Month: February 2021

Last Updated: February 17th

Hulu is more than just a place to catch network TV’s next-day airs. The streaming platform has ramped up its original content, going all-in on thoughtful and entertaining storytelling with its line-up of TV shows. There’s a genre for everyone here — dystopian sci-fi, family drama, fantasy-themed horror, etc. — so there’s really no excuse not to add at least one of these shows to your watchlist.

Related: The Best TV Shows On Hulu Right Now

1. The Handmaid’s Tale

3 seasons, 36 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

Based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, Handmaid’s Tale is set in a dystopian future run by a fundamentalist government renamed Gilead. The fertility rate has bottomed out, women have been deprived of their rights, and the men have turned them into reproductive vessels. This future, however, is so recently removed from the present that the misery of the women — forced to be submissive through electroshock and other forms of torture — is compounded by haunting memories of their most recent past. Top-lined by the exceptional performance of Elizabeth Moss, the series also boasts strong supporting turns from Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, Joseph Fiennes, and Alexis Bledel, whose character attempts to rebel against the autocratic government and suffers excruciating consequences. It’s a harrowing series, often so bleak that it’s difficult to watch, but in our current political climate, the themes of The Handmaid’s Tale resonate loudly, and the second season is even darker and more powerful.

2. Normal People

1 season, 12 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

3. Castle Rock

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Stephen King experienced a bit of a renaissance this year, at least on TV, but out of all of the adaptations from different streaming platforms, Hulu’s Castle Rock felt like the most realized, and most terrifying, of the lot. The show, which stars Sissy Spacek, Andre Holland, and Bill Skarsgard, follows the story of Henry (Holland) a death row attorney summoned home after a young man is found imprisoned beneath Shawshank prison. Henry’s got a murky past too, one that involves the unsolved murder of his father –- an event he has no memory of — and the strange happenings around town intensify as The Kid (Skarsgard) is set free and must figure out how he’s connected to Henry, his family, and the history of the town. It’s equal parts brilliant and terrifying, all you could ask for in a King adaptation. The show’s second run feels just as compelling, with Lizzy Caplan stepping into the orthopedic shoes of nurse Annie Wilkes, before her Misery days. She still troubled and causing trouble for the town of Castle Rock while trying to keep to the shadows with her daughter played by Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher.

4. Casual

4 seasons, 44 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10

Michaela Watkins stars as Valerie, a forty-something Mom whose husband just left her for a grad student in one of his classes (it’s a cliche for a reason). She and her daughter move in with her layabout brother, Alex (Tommy Dewey), an independently wealthy co-creator of a dating website. Alex is caddish but intensely likable, especially once viewers realize that his womanizing is a pretense, that he’s simply too afraid to reveal his true self for fear of rejection. Like Transparent, with which Casual shares some DNA, there’s an organic, improvised feel to the series, which alternates between funny and heartbreaking as it seeks to find the humor in the devastation of loss and the awkward challenges of finding someone new. It’s a tremendously good show that only gets better in its later seasons.

5. The Act

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

Patricia Arquette and Joey King star in this painfully measured series that follows the true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Gypsy Rose was a young woman living with her mother, Dee Dee, in a small town in Missouri when police found her mother murdered in their home, and Gypsy nowhere to be found. The mystery surrounding the case soon spiraled into a story about the complicated bonds between mother and daughter, chronicling one woman’s descent into madness. Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition that caused her to fake many of Gypsy’s “illnesses” — from cancer to brain damage. When Gypsy finally realized the truth, she concocted a plan so outrageous and heinous, it had to be given the TV treatment.

6. PEN15

2 seasons, 17 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle write, direct, and star in this cringe-worthy coming-of-age comedy about two preteens entering the 7th grade. The twist here is that both Erskine and Konkle, actresses in their 30s, play their middle-school-aged characters alongside actual 13-year-olds, elevating their comedy about awkward firsts and embarrassing pubescent mishaps to new heights. The show is full of humor while also covering some relatable, real-life issues that normally don’t make it to the small screen.

7. Ramy

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 8.1/10

Comedian Ramy Youssef stars in this semi-autobiographical dramedy, playing a version of himself, a character named Ramy Hassan. Ramy navigates life growing up in New Jersey while straddling the line between the millennial generation he’s a part of and the Muslim community he belongs to. He wrestles with the constraints of his religion and his upbringing, while searching for meaning in more modern pursuits — drinking, partying, and hooking up. It’s heartwarming, eye-opening, and never takes itself too seriously.

8. Letterkenny

9 seasons, 61 episodes | IMDb: 8.6/10

You’ve probably found yourself asking, “What the hell is Letterkenny?” That question has probably come after yet another friend/co-worker/stranger on the street has stopped you to demand you watch the Hulu original. Well, here’s the answer: Letterkenny is a snappy comedy about a group of small-town folk just trying to get by. It mainly centers on two bros, Wayne and Darryl, and the schemes they come up with to make a buck, have a good time, and stir up their boring old town.

9. Catch 22

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Christopher Abbott star in this re-telling of Joseph Heller’s classic novel. Abbot plays young recruit, Yossarian, a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II. Yossarian hopes to dodge having to serve in combat after the military ups the number of missions required before one’s service can be considered complete. He’s forced to face off against a truly sadistic colonel while fighting for his life on the front line. It’s ridiculous that Abbott isn’t a bigger name than he is, but he leads this farcical troupe with A-list swagger, and Chandler is surprisingly wonderful playing against his normal, lovable-dad typecasting.

10. Veronica Mars

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

The cult teen drama returns after a years-long hiatus and a successful Kickstarter-funded film to re-open the case. This time, Veronica (Kristen Bell) is investigating a catastrophic bombing of a popular spring break destination for college kids: Neptune, her hometown. She’s also struggling to balance her career and her tumultuous relationship with Logan (Jason Dohring) while pushing her ailing father to come clean about his health issues. This season, which is intended to be a continuance — so you should definitely check out Rob Thomas’ original work, also available on Hulu — marks a return to the show’s noir crime roots, and it’s so much better for it.

11. The Looming Tower

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

This historical drama starring Jeff Daniels and Peter Sarsgaard charts the build-up to 9/11 as seen through the eyes of agents in both the FBI and CIA. Daniels plays John O’Neill, the chief of the New York FBI’s Counterterrorism Center in the 1990s, who is convinced that a terrorist attack on the U.S. is imminent. He butts heads with Martin Schmidt (Sarsgaard), the CIA head of counterterrorism, who believes his agency is better equipped to deal with the threat of Al Qaeda and keeps valuable intel from the FBI. The action in this comes from watching Daniels and Sarsgaard, two incredibly talented actors, go head-to-head, chewing up every scene they’re in and obviously having fun doing it.

12. Shrill

2 seasons, 14 episodes | IMDb: 7.4/10

SNL breakout Aidy Bryant headlines this comedy series based on the best-selling book by Lindy West. Bryant plays Annie, a young writer living on the West Coast who struggles with body image issues, a floundering career as a journalist, and a family health crisis. Over the course of six episodes, she manages a toxic relationship with her sometimes-hookup, confronts an abusive boss, and takes on internet trolls, all while learning how to love her size. Bryant shines here and though there’s not as much in-your-face comedy from her as SNL fans might be used to, her quiet, reserved style better serves the story, which is a refreshing one.

13. Runaways

3 seasons, 33 episodes | IMDb: 7.1/10

Adapted by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage from Adrian Alphona and Brian K. Vaughan’s Marvel comic, Runaways is a slick, briskly paced teen soap featuring high school students discovering and coming to terms with their burgeoning superpowers. Runaways finds that happy space between the heaviness of Marvel’s Netflix dramas and the more lightweight nature of their network series (Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter). It’s a potent combination of compelling mystery and coming of age tale. The teen characters here are fantastic as they grapple with their own powers while investigating the dark history of their parents. Runaways takes a lot of cues from Schwartz and Savage’s The O.C. and Gossip Girl, respectively, although the series is not half as interesting when it’s exploring the conspiracy surrounding the parent characters, who are essentially the series’ supervillains. That storytelling deficit, however, is more than made up for by the existence of a dinosaur!

14. Future Man

3 seasons, 34 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

From creators Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir and executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the team behind Sausage Party), Future Man is basically a mash-up of The Last Starfighter, Back to the Future, and The Terminator. Josh Hutcherson stars as Josh Futterman, a loser-ish janitor at a science lab who becomes the first person ever to finish a nearly impossible-to-beat video game. The game, it turns out, is a training application sent back from the future to find humanity’s savior. Characters from the video game recruit Josh to travel back into the past to kill the head of the science lab (Keith David) where Josh works in the present to prevent his boss from developing a cure for herpes that somehow ends up wiping out humanity in the future. There’s a lot to unpack in its premise, but once Future Man gets to its feet and finds its heart, the character evolves into more than mouthpieces for quick-fire pop-culture riffs. Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings) is fantastic as a fast-talking badass with an arsenic-laced “rathole” and a fondness for hand-to-hand combat. It’s Preacher’s Derek Wilson, however, who proves to be the scene stealer. He’s basically Firefly’s Jayne Cobb plus an obsession with ’80s pop culture, cooking, and two-hit wonder Corey Hart, who also makes a cameo appearance. It’s a fast-paced, filthy, and hilarious homage to time-travel movies that boasts a hysterical hatred for James Cameron, who is the target of a lot of the series’ best jokes. What Future Man lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in laughs and season two of the series doubles down on that philosophy, thrusting characters in even more bizarre situations and tighter spandex costumes.

15. Harlots

3 seasons, 22 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Written and directed by women (Moira Buffini and Coky Giedroyc, respectively), Harlots is set in 1763 England where one in every five women is a prostitute. The story concerns two competing brothels operated by Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville) and Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton), the latter of whom reluctantly pimps out her two daughters, one of whom is a popular courtesan (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay) and another whose maidenhead is being auctioned off at a hefty price. There’s plenty of sex in Harlots, as one might expect from a series about competing brothels, but it’s not a sexy show. It’s more of a serious family drama about hardscrabble women using the only card they have in their 18th-century deck in an effort to maintain some sense of control over their lives. There’s power in sex, but as Harlots reveals, it only gets them so far. The series is a thoughtful costume drama that can be bleak at times (the corpse of a prostitute is used as a gruesome prop in the ongoing war between the brothels), but there are moments of crackling wit and a few stand-out performances, particularly that of Samantha Morton. Unfortunately, as the series’ first season progresses, it loses some of its momentum as it gets bogged down in its more soapy elements.

