from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther:_Wakanda_Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

T'Challa, king of Wakanda, is dying from an illness which his sister, Shuri, believes can be cured by the "heart-shaped herb". Shuri attempts to synthetically recreate the herb after it was destroyed by their cousin N'Jadaka but fails to do so before T'Challa succumbs.

One year later, Wakanda is under pressure from other nations to share their vibranium, with some parties attempting to steal it by force. Queen Ramonda implores Shuri to continue her research on the heart-shaped herb, hoping to create a new Black Panther that will defend Wakanda, but she refuses due to her belief that the Black Panther is a figure of the past. In the Atlantic Ocean, the CIA and U.S. Navy SEALs utilize a vibranium-detecting machine to locate a potential vibranium deposit underwater. The expedition is attacked and killed by a group of blue-skinned water-breathing superhumans led by Namor, with the CIA believing Wakanda to be responsible. Namor confronts Ramonda and Shuri, easily bypassing Wakanda's advanced security. Blaming Wakanda for the vibranium race, he gives them an ultimatum: deliver him the scientist responsible for the vibranium-detecting machine, or he will attack Wakanda.

Shuri and Okoye learn from CIA agent Everett K. Ross that the scientist in question is MIT student Riri Williams and arrive at the university to confront her. The group is pursued by the FBI and then by Namor's warriors, who defeat Okoye before taking Shuri and Williams underwater to meet Namor. Angered by the failure of Okoye to protect Shuri, Ramonda strips her of her title as general of the Dora Milaje and seeks out Nakia, who has been living in Haiti since Thanos' attack on Wakanda.^{[N 2]} Namor shows Shuri his vibranium-rich underwater kingdom of Talokan, which he has protected for centuries from discovery by the world. Bitter at the surface world for enslaving the Maya, Namor proposes an alliance with Wakanda against the rest of the world but threatens to destroy Wakanda first if they refuse. Nakia helps Shuri and Williams escape, and Namor retaliates with an attack against Wakanda, during which Ramonda drowns saving Williams. Namor vows to return in a week with his full army, and the citizens of Wakanda relocate to the Jabari mountains for their safety. Meanwhile, Ross is arrested by his ex-wife and CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, for secretly exchanging classified intelligence with the Wakandans.

After the funeral of Ramonda, Shuri uses a remnant of the herb that gave Namor's people their superhuman abilities to reconstruct the heart-shaped herb. She ingests it, gaining superhuman abilities and meeting N'Jadaka in the Ancestral Plane, who urges her to seek revenge. Shuri dons a new Black Panther suit and is accepted by the other Wakandan tribes as the Black Panther. Despite M'Baku's urges for peace, Shuri is determined to exact vengeance on Namor for Ramonda's death and orders an immediate counterattack on Talokan. Preparing for battle, with Ayo assuming the position of general of the Dora Milaje, Shuri bestows the Midnight Angel armor upon Okoye, who in turn recruits Dora Milaje member Aneka to join her. Williams creates an Iron Man-esque powered exoskeleton to aid the Wakandans.

Using a seafaring vessel, the Wakandans lure Namor and his warriors to the surface as a battle ensues. Shuri traps Namor in a fighter aircraft, intending to dry him out and weaken him. The pair crashes on a desert beach and fight. Shuri gains the upper hand, but realizes the similarities between their paths and implores Namor to yield, offering him a peaceful alliance. Namor accepts, and the battle ends. Namor's cousin, Namora, is upset at Namor's surrender, but Namor reassures her that their new alliance will allow them to conquer the surface world one day. Williams returns to MIT, leaving her suit behind, while Okoye rescues Ross from captivity. Shuri plants more heart-shaped herbs to ensure the future of the Black Panther mantle. In Shuri's absence, M'Baku steps forward to challenge for the throne. Shuri visits Nakia in Haiti where she burns her funeral ceremonial robe in accordance with Ramonda's wishes, allowing herself to finally grieve T'Challa.

