Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a seismic moment in Hollywood. It confirmed that fantasy films, too often relegated to the fringes, could be a draw for audiences and set the stage for interconnected storytelling that has influenced today’s world of cinematic universes. Filming a massive trilogy of films exceeding three hours in length was a major gamble for New Line Cinema, but Jackson pulled it off.

The Lord of the Rings also proved that quality didn’t have to be sacrificed in order to achieve box office success. Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novels respected the books’ intricate storylines and character arcs, and seamlessly blended practical effects with digital technology. It was an exciting trilogy, made with life and care, and it set the stage for more stories to come, both in Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit and future films from Andy Serkis and screenwriter Stephen Colbert. Each film in the original trilogy was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, with The Return of the King sweeping the 2004 Oscars to take home 11 trophies, including Best Picture and Best Director.

It’s hard to think of a more important set of films in Hollywood – but it’s not impossible. While the number is low, three films have arguably made a larger impact, fusing quality, innovation, and creativity to deliver a set of films that not only captivated audiences but changed the landscape of film making for entire generations. Like The Lord of the Rings, the impact of these films is still being felt, and stories are still unfolding in several of these cinematic universes.

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‘Toy Story’ 1-3 (the Andy trilogy)

Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Technically, there are five Toy Story movies, with the fifth slated to arrive in June 2026. But there’s a clear line between the first three films, all of which revolve around the toys’ relationship with their growing child, Andy, and the Bonnie-centric later films. While there’s no such thing as a bad Toy Story movie, there’s something special about that first trilogy, which set a high bar for family films.

On its own, Toy Story is one of the most important movies ever made. When it was released in November 1995, it was the first completely computer-animated feature. Coming at a time when most animated films were musical fairy tales, the buddy comedy’s wit and cast of A-list stars marked a change in what would define animated films decades to come. It was so good that while a sequel was inevitable, many believed there was no way a second adventure with Buzz, Woody and company could capture the magic of the first. And Toy Story 2 had a rough production, it became one of the few sequels to surpass its predecessor, particularly by plucking at the heartstrings with Jessie’s “When Somebody Loved Me” ballad. Twelve years later, Toy Story 3 brought Andy’s story to a close with a goodbye that left few dry eyes among those who had grown up with the series.

The Toy Story films shaped the future of family movies. Computer-generated animation quickly replaced traditional hand-drawn films. Where a popular star might once have played a supporting role in an animated movie, such as Robin Williams in Aladdin, animated casts would soon become stacked with major stars, while Broadway-style songs gave way to rapid-fire jokes. Without Toy Story, there is no Shrek or the rest of Pixar’s library. And pre-Toy Story, animated films didn’t often do sequels; the success of the franchise proved audiences would return to see their favorite cartoon characters, and they could be spread out far enough to capture new generations.

But the trilogy also proved that animated films could do more than entertain children. With sly jokes and a healthy dose of toy-based nostalgia, the films catered just as much to adults as to younger audiences. And by constantly returning to themes of mortality, aging, friendship and parenting, they tapped into very adult emotions, paving the way for animation to take more storytelling and thematic risks. By spreading the story over more than 15 years, the trilogy also allowed audiences to grow up with Andy, priming them for the heartbreaking moment when he had to say goodbye to Woody and the Roundup Gang. Toy Story proved animation was not disposable; it could captivate audiences of all ages and be just as emotional and gripping as any live-action movie.

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‘The Godfather’ Trilogy

Image via Paramount Pictures

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What is cinema without The Godfather? Had the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s best-seller not been so critically and commercially beloved, the landscape of movies could have forever changed. It gave Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino their first big successes, and resurrected the career of Marlon Brando. More importantly, it proved that art and entertainment weren’t mutually exclusive. Upon release, The Godfather was a smash hit that would become the highest-grossing film of all time. It was also critically adored, and took home the Oscar for Best Picture. It’s an iconic film from which nearly every crime movie of the last 50 years has drawn inspiration.

Sequels and franchises were far from sure things at the time of The Godfather’s release, so eyebrows were raised when Coppola agreed to direct The Godfather Part II. But rather than a rushed cash-in, as so many sequels were at the time, the follow-up was an artistic triumph that is, to many, an improvement even on the first film. It proved that sequels could bring depth to beloved stories, and its parallel narratives contrasting the early years of Don Corleone with the rise of his son, Michael, brought added complexity to the characters. The Godfather Part II took what audiences loved about the first film and made it richer and more challenging, proving that sequels could have artistic merit. The Godfather Part II also took home an Oscar for Best Picture and was a commercial success, creating one of the first modern franchises.

