Remember when boys in their early 20s suddenly seemed to all be wearing flat caps? It’s no coincidence that this happened around the time Peaky Blinders became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. Nor is it a coincidence that Banana Republic released a capsule collection of tailored menswear that looked strikingly similar to Don Draper’s wardrobe in Mad Men. The collection and the costumes on the show were created by the same designer, after all.

When it comes to womenswear, TV is just one of the many platforms that influence fashion. Still, it is a prominent one. When it comes to talking about TV and fashion, it is impossible not to mention Sex and the City. Although we all fell in love with the characters, many of us watched the show for the clothes. Carrie Bradshaw had us lusting for a $40,000 pair of shoes and even though we could never afford it, Carrie became our fantasy-style icon.

Prior to the rise in Instagram influencers, TV characters would be our models when we headed to the hair salon. How many of us asked for “The Rachel” after years of Friends on our screens? Or perhaps you asked for blonde highlights like Buffy or wanted wedding hair like Mad Men’s Betty Draper. The characters we watched on our TV screens became models for how we wanted to wear our hair, do our makeup, and dress at home or in the office.

When we couldn’t afford to dress like Carrie Bradshaw, fashion magazines told us how we could get the look for less. Gossip Girl had an Anna Sui collection that sold out within 24 hours at Target and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air made pairing suits with turtlenecks the cool-guy look of the 90s.

In conclusion, if you are noticing similarities between high street fashion and what you’ve been watching on Netflix — don’t worry. You’re not going mad and seeing your favorite TV show everywhere. TV has long been an influencer of fashion and even as platforms like Instagram continue to ramp up their influence, there will always be those of us who secretly live out our TV fantasies through our subtle wardrobe choices. We may not be living in a Manhatten apartment just yet but with our knock-off Luis Vuitton handbag, we can live out our own satisfying snippet of the Sex In The City pipedream.

The post How TV Shows Influence Our Fashion Choices appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

A major theme of the film is winning and losing. Olive (Abigail Breslin) enters a beauty pageant and her dad fiercely reminds her that if she doesn’t think she can win, she might as well not enter. This is the same dad that has designed an entire self-help system based on choosing to be a winner rather than a loser. All the decisions he makes in the first half of the film are navigated by his relentless obsession with being a winner.

Dwayne (Paul Eno), the angsty teenager who has taken a vow of silence, has a breakdown when he learns he cannot be a pilot. During his freak out, he attacks his family, labeling them all losers by picking out their deepest flaws. Prior to this, we learn that his uncle Frank (Steve Carrell) has attempted suicide because he feels second best to the man who stole his lover and his job title. Like the rest of his family, he becomes crippled by his fear of being a loser.

And then, after an action-packed journey to California, the Hoovers meet the pageant nuts that are so obsessed with the idea of winning, they seem to have lost their humanity. One of the judges won’t even let Olive enter because she is three minutes late. Dwayne and his father later try and talk Olive out of performing her dance out of fear she will get laughed at, but Olive’s mother reminds them that they need to just let Olive be herself.

In the beautiful climax, Olive performs the dance her grandfather taught her, much to the horror of the pageantry panel. She innocently executes a series of obscene dance moves to Rick James’ “Super Freak”. When the pageantry judges try to prematurely terminate her performance, the Hoovers steps in to give her the chance to finish the routine. Instead, they end up dancing with her, in the dorkiest, cringiest way possible.

And yet, despite the fact they look like the “losers” they were afraid to be, in this scene, our characters become the biggest winners of them all. They embrace who they are and stop fretting about who they think they should be. They realize that family comes first and above all, they embrace the humanity that the obsession with winning threatens to diminish. Ultimately, Little Miss Sunshine is a champion of abandoning social pressures in favor of being yourself. And it’s perfect.

The post A Look Back At the Winners and Loser In “Little Miss Sunshine” appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Moonlight

Let’s kick things off with the Oscar-winning classic, Moonlight. It is one of the most powerful films to come out of the 2010s and also happens to be one of our favorite movies on Netflix right now.

