Microsoft is making SMB signing a default requirement in Windows 11 Enterprise editions, starting with insider preview build 25381.
The post Microsoft Makes SMB Signing Default Requirement in Windows 11 to Boost Security appeared first on SecurityWeek.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" was a massive audience-pleaser, and one of those faces in the theater it brought a smile to was none other than Kevin Bacon's. Imagine being Kevin Bacon sitting in your local multiplex, throwing back some popcorn and watching the latest big MCU movie only to find out you yourself end up being not only name-checked in the movie, but also become kind of essential to the plot.
Bacon would ultimately appear alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves in last year's "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," but before that was even a possibility, he was just a movie fan whose "jaw dropped" when he heard his name pop up in that first film. He described that moment in an interview with IGN:
"If you can imagine sitting there in a dark theater and all of a sudden hearing yourself name dropped in that kind of way, it's a very, very, very strange experience, but cool ... I walked out of the theater and called my wife and I said, 'I'm going to go back and see this movie. It's a great movie, and there's a little surprise in there for you, you'll see.'"
Of course, a few years later, Bacon was essentially kidnapped by Mantis and Drax as the ultimate Christmas present for Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, and he got to be more than just an inspiration for young Peter Quill.
It's worth noting that Bacon's role in the Holiday Special was to help unite the Guardians as a family, which is very much what the mere suggestion of Kevin Bacon was able to do in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy." It was Quill telling Gamora about "Footloose" that brought them closer together as a romantic pair, and it also happened to set up the big finale of that movie.
Remember, "Guardians of the Galaxy" was a movie driven by music. Not only did James Gunn write direct references to "Footloose" into the film, he also infused it with rockin' needle drops and even bookended the movie with dancing. Star-Lord dances to Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" as he recovers the orb containing the Power Stone, and the movie ends with a dance-off that defeats Ronan the Accuser by bringing all the newly formed Guardians together as one family, ready to put their own lives on the line for the others.
This parallel wasn't lost on Bacon, either. He called "Footloose" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" "symbiotic," and he's not wrong. The joy of music and expressing yourself through dance are crucial throughlines to both films, so it seems like Bacon was destined to join up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, even if he's only an honorary Guardian.
Although, we've probably not seen the last of the "Guardians of the Galaxy," so who knows? Maybe Kevin Bacon will join up with the new team down the line? One can only hope.
Read this next: 11 Things In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 That Make No Sense
The post Guardians of the Galaxy's First Footloose Reference Made Kevin Bacon's Jaw Drop appeared first on /Film.
If there's one thing legendary actress Jennifer Coolidge isn't cool with, it's boats. Or really any moving vehicle, as evidenced by a little prank "The White Lotus" creator Mike White played on her while filming the now-beloved season 2 of the HBO series. "She had such a bad time filming on the boat in the first season that I just imagined telling her, 'Yeah, now your character is going to die on a boat,'" White revealed in a May 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Maybe I'm sadistic or something, but I knew Jennifer's reaction was going to make me laugh so hard."
Poor Jennifer Coolidge, though, because the actress — along with the rest of the cast filming on the boat for their entrance scene in season 1 — had to take Dramamine, a motion sickness medicine, just to stay ready and able during the shoot, according to THR. So she was already feeling quite bad just being present on set despite the excitement of the arrival to The White Lotus Hawaii in the pilot episode.
"I can't even ride in the back seat of the car," Coolidge explained to the outlet. "Anything that rocks, any kind of motion, and I get very sick. So everyone was one foot away from me on that boat, and I was puking up my guts. When [the show] was picked up for a second season, I swear to God, I heard Mike say, 'Yeah, no more boats.' And then, guess what? Lots of boats on this show."
For Coolidge, the symptoms of motion sickness — namely the nausea and dizziness — aided in setting the tone for her somewhat outlandish and unsettling death scene in season 2. After all, actually shooting on a boat had a lot of advantages that, well, just had to be taken advantage of, both from acting and production perspectives. "There's nothing more vulnerable than being on a boat with a bunch of people that don't want you to survive," Coolidge told THR. "If we'd shot it on a soundstage, it wouldn't have been the same — because I didn't even have to imagine much. I already felt vulnerable."
Knowing Coolidge suffers from motion sickness — something I, your writer friend, actually also suffer from — adds a whole other layer of skill and smarts to her performance in Tanya's pivotal death scene in season 2. It takes a lot to put those feelings at bay to get into the headspace of a character, but it takes a whole separate set of skills to actually use the unpleasant forces that seem to invade when motion sickness takes over and parlay them into a performance. Not to say Coolidge acts sick on the boat, but knowing that she actually was somewhat uncomfortable during the shoot really brings out the sense a woman on edge, which she probably was to some degree because of her condition. Acting is a really scrappy set of skills and it's incredible to watch how different performers bend and mold it to their will. There's a reason why Coolidge is nothing short of sublime.
Read this next: The Best TV Shows Of 2022, Ranked
The post Tanya's Fate on The White Lotus Was a Prank From Mike White to Jennifer Coolidge appeared first on /Film.
"Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" immediately establishes itself as a different viewing experience from the original 2001 film, as Jake Gyllenhaal's teen protagonist rides his bike home in his pajamas to a new soundtrack song. Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" is such a signature needle drop that it feels a little off to hear it replaced by INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart."
It's as if writer-director Richard Kelly is now cueing the audience through music that it's about to enter a new "Tangent Universe," apart from the Primary Universe, just as Donnie himself does in one interpretation of the film. That interpretation gets a stronger push in "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut," which introduces those capitalized terms onscreen and pulls another soundtrack switcheroo later when it replaces composer Michael Andrews' recognizable "Liquid Spear Waltz" with a piece of opera music.
George Lucas famously changed a song at the end of "Return of the Jedi" when he did the Special Edition re-release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, but by then, almost 15 years had elapsed since the first version of the movie hit theaters. "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut," by contrast, did its liquid spear waltz into theaters in 2004, just three years after Kelly's original film -- which had bombed at the box office, only to find renewed life as a cult classic on home media. (Hence, the theatrical re-release.)
"The Director's Cut" contains almost 20 minutes of additional footage not found in the first theatrical cut of "Donnie Darko," including new and extended character interactions. We're not going to laundry-list every single change here, but what we will do is talk about how those changes alter the film's overall narrative thrust -- for better or worse.
As Radio Times notes, the most significant alteration in "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" is the appearance of pages from Roberta Sparrow's book, "The Philosophy of Time Travel," onscreen. These pages give the film appropriately non-linear chapter headings, and if you can get over the esoteric wording, they explain in no uncertain terms what's happening throughout the movie.
Rather than use common phrases like "parallel universe" or "alternate reality," Sparrow, a.k.a. Grandma Death (Patience Cleveland), writes of an unstable Tangent Universe that will last "for no longer than several weeks." This goes along with what Donnie's seemingly imaginary friend -- the six-foot-tall rabbit, Frank -- says at the beginning of the movie when he warns him about the world ending in 28 days. That warning comes after Frank has lured Donnie out of his house, just before a jet engine falls out of the sky and crashes through his bedroom ceiling.
Donnie was supposed to die, but as one of his friends says, he "cheats death," and everything from that point forward (until the end of the movie, when it returns to Donnie laughing in his bed on October 2, 1988) is a Tangent Universe. Viewers of the original "Donnie Darko" could certainly arrive at this interpretation on their own, but "The Director's Cut" puts the text up onscreen confirming it and explaining how the Tangent Universe will eventually "collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence."
This reduces the ambiguity of "Donnie Darko," which originally gave the audience more leeway to develop other possible theories. In order to save his girlfriend and the universe, Donnie has to go back in time, accept his fate, and allow himself to die at the end.
Perhaps the most blatant example of "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" overexplaining things comes when a page from "The Philosophy of Time Travel" introduces the idea of a metal "Artifact" that provides "the first sign that a Tangent Universe has occurred." The movie superimposes this explanatory text over imagery of the jet engine being removed from Donnie's house, leaving very little room for imagination as to what the Artifact here is.
