This The Affair review contains spoilers.

The Affair Season 5 Episode 2

'“This is so fucking weird for me.”

It’s a little crazy just how much Noah Solloway’s life has become an analogue for Hank Moody from Californication. This is far from a compliment to Noah, but it’s very easy to picture David Duchovony’s character shrug his way through the exact same plot.

To The Affair’s credit, it feels like Noah has always been interested in fame and lucrative movie deals ever since the show’s first season. Now that Noah is finally living that reality it’s encouraging to see that he doesn’t fall back on old habits and selfishly self-sabotage…yet. It’s hard not to laugh when Noah sheepishly describes Daniel, his surrogate in Descent, as an anti-hero. However, The Affair provides a much-needed break from Noah in “502,” which is an episode that turns away from its “anti-hero” and solves several problems without his help.

Janelle and her son made strong foils for Noah during The Affair season 4 and his relationship and integration into their family opened his character up to some much greater depth. While I was pleased to see Janelle show up in this season’s premiere, I was curious how long she’d be sticking along Noah’s side and this installment shows that she’s just as curious about the same thing.

Janelle has her own life and professional problems to worry about, but she finds herself considerably overwhelmed by Noah’s life and everything that’s required to be in a relationship with him. If she doesn’t already feel like enough of an outsider, a misunderstanding at Vik’s funeral causes her and Noah to become visual sore thumbs that break this idyllic image that she’s trying to join. Noah comments upon how weird the event is going to be for him, completely failing to empathize with how substantially more intense it is for Janelle.

There is rampant evidence of how Noah wants to keep pulling Janelle closer to him, yet she repeatedly shies away and eyes the exit. Sanaa Lathan does great work here to show how simply Noah’s presence begins to make her uncomfortable. Noah’s lost in the seemingly perfect relationship that they’re in and Janelle flinches over the mere label of “girlfriend.” The Affair elegantly highlights its split perspective structure when it reframes events from the premiere through Janelle’s eyes, all of which are meant to knock her down a little further and drive her crazier.

When Janelle actually needs help regarding her demotion to co-principal, it’s her ex-husband that she turns to, not Noah. What’s kind of beautiful is that through Janelle’s interactions with her ex, the series once again brings up the power of an affair and everything that it can tear down. Janelle and Carl are no different than Noah and Helen or Cole and Alison. As all of these characters spin out of control, it seems like both Janelle and Noah are subconsciously being drawn back to their original families.

Janelle’s scene with Carl is really incredible, moving stuff and the kind of content that The Affair is able to so effectively sell. It’s just brutal to see Janelle get beaten down and slowly edged out when she hasn’t really done anything wrong. Her talk with the school board is a gutting experience, but her conversation with Carl slowly empowers her and will hopefully see her rise anew and even stronger than before.

This emotional scene speaks to the idea that someone that you have deep history with and inherently knows you can often give you an invaluable perspective on yourself. As functional as Noah and Janelle are, he never really stood a chance with her because this episode accentuates that she and Carl probably should have never been apart.

Janelle’s material is the strongest stuff in the episode, but it very much feels like a goodbye to the character, especially considering the three-month time jump that follows. Previous seasons devoted episodes or perspectives over to Noah’s various romantic partners, only for them to slowly recede into the background, so this kind of move isn’t unprecedented, but it will hopefully not turn out to be time that could have been better spent elsewhere.

I’m thankful that Janelle’s struggle is included here, but there’s no reason why she couldn’t have reached the same conclusions during the end of last season so this year could start off on a fresh slate. As it stands, Janelle may come across as an afterthought and she deserves more than that. However, the fact that this final season is eleven episodes long—an atypical number for the series—makes me cautiously optimistic that there’s a careful plan in place and that nothing here is extraneous.

Outside of Janelle’s orbit, Noah and Helen are both enjoying the production process for Descent that’s currently underway. Helen gives solid revisions on Noah’s film, most of which have to do with how the portrayal of the Helen surrogate needs to be “bitchier” and less broken. It’s an interesting approach from Helen. Noah’s work with Descent is largely about revising his own life and justifying a version of his past transgressions, in a way. Helen nearly goes in the opposite direction and wants to see a harsher representation of herself on the screen so she can accept how much she’s hated herself.

This is a much more cathartic technique than what Noah does, but it also speaks to everything that Helen has experienced over the past few months and how she’s learned to accept both the loss of Vik, who she is, and where life has taken her. It’s immensely humbling when Sasha asks Helen for further character insight and screenplay advice and she instantly deflects, saying, “Movies are more Noah’s thing.” She’s not ready to take ahold of these bold, new opportunities until she’s practically forced.

Sasha continues to become fascinated by Helen’s new blunt attitude and how she couldn’t care less about his celebrity status. One of the best moments of the episode is Whitney’s utter shock after Helen rebukes Sasha’s offers. Later on, Whitney commiserates with Helen after she watches a scene from the movie version of her parents’ divorce and grapples with her feelings towards her own impending marriage. Whitney’s character has been all over the place through the course of the series, but watching her reach this place of maturity is one of the highlights of seeing this show through to the end.

This tango between Sasha and Helen develops in a rather cute way. Helen’s refusal turns into a charming electronic date, which then blossoms into a lavish real one at his extravagant home that involves basketball, nosebleeds, and hallucinations. Helen’s time with Sasha is all very sweet and curiously the opposite of what’s reflected in Janelle’s story. Helen spends a day with someone that she doesn’t know at all, yet due to Sasha’s familiarity with Descent he can recite intimate details about Helen’s life back to her and seems to have genuinely good advice. It’s yet another situation where Noah’s not turned to for support.

Everything that Helen does in this episode is all about pushing her forward towards further acceptance and embracing new decisions. This culminates with Helen playing Vik’s posthumous recording, which thankfully doesn’t get drawn out until the final episode. Vik tells Helen to finally live for herself, which may be advice that’s increasingly more prescient if Helen’s recent fatigue is the result of something bigger. Helen’s faced so much tragedy and presumably has more on the way with her father’s health, that hopefully this isn’t the case.

At this point, Adult Joanie’s struggles in the future still come across as somewhat silly. It’s rather jarring to see Helen mourn her dead husband and then have a hard cut to Joanie having an argument with a future toilet. Joanie is headed off to Montauk to dig into her past and even plans to stay at Cole’s old house, too. Joanie seems increasingly drawn to this family that she never really knew while she avoids the real one that she’s built over the years. The Affair is currently on slow-drip mode with Joanie’s story, but it’s at least clear that she suffers from the same commitment issues and a calling to her past that also plagues Janelle and Helen in this episode.

It’s also too soon to tell, but considering both this episode and last week’s premiere feature three storylines/perspectives apiece, this may be the structure that’s applied to most of this season. Two storylines per episode never feels like too little, but there are definitely times where episodes feel padded. Ideally this new approach will force each storyline to narrow in on what’s important, while still making sure that each episode doesn’t feel cluttered.

The second episode of The Affair’s final season still feels like it’s setting the table for what’s to come. As usual, the performances and personal discoveries that are reached are very strong, but this feels like a bit of a disjointed second part of last week’s premiere. Janelle’s half of the story is so stuck in past events and feels like it closes the book on old business, while Helen’s story not only abruptly jumps three months forward, but it’s also largely dependent on the introduction of a new character.

It’s hard to reconcile those differences, but The Affair thematically manages to do so and it doesn’t hurt that both Sanaa Lathan and Claes Bang are both so entertaining. The Affair’s final season still has a long ways to go, but it’s at least moving in what appears to be the right direction.

Keep up with The Affair Season 5 news and reviews here.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Daniel Kurland is a published writer, comedian, and critic whose work can be read on Den of Geek, Vulture, Bloody Disgusting, and ScreenRant. Daniel knows that the owls are not what they seem, that Psycho II is better than the original, and he’s always game to discuss Space Dandy. His perma-neurotic thought process can be followed at @DanielKurlansky.

Good news! The Affair season 5 is here. Bad news! It's the last season.

“We love the intimacy, the nuance, and the emotional honesty of The Affair’s subjective examination of both infidelity and fidelity. Gary Levine, President of Programming Showtime Networks, said in a statement. "Sarah Treem has always envisioned this as a five-season series, and we will be fascinated to see where she takes her talented cast and all of us next year in its climactic season.”

The Affair has been on quite a journey for the past four years. It debuted in the fall of 2014 to almost immediate acclaim. The first season even won the award for best drama at the Golden Globes.

further reading: Billions Season 4 Release Date

Since then, however, The Affair has struggled to maintain the excitement of its original premise. After the titular "affair" worn down, the show has been left with the story of deeply unhappy people living in Montauk, all trying to figure their lives out. 

The Affair Season 5 Episode 3 Trailer

Take a look at the trailer for the latest episode of The Affair season 5 below.

The Affair Season 5 Episode Guide

The Affair Season 5 Episode 1: 501

Noah embarks on his journey with the Descent movie by getting acquainted with his star, Sasha Mann. Helen mourns a tragic event. Sierra welcomes a new arrival. Joanie struggles with an upcoming birthday.

air date: 8/25/19

Read our review of "501" here.

The Affair Season 5 Episode 2: 502

Janelle struggles with her relationship and work, so turns to Carl for support. Production for Descent commences, and Sasha takes an interest in Helen. Helen takes her first steps towards acceptance.

air date: 9/1/19

Read our review of "502" here.

The Affair Season 5 Episode 3: 503

Sasha proposes adjustments to Noah's script. Sasha's relationship with Helen blossoms, and Noah takes notice. Bruce's condition worsens. Joanie's business trip leads to violent encounters.

air date: 9/8/19

The Affair Season 5 Episode 4: 504

Noah, Margaret and Stacey bond over their mutual distaste for Sasha. Noah attempts to sabotage Helen and Sasha's relationship. Whitney and Colin face the hardships of their relationship. Joanie visits the graveyard.

air date: 9/15/19

The Affair Season 5 Release Date

The Affair Season 5 premiered on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET.

The Affair Season 5 Cast

The big casting changes for The Affair Season 5 continue on. Jennifer Jason Leigh is the next big addition to the show's final season. Showtime president of programming Gary Levine announced at the 2019 TCA winter press tour that Leigh will be joining The Affair Seaosn 5 in an unspecified role.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is perhaps best known for her role in Single White Female. In recent years, Leigh has popped up in the films Anomalisa and The Hateful Eight.

Anna Paquin will be joining the cast of the show for its fifth and final season, according to TV Line. Paquin's return to pulpy pay cable shows would be a big deal on its own but even more interesting is who she is playing. Paquin will be portraying the adult version Joanie Lockhart. You know what that means...TIME JUMP!

Another character will be leaving The Affair Season 5...sort of. TV Line reports that Joshua Jackson will not be appearing as a series regular in The Affair Season 5. It's possible that Jackson's character Cole will return on a recurring basis. But as things stand that is now officially half the cast who has not made it to The Affair's final season.

read more: Shameless Season 9: Everything You Need to Know

Those of you who watched the final two episodes of The Affair Season 4 are privy to some information: Ruth Wilson is no longer on the show. Yes, her character, Alison, sadly died and dead people don't always make compelling TV characters. A question does remain, however: why is Alison dead? It's entirely possible that the character had run her course and the show wanted to try something new. But some Ruth Wilson quotes make it seem as though there were issues behind the scenes. 

Wilson told Gayle King of CBS This Morning: ""I’m not allowed to talk about why." She would later tell other outlets that the reason wasn't about pay and wasn't about another job. But that still seems to suggest....there was a reason. Either way, Ruth Wilson will not be a part of The Affair's final season.

The Affair Season 5 Trailer

Check out the trailers for The Affair Season 5!

If you were hoping to use to it to determine who was still in the cast, you can now rest assured that Dominic West and Maura Tierney are still around. And that's it apparently!

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

The Walking Dead's little zombie brother is starting to walk on its own. Fear the Walking Dead season 5 is now underway on AMC. 

It's been a tumultuous year for Fear the Walking Dead. This season saw the arrival of Morgan Jones (played by Lennie James) from The Walking Dead universe's flagship show. The show then made numerous other high profile additions to the cast, including Garret Dillahunt, Maggie Grace, and Jenna Elfman.

To thin out the crowd after all the new arrivals, Fear the Walking Dead killed two main characters who had been around since day one: Madison (Kim Dickens) and Nick (Frank Dillane). The violent, unpredictable world of the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead has always meant that the shows can call for a mass upheaval of the cast whenever they'd like but Fear the Walking Dead season 4 was the first time either it or The Walking Dead had tried it in such a systematic fashion. The effect has been at least intriguing enough for AMC to roll the dice on Fear the Walking Dead season 5.

Fear the Walking Dead is run by Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg. Previous Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple is now overseeing the entire franchise. That could mean for crossovers or synergy between the two shows in future years.

Here's everything else we know about season 5:

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 13 Trailer

Here is a sneak peak at the next episode of Fear the Walking Deadseason 5, titled "Leave What You Don't."

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episodes

Here's where we'll compile episode titles, official synopses, and reviews as they become available. Click the titles to go to the full reviews.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 1: Here to Help

Lead by Morgan and Alicia, the group lands in uncharted territory in search of survivors to help. But everything is not as it seems in this foreboding new land.

Michael E. Satrazemis directed the episode written by Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss.

Air date: 6/2/19

Read our review of "Here to Help" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 2: The Hurt That Will Happen

Morgan and Alicia meet a survivor and learn of a grave new walker threat. Meanwhile, the mission is put to the test when one of their own goes missing. Elsewhere, Strand makes contact.

Jessica Lowrey directed the episode written by Alex Delyle. 

Air date: 6/9/19

Read our review of "The Hurt That Will Happen" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 3: Humbug's Gulch

June and Dorie take shelter to hide from a threat, but a misunderstanding with a desperate survivor leads to trouble. Meanwhile, Alicia and Morgan face a dangerous obstacle.

Colman Domingo directed the episode written by Ashley Cardiff. 

Air date: 6/16/19

Read our review "Humbug's Gulch" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 4: Skidmark

Charlie makes a friend, while Strand, Wendell, and Sarah's rescue mission hits a snag. Elsewhere, Alicia, Luciana, and Morgan struggle to fulfill their mission.

Tara Nicole Weyr directed the episode written by Samir Mehta.

Air date: 6/23/19

Read our review of "Skidmark" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 5: The End of Everything

Althea chases a story with dogged determination, putting the mission, and her life in danger.

Michael E. Satrazemis directed the episode written by Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg.

Air date: 6/30/19

Read our review of "The End of Everything" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 6: The Little Prince

Facing impossible odds, Luciana and the group work together to tackle an impossible task while Morgan helps prevent disaster; an old friend presents Sarah, Charlie, and Strand with a solution.

Sharat Raju directed the episode written by Mallory Westfall.

Air date: 7/7/19

Read our review of "The Little Prince" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 7: Still Standing

Strand and Charlie seek safety; Dorie helps Dwight on his quest; Morgan stays focused on the greater mission; Alicia refuses to give up.

Marta Cunningham directed the episode written by Richard Naing.

Air date: 7/14/19

Read our review of "Still Standing" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 8: Is Anybody Out There?

Up against the clock, Morgan, Grace, and Alicia work to buy time; Dorie and Dwight race against the elements; Sarah and Wendell get help from an unexpected source.

Michael E. Satrazemis directed the episode written by Michael Alaimo.

Air date: 7/21/19

Read our review of "Is Anybody Out There?" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 9: Channel 4

The group, traveling in a convoy, doubles-down on their mission to help survivors; in an effort to encourage more survivors to reach out, Al, Luciana and Charlie document Morgan and the gang on a dangerous mission to help a reclusive survivor.

Dan Liu directed the episode written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Air date: 8/11/19

Read our review of "Channel 4" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 10: 210 Words Per Minute

Morgan and Grace search an abandoned shopping mall for supplies and to fulfill a dying man's wish but the mission quickly turns to a fight for survival; Dwight's resolve to be a better man is tested.

Ron Underwood directed the episode written by Ashley Cardif

Air date: 8/18/19

Read our review of "210 Words Per Minute" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 11: You're Still Here

As Alicia struggles to find her new role in the convoy, she's drawn to mysterious artwork. A simple scouting trip is derailed when she and Strand are thrust into a conflict between desperate survivors. Meanwhile, Morgan and Al hit a roadblock.

Andrew Bernstein directed the episode written by Mallory Westfall & Alex Delyle

Air date: 8/25/19

Read our review of "You're Still Here" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 12: Ner Tamid

In search of a permanent home for the convoy, Charlie is drawn to a synagogue where she encounters a rabbi surviving on his own; Sarah and Dwight face unexpected foes.

Michael E. Satrazemis directed the episode written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg

Air date: 9/1/19

Read our review of "Ner Tamid" here.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 13: Leave What You Don't

Logan's motives are revealed; Sarah, Dwight, and Luciana negotiate for the sake of the mission; Strand and Alicia race to the aid of a new survivor in a familiar place; a dangerous threat emerges.

Air date: 9/8/19

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 14: Today and Tomorrow

An encounter with a survivor sends Al and Morgan on a mission into a dangerous settlement; Al chases a lead while Morgan has an epiphany; Grace and Daniel make a connection.

Air date: 9/15/19

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 15: Channel 5

When Virginia makes a statement, Al responds in kind; facing dire circumstances, June leads the search for a new place to call home; with Grace's condition worsening, Morgan makes a tough call.

Air date: 9/22/19

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 16: End of the Line

Facing an unknown future, Morgan leads the group on a mission; Al puts the pieces together; John and June make a promise.

Air date: 9/29/19

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 News

Holly Curran is set to join Fear the Walking Dead for a recurring role in the second half of Season 5, according to Deadline. While no details were revealed about Curran’s character, she is coming off her most notable role yet, a TV run on Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Penny Pann. She previously appeared on Amazon’s Z: The Beginning of Everything, and fielded guest spots on Facebook series Same Same, NBC shows The Blacklist and Chicago Justice, CBS’s Bull and AMC’s TURN: Washington’s Spies. 

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Trailer

Here's the trailer for the second half of Fear the Walking Dead season 5:

Fear the Walking Dead 5 Cast

Colby Minifie (Dietland), Peter Jacobson (House), and Colby Hollman (Lost in Reality) are joining the cast of Fear the Walking Dead season 5 in its second half!

Related Article: Everything You Need to Know About The Walking Dead Season 10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Photos

AMC has provided some first look photos for Fear the Walking DeadSeason 5. Among them is another look at a familiar face to The Walking Dead...and a scarred, gross face at that.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9. 

This Preacher review contains spoilers.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 6

Preacher is a show that can be difficult to review, if only because in any given episode, a lot of things happen. Barring a bottle episode or an episode focused on a specific character, there's a lot of ground to cover. For example, in “The Lost Apostle,” every major character in Preacher is active and involved throughout the episode. Granted, some of the scenes are simple—Jesus, Hitler, and Starr are snacking and negotiating around a conference table—but it's still a subplot to potentially discuss, and figuring out what to talk about can be a daunting task.

So, focus will be drawn to the scenes in Preacher that echoed one of my all-time favorite movies, Mad Max. There's something about the scenes in which Tulip and Cas are speeding around the deserted roads of the Australian Outback that gave me very strong Mad Max vibes, and it had to be deliberate on the part of director Jonathan Watson. Certainly, it's not a Ford Falcon, but Tulip's beautiful 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle is more than an adequate stand-in for Max Rockatansky's 1973 Ford Falcon MFP Interceptor, owing to its 350 cubic inch V-8 engine (which is a match for the Falcon's 351 cubic inch Cleveland V-8). 

And Preacher's production crew clearly has a blast mirroring Mad Max. There are multiple shots, particularly tracking shots in which Tulip overtakes the camera car, that are exact matches for Mad Max, and the feel of the dingy Outback diner in which Tulip and Cas discuss their search for Jesse feels like something out of an Ozsplotation movie (that's mirrored by the carnage caused by the Saint).

Of all the pairings of characters on Preacher, and this episode is clearly divided into pairs, it's the pairing of Tulip and Cassidy that fares the best during the episode. Watching the two rampage across Melbourne is just a treat to behold, considering the characters lean very hard into the Ugly American stereotype. Tulip's response to not understanding the cops behind the desk at Melbourne's police station is to talk louder and slower; Cas's American accent—which is bad—slips repeatedly during the discussion the two have with Melbourne's police commissioner. 

further reading - Preacher: The Most Shocking Moments From the Comics

The two work as a comedy act, but when Gary Tieche's script turns more maudlin as Tulip discusses her. An otherwise simple scene involving Tulip watching while Cas reads her letter from Jesse is proof of how an actor can elevate an otherwise wordless scene with her performance. As Cassidy reads through the letter, Tulip is visibly troubled. She squirms, she fidgets, she looks out the window, and eventually she leaves the restaurant to go out and have a smoke, because she has no other way to expel the tension of watching Cassidy read something intensely personal and private that she herself isn't brave enough to read. 

Watching Ruth Negga's face as she transitions from determined to irritated to hopeless throughout that scene is revelatory; Negga has always been one of the stronger performers in the show (you don't get nominated for an Oscar if you're not pretty good at acting) but her skill is obvious in that little shared moment. Without saying anything of consequence, Negga reveals everything about Tulip. She's afraid for Jesse, she's angry at herself for screwing up their relationship, she's worried about just what Jesse has to say to her in that letter, and she's dreading that the letter isn't just a heads up about his plan to track down God but a Dear John letter after a lifetime of on again, off again with Jesse Custer. 

It's not that the other segments are bad; Eugene's disheartened but angry confession to Tulip works well, and Jesse and the Saint have a pretty amusing relationship with each other, though the joke becomes a bit strained by the end of the episode, but the Tulip section is the only one that carries a lot of emotional punch and it ends up in a pretty cool segment in which Tulip, Cas, and Jesse try and fail to avoid a trap set for them by none other than God himself. 

That begs a question. Can someone get out of a trap arranged for them by an all-knowing deity? Or is the process of trying to get out of a trap set by God part of God's plan? It's an interesting question, and one that I am certain Preacher will resolve, unless of course the surprise at the end of the episode plays out in the expected sort of way. I'm certain that it won't, not because of the fact that it's Preacher, but that it'd be a really difficult way to finish out a show in its last season. 

Keep up with Preacher Season 4 news and reviews here.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

God may pay for his crimes yet! Preacher Season 4 is here.

Production moves to Australia for season 4, per a TVLine report. The original comic series by Garth Enis remained set in the United States (and other various heavenly and hellish realms) for the duration of its run so it's unlikely that Preacher will go the Leftovers Season 3 route and actually be set in Australia. It's more likely that Australia has some nice tax credits and is versatile enough geographically to resemble parts of the United States.

read more: HBO's Chernobly is More Terrifying Than You Think

Here is everything we know about Preacher season 4.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 7 Trailer

Take a look at the trailer for the next episode of Preacher season 4 below.

