Month: June 2021

After a tumultuous season defined by the inability to secure a postseason berth and reports of friction in the locker room, the Indiana Pacers have reportedly decided to fire head coach Nate Bjorkgren. The news of the decision, which means Bjorkgren will not get a second year at the helm of the franchise, comes via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Wojnarowski confirmed the reports that Bjorkgren’s style rubbed players (and, as an added bonus, those within the organization) the wrong way, and as a result, the Pacers will target someone with more head coaching experience in the search for his replacement.

Bjorkgren came to the Pacers after a stint as an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors. While he had professional head coaching experience before, all of it came in the G League, and his first year as the head coach of an NBA team came with major growing pains that the organization decided were not worth continuing to work through. The team was hampered due to injuries, which played a major role in Indiana going 34-38 and losing out on a chance to make the postseason via the play-in tournament.

The reports of Bjorkgren being in trouble popped up during the season, and ultimately, they turned out to be true. Now, the Pacers will try to find a coach that can get them back to the postseason.

The first season of Netflix’s new post-apocalyptic series, Sweet Tooth, is a journey. It’s a journey through endless woods and eerily idyllic neighborhoods — through the tragic inevitability that is death, and the preciousness of life. However, there’s no denying that by this journey’s end, we are left in a pretty grim situation and with way more questions than answers. If you just finished it up, you’re probably wondering what’s next for Gus, Jepperd, and the rest of Sweet Tooth‘s motley crew. If you haven’t, here is your sign to minimize this article and do so now, firstly because it’s well worth the watch, and secondly because big spoilers for the first season follow. Like, bigger than Big Man big, so consider yourself warned.

Before we talk about what the second season of Sweet Tooth might have in store for us, let’s recap where we left off. When the first season of Sweet Tooth comes to a close, nearly every last character in the show is in pretty damn close to the worst position they could be in. For starters, our sweet young buck Gus has been captured by Last Men and is currently awaiting a pretty grisly death at Dr. Singh’s forced hands. While he does finally find some semblance of the family he’s been looking for among the hybrid children he is imprisoned with, many of them were raised by Aimee Eden who is currently grappling with her grief and anger at losing them. Included in this group of hybrids is Wendy, the long-lost sister of Becky (aka Bear) and Aimee’s adopted daughter, and only time will tell when she’s up next on the lab table.

Meanwhile, Aimee has recovered the nearly-fatally wounded Jeppard, and while he is thankfully still alive, he’s forced to reconcile with Gus being stolen and him being in no condition to go out and get him back. Oh, and this is all on top of the big reveal we got earlier in the episode that Jeppard is husband to a missing wife, and father to young hooved hybrid. Perhaps the only character with some good luck is Birdie, Gus’ “mother” who is currently seeking a cure for the Sick up in Alaska. Right before the final episode fades to black, we see her making contact with Becky, who is sure to fill her in on things and get even more balls rolling.

So, all things considered — and unless this show wants to end in an appalling bleak manner — a second season of Sweet Tooth feels necessary. So much so that it is almost shocking it wasn’t announced as a two-part series initially. As things stand right now, we still don’t know what caused hybrids or the Sick, or if the two are at all related. None of the show’s characters have gotten their happy endings, nor have they even fully plunged into their bad ones. And while the show is based on a comic series by the same name, there are enough deviations from the source material that we can’t really point to it as a solid indicator of what to expect in future seasons. For example, in the show, certain major characters, such as Aimee, have been added, and key plot points, like Jepperd turning in Gus to the Last Men to retrieve his wife’s bones, were scrapped. While this could be a bit frustrating for comic fans, it is enthralling not knowing exactly how things will ultimately play out for the Sweet Tooth crew.

However, even now a second season of Sweet Tooth has yet to be confirmed, despite Netflix Geeked Week addressing the show during their June 8 festivities. That being said, Sweet Tooth did only hit Netflix on June 4, so it seems likely the streaming service is waiting just a bit longer to see how it does before giving the showrunners the green light. Luckily for Sweet Tooth fans who might be feeling a bit nervous after Jupiter’s Legacy was given the ax, the show its been received extremely well by both viewers and critics. While both shows jumped to the top of Netflix’s most-streamed content list, Jupiter’s Legacy currently rests at a 45 on Metacritic whereas Sweet Tooth is sitting pretty at 75. It seems likely the announcement will come later this year, and until then at least we’ve got plenty of other Netflix original series to tide us over.

