Entertainment
The Best Couch Gag In Simpsons History Was Extremely Dark And Nearly Got The Episode Pulled By Fox
By TeeJay Small
| Updated
Since The Simpsons first kicked off back in 1989, couch gags have been an iconic episode-opening staple. Over the years, the team behind the show has collaborated with numerous writers, animators, and artists, creating surprising crossovers with other popular works. While every couch gag holds a special place in my heart, I’d argue that the most memorable iteration came from 2010’s “MoneyBart,” as part of a collaboration with the cryptic political artist Banksy.
Even if you’re not familiar with Banksy by name, you’ve surely crossed paths with his work. The anonymous British artist has delivered numerous thought-provoking pieces, often providing some cutting social commentary or political undertone. He’s about as anti-establishment as an artist can be, so you can understand why it came as a shock when he agreed to collaborate with one of the most well-known cartoons in the history of the world. After all, tagging your name on a Fox branded series doesn’t exactly scream “down with capitalism.”
A brief glance at the intro sequence, which has been making the rounds on social media lately, will quickly clear up any questions you might have about Banksy’s agenda. Rather than using the platform to deliver a fun, simple gag about the yellow family kicking their feet up in front of the TV, Banksy offered an extremely dark critique of the animation industry, the network, and the nature of mass-produced art on the whole. The full gag is nearly two minutes in length, but it feels like a lifetime as you watch in twisted horror at the scathing repudiation of mainstream television.
Not Your Average Couch Gag
The couch gag opens on the usual cloud-first drop into Springfield, but quickly goes off the rails. As soon as the Simpson family takes to the couch, we zoom out to see individual cartoon frames being animated in an Asian sweatshop. Miserable workers toil in squalid conditions, as children paste the film together using vats of toxic waste. Beneath the sweatshop, we see that Simpsons merchandise is made under similar soul-crushing conditions, with adorable kittens being woodchippered to stuff mass-produced Bart plushies.
Other instances of animal abuse are rampant in the supply chain, with panda bears being whipped, decapitated dolphins applying packing tape, and a shackled, sickly unicorn used as a crude method of cutting DVDs to size. The whole thing is deeply disturbing, uncomfortably funny, and uniquely self-reflective, even by Simpsons standards. It all wraps up with a 20th Century Fox logo surrounded by barbed wire fences and dystopian watchtowers, à la George Orwell‘s 1984.
Series executive producer and longtime showrunner Al Jean described the process of linking up with Banksy during a 2010 interview with The New York Times, and revealed the ways in which Fox was apprehensive about airing the segment. Despite arguing that “Fox has been very gracious about us biting the hand that feeds us,” Jean explained that the network demanded several changes “for taste.” When asked what specifically was cut before the segment made it to air, the Harvard alumnus said, “It was even a little sadder. But I would have to say almost all of it stayed in. We were thrilled. It was funny, I watched Mad Men last night, and I wondered if this was my Don Draper letter to The New York Times. I knew just how he felt.”
The original storyboards for the couch gag are available to view on Banksy.blog, so you can see for yourself exactly what was changed before animation. The most notable change is the absence of the propaganda poster depicting Fox founder Rupert Murdoch. Al Jean claims that axing the jab toward Murdoch was the only non-negotiable point for the network, while he himself objected to the unicorn dying on camera.
Luckily, the episode eventually made it to air without any serious threats of cancellation, and Al Jean still works as a writer and producer on The Simpsons to this day. Still, it seems unlikely that Disney will allow any returning Banksy collabs of this sort in the near future.
Continue Reading
In the 1990s, the sci-fi genre reached new heights. With the advent of CG-character technology, the tools available for filmmaking increased exponentially. The impossible was now possible, and ideas that were once non-viable in the feature film format were now able to be realized. Of course, technology is only a tool—it can get you so far, but it’s story and character that determine whether a film will stand the test of time. But master filmmakers like James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Luc Besson, and the Wachowskis seized upon these new opportunities and crafted sci-fi films that would endure for decades.
Of course, the advent of new technology also opened up a wealth of new thematic potential as well. The rise of the digital age gave way to fear of robot uprisings or computers taking over the world, and this resulted in terrific (and terrifying) stories that were relevant to a rapidly changing world. All in all, the ’90s were one of the best decades for sci-fi filmmaking, and in an effort to highlight some of the most memorable films from that period, Collider’s own Haleigh Foutch, Adam Chitwood, and Dave Trumbore have singled out 25 great examples. Behold, the best sci-fi films of the ’90s.
25
‘Screamers’ (1995)
Set against the backdrop of a Cold War on a nuclear war-ravaged planet, Screamers takes a grim and desolate view of the future, focusing on a planet full of soldiers from two sides of the same battle who have been abandoned by their government in the aftermath of war. On the planet Sirius 6B, commanding officer Joe Hendricksson (Peter Weller) sets out to seek peace with his combatants when he learns the truth that Earth has essentially left them for dead on their remote posts. But Sirius 6B is populated by “Screamers,” a form of man-made artificial intelligence weaponry, properly called an Autonomous Mobile Sword (AMS), that evolved beyond what man ever intended. As Hendricksson and his team set out across the wasteland, they face peril at every turn from the various, sometimes deceiving, forms the Screamers have evolved into, and director Christian DuGuary makes fine work of ratcheting up the tension, along with the dramatic stakes, as they make their way towards an uncertain alliance.
The underrated Screamers has some serious sci-fi pedigree, based on a short story by the great Philip K. Dick with a screenplay co-penned by Alien scribe Dan O’Bannon. It never quite lives up to that grand promise, but Screamers is a refreshingly serious-minded spin on what could have easily become a schlocky B-movie that delivers visceral, pulse-pounding thrills every time its titular murder-bots attack. —Haleigh Foutch
24
‘Escape from L.A.’ (1996)
Where Escape from New York was a precisely cut, stylish science fiction classic — politically subversive, serious-minded in its conception, and vibrantly inventive in its imagery — Escape from L.A. seems more purposefully cheeky and cheap. This isn’t to say that the second mission by Snake Pliskin (Kurt Russell) isn’t encoded with John Carpenter’s particular brand of leftist politics, but it’s delivered in a far more bombastic aesthetic, the dark greys and blues of the first film traded in for yellows, oranges, and reds. This is, in a sense, a reflection of the difference between the two cities, but also reflects the mythology of those cities. New York is thought of as a dangerous realm rife with killers, gangs, and violent thieves, whereas Los Angeles is the playground of the blowhards, the covert sadists, the con men, and the self-obsessed.
