Nerd Reactor had the opportunity to speak with Rhys Ifans, creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Josef Davies about the series’ darker tone, the real-life inspirations behind its characters, and how there is still hope despite the gloomy setting.

Rhys Ifans on Playing an Obsessive Genius Hidden From History

Fans of Rhys Ifans may know him as Dr. Curt Connors in The Amazing Spider-Man, a scientist obsessed with a cure for his amputated arm. In Star City, he portrays The Chief Designer, who has a different kind of obsession.

“Yes, you’re right,” the actor tells Nerd Reactor about the similarities between Curt Connors and the Chief Designer. “They’re both obsessed. But in this case, the most pleasing thing for me as an actor is that one was actually a real human being, the Chief Designer. With many obsessions, yes, to fly the Russian flag. But also, on a personal level, I think he was a kid who, like many children, stared up at the night sky, saw the moon, and was irrepressibly curious as to what that might present or represent.

“And then what was interesting to me was the fact that he had to do all this without the knowledge of anyone, not just knowing that he was behind the great work that was done, but that he himself is invisible in the whole story. And one could argue the greatest story ever told.”

Star City Explores the Human Side of Life Under Pressure

Ben Nedivi is the co-creator and serves as a showrunner and executive producer. Even with the show’s darker tones, hope is a pivotal part that allows the Soviets to push their space program further.

“I think even For All Mankind, there’s a constant push and pull of the optimism of that show,” Nedivi said. “I think that’s something we wanted to capture – as important as this idea of the pressure that they were under – but also how they overcame that pressure. As people watch the show, you’ll see that the power is in these humans, that overcoming the system, overcoming the odds, to still thrive and still succeed in their own way. That’s to me where I see the hope in the show.”

Revisiting the Soviet Space Race Through a Different Lens

Viewers will be transported into an alternate Cold War setting once again, and because of the Soviet world, it feels completely different.

“There’s also a nostalgia for the simpler time of the Cold War, ironically, even though we were a breath away from nuclear war all the time,” Matt Wolpert said. “It was like, ‘Oh, but those were the days,’ because now everything just feels so kind of incomprehensible. At least then you understood there were two sides and everybody was on one of those sides. And so there is kind of a nice warm feeling about being back in 1969 and in the USSR, weirdly.”

“At least then you knew if you were going to die, who was going to kill you,” Ifans added.

Surveillance and Paranoia

The series captures how the KGB spied on its own people, especially as audiences follow Anna Maxwell Martin as the head of the KGB surveillance department at Star City and Agnes O’Casey as a recruit.

“There was certainly a history in a country where children informed on their own parents,” Martin said. “That was a grim reality. You have to be committed to immersing yourself in a very different type of culture and time.”

Finding Hope Inside Star City’s Dark World

Josef Davies portrays the younger Sergei Nikulov, an engineer who works at Soviet Ground Control. Even when the government is spying on its own people, these characters find ways to persevere.

“Although it’s in the same universe, it’s a completely different world and a completely different experience,” Davies said. “I think it’s more of this setting, and then, as we’ve said before, it’s kind of character-driven, and it’s really the story of people just trying to be human and live and fight for the thing that they’re passionate about. So the oppression and the depression and everything that we’re living in, I think, it kind of just feels more of a tool to help us provide that story.”

Star City premieres on Apple TV+ on May 29, 2026.

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Netflix’s Long Story Short is an animated series that follows a Jewish family, particularly the three siblings, told in a nonlinear fashion. For the cooking event, it captured the spirit of the show as we joked and shared stories, and the hosts discussed memories, Jewish humor, grief, and how storytelling can help people to understand one another.

“What better way to remember things than food?” Bob-Waksberg said during the cooking session. “And what better way to remember family than food? It’s what the episodes are about, and that’s what today is all about.”

Lisa Edelstein added to the topic about how cooking traditions can be vital to families.

“Making food with your family, all those moments are so important,” Edelstein said. “They’re the little things that actually create and sort of capture your life.”

The event focused on learning to make knish, but it helped to open up about storytelling, identity, and empathy.

During the interview portion of the event, I discussed how the show’s lesson helped people to understand one another. Bob-Waksberg explained that even though Long Story Short is about a Jewish family, the goal was never to make something that felt exclusionary.

“I would hope that this is a show that doesn’t feel narrowly focused,” Bob-Waksberg said. “That people from all backgrounds could kind of come to it and see themselves in it, even if the specifics don’t apply, but also maybe learn something about a different kind of person perhaps.”

Edelstein added that a story’s specificity helps it become universal.

“Through the specificity of making a Jewish family, [Bob-Waksberg] is hoping to actually speak to everybody,” Edelstein said. “But you can’t pretend to be everybody to do that. You have to really dig into the culture that you’re representing.”

The interview topics included history, suffering, and why it’s important to learn about difficult times. This resulted in discussing a personal story about wanting to visit concentration camps in Poland to better understand history and being surprised by a family member’s dismissive reaction.

“If the lesson you take away is, ‘Here’s a bad thing that happened to us,’ and that’s all you take away from it, then you’re missing something,” Bob-Waksberg added. “This is what humans are capable of doing.”

Long Story Short features characters across different decades, showing how they have changed while still showing how they have remained the same. Audiences get to see how certain characters meet others for the first time, and how it can affect their lives.

“The way [Bob-Waksberg] tells the stories is sort of like the way you make friends with somebody,” Edelstein said. “You jump from story to story when you’re excited about meeting somebody new. You go from this time to that time – ‘Well, when I was a kid…’ and then later on. That’s kind of how memory works.”

“Writing about these characters at different times does force us to make choices and learn new things about them,” Bob-Waksberg added. “These characters are consistent across the run of the show. They are who they are, but you also see some of them gain confidence, while others gain resentment.”

Even when discussing heavier topics, the event’s atmosphere was light and warm overall. This was a perfect example of how Long Story Short balances humor and drama. In the end, the knish was eaten, but the takeaway is how memory, culture, and empathy can connect people.

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Jake Johnson is known for voicing Peter B. Parker in the Spider-Verse animated films. In Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, he portrays Karl, Paula’s ex-husband, who does not see her as a fit mother.

“I don’t think Peter B. Parker would like Karl at all,” Johnson tells Nerd Reactor. “I don’t think he would be interested in him. I think Karl is so in his little battle for Hazel and doing what he thinks is right that Karl’s not able to see anything else besides his reality and his truth.

“And I think he is 100% convinced he’s right. And I don’t think that’s something that Peter B. Parker finds attractive in people.”

Jake’s character believes what he’s doing is right; however, Bartlett’s character is a whole other beast. One of the most talked-about episodes in HBO’s The Last of Us series featured Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman. It showed viewers that love can bloom even in a post-apocalyptic world. In Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Bartlett portrays an antagonist who would become an obstacle for Tatiana’s Paula.

“I think he’d be awesome because I think he’s a sociopath,” Bartlett said about his Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed character if he were in The Last of Us. “I think he can distance himself from emotion, or just naturally, he just doesn’t have a lot of it. He has a very small spectrum of emotions. So I think he could get it done, and not be worried about consequences.”

David J. Rosen is the creator, executive producer and writer of the series, whose credits include Us & Them, Invasion, Sugar, and Hunters. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a series with dark and comedic elements, and it’s a balancing act throughout the series.

“I think trying to make them laugh is weirdly hard,” Rosen said. “That’s kind of how we attacked the series, actually. We can write the thriller moves, and we have to execute them. But we could know intellectually that these should line up and be good. But you can’t really intellectually know whether or not something funny will land. It’s just a whole different thing. Because of that, let’s write a bulletproof thriller, as bulletproof as we can make it. And then the humor will come from the characters and how they respond to those thriller moments.”