At the end, "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" also juxtaposes images of the people Donnie saved, waking up, with text about the Manipulated Living and Dead and how, when "they awaken from their Journey into the Tangent Universe, they are often haunted by the experience in their dreams." The unmasked Frank (James Duval) -- whom Donnie shot in the eye after Frank accidentally drove over his girlfriend, Gretchen (Jena Malone) -- touches his eye as if he remembers, and is indeed haunted, by what happened to him in the Tangent Universe.
Collectively, these book inserts function much in the same way as superfluous voiceover would, insofar as they tell what the movie's already showing. It's worth mentioning that the very term "Tangent Universe," when applied to "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut," seems to openly acknowledge how this cut allows for unnecessary tangents, working back in deleted scenes and making it explicitly clear what the movie is about.
Contrast this with the original "Donnie Darko," which is much more fair-handed in its distribution of clues that Donnie might simply be a paranoid schizophrenic, as his own hypnotherapist, Dr. Thurman (Katherine Ross), suggests. "The Director's Cut" makes a big change undermining this interpretation when it has Dr. Thurman reveal that Donnie's medication is a placebo, "just pills made out of water."
To really appreciate how "The Director's Cut" changes "Donnie Darko," it's helpful to remember just how much the original movie planted hints that Donnie might suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. When we first meet him, he's lying in the middle of the road in his pajamas, having sleepwalked (or rather, sleep-cycled) across town. We subsequently learn that he's off his medication, and the viewer has no reason to believe that Donnie's pills are placebos, since that revelation is absent from the original theatrical cut.
It contradicts some of the other information Dr. Thurman gives us, especially the part where she tells his parents, "Donnie's aggressive behavior, his increased detachment from reality, seems to stem from his inability to cope with the forces in the world he perceives to be threatening." She goes on to imply that the hallucinations he's experiencing (of a giant bunny rabbit named Frank, and liquid spears inspired by the water tentacle in "The Abyss") are "a common occurrence among paranoid schizophrenics."
Why would she keep giving him placebos even after she's suggested this? That's just one question that "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" opens up as it, too, shows an "increased detachment from reality." Conversely, the possibility of paranoid schizophrenia causing Donnie to hallucinate keeps the original movie grounded, offering up a more plausible, reality-based explanation than Frank's through-the-looking-glass question, "Do you believe in time travel?"
Donnie's sister, Samantha (Daveigh Chase) -- who received her own messy spin-off sequel, "S. Darko" -- interrupts one of his early conversations with Frank, walking in on him and bursting his bubble (and ours) with another question: "Who are you talking to?" Donnie replies, "I was just taking my pills," and it instantly throws into doubt the reality of what we've just witnessed.
In the original "Donnie Darko," religion is more of a background shading. There's a scene where Dr. Thurman asks Donnie if he feels alone, and he gives a long answer, but it's not until she chimes in again that the dialogue clarifies they're talking about "the search for God" and feeling alone in the universe. "Donnie Darko: The Directors Cut" adds another moment where Dr. Thurman explains to Donnie the difference between an atheist and agnostic (he's the latter, she says).
At one point, we hear how Roberta Sparrow was a nun who left the church to teach science and write "The Philosophy of Time Travel." Yet were it not for the students' uniforms, some viewers might not even realize that Donnie, as The Atlantic observes, attends a Catholic school. In 2017, Richard Kelly told the site, "The search for God in science is perhaps the greatest quest of our species, and I like to tell stories about characters confronting God through these science-fiction mechanisms."
Like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, whose moonlit bike ride this movie evokes, Donnie Darko, the self-sacrificing teen with a superhero name, can be seen as something of a sci-fi Christ figure -- as improbable and oxymoronic as that might sound. Despite his initials, this would surely make Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze), with his kiddie porn dungeon, "the Anti-Christ," as Donnie calls him.
When Donnie and Professor Monnitoff (Noah Wyle) are discussing "pre-formed destiny," Donnie talks about God controlling time and how a time traveler could theoretically avoid negating destiny by traveling "within God's channel." This is what Donnie does in the Tangent Universe, which is like the vision of earthly life that Willem Dafoe's Jesus has in "The Last Temptation of Christ" (a title that appears on the movie marquee behind Donnie).
With one-liners like, "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!" and, "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" "Donnie Darko" remains as quotable as ever. Drew Barrymore's final scene as Donnie's teacher, Ms. Pomeroy, popularized the idea that "cellar door" is the most beautiful phrase in the English language. In "The Director's Cut," Donnie reads a poem about Frank in her class, and she substitutes the rabbit-laden "Watership Down" for the outgoing Graham Greene book. Classroom discussion among hormonal teens about the breeding habits of rabbits ensues.
To be clear, the original "Donnie Darko" seeds in plenty of hints in favor of time travel or a time loop theory, such as Donnie's conversation with Professor Monnitoff about "a wormhole with an Einstein-Rosen Bridge" and how the vessel for time travel could be a "metal craft of any kind." There are also hints that Donnie's destiny and Frank are putting everything into place for him to fall into what "The Director's Cut" calls an "Ensurance Trap," whereby he will want to "go back in time and replace all those hours of pain and darkness."
Witness the cellar door that leads to Donnie's doom, and Grandma Death puttering out to the mailbox at just the right moment so that the car swerves to hit Gretchen. In the original movie, however, these coincidences are counter-balanced with suggestions of mental illness. The trauma of seeing Gretchen run down could just as easily cause Donnie to project his imaginary friend's face onto the driver who killed her. His final portal trip could be a break from reality, where he imagines himself dying to prevent tragedy, in accordance with the "Mad World" lyric: "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."
There's a lot going on in "Donnie Darko"; it's one of those movies where you can watch it and rewatch it and notice new things every time. Even scenes of comic relief like the self-help video with a bed-wetter exclaiming "I'm not afraid anymore!" betray hidden meanings. Case in point: there's a line right before that where a "fear survivor" says, "I looked through the mirror, and in that image, I saw my ego reflection."
According to one theory— yet another interpretation "The Director's Cut" debunks — this is what Donnie does with his giant bunny rabbit friend, Frank. As that theory goes, maybe there is no Frank, and Donnie's just talking to himself in the mirror as he grapples with the terrible knowledge, imparted to him by Grandma Death, that "every living creature on earth dies alone." Given that Donnie is destined to save the universe ("The Director's Cut" calls him "The Living Receiver" instead of the Chosen One, but same difference), it seems more likely, in this interpretation, that Frank reflects Donnie's self-importance, rather than his Freudian ego, which would normally help govern a human being's inflated sense of worth as they reckon with their place in the cosmos.
Jim Cunningham, who gives seminars about "attitudinal beliefs," calls Donnie "a very troubled and confused young man." Though Donnie exposes the hypocrisy of Cunningham and conservative teacher Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant), his history of juvenile delinquency repeats itself when he burns down Cunningham's house. (It's revealed in dialogue beforehand that Donnie already burned down a house once before.)
Ultimately, accepting Donnie — and "The Director's Cut" itself — as the Chosen One may just serve to reflect one's own beliefs about the need for narrative clarity, and whether we're alone in the universe or have someone "watching over" us, like Donnie.
"Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" is an interesting supplement to the first theatrical cut of the film, but its added scenes also interrupt the flow of the narrative and rob the movie of some of its mystery, spelling out in onscreen text what's happening through the pages of "The Philosophy of Time Travel." Ultimately, the original version of the film is a cult classic that's fine as-is, while the trajectory of Richard Kelly's career in the years since "Donnie Darko" leaves some room to question whether his directorial judgment is always the best.
After the critical and commercial failure of "Southland Tales" and "The Box" in the mid-to-late 2000s, Kelly went into a long hibernation, and while it's never too late for a comeback, he still hasn't made a movie since 2009. In 2021, when "Donnie Darko" was celebrating its 20th anniversary, /Film's Jack Giroux interviewed Kelly, who indicated that he has done uncredited writing work on other completed films in the intervening years, and that he has ten different scripts or projects of his own that are ready to go next in various stages.
Until one of those materializes, fans are left to revisit "Donnie Darko." It's been said that every filmmaker has at least one great movie in them; this was Kelly's. Perhaps the best way to reconcile his director's cut with the "Donnie Darko" viewers first fell in love with is to think of it as its own 133-minute Tangent Universe, not unlike the 28-day one Donnie visits. In the end, having seen what the Tangent Universe has to offer (which isn't always better), the audience is free to let it collapse in on itself and return to the Primary Universe of the original "Donnie Darko."
