Minority Mindset

Dan Shotz said that ‘Black Sails’ was a passion project for him and John, filmed over four seasons in South Africa. While he experienced some stress after working on it, he was eager to tackle ‘Sea of Monsters.’ Fortunately, the same talented visual effects team from ‘Black Sails’ was available, which gave him confidence they could deliver another high-quality production. He jumped back into the project, ready for the challenge.

The impressive number of viewers who watched Bright on Netflix showed that the company didn’t need to release movies in theaters to create a big hit. However, Bright never turned into a full-fledged series – except for a little-known anime adaptation – and Netflix has struggled to build successful, original movie franchises since then.

Beyond the action, Michael Mann’s films often explore surprisingly deep and emotional themes, with his complex characters questioning their purpose. While the shootout in Heat is his most famous scene, all of his movies have something worthwhile to offer—even his unusual horror film, The Keep, is enjoyable.

The new crime drama premiered on Paramount+ on December 9th. Within a day, it became the most popular show on the platform in both Canada and the United States, according to data from Flixpatrol. It also ranked seventh and tenth in Australia and Brazil, respectively, on Prime Video’s top 10 list.

The current and upcoming seasons (27 and 28) of South Park will each have five episodes. While creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker recently signed a deal with Paramount for 50 new episodes over five years, it now appears these will be spread across ten shorter seasons instead of the originally anticipated five longer ones. Regardless of the schedule, reports indicate Stone and Parker received $1.5 billion for the episodes. The show’s recent storyline – involving a romance between Trump and Satan, their offspring, and an affair with Vice-President J.D. Vance – has led to its highest ratings in 25 years. You can watch the season finale on Comedy Central at 10 p.m., or starting December 11th on Paramount+.

According to Sony, their ranking included a look back at the platform’s history. It originally launched in 2010 and was available in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe. Sony later closed the Western stores in 2014, moving users to Kobo. The service continued to operate in Japan, where it has been tracking digital manga sales for 15 years.

While these moments of classic rom-com brilliance appear, they also highlight why the genre faded in popularity. Recent successful romantic comedies, such as Crazy Rich Asians – often considered one of the best ever – succeed by taking the familiar rom-com formula and refreshing it for today’s viewers, who might find older films feel dated.