The Comedy About Spies at Noel Coward Theatre review: bungling, buffoonish hilarity
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The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
Final Draft review – could you do 3,240 sit-ups then have a lovely old chinwag?
In a giant TV studio somewhere in Japan, a retired baseball player and a former rugby star are 40 minutes into a competition to see who can do the most sit-ups. Lying with their feet hooked to the top of a steep, bright-pink slide that has long since become a river of sweat, they must respond to a buzzer every five seconds by hauling themselves up using just their abs and hitting a button with their foreheads. They've both done that more than 500 times – when someone eventually misses a rep, their feet detach and down they go. If this were Squid Game, the slide would end with a lethal drop. But instead it's Final Draft, a wholesome and emotional Japanese reality contest for ex-sportspeople, so all that's at risk is the right to remain in the competition. As a long sequence of incredibly gruelling elimination showdowns whittles 25 contestants down to the one who will win ¥30m (about £150,000), Squid Game is an influence, but so are Gladiators and Ninja Warrior, as well as modern Netflix sports fests like Physical: 100 and Ultimate Beastmaster. Mature British viewers might think of 1970s BBC stalwart Superstars, the multi-event contest between athletes from different disciplines that briefly threatened to turn parallel bar dips into the UK's national sport. Watching from outside Japan, the barrier to entry is that, unless you're so keen on water polo, kabaddi, American football or ultimate Frisbee that you watch those sports' Japanese domestic leagues, you will have heard of very few of the contestants. Perhaps Japanese viewers won't be that familiar with them either, since the lineup mixes champions with those who never quite made it. So who cares which of these ripped strangers will be the best at running up a mountain or traversing a monkey bar course? The endeavours in Final Draft are long grinds but the contestants are a happy, humble bunch and, watching them in adversity, we get to know and like them. Emerging personalities include gentle-natured bodybuilder Kenta Tsukamoto, and Hozumi Hasegawa, a wise, wiry boxer with three world-title belts. Olympic wrestler Eri Tosaka's determination and cunning makes her the most likely of the female contestants to defy the odds in a contest that has a few too many events based on pure physical strength. The star, though, is retired baseball hitter Yoshio Itoi, who looks less like a sportsman and more like the singer in a revered art-pop band– with his high cheekbones, debonair grin and the sort of floppy hair most 43-year-olds don't have the looks to get away with. Yet he soon proves to be fearsomely strong. Think Bryan Ferry on creatine, or Brett Anderson if he could deadlift a speaker stack. Final Draft needs alluring characters like Itoi-san, because there is a lot of time to fill. The season runs to an endurance-sapping six episodes, or enough time to perform 3,240 sit-ups: the events last for ever, and then in between the epic bouts of grunting and grappling, there's a lot of chat. The post-exertion interviews tend towards the bland, earnest and obvious: 'I was surprised,' people say after something happens that is to some extent unexpected. 'I was happy,' they report when an event goes well. The 10-second skip button is your friend as every eliminated contestant gives more or less the same speech about how much they respect their conquerors. To try to keep us entertained, the show employs every reality-contest trick it can think of, from splitting the gang into two groups with either luxury or basic accommodation, to allowing tearful Zoom calls with proud loved ones back home. Eventually, it all leads us to what the show is really about, which is the quiet tragedy of the sportsperson whose career is over. Having had to stop doing the thing they loved due to age, injury or just not being good enough, none of these people have known what to do with their 30s and 40s, and have ended up running fledgling businesses that provide paltry incomes, or working low-level jobs with bosses who are younger than them. Over dinner, or in the panting aftermath of another painful stamina test, they bond over the sadness of dead dreams and regrets that their glory days weren't greater. That prize money would fund a precious new start. So it does matter whether or not a guy with a sprained ankle can push a giant medicine ball up a slope, and the finale – a three-way tug of war, each labouring to drag themselves to victory, inch by agonising inch – is gripping despite being a much longer scene of grimacing sports personalities trying to pull each other over with ropes than you ever thought you could tolerate. Stick with Final Draft and your hard work is, eventually, rewarded. Final Draft is on Netflix now.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
Final Draft review – could you do 3,240 sit-ups then have a lovely old chinwag?
