Month: April 2021

Those who might have worried that Fear the Walking Dead couldn’t keep up the momentum after a brilliant first half of the season and a devastating midseason premiere, in which the series killed off one of its most beloved characters, clearly need not be too concerned for the series after another intense, twisty, and surprising episode. Fear, in its sixth season, has never been better. Meanwhile, after collecting major characters since midway through Season Four without killing any of them off until John Dorie, the series has a large stable remaining with which to do what they want. It appears, however, that another All-Out War is in the making, but this one will be dramatically different than the one on The Walking Dead.

In fact, this week’s episode — originally meant to be the midseason premiere — felt like a direct subversion of Negan’s All-Out War arc on The Walking Dead. ”Things Left To Do” picked up where the last week’s episode ended. June is forced to bury her husband, John Dorie, and June cannot escape the feeling that Ginny is responsible for his death, or at least knows why Dakota killed John. June is both right and wrong: Ginny doesn’t know exactly why Dakota killed John, but Ginny is indirectly responsible. Ginny actions led to Dakota’s decision to kill Cal, and Dakota killed John to cover that up.

That information does not remain a secret for long. This week, Morgan quickly figures it out, and while he is eager to exile Dakota for killing his best friend, John Dorie, he also knows he needs her as leverage to save his friends from Ginny. Dakota, meanwhile, has only one demand: To start all over in Morgan’s community. Morgan, however, remains noncommittal for obvious reasons, namely that she killed his best friend.

Meanwhile, Ginny stages a Negan-like standoff, in which she lines up all of Morgan’s friends (including Daniel and Grace, who is pregnant), holds them at gunpoint, and demands Dakota in exchange for their lives. Morgan arrives on horseback to save his friends, and all hell breaks loose. The short version is this: Ginny demands her Rangers kill Morgan’s friend, but the Rangers defect to their new leader, Strand(!), and somehow, Morgan ends up saving Ginny from Strand, but also from Sherry and the Outcasts, who pursue Morgan and Dakota into the woods with the Humvee. The allegiances move very fast. In the span of five minutes, the chessboard on Fear was rearranged.

All of this eventually leads Morgan back to the community he has been building all season long — it’s coming along very nicely — where he brings Ginny so that she can be reunited with Dakota. However, we also learn another new piece of information when Dakota reveals to Morgan that Dakota is not her sister. Dakota is … her daughter (cue soap opera music). In fact, Ginny didn’t kill both of their parents; she killed her own parents (and Dakota’s grandparents) because they were abusive, and she was trying to protect her daughter Dakota from them.

Soon thereafter, there’s another stand-off. Strand (and the Rangers) and Sherry (and the Outsiders) track Ginny down to Morgan’s new community (so much for keeping its location hidden, I guess). They demand from Ginny their pound of flesh — they want to kill her “plus extra,” but Morgan strikes a deal with Ginny. Morgan will kill Ginny quickly (and save her from whatever torture The Rangers and/or The Outsiders inflict upon her) and, in exchange, Morgan will allow Dakota to stay in their community and start over. It’s a (mostly) selfless act on Ginny’s part to sacrifice herself to save her daughter’s future.

Morgan takes Ginny outside and lets Sherry, Strand and their people know what’s up. He’s going to kill Ginny, and they’re going to back off. Ultimately, however, Morgan can’t bring himself to do it, because “life is precious,” and it’s not what John Dorie would want, etc., etc. blah blah, etc. He announces to the Outsiders and the Rangers that he’s going to allow Ginny to live, and he’s going to start a new community built on the principles of John Dorie. He invites anyone who wants to join him.

I should note here that Strand not only declines to join Morgan but tries to talk Alicia into joining him and the Rangers (she rejects the offer). Dwight also tries to talk Sherry into moving into their community, but she also declines, noting that she now feels more at home with The Outsiders than with her husband. June also decides to join Morgan’s community and live alongside Dakota — the woman who killed her husband — and Ginny, the woman responsible for her husband’s death. June’s new hairstyle — she let out the bun — suggests that she may have other ulterior motives.

