It’s been a busy week, so let’s not beat around the bush. These are the news stories and announcements that stood out for us from the worlds of television, film, gaming, and comics.

Television

When it comes to acknowledging excellence on the small screen, the Emmy Awards have been struggling with relevance for some time – mostly because they get stuck rewarding their same network TV favourites year after year. Still, in recent times, the Television Academy has lessened their resistance to series from streaming services, and, well, people do still pay attention to who takes home the Emmy statuette in key categories.

You can check out the full nominees’ list here, or everything by category here. A short summary is that family drama Succession is the most-nominated programme of 2022, with 25 nods. Comedies Ted Lasso and The White Lotus both came in second with 20 nominations.

Personally, we’re sad not to see any love for Midnight Mass and Sadie Sink’s heartwrenching performance in Stranger Things S4 (the series did earn 13 nominations, however, including Best Prosthetic Makeup). That said, we’re happy to see Yellowjackets (7 noms), Hacks (17 noms), Severance (14 noms), Arcane in the Outstanding Animated Program category, and acknowledgement for non-English language shows in the form of the Squid Game phenomenon, with 14 nominations – including Outstanding Drama Series 2022.

Now this is more like it. The main teaser for Amazon Prime Video’s mega-ultra-expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has dropped, and it looks much more engaging.

Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, high fantasy epic The Rings of Power covers all the major events of Middle-earth’s Second Age. What starts as an age of peace and prosperity for all inhabitants starts to succumb to shadow. Though the series features a large ensemble cast, one notable, and recognisable, figure is Elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) who believes evil is returning, and is ready to face it head on.

For the record, the Second Age covers the forging of the Rings of Power; the rise of Dark Lord Sauron; the fall of mankind’s greatest civilisation, the island kingdom of Númenor; and the last alliance between Elves and Men.

The eight-episode first season of The Rings of Power starts screening from 2 September.

On the TV news tidbits front, there’s a teased release date window for HBO Max’s The Last of Us video game adaptation; Netflix’s global fan event Tudum is back in September; and a third prominent cast member won’t return for Season 4 of Sex Education.

Film

Not hired to star in the Blade remake? Make your own vampire hunter movie, but make it an action comedy. Day Shift stars Jamie Foxx as a blue collar dad, whose San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income: exterminating vampires. That said, it’s still a struggle to make ends meet. Dave Franco and Snoop Dogg are also in the cast.

Day Shift comes to Netflix on 12 August.

I mean, they made the Bombshell movie pretty quickly (about CEO Roger Ailes’s sexual harrassment at Fox News), so a film about the Hollywood-shaking Harvey Weinstein abuse scandal seems pretty timeous. Based on the true story, and 2019 book of the same name, She Said depicts the work done by journalists Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Muligan) to break the story of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations. On a greater social level, the allegations served as a catalyst for the #MeToo movement.

She Said releases in cinemas from 18 November.

Gaming

PlayStation is introducing a free loyalty programme for its fans. By joining PlayStation Stars, members will be able to earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities. In addition to digital collectibles, loyalty points are up for grabs, and these can be redeemed in a catalog that may include PSN wallet funds and select PlayStation Store products. PlayStation Plus members will also be able to earn points via PlayStation Store purchases.

It’ll be interesting to see how many PlayStation Stars benefits reach South African gamers. In comparison, the Microsoft Rewards programme, which has an Xbox point-earning component through digital game purchases and punch card challenges, has never been available locally.

PlayStation Stars will launch later this year in phased regional rollouts. More here.

Oh, hi, Bayonetta 3. It’s been a very long time coming – the game was announced back in 2017 – but we finally have a release date for this over-the-top action adventure sequel: 28 October 2022.

In Bayonetta 3, our witchy heroine must use her signature guns and magical powers to defeat man-made bioweapons called Homunculi. Along the way she’ll use new abilities, and meet a bunch of alternate, fabulously attired Bayonettas, while players will also assume the role of Viola, a feisty witch in training who fights with a sword and demon companion called Cheshire.

Bayonetta 3 is a Nintendo Switch exclusive. It’s notable for including a new “Naive Angel Mode,” which, among other things, covers Bayonetta’s nudity whenever she unleashes Wicked Weaves, a power that leaves her without clothes. Because of course.

In gaming news tidbits, Supermassive Games, the makers of mo-cap narrative games The Quarry, Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, have been fully acquired by Nordisk Games.

Meanwhile, EA’s next Skate game will be a free-to-play live-service game, possibly with a mobile component.

And if you’re a pet lover riding high on Stray hype, you can now kit out your kitty with a limited edition Stray Travel Cat collection of harnesses and backpacks. These come from premium cat travel brand, Travel Cat. Find the range here.

Books & Comics

Maybe it’s to capitalise on its own upcoming Netflix film adaptation. Or maybe it’s because of the popularity of definitely-do-not-admire superheroes in The Boys. Either way, Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, where the world’s greatest superhero turns genocidal, is making a comeback in 2023 with a new comic series from BOOM! Studios. Original series artist Peter Krause is returning as well. Learn more about the revival here.

The announcement is part of a new Kickstarter campaign for The Complete Irredeemable Deluxe Edition Library, a first time bundling of Irredeemable, Incorruptible, and their spiritual successor Insufferable. Both hardcover and digital collections are on offer for backers.

Irredeemable debuted in April 2009, and ran for 37 issues until May 2012. Spin-off Incorruptible ended its run in the same year. One decade later, it’s your chance to experience the entire saga in a single, convenient collection.