In a sense, this is a commentary on Carpenter’s arrival in the Hollywood system, far away from his early days as a cult genre filmmaker who had to do some hard-scrapping to get his meager budgets. In Escape from L.A., pitted against a cruel revolutionary who makes himself up like Che Guevara, Pliskin is a man with a name, a celebrity even, brawling and shooting his way out of an island of West Coast maniacs and derelicts, just trying to get a job done. —Chris Cabin
23
‘Stargate’ (1994)
An early work of Roland Emmerich‘s, Stargate is a disaster film that laid the groundwork for the grand-scale sweeping popcorn movies that would come to define his career. The film takes place after the discovery of an extraterrestrial teleportation device that transports matter from Earth to a far-flung alien planet with a distinctly ancient Egyptian flavor. When James Spader‘s Egyptologist Daniel Jackson discovers how it works, he joins Kurt Russell’s military man Jack O’Neill through the portal with a team of soldiers to investigate the planet on the other side. Naturally, once they’re there, everything goes to hell as they come up against the tyrannical sun god Ra (Jaye Davidson).
Emmerich hadn’t yet fully defined his signature style, and it often feels like he’s borrowing moves from familiar playbooks, but the sum of Stargate‘s parts is something that feels wholly his. It can be far-fetched and ridiculous, but part of Emmerich’s greatness is his grandiosity, and the Spader/Russell team-up delivers on its promise of eccentric odd-couple chemistry. It’s a big, boisterous popcorn movie carried by a fantastic leading duo and the emerging outlandish sensibilities of its filmmaker. —Haleigh Foutch
22
‘Tank Girl’ (1995)
Straight up, Tank Girl just isn’t for everybody. It’s cheeky camp to the utmost degree that essentially boils down to a series of strange vignettes and set-pieces that occasionally feel like someone built a film around a string of high-octane music videos. But it’s also fun as hell. A pure product of the MTV generation, the forgotten Tank Girl is like a highly concentrated dose of the alt-rock ’90s, with a pretty jammin’ soundtrack that includes Portishead, Bjork, Hole, Veruca Salt, and Bush.
Based on the comic of the same name by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, Tank Girl stars Lori Petti as the titular smart-mouthed hellion, a flippant, fearless icon of zero-f**ks-given who squares off against the evil Power & Water Corporation in a desert landscape where water has become a commodity so valuable it’s worth killing for. It’s consummately silly, unapologetically so, but it’s made joyfully and without abandon, and if you’re of the right disposition, it’s an absolute delight. —Haleigh Foutch
21
‘The Faculty’ (1998)
Spun from familiar threads of classic sci-fi yarn, The Faculty is a teen movie through and through, but in the hands of director Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Kevin Williamson, it’s got enough punchy zeal and reverence for the genre it’s playing in to make for a fun, if somewhat silly, pulpy pleasure in its own right. If you’ll allow me to be a bit reductive, The Faculty feels like The Breakfast Club by way of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with a healthy dose of The Thing. The film pits a rag-tag group of teenagers against an alien invasion that turns the infected hosts into a conforming hive mind.
While The Faculty may deal in cliché characters on the surface level — the annoying cheerleader and her quarterback boyfriend, the twerpy smart kid, the slacker genius, the vaguely goth outsider, the too-pure Midwest transplant — it works because they’re all much more interesting than your standard trope fare. The teachers don’t get quite as much of a fair break, but with actors like Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth, and Famke Janssen in the roles, they’re fabulously creepy as they fall one by one to the alien infestation. While teen movies are all too easy to deride, the virulent conformity narrative may have no more natural home than the halls of a high school, and Rodriguez largely steers clear of angst and apathy in favor of a campy, gleeful thrill-ride. —Haleigh Foutch
20
‘Event Horizon’ (1997)
There’s something about Event Horizon that is just downright unsettling and chilling. It’s a complete B-movie, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson of Resident Evil fame, but it also lands on a surprisingly effective tone that somehow wrings out a nightmarish sense of doom amidst the poor character decisions and indulgent flourishes. The story follows Sam Neill as Dr. William Weir, the designer of a groundbreaking space travel vehicle, who journeys into space with a team of military scientists to uncover the cause of a distress beacon. Weir’s great invention was a gravity drive that allows for rapid space travel by creating black holes that close the gap between points in spacetime. But, as always in any good horror sci-fi, that kind of defiance of nature reaps unholy rewards when an evil force consumes the ship, thrusting the rescue crew into the same terror that befell their predecessors.
There’s no doubt that Event Horizon cribs from superior films, and not in a way that feels like homage, but the sense of dread it conjures is a work all its own, punctuated by well-rendered moments of visceral gore and violence, all of it stemming from the natural middle ground where science fiction meets horror. —Haleigh Foutch
19
‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ (1990)
Gremlins 2 is a damn delight that may even be better than the original Gremlins, and I will fight anyone who says differently. While the first film was firmly in the horror genre, for the sequel, director Joe Dante wanted to craft a darkly funny satire, and boy did he do just that.
The follow-up takes place in a massive skyscraper in New York City as corporate greed leads to the creation of a hodgepodge of Gremlins (this Key & Peele sketch apparently isn’t too far off). The result is a hilarious, twisted, colorful monster movie with nods to classic films throughout. I get that some may think Gremlins 2 is cheesy or dopey, but Dante was purposefully leaning into the ridiculousness of the conceit, and his willingness to get crazier and crazier as the film rolls on is what makes Gremlins 2 such a joy to behold. —Adam Chitwood
18
‘Mars Attacks!’ (1996)
If Tim Burton is often guilty of style over substance, Mars Attacks! is all style, no substance. The title is literally the plot of the film. Martians show up on Earth. Then they attack. That’s it. That’s the movie. It’s not bad; in fact, it’s pretty fun; it’s just not much. Fortunately, if style’s all you’ve got, Mars Attacks! has got it in spades. A doting spoof and homage to 1950s alien invasion pics, it’s pure B-movie schlock and surprisingly sadistic. As the Martians stage their no-prisoners invasion, Burton relishes finding new ways to dispatch and torment his earthlings, who are played by an impressive cast.
But this movie isn’t about the acting, and most of them end up with not much to do. The political satire is on-the-nose, and the plot… wait, just kidding, there isn’t really a plot, and without a narrative to hold things together, it’s the top-notch production value that ends up being the real star of the film. Spectacle isn’t enough to be great, but in this case, it’s enough to be good enough thanks to how Burton lovingly harkens back to the films that so obviously influenced him as a budding filmmaker. — Haleigh Foutch
17
‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ (1991)
Nicholas Meyer just gets what makes Star Trek tick. The filmmaker behind what’s almost universally considered the greatest Star Trek movie of all time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, returned to helm another standout installment with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The film is essentially a sci-fi murder mystery set against the backdrop of racial tensions and the threat of war that finds Captain Kirk and McCoy wrongfully charged and imprisoned for the murder of the Klingon High Chancellor, while the rest of the Enterprise’s crew rally to rescue them.
