Wonder Man ending explained: What happened to Simon Williams and what's next?
It's fitting that the creator of DC's Wonder Woman invented an early prototype of the lie detector, because Marvel's male counterpart, Wonder Man, is based almost entirely on lies. Or at least the MCU version of Simon Williams that's played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. There's the lies that Simon's tells himself, desperately trying to suppress his devastating ionic power. Then there's the lies he tells on set everyday, pretending to be just another ordinary man. Never mind that he's an actor whose stock and trade is artifice. Yet despite all this, Williams is still devastated when it turns out that his new best friend, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), has also been lying this whole time too. Originally planted as a mole by the Department of Damage Control (DODC), the former 'Mandarin' quickly grew fond of Williams, developing a real friendship as they auditioned together for the Wonder Man movie. But by the end of episode seven, the jig was up. "Hell of a performance," says Williams as he storms out, leaving Slattery behind, genuinely gutted by how the truth hurt his one real friend. Fit to burst with rage, Williams finally snaps, unleashing all the ionic energy he's kept inside. It's a good thing he's in an empty studio or someone could have got hurt. Still, the Wonder Man crew who helped build the set sure won't be pleased the next day, and there's the little matter of a reporter from the New York Times who's still snooping around on the lot… So what does all this mean for Williams? Is an Oscar on the cards? Avengers membership? Or how about prison? Marvel's Wonder Man ending explained: Where does Simon Williams go? The season one finale begins in the past, showing us again just how formative the '80s Wonder Man film was on Simon and his relationship with his father. These moments they shared are the driving force for everything Williams does, although we sort of got the message already a few flashbacks ago. The next morning, news of the explosion he caused reaches Slattery and agents at the DODC. Realising that he's running out of time, Williams calls up his mum for a chat. Said chat is really a goodbye, but he doesn't want to worry her, even though a mother always knows when something's up. Just as it looks like DODC agents are about to break into the apartment, Williams receives a call from Slattery: "I’ll never forgive myself for what I did to you, but I’m making it right," he says in what sounds like another thinly veiled goodbye. "Promise me you’ll live your life to the fullest." And with that, we're suddenly shown a video confession recorded by Slattery in the role of the Mandarin. Yep, the same terrorist he pretended to be all the way back in Iron Man 3, 13 years prior. "America, did you miss me?" asks Slattery as he takes responsibility for Simon's meltdown. Yep, those DODC agents were actually storming his apartment, not Wonder Man's. It's a sad end for this kindly thespian who's worked so hard to get out from under the Mandarin's shadow, but it's the only way he feels he can atone. The DODC seems happy enough with the arrest, even if it's "not the one we wanted." Never mind that they've apparently been hunting Williams down for years because of the incredible threat he poses? Nah, just let him carry on being a huge Hollywood movie star instead. Slattery maintains to the arresting officers that he was actually The Mandarin all along, and that the acting career was just an act all along. How meta! Wonder Man director Von Kovak asks Williams to channel this betrayal in his performance, but what really helps is the original retro glasses that Simon's given by the prop guy, the same ones worn in the 80s film that his Wonder Man is based on. And they just so happen to be the signature look of Simon Williams in the comics as well. Joe Pantoliano ends up taking over the role of Barnaby from Slattery, which is a bit savage given how cruel The Sopranos star was to our so-called Mandarin prior. We then cut rather snappily to the Wonder Man premiere, which everyone is absolutely loving, if conversations outside the theatre are to be believed. There's already talk of a sequel and even Simon's asshole brother Eric is a fan. Everything's worked out perfectly for Williams, exactly how he wanted. Except, of course, for what happened to Slattery. Simon's agent reveals that bigger projects are being sent his way now, and presumably, that's why we next find Williams out in the middle of nowhere, shadowing an average joe trucker. He must be studying for a new role, right? A few scenes go by where Simon gets to know Chuck Eastman, an old acquaintance of Simon's from the industry, and his family. It's such an abrupt shift, not to mention a long-winded one, that you can't help but wonder what we're even doing here now that we're so close to the end of the show. But then we find out that Chuck works security at the DODC and everything falls into place. Nondescript agents discuss the true power Simon possesses as "an extraordinary threat… or asset" while he casually breaks into a highly secure government building with nothing more than a fake name and a dream. It's not long until 'Alfonso' finds The Mandarin's cell and frees him using his powers, powers which he's suddenly seemed to master, despite suppressing them his entire life. And it's not just super strength he uses here either. It turns out Simon can also fly, a skill he doesn't hesitate to use, rocketing up and through the ceiling without any help from the rocket jets that his '80s inspiration used on screen. What's next for Simon? Is he going to eventually wind up joining the Avengers like his comic book counterpart? Given that the origin of Simon's powers were never explained, could he be a few films away from teaming up with the X-Men? Or could he even help found the Great Lake Avengers, a D-list superhero team that Doorman joins early on in the comics? View Green Video on the source website What's clear in the short term is that Williams and Slattery are on the run for committing crimes against the US government. Why they didn't just arrest Simon earlier when they had proof of his powers is anyone's guess, especially if he really is the huge threat that the DODC claims him to be. Don't be surprised if answers for all this never come, however. Marvel has a habit of leaving their TV-based heroes on a cliffhanger, like Moon Knight or She-Hulk, for example. And the difference with them is that Disney actually invested a lot more time and promo into their stories. With Wonder Man already being billed as a miniseries, one that Disney unceremoniously dumped all at once online, the chances of Abdul-Mateen II (or Williams) starring in a Wonder Man sequel seem close to none. But when it comes to Marvel, never say "never". Wonder Man is available to stream now on Disney Plus. Add Wonder Man to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Who was Juan "Spike" Osorio? Wonder Man tribute explained
The first episode of the Marvel show features a tribute card.
Most Marvel heroes strive for greatness, but in Wonder Man, Simon Williams isn't trying to be a superhero. Instead, he hopes to wow the public with his acting, so his biggest fight is keeping those impressive powers of his under wraps. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's struggling actor is joined by fellow actor slash former "terrorist" Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), who the world remembers as the so-called "Mandarin" from Iron Man 3. Together, they're fighting to appear in a new remake of the classic Wonder Man superhero film that Simon loved growing up. Questions abound, however, when it turns out that not everyone is who they say they are. When it comes to questions, another is raised at the end of episode 1 when a dedication appears before the credits roll, which reads: "In memory of Juan 'Spike' Osorio." So, who is Juan Osorio? And why did Wonder Man pay tribute to him? Read on for everything you need to know about Spike. Who was Juan "Spike" Osorio? Osorio was a veteran lighting technician who worked in the electrical department across multiple Hollywood productions. Before Wonder Man, he was credited on a wide array of sci-fi and fantasy projects including The Dark Tower, American Born Chinese, and Marvel's 2018 sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, plus more grounded fare such as Mayans M.C. and The Conners. According to interviews with fellow crew members (via The Daily Beast), Osorio worked in the army before moving to Hollywood. Rigging gaffer Dave McGrory explained that Osorio once survived a devastating explosion while serving in the Middle East. "He was in a Humvee that drove over an IED which exploded. And he basically watched his closest guys die in front of him,” McGrory said. "And there was another firefight in a cave in Afghanistan, where he was wounded with some shrapnel. I know that because he got a scar under his left eye, from rock fragmentation." McGrory added: "The man made it out of Afghanistan, and didn’t make it out of the studio system." What happened to Juan "Spike" Osorio? While working on Wonder Man, Osorio fell through a catwalk at Stage 3 at the Radford Studio Center in Studio City (per Variety). He died on the same day – 6th February 2024. Osorio, aged 41 at his time of passing, was survived by his wife, industry boom operator Joanne Osorio-Wu, and his mother Zoila Osorio. Hundreds of people attended a vigil in Burbank to honour Osorio (via ABC7), and Osorio's widow shared a heartfelt message to attendees at the vigil. View oEmbed on the source website "I know Spike would want all of you to know how much he cared for you," Joanne Osorio-Wu said. "Each and every person that he worked with, each and every person that he knew, he wanted to make sure that they were safe, whether they were in his department or not. He was the most important part of my life, and I appreciate you all and the impact that you all had on him." Kaitlyn Yang, the visual effects supervisor on American Born Chinese, remembered Osorio: "I worked with Spike on my last series. He made sure I had all the lights to make our blue screens work. As many crew have echoed before me, I felt seen and heard in his presence. May he rest in peace." Marvel issued the following statement: "Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family and friends, and our support is behind the investigation into the circumstances of this accident." Following the tragedy, a Cal/OSHA investigation concluded that the catwalk Osorio fell through had a deteriorated section of wood, which was improperly nailed to a roof support. As a result, Disney was hit with a $36,000 fine and Radford Studio Center was fined $45,000. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Osorio’s widow and mother also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Radford Studio Center seeking unspecified damages, with the family’s lawyer alleging that it "failed to properly maintain, repair and inspect its premises". Radford’s lawyers disputed the claims and argued that the accident could have been caused by negligence on the part of Osorio or others. Wonder Man is streaming now on Disney+. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Jujutsu Kaisen season 3's Culling Game rules explained
The latest episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen have hit like a train, yet not a single punch was thrown. Following Yuta Okkotsu's addition to the team, Yuji Itadori and the gang suddenly find themselves front row at an episode-long lecture about the impending apocalypse. As the freaky-looking Tengen explains, The Culling Game they're about to enter is a Battle Royale-style deathmatch that will span the entire nation of Japan. That means it's a big deal for every sorcerer who takes part, plus all of us watching back home too. But boy there are a lot of rules. To be fair, the animators do an incredible job of keeping us entertained without any cursed battling in sight. Flow charts have never come with so much aura. Still though. It's a lot. The rules flashed up ever so briefly in the first two episodes, but for those of us who don't wish to pause and read text longer than the Bible, I'm on hand to break down Kenjaku's plan in more detail. What is The Culling Game? The tournament isn't your typical anime showdown. The ancient sorcerer Kenjaku, aka, the guy who ruined all our lives in season two's Shibuya Incident, has been planning this battle royale for centuries. His goal is to pit 1000 sorcerers against each other in a game where anyone can die at any point. Even Kenjaku can snuff it, but if he does, The Culling Game will continue anyway, generating enough cursed energy for him to transform the whole of Japan into one singular cursed entity. The wildest thing about all this is that he's essentially doing it all for giggles because not even Kenjaku knows what will happen after this. Yuji, Megumi Fushiguro and the gang want to stop this because, well, you can guess why already. But they also want to specifically save Megumi's sister, Tsumiki, who is now one of the many humans who Kenjaku awakened as a sorcerer at the end of season 2. And the odds of surviving a game with "Culling" in the name seems unlikely. There's also the matter of Satoru Gojo, the blue-eyed wonder who was sealed in the Prison Realm last season. As the most powerful Jujutsu sorcerer, his return would turn the tide in humanity's favour. But to free Gojo, the gang must compete in order to find a reincarnated sorcerer named Angel who holds the power to break his seal. All caught up? Let's break down the rules in more detail. Rule 1: Every player must choose a colony within 19 days Anyone who's participating, whether they're choosing to join or were awakened by Kenjaku against their will, must enter a colony within 19 days. There are 10 colonies in total across Japan to select from, each separated by an impenetrable barrier. Once you've declared your decision, you are now officially a player in the Culling Game. As brutal as the 19 day deadline is, it also prevents anyone from training longer and gaining an unfair advantage. Plus, there's nothing like a deadline this deadly to stir up a little extra tension. Rule 2: Breaking the first rule will result in almost certain death Why don't participants just say no? Anyone who refuses to compete once they've awakened will have their cursed technique removed (Idle Transfiguration), which results in brain damage and most likely, death. This clause stops anyone who tries to skip the game or even forfeit after the game has begun. Kenjaku is a sneaky bugger alright. Rule 3: Civilians have one chance to leave the game Regular folk who don't possess cursed energy can't usually see spirits without the aid of a special tool. That means innocent bystanders might accidentally cross a colony barrier without even realising it, which would technically make them a player too. However, those who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time are given one chance to exit at the very start. If they choose to remain, then all the rules of The Culling Game will apply to them from here on out. Kenjaku isn't all that nice for introducing this component though, because he's really all about just throwing extra chaos into the mix. Rule 4: Players earn points by killing each other Want to win? You need to kill other competitors to secure those much-needed points. As such, the game isn't so much about survival as it is slaughter. Players are encouraged to go on the offensive, which results in utter carnage throughout this longer-than-average arc. As if that wasn't chaotic enough, Kenjaku also adds extra wild cards halfway through in the form of newly awakened sorcerers and resurrected curse-users from the past. Rule 5: Every player has a set point value Killing is key for everyone who competes, but not all players are valued equally. While sorcerers and cursed spirits are worth 5 points, non-sorcerers are only worth a measly one point. Still, every win counts, especially when game master Kenjaku can change a player's worth on a whim depending on their threat level. This creates an intriguing dynamic where powerful sorcerers become the focus for players hoping to earn big while others hunt out low-score humans to play it safe. Rule 6: 100 points can be used to propose a new rule This rule is a literal game-changer because any player who stacks up 100 points can propose a new rule to Kenjaku. These new rules can do anything from reshape the battlefield to creating different mechanics that aid the player in question. As such, rule-making is essentially another type of weapon for those strong and smart enough to wield this power correctly. It's safe to say that this rule easily tips the scales in favour of more powerful sorcerers who can rack up those points quicker. Sorry to all the random humans who stroll in unawares. Rule 7: Kenjaku must approve each new rule Of course, there's always a catch. Players can ask for almost anything, but only up to a point. That's because the one rule players can't request is the removal of rules previously set in place by Kenjaku. Kind of like a 'genie refusing to give more wishes' kind of deal. Long-term changes are also disallowed. Essentially, Kenjaku can do what he wants with these requests. And remember, his priority is to maximise the body count, because he's kind of messed up like that. View oEmbed on the source website Rule 8: Stop for 19 days and your cursed technique is removed While the first rule gave players 19 days to choose a colony, the final rule punishes competitors who don't increase their score for the same length of time. Sit idle for 19 days and you lose your cursed technique, which usually results in death for the player who's been targeted. So much for waiting things out until everyone else is dead. This rule quickly weeds out anyone who's too weak to make an impact on the tournament, plus it adds even more pressure to an already stressful game. And by "stressful," I mean "unbearable to the point of madness". Combined, these rules create monsters out of good people and make bad people even worse. In short, this is a horrifying ordeal that sucks for everyone competing, but kind of rules for us waiting to see all the endless culling unfold back home. So. Much. Culling. And with that, there's nothing left to except let The Culling Game commence! And may the odds be ever in your favour. Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 is streaming now on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' most graphic scene so far makes a crucial point about the show
Plenty of people have had a s**t time of it in Westeros, but few have had it quite as bad as Dunk (Peter Claffey). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins with the modest hedge knight in mourning. Once Dunk has wiped away his tears, the plan is to honour his late master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), in a jousting tournament nearby. But before he heads off to compete, another task must be completed first. It's all very serious as Dunk buries Arlan with all the gravitas you might expect from a show set in this world. The music swells and builds ceremoniously as the hero's journey is about to begin… And then we suddenly cut to Dunk defecating by a tree. It's not a brief dump either. The camera cuts from a modest overhead shot to a wide angle where we can see the full extent of the poop spraying out from Dunk's behind. Targaryens will get down and dirty in all kinds of ways, often with their own siblings, but you'd never catch one of them doing that. Not on camera anyway. Of course, Dunk doesn't know he's being watched by us either. Poor guy. And things are about to get a whole lot worse for him before they get better… It's tempting to assume the graphic nature of this scene has been included this early on just for shock value. Games of Thrones is hardly known for taming things down, after all. But like a doctor looking through a stool for answers, we too can learn a lot about Dunk and this show's outlook through a messy scene like this. There's the abrupt shift in tone for one. While both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are rather serious (for the most part), leading with this bowel movement early on establishes that this ain't your nana's Westeros — not by any means. Humour is as integral to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as knights and kingdoms are. It's there in the way people greet each other — "What you gawping at, you blue eyed c**t?" — and it's there in the crueller putdowns too, like when a woman says early on, "A hedge knight is like a knight, but sadder." None of this is funny for Dunk, of course, just as it's not amusing to poop outside without a roll of bog paper to wipe up. But this kind of callous toilet humour situates the show in a very different place than previous visits to Westeros, making us laugh while also establishing the realities of life for an everyman who wasn't fortunate enough to be born into nobility. This outlook differentiates A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from both Thrones and House of the Dragon in ways that this franchise sorely needed. There's only so many times you can circle back to nobility in Westeros before risking repetition, and as this series proves, there's a whole world out there full of interesting new stories to navigate. To be fair, Game of Thrones did manage this to some degree, and once even with poop as well. Remember at the start of season seven when Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) began maester training only to discover that this entailed cleaning up human waste? Bradley spoke to Vulture about the importance of this bedpan sequence at the time: "The first time we see Sam, he’s being put through abject misery compared to how elated he was when he first arrived at the Citadel at the end of season six. He’s so disenchanted with it all, realizing that after all the time he’s invested in the Wall all these years, he’s now away from everybody." "Sam is restless and angry," adds Bradley, "and he feels he’s letting Jon down. The scene makes you believe all that. It’s a very functional scene at establishing his psychology and his motives going into this season, but it does it in a very entertaining and, hopefully, very funny way." Just as this sequence highlighted the contrast between noble life and the gritty toil of scholarly pursuits, so too does the excrement in Seven Kingdoms, which points to hardship for Dunk. As showrunner Ira Parker told RadioTimes.com and other outlets, "The moment behind the tree is so important to season 1. [It's] Dunk feeling this call to try something really hard, to go out there and to be a knight... "He so badly wants it, he picks up the story, feels this call, but then, of course, like all of us, whenever we try to do something new and hard that we've never done before, your guts just turn to water. "He's not a hero, yet, he's not this fake version of a hero that senses his destiny and goes out and grabs it. He is a human being like me and you. He wants things, but he doesn't exactly know how to get the better things, and his journey this season is going to be about whether or not he can endure the trials of knighthood, and actually rise to the occasion." Nothing says you're struggling like pooping under a tree and sleeping out in the open. But we're not just meant to feel sorry for Dunk. This is simply the life of an everyman in Westeros, yet even so, this humble hedge knight doesn't let it get him down. By establishing Dunk's world as a cruel one, it's all the more impressive when he sticks to his guns in the face of great difficulty. With Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) by his side, Dunk's belief in what's right never falters and that makes him a hero worth rooting for. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the ruling class above him whose merest whims can send our hedge knight spiralling. Dunk has been dealt a s**t hand, and I'm not just talking about the lack of toilet paper in that field. But, this is exactly what sets A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms apart and makes it a worthy extension of George R. R. Martin's world. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on 19th January 2026 on Sky Atlantic and NOW and airs in the US on HBO. Game of Thrones seasons 1 to 8 and House of the Dragon seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Sky and NOW – find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV. If you’re looking for something else to watch in the meantime, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide, or visit our dedicated Fantasy hub. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
His & Hers ending explained: Who was the real culprit all along?