It’s easy to think the Godfather legacy ends there, as The Godfather Part III is universally considered inferior to the first films. And it’s a messier movie, to be sure, hobbled not, as many assume, by Sofia Coppola’s last-minute substitution for Winona Ryder but for a slower pace and characters who simply weren’t as compelling, particularly bringing in George Hamilton when Robert Duvall refused to return. But The Godfather Part III has its charms, with some blistering action sequences, a strong performance by Al Pacino, and a heartbreaking final turn that feels Michael Corleone feel the depth of all his sins. Coppola’s recent recut, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, fixes some of the film’s weaker spots.

But The Godfather Part III is also important as one of the first examples of the legacy sequel, in which original characters return decades later to tie up loose ends and close out any remaining arcs. It closed Michael Corleone’s story and left no question that closing the door at the end of The Godfather ushered him into a world of damnation. While considered a critical and commercial disappointment, it still managed a Best Picture nomination and grossed more than double its budget at the box office. And it was one of the first major franchises to suggest that it was worth revisiting beloved characters years after their peak.

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‘Star Wars,’ Episodes IV-VI

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Is there any question? Upon release in 1977, Star Wars changed the movie game. It married big thrills to innovative special effects, making sci-fi and fantasy reliable money-makers and, just after Jaws, confirming that we were living in the Age of the Blockbuster. George Lucas’ space opera introduced characters and storylines that are still being built on, and his savvy decision to hold onto merchandise rights opened studios’ eyes to a whole new way of making money. Star Wars could arguably be the most important movie ever made.

But Lucas’s approach to the sequels was similarly transformative. Rather than just launch Luke Skywalker on another adventure, he doubled-down on his love for the serials of his youth and created a three-part ongoing story. Instead of sending audiences out on a high note at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, he delivered a cliffhanger that dared them to ignore Return of the Jedi. He brought unexpected depth and redemption to Darth Vader, created one of the great blockbuster love stories between Princess Leia and Han Solo, and created exciting, colorful new worlds and creatures to wow audiences – and, of course, sell more toys. There is, simply, no Lord of the Rings, Dune, or Marvel Cinematic Universe without Star Wars.

And, for better or worse, it introduced the concept of unending franchises. Nearly 50 years after Star Wars, Lucas’ galaxy continues to expand. More than a decade after fans thought Star Wars had left the theaters, Lucas returned for the prequel series, which wove new tales connected to his original films. And under Disney’s leadership, the franchise has grown exponentially, with stories and television shows that push the story forward or re-examine what came before; this summer’s The Mandalorian and Grogu will explore a time set just after these original films. We are in a cinematic world dominated by sequels, trilogies, spin-offs, legacy-sequels, and special events, and they’re all following the lead set by those first three Star Wars films.

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Although Jerry Springer passed away in 2023 at the age of 79, his legacy continues through “The Jerry Springer Show.” His controversial tabloid talk show first aired in 1991 and ran until 2018. He had a brief stint as the host of “Judge Jerry,” a television courtroom show, from 2019 to 2022, but it was far from the talk show that made him a household name. The HBO show “Hollywood Demons” dedicated an episode to “The Jerry Springer Show,” exposing some of the secrets that went on behind-the-scenes.

The Segment That Made One Producer Quit ‘The Jerry Springer Show’

“The Jerry Springer Show” had a segment called “Secrets Revealed” in which guests invited someone they knew on the show to reveal their secret in front of a live audience. It was one such segment that led former associate producer Houston Curtis to quit the show.

In 1994, the show aired an episode called “Surprise! I’m A Drag Queen.” In “Hollywood Demons,” Curtis recalled how an adult son “had a surprise” for his mother, who Curtis described as “the sweetest little old lady” from Alabama.

‘It Was Very Wrong And It Felt Horrible’

“I told her, ‘You know, your son has a surprise for you, and he wants to share it with you on The Jerry Springer Show,” Curtis recalled, as per Entertainment Weekly. The show paid to fly her out to Chicago, put her in a nice hotel, and even ordered a limo to take her to the show.

During the show, her adult son, who was in his late 30s or early 40s, came out dressed “in full drag” and performed a song that he had written for her. “All the lyrics written bashing his mother, who, to my knowledge at that point, was probably the sweetest person I ever booked on the show. She sat there with so much class and integrity, and just took it,” Curtis recalled.

