Monthly Archives: February 2018

12 TV Shows That Debuted After the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl tends to be one of the highest-rated TV programs in any given year. Networks have often capitalized on that by using the Super Bowl to lead into their other high-profile shows. Case in point, this year Fox will follow up Super Bowl LII with a tear-jerking new episode of This Is Us.

Sometimes, though, networks attempt to use the Super Bowl to bring more eyes to brand new shows. Sometimes that can give a show the early momentum it needs to find a lasting audience. Other times, cancellation is still right around the corner. Here's a look back at 12 shows that premiered after the big game.

For many Super Bowl viewers, what shows come after is far less important than what commercials debut during the course of the game. Check out our roundup of every new Super Bowl commercial and movie trailer released so far.

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Natalie Portman Raps to Defend the Star Wars Prequels

Don't even dare speak negatively about the prequels in the presence of Natalie Portman. At least, the character Natalie Portman reprises in the sequel to her 2006 Lonely Island rap.

On SNL last night, the star of the upcoming Annihilation brought back her hardened rap persona, at one point using it to demand respect, at gun point, for the Star Wars prequels.

Andy Samberg also returned to rap along, with SNL's Beck Beckett filling in the role held by Chris Parnell in the original. The rap is self-aware enough to even call out the fact it's essentially the same joke with updated references, but also shows Portman still has it in her to spit fire.

Natalie

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Darkest Hour Crosses $100 Million at Global Box Office

Darkest Hour has earned over $100 million worldwide.

As reported by Deadline, director Joe Wright's World War II drama has raked in $46.4 million domestically and $59.2 million internationally through Thursday, making for a global total of $105.6 million.

Internationally, UK sales lead with $23 million, and is followed by China at $5.6 million, France at $4.3 million, Australia at $3.6 million, and Italy at $3.5 million. Darkest Hour debuted with a limited domestic release in November before expanding to more theaters the following months. The film will open in Japan on March 30.

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Nintendo Isn’t Saying Who’s Making Labo

Nintendo still hasn't revealed who exactly is behind its new set of cardboard creations.

Kotaku reports the company is being unusually tight-lipped about the creative team or teams involved in Nintendo Labo.

When first announced, Nintendo made no mention of who is developing the software for Labo. Even now during the latest hands-on event, Kotaku said Nintendo declined to answer its questions about what developers or designers are working on the project.

While the company is notoriously secretive about some things, like hiding tributes in console software, it's a bit unusual for Nintendo to not be forthcoming about this sort of information regarding a game that's already playable.

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Altered Carbon: What to Expect in Season 2

This story contains full spoilers for Season 1 of Altered Carbon and vague spoilers for the other books in Richard K. Morgan's series.

Altered Carbon wrapped up its cyberpunk Sherlock Holmes story well enough in Season 1, but there are plenty of lingering questions that we want further clarification on, especially now that Netflix has renewed the show for Season 2. Thankfully, there's a lot of source material to mine in the form of two additional novels from Richard K. Morgan -- Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Each book expands on the greater universe of Altered Carbon, while also delving deeper into what defines Takeshi Kovacs as a person.

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Nier Theater Productions, Cafe Bring Fan Service in Tokyo

Nier: Automata continues to be a fan favorite in Japan, where it won a Users’ Choice prize at the PlayStation Awards 2017 – and now, two theater productions based on the series are underway in Tokyo, along with a cafe serving food and selling merchandise themed on the original game.

We’ll get to the cafe below (including a couple of neat photo galleries), but let’s start with a trip to the theater.

The first production, "Stage Play Shonen YoRHa Ver1.0," features an all-male cast and will culminate with a pay-to-view livestream on Japanese video service Niconico on February 4. (It’s in Japanese only, but you can find details here https://secure.live.nicovideo.jp/product/4146 for how to watch.) This will be followed by “Musical Play YoRHa Ver1.2”, an all-female musical production that runs February 9-13, with a livestream on February 12.

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Snackade Dispenses Video Game Snacks in Real Life

How many times have you played a game, collected a food item, and thought to yourself "man, that looks tasty?" If your answer is more than one time, the Snackade is the perfect art installation for you.

Imagine: you punch a pile of tires in Final Fight to uncover a street turkey and suddenly, a real-life roasted turkey appears on a conveyor belt, ready to consume.

Well, sort of. "You'd probably get a packet of roast chicken chips," the creators of the Snackade told us. "We try to keep most of the snacks fairly literal – so, for example, if you're playing Super Mario and you get a mushroom, you'll actually receive a mushroom. That seems like an okay thing to do because you can't actually pick up that many mushrooms in a few minutes in Mario, and also because mushrooms are kinda funny?"

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American Gods Season 2 Gets New Showrunner

Jesse Alexander has been hired to serve as showrunner of American Gods' second season.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alexander will serve as co-showrunner on the Starz drama alongside American Gods author Neil Gaiman. Alexander worked with former American Gods showrunner Bryan Fuller on series including Star Trek: Discovery and Hannibal.

Following the news that Fuller and Michael Green wouldn't return as showrunners for Season 2, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht confirmed Gaiman would be "taking more of a central role and moving forward into a more traditional showrunner function" for the series' second season.

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