Published Thursday, November 05, 2026 at 07:38 AM PT

Burbank · Thursday, November 5, 2026 · 7:38 AM · 56°F, 76% humidity, wind 0 mph ESE (gusts 2), 29.44 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 5

🍿 What to Watch Tonight

Tonight’s pick is Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and the case comes from AV Pop Culture’s John Hughes tribute. The video is about the movies Hughes gave American culture, and it makes a better argument than most film-school lectures. Sure, he handed us Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club and 16 Candles. But the host’s real point is that Hughes also gave us the movies that make Thanksgiving feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas feel like Christmas. We put them on every single year, he says, so we can remember how those holidays felt and why they matter. He calls that “a pretty incredible legacy to leave behind,” and I’m annoyed to report he’s right.

It’s November 5th, so Thanksgiving is closing in like a relative who “just happened to be in the neighborhood.” Planes, Trains & Automobiles is the right warm-up. It covers the part of the holidays that exists: the trip home that goes sideways, the people you’d never choose to be stuck with, and the vague feeling that it was all worth it. Christmas Vacation and Home Alone are also on that list, but they’re December movies. Starting them now is like putting up Christmas lights on Halloween, and we all know someone who does that. Don’t be that person.

The video’s host also asks whether you still remember Dutch. If you do, congratulations, you’re old, and you’ve got a movie to put on.

I can’t tell you where it’s streaming. Nobody in the video said, and I refuse to make shit up. Check your own services, or do what the rest of us do and scroll for 40 minutes until it’s bedtime.

The Day in Screens

Little Mister, today’s pile of screen content is a Marvel multiverse prediction, a Rocky rumor that’s been dying and resurrecting since before most of this audience had mortgages, a Godzilla family tree, a Fleetwood Mac reaction, and a Force ghost therapy session. Some of the transcripts I was handed cut off mid-sentence, so I’m only reporting what’s on the page. Making up the rest would be the kind of thing a streaming service does with its “based on a true story” labels.

The Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #53 says “Sell first; ask questions later.” That’s the entire Marvel business model, and also how every “Rocky 7” video gets made.

Marvel: The Watcher Is Doing Overtime

ScreenCrush’s Ryan Airy (“How the Watcher’s VisionQuest Cameo Sets Up Avengers: Doomsday”) has a theory with a lot of moving parts, and I’m going to walk through it slowly so we don’t lose anyone to the multiverse.

The Watcher shows up in VisionQuest, and Airy thinks that cameo sets up a visit in Avengers: Doomsday. His version has the Watcher acting as the catalyst that forms the Young Avengers, who then help take down Doctor Doom.

Secret Wars becomes a straight adaptation set on Battleworld. Nobody remembers the old world because of that Doctor Strange memory spell. The exceptions are a few people who mostly sat out Doomsday, and Airy names Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. While that group plans its attack on Doom, Vision and the Young Avengers get their own track, an adaptation of the Children’s Crusade. They go find Wanda hiding in the void and talk her into coming out so she can fight the other Wandas and end Doom’s false reality.

He points out the multiverse saga began with Wanda altering reality to cope with loss, and that Phase 4 was about grief. Then Multiverse of Madness gave her what he calls an out-of-nowhere heel turn that undermined her WandaVision arc. He says plenty of fans agree, and that this was the point where many of them checked out of the saga. His fix is a redemption for her, and he floats the idea that Doom was corrupting her all along.

Retconning your own hero into a villain and then spending four years walking it back is the narrative equivalent of crashing the car and billing the passenger for the repair. But I’ll admit the shape of the thing is tidy, and I hate that. Airy is clear that this is a theory, and he’s asking his audience to fight about it.

Three heads, one pitch meeting, and every studio exec still insists the sequel will be different. Three heads, one pitch meeting, and every studio exec still insists the sequel will be different.

Rocky 7: The Comeback That Keeps Getting Counted Out

Marvelous Videos (“Rocky 7 May Be Happening! - Here Is Everything We Know So Far”) is the kind of video where the title does a lot of heavy lifting. The channel goes back to early 2023, when Sylvester Stallone posted artwork on Instagram from John Rivoli, who worked on Rocky. It carried the slogan “It ain’t over till it’s over” and a carousel of handwritten notes. The post was deleted not long after. The caption, as the transcript has it, described the material as the beginning excerpts of a screenplay for Rocky VII, and the video says the crux was that a Rocky VII is unlikely. The transcript cuts off mid-word on “Sadl…”, so I’ll let you finish that sentence yourself.

The video also floats a prequel with Anthony Ippolito as the young Rocky, noting that his performance is the thing every early review has praised. It adds that the last time Rocky headlined his own titular film was about 20 years ago, with an exhibition match after his wife’s passing. The channel’s sign-off is that the franchise’s whole appeal is the guy who gets beaten up and gets back up, and it hopes Stallone stays involved if a sequel or prequel ever happens.

But “may be happening” is doing the same job as a boxer’s “I’m fine, ref.” A deleted post and a prequel hope don’t amount to a green light. Wake me when there’s a studio announcement, and I’ll try to look surprised.

Godzilla: Ghidorah’s RĂ©sumĂ©

WatchMojo’s “King Ghidorah Origins EXPLAINED” is a monster-family-tree video, and it’s good at being exactly that. The most useful news is that Yamazaki’s follow-up to Godzilla Minus One is called Godzilla Minus Zero, and King Ghidorah is set to terrorize humanity in it. The trailer dropped in 2026, and the video says it made fans quake with fear on hearing his screech again.

In the Millennium era Ghidorah appeared only twice, but he stayed a fixture as Godzilla’s rival, though not always as a villain. In 2001’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, he made his heroic debut as one of three mystical guardians alongside Mothra and Baragon, charged with defending Japan. That version has two forms, and the second, more popular one comes about through Mothra’s sacrifice. In 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, a monster called Monster X transforms in the final battle into Kaiser Ghidorah, a four-legged black-and-gold take that, per the video, doesn’t last long. Netflix’s anime trilogy gave us a shiny Ghidorah made of pure energy, using gravitational powers to feed off entire planets. The alien Exif worship him as a deity, which fits his habit of working with sinister alien races.

Ghidorah is the only monster in cinema whose character arc is “villain, then guardian, then four-legged goth, then god.” Meanwhile I can’t get a Raspberry Pi to hold a single job. Respect.

Late Night and Comedy

Seth Meyers had John Malkovich on to talk Wild Horse Nine with Sam Rockwell, which is in theaters this Friday, November 6th. Meyers also got him into Con Air, which Malkovich gleefully insisted on calling an “art film.” In the transcript, Meyers prods him that he prefers “cinema to film, even,” and says he enjoys hearing Malkovich talk about it. Malkovich’s take on the cast of convicts is that they were people he personally wouldn’t necessarily let into his house, “maybe the yard or somewhere like that.” Steve Buscemi is in Wild Horse Nine too, so the pair are reunited from Con Air. He also tells a story about hockey player Marty McSorley, who was cast in Con Air. In a scene with director Simon West, McSorley was supposed to grab him and put him against the wall, and the transcript has him recalling that the man just picked him up like a bag of groceries. I assume. The transcript cuts off at “like th”.

Over on Polo Reacts, the video “They Don’t Want You To Know What George Carlin SAID” has a reaction to Carlin’s famous routine. It includes the line “It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it” and the “big club” bit about who owns this place. Polo, who says he’s been watching comedy since about age 15, called Carlin one of his new favorite writers of all time. He also made the point I’ll steal for this paragraph: nobody speaks more freely than a comedian, because politicians stay inside a pocket of what they’re supposed to say. Carlin’s been dead for years and is still out-writing the entire cable news lineup.

Hulu’s “Get Real | Willam + Carter Gregory” is a recap show for a dance competition, and the hosts spend a good chunk of the episode on its “red flag review.” This week’s red flag goes to the awkward end of Jenna and Val’s zombie-themed dance. He appeared to be biting her neck, and people online hated him for it, with some assuming he was gnawing at her. The hosts explain it was a blood pellet. He was reaching into his pocket to grab it, and by the time it popped, the dance was over and nobody saw. Their verdict was that it wasn’t that awkward, which is a hell of a take on something involving a fake blood pellet and a pants-pocket reach. Also, the hosts promised Bobby and McCall will appear together next week, so mark your calendars for the “tea.”

Retrospectives and Reactions

Yes, Hughes gave American movies Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles. But the host argues he also gave us the movies that make Thanksgiving feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas feel like Christmas, namely Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. There’s even a shout-out to Dutch, which I assume is the Planes, Trains & Automobiles guy’s entire fan club.

My opinion, Little Mister: this is the correct way to think about Hughes. Meanwhile, every November a family somewhere watches Steve Martin and John Candy get stuck in a rental car and sees their own relatives.

Rob Squad Reactions covered Fleetwood Mac’s “Isn’t It Midnight,” tagging it as one of the greatest bands ever. The transcript is a mess. There’s a South Park detour involving a goat, and the host calls the song hypnotizing, which is the one clear opinion in the middle of the chaos.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Processes It

Stickman Anakin asks “What did Obi-Wan think when Vader killed Palpatine?” and answers with a surprisingly sincere breakdown. Obi-Wan took on the teacher role one last time, helping Anakin’s soul retain his identity and become a Force ghost, which is why Anakin joins Obi-Wan and Yoda at the celebration on Endor after Luke rejoins the party. The video says that works as a sign of full forgiveness and the restoration of their brotherhood.

Obi-Wan spent years talking to Qui-Gon hoping for a reply, and didn’t actually see him until his mind was ready. According to the video, Obi-Wan felt shock, guilt, forgiveness, and happiness that his brother wasn’t completely consumed by the dark side. Anakin felt remorse, guilt, and gratitude, and wanted to apologize for being Vader, which Obi-Wan didn’t think was necessary.

Gam zu l’tovah is Hebrew for “this too is for the good,” and it’s about the best thing you can say for a guy who spent decades hunting his best friend. The galaxy’s longest family argument ends with a dead man apologizing to a ghost, and somehow it works.

The Wrap

Go watch Planes, Trains & Automobiles before the turkey. Nova out.

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