After the segment, Curtis was concerned for the woman’s well-being and went backstage to check on her. He said that she burst into tears in his arms. “I was only a kid in my 20s, but I just knew it was wrong. It was very wrong, and it felt horrible,” he recalled. “That night, I called Burt Dubrow [the show’s creator] and I said, ‘Burt, I quit.’”

Curtis Reveals How ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ Encouraged Fights

Although the show started as a run-of-the-mill talk show, the fights quickly boosted ratings, making it one of the most-watched talk shows of all time. Curtis revealed that they used to employ sneaky tactics to encourage physical fights among guests to boost ratings.

“Let’s say that I have two brothers in a conflict. When you’re prepping the guests, you tell one of them, ‘If your brother says something you don’t like, you can yell at them, you can get up in his face, you can even spit on him. But whatever you do, don’t hit him,’” Curtis explained. “And you don’t tell the other person any of that.”

“Once you produce one person to get up and spit in someone’s face, and then you don’t give any instruction to the other one, the other one is going to haul off and knock the hell out of the one who did it, and boom, you got a fight,” he added.

Jerry Springer Passed Away From A Brief Battle With Pancreatic Cancer

According to PEOPLE magazine, the talk-show host, who served as the mayor of Cincinnati in the 1970s, passed away in his Chicago home following a “brief illness.” Jene Galvin, a longtime friend and a spokesperson for the family, told NBC News that Springer died from pancreatic cancer.

Rabbi Sandford Kopnick of Cincinnati’s “The Valley Temple” told PEOPLE that Springer’s “illness was sudden,” adding, “He died of cancer, and he didn’t have cancer for very long.”

He remembered Springer as “a kind and generous person who was not really best pictured on his television show.” He called Springer “very, very smart,” adding, “He was a remarkable family man, and he was somebody who understood what it means to pay it forward.”

“Hollywood Demons” season 2 premieres on Monday, April 20, at 9 PM ET on ID and will be available to stream on HBO Max. New episodes air each Monday.

Joe Jonas has gone Instagram-official with girlfriend Tatiana Gabriela, dropping their first loved-up couple photo on his grid.

Taking to social media on Saturday, April 18, the singer, 36, shared a carousel of photos, including a black-and-white image of Gabriela cozying up to him and tenderly resting her hands around his neck and shoulder.

“If you’re seeing this it means my puerto rico YT vid is up now ꕤ｡” Jonas captioned the post, as he promoted a new video dropped via the Jonas Brothers’ YouTube channel.

In the YouTube video, Jonas shared a rare glimpse into the couple’s relationship with footage from a trip to Puerto Rico.

The eight-minute video shows the pair joking around as the Puerto Rican model attempted to teach the boy band member how to speak Spanish. Other parts of the video detailed the couple being affectionate with one another, casually drinking coffee, going out for dinner and eating pizza as well as enjoying mojitos and local street food such as pinchos.

“She’s helping with my Spanish,” Jonas told the camera at one point. He later added, “Then we went to a waterfall, we jumped in, it was so nice.”

Us Weekly broke the news in January that Jonas had recently started seeing Gabriela.

“They started seeing each other at the end of the summer,” a source exclusively told Us at the time, revealing that Gabriela even met Jonas’ friends, family and his two daughters with ex-wife Sophie Turner.

Both Jonas and Gabriela have kept tight-lipped about their romance in public, but the “Cake by the Ocean” musician previously hinted at the relationship via social media.

Related: Joe Jonas’ Dating History Through the Years

Joe Jonas‘ love life has made headlines over the years as he navigated dating in the public eye. Shortly after the musician started dating Taylor Swift in 2008, their messy split became a topic of conversation. Following three months together, the Pennsylvania native revealed that Jonas broke up with her in a 27-second phone call. […]

In January, fans were convinced Jonas was soft-launching his relationship with Gabriela when he uploaded a post via Instagram that featured one of his black studded loafers next to an mystery woman’s leg.

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Jonas was previously married to Turner, 30, from 2019 to 2023 before the pair called it quits. The pair are coparents to two daughters, Willa, who was born in 2020 and Delphine, who they welcomed in 2022.

After finalizing his divorce, Jonas was briefly romantically linked to model Stormi Bree for several months in 2024.

