however, was his answer when asked for his favorite Beyoncé song.

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“I don’t know,” he said flatly. “I’m a metal head.”

Some didn’t like that, though, as one X user slammed the actor before accusing them of wrongdoing.

“When people say they’ve never heard a Beyoncé or Michael Jackson song, I immediately know they either grew up in a cult or they’re a January 6th groupie. Cause how do you not know the hook or chorus of ONE Beyoncé song?” they wrote.

Another netizen roasted the actor for appearing ignorant about the 2026 Met Gala’s co-chairs. “Men don’t like it when they’re not the main character… thats also why men don’t recognise Beyonce as the greatest regardless of her having achievered way more than Michael Jackson,” they posted.

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Shannon Elizabeth’s new OnlyFans venture is about to heat up.

“My fans have come out for me like nothing I could have ever expected,” Elizabeth, 52, exclusively shared with Us Weekly on Monday, May 4, while discussing her debut success on the adult content platform.

“It’s been a while, and I didn’t know if anybody would show up, if anybody would care that I was doing content,” she continued. “To see the fans come out and support me the way they have has just been so overwhelming and humbling and exciting. It drives me to want to do more, to share more and to give back more.”

One fan who has been supportive of Elizabeth’s OnlyFans journey is actress and fellow OnlyFans user Denise Richards.

Related: Breaking Down Celebrities and Influencers’ OnlyFans Salaries

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“I reached out to Denise, actually,” Elizabeth said of her Love Actually costar. “Denise has been really helpful. She’s talked me through the whole thing, and she recommended people that she worked with who helped to teach her. I’m sure sometime in the future, maybe we’ll do a collaboration together.”

In June 2022, Richards, 55, joined the platform and quickly found monetary success. In February 2025, the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star told People that the business was “quite lucrative.”

While Elizabeth — who founded the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation in 2018 to protect endangered species, preserve critical habitats and support rangers on the frontlines — didn’t want to share specific numbers when it comes to how much money she’s made on the platform thus far, she told Us she’s been blown away by the financial benefits.

“We had no idea that we would do as well as we have,” she explained to Us. “My manager and I were talking about it, and he would say, ‘Well, you know, this might be what happens.’ But I think his quote was, at one point, he said, ‘You’ve now made more money in the span of a week or two than you did on American Pie, Scary Movie, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Love Actually combined.’”

Page Six previously reported that Elizabeth earned nearly $1 million in just one week after launching an account on the subscription-based social media platform.

“It is not my place to discuss my client’s finances, so I can’t be specific,” Elizabeth’s rep told Us on April 27 in response to the report. “But Shannon has done very well. She is overwhelmed and didn’t expect this kind of response.”

In her new interview with Us, Elizabeth was proud to share that the views of her content have surpassed 9 million — a number she admittedly cannot wrap her head around.

“It’s such an overwhelming number, and I know that it’ll taper off, and it won’t always be like the beginning,” she said. “But that’s fine because then the real fans that really want to stick with you and go on this journey with you, they settle in and we go on a long ride together. It’s exciting.”

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For those who have yet to explore Elizabeth’s OnlyFans platform, the actress describes herself as an actress, storyteller and “a little mischievous” in her bio.

Users are able to subscribe to her account for free, but will receive more access to the actress if they pay additional fees.

“It’s a way to connect with the fans, which I absolutely love,” she said. “Now I can actually share even more of what I’m doing out in the field, more of what I’m doing with my charity, more behind the scenes on set when I’m working. Anything that I’m doing now, I can share with them in a much more meaningful way.”

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 8.Daredevil: Born Again has been, admittedly, quite hit-or-miss with audiences. Some have praised the series (especially the second season) for its attempts to recapture the look and feel of the original Netflix Daredevil series. Others have criticized the Disney+ revival for its departures from the cast dynamics that made the original great, as well as its obvious political allegory. Whichever side of the camp you fall, it’s abundantly clear that Born Again is not the ratings success that Marvel likely hoped it would be. But there is one thing that may just turn the tables on the series ahead of its upcoming third season: Spider-Man.

