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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Phineas and Ferb' Sticks to What Works in a Welcome Return
Most TV revivals are bad. They exist solely for the cynical purpose of exploiting a familiar title, not because there are new stories worth telling in a particular world. Good TV shows are the product of a specific time in the lives of the characters on the show, the people making the show, and the people watching at home. Change one or more of those, and it usually doesn't work. There are exceptions, of course. The passage of time in some ways enhanced both Roseanne/The Conners and Party Down, because they're shows about people in dire financial straits, and revisiting them in an even worse economy made the comic stakes even sharper. And Twin Peaks: The Return was a masterpiece because traditional rules of storytelling never applied to David Lynch. More from Rolling Stone Disney's Live Action 'Snow White' Gets Digital and Physical Release Dates America Runs on Disney: Brooks Drop Surprise Limited-Edition RunDisney Sneaker Collab Lululemon's Viral Disney Capsule Initially Sold Out Fast - Here's Where It Just Restocked Online Now there's Disney's Phineas and Ferb, returning with its first new season in a decade. The family TV classic is animated, which helps enormously, because the characters don't have to age (though they do very slightly). More importantly, it's a show designed to be both timeless and formulaic, so that it can return in any era, act exactly like it always has, and nothing will seem amiss. As the infectious Bowling for Soup theme song has long explained, the title characters — stepbrothers in a blended family (voiced in the original series by, respectively, Vincent Martella and Thomas Brodie-Sangster) who live in an unnamed tri-state area — have 104 days of summer vacation to fill, and the kind of boundless imaginations, technical skills, and resources to do anything they want. In various episodes of the original series, they traveled through time and space, built the world's biggest roller coaster, and designed a plane that allowed them to circumnavigate the globe in one incredibly long summer day by always staying ahead of the sunset. Their older sister Candace (Ashley Tisdale) is obsessed with busting them by showing their mother Linda (Caroline Rhea) the boys' wild and dangerous creations. And every episode has a subplot where the family's pet platypus, Perry, secretly works as a spy, who is constantly trying to prevent the 'evil' — really, just annoying — schemes of pathetic mad scientist Heinz Doofenshmirtz (played by the show's co-creator, Dan Povenmire). Inevitably, the plots intersect when Doof's latest gadget (which always has the suffix '-inator') somehow erases evidence of the boys' latest scheme just before Linda can get a look at it. And that's it: the same idea, repeated in two stories per episode, for nearly 140 episodes that aired over eight years. But the genius of what Povenmire, co-creator Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh, and company did over those eight years was the way they gradually turned that rigid formula to their advantage. Once the audience understood that the same story beats would happen in the same rough order from week to week, no matter how different the inventions, the more the show got to have fun with it. At times, it involved the characters becoming aware of those recurring tropes, like Candace eventually deciding that there's some universal force preventing Linda from ever seeing what the boys are really doing, or Doofenshmirtz noticing when Perry is late or otherwise not following his usual routine. At others, the show found ways to subvert its own formula while somehow sticking with it; in one classic episode, Candace and Doof's teenage daughter Vanessa (Olivia Olson) swap outfits after a dry cleaner mix-up, and as a result, the usual A-story/B-story structure gets flipped, so that it's Doof with a big idea (trying to build his own floating island nation), while the boys build an -inator (albeit one with a benign purpose, to show a friend what they think will be her first rainbow). The only thing standing even partially in the way of a revival is the fact that the show had a definitive ending in 2015, with an episode set on the last day of that wonderful summer vacation. When the team reunited briefly for the 2020 movie Candace Against the Universe, the story was set earlier in that summer. As it is, there are far more individual stories than would fit into even a 104-day summer. At some point, the story needs to move forward, even a little(*). (*) There was another 2015 episode, 'Act Your Age,' set 10 years in the future, where the boys and their