The Boys adds disclaimer following Trump assassination attempt / Dan Stevens to lead The Terror / Hulk Hogan to speak at the RNC
PLUS: Entourage turns 20: Has any hit TV series aged quite so radioactively?
The Boys renames Season 4's "Assassination Run" finale and adds a disclaimer in response to the Trump assassination attempt
The Season 4 finale, originally titled "Assassination Run," was written more than a year ago and filmed in 2023. But since it was released Thursday, five after the attempt on former President Donald Trump's life, the episode has been retitled to simply "Season Four Finale" with a "viewer discretion advised” warning at the beginning. “This episode contains scenes of fictional political violence. Any similarities to recent events are completely coincidental and unintentional,” reads the warning. In a statement, Amazon Prime Video said: "The season finale of The Boys contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump. The Boys is a fictitious series that was filmed in 2023, and any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys reject, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind."
Dan Stevens to lead The Terror: Devil in Silver
The third installment of AMC's The Terror horror anthology series, based on Victor LaValle novel The Devil in Silver, stars Steven as Pepper, described as “a working-class moving man who, through a combination of bad luck and a bad temper, finds himself wrongfully committed to New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital – an institution filled with the people society would rather forget. There, he must contend with patients who work against him, doctors who harbor grim secrets, and perhaps even the very Devil himself. As Pepper navigates a hellscape where nothing is as it seems, he finds that the only path to freedom is to face down the entity which thrives on the suffering within New Hyde’s walls – but doing so may prove that the worst demons of all live inside him.”
Dexter: Original Sin shares the first look at Patrick Gibson's young Dexter Morgan and Christian Slater as his father
The new Paramount+ and Showtime photos also show Molly Brown as Debra Morgan, Dexter's adopted sister.
The Flintstones animated sequel series Bedrock is no longer in the works at Fox
TVLine reports Bedrock, which was to star Stephen Root as Fred, Amy Sedaris as Wilma and executive producer Elizabeth Banks as Pebbles, is no longer in development. Plans for Bedrock were originally revealed in 2021. TVLine adds Fox is open to redeveloping the project at a later date.
Kennedy Center Honors to celebrate Francis Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater
They'll be honored in a ceremony on Dec. 8 that will air on CBS and Paramount+ on Dec. 23.
Hulk Hogan to speak on the final night of the Republican National Convention
The WWE wrestling icon has been added to tonight’s lineup, which will culminate with former President Donald Trump’s speech. Hogan and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance are both linked to billionaire Peter Thiel, who helped bankroll Vance's 2022 U.S. Senate candidacy and Hogan's defamation lawsuit that put Gawker out of business.
Fargo fans may have to wait a long time for Season 6
FX chairman John Landgraf tells Variety that FX's Alien prequel series will now be Fargo creator Noah Hawley's priority. “We’ve told him that assuming, as we hope, Alien: Earth is a returning television series, we want him to focus on at least writing two seasons of it before returning to a possible sixth season of Fargo," he says.
Entourage turns 20: Has any hit TV series aged quite so radioactively?
Entourage, which debuted on HBO on July 18, 2004 and ran eight seasons through 2011 plus a 2015 theatrical movie, "was more complicated than just money and sexism," says Louis Chilton. "To its detractors, Entourage is basically 'Toxic Masculinity: The Show' – with a fanatical worship of wealth, womanising and celebrity culture thrown in for good measure," says Chilton. "Outing oneself as an Entourage fan in this day and age is, in other words, quite the red flag. Based loosely on the life – or, rather, the lifestyle – of Mark Wahlberg (minus the history of racist hate crimes), Entourage was never quite a phenomenon. At the time HBO started airing the series, 20 years ago today, the US network was in the midst of a historic purple patch. Entourage overlapped with The Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, The Wire, and Curb Your Enthusiasm; compared to these shows, it was a crass and obnoxious interloper. Its reputation for misogyny has only snowballed in recent years, something not helped by sexual assault allegations lodged against ex-cast members Jeremy Piven, who played Vinnie’s foul-mouthed agent Ari Gold, and Kevin Connolly, who plays Vince’s best friend/manager Eric ‘E’ Murphy. (Both actors have denied the assault allegations.) That Entourage was deeply, transparently problematic is pretty much beyond dispute at this point. And yet, all these years later, it would be inaccurate to write off the series as merely an amalgam of its worst qualities. Often, apologists for Entourage will defend it from the same banal parapet: the dubious assertion that it is really a show about male friendship. In truth, it has little of value or nuance to say on the subject. Far more interesting is how Entourage explores the movie business – frequently, with a kind of insider-y skew…The series was generally astute in its understanding of the film industry and gave fans a fictionalised peep behind the scenes of, say, the difficulties of promoting a film on a talk show, or what it’s like to be in conflict with an ursine super-producer named, not-so-subtly, Harvey Weingard. More than this, though, Entourage touched upon something fundamental about the way we as a culture narrativise the film industry."