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Hasn’t Been the Ratings Hit That It Should Have Been

Despite the fact that Daredevil: Born Again premiered to 7.5 million viewers on Disney+ back in 2025, the series itself has since failed to chart in either its first or, again now, in its second season. For such a highly anticipated MCU series, that’s a big deal. But even more damning is that ComicBookMovie reports that, according to a third-party estimation, “Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 has accumulated 4,515,000 season views.” Comparatively, the outlet notes that “Season 1 generated 8,357,000 season views,” which means that Born Again has seen a nearly 50% decease in viewership since its debut. No amount of critical praise or build-up was enough for some to dive headfirst into the Disney+ revival, which simply isn’t pulling in an audience. With Season 3 still underway, we have to wonder if even the return of the Defenders — who have been confirmed for next season — could change that.

There are a plethora of possible reasons why Daredevil: Born Again has failed to measure up in the ratings game. For one thing, the first season was cobbled together after a creative overhaul that some believe didn’t do enough to distance itself from the original tone and narrative pre-Dario Scardapane, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead. While the overhaul certainly allowed Born Again to feel more akin to the original series, the controversial decision to kill off Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and write off Deborah Ann Woll‘s Karen Page for much of the season, combined with the heavy-handed Trump allegory, likely sealed the deal for many. Born Again‘s first season may have outshined, say, The Defenders, but it struggled to touch the original series at its peak. So, by the time Season 2 took those lessons to heart and further corrected some of its past mistakes, audiences were no longer interested.

Of course, what might actually make an impact on the ratings future of Born Again is if Charlie Cox‘s Daredevil were to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer — and we do mean Daredevil, not Matt Murdock, who previously showed up as Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home. We’re talking masked heroes in live-action, battling common street-level crooks and supervillains on the rooftops and back alleys of New York City. Since Marvel appears to be rebranding the MCU Spider-Man as a more “street-level” hero — a term dropped by Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Kingpin in Born Again Season 1 — it stands to reason that perhaps the best way to get audiences to return to that corner of NYC is by giving us the Spidey/Daredevil team-up we’ve long hoped for. And some of us have been waiting since Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck wore the masks and skin-tight outfits…

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Presents a Golden Opportunity for Daredevil

Although the Season 2 finale, “The Southern Cross,” could certainly complicate things for this MCU crossover, there is no telling when exactly on the timeline that Brand New Day is set. What little we see from the trailers shows Spider-Man battling members of The Hand, the assassin organization that Matt battled back in Daredevil Season 2 and The Defenders. One shot even looks as if Spidey and The Hand are fighting in prison, which could connect to Matt’s fate in the finale. (Alternatively, this could be a montage sequence chronicling Peter’s life post-No Way Home, leaving the door open for Daredevil to appear.) With The Hand’s return, it may be possible to see Spidey battle the Hand alongside Daredevil — especially if we consider Marvel Studios’ practice of promoting their films with incomplete or deceptive shot compositions. In any event, this could be a moment of synergetic crossover that could work in Marvel’s favor.

While Daredevil has always been a part of his own corner of the MCU, Spider-Man has intersected with the entire franchise, and his popularity alone may help boost The Man Without Fear ahead of his third season next year. Prior to Born Again, Daredevil and Kingpin appeared on shows like Hawkeye, Echo, and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, all building toward their eventual revival series, and there’s no reason that technique could not be replicated. (Even Jon Bernthal‘s Frank Castle, who began his run on Daredevil, is showing up in Brand New Day, leaving us to wonder if Matt isn’t far behind.) Seeing the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen in action beside our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man may just be the best thing for Born Again‘s image — and Daredevil’s MCU future.

Daredevil: Born Again airs Tuesdays on Disney+.

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Release Date

March 4, 2025

Network

Disney+

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Showrunner

Dario Scardapane

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Directors

Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Writers

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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree

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President Donald Trump is apparently concerned for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ health after his season-ending injury last year.

“Most importantly, how’s Mahomes doing?” the president, 79, asked Slap’s BBQ owners, Mike and Joe Pearce, of the NFL player’s status while hosting the brothers at the White House on Monday, May 4, according to a video shared via X.

Mike and Joe assured Trump that Mahomes was recovering, but Trump seemed unconvinced and had more than a few follow-up questions.

