With his taped on mask and oversized glasses, Dano’s Riddler initially looks like something out of a David Fincher movie. John Doe meets the Zodiac Killer. Yet the more we’ve seen of him—and from how the new The Batman trailer even hides what appears to be the Riddler’s face during an interrogation scene—I’m left wondering if there’s a reason for all the mystery, especially in light of the ways this film is clearly inspired by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Batman: Hush, a 12-issue comic book story arc from the early 2000s....

The Purge franchise has been astonishingly successful since the series — which now incorporates five movies and two seasons of TV — launched in 2013 with the eponymous first movie. As of this writing (with the fifth film, The Forever Purge, just hitting theaters), the saga has racked up $460 million in worldwide box office receipts, against a combined budget for all five films of a reported $53 million. That’s a damn good return on investment, especially for an R-rated, graphically violent, politically charged, and often bleak narrative....

“Screaming relaxes me so” Though Vampira’s reign as the first queen of late night would last less than a year, she was groundbreaking in more ways than one. She appeared on all the popular shows of the day, including Ed Sullivan’s Toast Of The Town and The Red Skelton Show, and her photo shoots graced the pages of Newsweek, Life, and TV Guide. Though a dispute with ABC over the rights to the character would scuttle her nascent empire, the incredible ratings her show achieved would kick-start a wave across the United States, as every city began popping up with a horror host of their own....

With an impeccable cast led by the luminous Olly Alexander, It’s a Sin is Davies’ best yet; a joyful tribute to lost lives that delivers a seething verdict on ignorance and cruelty. Over five one-hour episodes starting in 1981 and going through the decade, we meet a group of 18-year-old gay men who’ve escaped parochial hometowns to come to London and start their real lives. There’s Ritchie Tozer (Alexander), a closeted law student from the Isle of Wight; Roscoe Babatunde (Omari Douglas), the out, gay British son of Nigerian parents; Welsh ingénue Colin Morris-Jones (Callum Scott-Howells) and undergrad Ash Mukherjee (Nathaniel Curtis)....

Nevertheless, Gunn is likely aware of an adage over at Marvel Studios (where he made the Guardians of the Galaxy films): always remember that every character is somebody’s favorite. And with A-listers like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller also in the cast, it’s worth considering if there’s ever a moment’s pause before sending one of them off to that big multiverse in the sky. So when we sat down with Gunn for a phone interview last month, we had to ask how he decides who lives and who dies....

“On December 8, 1980 the world stood still as it learned about the death of John Lennon, a music icon and former member of The Beatles,” reads a press statement. “Now, nearly 40 years after that infamous day and days after what would have been his 80th birthday, the season premiere of 20/20 tells the story of Lennon’s life, final days, and lasting legacy through the eyes of close friends and colleagues and rarely seen footage from the ABC News archives....

Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 Episode 8 “Paranoid Android,” Legends of Tomorrow’s return from the midseason break, plays like two episodes that are pretty deftly woven together. The first episode is the one the cast and crew put their hearts into: it’s a parody of ‘80s action movies that is a blast to watch, and sure seemed like a riot to act in. The second episode is where their heads were: a really effective horror story....

Wan went on to direct The Conjuring and oversee the building of a new horror universe around that, while Whannell has become the main architect of the Insidious franchise. After Wan directed the first two, Whannell directed Insidious: Chapter 3 and has written all four, including the new Insidious: The Last Key (the director is Adam Robitel). In this film (the second chronologically in the series if you’re keeping track at home), the story centers at last on paranormal investigator Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), who has gradually become the linchpin of the entire saga....

“Benedict Cumberbatch recently sat down with BBC Radio 1 to discuss his titular role in Marvel‘s latest film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Sorcerer Supreme reveals that Marvel initially recruited him for a different part of the universe. He was first offered the role of the villain Malekith in the 2013 Thor sequel, The Dark World. The surgeon turned sorcerer ultimately passed on the role which later led to him becoming Doctor Strange....

“Tumbler’s Willy’ is the longest-running TV drama in the world – so how come you’ve never heard of it until now? Maybe you’re a cultural sloth, or perhaps you’ve just been busy chasing your dreams. Whatever, now’s your chance to discover what you’ve been missing for the last 120 years. Join American sitcom writer Andy Bobrow and UK children’s author Andy Stanton as they take a deep and incredibly dumb dive into this most British-est of shows....

