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By 2021, it feels cliché on the verge of parody to tell you, dear readers, that a prestige drama eventually gets good around Episode 6. So many shows, whether in their first or fourth season, need a bit of time to figure out their tone (a natural and acceptable development in television) or they purposefully extend arcs in order to stretch success into as much content as possible (a sin that would be unforgivable if the best of these shows stopped showing flashes of greatness). “The Handmaid’s Tale” falls into the latter group, having taken the TV world by storm in a prescient and paramount first season before lurching, dragging, and sporadically wowing through consecutive follow-ups that couldn’t match the potency of its initial run...

Chloé Zhao picked up four Oscar nominations for “Nomadland” this year as its producer, director, writer, and editor, winning the categories of Best Picture and Best Director. Zhao has been a credited editor on two of her films, “Songs My Brother Taught Me” and “Nomadland,” receiving sole editor credit on her recent Oscar winner. The director confirmed to Variety following the 93rd Academy Awards that for “Eternals,” her upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe tentpole and major studio filmmaking debut, she is not the editor. That credit is being shared by Dylan Tichenor and Craig Wood. “No. I’m working with two incredible editors, Wood and Tichenor,” Zhao said when asked if she’s editing “Eternals” in addition to directing and co-writing...

Anyone who watches Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” would agree it’s a bloody affair, but apparently the bloodiness that’s been on display so far is nothing compared to what is in store for the upcoming third season. During a recent interview with Collider, “The Boys” series regular Laz Alonso revealed Season 3 is using over three times the amount of blood that was featured in Season 2. So yes, “The Boys” Season 3 is about to be a bloodbath like no other. “I’ll put it to you this way,” Alonso said. “I was talking to the head makeup artist and she’s in charge of ordering the blood — that’s one of her many jobs. She told me that all of Season 2… When you talk about bulk, I don’t think they used over a gallon of blood in Season 2, believe...

Jean Smart is a four-time Emmy nominee thanks to “24,” “Fargo,” “Watchmen,” and “Samantha Who?,” the latter of which won her the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. All of Smart’s Emmy nominations so far have been in supporting categories (“Watchmen” and “Fargo” for limited series, “24” for drama series), which means the beloved actress is long overdue to break into one of the lead acting races. Well, here comes “Hacks.” The upcoming HBO Max comedy series gives Smart a juicy comedic lead and is debuting in May during the Emmys eligibility window. Per HBO Max’s official synopsis, “Hacks” explores “a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance (Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled outcast, 25-year-old...

Several Pixar staffers spoke anonymously to Insider to criticize Disney’s decision to move some of the animation studio’s titles exclusively to the streaming platform Disney+. The first Pixar film to sidestep movie theaters was Pete Docter’s “Soul,” but many Pixar workers believed that was a one-time decision due to the pandemic shuttering theaters in 2020. However, Disney announced in March that Pixar’s upcoming “Luca” would also skip theaters and head straight to Disney+, despite theaters re-opening and the exhibition market slowly coming back to life. “Luca” will be available on Disney+ without the $29.99 premium fee used by “Mulan” and “Raya and the Last Dragon.” “‘Luca’ doesn’t even have a premium price next to it,” one staffer...

Last Year’s Winner: Regina King, “Watchmen” Still Eligible: No. Hot Streak: Rare is it to see an acting hot streak in the limited series categories, but we kind of, sort of, have one! Regina King has won two of the last three trophies for Best Actress in a Limited Series, after pulling off the upset in 2018 to win for “Seven Seconds” and then rolling to a well-deserved win for “Watchmen” in 2020. And if you extend the streak beyond Best Actress to Best Supporting Actress, then King has won in four of the last six years. (She took home the Emmy for “American Crime” in 2015 and 2016.) And her hot streak could continue if she’s nominated for hosting “SNL” this year, though not in the Limited Series section. Fun Fact: A comedy has not been...

[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “Dead Simple,” the first installment of BritBox’s “Grace.”] British crime author Peter James is an unqualified success: He’s written 36 novels and sold more than 20 million copies of those books, which have been translated into 37 languages. For the unfamiliar, let me share a sampling of the Amazon reviews for 2005’s “Dead Simple,” the first novel in his 16-book series starring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace: -“The book has made me angry!” -“A rather silly plot” -“PHOBIA ALERT!!!” -“No one acts the way they should.” Judging by these reviews, “Dead Simple,” as it turns out, has been very faithfully adapted by BritBox — the online streaming service co-owned by the BBC and...

When we first met Peregrine Fisher in 2019’s “Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries” on AcornTV, she was a little bit at loose ends. Sure, she inherited a sweet house, a sports car, and a knockout wardrobe from her aunt — the indefatigable Phryne Fisher of the cult favorite TV show “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” — but Peregrine was unsure about taking on her relative’s whole “solving crimes while looking fabulous” thing. Judging by the trailer for the upcoming second season of the spinoff, Peregrine has come to terms with her new role — and she even has the private detective nameplate to prove it. Below, IndieWire exclusively debuts the trailer, first look photos, and release date for the second season of “Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder...

How could a movie be in contention for six Oscars and go home with nothing? Legendary Oscar shutouts include Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which was zero for 10 last year, as well as his film “Gangs of New York” (2002), the Coens’ “True Grit” (2010), and David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” (2014). Losing a total of 11 categories were “The Turning Point” (1977) and “The Color Purple” (1985). When most categories have five nominees, and Best Picture has more (in this case, eight), snubs happen. But why did $35 million “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which won the Golden Globe for Screenplay, the often-predictive SAG Ensemble, and Best Editing awards, lose so resoundingly to a series of lower-budget, less mainstream movies? It’s not...

“Yasuke,” the upcoming Netflix series from creator LeSean Thomas, has released its first trailer ahead of an April 29 release. The streaming giant provided the following synopsis along with key art Monday afternoon. The tale is set in a war-torn feudal Japan filled with mechs and magic, and the greatest ronin never known, Yasuke, struggles to maintain a peaceful existence after a past life of violence. But when a local village becomes the center of social upheaval between warring daimyo, Yasuke must take up his sword and transport a mysterious child who is the target of dark forces and bloodthirsty warlords. All of that is found within the first trailer as the audience meets Yasuke, voiced by Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield...

It was 48 hours before the Oscar ceremony and Darius Marder was walking around Los Angeles. “This is one of the few times I’m just wandering around, getting the hell out,” he said. The “Sound of Metal” writer and director, who was up for two awards and would win neither, had spent the last few days in a last-minute campaign sprint for his drama about a deaf addict while jugging a few commercial shoots. Talking on the phone while he wandered the streets, Marder spoke breathlessly about the psychological effect of getting an 11-year passion project made, only to reiterate that story in the endless zooming of a pandemic awards season. “You spent a lot of time thinking about this final frontier of recognition, this peer acknowledgement...

In the aftermath of an Academy Awards show where many people expected a bittersweet, posthumous Oscar to go to Chadwick Boseman, the emotional highlight actually landed with Thomas Vinterberg. When the Danish auteur heretofore best known for his Dogme 95 effort “The Celebration” took the stage for his expected Best International Feature win for “Another Round,” he delivered a tearful salute to his late daughter Ida, who died days into the shoot of the movie. “The target was one minute. I think I landed somewhere around four,” Vinterberg said the next morning, clutching his Oscar from a hotel room and speaking over Zoom. “It was first and foremost an incredibly proud moment, satisfying, and a huge relief.” The event was more sparsely...

HBO has released the first official trailer for “Oslo,” a film adaptation of the Tony-winning play of the same name starring Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott. Playwright J.T. Rogers wrote and executive-produced the movie, which is directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher. “Oslo” centers around a Norwegian couple who find themselves in the middle of negotiations for the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, a pivotal agreement between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Here’s more from the official synopsis: “‘Oslo’ follows the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships, and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis and Palestinians, plus one Norwegian couple, that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace...