The past few months have been stellar on Apple TV, cementing the streamer as one of the very best among difficult competition. Not only have the likes of the comedy-drama Shrinking, the epic Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the utterly gripping Your Friends & Neighbors delivered hit new seasons, but the streamer has also dropped brand-new success stories, including the Elle Fanning-led adaptation, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and a fresh, acclaimed new adaptation of Cape Fear.

But can Apple TV continue its near-perfect run of shows? Well, if its latest returning favorite is anything to go by, 2026 hasn’t even reached top gear yet. On June 19, the Colin Farrell-led 2024 series Sugar made its hotly anticipated Season 2 debut, as the titular private eye hiding a blue-skinned sci-fi secret returned. The first season earned plenty of acclaim, being called “exceptionally strong” in Collider’s review. But with such a high bar to hit, could Sugar Season 2 match expectations?

Not only has the series returned with a bang, but Sugar Season 2 has landed a sweet, perfect score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. ScreenRant called it “Apple TV’s best detective series,” whilst CBR said, “Colin Farrell’s Apple TV mystery gets even better.” For Collider, Nate Richard was more reserved in his assessment, writing in his review: “There are moments of pure thrills and intrigue, but Season 2 often becomes bogged down by a story that gets sloppier the deeper it goes.” While the series is Certified Fresh, Season 2’s score is currently down significantly from Season 1’s near-perfect 96% at a still respectable 81%.

Will There Be More ‘Sugar’?

With Sugar‘s return proving a critical smash, and with the show already back near the top of the streaming charts in America, will we see more of the titular private investigator in the future? If Farrell were to have his way, the show would run for many more years, according to a new interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub. “I would love to get four or five seasons out of this,” Farrell openly admitted, before doubling down. “I would love to get four or five seasons. I can’t get a straight answer out of Apple because they pretty much go season to season, which I get, it’s a business, based on the viewership and all that kind of jazz.” Farrell then confirmed that, in August, “we’ll know whether we get a third season or not.”

Sugar is available to stream on Apple TV. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

April 4, 2024

Network

Apple TV

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Showrunner

Mark Protosevich, Sam Catlin

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By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 3 minutes ago

The Goa’uld served as the Big Bad in Stargate SG-1, using the near-immortality of genetic memory and lifespans reaching thousands of years to pose as Gods ruling over less advanced species. As a worm-like parasitic species, the Goa’uld weren’t often shown on camera outside of a host body, allowing the show to save on special effects but more importantly, the thought of someone becoming a Goa’uld host was a constant threat after seeing what happened to Kawalsky in “Enemy Within.” That’s why when Teal’c realizes his son is going to become a Goa’uld host in “Bloodlines,” the tension is so high, it’s understandable that Daniel Jackson takes advantage of the situation to murder as many Goa’uld as possible. 

SG-1 Goes Behind Enemy Lines

“Bloodlines” is the first time that Teal’c (Christopher Judge) opens up to the team about his family, worried that he’d appear vulnerable if they knew his family was held hostage by the enemy. What he didn’t expect was for O’Neil (Richard Dean Anderson), Jackson (Michael Shanks), and Carter (Amanda Tapping) to lie to General Hammond (Don S. Davis) about a mission to retrieve a Goa’uld larvae, in a ruse that lasts all of 30 seconds, before the Commander authorizes a rescue mission. 

What no one counted on, was that a return to Chulak behind enemy lines and going face-to-face with the Goa’uld would result in Jackson briefly losing his mind. While O’Neil is with Teal’c saving his son, Rya’c, Jackson and Carter sneak into the Temple to steal a Goa’uld larvae. They pull off the heist, but Jackson hesitates. He wants to destroy the entire nursery, which Carter talks him out of with the standard “don’t be like the Goa’uld” argument, but it doesn’t work. Jackson unloads his gun into the Goa’uld nursery and kills every larvae inside. 

Daniel Jackson Wants To Kill Them All

Jackson’s belief that every Goa’uld in that nursery will one day infect a human isn’t wrong, and while it goes unspoken in the moment, he’s still dealing with what happened to his wife, Sha’re (Vaitiare Bandera). The Goa’uld System Lord Apophis (Peter Williams) forcibly implanted a Goa’uld within her and made her into his bride. He can only imagine how she’s suffering under Apophis, and with that going through his head, his crashout is perfectly valid. 

Granted, in the next scene with the two, Carter barely hesitates before a perfectly timed grenade triple-kill on Jaffa guards. Her hesitation over killing the larvae was that they were helpless, otherwise, she has no qualms with blowing away the enemy. Given that the Goa’uld are pure evil with no redeeming qualities, and that yes, the universe is better without them in it, by the time Season 5 rolls around, anyone from Stargate Command wouldn’t hesitate to blow up every Goa’uld nursery they come across. 

