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Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You has one line of dialogue, but the film gives us so many amazing visuals across 93 minutes that it isn’t even really a talking point. 

The film, now streaming on Hulu, stars Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) as a young woman named Brynn who’s been shunned by her community for an unspecified reason. Duffield, who also directed 2020’s sleeper hit Spontaneous, taps into the overarching theme of alienation as Brynn struggles with loneliness and grief, isolated in her big, creaky house. 

And then the aliens show up. 

No One Will Save You is an alien invasion film, and the design of the Grays and their ship is impressive. (The latter is somewhat reminiscent of Nope). Instead of having aliens that all look the same, Duffield offers some variety in size and personality, which led to some differing opinions on the aliens’ cuteness. A viral TikTok of a kid acting for his life in an alien costume was also used to meme the movie, and Duffield told the New York Times he made the invaders the more traditional Grays to revitalize “what’s become like the emoji alien.” 

A page from the script circulated on X shortly after the film debuted, and Film Twitter debated whether it was cool or cringe. It’s meant to convey the claustrophobia of a scene in which Dever’s character is paralyzed by an alien, without dialogue. Dever does a great job simply reacting and moving the action forward with her face and emotions, and the set design of the house subtly informs the story as well. No One Will Save You also has a more poignant story about forgiveness (and, yes, trauma) nestled inside.   

It got both the Stephen King and Guillermo del Toro bump, with del Toro leaning into No One Will Save You’s themes of redemption: “Grace and salvation emerge from pain and suffering,” he wrote. Those themes kind of evaporate by the film’s much-discussed ending, but Duffield seems happy leaving it open to interpretation. 

Why it matters

This film didn’t get much advance promotion, so its word-of-mouth popularity is a good sign. It’s been on Hulu’s Top 15 list since it debuted, and out-of-context clips of the film went around on TikTok, which likely led to more views. 

I just wish Hulu didn’t blast so many ads over this film; I counted at least four ad breaks that completely broke the momentum of No One Will Save You, a film that’s only 93 minutes long. This is a movie that actually might have benefitted from a theatrical release, especially in the lead up to Halloween. 

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Haters will say it's not real.

Take some grainy footage that looks like it was shot from a press box 10,000 feet in the air, toss a techno beat behind it, and upload it to YouTube. The visual grammar of a soccer hopeful’s highlight reel is instantly recognizable and has become uniform to the point of meme.

In fact, back in 2016, one creator made a parody video "highlighting" various miscues and heavy touches by U.S. men's national team striker Gyasi Zardes, borrowing from those tropes.

And yet, today’s actual professional players also have to think about how they show up online, with a presence on video-first platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok all part of the first impression players make on front office employees, coaches, and fans.

Most athletes are very good at the sport they play, but they may not be as good at marketing and branding. Increasingly, leagues and clubs are working with athletes to help freshen their brand and give a jolt not just to their careers but to set them up for post-playing opportunities.

'I thought about trying to switch my platforms'

Houston Dash forward Ryan Gareis is working to balance a profile that will still be fun and fit in with what other 20something women are posting on social media while also keeping the chance open the right general manager or front office person will see what she does on the field.

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“I do have a very goofy side and like to have fun," she revealed. "When it comes to TikTok, my teammates and I do dances, there’s more silly content, not super serious."

“I thought about trying to switch my platforms to be more serious or soccer-only," she added, "but I decided against that because I do think something very cool about social media is you can demonstrate who you are and the different sides of you.”

In addition to her Dash career, Gareis is also trying to build up her coaching portfolio, work that has grown almost entirely thanks to her posts on Instagram and TikTok.

“A big part of my life is coaching, so I do try to represent myself as a role model online because I know people are always looking, trying to find out who you are off the field,” she said. “I want to represent myself as who I am, just making sure that what I’m putting out is a good representation of me as an athlete and also as a person."

Before the 2023 season, the NWSL announced a partnership with Adobe designed to “empower all NWSL athletes” by conducting workshops and giving players access to Adobe’s tools, plus setting the players up with marketing experts to help NWSL players find the best way to share their own story.

Gareis’ time and study at the University of South Carolina, where she earned an advertising degree with a photography minor plus a marketing internship, meant she was already familiar with the Adobe suite of products. But she said the access provided by the software company can help players easily make choices about the way they want to present themselves and craft their brand in line with their aesthetic preferences.

'Your social presence is just part of your resume'

Major League Soccer’s branding programs aren’t formalized like NWSL's, but many of its rising stars are also thinking about their digital branding. They know they can use social media to set themselves up for commercial opportunities right now and build toward another role after retiring from playing.

FC Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes previously published content mostly in Dutch, leading to a social media following almost entirely based in his native Netherlands, where he was playing from 2016 to 2022. But he learned from watching his girlfriend, top model Luna Bijl, and has attracted a far more international community since coming to Texas.

“In this future, your social presence is just part of your resume,” Paes said. “I wanted to be a little more active to show my family how life is here, and it’s nice from a business perspective.”