Silver Linings Playbook

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper both give fantastic performances as two depressed divorcees searching for a silver lining.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Set in post-war Spain, this bizarre thriller from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is as artistic as it is disturbing.

Okja

Okja is one of the first Netflix originals that made us consider the possibility that Netflix maybe, just maybe, make great films. It’s intense, moving, and a tale of friendship in the face of adversity.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Cohen Brothers teamed up with Netflix for this acclaimed masterpiece. The film features six anthology stories and they are all brilliant in their own charming way.

Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Believe it or not, this animated flick is the best Spider-Man film there has been in a while. The Oscar-winning animation is creative, moving, and beautifully directed.

Ex Machina

Ex Machina is one of the best sci-fi movies to come out of the last decade. It’s thrilling, throught-provoking and a must-see if you loved Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

The Lobster

This twisted satirical comedy portrays a dystopian society where it is illegal to be single. Singles are forced to enter a hotel where they have 45 days to find love or else they will be turned into an animal.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

If you haven’t already seen it, this absurd comedy is worth the watch. You might finally start to understand what your best friend’s boyfriend is going on about when he randomly drops ridiculous quotes into the conversation.

Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto give award-winning performances in this terrific flick about the AIDS crisis.

The post The Best Films to Watch On Netflix Right Now appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

The fifth and final season of She-Ra and the Princess of Power is a perfect example of a series that wraps up satisfyingly. It delves deeper into the characters, offering them each well-rounded endings while still being fun to watch from start to finish. Given that the first season premiered less than two years ago, it is amazing what the writers have accomplished in so little time.

Season four finished up with Etheria being brought out of the pocket dimension. The sword is broken and Etheria is left to the mercy of the Horde army. With such an epic cliffhanger, season five does not need to waste any time building up tension. The season is fast-paced and each episode is filled with epic moments. At the heart of the fast-paced adventure sequence, however, is the characters. It is their carefully-constructed development that drives the plot. This means we get to know some of the other princesses a bit better and fall for them just in time for the big finale. 

There is plenty of action, magic, and heroic sword-swinging. At its core, She-Ra is a fun cartoon that makes us laugh out loud and pump our firsts for joy at all the best moments. The meticulous crafting of the series, however, raises the show’s status to something so much more than “just a cartoon”. In addition to action, season five offers some deeply satisfying emotional moments in the form of the characters and their relationships. What is wonderful is that many of the relationships that reach a resolution were set up all the way back in season one. Perhaps that is a benefit of all 52 episodes taking just 18 months to make. 

In the end, season five does more than just satisfyingly resolve relationship dynamics and conflicts – it offers hope. The resolutions are not polished and perfected, but rather hint that each character’s journey is hopeful moving forward. At a time where a little bit of hope is what we all need, season five couldn’t have concluded in a more fulfilling way.

5/5

The post “She-Ra and the Princess of Power” Season 5 Review appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Season two begins in a similar way to season one. Tony is struggling with everyday life and confesses that he feels sad all the time. It turns out that he didn’t pursue things further with the nurse and he is still a jerk to the people around him. The only time he seems truly happy is when he is watching old home videos of his deceased wife. These moments are touching and effective but offer nothing that we hadn’t already seen in season one.

On the plus side, we get to see more of Joe Wilkinson as a postman named Pat and Roisin Conaty as Daphne. The moments the show moves beyond Tony’s grief and onto their budding relationship are more entertaining, although begrudgingly predictable.

Worse still, the female side characters in season two are given unforgivably disappointing dialogue. In one scene, Tony’s colleague Sandy makes him promise to save the paper, just because she quite likes working there. In another, Matt’s ex-wife decides to go out with Matt just because another woman, Kath, is showing interest.  Kath spends the season pining after Matt, failing to pick up any social cues. Her only genuine moments are when she is bonding with Tony about the death of his wife. 

