Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: TV

  • ‘Peacemaker’ Episode 5 Primer

    ‘Peacemaker’ Episode 5 Primer

    We’ve passed the halfway mark on the first, and hopefully not last, season of Peacemaker on HBO Max. Episode 5 is set to hit HBO Max tomorrow and fans are waiting to see what’s next following that jaw-dropping revelation at the end of last week’s episode. Episode 4 featured some emotional moments and revelations for the team, especially Peacemaker himself, who may finally be realizing his father was never trying to toughen him up, just abusing him and taking his anger on the world out on the only person he had left.

    Following the mission in which the team exterminated Royland Goff and his family, who were indeed butterflies as Murn suspected, and with Judomaster in tow, the gang heads back to their rundown base of operations with one less toe than before and Vigilante claiming that he may never walk the same again.

    Following a brief team meeting, Peacemaker and Vigilante return to Auggie Smith’s house where the nosey neighbor explains that Auggie has been arrested, but only after he gets into an argument with Peacemaker about Batman, similar to spats you see on Twitter daily.

    This is where Peacemaker begins to realize who his father really is. It’s obvious that Auggie is a repugnant and awful man, but as his son, Smith only saw that through rose-colored glasses, believing it to be tough love. It took Auggie telling Chris that he wished he had killed him the second he was born, but Chris seems to have finally had a breakthrough.

    After a bit of not-so-subtle manipulation by Adebayo, Vigilante gets the sudden idea to kill Auggie and rid Christopher of him once and for all. Vigilante was the stand-out this episode. While he may be a complete psychopath, he’s one with good intentions who cares about people and things, but just has a funny way of showing it. Getting himself arrested, he takes the Aryans head-on and proceeds to ridicule them for all their backward thoughts and actions, provoking them into attacking him first so that he can make his way to Auggie and take him out.

    The episode ends with a montage between characters to “House of Pain” by The Pussycats. We see Peacemaker facing a lot of crucial events in his life: him being forced the kill a man by his father, presumably the first life he’d taken; a flashback to the events of The Suicide Squad, in which we see Peacemaker kill Rick Flag, someone he looked up to and believed to be an American hero, in which Flag calls him a joke; finally, we see the death of Christopher’s brother. Although we aren’t exactly sure how it happened, it’s a moment that deeply haunts him.

    The most shocking revelation in this episode, however, takes place in the final scene in which we see Murn revealed as a butterfly as he releases his proboscis to consume the amber nectar. Just why is Murn trying to take down the butterflies if he is one?

    Episode 5 of Peacemaker debuts tomorrow on HBO Max.

  • Hey, Look, Everyone…It’s Bryce Dallas Howard

    Hey, Look, Everyone…It’s Bryce Dallas Howard

    Through its first four episodes, Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars streaming series, The Book of Boba Fett, hadn’t generated the same volume of discussion around the proverbial water cooler as had its predecessor on Disney Plus, The Mandalorian. While The Book of Boba Fett hasn’t really been divisive among fans and has been treated kindly by critics, it simply seemed to lack the same “pop” as Mando.

    Surely some of that is the result of the reality of the show not matching fan expectations: fans wanted Boba Fett kicking ass like he did when he first appeared in The Mandalorian but, instead, have seen a story unfold much more along the lines of The Godfather: Part II, in which flashbacks a bring us up to speed on how Fett rose to his current station. And so, through its first four episodes, much of the buzz had been generated by the live-action debut of Black Krrsantan, Danny Trejo’s Rancor keeper and the hope of something greater just around the corner. And today, in Chapter 5, “The Return of The Mandalorian”, the hope that fans had been clinging to arrived.

    The episode waited roughly 20 seconds before introducing Din Djarin to the story and, from there, the character never relinquished the spotlight. As fans have rightly pointed out, this episode was in every way, shape and form, an episode of The Mandalorian that happened to be part of The Book of Boba Fett. It’s not until the end that Fett is even named and the events of this episode have nothing to do with the events of the first four episodes of the series. Outside of the setting and a brief reference to the Pyke Syndicate, Chapter 5 doesn’t even share the same narrative tapestry as the rest of the series.

    What it is, however, is a great reminder that The Book of Boba Fett is part of much larger narrative that’s been developing for nearly 15 years, since Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau started to plant the seeds of it over the course of several season of The Clone Wars. Filoni and Favreau seem to have a deep and true understanding of the Galaxy Far, Far Away that George Lucas dreamt up and created. They have a passion and knowledge for the stories and characters that have built Star Wars into the entertainment empire it has become and have rightfully been lauded for their work with the direction they’ve begun to steer the live-action Star Wars series. Following today’s episode, it’s clear that fans need to start sending some of that praise in the direction of director Bryce Dallas Howard.