It’s a fine send-off for Star Trek‘s original crew, a philosophical and introspective exploration of the series resonant deeper themes that always respects the characters while still delivering the sci-fi spectacle with outstanding effects and clever gadgetry. The Undiscovered Country can feel bloated in parts, but it never overstays its welcome as a well-crafted vehicle for the beloved Enterprise crew and their iconic cast of characters —Haleigh Foutch
16
‘Independence Day’ (1996)
Image via 20th Century Studios
While the sins of the ill-advised sequel may be fresh in our minds, that unfortunate debacle can’t quite dim the shine of Roland Emmerich’s 1996 sci-fi spectacle, Independence Day, which remains a bombastic delight even now. The movie follows three heroes of the alien apocalypse: Will Smith‘s hotshot army pilot Captain Steve Hiller, Jeff Goldblum‘s everyman satellite technician David Levinson, and Bill Pullman‘s Thomas J. Whitmore, president of the United States in the aftermath of a hostile invasion from an unknown alien combatant.
Through the use of miniatures, Emmerich crafted enormous effects set-pieces, sending the world’s iconic landmarks up in flames and billowing plumes of smoke. But unlike a lot of Emmerich’s inferior works, Independence Day delivers characters as entertaining as the explosions, making for a blockbuster disaster adventure that has genuine charm and humor along with its kaboom-ing excess. —Haleigh Foutch
Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo are celebrating a major relationship milestone, but their anniversary has also reignited discussion about one of the most difficult chapters in their marriage.
As the longtime couple marked 12 years together with a romantic getaway in St. Tropez and a heartfelt social media tribute, new reports suggest the Maroon 5 frontman has spent the years since his 2022 messaging scandal working to rebuild the trust he nearly lost.
Nearly four years after his texting controversy dominated headlines, insiders say Adam Levine has worked to move beyond the scandal that threatened both his family life and career.
According to one source, the fallout became a turning point for the singer, forcing him to reevaluate how he approached both fame and his personal life.
“Adam has spent the last several years trying to repair his public image following the texting scandal. It was a wake-up call on multiple levels,” the insider told the Daily Mail.
They added, “It hit his ego, his public perception, and ultimately his earning potential.” Another source claimed the 47-year-old eventually realized he needed to change course if he wanted to protect everything he had built.
“Ultimately, he realized the industry wasn’t going to bend to him forever. He had to adapt or risk losing the career and lifestyle he’d built,” the insider explained.
Levine And Behati Prinsloo Reach A Major Marriage Milestone
Those reported changes come as Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo celebrate 12 years as husband and wife.
The pair recently escaped to St. Tropez, where they were photographed sharing affectionate moments aboard a yacht before Levine honored the occasion on Instagram.
“Twelve years married to my favorite human. I love you… over and over again for the rest of my life,” he wrote.
Besides the public affection, another insider believes their relationship has made significant progress since the scandal erupted.
“Their relationship is in a much healthier place than it was in the immediate aftermath of the scandal,” the source explained.
They added, “That doesn’t mean everything is perfect… but Adam has made enough changes to keep the marriage intact and avoid repeating the mistakes that nearly cost him everything.”
Adam Levine’s Texting Scandal Sparked Widespread Scrutiny
Levine’s personal life came under intense scrutiny in September 2022 after model Sumner Stroh posted a TikTok claiming she had carried on a “year-long affair” with the singer while sharing screenshots of alleged conversations between them.
“Essentially, I was having an affair with a man who’s married to a Victoria’s Secret model,” Stroh said, adding that they were seeing each other for about a year.
Among the alleged messages was, “It is truly unreal how f-cking hot you are.” Stroh later described herself as “young,” “naïve,” and “manipulated,” claiming she believed Levine’s marriage was effectively over before Prinsloo announced she was expecting their third child.
She also alleged the singer wanted to name the baby after her. Additional women later shared alleged exchanges of their own, including one message that read, “I shouldn’t be talking to you, you know [that] right?” and another saying, “Yes but it’s a bit complicated,” when asked about his marriage.
Following the allegations, Levine denied having physical affairs but admitted that his online behavior crossed a line.
Levine Was Described As A ‘Super Weird Guy’
While Adam Levine has largely stayed focused on his family and career in recent years, one insider claimed the controversy exposed long-standing issues with how he handled fame.
“Adam Levine is a super weird guy… he has not handled fame well. He is not warm and fuzzy, and he used to be arrogant,” the source alleged.
The insider also claimed the situation had been especially difficult for Prinsloo, adding, “It has been hard on Behati as he has flirted with other women. She has just taken it. She has stood by his side because she is very in love with him.”
Even so, multiple sources now say Levine has embraced a different outlook, with his attention centered on maintaining both his marriage and the career he nearly jeopardized.
Adam Levine Says Fatherhood Changed Him In Unexpected Ways
Levine’s recent anniversary celebration with Behati Prinsloo isn’t the first time he’s reflected on how much his family has changed him.
Before marking 12 years of marriage, the Maroon 5 frontman opened up about the impact fatherhood has had on his life, revealing that raising his three children has made him far more emotional than he ever expected.
Speaking to PEOPLE in February 2025, Levine said becoming a dad didn’t alter his coaching style, but it transformed him personally.
“I’ve softened a lot as a person in a lot of other ways,” he explained, adding that he has always tried to treat people with kindness because he believes it’s never productive to be mean.
The star also admitted fatherhood had made him much more emotional, joking, “I have three kids, I cry every day,” while describing raising his children as “the best sh*t ever.”
Levine added that leaving home for work was difficult, but providing for his family had become his greatest motivation.
Influencer Ulissias Marcelli and her boyfriend Vinícius Souza de Carvalho were reportedly shot to death ahead of a festival appearance in Brazil.
The alleged murders were announced by Brazil’s Festival Rock Gaya, as Marcelli and Carvalho were scheduled to appear at the festival prior to their deaths at ages 30 and 28, respectively. (Marcelli was expected to host Festival Rock Gaya festivities on Saturday, July 25.)
“We’re still trying to find the words for a moment like this. It’s hard to believe that someone who was about to share such a special moment with us is gone so soon,” the festival announced on Saturday, July 18. “At this moment, the entire team of the Rock Gaya Festival joins together in solidarity with the family, friends and everyone who has had the privilege of knowing it. Rest in peace Ulyssias.”
Per People and local outlets, civil police in Bahia, Brazil, confirmed that a farm worker found Marcelli and Souza de Carvalho’s bodies on a rural roadside in Porto Seguro on July 17. Gunshot wounds were reportedly visible on the late couple’s bodies.