“I was seeing somebody at the time, and I was kind of having this idea of dating again. It was really scary and intimidating,” Jonas said during a TalkShopLive livestream in May 2025, discussing the inspiration for his album Music for People Who Believe in Love. “Love takes different shapes and forms, and I was rediscovering what that was.”

Without Remorse always had the bones of a movie people might come around to later. It’s got Michael B. Jordan in action-star mode, a Tom Clancy title, and a script co-written by Taylor Sheridan, which is already enough to make it catnip for a certain kind of streaming rediscovery. That seems to be exactly what’s happening now. After landing on Tubi in March, the film started drawing fresh attention again, with coverage noting it was gaining traction among the platform’s most-watched titles.

The cast is stronger than the movie’s original reception maybe gave it credit for. Without Remorse stars Jordan as John Kelly, alongside Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce, Luke Mitchell, Jack Kesy, Brett Gelman, Lauren London, and Colman Domingo. Directed by Stefano Sollima, the film follows Kelly as he uncovers a covert conspiracy while hunting the people responsible for his wife’s murder. That’s a pretty sturdy spine for a revenge-and-espionage thriller, even if it didn’t fully break through the first time around.

Is ‘Without Remorse’ Worth Watching?

Collider’s review stated that Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is a straightforward military action thriller that largely sticks to the familiar formula of the author’s previous adaptations. While the film doesn’t reinvent the genre or fully explore the depth of its lead character, it still delivers enough tactical action and political intrigue to satisfy fans of Tom Clancy–style storytelling. For viewers primarily interested in watching tactical operations, shootouts, and high-stakes military missions, the film delivers exactly what it promises.

“The Clancy adaptations are typically a tightrope where you never want to be too jingoistic while also ultimately approving the supremacy of the U.S. military as a force for global order, and Without Remorse is of a piece with those stories. It may start from the place of a revenge-thriller, but its heart lies in the power of the U.S. military. That kind of story isn’t really for me, but I understand the appeal, and Without Remorse tells it fairly well. Considering that the Jack Ryan series is already headed towards its third season, there’s clearly an audience for what Clancy created, and I imagine those fans will be satisfied by Sollima’s adaptation and even happier at what gets teased during the mid-credits scene.”

Without Remorse is streaming now.

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April 30, 2021

Runtime

110 minutes

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At the most difficult of times, audiences crave nostalgia. That soothing feeling of being reminded of the happiness of yesteryear can prove the perfect antidote to the anxieties and fears of the modern world, and that is a specific feeling most are experiencing right now. Times are tough, and a comfort watch from cinema’s past is both the spoonful of sugar and the medicine going down.

Of all the great nostalgic movies, such as Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over for those craving a slice of the ’00s or the Ghostbusters franchise for some ’80s fun, one film stands out perhaps as the most nostalgic of all. The film in question is Space Jam, the 1996 classic that saw people of all generations flock to the theaters to witness NBA legend Michael Jordan and Hollywood favorite Bill Murray playing basketball alongside Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes. In total, the movie earned a strong $250 million worldwide, split between a domestic haul of $90 million and a further $160 million from overseas markets, against a production budget of $80 million.

Given these tough times we’re living in, it seems a slice of Space Jam nostalgia is proving particularly appealing to audiences. At the time of writing, Space Jam is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Peacock in the U.S., a list that also includes other big hits such as last year’s musical sequel Wicked: For Good, another strangely nostalgic movie in The Cat in the Hat, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, which is the current Peacock chart-topper.

‘Space Jam’ Was Met With Mixed Reviews Upon Arrival

Image via Warner Bros.

Time has certainly helped the reputation of Space Jam. When it was first released, the film was actually met with plenty of negativity from critics, which can be seen on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. On the site, the movie earned just 44%, with the consensus reading, “While it’s no slam dunk, Space Jam‘s silly, Looney Toons-laden slapstick and vivid animation will leave younger viewers satisfied — though accompanying adults may be more annoyed than entertained.” A synopsis for the movie reads:

“Swackhammer, an evil alien theme park owner, needs a new attraction at Moron Mountain. When his gang, the Nerdlucks, heads to Earth to kidnap Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes, Bugs challenges them to a basketball game to determine their fate. The aliens agree, but they steal the powers of NBA basketball players, including Larry Bird and Charles Barkley — so Bugs gets some help from superstar Michael Jordan.”

Space Jam is streaming on Peacock. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.

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November 15, 1996

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Joe Pytka

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  Michael Jordan

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Naomi Watts is recalling the moment one of her children stumbled across some lube in her bedroom.

