Director David Fincher‘s fans got a first look at his new movie, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, with a typically exciting teaser this weekend. The movie serves as a spin-off to Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which grossed nearly $400 million worldwide in 2019, and will reunite Fincher with his frequent creative collaborator Brad Pitt. Although there’s no denying that The Adventures of Cliff Booth feels like a stepping stone for Fincher, nobody knows what he’s walking toward at this stage of his career. While his fans continue to wonder why he has hitched his wagon to Netflix — the director hasn’t had a theatrical release in over a decade — they can remind themselves of the good old days by revisiting some of his past masterpieces. Or they could check out a movie that may exist in the same universe as the film Zodiac and the show Mindhunter.
The movie in question had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023, ahead of a release on Netflix. However, since the streamer only acquired the domestic rights to the movie, it’s now seeing a spike in viewership on a rival platform. According to FlixPatrol, the film was among the most-watched titles on the global HBO Max charts over the Super Bowl weekend, when the leaderboard was topped by M3GAN 2.0. It served as the feature directorial debut of starAnna Kendrick, and was based on the stranger-than-fiction true story of how a serial killer was nabbed by the cops after appearing on a dating game show. The serial killer operated across the United States at around the same time as the Zodiac Killer, whose crimes served as the basis for Fincher’s Zodiac.
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Here’s How ‘Woman of the Hour’ Was a Departure From the Norm for Serial Killer Stories
Kendrick’s movie is called Woman of the Hour. She also featured in the lead role of an aspiring actor who appeared alongside the serial killer, Rodney Alcala, in an episode of The Dating Game in 1978. The movie earned positive reviews and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 91% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “Deftly directed by star Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour uses an incredible true story as the foundation for a powerful examination of the intersection between systemic misogyny and violence.” Unlike most movies and shows about serial killers, Woman of the Hourspotlighted the victims and presented the story through the perspective of someone who escaped by the skin of her teeth.
You can watch the film at home. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
“Here Comes The Sun” is one of the most important songs in The Beatles’ catalog. Released in 1969, it’s a defining single for the band, beautifully encapsulating the relief at the arrival of spring and promised brighter days ahead. But though it earned The Beatles a number three slot on the US Billboard Hot Rock Songs, one particular cover may outshine its original recording. Blues icon and civil rights activist Nina Simone recorded “Here Comes the Sun” as the title track to her 1971 covers album, and it remains revered by critics as one of the most powerful takes on the song. Sung with a deeper depth of exhaustion during a time of political unrest and rampant racism, the song took on a whole new meaning for Black people at a time when brighter days were long awaited. Beyond just a cover, Simone reinterpreted it in a way that shifted its emotional meaning. Here’s a deeper dive into the cover and why it has long stood the test of time.
The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun”
One of the many classics to emerge from their 1969 album Abbey Road, “Here Comes The Sun” was written by George Harrison during a particularly stressful time for the band as a whole. Business complications and growing tensions between each member were leading to what would eventually be their breakup, and it was too much weight for Harrison to bear. He was feeling very let down by John and Paul, and didn’t know where their future as The Beatles stood. Seeking refuge, he visited friend and fellow musician Eric Clapton’s garden, eliciting a tranquility in him that would spark “Here Comes The Sun.” Known as one of Harrison’s most iconic compositions, he noted that the song honors the simple joy of spring after a long English winter, saying it felt like “winter goes on forever” until the sun finally returns.
Not writing this song was “the worst thing” for John Lennon.
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Beyond how delicately yet strikingly the folk-pop song is written, what truly marked the magnitude of its impact was how much people were able to find healing from it. Weary from carrying their own weight, they may not have even realized that they were in search of hope, renewal, and the promise of a new day. Its bright, acoustic sound and optimistic lyrics not only contrasted the band’s internal conflicts, but also the reality of tough times globally. One of the listeners who found themselves relating to the sentiment happened to be none other than Nina Simone.
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Nina Simone’s Cover of “Here Comes the Sun”
Two years after The Beatles released “Here Comes the Sun,” blues priestess Nina Simone recorded her very own version as the title track of her 1971 covers album. The project largely consisted of different contemporary pop and rock songs, reworked to honor Simone’s signature blend of jazz, blues, soul, and orchestral arrangements.
