Sometimes, a weekend comes along that’s so stacked with new movies and TV shows to stream, we have a hard time narrowing down our list of recommendations to seven entries.
This weekend is one of those weekends, so rather than tease our chosen titles in today’s introduction, we thought we’d rattle off the four series that aren’t included in the below list, since they’re still worthy of your time: the third seasons of Clarkson’s Farm, Hacks and Welcome to Wrexham are all now streaming on Prime Video, Max and Disney Plus, respectively, while new period drama Shardlake comes to Hulu.
Below, we’ve rounded up seven more of the biggest new movies and TV shows to stream on Netflix, Prime Video, Max, and more this weekend.
The Idea of You (Prime Video)
If the surprising box office success of Anyone But You taught us anything, it’s that audiences will turn out for a good old fashioned rom-com, and Amazon will be hoping that its latest star-studded melodrama, The Idea of You, proves similarly popular.
Adapted from Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name by The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, this Prime Video-exclusive movie stars Anne Hathaway as a 40-year-old divorcée who strikes up an unconventional romance with the lead singer of a popular boy band (Nicholas Galitzine).
Reid Scott and Annie Mumolo also star in The Idea of You, which critics have described as a “plane movie par excellence” and “a damn sight better than what we’ve been forced to get used to” in the rom-com genre. For the right viewer, then, this could be one of the best Prime Video movies of the year.
Now available to stream on Prime Video.
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A Man in Full (Netflix)
Jeff Daniels has made a habit of leading well-made TV dramas in recent years, and the veteran actor returns to do just that in A Man in Full, which is now streaming on Netflix.
This six-episode adaptation of the 1998 novel by Tom Wolfe centers on the fictional Charlie Croker (Daniels), a charismatic Atlanta real estate mogul who is suddenly faced with the prospect of bankruptcy and the collapse of his empire. Diane Lane, William Jackson Harper, Lucy Liu and Bill Camp also star; the latter reuniting with Daniels after starring alongside him in 2019’s The Looming Tower series.
Suffice to say, A Man in Full has left critics divided, with some calling it a “skin-crawling Trump satire” and others a “substandard Succession.” We haven’t seen the series yet, so we’ll leave you to decide whether it’s one of the best Netflix shows, or another Netflix flop.
Now available to stream on Netflix.
Unfrosted (Netflix)
Sticking with the best streaming service, Netflix also plays host to Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial feature debut, Unfrosted, this weekend.
This surprisingly star-studded biopic-of-sorts follows the real-life race between rival breakfast cereal companies to create a revolutionary toaster pastry product (read: a Pop Tart) in the early 1960s. Seinfeld himself leads the cast alongside – wait for it – Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Grant, James Marsden, Amy Schumer, Christian Slater, Daniel Levy, Bill Burr and many more.
Depending on who you read, Unfrosted is either a “deliciously silly, spoofy tale” or “one of the decade’s worst movies,” so don’t expect to see this one make our list of the best Netflix movies any time soon.
Now available to stream on Netflix.
The Veil (Hulu)
Less than two years after leading The Handmaid’s Tale to its fifth and final season, Elizabeth Moss returns to Hulu to front FX’s new spy thriller The Veil.
This six-episode series – which comes from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight – follows a globe-trotting MI6 agent (Moss) whose mission to extract and interrogate a suspected ISIS leader (Yumna Marwan) catches the attention of French and American intelligence services.
Josh Charles and Dali Benssalah also star in The Veil, which critics have described as a “compelling spy yarn with a few loose threads.” UK viewers will likely have to wait for this one to debut on Disney Plus later in the year.
Now available to stream on Hulu in the US.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (Disney Plus)
Disney’s follow-up to 2022’s Tales of the Jedi series comes to Disney Plus in its entirety this Saturday (or Star Warsday to those who celebrate).
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire charts the rise of the fearsome Galactic Empire through the eyes of two very different warriors: The Mandalorian‘s Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and The Clone Wars‘ Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger).
Grand Admiral Thrawn, The Grand Inquisitor and General Grievous are all confirmed to appear across the series’ six episodes, so Tales of the Empire sounds like a must-watch for nostalgia-loving Star Wars fans
Now available to stream on Disney Plus.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Peacock)
If you’re in the mood for a heavy-hitting wartime drama, a small screen adaptation of Heather Morris’ best-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz is now streaming on Peacock.
