Houston Texans fans were treated to an early holiday gift on Sunday, December 20. After a long, agonizing blackout, KHOU (Channel 11) was restored on AT&T U-verse just in time for Sunday’s Texans battle with the Indianapolis Colts. It also meant football fans could delight in the highly anticipated matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.
The restoration comes after a somewhat surprise agreement between Tegna (which owns KHOU) and AT&T on December 20. The deal means the two companies have “have entered into a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement to provide TEGNA-owned local broadcast stations to customers of AT&T’s video platforms across the country,” per a press release.
Essentially, NCIS, The Price Is Right, and are back on for Houston, after an interruption that infuriated some 17.8 million pay TV subscribers across AT&T services, according to the Leichtman Research Group.
“AT&T and TEGNA regret any inconvenience to their customers and viewers and thank them for their patience,” the companies apologized in a joint statement. Indeed, it was an inconvenience for local fans of CBS content. The standoff lasted for weeks, affecting viewers in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, and other major cities.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed by either party.
So, AT&T users, no need for that clever hack to watch your KHOU. And for local weather fans, your daily dose of Chita Craft every weekday morning is back.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.
The 2000s brought two of the best zombie movies ever made in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Both films, despite being made by different filmmakers, featured intense action with fast-moving zombies, harrowing sequences, and real emotional connections with their main characters. Now the original director and writer — Danny Boyle and Alex Garland — have returned with the first of a possible three sequels, 28 Years Later.
The rage virus from the first two films that turns humans into insatiable monsters has successfully been contained to the United Kingdom, and one group of survivors has managed to band together on a small island off the coast of England. We’re introduced to the group through Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), and his son, Spike (Alfie Williams).
Isla is sick with an unknown illness, while Jamie is set to take the 12-year-old Spike on his first trip to the mainland to hunt zombies. That trip not only gives Spike an education as to the different types of feral zombies that now populate England, but also a clue that other people have survived there. When he discovers that one of them may be a doctor, he makes plans to take his mother there in hopes of finding a cure for whatever ails her.
While the first two films were notable for their brisk pace that kept the potency of the stories high, Boyle and Garland almost go in the opposite direction for much of this film. The first 90 minutes are relatively slow, with only a couple of sequences that raise the blood pressure. The final half hour or so go a long way toward filling that void, so it’s clear that the filmmakers were biding their time for the story to come in the sequel. A bit more balance in this film would have served them well, though.
What they do show involves some weird, wild stuff that is objectively upsetting, even for fans of the genre. The zombies have evolved in strange ways, giving them a variety of body shapes and abilities to suit the environment in which they live. These storytelling choices may thrill some and have others scratching their heads. Another human character living on his own (played by Ralph Fiennes), appears to have gone the way of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with a revelation that is bone-chilling.
Boyle, who’s directed everything from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, doesn’t have a signature style, and he makes some choices in this film that test your patience. He occasionally employs an odd technique in which the film stutters, for a lack of better term. It’s a bit jarring, especially since it doesn’t seem to improve the storytelling. He also inserts scenes from older films involving medieval warfare that emulate the bow-and-arrow weaponry used by characters in this film, but the exact connection he’s trying to make is unclear.
The young Williams has a lot put on his shoulders in the film, and he proves to be up to the task of carrying the story. He isn’t precocious or annoying, instead reacting almost exactly like you’d expect a boy of his age to do when faced with extreme situations. Taylor-Johnson and Comer are good complements for him, drawing him out with their polar opposite characters. Fiennes makes a huge impression in the final act of the film, while Jack O’Connell makes a very brief appearance, teasing a bigger role to come.
It’s difficult to fully judge 28 Years Later because it’s designed to only give you part of the story; part 2, The Bone Temple, is due in 2026, while a third film will follow if the first two do well. This film has its moments and winds up on the positive side of the ledger, but it’s also a frustrating experience that could have used a more stand-alone story.