That’s why, after focusing on his on-field showings in his first year in MLS, this season saw Paes revamp his social media presence with English posts and highly produced videos. Paes also expressed a desire to beef up his network on corporate-focused LinkedIn.

The 25-year-old is creating content for new accounts on sites where athletes are more traditionally found, like TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), but said he is eager to make connections that will help him as a player now but also when his playing career comes to an end, ideally many years down the line. FCD’s media team lends a hand when it has spare time and, like Gareis, Paes highlighted the amount of high-quality photos and videos of himself he can access thanks to their teams.

'I still am a person with many hobbies and enjoyments'

Paes’ teammate, center back Nkosi Tafari, leans less on the idea that social media will help him land his next job and more on the idea it’s a place where he can have fun. Tafari garnered attention this season when, ahead of a clash with Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi, he flatly told reporters he knew they were only there to talk about Messi and not to learn about him as a person.

There’s plenty to learn. In addition to his sporting pursuits, Tafari expresses himself with his style and flashy looks.

“I like to bring these things in because outside of playing soccer, I still am a person with many hobbies and enjoyments," he explained. "So I like to bring that to my social media as well so people who are following me can get to know me a little bit more."

He even makes time to talk trash to opposing fans after a game, viewing social media as more of a place to express his true thoughts than any sort of resume for other club teams.

“If I’m wearing something or thinking something—within reason, of course because everything has to have context—then I feel like I can say that,” he said.

'I’ve been able to show what I’m passionate about'

It isn’t just pro athletes thinking more about their brand and how they present themselves online. After decades of forbidding athletes to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), the NCAA—college sports' governing body—adopted an interim policy in the summer of 2021 allowing players to accept benefits.

That not only opened the door for players to accept sponsorship deals tied to what they do on the field, but has provided a pathway for athletes to seek other ways to profit from the fame and the connection they have with fans in local and national communities.

Wichita State softball star Sydney McKinney was a consensus First Team All-American in 2023 and went first in the Athletes Unlimited draft. She also loves to paint and started sharing her work on Instagram during the Covid-19 pandemic. The work resonated and fans started wondering if they could own a piece of art created by their favorite Shocker infielder.

“I’m a really happy person and like to share positivity," McKinney said. "I think people grasped on to that."

She’s painted murals for local restaurants but also utilized social media to connect with fans directly. Through an NIL deals platform, she started linking with those supporters who wanted to buy her artwork, to get a birthday message for a loved one or to have a ball or other piece of signed memorabilia from one of the country’s top softball players.

“A lot of fans have always wanted to get things from me, they just didn’t know how. I think it’s important for athletes to continue to help fans out and let them know because they’re going to support their favorite athletes,” she said.

Not only has McKinney benefited from that support, she’s donated much of her profits from NIL projects to Autism Speaks, an awareness and research group working with people on the spectrum like McKinney’s brother.

“Through NIL, I’ve been able to show what I’m passionate about, not just art. NIL has been huge helping me bring awareness to that,” she said.

None of it, she said, would be possible without an understanding of how to craft her own marketing strategy and brand.

The social media landscape continues to snake off and change from the platforms that dominated our online lives in the 2010s, but what won’t change for athletes is the desire to connect with fans and to create—and often monetize—that bond formed with their biggest supporters.

Leagues, teams, and university programs that foster an environment helping athletes become the best version of themselves, not just when it comes to their sport but to their business and their future plans, will reap the benefits of players feeling appreciated not just in the short-term but as humans with long-term goals.

Goodbye, bass-thumping highlight films. The sleek TikToks and snappy Threads of today are here to stay.

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Over the weekend, during the third day of rain in a row, I settled into the latest Apple TV+'s documentary, The Super Models. I went in knowing nothing about the series and having zero expectations, and I ended up glued to the screen, watching all four episodes in one fell swoop. In a time when New York Fashion Week becomes less and less relevant each year, it felt like a prescient moment to take a look back.

Of course, I’ve been familiar with all four of the central women in the series my entire life—Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford—but what I didn't realize is that these women came up in the fashion industry together at the exact same time, worked together, championed each other, and became lifelong friends.

Throughout the series, each of the women peels back the layers of their lives, sharing stories that we maybe didn't know about them before. Viewers learn fun factoids like how Naomi Campbell was roommates with Christy Turlington as teenagers in New York City, how Linda Evangelista first chopped off all of her hair, and, of course, the full story behind the decision as to whether or not Cindy Crawford was going to keep her mole is featured. For fans from the Pop Up Video era, the series goes deep on the full story of how each of these four women made their way to George Michael's “Freedom” music video. 

One of the more interesting elements of the documentary is learning about the different styles—and reputations—of the photographers these four women worked with over the years. Throughout The Super Model's four episodes, the audience is privy to footage of the women working with big names like Steven Meisel, Arthur Elgort, Richard Avedon, and Herb Ritts. And if you happen to like watching retro footage of New York City in the 1980s, you'll be pleased with how much is placed throughout the episodes, too. 