You know things are bad when the best comic relief character is a drunk therapist obsessed with downing pints with his mates and chasing after women. It’s cringy to watch but somehow still better than watching Tony’s terrible office banter with his poorly-written colleagues.

The ending of season two is touching but given the state of the rest of the series, Gervais would have been better off concluding the series with season one.

2/5

The post “After Life” Season 2 Shouldn’t Have Been Made appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

But what is it about these superhero flicks that we cannot get enough of?

It’s true that these films are fun, flashy, and full of awesome special effects. And yet it feels like some other phenomenon is at work. There seems to be something about the characters and storylines in these superhero movies that means we continue to consume them over and over again, no matter how formulaic and repetitive the movies become. 

The fact is, superhero movies follow a formula that we know and love. They tell the tale of good triumphing over evil and this is a story that humans have been attracted to since the first stories were told. More than this, the mythological archetypes that were popular among storytellers thousands of years ago can be found at work in everything from Avengers to Wonder Woman.

In a simplified sense, superheroes are the gods of western cinema. They fly, shoot lasers from their eyes, and all too often, the fate of humanity lies in their hands. The image of Superman flying over New York is not too dissimilar from the image of Zeus standing over the Acropolis. They are physical representations of ancient ideology. And this ideology is as compelling to us now as it was to the residents of Ancient Athens.

Although the Superman franchise is enormously popular, there is no denying that films like The Dark Knight and the recent Joker film have an equally large, if not greater following. And yet there is nothing godly about the Joker. Instead, the Joker seems to represent the seedy underworld of modern society. In Jungian terms, the Joker is the embodiment of the shadow self unleashed. In mythological terms, he represents the shady realm of the underworld. This is a tool not just for introducing good vs evil, but prompting audiences to recognize that both realms lie within each of us.

When Martin Scorsese compared Marvel films to “theme parks”, he was right to draw a connection between the formulaic and colorful sense of fun that runs through the superhero franchise and a day at Disneyland. What he missed out on, however, is that this formula may well be innately attractive to audiences universally. Marvel and DC have thus tapped into the masterful art of ancient storytelling and reimagined mythology for a modern audience.

The post How Superhero Films Became Modern Mythology appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Season five continues to pay enormous attention to detail while also driving plot development up to the Breaking Bad timeline. Tensions continue to rise between Gus and the cartel, and Jimmie is now and officially established as Saul Goodman. At the start of the season, he dresses in an eccentric, distinctively Saul Goodman suit and sets up a temporary base in a circus tent. He hands out free untraceable phones with his number on speed dial and promises clients 50% off his services for a week. Kim isn’t too happy with the immoral implications of his decision, but as the season unravels, she is pulled further into Saul’s unconventional way of doing things.

One of the remarkable achievements of Better Call Saul is that it successfully builds suspense even though we already know that the characters we care about most will survive beyond the start of the Breaking Bad timeline. Even though we know that Saul will be fine, when he drags himself through the desert in the antepenultimate episode, there are moments where it feels like he really might not make it.

The desert episode may be painfully slow but it sets up some important relationship developments. Mike and Saul leave the desert with an unspoken bond and after that point, Mike begins to trust Saul with important information. Saul realizes that Kim is the person he cares about the most and Kim equally realizes that Saul is far more important than the corporate clients she works with. At the moment, Saul almost gives up and Kim believes him dead, something happens to the characters which changes their relationship permanently. And then Kim breaks bad.

In the epic season finale, things heat up massively for Lalo and Nacho down in Mexico. Lalo may have started out as a new character that fans were unsure about but now, he is a highlight of the show. He is all about the showmanship and one of the biggest mysteries left in the series is what will happen to him and Nacho prior to the Breaking Bad timeline. And it feels like that timeline is getting pretty close.

5/5

The post “Better Call Saul” Season 5 is the Height of Television appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Netflix has seen its viewing figures reach new heights and competing streaming platforms are all offering free trials in a bid to attract more customers. More surprisingly, however, is the increase in daytime television consumption.