In a mid-credits scene, Shuri learns that Nakia and T'Challa had a son named Toussaint, who Nakia has been raising in secret far from the pressure of the throne. Toussaint reveals his Wakandan name is T'Challa.

 from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Worry_Darling

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

In America during an unspecified time period, Alice and Jack Chambers live in an idyllic 1950s-styled neighborhood of the company town of Victory, California. Every day, the men go to work at Victory Headquarters out in the surrounding desert while their wives (among them Bunny and Margaret) stay home to clean, relax, and prepare dinner for their husbands. The women are discouraged from asking questions about their husbands' work and told not to venture out to Headquarters. Margaret has become an outcast after taking her son out into the desert, resulting in her son's apparent death, although she claims that Victory took him from her as punishment. While attending a party hosted by Frank, Victory's enigmatic founder and leader, Alice sees Margaret's husband attempt to give her medication after an outburst at the party. Later, she sees Frank looking in on her and Jack while she is fingered in Frank's bedroom.

One morning while riding the trolley across town, Alice witnesses a plane crash out in the desert. She rushes to help and stumbles onto Headquarters, a small building covered in mirror-like windows. After touching one, she experiences surreal hallucinations before waking up back home later that night. In the following days, she experiences increasingly strange occurrences. She receives a phone call from Margaret, who claims to have seen the same thing Alice did. After rebuffing her, Alice sees Margaret slit her own throat and fall from the roof of her house. Before she can reach Margaret's body, Alice is dragged away by men in red jumpsuits.

Jack dismisses Alice's claims and says Margaret simply fell while cleaning the windows and is recovering. This story is further corroborated by the town physician, Dr. Collins, who attempts to give Alice prescription drugs. Alice becomes increasingly paranoid and confused, and during a special Victory event where Frank gives Jack a special promotion, she breaks down in the bathroom and is comforted by Bunny. Alice attempts to explain everything to her, but Bunny reacts angrily, accusing Alice of being selfish.

Some time later, Alice and Jack invite the rest of the neighborhood (except Bunny and her husband Dean) to dinner, with Frank and his wife Shelley as special guests. Frank speaks privately with Alice in the kitchen, insinuating that she is right in her suspicions. Spurred by his confession, she attempts to expose him over dinner; instead, Frank gaslights her, making her look delusional to the other guests. In the aftermath, Alice begs Jack to take them both away from Victory. Jack initially agrees, but when Alice gets in the car, he lets her be taken away by the men in red jumpsuits. Dr. Collins forces Alice to undergo electroshock therapy. During the procedure, she sees visions of herself in another life, as a present-day surgeon named Alice Warren who lives with the unemployed Jack and struggles to make ends meet.

Alice returns to Victory and reunites with Jack, but continues to have hallucinations and flash-backs. She later remembers the whole truth: that Victory is a simulated world created by Frank, and that Jack has forced her into the simulation in the hope that they can lead a perfect life together. When Jack realizes she knows the truth, he claims he did this for her as she was miserable in her real life, but Alice is enraged that Jack took away her autonomy. Jack hugs Alice, begging her to forgive him, then attempts to strangle her, forcing Alice to kill him with a glass tumbler.

Frank is alerted to Jack's death and sends his men to capture Alice. Bunny finds Alice and explains how she has always known that Victory was a simulation, but chooses to stay so she can be with her children who died in real life. She tells Alice to flee to Headquarters, which is an exit portal from the simulation. The other wives begin to realize the truth as their husbands start to panic. Alice drives Jack's car toward Headquarters, chased by Dr. Collins and Frank's men, who eventually crash into each other. At their house, Shelley, wanting to regain her own control, stabs Frank to death. Alice makes it to Headquarters, where she encounters a vision of Jack asking her to stay. Alice ignores the vision and rushes to the window as Frank's men reach her. After the screen goes black, Alice is heard gasping for air.