friends are preparing to leave for college. But nothing in it would significantly constrain stories set in the kids' present-day lives. And that is basically what this fifth season does. We begin on the last day of the school year, as Phineas has just finished telling the class about all the adventures he, Ferb, Isabella (Alyson Stoner), Baljeet (Maulik Pancholy), and Buford (Bobby Gaylor) had the previous summer. The bell rings, there's a musical number — because there's always an upbeat musical number somewhere in each episode — and then a new summer begins. When we finally get Bowling for Soup to open the second episode, the theme song's lyrics now declare, 'There's another 104 days of summer vacation,' and everything else is otherwise the same. That holds true for the show. The kids are in theory a year older, but the only way to tell that is that some of the actors' voices have gotten deeper. (Martella is now in his thirties, and he re-recorded a few of his lines in the opening credits so they're more consistent with how Phineas sounds today; Ferb is now voiced by David Errigo Jr., but he speaks so infrequently that you'd barely notice.) The show remains unapologetically self-aware. When Perry crashes into the Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc., headquarters like usual to find out about his nemesis' latest scheme in the first episode, Doof admits, 'I know, today's -inator is a little basic. But I'm purposely starting slow.' And that classroom musical number includes Phineas acknowledging the high bar they set the previous summer, while insisting, 'I'm confident we can top ourselves somehow.' The bar is, indeed, spectacularly high. The original run is one of the greatest kid/family/whatever animated comedies of all time. With one exception, there's not anything in the five episodes I've seen that I would put against the very best of the 2000s/2010s batch. But the fact that the series is able to return after a decade away (give or take Candace Against the Universe) and still feel like itself is a remarkable achievement. The new episodes are much more of a piece from the final season or so, when the creative team was pushing harder against the boundaries of their formula, and focusing more on the supporting characters. There are several stories this time out that barely even feature Phineas and Ferb, including one that follows up on the idea that Candace's best friend Stacy (Kelly Hu) knows that Perry is really a secret agent(*). The best of this group (the one that belongs in the stratosphere of the original) is an even bigger experiment, where the kids build a giant zoetrope — which Buford dubs 'Tropey McTropeface' — and it goes off to have a delightful series of adventures that includes a romance with a local Ferris wheel, much of this accompanied by an unexpected special musical guest. It would be the weirdest new installment if it weren't for the one that turns a single joke from an old episode — that Buford for some reason has life-sized molds of all the other characters, for purposes unknown — into an entire plot, which at one point has Buford simultaneously wearing a Candace skin suit and a Linda skin suit. (Warning: You might have nightmares about that one later.) Mostly, though, Phineas and Ferb thankfully manages to still be Phineas and Ferb. (*) For O.W.C.A., the Organization Without a Cool Acronym, where all the agents are animals wearing fedoras. Later this summer, King of the Hill will return from an even longer hiatus with a season that will both age up the characters and explicitly deal with how the world has changed since that animated classic last appeared. Maybe that will work. But it's a relief to have something as funny, optimistic, joyous, and inventive as Phineas and Ferb back in our lives, acting as if barely any time at all has passed. The first two episodes of the new Phineas and Ferb season debut tonight on Disney Channel, with additional episodes releasing weekly on Saturday mornings, while 10 episodes will begin streaming June 6 on Disney+. I've seen five episodes. 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Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Philo review: The best-kept secret in live-TV streaming is only $28 per month