For her take on “Here Comes the Sun,” Simone vocally went much deeper and more introspective, slowing it down and building around piano and orchestral instrumentation. There was an emotional emphasis on hope after hardship, which had a lot to do with her reality at the time.
Not writing this song was “the worst thing” for John Lennon.
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By this point, Simone was deeply involved with the civil rights movement. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.happened just a few years prior, yet the grief and aftermath lingered. She was committed to the fight for her people, during a time in which segregation was legally over, yet racism continued to permeate every crevice of society. It was a big hit for her career, facing industry backlash for her political music while also navigating financial hardship. Yet, the promised sun was the hope that the Black community would soon live a life of equality and empowerment.
Though the song was covered countless times, critics and fans alike often cite Simone’s rendition of “Here Comes the Sun” as one of the most striking Beatles covers of all time. This is because, in addition to Simone’s technical skill, she goes beyond imitating the original and succeeds in transforming it into something completely hers and dedicated to a community deeply in need of a lighthouse. Simone’s “Here Comes the Sun” was a love letter to a community fighting for what they deserved.
Rihannawas inside her Beverly Hills home when a suspect fired multiple rounds into the house on Sunday, March 8.
The suspect has been identified as 35-year-old Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, who was booked for attempted murder. On Tuesday, March 10, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed multiple charges via an official statement viewed by Us Weekly.
If convicted, the suspect “faces life in state prison.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know:
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What Happened at Rihanna’s House?
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that one round had “penetrated a wall” of the house at 1:21 p.m. on Sunday. There were “no injuries” reported at the residence.
The suspect reportedly “fired multiple rounds from inside her vehicle” into the home. According to NBC News, the shooter allegedly used “an AR-15-style rifle.”
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
The case is now being investigated by the LAPD’s “elite Robbery-Homicide Division.”
Arresting the Suspect
Officers “caught sight of” the suspect’s vehicle after the incident and “followed it to a shopping center parking lot in Sherman Oaks, where they arrested” the suspect, according to the L.A. Times.
Once in custody, Us Weekly confirmed the suspect was identified and held on $10 million bail on Monday, March 9.
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On March 10, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office shared a statement that confirmed the suspect’s charges as “one count of attempted murder, 10 felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and three felony counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or camper.”
The statement, viewed by Us, also stated that the suspect “faces life in state prison” if convicted as charged.
“Her arraignment was continued to March 25 in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center,” the statement continued, noting that bail was then set to “$1.875 million.”
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Were Rihanna’s Kids Home During the Incident?
Rihanna lives in the Beverly Hills mansion with her longtime partner, ASAP Rocky, and their three children: sons RZA, 3, and Riot, 2, and daughter Rocki, 5 months. (Rihanna and Rocky have been together since 2020.)
It’s unclear who else was home with the 38-year-old singer at the time of the shooting.
Neither Rihanna nor Rocky have addressed the shooting publicly. Us reached out to Rihanna’s team and the LAPD on Sunday for comment.
Jenelle Evans is preparing to visit her son, Jace, at the mental health facility where he’s currently receiving treatment, but the trip hasn’t happened just yet … TMZ has learned.
Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ … Jenelle has not visited Jace in person since he entered the facility. However, she’s planning a trip to the Carolinas for spring break with all of her children and intends to see Jace while she’s there.
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We’re told Jenelle, who lives in Las Vegas, has been staying in close contact with Jace. Meanwhile, her mom, Barbara Evans — who Jace has been living with — has been visiting him regularly at the facility.
Our sources say Jenelle spent about a week making calls and working to help facilitate proper care for her son, whom she has custody of. We’re also told she’s been receiving help and support from her ex-husband, David Eason, and the two are currently on good terms.
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As we first reported … Jace recently checked into a mental health facility last month after a troubling incident at Barbara’s North Carolina home. Law enforcement responded to a February 22 call described as a “troubled teen disturbance,” with multiple officers dispatched to the residence.
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It’s unclear how long Jace will remain in care, but those close to the family say the focus right now is on his health and stability.