Read this next: Sci-Fi Movies You Never Realized Were In The Same Universe
The post How Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut Changes the Movie (For Better or Worse) appeared first on /Film.
The final scenes of "Star Trek: Picard" saw Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) commanding the newly christened Enterprise-G (previously the Titan-A), taking her ship out on a brand new exploratory mission, exhilaratingly adding to the "Star Trek" legacy. Her first officer was her ex-girlfriend Commander Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and the ship is being piloted by Ensign La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) Geordi's daughter. Notably, Jean-Luc Picard's son Jack (Ed Speleers) sat at the captain's left hand serving as her special council.
Just before leaping to warp, the crew turns to their captain in expectation, wondering how she's going to give the order to activate the engines. Picard previously said "Engage" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," as well as "Make it so." Other captains have adopted other dramatic phrases such as "Let's punch it" (Pike in the 2009 "Star Trek" film) or "I would like the ship to go. Now." (Spock on "Strange New Worlds"). What was Captain Seven's "catchphrase" going to be?
As a fun tease, Seven took in a breath to give the order, and then the showrunners cut away before audiences could hear her answer. It seems we'll never know what her version of "engage" will be.
It turns out, however, that Seven did have a catchphrase. In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, "Picard" showrunner Terry Matalas revealed that they shot an unused scene wherein other characters gave a reaction to her saying "her line," but that the scene was edited out at the last minute. What was the phrase? Matalas was frustratingly coy.
"Picard" contains a fun post-credits tease involving Jack and Q (John De Lancie), the trickster god who once gave Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) such trouble. The scene wasn't just a wink for fans, but was fully intended to tease out a (still not-in-production) spinoff series that Matalas would like to call "Star Trek: Legacy." That was ultimately the final scene in the series, but, it seems, Matalas has orchestrated one more. He described it thus:
"We had a few options, and we actually shot a post-post-credit to them reacting disappointed to it, and she's like, 'This is a work in progress.' But it's better left as a mystery that we hope to see it one day. Yeah. We'll see. It was pretty great though."
A wise cut, one might say. Leaving "Star Trek: Picard" on a shot of disappointed ensigns may not be the epic send-out the series might need.
Yes, it seems that the tease of not hearing Captain Seven's "Engage" was an act of deliberate withholding. Matalas was clearly hoping that frustrated fans, wanting to hear the catchphrase, would write letters to Paramount, imploring that "Star Trek: Legacy" be given the green light, and that Seven be allowed to say "Let's kick this pig," or whatever it might be. That Matalas claims he knows what the phrase is, well, that only sweetens the pot. Hey, Trekkies, keep writing letters.
Now for the fun speculation: Captain Seven of Nine learned her command skills mostly from Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) on "Star Trek: Voyager," so one might assume she would imitate her. Janeway merely said "Engage," however, and Seven would need something more in her own personal character. Given that she is a former Borg, might I suggest "Comply"?
Read this next: 11 Reasons Why The Next Generation Is The Best Star Trek Show
The post Star Trek: Picard Filmed The Seven Of Nine Captain Catchphrase Fans Didn't See appeared first on /Film.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Though it was Wolfenstein 3D that kickstarted the FPS genre, it's Doom that everybody loves the most. Doom's contributions to the gaming world go well beyond it just being an amazing game. It popularized not only 3D in games but also the concepts of shareware and modding. Doom invited everyone to first experience it, then to do better. This approach paved the way for loads of original games and legitimate careers in the games industry. Taking a look back at the early days of Doom is taking a look at a much less cynical time in the history of the gaming industry.
But which game in the Doom series sits atop the throne as the best we've ever seen? It's hard to rank the games of a 30-year-spanning series without causing disagreements between the very different people from very different generations who have played the games. Worry not, though, as our ranking of the Doom games is 100% correct.
[caption id="attachment_260000" align="alignnone" width="1280"]
Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]
The game that started it all (if you forget Wolfenstein 3D). Despite the technical prowess behind it, Doom was simple and efficient. No big plot, just a bunch of beautiful levels where a man faces insurmountable odds while armed solely with an insurmountability-proof arsenal. On top of its single-player campaign, the original Doom also introduced the concept of Deathmatch, paving the way for online gaming.
Though not technically 3D, Doom deserves credit for one of the most important moments in gaming history, the eventual shifting of most of the industry away from 2D. Did we mention that it was and still is a lot of fun?
Please don't feel bad that we're putting it last. It's just a statement regarding the series' continuous evolution.
Strengths: Though severely dated, it's still one hell of a lot of fun.
Weaknesses: We wouldn't dare call anything here a weakness.
[caption id="attachment_238065" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by Bethesda[/caption]
We used to ask a lot less from sequels back in the day. The bad news about Doom II is that it's just the original game with new maps, more enemy variety, and one more gun. The good news is that having a new gun and more stuff to use it on is pretty great when the game in question is already Doom.
The even better news is that the new gun in question is the Super Shotgun, which remains one of the more satisfying weapons we can use to turn demons into soup.
Doom II didn't really revolutionize the world as the first one did. Still, we must ask, could we have handled yet another revolution of such magnitude by then?
Strengths: It has more cool stuff than the original.
Weaknesses: It's basically just Doom, but we're not complaining.
[caption id="attachment_383807" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by MobyGames[/caption]
Despite its confusing name, Final Doom isn't the definitive version of the original Doom. It's an expansion for Doom II that serves as the culmination of the classic Doom games and feels like a massive treat for the fans of the original two games.
Final Doom adds two new episodes that amount to 32 new levels. It's great, but remember, this isn't your classic stroll through Hell. Final Doom is for Doom veterans, so expect difficulty that comes not just from combat but also from more complex levels.
Strengths: Higher difficulty. This is the perfect culmination for lovers of the two original games.
Weaknesses: Don't play it if you think Doom II feels old—or difficult.
[caption id="attachment_243808" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by Romero Games[/caption]
Sigil is an unofficial expansion containing nine new single-player levels and nine new multiplayer maps. It doesn't count as canon because it's not owned by Bethesda, but it was made by John Romero, the brain behind the original Doom levels, so it counts as canon in our hearts.
Sigil also introduces new weapons and a story with the guts to incorporate a Baphomet glitch into its plot. It's wild. Sigil doesn't revolutionize the Doom experience that we know and love, but its intricate level design highlights the experience John Romero has accumulated over the past 20 years.
Another really cool thing about Sigil is that you can either get it for free or in a luxuriously cool physical format.
Strengths: This is the original Doom II gameplay at its freshest. It's like an unreleased greatest hits album.
Weaknesses: More of the same.
Bonus: And if you're really into John Romero's work, you can buy his newest Doom II level, One Humanity. The money will go towards helping the people of Ukraine, the Red Cross, and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.
[caption id="attachment_248700" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]
Those who made the strange jump from the PC to the Nintendo 64 back in 1997 found in Doom 64 the graphical improvements that Doom II lacked.
Despite not being an id Software product, Doom 64 is a more than worthy successor to Doom II, a completely new game with a fresh campaign filled with amazing new levels. Anyone interested in this peculiar title will probably enjoy learning that we can finally experience it on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch if you want to be kind of a purist.
And if learning about the re-release gets you excited, we have even better news. Players who beat the campaign will gain access to something called "Lost Levels," an awesome new campaign hidden behind the old one. The new campaign rocks on its own but earns extra points by connecting the events of the older Doom games to the reboot from 2016.
Weirdly enough, though, Doom 64 doesn't feature any multiplayer options.
Strengths: Provides the graphical evolution that Doom II didn't.
Weaknesses: It's hard to forgive a Nintendo 64 game that doesn't feature local multiplayer.
[caption id="attachment_253197" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by Bethesda[/caption]
This is easily the most divisive entry in the series, and we understand.
On the one hand, it looked better than everything else on the market when it came out. Yes, younger readers, Doom 3 once blew us away with those weird, oily, and rubbery looks. On the other hand, the once-masterful graphical improvements didn't bring along an equally daunting gameplay upgrade. Doom 3's campaign feels dated when compared to even that of the original Half-Life. It's no wonder it didn't fare too well against Half-Life 2.
