Month: September 2021

Netflix greets the brisk air of fall with the realization that summer didn’t really happen this year, so they’re going to keep the home-party going for us while we avoid state fairs. Also, the witching season is upon us, which means that there’s a few fistfuls of spooky offerings, including the Penn Badgley-starring You, now entering its third round of stalker antics. The tables have truly turned on Joe, though, and that’s a serendipitous counterpoint to the sophomore season of Sexy Beasts, which is landing as a surprise.

For fans of zombie pictures (and their prequels), Zack Snyder returns with his speedy followup to Army of the Dead, and that promises fewer members of the dead but more heisting. On a sadder note, Margaret Qualley stars in a series adaptation that might send some award rumblings in her direction, and for a still somber but more uplifting selection, a Princess Diana musical is coming, too. If you’re still not satisfied, there’s plenty more to browse through below, including the final Shameless season.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in October.

You: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 10/15)

Nothing says (twisted) family bonding like two parents digging a grave for their murder victims while an infant sits in his car seat and does his best to amuse himself. Yikes. From the looks of things, this show somehow manages to sustain its own gimmick after a second season of barely containing its own crazy (and careening off a cliff). Near the end of that sophomore round, Stalker Joe (Penn Badgley) found himself trapped in a relationship with a woman, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who’s just as homicidal (if not more) as he is. Naturally, it seemed that Joe didn’t quite learn his lesson by the end of the season, and we saw him noticing that he’s got an attractive neighbor that perhaps he might stalk. This sounds like a good time for the ghost of Beck to deliver a lecture, and who knows what shall happen there, but in the Season 3 trailer, Joe appears to be scared out of his mind. (Good!) Love definitely has the upper hand, or so it appears, but Joe’s awfully nervous that his kid will follow in his parents’ footsteps.

Army of Thieves (Netflix film streaming 10/29)

Netflix bet on dead with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and that bet apparently paid off handsomely, which is a good thing because there’s already a prequel in the can and on the way to your queue. Matthias Schweighöfer returns to the franchise as Dieter, a then-bank teller who’s recruited by a very convincing Nathalie Emmanuel (who promises “a life less ordinary”) to begin his heisting career. Of course, this prequel isn’t entirely devoid of zombies. The outbreak already existed, given that this is Snyder’s zombie universe, and soon enough, the safes start cracking, or rather, Dieter gets to cracking them. In the process, he gets sucked into a lot more action that he probably bargained for, including a speedboat chase.

MAID (Netflix series streaming 10/1)

Margaret Qualley (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) stars in this heartbreaking adaptation of Stephanie Land’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. This will, clearly, be a difficult watch, but Qualley’s raw portrayal (of a woman who flees an abusive relationship to go through exceedingly difficult times to break the cycle for her daughter) yields a burgeoning star.

Sexy Beasts: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 10/7)

Well, no one expected this show to return so soon, so I guess that one could consider it a… force of nature? It’s a nightmare of a concept, and one can’t look away from the trainwrecky aspect of people going into hours of prosthetic work to go on a date. And I’m not sure, really, if these contestants find it more or less hurtful to be rejected without any consideration of looks? That’s either so much better or so much worse than the usual dating hell out there. Yet obviously, someone did this poor rabbit dirty. Will Rob Delaney return as well? Surely, he can’t let the bunny down.

Diana: The Musical (Netflix special streaming 10/1)

On the heels of even more The Crown Emmy wins (it’s almost cruel to other contenders at this point), here’s the streaming debut (which undoubtedly also finds inspiration in Hamilton success on Disney+) ahead of this production’s official Broadway debut to shine even more of a light on Princess Diana’s legacy. Unfortunately, the secrecy so far means that we can’t make promises on quality, but this is almost guaranteed to get a rise out of Piers Morgan, so that’s a virtue in its own right.

Coming Soon
A World Without
An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts
Call My Agent: Bollywood
Encounters: Season 1
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
Inspector Koo
The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea

Avail. 10/1
A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad
Diana: The Musical
Forever Rich
The Guilty
MAID
Paik’s Spirit
Scaredy Cats
The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light
Swallow
A Knight’s Tale
An Inconvenient Truth
Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Season 1
As Good as It Gets
Awakenings
B.A.P.S.
Bad Teacher
The Cave
Desperado
The Devil Inside
Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Double Team
The DUFF
Eagle Eye
Endless Love
Ghost
Gladiator
Hairspray
The Holiday
Jet Li’s Fearless
The Karate Kid
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Léon: The Professional
Malcolm X
Observe and Report
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Project X
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Rumor Has It…
Seinfeld: Seasons 1-9
Serendipity
Spy Kids
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Spy Kids 3: Game Over
Step Brothers
The Ugly Truth
Till Death
Titanic
Tommy Boy
Unthinkable
Waterworld
Zodiac