The series doesn’t shy away from the disgusting side of the industry, either. Christy Turlington spoke about her time living at the home of Jean-Luc Brunel, a former French model scout and alleged Jeffrey Epstein associate who was found dead in 2022 after being accused of trafficking minors. She tells the camera, “Nothing happened—most of the time he wasn't really even there” but admits that she has “survivor's guilt” and “can’t believe” that she made it out okay. 

In addition, Linda Evangelista spoke out for the first time about her ex-husband, Gérald Marie, the former head of Elite Model Management who has been accused of rape and sexual assault. In the series, Linda states “It's easier said than done to leave an abusive relationship,” suggesting that he became physical but “knew not to touch my face.” 

In a clip that feels much older than a 1986 episode of Oprah, we watch the former “queen of daytime” interview model manager Victor Skrebneski on her daytime show as his client Cindy sits next to him on stage. Host Oprah Winfrey asks him, “Did she always have this body? Stand up for a moment.” Cindy stands. Oprah replied, “Now this is what I call a body.” 

In the docu-series, Cindy reflects on the cringe-inducing interaction: “I was like the chattel, or a child, like, be seen and not heard. When you look at it through today’s eyes, when Oprah’s like, stand up and show me your body. Like, show us why you’re worthy of being here. In the moment, I didn’t recognize it, only when I look back, I was like, oh my gosh, that was so not okay, really. Especially from Oprah.”

Why it matters

Through the lens of the 1980s, The Super Models takes a fascinating look back at the reality of a work environment that truly wasn't very easy for women at the time and how they rose above it to become power and beauty personified. 

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There are some promising comedies to look for this fall, in a sea of dramas (and delays): Dicks: The Musical, Totally Killer. Add Theater Camp, now streaming on Hulu, to the list. 

Theater Camp is the debut film from Molly Gordon (The Bear) and Nick Lieberman, and it grew out of a 2017 short of the same name. The script was written by Gordon and Lieberman,as well asBen Platt and Noah Galvin, so the theater-kid bonafides are there. 

The premise is a well-tread one: After the theater camp’s founder, Joan (Amy Sedaris), falls into a coma during a production of Bye Bye Birdie, her YouTuber son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) steps in to help save the camp. But he’s a bro, and doesn’t know anything about theater! Tatro continues fine-tuning the emotional-bro characters he played in American Vandaland The Real Bros of Simi Valley. 

Platt plays Amos, who has been at the upstate New York camp, the AdirondACTS, since he was a kid, as has best friend Rebecca-Diane (Gordon). They fill a similar role as Ben and Susie from Wet Hot American Summer, though much of their back-and-forth in the film comes from real experience. 

Theater Camp is framed as a mockumentary, a la Waiting For Guffman, and the jokes are what make it stand out. Much of Theater Camp is improvised, and while many of the funniest lines are theater-kid-coded, you don’t necessarily need that experience to understand the feeling of wanting to belong somewhere. Theater Camp memes have been circulating as well. 

While there is a story, it gets a bit lost halfway through. However, the parade of characters is often more engaging: Nathan Lee Graham is inspired casting as the dance coach; Ayo Edebiri stars as a new instructor who bullshitted her way into a job, and now has to teach the kids stage combat (perhaps a nod to this summer’s Bottoms); and Patti Harrison takes the role of corporate villain to absurd new heights. 

The only character I wish I’d seen more of is Glenn (Galvin), the tech who toils backstage most of the film, then steps into a starring role to save the big production, thanks to some coaching from Troy. 

Why it matters

Theater Camp got picked up by Searchlight at Sundance this year, based largely on audience reaction. And we need more comedies that clock in at 93 minutes. 

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Director Pablo Larraín, best known in the U.S. for making stunning mood pieces like Spencer and Jackie, has already made multiple films about Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. But his latest film, El Conde (“The Count”), which is out in select theaters but heading to Netflix on Friday, takes Pinochet head-on in a biting satire as Chile acknowledges the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s military coup this week.

In Larraín’s film, Pinochet (Jaime Vadall) isn’t simply a dictator. He’s a 250-year-old vampire who’s faked his own death multiple times: First, to get out of Revolutionary France, and later, in the early 2000s, once he faced a slew of charges and became wildly unpopular.

He doesn’t regret any of the murders or torture he’s committed, far from it. But he takes great offense to being called a thief, even if he objectively was a thief. Holed away in the remote, southernmost part of Chile, he prepares to die by refusing to drink any more blood.

His wife Lucía (Gloria Münchmeyer) and his faithful servant Fyodor (Alfredo Castro) are already by his side, but his five grown children flock to his decrepit estate to discover the massive fortune that remained hidden in various secret bank accounts away from prying government eyes. They might not be vampires, but the children are too happy to suck their father dry.

Also heading to Pinochet’s home is Carmencita (Paula Luchsinger), a nun who’s a skilled accountant and wants to exorcise the evil residing in Pinochet. El Conde begins painting a picture of the entire family’s complicity as she questions the children.

Filmed in black-and-white (as opposed to filming in color and changing it during post-production), legendary cinematographer Edward Lachman leans into gothic horror visuals while never shying away from the beauty or absurdity of seeing an elderly vampire’s fluttering cape while hunting for human hearts (which, when consumed, brings youthfulness) through Santiago. But the film’s bigger commentary, whether through Pinochet’s actions (past and present) or a third-act reveal so far out from left field that it might easily become a meme that spreads far beyond the film’s audience.

“I have spent years imagining Pinochet as a vampire, as a being that never stops circulating through history, both in our imagination and nightmares,” Larraín wrote in his director’s statement. “Vampires do not die, they do not disappear, nor do the crimes and thefts of a dictator who never faced true justice.”

Why it matters

We’ve seen more than enough spins on vampires in cinema lately, but this one might be among the more unique. And it’s clear-eyed about the kind of evil that can resurface if a country’s citizens are never allowed proper closure—and perpetrators are left unpunished.

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It’s rare during a Netflix scroll that I finally put something on, against my better judgment, and end up digging it. That happened this weekend with The Pope’s Exorcist, a movie that did OK at the box office back in April, but not that well with critics. And yet, it’s been hanging out in Netflix’s Top 10 for a couple weeks now. 

Russell Crowe stars as the titular exorcist, and plays a real person: Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s head exorcist, who claimed to have performed more than 50,000 exorcisms in a 30-year period. Though, as he notes in the 1987-set film, the majority of alleged possessions were mental health episodes. 

While Crowe’s Italian accent is unfortunately not that far from his Thor: Love and Thunder one, he gives Amorth some vampy comic energy, and shots of him zooming around Europe on a Vespa—at one point to a Faith No More song—have become a meme (and part of a drinking game). 

A child (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) is possessed by an ancient demon after exploring the dusty basement of his creepy new home unsupervised, and the fact that his American family—rounded out by Alex Essoe and Laurel Marsden—is moving into a Spanish abbey that barely looks to have electricity or running water is not really commented on. However, the Spanish Inquisition is definitely commented on.   

Crowe is the standout here, and the demon that possesses the boy, voiced in part by Ralph Ineson, is kind of cunty, so seeing it face off against Crowe is entertaining. The possession and exorcism genre is pretty well exhausted, though there have been exceptions—like 2010’s The Last Exorcism, which messed with the rules of the exorcism and found footage genres. The Pope’s Exorcist tries to give the genre some levity, before pivoting into an action movie in the last half, as it tries to explain the lore. 

Before the film came out, the International Association of Exorcists called it “pretentious,” which really should have been its selling point. A sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist was set before its Netflix bump, and while the MCU and DCEU have warped people into thinking everything should be a franchise, a Pope’s Exorcist cinematic universe might actually work. 

Why it matters

When The Pope’s Exorcist first debuted in mid-August, it beat out Heart of Stone, Netflix’s latest original action film, in the Top 10. But that might be because the streamer did little to no promo for the Gal Gadot movie. 

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Like many a preteen protagonist, Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) sees her upcoming Bat Mitzvah (a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony after one turns 13) as the ultimate statement of how the rest of her life will go. If she and her best friend Lydia (Samantha Lorraine) have the Bat Mitzvah extravaganza of their dreams, Stacy knows they’ll become popular, she’ll marry her crush Andy (Dylan Hoffman), and she and Lydia will live in Tribeca apartments next to each other—in Taylor Swift’s building, of course.

In You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, based on the 2005 novel by Fiona Rosenbloom and directed by Sammi Cohen (Crush), most of what Stacy envisions doesn’t come to pass, and it doesn’t stray far from the formula. But it feels fresh between some sharp writing from Alison Peck and performances from Sandler and Lorraine.

Stacy might not be troubled with some of the same puberty quandaries as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’s Margaret—Stacy’s already had her period for seven months—but many of the same issues Margaret Simon faced are still relevant now.

There are still period-related mishaps, a family that struggles to understand but still loves one another, and fighting over a boy who’s barely worth the effort. Through a voice-over, Stacy has several conversations with God about her fallout with Lydia once Lydia and Andy start dating, and her worries after her life implodes even more.

Bat Mitzvah is a full-on Sandler family affair. Sunny Sandler and her older sister Sadie (playing Stacy’s older sister Ronnie) have had small roles in their dad Adam Sandler’s movies for years. But in their first big film, their dad—playing Stacy and Ronnie’s dad Danny—takes something of a back seat, ready with quips and tough love but more than ready to give his kids their moment in the spotlight. Adam Sandler’s real-life wife Jackie Sandler plays Lydia’s mom, Gabi, while Bat Mitzvah facilitates an Uncut Gems reunion by casting Idina Menzel as Danny’s wife Bree, providing a fun exercise in envisioning Bat Mitzvah as a much happier spin on Howard and Dinah. And while nepo baby discourse is always strong, it’s a tick in the pro column here.

“Just watched You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and now I’m pro-nepotism,” one viewer tweeted.

Why it matters

Bat Mitzvah joins a growing group of coming-of-age movies where teens and preteens get to act their age while it celebrates everything that Bar/Bat/B’Nai Mitzvahs stand for. But it might also make older viewers feel their age: If you wanted Danny to keep playing that Rick Derringer song on the radio or for the DJ to finally blast “Don’t Stop Believin’,” you’re not alone.

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ahsoka and Star Wars Rebels.

Since 2008, when Ahsoka Tano made her debut in a much-maligned Star Wars movie, she’s been in dozens of episodes across both series; she’s a main character in the Lucasfilm Animation series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and recurred in Star Wars Rebels. While she started as a polarizing character, she’s since become a massive fan favorite. So unlike The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Andor (a series that, for better or worse, is already being used as a benchmark to compare other Star Wars TV shows to unfavorably), Ahsoka’s debut this week arrives with more baggage than most.

I’m pretty much the target audience for Ahsoka. I fell in love with Ahsoka Tano through Clone Wars and Rebels thanks to Ashley Eckstein’s voice work spanning 12 years, having watched both series during the height of my Star Wars fandom. Initially, I was ecstatic to see Ahsoka make the jump from animation to live-action when Rosario Dawson appeared in The Mandalorian’s second season. I knew that Ahsoka’s biggest feature—that it wasn’t truly an Ahsoka show, but essentially Star Wars Rebels season 5 in all but name (and you can read “Rebels season 5” written in fine print if you squint hard enough)—would be a draw for me.

Those first two episodes, “Master and Apprentice” and “Toil and Trouble” (both written by Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni; Filoni directed the first episode, while Steph Green directed episode 2), contained both what I love about Star Wars and much that has grated me about the current era.

There’s a chance you might be more invested in Ahsoka and Sabine Wren’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) mission to locate Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen, reprising his role from Rebels) before Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) does, especially if you’re familiar with how and why Ezra and Thrawn disappeared in the first place—or the full story behind the sacrifices made to liberate Lothal from the Galactic Empire. (If you want to know who a couple of those characters in the mural are, you’ll probably have to wait for future episodes of Ahsoka.) It mostly worked for me, but for those who don’t have that knowledge, trying to play catchup might feel like homework.

I’m fully ready for aspects of Ahsoka to frustrate me—including the now-familiar murkiness of Volume technology—and I’m anxiously awaiting new episodes. There is plenty to love from the familiar and new characters (Bordizzo and Ray Stevenson, portraying the Jedi-turned-mercenary Baylan Skoll, are my early MVPs). Live-action Loth-cats are absolutely adorable, and I need one immediately. 

Yet again, it makes me wonder why this is the medium that Filoni, who spent years working in animation—on top of his work at Lucasfilm, he also directed several episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s first season before making the transition to live-action starting with The Mandalorian—chose to continue Ahsoka Tano’s story. Filoni has been with Ahsoka since the beginning (he co-created the character with George Lucas). Now he is again at the helm for Star Wars Rebels season 5 Ahsoka. If Filoni is more or less already doing Rebels season 5 by following Sabine, the story of General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Ahsoka, and answering the long-awaited mystery of what happened to Ezra Bridger and Thrawn when they disappeared into hyperspace, why tell it in live-action over animation, the medium where it was first introduced?

We're only two episodes into Ahsoka so that answer could be forthcoming. But it also raises other questions. The debate over which medium gets priority is far from a new criticism around Ahsoka. But between Ahsoka continuing Star Wars’ trend of transitioning animated characters to live-action on steroids, Disney’s decade-plus plan to produce and release live-action remakes of almost every one of its animated films, and rival studios’ and networks’ attempts to make live-action spins on almost anything animated that’s mildly successful, it can feel like animation—already looked down on by many viewers and Hollywood at large—is being treated like a wildly expensive first draft. And in most cases, the live-action “rewrite” comes out worse.

The comparisons rarely work out in live-action's favor

At the end of “Toil and Trouble,” Sabine Wren dons her Mandalorian armor and approaches the mural she created of the Ghost crew—the found family she traveled with and fought alongside during Rebels. A hooded Ahsoka approaches Sabine as the two characters, who share a recent past not yet depicted in any medium, including animation, are finally ready to resume their relationship of master and apprentice.

Without getting into the debate about whether Sabine’s Force-sensitivity, no matter how minor, was previously established enough in Star Wars canon before now or if Ahsoka retconned that into the series so Ahsoka and Sabine could parallel the relationship between Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno)—believe me, enough Star Wars fans online have that area covered—this scene is otherwise a nearly shot-for-shot recreation of the Rebels series finale’s final scene.

Ahsoka’s production team recreated Sabine’s mural from Rebels so similarly that they copied the Ghost crew and the Loth-wolves in the mural to look like their animated counterparts, not the live-action versions. It’s such a 1:1 match that each character's design almost exactly matches their animated counterpart in the live-action iteration of the mural. Apart from Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.), the former Jedi knight (and Ezra’s master) who died in the final season of Rebels saving the rest of his family, every other major character in the mural, short of the Loth-wolves, already made the jump to live-action in one TV show or another.

For some fans, the recreation is a nostalgic, Leo-pointing meme moment or yet another emotional nod to a show they loved. For others, it’s a showcase of Ahsoka's early shortcomings. And it’s far from the only thing about Ahsoka scrutinized as details including character designs, Hera's Twi'lek look and feel, and Ahsoka’s fighting style—which differs between animation and live-action because Rosario Dawson and Ahsoka’s stunt team might not be able to replicate every single jump or swing of the lightsabers as animated Ahsoka—is put under a microscope.

It’s the kind of criticism that pops up whenever Disney gets ready to release a live-action remake. For every Pete’s Dragon—David Lowery’s remake of the 1977 live-action/animated hybrid film that captures elements of the original while being its own thing—Disney has released several films that copy-and-pasted the visuals of the animated versions in a new medium. While some films attempt to course-correct for past sins (e.g., the original film is pretty racist), they often fall short amid attempted stabs at realism (often with animal or fantasy characters) and new songs or subplots designed to justify the film's existence.

The Little Mermaid is dark, murky, and lifeless, vastly contrasting with the much more colorfully animated ocean floor. The Lion King becomes a nature documentary devoid of the emotion that makes Mufasa’s death hit all the harder. Belle’s yellow ballgown in Beauty and the Beast looks downright plain compared to the level of detail animators could create with a mix of hand-drawn and CG animation. Aladdin’s choreography, a high point of the animation, became a bore to watch. Some films like Mulan or Cruella try to go outside the box but have other issues (or, in Mulan’s case, the film's credits brought newfound attention to another country’s alleged human rights violations). Nowadays, studios will announce remakes not decades after the original is released but as little as seven years. (See: Moana.)

And people don’t even need to see the full movie in theaters or on Disney+ to make those happen. Sometimes, all it takes is a trailer or a still for the griping to start. The more fantastical the entity, the bigger and louder the criticisms. And while sometimes the filmmakers crafting these remakes can’t win—some details are too much like the original, but also it’s not enough like the original—other times, they bring it on themselves.

Netflix has seen that play out time and again as it’s tried its hand at several live-action anime adaptations like its live-action Cowboy Bebop series, canceled after one season, and Death Note (slammed for far more than its whitewashing); its most recent attempt is a One Piece series set to debut on Aug. 31. And as Sony desperately tries to capitalize on the critical acclaim and financial success of the Spider-Verse trilogy by bringing Miles Morales to live-action, it’s only a matter of time before whatever iteration that takes is inevitably dragged because of how much of a game-changer that Spider-Verse has been for the animation industry and the sheer amount of goodwill it has among its fans.

Money, casting, and who gets to transition to live-action

When it came to casting HBO’s The Last of Us, part of the reason Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who voiced Joel and Ellie in the video game, respectively, didn’t reprise their video game roles was that they aged out of being able to play those characters on TV. Most of the game’s voice actors would cameo throughout season 1 while Merle Dandridge reprised her role for live-action. Another reason could be more practical and cynical: If you can get Pedro Pascal, already the star of one of the biggest shows in the world, to play TLOU’s Ultimate Mushroom Zombie Apocalypse Sad Dad, why wouldn’t you?

Star Wars has a treasure trove of talented actors among its voice cast, but when it comes to live-action Star Wars, Lucasfilm is picking and choosing what remains the same and what is left behind.

In some cases, such as with Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze or Governor Ryder Azadi, the recurring Rebels character voiced by Clancy Brown, the actors reprise their roles. If you voiced a droid character, such as the architect droid Professor Huyang (David Tennant) or the cantankerous and murderous astromech Chopper (Filoni), you can keep voicing that character. Several non-human characters jumped mediums, like Zeb (voiced by Steve Blum in Rebels and briefly in The Mandalorian season 3) or Cad Bane (voiced by Corey Burton in live-action and animation). Mikkelsen will also reprise his role as Thrawn when he shows up later in Ahsoka, which we know because of casting announcements and his appearance in trailers.

But not everyone did. Dawson stepping in to play Ahsoka over Eckstein is the most high-profile recasting (and Dawson has been gracious about highlighting what Eckstein first brought to the role). She’s not the only new Rebel: Bordizzo plays a role originated by Tiya Sircar, Vanessa Marshall initially voiced Hera, and Taylor Gray initially voiced Ezra, to name a few.

And when drawn the other way, live-action mostly still trumped animation. Forrest Whitaker was cast to play Saw Gerrera (a character first introduced in Clone Wars) in Rogue One, and he voiced the character in later projects like Rebels and the Jedi: Fallen Order video game on top of playing him in Andor. (Andrew Kishino, Saw’s original voice actor, would return to the role in The Bad Batch.)

Some actors might primarily do voice work and not want to transition to live-action. Some actors, like TLOU, might not be within the right age range to play a certain character. With Disney’s live-action remakes, casting is used to make those stories more inclusive or progressive, often on a surface level, instead of investing money in letting new, inclusive stories that aren't remakes or not based on any intellectual property be told. The execution, while resulting in some truly great performances, is more decidedly mixed.

