'Alien' among us 👾
That was the tagline of the original 1979 sci-fi classic "Alien." More than 45 years later, you're going to hear all the screaming because the long-running franchise is back in a whole new way – and on our home planet – in the new TV series "Alien: Earth." Even if Facehuggers and Chestbusters freak you out, that's a definite recommendation for this weekend, as is the new Spike Lee flick "Highest 2 Lowest," the iconic director's fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington and a remake of Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low." And we got any Losties in the Watch Party crew? Daniel Kae Kim is back in a Prime Video spy show.
Now on to the good stuff:
See a new take on an old fave with the sci-fi series 'Alien: Earth'
The "Alien" franchise has gone a lot of different directions in five decades – not all of then stellar. Last year's movie "Alien: Romulus" went back to the roots of the OG films, and Noah Hawley's outstanding TV show "Alien: Earth" also does wonders with the series by taking the action from space to Earth with a crash-landed spacecraft (carrying nothing exactly pleasant) and corporations competing to unlock immortality. In her ★★★½ review, TV critic Kelly Lawler writes that the show harks back to the halcyon days of Ridley Scott's first movie with "eight episodes of terror, both comfortingly familiar and disturbingly novel."
There is an interesting timeliness to "Alien: Earth," too: While the iconic "Alien" Xenomorph does show up, the series also explores powerful tech companies vying for dominance. "The show is about humanity being trapped between its monster past when we all were just food and its AI future, and in both cases, something's out to kill us," Hawley tells my bud Marco della Cava in a discussion of the drama's modern themes.
Celebrate Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's reunion for 'Highest 2 Lowest'
When Spike Lee and Denzel Washington get together, they don't miss. "He Got Game"? Best basketball movie ever. Washington snagged an Oscar nod for the great "Malcolm X." "Inside Man" was a standout heist thriller. "Mo' Better Blues" is a cool jazz flick. And their latest collab "Highest 2 Lowest" − which stars Denzel Washington as a music mogul with a moral dilemma – reunites them as older but wiser artists for a love letter to New York City, music and sports that proves each still has a lot of game. (Peep my ★★★ review.)
If you're wanting to stick closer to home for new movies, there's a bunch hitting streaming services this week, including Netflix thriller "Night Always Comes" and "The Legend of Ochi." Plus: "Superman" is out in digital release now and that's a super-fun time.
Stream Daniel Dae Kim's Amazon espionage show 'Butterfly'
"Lost" fan favorite Daniel Dae Kim has a pretty exciting 2025, being named to Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world and earning a Tony Award nomination for his role in the revival of "Yellow Face." But even though he's busy, Kim stopped by our New York City studio to chat with my man Ralphie Aversa about his new Prime Video espionage thriller "Butterfly." Kim plays a former U.S. intelligence agent living in South Korea when an enemy agent tries to kill him and has to confront his past to save his family. The opening of the show features Kim belting out The Killers' "Mr. Brightside," but in real life, the actor doesn't go near a karaoke mike. "I do love 'Mr. Brightside,' " he jokes. "It doesn't matter who starts it − everyone finishes it, and that to me is a sign of a good karaoke song."
In addition to "Butterfly" and the aforementioned "Alien" show, the Kansas City Chief docuseries "The Kingdom" and a "Snoopy" musical make Kelly's roundup of streaming TV premieres this week.
Even more goodness to check out!
Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email btruitt@usatoday.com and follow me on the socials: I'm @briantruitt on Bluesky, Instagram and Threads.
