When Merlin talks about the “Summer Kingdom” his tone and imagery are not so
different than Ronald Reagan’s vision of a “shining city on a hill.” However,
to realize such lofty ambitions, the men of Britain must fight—and many will
likely fall in battle. However, if they submit to the Saxons now, all their
dreams of independent dignity will surely die. They are not quite ready, but
the battle must be joined anyway in “The Last True Bard,” the first season
finale of creator Jeremy Boreing’s Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin (based
on Stephen R. Lawhead’s novels) which premieres today on Daily Wire+.
Even
though Merlin returns from the North with King Custennin’s reinforcements, King
Aureliius’s army is still badly outnumbered. However, desperate times call for
desperate battle strategies. Uther and Custennin devise a high-risk plan that
could work, but the battle chief would feel more confident if Merlin led their
armies—even though a resulting victory would likely elevate him to the throne
of Britain’s new High King, rather than his brother, Aurelius. However, this is
exactly the kind of temptation Merlin has struggled to resist.
There
will be no avoiding the bloodshed in “The Last True Bard,” so fittingly, the
final episode is helmed by action movie specialist Jesse V. Johnson. Things
will truly get Medieval. Yet, the
highlight might be Merlin’s inspirational song, which is too haunting to compare
to a pre-game pep talk. It is hard to describe, but it might be the best staged
scene of the first season.
The
finale also drops a small but significant revelation that completely changes viewers’
understanding of many previous scenes—yet it makes perfect sense in the context
of the show. The season closer also faithfully reflects the spiritual
dimensions of Lawhead’s novels by emphasizing not all conflicts are physical in
nature. Tantalizingly, it also leaves viewers wanting more with a massively
Arthurian tease for the next anticipated season.
Sure, Franck and his cronies are French, but they own guns, hunt, and drink
heavily, all at the same time. They are not the only ones. During a Sunday
hunting excursion, a rough, somewhat legally questionable hunting party opens
fire on Franck’s friends, so they shoot back, killing one of them. It was
self-defense, but it ignites a feud worthy of hill country in writer-director
Cedric Anger’s six-part The Hunt, which (finally) premieres today on
Apple TV+.
The Hunt
was delayed
several months due to legal issues when the rights holders of Douglas Fairbairn’s
novel Shoot and the 1976 film adaptation (starring Cliff Robertson and
Ernest Borgnine) objected to similarities. Yes, they share common elements, but
if they were truly actionable, hundreds of films should have paid clearance
fees to Richard Connell’s estate for The Most Dangerous Game, before it
fell out of copyright in 2020.
Regardless,
Franck, Xavier, Simon, and Gilles all find themselves in a fire-fight that
fateful day. The gang shot first, giving a Xavier a profusely bleeding
trump-like bullet wound to the ear, but apparently Franck’s group are more
accurate shots. Fearing the consequences of their actions, the ambushed hunters
hope to return to their lives and pretend it never happened. However, the outlaws
soon start stalking and threatening Franck and friends.
Clearly,
Franck is the alpha male of their pack, so the well-heeled hardware store owner
takes the lead sleuthing out their rivals. In contrast, Xavier, Simon, and
Gilles are all quite sad and rather passive. Leo is easily the next most
formidable member of their circle. He did not accompany them on that particular
trip, but he immediately rallies behind them. As a medical doctor, he can also
treat Xavier’s wounds off the books.
Logically,
Franck also has the most to lose, starting with his more sophisticated wife
Krystel, Leo’s medical partner. They also have a young son with discipline
problems and a teen daughter who just started dating a suspiciously older
boyfriend. However, Franck’s greatest vulnerability might be the mistress he
has kept out of sight.
Anger’s
non-adaptation is a presentable thriller, but a tighter, shorter presentation
would have thrilled even more. Frankly, this could and probably should have
been a feature, because Anger gives us more than enough scenes of Franck driving
on endless errands and tripping around the thugs’ roadhouse. However, the subplot
following Krystel’s efforts to find a missing runaway teen pay-off better than expected.
Considering how many hostile foreign powers are currently targeting the U.S. and
our allies, would the Navy’s resources truly be best spent on Antarctic climate
research? This episode of CBS’s mega-procedural franchise makes a good case for
the negative (probably unintentionally). Regardless, when a wave of violent
madness sweeps through the scientific station, NCIS Agent Michelle Mackey’s
lucky team happens to be the closest, so they must respond in “South of
Nowhere,” the mid-season premiere of creator-showrunner Morgan McNeill’s NCIS
Sydney, which premieres tonight on CBS.
