HiT or Miss: Why James Gunn’s Exit Was … Inevitable

We’re not one to brag here at HiT or Miss Central, but we’re okay with a little boasting.

To wit, the recent firing by DC Studios of creative honcho James Gunn. Gunn earned his comic book bona fides helming three fantastic Marvel Cinematic Universe films (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1,” which remains my favorite MCU flick, its just-okay sequel, Vol. 2, and the excellent Vol. 3).

He moved on to DC to fix the smoking craters left behind by Zack Snyder.

(I’m not a Snyder Bro, but I loved the aesthetic he brought to DC).

On the surface, this seemed a perfect match. But to those of us who paid attention to such things, there were concerns about how he would handle such mainstream characters as Superman and Batman when he so clearly loved dwelling in the world of D-listers like the aforementioned GotG and Z-listers like Peacemaker and Polka Dot Man.

Right on cue, he kicked off the new DCU with an animated series no one asked for (the stupendous “Creature Commandos”), turned Superman into a supporting character in his own movie and made the bizarre decision to follow THAT with “Supergirl” (C-list, at best) and “Clayface” (a third-tier Batman villain that normie-norms had no idea was a Batman villain).

It was always going to be an uphill climb for DC with Marvel cranking out critical and financial hit after hit. Going darker with Snyder seemed a reasonable antidote to the MCU’s (now very tired) quip-iness, but that ended with the tragi-comic circumstances surrounding “Justice League” and lame duck “Aquaman” and “The Flash” movies.

What a whimper.

So, where does DC go from here? Who knows?

There’s still, apparently, Matt Reeves’-now-Steven Soderbergh’s “The Batman II,” which is on pace to come out sometime in mid-2039, and Gunn’s 2027 “Superman: Man of Tomorrow.” Oy. Such a mess.

My take? Put out a “Batman” movie every 2-3 years, team him up with A-and-B-listers, build from there. How would you fix it? Share in the comments below.

MUST-WATCH SHOW OF THE WEEK IF YOU’RE AGED 45-55:

“The Shards” (FX) is an ’80s-set mystery-thriller based on the eponymous book by Bret Easton Ellis. Remember him? “Bright Lights, Big City?” “Less Than Zero?” Iconic ’80s movies based on his novels.

“The Shards” is adapted by Ryan Murphy (is there any FX show not produced by Ryan Murphy?), “The Shards” is extremely gay-coded when it isn’t flat-out being gay (is there any show produced by Ryan Murphy not gay-coded when it’s not being flat-out gay?).

So if that bothers you, you might want to avoid this. Like The Mighty John Nolte, watching two men kiss gives me the ick, but all of the sexuality here (homo and hetero) is in service of the story. Ellis has made a fictionalized version of himself the main character here, as he and his very close, VERY good-looking circle of friends traverse the pitfalls of senior year 1981; proms, grades and a serial killer.

The central mystery is a slow burn that ratchets up the tension nicely over its nine episodes. My only real issue with the show is that its writers, like the once-beloved-now-forgotten to the ash bin of history “Heroes,” didn’t trust themselves enough to end it.

So we’re left with a cliffhanger to be resolved in a season 2 that may or may not happen. (As of this writing, season 2 has not been confirmed. And “Heroes?” Sylar should have stayed dead.)

But if you’re my age (call it mid-50s), you’ll enjoy the hell out of the music we used to listen to, the clothes we used to wear, the drugs we used to d… I mean the cars we used to drive. They even cast a virtual clone of Cindy Crawford in a lead role; her daughter Kaia Gerber.

Man, it’s tough going through life being that good looking. I speak from experience.

DUH! OF THE WEEK:

For a couple of years I had a Substack, The Undertow, a sort-of continuation of my Exit Zero magazine column that ran in Cape May for 18 years. In it, I chronicled my Hate Watch of HBO’s because I refuse to call it MAX’s “The Pitt.” Oh man… there are few things in life I hate more than “The Pitt.”

