This July, travel a millennium ahead in time, and a millennium back, as new seasons of Futurama and Vikings: Valhalla arrive on their respective streaming services. They are joined by the beginnings of the ends of both Cobra Kai and Snowpiercer, which are entering their final seasons this month. These are the four streaming shows you should catch up on before they resume.
What it is: Set in the 11th century, this sequel to the series Vikings deals with the conflicts between the native English and the Danes as the latter continue to populate Britain. Season 3, which will conclude the show with the end of the Viking Age, premieres Thursday, July 11.
Why you should watch it: It’s like Game of Thrones but based more on real people and real events, or at least “real” legends. Fans of action-packed history, particularly the brutal swords and shield variety, a la Braveheart and King Arthur, will find it hard not to be entertained.
What it is: A series continuation of the Karate Kid film franchise of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Cobra Kai follows the original rival characters Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence as they lead a new generation of martial arts enthusiasts and face power-corrupt mentors from their past. The first five episodes of the sixth and final season premiere on Thursday, July 18.
Why you should watch it: What began as a nostalgic appreciation for and fresh take on a beloved movie hit from 40 years ago has become a classic property in its own right. The show offers a mix of action, drama, romance, and comedy, and easily appeals to adults who grew up with The Karate Kid as well as younger viewers who are new to the franchise. With the show ending after season 6 and a new Karate Kid movie on the way, now is the best time to catch up with what’s been going on with the San Fernando Valley dojos these last six years.
Where to watch:Netflix (subscription, seasons 1-5).
What it is: Based on the 1982 graphic novel Transperceneige and its 2013 film adaptation, also titled Snowpiercer, this series follows Earth’s remaining humans post-apocalypse as they reside on a perpetually moving train. Throughout the series, class differences among the passengers result in revolutionary measures. The first episode of its fourth and final season premieres Sunday, July 21.
Why you should watch it: As crazy as the premise sounds, Snowpiercer is sci-fi at its best, with its balanced combination of spectacle and substance. Technically marvelous in many regards, including its visual effects, the show also features an award-winning ensemble cast, and its plot addresses timeless social issues concerning class warfare. You’ll definitely want to catch a ride on Snowpiercer now that it’s ending with its fourth season.
What it is: From Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, this animated sci-fi comedy series follows the employees of an interplanetary delivery service and their adventures around the galaxy. At the show’s center is Fry, a young man awoken 1,000 years after being accidentally cryogenically frozen, and he’s joined by a hilarious cast of humans, aliens, and robots.
Why you should watch it: The answer to this is the same as why Futurama is still going strong after 25 years and multiple resurrections: it’s a very smart and very funny social satire that never gets old. Plus, its characters are weird but relatable and immediately addicting, while its premise allows for a broad range of settings and scenarios. Similar to The Simpsons, after decades of being on the air, it continues to prove itself by attracting new generations of fans.
Going along for the ride with a classic video game-turned-TV show is the final final appearance of a popular Netflix character, a movie based on a Disney theme park attraction, a movie directed by YouTube stars, and the return — again — of a fan-favorite animated series.
Crashing straight into Peacock this week is the new series Twisted Metal.
This one is, of course, based on the iconic combat vehicle video game that first debuted in 1995 on Sony’s original PlayStation, which is the first reason to check the series out. Secondly, it stars Anthony Mackie as the lead character John Doe in what is officially listed as a “live-action comedy,” clearly leaning into the dark humor that the game has become known for, and it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world — those are all the rage right now.
And because great things come in threes, a third reason to consider this one is Sweet Tooth, everyone’s favorite ice cream truck-driving killer clown from the game. In this case he’s voiced by Will Arnett and physically played by pro wrestler Samoa Joe. Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear, this one isn’t for the kids.
Also planting its sword into your streaming options this week is the season 3, vol. 2 premiere of The Witcher.
And while we’ve told you that this is the final season for Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt of Rivia before Liam Hemsworth takes over, now we’re down to just his final three episodes — which is, of course, the first reason to head over to Netflix and catch up.
Another would be, without giving too much away, that season 3, vol. 1 ended with a cliffhanger, and you’re probably going to want to see how that plays out. Speaking of which, vol. 1 came in Fresh at 78% on the Tomatometer, with the consensus from critics declaring that, so far, it pays “a fittingly fond farewell to this particular Geralt of Rivia.”
The second reason to catch this one is that it marks the second theatrical adaptation of the Disney attraction The Haunted Mansion. The first one came in 2003 with Eddie Murphy starring, and is Rotten at 14% on the Tomatometer, so, it’s only uphill from there, right?
Also speaking to us from theaters is the supernatural horror flick Talk to Me. This is the directorial debut for twin Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who have gained massive popularity on YouTube with their intense action-comedy videos. That’s the first reason to give this one a shot.
The second reason is that it’s Certified Fresh at 95% on the Tomatometer with over 120 reviews so far. The Critics Consensus says it has “a gripping story and impressive practical effects, and spins a terrifically creepy 21st-century horror yarn built on classic foundations.” We’re sold.
If you need a third reason, though, maybe the premise will intrigue you: Some friends learn how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, but they get a little carried away and unleash terrifying supernatural forces. Again, we’re sold.
And finally, great news, everyone! Making its (second) triumphant return to your TV is the animated series Futurama.
That’s right, it’s back… again! After debuting on Fox back in 1999 and running for four seasons, it was later picked up by Comedy Central for three more that ended in 2013. And now, a decade later, Futurama is headed to Hulu with at least 20 new episodes.
The series came from Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who is returning for this latest round of episodes, and he’ll be joined by the core voice cast, which includes Billy West as Philip J. Fry and Katey Sagal as Leela. Plus, the show carries an Audience Score of 94%, and all the seasons that have enough reviews for a Tomatometer score — which is four of them — are all very Fresh. That includes the Certified Fresh first season, which critics described as “an inventive, funny, and sometimes affecting look at the world of tomorrow.” That’s a consensus that still holds up.
Hopefully our recommendations helped you fill up your entertainment calendar this weekend. Be sure to let us know in the comments what you watched, whether it was on this list or not!
Rotten Tomatoes’ social media followers and poll respondents voted Vol. 2 of The Witcher season 3 and the return of Futurama for season 11 as the top TV and streaming titles they’re looking forward to in July. Limited series Justified: City Primeval came in second, and third place saw a four-way tie with Twisted Metal season 1 and the second seasons of Foundation, Good Omens, and Lincoln Lawyer competing for hearts, minds, and eyeballs. The Horror of Dolores Roach landed at fourth, and season 4 of animated adult comedy Harley Quinn came in fifth.
Don’t see your favorite on the list? Tell us in the comments.
#1 on Facebook, #2 on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube Premieres: Thursday, July 27
If Witcher fans on social media weren’t paying attention ahead of its June season 3 premiere, they certainly are now following the release of the first five episodes of Henry Cavill’s final season as monster hunter Geralt of Rivia. Volume 2 of the season drops at the end of July.
#1 on YouTube, #2 on Facebook, #4 on Instagram, and #5 on Twitter Premieres: Monday, July 24
Created by Matt Groening, the Emmy-winning animated series returns a decade later to continue the story of Philip J. Fry (Billy West), robot Bender (John DiMaggio), and cyclops Leela (Katey Sagal). Season 11 welcomes back its original voice cast for a 20-episode run.
#1 on Instagram, #3 on Facebook, and #4 in Rotten Tomatoes’ poll Premieres: Tuesday, July 18
Speaking of big returns, Timothy Olyphant steps back under the hat of gunslinger Raylan Givens. Still a U.S. Marshal, Givens runs afoul of violent sociopath Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) and finds himself horsetrading with ambitious Detroit defense attorney Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis). Vivian Olyphant makes her onscreen debut as Raylan’s 15-year-old daughter Willa.
How to Watch: airing on FX | by subscription on Hulu (original series Justified is also available to stream on Hulu)
#1 on Twitter, #4 on YouTube Premieres: Friday, July 14
Based on the influential novels Isaac Asimov and created and written by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins), the series follows brilliant scientist Dr. Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and his followers as they plot to save humanity during the fall of the Galactic Empire. The series also stars Lee Pace and Lou Llobell, and season 2 welcomes Ben Daniels (The Exorcist series) as Bel Roise.
#3 on Instagram and YouTube, #5 on Facebook Premieres: Friday, July 28
Based on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling novel, Good Omens explores the friendship between fussy angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and fast-living demon Crowley (David Tennant). Season 2 ventures beyond the original source material and introduces Jon Hamm as archangel Gabriel, who has no memory of who he is or how he landed on the doorstep of Aziraphale’s bookshop.
#2 in Rotten Tomatoes’ poll, #3 on Twitter Premieres: Thursday, July 6
Season 2 is based on The Fifth Witness, the fourth book in author Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer series. The show stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, who runs his LA law practice out of his Lincoln.
#1 in Rotten Tomatoes’ poll, #4 on Facebook Premieres: Thursday, July 27
Anthony Mackie stars in this video game adaptation as dystopian delivery man John Doe, who wanders the American West dodging violent marauders, including a killer clown named Sweet Tooth (performed by “Samoa Joe” Seanoa with voice by Will Arnett).
#3 in Rotten Tomatoes’ poll Premieres: Friday, July 7
Based on the Spotify podcast series of the same name, the series stars Justina Machado as Dolores Roach, who returns to her Washington Heights neighborhood after 16 years in prison. Dolores works as a masseuse to get by, but resorts to shocking extremes when her newfound stability is threatened.
Animated series Harley Quinn (Photo by DC Universe)
#5 on Instagram and YouTube Premieres: Thursday, July 27
Is it season 4 already? Time flies when you’re a gal having fun. Kaley Cuoco voices Harley, the supervillain making a name for herself in Gotham who has a few scores to settle. Voice cast also includes Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, and Ron Funches.
The world consumed a billion pies and cups of coffee waiting for more of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, inspiring this week’s gallery of 24 times we waited years for new seasons of favorite TV shows.
Twin Peaks
“How’s Annie?” A question left hanging (and will continue to be well-hung) for 26 years following Twin Peaks‘ 1991 cancellation and Showtime revival.
The X-Files
The show shrugged itself to an end somewhere in New Mexico during its 9th season. Fast forward 14 years (with a regrettable theatrical movie in-between), when Mulder and Scully re-opened the X-Files with an event series last year.
Boy Meets World
Boy meets an eighth season and a whole new series in Girl Meets World, which saw original star-crossed weirdos Cory and Topanga raising their daughter 14 years after the two graduated from college in 2000.
Gilmore Girls
Nine years after getting kicked off The WB- ahem, The CW, the talky travails of Lorelai and Rory in Stars Hollow came back in 2016 thanks to old show revival machine Netflix.
24
After terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days eight years in a row, Kiefer Sutherland took it easy for four years before coming back for weekly Jack Bauer power hours with the 2014 series Live Another Day.
Dallas
14 seasons wasn’t enough for the greed-driven Dallas, which continued the story 21 years later with the 2012 revival series.
Futurama
Four years after its FOX cancellation, Futurama returned in 2007 with four DVD movies that could be split into 16 episodes constituting a fifth season.
Full House
The adventures of Kimmy Gibbler and her geekburger neighbors took a pause…a long 21 year pause…before Netflix revived the series as Fuller House, a high-concept fantasy depicting affordable San Francisco real estate in 2016.
Family Guy
When FOX cleaned house on its early aughts cartoons, Family Guy looked doomed to be remembered only in syndication until fan fervor brought it back after three years for new seasons starting 2005.
Will & Grace
After an election-themed reunion short that went viral (and 11 years after the series finale), NBC is getting Will & Grace back together this year for 12 new episodes.
Roseanne
Cue that blues riff: ABC is bringing back Roseanne for eight episodes after 21 years, ignoring the series finale that twisted relationships around and killed John Goodman’s character.
Arrested Development
The Bluth family saga continued into season 4 on Netflix after a seven-year pause, fufilling an early Obama campaign promise.
Get Smart
Don Adams and Barbara Geldon played spoof spies Agents 86 and 99 until 1965, and returned to the roles 30 years later for a single season.
The Brady Bunch
Mike and Carol and spawn got a bunch of spin-offs and TV movies after the show went off the air in 1974, but it wasn’t until 16 years later in 1990 with The Bradys that they got a proper TV series follow-up.
Doctor Who
After 26 straight series, Time Lord couldn’t get it together for the swinging’ 90s, having to wait 16 years for its 2005 revival with Christopher Eccleston.
Heroes
After a startlingly good first season followed by three lackluster ones, Heroes came back from a five-year absence…for the lackluster Heroes Reborn.
Leave It To Beaver
The focus on the family during the 1980s prompted the resurrection of the Cleaver clan: 20 years after the finale, all the major surviving actors came back for The New Leave It To Beaver.
Sanford & Son
This show came back minus Son when Redd Foxx launched Sanford in 1980, three years after the original ended and with Desmond Wilson refusing to come back.
Burke’s Law
60s nostalgia was hot in the ’90s, allowing Gene Barry to revive Burke’s Law (playing his signature millionaire detective) 28 years after the original went off the air.
Mission: Impossible
Espionage is a group effort but only Peter Graves starred in both Mission: Impossible series, the latter one airing 1988-89, 15 years after the original’s last episode.
The Munsters
The late ’80s Munsters Today show picks up 22 years after we left our favorite family ghouls, though with none of the original cast returning.
WKRP in Cincinnati
This sitcom was about a radio station struggling in changing eras of music: first in the early ’80s during the age of soft rock and post-disco, and then nine years later during the grunge era with The New WKRP in Cincinnati.
Beverly Hills, 90210
Would you believe there are sleazy goings-on in greater Los Angeles? Well, there are and you had two chances to know it: with the first series and then its continuation 8 years later with CW’s 90210.
Melrose Place 90210 spinoff also enjoyed revival success, with the show coming back 10 years after the original ended in 1999.
In the first known instance of bloodshed in Bogota, 80 American corporate workers living in the Colombian capital are locked in their building and forced to meet a new deadline…of death. Toeing the company line has never been bloodier than in The Belko Experiment, inspiring this week’s gallery of 24 more of the worst companies to work for from film and television history.
Weyland-Yutani from Alien
How many times is Wey-Yu going to trick its employees to enter hypersleep only for them to wake up unequipped on a fatal xenomorph mission? Wouldn’t it help their bottom line to reduce the body bag budget?
OCP from Robocop
According to the movie, absolutely 100% of OCP meetings conclude with an executive tossed through a window or reduced to a bullet-riddled torso.
inGen from Jurassic Park
inGen, you had one job: Keep ungodly genetically-engineered dinosaurs under control in artificial biomes for public profit and entertainment via massive island-getaway future theme parks. Is this really so complicated?
Initech from Office Space
Set sometime during the primitive human years of the late ’90s (records dating back then are hazy) when corporate drones turned to money laundering, or at least looking it up in a dictionary (a type of “book”), as revenge against annoying co-workers, worse bosses, office nattering, and overall having a job in exchange for legal tender.
The IMF from Mission: Impossible
We guess climbing buildings and tricking people with masks isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, because the bad guy in these movies is always some extra-disgruntled ex-IMF agent. Also, somehow they drove the original Jim Phelps insane. Did somebody forget to give him a watch for his 10-year anniversary?
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant from The Simpsons
C. Montgomery Burns, power plant head and ageless like Cthulhu,, has committed multiple abuses over the decades. The list includes stuffing barrels of toxic waste in trees, blocking out the sun, rendering male employees sterile, dental plan eradication…
Planet Express from Futurama
See the galaxy! Drop off boxes! Sign complicated insurance forms in the event that your body is consumed and secreted by space bees!
Burger World from UHF
Burnt the fries? You’ll literally get thrown out the doors, where you’ll then be reduced to schedule programming for a local TV station your uncle won in a poker game whose fortunes you revive with a children’s variety show before putting on a telethon to fend off a rival network’s hostile advances which you MUST OVERCOME as a cause for the people because where else will they learn about teaching poodles how to fly by throwing them out apartment windows?
ChickWich from Compliance
Ever think your boss doesn’t have your back? Never apply to ChickWich, where a manager forced one of her burger flippers to strip to the nude (and more) because a mysterious disembodied voice on the phone demanded so.
Scrooge & Marley from A Christmas Carol
Come work for London’s leading money lender, where you’ll work long hours into holidays and won’t be able to afford gas to survive the harsh Victorian winter nor the crutches for your young son whose legs you broke in a coke-fueled rampage due to the tightening fiduciary vice that is working for Ebenezer Scrooge.
Westworld, ho!
The only place you could rub a ladykilling Yul Brynner in a cowboy suit during the 1970s, outside of a motel somewhere in Santa Monica.
Hawkins National Laboratory from Stranger Things
While Spielberg was throwing ’80s suburban dreams up on screen, this clandestine place was turning real suburbia into a nightmare, whose test subjects snap necks and kidnap neighborhood dorks into alternate dimensions.
ACME from Looney Tunes
There’s planned obsolescence, and then there’s product that flat-out doesn’t work out of the box. Can you imagine the low morale at the ACME assembly line, not to mention how understaffed QA must be, if they think it’s OK their stuff regularly maims customers? How hard is it to put together a pair of functional rocket-powered roller skates?
Palisade Defence from Severance
Employees take a mandatory retreat into the woods where they’re slowly picked off one by one. Quoth Austin Powers: “He’ll never be the head of a major corporation.”
CTU from 24
So many seasons, so many moles… Maybe company loyalty would stay up if the bosses actually turned the lights on during office hours, or stopped leasing space in what looks like a former medieval lair.
Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil
Perhaps the pay is nice. Maybe the 401k matching plan is unparalleled. And so what if Umbrella has a wellness room with hammocks? That’s no excuse to work at a pharma corp that will bring on the end of the world. There’s not much use for hammocks in the post-apocalypse, is there?
Vandelay Industries from Seinfeld
From latex sales to imports/exports, Vandelay Industries has its soft, milky white hand in everything. The only problem: Nobody works in the building, payroll is empty, and the only way to get there is to endure the unbearable, stocky, slow-witted baldness that is being George Costanza.
Dunder-Mifflin from The Office
A novel, interesting show that slowly meta-transformed into a soul-sucking slog, much like an office job in real life.
The Organization from The Cabin In The Woods
Okay, so the safety of the world depends on your job. The same thing applies for Rotten Tomatoes obviously, so we understand how stressful this kind of job can get. But putting the RELEASE ALL THE MONSTERS button within easy reach? Why even introduce that occupational hazard into the workplace?
Camp Crystal Lake from Friday the 13th
How many dead teenagers and stolen things from the ‘harpoon gun & hockey mask’ drawer must we endure before this business gets shut down for good? Look, if you’re gonna pilfer from camp supplies to fuel your Saturday morning massacre, at least use the sign-in sheet!
Silver Shamrock from Halloween III: Season of the Witch
A creature shop whose masks melts people’s faces. Probably where Tom Savini got his start.
Lunar Industries from Moon
Don’t you hate it when you have a co-worker who takes credit for everything that you do?
Duke & Duke from Trading Places
The daily drudge of corporate employment making you feel like your identity has been co-opted? Then come on over to Duke & Duke, where we’ll give you a real identity crisis, by giving everything you worked for and its lifestyle accouterments to a random pauper on the street.
U-North from Michael Clayton
U-North has a pesky reputation of murdering former employees, though apparently the pay’s good enough while you’re alive to feed your harrowing baguette habit.
Fox’s got a new Ice Ageand it’s set on collision course for theaters this Friday. Animation at the studio has weaved a winding line through Saturday morning cartoons, adult fare, and studio closures before lifting Fox as one of Hollywood’s major animated players decades later, alongside Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks. In this week’s gallery, we look at 24 films and TV shows highlighting the history of Fox Animation.
Return to the Planet of the Apes
Year: 1975
During the 1960s and ’70s, 20th Century Fox Television gave the Saturday morning treatment to popular films out of their studio stable, including Fantastic Voyage and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Wizards
Year: 1977
Tomatometer: 61%
Fox distrubited a half-dozen animated movies to theaters starting in 1977 (with two from Ralph Bakshi, including this and 1983’s Fire and Ice) up until establishing their own in-house theatrical process during the ’90s.
The Simpsons
Year: 1989-present
Three years after launching their flagship network channel, Fox premiered America’s greatest dysfunctional family, changing the sitcom and TV animation landscape for decades to come.
FernGully
Year: 1992
Tomatometer: 71%
FernGully,which commodified enviromentalism as was de riuguer during the ’90s, was Fox’s only notable financial success during their time as feature animation distributor.
The Pagemaster
Year: 1994
Tomatometer: 18%
This live-action/traditional animation hybrid starring Macaulay Culkin and extolling the virtues of reading (blech) was the last film Fox would distribute before founding their own animation studio the same year.
Anastasia
Year: 1997
Tomatometer: 85%
Fox Animation Studios, continuing the same auteur-type collaboration that the larger studio began with Bakshi in the ’70s, hired Don Bluth (The Secret of N.I.M.H., The Land Before Time) to create this opulent musical torn from Russian history.
King of the Hill
Year: 1997-2010
The Simpsons not only helped put Fox network on the map (and eased the painful task of scheduling content between X-Files and 300 hours of Cops every week), but also transformed Sundays into a haven for new realms of American animated comedy…that were always under threat of being preempted by the Cowboys.
Family Guy
Year: 1999-present
The most influential animated comedy since The Simpsons with its fast timing and absurdist cutaways, creating a mini-Seth MacFarlane empire that included American Dad! and The Cleveland Show.
Futurama
Year: 1999-2013
Matt Groening and David X. Cohen took the overeducated, nerd humor that always existed on the fringes of The Simpsons and gave it its own show.
Titan A.E.
Year: 2000
Tomatometer: 52%
Traditional animation was already falling out of favor when Bluth’s Titan A.E. dropped into a market that would sink other similar sci-fi products (WB’s Iron Giant, and Disney’s Atlantis and Treasure Planet). Fox Animation Studios would close soon after, six years after its inception.
Ice Age
Year: 2002
Tomatometer: 77%
In 1997 Fox bought Blue Sky Studios, whose employees had been cutting their teeth on commercials and visual effects since Tron. Ice Age was a global hit (finally establishing Fox Animation as a key player) and the third movie to become a franchise (following Toy Story and Shrek) in the once brave new world of CG animation. And the rest is history.
Robots
Year: 2005
Tomatometer: 64%
Critics Consensus: Robots delights on a visual level, but the story feels like it came off an assembly line.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Year: 2006
Tomatometer: 57%
Critics Consensus: Despite its impressive animation and the hilarious antics of the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat, The Meltdown comes up short on the storytelling front.
The Simpsons Movie
Year: 2007
Tomatometer: 88%
Critics Consensus: The Simpsons Movie contains the hearty laughs, biting satire, and honest portrayal of an American family that makes the show so popular.
Horton Hears a Who!
Year: 2008
Tomatometer: 79%
Critics Consensus: Horton Hears A Who! is both whimsical and heartwarming, and is the rare Dr. Seuss adaptation that stays true to the spirit of the source material.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Year: 2009
Tomatometer: 45%
Critics Consensus: Dawn of the Dinosaurs boasts some excellent animation — in particular, the dinosaurs are wonderfully realized — but its story is tired and monotonous.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Tomatometer: 92%
Critics Consensus: Fantastic Mr. Fox is a delightfully funny feast for the eyes with multi-generational appeal — and it shows Wes Anderson has a knack for animation.
