Entertainment
Oprah Winfrey’s Advice To Young Workers Sparks Heated Debate
Oprah Winfrey has ignited a fierce debate after arguing that young people should not expect work-life balance at the beginning of their careers. The 72-year-old media mogul said recent college graduates need to “lay in the work” before earning the freedom to make decisions based entirely on what they want. While some fans praised Oprah Winfrey for sharing the work ethic that helped her build a multibillion-dollar empire, others argued that her extraordinary wealth has disconnected her from the financial and emotional pressures facing younger workers.
Winfrey discussed her career philosophy during an appearance on the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast. The conversation began when Keke Palmer asked, “What is for you the definition of living your best life now? What does it look like?”
“Well, it looks like freedom,” Winfrey responded. “It looks like being able to make the choices that are based on what you really want, which I think is the most important question.”
The former talk show host explained that people who are not completely free may have to make choices based on necessity rather than personal fulfillment. “You know, I think when you’re not free, not completely free, you can’t make decisions based upon what you want. You have to do what you want,” she said.
Winfrey then connected that philosophy to the advice she gives young women entering the workforce.
Winfrey said she regularly hears recent college graduates discussing their desire to establish boundaries between their careers and personal lives.
“This is what I say to my girls, you know, graduating from college and starting their first jobs and they’re talking to me about, you know, work-life balance,” Winfrey said. “At this point, I go, ‘you ain’t had no work life balance at 22… It’s not there. You’re not supposed to have it. You’re supposed to lay it in. Lay in the work.’”
According to Winfrey, the ability to decline unwanted opportunities and pursue only personally meaningful work must be earned over time. The billionaire said she has now reached a stage where her decisions come from “the purest part of myself.”
“I only do what I want to do and I’ve earned the right to do that because there was lots of times I had to do what I had to do,” she explained.
Winfrey added, “A lot of people think ‘oh I just want to do what I want to do.’ You got to work to be able to do what you want to do. You have to do what you have to do, until you can do what you want to do.”
Critics Say Oprah Can No Longer Relate To ‘Normal People’
Winfrey’s comments quickly divided social media users, with some arguing that her billionaire status makes her advice difficult to apply to ordinary workers.
“Don’t take advice from billionaires,” one critic wrote. “They can’t relate to normal people’s lives and give advice based on real-life struggles. She became a millionaire at 32-years-old and has been living with financial freedom for a few decades now.”
Someone else expressed, “That’s right, keep working your life away so the rich can have a few more airplanes in their hangar.” A third wrote, “Work-life balance right now means you need to work hard enough to pay your bills. That’s the balance.”
“No one listens to her anymore and it’s time for her to stop preaching to everyone,” another said.
Fans Challenge The Culture Of Chronic Overworking
One social media user described Winfrey’s perspective as part of a “generational” tendency to “chronically overwork.”
Another fan argued that the absence of work-life balance is not simply an individual problem that can be overcome by working harder. “I disagree on this take! Love Oprah down but she more than anyone can speak to/understand that it’s a systematic reason why we aren’t able to have work life balance,” the user wrote.
Winfrey’s advice comes from her own decades-long rise through the entertainment industry. She began working in media at 17 and became the host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1986. She reached millionaire status in 1989 and became the first Black female billionaire by 2000.
According to Forbes, Winfrey has an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion, built through television, brand deals, production, and real estate. She founded Harpo Productions in 1986 and launched the cable channel OWN in 2011. Her property portfolio reportedly includes $200 million in real estate, including a 66-acre Montecito estate featuring a 23,000-square-foot mansion.
Winfrey has also directed a portion of her wealth toward charitable projects. She established Oprah’s Angel Network in 1998, provided more than 400 scholarships to Morehouse College, and donated $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2013.
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Lisa Hochstein’s ex Lenny Hochstein, a plastic surgeon, is facing three separate lawsuits from former patients who claim his allegedly negligent care left them with infections, deformities, and chronic pain. The women’s complaints were filed in Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County and also name Hochstein’s North Miami Beach Surgical Center as a defendant.
Morgan & Morgan, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, says the women are seeking accountability for injuries they allegedly suffered after undergoing abdominal and breast procedures at Hochstein’s clinic. The allegations have not yet been proven in court.
Each complaint centers on a different patient’s experience under Hochstein’s care. One 46-year-old woman alleges that substandard treatment connected to an abdominal procedure caused multiple infections, scarring, deformity, and continuing pain.
A second woman claims her breast augmentation left one breast so distorted that another plastic surgeon had to perform corrective surgery.
The third plaintiff underwent an initial breast augmentation in 2022 and a revision surgery with Hochstein in 2023. She alleges that both procedures ultimately left her with breast deformities and chronic pain.
“These women trusted Dr. Hochstein with their health and their bodies,” Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan and plaintiffs’ attorney Jack Cook said in a statement with PEOPLE. “Our clients deserve accountability, and we will fight to ensure they receive justice.”
The firm previously filed another lawsuit against Hochstein on behalf of a patient in June 2025.
Patient Claims She Developed Infections After Abdominal Surgery
The first plaintiff underwent multiple procedures on May 27, 2025, according to her complaint. Hochstein allegedly performed a tummy tuck, liposuction, fat grafting, a breast lift, and a breast augmentation involving implants.
The woman said she was discharged from the clinic that same day but subsequently developed “worsening symptoms.” She described pain and tightness throughout her abdomen, along with swelling and discoloration near her surgical incisions.
On June 17, 21 days after the operation, the patient sought treatment at a wound-care center in California. She alleges doctors discovered accumulated fluid and dead tissue. According to the complaint, the condition required “painful and invasive wound management” that allegedly resulted in “scarring” and “deformity.”
She is accusing Hochstein and his clinic of providing care that fell below the appropriate medical standard.
Another Patient Alleges She Was Not Warned About Mesh
The second plaintiff underwent breast augmentation surgery with Hochstein on May 6, 2025. She alleges that he used Meso-Biomatrix mesh without adequately disclosing that it would be implanted “in an off-label manner.” Her complaint claims the consent documents did not explain that the material “lacked FDA approval for breast surgery” or outline the alleged risks and alternatives associated with that use.
Following the procedure, the woman allegedly informed Hochstein that a drain inserted to remove excess fluid had become dislodged. According to her filing, he told her that nothing could be done. The patient also claims Hochstein observed a “change in breast position” and acknowledged that she might require corrective surgery, but “no corrective intervention was undertaken.”
On July 15, 2025, she visited a Long Island clinic while allegedly suffering from “breast pain, droopy breasts, implant rippling, nipple and areola concerns and asymmetry.” Another plastic surgeon performed a revision procedure in September.
The patient alleges that she “continues to suffer from permanent…distortion, pain and the likelihood of future corrective surgeries.”
Third Woman Claims Revision Surgery Worsened Her Condition
Hochstein performed a breast augmentation and lift on the third plaintiff on March 15, 2022. The woman claims she later developed “breast asymmetry, cleavage distortion and early symmastia.”
Symmastia is a rare condition in which the breasts move together toward the middle of the chest. It can occur naturally or as a complication of breast augmentation when implants shift toward the breastbone, potentially creating the appearance of a single breast.
Hochstein performed a revision surgery on the patient in April 2023, but she alleges that the procedure made the symmastia worse. According to her complaint, she “remained in pain, continued to experience swelling and fluid accumulation, and continued to exhibit breast distortion, despite her compliance with all postoperative restrictions.”
The woman said other surgeons later advised her that she would need a third operation to address the complications. She claims Hochstein’s surgeries left her with permanent “breast deformity” and “chronic pain.”
Attorneys Describe An ‘Added Layer Of Emotional Damage’
Morgan and Cook said the intimate nature of the patients’ alleged injuries made the emotional effects particularly severe. “When injuries like these occur, ones that involve intimate parts of the body tied directly to a person’s identity, it creates an added layer of emotional damage,” they told PEOPLE.
“Every one of these patients has suffered, and continues to suffer, emotional harm from the sense that the trust between surgeon and patient was broken,” the attorneys added.
Speaking to CBS News, the lawyers said the women are pursuing compensation for medical expenses, missed work, hospitalizations, and future corrective procedures. “These women are seeking monetary damages, that’s what the system allows,” they said.
“A lot of them have a lot of medical bills, some of them have had lengthy hospital stays, a lot of them had to be removed off of work, and all of them are kind of left with permanent issues,” they added. “Just about every one of them needs future surgeries, to try to repair a lot of the damage.”
Cook also alleged that staff members at Hochstein’s clinic downplayed or dismissed the women’s concerns.
Lenny Hochstein has not yet publicly responded to the three latest complaints. For now, the patients’ claims remain allegations that will have to be tested through the legal process.
By TeeJay Small
| Updated
Like many MCU fans, I’ve been following along with the drip-feed of Avengers updates with a mix of cautious optimism and thinly veiled concern since before the Doomsday title was even applied. With each new update, returning cast member, and behind-the-scenes shakeup, I’ve wondered how this film could possibly inspire the same audience turnout as installments like Infinity War and Endgame. Now, it is with great regret, and heaps of sarcasm, that I must admit: My Avengers: Doomsday hype has officially been squashed by the first official trailer.
Can Casual Fans Keep Up?
I’m already aware of the fact that there are millions of fans like me who have mentally checked out on the Disney+ Marvel shows a long time ago. While I enjoyed WandaVision and What If as much as any theatrical MCU experience, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the barrage of shows we’ve received in the years since. Marvel’s box office stats have also done somersaults in the last decade or so, with outings like Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Thor: Love And Thunder serving as box office disappointments, or outright financial bombs. I’m also told that a film called The Marvels was released in 2023, though there’s no record of it in my brain whatsoever.
Despite a general waning of interest in the daily MCU minutiae, I had held on hope that an Avengers team-up would rouse attention from the cultural zeitgeist, especially with the Russo Brothers at the helm. But, after watching the Avengers: Doomsday trailer, I’m left with a sense that the movie will be a who’s who of who cares. Multiple shots within the 145-second trailer left me wondering “should I know who that is?” or “what is the significance of this interaction?” or “does this movie have a plot, or is it more of a My Dinner With Andre situation where dozens of superheroes sit around having thought-provoking conversations?”
