To be honest, this wasn't on my radar for the longest time. Video game adaptations tend to miss more often than not, and this one tended to be development hell adding to the pessimism. But then I watched the opening sequence of the first episode and I was surprised by the gripping brutality of just these early minutes of the series. I really don't care about the lore of the popular video game series on the Xbox consoles, though I've played various entries over the years. Yet, I started caring about some actual characters almost immediately in the show. Cheddar hosted actors Olive Gray and Yerin Ha recently, and it piqued my interest enough to give it a go.

It’s been almost four years since the last season of Atlanta, so I will begrudgingly not click the “SKIP RECAP” option during the introduction. Atlanta is a dramedy about a guy named Earn (Donald Glover), who lives in Atlanta and struggles to make ends meet. His meal ticket? Becoming the manager for his cousin, a local up-and-coming and hard-to-please rapper named Paper Boi. I believe we left the last season with Earn and Paper Boi finding moderate success but still running into speedbumps often. Based on the teaser for the new season, it looks like Paper Boi and his boys will be headed to Europe to tour and find fun/trouble of their own. Atlanta is Glover at his weirdest, funniest and finest.

Everyone is talking about The Adam Project, so I decided to see what the buzz is about. Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, and young newcomer Walker Scobell lead the all-star cast in this action flick that dives into time travel. Big Adam (Reynolds) of the future accidentally returns to 2022 and meets the younger version of himself (Scobell). Together they join forces to save the world (of course). As many other reviewers have noted, the film touches on the science of jumping between time periods, but there's no solid science here. Enjoy it for what it is — and I think that it's a superhero-type flick not produced by a name like Marvel or DC. The movie keeps up a fast pace, which definitely glosses over some storylines that could have been fleshed out more, but for those of us with the attention span of a fly, it was engaging and kept me interested. 

Hulu is killing it lately with its original horror films. Last week, I recommended Fresh, a bonkers tale of modern dating gone wrong. Now I'm following that up with No Exit, a dark thriller about a woman and recovering drug addict who gets stuck in a rest stop during a blizzard. Her fellow travelers seem nice enough at first, but then she discovers that one of them has a kidnapped child in the car, and it's up to her to figure out who it is and expose them before the weather clears. The film does wonders with a limited budget and just a handful of excellent character actors. It will keep you guessing until the final act, even after the villain comes clean.

Can we have an honest moment? Many of us just aren't fans of today's reboots. They often feel lazy and unnecessary, but the showrunners over at Peacock have struck gold with Bel-Air. It's the reimagined version of NBC's The Fresh Prince, with all your favorite elements and characters (recasted) but instead of comedic storytelling, writers take viewers on a dramatic journey from West Philadelphia to Bel-Air. Things get really deep and even dark on occasion. While Will Smith isn't on-screen in this reimagined series, he is an executive producer on the show, so the authenticity is still there. Jabari Banks, who stars as the fictional Will Smith, takes the role to a new level, but perhaps one of the real shockers is how cousin Carlton's character (Olly Sholotan) is portrayed on screen. There are more than a few OMG moments. So strap in!