Month: September 2020

The gang from Schitt’s Creek is still riding high after an historic night at the Emmys, and now, the good news just keeps on coming for the comedy darling that won a slew of awards at the Emmys on Sunday night.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, it’s also good news for anyone who doesn’t have Netflix or was able to get the show on their cable package while it was on the air the first time. The outlet reported Monday that all six seasons of Schitt’s Creek would air on Comedy Central in October:

The move comes as no surprise as Schitt’s Creek previously aired on another ViacomCBS-owned cable network: Pop TV. The niche cable network no longer has any original programming — or dedicated executives — and is now a home for syndicated repeats. Both Pop TV and Comedy Central are part of ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Group, which is overseen by president Chris McCarthy.

The news comes on the same day Netflix announced that the sixth and final season of the show, which ran on Pop TV, would hit the streaming service a few days after Comedy Central begins airing episodes.

It’s certainly a logical landing spot for the show, which goes perfectly with all those mid-Saturday afternoon airings of Best In Show you’ve likely seen on Comedy Central while channel surfing over the years. And for those who have somehow missed the brilliance that has come and gone and been awarded lavishly for, basic cable is as good a place as any to finally meet the Rose family.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Biases, stereotypes, prejudices—these byproducts of the human brain’s natural tendency to generalize and categorize have been a root cause of most of humanity’s problems for, well, pretty much ever. None of us is immune to those tendencies, and since they can easily slip in unnoticed, we all have to be aware of where, when, and how they impact our own beliefs and actions.

It also helps when someone upends a stereotype by saying or doing something unexpected.

Fair or not, certain parts of the U.S. are associated with certain cultural assumptions, perhaps none more pinholed than the rural south. When we hear Appalachia, a certain stereotype probably pops up in our minds—probably white, probably not well educated, probably racist. Even if there is some basis to a stereotype, we must always remember that human beings can never be painted with such broad strokes.

Enter Tyler Childers, a rising country music star whose old-school country fiddling has endeared him to a broad audience, but his new album may have a different kind of reach. “Long Violent History” was released Friday, along with a video message to his white rural fans explaining the culminating track by the same name. Watch it here:

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A message from Tyler.

www.youtube.com

Childers shared that he has no intention to be preachy, describing the humbling reality of being six months sober. “But as a person who has been given a platform by providence, luck, support, and working at it, I feel undeserving of the grace this world has given me, and I would find it a waste were I not to try and use it to make some good.”

He talked about the moment we’re in and what prompted him to write an album of music that captures this moment, calling on people to empathize with other individuals or groups. And he directed his message to a specific audience by placing the movement for Black lives into a context that rural white Americans like himself might more easily relate to.

“What if we were to constantly open up our daily paper and see a headline like ‘East Kentucky Man Shot Seven Times on a Fishing Trip’ Read on to find the man was shot while fishing with his son by a game warden, who saw him rummaging through his tackle box for his license and thought he was reaching for a knife. What if we read a story that began, ‘North Carolina man rushing home from work to take his elderly mother to the E.R. runs stop sign and was pulled over—beaten by police when they see a gun rack in his truck.’

Or a headline like ‘Ashland Community and Technical College Nursing Student Shot in Her Sleep.’ How would we react to that? What form of upheaval would that create? I’d venture to say if we were met with this type of daily attack on our own people, we would take action in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia.”

The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War, led by union coal miners and supporters in 1921. After years of labor disputes, miners and coal companies clashed violently in a gunfight between thousands of miners, coal company supporters, and law enforcement. After private planes hired by the sheriff dropped two homemade pipe bombs and federal troops were brought in, the miners’ siege of Blair Mountain ended.

So…yeah.

“And if we wouldn’t stand for it,” Childers continued, “why would we expect another group of Americans to stand for it? Why would we stand silent while it happened? Or worse, get in the way of it being rectified? I’ve heard people from my Appalachian region say that we wouldn’t act the way we’ve seen depicted on various media outlets. But I’ve also seen grown folks beat each other up the day after Thanksgiving for TVs and teddy bears. And these aren’t things these communities have lost. These are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and cousins, mothers and fathers. Irreplaceable threads within their family fiber torn from their loved ones too soon with no justice, and they are demanding change. Same as I expect we would.”

Here’s the video of Childers’ title track, “Long Violent History.”

Tyler Childers – Long Violent History (Audio)

youtu.be

In particular, sit with these verses a minute:

Now, what would you give if you heard my opinion
Conjecturin’ on matters that I ain’t never dreamed
In all my born days as a white boy from Hickman
Based on the way that the world’s been to mе?

It’s called me belligеrent, it’s took me for ignorant
But it ain’t never once made me scared just to be
Could you imagine just constantly worryin’
Kickin’ and fightin’, beggin’ to breathe?

Like all award ceremonies that have taken place in the last few months, the 72nd Annual Emmy Awards was held virtually this year. But it’s digital nature didn’t take away from the excitement felt by Zendaya fans when the actress became the youngest star to even receive an Emmy Award for the category of Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series for her role in HBO’s Euphoria. Several musicians like Drake, Chloe x Halle, and Kehlani expressed their joy about the actress’ feat and celebrated her success.

Drake was quick to show his love to Zendaya, taking to his Instagram Story to congratulate the actress. “@Zendaya @euphoria it was a LOCK…congratulations,” Drake wrote.

R&B sister duo Chloe x Halle also celebrated the actress for winning the award, saying they were “in tears” over her success.

Kehlani shared a similar sentiment, gushing over her Bay Area “sister” for her historic win.

In her acceptance speech, Zendaya said she recognizes the “hope” in today’s youth: “I know that this feels like a really weird time to be celebrating, but I just want to say that there is hope in the young people out there. I know that our TV show doesn’t always feel like a great example of that, but there is hope in the young people, and I just want to say to all my peers out there doing the work in the streets: I see you, I admire you, I thank you.”

Zendaya’s win Sunday night wasn’t the only impressive achievement of the ceremony. Hit show Schitt’s Creek had the most wins in a single season for a comedy series.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Oftentimes in life, you are reminded success and quality does not beget longevity. The latest example of that is Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance, a Netflix prequel to a Jim Henson 1980s animated tale that saw a brief rebirth on Netflix last year.

The Netflix show was a prequel to the 1982 movie directed by the late Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Released in 2019 as a 10-episode season, Age Of Resistance was a critically acclaimed, albeit expensive, Henson-produced show that just took home the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program days ago.

But io9 reported on Monday that Netflix decided not to renew the show for another season, meaning Thra’s story is, at least on the streaming giant, at an end. In part of a longer statement to i09, Henson CEO and executive producer Lisa Henson confirmed the news.

“We can confirm that there will not be an additional season of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. We know fans are eager to learn how this chapter of The Dark Crystal saga concludes and we’ll look for ways to tell that story in the future. Our company has a legacy of creating rich and complex worlds that require technical innovation, artistic excellence, and masterful storytelling. Our history also includes productions that are enduring, often finding and growing their audience over time and proving again and again that fantasy and science fiction genres reflect eternal messages and truths that are always relevant.”

Though the show came with its own making-of documentary, The Crystal Calls, and a cliffhanger ending (no spoilers here), it seems there wasn’t enough momentum to keep the Henson magic going for another season. As io9 pointed out, the reasons for the cancellation aren’t exactly clear but it does seem there was some disappointment with how it performed on the network. It cited a Hollywood Reporter story about the exit of Netflix’s TV chief, Cindy Holland, who apparently led the division while the “expensive disappointment” that is Age Of Resistance was made.

“The buck stops with Ted but I’m sure he will try to blame Cindy,” a person with ties to Netflix says of the talent spending spree. Holland also, per sources, delivered a series of pricey misses including The Dark Crystal (an “expensive disappointment,” per one source connected to the streamer).

Other reports indicated that the show took too long to make and, in a modern world where making just about anything is increasingly difficult, we’re seeing a lot of shows reach their end simply because the obstacles to making them pile up and become too high to justify the effort.

Nearly two weeks after her AEW Dynamite debut against NWA Champion Thunder Rosa, Serena Deeb has officially joined All Elite Wrestling. There had been rumors this was coming, but today the company confirmed it in a tweet.

Her signing could be huge for the AEW Women’s Division. It’s not that she’s a big star—although she has some indie cred, her brief WWE career is remembered mainly for CM Punk shaving her head, not for any matches she had—it’s that she’s a veteran with coaching experience. Specifically, Deeb became a coach at the WWE Performance Center in 2018, where she was trained in the job by Sara Amato, the woman whose coaching played a huge backstage role in revolutionizing women’s wrestling in WWE. Serena was a coach there for more than two years, before being one of many people at WWE to lose their jobs in April of this year.

Officially, we haven’t heard what her role in AEW might be outside of the ring, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that since her primary experience of the last few years was in coaching, they’ll probably have her doing some of that. She also did some producing at NXT, so there could be some of that too.

Basically, what I’ve been saying for a while now, and others have too, is that the number one thing AEW needs is someone with authority whose job is helping the Women’s Division live up to its potential. Hopefully Serena Deeb can play that role for the benefit of the other women and the company as a whole.

Time will tell if this goes well, or indeed if they even attempt it, but as reasons for renewed optimism about the AEW Women’s Division go, this is one of the better ones they’ve given us.

Kanye West announced he was running for president back in July and he has since run into a number of roadblocks. The rapper is currently fighting to secure a spot on the ballot in many states, but has only managed to be successful in twelve. However, the rapper is not afraid to spend money to help his campaign.

According to his mandatory filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Kanye shelled out $6 million from his own pocket to loan to his campaign. Now, it’s been reported that half of that money was used just to gather ballot signatures.

According to a report from TMZ, the rapper enlisted a “small army” of folks to hit the ground and gather signatures that would secure a spot on the ballot in several states. The report states Kanye leaned on the petition organization Let The Voters Decide to round up a team and paid them anywhere between $3.5 and $4.5 million to collect signatures in just fifteen states.

Kanye reportedly spent the most amount of money trying to rack up signatures in Arizona but his efforts did not prove successful. The rapper dropped $1 million, resulting in 93,000 signatures in the state, only to have an Arizona judge bar him from appearing on the ballot. The rapper faced a similar situation in his hometown state of Illinois. While he only spent $30,000 on the state, the rapper was similarly removed from ballots after a judge found a number of the signatures to be “invalid.”

The news of Kanye spending an impressive amount of coin on gaining signatures for his campaign is the latest from the rapper, who has been making headlines the past few weeks. Not only did Kanye ask his fans to help him find a fraudulent employee on his payroll, but he posted a video of him peeing on his Grammy award and was also temporarily banned from Twitter for publicly sharing journalist’s phone number.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

A Love Song for Latasha (film on Netflix) — This dreamlike portrait of a documentary celebrates the life of the 15-year-old girl, Latasha Harlins, who became a flashpoint for the Los Angeles’ 1992 civil uprising. Three decades after her shooting death, Latasha’s friends and family finally see her life celebrated (through oral history and memories) in this archive of a promising life shattered.

Filthy Rich (FOX, 9:00pm EST) — Kim Cattrall returns to TV in a super-soapy turn. She stars as a mega-rich Southern widow who learns that her late husband fathered three illegitimate children and included them in his will. Uh-oh.