During an interview with People on Thursday, April 16, the actress, 57, spoke about trying to end the stigma around menopause when she was asked whether she encourages her kids to educate their friends about perimenopausal and menopausal health.

While Watts noted she doesn’t know “if it goes that far with the kids,” the topic prompted her to tell a personal anecdote involving one of her children.

“I mean, I do remember the first time one of my kids saw lube in the bedroom, and they were like, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘Yes, yes, you know, by the way, lube is sold at Urban Outfitters now.’ And they’re like, ‘No way, no way!’” she told the outlet.

Related: Naomi Watts Celebrates Son Sasha’s 18th Birthday With Sweet Tribute

Naomi Watts is in her feels as she celebrates her son’s milestone birthday. The actress, 56, shared a sweet message as well as photos of Sasha via Instagram on Friday, July 25, to ring in his 18th birthday. “Happy birthday sweet, darling @sashapeteschreiber,” her post began. “18 today-and ready for the world! Cannot believe it.😊😭 […]

The Mulholland Drive star continued, “And I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a real thing.’ So, yeah, the stigma is definitely reducing.”

Watts shares son Sasha, 18, and daughter Kai, 17, with her ex Liev Schreiber. Watts and Schreiber, 58, were together for 11 years before splitting in 2016.

“Over the past few months, we’ve come to the conclusion that the best way forward for us as a family is to separate as a couple,”  they told Us Weekly in a joint statement at the time of their separation. “It is with great love, respect and friendship in our hearts that we look forward to raising our children together and exploring this new phase of our relationship.”

After she and Schreiber went their separate ways, Watts moved on with Billy Crudup and they tied the knot in 2023.

Schreiber also began a new relationship and married Taylor Neisen in July 2023. They share daughter Hazel Bee, 2. For his part, Crudup, 57, also has a son, William Atticus Parker, 22, with ex Mary-Louise Parker.

Although Watts and Schreiber are no longer an item, they have repeatedly emphasized their commitment to coparenting amicably over the years.

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Related: Naomi Watts Admits She Cried While Dropping Off Son Sasha at College

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Naomi Watts‘ son, Sasha, is all grown up and off to college! The actress, 56, admitted the milestone was quite emotional for her, writing via Instagram on Wednesday, August 20, that there were a few tears shed while sending Sasha off to start his new chapter. Watts, who shares Sasha, 18, with her ex Liev […]

“We’re doing things very differently. I’m pretty proud of us, corny as that may sound,” Watts told Net-a-Porter’s Porter magazine in 2019. “We’ve made it our absolute priority to be good and kind to each other and we’re absolutely committed to that.”

Schrieber has also addressed how they have tried hard to navigate their blended family respectfully despite the challenges that can come with that dynamic.

“It’s always hard, you know? You build a life with someone and things change. And I think the way that we’ve looked at it is that we’ll always be partners and that’s what kind of keeps us together and keeps us amicable,” Schreiber said on Sunday Today With Willie Geist in 2018. “But I think we’re more than that, I think we also genuinely really care about each other.”

Some of the best TV shows ever on television ended in a way that left viewers unsatisfied, which can sully a show’s entire reputation. Shows like Dexter, for example, angered viewers with its subpar ending, a situation that’s currently being rectified with several new spin-offs that are breathing new life into the franchise and righting the wrongs of how the original series ended.

There are other fantastic shows, however, that got it right, from start to finish. The way these shows went out wasn’t necessarily with a bang. In some cases, it was quiet, subtle, poetic, even. But they were worthy of ovations from viewers at home who could wrap up the multi-season stories with a red bow and slide the show into their mental banks of the best ever, right through to the end.

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‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ (1990–1996)

Image via NBC

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a story all about how a young man’s life got turned upside down when he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Bel-Air. Worried that he would follow the wrong path on the streets of Philadelphia, his mother sent Will (Will Smith) there to have a better life. The fish-out-of-water story saw Will grow from a juvenile, troubled young man with little respect for rules and higher society grow into a confident, successful man. Of course, the hijinks between were what the show was all about.

