Entertainment

Now Playing: Pride Edition

Celebrate the LGBTQ+ community!

Published

June 30, 2020

Her

Happy Pride! To celebrate our LGBTQ+ community all over the world, we asked them and their allies about movies, shows, music, and podcasts you can watch and listen to, along with books you should read.

This list is also a good start to understanding the lives and struggles of our beloved LGBTQ+ community. You may refer to this article — Pride month or not! Here’s what’s Now Playing at Her GadgetMatch!

Videos to watch

Pride Conversations

MJ: Google concluded the Pride Month with a live stream entitled Pride Conversations, comprised of powerful members of the Filipino LGBTQ+ community sharing their remarkable and inspiring stories — from tales of coming out to their journey in owning their sexuality.

Movies to see

Love, Simon

MJ: A modern classic in today’s generation, Love, Simon is about yearning, secrets, and struggle of everyone in the LGBTQ+ community — coming to terms with your identity and getting out of the closet.

Prayers for Bobby

MJ: A heart-wrenching, tearjerker film that every parent must watch, especially when their religion and faith get in the way of truly loving their child.

The Half of It

MJ: Lighthearted yet revolutionary, The Half of It explores an introvert’s young love, sexuality, and loving in secret expressed through a love letter.

Holding the Man

MJ: Raw, honest, and genuine. It’s difficult not to weep after watching a touching piece tackling a love affair weathering the struggles of coming out in the 70s and 80s — remembering the horrors the stigma surrounding AIDS caused.

Free Fall

MJ: Jokingly known as the German version of Brokeback Mountain, Free Fall is a complex, hot, and passionate story about a married man’s internal struggles of falling in love with a colleague.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour

MJ: Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a moving film portraying a French teen’s beatific, intimate attachment to another woman.

Metamorphosis

Vincenz: Intersex is one of the minorities in the LGBTQIA+ community. This is a locally-produced indie film that shows how one explores and discovers him/herself. Just like the process of metamorphosis, s/he finally accepts and reveals who s/he really is to the eyes of many.

Sila-Sila

Vincenz: A depiction of complicated homosexual relationships: from hook-ups, break-ups, losing people you value the most, and even getting back together. A slice of life that shows laughs, joys, and tears of gay people throughout their relationship with their friends, family members, and partners altogether.

Shows to binge-watch

Queer Eye

Chay: The Fab 5 spreads love in Pennsylvania back in the US in the latest season of our favorite feel-good makeover series. Whenever I’m feeling distress or despair — especially during these difficult times — Queer Eye is the series that never fails to restore my faith in humanity.

Pose

Chay: House Evangelista is back for another season of ball culture, voguing, building new relationships and rekindling old ones, and confronting crises LGBTQ+ people of color faced in the ’80s. Prepare not just your favorite bag of chips but your box of Kleenex as well!

Love, Victor

Chay: If you enjoyed Love, Simon and find yourself wanting for more a spinoff series premiered on Hulu this month. Love, Victor tells the story of a new student at Creekwood High School — the ups and downs at home, making new friends, and exploring his sexual orientation.

Looking

MJ: Being in your late twenties and early thirties can be mind-boggling. Such is the case in Looking, where three best friends in San Francisco tell their explorations in love and in life while each taking separate paths.

One Day at a Time

MJ: A refresh of a hit sitcom in the ’70s, One Day at a Time is a modern comedy that has an upbeat take on tales of coming out yet still portrays the struggles of coming to terms with your sexuality within a family.

TharnType The Series

Vincenz: Not your typical sugarcoated Thai BL series as it eradicates homophobia as well as how they openly portray the sexual desires of two men. Expect a rollercoaster of emotions when you watch this series.

Gameboys

Vincenz: One of the first Filipino BL series that is timely and relevant — especially during this pandemic. Can you believe two gamers ended up falling for each other even with just a series of game battles, chats, and video calls? In my own thoughts: “Sana all hindi pang-quarantine lang“.

Hello Stranger

Vincenz: What would you do if you were paired up with someone you truly dislike? Hello Stranger exhibits unexpected love at an unexpected time, reminding us that love simply happens for everyone, regardless of your orientation.

Albums/Songs/Podcasts to listen to

Music Universal: PRIDE

Chay: Pop icon and ally Carly Rae Jepsen and artist and activist Mark Kanemura put together a Pride-themed playlist featuring music from different artists and eras that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and our right to express our true selves. This 90-minute playlist is perfect when you’re working out, experimenting in the kitchen, or walking to your neighborhood cafe for your iced latte fix!

Chromatica

MJ: Lady Gaga’s return with “Chromatica” has sent the LGBTQ+ community reeling over the nostalgia evoked by this eccentric album — bringing back the days of dancing to Gaga’s fabulous and bizarre pop music we loved.

Help by 10cm

Vincenz: Although the music video only showed minor scenes of how people consider same-sex relationships in public a taboo, the song’s message should dig deeper into our minds and hearts that we should ask for somebody’s help when all of these deep-seated issues come in mind.

Oh my God by (G)I-DLE

Vincenz: Originally a Now Playing: Volume 3 entry, the message of the song this time is clearer because it’s in English — and we can’t deny it’s all about two women having love and affection for one another.

Books to read

What If It’s Us?

MJ: Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera’s novel about two men stumbling upon each other in New York City is a refreshing take on common, gay love stories. It tackled love, signs, and universe — reminding us that we meet people in our lives for a reason.

Call Me by Your Name

MJ: A powerful, coming-of-age, and tale of coming out stirring a pot of raw emotions. Call Me by Your Name explores sexual awakening, yearning, and obsession over the course of summer in Italy, in the year 1983.

Now Playing is the GadgetMatch team’s favorite games, movies, TV shows, and more each month. If you’re curious to know what we’re into at the moment, this is what you should check out. So grab your popcorn, get some drinks, and enjoy what’s now playing!

Entertainment

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 premieres in April

The animated series is set between seasons two and three.

Published

February 3, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Stranger Things is over. After years of success, the long-running series finally reached its definitive conclusion. But if you thought Netflix would easily let its biggest cash cow go, then you’d be mistaken. Barely a month after the final episode, the franchise is back with an animated spinoff called Stranger Things: Tales from ’85.

The animated series, which oddly features a new cast to voice the characters, is not a continuation of the concluded story. Rather, it’s a midquel set during the winter between the second and third seasons. Despite closing off a gate to the Upside Down, Eleven and the gang discover that some monsters are still lurking around in their world.

Because we already know what happens up until the very end, there’s hardly any tension. That said, and based on the show’s subtitle, the animated series might be a creature-of-the-week adventure. However, Eric Robles, who will run the series, says that saving Hawkins is still a major plot point.

The Duffer Brothers, who will be executive producers, says that it was a challenge to feature monsters after the events of the main show’s second season. The show will still have a substantial story, though.

For now, we’ll have a bit of a reprieve from everything Stranger Things (or time to catch up with everything, if you prefer). Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 will premiere on April 23.

Entertainment

BTS returns with global live comeback event on Netflix this March

BTS reunites live worldwide

Published

February 3, 2026

GadgetMatch

Netflix has officially announced BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG, a global livestream event set for March 21, 2026. This marks the group’s first full reunion performance since completing South Korea’s mandatory military service.

Streaming live exclusively on Netflix, the event will air at 8 PM KST (or 4 AM PST and 7 AM EST). It will broadcast worldwide from the historic Gwanghwamun in Seoul. The performance celebrates the release of BTS’ fifth studio album, ARIRANG.

Netflix partnered with HYBE to bring the seven-member group back to the stage. This is being positioned as a landmark global comeback. RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook will reunite onstage for the first time as a complete group since their hiatus.

The live special will be directed by Hamish Hamilton and produced by Done + Dusted, with executive producers including HYBE, BIGHIT MUSIC, Guy Carrington, Garrett English, and Kevin Hermanson. Netflix confirmed that the event will be ticketed, with further details to be announced at a later date.

A symbolic return in Seoul

The choice of Gwanghwamun as the livestream location adds symbolic weight to the comeback. One of Seoul’s most historic public spaces, the setting reflects the themes explored in ARIRANG. It is an album described as deeply reflective and rooted in identity, heritage, and renewal.

The album announcement arrives alongside confirmation of the ARIRANG World Tour, scheduled to run from 2026 to 2027. The tour will span 34 regions and include 82 shows. This will happen across Asia, North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and additional territories.

Together, the album and live event mark the start of a new chapter for BTS. This follows years of solo activities and military enlistment. The comeback positions the group not just as returning idols, but as artists re-entering the global stage with a renewed sense of perspective.

Netflix expands its live ambitions

BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG also represents a milestone for Netflix. It will be the platform’s first-ever live global broadcast originating from South Korea, further expanding its growing slate of live programming.

The event joins a lineup that already includes live specials. These are Skyscraper Live, Star Search, Jake vs Joshua, WWE Raw, NFL Christmas Gameday, and major boxing and sports events. Netflix has also confirmed upcoming live coverage of MLB games, the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and The Actor Awards.

With BTS leading the charge, Netflix continues to test the limits of live global entertainment beyond traditional sports and reality formats.

A documentary follows days later

Just days after the livestream, Netflix will release BTS: THE RETURN, a feature-length documentary premiering on March 27, 2026.

Directed by Bao Nguyen, the film chronicles the group’s long-awaited reunion and the making of ARIRANG. The documentary follows BTS as they reunite in Los Angeles. Watch as they create new music, navigating personal change, shared history, and the challenge of beginning again after time apart.

Produced by This Machine, HYBE, and EAST Films, the documentary promises unprecedented access to the group’s creative process. It explores moments of doubt, reflection, and rediscovery as BTS shape what is positioned as a defining album of their career.

Intimate and emotional in tone, BTS: THE RETURN frames the comeback not just as a pop culture moment, but as a story of resilience, brotherhood, and reinvention—one shaped by time, growth, and the weight of global expectation.

For millions of fans worldwide, March 2026 marks not just a return, but the beginning of BTS’ next era.

Entertainment

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord to premiere on April 6

New animated series on Disney Plus

Published

February 1, 2026

GadgetMatch

One of the most iconic franchise villains is making a major comeback as Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is premiering on April 6 on Disney+.

Two episodes from the all-new Lucasfilm animated series will premiere each week. The final two will air right in time for the ultimate Star Wars holiday, May the 4th.

Set after the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the adventure finds Maul plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire.

There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who could be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge.

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is created by Dave Filoni, based on Star Wars and characters created by George Lucas.

The series is developed by Dave Filoni and Matt Michnovetz, with Brad Rau as supervising director. The three are also joined by Athena Yvette Portillo, Carrie Beck, and Josh Rimes as executive producers, with Alex Spotswood as co-executive producer.

The voice cast includes: