Movies & TV Peacemaker Peacemaker Throws a Party in “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird” You mean you don’t subject yourself to orgies in the name of friendship? By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on August 29, 2025 Image: Warner Bros. Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Warner Bros. Is it true friendship if someone won’t dispose a body with you? (The answer is no, by the way…) Recap Image: Warner Bros. When Rick Flagg Sr. is put in charge of A.R.G.U.S. eight months previous, he asks Economos for the file on his son’s death and learns that Peacemaker killed him. He immediately orders around the clock surveillance on him. In the present, Peacemaker is trying to clean up his alt-universe body, and cries in the shower while scrubbing off blood. He makes a call to a friend for a bandsaw. The next morning, Adebayo goes to her ex-wife’s apartment to get her old haircare, and they have a conversation about their breakup. Adebayo clearly doesn’t believe it’s a real thing, and tells Keeya (Elizabeth Ludlow) she loves her as she leaves. Harcourt is at the local pharmacy and gets approached by a woman who assumes she’s battered; she shouts her down. Economos gets a new partner in Langston Fluery (Tim Meadows), who has secretly been advised to break into Peacemaker’s once everyone’s gone for the night. In the meantime, Adrian shows up to Chris’ house with a kit to help Chris clean up the alt-universe body. He’s hurt that he wasn’t invited to the orgy, though (because that’s valuable bonding time). They cut up alt-Peacemaker’s body and incinerate it. Chris ends up with the alt-version’s phone and finds and entire folder of pictures with the other him and Harcourt, seemingly having a lovely romantic relationship. While the 11th Street Kids meet on Harcourt’s roof for a party, Fluery takes an A.R.G.U.S. team to sweep Chris’ house and they’re all attacked by Eagly. One of them loses an eye, so they head to the hospital. During the party, Chris attempts to ask Harcourt about her injuries, noting that she seems to go to rough spots looking for trouble. He’s worried about her, which Harcourt finds detestable; she feels it’s Chris trying to make them seem alike, which she’s determined not to be. Adebayo talks to Economos, noting that he seems depressed and advising him to get another job. He insists that he can’t and also that his life-long issues with anxiety mean he’s unlikely to change. Chris goes home drunk and tries to send a text to the alt-universe Emilia Harcourt. It doesn’t work, so he heads through the quantum room to the other universe and hears his dad in the house, clearly looking for the alternate version of him. Emilia texts back a greeting and a broken heart emoji. Commentary Image: Warner Bros. This is episode is largely about getting folks where they need to be, but it’s got a few excellent little windows into specific dynamics and abilities, namely, Eagly getting to show off his action skills. The reflexive cringe whenever people have guns around an animal never goes away—though trying to fire a shotgun at a bird will never not be funny—but it was such a blast to watch Eagly do his thing. Though I find myself curious as to whether this is pure instinct or something he was trained on. (Do we think that we’ll ever find out how Chris ended up with a pet eagle?) After that action sequence, you cannot convince me that Eagly doesn’t hear the music cues in their soundtrack. While Adebayo’s difficulties on the home front seem to be getting some attention, I feel the need to point out that Harcourt and Adebayo hang out on their own—according to what Economos is told at the end of the episode—and the show refusing to let us see one of those hangouts is criminal? (Looks like we might get one of those scenes in an upcoming episode, but they better do more than talk about Chris.) I want to know what they do together! It’s nice that we’ve moved out of the realm where so much television is weird about women having friendships, but we still need to see those friendships. It would also be great for the show to let Harcourt hang out with anyone who isn’t romantically interested in her for an extended period. While it’s true that her protestations against Chris attempting to care for her are bound up in her fear of being remotely similar to him, she’s also right that love isn’t going to fix what she’s going through. Let her figure out friends first! They’re the more important part of building a life and community for yourself. Rick Flag Sr.’s arc here has the potential to be interesting if they bother to dig into his grief, but the convenience of these plots is always a little baffling. Sure, you’d put this guy in charge after his son was killed by one of the agency’s agents. And no one is going to check in about it. That makes sense. He’s ordered around the clock surveillance on said agent, and nothing will get bumped up to a higher authority, or questioned all that much. As a side note, it’s amusing that we have the sort of casting kerfuffle that normally only applies to women here—getting someone to play an actor’s parent when there’s not enough of an age gap to support that relation. Grillo is only fourteen years older than Joel Kinnaman, so the idea