David O. Russell has cast everyone in Hollywood for his first film since 2015’s Joy. As if the previously-announced Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, and Zoe Saldana wasn’t stacked enough (there’s seven Oscar nominations between them, including two wins), Deadline reports that nine others have joined the ensemble for the still-untitled movie: Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Alessandro Nivola.

I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but I’m still mad that Quentin Tarantino cast Timothy Olyphant and Margot Robbie in the same movie, but didn’t give them a scene together. Russell better not make the same mistake — all the better if Taylor-Joy and Myers-as-Austin-Powers are involved. As for what the heck the movie is about:

The untitled project [is] based on an original idea from the five-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Filming is currently underway in California. New Regency’s Arnon Milchan will produce, alongside Matthew Budman and Anthony Katagas.

New Regency is owned by the Walt Disney Company, meaning Russell, the (allegedly abusive) director of Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees, is technically making a Disney movie. The campaign to make Michael Shannon an official Disney Prince starts now.

(Via Deadline)

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Great news for Helen Mirren and me

It’s good to have dreams. They give you something to strive for, a reason to keep moving, whether they are big ambitious ones or smaller ones you can attain more easily. You can keep them to yourself for internal motivation or you can blast them out into the world in an attempt to will them into reality. The important thing is that you have them and that you do your best to see them through because, one day, if you don’t give up, they might come true. Just look at Helen Mirren and her dream of driving a car in the Fast & Furious movies.

I should back up. There’s a lot going on here, and there is a lot of history. Let’s start in 2015, when Dame Helen Mirren, legendary star of the British stage and screen, said this in an interview with Yahoo.

My great ambition is to be in a Fast and Furious movie. I so want to be a mad driver in a Fast and Furious movie. My claim to fame is I always do my own driving — I was on Top Gear, and I did [my lap] in a very good time. I keep putting it out there, and they never ask me. I’ll be in Fast and Furious 8. I have to say Vin Diesel is brilliant. I love Vin Diesel. He’s a great guy, smart — I love him. It’s partly because of him I’d like to be in one, but also the driving.

I need you to go back and read that in Helen Mirren’s voice for the full effect. Have you ever read anything cooler? Helen Mirren has starred in tons of awards-caliber movies, often as the Queen, and according to her, her great ambition was to be in the Fast & Furious franchise as “a mad driver.” She even buttered up Vin Diesel a little bit at the end, just for good measure. This was so bold and funny and awesome at the time, and the best part is that it worked, because Helen Mirren did end up in The Fate of the Furious as Jason Statham’s mother.

Actually, I lied. The best part is everything I just said plus the fact that she was so excited about it that she broke the news of her own casting in an interview with Elle Magazine, of all the places in the world to break Fast & Furious casting news.

I’ve always rather loved driving. I said, ‘I’ll be in it, but only if I’m allowed to drive if I do drive in it.’ But we’ll see. We’ll see how it transpires.

But there was bad news. For some unknowable reason that made me livid at the time (and still does today, a little bit), after casting Mirren in the movie as per her wishes, they didn’t let her drive. Not even a little. How can you cast Helen Mirren in a damn Fast & Furious movie and not let her drive? Uggghhhh. This is a movie that ended with The Rock punching a torpedo that was launched onto an ice sheet from a nuclear submarine that was stolen by a cyber-anarchist played by Charlize Theron with braids. They could have found room for Helen Mirren to drive.

I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by this. Helen Mirren was ticked off, too.

But sadly for Mirren, Fast 8 won’t feature her behind the steering wheel. “I wanted to be driving, but unfortunately, I’m not,” she says, shrugging. “Maybe that will come in the future, in Fast and Furious 12.” She pauses. “I’m probably one of the few people on the set who know how to drive a gear shift car. I doubt the Rock knows,” she jokes. “But I do. I know how to double declutch.”