Jeffrey Silverman, director, data science & analytics at Samba TV said: “We are already seeing double-digit increases in overall time spent watching television in addition to large scale growth in the consumption of news and children’s programming which we expect will continue in the weeks ahead as the television increasingly becomes our window into the world of breaking news, elections, educational resources, and comforting entertainment.”

Although it may seem like TV networks are benefiting from the current situation, they are also losing a lot of money from ad revenue. Now that travel companies have pulled their ads for the foreseeable future, a sizable chunk of prospective profits have been removed.

Furthermore, recent reports show a significant increase in average viewing time. It is recommended that we spend no more than two hours a day watching television and yet the average family is spending hours a day consuming television.

Although we love all things entertainment related, we are also cautious of how much time we are spending in front of the set. By all means, use this time to catch up on all the TV you have missed but if you feel like your days are being wasted by hours of daytime television, there are plenty of other activities you can do from inside your home.

Alternatively, Netflix really does have some binge-worthy shows. So if you are going to binge-watch, trade repeats of Hell’s Kitchen for new drama series Unorthodox or reality shows like The Circle, Love is Blind, and Too Hot to Handle.

The post How Self Isolation Is Affecting Our Viewing Habits appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Money Heist started out as a 15-episode show that aired only in Spain. It didn’t garner much attention and it was a bit of a spontaneous move on Netflix’s part to snap up the show for streaming. When they licensed the show, they edited the series into 22 shorter episodes. It was not long before the series had pulled in thousands of streams and then came the memes and the merch.

The series eventually sparked a wave of global enthusiasm and before long, it seemed to be the case that everyone was talking about it. It is no wonder that the streaming platform lept at the opportunity to create a documentary about the series and its success.

But does the Netflix original actually add anything to the Money Heist story?

In a nutshell, yes, it does. The documentary explores how the niche Spanish heist drama ended up becoming one of the most talked-about series of the decade. It delves into a new side of the characters on the show and offers theories of how Money Heist went from a failed TV series to a worldwide phenomenon. It is essentially decoding of how a show Netflix barely even advertised shaped up to be streamed by hundreds of thousands of people who began begging for new seasons.

The documentary also delves into how the series became a symbol of resistance. It’s got a high-energy and rather than portraying the gang as thieves, they are presented as rebels standing against the state. We get to take a look behind the scenes of the series and learn about the unusual creative process behind it. If you love Money Heist, you’ll find yourself nodding along in agreement from start to finish.

As a stand-alone feature, Money Heist: The Phenomenon is realistically not particularly worth the watch. If you are part of an audience that has been captivated and shaken by the unexpectedly popular Spanish heist series, then it is worth investing the additional hour when you sit down to watch season four.

3.5/5

The post “Money Heist: The Phenomenon” Explores the World of the Popular Series appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Looking back at the Avengers franchise, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the role of Captain America other than Chris Evans. As excited as are to watch Anthony Mackie take over the role, it is still going to be strange seeing someone other than Evans carrying the famous shield.

It is almost as if Evans was born to play the role, and yet in a recent interview, Chris’ mother said that he very nearly turned down the opportunity.

“His biggest fear was losing his anonymity,” Lisa Capuano Evans told Esquire. “He said, ‘I have a career now where I can do work I really like. I can walk my dog. Nobody bothers me. Nobody wants to talk to me. I can go wherever I want. And the idea of losing that is terrifying to me.’”

She continued: “I said to him, ‘Look, you want to do acting work for the rest of your life? If you do this part, you will have the opportunity. You’ll never have to worry about paying the rent. If you take the part, you just have to decide, It’s not going to affect my life negatively — it will enable it.’”

Fortunately, Lisa managed to convince her son to take on the role and not worry about losing his anonymity. To think that we may have spent the last ten years watching somebody else as Captain America is a strange thought.