of him being his dad is a little silly. But most important, as a mentioned at the top: Friendships are only as good as someone’s unflinching desire to dispose of a corpse with you. I did hazard a guess last season that Adrian was asexual and only hanging out for sexual acts because he likes to be included, so the discussion over the orgy was vindicating on multiple fronts. The read we get in this episode makes perfect sense; Adrian thinks that sex is for bonding with friends. Which is adorable. (He clearly thinks that bodies are kinda gross when they’re not his own, from some combination of germophobia and other generalized discomfort. The fact that he’s willing to overlook those issues and his own disinterest in sex in the service of friendship is a big deal!) He’s clearly more comfortable with the bandsaw, though. And with stripping down to his underwear to get covered in beer. (Maybe he assumed Orgy Part Two was impending…) And now Chris is going to take a step further down the alternate reality well, all because he saw some nice pictures and videos of himself and Emilia and alt-him’s phone. Oh, buddy. That’s not going to fix anything. Keeping the Peace (Thoughts and Asides) Image: Warner Bros. This is obviously not the point, but if this group of five can get absolutely wasted off two cases of Bud Light, they’re all sporting very average human tolerances and I appreciate the realism. (It’s a lot of beer, but light beers have a lower alcohol content! That’s what makes them light.) I expect that Chris had about sixteen, but even so. Again with the hints about the other universe. We hear the other Auggie talking about how Chris is disappearing more often than usual (not knowing that he’s dead, obviously). It’s not all sparkly and perfect over there, and I can’t wait to find out how. Sometimes I think about how Eagly is “voiced” by Dee Bradley Baker and get happy all over again. Sometimes I also think about the fact that my mom insisted on calling our family’s pet bird “Birdie Birdie” and how that’s certainly not relevant in the discussion of How Pets Get Named. See you next week… [end-mark] The post Peacemaker Throws a Party in “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird” appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV The Toxic Avenger The Toxic Avenger Is the Hero We Need Right Now Toxie is back to mop up all of society’s ills. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on August 29, 2025 Credit: Troma Entertainment Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Troma Entertainment Speaking as both a former janitor and a current film critic, The Toxic Avenger is pretty much everything I want it to be. This is a fun, gross, slapstick splatterpunk satire—splatire?—about the intersection between capitalism, for-profit healthcare, and the destruction of our environment—and it’s also about becoming a MUTATED FOLK HERO WHO DISPENSES BRUTAL JUSTICE, and it’s a great time at the theater. If you like squicky horror comedy, you should see the unrated version as soon as you can. Winston Gooze is a janitor for BTH, a terrible company that spews toxic sludge into the environment with no remorse. Winston lives with his step-kid Wade, and it’s just the two of them since Wade’s mom, Sharon, died from cancer. Winston’s doing his best, but working in BTH’s Mop Shop doesn’t pay well, and there’s a teetering pile of bills from Wade’s therapy and grief counseling. Despite Winston’s best efforts, Wade is very aware of the bills. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that the plot is kicked off when Winston finds out he has a possibly terminal medical condition and can’t get treatment for it, even though he’s on his health insurance’s Platinum tier, since Platinum doesn’t also cover things on the Gold tier, even though Platinum is better and any reasonable person would think that the Gold stuff would be included when they signed up for Platinum, and it’s especially frustrating, after you’ve screamed “SPEAK TO AN AGENT!” at an automated voice over the phone for what feels like forever, to learn, in the end, that you’re fucked. But what’s he supposed to do, die and leave his grieving stepson alone in the world? So Winston makes a series of rash choices that lead to his transformation into The Toxic Avenger, a reasonably bulletproof green-skinned mutant with a detachable red eye and superstrength. Credit: Troma Entertainment In Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman’s original 1984 The Toxic Avenger, Melvin Ferd is a bullied, nerdy janitor at a health club who fights crime after toxic sludge gives him superstrength. The original was Troma Entertainment’s biggest hit, and resulted in a series of films and a kid-friendly cartoon. The new one is probably not kid-friendly. (I mean, I would have loved it, but I’m not always the best judge of this stuff.) The Toxic Avenger was written and directed by Macon Blair, an actor/director who has appeared in Blue Ruin and Green Room, and directed 2017’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, a dark comedy/ thriller that starred Elijah Wood and Melanie Lynskey. Blair has turned Toxie into even more of a working-class hero than he already was. He not only centers the environmental and healthcare