Latest news with #AlexanderSkarsgård
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The best new sci-fi series on Apple TV+ just got renewed for Season 2
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Apple TV+ has officially decided to double down on one of its most acclaimed new original series. Murderbot, the genre-blending sci-fi thriller/comedy (thromedy?) starring Alexander Skarsgård, has been renewed for a second season ahead of the show's Season 1 finale that'll be available to stream starting this Friday, July 11. Based on Martha Wells' bestselling novels, the series has quickly won fans with its blend of cynical humor and unexpected emotional pull. At the heart of the story is a self-aware security android that calls itself 'Murderbot' (a result of its delusions of grandeur) but balances that vibe with its addiction to trashy soap operas. In fact, watching TV is what it would prefer to do all day, rather than keep getting its annoying human protectees out of one jam after another. Today's Top Deals XGIMI Prime Day deals feature the new MoGo 4 and up to 42% off smart projectors Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals But when its latest mission gets complicated, this emotionally conflicted machine is forced to confront what it really wants from the existence it's been given. Skarsgård, who also serves as executive producer, has earned rave reviews for his performance, and the show itself has picked up a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — the buzz positioning it as one of Apple TV+'s breakout hits of the year. Created by Chris and Paul Weitz, Murderbot combines philosophical sci-fi with dark comedy and a dash of corporate dystopia. Season 2 promises to take viewers even deeper into this strange universe, including by diving into more of the in-world show 'Sanctuary Moon.' Of course, this is just the latest example of how Apple TV+ has quietly built one of the most exciting sci-fi libraries in streaming, favoring high-concept storytelling over franchise fatigue. Murderbot joins a growing lineup of Apple TV+ sci-fi hits like Foundation, Invasion, and Silo, all of them shows that lean into big ideas and rich, character-focused storytelling. And with the Season 1 finale about to drop, plus a second season already on the way, now's the perfect time to dive in. Bottom line: Murderbot is probably one of the sharpest and most entertaining sci-fi series out there, on any streaming platform. Don't Miss: Today's deals: Nintendo Switch games, $5 smart plugs, $150 Vizio soundbar, $100 Beats Pill speaker, more More Top Deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 See the Solve the daily Crossword
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
3 best Prime Video miniseries you (probably) haven't seen
With the warm-weather season upon us, nobody wants to spend all of those precious sun-filled hours watching season after season of a TV show, which is where a miniseries comes in. Compact and concentrated, a miniseries or limited series manages to grip you with only a handful of episodes, still delivering compelling storylines and plenty of drama with far less screentime than a traditional television serial. And Prime Video has plenty of great miniseries on offer, so much so that you might have missed some of these titles during your browsing due to the sheer scope of the streaming service's library. Whether you're in the mood for a British spy drama starring Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård or a police procedural led by Alexander's dad, Stellan Skarsgård, here are three Prime Video miniseries that you might have overlooked the first time around but should add to your watch list ASAP. Before she was starring in mega-hit movies like "Thunderbolts," "Dune: Part Two" and "Oppenheimer" and becoming an Academy Award nominee for" Little Women," Florence Pugh was leading this 2018 limited series as Charmian "Charlie" Ross, a radical left-wing English actress in the late 1970s who gets sucked into the high-stakes world of international espionage. While in Greece, Charlie meets a mysterious man named Gadi Becker (Alexander Skarsgård), who ends up being an undercover Mossad agent sent by Israeli spymaster Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) to recruit the actress as an Israeli secret agent to take down an assassin. The six-episode drama drummed up a stellar 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critical consensus praises: "'The Little Drummer Girl' marches to a steady beat of assured plotting, extraordinary art direction, and a uniformly terrific cast that makes the show's smolderingly slow burn pace bearable." Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Watch "The Little Drummer Girl" now Created by Adam Kay and based on his memoir of the same name, this hilarious and heartfelt BBC medical miniseries focuses on the lives of a group of junior doctors working on an obstetrics and gynecology ward in a National Health Service hospital. With a cast led by Ben Whishaw ("Black Doves") and Ambika Mod ("One Day"), the seven-episode series profiles their professional and personal lives and explores the emotional effects of working in a stressful work environment. The 2022 series was widely praised by critics, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting a 95% approval rating and consensus singling out Ben Whishaw's" live-wire performance of an exhausted doctor" which "powers 'This is Going to Hurt,' a smart drama full of humor and pain. Watch "This is Going to Hurt" now In this 2015 British procedural, Stellan Skarsgård stars as Detective Inspector John River, a brilliant but brooding Swedish-born police officer who is haunted by visions of his recently murdered colleague, Detective Sergeant Jackie "Stevie" Stevenson (Nicola Walker). He struggles with the loss whilst investigating Stevenson's murder, all while battling his own inner demons and the scrutiny of his superiors. Across six installments, the gripping thriller becomes "more than just crime drama," wrote Sam Wollaston in The Guardian: "It's about personal tragedy, demons; it's a study of loss and grief (which it shares with the greatest Nordic noir of them all: the first series of 'The Killing'). It's also a study of that — killing — and why people do it." The crime drama miniseries boasts a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Watch "River" now
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Harvest star Harry Melling: ‘I was surrounded by titans like Fiona Shaw. I was starry-eyed as they told me stories about theatre work'
At 36, Harry Melling is having a moment. Long past his days as Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter's pampered, odious cousin, Melling has quietly become one of Britain's most intriguing character actors. His latest role, in the Cannes hit Pillion, marks a new chapter for the transformative performer. Produced by Element Pictures, the engaging film, a queer BDSM romance costarring Alexander Skarsgård , follows Melling's Colin, a poignantly awkward traffic attendant, as he becomes the submissive partner to Ray, the charismatic leader of a motorbike club. A tender, kinky biker comedy with surprising echoes of Ealing Studios comedy, Pillion, the directorial debut of Harry Lighton, got an eight-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the French film festival in May – and generated an unexpected intimacy-co-ordination challenge to do with a picnic table. The unassuming Melling is full of praise for his colleagues and for Robbie Taylor Hunt, the intimacy co-ordinator who supervised the sex scenes. READ MORE 'Robbie did such an amazing job,' says Melling. 'He was really thorough and also allowed enough room for us to play and have fun. It felt like the intimacy was always an extension of the narrative and Colin's character. It wasn't like this separate, sexy moment.' Pillion: Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård in Harry Lighton's film The ecstatic reception at Cannes is no surprise. Melling has emerged as an auteur's favourite, working with the Coen brothers, on The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ; a solo Joel Coen, The Tragedy of Macbeth ; David Gray, on The Lost City of Z ; Amanda Kramer, on Please Baby Please ; and Michael Winterbottom, on Shoshana . [ Michael Winterbottom on Shoshana: 'The film is about political violence. That theme is acutely relevant with what's going on in Gaza' Opens in new window ] 'Touch wood, I hope I can keep working with such brilliant, visionary directors,' he says. 'Because, when it comes to film, it really is about them. As an actor, it's never about you, not really. You're there to support their vision, to give them enough material to take into the editing room and shape into the story they want to tell.' In this spirit, Melling has finished shooting Butterfly Jam, Kantemir Balagov's long-awaited follow-up to Beanpole, alongside Barry Keoghan . Before that there's the Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari 's Harvest, her first film in English. Alongside collaborators such as Yorgos Lanthimos , Tsangari is a pioneering film-maker of the Greek weird wave, the cinematic movement famed for its deadpan tone and surreal, unsettling storytelling. 'I saw Chevalier before our first meeting,' Melling says. 'That was my introduction to Athina's work. It's an extraordinary film, right? I knew that she had this project. I didn't know anything about it. It was just a general meeting to catch each other's vibration. And I just fell in love with her instantly. 