    Chapter 5 stands apart from the rest of the chapters of The Book of Boba Fett. Sure it’s not telling a story about Fett, though it’s obvious Djarin is going to play a big role in the remainder of the series (the creators were kind enough to throw some metahumor at us “Hey, look, everyone. It’s Mando”, as if we had forgotten about him), but it’s also the best episode of the series so far despite a decent chunk of time in it being spent watching Djarin and Peli Motto rattle off a bunch of crazy names for parts of the Naboo starfighter they are rebuilding. Howard shares that same deep understanding of Star Wars that fans love to use to adulate Filoni and Favreau and she shares it because, just like them, she’s a lifelong fan of the franchise.

    Howard’s father, Ron Howard, worked on the 1988 film Willow, written by Lucas, and Bryce has talked in the past about how Lucas both mentored her father through his directing career and gave her advice ahead of her directorial debut on The Mandalorian in the first season’s fourth episode. Howard was even present at a dinner in which her father and Lucas met with Akria Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese director whose 1958 film, The Hidden Fortress, served as inspiration for Lucas to create Star Wars and whose influence is still felt even as creators other than Lucas are now taking the reigns of the franchise. Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, “The Jedi”, directed by Filoni, was the most overt homage to Kurosawa, but it is very clear that Howard values Kurosawa’s influence on the franchise, too. Her first episode of The Mandalorian, “Sanctuary”, was very much in the Kurosawa mold.

    What “The Return of the Mandalorian” made very clear was that while Filoni and Favreau may be creating the live-action world unfolding on Disney Plus and are the ones driving the shared narrative that certainly seems like it’s headed for a big battle to reclaim Mandalore, they are incredibly comfortable letting Howard take the wheel and be in charge as they lay the groundwork. Chapter 11 of The Mandalorian, “The Heiress”, also directed by Howard, introduced key characters, storylines and artifacts into live-action that will play major roles in the resolution of this shared narrative. In “The Return of the Mandalorian”, Howard’s voice was again the one Filoni and Favreau chose to tell not only the past of Mandalore (with a little Terminator influence thrown in for good measure), but also set up some key points for the future, such as how Djarin can redeem himself in his religion. For an episode that spent a lot of time repairing a beat up ship, it sure seems like it was a can’t miss to understand things moving forward.

    And so with Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett, “The Return of The Mandalorian”, the hope fans were waiting for did arrive…and her name is Bryce Dallas Howard.

  • REVIEW: ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Chapter 5 – Return of the Mandalorian

    REVIEW: ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Chapter 5 – Return of the Mandalorian

    After what can perhaps be described as a rather lackluster series so far, The Book of Boba Fett has delivered not only its best episode yet, but probably one of the best Star Wars Disney+ episodes ever. It’s interesting how it managed that on an episode where the titular character doesn’t show up, even if the reasons for that tend to be pretty obvious. Let’s dive in.

    After the obvious hints on last week’s episode, it’s no surprise that Din Djarin finally made his debut on the show. And much like Ahsoka Tano’s introduction on Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, we didn’t have to wait long for that to happen, with the series putting aside an endless tease and going straight into it. By giving us an entire episode following Din the show cashed in on the growing expectations to see what was to come next in the journeys of Din Djarin, following Grogu’s departure and his acquiring of the Darksaber. By expanding his story and also tying it with Boba Fett’s it managed to deliver a compelling addendum to both The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian.

    One might say that a few of the issues that have made The Book of Boba Fett pale in comparison to its predecessor might come to the (lack of) novelty of it all. Having a show not only set on Tatooine, perhaps the most uninteresting of the interesting planets of the Star Wars universe but also focusing half of your runtime on flashbacks that do little more than connecting dots one already knew existed doesn’t exactly invite the awe of discovery one often associates with Star Wars. With the flashbacks presumably ending in Chapter 4, given Boba Fett being finally healed of the injuries inflicted on him by the Sarlacc, it was now time to move forward and bring something new to the table.

    This breath of fresh air is personified by the return of Din Djarin. His on-screen magnetism is perhaps best explained through the tracking shot set between 07:05 and 09:21. We follow him go up an elevator, delivering his bounty, collecting the information he needed, and then leaving, all on a single take, with the camera focusing on him at all times. The Disney+ shows have been known for doing something similar to what Peli Motto did with Din’s new ship when she states “Not a gram of fat on her!” in order to make it go faster. They always seem to be able to cut the superfluous shots and give us the bare essentials that the story needs in order to move forward at a more pleasant pace. So it is interesting to see an episode take its time with the reintroduction of a character so that when it’s done everybody had the opportunity to settle in and begin the episode on the same page. That can only speak of how much the character means to so many, even if it’s only been around for a little over two years.

