The New ‘Ghostbusters’ Is Nostalgia at Its Absolute Worst
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There are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.
We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.
Skip: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a hollow reminder that this franchise was once not only funny, but legitimately cool. You’ll strain to find anything hip about this tired cash grab, which turns the nostalgia bait up to 11 for uninspired retreads of superior entries covered in ectoplasmic goo.
Here’s Nick Schager’s take:
“Few legacy sequels are as depressingly unimaginative as 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, what with its dreary blend of hip young Gen-Z kids (including a boy named Podcast, for maximum under-18 appeal!) and paycheck-motivated old timers, as well as its gross use of CGI to resurrect the late Harold Ramis for squishy across-the-universe bathos. Helmed by Jason Reitman, son of the original films’ director Ivan, it bleakly connected its story to its predecessors, got the band back together (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson) alongside a collection of new members (precocious teens, Paul Rudd, and Carrie Coon), and squeezed the last drops of nostalgia from a beloved (if past-its-prime) property, all while forgetting that what made Ghostbusters such a unique hit in 1984 was that it was a comedy dressed up like a supernatural thriller, not the other way around.
For the Love of Slimer, Please Stop Making ‘Ghostbusters’ Movies
And now, as ordained by the great and terrible circle of IP life, it has its own dispiriting follow-up.”
Skip: Immaculate
Immaculate tests its audience’s capacity for jump scares, cramming dozens into this religious horror before the fun ever starts. Once it gets going, it’s a bloody good time, but by then, it’s too late for this nunsploitation to be saved by God’s holy light.
Here’s Coleman Spilde’s take:
“It’s rare to watch a movie that feels less like it was influenced by other, better films and more like a straight-up clone of one. Even in a genre like horror, where subcategories of movies like slashers and creature features frequently imitate or reference each other, making something that isn’t in some way distinct is a challenge. (Even Jason, Michael, and Freddy have always felt like their own villains, despite each of their franchises borrowing from one another over the years.)
The Bloody, F*cking Bonkers Ending of ‘Immaculate’ Saves the Movie
But Immaculate, the new horror film starring Sydney Sweeney that premiered March 12 at the SXSW Film Festival, never manages to outrun or outscare its thematic doppelgänger. Viewers will instantly recognize similarities to The Nun films, considering both that franchise and Immaculate are about young nuns living in a European convent who begin to experience dark forces living within the walls of their holy home. It’s not impossible that two noticeably different nun films could be made close to one another. But given that the stale beats and absurd twists of this new film very much recall the successful franchise preceding it, Immaculate ends up feeling like one of those cheap knockoffs of popular movies that are buried on streaming services, not an appointment horror film starring one of Hollywood’s hottest stars.”
See: We Were the Lucky Ones
We Were the Lucky Ones is a dark, emotionally fraught, and still timely tale of survival amidst the atrocities of World War II. While the series is thematically traditional, its spotlighting of one family’s true story is a stunning reminder that these stories will always need to be told.
Here’s Leila Latif’s take:
“Gratitude is a powerful thing. Studies have shown how shifting your perspective—documenting and savoring the things that you can be grateful for, even in the most difficult of circumstances— can be the key to happiness. But the new Hulu series We Were The Lucky Ones really puts that notion to the test. Its very title is a provocation in that respect: To call the survivors of such horrific events “lucky,” by any definition or stretch of the imagination, is to desperately search for a glimmer of light in a horrifying cavern of pitch black.
‘We Were the Lucky Ones’: Joey King Shines in Hulu’s Devastating WWII Drama
Based on a novel by Georgia Hunter, and on the tragic real-life events that inspired the book, the eight-episode series (premiering Mar. 28) begins with a sobering statistic: ‘By the end of the Holocaust, 90 percent of Poland’s Jews had been killed.’ In fact, Poland suffered the worst death per capita of any country during the war, and around 17 percent of its entire population—a number just shy of 6 million total—was lost. Perhaps aware that death on that scale is beyond human comprehension, We Were the Lucky Ones encapsulates the tragedy through the story of one Jewish family separated by the war, and ‘lucky’ only in how it was brought back together at the end of it.”
See: Top Chef Season 21
Top Chef Season 21 could have been shaky as the series recovered from longtime host Padma Lakshmi leaving, but new host—former winner Kristen Kish—brings a fresh, familiar vibe to the show, ushering in a new era that’s just as obsession-worthy
Here’s Kevin Fallon’s take:
“Christmas; the only day where it’s actually spring weather in New York City; being asked out on a date: There are certain things that happen once a year that I look forward to. None of them compares, however, to my excitement over the return of my beloved Top Chef.
A New ‘Top Chef’ Is Here to Make Everything in Life Better
Season 21 of Bravo’s cooking competition premiered this week and, like many of us when we reach that milestone age, is going through some changes. Emmy-nominated host Padma Lakshmi’s decision to leave the series after its best-ever outing last year—a globe-trotting season featuring all-stars from franchises airing all around the world—was earth-shattering for me. Kevin Fallon’s pop culture history of terrible events goes: Spice Girls breaking up, Josh Charles leaving The Good Wife, and Padma Lakshmi ending her tenure as Top Chef host..”
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