This co-production between Peacock in the US and Sky in the UK chronicles the real-life romance between Auschwitz prisoners Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) and Gita Sokolov (Anna Próchniak), who strike up a lifelong romance in the most inhuman of circumstances.
Harvey Keitel and Melanie Lynskey also star in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which critics have described as “well made, well acted, well intentioned” but ultimately “grotesque”, for reasons we’re sure you can guess.
Now available to stream on Peacock.
The Contestant (Hulu)
The third of three (three!) Hulu-based recommendations to feature on this week’s list is new documentary film The Contestant.
This feature-length production tells the hard-to-believe story of Tomoaki Hamatsu, a Japanese man who unwittingly became the star of a Truman Show-style Japanese reality show in which contestants are left alone in a room for months and forced to obtain food and clothing through sweepstakes.
Critics have described The Contestant as “mind-blowing” and “something [that’s] halfway between sensationalist exposé and intimate confessional,” so it sounds like a must-watch for fans of revelatory documentaries.
Death Race has been described as “mindless” and “violent”, and that’s meant as a criticism. But if you’re a fan of high-octane action movies, mindless violence might be just the thing you’re looking to stream on Prime Video. And few actors do mindless violence as well as Jason Statham, who gets the lead role here.
Statham plays three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames who finds himself locked up in the country’s toughest prison for – wait for it – a crime he didn’t commit. Facing life in a jail so grim it could be an English holiday destination, Ames’ future looks bleak until the warden gives him a choice: rot in jail forever, or race in the ‘Death Race’ and win his freedom. And let’s face it, with a name like Death Race we’re not talking Mario Kart here.
Death Race is big, bad and oddly brilliant
Death Race has been described as a remake of the violent, nihilistic mid-70s movie of (almost) the same name, Death Race 2000, but writer and director Paul WS Anderson has said it’s more of a prequel. But it shares the same bleak sensibility and violent approach: the vehicles in this race are heavily armed and the drivers aren’t scared of causing complete carnage.
To say that Death Race divided the critics would be an understatement. Many reviewers absolutely hated it: Marcianne Miller of the NC Bold Life said that it was “so relentlessly sadistic, so grim, so basically without any redeeming human value that even a race fan like me ended up turned off by the so-called ‘ultimate in auto carnage’.” But The Age said it was “a must-see for petrolheads and cineastes alike”. Maybe that’s an Australian Mad Max thing, because the same country’s Daily Telegraph said that “petrolheads and gorehounds, this backfiring blast of cinematic carbon monoxide is your film of the year”.
Lots of reviews said that the film is basically ideal for teenage boys, with the Daily Mirror saying that “Anderson serves up an unashamedly guilty pleasure that hits every note, particularly when the racing starts.” And Total Film offered some good advice: “Banish all memories of the original and you’ll find this a slick throwback in the Doomsday mould. Tearing across the screen with all guns blazing, it’s disposable, enjoyable trash.”
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When the news of a Road House remake was announced, fans of the original movie (including some on the TechRadar team) weren’t exactly happy. The ’80s film, which starred Patrick Swayze, is one of those good/bad movies that attracts a very devoted following – and that following wasn’t keen on anybody stepping into Swayze’s shoes. But the remake turns out to be more than just a photocopy; as The Guardian says, it’s both rowdy and campy.
The 2024 version stars Jake Gyllenhall as Elwood Dalton, a bouncer with a dark past, and moves the setting from Missouri to the Florida Keys. There, Elwood makes a living from amateur fights with the likes of Post Malone and ends up working at the titular road house. And that’s where the action happens.
What is Road House about?
I like The Guardian’s review, which says that “the Road House attracts a disproportionate amount of shady characters with hair-trigger rages, and employs a disproportionately high number of good musicians to soundtrack nightly bar fights from behind a chain-link fence.” That’s the setup for a lot of fights, including some particularly impressive work by UFC champion Conor McGregor.
How much you enjoy Road House really depends on what you’re expecting from it. If you’re looking for a contemplative investigation into the roots of male violence, this is not the film for you. But if you want what Empire magazine calls “a total riot” where fists fly and guitars wail, you’re going to have a great time: it’s “perfect for a super-fun night in”.
Unlike the original, Road House is well aware of its own ridiculousness and revels in it: director Doug Liman is clearly having a great time with his incredibly choreographed mass brawls, as is the cast, and Jake Gyllenhall in particular is superb in what could easily have been a cardboard cutout of a role. As Empire says, “As cheesy as it may sound, this Dalton really is a new kind of action hero, as caring and sensitive as he is ruthlessly violent when he needs to be.”