Ulissias Marcelli Courtesy Instagram / Ulissias Marcelli
Local outlet G1 reported that police suspect that Marcelli and Souza de Carvalho may have been held captive by their alleged killers before their murders. Investigators are looking into whether the alleged murders may be connected to drug trafficking and the sale of narcotics in the area.
Marcelli is survived by a 13-year-old son, according to G1. Her Instagram bio indicated that Marcelli was from the Porto Seguro area.
Marcelli grew a loyal fanbase of more than 20,000 Instagram followers with her ornate and elaborate styling and cosplay videos. She became known for an aesthetic that embraced gothic and modern horror elements.
She was also reportedly famous for her eye-catching live stage performances where she often incorporated fire into her choreographed routines.
Following news of her death, fans flooded Marcelli’s Instagram comments section to pay tribute to her life and legacy.
“Unfortunately, I only got to know this goddess after her demise. May Hekate keep her spirit with great glory,” a newer fan wrote in the comments section of Marcelli’s pinned Instagram post.
Another fan added, “May spirituality welcome you and your companion 😢 and take care of your child and kitten 😢 who’s going to pay!!! If you calm down, follow the light, everything will be alright.”
“Shocked, I really enjoyed seeing her posts, she was beautiful. God comforts the hearts,” a third fan wrote.
“I’m in disbelief 😭 ! One of my biggest inspirations, one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. Rest in peace,” an admirer added in the comments section of another recent post.
After several seasons on “Saturday Night Live,” Chloe Fineman is reflecting on what it was like to leave the long-running sketch comedy series. While the comedian is excited about what comes next in her career, she admitted that saying goodbye to the iconic show was a bittersweet experience and shed light on her relationship with her former cast members.
On July 16, Chloe Fineman took to Instagram to announce her departure from “Saturday Night Live” after seven seasons. She included a carousel of screengrabs from sketches and photos with her fellow cast members, writing, “It’s cliché to say this but working at SNL has been the greatest privilege of my life. I still can’t really believe I got to be a part of it.”
Fineman also addressed “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels and said, “I want you to know that I am forever in your debt.”
Days after the announcement, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the comedian and asked her about her departure. Fineman said it was difficult to leave the show and her co-stars.
“It’s a hard show, but the people, it’s because of hours and everything. But, like, it really is a family, and I’ve been crying, like, sweet tears,” she shared.
Following Fineman’s exit announcement, an insider claimed that the comedian found it difficult to establish a rapport with some cast members, as The Blast previously reported. Another source disputed the claim and said she had no issues with her co-workers.
Fineman shed light on her relationship with the “SNL” cast, sharing that she has formed a meaningful bond with them. “I’m genuinely really good friends with everybody and I genuinely couldn’t love that job more. So, it’s really bittersweet,” she explained, adding that she will still be staying in New York, down the street from where “SNL” is filmed.
Why Did Chloe Fineman Leave ‘SNL’?
Fineman’s departure follows the exit of other cast members, including Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Bowen Yang, who all bid farewell to the sketch series in 2025. The former left after eight seasons, and the other two exited after seven seasons.
“Seven years is kind of like the classic way,” Fineman said about leaving. The comedian revealed that her contract with “SNL” was about to end when she was presented with an opportunity to pursue another avenue. “It just felt like the perfect time,” she added. As she noted in her social media post, “It’s time for my next chapter.”
Fineman said that her former co-stars have been supportive of her decision, and they have reached out to her. Yang, Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernandez, and Kenan Thompson all posted sweet replies to her social media post.
“SNL” big boss Lorne Michaels was preoccupied when Fineman called to tell him she was leaving the show. “In classic form, he was watching England vs. Argentina,” she shared.
Lorne said he was going to call her back because he was watching the game, to which Fineman joked, “I assume you’re rooting for England because you’re energetically very British.” Michaels, indeed, returned her call, and while she didn’t share details about what they talked about, she told Variety that they “had a really lovely chat.”
Before joining “SNL,” Fineman was a sketch improv artist and had minor roles on TV. She became a cast member in 2019 and became widely recognized for portraying original recurring characters such as Kelsey and The Snack Homiez Boy. She also impersonated celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, JoJo Siwa, Sydney Sweeney, and Timothée Chalamet.
Chloe Fineman Joins Cast Of Upcoming Netflix Series
Fineman stars in the upcoming sports comedy from Apple Original Films titled “The Dink” alongside Jake Johnson, Ben Stiller, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Patton Oswalt, and Aaron Chen. It is scheduled to be released on July 24.
Furthermore, the comedian landed the role of sports reporter Parker Quinn in Netflix’s “Myron Bolitar,” a drama series based on the collection of thriller novels written by Harlan Coben. The show will focus on the titular character, played by Colin Woodell, a sports agent who protects his clients while navigating the world of professional sports.
“Myron Bolitar” is currently in production, but a release date has yet to be announced.
Silo did not become one of Apple TV‘s most beloved original series by sticking to the script. Although the show is based on a trilogy of books by Hugh Howey, the story has been expanded and changed quite a bit in the adaptation, and fans haven’t complained. Howey’s novels were short and self-published, and practically begging for more detail. However, Season 3 kicked off this month with one of the first changes to cause widespread muttering among fans — the story of Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) induced amnesia. Now that we’re three episodes in, it’s clear that this was actually a brilliant move for the TV show, and perhaps an overall improvement to the story.
When the trailers for Silo Season 3 began to show Juliette suffering from amnesia, fans and critics came up with all kinds of theories about how and why this plot line was added. We feared it might feel like a stretch, added just to draw out Juliette’s story while other things were introduced to the narrative. Even then, there were some ideas online about how the amnesia arc might work well, but they all fell short of showrunner Graham Yost‘s actual vision.
Viewers Get A Timeline While Juliette Loses Hers
A major unforeseen aspect of Juliette’s amnesia plot line is that it juxtaposes the experience of the audience themselves. Viewers have spent two seasons now wondering how, when, and why humanity ended up confined to these underground shelters, and the mystery has been woven into complex knots without coming any closer to a solution. Readers of Howey’s books new that we’d have to start answering these questions with the storyline of Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) in Season 3, yet we didn’t imagine how well these info-dump flashbacks would work alongside Juliette’s amnesiac nightmare.
Of course, the connection works narratively as well, since Keene’s story deals directly with the same memory loss drugs afflicting Juliette in her story. In fact, it’s becoming clear how much groundwork the show has done to set up the memory loss drugs in general. The storyline concerning Dr. Cnkovich (Matt Craven) is already hitting harder on the show than it did in the books. It’s always a good idea to add more depth to the fantastical elements of a sci-fi series, and it looks like the Silo team has been planning this from early on.