Savannah Chrisley is ready to step back into the reality TV spotlight with an all-new series — but it’s not for USA Network.
“There’s a new reality show in the works for Amazon,” sources exclusively tell Us Weekly. “It’s like Eat, Pray, Love.”
The upcoming series is “basically a spin on Bravo’s Girls Trip franchise,” insiders tease, referring to Bravo’s Ultimate Girls Trip series, which follows Real Housewives as they jet off to a vacation destination with cameras in tow.
Multiple sources tell Us that the show is “starting to film soon.”
In addition to the Chrisley Knows Best alum, insiders share that “former Housewives will be joining” the cast, but names have not been publicly released.
“The cast will be living together in a house in the Dominican Republic,” sources add.
Us Weekly has reached out to Amazon and a representative for Chrisley for comment.
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Savannah Chrisley.Courtesy of Savannah Chrisley/Instagram
Savannah gained fame alongside her parents, Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley, and her siblings when USA Network’s Chrisley Knows Best premiered in 2014.
The show gave life to spinoff Growing Up Chrisley in 2019, which followed Savannah and brother Chase Chrisley’s life out in Los Angeles. While the sister and brother soon returned home to the south, the show ran four seasons before ending in 2022. (The family lived in Georgia before moving to Tennessee.)
Todd Chrisley revealed that he had reservations about his daughter Savannah Chrisley’s TV appearance, but he still tuned in. “My daughter was so pretty today on The View,” Todd, 56, proudly shared while chatting with wife Julie Chrisley on the Wednesday, March 4, episode of the “Chrisley Confessions 2.0” podcast. “I was very hesitant about […]
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Chrisley Knows Best came to an end in March 2023 after 10 seasons. The series’ finale aired two months after Todd, 56, and Julie, 53, reported to prison after being found guilty on charges of tax evasion, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy.
Julie was sentenced to seven years for her alleged involvement, while Todd was sentenced to 12 years. It was later announced that their sentences were each reduced by nearly two years as Savannah continued to push for her parents to be pardoned.
In May 2025, Savannah and her family’s efforts were rewarded and President Donald Trumppardoned Todd and Julie. The couple were subsequently released from their respective prisons and returned home to Tennessee.
Andy Cohen is celebrating 20 years of The Real Housewives franchise with a new spinoff series, Ultimate Road Trip, which he announced during the “Ask Andy” panel at BravoCon 2025. The cross-country trip will honor two decades of the most iconic women on television while gearing up for the next era of the Housewives. While no official release date […]
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The emotional reunion was captured by Lifetime for the family’s docuseries The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, which premiered that September.
In addition to stepping back in front of the camera for the docuseries, Savannah has recently competed on both Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and The Masked Singer in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Savannah, who hosts her own podcast, “Unlocked With Savannah Chrisley,” also served as a temporary cohost on The View for several February episodes amid Alyssa Farah Griffin’s maternity leave.
In his long filmography, Steven Spielberg has given us some amazing movies. From Jaws, Schindler’s List, ET, Indiana Jones franchise, Saving Private Ryan, and the list goes on. But none of these movies has entertained audiences like the Jurassic Park franchise. First released in 1993, the original movies changed how cinema defined both spectacle and horror. Since the original trilogy, the franchise has been among the longest-running, with many directors presenting their own iterations revolving around the prehistoric beasts.
Last year, director Gareth Edwards’ Jurassic World Rebirthbreathed new life into the franchise as an exciting new installment for fans. Led by Scarlett Johansson, the film marks the seventh film in the decades-long franchise and brilliantly connects to the previous two trilogies. Despite garnering mixed reviews, the movie went on to become one of the biggest box office grossers, earning $869 million worldwideagainst a production budget of $180 million.
After proving its dominion over the box office, the movie is now dominating streaming charts. Jurassic World Rebirth is getting a top spot on both Netflix charts and HBO Max charts. The 2025 film reached #1 globally on both platforms this past week. As of this writing, Rebirth has been overtaken by Alien: Romulus and now ranks #2 worldwide. While its global Netflix ranking has dipped more significantly, it is still holding firm at #2 in the U.S. The movie is a testament to fans’ love for well-made creature features that balance spectacle with a humane story. Rebirth follows a team on a mission to extract DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures to create a cure for heart disease. The film divided its audience upon its release, with critics giving it a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score while the audience gave it a 70%.
