Every night, five minutes before curtain, two musical theatre veterans lock themselves in a dressing room and let it all out. That is the entire premise of Five Minute Call, and I am obsessed.

The eight-episode comedy, created by and starring Helen Dallimore and Simon Burke, is now streaming on Stan, with all its short-form episodes compiled into one marvellous omnibus.

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Dallimore plays Helen Barrymore, an actress playing Sal in a fictional long-running production, and Burke plays Simon, her co-star playing Jack. The show-within-the-show is Ray Meagher Presents The Shiralee The Musical, a gloriously creaky outback Australian adventure, and it is the perfect, specific target for eight episodes of insider theatre comedy.

Helen is a magnificent creation. Once the undisputed queen of the stage, she is now battling escalating vocal problems, an ambitious understudy waiting in the wings, and the creeping suspicion the industry might be ready to move on without her. Dallimore plays every glare and tightly controlled eruption like a full-blown opening-night meltdown, and somehow makes a woman this vain and furious completely loveable.

Burke’s Simon is the perfect foil, utterly convinced international stardom is one US pilot away, no matter how many humiliating setbacks pile up. His chemistry with Dallimore is the real engine of the show: two performers who clearly know the specific exhaustion of doing the same show eight times a week, bickering like siblings who would still go to war for each other.

The whole series plays out almost entirely in Helen’s dressing room, which becomes a revolving door for agents, dressers, musical directors, understudies and stage veterans who have seen it all. Every visitor brings a fresh crisis or a new piece of chaos, and the comedy is fast, filthy and gloriously specific, with plenty of jokes that will land hardest for anyone who has ever worked in theatre, live events, or any workplace running on pretending the chaos is under control.

Trevor Ashley, an Olivier Award nominee for The Producers in the West End, is a standout as Winston T. Ford, Helen’s appalling manager from WTF Management, who turns up dangling incriminating video evidence.

Barnaby and Barbara, the show’s “Baa Baas”, are the fresh-faced up-and-comers doubling as Equity reps. They’re played by Joel Granger and Chaska Halliday and they’re a joy every time they appear.

Genevieve Lemon is a highlight as Tinkerbell, forever popping in with a gentle reminder that somehow makes things worse.

The in-show dialogue (that we get to hear through various rehearsals) leans hard into Ray Meagher’s most famous Home and Away catchphrases, including “stone the flaming crows” and “bloody mongrels”, and by the finale, a Ray Meagher impersonator (Jonathan Biggins) actually turns up backstage, triggering chaos in the wig room.

My favourite moment is a throwaway line from understudy Nicole (Jessica Spies), who asks Simon “which was your favourite window?”, a nod to his years presenting Play School. I am still laughing about it.

Other stars rounding out the backstage world include a surprise cameo from Georgie Parker as herself, plus the characters of Dirk (Maxwell Simon), Belinda (Catherine Van-Davies), Associate Musical Director Timothy (Hayden Barltrop), dresser Teresa (Jillian O’Dowd) and choreographer Mr Cha-Cha (Strickly Ballroom Choreographer John ‘Cha-Cha’ O’Connell), all adding to the sense of a show family that totally unhinged.

For anyone who, like me, didn't clock it straight away: The Shiralee is a real and much-loved piece of Australian storytelling. D'Arcy Niland's 1955 novel follows Macauley, an itinerant swagman wandering the outback with his young daughter Buster in tow after he walks out on her unfaithful mother, the title itself an old bush term for the swag a traveller carries, and by extension the burden he can't quite put down. It became a 1957 film starring Peter Finch, then a popular 1987 ABC miniseries, and in a lovely bit of timing, Catherine Văn-Davies, who plays Belinda in Five Minute Call, recently starred in Sydney Theatre Company's own stage adaptation of The Shiralee, written by Kate Mulvany and directed by Jessica Arthur, at the Sydney Opera House's Drama Theatre.

Dallimore is a Helpmann Award winner who originated the role of Glinda in Wicked opposite Idina Menzel in the West End, and starred in Here Come the Habibs and is the narrator of Married At First Sight. Burke, who won his first AFI Award at 13 for The Devil’s Playground and later reprised the role in its AACTA and Logie-winning miniseries sequel, has led Australian and West End stage productions including Les Misérables, La Cage aux Folles, The Sound of Music and Moulin Rouge The Musical.

Praise to the producers behind it: Gus Murray of Sugary Rum Productions, Bec Bignall of Cockatoo Co Lab, and Robert Patterson of Arenamedia.

What makes Five Minute Call so good is the warmth underneath all that bitchiness. This is not just a show about egotistical performers behaving badly, it is a love letter to the strange, loyal, slightly unhinged family formed by people who do the same job under pressure every single night, as its creators put it, “the beautiful, broken lunatics who keep showing up, hitting their light, and pretending it’s all perfectly under control.” If you have ever set foot backstage, or just love a sharp, specific showbiz in-joke, this one is unmissable.

Watch Five Minute Call [IMMEDIATELY] on Stan.

SPOILER WARNING: This review contains a mild spoiler for the ending of Fierce Queen Slay.

Mitchell Stevens wanted a quiet vacation. Books, some TV to binge, air conditioning and a little emotional stability, nothing more.

His best friend Kacey had other plans, dragging him to Blossom Way, a secluded “vacation community” in Florida, in J.M. Lamp’s new queer horror novel Fierce Queen Slay.

Blossom Way comes with impossibly attractive couples, suspiciously colourful houses and pool parties that feel less like a getaway and more like the pilot episode of a very spicy reality show, according to the book’s own blurb.

At first glance it is all beautiful men, flowing drinks and more sexual tension than a Pride afterparty. But Mitchell quickly clocks things that nobody else at Blossom Way seems bothered by.

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There is a strange church sitting in the middle of the property. The couples all dress alike and somehow talk as though they have wandered in from another decade. The couple cosplaying as brothers… killed me. And then there is Kyle, the smug, controlling host who clearly believes he is the main character, and who Mitchell becomes convinced wants him dead.

While Kacey is busy living his best life, possibly his last, Mitchell cannot shake the feeling that something at Blossom Way is very, very wrong.

I loved this one. It is dark and properly camp, campy and absurd, and I would not have it any other way.

There is a strong Ready or Not energy running through the back half of the book too. Mild spoiler: I imagined in the final build up, Mitchell lights a cigarette in a burst of flames. Yes, this book is exactly as dramatic as it sounds.

It is a trippy read from start to finish. Every character at Blossom Way weirded me out in their own specific way, but they all felt like people I have met a hundred times before.

Fierce Queen Slay is Lamp’s second standalone novel, following All the Things We Left in Loving, and sits alongside the four-book Less Is More series in the author’s catalogue. I need to read more of Lamp’s books. Goodreads reviews have had plenty of time to roll in for Fierce Queen Slay, and they are a genuinely mixed bag: five-star raves about the camp factor sitting next to one-star complaints about typos and clunky prose.

But for me, it’s up there. There were no typos for me, just pure fun as it leans into the all-out gay-chaos.

If you are after a fast, ridiculous, deeply queer read for a flight or a beach day, Fierce Queen Slay delivers exactly what it promises: beautiful men, a cult-adjacent holiday compound and a body count.

Fierce Queen Slay by J.M. Lamp is available now via Amazon Australia.

TJ Klune, the New York Times-bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, is trading fairytale whimsy for something a lot darker in his new novel, Murmuration.

The book lands on Tuesday, November 17, in hardcover, ebook and audio.

The story so far

Murmuration opens on what looks like small-town perfection.

Set in 1954, the novel follows Mike, a bookseller in the “idyllic” town of Amorea who runs literature discussions for the local women’s club.

His relationship with Sean, a waiter at the town diner, is finally ready to move forward, according to the book’s official synopsis.

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Then the town starts to fray. There are no children or parents in Amorea, no one who has left for the mountains has ever come back, and the beaming photos on the diner walls show faces that only a few residents seem to remember.

One night, a storm cloud of starlings blackens the sky, and Mike starts to question whether his own name is really his, as violent memories of another life begin to interfere with everything good about Amorea.