What a perfect quote. All of it, starting with her repeated public requests to be allowed to drive, moving on to her sarcastic jabs at it “maybe” happening by the 12th movie, and finishing with the objectively hilarious assertion that The Rock can’t drive stick. If you can find anything anywhere better than Helen Mirren repeatedly begging to be allowed to drive a neon Honda in a Fast & Furious movie and taking good-natured public shots at The Rock in the process, buddy, send it my way at once. I need it like I need oxygen.

But.

There was a development early last year that gave both Helen Mirren and me hope. In the trailer for the next movie, F9, which was released in January and, among other things, introduced John Cena as Vin Diesel’s secret brother and featured Charlize Theron with a bowl cut flying a magnetic plane, there was this very brief shot.

That is Helen Mirren behind a steering wheel. Which implies that she drove or is about to drive. Which is a good thing. But, because the car isn’t moving at all in the shot, it raised the possibility that she never actually gets to drive it on-screen. Can you think of anything more cruel? Six years of lobbying to drive a car in the Fast & Furious movies only to be placed behind the wheel of a parked car? I would torch the studio. Just turn it all into ash.

Luckily, for Helen and me and everyone else, that is not the case, as Vin Diesel confirmed in an interview this week.

To me, maybe the biggest question for F9, and we get a little tease in the trailer, is whether Helen Mirren finally gets to drive. She’s the one who campaigned to be cast because she so badly wants to be behind the wheel. We see her in the car, with Dom riding shotgun, but I can’t help notice they are parked. Or is this a spoiler too?

[Laughs] Derek, you ask the right questions. Again, without giving away any spoilers…You know what, I’m going to give you a spoiler: Yes, she gets to drive.

On behalf of Dame Helen, thank you!

It’s so awesome. She gets to drive and she gets to drive sleek.

Never give up on your dreams, people. That’s the lesson in all of this. They might not come true right away, but if you stick with them and say them out loud to every journalist who puts a microphone in front of your face for half a decade, you might make them a reality one day.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — This changes everything

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone’s television critic and my former podcast partner, has a new podcast. It’s called Too Long; Didn’t Watch and it has a cool premise: Alan and a celebrity guest watch the first and last episode of a show the guest has not seen and then the guest tries to figure out what happened in between. The first episode featured Jon Hamm learning about Gossip Girl, which is a fun chunk of words to write, although that’s not the big takeaway from it. The big takeaway came during a discussion about Gossip Girl’s creator Josh Schwartz’s previous show, The O.C. Let’s take the next part straight from the mouth of Hamm: “I did audition for one of the dads on The O.C. I was probably 31 or 32. I think it was me and Harry Hamlin. I remember walking in and going, ‘Is that Peter Gallagher? Why am I here?‘ I love Peter Gallagher, but I was just like, ‘Dang!’”

Is… is Jon Hamm telling us that he auditioned for the role of television super dad Sandy Cohen, the Jewish surf-obsessed public defender with a heart of gold? Because even if he’s not, now I kind of want to rewatch the whole show so I can picture a young Jon Hamm in the part. I do not think it would have worked at all, and I do not particularly want to live in a world without Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows delivering perfect advice at every turn, but please do picture Jon Hamm — feel free to give him the full Don Draper here, for the full effect — discussing the finer points of schmearing a bagel with cream cheese.

This is now one of my favorite “person was considered for a role they didn’t get” stories of all time, right up there with Burt Reynolds being offered the part of John McClane in Die Hard. I know you’re still picturing Hamm as Sandy Cohen, per my request, but take some time later this weekend to think about this one, too. Really get in there. Let your brain run free on a playground with it all. You deserve it.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Look, I don’t want to be the guy who questions the storytelling accuracy of the show about packs of unsupervised karate teens terrorizing Southern California, but this is not how spinal cord injuries work

Cobra Kai is a lot of fun. The Karate Kid continuation series is way more enjoyable than it has any right to be, especially when you look at its concept — Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence start rival karate dojos in their 40s — on paper. And yet, there it is, right there on Netflix, with three charming seasons full of personal victories and gangs of karate teens beating the hell out of each other all over California. There are seriously so many violent karate fights. There’s one at a carnival and one during a house party and one at their school that features one girl trying to Freddie Kruger another with a spiky bracelet and one boy spin-kicking another off a balcony and onto the railing below.

This brings me to the point I’m making. The kid who fell, Miguel, a sweet boy who gets some bad mentoring early on, ends up in the hospital in a coma and bolted into a halo brace because of a spinal cord injury. By the end of the season, he is doing wicked karate moves again in the house party chaos. As far as I can tell, his injury is healed by people yelling at him to, like, just make his legs work.

This is… let’s go with “not great,” which I say as someone who also had a spinal cord injury and was at one point bolted into a halo brace and now uses a power wheelchair to get around. It kind of implies that overcoming the injury is a matter of wanting it enough, which also implies that not overcoming it means someone didn’t want it enough. It’s not the best message to put out there, both for a) the general public who is constantly fed sappy inspirational stories about people overcoming their disabilities to achieve greatness without much focus on the harder/uglier/realistic parts of the situation, and for b) younger people with disabilities who could see it and internalize shame/anger because they couldn’t magically heal themselves through the power of positive vibes.

I know it’s a little silly to run through a fun karate show and point out very specific medical inaccuracies, but it’s one of the things that stinks about the portrayal of disabilities on television and in movies and I don’t often get a better chance to rant about it than “a major character on a popular show overcomes the same injury as me through nothing but will and his sensei lighting his sneakers on fire,” so that’s what is happening here. I still enjoyed the show! It’s fine if you did, too! This is just me getting an objection on the record in the hope we can do better moving forward. Thank you.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — The Bosch Cinematic Universe is expanding… kind of

Three things are important to know here:

• The man who writes the Bosch novels, Michael Connelly, also writes the Lincoln Lawyer novels, the latter of which was adapted for a McConaughey movie a few years back
• Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer and half brothers
• There is a Lincoln Lawyer series coming to Netflix, from producer David E. Kelley

Sayeth Deadline:

Written and executive produced by Kelley and showrunner Ted Humphrey (The Good Wife), The Lincoln Lawyer revolves around Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist, who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car, as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles.

“The Lincoln Lawyer series will be adapted to serve up the complex and mysterious arcs fans know and love with a mix of light-hearted humor and a dose of family dynamics,” Connelly said.

There is good news and bad news here. The bad news is that the series going to Netflix, which all but eliminates the possibility of a Bosch/Lincoln Lawyer crossover on Amazon. But that also means there’s good news: The Lincoln Lawyer series going to Netflix means there is a possibility — slim, but still — that the show brings in its own Bosch for a special episode or two.

Do you see what could be happening here?

We could have two Bosches on two separate streaming networks.

TWO BOSCHES.

We live in truly incredible times.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Urkel was surprisingly good at basketball

This is a fun little breakdown of a very strange episode of Family Matters in which Urkel and Larry Johnson — in character as Grandmama — dominate a Chicago two-on-two basketball tournament. It’s fun for a bunch of reasons but I like that Urkel was secretly sick as dribbling and could dunk. It raises so many questions that I would ask if all of them couldn’t be answered with “I dunno, it was the 1990s.” Very strange decade.

My theory on this is the same as when Urkel invented a machine that transformed him into a super-cool guy: I think Jaleel White eventually got enough juice at the show to make demands like “I have to look cool as hell at least once a season or I leave” and the producers scrambled for ways to make it happen. It’s the only way to explain Steve Urkel dunking. The man could barely walk down a flight of stairs. Whatever the reason, I love it. I hope Young Sheldon dunks one day, too.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Matthew:

I just read this week’s Rundown, where you mention wanting to convince people a show exists called Sunbathers starring David Schwimmer. This reminded me of a story I thought you’d appreciate.

I live in Chicago, but am from the Philly area originally (go Birds). A few years ago me and two friends got invited to a Halloween party last minute, with no costumes ready to wear. So we decided to all wear suits with bowties and come up with a fake television show whose characters we were dressing up as, and then acting shocked when people didn’t know who we were.

Our television show? Tres Hoagitios, a show that only airs on the Wawa sandwich kiosks while you’re waiting for your sandwiches and is about a group of detectives who solve crimes, some of which are hoagie related. The fake star of said fake television show? Also one David Schwimmer.