We Are Who We Are (HBO, 10:00pm EST) — This week, Caitlin, uh, starts her period, which leads to the acceleration of testing sexual boundaries. This probably won’t go over well with her boyfriend or her father, but oh well! This is Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s first stab at a TV series, and it’s an immersive experience with (of course) a sun-drenched, often picturesque Italian setting. This show should tide Euphoria fans who don’t mind more literally euphoric vibes and less nihilism than the Zendaya-starring series.

Manhunt: Deadly Games (CBS, 10:00pm EST) — Tonight sees the debut of a scripted true-crime anthology series that chronicles the manhunt involved with the Richard Jewell scandal. You’ve heard the story of the fallout from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, now witness the TV dramatization (as opposed to the sensationalized movie version) of one of the most complex manhunts on U.S. soil.

The Third Day (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — Jude Law and Naomie Harris star in this limited drama series about a mysterious island filled with unwelcoming natives. It’s a strange new world, and the leading duo must confront their own prejudices and fears… and hopefully survive.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Julianne Moore, Chace Crawford, Polo G

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — H.R. McMaster, Laurence Fishburne

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brendan Hunt

COVID-19 has transformed smoking cannabis from a communal act where joints, blunts, and bongs are freely passed around, completely unsanitized, into a weird distant hang where you stand six feet away from your friends (outside) and shout stoned observations to them while smoking from your own individual devices, doing your best not to cough in their general direction. It’s taken some getting used to for sure, but we’re managing — thanks in small part to the abundance of pre-rolls hitting the market.

Among the deluge of brands since weed went legal, California-based High 90’s has gotten a lot of love in stoner circles for their flavored, wax-infused pre-rolls. Made with top-shelf flower blended with a potent 1,200 mg Cannabis wax, High 90’s joints feel tailor-made for the pandemic — packing a knock-your-off-your-ass 30%-40% THC level per joint that will give you an all-day high from a single session. After all, who wants to smoke all day when we’ve got a raging respiratory virus creating a constant state of anxiety in us? Preserve those lungs.

High 90s flavors — including Strawberry, Gelato, Peach, Watermelon, Pineapple, Pink Lemonade, Tropical Punch, and something called Double Cup — don’t necessarily provide a different experience. But we still have pretty strong feelings about which pre-roll tastes the best and compliments the natural terpenes and flavors of High 90’s indoor flower. We ranked each flavor from worst to best, but we’ll note that each pre-roll resulted in a pretty similar high, so go with your gut.

8. Pink Lemonade

THC: 31.94%
CBD: 1.75mg

Coming in last is High 90’s Pink Lemonade pre-roll. The flavors here just never really gel together, the pink lemonade flavor is way too subtle — it neither tastes “pink” nor much like lemonade — and don’t compliment the dank and dark flavors of the cannabis wax.

Bottom Line: Skip this one, it’s not as good as you want it to be.

7. Tropical Punch

THC: 29.70%
CBD: 1.63mg

The trend in my case seemed to be that my least favorite High 90’s pre-roll flavors were the joints based on drinks, but the Tropical Punch is a considerable jump up in quality from the Pink Lemonade, with pronounced notes of cherry, pineapple, citrus, and strawberry. The smell of this pre-roll when lit is tantalizingly refreshing and the flavor recalls cannabis-infused Popsicle Big Sticks.

Bottom Line: Maybe it’s because it tastes so much like a Cherry Pineapple Big Stick, but we’re going to go ahead and suggest you pair this one alongside a popsicle.

6. Double Cup

THC: 30.60%
CBD: 1.63mg

Double Cup combines medicinal flavors with a zesty lemon-lime soda twist meant to recall a cup of lean. And while it’s not exactly an accurate approximation, the flavors still make an interesting pairing with the flavors of the flower.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a uniquely flavored pre-roll that is unlike what is typically found at your local dispensary, Double Cup is your joint!

5. Watermelon

THC: 36.61%
CBD: 1.64mg

Crispy and refreshing notes of Watermelon color each drag with this pre-roll, providing a light fruit flavor that doesn’t feel intrusive and lingers sweetly on the palate. I found myself enjoying High 90’s single flavor pre-rolls considerably more than the fruit cocktail drink-based flavors.

Bottom Line: A great light flavor for wake and baking, light up one of these joints at the beach while watching waves roll in for a cheap vacation.

4.Pineapple

THC: 33.37%
CBD: 1.76mg

High 90’s Pineapple pre-rolls are the brand’s sweetest flavor with bright tart notes and a slight sour bite that can cause some salivation. The pineapple flavor really coats your tongue, so if you’re not into intense flavors the Pineapple Pre-Roll probably isn’t for you. Personally, I was loving it.

Bottom Line: The Pineapple Pre-Roll pairs nicely with a citrus-forward cocktail or anything with pineapple, you’ll want something to wash the sticky sweet flavor down.

3. Peach

THC: 32.15%
CBD: 1.63mg

Lighting up a Peach High 90’s pre-roll is an incredibly calming experience as the subtle peach aroma joins the gassy dank smell of the cannabis. The flavor here isn’t overly candied like the Pineapple, adding a subtle flavor to the smoke that doesn’t stain the palate — providing a pretty clean experience that won’t feel like it needs to be washed down after the joint is killed.

Bottom Line: Peach offers a great option for those looking for a subtly flavored experience that will sell them on the opinion that flavored joints are superior to non-flavored joints.

2. Strawberry

THC: 30.78%
CBD: 1.61mg

Considering Strawberry is as prevalent a flavor as Grape when it comes to flavored pre-rolls, it feels a little basic to give High 90’s Strawberry flavored joint such high marks, but credit where credit is due — this is one of the finest strawberry pre-rolls we’ve ever had the pleasure of smoking.

Where typical Strawberry pre-rolls taste overly chemical, High 90’s tastes surprisingly natural, with a sweet and sticky flavor that cuts through the wax distillate, providing a smoke that’s heavily colored by the natural strawberry flavors.

Bottom Line: Don’t skip out on this flavor because it feels tired, lighting up this strawberry joint will make you feel like you’re getting high in a strawberry field, which is the closest thing to a vacation you’re going to experience this year.

1. Gelato

THC: 32.82%
CBD: 1.72mg

This is the flavor I find myself coming back to again and again, in fact, it’s probably my favorite flavored pre-roll of all time. The Gelato pre-roll smells amazing before you smoke it but lighting this joint really brings the flavors and aroma to life as the homely scent of fresh-baked cookies fills the space. The smell is so sweet it’ll instantly induce the munchies before your high has fully kicked in, making this a great wake and bake or just before bed strain to close out the night.

Bottom Line: If you’re going to try one pre-roll from High 90’s, make it Gelato. Period.

WHERE TO GET THEM: High 90’s flavored wax-infused pre-rolls are available across 22 dispensaries in California. To shop the flavors and figure out where to buy them, visit the High 90’s webpage or their Weedmaps page.

Due to our new COVID reality, the Emmys had a daunting task ahead of it when it decided to soldier forward and continue on with this years awards. While Jimmy Kimmel took the reins of the Primetime Emmy Awards show, which managed to scale down as rewards were presented virtually, the Creative Arts Emmy were an entirely different beast.

Spread out over five nights of four one-hour online streams before concluding with a two-hour telecast that aired Saturday night on FXX, the Creative Arts Emmy managed to chug along without any major problems until the last stretch. During the award for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series, Jason Bateman was accidentally named by an announcer as the winner for his work on The Outsider, but the title card actually said Ron Cephas Jones. Turns out Jones was the real winner for his spot on This Is Us, which forced the virtual show to quickly scramble to fix its mistake.

You can see a video of the mix-up below:

So for a brief moment, Bateman was an Emmy winner, and then he wasn’t. But we’re sure the actor took it in stride, especially with bigger things on his plate. Bateman made the decision to fire up production on the fourth season of Ozark, which will have difficulties of its own as the set adapts to new COVID safety protocols. The decision has already caused Bateman to make one personal sacrifice: No longer directing the first two episodes as he’s done for prior seasons.

“[A]s we were looking through the protocols, the guidelines, all the complications with COVID, [and] the producer side of me made me think it’s just not responsible to have one of the actors direct the first two,” he told IndieWire. “Given that we’re still going to be getting our perimeter safe. Because if one of the actors gets sick, we all have to go home for weeks.”

However, should a crew member get sick, Bateman can “[make] sure their salary is protected” as the show continues with, hopefully, just a minor shutdown.

(Via ABC News)

Few topics are as politically polarizing as the issue of abortion. Those of us who are middle aged and younger have always known the abortion debate divided between the political right and left, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats.

But that has not always been the case.

In fact, it was mostly Republican-nominated Supreme Court Justices who made the case for choice in 1973.

Roe vs. Wade was decided with a 7-2 vote, and not along partisan lines. Those who ruled in favor were as follows, with the president who nominated them and the party of that president indicated in parentheses:

• Harry Blackmun (Nixon, R)
• Lewis Powell (Nixon, R)
• Warren Burger (Nixon, R)
• William Brennan (Eisenhower, R)
• Potter Stewart (Eisenhower, R)
• Thurgood Marshall (LBJ, D)
• William Douglas (FDR, D)

Those who dissented on Roe vs. Wade:

• Byron White (Kennedy, D)
• William Rehnquist (Nixon, R)

So five Republican-nominated justices and two Democrat-nominated justices ruled for choice, while one Republican and one Democrat-nominated justice ruled against.

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A lifelong Republican justice, Harry Blackmun, wrote the majority opinion in the case, which basically stated that state laws that unduly restrict abortion were unconstitutional—not specifically because a woman had a right to choose to have an abortion, but because of a the right to privacy under the 14th amendment.

When viewed as a private medical decision, the fact that the party-of-less-government-interference Republicans ruled that way makes perfect sense. It has always struck me as odd that the party who advocates for less government regulation and less government interference in our lives would be the one to push for the government to stick its nose into people’s personal medical decisions. It turns out, they’ve only pushed that argument during my adult lifetime.

There are, of course, debates to be had about when a person should be considered a person with full rights and protections under the law, and people are free to debate the moral questions that come with the personal and/or medical reasons people choose to abort a pregnancy. But there’s no question that abortion is a medical decision, which automatically makes it an issue of privacy. That has not changed since 1973. That has not changed since Republicans ruled in favor of choice.

It’s only since the religious right aligned itself with the Republican party in a direct way (and vice versa) that making abortion illegal became a Republican stance.

Interestingly, that relationship—and the corruption that inevitably results in when religious ideology slips into bed with politics—even played out in the life of “Jane Roe” herself. The woman in the landmark case who pushed for choice, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, ended up publicly changing her stance and pushing an anti-abortion message for decades.

Then, in her dying days, she confessed that it was all an act—that she had been paid by anti-abortion activists to put out that messaging.

AKA Jane Roe | Deathbed Confession Highlight | FX

www.youtube.com

Despite how passionate some people’s anti-abortion stances are today—and how politicians use that passion to garner support—abortion has not always been a big, controversial political issue. For much of Western history, abortion was viewed as a private matter between a woman and a doctor, and history also shows that making abortion illegal doesn’t make abortions not happen.

Since the only things proven to reduce abortion rates are comprehensive sex education, easy and affordable access to birth control, and access to healthcare in general; since choice was originally a Republican-led stance as evidenced by the Roe vs. Wade ruling; and since abortion rates have fallen consistently for the past four decades—more drastically under Democrat administrations than Republican, oddly enough—and are currently at record lows, overturning Roe vs. Wade in an attempt to end abortion seems like a strange goal to pin one’s partisan hat on.