The Screen Actors Guild doled out accolades eight nights ago. Is it fresh enough in your memory to survive this recap?
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Will There Be a Sequel to ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’?
Yes, it was previously reported that Edwards is in talks for a sequel to one of the biggest sci-fi films of 2025. Furthermore, Universal is keen on bringing back Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey to reprise their roles. Producer Frank Marshall previously teased Collider, “All I’ll say to that is, I think we left the door quite open.” When pressed for further details, he added, “As a filmmaker, I won the lottery getting to do this movie, and so I’m very happy where I am. I’ve been saying to everyone, and it’s 100% true, we’ve not had a single conversation about another film at all. I don’t know if it’s superstition or what, but I’ve not done it, Frank’s not done it, David’s not done it, the studio’s not done it. And I’m gonna keep it that way tonight if that’s alright. We’ll just see how the world reacts when it comes out.”
Meanwhile, check out Jurassic World Rebirth on Netflix or HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Last week’s episode of High Potentialleft off with the major cliffhanger reveal that the man (John Pyper-Ferguson) who’s been following Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) was the person who abducted Roman 16 years ago. In this episode, it’s revealed that his name is Eric Hayworth, and that he was previously in Special Forces for the military. Not much else is revealed about Hayworth yet, except that he was hired to abduct Roman by an extremely dangerous woman named Willa Quinn. Meanwhile, this episode sees the return of Dottie (Michael Hyatt), Morgan’s (Kaitlin Olson) instructor from the training academy. The episode starts with a murder attempt being made on Dottie’s life, and Major Crimes working to solve the case while she’s unconscious in the hospital.
This episode, titled “If You Come For the Queen,” focuses primarily on Dottie’s case, which later connects to another case that Major Crimes is investigating. Daphne (Javicia Leslie) finally gets her first solo storyline this episode, as it’s revealed that Dottie was her training officer, and they used to be very close. Daphne takes the lead on Dottie’s case in what is an excellent, character-centered episode with a number of powerful storylines.
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In ‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 14, Major Crimes Investigates an Attempt on Dottie’s Life
Michael Hyatt as Dottie in High Potential Season 2Image via ABC
Daphne and Morgan are assigned to Dottie’s case, while Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) investigate a murder. While working on Dottie’s case, Daphne tells Morgan that she and Dottie were very close during the five years they worked together, even after Daphne made detective and Dottie became a full-time instructor at the academy. Dottie pushed Daphne to take the sergeant’s exam and move forward in her career, but Daphne was hesitant to try to get a promotion after watching the discrimination that Selena (Judy Reyes) and Dottie have had to deal with for years as women of color in the police force. Daphne and Dottie got into an awful fight over this, and they haven’t spoken since.
Dottie was getting a massage at her regular spa during the attempt on her life, so Morgan and Daphne check out the spa and ask around. This takes them to Dottie’s classroom, where Morgan and Daphne catch their first suspect: one of Dottie’s students, Officer Hoff. Hoff broke into Dottie’s classroom to keep her from reporting him for a mistake, but he didn’t hurt her. Dottie wakes up, and she starts consulting with Morgan and Daphne on the case. Morgan looks at Karadec and Oz’s case, and she figures out that their victim, Luke Knight, went to the same spa as Dottie. Dottie checks herself out of the hospital early, and she joins Major Crimes to work on her and Luke’s cases.
Thespians honored their own last Sunday. Just how many of the night’s big winners can you name in today’s round-up?
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Daphne and Dottie go to the spa to ask around, while Karadec and Oz question people from Luke’s gym. Karadec speaks with Luke’s boss, Phyllis, who tells them that Luke was new, but that he had already landed some major clients. Karadec and Oz suspect Luke’s work rival, Voz, from whom Luke poached a high-profile client. Daphne and Dottie speak to Kirk Hartwood, the owner of the spa, who tells them that Luke has never been a guest at the spa – and that everyone working at the spa has an alibi placing them there during Luke’s death. Dottie collapses and has to go back to the hospital, where she and Daphne finally talk things through. They’re still at a standstill, though, because Dottie has a lot of hope for Daphne’s future, and Daphne thinks that there’s no point in taking the exam after Selena was unfairly passed over for her promotion.