Stargate SG-1 often puts the team in a position to make the hard choices. Teal’c makes one of his own when he purposely implants a larvae inside Rya’c to save his life, followed immediately by another when he leaves his family behind. Killing Goa’uld isn’t one of those hard choices. Trying to not kill the host, that becomes a problem, but credit the writers for developing an alien race so vile and insidious, no one is rooting for them.

Romance has existed in literature for centuries, and in mythology for millennia before that, but the twentieth century produced some of the genre’s most enduring masterpieces. The greatest romance books serve up dramatic plots while also exploring deeper themes, like identity, sacrifice, obsession, and loss.

With that in mind, this list attempts to rank some of the finest of them, from intimate character studies to epic historical sagas. Whether tragic, hopeful, or bittersweet, these novels demonstrate love’s power to shape (and upend) entire lives.

10

‘The Thorn Birds’ (1977)

“There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life.” The Thorn Birds is a sweeping family saga that spans decades and multiple generations, following the Cleary family as they build a life in the harsh Australian outback. However, the heart of the novel is the relationship between Meggie Cleary and Father Ralph de Bricassart. Their connection is profound and passionate but seemingly impossible, constrained by Ralph’s ambition within the Catholic Church and the demands of faith.

In other words, theirs is a doomed love, one shaped by sacrifice, missed opportunities, and painful choices, and the book is honest about the challenges they face. Unlike most romances, which tend to be optimistic to the point of fantasy, The Thorn Birds is realistic. It acknowledges that love alone cannot always overcome circumstance. Nevertheless, the story resonated, turning the novel into a huge bestseller.

9

‘Outlander’ (1991)

“For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary.” Diana Gabaldon‘s magnum opus blends historical fiction with fantasy, adventure, and intense romance. In it, former World War II nurse Claire Randall is mysteriously transported from 1945 to eighteenth-century Scotland. Stranded in a dangerous and unfamiliar world, she becomes involved with Highland warrior Jamie Fraser. This juicy premise sets the stage for an epic tale of love, war, and political intrigue.

The setting is rich and well-researched, really immersing the reader in the historical details. Claire and Jamie must navigate real issues of the time, like clan rivalries and the looming Jacobite conflicts. That said, the book’s strongest feature is probably the characterization. Claire is an unusually independent and capable person, especially by the standards of the genre. Jamie, meanwhile, is noble and charismatic without feeling idealized.

8

‘Rebecca’ (1938)

Image via Virago

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Most people will be more familiar with Hitchcock‘s movie version, but the original Rebecca novel is a masterpiece in its own right. It follows a young unnamed woman who marries the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter and moves to his estate, Manderley. There, she finds herself living in the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the seemingly perfect Rebecca. What follows is a romance suffused with Gothic mystery and psychological tension.

The atmosphere is unforgettable. Manderley feels almost alive, filled with memories, secrets, and lingering traces of Rebecca’s presence. A sense of dread hangs over it all. The romance is therefore not simply about falling in love, but about insecurity, jealousy, identity, and the difficulty of truly knowing another person. As the protagonist gradually uncovers the truth about Rebecca, both she and the reader are forced to reassess everything they thought they knew about what devotion really means.

7

‘The English Patient’ (1992)

Image via McClelland and Stuart

“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes.” Set during the final days of World War II, The English Patient follows several characters living in a ruined Italian villa, including a badly burned man known only as the English patient. As his memories gradually emerge, readers learn the story of his passionate affair with the married Katharine Clifton… and the tragedy that followed. Their relationship has all the hallmarks of a classic romance: longing, secrecy, intensity.

However, the novel stands above most stories in this genre thanks to the author’s brilliant prose. Michael Ondaatje’s writing is poetic, filled with evocative imagery and beautifully observed details. The desert landscapes and bombed-out villas are rendered with such richness that they become inseparable from the characters’ emotional lives. The result is a book that feels almost dreamlike and immersive, rewarding careful reading.

6

‘Doctor Zhivago’ (1957)

“Man is born to live, not to prepare for life.” This one served as the basis for David Lean‘s legendary epic. Doctor Zhivago tells the story of Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet whose life is transformed by the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Amid political upheaval and social chaos, Yuri falls deeply in love with Lara, a woman whose fate repeatedly intersects. The book is an interesting fusion of historical scope and personal focus, serving as a snapshot of a whole country while also going deep into the psychology of the protagonists.

Doctor Zhivago is also deeply philosophical. Writer Boris Pasternak uses the characters to explore themes of freedom, morality, creativity, and individual identity. Many of these reflections come from Yuri himself, who makes for a deeply perceptive main character. Ultimately, the book earned its author the Nobel Prize for Literature, much to the Soviet Union’s chagrin.