'She's such an artist, with a distinctive voice and a way of telling stories that feels very different to anything I have done before. She sent me the script but without any role attached to it. That's a very nice way of entering a story, because you are navigating from every angle.' An intriguing medieval folk western set in Scotland's Inner Hebrides archipelago, Tsangari's fourth feature brings together a fine cast – it also includes Caleb Landry Jones, Rosy McEwen, Arinzé Kene and Frank Dillane – in an adaptation of Jim Crace's novel. Set across seven hallucinatory days in a nameless village, Harvest follows Walter Thirsk (Landry Jones), a townsman turned farmer and outsider in a superstitious, tight-knit community. The fragile rural life is shattered first by a mysterious barn fire – prompting the scapegoating of three strangers – and, soon after, by the arrival of Edmund Jordan (Dillane), the ambitious, pitiless cousin of the local lord, Master Kent (Melling), who asserts his claim on the land and threatens their communal traditions. Nominally the kindlier lord who believes in land-sharing, Kent, struck by bumbling indecision, causes tensions to escalate, as greed, superstition, and fear of recently arrived outsiders take over. Harvest: Harry Melling in Athina Rachel Tsangari's film 'When I first read my character I thought, well, he's stuck in an impossible situation,' says Melling. 'He's trying to please everyone. And if I try and do that, then at no point will the audience be too angry with him. Because he hovers between these different worlds, caught between the oncoming modernity and looking after old friends. He does care for the villagers. But it's a film full of characters who keep sitting back and don't know how to take action. The audience is constantly moving between different points of view. Who's right and who's wrong keeps shifting.' Melling was born in London in 1989, the son of the children's illustrator and writer Joanna Troughton and the animator James Melling. His grandfather is Patrick Troughton, best remembered as the second Doctor in Doctor Who. Storytelling is in the DNA. 'I think I caught that fascination with stories as a young child,' he says. 'Between reading my mum's picture books as a kid and then going to the theatre too young to watch, I just fell in love with stories. I knew that I'd love to do anything I could in that realm. It seems like one of the most extraordinary things that human beings can do.' Melling was catapulted into the public eye by appearing in five of the eight Harry Potter films. His role was small but memorable, particularly for Dudley's physical transformation and eventual moment of uneasy redemption in The Deathly Hallows, a scene that was ultimately cut from the final film. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Richard Griffiths, Harry Melling and Fiona Shaw as the Dursleys in the 2007 film directed by David Yates Melling has deliberately distanced himself from the world of Harry Potter. He was a notable absentee from the 20th-anniversary television special Return to Hogwarts and has rarely spoken about the series, choosing instead to focus on theatre and independent film. 'One thing I did get from the Potter films was a curiosity about cinema,' he says. 'How things work with different directors, I was always fascinated by that. To me there's such a mystery around film: why a particular take works, why something doesn't work. It's something you are always trying to catch as an actor.' After those films he enrolled at London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. 'I felt like I didn't know anything,' he says. 'I understood how a set worked. I understood the logistics. But in terms of performing I was just so hungry for knowledge. I went to drama school so naive and just wanting to get better and bridge the gap between being a child actor and a senior actor. 'I was surrounded by titans like Fiona Shaw . I was starry-eyed as they told me stories about theatre work. When I left I just did theatre for a long time. It's great to be doing more movies, but I'd love to get back.' The Pale Blue Eye: Robert Duvall as Jean Pepe, Christian Bale as Augustus Landor and Harry Melling as Edgar Allan Poe When Christian Bale teamed up with him for The Pale Blue Eye , a murder mystery from 2022 in which Bale's seasoned detective is assisted by a young Edgar Allan Poe, the veteran actor was full of praise for his screen partner. 'He just made me only see him as Poe afterwards,' Bale said. Melling has retained a soft spot for the 19th-century American author of The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. 'I just adored playing him. He's such a strange creature, and to have an opportunity to play against Christian Bale was wonderful. It was daunting in the sense that a lot of people were coming to that movie with an idea of who Edgar Allan Poe was. Luckily, because he was slightly younger, I had a bit more room to play with. But if I had to have a pint with any of my characters I'd probably say Edgar Allan Poe. He pauses, almost apologetically. 'But really any of them.' Harvest is in cinemas from Friday, July 18th
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Murderbot is the latest in successes for Apple TV+