ALSO:
Here are 15 minor Entourage actors who later became famous, including Gal Gadot, Joey King and Sofia Vergara
David Attenborough to partner with National Geographic for the first time on a documentary exploring the health of the world oceans
The 98-year-old historian will present and write Nat Geo's David Attenborough: Ocean, a feature length film that will “share with a global audience the story of how we can, and must, restore the glory of Earth’s vast, interconnected waters.” “After nearly a hundred years filming every aspect of the natural world, Attenborough delivers his most powerful message yet,” says Nat Geo. “In this feature-length special, he draws on his lifetime of knowledge and experience to take us on a journey of wonder through the planet’s most spectacular undersea habitats, revealing that we are currently living in the greatest age of ocean discovery, and showing beyond doubt that it is the most important place on Earth. While Attenborough exposes the biggest problems facing our ocean, his story is one of hope, and that in front of us is an opportunity for marine life to recover on a scale no one alive has ever seen before.”
ESPN is ready to add a daily women's basketball show
"I think we are very close...It's become very difficult to turn your eyes and say, ' We can't find space for that," says ESPN's vice president of production Sara Gaiero of the Caitlin Clark-fueled boom in interest in women's basketball at the collegiate and WNBA level.
My Brilliant Friend's fourth and final season gets a new cast and premiere date
The Elena Ferrante HBO adaptation is set in the 1980s when it returns Sept. 9. Alba Rohrwacher will take over the bespectacled intellectual Lenù (now mostly known by her full name, Elena) and Irene Maiorino will play the mercurial Lila.
Amazon horror comedy pilot Nightbeast adds Cory Michael Smith and Michael Dorman
Smith will star opposite Tatiana Maslany as the titular Nightbeast, Dorman will play the husband of her character and Miles Marthaller will play their son.
CNBC cancels Last Call
The CNBC evening business talk show anchored by Brian Sullivan has been canceled after one season.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy casts Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner
They will star alongside fellow cadets Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard and George Hawkins, as well as Holly Hunter as the captain and Paul Giamatti as the season's villain.
Home Depot selling a talking Chucky animatronic for Halloween
The 3-1/2-foot tall Chucky animatronic features both motion and sound bites from Brad Dourif.
Netflix taps Too Hot to Handle's Chloe Veitch to host NSFW dating show Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark
According to Netflix, Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark "tests a very real phenomenon (a regular late night casual hook up) through a one-of-a-kind dating social experiment.” According to Decider, "the show will leave contestants needing to answer the question if their sneaky link is the one and only for them, or if they need to cut things off in order to find true love elsewhere."
Dune: Prophecy reveals its premiere month in second teaser
The Dune prequel series, originally teased as premiering this fall, will specifically debut in November.
Matt Rife's Netflix crowd work special gets a premiere date and trailer
Matt Rife: Lucid – A Crowd Work Special, the comedian's second special for Netflix, premieres Aug. 13.
Dance Moms reboot trailer introduces "beloved dance coach" Glo Hampton
Hampton succeeds Abby Lee Miller on the Hulu reboot, which premieres Aug. 7.
Netflix unveils the trailer for buzzworthy documentary Daughters
The Sundance-winning documentary film, premiering Aug. 14, centers on a father-daughter dance that takes places behind the walls of a prison in Washington, DC., documenting the bonding and emotional experience for the incarcerated men and their daughters.