About Maximum Pleasure Guarantteed

Synopsis: From creator and showrunner David J. Rosen, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed follows newly divorced mom Paula (Maslany) as she falls down a dangerous rabbit hole of blackmail, murder and youth soccer. Convinced she witnessed a crime – while simultaneously struggling through a custody battle and an identity crisis – Paula begins her own investigation, one that could unravel a greater conspiracy while also holding the keys to rebuilding her family and sense of self.

Brandon Flynn (“13 Reasons Why”) and Murray Bartlett (“The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus”) also join the ensemble cast, which includes Jessy Hodges (“Barry”), Jon Michael Hill (“Elementary”), Charlie Hall (“The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”), Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg (“Charmed,” “Invasion”), Nola Wallace (The Strangers: Chapter 2, The Strangers: Chapter 3) and Dolly De Leon (“Nine Perfect Strangers,” “Triangle of Sadness”).

The post The Cast of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed on Sociopaths, Manipulation and Dark Comedy appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Nerd Reactor had the chance to chat with Valorie Curry, who portrayed Firecracker, a member of The Seven who uses her show to manipulate the masses. She talks about fans’ reactions to her shocking episode.

“It’s been pleasantly surprising because it seems to have sparked a lot of conversation about the crisis of faith that [Firecracker] goes through,” Curry tells Nerd Reactor. “It’s such a humanizing story and a relatable sort of story for a lot of people. It’s meant so much to me to hear from people who saw themselves in that. I was so happy watching it to see that it doesn’t talk down to anybody. It’s not making fun of anybody. It’s not actually making a joke of people who are having a crisis of faith, leaving a high-control religion, or leaving a political perspective. That existential crisis is treated in a very empathetic way. And that’s why I think it has resonated with so many people.”

Season 5, Episode 5 features Firecracker manipulating the public again on TV, but this time, the viewers understand what she is going through. Will she throw her former pastor under the bus, or will she try to defend her past church?

“The tear thing is interesting,” she said. “Because other than this scene, almost every time she cries, she can turn the water works on like that. They’re crocodile tears, right? She knows how to use her instrument, and none of those tears are coming from some real place. It’s like she’s choking on what she has to say, and that’s the one way that it comes out. It comes through that crack in the mask. That scene was by far the most painful scene to shoot. It was excruciating, and I think the reason it’s so painful is that she hasn’t actually decided yet. She still hasn’t decided when the camera starts rolling, and you just watch her vomit up that lie, and she hates herself.”

The finale episode of The Boys airs on May 20, 2026.

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Nerd Reactor had the chance to interview the cast of the series, and their chemistry was brought out on display in the video.

Navarro, who is known for portraying Tony Padilla in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, never thought Dungeons & Dragons would be something he would enjoy. All that changed during COVID.

“My best friend Jack tried to get me to play for about 10 years, and I really was not into it at all,” Navarro tells Nerd Reactor. “And then COVID hit, and I shared this… I deal with depression. He said, ‘You can’t be in your house during COVID and not be interacting with human beings. It’s not good for you.’ He started the campaign, and I was hooked pretty immediately.

“Fun fact, he met his now girlfriend, and they’ve been together for three years. I was hooked then. I saw the power of love in Dungeons & Dragons.”

Berrin can be heard in video games such as Dispatch and Fire Emblem Heroes, and she was a fan early on.

“Yeah, honestly, from the beginning, I love improv,” Berrin said. “I come from an improv comedy background. And improv, it’s hard to come by sometimes in these streets in this economy. And so getting to be in a space where I get to ‘yes and’ with people and con your situations with people, I can’t even count… I can’t remember the exact moment. I think that part of me has always been in love with D&D.”

Check out the first two episodes below.