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Amazon Prime continues to be a service juggernaut in the tech industry as the company has broken a new record. According to a recent announcement, Amazon revealed it managed to deliver over two billion items in the first three months of 2024 through Prime. That’s more than the total amount of packages they sent out in Europe to members last year.
Worldwide Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington stated in March that almost 60 percent of Prime orders “arrived the same or next day across” 60 of the largest urban areas in the United States. In London, Tokyo, and Toronto, “three out of four items” arrived at their destination in the same time frame.
This success in the US seems to be the result of the logistical changes Amazon made in 2023. They essentially divided up the country into “eight interconnected regions” to serve specific geographic areas. These regions have a “fulfillment center” housing a wide array of items, allowing the company to quickly deliver their stock right to your door. Amazon even claims that thanks to AI, it can predict “which items [people] in various parts of the country” want and when they want them. The tech giant also works with multiple sellers, both big and small, to get those brand-name products out fast.
It’s possible Amazon will demolish its 2023 Prime delivery record. The company is certainly on the way and Herrington says they’re “just getting started.” But will they meet this goal? Most likely. Recent moves hint that they’ll do it, but there’s a chance they’ll fall short.
New services
Not too long ago, Amazon made some important business updates.
They launched a new grocery delivery service for Prime members on April 23. For $10, subscribers can get unlimited delivery on orders over $35 from local and specialty supermarkets – so long as the final bill is over $35. That’s the only requirement. People without a Prime membership can join the program as well at $5 a month. However, they must own a registered EBT (also known as food stamps) card.
Before that, the company said it was expanding its Prime Air drone delivery service to the Phoenix Metro Area in Arizona. It’s not running yet. Amazon still has to get all the “necessary permissions” from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) before it can take to the skies.
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So with the grocery delivery program and a little help from a fleet of drones, the 2023 Prime delivery record could be smashed. However, we hesitate to be confident in Amazon’s corner because of the layoffs we’ve seen in the past few years. The platform has taken a hatchet to its business. From 2022 through 2023, Amazon cut over “27,000 jobs across almost every area” of the business.
Granted, things have slowed down, but Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said they’re not done cutting costs. Layoffs could ramp up in the near future.
Memorial Day is coming up in the US and that means discounts. If you want to stay up to date on whatever Amazon is planning, be sure to follow TechRadar’s Amazon Memorial Day sales roundup for 2024.
– Announced in mid-April – No release date revealed yet – Unsurprisingly, a trailer is yet to be unveiled – Cast and plot details are thin on the ground – Main cast members are expected to return – Should pick up right after the season 1 finale – Season 3 hasn’t been greenlit, but discussions about future installments have taken place
Fallout season 2 is officially in development. That’s right, the hit Amazon series has been renewed for a second season after the *ahem* rad reception season 1 was met with. So, gear up for more outlandishly funny moments, bizarre retrofuturistic adventuring, captivating melodrama, and a smorgasbord of Easter eggs from Bethesda’s iconic video game universe (which the TV show is also set in).
With the popular Prime Video show’s next entry still in early development, it’ll be some time before we learn anything official about its release date, get news about its cast and plot, and see any footage. Still, based on what happened in season 1 of Amazon’s Fallout TV show, we can speculate on all of the above and more in this guide.
Before you dive in: if you haven’t seen Fallout‘s first season, a) what are you doing here!? and b) read our Fallout season 1 review first to see what all the fuss is about. Then, go and stream it because, from this point on, major spoilers follow for Fallout season 1.
Fallout season 2 release date: what we know
Wouldn’t want to keep you on the edge of your seat, now, would we? See you back in the Wasteland for SEASON 2. pic.twitter.com/ULs6DEPHDWApril 18, 2024
Fallout season 2 doesn’t have a release date. It was only announced by Amazon on April 18 and, as it’s in early development, a launch date won’t be revealed for a long time.
It’s difficult to pinpoint when we might see one of the best Prime Video shows make its irradiated return, too, as we’ve no idea how far along in the development process it is. In short: it could be 18 months to two years before the first live-action story set in Bethesda’s satirical post-apocalyptic game series re-emerges from its vault.