5

‘A Farewell to Arms’ (1929)

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” This Hemingway classic centers on Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian Army during World War I. Amid the chaos and brutality, he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Their relationship becomes a refuge from the destruction surrounding them, and the author’s stripped-down approach ensures that it feels intimate and honest.

Hemingway’s famously spare, understated writing conveys enormous emotional depth without sentimentality. Rather than relying on melodrama, he allows simple conversations and quiet moments to carry weight. The lovers are constantly confronted by forces beyond their control, giving everything a sense of impermanence and vulnerability. Through this, A Farewell to Arms explores timeless ideas: love as a sanctuary, the inevitability of loss, and the struggle to find meaning in an indifferent world.

4

‘Gone with the Wind’ (1936)

“After all, tomorrow is another day.” Yet another classic that was turned into an equally impressive movie. Gone with the Wind introduces one of literature’s most vivid heroines in the determined, ambitious, and sometimes selfish Scarlett O’Hara, who struggles to survive the American Civil War and its aftermath. Once again, the sweep of the story is epic, but the centre of gravity is the protagonist’s complicated relationship with Rhett Butler.

Their romance is compelling precisely because it’s so combustible. Scarlett and Rhett are passionate, stubborn, proud, and deeply flawed individuals whose desires and ambitions frequently place them at odds with one another. Their relationship unfolds over many years, filled with misunderstandings and missed opportunities, mirroring the social turbulence around them. In the end, while aspects of the book are controversial today, its influence on romantic fiction is undeniable.

3

‘The End of the Affair’ (1951)

“A story has no beginning or end.” This one was written by the influential British journalist and novelist Graham Greene, and it ranks among his very best work. The End of the Affair begins after the collapse of a passionate affair between writer Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles, the wife of a British civil servant. Unable to move on, Maurice becomes obsessed with understanding why Sarah ended their relationship. His search for answers uncovers secrets involving faith, sacrifice, jealousy, and love.

While the plot itself seems simple, Greene handles it with unusual psychological depth. Maurice is a compelling narrator because he’s so three-dimensional, simultaneously intelligent, witty, bitter, and painfully self-aware. His jealousy drives much of the story, and, through him, Greene fearlessly examines the darker aspects of romance, including possessiveness, resentment, and despair. Here, love can be inspiring or endlessly destructive.

2

‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ (1985)

Image via Gabriel García Márquez/Vintage

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” One of Gabriel García Márquez‘s masterworks, Love in the Time of Cholera tells the extraordinary story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, whose youthful romance is interrupted when Fermina chooses to marry another man. Refusing to abandon his feelings, Florentino spends more than fifty years waiting for another chance to be with the woman he loves.

Márquez spins this setup into a moving slice of magical realism, buoyed along by his rich prose. The emotions are heightened, and there’s a kind of grandeur to even the everyday moments. It makes for a beautiful examination of love’s contradictions. All this culminates in a brilliant final chapter, ranking among the very best in all of fiction.

1

‘The Great Gatsby’ (1925)

Image via Scribner/F Scott. Fitzgerald

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The Great Gatsby is like a talisman of the 1920s, preserving that decade in amber, while also serving up one of the most influential love stories ever. Narrated by Nick Carraway, the novel centers on the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsessive devotion to Daisy Buchanan, a woman he has loved for years despite her marriage to another man. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy to comment on idealism, longing, memory, and the American Dream.

Gatsby’s romance is not simply about winning back a lost love. It becomes a symbol of his desire to recapture an imagined past and achieve an impossible ideal. This makes his devotion admirable in some respects and deeply tragic, even repulsive in others. Here, romance gets entangled with wealth, status, nostalgia, and illusion. A classic.

By Robert Scucci
| Published 55 seconds ago

I recently had the displeasure of watching Coyote Ugly for the first time ever after my friends said that I’d love to hate on it, but I can see why this film was an absolute commercial hit in the year 2000. While romantic comedy-dramas aren’t typically the kind of films I seek out for leisure viewing, I’m always intrigued by films that have a massive disconnect between their critical and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

Coyote Ugly is a perfect film to dissect because its 23 percent critical score against its 71 percent audience score tells me that either critics completely missed the point, or that audiences are simply enjoying the film by letting their guard down and not watching it critically. However, I find that I fall somewhere in the middle because it’s a fun movie, but not without a lot of problems that are hard to overlook.

Just A Small-Town Girl…

Coyote Ugly centers on Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo), a small-town girl from South Amboy, New Jersey, who has always dreamed of moving to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a famous singer-songwriter.

