Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear fallout thriller “A House of Dynamite” and albums from Brandi Carlile and Demi Lovato are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Season 2 of “Nobody Wants This” sees things get more serious between Adam Brody’s rabbi and Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcast host, Ninja Gaiden 4 asks gamers to fight their way through cyber soldiers and other malevolent creatures, and director Ben Stiller pays tribute to his comedian parents with “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.”
— An old genre — the hypothetical nuclear fallout thriller — returns in Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” (Friday, Oct. 24 on Netflix), a minute-by-minute White House drama in which a mystery missile is bearing down on Chicago. The film tells the 18-minute run-up to impact from three different perspectives, with an ensemble including Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos and Idris Elba, as the president. In my review, I wrote: “With riveting efficiency, Bigelow constructs a taut, real-time thriller that opens explosively but dissipates with each progressive iteration.”
— In “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost,” director Ben Stiller pays tribute to his comedian parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, while reflecting on how their show business lives influenced those of his own family. The film, premiering Friday, Oct. 24 on Apple TV, is a distinctly family affair, that culls from the extensive archives of Meara and Stiller, who recorded as much in their private lives as they did in film and television.
— Ron Howard’s “Eden” (Wednesday on Prime Video) is based on a true story about a group of disillusioned Europeans who in 1929 sought to create a utopia on an island in the Galápagos. It didn’t go so well. Howard’s film struggled mightily at the box office despite a starry cast including Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney. In her AP review, Itzel Luna wrote that the ensemble, “isn’t always enough to make up for the overambitious plot of a film that drags in the middle.”
— On Thursday, the contemporary R&B talent Miguel returns with his first full-length in nearly a decade. The bilingual “Caos” (the Spanish word for “Chaos”) is the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s “War & Leisure,” and marks a conceptual pivot for the musician. “To rebuild, I had to destroy myself. That is the core confrontation of ‘Caos,’” Miguel said in a press statement. “Through my personal evolution, I learned that transformation is violent. ‘Caos’ is the sonic iteration of me bending that violence into something universally felt.”
— Who is busier than Brandi Carlile? Just a few months ago, the musician known for melding folk, alt-country, rock and Americana partnered with the great Elton John for a charming collaborative album, “Who Believes In Angels?” Now, on Friday, she’s gearing up to release a new solo album, “Returning to Myself,” her first since 2021’s “In These Silent Days.” If you need any reconfirmation of her timeless talent, cue up “A War with Time,” written by Carlile and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator, Aaron Dessner of The National. And on piano/background vocals? That’s Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
— It’s a “BRAT” autumn for Demi Lovato, whose ninth studio album, “It’s Not That Deep,” embraces club-dance rhythms in addictive pop songs. That’s a noted departure from her last two records, 2022’s “Holy Fvck” and 2023’s “Revamped,” which leaned more traditionally rock ‘n’ roll. Both modes work for Lovato: give her space to belt with some edge, and she’ll fashion an earworm.
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
— As we get closer to Halloween, a number of new horror shows debut this month. Sam Claflin (“Daisy Jones & the Six”) stars in a new Prime Video mystery from bestselling author Harlan Coben. He plays a forensic psychiatrist who finds himself connecting the dots between a number of cold cases after his father’s death. “Harlan Coben’s Lazarus” debuts Wednesday.
— The delightful TV romance between Adam Brody’s rabbi, Noah, and Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcast host named Joanne carries on Thursday in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This.” Season 2 picks up shortly after the first season ended with the two characters attempting to blend their lives as they get more serious. Joanne is also still grappling with the idea of committing to Judaism because it’s a non-negotiable for Noah. In a world that seems to have just gotten more complex in the past year, investing in these two fictional characters’ relationship is a great distraction. Team Joah!
— AMC continues to adapt and draw from the works of Anne Rice (known as the Immortal Universe), with “Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order.” Debuting Sunday, Oct. 26 on AMC+, it’s about a secret society that tracks immortals like witches, vampires and the like. “Talamasca” stars Nicholas Denton and Elizabeth McGovern and has cameos from “Interview with the Vampire” cast members, Eric Bogosian and Justin Kirk.
— A prequel series to the “It” films called “It — Welcome to Derry” (thankfully not titled “Stephen King’s: It — Welcome to Derry” and therefore less of a tongue twister), arrives on HBO Max also on Sunday, Oct. 26. Set in 1962, Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo star as Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, couple who moves to Derry, Maine, with their son and begin to recognize the town is pretty creepy. “It” fans will recognize the Hanlon name and its lore. Also, Bill Skarsgård reprises his Pennywise the Clown role from the films.
— Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 puts you in the cape of a bloodsucker named Phyre who has been asleep for a century and has somehow woken up in Seattle. But you are not alone — a “vampire detective” named Fabian has infected your blood and will update you on grunge, that “Twilight” nonsense and 21st century goth culture. That includes six competing vampire clans, some brutal, some sneaky and some just outright seductive. It’s all based on a popular tabletop role-playing game that has had difficulty translating to video games, but publisher Paradox Interactive has had some success with RPGs like Pillars of Eternity and Crusader Kings. Take a bite Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
— If you don’t want to be a vampire for Halloween, why not try on Ninja Gaiden 4? In a near-future Tokyo, a prodigy named Yakumo must fight his way through cyber soldiers and other malevolent creatures as he tries to lift a curse from his neon-drenched city. He soon crosses paths with Ryu Hayabusa, the legendary hero of the previous Gaiden games. The latest chapter is a collaboration between two esteemed Japanese studios: Team Ninja, which has been handling this franchise for 20 years, and Platinum Games, best known for the loopy hack-and-slash favorite Bayonetta. The swords start swinging Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
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