Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of January 29th, 2024

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 Episode 7 (Disney+): If there is a trend that is increasingly tiresome across serialized media, it is the fact that key information is withheld from the audience to create the appearance of a twist later on. There’s no reason why Ares’ involvement with the plot to steal the Master Bolt was held as long as it was, especially when there was an episode where Percy, Grover, and Annabeth had a lengthy interaction with Ares prior to that point. That scene could have been as interesting as the one from Spider-Man: Homecoming where Peter is in the car with Vulture and Vulture is figuring out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man but because the audience does not know that Ares is the bad guy until later, the dramatic irony of the scene is drained, even with the benefit of hindsight.

True Detective: Night Country Episode 3 (HBO/Max): The first season of True Detective aired its first episode in January of 2014. Considering the show is an anthology and each season is not connected to the last, this should not be relevant but this show is going out of its way to tie itself back to the first season that starred Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. Considering the show is sold as an anthology, this season even more specifically since it has a subtitle and isn’t just season four of True Detective, it is a questionable choice to make a show that aired a decade ago required reading to fully understand what’s going on here. That’s not to say the first season wasn’t good, but maybe include a primer about it so viewers are not left entirely in the dark if they haven’t watched the first season since it finished airing.

This Week In Theaters:

Argylle: Mercifully, Argylle finally hits theaters this week which means that this trailer will no longer be shown before every single movie in theaters and audiences will finally find out who the REAL Agent Argylle is. The movie follows an author who writes spy novels (Bryce Dallas Howard) that ends up embroiled in an international conspiracy as it turns out her novels are mirroring real-life events. Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) directs a large ensemble cast including Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Bryan Cranston, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Last Week At The Box Office:

The Beekeeper: $7.4 Million

Mean Girls (2024): $7.3 Million

Wonka: $5.9 Million

Migration: $5.2 Million

Anyone But You: $4.8 Million

Programming Notes:

Tickets are now on sale for several movies coming out over the next few months including:

• Argylle (2/2)
• Madame Web (2/14)
• Bob Marley One Love (2/14)
• Lisa Frankenstein (2/9)

Dune Part 2 (3/1)