But as much as the mentality in animation of using recognizable A-list talent to voice a Pixar movie or Super Mario movie over the talent that actually knows how to voice act persists, the inverse can also exist: sometimes—or at least before SAG-AFTRA strike rules prevented the cast from promoting Ahsoka—one could argue it’s easier to sell a TV show with actors people recognize. Even if the show is more expensive from all facets, the payoff for the streamers might be worth it.

No matter how successful or acclaimed animation is, live-action is still seen as a more “legitimate” medium of storytelling

In every single acceptance speech in the lead-up to—and including—his Oscar win for the stop-motion animation film Pinocchio earlier this year, Guillermo del Toro had a simple message he wanted to get across. Animation is cinema; it's a medium, not a genre for kids.

It’s a direct response to people like former Disney CEO Bob Chapek and a previous Oscars ceremony featuring Halle Bailey, Lily James, and Naomi Scott—all who’ve played live-action Disney princesses—read stilted presenter banter about how animation is for kids and something adults endure. Flee, the Danish documentary nominated for three Oscars that year, including the very category Bailey, James, and Scott were about to present, is only one of the many, many animated films whose existence would argue otherwise.

But it’s never been just kids and their parents watching those films and turning them into massive successes. Of the 53 movies grossing over $1 billion worldwide (before adjusting for inflation) to date, 10 of them—nearly one-fifth of the total—are animated. An additional four movies are live-action remakes of Disney animated movies. The highest-grossing movie of 2023 is Illumination and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. One of the non-Barbenheimer success stories of the summer is Across the Spider-Verse, which grossed nearly double what the first movie made.

Elemental, which had a rough first weekend at the box office, proved it had long legs and made over $456 million worldwide. Critically acclaimed animated movies like Nimona and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem demonstrate the limitless nature of the medium.

But still, the anti-animation stigma remains. Episodes could be released on a whim or after a months-long hiatus mid-season. Shows could be yanked off the air, only for them to return months later. Many of those shows air on channels geared toward children.

The first five seasons of Clone Wars aired linearly on Cartoon Network before a shortened season 6 dropped as a binge on Netflix, a casualty of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm; the seventh season was among Disney+’s earliest originals. All of Rebels aired on Disney XD, a cable channel that doesn’t benefit from Adult Swim’s connection to Cartoon Network. Then, those shows might not be marketed as widely as a live-action series.

Aside from the steep episode count that a live-action Star Wars and/or Ahsoka fan would need to watch to make their way through Clone Wars or Rebels—a feature-length movie plus 133 episodes for Clone Wars and 75 episodes for Rebels— some fans have avoided those TV shows because they refuse to engage with animation or they think it’s a show for kids (for them, derogatory).

Sure, those shows are made for kids. So is nearly every Star Wars show and film released to date, even those marketed toward adults. It’s not a knock on any of them. However, some viewers won’t consider animation because they think it’s only for kids. While it’s a good sign that filmmakers are inspired by or want to delve into the richness of animation, live-action shouldn’t be the only medium characters are deemed worthy of being seen.

Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is considered one of the greatest animated shows ever; the names of several alums, Filoni included, are attached to major projects and can be found working to push the medium forward. Hollywood is now on its second attempt to render a live-action version—but even if the show’s creators are no longer involved, at least Netflix’s upcoming version isn’t whitewashing the cast.

It’s not that one medium is better than the other. You don’t have to go far to find fans criticizing Ahsoka for unsuccessfully replicating Rebels’ aesthetic or for people to point out that Rebels’ animation isn’t that great either; they might say that live-action is an improvement. You also shouldn’t have to watch over 200 television episodes to make another show make sense. (Although, if it’s not already evident, I recommend both of them.)

But to argue that animation is lesser-than is silly. In Star Wars, you only have to look at Clone Wars’ final season and The Bad Batch to see how Star Wars animation has evolved and improved since Rebels aired. Star Wars: Visions showed us what is possible when you don’t have to worry about physics and the laws of gravity and give animation studios enough room to go wild. And no matter who it’s made for, animation shouldn’t have to keep being the stepping stone for another medium, such as Ahsoka, because there is some incredible work happening in animation right now—the medium it was designed for.

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Season 2 of And Just Like That... ended this week, but the big thing fans wanted to see happens early in the episode: Samantha (Kim Cattrall) briefly returns (by phone) to say goodbye to Carrie's apartment.

Cattrall's appearance was teased, so it wasn't a surprise, but seeing the iconic Sex and the City character, who now lives in London, return however briefly gave a lot of viewers the same idea: Her character needs a spinoff.

AJLT season 2, much like season 1, is one of those shows people love to hate-watch. (Myself included.) The writing has been criticized, and the newer characters are more interesting than the original. Cattrall made it very clear that this would be a one-time cameo, but that didn't stop viewers from pushing the idea of an Emily in Paris-style show; her appearance was that invigorating.