This week, Season 3 Episode 3 “A Dark Web” gave some clear indications of where the amnesia plot line is going and how it will flow into the next phase of Juliette’s story. By all appearances, it’s going to work very smoothly. The show won’t miss anything from the books, and it will feel perfectly natural to get back on track. Some may still call this a detour made just for the sake of the show’s run-time, but even then, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. With most streamers tightening their belts and shortening the seasons on their most expensive shows, it’s a relief to see one series taking its time and pacing things right.
‘Silo’ Adds Stories Without Replacing Anything
Adaptations are generally criticized for any changes to their source material, and for the most part, that’s valid. Popular novels tend to work as they are, and changes threaten to destabilize the entire house of cards the story stands on. Modern audiences are particularly traumatized by shows like Game of Thrones, and these days it can be a full-time job cataloging all the changes in an adaptation and debating them online.
Somehow, Apple TV has attained an exemption from this trend. The network’s adaptation of Foundation by Isaac Asimov might be unrecognizable to the author himself or one of his contemporary readers. However, its approach to changes is very similar to that of Silo — they fill in gaps in the books rather than change events and characters. This mostly serves to deepen worldbuilding, add visual flair, and make the most out of the talent on hand.
For Silo, this amnesia plot line might be their biggest addition so far, yet it doesn’t really replace anything essential. So far, the show has thoroughly adapted Howey’s first novel Wool, which ends at the point when Juliette returns to Silo 18. The second novel in the trilogy is Shift, which completely ignores Juliette’s story to follow Keene through his flashbacks. Only in the third book, Dust, do we pick up the story and move it forward.
Naturally, Silo Season 3 did not want to drop Juliette’s plot entirely. It seems likely that the season will begin including material from Dust, but in the meantime, this amnesia plot is a clever way to tell two parallel stories without losing the momentum of the series altogether. On top of that, this addition doesn’t need to replace or alter anything about the beginning of Dust. If anything, Juliette’s memory loss will flow perfectly into her time as mayor and her confused scramble to help her people before it’s too late. Many aspects of the story will make more sense this way in the end, and will emphasize the undercurrent of manipulation and social engineering that keeps the silos running.
Silo Season 3 continues on Fridays on Apple TV. Previous seasons are streaming there now, and Howey’s books are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
- Release Date
-
May 5, 2023
- Network
-
Apple TV
- Showrunner
-
Graham Yost
- Directors
-
Morten Tyldum, David Semel, Michael Dinner, Aric Avelino
- Writers
-
Graham Yost, Hugh Howey, Jeffery Wang, Lekethia Dalcoe
NFL legend Aaron Rodgers reunited with his family after at least a decade of estrangement, though one member of the Rodgers clan was seemingly missing.
On Monday, July 20, Aaron, 42, shared an Instagram carousel of himself posing with his parents, Ed and Darla Rodgers, and older brother, Luke Rodgers. While the family was all smiles in these new photos, Aaron’s younger brother, The Bachelorette star Jordan Rodgers, was noticeably absent.
“Another bonding week,” Aaron captioned the carousel.
Aaron’s rift with his family reportedly dates back at least a decade. When Jordan, 37, competed on future wife Jojo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette, he revealed to her that he wasn’t in touch with Aaron.
“Like I said, I have a great relationship with my brother Luke. Me and Aaron don’t really have that much of a relationship,” he said in the 2016 episode. “It’s just kind of the way he’s chosen to do life and I’ve chosen to stay close with my family and my parents and my brother. Yeah, it’s not ideal and I love him and I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in his shoes and have the pressure he has, the demands from people that he has. Don’t have hard feelings against him, it’s just how things go right now.”
The Bachelorette memorably left two empty chairs for Aaron and his then-girlfriend Olivia Munn at a family dinner — which the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback took issue with.
“They go on a bulls*** show and leave two empty chairs,” Aaron said on his 2024 Netflix series Enigma. “They all agreed this was a good thing to do, to leave two empty chairs at a stupid dating show that my brother just went on to get famous — his words, not mine. That he ended up winning. But a dinner that was during the season, I was never asked to go to. Not that I would’ve gone.”
Aaron was not in attendance when Jordan and Fletcher, 35, tied the knot at the Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, California, in May 2022.
In another Aaron Rodgers: Enigma scene, Aaron briefly touched on the origins of his rift with Jordan.
Megan Briggs/Getty Images; Kareem Black/USA Network Given the very public estrangement with his family, Aaron Rodgers certainly hasn’t been eager to share the spotlight with his brother. While Aaron, 40, was competing in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2016 — which coincided with his younger brother Jordan Rodgers, 35, […]
“It wasn’t like I was super duper close with everybody in the family. I was close with my little brother,” Aaron said of his brother. “But in actuality, it goes back to stuff from high school that kind of made me feel distant. Stuff in college, stuff post-college.”
He also pointed to his “rigid” religious upbringing as a point of contention.
“I grew up in a very white, dogmatic church and that just didn’t really serve me,” he recalled in Enigma. “It was very rigid in structure. I’m not a rigid person. Shame, guilt, judgment. It was like, ‘We have the truth. Our way or the highway. Our way is heaven; your way is hell.’ Even talking to my parents, it was very black and white. Like, somebody has to be wrong, somebody has to be right. I just slowly uncoupled from that in high school.”
More recently, Aaron blasted his family for speaking publicly about their rift for years before he finally decided to address the situation.
As Aaron Rodgers celebrates his new marriage, he revealed the hostility within his immediate family continues to rage on. Rodgers, 41, appeared on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, June 24, where he discussed his wife, Brittani, for the first time since he announced they had tied the knot recently. In doing so, Rodgers […]
“If you look at the saga with my family, for years it was one-sided,” Rodgers said on The Pat McAfee Show in March. “They were making shots in the media saying bulls***.”
He added, “I never said anything until it got to the point where I’m like, ‘Alright, enough is enough.’”
It is not clear whether anyone in Aaron’s family was in attendance when he married wife Brittani in 2024.
The year 2020 will forever be known in history as the year that the world shut down. Nevertheless, you can’t stop horror movies — especially vampire movies, as the crepuscular crop that’s been produced since then has included some of the most outstanding films in the entire eerie canon. Indeed, the eternal plague of ageless bloodsuckers has been at the forefront of many talented filmmaker’s minds, and the work produced has been thankfully immortalized on film.