Preacher Season 4 Episode Guide

Preacher Season 4 Episode 1: Masada 

Jesse is rocked by visions of an apocalyptic future as he and Tulip prepare for an all-out assault on Masada, where Cassidy -- trapped to a tortuous fate -- struggles to hang on.

air date: 8/4/19

read our review of "Masada" here.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 2: Last Supper

God maneuvers his chess pieces while Jesse searches for a mysterious rock formation that may signal the end of his journey.

air date: 8/4/19

read our review of "Last Supper" here.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 3: Deviant

In her headfirst attempt to rescue Cassidy, Tulip may have bitten off more than she can chew, and she must reckon with the most terrifying thing she can imagine: psychiatric care. As his hopes of escape fade, Cassidy reflects on decisions he made one hundred years ago. Meanwhile, the Saint of Killers is closing in on Jesse.

air date: 8/11/19

read our review of "Deviant" here.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 4: Search and Rescue

Tulip teams with Jesus Christ to plumb Masada's dungeons to free whatever remains of Cassidy. Meanwhile, Jesse's mission to Australia may be over before it's even started.

air date: 8/18/19

Preacher Season 4 Episode 5: Bleak City

Reunions all around as Tulip finally makes her way to Cassidy, and Eugene catches up with his Preacher - though this reunion might be cut short by the bloody fury of the Saint of Killers.

air date: 8/25/19

read our review of "Bleak City" here.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 6: The Lost Apostle

Starr is desperately searching for the messiah as the clock ticks down to apocalypse; Tulip and Cass assume fake identities to track Jesse, but the Saint of Killers has him on a short leash, leading him straight toward an explosive end.

air date: 9/1/19

read our review of "The Lost Apostle" here.

Preacher Season 4 Episode 7: Messiahs

Tulip and Cassidy tear across the world, hell-bent on making God pay for the latest bloody twist in His plan; an old friend presents Jesse with a unique opportunity that could change everything.

air date: 9/8/19

Preacher Season 4 Episode 8: Fear of the Lord

Cassidy and Tulip hide Humperdoo from the Grail, whose operatives are now searching both for their messiah -- and Starr; a tempted Jesse considers a powerful offer.

air date: 9/15/19

Preacher Season 4 Episode 9: Overture

Masada is abuzz as the Messiah has finally arrived; the heroes mount one last assault in a desperate attempt to thwart the end of the world, but God uses every trick in His omniscient arsenal to divide them; Eugene gets out of prison.

air date: 9/22/19

Preacher Season 4 Release Date

Preacher Season 4 is now officially set to premiere on AMC on August 4!

...The bad news? Season 4 will mark the end for the series, as co-creator/executive-producer Seth Rogen reveals in this apocalyptic tweet.

Preacher Season 4 Cast

Preacher Season 4 will have more use for its kind-of Messiah than in years' past. And that means an increase of role for one of the show's weirdest characters. Tyson Ritter has been upped to series regular to Preacher Season 4, according to Deadline. Ritter (who is also the frontman for band The All-American Rejects) plays Humperdoo, the tragically inbred descendant of Jesus Christ.

Preacher Season 4 Trailer

Finally! Here it is in all its profane glory. The Preacher season 4 trailer has arrived following the show's panel at SDCC 2019. Til the end of the world, friends. 

Here are some first looks at Preacher Season 4 courtesy of AMC. The first is titled "Jesus" and you'll see why in a minute.

Next up is "Nuke." The name is similarly self-explanatory.

Preacher Season 4 Photos

And here are some first look photos at PreacherSeason 4.

First up is the PreacherSeason 4 poster.

Now Jesse Custer, passing an important test.

Tulip looking pensieve.

Cassidy in his natural element.

Preacher Season 4 Details

“Preacher is a show unlike any other on television. A passionate base of fans found their way to Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy and have followed along with their adventures, at times indescribable adventures, for three seasons,” David Madden, president of programming for AMC Networks, said in a statement. “We are thankful to our partners at Sony and to Seth, Evan and Sam for everything they have brought to this series, which we are pleased to renew for a fourth season. Like the superfans of Preacher, we can’t wait to see where this journey leads next.”

AMC clearly loves its comic book adaptations and has all but declared that its flagship property, The Walking Dead, will last forever. Until now, Preacher hadn't been quite as lucky. Preacher Season 3's finale, "The Light Above," aired on August 26, 2018. It took until now for AMC to renew for Preacher Season 4. 

further reading: Preacher: Where the Saint of Killers' Journey Will Go 

Still, as AMC's statement suggests, it must have been hard to not want to keep working with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Sam Catlin, Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joseph Gilgun.

When Preacher Season 4 arrives there are still plenty of foes for Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy to confront. Angelville and the L'Angelles will be in the rearview but Herr Star and the Grail are still out there. As is The Saint of Killers, who is emboldened after killing Satan for funsies and his heading back to Earth to find Jesse with Eugene in tow. 

further reading: The Walking Dead: How to Fix Daryl Dixon

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

This Righteous Gemstones review contains spoilers.

The Righteous Gemstones Episode 3

At the beginning of The Righteous Gemstones’ “They Are Weak, But He Is Strong,” Baby Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins, in his second collaboration with Danny McBride) tell his much younger wife, “Aunt” Tiffany, that they’re about to enter a much larger world. The pair are preparing to leave behind the Freeman ancestral home, shamelessly converted to a museum to sell Aimee-Leigh’s legacy. That promise of a larger world from Baby Bill to Tiffany also doubles as a promise to the audience, as three episodes in, the scope of the Gemstone’s world and their cast of supporting characters continues to expand.

Casting Goggins as the fame and self-obsessed con-man preacher Baby Billy is a stroke of genius. From his white hair to his slow hobble, Goggins is able to evoke laughter without uttering a line. When he does get a chance to speak, Goggins imbues him with the same oddball Southern eccentricity he brought to his role in Vice Principals. Baby Billy is being brought back into the Gemstone fold to head up the Locust Grove church, which happens to sit in a shopping mall’s abandoned Sears. Despite the fact that Baby Billy and Eli don’t quite see eye to eye, Eli needs someone he can trust, and Baby Billy is a famous name to lead the new church in an area that already has so much competition. Baby Billy and Eli’s conflict-filled past is just another chapter in the Gemstone family history, which continues to sprawl outward. The world building done in the hour-long premiere was impressive enough, so it’s exciting that there’s still more of this world to flesh out.

read more: The Righteous Gemstones What Secrets Does Gideon Hold?

After Baby Billy’s first service, he senses that there’s something off about Eli, and Eli’s children explain how Eli has been sad and distant since Aimee-Leigh’s passing. After Eli and the family leave the mall, they find that someone has placed fliers on all of the cars in the parking lot detailing the Gemstone family’s past troubles and crimes. They immediately identify Johnny Seasons as the man behind the flyers, and Billy and Eli head to service at Seasons’ church to hash things out. Billy, a grown man that still calls himself “Baby” and refers to church-work as “the industry,” believes himself to be capable of relating to “the common man,” but when his brief interaction with Seasons starts to go South, Eli retaliates by throwing a church through a stained-glass window. That dust up then causes Eli and Billy to fight, with Eli attacking Billy’s character and Billy revealing what Eli’s children have been saying behind his back. In the end, Eli pushes too far, and Baby Billy quits in a huff.

Meanwhile, Jesse is both still bitter about Gideon running away and jealous about the attention that he’s receiving now that he’s returned home. Blustery with a bruised ego is McBride’s go-to move, but unlike his past characters, Jesse’s hurt seems deeper. Family clearly means a lot to Jesse and the fact that he’s having issues with Gideon and now Pontius is impacting him more than he’s let on. Gideon is playing the good son all while pricing out his family’s belongings on behalf of Scotty, but when Scotty makes it plain that he’s not interested in anything other than cash, Gideon shifts is strategy and tries to feign interest in learning the ins and outs of the church so he can get closer to all of the cash their evangelical empire makes. 

read more: The Righteous Gemstones - Jody Hill and David Gordon Green on New HBO Series

The episode’s best scene comes after a contentious family dinner, when Eli confronts is children about the things they’ve been saying about him. The Gemstone children just explain that they’re worried about their father and hate seeing him upset. The four of them quickly shift to making fun of Baby Billy, and laughing and enjoying each other’s company, they seem like a happy family. It’s the least cynical scene in any of McBride’s HBO comedies and proof that this show’s stealth heart could be its strong suit. The warm moment allows Eli to see that he should apologize to Baby Billy and he heads off for the mall.

Unbeknownst to Eli and Baby Billy, who’s cleaning out his belongings from the church, Johnny Seasons has also sent a posse to the Gemstone church to do a little vandalizing. Baby Billy gets noticed by the masked thugs and they move to attack him, but just in the nick of time, Eli arrives with a gun. He orders Seasons’ men to strip down naked and forces them to walk themselves out through the mall as a message to Johnny Seasons. After the pathetic nude men leave, Eli and Baby Billy share a hearty laugh and makeup. Once again, it’s refreshing to see the constant sniping and barbs stop for a moment and see these people act like a real family.

If the Righteous Gemstones has more aces up its sleeve like Baby Billy, then we could really be in for something special here. With the flashes of genuine heart and the extensive world-building, Gemstones is adding delicious layers to its twisty Fargo-esque crime story. McBride and his brain trust clearly know what they’re doing here, and I can’t wait for the Gemstones’ world to sprawl out even further.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Nick Harley is a tortured Cleveland sports fan, thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a killer Batman movie, Spider-Man should be a big-budget HBO series, and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson should direct a script written by one another. For more thoughts like these, read Nick's work here at Den of Geek or follow him on Twitter.

Wu-Tang is for the children. They're also for Hulu's new releases in September 2019. Hulu's originals next month will be highlighted by Wu-Tang: An American Saga (September 4), a stylized retelling of Staten Island's seminal rap superstars, the Wu-Tang Clan. Should be a fun time for all. On the opposite end of the fun spectrum (but no less important) will be the Hulu original documentary about Harvey Weinstein, Untouchable (September 2)

Hulu's only $5.99/month now, grab the deal here!

Beyond those two projects, September is a relatively chill month for Hulu in terms of new originals. Instead, the streaming giant will focus on adding to its already considerable movie library. September 1 sees the arrival of the Lethal Weapon, Matrix, and Ocean's Eleven franchises...and also the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's most unlikely trilogy with Unbreakable. 

This being the fall TV season as well, Hulu is going to be hosting the next-day streaming premieres of network hits like The Good Place, The Masked Singer, This is Us, and more. 

Farewell to summer, we hardly knew ye.

Hulu New Releases: September 2019

September 1

Chuggington: Complete Seasons 1-5 (Lionsgate)

27 Dresses (2008)

50 First Dates (2004)

A Dog and Pony Show (2018)

A Guy Thing (2003)

A.R.C.H.I.E 2: Mission Impawsible (2003)

After the Screaming Stops (2018)

Against the Wild 2 (2016)

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996)

The Amityville Horror (1979)

An Everlasting Piece (2000)

Banking on Bitcoin (2016)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Bigfoot Country (2012)

Blown Away (1993)

Breaking Away (1979)

The Chumscrubber (2005)

The Cokeville Miracle (2015)

The Cooler (2003)

The Dark Half (1993)

Demolition Man (2003)

Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995)

Disturbing Behavior (1998)

Doctor Dolittle (1998)

The Edge (1997)

Emma (1996)

Evil Dead (1981)

Evil Dead II (1987) 

Exposed (2016)

Failure to Launch (2006)

Far from Home (1989)

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

The First Monday in May (2016)

Firstborn (1984)

Flashback (1990)

From Mexico with Love (2009)

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

The Goonies (1985)

Heist (2015)

Hercules (1997)

High-Rise (2015)

I, Frankenstein (2013)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Jersey Girl (2004)

Juno (2007)

The Last Exorcism (2010)

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Liar, Liar (1997)

Lost in Space (1998)

Man on a Ledge (2012)

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Miami Vice (2006)

The Midnight Meat Train (2009)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Monsters at Large (2018)

Mr. Mom (1983)

The Object of Beauty (1991)

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)

Open Season (2006)

Open Season 2 (2009)

Open Season 3 (2011)

Open Season: Scared Silly (2016)

The Perfect Weapon (1991)

The Portrait if a Lady (1996)

Pinocchio (2018)

Playing it Cool (2014)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)

Ravenous (1999)

Red Dog: True Blue (2018)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Robo-Dog: Airborne (2017)

Sacred Ground (1983)

Saving Christmas (2017)

Secretary (2002)

She’s All That (1999)

Sliver (1993)

Sucker Punch (2008)

Suicide Kings (1998)

Top of the Food Chain (2000)

Training Day (2001)

Turtle Tale (2018)

Unbreakable (2000)

Universal Soldier (1992)

Wayne’s World 2 (1993)

Wild Card (2015)

September 2

Anthropoid (2016)

Matriarch (2018)

Untouchable: Documentary Premiere (Hulu Original)

September 3 

Bolden (2019)

We Die Young (2019) 

September 4

The Purge: Complete Season 1 (USA)

Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Series Premiere (Hulu Original)

Kicking and Screaming (1995) 

September 6

Into The Dark: Pure: Episode 12 Season Finale (Hulu Original)

September 9

Wise Man’s Grandchild: Complete Season 1 (DUBBED) (Funimation)

Hotel Mumbai (2019)

September 10

Curious George: A Royal Monkey (2019) 

September 14

Pocahontas (1995) 

September 16

The Powerpuff Girls: Complete Season 3B (Cartoon Network)

Curious George (2006)

September 17

Dancing with the Stars: Season 28 Premiere (ABC)

September 19

Aniara (2019)

Crypto (2019) 

September 20

Afterlost: Complete Season 1 (DUBBED) (Funimation) 

September 21

Dream Corp LLC.: Complete Season 2 (Adult Swim)

Robihachi: Complete Season 1 (DUBBED) (Funimation) 

September 24

9-1-1: Season 3 Premiere (FOX)

American Horror Story: Apocalypse: Complete Season 8 (FX)

Bluff City Law: Series Premiere (NBC)

Prodigal Son: Series Premiere (FOX)

The Good Doctor: Season 3 Premiere (ABC)

The Voice: Season 17 Premiere (NBC)

September 25

Black-ish: Season 6 Premiere (ABC)

Bless This Mess: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Emergence: Series Premiere (ABC)

Empire: Season 6 Premiere (FOX)

Mixed-ish: Series Premiere (ABC)

New Amsterdam: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)

The Conners: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

The Resident: Season 3 Premiere (FOX)

This Is Us: Season 4 Premiere (NBC)

September 26

Chicago Fire: Season 8 Premiere (NBC)

Chicago Med: Season 5 Premiere (NBC)

Chicago P.D.: Season 7 Premiere (NBC)

Modern Family: Season 11 Premiere (ABC)

Schooled: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Single Parents: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

South Park: Season 23 Premiere (Comedy Central)

Stumptown: Series Premiere (ABC)

The Goldbergs: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)

The Masked Singer: Season 2 Premiere (FOX)

September 27

A Million Little Things: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

Grey’s Anatomy: Season 16 Premiere (ABC)

How to Get Away With Murder: Season 6 Premiere (ABC)

Law & Order: SVU: Season 21 Premiere (NBC)

Perfect Harmony: Series Premiere (NBC)

Sunnyside: Series Premiere (NBC)

Superstore: Season 5 Premiere (NBC)

The Good Place: Season 4 Premiere (NBC) 

September 28

American Housewife: Season 4 Premiere (ABC)

Fresh Off the Boat: Season 6 Premiere (ABC)

Rango (2011)

September 30

American Dad!: Complete Season 13 (TBS)

America’s Funniest Home Videos: Season 30 Premiere (ABC)

Bless the Harts: Series Premiere (FOX)

Bob’s Burgers: Season 10 Premiere (FOX)

Family Guy: Season 10 Premiere (FOX)

Shark Tank: Season 11 Premiere (ABC)

The Rookie: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

The Simpsons: Season 31 Premiere (FOX)

Primal Fear (1996)

Leaving Hulu - September 30

September 30

A Little Princess (1995)

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

All Is Lost (2013)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Anger Management (2003)

Beacon Point (2017)

Brotherhood of Justice (1986)

Catacombs (2007)

Cats & Dogs (2001)

Body of Evidence (1993)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

End of a Gun (2016)

Endless Love (1981)

Eulogy (2004)

Feed (2017)

Good Luck Chuck (2007)

Hamlet (1990)

Home of the Brave (2006)

Julie & Julia (2009)

Man About Town (2006)

Man in the Moon (1991)

Married to the Mob (1988)

One Percent More Humid (2017)

Open Water (2004)

Open Water 2: Adrift (2006)

Operation Condor (1986)

Operation Condor II: The Armour of the Gods (1991)

Proof (2005)

Pumpkin (2002)

Quigley down Under (1990)

Racing with the Moon (1984)

Rushmore (1998)

Seven (1995)

Shanghai Surprise (1986)

Sling Blade (1996)

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Swimfan (2002)

Swingers (1996)

Traitor (2008)

Uptown Girls (2003)

Urban Cowboy (1980)

With a Friend like Harry (2000)

Women of Brewster Place (1989)

Editor's Note: This page is updated monthly. Bookmark it for the latest Hulu new releases!

Obscenely rich and richly obscene, the Roy family of HBO’s darkly comedic family drama Succession is back for Season 2, and more deplorable than ever. Why do we love watching awful people behave badly on television? If you encountered a family as awful as the Roys live in person, you’d be appalled by their sniping, vulgarity, and general lack of regard for anything other than their massive egos and bank accounts, but somehow this band of contemptable buffoons has us enthralled. It’s the guiltiest of TV pleasures, like bingeing on ortolan every Sunday night. After a failed coup, a Chappaquiddick-like incident, and an ill-advised marriage, the Roys enter Succession Season 2 more strained, yet dependent on one another to stave off the slings and arrows of their many powerful adversaries. Follow along with Den of Geek this season as we chart who’s leading the line of succession, determine who’s behaving the worst, and sing the praises of the series’ one pure soul, Cousin Greg.

This is the Keeping Up With the Roys for Succession Season 2 Episode 4, “Panic Room.”

Read our spoiler-free review of Succession Season 2 here

The Roys

Kendall Roy 

In “Safe Room,” a Waystar employee commits suicide, putting the whole office on lockdown. Somehow, this person is not Kendall. Though he’s able to act like a wooden facsimile of a human during he and his father’s meeting with Pierce CEO Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter), Kendall is still routinely going up to the Waystar building roof and staring at the ground below like a moth being drawn to a flame. In a heartbreakingly honest final scene with Shiv, Kendall basically spells it out that if he didn’t believe that his dad needed him to help clean up the mess that he made with Stewie and Sandy, he wouldn’t still be alive. Kendall is being kept so close to Logan that he’s now the one responsible for administering the man his meds. If I’m Logan, maybe I’m not going to put that kind of trust in someone that just tried to ruthlessly overthrow me and that I am now blackmailing, but Logan can see that he’s broken his boy beyond being capable of betrayal. In return for Kendall’s unwavering loyalty, Logan is covering up Kendall’s self-destructive drug use and shoplifting, as long as his Number One Boy is still useful on the business end of things. Still, despite his protestations that “it’s not going to be me,” it’s starting to look like Logan has Kendall back at the top of the heir list.

Siobhan Roy

At her first day in the office, Shiv is basically kept in the dark, stuck in Gerri’s office with “a coloring book” while Logan and Kendall make overtures at Rhea Jarrell. She’s not even allowed to hunker down in Logan’s office, because that spot is already occupied by Kendall. Hmm, certainly doesn’t seem to bode well. Shiv is only able to get in on the action once the lockdown forces her, Kendall, Logan, Rhea, and Gerri all into the same safe room. Shiv is able to use her wits to make Rhea see that maybe there’s a symbiotic relationship to be had between Waystar and Pierce, but she’s left to balk at Kendall and Logan’s sliding billion dollar offers, which stops at $24 billion, and is basically told to shush while the big kids are talking. When Rhea leaves saying that she’ll legitimately float the idea to the Pierce family, it’s Kendall that Logan thanks, not Shiv. She’s smart enough to see that something is obviously happening between Kendall and Logan, but Kendall doesn’t have the heart to tell her exactly why his dad has him in a vice.

Roman Roy

Attending a six-week management training with a bunch of “normies,” Roman is basically stuck in his version of hell. He’s eating bad pastries, hitting one of the Waystar parks in a turkey costume, and rubbing elbows with lowly corporate cogs under the assumed name Ron Rockstone. Roman’s perspective on business is so warped by his upbringing that he assumes that a simple pitch exercise is really just an elaborate set-up to make him seem dumb, like he actually needs any help in that department. He makes one friend, if you can call him that, and immediately Roman wants to shoot him up the corporate ladder. Goodie for that guy.

Stuck away from Tabitha, Roman tries out phone sex like a normal pleab, but can’t seem to get into it. It’s only until he makes his needy nightly call to Gerri that Roman is able to get the juices flowing. Roman gets off to Gerri shaming him, her saying, “You disgusting little pig. How pathetic. You are a revolting little worm, aren’t you. You little slime puppy. You’re revolting, Roman.” It’s not hard to see why a guy who, as a child, enjoyed being locked in a dog kennel gets off to a little humiliation. As someone who picked up on the weird sexual energy between Gerri and Roman early on, I feel vindicated.

Connor Roy

Connor and Willa attend Mo’s funeral, which Connor is thrilled about, as he knows many of his dad’s wealthy old pals will be in attendance. He has a real “donor boner” over it. When they arrive at the funeral, we learn that Mo’s real name was Lester. Mo-Lester. Yeah, yikes. Connor sums it up thusly, ““Just, you know, old Mr. Fiddlesticks. Uncle meathands. Dad wouldn’t let us in the pool with him. But you know, the guys of that generation, it was a different time.” Once biographer Michelle Pantsil arrives, Willa smartly worries about Connor giving a eulogy for such blatantly horrendous man. She knows it could hurt his campaign, and likely provide ammo for Michelle’s book, if Connor says anything resembling praise for Lester, so she chops up his speech so it reads like a second grader writing about death for the first time. At least it sounds like what a politician would say, because after all, Connor Roy was interested in politics at a very young age.

read more: Why Succession Deserves More Attention

Rounding Out the Family

Tom Wamsgans

Tom’s descent continues this week. First he’s given the unenviable task of determining whether a popular ATN anchor, Mark Ravenhead, is a fascist supporting white supremacist. The guy was married at Hitler’s Bavarian retreat, named his dog after Hilter’s, and has read Mein Kampf “a couple of times.” Considering that the Proud Boys and Antifa are duking out outside ATN studios, it’s pretty obvious that this guy is a real shit bird, but Logan doesn’t seem to want to let the guy go, so Tom has to conduct the investigation with kid gloves on. Next it gets worse for Tom, when in the midst of the lockdown, Greg tries to gingerly ask for his release as Tom’s lackey. It’s especially painful and a little too close to home when Greg asks if they can have a “business open relationship.” Tom freaks out, per creator Jesse Armstrong, as if his dog just asked if it could go live with the neighbor. He begins whipping water bottles at Greg. Later, after some light blackmail, Tom agrees to let Greg explore other options, but it’s clear that he just lost the cloest thing to a yes man that he has.