The post Chris Evans Almost Turned Down The Chance To Play Captain America appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Remember when boys in their early 20s suddenly seemed to all be wearing flat caps? It’s no coincidence that this happened around the time Peaky Blinders became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. Nor is it a coincidence that Banana Republic released a capsule collection of tailored menswear that looked strikingly similar to Don Draper’s wardrobe in Mad Men. The collection and the costumes on the show were created by the same designer, after all.

When it comes to womenswear, TV is just one of the many platforms that influence fashion. Still, it is a prominent one. When it comes to talking about TV and fashion, it is impossible not to mention Sex and the City. Although we all fell in love with the characters, many of us watched the show for the clothes. Carrie Bradshaw had us lusting for a $40,000 pair of shoes and even though we could never afford it, Carrie became our fantasy-style icon.

Prior to the rise in Instagram influencers, TV characters would be our models when we headed to the hair salon. How many of us asked for “The Rachel” after years of Friends on our screens? Or perhaps you asked for blonde highlights like Buffy or wanted wedding hair like Mad Men’s Betty Draper. The characters we watched on our TV screens became models for how we wanted to wear our hair, do our makeup, and dress at home or in the office.

When we couldn’t afford to dress like Carrie Bradshaw, fashion magazines told us how we could get the look for less. Gossip Girl had an Anna Sui collection that sold out within 24 hours at Target and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air made pairing suits with turtlenecks the cool-guy look of the 90s.

In conclusion, if you are noticing similarities between high street fashion and what you’ve been watching on Netflix — don’t worry. You’re not going mad and seeing your favorite TV show everywhere. TV has long been an influencer of fashion and even as platforms like Instagram continue to ramp up their influence, there will always be those of us who secretly live out our TV fantasies through our subtle wardrobe choices. We may not be living in a Manhatten apartment just yet but with our knock-off Luis Vuitton handbag, we can live out our own satisfying snippet of the Sex In The City pipedream.

The post How TV Shows Influence Our Fashion Choices appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

A major theme of the film is winning and losing. Olive (Abigail Breslin) enters a beauty pageant and her dad fiercely reminds her that if she doesn’t think she can win, she might as well not enter. This is the same dad that has designed an entire self-help system based on choosing to be a winner rather than a loser. All the decisions he makes in the first half of the film are navigated by his relentless obsession with being a winner.

Dwayne (Paul Eno), the angsty teenager who has taken a vow of silence, has a breakdown when he learns he cannot be a pilot. During his freak out, he attacks his family, labeling them all losers by picking out their deepest flaws. Prior to this, we learn that his uncle Frank (Steve Carrell) has attempted suicide because he feels second best to the man who stole his lover and his job title. Like the rest of his family, he becomes crippled by his fear of being a loser.

And then, after an action-packed journey to California, the Hoovers meet the pageant nuts that are so obsessed with the idea of winning, they seem to have lost their humanity. One of the judges won’t even let Olive enter because she is three minutes late. Dwayne and his father later try and talk Olive out of performing her dance out of fear she will get laughed at, but Olive’s mother reminds them that they need to just let Olive be herself.

In the beautiful climax, Olive performs the dance her grandfather taught her, much to the horror of the pageantry panel. She innocently executes a series of obscene dance moves to Rick James’ “Super Freak”. When the pageantry judges try to prematurely terminate her performance, the Hoovers steps in to give her the chance to finish the routine. Instead, they end up dancing with her, in the dorkiest, cringiest way possible.

And yet, despite the fact they look like the “losers” they were afraid to be, in this scene, our characters become the biggest winners of them all. They embrace who they are and stop fretting about who they think they should be. They realize that family comes first and above all, they embrace the humanity that the obsession with winning threatens to diminish. Ultimately, Little Miss Sunshine is a champion of abandoning social pressures in favor of being yourself. And it’s perfect.