Welcome to the roaring/sucking 20s of vampire cinema. Some of the macabre moving pictures of the last six years have resurrected old fables from far-off lands, like in The Vourdalak, while others tackled morbidly modern mischief, as in the thrill-a-minute genre mash-up Abigail. No matter how you slice it, vampires are here to stay, and they are only getting more and more complex and creepily charming. So, break out the holy water and crucifixes, and enjoy these six malevolent masterpieces. Just remember…there’s a lot at stake.
6
‘Blood Red Sky’ (2021)
Director/co-writer Peter Thorwarth’s innovative vampire story is quite fast-paced; 500 miles per hour, to be exact (it’s set on a plane). Indeed, the story is a wild, riveting one that never lets up on the heart-rate-accelerating action. It’s a dazzling mixture of horror, action, and suspense, with bold vampiric scares and blazing fight sequences to spare.
The premise of this film is great. It’s about a mom, Nadja (one minute lovely, the next terrifying, Peri Baumeister), who has a rare “blood disorder.” She hops a flight from Germany to New York with her tiny son, Elias (Carl Anton Koch), in hopes of receiving medical treatment for her blood…issue. The only problem is that the flight is hijacked midway through by terrorists, led by Berg, (scary in his own right, Dominic Purcell). The aforementioned problem really belongs to Berg and his insidious crew, since Nadja is a (beautifully bald) vampire who will stop at nothing to protect her lil’ pointy-toothed progeny. Brimming with tantalizing twists and rocking reveals, this film quenches even the most discerning vamp enthusiast’s thirst for boldly bloody fun.
5
‘The Vourdalak’ (2023)
We always hurt the ones we love the most. This appears to be the major theme of French director and co-writer Adrien Beau’s visually lavish period piece The Vourdalak. It’s a uniquely conceived tale with very memorable (and terrifying) imagery that also manages to entertain with ironic humor and cleverly subtle commentary. Based on a Slavic vampire yarn from the 1800s, this sometimes humorous, often chilling tale is highly ambitious, and manages to deliver the stylized goods at every turn.
The story begins with a 19th century nobleman, Marquis d’Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), who finds himself lost in the deep, dark woods. He entreats locals to grant him entry (a little room and board, mayhaps?), yet is denied at every turn. Eventually, he’s directed to the rustic Gorcha homestead, where the family members eagerly await the return of the patriarch of the clan. This proves to be a big mistake, since papa Gorcha has been fighting hordes of evil in not-so-nearby Turkey. In fact, he warned his fam that he would most likely return as a wickedly evil entity intent on draining them of their blood (manifested in a disgustingly skeletal puppet, which the director voiced). Nevertheless, the fam welcomes his horrid homecoming, and the fish-out-of-water Marquis is smack-dab in the middle of all this. Gorcha’s clan (with the comely daughter Sdenka, played by Ariane Labed, as the standout) is torn between murking daddy and letting him feed — and the horrific hijinks are doled out in deliciously ironic fashion. Certainly a different type of vampire film, The Vourdalak is a glorious watch for fans of the darkly different.
4
‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’ (2024)
A different French co-writer/director, Ariane Louis-Seize, tackles a bunch of the standard vampire tropes in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person — like existential angst, morality versus primal impulses, and insatiable hunger — but she goes a few steps further with this nuanced reflection on the very nature of the human condition. Immortality comes with some hidden terms and conditions, Louis-Seize clearly posits.
Sasha (the precociously talented Sara Montpetit) is an early teen vampire who, for some bizarre reason, has a huge reserve of empathy, which has impeded her fangs from “dropping.” This is problematic for a sucker of blood, since it’s imperative that vampires have a killer instinct in order to survive. Her family (who has been supplying her with fresh, tasty hemoglobin) gets fed-up with her overly human sensibilities and gives her the directive: “find your own blood, or die.” Luckily for Sasha, she encounters Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a lonely teen looking to end it all. Voilà. A beautiful bond is born, in a symbiotic relationship for the ages. This coming-of-(endless)-age tale is wryly comedic and sensitively unveiled. A biting dissection of familial alienation, this is a poignantly presented work that gives new meaning to the term “enfant terrible.”
3
‘Nosferatu’ (2024)
Gothic film master director Robert Eggers was handed quite a challenge: remake one of the most iconic horror films ever (that’s already received a bloody bevy of terrific remakes) and improve upon it. Well, he certainly was up to the expressionistic challenge with Nosfertatu. The tone, color palette, mood, and overall look are stunning; a truly well-designed and sublimely executed take on an undeniable classic.
The story (more commonly known to everyday filmgoers as Dracula) is focused on a relatively innocent girl, Ellen Hutter, played with wide-eyed wonder by Lily-Rose Depp (who, despite her nepo-baby status, does a remarkable job with the role). Ellen is betrothed to the dashing Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), who’s been called away to the Carpathian Mountains to secure a land deal with the mysterious (and thoroughly revolting) Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, who, despite his matinée star looks, has quietly made a lucrative career in playing the creepiest of antagonists). Orlok sees an image of Ellen in Tommy boy’s locket, and immediately becomes obsessed with making her his dark bride. The rest of the (near black and white) film plays out as one would imagine, with Orlok using his mystical powers of the night to try to seduce Ellen into joining him in demonically damned eternity. Eggers received a ton of acclaim for his careful handling of the gruesomely beautiful gothic material — and he deserves it. The film is a true work of baroque art, even if it’s the 4,582nd version of this story.
2
‘Abigail’ (2024)
Who said vampire movies can’t be fun? Definitely not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who delivered one of the most action, laugh, and gore-packed vampire flicks of all time. Basically every morsel of this multi-genre mash-up movie is super entertaining. The story (conceived by screenwriters Stephen Shields and Guy Busick) is extraordinarily rich, crammed with clever subplots and twisty twists that permeate the entire tale. Add to all these already fantastic elements a perfectly assembled cast that delivers the goods — especially the titular star — and you’ve got one of the best vampire films of any time period.
The supremely well-crafted story revolves around a diverse cadre of criminals, kidnappers, if you will, that receive some (eventually revealed to be suspicious) intel about a massively valuable target housed in a huge estate. The thing is, each member of this crew has got quite the backstory — but none as layered as that of the main character, Joey (Melissa Barrera, who’s poised to become the next scream queen of the moment). So, they gear up, ready to snatch the person…who turns out to be a little girl…who turns out to be a sneaky, devilishly precocious vampire. Meet Abigail (the outlandishly gifted young actress Alisha Weir). Once her true, vampirific nature is exposed, things devolve into a nightmarish web of horrors for the kidnapper crew, as they try to navigate the booby-trapped home. Truly wonderful supporting performances by Kevin Durand as Peter, Dan Stevens as Frank, Giancarlo Esposito as Lambert, and Matthew Goode as the ambiguous, undead patriarch “Father” really bolster the already imaginative story, ferocious fight (and dance) choreography, and visually luscious art direction. Abigail dispatches the ultimate lesson of “never underestimate your opponent.”