According
to the initial report, one scientist suddenly went nuts, killing another, but
was quickly subdued. However, when Mackey and her team arrive (minus the
high-strung Blue Gleeson, who has dog-sitting duties), they find a bloodbath.
They immediately suspect an airborne “zombie virus,” until they find a
survivor.
Nevertheless,
the Agents must make contingencies in case some of their comrades turn into
rabid killers. Much to the credit of McNeill and co-writer Josh Sambono, this
episode directly references the classic The Thing Another World.
However, given the context, they probably really mean to name-drop John
Carpenter’s 1982 re-conception, The Thing, which is also a great film.
Either
way, the Antarctic setting is relatively ambitious for a weekly procedural
series—even without extensive outdoor location shots. This episode also builds
urgency with a countdown to the six months of solstice night due to engulf the
polar region in less than four days. As a bonus, it also acknowledges the duplicitous
nature of one of Putin’s closest allies.
Suppose Linton never existed in Wuthering Heights, so Earnshaw arranged a
marriage between Catherine and Heathcliff. Then imagine their story turns into
a horror movie that culminates in a notorious national trauma. That is the
sinister and complicated fate in store for Sugeng and Arum in director-screenwriter
Hanung Bramantyo’s The Hole: 309 Days Before the Tragedy, which EST N8
is repping internationally, following its Rotterdam festival premiere.
Lubang
Buaya is a village in East Jakarta, not far from an Air Force base, where the Indonesian
Communist Party murdered seven Army officers and unleashed chaos during their
failed coup attempt. Frankly, the CIA had its doubts regarding the official
story, but Sukarno, who had been flirting with the Communists with his
anti-imperialist rhetoric, used the incident to decidedly turn against them.
Frankly, even when Bramantyo finally reveals all, it is rather hard to see how
the Sugeng and Arum’s story ultimately leads into that historical controversy—but
somehow it does.
Arguably,
even Sugeng’s marriage to Arum seems a little iffy, since Sukarya raised them
both as his children. However, since Sugeng, the former street urchin, is not a
blood relation, the local Imam gives his blessing. Unfortunately, the celebration
will be short-lived. Since he knows the region, the national police assign
Sugeng the investigation into the gruesome ritual murders of several prominent
local citizens. Tellingly, each victim was denounced by the local Communist
newspaper as part of their shameful gang of seven.
That would
certainly constitute motive, but it does not explain the spectral woman who starts
terrorizing Arum. As the bodies pile up, the Imam suggests it might be the work
of curses cast from a Moorish Andalusian book of black magic. There also might
be reason to suspect the local Imam could be somewhat complicit in the village’s
sins.
Frankly,
horror fans should make a point of watching The Hole whenever the
opportunity arises, because it is frighteningly easy to imagine campaigns to censor
it, for both religious and political reasons. Bramantyo takes some big,
fearless swings and tackles some highly protected sacred cows. Its gutsy
filmmaking, to the point of even thrilling with its defiant iconoclasm.
However,
Bramantyo still takes care of genre business, building suspense out of an
atmosphere of corruption and foreboding. There is definitely bad karma at work,
to the point that viewers’ sympathies start to flip, or at least become
considerably more complicated.
Who needs a brain, if you’ve already found the one? Harry O’Hay and Betty O’Barley are
perfect for each other, but he could lose her, because he is a little slow—in more
ways than one. Hopefully the titular ceremony still happens in Samantha Cutler
& Jeroen Jaspaert’s animated short, The Scarecrows’ Wedding, the
latest BBC & Magic Light Pictures adaptation of a Julia Donaldson children’s
book, which screens as part of the Shorts for Tots block at the 2026 New York International Children’s Film Festival.
It used
to just be O’Barley in the field, but it attracted more crows than she could
shoo, so the farmer added O’Hay. They immediately make a good team. Soon, they also
discovered they make a good couple. Despite his shyness, O’Hay proposes and she
accepts. Of course, even in a field, a wedding requires a lot of preparation,
but unfortunately, O’Hay mistakenly accepts help from some of the lowest animals
in the local ecosystem.
His
long absence starts to alarm O’Barley, especially when the farmer replaces him
with Reginald Rake, a smarmy ladies’ man scarecrow. O’Barley can tell he is bad
news, but he keeps hitting on her, in less and less charming ways.
Rob
Brydon has been a mainstay of the Magic Light Pictures Donaldson adaptations.
In this case, he sounds hilariously sleazy as Rake. He gives this short film the
infusion of personality its lead voices, the blandly vanilla Jessie Buckley and
Domhnall Gleason can’t supply.