The MCU used to be really good at balancing numerous characters around a single, coherent story. Most of the movies leading up to the Infinity saga are designed so brand new fans can keep up, and existing super-fans can enjoy every little easter egg and reference along the way. If the trailer is anything to go off, it looks like Doomsday will be loaded with Disney+ streaming characters that no employed adult would ever have the time to commit to memory. Maybe there’s a mandate that casual fans sit this one out, but it seems strange that Disney would rest their next landmark movie on the backs of Yelena Belova, Bob Reynolds, and Namora.
Better Find A Study Buddy
Ironically, this inability to juggle spinning plates is exactly the reason that nobody attempted to form an expansive cinematic universe like this before 2008. If you pitched the idea of turning the entire Marvel Comics roster into an interconnected sequence of blockbuster films before the success of The Avengers, producers would shut you down because they wouldn’t want to alienate non-comic readers, or shell out millions for an ever-expanding cast of A-listers. These days, it feels like you can’t enjoy a new Marvel film unless you’ve committed to 14 hours of mandatory homework first.
Obviously, it’s way too soon to know for sure if Avengers: Doomsday will be any good. We’ll probably get a few new trailers, some carefully-laid behind the scenes leaks, and an overwhelming media blitz from the 400 cast members before it hits theaters. But for now, my excitement is suspended. That is, unless somebody can confirm that the MF DOOM song “Doomsday” will be used in the movie. That would get me back on board immediately.
Selena Gomez‘s mother, Mandy Teefey, is not in the mood for online critics.
The producer fired back at trolls who questioned her parenting and relationship with her daughters. In a passionate defense, she made it clear that strangers have no right to judge her family dynamic or diminish her dedication as a mother.
Teefey’s outburst comes shortly after she similarly faced backlash for sharing a post fans seemed to think was a cry for attention.
Taking to social media on Friday, 50-year-old Teefey shared a brief look into an online exchange before deleting the post. The mother faced criticism from an internet user who alleged that she was publicly undermining her daughters, Gomez and Gracie, while ignoring their emotional health.
Replying directly to the critique, Teefey sarcastically thanked the individual for attempting to explain her household’s emotional well-being. She highlighted her long-standing dedication to wellness causes, stating that she has dedicated her adulthood and resources toward helping others fight psychological battles.
“No one parents perfectly, and people judge people all day on their choices, so you can think I’m a bad parent,” Teefey wrote.
“What have you done today to make someone’s day better? Ask yourself that, and if nothing, go do that. I’m not the problem. Hate is,” she added, as reported by U.S. Weekly.
Expanding her thoughts in the post’s caption, Teefey explained that while she does not seek approval as a social media parenting figure, she will not stay silent when critics ignore her and her daughter’s sacrifices for public mental health awareness.
Mandy Teefey’s Cryptic Social Media Post Sparked Fan Backlash
The recent wave of online criticism against the entertainment manager seems to have stemmed from a social media update she shared over a week ago. Unfiltered pictures of her two daughters were posted alongside inspirational quotes, including a line that read, “She outgrew what drained her.”
As reported by The Blast, in the caption, the mother praised the sisters as her ultimate life achievements before writing that one day her children would recognize her strength and return her devotion.
The message immediately triggered alarm among devoted followers, who accused the media figure of creating public drama and seeking attention at her famous child’s expense. Concerned supporters urged her to resolve any private disagreements away from social media, warning that the post would invite negative scrutiny toward her daughter.
Mandy Teefey Was Excluded From Playing A Major Role At Selena Gomez’s Wedding
Adding to the ongoing public scrutiny surrounding Teefey and Gomez’s relationship, reports surfaced in September 2025 regarding a major family rift during the pop star’s wedding preparations.
The Blast reported that Gomez made the unexpected choice to have her maternal grandfather, David Cornett, instead of her mother, give her away during her nuptials to Benny Blanco.
Insiders revealed that the decision reportedly left her mother and stepfather completely heartbroken, describing the unexpected choice as a shock move that created significant tension among family members.
While her mother was reportedly shattered by the choice, the bride’s grandparents were overcome with emotion when invited to take on the prominent role.
Selena Gomez’s Mother Faced Workplace Allegations Surrounding Drug Use
Gomez’s decision to have Cornett walk her down the aisle instead of Teefey came a few weeks after Teefey was allegedly involved in a drug scandal.
At the time, The Blast detailed the allegations against the producer regarding her conduct at Wondermind, the mental health startup she co-founded with her daughter and Daniella Pierson.
According to the report, former staff members came forward alleging erratic behavior and substance use in the workplace, with one employee claiming to have witnessed the businesswoman snort a substance that appeared to be Ritalin inside her office.
Addressing the accusations directly in a statement to the press, the media figure strongly denied the claims regarding workplace substance use, describing the reports as “absolutely” false.
Selena Gomez Is Now Stepping Into New Cinematic Territory
Despite the scrutiny and alleged drug scandal surrounding Teefey, Gomez has managed to keep exploring new heights in her career.
According to The Blast, the actress is reportedly set to star alongside Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender in an “X-rated” project directed by Brady Corbet.