1
‘Sinners’ (2025)
Music and cinema have always gone together. In fact, music has been an integral part of movies before there was even talking in them. So, when writer-director Ryan Coogler set out to develop one of the most entertaining and profound vampire films of all time, he knew that the specific music of the era that he was capturing had to be woven into the story in a groovily smooth manner. He definitely achieved this goal, as Sinners features the most soulful soundtrack and score of possibly any horror film ever.
The sublimely structured story is set in a very specific place and time, which informs all the action of the film. Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) is a young blues-loving guitarist in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. His preacher poppa wants him to follow in his devout footsteps, but Sammie would rather jam out at his cousins’ new juke joint. Yes, Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore (Michael B. Jordan in his Oscar-winning role(s)) have breezed back into town from the Windy City and have their hearts set on using their city slicker ways to make a buck in their old community. Stack’s old flame, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld, who is phenomenal at exuding smoky sexuality, earnest emotion, and then brazen wickedness), gets involved in the mix, complicating things tremendously (and not just because she’s white). Now, to the vampire aspect; a trio of Irish-born vamps desire entry to the Juke Club, and are met with some resistance…yet Remmick (the beguilingly dark Jack O’Connell), their de facto (de fango) leader, will not be thwarted. Of course, hefty themes of racial inequality, injustice, faith, and a lot more heady topics are explored here that elevate this film to one of the best of the decade, but now…back to the music. Sammie plays his guitar with such passion and soul that he is able to invoke the musical spirits of his ancestors…and even future descendants. The way Coogler and his sound crew blend the blues with the luxurious sounds of other eras is a wonder to behold (and then, naturally, the manner in which they masterfully mix in the scary score to accompany the vicious vampire parts is also perfectly executed). Overall, this moving movie is a knockout all around (just ask The Academy), and the earthy, pulsating sounds of the South will be resonating in the ears of vampire-movie-lovers for a long, long time.
We’ve already found our first two billion-dollar movies of 2026. The first, unsurprisingly, followed in the footsteps of the Chinese animated hit Ne Zha 2 and last year’s Zootopia 2 by being the latest animated sequel to make $1 billion. The video game adaptation sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which stars the likes of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black, will forever be known as the first billion-dollar 2026 movie.
The target was then recently hit by Antoine Fuqua’s musical biopic, Michael, which followed up on a successful run in U.S. theaters by opening in Japan and finally crossing the line. But fear not, order looks ready to be restored, and another animated sequel looks set to hit $1 billion soon. This is thanks to Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the rest of the Toy Story 5 gang, surpassing the $900 million mark worldwide last weekend,
In the U.S. alone, in its fifth weekend, Toy Story 5 made another $14.8 million and finished fourth in the domestic ranks. Not just a box office smash, the latest in the groundbreaking Pixar franchise is also a critical darling, earning a strong 92% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a 95% rating from audiences. Collider’s Taylor Gates gave the movie an 8/10 rating in her review, saying, “The impressive fifth installment not only justifies its existence but feels like a necessary response to how much the world has changed in the past three decades.”
Could the Next Billion-Dollar Movie of the Year Have Just Debuted?
As Toy Story 5 edges closer to that all-important box office milestone, a new contender for the prize in 2026 has debuted. Last weekend, Christopher Nolan‘s most ambitious film yet, The Odyssey, crashed onto theatrical shores with an almighty bang, shaking the foundations of the 2026 box office with an opening weekend that is Nolan’s highest ever. The movie, dubbed “a filmmaking feast” by Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, has earned a whopping $264 million in its first weekend and sets sail on a likely successful journey to the billion-dollar boundary.
Toy Story 5 is in theaters now. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for more box office updates.
- Release Date
-
June 19, 2026
- Runtime
-
102 Minutes
- Director
-
Andrew Stanton, Kenna Harris
-
-
Tim Allen
Buzz Lightyear (voice)
-
-
Greta Lee
Lilypad (voice)
By TeeJay Small
| Updated
By now, even the most casual Simpsons fan is aware of the controversy surrounding Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The fan-favorite character, once voiced by Hank Azaria, first appeared all the way back in the show’s inaugural season and has become a staple of the series for decades. Unfortunately, Apu has been all but written out of The Simpsons and ignored since 2017, following the release of a documentary titled The Problem With Apu. In the years since, Fox has effectively pretended that the Kwik-E-Mart clerk doesn’t exist, until a recent social media post.
On July 11, the official Simpsons X account shared an image of Apu passing a golden, glowing Squishee cup across the counter at the Kwik-E-Mart. Eagle-eyed fans quickly recognized the frame as being pulled from the 2016 episode “Much Apu About Something.” Others questioned if the still was from an upcoming episode, which would place Apu back in the spotlight. Either way, there were a myriad of reactions from fans regarding this sudden acknowledgment of a character who has been relegated to the distant background since “Gucci Gang” and fidget spinners were all the rage.
Soft Lanch, Or Hot Air?
In case you’re not up to date, comedian Hari Kondabolu created The Problem With Apu to raise concerns regarding Indian stereotypes in media, and the damaging effects they can have on real-life Indians. In the special, Kondabolu claims that he and others have been tormented by refrains like “thank you, come again,” and jokes which call back to The Simpsons as a singular cultural touchstone. Needless to say, the Indian people are not a monolith (the diaspora accounts for some 1.4 billion), and others, like Akaash Singh, have argued that the character actually brings positive representation to the cultural forefront.
If this social media post is indeed a soft-launch of Apu’s return, the network will surely be met with plenty of questions. For starters, will Hank Azaria return to the role, or will Apu be recast by an actor of actual South Asian heritage? Azaria has been asked multiple times if he’s open to a return, and made it perfectly clear that he has no plans to offer up a “thank you, come again” any time soon. Other Simpsons characters, including Dr. Hibbert and Carl Carlson, have been recast in recent years, as a greater cultural push demands characters be played by actors who share their lived experience.
The Simpsons is not the only animated series that’s faced this backlash. Futurama, Family Guy, and Big Mouth have also agreed to swap caucasian voice actors out of non-white roles. BoJack Horseman (which concluded before this controversy became relevant) was criticized for Alison Brie’s performance of Diane, a Vietnamese-American with very few roots to her ethnic homeland.
No matter what happens with the Apu character, some subset of fans will surely be up in arms. For now, it seems like Fox will make their decision based on market research, and try to offend as few potential viewers as possible, while cashing in on rage-bait politics with cryptic social media posts.