    By making Din Djarin the star of the show we managed to get off-planet and onto some new and interesting locations, one of the aspects where The Book of Boba Fett doesn’t really deliver. Elysium and Interstellar came to mind when we got to the city in space where Din delivers his bounty. But the references within the new and exciting location and action shots didn’t stop there as the flashbacks to the destruction of Mandalore was reminiscent of Terminator 2: Judgment Day with the KX-series security droids taking the place of the Terminators stepping on human skulls. All these references, combined with the connections to past Star Wars projects as seen when Din is testing out his Naboo N-1 Starfighter through Beggar’s Canyon, Motto’s BD droid, and a few more, could feel gratuitous but they all end up shining by flowing nicely into the plot and being used as an integral part of the story.

    At the end of the day having a Din Djarin-centered episode also benefits his future endeavors. Besides setting up what is sure to be a transformative final act for The Book of Boba Fett, having Chapter 5 explore the present state of The Tribe, the group hidden in the Mandalorian covert in the sewers of Nevarro, first introduced and mostly destroyed in The Mandalorian, also perfectly sets up what a The Mandalorian season 3 might be all about by addressing the legacy of the Darksaber and how that impacts Din’s relationship with his fellow Mandalorians. With Din left on his own, and much like in his own show battling his teachings after realizing there were other ways to honor his Mandalorian background, his search for Grogu will now begin as he plans to deliver him his own mesh armor made out of beskar. 

    This chapter feels like one that jumpstarts the show from its lethargic state, giving it a much-needed energy boost as we get to the final two episodes with a greater sense of urgency, with more dynamic character dynamics on the horizon. The Book of Boba Fett might not be living up to the hype, but there is no reason why it can’t still surpass it. 

  • ‘The Suicide Squad’s Flula Borg to Reprise ‘Pitch Perfect’ Role in Spinoff Series

    ‘The Suicide Squad’s Flula Borg to Reprise ‘Pitch Perfect’ Role in Spinoff Series

    It looks like the Pitch Perfect franchise is ready to get its first spinoff with the German actor Flula Borg returning to reprise his role of Piëter Krämer from the second film entry. He’ll join Adam DeVine in the new Peacock original series, where he signs Bumper Allen, DeVine‘s character, as his client and tries to make his dreams a reality after one of his songs becomes a hit there.

    Borg has been making quite a name for himself with his short-lived but memorable tenure as Javelin in James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad. He also appeared in Trolls World Tour, Ferdinand, and Buddymoon. He’s also has worked with DeVine in the past, such as on Workaholics.

    Megan Amram will write the spinoff series and also act as showrunner and executive producer on the piece. Brownstone Productions is also executive producing with Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman involved alongside Gold Circle Films’ Paul Brooks and Scott Neimeyer. DeVine also has an executive producing role. It seems the project doesn’t have a name as of yet.

    Source: Variety

  • Lucy Liu to Star in Stephen King’s ‘Later’ Adaptation by ‘True Blood’s Raelle Tucker

    Lucy Liu to Star in Stephen King’s ‘Later’ Adaptation by ‘True Blood’s Raelle Tucker

    Stephen King‘s 2021 novel, Later, is going to be turned into a limited series with Lucy Liu set to take on the main role. Raelle Tucker will act as showrunner and wrote the script for the pilot. She previously worked on HBO’s True Blood and the Sacred Lies anthology series together with Blumhouse Television who landed the rights for the project and are spearheading the project moving forward. She shared her excitement about getting another chance to work with Jason Blum.

    I’ve wanted to work with Jason Blum for years, and now we have two projects together. Go, me! Later is terrifying and touching and wonderfully weird — of course it is, it’s Stephen King. Adapting one of my favorite writers of all time, with an incredible partner like Blumhouse and the incomparable Lucy Liu, is a dream come true

    Raelle Tucker

    The adaptation will explore the story of Tia (Lucy Liu), the owner of a literary agency, is facing the end of her career due to the death of her star writer. Without his promised work, she’s about to face bankruptcy and is alone raising her son Jamie. Luckily, he has the ability to speak to the dead – as one does – and is able to help her finish the book after uncovering the original plans by its original author post-mortem. Yet, it wouldn’t be a story without any conflict, as Tia’s girlfriend finds out and he might be over his head.

