PICCOLO GRANDE SCHERMO - La realtà è un'apparenza. E' "Mr. Robot"? No, il nuovo film - il primo da protagonista - di Rami Malek. E intanto la serie tv che lo vede hacker da Emmy viene posticipata a ottobre...

News tratta da TheFilmStage.com
After making an impression in films from Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lowery, and Spike Lee, thanks to his new exposure as television’s most intelligent anti-social hacker, Rami Malek has graduated from indelible supporting character appearances to the coveted leading role. His first endeavor in the arena arrives with Buster’s Mal Heart, which comes from Sarah Adina Smith, and follows an on-the-run mountain man and how he got to this state. I said in my review, “The structural concepts are all here to create an intriguing psychological drama, but the lack of realism when it comes to the supporting cast of caricatures makes for a tenuous emotional foundation. Despite a committed lead performance and flashes of finding beauty in the bizarre, Buster’s Mal Heart loses confidence as it proceeds, resulting in a journey of half-formed ideas that could’ve used as much focus as Malek’s dead-eyed glance.”

Ahead of a release next month, check out the new trailer below.

In this bold thriller peppered with dark humor and interlocking mystery, an eccentric mountain man is on the run from the authorities, surviving the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes in a remote community. Regularly calling into radio talk shows—where he has acquired the nickname “Buster”—to rant about the impending Inversion at the turn of the millennium, he is haunted by visions of being lost at sea, and memories of his former life as a family man. As he drifts from house to house, eluding the local sheriff at every turn, we gradually piece together the events that fractured his life and left him alone on top of a snowy mountain, or perhaps in a small rowboat in the middle of a vast ocean—or both, in this visceral mind bender that will provoke discussion long after it turns your world upside-down.

News: #MrRobot Season 3 Pushed to October, Bobby Cannavale Joins Cast. https://t.co/PX6VRheJNr via @TVLine

— AccademiaTelefilm (@AcademyTelefilm) 11 marzo 2017

GOSSIP - Brit Marling ("The OA") conquista la cover di "Interview" nonostante le critiche personali

Brit Marling takes the cover of Interview magazine’s March 2017 issue.

The 34-year-old The OA star was interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell for the mag – here’s what she shared: 

On developing a thick skin over critique: “I think I do definitely have a toughness. And who knows where this sh*t comes from? I mean, look, somebody you admire saying something harsh about your work hurts me the way it hurts everybody else. But, for me, it just never goes very deep. It’s like someone taking a little pin and like pricking you. For better or worse, I have pretty sophisticated armor that makes me feel like the thing I’m most interested in is trying the bold thing I believe in and that that in and of itself is worth something, even if nobody gets it in the moment.”

On her connection to science fiction: “For me, fantasy and speculative science fiction are the genres that feel closest to how I feel about being alive. Like, when I feel the most invigorated by just even a walk down the block in twilight, when the street lamps are just coming on and there’s mist and some shadowy thing in silhouette in a window, I naturally invest all of those things with deep mythology and mystery and meaning. I think I need to believe in that version of reality because I get very scared when I don’t. I feel very alone when I don’t feel that.”

On staying in the moment: “For some reason, I have a very strange conception of time. I am constantly hovering at some overview, more macro. And what I like about acting is that you have to be super, super present in the moment. That’s not something that comes to me naturally. But if you take the long view on anything, nothing can really affect you or knock you down.”

For more from Brit, visit InterviewMagazine.com.

NEWS - "This Is Us" mania! Batte "TBBT" e conquista la cover di "Variety"

Articolo tratto da "La Stampa"

E' successo martedì e per la televisione americana si tratta di una piccola rivoluzione. The Big Bang Theory, la serie di Cbs che regnava incontrastata nella fascia di età che conta, quella tra i 18 e i 49 anni, è stata battuta da This Is Us, drammone che va in onda sul canale in chiaro Nbc e da noi su Fox Life. Con ascolti stabilmente sopra gli otto milioni di spettatori (dati Nielsen Media Research) che in alcuni casi arrivano a 14 se si considera la visione della replica del giorno dopo, This Is Us non ha niente di quello che le serie rivali offrono al pubblico e si regge solo sui buoni sentimenti e sulla storia dei tre fratelli Pearson. Kate (Chrissy Metz) insicura a causa dei problemi di peso di cui soffre fin da bambina; Kevin (Justin Hartley) il bello di famiglia, fa l'attore ma ha gigantesche pecche in tema di autostima; Randall (Sterling K. Brown, già visto in The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story) afroamericano adottato e quindi con problemi di identità che in età adulta va alla ricerca del padre biologico malato di cancro. Uno dei segreti della serie è che si muove su due piani temporali: quello attuale, con i tre fratelli adulti, e quello del passato, quando i tre erano bambini e dove i protagonisti sono i loro genitori, Rebecca e Jack, rispettivamente interpretati da Mandy Moore e Milo Ventimiglia. «Non ci sono al momento in televisione molti show con protagonisti esseri umani buoni che si comportano in modo decente», ha commentato Dan Fogelman, creatore della serie. Certo, questo non è il primo dramma famigliare a essere trasmesso in televisione, ma quello che fa la differenza è anche il contesto storico. Quella che esce da This Is Us è l'America buona, inclusiva, interrazziale, generosa, esattamente l'opposto dell'America da carneficina, spaventata, arrabbiata e chiusa in se stessa che racconta il Presidente Donald Trump. «La gente è stanca di avere un atteggiamento cinico nei confronti della vita - continua Fogelman -. Credo che a molte persone piaccia che si ricordi loro quello che di buono c'è nel prossimo. Abbiamo visto abbastanza quanto di malvagio ci può essere negli essere umani». Tra lacrime e buoni sentimenti This Is Us è qui per ricordarci che la resistenza agli anni bui può passare anche dalla televisione.

NEWS - Clamoroso al Cibali! In Usa ci sono più abbonamenti a Netflix che videoregistratori (storico sorpasso!). Nel 2016 gli abbonati americani arrivati a 49.4 milioni (+10.5%), il 23% usufruisce del servizio ogni giorno

News tratta da "Variety"
Netflix has hit a new milestone: More U.S. television households now have the streaming service than a digital video recorder, according to a recent study. About 54% of U.S. adults said they have Netflix in their household — while 53% have a DVR, according to Research Group’s annual on-demand study. It’s the first time that households with Netflix have surpassed the level of those with a DVR in the history of LRG’s studies. In 2011, according to the research firm, 44% of TV households had a DVR and 28% had Netflix. Netflix has now eclipsed DVR usage despite the latter having a years-long head start. TiVo’s first digital video recorder shipped in 1999, while Netflix debuted its video-streaming service in 2007 and started the shift away from its DVD-by-mail business. As of the end of 2016, Netflix had 49.4 million streaming subscribers in the U.S., up 10.5% year over year. About 23% of all adults in TV homes stream Netflix daily, according to LRG’s survey of 1,211 consumers 18 and older conducted in January 2017, compared with 6% who did in 2011. Overall, 64% of respondents said they get a subscription video-on-demand service from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and/or Hulu. Meanwhile, Netflix’s stock was upgraded Monday by UBS analyst Doug Mitchelson, from “neutral” to “buy,” citing subscriber momentum in Europe and Latin America as well as remarks by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts who said last week at an investor conference that in a little more than 90 days since integrating Netflix into its X1 platform, more than 30% of X1 customers are using Netflix. Comcast’s early results with Netflix on X1 are “encouraging,” Mitchelson wrote. “We expect ongoing churn reductions as Netflix adds more U.S. pay TV integration deals and as X1 penetrations rise.” Comcast has said about half its 22.5 million video subs have X1. All that said, traditional linear TV is not dead in the water by any means. As LRG president Bruce Leichtman pointed out, 46% of adults say they often flip through channels to see what’s on TV.

Un'altra puntata del cazzo di #TheWalkingDead.https://t.co/GLGSdvKFki? #TWD #FoxTheWalkingDead

— Leo Damerini (@LeoDamerini) 7 marzo 2017

NEWS - "Netflix sempre di più!". Il guru Reed Hastings dixit e aggiunge: "binge-watching a manetta con i nuovi contenuti in arrivo. Le serie a cadenza settimanale non sono il nostro focus, colpa degli accordi con le emittenti. Mediaset, Vivendi o Sky? Non ci preoccupano, loro sono sulla tv, noi su Internet..." (come a dire, Infinity e Sky Go ci fanno una pippa!)

Intervista tratta dal "Corriere della Sera"
Reed Hastings, classe 1960, è un signore che prima noleggiava dvd. Adesso produce e distribuisce serie tv e film online. E ha appena vinto un Oscar. È quello che ce l'ha fatta, con Netflix, nella delicata transizione dal mercato delle copie fisiche a quello delle copie digitali: 93 milioni di persone (lo) pagano una decina di euro al mese per vedere contenuti in un contesto, Internet, che li aveva abituati al tutto gratis (e pirata). Se del futuro dell'economia digitale non c'è certezza, quantomeno lui non sembra doversi inventare il presente. Ne è consapevole. Ci risponde asciutto e sornione accoccolato sul divano della scenografica dimora allestita per accogliere la stampa accorsa a Barcellona per il Mobile World Congress. La statuetta assegnata al corto «White Helmets» è solo un primo passo? Siete pronti ad aggredire l'industria della produzione cinematografica? «Non se la mette in senso negativo. Andiamo a dare un contributo, a portare più soldi, nuove pellicole e nuovi show». Chi potrebbe aggredire voi, invece, è Facebook: sembra intenzionato a puntare sulla creazione di contenuti video originali. Diventerà un rivale? «Non credo sia probabile a breve termine. E per ora Facebook o YouTube sono attivi nella raccolta pubblicitaria destinata ai video. Noi non ospitiamo spot e non abbiamo intenzione di farlo in futuro, vogliamo continuare a offrire un'esperienza simile a quella del cinema: l'immersione totale nei contenuti senza alcuna interruzione». Noi spettatori, però, abbiamo un numero limitato di ore da dedicare alle varie piattaforme. App come anche Snapchat, che si distingue per il tempo trascorso dagli utenti a sfogliare i video, non possono non essere considerate concorrenti diretti. «Certo, qualsiasi cosa sia coinvolgente e divertente è un nostro rivale. La televisione tradizionale rimane però in cima alla lista: ha ancora un sacco di spettatori». Siete diventati famosi per aver introdotto le scorpacciate di tutte le puntate di una serle in una volta sola. Adesso avete iniziato a proporre anche programmazioni settimanali. Il «binge watching» non è più sostenibile? «Fa riferimento alla possibilità che le persone si abbonino per periodi limitati e solo per vedere le loro serie preferite? Quest'anno abbiamo prodotto migliaia di ore di contenuti originali e nuovi. A breve ne avremo così tanti che chiunque vorrà essere sempre abbonato. Le poche trasmissioni a cadenza settimanale si devono ad accordi con le emittenti: non è il nostro focus e non abbiamo intenzione di incrementarle». Fattore chiave per assicurarsi la fedeltà degli spettatori è e sarà sempre di più la selezione. Avete iniziato a ospitare corsi per rimanere in forma. «Sì, è un esperimento per capire cosa può piacere alle persone». Possiamo aspettarci video in diretta? Lo sport? «No. Lo sport è molto ben coperto dalla tv tradizionale. Rimaniamo su film e serie tv, anche perché i diritti dei match costano moltissimo». Tornando all'Italia, conferma l'obiettivo di raggiungere un terzo delle case nei prossimi 5 anni? «Confermo. Stiamo facendo ottimi progressi e siamo soddisfatti della collaborazione con la Rai per Suburra». Non teme le mosse di Mediaset-Vivendi o Sky? «Vedremo cosa accadrà (si riferisce alla stretta di mano italo-francese, ndr), di sicuro c'è che loro sono una costola delle tv mentre noi siamo focalizzati su Internet. Non mi preoccupo, non ci tocca un eventuale fusione». La sua serie preferita? The Crown: c'è la storia, c'è Churchill. E sorprendente».

TWITTER-JAM - I migliori tweet seriali del circondario

Time to.. pic.twitter.com/Qh90ovPBrt

— Katheryn Winnick (@KatherynWinnick) 4 marzo 2017

NEWS - Forever '80s! La nuova idea di Jenji Kohan ("OITNB") per Netflix è ambientata nel mondo del wrestling femminile (dal 23 giugno)
News tratta "Entertain the Idea"

Netflix announced that the first season of "Glow", a new comedy from Jenji Kohan’s, will debut on June 23rd.

Inspired by the short-lived but beloved show from the 80s, the series tells the fictional story of Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie), an out-of-work, struggling actress in 1980s Los Angeles who finds one last chance for stardom when she’s thrust into the glitter and spandex world of women’s wrestling.

In addition to working with twelve Hollywood misfits, Ruth also has to compete with Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) a former soap actress who left the business to have a baby, only to be sucked back into work when her picture perfect life is not what it seems. And at the wheel is Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), a washed-up, coked-up B-movie director who now must lead fourteen women on the journey to wrestling stardom.

Co-starring are Britney Young, Sydelle Noel, Britt Baron, Jackie Tohn, Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson, Kate Nash, Sunita Mani, Kia Stevens, Ellen Wong, Gayle Rankin and Chris Lowell.

NEWS - Serial Fincher. Il regista di "Se7en" e "House of Cards" firma "Mindhunter" per Netflix (a ottobre)
News tratta da "Uproxx"
David Fincher is already doing well with Netflix; he executive-produces House of Cards, and directed the first two episodes, helping kick off the original streaming show gold rush. But not content with ruthless political scheming, he’s returning to his first love in a new Netflix series about hunting down serial killers. Mindhunter, set in 1979 and based on the 1996 nonfiction book, follows the work that went into building the FBI’s famous “profiling” program, where they interviewed serial killers looking for common links and traits that might help them spot murderers before they killed again. Needless to say, being in close proximity with some of the most dangerous people in the prison system doesn’t really do much for their mental health, and the agents struggle to keep it together. But, hey, at least one of them is a generous lover, if one of the flash cuts we see are any indication, and it’s nice to see what boils down to basically two guys doing scientific grunt work getting their own TV series. Fincher, of course, first came to prominence with Se7en, but this doesn’t look like a throwback to the ’90s era where everybody was chasing Hannibal Lecter or the many, many photocopies that filled the screen. Hopefully it also digs into the many criticisms of the profiling program, as there’s a lot of debate among criminologists that the FBI’s work is all that accurate or effective. If this series sticks to the story behind the FBI’s profiling unit, it should make for fascinating drama. Just make sure the agents don’t open any boxes.

PICCOLO GRANDE SCHERMO - Clamoroso al Cibali! Jim Parsons di "TBBT" e Claire Danes di "Homeland" genitori di un figlio di 4 anni transgender al cinema

News tratta da "Vulture"

Jim Parsons’s burgeoning film career has been tipping towards socially conscious projects for a few years now. He has recently appeared in Hidden Figures and the HBO AIDS crisis drama The Normal Heart, but he has yet to play a leading man. Variety announced today, however, that Parsons has signed on to produce and star in the feature A Kid Like Jake. The film, written by Daniel Pearle, is centered around the parents of a transgender four-year-old, and is based on Pearle’s play of the same name that ran at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater in 2013. Claire Danes is attached to play the wife of Parsons’s character, with Silas Howard (Transparent), one of only a few transgender directors in Hollywood, set to direct. The project’s announcement comes at a pivotal moment in the transgender rights movement. Just yesterday, the Trump administration rolled back protections that ensured transgender kids could use the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity in public schools, a move which prompted celebrities from Caitlyn Jenner to Rhea Butcher to speak up. A Kid Like Jake follows recent trans-focused film projects like last year’s The Danish Girl, for which Eddie Redmayne received an Oscar nomination, and the forthcoming film Three Generations, about a teenage trans boy in the process of transitioning.

TELEFILM ART - Foto, grafica e visioni al confine con la Pop Art

 www.telefilmcult.tumblr.com

NEWS - "Scream Queens" meno una! Lea Michele dice addio a Ryan Murphy per una comedy 

News tratta da "The Hollywood Reporter"
Lea Michele has booked her next act.
The Glee and Scream Queens favorite has joined the cast of ABC's untitled city mayor comedy pilot, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
From ABC Studios and Hamilton's Daveed Diggs, the project explores what happens when an outspoken, idealistic rapper named Courtney (Search Party's Brandon Micheal Hall) runs for office as a publicity stunt. When he actually gets elected, he surprises everyone (including himself) when he has a natural knack for the job and slowly transforms City Hall.
Details on the role Michele will play were not immediately available as the part is being adjusted to specifically accommodate the actress. The character originally was planned to be Courtney's chief of staff. It's unclear if that will remain as the part continues to shift with Michele's commitment to the project. The ABC comedy marks her first pilot since Fox's Glee and first series-regular role outside of the Ryan Murphy universe. For Michele, meanwhile, this marks her follow-up to Fox's Scream Queens. The horror-comedy anthology from executive producer Murphy remains on the bubble and awaits word on its third season. Sources say Murphy released Michele from her deal for Scream Queens. Her casting does not have any bearing on if the series returns. Instead, it means her character of Hester is not going to be returning for a potential third season.
Jeremy Bronson (Speechless) will pen the script and exec produce the ABC Studios comedy alongside Diggs, Jamie Tarses, Scott Stuber and James Griffiths, with the latter set to direct the single-camera comedy.

L'EDICOLA DI LOU - Stralci, cover e commenti sui telefilm dai media italiani e stranieri

CORRIERE DELLA SERA
"Masters of Sex", quando la qualità non incontra il pubblico
"Sta andando in onda la quarta e ultima stagione di «Masters of Sex», la serie americana creata da Michelle Ashford. Racconta gli anni ardimentosi delle ricerche del ginecologo William Masters e della psicologa Virginia Johnson, diventati famosi per aver redatto il primo studio approfondito sul sesso, un lavoro durato undici anni e sfociato nel famoso libro La risposta sessuale umana del 1966 (Sky Atlantic, mercoledì, 2L10). La rete americana Showtime ne ha annunciato la fine: «"Masters of Sex" è stato un viaggio magnificamente scritto e interpretato sulla rivoluzione dei costumi sessuali dell'America. Siamo assolutamente orgogliosi di aver condiviso la storia di Masters e Johnson per quattro stagioni acclamate dalla critica». Acclamate dalla critica ma disertate dal pubblico, con un deciso crollo negli ascolti. Non sempre la qualità si concilia con la vasta platea. Saranno contenti i «gufi» che predicano la fine della serialità, che sostengono che le serie televisive si stanno uccidendo da sole perché si sono moltiplicate a dismisura, che la tossicità dei loro impianti narrativi le ha rese ridicole. Può darsi, ma gli stessi discorsi li abbiamo già sentiti da anni, a proposito di libri e di cinema. C'è stato un periodo in cui si diceva che un libro medio autoriale era una sorta di affronto, mentre in un film medio si poteva sempre scoprire qualcosa, perché comunque era attraversato dalla forza delle convenzioni e dei generi. Magari oggi possiamo sostenere che un film medio è un affronto e si fa fatica a seguirlo fino alla fine, mentre in una serie media si può sempre scoprire qualcosa, aldi là dell'Arte, del Bello o del Brutto. Così funziona l'industria culturale, così funzionano i fantasmi prima psichici e poi narrativi. Perciò spiace che chiuda una serie come «Masters of Sex», i cui racconti restano interessanti (a volte persino troppo didascalici) e la cui scrittura riesce a dispiegarsi in molti registri". (Aldo Grasso)

GOSSIP - Blonde ambition Allison! La Williams di "Girls" si fa bionda platino come il comandante Straker di "Ufo" per "Allure" con la fantasia di diventare una "bomba sexy"

Allison Williams debuts a hot new look on the cover of Allure magazine’s March 2017 issue.

Here’s what the 28-year-old Girls star had to share with the mag:

On her new look: “Maybe I’ll become this gorgeous bombshell vixen. Or maybe I’ll still just be the adult-spelling-bee spirit I’ve always been. I bet people won’t recognize me, and that’s gonna be a fun reveal with my friends.”

On how she feels after being a blonde: “I like it! Especially this blonde—it feels like it is just a new twist on the same old me. It’s just hair! But it’s fun.

SGUARDO FETISH - Da "Playboy" e il burlesque a "TWD". La scalata a colpi di frangetta della scozzese Pollyanna McIntosh, la "Queen of Trash" Jadis

Intervista e foto tratte da "Playboy"

You started out as a model. Are you done with that?
Don’t get me wrong, if someone offered me a lot of money, this work is not always stable, so I’d take it. This is going to sound arrogant, but I kind of ended my career by doing the Pirelli calendar and 16 pages of Vogue. As a woman who is more curvy than most models, I felt really good leaving it there. I felt like, All right, go out with the bang. I didn’t feel right on the catwalk. The serious model face nowadays doesn’t suit me. There are certain artistic things you can do in that business that are really fun and creative, but going down the catwalk looking like everyone smells of shit is not something I need to do again.

Is it true you were considered a plus-size model?
Oh, yeah. I had the measurements of Cindy Crawford and I was considered plus-size. It just ebbs and flows. At the time I was studying at university and I was thinking, How am I going to pay the rest of my tuition? I ended up going to a modeling agency to do commercial work and they said, “Oh, you’d be great for plus size.” I went, “What?” Then I discovered this whole other side of the business where you made all this money and did a lot of catalogue work and traveling. I didn’t have to worry about what I was eating, which was great. I put on a little weight during that time, so I was bigger than I am now, but it really is ridiculous. The whole thing’s silly. I love fashion and aesthetics and celebrating clothes, but they can’t decide what’s plus size. We have to decide what we’re comfortable with individually. As a society, we’re so beleaguered by this idea of perfection, and it changes all the time. In the time of Cindy Crawford, I would’ve been a regular-size model, as it were, but when Kate Moss came in, that changed.

You’ve also got a background in burlesque. What was that experience like?
I was married [to Melrose Place actor Grant Show] and I needed to go out there and feel my sexuality for myself. I happened to bump into a woman at a bar who was teaching burlesque. I said, “This is exactly up my alley.” So I became Whisky Jane, spelled the Scottish way, not the American way. And I had the best time. Just as I got on to the stage I went, “What the fuck am I doing? How can I get out of this?” It was comedic but very sexy. It was everything I needed it to be. I celebrated my body, my sexuality, and I got to be a performer in a way I really needed to be at that point. And I did it a few more times and had fun with it. It was just delicious.

Changing #Girls. 👸🏽👸🏼👸🏻👸🏽 #lenadunham #allisonwilliams #zosiamamet #jemimakirke #cover #magazine #guardianguide #foursome #tvshow #tvseries #series #serietv #telefilm #telefilmaddicted #cult #memorabilia #farewell @lenadunham @aw @zosiamamet @guardianguide

Un post condiviso da Telefilm Cult (@telefilmcult) in data: 19 Feb 2017 alle ore 01:02 PST

NEWS - "The Leftovers"...."The End is near" (Trailer)

L'EDICOLA DI LOU - Stralci, cover e commenti sui telefilm dai media italiani e stranieri

UPROXX
Ecco perché la nuova stagione di "Billions" pone la serie come la più attuale dell'era Trump

When Showtime’s finance drama Billions premiered in early 2016, it seemed like a bombastic redux of The Wolf of Wall Street, in which a crooked hedge-fund titan (Damian Lewis) squares off against a morally compromised federal attorney (Paul Giamatti) in a season-long “Who’s Is Bigger?” contest. The dialogue, peppered with violently sexual metaphors and retrograde schoolyard taunts, was both quotable and gross. (“My father always told me that ‘mercy’ was a word pussies used when they couldn’t take the pain.”) And then there was that crazy subplot about Giamatti’s character being into S&M, introduced in the pilot with a throw-down-the-gauntlet opening scene in which a dominatrix urinates on Giamatti’s chest. Even though I loved Billions, it seemed pretty exaggerated. There was no way men this powerful and brilliant could also be this weak and stupid in real life. Oh, we were so innocent back then, weren’t we? Now, it’s a year later, and there’s a billionaire in the White House who favors sexual metaphors and schoolyard taunts (particularly “pussy”), and is also allegedly into water sports. I’m not saying that Billions — one of TV’s most addictive shows, and certainly among its most underrated — necessarily predicted the rise of Donald Trump. But Billions does help to explain the culture from whence he came, and the epidemic of toxic masculinity that emboldens and then destroys world-conquering blowhards (and, unfortunately, everything else in their vicinity). Billions reminds me of HBO’s similarly misunderstood Vice Principals, which depicts white-male resentment from the bottom-up perspective of the middle-American Trump voter. The guys on Billions, meanwhile, could actually be Trump. While Billions got a lot of its mojo in season one from the contact high that inevitably accompanies depictions of great wealth and power, it was always trending toward oblivion. It finally arrived in Billions’ season finale in the form of a riff on The Conversation, in which antihero Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Lewis) is driven to tear apart his luxury office complex in a paranoia-driven fury stoked by the machinations of his antagonist, Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), who may or may not have put Axe under surveillance in the wake of Axe indirectly torpedoing Rhoades’ marriage to Wendy (Maggie Siff), Axe’s former performance coach. Like everything about Billions, season one’s closing image of Axe and Rhoades taunting each other amid the rubble of Axe’s office was not subtle. But it was effective — and in retrospect, sort of profound. The men of Billions are absurdly confident, endlessly competitive, and doubtlessly resourceful master-of-the-universe types who are sorely lacking in self-awareness. They sacrifice their ethics, their co-workers, and even their loved ones in order to come out ahead in a never-ending game of one-upsmanship. Even in the midst of mass annihilation, these guys can’t quit the macho B.S. A year ago, it was a fabulously pulpy cliffhanger. Now, the season one finale of Billions registers as yet another terrifying reminder of what’s at stake each time our president decides to take on the media or the judiciary or Nordstrom’s over some perceived slight. That sort of posturing only leads in one direction, and it’s not pretty. Watching the first four episodes of Billions‘ second season — which debuts Sunday Feb. 19 — during the opening weeks of the Trump administration was a strangely sobering experience. Tonally, the outrageousness of season one has been scaled back. (Or does it just seem that way in comparison to the parade of megalomaniacs that dominate the news cycle now?). A cue that things will be different this season on Billions comes courtesy of the throbbing bassline from Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into the Fire,” which sets the scene early in the first episode. “Jump Into the Fire,” of course, is associated with Goodfellas, in which the song is used to score a long and ultimately momentous day when Henry Hill’s life slowly falls apart. Like Henry’s brother Michael stirring the sauce, Billions has turned the heat way down to a low simmer. But gradually, over the course of several episodes, Billions picks back up to an intense boil. Axe and Rhoades are still trying to claw their eyes out, but they seem a little tired. There’s a slight limp in their respective struts — Axe is trying to rebuild his reputation in the wake of a public criminal investigation, and Rhoades is facing his own inquisition for prosecutorial misconduct. Instead of taking each other on directly, they settle on a proxy battle concerning an embattled banker named Lawrence Boyd (Eric Bogosian), who enlists Axe’s help after Rhoades goes all in on another big fish as a last-stab attempt to save his job. While Billions sometimes veered in season one from indicting the greed and amorality of its characters to sympathizing with or even glorifying them, season two appears to be more careful about keeping the focus on the rot at the core of self-destructive machismo. Two new characters are vital in that regard — there’s Todd Krakow (Danny Strong), a smug, Napoleonic wannabe-Axe who’s bullying come-ons to newly independent Wendy are transparent attempts to mask raging insecurity. (“The struggle for you is you remember the complaints, don’t you?” Wendy tells one of Krakow’s piggish underlings. “They lodge deep. They haunt you.” Remind you of anyone?). And then there’s Taylor, an intern who rises fast in the ranks at Axe’s firm due to an uncommon ability to read between the lines, whether it’s on a spreadsheet or with people. Played by non-binary gender identifying actor Asia Kate Dillion, Taylor exists as a vague threat to the bros in the Axe’s office, due to Taylor’s superior smarts and dubiousness about the value of mano-a-mano competition. Signifiers of this sort of hand-to-hand combat abound in the new season of Billions — horse racing, poker, judo, the NFL, Mark Cuban. But the zest with which Billions once delved into this world of overgrown boys playing real-life war games has been appropriately tempered by a weariness over the damage it causes. Fortunately, Billions remains a fun, addictive show, but the real-life truths it helps to illustrate grow more alarming all of the time. (Steven Hyden)

News: #CBS Confirms It’s Close To Renewing #TheBigBangTheory. https://t.co/pLuEhWfpX2 via @deadline

— AccademiaTelefilm (@AcademyTelefilm) 16 febbraio 2017

SGUARDO FETISH - Buon Weeknd! Un fan mixa il tema musicale di "Stranger Things" con "Starboy" della popstar e dei Daft Punk...👍

A fan took the time to mix The Weeknd‘s “Starboy” with the Stranger Things theme song, and the result was something magical. “S T R A N G E R B O Y,” the fan dubbed the video on Twitter.

The Weeknd noticed and retweeted the mashup, featuring clips from his original music video.

“This is dope as f–k @ohhellojon,” The Weeknd responded.

Watch below!

S T R A N G E R B O Y
starboy X stranger things @theweeknd pic.twitter.com/sIMxMxDzsq

— jon ⚡️ (@ohhellojon) 8 febbraio 2017