Still, we get the sense that Doom 3 gave us exactly what the developers wanted to create, and that was a slower and more intimate descent into Hell. Most don't give it enough credit in that regard, but Doom 3 not only mastered dark and creepy sci-fi environments. It also mastered the art of jump scares. Nobody ever puts Doom 3 in a "best of" horror games list, but it packed some serious scares back in the day—and it still does.
Strengths: It features beautiful environments and interesting reimaginings of classic enemies, and it gets scary as hell.
Weaknesses: Weirdly simplistic gameplay for something that looked so far ahead of its time.
[caption id="attachment_383811" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by MobyGames[/caption]
Doom 3's sole expansion successfully dealt with some of the main game's weakest aspects. Resurrection Of Evil added a few new weapons and special abilities that spiced up the otherwise conservative original.
The most interesting addition is the grabber, a weapon that allows players to levitate and throw objects at enemies—or to simply fling their projectiles back at them. Sadly for fans of the evolving FPS genre at the time, however, all the cool new additions serve only combat purposes and don't really take the gameplay in any really imaginative direction.
More cynical minds could accuse Resurrection Of Evil of being no more than an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the gravity gun, but it's more than that. Resurrection Of Evil offers neat gameplay improvements that result in a nice mini-campaign. Also, ROE had to exist because it provides the closure to the story that Doom 3 lacked.
Strengths: Shows more of Doom 3's beautiful hell realm. A new weapon that allows players to control physics.
Weaknesses: It's very short. Resurrection Of Evil's use of physics pales in comparison to what Valve had achieved with Half-Life 2's gravity gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPyq0jFgVjI
Disclaimer: We know Brutal Doom isn't an official entry in the series. We also know we would be doing such a mod-friendly series a disservice if we were to ignore its greatest mod. Putting the word Brutal in front of Doom might seem unnecessary, but this mod by Marcos "Sargeant Mark IV" Abenante isn't kidding around.
Brutal Doom doesn't just greatly increase the amount of blood and guts seen in the original Doom. It modernizes its entire gunplay without messing up its beautiful surface. It also adds melee combat, glory-kill animations, stealth elements, and headshots. Don't think this will be a walk in the park, though, as Brutal Doom also makes enemies much faster and more capable.
Strengths: It brings the gameplay of the original Doom to new heights—and speeds.
Weaknesses: It mostly looks like the old Doom if you count that as a problem.
[caption id="attachment_205367" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Image by Bethesda[/caption]
Though Doom 3 hit many of the right beats, it failed to reach the series' full potential in the eyes of fans. The Doom reboot had a long and arduous development cycle, one that nearly ended with it becoming a Call Of Duty clone. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and we ended up getting one of the best reboots of all time.
The reboot did away with the slow pace of Doom 3, and with that alone, created a completely new thing. Doom was no longer about scaring the player. It was now about the player making Hell itself feel afraid. How did the devs do that? By empowering the Doom Slayer in all sorts of marvelous ways and thus turning the new Doom into one of the most fast-paced and brutal shooters ever made.
Strengths: Doom redesigned as a series of ever-harder arenas was an ace move. Aside from the pistol, all the weapons are extremely fun to use. The game looks gorgeous and runs very well on weaker hardware.
Weaknesses: The first level of the game only gives players access to the basic pistol. That doesn't do a great job of enticing players for what is to come. We forgive the devs, though, because they give us a Shotgun right at the start of...
[caption id="attachment_258088" align="alignnone" width="1920"]
Image by Bethesda[/caption]
We're not going to hold it against anyone who puts the Doom reboot above Doom Eternal. It comes down to a matter of preference. Gameplay or plot? The reboot features a better plot in the sense the developers understood nobody cares about the plot in these games, so there mostly isn't one. In the reboot, the Doom Slayer actively disregards learning about important story elements, whereas Doom Eternal makes him fully invested in what's happening, down to giving him a backstory. We're not thrilled about that, especially after Doom nailed the character so well.
And yet, like overly nice parents who encourage their kids with treats whenever they want them to study, the developers got our backs. Though they invited us to sit through a bland story, they made up with all kinds of excellent gameplay additions. We got a hook, a shoulder cannon, a dash, an insta-kill sword, and a new replenishment system that made the game more hectic than ever before.
Also, who could forget the Marauder, an enemy in a Doom game that requires players to think? The Marauder rocks, not just because it's the most interesting enemy in the history of Doom but because it might pave the way for sequels filled with way more challenging enemies. Doom might never beat the Half-Life series in terms of level design or puzzle ingenuity, but it could further surpass its rivals in its approach to combat.
And maybe, just maybe, the uninteresting plot isn't the terrible feature we think it is. Maybe it's just the developers' way to make us skip it—just like the real Doom Slayer would.
Strengths: The most refined and hectic gameplay in the entire series. The most fun arsenal and the best enemies to use it on. One of the enemies, the Marauder, provides the most fun challenge we've ever seen in the series. Absolutely glorious soundtrack.
Weaknesses: One of the few instances in which a bigger emphasis on plot and backstory doesn't pay off. A sad mistake after they aced the approach to the plot in Doom (2016).
The post Best Doom games, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.
Andy Muschietti's "The Flash" is almost upon us. Only two more weeks until the movie is out in theaters and it has already garnered very strong word of mouth from the CinemaCon screening as well as advance fan and press screenings. The studio has very rudely not shown me the movie yet, so I can't join in on the quality discussion, but I can say that I'm very excited by all the positive word thus far.
I'm particularly excited to see what they do with this Supergirl business. I'm not very familiar with Sasha Calle's other work, but I'd be lying if I wasn't immediately enamored by her when they announced her casting by showing her reaction to hearing the news that she was cast during a Zoom meeting with Muschietti. Her obvious passion for the character and excitement at the opportunity was contagious and I was instantly down to see what they were going to do with her here.
Now, we know that the DC Extended Universe is forever altered by the events of "The Flash," but we don't know to what extent. I guess we won't know even after we've all seen "The Flash," since James Gunn and Peter Safran's big reshaping of the DC Universe is still in its early days.
The question remains: is there a place for Sasha Calle's Supergirl in the new DCU? This very question was asked of Calle by our own Jenna Busch-Henderson and her answer may not surprise you, but it is a good example of just how attached to this character she has become.
The gist of Jenna's question was about whether or not there have been any talks about her returning, especially considering Gunn has announced a "Supergirl" standalone movie based on the "Woman of Tomorrow" comics. This was her response:
"Oh, look, I hope to continue playing Supergirl. I love her. I'm so deeply in love with her. I think she's so incredible and so complex. And I think in this film, this is really the runway for her. We see this glimpse of her, but there's still so much to unpack in her story. I'm excited to take her apart and put her back in and just enjoy her with the world. I think there's so much story to tell, and I would love to continue playing Supergirl."
Obviously, that doesn't answer the larger question at hand, but at least Calle has put her love of the character and desire to return to the role on record. It's not like she'd come out and be like "Meh, I'll pass," of course, but it does sound like Calle has done a ton of homework for this character and is ready to be put back into the fight should Gunn and Safran want her back.
We'll know more as Gunn's own "Superman" movie moves forward and casting news start to come out for his "Gods and Monsters" phase of the DCU.
Read this next: Every DC Movie Made Prior To The DCEU Ranked From Worst To Best
The post The Flash's Sasha Calle Would Love to Keep Playing Supergirl in James Gunn's Rebooted DC Universe [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
As I was using some of the indicators we already had (file and process names) to pivot into the timeline, I saw that I had Security Event Log records from 2020...now, that is weird! After all, it's not often that I see Security Event Log records going back a week or month, let alone 3 years!
Another indicator was the sessions.pl output from Events Ripper; I had logins lasting 26856 hours (1119 days), and others lasting -16931 hours (over 705 days). Given how the session span is calculated, I knew some was "off" in the Security (and very likely, other) Event Logs, particular the records associated with logon and logoff events.
I knew something was up, but I also knew that finding the "what was up" was also based largely on my experience, and might not be something a new or more junior analyst would be familiar with. After all, if an analyst was to create a timeline (and I'm seeing everyday that's a pretty big "if"), and if they were pivoting off of known indicators to build context, then how likely would it be that they had the experience to know that something was amiss?
So, naturally, I wrote an Events Ripper plugin (timechange.pl) to pull Security-Auditing/4616 event records from the Security Event Log and display the available information in a nice table. The plugin collects all of these events, with the exception of sub-second time changes (which can be fairly common), and displays them in a table showing the user, the time changed from, the time changed to, and via which process. I wrote the plugin, and it produced an entry on the next investigation...not one that had much impact on what was going on, as the system clock was updated by a few minutes, but this simply shows me how the use of plugins like this can be very valuable for elevating interesting and important artifacts to the analyst for review without requiring that analyst to have extensive experience.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator has quickly become one of the most exciting emulators ever made, as the development team has continuously improved it since its public launch at a surprising speed, reaching another important milestone earlier this week when the emulator was launched on the Google Play Store for Android devices.
While the Android version of the emulator is not yet capable of running every Nintendo Switch game with perfect performance, it is definitely capable of running the latest games more than decently. The mobile version of the emulator can already run Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at around 20 frames per second on a ROG Phone 6 Pro with default settings, which is quite impressive, considering the emulator has just been released.
TOTK Yuzu Android - Good job Yuzu Team! Surprised that this is running on default settings! (ROG 6 Pro)
by u/PlacidBeetle in yuzu
On a related note, those enjoying Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on PC with the main version of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator can now have a much better experience at ultrawide resolutions thanks to two new mods that were released online this week. The first mod, the Ultrawide UI fix, attempts to fix the interface alignment at ultrawide resolutions such as 3440 x 1440 and 5140 x 1440 resolutions, while the Any Aspect Ratio custom utility allows users to create a mod that patches the game to any aspect ratio possible. This mod is still in early development, so there are plenty of issues, but it's still impressive how something like this is already possible on PC with a game released less than a month ago on another platform.
The Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator can be downloaded from its official website. The Android version is now available on the Google Play Store.
When you’re putting your rig to the test with the latest triple-A release, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on how your components are faring. There’s a few ways to do that: you can hit up Task Manager, or install a third party app like Nvidia GeForce Experience. Now, you’re even more spoilt for choice, with Microsoft adding some useful widgets to Windows 11 to do just that.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This article contains spoilers for the "Barry" finale.
"Barry" has always delved deep into the psychology of the main character, and the fourth and final season continued exploring Barry's mind even after he died in the series finale. He has always had competing desires in his double life of killing and performing. In his life as an actor, Berkman played the role of a good-hearted soldier who saw some bad things but was ultimately a good guy. He killed to maintain this facade, but when he got caught for those killings, his fake identity collapsed.
Starting a new life as a fugitive, Barry had a son and gave himself a whole new audience to stage his heroism for. He always hoped the world would see him as a stand-up guy rather than knowing the real him. The hitman might not have lived to see it, but he got exactly what he wanted — a real Hollywood ending. Berkman realized at the very beginning of the series that he is attracted to performing, to taking a sliver of truth and using it as a mask. This is what gravitated him towards the acting class of Gene Cousineau, the man who would eventually be framed for Barry's crimes.
Before Gene was inevitably imprisoned, Barry was on the run. He shielded his son from the world in fear that he might catch onto his parents' lies. The serial killer turned to his own convoluted interpretation of religion and did his best to act like a real All-American family man. "He's very much trying to paint the version of himself that he wants to be to his son," series creator and star Bill Hader explained to TV Line. "How his son sees him is how he's always wanted to be seen by everybody."
Becoming an Evangelical, overbearing stay-at-home dad might have seemed like a total 180 for a murderous fugitive, but the part was actually well within Barry's wheelhouse. Being a stand-up father was just a role to Barry, who had always been drawn to acting, only this time the stakes were a little higher. "The thing that was nice about him having a kid is Barry had a chance to be the person he always wanted to be in the eyes of his son [...]" Hader told The Wrap. "This kind of upstanding American guy, which is a character he's playing. So they're still acting."
The most important thing for Barry was to maintain his hero image in his son's eyes, to be redeemed through this fabricated persona that he had created and maintained for John's benefit. Luckily for Barry, the world would help him maintain this carefully constructed lie even after his death.
Cousineau signed his own proverbial death warrant the minute he shot Barry. He was already being accused of orchestrating the murder that Barry had committed, and now it really looked like he was behind it all. With no confession to counter the accusations levied against him, Gene was villainized so hard that they got a British guy to play him in the movie — and everyone knows the most sinister and calculating villains are British!
Barry, on the other hand, was lauded as a troubled veteran and naive victim of Cousineau's manipulation. The court of public opinion (and of law) found him to be a hunk and a war hero. The misinformed Hollywood narrative lines up almost perfectly with the fantasy that Barry had created for his son. When John watched "The Mask Collector," he didn't see unjust inaccuracy — he saw his late father's bravery.
So, how much does John know about Barry's past? At the beginning of the series finale, before the final time jump, Sally confessed to her son that his father has killed a lot of people, and not as a soldier, but as a murderer. Even though Barry is vehemently opposed to violent video games, he does defend the home with a gun in episode 5 and has clearly opened up about his past in the armed service.
It seems that Sally has tried to keep John sheltered from the truth of his father's crimes into his teenage years since he was not allowed to watch "The Mask Collector" at home and had to see it in secret. Since John readily believed the story told in the film, it would seem that Sally kept her son in the dark about the specifics of Barry's murders. It's possible that she didn't want to give him the gruesome details, or that she hadn't wanted to revisit the subject since Barry's death.
Maybe John just didn't remember that his mother had told him his father was a murderer all those years ago. Maybe he thought she was misinformed. Maybe Sally thought it would be best to maintain Barry's lie — like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. Or maybe the movie was so compelling he threw everything he knew to be true about his father out the window.
Maybe he simply wanted to believe the Hollywood lie.
Read this next: The 18 Best Crime Dramas In TV History
The post Barry Finally Became The Hero He Always Wanted To Be In The Series Finale appeared first on /Film.
“Oh yeah, we’ve got the System Shock IP,” said the insurance company. “What do you want to do with it? Do you want to make a sequel?”
It’s a question you could imagine being posed to Ken Levine, or Warren Spector, or several other notable designers who could reasonably lay claim to the legacy of Looking Glass and Irrational’s legendary immersive sims. Instead, it was asked of Stephen Kick - at the time, a recently unemployed videogame artist holidaying in a Guatemalan hostel. Up until that point, Kick had dedicated his life to creative pursuits. He had no business background, and none of the acumen required to understand contracts or negotiate licensing fees. More to the point, he had no more than $5,000 to his name. Hardly the foundation for a follow-up to two of the most acclaimed PC games of all time.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
If there’s one thing you should take away from this System Shock remake review, it’s that this is the most playable version of the classic PC game. Both its 1994 original and the subsequent Enhanced Edition from 2015 suffer at the hands of a user interface with more in common with Excel spreadsheets than a first-person shooter. The System Shock remake from Nightdive Studios is far more game-like, but it’s still perhaps a little too faithful to the source material.
As a hacker arrested for attempting to steal company secrets, you soon find yourself onboard a dilapidated space colony, festering with mutants, rogue robots, and humans turned into corrupted androids. Unfortunately, all of them are trying to kill you without provocation, presenting a slight hiccup in your interstellar journey. As it turns out, the ship is under the control of the now-sentient ship’s ai: SHODAN, whose moral inhibitors you disabled not long before. As one of the last living people onboard the space colony, it’s up to you to stop SHODAN’s plans to exterminate the human race.
The Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator received a new update that further improves the emulation of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, fixing an annoying visual issue and introducing a performance improvement of over 50% in certain scenarios.
The latest Early Access version, 3621, addresses the issue which causes missing menu images for weapons. As the issue is caused by Asynchronous Shared Building, the team introduced an option to reset the cache storage in the remove items section that appears when right-clicking on the game in the game list. Doing so will display the image correctly without clearing the shader.
The above fix isn't the only Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom improvement brought by the Yuzu Early Access 3621 version. The new update fixes audio desync and crackling, which can happen under certain conditions, and improves Open GL performance by over 50%, not only in the latest entry in the Zelda series but also in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and other titles.