If you miss basic cable (is life really complete without a daily dose of Chopped?) but don't want to shell out $80-plus every month for the likes of DirecTV Stream or Hulu + Live TV, here's good news: You can watch over 70 live channels — good ones, familiar ones — for just $28. That makes Philo the most affordable live-TV streaming service you can get, though it does lack three key elements many people want: local channels, news and sports. But if you want A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, History, Nickelodeon and lots more, you can get them here on the cheap. Even more surprising, the service provides unlimited DVR, an extensive catalog of on-demand content and the complete AMC+ library. There's only one thing I don't like — but I can live with it. Here's my Philo review. Related: The best streaming services for TV, movies, sports and more in 2025, tested and reviewed The best live-TV streaming services for 2025 Hulu review: The single best value in streaming services, especially if you bundle As noted, a Philo subscription will run you $28 per month (plus any applicable local taxes). That nets you the aforementioned 70+ channels, without limits or restrictions. Philo has just one paid plan; it comes with everything. That everything now includes AMC+ and the four channels under that service's umbrella: IFC Films Unlimited, Shudder, Sundance Now and The Walking Dead. That's a pretty good value, considering a standalone AMC+ subscription would cost you $7 per month. (Philo also offers a handful of add-ons, including MGM+ and Starz.) For families, the Philo lineup features Animal Planet, Discovery Family, Hallmark Family and four Nickelodeon channels. (Unfortunately, Philo has no parental controls, something to consider if you're hoping to keep kids away from the likes of horror channel Shudder.) But to repeat: no news, no sports, no local stations. (Actually, BBC News and Cheddar News are included in Philo's freebie selection, detailed below, so although you're not getting any of the major networks, Philo isn't 100% news-less.) That would be a dealbreaker for some viewers, but it's worth noting you may be able to tune in local stations by way of an antenna, and there are plenty of ways to stream news for free. Speaking of free, Philo also offers zero-cost access to around 100 other channels, most of them thematic: AMC Thrillers, The Baywatch Channel, Comedy Dynamics, Nashville, Pickleball TV and so on. It's not unlike the kind of ad-supported selection you see on free-TV streamer Pluto, but with some notable exclusives in the mix. For example, you can watch shows like Grace and Frankie, Mad Men, Party Down and Nurse Jackie. (In some cases you get all seasons; in others a partial selection.) At this writing, selections from the various movie channels included Boyhood, Limitless and The Cabin in the Woods. Philo Free Channels even includes DVR, though only 30 days' worth and only for select titles. So, yeah, even if you don't pay for a subscription, Philo is an app worth having on your TV and mobile devices. Just be prepared for an interface that's a little rough around the edges. I tested two versions of Philo: Google TV and Roku. As I've discovered with other streaming services, there are some subtle differences between the two. Alas, in both cases the only way to sign into your account is by manually entering your e-mail address via an onscreen keyboard, which requires your TV remote. I'd love to see Philo add a QR-code and/or web-based sign-in option. That's not the only area that needs work. The Home page (above) is actually pretty good, with large, colorful thumbnails and useful quick-access sections like Keep Watching, Saved and Featured on AMC+. But as you can see, when you scroll your way down, the UI cuts both the top and bottom rows in half, leaving only the middle two fully visible. This is... bonkers. And it doesn't get better from there. For starters, the main menu — consisting of Home, Guide, Top, Saved and Search — spans the top of the screen. Pretty much every other streaming service uses a left-side menu, no doubt because it's easier and more intuitive. Here, that menu disappears when you scroll down. The only way back to it is by scrolling up again — inconvenient if you've made significant southward progress. If you press the back button on your remote, it jumps you to the Home page, where at least the menu is visible again. But! If you're already on the Home page, no matter how far down you've scrolled, pressing the back button takes you out of the app altogether. This jump-back-home "shortcut" works only on the Guide and Top pages. Speaking of which: Top? Top what? Turns out this is where you access the on-demand content for your channel lineup, all of it presented in a grid with colorful thumbnails for each show or movie. Why Philo designates this "Top," I have no idea. Just as confusing, the channel guide consists of a similar grid for everything that's streaming live, but every tile is just text atop a drab gray (Google TV) or black (Roku). A live-preview snippet appears when your cursor lands on any individual tile, but why not make image thumbnails omnipresent, as on the Top page? The result is a channel guide that looks dull and