The title is a nod to the real phenomenon of starling murmurations, the swirling, synchronised flight patterns the birds form in huge flocks, which becomes a recurring, ominous image once it starts happening over the town.

The pitch: Severance meets Stephen King

Early billing for Murmuration is pitching it at fans of Severance and Stephen King, a sharp tonal left turn for an author best known for warmth and whimsy.

The official synopsis backs that up, closing on a line that doubles as fair warning: “Nothing here is perfect, but there is someone worth saving.”

The buzz that got it here

Murmuration has already landed a spot on Polygon’s list of the most anticipated sci-fi and fantasy books for November, ahead of its release.

Worth noting

Murmuration is not the only new Klune title on the way. The Stars Look Like Home, a funny and moving adventure about finding one’s place in the universe, told from a dog’s perspective, is due out on Tuesday, January 12, 2027.

For readers new to Klune, or working through his back catalogue, there is plenty to be getting on with in the meantime: the Cerulean Chronicles (The House in the Cerulean Sea and its sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea), the YA superhero trilogy The Extraordinaries, the werewolf family saga Green Creek, and the At First Sight series.

Murmuration is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook from November 17.

Dymocks has revealed its shortlist for the 2026 Book of the Year, and a Sydney debut author I profiled just weeks ago has made the cut.

Joshua Hortinela’s debut rom-com novel Hate You to Love You is one of nine titles chosen for the shortlist. Dymocks booksellers from across the country were each invited to nominate their favourite title published in the past year, with the list narrowed down from there.

I’ve reviewed Hortinela’s novel and met the Sydney author in person for the first time in October, when he signed a copy of the book.

Courtney from Dymocks Subiaco praised the novel in the shortlist announcement, saying it is “more than a romance” and “a heartfelt and relatable story about growing up, letting go, and learning to embrace new beginnings.”

Here is the full 2026 shortlist.

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

• Medea Sang Me a Corrido by Dahlia de la Cerda

• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

• Hate You to Love You by Joshua Hortinela

• The Ballad of Ronan McCoy by Colin Morgan

• Land by Maggie O’Farrell

• An Ocean and a Day by Hannah Richell

• The World Beneath Her Feet by Holly Ringland

• Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham

Four of the nine titles are by Australian authors: Hortinela’s Hate You to Love You, Richell’s memoir An Ocean and a Day, Ringland’s The World Beneath Her Feet and Robotham’s Tell Me Something True.

One name on the list might ring a bell for a different reason. The Ballad of Ronan McCoy is the debut novel from Colin Morgan, best known for playing the title role in Merlin.

I have some reading to get done! Besides Hortinela’s book, I’ve only read Yesteryear, which a Dymocks Adelaide bookseller Leticia summed up in the announcement as a rollercoaster that “had you going upside down in the dark”, lives up to the hype. The rest of the shortlist is this week’s to-read pile.

The Dymocks Book of the Year award is decided by the retailer’s own booksellers, who nominate and then vote on titles published within the previous 12 months. The winner will be announced in late November.

Last year’s winner was Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore, a survival drama set on a remote Antarctic island. It is now available in a hardcover collector’s edition exclusive to Dymocks.

More details at the Dymocks website.

READ MORE: Immy’s review of Joshua Hortinela’s Hate You to Love You

Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey has been cast as convicted Australian triple murderer Erin Patterson in a new true crime drama for Paramount+.

The New Zealand actress, will lead and executive produce Mushroom Murders, a six-episode limited series based on the infamous Leongatha mushroom poisonings that gripped Australia and the world.

Paramount+ announced the casting at the Australian television upfronts on Wednesday.

Mushroom Murders is created by Anya Beyersdorf (Apple Cider Vinegar, Fires), Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale, Shining Girls) and Deb Balderstone (Dustfall), and produced by Soapbox Pictures.

Reid will direct all six episodes.

Lynskey said she was “very excited” to be playing Patterson, according to Paramount+.

Paramount Australia’s Beverley McGarvey said the series would bring the story to screen with “the scale, quality and creative vision audiences expect from Paramount+”.

For anyone who hasn’t followed the case: in July 2023, Patterson served individual beef wellingtons to her estranged in-laws and their relatives at a lunch in Leongatha, in Victoria’s Gippsland region.

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Unbeknown to her guests, the meal was allegedly laced with death cap mushrooms.

Three guests died: Patterson’s former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. A fourth guest survived.

Patterson was found guilty in July 2025 of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years. She is appealing her convictions.

It is hard to overstate how big this case became.

The sentencing hearing was broadcast live, a first for a Victorian court, and the trial has already spawned Stan’s documentary series Revealed: Death Cap Murders, CNN’s Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders and an ABC scripted drama, Toxic, still in development.

Mushroom Murders will be among the first scripted dramatisations of the case to reach screens, telling the story through the 97 days between the lunch and Patterson’s arrest that November.

READ MORE: All the details on ‘You Can See Everything’, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary Australia can’t see yet

As for Lynskey herself: I’m a big fan.

She’s been a scene-stealer since her days playing Rose, Charlie Harper’s devoted on-again-off-again stalker turned friend, on Two and a Half Men, and she’s been unmissable as Shauna Sadecki, the morally grey heart of Yellowjackets, since the show premiered in 2021, earning her two Emmy nominations along the way.

Lynskey made her screen debut as teenage killer Pauline Parker in Peter Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, and has since built an eclectic resume that includes The Last of Us and the Netflix film Don’t Say Good Luck.

READ MORE: ‘Carrie’ renewed for season two by Prime Video

Fun fact for the superfans: Lynskey almost had a very different career turn nearly three decades ago.

She told Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up Evan that she had actually auditioned to play Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with creator Joss Whedon reportedly having her in mind for the role before the process dragged on.

“I didn’t get it! Alyson Hannigan got it, who was absolutely wonderful,” Lynskey said.

Mushroom Murders is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ in 2027.

The Baywatch reboot will premiere January 7, 2027, exclusively on Stan in Australia from January 2027, the same dates its revival lands on Fox in the US.

Stan confirmed the news and unveiled the full cast in a release, describing the franchise as “one of television’s most enduring and globally recognised”.

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The 12-episode series, from Fremantle and Fox Entertainment, follows an all-new team of lifeguards patrolling “the world’s most famous stretch of sand”.

Arrow alum Stephen Amell leads the cast as Hobie Buchannon, the once wild-child son of David Hasselhoff’s original leading man, Mitch.

Hobie Buchannon has actually been played by two actors on the original series: Brandon Call played him as a kid in the pilot and first season (1989–90), before leaving the show “to concentrate on his studies”. Call would eventually star in Step by Step before retiring from acting. Jeremy Jackson then took over from season two through the finale (and reprised him in later TV movies), making him the Hobie most fans remember. In 2015, Jackson was thrown out of the Celebrity Big Brother UK house after pulling open another contestant’s dressing gown. He now runs a successful fitness business.

In 2027, Hobie has followed in his father’s footsteps and is now a Baywatch captain himself, with the series kicking off as his daughter, Charlie Vale (Jessica Belkin), turns up on his doorstep “eager to carry on the Buchannon family legacy”.

He’s joined by Hassie Harrison as Nat, Shay Mitchell as Trina, Thaddeus LaGrone as Brad, Noah Beck as Luke and Brooks Nader as Selene.

Gymnast-turned-influencer Livvy Dunne will make her acting debut in a recurring role as Grace, while David Chokachi returns to the franchise, reprising his original series character, Cody Madison.

Original cast members Erika Eleniak, Michael Bergin and Kelly Packard will also guest star, returning as Shauni McClain, Jack J.D. Darius and April Giminski respectively.

Burn Notice creator Matt Nix serves as showrunner and executive producer, alongside original Baywatch creators Michael Berk, Greg Bonann and Doug Schwartz, plus Dante Di Loreto and Mike Horowitz.

McG, who directed Charlie’s Angels, helms the series premiere episode.

The original Baywatch first hit screens in 1989 and became the most-watched show in the world, airing in more than 200 countries and reaching over a billion viewers a week at its peak.

It launched the careers of stars including Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra, Jason Momoa and Yasmine Bleeth.