Ahead of Loki‘s Disney+ premiere, Tom Hiddleston stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night where he fired a very specific threat at Matt Damon, much to the delight of the late night host who has a long-standing “feud” with the actor.

It all goes back to 2017 when Damon made a cameo in Thor: Ragnarok. Except it wasn’t just any cameo, he was playing Loki, or at the very least, an Asgardian actor playing Loki in a stage production celebrating Loki. Anyway, that was enough for Kimmel to find an opening to steer Hiddleston’s jealousy towards Damon. Via Entertainment Tonight:

“Were you disappointed when you found out he would be playing your character?” Kimmel asked.

“Loki, as we know, contains multitudes, and somehow contains Matt Damon, even in that suit,” Hiddleston joked. “It’s kind of like Matt’s trying to bump me from my own character.”

Kimmel, completely agreeing, said, “He’s taking things that don’t belong to him, and getting into places where he’s not welcome.”

With Hiddleston now committed to the bit, he warned Damon that turnabout is fair play. “Next time there’s a new Jason Bourne movie, maybe in another reality there’s another Jason Bourne,” Hiddleston said while pointing to himself. “It might show up around the corner.” Naturally, Kimmel chimed in that Hiddleston would be “a million times better.”

Of course, it may be a little too late for Damon. The actor reportedly filmed another cameo for Thor: Love and Thunder, so he might want to make sure he’s still locked in for the next Bourne movie. Maybe double-check that contract.

This probably won’t come as a surprise, but Owen Wilson is a pretty laid back interview subject. Though, when I’ve interviewed him in the past, his dry, sneaky wit always makes its presence known. And that’s still the case this time, but I could tell Wilson, who was subjecting himself to nerds like me asking him about superheroes, kind of had this look on his face that read, “What on earth have I gotten myself into?” With his admission he doesn’t really know much at all about Marvel movies, he just looked like someone who was trying his best not to say anything that might disappoint the legions of MCU fans who are happy that Wilson has joined the team.

Though Wilson has little to worry about because he is outstanding as Mobius, a “grizzled” (Wilson likes this description) lifer agent working for the Time Variance Authority (basically the cops who make sure different timelines don’t happen), who is tasked with working with Loki to bring down an even worse threat. But not the Loki we see die in Avengers: Infinity War, but the other Loki, who is now deemed a “variant” we see escape in Avengers: Endgame. Yes, this all might be a little confusing, but it’s Wilson’s job to explain all of this to us, the audience. And he thinks his lack of knowledge helps the character. In that Mobius is above all the minutia.

Also, it’s easy to get the impression Wilson just doesn’t like talking about himself. (This is something I find endearing.) For example, when I asked what he thought about the reaction people had to Mobius’s “grizzled” look, he quickly changed the subject to what he liked about the trailer. (And he seemed much more interested in talking about Walter Hill’s 1982 movie 48 Hours than he did himself.) Wilson also warned that a second Wedding Crashers movie isn’t quite a done deal yet. And I’ve always wondered if Wilson saw that weird viral video of the lightsaber fight from The Phantom Menace that substituted his voice for the lightsaber sound with his voice saying “wow.” His deadpan answer was pretty perfect.

Last time I spoke to you in 2017 I made a passing reference to the “good year” you were having with Cars 3 and Wonder. And you joked how that doesn’t bring others much comfort. “But what about Owen in Cars 3 and Wonder? Didn’t that help? How about that silver lining?” Last year when things were at their worst in NYC I did think to myself, “At least Owen had that good year in 2017,” and it made me laugh.

[Laughs] Well, I’m glad I was able to provide a little comfort during these crazy uncertain times.

Are you finding people are disappointed to learn that you were not a big MCU person before joining the team?

