The ‘Madame Web’ Trailer Has One Very Good (Hot, Wet, and Bearded) Thing Going for It

In my role as TV editor, I generally leave movie stuff to the movie folks, reserving most of my opinions on upcoming releases with my Pajiba colleagues and social media. When the Madame Web trailer dropped yesterday, my overall impression could be summarized as “not good.” The editing, in particular, is god awful, with lengthy swathes of unnecessary material—a big reason why the trailer length clocks in at a drowse-inducing 3 minutes—broken up with either jerky magic-related jump cuts or inexplicable cut scenes (“Didn’t see that coming!”; didn’t see that comic relief moment being chopped up like scrambled hash).

Despite this, I’ll certainly catch the film once it eventually makes its way to streaming, partially because of my need to stay on top of the zeitgeist. My primary reason, however, has less to do with wanting to engage with another entry in a sprawling superhero saga and much more to do with the feelings that arose in me at the sight of one man: Adam Scott.

My awareness of this project started and ended with knowledge of its two main leads, Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, so I was happily surprised when out of nowhere the briefest glimpse of him came into view (literally, “Wait, was that Adam Scott?!”). Best known for his role as Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation, aka Television’s All-Time Greatest Boyfriend—an unshakeable opinion that’s among my weightiest professional credentials—Scott was last seen in 2022’s Severance and the rather good Party Down revival from earlier this year. According to IMDB, he’s playing yet another Ben here, Cassandra Webb’s (Johnson) fellow paramedic. On the heels of my recognition came several realizations: One, is that he’s sporting a beard, and two, that he’s getting to play slightly against type, bravely pulling a victim from a car teetering on a bridge’s edge:

Bearded and heroic? You have my attention, film.

If that was it, I would be able to move on and continue resembling a normal person to those who don’t know any better. But for all of that trailer’s mistakes, the greatest trick the team behind it managed to pull was including this shot of Ben after saving Cassandra from what will end up being a life-altering near-death experience:

Wow. Okay. Scott’s presence has now been upgraded to “delightfully distracting.” What am I to do with this information? How am I, a warm-blooded human, supposed to move on with my day with the image of soaking-wet Adam Scott? Who’s responsible for tousling his hair just so? Who do I get to blame for my workday being disrupted by thoughts of this man giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? I suppose I owe thanks to director SJ Clarkson for giving the people what they want, which is dunking good men in water and allowing us the chance to ogle them. Good thing, too, because this is exactly what I need to sit through elegant bouts of exposition like, “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.”

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba. When she isn’t revisiting this fairly apropos Instagram reel (“DUNK HIM”) in the wake of this hotness, she can be found on Bluesky and Twitter.