Connect with us

Entertainment

Sam Neill's Forgotten 90s Fantasy Performance Is Streaming For Free

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated

Sam Neill will be best remembered for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise, his doomed Russian officer’s desire to see the Black Hills in The Hunt for Red October, or for the real sickos out there, his one-two punch of In The Mouth Of Madness and Event Horizon. Forgotten in all of that is his turn as Merlin in one of the most successful television mini-series of the 90s. Merlin was a two-night event on NBC in 1998 and brought in a combined viewership of 70 million. As the legendary wizard, Neill brought his usual gravitas to the Arthurian legend and elevated the series to must-watch television. 

The Entire Legend Of King Arthur In 3 Hours

Merlin tells the legend of King Arthur through the eyes of his loyal advisor, starting when he was a young wizard-in-training. Learning that he was created by Queen Mab (Miranada Richardson), he sets off to learn magic from her and her servant, Frink (Martin Short). The true depths of her treachery and wicked ways are revealed, leading Merlin (played here by Daniel Brocklebank) to swear his revenge. 

The story jumps many years later, to the ongoing war between Uther Pendragon and King Vortigern (Rutger Hauer), which Merlin finds himself right in the middle of. Reluctantly, Merlin assists Uther in bedding Igraine on the condition that he’s able to raise the result of the union himself, and sure enough, the first episode ends with the birth of King Arthur.

The second episode whips through the rise and fall of Camelot at lightning speed, all while keeping Neill’s Merlin at the center of it all. As you can tell, the pacing required to tell the entire Arthurian legend in under 3 hours (allowing for 2 hour episodes with commercials each night), means it’s a great overview, but only Merlin’s feud with Mab and his love of Nimue (Isabella Rossellini) is able to have any depth to it as a result. And yet, while watching, Sam Neill’s portrayal is so good, you’ll swear it’s one of the best adaptations you’ve ever seen. 

Sam Neill Gave Every Performance Everything He Had

The 90s saw a brief revival of the television miniseries format that was so popular in the 70s and 80s, between Merlin, The Odyssey, and the Stephen King adaptations The Stand and Storm of the Century. Sam Neill was, thanks to Jurassic Park, a movie star so when Hallmark landed him for Merlin it was considered a very big deal. He enjoyed the role, and even came back to it in 2006 for the sequel, Merlin’s Apprentice.

Sam Neill had a unique charisma to him that demanded your attention and the way he’d deliver his lines, no matter how they may have been written on paper, with the gravitas and emotion of Shakespeare in the Park. No matter the role, you knew if he turned up on screen you were in for a great show. Sam Neill’s recent passing has impacted his fans, but he left a long list of performances that will continue to entertain for many generations to come. 

Merlin, one of his most overlooked, is currently available to stream for free on Tubi, The CW, and Amazon Prime Video.


source

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

Amazon has my favorite Bissell carpet cleaner marked down by 25% right now

SAVE 25%: As of July 21, you can get the Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner (38572) for $119.99, down from $159.99, at Amazon.


$119.99
at Amazon

$159.99
Save $40.00

 

I used to have a Bissell Little Green machine, and it worked right up until I poured liquid into the wrong compartment. But before my little mishap, this little thing was a lifesaver (I seldom use that word, but in this case, it’s true). With two beagles running around my apartment, having a carpet cleaner is a necessity.

And right now, you can get your own Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner for $119.99, down from $159.99. That’s a 25% discount or $40 in savings.

It comes with a specialized Pet Hair Removal Tool designed to grab embedded fur and debris from your upholstery, and once you’re done scrubbing, the Self-Cleaning Tough Stain Tool rinses out the leftover dirt and residue from the hose with the touch of a button (my machine didn’t have that feature).

Another major upgrade on this specific model is the SmartMix Technology, which automatically mixes the water and cleaning formula together for you so you don’t have to measure anything. Just be sure you pour it into the correct tank!

source

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Time for a new smartwatch? Snag the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for 51% off ahead of Samsung Unpacked.

SAVE $280: As of July 21, get the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for $269.99 at Woot, down from its usual price of $549.99. That’s a discount of 51%.


$269.99
at Amazon

$549.99
Save $280

 

If you’re looking to kit your wrist out with a new smartwatch, now’s a great time to do so. Samsung is on the verge of debuting several new models, and that means the old ones are going down in price. Case in point: the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, which you can get for an excellent discount right now if you don’t want to wait for the new crop of devices.

