This post containsspoilersfor theBetter Call Saulseries finale. Fourteen years ago, Peter Gould wrote an episode ofBreaking Bad, “Better Call Saul,” where he was tasked with introducing a character who would serve two purposes: 1) provide legal expertise to Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, so that it would be more plausible …
Read More »The Most Memorable Moments From 'Better Call Saul'
Better Call Saul ended last night with a wonderful episode that brought the entire Breaking Bad universe to a satisfying conclusion. We recapped the finale and spoke with Saul co-creator Peter Gould, but we’re not ready to say goodbye to the classic AMC drama just yet. So here are 10 …
Read More »How Do You Make a Western in the 21st Century?
There’s a lot of ways to describe Jordan Peele‘s Nope: an update on “Watch the Skies!” sci-fi from the 1950s; a tribute to Steven Spielberg’s 1970s blockbuster building blocks (what if those Close Encounter of the Third Kind UFOs were just hungry, extraterrestrial great white sharks?); a 21st century meta-text …
Read More »'It's Time to Do Something New': 'Better Call Saul' Co-Creator Vince Gilligan on His Final Episode as Writer-Director
Vince Gilligan will be the first to tell you he’s a bad planner. It’s not just that the co-creator of Better Call Saul missed his own show’s wrap party because he and his partner Holly had already scheduled a birthday getaway in Palm Springs for that night. It’s that throughout …
Read More »Remembering the Beautiful, Bizarre TV Movie Where Olivia Newton-John Played a Living Mannequin
In 1990, years after Grease, “Physical,” and Xanadu, Olivia Newton-John made her TV movie debut as a department store mannequin brought to life — and no, this probably wasn’t the living-mannequin story you’re thinking of right now. Unpacking the masterpiece that is A Mom for Christmas might take some time, …
Read More »'Heat 2': Why Michael Mann's Sequel to His Classic Crime-Movie Had to Be a Novel
It ends the only way it can end, with two of the toughest men in Los Angeles holding hands as one of them bleeds out on the periphery of LAX’s tarmac. For the greater part of two and a half hours, we’ve watched Neil McCauley — mastermind of heists and …
Read More »Inside 'The Sandman' — and Why Season 2 Could Be Sooner Than You Think
How do you adapt the unadaptable? Neil Gaiman‘s beloved fantasy comic book The Sandman centers around Dream, a godlike embodiment of humankind’s collective unconscious who looks like he might also sing in a Cure cover band. Its cerebral tales leap among eras and settings, including multiple pit stops in the …
Read More »Jordan Peele's 'NOPE' Was Partly Inspired by This Cult Musician's Legacy
Jordan Peele‘s sprawling sci-fi horror flick Nope was inspired, in part, by a burned CD a friend handed him in the mid-2000s. Scrawled, simply, with the word “Exuma,” the CD contained cult Bahamian performer Tony Mackey’s 1970 debut — and the kernel that would become an epic film about the …
Read More »'The Thing Westerns Always Got Wrong Was Our Humor': Sterlin Harjo on the Return of 'Reservation Dogs'
The fourth episode of the new season of Reservation Dogs would seem extraordinary, if only it weren’t for all the other incredible episodes of Reservation Dogs. The FX comedy (which streams exclusively on Hulu) follows a quartet of Native teens — would-be group leader Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), actual group leader …
Read More »'It's Harder Than It Looks': Mike Judge on Bringing Back 'Beavis and Butt-Head'
Thirty years ago, an obscure Texas filmmaker named Mike Judge created the animated short Frog Baseball, in which two heavy metal-obsessed teenagers named Beavis and Butt-Head brutalize an amphibian with a baseball bat. It didn’t seem like anything especially brilliant at the time, especially since it ends with them viciously …
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