I think everyone actually believed our story because the three of us were all from the east coast, and everyone else at the party was from the midwest so they had no reason to doubt us. Plus one of the guests was a food scientist so she had heard of Wawa, which I think helped our story.

A few things are true here:

• This is a tremendous email, really just one of the best I’ve ever received
• I encourage everyone to do stuff like this, just for yourself, just for fun, like maybe try to convince someone you don’t know who Beyonce is
• I… I really want to see this show now, exactly as it’s described, in this exact format

I’m so happy right now.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Key West!

A Missouri man was jailed after police said he was found in a stolen floating tiki hut in Key West.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me be very clear about this so there’s no confusion: What we have here is a tiki hut boat heist.

There are more details, which I will briefly summarize, although you should really click on that link to see the pictures. Anyway: Apparently there are the floating tiki huts you can rent out for little booze cruises around the Florida Keys, and apparently some guy got very drunk and stole one and headed out to sea on it. I love it. Guy just got a wild idea and ended up in the ocean on a floating tiki hut, where police later found him slumped over the steering wheel.

It could happen to any of us.

“I’m not going to jail!” Morlang told FWC officers.

Morlang said he had heart problems and was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center. While in a hospital bed, the Fish and Wilflife agency said Morlang tried to fight officers and one officer used his Taser stun gun on him. FWC said Morlang later pulled away from officers who were placing him in a patrol car.

This is a Jimmy Buffett song.

FWC said the boat was damaged with burn marks on the bar. A VHF radio was also partially melted and residue was left from a fire inside a coconut and in a sink behind the bar. Officers found a 10-ounce can of lighter fluid on the deck of the vessel.

“He decided to build fires, to stay warm I guess,” said Johnna Sleith, one of the owners of Cruisin’ Tikis. “He started mini fires in cup holders and water jugs. It melted a lot of stuff.”

This looks like an open and shut case, seeing as they found the guy in the half-torched floating tiki hut and he appears to have gone full Florida Man in the hours after his arrest, but I need you to consider one thing before you put this matter to rest: They need to find 12 people — TWELVE — in Key West who are willing to convict someone of drunken tiki piracy. That’s practically a religion for large chunks of the island. This is a town that once had a fire chief named Bum Farto who sold cocaine out of his fire stations and was arrested and disappeared and hasn’t been seen since 1976. People still sell “Where is Bum Farto?” t-shirts in town. I swear this is true. Google it right now.

My point here is this: I bet you a pitcher of umbrella drinks this guy walks. Hell, they might elect him mayor.

The New 1017, Gucci Mane’s latest label endeavor with Atlantic Records, is already off to a strong start. The Atlanta trap rap godfather signed a handful of up-and-coming rappers, including Foogiano, Ola Runt, and Pooh Shiesty, and put out the So Icy Summer compilation last June to showcase their talent. So far, things have paid off — especially when it comes to Pooh Shiesty, the 20-year-old Memphis rapper whose gift for slick wordplay is reminiscent of both his new mentor and hometown hero Blac Youngsta.

Despite only having a year’s worth of videos up on his YouTube, Pooh’s generated over 10 million views with each new release, which include “Main Slime” with Moneybagg Yo, “Monday To Sunday” with Lil Baby, “Back In Blood” with Lil Durk, and his solo venture, “Twerksum.” His latest video, “Guard Up,” was released today and is already trending toward similar numbers, despite being only around 12 hours old as of this writing. It’s clear Gucci Mane’s ear for talent hasn’t dulled — he did lend his silver tongue to the early rises of such stars as Migos, Mulatto, Rico Nasty, and more — and it looks like Pooh Shiesty is well on his way to being a star.

Watch Pooh Sheisty’s “Guard Up” video above.

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

At first glance, this week’s offerings in the new hip-hop department look slim. After all, the music industry is still spooling back up after a long holiday, making January a traditionally quiet period for new releases. However, there are still some noteworthy projects dropping if you know where to look, and this week, in particular, brings something we don’t see all the time in hip-hop: A new movie produced by a record label.