16. 11.22.63

1 seasons, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10

Produced by J.J. Abrams and created by Bridget Carpenter (a writer on Parenthood, Friday Night Lights), 11.22.63 is adapted from a Stephen King novel and stars James Franco as newly divorced high school teacher, Jake Epping, who finds a portal that takes him back to October 1960. There, Jake decides to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, though doing so will upend the life he has made for himself. It’s an exhilarating premise, and it’s nearly impossible not to get hooked by the pilot. Unfortunately, once Epping finds himself in the 1960s, the series drops many of the time-travel elements and settles into a more conventional — and often tiresome — conspiracy thriller. Franco is solid in the lead role, but the series is derailed by its devotion to the source material. It’s not one of King’s best books, and while it does provide viewers with a satisfying, heartfelt pay-off, the slow pace makes the journey more of a chore than the destination ultimately warrants.

17. Chance

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Based on the Kem Nunn novel of the same name, Chance stars Hugh Laurie as a forensic neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Eldon Chance. Chance — who is going through a divorce — becomes romantically involved with a patient named Lucy (Greta Lee). Pulled into her troubled life, Chance finds himself embroiled in a dispute between the femme fatale and her abusive husband, a violently jealous police officer who has his sights set on Chance. It’s a moody, psychological noir with heavy doses of intrigue and mystery, but the pacing here suggest that it would have been better told in half the number of episodes. The series too often drifts and seems more preoccupied with mood setting than telling a story. Hugh Laurie’s compelling performance keeps it afloat, while Ethan Suplee — who plays a street-smart assistant in an antique shop — steals every scene he’s in, delivering occasional bursts of violence to stir viewers awake.

18. The Path

3 seasons, 36 episodes | IMDb: 7.3/10

Set in upstate New York, The Path concerns members of a fictional spiritual moment (or cult) called Meyerism. The series primarily revolves around Eddie Lane (Aaron Paul), who has a revelation while on a retreat that leads him to question his faith. Eddie, however, won’t confess his doubts to his devout wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), who believes her husband is hiding an affair from her. Things are further complicated by Cal (Hugh Dancy), the charismatic and corrupt leader of the Meyerist Movement, whose ambitions are often at odds with the more altruistic motives of the movement. While featuring strong performances from its leads, The Path is an achingly slow burn that doesn’t catch fire until near the end of the first season only to fizzle out again when the second season kicks off. There’s a fascinating story being told on The Path, but it’s not currently one that warrants 10 episodes a season, and the series often labors to spread its thin story across a canvass that is too large. The magical realist elements of the series only exacerbate its problems. It’s not a bad show thanks to the strong efforts of its leads, but it is one that struggles to figure out what it wants to say. Unfortunately, it got the ax after three seasons.

19. High Fidelity

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10

Zoe Kravitz produces and stars in this departure from Nick Hornby’s beloved 1995 novel, playing a young record store owner who fights against the gentrification of her Brooklyn neighborhood while replaying a string of failed relationships to the tune of indie hits. The story feels like a more mellow version of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, and the soundtrack is fire.

20. Devs

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

The brains behind sci-fi thrillers like Ex Machina and Annihilation gives us another mind-bending drama, this time for the small screen. Devs focuses on a young software engineer named Lily Chan who begins digging into a secret division of the cutting-edge tech company she works for in Silicon Valley because, get this, they probably murdered her boyfriend.

21. Woke

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 6.2/10
New Girl’s Lamorne Morris stars in this imaginative comedy series about a Black cartoonist on the rise who suddenly has his eyes opened to the injustice and inequality surrounding him. Morris plays Keef, a talented artist keeping things light with his work — which is set to go mainstream — until a violent run-in with the police leaves him questioning his reality. It’s timely for sure, taking an inventive approach to the Black Lives Matter moment, but there’s still plenty of humor to keep it all grounded.

22. The Great

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.1/10

Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult star in this period dramedy that riffs heavily off the vibe of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated flick, The Favourite. Hoult has a hell of a lot of fun playing a sadistic sociopath who just so happens to be the Emperor of Russia. Fanning is his hopeful bride-to-be who comes to the palace looking for love and ends up launching a coup and a plot to murder her new husband. It’s a deliciously fun show filled with absurd characters and too many memeable quotes to count.

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23. Little Fires Everywhere

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington turn in riveting performances in this Emmy-nominated drama. The show, based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, follows Witherspoon’s character, the matriarch of the picture-perfect Richardson clan, as she desperately tries to hold onto her idyllic life. Enter Washington, a mother of a young girl, who exposes the family’s secrets and upends their small community.

24. Taste The Nation With Padma Lakshmi

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi takes her culinary TV talents to the next level in this hybrid travel/cooking show that introduces audiences to the rich, culturally diverse cuisine being created right here in the states. Lakshmi travels across the country, learning about indigenous and immigrant communities and taste-testing the delicious, inventive food they’re cooking. She’s also breaking down barriers and disrupting societal norms, but the food porn is just so good, most people probably won’t realize they’re learning something while they watch her snack on El Paso burritos and indigenous fry bread.

25. Dollface

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.3/10

Kat Dennings stars in this dramedy about a young woman named Jules, who returns to single life after her long-term boyfriend dumps her. After being coupled for so long, Jules resorts to using her imagination to literally (and metaphorically) re-enter the world of female friendships and the dating pool.