Cousin Greg

This Machiavellian, brilliant little fuck uses the evidence he stored from the cruise debacle last season to get out of his role at ATN. Tom seems so happy with Greg’s awkward, asking for permission version of blackmail that he’s like a dad watching his baby take their first steps. Greg has had enough of ATN, citing “ATN, human furniture, verbal assaults, physical humiliations, Nazi stuff, shooters. I just don’t love it.” Tom concedes, giving Greg a new role, office, and a raise. He’s not out of ATN, necessarily, but he isn’t fetching lattes anymore either. It’s a win. Our sweet boy also provides lots of laughs when he realizes that the “safe room” that he’s sharing with the other non-essential family members (aka Tom) isn’t exactly safe, and certainly vulnerable to “an attack child.” Greg is an absolute gift, folks.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Nick Harley is a tortured Cleveland sports fan, thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a killer Batman movie, Spider-Man should be a big-budget HBO series, and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson should direct a script written by one another. For more thoughts like these, read Nick's work here at Den of Geek or follow him on Twitter.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not the type of show that many people have lukewarm opinions about, thus any kind of ranking list is going to inspire some pretty fierce debate. Like any great work of art, Buffy operates on a lot of different levels, means different things to different people, and a decent argument can be made for various points of view on what its stronger and weaker elements are.

I start with this disclaimer because there will invariably be someone who won’t see their favorite episode anywhere on this list and will wonder why. Well, it’s partially because I’m human and thus subject to my own point of view and biases, and that’s going to inform whatever’s written here. That doesn’t mean this list was assembled haphazardly. I spent nearly a week paring it down to 25 episodes, and then rewatching each of them to determine their order.

By what criteria did I make these assessments?

First is narrative cohesion: Which episodes show a high level of quality in both concept and execution? Is the writing tight? How well does the story flow?

Second is memorability. Are there individual moments and one-liners that stand out and get quoted at parties by the kind of people that quote Buffy at parties? A great line or moment isn’t enough, mind you, to get an episode on the list or affect its ranking, but enough of them in one place certainly counts for something.

Third is uniqueness, how these episodes stand out from the crowd. How are they different? What elevates them above the rest?

Last would be emotional resonance. How strong an emotional response did the episode in question evoke?

Watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Complete Series on Amazon

Before proceeding with the proper list, here are a few Honorable Mentions that almost made the cut but didn’t quite.

CHOSEN (Season 7, Episode 22)

As far as series finales go, “Chosen” is not the best. Its beats were rushed, the defeat of The First made absolutely no sense, and the less said about the unceremonious dispatching of Anya after keeping her around a whole season past her expiration date, the better. That said, it had some really cool moments.

Buffy’s final coda with Angel, the Scoobies’ echoing the final scene from “The Harvest,” the completion of Willow’s healing and spiritual journey, and Spike’s sacrifice—deus ex machina as it was—inspired some seriously strong feels. Most of all, though, it ended the show in the best possible way by having a woman break the limitations on the Slayer line, limitations placed on it by a patriarchal system, so that both the power and the responsibility of the Slayer could be shared with all girls who held the potential. Talk about female empowerment!

CONVERSATIONS WITH DEAD PEOPLE (Season 7, Episode 7)

Aside from being a rather interesting look at Buffy's psychology, this episode features Holden “Webs” Webster, one of the best one-shot characters not just in this show, but any show. Jonathan Woodward’s performance is a tour de force of comedy and latent menace that is just as fresh on the tenth viewing as the first, and not enough compliments can be given to it or him.

Also of note is the final speech delivered by Jonathan (the real Jonathan, not the First as Jonathan), which shows just what a sweet if misguided character he was. It’s a testament to his empathy as a person and just what a contribution he made to this ensemble over the years. A lot of characters on Buffy die suddenly and violently, but few get the honor of a final bow like this one.

ANGEL (Season 1, Episode 7)

While not a particularly strong episode next to many of the other classics, “Angel” deserves plenty of respect for setting in motion a lot of elements that would factor heavily into the rest of the series. It’s the episode where the show really found its voice and the standard to which the rest of the first season was held, so credit where credit is due.

And now, gentle readers, without any further ado, the Top 25 Best Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

25. SELFLESS (Season 7, Episode 5)

We finally get to see how Anya first became a vengeance demon and how that choice shaped her past and present. We see where she started and how far she’s come, not just from her origins in Scandinavia, but from where we met her in the series. The Anya of Season 3 would never have been self-aware or compassionate enough to make any of the choices she does here, and it’s evidence of her growth. It was a serious gut punch when Halfrek was killed and it reminded us that, despite his disarming affability and charm, D’Hoffryn is one cold, evil motherfucker.

read more: The Pros and Cons of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot

Lastly, aside from another grace note or two later in the season, this marked the resolution to Anya and Xander’s break-up. Anya finally owns her flaws, takes accountability for her choices. The teary vulnerability of her question, “What if I’m really nobody?” make this episode a must-see. As does, of course, a flashback to the musical episode, complete with a brand new song. Win.

24. ENEMIES (Season 3, Episode 17)

While I often find the trickster archetype grating for a number of reasons (which, to be fair, is more my issue than anything), I can’t deny that it is really fun and satisfying when the good guys get sneaky and take a break from playing fair and acting honorably to, well, be more effective. And it works.

read more: The Sailor Moon/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Connection

How do you improve upon an episode that’s all about Faith playing the Scoobies? Reveal that they were playing her the whole damn time. Aside from drama of exposing Faith, you have the whole “how deep undercover is too deep” thing going on with Angel, topped off with the revelation of Buffy and Giles’ cunning and the true drawing of battle lines. Outstanding work.

23. PROPHECY GIRL (Season 1, Episode 12)

It’ll come as a shock to some people that this episode falls so far down the list, and I can see why. It has a lot going for it. It’s superbly written, directed, and acted. It managed to fulfill the prophecy of Buffy’s death while still subverting it with the use of CPR, and it sets up some key elements like the activation of a second Slayer that would play out over the course of the series.

Its problem comes in its rewatch value.

Much of the episode’s impact derives from the tension of not knowing where it’s going or how Buffy and the others will possibly make it out of this one. Once you know how it ends, it’s still a solid episode, but a lot of the air goes out of that balloon.

read more: Memorable Improvised Moments on Scripted TV

The Anointed One, despite being built up for most of the season and technically fulfilling his function, doesn’t really do much to justify his existence or the importance placed on him by the narrative, and Buffy’s final fight with the Master is not particularly memorable. It ends with a great finishing blow, but it’s over in the blink of a eye and feels like a rather disappointing end to a character to whom so much importance was assigned.

While plenty of episodes are about the journey and contain memorable moments that can be enjoyed over and over again despite knowledge of the outcome, “Prophecy Girl” doesn’t really feature any. This story’s purchase is really found in its first telling, and after that it loses a lot of its luster. Still, a classic’s a classic.

22. SCHOOL HARD (Season 2, Episode 3)

There is just so much good about this episode. It made the list based on the flawless introduction of Spike and Dru alone, but it also boasts some incredibly well-timed comedy—“Mice who were smoking?”; “Cordelia. Have some lemonade.”—not to mention that Joyce gets to go all mama bear on Spike’s ass with a fucking axe. Not too shabby, show. Not too shabby.

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I could gush in further detail, but that would mean commenting on nearly every scene in this gem, and y’all get the point.

21. HELPLESS (Season 3, Episode 12)

There’s something really interesting about taking a major aspect of a character away to see how they define themselves without it. For Buffy, that’s her powers. Now that her identity as the Slayer has rooted itself in nearly every aspect of her life, who is she without it? Giles’ identity is also challenged when he is fired by the Council for interfering in the Cruciamentum on Buffy’s behalf. Who and what will he be now that such a defining aspect of his character has been stripped away?

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As if all that weren’t enough, we get the introduction of the arrogant douchebaggery of Watchers Council and the open acknowledgement that Giles has essentially become Buffy’s father figure and loves her as such. His entire life is pulled out from under him, and the first thing he does is take care of her. Now that is love.

20. LOVERS WALK (Season 3, Episode 8)

The true value of this episode is in all the little things. Spike’s pathetic lamenting throughout the episode is both so relatable in its generalities and absurd in its specifics that it stands out as some of the best comedy in the show’s entire run. “She didn’t even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. I mean, is that too much to ask? Some little sign that she cared?”

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Joyce making Spike a cup of cocoa and lending him a sympathetic ear continued the thread of one of the most enjoyable relationships in the series, and Spike’s “love’s bitch” speech has become a favorite amongst die-hard romantics. That little speech also set up one of the cardinal rules regarding Spike: Give the devil his due. The guy may be a soulless, murderous agent of chaos, but he also tends to have a very good point.

19. BAND CANDY (Season 3, Episode 6)

After hearing about what Giles was like as a teenager, we finally get to see ol’ Ripper in action when some tainted chocolate bars cause the adults of Sunnydale to mentally revert to their teenage selves. Buffy and company get a very memorable lesson in being careful what you wish for when they realize that their parents thinking more like them is a lot better in theory than in practice.

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Seeing teenage Joyce and Snyder was also a treat, because it confirmed everything we’ve suspected about what an annoying little shit Snyder must have been in high school, and the little button at the end revealing that Joyce and Giles had sex gets a laugh every time.

18. CONSEQUENCES (Season 3, Episode 15)

Do the same rules that apply to ordinary people apply to Faith and Buffy? While the narrative seems to come down pretty heavily in favor of Buffy’s answer—yes—it never summarily dismisses Faith’s point of view and the questions she poses about the moral nature of the Slayer. Does all the good done earn you the occasional get-out-of-jail-free card? When looking at the big picture, is the occasional casualty of war really worth removing the Slayer from the front line?

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This episode also serves as the bridge between harmless bad girl Faith and murderous villain Faith. Her descent occurs gradually over the course of this episode, and her turn to the dark side wouldn’t have been quite as convincing if some time hadn’t been spent showing her wrestling with her feelings underneath her cool, devil may care façade.

17. WHO ARE YOU? (Season 4, Episode 16)

Seeing Buffy acting out in such a way is something we wouldn’t buy from the character under normal circumstances, but with Faith in the driver’s seat, we get to have our cake and eat it too. Watching Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku portraying each other’s characters is a real trip, because they generally do a really good job of recreating each other’s mannerisms, but when they miss the mark, holy SHIT do they look ridiculous! Like, in the scene where Buffy (as Faith) shows up to Giles’ apartment and does this sort of hair sweep with her pinky that is clearly supposed to be some kind of atypical-for-Faith indication that it’s Buffy in there… what the hell was that? I have never seen Buffy do that, much less often enough for it to be some kind of tell.

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All in all though, it’s a fun episode, not just for those of us who enjoy a good body-switch caper, but in terms of delving further into Faith, who she is, and what she can be. We see her first fumbling steps toward redemption and the re-emergence of her humanity made evident with the three uses of three simple words: “Because it’s wrong.”

16. EARSHOT (Season 3, Episode 18)

“Earshot” is as close to Agatha Christie as Buffy ever gets, boasting not just one, but two twist endings, first with the revelation that Jonathan is in the tower with a gun, and again when it’s revealed that his intention is to kill himself and that the attempted murderer is someone else entirely.

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Buffy’s monologue about how every kid at Sunnydale High is in pain is probably the series’ clearest articulation of one of the overarching themes of the first three seasons—that when it comes to adolescent torture, we are all both victims and culprits, whether or not we intend to be or even realize it. Danny Strong’s performance here is just another example of how he’s the unsung hero of this cast. When Buffy tells him she could have taken the rifle from him at any time, his simple “I know” is so understated and heartbreaking, conveying so many different things. Bravo.

15. THE GIFT (Season 5, Episode 22)

Right from the teaser, which perfectly encapsulates the series’ original premise, this episode is a winner. Willow’s restoration of Tara relieved us, Xander’s proposal to Anya bewildered us, and Giles’ quiet, practical, dare I say altruistic murder of Ben unnerved us. However you might have felt about Spike falling in love with Buffy, seeing him utterly destroyed by her death made you feel for him, if only for a moment. And Buffy’s epitaph was so touching and perfect that it still gives me goosebumps every time I see it, especially with Christophe Beck’s transcendent score lilting in the background.

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The only reason “The Gift” is so far down this list is because of how greatly its impact is lessened by the absence of build-up and context. Season 5, while possessing an incredible arc, does not play as strongly on an episode-by-episode basis. Very few of the episodes stand out as particularly memorable on their own merits; their greatest value is in their contribution to the overarching plot they buttress.

Quite simply, I have never known anyone in the mood for a quick Buffy fix to whip out “The Gift” for a spontaneous good time. It’s an amazing and moving finale, but it doesn’t stand very well on its own without any lead-in, and for that reason it sits here at #15.

14. THE ZEPPO (Season 3, Episode 13)

Over the years I’ve made no secret of my disdain for Xander. He has some great moments, I’ll admit, but for every “yellow crayon” speech we’re treated to, we’ve got to wade through endless cheap shots, selfish tantrums, and appalling “Nice Guy” behavior from a self-righteous hypocrite whose delicate pride and petty bullshit not only annoy but regularly endanger the people around him.

So, why would the most Xander-centric of Xander-centric episodes make this list, much less rate so highly on it?

Well, because personal feelings aside, it’s a really great episode. This is partially due to its masterful application of an atypical point of view, the same gimmick that makes “Lower Decks” such a fan favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but mainly it’s because “The Zeppo” is Xander at his best. He’s funny, brave, and relatable. He proves that his contribution to the fight against evil, while not as obvious as that of a Slayer’s strength, a Watcher’s wisdom, or a witch’s magic, is no less substantial given an opportunity to shine.

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Mostly, though, it’s because he ends the episode on a note of legitimate maturity. When Cordelia tries to belittle him and push his buttons, he doesn’t rise to the bait. He doesn’t need to insult her back or even prove how wrong she is. He knows the truth, and that’s enough for him. I get the feeling that this is Xander as Whedon conceived of him, the character we’re constantly told he is as opposed to the one his actions generally reveal him to be.

13. THE WISH (Season 3, Episode 9)

Arguably the greatest “what if” vignette since It’s a Wonderful Life. Xander and Willow as a sexy vampire couple evoking a Spike and Drusilla vibe? I'm sure it's no coincidence. Oz as Giles’ protégé in the fight against evil? And a physically and emotionally scarred Buffy who is harder and colder? Not only are these alternate versions of the characters at once striking and poetic, but their deaths resonate on a deeply metaphorical level.

If you haven’t before, take note of who kills whom and how they do it. The subtler stroke of brilliance in this episode is how differently the two jilted lovers react to being cheated on. While Cordelia lashes out and fixates on nursing her wounded pride, Oz doesn’t find things so cut and dry. He doesn’t dismiss the possibility of forgiveness, and ego doesn’t factor into his response at any point. In the same breath he uses to validate Willow’s own heartbreak and regret, he reinforces his own boundaries, stating kindly but firmly that it’s not his responsibility in this scenario to take care of her.

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If it were possible to offer an example of how to cope with being cheated on, I don’t think you could find a classier, more mature example. As for the one set by Cordelia, what better way to illustrate that while taking care of oneself is important, lashing out as a response to being hurt never ends well?

12. DOPPELGANGLAND (Season 3, Episode 16)

I ask you, what is better than an episode depicting a sadistic, insane, depraved vampire version of Willow? An episode that puts her front and center.

This one is just plain fun. The mistaken identity, the inevitable meeting of the two Willows, Willow undercover as her vampire self, and of course, the foreshadowing that Willow is “kinda gay.”

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Aside from just being a jolly romp just this side of a French farce, this episode is a keen exploration of Willow’s character, how she perceives herself, how others perceive her, and her perception of how others perceive her. Her disparaging commentary on herself while impersonating Vampire Willow is very telling.

And shall we praise Alyson Hannigan’s acting here? Watching her play Willow, then Vampire Willow, then Willow impersonating Vampire Willow… it’s just delicious.

11. NEW MOON RISING (Season 4, Episode 19)

While perhaps not the most obvious choice for this list, “New Moon Rising” deserves props for its insanely high rewatch value. The concluding chapter in what the Buffy writers refer to as “The Oz Trilogy” features the final appearance of Oz (at least in waking life) and the full resolution of his character arc. Both he and Willow get closure on their relationship while each dealing in very different ways with the reality of Tara. In the end, Oz handles things with his trademark maturity, but in the moment even the chillest guy in the Buffyverse isn’t immune to his primal instincts and emotions, especially when it comes to Willow.

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This is also the episode that featured Willow’s coming out scene, possibly the best coming out scene I’ve ever watched. It was so organic and truthful. Buffy is thrown, which is to be expected, but sets it aside to bring the focus back to Willow and what she’s going through, affirming their friendship. On that front, I kind of love how Oz wasn’t angered or even taken aback by the fact that Willow was involved with a woman, but that she was involved with anyone. It was a subtle but incredibly in-character touch.

While not the most plotty entry in the Buffy canon, it’s a smartly written, emotionally charged episode and a worthy send-off for Oz that hits home on every viewing.

10. INNOCENCE (Season 2, Episode 14)

This was the episode that broke our hearts. Whether it was seeing Angel turn from the noble, suffering hero we’d come to know and love into the cruelest, most vicious bastard we’d ever seen, whether it was seeing Jenny devastated by the reality of what she’d done or Willow crushed by the revelation that Xander would “rather be with someone you hate than be with me,” this episode just hurt. And it hurts so good.

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Angelus, at least when written well, is an amazing villain. The level of pure joy he takes in his evil, the “song in his heart,” is just gloriously depraved, and it elevates him above someone like the Master with his religious convictions or even Spike and Drusilla, who act impulsively at the mercy of their passions. No, Angelus exults in physical and psychological torment, even more so of those close to him. He is, in every context, a complete monster.

While having sex with Buffy triggering his change could have been problematic, Whedon sidesteps this entirely by having Giles, the primary patriarchal figure in Buffy’s life, not only refrain from shaming her for her sexuality but declare his support and respect for her, affirming that she did nothing wrong. A world of yes.

9. PASSION (Season 2, Episode 17)

If “Innocence” was the episode where we learned firsthand how much pleasure Angelus took in destroying people, “Passion” was where we learned just how much of an artist he was about it. From the ecstasy he reached in snapping Jenny’s neck to the sheer artistry he displayed in leaving her in Giles' bed for him to find, candles flickering gently and La Bohème swelling in the background, to the deliberate intrusion of telling Joyce he and Buffy had made love… the effectiveness of both his cruelty and what it wrought was truly the work of a master.

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This episode also marked the first time a popular recurring character in the Buffyverse kicked the bucket. Jenny’s death took the show into a whole new zone for the audience as well as the characters, and cemented Buffy’s conviction that Angelus would have to die as soon as possible. And the dramatic irony of that floppy disk sliding off the desk and out of view in the episode’s final moments gave us a despairing, tragic pain every bit as exquisite as anything Angelus himself could have dealt out.

Damn you, Whedon.

8. WILD AT HEART (Season 4, Episode 6)

This episode does something that the series tends on the whole to do very well, have a character take a step outside themselves to really examine all the angles, both logistic and philosophical, to their situation. Oz is finally confronted with a completely different take on lycanthropy and what it means to live with it. Here Veruca occupies the same role that Faith did in “Consequences.” Whether or not you agree with her conclusions, all of her questions are worth asking.

This episode also burns in our memories because it’s one that few of us saw coming. We all knew Oz was building toward something major, but leaving the show because of it—and so abruptly—completely blindsided us. Sure, it was due to some behind-the-scenes renegotiations and wasn’t purely inspired from an artistic standpoint, but who cares? The ultimate result was perfection. Like Willow, we couldn’t believe it was happening, and we kept hoping against all hope that Oz would stop the van and walk back through that door, and he didn’t.

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Whedon has said that there are very specific reasons behind when he chooses to fade out at the bottom of an episode, rather than the standard cut to black. I’ve always suspected that a fade out signifies the end of an era, the closing of a door, and in this instance, it was to say that Oz was leaving and it was for real.

7. FOOL FOR LOVE (Season 5, Episode 7)

Mythology episodes are almost always a treat. Seeing how Spike started as some simpering, foppish romantic, then grow into a vicious, brutal killer as layer after layer of his identity gets laid on, then finally realizing that underneath all the bleach and leather and blood, he’s still the same guy… it’s truly brilliant. James Marsters takes us on such a journey, and if that weren’t enough, we get to see two Slayers, both of whom are fucking badasses that I immediately wanted to know more about. Spike’s final monologue to Buffy is so, so good, and touches on themes that will play out over the rest of the season.

Aside from being a fun (probably the most fun) Spike episode in the entire run of the series, as well as a solid building block of Season 5, “Fool For Love” gave us more insight into the psychology of the Slayer in one episode than we’d gotten in the entire series up to that point. It is a true masterpiece as a character study, as mythology, and as just plain fun.

6. HUSH (Season 4, Episode 10)

Do I even need to say why this episode is amazing? It makes it onto every single Top 10 list of this kind, and for good reason. A deliberate exercise by Whedon in writing and direction, there is no dialogue for about 3/4 of the episode, forcing the actors to rely entirely on their physicality to convey all their thoughts and emotions. This of course was built upon the theme that language is so specific and so limiting that it gets in our way, and that it’s only once we stop talking that we start communicating.

The performances were top notch, the humor was on point (we all know which scene I’m referencing), the music and atmosphere were bone-chilling, and the Gentlemen themselves were so creepy and unsettling in how civilized their malice was that they inspired more than a few people’s nightmares. Throw in Buffy and Riley’s mutual identity reveal and the first appearance of Tara and all the Sapphic subtext she brought with her, and it’s no mystery why this episode is universally considered one of the best.

5. RESTLESS (Season 4, Episode 22)

This oddly low-key season finale is a grace note that really delves into the character’s psychologies, taking a look back at where they started, where they are, and where they’re going. Foreshadowing abounds in this episode, and events or qualities alluded to here resonate throughout the rest of the series. Everything from a mention of Dawn to Joyce’s death to Anya’s return to the vengeance fold to Riley’s departure to Spike’s redemption… I mean, there’s just too much to even list. Fifteen years in, and I’m still picking up on new levels of meaning with every viewing.

As a character study, the piece is flawless, most notably with Willow’s own perception of herself and her subconscious belief that all of her character development to that point is a lie, a disguise, artifice to hide that she’s really still an insecure nerd underneath it all. It’s truly brilliant. This episode also marks the first appearance of Sineya A.K.A. the Primitive or First Slayer, a character that was explored more fully in the Buffy comics.

But even beyond all that, this episode is a work of art on account of its presentation alone. Countless films and TV shows have attempted to depict the surrealism of the dreamscape, but none (with the possible exception of Twin Peaks, which gets a brief shout-out in Willow’s segment) has done it so successfully. The way the locations and scenarios drift into one another almost seamlessly, how imagery and behavior that would ordinarily seem out of place is just accepted as a given, the lighting, the music, it’s just art. There’s no other word for it.

4. ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING (Season 6, Episode 7)

There is a not small portion of the fandom that would rank this episode at #1, and it’s easy to see why. The plot is solid, the musical numbers are well-written and fun, and the episode manages to forward the storyline of nearly every character (as per usual, Dawn gets the shaft).

“Once More, With Feeling” wasn’t the first attempt by a TV series at a musical episode, but it is by far the most successful. And before anyone mentions Glee, that is a whole other story and you know it. In terms of a one-shot episode of a show that otherwise does not employ musical numbers as part of its premise, this one is the undisputed champion.