While specific plot details remain closely guarded, the filmmaker described the upcoming project as a “genre-defying” film that spans from the nineteenth century to modern times, with a core focus centered on the 1970s.
The Planet Express crew is back at San Diego Comic-Con, baby! Hulu has returned to the event this weekend to once again promote the biggest hits of its Animayhem lineup, from The Simpsons to Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, and, of course, Futurama, which is just over a week away from blasting off for Season 14. To celebrate the coming premiere, series creator Matt Groening joined showrunner and head writer David X. Cohen, executive producers Claudia Katz and Ken Keeler, and the ever-enduring cast of Billy West, John DiMaggio, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, David Herman, and Maurice LaMarche to preview the next round of zany sci-fi comedy adventures among the stars. That included sharing some world-first footage, along with some other surprises.
Season 14 is out to prove that there are depths of the universe that the Planet Express crew has not yet explored, promising “swaggering space pirates, lab-grown meats, sexy scams,” and much more. Excitingly, it also teases “the shocking return of Dr. Zoidberg’s lost love,” implying that the Hulu revival will finally address the absence of Marianne after her appearance in the final Comedy Central season. Collider was able to share a few images as part of our Exclusive Summer Preview series in May that teased a bit more, like a worrying diagnosis for Professor Farnsworth and a missing Nibbler, but now, the curtain is being properly pulled back. An explosive official trailer was unveiled during the series’ SDCC panel, showing the world once again at risk of destruction.
The footage kicks off with a literal blast from the past when the professor’s time machine, as iconically featured in “The Late Phillip J. Fry,” returns, and this time, it’s idiotproof. Fry will put that to the test, but that’s just the beginning of the crew’s worries. Hermes warns of “the end of civilization” as the world is beset by space pirates, vampires, alien invaders, revolutionary pop stars, and more. Things are dire enough that the Nibblonians once again have to get involved and send Fry, Leela, and the gang on another perilous quest to save everything. From Titanic-like crashes to robot mafia hits, the 20th-century delivery boy and his friends will have their fair share of brushes with death in another season full of as many laughs as there are high stakes.
‘Futurama’ Will Live on After Season 14, But Not as Expected
While Futurama‘s Hulu era has been a massive success so far in terms of viewership and acclaim, Season 14 is the first of the revival to go in without another season already ordered. Cohen even previously mentioned that the coming season finale was written to operate as a series finale if a Season 15 never happened. While it doesn’t appear that another round of episodes is coming at this time, the panel did have some more good news, everyone. Hulu has greenlit three extended-length “XXXL-sized” specials that are now in production, with the first set to debut next year. Not much is known about the new installments at this time, but the first one will be X-Mas themed, meaning Robot Santa is likely coming back for some ho-ho-holiday carnage. More details will be shared at a later date.
Futurama Season 14 debuts with two episodes on Hulu on August 3, while the first of the three XXXL-sized specials will arrive sometime in 2027. Check out the trailer in the player above.
- Release Date
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March 28, 1999
- Network
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FOX, Comedy Central, Hulu
- Directors
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Peter Avanzino, Brian Sheesley, Crystal Chesney, Frank Marino, Edmund Fong, Stephen Sandoval, Bret Haaland, Rich Moore, Ron Hughart, Dwayne Carey-Hill, Raymie Muzquiz, Mark Ervin, Susie Dietter, Gregg Vanzo, Swinton O. Scott III, Ira Sherak, James Purdum, Corey Barnes, Lance Kramer, Ray Claffey, Chris Sauve, Jeffrey Lynch, Pat Shinagawa, Wes Archer
- Writers
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Eric Rogers, Dan Vebber, Maiya Williams, David A. Goodman, Ron Weiner, Aaron Ehasz, Kristin Gore, Brian Kelley, Evan Gore, Heather Lombard, Jason Gorbett, Michael Saikin
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Billy West
Fry / Professor Farnsworth / Zoidberg / Zapp Brannigan (voice)
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If you’re talking great Ridley Scott sci-fi movies, it’s hard to rush right past Blade Runner, but also, you can if you’re not talking about the series it kicked off. There is also Alien, after all, which is similarly legendary as far as decades-old science fiction movies go, but it’s a rather different sort of sci-fi, seeing as Blade Runner is more of a dystopian/thriller sort of thing. The world of Alien is admittedly also quite bleak, but that first movie does revolve around a small group of people having to survive in space. Sequels to it, which weren’t directed by Ridley Scott, scratched the same itch in some ways and ventured into other territory in some other ways, but then Scott himself returned to the series in 2012.
That 2012 movie was Prometheus, and it was a prequel to Alien that felt quite different from any of the Alien movies that came before… mostly in a good way, despite what some naysayers might have you believe. Scott made a third movie that tried to split the difference between being a Prometheus sequel and another Alien prequel (of sorts), but one that felt distinctly more like an Alien movie. That film was Alien: Covenant, and it’s another divisive one, though it’s certainly got its moments and delivers some solid horror sequences while being technically impressive, as a sci-fi movie. It’s being taken off HBO Max at the end of July so, at the time of writing, you’ve got a bit under a week to watch it there, or venture elsewhere to give another look to a movie that probably deserves it.