    Source: Deadline

  • REVIEW: ‘How I Met Your Father’ Episode 3 – The Fixer

    REVIEW: ‘How I Met Your Father’ Episode 3 – The Fixer

    Sophie’s love story continues. This time, Jesse takes the spotlight, as they both try and conquer their return to the dating world. Last week, I shared my thoughts on the premiere of How I Met Your Father and had some complaints about the series. Luckily, it seems those may have been answered. During the premiere episodes, I felt the humor was a bit lacking, and the connections to How I Met Your Mother were great, but I felt the feel was a bit off. In a way, it was almost like the show was trying desperately to recreate the atmosphere of the original, but wasn’t quite hitting the mark. Episode 3, however, answers these problems and then some.

    As I had suggested last week, I feel the first two episodes may have only felt off due to it being a premiere and, therefore, needing to set up multiple different characters and relationships. One thing I did love last week was that I had already started to get a feeling for the characters and have grown to love a few of them already. That helped tremendously in the third episode, which is by far the best one out of the three. It follows Sophie and Jesse returning to the dating world, both feeling a bit defeated on their search for love. As romantic sitcoms go, the episode concludes with both characters hyping each other up, and having new prospects and views on their current dating life.

    Episode 3 was both charming and funny. The humor that I felt missed the mark last week was dead on this time around, obviously not all jokes will land with everyone, but I felt that laugh tracks weren’t placed in humorless moments as often. The characters once again stand out, and the more I watch them – especially Jesse and Sophie – the more I am falling in love with them. I am invested in this journey. In my last review, I noted the clever approach to already hinting at who might be the father. Yet, this new episode defied expectations and introduced a new possible father, Josh Peck‘s Drew, as we learn he met Sophie briefly on the first night while asking for a charger. This new development not only adds another father into the mix but also opens up the possibility of many new men that could be the aforementioned father. I mean, it was a party that filled up a bar, after all.

    On top of the love story, the supporting cast also made some leaps this week. Just like with How I Met Your Mother, the show followed Sophie and Jesse on their “main journey,” but also spent some time with the other members of the group while they live their respective lives. This week, we followed Valentina and Sid trying to improve their long-distance relationship, as well as Ellen and Charlie house hunting in New York. The character pair-ups were a bit odd to me at first, but as the episode continued, you immediately felt the chemistry between them. This cohesive friend group continues to impress me with how natural it feels.

    From the character sitting around the apartment to the humor to the charming love story, this episode landed so perfectly in its attempt to capture the feeling of the original. How I Met Your Father had an uphill battle in trying to live up to one of the most beloved sitcoms in the last 20 years, and somehow, they managed to do it. Episode 3 had me truly feel like this was an extension of How I Met Your Mother and that it’s expanding the world of the original. I was quite impressed with how fast the problems seemed to just disappear, and how fast the show has managed to grip me.

    How I Met Your Father is starting to line up as a great premiere in a crowded 2022 schedule. If they can continue to deliver as they did with this entry, they may have a stand-out new show on their hands that is worth your attention. As the streaming wars continue, IP is like gold. So, when a new show manages to deliver on its predecessors, it’s a true treat for fans. So far, How I Met Your Father is a good show worth checking out, but if they can keep up this momentum, it may just become a must-watch. I hope it continues on this path, if they do, I truly believe it may possibly live up to and maybe fix the problems of How I Met Your Mother.

  • MALTA FILM WEEK: Director Colin Azzopardi Shares His Experience Working on ‘Game of Thrones’

    MALTA FILM WEEK: Director Colin Azzopardi Shares His Experience Working on ‘Game of Thrones’

    The first-ever Malta Film Week has kicked off that gives local talent the chance to discuss and share their experiences as part of the international film industry, but also the importance of growing their local cinematic landscape. During the panel discussion on Malta’s film culture and ecosystem, director Colin Azzopardi offered some insight into his work on Game of Thrones after the question came what the panel would prefer: working on film or TV? He offered some insight into what his experience was, as well as the pros and cons that come with it.

    For me, it was a fantastic journey. One, being part of such a big project which after season 1, they knew it would do well, but they never expected it to do so well. It became like a cult and it sort of exploded, and your being part of the process. I started off as a AD, I was part of the creative process. And you’re getting involved in decision making and creating the looks of various culture in the story, and stuff like that. Then, moving on to production management and helping actually make the product on a massive scale, of course. The budgets on that were off the roof. And there’s a satisfaction in that, being part of that and being reocgnized for the awards and that kind of thing.

    Colin Azzopardi

    Just as much as he was praising the work that he was able to do with the HBO series, there was one large setback. Given its success, he was contractually obligated to work on the project for some time which limited his options of tackling other projects.

