I had an Old Fuddy-duddy Moment this week, as I heard a song on a video that I liked, and discovered it was from the band Ghost. Now, I knew there was a band named Ghost, but I never knew anything about them. So, I hopped on Spotify and listened to their latest single, “Peacefield”. And I LOVED it! I had just assumed they were some death metal thing, when that’s not true at all. They’re more of an epically melodic rock band, that’s giving “former theater kid”. I can dig it.
So, like with all things, I decided to go back and start at the beginning. I started their debut album, 2010’s Opus Eponymous, and immediately the vibes were off. I don’t know if something changed over the years, but the early stuff goes a lot harder than the new stuff. I almost felt duped. I was reminded of how I discovered Death Cab For Cutie with Transatlanticism, but then proceeded to hate everything I heard from before AND after that particular album. I’m sort of ashamed to admit what was really pushing me away, though, but here we go: They REALLY love The Devil.
Like, I know it’s all performative, and they’re probably not sacrificing goats or anything. This is their gimmick. They’re the Swedish rock band who loves Lord Satan. And I tried to play along. Then I got to the song “Stand By Him”, where the opening lyric is “The Devil’s power is the greatest one, When His and hers holiest shuns the sun.” I dunno, kids… Black people don’t really mess with stuff like this. You never find a Ouija board at the corner store. White people are all “We do it because it’s fun, but we know it’s not real!” while we’re over here, thinking, “Y’all don’t KNOW shit, and we don’t want to be here when you find out!” I mean, I was crossing the color line just to sample this stuff, but I know when it’s time to get my shit and go. So, maybe it’s my upbringing, or that one episode of Adventures in Odyssey that I never forgot, but I think my short-lived Ghost fandom is over.
Trailer Park
Heads of State (Prime Video, July 2)
Part of me wonders why all the comedies go straight to streamers now, while another part wonders if this would have done well theatrically. I mean, the past few Cena movies have been straight to streamer, so I’m not completely surprised there. Also, Jack Quaid is clearly having the best year of his career! That’s not to say anything about the quality of the jobs he’s getting, but rather that his phone doesn’t seem to ever stop ringing. Meanwhile, I completely stop taking anything seriously when I see Priyanka Chopra. I feel like her entire career has been comprised of roles where she plays an Exotic Badass, yet it never felt genuine, all the way back to Quantico. Just not buying it. Anyway, this doesn’t look good, but it looks fun, and I can watch it at home, so I just might check this out
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Theaters, July 18)
This thing opens smack dab between The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman, so it better open HUGE. This is one of those rare occasions where I can say that I did see the original, and that I remember pretty much nothing about it. The only memorable thing is the “What are you waiting for?!” I mean, Jennifer Love Hewitt, in her prime? *chef’s kiss* That said, I feel I need to explain the era a bit more. You see, this was peak Teentertainment (Did I just make that up?) I mean, The WB was in full swing as a tastemaker, and I had a subscription to Teen People, so I was more than familiar with the stars there (I still can’t believe Ryan Phillippe fumbled the bag as badly as he did). So, that’s sort of my issue here: I don’t know any of these kids. Should I? Am I just old and out of touch, or are these a bunch of newcomers? We wanted to see the original because we knew Hewitt from Party of Five, we knew Gellar from Buffy, and Phillippe had done soaps. Prinze was the newcomer, but he always had this “expectation” behind him, since he was the son of tragic comedian Freddie Prinze Sr. We were interested in those kids. This time around, though, all these folks have punchable faces. I want them to die. At the very least, they should have given Sydney Sweeney anything she wanted to show up in this thing.
Sirens (Netflix, May 22)
We say this a lot around here, so you should be used to it by now: I’d watch this as a movie, but not as a series. I don’t want the investment of a series. Plus, if it’s massively popular, they will find a way to keep it going, even if there isn’t enough story. Meanwhile, if it was planned as more than one season, there’s a chance Netflix will still cancel it because not enough folks streamed it the first weekend. Still, it looks interesting, despite being hella tropey. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen anything with Milly Alcock in it, and I’m like “This is James Gunn’s pick for Supergirl?” I don’t see it.
Mountainhead (Max, May 31)
So, I’m just gonna assume the title is a play on The Fountainhead, since it seems all iconoclasts tend to have a hard-on for Ayn Rand. I mean, I get what they’re doing here, but I’m also sort of like “Read the room.” While the four men all seem to be at different places on the moral spectrum, no one here really seems good except maybe Ramy Youssef’s character. And, even then, he still had to have done some bad stuff to have gotten where he is. We’re in such an “Eat The Rich” place right now that I almost feel the only satisfying ending would be if there’s a twist where none of what they’re seeing online and on TV actually happened, and it turned out to be an experiment that caused the world’s most successful and accomplished men to revert to their base human instincts. Four men entered, but four men ain’t leaving that resort.