What Happens in ‘Alien: Covenant’
So, for a bit of background on Prometheus, before covering Alien: Covenant, this 2012 film is not chronologically the first in the series, if you want to count Alien vs. Predator and its sequel. But it’s understandable if you don’t want to count those two, so sure, Prometheus is the first “real” Alien movie, chronologically speaking. It takes place near the end of the 21st century, while Alien: Covenant takes place at the very start of the 22nd century, and then the first Alien (from 1979) is set in 2122, about two decades on from the events of Alien: Covenant.
There’s an android from Prometheus, David 8 (Michael Fassbender), who appears in Alien: Covenant, but it’s otherwise a different cast of characters who get wrapped up in some horror stuff.
That means it makes sense why Alien: Covenant bridges the gap between Prometheus and Alien, though it does also feel like there would’ve ideally been a third Ridley Scott-directed Alien movie released post-Alien: Covenant, but it was not to be. Instead, there was Alien: Romulus, which was still neat. Anyway, Prometheus involves the search for the origin of humanity, and that search leads some explorers to stumble upon some vaguely Alien-y things. There’s an android from Prometheus, David 8 (Michael Fassbender, who has two roles in Alien: Covenant, also playing the android Walter One), who appears in Alien: Covenant, but it’s otherwise a different cast of characters who get wrapped up in some horror stuff, including a xenomorph, and you only got a predecessor of one of those very briefly at the end of Prometheus. Hence Alien: Covenant indeed being more of an Alien movie than Prometheus was.
The Ways ‘Alien: Covenant’ Adds to the ‘Alien’ Series
Alien: Covenant does provide closure to Prometheus, to some extent, albeit it kind of speed-runs that stuff. It’s still one of the highlights of the movie, detailing how David’s actions doomed the Engineers (a big part of Prometheus), with that whole flashback also contributing to why David behaves differently in Alien: Covenant than how he did – or seemed to behave – in Prometheus. He was a highlight of that movie, character-wise, but he steals the show to an even greater extent in Alien: Covenant.
It’s also cool how Fassbender gets to act alongside himself, despite (or maybe because) the one big scene David and Walter containing some weird sexual innuendo. Alien: Covenant just goes for it. It doesn’t really care. There is also a shower scene that feels right out of a schlocky slasher movie, and yeah, it’s one of the standout sequences in the whole movie, for better or worse. Alien: Covenant really embraces being a horror movie, and one that’s almost B-grade with its sensibilities, but thankfully A-grade when it comes to production value.
How ‘Alien: Covenant’ Compares to Other Recent Ridley Scott Movies
If you look at Quentin Tarantino, he’s a director who seems very resistant to making too many movies, stressing his intention to retire after directing his tenth feature film. He’s only worth bringing up here because Ridley Scott’s kind of the opposite. Scott just keeps on directing, even though he’s set to turn 89 near the end of 2026, and he’s amassed about 30 directorial credits to date. And a bunch of them have been recent, because since 2017’s Alien: Covenant, he’s also done All the Money in the World (2017), The Last Duel (2021), House of Gucci (2021), Napoleon (2023), and Gladiator II (2024).
This is going to sound like a potentially crazy hot take, but of those, only The Last Duel is better than Alien: Covenant. This really is one of the better Ridley Scott movies from the past decade or so, and there are a good many Ridley Scott movies released in the past decade-ish, so making that claim is worth something (and he has a new movie coming out in 2026, too: The Dog Stars). He’s not the most consistent of directors, but Alien: Covenant is a bit better than some make it out to be, and if you have to search beyond HBO Max in a post-07/31/2026 world to find it, then it’s probably worth the effort to do so.
Alien: Covenant
- Release Date
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May 19, 2017
- Runtime
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123 Minutes
- Writers
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dante harper, John Logan, Jack Paglen, Michael Green
Zach Gilford’s exit from Criminal Minds came as a surprise to some — but could he return in the future?
“Me and [showrunner] Erica Messer, we had this idea of a spinoff,” Gilford, 44, teased exclusively to Us. “I would love to do a spinoff. The hard thing unfortunately is it’s a joint studio. It’s Disney and Paramount. It’s kind of hard to convince them to do it.”
Gilford wouldn’t mind reprising the complex role of serial killer Elias Voit, who went from committing disturbing crimes to helping out the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
“It’s just convincing them to make it because no one’s going to give the rights to someone else and they don’t want to own it together,” he continued. “So unfortunately, I doubt it will ever happen, but there are dreams of it. … Let’s start an online movement or whatever we do nowadays.”
Criminal Minds is back with a revival on Paramount+ — but fans have watched the cast change on and off screen since the procedural first debuted. In 2005, viewers were introduced to a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit. The crime drama, which was created by […]
After playing Voit for four seasons since 2022, Gilford wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
“We can both hope [my character Voit will return] but all I know is I’m not there filming right now,” he said of his potential return for season 20 of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “It was hard to say goodbye. It definitely was one of my favorite characters I’ve ever gotten to play and partially because what a gift.”
He continued: “Every season I got to do a different side of this character. It wasn’t like I was just doing the same thing every year.”