They don’t seem like it? It seems like just sort of, well it actually ends up working for my character because I think the TVA sort of believes themselves to be sort of above everything that happens in the MCU. And so as an agent for the TVA, it actually sort of works for the character of Mobius. They have a lot on their plate and there’s a lot of other business for them to be concerned with.

Do you feel like this is the most grizzled role you’ve had? I can’t think of something more grizzled you’ve done off the top of my head.

Yeah, I like that. That’s a good description. Grizzled Mobius. I think that it’s always sort of, there are actors who kind of change their look a lot and, from different projects, and my life’s been fairly consistent. So it was nice on this to have sort of a different look and I think that sort of made it easier to sort of slip into Mobius’s shoes, so to speak.

In the past have you suggested a different look and were turned down?

No, it hasn’t been that. It’s probably worked more the other way where it’s more like, yeah, we’ll just sort of kind of find sort of something similar to kind of what I’ve done. And with this, it just seemed like it was the mustache and the whole sort of the look of the guy. It’s grizzled. And that’s what this role called for.

Were you paying attention when the first trailer came out and people got their first look at your grizzled character? People were very excited.

Yeah, it’s been exciting sort of seeing the trailers and seeing sort of the little clips at the release…

Yeah, but more the way people are reacting to you. They’re reacting to you with the “grizzled” look, everyone seems very excited about that. It’s been very positive.

Yeah. And I think that it’s been kind of… well, when I sort of watch the trailers, I’m looking to see sort of, oh, yeah, there’s something that we kind of maybe did on the day or something – thinking about ideas that you might’ve had to sort of make a scene better that ended up being useful.

I saw you kind of compared this character to Nick Nolte in 48 Hours. I re-watched 48 Hours recently. I would much rather hang out with Mobius. He seems like a much more pleasant man than Jack Cates.

Yeah, how did that one hold up, by the way?

Well… it certainly has a point of view. I will say Eddie Murphy is lightning in a bottle in that movie. There’s an amazing scene where Eddie is in a bar full of racists and takes over the place.

Yeah. And I remember just the introduction to his character. Is he singing The Police song?

Yes, that’s his first scene. He doesn’t show up until like 25 minutes into that movie.

And it’s pretty gritty.

Last time I spoke to you, you said the idea of another Wedding Crashers, “Might be a little unseemly at this point.” And now the headlines are everywhere that there’s another one.

Well, it’s not definite. I know people have been saying that, but it was one of those movies that at the time really connected with people. And David Dobkin has been working on a script and I’ve been talking with Vince. And I think if we came up with an idea that we obviously all believed in, then maybe we would try to do it.

Did you ever see that viral video of Star Wars where every time the lightsabers hit each other it’s you saying, “Wow”?

I did. Because Woody Harrelson was in Star Wars. So I remember being around him at the time because he was working on something in London and I think it was around that time.

I can’t imagine what was going through your head.

It was, you know, not much. I think I was pretty detached watching it.

That’s a perfect answer.

[Laughs] Yeah.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing where Mobius and this series go.

I think it’s going to keep being “grizzled” for Mobius.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

DC Comics has a hit on its hands with the “Death Metal” crossover storyline, and it has prompted another sort of crossover: A soundtrack, for which they’ve gotten a handful of great artists to participate. Denzel Curry shared his contribution, “Bad Luck,” last week, and now it’s Manchester Orchestra’s turn.

Today, they’ve released “Never Ending,” a gigantic-sounding rocker with post-rock-like dynamics. The band’s Andy Hull says of the song, “When [executive producer Tyler Bates] reached out about wanting to include us in the soundtrack for this epic comic, this song immediately came to mind. We spent some time with him adding flourishes to the original version and we were really thrilled with how well it turned out.”

Hull, by the way, also voiced Lex Luthor in “Sonic Metalverse,” an animated showcase for the Death Metal series.

Aside from the aforementioned artists, the Death Metal album will also feature contributions from Mastodon, Deftones’ Chino Moreno, Rise Against, Idles, Soccer Mommy, and others.

