opinion

The season of illegal fireworks has already begun and will hit full boom this week, prompting our annual plea: If you absolutely feel you must set off explosives, especially the airborne variety, be courteous and responsible.

GARDNERS — Sam Cooper had just trekked 7 miles through a rain-sodden stretch of the Appalachian Trail when he sat down outside a little country store in Pennsylvania to take on its ice cream challenge.

Oscar Sunday is finally upon us. We’ve counted down every film to win Best Picture, and we’ve even ranked each of this year’s Best Picture nominees. The only thing left to do is to offer some predictions in every category at this year’s show. I suspect that I’ll miss in a few categories, but I think this is one of the more secure ballots I’ve submitted. With that kind of confidence, I’m bound to miss more than ever. But, as always, I’ll give it my best shot.

In this sixteenth and penultimate part of my retrospective Oscar Outlook, I’ll be eliminating the two best winners released during my lifetime, and three films featuring iconic movie villains.

Here are three can’t-miss shows to binge-watch on streaming platforms this winter, plus a few more on the way this January. Get to know why “Dexter: Original Sin,” “The Penguin,” and “The Traitors” are worth the watch, without the spoilers.

Coming in hot off of his Golden Globe nomination for this very role as the highly successful attorney and businessman “Peter,” Hugh Jackman stuns in what I believe could be his best role to date. The Son is a complicated, layered family drama based on a play of the same name by French director Florian Zeller, who gave us the Oscar nominated “The Father” just two years back.