John Wayne Gacy remains the stuff of nightmares, a symbol of evil with the dress-up-like-a-clown twist to ensure his enduring place in the true-crime genre. "Conversations With a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes" finds the wispiest hook to add to that filmography, drawing from 60 hours of unearthed audio sprinkled throughout this three-part Netflix docuseries.
The argument about limited series receiving questionable second seasons gets two more pretty stark examples for the "Quit while you're ahead" column this week, with "The Flight Attendant" experiencing a bumpy takeoff on HBO Max and "Russian Doll" unraveling a strange new template on Netflix.
Leonardo DiCaprio has made the climate crisis and environmental conservation his life's work -- mainly off screen, though sometimes on. In addition to leading his own environmental foundation, the film star sits on the board of several other organizations, and his advocacy has been celebrated by the United Nations.
"Black-ish" crammed a lot into its series finale, from a callback to its premiere to a cameo by gymnast Simone Biles, from moving out of the family's house -- and the memories that elicited -- to a raucous New Orleans-style funeral. But it was the last scene that really sold the episode, offering a reminder of a show that consciously sought to raise the bar for the network sitcom.
Setting a high bar for HBO's upcoming "The White House Plumbers," "Gaslit" looks at Watergate from the perspectives of several key players, deriving its title from the horrid treatment of Martha Mitchell. Losing a bit of momentum down the stretch thanks in part to its diffused storylines and semi-satirical tone, it's still an extremely well-cast look at the presidential scandal that made the suffix "gate" part of our lexicon.
Spoiler warning: At the end of "The Batman," director Matt Reeves has a scene where Paul Dano's The Riddler is at Arkham Asylum, sharing a cell with an "Unseen Arkham Prisoner" with a distinct laugh.
As Jennifer Grey promotes her forthcoming memoir, "Out of the Corner," she is speaking out about multiple topics, including her two rhinoplasty surgeries.
Composer Danny Elfman perforned an unusual show at Coachella over the weekend, with a set list that included the "Simpsons" theme and a song from "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
This week brings a second season of "Russian Doll," but in a sense, the true TV version of a Russian nesting doll is "Better Call Saul," deftly adding one more layer each year as it has approached the outer shell that was "Breaking Bad." The beginning of the final season brings the AMC series a few steps closer to its endgame, with tantalizing clues but scant clarity about these final pieces.