Recent Changes Through February 2021
Added: Normal People
Removed: The Wrong Mans

Lil Nas X’s rise to fame was a quick and momentous one, with one major record-breaker: “Old Town Road,” his break-out, spent 19 consecutive weeks atop the singles chart. The track would later become the most-certified song in music history, going 14x Platinum. But getting there wasn’t easy. In a series of TikTok videos, Lil Nas reflected on his rise to fame and what his life has been like post-“Old Town Road.”

In a series of four videos entitled “Life Story,” Lil Nas X opened up about his battle with depression and other struggles. “In 2017 I became the first [in] my family to get into college,” the video’s caption read. “During college I was depressed, had no friends and…. my grandmother passed. I started going to the doctor a lot in fear that I would die soon… hypochondria. In May 2018, I started making music.” He then moved in with his sister and dropped his first mixtape, Nasarati, in June 2018. However, things would soon take a turn.

“My sister kicked me out, my brother who was helping me left to the military, & my songs were no longer doing good,” he revealed. In the next two videos, he discussed releasing “Old Town Road” and having to find his own ways to promote the song due to financial struggles. He also spoke about signing to Columbia Records, working with Bill Ray Cyrus, coming out as gay, and making enough money to move into his first apartment and put his mom in rehab. Despite the improvements, he admitted that some additional hardships pushed him to the edge, making him contemplate suicide.

“I got news that my mom wasn’t doing so well in rehab with her addiction,” he wrote . “Also me and my boyfriend broke up. During this time old town road was still killing it while I was… spiraling. I found myself in a hotel room contemplating ending it all. But I didn’t.”

You can watch the TikTok videos above.

Donald Trump was quiet for a whole month. After the failed MAGA coup of January 6, he’d been kicked off much of social media, including Twitter, his favorite, and he appeared to spend his remaining days in office sulking, with only Lindsey Graham and Mike Lindell as company. But on Tuesday he began what looks like baby steps back into public life. Well, maybe not “baby steps”: He released a lengthy, ranty, blog-like statement in which he mostly slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now he’s back on Newsmax.

The occasion? The death of Rush Limbaugh, the conservative pundit and one of the chief architects of the current Republican Party, which Trump left in shambles. Being Trump, he didn’t talk too much about Limbaugh, mostly discussing him in relation to himself, such as his (alleged) belief that the election was stolen from him, which it was not.

Trump also discussed being in social media jail. He claimed that over the last month he “really wanted to be somewhat quiet,” which seemed legit. He did say that Parler, the seemingly on-hiatus “free speech” service that became a nest of oft-violent far-right talk, “wanted me very much,” though he also claimed that “mechanically they can’t handle” the amount of traffic he would bring to them.

He also slammed Twitter, who permanently banned him shortly after the failed insurrection even McConnell thinks he caused. “And I’ll tell you it’s not the same when you look at what’s going on with Twitter, I understand it’s become very boring, and millions of people are leaving,” he claimed. “They are leaving it because it’s not the same. And I can understand that.”

But he had a solution: “There is also the other option of building your own site because we have more people than anybody. You can literally build your own site.”

Of course, Trump has a habit of making bold announcements then not always following through. There was talk he was going to start his own network, to compete with Fox News. Would he — who is under numerous investigations and who owes money all over the world — even be able to start his own Trump Facebook or Trump Twitter? Then again, weirder things have happened.

There was also some to-be-expected baseless voter fraud nonsense.

But of course there was. It sure has been peaceful the last month.

(Via Mediate)

Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the brightest young stars in baseball, as the 22-year-old Padres shortstop finished fourth in NL MVP voting last year and won the Silver Slugger award at the shortstop position. His flair for the game has made him a fan favorite, but that swagger is matched by skill as he is one of the most talented players in the game, regardless of position, and that he is such a tremendous two-way player at a premium spot like shortstop makes him all the more valuable.

Despite heading into just his third season in the majors this year, the Padres, who invested heavily this offseason in upgrading their roster, made sure to lock down their superstar to a new contract extension. On Wednesday night, word emerged from numerous outlets that a deal had been reached between the two sides on a massive 14-year, $340 million deal that will keep him in San Diego, it seems, through his prime.

It is a huge amount of years for a deal and puts him in the ballpark with Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, and Giancarlo Stanton for the biggest contracts in baseball history. Those three make more on an annual basis, with Betts on a 12-year, $365 million deal with the Dodgers, Trout on a 10-year, $360 million deal with the Angels, and Stanton making $325 million over 13 years, but for a young player like Tatis it assures him a lifetime of financial security and has him among the elite in the game. On the Padres side of things, this deal will likely look like a bargain by the time Tatis is in his prime as we continue to see contract figures rise and it assures them of having one of the game’s best for a very long time. They keep their superstar happy as he continues to grow and develop, Tatis gets paid as he should, and San Diego will remain a focal point of the baseball world for years to come.

Jeezy took to Instagram on Wednesday to share some sad news:His mother recently passed away. Jeezy did not reveal the cause of death, but back in 2019, during an appearance on The Breakfast Club, he revealed she was battling an illness, though it’s unknown if it had any role in her death. The rapper also posted a heartfelt caption.

“You taught me to be a man when I was a boy. Made me man up be a father when I was a kid. Raised me to be a natural born leader when I was lost. You lifted me when I was down. Inspired me when I had no inspiration. Always told me I was Bigger than my circumstances,” he wrote. “My Super Hero. Feared nothing or no one.. No obstacle or set backs. One of the only people in the world I could trust. When I had nothing or no one, I had you Mamma. You was hard on me. I thank you for that. You gave me confidence when I didn’t have any. Made me feel like I can put the world on my back and walk barefoot. You never judged or down talked my dreams. Or my downfalls. You just encouraged.”

