TV & Movie

The joy of Disney’s “National Treasure” franchise lies in its precise balance of reverence and irreverence. For all the choreographed mayhem, cheeky ahistoricity, and gross mishandling of antiquities, the beloved 2004 film and its 2007 sequel are fundamentally in awe of history, respectful of legacy, and devoted to family.  Despite its sturdy plot mechanics, broad audience appeal and evergreen themes, …

Jennifer Garner’s star turn came courtesy of “Alias,” the influential J.J. Abrams drama about Sydney Bristow, a grad student moonlighting as a sultry spy. Her agency? A sinister syndicate masquerading as a governmental skunkworks project, as Sydney and her colleagues toil unaware they’ve been working for the bad guys. The pilot opens on Sydney, battered and bloody after being captured …

Space travel used to be romantic, both in real life and pop culture. These days, space travel is kind of a bummer. In the real world, rocketship rides are now most associated with billionaires, for whom such trips represent one small step for objectivism and one giant leap for their egos. Meanwhile, on television, NASA is getting spanked by Russia …

The Apple TV+ comedy “Platonic” is a reunion of the 2014 movie “Neighbors” (and its 2016 sequel “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”), again pairing stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne with the writer and director Nicholas Stoller. But “Platonic” also models itself after another, more enduring classic: Nora Ephron’s “When Harry Met Sally,” a film explicitly referenced in the pilot of …

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage cemented their place in TV history with a pair of teen soaps that epitomized the aughts. “The O.C.” and the original “Gossip Girl” imprinted on an entire generation, giving millennials a taste for curated soundtracks, pre-recessionary opulence and side-swept bangs. For their latest project, the showrunning duo return to their comfort zone — or rather, contort …

It’s hard to talk about “The Walking Dead” without talking about death. It built its reputation as a show where anyone could be killed off, and indeed, it turned over roughly a third of its cast every season in its early years. (Lest you forget them, the series finale gives its final moments over to a montage of those we’ve …

For the actor Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter was the role of a lifetime. Over eight movies and a decade that spanned his entire adolescence, Radcliffe became the world-famous face of the bespectacled boy wizard. While the franchise, now set to retell the core story as a TV show with a brand-new cast, continued on without him, Radcliffe’s early success gave …

Before a deep dive into Paramount+’s latest supernatural teen drama “Wolf Pack,” a bit of housekeeping is in order. “Wolf Pack” is the creation of Jeff Davis, who also loosely adapted “Teen Wolf” (from the old Michael J. Fox film) into a six-season drama, for Paramount’s MTV. But “Wolf Pack” – built from the novel by Edo van Belkom – …

“iCarly,” a late-2000s gem on Nickelodeon that was on the cutting edge of YouTube video culture, has returned with a new series on Paramount Plus, featuring familiar goofy, slapstick humor. But it’s added a more adult edge to target our modern influencer-obsessed way of life. Some 14 years after “iCarly” first premiered, web-show host Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) is all grown up, much …

HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” is back for Season 2, and it’s still electric and a damn good time. The first season, mostly spanning the 1979-1980 NBA calendar, unpacked the origins of Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss (a crass but delightful John C. Reilly) and exhaustively detailed the origins of the dynasty that he …