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Babou Ceesay as Morrow, the cybernetic Inspector Javert figure of Alien: Earth. (F/X)
On today’s Pop Culture Happy Hour I had a gay old time (double) jawin’ with Glen Weldon and Joelle Monique about Alien: Earth, an attempt by Legion and Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley to implant a feature-film embryo into a prestige-TV host body.
I was asked this week for a piece examining how King of the Hill, a beloved animated series that just returned after a 16-year hiatus, and South Park, one that appeared a few months after King of he Hill’s debut in 1997 and has never gone away, are confronting the sociopolitical milieu of the Trump era. I didn’t have a lot of time, and I hadn’t watched or thought about South Park in more than 20 years. I’d never been a habitual King of the Hill viewer, though I enjoyed it whenever I happened to see it.
I’m pleased enough with how the piece turned out, though I lament my observation that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone scoring their highest ratings in 25 years with their Trump-trolling episodes parallels Charlie Chaplin’s career-rejuvenating success with The Great Dictator in 1940 had to go. Chaplin’s relevance had been in decline since sound came to the movies. But when he became one of the few artists brave enough to mock the Axis Powers in a time of fascist aggression, his audience rewarded his courage. There’s a lot more to this — the CBS 60 minutes settlement and the Paramount-Skydance merger of it all. I did what I could in the time and space I had. Here’s the piece.
Bob Odenkirk, a Very Good Boy, and Connie Nielsen in Nobody 2. (Universal Pictures)
Bob Odenkirk is be the only guy headline an action franchise more than 30 years after being an off-camera writer on Saturday Night Live, and the only guy to headline an action sequel the same year he was nominated for a Tony. Nobody director Ilya Naishuller moved on to the not-bad John Cena / Idris Elba buddy comedy Heads of State (which inspired this list of asskickin’ screen presidents), but we’ve got Nobody 2 anyway. My Washington Post review is here.
Liam Neeson has a very particular set of briefs in The Naked Gun. (Paramount)
Funny is back, baby. My Washington City Paper review of The Naked Gun ‘25 is here.
And here’s the second half have of the Next Picture Show mega-episode I recorded the week before last in my my parents’ kitchen, while my dad was in Fair Oaks hospital, and my brother, who’d just flown in from Tokyo, dozed on the sofa in the living room. That meant I didn’t need to ask him to leave the TV off for three hours while NPS regulars Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson and I discussed Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman (the subject of the previous episode) and James Gunn’s 2025 Superman.
I repeat: I was filling in for Scott Tobias, and not one of us thought to exclaim, “Great Scott!” That’s negligence, if not malpractice.
Lex Capacitor: Nicholas Hoult and David Corenswet are archenemies. (Jessica Miglio)
I have a piece in the Paper of Record today running down the sordid history of the first Superman movie franchise, the one that started with Richard Donner’s iiimperfect masterpiece. Is that a contradiction? Let us agree to disagree.
And here’s a deleted scene, of sorts, from the piece, addressing the 2006 “Donner cut” of Superman II, which was released on home video only once the rights issues around Marlon Brando’s footage were resolved so his voice and likeness as Jor-El could be used in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns that same year:
When the contractual issues regarding Brando’s participation were settled so that director Bryan Singer could use the Brando footage from 1977 in 2006’s Superman Returns, film editor Michael Thau took the opportunity the assemble “The Donner Cut” of Superman II, a curio that draws upon unseen footage from the late-seventies production — and even, in one instance, a screen test of Kidder and a scrawny Reeve, who’d not yet bulked up into Kryptonian shape — to offer a rough approximation of what Donner had intended some 25 years earlier.
When it comes to putting First Family of Marvel Comics in the movies, the fourth time’s the charm. My Washington Post review of Fantastic Four: First Steps is here.
I’m on the marvelous podcast The Next Picture Show! I recorded my appearance last Wednesday night live from my parents’ kitchen, while my dad was in Fair Oaks hospital, and my brother, who’d just flown in from Tokyo, dozed on the sofa in the living room. Which prevented me from asking him to leave the TV off for three hours while NPS regulars Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson and I discussed Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman and James Gunn’s 2025 Superman — the subject of the next Next Picture Show — in one marathon session. I was filling in for Scott Tobias, and not one of us thought to exclaim, “Great Scott!” That’s negligence, if not malpractice.