“Like the rest of his warped nuclear family, Stanley Putterman (Gerrit Graham) can’t contain his excitement at the new satellite dish that will beam hundreds of channels into their ridiculously garish home. This is 1986, after all, an era when even cable could only offer a few dozen. But by the end of Ted Nicolaou’s ultra-kitsch monster mash, their insatiable appetite for the small screen has literally consumed them all....

“There are many moments in the pilot of Walker where someone talks about how Cordell Walker doesn’t play by the rules. He’s got his own way of doing things, you see, and he’s not like other Texas Rangers etcetera. The new series, a reboot of the Chuck Norris-led Walker: Texas Ranger, is extremely focused on building up the titular hero but at times that comes at the expense of actually making him a hero we want to root for....

Additional spooky season titles streaming on Crackle this month include: V/H/S, Dahmer, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Lake Placid 2, and more. Check them out here. Watch Episode 3 of Popped Culture: Spooky Season Edition below. Simon Pegg reveals that he believes She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is the best thing Marvel has crafted since Avengers: Endgame. Read more at The Mary Sue Black Adam composer Lorne Balfe attempted to score his theme to compliment the movie’s star, Dwayne Johnson....

“If Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse established Sony Pictures Animation as one of the most exciting studios making animated movies right now, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, now streaming exclusively on Netflix, solidifies that reputation. Like Spider-Verse, the movie is produced by The Lego Movie impresarios Phil Lord and Chris Miller…” Read more at Thrillist. Ewan McGregor talks the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ and what sets it apart from the Star Wars prequels....

Less lauded though is the coven of women in the original feature that Campbell’s Ash battles to the death and beyond. In The Evil Dead, Ash drives to the remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), a few friends, and his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) for their spring break. Cheryl’s character is the first to notice something awry upon their arrival, the first to suffer at the hands of the demonic entity in the now (in)famous tree rape scene, and the first to be seized by the demonic entity’s possession....

Lucifer Season 4 Episode 10 “I love you. Please don’t leave.” From their first meeting at a crime scene outside of Lux in the series premiere, it seemed only a matter of time before the detective and the Devil became more than just partners. Fans of the show have weathered a number of close calls along the way, but the Lucifer season four finale “Who’s da New King of Hell?” concludes with Chloe admitting to Lucifer that she loves him....

The Power Nine are a set of cards that stretch right back to the roots of Magic: The Gathering. They were all part of Alpha, Magic’s first set, reprinted soon after as Beta, and then reprinted again as Unlimited to round out the initial printings in 1993. The differences between the three are cosmetic – Beta has slightly sharper corners than Alpha, and Unlimited introduced the white-borders, now synonymous with core set reprints....

Manifest has never been short of villains. Since Flight 828 landed, it’s been a constant battle to figure out who genuinely are the good guys, committed to figuring out the mystery of the plane and their callings, and who are those sinking the lifeboat. The likes of fellow 828 passengers Eagan (Ali Sohaili) and former cult leader Adrian (Jared Grimes) have both been considered to be more villainous than most at one point or another in the show but season four has really brought the true villain to the forefront....

The “My Universe” music video/short film is directed by Dave Meyers, an American filmmaker best known for his commercials and music videos, which include MVs for artists Drake, Ed Sheeran, Pink, Normani, Ariana Grande, and many, many more. High-concept, genre-driven music videos are par for the course in the visually immersive world of K-pop, but are less common in western music videos, which (save for some outliers, like Janelle Monae’s funky, political sci-fi adventures) have more “grounded,” realistic aesthetics, even when they skew fantastical....

But thankfully, nearly a quarter of the American population is vaccinated, and a return to something that suspiciously resembles normalcy appears to be on the horizon. After producing the first bit of great pandemic television with the standalone episode “Quarantine” last May, Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest is now aiming to conjure up some great post-pandemic TV as well. “We wanted to put the entire pandemic behind us,” Mythic Quest co-creator and star Rob McElhenney says of season 2....