“Is he going to be OK?” he asked, before sharing, “You tell the people we love him. He’s gotta be OK.”

Trump also asked the Kansas City locals if they thought Mahomes would make it on the field for the start of the 2026-2027 NFL season. The eatery owners told Trump they were “hoping” Mahomes would be able to suit up for the season opener in week one. (The NFL has not released its official schedule at the time of publication.)

“He’s gonna be close right?” Trump asked of Mahomes’ status, again, before calling the quarterback a “fantastic guy.”

Trump also asked the brothers if they have interacted with Mahomes or any of the Kansas City Chiefs players. The restaurateurs shared that the Chiefs organization has ordered from their restaurant “quite a bit from time to time.”

“You let him know, I want him to get better fast, I hope he plays the whole season,” Trump reiterated.

Mahomes ended the NFL season early last year after tearing his ACL and ICL in December 2025. After undergoing surgery, Mahomes gave an update on his recovery process and his hopes for the following season.

“The doctor kind of gives you goals to get to,” he shared via a January Instagram video. “I just try to maximize those — they hold me back, because I always want to go a little bit further. I want to be ready for Week 1.”

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The quarterback continued, “The doctors said I could be, but I can’t predict what happens throughout the process. You want to be out there healthy and give us the best chance to win. I hope to do some things in [Organized Team Activities] and training camp, and be able to do a lot there.”

Coach Andy Reid has also remained optimistic about Mahomes’ reuniting with the team.

“Every player is different. I will tell you though, I would never bet against him,” Reid, 68, said during the NFL’s annual meetings in March, per ESPN. “He’s going to put in the time and effort and always push it but within reason, so he doesn’t take steps back.”

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2 finale

As Daredevil: Born Again reaches its Season 2 finale Tuesday night on Disney+, everything is unraveling at once in the tense hour of “The Southern Cross.” Our titular hero, Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox, exposes himself as Matt Murdock to stop Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). But it’s that courthouse sequence that turns the sophomore season into a real battleground — and bloodbath. Just as Fisk loses control of the narrative he’s been carefully building all season, Wilson Bethel’s sharp-shooting Bullseye shows up. Not so much as part of the plan, but as the thing that completely breaks things apart.

That unpredictability carries into the episode’s final moments, too. In an interview with Collider, Bethel hints that ol’ Poindexter’s story is far from over, especially once Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) enters the picture. “Bullseye at the end of the day, in a lot of the comics, is just a straight-up hitman for hire,” he says, adding that “I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility for a government to be the one that comes up with the money to hire him.”

It’s that last scene of Dex with Charles on the plane that reframes Daredevil’s nemesis as not exactly rescued or redeemed, but possibly stepping into something bigger and more dangerous. Because, as Bethel points out, his character is still “operating for himself and through his own very specific lens.” Whatever deal he’s making now, it’s likely on his terms since that finale twist feels less like an ending and more like a handoff that leaves Matt behind bars, Fisk in exile to a lonely island, and Bullseye heading somewhere no one can really control.

Bethel Brought Back One Tiny Bullseye Habit From Netflix’s Daredevil

Dex’s coin trick was Bethel’s way of showing how Bullseye constantly sharpens his killer instincts.

Image via Disney+

Before we talk about the finale for Daredevil: Born Again, what’s a small detail about Bullseye this season compared to the Netflix seasons that fans might not notice, but you really love that you brought to the screen?

BETHEL: That’s a cool question. Well, one thing I brought back from the Netflix show, it’s a small detail, is this thing that Bullseye does with the coin in his fingers. He does it at the diner. He does it, I think, in another scene as well. That was something I started back in the Netflix days. It was this idea I had that Bullseye is somebody whose hands are so essential to who he is as a killer that he is always sort of honing his dexterity. So that’s just a little thing that he does to keep his hands fresh.

I love bringing stuff like that in. There are a lot of little things. There’s one scene that got cut, unfortunately, that I loved that was a sort of throwback, and there’s still a piece of it in the show, but now you won’t quite catch it, maybe. In Episode 4, when Daredevil comes to Dex’s apartment, and they have the fight in the apartment, Dex has got a Discman on, and one of the original ideas there was that he’s got the old tapes that he used to listen to, back in the day, in the Netflix show. But anyway, those are a couple of little details.