Fallout season 2 rumored cast
Lucy MacLean should return in Fallout season 2. (Image credit: Prime Video/JoJo Whilden)
Amazon hasn’t announced which cast members will be back in Fallout season 2. Based on season 1’s ending, however, we’re confident that the following will return:
Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean
Aaron Moten as Maximus
Walton Goggins as The Ghoul/Cooper Howard
Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean
Moisés Arias as Norm MacLean
Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane
Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus
Frances Turner as Barb Howard
Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson
Other supporting cast members are also likely to be back, including Dave Register’s Chet, Annabel O’Hagen’s Stephanie, Zach Cherry’s Woody, and Rodrigo Luzzi’s Reg for the Vaults-based storyline.
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Michael Esper and Sarita Choudhury might reprise their roles as Vault-Tec employee Bud Askins and the New California Republic (NCR) commander Lee Moldaver, too. We’d be surprised if season 2 doesn’t deliver more flashback sequences that predate the Great War and/or explore more about the NCR’s creation and role in founding Shady Sands. If it does, Askins and Moldaver will certainly be back.
There are also bound to be new additions to the show’s acting roster. Speaking to IGN, season 1 director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan revealed that Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Westworld) has already inquired about featuring in season 2, so don’t be surprised if more famous faces cameo in the same manner as Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows) in season 1.
Fallout season 2 plot speculation
What does the future hold for Maximus in the Brotherhood of Steel? (Image credit: Prime Video)
There isn’t a plot synopsis for Fallout season 2 yet. Nobody – outside of the main creative team, anyway – knows what it’ll entail, but we can speculate on where the series might go, based on season 1’s numerous unresolved plot threads and what some of its crew have teased in interviews.
In non-spoiler terms, Nolan exclusively told TechRadar (ahead of season 1’s release) that the Fallout crew have “had some really cool conversations” about season 2, some of which could impact future games in the series that Bethesda creates (remember, everything that happens in Fallout‘s TV show is canon in the wider franchise). He declined to elaborate further when pressed for more details, though. Now that the first season is out in full, however, we have a better idea of what might lie in store for Lucy and company very soon.
Full spoilers follow for Fallout season 1 from now on. Don’t read past the image below unless you want firm details on what’ll be part of the second season.
Fallout‘s season 1 finale was an explosive one. (Image credit: Amazon Studios)
One of the most important storylines, if not the most, that needs to be built upon involves Hank, Lucy and Norm’s dad.
In the season 1 finale, Hank was revealed as one of Vault-Tec’s junior employees who was placed in cryosleep, alongside the likes of Betty Pearson, inside Vault 31 before The Great War. He was then reawakened over 200 years later to help Vault-Tec try to tyrannically rule the post-apocalyptic United States. He was also responsible for The Fall of Shady Sands – a cataclysmic event that saw a nuclear bomb dropped on the town that the NCR operated out of. As an aside, the NCR were almost wiped from existence during their showdown with the Brotherhood in episode 8 but, speaking to IGN, Howard teased: “I don’t think you’ve heard the last of the NCR.”
But we digress. Lucy’s mom, and Hank’s wife, Rose was turned into a ghoul as a result of radiation poisoning from said warhead (Lucy kills her to end Rose’s misery in episode 8, by the way), while Maximus’ entire family was killed during the initial blast. Oh, and Hank was also the Vault-Tec employee who was one of the biggest fans of Cooper Howard – i.e. the A-list actor that The Ghoul used to be. In short: Hank has strong ties to all three of the series’ main characters.
Fallout episode 8 revealed Hank’s real identity and villainous role in the show’s story. (Image credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)
After those revelations came to light, Hank – who was accidentally freed by Maximus before Lucy could tell Maximus about Hank’s villainous past – managed to escape in a stolen T60 power armor suit. He suffered a facial injury after being shot by The Ghoul, though, so he’ll have the physical scars – as well as the mental and emotional ones – to show for his misdemeanors.
Okay, why is all of this so important? The final few minutes of episode 8 revealed that Lucy and The Ghoul had formed an uneasy alliance to track Hank down. For her part, Lucy will want more answers about her dad’s involvement with Vault-Tec and his familial betrayal.
As for the harrowing, eye-opening, and world-shattering journey Lucy has gone on throughout season 1, it’s clear it’s left its mark on Fallout‘s primary protagonist – Purnell telling GQ that “I don’t know who she’s gonna be in season 2, [but] this is what happens when you break the unbreakable. I don’t know who she’s about to become. How Lucy feels about her hope… she recognises that something is irreversibly lost, or broken, inside her. Maybe she still does maintain it in season 2, but it will never be the same. It can’t.”