Griselda Records is already known for putting out a plethora of new projects in any given year, but this year sees the Buffalo-based indie branching out beyond its usual proliferation. Putting out a feature-length film is nothing to shake a stick at, so the Griselda gang deserves big props for joining hip-hop’s continuum of underground labels taking pains to make more than just music.

Meanwhile, many new artists are utilizing the “dead zone” to rack up streams for their new singles and views for their latest videos, hoping to make an impact before the big names return to take up all the space. Fortunately for them, they only have to compete with one huge single this week: Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion’s first on-record connection on the raunchy remix to pop star Ariana Grande’s “34+35” single. Let’s see how the Republicans react to this one.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending January 15, 2021

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Fredo Bang — Still Most Hated

Def Jam’s Baton Rouge signee arrived with a splash last year thanks to his April album Most Hated. Now, he’s capitalizing on the momentum from that project and the popularity of its single “Trust Issues” to keep his wave building with a follow-up including 10 tracks with features from Lil Durk, Moneybagg Yo, Rylo Rodriguez, and Sada Baby.

K.A.A.N. — Long Time No See

A ludicrously productive underground presence, K.A.A.N. has long been one of those rappers who flies way under the radar, doing whatever he wants whenever he wants to and earning a loyal, engaged fanbase as a result. He’s a rapper’s rapper, with an M16-on-full-auto flow and a willingness to tackle a broad spectrum of subjects. Long Time No See continues the trend, while also begging the question: How does this man make Griselda Records look downright lackadaisical?

Nyck Caution — Anywhere But Here

It has been more than four years since the Pro Era product’s last full-length, but that time has been well-spent. Following his Brooklyn brothers Aaron Rose, CJ Fly, and Dessy Hinds in returning from a long hiatus, Nyck shows off his artistic growth while remaining anchored to the lyrical style that set his crew apart when they arrived fresh out of high school in 2012. There’s a smooth instinct here, but Nyck and guests Joey Badass, Denzel Curry, and Kota The Architect (among others) dabble in drill, trap, and more.

Films

Conflicted

There’s a strong tradition in hip-hop of labels releasing films that could best be described as “hood classics.” Packed to the gills with quotable scenes, relatable narratives, and familiar characters, these gritty street crime dramas usually don’t move mainstream needles or satisfy critics, but they more than exceed expectations for the labels’ fans. Conflicted is one such movie; the technical craft on display isn’t what you’d call “professional” and it’s quirky as all hell (the best-scripted dialogue comes from side characters in mundane day jobs), but it gets the job done and has one of the most unintentionally hilarious endings I have ever seen in one of these things.

Singles/Videos

Ariana Grande Feat. Doja Cat & Megan Thee Stallion — “34+35 (Remix)”

While the original tickled pop fans’ sensibilities with its unabashed dirty talk, the remix tweaks the knob up a few notches, and Doja Cat utterly slays her verse, proving those LA rap cipher chops are never going to go to waste.

Bobby Sessions – “Made A Way Remix” Feat. Lecrae

Dallas rapper Bobby Sessions remixes the single from his debut RVLTN (Chapter 3): The Price Of Freedom with veteran rapper Lecrae, pairing the song with a visual celebrating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s historic election win.

EST Gee — “Members Only” Feat. 42 Dugg

Louisville’s EST Gee made a splash on his Kentucky comrade Jack Harlow’s debut album late last year but gets back on his grizzly to start 2021 with a sound familiar to fans of the driving Midwest sound popularized by Dugg and his Detroit ilk.

Joey Trap — “Spicy”

The San Diego rapper takes on the West Coast ratchet sound for an irreverent party rap from his Playlist For The End Of The World deluxe edition.

LNDN DRGS — “Drills” Feat. El Camino

Jay Worthy’s deadpan flow plays havoc over Sean House’s wobbly symphonic sample.

Metro Marrs — “Nonchalant”

17-year-old Metro Marrs is the newest signee to Atlanta’s Quality Control Music and he comes out with a bang. Slurry trap&B reminiscent of early Post Malone marks Metro’s new single, while QC helps bring polish to its simple video.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The end of the James Harden era in Houston has been a painful one, there’s no doubt about that. That’s often the case when a star player leaves an organization with what feels like unfinished business left on the table. It’s especially true when the situation devolves to the point of trade demands and ugly losses and weeks of rumors and cross words.

It’s debatable how much of that drama is necessary to hasten the conclusion, but regardless, there’s going to be some hard feelings involved. That’s just how fandom, and breakups, work. Still, it’s nice when one side at least tries to take the high road. That’s what Harden did with his latest social media post thanking the city of Houston for taking a chance on him.

And he has a lot to be grateful for. It’s true that few could’ve predicted that Harden would turn in to one of the most lethal scorers of all time just based on his first few seasons in OKC, and both the city and organization embraced him from the start and have stuck with him through all the ups and downs.

James Harden thanks Houston pic.twitter.com/WOpYWbfgnP

— Undefeated without Harden (@DreamShakeSBN) January 15, 2021

But for a certain segment of Rockets fan, these sentiments will always ring somewhat hollow. It’ll be hard to erase the memory of the ugly playoff losses during which he failed to rise to the occasion. Harden acknowledges in his message that he fell short of his ultimate goal of bringing a championship to the city, but it’s a debt that he won’t soon payoff, unless somewhere down the line he decided to return to Houston for one more shot. After all, he says it’s “far from a goodbye.”

Still, the message brings finality to his time in Houston and opens the door on a new chapter in Brooklyn, where he’ll rejoin one of his former teammates in OKC and instantly become the favorites to win the East. Time will tell if he can accomplish there what he was never able to do in Houston.

While Finneas’ best-known work (the songs we writes with/for his sister Billie Eilish) skews more alternative and pop, one of his strongest 2020 solo singles, “Can’t Wait To Be Dead,” goes more into soaring rock territory. It’s a big tune that served him well when he performed it for his debut The Late Show appearance last night.

Like most late-night TV performances these days, Finneas’ was pre-taped and filmed remotely, which has the drawback of no audience interaction but the benefit of more creative set design possibilities. For “Can’t Wait To Be Dead,” Finneas and his band took to a giant warehouse. The video was filmed as a single shot, and in it, they perform under a gigantic American flag, making for a striking and nicely shot visual.

Finneas previously said of the song, “I’m happy for this song to mean anything to anyone who listens to it but to me, it’s a song about my relationship with the internet. Especially in an election year. Especially during a pandemic. Sometimes, the internet makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cry, sometimes it makes me hopeful. But sometimes, it really makes me wanna be dead.”

Meanwhile, Finneas was recently a part of chart history, as Kid Cudi’s “Beautiful Trip” (on which Finneas is a co-writer and co-producer) became the shortest song to ever grace the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Watch Finneas perform “Can’t Wait To Be Dead” above.

After a lengthy break from the Nets, an NBA investigation, and endless speculation about what might come next, Kyrie Irving has been cleared to return to the Brooklyn roster as soon as Saturday, assuming he continues to show negative COVID-19 tests until then.

This all was announced Friday morning by the NBA, in addition to details of the $50,000 fine Irving will face for breaking protocols. This matches James Harden’s fine as a first-time rule breaker. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the expectation is that Irving will return to the team on Saturday.

But unlike his new teammate, who ended up getting somewhat lucky that a separate incident from other Rockets players forced the league to postpone their opening-night game and allowed Harden to avoid missing any games, Irving will also be subject to the forfeiture of his salary for four missed games.

To be clear, Irving has already missed five straight games for the Nets, even if he is cleared to return in time for Saturday’s home matchup against the Magic. The league has determined that only the four most recent games were missed specifically because he would not have been available due to breaking the NBA health and safety protocol. Irving missed the other games for “personal reasons,” according to the team.