Those are great. So, when Bullseye tells Matt he killed Foggy, there’s no remorse in that conversation. It’s just sort of a fact. Is that how he processes it, or does he understand the weight of what he’s done to somebody who really cared about someone else?

BETHEL: That’s a great question. Empathy is not really part of Dex’s skill set, so he might be able to understand it on an intellectual level to a degree. What’s fascinating to me about that conversation is that the emotion that’s coming from Dex is about his own struggle and has really nothing to do with what poor Matt’s been through with the death of his best friend. That’s one of the confounding, interesting, and really fun-to-play elements of this character is that he is so in his own world. What’s happening in other people’s hearts and other people’s minds just doesn’t even register on his radar. He’s operating for himself and through his own very specific lens. Of course, that can mean that his perception of a larger reality is extremely skewed, which, again, is what makes it fun.

Bethel Breaks Down Bullseye and Karen’s Haunting Reunion

Bullseye’s first words to Karen matter because longtime Daredevil fans know exactly what those two words mean.

Image via Disney

For sure. You’ve had some great scenes this season, also, with Deborah [Ann Woll]. I thought that was a great scene, the moment you guys are sharing. There’s this push and pull of her being so upset and angry, and she just wants to kill him.

BETHEL: Literal push and pull! She pushes me away, pulling me in with a gun to my head.

What was that like sharing that scene with her? It is so emotionally charged.

BETHEL: Dude, for starters, Deborah is obviously a powerhouse in this show. I think that in so many ways, she’s sort of the emotional heart of this whole show, and when she gets to really show that off, and when her character gets dropped into those moments where she’s feeling so much, I think it just draws the whole narrative, in an amazing way, together.

I loved getting to do that scene, partly because the emotional stakes are obviously so high, and I think she carries that so well, and that these two characters, again, just speaking on what we mentioned before in the other part of the interview, there’s so much history now between these characters. It really makes it fun, man. So when Dex, in that scene, wakes up out of his little semi-coma or whatever, then his first words are, “Hello, Karen,” anybody who’s been watching the show since the Netflix days knows that those two words mean a lot.

It was very haunting — almost sort of chilling in that sense. Throughout the season, Matt refuses to let Bullseye kill Fisk because it would make Fisk a martyr. Knowing what the politics behind all that is, do you think Bullseye understands that kind of long-term thinking at all, or is he sort of like in his own element right now?

BETHEL: To my earlier point, I don’t think it really concerns him. He has his own point of view, and he’s so firm. Nothing you’re going to say is going to talk him out of his point of view. So, yeah, he’s not logical.

That’s such an interesting thing about him. I used to wonder, in past seasons, obviously, maybe he’s got a little bit of a heart there. Maybe he does care more than you see. But then you see the opposite.

BETHEL: Just to be clear, the two things are not mutually exclusive. You know what I mean? Like, this is a mentally ill person. So, it’s not that he doesn’t have a heart. It’s that his brain is so tremendously clouded and afflicted that he can’t see things clearly a lot of the time. But I think that’s one of the interesting things is that, I think there are moments from when we first started doing this series where Dex’s heart actually is visible in different ways, and part of that is what has allowed people to respond to this character as much as they have and why he, to most people’s eyes, does not register as a traditional villain in a lot of ways. Because there’s a lot going on under the surface that you can’t necessarily fault him for, and that he is very clearly human. He’s not just like some robot killer.

Also, with Bullseye cutting through Fisk’s fake Bullseye team, taking over the sniper position, that felt like he was reclaiming his identity in real time. Did you approach that as him correcting an imitation, or like, “This is who I am. Don’t mess with me?”

BETHEL: It’s funny, I don’t think that I actually thought of it that way when I was shooting it, but I actually like your version. So now, if anyone else asks, that is Bullseye reclaiming himself. Hell yeah, girl! Thank you for that.

Bullseye’s Plane Scene May Point to His Next Shady Mission

The finale with Mr. Charles suggests Dex may be recruited into something bigger, not simply rescued.