And what does Purnell want to tackle in Lucy’s season 2 arc? “I’d like to see her become her own person,” she tells GQ. “I’d like to see her form some opinions that feel truly and wholly hers, and not a product of her upbringing, or a product of Vault-Tec. I think part of her being a good person is just truly her, and I think that is just who she is. I don’t know if that’s going to stay or going to go, I’d be down to play it either way. But I’d also like to see her go, like, ‘No, I don’t like this food,’ or ‘No, I don’t think what you…’ A little tiny rebellion, maybe.”
Read more of our exclusive Fallout season 1 coverage
Meanwhile, The Ghoul needs to find Hank to learn which vault his wife and daughter – Barb and Janey – are in. As Barb revealed at various points in season 1, the high-ranking Vault-Tec staff member secured a place in one of the evil corporation’s most prestigious underground bunkers for her family, Cooper included. Of course, the implied breakdown of Cooper and Barb’s marriage – something we should learn more about in season 2 – suggests that Cooper’s reserved place was taken away following their divorce, forcing him to survive as an irradiated ghoul on the surface. It’s possible Barb and Janey survived The Great War if they were cryogenically frozen in Vault 31 or another subterranean location and Hank may know where.
The Ghoul – formally Cooper Howard – continues to search for his missing family. (Image credit: Prime Video)
All of this points to Hank being the show’s primary antagonist moving forward, right? Not necessarily. Speaking to IGN, Nolan simply teased “you’ll have to stay tuned” to find out if this is the case.
So, who else could it be? The season 1 finale revealed that Barb was also involved in concocting the idea of The Great War in a bid to line Vault-Tec’s pockets and ensure it was well positioned to laud it over the US after the nuclear apocalypse.
She was joined in that pivotal meeting by other scheming executives looking to make a quick buck, including RobCo owner Robert House (played by Rafi Silver). In Bethesda title Fallout: New Vegas, this Machiavellian individual (known as Mr. House in New Vegas) is the enigmatic ruler of the titular city. And, with Fallout season 2 seemingly heading to a dilapidated version of New Vegas – it’s the location we see Hank look out onto in the season 1 finale’s mid-credits scene – there’s the potential for Mr. House to take a leading, villainous role in the show’s sophomore outing.
Speaking to GQ, co-showrunner Graham Wagner didn’t exactly shoot down that possibility, saying: “We certainly intend to expand on that [the Vault-Tec meeting and its nefarious characters]. That is an interesting moment to be double-clicked, as they say, in a future story.”
The New Vegas tease isn’t the only thing that delighted long-time fans in the mid-credits scene. We also got a glimpse of a Deathclaw skull, one of the most formidable monsters in the Fallout universe. Speaking to The Wrap post-season 1 release, Wagner confirmed Deathclaws would appear in season 2, adding: “It’s such a monumental piece, we want to save something for season 2 to be able to do it properly, not just added onto the massive world building we had to do already in season 1. So season 2, we’re very excited to finally tackle one of the most iconic elements of the games.”
Let’s not forget Maximus’ role in proceedings heading into season 2. With his fellow Brotherhood of Steel, erm, brothers believing that he was the one who killed Moldaver – his friend Dane convinces them that this was the case – it seems he’s set for a more influential role in the group’s hierarchy. But, with Maximus having fallen for Lucy during the pair’s excursions across the Wasteland, coupled with his worldview being altered by all of those season 1 revelations, we expect Maximus’ allegiances to be torn between staying with the Brotherhood and wanting to find and be with Lucy.
There are plenty of other subplots that require further examination. One of the more prominent ones concerns how Norm will free himself after being trapped in Vault 31. As Arias told Inverse, Norm is “going to have to use every ounce of intellect he has to get himself out of that one”, which hints at a protracted jailbreak for Lucy’s inquisitive brother.
Will Norm and Chet ever reunite to reveal the truth about Vaults 31 to 33? (Image credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)
Other notable storylines include some of Vault 33’s inhabitants resettling in the deserted Vault 32 (and whether Chet will finally reveal what actually happened there), how Moldaver survived for over 200 years without turning into a ghoul like Cooper (Choudhury declined to give away any answers when asked by Inverse), and how and when Cooper and Barb’s marriage ended. The answers to this trio lie in flashbacks to a time before The Great War and what Vault-Tec’s overarching goal is, so we can expect more glimpses into the past when season 2 rolls around.
