Latest news with #HouseoftheDragons
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix's ‘Sirens' Will Be Your Summer Beach-Read TV Obsession
Sirens is the latest in what's become a long streaming-service line of glamorous beach-read melodramas. Like its predecessors, the series is at once enthralled with, and disgusted by, the well-off, whose lives are full of bizarre customs, unnatural social dynamics, and deep dark secrets that speak to their (supposed) malevolence. Based on her 2011 play, Maid showrunner Molly Smith Metzler's five-part limited series, premiering May 22, is so soapy that one would be forgiven for mistaking its early morning island mist for suds. Its corny frothiness is epitomized by its relentless and insufferable musical theme of choral singers going 'Ooooh aaaah ooooh.' Nonetheless, as far as sagas of the untrustworthy rich and famous go, it's an eminently watchable tale of greed, ambition, deception, and trauma (So. Much. Trauma.), aided in no small part by a big, bold, charming performance from Meghann Fahy. Arriving a month after she established her headliner bona fides with Drop, Fahy stars as Devon, a Bills-loving Buffalo native who upon leaving jail (where she spent the night thanks to another DUI) comes home to discover an Edible Arrangements delivery on her stoop. So infuriated is Devon by this gift from her MIA sister Simone (House of the Dragons' Milly Alcock)—who's left Devon in charge of caring for their dementia-addled father Bruce (Bill Camp)—that she hauls it 17 hours to the lavish Martha's Vineyard estate where Simone now works and lives. Upon arriving, she's stunned to learn that her younger sibling is the right-hand woman of the compound's matriarch Michaela Kell (Julianne Moore), whom she calls 'Kiki' and dotes on with a cheery intensity that, along with the general bonkers vibe, immediately makes Devon think that the place is a cult. Michaela is a soft-spoken kook who has a way of hypnotically entrancing those in her orbit. Though she was once a high-powered lawyer, she now spends her time running a wildlife sanctuary with a focus on peregrine falcons (like her favorite, Barnaby) and hosting opulent events like her upcoming Labor Day gala. Her employees, led by property manager Jose (Felix Solis), treat her every wish as their command, but they're a generally unhappy lot who have been silenced by NDAs and talk smack about Simone via staff-wide group text chats. In long flowy dresses and with a dreamily deranged expression affixed to her face, Michaela is a weirdo upper-cruster who exists in such rarified air that she appears to be suffering from oxygen deprivation, and she rules her roost like a gentle tyrant, all while doting disturbingly on Simone, whom she's so close with that, at one point, she sleeps with her in her bed. Devon arrives in this prim-and-proper pastel palace like an uncouth wrecking ball, cursing up a storm in her short mini-dress and work boots (Simone says, correctly, that she looks like a roadie). She promptly upsets Simone, who doesn't want the upcoming weekend spoiled by her big sister, and who immediately resonates as an ungrateful and off-putting twerp. That impression isn't altered by the subsequent revelation that Simone has really fled her dad, who in the wake of her mom's passing treated her so badly that she had to go to court to escape him. Devon and Simone's history of neglect, abandonment, and suffering is one of many mysteries teased by Sirens, with Metzler also introducing the idea that Michaela murdered the first wife of her husband Peter (Kevin Bacon), a hedge fund bigwig who rarely sees his two grown kids from his initial marriage and who seems only somewhat happy putting up with Michaela's elaborate whims and overbearing behavior. There's plenty of plot in Sirens, which additionally involves Simone's romance with Peter's wealthy best friend Ethan (Glenn Howerton)—which she's keeping from Michaela—and Devon's habit of dealing with stress by sleeping around, be it with a random ferryman, a landscaper, her married high-school ex Raymond (Josh Segarra), or hunky boat captain Morgan (Trevor Salter). Alcoholism, child abuse, suicide, depression, anxiety, and every other hang-up under the sun embellish this scenario, as does death, beginning with the untimely and crazy demise of Barnaby. In response, Michaela stages an over-the-top funeral for the bird that allows her female acolytes, all of whom dress in bright and sunshiny floral dresses, to demonstrate their fealty like the unnerving Stepford Wives they resemble. Sirens' title is an S.O.S. code word used by Devon and Simone, and yet even once they're together, they find that they're in various sorts of trouble and incapable—or unwilling—to help each other. Duplicity reigns as the gala nears, with everyone sneaking around and doing not-nice things behind each other's backs, as well as struggling to cope with past misery and slights that have bred lasting resentment. Metzler whips things up into a suitably dizzy frenzy. Moreover, she presents a collection of characters who are easy and fun to dislike, beginning with Michaela, an unabashed creep whose tab-keeping and mantra-repeating ('Hey