All posts tagged: character

‘VisionQuest’: Your guide to every AI character in the MCU’s newest show

Published by Miika Tikkanen

VisionQuest reunites viewers with Vision (Paul Bettany), the synthezoid first introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, he’s not the only AI from the MCU to reappear in Marvel’s latest television outing. SEE ALSO: We watched ‘VisionQuest’s first episode at New York Comic Con. It’s a trip. That’s because VisionQuest boasts a supporting troupe of Stark Industries AI who have popped up throughout the MCU. Within Vision’s simulated mind palace (or mind mansion, really), they manifest as human avatars who help him with everything from basic upkeep to human socialization. From smaller-name robots like Dum-E (Henry Lewis) and U (Jonathan Sayer) to full-on Avengers villains like Ultron (James Spader), here’s your guide to the AI characters of VisionQuest. D.U.M.-E and U First introduced: Iron Man Created together during Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) time at MIT, Dum-E and U are a package deal. They’re a pair of hydraulic arms that helped Tony assemble his Iron Man armors. Within Vision’s simulation, the pair manifest as handymen, although VisionQuest lists their more official roles onscreen in a …

Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s Wan Character Study

Published by Daniella Wilson

Tony Gilroy returns to features after 14 years’ absence — the last three of them spent in the Star Wars TV trenches as creator, showrunner and head writer on Andor — with a movie that makes itself hard to love. Hampered by a fussy hopscotching time structure that too often halts the dramatic momentum and by a central character whose passivity fights against the warmth and magnetism of Pedro Pascal in the role, Behemoth! is an odd duck, alternately intriguing and frustrating. What it does have going for it is a series of thrilling sequences observing the workings of an orchestra employed on Hollywood’s scoring stages. That rarely glimpsed milieu and a virtuoso cellist protagonist might make Gilroy’s film sound like Maestro meets Tár. But the story’s internal engine seldom revs hard enough to stand up to either of those comparisons, despite its capable ensemble cast and polished craftsmanship. Behemoth! The Bottom Line Adagio when it needs to be agitato. Venue: New York Film Festival (Centerpiece — Main Slate)Release date: Friday, Dec. 4Cast: Pedro Pascal, …

Ariana Grande Would’ve Reprised Scream Queens Character in AHS: 13

Published by Daniella Wilson

Oh, what could’ve been. Ryan Murphy revealed what Ariana Grande‘s role would’ve been if she’d joined the cast of American Horror Story season 13 as originally planned. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday night in New York City ahead of the premiere of AHS: 13, Murphy revealed that Grande was set to reprise her role as Chanel #2 from Scream Queens for the new season of American Horror Story. The potential crossover would’ve brought the worlds of Murphy’s American Horror Story and Scream Queens together for the first time, but Grande’s touring schedule for her Eternal Sunshine Tour ultimately prevented the appearance. “It was funny because at one point I was going to have the Scream Queens come on to this season, but Ariana was touring and I couldn’t make it work,” Murphy told THR. “But she was like, ‘I still want to do it! I just can’t be on tour.’ So I was like, ‘All right, let me think of it.’” Grande played Chanel #2 on Scream Queens, the Fox horror-comedy co-created by Murphy, …

‘We love arguing… in character’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Add Colin from Accounts to your watchlist What’s the view from your sofa? Harriet Dyer We’ve been living in southern California for seven months now and we have two couches and a Frame TV, so it’s a bit arty when it’s not a telly. We just recently set them up like an “L” shape so that one person gets to lie down straight on and the other person gets to lounge side-on, but we’re thinking of moving it so the couches face each other, like a conversation pit. What have you enjoyed watching recently? Harriet The Traitors UK, the one with the Secret Traitor. Patrick Brammall I feel like it wasn’t working the way they’d hoped… Do you watch anything scripted, or is that too much like work? Harriet Widow’s Bay… Patrick Really dug that, but I think because of what we do, we’ve really reduced the window of stuff that we can absolutely just lose ourselves in. With narrative stuff, you’re always analysing. Harriet I get a bit loophole obsessed and that’s OK. Also, …

Douglas Henshall reveals personal connection to Forever Home character

Published by Daniella Wilson

Graham Norton’s best-selling novel Forever Home is getting an adaptation on 5, and it certainly looks like it’s set to be a series full of mystery. The six-episode drama will follow Carol Crottie (Amy Nuttall), who begins to grow suspicious after her husband Robert, who has dementia, refuses to leave his home. The series’ synopsis continues: “She starts to wonder if the reason he won’t leave his home has something to do with the whereabouts of his first wife, who ran off with Robert’s brother 20 years ago, leaving behind their two young children Kaden and Sally.” For actor Douglas Henshall, who plays Carol’s husband Robert, however, the role has more of a personal connection. As he explained: “My grandmother had Alzheimer’s and my dad has dementia and my father-in-law had dementia. So, I have quite a bit of experience of it and the odd ways that it manifests itself. “Some of it is nuts and other bits are just heartbreaking. My grandmother calling the police down to her house to say that there were …

Does Writing Letters Build Character?

Published by Jenni Sidey

We hardly ever say “mail” anymore. That word implies archaic practices and products: stamps, pens, paper, and calling others “dear.” Today we correspond faster than it takes to say “correspond,” typing in code to make it even faster. MU, HRU GR8, GTG Even email feels obsolete. As a child, I waited, frenzied, for our daily mail. The very theory of mail obsessed me: It linked people miles apart. So did phones, but written words seemed more sacred, transforming blank paper into bulletins: This is a craft. Trusting strangers to carry and deliver these: This is an act of faith. We were taught letter-writing in third grade, where each student was assigned a faraway business to which we must write, seeking responses. I wrote to a tractor manufacturer. Starting letters, even to strangers, with “dear,” and signing off after “love” or “yours truly,” did not seem bizarre. Yet it turned each missive, semantically at least, into an act of love. The fifth-century chronicler Hellanicus of Lesbos credited Persia’s Queen Atossa with writing the first-ever letter in …

Grantchester writer reveals major character was almost killed off

Published by Daniella Wilson

*Warning – contains spoilers for Grantchester season 11, which is yet to air in the UK.* Grantchester writer Daisy Coulam has revealed that Robson Green’s DI Geordie Keating was almost killed off in the 11th and final season of the beloved ITV crime drama. Keating was shot and left fighting for his life in the instalment, which is set to air in the UK next year after premiering on Masterpiece in the US earlier this year – but ultimately survived. However, he almost met a very different fate, Coulam has revealed in an interview with The Mirror. She explained: “I mean the amount of times we tried to be like, ‘He should die. He should definitely die’. I mean he died probably about four times in the story meeting and we just couldn’t do it. It would just be too big.” She continued: “You’re like ‘No, because you need that moment at the end’. You need hope and you need joy because it’s a (platonic) love story and you need your two lovers alive at …

5 Surprising Studies on Character Strengths

Published by Jenni Sidey

I review about 100 character strengths studies per year. There are always a few studies that give me pause. I might see a counterintuitive finding, an idea I had not considered, or something that piques my signature strength of curiosity. In this post, I share 5 surprising and interesting studies. These stopped me for a moment—literally—and I see immediate practical use from each. These studies span many fields: workplace, coaching, clinical, and general audiences. I wonder if these studies give you an ah-ha, too! 1. Depressed People Can Improve Their Strengths In this quasi-experimental study, 50 women with major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to eight positivity training sessions or a control condition. Positivity training significantly enhanced character strengths, improved time perspective (reducing past-negative and present-fatalistic while increasing past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future orientations), and increased self-awareness. This study shows character strengths are modifiable in clinical depression (Barzigar & Homaei, 2024). Why is this striking? It is not typical for a positive psychology study to a) examine participants with an actual clinical disorder (it is, however, …

Big Bang Theory fans stunned as beloved character returns in spin-off with a very different look

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe episode two sees the return of a major Big Bang Theory star — but not as fans remember them. Set after the events of the original sitcom, HBO Max’s new spin-off follows Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), the comic book store owner from The Big Bang Theory, as he accidentally destroys a multiverse device created by Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. With the help of familiar faces Bert (Brian Posehn), Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Stuart sets off on a mission across alternate realities to restore order to the universe, encountering new versions of characters fans will recognize from The Big Bang Theory along the way. The latest episode, which aired Thursday night, sees the group enter a reality in which all humans have a device implanted on their necks that delivers an electric shock whenever they argue or get aggressive. This eventually leads them into a 30-month reeducation facility designed to eliminate conflict. But after completing the program, they are unexpectedly abducted and taken to …

Sadie Sink Reacts To 6 Fan Theories About Her Spider-Man Character

Published by Sam Flores

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All posts tagged: character

‘VisionQuest’: Your guide to every AI character in the MCU’s newest show

Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s Wan Character Study

Ariana Grande Would’ve Reprised Scream Queens Character in AHS: 13

‘We love arguing… in character’

Douglas Henshall reveals personal connection to Forever Home character

Does Writing Letters Build Character?

Grantchester writer reveals major character was almost killed off

5 Surprising Studies on Character Strengths

Big Bang Theory fans stunned as beloved character returns in spin-off with a very different look

Sadie Sink Reacts To 6 Fan Theories About Her Spider-Man Character