In the present, we might catch up with Thaddeus, who believes he’s starting to become a ghoul after he consumed a mysterious serum from the cryptic Snake Oil Salesman that healed his mangled foot and saved him from a near-death experience with an arrow-based trap. We may get more details on cold fusion, a new non-Vault-Tec technological advancement that might offer hope of a brighter future for the surface-dwelling common folk. Oh, and let’s not forget Lucy and Maximus’ burgeoning romance, which is on ice for the time being, given the pair have temporarily gone their separate ways – Nolan teasing to IGN that “we’ll see if they can find each other again”.
Then there are subplots that were cut from season 1. During their chat with GQ, Wagner and fellow co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet revealed that “a cannibal encounter” was dropped for runtime purposes, but the pair are confident “we’ll find a place in season two for some of those, because some of them were really fun, and it was tragic to lose them.”
It goes without saying, but we’ll also get plenty more Easter eggs and references to the dense Fallout universe that Bethesda created in its game series. There were tons of those in season 1, so don’t be surprised if its follow-up is similarly stuffed with callbacks to the show’s action role-playing game siblings.
Fallout season 2 trailer: is there one?
Pensively waiting for that season 2 trailer to arrive like… (Image credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)
No, and there won’t be a Fallout season 2 trailer for a long time. Once one is released, we’ll update this section.
Is Fallout season 2 going to be the final installment?
Can we expect Lucy and company to appear in a potential third season? (Image credit: Amazon Studios)
Nobody knows. Right now, Nolan and Co are focused on developing Fallout season 2 and that’s likely to be the case until its development is complete.
Chatting to IGN, Nolan said of plans for future seasons: “I think you have a responsibility when you undertake one of these journeys to have a bit of a plan. You’d also be foolish to not account for the things along the way… but you also want to be flexible enough and adaptable enough that you’re not locked into that. And for the obvious reason that especially these days with these shows, you want to make every season as great as you can.
“If you’re lucky enough to go again, you make a follow-up, you leave enough material and you have enough of a master plan from the beginning that you know what the next step would be, and we have been talking for some time now about the next steps for Fallout, and we’re very excited about it.”
Given the richness of Bethesda’s Fallout franchise, there’s plenty more for Prime Video’s adaptation to explore and expand on from the games. If the show doesn’t wrap up its main characters’ stories by the end of season 2, it could continue to follow them in a third installment. Alternatively, season 3 could be set in an entirely new location (not unlike the games) and introduce us to new characters to not only fall in love with but also see how they navigate a post-nuclear war-torn Earth and potentially unearth new revelations about Vault-Tec. Think along the lines of an anthology series like True Detective (now available on Max), or Fargo and American Horror Story (Hulu and Disney Plus), and you’ll get the gist.
Whatever direction Amazon’s Fallout TV series goes in, then, there’s plenty more material – old and new – to mine and explore respectively. War never changes – and neither will our adoration for this show if it continues to be as good as season 1 was. Roll on season 2 and more besides, we say.
If you’re a fan of historical dramas featuring quick wits and absolute… bad people, Prime Video‘s My Lady Jane looks like it should be at the top of your watch list. Inspired by the best-selling book of the same name, the new series is set in an alternative version of the Tudor world where Lady Jane Grey didn’t lose her head after just nine days on the throne.
It turns out that not being beheaded is a pretty good career move, but after Lady Jane finds herself crowned Queen of England, a move that is not universally popular, it doesn’t take long before ne’er-do-wells, ruffians and other scoundrels come for her crown and her head.
According to Prime Video, the series is an epic tale of true love and high adventure, where the damsel in distress saves herself, her true love and then the Kingdom. The streamer has said that the show will be released in late June, which sets up a tasty royal clash with Netflix’s own period drama Bridgerton. The second part of the hit show’s season three is set to launch on June 13.
Heads you (don’t) lose
Unusually for a prestige drama, the lead actor here is a newcomer: Emily Bader, who plays the titular Lady Jane. Her rascally husband Guildford is played by Edward Bluemel of Killing Eve and Jordan Peters from Pirates plays the scheming King Edward. The cast also includes the always watchable Dominic Cooper from Preacher as Lord Seymour, Anna Chancellor (Pennyworth) as Jane’s mother, and Rob Brydon (The Trip) as Guildford’s father.