In a giant TV studio somewhere in Japan, a retired baseball player and a former rugby star are 40 minutes into a competition to see who can do the most sit-ups. Lying with their feet hooked to the top of a steep, bright-pink slide that has long since become a river of sweat, they must respond to a buzzer every five seconds by hauling themselves up using just their abs and hitting a button with their foreheads. They've both done that more than 500 times – when someone eventually misses a rep, their feet detach and down they go. If this were Squid Game, the slide would end with a lethal drop. But instead it's Final Draft, a wholesome and emotional Japanese reality sports contest for ex-sportspeople, so all that's at risk is the right to remain in the competition. As a long sequence of incredibly gruelling elimination showdowns whittles 25 contestants down to the one who will win ¥30m (about £150,000), Squid Game is an influence, but so are Gladiators and Ninja Warrior, as well as modern Netflix sports fests like Physical: 100 and Ultimate Beastmaster. Mature British viewers might think of 1970s BBC stalwart Superstars, the multi-event contest between athletes from different disciplines that briefly threatened to turn parallel bar dips into the UK's national sport. Watching from outside the UK, the barrier to entry here is that, unless you're so keen on water polo, kabaddi, American football or ultimate Frisbee that you watch those sports' Japanese domestic leagues, you will have heard of very few of the contestants. Perhaps Japanese viewers won't be that familiar with them either, since the lineup mixes champions with those who never quite made it. So who cares which of these ripped strangers will be the best at running up a mountain or traversing a monkey bar course? The endeavours in Final Draft are long grinds but the contestants are a happy, humble bunch and, watching them in adversity, we get to know and like them. Emerging personalities include gentle-natured bodybuilder Kenta Tsukamoto, and Hozumi Hasegawa, a wise, wiry boxer with three world-title belts. Olympic wrestler Eri Tosaka's determination and cunning makes her the most likely of the female contestants to defy the odds in a contest that has a few too many events based on pure physical strength. The star, though, is retired baseball hitter Yoshio Itoi, who looks less like a sportsman and more like the singer in a revered art-pop band– with his high cheekbones, debonair grin and the sort of floppy hair most 43-year-olds don't have the looks to get away with. Yet he soon proves to be fearsomely strong. Think Bryan Ferry on creatine, or Brett Anderson if he could deadlift a speaker stack. Final Draft needs alluring characters like Itoi-san, because there is a lot of time to fill. The season runs to an endurance-sapping six episodes, or enough time to perform 3,240 sit-ups: the events last for ever, and then in between the epic bouts of grunting and grappling, there's a lot of chat. The post-exertion interviews tend towards the bland, earnest and obvious: 'I was surprised,' people say after something happens that is to some extent unexpected. 'I was happy,' they report when an event goes well. The 10-second skip button is your friend as every eliminated contestant gives more or less the same speech about how much they respect their conquerors. To try to keep us entertained, the show employs every reality-contest trick it can think of, from splitting the gang into two groups with either luxury or basic accommodation, to allowing tearful Zoom calls with proud loved ones back home. Eventually, it all leads us to what the show is really about, which is the quiet tragedy of the sportsperson whose career is over. Having had to stop doing the thing they loved due to age, injury or just not being good enough, none of these people have known what to do with their 30s and 40s, and have ended up running fledgling businesses that provide paltry incomes, or working low-level jobs with bosses who are younger than them. Over dinner, or in the panting aftermath of another painful stamina test, they bond over the sadness of dead dreams and regrets that their glory days weren't greater. That prize money would fund a precious new start. So it does matter whether or not a guy with a sprained ankle can push a giant medicine ball up a slope, and the finale – a three-way tug of war, each labouring to drag themselves to victory, inch by agonising inch – is gripping despite being a much longer scene of grimacing sports personalities trying to pull each other over with ropes than you ever thought you could tolerate. Stick with Final Draft and your hard work is, eventually, rewarded. Final Draft is on Netflix now.