Earlier this week, the NBA began investigating footage showing Irving maskless in a public setting while celebrating his sister’s birthday. The investigation seemingly deemed that interaction relatively low risk, so now as long as Irving continues to test negative, he can rejoin the suddenly even more fascinating Nets, who just pulled off a mega-trade for Harden.

Sometimes, talent just runs in your family. Hip-hop is filled with family groups like Clipse, Pop Smoke’s brother does a spooky good impression of the late rapper, and even Juice WRLD turned out to be related to Young Dolph, which the latter only learned after his Chicago cousin passed. Fortunately, another set of hip-hop cousins didn’t have to wait until losing each other to find out their connection. Despite growing up 1,200 miles away from each other, Florida rapper Denzel Curry and St. Lous MC Smino recently discovered they are cousins through a shared uncle and posted their reactions on Twitter.

“boi why @denzelcurry my cousin in real life,” Smino wondered upon discovering the connection. Curry had the same sentiment, although he was quick to point out the smooth St Louisan gave him a good-natured ribbing long before they learned their relation. “I found out me and @Smino got the same uncle,” Denzel marveled. “And to think this n**** roasted the f*ck out me when we first met.” He elaborated that Smino is “on the Curry side of the family.”

Now that they’re aware, though, fans have already begun pestering them for a collaboration, which they have had yet to do. Perhaps they’ll be able to get together at a future family reunion and this time, Denzel can have a few roasts pre-written for his Midwestern cousin.

One doesn’t need to do too much reading between the lines to know that Melania Trump’s more than ready to leave the White House. That’s the case even though New York City is largely cutting ties with the inciter of the MAGA insurrectionists, and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago neighbors really don’t want him around either, so who knows where they’ll ultimately land. Still, Melania is attempting to head out with something of a legacy, beyond making the U.S. Capitol riot all about herself, and her attempt to paint the portrait of an enthused First Lady is going over about as well.

As everyone’s aware by now, Donald Trump has been banned by Twitter and nearly every other online platform out there. That’s making things super awkward because Melania’s attempting to salute the “legacy of #BeBest,” which is her already much-dragged anti-bullying initiative, given that her husband’s one of the biggest bullies out there. Still, Melania tweeted, “[W]e must continue to give a voice to our Nation’s children & the issues that impact their lives. It’s the values & spirit of the American people that inspired Be Best & it’s those values that will carry on its mission.”

Melania can’t put a happy face on her Christmas ornaments or swanky tennis pavilion renovation, and it’s not working too well here, either. Especially after her husband incited a deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol., people are calling her out for a husband that’s been banned for social media while she’s always looked the other way. Melania might not care too much, since she’s nearly left the building, but people are pointing out a lot of hypocrisy in her words.

Not only is there the matter of President Trump’s perpetual bullying on the table here, but also one user’s stark inquiry on the administration’s harsh immigration stance and how it affects children: “[W]here were you when the children separated from their parents under your name sakes administration needed a voice? Where were your values then? Where are their parents?” They’re fair inquiries, as are the remarks on the Trump bans.

And as this user points out, #BeBest is about to be #BeGone.

Search Party is a show whose identity has been as fluid and changeable as its morally dubious millennial protagonists. It’s been trying on genres the way one would try on shoes, picking whichever gave its story – the exploration of a generation’s psyche – room to grow, evolve, and maybe one day, step over the threshold into something resembling adulthood.

What began as a story about a young woman in search of meaning and purpose (and a brief acquaintance she met in college named Chantal Witherbottom) has matured into a retrospective on identity and the importance of knowing oneself that feels oddly relevant, despite this latest season being filmed in tandem with last year’s excellent third installment. But burdening the show with cultural baggage feels wrong, somehow. It’s not a series really “made for these times,” a critical catch-all that’s been stamped on so many pieces of art right now.

Instead, Search Party is and always has been, a show about millennials, for millennials, and for the people who find a sick kind of pleasure in watching them f*ck things up. That’s true in Season 4, which lands on HBO Max on January 14th. We’re still watching lanky, loveable Drew (John Paul Reynolds) struggle to move on after the events of the trial and the implosion of his relationship with his murderous ex-girlfriend. We’re still watching ditzy, starved-for-attention Portia (Meredith Hagner) try to extend her time in the spotlight. And we’re still watching fame-hungry, narcissistic Eliot (John Early) exchange his principles and values in the name of greed and popularity. But we’re watching all of that while also being trapped alongside Dory (Alia Shawkat), who should be enjoying her ill-gained freedom this season but instead is being held prisoner by the Twink.

It’s a jarring juxtaposition and one that causes the show to drag in places during it’s first few episodes. The chemistry of the four leads is what elevates Search Party satirical edge but there’s no way the show can tap into it with Dory now captive inside a padded cell meant to resemble her own apartment, being fed peanut-oil-fried chicken nuggets by a deranged psychopath named Chip (Cole Escola), the Twink who soaked Portia in honey and tried to get rats to eat her alive last season.

Chip’s insane to the Norman Bates’ degree, and we learn more about his colorful family life as the season goes on. Still, his many psychological issues are only meant to inform how we view Dory, and how she views herself post-trial. She’s killed two people now, escaped jail time for both murders, and was seemingly drunk on her new infamy before being thrown into Chip’s trunk following Eliot’s disastrous wedding. As her friends debate whether throwing a “Glad You’re Not Guilty” party is tacky, Dory’s chained to a chair, head shaved, as Chip tries to brainwash her into forgetting her old life and bad friends.

The back-and-forth between Dory’s stagnant storyline of failed escape plots and the rest of “the gang’s” momentum-driven arcs disturbs the pacing somewhat, but never the humor. Search Party is still a whip-smart series that finds clever ways to poke fun at its character’s worst eccentricities and make them feel uncomfortably relatable. Drew’s in search of happiness while sweating underneath a fur suit playing a theme park mascot. Portia’s answering casting calls to play herself in a Lifetime-esque riff on Dory’s murder case. And Eliot wants to “heal the nation” with a political talk show that eventually convinces him to cosplay as a conservative right-wing Republican with his own line of glitter-covered guns. They clue into the weird timing of Dory’s disappearance early in the season and it’s when they join forces to half-heartedly search for their friend that the comedy kicks into full gear. There are car chases in a roundabout and trips to a honey bun factory and a bleakly funny funeral that give each actor time to shine, though Early and Hagner feel like standouts this season. Really, why aren’t these two in more things?

But Search Party is still mainly concerned with Dory’s journey, sometimes to its detriment. The season’s decidedly dark, quite deadly turn makes it infinitely more interesting than part runs but Dory, as Eliot can attest, is not a likable character. In fact, she’s spent season after season making terribly selfish, terribly stupid decisions and roping her friends into paying the price for them. So yes, it’s awful what she goes through — the torture, the captivity, the brainwashing — but even the worst of it struggles to stir up any empathy for a young woman who’s left so much destruction in her wake. What does make Dory’s storyline worth watching though is Shawkat’s performance. The girl’s got range, and it’s on full display as Dory finally stops fighting her constraints and start reexamining herself. All of Season 4 is essentially one big, unethical therapy session for Dory, and we see the effects of it plainly in the way Shawkat uses her physicality and facial expressions to breathe life into this broken shell of a human being.

By the end, we’re left weirdly rooting for Drew and Portia and Eliot while still laughing at their flaws, their inherent quirks, and ignorant outlooks that probably won’t change. They’re not bad people, they’re just self-centered and vain, by-products of the time they’re living in. But Dory, she’s something else. A woman both consumed by and afraid of her inner darkness who’s still figuring out what she’s capable of, how far down the rabbit hole she’d go for what she wants. Whether she deserves forgiveness or a second chance isn’t so much the question as whether she’ll actually afford herself either of those things. The show has an answer, though you’ll have to wait until its final episode to know what it is. Until then, there are twists and turns you won’t see coming, and some surprisingly thoughtful commentary hidden behind the sharp satirical jabs and situational humor that Search Party does so well. It’s hard to believe it’s still such an under-the-radar comedy.

‘Search Party’ Season 4 is now streaming on HBO Max.