Dungeon Masters will be released weekly on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM PT, starting on April 22, 2026.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Actors Join Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeon Masters Actual Play Series appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

We were invited to check out the experience before it started and chatted with the winner, Molly, as she shared how she’s going to plan the marathon. Robbie Amell, who starred in the revival series, was also in attendance to talk about the show and the event.

About Pluto TV’s The Fan Is Out There Experience

The truth is out there…and now it’s free. Pluto TV wants to find X-Philes obsessed enough to find it. With all 11 seasons of The X-Files now streaming on Pluto TV, the platform is giving them a chance at an experience even Mulder couldn’t get clearance for. One superfan winner and their chosen investigation partner will disappear into the desert for nine days to marathon the entire series inside an undisclosed, off-grid facility in Joshua Tree.

The experience features:

• A living case board to track patterns, connections, and conspiracies across all 218 episodes
• Themed provisions including black coffee, sunflower seeds, and paranormal paraphernalia
• Daily on-camera debriefing confessionals for social documentation

The post X-Files Superfan to Marathon Series for 9 Days Inside Desert Bunker appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

“I always enjoy fighting with Cush,” Capaldi tells Nerd Reactor about his scene partner. “There’s always a point where we’ve been simmering for a while, and not saying what we want to say. And there are scenes that come along where we actually tell it the way it is. So we’ve had enough. And I always enjoy those because we can sort of let go of those.”

“Yeah, I like simmering with Peter,” Jumbo added. “And then going and hitting bad guys, and then coming back and yelling at Peter, and then going and hitting bad guys. So it works for me really well.”

The action thriller features high-stakes moments, but it’s the dialogue that Jumbo cherishes.

“Oh, I love the action, but I think the dialogue on our show is amazing,” she said. “We have the most amazing scripts. We have the most amazing teams of people who sit around thinking about story and about the way these characters speak and how they place an argument. And it’s a joy to put that language in your mouth. So I would do the dialogue any day, probably over the action.”

About Criminal Record

Synopsis: From BAFTA Award nominee Paul Rutman, “Criminal Record” is a powerful, character-driven drama set in the heart of contemporary London, exploring the impossibility of policing when the truth is up for grabs. In season two, when a young man is stabbed to death at a political rally, rival police officers June Lenker and Daniel Hegarty are forced into an uneasy alliance. But what starts as a hunt for a murderer escalates into an undercover operation to foil a Far-Right bomb plot in the heart of London. Season two reunites Capaldi as ‘Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty’ and Jumbo as ‘Detective Sergeant June Lenker.’

Dustin Demri-Burns, Luca Pasqualino, Luther Ford, Lyndsey Marshal and Peter Sullivan join the cast in addition to the returning ensemble that includes Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore and Charlie Creed-Miles.

The eight-episode, season two of Criminal Record debuts the first episode on Wednesday, April 22, with new episodes weekly until Wednesday, June 10.

The post Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo on Tension, Chemistry, and ‘Simmering’ Through Criminal Record appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Isabella Gomez has been capturing fans’ hearts, going all the way back to the Netflix hit series One Day at a Time. She joins Shrinking Season 3 as Marisol, Sean’s (Luke Tennie) first love, who is now reentering his life, and brings the perfect energy and chemistry to even further enhance the show’s dynamic cast. She was handpicked for the role by showrunner Bill Lawrence after they previously worked together on Head of the Class, and from her first appearance this season, it’s easy to see why.

We got to talk all about building her chemistry with Luke, her character’s possible backstory, where we hope to see the couple go next season, and much more.

“Luke and I talked quite a bit about what it looks like to be first loves with someone and to have that kind of history,” said Gomez. “With all that has gone down with Sean, and also we don’t know much about Marisol, what does that look like to love each other and have that kind of history and then come back to each other at this point in life? And the different coping mechanisms like how much he wants to talk things out and be very by the book and Marisol is more free spirited. It’s very art imitates life.”