Rio
Year: 2011
Tomatometer: 72%
Critics Consensus: This straightforward movie reaches great heights thanks to its colorful visual palette, catchy music, and funny vocal performances.
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Year: 2012
Tomatometer: 37%
Critics Consensus: Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D has moments of charm and witty slapstick, but it often seems content to recycle ideas from the previous films.
Epic
Year: 2013
Tomatometer: 64%
Critics Consensus: Though its narrative themes are all too familiar, Epic is beautifully animated and crafted with just enough flair to make for solid family entertainment.
Rio 2
Year: 2014
Tomatometer: 47%
Critics Consensus: Like most sequels, Rio 2 takes its predecessor’s basic template and tries to make it bigger — which means it’s even busier, more colorful, and ultimately more exhausting for viewers outside the youthful target demographic.
The Book of Life
Year: 2014
Tomatometer: 82%
Critics Consensus: The Book of Life‘s gorgeous animation is a treat.
The Peanuts Movie
Year: 2015
Tomatometer: 87%
Critics Consensus: The Peanuts Movie offers a colorful gateway into the world of its classic characters and a sweetly nostalgic — if relatively unambitious — treat for the adults who grew up with them.
Ferdinand
Year: 2017
Blue Sky Studio’s next offering arrives this upcoming July, the story of a flora-sniffing bull based on the children’s book of nearly the same name.
With The Nice Guys, writer/director Shane Black returns to the volatile buddy-cop template that defined his early writing career with hits like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Ryan Gosling is one-half of said Nice Guys, a down-on-his-luck detective in the ’70s and his whole steez inspires this week’s 24 Frames gallery: the wackiest private eyes ever to grace film and television.
Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes nails the idea that his constantly “on” brain, roving eyes, and whirling motor mouth is as much as a curse as it is popcorn entertainment.
Jim Carrey’s first major movie role was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and he spends most of it with his face hidden away, talking out of his ass. What a selfless actor!
Inspector Clouseau: Peter Sellers played the bumbling Pink Panther detective in the ’60s and ’70s, before Steve Martin took on the role for a reboot and a sequel starting in 2006.
The Adam West version of Batman, this Spandex’d deducer of truth, was always able to pin any number of Gotham villains to the scene of the crime even off the most threadbare clues.
Tony Shalhoub is Adrian Monk (of the titular TV show), an inspector working out of San Francisco whose debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder stymies his efforts to catch the perps.
Need an incompetent upright talking crustacean to take on the case and eat all the clues out of desperate hunger? Why not Zoidberg?
From the files of Police Squad! to the big screen shenanigans of the Naked Gun movies, Leslie Nielsen plays Frank Drebin as a bumbling detective whose best weapons are goofy sight gags and absurd one-liners.
Angie Tribeca: Rashida Jones and Hayes MacArthur play a pair of mismatched cops in this off-the-wall police procedural spoof inspired by the likes of Police Squad! and Sledge Hammer.
True Detective: Matthew McConnaughey’s detective Rust Cohle is probably the last person you want to road trip with, unless you’re into endless metaphysical ruminations, residual psychedelic hallucinations, and beer can sculpture.
Martin Mull plays Gene Parmesan, a thoroughly incompetent (this being Arrested Development after all) detective-for-hire whose lousy disguises nonetheless brought unbridled joy to Lucille Bluth.
Scooby-Doo: The teenage sleuths of Mystery, Inc. are actually pretty good — they nab a perp every episode — but it’s a little unclear what a munchie-obsessed Great Dane with a speech impediment actually brings to each investigation.
Having a lot of super cool tools at your disposal is great if you’re a P.I., but it helps if you’re not a complete ditz. Thankfully, Inspector Gadget has a whiz-kid niece with a supersmart pup to bail him out of trouble every time his helicopter hat malfunctions.
Mystery Team is a Hardy Boys-esque raunchy parody that envisions naive sleuths who grew up but never put in a day of maturing.
Before he became railroad engineer and rode his train tp hell and back, Buster Keaton boned up on silent-era sleuthing in 1924’s Sherlock Jr.
Sledge Hammer!: How do you solve every case at once? Do what Sledge did at the end of Season 1 and blow up the city with a nuke. Boom, no mysteries ever again.
Duckman: An irascible, sexist, perverted quack of a detective who regularly botches the simplest cases. But his wife is dead, so you gotta sympathize, you know?
It was at Val Kilmer’s insistence that his character in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (also written/directed by Shane Black) go gay (Gay Perry’s his name, in fact), inserting kissing shots with Robert Downey Jr. to jar the audience.
The Michael Richards Show: Short-lived, post-Seinfeld series starring Richards as an effective but unorthodox detective (carrying over some clumsy Kramer mannerisms).
Andy Barker, P.I.: An even more short-lived series starring Conan sidekick Andy Richter as a public accountant who is foisted into the crime-solving world after being mistaken for a private eye.
The Long Goodbye: Re-purposing a Raymond Chandler icon for the ’70s, Elliott Gould’s take on Philip Marlowe proves murky, quirky, and cool as jazz.
I Heart Huckabees: Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin star as “existential” private eyes, people who are hired to unravel lives and direct clients towards a purpose in life.
In Zero Effect, Bill Pullman stars as Daryl Zero, an awkward but genius detective whose interpersonal skills are so lousy, all clients speak to him through Zero’s assistant (Ben Stiller).
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother: Gene Wilder stars (while writing and directing) as Sigerson, the unambitious but suddenly jealous younger sibling of the world-famous detective, and sets out to outmatch him.
Just one more thing… Here’s Peter Falk as Columbo, the rumpled and deceptively scattered L.A. detective who entertained TV audiences for decades.
In 1989, The Simpsons revived the primetime animated show and has been chugging (like so much Duff Beer) along since, for a total of 26 seasons and counting.
The original primetime animated family, The Flintstones, premiered in 1960 and ran for six seasons, inspiring plenty of cartoons to air during that era.
Fart joke and topical humor generator South Park began in 1997 on Comedy Central. It’s run for 18 seasons, and has been renewed until at least 2019.
Family Guy premiered in 1999. After its 2003 cancellation and subsequent revival, the show has tallied up 13 seasons so far.
Bob’s Burgers has gone up and down in viewership across its five seasons, but FOX seems pleased enough: the show has been renewed for a sixth which begins airing in September.
Futurama had a tumultuous lifetime to say the least, weathering multiple cancellations and network homes. Across its 14 years of existence, the Planet Express crew managed to turn out a total seven seasons.
King of the Hill was frequently pre-empted and overshadowed by its flashy FOX sibling shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy, but its consistent workmanlike humor kept it alive for 13 seasons.
Following its Flintstones success, animation house Hanna-Barbera released three seasons of The Jetsons across three decades, concluding the series in 1990 with Jetsons: The Movie.
Conceived during Family Guy‘s early cancellation, American Dad! premiered in 2005, the same year Guy came back. It ran for 11 seasons on FOX, before TBS picked up the show for season 12 and beyond.
Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show debuted in 2009 and ran for four seasons. After its cancellation by FOX, the family returned to their pals in Quahog.
Spy action-comedy Archer began airing on FX in 2010, and featured a major show reboot in season five. Its sixth season concluded earlier this year in April.
Eddie Murphy’s The PJs premiered on FOX in 1999 and ran for three seasons, featuring stop-motion animation by legendary Will Vinton.
Duckman, starring Jason Alexander as a violent and pervy private investigator, ran between 1994 and 1997 for four seasons on the USA Network.
The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show ran for five seasons starting in 1959, though it frequently jumped networks and time slots.
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is another Hanna-Barbera show. It ran for three seasons between 1972 and 1974 and dealt with post-hippie family dynamics, including social conservatism, feminism, and boys with long hair.
67%
Twisted Metal: Season 1
(2023)
79%
The Witcher: Season 3
(2023)
38%
Haunted Mansion
(2023)