Avail. 10/3
Scissor Seven: Season 3
Upcoming Summer

Avail. 10/4
On My Block: Season 4

Avail. 10/5
Escape The Undertaker

Avail. 10/6
Bad Sport
Baking Impossible
The Blacklist: Season 8
Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things
The Five Juanas
Love Is Blind: Brazil
There’s Someone Inside Your House

Avail. 10/7
The Billion Dollar Code
Sexy Beasts: Season 2
​​The Way of the Househusband: Season 1 Part 2

Avail. 10/8
A Tale Dark & Grimm
Family Business: Season 3
Grudge / Kin
​​LOL Surprise: The Movie
My Brother, My Sister
Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
Pretty Smart

Avail. 10/9
Blue Period
Insidious: Chapter 2

Avail. 10/11
The Baby-Sitters Club: Season 2
Going in Style
The King’s Affection
Shameless (U.S.): Season 11

Avail. 10/12
Bright: Samurai Soul
Convergence: Courage in a Crisis
Making Malinche: A Documentary by Nacho Cano
Mighty Express: Season 5
The Movies That Made Us: Season 3
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It
Smart People

Avail. 10/13
Fever Dream / Distancia de Rescate
Hiacynt
Love Is Blind: Brazil
Reflection of You
Violet Evergarden the Movie

Avail. 10/14
Another Life: Season 2
​​In the Dark: Season 3
One Night in Paris

Avail. 10/15
CoComelon: Season 4
The Forgotten Battle
The Four of Us
Karma’s World
Little Things: Season 4
My Name
Power Rangers Dino Fury: Season 1
Sharkdog’s Fintastic Halloween
The Trip
You: Season 3

Avail. 10/16
Misfit: The Series
​​Victoria & Abdul

Avail. 10/19
In for a Murder / W jak morderstwo

Avail. 10/20
Found
Gabby’s Dollhouse: Season 3
Love Is Blind: Brazil
Night Teeth
Stuck Together

Avail. 10/21
Flip a Coin – ONE OK ROCK Documentary
Go! Go! Cory Carson: Season 6
Insiders
Komi Can’t Communicate
Life’s a Glitch with Julien Bam
Sex, Love & goop

Avail. 10/22
Adventure Beast
​​Dynasty: Season 4
Inside Job
Little Big Mouth
Locke & Key: Season 2
Maya and the Three
More than Blue: The Series
Roaring Twenties

Avail. 10/24
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Avail. 10/25
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Avail. 10/26
Roswell, New Mexico: Season 3
Sex: Unzipped

Avail. 10/27
Begin Again
Hypnotic
Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight Part 2
Sintonia: Season 2
Wentworth: Season 8
Luis Miguel – The Series: Season 3
The Motive

Avail. 10/29
Army of Thieves
Dear Mother
Mythomaniac: Season 2
Roaring Twenties
Thomas and Friends: Season 25 A
The Time It Takes

Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in October:

Leaving 10/1
Death Race: Beyond Anarchy
Tales From the Hood 2

Leaving 10/3
Angel Has Fallen

Leaving 10/6
Real Steel

Leaving 10/14
Cheech & Chong’s Still Smokin

Leaving 10/15
The Creative Brain

Leaving 10/17
U Turn

Leaving 10/20
Containment: Season 1
Free Fire

Leaving 10/21
The Hummingbird Project

Leaving 10/23
The Mist: Season 1

Leaving 10/27
Rango
Shine On with Reese: Season 1

Leaving 10/28
Pup Star

Leaving 10/29
The 12th Man
Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Leaving 10/1
60 Days In: Season 5
Angels & Demons
Battle: Los Angeles
Beowulf
Billy on the Street: Seasons 1-5
Catch Me If You Can
The Da Vinci Code
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Forged in Fire: Season 6
The Heartbreak Kid
The Impossible
Inception
Legally Blonde
Mile 22
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Reckoning: Limited Series
Snowden
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Yes Man

In news that Rihanna fans are painfully aware of at this point, this singer’s most recent album is 2016’s Anti, which was released nearly six years ago now. In the years since, Rihanna has periodically offered statements on either when she expects to release the album or what her upcoming music is sounding like. Her latest dispatch on this front falls in the latter category, as she’s teasing an experimental new project.

In an interview with the Associated Press (on the red carpet of her latest Savage X Fenty fashion show), Rihanna said:

“You’re not going to expect what you hear. Just put that in your mind. Whatever you know of Rihanna is not going to be what you hear. I’m really experimenting. Music is like fashion: you should be able to play. I should be able to wear whatever I want, and I treat music the same way. So, I’m having fun and it’s going to be completely different. That’s it.”