Streaming was once seen as an alternative to basic cable with more options and fewer distractions, but the industry has increasingly updated its subscription services to feel more like traditional television. Amazon Prime used to make a clear distinction between its ad-supported free content and a more streamlined subscription model; until 2024, the “Freevee” app for ad-supported content was independent of Prime Video, but now all content is hosted in the same place with different tiers. Amazon is replacing its existing “ad-free tier” with Prime Video Ultra, which allows for increased offline viewing, five concurrent streams, and Ultra HD and 4K quality picture and sound by Dolby Atmos. Given that any new perks within streaming come with price hikes, the Prime Video Ultra tier has been raised from $14.99 to $19.99 per month.
While it should be expected that services will ask for more when adding new benefits, Prime Video has framed its ad-supported tier as the baseline subscription, as even those who pay the yearly rates for all Amazon Prime capabilities will have to deal with ads. Ads might have been an annoyance that could be dealt with for those using the free tier, but Prime Video isn’t even suggesting that an ad-supported subscription is the cheaper option anymore; the basic Prime Video subscriber should expect ads, as only those willing to tack on additional viewing capabilities will be exempt from distractions. There have been many questions about how streaming services will continue to be profitable as content spending goes up and the maximum subscriber count has plateaued, and the pivot towards ad integration provides an answer.
Prime Video Is Reframing Its Streaming Tiers
It’s important to remember that every major streaming service has gone back on its initial promise to be ad-free, as the option to draw in new subscribers with a less expensive option was too alluring to pass up. Prime Video is unique in this regard because it was initially seen as a bonus for those using Amazon Prime for other reasons; if a subscriber was accessing content on Prime Video, they, in all likelihood, used Amazon for other consumer needs. While Freevee had operated as an experiment to test how well subscribers reacted to ad-supported content that was hosted in the Prime Video interface, there’s a different calculation involved when there is an actual subscription price. Similar to what Netflix and HBO Max have discovered, Prime Video recognized that the integration of ads provides more unique sponsorship opportunities for companies based on how existing users navigate the service. The data Prime Video has on how its users respond to prominent ad placements within the middle of streams is just as desirable for content sponsors as the advertising of their products.
Prime Video is in a position to pivot because it has developed “zeitgeist shows” that subscribers will sign up to watch, even if they don’t otherwise use Amazon Prime. Since its ad interactions allow Prime Video to cut more deals with companies, it is in the streamer’s best interest to develop shows that get a high amount of viewership; this might explain why Prime Video has been more ruthless in cancelling shows that had some degree of critical acclaim or niche fanbase. Prime Video has been savvy in cornering certain markets that haven’t been targeted by other streamers; while there isn’t another service that has produced as much great science fiction content as Apple TV, Prime Video has developed strong followings for its romantic and coming-of-age programs. Prime Video has also expanded some of its most popular shows with spin-offs, which will guarantee that viewers will spend more time on the platform and thus be exposed to more ads. Spin-offs for shows like Reacher, Bosch, and The Terminal List don’t just allow Prime Video to capitalize on some of its most successful properties but also give it the chance to develop a unique brand identity.
Ads Have Become Normalized on All Streaming Services
Prime Video is experiencing a broad strategic shift because its content has to be adjusted for ads to be incorporated. Some of Prime Video’s longest-running shows, such as The Boys and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, began airing on the service before ads were commonplace; these shows’ creators now must either find natural ad breaks in the episodes or risk taking the viewer out of the experience with an awkward transition. This is further complicated by the fact that Amazon Studios has found more success with its theatrically released films that hit the service months after they leave cinemas, such as Project Hail Mary, The Sheep Detectives, or Crime 101. Since the fact that these films hit Prime Video before other subscription-based services is part of the appeal, calculations are made to determine how to best incorporate ads; some feature an extended run of ads that run before the film so that there are no interruptions during playback.
Although it used to be an option to save extra on a monthly bill, ad-free streaming is now a luxury offered to those who want better restoration, multiple streams, and better surround sound. While it doesn’t come as a surprise that all streaming services seem to be following the same pattern, there’s no need for them to put up the guise that they’re much different from cable television. The massive amount of spending that Prime Video puts into its original content comes with a cost, and ads are clearly the strategy to be most profitable.
News Videos40 seconds ago
5 Proven Ways To Make Money With AI (No Experience)
NewsBeat2 minutes ago
Hundreds of affordable homes to be built in Scarborough and Whitby
Business2 minutes ago
(VIDEO) Lamine Yamal Steals the Show as Nearly Two Million Fans Celebrate Spains World Cup Win in Madrid
-
NewsBeat5 days agoLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan handed a peerage by Keir Starmer alongside 15 other Labour figures… just days before the PM leaves No10
-
Fashion4 days agoWeekend Open Thread – Corporette.com
-
Politics3 days agoThe House | The City of London can help the new chancellor deliver growth in every postcode
-
Politics6 days agoYoung campaigners urge incoming PM to act on outdoor junk food ads
-
Crypto World5 days agoCFTC blocks Kalshi from unwinding Michigan trades after court order
-
Crypto World4 days agoTwo July Windows Left: The CLARITY Act’s Senate Fight and What Failure Means
-
Crypto World3 days agoRipple Payments Joins MiCA With 14 Firms, Does It Mean Anything For XRP?
-
Business5 days agoNvidia Stock Slips After Big Tuesday Rally as Huang Confirms Vera Rubin Chip Is Now in Production Today
-
Politics2 days agoDemocrats look to World Cup watch parties to register thousands of voters
-
Entertainment6 days agoDisney’s Most Ambitious Failed Star Wars Attraction Is Coming to SDCC
-
Crypto World4 days agoRipple wins EU-wide access as ESMA adds it to MiCA register
-
Crypto World4 hours agoGrayscale Files For Worldcoin ETF, WLD Registers Sharp Rise
-
Crypto World5 days agoInjective Submits SEC Transfer-Agent Registration to Onchain Ownership Records
-
Business5 days agoPalantir Shares Rise After Expanded Nvidia Partnership and Fresh Analyst Upgrades Ahead of Earnings Day
-
Tech12 hours agoSail Virtually Aboard The “Itanic” With IA-64 Emulator
-
Tech9 hours agoTurtle Beach Command Series KB7 review: a nifty screen-equipped gaming keyboard
-
Tech7 days agoDark Secrets Emerge When Jailbreaking LLMs
-
NewsBeat4 days agoRegistration is now open for March for Men with Kev 2026
-
News Videos7 days agoXRP BOMBSHELL… XRP OMBOARDED FOR TRANSACTIONS!!!
-
NewsBeat1 day agoUnregistered fitter used Gas Safe logo on business flyers
You must be logged in to post a comment Login