‘Scarpetta’: Liz Sarnoff On Adapting Patricia Cornwell’s Beloved Books, Nicole Kidman’s Commitment, & Why The Show Lives On Character [Bingeworthy Podcast]

Yup, the wedding bells already rang, the in-laws already exploded, and somehow “Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come” still finds a way to make that universe feel even bigger, bloodier, funnier and a whole lot weirder. The sequel to the 2019 horror-comedy favorite picks up with Samara Weaving’s Grace still very much in the blast radius of her last marital disaster, only now the satanic board game has expanded. What was once one deranged family with a pact and a game night from hell becomes something broader here: a hierarchy of elite occult families, strange alliances, legal puppet masters, and a deeper mythology lurking just outside the mansion walls. Directed once again by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the film leans even harder into absurdity, spectacle, and viciously funny chaos without losing Grace’s bruised, everywoman appeal.On this episode of The Discourse, Mike DeAngelo is joined by writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy to talk about how they cracked the sequel and why the seeds were actually planted years ago. Murphy said they always knew there was more world beyond the first film, even if audiences only caught glimpses of it. “We already knew that there was a larger world out there that we wanted to explore,” he explained. “And so that kernel of an idea was already kind of baked into the cake. And it was just kind of a question of, how to motivate Grace into that larger world.”READ MORE: ‘Heel’: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough & Anson Boon On Grief, Redemption, More ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘Mobland’ Season 2 [The Discourse Podcast]

Grief rarely arrives quietly. In "The Madison", it detonates and leaves a family trying to rebuild their lives in the emotional rubble. The sweeping Paramount+ drama from Taylor Sheridan follows the Clyburn family after a devastating loss sends them from New York City to Montana, where grief, reinvention, and culture shock collide. The series stars Michelle Pfeiffer as matriarch Stacy Clyburn alongside Kurt Russell, Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, Beau Garrett, and more.On the latest episode of The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast, host Mike DeAngelo spoke with Russell and Pfeiffer about the emotional core of the series and their long‑awaited on‑screen reunion, before sitting down with director Christina Alexandra Voros, who helmed all episodes of the show and has become one of Sheridan’s most trusted collaborators.Pfeiffer’s entry into the series came in a very Taylor Sheridan fashion. The filmmaker pitched the idea to her informally before any scripts existed over tequila.

Crime fiction has rarely produced a protagonist quite like Kay Scarpetta. For decades, Patricia Cornwell’s bestselling novels followed the brilliant forensic pathologist and medical examiner navigating grisly cases while balancing the messy emotional realities of family, love, and professional obsession. Now, the long-awaited adaptation has finally arrived in the form of Prime Video’s new series “Scarpetta,” starring Nicole Kidman as the iconic medical examiner alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, and more.The show is shepherded by creator and showrunner Liz Sarnoff, whose writing résumé includes “Barry,” “Lost,” “Deadwood,” and “Marco Polo.” The series takes an ambitious approach to Cornwell’s world by weaving together two timelines: one set in the late 1990s and another in the present day, allowing the story to explore both the early years of Scarpetta’s career and the more seasoned version of the character audiences meet decades later.READ MORE: ‘DTF: St. Louis’: Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, David Harbour, & Steve Conrad On Vulnerability, Sexual Secrets, & Jason Bateman’s MCU Character [Bingeworthy Podcast]On this episode of The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast, Sarnoff joins host Mike DeAngelo to talk about finally bringing the beloved character to the screen, why the show merges multiple books into a single narrative structure, how Kidman approached the technical realities of forensic work, and how the series distinguishes itself from typical procedural storytelling.

Few shows reinvent themselves as boldly between seasons as Dan Fogelman’s “Paradise.” What began as a tightly wound political mystery in Season 1 mutates into something far bigger in Season 2: a survival story, a character odyssey, and a puzzle box full of fan theories that viewers are now happily dissecting online. The world expands dramatically beyond the bunker, pushing its characters into unfamiliar territory and raising the emotional stakes across the board.On this episode of The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast, host Mike DeAngelo speaks with Sterling K. Brown and Shailene Woodley, and Julianne Nicholson about the show’s ambitious second season, the emotional toll of survival, and what lies ahead as the series moves toward its planned ending.

At first glance, “Heel” (released internationally as “The Good Boy”) looks like it might be a grim captivity thriller. A troubled young man is abducted and chained in a basement by a grieving couple. But filmmaker Jan Komasa has something stranger and more psychologically rich in mind. Instead of a story about imprisonment and escape, “Heel” becomes a meditation on grief, redemption, and the uncomfortable idea that compassion can sometimes arrive in deeply unsettling forms. The film stars Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon, and opens in theaters and on-demand March 6.On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo spoke with Graham and Riseborough together, followed by Boon in a separate conversation, about the film’s unusual premise, the emotional core behind its darkness, and the different ways each actor interpreted the story.READ MORE: ‘The Bluff’: Priyanka Chopra-Jonas & Karl Urban On Brutal Location Shoots, Colonial Reckonings, ‘The Boys’ Finale, ‘Citadel,’ & The Hope For More ‘Dredd’ [The Discourse Podcast]For Graham, the script’s twisted premise wasn’t the point. What grabbed him was the emotional logic behind it.

There’s a specific flavor to a Steve Conrad show. A little awkward. A little hilarious. A little sad. A little dangerous. Sex, lies, murder, and old smut. That tone is back in full force with “DTF: St. Louis,” the HBO Max series that follows adults who think they’re signing up for an app that's simple and transactional, only to discover that intimacy is never that clean. The ensemble includes Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, David Harbour, and Richard Jenkins, and like Conrad’s previous work on “Patriot,” it blends weaponized awkwardness with genuine emotional exposure.On this episode of Bingeworthy, Mike DeAngelo spoke with Conrad and the cast about where the idea began, how you calibrate a tone that’s funny and unsettling at the same time, and what it’s like to shoot your first scene together at eight in the morning while sitting on Jason Bateman’s face.For Conrad, the origin point wasn’t a character or a crime, it was the app itself.“It was the brand name of that make-believe app,” he said. “It opened up everything for me, because only a sucker would believe that that’s all anybody is down for. I mean, life has its surprises, but the idea that you can have an intimate relationship with somebody, shake hands and say, now go on with the rest of my life — unlikely that that is always going to go that way.”

There’s a blunt-force clarity to “The Bluff.” Cannons roar, cliffs loom, and survival comes down to grit, guns, and one badass mother who refuses to bend. Directed by Frank E. Flowers, the 19th-century Caribbean thriller follows Ursell (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), a former pirate whose quiet life is shattered when Connor (Karl Urban), a betrayed former ally, arrives with vengeance and unfinished business on his mind. What unfolds is part Pirate-themed, “Die Hard”-esque siege movie, part reckoning with empire, and, in Urban’s words, “actually a love story with the volume turned up.” The film hits Prime Video on February 25 and also stars Temuera Morrison, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Safia Oakley-Green, and more.On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karl Urban to talk about the sweat, the history, and the franchise futures looming on both of their horizons.When asked just how physically punishing the shoot for “The Bluff” was, Urban did not romanticize it. “At the end of every single day, I would go and get all the stuff taken off, and I would have a double tequila ready to go and ready for that car ride home,” he said. Chopra-Jonas raised the stakes. “I definitely needed a tetanus shot, and margarita, and a bottle of wine.” The production was shot entirely on location, on a tight schedule, and there was “no time for anybody to fall sick. There was just no room.” Chopra Jonas admitted. “But, I mean, it looks great, and it turned out great.”

There’s a very specific kind of comfort that only “Scrubs” can deliver. It’s the snap‑cut from slapstick to soul‑crushing. The hallway daydream that detonates into real grief. The sense that medicine is both sacred and absurd, and that humor is the only thing keeping anyone upright. The new “Scrubs” revival understands that alchemy. It is not interested in embalming the past. It is interesting to ask what happens when the dreamers become the grownups, when the interns who once hid behind fantasies now have to lead.On this episode of Bingeworthy, host Mike DeAngelo sits down with Bill Lawrence and Aseem Batra to talk about bringing “Scrubs” back in a way that honors its past without getting trapped by it. The revival premieres with two back‑to‑back episodes on Wednesday, February 25, on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.For Lawrence, the return starts with gratitude. “Not every show that you worked on gets to have a fan base so passionate that they continue to do it,” he said. That passion, he noted, is alive and well, citing everything from obsessive continuity questions to fans who never stopped revisiting Sacred Heart.

You've really got to love the jolt of pure cinematic adrenaline that hits when a movie announces itself with extreme confidence instead of apology. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” does it by storming into a Los Angeles diner and unleashing a crazed, high‑wire opening monologue that plays like a dare, a sales pitch, and an exhausted rallying cry all at once. From the jump, the film makes it clear it is not here to calm you down. It’s here to wake you the hell up. THE ROBOTS ARE COMING! THE ROBOTS ARE COMING!Directed by Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean," " Rango"), the film follows a mysterious man from "the future” (Sam Rockwell) who arrives at a diner with one urgent task: he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one‑night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence. That reluctant group includes Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Haley Lu Richardson, and Juno Temple. What unfolds is a kinetic collision of sci‑fi, action, romance, and social satire that never lets up until the credits roll. Think "Terminator" on a healthy combo of acid & mushrooms and you've mostly got it. Joining The Discourse for a set of conversations on the film, Gore Verbinski, Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, and Michael Peña dug into how the film’s energy, tone, and unapologetic weirdness were not accidents, but the entire point.

There’s a particular kind of confidence required to make a modern Los Angeles heist movie without flinching at the shadow of “Heat.” It’s the cinematic elephant in the room, the reference point that inevitably looms over any story involving meticulous thieves, dogged cops, and asphalt‑level tension. With “Crime 101,” filmmaker Bart Layton acknowledges that lineage without trying to wrestle it. Instead, he builds something adjacent: a grounded, contemporary crime film that uses the genre as a delivery system for deeper questions about identity, status, and obsession.Based on the novella by Don Winslow, “Crime 101” follows a precise, disciplined jewel thief (played by Chris Hemsworth) whose carefully calibrated life begins to fracture as an obsessive LAPD detective (played by Mark Ruffalo) closes in. Sound familiar "Heat" fans? Luckily, we also have other stories running parallel, like Halle Berry as Sharon, a woman boxed in by institutional disrespect and professional diminishment, slowly realizing that the systems she has played by were never designed to reward her. The ensemble is stacked with Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Nick Nolte, and more, but the film’s real engine is tone: tense, patient, and uninterested in clean moral answers.READ MORE: ‘Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie’: Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol On Time Travel, Friendship, The Show’s 3rd Season, & Filming Without Permits [The Discourse Podcast]Joining The Discourse for two separate interviews, Layton, Hemsworth, and Berry dug into how “Crime 101” consciously avoids Hollywood shorthand while still delivering a propulsive, white‑knuckle ride.