Manchester Orchestra’s latest album, The Million Masks Of God, was released back in April. Hull told Uproxx of it, “We knew we really wanted from the beginning for it to be all connected in a similar way as [2017’s A Black Mile To The Surface], but more thought out, and allowing the songs to fold in on each other. And having repeated melodies and phrases that, at the end of the second song, is the same melody and lyrical nod to the fifth song. That happens all over the record. Throwing out the rule book that we had made for ourselves about even what a song can be. It’s been a really difficult record to pick a single and pick songs to play for people, because I do feel like it’s best served as a whole thing. The album’s the song.”

Dark Nights: Death Metal Soundtrack is out 6/18 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here.

The Philadelphia 76ers are 1-1 with the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals as the series leaves the City of Brotherly Love and heads down south to The Big Peach. To see them off, though, the 76ers’ Phila Unite campaign tapped one of the city’s rising musical stars in Tierra Whack, who shows her hometown pride with a rap shouting out the team’s members like Joel Embid and Tobias Harris in “76.”

Over a marching band-inspired beat that sounds like Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch” had a baby with an HBCU drumline, Tierra flips the stars’ names with wordplay like “Shake Milton makes millions” and “Doc Rivers layin’ up with winners.” The video sees Tierra watching the Sixers play on an old school box TV set, holding up cardboard cutouts of the players’ heads, and showing off her own hoop skills as she dribbles and shoots a jumper on an invisible hoop.

Whack isn’t the only rapper putting on for her city in the series. Migos’ Quavo attended game 1 in Philly, with his over-the-top reactions capturing Twitter’s attention and either amusing or enraging fans (depending on who they were rooting for). Does that mean we’ll see someone like Meek Mill turn up at State Farm Arena to troll Atlanta fans in the same fashion? Let’s hope so; after last year’s bubble, more fan engagement can only be a good thing.

Watch Tierra Whack’s “76” video above.

Any bozo can stumble into success one time. It can be one good idea or a fortuitous set of circumstances or even just dumb luck. Sometimes it’s just magic striking at an opportune moment and, yes, this is where I mention Nick Foles outdueling Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. (Go Birds.) Repeating that success — just once, to bring your grand total of successes to two — is hard. And even then, some people might write you off as a flash in the pan. They’ll say you rode the wave of the first thing, or accuse you of going back to the same well, or whatever else people say, because people can be petty. But do it a third time, and then a fourth, in different ways, with different routes to victory… well, then it gets pretty hard to deny. Then you’re just good. Very good. Possibly even great. This brings us to Mythic Quest.

Mythic Quest dropped its fourth special episode in under two seasons last week. The first one, “A Dark Quiet Death,” featured Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti — not regular castmembers — as video game developers whose project and relationship crumbled over time, and careened between funny and heartbreaking in ways that should be impossible for a half-hour standalone episode. The second one, “Quarantine,” was a freaking triumph, an uplifting and tear-jerking look at a scary early-pandemic world that we were still all coming to terms with. It remains one of the best television episodes I’ve ever seen, regardless of circumstances, but especially given the circumstances. The third one, “Everlight,” dropped between seasons and provided a bookend to “Quarantine” that set things up for the second season, and did some big ambitious work in the field of LARPing, which both a fun thing to watch and a fun collection of words to type.

The latest special episode, titled “Backstory,” flashed all the way back to the 1970s to show one of the supporting characters — C.W., the game’s pretentious and bombastic story maestro, played by F. Murray Abraham — as a young man looking to make a name for himself as a science fiction writer. It was also hilarious in parts and devastating in others. It could also stand alone as its own work, without any knowledge of the rest of the show (although it would help), which, again, is basically a magic trick for a half-hour of storytelling. It featured this line of dialogue, which made sense in context and makes for a terrific screencap without context, too.

That’s Craig Mazin, writer of Chernobyl and the Hangover sequels and freshman-year roommate of Ted Cruz (and possessor of a fascinating life), who swung by to write the episode. That’s some kind of trick, too, swooping into a show in its second season and doing a one-off story that somehow both provides depth for a character previously mined mostly for goofs and sets things up for events going forward. It probably helped that the episode was directed by series creator and star Rob McElhenney. Everyone on this show is almost infuriatingly talented.