Stan says the reboot will keep “the adrenaline-fuelled rescues, tangled relationships, complicated chemistry and beachside heroics that defined the original”, now with a new cast and contemporary storylines.

Fans won’t have to wait a too much little longer to find out when they can pull on the red swimsuits again. The new series Baywatch premieres January 7, only on Stan in Australia.

BINGE and Foxtel have confirmed the cast returning for Wentworth spin-off series Wentworth: Halfway Home, with Rachel Griffiths and Sophie Lowe joining the show’s three biggest fan favourites.

Nicole da Silva, Katrina Milosevic and Kate Box are all reprising their roles as Franky Doyle, Susan “Boomer” Jenkins and Lou Kelly, the trio at the heart of Wentworth‘s eight-season run.

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They’re joined by newcomers Alex King and Chenile Chandler, plus Griffiths (Total Control, Six Feet Under) as Moira, a “glamorous new resident” at Sal’s Halfway House, and Lowe (Beautiful).

“Rachel Griffiths joining the cast of Wentworth: Halfway Home is a huge coup for the series,” Foxtel Group Executive Director of Entertainment Content Daniel Monaghan said in a statement.

The new series follows Boomer, freshly paroled and determined to win back custody of her daughter, as she moves into a halfway house full of fellow ex-cons and a body turns up before she’s properly unpacked.

Wentworth: Halfway Home is a Fremantle Australia production for BINGE, with production underway in Melbourne. It premieres exclusively on BINGE and Foxtel in late 2026.

READ MORE: ‘Glee’ reboot: Everything we know about who’s back and the Lea Michele drama

Five years on, is the gap a help or a hindrance?

Wentworth‘s finale aired on October 26, 2021, almost exactly five years before this spin-off’s cast was confirmed.

That’s a long time for a show to stay off screens, and it raises the obvious question: does the gap work in Halfway Home‘s favour, or against it?

The case for “hindrance” is simple: a chunk of Wentworth‘s casual audience, the ones who watched for it’s original run will have moved on to other prestige dramas in the meantime.

But the case for “breathing room” is just as strong. Five years is enough distance for a new series to stand on its own two feet, rather than being read as a straight continuation and it means Halfway Home can introduce new characters like Moira, Dee and Lily without them being overshadowed by comparisons to the original ensemble.

And in the streaming era, the five-year gap matters less than it once did anyway. All nine seasons of Wentworth are sitting on BINGE right now, ready for anyone who wants to catch up (or binge it for the first time) before Halfway Home lands.

Wentworth’s queer legacy

Wentworth wasn’t just a ratings juggernaut. It became Foxtel’s highest-rating and most successful local drama, sold into more than 80 countries, and built a reputation as one of the most significant LGBTQIA+ stories on Australian TV.

At the centre of that was Franky Doyle, Wentworth‘s “top dog” turned law student, and her relationship with prison psychologist Bridget Westfall (Libby Tanner). The couple fans nicknamed “Fricket,” became one of the most celebrated queer pairings in Australian television history.

The show also featured Maxine Conway, a transgender character played by Socratis Otto, whose storyline tackled transphobia head-on from the moment she arrived at Wentworth. That said, the casting of a cisgender actor in the role drew criticism at the time from some LGBTQIA+ advocates.

With Franky back for Halfway Home, there’s an obvious opening for the spin-off to revisit or build on that legacy. Although we do need some confirmation that Bridget Westfall/Libby Tanner is returning.

The reboot-of-a-reboot trivia

Here’s the detail true TV nerds will love: Wentworth was itself a “reimagining” of 1980s cult classic Prisoner (known overseas as Prisoner: Cell Block H), which ran for nearly 700 episodes between 1979 and 1986.

That makes Wentworth: Halfway Home a spin-off of a reboot which is a genuinely rare breed in television. The clearest comparisons are Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore’s 2004 reimagining of the 1978 original, which later spawned prequel spin-off Caprica, and Doctor Who, whose 2005 revival spun off the adult-skewing Torchwood. Technically The Conners is a spin-off from the reboot of Roseanne, but I guess the new Roseanne was a "season 10" continuation rather that a reboot.

Wentworth: Halfway Home premieres exclusively on BINGE [and Foxtel] in late 2026. Yes! That soon!

It’s 2026, and Australians are still waiting weeks for the world’s biggest pop culture moment to reach our cinemas.

You Can See Everything, the wildly buzzed-about documentary about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, opened in the US on October 16. Australian audiences don’t get it until November 12, with select advance screenings at independent cinemas on November 11.

Call it an old habit dying hard. For many, many years, Australians waited weeks, months or sometimes years for American films and TV to land here. Streaming and simultaneous ‘fast-tracked’ global releases were supposed to have fixed that. Apparently, not always.

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So what is everyone overseas getting so worked up about?

You Can See Everything follows Holmes, 42, in the weeks before she reported to federal prison in 2023 to begin serving an 11-year sentence for defrauding Theranos investors. The blood-testing start-up she founded was once valued at $US9 billion (about $14 billion), before it emerged its technology never actually worked.

Holmes’ downfall has already been chronicled in the 2019 documentary The Inventor and the 2022 Hulu miniseries The Dropout, which starred Amanda Seyfried. This time, Holmes chose who told her story: comedian Nathan Fielder and documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, who co-directed the film and spent three years filming her, her partner Billy Evans and their two children.

If the name Nathan Fielder means nothing to you, here’s the primer. He’s the deadpan Canadian comedian behind Nathan For You and HBO’s The Rehearsal, two shows built almost entirely around blurring the line between what’s staged and what’s real.

He also co-created The Curse, the 2023 Showtime series starring Emma Stone, which was marketed as a comedy but, according to co-creator Benny Safdie, “started out as a 30-minute comedy and became an hour-long comedy-drama”. So the “comedy or documentary” question has followed Fielder through most of his career.

READ MORE: ‘Carrie’ renewed for season two by Prime Video

You Can See Everything is being billed as a straight documentary, but early reviews suggest it’s anything but conventional. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman described it as a “reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus”, and The New York Times has written that the film “upends the genre itself”.

Fielder himself seems unsure what to make of it. At the film’s surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September, he told the audience he was still “struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced” while making it.

At 174 minutes, the film is nearly three hours long and is rated M in Australia for mature themes, coarse language, nudity and sexual references.

There’s already Oscars chatter attached to it, with some critics suggesting it could be the first documentary ever nominated for Best Picture. Whether that happens or not, Australians will just have to wait that little bit longer to judge for themselves.

READ MORE: ‘Verity’: how faithful the Anne Hathaway thriller really is to Colleen Hoover’s book

Where to watch in Australia

You Can See Everything opens in Australian cinemas on November 12, with advance screenings at select cinemas on November 11.

• HOYTS Cinemas

• Palace Cinemas

• Cinema Nova

• Five Star Cinemas (Newcastle)

• Ritz Cinemas

I thought I’d already said my goodbyes. After four books following the band Eleven, finishing Encore felt like the end of the road.

But Eden Finley had one more stop before the Sadenverse sent me off: Rockstar Hearts, a duet of novellas starring Cash Me Outside, the band that keeps turning up in the background of the Famous series.

READ MORE: ‘Love is more than words’: Why ‘Fandom’ is the heaviest, and best, Famous book yet

It feels fitting that Finley, an Australian author herself, closed out the series with a parting gift rather than just walking away. My copy arrived signed: “Immy, you rock.” A nice way to start a book about a rock star.

Cash Me Outside is fronted by Cashton “Cash” Kingsley on vocals and guitar. Lead guitarist Sebastian “Seb” Rose, drummer Jasper and bass player Greg round out the lineup, with Thorne Young managing the band.

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Finley suggests reading Rockstar Hearts between Spotlight (book two) and Fandom (book three). I read it after Encore instead, well out of order. It still worked.

Much like the Breakaways novellas in Finley’s Fake Boyfriend series, these two stories are self-contained enough to slot in wherever you land in the timeline.

Locked Heart: Cash and Locke

“Ten years ago, I left my heart with a boy when I moved to LA to become a rock star,” the book’s blurb says of Cash’s story. He and his high school boyfriend made a pact: if Cash ever headlined the Death Valley Music Festival, the boy would show up to watch.

Cash is originally from Boulder City, Nevada, and fans of the series will already know him as Ryder Kennedy’s producer and one-time hookup in Spotlight.

READ MORE: ‘Spotlight’: the Famous book where the nanny turns out to be the star

The boy from his past is Sherlock “Locke” Emerson, also from Boulder City: red hair, green eyes, freckles, and a Wharton School degree now put to use as a financial manager at a Las Vegas casino.

I’ll admit it. Despite Locke’s insistence on going by his nickname, I fell hard for the name Sherlock. Cashton got me too.

Locke is also in the middle of finalising his divorce from a person named Shannon when the story picks up, which adds a real layer of complication underneath the will-he-won’t-he-show-up premise.

Thorned Heart: Seb and Thorne

The second novella flips the power dynamic. Band manager Thorne Young has spent years keeping things strictly professional with lead guitarist Seb Rose, who has no idea how his boss really feels.

“Being in love with a client sucks,” the book’s blurb says of Thorne. A leaked nude, an overzealous stripper and a group winter vacation force the issue.

That vacation lands at Mason Nash’s place near Lone Mountain, Montana, over Christmas. Finley suggests reading this novella before Mason gets his own book in Fandom, but I’d genuinely recommend the order I stumbled into: reading it after.

READ MORE: ‘Love is more than words’: Why ‘Fandom’ is the heaviest, and best, Famous book yet

Mason is in a rough spot here, disconnected from the rest of Eleven and still stewing over a disastrous first kiss with Denver. Knowing a happy ending was already coming for him made watching him struggle a lot easier to sit with.

Cashton and Sherlock turn up again in Thorned Heart, their relationship going strong. Seb also brings along a character called Lemon, known to his friends as Andrew, though his time on the page is limited. I would have liked to see more of him.

At the close of the book, Finley thanks her readers directly, crediting Seb’s fans with the push that finally got Mason’s book, Fandom, written.

Rockstar Hearts: Cash Me Out Duet is available for purchase on EdenFinley.com.

What’s next

With Rockstar Hearts done, I’m officially caught up on the Famous series and its one bonus duet. Next stop in the Sadenverse: Mike Bravo Ops.

Glee is coming back.

Disney+ and Hulu have confirmed that Ryan Murphy’s musical comedy is getting a revival, more than a decade after McKinley High’s New Directions sang their way off screens for good in 2015. “It’s official. Glee is returning,” the two streamers wrote in a joint Instagram post, with no further details on plot, cast or a premiere date given.

The original six seasons are already streaming on Disney+ in Australia, so local Gleeks can get their refresher in before any new episodes land.

For anyone who missed it the first time around: Glee followed a scrappy high school glee club, the New Directions, at the fictional William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio, as they sang and sparred their way to respect. It premiered on Fox in 2009 and ran six seasons to 2015, turning pop covers into real chart hits and winning two Golden Globes for best television series, comedy or musical.

It was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the trio now reuniting to write the revival, and it launched the careers of Lea Michele, Darren Criss, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison, among many others.

Who’s confirmed

Lea Michele is the only name formally attached so far, with Variety reporting she is set to reprise Rachel Berry. “She’s in,” one source told the outlet. “It’s still early-ish days, but it feels good and we’re happy to get the band back together,” said another.

Since Glee, Michele has starred in Scream Queens and The Mayor, and built a serious Broadway resume, including a widely praised run as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and, most recently, as Florence Vassy in the revival of Chess.

Who’s likely

Murphy told Entertainment Tonight in September that he had finished a reboot script alongside Falchuk and Brennan. “I’ve been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members,” he said, adding that they’d had plenty of questions but were enthusiastic about the project.

Two of them have all but confirmed it themselves. Heather Morris, who played Brittany S Pierce, posted that her character “is alive and well... and back for more Glee,” while Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, posted on X, “Reunited and it feels so good!”

Since Glee, Morris competed on Dancing with the Stars and has focused on raising her two kids, while Overstreet has built a second career as a singer-songwriter, releasing his debut single “Hold On” in 2016.

Chris Colfer, who played Kurt Hummel, hasn’t confirmed anything but has softened on the idea in recent years. Since Glee, he’s become a New York Times bestselling author, with his Land of Stories series for young readers running to six books and millions of copies sold. He’s previously joked he’d only say no to a reboot at his own peril.

Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz, who played Artie and Tina, are arguably the most invested former cast members in the show’s legacy: the pair co-host And That’s What You REALLY Missed, a podcast spent rewatching all six seasons with cast and crew guests. Amber Riley, who played Mercedes, hasn’t confirmed anything either, but has said the original cast still share a group text and often talk about reuniting for a project.

Who’s not (yet) confirmed

Becca Tobin, who joined in season four as Kitty Wilde, had a more anxious reaction to the news. “This gives me diarrhea,” she said on her LadyGang podcast, explaining she wasn’t an original cast member, joined three seasons in, and has no guarantee of a callback, or a call at all.

Three members of the original cast won’t be returning at all. Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Salling all died in the years since Glee ended, between 2013 and 2020.

READ MORE: ‘Deep-Heat Rivalry’ tickets on sale as West End hit books Sydney and Melbourne runs

The elephant in the choir room

Michele’s return is the headline, but it also reopens one of the messiest chapters in Glee‘s history, and one her returning castmates haven’t forgotten.

In June 2020, Michele posted a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd, writing that his death “was not an isolated incident and it must end.” Former co-star Samantha Ware, who played student Jane Hayward in Glee‘s sixth and final season, responded within hours, accusing Michele of making her “first television gig a living hell” and alleging a pattern of microaggressions that made her question a career in Hollywood. Ware has since deleted her X but her tweet, posted in all caps, is pictured below.

Other castmates weighed in. Heather Morris later confirmed the stories about Michele’s behaviour were true, saying at the time it felt “very hush-hush” on set and that Naya Rivera was the only cast member who was honest about it publicly. Rivera, who died later that year, had already written in her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry, that Michele stopped speaking to her entirely during the show’s final season.

Amber Riley posted in support of Ware at the time but later said she didn’t want the controversy to define her, telling Entertainment Tonight that Michele had reached out to her personally and “that’s where it ends for me.”

The fallout was immediate. Meal-kit company HelloFresh dropped Michele as a paid partner within days, and she issued an apology on Instagram, writing in part that “I have clearly acted in ways that hurt other people.”

Michele’s comeback came on Broadway, first with her acclaimed Funny Girl run and then in Chess, where she played opposite Aaron Tveit in a production co-written by Danny Strong. Despite the buzz, Michele missed out on a Tony nomination when the 2026 nominees were announced in May, and the production confirmed she missed several performances that week due to illness, before returning days later, cleared by her doctor.

Gleeks: a decade is a long time, and grudges rarely survive a pay cheque this size. Whether Lea Michele has actually done the work since 2020, or the cast are simply putting years of side-eye aside for one more trip to McKinley, is the real question. I’ll be watching either way. Will you?

Disney+ and Hulu are yet to confirm a premiere date, plot details or any further casting.

International hit Heated Rivalry is heading back to screens, bigger than ever, with distributor Madman Entertainment staging a one day only marathon screening of the show’s acclaimed first season in select Australian cinemas on Saturday, December 5.

The event marks a year since the HBO Max romantic drama first premiered, and will play every episode of season one back to back, with a single intermission between episodes three and four.

At just under five hours, it is being billed as a rare chance for fans to experience the cult favourite the way it was never meant to be watched: on the big screen, together.

“Giving fans the opportunity to return to the cottage, experience their favourite scenes on the big screen and celebrate the show’s infectious queer joy with other fans,” Madman Entertainment said in a statement announcing the event.

For Australian audiences, the marathon lands as one of the biggest queer fandom cinema events of the year, a chance for local fans to turn a famously online fandom into a shared, in-person celebration.

Heated Rivalry follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two of the biggest stars in fictional Major League Hockey, whose rivalry and ambition mask a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands.

What starts as a secret fling between two fresh faced rookies turns into an eight year journey through love, denial and self discovery, as the pair try to work out whether there is room for real love in their fiercely competitive world.

The ensemble cast includes Francois Arnaud as Scott Hunter, Robbie G.K. as Kip Grady, Christina Chang and Dylan Walsh as Yuna and David Hollander, Sophie Nelisse as Rose Landry, and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova as Svetlana.

READ MORE: Heated Rivalry season two: the new castings, and the theory behind that shaved head

Heated Rivalry is created by Jacob Tierney and based on Rachel Reid’s bestselling novels, with Tierney also serving as writer, director and executive producer alongside producer and executive producer Brendan Brady.

READ MORE: ‘I’ll Believe in Anything’: The Heated Rivalry making-of book fans have been yearning for

The series is produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Bell Media’s Crave, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Bell Fund, and is distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus in more than 130 countries.

Tickets for the Heated Rivalry marathon are on sale now via madman.com.au, with the event opening in select Australian cinemas on Saturday, December 5.

Heated Rivalry is streaming now on HBO Max in Australia.

Prime Video has renewed Carrie for season two, putting creator Mike Flanagan two thirds of the way through the three-season arc he has wanted for his Stephen King adaptation since the start.

The streamer confirmed the pickup on Thursday, US time, with the news landing in Sydney on Friday morning, just over two weeks after the eight-episode first season dropped in full on October 7.

Flanagan said in a statement announcing the renewal that the character has outlasted the decades. “For 50 years, audiences have known and gravitated to Carrie White’s story,” he said.

King, who executive produces alongside Flanagan and Trevor Macy, said he was ready for what comes next. “I can’t wait for audiences to get to see what’s down the road for Carrie White,” he said. “Mike Flanagan and I are excited about what comes next.”

Peter Friedlander, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of global television, credited the show’s reach for the quick turnaround. “Carrie is connecting with both longtime Stephen King fans and a new generation altogether, including young adults and international audiences, with particular strength among female viewers,” he said. “It speaks to the enduring power of this story and signals that Mike Flanagan’s reimagining of the iconic IP has real breadth.”

Prime Video’s renewal announcement promised the new season will pick up where the finale left off, declaring that “Carrie’s story doesn’t stop at prom” and teasing “new revelations, major character arcs, and plenty of shocking twists.”

Flanagan’s take has departed from King’s 1974 novel from the start. Instead of dying at prom, Carrie survives the massacre, and the finale reveals her mother Margaret, played by Samantha Sloyan, shares her telekinetic abilities. The ending also hints that Carrie belongs to a wider community of women with the same gift, a thread the book never explored. Summer H. Howell is expected to return in the title role.

The show has been a genuine phenomenon for the streamer. Prime Video says Carrie was the number one series in more than 100 territories in its first fortnight including Australia. It held off fellow Prime Video originals Reacher and Neagley for the top spot.

So where could season two take Carrie White?

With Flanagan on record wanting three seasons, the smart money is on the story widening rather than repeating itself. The finale’s reveal of other women who share Carrie’s gift all but guarantees new characters joining her orbit, and some outlets have floated a link to the broader Stephen King universe Flanagan has drawn on in his other work.

Not that Flanagan needs to play it safe with the source material. He has already proven he can take real liberties with King’s novel and land somewhere that works. But with King himself an executive producer and the finale carefully leaving the door open rather than wrenching it off its hinges, expect season two to expand Carrie’s world with the same care, not chase shock value for its own sake.

A season two premiere date has not been announced. Based on the gap between seasons on Flanagan’s past streaming projects, 2028 is a more realistic bet than next Halloween.

All eight episodes of Carrie Season 1 are streaming now on Prime Video in Australia.

WARNING: This piece contains major spoilers for Verity, in both its book and film form, and discusses themes including child death and family violence.

Colleen Hoover’s 2018 thriller Verity has been one of my favourite guilty-pleasure reads for years, so when the film adaptation finally landed in cinemas, I had to see it.

Directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), Verity stars Anne Hathaway as the title’s bestselling author, Dakota Johnson as struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, and Josh Hartnett as Verity’s husband, Jeremy Crawford. It is a tight, handsome adaptation, and it is remarkably faithful to the book. That faithfulness, it turns out, is also the problem.

On the page, the central mystery, is this bestselling author a monster or a victim, carries you past just how wild the plot actually gets. Watching it play out in full colour, with real actors saying the lines out loud, I found the twists landing less like shocks and more like punchlines. It all felt very… TV Movie of the Week. It is still creepy in places. It is also, somehow, never not a little bit funny.

That is not necessarily a criticism. Verity was always soap opera dressed up as literary suspense, and this adaptation leans into the camp rather than fighting it. Hathaway, barely able to move for most of the runtime, has to do a lot of her acting with her face alone, and she is genuinely unsettling in the role. Johnson has the harder job, playing a woman who keeps making worse and worse decisions, and mostly sells it. Go in treating it as the fun, slightly deranged thriller it is, rather than a prestige drama, and you will have a blast.

READ MORE: ‘I’ll Believe in Anything’: The Heated Rivalry making-of book fans have been yearning for

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The synopsis

For anyone who has not read the book: Lowen Ashleigh is a broke novelist who witnesses a man killed in a New York hit-and-run, and is helped, by chance, by a stranger named Jeremy Crawford. It turns out Jeremy’s wife is Verity Crawford, the hugely successful author of a bestselling thriller series. Verity has been left unable to move or speak since a car accident, and her publisher needs someone to finish her unfinished manuscripts. Lowen gets the job, and moves into the remote Crawford family home in Vermont.

While going through Verity’s office, Lowen finds a hidden manuscript titled So Be It, Verity’s secret autobiography. In it, Verity confesses to resenting her own children as rivals for Jeremy’s attention, including an attempt on her infant daughter Harper’s life. There is also an extended, deeply disturbing subplot from early in Verity’s first pregnancy that does not make the film at all.

As Lowen keeps reading (and grows closer to Jeremy), the manuscript reveals that the couple’s eldest daughter, Chastin, died of a severe allergic reaction as a child, and that Verity became convinced her surviving twin, Harper, was somehow responsible. Months later, Harper drowned in what Verity’s own writing reveals was no accident. The book heavily implies that Verity’s own crash, the one that supposedly left her catatonic, happened only after Jeremy worked out what she had done.

True to Hoover form, the ending refuses to give a clean answer. A letter from Verity, discovered afterwards, claims the whole “confession” was a writing exercise, and that Jeremy is the dangerous one. Lowen rips it up without telling him. Nobody, reader included, ever really finds out the truth.

What the movie changes

Fewer kids. The film cuts Chastin entirely, keeping only Harper and Crew as Verity and Jeremy’s children. It simplifies a huge chunk of the book’s backstory, but makes sense given how much of a production a third child actor would have added.

The miscarriage subplot is gone. That extended, grim sequence from early in Verity’s first pregnancy does not appear on screen at all. The film keeps only the attempt on baby Harper’s life.

Lowen’s sleepwalking is barely there. In the book, Lowen’s history of dangerous sleepwalking is a huge part of her character and the suspense. Dakota Johnson has said on record that she did not think watching someone sleepwalk made for compelling viewing, so most of it was cut or left on the editing room floor.

The birthday dinner changes. In the book, Lowen’s birthday is a low-key family dinner that includes Jeremy’s son, Crew. The film turns it into a romantic two-hander between Lowen and Jeremy alone.

Lowen’s pen name is cut. In the book, Lowen takes on the pseudonym Laura Chase to distance herself from Verity’s famous series. The film skips this entirely and keeps her as Lowen throughout.

Verity’s hair colour changed. She is blonde on the page; Hathaway kept her own brunette hair for the role.

Verity becomes a much bigger celebrity. The film invents a whole press circuit for Verity that does not exist in the book, including cameos from Gayle King, “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper and “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans, all playing themselves. Hathaway has said the idea was hers, pitched in a production meeting as a “triple crown trifecta” to sell Verity as a cultural icon.

If you loved the book, Verity is worth seeing, if only to find out how much stranger it feels once you can actually watch the mayhem play out. I think the film does a better job with the ambiguity around what really happened. Based on book alone, I was #TeamManuscript but the film does a better job of making me ponder #TeamLetter.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for American Horror Story season 13.

American Horror Story has survived devil babies, murder houses and a clown with a taste for children, but season 13 might be the one that finally does it in.

Ryan Murphy assembled the best reunion cast the anthology has managed in years for its 13th season, with Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates all back. Somehow, it still might be the show’s most disappointing season yet.

I went in expecting a comeback. The show has been in decline for years, through Double Feature, New York City and Delicate, and season 13 had everything stacked in its favour: a reunion cast full of AHS legends and a premise built around the number 13 itself. Instead, the story has been a mess.

READ MORE: New Aussie zombie comedy draws Shaun of the Dead comparisons

The season opens strong, centred on Ben, a hospice worker whose fear of the number 13 collides with his dying client Mr. Nas and Constance Langdon. That was genuinely compelling television. Then the show abandons Ben and Mr. Nas for roughly four episodes to catch up on the Miss Robichaux’s Academy coven storyline, before cutting away to Queenie’s trip to hell, a brief appearance from Madame LaLaurie, and Twisty the Clown going on a fresh murder spree.

None of it connects. Storylines involving Tate Langdon and Kai Anderson have simply vanished for weeks with no explanation, and every new episode feels disconnected from the last.

It is the cast that stings most. Bringing back Paulson, Lange, Peters, Bassett and Bates was meant to be the gift to longtime fans. Instead, the writing has not given them anything worthy of their talent. Lange had not appeared in the franchise since 2018, and her return deserved a story built for her, not a handful of scenes in service of a plot that barely holds together.

Then there is the runtime problem. Early AHS seasons ran 10 to 13 episodes at 40 to 50 minutes each. Season 13’s episodes have run closer to 20 minutes, which has gutted the show’s ability to build the dread that made it worth watching in the first place.

READ MORE: Why American Horror Story’s shrinking episodes are a symptom of a bigger streaming problem

Ryan Murphy’s plate is famously full. He is also working on Monster, his true crime anthology for Netflix, the JFK love story series American Love Story, and a new season of The Watcher. It is hard not to wonder whether AHS has slipped down the priority list, and whether that is part of why season 13 leans so heavily on nostalgia instead of a fresh story.

Season 13 is not the worst AHS has offered. That title still probably belongs to Delicate. But coming off a cast reunion this stacked, the disappointment lands harder.

The finale airs on Friday, October 30, exclusively on Binge in Australia. Whether it can pull the season’s scattered threads together in its final episodes remains to be seen. I will be watching, mostly out of habit at this point, but my expectations are about as low as they have been in 13 seasons. Previous AHS seasons are available to stream on Disney+.

What did you think of American Horror Story season 13? Let me know in the comments.

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The Australian zombie comedy Zombucha! is set to brew up trouble in cinemas nationally from Thursday, November 19, after a run of Q&A preview screenings around the country. Written by and starring Sydney actor Emma Leonard, the film follows a broke millennial couple whose stolen kombucha culture develops a mind, and an appetite, of its own.

Maddie and Leo have the kind of successful career lives that leave no time for each other, until they are both sacked on the same catastrophic day. Spotting a smouldering kombucha artisan named Kai making serious cash, the pair swipe his prized starter culture to launch their own wellness empire.

It does not go to plan. After the couple mix in some mysterious herbs from a neighbour’s garden, the brew gains sentience and a taste for human flesh, turning their fresh start into a fight to save their marriage, and the world.

Zombucha! is directed by Claudia Dzienny from a script by Leonard, the pair’s first feature together under their Sydney production company Boobytrap Entertainment. The film, shot under the working title Scoby, has already played the Melbourne International Film Festival and the UK’s Raindance Film Festival, where critic site Film Threat said it found the film “just as clever, if not more” than Edgar Wright’s cult favourite Shaun of the Dead.

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Where you know the cast from

Leonard leads as Maddie, the special effects make-up artist turned accidental kombucha baron, having played schoolteacher Tracey Dennis across all three seasons of 800 Words. New Zealand actor Ryan O’Kane, who grew up in Dunedin and is known locally for The Panthers and My Life Is Murder, plays her husband Leo.

Perth-born actor Shakira Clanton, a Wongatha, Yamatji, Noongar and Gitja woman and NIDA graduate seen in Wellmania and Doctor Doctor, plays Maddie’s best mate Audrey. Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate Stephen Madsen, who originated the role of JD in Trevor Ashley’s production of Heathers: The Musical, plays kombucha artisan Kai.

READ MORE: ‘Deep-Heat Rivalry’ tickets on sale as West End hit books Sydney and Melbourne runs

New Zealand comedy royalty Jackie van Beek, the co-writer, director and star of The Breaker Upperers and a familiar face from What We Do in the Shadows, plays Leo’s shady boss Hopper. Fellow Kiwi Michelle Langstone, who grew up in Auckland and is known to Australian audiences as Fiona from McLeod’s Daughters (yes, Alex’s pesky fiance) and 800 Words, also joins the cast.

British-born, Sydney-based actor Brigid Zengeni, a Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare regular also seen in Prosper and Better Man, plays Blanche, while Deadloch favourite Duncan Fellows, (and the voice Channel 7’s 7mate), plays Gabe.

Adelaide-raised screen veteran Gary Sweet, 69, who shot to fame in Police Rescue, rounds out the ensemble alongside Stephen Hunter, Danny Adcock, Jo Turner and Johnny Nasser.

Zombucha! screens in Q&A previews in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne through the first half of November, ahead of its national cinema release on Thursday, November 19.

WARNING: This review contains major spoilers for all eight episodes of Carrie, including the finale.

Mike Flanagan has pulled off something I honestly didn’t think was possible: he has made Carrie feel new again.

The eight-episode series landed on Prime Video on Wednesday, October 7, with Flanagan writing and showrunning, directing half the episodes himself, and Stephen King on board as an executive producer.

It arrives 50 years after Brian De Palma’s 1976 film turned Sissy Spacek’s blood-soaked prom queen into one of horror’s most enduring images.

King published Carrie in 1974 as his debut novel, and the adaptations have barely stopped since: a poorly received 1999 sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, a 2002 TV movie, and the 2013 remake starring Chloë Grace Moretz, which scraped a 51 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So the big question going in was obvious. How do you stretch one of King’s shortest novels into an eight-part mini-series?

The answer, mostly, is really well. (Although I’ll confess, I think six episodes would have been perfect.)

What makes this version sing is that it assumes you already know the story. From the very first scene, the 911 calls, the burning gymnasium, the documentary-style interviews with survivors, you know prom night is going to be a bloodbath, pig’s blood and all.

That knowledge doesn’t deflate the series. It supercharges it with anticipation, so every small kindness and every petty cruelty across eight episodes lands like a countdown.

It’s also the smartest structural choice Flanagan makes. King’s novel was famously told in fragments: newspaper clippings, court records, scientific papers, survivor testimony.

Every film adaptation cut that device, with only the 2002 TV movie gesturing at it through police interviews. Flanagan builds his whole series around it, and it finally feels like Carrie as King wrote it.

READ MORE: ‘I knew almost nothing about Jennette’: My review of I’m Glad My Mom Died

The setting, though, is pure 2026. This Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) has been homeschooled her entire life in Chamberlain, Maine, by parents who are devout, loving and deeply paranoid, with bubble wrap on the windows and a closet where the family prays for America.

Flanagan swaps the novel’s pure religious zealotry for conspiracy-theory dread, and it’s a masterstroke. When Carrie’s doomsday-prepper father dies in a construction accident (a sly nod to the book), a court order forces the sheltered teenager into public high school.

Her first day includes a metal detector flagging the crucifix around her neck and a lockdown drill that leaves her shaking. The infamous shower scene is filmed on a dozen phones, and the bullying migrates to a vicious “Carrie Red” Instagram account.

The cruelty has an algorithm now, and it’s terrifying.

Howell is incrediable, playing Carrie as fragile, earnest and achingly open to the world. Her wide-eyed delight at her first computer broke my heart clean in half.

Samantha Sloyan (a Flanagan regular since Midnight Mass) is quietly chilling as Margaret, softened from the novel’s outright monster into something more calculating. Matthew Lillard, Amber Midthunder, Siena Agudong and Josie Totah round out a stacked cast, with Sue, Chris and Tina all given more room to breathe than any film ever allowed.

READ MORE: Josh Silver on Fruit Fly becoming a TV series

Now, the spoilers. The finale reveals Margaret has latent telekinesis of her own, holding up a piece of the collapsing house with her mind. King teased the ability as a genetic trait in the novel, and Flanagan runs gleefully with it.

He also builds out a whole supernatural world around Carrie: Thalia Dudek’s Emaline, an astral projector who literally takes the wheel during the prom massacre; Kate Siegel’s cult leader Adelaide; and Katee Sackhoff’s Amanda, a hunter who believes gifted girls must be eliminated.

And the biggest swing of all: Carrie survives. Prom is still a bloodbath, Chris and Billy still meet the business end of their own car, but Margaret dies at Adelaide’s hand, and Carrie drives off into the night with Emaline.

Flanagan has been upfront about why. He told Entertainment Weekly that Carrie belongs to “this larger community of women” and, in the book, never gets to know it.

He is also still chasing a bigger prize, telling Screen Rant of his long-gestating The Dark Tower adaptation, “we’ve never stopped working on it”.

Purists will hate some of this, and I understand why. The series sands back some of the novel’s rawest material, and turning Carrie White into the opening chapter of a shared universe won’t be for everyone. I’d just love to see this series share the same universe as HBO Max’s IT: Welcome to Derry.

But I’ve watched this story told the same way for years. Give me the swing. Give me the strange, sad, blood-soaked new world of it.

All eight episodes of Carrie are streaming now on Prime Video in Australia.

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Sydney is about to meet its new nanny.

Tickets are now on sale for Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical, which opens at the Capitol Theatre from March 25, 2027.

The feel-good comedy, based on the beloved 1993 film starring Robin Williams, arrives in Sydney fresh from its Australian premiere season at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre, which begins on November 25.

And there is a homegrown face under the famous grey wig: former Home and Away star Jake Speer plays the dual role of out-of-work actor Daniel Hillard and his Scottish nanny alter ego, Euphegenia Doubtfire.

READ MORE: ‘Sydney, please look after this bear’: Paddington The Musical is coming to the Capitol Theatre

Who else is in the cast?

Speer, best known for his three years as Oscar MacGuire on the Seven Network soap, has built a string of stage credits since, including Kinky Boots and Catch Me If You Can.

He leads an Australian cast, announced in August, that mixes musical theatre favourites with emerging talent.

Suzie Mathers (Wicked, Mamma Mia!) plays Daniel’s ex-wife Miranda Hillard, with Hayden Tee (Les Misérables, Matilda) as his brother Frank, Thomas McGuane (Frozen, Back to the Future) as Stuart Dunmire and Jo-Anne Jackson as Wanda Sellner.

Alexandra Lethborg makes her professional theatre debut as eldest daughter Lydia, while eight young performers share the roles of the two youngest Hillard children.

What is Mrs. Doubtfire about?

If you grew up on the film, you know the drill: Daniel will do anything for his kids, and after a messy divorce costs him custody, “anything” turns out to mean a cardigan, a brogue and a whole new identity as the family’s unflappable nanny.

The stage version keeps the moments fans know and love, and adds new songs and show-stopping dance numbers.

It is directed by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with a book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell and music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, the team behind Something Rotten!

“I’m genuinely delighted to bring Mrs. Doubtfire to Australia. It’s a joyous, laugh-filled musical about family that will delight audiences of all ages. Come see Mrs. Doubtfire live on stage, poppets,” Zaks said when the Sydney season was announced in May.

Producer Suzanne Jones of JONES Theatrical Group, who is also bringing Paddington The Musical to the same theatre in September 2027, said the show is “the perfect match for Sydney with big energy and big laughs, all wrapped up in a comfy cardigan”.

READ MORE: ‘This was always my dream’: Trevor Ashley takes his final West End bow in The Producers

How big a hit is it overseas?

The musical played to sell-out crowds in London’s West End for almost two years, following a Broadway season and tours across the US, Germany, South Korea and Brazil.

The Telegraph called it ‘a complete joy’, while Time Out declared it ‘a genuinely funny comedy musical’.

When can Sydney see it?

Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical plays the Capitol Theatre from March 25, 2027, produced by Suzanne Jones for JONES Theatrical Group in association with Kevin McCollum and Jamie Wilson Productions.

The show runs about two and a half hours including interval, and is recommended for ages six and over.

Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster and mrsdoubtfiremusical.com.au.

I sat down last Friday to watch the newest episodes of American Horror Story: 13, and before I had properly sunk into the couch, the credits were rolling.

One episode ran 23 minutes. Twenty-three. That’s not an instalment of television’s biggest horror anthology, that’s a lunch break.

It got me thinking about one of the quiet ironies of the streaming era, because the shrinking TV episode is suddenly everywhere.

For decades, television was built around furniture it couldn’t move. Sitcoms were written in two or three acts to squeeze into a 30-minute timeslot, while the one-hour drama ran five acts and a teaser, engineered so every cliffhanger landed just before an ad break.

Streaming was meant to free us from all of that. No ads, no timeslots, and an episode could finally run exactly as long as the story needed.

For years, that freedom pushed in one direction: longer. Dramas crept past the traditional 42 minutes towards a full hour, and prestige finales ballooned into near feature films.

Lately, the pendulum has swung violently the other way.

Take American Horror Story: 13, the franchise’s much-hyped “greatest hits” crossover season. The runtimes of the first eight episodes:

Episode 1: 33 minutes
Episode 2: 32 minutes
Episode 3: 22 minutes
Episode 4: 30 minutes
Episode 5: 26 minutes
Episode 6: 24 minutes
Episode 7: 23 minutes
Episode 8: 30 minutes

Not one of them cracks 35 minutes. By my maths, season 12 averaged about 39 minutes an episode, and back in 2011 the first season averaged 43.6 minutes.

READ MORE: VisionQuest review: Marvel’s strangest show since WandaVision is the finale the trilogy deserved

The brevity is deliberate. Executive producer Ned Martel told ScreenRant that Ryan Murphy devised the season as 13 half-hour episodes, promising they would be “very dense and filled with surprises and scares”.

Fans aren’t entirely sold. “22 minutes?? What is this, a sitcom??” one viewer wrote on Reddit when the runtimes were revealed.

And look, density is a defensible creative swing, especially for a franchise that has historically never met a subplot it didn’t like.

But the show that really stopped me was Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, the Big Bang Theory spin-off on HBO Max, which only launched in Australia in March.

Its episodes hover around the 22-minute mark, and that’s fine. That’s classic sitcom territory.

The problem is what’s inside them. Episode nine runs for 18 minutes, and its “previously on” recap runs for three minutes and 11 seconds.

Add a 45-second opening title sequence and you’re left with barely 15 minutes of new content. Almost 20 per cent of the episode is a replay of things we’ve already seen. (Granted the opening titles for each episode has some surprises)

READ MORE: ‘Stop changing the wording’: ‘Fruit Fly’ author takes aim at M/M romance at sold-out Sydney event

Now, I’ll defend a good “previously on” to the death. Even mid-binge, I like the nudge: here’s what you need to remember before the next chapter.

But when the recap eats a fifth of the episode, it’s no longer a memory aid. It’s padding, inside something that was already barely there.

What worries me is the thinking underneath it all. There’s a growing sense that television is adopting TikTok logic, convinced audiences no longer have the attention span for a solid hour of TV.

And honestly? I’m slowly morphing into that viewer. I fidget, I reach for my phone, I watch with one eye on a second screen.

But I still think shrinking what’s on the actual television is the wrong answer. Short-form belongs on the phone.

The TV screen is where stories get room to breathe: where characters earn their arcs, where dread builds slowly, where a scene is allowed to linger past its plot function. Horror, of all genres, needs that time.

The great gift of streaming was that an episode could finally be exactly as long as the story demanded. Sometimes that’s 75 minutes. Sometimes, sure, it’s 25.

But if “as long as the story needs” keeps landing at barely more than the length of the recap, maybe the problem isn’t our attention spans. Maybe the stories are just getting smaller.

American Horror Story: 13 wraps its 13-episode run this week, with the finale landing in Australia on Friday, October 30 on Binge. Previous AHS seasons are available to stream on Disney+. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe season one is streaming in full on HBO Max.

Tickets are on sale now for Deep-Heat Rivalry, Trevor Ashley’s gleefully filthy musical parody of hockey romance phenomenon Heated Rivalry, ahead of its Australian premiere next year.

The 18+ comedy will play Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel from January 21 to 31, 2027, before skating into the Foundry Theatre in Sydney, from March 2 to 14.

The timing is no accident. The Melbourne season lands during Midsumma Festival, while the Sydney dates run through the peak of Mardi Gras celebrations.

The Australian run comes direct from London, where the show played The Other Palace from September 11 to October 11 and left critics clutching their pearls in the best possible way.

“This adults-only panto is a riotous night, with joy (and filth) at its core,” London Theatre critic Emily Godwin wrote in her review.

READ MORE: Review: ‘Deep-Heat Rivalry’ is Trevor Ashley’s funniest panto yet

For the uninitiated, Deep-Heat Rivalry (also searched as Deep Heat Rivalry) follows sworn enemies Shane Hollandaise and Ilya Stroganoff, two absurdly talented hockey superstars whose legendary on-ice feud hides the fact they are hopelessly in love.

If those names ring a bell, that is the joke. The production bills itself as “loosely inspired by a certain hit TV series (and we mean very loosely)”, and fans of a certain Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov will clock every reference.

The source material needs no introduction for romance readers, with Rachel Reid’s BookTok-beloved novel spawning the TV adaptation that turned the fandom into a global obsession.

READ MORE: ‘Heated Rivalry’ season two: the new cast additions

Expect parody songs that swing from power ballad to party pop, locker-room drama and emotional meltdowns conducted in very small towels.

Ashley wrote the show with long-time collaborator Phil Scott, co-creator of the Wharf Revue, with choreography by Mitchell Harper and costume design by Angie White.

Ashley is no stranger to Australian audiences thanks to cult pantos including Fat Swan and Moulin Scrooge!, and was recently nominated for best actor in a supporting role in a musical at the 2026 Olivier Awards for playing Roger De Bris in the West End production of The Producers.

READ MORE: ‘This was always my dream’ - Trevor Ashley

And yes, the nudity is making the trip. Both venues recommend the show for ages 18 and over, with content warnings covering strong language, adult themes, drug and e-cigarette use and nudity; Melbourne also flags audience participation, so choose your seat accordingly.

Melbourne tickets are $59, or $69 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances, with the show running two hours and 30 minutes including a 20-minute interval.

Sydney performances run Tuesday to Sunday at the Foundry, with tickets sold through Ticketmaster.

Deep-Heat Rivalry plays Chapel Off Chapel, Melbourne, from January 21 to 31 and the Foundry Theatre, Sydney, from March 2 to 14, 2027. Tickets are on sale now through the venues.

Quick answers

When is Deep-Heat Rivalry playing in Melbourne?
January 21 to 31, 2027, at Chapel Off Chapel in Prahran, with 8pm evening shows and weekend matinees.

When is Deep-Heat Rivalry playing in Sydney?
March 2 to 14, 2027, at the Foundry Theatre in Pyrmont.

How much are Deep-Heat Rivalry tickets?
Melbourne tickets are $59 to $69 through Chapel Off Chapel. Sydney tickets are sold through the Foundry Theatre website.

Is Deep-Heat Rivalry OK for kids?
Absolutely not. The show is recommended for ages 18 and over and contains nudity, strong language and adult themes.

Mild spoilers ahead for In Your Court.

I know almost nothing about tennis. By the final chapters of Kit Haley’s In Your Court, I was ready to argue about prize money, ranking points and the brutal economics of the tour.

That is the trick of this book: it makes you fall for an entire world while two men fall for each other inside it.

Earlier this month I covered the book’s Sydney launch at Romancing the Novel in Paddington. This is the review I promised.

READ MORE: Inside Kit Haley’s debut novel being called Australia’s answer to Heated Rivalry

For anyone arriving late: In Your Court follows Matteo Russo, an Australian and the first openly gay professional on the tennis tour, whose brilliant junior career was derailed by a freak accident. After losing yet again to rich, arrogant American superstar Miles Callahan, Mat dares him to play Wimbledon with no coach, no team and no fancy hotel.

Miles says yes, and the fun begins.

One head, not two

Most queer romances are two-handers. We alternate between our two protagonists’ heads, so we always know what both men are feeling. In Your Court is told solely from Mat’s point of view, and I loved it.

We never know what Miles is really going through, so we second-guess his behaviour and find ourselves just as surprised as Mat when events play out. It makes every thaw between them feel earned.

‘It is a sport for rich people’

Haley’s note at the end of the book apologises to obsessive tennis fans for taking some editorial liberties. No apology needed from where I sit, because I truly feel I learned a lot about the sport.

Chiefly, that tennis is a game for the wealthy. Because it is an individual sport, players pay for their own teams and travel while competing, and the financial gap between the top of the rankings and everyone else is staggering.

As Haley said at the launch, the distance between the world number one and the world number 100 is “an enormous financial gulf”.

A rivalry you cannot look away from

In other queer sports romances, from Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry to the NFL and NHL worlds of Eden Finley and Saxon James, the rivalry lives between two teams. Tennis is an individual sport, so here it is intimate and deeply personal.

Mild spoiler: there is a stretch of the book where Mat and Miles must compete against each other, and it is brutal and nerve-racking. We love both of them. We love them together. But one has to win and the other has to lose.

READ MORE: How Heated Rivalry changed queer sports romance

More Katie, please

Mat’s best friend Katie Zhang is a welcome addition to the group, and I perked up every time she appeared. I would happily read a whole book about her journey, not least to explore the gulf between the men’s and women’s tours.

Rocket, thongs and the Australia of it all

I never tired of the banter between Mat and Miles about Australianisms: the argument over rocket versus arugula, the ongoing confusion about wearing thongs. I will read any Aussie queer romance, but this one felt wonderfully, unashamedly Australian.

That is by design. At the launch, Haley said they write the way they talk, naturally Australian inflection and all, and the book is so much better for it.

The small things

Tennis and its grand slams are always so dramatic and so big. Yet many of Mat and Miles’ best moments are tiny: sharing a meal, watching a movie, doing laundry together.

There is something quietly wonderful about a love story that finds its heart in a laundromat.

Do you owe people your queerness?

This was the question Haley unpacked at the launch, and it is the one I have been chewing on since finishing the book.

Reading it, I thought a lot about what it would be like to be the world’s first openly gay tennis player. I want to believe we live in a world where Mat would be celebrated and championed as the trailblazer he is.

Instead, as significant as Mat’s coming out is, the media reduces him to that single story. Every interview circles back to his sexuality, at least until injury hands the press a different headline.

Mat is proudly out, yet a beautiful journey of acceptance still plays out across the book, helped along by a love interest navigating the closet in his own way. Haley has said writing the pair changed their own thinking: you can only ever meet people where they are at.

What’s next for Mat and Miles

The response to the book suggests I am not alone in any of this. One reviewer on Reddit’s MM Romance community wrote that it “was my highlight of the year” and tipped it for their all-time top five.

The next book in this universe will not be a direct sequel. Haley revealed at the launch that it follows new characters, an umpire and a bad boy, but they have promised to revisit Mat and Miles. “They are 100 per cent not done,” they said.

In the meantime, Haley is rewriting the book from Miles’ point of view for Patreon subscribers, which should go some way to answering all that second-guessing.

In Your Court is out now through Hachette Australia and available at Romancing the Novel, 2 Heeley Street, Paddington. I will be over here seeding #MatAndMiles until the sequel lands.