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Los Angeles Times
31 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Platonic' bosses keep the friend zone unhinged with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, plus streaming recs
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who struggles with setting boundaries in any type of relationship. That sound you hear is the lingering sigh of relief — or is it sadness? Confusion? The frustration over what could have been? — as 'And Just Like That' completed its last sprint in heels this week. The 'Sex and the City' sequel concluded its three-season run with a Thanksgiving from hell and an epilogue for Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, Lisa and Seema that will surely generate plenty of TikTok analysis to occupy us all weekend. The decision to end the series was surprising, sure, but hardly shocking — even if it still feels like a fever dream that's not quite over. Our crew of dedicated watchers unpacked some of what they're feeling — grab a slice of pie, pull up a chair and join the attempt to process it all. It's a safe place. But don't fret, there are some other peeps you can add to your friend group to help ease the loss. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen prove that men and women can be strictly (incredibly co-dependent) friends in Apple TV+'s 'Platonic.' The comedy returned earlier this month for its second season, and creators Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller dropped by Guest Spot to discuss the challenges of making opposite-sex friendship more compelling than a romance, plus the story behind the perfectly pathetic pet name they have Rogen's character saying all season. Also in this week's Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a crime drama that sees a 'Clueless' star enter her sleuth era? That's right, TV critic Robert Lloyd tells you about a new Acorn series that stars Alicia Silverstone as an L.A. divorce lawyer who hightails it to Ireland after receiving a mysterious message from her estranged father. 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Hollywood takes a wrecking ball to Los Angeles: Filmmakers seem to take a special pleasure in depicting an apocalyptic future for Los Angeles — how come? Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times 'Irish Blood' (Acorn) Alicia Silverstone stars as Fiona Murphy, an American divorce lawyer — no husband for her! — whose unsuspected past comes calling in form of a photograph mailed from Ireland, showing a picture of a locker with a phone number written on the backside. Not being me, she calls it right away and so begins a dark treasure hunt that brings her to Wicklow, Ireland, where she discovers the father (Jason O'Mara in flashbacks) who left on her 10th birthday was living, and is now dead, under possibly suspicious circumstances. She also discovers a briefcase full of clues; family she didn't know she had; an inherited house; potential romance with the local owner of a boxing gym (Leonardo Taiwo); and a quirky policewoman (Ruth Codd), excited to help when Fiona is mysteriously attacked. As in many, or most, stories in which a city person travels to the country — 'I Know Where I'm Going' or 'Local Hero,' just to be Celtic about it — Fiona will experience a feeling of renewal, notwithstanding the threat of death. The mystery keeps you guessing, the characters are appealing, and Silverstone gives a lovely, lived-in performance. — Robert Lloyd 'Fisk' (Netflix, Season 3 premieres Wednesday) I can't say I was looking for a comedy that revolved around Australian probate law, but one found me and now I'm hooked. Co-created by and starring Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan, 'Fisk' is an old-fashioned workplace/fish-out-of-water comedy that follows recently divorced Helen Tudor-Fisk (Flanagan), who has fled the shining lights of Sydney for the more sedate Melbourne where her father, a retired Supreme Court justice, lives. And she needs a job. After a disastrous interview with a legal recruitment firm — Fisk only wears brown, has no references and 'is not a people person' — she lands at Gruber & Gruber, a small firm dealing mostly with wills. Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold), an easily distracted schlub, is thrilled to hire the daughter of a Supreme Court justice; his sister Roz (Julia Zemiro), a woman so tightly wound she controls the key to the firm's one restroom, is not. But Roz has been suspended; hence the need for Helen. Misanthropic and quietly contentious, Helen has little patience for client hand-holding, social niceties and, well, patience; but, as time inevitably tells, she is a good lawyer and her heart is not nearly as hard as she wants everyone to believe it is. With a revolving cast of clients, and the requisite Gen Z assistant (here played to great effect by Aaron Chen), 'Fisk' is a deceptively small show — 'The Office' seems hectic and flashy by comparison — but it deftly mines the mundane and often quiet absurdities of life to laugh-out-loud effect. Flanagan, too, plays it close to the vest (or in this case, an over-large brown suit), making Helen the queen of the raised eyebrow and muttered aside. She is neither savior nor saint — many of her problems are of her own making — but anyone who has ever wondered why ordering a smoothie, or renting an Airbnb, or having a straight-forward conversation about just about anything has to be so complicated these days will find a 'but that makes no sense' advocate in 'Fisk.' — Mary McNamara A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching In 'Platonic,' the only will-they/won't-they tension is about whether two longtime friends with co-dependency issues can avoid a breakup of their friendship. The Apple TV+ series stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as formerly estranged besties who, in the first season, rekindled their friendship at pivotal junctures in their lives — Sylvia (Byrne) is a married mother of three children who feels unfulfilled, while Will (Rogen) is a middle-aged hipster and brewer going through a divorce — and help each other