He continued: “I thank GOD you got a glimpse of the Man and Woman you raised and all the good we gave to world all because you gave it to us. My faith is strong,” he said. “I know God has you now. We let heaven borrow our Angel. Kiss my brother Michael. Tell em we love him. And to take care of you. You are in a better place. Dancing and singing to your favorite songs. With that beautiful smile on your face. I will continue to make you proud. I LOVE YOU MOMMA. FORVER MY MOMMA’S BABY”

When the trailer for Sia’s directorial debut movie “Music” was released in November, the Australian singer faced intense backlash from people in the autistic community who felt that the portrayal of an autistic character played by Maddie Ziegler (who is not autistic) was problematic. Advocates also expressed concern about the use of harmful restraint techniques shown in the trailer.

At the time, Sia engaged in heated public debate with her critics on social media, ultimately ending with the statement, “I really hope you see the movie (s)o you can be less angry.”

Now the movie is out, and autistic people are commenting on the full film—and they are definitely not any less upset.

The Autisticats is a group of autistic young people who share their experiences with being autistic (among other things) online. On their Twitter account, one of them offered a “detailed & chronological review” of the film.

First they shared images and a clip from the film that show the exaggerated mannerisms of the autistic main character, in addition to a scene with strobing lights and overwhelming visuals that would be difficult for many autistic people to sit through.

Their explanation of what was problematic continued in the thread:

“This performance is a caricature of autistic body language. It’s unsettling, and insincere. And it is deeply reminiscent of the exaggerated mannerisms non-autistic people often employ when bullying autistic & developmentally disabled people for the ways we move.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the ways autistic people move, or the ways we make facial expressions. Some of us roll our eyes and put our teeth over our lips as a stim or just because it’s comfortable. But we do those things naturally. Maddie Ziegler does not.

The fact that Ziegler is not autistic, and the fact that her performance is so heavily exaggerated, turns the entire movie into one long display of mockery. I know that ‘wasn’t Sia’s intention.’ But it doesn’t make things any easier to stomach.

Two other things I want to touch on: 1. The strobing lights and colors in the dance scenes are extremely overstimulating, and could cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy (common in autistic people) 2. The restraint scenes are still there, without a warning.

I was under the impression, according to Sia’s apology and accompanying promise, that: A. There would be a warning at the beginning of the movie regarding the danger of restraint, or B. That the restraint scenes would be removed from the film entirely. That isn’t true so far.

If this thread prevents just 5 other people from watching this movie, it will have been worth it. I know people are curious. And I also know it’s not my responsibility to bear the burden of watching this film for the community. But I want to serve the greater good.

I want to be able to provide my perspective from as informed a position as possible, and I couldn’t do that without actually watching the film. I’ll be writing my review and posting it when it’s done. I don’t know if this was a good idea. I just want it to be worth something.”

With the film receiving two Golden Globe nominations—one for best motion picture, musical or comedy, and one for best actress in a musical or comedy (for Kate Hudson’s performance)—the controversy is extra heightened, and many people from the autistic and disabled community are weighing in. A petition requesting the Golden Globes to rescind the nominations due to the movie being “severely ableist” and contributing to “harmful stereotypes of autistic people” has been signed by nearly 50,000 people so far.

According to Vanity Fair, Sia has said that a disclaimer will be placed at the beginning of the film that reads: “MUSIC in no way condones or recommends the use of restraint on autistic people. There are autistic occupational therapists that specialize in sensory processing who can be consulted to explain safe ways to provide proprioceptive, deep-pressure feedback to help w meltdown safety.” She also said that future releases of the film will have the restraint scenes removed.

Though Sia has defended her good intentions in the casting and directing of the film, she has also apologized repeatedly for the film’s portrayal of autism. “I listened to the wrong people and that is my responsibility,” she wrote on Twitter, “my research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough.” She has since deleted her Twitter account.

More details about the making of the movie have come out that indicate there were some red flags even in the midst of filming. Sia said that Maddie Ziegler herself, who played the role at age 14, broke down crying one day and told Sia she was afraid people were going to think she was making fun of autistic people. Sia reassured her that she wouldn’t let that happen.

What Sia should have done is seen the teen’s discomfort as a sign that perhaps there was something problematic in the way the role was being played and sought more advocates in the autistic community to consult about it.

Though “Music” certainly isn’t the first movie to have a neurotypical actor portraying a neurodivergent character, the issue has been brought up so many times following other films and society has become so much more aware that it’s quite clear that the issues in this film could have been remedied with more meaningful inclusion of autistic people in the filmmaking process.

Grappling our way toward becoming a more accepting, respectful, and truly inclusive society is a messy process. Let’s listen and learn from these responses and conversations so that harm to already stigmatized communities can be avoided in the future.

Beyonce has been teasing an upcoming collection from her brand Ivy Park for almost a month now, but when it drops it promises to “[infuse] alpine silhouettes with faux shearling and performance towel terry materials, adding texture for the quintessential cozy vibe.” So far celebrities such as Lil Yachty and Gucci Mane have starred in promotional videos for the upcoming collection, but it’s a recent ad with her daughter Blue Ivy that’s getting a lot of love from viewers.