The sitcom, one of the best sitcoms of the ’90s, ended in a bittersweet way as the Banks family decided to move out of the mansion they called home for so many decades. Everyone was moving on, Hilary (Karyn Parsons) to New York to continue her talk show, Ashley (Tatyana M. Ali) going with her, Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) to Princeton, Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell) deciding to go back to England, and Philip (James Avery), Vivian (Daphne Maxwell Reid), and Nicky (Ross Bagley) to the East Coast to be closer to extended family. The scene between Uncle Phil and Will saying goodbye was a testament to how far the two, who had often been at odds with one another, had come. Their bond grew into a father-son one that would likely continue even when they were apart. Of course, the show had to end with a laugh as Carlton walks down the stairs after Will says his final goodbyes to the house and turns the light off wondering where everyone went.

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‘Succession’ (2018–2023)

Image via HBO

Rather than go for the shock factor and end Succession with the death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the series brilliantly but surprisingly killed him off early in the season. This shifted focus to his grown children who were, all along, supposed to be at the heart of the plot. Who would he leave his business to when he decides to retire? Now, with no dad to fight nor make a final decision, it was up to the children to finally step into the hot seat and make a decision on their own.

In the end, the kids’ own greed and poor decisions come back to bite them. Shiv (Sarah Snook) stabs Kendall (Jeremy Strong) in the back and votes against him, thinking this would increase her chances of getting back in eventually once the deal goes through. Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) ends up taking over, the only person with business savvy who knew how to play the long game and wait for everything else to implode. Kendall is left staring out at the harbor, unable to fathom what just happened. Rather than a feel-good ending, Succession achieved what it set out to do: prove that these kids were far too selfish, too rash, and not savvy enough to lead. In the end, none of them won.

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‘The Sopranos’ (1999–2007)

Image via HBO

The end of The Sopranos was polarizing when it first aired. But in the decades since and in hindsight, as well as with new confirmation from the creators, it was actually perfect. The crime drama tells the story of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a Mafia boss who runs his organization like a well-oiled, violent machine from the outside. But on the inside, he suffers from panic attacks. This leads to him seeing a psychiatrist, where he opens up about the pressures of balancing family life with his criminal life.

In the final scene, Tony is seemingly in a good place, enjoying a meal in a diner with his family. He selects the song “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey to play on the jukebox, and all is well. But then, the diner door opens, Tony looks up, and the screen fades to black. Fans were frantic, thinking something was wrong with their TVs. But then, the credits rolled. Finally, in 2021, creator David Chase ended the ambiguity by confirming to The Hollywood Reporter that Tony did indeed perish. Not seeing his death was arguably more powerful than seeing it, fans witnessing only black just as he did at that very moment.

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‘Friends’ (1994–2004)

Image via NBC

After airing for 10 years and as many seasons and rising to become one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, it was a tall order to end Friends in a fitting way. The series accomplished that in spades. While the entire show centered around a group of young, single people living in New York and navigating their personal and professional lives, the finale demonstrated that they had all grown up and come into their own.

The scene when Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) gets off the plane and decides to stay with Ross (David Schwimmer) was 10 years in the making, finally solidifying that the two were meant to be together. As the friends gather in Monica’s (Courteney Cox) now bare apartment to bid their goodbyes, Chandler (Matthew Perry) gets the perfect final line that fits with the tone of the show. They decide to get one last coffee together, and Chandler jokes, “Where?” It’s a beautiful callback to Central Perk, the local café where the friends spent so much of their time together.

6

‘Cobra Kai’ (2021–2025)

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Cobra Kai is admittedly corny, a fun martial arts comedy drama with sometimes bad acting, silly storylines, and frequent callbacks to The Karate Kid movies. But the series, which serves as a 30-year sequel to the original film, is set on a path that it wrapped up beautifully. The idea was to show a different side to the events of the film, making Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) a more sympathetic character. It was also a vehicle to introduce a new generation of karate kids.

The final season of the show, which rose to become one of the Netflix greats, was the most emotional, heart-wrenching of them all. It wrapped up characters and storylines that needed fitting ends. It brought together two bitter rivals, provided a sense of hope, and ultimately proved that winning wasn’t everything. Plus, it featured a subtle callback to the original film that ensured Mr. Miyagi’s (Pat Morita) lessons would always live on, but in new ways. It’s the type of finale fans may have applauded from home because it was as satisfying as they come.

5

‘The Wire’ (2002–2008)

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The Wire is widely considered to be one of the best drama shows ever on television, and the finale only solidified that. The crime drama follows different institutions within Baltimore and their relationship to law enforcement, including the illegal drug trade, the port system, the city government and bureaucracy, education and schools, and print news. There’s a level of authenticity thanks to the concept being loosely based on the experiences of a real-life former homicide detective and public-school teacher.