**Warning: contains spoilers for His & Hers episodes 1-6.** Don't let the name of this new Netflix thriller fool you. His & Hers is anything but romantic, driven by dark desires that result in a dangerous game of cat and mouse between two exes. The former lovers in question are Jon Bernthal's highly strung detective named Jack Harper and Anna, a cutthroat journalist played by Tessa Thompson. Personal trauma ripped their marriage apart a year prior, but when a woman is brutally murdered in their Atlanta hometown, Anna returns to investigate and salvage her career. The problem is Jack might have been the one who killed her… It turns out His & Hers is just as twisty as the Alice Feeney novel it's based on because just when you think you know who killed Rachel Hopkins, viewers discover that the culprit was actually a lot closer to home. His & Hers ending explained Five episodes in, time is running out for Jack. After dodging his detective colleague Priya Patel (Sunita Mani) all season, the evidence is stacking up against him. But does he care? No, not after he finds his sister Zoe (Marin Ireland) murdered in the bathtub. Yep, what might have been a red Lush bathbomb turns out to be her blood, which is now all over Jack. Anna makes a discovery of her own, less gruesome, but no less dangerous, when she realises that the rival anchorwoman gunning for her job isn't just a random blonde named Lexy (Rebecca Rittenhouse). She's actually Catherine (Astrid Rotenberry), a girl who Anna's friends bullied back in school. It turns out Catherine lost a lot of weight and changed her name to fool everyone and enact revenge. But that's not all she's done. The final episode of His & Hers starts with a flashback where Lexy, back when she was known as Catherine, goes on a family boat trip. Sounds cute, right? Sadly no, because it's not long before Catherine's sister starts poking fun at her weight. In response, Catherine does what anyone would do and deliberately uses up the medicine in Andrea's inhaler so she won't be able to use it when she needs it most. Ok, that might not be what most sane people would do, but the result is the same. Andrea dies while on the boat trip, unable to use the medicine she needs, which just goes to show you shouldn't make fun of people. We then cut back to the present where Anna has just realised the truth about Lexy/Catherine (despite knowing both versions of her for many, many years). The problem is she's only just realised now while she's in Lexy's house after her husband Richard (Pablo Schreiber) led Anna there in the previous episode… Anna calls Jack for help, but he's a bit tied up with finding the corpse of his sister. Still, he comes anyway when Anna reveals the danger she's in, pointing out that Lexy must have been the one who killed Zoe (not to mention Rachel and Helen too). Jack is delayed, however, when Patel shows up, ready to finally confront him about his potential role in Rachel's murder. Frankly, her timing couldn't be worse, not just because Anna's in danger but also because of the extremely incriminating blood that Jack's absolutely drenched in. Meanwhile, Richard has cottoned on to the fact that Anna has called for help, which is far from ideal. The fact they regularly work together – and do a lot more together – doesn't stop him from having a go at Anna. Scared, she manages to grab the concealed gun in her bag and shoot at him in the house, but then the bullets quickly run out, so Anna locks him in another room. That's when Lexy shows up to help her hubby out, but instead of smashing Anna's head in with a plant pot, Anna turns the tables and smashes her head against the wall instead. Patel was knocked out too, by Jack, and now wakes up outside his house with police back-up checking to see if she's alright. Anna calls Lexy a psycho, which is fair, but Lexy calls her one back, saying Anna "lured her" into the woods 20 years ago. You know, back when something terrible happened to the group. More on that later. There's also a great line about drinking piss which I'd argue is Emmy-worthy. Anna's tooth comes out in the resulting fight, so she hits Lexy mad as hell and they fall through a glass table. It's not really a TV fight unless someone falls through a glass table. Jack shows up just as Lexy goes for the gun. He pushes Anna to the side, not realising that the gun is empty. That's when a bullet suddenly hits Lexy from outside where Patel is now standing. She didn't realise the gun was empty either so she went for the head shot, killing Lexy in an instant. We suddenly cut to dawn the next day as Jack and Anna sit together and talk while the police clear up everything around them. Anna gives Jack her condolences for the death of his sister, suggesting that she can maybe help out raising his niece, Meg. But just like us, Jack needs answers about what happened between Anna and Zoe and all the other girls that fateful night in the woods when they were young. "Rachel was the ringleader, but Helen and Zoe knew about it too," says Anna, who then describes how she and Lexy were led into the woods on Anna's 16th birthday. It was supposed to be a party, but then men showed up after Rachel had sent them photos of the girls. "These men attacked Catherine. Rachel and Helen and your sister watched. I wanted to tell you, I started to a hundred times and I just couldn’t. I thought maybe I shouldn’t because of Zoe and... the truth is, Jack, I’ve just never been able to tell anyone. I thought I… Maybe I could just pretend it didn’t happen, so that’s what I did. I’m sorry." This story is horrific, but Anna and Jack have been through their own fair share of trauma already following the loss of their baby last year. It's no surprise then that they'd reconnect in this moment, sharing a kiss after baring their all to each other. The police find more incriminating evidence that seems to prove Lexy was behind the murders and Patel very quickly seems to have forgiven Jack for knocking her out the night before, so everything is fine and peachy. Right? Right??? One year later, it sure does seem that way. Anna has got her old job back, she's pregnant with Jack's baby, and they're also raising Meg together as a family. Finally, they've managed to claw back what was stolen from them following the loss of their first child. The end... Except, wait. There's more. Anna begins narrating again, like she usually does at the start of every episode. But this time, the words are familiar. In fact, these are the same lines we've heard across the five episodes prior to this one. Lazy writing? No. Because it turns out that these were never Anna's words. It was simply Anna reading the words of someone else, someone very close to her. That doesn't become clear though until the narration suddenly changes from Anna's voice to the voice of Anna's mother, Alice (Crystal Fox). And the change happens right as she says the word "killing". <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/Netflix-3d8313d.jpg" width="2616" height="1744" alt="An older woman sits on a sofa, cradling a younger woman against her chest in a warm, softly lit living room. The younger woman rests her head on the older woman’s arm as they share a quiet, intimate moment, with sunlight streaming through the windows behind them." title="His & Hers" /> Oh yes. With this switch in narration, we watch as Anna reads a letter written by Alice that reveals she's been a lot busier than the show's made out. As detailed in the letter, Alice looks back with pride at everything Anna had accomplished, including the birth of her baby Charlotte. But when Charlotte died in Alice's care, all she had left of Anna were old video tapes. She'd watch them daily, and regularly visit Charlotte's grave hoping her daughter might return home. There, Alice saw Jack meet Rachel for some loving in a side road. But that wasn't her concern at this time. No, it's what happened next that kicks off her murderous rampage. Six months into Anna's absence, Alice finally gets round to watching one last video tape of her on Anna's 16th birthday. The celebrations quickly turn to horror though as Alice watches and discovers that Anna was sexually assaulted by the men in the woods too, who committed the vile act as so-called friends like Rachel watched and laughed. They even sing "Happy Birthday" during the assault, which is one of the most disturbing things you'll see happen on TV this year. Alice breaks down watching all this, and then she concocts a plan for revenge. "No one expects a woman to be a serial killer," says Alice, pointing out that some of her suspicious actions were quickly written off as signs of dementia. "That’s the thing about older folks. Like back doors and the workers who use them, we’re usually forgotten, ignored, invisible." But that works to Alice's advantage. "Year after year after year. Same locks, same doors, same keys. They could’ve stopped me, but we see what we want to see, even when the truth is right in front of us." We watch then as Alice goes around killing all the women responsible for what happened to Anna. She didn't intend to kill Catherine as she figured "prison was fair" for the smaller role she played. But she "didn't expect Patel to be such a good shot". "Killing Rachel brought you home," adds Alice. "Killing Helen kept you here, and killing Zoe gave you the family you lost." It's kind of worked out perfectly, no? And as far as outlandish TV twists go, this one is actually kind of believable. Ridiculous? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely. But before the show ends, presumably for good, Alice reveals why she's written this letter to Anna. "I’m writing this now, baby, because soon you’ll be a mother again. Love my grandbabies as I’ve loved you. Teach them the value of hard work and planning. Prepare them for a life both ugly and beautiful. Unpredictable, always changing. Except for one thing. Show them that a mother’s love never dies, never weakens. It's constant, continual, relentless. All my love, my precious girl. Your mother…" Anna looks up at her mother then with tears of disbelief as Alice hangs out with the rest of the family in another room. But Alice sees Anna watching and watches back, knowingly. The show might be called His & Hers, but the story is very much hers and only hers by the end. His & Hers is available to stream on Netflix. on deSign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media. Add His & Hers to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 review: Anime A-lister returns to cull the competition
The first two episodes of season 3 amp up everything we love most about Jujutsu Kaisen.
This review is based on Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episodes 1-2. Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 kicks off with an uncharacteristically quiet moment for the teen sorcerer at the heart of this show. Yuji Itadori is washing blood off his hands, but there's just too much of it. Red stains spiral into the sink, stubbornly refusing to come clean. Endless torrents of blood are par for the course in both the series and the Gege Akutami-penned manga this story is based on, but this isn't just the aftermath of any old battle. Season 2 ended with The Shibuya Incident, Jujutsu Kaisen's most devastating arc yet. Friends died at the hands of demons and countless more perished at the hands of Yuji himself once the power of Ryomen Sukuna took over. In the fallout from this, the blood on Yuji's hands carries something far heavier, and the overarching mood is thick with despair as well. Survivor's guilt coupled with guilt over the carnage he technically wreaked shapes everything here, visually warping Tokyo itself with a bleary pink sunrise stained like the blood on his hands. A giant, grotesque monster claws at Yuji all of a sudden, throwing us into battle, but you can feel that Yuji's heart isn't in it. Even at his most impressive, jumping and spinning and hurtling through the air mid-fight, Yuji's body language speaks to a broken man far removed from the protagonist we were first introduced to in season one. Dread infuses every frame, every lingering shot of an empty staircase or demolished building. It's eerie and atmospheric in ways that speak to the show's movie-level animation and how the team at MAPPA are capable of stunning beyond Jujutsu Kaisen's signature fights. These too are just as elaborate as ever, first when Yuji tears into Cronenbergian demons, and then when Yuta Okkotsu arrives to kill him on orders from the Jujutsu Council. We've only seen glimpses of Yuta in the main show before now, but here, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is finally unleashed in full, pitting the franchise's two heroes against each other in a battle to the death. The fan-favourite sorcerer is also one of the most powerful, and you can feel it in every blow. This long-awaited confrontation between them is as visceral as it is balletic, practically operatic in its gravity-defying athleticism. Note how the pair's different fighting styles bring a new kind of energy to the show as well, paired with Jujutsu Kaisen's usual chaotic framing and sharp camera movements. View oEmbed on the source website Between every cursed punch and kick, it's also gratifying to see how Yuta carries himself now, no longer the timid student we met back in the prequel film. His self-assured arrival further shifts Jujutsu Kaisen into new territory along with the addition of other characters including Naoya Zenin, a potential clan leader who has Megumi Fushiguro in his sights. Beyond each individual fight, power struggles in the wider world of Jujutsu Kaisen ebb and flow to form new enemies and alliances at every turn across these first two episodes. The writing speedruns some of this set-up, moving faster than even our battling sorcerers, as season three hurtles towards The Culling Game. As fans of the manga know, the longest arc in the series (spanning 63 chapters) is a game-changer that might even top the Shibuya Incident in terms of impact. That's assuming the show can navigate this arc and condense it where needed without losing too much of the original story. With less room to maneuver here, season three runs the risk of mishandling the pace, a problem that can already be felt a bit in these first two episodes. Jujutsu Kaisen has never been the easiest show to follow, rushing through convoluted setups and ever-changing rules, but nowhere has this been felt more keenly than at the end of episode two when The Culling Game rules are first explained. Well, "explained" is generous given how quickly huge swathes of text are plastered across the screen, only to be removed seconds later. Exposition is often dense in this show, but usually we're given at least a fighting chance to catch up and understand. Other character beats beyond Yuji's despair in the opening also land quickly, although you might not realise that initially thanks to the sheer spectacle of everything that unfolds. Fans hyped for the show's return probably won't mind too much though. By and large, the first two episodes of season 3 amp up everything we love most about Jujutsu Kaisen. Every frame, every note in the score, goes harder than ever. This is apocalyptic aura farming at its most effortless, which makes it easier to overlook occasional issues with the writing. Even without our blue-eyed boy Satoru Gojo on hand, season 3 has loudly announced itself as the A-lister to beat once again. Everything from the soundtrack to the voice-acting is next level, and with something as big as The Culling Game looming so close, blood will pour for anyone who stands in the way of Yuji and Jujutsu Kaisen alike. Jujutsu Kaisen is streaming weekly on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why everyone's talking about Heated Rivalry
The Canadian sports romance series, based on Rachel Reid's novels, is the show of the moment.
Add Heated Rivalry to your watchlist When it comes to sport, hockey might be a big player on the international stage, but it's not exactly a huge draw when it comes to storytelling on screen. Not since the Mighty Ducks, anyway. That's all changed now though thanks to a pair of gay hockey players who develop the hots for each other while they puck their way to the top. Based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers novel series, Heated Rivalry follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as they compete on the ice and get steamy in the bedroom. Along the way, they struggle with the toll that comes with keeping their love secret while training to be the very best at what they do. Throw in a whole lot of butts and it's easy to see the immediate appeal of this story. But even so, it's hard to fathom just how quickly Heated Rivalry took the world by storm. Jacob Tierney's adaptation started out as a Crave original, which probably doesn't mean a whole lot to people who live outside of Canada. But just a week before the premiere launched, Heated Rivalry picked up an international distribution deal, expanding the show's reach to millions more via HBO Max (you know, the streamer that won't arrive on our shores until March 2026). Now it will air on Sky Atlantic from Saturday 10 January. Even so, Heated Rivalry didn't receive the same kind of big marketing push that HBO originals like House of the Dragon take for granted. Not from the network anyway. Instead, promotion fell to the fans. Specifically, horny fans of Reid's original book who pored through every moment in the first trailer, creating countless edits and screaming reaction videos using just 90 seconds of material. View Green Video on the source website Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Brendan Brady revealed it was this fan buzz that directly led to HBO Max's involvement, thereby securing the show's international success. But distribution alone could never guarantee such a rabid response, especially for a show that has no recognisable IP outside of the book fanbase. That's where the butts come in. What started with just happy book readers soon turned into a collective lust driven by gay men and straight women alike, something the series heavily leans into. From early showers together to their first hotel hook-up, Shane and Ilya's relationship is defined almost entirely by sex. It's the language of the show itself. As Tierney told THR, "Sex is how you tell the story because their sex changes as they get to know each other, as they get to know themselves." Sex sells, of course, but it's also easy to imagine a world where Heated Rivalry could have downplayed these scenes, watering them down to appeal to a wider audience. Thankfully, Tierney's team did no such thing, and the results speak for themselves. If anything, their adaptation of Heated Rivalry goes to even further extremes in the bedroom department. The sex is almost constant, punctuated by brief conversations and expansive time jumps before the bedroom action begins anew. It's no exaggeration to say that far more of the show takes place between the sheets than on the ice. Except, the sheets rarely get in the way of what can only be described as a peachy barrage of endless cheeks displayed onscreen. Actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie obviously bring a lot of physical appeal to Heated Rivalry, but beyond the well-lit smut, it's their chemistry that sells the show. Without that, the sex could have been corny or even cringe to watch. And it's not just in these scenes where their connection shines. Even with clothes on, Williams and Storrie embody something very real, a growing lust and even love worth rooting for. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they're nice to look at too, but good looks will only get you so far, especially with such a straightforward narrative. Rather than gun for big names, Tierney's team prioritised choosing the right talent to bring these characters to life, actors who could lean into the yearning that's so integral to this story. As naughty as the show can be, it's also rather moving at points – I defy you to watch Shane slowly delete his "we didn’t even kiss" message without feeling something. Heated Rivalry is as authentic in its feelings as it is in its approach to gay sex, something which mainstream productions rarely nail. And therein lies the show's true appeal, this ability to pull us in and speak to the romantic in us too. Well, that and the fact there's almost no actual hockey here to speak of. Why would we want to watch sports when we can watch Shane and Ilya score off the rink instead?
Pluribus ending explained: Cast break down every twist and reveal
It's Christmas, Carol! But that doesn't mean it's all cheer and goodwill as far as Pluribus is concerned. Santa giveth and Santa taketh too with this season 1 finale, which marks the end of a chapter, but also gives us one of the most unique, special ends to a season we've seen in quite some time. The episode, titled 'La Chica o El Mundo', is essentially a three-hander between Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga), and Zosia (Karolina Wydra) — even if the latter technically represents pretty much every other person on the planet. And with this close proximity comes a few disturbing twists that we spoke to stars Rhea Seehorn and Karolina Wydra in greater detail about. But the final chapter begins before these three characters meet, revealing what happens when one of the few remaining survivors gets her wish in Peru. Pluribus season 1 ending explained: What happened to Carol? Interviews by Alex Hewitt. With the clock ticking 71 days in, the season one finale of Pluribus starts with Kusimayu watching as a plane arrives in her small Peruvian village. A relative (in the group mind) asks if she's 'excited or nervous about what's to come.' Against gorgeous scenic backdrops, we watch as a special crate is delivered to Kusimayu. "Will it hurt?" she asks. "Not one bit," replies the group mind. And with that, Peruvian chanting begins as Kusimayu breathes in vapour that emanates from the delivery. As soon as she falls to the ground, mid-seizure, the religious-like chanting immediately stops. The Joined have what they wanted now. Kusimayu has joined them too, and she did so willingly, so there's no need to keep up any semblance of normalcy. Everyone in the entire village suddenly leaves at once, letting the farm animals free as they go. Where they go next, we don't know, because then the action returns to Carol and Zosia watching Manousos on his way to Albuquerque. Zosia suggests that they/she should not be here when he arrives in case her presence upsets him. Carol wonders if Manousos might be dangerous, as if she's not casually sleeping with a cannibal in her own home. Manousos arrives with a machete in hand, which doesn't exactly scream diplomacy. Carol is wary, even if he's only carrying it in fear of The Joined and what they might do to him. He's wary too, unwilling to talk inside her home. Together, they speak through a translation app outside, but Manousos is worried about Carol's phone so he tries to take it and they end up dropping it inside the grate. "I'm finito," says Carol, as she storms back into her house and closes the front door on him. How will she keep up her Candy Crush streak now? Realising that he's messed up, Manousos tries to retrieve the phone using his machete for leverage. A multi-purpose tool if I've ever seen one. He then convinces Carol to talk with him again, first outside with an umbrella to shield them from satellites, and then finally, inside her house. "These weirdos are evil," says Manousos. "They have stolen everyone’s soul. If we can't fix them, they are better off dead." "They are still human beings," replies Carol. "They are not evil. They wouldn’t even kill an ant." Manousos is surprised that this Carol is so different to the one he saw in the video she sent. What he doesn't know is that Zosia is attractive and therefore has won Carol over. Inside the house, Manousos is checking for bugs and wire taps that The Joined might be using to listen in. Carol thinks he's absurd for suggesting it until he suddenly finds something very suspicious hidden away in the back of her liquor cabinet. Carol immediately calls Zosia, who tries to tactfully reveal that it was Helen who put what turns out to be a motion sensor in there so she'd know if Carol was drinking when she shouldn't be. It's a devastating reveal, another twist of the knife that doesn't just reopen old scars but creates new ones too, just when Carol had been trying her best to suppress that grief. Manousos reluctantly moves into one of the neighbour's houses while Carol drinks herself to sleep with The Golden Girls playing again in the background. Sounds like my idea of a good time, if it wasn't for the soul-tearing grief and post-apocalyptic vibes of it all. The next day, Carol finds Manousos talking to Zosia, and she's instantly horrified at what she must have revealed to him. As she pulls Zosia away to find out if she disclosed the physical nature of their relationship, Manousos calls the group mind and asks to speak with another representative. Zosia didn't lie to him, because she can't lie, and she loves him the same as well. Another betrayal, another stab in the gut for Carol. But it's not so much a betrayal of love as it is a reminder that this romantic fantasy Carol has begun to indulge in is all a lie. "No, you can’t love him the same," she cries. "He’s a stranger and we… You’re my… You were my…You’re my chaperone. Mine." Seehorn broke down this "very upsetting" exchange with us exclusively, saying: "Carol’s very careful to not poke holes in this water balloon that’s barely holding water. There's a willingness to hang onto what she would like to believe in this moment, because not only was she very, very broken from how long she was left in isolation, it was an existential threat of loneliness." "She might just be sitting in her house watching Golden Girls until the day she dies," continues Seehorn, "unless she chooses to have a relationship with one of these people, be it a close friendship or a romantic relationship or anything. She was looking at a life alone for the rest of her life." Manousos has become a threat to that, so Carol asks Zosia to stay away from him, mentioning all the bad things he's said about The Joined. In response, Zosia suddenly lies down, telling Carol not to be alarmed regarding what's about to happen. It turns out Manousos got angry with another member of The Joined, deliberately so, in order to test theories around their connection and extreme collective response to heightened emotions. "Rick, I know you are there," he says, checking the signals emanating from the radio he's placed in his hand. "Come back. I know you are there. I am there." It looks like Manousos is trying to find a way to sever Rick's connection to the alien group mind, which explains all the scientific research he was doing alone back in Paraguay. And crucially, it looks like he might be onto something. But before Manousos has the chance to test his research out completely, a shotgun blast suddenly takes a chunk out of the wall behind him. Carol is back and she is livid. When Zosia wakes up, she reveals that all The Joined must leave again, like they did last time. "For what it’s worth, [Manousos] did warn us first before he did what he did. Please tell him we’re sorry it came to this." Manousos doesn't care though. He's just happy that his research was fruitful: "It was worth it completely. Now I know much more. You were right. I think there’s a way to put things back in their place. Come on, now the work begins…" Carol doesn't seem too interested though. "Do you want to save the world or get the girl?" asks Manousos. Our answer comes in the form of stunning holiday vignettes from around the world. Swimming in a gorgeous pool, drinking tea in a luxurious apartment, visiting a snowy ski resort and what appears to be Halong Bay in Vietnam… But is it enough? "You seem pretty quiet," says Zosia. Carol's been wondering about Zosia's past, the unjoined Zosia, and whether she had a special someone in her life. Yes, it turns out, but they must have died before or during The Joining because they're not present in the group mind now. "I don’t think I’m good at just feeling good," says Carol. "What makes us happy in our bodies?" View Green Video on the source website They talk about chemical reactions before Zosia suggests things will "only get better" once Carol joins them, just like Kusimayu did at the beginning of the episode. Carol checks that they need her stem cells and her consent for the joining to occur, but something's off and Carol senses it: "My eggs. The ones I froze with Helen. You have them, don’t you. And you can make those into stem cells… You’re working on it." "We are," replies Zosia. "You have to understand how beautiful it is. You have to see how we see it… Remember the young Peruvian girl? She just joined us. She’s happier than she's ever been." "How long do I have?" asks Carol, broken by this news. "A month. Hopefully no more than two or three." "If you loved me you wouldn’t do this," pleads Carol. "Carol, please understand we have to do this because we love you. Because I love you." The Joined can access every memory, every skill of each person in their group mind all at once, so it looks like they've learned plenty about gaslighting and manipulation to get what they want out of Carol. It's devastating to watch, not just for us but Seehorn too. "In episodes 8 and 9, Carol is living in a delusion somewhat voluntarily," the actor says. "She is choosing to not see obvious signs of certain things. I don’t think she saw the egg thing coming, I really don’t." Wydra had no idea that this was coming until she received the script for episode 9: "We didn’t get all the scripts at once, so with each episode, there was a new discovery of the story as it was unfolding..." "It was great to read that and to see how to Them, their biological imperative is everything, at all costs. They really need [Carol] to experience this thing that they’re experiencing. Same with Manousos, same with all the rest of the ‘old-schoolers’." As Seehorn points out, this betrayal "starts the whole plot ticking again, of being ‘turned’. They can now do this without my consent." It's with this information that Carol arms herself as the final scenes of season one pull into focus. Now 74 days into the countdown, we see Manousos doing research using science books from the library (sometimes translated using his English dictionary). A helicopter suddenly arrives with a huge crate just as Carol pulls up in a car. "You win," she tells Manousos. "We save the world." "What is this?" "An atom bomb," replies Carol. And then the camera zooms out from above into the credits. Yep, angry Carol is back, fresh off the horrors of that betrayal, and she's ready to stop The Joined using whatever means necessary. But how this will actually look remains to be seen. Could Pluribus really go there and actually set off an atomic bomb? "The good news for me is that I don’t have to keep secrets," Seehorn tells us, "because I don’t know anything! I literally don’t know what she’s doing with the atom bomb." "I have gone through a lot of thoughts in my head," she adds. "I know that they are in the writer’s room right now writing season 2, and I have chosen not to specifically ask that." "But as excited as I am about the chemistry and the relationship and the bizarre rollercoaster that I have with Karoline Wydra playing Zosia so brilliantly, and wondering where that’s going, the dynamic between [Koumba] Diabaté (Samba Schutte) and Carol is also slightly different now. We see that he does have some compassion and admitted that he wouldn’t want to be turned either, so would he help me?" "And then, the dynamic I have with the brilliant Carlos-Manuel Vesga playing Manousos, so fun. I’m looking forward to their combative energies, because they both so dramatically are hanging onto their own intentions and secrets that they are both immovable objects when they come up against each other, which is just often comedic, no matter how you go at it! That was a lot of fun, and he’s a tremendous actor." Pluribus is streaming now on Apple TV – you can sign up for a seven-day free trial of Apple TV now. Add Pluribus to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
My Hero Academia is ending after more than a decade – here's how it became an anime phenomenon
The beloved cast reflect on the incredible series in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.
School's out for good with the end of My Hero Academia, but it's not just the end of another academic year. We're talking the end of an era, the end of a franchise that expanded and deconstructed an entire genre. Where else could you see the kind of earnest, hopeful superhero storytelling that came to define Kōhei Horikoshi's decade-long run in his manga and the show that followed? So much more than just another story about super-powered school kids, My Hero Academia introduced us to countless heroes and villains who are just as inspiring as they are "quirky". It's not just their powers or "quirks" that set them apart though (as weird as they often were). No, it was their determination to push through imperfection and fight for what mattered. Izuku Midoriya, especially, represented a new kind of hero in that sense, worlds removed from the dark or quippy protagonists popularised by Marvel and DC. It's not just us who are saying goodbye to Midoriya and the gang though. After 170 episodes and four theatrical film releases, the English dub cast have been forced to reckon with the end of an era for themselves as well, learning to let go of a show that's dominated anime and their own personal lives for the better part of a decade. "I'm definitely in the beginning phases of mourning," says voice actor Ernesto Jason Liebrecht (Dabi) ahead of the final episode: "It is really kind of a crazy thing to live with a character in your head for a decade of your life, to experience the level of character development that the creators so graciously provided to us as actors." Justin Cook (Red Riot) was quick to echo that sentiment: "There's a part where you don't want to say goodbye to these characters, but at the same time, watching the story wrap up on its own terms… It's pretty powerful to be a part of it." Very few titles make it to eight seasons in any medium, so the fact we're now here in the final stretch with some of the show's best reviews yet is nothing short of phenomenal. It didn't always seem like that would be a given though. Luci Christian (Uravity) recalls huge hype at the start, only for the first season to come and go without much fanfare. "We all went, 'Oh well. That's how it goes. It's no big deal.' Then the second season came out, I think, or was about to come out, and it just went huge." "I think My Hero Academia happened at a really perfect time," adds Christian. "It's kind of when streaming anime took off. It became a lot more mainstream. And I think My Hero Academia really reaped the benefit of that." Between the peak visuals, innovative powers and epic saga at hand, it's always been easy to fall in love with My Hero Academia. Patrick Seitz (Endeavor) likens all that to the "frosting," so to speak, on the foundation of this series and its appeal. "The cake, the underpinning, the structure of it all, is still about imperfect people trying to do better for each other… People want connection. They crave connection. They foster it, they love it, or they suffer for the lack of it. And I think that's what speaks to people about this. Yes, it has the power fantasy. It has the big fights. It looks great. The production is great. But again, that's, that's the frosting to the underpinning. If the underpinning weren't solid, the frosting would just collapse in on itself." "My Hero Academia really breaks the mould of the Shōnen genre," adds co-star Christopher Sabat (All Might). "As somebody who's watched it with his kids, I think the thing that makes it special is that everyone gets to participate. With Shōnen, you'll traditionally have the main character that does everything, and everyone else stands on the sideline explaining to the audience why it's so cool that the main character is doing their thing. But in this show, everyone has a role to play." Just as everyone has a role to play within My Hero Academia, everyone seems to have their own opinion about the show too, or at least how it ends. When the manga was completed last year, criticisms around the fate of Midoriya and the rushed feel of it all inspired Horikoshi's to write an additional coda that addressed these issues. This, of course, impacts the anime in turn. "I thought it was interesting of Horikoshi to give us a little bit more," says Christian. "It's a little bit messy. I kind of like that. I think that's part of the story that he tells with these heroes, because it's not black and white. It's not necessarily tied up at the end with a bow, with the good guys winning. It's just not quite like that. So I'm okay with how it ends. I like it. I guess I'm okay with the bittersweet. And I always have hope that maybe he'll come back and give these characters more to do later." Christian's not the only one who feels this way. "We live in a time where I feel like all the franchises keep coming back if you give them enough time," says Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugo). "I'm not going to give up hope that maybe one day there will be My Hero Higher Education or something to follow this series." But what would such a thing actually look like, assuming it does eventually happen one day? For two of the franchise's most significant heroes, it seems like it might be time for some long overdue rest. Sabat's grateful that All Might lasted as long as he did. "Every single season has been just nail biting, wondering when this is going to be the season that they use All Might as a vehicle to make Izuku stronger. So I'm just grateful that he got as far as he did, and I think he could probably use a little time just at home. Maybe All Might and Midoriya can link up online and play games or something like that. They just need to chill." Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya) is on board with that too. "If they want to make a show all about Deku's day-to-day life, I'm there for it. I just hope for him that he's living his best life. Deku's achieved so much in such a short time. He's proven himself on the world stage as the hero that he's always wanted to be. Now, I think hopefully he's just living proudly with the knowledge that he has made the difference that he has always wanted to." The Todoroki family have a lot of recovering to do as well, and given all they've been through, the cast hope to see them work through that together. "I would just want to see Endeavor living life as a civilian, doing no harm, trying to come to terms with himself," says Enji voice actor Patrick Seitz. "His story, it feels like Greek tragedy to me. He had the hubris. He was smote many different ways for it… His race is run as far as what I want to see. But if there were more material, I hope it would just be something day-to-day, pastoral, going to see Toya, speaking to the children that will still speak to him. No harm, no interactions with rage, just real slice-of-life, just something low stakes. Because for him, that is such high stakes." "You hit upon a fantasy of mine," adds Liebrecht. "I had this weird notion that it would be really cool to see Engie and Toya in their recovery mode, living in some little house with a garden and Eng taking care of them, taking care of each other, and it just being a normal, beautiful life. Finally, peace, redemption, the turning of that page." But what about Shoto Todoroki, the family's premier hero? "I have this idea of Shoto, having fully accepted who he is and where he's come from, taking some of his Dad's wants and needs doing them the right way," says David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki). "I have that idea of him out there in the world, heroing, really in the light, because Endeavor's idea was born in shadow, in intensity. So for Shoto to go and be a top hero in a different way, truly embodying that… I would be so jazzed for that." As it stands, there are currently no plans to continue Shoto's story or revisit any of his peers in Class 1-A either. Not in animated form anyway. But with a Hollywood live-action adaptation on the way, not to mention a popular new anime spinoff titled My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, anything's possible. "After you do this for a really long time," says Christopher Wehkamp (Eraserhead), "You suddenly realise that these shows don't always go away. My Hero Academia is so big and it's so meaningful to so many people, we could always hope that it's going to be back in some iteration or another. Vigilantes is kicking off now and, and that's a nice bridge to jump to if you really want to. There's always going to be hope that maybe someday down the road we'll see something else." But even if this really is the end, even if it's time to say goodbye to Class 1-A for good, at least My Hero Academia was able to end on its own terms. "At this point, I don't really know what it'll be like for it to really, actually end, but I'm happy that it gets to end," says Chapin. "There are so many shows we've worked on that don't get proper endings. The fact that we're going to at least get to do that is kind of its own little blessing." And don't forget; My Hero Academia will always be here in some shape or form, ready to inspire a whole new generation. Kind of like One For All, when you think about it. "I think we'll be talking about My Hero Academia for a very, very long time," says J. Michael Tatum (Ingenium). "I think it'll age incredibly well. New generations will continue to find it and be moved by it. And I think it'll go on to be — well, it probably already is —the gold standard that other shows will be judged by going forward." My Hero Academia is available to watch on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why won't there be a My Hero Academia season 9?
The anime has bowed out after eight seasons.
After almost a decade, My Hero Academia is officially ending. The anime phenomenon, created by author and illustrator Kōhei Horikoshi, follows Izuku Midoriya/Deku, a boy who was born without a superpower (or a Quirk) in a world where they have become commonplace. After he dreams of becoming a superhero, he is scouted by the world's greatest hero, All Might, and enrols in a high school for superheroes in training. Now, the show is officially bowing out. Here's why there won't be another season of the beloved anime. Why won't there be a My Hero Academia season 9? Quite simply, eight seasons were enough to tell the story from Horikoshi's manga. Season 8 adapted the final chapters from the manga (plus a bit of bonus content), bringing the story to an end. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years is actually not a super long run for anime, when compared to titan franchises like One Piece, Naruto and Bleach, which have run and run for decades. Ending the anime can't have been an easy feat, especially when the ending to the manga proved rather controversial, with fans criticising the pacing and how things ended for Deku. Speaking exclusively about how the cast feel ending the show, Dabi voice actor Ernesto Jason Liebrecht told RadioTimes.com: "I'm definitely in the beginning phases of mourning. "It is really kind of a crazy thing to live with a character in your head for a decade of your life, to experience the level of character development that the creators so graciously provided to us as actors." Justin Cook (Red Riot) added: "There's a part where you don't want to say goodbye to these characters, but at the same time, watching the story wrap up on its own terms… It's pretty powerful to be a part of it." "After you do this for a really long time, you suddenly realise that these shows don't always go away," said Christopher Wehkamp (Eraserhead). "My Hero Academia is so big and it's so meaningful to so many people, we could always hope that it's going to be back in some iteration or another." If you love the world of My Hero Academia, thankfully, there's more to delve into, with spin-off My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. The show, which premiered in April 2025, is set five years before the events of My Hero Academia and follows Koichi Haimawari, who helps others with his Quirk despite not being a licensed hero. The second season is set for release in 2026. My Hero Academia is available to watch on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
When it comes to sport, hockey might be a big player on the international stage, but it's not exactly a huge draw when it comes to storytelling on screen. Not since the Mighty Ducks, anyway. That's all changed now though thanks to a pair of gay hockey players who develop the hots for each other while they puck their way to the top. Based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers novel series, Heated Rivalry follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as they compete on the ice and get steamy in the bedroom. Along the way, they struggle with the toll that comes with keeping their love secret while training to be the very best at what they do. Throw in a whole lot of butts and it's easy to see the immediate appeal of this story. But even so, it's hard to fathom just how quickly Heated Rivalry took the world by storm. Jacob Tierney's adaptation started out as a Crave original, which probably doesn't mean a whole lot to people who live outside of Canada. But just a week before the premiere launched, Heated Rivalry picked up an international distribution deal, expanding the show's reach to millions more via HBO Max (you know, the streamer that won't arrive on our shores until March 2026). Even so, Heated Rivalry didn't receive the same kind of big marketing push that HBO originals like House of the Dragon take for granted. Not from the network anyway. Instead, promotion fell to the fans. Specifically, horny fans of Reid's original book who pored through every moment in the first trailer, creating countless edits and screaming reaction videos using just 90 seconds of material. View Green Video on the source website Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Brendan Brady revealed it was this fan buzz that directly led to HBO Max's involvement, thereby securing the show's international success. But distribution alone could never guarantee such a rabid response, especially for a show that has no recognisable IP outside of the book fanbase. That's where the butts come in. What started with just happy book readers soon turned into a collective lust driven by gay men and straight women alike, something the series heavily leans into. From early showers together to their first hotel hook-up, Shane and Ilya's relationship is defined almost entirely by sex. It's the language of the show itself. As Tierney told THR, "Sex is how you tell the story because their sex changes as they get to know each other, as they get to know themselves." Sex sells, of course, but it's also easy to imagine a world where Heated Rivalry could have downplayed these scenes, watering them down to appeal to a wider audience. Thankfully, Tierney's team did no such thing, and the results speak for themselves. If anything, their adaptation of Heated Rivalry goes to even further extremes in the bedroom department. The sex is almost constant, punctuated by brief conversations and expansive time jumps before the bedroom action begins anew. It's no exaggeration to say that far more of the show takes place between the sheets than on the ice. Except, the sheets rarely get in the way of what can only be described as a peachy barrage of endless cheeks displayed onscreen. Actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie obviously bring a lot of physical appeal to Heated Rivalry, but beyond the well-lit smut, it's their chemistry that sells the show. Without that, the sex could have been corny or even cringe to watch. And it's not just in these scenes where their connection shines. Even with clothes on, Williams and Storrie embody something very real, a growing lust and even love worth rooting for. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they're nice to look at too, but good looks will only get you so far, especially with such a straightforward narrative. Rather than gun for big names, Tierney's team prioritised choosing the right talent to bring these characters to life, actors who could lean into the yearning that's so integral to this story. As naughty as the show can be, it's also rather moving at points – I defy you to watch Shane slowly delete his "we didn’t even kiss" message without feeling something. Heated Rivalry is as authentic in its feelings as it is in its approach to gay sex, something which mainstream productions rarely nail. And therein lies the show's true appeal, this ability to pull us in and speak to the romantic in us too. Well, that and the fact there's almost no actual hockey here to speak of. Why would we want to watch sports when we can watch Shane and Ilya score off the rink instead? Heated Rivalry is available to watch on HBO Max in the US. Add Heated Rivalry to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Maxton Hall season 2 ending explained: The scandal that sabotages Ruby and James's happy ever after
School's back in session at Maxton Hall, where a scholarship student and the entitled rich kid must fight to overcome the world between them and make their love work. Based on Mona Kasten's best-selling book Save Me, the first season of MaxtonHall had the most successful series launch of any non-American Prime Original ever upon its release. Things weren't looking so good for Ruby and James, however, as season 1 ended in tragedy. Just as their romance finally got back on track, James and his sister Lydia were confronted with the worst news imaginable. Their mother Cordelia had died after suffering a stroke. Season 2 kicked off with James spiralling so much that he wrecked his relationship with Ruby entirely. But Maxton Hall being Maxton Hall, it wasn't long before the pair reconciled. As such, the drama came instead from James's awful father, who continues to make his son's life as hard as possible, with Ruby often taking the brunt of his cruelty. The only thing crueller is us being forced to sit through this schlock in the first place. That's not all though. Beyond this family strife, another controversy brewed, one that takes centre stage at the end of season 2 in what must be one of TV's weirdest, most uncomfortable developments of 2025. Read on to find out how Maxton Hall season 2 ends and see just what we're on about. Maxton Hall – The World Between Us season 2 ending explained The previous episode ended with Maxton Hall's Principal discovering that one of his teachers, Graham Sutton, has got Lydia pregnant. This plotline is all kinds of gross and icky by the way, especially because of how the writers romanticise it – and in a teen show, no less. James's sister and the professor are in love, which apparently makes this power dynamic something worth rooting for? Or at the very least, something we shouldn't be condemning outright? The head has the right response though, dramatically looking into the distance with sheer horror in his eyes (even if he's only thinking of himself). Season 2's finale starts in much the same way, this time with him dramatically ending a call about the same problem, eyes still agape in camp disbelief. Meanwhile, James is skipping out on a vital investors meeting to play lacrosse. It's an important match to be fair, make-or-break for the championship, and his dad sucks, so leaving him in the lurch like this is definitely the right call. The game between Eastview and Maxton Hall is shot like a clash of the titans on Mount Olympus. With every fall and every tackle, the camera shakes and the ground seems to shake with it in booming magnitude. It's silly and over the top in ways that don't fit the show in any shape or form, but it's not like logic has ever held the writers of Maxton Hall back before. Lydia runs off to the bathroom when gossip around Mr Sutton and his mystery lover starts making the rounds. Back at the investor meeting, one of the head business guys runs off too, enraged that James didn't bother showing up. "I will not entrust a man who can’t even handle his own son with another penny." Mortimer is not best pleased. But hey, James was needed at the game because the teams are drawing and there's only ten seconds left on the clock. This is the kind of original, daring storytelling that Maxton Hall has become known for, and I for one am happy to see it continue now in season 2. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/maxton-83afb2d.jpg" width="2000" height="1333" alt="A young man and woman stand on an outdoor sports field, appearing tense. The man, in the foreground, wears a white tank top and grey sweatpants, holding lacrosse gear in one hand while looking ahead with determination. Behind him, the young woman wears a school uniform consisting of a purple blazer, white shirt, and light grey pleated skirt. She carries a brown satchel and watches him with a concerned or serious expression. The scene suggests an emotional or dramatic moment set after a sports practice or game." title="Maxton Hall" /> As if that wasn't dramatic enough, blame at the meeting inevitably brings up Mortimer's dead wife yet again. "I’m glad Cordelia didn’t have to see this," says someone for the umpteenth time, giving her more screen time now she's dead than the show ever bothered to give Cordelia when she was alive. Mortimer blames Ruby Bell, obvs, as does Cyril when Maxton Hall loses the game. Sure, why not? Sutton and Lydia meet to talk about the scandal growing around them. She reckons Cordelia is leaving the family business to her and James in the will reading that's about to happen, so the Professor offers to be a stay-at-home dad to look after their baby. "Seems I’m gonna have a lot of time on my hands soon…" adds Sutton. You know why that is? Because he's going to get fired for impregnating one of his students. Ew. James and Ruby text each other with quick updates on their lives, signing each text with their initials like they're pensioners writing letters from war rather than the 18-year-olds they're supposed to be. James's voiceover uses big terms like "cognitive consistency", which aren't particularly interesting or relevant, feigning intelligence for both him and the writing at hand. At the will reading, it's revealed that Cordelia has left all of her assets and shares to her husband, Mortimer. He's super smug about it, revelling in his children's misfortune. James gets all up in his face, threatening to ruin his father. Sure, James. Good luck with that. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/Ruby-5681b2f.png" width="1278" height="852" alt="A woman with light skin and long brown hair stands in a softly lit, elegant setting, wearing a deep blue, textured dress. She looks directly toward the camera with a composed, thoughtful expression. Behind her, several people dressed in formal black-tie attire are visible, slightly out of focus. A large crystal chandelier glows above, casting a warm light that contrasts with the cool blue tones in the background. The atmosphere suggests a formal or sophisticated event." title="Maxton Hall" /> There's a scene where Ruby's family starts singing the "Be Happy" song to lift each other's spirits after her mum's bad news. I mention this here, not because it's relevant, but because it's a perfect encapsulation of just how silly this show really is. I can't possibly convey how cheesy this all plays out on screen. Words do not do it justice, I'm afraid. James goes to Alice, the woman who revoked Ruby's scholarship grant a few episodes prior when Mortimer asked her to do so. He tries his mother's memory to guilt her into doing the right thing, to turn against his father, but Alice points out that Mortimer's financial support helps her do a lot of good in this world through charity. Things aren't looking good, but there's still some hope that Ruby can pass her scholarship exams and get into Oxford. She holds onto this hope pretty strongly in some weird slow-motion scenes where – I kid you not – actual butterflies dance around her. But then it all comes crashing down again. When Sutton is called in to explain himself to peers, he explains that he and the student under his care "have fallen in love with each other". Mortimer is randomly there too because he's on the school board, apparently. "I’m curious what her parents will have to say about it," he mentions, which is kind of weird because his daughter Lydia is the one who is directly involved. Sutton is understandably confused, and so are we. That is, until Ruby is suddenly called to the headmasters' office just before she heads into the exam. Her mother arrives, also confused, and then it happens. The head reveals the photo everyone's been talking about, but that's not Lydia in the picture. It's Ruby in a photo that was taken of her with Sutton at the welcome party last season. "That was a completely harmless situation," Ruby points out, and she's right to say it. Still, that doesn't stop the headmaster from rather cruelly suspending her with immediate effect. "No diploma, no studies… Oxford? you can forget about it." <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/11/Ruby-MH-7a88809.jpg" width="1095" height="730" alt="A woman with light skin and long brown hair stands outdoors, looking intently at a man who faces her with his back to the camera. She wears a light, ruffled blouse with soft pink and white tones, while the man wears a light blue shirt. The setting is bright and natural, with greenery and a body of water blurred in the background. The woman’s expression appears emotional and serious, suggesting a tense or heartfelt moment between the two." title="Maxton Hall" /> Ruby then runs out crying in slow motion as a police car picks Sutton up from the university. James and Lydia look on in confusion, but the gross professor gives her a reassuring nod as he climbs into the vehicle. Yep, it looks like Sutton didn't correct the teachers in a bid to protect Lydia, thereby ruining Ruby's life in the process. She and James cry in each other's arms as the Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars plays over the credits. Is it a particularly relevant or original choice to end on? Of course not, and that's Maxton Hall in a nutshell. The show brings drama, make no mistake about that, and it's morbidly fun to hate-watch at points. What doesn't sit right though is how this student/teacher relationship is framed as merely misunderstood. Of course Lydia and Sutton are into it, but it's uncomfortable that the show itself seems kind of into it as well. Let's just hope the already-confirmed third season rectifies this somewhat. As it stands now, this ridiculously absurd ending is built on a weird, uncomfortable story arc that isn't being treated with the skill and nuance it deserves. But maybe that's my fault. Maybe I'm asking too much of Maxton Hall, which, two seasons in, remains one of the worst shows on streaming. Maxton Hall – The World Between Us streams on Prime Video – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime. Add Maxton Hall—The World Between Us to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How anime has led the way in the battle against climate change
Tackling environmental topics is in the very DNA of the medium.
Storytelling naturally reflects the culture and climate it's produced in – yet few films and shows appear to be tackling the biggest threat to both. According to Climate.gov, 2024 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850 (by a wide margin) and the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred in the past decade. Floods and heatwaves are increasing as the climate crisis grows, yet Western takes on this issue remain few and far between, especially when it comes to children's fare where they could make the most impact. Since Ferngully left a lasting impression on millennials in the early '90s, not many animated films have continued where it left off. Just The Lorax and Pixar's Wall-E stand out as two notable exceptions when it comes to tackling environmental issues in animation. It's a different story in Japan, however. Anime has long incorporated themes of this nature, tapping into traditional Taoist and Shintoist beliefs that prioritise ecological harmony and respect for the natural world. The Godfather of Anime, Tezuka Osamu, did so as far back as the '60s with Kimba the White Lion, and more adult stories like the Black Jack manga, where an unlicensed surgeon used his money to fund environmental projects. It's Studio Ghibli that often comes to mind first, however. Even before the studio was named as such, co-founder Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a post-apocalyptic saga where the key to surviving a polluted world came from understanding the resilience of nature and the interconnectedness of all living things. View oEmbed on the source website Plenty of other Miyazaki films continued this outlook further including Spirited Away, where the cleansing of a polluted river spirit is vital to the story and My Neighbor Totoro, which celebrates the beauty of rural life and preserving natural spaces. Aside from Nausicaä, however, it's Princess Mononoke which comes up most regularly in these conversations, thanks to the central conflict between forest spirits and human encroachment where industrialisation threatens life itself. Crucially, Miyazaki avoided any obvious route in, offering up a more complex examination of both sides without outright condemning one or other. Humanity is violent throughout the film, for example, but Lady Eboshi, its leader, also cares deeply for those in need, building an entire community for lepers and other social outcasts. That's not to say Miyazaki let humans off the hook entirely. "I’ve come to a point where I just can’t make a movie without addressing the problem of humanity as part of an ecosystem," he said in an interview with Asia Pulse around the film's release in 1997 (via Asia Pulse). The same is also true for Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, who put his own unique spin on that conflict in Pom Poko, swapping out wolves and forest spirits for shape-shifting Tanuki (raccoon-dogs indigenous to Japan) who engage in extreme guerilla tactics similar to radical groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front. Such ecological concerns aren't just limited to Studio Ghibli. A host of different anime creators have explored similar issues, from child-friendly fare like Doraemon, Dr Stone and Miyori's Forest to more mature titles such as Parasyte: The Maxim and Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You. One that's endured longer than most is Pokémon, which has encouraged climate awareness since the '90s with a celebration of biodiversity that fosters love for all living things. Most Pokémon are inspired by real-life plants and animals, after all, including one whose transformation has been influenced by climate change directly. A species named Corsola is a coral-themed Pokémon that needs clean water to live. Polluted waters discolour and even break the growths on its back. The Pokémon games Sword and Shield introduced an evolved version of Corsola that's essentially dead as a result of global warming. The Cursola have changed type from water to ghost, bleached like real coral that's died due to ocean acidification and global warming. It's just as well that this franchise is using its power for good because the global popularity and impact of Pokémon cannot be overstated. Just this week, protesters showed up at the United Nations climate conference dressed as Pikachu, aiming to stop the financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia. What this reflects so well is how anime often speaks to the power that systemic organisations hold in such cases, emphasising the need for structural change over individual consumer behaviours which come to the fore more in Western equivalents. Yet despite all this, climate education in Japan is nowhere near as strong as you might think. Despite the severe issues the island nation faces due to climate change, from massive rainfall to intensifying heatwaves, indifference to these problems is growing. According to a 2023 Cabinet Office survey that polled 3,000 adults (via The Japan Times), only 31 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 30.3 per cent of those in their 30s replied they were interested in climate issues. Meanwhile, 60.4 per cent of respondents over 70 said they were interested, which isn't ideal because you'd want this to flip the other way where the future of this planet is concerned. That's not to say anime can't inspire real change where the climate crisis is concerned. In a 2019 study, researchers from the University of Tokyo found that including animal characters in animated shows can increase public interest in real wildlife. Through their research, (now Associate) Professor Fukano Yūya and his team found that animals in a popular anime called Kemono Friends received 4.66 million more Google searches and 1 million Wikipedia page views than they had in the 18 months prior to broadcast. Crucially, this boost in interest led to increases in real-world conservation activity as the specific species featured received larger public donations across Tokyo zoos. Kelvin Tang, a postdoctoral climate education researcher at the University of Tokyo, tested this connection directly in a 2023 workshop (via The Japan Times) where he introduced 10 young children to ideas around climate change through simple cartoons and videos. Asking them to draw a picture of how they envision Japan's future climate 50 years from now, some drew a burning forest or even a burning Earth while others drew pretty flowers or grassy fields. "I see this as a hope," says Tang, "because some students, after learning about climate change, about this alarming situation, still have that hopeful future (in their minds),” he said. The resulting conversation led to students suggesting what they can do to help, whether it be turning off lights or reducing meat consumption. "The key is to find how to really harvest this hope," adds Tang, "for them to be an agent of change, to change these concerns into constructive action." In the same article, attention is drawn to a new series of anime shorts called Future Kid Takara, where the kid and a scientist go back in time to flee environmental disasters and discover the "beautiful Earth" that no longer exists for them in the future. Early signs of climate change here and now portend the apocalyptic era they hail from. The 11-episode series aims to inspire hope for positive change among elementary school students with educational, classroom use in mind. By organically conveying this vital message in an animated story like Future Kid Takara, the idea is to educate but also empower young people to change the future together, shaking off the mindset that hope is lost already. With such a long history in this field, anime remains the perfect vehicle to mainstream these concepts already and inspire further change. It's in the very DNA of this medium, after all. But it's not just Japanese animation that should aspire to make a difference. Powerful storytelling across the board is needed on a global scale to inspire action at a time when our reliance on fossil fuels is increasing as fast as the temperature is worldwide. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
It: Welcome to Derry risks ruining Pennywise for good with one fatal mistake
Welcome to Derry dares to hold Pennywise back – only to reveal far too much.
Eddie who? Richie whatshisname? As strong as the cast were in Andy Muschietti's IT, Pennywise is always the first name that comes to mind when you think of his twofold adaptation. As such, it didn't take long for Bill Skarsgård's deranged clown to dance its way into our hearts and nightmares alike (while showing up occasionally in my therapy sessions too). It's safe to say then that if there's one thing we'd want to see more of in the prequel series Welcome To Derry, it's Pennywise, even if it was reduced to a weird gross baby puddle by the end of IT: Chapter Two. The show is set 27 years before the events of the first film, making it easy to bring Pennywise back in its full splendour. Yet for the first few episodes, Skarsgård doesn't show up at all. IT is there, of course. It's in every nook and cranny of Derry, its evil seeping into every brick and the mind of every resident. Stephen King's most recognisable antagonist even shows up to terrify a new batch of kids each week, but not in his most recognisable form. Instead, IT appears as various nightmares made flesh, from Lilly's pickled father to a baby-faced demon in the premiere. It would have been easy to simply rely on the iconography of Pennywise, maximising the show's scares by giving viewers what they came for. But what you want isn't always best for you. Muschietti and his team smartly recognised that in writing this show, choosing to hold back on revealing Pennywise in full until five episodes in. Risky? Yes, but this was actually the best way to reintroduce a once-terrifying character who audiences have grown somewhat desensitised to. How could you not after Pennywise was meme'd into oblivion back when the films first came out? Building on the tension that comes with waiting to see it, this idea that Pennywise could leap out at any moment, helped remind us how scary IT really is while erasing those dancing memes from our minds completely. It's unfortunate then that Welcome To Derry risks undoing all this, not through how much Pennywise is shown but rather because of how much its backstory is. In King's original novel, we learned that Pennywise is a monstrous shape-shifting entity that crash-landed millions of years ago in Derry. This cosmic force of horror can shapeshift into your nightmares to feed off your fear, although its true form is that of golden lights, or "deadlights," that can drive anyone mad upon seeing them. Every 27 years, IT emerges to feast, mostly on children, before hiding away again below the town that's poisoned by IT's presence. This raises a number of questions. Why does IT favour the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown? Why doesn't this inter-dimensional entity venture out beyond Derry? And why does IT love to float so goddamn much? In an early interview with SFX (via GamesRadar), Muschietti teased that answers will be coming in season one of Welcome To Derry and beyond: "We're opening a window. Everything that we are setting up in season one, that will really manifest in two and three, is a look into all the bigger questions about IT. 'What does IT want? Why is IT here?' All the cryptic elements of IT that we're going to ruin and explain." View Green Video on the source website It's safe to assume that Muschietti was joking about his plans to "ruin" the wider mythology, but he accidentally did it anyway. The whole point of IT and Pennywise specifically is that this unknowable entity of unspeakable evil can't be explained away or ever fully understood. There's no logic to nightmares, and IT is a nightmare personified, the very essence of what you fear most sculpted out of the darkest recesses of your mind. Every horror fan knows that what you imagine will always be so much scarier than what's shown on-screen. That's why the '90s IT miniseries starring Tim Curry faltered when Pennywise's true form was revealed to be that of a janky-looking spider at the end. And it's not just what's shown that can have an impact either. Over-explaining is just as bad in its own way, especially with an evil as abstract and weird as this one. In episode four, Welcome To Derry dives deep into the origins of Pennywise, adding lore that wasn't even included in the original book. It's revealed that a dagger made from the same material as the meteor that Pennywise landed with can hurt the monster. In centuries past, thirteen sacred shards crafted from that metal were buried deep in the earth around Derry's western wood where IT lived, trapping it there. Each one was buried in a turtle shell, hinting at the role Maturin the cosmic turtle has long played in the battle against Pennywise. Sounds silly, right? What works on the page doesn't always translate well to screen, especially when it comes to aquatic reptiles of a cosmic nature. And that's also true of IT's expanded origin story, which Muschietti hints will be delved into further throughout future seasons. That's going to be a disaster if the military storyline we've seen so far is anything to go by. Lines like "Derry is a prison and we're looking for the bars," aren't just absurd in isolation. They also speak to just how odd and misjudged it is to see military officers try to weaponise something as unknowable as Pennywise. Even the name itself, IT, speaks to an ambiguity that's central to the power this idea has to unsettle us, a power which this narrative undercuts brutally. The result inevitably demystifies IT and robs the entity of its power. As smart as it was to tease Pennywise's physical appearance in the prequel, it was anything but wise to begin chipping away at its mystique. And therein lies the show's true horror. Because if Stephen King never explained why Pennywise stays in Derry, for example, why should the show? And more importantly, why should we care? It: Welcome to Derry continues on Sky Atlantic and NOW on Mondays. Add It: Welcome to Derry to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Pluribus season 1 review: Vince Gilligan's sci-fi masterpiece will take you to your happy place
Rhea Seehorn is magnificent in this unique sci-fi masterpiece.
TV titan Vince Gilligan is known for writing bad guys. Think Walter White in Breaking Bad or Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul. But for his highly anticipated follow-up, Gilligan dares to imagine a world where there are no bad guys, where evil has been eradicated in its entirety. And therein lies a very different kind of horror. Pluribus begins with a scientific discovery gone awry, as is often the case with post-apocalyptic stories of this nature. One simple mistake breaks the world as we know it, unleashing a virus that melds the globe into one collective group mind. The horrific imagery that follows evokes everything from the devastating stillness of 28 Days Later to the chilling paranoia embedded throughout Invasion of the Body Snatchers (in all its incarnations). So why was Pluribus surrounded by so much secrecy prior to its release? We've seen this all before, right? Well no, it turns out that Gilligan's twist on the genre quickly takes these familiar tropes in wildly unexpected directions that intrigue, unsettle, and might occasionally test your patience at points. Without spoiling too much, this global shift in thinking isn't hellbent on domination. The virus has essentially won already, yet that was never its goal. Melding the world's population into one singular mind was just necessary, a biological imperative akin to breathing. The result is a happy one, creating a utopia on earth where there is no more crime. Discrimination is a thing of the past and every caged animal has been set free. At its core, this apocalypse brings peace and happiness to everyone on earth except the one woman who can't stand it. Carol Sturka, an unhappy romance novelist who peddles "mindless crap" numbers among the very few people on earth who have retained their minds still, somehow immune to the virus. As such, the collective is keen to draw Carol into their embrace, quite happily informing her that they're working on ways to push through and infect her somehow. It's in this tension that the show's defiance of straightforward tone and genre is most evident. Much like Carol herself, Pluribus pushes back against notions of good and evil, what's right and wrong, in a funhouse mirror version of the grey areas Gilligan played with so adeptly in his previous works. With a placid smile (smiles?) and kind reassurances, the virus wishes to erase Carol's individuality and assimilate her completely. But would that be so bad? Other survivors reject Carol's idea of "saving humanity", believing themselves to be saved already in what could be considered a new utopia on earth. It would be easy to read this as a push back against group think or conformity, but Pluribus doesn't offer easy answers. Instead, the writing opens itself up to interpretation on multiple levels (unlike Carol's own tawdry fantasy series). This idea that the ones who wish you harm will smile at you as they do so also speaks to religious extremism, gay conversion therapy, and even our political reality, while assumptions that the virus is bad also touch on the differences between individualist and collectivist societies. Pluribus does offer easy answers in another sense, however, as the virus readily gives up information Carol seeks in her attempts to uncover what's really happening. These tranquil admissions might lack the tension that a puzzlebox mystery show usually provides — with one even going so far as to undercut its own horror almost immediately — but this in itself sets Pluribus further apart as an entirely unique viewing experience. That's also true of its scale. Gilligan's return to TV makes full use of that Apple TV budget with vast settings that ram home the global impact of what's happened. Jumps back and forth in time expand this even further again, plus international locales beyond Albuquerque, New Mexico (also the setting of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) are just a plane ride away, easily accessible thanks to "The Afflicted" and their endless altruism. While you're sometimes left wondering at the implications of this global shift beyond Carol's perspective, Pluribus constantly finds ingenious new ways to touch on that through dialogue or outlandish scenarios that could only come from a premise this strange. Hearing a child draw on the group mind to discuss the ins and outs of gynaecology is as disconcerting as it sounds, for example, while a politician talking to Carol through her TV delivers one of the premiere's most shocking moments through what's essentially exposition. Pluribus is alien in more ways than one, so it was smart to ground this story through a protagonist like Carol, a cynical grump whose anger is as useful as it can be destructive. Her outrage at what's become of humanity spikes against the happiness of the collective, creating a push and pull dynamic that grows central to what Pluribus has to say. Gilligan wrote this story specifically for Rhea Seehorn following their work together on Better Call Saul, and it's the exact kind of calling card that could nab her an Emmy at last following three previous nominations. Whether she's seething or yearning, raging or grieving, Seehorn is magnificent, adding dimension upon dimension to Carol against the smoothed-out flatness on the faces of everyone who surrounds her. Pluribus is essentially a one-woman show in that respect, yet Karolina Wydra also does phenomenal work as Zosia, an avatar for the collective who Carol comes to rely on. Her prominence deliberately complicates our perception of what's happening while also giving us a face to connect with in this multitude of billions. Pluribus works as an inverted version of Sense8 in some ways, another marvellously inventive spin on what's possible within sci-fi. Elements of Lost's puzzle box enigma, the existentialism of The Leftovers and even the quirkiness of The X-Files — a show Gilligan worked on extensively before Breaking Bad — are also apparent in the DNA of Pluribus (not to mention the influence of seminal sci-fi authors such as John Wyndham or Kurt Vonnegut). Much like the virus does to everyone except Carol, Pluribus twists familiar storytelling beats into something new and otherworldly. The result is one of this year's most inventive stories across any medium, making Gilligan's return to TV a bonafide rarity in a sea of recycled ideas we've seen countless times before. Beyond the premiere — a truly perfect hour of television — you'll need to be open to seeing the bigger picture at points, and patience is vital if you're to go along with some of the wilder swings this show takes. But if you're up for it, prepare yourself for what could eventually turn out to be a genuine masterpiece on the same level as Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul. All it took was for Gilligan to make everyone and no-one the bad guy all at once. Pluribus is now available on Apple TV. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. Add Pluribus to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
The Witcher season 4's Liam Hemsworth recast makes complete sense for one key reason
Geralt's had quite the makeover in season 4.
The Witcher has fought all manner of monsters in his time, but four seasons in, the biggest threat to Geralt's existence might just be himself. Or at least, the new version of him that's been introduced in Netflix's latest season. Whatever your thoughts on The Witcher might be, fans and detractors alike usually agree that Henry Cavill has been pivotal to the show's success. Whether he was drawing his sword or drawing a bath, Cavill's take on Geralt felt intrinsic to the story being told. It's as if he was born to play The Witcher. So when Cavill suddenly left the show three seasons in, his exit understandably came as quite a shock. It was impossible for fans to imagine what The Witcher might look like without him, yet that's exactly what showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich was forced to do for the series to continue. Enter Liam Hemsworth, another statuesque bulk of a man who was asked to step in and take Cavill's place. Long before pics of him donning the wig surfaced online, fans were already quick to denounce Hemsworth as being unfit for the task at hand. These were big shoes to fill, after all. Never mind that Liam is 6cm taller than Henry. It didn't help that when trailers for season 4 did finally arrive, they included a scene where Hemsworth's Geralt rallies his friends by crying: "Let's f**king move." For fans still invested in the show, this felt like a betrayal of sorts, a sign that The Witcher had lost its way. "Geralt would never say such a thing," they claimed, with others criticising Hemsworth's delivery of the line as well. To be fair, Liam was going to be criticised regardless, no matter how good or bad he was in the role. Copy Cavill too closely and you're just a pale imitation of the real deal. Put your own stamp on the character and you risk losing Geralt's essence entirely. This was always going to be a lose-lose situation for Hemsworth, at least at the beginning when fans would be most resistant to change. Plus, it's not exactly easy to pull off a white wig of that gloss and magnitude. Yet even with all that going against Hemsworth, I'd argue his arrival in the show couldn't have come at a better time. In fact, replacing Cavill at this stage actually makes a lot of sense considering where Geralt himself is at in this stage of the character's journey. Witchers don't typically involve themselves in the affairs of humans. As Geralt himself says in the fifth episode of this new season, people like him are "destined to kill monsters and make coin". Yet that's no longer true for this Witcher. While this might hew closely to where he and this show first began, Geralt has been through a great deal these past three seasons. He's fallen in love with Yennefer, he's become a father of sorts to Ciri, and he's developed a somewhat homoerotic bromance with Jaskier too. The Witcher's heart and soul has become enmeshed with humans more than even he could have ever expected, and that's also the case in season 4 when he ends up leading a new hanza bonded by friendship. It wasn't where the Witcher saw himself heading, but here we are nonetheless. Over time, Geralt has become a friend, a lover, a father figure who's worlds removed now from the Geralt that Cavill first introduced to us at the start of season 1. Season 4 goes to great pains to emphasise this. In Hemsworth's first episode, Jaskier states that Geralt "just hasn't been the same since his injuries, since he lost the ones he loved". Nods to him changing, to Geralt embracing his emotions like never before, continue throughout, perhaps most noticeably when Laurence Fishburne's new character tells him that he's "evolving." And he's right to say it. The Geralt we once knew certainly wouldn't have trusted a vampire like Regis, for example. Cynics might suggest this has been emphasised so strongly to differentiate Hemsworth's version of the role from Cavill, perhaps with a knowing nod and wink that's rather typical of the show in general. But the truth is that Geralt's different anyway now. As such, any deviations from the Geralt we once knew can easily be explained away as such, which easily accounts for the different take Hemsworth inevitably brings to this character. Does Liam match up to Henry? No, not quite, but there's more nuance to this than arguments that Hemsworth is simply "bad" in the role. What is clear, however, is that the new episodes don't live up to past seasons regardless. If anything, that's what puts The Witcher in danger now. Not the 'new' Geralt, but lacklustre writing and directionless plotting that drags this season out far longer than necessary. In that regard, Hemsworth couldn't have signed up at a worse time. The Witcher seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Netflix. Season 5 coming soon. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. Add The Witcher to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
Wayward ending explained: Do Abbie and Leila escape the school?
Lets's break it down. **CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR WAYWARD**
*Warning: Major Wayward spoilers ahead.* Mae Martin’s new mystery series Wayward has hooked fans with its genre-bending oddness, thrilling plot and decades-spanning twists. Set in the secluded town of Tall Pines, Vermont, the series centres on Tall Pines Academy, a so-called therapeutic school for troubled teens, helmed by the terrifying Evelyn (Toni Collette). Creator Martin also stars as Alex, a police officer who has just moved to Tall Pines with his pregnant fiancée, Laura (Sarah Gadon), and immediately begins to sense something is off about the town. Alex soon becomes entangled with two students, Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind), who plan to break out of the school. But Alex has more than his own fair share of problems to contend with. The new cop in town can't leave Tall Pines yet, not until he has enough dirt on Evelyn to break free of her controlling hold on his family. He and Laura plan to escape together with their baby once it's born – except at the end of episode 7, Alex overhears Laura tell her support group that she's never going to leave town. Not ever. It's then that Alex finally realises that Laura, who seemed to be rebelling against her former mentor, is actually becoming the new Evelyn herself. To make matters worse, it also looks like Leila is becoming the new Laura now that she's falling for Evelyn's cult-like control, just like Alex's wife once did all those years ago. So, will Laura turn to the dark side completely? Will Abbie and Leila's friendship survive long enough to escape? And will Collette deliver another raging "Mother" monologue, the likes of which we've not seen since her Oscar-worthy turn in Hereditary? Here's how Mae Martin's Wayward ends its first (and probably only) season on Netflix. Wayward ending explained: Do Abbie and Leila escape? Sensing that she's losing her grip over Laura, Evelyn shows up at Laura's house, but doesn't get a warm welcome. Her current number one disciple, Rabbit, isn't so keen on Evelyn now either after she watches the kid she hoped to adopt has been suddenly sent away with another family. The cracks in Evelyn's control over the school and this town are becoming too big to ignore… Seizing this opportunity, Abbie finally puts her escape plan into action, using the stamps Alex gave her to trick one of the guards into leaving the compound using a fake love letter from a long-distance admirer. Yep, really. And it works. Through this elaborate scheme, Abbie is able to switch the power off in the school at a crucial moment, and when the guards run out to find her with Morty and Leila outside, the other students are all wearing identical hoodies to her so that Abbie's impossible to find. While all this is happening, Laura suddenly goes into labour three weeks early, but that's OK. Someone in her new cult has to be a doctor, right? What's the point of starting a cult of your own if you can't enjoy a few benefits every now and again as leader? Abbie and Leila get away, but Leila suddenly changes her mind, telling Abbie that the school can help her so she should stay. Evelyn has got into her brain, indoctrinating Leila completely. And not even her bestie Abbie can change her mind in time. Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Martin said that when they were "reading about these schools, there are some people who say it changed their life and it was all worth it". "So I'm interested in that and where that comes from, and pain relief is a very persuasive element, right?" they added. "And I'm also interested in class struggle. Like socioeconomically, she doesn't have a safety net [on the outside]. And Leila's having a different experience to Abbie, she's had a different experience going through the programme, so it just felt emotionally truthful that she would want to be there." What happens to Evelyn in Wayward? Meanwhile, Evelyn confronts Alex in the creepy basement of her school where the gross tadpole water baptisms take place. Have you ever heard a more unholy combination of words in your life? Things aren't looking too good for Alex, but then Rabbit betrays Evelyn after she finally realises that her mentor doesn't actually care about her at all. Alex almost drowns, but he ends up turning the tables on Evelyn by injecting her with the drug she's been using on the kids. Rabbit points out that he's given her too much, a lethal dose, but honestly, it's what Evelyn deserves at this point. High as a kite, Evelyn turns around and reveals a horrific truth to Alex – that Laura's parents weren't killed by her. They were killed by their own child, Laura, who smashed their heads in with a rock. While Alex leaves to go be with Laura during the birth of their child, Rabbit talks an intoxicated Evelyn through her own version of The Leap, that horrendous procedure she frequently used to mind control the students. In her visions, Evelyn sees her mother and then her mouth becomes a symbolic door of sorts. Evelyn proceeds to put her own hand into her own mouth because why not? And that freaky ass dream(?) sequence is the last we see of Evelyn. But is she still alive or has she died from an overdose of the Leap drug? Wayward was designed to be a limited series, but given how often streamers like Netflix like to switch things up and change their minds, it makes sense that Martin might leave Evelyn's ending at least a touch ambiguous. What's not ambiguous, however, is just how messed up life is for Alex and Laura moving forward. Does Alex leave at the end of Wayward? Despite almost dying at the school, Alex makes it home in time to greet Laura just as she's given birth to their child in a paddling pool. The pair bond over the fact they've both done "many awful things," and then Alex bonds with the baby by sitting with it in the pool, skin to skin. That's when members of Laura's new cult interrupt and take it upon themselves to do the same, passing "their" new baby around like a hot potato, cuddling to ensure a bond is secured through plenty of skin to skin contact. It's weird and freaky and probably the ninth oddest thing to happen in this series. Alex agrees, bewildered at what's going on, but Laura explains that their child should belong to everyone now because it's the "only way to break the pattern". The pattern being Evelyn's creepy grip on the town and how it was forbidden for new children to be born there for decades. Still though, it's pretty creepy. The next thing you know, Alex is driving in his car with the baby and Abbie too, escaping town for good. Alex tells Abbie that she's "not a bad kid," pointing out the strength it takes for someone so young to know exactly who they are. Abbie says "You're a good person too, Alex," ending Wayward on the happy note they both deserve… Except, it's all a lie. Alex isn't a good person and he's not a good father either, because this last sequence isn't real. We cut then to where Alex actually is, back at home, closing the front door of his house to return to his family. In doing so, he broke his promise to Abbie and condemned his child to a life in the creepy cult his wife just freshly set up. "I think the fact that he can imagine the right thing to do just brings it into focus even more that it is a bit of a moral failure," explained Martin. "He knows the right thing to do, and he's choosing instead to to stay. "But again, I relate. He really loves Laura, and he loves the baby, and it would be really, really difficult to leave. "I'm so interested in people's reactions to the ending because I've had people say it's really ambiguous with Alex, I'm like, I don't know if it's ambiguous, or if he just didn't make the choice you wanted him to make. He chooses to stay and he knows that that's the wrong thing to do. But what would you do with your baby and your wife? "I definitely think that yearning for acceptance and that kind of outdated idea of being a protector and a provider, I think that's so strong in him. But he's not gonna get it. It's gonna be f**ked, right?" What happens at the end of Wayward? And with that, Wayward ends with Abbie driving alone, free, but at what cost? It's safe to presume that Abbie gets away, mostly unharmed, if not for all the psychological trauma that must come from what's happened. Alex, meanwhile, has given into the fake comforts of the cult family life Laura's dragged him into, but what of the school and the rest of the students? Whether Evelyn is alive or not by the end, there's still a ton of corpses and messed up kids to sort out. Sometimes you're better off just not knowing, forced to imagine the best or worst for characters like this without forcing a second season where one might not be needed. But still, aren't you tempted by the idea of a sequel set years down the line that could revolve around Laura's new cult? Wayward is available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 25th September. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 ending explained – every twist broken down
Let's hope the siesta they take between seasons is enough to inject some new life into this spin-off.
Like its titular zombies, The Walking Dead continues to live on as a shadow of its former self. That is, except for the Daryl Dixon spin-off. While other spin-offs have failed to capture what made the flagship show so popular, Norman Reedus and his fan-favourite character have endured for three seasons to much greater success. With a season 4 already confirmed, the future's looking good for Daryl and his bestie Carol who's accompanied him for the past two seasons. Except, everyone's favourite mulleted hero hasn't exactly had it easy this time around. Trapped in the Spanish town of Solaz del Amar, Daryl and Carol are caught up in all kinds of drama with the show's new Big Bad, Fede. Plus, Carol's been catching feelings for a local named Antonio. It's a shame then that Fede has kidnapped Antonio and is currently torturing him for info on Daryl. Will Carol find love at last? Will Daryl ever make it home? And will someone finally cut Daryl's mullet down to size while he's sleeping? These questions and more all come to mind watching the seventh, final episode of Daryl Dixon season 3. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 ending explained The finale begins with a callback to a callback. Remember when Daryl placed Laurent's Rubik's Cube at a memorial to honour him a few episodes prior? (Laurent was the French kid Daryl looked after in seasons 1 and 2.) Well, we're back there now with another familiar face from previous seasons. Yep, the mysterious eyepatch guy is actually Stéphane Codron, who started out as a villain in season 1 before he switched sides. The last time we saw him was at the end of season 2 when hallucinogenic bat poop in the Channel Tunnel caused him to see visions of his brother, during which he stabbed Daryl with a bayonet. Yep, really. That encounter ended with Stéphane running off to who knows where and he hasn't been seen since. Until now. More on that later. While Antonio is being tortured by Fede, Carol tries to convince his ungrateful son Roberto to help save him. She tells him to wait for Daryl and Justina to return from their mission and board the boat as she goes it alone. Carol's smitten! Fede makes an example of Antonio, stringing him up on a torture device in the town square as Carol watches in horror from the shadows. Only when he reveals where the Americans are hiding will Antonio be freed. Plus, it doesn't hurt to scapegoat them in front of the town to assert Fede's dominance further. When night falls, Carol comes to free Antonio while avoiding gun fire from Fede's henchmen in the distance. Meanwhile, Daryl and Paz go undercover at a royal banquet, working as masked servants right under everyone's noses. This is where the people with power gather in luxury, the same people who demand villages offer up their women to Spanish royalty in a ritual known as "La Ofrenda" ("The Offering"). As they wine and dine in luxurious finery, the royals watch a special show on stage where walkers are dressed up fancy and strung up like marionette puppets to dance for them. The symbolism isn't exactly subtle, but it's a unique, striking image still, which has become somewhat of a rarity in the Walking Dead franchise these days. The King dedicates a speech to his son Guillermo, and his "beautiful future wife" Elena, who was snatched away from her girlfriend Paz earlier this season. Daryl ain't having it, so he cuts the walkers free and opens the curtain, unleashing them on the crowd. He also starts a few fires for good measure as Paz heads off to rescue Elena. The pair reunite with a hug in Elena's place, where Paz finds out her love has a son named Pablo. They plan to run off together, but then a guard knocks Paz out, who wakes up to Guillermo threatening her. "You want my wife?" he shouts. "Now you’ll be together every night because I’ll mount your head on her bedpost." As murderous threats go, that's a pretty good one, but Elena then quite literally stabs him in the back to save Paz. They get the boy and run. At the same time, Daryl saves Justina from the man who chose her at "The Matching" ritual before all hell broke loose. In doing so, Daryl saves some other women, because that's just the nice guy that Daryl is. Carol also received a welcome dose of human kindness from Antonio who's prepared some tea for her in a brief safe spot. And not just any tea either, but with milk and honey. That's how you know he's one of the good ones. Of course, it's not long before Fede's men show up pounding at the door. Luckily, the local women who hid them away show them to a convenient escape route concealed down in their basement. One brief walker attack later and all our faves are reunited safely above ground. Paz thanks Daryl for all his help and then bounces while he and Justina take the scenic route back to the lighthouse on his motorbike. They stop off briefly to share some thoughts which are supposed to sound deep, but come across a bit basic as they point out how the apocalypse turned some people bad and others good. Eventually, they arrive back at the lighthouse but are welcomed by two intruders who attack and take Justina hostage. Valentina saves them quite quickly though, revealing that Roberto had her hide after she was injured in the initial attack. Daryl runs off back to the village again in order to rescue Carol who went back for Antonio again. Fede has captured them both, but decides to immediately let them go… Of course, there's a catch. The catch being that Antonio's son Roberto has been chained to two of his dead friends who are about to transform just as more walkers are led into the courtyard. View oEmbed on the source website Carol and Antonio try to remove the chains but it's too late. A local named Alba throws a knife to Carol, but Fede's men shoot it away with startling accuracy. Unfortunately for them, said accuracy escapes them just moments later when Daryl arrives and starts shooting at them from a balcony nearby. Daryl quickly picks off his aggressors as Carol picks up the knife and gets stabby stabby with the walkers. Justina arrives then, casually strolling through the mini-horde as both Daryl and Fede shoot at the zombies trying to eat her. Remember, Fede is Justina's uncle, so he does care about her safety still, despite how poorly he's treated her up until now. This works against Fede though when the villagers emerge to hear Justina's claims that Fede has been lying to them all. She also announces that El Alcazar "is in ashes" thanks to Daryl, which means The Ofrenda is over for good. Instead of torturing Fede like he did Antonio, Justina suggests taking him to the dungeon. To hurt him would mean they're not better than him. The evil cartoonish mayor then screams "This is your fault!" at Daryl as he's led away. "You'll pay!" Do Daryl and Carol make it home? Back at the lighthouse, Daryl and Carol finally get around to sharing those hot dogs they've been hankering for all season. Instead of sailing off immediately, using the boat to find their way home, the pair recuperate and open up to each other on the beach. "This whole time I’ve been trying to get home," says Daryl. "Why the f**k did I leave in the first place? Why did I have to get in a fight with the guy in Maine? Why didn’t I leave France when I could have? This makes no sense. My whole life I’ve been running, just running and fighting. That’s all." Carol says he did it to survive, but Daryl worries this has become a habit now, that he might arrive home and feel the urge to leave again still. The pair hug it out, reminding us that this show is always at its best when Daryl and Carol are actually together instead of getting separated on endless side missions. Meanwhile, Fede's mama brings him food in jail. He asks to be freed, telling her that the town will obviously kill him as soon as Daryl and co sail away. "You already lost one son. You don’t want to lose another…" The Spanish matriarch doesn't say anything, but it's not long before we find out what she did next, because Fede suddenly shows up on the beach, holding a gun to Daryl in a bid for revenge. But he doesn't just run up and shoot him. No, that would have been the smart thing to do. "I let you into my town," he cries. "I gave you food and shelter and you took everything from me. Do you really think you can just sail home now?" Just before Fede pulls the trigger, Carol appears and knocks him to the ground. A bullet's fired off in the struggle, which somehow starts a fire in the ship. Others join in to help Carol, including Antonio who knocks Fede out with a rock. The fire quickly devours the ship in a series of explosions, which means the gang aren't going anywhere. A Spanish version of Johnny Cash's Hurt plays as Daryl and Carol watch their ride home go up in flames. It's all very dramatic, and then Stéphane shows up again, watching the explosions from a distance using his one remaining eye. With a fourth season already confirmed, it was inevitable that Daryl and Carol wouldn't make it home just yet. But it seems that after bouncing around America, France, and the UK (briefly), the showrunners aren't done with this Spanish setting just yet. Let's just hope the siesta they take between seasons is enough to inject some new life into this spin-off before it shuffles on into the horizon for good. Since Daryl and Carol left France, the show has lost some of its "je ne sais quoi". In the UK, Daryl Dixon season 3 will be available to stream on Sky and NOW from 24th October. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
My Hero Academia's 10 strangest characters ranked from quirky to super weird
My Hero Academia is so much more than just a Japanese version of Western comic book stories like X-Men or Umbrella Academy. Across its decade-long run, Kōhei Horikoshi's school-based superhero saga has changed the game for storytelling in both anime and manga, introducing us to countless heroes and villains who are just as inspiring as they are weird. Powers in this world are known as "quirks", yet quirky doesn't even begin to cover the bizarre places some of these characters take us. In Class 1-A alone, there are students who possess frog powers, who gain super strength from eating sugar, and one who can even shoot lasers out of his belly button. These would be the strangest characters in almost any other story, but in My Hero Academia, such quirks are ordinary and even mundane in comparison to the 10 weirdos you're about to meet in this list. But who's the weirdest and freakiest character in a world full of them? Join us here at RadioTimes.com as we flex our listing Quirk and create the ultimate ranking of 10 weirdest characters in My Hero Academia. 10. Taneo Tokuda – Whole Body Lens Imagine being able to take photos without worrying that your phone might run out of charge. That's the perfect reality Taneo Tokuda lives in thanks to his unique Whole Body Lens ability that enables him to form camera lenses anywhere on his skin. Tokuda can even print off the photos he takes from his chest, polaroid style. Obviously, he's a reporter, because what else would you possibly do with that quirk? Being a perv in the shadows won't pay your bills, after all. 9. Teruo Hazukashi – Shame When people usually feel shame or embarrassment, we tend to sweat or our face might turn red. But for Hazukashi, these feelings also endow him with super-strength. That's why when he shows up in episode 87, this nefarious criminal decides to get naked in a busy street, powered up by the shame this brings. Hazukashi is kind of ripped though, so why he's embarrassed to show off those abs is beyond us. 8. Setsuna Tokage – Lizard Tail Splitter Tokage has the unique and icky ability to split her body into smaller pieces which she independently controls. What's even weirder is that each piece can float in the air, so anything from her nose to her pinky can zoom around in the sky at will. Can lizards do this? No. Would we question the name of Tokage's Quirk to her face? No, because she'd probably do something gross like detach her tongue or foot and throw it at us. 7. Minoru Mineta – Pop Off As a founding member of Class 1-A, this little freak is the most well known Quirk user on the list. Maybe that's why he ranks so low, because we've got used to the weird sticky balls that he pulls from his hair. What we will never get used to, however, is his creepy obsession with girls and the fact that he wears a diaper while doing said creeping. It's time to expel Minoru Mineta ASAP. 6. Kojiro Bondo – Cemedine Class 1-B student Kojiro Bondo is aptly named because his quirk allows him to spray a sticky glue that he can "bond" to anything, drying it fast or slow depending on what the situation calls for. As far as quirks in My Hero Academia go, there are weirder ones, sure. But what earns Bondo a spot on this list is the fact that he's essentially a giant human glue dispenser who sprays the glue out of tiny holes where his face should be. No judgement, but that's pure nightmare fuel, and I want no part of it. 5. Comicman – Comic Comicman is a comic book hero whose face is constructed like a blank comic book panel. When he speaks, the words materialise in mid-air, and not just any words either. These words are onomatopoeia (words that describe sounds), which then manifest the effects of the sound. It's a very flexible power with tons of potential if not for the fact that over-using this quirk gives Comicman a sore throat. But let's be real. If you want to be the number one hero in the game, just buy some lozenges and step your s**t up. 4. Ending – Whiteline As you might have gathered, my dude Ending has the power to control white lines. Red lines are a no-go. White circles are also a no-go. And if that wasn't specific enough, Ending can only control white lines painted on the road. Attack him in the countryside and you're good to go. But don't dismiss Ending entirely. Under the effects of a Quirk-boosting drug named Trigger, he used his Whiteline ability to form tentacles that can bind enemies or throw heavy objects, including cars. Dumb yet impressive, nonetheless. 3. Seiji Shishikura – Meatball If Shishikura's Meatball Quirk gave him the ability to create the world's finest spaghetti dish out of mid-air, he'd top our ranking of best heroes ever. But unfortunately, this is not that Quirk. Instead, the Shiketsu High School student has the power to manipulate raw flesh. And not just a lamb chop either. His signature move is kneading other people's bodies into a ball of flesh, a meatball, if you will, and they're still conscious the entire time. The entire time. As if that wasn't enough to fund a year's worth of therapy, Shishikura can manipulate his own flesh too. Our little creep is too powerful so they don't use him in the show much anymore. Either that or he traumatised too many kids watching. 2. Tatami Nakagame – Telescopic You might assume that the Telescopic Quirk refers to someone who can zoom in to see things from far away. But no, that ability belongs to another named Mei Hatsume. What Tatami Nakagame can do is far more freaky. Essentially, she can retract her body in on itself, like a turtle, but naming this Quirk after an aquatic reptile was too weird, apparently. So instead, you have to imagine how a telescope can be pushed into itself with smaller and smaller cylinders stacking into each other. Yep, that's it. That's the whole Quirk. At best, this power might be handy if you're aiming to win a particularly serious game of hide and seek. Or maybe you want to save some money and buy a child ticket for the train. Beyond that, it's hard to see how retracting your limbs into your body can help to protect innocents or fight anyone really. 1. Susugu Mitarai – Clean Bubbler Laundry day can be an absolute ball ache, but not for Susugu Mitarai. Better known as Pro-Hero Wash, he uses the Clean Bubbler Quirk to produce soapy water from his body that can be wielded in a variety of different ways. Enormous bubbles can be used to trap villains or keep them afloat in the air while the soapy fluid he creates can also help treat injuries. That's all pretty weird, but the strangest thing about Mitarai is the fact that this somewhat useful power actually earned him a spot in the top 10 Pro-Heroes. Yep, the guy dressed up like a washing machine is in the top 10 out of literally hundreds of heroes. What does Mitarai know that we don't? What dirt does he have on the people who get to decide this? That's one stain he won't be washing off anytime soon. My Hero Academia is available to watch on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Peacemaker season 2 ending explained: How finale sets up Superman's Man of Tomorrow
Things aren't looking good for Chris. **CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER SEASON 2 EPISODE 8**
**Warning: Spoilers ahead for Peacemaker season 2 episode 8.** Will Peacemaker ever find any actual peace? The penultimate episode of season 2 left Chris Smith in a very bad place. Yes, even worse than the Nazi-loving dimension he's just escaped from. Because on the team's way out, both Peacemaker's (alternate) brother and (alternate) father ended up dying, forcing Chris to relive the loss of his family all over again. With Peacemaker now in custody and the rest of the gang in disarray, what does this mean for the final chapter of season 2? And how do we go from that to the setup for season 3, not to mention James Gunn's Superman sequel Superman, Man of Tomorrow, which this episode will also launch. Grab yourself a Big Belly burger and settle in as we take a closer look at the end of season 2 and what's next for Peacemaker. Peacemaker season 2 ending explained The finale starts one month prior where we finally get to the night Chris and Emilia Harcourt acted on their feelings and shared a kiss. Copious amounts of tequila aside, it's an incredibly sweet, affecting sequence that wouldn't feel out of place in a modern-day rom-com. That's not to say it's cheesy either, especially when Emilia nearly pummels a guy with freckles. The chemistry Chris and Emilia share feels genuine, rooted in affection for their friends and each other. Back in the present, Chris rejects efforts made by the gang to visit him in prison. He claims to a guard that he's become the angel of death as a result of the trauma he's endured, but if that's true of anyone, it's Rick Flag Sr. Time and time again, he sends A.R.G.U.S. agents to investigate unlocked doors in the inter-dimensional space that Peacemaker first introduced us to at the start of this season. John Economos points out that this feels reckless, especially given that the agents can't be tracked once they pass through each door. Most of the doors are locked though, thankfully. That is, until they reach number 22. At first, it looks like the sweetest dream, a world where candy canes stand tall in place of trees. But, of course, it's not long until tiny critters ambush the agents, including Emilia, biting at their hazmat suits with tiny pointy teeth. The team eventually escape, shooting and even ripping the imps apart who explode in a puff of glitter. One team member, embarrassed earlier by his story of puking on a stripper, has nothing to be embarrassed about anymore, and that's because he's dead. The little gremlins smashed their way through the glass in his helmet and proceeded to eat his face. So what is the plan exactly? It turns out Flag is looking for an uninhabited world that's breathable with its own food and water supply. But why? Leota Adebayo, aka Ads, visits Vigilante who ends up envisioning her and his mum engaged in cunnilingus because… reasons. Moving swiftly past that, Ads needs the blood money Vigilante has accrued from all his crime busts over the years. It's the only way they can pay off Peacemaker's bail and free him from jail. Vigilante would rather kill the judge's family because he's afraid this blood money is cursed, but Ads tricks him into agreeing anyway. Chris makes bail, despite his wishes to the contrary, so he just takes off to a dingy motel with Eagly. Meanwhile, A.R.G.U.S. Agents open plenty more doors to other worlds including one with a black hole, another with old-school zombies, and a third that's populated by giant skulls on spider-like legs, screaming into the abyss. That's a big nope for everyone involved, although Lex Luthor leaves a note saying the black hole world looks promising. Flag seems pretty happy too, laughing and doing lines of coke with his team while more agents are brutally killed under his command. Yep, Flag sucks, which is a bummer for anyone who enjoyed watching a younger version of his character lead the Creature Commandos in Gunn's recent animated series. Eventually, another dimension suited to his needs is found. In a shady meeting with some higher-ups, Flag explains that this 'Salvation' planet is the perfect place to house criminals that prisons like Arkham Asylum and Belle Reve can't handle. Essentially, he wants to remove all the aliens and meta-humans he doesn't like, much like a dumber version of Lex. Will that soon include Superman? Flag's cyborg colleague slash girlfriend Sasha Bordeaux doesn't feel particularly good about this plan, and with so many people dying for the cause, she decides to form an alliance with Emilia and put a stop to this. View oEmbed on the source website They meet in the same Big Belly burger restaurant that Harcourt and Chris visited on their date, which is as good a time as any to point out that Peacemaker has barely appeared in the finale yet, even though it's his show. While some might be quick to criticise that, this just goes to show how strong the supporting cast is, especially when they band together with one common goal. Despite that camaraderie, Danielle Brooks remains the clear standout here, and she gets a chance to shine when Ads visits her ex to find resolution and close that chapter of her life for good. The words they share — "It tears me apart at my bones and I will love you for the rest of my life, but I know we’re not right for each other" — are so good that they almost make me forgive the fact that Ads' wife's been missing from the show since episode 1. Using her special clearance, Sasha finds Peacemaker's location with a little help from John who tells what might be the worst joke in the world — while revealing a harrowing fact about lobsters in the process. Did you know they die because their shells stop growing so they end up being crushed by their own exo-skeleton? Well now you do... Ok, maybe double check that one on Google. The group catch up with Chris outside the motel. He tries to run, but Vigilante electrocutes him. It's ok though. He does it with love. And then they all pour out their feelings to Chris who reveals why he's been pushing everyone away. With so many people dying around him, including his family, twice, Chris believes that he's cursed. After all, weirder things have happened in a world full of magic and aliens and all kinds of f***ery. But Ads points out that all those deaths happened because Chris was listening to other people, Amanda Waller… his father… and not himself. "When you are truly who you are, Chris Smith, what happens? You touch people, man. I believe in miracles because of you. I saw an eagle hug a human. I know who I am because of you and when I’m around you, I feel loved. You’re big and you’re stupid but I know you love me and I don’t know if I can say that about anyone else in the world." Brooks has received Oscar and Emmy nominations in the past, so how about we just give her both for this performance? It doesn't have to make sense. All I know is that she's amazing here and got me crying even harder than her character does in that motel room. Everyone pitches in to convince Chris that they're his family, and with that, they go off to the next big thing. But before they do, Peacemaker stops Emilia and asks her if their time on the boat meant something to her. She pushes back, at first, afraid again that she might hurt him, but then Emilia admits: "Of course it did you fucking arsehole. It meant everything." Chris goes back inside and pauses for a moment. Suddenly, he then does the biggest cheer along with an adorable leap in the air and mini dance break to the show's theme song. The show intercuts that with an actual performance by the band Foxy Shazam one week later on the rock boat. A montage where everyone grabs money from Adrian's basement, complete with an obligatory stripper dance from Adrian, cuts to the team building their own office alongside Judo Master and Agent Langston Fleury (you know, the guy with bird blindness). There's a very cheesy moment where the gang all walk together, slow-motion, in a line, which shouldn't work, but you know what? They've earned it. We then learn from Langston and Adrian that spiders can produce milk, because what else are these two loveable weirdos going to talk about now they're teammates? That one's definitely true. I've already Googled it. How the Peacemaker finale sets up season 3 and Superman's Man of Tomorrow As the team leave the office, we pan up to see that the new organisation they've funded with Adrian's blood money is called Checkmate. In DC Comics, Checkmate is an established spy team that follows a chess motif with everyone's code named based on rank, like Kings and Queens on top, for example. The white half of the division focuses on information and intelligence while the agents designated black work in the field. Peacemaker was actually a member of Checkmate in the source material, so this all tracks, and with the organisation's focus on ensuring balance between humans and metahumans, it's obvious that the Peacemaker gang will continue to play an important role across the wider DC Universe moving forward. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/02/superman-krypto-dd3e1d5.jpg" width="2100" height="1400" alt="Superman (David Corenswet) is dressed in his full superman outfit (blue latex body suit, red underwear, yellow belt, black boots and red cape) is seen talking to his dog, Krypto – a white terrier mutt with a red cape on – in the Fortress of Solitude – a cave made entirely of ice. A silver robot is seen behind Superman." title="superman-krypto" /> But not with Chris, it seems, because at the very end of the episode, Flag kidnaps him and throws our hero through the interdimensional door, trapping him on Salvation. He claims Peacemaker is a test subject to see what long-term effects the dimension might have on his body. But really, it's pretty obvious he's doing it out of spite. "This is for Ricky, you piece of s**t," says Flag as the door closes and disappears, leaving Chris alone in another dimension where monstrous screams from who knows what can be heard in the distance. That's what you get for killing the dude's son in a Suicide Squad feature film a few years back, I guess. Two post-credits scenes follow, both played for laughs. The first sees a government official suggesting that Flag put up a "vaporising barrier" around Salvation to ensure no one can escape. Kind of like a bug zapper. The second feels more like a deleted scene that didn't make the cut because it jumps back to John trying to distract everyone with a terrible joke. The story this time, about a serial killer who shows his killer permit to a cop, leaves one colleague in fits of laughter though. "Looks like someone has got a new fan," John says to himself rather smugly. It's interesting to end the episode on a joke as some fans feel the same way about this episode as a whole, complaining online that there wasn't enough action or that it was too concerned with setting up something new at the end. It also doesn't help that Gunn has previously hyped this episode up, only for the cameos in question to be old rock bands and not famed heroes like the Justice League finale from season 1. Yet there's something rather ballsy about doubling down on the character work while forgoing the usual big CGI battle that's come to characterise the end of so many shows like this. Sure, there are still loose ends to take care of, potentially in other DC endeavours rather than a third season of Peacemaker. It's previously been hinted that Superman and Lex Luthor will be forced to team up in their next movie together, Man of Tomorrow, and it's looking more and more likely that this may take place on the Salvation planet introduced here. In the comics, this 'Salvation Run' arc forced plenty of villains to team up so they could escape the prison world together, and it wouldn't take much of a twist to throw Superman into that equation, especially given Lex's involvement here in Peacemaker. One thing's for sure, Chris ain't finding peace anytime soon, even if it did look that way ever so briefly in that happy smiley slow-motion segment. Peacemaker is available on Sky Max and NOW. Add Peacemaker to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Spy x Family's 10 most powerful characters ranked from weakest to strongest
Every member of the titular Forger family hides a secret in Spy x Family, not just from the world but from each other as well. Loid Forger, the father, is actually a superspy in disguise, while his wife Yor works as a deadly assassin of international repute. Their adorable daughter Anya has gifts of her own, specifically the ability to read minds, and she's hiding the fact that their dog Bond can see the future. Each is strong in their own way, but who's the strongest? And how do the Forgers compare to the might of others they face within the Spy x Family universe? Read on for our ranking of the strongest Spy x Family characters. Sorry in advance to Bond for not quite making the cut. But he knew that already. 10. Anya Forger If we were ranking the cutest, most adorable Spy x Family characters, Anya would obviously come head and shoulders above the rest, despite her tiny stature. Unfortunately, this is not that list. But even in the strength stakes, Anya is stronger than you might think. Sure, Anya is still a child, and she's often drained easily by using her powers. But if she's this brave and resourceful now at the age of 5, just think how strong Anya could be with some training as an adult. Don't count the smallest Forger out just yet. No matter how tough things might get, she always laughs in the face of danger – and can you say the same? 9. Martha Marriott Appearances can be deceiving, especially in a spy show, and that's absolutely true for Martha Marriott, who works as a personal nanny to Becky Blackbell. This sweet elderly woman once served as a soldier in Ostania’s military and there's a reason why the rich Blackbell family have entrusted her with Becky's safety. As Loid Forger notes when they first meet, Marriott carries herself like a warrior, working as an undercover bodyguard in addition to her nanny duties. She might not be as strong and nimble as she was in her youth, but Martha remains someone you shouldn't mess with, regardless of her age. 8. SSS Lieutenant The SSS Lieutenant works as Yuri Brair’s supervisor within the Ostania State Security Service, instantly positioning him in a role of power. He also looks pretty intimidating too with those scars on the left side of his face, and the fact we know so little about him also adds to that mystique. Come on Anya, read his mind already! We're yet to see the SSS Lieutenant in action, so it's hard to gauge just how strong he really is. Still, his reputation precedes him, and given how ruthlessly dedicated he is to each job at hand, it's safe to say that the SSS Lieutenant is a formidable force in the world of Spy x Family. 7. Yuri Briar Yor's younger, unhinged brother has done so well as a newly appointed SSS Agent because he's so good at his job, demonstrating brutal efficiency in the role already. The only thing about him that's stronger than his physical prowess is his deep, obsessive love for his sister. More than that though, and more even than his rigorous training, what makes Yuri truly strong is his ability to endure Yor's terrible cooking. Dishes that would make a lesser man choke or vomit are no match for Yuri who will eat anything his sister makes just to please her, even at great cost to his physical health. 6. Sylvia Sherwood As Loid’s direct superior, Sylvia oversees every mission he carries out for the WISE organisation, which means she must be incredibly intelligent, well-informed, and capable in her job. Yet the Handler of the Ostanian branch is more than just an information expert. To move up so high in the ranks of this super-spy organisation, Sylvia must be an extremely proficient spy in her own right, as we've seen when she's had to fight in the field. Anyone who trained Loid is obviously a power to be reckoned with too. And who knows what powerful secrets she hides in that huge hat of hers? 5. Matthew McMahon When we first meet Matthew McMahon, he's daylighting as the Director of Policy at Berlint City Hall. But behind that nice, gentle facade, it turns out he works as another Garden assassin at night. And not just any assassin either. As the one who usually relay's Yor's assignments, it's clear Matthew must be higher up in the food chain than her. That means McMahon could be even stronger than Yor in theory. Or maybe he's just well liked in the office. Either way, he's clearly a very proficient fighter in his own right, as seen a bit during the Cruise Arc when he works alongside Yor. The problem is we haven't seen him fight a whole bunch yet, so he doesn't get to be her superior when it comes to this list, even if he technically is in the show. 4. Type F This military weapon only appeared once in the film SPY X FAMILY CODE, but it's hard to forget the guy who almost took down Yor. Equipped with multiple guns throughout his cyborg body, this extremely durable foe easily stands out as one of the strongest characters across this entire franchise. Go big or go home, said the filmmakers. This man of few words was still pretty basic though when it came to his goal of destroying peace between the East and West. As such, Yor was able to outsmart Type F, using his arrogance against him. But even so, this impressive cyborg would still give the vast majority of characters in the show a run for their money. 3. Fiona Frost Agent Nightfall, as she's otherwise known, was once trained by Loid (much to her enjoyment). As one of the best agents at WISE, Fiona has regularly proved herself to be his equal, and perhaps even stronger in some respects. Have you seen how much she can bench, bro? In fact, Fiona's only weakness is Loid himself. Or, should I say her undying, obsessive love for him? If anything is going to be her downfall, it's that. But to be fair, Loid is a dream boat, so who are we to judge? 2. Loid Forger Agent Twilight is the greatest spy in the world. There's no doubt about it. While disguise and infiltration might be where he excels most, Loud has also proven himself to be extremely capable as a fighter out in the field too. With a body honed to perfection, he regularly emerges unscathed from combat situations that could easily kill a lesser man. The only thing greater than Loid's strength, however, is his dedication to protecting the world, be it through random acts of kindness or the warmth he shares with the rest of the Forger family. 1. Yor Forger By day, Yor is a meek, polite clerk who goes home to cook gross meals for her ever-loving family. But by night, the Thorn Princess regularly proves herself to be the best assassin in all of Ostania, killing every one of her targets with deadly precision. Not only is Yor yet to be beaten in battle, she often exhibits what can only be described as superhuman strength on the show. Remember when she defeated an entire group of assassins without breaking a sweat? Or when she threw a dodgeball for Anya and accidentally leveled an entire row of trees? Yor is basically the "One-Punch Man" of Spy x Family at this point. May her reign as the show's strongest character continue into season 3 and beyond. Spy x Family is available to stream on Crunchyroll. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Boots cast share their hopes for potential season 2 following that surprise cliffhanger
"There are so many ways it could go for all of our characters..."
*Warning: Boots spoilers ahead.* Training for the Marines is never easy. Now imagine you're a gay, closeted kid who joins up in the early '90s. That's the story behind Boots, a new Netflix drama inspired by The Pink Marine, a memoir written by former US Marine Greg Cope White. 13 Reasons Why star Miles Heizer plays the lead and he's joined by Liam Oh as Cameron's best friend, Ray McAffey. Together, they fight to find their place in the marines, overcoming physical and emotional obstacles spearheaded by Sgt Sullivan (Max Parker), a decorated Marine who hides a secret of his own. Boots ending explained By the end of season 1's eight episode run, Cameron has finally proved that he has what it takes. Even Sullivan gives him his dues, revealing that he was only so hard on Cameron because he wanted to help make him stronger. The fact he's also closeted might have had something to do with it too. "You ready, Cope? You’re a Marine now." And with that, Sullivan leaves. Where he goes, we don't find out, but it's easy to see why he left when he did. Prison looms following a bar fight that went bad and the Marines are also questioning him to find out if he's gay too, because it was illegal to be homosexual and join up at the time. Meanwhile, Cameron celebrates the end of his training in a bar with the other Marines, overjoyed that they've all made it. But he and Ray couldn't have picked a worse time to join, because a newscaster has just announced that Iraq has invaded Kuwait, which means they'll soon be needed on the front lines. With Sullivan gone AWOL, Cameron suppressing his sexuality, and Ray… Well, Ray's found love, all three characters are in a very different place to where they started this season. Ahead of the show's launch, RadioTimes.com asked Parker, Heizer and Oh what they hoped to see for their characters next in a potential second season of Boots. "There are so many ways it could go for all of our characters," said Parker. "I love that moment at the end where I hand over the walkie talkie to Cameron and let him know that he's ready now... Just this battle of what's right and what's wrong. "That moment of handing over the baton for him to carry on… He could be handing himself in, he could be running away, he could do anything." Heizer would like to see Cameron enjoy some romance after things didn't work out so well for him on that front in season 1. "It would be interesting to see him navigating that, especially in this military world," he continued. "That would be cool. But like Max said, there's so many different directions and so many things I would love to see. But just for fun, I'd like to see a little romance." For Oh, Ray's future is very open moving forward: "He ends the season in this interesting spot of really questioning the path that he's been on for the first time since he was a kid. I would like to see him continue to interrogate the choices that he's made in his life, or the choices that he hasn't made, that have been made for him by his father, by this sense of duty that he has. "I want him to really find out what he believes for himself." Whatever happens, there's plenty of story left to mine from that cliffhanger, switching things up from training to real-life combat. Because if being gay in boot camp was tough, imagine how hard it will be for Cameron to stay true to himself while fighting in Kuwait? Let's just hope Netflix laces up and marches ahead with a much-needed second season so we can see where this might take us. Boots is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How House of Guinness rewrites the rules for queer period drama with Arthur Guinness
Steven Knight’s depiction of a gay Arthur Guinness in 19th-century Dublin defies the usual period drama mould.
Add House of Guinness to your watchlist You'd think being born into Dublin's wealthiest family would make life easier, but not for Arthur Guinness. As the eldest Guinness sibling, he ends up inheriting half of the famous brewing empire at the start of Netflix's House of Guinness, and while it sure beats living on the streets, Arthur still isn't keen. The hot-headed Guinness is used to getting his own way, which his father soon stops by threatening to remove his entire inheritance if he doesn't step up and take over. Heavy lies the crown, and all that. But with all this extra responsibility also comes more scrutiny. Because, as it turns out, Arthur is gay at a time when being outed as such could risk life imprisonment – or worse. Not ideal when you're co-leading a business of considerable influence and wealth. Forced to stay in Dublin, Arthur breaks up with his long-distance beau in London, but that doesn't stop him from having some fun still (that bathtub scene comes to mind). Unfortunately, Arthur’s proclivities draw attention from local gangster Bonnie Champion, who demands £5,000 in blackmail money or else he'll be outed. An activist named Ellen Cochrane also sets out to blackmail Arthur, but instead of money, she wants his support in Dublin's Parliament for the Irish Brotherhood cause. To draw attention away from his horny trysts and shenanigans, Arthur marries a rich socialite named Olivia. Both go into this arrangement fully understanding that there's no love in it, that they're just using each other to reap the benefits that such a union might bring them at this point in high society. So far, so typical of queer representation in period dramas of this nature. As is often the case, the queer character is forced into hiding who they are, usually to avoid ridicule or public shame. A "lavender marriage" such as this is often the only way to keep the hounds at bay and survive in a society that's not built for them. Is it a realistic depiction of what it must have been like to be gay back then? For the most part, yes. But is it also sad and tragic in a way we've already seen told countless times before? Yes to that too. Except, House of Guinness isn't so typical in this regard. With so much adversity to endure and face, it would have been easy to make Arthur wallow in the misery of it all and drink his pain away, hating himself for being born gay. It's certainly how society at the time would have wanted him to feel. But House of Guinness creator Steven Knight doesn't retread that well-worn path. Instead, Arthur revels in the joy that being gay brings him. He's very active in his sex life, proudly so, and he does nothing to hide his sexuality from his family either. Even the marriage he's been forced into becomes a surprise source of comfort as he and Olivia end up being quite happy together, despite the fact that their union is a sham. Arthur doesn't feel trapped by his wife because he's free to carry on meeting other men anyway. Actor Anthony Boyle expanded on this with Town and Country where he celebrated the show's unique approach to Arthur's queerness: "What Steven and Tom [Shankland], one of the directors, and I wanted to get across about Arthur was that he didn’t feel shame about his own sexuality. It’s that the world was wrong. We didn’t want him to be like, 'Oh god, I’m gay and I hate it.' He’s like, 'No, I’m f*****g gay and I love it. It’s you guys that are f****d up.'" Being gay doesn't automatically make life harder for Arthur. It's being gay in a bigoted society that's the problem. And that viewpoint remains refreshing to see on TV, especially when it comes to period fare where guilt, shame, and misery are more often than not the default for gay characters like Guinness. But even when queer representation does veer towards these tropes, there's still something to be said for it being included at all in period dramas like House of Guinness. Given how rare it was for people to be out and proud in these earlier periods of history, it's easy for past eras to be straightwashed, thereby erasing the existence of queerness completely. As such, it's even more remarkable that House of Guinness is so progressive in that regard, especially when it remains unclear whether Arthur was even gay or not in real life. Although there's little evidence to confirm his sexuality either way, academic author Joe Joyce suggested Arthur was "probably gay" in his 2009 book, The Guinnesses: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Most Successful Family. If so, his marriage to Lady Ardilaun was what we now consider to be a "lavender marriage," and this likely inspired Knight's take on Arthur in the show. You could argue that portraying a real-life figure as gay when they might not have been is somewhat dubious. But then again, historical dramas take all sorts of liberties, and if rumours about Arthur's identity persist now still, all these years later, it seems that there might be at least some element of truth to them. Never mind all the countless people who were actually queer and have since been portrayed as straight in various retellings of their lives. But regardless of all that, there's still power in the way House of Guinness portrays Arthur as a gay man in 19th-century Dublin of all places. Not just in the show's progressive, unique approach to that identity, but also that it even exists at all. Because queer people have always been here, and we always will be, no matter how much some might wish for the contrary.
House of Guinness rewrites the rules for queer period drama with Arthur Guinness
You'd think being born into Dublin's wealthiest family would make life easier, but not for Arthur Guinness. As the eldest Guinness sibling, he ends up inheriting half of the famous brewing empire at the start of Netflix's House of Guinness, and while it sure beats living on the streets, Arthur still isn't keen. The hot-headed Guinness is used to getting his own way, which his father soon stops by threatening to remove his entire inheritance if he doesn't step up and take over. Heavy lies the crown, and all that. But with all this extra responsibility also comes more scrutiny. Because, as it turns out, Arthur is gay at a time when being outed as such could risk life imprisonment – or worse. Not ideal when you're co-leading a business of considerable influence and wealth. Forced to stay in Dublin, Arthur breaks up with his long-distance beau in London, but that doesn't stop him from having some fun still (that bathtub scene comes to mind). Unfortunately, Arthur’s proclivities draw attention from local gangster Bonnie Champion, who demands £5,000 in blackmail money or else he'll be outed. An activist named Ellen Cochrane also sets out to blackmail Arthur, but instead of money, she wants his support in Dublin's Parliament for the Irish Brotherhood cause. To draw attention away from his horny trysts and shenanigans, Arthur marries a rich socialite named Olivia. Both go into this arrangement fully understanding that there's no love in it, that they're just using each other to reap the benefits that such a union might bring them at this point in high society. So far, so typical of queer representation in period dramas of this nature. As is often the case, the queer character is forced into hiding who they are, usually to avoid ridicule or public shame. A "lavender marriage" such as this is often the only way to keep the hounds at bay and survive in a society that's not built for them. Is it a realistic depiction of what it must have been like to be gay back then? For the most part, yes. But is it also sad and tragic in a way we've already seen told countless times before? Yes to that too. Except, House of Guinness isn't so typical in this regard. Read more: House of Guinness true story: How much of the Netflix drama is based on real history? Every Steven Knight TV show ranked – the busiest man in the industry who's set to write Bond With so much adversity to endure and face, it would have been easy to make Arthur wallow in the misery of it all and drink his pain away, hating himself for being born gay. It's certainly how society at the time would have wanted him to feel. But House of Guinness creator Steven Knight doesn't retread that well-worn path. Instead, Arthur revels in the joy that being gay brings him. He's very active in his sex life, proudly so, and he does nothing to hide his sexuality from his family either. Even the marriage he's been forced into becomes a surprise source of comfort as he and Olivia end up being quite happy together, despite the fact that their union is a sham. Arthur doesn't feel trapped by his wife because he's free to carry on meeting other men anyway. Actor Anthony Boyle expanded on this with Town and Country where he celebrated the show's unique approach to Arthur's queerness: "What Steven and Tom [Shankland], one of the directors, and I wanted to get across about Arthur was that he didn’t feel shame about his own sexuality. It’s that the world was wrong. We didn’t want him to be like, 'Oh god, I’m gay and I hate it.' He’s like, 'No, I’m f*****g gay and I love it. It’s you guys that are f****d up.'" Being gay doesn't automatically make life harder for Arthur. It's being gay in a bigoted society that's the problem. And that viewpoint remains refreshing to see on TV, especially when it comes to period fare where guilt, shame, and misery are more often than not the default for gay characters like Guinness. But even when queer representation does veer towards these tropes, there's still something to be said for it being included at all in period dramas like House of Guinness. Given how rare it was for people to be out and proud in these earlier periods of history, it's easy for past eras to be straightwashed, thereby erasing the existence of queerness completely. As such, it's even more remarkable that House of Guinness is so progressive in that regard, especially when it remains unclear whether Arthur was even gay or not in real life. Although there's little evidence to confirm his sexuality either way, academic author Joe Joyce suggested Arthur was "probably gay" in his 2009 book, The Guinnesses: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Most Successful Family. If so, his marriage to Lady Ardilaun was what we now consider to be a "lavender marriage," and this likely inspired Knight's take on Arthur in the show. You could argue that portraying a real-life figure as gay when they might not have been is somewhat dubious. But then again, historical dramas take all sorts of liberties, and if rumours about Arthur's identity persist now still, all these years later, it seems that there might be at least some element of truth to them. Never mind all the countless people who were actually queer and have since been portrayed as straight in various retellings of their lives. But regardless of all that, there's still power in the way House of Guinness portrays Arthur as a gay man in 19th-century Dublin of all places. Not just in the show's progressive, unique approach to that identity, but also that it even exists at all. Because queer people have always been here, and we always will be, no matter how much some might wish for the contrary. House of Guinness is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add House of Guinness to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Wayward is unlike any other thriller – for one unexpectedly inspired reason
Mae Martin's chilling Netflix series Wayward will wrong-foot you in the best possible way.
Warning: contains major spoilers for Wayward. Wayward is set in the idyllic town of Tall Pines, where everything seems perfect. Your classic white picket fence slice of paradise. But as you might have guessed already, nothing is quite what it seems. Everyone is a bit too friendly, the local school a little too efficient… And the chatty principal of the school? Far too nice, with an eerie smile endlessly plastered across her face. It all feels a bit uneasy, deliberately so, which is why it's so surprising that the one aspect of this story which does fit in perfectly is queerness, despite the sinister, small-town setting and genre at hand. OK, it shouldn't be that surprising if you're even slightly familiar with the work of series creator Mae Martin, who also stars as Alex Dempsey, a police officer investigating some troubling disappearances at the local school. Fans of Taskmaster or the Canadian comedian's semi-biographical dramedy Feel Good might already be aware of how Martin explores their non-binary identity in their work. But even so, a genre-blending psychological thriller like this might be the last place you'd expect to see Martin navigate such themes. And what's even more surprising is exactly how Martin goes about this. It would have been easy to play off the horrors that so often come when queer people are forced to return to their hometown, or any small town for that matter. There's a reason so many of us migrate to cities, after all, often as an escape from the bigotry that – not always – but often comes in the rural parts of pretty much any country. But after Mae's character Alex joins their wife in Tall Pines, no one bats an eyelid at his identity as a trans man. When a fellow cop instantly accepts Alex into the "brotherhood", it's hard not to wonder if this so-called acceptance might be part of the wider facade that's hiding something dark and rotten at the heart of this town. However, as the series progresses, it becomes clear that this isn't actually the case at all. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/09/Wayward-Netflix-mae-martin-c7eda7c.jpg" width="2700" height="1800" alt="Sarah Gadon as Laura Redman and Mae Martin as Alex Dempsey walking along a forest path holding hands. Laura, who's wearing a floral sundress is smiling and looking straight ahead while Alex, who's dressed in a dark-coloured t-shirt, is looking at her with a neutral expression." title="WAYWARD" /> Yes, it turns out that Tall Pines is all kinds of messed up, but the problems at hand have nothing to do with intolerance or hate (at least when it comes to queer and trans identity). Alex never hides who he is, and he never feels the need to talk about it lots either. This isn't a queer drama about the struggles or even joy of being trans. Instead, this is an occasionally funny nightmarish thriller where the main character just so happens to be a trans man. Non-conforming gender identities are rarely seen on screen as it is – and much less than some would have you believe – but what's even rarer is to see these themes incorporated so organically in a wider genre story that has nothing to do with queerness at all. When Alex pretends to be taking his testosterone shots as an excuse to escape and further his investigation, it's a small detail that normalises trans identity without making it the focus. Not that there would be any issue in doing so – these stories are hugely important and valid too – but there's something to be said for normalising such experiences in this current climate especially. There's an exchange around the midway mark between two teenagers called Abbie and Leila where the former jokes that, "Cops just swing their dicks around," while the latter suggests "I don't think [Alex] has a dick." In another show, this could have come across as distasteful or even disrespectful, but Wayward is queer through and through, so jokes like this hit differently here (especially given Martin's key involvement in the writing itself). Leila is bisexual even, as many of the characters are suggested to be. It's not just through language or visibility where Wayward champions this, though. From the very first episode, Martin regularly appears shirtless and even naked in one particularly memorable sex scene between Alex and his wife. At a time when trans bodies are regularly othered, framing Martin's sexuality so viscerally with so much nudity is groundbreaking in and of itself. Plus, it's hot, and what would a thriller be without at least one moment as steamy as this? But what's perhaps most impressive about Wayward is how it neither demonises nor idolises queer characters like Alex. While some people in the show are more monstrous than others, they all exist in the murky greys of good or bad, right or wrong. And I'm not just talking about that icky tadpole water either. Looking at the series as a whole, that's what makes the ending in particular so special. Because just when you think Alex has escaped Tall Pines with Abbie and his baby in tow, it turns out that this happy ending the show tricks us into seeing wasn't actually real at all. The truth is that Alex lets Abbie down, choosing his new family over doing the right thing. It's never framed in a way to make you think Alex is selfish because he's queer. If anything, it's quite remarkable to see a queer family foregrounded in a show of this nature, made up of a trans man, his queer wife and their newborn child. In fact, the family is actively celebrated by the entire community, and sure, it's mostly made up of cult weirdos now led by Alex's wife, but it's a celebration nonetheless. Nothing is what it seems in Wayward, twisting and bending our expectations throughout. And that might be the queerest thing of all about this show, which redefines mainstream notions of family and genre with a delightfully queer outsider perspective. More than the thrills or the scares or the Mufasa one-liners, it's this that helps set Wayward apart in the best way possible. Read more: Mae Martin's Wayward exposes the dark world of 'troubled teen' schools Wayward creator and star Mae Martin explains emotional ending: 'It's gonna be f**ked' Wayward is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Upload season 4 ending explained: What happened to Nathan and Nora?
It's time to say goodbye to Prime Video's sci-fi.
Upload, a show that promises immortality via technology, has finally come to an end. Launched by The Office (US) and Parks & Recreation creator Greg Daniels back in 2020, Upload starred Robbie Amell as Nathan Brown, a computer programmer who was uploaded to a digital afterlife just moments before his physical body died. At Lakeview, Nathan met his 'Angel', a customer service provider from the real world who he fell in love with, despite remaining in contact with his girlfriend Ingrid. This hybrid of The Good Place and Black Mirror dipped a bit in season 3, but with just four episodes left to wrap everything up, Upload's final season is much more focused, and all the better for it. At the end of season 3, the Horizen company responsible for Lakeview rebranded as Betta in the wake of a courtroom scandal, so they went about destroying all of their illegal duplicate uploads. Unfortunately, that included Nathan, who had doubled up in season 3, splitting into a new digital copy as well as the human original. One of these two versions called Nora and Ingrid up in the finale to reveal that the other Nathan had been destroyed. But which one? Who's just lost the love of their life? That's where we kick off at the start of the fourth and final season. Upload season 4 ending explained: What happened to Nora and Nathan? Season 4 begins with Nora mourning the loss of the original Nathan, but it turns out he's actually still alive, trapped by scientists who are experimenting on him at Betta. Three episodes in, Nathan finally escapes and arrives at Nora's door, ready to kick off the end of Upload for one last chapter. Lost in another wedding simulation, Nora is shocked and overjoyed when the real Nathan, not just a digital copy or holographic projection, appears and takes off her VR goggles. There are no words, just a kiss and tears (plus a whole lot more if the way they sheepishly leave their bedroom the next morning is anything to go by). Meanwhile, Ingrid is pushing her version of Nathan to finally download into a new clone body so that they can be together in the real world. He's a bit nervous though, because ageing and death are kind of a thing when you're stuck with a human body. The conversation pauses suddenly, prompting Ingrid to pay more money to continue, and it's all because of that weird AI guy with the black hair who's been absorbing the other versions of him in Lakeview. Aleesha worries about what this means, but her boss is too obsessed with the money this rogue AI is making the company to care. Human Nathan isn't feeling so good, and a hospital visit with Nora reveals that his neurons have somehow been moved back and forth, inflaming his neural pathways to the point where he could soon die. That's because of the 150+ uploads his kidnappers at Betta put Nathan through. The doctor suggests uploading, but he's scared to do that fully again in case he loses memories of Nora. Overhearing their conversation, a nurse nearby recommends they visit a guy known as the 'Midtown Healer' who has "been performing miracles". Virtual Nathan suggests to his bestie Luke that he join him and Ingrid in the real world because he can't afford the costs to stay in Lakeview much longer. But their chat is soon interrupted when they spot the rogue AI guy throwing people into the torrent, erasing them completely because they're no longer making money for the company. Aleesha tries pausing him so he can do no more harm, but he's now strong enough to resist commands from the outside world. And it gets worse. Upon absorbing the last remaining AI in Lakeview, the 'evil' one manages to achieve singularity, which means that he's fully sentient and in control. If he escapes into the real world, he can take over everything, potentially setting off a nuclear apocalypse. While Nathan and Luke help survivors get away, an automatic failsafe switches off the torrent, cutting the rogue AI off from leaving Lakeview. And with that, the company plans to delete Lakeview entirely, which would also kill off the people inside. Aleesha's boss doesn't care though, referring to them all as "data" which can be easily expunged. With help from a colleague, Aleesha gets a quick text through to Luke inside where she explains what's happening and that she plans to rescue him at 6pm via the tubes. Meanwhile, the 'midtown healer' who Nathan and Nora visit for help turns out to be another AI guy from Lakeview, the one who was downloaded to a real human body earlier on in the show. Ingrid and Aleesha show up too, asking the AI guy to return to Lakeview because he's the only one who can stop the rogue AI, saving Luke and digital Nathan in the process. View oEmbed on the source website Before he goes, AI guy explains that nothing can be done to save the real Nathan. His advice to Nora is to "be [Nathan's] Angel one last time". She hugs Aleesha and Ingrid with tears in her eyes, before taking Nathan home to spend his last moments on earth together. Back at Lakeview, Luke tells digital Nathan that he loves him, and they hug. Together, they both start to leave via the tubes, but then when Luke spots the rogue AI heading towards the torrent, he races after him and sends him back to the Lakeview villa. It's only a temporary solution though, because the rogue AI quickly returns and throws Luke into the torrent, taking his life in the process. Luke's sacrifice wasn't in vain though, because it bought Aleesha and Ingrid just enough time to finish uploading their AI guy, the only being powerful enough to stop him. With help from Nathan, the nice AI guy rescues all the AI beings that the bad one absorbed and then deletes him completely. Using his power for good, the nice AI guy, now stronger than ever, turns the torrent back on from the inside. Aleesha rushes back into Lakeview, but it's too late. Luke is gone. While all that action was taking place, the finale intercut these scenes with Nora and the real Nathan making the most of the time they had left. And yes, it's even sadder than you'd expect. Nathan apologises to Nora for putting her through so much. Exhausted by his illness, the pair lie in bed and hold each other. "I wish we had made it to Montreal," says Nathan, reminiscing on their plans to get married. But then, using the VR simulation she retreated to so often in her mourning, Nora makes that a (virtual) reality for them both. Wearing the goggles, Nora and Nathan marry in the simulation, and Nathan puts a ring on her finger for real too. They then head to Mile End in a new simulation, talking of plans Nathan had to open his own bakery. As they walk through this virtual life together one last time, Nora asks Nathan what his favourite part of living was. "I don’t think it’s over," he replies. "I’m energy, right? Energy can’t be created or destroyed. It just changes… Whatever energy I change into, I’ll always love you." Sitting on a bench together, Nathan and Nora wish each other happy birthday, happy new year, and a good morning, sharing everything that they won't be able to anymore when Nathan's gone. But before he goes, Nathan has one last thing to say: "Don’t wait for me… Don’t put your life on hold. Don’t stay in your room inside a headset. Be happy, OK? I’m happy. Because of you, I became who I wanted to be. I like who I am." "You don’t have to be sad," Nathan continues, "or feel like I missed out on anything. I had everything. Everything I ever was, I saved it for you. You are my angel, Nora, the love of my life… This one and the next one and the one after." The camera pans closer to Nora's face as she listens, and when it pans out again, we realise Nathan is gone. He's died in real life, so he's no longer present in the simulation either. Despite all the back and forth between this and the action-driven scenes that took place at Lakeview, this really was the most beautiful way Nora and Nathan's story could have come to an end. It's painful, yes, but it's also really well done, perhaps the best moment from this entire series. With Nathan now dead, Nora takes off his VR goggles, kisses his forehead, and rests her head on his chest, hugging him tight as it rains outside. The song You and Me by Penny and the Quarters plays in the background. Upload then abruptly (and unfortunately) cuts back to some infantile humour (literally) with clips of "Botox Babies" and an interview where Ingrid and her version of Nathan, now in a real cloned body, talk through where they're at. Ingrid is pregnant — "From pretty much the moment [Nathan] downloaded, he’s been inside of me" — and they're planning to name the baby after Luke, who's being recognised as the "hero who saved Lakeview, and possibly humanity". The AI guy is now running Lakeview as a non-profit company, Aleesha is randomly working as a spy, speaking Russian and kicking ass, while Nora's roommate got married to Monique the hoover. They don't know what's happened to Nora since her Nathan died, but we do, because Upload then cuts to her sitting outside a coffee shop at the real Mile End. It's the same coffee shop we saw Nora and Nathan share those last few moments together in the simulation. A cute guy asks for Nora's number, but she declines, pointing to the ring Nathan gave her before he died. Nora sits and plays with the ring, presumably thinking about Nathan's last words to her and whether it's time to move on, when the ring's drive suddenly attempts to pair with her tablet. Upon accepting, the words "NATHAN BROWN SCAN 2" appear on the tablet's screen. Yep, it seems a digital version of Nathan has survived. Why it took so long to appear to Nora, we have no idea, and we never will, because that's where the show ends, with the promise of Nora reuniting again with at least some version of Nathan. Is it nice to see Nora happy? Yes. But does this undo the beautiful end she shared with the real Nathan just a few scenes earlier? Yes, especially given how many times the show has tried to trick us into believing Nathan is gone for good. But however you might feel about it, Upload is now gone for good too, ending with a short but sweet final season. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website Upload seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Prime Video. Add Upload to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Netflix's Long Story Short is a worthy successor to BoJack Horseman, the best animated series of all time
Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s new animated series traces the lives of one Jewish family over seven transformative decades.