Hey') marks her as a condescending and manipulative villain. Simone isn't much better, coming across as a sycophant whose adoration for Michaela is gross regardless of the fact that, you know, she's searching for a surrogate mom just like Michaela views her as the daughter she never had. Devon is the hot mess that ignites Sirens, and Fahy is so good as the chaotic protagonist—who gave up her own life to raise Simone and care for her dad, neither of whom appreciates it—that the material naturally, and fittingly, assumes her perspective. Metzler keeps things complicated enough that it's possible to root for any number of her characters, at least temporarily, but ultimately her tale falls back on a rather straightforward message about the value of selflessness and the concurrent ugliness and cruelty of putting shallow personal interests ahead of others' welfare. There is, of course, the usual hypocrisy of making Michaela and Peter's hoity-toity world as enchanting and ravishing as possible and then decrying it as empty and its inhabitants as selfish and repugnant materialists. Still, it's reasonably intriguing pulp elevated by its disparate players, whether it's Fahy's frustrated firebrand, Solis' cagey fixer, Segarra's jealous d----e, or Lauren Weedman's long-suffering chef Patrice. If it ran longer or had dreams of becoming a multi-season affair, Sirens might have quickly run out of steam. At a concise five episodes, however, it proves a satisfyingly juicy concoction fit for a summer binge.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- BBC News
Newborough: Anger at traffic gridlock at House of Dragon beach
People living close to a popular north Wales beach made famous by hit TV series House of the Dragons say their lives are in "lockdown" due to traffic beach, also known as Newborough, and nature reserve on Anglesey have long attracted visitors for their natural problems around congestion have worsened since the beach found fame as a film villagers are threatening to protest unless something is done to alleviate the issue that leaves some "afraid" to leave their Resources Wales (NRW) and Anglesey council said they are trying to find a long-term solution to the problem. More than 40 people attended a public meeting on Thursday night to discuss traffic Geraint Thomas said matters had worsened in the past five years."Because film crews from all over the world have been here, Llanddwyn is a very popular place," he said."It's a lockdown, nobody can pass. Four roads to Llanddwyn all come together in Newborough and it's [causing] road rage and people are starting to argue. It'll get messy in the end."When an ambulance or fire service want to come down they have no chance. "It has gone on for years but nothing has been done and the people of Newborough are starting to lose patience. Maybe a protest is needed to get the authorities to respond."Newborough resident Heather Savage said the situation was "terrible"."You can't move, you get anywhere because the road just clogs up. Nothing works, my world isn't working," she said."Every year it gets worse and every year they say they're going to do something at this time of year and nothing happens." Councillor John Ifan Jones said the objections were not aimed at tourists."We are not protesting against tourism in the area. We are protesting because we don't have the infrastructure in place to deal with the flow of traffic," he said."We've been living with a traffic control system that we've had for five years, since Covid and NRW says that's a temporary system."It's important that people can go to work in the morning, go to the shop and they shouldn't have to plan their life around a complete traffic jam in the village." NRW said it understood the "frustrations" felt by the community, similar to those felt at other popular visitor locations, when car parks quickly become said the issues at Newborough were "complicated" but has introduced an enhanced traffic management system and were deploying additional staff during peak year, NRW will also trial the use of electronic messaging signs to alert motorists of car park closures further from the village as well as satellite car parking and consider the viability of a park-and-ride system.A spokesperson added: "The traffic management and access situation at Newborough is very complicated and there is no one solution to solve it."Those visiting are being advised of the potential for traffic congestion, to respect the local community and environment and to prepare for the car park to be full at busy times."We are asking people to think about planning their visit at different times or to consider one of the many other fantastic beaches and destinations on council said it was "committed" to helping find a long-term solution but also admitted there was no easy of Highways Huw Percy added: "The council recognises that Llanddwyn and the Newborough Forest has become an extremely popular destination and is aware of the negative effects this has on the local community."We will continue to work to find proactive steps that will reduce the local impact and a sustainable solution but, unfortunately, there is no easy solution and this will take time."