Her confidence is quickly shaken when she realizes that nobody is interested in her demo tape, mostly due to the fact that she doesn’t want to perform her music herself because of her stage fright. An emotional throughline is established when it’s revealed that she’s trying to follow in her late mother’s footsteps and that her father, Bill (John Goodman), doesn’t necessarily approve of her big-city aspirations.

Becoming A Coyote

Down on her luck and in serious need of steady employment, Violet overhears a bunch of “Coyotes” at a diner who are just getting off their shift and counting the money they earned while working at the notorious Coyote Ugly Saloon. Violet seeks out the owner, Lil (Maria Bello), lands an “audition” for a bartending job, and proves herself to be a valuable asset to the club that’s known for its female staff setting the bar on fire, swinging from the rafters, and breaking up fights when drunken patrons get too rowdy.

After Violet belts out a blistering rendition of “One Way Or Another” to subdue an unruly crowd, she finds her new home at Coyote Ugly, but still can’t shake her stage fright when it comes to performing her own music.

Violet And Kevin

Everything changes for Violet when she forms a romantic relationship with Kevin O’Donnell (Adam Garcia), a working-class man who wants to help her push her music career to the next level. Coyote Ugly truly gets ugly when Violet diverts all of her time and attention to her bartending cohorts, much to the disapproval of her father and Kevin. Just as quickly as Violet makes a name for herself as a Coyote, she burns every single bridge that once held her up as she loses site of her goals.

Patently Unlikable Protagonist

While Coyote Ugly has all the elements of an effective rom-com, it’s not without its shortcomings. The biggest issue I have with the film is that Violet is a patently unlikable protagonist, as she pushes away every single person who is actively trying to help her realize her life-long dream. She has no problem standing on top of a bar singing along with the jukebox, but repeatedly refuses to perform at open-mic outings that Kevin’s gracious enough to book for her.

Violet’s shifts in personality also lack subtlety because she goes from naive to overconfident at the drop of a hat, all while lacking the self-awareness she needs to have to become the redeeming character that I’d actually want to root for. To put it bluntly, Coyote Ugly plays out like a PG-13 version of Showgirls.

Fun If You Don’t Take It Seriously

At the end of the day, Coyote Ugly does exactly what it sets out to do. It tells a simple story about a young woman trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps. But Violet’s character is written so poorly that I found myself gritting my teeth instead of hoping she’d succeed.

However, the scenes set in the Coyote Ugly bar itself are high-energy, packed with humor, and paced in a way that makes for a solid viewing experience if you allow yourself to have just a little bit of fun. As of this writing, you can stream Coyote Ugly on Hulu, but I strongly recommend that you put on your dancing shoes first.

By Robert Scucci
| Updated 17 seconds ago

While I spend most of my time watching bargain-bin, straight-to-VHS trash that’s typically found streaming on Tubi, I’m not averse to the occasional rom-com that the whole family can enjoy. Meet the Parents (2000) came out when I was 12, and I fondly remember watching it in theaters with my parents and eventually getting some reps on it when it was added to our DVD collection. I had similar feelings about Meet the Fockers for the same exact reason. They’re the kind of comedies that border on awkward and raunchy, but you could have your girlfriend or a group of friends over, watch it with your boomer parents, and have a good laugh.

Here’s what’s strange about the Meet the Parents franchise, though: I have fond memories of the first two movies and the people I watched them with, but I actually had to undergo hypnosis (read: fire up Netflix) to remember what even happened in the third film, 2010’s Little Fockers. It’s a total nothingburger of a movie that doesn’t come close to capturing the charm and charisma of its predecessors.

I’ll approach the release of this year’s Focker-In-Law with guarded enthusiasm. If it’s anywhere close to the first two movies, I think it’ll fare well. If it’s more like the 2010 film, however, the franchise is as good as dead.

Two Near-Perfect Escalations

In Meet the Parents, Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller) is dealt the worst hand imaginable, making for a fantastic comedy of errors. He has to ask his girlfriend Pam’s (Teri Polo) father, Jack (Robert De Niro), for his blessing to marry her, only to find out that he’s a retired CIA agent with serious trust issues. To make matters worse, Pam’s ex-fiancé Kevin (Owen Wilson) is like the final boss of ex-lovers who are still adored by your partner’s family. It’s a total nightmare situation for Greg, who gets caught in one little white lie after another. It’s exactly what anybody would do in his situation, but it’s also what prompts Jack to keep him under heightened scrutiny in search of bigger, more life-ruining lies.

The main source of comedy in Meet the Parents comes from the walls of insecurity that both Greg and Jack have in spades, and how that has a hilariously adverse effect on their willingness and ability to communicate with one another when they both have the same exact goal in mind: making sure Pam is happy.