As it usually is with Early Access releases, the fixes introduced by version 3621 will only make their way into the main build of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator in the coming days. If you cannot wait, you can get access to all Early Access releases by subscribing to the emulator's Patreon page.
More information on the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator can be found on its official website. The installer for the current latest build of the emulator can also be downloaded from there.
Carrying a reusable water bottle is good for both you and the environment. But without regular cleaning, it may not be as helpful and healthy as you think, as bacteria and mold can easily make themselves at home.
It's all over now, the big "Succession" question answered, and who can say it ended well? Well, maybe Tommy Boy can. You might not have seen the winner of the series finale coming from left field, outside of the family and the average fan's field of vision, but the biggest betrayal was hiding in plain sight. Even with silver spoons in their mouth, nepotism couldn't save the Roy siblings in the end. They failed to band together, and the boy from St. Paul took it all.
Despite the human foostooling and laughable public speaking, Tom still managed to retain a much better reputation as a boss than any of the Roy siblings. By realizing he was dispensable and presenting himself as such, he managed to become invaluable. But even though Tom ended up with the title, is he really on top?
The winners and losers might seem obvious in this one, but the shake-down is still up for debate. Roman and Shiv was a toss-up, Greg and Tom had a smack-down, but only one head ended up with the crown — and it sure as s*** wasn't a Roy.
The self-proclaimed eldest Roy boy is completely lost. Kendall's been groomed for the top job from the time he was 7 years old, ever since his dad promised him a multi-billion dollar media empire at the Candy Factory in Bridgehampton. He said it best himself — he is a (defective) cog built to fit only one machine. Now, without Waystar to guide him, he is looking out into the void without anything to tether him.
The golden fail-son's empire of cards was always doomed to collapse — I mean, look at the literal collapsing house that was the Living+ presentation — but it's still a tough pill to swallow, and he's more of a powder guy. Kendall was nowhere near ready to give up this delusion, and he was riding the high of being crowned alpha dog of the family in one last twisted Roy ritual. Sadly for him, winning a game of dog pound does not a CEO make.
Kendall's darkest moment came back to haunt him in the eleventh hour, and he responded in the worst way possible: with a blatant and poorly constructed lie. With that, Kendall lost the support of both his siblings and revealed himself for what he is: made of paper, easily collapsible, or as Roman so succinctly put it, "bulls***."
Woof, was he pulling for the wrong team! He never had a chance in hell of making anything good happen for himself, but now he's really done it. And with Kendall no longer in a position of power, who's to say how his mini-scandal is going to shake out?
If Waystar needed an excuse to fire him, they definitely have one, and he was already on the kill list. That's not to mention the problems bubbling under the surface of his personal life. His superiors on every side want his head on a spike, as Karolina reveals in one final aside to Shiv before the big vote. Meanwhile, his estranged daughter is committing white-collar crimes! Hugo didn't stand to lose as much as some of the other characters, and yet he is still easily one of the biggest losers of the episode. He might have been a minor player, but he struck out in a major way.
Things have been going well for Connor this season. Despite taking a big loss in the election, his delusions of grandeur got away unscathed and he still managed to score a little something from Mencken. The best thing he had going for him, though, was the unexpected success of his marriage.
What started as a very cold and transactional relationship had evolved into a rather supportive partnership. Willa has stuck up for Connor and shown him compassion time and time again. Despite the financially driven nature of their relationship, she has shown Connor an increasing amount of warmth over the past couple of seasons. But once she saw that his political ambitions weren't fading any time soon, she seemed to ice Connor out of her heart once again. Now she's planning on taking over Logan's apartment, bringing in a cow print couch, and living her best life as a Park Avenue princess while he slums it in Slovakia.
And that's the best-case scenario. If Mencken doesn't get elected, Connor is out of a job, and who knows what he's going to direct all that terrifying energy and capital into next? I wanted the Con-heads to inherit the earth just as much as the next guy, but it's not looking good for our boy.
Stewy hasn't taken a lot of losses over the course of "Succession." In the past, he's always followed the money, despite the bridges that it might burn between old friends, but he's been riding for Team Kendall this season. It was eventually his downfall, but it was kind of sweet that he finally stood up for his old pal, wasn't it? After that devastating betrayal in the vote of no confidence in season one, I thought for sure that history would repeat itself this time, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Stewy's display of loyalty was completely endearing, but it may have cost him some major points with his closest allies, the Sandies, along with any pull he could have retained with Matsson. Choosing friendship or even short-sighted greed over a well-informed business decision may have been the worst mistake of Stewy's career, but it was kind of a touching moment for a historically sleazy character. Besides, something tells me he will bounce back.
They were really teasing us by dragging this red herring back into the ring for one more round. The dejected founder of the failed Vice-like start-up that Kendall pumped with cash in season one and gutted in season two was dangled in front of the Roy siblings like a carrot on a string in this episode. He was one of the many ghosts of Kendall's past that came back to haunt him in this episode, but he didn't end up being much of a threat tangibly — merely an existential pawn in a game of chicken.
But Laurence didn't ever come back and eat them all in the end, did he? It's kind of a shame — it would have been sort of hilarious to see the underdog finally give his arch-nemesis his comeuppance. Unfortunately, he was nothing more than a little bait and switch to scare the sibs. That'll be a smokescreen, I'm afraid.
The runt of the Roy litter might be crazy, but he's finally free. Roman arguably came out of the finale better off than either of his siblings, actually. The only reason that he's lower on the list than Shiv is that he had no leverage in this episode. He was totally hopeless the entire time. There was no world in which Roman was going to rebel against Kendall. He never could have been the CEO, and he never would have gotten onto Matsson's team. Voting for Kendall was his only choice.
Roman has done a terrible job in his short time as CEO but, unlike Kendall, he started to realize just how incapable he truly was. With the company totally out of his reach, the pressure is taken off of his shoulders. He's back where he was at the beginning of the series but without any glimmer of hope to keep him on the hook.
He understood that he and his siblings were all "bulls***" and that they would run their father's company into the ground, which is why he'll be better off than either Kendall or Shiv, who both believed they could run it well. Since he was already hopeless, he was able to accept the loss and understand that it was the best possible outcome. Now he's just insanely rich and devoid of responsibility. Oh no! What a terrible fate! All told, he just got several hundred pounds lighter and several hundred million dollars richer — all in all, not such a bad day for Rome.
The minute someone says they've won in "Succession," you know they're in trouble. Shiv got cocky and started counting her chickens. She was doing victory laps around her brothers at the beginning of the episode, starring in a political cartoon as Mattsson's puppeteer, and by the end she had nothing. In a classic Shiv move, she jumped the shark once again.
Using her final piece of leverage to pull the rug out from under Kendall has earned her a higher spot on the list than Roman. It was her only power move, but it also killed any chance of her and her family having sway over the company. But, hey, Shiv's still pulling Tom's strings, right? She wanted Tom back at the beginning of the episode and she got him, right?
Well, not exactly. The power dynamic between Tom and Shiv was totally upended the minute he betrayed her at the end of season 3. Shiv was able to gain an advantage over him again after Logan died and he was sent into free-fall, but once he got a taste for power — and she a taste of betrayal — things were never going to be the same between them.
Even still, Shiv ended up the wife of a powerful man, the only remaining link to her family's company. That doesn't seem like such a bad shake for most, but for Shiv, it's her perfect idea of hell. She's cursed to become her worst fear: her mother — married to the CEO of a media empire, stuck caring for children she never really wanted.
Karl pretty much got exactly what he wanted, his beanpole fully buttered, but he didn't have to do anything and couldn't have even if he wanted to, which is why he is sitting comfortably in the middle of the list. Frank on the other hand commanded the room, cornered the vote, and came off calm, cool, and collected in his final act as board chairman. He was on Matsson's kill list, so it confused me that he was advocating for the deal at first. However, I am entertaining the idea that this was Frank's plan all along.
Maybe, like Karl, he just wanted a big payout so he could live out the rest of his days in peace. After all those years of rebelling against the big boss, maybe Frank just didn't want the smoke this time. Kendall and Roman each offered him a chance to turn against the deal, and he turned them down.
I think Logan's death made Frank realize that he might not have much life left to live and that he might prefer living it outside of a board room. Or maybe he had some noble motive, like carrying out Logan's wish to sell. Whatever his reason, Frank pulled off a bit of a win for himself.