WWE: Unreal (Netflix, Summer 2025)
I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit. While I have always appreciated glimpses behind the curtain, I truly believe that “kayfabe” (that’s a term that basically translates to “pretending wrestling is REAL”) is integral to the success of the industry. To do something like this, showing how the writers room operates, is akin to what The Masked Magician did back in the 90s. We KNOW it’s not real, but we don’t need to know how the sausage is made.
I know wrestling is changing, but I’ve never felt those changes were positive. I miss gimmicks and ring names. I don’t want some guy who looks like he’s a former personal trainer, with a ring name that could actually be on a government-issued ID. I need odd bodies – either over-roided or just LARGE -, with names like “Adam Bomb” or “Irwin R. Shyster” attached to them. Right now, every pro wrestler just looks like the one bouncer who managed to make it out of his podunk town. As they try to “legitimize” the industry, we’re losing what made it what it was. It’s like if Disney started producing donkey shows! I will be the first to tell you that it was a carny industry, filled with a lot of bad people. I’m not saying that was good, but they put on one Hell of a show. You shouldn’t get in a car with them, or marry them, but you could be sure you hadn’t wasted your Saturday night at the local arena.
As “sports entertainment” has started eyeing that “family entertainment” money, they’ve just changed everything to chase the dollar. Here’s the thing, though: wrestling has the same problem as comics, in that you might have new stars in the forefront, but it’s the same old guys in the background, keeping things going. Sure, the old wrestlers with the history of sexual assault and drug charges might not be in the ring, but now they’re bookers and road managers. So, can you truly say you’ve changed? Or have you just gotten better at hiding the embarrassing relatives? This show won’t do anything to answer that question, as there won’t be any real meat here. Like all carnies, they’ll make sure we see what they want us to see. But we could also just not even give them the chance.
Will Around The Web
As you may remember, The Chicago Podcastaways had the West Week Ever last week, and we’ve got our first audio from the trip! Over on The After Lunch Podcast, they released an episode that sort of tracks our progress over the weekend, as well as our thoughts on the gathering. I know there’s at least one more C2E2-centric episode coming, which recorded that Friday night. Until it goes up, however, go over and take a listen to our field reports from the show!
Meanwhile, Adam and I teamed up for a podcast, but we’re not talking TV this time! Nope, I was invited to cohost the latest episode of Wizards: The Podcast Guide To Comics, where we reviewed issue #107 of Wizard: The Guide To Comics. I love talking comics of that era, and it just might not be the last time you hear me over there…
Run The Numbers
While I think I’m doing a pretty good job with the pacing, I think I’ll feel a lot better once I get a “real” book under my belt. I’m tired of seeing that 0 there, and it’s not like 6 books is asking that much.
Anyway, I skipped last week, so here’s where we stand: I pretty much just read 2 collections in that span of time. First up, we had Eight Billion Genies, an Image miniseries from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. While Soule does a lot of mainstream work, like on Daredevil, he has quite a few creator-owned series, including Letter 44, Curse Words, and the book we’re discussing today. I actually really enjoyed Letter 44, but it was also my introduction to something that seems to be common with Soule’s creator-owned books: an unsatisfying final page. The same way I think Brian K. Vaughan has great ideas, but isn’t much of a “closer”, Soule’s stories have me on the edge of my seat right up to the very last page. And then that page is either rendered or drawn in a way that seems to provide more questions than answers. It almost seems like it’s open to different interpretation by the readers, but it really just feels like a non-ending.
Eight Billion Genies goes like this: One day, a child is born in France, and that birth triggers an event where every human on Earth is given a genie, who will grant ONE wish for that person. They’re not doing the three wishes thing, as one wish can do more than enough damage, plus it would cause people to be more thoughtful and deliberate with their wish. Our core group of characters happens to be in a dive bar in Michigan when this happens, and through some particular circumstances they band together for safety as the world around them goes to shit because of the sometimes competing wishes of the rest of society. After that, each issue features a time jump. So, issue one shows us “G-Day”, while we’re then shown 8 weeks, 8 months, 8 years, and so on. I’m probably getting the increments wrong, but it’s an 8-issue series, and the final issue is already 80 years from G-Day. Over the course of the story, we learn why this happened, as well as what it’s meant to accomplish. You really become attached to these characters in a short amount of time, and it’s fascinating, yet still somewhat believable, how their lives continue to intersect over the course of the story. My main gripe, however, is we’re never really told where the genies came from. Yes, we know the triggering event, but we never learn their origin, but rather their purpose. So, you’re left with that old nugget “If God exists, then who created God?” Anyway, based on how the story is told, Soule ended up creating, whether intentionally or not, something of a “multiverse” for all of his creator-owned series. I really enjoyed the world-building here and, not to give anything away, I feel it’s something that he could revisit down the road, should he wish to do so. I know the issues went to several printings, so it was definitely a popular series. I guess we’ll just have to see if Soule and Browne have more story to tell.
