John Powers

John Powers reviews the Paramount+ Series Diarra from Detroit

In the new TV series "The Hawk," Will Ferrell stars as a zany former golf star who's trying to regain his mojo and regain champion status. Our critic-at-large John Powers says that the show has its flaws, but delivers exactly what you would expect from Ferrell - goofy, good humor that's too wild even to be a parody of the traditional comeback story. Here is John's review.

The new literary thriller "Cloudthief," by Nathaniel Rich, is about the reaction against Big Tech. In the novel, a struggling eco-journalist and a brilliant young woman decide to rob a data center in Oklahoma. Our critic-at-large John Powers says Rich wraps a smart exploration of our data-dominated society inside an entertaining heist story.