With a behind the camera team including showrunner and creator Gemma Burgess (Brooklyn Girls), co-showrunner Meredith Glynn (The Boys) and producing director Jamie Babbitt (Only Murders In The Building), this looks likely to be a particularly irreverent take on the genre. In this telling, the damsel in distress saves herself.
My Lady Jane will be streaming from Thursday, June 27.
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Something strange is going on with Amazon Prime Video. A report from news site Cord Busters originally claimed that the tech giant quietly pulled the plug on the service in the United Kingdom. If you head over to Amazon Prime’s UK page, you’ll notice that Prime Video isn’t among the list of plans near the bottom. All you see are Prime Monthly and Prime Annuals. The same thing is happening on the American website. Scroll down to the “Choose Your Plan” section and it’s not there.
As it turns out, Prime Video continues to exist although it’s being obscured. If you go down to the bottom of the UK website, you’ll find Prime Video listed among the other subscription plans with a direct link to sign up. This isn’t the case with the US page, however. There isn’t a clear indicator of Prime Video’s availability in the States; not a cornered-off section or even a small hint. Luckily, the subscription’s signup page is still live if you know where to look or if you have a link. The cost of the subscription hasn’t changed. It’s still $8.99/£5.99 a month.
On the Amazon mobile app, it’s featured more prominently. Prime Video is tucked away in the settings menu behind a single expandable tab and it’s still available for download from app stores. All seems good, right? Not exactly, as on mobile, we couldn’t purchase Prime Video by itself. Instead, we were being pushed to buy the regular Amazon Prime plan at $14.99 a month. There was no option for the cheaper service.
Amounting problems
We don’t know what to make of this. On one hand, it may be the start of a new effort to drive up more revenue. By hiding or possibly even ending the service, the platform could be forcing people to purchase the more expensive Amazon Prime if they want to watch shows like Fallout. It’s entirely possible. Back in late January 29, Prime Video introduced an ad-supported plan as the new base service which understandably annoyed a lot of people. They had to cough up an extra $2.99/£2.99 a month to get rid of commercials.
However, the sudden disappearance of Prime Video could be the cause of recent bugs. Recently, people have begun to notice weird problems with the service. Second episodes for certain shows are coming out before the first, audio for entire languages is missing, and translation errors are just some of the issues viewers have run into.
We’re leaning towards the glitches as the source of Prime Video’s disappearance. Amazon has reportedly disputed Cord Busters’ claim in a statement to Engadget saying Prime Video is “still available in the US as a standalone… subscription.” Hopefully, this will remain the case. It’s currently one of the cheaper streaming options out there as compared to the other major services. The whole situation could be a bug or bad code wreaking havoc. But something tells us there’s more to this story.
If you’re looking for something to watch over the weekend, check out TechRadar’s latest roundup of the seven newest movies and shows on Netflix, Prime Video, and Max.
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Mafia Mamma was in so much danger of not working. Its story is borderline nonsense, its acting is as grounded as the International Space Station, and its tone veers from full-on farce to alarming violence to surprisingly erotically charged. And in the end, all of that is why it works so well. This Prime Video comedy movie knows exactly what it’s doing, and what it’s doing is having a big party in Italy with fun jokes, and everyone’s invited – but only if you promise not to take it seriously.
Toni Collette plays Kristin, a classic downtrodden movie wife, who returns from the job where her contributions are ignored to find that her husband is cheating on her, and all just as her son is leaving home. Fortunately(ish), her Italian grandfather has died, and she needs to go to Italy to settle the estate, and that estate turns out to be A Full-on Mob Family.
Do hijinks ensue? You betcha. Do her two bodyguard heavies turn out to be sensitive souls for comedic purposes? Of course. Does she accidentally become good at Mafia-ing? Inevitably. Does that cause her to fall in danger? Naturally. Does she have conversations with Monica Bellucci that are extremely sexually charged for no particular reason? Totally. Is there a part where a man’s eyeball is graphically removed in a scene that is as comical as it is alarming? Unbelievably.
Mafia Mamma is funny because it genuinely means to be, not in the ‘so bad it’s funny’ way – it’s just willing to go the silliest lengths to get there. This is a big broad farce set in beautiful Italian towns and countryside. Go in with the right attitude and it’s a blast, even if it’s not going to become a modern classic on the list of the best Prime Video movies.
