Industry to Blue Velvet: the week in rave reviews

The high-finance melodrama returns, darker than ever, and David Lynch’s nightmare in suburbia gets another outing in the cinema. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviewsBBC iPlayer from MondaySummed up in a sentence The banking drama returns with its best series ever – which is notably darker and more debauched.What our reviewer said “Truly top-tier television that’s surely destined for end-of-year lists, a serious feat when we’re barely a week into January.” Hannah J DaviesRead the full reviewParamount+Summed up in a sentence A deeply engaging, psychologically complex thriller about a kidnapped teen, starring Alfie Allen as a monstrous predator.What our reviewer said “A much more deeply engaging and psychologically complex thriller than we customarily expect from such a setup, and – in asking what it really means to survive an act of profound violence – harrowing in a more valuable way

Almost 50 writers boycott Adelaide festival after it dumps pro-Palestine academic Randa Abdel-Fattah

The Adelaide festival has pulled down part of its website as dozens of speakers said they were boycotting writers’ week, after Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah was dumped from the lineup with the board citing “cultural sensitivity” concerns in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.The page promoting the schedule of authors, journalists, academics and commentators was “unpublished” on Friday following widespread condemnation of the board’s decision to remove Abdel-Fattah.“In respect of the wishes of the writers who have recently indicated their withdrawal from the writers’ week 2026 program, we have temporarily unpublished the list of participants and events while we work through changes to the website,” the festival posted online.By Friday afternoon, 47 participants had withdrawn, with more believed to be coordinating their exit announcements with fellow speakers.Writers Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser, authors Drusilla Modjeska and Melissa Lucashenko along with Stella award-winning poet Evelyn Araluen were boycotting the event

Seth Meyers on Trump officials justifying Venezuela assault: ‘Lamest dorks on the planet’

Late-night hosts mocked the Trump administration’s bullish rhetoric on Greenland after the surprise takeover of Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.“If you were wondering how the rest of the world feels about Trump claiming he has unilateral power to attack a sovereign nation and kidnap its leader, it turns out they’re not exactly thrilled,” said Seth Meyers on Wednesday’s Late Night, five days after the Trump administration deposed Maduro and brought the Venezuelan president and his wife to New York to face federal drug-trafficking charges.Top UN officials warned that the shock military intervention most likely violated international law and constituted a dangerous precedent.“So there’s deep concern within the international community over Trump’s claim that the US now runs Venezuela,” Meyers explained. “This a fraught moment that requires sophisticated diplomacy from a seasoned and experienced statesman

One Battle After Another and The Studio lead Actor awards nominations

One Battle After Another and The Studio lead the nominations for this year’s Actor awards.The Actor awards were previously known as the Screen Actors Guild (Sag) awards but were renamed last year. The name change was to provide “clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about”, according to those involved.Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture comedy thriller received seven nominations for cast members Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn, as well as for the acting and stunt ensemble.The $130m budget film was also named best picture at last weekend’s Critics Choice awards and leads the nominations for this weekend’s Golden Globes

Dolly, Dreamgirls and Daniel Radcliffe: the biggest Broadway shows of 2026

The year 2025 found Broadway at an inflection point – New York theater finally fully rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, as the 2024-2025 season became the highest-grossing of all time, with $1.89bn in tickets sold thanks in part to a new generation of stars and fans. But with a record box office came record ticket prices, as Hollywood stars from Denzel Washington to George Clooney commanded sums pushing four figures for orchestra seating. This year feels relatively less Hollywood-y, though no less starry, with a healthy mix of revivals, new material and buzzy transfers on the calendar. Here are 12 of the most anticipated Broadway shows in 2026

Jon Stewart on Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela: ‘This is all exhausting’

Late-night hosts tore into the Trump administration’s surprise military attack on Caracas, capture of president Nicolás Maduro and vague plans to “run” Venezuela.Jon Stewart wasted no time in his first Daily Show appearance of 2026, immediately digging into Donald Trump’s shock decision to remove Maduro from power in the early hours of 2 January, which more than a dozen countries condemned as a “crime of aggression” to the UN.“Now, obviously, this is actually a very fraught moment for the world,” he said on Monday evening. “It is highly unusual for any government, any sovereign nation, to violate the airspace and territory of another sovereign nation and hit the grab and go on their president.“Look, no one knows how this operation is gonna work out,” he added