Yes, that applies to the guest stars of this episode, too, led by Josh Brener, who you probably recognize as Big Head from Silicon Valley, and who absolutely nailed the elements of the character. The bravado, the pettiness, the hurt, and even, to some degree, the F. Murray Abraham of it all, which is saying something because there’s so much of that to grasp. Brener spoke to Uproxx earlier this week to explain how he pulled that off and provided this glance into the character’s soul.

“I think he crafted a self-image that, no matter what, he is unwilling to relinquish,” Brener said. “You are 100% sure of who you are and are unwilling to change or allow in any other version of yourself. Everybody has to be wrong. That’s the only possibility, is that everybody doesn’t see who you actually are, so you just keep insisting upon and insisting upon it until it’s true. That seems to be what C.W. does, is that he, through brute force, just makes it so by whatever means necessary.”

Yeah, that just about says it. And it explains how a man can go from hopeful idealist to heartbroken loner to shameless plagiarist to Renaissance Fair meat salesman, which, as we learn, is the backstory in “Backstory,” and where C.W. was when he was rediscovered. Again, it’s a lot to pack into 30 minutes. Again, it’s cool that the show is willing to take an extended diversion to add depth to an otherwise minor character. Again, it’s incredible it all worked so well.

(Mazin and Brener aren’t the only recognizable faces in the episode, especially if you are me, or watched all the shows I’ve watched over the last couple of decades. One of his coworkers and eventual rivals is played by Michael Cassidy, who appeared in the second season of The O.C. as a Seth Cohen adversary and comic book collaborator named Zach. The other is played by Shelley Hennig, who appeared in an episode of Justified as a grifter and riverboat gambler named Jackie Nevada. I paused mid-episode to look up why both of them looked familiar and I shouted “WHAT?!” both times I found out.)

This is not the first time I’ve gushed about Mythic Quest. It’s not the second time either. It’s at least the third, by my count, and it could easily be the fourth or fifth. There’s a reason for that: Mythic Quest is a good show. It’s a good show when it’s just going about its regular business of being an office comedy about a collection of weirdos and misfits who care deeply about each other even when they don’t admit it. (Big Parks and Recreation vibes here). It’s a good show when it goes out of its way to give you hope in a terrifying real-world crisis. And it’s a good show when it tosses all of that out the window to tell a story that fills in blanks you didn’t even realize existed.

So, yes, Mythic Quest just retained its title of Special Episode Champion this week. But if it keeps doing that, and keeps being this good at its more straightforward episodes, and keeps pulling off this high-wire act of connecting those two things in a way that makes you laugh and cry a little in the same 30 minutes, well… then we’re back to that discussion about repeating success so many times that it becomes undeniable. At some point, we’re going to have to go right ahead and talk about Mythic Quest as one of the best shows on television. I’m ready whenever you are.

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen forged a beautiful partnership on “Like I Used To,” the soaring single the pair shared last month. It was their first collaboration, and now they’ve made their first joint television appearance, to perform the song on The Tonight Show yesterday. The pre-taped performance wasn’t dissimilar to the song’s video, as it features plenty of side-by-side shots of both artists. They also nailed the performance itself, which sounds true to the studio recording.

Van Etten previously said of the track, “Even though we weren’t super close, I always felt supported by Angel and considered her a peer in this weird world of touring. We highway high-fived many times along the way…. I finally got the courage in June of 2020 to reach out to see if she would want to sing together. I got greedy and quickly sent her a track I had been working on.”

Olsen also added at the time, “I’ve met with Sharon here and there throughout the years and have always felt too shy to ask her what she’s been up to or working on. The song reminded me immediately of getting back to where I started, before music was expected of me, or much was expected of me, a time that remains pure and real in my heart.”

Watch Van Etten and Olsen perform “Like I Used To” on The Tonight Show above.