Image via Prime Video

[Laughs] You’re totally welcome. So by the end, when Bullseye is on the plane with Mr. Charles, Matthew Lillard — great to see him on the show — it does feel like he’s being absorbed into something bigger. I know you can’t say too much, but there is that Easter egg of Mr. Charles speaking to Allegra, which we assume is her. Do you want the audience to feel like he’s being rescued or recruited, or just reassigned somewhere?

BETHEL: Yeah, I think there’s a very fair assumption to make, and I certainly won’t push back on it. We know from the comics, too, that at various moments, Bullseye has worked for the government in all kinds of shady capacities. Bullseye at the end of the day, in a lot of the comics, is just a straight-up hitman for hire, and so, I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility for a government to be the one that comes up with the money to hire him.

I know you said that Bullseye has this trajectory where he doesn’t really see anything else outside what he wants, but going from working under Vanessa to potentially working with Mr. Charles, does that feel like progress for him or just like the same cycle under a different boss?

BETHEL: I think it all depends on the terms of the arrangement. How much freedom does a guy like that get to be who he is? I think that’s what it comes down to. With Vanessa and with Fisk, in their separate arrangements, whether from Season 3 of the Netflix show or Season 1 of Born Again, those were both versions of Dex operating from a weakened position of leverage. With Fisk, he was being actively manipulated. With Vanessa, he had to make that deal essentially to get out of an institution; otherwise, he was going to die there, probably, and that is how he got his mind back. But I like to think that if he’s making any kind of bargains or deals about what his future holds at this point, he’s doing it from a position of power, and I think that gives him a lot more freedom.

Bethel Knows Exactly Which Marvel Heroes Bullseye Should Fight Next

Bethel hopes Tom Holland makes another Spider-Man movie — and that Bullseye gets to be part of it.

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

I know you can’t get into specifics, but what does that ending suggest to you about his future in the MCU, and is there a character you’d love to see him go up against?

BETHEL: Man, look, one of the things that I think is amazing about this character is I think he would operate so well in so many different scenarios and contexts. Obviously, he’s not a character that would function particularly well against, like, Galactus, but I think it would be a hell of a lot of fun to see him up against somebody like Spider-Man. It’d be a hell of a lot of fun to see him against somebody like Hawkeye. It would be a hell of a lot of fun to see him go up against Punisher. So I think there are a lot of different avenues that this character could continue to be used in, and I sure hope I get to do a lot more of it.

I know that Spider-Man’s coming up, and the Punisher is in it, so who’s to say?

BETHEL: Let’s just hope that Tom Holland decides to do another one, and I can be a part of that one.

Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.

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Release Date

March 4, 2025

Network

Disney+

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Showrunner

Dario Scardapane

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Directors

Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Writers

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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree

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If you’re after traditional Westerns, you’re not going to find them here. The movies that make up Robert Rodriguez’s Mexico trilogy are all a little offbeat, unusual at times, and also a good deal more violent than most Westerns. Not, like, Bone Tomahawk level or anything, but they’re probably not the sorts of Westerns your dad or grandfather would like, unless they’re open-minded, or they might if they dug spaghetti Westerns back in the day. Not that these are spaghetti Westerns, but they’ve got that sort of attitude and playfulness, all the while being very, you know, Mexico-heavy. It’s the Mexico trilogy, or it’s sometimes called the El Mariachi or Desperado trilogy.

Those are the two movies that begin the trilogy, which things come to a messy and explosive climax with Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which isn’t quite Once Upon a Time in the West or Once Upon a Time in America quality-wise, but it’s about what you’d expect an epic, by Rodriguez’s standards, to look like. He’s always been an interesting filmmaker, having made some very violent and goofy movies alongside some very nonviolent goofy movies, like Spy Kids. And there was also Alita: Battle Angel, and the visually distinctive Sin City. But… sorry, no. Best to stick to the Mexico trilogy. Not a bad place to start, since El Mariachi is an almost perfect introduction to Rodriguez’s filmmaking style in a couple of ways.