lifeless. And those oversize tiles limit how much of the guide you can actually see at once. (Verdict: not very much.) Plan on doing a lot of scrolling. When viewing the guide, there's an icon in the upper left that says "All channels" — suggesting you could somehow filter the view. Try as I might, I couldn't navigate to that icon, and therefore couldn't access any filtering options. As it happens, there aren't any: Even in the web interface, clicking that icon with my mouse did nothing. The only clue was further down the guide: a similar icon indicated "Free channels," clearly designating that remaining portion of the guide. But why "All channels" at the top and not "Premium" or "Subscription"? Confusing. There's also this oddity: When you choose a program from the channel guide, it automatically starts from the beginning — even if you select "join live" from the show's Watch Options menu (see below). As a longtime Philo user, I recall that in the past you could hold the OK/select button for a few seconds to jump straight to live, no menu visit required — but that option appears to have disappeared. There is, however, a toggle in the main settings menu that dictates whether channel playback starts from the beginning or the current live position. I'm glad I found that, but still irritated about not having more direct, per-situation control. Philo's search feature works well enough, though it lacks support for voice input and doesn't indicate what parameters you can enter. (Actor names? Movie genres?) I tried searching for "Tom Cruise" and got no results, but searching for Top Gun produced the Maverick sequel — so Cruise is in there somewhere. Look, I get that it costs money to hire a good UX (user experience) team, and I can live with Philo the way it is in exchange for the low price. But most of these interface issues seem like they'd be pretty easy to remedy. Much as I'm irked by certain aspects of the interface, Philo is an undeniable bargain. With competitors like Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV charging $83 per month (and up) for a channel selection that's not a whole lot larger, it's nice to see an affordable alternative. Granted, you'll have to live without sports, local channels and mainstream news networks. But I'm in the group that consumes very little of that kind of content — and I'm guessing I'm not alone. Philo scratches the basic-cable itch in a way that won't break the bank.
USA Today
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Adam Scott and Ben Stiller unpack the twisty 'Severance' Season 2 finale (spoilers)
Adam Scott and Ben Stiller unpack the twisty 'Severance' Season 2 finale (spoilers) Show Caption Hide Caption 'Severance' star Adam Scott on why viewers are hooked on the show. 'Severance' star Adam Scott talks to USA TODAY about why audiences are can't get enough of the mind-bending show. Spoiler alert: This story contains details from "Cold Harbor," the Season 2 finale of "Severance." 'Severance' has ended another mind-bending season, answering some questions ― will Mark rescue his wife, Gemma? ― while posing others. The 10-episode second season, starring Adam Scott, Britt Lower and Patricia Arquette, is 'super weird,' agrees Scott, previously better known for comedic turns on 'Parks and Recreation' and 'Party Down.' The severed personalities of the 'innie' Lumon employees and their 'outie' away-from-work selves, who had no awareness of each other, started to blend, and as escapes from the confines of the mysterious company were plotted, 'there was a lot of running' down those stark white hallways, Scott says. The actor, along with director and executive producer Ben Stiller, break down the ending in separate interviews. What happens in 'Severance' Season 2 finale? The episode begins with a lengthy conversation between Mark Scout's (Scott) severed halves: the 'outie' away from work at the mysterious Lumon Industries and the 'innie' employee. 'I created you as a prisoner, and it's a mistake," his outie says into a camcorder. 'You've been living a nightmare for two years. Part of why I'm here is to make it right, and I hope that with all we have in common, you'll give me that chance.' His goal, to rescue his wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman), whose death inspired him to get the severance procedure in the first place, is for the two halves to finally "recouple memories so we could be one person,' he promises. What did the macrodata numbers really mean? The seemingly pointless work of the Macrodata Refinement team (Mark S., Helly R., Dylan G. and – until recently – Irving B.), under the supervision of Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), served a purpose, explains Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) in the finale. A loyal Lumon manager who created the severance procedure, only to see Lumon use it for malevolent purposes, Harmony is now rebelling against her former employer. The numbers from his macrodata console, she explains to Mark, represent 'a doorway into the mind of your outie's wife, Gemma Scout,' and its clusters are 'the building blocks of her mind.' 