BoJack Horseman is quite possibly the best animated series of all time. That's an argument we made just last year at Radio Times to celebrate the talking horse show's 10th anniversary. Whether you agree or not, what we can all agree on is that BoJack Horseman tackled difficult topics like addiction and generational trauma with rare ambition and emotional clarity... but only if you stuck with it past the first few episodes. That's when the anthropomorphic animals and silly cutaway gags started to give way to a darkness hidden just below the bright pastel animation and endless sight gags. That's not the case this time around with Raphael Bob-Waksberg's long-awaited follow-up, Long Story Short. Far removed from the depravity of Hollywood, this story of a Jewish family navigating life together is immediately endearing in its emotional honesty. Upon meeting the Schwoopers at a special weekend get-together, the first episode jumps ahead in time for one last scene that hints at a much wider story told over seven decades. From the 1950s through to the 2020s, Long Story Short spends time with each family member and the various relationships they form, weaving an expansive yet easy-to-follow timeline that organically captures the complexity of family dynamics with warmth, yes, but also painful truths as well. Dead characters come back to life and seemingly insignificant details become infinitely more important later on, upon finishing the season as a whole. This temporal juggling is especially moving in regard to Naomi Schwartz, the matriarch who obsessively loves her children, but can't stop criticising them regardless. Other standouts include her son, Yoshi, who struggles to fit in, and her daughter, Shira, who provides a rare example of Judaism and queerness intersecting on screen. Said Judaism is as integral to Long Story Short as the altar of celebrity and influence is in BoJack Horseman. It's there in the use of specific Jewish language — "Dude, your davening was on point! Mr Leibowitz was kvellin’ like a felon!". It's there in the humour, which includes a few dark Holocaust jokes only Jewish people could make. And most crucially of all, it's also there in beautiful discussions of identity, particularly at the end of the season when Avi's daughter questions if she was "Jewish enough" for Grandma. Each example feels unapologetically Jewish in very specific ways without alienating wider audiences. Quite the opposite, in fact. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/08/Long-Story-Netflix-5a1e078.png" width="1589" height="1060" alt="Paul Reiser as Elliot Cooper, Ben Feldman as Avi Schwooper, Angelique Cabral as Jen, Lisa Edelstein as Naomi Schwartz, Max Greenfield as Yoshi Schwooper, Abbi Jacobson as Shira Schwooper and Nicole Byer as Kendra, sat around a dinner table" title="Long Story Netflix" /> BoJack Horseman was very consciously presented as a TV show, be it through fourth wall breaks, the ironic humour, and, of course, the fact that many of the characters were talking animals. Long Story Short abandons that "crutch" (as Bob-Waksberg described it to Variety) to ground the storytelling in something much more "realistic". That's true even with the seemingly simpler animation, which is more 'cartoony' in its impressionistic, less defined scribbles, which makes it easier for us to see ourselves in the unfolding dynamics. That's not to say BoJack Horseman lacks intimacy. In fact, the emotional depths of that show were often uncomfortable and verged on unbearable precisely because of how real they felt. BoJack was deeply unlikeable in some aspects, especially as more truths were revealed later down the line, but that's what made this talking horse so human. Bob-Waksberg has never been afraid of plumbing those depths when it comes to writing characters with real emotional candour. As such, the Schwoopers can also be unlikeable sometimes (although not to those extremes). This family often argues, as real families do, and they can really hurt each other in the ways that only those who know you best truly can. One particular gut-wrenching confrontation between Naomi and her children left me in tears. Because even when your heart is in the right place, what might feel like small differences or misunderstandings can eventually tear families apart without even meaning to. It's in the layers of traumas large and small, self-inflicted and inflicted on others, where BoJack Horseman and Long Story Short share the most common ground. Well, that and the frequent moments of absurdist humour and wordplay. Because yes, when Yoshi starts selling mattresses that shoot out of a tube for work, the company does of course have a "soft launch". And when wolves, actual wolves, show up in Hannah's school, only Naomi's oldest son, Avi, reacts in the way you might expect. The combined result of all this is another show that's unmistakably the work of Bob-Waksberg, even if it looks, acts and sounds different from BoJack Horseman. Both stories are simultaneously moving and devastating, deeply intimate and wildly ambitious all at once. At the risk of jumping ahead, much like the show itself often does, there's scope here for Long Story Short to reach those same heights that BoJack Horseman did and maybe, just maybe, become another contender for best animated series of all time. At the very least, it's hard to imagine another show this poignant coming anytime soon. If only we could glimpse ahead in time, as Bob-Waksberg does with the Schwoopers, to see how this series will ultimately be remembered. Long Story Short is available to stream now on Netflix – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Add Long Story Short to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app– download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Peacemaker season 2 writes Zack Snyder characters out of existence
Think you've seen this scene before? Think again!
Following a highly publicised reboot, previous DC films like Aquaman and Zack Snyder's Justice League are no longer considered canon. As such, they don't share a universe with new stories including Creature Commandos and James Gunn's Superman. However, a few characters have survived this transition, such as John Cena's Peacemaker from The Suicide Squad. That's good news for fans of the Peacemaker series, which released its first season as part of the old DC universe. But with a new season now upon us, how does series creator James Gunn explain the Justice League cameo at the end of season 1 if Zack Snyder's world no longer exists in canon? In case you forgot, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and The Flash all showed up to help Peacemaker save Earth from an alien invasion, but they arrived too late. "Go f**k another fish, asshole," said Peacemaker to Jason Momoa's Aquaman as he stormed past the team. Ezra Miller's Flash then suggested it's not a rumour, to which Aquaman simply said, "F**k you, Barry." As popular as this scene was back when it aired in 2021, it doesn't make sense anymore if we're supposed to believe that Peacemaker season 2 belongs to the new DC universe. Instead of simply ignoring this problem or writing in a throwaway line to explain it away, Gunn smartly tackles this head-on. Season 2 opens with a "Previously in the DCU" montage that looks back at what happened in Peacemaker season 1. But then Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) suggests calling in the "Justice Gang", not the Justice League, and with that, we're treated to a new version of that season 1 cameo which has now been re-filmed with the new team we first met in Superman. View oEmbed on the source website While Mr Terrific, Superman and Supergirl hang back in the shadows, Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern and Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl describe Peacemaker as a "meat-head". "Screw that guy," continues Green Lantern. "Do you know he tells people I'm a puke freak?" By swapping the Justice League out for the Justice Gang, Gunn found a smart way to establish Peacemaker's place in this new DCU without entirely contradicting what's come before. And he did it with a cheeky wink that perfectly fits the tone we've come to expect from Peacemaker. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website Peacemaker season 2 is available on Sky Max and NOW from Friday 22nd August 2025. Check out more of our Sci-fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast. Add Peacemaker to your watchlist on the <a id="OWA8b702c45-bee9-94e4-f018-57518e78041b" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/?af_xp=custom&pid=website&c=editorial_content&is_retargeting=true&af_reengagement_window=30d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-outlook-id="449c28d9-909e-4aab-b6b8-153454f55d5e" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.
"It's got to be its own thing" – How Alien: Earth ditches canon for the greater good
Noah Hawley made a big decision for the sake of a good story.
In Alien: Earth (and every franchise film that precedes it), the Xenomorphs are essentially the perfect organism. They've evolved to become incredibly adaptable, sleek killing machines who get the job done no matter where they are or who they face. It's no coincidence that the Alien franchise has proved itself to be just as adaptable. Ridley Scott's original masterpiece from 1979 established a horror baseline that's since evolved into an action sequel (James Cameron's Aliens), existential prequels (such as 2012's Prometheus), and now a new TV show that brings these aliens to Earth for the very first time. But it's not just the homebound setting that forges new ground for this killer sci-fi franchise. Alien: Earth is set in the year 2120, just two years before Ridley's first Alien movie, yet creator Noah Hawley isn't beholden to canon in the ways you might expect. Thanks to the likes of Marvel and DC, audiences are more open than ever to the possibilities that come through building a larger shared universe across multiple projects. As such, you might assume that Alien: Earth would slot neatly in with the rest of the Alien timeline, incorporating various elements from across its 45-year history. If so, you assumed wrong. Hawley expanded on this with our very own James Hibbs as part of the Radio Times Writers' Room, explaining why Alien: Earth had to run parallel to the films rather than directly tap into them. "It's got to be its own thing. There's touchstones, there's references. I mean, [it was the] same on Fargo of saying, 'All right, I'll take a little Lebowski, I'll take a little of this tone of voice, or this element and the fact that in the James Cameron movie, you had Newt and Bill Paxton, and she's a child who acts like an adult, and he's an adult that acts like a child. And you think, 'OK, well, that tone of voice is there, right?' So now, when you have these adults who are acting childish, you're like, well, that voice is in Alien already." That right there is a perfect example of how to channel the essence of a story without just repeating what's come before. Because even though the first episode opens with a scene that could have been ripped straight out of the 1979 original, it's not long before Alien: Earth takes us on a very different journey. The music and production design is delightfully retro, for example, but Hawley doesn't kick things off this way to confirm ties with earlier Alien films. Rather, he does so to establish that the creative team behind his show fully understand the world they're stepping into, proving that they're more than capable of going on to deconstruct that world without losing the essence of what makes Alien Alien. View Green Video on the source website Just as the Alien vs Predator movies aren't considered canon (to Alien, at least), Alien: Earth also plays a little fast and loose with connections to the wider universe. Specifically, Hawley has chosen to ignore the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant for the most part, just drawing inspiration from Alien and Aliens instead. News of this first came via a SXSW panel in May this year where Hawley cleared things up regarding Alien: Earth's place in the overall timeline (via Inverse): "Ridley [Scott] made Prometheus and engaged with another idea in terms of the origin of these creatures. It just wasn’t part of my DNA of how these movies worked. So, I chose not to engage with that part of the story and to just sort of speak to the Alien that I had encoded." That doesn't mean the prequel movies are directly contradicted or written out completely, however. "It's not that I didn’t do a timeline around the events,” clarified Hawley. "But I didn't expand it to incorporate everything that had ever been written." While that might rub purists up the wrong way, there are huge benefits to this. As good as the prequels are, their convoluted attempt to unlock the origins of both the Xenomorphs and mankind itself raised more questions than they answered. Attempting to incorporate that dense mythology into Alien: Earth could detract from Hawley's lean, mean take on these ugly critters. As he pointed out in that same SXSW panel, "For something that's this old, that's had this many movies, that's jumped around in time periods, if you try to chase it all or observe it all, you’ll go mad." It's true that there's a lot of ground to cover if you do try and take stock of everything that's potentially relevant in the Alien mythos. And as Marvel's lacklustre returns have recently proved, audiences are no longer as keen as they once were to keep up with all the homework needed to fully enjoy a shared universe that goes in hard on those connections. Sticking with a more concise focus makes Alien: Earth the perfect jumping on point for viewers less familiar with the intricacies of this world. Hawley has proved more than once that he's adept at putting his own spin on established properties, first with his Emmy-winning Fargo series and then with Legion, a daring X-Men reimagining that verged on unrecognisable to casual fans. Alien: Earth isn't quite a hard reboot like them, however. Instead, it's the best of both worlds, paying direct homage to the films that came before it without being entirely beholden to them. The change in location, finally bringing the Xenomorphs from space to Earth, also taps into that quite literally by presenting this now iconic threat in a whole new light. By doing so, Hawley makes the horror of what they represent more relatable and "less abstract" than ever before: "I think that the reality is that none of us have ever been on a spaceship before, right?" suggests Hawley. "That's not our environment. But once you see these creatures next to a tree, or in a yard, these are places that we live, we live in homes, and there was something about introducing these creatures into an actual ecosystem that offers a lot of both visual and storytelling ideas." Freeing the show from canon also circumvents one of the biggest issues that could arise from bringing the aliens to Earth. Namely, how come none of the stories that follow ever mention a Xenomorph invasion back home? Everyone in the films always looks surprised to see the ugly aliens in question, but surely their arrival on Earth would have made at least a few headlines? You could potentially explain that away if their attack is contained so the general public remain unaware of their existence. There's also scope to suggest that companies like Weyland-Yutani simply lied to their crews and feigned surprise in order to keep these secrets close to the chest. Either way, it doesn't really matter. That's the beauty of bypassing canon. If Hawley wants to explain away potential plot holes, he can, but there's no need to jump through hoops in the script to force that in and make it happen. This flexibility takes the pressure off so that Hawley and his team can adapt as they see fit and focus on making the best story they can, which, if the reviews are anything to go by, they certainly have. New episodes of Alien: Earth will be released every Wednesday on Disney+. You can sign up to Disney+ for £4.99 a month or £89.90 a year now. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website Add Alien: Earth to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
And Just Like That gave us the worst possible ending – just as the show was getting good
Unsurprisingly, the Sex and the City sequel did not stick the landing.
And just like that, it's the end of And Just Like That… Yep, after three seasons of… well, whatever that was, the Sex and the City sequel we love to hate has been cancelled, freeing the cast and us alike from what can only be described as a legal form of torture. This news was well received by everyone who didn't appreciate the fine art of hate-watching a show and laughing at all its flaws. But for those of us who revolved our entire week around whatever embarrassing thing Miranda got up to next, this cancellation has been kind of devastating, especially when the show was actually getting good, at long last. OK, maybe not good, per se. But the third season was certainly a step up from the two that preceded it, easing into the show's ridiculous rhythms without trying so hard to live up to what made the original series so great. In its final season, And Just Like That had become its own strange beast, an amalgamation of absurd hats and smelly armpits and terrible phone sex that proved to be strangely fascinating in a very different way to Sex and the City. Upon delivering the news, series creator Michael Patrick King wrote: "While I was writing the last episode of And Just Like That season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop." I would argue the opposite. With Aidan finally out of the picture (and Duncan too), this was clearly "a wonderful place" to continue from, delivering a fourth season where Carrie could navigate singledom as an older woman who gets to have fun again, like she did in Sex and the City. The final episode sets this up without giving us a chance to see what that actually looks like in practice, robbing us of what this show could and should have been all along. What's clear, however, is that King's decision definitely did occur to him while writing the final episode. Because, let's face it: there's no way the 11 episodes that preceded it were planned with a meaningful end to the series in mind. By choosing to finish the show at the last minute, the resulting finale is a rushed, stunted mess that raises the bar for just how bad And Just Like That can be. In fact, these final 33 minutes are so bad that they'll have you missing the glory days of Che Diaz. Heck, they'll almost have you missing Aidan. Almost. Our first clue that the finale would suck came with the reveal of that runtime. Because how on earth is the show supposed to wrap up every storyline in just 33 minutes and still give these characters (who we've loved for decades) the send-off they deserve? The answer is it can't. What we're left with instead is all the characters separated (during Thanksgiving, no less) and Miranda trying to navigate an explosion of actual poop in her apartment. It's tempting to draw parallels between this and the sh***y storylines Cynthia Nixon has had to deal with throughout these past three seasons, suffering perhaps the biggest change from her original character to whatever they turned Miranda into for this sequel. It's also tempting to point out that ending the show with a poop catastrophe is actually rather fitting too, but it didn't have to be this way. The last time we see the girls together comes early on in the finale, during a bridal fashion walk where they discuss what marriage means to them and what that might look like now, in their 50s. It's not exactly deep, but in examining what sex could be in the city now everyone's older, these scenes do at least tap into what this sequel show originally promised. That's what makes it so strange when Thanksgiving comes and the focus switches to Brady's baby momma, Mia, who brings obnoxious Gen-Z caricatures along to mock Miranda and just be generally annoying. This holiday could have served as such a poignant, if somewhat cliched, way to bring our faves together one last time, giving thanks for what they've overcome while looking ahead to the future. Instead, characters we couldn't care less about take up valuable minutes without any actual resolution to speak of. With this being the end, we're never going to meet Brady's child, which means we'll never get to see Miranda navigate life as a grandmother. That's exactly the kind of storyline so rarely seen on TV that could have helped set And Just Like That apart, justifying the show's existence beyond a mere nostalgia trip. Steve fares even worse, just showing up for a couple of episodes to be angry at the world and remind us just how weird his accent has gotten over the years. One somewhat touching dinner shared between him and Miranda doesn't do justice to the decades they shared together as a key couple on the original show. Charlotte's end is even more vapid. After struggling with Harry's recovery from cancer, the pair haven't been able to enjoy sex for a few weeks. And then it happens. Harry gets a boner. It's a Thanksgiving miracle! Yep, almost three decades of storytelling has come down to Charlotte sneaking off to bang Harry, leaving her daughter Lily to answer the door and give Carrie the good news. There's also some brief acknowledgement of Charlotte reckoning once more with Rock's gender identity, recycling the same storyline again with about as much screentime as Big enjoyed in season one. Rounding out the original gang, you might have expected to see at least some acknowledgement that Samantha still exists, even if she's living her best life across the pond in London. But following her season 2 cameo and a brief set of texts earlier this season, Samantha is AWOL. It tracks, especially given how Kim Cattrall doesn't "want to be in a situation for even an hour" where she's not enjoying herself, yet it's still odd to say farewell to this world without paying tribute to most people's favourite character. Newer additions to the cast don't fare much better. Lisa's story ends with a whimper, not a bang, although it's good that she didn't bang her editor. That would have opened up a whole new can of worms left unexplored thanks to the show's abrupt cancellation. Seema does get to enjoy some character development, at least, after she chooses to let her walls down and spend Thanksgiving with the family of Carrie's hot gardener. Nothing screams growth like wearing jeans. Separating the cast for large chunks of the finale doesn't really make any sense, but if we're being real, when did this show ever make sense? Don't get me started on where Anthony and Giuseppe end up, teasing a gay wedding that queer fans will never get to see. At least all this creates an easy segue for Carrie to end up alone in the end, which is the one thing this finale does actually get right. View Affiliate Playlist on the source website No longer tied to men who continually disappoint her, Carrie enjoys a slice of pumpkin pie and a turn on the karaoke machine she once resented. In doing so, our leading lady proves that happiness doesn't come from being loved. It comes from loving yourself, and that's true no matter how old you might be or where you are in life. Never mind the terrible novel she's finally finished or that the song she's singing seems to last at least an hour within the show. What's important is that Carrie's not alone. She's on her own. And just like that, the show sets up what could have been the best season yet, only for it to come to an end. At least And Just Like That was true to itself in these final moments, going out like the absolute mess it's been since day one. And Just Like That seasons 1-3 are showing on Sky Comedy and NOW. Add And Just Like That to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.