Although Mariah Carey denied a report that she’d had an “explosive” falling out with longtime business partner Jay-Z over her Roc Nation management, it appears that she has indeed decided to part ways with Roc Nation. Billboard and Variety report Carey has moved from Roc Nation to Range Media Partners, following her former Roc Nation manager Melissa Ruderman, who switched companies in January.

Ruderman was Carey’s day-to-day manager in 2005 when the star was managed by Benny Medina, handling the rollout for the 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi. At Roc Nation, Ruderman helped put together deals for Carey’s Las Vegas residencies, the publishing contract that led to the bestselling memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and a TV deal with Apple. Ruderman joined the recently formed Range Media Partners just a few short months after its launch in September last year.

The rumor that Mariah had switched management was first hinted at in a report in British tabloid The Sun, which wrote that a meeting between Carey and Jay-Z “did not go well at all” after the two disagreed on rollout plans for a more R&B-centered album. However, Mariah took the tabloid to task in a tweet recalling the success of Mariah and Jay’s no.1 hit “Heartbreaker.”

“The only ‘explosive’ situation I’d ever ‘get into’ with Hov is a creative tangent, such as our #1 song ‘Heartbreaker!!’” she wrote. “To the people who make up these lies I say ‘Poof! —Vamoose, sonofa*****”!’”

Though he has only appeared in three episodes, 91-year-old veteran actor Ed Asner has had a memorable role in the Karate Kid sequel series, Cobra Kai, playing the step-father to William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence. In fact, Asner not only appeared in the first episode of Cobra Kai, but his scene was the first one that Zabka shot for the series. It didn’t go exactly as Zabka thought it might, as he relayed to Marc Maron on this week’s WTF podcast.

“My first scene on the show was with Ed Asner, who took me to school,” Anser told Maron, who has also worked with Asner in the past. “He plays my estranged Dad, and we’re doing rehearsal, and he calls me over and he says, ‘Is there anything else I can give you.’ And I say, ‘No, you’re doing great. How about you? Is there anything I can give you?”

“And [Anser] goes, ‘Oh go f**k yourself.’”

“He did it in character,” Zabka said, “and he rattled me, and he. got me in this place, and I’m like, ‘Sh*t! Did Ed Asner really say that to me? But no, he was doing this device, which he does all the time off-camera.”

It was a hell of a way to kick off the new series, but at least according to Maron, Zabka nailed the role of middle-aged Johnny Lawrence. “This seemed like the reasonable evolution of that guy,” Maron said. “Just going to, like, high school reunions. There’s an element of that guy on his best behavior can’t hide that he’s pissed off and beaten. But the thing wouldn’t work unless you were empathetic, which is a testament to your acting … that character was an a**hole, and he’s still an a**hole. But he’s sad.”

For fans of Cobra Kai, it’s a great podcast episode, full of gems about the series and Zabka’s experience. Zabka also revealed, for instance, that his experience at Cons has changed dramatically since Cobra Kai. “It’s a trip. I love it now because up until Cobra Kai I was the table that the dads would walk up and go, ‘I just want my kid to meet you. This guy was the biggest a**hole. Nice to meet you.’ And they would walk away. Now, I got people coming up and going, ‘Hey, I love you on the show. Johnny is cool now.’”

In fact, it was during of those conventions in Florida that Zabka had to reveal to Martin Kove — who plays John Kreese — that the series had been greenlit without Kove’s immediate involvement. “I had to break it to him outside this bar. It was rainy at night and he was about to go to his room. And I was like, ‘Hey I need to tell you about something that’s going on right now it’s a thing called’ Cobra Kai.’”

Kove was happy to hear it but didn’t understand why he hadn’t been notified yet. “He was like, ‘Well, when do I come on? When’s my part?’ and I go, ‘Well they’re gonna call you but I think it’s like the end of episode 10.’ He was like, ‘Why the end? Why can’t I come in the middle? Why can’t I come in episode two? Have them call me.’”

Of course, they eventually did bring him in, and now Kove is the primary antagonist on the series, at least until Terry Silver arrives in Season Four, which will debut on Netflix later this year.

Source: WTF with Marc Maron