For Gilford, Criminal Minds was the perfect challenge, adding, “To give this guy some redemption and go out on a good guy note — so to speak — was nice. It’s weird. You wrap a show and a lot of times you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I’m coming back next year and if we’re going to have another season in general.’ On this, I did know that it was the end.”
Gilford told Us he struggled to say goodbye to Criminal Minds.
It is never easy to unexpectedly say goodbye to your favorite characters — and 2026 has featured an influx of shocking departures on our TV screens from Grey’s Anatomy to Virgin River. Virgin River fans were surprised when showrunner Patrick Sean Smith confirmed multiple characters were written off the show after season 7. Marco Grazzini addressed […]
“It was a bummer and I am really like, ‘I’m not good with emotions,’” he shared. “So I literally — before they even officially wrapped — I had a feeling it was the last take. I just left. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone. I just snuck out. They’re like, ‘Zach, where are you? Where’d you go?’ And then a few people saw me driving out of my car. I’m like, ‘Bye, I’ll see you later.’”
While the Thursday, July 23, season finale of Criminal Minds hinted at Voit’s exit, the door was left open for a return. Gilford, however, has remained booked and busy.
“I’ve been working since I left for the most part. I’ve had some downtime with my kids, which is always the best. But I got to do a Christmas romcom, which was so fun,” he teased. “It was just so nice to do something nice and cute. Then I went and did an Evil Dead movie, which was the complete opposite.”
Criminal Minds is now streaming on Paramount+.
There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and one of Stephen King‘s books being adapted for film or television. Firestarter, The Shining…all of these books have leaped from the page to the screen, with varying results. But the one King book series that’s always seemed to have the biggest hurdles in making it to the screen is The Dark Tower. The universe-hopping western has often been described as King’s “magnum opus,” and yet it’s hit wall after wall. Even a 2017 film adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey fell far, far short of expectations.
However, there may be hope on the horizon. A television series is in the works with Mike Flanagan at the helm, with Prime Video as a potential streamer, though there’s no confirmation on where it might actually land. Unlike other attempts to bring The Dark Tower to screens, this might actually stick. For one thing, Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King’s work — he previously directed adaptations of Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, and the reception those received was enough for King to give him his stamp of approval for the Tower series. But more importantly, television is the one medium that The Dark Tower is perfectly fit for.
The Scale and Scope of ‘The Dark Tower’ Fits Television
The Dark Tower series centers around the adventures of Roland Deschain, the last living gunslinger. Deschain is seeking vengeance against Walter o’Dim — whom he knows as the “Man in Black” — as Walter had an affair with his mother and attempted to manipulate his life. Walter seeks to reach the titular Dark Tower, a nexus point for all realities, and claim its power so that he can become a god. Along the way, Roland forms a group of companions known as a ka-tet and travels to multiple worlds while grappling with the trauma of his past. If you hadn’t already guessed, this is a sprawling, epic story that spans the course of seven books. You couldn’t possibly hope to capture all of that on film.
That kind of scope and scale has proven to work like gangbusters when applied to the medium of television. From Game of Thrones and His Dark Materials on HBO to Shadowhunters on Freeform, television has allowed for these shows to stay faithful to their source material. It’s also proven to be a second chance of sorts for books that had poorly-received film adaptations. Both His Dark Materials and Shadowhunters were previously adapted for the screen, and fared far better in televised form. A similar approach could work wonders for The Dark Tower.
‘The Dark Tower’ Features Plenty of Connections to King’s Previous Works
Another feature that The Dark Tower could take advantage of is the connection to all of King’s previous works. The Man in Black is also the malevolent Randall Flagg, who served as the evil force terrorizing the world in The Stand. Father Callahan, the doomed priest from Salem’s Lot, also encounters Roland and his ka-tet.
“Roland’s story is my Jupiter — a planet that dwarfs all the others… a place of strange atmosphere, crazy landscape, and savage gravitational pull,” King wrote in the afterword for Wizard and Glass. Those words took on a whole new meaning in the final novel, where Roland is implied to meet someone who bears a shocking resemblance to King. Yes, The Dark Tower ends with its protagonist literally meeting his maker. Given the rise of the interconnected universe in storytelling, Flanagan could use these references as a way to enhance the story and also provide a jolt of serotonin for King’s readers.
However, this approach may be blunted by the fact that another show — and one based on King’s work, no less — took a similar approach. The Hulu series Castle Rock attempted to blend together themes and characters from King’s novels into one setting. Some examples include the Shawshank State Penitentiary being a primary location, as well as the characters themselves. Diane “Jackie” Torrance (Jane Levy) is the niece of The Shining protagonist Jack Torrance, and Lizzy Caplan cameos as a young Annie Wilkes, aka the nurse-turned-murderer from Misery. If Flanagan is going to attempt to reference the other books in King’s library, he may have to tread with caution.
Will This Version of ‘The Dark Tower’ Get Off the Ground?
