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Clockwise from top: House of the Dragon, The Death of Robin Hood, Girls Like Girls, and Toy Story 5.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (Walt Disney Studios, Aidan Monaghan/A24, Focus Features), Ollie Upton/HBO
Girls who like girls who like boys who are cousins who ride dragons … or however that song goes. House of the Dragon delivered the biggest cliffhanger in last season’s finale, and season three picks up right where we left off. Thank God. It’s nice to spend Sunday with our (though, not George R.R. Martin’s) favorite telenovela disguised as a Game of Thrones prequel. If that’s not your thing, there’s always another Toy Story to make you cry, a sillier kind of awards show, and Colin Farrell as an alien detective.
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It’s been two years since we last got to watch blond Targaryens astride dragons, swooping around and killing all the loved ones they’re not having incestuous relationships with. (And probably some they are.) Season three promises to stage plenty of battles, and Olivia Cooke will still be running away with this show. —Kathryn VanArendonk
Ryan Condal, co-creator/showrunner/executive producer of HOTD, suggests Primal on HBO Max.
Ryan Condal.
Photo: Mike Marsland/Getty Images
This series is pure cinema in animated clothing. Created by Genndy Tartakovsky, Primal chronicles the adventures of unlikely companions Spear (a caveman) and Fang (a T. rex) on a proto-Earth that — at least to this fantasy-lit nerd — conjures a moving-image simulacrum of Robert E. Howard’s pulp Conan saga, as Spear and Fang encounter creatures, magic users, and civilizations that simultaneously frighten and evolve them. Originally airing on Adult Swim, a final bastion of total originality (and home of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer’s brilliant Venture Bros.), Primal’s recently completed third season is now on HBO Max. The essentially dialogue-free stories are feasts for the eyes and have a surprising amount of heart.
More than 30 years after the first Toy Story, Pixar is still finding ways to refresh these playthings. In its fifth installment, Andrew Stanton returns to the franchise as writer-director to deliver a sweet and moving take on children and technology, with the classic toys feeling threatened when an iPad-like Lilypad (Greta Lee) is introduced.
Just what we need … another gritty take on the gallant outlaw. Here, Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) is hardened by decades of doing crimes, only to find redemption in a young woman and girl (Jodie Comer and Faith Delaney).
Hayley Kiyoko’s music video inspired Hayley Kiyoko’s book which has now inspired Hayley Kiyoko’s movie (like that Lizzo meme). In Girls Like Girls, Kiyoko fleshes out the premise of her 2015 music video where a young girl Coley (Maya da Costa) moves to a new high school and meets a new friend Sonya (Myra Molloy) whom she develops strong feelings for.
Somewhere in the middle of this Los Angeles neo-noir, Colin Farrell’s quiet, well-dressed, cinema-loving private eye was revealed to be a blue-skinned alien — then the show just kept going, missing-persons mystery intact. Where does it possibly go from here? Apparently to another case with Farrell being an alien now just a given. —Nicholas Quah
Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s faux awards show has become very real over the past few years, now finding a place at Bravo. The duo behind the Las Culturistas podcast lovingly skewers the awards shows they’ve obsessively discussed on their show by producing a bonkers comedy special of their own. Their Culture Awards honor everything from major celebrities and reality stars to The Miniature Wife on Peacock.
Everybody’s watching it, but on the off chance you haven’t, the first season of this horror-thriller set on a charming (terrifying) New England island is one of the most exciting TV debuts of the year. It has evil fog, a sea hag, and killer-clown shit. It all comes to a head this week as the island’s mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), comes face to face with the island’s dark secrets. —Eric Vilas-Boas
Years after he and his mother were disowned by their wealthy family, Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) goes on a murder spree to guarantee his spot for the family inheritance. Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, and Ed Harris all star as the Redfellows standing in his way.
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Photo: The Criterion Collection
This 1998 contribution to the New Queer Cinema canon by director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right, Olive Kitteridge) joined the Criterion Collection this week. Ally Sheedy and Patricia Clarkson play two complicated lovers — a photographer and actress, respectively, whose talents have been dulled by drugs and the passing of time, and whose lives turn sideways when they meet a young, ambitious editor at a photography magazine. The film is presented in a new 4K restoration and accompanied by a raft of director-approved special features that include a commentary track, a discussion between Cholodenko and Karyn Kusama, and an essay by critic B. Ruby Rich. —E.V.B.
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