Chris Jones
Entertainment Editor
Chris Jones, from Washington, Illinois, is the Mail Entertainment Editor covering Movies, Television, Books, and Music topics. He is the owner, writer, and editor of Overly Honest Reviews.
Imagine helping your husband run an empire for years, only for him to decide he'd rather replace you with another woman. Apparently, keeping an entire kingdom functioning counts for little when the emperor finds someone new to obsess over. THE REMARRIED EMPRESS takes that situation and builds a Korean fantasy romance around marriage, betrayal, royal politics, and a woman who's had enough of letting her husband make decisions for both of them. Based on the popular web novel and WEBTOON, the series blends romance, manipulation, and political power in a story where divorce might be the smartest decision anyone makes.
Amazon spent an unbelievable amount of money bringing Middle-earth to streaming, and after sixteen episodes of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, it's pretty easy to see where much of that money went. The landscapes are gorgeous, the cities are enormous, the costumes are elaborate, and practically everything looks like it belongs in the theater. What's been harder for the series is making every storyline feel like it needed that presentation. Across its first two seasons, creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have delivered an ambitious expansion of J.R.R. Tolkien's world, with impressive performances, some outstanding sequences, some incredible storylines, and enough questionable storytelling decisions to make the experience considerably less consistent than you’d expect.
Imagine spending nearly three decades investigating a murder, only to realize that the trial you've been waiting for will never happen. That's the unusual starting point for RE-CREATION, a fictional examination of one of Ireland's most controversial murder investigations. Directors Jim Sheridan and David Merriman take the real-life killing of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier and construct an imaginary courtroom proceeding around the man long associated with her death. It's an interesting approach to a case that has generated countless headlines, documentaries, and accusations, though combining real evidence with fictional characters creates its own complications.
Georgie Cooper has spent most of his life being underestimated, so watching him become one of the more responsible adults in his family is pretty entertaining. The kid who once seemed destined to spend his days getting into trouble is now running a business, raising a daughter, and trying to keep his marriage together. Unfortunately for Georgie, becoming an adult doesn't mean everyone around him will start acting like one. GEORGIE & MANDY'S FIRST MARRIAGE returns for its second season with 22 episodes of arguments, questionable decisions, business struggles, and the everyday disasters that have kept sitcoms going for decades.
There aren’t many films that I consider perfect, but this has long been at the top of my list of incredible films. Every lantern raised outside a woman's quarters in RAISE THE RED LANTERN represents another victory in a competition nobody should have been forced into. Zhang Yimou's extraordinary drama is one of those films where nearly every image deserves your full attention, but the beauty becomes increasingly uncomfortable once you understand what you're looking at. Set in 1920s China, the film follows four women whose lives are dictated by one man's preferences, turning marriage into an elaborate system of control, humiliation, and calculated inhumanity. I've always held this film in extraordinarily high regard, and revisiting it through this new 4K presentation only reinforces why. Thirty-five years later, its examination of institutionalized misogyny, the illusion of privilege, and the damage inflicted when people are forced to compete for basic dignity remains devastating.
Nine seasons into RICK AND MORTY, Rick Sanchez remains one of television's most intelligent men and quite possibly the last person you'd want making decisions on your behalf. Thankfully, he hasn't developed much interest in becoming a responsible adult, because watching him drag his family through increasingly ridiculous scientific disasters is still a hell of a lot of fun. Adult Swim's ninth season delivers another ten episodes of interdimensional nonsense, elaborate science-fiction concepts, uncomfortable family relationships, and jokes that probably shouldn't be repeated in polite company. It's familiar territory, but the creative team continues finding entertaining ways to make the Smith family's existence considerably more complicated than anyone else's.
Getting betrayed by your friends is bad enough, but having them attempt to murder you is probably grounds for ending the relationship... MY GIFT LVL 9999 UNLIMITED GACHA: BACKSTABBED IN A BACKWATER DUNGEON, I'M OUT FOR REVENGE! isn't interested in pretending that the insanity isn’t at the level it is. This twelve-episode anime takes a fantasy setup about an underestimated protagonist discovering an extraordinary ability and turns it into an unapologetic revenge story filled with warriors, schemes, enemies, and wonderfully excessive demonstrations of how badly people can underestimate someone. It doesn't reinvent anime, but sometimes watching a group of unpleasant individuals realize they've made a huge mistake is entertaining enough.
The internet has created an entire industry around turning other people's worst experiences into entertainment, and apparently there's no such thing as a murder too disturbing to monetize. In MARROW, writer-director Mitch McLeod takes that uncomfortable reality and introduces a true-crime content creator whose desperation to remain relevant leads her into a situation that should probably have come with several thousand red flags. It's a psychological horror thriller that combines our obsession with serial killers, the relentless pursuit of online engagement, and the increasingly questionable relationship between content creators and the people whose stories keep them employed. The premise is intriguing, the cast includes a couple of familiar horror favorites, and an uncomfortable question lurks beneath the supernatural nastiness. When does documenting somebody else's suffering become another form of exploitation?
Dr. Seuss understood that you could teach children some pretty important lessons while simultaneously introducing them to creatures with ridiculous names, impossible hairstyles, and a concerning disregard for the laws of physics. His stories have entertained generations, but their lasting appeal comes from how effortlessly they mix complete nonsense with observations about human behavior. Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment's DR. SEUSS: CLASSIC TV TREASURES COLLECTION brings together 15 animated and television treasures spanning more than five decades, offering over six hours of entertainment that goes well beyond the holiday favorites most people associate with his work. It's a wonderful reminder that the world of Dr. Seuss has always been much bigger than one grouchy green fellow with a Christmas problem.