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What to watch: Weeknd update

Brian Truitt   Paste BN
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Ladies and gentleman, it's The Weeknd. Also, the weekend.

Abel Tesfaye, aka R&B/pop superstar The Weeknd, has his first major film role – and goes through a lot of psychological turmoil – in the metafictional thriller "Hurry Up Tomorrow." Music lovers seeking a big-screen escape will find something to dig there while horror fiends get a dose of 2000s nostalgia with the return of the "Final Destination" franchise. And while we're revisiting the past, those who still keep a torch burning for "Lost" will be glad that Josh Holloway is back in another TV series – and teaming with J.J. Abrams again – with the 1970s-set crime drama "Duster."

Now on to the good stuff:

See The Weeknd rock it, thriller style, in 'Hurry Up Tomorrow'

Like millennial "Purple Rain," with some "American Psycho" and "Misery" thrown in, "Hurry Up Tomorrow" features Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, playing a fictionalized version of himself in a deep-dive character study on the pressures of fame. His toxic manager (Barry Keoghan) pushes him to party when he should be resting, and at a low point in his professional life, the singer meets a young woman with her own issues and, consequently, finds new perspective under duress.

I talked with Tesfaye at CinemaCon about acting vs. music, and for a new feature, the singer spoke about how film was his real "first love." Tesfaye says he implemented "the DNA of cinema" in his many music videos, "so The Weeknd, to me, is just one long film that was like a never-ending, 15-year movie."

Tempt a horrifying fate with 'Final Destination Bloodlines'

It's been 25 years since the first "Final Destination," in which Devon Sawa, Ali Larter and other young actors of their time played teens who didn't get on a doomed plane but fate still doled out a horrific end. Fast-forward to today, and there's another bunch of kids cheating death (this time, indirectly) only to meet their maker in brutal and gory fashion with "Final Destination Bloodlines."

My fellow horror nerd Brendan Morrow chatted with the "Bloodlines" filmmakers about how the new "Destination" switches up the franchise formula, revisits scenes from movies past, and creates deaths that'll make you paranoid about mundane aspects of life. "The key thing is starting with something that's very relatable, that all of us experience every day, that's not fantastical − it's something that you'll run into during your daily life," director Zach Lipovsky says. "And then figuring out how to ruin that for you."

Stream 'Duster' on Max, 'Overcompensating' on Amazon

Losties, rejoice! Josh Holloway is back on TV in the new series "Duster" playing a Mafia wheelman recruited by the FBI to take down an Arizona crime lord. Holloway tells my colleague Bryan Alexander that, when doing scenes driving a souped-up '70s Plymouth muscle car, he harked back to his hair-flipping "Lost" days in Hawaii. "I learned how to work with the wind as Sawyer, just so you can get the damn take," he says. "You have to do your dialogue into the wind to avoid your best takes being ruined because you're chawing on a chomp of hair."

But the best new show of the week is "Overcompensating." Prime Video's queer college comedy about two freshmen at an elite university "thrown into the inferno of hormones, beer and twin beds" feels "refreshingly real," TV critic Kelly Lawler writes in her ★★★½ review.

Even more goodness to check out!

Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email btruitt@usatoday.com and follow me on the socials: I'm @briantruitt on Bluesky, Instagram and Threads.

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