'Eternals' early reactions are in
And Nicole Kidman is Lucy in Sorkin trailer
What to know
Eternals early reactions are mostly positive… It’s becoming harder and harder to trust early tweet reactions to movies as they tend to be sweeter than the reviews ultimately, so take these with a few grains of salt. Most reactions praise Chloe Zhao’s unique Marvel epic while others aren’t so fond. Let’s wait for the RottenTomatoes score to pass any real judgment — but because it’s Marvel, chances are high that it will be a solid score. 🐥
Disney and Marvel fans ask people who have seen Eternals not to spoil it… Turns out there are some big reveals and game-changing moments in Eternals and some of those aforementioned Twitter reactionaries are spoiling the movie! One Disney exec and a slew of fans are pleading, keep the secrets. It’s the right thing to do. 🤫
Succession roars back on HBO Max… One of the best shows on TV right now, Succession, is back and Warner wants you to know it’s a hit. They’re claiming that it had the biggest premiere night for an HBO series on HBO Max, which definitely sounds like a made-up record! It’s OK though because Succession is still excellent and it’s just nice to have it back on our screens 📺
Jamie Lee Curtis and Ryan Murphy making Netflix miniseries about the first high five… OK that’s a bit of a misdirect. The show is about baseball player Glenn Burke, who did invent the high five in 1977, but he was also the first gay MLB player to come out to his coach and teammates. There’s a 30 for 30 about it. Sounds like it will make a great miniseries. ⚾️
Anna Cathcart to lead To All the Boys spinoff series at Netflix… from the platform that brought you Emily in Paris, comes Kitty in Korea 🇰🇷
Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick returning for Trolls holiday special on NBC… can’t stop the, can’t stop the IP 🎄
Meryl Streep, Kit Harington, Matthew Rhys and more join climate crisis anthology series at Apple TV+… another anthology series I’ll probably never get around to watching! 🤷♂️
Uma Thurman to play Arianna Huffington on Showtime anthology series… Arianna Huffington gave me a cupcake once. Uma Thurman doesn’t seem like the type to give out cupcakes 🧁
For more pop culture news, discussion, and what-to-watch recommendations subscribe to my pals over on the Kickball Friends podcast. 🎙
What’s new this week:
Dune - Oct 22 in theaters and HBO Max sci-fi film | 🍅 89%
The French Dispatch - Oct 22 limited theaters Wes Anderson film | 🍅 79%
Invasion - Oct 22 Apple TV+ sci-fi series | 🍅
Insecure s5, Curb Your Enthusiasm s11 - Oct 24 HBO comedies
What to watch
Trailer: Being the Ricardos - In theaters Dec 10, Amazon Prime Dec 21
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, starring Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman, J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg.
One of the big problems with Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was his inability to write funny comedy sketches. Sorkin told us over and over that the show’s main characters were comic geniuses and yet their sketches betrayed that fact. How delightful that Being the Ricardos appears to be a spiritual cousin to Studio 60 — and that this time Sorkin solved his dilemma. He’s portraying actual comedic geniuses. The audience’s recognition and good will to them is built in, which allows Sorkin to get to the good stuff backstage. It's also why this trailer works. Did you notice that it hardly shows Nicole Kidman’s face? Like hiding the monster in a monster movie, the hype builds doubly by only giving us Kidman’s surprisingly impressive Lucy voice and the visual iconography around her. I’ll admit I was skeptical about the tone of this project and the leads, but I’m feeling much more optimistic and excited to hear Sorkin’s rhythms matched with this Hollywood tale.
For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!