TV Shows

Usually, the Pokémon Company sticks to flashy set name reveals to advertise the Pokémon Trading Card Game. That’s probably not changing any time soon, but with Pokémon: Path to the Peak — a new animated web series about a young girl learning to play the game for the first time — the company seems to be trying out something a little different that’s almost certain to get kids and nostalgic adults itching to pick up a deck.

When the Screen Actors Guild joined the Writers Guild of America in striking against the AMPTP last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger called workers’ demands for better pay and a cut of streaming profits “disturbing” and unrealistic.

During Disney’s quarterly earnings call this week, though, Iger sang a rather different tune insisting that he has “deep respect” for the striking workers, and that “it is my fervent hope that we quickly find solutions to the issues that have kept us apart these past few months.”

Sure, Bob.

While Hollywood’s ongoing double labor strike has exposed the studios’ willingness to see the workers who help create their profits become destitute, Warner Bros. Discovery also wants investors to know that it’s saved more than $100 million in Q2 because of the work stoppage.

Said WBD head David Zaslav:

“We’re in the business of storytelling. We cannot do any of that without the entirety of the creative community, the great creative community.”

So true, David. So true.

Netflix’s Disenchantment from Matt Groening began as a foul-mouthed sendup of high fantasy stories fixated on damsels in distress, and became a fairly straightforward story about a reluctant princess choosing to define her own destiny.

After four seasons of following Princess Bean on her path of personal discovery, Disenchantment is coming to a close with its fifth and final chapter due to hit Netflix on September 1st.

Bobbie’s power armor, Miller’s suit (and hat!), Amos’ coveralls and shotgun, Holden’s MCRN armor, full flight suits for Drummer and Naomi, Avasarala’s final dress (and scorpion stilettos!), Peaches’ engineering outfit, Julie’s necklace, Alex’s medical cuff, and an entire Roci flight chair... these are just the featured lots in an online auction starting August 8th.

Paul Reubens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, has passed away. He was genius in other supporting roles later in his career — including The Spleen in 1999’s thoroughly underrated Mystery Men — but he’ll always be Pee-wee in our hearts. Who could forget the mastermind behind the original smart home?

We’ll be re-watching the 1981 Pee-wee Herman Show special that started it all on Max — checking out some episodes of Pee-wee’s Playhouse on Amazon would be fitting, too. Rest easy, Paul, and wherever you are, tell ‘em Large Marge sent you.

Seriously, there’s a lot: Futurama is back on Hulu, The Witcher’s third season wrapped up on Netflix, Good Omens season 2 is on Prime Video, Secret Invasion’s first season is up on Disney Plus, and Twisted Metal made its debut on Peacock.

Elsewhere, the terrifying teen horror movie Talk To Me is in theaters, a cute Hello Kitty game is available on Apple Arcade, and two classic Zelda titles are up for Switch Online subscribers.

Ahead of The Righteous Gemstones’ upcoming season 3 finale this Sunday, HBO’s renewed the show for yet another season of saintly and sanctified bullshittery that it’ll be able to start production on once Hollywood’s ongoing double labor strike is over.

Lower Decks actors Tawney Newsom and Jack Quaid came up with some of the funniest moments of the Strange New Worlds crossover episode — Newsom’s Ensign Mariner spouting that Spock is hot and Quaid’s Ensign Boimler pulling the “Riker maneuver” — on the spot, per interviews cited by Gizmodo.

Trek alum and episode director Jonathan Frakes seemed envious in his Variety interview:

“[Improvisation] doesn’t happen a lot on ‘Star Trek,’ as you probably have heard,” Frakes says. “I mean, especially in our fucking show” — i.e. “Next Gen” — “they were so strict. It was like we were doing Shakespeare or Chekhov.”

And just because it’s very good, here’s the closer from Gizmodo’s James Whitbrook’s article:

We’re living in a golden age of exploring the fact that Spock Is Hot.

With its sixth episode — “Home” — the first season of Disney Plus’ Secret Invasion has come to a rather anticlimactic end that put Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury right back where he was when the series began.

In the end, it really felt like Marvel didn’t know what it wanted to say with its story about Earth being surreptitiously invaded by hostile aliens. Coincidentally, Apple’s Invasion seems have a pretty clear idea about what it wants to do with a similar premise in its upcoming second season.

Word on the street’s that a new trailer for Castlevania: Nocture — Netflix’s upcoming Castlevania spinoff series about Richter Belmont’s adventures during the French Revolution — is slated to debut tomorrow ahead of the series’ September 28th premiere.

Whereas most comics adaptations tend to fiddle around with the tone and visual language that defined the source material they’re based on, Apple’s forthcoming Strange Planet looks and sounds almost like a carbon copy of creator Nathan W. Pyle’s webcomics that took the internet by storm a few years back.

Honestly? It’s sort of hard to tell whether this is a good thing, or not.

Good news everyone: the sci-fi show returned from the dead for a new season on Hulu this week, and soon there will be some kind of Fortnite collaboration as well. It’s not clear if you’ll be able to play as Fry and Zoidberg, or if the Hypnotoad will appear on the battle royale island, but all is expected to be revealed at 5AM ET tomorrow.

Netflix’s Junji Ito anthology left a lot to be desired when it released early this year, but maybe fans will have better luck with Uzumaki on Adult Swim, which adapts one of the horror master’s most frightening stories. You can get a first taste in the clip below — the adaptation is expected to premiere some time in 2023.

Shinichirō Watanabe’s new Adult Swim series Lazarus sounds like a glimpse into a sort of hellish future where the very same drugs that save people’s lives are responsible for killing them days later.

That may be the case, but judging from the short trailer Adult Swim debuted at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Lazarus is also going to have some pretty chill vibes and stunning action.

Or at least, this version of Geralt, played by Henry Cavill. He’ll be replaced by Liam Hemsworth starting in season 4. In the meantime, the finale of season 3 hits Netflix on July 27th, and you can check out the latest trailer below.