Meet the Fockers is a perfect continuation of the franchise that keeps things fresh by adding new characters. The wedding date is six months out and Greg and Jack are on friendlier terms, so the film has to pivot with its humor. This time, it’s sourced from the addition of Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand’s Bernie and Roz Focker, Greg’s parents. Bernie and Roz are free spirits, warm, compassionate, and just a little too intrusive. When thrown into a room with Jack, who spent most of his adult life closing himself off from the people closest to him for the sake of national security, the clash of personalities alone is enough for some truly legendary moments.

The film adds depth to Greg’s character because we learn how he was raised and why he’s so reluctant to open up to his future in-laws. The fact that he loves his parents but is simultaneously embarrassed to death by them tells you everything you need to know.

There Is A Such Thing As Too Reliable

Which brings us to Little Fockers, a film that now has to work with the above-mentioned dynamics that have already demonstrated themselves to resonate with audiences. Bernie and Roz are reliably Bernie and Roz. Jack reliably reacts to how reliably Bernie and Roz act, and hilarity ensues (allegedly). Kevin reliably gets under Greg’s skin, while Pam reliably gets caught in the middle of this weird, one-sided love triangle.

Jack is reliably tight-lipped about some of his health issues, and Greg is reliably put in a tough spot because he needs to respect his father-in-law’s wishes for secrecy while withholding important information from the rest of the family. Jack is also reliably suspicious of Greg when he assumes he’s having an extramarital affair, and those suspicions reliably spiral to ridiculous proportions when Jack pursues every lead like a secret agent instead of just having a frank conversation with his son-in-law.

This flash flood of reliability is exactly why Little Fockers failed to resonate with audiences. Every setup and bit of wordplay feels borrowed from the previous films, to the point where Greg and Pam’s kids, Henry (Colin Baiocchi) and Samantha (Daisy Tahan), feel like an afterthought. It’s as if the studio was looking for a reason to justify bringing everybody back together, and the solution was, “Throw some kids in the mix.”

Having rewatched Little Fockers on Netflix for the first time since its initial theatrical release, I can safely say I waited 97 minutes for almost nothing to happen. I’m not even mad, and I was too underwhelmed by the film to feel disappointed. It’s just … nothing, which is an absolute shame because the first two films still hold up shockingly well. 

The biggest date in the cinema calendar is getting closer, as the world will pack into the theater ready for a double feature of epic proportions. On December 18, both Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three will make their theatrical debuts, in an event playfully being dubbed Dunesday. Although the former is likely to take the overall box office crown, it’s the latter that might prove most enduring, especially with most expecting the final installment in Denis Villeneuve‘s acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s Dune novels to perform well at the Academy Awards.

Doomsday might’ve pulled out all the stops to collect the most star-studded ensemble of the year, but Dune: Part Three is following closely behind, with many famous faces part of the sci-fi trilogy’s explosive climax. This includes serial Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Anya Taylor-Joy as Alia Atreides, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, Jason Momoa as Hayt, and many more. Of course, Villeneuve is back in the director’s chair, and he co-wrote the space opera’s script with Brian K. Vaughan.

So, how are fans getting in the mood for Dune: Part Three? Well, the simplest answer is to head back to the other installments in the franchise. In doing so, the only TV series in Villeneuve’s Dune universe (Duneiverse?) is currently back in the streaming charts. Dune: Prophecy, which first premiered in late 2024, is one of the ten most-streamed shows on HBO Max in the U.S., at the time of writing, as subscribers indulge in all six episodes of this slow-burner.

Will ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Return?

The tale of the two sisters from House Harkonnen, Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula (Olivia Williams), isn’t over yet. It was confirmed following the Season 1 finale that Dune: Prophecy had been renewed for a second season, which is unsurprising given the streaming success of the first outing. Season 2 is set to feature several exciting new faces, including Indira Varma, Tom Hollander, and Ashley Walters. In a statement at the time of the show’s renewal, Sarah Aubrey, Head of HBO Max Original Programming, said that the show “has captivated audiences around the globe thanks to the visionary leadership of showrunner and executive producer Alison Schapker, who will continue to guide this grand tale of truth and power.”

Dune: Prophecy is streaming now on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

November 17, 2024

Directors

Anna Foerster

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Writers

Diane Ademu-John, Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert

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By Robert Scucci
| Updated 19 seconds ago

Here’s some insight into just how stupidly my brain is wired. I love John Cusack. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) is one of my favorite comedies of all time, and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) always gets by on its ridiculousness. I also love Stephen King, his philosophy on writing, and most adaptations of his work. However, I never watched 2007’s 1408 for just about the dumbest reason imaginable: somebody I trust said it wasn’t very good. I barely put any thought into it. It was probably a five-second conversation nearly 20 years ago, and then poof, the thought of checking out the movie left my head forever.