This is where Fear truly subverts Negan’s arc in The Walking Dead. In the parent series, Negan kills the beloved Glenn, and while everyone else — especially Glenn’s wife, Maggie — wants to avenge Glenn’s death and kill Negan, Rick decides to spare Negan’s life in an effort to build a better world. In Fear, Ginny is the Negan; John Dorie is the Glenn; June is Maggie; and Morgan is Rick. As in The Walking Dead, Morgan decides to spare Ginny despite her being responsible for the death of John Dorie (and others) because he, too, wants to build a better world.

In fact, it almost looks like the exact same scenario is about to play out in Fear the Walking Dead, where the series’ Big Bad ends up becoming a member of the community. However, June (Fears‘ Maggie) isn’t about to let that process repeat itself. Unlike Maggie, June doesn’t wait for permission from Morgan. At the end of the episode, June stays behind to nurse one of Ginny’s wounds, and when Ginny won’t immediately tell her why Dakota killed Dorie, June shoots Ginny in the head using John’s gun. It’s very matter of fact, and afterward, June doesn’t stick around to talk to anyone about it. She just walks away.

I love Negan, and I’m ultimately glad that Rick spared him on The Walking Dead, but Fear finally gave us the satisfaction we missed when Rick decided not to kill Negan. Ironically, the death of Ginny is also bittersweet because while she was evil, it was hard not to root for her sometimes., and the actress who plays her, Colby Minifie, is outstanding (she’s also very good on The Boys, where she’s recently been elevated to series regular, which may also explain why she was written out of the show so early in the season). It’s worth noting, too, that the episode was so good that viewers may not have noticed there were very few zombies in this zombie show (I think there may have been only one zombie appearance).

Where does that leave Fear going into the rest of the season? That’s unclear. There remain three factions: Morgan’s group, The Outsiders, and The Rangers, but their common enemy, Ginny, is now gone. Does that mean they turn on each other? Will we see a different kind of All-Out War? Or will the series return to the “The End Is the Beginning” mystery introduced at the beginning of the season with the key that Morgan possesses and the mysterious submarine?

Who knows! The only thing we can really tell from the preview from next week’s episode is that, if there is a breach, we’ll be seeing far more zombies next week than we saw this week.

Sometimes, when people enter into an altered state, they find themselves engaging in activities that may be outside of their usual scope of goings on. These things happen, and this is a situation that Lizzo found herself in recently.

In a recent TikTok video, Lizzo revealed that she slid into the DMs of actor Chris Evans, messaging him simply with a trio of emojis: a puff of air, a woman playing handball, and a basketball, implying that she was “shooting her shot.” In the video, Lizzo lip syncs to audio that says, “The reason I’m upset about this one is because I know I’m not gonna be able to marry him, and honestly, it hurts me to the core. Because damn papi, he a rare breed, no comparing. Like, Chris…” She also wrote alongside her post, “Don’t drink and DM, kids…. for legal porpoises this is a joke.”

Last night, the saga continued with Lizzo shared a follow-up video, revealing that Evans responded to her message. A screenshot of Evans’ message reads, “No shame in a drunk DM [kissy face emoji] god knows I’ve done worse on this app lol [facepalm emoji].” His response is seemingly a reference to his NSFW mishap from a few months ago.

Meanwhile, Lizzo is getting ready to get back on stage, as she was recently announced as a headliner for this year’s Bonnaroo festival.

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

In the world of The Simpsons, Harry Potter is Angelica Button, Apple is Mapple, and the Smiths is the Snuffs, led by lead singer, Quilloughby. During last night’s new episode of the Fox animated series, “Panic on the Streets of Springfield,” Lisa discovers the moody rock band and imagines the vocalist, whose songs include “Hamburger Homicide” and “Everyone is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You),” as her new imaginary best friend. But Lisa turns on Quilloughby (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) when she learns he’s actually a whiny meat-eater. It’s a parody that the real-life Quilloughby, Morrissey, did not appreciate.

“Surprising what a “turn for the worst” the writing for The Simpson’s tv show has taken in recent years. Sadly, The Simpson’s show started out creating great insight into the modern cultural experience, but has since degenerated to trying to capitalize on cheap controversy and expounding on vicious rumors,” Morrissey wrote in a statement on Facebook. The singer, who was dropped by his label last year after a history of racist comments, took umbrage with the show “calling the Morrissey character out for being a racist, without pointing out any specific instances… It only serves to insult the artist.”

He continued (misspelling “The Simpsons” nearly every time):

They should take that mirror and hold it up to themselves.

Simpson’s actor Hank Azaria’s recent apology to the whole country of India for his role in upholding “structural racism” says it all.

Unlike the character in the Simpson’s “Panic” episode…….

Morrissey has never made a “cash grab”, hasn’t sued any people for their attacks, has never stopped performing great shows, and is still a serious vegan and strong supporter for animal rights.

By suggesting all of the above in this episode…the Simpson’s hypocritical approach to their storyline says it all.

Truly they are the only ones who have stopped creating, and have instead turned unapologetically hurtful and racist.

Not surprising…… that The Simpsons viewership ratings have gone down so badly over recent years.

This not-so-charming man. Here’s the full post:

(Via Facebook)

John Oliver knows that the seemingly unending rash of police brutality against Black Americans has had a bit of a numbing effect. The Last Week Tonight has tackled the subject many times over the past handful of years, including discussions about defunding the police and accountability for law enforcement. So, he wanted to “break the cycle” this week while responding to last week’s police shootings and killings of Daunte Wright (age 20, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota) and Adam Toledo (age 13, in Chicago).

Oliver, of course, was aghast and frustrated at how the U.S. can’t seem to do anything to curb the issue of police mowing down Black citizens. “We couldn’t even finish writing about what happened to Daunte Wright before the city of Chicago released video of one of their officers killing a 13-year-old unarmed child, Adam Toledo,” the host declared. He added that the police footage “clearly contradicted the picture of an armed confrontation painted by the police” along with “a prosecutor who said Toledo had a gun in his hand when he was shot, which he did not.” To that end, Oliver urged protesters to continue their fight, but he understood that people probably don’t want to rewatch any of the relevant footage again, so he decided that some distraction was in order.

To that end, Oliver zoomed through some gleefully frivolous stories, including the giant bunny heist and whatever was happening with Usher Bucks in Las Vegas before devoting some airtime to this pressing issue: “The Commercials On Fox News In The Middle Of The Night Know Exactly Who They’re Talking To.” Then this happened:

Yep, Oliver devoted about five seconds to saying that it wasn’t worth rehashing the Fox New takes on the police killings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo; and instead, he roasted the Fox News audience by playing a full minute of commercials that reveal an interesting late-night trend from the cable news channel. Savage.

On Friday, Helen McCrory — acclaimed English actress, known for Peaky Blinders and the Harry Potter films, in which she played Narcissa Malfoy — passed away at the age of 52, following a battle with cancer. Her husband, Billions and Homeland actor Damian Lewis, was the one to make the news public, saying, “She died as she lived. Fearlessly.” On Sunday, he elaborated further, paying her tribute in a lengthy, beautiful tribute published in the Sunday Times.

“As I sit down to write this, I can hear Helen shouting from the bed, ‘Keep it short, Damian, it’s not about you,’” Lewis begins, capturing the spark and the sense of humor that remained till the end. “Only a couple of weeks ago she said to us from her bed, ‘I want Daddy to have girlfriends, lots of them, you must all love again, love isn’t possessive,” he wrote. “‘But you know, Damian, try at least to get though the funeral without snogging someone.’”

Lewis goes on to describe someone who made the most of existence. “I’ve never known anyone able to enjoy life as much. Her ability to be in the present and enjoy the moment was inspirational,” he writes. “Nor was she interested in navel-gazing. No real interest in self-reflection; she believed in looking out, not in. Which is why she was able to turn her light so brightly on others.”

The two met in 2003, when they acted together in Five Gold Rings at London’s Almeida Theater. “Already I miss her,” Lewis writes. “She has shone more brightly in the last months than you would imagine even the brightest star could shine. In life, too, we had to rise to meet her. But her greatest and most exquisite act of bravery and generosity has been to ‘normalize’ her death. She’s shown no fear, no bitterness, no self-pity, only armed us with the courage to go on and insisted that no one be sad, because she is happy. I’m staggered by her. She’s been a meteor in our life.”

You can read the full story here.

Kyrsten Sinema has become one of the least popular Democrats in Congress, not only for so often siding with those on the other side of the aisle but for doing so in sometimes flamboyant fashion. In March, she became persona non grata on social media after footage making a goofy — and, many charged, cartoonishly insensitive — show out of voting down a bill to raise the minimum wage for the first time in 12 years. Now it’s a picture that’s driving people mad.

The Arizona Senator posted it in her Instagram stories, but it found its way to Twitter thanks to a screengrab. It finds Sinema at what looks like a gawdy Sunday brunch, at a table, emphatically sipping from what appears to be a Sangria. Her pink hat matches her pink glasses, but there was another fashion accessory that jumped out at people: a ring that bears the words “F*ck off.”

People had a lot of fun mocking her get-up, but most dwelled on the latter. It was a reminder that Sinema rarely toes the party line, seeing herself as an individual, not someone who could help her fellow Democrats achieve some real goals that could help people, like a substantially raised minimum wage. It was also reminiscent of Melania Trump’s infamous jacket bearing the words “I really don’t care do u?”, which was seen as a big middle finger to her husband’s countless critics (and all the people whose lives he ruined or made difficult).

So when people zoomed in on Sinema’s “f*ck you” ring, it seemed like it was directed towards constituents stuck with a low minimum wage.

Others took her to task for other reasons.

And many made jokes, including some decent Gen X ’90s jabs.

Donald Trump changed America in many ways, and one of them is this: Other celebrities with zero political history have thought about running for office. Dwayne Johnson has considered running for president, but only after enough Americans thought he’d make a great — or at least its nicest, or simply most ripped — leader. Meanwhile Matthew McConaughey has been talking about running for governor of his home state of Texas. And if he did, a new poll suggests he’d kill it.

According to The Dallas Morning News, a new poll, conducted by the publication in tandem with the University of Texas at Tyler, only 33% of registered voters would go for Greg Abbott, the state’s sitting leader. Meanwhile, the guy who played bongos in the first Magic Mike would get a whopping 45% of their vote. As for the remaining 22% (or so), they would go for “someone else.”

Even when broken down along party lines, McConaughey’s doing perhaps better than expected. Of Republican voters, the actor scored only 30%, but that’s still a lot who would turn on Abbott, who has tried to sway Trump voters to his side by not doing much about the pandemic. (Meanwhile, when millions across his state lost power for days after a freak winter storm, he got roasted for trying to blame it on the Green New Deal, which has not even been voted on let alone enacted.)

McConaughey’s political aspirations — as well as new YouTube channel, which feature his musings — have gotten a lot of attention lately. So when news of the poll broke, there were inevitable Dazed and Confused jokes.

But there was also pushback. Some said they want an end to the trend of celebrities-turned-politicos, particularly if they have zero experience.

And some pointed out there’s already a Texan who could nab the job.

(Via The Dallas Morning News)

The Miami Heat entered Sunday’s afternoon tilt with the Brooklyn Nets on a three-game losing streak, slipping to seventh in the East and into the dreaded play-in tournament. For a team with aspirations of a top-4 seed after last year’s Finals run, it’s been a season filled with inconsistencies due in large part to injuries and absences due to health and safety protocols.

Without Jimmy Butler, the Heat weren’t favored to beat the Nets, but after Kevin Durant left early in the first quarter with a thigh contusion and didn’t return, they quickly took control behind a tremendous performance from Bam Adebayo. Still, down the stretch they found themselves trailing after Landry Shamet caught fire and posted a career-high 30 point outing, and needed some late heroics from Adebayo to escape with a victory.

Tied at 107-107 after Kyrie Irving failed to hit a go-ahead bucket on the other end, the Heat gave Adebayo the ball against Jeff Green and had him isolate, dribbling the clock down inside five seconds before going to work, getting to his spot on the left block, and rising for his first ever game-winner at the buzzer.

It’s a situation that Miami typically leans on Butler for, but it was good to see Adebayo step up into that role and deliver, rather than ceding that role to someone else on an afternoon where he was so terrific. Bam finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds, and five assists, taking advantage of his size advantage against the smaller Nets all night — his backup, the recently signed Dewayne Dedmon did the same with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 15 minutes of play, as Miami’s interior presence was the difference in a much needed win.

The win pulled Miami back to a game over .500 and just 1.5 back of the Knicks for the 6-seed. They’ll look to piece together another winning streak to climb the standings and avoid the play-in, but for now they can celebrate a hard fought win and a signature moment for Adebayo.

Lauren Boebert rarely gets the kind of press her fellow far-right new fish Marjorie Taylor Greene does, though the two were the only ones in the House who voted against a bill aimed at helping patients with leukemia. But every now and then she says or does something so inane that it lights up social media. On Saturday, the Colorado representative had what she thought was a terse, devastating takedown of Marxism, but it only succeeded in making people question whether she even knew what it was.

“Marxism is the greatest ponzi scheme ever devised,” Boebert wrote. It’s a favorite move among Trump loyalists; Jim Jordan loves writing short, meaning-impaired tweets that receive a good social media pile-on. Boebert — who was perhaps inspired by the recent passing of noted grifter Bernie Madoff — let her words speak for themselves, not explaining what she meant. But that only made it seem like she doesn’t know what either Marxism or Ponzi schemes are.

Many, many questioned her intelligence.

Others pointed out that Boebert’s attempt to stick it to Marxism — which, just to clarify, is far broader term than she let on, or perhaps even knew — may have backfired.

And there were jokes.

Eventually enough people ridiculed Boebert that she actually tried to explain herself.

Alright y’all…. A ponzi scheme promises success for everyone, but defrauds everyone involved. The only ones who come out on top are the criminals in charge. That is Marxism.

But people thought that just sounded like Trumpism.

Or, again, capitalism.

But it was clear people who know what Marxism is were not Boebert’s target audience. It was people who don’t. Like, it seems, her.

The New Orleans Pelicans lost in overtime on Sunday afternoon to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, as a blown assignment late by both members of the New Orleans backcourt led to a game-tying three from Reggie Bullock, which allowed the Knicks to pull away in the fourth quarter. Eric Bledsoe failed to foul Derrick Rose up three, which had been the plan for the Pelicans with 7.8 seconds to play, and then Lonzo Ball bizarrely stepped inside to help down on a Rose drive, leaving Bullock in the corner for the open three to tie.

The few thousand fans allowed into the Garden erupted on that three, and kept buzzing through the overtime period as the Knicks won their sixth straight game. After the game, Zion Williamson, who had 34 points, nine rebounds, and five assist to lead the Pelicans, was asked about his first professional game in New York and lit up, giving some comments that have Knicks fans all kinds of excited.

Now, Zion smartly said its his second favorite place to play behind New Orleans, but that’s going to get ignored by every Knicks fan and sports talk show for the next few days as this will surely become an A-block topic for talking heads. There will be inevitable talk of whether this means Zion will push his way to New York, but the reality is, he is, at least six or seven years from even having the chance to do so — and, to this point, has at least been publicly thrilled to be in New Orleans. Zion is on year two of his rookie deal, which runs through 2024, and then will ink a five-year max with the Pelicans, which he can’t really look to put pressure on to move him until three years into, as we’ve seen from other stars in recent years.

What’s more likely than this being a sign that Zion is a Future Knick is that Zion will be the next great NBA star who spends his entire career raving about the atmosphere in New York for one or two visits a year, scoring a ton of points in the Garden for the Pelicans and/or some other team. There is a great history of the NBA’s best talking about the Mecca of basketball in glowing terms before choosing to go elsewhere in free agency when they actually do have the chance to go to New York. That won’t stop Knicks fans from getting really excited about Zion’s comments, though, which when coupled with their current six game winning streak is making this the best week the Knicks have had since 2013.