stuff, but makes Winston’s relationship with his depressed step-kid the driving force of the plot. Along the way he celebrates a scrappy punk ethos, and updates the ‘80s-style “slobs vs. snobs” plot by making it “terminally ill janitor vs. slimy rich snake oil salesman”. Blair also makes sure that Winston is proud to be a janitor, which, speaking as a former janitor, made me glow even though I am not a mutant. AND, he found a way to keep the pink tutu as an integral part of Toxie’s uniform, but he gave him a really touching reason to wear it. The effects are fantastic—all glowing blue blood and gushing red blood and neon green waste and detachable eyeballs and flying rubber heads. Did I mention that Toxie’s urine is extremely corrosive? Or that there’s a mutated chicken that shows up to screech maniacally at key moments in the film? Credit: Troma Entertainment This is a film that lives and dies by the commitment of its people, and holy fuck is everyone committed. Peter Dinklage is fucking great as Winston Gooze, and as Winston/Toxie’s voice after he’s transformed. Luisa Guerreiro is great as Toxie in the excellent gross practical suit. Jacob Tremblay plumbs some emotional depth as Wade, and he continues to be one of my favorite young actors. Taylour Paige  is excellent as J.J. Doherty, the intrepid journalist who’s the closest thing the film has to a straight man—you have to have a little grounding in reality. Kevin Bacon continues his run of great work as drug-pushing villains in Toma-adjacent filmmaking. While I think Super’s Jacques is even worse than Bob Garbinger, Bob’s plenty bad. He portrays himself as a man of the people, dispensing supplements and alternative medicine to those who need it, but he’s actually just a superrich snake oil salesman who profits off the pain of those poorer than him. (Again, there’s not a lot of nuance here, but our society has rejected nuance, and this is what we’ve got to work with.) Elijah Wood is basically playing a shy, abused version of Danny DeVito’s Penguin. He just wants to manage his terrible Monstercore band, Killer Nutz, but nooo his brother Bob Garbinger keeps sending him out to “take care of” any pesky journalist who pokes around BTH. The Killer Nutz themselves are hilarious—one of them parkours into every situation, one of them speaks an inexplicable language that shows up as occult symbols in the subtitles, one of them is an enormous person with a chicken mask for a head—and their music fucking SUCKS. Credit: Troma Entertainment The Toxic Avenger isn’t my favorite thing Troma’s ever given us (that would be its U.S. distribution of Killer Condom, a dark queer German noir parody/AIDs parable featuring the titular condom, which was designed by HR Giger—I am not making one fucking word of that up) but I really enjoyed it. If I have a critique it’s that I wish the new Toxic Avenger was a little longer, and we got to see a bit more ground-level Toxic Avenging before the final battle with Bob Garbinger and his associates. I also have to say that this film, while gross, could have been even grosser. There are rumors that it took a while to find distribution because of the gore, but I’ll be honest—I’ve seen gorier. But this Toxie is so perfect for today’s world. The fight against environmental poisoning and for-profit healthcare is, unfortunately, more relevant today than it was in the early ‘80s. It’s also worth noting that the company behind The Toxic Avenger, Cineverse, has partnered with the non-profit Undue Medical Debt to put part of their profit toward erasing medical debt. I hate living in a capitalist hellscape, but I love watching a mutated vigilante decapitate people with mops. Credit: Troma Entertainment At one point a character says “We’ve already killed the planet”, but Toxie replies “Why fight if you don’t think you can win?!” And, well, yeah. We have to do what we can, and act like we can win, so we might as well celebrate cartoonish violence and rubber prosthetics while we’re at it. And I need to make it clear that while I’m digging into the serious themes of the film, because I’m a film critic, none of this will be at the top of your mind while you’re watching it. This is a movie where a character saves an obviously stuffed cat from traffic (causing a horrific multiple-car-and-bike accident) and someone offscreen yells “MUTHERFUCKER SAVED THE CAT!!!”. This is a film where a mutant in a pink tutu disembowels an incel at a fast food joint. A film where the storefront church across the street from Winston’s apartment is called the Additional Holy Redeemer Church. A place where the town’s name, St Roma’s Village, is always obscured in some way to read “Tromaville”. A film where almost everyone is a mutant by the end. I’ll also mention that between this and James Gunn’s Superman, fucking TROMA VETERANS are doing more for the citizens of this country than almost any elected official right now. They’re the ones who are standing up for journalism, the importance of caring for our environment, for stepdads who step up (and become superhuman mutants), and the power of empathy. This is a movie for the freaks, and it’s a fucking joy to watch.[end-mark] The post <em>The Toxic Avenger</em> Is the Hero We Need Right Now appeared first on Reactor.