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Plastic surgeons reveal the work Lindsay Lohan is rumored to have had... and the surprising procedure she's skipped
Lindsay Lohan 's age-defying features turned heads once again as she stepped out onto the red carpet earlier this week. The fountain of youth exemplar, 39, smiled for cameras alongside husband Bader Shammas at the world premiere of Freakier Friday. Plastic surgeons reviewing the latest photos told her look was noticeably more natural than in December, when fans called her 'unrecognizable'. At the time, she was rumored to have had fillers in her lips, fat grafts in her cheeks, skin treatments and even suspected of having had a face lift. But plastic surgeons say these cosmetic touch-ups now appear to be wearing off - though her rumored face lift may be persevering and the reason for her 'taut' face. Dr Elie Levine, a plastic surgeon in New York City, telling 'It might be that some touch-ups are wearing off a bit.' He said: 'If you analyze her aesthetic over the years, there were definitely times when she was overdoing things, potentially. 'But she might now have changed track because, if you try to stay too ahead of the game, you start to look unnatural and unattractive in ways.' He added: 'It certainly is not a bad thing to let things wear off... because if you don't, you run the risk of what has happened to so many celebs.' Dr Levine said it appeared that the fillers and fat grafting into her face were wearing off, saying she did not appear as 'filled' or with as much volume as before. This is normal, with fillers normally only lasting for six months to two years while fat grafts may need a touch-up within a few years. Fillers are among the most common cosmetic touch-ups in the US. About 4.8million injections of the substances were carried out in the country in 2022, estimates suggest, up from the around 2.7million completed in 2017. And many people also opt for fat grafts, with about 34,000 people estimated to receive these procedures every year in the US. Dr Levine added that her skin also was now not as glowing as it was in December, suggesting she may not be treating it as much. He said he could see some evidence of fine lines, and that the area below the eyes appeared to be 'not quite as crisp'. He continued: 'It could be that the temptation was before her previous launch to really get a touch-up to look her best. 'But when one is constantly in the headlines just on looks, but Lindsay is also a talented actress, they might want their looks to take a back seat, so that people remember they are not just a pretty face.' Dr Gaurav Bharti, a plastic surgeon in Charlotte, North Carolina, agreed, adding: 'It may well be the case that things have adjusted and assimilated into her a bit, giving her a still very beautiful but less filled appearance.' Surgeons said it also appeared she was putting her skin through fewer treatments, and said that lines were becoming more visible He also suggested that switches in lighting and the use of make-up could also be contributing to her appearance. Neither surgeon viewed her in person, and instead based their comments on photos of the star from this event and previous occasions. contacted Lohan's representatives for comment ahead of the publication of this article and did not receive a response. Lohan has previously confirmed that she has received Botox, skin lasers and Morpheus8, a non-surgical procedure that pierces the skin with tiny needles to 'rejuvenate' it, but has denied any other procedures. Hitting back against speculation to ELLE, she said in May: 'Everyone does Botox. 'I drink this juice every morning. It's like carrot, ginger, lemon, olive oil, apple. I also drink a lot of green tea, a lot of water. I'm a big pickled beets person, so I put them in almost everything. My skin care is very specific. I'm trying out some serums not that I'm doing — I'm testing them. 'Also, I'm a big believer in ice-cold water on your face when you wake up. I drink lemon juice a lot; I also put tons of chia seeds in my water. Eye patches, I do every morning. I'm into lasers. 'I did Morpheus8 (a non-invasive radiofrequency micro needling treatment) once, and then I realized my skin is so thin that I can't be doing that.' She added: 'My skin changed after having my son. It got really sensitive. That's what really made me change my whole routine and diet and everything. I did blood tests, and I was like, I want to know everything I'm allergic to. So I cut everything out, and that's kind of when everything started to change for me.' During the interview, her publicist also reportedly chimed in and said: 'You know what the problem is with you being beautiful women — the second she looks any different, they assume she had her face lifted at 37 or 38, that she ripped apart this or that. It's so mean.' Plastic surgeons speculated that Lohan had received a face lift after she appeared at the movie premiere in December because of her youthful appearance. It has also previously been suggested that she had an upper eyelid lift to reduce the skin above the eyes, a sign of aging. And it was claimed that she may have had at least one nose job because her nose has changed shape from earlier in her career. Revealing estimates for her surgery at the time, Dr Gary Linkov, a plastic surgeon based in New York City, claimed she may have spent $275,000 on surgery. This includes $50,000 for lip fillers over 19 years, $80,000 for a face lift, and $40,000 for veneers.