The end of The Wire was true to real life in that while there are resolutions, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered. And that’s how it really goes in each of these five areas of society and politics. No problem is ever really solved. New ones arise, old ones resurface, and the work keeps churning, again and again. It kept with the overall theme of realness that the show demonstrated at its heart throughout the entire run.

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‘Six Feet Under’ (2001–2005)

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How fitting to end a drama about the journey of life and the finality of death through the eyes of a family running a funeral home than to end with a look-ahead to their own deaths. The multi-Emmy winning series Six Feet Under follows the Fisher family and their work to help grieving families while managing their own complicated personal lives.

Six Feet Under ends with a montage that shows when each of the family members reach their ends at varying points in the future. Some are shocking and surprising, others live long into the future, dying while surrounded by their loved ones. It’s deeply poetic and was absolutely brilliant.

3

‘M*A*S*H’ (1972–1983)

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A war comedy drama, M*A*S*H was the type of show families gathered around the TV to watch every week when a new episode was on, eyes glued to the screens to watch the action unfold. Centering on surgeons and medical staff in an army surgical hospital, it’s a medical sitcom like no other.

The show’s finale remains, to this day, the most-watched finale of any show and the most-watched episode ever of any scripted series. By the end, the unit is being dismantled at the end of the war and everyone is saying their goodbyes. When Hawkeye (Alan Alda) leaves in a helicopter, he looks down to see a message left by B.J. (Mike Farrell) spelled in rocks on the ground. It reads one simple word: “goodbye.”

2

‘Mad Men’ (2007–2015)

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Don Draper (Jon Hamm) from Mad Men was a troubled man, traumatized by his awful childhood and hiding the fact that he has taken on the identity of an old army buddy he watched die. But he was also a brilliant ad man, and that is what much of the focus of the period drama was on. Don marvelously pitching clients on ad campaigns that left them stunned was the soul of the show. One of the most memorable, for example, is his pitch to Kodak for the Kodak Carousel product.

It makes sense that, despite all of Don’s hardships, his work would culminate in one final, defining moment. And it did. While at a retreat in California to help clear his head, Don is meditating and a slight smile washes over his face. The scene cuts to the iconic “Hilltop” Coca-Cola commercial featuring the pop song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony),” suggesting that he’s the one who came up with the idea at that moment. The real-life commercial, known as “Buy the World a Coke” when it debuted in 1971, was about positive messages of hope, love, and inclusivity. It’s often considered to be one of the most influential ads in television history. So it was incredibly clever to suggest that Don created it, a wonderful way to end the show’s run, marking one of the greatest TV endings of the 21st century.

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‘Breaking Bad’ (2008–2013)

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Unlike popular shows that try to squeeze out as many seasons as they can to capitalize on the viewer interest, Breaking Bad went out when it was on a high after just five seasons. It was the right thing to do because it was inevitable that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) had to die. He had terminal cancer. The character was on the verge of experiencing the worst symptoms of the disease. It would not have been realistic to continue as if he was fine, and the way he went out was exactly the way the show should have ended.

Walter ties up loose ends, ensuring that his family is taken care of, and threatening his former friends who took everything from him, leaving them to live in fear. He kills Lydia (Laura Fraser). Then he sets up an elaborate plan, rigging a machine gun onto a remote trigger so he can kill his enemies before they get to him. He is shot in the process and begs Jesse (Aaron Paul) to put him out of his misery, but the damage has been done to their relationship and Jesse walks away, leaving Walter to die. Right before he perishes, Walter smiles, knowing that he accomplished what he set out to do and is leaving the world as the strong, confident man he always knew he could be. The episode was perfect.

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Breaking Bad

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Release Date

2008 – 2013-00-00

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Network

AMC

Showrunner

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Vince Gilligan

Directors

Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren

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One of the best parts of Netflix’s The Witcher when it first premiered in 2019 was all the different creatures roaming around The Continent and terrorizing its inhabitants. Although Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) was roped into a larger conspiracy and adventure, there was an irresistible appeal to the loose monster-of-the-week format, as he fulfilled his dangerous role as a witcher. From the insect-like swamp creature called kikimora to the less intangible but still mesmerizing djinn, the creatures were as diverse as they were uniquely ominous. They fleshed out the magical universe and were one of the main reasons the show was so immersive.