in their quest to get back on track. The series returned earlier this month with Will experiencing cold feet at the prospect of marrying his fiancée (and boss), while Sylvia, who is helping to plan the ceremony, gets caught in the crosshairs just as she must contend with developing sore spots in her own marriage. Creators Delbanco and Stoller stopped by Guest Spot to discuss how platonic friendships can be love stories, too, and the story behind this season's embarrassing pet name. What is the challenge in depicting a platonic friendship between people of the opposite sex when viewers enjoy character shipping? How do you make 'just friends' something to root for? Stoller: It's definitely a challenge to break story as almost all TV show plots involve either sex or murder. But the funniest comedies explore human relationships honestly. Our artistic project with 'Platonic' is to delve into the complications and rewards of male-female friendships. We think anyone who's ever had this kind of friendship will find the show relatable. While 'Platonic' is a hang-out show, we also are invested in the show having a strong story drive. We think we have figured out series arcs for our characters that go deep on midlife and hopefully will make you laugh out loud. Delbanco: In a way, platonic friendships are love stories too — not exactly the same kind of love stories, of course, but they do have certain similar preoccupations: Can we survive our disagreements? Are we ultimately good for each other or not? Is our relationship going to last through all of the phases of our lives as we change and grow? Ultimately, we're hoping we can make viewers feel the same degree of investment in 'will they make it' as friends that we're all accustomed to feeling in rom-coms. It's definitely a creative challenge, but we all know how important friendships are to our overall emotional health, so it stands to reason that they deserve some exploration onscreen too. This season provides an opportunity to explore the intimidation factor of a new significant other experiencing the Sylvia-Will dynamic. How did that make you think about Will's fiancée, Jenna [Rachel Rosenbloom]? Stoller: We originally conceived of 'Platonic' as an anthology series where we were going to explore a different platonic friendship each season. While shooting the first season, we had such a great time making it that we asked Seth and Rose if they wanted to do more of the show together, and luckily for us they said yes. The Jenna character had been created to give Will a happy ending. We knew that to make more episodes of the show we would have to give Will a new conflict. We knew that Sylvia needed to understand Will in a way Jenna just didn't. But we also wanted Jenna to be a legitimate partner for Will. So in the Season 2 writers' room, we reconceived Jenna to just be operating at a slightly different wavelength than both Will and Sylvia. We worked with Rachel Rosenbloom, who plays Jenna and is super funny, to figure out a character that was just a little out of step with both Will and Sylvia. Delbanco: We really wanted to write Jenna as a human, relatable character rather than a one-dimensional 'lame girlfriend' type of comedy villain, because at its core, the insecurity that Jenna feels about Sylvia is a feeling most of us have had before: Who is this woman my boyfriend/fiancé/husband spends so much time with, and how can I be sure he isn't actually in love with her? Likewise, we didn't want Jenna to be someone Sylvia could easily dismiss: In many ways she's good for Will, and intimidating in her own right. There have been so many amazing comedies about introducing a significant other to your parents, and your family, but there's a lot of great dramatic tension to mine when new love interests collide with old friends. What is the backstory with the 'penguini' pet name? What were other iterations before you landed on that one? Stoller: We just tried to think of the most embarrassing thing that Will would have to say in front of Sylvia. And so 'penguini' was born. Hilariously, one of our locations where we shot this season turned out to be right next to a restaurant called Caffe Pinguini. Delbanco: It made us laugh so hard to imagine Seth having to use a private baby-talk, lovey-dovey voice — it just doesn't suit his character, and it's so mortifying to be overheard in that mode. It felt like a strong way to announce that something new was going on with him this season. What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know? Stoller: I just watched the Billy Joel documentary ['Billy Joel: And So It Goes,' HBO Max]. I've always been a fan of his, but the documentary uncovers a lot of pain and history I was unaware of. It made me revisit his music and understand it in a whole new light. I also just saw the film 'Sorry, Baby' [VOD], which is hilarious, beautifully-shot, moving and even, at times, slightly scary. Delbanco: I recently finished the second season of 'Wolf Hall' [ and I can't stop thinking about it — I loved the novels and was floored that they were adapted for the screen with such incredible depth and power. The finale is still haunting me even though I watched it weeks ago. Main takeaway: I am so freaking glad I wasn't born during the reign of Henry VIII. What's your go-to 'comfort watch,' the movie or TV show you go back to again and again? Stoller: I watch 'Rushmore' [Hulu, Disney+], 'When Harry Met Sally' [VOD] and 'The Shining' [VOD] once a year. The endings of both 'Rushmore' and 'When Harry Met Sally' never fail to make me cry. Every time I watch 'Rushmore,' I notice a new detail. And 'The Shining' casts a hypnotic spell that makes me want to revisit the Overlook [Hotel] again and again. Delbanco: I guess we're an early Wes Anderson household, because 'The Royal Tenenbaums' [Hulu, Disney+] is the movie I see on repeat when I close my eyes. It makes me laugh and also cry in all the right ways, and I love its desultory, romantic mood. I don't think any scene has ever worked for me as well as Gwyneth Paltrow's walk towards Luke Wilson when she gets off the bus. The bus station! Her fur coat! Nico! What could ever top it?