As of July 21, get the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for $269.99 at Woot, down from its usual price of $549.99. That’s $280 off and a discount of 51%.

This classy smartwatch opts to keep things traditional while offering a variety of modern features that you’ll appreciate. That includes a bright, easy-to-read display, a rotating bezel you use to select apps and navigate menus, and several health-tracking abilities so you can stay on top of what’s happening with your body and fitness at all times.

From a heart rate and sleep score monitor to a daily Energy Score calculated from your heart rate, sleep, activity, and rest this watch can make sure you’re ready for the day in all the ways that count. It can also be used to help track blood pressure.

Beyond all its health-centric features, this is a great smartwatch for day-to-day functionality and staying on top of your schedule. It has a built-in AI assistant as well as the option to use voice commands to navigate, which means you never have to use your hand to get things done if you don’t want to.

If you’re ready to debut a new smartwatch without breaking the bank, now’s a good time to buy in.

source

Continue Reading

Entertainment

The Latest Poster For Avengers: Doomsday Secretly Spoils The Plot

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published

With less than five months left until the film’s release, Marvel has taken their marketing for Avengers: Doomsday to the next level. Right now, fans are mostly focused on the trailer that dropped today, which is no surprise; after all, it’s not every day that you see the reunion of Thor and Steve Rogers or, for that matter, a battle between Shang-Chi and Gambit. Amid all the breathless hype over the trailer, however, a more powerful advertisement is lurking in plain sight. At the same time Marvel launched the trailer, they also released a new Avengers: Doomsday poster.

Compared to that crowded character poster, the new poster is downright subdued. It features Doctor Doom staring at a huge tapestry with a broken world and two characters: a woman and a boy. Some comics fans think this image is Doom and his mother, a character who is eventually damned to Hell. However, other fans are convinced that this is actually an image of Doom’s wife and child; if true, this would effectively ruin the biggest plot twist. How does it do that? If you don’t mind some potential spoilers for this year’s biggest film, just keep reading!

You Can’t Spell “Painting” Without “Pain”

So, let’s start this story in reverse (just don’t let the TVA get me!): why do some fans think the woman in this poster is Doctor Doom’s mother? In the comics, she’s a big deal. To defeat an evil dictator who was ruling her country with an iron fist (an actual fist, not the kung-fu guy), she made a deal with the devil. As usual, the deal went wrong, and she lost control of the powers that she gained from Mephisto. She renounced those powers, got killed, and was then dragged into Hell. To see her again, Doom later mastered magic, visited Mephisto, and conducted an experiment that ruined his own face.  

However, all of the lore behind this origin story is too dense to fit into Avengers: Doomsday, a movie which is already crowded with endless character cameos. It seems the movie is taking a different direction, as multiple reports have claimed that the two figures are actually Doom’s wife and child. An unconfirmed leak of the movie’s plot (don’t say I didn’t warn you about spoilers, kids!) claims that Doom actually lost his family to one of the incursions, which is when one reality collides with another. This motivates Doom to learn more about the incursions and to plot his revenge.

A Hero Will Be Broken

Revenge against whom, you ask? According to the leaked plot, Steve Rogers! Reportedly, Loki visits the former Captain America in the past and warns him that the TVA will prune his entire timeline because he’s not supposed to be there. In an act of seeming kindness, Loki brings Cap, Peggy, and their young son to the Fantastic Four’s universe. However, the leak claims that Steve’s presence in this universe somehow triggers an incursion and that Doom disfigured himself and killed his own wife and son trying to stop it. In a shocking twist, Doom reportedly kills Steve’s son in front of the hero in an act of vengeance.

Now, again, all of this comes from a leaked plot summary that hasn’t been confirmed, so all of this could be an Ego-sized bottle of hogwash. But it’s worth noting that the Avengers: Doomsday teasers last year prominently focused on both Captain America and Thor becoming fathers. This potentially adds credence to the idea that this is a film about family and how far someone will go to protect the ones they love. If the leaks are true, this innocuous poster featuring Doctor Doom is spoiling the motivation the villain will have to cross time and space and cross countless moral event horizons along the way.

A movie where costumed vigilantes (like Batman, Spider-Man, and so many more) are driven by the ghosts of family members they lost when they were children? Well, nobody ever accused Marvel of being all that original!


source

Continue Reading