In the video, Blue Ivy stands beside Beyonce as she rocks a kid version of a puffer jacket that her mother is wearing. As in other ads, she shows off her dance moves while donning a monochromatic look that featured a cropped jacket, leather pants, fanny pack, mask, and sneakers.

In a post on Instagram, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyonce’s mother and Blue Ivy’s grandmother, revealed that it was the nine-year-old’s choice to appear in the Ivy Park shoot. “My beautiful grandbaby Blue Ivy looking like a little super model in her Ivy Park,” she said. “Swing your hair Blue!!!!! She inserted herself into this shoot. No she was not supposed to be in it! She was just hanging out and got dressed, and I guess she said ‘I’m not gonna tell you what I could do I’m gonna show you.’ I love that aggressive spirit my Blue Blue!!!!”

Beyonce fans were impressed with Blue Ivy’s modeling skills and they took to Twitter to share their reactions.

On Wednesday Rush Limbaugh — radio show host and one of the architects of today’s fractured Republican Party — passed away at the age of 70. He was a contentious figure, to put it lightly, beloved by the right, loathed by the left. Neither side held back, with social media filled with equal parts praise and condemnation. Indeed, when an editor at the National Review tried to make the case for him as a hilarious entertainer, he was quickly piled on with people begging to differ.

“Liberals who didn’t listen to Rush, and just read the Media Matters accounts, never understood how *funny* he was,” wrote the conservative publication’s Rich Lowery. “What set him off from his many imitators was how wildly entertaining he was, and the absolutely unbreakable bond he formed with his listeners.”

The “funny” part — in asterisks! — rankled many. Limbaugh regularly insulted every minority under the sun. No one was off limits, which is what made him stand out from the pack and what amassed him a massive clutch of fans.

When the conservative pundit tried to sell him as some comedic genius, people were quick to point out the many targets of his angry humor.

Some singled out Michael J. Fox, whom Limbaugh once mockingly accused of exacerbating his Parkinson’s, on camera.

And there was Sandra Fluke, the lawyer who, in 2012, became a conservative bête noire after she stood up for reproductive rights. Limbaugh took it further than most, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

There was his habit in the ‘80s of having “AIDS Updates,” in which he gleefully listed all the gay people who had recently died of AIDS-related complications, followed by a Dionne Warwick song.

Or his hatred of homosexuals in general.

And his hatred of the homeless.

Some took a more broad approach to his general bigotry.

And some pointed out the end purpose of his humor: to appeal to the worst traits in people, and get them to vote against their best interests.

Limbaugh spat venom on a vast array of people, as the following thread attests.

Then again, maybe Rush Limbaugh was funny, just not in the way he intended.

To spend any time watching magician Justin Willman is to be charmed by him. He’s so affable, so genuine and present that you just sort of fall under his spell of likability. Which is a smart “brand” for a performer in 2021 — when we all need a release from life’s multitude of antagonisms — but might not have seemed quite so brilliant when Willman was cutting his teeth in the early 2000s and the hottest magicians alive were focused on breaking down the “illusion” of their genre, like Penn and Teller, or whittling the performance element down to bare bones, like David Blaine.

Still, Willman found his audience (touring with mega-chill Jason Mraz in the early days of both their careers), and the world gradually caught on to his charisma in a major way. After hosting Cupcake Wars and a smattering of other game shows, he began combining magic and comedy (something he’d been doing all along on the college circuit) at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. I went to almost all of those shows and they remain some of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. One week you’d get Jerrod Carmichael, the most laidback comedian alive, riffing while leaning against the theater wall; the next you’d have Thomas Middleditch riding in on a razor scooter for a jittery-veering-toward-intentionally-awkward set.

It was a wild little scene and Willman was the ringmaster — pulling everyone together and bookending the comedy with a curse-laden magic act. Those performances became the basis of Sleight of Mouth, his first feature special for Comedy Central, which led to Magic for Humans, a man-on-the-street show airing on Netflix. Along the way, Willman got married, told the story in a Drunk History-inspired viral video, had a baby, and never stopped his hustle.

Then the pandemic hit. And during the May 2020 press run for Magic for Humans, Willman lost his mom. In July, his dog died on his 40th birthday. The performer found himself spinning out and in need of the connection he usually got from touring, so — with encouragement from his wife — he decided to attempt a new trick and a pretty damn tough one: unlocking the secret to Zoom performances.

Magic for Humans at Home was born.

Attending a show last week, I was thrilled to see how naturally Willman’s energy works on what is still basically a glorified conference call. In his weekly shows, which now feature roughly 1000 guests at a time, he involves the audience, engages with fans, improvises, and riffs endlessly. It’s tight, energetic, and tons of fun — words I don’t think have been uttered about Zoom interactions very often.

After the show, I spoke to Willman about Magic For Humans At Home, the great Harry Anderson of Night Court fame, and reaching audiences across the internet in a pandemic. Check out the Uproxx-exclusive mini-doc above, our conversation below, and the next round of Zoom shows every weekend from now until April.

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You started to build your career at a time where the idea in magic was to kind of underperform and be very droll about it like David Blaine or deconstruct it like Penn and Teller. And then you’re like a real full showman — you could have made a great life as a comic, without magic. Was that always the philosophy for you, “I actually do want to have fun and be a showman and not only be a stone-cold card sharp”?

I started when I was 12 and because you don’t really know any better, you kind of imitate. You go through these phases where you’re like, like at first it was Lance Burton. I saw him live and I was like, “This guy’s the greatest! He’s in his tux, he’s doing magic to Vivaldi, he’s making the doves appear!”