The post A Look Back At the Winners and Loser In “Little Miss Sunshine” appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Moonlight

Let’s kick things off with the Oscar-winning classic, Moonlight. It is one of the most powerful films to come out of the 2010s and also happens to be one of our favorite movies on Netflix right now.

Silver Linings Playbook

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper both give fantastic performances as two depressed divorcees searching for a silver lining.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Set in post-war Spain, this bizarre thriller from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is as artistic as it is disturbing.

Okja

Okja is one of the first Netflix originals that made us consider the possibility that Netflix maybe, just maybe, make great films. It’s intense, moving, and a tale of friendship in the face of adversity.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Cohen Brothers teamed up with Netflix for this acclaimed masterpiece. The film features six anthology stories and they are all brilliant in their own charming way.

Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Believe it or not, this animated flick is the best Spider-Man film there has been in a while. The Oscar-winning animation is creative, moving, and beautifully directed.

Ex Machina

Ex Machina is one of the best sci-fi movies to come out of the last decade. It’s thrilling, throught-provoking and a must-see if you loved Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

The Lobster

This twisted satirical comedy portrays a dystopian society where it is illegal to be single. Singles are forced to enter a hotel where they have 45 days to find love or else they will be turned into an animal.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

If you haven’t already seen it, this absurd comedy is worth the watch. You might finally start to understand what your best friend’s boyfriend is going on about when he randomly drops ridiculous quotes into the conversation.

Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto give award-winning performances in this terrific flick about the AIDS crisis.

The post The Best Films to Watch On Netflix Right Now appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

The fifth and final season of She-Ra and the Princess of Power is a perfect example of a series that wraps up satisfyingly. It delves deeper into the characters, offering them each well-rounded endings while still being fun to watch from start to finish. Given that the first season premiered less than two years ago, it is amazing what the writers have accomplished in so little time.

Season four finished up with Etheria being brought out of the pocket dimension. The sword is broken and Etheria is left to the mercy of the Horde army. With such an epic cliffhanger, season five does not need to waste any time building up tension. The season is fast-paced and each episode is filled with epic moments. At the heart of the fast-paced adventure sequence, however, is the characters. It is their carefully-constructed development that drives the plot. This means we get to know some of the other princesses a bit better and fall for them just in time for the big finale. 

There is plenty of action, magic, and heroic sword-swinging. At its core, She-Ra is a fun cartoon that makes us laugh out loud and pump our firsts for joy at all the best moments. The meticulous crafting of the series, however, raises the show’s status to something so much more than “just a cartoon”. In addition to action, season five offers some deeply satisfying emotional moments in the form of the characters and their relationships. What is wonderful is that many of the relationships that reach a resolution were set up all the way back in season one. Perhaps that is a benefit of all 52 episodes taking just 18 months to make. 

In the end, season five does more than just satisfyingly resolve relationship dynamics and conflicts – it offers hope. The resolutions are not polished and perfected, but rather hint that each character’s journey is hopeful moving forward. At a time where a little bit of hope is what we all need, season five couldn’t have concluded in a more fulfilling way.

5/5

The post “She-Ra and the Princess of Power” Season 5 Review appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Season two begins in a similar way to season one. Tony is struggling with everyday life and confesses that he feels sad all the time. It turns out that he didn’t pursue things further with the nurse and he is still a jerk to the people around him. The only time he seems truly happy is when he is watching old home videos of his deceased wife. These moments are touching and effective but offer nothing that we hadn’t already seen in season one.

On the plus side, we get to see more of Joe Wilkinson as a postman named Pat and Roisin Conaty as Daphne. The moments the show moves beyond Tony’s grief and onto their budding relationship are more entertaining, although begrudgingly predictable.

Worse still, the female side characters in season two are given unforgivably disappointing dialogue. In one scene, Tony’s colleague Sandy makes him promise to save the paper, just because she quite likes working there. In another, Matt’s ex-wife decides to go out with Matt just because another woman, Kath, is showing interest.  Kath spends the season pining after Matt, failing to pick up any social cues. Her only genuine moments are when she is bonding with Tony about the death of his wife. 