Flanagan’s vision for The Dark Tower is not the first time that the series has been considered for a television adaptation. J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, riding the then-high of Lost, attempted to develop a television version of The Dark Tower that never got off the ground. And Prime Video considered doing an adaptation with The Walking Dead‘s Glen Mazzara at the helm, only to shelve the project in 2020. Flanagan has recently given an update that proves the series is still in early development. He told Entertainment Weekly that the series is one of the “most complicated properties to get started.” He added, “Getting the green light on Dark Tower is a much longer and more involved process than anything else I’ve ever approached in my life.” Flanagan has a long road ahead of him still, but a long journey never stopped Roland, so why should it stop Flanagan?
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Pop quiz, true believers: who’s the real Big Bad of The X-Files? It’s tempting to say “aliens,” although the show waffled between portraying them as good, evil, and nonexistent. It’s also tempting to say “the government;” after all, Mulder and Scully are stymied at every turn by creepy forces like the Cigarette Smoking Man who don’t have humanity’s best interest at heart. But would you believe that, lurking deep within the show, is the greatest, most hidden evil of them all? That’s right, folks, I’m talking about Satan himself.
For a show about aliens, monsters, and conspiracies, The X-Files had a surprisingly deep religious streak. The show often emphasized Scully’s Christian faith, something she clung to in the face of the greatest adversity. Everyone remembers Scully rocking a cross and turning to faith when she was dealing with cancer. What you might not remember, though, are all the times that our plucky FBI agents grappled with demons. Those demons had the scariest boss of all: Satan, whom Mulder and Scully ran into in three separate episodes!
Could It Be…Satan?
Why do so few fans remember Mulder and Scully tangling with the literal devil? For one thing, they never encountered a really stereotypical Satan (red skin, horns, you know the drill). Instead, they encountered the Devil taking the form of other people. In “Die Hand Die Verletzt,” a town is terrorized by Phyllis Paddock, a substitute teacher with demonic powers that nobody can remember actually hiring. She escapes Mulder and Scully and is implied to be Satan, sent to punish devil-worshiping PTA members for not properly observing worship rites. The episode title is in German; notably, the title of this episode in Germany is simply “Satan.”
The next time Mulder and Scully encounter the Devil is the explicitly religious episode “All Souls.” He comes in the form of a social worker named Aaron Starkey who is assigned to work with Paula Kaklos, who is one of four deformed quadruplets. As it turns out, the girls were Nephilim (half-human, half-angel), and Starkey was an incarnation of Satan trying to kill them. Once the final girl was rescued by an angel (with an assist from Scully, no less), Starkey vanished.
The Devil Tips The Scales
The third and final time Mulder and Scully run into the devil is in the episode appropriately titled “Signs and Wonders.” In this story, a reverend named Samuel Mackey is actually the Devil in disguise, and he is doing his best to destroy the Church of God With Signs & Wonders. As part of his sacrilegious plan, he impregnates a young woman with snakes and even uses a snake to attack Mulder. Because of this and other signs, Mulder openly speculates that Mackey was secretly Satan. Incredibly, the episode seemingly confirms this with a final shot of a snake coming out of the man’s mouth to devour a mouse.
Believe it or not, this is only a rundown of Mulder and Scully’s direct encounters with Satan. On at least one occasion, they run into a lesser demon (Donnie Pfaster) who is likely working on the Devil’s behalf. There are also five other characters who are implied to be demons, including Jack Franklyn, Mauriceand Lyda, Wayne Weinsider, Betsy Monroe, and Ellen Adderly. Throw in the possibility that all of these are minions of Satan (someone that John Doggett also runs into on one occasion), and it’s clear that the ultimate Big Bad of The X-Files is, weirdly enough, also the ultimate Big Bad of Christianity!
Obviously, it’s crazy to think that Mulder and Scully were regularly running into Lucifer when they weren’t tangling with aliens or uncovering freaky conspiracies. But let’s be honest: this isn’t that much sillier than anything else in the 90s’ absolutely strangest show. Considering how generally agnostic the show is, it’s a bit surprising how much Christian theology affected the writing of The X-Files. But this, too, isn’t all that shocking. After all, the show’s most famous quote is something that every religious person says right before they convert: “I want to believe.”
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Sometimes, Marvel fans get annoyed when critics slam the modern MCU, with said fans claiming the haters simply don’t like fun films. However, for older fans of these colorful characters, the truth is just that we can tell how far Marvel movies fall short because we’ve already witnessed the perfect superhero film. I’m talking, of course, about Spider-Man 2, a Sam Raimi masterpiece that you can now stream on Netflix (just make sure you don’t get any web fluid on the remote).
A Different Type Of Superhero Movie
Before you watch Spider-Man 2, though, you might need a little reminder of what the movie is about … after all, we now almost have more films featuring the webhead than he has clones, copy-cats, and interdimensional doppelgangers. This sequel picks up where Raimi’s first film left off: Peter Parker is trying to balance life as a college student, boyfriend, and costumed crimefighter.
However, when a freak accident turns one of his scientific heroes into a maniacal supervillain and his own powers start mysteriously failing, he must decide whether he’ll hang the tights up for good or step up and become the city’s greatest hero.
The Returning Cast
Spider-Man 2 brings most of our favorite actors back from the first film. Tobey Maguire is once again playing our favorite neighborhood wallcrawler, and Kirsten Dunst plays girl-next-door turned girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. James Franco returns as Peter’s embittered friend, Harry Osborn, and J.K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson, the entertainingly irritable editor-in-chief of The Daily Bugle.
New Faces
Of course, Spider-Man 2 brings in a few new faces, including Daniel Gillies as Jameson’s son, John. The most impressive newcomer, though, is Alfred Molina, who plays the supervillain Doctor Octopus to creepy perfection.
Molina proves to be a real double threat in this film: he’s great at giving over-the-top line deliveries as a supervillain, but he’s even better as the softspoken Otto Octavius, someone whose quiet brilliance is an obvious beacon for young science geek Peter Parker.
A Blockbuster Release
This movie swung into theaters in 2004, meaning that Spider-Man 2 was released when Netflix was just a DVD mailing company and streaming entire video libraries seemed as improbable as … well … a man terrorizing a city with his killer robot arms.
Both the lack of streaming services and the sheer quality of Sam Raimi’s sequel transformed this movie into a huge payday for Sony. Against a budget of $200 million, Spider-Man 2 earned $795.9 million, ensuring that (for better or for worse, perhaps) there would be a sequel.
Talked About To This Day
That sequel remains highly divisive to this day, but nobody is really divided over Spider-Man 2: on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie currently has a critical rating of 93 percent. Critics generally raved about the movie’s awesome villain (I really can’t oversell how good Molina is as Doc Ock) and the film’s surprisingly in-depth focus on its characters’ emotional arcs. Critics also declared that this film deeply improved on the original, something once thought impossible to do because that first movie was (and still is) completely iconic.
I completely agree: Spider-Man 2 is a movie that I have embarrassingly bought multiple copies of and now stream whenever I need a quick pick-me-up (hey, we can’t all have cute girls next door that bring us chocolate cake).
The movie manages to walk an impossibly thin line between being too silly and too serious. The result is a film that does what most modern Marvel films struggle to do: dive into some serious emotional depths while still providing the free-spirited fun that made comic books so popular in the first place.
Streaming On Netflix
Will you agree that this is the best superhero movie ever made, or will you want to unleash the full fury of your Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket on me for recommending it? You won’t know until you stream Spider-Man 2 on Netflix. Afterward, I hope you find some really dank memes because, like J. Jonah Jameson, I won’t be happy until someone gets me pictures of Spider-Man.
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Before 1980’s Flash Gordon, there was 1974’s sex comedy Flesh Gordon, an ambitious parody of the classic 1930s serials that was clearly written and directed by sci-fi fans since it takes shots at most of the tropes that were old even back then. While it sounds like an X-rated adult parody, Flesh Gordon was released with an R-rating after 12 minutes were cut out, leaving the final product a strange mix of sci-fi parody and 70s exploitation skin-flick.
This Could Only Be Made In The 70s
Flesh Gordon retells the original Flash Gordon serial except instead of rays arriving on Earth that cause environmental catastrophe, they’re sex rays, which have predictable results. There’s still a plane crash, Flash and Dale come across a genius inventor (instead of Zarkov, it’s Jerkoff) with a plan to save the planet, except this time his spaceship inside of only slightly resembling the classic, retro sci-fi phallic design, it’s exactly what you think it would be for a movie called Flesh Gordon.
Once the heroes arrive on the planet of Emperor Wang (instead of Ming, a swap you could see coming a mile away), Flesh is saved by Queen Amora, but here, she’s killed by Wang’s own soldiers when her ship crashes. Instead of the Aura from the original, it’s Prince Precious who goes on to inherit the kingdom once Wang is vanquished. He’s crushed under a giant idol of his Great God, who hilariously in retrospect, is voiced by an uncredited Craig T. Nelson.
The Production’s Legal Problems Altered The Whole Plan
The original plan for Flesh Gordon was significantly altered after the producer and director Howard Ziehm learned that it was illegal to make that type of movie in Los Angeles. As a result, every adult scene was cut out and surrendered to the LAPD, leaving behind only a few explicit shots. Even the uncensored cut would be considered today to be nothing worse than a regular R-rated movie. It takes place on the other coast, but HBO’s hit series The Deuce goes into the changing laws that would dramatically alter movies of the 70s. That, though, wasn’t even the end of the film’s legal trouble.
Universal, the owners of the Flash Gordon IP, sued over the opening of the movie. Ziehm’s answer was to add an opening scroll explaining it’s a parody, and “not to be confused with Flash Gordon” was added to all of the marketing.
Flash Gordon Finally Hit Theaters After Its Own Spoof
What made Flesh Gordon an unexpected critical hit was all of the little touches added into the production from all of the nerds working behind the scenes. From the set design to the props, the entire film is lovingly mocking those old sci-fi serials, and even the costume design is lifted straight from the originals. It was so well done, that the movie was nominated for a Hugo Award, losing out to Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein. Not bad for what was originally intended to be only a cheap skinflick.
Years later, a real adaptation of Flash Gordon hit theaters after years of different producers, including George Lucas, attempting to get it made. It was a complete flop at the time, but over the years has become a hit thanks to its own retro sci-fi aesthetic and campy, pulpy plot. Flesh Gordon was the only one to get a sequel, Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders, but it replaces the winking sci-fi homages of the original with toilet humor.
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