1. Cancer.
2. Hangnails.
3. “The Pitt.”

That’s the order in which I hate things.

Somewhere in Hollywood, in the basement of some decrepit mansion, probably built on an old Indian burial ground, lies THE BIG BOOK OF TV PLOTS. One can only access this book by sacrificing 12 puppies at the shrine of Chthulu, and one must never deviate from these plots lest an original idea seep through.

And we can’t have that.

I watched with bemused contempt as it received every possible accolade from the Hollywood Back-Patting Society; BEST SHOW! BEST ACTING! BEST WRITING! BRAVEST USE OF 30-YEAR-OLD TROPES! MOST STUNNINGEST BRAVERY! MOST BRAVELY STUNNINGNESS!

And what have you.

Lawsuit claiming ‘The Pitt’ is an unauthorized reboot of ‘ER’ allowed to go forward | Read the story at the link in our bio https://t.co/alIQLoKz4D

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) November 7, 2026

The love fest around this Woke Slop was not surprising. In a world where “Emilia Pérez” can garner 13(!) Oscar nominations, anything is possible. So, sure, give it a bunch of awards. Doesn’t mean it’s any good.

Most amusing? When shows like “The Pitt” lecture us Normal Americans how we’re so racist they have to put riders into their contracts to hire X amount of black/ brown/ gay/ trans/ disabled folx to even qualify for awards season WHEN THEY’RE THE ONES IN CHARGE OF HIRING!

It’s like the NBA and NFL implementing a salary cap to save themselves from themselves. Like, I’m not the one giving a .220-hitting left fielder $35M/ yr. That’s all you, chief. And now a beer at the park costs $27.

Same deal with Hollywood. If you want to hire more black people, just hire more black people. You don’t need a Rooney Rule.

That said, my main criticism was that every episode felt like an old episode of “ER” dressed in a modern skin. Then, as now, racism runs rampant in the medical community. Then, as now, every black woman is a lesbian.

Then, as now, the only treatment available for pregnancy is AN ABORTION RIGHT NOW! And so on.

I Hate Watched it because my wife loved it and, admittedly, the “BABY JANE DOE!” lady is amusing. But, as much as I hate to say, “I told you so,” it appears I am telling you so…

‘THE RAINMAKER’ THUMBNAIL REVIEW:

The Rainmaker on USA Network is a pretty good show. Although the titular protagonist, Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) is (GASP!) a straight white male, he’s pretty much a side character in his own show, as the extremely competent and sexy and don’t-need-no-man female characters orbit around him.

The other white guy is a “wacky” lawyer straight from a ’90s “oh no he dih-in’t” WB sitcom. And I am absolutely certain, without checking, that the character of Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone, head of the Rainmaker’s law firm, is gender-bent from the source material, a 1995 John Grisham novel.

Go on. Check. I’ll wait here… (I was right, wasn’t I…?)

But, as network legal dramas go, it’s not terrible. Two episodes into season 2, Callaghan is compelling enough to earn a third episode, but I’m already a little worried; the Big Case this season involves a hyper-precocious 10-year-old kid who is a genius and also a David Blaine-level up-close magician.

So… we shall see. And what is it with all these British actors (Callaghan) playing all these American parts!?! DER TERK ER JERBS!!! (I only knew Callaghan was British from the very-very small part he played in Disney’s extremely entertaining “Rivals.” In fact, forget “The Rainmaker,” “Rivals” is 10x more entertaining.

Sorry for making you read this whole paragraph.)

LASTLY THIS WEEK: I recently recommended to you the wonderful “Doc Martin” (Roku, Acorn+) which I stand by. I also soft-recommended the American remake, “Best Medicine,” based mostly on the strong lead performance of Josh Charles (“Sport Night”).

But I must offer one caveat; in 80+ episodes of “Doc Martin” there were, maybe, three implied sexual encounters among the leads. In 10+ episodes of “Best Medicine,” no one can keep their pants on.

You’ve been warned.

Til next time, may your hits outnumber your misses.