But with the fifth and final season of The Witcher approaching, fantasy fans will undoubtedly need another fix of their love for creative, dangerous monsters. Luckily, Netflix has already announced the perfect replacement, the long-awaited series adaptation of the popular tabletop card game, Magic: The Gathering. If you haven’t had the pleasure of playing the game, the animated show, which is in production, will still be the ideal must-watch for fantasy fans. It hosts a wide variety of creatures, characters, and magical objects, all necessary to build a vibrant world, and from there, potential storylines to get swept away in.

‘Magic: The Gathering’ Offers World-Building and Adventure at Its Finest

For those who are unfamiliar with Magic, it was first created by Richard Garfield in 1993 and is often recognized as the world’s first trading card game. Within it are different classes of creatures, enchantments, artifacts, equipment, sorceries, instant spells, tokens, and lands that are played in a turn-based fashion while operating on a mana system, where the amount of mana (essentially, a spiritual kind of currency) a player has will dictate the moves they can play. Already, you get a sense of the sheer variety of fantasy elements within the basic game, let alone when you incorporate characters like the powerful Planeswalkers or dice that completely alter the battlefield.

After sticking around for decades, Magic has an endless supply of ideas for the show’s creators and writers to draw from, making it brimming with potential for a riveting high fantasy series. The cards are often released in sets, with each one almost acting as a portal to another genre, so while the show’s foundation may remain in the realm of high fantasy, there is plenty of room for genre-bending and diversity. From huge dragons with impossible stats equipped with golden armor, steampunk artifacts that can decimate everything on the battleground, to horror creatures that can rise from the graveyard, the kinds of communities, threats, and visuals available for adaptation are vast. This is all threaded together with five distinct biomes (plains, forests, islands, swamps and mountains), each laying the foundation for effective and immersive world-building.

‘Magic: The Gathering’ Is Just One of Many Recent Hollywood Adaptations

Recently, video game adaptations like The Last of Us or Sonic the Hedgehog have been on the rise, and we even got a brilliant film adaptation of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, but how do you adapt a tabletop card game? What we know so far is that the show will be focusing on Planeswalkers, who are arguably the most powerful characters in the game that depict figures with unique abilities and backstories that can — as the name suggests — traverse across dimensions. They will act as the fittingly dark and complex characters that drive the storylines, while the show will also be crossing different planes and drawing on the lore of their specific world within the Magic multiverse. The main concern is being able to execute a plot that is faithful to the extensive lore and diversity of the original, while connecting the markedly distinct worlds coherently and convincingly.

That being said, it’s a wonder that Magic hasn’t been adapted before, especially since now fans are being spoiled with a TV show and a film in the works. Hasbro has had the rights to Magic since 1999, and while they attempted to adapt the game, they haven’t had success until now. The last announcement of the game’s adaptation was in 2019, which was going to be a series helmed by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame), but fell through due to creative differences.

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Now, Terry Matalas (Vision Quest) is on board as the showrunner and executive producer for the TV show, while Hasbro is collaborating with Legendary for the movie. With a plan to go down the animation route for the series, providing more freedom to showcase the breadth of magic, adapting the visual element of the game has hardly been an issue. Additionally, Magic has routinely done crossover sets by collaborating with the likes of Marvel or Lord of the Rings, so it’s surprising the script wasn’t flipped and no one decided to translate the card game to the screen until now.

Either way, Magic has been patiently waiting for its turn, and in that time, it has transformed from a basic tabletop game to a sprawling multiverse of unimaginable powers and creativity, or, as Matalas puts it, “the ultimate storytelling sandbox.” Whether you’re a longtime player or a fantasy fan, this potentially epic saga needs to be on your radar, and soon, you too will be batting alongside some of the most iconic characters of this world and shaking your head in admiration at a series that is egregiously overdue.

Downton Abbey star Nathalie Baye is dead after a battle with dementia. She was 77.

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Baye died in her home in Paris after receiving a Lewy body dementia diagnosis, the actress’ family confirmed to the Agence France-Presse on Saturday, April 18.

Related: ‘Downton Abbey’ Stars: Where Are They Now?

Downton Abbey caught the attention of millions of viewers throughout its six seasons — and fans are still binge-watching the drama well after its finale. Thank You! You have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters Enter your email Please enter a valid email. Subscribe By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and […]

According to the Mayo Clinic, Lewy body dementia, also known as LBD, occurs when protein deposits called Lewy bodies develop in nerve cells in the brain and affect brain regions involved in thinking, memory and movement.

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