What Happens Throughout the ‘Mexico’ Trilogy

What happens in these movies? It’s not super important. It’s not a trilogy like The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy, but it isn’t as loose as, say, a thematic trilogy like Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy. It rides a line between narrative and thematic trilogy, possibly being most comparable to the three Sam Raimi-directed Evil Dead movies, just because they got more polished and expansive – not to mention increasingly comedic – as they went along, and the trajectory from El Mariachi to Desperado to Once Upon a Time in Mexico isn’t too dissimilar.

In El Mariachi, the titular character is not yet played by Antonio Banderas, but Carlos Gallardo instead. Mariachi is going through a town, all of it with a very neo-Western feel, and then he’s mistaken for a criminal, which sends his life temporarily into violent chaos. He has to fight his way from/through a bunch of adversaries. Then, in Desperado, the budget was much bigger, and the narrative got a little more ambitious, with Mariachi seeking revenge after losing much of what was important to him during the chaotic events of El Mariachi. Salma Hayek memorably joins the cast here, while the likes of Steve Buscemi (playing a character named Buscemi), Cheech Marin, and Danny Trejo are all fun in supporting roles. There’s more revenge being sought in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Mariachi can’t catch a break), and a whole heap of wacky characters that make it veer perhaps a little close to broadly comedic territory at times.

The Significance of the ‘Mexico’ Trilogy Within Robert Rodriguez’s Filmography

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

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Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes, Enrique Iglesias, and even Willem Dafoe (the latter in a somewhat questionably cast role) all appeared in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and it signified that Robert Rodriguez had really made it, as a full-on director, by this time. Like, Depp was in the game-changing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl the same year Once Upon a Time in Mexico came out, and he has a sizable role in the latter, so that likely raised the trilogy’s – and Rodriguez’s – profiles further. Once Upon a Time in Mexico had problems, but it showed he could do something bigger than he had before, and if it led to him getting a job as the co-director on the remarkable Sin City two years later, then that can’t be anything but a good thing.

It’s most interesting to consider El Mariachi within the filmography of Robert Rodriguez, though. He famously made it for very little money when he was still in his early 20s, and some of that money came from the director himself participating in experimental clinical drug testing. Like Kevin Smith with Clerks, he took a huge risk and made something strange for not much money, albeit still had it feel like a risk, and then things paid off. Desperado, then, was Rodriguez doing what Raimi did with Evil Dead 2, saying, “Yeah, see what I did with a few thousand bucks? Give me a few million and I’ll blow you away.” Okay, maybe he didn’t say exactly that. But he could’ve, and then he would’ve blown them away, because he handled that far greater budget with style ($7000 for El Mariachi versus $7 million for Desperado… the El Mariachi budget went up during some extra post-production, but still, they did all the planning, filming, and editing to a standard for a home video release with $7000… the added budget was to make it look a little more presentable for a theatrical release).

How the ‘Mexico’ Trilogy’s Wildness and Sense of Escalation Make It Rewatchable

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

The rest could be history, if Rodriguez had stopped making movies, or if he were procrastinating like Quentin Tarantino (they go way back), but Rodriguez is still active and doing his own thing. He’s a filmmaker who’s easy to respect and one worth reading into if you yourself have ever had aspirations of working within the film industry. His endeavors while making the Mexico trilogy and beyond are continually interesting, and the El Mariachi production is covered well in a Rodriguez-written book called Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player.

It’s fun to rewatch El Mariachi having already read about it, or it’s also one of the most enjoyable movies to revisit with Rodriguez’s enlightening audio commentary. Desperado is fun to watch again and again because it’s such a relentless action movie that wastes no time giving people what they want, and then Once Upon a Time in Mexico… well, it’s interesting. It’s a mess, but parts of that mess are fun, and the other parts of the mess you just have to struggle through. But such troubled films do sometimes find themselves worthy of critical re-evaluation eventually, one day, so who knows? It might end up happening to Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The only way to know is to not pretend it doesn’t exist and perhaps rewatch it from time to time.

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El Mariachi

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Release Date

February 22, 1993

Runtime

81 minutes

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Director

Robert Rodriguez

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Producers

Carlos Gallardo

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  Carlos Gallardo

  El Mariachi

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