"There's not a gay I know who wouldn't mainline 7 straight seasons of 'Jones in London' in one sitting," said @ThatDesKennedy.

While it's unlikely there will be a Samantha spinoff, the buzz around her 1-minute appearance should be an indicator that season 3 needs to do something else with its characters.

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Twenty-five years ago, this past June, the pilot episode of HBO’s Sex and the City premiered. While the initial season of the six-season show had a bit of a rocky start—remember Carrie talking directly to the camera?—it ended up becoming a cultural monolith during its run with imposters galore and after its run, shows that owed their cultural DNA to Carrie Bradshaw and company. But perhaps what SATC’s legacy might end up being is just how memorable it was in every aspect—from the fashion to the writing to the plots. Not a day goes by, for me at least, where a moment from the original doesn’t flicker in my brain—thinking about Carrie’s newspaper dress, Charlotte’s cardboard baby, Miranda’s chocolate cake addiction, Samantha’s many impeccable one-liners. 

In late 2021, Max (then HBO Max) attempted to recreate the magic of SATC with And Just Like That…, a revival of the HBO series this time focused on Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte eleven years after 2010’s Sex and the City 2 movie (we must not ever speak about it) navigating love, friendships, and life in their 50s. When it premiered, fans were disappointed because And Just Like That… couldn’t get the magic of the original series quite right. It’s not that it’s not enjoyable, because it very much is, but there’s something lacking that the original had. For me, it's something I can’t quite pinpoint—there’s still fun one-liners, great fashions, insane side plots—but it's all a little muted. Many think that this is due to the absence of Kim Cattrall as Samantha, who refused to come back (at least until the finale) as her iconic character because of a long-running feud between her and Sarah Jessica Parker. But maybe it was also just a first season because season two, which ended this week, in its last several episodes feels like it's hit a stride that has felt the closest to the original show with one exception—Sarita Choudhury’s Seema Patel—who has felt like she was plucked out of the original series. 

We’re first introduced to Seema in season one, when Carrie meets her in episode four when she’s ready enough to begin the process of selling the apartment that she shared with Big, after his untimely death. She comes in like a whirlwind swathed in champagne-colored silk in her car with the license plate “SEEMA NYC.” Seema is brutally honest with Carrie about redecorating the place—the two share a cigarette and a friendship is born. Throughout the first season as both the audience and Carrie get to know Seema, we learn she’s fabulously single, unapologetic about never settling, looks amazing in an animal print, makes smoking look too cool, and calls Carrie out on her bullshit. 

In a first season that had trouble finding its footing, Seema always felt like the lifeline not just for the first season but one that felt that it connected And Just Like That… to Sex and the City. She’s a character you could very easily imagine Carrie meeting when she finds out that her apartment is turning into a co-op or even Miranda meeting when she first buys her place. Of course, the obvious answer is how she feels like a tether to the much-missed Samantha. The similarities are obvious—they are both strong-willed, honest, fabulous creatures who never miss a witty quip. But Seema is still very much her own creation aside from her similarities to Samantha—which imagine the two of them together—it would be incredible. 

In season one, she does come so fully formed in the AJLT universe that in this second season as her and Carrie’s friendship deepens and she becomes more enmeshed with the group that Seema becomes one of the main reasons that season two finally feels like it has some of the tendrils from the original. Perhaps the best example of this is in episode 8, after Carrie has got back together with Aidan and desperately wants Seema to meet him. She begins avoiding Carrie and when the two accidentally end up at the same hair salon—Seema gives Carrie and herself some hard truths to navigate. 

And this is exactly one of the things that the original did well and that’s been missing from the new iteration. Granted, I was 15 when I first watched SATC and in my feeble teenage brain thought I understood what was going on with Carrie and the gang—it wasn’t until I recently rewatched well into my thirties when I finally did. That’s where Seema’s speech about maybe not finding a great love, and simultaneously being okay with that, but also being honest about how spending time with Carrie and Aidan together would make her feel and honoring that feeling, hits so hard because it puts into words a feeling that so many of us have felt but maybe haven’t uttered. An emotional truth that’s just a little too agonizing to let oneself fully recognize or live in. And in true Samantha fashion, Seema shows up to that dinner with Aidan—fabulously late in black sequins, smiling at Carrie. Much like Samantha, Seema is always going to show up. Of course, the power of this speech and the charisma of Seema owes it all to the incredible, and dare I say Emmy-worthy, performance from Sarita Choudhury who infuses the character with an honest warmth—which comes off as approachable yet truth-telling. 

And Just Like That… finally gave me something that I’ll think about regularly (aside from Carrie’s monochrome emerald green outfit in episode 9) alongside when Carrie calls Big Hubbell from The Way We Were, Charlotte’s “I’ve been dating since I was 15” speech, Miranda’s proposal to Steve over cheap beers, and when Samantha has breast cancer and asks Carrie to let her “talk about what I’m afraid of, please.” Seema’s words will stick with me long after And Just Like That… airs which I hope will be forever, and now that season three has been greenlit, will hopefully give many more memories from Seema to come. 

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