While Ryan Murphy is primarily known for his work on the hit anthology series American Horror Story, the creator is bringing a new show to Netflix. Titled Hollywood, the series is created by Ian Brennan and Murphy and will debut on May 1. The first trailer for the show has been released.
The upcoming show “follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown–no matter the cost,” according to an official description of the series. “Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day.” Check out the new trailer below.
This is a limited series, so don’t expect an anthology like AHS. Hollywood will star Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, Michelle Krusiec, Samara Weaving, Jeremy Pope, and more. Additionally, it will feature plenty of well-known names from Hollywood’s past like Jake Picking playing Rock Hudson.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace can be streamed in the UK for free on the Channel 4 website. It’s also available in the UK and Australia on iTunes. Sadly, there is currently no legal way to stream Darkplace in the U.S., though plenty of clips can be found on YouTube.
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What happens when the BBC runs out of programming? In 2004, Channel 4 desperately needed to fill several gaps in its schedule, and chose to finally air a series that, according to its creator, was “so radical, so risky, so dangerous, so goddamned crazy, that the so-called powers-that-be became too scared to show it.”
This is the premise of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, one of the best (and most criminally short-lived) comedies of the early 21st century. Darkplace is an absurd combination of genre-parody and mockumentary, presenting itself as the “long-delayed premiere” of a cancelled-before-it-aired TV show from the 1980s, wrapped in interviews with its creative team and cast. The fictional show in question, likewise titled ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’, was a procedural-hospital-drama-slash-monster-of-the-week-paranormal-thriller (the hospital having been built above a portal to hell, obviously) that asked questions like “What if the world’s worst bargain-bin Stephen King knock-off wrote a TV show,” and, “What would that series look like if it was produced with absolutely no budget?”
The answers were, perhaps unsurprisingly, hilarious… and, at times, grotesque – but usually both in equal measure. Its plotlines are ridiculous (ranging from simple fits of demonic possession to an alien broccoli invasion) and its production quality is purposefully abysmal (tip for you Hollywood types out there: if you can’t afford dirtbikes for a chase sequence, just use bicycles with BBBRRRRRRRRR sound effects overlaid instead) – but it’s the interview segments highlighting the outlandishly myopic worldview of Marenghi and his production team which really make the series exceptional.
Led by Matthew Holness as the titular “author, dreamweaver, and visionary… plus actor,” and Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, The Mandalorian) as his publisher and very much not an actor co-star Dean Lerner, the talking heads that intercut each episode (assumedly because the originals weren’t long enough to fill a full half-hour programming block) turn what would have been an otherwise serviceable parody of cheap ’80s TV into a hilarious commentary on the creative process (or lack thereof) and the dichotomy of one’s ego vs actual talent. Marenghi is a parody in and of himself, a pitch-perfect sendup of every mediocre creator masking their insecurities in tropes of badassery from the ’80s and ’90s, and Darkplace is the half-rotten (yet, for us, absurdly delicious) fruits of those labors.
Okay, maybe that’s getting a little too analytical – after all, as Marenghi says, “I know writers who use subtext and they’re all cowards” – but whether you’re looking for high-brow conceptual satire or just a good old-fashioned monkey-man pissfest, Darkplace is a chapter of comedy history you won’t want to skip. Featuring a slew of other British comedians including Matt Berry (Toast of London, The IT Crowd) and Alice Lowe (Hot Fuzz), plus appearances from the likes of Noel Fielding, Lydia Fox, and Stephen Merchant, the six half-hour(ish) episodes of Darkplace are all well worth the couple of hours that it takes to binge the whole series.
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JR is a Senior Editor at IGN, and really hopes you give Darkplace a shot. Seriously, it’s great – like, it-was-his-ringtone-for-no-small-amount-of-time good – so if you do check it out, hit him up on Twitter
If you qualify for the federal government’s Economic Impact Payment, it should be showing up in your account sometime soon. I know people who have not only already gotten theirs, but already spent it, too. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a new gaming laptop, it’s a great use of your “free” money.
If you’re looking for a new gaming laptop for under $1200, the specs of the laptops above are pretty par for the course. Barring special promotions, you can generally find gaming laptops with RTX 2060 or GTX 1660/1660 Ti graphics cards coming in under the $1200 mark. Some are even down below $1000, making them a better deal. Keep in mind when you’re buying a gaming laptop which features you value. You might be able to squeeze in a bigger GPU or slightly better CPU, but it comes at the price of less RAM or SSD storage.
My personal pick from this list would be the Gigabyte Aorus gaming laptop. There’s an instant $300 rebate, so the price comes out to $1099 and it’s pretty stacked. My PC display is 144Hz and I don’t think I ever want to go back, so having it in a well-equipped, on-sale gaming laptop is just the icing on the cake. Check out our review of the (newer) Gigabyte Aorus 15G to get a rough idea of what to expect.
Desktop gaming PCs will always offer you more bang for your buck than a laptop. You can build one yourself for less money, and while it’s enormously rewarding, it’s also terrifying if you’re inexperienced. I’ve put together a lot of PCs over the years, and I still have a twinge of horror when I power it up for the first time. Another disadvantage to building your own PC right now is tracking down all the parts. You might be able to get the CPU and GPU you want, only to find yourself waiting on the right motherboard. In any case, there’s no shame in buying a prebuilt.
Unlike the gaming PCs of a decade ago, modern prebuilt gaming PCs aren’t built from proprietary, unswappable parts. Essentially they’re built with the same stuff you’d use to build your own, but with a warranty. Since they’re no longer doing stuff like soldering the GPU in place, you can upgrade as you see fit. Check out our guide to the best gaming PCs for a full list of our recommendations not restricted by price, if you’re feeling a little extra spendy.
Microsoft and CD Projekt Red are putting out a Cyberpunk 2077-themed Xbox One X console in June, but if all you want is the controller, you can order it now from the Microsoft Store or Walmart. It rings in at $74.99, but it looks stylish as hell. The MS Store product page currently says “out of stock,” but for whatever reason as the page is loading the “Add to Cart” button briefly appears. If you can hit the button while it’s there, you can order the controller.
The controller itself features a distressed design that’s based on Johnny Silverhand, the Cyberpunk 2077 character played by Keanu Reeves. It’s gray, black, and red, with scuff marks and scratches that add to the rugged design. It’s an eye-catching piece of hardware.
Like all new Xbox One controllers, it allows for button mapping and has a built-in 3.5mm headset jack. It also has Bluetooth technology that lets you use it to play games on PCs, as well as mobile devices.
Alien Day will be here again on April 26, and that means we’re in store for some new merch from the iconic franchise. Reebok started its Alien Stomper shoe line last year, releasing replica versions of the sneakers worn by Ellen Ripley in 1986’s Aliens. This year it’s debuting the Bug Stomper–not a replica, but a fitting homage to some of our favourite Aliens marines.
From afar they may just look like any old camouflage sneaker, but look closer and the design is filled with tiny homages to the Aliens cast of characters. The Weyland-Yutani logo replaces the standard Reebok Union Jack, the right heel features Hudson’s “eyes on your back” graffiti, with the Bug Stomper’s “We Endanger Species” tagline on the heel strap. Partially hidden in the sockliners are more logos from the film–the Weyland-Yutani Corp logo, and the marines’ Death or Glory skull.
Alien Day is on April 26, a reference to moon LV-426 where all the action of Aliens took place. More merch is being released around this year’s Alien Day, including a number of new toys (already available from Walmart), art books, a new comic, and t-shirts from Reebok, but you can bet it’s the sneakers that collectors will be clamoring over.