    When I was doing Game of Thrones, I used to get calls for other projects, and obviously, you can’t do it because you’re tied down for so many years on a project. So, everything has its pros and cons, of course. I guess, if it was my TV series, then it’s a bit different because it’s yours and you’re involved with it, absorbed in the process.

    Colin Azzopardi

    Of course, the panel highlights that everyone has their own perspective on the matter. There may be some that enjoy the safety of a fixed contract while others prefer the freedom of managing their own projects, as highlighted by Azzopardi on the way you approach a project if you created it yourself. That diverse perspective also strongly reflects how complex the industry is

    Source: YouTube

  • Disney+’s ‘Mighty Ducks’ Series Found Its New Male Lead in Josh Duhamel

    Disney+’s ‘Mighty Ducks’ Series Found Its New Male Lead in Josh Duhamel

    It looks like The Mighty Ducks Disney+ series has found its new lead, as Josh Duhamel has been announced to fill the gap that is left behind with Emilio Estevez leaving the project. He originally was going to return for the second season, but there were rumors that conflicts regarding the series COVID restrictions may have led to his departure. Supposedly, there were also creative differences that played a key factor in why he and Disney went their separate ways on this project.

    Duhamel is set to play a new character named Gavin Cole, who runs an intense summer hockey institute. He was once an NHL player that became a coach with the description of being “inspirational, charming, and hardcore as he is big on the hockey metaphor that applies to life.” So, the kids might be in for a tough training session in the upcoming second season. It won’t be the same without Estevez‘s Gordon Bombay, but it’ll be interesting to see what Duhamel might offer to mix up the formula.

    The second season will be run by Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, who created the series together with the film’s director Steven Brill. Outside of Estevez, most of the cast will return for the second season, such as Lauren Graham and Brady Noon. The series currently has no production start date or release date for its second season.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • EXCLUSIVE: Details on Apple TV’s ‘Godzilla’ Spinoff

    EXCLUSIVE: Details on Apple TV’s ‘Godzilla’ Spinoff

    Apple TV made a big splash last week picking up the rights to Legendary’s MonsterVerse streaming series. The series, written by Chris Black, is set to focurs on the Monarch organization present throughout the recent Godzilla and Kong films. Little info was shared last week about the series, co-created by Matt Fraction, but now we are able to exclusively reveal some new details.

    The Monarch-spinoff is tentatively titled Hourglass, a clear reference to the secret organization’s logo. Casting is currently underway for the series, with production currently scheduled to get underway in May. Cameras are expected to roll until November as the series moves around the globe, splitting time between Tokyo, Vancouver and Hawaii.

    Hourglass picks up “following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real. It’s said to focus on “one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.”



  • ‘Moon Knight’s Ethan Hawke Teases His “Terrifying” Villain

    ‘Moon Knight’s Ethan Hawke Teases His “Terrifying” Villain

    Many were surprised when Ethan Hawke revealed he was joining the upcoming Marvel Studios’ series, Moon Knight. It just didn’t seem like the usual project he would tackle, but his involvement offered a glimpse of hope that this project might make the iconic character stand out from the rest. We got our first true glimpse at his character in a poster, as he was showcased seemingly as a leader of some kind of cult – and with him out during daylight, there went our Dracula theories. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he talked about how psychiatrist Carl Jung and the infamous cult leader David Koresh were the inspirations of his character, as he also wanted to avoid the boring clichés you expect from a villainous character.

    The uber-rich villain mastermind isn’t interesting to me. I love the ones who believe that they’re a good person and that’s why they have to kill you. That, I find really terrifying.

    Ethan Hawke

    It was the series star, Oscar Isaac, that convinced him to join the project after believing he might not be the right choice for a comic book adaptation, but after spending some time with the character, it seems he came to love the idea of tackling a character that doesn’T has as much baggage as others.

    So it just became about the project, and it wasn’t an intellectual decision at all; it was like, ‘Oh, let’s do something cool with these guys.’ And the more I learned about the Moon Knight, the more turned on I got, because it’s so much better than trying to create something that the audience already has a big agenda with. Like, if you do Batman or Superman or Hulk, any of these famous ones, the fans have so many preconceived things that they want from it. It’s like playing Hamlet. […] And with Moon Knight, we get to create a world and a character. The fan in me always enjoys the first movie. I love learning about how the hell Captain America came to be — those are my favorite parts of the story.

    Ethan Hawke

    He’s certainly a great addition to the project, and he definitely might add something special to make it stand out. Even the trailers were selling us on a more mind-bending adventure than what we are used to within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here’s hoping we spend quite a bit of time with his character and uncover what exactly his role is throughout the six-episode series.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly