Latest news with #Arrowverse
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The battle between art and commerce makes its way to Hacks
Instead of a new equilibrium, Deborah and Ava have both reached new lows this season. One of them (Deborah) has indulged—and reveled—in more bad behavior than the other, but they've both been active participants in this race to the bottom. Ava followed up blackmail with a little more blackmail, convinced she could adopt Deborah's tactics without losing herself, or, through all the concessions she's made to her writing staff, at least achieve the karmic equivalent of carbon offsetting. But it's all been weighing on her—what she did to become the head writer of Late Night With Deborah Vance and what she's had to do to keep the job. She tried to find refuge in a sexy throuple, in being a kinder boss than Deborah, and in finding ways to smuggle the sort of humor that she wants to do into the late-night format. Ava isn't really the type to just put on a brave face and muddle through, though, a fact that 'Mrs. Table' makes clear in spectacular fashion. Ava's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day begins with balloons and cupcakes, but it very quickly descends into madness once Deborah becomes involved. Their latest truce dead (at both their hands, really), Deborah doesn't even try to be cordial, taking full advantage of Stacey's injury to ruin the staff birthday celebration and take potshots at Ava. Things aren't much better on set, as Deborah keeps shooting down the jokes for some desk bit about apologies (which started its life on the white board back in 'I Love L.A.'). What really throws Ava off-balance is the return of the ex: Deborah's latest guest is Ruby Rojas, star of Wolfgirl, the big, new DC show (maybe the Arrowverse is still alive and kicking in this timeline). It's bad enough for Ava to have to make small talk with the woman who turned down the marriage proposal she made with a movie prop in hand, who compels her to say things like 'bein' supa bi' while sporting a fake beauty mark. But Deborah sniffs out the possibility for peak emotional damage, ruthlessly cutting the desk bit to extend Ruby's interview for another act. Once she has Ruby onstage, Deborah practically licks her chops as she sets up her guest to tell the story of that mortifying proposal, shooting Ava a look to confirm she knows just what she's doing. After Ruby finishes telling everyone in the audience (and at home) the story, Deborah snarks 'No wonder she's an ex,' then adds insult to injury with 'Up next: Dance Mom!' Crossing a line is hardly new for Deborah, but turning Ava's humiliation into a punchline in such a public way is one of the shittiest things she's done. Even if no one else knows what the connection is, the late-night show is now tainted for Ava—not that it's been a dream scenario since she started the job. Ava's attempts to be the cool boss have just led to the writers walking all over her, missing work to have tooth gems installed, and ordering pricey fish meals that don't even travel well. (For $72, that branzino should have looked way more appetizing too.) She doesn't even have the comfort of knowing that they're at least making something great together. Realizing she's been picking up the tab for nonexistent people and picking up the slack for everyone else, Ava just snaps. The breakdown is, as Hannah Einbinder teased, pretty fun—to watch, at least. Ava, who's made so many allowances and endured so many slights in her new role, uncoils like some cornered animal making a last, mad dash for freedom, flinging fish, screaming 'I QUIT!,' and driving through the parking gate. The exhilaration of watching her throw off the constraints was tempered for me by the realization that she was throwing everything away, and she definitely shouldn't have screamed at the writers, especially not over being excluded from a group chat she'd eventually mute anyway. But, just as I did for the first half of season two, I've been wondering when she would decide enough is enough. Ava hasn't been having fun at work or enjoying any real prestige from the job, not since the New York Times Magazine cover story. She might as well not even be head writer, if Deborah can just cut the written bits from the episode at a moment's notice. (If Ava's subsidizing lobster rolls, though, the money has to be pretty good.) Ava has been holding on so tightly, so reflexively, that she hasn't noticed how adrift she is. But Deborah has—even if it's taken her a while to admit it—because she's the one who's been pushing her away. All of the coyote sightings this season turn out to be harbingers for a foiled (thankfully) attack on one of Deborah's corgis and the epiphany that she's essentially thrown Ava to the wolves. (Don't look at me if the animals don't line up perfectly in this metaphor; the writers said in the Bit By Bit aftershow that they chose coyotes because they're all over Los Angeles.) All so she could hang on to some Exquisite Corpse of a show tacked together with network notes, the viral star du jour, and corn chip-based sponcon. Deborah ends up on a mad dash of her own, one that has all the markings of a grand romantic gesture (though Ava/Deborah is still TBD) to find Ava. Their reconciliation is slow-going, as it should be. Director Paul W. Downs puts Deborah through her paces, giving Ava room to fully express her pain and doubts, while Deborah sits there, bedraggled and otherwise looking like she's the one who had a breakdown. 'I can't trust you,' Ava says, sounding more defeated than angry. Deborah offers to run back into the ocean to make it up to her, but Ava reveals she also doesn't know if she can trust herself to do the job. 'I don't even know your voice anymore,' she sighs. 'You are my voice,' Deborah responds without hesitation, but Ava's heard that before—not the exact wording, but the sentiment, as conveyed through all the recent stop-gaps. She's always given in when Deborah's asked her to stay, but this time, with nothing left to lose, Ava sets a real boundary. 'I can't write a show that appeals to millions of people,' she tells Deborah, who admits she was wrong to focus on the masses. 'We can't make it for them; we have to make it for each other,' Deborah responds, and since they'll 'probably never make it out of last place, we should at least try to have fun.' This is a real pledge, and Ava takes it as such, bringing out the bottle of Krug she's been driving around with for months to at long last toast with her creative partner. This is part of the Hacks playbook: Ava and Deborah making up after a big fight or reaching some other kind of resolution midseason so they can take on what comes next together. But that standard move takes on a new tenor this season because Deborah and Ava are now up against something much bigger than their personal differences, or even ageism and sexism in the industry. By deciding to make a show for themselves, to make something that expresses their points of view, profit margins be damned, they're taking a side in the long-running battle between art and commerce, one that's now permeated every corner of media. For a while, it looked like Deborah and Ava might represent the different sides of that conflict in season four, with Deborah pushing the data while Ava tried to find a way to preserve the good of their original concept. Hacks creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs landed on a more compelling way to depict that struggle. It's one thing for Deborah and Ava to both lose when they're fighting each other, but seeing them lose while working together has the potential to be both more devastating and satisfying (narratively speaking). It would certainly match the real-life national mood, though it's far from the determined outcome. I have high hopes that they'll stick by each other through this. Deborah knows how to defend what's hers, and if she starts to lose her nerve, Ava will be there to remind her what they're fighting for. And their stand, fictional though it may be, can still inspire. • Deborah being drawn to an all-girl line-dancing night in her search for Ava is more proof that they get each other. • 'Listen, hey, razzle dazzle 'em.' Why does it sometimes seem like Ava has never talked to another human being before? • Sandy Honig's chirped delivery of 'Tooth gem!' as Rose is only surpassed by her grousing about how 'smiling without a tooth gem was really affecting my self-esteem.' Still, Rose should be careful. More from A.V. Club Arcade Fire and an overlong Weekend Update steal focus from Walton Goggins on SNL The Hundred Line is shameless game design in the best way John Legend addresses the Kanye in the room, calls out his "devolution"
Buzz Feed
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
22 Things Past Their Golden Age
Throughout history, humankind has been treated to many different "Golden Ages" across the arts, sciences, and cultures. But not all good things can last, and with every dawning of a new Golden Age comes its bittersweet end (RIP the Golden Age of television. We hardly knew thee). With that in mind, Meteorstar101 recently asked the r/AskReddit community, "What are we no longer in the 'golden age' of?" and the responses are as nostalgic as they are devastating, so buckle up!! "Social media. It went from being a way to connect with strangers for fun and keep up with your IRL friends to mostly just being a slew of ads and rage bait." "Architecture. Everything is a gray box now." "Appliances. Nothing stays working" "Disney." "Fast food. Everything is shitty now, and online ordering has ruined the in-restaurant experience. Not to mention, most workers hate their jobs and wind up quitting because employers treat them like crap." "The golden age of the 'American Dream.' It's a bloody nightmare and has been for a decade or three, but no one wants to listen." "Higher education has become a shell of its former self and its value has decreased everywhere." "Unless you're over 30, you never really experienced how amazing the internet used to be. Social media was better, search engines were better, people ran their own personal websites just because they had passion and wanted to, and there was almost no monetization." "Democracy and workers rights." "RuPaul's Drag Race." "Streaming services are a shitshow." "Journalism." "Movies. There are so many out there, but so many of them are bad." "The job market is so bad that the unemployment rate is in its Golden Age." "Video games. Greedy corporatism has severely damaged the industry as a whole due to so many different reasons." "Rock 'n' roll." "The Simpsons." "Technology in general. New tech used to be exciting and fun." "Music videos. MTV rotted away to produce reality shows." "This is a small thing, but autocorrect. I remember in the early 2010s when autocorrect was kinda buggy, and you'd get some really funny corrections, and 'autocorrect fail' was a big meme." "Cartoons. I feel like the 1980s were the golden age of cartoons." "Superheroes in general. The Arrowverse is over. The Super-verse never materialized. The MCU is meh now. Same for the DCEU (or whatever it's called now)." We can scream about all the things that used to be better until our heads explode, but in the interest of not making everyone feel completely hopeless, I leave you with this. "The better question is, what are we in the golden age of?" Well, do you agree that these Golden Ages are over? Or have any ideas about what Golden Ages are happening as we speak? Tell me in the comments!
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
FBI Exclusive: Isobel's Secret Husband Has Been Cast, and It's a Name TVLine Readers Know Very Well(s)
We have an FBI casting news flash that just might bowl you over. Sources confirm for TVLine exclusively that the well-watched CBS procedural has cast Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille's husband Phillip, whom no one — not viewers, and not her closest co-workers — knew existed until the Feb. 11 episode. More from TVLine Beth Behrs Is 'Grateful' That The Neighborhood Will Get the Proper Goodbye 2 Broke Girls Never Did FBI's Zeeko Zaki Talks OA and Gemma's Future After Train Hijacking - Was He Planning to Propose...? Terminal List Season 2: Gabriel Luna Cast as Fan-Favorite Book Character Filling the role of series vet Alana de la Garza's on-screen mate will be Tom Cavanagh, who is best known to TV fans for his title role in the 2000 NBC sitcom Ed and of course his many roles on The Flash and the extended Arrowverse. On The Flash alone, Cavanagh played Harrison Wells (of Earth-1), Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (disguised as Harrison Wells), 'Harry' Wells (of Earth-2), 'H.R.' Wells (of Earth-19), every member of 'the Council of Wells' (and 'the Council of Harrisons'), Sherloque Wells (of Earth-221) and Harrison Nash Wells aka Pariah. Cavanagh's TV credits also include Love Monkey, Eli Stone, Royal Pains, Scrubs, Trust Me and, most recently, guest spots on Blue Bloods and in the Superman & Lois series finale (though not as any Wells). The fact that Isobel has a husband was revealed in the episode 'Shelter,' which involved a gunman with ties to a Mexican cartel, who'd opened fire at a homeless shelter. In a private convo with OA (played by Zeeko Zaki) about keeping work and home life separate, Isobel confided, 'I have a husband.' Phillip, whom she'd wed two months ago at the time, 'has three daughters, so I have three daughters,' she added with a bit of amazement. Hoping to offer OA guidance with a struggle he was going through at the time, Isobel explained, 'I have learned to leave my personal life outside this building.' Moments later, OA remarked with a grin, 'A husband!,' then asked his boss how it was going. 'No complaints!' she beamed. The airdate for Cavanagh's FBI debut is currently of TVLine Stars Who Almost Played Other TV Roles — on Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Lost, Gilmore Girls, Friends and Other Shows TV Stars Almost Cast in Other Roles Fall TV Preview: Who's In? Who's Out? Your Guide to Every Casting Move!