Later, Morgan realizes that both Dottie and Luke’s cases are connected through a Strangers on a Train-type murder. Two people got together and agreed to kill the target that the other wanted dead, so it couldn’t be traced back to them. The Major Crimes team suspects that Voz was on one end of the pact, and that he got someone at the spa to kill Luke. As it turns out, Kirk has been using a black market supplier for the IVs to save money, and he has been giving them spa sensors in return. The supplier is Phyllis, who made a murder pact with Voz: Phyllis would kill Luke for stealing Voz’s client, and Luke would kill Dottie for Phyllis. Dottie reveals that she joined a sorority in college, and Phyllis was supposed to be her Big Sister. Phyllis went overboard on the hazing, so Dottie turned her in. Phyllis was charged with a felony, and her whole life fell apart after that. As a Black woman, she never got a second chance, and she blames Dottie for reporting her back then.
Season 2 can’t afford to drop the ball on this pivotal relationship.
Recently, Phyllis was turned down when trying to remove her felony record, reminding her of everything she lost. Phyllis is already on the run by the time Major Crimes realizes that she put the hit out on Dottie, but the Major Crimes team finds her. Daphne talks to Phyllis one-on-one, and she empathizes with her, saying she knows what it’s like to always have to prove herself. She encourages Phyllis to accept her arrest, and she does. Later, Daphne and Dottie have a touching conversation at the station. Dottie tells Daphne that she pushed her to keep her from letting outside pressure get her down, and Daphne tells her that she understands.
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‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 14 Parallels Daphne and Ava’s Storylines
At the start of the episode, Ava (Amirah J) tells Morgan that she got into the design class that she applied to. Ava is very excited, until she sees a post online from a classmate that says she only got it because of her race. Morgan supports Ava as best as she can, but she acknowledges that she can’t fully understand what Ava is going through. Later, Ava goes to the station to talk to Daphne. They get derailed by Dottie’s collapse, but at the hospital, Ava tells Daphne what happened. Daphne empathizes with Ava and relates to her, and when Ava asks whether she should stick with the class, Daphne tells her to follow her heart.
Daphne doesn’t feel content with the advice that she gave Ava. Later, after solving Dottie’s case, she talks to Ava again from a new perspective. Daphne had been feeling disheartened since watching Selena get passed over for a promotion that she deserved, which only further convinced her not to even bother taking the sergeant’s exam, even though Dottie wanted her to. After reconciling with Dottie, though, Daphne decides that she wants to lean more into Dottie’s advice. Daphne tells Ava that they can’t control what other people say about them, and that she needs to do what feels right for her, no matter what people think. This encourages Ava, making it seem like she will likely continue with the class. It also bodes well for the possibility of Daphne taking the sergeant’s Exam in the remainder of Season 2.
High Potential airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
“The princess is in the building!” — the iconic line that introduced this OG influencer to TV audiences back in 2007 … Can you guess who she is?! We snatched her looking snatched in a behind-the-scenes video for her collab with Nike. Hit the…
In a way, Fringe is still enjoying the last laugh. Never a ratings flop for FOX but still criminally underrated during its five seasons, the 2008 drama’s visionary pedigree, innovative substance, eccentric humor, and one-in-a-million cast have secured its cult classic longevity. Showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman reinforce their intricate mythology about parallel dimensions and doppelgängers with weighty thematic equivalents — identity, family, responsibility, love’s manifold consequences — while their nigh-seamless narrative framework keeps the most earnest sentiments from dissolving into saccharine triteness.
Fringe had already been solidifying its unique procedural-turned-serialized sensibilities by Season 2’s midway point. The second season’s sixteenth episode, “Peter,” marks a defining moment as figuratively seismic as the planet’s tectonic plates shifting under viewers’ rattling feet. For the first time, Fringe flourishes into one of televised sci-fi’s crowning achievements — in no small part because the episode’s driving crux exemplifies the genre’s enduring fusion of imaginative scope and achingly resonant heart.
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‘Fringe’s “Peter” Episode Is the Sci-Fi Show’s Finest Hour
“Peter” deviates from Fringe‘s established format by unfolding as a flashback set within the contemporary framing device of Walter Bishop (John Noble) confessing his sins — specifically, the truth about his son Peter’s (Joshua Jackson) origins — to Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv). Even for a show increasingly comfortable with experimentation, the episode all but thrums with the sharpened texture and potent intentionality this freedom affords. Several long-standing mysteries receive rewarding payoffs, and the same newfound context informs future chain reactions.
“Peter” turns this half-culmination, half-prelude into an experience as disarmingly arresting as a blow to the solar plexus. Fringe‘s looming war emerges from the perfectly imperfect reality of human reaction; a grieving father tears asunder reality’s supposedly immutable boundaries. The kind of cosmic-level cost one would attribute to a supervillain’s experimental hubris — risking an entire universe — instead hails from a ruined, heartbroken man incapable of outmaneuvering his son’s fatal illness.
Government conspiracy makes this political thriller an addictive binge with a ‘Last of Us’ star.
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What’s more, the Walter of 1985 doesn’t hatch some malevolent plan to kidnap “Walternate’s” son as if the two Peters are interchangeable replacements. That motivation is too simplistic for a series concerned with the mosaic of ways trauma, death, and isolation shape our already multidimensional psychologies. Rather, Walter intervenes as a compassionate, desperate, and completely irrational last resort, unable to witness the same irreversible tragedy befalling the only other Peter Bishop in existence.
Make no mistake — he weighs billions of innocent lives against one child. With all the simultaneous authority of a bereaved parent who can’t perceive a way forward and a scientist with a god complex, he chooses the latter’s survival, rejecting his colleagues’ warnings and all the detached tenets of his trade. And once he’s staring at the embodiment of an open wound, he also negates his white-knight promise to return Peter-2 to his loving home. Walter surrenders to temptation after temptation while trying to soothe his unbearable devastation. Interpreting an unconscionable act into something understandable — even sympathetic — is one of fiction’s strongest magic tricks in action.
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John Noble’s Brilliant Performance in “Peter” Brings ‘Fringe’s Theoretical Ideas To Aching Life
One can’t wax rhapsodic about “Peter” without casting every known superlative in Noble’s direction. One might even risk hyperbole and call the actor’s entire Fringe run as faultlessly captivating. In this pivotal instance, his staggering performance shoulders the emotional core of what’s essentially a solo piece, a character study, and the axis upon which Fringe‘s future rests, with all the precise layering of pathos, intimacy, and restraint befitting such a Herculean task.
Even in Fringe-land, “Peter” provides a rare opportunity to compare the rhythms of present-day Walter with the past’s pre-quasi-lobotomized incarnation. The former is endearingly kooky to the point of almost harmless yet eternally guilt-ridden, longing for forgiveness while convinced he’s too irredeemable to deserve such mercy; the latter’s haunted by both the repercussions of his selfishness and, in his mind, failing to protect his child. No matter which timeline or dimension, all Walter Bishops contain the same capacity for active good, blithe negligence, disturbing arrogance, fragile vulnerability, and delayed clarity. It’s a suitably tragic irony that Walter inflicts similar heartbreak upon his parallel self, launches an interdimensional war, and ensures Peter’s fate as the multiverse’s sacrificial linchpin.
In the grand scheme of Fringe‘s one hundred episodes, “Peter” remains the series’ breakthrough masterstroke. If that wasn’t enough, this singular installment encapsulates the soaring power of sci-fi at its height by hewing to the genre’s unspoken rule of making the theoretical personal. Science function houses infinite ideas, but even the most ingenious concepts become a dime a dozen when they fail to root themselves in the familiar breadth and overwhelming gravitas of human experience. Fringe‘s dystopian universe-hopping is inseparable from the fact that Walter’s choice — one few people could summon enough strength to resist — emerges from raw familial love.
If you’re looking for the best thriller on Netflix right now, you really should stop scrolling past Bodyguard. The six-episode BBC series from 2018 is leaner, meaner, and more emotionally compelling than anything the algorithm is currently pushing at you (The Night Agent, Reacher, take your pick). Richard Madden won a Golden Globe for it, but despite that, a second season didn’t materialize — and, it turns out, that might’ve been the best thing that ever happened to it.