The moral of the story is to trust no one, because 1408 is not only one of John Cusack’s best thrillers (though I’m partial to his collaboration with Nicolas Cage in 2013’s The Frozen Ground), it’s also up there with some of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time.

It’s based on the 1999 short story of the same name, but takes on a life of its own. Visually, it makes some baffling choices, but the story itself is so baffling that it feels more like a feature than a bug. If you’re looking for a haunted escape room experience with one of the most expressive leads for the job, John Cusack’s performance in 1408 is worth your time, and not a single minute is wasted thanks to its constant escalations.

A Classic Setup That Goes Hog Wild

1408 has such a simple setup that the only thing it can really do after establishing its characters is to keep escalating. John Cusack’s Mike Enslin is an author whose writing centers on debunking supernatural phenomena. While promoting his latest book, he receives a tip about a supposedly haunted New York City hotel known as The Dolphin. The note he receives says, “Don’t enter 1408,” so naturally, he decides to do just that. He packs his bags, grabs his little tape recorder, and heads to the hotel to see the room for himself.

He’s met with resistance from the hotel’s manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), who’s overtly cautious about the haunted room but otherwise seems like a reasonable man. Gerald initially refuses Mike access to the room, but when he’s threatened with a lawsuit, the best he can do is warn him about the previous 56 guests who stayed there, all of whom died within less than an hour of checking in.

From this point forward, the haunted room simply does haunted room stuff with exponentially increasing intensity, pushing Mike to the edge of sanity as he comes to terms with the fact that he’s finally found the real deal. Not only does he come face-to-face with the room’s previous tenants, but he also sees visions of his deceased daughter Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony) and his terminally ill father (Len Cariou).

While the alarm clock on the bedside table slowly ticks down from 60 minutes, Mike has to plot a daring escape, not just from the room trying to swallow him whole by any means necessary, but also from the trauma of reliving his worst memories on a constant loop while navigating the very real physical threats waiting behind every corner.

If One Ending Doesn’t Satisfy, You Have Options

Aside from the film’s theatrical cut, 1408 has three alternate endings, all of which offer a different fate for Mike. I’m not going to spoil any of them for you, but they’re all solid in their own right depending on your mood and the kind of vibe you’re going for. While I prefer the theatrical ending to the alternates, they all provide satisfying conclusions.

You can rest assured, though, that John Cusack absolutely kills it in 1408, and I can’t think of many movies that have been cast more perfectly. His ability to shift from bored cynicism to terrified bewilderment is unmatched, and as all hell breaks loose in his hotel room, he leans fully into the physicality of the role as he’s confronted by ghouls, disasters, and one of the peskiest thermostats you’ll ever see somebody try to adjust.

As of this writing, 1408 isn’t available through any regular streaming subscriptions, but it can be rented or purchased on demand through Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

General Hospital saw Brook Lynn Quartermaine’s (Amanda Setton) plan to frame her rival take a big leap forward. But her hubby Harrison Chase (Josh Swickard) is going to be disgusted when he finds out the lengths that she has gone to.

Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) lied to Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) and pointed the cops at Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen). But now Lucy is blackmailing Brook Lynn and clearly Lucy is not going to help Brook Lynn destroy Willow for free.

General Hospital: Lucy’s False Statement and Blackmail Scheme

So, this week we saw Lucy go down to the PCPD and make a false statement to Detective Dante. And we had Lucy telling him she saw Willow at the Quartermaine Mansion the night of Jordan Ashford’s (Tanisha Harper) accident. And of course Lucy fibbed because Willow was there during the day and their visits didn’t overlap. The only person Lucy saw that night was Brook Lynn. The two of them were talking about deception and their Sidwell problem and they were drinking and then Lucy left and Dante called Brook Lynn and told her come down to Charlie’s Pub to see Gio Palmieri (Giovanni Mazza) perform. So Lucy said Willow would have been on the road where Jordan crashed that night which is all lies.

Lucy didn’t see Willow at the scene and Lucy had no idea where Willow was at the time of Jordan’s crash. So, we had Dante asking why Lucy was just coming forward now. And she told Dante she looked at her calendar and all of a sudden it clicked. And this is all part of the plan Brook Lynn and Lucy cooked up to frame Willow as the second driver that Jordan nearly crashed into, driving on the wrong side of the road because she and Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) were behaving like teenagers.