Karolina also had a bit of a silent victory in this episode. She was never on the kill list, so her job was always safe as long as the Gojo deal went through, and it did. There might even be room for her to move up the food chain, given Lukas' major tension with his own communications head and her desperate desire to quit. At the last minute, we learn what Karolina really wants: to get Hugo out of the way. It's obvious that she was smart and good at her job, so it's likely that she caught wind of his secret PR coup with Kendall. She must have sensed that he was angling for her job and decided to do damage control with a fellow girlboss — just covering all her bases.
Since Hugo was on the Gojo kill list, it would seem that Karolina got what she wanted the moment Lukas took over the company. Congratulations to Waystar's head of comms for knocking out the competition! Let's hope for Ebba's sake that she's feeling "refreshed" enough to face such strong new blood closing in on her territory.
Gerri didn't say a word this episode — besides her naughty limerick in an old video — so you might be wondering what she's doing on this list in the first place, let alone in the top five. The truth is Gerri didn't even have to speak to make waves – all she had to do was walk into the building for Roman to totally collapse.
She didn't even have to advocate for herself for Tom to want to bring her back into the fold. The trusted advisor proved herself as a loyal soldier and wise counsel over the years. Despite Logan and Roman's last-minute switch-up on her, she still managed to hold onto her favor with the new leadership. Gerri has always said she's on the side of the company, and in her final appearance on the show, she wordlessly proved it.
Roman might have done Gerri a favor by betraying her. She no longer had to go to bat for someone so reckless, and she was able to take the side of the winner without getting her hands dirty. She was schooled by a barbarian by the name of Logan Roy, and she was always going to win in her own subtle way. It might've been Frank and Karl in the press release, but Gerri is waiting in the wings to steal their supporting role.
Connor's trophy wife is already plotting to put a cow-print couch in her brand new forty-million Park Avenue apartment and develop a brand new play while her financier flies off to Slovakia.
Willa has finally gotten wise to the darker side of Connor's politics and seems to be taking a bit of a private stand with him by putting some distance between them. Their relationship has changed shape quite a bit over the years, and she seems to be doing a bit of a return to form, reverting back to a more traditional sugar baby structure. As a Con-head, I hate to see it, but as a woman, I can't help but salute it.
Maybe I'm nuts, but I'm still holding out hope for those crazy kids. Either way, seems like kind of a win-win situation for Willz here. Worst case scenario she gets another insanely awful play developed and gets to indulge in her own delusions a little more. But can't a girl sink a few million dollars into some misguided ambitions as a treat?
This one was a bit of a rollercoaster for Cousin Greg. He tried to make the quad happen, but it was never going to happen. He's never been a great negotiator, but this time he had "something incredible" to bring to the table — however, being the shark that he is, he would only off it up in exchange for "something amazing." Greg the Egg put his eggs in the wrong basket, but luckily he'd been Gregging for Tom long enough to earn a little bit of sway with him. Even when Greg goes full Judas, you can't make a Tomlette without breaking a few Gregs.
Tom sniffed Greg out as his competition for number one sidekick and totally subdued him in the very first episode. Just when it seems like Greg might escape from under Tom's thumb, like when he makes copies of those papers from the cruises scandal, he gets sucked right back into Tom's orbit. Luckily for him, the only guy that really ever cared about keeping Greg around — for better or worse — ended up winning it all.
Even though Greg betrayed Tom and Matsson in a big way and even got into a bit of a scuffle with the CEO-to-be, he still managed to score a spot on the winning team. Considering how badly he struck out this episode, Tom crowning him with a sticker was the only outcome Greg could have asked for. As Tom put it, Greg totally f***ed it, but despite all his wobbling he still managed to stay at the foot of the table somehow. Three cheers for Greg, right guys? Right? We all still like him?
Tommy-wammy just got three outs in one play! The boy from St. Paul has finally pulled off a major power move and silently mended his marriage in the process. He's still not at the top of the pyramid because, at the end of the day, he's still just Lukas Matsson's "pain sponge." Still, as the one true U.S. CEO, it seems all Tom's years of s***-eating have finally paid off. This guy is always able to suss out a winner and, better yet, he gives them what they really want — a loyal servant who is going to act thoughtlessly on their behalf. Men like Lukas and Logan might think they want someone clever at first, but ultimately they need someone they can push around. There can only be one alpha dog, and this time, there's no threat of him retiring or dying any time soon.
Logan always had a soft spot for Tom's self-made quality, so there was always a bit of a shape for him as the man in charge. Time and time again he's proved himself as someone willing to take a hit, yet capable of dodging a major bullet. He was willing to be held responsible for crowning Mencken or corrupting cruises, and none of Waystar's major crimes ended up falling on his shoulders. He was always willing to be number two, and he knew how to pick a number one, which is why he ended up exactly where he wanted to be. After watching him take loss after loss the past few seasons, it's honestly hard not to feel proud of him.
It's Logan Mark II, only this time he's f***ing sexy! Matsson totally Logan-ed it because, let's face it, he's the only one that can. Matsson does everything that the old man wished his children would do. He can take a joke, he can dominate a room, and he can run a company. Brian Cox, whose performance as the late Murdoch-like media titan earned him a Primetime Emmy, argued that Matsson was more like Logan than any of his children.
"He's clear, he's bright, he's creative, and he doesn't let get things get in the way," Cox said of the Gojo CEO in an interview with Variety. "[Logan] just wishes some of his kids had that quality that Lukas has."
Things were looking a little wishy-washy at the end there, from the funky India numbers and the blood bricks to the last-minute change-up with Shiv, but in the end, Matsson was still the clear winner. Logan knew that he and the technology he represented were unstoppable, which is why he submitted to a sale. And if Logan couldn't beat Matsson, there was no world in which his children were going to succeed at it.
Let's face it, even if they had maintained a united front, the Roy siblings are damaged children that would have run their father's empire into the ground. The only set of hands that were evenly remotely capable were the ones that the company ended up in. Maybe no one was ever going to be a perfect fit, but Logan got his dying wish, and there's some satisfaction in that, isn't there?
Read this next: The Best TV Shows Of 2022, Ranked
The post Succession Power Ranking: With Open Eyes, We See The Clear Winner appeared first on /Film.
This post contains mild spoilers for the "Barry" series finale.
Over the course of his lengthy and varied career, Stephen Root has proven himself to be a consummate character actor; not just someone reliable and hard-working, but a true chameleon, darting in and out of disparate genres and roles.
As a result, it's incredibly difficult to choose a definitive Root character — there are some he's more famous for, like his creepy predator in "Get Out" or his eccentric billionaire in "Newsradio." Yet there are numerous other appearances of his that are just as beloved if not more so.
Throughout his resume, however, one doesn't see too many sexy, virile, crime lord assassin characters. That's all changed thanks to "Barry" and the series star, Bill Hader, who in this fourth and final season of the show has transformed Root's Monroe Fuches into the mysterious, intimidating, and — yes — sexy jailbird, the Raven.
As Root revealed in a recent interview with /Film's Josh Spiegel, this change in character came as much of a surprise to the actor as it did to the audience. Thanks to Hader giving Root the, ahem, freedom to spread his wings and fly as high as he wished, we have been blessed with another gift of another memorable Root role. Who would've thought that Milton from "Office Space" could be this badass?
During the first several seasons of "Barry," Stephen Root made Fuches arguably the one character on the show who is the most difficult to like, but yet is always eminently watchable. A weasely, black-hearted master manipulator, Fuches — a man who is both incredibly selfish and easily offended — is the dark shadow of Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), the other surrogate father figure of Barry Berkman (Bill Hader).
Yet everything changed — for the show as well as Fuches — when the show enacted a time jump during season 4, one that caught up with everyone eight years into the future. For Fuches, that meant serving out his prison sentence by transforming himself from a guy who just got screwed over (again) by his protegé, into an all-powerful hunk of a gang leader, the Raven.