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You don’t have to be versed in musical theater tropes to enjoy the hell out of it, but if you are, it is sublime on a whole other level. Each number represents a different genre of musical theater. “Going Through the Motions” is a standard Disney “I want” song. “I’ll Never Tell” is reminiscent of the kitschy fun of mid-20th Century screwball comedies (with the deliberately shitty high school choreography to match). Then, of course, there’s “Rest in Peace” and “Standing,” which pay homage to modern rock operas like Tommy and Rent.

It’s is simply mind-boggling not only how many moving parts went into making this episode work, but how well the finished product does. It’s crazy, it’s daring, it’s fun, and it holds up as both a viewing experience and an iPod playlist.

3. THE BODY (Season 5, Episode 16)

Never have I seen such a visceral and on point exploration of the initial shock that precedes the full emotional release of grief. The way that Buffy just stumbles in a daze through the first few hours of life without her mom, too in shock to deal… the way Dawn sees some stupid junior high crap as life or death until she’s confronted with a true matter of life and death… the coming undone of Xander and Willow, for whom Joyce was the warm, nurturing presence in light of parents that had so utterly failed them … and poor Anya, who had cast off her mortality before she ever had to face it finally coming to understand what it means and what it does, asking the others simple questions of a lost child.

Emma Caulfield not even getting nominated for an Emmy for Anya’s breakdown is just a crime. Even Giles is shaken. And then there’s Tara, the unexpected voice of comfort, who’s been through all this. She and Buffy aren’t very close and don’t have much in common, but now something bonds them that the others simply cannot understand, not completely.

There’s an odd air of violation in this episode, the way that Buffy’s world is completely crumbling beneath her feet and yet for the rest of the world it’s just another day. Life goes on. Children play. Parking attendants leave tickets. The world keeps on turning in a way that seems almost vulgar. Joss Whedon gets a lot of shit for killing off characters, often accused of gratuitous deaths, but this was one that, despite how much it hurt—and I felt this loss more deeply than any other Buffyverse character—felt completely justified, because it was handled so damn well.

2. GRADUATION DAY, PARTS 1 & 2 (Season 3, Episodes 21 & 22)

“Graduation Day” is simply a feast. It is a fitting, impeccably paced, and brilliantly written finale to what is arguably the most even and well-crafted season of the show. Every character finds a moment to shine, and every subplot contributes to the main story. Aside from the main plot, which features a lot of work on Xander’s part, thanks to his brief stint as a soldier during “Halloween,” we find him chatting up Cordelia, with whom he reconciled during “The Prom.” They’re not heading back toward dating again—that ship has sailed—but they are notably friendlier than they ever were before they hooked up, showing us that there is no returning to the status quo. These kids are different from who they were before. They’ve grown, apart perhaps, but growth is growth. Xander also brings Anya into the equation, and thus her firsthand account of what an ascension actually looks like, information upon which much of the story is predicated.

Willow and Oz end up having their first time together in a rather impromptu but no less welcome fashion. Their contribution to the finale is far more emotional than plotty, but given how pivotal Willow was in the previous season finale, giving Xander a chance to really shine this time seems only fair. Giles blows up the school himself, starting with his beloved library. As for our titular vampire slayer… well, where to begin?

There’s the final break with Angel, the rush to save his life, the to-the-death fight with Faith in order to do it. And while the fight with Faith was enormously fun, well choreographed, and certainly more emotionally charged than Buffy’s showdown with the Mayor-as-giant-demon-snake, the most poignant moment, and the one that kills me softly every time, is Buffy and Faith’s coda inside the dream.

It’s ironic that in order for them to find peace with one another, Faith had to end up in a coma. Everything about that scene—the dialogue, the bizarre imagery (a possible dry-run for “Restless?"), Christophe Beck’s simultaneously haunting and Zen score, even the first vague reference to Dawn—is just perfect and beautiful, and subtly underlines the quiet tragedy of Faith’s story. Even after everything that’s happened, Buffy’s compassion moves her to forgive Faith, even if it’s too late.

“Graduation Day” was a turning point for the series in so many ways. It was a transition from high school to college, from being one show two shows, and from Angel being Buffy’s one true love to the that mythic ex against whom all future boyfriends will be compared. Some much beloved characters (Larry) died, others (Harmony) were vamped, and yet others (Cordelia) walked away, never to be seen on Buffy again. And, of course, they blew up the school. And in the purest, most harmless desire to watch that hellish institution disappear, who among us hasn’t dreamed of that?

So, what could possibly top an episode where Angel drinks from Buffy, where the entire graduating class of Sunnydale High unites to claim victory over high school, and the school itself is blow to high hell?

1. BECOMING, PARTS 1 & 2 (Season 2, Episodes 21 & 22)

Of all the Buffy finales, this one was the most heartbreaking, even more so than “The Gift,” because sad as it was, we all knew Buffy was coming back to life. We had no such guarantees about Angel, at least until the nightly news that aired immediately after, which mentioned the prospect of a spin-off featuring him. But as we were watching the episode, all we knew was that Buffy had just killed Angel—not Angelus, but a freshly re-ensouled Angel—in order to save the world, and it destroyed her so profoundly that she left town. It was by far and away the most emotionally resonant big bad fight. I’d say the fight with Faith comes close in terms of emotional weight, but Faith was that season’s Dragon, not the Big Bad.

In addition to the most climactic and tragic lovers’ spat of all time, This episode featured the torture of Giles, the sadistic (on both Angelus’ part and Whedon’s) first appearance of Jenny since her brutal murder, the death of Kendra, the first alliance of Buffy and Spike, Joyce learning that Buffy is the Slayer, and lest we forget… Willow’s first spell, the first step in a journey that would define her character for the remainder of the series. This episode had twists and turns, romantic drama, family drama, humor, grief, heartbreak, foreshadowing for the season to come, and just when you thought Buffy squaring off in a sword duel with the demon wearing her dead boyfriend’s face was the worst it was going to get… Willow’s spell works and Angel’s soul is restored. Buffy gets Angel back, and she still has to kill him.

And then… Sarah McLachlan. I was done, people, and I still am, 17 years later. Sweet. Fucking. God. This was amazing and in my book the all-time greatest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now, I’m sure many are wondering, even those who agree, how “Becoming” made it to the top of the list when “The Body” was my favorite. The reason “The Body” or any of the other stand-out, artsy episodes of Buffy wouldn’t make it to #1 is simple. The #1 episode of any show should fully embody the spirit and tone of that show. It shouldn’t be a typical episode, because then by definition it wouldn’t be special. Rather, it should be the ultimate form, if you will, of a typical episode.

Now, the artsy episodes like “The Body,” “Restless,” and, yes, “Once More, With Feeling” are—and I can’t emphasize this enough—FUCKING INCREDIBLE. But if someone who knew absolutely nothing of Buffy asked you to recommend an episode that really encapsulated what the show was like and what it was about, an episode that successfully embodied the general tone, themes, and presentation, the same qualities that make those episodes so freakin’ amazing preclude them from ever being that recommendation.

“Graduation Day” and “Becoming” are truly Buffy at its best, so why did one win out over the other? Well, there are a few reasons.

One sounds pretty shallow, but does count for something. Angelus is a vampire. Now, it’s true that the series opened up the premise of the Slayer to fighting all demons and creatures of darkness, but the show ain’t called Buffy the Monster Slayer. Vampires are the default. When all else fails, vampires are there as the constant underlying threat. It’s where the premise began. Thus, an elevated vampire like the Master or Angelus will always be closer to that premise and thus more resonant. They also align with the gothic feel of the early seasons, 1 & 2 especially.

Then there’s the fact that with Angelus, the emotional stakes were far higher. The Mayor was a great villain, but his emotional ties and Buffy’s were with Faith, not with each other. Buffy wasn’t conflicted, damaged, or tested by fighting the Mayor the way she was when she fought Angelus.

“Becoming” is Buffy in its purest form: A girl fighting a vampire as she endures heartbreak. Nothing boils the premise down quite so well. This two-parter enchants you, seduces you, then rips your heart out and dares you to keep on going. It is gothic horror/romance and astute metaphor in equal measure, and it is sublime as both.

Both episodes are satisfying meals, but they’re different kinds of meals. “Graduation Day” is a hearty shepherd’s pie, delicious and nutritious. It’s got meat, potatoes, gravy, even a little veg. It’s filling, satisfying, it hits all the right notes, and you can pound that goodness with gusto; it’s comfort food you can share with the group.

“Becoming” is a cheese board with fine wine. You’ve got a modest variety of savory flavors: cheese, meats, maybe even some grapes. It’s a sparer meal, to be sure, but no less nutritious and satisfying. And paired with a nice Cabernet or Riesling, it’s a delight shared in more intimate company and stands as an example of just how much artistry can go into the simple joys. True, it may be an acquired taste for some, not as guaranteed a crowd pleaser, but it’s definitely better for your heart.

This article first ran on October 16, 2015.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

This Steven Universe review contains spoilers.

It’s perhaps best to start with what Steven Universe: The Movie isn’t, since that’s what many will be focusing on. 

The end of Steven Universe season 5 was largely well received but certain aspects left some fans cold. The biggest sticking point was how the Diamonds were treated. The series painted them as fascist conquerors of the universe yet Steven just talked about love and now everyone is cool with them??? It all felt pretty rushed and there was some hope this movie would address that and give the Diamonds the consequences they deserved. 

Steven Universe: The Movieonly lightly touches on this and mostly focuses, as the series did, on the main characters emotional journeys. Some lip service is paid to the Diamonds changing their ways but for some it won’t be enough. As someone who had those same complaints about the Diamonds at the end of last season, I get it. 

However, over the past few months I’ve come to realize that holding the Diamonds accountable for their actions wasn’t the point of the show. Steven wasn’t going to turn his back on them nor decide they needed to be destroyed. He was going to extend his hand out in friendship and love once they stopped hurting others because that’s who Steven is.

That’s frustrating for some who have spent a lot of time thinking about the wider universe of the show but as this movie reminds us, the emotional arcs were always the most important things to it. Where these characters emotional journeys took them was far more important than space politics.

read more: The Essential Steven Universe Episodes

Thankfully there is some mention of what’s happened with the Diamonds during the time skip. Their colonies were all freed and, even if they’re not perfect, the Diamonds have changed. Steven has chosen to forgiven them but crucially, it’s not a blanket feeling. It’s not as if we see Garnet being really stoked about the idea of hanging out with the Diamonds. Enough time has passed we can reasonably assume the Diamonds had to answer for their actions in some ways, and that’s enough for me. Plus, even Steven wasn’t feeling the idea of the Diamonds hanging out on Earth. He doesn’t love them unconditionally.

The ultimate resolution of Spinel’s plot ties into all this as well and is arguably better handled than the Diamonds redemption. While Steven is more than willing to forgive her, Spinel realizes she has to work at friendship. She already messed up with Steven and decides it be better if she found someone new to be around, someone she can have a clean slate with.

I can’t understate how effective this is and how it’s a great subtle lesson. Sometimes when looking for forgiveness in others, we want things to go back to the way they were. We want everything to be normal… but when you hurt someone reconciliation might not always be possible. Sometimes the consequences of hurting someone are that, even if you have their forgiveness, they won’t be in your life any more. By coming to that realization almost immediately, Spinel has taken her first step down the path of recovery. Maybe it’s rooted in her being alone for so long but it’s a great first step for someone who, mere moments before, was about to murder the crap out of Steven.

Let’s back up. As I discussed in our spoiler-free review of the film, this feels like a coda to the entire series (even if it might not be the end.) It gives us what could very well be the last word on these characters arcs and it’s reminding us just how far they’ve come. The narrative drive of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl forgetting who they are may seem like an easy way to catch new viewers up on their stories but it’s so much more.

read more: Steven Universe: The Evolution of 'Love Like You'

It finally lets us see what all of them were like before Steven or Rose were in their lives. We’d seen how other Pearl’s acted but we never got a good idea of just what our Pearl was like in her base state. We didn’t know what Amethyst was like right when she left the Kindergarten. We had seen Garnet's backstoryso she appropriately gets the least amount of focus in her amnesiac state. Still, I loved the absolutely gorgeous sequence of her fusing into Garnet for the first time so that made it all worth it.

By doing this we’re reminded of all the challenges overcome. All the personal hardships they’ve worked through to become the well-rounded characters we know and love. Even Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth get to joke about how they all used to want to kill Steven. 

However the crux of this film, as seen through Steven, is what happens when you’ve seemingly solved all your issues? What happens when all the external problems fall away? What happens when you think you’ve solved all your issues? At first, Steven believes it’s happily ever after. He’ll never have to worry about anything ever again, which is of course the exact moment when everything is threatened.

If you want to look at this cynically, it could be read as a message that you’ll never be happy for very long. That no matter what peace you find it’ll always be broken. That isn’t it at all.

What we saw at the end of Steven Universeseason 5 was what a normal series finale looks like. The main conflicts are wrapped up and everyone is happy… but life doesn’t work that way. There is no magical moment when everything is solved and you get to go home and never worry or have problems again. Life goes on. New problems will arise. Your old issues will come back to the fore.

read more: The Best Steven Universe Songs

That happens literally for Steven, as he notes that he’s basically getting a greatest hits version of every bad thing he’s had to face. Something trying to destroy the planet, having to deal with issues his mom caused, etc. But the moment he’s able to overpower Spinel is the moment when he accepts that and says, “I’ll always have more work to do.” 

That is another incredibly well done lesson that sounds so simple but is perhaps the most important one the series has ever done. You never stop learning. You never stop facing adversity. So what do you do? You learn to adapt. Grow. Change.

As long as you can do that, you’ll be okay. The most dangerous thing you can do is being static. Unmoving. Stuck in your ways. Blaming others. Hurting them instead of working on yourself. This is of course what happens with Spinel and it makes perfect sense. Pink Diamond/Rose hurt her and the moment she realized what had happened she flipped out. She went with her anger and Steven was able to understand that and try to help.

At first Spinel seems to be on the path of recovery but her trauma rears its head after she stops the drill for the first time. Not everything is so easily solved and, in perhaps a meta moment for the series, she declares, “just singing a song doesn’t work.” She looks to anyone else to help her change but in an exchange that brilliantly sums up the lesson of the film? 

“You can’t change the way I feel!”

“That’s right, only you can!”

It’s on you. No one else. Just like Steven had to deal with the feelings about his mom. Just like Pearl had to get over Rose. Just like Lapis had to work with her trauma. This is a tough realization for Spinel, who believes that, “when I change, I change for the worst.”

read more: Steven Universe and Parental Realationships

It makes perfect sense for a victim of trauma. That no matter what you do you’ll never get better and only get worse. It’s an easy out to want to just forget it all. Spinel could have done that and had a happily ever after… But there’s no such thing. Forgetting what you went through isn’t possible. You have to face it head on, as all the main characters did in the movie. It may have hurt but in the long run it’s for the better.

Being able to change is more powerful than anything else in the universe. Right alongside that is having belief that others can change as well. That’s what makes Steven the most powerful Crystal Gem. Not because of his raw strength or weapons. It’s because he believes in others.

Love is the answer and change is where you start to find it. That’s the show and this movie. As long as you’re willing to love and change? That’s what matters. You also don’t have to be perfect because, lest us forget, if all pork chops were perfect we wouldn’t have hot dogs.

You’ll face hard things in the future but you can change to deal with them. You have the power, especially with the people you love at your side. Love and change. The most powerful combo and a fusion we could all use in our lives.

Steven Universe: The Movie is a triumph. It may not be what fans expected. It doesn’t continue the plotline of the series but instead devotes its time to the emotions of the characters. I adore that decision. It would have been so easy to have a giant space war or fill it with galactic politics but with this film we now can be sure that wasn’t what it was all about. It was about Steven and the other Crystal’s Gem’s journeys.

I applaud Rebecca Sugar and everyone involved in this film for sticking to that. For having a vision and seeing it through. For doing it with such gorgeous art and music. For the actors bringing their A game and delivering the best performances of the franchise.

Who knows if this is the end of Steven Universe, but if it is? This was the perfect way to end it. It reminded me of everything I love about the show and pulled all of its emotional arcs into clear focus.

Thank you, Rebecca Sugar and everyone who had a hand in making this. You’ve made a piece of art that not only will stand the test of time but will truly help make the world a better place.

Keep up with all Steven Universe season 6 news here!

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!

This The Terror review contains spoilers.

The Terror Season 2 Episode 4

The Terror: Infamy finally starts to come together as a horror show in "The Weak Are Meat," a grotesque episode that sees several characters fall victim to the yurei haunting Chester Nakayama and the rest of the Terminal Islanders. While the horror continues to lean a bit too much on the gore factor, the episode also ups the supernatural element that has been missing from the series since its second season began. 

The first three episodes focused heavily (and rightfully so) on the internment camps themselves, showing the length to which people will go when they're overtaken by fear. The Terror needed space to develop that story with respect, and adding too much shlocky horror to the proceedings would have cheapened the exploration of this dark moment in American history. When the creepy Yuko did pop up here and there, it felt more like a cameo that didn't quite connect with the rest of the show, a dissonnance between the supernatural and the historical, as if the show were just checking off the mandatory horror boxes.

With "The Weak Are Meat,"The Terror allows itself to be more of a horror show again (in a conventional sense, anyway), from the mass grave Chester has to dig through for clues as to the whereabouts of the missing sergeant to the yurei-possessed doctor performing seppuku in the final minutes of the episode. The mix of horror tropes, such as the slasher bit where Yuko is wearing that creepy mask and walking slowly towards the doctor, really land here, giving us true moments of...well, terror.  

Kiki Sukezane is brilliant in her dual role as Luz's midwife and the vengeful tormentor exacting revenge on those who wronged her. I'm still a bit confused about the nature of Yuko's hauntings and the show has been content with throwing terms like "obake" and "bakemono" around without fully fleshing out exactly what they mean. Chester asks questions about yurei but doesn't receive a straight answer either, and he, like the audience, is left to find out for himself. 

We know Yuko can possess people and is slowly decaying, taking on a monstrous appearance by the end of the episode, her face heavily scarred, bald patches of gray flesh where her hair used to be. Were Chester and Luz's babies somehow powering her, allowing her to assume her youthful look? That would add a bit more context to the mystery of why she killed Mrs. Furuya, the woman who made the potion that would have killed the babies at the very start of the season. Either way, Yuko needed Chester and Luz's babies for an unknown reason and is eager to punish the doctor when they're both stillborn. 

Cristina Rodlo has really nailed it as Luz so far, and she absolutely killed the two best scenes of the episode: winning over Chester's dad with the name "Enrique" and watching as her dream of having a family and her "own little acre" died on the delivery table. It's been a delight watching Rodlo take on a more starring role as the season progresses, even as her character learns of an entirely new level of suffering. 

Meanwhile, Chester is somehow spared from a very gruesome death, as a possessed (?) Sgt. Kessler lights a group of his own men on fire. Again, the rules of Yuko's hauntings are unclear here. We've watched some of the older characters, particularly George Takei's Yamato-san, speculate about how spirits could have followed the Terminal Islanders from Japan to California, and I guess that must mean that Yuko is able to be in two places at once as the war rages in the Pacific Theater while the Nakayamas live out their unjust imprisonment back in the States. 

Unlike the racist white men who attacked him in spite of his role in saving their sergeant, Chester isn't meat yet, but he'll soon find out that he's lost something much worse than his life as the show gains a bit of momentum. Almost midway through the season, The Terror: Infamy finally begins to find its rhythm.

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9 and make sure to check him out on Twitch.

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

Stores may have been proclaiming "Back to School!" since late July, but with September upon us, it really is time for children, teachers, students, lecturers, parent-teacher associations, and anyone else associated with education to go back to school. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of films and TV episodes to watch to get you into an autumnal mood.

There are literally thousands of films and TV episodes about school, and we could only fit a fraction of them in this list. In order to narrow it down, we’ve stuck to fun films or episodes that aren’t too depressing to make you feel good about the new academic year. We’re aware that this rules out a lot of brilliant and classic shows and films, including anything focusing on forbidden romance (no Veronica Mars "Mars vs Mars"), shooting tragedies (no Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s "Earshot"), or other tragic deaths (no Dead Poets’ Society). It’s a long slog through the academic year from September, and at this point in time, we want to feel good about it!

We’ve also aimed to choose films or episodes that include at least some plot developments relating to academic aspects of school or university and are not primarily concerned with relationships, purely social activities or sports, though they might be part of the story (so no Fresh Meat, Mean Girls, or Friday Night Lights). Finally, we’ve tried to pick a selection that covers different types of educational institutions from across the UK and US – and of course, in the end, we’ve picked our favorites. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!

Community – "Beginners’ Pottery" 

Educational institution: Community college

Classes today: Beginners’ Pottery and Introduction to Sailing

Teachers: Professor Holly and Professor Slaughter

Star student: Rich

Learning objectives: Learn to work as a team, and recognize your own limits.

Grade: A relatively early episode of Community, this focuses on Jeff’s second attempt to find a "blow-off class" that will get him an easy grade. Between "Goldbum-ing" and trying to avoid "Ghost-ing," it’s a crash course in early Community meta-humour. Meanwhile, Pierce, Troy, and Shirley learn to sail without water, as you do. There were several episodes of Community, especially in the first season, that focused on actual academic classes of one kind or another rather than social activities – this is one of the funniest. A

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Educational institution: Selective boarding school in the UK

Class today: Potions

Teacher: Severus Snape 

Star student: Unexpectedly, Harry Potter 

Learning objectives: Improve your potion-making and try to avoid getting murdered.

Grade: The sixth Harry Potter film is the one that really feels like a film set in a school, albeit an unusual one. Sub-plots revolve around the main characters’ romantic problems and feelings for their fellow students, and a major extra-curricular project Harry carries out with the Headmaster. More importantly for this list, one of the film’s most significant plotlines revolves around a mysterious old textbook that helps Harry perform better in Potions class. Granted, there is some major tragedy here that probably should have disqualified it, but despite that it’s also the funniest Harry Potter film for much of its runtime, and the last one to allow us to spend time in Hogwarts before the disruption of the two volumes of Deathly Hallows. Just stop watching before the end! A

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – "School Hard"

Educational institution: High School

Class today: Parents’ Evening

Teacher: Principal Snyder 

Star student: Anyone who isn’t Buffy Summers

Learning objectives: Get through Parents’ Evening without being expelled.

Grade:This is a fan favorite early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as it’s the introduction of beloved Billy Idol wannabe vampire Spike and his goth girlfriend Drusilla. If you’ve never seen Buffy before it’s a great introduction, as it’s basically Die Hard in a school, with vampires.

read more: The Best Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes

The educational content revolves around Buffy’s desperate attempts to keep her mother and her headteacher apart and avoid being expelled or grounded, and safe to say she ends up finding an unusual way to impress her mother in the end. A 

The Simpsons – "Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Badasssss Song"

Educational institution: Elementary school

Class today: Show-and-tell

Teacher: Principal Seymour Skinner

Star student: Eventually, Bart Simpson

Learning objectives: Understand the need for discipline in elementary school settings.

Grade: It’s easy to forget these days just how brilliant the first ten years or so of The Simpsons really were. The relationship between Bart and his long-suffering educators, Principal Skinner and Ms Krabappel, was the source of some great half hours as all three tended to find they could respect each other as human beings despite Bart’s tendency to make relatively mild mischief. In this half hour, Bart realises that a school run with no discipline doesn’t really work, while Skinner reconnects with his younger, more rebellious self. A+

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air – "The Ethnic Tip"

Educational institution: Private boys’ high school

Class today: Black History

Teacher: Professor Vivian Banks 

Star student: Will Smith

Learning objectives: Explore the depth and complexity of black history in the US, beyond one autobiography and a T-shirt.

read more: The Evolution of Degrassi Opening Themes 

Grade: There’s no denying this episode has a clear agenda and a whiff of the "Very Special Episode" about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun instalment in this classic sitcom. Any half hour featuring young, funny Will Smith is going to be a fun half hour, and some agendas are worth pushing. Aunt Viv also represents a very realistic portrayal of a university professor, though her insistence on giving extra work to poor Will and Carlton is somewhat questionable – it’s arguably even more important to educate her privileged white students about black history, since they’re less likely to be familiar with it in the first place. B

School of Rock

Educational institution: Private mixed prep school in the US

Class today: Music

Teacher: Dewey Finn, a.k.a. Mr S 

Star student: They’re all stars. 

Learning objectives: Learn to be self-confident, stick it to The Man, and play awesome rock music.

read more: Rock n' Roll High School vs. Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park

Grade: Dead Poets’ Society was ruled out for being too depressing, but if you want a healthy dose of inspirational teaching, School Of Rock should do the trick. Maverick substitute teacher Dewey Finn is the perfect role for Jack Black, combining his comedic skills, musical skills and sheer likeability into the perfect package, and none of the kids are too cloying or irritating. There are a lot of films and TV-shows in the "inspirational teacher" sub-genre, but this one is the most fun by far. A+

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Educational institution: New York City high school

Class today: Academic decathlon

Teacher: Mr Harrington, who is somehow repeatedly given permission to take students on field trips despite facing disaster on every single one. 

Learning objectives: Persevere with academic extracurricular activities alongside your own personal hobbies, without getting murdered.

Grade: We’ve had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Spider-Man movies over the last 20 years, including three origin stories, five different Peter Parkers and six different Spiderpeople. Into the Spider-Verse and Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie both featured a fair amount of high school drama, but it’s the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man films that have really embraced a dual identity as superhero-slash-high-school movies.

read more - Complete Guide to Marvel and MCU Easter Eggs in Spider-Man: Homecoming

Peter Parker’s challenges in Spider-Man: Homecoming don’t just relate to his love life, but also to his attempts to maintain a normal schooling alongside fighting crime in the neighbourhood, and the eventful field trip to Washington, D.C. is one of the highlights of the movie. A

Legally Blonde

Educational institution: Harvard Law School 

Class today: Criminal law

Teachers: Professor Callahan and Professor Stromwell

Star student: Elle Woods 

Learning objectives: Stand up for yourself, and think outside the box in order to win your case for your client 

Grade: Like another classic chick flick, Dirty Dancing, Legally Blonde has a lot more going on that appears on the pink and glittery surface. When Elle Woods goes to Harvard Law School, she faces snobbery, elitism, sexism and sexual harassment, but with some encouragement, she finds a way to use her own particular talents and interests to become the valedictorian of her class and stand up for herself. If that’s not inspirational, we don’t know what is. A+

St Trinian’s

Educational institution: Private girls’ high school in the UK

Classes today: PE, and an extra-curricular quiz challenge.

Teacher: Headmistress Miss Camilla Fritton

Star student: Head girl Kelly Jones

Learning objectives: How to carry out effective school fundraising activities by selling moonshine, stealing priceless paintings and running telephone sex lines. Also, how to intimidate the opposing sports team into submission.

Grade: St Trinian’s is a fun, irreverent and distinctly politically incorrect place in all its incarnations, whether comic strip, black and white movies, or the more recent films. The 2007 movie is a blast of fun, a fantasy of school the way we wish it could have been. After all, who hasn’t dreamed about beating up a rival sports team or running a black market business out of the school outbuildings? B 

The Inbetweeners – "The Field Trip"

Educational institution: Comprehensive high school in the UK 

Classes today: Geography and Sociology (field trip)

Teacher: Mr. Gilbert

Star student: New girl Lauren Harris is far too normal for this lot and leaves again immediately. 

Learning objectives: Ask volunteers to complete a series of survey questions, also having sex with one of them if possible.

Grade: The Inbetweeners is crude, silly, and hilarious. This first episode of series 2 eases us into a new school year with some classic field trip hi-jinks, including an authentically dilapidated youth hostel accommodation and a long, boring coach trip. There are some scenes that may feel somewhat uncomfortable for some as one joke is taken rather too far, but that does tend to be in the nature of schlock comedy, and Simon’s watery mishap is quite something. B

Degrassihas been running in Canada since 1979, and in that time it has had a lot of different opening themes. I mean a lot. Have you seen those compilations on YouTube? They run upwards of fifteen minutes! You can put that thing on loop for hours and have some solid jams.

Even if we haven't had any new Degrassisince Degrassi: Next Class on Netflix, a friend of mine and I were comparing the new opening sequence to the older ones and it became a two hour conversation. What does each opening say about the series? What is it trying to convey? Is it effective? I know this is a lot of thought to put into a Canadian teen drama, but the thing has been on for over 35 years!  This is a franchise on the level of Star Trek. Oh yeah, I went there. Why not pick it apart and really get into the nitty gritty?

Just so you all know, I’m not going to cover all the “special” openings for one off specials. I’m also not going to cover the Degrassi Talks opening, as much as it might be my favorite thing ever. Seriously, Degrassi Talks is so legit and that opening is my new inspirational jam. Where’s my 2019 remix?

The Kids of Degrassi Street

AKA Murder on Degrassi Street

Let me let you all in on a little secret. I’ve never seen The Kids of Degrassi Street. I know! I’m not a true Degrassi fan.

But come on, these aren’t even in continuity with the main series (and since I just talked about continuity in relation to a teen drama you know I’m THAT kind of fan). Still, I was kind of excited to see the opening. Maybe it would blow my expectations out of the water. After all, an opening theme should get you excited about a show. It should make you want to stick around for half an hour. It should tell you everything you need to know (so basically, screw you modern TV openings).

So… is Kids of Degrassi Street about the rapture? With all the images of abandoned playgrounds you’d think so. That giant group shot could easily be a missing persons photo.  

read more: 10 Great Back to School Movies and TV Episodes

What is this show about? Is it about all those kids? Who are they? Yeah, I know The Kids of Degrassi Street was more of an anthology but come on. Do something funky! Something more representative of childhood then images that look like they came out of a slasher movie.

If I turned this on I would have no reason to stick around. It looks boring! Ugh, so many kids. I am never going to learn all of their names. Okay, that isn’t fair to say for a show that was shot on a budget of five dollars but you get my point. This is not something that gets an audience hyped for a show. Plus the length. What was I just saying? Ten seconds is not enough to get an audience interested in your show.

Degrassi Junior High

AKA Pure '80s Cheese

In case you weren’t aware, I’m 24. I only bring this up because I’m probably the only Degrassi Junior High fan under the age of 30 on the planet. This opening should be the antithesis of cool to me.

Ugh, what a cheesy song. It’s so after school special! Ugh, this is for babies! What is that font? What are these clothes? This is so dated!

I love it.

It perfectly nails the tone of the show. What it lacks in polished visuals it more than makes up for with a catchy song. A song that invites you into this world. A song that lets you know these random 80s-riffic kids are about to face some hard times, but friendship will get them through it all.

If it stopped there, it’d be fun but not really all that noteworthy. But it’s the last set of lyrics that speak to me.

Everybody can succeed all you need is to believe, be honest with yourself, forget your fears and doubts, come on give us a try at Degrassi Junior High.

This is my jam! It’s inspirational! I’d totally put this on my workout playlist.

It’s where the song shifts from talking about what’s going to happen at Degrassi and focuses on you. Come on, you can do it. This show will give you all the tools you need. Come on; sit down with us for half an hour so we can show you why getting pregnant in middle school is a SUPER drag. For a show that’s all about slice of life and dealing with big problems, it’s perfect.

So what about the visuals? Well, all the kids are alive, so we’re already miles ahead of The Kids of Degrassi Street.

The big problem here is that the shots tell you next to nothing about the characters. Oh sure, they seem like they’re energetic and adorable but we’re going to be following all of these kids? The opening needs to be a little cheat sheet to all of them. Give us a little clue to their personality. Here we’ve just got some random smiling and a set of twins that are ALWAYS in the same shot together. Seriously, do they ever get to do their own thing?

read more: The Best Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes

And yeah, the show is now being shot for ten dollars but it unexpectedly works really well. The low budget of Degrassimakes the school and the characters feel real. This looks it could be in your school! This could be your life!

Degrassi High

AKA Why The Butt?

While on the surface this is just an updated version of the Junior High theme, there’s a little more going on here. The visuals are more amped up. Bigger things are happening! Bullying, unwanted kissing, car accidents, fights, interracial romance, and those twins looking pretty damn concerned. All the characters are growing up and their problems are getting bigger!

The lyrics are still just as inspirational but they kinda suck now. I mean, they had to change the whole song just to make the rhyme at the end work.

Everybody can succeed, in yourself, you must believe, give it a try at Degrassi High.

It just sounds awkward. The whole flow is off. But let’s get to the real issue here. The second biggest reason why I wanted to write this article (the first is because of the new opening theme, SPOILER).

The opening ends with the logo coming out of a trophy because uh… Degrassi is a winner? Sure, okay, but then we zoom in to a super tight close up on a girls butt and the logo gets all huge.

read more: Rock n' Roll High School vs. Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park

To this day I struggle to understand the decision here. Is it because jeans are cool? Butts are a thing in high school? Are they trying to sexualize this girl? Is it a commentary on how dudes are always checking out girls butts? Whatever the reason, it comes off pretty pointless and hella creepy. This is a teenage girl’s butt we’re looking at. We don’t need this. But hey, I guess the butt was such a hallmark of the series they felt the need to bring it back.

Degrassi: The Next Generation Seasons 1-2

AKA Degrassi is Back and So is The Butt 

Right off the bat this opening is letting you know that THIS AIN’T THE '80s ANYMORE. Check out this dope computer! (How much you wanna bet Emma totally owns Quake III on that thing?)

We’ve got e-mail! 21^st century, YEAH! Thankfully, we aren’t totally obsessed with the new century. Besides JT’s totally not dated flame shirt. Pour one out for JT’s flame shirt. And JT.

We’ve got a pretty neat (albeit faked) tracking shot that follows some magical e-mail that flies around the school akin to the butterfly in the Reading Rainbow opening. We see shots of our entire main cast. We finally know who we’re supposed to care about. No more random shots, this whole sequence was specifically created to get you into this world. While some of the shots are more effective than others (Manny’s doesn’t say much, Paige’s says EVERYTHING) it’s still engaging. It’s different. They’ve got a real budget now. It looks better than Degrassiever has.

read more: The 27 Meanest High School Girls in the Movies

It sounds better, too. While I love the Degrassi Junior High theme, its age shows. This one is more timeless. The instrumentals have changed but these base lyrics have pretty much stayed with the show to this day. You can see why. The song is an anthem not only to the characters but the audience as well and it says it all with the first line.

Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through.

That’s it. It’s the perfect message for a teen drama that claims to put its characters through “real life situations.” While the opening doesn’t reflect all the struggles these kids will go through, it doesn’t need to. It gives you just enough to bring you in. We don’t need to see Manny getting an abortion (although how ballsy would that be to put in an opening sequence?). These are our friends and we want to root for them. You want to go on this journey right by their sides.

You also wonder why this chorus of kids is practicing in the same room as the basketball team and are way chill about it.

You ALSO wonder why that creepy butt shot is at the end. Oh yeah, cause it’s “iconic.”

Look guys, I know this is called “The Next Generation” but don’t you remember how awful it was when early Star Trek: The Next Generation tried to harken back to the TOSdays? Yeah, it blew. "The Naked Now" sucked (this is for all five of you who are Star Trek AND Degrassi fans). Forge a new path for yourself. Having Snake in the opening is totally fine and adorable. The Butt Shot was not. Let it die.

Side note, never listen to the full theme. Rap interludes are a no.

Degrassi: The Next Generation Seasons 3-5

AKA SO MANY OLD PEOPLE

Oh thank god, the Butt Shot is gone. If it had stuck around for another season we would be in serious danger of it becoming “the thing we have to do or the fans will get mad.” Can you imagine fifteen seasons of Butt Shots? We’re thankfully spared this and get the Back Shot. Zooming in on a kids back is about five billion times less creepy and I applaud the abandonment of the Butt Shot. Let it never be seen again.

What we haven’t abandoned is the reliance on Degrassi’s past. Look, I’m a big fan of the old characters. To this day I will yell at my buddy Ashley that I want more references to the classic series. But the opening theme is the wrong place to put them.

This opening is supposed to sell kids on your show. You know what kids don’t want? Five adults in your opening. One or two is fine. Snake is always welcome.

But when you’ve got four chilling at a picnic table at the school? No. This is not their show anymore. Even if they do show up in the episodes, do not take this opening away from the kids. They are and should always be the focal point.

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The way they focus on the kids is the strongest part, actually. We get a nifty framing device where Ellie is filming everyone and we see them either reacting to the camera or just going about their regular activities. This opening doesn’t just invite you into Degrassi, it puts you there. You are in the halls of Degrassi amongst its students.

It does the same thing the last opening did in giving you little snippets of these characters and they’re again a mixed bag. Manny’s is bland. Spinner’s is great. Hazel’s would be bad except it actually sums up her entire purpose on the show, to support other characters. We’ve got so many people now it’s a little hard to give everyone a real chance to shine. It’s a shame that’s the case, but you can’t make the thing three minutes long.

Degrassi: The Next Generation Seasons 6-7

AKA The Ones From The Seasons Nobody Liked 

As the show struggled to find a direction, so did its opening theme. I praised the last theme for inviting the viewer into Degrassi. Being a part of it. This opening puts you at arms length. What am I watching? A generic soap opera? Where did the lyrics go? What is this?

I’m not going to say this is the worst Degrassi theme (The Kids of Degrassi Street, amirite?) but it doesn’t say anything about the show. I guess I do like the inclusion of clips from the episodes but you can barely see what’s going on. You’d need a wiki to figure this all out.

No surprise, fans hated this opening. It even got a mention on one of the Degrassi commentaries. It was hated that badly. I get what they were going for. They thought the little kids chorus was too immature and didn’t mesh well with the more serious episodes of the show.

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I agree on the part of the little kid’s chorus. For the first three seasons I’d say it was fine but as the kids got older the song needed to change with them. The visuals were just fine, though.

This is just an example of Degrassi trying to rebrand itself through its opening theme. This was a failure. The next time this happens it’ll be a different story.

But hey, at least most of the adults are gone except for Snake and Spike. Oh Spike, you did nothing in these later seasons.

Degrassi: The Next Generation Seasons 8-9

AKA ZOMG Skateboarding

After the backlash, they returned to form with another “camera following everyone” opening. The big problem here is that a bunch of the characters don’t even go to Degrassi anymore. They’ve got to shoehorn a reason for them to even be in the opening. Oh yeah guys, I totally bring my new hot college boyfriend to my old high school for funsies!

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The shots do communicate a lot about the characters, more so then previous years. I mean really, the Holly J shot when she slides into frame? Flawless. I mean it isn’t subtle, but it works. This isn’t high art. They save that for the artsy promos. Remember the Shark in the Water promo? I’d kind of love an opening on that level, but this works perfectly fine.

Oh yeah, they also switched singers between the seasons. Season 8’s Damhnait Doyle is pretty bad. It sounds a little too country? Season 9’s is far better. Studz for life! Plus it introduces my boy Declan. Declan the Vampire for life!

Degrassi Seasons 10-10.5

AKA The Best One

So the openings are all fairly similar at this point but I’m going to go on record and say 10.5 is my favorite. At least of the “camera following everyone” years.

The background extras are on point. Look at that dude reacting to the skateboarder. He’s losing his mind! Those shots of Clare and Eli are perfect! OTP! The energy here is really good, the cuts are all fantastic. Adam’s stoic walk down the hall is the closest thing we’ve had to subtle in any of these openings. Alli gets the Back Shot! But let’s talk about the greatest shot in all of Degrassi history. The cheerleader shot.

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It’s flawless. The way the claps are timed perfectly to the song. The hands in the air. The smiles on everyone’s faces! I love it! Degrassihas yet to top this shot.

Oh yeah, they also stopped playing around and dropped the “Next Generation” subtitle and it’s just “Degrassi” now. Good, the show has been on for ten seasons now. They’ve firmly stepped out of the shadow of the original series.

Degrassi Seasons 11-12

AKA ZOMG PARKOUR!

So we’ve got the “camera following everyone” style without the actual camera. It kind of defeats the purpose behind it, but it’s still effective so I’ll let it go.

There are some differences between seasons 11 and 12 but they’re all basically the same minus a few cast members. That one shot with the four hockey players is a bit much, I can barely figure out who’s who!

The most important addition is the change in the ending, especially season 12’s. We’ve still got the Back Shot, but this time it isn’t just one person. It’s Clare surprising Alli, laughing to the camera, and walking toward the school as the logo comes out of Clare’s back. While it communicates Clare and Alli’s friendship, it also represents how friendship is such a key part of the show. By placing it as the stinger on the opening, it really sells how important it is. I love it.

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Season 11 had Drew smoldering at you before the Back Shot. Really? That’s who you want? Okay, if you’re a 15 year old who likes boys, probably. Clare and Alli is the better choice. It’s fun and inviting, not trying to get you into bed. Yeah Drew, I know your games. (Just kidding, love you Drew!)

The song has now switched back to a female singer and it perfectly reflects how much the show has shifted to a  female driven series. It was subtle over the years but the more recent seasons have put the girls in the spotlight and having a female lead singer is perfect for that.

Degrassi Seasons 13-14

AKA ZOMG Nooooooooo

Guys, no. No. No. No. Do not go back to the length of The Kids of Degrassi Street. Do not fall into the trap of modern openings being super short. You can’t get into the song! The opening is supposed to take me into the world of Degrassi. This is just a very short highlight reel that is too impossibly vague for me to get a reading on any of these characters.

Friendship? Kissing! Smiling! Eyebrow waggling! Dancing! Hugging! Dating? SCOWLING!

This also means we’re forced to sit through five minutes of on screen credits during the episode itself so we can list our fifty billion cast members.

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So what’s worse, this opening or Seasons 6-7? Well first off, The Kids of Degrassi Street. Obvi. Oh yeah I’m so cool, picking on low budget TV.

Besides that, I’d say this one. As much as Seasons 6-7 was generic, it at least gave everyone some time to shine. Here it’s too fast. Too in your face. But hey, at least they kept the most important part of the lyrics.

Degrassi: Next Class (Season 1-4)

AKA A Bold New Start

Remember what I mentioned about Degrassi rebranding itself? This is rebranding done right. I may be calling it too soon, but this opening has a serious chance of dethroning Season 10.5 as my favorite opening sequence. It’s the most innovative thing they’ve done with the opening ever.

Gone is “camera following everyone” style. While certainly a hallmark of the series, I wouldn’t exactly call it unique. New Class has opted for something much more current and relevant. The whole thing is social media inspired, with Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat themes all over the place. We see quick flashes of everyone taking selfies and engaging in general silliness.

This looks like something a teenager could actually make in After Effects. It isn’t Degrassi trying to look relevant. It isn’t Degrassilooking at itself and asking, “This is popular, right?” It feels real.

It’s inviting you to come along on this ride with the characters. “Hey, come hang out in our world. It’s pretty fun! Join our social circle.” It’s like you’re one snapchat away from being at Degrassi.

But is this representative of the whole show? Not exactly, but the social media theme makes it work. It doesn’t represent the bad things because who posts a selfie of their horrible day? These kids are portraying themselves at their best. They’re being the best they can be. Oh, man...theme song synergy! The show itself is what’s behind the social media, what we don’t show to everyone.

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You’ll get to the heartbreak when you watch the episodes. This opening, as all the best Degrassiopenings have done, brings you into the world. Catches your attention. Degrassi: Next Class is a brand new start to the series and will be a jumping on point for viewers. This opening is a great peek into what they’re in for. 

Will this social media style date the opening down the road? Probably, but no more so then fashions or that cheesy font in the Degrassi Junior High opening.

They’re also keeping the opening theme music, albeit slightly remixed. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Degrassi should keep this theme for as long as they can. Remix it as need be. Change the singer. But keep those lyrics. They’re really everything you need to know about the show.

So tell me, what’s your favorite opening from Degrassi? Your least favorite? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more Degrassicoverage right here on Den of Geek!

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!

Why mess with success? In an age where the most fiercely loved and talked about shows have fans petitioning in a petulant huff to have their final episodes remade to match lofty expectations, Breaking Bad, AMC’s neo-Western crime drama from creator Vince Gilligan, aired one of the few well-received series finales in the Peak TV era. Meek, sickly chemistry teacher turned criminal mastermind Walter White (Bryan Cranston) defeated his enemies, rescued his estranged, tortured partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and died in something resembling peace. End of story. Felina.

Except what if there were more? As the great Alan Moore once wrote, nothing ever ends, and especially not in 2019. Intellectual property is the currency that fuels Hollywood, and the machine demands sequels, prequels, remakes, and reimaginings. If a property was successful once, then Hollywood executives are banking on it being successful ad infinitum. What is dead may never die, including Gilligan’s seedy version of Albuquerque, New Mexico, teeming with villains hidden in plain sight, Nazis, and crystal blue meth.

On August 24, amidst a slew of franchise-extending announcements from monolithic Disney’s D23 Expo, Netflix quietly dropped the trailer for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the official continuation of the beloved TV series. Taking place after the events of that crowd-pleasing series finale, the limited logline for the new project reads, “In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future.”

The first look featured familiar ne’er-do-well and Pinkman sidekick, Skinny Pete, discussing the potential whereabouts of his escaped and wanted friend. The excitement over the imminent film, set to release on Netflix on October 11 and to broadcast at a later date on AMC, was palpable on Twitter, but the trailer was also met with some healthy skepticism, with some wondering whether revisiting Breaking Bad’s universe would tarnish the legacy of the near-perfect series. Why mess with success for one more hit?

Fans have every right to worry. For every unexpected sequel, reboot, or reimagination that successfully extends or reinvigorates the life of some cherished IP, there are a myriad of examples that have either proved to be controversial, uninspired, or downright awful. No matter the esteem they have for their old favorites, fans are growing tired of being force fed nostalgia and recycled content. Even Aaron Paul expressed doubts about reprising Jesse Pinkman, but he told The New York Times that any apprehension melted away after he finished reading Gilligan’s script.

“I couldn’t speak for a good 30, 60 seconds,” he said. “I was just lost in my thoughts. As the guy who played the guy, I was so happy that Vince wanted to take me on this journey.”

If anyone has earned the right to revisit his baby, it’s Vince Gilligan, and that’s because he’s pulled this off once before. Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel series centered on morally gray lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) prior to his misadventures with Walter White, was also met with suspicion when announced, but has proven to be a worthy successor that’s every bit as complex, virtuosic, and compelling as its parent series.

read more: Better Call Saul Skews Closer to the Breaking Bad Timeline

A prequel is lower stakes, surely, but it also has a greater potential to fall into hackneyed fan-service or over-contrived backstory. The fact that Gilligan was able to avoid that, add further depth to established presences Saul and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), and also create new, treasured characters like Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler and Michael McKean’s Chuck McGill demonstrates that Gilligan is more than adept at honoring his masterpiece while stretching it out further.

Now, there's still the possibility that a switch to a different format could trip Gilligan and his cohorts up. After all, both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul benefited from the time and breadth that TV allows. Part of both of these series’ specific magic is the way that they drill down into the small details of capers or schemes, reveling in showing every step of the process. In a broader sense, the TV format just gives writers the runway to get inside of a character’s head, explore their motivations, and showcase a transformation. It would be impossible to tell Walter White’s story, his slow mutation from Mr. Chips into Scarface, in a 2-hour movie, or at least it wouldn’t be nearly as rich and devastating.

A prime example of seeing a series fail to translate to a compelling movie is Veronica Mars. Not nearly the meticulously crafted sensation that Breaking Bad is, Veronica Mars was still a well-made show with an aggressively devoted fanbase passionate to see creator Rob Thomas revisit his teenage gumshoe later in life. However, most critics found the film to slightly miss the mark, relying too frequently on in-jokes and series references while also lacking more distinctly cinematic aspirations. Plainly stated, it felt like a longer, fan-servicey episode of the show stuck in a vacuum. When the series returned for the highly-praised fourth season this year, it proved that Veronica Mars was always better off as a TV show with room to stretch its legs.  

The obvious response to this fear is that Breaking Bad is an extremely different show from Veronica Mars. Breaking Bad has always had a widescreen, cinematic feel. There’s a reason that so many of its directors, from Michelle MacLaren to Rian Johnson, either came from or made the jump to feature-films. The visual language of the show is part of what set it apart from other series. And several times over the course of the show’s history, they delivered episodes that told a story deeper and more complete than most films can muster. “Ozymandias,” the series’ peak, is so explosive and enveloping, that critics could hardly believe that there was more story to tell after the episode’s tense and devastating first act.

So instead of worrying about Gilligan’s return to hallowed ground, we should be asking what we want out of this journey that Paul was so eager to take. We know Jesse Pinkman escaped the Nazi hideout in Todd’s El Camino, but where he went next, how far he made it, is unknown. The road will undoubtedly be long for Jesse, both figuratively and literally. In the literal sense, Jesse surely is wanted on numerous federal charges for his connection to Walter White and his many crimes, and he’ll likely be on the run or living under an assumed identity, one eye over his shoulder, for the rest of his life. However, the external forces against Jesse pale in comparison to the trauma he’ll have to move past both mentally and spiritually to have anything close to a meaningful or fulfilling life. Something tells me Vince Gilligan is ready to dive into all of these messy obstacles, otherwise he'd know to leave well enough alone.

Nick Harley is a tortured Cleveland sports fan, thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a killer Batman movie, Spider-Man should be a big-budget HBO series, and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson should direct a script written by one another. For more thoughts like these, read Nick's work here at Den of Geek or follow him on Twitter.

Wondering when your favorites are coming back and what new series you can look forward to? We've got you covered with the Den of Geek 2019 TV Premiere Dates Calendar, where we're keeping track of TV series premiere dates, return dates, and more for this year and beyond. 

We'll continue to update this page as networks announce dates. A lot of these shows we'll be watching or covering, so be sure to follow along with us! 

Please note that all times are EST. 

TV Premiere Dates 2019 

If we've forgotten a show, feel free to drop a reminder in the comment section below!

This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.

I met Terrance Dicks in Hamilton Library when I was eight. I was holding a copy of The Auton Invasion that I'd bought in a shop in Hereford and could not get the price sticker off. He said it was an early pressing of the first book he'd written for the Target Novelization range, then launched into an anecdote about it. It may not have been this story's first outing but damn it I was paying attention.

I mean, sure, he wrote Warmonger, but can any of us say they haven't on some level "written Warmonger"?

Certainly none of us can say we introduced thousands of children to literature, and not the "Ian McEwan pretends Science Fiction doesn't exist" sort of literature, but the kind that fires up the imagination and makes people realise there are bigger worlds to pursue, to dip into, to find refuge in.

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There was a spinner full of Hardy Boys books and Target Novelisations (capital N) in my local library when I was growing up, and a few Terrance Dicks dotted about my primary school too. Growing up with the show off-air, without access to UK Gold, I too got to dabble in the Fan Experience of "The Version I Imagined Reading the Book Is Different to What the BBC Could Afford in 1979" via The Armageddon Factor. I too got to read about “That mysterious traveler in time and space known only as the Doctor”, and the TARDIS’ “wheezing, groaning sound”.

Dicks' contribution to reading and writing in Britain is incalculable but certainly significant. His prose style was such that even his lesser efforts were immensely readable (as has been noted, his description of the Fifth Doctor as having a “pleasant open face” is both a nostalgia rush and a horrific mental image). It's not without reason that every iteration of Doctor Who in print, be it Virgin or BBC Books, or the post-2005 series' regular novels, features Uncle Terrance. He contributed 13 original books and 65 adaptations of Doctor Who stories for the Target range. With Malcolm Hulke he wrote The Making Of Doctor Who, the second edition of which contains the lines “never cruel or cowardly" and "he never gives in, and he never gives up.”

This is before we even get onto what he achieved for the television series.

When asked about his plans for script editing Doctor Who, Terrance Dicks replied "to get the bloody show out on the air." Considering his experience on the show in the late Sixties, this was genuinely optimistic. For its first six years Doctor Who's production was turbulent behind the scenes with producers and script editors usually lasting around a series before moving on. While Dicks did try to move on from Doctor Who, he ultimately stuck around as Script Editor in tandem with producer Barry Letts.

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This resulted in Doctor Who having stability for arguably the very first time, once Dicks and Letts’ efforts had kept it on the air. Both stayed on for five years, changing the way the show was made and - amongst other things - creating the Master, naming Gallifrey, and casting Tom Baker.

Using contacts from his previous writing gigs, Dicks ensured a baseline of competence that prevented the behind-the-scenes turmoil he’d experienced when he joined. He gave Robert Holmes another chance and kept Malcolm Hulke involved, and through rewrites kept the more ambitious scripts going. He also planned series to accommodate lower budgeted-stories to avoid no-money panic jobs.

Besides the nuts and bolts work, Dicks built and sustained audiences, bringing in big events and longer storylines which paid off. A lot of what made the Russell T. Davies’ era popular can be found in Dicks’ and Letts’ work, an era where any troubles rarely came to the fore because fundamentally the show worked for its audience. This competence isn’t thrilling to hear of but is hard to achieve.

What’s clear from production stories is that Letts and Dicks were a savvy populist combo, both trusting the other and collaborating well. Any mishaps along the way are usually solved by one or the other or both just ... solving it. For Inferno Dicks suggested the parallel universe plot. For The Three Doctors he rewrote the script of Part Four to minimise William Hartnell’s involvement. It’s what he did, and it gaveDoctor Who a constancy it hadn’t had before, a longevity that was crucial in its becoming a British Institution. Without Dicks and Lett we might be talking about Doctor Who in the same way we talk about The Avengers or The Prisoner: much loved pop culture artefacts but also relics of the past.

Dicks cultivated an air of pragmatism which underplayed his influence on the show, saying for a good Doctor Who “you needed a good, original story, but it doesn’t have to be your good, original story.”

Doctor Who isn’t technically Terrance Dicks’ story, in that he didn’t create it, but on the other hand he shaped so very much of it, and it absolutely is.

Let’s try a pitch: A streaming half-hour animated series from Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy that tackles the monotony of adult life, the burden of relationships, the trauma we inherit from our families, mental illness, and depression. So basically, Bojack Horseman, you might say. Not quite. A talking horse doesn’t even begin to touch the mind-bending aspects of Amazon’s new series, Undone.

Undone centers on Alma, played by Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), a 28-year old going through the motions with her boyfriend Sam (Siddharth Dhananjay). Alma starts becoming restless about her boring, seemingly predetermined future when her sister Becca (Angelique Cabral) gets engaged. After a blowout fight with Becca, which once again circles back to the untimely death of their father Jacob (Bob Odenkirk), Alma gets into a serious car accident. When she awakes, Alma finds herself not only with the ability to communicate with Jacob, but with the power to move through space and time in nonlinear fashion. If that sounds hard to understand, then you’re in the same boat as Alma, who struggles with being able to experience her life and memories repeatedly, out of order, or from a new perspective.

Hisko Hulsing (Montage of Heck) serves as the production designer on Undone, taking what looks to be filmed pieces and subtly painting over them so they appear as animation. It’s the same rotoscoping style as A Scanner Darkly and Undone even uses Minnow Mountain, the animation team behind that film. Undone is the first instance of rotoscoping being used for a television product, helping Amazon’s first adult animation series stand out. When Alma snaps back to the present after tripping through her past and other planes of reality, Hulsing’s gorgeous backgrounds literally shatter. In the five episodes screened for review, it’s gorgeous and novel, enough of a reason to give the series a shot.

read more: BoJack Horseman Season 5 Proves The Show Can Last Forever

However, the trippy visuals are just the tip of the iceberg. Salazar is a dynamic live-wire, funny and infuriating, the most three-dimensional character since Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. After being the clear highlight in Alita: Battle Angel, perhaps someone will finally give Salazar a meaty role that doesn’t require her face to be obscured by animation or CGI. Alma is prickly, but compelling, barely holding things together as is, then thrust into inexplicably bizarre circumstances. Odenkirk is also dependably great as Jacob. Warm then stern at the drop of a hat, Jacob is trying to help Alma hone her abilities so she can dive back into the past and solve his murder, yet there’s a duplicitous air to Jacob that suggests he’s hiding something big.

Just like Bojack, Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy’s writing packs a wallop. Purdy mines personal experiences with mental illness and her interest in mysticism to give Alma’s journey emotional weight and intrigue. Alma fears settling down with Sam because she knows her paternal grandmother suffered from schizophrenia, which was exasperated after she had children. Alma is afraid that she’ll suffer the same fate, however, Jacob suggests that his mother’s condition and its qualities were no different than the characteristics that make shamans and mystics valued members of their indigenous communities. Alma has to determine whether she’s tapping into special, mystic abilities or whether she’s suffering from a mental breakdown.

Undone is one of the most ambitious series debuting this fall, and at 22-minutes an episode, it’s a breezy, yet deeply engaging trip. Packed with crackling performances and psychedelic imagery, Undone pulls you in and pushes you to places that feel intimate, yet entirely unique and challenging. Besides exploring mental health, time-space, and mysticism, Undone also takes time to discuss gender issues, cultural similarities and differences, and the importance of family. It’s an incredibly deep and impressive series, and if marketed correctly by the streaming service, should be a massive hit for Amazon.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Nick Harley is a tortured Cleveland sports fan, thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a killer Batman movie, Spider-Man should be a big-budget HBO series, and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson should direct a script written by one another. For more thoughts like these, read Nick's work here at Den of Geek or follow him on Twitter.

Those who subscribe to the theory that there is Too Much TV™ will find some powerful evidence in the upcoming fall tv season. In fact, call this Fall 2019 TV Preview "exhibit A" in The People v. Content.

Even with beginning after Labor Day this upcoming TV season is absolutley massive. From Kurt Sutter's SAMCRO prequel Mayans MC season 2 all the way through to a paradigm-shifting new season of Marvel's Runaways, there are more than 40 new and returning shows of note to keep track of in the coming months.

But honestly, that's just the way we like it. What else are you going to do in the autumn? Go outside? Let's just dismiss that ridiculous notion out of hand and get right to the Fall 2019 offerings.

Mayans MC

Release Date: September 3

Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter frequently talked of wanting to do a Sons prequel following SAMCRO's rivals-turned-allies Mayans Motorcycle Club. Still, it never seemed that Mayans would actually see the light of day as Kurt Sutter talks about a lot of things, you see, very few of which eventually become realities. That's why it's still kind of shocking that Mayans MC is not only here, but already on its second season.

The story of Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes improbably continues in season 2, with EZ on the hunt for the man who killed his mom...who just so happens to also be an old Sons favorite. Mayans MC season 2 will reportedly be the last season with Sutter's involvement as he plans to cede control over to co-creator Elgin James for any future installments. Does that mean this is the last chance we'll have to see old faces like Jax pop up? Probably not. Dead is dead, but perhaps no show on TV is less afraid of its own history than Mayans MC.

read more about Mayans MC season 2 here

Titans

Release Date: September 6

The first season of Titansmade its presence known with Robin’s unforgettable two word statement about his feelings on Batman. While that may have made for an awkward start, Titans quickly distinguished itself as perhaps the most unapologetically nerdy of all live action superhero shows. Throughout the first season, Titans not only had Robin, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, and Starfire join up with Dick Grayson’s journey to put his past with Bruce Wayne behind him, it quietly built up a fully functioning DC Universe behind it, one where the Justice League currently exists (albeit offscreen...for now) and Batman’s career is long and storied enough to have already brought in a replacement Robin with Jason Todd.

read more: A Guide to DC Animated Movies

So what does season two do for an encore? Well, for starters, we’re going to meet Conner Kent (Joshua Orpin), the young Superman clone who eventually adopts the Superboy moniker. More importantly, Krypto, the goodest doggo in the entire universe will be a recurring character on the show. We’ll also meet classic DC heroes and villains like Aqualad (Drew Van Acker) and Deathstroke (Esai Morales).

read more about Titans season 2 here

Undone

Release Date: September 13 

Undone, Amazon’s groundbreaking rotoscoped animation from Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg of BoJack Horseman, wowed audiences who screened the first two episodes at the ATX TV Festival and at San Diego Comic-Con. The series explores the elastic nature of reality through its central character, Alma, played by Rosa Salazar of Alita: Battle Angel, who discovers she has a new relationship with time after getting into a near fatal car accident, and she uses this ability to find out the truth about her father’s death.

read more: Fall 2019 Movie Preview

Alma suffers from visions of her late-father, Jacob (Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul), in which he urges her to tap into this new mysterious ability that allows her to travel through space and time with the hopes of preventing his untimely death. This central quest in Undone challenges Alma’s relationships and understandably brings into question her mental wellbeing with those closest to her.

read more about Undone here

Unbelievable

Release Date: September 13

"Unbelievable" is a sadly appropriate title for Netflix's next big ticket limited series. It tells an unbelievable story about a story that was deemmed unbelievable...when it shouldn't have been. Kaitlyn Dever stars as Marie Adler, a teenager who is charged with lying about being raped. Then a pair of detectives (Toni Collette and Merrit Weaver) uncover a series of similar cases to Marie's that suggest she may not have been lying after all.

Unbelievable is based on a true story and is produced by an impressive creative team featuring Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, and Katie Couric.

read more about Unbelievable here

American Horror Story: 1984

Release Date: September 18

Through eight seasons, FX's horror anthology American Horror Story has covered some of the most notable concepts in the horror canon. These have included: haunted houses, asylums, witches, and even no less than the end of the world. Still, one avenue that the show surprisingly hasn't gone down yet is the good old-fashioned slasher movie.

American Horror Story: 1984 will seek to rectify that. Little-to-nothing is known about the plot thus far, which certainly isn't unusual for an AHS production. But we do know that Emma Roberts will reclaim her Scream Queens title by portraying one of the preyed upon leads in this Friday the 13th style slasher. 

read more about American Horror Story: 1984 here

Disenchantment

Release Date: September 20

Disenchantment season 2 provides one of the rarest opportunities in television: getting in on the ground floor of a Matt Groening animated series. The Simpsons began over 30 years ago and is still running to this day with nearly 700 episodes to its name. Futurama’s output is a more modest 140 episodes but its fan community is impassioned, beyond knowledgeable and intimidating. Disenchantment and its 10 episode first season? That’s something a nascent Groening fan can wrap his or her head around.

read more: Revisiting Matt Groenig's Animated Firsts

Disenchantment is uncommonly serialized for a Groening joint. It tells the story of Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson), the heir apparent to medieval fantasy kingdom Dreamland. Problem is, Bean wants nothing to do with that chivalric and diplomatic nonsense. She’s much more likely to take off on adventures with personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) and elf friend Elfo (Nat Faxon). Disenchantment season 2 has some work to do with the season 1 finale seeing all of Dreamland turned to stone and Bean running off with her sorceress mother.

read more about Disenchantment season 2 here

Prodigal Son

Release Date: September 23

In the now grand tradition of serial killer anti-hero shows like Dexter and Hannibal, Prodigal Son will take on the psychopath consultant idea and give it a familial twist. In Fox’s crime drama, Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne of The Walking Dead) plays a criminal psychologist who can see inside the mind of a murderer because his father (Michael Sheen of Good Omens) is Martin Whitly, the notorious serial killer known as “The Surgeon.”

Executive producers Sam Sklaver,Chris Fedak andSarah Schechter (Legends of Tomorrow) characterize Prodigal Son as a family drama with a serial killer twist as Bright must deal with the fact that his father still wants a relationship with his son, his sister (Halston Sage of The Orville) is annoyingly normal, and his mother (Bellamy Young of Scandal) is extremely manipulative. Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, Frank Harts, and Keiko Agena also star.

read more about Prodigal Son here

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Release Date: September 25

One day you’re shooting a TV pilot on a camcorder with a couple of actor friends. Suddenly you blink and 14 seasons later you’ve about to tie The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for the longest-running live-action sitcom in TV history. It’s been an improbable run for the owners of Paddy’s Pub, one all the more impressive considering the core group of characters sometimes change (See: Mac coming out in the season 13 finale), but never, ever grow. It shouldn’t work, but It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia endures. Why is that so? Hear it from Charlie Day, who tried to explain the show’s longevity on a recent set visit.

“One of the reasons we've survived this long is there's thought behind the edge of the show,” Day said. “When we do something that's really pushing the button or going to the edge, it's because we're trying to say a little something about humanity, and about how people are self-absorbed. I don't think we're dirty. We're edgy, but I think we're outlasting them because we're smart."

read more - AP Bio Season 2: Glenn Howerton on His Character's Atypical Pursuit of Happiness

Season 14 should have more edge now that the Gang returns to full strength. Glenn Howerton will appear in every episode this season after Dennis was reduced to a recurring role in season 13 due to Howerton’s commitments to A.P. Bio (which was canceled then revived for a third season). We learned a few other secrets about season 14 on our set visit. There’s a laser tag wedding, episodes about AirBnB and climate change, and a film noir homage. But the Gang was most excited about Dolph Lungren guest starring as “Johnny Thundergun,” a callback to the season 11 episode “Thunder Gun Express.” Maybe they’ll actually see the movie this time! 

read more about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 14 here

South Park

Release Date: September 25

South Park is set to hit a major milestone this season: its 300th episode. So what if The Simpsons did it already (Homer and Co. sit at 660 episodes and counting)? Cartman and the boys return with their brand of topical shock humor that still generates buzz in a comedy world that’s vastly different from the show’s early days.

read more: How South Park Became the Last Survivor of the Shock TV Era

Though relying on headlines to formulate episodes is far too often a crutch, South Park turned in worthwhile entries on vapes, Amazon, and America’s mass shooting epidemic last season. The previous five seasons have incorporated at least some level of episodic serialization, which has been hit or miss. We’ll have to see if that trend continues and what topics have been on the minds of creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker when South Park kicks off its Jordan Year on September 25th.

read more about South Park season 23 here

Creepshow

Release Date: September 26

There really is nothing like the 1982 horror film Creepshow, directed by the legendary George Romero and written by famed novelist Stephen King. But as unique as the five short stories in a single movie formula was, it seems tailor made for a TV anthology series, especially with Romero’s protege and The Walking Dead producer Greg Nicotero as well as original Creepshow star Adrienne Barbeau attached.

read more: Creepshow Returns to Pulpy Roots

Nicotero spoke during a recent set visit about his reverance for both the film and comic that sprung from Romero’s work. “I always felt that Creepshow was way ahead of its time in terms of what George was doing and the visuals,” he said. “I'm not rebooting anything; it's not like we're gonna upgrade it and retell it. It's really like you're picking up another issue of Creepshow and these are the stories.” The TV series will appear on Shudder and will consist of six episodes with recognizable genre actors like Tricia Helfer, DJ Qualls, and Giancarlo Esposito appearing.

read more about Creepshow here

The Good Place

Release Date: September 26

The Good Place season 4 will be the metaphysical comedy’s final outing, but it’s been a wild ride. According to showrunner Michael Schur, “Given the ideas we wanted to explore, and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas, I began to feel like four seasons -- just over 50 episodes -- was the right lifespan.” But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; the series isn’t over yet!

read more: The Good Place and How Fun TV Got Dark and Insightful

The series left off, as it always does, with a paradigm-shifting twist, and it looks like season 4 will start with Kristen Bell’s Eleanor in charge of the fake Good Place. The new test seems to involve seeing if our core four souls; Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason; can find the good inside people who tortured them while they were alive. Jameela Jamil, who plays Tahani also assured journalists at Comic-Con that the guest stars in the final season of The Good Place will be amazing, including one season-ending “ultimate mic-drop” cameo.

read more about The Good Place season 4 here

Van Helsing

Release Date: September 26

Van Helsing has been anything but your typical post-apocalypse or vampire show, and heading into season 4, the show will be going deep into its mythology by introducing Dracula herself (hey, if Vanessa can gender flip the Van Helsing legend, why not the quintessential vampire, too?)! Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica and Lucifer fame is perfectly suited for the role, and fans are anxious to see how the vampire culture becomes even richer.

Van Helsing season 4 will also have some new younger characters introduced to the cast, courtesy of new showrunner, Jonathan Lloyd Walker, who wanted to explore the idea of gaining the perspective of those who had grown up in the world since the Yellowstone eruption that brought the vampires out of hiding in the first place. Richard Harmon (The 100), Nicole Munoz (Defiance), and Keeya King (Jigsaw) are among the new cast members.

read more about Van Helsing season 4 here.

The Politician

Release Date: September 27

You wanted big impressive casts on your TV shows? Say no more, fam. When Netflix shelled out a rumored $300 million to bring American (Fill in the Blank Here) Story maestro Ryan Murphy into the fold, projects like The Politician are likely exactly what they had in mind. This first show from the Netflix/Murphy partnership feels appropriately huge.

The Politician stars Ben Platt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, Zoey Deutch, Lucy Boynton, Dylan McDermott, and more. The first season will revolve around Platt’s character Payton Hobart, a wealthy Santa Barbarian high school student with political aspirations. Every season is set to center on a different political race that Hobart is involved in. So it sounds like Netflix just wanted a do-over on House of Cards with a less….awful lead. In true Election fashion, Hobart’s first task will be to be elected Student Body President.

read more about The Politician here

Godfather of Harlem

Release Date: September 29

The story of gangsters, mobsters, mafiosos, and organized crime has been told time and time again. So what makes EPIX’s Godfather of Harlem different? Godfather of Harlem has Forest Whitaker as Bumpy Freaking Johnson.

Bumpy Johnson was a notorious mob boss from Harlem. He was a known associate of Lucky Luciano and the Genovese crime family. As a “character” he’s popped up in films like Hoodlum and American Gangster but he’s never had prime billing until now. And what better time than now to examine the complex racial politics of America through an organized crime lens?

read more: Godfather of Harlem Star Vincent D'Onofrio Talks Mob Rule

“I grew up with an Italian American background in Brooklyn, New York and there was tons of (racism) everywhere,” Vincent D’Onofrio (who plays Vincent Gigante said. “I was lucky to grow up in a very liberal family. My parents were both kind of very Bohemian. They didn't stand for it, so I was lucky it but it was very present as it is now.”

Giancarlo Esposito plays another real life figure, politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who will also get swept up in Bumpy and Vincent’s criminal enterprises.

“Gangsters, you know, their family just trying to survive and take care of each other in many ways within a community that's either for them or against them,” Esposito said.

Ilfensen Hadera, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Paul Sorvino, and Nigél Thatch round out the cast of real and fictional characters with Thatch playing Malcolm X for the second time in his career.

read more about Godfather of Harlem here

Sorry For Your Loss

Release Date: October 1

If you’ve been sleeping on this Elizabeth Olsen-led drama because it “airs” on Facebook Watch, time to wake up. Olsen stars as Leigh Shaw, a young widow struggling to move on with her life following the death of her husband.

With an ensemble cast that includes Trần Loan (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as Leigh’s sister Jules; Mamoudou Athie as Leigh’s late husband, Matt; Jovan Adepo as Matt’s brother; and Janet McTeer as Leigh and Jules’ mom, Sorry For Your Loss is family drama at its best: intense, honest, and so very complicated.

Raising Dion

Release Date: October 4

Gods know the current pop culture landscape isn’t hurting for superhero stories. That’s why Netflix’s upcoming Raising Dion will attempt something a little different: a superhero parenting story. 

Based on the comic book of the same name by Dennis Liu, Raising Dion will follow single mother Nicole Reese (Alisha Wainwright) and she tries to raise her son Dion after the death of her husband Mark (Michael B. Jordan). Being a single parent is hard enough as is, but Nicole’s task becomes even harder when Dion starts to display some superhero-like abilities.

Raising Dion is being executive produced by Michael B. Jordan and will also star Ja’Siah Young as the titular Dion Reese and Jason Ritter as Pat, a scientist and Dion’s dad’s best friend.

read more about Raising Dion here

Mr. Robot

Release Date: October 6

When Mr. Robot first premiered on USA Network in the summer of 2015, it really felt like it could go on forever. The series, created by Sam Esmail and starring eventual Emmy (and Oscar!) winner Rami Malek, was USA Network's first real adult "prestige TV" hit. The twisty and stylish show about a hacker who wanted to fix the world by toppling a corporate giant felt both intensely timely and timeless.

Now, with the real world of hacks, corruption, and unprecedented income inequality matching the world of Mr. Robotmore closely than ever, Mr. Robot is pulling off its biggest twist yet: it's calling it quits. Why end now? It certainly can't hurt that both the show's creator and star are highly in demand now with Esmail bringing Briarpatch to USA and Malek headed off to James Bond-land. Still, it's often better to leave early than to stick around to long. And as Elliot Alderson found out with his hack that was supposed to change the world: no good deed goes unpunished.

read more about Mr. Robot season 4 here

The Walking Dead

Release Date: October 6

Everything happening behind the scenes at The Walking Dead suggests that the show is in a creative tailspin...something that wouldn't be too uncommon for a show entering its 10th season. Series lead Andrew Lincoln asked out of playing Rick Grimes in season 9 and was granted his wish. Michonne actress Danai Gurira will be the next to go following season 10. The show's once unshakeable high ratings are finally started to diminish. For the first time in a long time, AMC's zombie flagship seems to be teetering on the edge of disaster. 

read more - The Walking Dead: The Whisperers and the Whisperer War Explained

All of that, however, ignores one important factor: The Walking Dead season 9 was actually pretty good! Under the leadership of new showrunner Angela Kang, The Walking Dead got something of a second wind in its ninth season. Now going into season 10, it has a rare opportunity to keep the good times rolling. The villains will be the same, highlighted by Alpha (Samantha Morton), Beta (Ryan Hurst), and their band of Whisperers. The battle lines have been drawn and all there's really left to do is for someone to cross them. 

read more about The Walking Dead season 10 here.

Supergirl

Release Date: October 6

SupergirlSeason 4 ended with a series-changing twist: Lex Luthor told sister Lena Supergirl’s true identity. Melissa Benoist teased that there would be “rough times ahead” for Kara and Lena relationship, while executive producer Jessica Queller gave deeper insight into how the way in which Lena found out Kara’s secret will affect how she processes it.

"Lena's Achilles' heel is betrayal,” said Queller, “and she has made that clear to her friends from the beginning and the way she found out about this betrayal—Lex twisting the knife and sort of pouring salt on the wound—affects how she feels about it. So that will be a huge, central story."

Queller described Season 5 as Supergirl’s “Black Mirrorseason,” teasing that the dark side of technology would be a major theme explored. Presumably, this will tie into Season 5’s Big Bad, teased in the final moments of SupergirlSeason 4: Leviathan.

read more: Supergirl Producers Tease Season 5 Leviathan Arc

"It's our own incarnation of Leviathan, based on what's come before [in the comic books]," executive producer Robert Rovner told us at SDCC. "It's going to be a full, season-long arc and, like we did with Red Daughter, we're going to dole it out and have little clues along the way until it evolves into something much bigger." 

read more about Supergirl season 5 here

Batwoman

Release Date: October 6

Batman is no stranger to the recent TV landscape, having just made his splendid, cowled debut in the final episode of Fox’s Gotham. The Caped Crusader has, however, been MIA in CW’s DC-centric Arrowverse. And he’s going to stay that way…at least for a little while. Because this fall the Arrowverse is set to add an even more novel and interesting member of the Bat family.

read more: Batwoman Pilot Review

Batwoman stars Ruby Rose as Kate Kane a.k.a. Batwoman. With a kickass red mohawk and thirst for vengeance, Batwoman will help keep Gotham safe now that Batman has been gone for three years. Batwoman will take place in “Earth 1” in the Arrowverse multiverse and is set to be a far more grounded show than its counterparts.

“I wanted to really keep the tone of our show in Gotham and very grounded,” showrunner Caroline Dries said. “We are just starting out. It’s not normal for (our characters) to interact with aliens and travel to different universes and stuff like that.”

Batwoman will mark some important firsts in other ways, however. Kate Kane will be the first openly lesbian superhero headlining a show in the Arrowverse (though Black Lightning’s Thunder is technically the first overall). Producers also intend for Kate to be Jewish like her comic counterpart…though they added that they haven’t found a way to bring it up in the show yet. Still, Batwoman will still introduce a hero that fits in well tonally with both her Arrowverse and Batman counterparts.

“I brood a little. Let’s be honest,” Rose said.

read more about Batwoman here

Black Lightning

Release Date: October 7

“The Markovian War is coming and Freeland is ground zero.” This is the epic cliffhanger Black Lightning ended season 2 on, implying that nothing will ever be the same for the Pierce family and their community. If that weren’t already enough to tune in for, we’re also eager to find out what will happen to Tobias now that he is in The Pit, what Agent Odell plans to do with the Khalil he has on ice, and how powerful Jennifer will grow in Season 3.

With some of Black Lightning’s characters poised to show up for The CW’s big Crisis on Infinite Earths superhero crossover event, now is the perfect time for those who have yet to tune into the story of Jefferson Pierce and his family of superheroes to do so. Part family drama and part superhero story, Black Lightning centers black characters and community like few other shows on television, and it easily has the best soundtrack of any superhero show on television.

read more about Black Lightning season 3 here

The Flash

Release Date: October 8

When The Flash returns, it will have to pick up the pieces of a divisive fifth season. But the new season brings a new showrunner, new big bads (plural), and a central role for Barry Allen in the big Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths. So what’s different about The Flash Season 6?

The structure, for starters. New showrunner Eric Wallace describes the season as two distinct “graphic novels” broken up in the middle by Crisis on Infinite Earths. The first half of the season will introduce Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) as Dr. Ramsey Rosso, the villain known as Bloodwork. Crisis on Infinite Earths will close out the first arc of the season in December and, when the show returns in January, it will reveal a brand new big bad, whose identity remains a mystery as of this writing.

Combine that with whatever major changes may or may not be in store for Barry Allen and Team Flash after the events of Crisis, and this should make for a very different season of TV than what we’ve seen from this show, or even the Arrowverse as a whole, so far.

read more about The Flash season 6 here

Riverdale

Release Date: October 9

When CW teen drama Riverdale returns for its senior year on October 9th, the sudsy cliffhangers left unresolved by the season finale will take a back seat to a tragic reality -- the untimely passing of Luke Perry due to complications of a stroke back in March. Perry portrayed Fred Andrews, Archie's father and the series' moral center. This year's premiere will provide an on-screen sendoff to his character that will include a special appearance by Perry's Beverly Hills 90210 co-star Shannen Doherty as a figure from Fred's past in what could be a possible recurring role. Fred was Archie's rock in a show packed with ridiculous sounding drugs and random bear attacks, and it's certain that his loss will reverberate throughout this season...as well as the remainder of the series' run.

read more - Riverdale Season 4: Halloween and Musical Episodes Confirmed

Elsewhere, expect Betty to team up with her newly found long-lost brother Charles (Wyatt Nash), an FBI agent tasked with bringing the shady Farm cult to justice. While coping with the death of his father and the usual mustache-twirling machinations of Mr. Lodge, Archie must also contend with problems caused by Dodger (Juan Riedinger), a local thug poised to become this season's primary antagonist. There's certain to be the usual mayhem involving the Serpents, the Blossom family, another musical at Riverdale High, and the events glimpsed via flash-forward last season that portend the death of Jughead. You know, the usual teenage stuff. Say what you will about Riverdale, but it's never dull.

read more about Riverdale season 4 here

Nancy Drew

Release Date: October 9

Fans of both the original book series and The CW’s adaptation of Riverdale are sure to fall for Nancy Drew, one of the most promising premieres of the fall season. We had a chance to catch the Nancy Drew pilot at SDCC this summer and it is very charming. One part ghost story, one part detective story, and one part character-driven small town soap, Nancy Drew has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a charismatic cast that, like Riverdale before it, includes mostly new faces who make their respective parts completely their own.

read more: Nancy Drew Review

When we meet Nancy Drew (Kennedy McCann) in her pilot, she is not in a good place. The death of her mother the previous year sent her life into a tailspin. She fumbled her transition to college and has stopped solving mysteries altogether… That is until a mystery finds her. When a socialite is killed outside of the diner she works at, Nancy can’t help but take on the case—with a little help from her friends, including Ned "Nick" Nickerson (Tunji Kasim), Bess (Maddison Jaizani), and George (Leah Lewis).

read more about Nancy Drew here

Supernatural

Release Date: October 10

How do you end a beloved show with 15 seasons, over 300 episodes, and one incredibly passionate fanbase? Very carefully as it turns out.

“I don't think we're going to be able to please everyone,” Supernatural executive producer Robert Singer said. “But the fans are very energizing for us. I hope they like the ending. I'm not expecting a 96% thumbs up but if we got that, that'd be great.”

read more: What Legacy Will Supernatural Leave Behind?

In pursuit of that 96% or up approval rating, Supernatural’s 15th and final season is pulling out all the stops. The show catches up with brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) as they, along with angel Castiel (Misha Collins) grapple with an end times scenario brought forth by a bored Chuck a.k.a. God.

“I mean he's written a lot of stories but he finds that Sam and Dean's stories are the most interesting for whatever reason,” Singer said of the show’s God.

So based on the divine command of the Almighty, himself, Supernatural season 15 should be an interesting, entertaining goodbye for all the characters beloved by Supernaturalfandom.

read more about Supernatural season 15 here

Charmed

Release Date: October 11

Charmed seems to be leading a charmed existence given its surprise renewal despite season 1’s lukewarm reception. However, there’s plenty more story to tell when the magically-gifted sisters charged with protecting the world from supernatural dangers return. Madeleine Mantock will continue as Macy Vaughn, the eldest, with Melonie Diaz playing Melanie "Mel" Vera, the middle half-sister, and Sarah Jeffery returning as Margarita Emilia "Maggie" Vera, the youngest.

At the end of season 1, the Source has been split up and taken to the corners of the Earth and the Elders are all gone, so what does that mean for Charmed season 2? Although Alastair may be out of the picture, we hear that another of his evil offspring is set to return for revenge, and she’s finished with being underestimated as a woman. Season 2 will also feature new showrunners Craig Shapiro and Liz Kruger as well as two new characters: Jordan the sexy boxing instructor and Kat, a sexually fluid witch.

read more about Charmed season 2 here

Letterkenny

Release Date: October 14

“Pitter patter, let’s get at’er.”

“Pump the breaks, Squirrelly Dan.”

“To be faiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrr.”

If you’ve noticed your friends injecting any of the preceding phrases into their lexicon, there’s no need to be concerned. They’re not part of a cult...well, not part of a scary cult, at least. The cult fandom of charming Canadian comedy Letterkenny has steadily increased state-side in recent years, thanks to the show’s inclusion on Hulu.

read more: Hulu New Releases

Now, Hulu is set to keep the good times rolling with Letterkenny season 7, the first to premiere simultaneously in Canada and the U.S. As the helpful opening titles always declare, Letterkenny is simply the story of the town of Letterkenny and the citizens’ various “problems.” Season 7 will find Wayne (Jared Keeso), Daryl (Nathan Dale), Katy (Michelle Mylett), and the rest of Letterkenny continuing on their respective journeys of doing little-to-nothing while coining a phrase or two in the process.

Arrow

Release Date: October 15

Sometimes when long running shows end, the people involved are concerned with their work’s legacy. How will this be remembered? Will there be spinoffs? Will I still be invited to cons? The folks behind Arrow’s eighth and final season don’t have to worry about any of that.

Arrow’s legacy is not only evident, part of it is airing concurrently with the final season and even as a part of it. The so-called Arrowverse’s next big crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will air over episodes of Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and episode 8 of Arrow’s final season. Once Arrow is gone, many DC CW shows will carry on in its stead with many crossover events sure to come.

read more - Arrow Season 8: David Ramsey on the Final Season

Still, that doesn’t make the ending any less bittersweet, says John Diggle actor David Ramsey.

“It's kind of surreal,” he said. Some of this experience is kind of like you're sitting out of your body watching it a little bit. And then the other parts you are trying to make sure you grasp it, because you know it won't happen again, right? This never happens. Ever. Eight seasons with how many spin-offs? It just doesn't happen.”

read more about Arrow season 8 here

Limetown

Release Date: October 16

Hit podcasts had a rough time making the transition to television for awhile there. Lore was fine and Pod Save America came and went. But the success of Amazon Prime's Homecoming has really opened things up. Now Facebook's Limetown is set to step into this bold new podcast-on-TV world.

Limetown is based on a podcast of the same name and stars Jessica Biel as public radio journalist Lia Haddock. Looking for the next big podcasting story, Lia decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of 300 people at a Tennessee neuroscience research facility. Suffice it to say, her findings are...complicated. 

read more about Limetown here

Looking For Alaska

Release Date: October 18

Based on John Green’s first novel and adapted by Gossip Girl’s Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, Looking For Alaska has writerly pedigree you will probably recognize if you are at all interested in young adult media in either the book or TV sphere. Loosely inspired by Green’s own experiences as a teenager, Looking For Alaska the novel won the Printz Award, one of fiction’s most prestigious young adult awards, when it was published in 2005, and was listed as one of the American Library Association’s most challenged books of 2015 for profanity and sexually-explicit scenes. In other words: book made some waves.

The eight-episode limited series seems poised to follow the plot of its source material: Miles “Pudge” Halter (Charlie Plummer) enrolls at boarding school and falls in love with Alaska Young, played by The Society standout Kristen Froseth. When an unexpected tragedy occurs, Miles and his friends try to make sense of what they’ve been through. It’s a traditional coming-of-age plot—one that will hopefully be elevated to something special by the experienced minds behind the project, not to mention the promise of a limited series event with a definitive beginning, middle, and end.

read more about Looking for Alaska here

Modern Love

Release Date: October 18

Anthology series are all the rage right now, and as long as they’re here to stay, they might as well be good. Thankfully, all indications are that Amazon Prime’s Modern Love will be a worthwhile entry into the format.

Modern Love is based on a recurring New York Times column of the same name in which readers submit their own tales of finding, keeping, and/or losing love in the modern world. This first season will contain eight unrelated episodes and will feature a murderer’s row of onscreen talent that includes Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, Catherine Keener, Tina Fey, Dev Patel, Andrew Scott, Christin Milioti, Gary Carr, John Slattery, and more. 

Love’s not dead quite yet. At least not on Amazon Prime.

read more about Modern Love here

Castle Rock

Release Date: October 23

After a bit of a slow start, the first season of Hulu's Castle Rock became every bit the joyous Stephen King Easter egg hunt that King fans hoped it would be. Now for Castle Rockseason 2, the show is set to double down on bringing in important pieces of the Stephen King extended universe.

read more: Castle Rock Ending Explained

That's right, dirty birds, Annie Wilkes is coming to Castle Rock. The legendary Misery baddie immortalized by Kathy Bates will be a main character in Castle Rock season 2 and will be played by Lizzy Caplan. In addition to Annie Wilkes, Castle Rock season 2 will introduce an entirely new set of characters for the anthology series to tell the story of two warring clans in upper New England. All in all, this sounds like Fargo season 2 by way of Stephen King and there is nothing wrong with that.

read more about Castle Rock season here

Watchmen

Release Date: October

There are many fans of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ all-time comic book classic Watchmen who fear the idea of a continuation of the Watchmen universe. Chief among those voices is Mr. Moore, himself, who is famously against any and all adaptations of his work. The fact that he won’t have the tacit support of the story’s original creator is something that HBO’s Watchmen creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof still wants to come to terms with.

“I don’t think that I’ve made peace with it,” Lindelof told the gathered journalists at the Summer 2019 TCA press tour. “And that’s the way that he would want it, too. Alan Moore is a genius in my opinion; the greatest writer in the comic medium and maybe one of the greatest writers of all time. He’s made it very clear that he doesn’t want to have any association or affiliation with Watchmen ongoing. And that we not use his name to get people to watch it, which I want to respect.

read more - Watchmen HBO Series: Plot Details Revealed

With or without Moore’s endorsement (and again: it’s VERY much without), HBO’s Watchmen will pay homage to the original in many ways. This spiritual sequel takes place in the Watchmen universe’s version of 2019. Robert Redford has been president for decades, local police departments wear masks and in many cases adopt the appearance of masked vigilantes, and a group of white nationalist terrorists have taken up the mantle and identify of long-dead antihero Rorschach.

“I think that when it comes to Rorschach, there is a meta idea that is embedded in the show that we’re writing about appropriation,” Lindelof said. “We understand that we’re appropriating the original Watchmen and that characters in the show are appropriating iconic ideas like the Rorschach mask from the original Watchmen.”

Regina King, Don Johnson, Time Blake Nelson, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, and more all play new and old faces within the Watchmen universe as Lindelof’s show tries to answer that old question in the context of a new world: “who watches the Watchmen?”

read more about Watchmen here

The Mandalorian

Release Date: November 12

Even with the Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm libraries alone, Disney+ was bound to be a good deal at $6.99 a month. Still, the pop culture machine craves new content and when Disney's monolithic new streaming service was happy to provide. When Disney+ premieres on November 12, it's going to premiere an intriguing new Star Wars original series along with it. 

read more - Star Wars: How The Mandalorian Evokes A New Hope

Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian takes Boba Fett's Mandalorian-style armor that everyone loves and puts it on a mysterious new character, an unnamed Mandalorian bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) working on the outskirts of the galaxy following the fall of the First Galactic Empire. With Gina Carano, Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Bill Burr, Omid Abtahi, and Werner Herzog all along for the ride, The Mandalorian looks to be a stylish Western in a galaxy far, far away. 

read more about The Mandalorian here

The Crown

Release Date: November 17

The Crown’s concept has always been tremendously ambitious. It seeks to tell the story of Queen Elizabeth II’s life…and that is a long, long, long long life. Show creator Peter Morgan has made the plan very clear in a refreshingly candid way. The Crown will last 60 episodes spread out over six seasons, with actors being recast every two seasons.

It’s a fascinating approach to telling an important public figure’s entire life story but that approach will face its toughest challenge yet in The Crown season 3. Season 3 represents the first of the two planned grand casting realignments. Olivia Colman will take over the title role from Claire Foy while Tobias Menzes takes Prince Philip from Matt Smith and Helena Bonham Carter steps in for Princess Margaret from Vanessa Kirby.

Will The Crown still feel like The Crown with almost an entirely new cast? Tune in and find out.

read more about The Crown season 3 here

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Release Date: December 6

“Worlds will live. Worlds will die. And nothing will ever be the same.”

That was the tagline of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the comic book event series that redefined what fans thought was possible for superhero storytelling and set the tone for all big comic book crossovers to follow.

It's hard to bring everything that's on the page and adapt it to the screen, but they're doing a really good job of that,” LaMonica Garrett, who plays the Monitor, tells us. “Without going too far into details, they're trying to stick as close to the comic book as possible. And that's hard to do.”

read more: Justice League, Crisis, and the Future of the DC Universe

The comic book story brought together DC heroes from different realities to combat a threat to the multiverse. The conflict would reshape reality. The TV version will take a similar approach, uniting not only the current shows of the Arrowverse, but other beloved elements of DC media in an approach tested out during last year’s Elseworlds crossover when John Wesley Shipp reprised his role as Barry Allen from the 1990 The Flash TV series. In this year’s crossover, Brandon Routh will return to the role of the Man of Steel for the first time since 2006’s Superman Returns and Kevin Conroy, the beloved voice of the Dark Knight on Batman: The Animated Series, will appear in live action as a future version of Bruce Wayne.

While there are probably more surprises in store, one thing is certain: “nothing will ever be the same.”

read more about Crisis on Infinite Earths here

The Expanse

Release Date: December 13

There was a dark time when it looked like we wouldn't get a fourth season of The Expanse, one of the most vital shows on TV, then Amazon swooped in to save it, following Syfy's cancellation and a massive fan-run campaign. Now, we're looking at 

“One of the things that seems pretty clear: it’s going to be another blood-soaked gold rush that’s about to happen," showrunner Naren Shankar told EW following the show's renewal, "because you’ve got an entire species and several societies that have defined themselves on the fact that the solar system is all they’ve got, that those resources are what they have.” 

Based off the events of the fourth installment in James S.A. Corey's The Expanse book series (Cibola Burn), Season 4 will take the crew of the Roci into humanity's new frontier: Naomi, Holden, Amos, and Alex will be setting off on a U.N. mission to explore the new worlds beyond the Ring Gates, the first step of a new world for humanity, which is now faced with the opportunity to explore thousands of Earth-like planets.

"I'm really excited that we are now with somebody who has the kind of weight that Amazon does because I think the show is worthy of that in what it represents across the board," Dominique Tipper (Naomi) told us at SDCC. "I just want it to go further. I wonder if the little kids that grew up how a lot of us on the show grew up have seen it yet. I don't know if they have and I didn't know what it would do for them."

We're about to find out.

read more about The Expanse season 4 here

Marvel's Runaways

Release Date: December 13

Have you heard the news? Cloak and Dagger are showing up on RunawaysSeason 3, which makes this the perfect time to catch up on the Marvel TV show about a group of teenage friends who discover their parents are secretly villain-ing together and try to save the world from them before its too late.

"It’s so fun being able to do something that revels in the Mighty Marvel Manner!" said Jeph Loeb, Executive Producer and Head of Marvel Television, of the big crossover event. "Having these young heroes crossover allows fans of both shows to see the adventure everyone has been waiting for and we’ve only hinted at." 

By Season 2, which ended in December, the Runways have officially, um, run away. The end of the season sees the teen found family split up, and the 10-episode third season will see them searching for their captured friends Chase, Gert, and Karolina, as well as facing off against an enemy who is after Leslie and her unborn baby. When Nico brings them into the dark realm, the group faces off against Morgan le Fay, played by new cast member Elizabeth Hurley.

read more about Runaways season 3 here

Harley Quinn

Release Date: Fall 2019

We’ve seen the first episode of DC Universe’s Harley Quinn animated series and let us assure you, it is way filthier, bloodier, and more genuinely hilarious than anything you’ve ever seen associated with a superhero. The show’s animation style wouldn’t be out of place in a “traditional” animated adventure set in Gotham City, but it’s anything but. Instead, think of Harley Quinn like an old Hollywood screwball comedy, add a healthy dose of Looney Tunes freneticism, and stir in more f-bombs per minute than the firstRoboCop movie and about the same amount of blood.

The show boasts a spectacular voice cast that includes Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn, Christopher Meloni as an over-caffeinated and incredibly nervous Commissioner Gordon, Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as the Joker, Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor, not to mention Jason Alexander, Tony Hale, JB Smoove, and more.

So if you’ve been waiting your entire life to hear Harley Quinn dismissively refer to the Dark Knight as “a guy who fucks bats,” then your prayers have been answered.

read more about Harley Quinn here

You want Sailor Moon cast interviews? Oh, you’re gonna get ‘em, because we got a chance to speak with the Sailor Guardians from the original Season 1 cast all the way up through Sailor Stars, the final season of Sailor Moon, the first volume of which is now available from VIZ Media.

In this free-for-all, we’ve got five Sailors on the docket. In accordance with the Sailors’ debut queue, we start with Cristina Vee, who has rocked a pair of scarlet high heels for the last five years as Sailor Mars.

DEN OF GEEK: You were part of the original power trio that started it all, debuting only ten episodes into a 200-episode run. What has it been like experiencing the cast grow and change over the years? Do you ever get nostalgic for the more intimate interpersonal dynamics of early season one or do you prefer the bigger, ensemble feel of having the full team in play?

CRISTINA VEE: I will always have a soft spot for the first season and R. It focused so much on self-discovery and romance. The upside to adding new characters and cast members was making new friends!! It’s also great to have such a diverse group of characters. I feel like everybody could relate to at least one Guardian.

Look into the flames. Do you think Rei ends up with Yuuichirou, someone else, or does she commit herself exclusively to her calling to serve her princess and eventual queen? 

CV: Gosh. I don’t think Rei met her match in the series... but maybe Yuuichiro will grow into his confidence. She has plenty of time to date and settle down if she likes. But she’s whole as she is.

Next up is Amanda Celine Miller, the thirstiest tomboy in superhero-dom (and my personal favorite Sailor Guardian) Sailor Jupiter.

Jupiter was the original powerhouse of the Sailor Guardians, but with the introductions of Uranus and Star Maker, she’s no longer the strongest or the tallest. What aspects of the character do you think have emerged to define her in the later seasons?

AMANDA CELINE MILLER: I think she's leaned into being the glue of the group and -- maybe others will disagree -- she's possibly the most relationally healthy and well-balanced of the Inner Guardians, modeling a positive influence and being a good sounding board for her friends. While she can lose her cool if you push the right buttons, for the most part, Mako is pretty even-keeled and when the girls want to assume the worst about someone, Mako's usually there to give another possible perspective and shed more understanding and empathy on the situation.

read more: The Essential Episodes of Sailor Moon R

While I as a person tend to be pretty cynical, guarded, and pessimistic, Mako usually wants to believe the best in people, and while sometimes that naïveté or vulnerability gets her heart broken (okay a lot) she doesn't let it jade her or keep her down for long and she dusts herself off and gets back in the ring.

You’ve been a Sailor Moon fan since you were a kid, watching episodes of the series in several languages. When you were first cast, you stated your goal was to draw from all of them to create a version of Makoto that honors your predecessors but stands on its own. Do you feel you’ve achieved that goal? 

ACM: I'd like to think so. It was less that I tried to consciously draw from them to create my portrayal and was more like, they've all just resided in my heart since childhood so I didn't actively try to be like anything, and simply allowed Mako's voice to channel through me however felt truest to who I knew her to be in my gut.

If you could learn to make the perfect version of any dish from Mako-chan, what would it be?

ACM: That bento box lunch, obvi.

Next up is Lauren Landa, the artist of the Sailor Guardians, Sailor Neptune.

Outside of a brief appearance in SuperS and SuperS: The Movie, the Outers have been out of the picture for a while. How do you think your character has changed in the interim?

LAUREN LANDA: I don't really see a very big change in Michiru (Neptune) honestly. She still has her values, and she still is loyal to her duty, but I do think she and Haruka (Uranus) have a little bit more trust and confidence in the other girls as opposed to before. However, I do think she still sees herself (and Uranus) as a little more mature and perhaps a little more experienced, therefore they still have the "we know what's best" mindset.

What do you think the Outers’ place in the story is now that the Starlights have filled the role of the enigmatic third party?

LL: I feel with the Starlights being in the story now, the Outers are simply part of the group now. Meaning they're all wondering who the Starlights are, and if they are a threat; so while they may not be around all the time, they still have their roles as the older Guardians (they also still need to make a cool entrance every now and then).

(L to R) Cristina Vee, Amanda Celine Miller, Lauren Landa

Heading into Sailor Stars, the final season, we welcome Erika Harlacher, who has stepped into the thigh-high vinyl boots of Sailor Star Maker.

Okay, we’re all adults here, but let’s be real. How many takes before you could say “Star Gentle Uterus” with a straight face? And what exactly do you think that attack does? It’s been twenty-five years, and I still have no idea.

ERIKA HARLACHER: Ha, just one! Though I did laugh a lot after. Everyone was like, “Are you cool with saying this?” and my reply was, “HECK YEAH! This is the best one!” Obviously I think it just shoots pure, concentrated womanly power at the bad guys. Women are super tough! But we can also be gentle as we rip you apart. Uh, that’s probably what it means, right?

Taiki is the first truly literate character in the show. Both Ami and Setsuna are hardcore intellectuals, but they’re more STEM kind of girls, whereas Taiki loves literature and poetry. What was it like to be occasionally spouting verse? Are you a poetry fan in real life?

EH: I’ve always really enjoyed poetry and literature - I’m pretty sure I was one of the only kids in my class who looked forward to the poetry part of English classes back in school. I’ve also studied a good bit of Shakespeare, and performed a few of his plays. So I had a great time with all of those lines! Maybe this is why Taiki and I were made for each other, we both like reciting poems that other people think are hard to follow. Ha.

Next up is Sarah Williams, the sharp-witted and acid-tongued Sailor Star Healer.

Yaten can be kind of rude and mean, but we have seen a kinder, gentler side, like with Luna. Why do you think Yaten effects such a prickly exterior?

SARAH WILLIAMS: I believe it's from a place of mistrust. They're on a planet where so many people claim to love them, but know nothing about the Starlights as people, and Yaten can't understand why anyone would act like that. But with Luna (who at the time he assumes is a normal cat), I think it's that sense that animals just take you as you are, and if they like you, it's for you, not whether you're some big star or famous person. So Yaten doesn't have to bother with a front or persona with Luna, and can just be themselves.

Not a lot of background is given on Yaten in the anime, but there’s a bit more character detail given in the manga. Did you draw on any of this to inform your performance of the character or did you just try to intuit what you could from the scripts you were given? 

SW: I was given a bit of background from my director, who described Yaten/Sailor Star Healer as someone with a kind of internalized PTSD and a lot of hurt from the past trauma involving their planet. I thought of the prickliness as a sort of shield for that wound.

And now for the lightning round: group questions!

Cristina and Amanda, as the main cast has grown, the supprting cast has faded into the background and mostly disappeared. What do you think Grandpa, Yuuichirou, Motoki, Naru, Umino, and Usagi’s family are up to these days?

CV: I feel like they are just blissfully ignorant, living normal everyday lives!

read more: The Essential Episodes of Sailor Moon Season 1

ACM: They've actually formed their own hero squad but for non-powered people doing regular practical things. So they make sure dog owners pick up their pets' crap, go door to door every couple months reminding people it's time to get their oil changed, and they also keep Grandpa away from teenage girls, so that's a public service in and of itself.

Looking back on the full run of the series, are there any aspects of your characters or perhaps the world of Sailor Moon in general that you’d like to have seen further explored?

CV: I would love for each Guardian to have their own arc. Maybe solo episodes. We’ve seen Sailor Moon’s story... let’s explore the others!

ACM: I'd love to have seen her get into a real relationship. Not that she'd fall in love per se (she's still so young) but for her to see that even if she gets what she thinks she wants, it won't solve all her problems and it would expose the ways she hasn't quite been there for herself emotionally, and maybe even cause her to seek out a bomb therapist she can work through her self-esteem and abandonment issues with (okay I may be projecting my own experience just a tad). Her parents died when she was young so that's enough to screw anyone up. I think it would've been interesting if the show delved more into her past and the effect that such incredible loss and growing up alone would have on a kid and how it shaped her need and ability (or inability) to form deep, loving relationships and connections.

read more: The Sailor Moon/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Connection

She obsessively still thinks about her ex and puts him on an undeserved pedestal, and dreams of a knight in shining armor to come save her, but everyone disappoints us eventually, no one can live up to the fantasy of perfection or can save us from ourselves (especially not emotionally unavailable exes who can't love themselves let alone you). I think being in a relationship and realizing it's not the end-all-be-all or something she should hinge all her hopes and dreams on would be a huge reality check and launch her on the path to exponential growth, and I'd love to see who she'd be once she truly grew into herself and her potential and bolstered her self-esteem and self-love, regardless of whether a partner was in the picture or not.

Having now been through all five seasons of Sailor Moon, which was our favorite to record? Which is your favorite to watch?

CV: I loved recording Stars. I’ve been waiting so long to see it dubbed, and I felt fully confident with Rei and I knew I could hit those key emotional scenes.

ACM: Surprisingly even though I remember having so much fear at the time (because I didn't want to let this character or her fans down), looking back, I'd say the first season was my favorite to record because we were discovering who this version of Mako was, what she sounded like, finding what I brought to her, etc. While my favorite season tone and story-wise is S, I love watching Stars because it was this legendary "forbidden" thing growing up, and I don't think anyone thought there'd be a dub, so to hear the Starlights and Galaxia and everyone in English is so cool. The fact that it's me and some of my dearest friends bringing this long-awaited dub to life? That's pretty damn magical.

Lauren and Cristina, despite being the “mystics” of their respective factions, Mars and Neptune haven’t had a lot of one-on-one scenes together, but in the opening arc of Sailor Stars you’re paired up for two episodes. What was it like seeing your characters interact, and what other pairings would you have liked to see for yourselves or other characters?

CV: Oh boy. Their energy together was a bit awkward! I’m glad they found their stride in the end. I would love to hang out with Hotaru. I don’t think I said a word to her in the series, but Christine [Marie Cabanos] is a sister to me IRL and we need more scenes together!!

LL: It was definitely interesting to see Mars and Neptune interact in the beginning of Sailor Stars. I think of them like fire and water (no pun intended). When you think about it their personalities really match their elements. You have Mars who has a lot of spirit and can definitely be fiery at times, and then you have Neptune who most of the time is very calm.

Ever since I saw Sailor Stars a long time ago, I've always considered that it was interesting putting those two together to fight as a team. Mainly because while the main five Sailor Guardians have had their moments with the Outer Sailor Guardians, they've never had one-on-one time at all really. Certainly not against an enemy. So in a very strange way I feel like this was a moment for Mars and Neptune to honestly get to know each other. What better time than when you have to work together?

Erika and Sarah, you guys are the new kids on the block (boy band reference completely intended). What’s it like coming into the final act of such a long-running saga with so much of the story resting on your shoulders?

EH: It’s so great to be a part of this show, and in the final arc? Even better! I was so excited because that meant I was going to get to be a part of the finale, which, wow, is pretty intense. I did feel a little pressure to live up to such an amazing series, so I remember being pretty nervous before my first session, but once we got into things it was really fun. I hope I measured up to the rest of the incredible cast and did this final arc justice!

SW: A dream come true, and an honor. Sailor Moon was my childhood, and I couldn't believe I was being trusted with such an important character.

Despite only appearing in the final season, the Starlights are such a beloved part of the Sailor Moon canon. Why do think they’ve made such an impact?

EH: Hey, they’re a hot boy band and also a kick-ass group of superhero women - what’s not to love?! But really, I think they have a very meaningful storyline and are complex characters that fans are able to connect with. Each of the Starlights gets their moment to shine in this final arc, and they’re written in such a way that even when they’re not on Sailor Moon’s side, those watching can understand where they’re coming from. Really it’s just a testament to the amazing storytelling of this show, all the way through to the final episodes.

SW: The introduction of any new Sailor Guardians was pretty monumental to me. I remember as a kid being elated when new fighters came to the show, and what they would add to the group's dynamic. And yet they feel different from the previous Sailor Guardians, from clothing to how their gender/personas are addressed to their motivations. They cause quite a shake up! :)

It’s subtle, but you pitch your voices a little lower in your male forms. Was this intentional or intuitive, and whose idea was it?

EH: Yes of course, that was part of the audition - we were told to do a “male” version of the audition lines, and a “female” version. They wanted them similar enough that someone listening could tell they were the same person, but distinct enough that someone could also tell which form they were in during each scene. Taiki is at the very bottom of my range, while Sailor Star Maker is a bit more of my natural voice. We also had to sing “Happy Birthday” as a man in our audition - I worked for a really long time on that! I’ve done a lot of singing in my day but never as a man until now. Guess I can check that off my bucket list!

SW: I believe it was intended from the audition stage that the Starlights would have slightly different tones between civilian form and Starlight form.

This is the first time Sailor Stars had been dubbed into English professionally. The Starlights and Animamates don’t have any previous English language performances for comparison, so you’re putting your handprints in the cement of these characters. Do you find it freeing or is it just more pressure to get it right?

EH: I love being the first English voice. Since there’s no one else to compare it to, it does feel a little more freeing. Though, I’ve played characters that have had previous English voices before, and there’s never really been a time when we used any previous performance to influence what we were doing, but it is nice to know that I’m bringing something to life for the first time. On the other hand though, I definitely did feel pressure, if only because it was such a complex and different type of character. As mentioned, the Starlights are very beloved, and I didn’t want to let anyone down! I hope the fans who could only imagine them speaking in English for so many years were satisfied.

SW: Both? It's nice with any dubbing if I can get close to the original voice, but in the end, the only person who will ever be a perfect match is the original voice actor. Since I'm me, my goal is to do right by the character the best I can, rather than trying to copy a past performance. The pressure for me came more from stepping into such an iconic role.

Did you find it challenging to play male characters, or did it not really phase you since they’re really just women in disguise? Do you think living as boys and performing that gender changed Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten or their perception of the world at all? Or do you think it really didn’t make a difference for them?

EH: I’ve played male characters before, including one that was almost an adult man like the Starlights, so I felt pretty good about it from the start. We tried to stray away from them just “pretending” to be men because we wanted them to sound like men, so in my mind when they were on earth, I WAS playing a man, not a woman in disguise. I honestly don’t really think the gender they chose changed any perspective they would have had about the world - gender is fluid, after all. They’re people experiencing people.

SW: I have voiced males before, so this the challenge came more from keeping in voice when switching back and forth. I think for them, gender doesn't really enter into it. Presenting as male is a means to an end, and I'm not sure it really matters to the Starlights what you see them as beyond how it benefits their ultimate goal. Maybe even that the fuss about it is a bit silly.

This one’s for everyone. Sailor Moon has been LGBTQ-friendly from the word go, making the occasional misstep but being supportive overall of the community. While the genderbending in SailorStars was mainly intended as a plot device, it sparked a lot of conversation about gender and gender identity not just in the Sailor Moon fandom but in anime fandom on the whole. With trans and gender issues being such a hot topic in the current cultural conversation, what role do you think something like Sailor Stars has played in shaping that conversation?

CV: I’m glad that they tackled it the way that they did. It’s true that they made some missteps, but it’s still refreshing that they didn’t make a huge deal out of it. They are who they are, and they were accepted as such. This season wrapped at such an important time. I hope that new viewers are excited about the Star Lights and that it helps push the new way of inclusivity not only in our media, but in our everyday lives as well.

AM: I think the jury’s still out on this one. I've heard firsthand how many LGBTQ kids were affected by seeing Haruka and Michiru's relationship on-screen and it made them feel so represented and seen which was such a revolutionary thing for the 90s. Also Haruka (and to some extent Mako) was the first character I'd seen as a kid who modeled some form of bucking gender norms and being unapologetically like "sometimes I like wearing pretty skirts, other times I wear tuxedos and race cars, but you don't get to label me or decide what I am, how I identify, or what I like.” So now that it's released and more readily available to a broader audience, I'm excited to see how Sailor Stars continues to shape the conversation. But I think it definitely already says something about how far we've come as a society from 1996 when Stars first came out to now, that we're finally in a place where we can dub it and not have to censor anything and leave the story and characters in their original format. More conversation still needs to be had certainly, but it's definitely a sign we're moving forward.

LL: You know, I couldn't exactly say what kind of role Sailor Stars has had in the conversation/topic! However I truly hope it's positive. I support the LGBTQ community, and I believe that the entirety of Sailor Moon has a beauty to it that can be shared with everyone.

EH: Well, I hope that the Sailor Starlights are viewed positively by LGBTQ+ fans, as we did our best to play them genuinely and honestly. To me, the Starlights are gender fluid and choose to present themselves as both men and women, depending on the situation. I really like that the show doesn’t make a huge deal about it once their identities are revealed, and the other characters seem to respect their chosen pronouns when they’re in either form. They’re treated normally, because they are normal. Sailor Moon was creating strong, honest characters long before the rest of the world caught up, and it is a real honor to give one of those characters a voice.

SW: I like that it was another voice in presenting LGBTQ issues and people as just a normal part of the story. From the Starlights to Neptune and Uranus and other examples throughout the show, it seemed like generally it was normal, without a lot of the prejudices you'd expect in the real world. Neptune and Uranus are together and the reaction is that they're so wonderful and suited to each other. Haruka likes to dress more masculine on occasion, and no one bats an eye; if anything, she's seen as cool and mature. The Starlights switching between civilian and Sailor Guardian form seems only shocking when the secret is initially revealed, but not really because they were switching between male and female forms. It was just how these characters were, and it was nice to see the cast around them accept them as such.

That should be more than enough to chew on, but if you’re chomping at the bit to hear these ladies’ performances for yourself,Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars Vol. 1 is available in stores and online at VIZ.com. As with the previous four seasons of Sailor Moon, this set is the first of two, available in DVD, a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, or a limited edition collectors set, featuring a chipboard box with holographic foil, a cardboard placeholder for Volume 2 to go when it’s released, and an in-depth guide booklet that covers the entire season.

The Leftovers wrapped its final season to wild critical acclaim, so Damon Lindelof is sticking around HBO to develop a Watchmen TV series.

Watchmen is finally getting the prestige cable drama that fans have wanted for as long as prestige cable drama has been a thing. This has been in the works for quite some time, and HBO has ordered the pilot to series.

Nicole Kassell is directing the pilot and executive producing alongside Lindelof, Tom Spezialy, Stephen Williams (who will also direct), and Joseph Iberti. 

This is very real, folks. Here's everything else we know so far...

Watchmen HBO TV Series Release Date

Watchmen will premiere on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 9 pm on HBO.

Watchmen HBO TV Series Trailer

This new trailer for Watchmen reveals a surprising amount of information, including the return of Dr. Manhattan! Take a look:

Watch the first, eerie trailer for HBO's Watchmen TV series here!

We broke down all of the weird clues and callbacks to the original story right here.

Watchmen HBO TV Series Story

Lindelof's vision appears unrelated to a Watchmen series discussed by Zack Snyder (who directed the film version) and HBO back in 2015. It's not clear how far those particular talks got, or what the actual plan for it was. 

Lindelof offered some ambiguous answers to what this show is actually going to be about in a five page open letter to fans posted on Instagram last year. In it, he adopts a familiar, Watchmen-esque device of jumping around in timelines, telling simultaneously his story of his own introduction to and love for the source material, and his journey to becoming a showrunner for it. He also gives hints about what shape the series will take. It's still a little obscure, but this is as close to a statement of intent as we get:

"We have no desire to 'adapt' the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago," Lindelof wrote. "Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted."

This is where things get a little murkier, though...

"They will, however, be remixed," he continued. "Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we'd be fools not to sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along it did not erase what came before it...it all happened. And so it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica. To be clear, Watchmen is canon. Just the way Mr. Moore wrote it, the way Mr. Gibbons drew it and the way the brilliant John Higgins colored it."

You'll note that there's not a word about the film adaptation in all of this. Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation has its defenders, and visually it's certainly faithful enough to the comics, but it was admittedly limited by the constraints of a movie runtime. A TV series has considerably more freedom.

But, Lindelof also cautions "we are not making a 'sequel' either," he wrote. "This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built...but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original...It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary."

He goes on to point out that just as the original was a product of the '80s and the Reagan/Thatcher era, while this one "will resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin." It's not an "end of the world" story, either.

With this new setting will come new characters, although it's interesting that he says that "SOME (emphasis mine) of the characters will be unknown."

We have some clues about it all here.

Watchmen TV Series Cast

And playing those "unknown" characters? It's quite a cast. Here's the full list, as it stands right now...

Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith, and Adelynn Spoon.

Based on the footage HBO revealed, it appears that Jeremy Irons is playing Adrian Veidt. We have more on that right here. You can also spot Jean Smart in that footage, as well.

Deadline revealed that Hong Chau (Downsizing) will play a character known as "Lady T." No other details are currently available, other than the character's nationality is Vietnamese.

read more: Game of Thrones Season 8: Everything You Need to Know

James Wolk (Mad Men) has a "major recurring role" which Deadline describes as "a junior senator from Omaha."

Deadline also has word that Dustin Ingraham (Sun Records) has a "key recurring role." No other details are available at this time.

No details are currently available about the characters, although That Hashtag Show scored some extensive character breakdowns early on. Among them are characters with names like "Red Scare" and "Pirate Jenny" which would seem to indicate that these are code names for superheroes or villains (but again, with breakdowns like these, anything is possible), and others that are just "ordinary" names.

Watchmen TV Series Characters

The official Watchmen Instagram acount has been giving us our first look at a mysterious character from the series, as well as hints that Doctor Manhattan may be involved in some capacity. And...is that the Black Freighter?

We'll continue to update this as more information becomes available.

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Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.