How Is a Movie This Dreadful Worth $400 Million?

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There are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.

We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.

Skip: The Exorcist: Believer

The Exorcist: Believer is so bad that it’ll make you wish a demon would possess you just to put you out of your misery. Lacking proper scares, an engaging plot, and a good Ellen Burstyn role, this sequel begs the question: Did a studio really spend $400 million for this?

Here’s Nick Schager’s take:

“As two of the masterminds behind Eastbound and Down, Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green are responsible for some of modern television’s most outrageously uninhibited and amusing comedies. Regrettably, their attempts to revitalize classic horror franchises—first with their recent trio of Halloween reboot-sequels, and now with The Exorcist: Believer, the initial installment of a planned trilogy—leave much to be desired. Rehashing with the aid of original series stars, their scary-movie ventures play like creatively unnecessary and uninspired IP extensions, and that goes double for their latest, which brings back Ellen Burstyn for a tale of possessed kids and tormented adults that, for all the wrong reasons, proves hellish.

As with his Halloween efforts, director Green’s The Exorcist: Believer (in theaters Oct. 6) is a direct follow-up to the franchise’s maiden entry; all pre-existing sequels have been erased from its fictional timeline. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) takes snapshots on the beach as his pregnant wife shops at the market and is led by a child to a quasi-voodoo ceremony, where she receives ‘the most beautiful blessing of protection for Angela.’ Unfortunately, while her unborn infant daughter is defended by a higher power, her mother isn’t, and in a subsequent earthquake, she’s critically hurt. Victor is told by doctors that he must choose between saving his spouse and his child—due to injuries that conveniently go unexplained—at which point the film cuts to present-day Percy, Georgia, where Victor is a single dad caring for middle-schooler Angela (Lidya Jewett).”

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See: Great British Baking Show Season 11

Great British Baking Show returns lighter on its feet in Season 11, swapping the horribly problematic country-based challenges and instead opting for a confectionary competition filled with deliciously dirty jokes and even more delectable pastries.

Here’s Fletcher Peters’ take:

“Sex jokes and graphic stabbing—who knew The Great British Baking Show would come to this? The beloved baking competition is back for Season 11 on Netflix, featuring new host Alison Hammond, who joins Noel Fielding in the cozy baking tent. Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood return to judge, offer handshakes, and hug. Yes—the stony Hollywood gives a contestant a hug in the first episode of the season. Things have changed over in the GBBS world.

First on the docket for this installment of Baking Show is Cake Week, which asked the bakers to create vertical cakes in the signature round and a familiar chocolate raspberry loaf for the technical. Where have we seen those raspberry swirls before? Oh, it’s the same dish from the GBBS opening credits! But when it came time for the showstopper challenge, all hell broke loose in the tent. The new contestants were asked to create a cake in the shape of an animal. For example: One baker sculpted an elegant robin. Another splashed frosting on his set-up to look like bright blue waves, chiseling an orca coming out of the ocean. Cows, lobsters, and turtles were also involved.”

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Skip: She Came to Me

She Came to Me may just be proof that Anne Hathaway’s agent is sabotaging her. This dreary dramedy will lure you in with its promise of a great New York story, only to dash it away with every tedious plot twist and head-scratching line of dialogue.

Here’s Coleman Spilde’s take:

“Given that the title card of She Came to Me is drenched in bubbling red liquid, one might think that the latest film from writer-director Rebecca Miller (in theaters Oct. 6) would be a merlot-soaked romantic dramedy. It turns out that the film is more red herring than red wine, using its cast of beloved, seasoned actors as little more than pawns to attract an audience to a movie wholly undeserving of their charm and talents. Even the great Anne Hathaway, no stranger to being the best part of a terrible movie, is incapable of saving this dreck from itself, standing idly by as the film spins hopelessly in circles. The result is one of the year’s biggest letdowns thus far.

She Came to Me holds great promise in its blissfully strange plot: An opera composer’s (Peter Dinklage) therapist-turned-wife (Hathaway) encourages him to explore the city, only to find inspiration in the arms of a dingy tugboat operator (Marisa Tomei). But it quickly becomes clear that Miller isn’t quite sure what to do with her own intriguing idea. Characters and plotlines apathetically intersect, and their interactions’ varying consequences make the film feel tonally erratic throughout its runtime. Though Hathaway manages to microdose charisma to become the film’s sole compelling performance, even she is undercut at every turn by the bland screenplay.”

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See: Our Flag Means Death Season 2

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 maintains the cult hit’s reputation for balancing the hilarious with the tender, probing deeper into the relationship dynamics of its characters with a staggering, charming confidence. Big praise for a show about pirates, but it’s true!

Here’s Kirsten Carey’s take:

“You could make a compelling argument that the first season of Our Flag Means Death was the surprise sensation of 2022. You could also make the argument that it was the best show of 2022. I, personally, would even go so far as to say OFMD is about as close to a perfect show as humans are capable of producing. It’s funny; it’s sincere and heartfelt; the writing is fantastic; the cast is amazing; it’s about pirates. Its creators’ care and enthusiasm was self-evident, and OFMD exploded into one of the most heart-warming and wholesome fan cultures on the internet, complete with cast members gushing over fan art and sharing recipes, seemingly overnight.

That fandom was left hanging for months last year, as HBO, subject to a merger from hell, took its sweet time to renew its new cult classic. Fans online actively petitioned HBO to bring the show back, keeping #RenewOurFlagMeansDeath trending weeks after the finale. Finally, months after the first season’s tantalizing cliff-hanger, OFMD was renewed in June 2022. And ahead of its Oct. 5 premiere on Max, I’m ecstatic and relieved to report that Season 2 does not disappoint.”

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