Inside Man S1

Inside Man

from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/26/inside-man-review-stanley-tucci-goes-full-hannibal-lecter-in-rollicking-death-row-drama

Inside Man review – Stanley Tucci goes full Hannibal Lecter in rollicking death row drama

Lucy Mangan
@LucyMangan

Mon 26 Sep 2022 17.00 EDT





A great man/awful character … Stanley Tucci as Jefferson Grieff in Inside Man. Photograph: Paul Stephenson/BBC/Hartswood/Kevin Baker

Tucci is a smug prisoner; David Tennant is a sweet vicar with a secret. Their tales come together confidently in this funny and typically meaty mystery from Steven Moffat

Iwonder how Anthony Hopkins feels about being a serial killer, not just for an age but, the way things are shaping up, for all time? It is 31 years since he gave us his Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs – since he sucked his teeth and looked down the lens straight into our livers and spoke in the light, Larry Hagmanish drawl that made everything he said 300 times more gruesome. He remains the nonpareil and it is hard to come out from under his boiler-suited shadow.

In the new Steven Moffat drama Inside Man (BBC One), Stanley Tucci is burdened by many parallels with the great man/awful character. He plays Jefferson Grieff, a softly spoken, highly intelligent prisoner, on death row for murdering his wife. People come to him for insight into their stalled cases and he enjoys toying with them until he deigns to provide his unsettled visitors with solutions to their problems. The latter are deduced in a manner that can only be described with reference to another great man/awful character, Sherlock Holmes, whom Moffat himself resurrected in a way that will probably prove as hard to beat for the next few generations. Tucci works hard to make him his own man, but it is elsewhere that the real innovation lies.

Grieff’s story at first runs alongside an apparently unrelated narrative unfolding in an English village, around sweet vicar Harry (David Tennant) and a – pivotally – unsweet maths tutor Janice (Dolly Wells). We meet her seeing off a young, drunk man (that unmistakable blend of creepiness and aggression perfectly captured by Harry Cadby) who is intimidating young journalist Beth Davenport (Lydia West) and other women on a tube carriage. This core of steel, and possibly this journalist, are going to make Harry’s life very difficult soon.

Vicar Harry is given a flash drive by his troubled young verger Edgar (Mark Quartley) that turns out to contain child sexual abuse images. An unlucky chain of events means Janice sees it, and believes it belongs to Harry’s son Ben (Louis Oliver). He is an incredibly unrewarding teenager, but Harry loves him and tries to convince Janice that she is mistaken, without betraying Edgar. This is a weak point in the tale. I suspect a lot of people were screaming, like me, at the television: “Betray the paedophile!” But we all understand how fiction works, so a little more effort to suspend disbelief is applied and on we go.

A struggle between Harry and Janice ensues and she ends up unconscious in the cellar. Harry locks the door behind him. And the show becomes a twisting interrogation of Grieff’s assertion that we are all murderers – we just haven’t met the right person yet.

When Beth visits the prison to interview Grieff for a piece, and then ask his advice about the missing Janice, the weaving together of the stories begins. Only the first two of the four episodes were provided for review but the mystery is clearly going to deepen.

Inside Man is typical Moffat fare. Rollickingly confident, meaty, funny, clever (if not quite as clever, on a line by line basis, as it appears). Wells – cast here after her tremendous turn in Moffat’s last project, the glorious Dracula, and hopefully now a permanent member of his rep company – is brilliant as Janice. The ineffable oddity and unremitting moral authority she brings to the trapped woman gives the whole thing an anything-could-happen air that shifts you anxiously to the edge of your seat, even though nothing truly terrible has occurred. Tennant is in non-frantic, non-spitty mode – which is a relief. Tucci sells his slightly smug, slightly portentous section of the script well, and some fine comic relief is provided in the form of his sidekick, Dillon (Atkins Estimond), a serial killer (“I went to a therapist – I really opened up! She left the profession”) from the next cell. Think Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Doug Judy with a murderous edge. If you aren’t a Moffat fan, watch it for Dillon alone. If you don’t get sucked into the rest of the romp, I would be surprised, but I’d like to think you had this joy at least.