What Is ‘Bodyguard’ About?
Created by Jed Mercurio– a man who has made a career out of turning institutional paranoia into compulsive television with shows like Line of Duty– Bodyguard follows David Budd (Madden), a decorated war veteran turned police protection officer assigned to guard Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), the UK’s ambitious, polarizing Home Secretary. The catch: he fundamentally disagrees with everything she stands for. Hawes makes Montague formidable, injecting an unknowable quality to her that keeps the audience second-guessing itself, and the slow-burn tension between the two leads gives the show its stakes long before the assassination attempts and political conspiracies kick in. What starts as a procedural quickly escalates into something harder to pin down; a show that’s part psychological thriller, part conspiracy drama, and wholly gripping.
A heart-racing opening train sequence doubles as Bodyguard’s thesis statement. It’s both a warning and a promise: this show is all gas, no brakes. A bomb threat, handled in near real-time, with no swelling score guiding your nerves and no shorthand to reassure you that everything will be fine. Budd scrambles through the cars with the urgency of someone who has witnessed the unthinkable and is terrified of seeing it again. With one crisis thwarted (but plenty more on the way), the show builds on all that dread and adrenaline by thrusting its hero into yet another uncomfortable situation. He is assigned to Montague’s protection detail as a reward for his heroism, and the friction is obvious from the first scene they share. He thinks her policies got soldiers killed; she has no particular interest in his opinion. The professional dynamic is taut and watchable on its own terms, but Mercurio keeps complicating it. By the end of the first episode, you’ve already started quietly revising your read on at least one character, which is exactly what the show wants you to be doing.
The show is built around a web of overlapping conspiracies. There’s a political power play involving Montague’s sweeping new surveillance legislation, which earns her plenty of dangerous enemies in high places. There are people within her own political orbit who want her humiliated. There are people further out who want her dead. And there’s at least one person in Budd’s immediate circle whose loyalties are not what they appear to be. For first-time viewers: go in knowing as little as possible beyond the basic setup. The shock and awe are more than worth it.
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Netflix’s ‘Bodyguard’ Works Better as a One-Season Thriller
There’s enough action across Bodyguard’s six episodes to earn its genre placement, but the real draw of this story is Madden and how he plays what should be a conventional hero with an ambiguity just slight enough to make you hesitate labeling him the “good guy.” He’s a man running on fumes – anxious, post-traumatic, completely out of his depth in this shady government-run labyrinth populated by MI5 agents and crime lords. Budd’s good at his job, but it costs him something every time he’s out in the field, and Madden makes sure to remind us of that with physical tics and exasperated expressions that give the impression this guy is just a few seconds shy of a mental breakdown at all times.
It all ends with a setup, a suicide vest, and a tense standoff that feels doomed to end badly for the characters you’ve come to care about, but the important takeaway here is that it ends. Modern storytelling has largely abandoned the complete ending in favor of the strategic pause. Streaming series like to leave threads dangling, questions unanswered, and all signs pointed toward a follow-up that may or may not ever arrive. Bodyguard‘s finale untangles the conspiracy in a way that’s logical rather than convenient, bringing Budd’s arc to a conclusion that lands emotionally because the show has done the work to earn it. It’s a tidy piece of television, another nod that makes it unique among its peers. It’s also why those unrealized promises of Season 2 feel less frustrating. When Bodyguard hit, a follow-up seemed inevitable. The ratings were there, and Netflix seemed interested, too. Even Mercurio entertained the possibility. But years passed, and nothing happened.
Thrillers are notoriously difficult to stretch out. Their energy depends on unresolved tension, and once the central mystery is solved, the show has to manufacture new stakes from scratch. A lot of times, that process cheapens whatever made the original work. But that doesn’t happen here. Bodyguard tells one story, completely, without overstaying its welcome or softening its edges to leave room for expansion. The result is something increasingly hard: a thriller with a beginning, a middle, and an actual end. It’s the complete binge-watching package, and still better than anything trending at the moment.
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