Whenever we catch wind of an Americanized remake of a non-English film, a variety of questions spring to mind: “Why are we doing this?” “Is this necessary?” “Will this encourage people to seek out the original film?” “Will there be a Deadpool cameo, at least?”

All very valid and pressing inquiries that Hollywood ought to give the utmost consideration going forward. For now, though, this impulse remains one of the great mysteries of the entertainment machine, and so if we have to put up with films like 2024’s Mothers’ Instinct, we should at least try and enjoy the complimentary presence of Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. That’s what the residents of Hulu seem to be doing, after all.

Per FlixPatrol, 2024’s Mothers’ Instinct has cemented itself atop the United States’ Hulu film charts at the time of writing, edging out its fellow motherhood-centric thriller Nightbitch, which rests at second place.

Based on Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 film of the same name, which in turn is based on the 2012 novel Behind the Hatred (Derrière la haine) by Barbara Abel, Mothers’ Instinct stars Hathaway and Chastain as Céline and Alice, two neighbors living in 1960s America who are best friends, and whose sons share a hearty bond of their own. But when one of their children succumbs to a tragic accident, the resulting psychological domino effect begins to unravel both of their lives.

Mothers’ Instinct is a case where its players give far more to the movie than the movie could ever give back to them. Ironically, it’s as though Hathaway and Chastain are mothering the film, guiding it along with their subtle intensity and anxiety-inducing body language, single-handedly breathing emotional life to these characters the film only seems half-interested in accommodating. It’s a parent-child relationship that was supposed to be a collaborative artist-art relationship, and one can only imagine how restless that dynamic would be for the actresses.

And really, that might be the most effective lens to view this movie through. Céline and Alice are facing psychologically torturous turmoil from their predicament, and that turmoil is inseparable from their identities as mothers — mothers, of course, oft being burdened with many a thankless responsibilities and expectations. Simultaneously, the effectiveness of Mothers’ Instinct as a film hinges squarely on Hathaway and Chastain’s performances; a thankless responsibility all its own that could easily reflect in the dwindling mental states of their characters.

This, however, is mostly undercut by the overwhelming likelihood that the film’s failures outside of these performances were not intentional, and even if they were, it’s not exactly the easiest filmmaking strategy to get behind. Sincerity has always and will forever be the cornerstone of great cinema, and while an intentional version of the aforementioned failures would hold quite a bit of cheeky weight that we’d be wise to dissect, movies are at their best when they move you emotionally and challenge you to reconsider things about your life.

And yet, Mothers’ Instinct remains an example of the latter; presumably, it will challenge you to reconsider diving into a movie just because it has Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in it.

Since its debut on Dec. 7, 2021, Abbott Elementary has built a strong and loyal fanbase with the sitcom steady rising ABC’s comedy pipeline to fill the void left by Modern Family.

Season 4 kicked off earlier this fall on Oct. 9 with the core cast – Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, Chris Perfetti, and William Stanford James – back roaming the halls. While Abbott perhaps hasn’t been around long enough yet to rise to the level of comedic predecessors Modern Family or The Office, this season promises one epic arc that could vault it into the upper echelon of 21st-century sitcoms.

When is the Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover episode?

While speaking at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, Abbott creator Quinta Brunson revealed that this season of Abbott Elementary would feature a crossover episode with a beloved series. On Oct. 3, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and co-creator Rob McElhenney revealed that his cast had filmed the episode with the cast of Abbott.

McElhenney did not offer any details about the episode of even caption the photos he shared on social media. Besides Brunson and McElhenney, the photos feature Abbott stars Tyler James Williams, who plays Gregory, and William Stanford Davis, who portrays Mr. Johnson. Always Sunny actors Danny DeVito and Charlie Day are also in the photos. Since then, its been confirmed that the crossover episode will be the ninth episode of this season. And though we have official release dates for the first eight episodes of this season — episodes seven and eight will air on Dec. 4 — we do not yet have details for the rest of season 4.

After weeks of speculation, the air date for the crossover episode was revealed to be Thursday, Jan. 8. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times published Jan. 3, McElhenney told the outlet that the crossover allowed the Always Sunny cast to play with their characters a bit to fit with Abbott’s documentary-style format. “That’s what allowed for us to still be authentic and step into the world of Abbott because these characters are going into a school and they’re constantly monitored by cameras, so they would put on an act,” he explained. “If we’re not acting the way that our Sunny characters would, it’s because we know we’re being filmed and we’re putting it on the show.”

“We might not use the same language. We might not make our intentions so obvious or known. We might not be wearing our id on our sleeves. Conversely, when they came over to us, we thought it would be fun to see what their characters would be like when the bell rings and the cameras are not on them,” he continued.

Will Abbott Elementary characters also appear on It’s Always Sunny?

Yes! In a fun twist, Variety reported that what was once believed to be one crossover episode will actually be two, and Abbott Elementary characters will also visit It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

It’s Always Sunny star Kaitlin Olson told the outlet that the show’s teams enjoyed their work together. “It was very fun,” she said, “And they’ll be jumping into our world in a couple of weeks, which is very exciting. So it’s been really fun for both of our casts to be able to do, them a cable show and us a network show.” New episodes of Abbott Elementary air Wednesdays on ABC at 9:30 pm ET. Fans can stream also stream it live on Sling or watch the next day on-demand on Hulu. All 16 seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are streaming on Hulu.

Throughout the history of Hollywood, many fictional heroes have seen their odysseys drift in and out of the pop culture zeitgeist, but it’s the serialized plights that tend to stick out the most. From the Man with No Name and Marty McFly, to Frank Drebin and Max Rockatansky, the great cinematic protagonists and the worlds built around them have captured imaginations across generations.

Arguably, the man of the current moment is John Wick, the latest and greatest of action heroes to have tucked themselves into Keanu Reeves’ back pocket over the course of his career. His adventures have consistently scored high with critics and ticket sales since 2014, and the train won’t be stopping any time soon. Even now, he’s dominating the Hulu sphere with not one, not two, but three different excursions.

Per FlixPatrol, John Wick, John Wick: Chapter 2, and John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum are all charting together on Hulu’s film rankings in the United States at the time of writing. A respective third, fourth, and 10th place finish for the noir-tinted, body-dropping epics are sizing up against the likes of Twilight (sixth place), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (eighth place), and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (ninth place) for one of the most biblical streaming wars yet.

The John Wick films follow Jardani Jovonovich (also known as John Wick, Baba Yaga, and The Bogeyman), a retired hitman who built himself a mythical reputation within the international assassin community. But when a group of Russian-American gangsters kill his dog, John snaps back into action and sets off on a vengeful journey, which leads to greater and greater conflict with the assassin underworld.

The special sauce of the John Wick films lies in their elite technical prowess, rather than any true narrative brilliance. Although, it’s not completely lacking in the latter department, either. There’s a thesis established in the first film regarding the rules that assassins must follow, lest they be no different from bloodthirsty animals. This, of course, serves to highlight how these rules make the act of killing even more disturbing, as though murder can be justified by following the rules like a sports match, and also by carrying it out on those who break said rules.

But, again, it’s the way that John Wick presents itself that makes it so effective, rather than what it’s presenting. Disciplined camera work and neon dystopias make for visual treat after scrumptious visual treat, and the worldbuilding — always shown and never told — is refreshingly organic to the point of being world-class. It helps, of course, that the world itself has so many curious bells, whistles, and backstories occupying it, and even better is how they all ultimately end up in service to John and his plight rather than anything self-indulgent.

Indeed, you’re never going to see a John Wick film thrive on realistic combat, sturdy intrigue, or revelatory emotions, but you’ll also be hard-pressed to find a franchise that not only does what John Wick does, but accomplishes it so robustly and consistently time and time again. To channel the man himself: “Good, lots of good.”

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that horror is having a moment right now, but it would be more accurate to say that horror has been having a moment for the last couple of years. Indeed, with the emergence of bodies like A24 and Neon, as well as internet sketch comedians entering the feature filmmaking space, gorehounds and thinkers alike have maintained a fulfilling horror diet for some time now.

The transgressive nature of the genre tends to pave the way for delightfully weird proceedings, and Cuckoo fits that bill pretty firmly. Narratively speaking, Tilman Singer’s sort-of-monster movie had the world in the palm of its hand, and subsequently suffered a bit from what might have been decision overload. Luckily, the rawness of its story is the perfect cult status springboard, and its recent streaming success may be step one on that journey.

Per FlixPatrol, Cuckoo has debuted as the fourth most-watched film on the United States’ Hulu film charts at the time of writing (with a cheeky fifth place overall finish to boot). Competing against it are the likes of an eighth-place Christmas with the Kranks — the Tim Allen-led Christmas movie that’s actually a horror movie and has enjoyed an enduring cult status of its own — and No Way Up, one of the latest knockoffs of a knockoff of a knockoff of Jaws, and certainly not one of the greatest.

Cuckoo stars Hunter Schafer in her first leading film role as Gretchen, an American teenager who just lost her mother and is subsequently sent to live in the Bavarian Alps with her dad, stepmother, and half-sister Alma. Between her grief, lack of familiarity with her surroundings and other people, and her desk job that comes with some very strange rules, Gretchen is having a pretty miserable time. Things get far worse, however, when she gets wrapped up in a conspiracy involving her family, her boss, and an unseen monster with perverted intentions.

Cuckoo is a supremely curious case in the sense that it entertains a number of thematic and tonal personalities without really full-sending any of them. Throughout its runtime, it wears many different combinations of dread, humor, familial estrangement, uncanny isolation, and a large dollop of queerness. But Cuckoo never quite decides on a combination to well and truly dig into, instead preferring that you taste all of its potential identities.

Indeed, it’s a nest of cinematic odd ducks all coming of age together under the watchful eye of a B-movie sheen, seemingly frightened that if it chooses a favorite tone or theme, the rest will be rendered emotionally extinct. Some may chalk this up as indecisive storytelling that tries to be everything and is therefore nothing, and that’s not a completely unfair characterization.

Nevertheless, when you consider the literal events and revelations of the film in the context of the above description, it’s just as easy to conclude that Singer was operating with far more intention than a first glance may suggest.

The film first premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February, and took its sweet time making it to theaters, which it eventually did in August. It landed on Hulu Dec. 17.

After years of delays since the project was first announced in 2017, King of the Hill fans finally have some good news regarding a first look at the Hulu revival series.

The project went through development hell as the animated comedy series’ co-creators, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, shopped for a potential buyer to produce the sitcom. Eventually, Hulu—likely bolstered by the fact it had been acquired by Disney, who went on to purchase King of the Hill’s former network, Fox— struck a deal with the showrunners to develop the series for the streaming service.

The synopsis was revealed shortly into the revival series’ fruition, featuring a rarity in animation – a time-jump several decades on, aligning with the 1997-present jump of approximately 20-something years. The reboot also faced a significant, tragic hurdle when Johnny Hardwick, the voice actor of Dale Gribble and producer for the series, died in 2023, prompting several re-writes to overcome this unexpected absence.

King of the Hill‘s reboot also had to work around the deaths of various voice actors since the series wrapped in 2009. Notably, the deaths of Hill family members Luanne Platter and Lucky Kleinschmidt —voiced by Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty, who died in 2009 and 2017, respectively —required the core dynamic of the series to be radically reshaped.

The revival was given a vague “early 2025” premiere by Greg Daniels, with little sign of a teaser or first look, until October 25th, 2024, when voice actress Grey DeLisle posted a framed photo of a now-adult Bobby Hill, who was 12-13 years old in the original series.

Sporting some stubble and looking taller and generally more “grown up,” B0bby sports a chef’s outfit, with an accompanying short biography of his new life. Although not easy to discern from the photo’s reflection, the bio reads:

Chef Bobby Hill has loved food his whole life.

From weeknights around the dinner table eating his mom’s “Spa-Peggy and Meatballs,” to overindulging in lutefisk at church potlucks, to celebrations with family and friends at Luly’s Cafeteria, food and the people it’s enjoyed with are the foundation for his best memories. In fact, his career as a robata chef was inspired by his most cherished memory of all-weekends spent grilling with his dad.

A self-taught chef and one of the youngest contestants on King of the Grill, Chef Hill believes “good food can solve any problem.” He draws on the influences of his childhood by combining classic Texas dishes with flavors from around the world. With Robata Chane, Chef Hill hopes to honor the art of Japanese robata and the German heritage of the Texas Hill Country while pushing culinary boundaries through his innovative fusion dishes.

The bio contains several references to classic jokes from the original series, including the incident where Bobby accidentally burns down the church after trying to clear the smell with a match after scarfing – and quickly regretting – eating an entire serving of lutefisk, as well as Peggy Hill’s famous “Spa-Peggy and Meatballs”.

Bobby’s new job as a chef is in-keeping with the original run’s finale, “To Sirloin With Love,” where father and son Hank and Bobby Hill finally bond over their love of barbecuing meat. With this new, in-depth look at a major character from the series, fans will likely be treated to more insight very soon.

Tegan and Sara are the twin sisters behind one of the most popular indie-pop acts of the early 2000s — and they were also victims of a wild case of identity theft that’s been shared in the new Hulu documentary Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara.

Though Tegan was an early adopter of the internet and using social media to connect with fans, the experience shared in the documentary has hardened her against the internet. As she told Billboard in an interview published Oct. 17, “If we’re being truthful and honest, then I have to say that I’m afraid of our audience.”

WATCH: Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, now streaming on Hulu

“It was such a part of indie and punk culture to bro down with the people in the audience, to go sell merch and have a beer with your fans after the show,” Sara added. “To then say at some point that you don’t want to stand outside in the dark with strangers after we’ve played a show and done press all day … those were such small changes we made, but they had such a big cultural punch within our community.”

Here is a look into the documentary about Tegan and Sara’s experience with identity theft.

What is Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara?

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is a new Hulu documentary about the pair’s experience with identity theft, which began in 2008. Tegan’s personal files were hacked that year, and she soon had to deal with the fact that her identity had been stolen and was being used to convince the pair’s family members and their fans that they were interacting with the real Tegan.

The doc explores details Tegan and Sara’s efforts to uncover the identity of Fegan (Fake Tegan), an accused stalker. The pair have contended with this problem for nearly 20 years.

Who are Tegan and Sara?

Canadian twin sisters Tegan and Sara started their indie-pop duo in 1995 when they were still teenagers. The pair, who both identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, spent a lot of time online connecting with fans — something that Tegan did more of than Sara.

The duo have sold over one million records and won several awards over the years. Their albums So Jealous (2004) and The Con (2007) were especially successful.

What happened to Tegan and Sara?

Problems began in 2008 when a fan identified as Julie messaged “Tegan” on a social media profile page and began exchanging messages with the person she thought was the singer. Variety reported that the so-called Tegan began to send her demos and private messages; in 2011 she shared a link to a collection of documents and photos that included the real Tegan and Sara’s passport photos. Julie got in touch with Tegan and Sara’s management, who told her the real Tegan didn’t know her.

Tegan kept the ordeal a secret out of fear that it would all get worse. She began to write down what was going on, and soon connected with documentary director Erin Lee Carr. From there, the Hulu project was born.

Is Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara on streaming?

Yes, the documentary begins streaming on Hulu on Oct. 18, 2024.

Cable cutting is quickly becoming the norm in countries with vast streaming options, despite how bumpy the landscape has been in the early 2020s. One of streaming’s drawbacks used to be the lack of sports coverage, but problems still exist now that rights have been acquired.

Hulu is the perfect example of this, considering how many baseball fans missed out on crucial MLB playoff moments during the platform’s live coverage on Oct. 17. Around 83,000 outages were recorded during multiple sporting events on Thursday, according to Downdetector.

Fans were quick to take to social media with incensed reactions to missing out on events they spent lots of money to be able to access, “I pay $100s of dollars and you go down during playoff baseball?”

The spotty coverage came at the worst time for those donning Dodgers and Mets caps, as the two teams met in New York for a National League Championship game.

LA Times reported that the outages started around the time the teams were tied 1-1 going into the second inning. Some Hulu viewers missed the second through fourth innings, and logging-in issues continued through 7 pm.

It’s no wonder Hulu customers were furious, given streaming services with add-ons for sports come out to around the same price as cable, which many originally ditched because of inflated prices.

Almost all streaming services have raised their prices steadily in the last few years, with the likes of Disney Plus, Netflix, and Max frequently notifying users of price increases.

Bloated budgets, A-lister payouts, and the quickly deteriorating business plan of making endless movie-quality limited series are all to blame — general inflation, depending on the customer’s location, is also inferred as a cause.

Hulu Support on X eventually responded to angry tweets, writing, “We are seeing service improving as we actively work to resolve a technical issue impacting live playback and log-in errors on Hulu. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

An hour later, the account reported the issue had been fixed… kind of. “The technical issue that impacted live playback and log-in errors on Hulu has been mitigated. Thank you for your patience and we apologize again for the inconvenience.”

Lots of people made jabs about expecting credits on their next bill or refunds for their subscription, which is unlikely to happen.

MLB on Hulu

When it’s working, you can watch MLB with a Hulu Plus Live TV subscription. The plan allows you to access live broadcasts, the MLB Network in real-time, and record games to watch later.

Coverage depends on regional availability, but Hulu says you just need a subscription, a device that supports live TV, a home network, live TV network coverage, and “peanuts and hot dogs.”

The details page we got the above information from failed to list the most important thing: a working Hulu.

If you don’t want to shell out for the expensive Plus Live TV plan, your basic Hulu subscription will grant access to NHL games and next-day WWE streams if that’s more your jam.

Like a lot of other millennials, I grew up watching horror shows aimed at kids like Are You Afraid of the Dark? and loved all the cheesy jump scares (and bad fashion choices).

But there was one perfect show that featured episodes about haunted cameras and terrible masks, and now there’s a teaser for the second season of the Hulu/Disney+ reboot of this popular ’90s series. Of course, I’m talking about Goosebumps. Season 2, which is subtitled The Vanishing, will come out Jan. 10th, 2025.

The creepy trailer suggests creatures/villains that “seem to join with a host”… and also stars David Schwimmer. He’s moved on from dorky Ross Gellar and is now in his dad era. According to Bloody Disgusting, Schwimmer plays Anthony, who is now a single parent to twins, Cece and Devin. The twins discover that four high schoolers disappeared back in 1994 and try to find out the truth. I’m totally in!

What’s even better than watching a beloved Friends actor star in season 2 of the Goosebumps reboot? Learning that the whole season will drop at the same time. All you need is popcorn and you can enjoy a scary binge-watching session. January can be such a dull, dreary month, and this is just the news I need to look forward to the first month of the new year.

Fans posted their reactions on X and are excited to come back to this scary small town.

Season 1 of the Goosebumps reboot premiered on Oct. 13th, 2023 and followed Mr. Nathan Bratt (Justin Long), who moved into a haunted house. While the episodes told a brand new story, they did include familiar and nostalgic elements, from Slappy the Dummy to the iconic haunted mask and the evil Kanduu. I’m a sucker for a horror story in a small town, from the down-on-its-luck Millwood in the Pretty Little Liars reboot to the Woodsboro-set Scream franchise, and I’ll be checking out season 2 as soon as it’s streaming.

While the first season ended mysteriously and that would have made for a compelling constitution of this new Goosebumps story, Variety reported in February 2024 that the second season would start from scratch, officially making this an anthology series. However, when season 1 concluded, even the cast members weren’t sure that season 2 would tell a new creepy tale. Will Price, who portrayed Lucas Parker, told Us Weekly, “We have a very dark, gloomy and dreary first season” and he wanted “to switch that up and do a slasher.” Maybe Schwimmer as a twin dad is the next best thing!

With a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and some, let’s face it, bad reviews, some weren’t on board with Goosebumps season 1. Sure, it wasn’t perfect by any means, but if reboots are vehicles of nostalgia, it delivered more than enough of R.L. Stine’s world. Some fans wish that each episode was a more faithful adaptation of Stine’s enduring and legendary horror books. But since that’s what the original series, which aired from 1995 to 1998, accomplished, I’m not sure that’s the right approach. Goosebumps season 1 embraced the cheesy enjoyment of the OG, and it looks like season 2 will do the same. I don’t want it to be January just yet because we still need to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but at least we know something fun and scary is on the horizon to get rid of any post-holiday blues.

What an utterly remarkable rise Ebon Moss-Bachrach has undergone. From humble beginnings in The Royal Tenenbaums to television regular in Girls, The Punisher, and Andor, all the way to superstar status at the behest of The Bear and the incoming Fantastic Four: First Steps, the world waking up to the talent of Moss-Bachrach. It has been one of the most satisfying developments in the entertainment world in recent years.

However, just because the actor tends to serve the material he’s given, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the material serves him in turn. Such is the case for Hold Your Breath, Hulu’s brand-new psychological horror film that’s made quick work of the streaming charts.

Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 4 has since seen Hold Your Breath claim seventh place on Hulu’s Top 10 overall rankings in the United States, having just released to the platform yesterday. In the film, Moss-Bachrach plays Wallace Grady, a mysterious and threatening figure who torments protagonist Margaret (Sarah Paulson) and her two children, Rose and Ollie, in the middle of a dust storm epidemic in 1930s Oklahoma.

Interestingly, it’s precisely the horror elements in this horror film that lead to its ultimate downfall. Well-acted as it is, the thematic heft of Hold Your Breath is that of parental grief, and how difficult it can be to keep an eye on that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel when going through such a tragedy. The cinematic potential of the dust storms — terrifying and relentless in obscuring everything in sight — could have leaned into such a thing immaculately, and, in part, do so.

It’s a burden that Margaret effectively carries alone; her loving husband Henry is out-of-state, working on a railroad track to provide for his family back home, while she must raise her two daughters after having recently buried a third. This gendered lens of parental strain (the nurturing feminine and the providing masculine) is a fascinating one to explore, and had Moss-Bachrach’s Wallace been utilized as a masculine stand-in for the absent-but-not Henry rather than a villain, Hold Your Breath would have likely been a much stronger picture.

Instead, it commits to the plot of “The Grey Man” (a scary bedtime story frequented by Margaret’s daughters) coming to life, which eventually devolves into an unadventurous descent into madness for Margaret, all without any real creative thrust in its failed attempts to build tension. Indeed, Hold Your Breath is a film that sadly earns its 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, despite having been capable of earning so much more if it simply didn’t insist on being a horror film.

But its seventh-place finish is nevertheless indicative of a few victories. The show has topped the likes of crime drama High Potential, long-running police procedural 9-1-1, and Ryan Murphy’s cruise ship medical drama Doctor Odyssey, which today sits at the eighth, ninth, and 10th spots on Hulu’s Top 10 overall charts in the United States.

Unfortunately for Hold Your Breath, these aren’t victories that will last long. High Potential and Doctor Odyssey in particular are both in the middle of their first seasons, so their chart longevity will last well into the rest of the month with every new episode. A feature film like Hold Your Breath, on the other hand, will likely only lose its viewership numbers as its one-and-done release date falls further and further into the past.

Nevertheless, Moss-Bachrach will still fly high, especially since summer 2025 — which will welcome both season 4 of The Bear and the theatrical release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps — still has yet to show its illustrious face.

Remember back in the aughts when the Men in Black franchise was all the rage, and so, by extension, was Will Smith? Do you furthermore remember when Warner Bros. turned Cats & Dogs loose upon the world, at once playing upon our curiosity towards what our furbabies engage in when we’re not around, and offering an answer in the form of an inter-species cold war?

Remember back in 2010, when that movie was unthinkably followed up by Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, because a war between cats and dogs apparently wasn’t enough, and they had to toss in a common enemy in the form of red-notice-worthy Sphynx? Do you also remember back in the 2010s when Smith strapped on the Deadshot getup for Suicide Squad, a film that would go on to prophesize the dark fate of the DC Extended Universe?

Well, it’s the 2020s now, and Smith remains as regrettably parallel to the Cats & Dogs franchise as ever. Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 4 has seen Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore mark itself as the third-most-watched film on Hulu in the United States, inching out Will Smith’s fourth-place Suicide Squad.

To resign the David Ayer flick to this Kitty Galore-inflicted fate is an admittedly appropriate one, even if the bulk of the film’s failures had to do with Warner Bros.’ meddling. It must be pointed out, however, that Suicide Squad is only Smith’s greatest failure in terms of the films we still allow ourselves to think about.

Indeed, if we’re being honest, Smith’s true biggest cinematic blunder is a title held by After Earth, the M. Night Shyamalan-helmed sci-fi disaster that Will Smith himself called “the most painful failure in his career” in a 2015 Esquire interview.

But back to Suicide Squad (because we don’t talk about After Earth), the film is actually one of the more fascinating entries in the doomed franchise. For one, it’s the only picture in the entire DCEU to have won an Academy Award (namely, Best Makeup and Hairstyling), and to this day, fans are petitioning for a release of the Suicide Squad director’s cut in hopes of dubiously redeeming it, Zack Snyder’s Justice League-style.

As for Kitty Galore, there’s much less love lost. A 13% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes pairs quite hideously with its Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D; a dishonor it ultimately lost to M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (and thus, we’ve come full-circle). Nevertheless, that never stopped the Cats & Dogs franchise from popping up again a decade later, with standalone sequel Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! getting a direct-to-video release in the United States in 2020. That venture went about as well as you’re probably assuming.

But it’s not a completely dark day for the Hulu charts. On either side of Suicide Squad and Kitty Galore are Dune: Part Two at number one, and How to Train Your Dragon at number five. So indeed, whether it be a gritty blockbuster adaptation of sci-fi royalty or one of Dreamworks’ best-ever accomplishments, there’s plenty of taste to counteract the lack thereof in Hulu’s top half.

There are some TV shows that you need to sit down and watch in one or two sittings and cancel all social plans. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is exactly that type of content. While we’re all fascinated by soft swinging and wondering just how “real” the show is, we’re also focused on another aspect of the series: Mikayla Matthews‘s health problems.

While the show shares the dark and chaotic story of #MomTok and dives into Mormonism, each episode paints a picture of the women involved. If you want to know more about Mikayla’s illness, let’s talk about her journey!

What illness does The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mikayla Matthews suffer from?

Mikayla told Us Weekly that she hasn’t been diagnosed with any specific disease and she’s working on discovering what is going on. She said she was “Still doing more testing” and “I just got a biopsy done yesterday. I’m going to go to a cancer institute and get tested for different blood cancers.” Although fans know she has eczema, she seems to be suffering from a more serious condition.

The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives star explained on TikTok that after getting breast implants, she realized her skin was getting super red, and she thought it would be better to have the implants removed. Several fans noticed this could be the culprit, and discussed it on the UtahInfluencerDrama SubReddit. Breast Implant Illness can be terrible. According to The Cleveland Clinic, people might get rashes, have a hard time focusing, or experience fatigue or brain fog.

However, even though this seems to be what Mikayla was suffering from, the fact that she is still looking for a diagnosis suggests that there is something else happening. While viewers knew she had problems with her skin, she shared in an interview with Newsweek that she filmed a lot of scenes about her health that didn’t end up on the series. She explained she “was just in so much pain every day,” which made shooting the show tough. She said she began working on her health at the time of shooting, and “that’s when I took out my breast implants, and they filmed that but it wasn’t shown. I filmed all of my storyline for season one” but unfortunately viewers won’t get to watch it.

Although we know that not everything can be included in a reality series, I would have loved to learn more about Mikayla’s health. While it might not have anything to do with #MomTok, and a lot of screentime had to be given to the main drama featuring Frankie Taylor Paul, viewers would have definitely appreciated seeing this part of Mikayla’s life. I’m all for drama, and there’s no denying the juicy premise of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (and the catchy title!). But the best part of reality TV is getting to know the cast members. As Mikayla said in her Instagram post, maybe there will be a second season, and she can talk more about her health then. In the meantime, I hope she finds out what she is suffering from soon!

Hulu’s newest reality series takes a page out of the Real Housewives book. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives takes a deep dive into the Utah culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Even so, this isn’t necessarily a universal Mormon experience. The series is an offshoot of the viral videos posted on TikTok. Under the moniker #MomTok, the series of videos featured several Mormon mothers in a variety of dance videos. Spearheaded by Taylor Frankie Paul,#MomTok shined a light on a new generation of Mormon women who were more open-minded and had careers of their own.

#MomTok also made headlines because of the infamous soft-swinging scandal. In an earth-shattering video Paul posted, the content creator confessed that she was getting a divorce because she had stepped outside the confines of her marriage. According to Paul, she and her husband at the time agreed to a soft-swinging scenario where they could be intimate with other partners but not go all the way. This backfired when Paul fell for one of the husbands in the group of swingers.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives follows the ramifications of the scandal and the group’s attempt to keep the TikTok going. Lives have been ruined and friendships fractured, but does this mean that any of the reality series is real?

How real is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives?

As in the prolific Real Housewives series, Mormon Wives focuses on the drama and the interpersonal relationships between the characters. Unlike in a documentary setting, juicy tidbits and feuds are what viewers tune in to watch. Mormon Wives has that in spades, as well as a perception of the Mormon Church that seems foreign to many.

These women aren’t subservient to their husbands. They drink and wear revealing clothing. That isn’t a judgment on these women, it is just in stark opposition to what the media would have us believe about the LDS church. One well-known Mormon had a similar observation about the series. Dancing With the Stars Mormon Lindsay Arnold noted to Us Weekly some things didn’t add up in the opening titles.

“If you’re wondering what the blue coat is in the Mormon Church, there’s literally nothing that that has to do with.”

This was a tongue-in-cheek response, which led to the biggest issue at hand. At its heart, Mormon Wives is a reality show. If you’re in the Real World house or on the Jersey Shore, shows like these come together because of chemistry. If Whitney and Taylor don’t have issues with each other, it won’t be a very interesting series. Though the women in the series may be real Mormons or at least Mormon-adjacent, there will always be a sliver of manufactured content as in all reality shows. Arnold also pointed that out in the following remarks:

“I’m not gonna say that there wasn’t some serious stuff that went down, for people who believe this. But I want you to understand that that’s exactly what the producers of this show wanted out of this. When it comes to reality TV, you are looking to create entertainment. Every single producer on that show, their main goal is to create entertainment… It’s very easy for producers, reality TV, to paint a picture that they want to paint. Now, with that being said, they can’t force someone to say things.”

Mormon Wives is a series made to entertain and while there is nothing wrong with that, viewers shouldn’t go in expecting a documentary.