The Watcher S1

The Watcher

from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/14/the-watcher-review-ryan-murphy-serves-up-a-seven-hour-whodunnit-about-a-typewriter

The Watcher review – Ryan Murphy serves up a seven-hour whodunnit about a typewriter

Stuart Heritage
@stuheritage

Fri 14 Oct 2022 10.52 EDT

At this stage in his career, Ryan Murphy finds himself with two cruising speeds: real life stories (Feud, Halston, American Crime Story, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) and horror (Ratched, American Horror Story). So you can imagine the absolute joy he must have felt when he first read Reeves Wiedeman’s 2018 New York Magazine article entitled The Watcher.

The article told the story of the Broaddus family who, upon buying the home of their dreams in Westfield, New Jersey, found themselves plagued by sinister letters from an unknown correspondent (called, you guessed it, The Watcher) who informed the family that their every move was being monitored. The letters, full of deliberately unsettling passages (“I am in charge of 657 Boulevard. It is not in charge of me. I will fend off its bad things and wait for it to become good again. It will not punish me. I will rise again”) seemed to be an attempt to spook the family into leaving the area.

Which, you have to admit, is an automatic Murphy slam-dunk. A real life story that reads like an overbaked horror novel? He must have been waiting for this his entire life. Forget that the story had already been made into a movie – 2016’s Lifetime film The Watcher (“Overall not a bad movie to kill time on a Sunday afternoon”, reads a typical Rotten Tomatoes user review) – this had Murphy written all over it. Imagine if Anna Delvey dabbled in cannibalism, or the people from WeCrashed were secretly werewolves. That’s the level of synergy we’re talking about here.

As you might expect, the new Netflix series The Watcher is a powerfully Murphyish watch. He co-created the show, co-wrote all the episodes bar one and also had time to direct a couple. If you like his shows, you will love this. If you don’t? Hey, at least it’s better than that godawful Jeffrey Dahmer thing.

Personally, I’d rank this somewhere in the upper-mid range of his work. There’s a sly sense throughout that Murphy and his collaborators know how silly the source material is. While never fully descending into parody, there are moments that (I hope intentionally) border on Mel Brooks.

This is the sort of show that really wants you to know that anyone could be behind the terrifying letter-writing campaign; something it achieves by turning the peripheral cast into a parade of goonish caricatures. Weird, identically dressed neighbours? Check. A pair of local historians who look like the American Gothic subjects after decades of surgical negligence? Check.

It is also jarring that the Broaddus’ home is in no way an attractive property. From the outside it looks like Tony Soprano’s McMansion, and the inside is riddled with secret rooms, hidden tunnels, pianos that appear to play themselves and something that can only really be described as Chekhov’s Dumb Waiter. Any sensible family would spend less than a microsecond there before getting the willies and running away.

At the very least, the cast is absolutely berserk. Here, the Broaddus family consists of Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts and their photogenic young children. The neighbours are played by Margot Martindale, Richard Kind and Mia Farrow. Noma Dumezweni is a private investigator. Jennifer Coolidge is an estate agent. And, without fail, they all get a chance to do the exact thing they are best at. Farrow is haunted and creepy, Watts is brittle and paranoid, Coolidge seems as if she walked on set having accidentally prepared for a completely different series to everyone else. More than anything, it is this cast that holds The Watcher together.

In truth, though, you can see why Lifetime jumped on the story first. Strip away the phenomenal acting talent, and some of the more outre decisions to liven up the source material, and what is left is a seven-hour whodunnit about a typewriter. It is Cannavale going batshit about envelopes for almost an entire working day. The Watcher is a world away from the daring, groundbreaking originals that Netflix used to seemingly conjure up from thin air. At times, it has the unfortunate air of an ITV drama that plays unwatched on a television above a budget gym treadmill.

I have no doubt that it is going to be huge, because that’s why Murphy is paid the big bucks, but there’s so little to it. I’d be staggered if anyone can remember a single thing about it come Christmas.