The end of Season 3 leaves Sean in a very hopeful and optimistic place starting a new job and moving into a new apartment, which is extremely rewarding after following his therapy journey the past two seasons. So where could things go for the couple from here?

“I’ve been pitching a wedding from day one,” said Gomez. “Shrinking seems to have a wedding per season. But there’s so much going on. Sean moves in with his friend Jorge (Trey Santiago-Hudson), and what does that mean for this couple? I think those conversations and conflicts aren’t always modeled for us in media, showing how even when you’re in a happy, loving relationship, there will still be a lot of trial and error.”

There’s one more idea Gomez has up her sleeve. “My real dream is for Marisol and Sean to have couples therapy next season so that we have to go to Harrison Ford to fix us,” she added.

I think we’re all fully on board with that possible storyline, and Season 4 can’t come soon enough.

Shrinking Season 3 is now streaming in full on Apple TV.

The post Isabella Gomez Breaks Down Her Shrinking Love Story appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

We talked about how she portrays a mental health condition with equal parts comedy and respect, getting used to making intense eye contact with Jason Segel, her favorite day on set when Wally “accidentally” kidnaps her neighbor’s dog, and much more.

Reflecting on when she joined the show at the beginning of season one, Condict said, “I went and did my part on the first day of the first season, and at the beginning of the day, so it was like everybody’s first day of school. And that was a really cool, fun vibe to be there right at the beginning. I felt like I was in on it. It was my first time ever working with Bill [Lawrence]. It was my first time working with Jason, of course. And they were just so warm. I think I was nervous to meet Jason because he’s so famous, and when I went into the room, I met him, made eye contact with him, and hugged him. I could feel his energy, and he was just very grounding and wonderful.”

As a viewer, I am always impressed by how laugh-out-loud funny the therapy scenes are in Shrinking while still treating these very real mental health conditions in a very delicate and thoughtful way. I think that it all goes back to the impeccable writing and casting, and Condict agrees. She commented, “I’m a person who in my life has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and so I think it feels like a very near thing. It’s just a different mirror in the fun house we’re all trapped in. I think a lot of OCD is a product of anxiety or vice versa. So I think I mainly just channeled my own anxiety and fears and nervousness about stuff, but it’s so well written that it feels very natural to say all the stuff that they’ve crafted.”

With season four of Shrinking officially underway, I’m eagerly awaiting any news on the future of Wally’s character. One of my favorite questions to ask actors is to throw out their ideas for a dream spinoff for their character. Condict had two great concepts in mind – either Wally doing immersion therapy by going to work somewhere deep in nature like Yosemite, or turning some of her OCD traits into a successful organization business a la The Home Edit. I would absolutely tune in for countless episodes of either one.

Tune into our full conversation in the video above. The 11-episode third season of Shrinking is now streaming in full on Apple TV.

The post How Kimberly Condict Made Wally a Fan Favorite on Shrinking appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

In the revival series, Malcolm has been living a peaceful life away from his birth family. He has a daughter and a girlfriend, and life couldn’t be better. Kiana Madeira portrays Tristan, Malcolm’s girlfriend, who is thrust into the chaos that is Malcolm’s childhood family.

“I was such a huge fan growing up, so I knew what I was getting myself into,” Madeira told Nerd Reactor. “But I just love that they didn’t lose that. It’s been almost 20 years, and the actors themselves just jumped into the character so effortlessly. The writing, like Linwood Boomer, our creator and executive producer, stayed so true to the heart of the original series. I think fans are gonna love it for that reason, like we really don’t lose that chaos and that energy, which is like what makes Malcolm in the Middle what it is.”

While Malcolm’s family isn’t perfect, at the heart of it, the family still cares for each other.

“Your family doesn’t have to be perfect, because no family is perfect,” she explained. “There’s going to be dysfunction, there’s going to be chaos, but at the heart, if you just have love for one another, you can overcome anything. That’s what I love about this family, it’s so relatable.”

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.

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