News What to Watch What to Watch and Read This (Labor Day) Weekend: The “Thunderbolts* Was Surprisingly Good” Edition Plus Orphan Black with a side of French fries. By Molly Templeton | Published on August 28, 2025 Screenshot: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Marvel Studios If you, like the Reactor team, have a long weekend ahead of you, may it be full of relaxing times and perfect temperatures. If you are somewhere where it is going to be absurdly hot and you wish to stay indoors, here are a few ways you might amuse yourself while doing so. Or you could take a book to the beach! Either way, let’s pretend Labor Day isn’t the end of summer, okay? We’re not ready for that. Or at least I’m not. You do you (and don’t forget to call your reps). Give Tatiana Maslany Another Role Worthy of Her Talents!!! Clone Club, our time has come: Orphan Black arrives on Netflix on Monday. The ever-more-twisty mystery stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, who sees a woman who looks just like her step in front of a train. When Sarah investigates the life of that woman—a cop named Beth—she discovers even more versions of herself. Orphan Black is wonderful, impossible to sum up, occasionally ridiculous, and an incredible showcase for Maslany, who plays (among others) suburban housewife Alison, punky and troubled Sarah, murderous Helena, scientist Cosima, and corporate bitch Rachel. It’s an absolute crime that Maslany isn’t a superstar, given what she can do. She starred in She-Hulk (the entire cast of which is terribly underrated; also can we make Josh Segarra a star?) and had a run on Perry Mason, but it’s like no one knows what to do with her. At least not yet. She has a mysterious role in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and is starring in Osgood Perkins’ Keeper, so maybe the best is yet to come. In the meantime, I’ll be starting my Orphan Black rewatch immediately. In This House We Celebrate New Helen Oyeyemi Novels In SFF world, one novel has been getting much of the attention this week, but I would like to point out that there is … another. On Tuesday, we got a new novel from Helen Oyeyemi, A New New Me. The thing is, every Oyeyemi novel should be an Event. There ought to be parties with strange, nigh-incomprehensible themes and chaotic treats that inspire people to unlikely conversations. She is a national treasure in at least three or four nations.  And no, her books aren’t strictly speculative. (Though there is, in Parasol Against the Axe, a book that’s different for everyone who opens it, and Gingerbread looks to a fairy tale, and White is for Witching… well, you take my point.) They’re not strictly anything, which is part of what makes them so wonderful. A New New Me is about Kinga—or perhaps I should say Kingas, as there are seven of Kinga. One personality takes over each day of the week. You can immediately see how this might make solving a mystery difficult—such as the mystery of why there is a man tied up in Kinga’s pantry.  The mystery will not be the main focus of this novel, I’m certain; the focus is following Oyeyemi into the strange places only she can find, and through the beautiful sentences only she can write. In the Los Angeles Times, Ilana Masad called A New New Me Oyeyemi’s “weirdest and funniest yet — in the best way possible.” In The New Yorker, Katy Waldman called Oyeyemi’s style “style is equal parts mischievous, moony, and tart.” If these things appeal to you, well, you have your reading for the weekend.  The B-Team Turned A-Team: Thunderbolts* Is On Disney+ Now Thunderbolts* seems to have arrived on Disney+ with very little fanfare, which is a shame, because this oddball release is the most satisfying Marvel movie in years. A scrappy team-up that requires you to remember very little from previous Marvel outings, Thunderbolts* is hard to describe. Any attempt to sum up “what happens” makes the movie sound dour and ponderous. People have done bad things and they are very depressed about it! But, like, in a positive way? Eventually?  If you have ever liked a Marvel movie, you ought to watch this one, for Florence Pugh’s Yelena if for nothing else. (There is not enough Ghost in this film. That is one of my two main complaints. The other is spoilers.) Pugh is probably never going to get enough credit for making Yelena feel like a real, complex, messy-ass person, which she has done in everything from Black Widow (oy) to Hawkeye (the mac and cheese scene!!!) to Thunderbolts* and hopefully beyond. One small moment in this movie is my second favorite scene in a movie this year. (It’d be first, but nothing’s beating that party scene in Sinners.) I don’t want to spoil it, but it involves Yelena and the past, and a small gesture of love and forgiveness. Reader, I wept. At a Marvel movie. Is that not recommendation enough? Whose French Fries Are These? I need to preface this one with a brief warning: If you only want to read something with a fully satisfying ending, this is not the piece for you. But if you would like to read a diverting and somewhat surprising story about neighborly cooperation, french fries, and vague yet compelling scams, by all means, turn your attention to “The Great French Fry Mystery” and ask yourself: If small fast-food bags with the name “Rodolphe” were arriving every night on your neighbor’s porch, would you help them solve the mystery? That’s what Harley Rustad does—and documents—in this charming piece in Toronto Life.[end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read This (Labor Day) Weekend: The “<i>Thunderbolts*</i> Was Surprisingly Good” Edition appeared first on Reactor.

News Star Wars: Starfighter Star Wars: Starfighter Cast Adds Amy Adams, Flynn Gray, and More The Shawn Levy film has just started production in a galaxy far, far away. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 28, 2025 Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter is starting production today, and to celebrate the occasion, Lucasfilm announced who will be joining Ryan Gosling in the film’s cast, presumably on the light side of the Force. (We already know that Mia Goth and Matt Smith have joined the film in villainous roles.)  In addition to Gosling, Goth, and Smith, we now know that the movie will star Flynn Gray, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams. What roles they’ll be playing remains unknown, though Lucasfilm also released a very artsy black-and-white photo of Gosling and Gray, in character, sitting on a landspeeder on set (included below).  “I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter,” Levy said in a statement. “From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally. Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.” The movie is a standalone story in the franchise, and takes place roughly five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The studio has promised us that no Skywalkers will return in this film, and I’m holding them to that. (If Palpatine shows up, I will riot.) Star Wars: Starfighter is set to premiere in theaters on May 28, 2027. [end-mark] The post <i>Star Wars: Starfighter</i> Cast Adds Amy Adams, Flynn Gray, and More appeared first on Reactor.

News Robin Hood Sean Bean Doesn’t Look Happy to Be Here in New Robin Hood Teaser Trailer Bean plays the Sheriff of Nottingham in the MGM+ series. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 28, 2025 Screenshot: MGM+ Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: MGM+ There’s a Robin Hood television show heading to MGM+, and the series, deftly called Robin Hood, now has a teaser trailer and an official release date.  The series is described as having a “modern energy” though it takes place in olden times. It also boasts an impressive cast, including Jack Patten as Rob (short for Robin… Hood, I assume), Lauren McQueen as Marian, Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Lydia Peckham as Priscilla of Nottingham, Steven Waddington as the Earl of Huntingdon, and Connie Nielsen as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. The teaser trailer released today doesn’t give us much of that modern vibe, and, maybe I’m projecting, but it seems like the actors don’t seem that excited to be there. I could be wrong! Prove me wrong, Robin Hood! Here’s the official synopsis: From Lionsgate Television, Robin Hood brings a modern energy to the classic tale of the roguish outlaw hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, and the epic love story between him and a courageous and daring Marian. It is a smart, sweeping, romantic adventure that brings historical authenticity, psychological depth, and a heightened focus on the relationship between Rob and Marian to the beloved story. Following the Norman invasion of England, Rob—a Saxon forester’s son—and Marian, the daughter of a Norman lord—fall in love and work together to fight for justice and freedom. As Rob rises as the leader of a band of rebel outlaws, Marian infiltrates the power at court, as both work together to thwart royal corruption and bring peace to the land. The 10-episode series will launch with a special two-episode premiere on Sunday, November 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+, with episodes releasing weekly leading up to the season finale on Sunday, December 28, 2025. Check out the teaser below. [end-mark] The post Sean Bean Doesn’t Look Happy to Be Here in New <i>Robin Hood</i> Teaser Trailer appeared first on Reactor.