You know things are bad when the best comic relief character is a drunk therapist obsessed with downing pints with his mates and chasing after women. It’s cringy to watch but somehow still better than watching Tony’s terrible office banter with his poorly-written colleagues.

The ending of season two is touching but given the state of the rest of the series, Gervais would have been better off concluding the series with season one.

2/5

The post “After Life” Season 2 Shouldn’t Have Been Made appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

But what is it about these superhero flicks that we cannot get enough of?

It’s true that these films are fun, flashy, and full of awesome special effects. And yet it feels like some other phenomenon is at work. There seems to be something about the characters and storylines in these superhero movies that means we continue to consume them over and over again, no matter how formulaic and repetitive the movies become. 

The fact is, superhero movies follow a formula that we know and love. They tell the tale of good triumphing over evil and this is a story that humans have been attracted to since the first stories were told. More than this, the mythological archetypes that were popular among storytellers thousands of years ago can be found at work in everything from Avengers to Wonder Woman.

In a simplified sense, superheroes are the gods of western cinema. They fly, shoot lasers from their eyes, and all too often, the fate of humanity lies in their hands. The image of Superman flying over New York is not too dissimilar from the image of Zeus standing over the Acropolis. They are physical representations of ancient ideology. And this ideology is as compelling to us now as it was to the residents of Ancient Athens.

Although the Superman franchise is enormously popular, there is no denying that films like The Dark Knight and the recent Joker film have an equally large, if not greater following. And yet there is nothing godly about the Joker. Instead, the Joker seems to represent the seedy underworld of modern society. In Jungian terms, the Joker is the embodiment of the shadow self unleashed. In mythological terms, he represents the shady realm of the underworld. This is a tool not just for introducing good vs evil, but prompting audiences to recognize that both realms lie within each of us.

When Martin Scorsese compared Marvel films to “theme parks”, he was right to draw a connection between the formulaic and colorful sense of fun that runs through the superhero franchise and a day at Disneyland. What he missed out on, however, is that this formula may well be innately attractive to audiences universally. Marvel and DC have thus tapped into the masterful art of ancient storytelling and reimagined mythology for a modern audience.

The post How Superhero Films Became Modern Mythology appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Season five continues to pay enormous attention to detail while also driving plot development up to the Breaking Bad timeline. Tensions continue to rise between Gus and the cartel, and Jimmie is now and officially established as Saul Goodman. At the start of the season, he dresses in an eccentric, distinctively Saul Goodman suit and sets up a temporary base in a circus tent. He hands out free untraceable phones with his number on speed dial and promises clients 50% off his services for a week. Kim isn’t too happy with the immoral implications of his decision, but as the season unravels, she is pulled further into Saul’s unconventional way of doing things.

One of the remarkable achievements of Better Call Saul is that it successfully builds suspense even though we already know that the characters we care about most will survive beyond the start of the Breaking Bad timeline. Even though we know that Saul will be fine, when he drags himself through the desert in the antepenultimate episode, there are moments where it feels like he really might not make it.

The desert episode may be painfully slow but it sets up some important relationship developments. Mike and Saul leave the desert with an unspoken bond and after that point, Mike begins to trust Saul with important information. Saul realizes that Kim is the person he cares about the most and Kim equally realizes that Saul is far more important than the corporate clients she works with. At the moment, Saul almost gives up and Kim believes him dead, something happens to the characters which changes their relationship permanently. And then Kim breaks bad.

In the epic season finale, things heat up massively for Lalo and Nacho down in Mexico. Lalo may have started out as a new character that fans were unsure about but now, he is a highlight of the show. He is all about the showmanship and one of the biggest mysteries left in the series is what will happen to him and Nacho prior to the Breaking Bad timeline. And it feels like that timeline is getting pretty close.