'What am I building?' he asks. 'Every file you've completed…is a new consciousness, a new innie.' Once he completes Cold Harbor, the 25th and final file, his outie will die: 'You will have served your purpose; so has she," Cobel says. "There'll be no honeymoon ending for you and Helly R. She's an Eagan." (Helly's outie is Helena Eagan, the daughter of Jamie, the company's CEO, and she severed as a promotional ploy.) 'You're nothing to them, nothing to her. They're using you.' But Helly questions Harmony's motives: 'How can we ever trust anything Cobel says? All she's ever done is lie.' Choreography, merriment and a goat in 'Severance' season finale Once the file is completed, a celebration is in order. Milchick summons a marching band for 'choreography and merriment,' but Helly uses it as a distraction to steal Milchick's walkie-talkie and barricade him in the bathroom while she and Mark plot their escape. Mark searches frantically for Gemma, but stumbles upon enforcer Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), and they engage in a bloody fight just as Drummond is about to sacrifice Emil, a goat from that outdoor farm last seen in Episode 3. Turns out the animals are meant to honor founder Kier Eagan, Lumon's founder. Drummond ends up dead, Mark uses his tie, stained with Drummond's blood, to gain access to the room where Gemma has been ordered to disassemble a baby's crib, and the couple has a tearful reunion and head for the exits. What about that final 'Severance' Season 2 scene? Mark and Gemma race through those hallways toward an exit, but in a crushing turn of events, innie Mark pushes Gemma out the door, hesitates and then decides to stay behind. As Gemma pleads with him from outside the door, he turns around and spots Helly at the other end of the hall; he turns, embraces Helly and they run once more down those endless white hallways, holding hands. The season ends in a freeze frame as 'The Windmills of Your Mind' plays on the soundtrack. 'We knew that was going to be the ending for a while,' Stiller says. 'We sort of played with the idea of ending on Mark looking between the two, but it felt clear, after having this cliffhanger ending in Season 1, I didn't want to do that to the audience. It always felt this was the natural way that Mark's innie would go. And what we wanted to do in the second season was set up in (the Gemma-focused) Episode 7 enough of a reason that you would feel some heartbreak and you would feel torn, and part of the audience would be going, 'Yeah, I'm with him; go with her,' and part would go 'I can't believe he's doing that.' " Scott approves of the decision not to torture viewers with more uncertainty. 'It would be cruel and unusual to end it on something like that. I'm so glad that we ended where we did, because I love the sequence of Mark and Helly running through the hall and the music; it's really fun.' Why would Mark do that in the 'Severance' finale? 'He's finally 100% breaking free of this servitude, first to Lumon and to Kier,' Scott says. And if "innie" Mark is truly the main character in the show, 'his goal is to stay alive,' Stiller explains. 'At the end of the day, he knows what that choice is to go out that door for his friends and for him, and he doesn't necessarily trust what outie Mark says.' The innies 'are starting to mature. In Season 1, they're kind of kids and in Season 2 (they're) more like these rebellious adolescents who are coming into their own," Stiller says. "Are they going to revolt against Milchick, who's having his own crisis of conscience in his relationship to the company? There are a lot of unanswered questions. It doesn't feel like it was the happy ending. I don't think a severed person is a natural state, and what we're looking at in Mark is a person who is split. The idea has always been about Mark becoming whole, accepting his grief, until something like that happens.' When will 'Severance' Season 3 be released? Apple recently touted the show as its most-watched yet, surpassing "Ted Lasso," so more 'Severance' is a given. (Stiller has a multiple-season endpoint in mind, but declines to be specific.) The ending, he says, sets up even more questions and theories for a show already filled with them. 'Where's it going? What is their fate? What's going to happen in the next moment? That's an intriguing way to end it," he says.