The next book was somewhat maddening, which starts out with the title: From The DC Vault: Death In The Family: Robin Lives! As folks probably know, DC Comics wanted to shake up the Bat books just before the movie came out, and it seemed the latest Robin, Jason Todd, wasn’t as big a hit with the fans as his predecessor, Dick Grayson, had been. So, they considered killing him off, but left it up to the fans. They created a toll-free number, and had the fans call in to vote on whether Robin should live or die. While they were expecting a landslide one way or the other, they were surprised to learn that there was only a difference of roughly 72 votes, with Kill Him as the winning decision.
So, they wrote the 4-part “A Death in the Family” storyline, where Jason Todd discovers that the woman he thought to be his mother was actually his stepmother. Desperate to find his birth mother, armed only with his father’s address books and Bruce Wayne’s credit cards, he hops around the Middle East to find the three women who might possibly be his mother. When he finds her, he discovers she’s in cahoots with The Joker, who’s trying to steal medicine slated for refugee camps. Jason decides to “save” his mom, only for her to sell him out to Joker, who proceeds to beat the snot out of him with a crowbar. If that’s not enough, Joker decides there are too many witnesses, so he locks Jason and his mom in the storage tent and blows it up. Batman arrives too late, only to find Jason’s body. That’s how it was printed, at least. Then, it was revealed that DC had printed 2 versions, just in case. So, the decision was made last year to release the other version, in which Jason lives. The funny thing, though, is the only difference is a page where Batman screams “He’s alive!” Otherwise, the rest of the story is unchanged, as Jason is off the board at that point either way.
So, this collection was interesting because it collected the original storyline, but swapped in the new page. Then, there was an additional 4-part miniseries – also collected here – that shows how the next arc would have progressed with that new ending. I’m not going to spoil it here, as you should probably read it if this sounds interesting to you. I will say, however, that if you’ve ever watched the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, then you already know this story. And, based on how it’s structured, it feels almost like any other Elseworlds story, as opposed to something that could have actually played out in the main Batman books at the time.
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- As we’re about 3 weeks out from the May Upfronts, some of your favorite, and maybe not so favorite, shows are about to get some bad news. Amazon canceled Laverne Cox’s Clean Slate, while CBS canceled Poppa’s House and The Summit.
- CBS is passing on planned spinoffs for The Neighborhood and The Equalizer, but is moving forward with the previously announced CIA show set in the FBI universe.
- The first competitor for season 34 of Dancing with the Stars was announced as Robert Irwin, son of the late Steve Irwin. Also, it should be noted that his older sister, Bindi, won the competition in 2015.
- Hallmark Channel content will be leaving Peacock on May 1st, ending a three-year partnership between the 2 companies.
- Remember how they claimed everyone was watching Suits during Covid, which led them to develop a spinoff that no one seems to be watching? Well, buckle up, as it was reported a revival of another USA Network drama is in the works, and this time it’s Royal Pains.
I don’t have a whole ton to say here, as I haven’t seen the movie yet. That said, I haven’t heard a single bad thing about the film Sinners. Sure, there have been bad conversations surrounding the film, like the influencers in the Latino community demanding Ryan Coogler give credit to From Dusk Til Dawn as an inspiration (which he had already done), but it seems the movie itself is flawless – something you never hear about anything in this day and age.
Starring Michael B. Jordan – as twins (!) – and directed by Ryan Coogler, I have watched as every critic, reviewer, and chronic theatergoer struggled to find synonyms for “art”. This film seems to be Pure Art. I mean, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as Jordan and Coogler never miss when they team up (It’s gonna be a shame when they eventually have a falling out). Still, this wasn’t an adaptation of some preexisting franchise or concept. This is Original Storytelling, which is the thing folks claim they want, but rarely support. So, that’s a feat in and of itself.
Also, it has been interesting to see how it has brought a community together. I know folks have been distracted with the outside world and whatnot, but I haven’t seen something bring black folks together like this since Chadwick was Black Panther. All over TikTok, Instagram, Threads – it’s all anybody can talk about. And it’s nice to see such unified praise for something when everything else seems to be going straight to Hell. So, for that, Sinners had the West Week Ever.