5/5

The post “Better Call Saul” Season 5 is the Height of Television appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Netflix has seen its viewing figures reach new heights and competing streaming platforms are all offering free trials in a bid to attract more customers. More surprisingly, however, is the increase in daytime television consumption.

Jeffrey Silverman, director, data science & analytics at Samba TV said: “We are already seeing double-digit increases in overall time spent watching television in addition to large scale growth in the consumption of news and children’s programming which we expect will continue in the weeks ahead as the television increasingly becomes our window into the world of breaking news, elections, educational resources, and comforting entertainment.”

Although it may seem like TV networks are benefiting from the current situation, they are also losing a lot of money from ad revenue. Now that travel companies have pulled their ads for the foreseeable future, a sizable chunk of prospective profits have been removed.

Furthermore, recent reports show a significant increase in average viewing time. It is recommended that we spend no more than two hours a day watching television and yet the average family is spending hours a day consuming television.

Although we love all things entertainment related, we are also cautious of how much time we are spending in front of the set. By all means, use this time to catch up on all the TV you have missed but if you feel like your days are being wasted by hours of daytime television, there are plenty of other activities you can do from inside your home.

Alternatively, Netflix really does have some binge-worthy shows. So if you are going to binge-watch, trade repeats of Hell’s Kitchen for new drama series Unorthodox or reality shows like The Circle, Love is Blind, and Too Hot to Handle.

The post How Self Isolation Is Affecting Our Viewing Habits appeared first on Entertainment For Us.

Money Heist started out as a 15-episode show that aired only in Spain. It didn’t garner much attention and it was a bit of a spontaneous move on Netflix’s part to snap up the show for streaming. When they licensed the show, they edited the series into 22 shorter episodes. It was not long before the series had pulled in thousands of streams and then came the memes and the merch.

The series eventually sparked a wave of global enthusiasm and before long, it seemed to be the case that everyone was talking about it. It is no wonder that the streaming platform lept at the opportunity to create a documentary about the series and its success.

But does the Netflix original actually add anything to the Money Heist story?

In a nutshell, yes, it does. The documentary explores how the niche Spanish heist drama ended up becoming one of the most talked-about series of the decade. It delves into a new side of the characters on the show and offers theories of how Money Heist went from a failed TV series to a worldwide phenomenon. It is essentially decoding of how a show Netflix barely even advertised shaped up to be streamed by hundreds of thousands of people who began begging for new seasons.

The documentary also delves into how the series became a symbol of resistance. It’s got a high-energy and rather than portraying the gang as thieves, they are presented as rebels standing against the state. We get to take a look behind the scenes of the series and learn about the unusual creative process behind it. If you love Money Heist, you’ll find yourself nodding along in agreement from start to finish.

As a stand-alone feature, Money Heist: The Phenomenon is realistically not particularly worth the watch. If you are part of an audience that has been captivated and shaken by the unexpectedly popular Spanish heist series, then it is worth investing the additional hour when you sit down to watch season four.

3.5/5

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Looking back at the Avengers franchise, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the role of Captain America other than Chris Evans. As excited as are to watch Anthony Mackie take over the role, it is still going to be strange seeing someone other than Evans carrying the famous shield.

It is almost as if Evans was born to play the role, and yet in a recent interview, Chris’ mother said that he very nearly turned down the opportunity.

“His biggest fear was losing his anonymity,” Lisa Capuano Evans told Esquire. “He said, ‘I have a career now where I can do work I really like. I can walk my dog. Nobody bothers me. Nobody wants to talk to me. I can go wherever I want. And the idea of losing that is terrifying to me.’”

She continued: “I said to him, ‘Look, you want to do acting work for the rest of your life? If you do this part, you will have the opportunity. You’ll never have to worry about paying the rent. If you take the part, you just have to decide, It’s not going to affect my life negatively — it will enable it.’”

Fortunately, Lisa managed to convince her son to take on the role and not worry about losing his anonymity. To think that we may have spent the last ten years watching somebody else as Captain America is a strange thought.

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