So I did that, but I did it to Mozart. To be original.

Then I discovered Harry Anderson when I was like 14, 15-years-old because I loved the show Night Court and then realized that he was also one of the greatest comedy magicians. I’d seen Amazing Jonathan, super funny, made me laugh so hard, but his joke was that the magic most often didn’t work. It didn’t matter because he was so funny, but Harry Anderson was also really, really funny and he did great tricks.

He kind of under-promised and over-delivered, in terms of the magic.

I can’t believe I’ve never thought of that connection with your career and his. That’s actually so spot on that I want to see you in the eventual Night Court reboot.

It was like him, Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, all these guys I’d naturally was huge fans for their comedy, but then realized that they’d started as magicians. Harry Anderson always incorporated magic. But the fact that Johnny Carson — like my childhood hero, I would go to sleep watching the Tonight Show — that he was also a magician blew my mind. Steve Martin, like those people kind of planted a seed of, “Hey, magic is a great foot in the door or it’s just a great door — like you can pursue that forever.”

I liked the Harry Anderson, Matt King, Penn and Teller style — where the tricks were really, really great. The tricks didn’t need jokes, but the fact that you could dress them up with these stories and these metaphors and tell a tale and develop your personality seemed to make it all so much richer. And if something screws up, “Hey, it’s a joke!” It makes it human and approachable and it makes the most out of the imperfections, which naturally happen.

If you watch my stuff, I have a pattern of sometimes making it look like something didn’t go right and then it succeeds. And I feel like that’s kind of a little roller coaster ride that people never get sick of, especially when watching magic. “Oh, I figured it out!”

“Oh, no… I didn’t.”

That’s particularly funny when you do it with kids — you kind of have that Jim from The Office or like Bert from “Bert and Ernie” thing, where you’re like looking at the camera or looking at the audience like, “How did I get stuck in this situation?” And then, of course, there’s this turn that’s always so thrilling and exciting.

That rhythm feels like it’s part of how you’ve unlocked this Zoom performance door that so many people have struggled with. You’ve made it into an event — but a casual, loose, funny one. Can you talk about Magic for Humans? I know it all came together in a very personal way for you.

I did my last live show on March 8th, 2020. It was like a Laugh Fest comedy festival in Grand Rapids and then I was supposed to go back on the road that next weekend. And that was that week where everything was shutting down. And I’d been traveling so much that at first shows are canceling and it’s out of my control — it was kind of like a little bit of a silver lining to be able to take a breath and be home with my wife and our son. He had just turned one a couple months earlier, so it was like all this exciting stuff happening every day and I didn’t want to miss it.

Then, maybe two months in, I started to get stir-crazy. Because I’m like a workaholic. I kind of always need to be, I need stuff, I need to be busy. And I kind of was realizing how much being on stage was vital to my emotional wellbeing. Not necessarily as kind of like a “needy performer” who needs laughs and applause — though I’m sure that’s part of it — but I think just like constantly being “in my purpose.” Entertaining people’s what I’m here to do and I can’t do it. You can kind of like write and come up with new stuff, but I’m not much of like a “write a show and then do it” guy. I’m kind of like, “think of a bit, do it that night, see if it works, rewrite it, do it the next night” kind of guy.

Then my mom passed away in May.

Sorry for your loss.

Thank you. Yeah. Then our dog died. Like it was like a series of unfortunate events. And the day my dog died, I turned 40. So it was like unfortunate events and also an exciting milestone. Which would be really exciting if you had the party surrounded by all the people you love, but it’s really sad when it’s spent at a vet’s office and it’s kind of like… you know. So my wife was like, “Maybe you should…” because I had been resisting doing Zoom shows, people had started doing them here and there and I just kind of thought it was like the magic purist in me, which I’m not much of a magic purist, but something felt like “Nah, you got to be there with people. Watching magic on TV only works because there’s a human being there, they’re living vicariously through this person whose mind is being blown.”

I kind of resisted for a little while, but I was doing press for the new season of Magic for Humans — doing like the Kelly Clarkson Show and the Corden Show via Zoom and the Today Show… I couldn’t believe how strong it was. Kind of because very rarely are you this close to somebody doing magic. So it was surprisingly intimate. Everyone’s like in their comfort zone, and no one’s in a theater, out in the street and they see a bunch of cameras, everyone is kind of like open to it.

Also my wife was like, you need a healthy distraction. Let’s try this out.

She saw you going stir crazy and needing the connection.

So we started doing a brand new Zoom show and I started with, “Let me put 50 tickets up, let me see how it goes.” And those went really quick. People were excited and I was like, “Okay 100.” Then, “Okay, do like 250 this weekend.”

It kind of kept snowballing and Zoom’s max is like a thousand people a show, which actually still felt intimate, but it then became like an event, like that’s when it became people in Omaha logging in and seeing their family at nighttime in London. And you’re seeing a family who is up in the middle of the night in Australia and everyone is the same — all these families huddled around the computer.

It was like this great equalizer, where it’s just reminding us that we’re all in this crazy time together and we’re all looking for an escape. We’re all seeking some joy, something to put in our calendar to look forward to. So it did become these events, which reminded me of the days back at the comic book shop, where I would write a brand new show every month to do “Slight of Mouth.” It was nerve-wracking and exciting and new — so it gave me that creative fulfillment, but it also gave me a real, cathartic, kind of therapeutic dose of humanity.