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Sony just revealed its lineup of new TVs for 2024. While many boast interesting features that we’ll get into later, the biggest change is naming conventions. Sony TVs used to be named confusing strings of numbers and letters, but that’s all gone now. The names here are clean and simple. They all use Bravia, a long-time Sony moniker for televisions, and a single digit number.
The Bravia 3 is a standard 4K LED TV with dynamic HDR, upscaling technology and a 60Hz refresh rate. This is the most basic box within Sony’s lineup, but it still looks plenty capable. The company promises that it also uses eight percent less power than last year’s equivalent, which is always nice. The TV is available in sizes ranging from 43-inches all the way up to 85-inches, with prices going from $600 to $1,800.
Sony
Don’t ask what happened to Bravia 4, 5 and 6, because the next TV in the lineup is called the Bravia 7. This is a mini LED box with some neat tech, including a powerful updated processor and Sony’s proprietary Backlight Master Drive local dimming algorithm. The company says this allows it to feature 790 percent more dimming zones compared to last year’s similar X90L. The more dimming zones a TV has, the smaller each one will be. This leads to an increase in precision and a better contrast ratio.
It also uses less power than the X90L, to the tune of 15 percent, and boasts a new calibration mode primarily intended for Prime Video content. The Bravia 7 is available in sizes ranging from 55-inches to 85-inches, with prices fluctuating from $1,900 to $3,500.
The Bravia 8 is the company’s latest OLED model. The OLED panel ensures a “perfect black” response and the box includes the same calibration mode for Prime Video found with the Bravia 7. However, the most interesting aspects of this line have to do with size and form factor. The Bravia 8 is 31 percent thinner than last year’s equivalent model, with a slimmed down bezel. It should really pop when hung on a wall. There are only three sizes in this lineup, and the 55-inch model costs $2,000, the 65-inch version costs $3,400 and the 75-inch box costs a whopping $3,900.
Sony
Finally, there’s the flagship Bravia 9. This is basically a souped-up version of the Bravia 7, as its another mini LED box. Sony says that the display technology is similar to what’s found in a mastering monitor, which is a lofty promise. It’s 50 percent brighter than last year’s X95L, which was already plenty bright, with a 325 percent increase in dimming zones.
There’s also a 20 percent reduction in power consumption when compared to the X95L and new beam tweeters for improved audio. The Bravia 9 features Sony’s proprietary Backlight Master Drive and the new Prime Video calibration feature. The 65-inch version of this TV costs $3,300, while the 85-inch model comes in at a jaw-dropping $5,500.
Everybody makes mistakes, but some mistakes are more serious than others – and when you’re running one of the best streaming services, mistakes such as missing episodes, terrible translations and incorrect titles can be a real problem for your subscribers. According to leaked internal documents seen by Business Insider (via Quartz), some of the errors in Prime Video‘s catalog are so bad that some viewers have been ditching shows entirely.
The documents suggest that at least some of the massive amounts of money Amazon has invested in Prime Video have been undermined by serious catalog errors, and those errors are leading to a very high volume of customer complaints. Some 60% of all content-related customer experience complains last year were about catalog errors, BI reports.
Amazon’s on the Prime Video catalog case
The level of complaints is being taken very seriously by Amazon, which is launching a new program with the target of reducing such complaints by 15,000 per year. The top issues complained about were incomplete or inconsistent titling, and what the documents call “season integrity” problems. That’s when you’re streaming a show only to discover that there are missing episodes, inconsistent playback options or wrongly labeled content. Last year, BI says, Amazon received over 10,000 “customer friction records” related to such issues.
Some of the issues identified in the documents include:
Making episode 2 of The Rings of Power available before episode 1;
losing the Spanish audio from Die Hard With A Vengeance;
translation errors in character names;
incorrect age restrictions in some shows such as Continuum
And many customers took their complaints to other places, such as forums and Reddit. It’s likely that many such customers didn’t complain directly to Amazon, so the number of errors could be higher than the leaked documents report.
The most likely explanation for this is human error: any classification system with lots of data has the scope for problems, especially if your content is coming from lots of different places and in multiple languages. But while such errors are understandable they can also be expensive: the documents suggest that wrongly localized content could lead to 20% drop-offs in engagement. With the streaming landscape more competitive than ever, Amazon is keen to ensure that the best Prime Video movies and best Prime Videos shows can a) actually be found, and b) are watched all the way through.
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