• Spider-Noir launched on Amazon Prime Video on May 27 and has set an all-time Marvel audience score record on Rotten Tomatoes: 91% from critics and 92% from audiences — higher than X-Men ’97, the original Netflix Daredevil, and every MCU series
• Nicolas Cage plays Ben "The Spider" Reilly, a seasoned private detective in 1930s New York who moonlights as a masked superhero; the show is not an MCU series but connects to the larger Marvel multiverse
• The supporting cast includes Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson; the show was produced by the producers of the Spider-Verse films
• Reviews highlight Cage’s physical comedy and character work — he does in-character impressions of Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart as disguises — as a major factor in the show’s success
• The Financial Times gave it 4/5: "well-crafted enough, adult enough, and just about original enough, to offer a deserved moment of reprieve"; the Daily Telegraph also gave it 4/5

Nobody quite knew what to make of Spider-Noir before it launched. A 1930s noir take on Spider-Man, starring Nicolas Cage, on Amazon Prime Video — it was ambitious in the specific way that can go either beautifully right or memorably wrong.

It went right. The series debuted Wednesday on Prime Video and has already done something no Marvel project has done before: it set the all-time audience score record on Rotten Tomatoes across all Marvel properties. Per Forbes, Spider-Noir sits at a 91% critic score and 92% audience score — placing it above every Marvel series including the beloved X-Men ’97 (91% audience), the original Netflix Daredevil (90%), and Agents of SHIELD (91%).

The show stars Cage as Ben Reilly, a world-weary private eye working in Depression-era New York who leads a secret life as the city’s only masked superhero, known as "The Spider." The series leans hard into its noir influences — black-and-white-tinged visuals, voiceover narration, jazz-era New York — and uses the aesthetic as a foundation rather than a gimmick.

What the Critics Are Saying

The Financial Times gave it four out of five stars: "Audiences have had enough of the churn of movie sequels and their declining quality. But shows like this are well-crafted enough, adult enough, and just about original enough, to offer a deserved moment of reprieve." The Daily Telegraph matched the score: "Spider-Noir is as much a tribute to the golden era of sleuthing flicks as it is to caped crusaders getting their tights in a twist."

Not every review was glowing — per Just Jared’s roundup, Vulture called it "just another disposable exercise in IP maintenance," and the LA Times described it as "something of a stunt." But those were outliers in an otherwise strong reception.

The Cage Factor

Multiple reviews single out Cage’s performance as the engine that makes the show work — specifically, the physical and vocal creativity he brings to Ben Reilly’s habit of adopting disguises. In one episode, he slips into a full Peter Lorre impression — voice, posture, the hand on the back of the head — to talk his way past a suspicious doctor. In another, he channels Humphrey Bogart, flipping up his hat brim, donning thick glasses, and inventing a character called Pete the maintenance man. In a third, he becomes a bumbling Jimmy Stewart type to get past hospital staff.

It’s the kind of unhinged, committed Cage performance that audiences tend to reward, and in this case it’s calibrated to the material in a way that doesn’t feel like a joke.

The show was produced by the team behind the Spider-Verse animated films and, per early analysis of the series, does quietly connect to the broader Marvel multiverse — though it’s not part of the MCU proper. Season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video.

The post Nicolas Cage’s ‘Spider-Noir’ Just Broke a Marvel Record on Rotten Tomatoes — and the Reviews Explain Why appeared first on Cream.

• Amazon officially renewed Jury Duty for a third season at its upfronts presentation on May 11.
• Prime Video’s global head of TV Peter Friedlander made the announcement — no setting or scenario has been confirmed yet.
• The creative team from seasons one and two may or may not return; conversations about season 3 began around the start of 2026.
• Season 2 star Anthony Norman joined original mark Ronald Gladden in the franchise’s hall of unwitting heroes.
• Executive producer Chris Kula teased a potential idea: a fake TV show where someone is duped into giving a heartfelt speech for something that doesn’t exist.

Someone new is about to have their life turned completely upside down — and they won’t even know it’s happening. Amazon has officially renewed Jury Duty for a third season, with Prime Video’s global head of TV Peter Friedlander making the announcement at the streamer’s upfronts presentation on Monday.

Naturally, Friedlander didn’t breathe a word about where the show might be set or who the next unsuspecting civilian will be. That’s kind of the whole point.

The docu-hoax comedy, created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, has built its entire identity around one beautifully simple (and wildly complicated) premise: drop a real, unknowing person into a completely fabricated world staffed by 24/7 actors, and see what happens. The first season, which premiered in 2023, put Ronald Gladden through a fake civil trial where every juror — including James Marsden, playing himself — was in on the joke except him. It won a Peabody, earned four Emmy nominations including comedy series and comedy supporting actor for Marsden, and landed two Golden Globe nods.

What Happened in Season 2

Season 2, titled Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, relocated the concept to the annual offsite of a family-owned hot sauce company called Rockin’ Grandma’s. Anthony Norman was brought in as a temp worker and told a documentary crew was filming a leadership transition story — founder Doug handing things off to his slacker son, Dougie Jr. What Norman didn’t know was that every single person around him, from Doug to the intern in the corner, was a trained actor hitting scripted beats.

The season wrapped April 3, and its finale delivered a genuinely moving payoff. Norman — faced with the staged threat of Rockin’ Grandma’s being sold off to corporate interests — stood up, delivered what executive producer Chris Kula described as an “Aaron Sorkin-esque monologue,” and appealed to the CEO with the line, “father to father, I need to talk to you.” The production had scripted that moment hoping their mark would rise to it. He did. And he walked away with $150,000.

“He was just an absolute gem of a human,” Kula said at a recent Variety FYC panel. “We scripted the season with the hope that the hero would meet this ideal… My jaw dropped. He was just an absolute hero.”

The Insane Pressure of Pulling It Off

Getting to that finale moment, though, is a feat that sounds genuinely exhausting. Kula, who also appeared on-screen in Company Retreat, was candid about the daily anxiety of keeping a production this delicate from falling apart.

“Every single day on set was kind of terrifying, because you had the fear this is the day it could all end,” he said. “Somebody could misspeak, a camera could be seen. Some element could unravel all the work we’ve done. So when we got to the final day of the big finale — I woke up three hours before the call time that day, because I was just adrenalized. It was a high wire act, and we knew there was no second take. It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before, and I’m sure ever will.”

That pressure also explains the timeline. There were three years between season one and season two. “It took three years from the first one to this one, so there’s a long runway to get there,” Kula acknowledged. So don’t hold your breath for a 2027 premiere.

As for what season three might look like, Kula already has ideas percolating. “I’m thinking of maybe like a fake TV show,” he said, “like going to awards functions and someone’s duped into giving heartfelt testimony for this thing that doesn’t exist.” Whether that idea makes it to screen is another question entirely — Deadline reports that a scenario hasn’t been completely settled on, and it’s not yet clear if the full creative team from seasons one and two will be back.

What is clear: Ronald Gladden and Anthony Norman now have a little club, and somewhere out there, the next unwitting member of that club is just living their life, completely unaware of what’s coming.

Both seasons of Jury Duty are streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

The post Jury Duty Renewed for Season 3 at Prime Video appeared first on Cream.