Speaking to /Film's Josh Spiegel, Root explained how the change allowed him to essentially be grandfathered into playing a character he usually doesn't get to play:
"We all knew at the end of season 3 he was going to be in prison, and I thought you could go so many [places] from there. I didn't have a specific way to go in my head where Fuches would go. But then again, I didn't know we were going to do a time jump, and nobody knew that for a while. [Hader] alluded to it and then we finally got some sense of it at the start of season 4. And at that point Bill hinted about what was going to happen, and I told him I would never be cast as [the Raven]. And he said, 'That's okay, you can have fun.' And we did, of course."
Thanks to his sonorous voice, a gaze that can range from quirky to piercing, and a bulky physique, Stephen Root has had the opportunity to play lots of imposing characters. Yet Fuches' reincarnation as the Raven (a persona that Fuches himself created out of thin air as a way of getting revenge on Barry) gave Root the opportunity to play an out-and-out sexy beast.
As the actor detailed to /Film, this came about thanks to one key piece of direction given to him by Bill Hader:
"In Bill's word, he really sidled up to my left ear and said, 'And I want you to be sexy.' [Laughing] I would never be cast as that. It would be a really, really fun challenge as a character actor to let most of the Fuches character go and come at it as confident and sexy."
As the back half of "Barry" season 4 proves, Root did indeed run with this suggestion, emerging from jail as the Raven and instantly picking up a barista to be his new wife before taking over the muscle of the newly minted businessman, Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan).
Of course, no badass can truly be a badass without doing something that's actually badass, and most of the Raven's deeds are just Fuches in tatted-up, leather-clad dressing; a bloody feud begins between Hank and the Raven because Fuches drunkenly calls out Hank's role in the murder of Cristobal (Michael Irby), a goof that the old Fuches would definitely have made. In the season 4 finale, "wow," Fuches finally steps up and admits his mistakes, leading to a fate that's as surprising for the character as it is earned. As one can see, where both Monroe Fuches and Stephen Root are concerned, there's a lot more than meets the eye.
Read this next: The Best TV Shows Of 2022, Ranked
The post Bill Hader Wanted Stephen Root To Be A Sexy Raven In Barry Season 4 [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the "Yellowjackets" season 2 finale.
The season 2 finale of "Yellowjackets" is out, and fans aren't 100% thrilled. A lot of the backlash so far has centered around the death of adult Natalie (Juliette Lewis), a plot point that was arguably a little rushed and unsatisfying. The other major point of contention is with the resolution of the long-running Adam subplot. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) killed a guy she was having an affair with in season 1, and after a full season of the police closing in on her, the situation's been resolved not through the actions of Shauna herself, but with the help of Walter (Elijah Wood), a man Shauna's never even met.
For a lot of fans, this conclusion is a little too convenient. It's made worse because Walter's whole plan doesn't hold up to scrutiny in the slightest. There's no way an experienced detective would casually accept a drink from a mysterious stranger he met 10 seconds ago, just as there are a million different ways that Walter's proposed narrative could backfire on the Yellowjackets. (The fact that Misty also tells Walter "I killed my best friend" five feet away from the police, with no repercussions, just adds insult to injury.)
Realistically, Walter's "solution" would open a whole new box of headaches to deal with, but the finale acts as if everything will be fine now. It's a deeply unserious resolution and some fans have complained, but is it really such a bad thing?
Let's go back to where this storyline began in earnest: Shauna stabs Adam to death, goes home, and then confronts her husband Jeff (Warren Kole) about the glitter in the closet. First Shauna finds out that Jeff's been the one blackmailing her, with the absurdly mundane motive of his furniture store not doing well. Then Jeff finds out Shauna's committed murder, and the guy she's murdered is also a guy she's been having an affair with. Shauna explains the situation by sheepishly saying, "I stabbed him, and now he's dead," and it's one of the funniest line deliveries in the whole show. It's only outshined by Jeff's "there's no book club?!" realization shortly afterward.
After nearly an entire season of suspecting Jeff of being a shady cheater not worth Shauna's time, it was refreshing and amusing to learn that Jeff was actually a deeply forgiving wife guy. He's not particularly bright, but he's unconditionally loyal and unwaveringly positive. He's known about Shauna's misdeeds in the wilderness this whole time, and he still loves her anyway.
"Yellowjackets" has always been a darkly comic show, but the constant little throwaway lines with Jeff this season is where the humor shines brightest. Him playing "F*** Tha Police" while his wife and daughter are being interrogated, him suggesting a spontaneous trip to Colonial Williamsburg to spice up their marriage, it's all great. Of course, his best moment is when he blows off steam in his car by listening to "Last Resort" by Papa Roach. It's a moment where you can just feel the writers winking at us, letting us know that while the female main characters are dark and complex, Jeff is thankfully not.
The Adam storyline also helped to subvert everyone's expectations around Callie (Sarah Desjardins), Shauna's teenaged daughter who seemed bratty and obnoxious at first, but who turned out to only need some honesty from her parents. Like with Jeff, we know that the smart thing for Callie to do is turn her mom in straight away, but when it turns out she's totally down with covering up a murder, it's both weirdly wholesome and (once again) very funny. These scenes of Shauna's family finally being open and nice with each other, juxtaposed with how horrifying this would all seem from an outside perspective, is the sort of thing that only "Yellowjackets" could pull off.
This leads us to the other insane thing about this storyline: the fact the entire Sadecki family can't help but constantly run their mouths off to their police. Misty tells Shauna early on in the season that the only words she should say to a detective are "I want my lawyer," but Shauna never does this, and she never even tries to advise her daughter to do this either.
Their attempts to cleverly outsmart the police almost work out at times (mainly because these detectives are established to not be that great at their jobs), but they always end up digging themselves in even deeper. Fans complained about this aspect too, pointing out how mind-numbingly stupid the whole family is for not asking for a lawyer, but Shauna's early conversation with Misty makes it clear that this stupidity wasn't an accident in the script. This whole storyline is a dark comedy of errors, and it was always going to be resolved in a comic manner.
At the end of the day, "Yellowjackets" is about a group of traumatized, chaotic women and their way-too-supportive life partners. Taissa's got the ride-or-die love of Van, Shauna's got Jeff, and as of season 2, Misty's got Walter, another character who doesn't handle things ethically at all, but who is so helpful to our main characters that we've come to love him anyway. And even though Taissa's actual wife Simone is objectively a better person than Van, audiences like her way less because we know she can never truly be there for Taissa. Simone's a normal person, and that won't do.
It's a twisted yet strangely gentle take on the idea that all a person really needs to deal with their problems is someone who truly cares about them, someone who can help without any judgment or dishonesty. In season 1, all of the survivors we followed believed they had no one else they could turn to for their problems but the other survivors, which of course wasn't healthy because all of them were too messed up in their own special way to truly be of service to one another. With the Jeff reveal, the Walter introduction and the Van re-introduction, the surviving members of the original quartet are all finding their genuine support groups, made up of people who are unconditionally loving and dependable.
In addition to being a show about ride-or-die partners, "Yellowjackets" is a show about subjectivity. Is there something supernatural going on in this show, or are these supernatural elements just manifestations of the characters' many mental health issues? Outside of the magic tree Coach Ben's now living in, it's not really clear, and it doesn't need to be. The show is told from the warped perspective of the Yellowjackets teammates; if the characters accept the supernatural, so should we.
With that in mind, Walter's successful manipulations throughout this episode are a parallel to that convenient gust of wind at the beginning of the season, or the convenient bear from season 1. The fact that he pulled it off could be a lucky coincidence, or it could be the wilderness's way of rewarding the group for Natalie's sacrifice. Yes, most of Walter's plan unfolds before Natalie's death, but think of it from Shauna's perspective: she sees Natalie die, then she finds out that all of her problems have been magically solved by a complete stranger.
The resolution to Adam's murder isn't just intentionally funny; it's also specifically designed to push Shauna back into the wilderness cult she was part of as a teen. She says in the finale that the dark stuff was "just us," but Walter's miraculous intervention seems designed to make her second-guess herself. From the start of the show, "Yellowjackets" has been using implausible events to hint at the supernatural, to push the characters in a darker direction. The resolution to Adam's murder is just doing the same thing. It might still feel a little lazy to some viewers, but it's definitely not out of step with anything we've seen so far.
Read this next: Every Yellowjackets Main Character, Ranked
The post The Resolution to Yellowjackets' Adam Storyline Makes No Sense, And That's Okay appeared first on /Film.