Los Angeles Times
31 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Dan Ziskie, actor known for TV series ‘House of Cards' and ‘Treme,' dies at 80
Dan Ziskie, the veteran TV actor best known for his work on the Netflix political drama series 'House of Cards' and HBO's 'Treme,' has died. He was 80. Ziskie died July 21 in New York, his family announced in an obituary for the actor published on Though his life 'was cut short by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,' Ziskie's family said in the obituary, his legacy will live on. 'His was a life lived with passion, a life that exemplified the beauty of pursuing one's dreams and the importance of cherishing every moment,' the family said. 'Dan will be profoundly missed, yet he will forever remain in the hearts of those who knew him, like a cherished character in the timeless narrative of their lives.' 'House of Cards,' which premiered on Netflix in 2013 as the first scripted drama produced for the streaming giant, starred Ziskie as Vice President Jim Matthews. He appeared in six episodes from 2013 to 2017, acting alongside stars including Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Michael Kelly. 'House of Cards' won several Primetime Emmys and secured dozens of nominations. Ziskie also notably appeared in HBO's drama 'Treme,' as New Orleans banker and reconstruction financier C.J. Liguori. The series aired from 2010 to 2013 and featured an ensemble cast of Khandi Alexander, Rob Brown, Kim Dickens, Melissa Leo, Lucia Micarelli, Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Jon Seda and Steve Zahn. Ziskie also had minor roles in 'The Equalizer,' 'Newhart,' 'L.A. Law,' 'Quantum Leap,' 'ER' and 'Law & Order: SVU,' among other series. His final credit was a role in the miniseries 'The Bite' in 2021 and he was set to appear in the film 'Very Close Quarters,' according to IMDb. Daniel A. Ziskie was born Aug. 13, 1944, in Detroit and had a knack for athletics, pursuing track and football in his high school days. Ziskie studied at the University of Michigan, where he excelled in track and field and struck up an interest in performing arts. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in English, he took on a variety of jobs including as a crewman on a Great Lakes freighter before finding an outlet for his talents at improv hub Second City in Chicago. He began his screen career in the 1980s, landing a steady stream of acting jobs until the 2020s. Beyond television, Ziskie also appeared in stage productions including 'After the Fall' and 'I'm Not Rappaport,' and the films 'Adventures in Babysitting,' 'Eight Below' and 'War of the Worlds,' among others. Ziskie's family remembered him as a 'gifted' photographer who shared his work in the photo book 'Cloud Chamber.' He was also a travel enthusiast and took an interest in 'complex' topics including the cosmos and quantum physics. 'Dan's legacy extends beyond his family, as his colleagues and friends will remember him as a creative, thoughtful, and interesting man whose presence enriched their lives,' the family said. Ziskie is survived by his brother David, wife Cynthia, nephews Jesse, Brett and Austin and their six children, the obituary said.
Elle
an hour ago
- Elle
Denzel Washington and Spike Lee Reunite for ‘Highest 2 Lowest'—Here's How to Watch
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the fifth time in Highest 2 Lowest, a modern reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's revered 1963 thriller High and Low. Set in present-day New York, Lee casts Washington as David King, a music mogul pulled into a high-stakes ransom plot. Today's theatrical release arrives after the film premiered at Cannes Film Festival, where it earned a six-minute standing ovation (and a rare Rihanna red carpet appearance). This marks Washington and Lee's first film together since 2006's Inside Man, a collaboration Washington says was built on deep mutual trust. 'There was only one person to do this. And I'm sitting next to him,' the actor recently told Vanity Fair. Lee approached the project as 'a jazz reinterpretation of a great film,' adding, 'I knew if I was to do this, it had to be a reimagining. And it was right up my alley—a big, fat, juicy one coming down the middle of the plate. And I feel like I knocked it out.' Washington sees the project as long overdue in his career. 'In [most of] the time I've been an actor, I wouldn't even have been allowed to play a part like this. No white directors were hiring us, and no studios were hiring us,' he told Vanity Fair. 'That's why I called Spike. I trust Spike, and he trusts me.' Lee hopes audiences catch the film on the biggest screen possible. 'No matter how big that TV on the wall in your home is, see it in theaters first,' he says. Washington added, 'In the theaters, in the theaters, in the theaters. I'll keep saying August 15.' Not yet, but soon. After debuting in theaters today, the film will land on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, 2025, just 19 days later. Until then, you'll need to catch it during its theatrical run. Take it from Lee—it's worth seeing on the big screen. GET TICKETS