And it kind of became that, I think, for other people too.

I love that. And having seen the show, people are paying money so they’re invested. They want to have fun. They’re focused, so there’s an energy to it.

But obviously, there are limitations, too. I’m thinking of that famous trick that you did on Ellen and you did at the comic store, where you had a box early on in the show and it would come into play at the finale. In this case, that would need to be on screen every second — because you only have your frame to exist in and the audience has their frame and you’re trying to kind of cross the void. What were some of the challenges there? How did you go about constructing the show?

The biggest challenge was… as a magician, part of me has always worried about like, “I need to maintain the magic credibility.” Like the box you’re talking about. If it leaves your view, you’re going to think something fishy happened. So how do I keep it visually exciting, but also not make you suspect? Because I still want to drop in little video clips and segments and different camera angles and stuff like that. So I just shortened the length of time on bits. As opposed to a box hanging from the beginning of a show and then I show you what’s inside at the end, it’s kind of like, “Here’s this thing, this is going to be important in 30 seconds!” and it doesn’t leave your sight.

Also, I have a short attention span, especially when it comes to staring at a screen. I think everybody has as well. And I learned in editing the Netflix show for the past couple of years — if you lose their attention, you’re competing with every other piece of content that’s ever been made ever at the touch of a thumb. You can’t have a lull, you can’t let them come up for air. So I had to write like that. In my live show, a bit might be eight to 10 minutes long, because you’re milking it and it’s live and you’re looking at — it’s laughs and ad-libs. But on Zoom, it really has to cook and be tight.

I think all my experience editing the show gave me just like this barometer for pace and I know that if I would start to get a little squirmy, they definitely are, so I tried to keep it fast. Sort of like a mentalism trick where I’m picturing somebody from the audience and they say a thing and it’s like —

[Willman holds up a glass jar of M&Ms.]

I’ll show you. I know how many are in here, Steve. Okay? I’m going to try to send the quantity to you. I don’t know how your estimation skills here, but just to be open to receiving a number and just give me your gut, like exactly how many M&M’s do you think are in the jar?

747. I know that’s a plane. I shouldn’t have said that, it’s a plane, but yeah 747. That’s what I’m saying.

That’s exactly right. How did you know? You’ve never seen me do this before. I don’t know how much time you have for the interview, but I’m going to count them so you can see, watch. So it’s one… two… here, I’ll count them into the lid.

Oh no, I wrote it on the lid. There we go. 747!

[Willman holds up the lid, which reads “747” — it hasn’t been out of his or my sight.]

I love it. I’m so glad we decided on a Zoom, by the way. I never really Zoom people from my garage here, but this is great.

I will picture in picture people here, hold on, let me get you in here.

[He puts me on his picture-in-picture screen.]

And boom, there we go. And all of a sudden, basically people just think they’re watching the show, everyone camera’s on, all of a sudden two clicks of the mouse and I’ve got somebody in here, initially they kind of freak out. But basically, it’s just I’m kind of like live directing the show. Like a live TV show and just pulling people in — which they love because the kids freak out and you see people snap to attention because they forget that it’s not just watching Netflix where it’s a one-way thing. You go both ways and I try to use as many people as possible and music. And I just try to add everything I can that doesn’t make it feel overproduced.

The unspoken story of this is the fact that it’s not totally unusual for all of us to be watching a show together on Zoom in 2020 or 2021. You can’t not think about how weird it is — which I don’t even have to overtly say, because we’re all in this thing together, which gives the show like an extra layer of “a moment in time; a moment in culture” that we’re all living through together.

I’ve seen you live so many times and seen how you … you do a great job of that very rare trick of holding the whole audience in your hand at once. If anyone can reach through Zoom and make it feel like genuine connection, it feels like it would be you. That’s the ultimate magic trick.

The thing that always bothered me is when people, almost everybody, I would see perform on Zoom or on a Zoom was never looking at the camera, because they’re looking at the screen. So I got a teleprompter set up here with a monitor, so I’m looking right at you right now. And just that little thing changed everything. It makes it feel like everybody is being spoken to, like the show is just for them, like they’re in the front row.

Now the show kind of took off, so I’ve got all these people who came and then want to come again. And I want them to come again. I don’t want them to think that that’s all I got. So I have the self-pressure of writing another hour and then another hour and driving my wife crazy. But remember, she’s the one who asked for it.

Ariana Grande’s 2020 album Positions is the gift that keeps on giving. Of course, the early title track has still been hanging around the chart in the Billboard top 10, but it’s a follow-up track, “34 + 35” — and its subsequent remix featuring Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion — that has been keeping Ari on the radar. Perhaps realizing this, or just wanting to let a few more songs out of the vault, Grande opted to release a deluxe edition of Positions this Friday, and revealed the new tracklist earlier this week.

The tracklist revealed that along with the “34 + 35” remix, we’ll be getting new four songs called “Someone Like U (Interlude),” “Test Drive,” “Worst Behavior” and “Main Thing.” (Now, if that third one is a Drake cover, I will officially be more impressed with Ari than I’ve ever been.) Along with the news, Grande further teased fans today by releasing a tiny snippet of “Someone Like U” on Twitter.

Based on the few seconds we get, it’s a synthy, sparkling pop track with a burst of horns right at the end — meaning it fits right in with the tone of the original album. Keep your eyes peeled for more hints and previews on Ari’s social before the new versions of the album finally drops tomorrow night.