General Hospital: Lucy’s Blackmail and the Price of the Frame Job

Let’s be real, Lucy is a huge schemer and a gold digger, and she always has been. And she started this scheme with Brook Lynn, acting like she was doing it to help her. Lucy was sympathetic about Brook Lynn trying to keep Willow away from her husband, Chase. But until the recent episode, Lucy had never mentioned there was a price tag attached to her help. But now, Brook Lynn clearly sees that Lucy isn’t helping her for free. And worse yet, it’s too late. Brook Lynn’s going to have to pay off Lucy or face the consequences. So, this could turn into a colossal nightmare for Brook Lynn for two big reasons.

First of all, Lucy has already made a blackmail demand on Brook Lynn. We heard Lucy saying that it’s only fair that Brook Lynn gives her something of equal value in return for lying to the cops. How do you put a price tag on her marriage and perjury? Already, Lucy is trying to get a big payday out of Brook Lynn. And second, once Lucy remembers that Brook Lynn was on the road the night of the crash, wow, I can see Lucy coming back for an even bigger payday. Blackmailers rarely settle for just one payment when they can keep getting more.

General Hospital: Lucy’s Memory Triggered

Because also, Lucy knows Brook Lynn was drinking that night since they shared a bottle of wine. Not a lot, but enough. And Lucy also knows the path from the Quartermaine Mansion to Charlie’s Pub. And that means once it dawns on her, once she thinks it through, she’ll realize Brook Lynn was probably on the road driving after drinking. Plus, she may get more info because, you know, Lucy’s always snooping.

She’s in everybody’s business. She’s a town gossip. So, if she hears anything about Brook Lynn’s car being damaged, Lucy will figure it out really fast, just like Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) did. If she hears Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot) mention taking Brook Lynn’s car back to the shop, that may jar Lucy’s memory. And already she can threaten to tell Chase everything if Brook Lynn doesn’t pay up.

General Hospital: The Unraveling Plan and Chase’s Discovery

And even if she goes ahead and pays off Lucy now, well, she might come back for a bigger payday if she realizes that Brook Lynn is framing Willow for something that she actually did. And the more Lucy and Brook Lynn go back and forth, the greater the chance Chase overhears. Or even worse, Willow overhears Lucy and Brook Lynn. And she would definitely tell Chase. Or Willow could just take it back to the police in her own defense, knowing Chase will eventually find out from the cops what Brook Lynn did.

And as you know from General Hospital history, Tracy absolutely hates Lucy. Always has. From way back when Lucy was gold digging and married Tracy’s brother, Alan. I can see Tracy confronting Lucy and it turning into a whole thing. And at this point, Tracy doesn’t know Brook Lynn’s framing Willow, but she may confess to Tracy if Lucy doesn’t go away quietly.

I don’t think Tracy would mind her granddaughter plotting against Willow, but Tracy would have an issue of her being sloppy and working with Lucy. Tracy cannot stand Willow and think she’s a viper who’s going after Chase. And I mean, she’s not exactly wrong. So Tracy, I think would be all for Brook Lynn’s plan, but I’m not sure that Tracy or Brook Lynn can stop Lucy’s blackmail unless they go to the cops and say that she lied trying to get her in trouble, mutually assured destruction.

But in that case, Willow would be off the hook and Lucy could then turn around and say Brook Lynn paid her to make the false statement. And if there’s a paper trail or a digital money trail from Lucy or going to Lucy from Brook Lynn right after she made the false statement, that would look really bad.

General Hospital: Chase’s Moral Reckoning

As for Chase, when he finds out Brook Lynn had Lucy make a false statement to frame Willow, he’ll be horrified. And when Chase finds out Brook Lynn was framing Willow for something she did, I think Chase will be disgusted by his wife’s antics. I doubt there’s anything that Brook Lynn could say to excuse what she and Lucy are doing in Chase’s mind. He’s a by the book guy with morals. He always wants to see the right thing done. That’s why he defended Willow. He really did think she was innocent and was framed for Drew Cain’s (Cameron Mathison) shooting. So, Chase won’t be able to live with a wife who’s framing Willow.

It’s even worse because Chase thinks Willow is so darn perfect. And then here’s Brook Lynn having Lucy go to the police to tell lies on her. It’s a really bad look. And Chase will find out about Brook Lynn’s car and that she was actually the second driver. So Chase will see not only was she framing Willow, but she didn’t come clean about being on the road that night.

General Hospital: Brook Lynn’s Actions Led to Isaiah’s Injuries

Brook Lynn not coming forward is the reason Curtis assaulted Isaiah Gannon (Sawandi Wilson). And Brook Lynn’s the reason Isaiah may never be a surgeon again. And she’s the reason little Derek almost died. If you look at it from a broader angle and Brook Lynn’s guilt is why she covered his family’s cost for him to get surgery elsewhere. So, Chase will see, oh, this wasn’t generosity that led my wife Brook Lynn to help that family. It was guilt for her own actions.

I think Chase is going to be sickened by Brook Lynn’s behavior. And in the end, her scheming could actually cost her Chase, not Willow, you know. So, when Brook Lynn did all this trying to hold on to him by keeping him away from Willow, it seemed like a good idea.

But official General Hospital summer spoilers say that Brook Lynn’s plan to set up Willow does not go as expected. But it will go for a while. So, it looks like Dante is going to question Willow by the end of this week. And when Curtis goes on trial for felony assault, the frame job that Brook Lynn has done on Willow is going to mess up his defense plan because Curtis was hoping to smear Isaiah in court as a bad man who fled the scene of an accident, left them for dead, when it’s not true. Not at all.

So, before all is said and done, Brook Lynn may lose Chase on top of losing a big pile of money because she’s going to have to pay blackmail to Lucy. Maybe once, maybe more than once. So, in the end, Brook Lynn may lose Chase, not necessarily to Willow, but Chase may just walk away from his wife because he can’t live with a liar.

Mia Calabrese has been keeping an eye on Summer House costar KJ Dillard following his split from Dara Levitan.

“KJ is great. He was just at my house, like, a week ago,” Mia, 34, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her partnership with Walgreens to unveil her “Ultimate Summer Must-Haves” available at the retailer.

Mia recalled having both KJ — her newfound brother after bonding during season 10 of the Bravo series — and her real-life brother over to help her move her couch and new rug.

“He was like, ‘All right, I’m gonna leave.’ And my brother’s like, ‘Ah, KJ, we’ve got work to do.’ So I have a hilarious video of him, like, taking my whole living room apart and moving my rug and my couch,” Mia shared. “But KJ is great.”

Related: Summer House’s KJ Dillard Reveals Shocking Connection to Mia Calabrese

Before KJ Dillard and Mia Calabrese were roommates in the Hamptons, the Summer House stars had a connection through their extended families. “My mom and @miagcalabrese’s sister were college roommates and friends,” KJ shared via Instagram on Tuesday, May 12, with a throwback photo. “This is me as a baby with both of them.” The […]

The influencer noted that from her “understanding” KJ and Dara, 33, “did break up” recently, so she has been looking in on them both.

“I checked on Dara, I sent her a text, and just let her know I’m thinking of her, because breakups are difficult, no matter what,” Mia told Us. “But they’re obviously even more difficult when you have the public eye watching your breakup. So I checked on Dara, KJ is doing well, and he’s navigating the breakup as well.”

KJ, 28, and Dara, both of whom made their reality TV debut during season 10 of Summer House, became a couple while filming the show in summer 2025.

During the three-part season 10 reunion, filmed in April, Dara and KJ hinted that they had briefly parted ways at some point in 2025 as KJ was struggling with his mental health.

KJ revealed on the show that he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in fall 2025 and was hospitalized for self-harm before getting the help he needed. (KJ confirmed in early June on the “More Life With Carl Radke” podcast that Dara broke up with him during that timeframe because “she had to” while he was in recovery.)

When Dara joined KJ during part 2 of the reunion, she told host Andy Cohen that they were happily together, holding his hand and smiling.

However, rumors of another breakup circulated in May when KJ untagged Dara in their couple pictures.

Andy, 58, asked Jesse Solomon earlier this month why KJ and Dara allegedly unfollowed each other on social media, to which he responded, “They broke up, yeah.”

Jesse, 32, explained on the June 9 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that “last I heard they were broken up. Sorry if that’s not public.”

A few weeks later, Dara confirmed her relationship status, revealing on the Thursday, June 18, episode of the “Five More Minutes” podcast that she is single.

“That’s all we’re going to say about it because I can’t do tears this morning, and there’s no way I’m talking about it without crying,” she said, referring to her heartbreak over no longer dating KJ.

As KJ and Dara navigate their split, Mia told Us she hopes they “do what is going to make them happy.”

“If what’s going to make them happy is being together, life is short, that’s what you should do,” she added. “And if what’s going to make them happy is being separate, that it is what it is.”

Mia, meanwhile, revealed that she doesn’t “know what my summer plans are” but her motto for the season is “live and have fun and see what happens.”

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Part of her feel-good plan includes teaming up with Walgreens to share her beauty routine for the summer and her “Ultimate Summer Must-Haves,” which includes lightweight serums and La Roche-Posay Anthelios Sunscreen.

“I have been going to Walgreens since I was a little girl, and that was like a place we went every other day, me and my family, because you always needed something,” Mia told Us of her easy decision to work with Walgreens. “I’m so grateful that there’s so many Walgreens all over the country, because I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, there wasn’t, like, you know, a store on every corner. But I was always able to depend on Walgreens.”

She added, “I’m so thankful to be partnering with them, because it is such a full circle moment in my life.”