The brotherly writer/director/producer combination of Chris and Paul Weitz came into their most recent project, Apple TV+'s action comedy Murderbot, in the most straightforward way. "Paul just found it in the bookstore," Chris Weitz said in an interview with For The Win. "Yeah, I liked the cover of the book," Paul Weitz said with a laugh, referencing the The Murderbot Diaries series written by Martha Wells. "For me, if there are numerous books in a series, there's got to be something pretty great about at least the initial books. ... The character was so distinct and such a unique literary character with its kind of roots in other literary characters." From there, Paul sent it to Chris, and the About A Boy directors were off and running. The first season of Murderbot -- which stars Alexander Skarsgård in the titular role -- comes to a close on Friday, July 11, but the series has already been picked up for a second season. In the show, Murderbot (Skarsgård) is a security droid that is secretly able to hack his own system and gain a consciousness. Despite only wanting to watch his reality shows, Murderbot is forced to provide security for a group of scientists and attempt to hide his humanity to stay alive. Adapting the book into a 10-episode series was easier than expected for the Weitzes, thanks to the source material and the author. "We knew there was nothing that we wanted to change or take out of the books," Paul Weitz explained. "For a 10-episode series, we had to add some stuff. But luckily, we had access to Martha Wells, so we could bounce ideas off her, and occasionally she would give us ideas for stuff that wasn't in the books." Chris Weitz agreed, but knew there was pressure in taking on a project with source material: "There's a tremendous responsibility, both to the the author, whose whose world you are playing in, and to the fans who are deeply devoted to the books." The first season has a 96 percent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, joining highly rated Apple TV+ programming like Slow Horses (98 percent), Black Bird (98 percent), Pachinko (97 percent), Severance (95 percent), The Studio (93 percent) and Ted Lasso (90 percent) with stellar reviews. In a day and age where artificial intelligence is becoming more and more common, Chris Weitz liked the approach and questions about morality that a show like Murderbot can bring to the forefront. "We're used to robots wanting to become more human and to experience human emotions," he said. "Murderbot has absolutely no interest in being human or in dealing with all of the mess of humankind. It takes an interesting angle on AI, which is that we don't necessarily need to see it in terms of whether it's angelic or demonic, but that it have its own sort of form of personality and personhood." All episodes of Murderbot are now streaming on Apple TV+. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Murderbot is the latest in successes for Apple TV+
Gizmodo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Alexander Skarsgård Ruined Multiple ‘Murderbot' Finale Scenes by Crying
Season one of Murderbot wrapped up in a way that was sad yet hopeful—read io9's recap here—with the underlying joy for fans that the Apple TV+ series will be returning to adapt more of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries stories. And Alexander Skarsgård, who plays the title character, felt plenty of human emotion welling up while he was portraying the self-aware robot in the finale. Speaking to Collider, the actor, who's also one of Murderbot's executive producers, spoke about the scene, in which his character shares a moment with Gurathin—his foe turned ally played by David the very end of episode 10, 'The Perimeter,' Murderbot decides it needs to strike out on its own, rather than accept the help of the human team it's been working with—and protecting from certain murder—all season. Instead of saying 'good-bye,' Murderbot reverts to a phrase it repeated over and over during its term of service. 'To have that scene with David and to say, 'I need to check the perimeter,' just felt very emotional because we all became very close over the course of those six months of shooting the season,' Skarsgård said. 'Obviously, when you do a show, you don't know if you're going to get picked up for a second season, so you don't know if you're going to have an opportunity to come back and do it all again, or if this really is goodbye. So, it was a very emotionally charged moment. Murderbot obviously doesn't cry, but I was really struggling.' 'Often, as an actor, you try to get those tears, but this is very much the opposite, where I was desperately trying to keep them in. I blew a couple of takes because I started crying—because it really got to me, that moment with David. It really moved me.' As we now know, Murderbot will be back for season two—though given we see the main character departing for adventures unknown after bidding farewell (in his own way) to Gurathin, it's likely a new supporting cast will come aboard as part of that. You can (and should!) watch Murderbot season one on Apple TV+. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
