Month: January 2025

Following the November election, I expressed that it was premature to make predictions about Trump’s impact on the entertainment industry and instead posed some open-ended questions regarding the upcoming four years. Ten weeks later, I still find it questionable to attempt predicting Hollywood’s future under Trump. Yet, as a paid journalist who shares opinions, I acknowledge that “Trump’s Second Act” will likely provide an abundance of topics for public outrage. As I prefer to save my indignation for the cancellation of promising TV shows, I find it prudent to start preparing now. Thus, after a period filled with excessive flattery, media accommodation, and an overwhelming amount of foolishness, I’ve chosen to share these four bold (or apprehensive?) predictions for the next four years. To echo the wise words of Dan Rather, “Courage.

Once a week, we’ll delve into the intricate plotlines of one of television’s most puzzling series, focusing on the strangest, most perplexing, and crucial unanswered questions following each episode. Expect a mix of theories, some of which may seem quite far-fetched.

In the TV series Severance, when you accept a job at the enigmatic corporation Lumon, your workweek begins in an impersonal, eerily familiar office setting each morning. As Jeremy Hindle, the production designer, explains, the employees are called “Innies” and have no recollection of their lives beyond work (the reverse is true for their “Outies”). He describes this windowless office as akin to a playground, given that the Innies are essentially two-year-olds in a sense. Hindle notes that the managers effectively nurture them within this workplace environment. The visual design of Severance maintains the feeling of “office as haunted playground,” incorporating influences from mid-century American office design by architects such as Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, along with accessories that appear to transcend time. This creates a puzzling yet amusing steel-hued work environment that perplexes the characters while subtly acknowledging the audience.

In the initial version of “The Wolf Man”, we are introduced to Larry Talbot (portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr.). He’s back in his Welsh family home and dismisses the local folklore about werewolves, until he gets bitten. Despite his character dying in most sequels, Chaney appeared in four of them. These films, such as “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man”, “House of Frankenstein”, “House of Dracula”, and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”, were a series of movies where the Wolf Man faced off against other Universal Monsters. After this series concluded, there was no more focus on Talbot for over 60 years, until the 2010 remake titled “The Wolfman” featuring Benicio del Toro. Now, Universal is rebooting the franchise with Leigh Whannell’s “Wolf Man”, a modern take that omits the definite article from the title. The werewolf portrayed by Christopher Abbott isn’t Larry Talbot, but he’s still a monster of the Universal Studios family.

According to the Barešes’ email, here’s an interesting fact about rats: They are quite intelligent and sociable creatures. However, when you gather too many of them in one space, they seem to lose their intelligence amidst the crowd’s anonymity, making it challenging to coordinate and motivate them effectively.

The film “Grand Theft Hamlet” by Crane and Grylls, produced during the pandemic years, seems now, in the chaotic early 2025, more like a lament for the internet. Though the internet continues to exist, along with the online multiplayer version of Rockstar Games’ popular franchise where “Grand Theft Hamlet” was filmed, it’s clear that its heyday is waning, especially as major platforms struggle under the control of self-centered owners and apathetic executives.

In the social media era, the internet has been both an escape from reality and a reflection of it, creating tension within our collective consciousness. Yet, it’s also provided joy and unanticipated connections, themes beautifully portrayed in this captivating documentary. With limited alternatives, directors Crane and Oosterveen have spent extended periods in the game’s fictionalized Los Angeles, bantering with friends while engaging in virtual gunfights. During one of these sessions, they discover a replica of the Hollywood Bowl in the game, and ponder if it could be used to stage a production. Perhaps Shakespeare? People play “GTA” for its violence, but that’s something the Bard was also fond of.