This week on the show, I get to revisit the thoughts and ideals of a fourteen-year-old me as a Pixar original gets its fourth sequel. Hugh Jackman delivers a performance of a lifetime in a gritty re-imagining of a folk hero, and I finally got my eyes on a fresh thriller told through the lens of blaxploitation. I dig into a classic now on 4K and some television that I’m WAY LATE to.
We start with Toy Story 5, a film that I feel preloaded with cynicism for pre-screening, just like I was with the fourth one. Was I proven wrong, and my shaken support in the Disney animation giant was unwarranted? I will say that it is super refreshing to see Joan Cusack FINALLY get a leading role for Jessie, and this story is more relevant to parents than it has ever been. Also, why did I think of Kubrick’s greatest space epic while watching it?
Next is Hugh Jackman teaming with Pig filmmaker Michael Sarnoski to do a fresh take on an infamous bandit, minus his merry men, in The Death Of Robin Hood. Beautifully shot, this film is dour, gritty and makes the assertion that the folklore has had a considerable makeover. Reckonings, redemption and brutal tooth and nail violence are at the core of this film, and it might be one of my favorites of the year.
We then pivot into the debut of writer and director Aleisha Harris for her driven revenge thriller, Is God Is. The film is a blaxploitation filtered journey for two sisters to track down their estranged father, who burnt down their house with them and their mother when they were kids, leaving them for dead. Now horribly scarred and suffering the societal plights for it, Mama sends them on a violent excursion from her deathbed, and this film really delivers on its promises. With mind-blowing stops along the way, this kept me on the edge of my seat.
To finish up the new freshness, I get to talk about a documentary about my favorite musical ever made. Yes, you read that right, and it seems I’ve been waxing poetic about a lot of musicals in 2026, but this is the OG here. In Strange Journey: The Story Of Rocky Horror, director Linus O’Brien explores the origins of his father, Richard O’Brien’s creation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Having grown up around it all of his life, there’s an intimacy to this film that I adored.
Moving to Blu-ray, I’m finally giving my thoughts on the 4K re-issue of Varsity Blues, months after the tragic passing of leading star James Van Der Beek. Did it age well in the twenty-five-plus years since release? I’ll let my talking on the episode give you that answer, but I have to say the crazy amount of weird trivia on this one almost overshadows everything. Remember, without this, Friday Night Lights the TV show would never exist.
Then, in, I guess, a bid to get some disappointed messages from listeners and friends alike, I have just now started my watch through of Mike White’s hugely popular HBO series, The White Lotus. That said, I’m loving season one a lot, even with it being on a lower calibre format of DVD. Brilliant casting, including Steve Zahn, Alexandra Daddario and Fred Hechinger in scene-stealing roles, this is also the gateway to the Sydney Sweeney craze too.
Now to the streaming, a couple of the boys from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia decided to direct their comedy into a new outlet, taking aim at the video game development world in Mystic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. Having now aired four seasons, I’m just digging into this AppleTV+ series now, but it has someone great in the cast from one of the best 2000s-era series ever.
Moving on, I get to throw one of my favorite television subgenres into the mix, British crime dramas. Starring a veteran character actor who happens to have also played in the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings sandbox, the series Suspect features James Nesbitt as a renegade cop on his own investigation through the London underground after the death of his estranged daughter.
And finally, it’s been a while since I bought a sports docuseries to the show, and I recently started one that features professional basketball, a sport I admit isn’t part of my regular viewing. Starting 5 takes a good handful of NBA superstars and gives us an unfiltered look at their lives over the season, featuring the King, LeBron James, one of my favorites, Jimmy Butler and the trash-talking styles of Anthony Edwards. An interesting look at a side of the sport usually kept secret.
Coming up next week:
The first of TWO WEEKS OFF!!
We’re back on July 17th!!!
New episodes of What The Hell Should I Watch? drop every Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Steve Stebbing 