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Entertainment

‘The Boys’ are back on Prime, play Diablo Immortal and more weekend recs

Don’t know what to do this weekend? We’ve got you covered.

Elisabeth Moss in Shining Girls, Diablo Immortal, and the creators of People Make Games

Our favorite picks for your weekend pleasure.

Image: Apple TV+; Blizzard Entertainment; The Washington Post

“Shining Girls” and “The Boys” are keeping us busy this week. But only when we’re not getting pummeled in Diablo Immortal, one of the best entries in the franchise. And the best part? It’s free.

‘The Boys’ Season Three is out now

Amazon’s adaptation of the very graphic comic series The Boys is back for a third season, with the first three episodes having dropped last week and the fourth premiering today. Just when you thought the show couldn’t get more ridiculous, disturbing and over-the-top, the Season Three premiere puts that concern to bed with an opening scene that perfectly captures the show’s mix of dark humor and ultra-violent spectacle. Squeamish viewers should probably steer clear of “The Boys,” but for those who like the series’ focus on corrupt, capitalistic superheroes who abuse their power, so far this season is delivering.

Diablo Immortal feels at home on mobile

The latest game from Blizzard Entertainment, and the struggling studio’s first new release in more than six years, is the mobile-first Diablo Immortal, a free-to-play take on the classic action role-playing series. While many fans have complained of the game’s microtransactions, a number of die-hard Diablo fans say it’s one of the best entries in the hack-and-slash franchise and one of the first premium mobile games that feels at home on a smartphone screen. You can play it on PC if you like, but Immortal is at the very least worth a try on your phone if you’ve ever enjoyed a Diablo game, especially because it costs nothing to download and play.

Don’t read about ‘Shining Girls’ before watching

Following in the vein of popular miniseries thrillers like HBO’s “Sharp Objects” and USA’s “The Sinner,” Apple TV+’s new eight-episode adaptation of the 2013 novel from author Lauren Beukes has a lot going for it. The show has the excellent Elisabeth Moss in the lead role as a newspaper archivist reeling from a violent assault, a detestable Jamie Bell as a villainous serial killer hunting Chicago women across decades, and a truly mind-bending narrative that might make your head hurt a little. It’s best to go into “Shining Girls” without reading much about it; not knowing the plot until it slowly unfolds makes the show’s big reveals and many twists much more rewarding.

The people behind People Make Games

Patreon-funded YouTube channel People Make Games has made a major splash in games journalism in just a few short years, with high-profile exposés on Roblox’s exploitation of child creators and an explosive video on abusive indie game personalities. This week The Washington Post’s Nathan Grayson published a profile of the U.K.-based trio behind the enterprise. In the piece, Grayson weaves a telling narrative about the rise of reader-supported journalism that’s packaged and delivered in compelling new formats for an audience that spends little to none of its time reading traditional news sites.

A version of this story also appeared in today’s Entertainment newsletter; subscribe here.

 Nick Statt

Nick Statt is Protocol's video game reporter. Prior to joining Protocol, he was news editor at The Verge covering the gaming industry, mobile apps and antitrust out of San Francisco, in addition to managing coverage of Silicon Valley tech giants and startups. He now resides in Rochester, New York, home of the garbage plate and, completely coincidentally, the World Video Game Hall of Fame. He can be reached at nstatt@protocol.com.

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