Editorial
Kristen Wiig’s SNL Return Stresses an Uncertain Future for Character Actors
When Kristen Wiig hit the stage to deliver her monologue this past weekend on Saturday Night Live, she said it felt like coming home. She reiterated this point at the end of the show, during the goodnights. In between, she backed up her statements by comfortably re-settling into the rhythms of the show, and reviving two of her many recurring characters: Sue, the woman who can’t handle surprises; and Mindy Gracin, the addled stage star who appears on the game show Secret Word. Wiig still stands among the most beloved centerpiece stars of SNL this millennium, and this week’s episode underlined a major reason why, at least in terms of the popular consciousness: She originated a lot of recurring characters on the show. So many, in fact, that she can reprise two second-string ones like Mindy Gr...
The Accent Police Were Vigilant in 2020
Our Annual Report continues today with a look back on the year’s curious run of accents in film and television. Stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles in the days and weeks to come about the best music, film, and TV of the year. If you’ve missed any part of our Annual Report, you can check out all the coverage here. Watching John Patrick Shanley’s new movie Wild Mountain Thyme is, in many ways, a picturesque experience. It’s set in the Irish countryside, and stars Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan, two very attractive people. But as I watched a very odd man played by Dornan buzz around his romantic feelings for a very charming woman played by Blunt, something began to nag at me. Somewhere in the distance, outside the movie itself, I heard sirens. I could tell that the Accent...
What’s Next for Star Wars? The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale, Explained
Disney+ just aired the season finale of The Mandalorian’s second season, and what a finale it was. A big old dust-em-up with all manner of returning characters, some big, surprising (and not-so-surprising) cameos from old friends, and the bittersweet resolution of Din’s (Pedro Pascal) budding fatherdom with “the little green guy.” For all its revelations, though, Chapter 16, “The Rescue,” directed by Peyton Reed, highlights the light and dark sides of the show’s sophomore season: it’s got a clear sense of the sandbox it’s playing in, but can’t keep itself from using the same toys over and over again. Read on to learn more. As always, it goes without saying that there are some major, major spoilers ahead. You must be cautious. What’s the Plan for Getting Grogu Back? <img aria-d...
The Stand, Explained: We Need to Talk About Harold
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher | RSS At long last, Stephen King’s epic novel The Stand hits CBS All Access. Languishing for years in development hell, the journey from page to screen has been almost as long and arduous as the cross-country treks taken by its characters. Yet, it’s hard to think of a more perfect timing for this story of destruction and renewal than amidst a global pandemic. Beyond the pandemic parable, larger themes of taking a stand against persuasive evil are central to this story as well. The series opens with a dire warning and call to action from an unseen Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) that not only fits King’s story, but could easily be interpreted as a message to vi...
Saturday Night Live Has Officially Moved on from the Election to the Pandemic
Since taking several post-election weeks off, following a record-setting six live shows in a row, Saturday Night Live has been in a period of relative calm. Things seem back to normal even: They’re two shows into their usual three-show December lineup; the set was decorated for the holidays this week; and next weekend sees another alum-hosted episode — an unofficial pre-Christmas tradition. What’s more, Jim Carrey, Alec Baldwin, and Maya Rudolph have been MIA for two weeks in a row, and those labored debate sketches are a thing of the past. In a sense, SNL has felt almost like comfort food. In lieu of room-temperature political takes, the show has re-shifted its focus over the last two episodes to the ensuing pandemic. It’s an understandable pivot, seeing how December has seen some of the ...
Does Mando Still Believe In the Creed? The Mandalorian, Explained
After the absolute barrage of announcements that came out of Disney’s Investor Day yesterday, including the confirmation that 10(!) new Star Wars properties are coming out in the next few years (two Mandalorian spinoffs among them), it feels almost quaint to check back in with what The Mandalorian is up to this week. And yet, Chapter 15, “The Believer”, written and directed by Rick Famuyiwa, reminds us why Disney has so much confidence in Star Wars as a brand and a franchise. The penultimate episode of the season can often be a lighter, more disposable affair, setting up chess pieces for a climactic showdown in the finale. Sure, this week does that in spades, but also manages to weave that among a few clever cinematic homages, an incredible return appearance from Bill Burr, ...
Boba Fett Returns! The Mandalorian, Explained
If The Mandalorian Season 2 were a feature film, this week’s episode, “The Tragedy”, would set us firmly in the mid-point — that moment where all is lost, doom befalls our heroes, and the audience wonders how they’re going to get out of this particular pickle. It’s one of the shorter episodes in the season at 33 minutes, but a lot goes down in that jam-packed half hour: Boba Fett! Baby Yoda The Child Grogu gets Jedi-napped! Of course, all these developments are packed tightly into an action-heavy chapter courtesy of director Robert Rodriguez, filled with nail-biting developments, shocking twists, and more than a few Easter eggs (as per usual). So let’s strap on our jetpacks and dive in. Again, it goes without saying that there are some major, major spoilers ahead. You must b...
Hollywood Will Never Stop Loving the Music Biopic
This past week saw the release of Stardust, a biopic about David Bowie’s first trip to the United States. If you’ve seen any piece of media related to the film, you probably know that the movie was received poorly — to say the least. This isn’t surprising, though. When the film’s first trailer dropped months ago, the film was immediately scorched online for being a very blatant and very poorly executed attempt to piggyback off the recent success of other musical biopics such as 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody and last year’s Rocketman. Whereas those two films at least had the wherewithal to secure the rights to their stars’ likeness and discography, Stardust opted out of either of those things. Even so, the film chugged along on the strength of its premise alone, but mostly because it’s a musical...
Who’s Ahsoka Tano? What’s Baby Yoda’s Real Name? The Mandalorian, Explained
The gift of the Thanksgiving gods smiles upon us this day, as we awaken from our turkey-and-stuffing-induced comas, slide over to Disney+, and find another episode of The Mandalorian awaiting us, “The Jedi”. Finally, after half a season of standalone adventures, we finally make some progress in Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) mission to bring Baby Yoda back to his people, the Jedi. Along the way, we meet yet another old friend from the animated shows, an even older friend from ’80s genre classics, and learn perhaps a bit too much about Mando’s adorable young charge. Let’s go over everything we learned, and a few things non-animated show watchers might not know about this week’s special guest. Of course, it goes without saying that there are some major, major spoilers ahead. You must be ca...
Meg Thee Stallion Went Hard On ‘Good News,’ But It’s Only A Glimpse Into What She’s Capable Of
Source: Apple Music / Apple Music Let’s go back to Good News Friday (Nov. 20) and it’s time to listen to the album we’ve all been patiently waiting for. My coworkers, men, can’t stop talking about Meg Thee Stallion‘s official debut. Upon pressing play, you’ll understand immediately that although Good News can be a polarizing project, it definitively positions Black women as a community of power in every bar uttered. Hot Girl Meg has given us the indisputable commandments of a bad b*tch, putting f*ck boys all over the nation on notice. As a Black woman, myself, I feel captivated by the Houston Hottie for countless reasons. Women who look like us are always stereotyped, disrespected, and pigeonholed — and historically, Black women of Meg’s height and size have been mocked even more so. But M...
Kim Kardashian Praises Kanye West’s Dirty Mack Lyrics In “Lost In The World”
Source: Sheri Determan/WENN.com / WENN Kanye West and his fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released 10 years ago on Nov. 22. Kim Kardashian shared details on Yeezy’s verse for one of the album’s closing tracks in “Lost In The World,” which was inspired by a poem he wrote her while she was in another relationship. MBDTF remains one of West’s standout studio releases among his legion of fans, and the rollout leading up to the album in the form of the “G.O.O.D. Fridays” tracks helped spark a rabid interest in the project. Via Instagram, Mrs. Kardashian West shared how the aforementioned poem made its way to the track. From Kim Kardashian’s Instagram: For those that don’t know the story behind “Lost In The World”…Kan...
Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit Embraces the Female Antihero
The Golden Age of television is defined by its male antiheroes. Mad Men’s Don Draper, an advertising executive in the 1960s with a traumatic childhood, struggled to understand the world changing rapidly around him and never allowed himself to get too close to anyone. What made characters like Don Draper… Please click the link below to read the full article. Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit Embraces the Female Antihero Carrie Wittmer You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