This expands upon what she noted at the end of 2020 when she said, “2021 is a little unknown for everybody and nobody is sure what restrictions there are going to be. My creativity is within my control, though, and I want to take my music and my brands to a different level.”

Watch the interview below.

As Succession Season 3 gets ready to make its long-awaited premiere next month, creator Jesse Armstrong wants to save fans the trouble of parsing through the show’s opening credits for clues about where the story is heading next. While speaking at a Television Critics Association panel, Armstrong addressed the online theory that the title credits highlight which character is the main focus of the current season. Essentially, that’s not how Succession does things, but Armstrong did his best to let Easter egg hunters down easy. Via The Wrap:

“We look carefully at the titles, we’re not in the habit of trying to really ferret away little clues, but it’s nice when things join up in the show,” Armstrong said Wednesday during the show’s Television Critics Association press tour panel. “We all have quite a detailed knowledge of this business in this world, and sometimes fragments fit together for people. But we’re not a super Easter Egg’y operation. That’s a cool thing some people do. It’s not especially what we do.”

On a related note, Armstrong also told the same TCA panel that the writers don’t necessarily sit down with the intention of making each season about a specific character. Case in point, there’s speculation that Season 3 will focus on either Cousin Greg or Connor Roy, which Armstrong was quick to dispel.

“In terms of is it a ‘Greg’ season or a ‘Connor’ season, it is mouthwatering to write for all of these brilliant colleagues,” Armstrong said (via Variety). “Maybe sometimes you look at the wall towards the end and you go, ‘Wow, this season’s really come together for Connor or for Greg,’ but going in, we try not to have those thoughts of, ‘OK last season was the season for Character X, so now we need to do a season for Character Y.’”

Of course, the most pressing question is whether Succession viewers will finally get to see a Tomlette made in real time. Giving the fans what they want is never a bad move. Just throwing that out there.

Succession Season 3 premieres October 17 on HBO.

(Via The Wrap, Variety)

Updates about Britney Spears’ conservatorship have been dominating the news in recent months, and with her father stepping down from his role as co-conservator and filing a petition to end the legal arrangement, many are hopeful that #FreeBritney’s mission will eventually become a reality. It now looks like Spears’ freedom could come sooner rather seeing as her lawyer has reportedly filed official court documents seeking an end to the singer’s conservatorship this fall.

According to a report from TMZ, Matthew Rosengart, Spears’ personal attorney, is looking to expedite an end to the singer’s legal situation. In new court documents, Rosengart claims there have been a change in circumstances that should allow Spears to have complete control over her life. The fact she was able to select her own lawyer, Rosengart says, means she has the “capacity and capability to identify, engage, and instruct counsel of her own choice.”

The newly filed court documents also reportedly mention Jamie Spears’ recent statements on the matter. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance,” the documents state. Spears herself asks for a “termination plan” to be put in place that will act as a guide to end her conservatorship.

Spears does have a court date set for next week that will discuss her father’s removal as her co-conservator, something Rosengart claims should be done immediately. The attorney gave a list of reasons why Jamie should no longer have control over Spears’ finances, saying he has no background in finance or economics and has a history of problems with managing his own money. “The Kafkaesque nightmare imposed upon her by her father so that her dignity and basic liberties can be restored,” Rosengart said.

A new book coming from Washington Post reporters Robert Costa and Bob Woodward has been spilling all kinds of tea about the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, but the latest truth bomb is a pretty explosive one.

During an interview with MSNBC, the two authors shared an excerpt from the book detailing how Trump henchman Steve Bannon had organized a “war-room” type meeting the night before the Jan. 6th insurrection. According to Costa and Woodward, both Bannon and Rudy Giuliani camped out at the Willard Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House, and met with several close allies of the president before his rally incited a violent mob to attack Capitol Hill.

“Bannon had actually been in close touch with President Trump for days before January 6th,” Costa alleged. “Based on our reporting, he privately told President Trump to have a reckoning on January 6th. And he said to the president, ‘It’s time to kill the Biden presidency in the crib.’”

A fairly ominous and damning statement you’d think Bannon would want to distance himself from after seeing how things turned out for Trump after the riots but, apparently, the former political strategist has no qualms about tying himself to a treasonous uprising. On his conservative broadcast Wednesday morning, Bannon played a clip of the two journalists detailing his involvement in the Jan. 6th insurrection before proudly taking credit for the chaos Trump caused with his baseless voter fraud allegations.

“Yeah, because [of] his legitimacy,” Bannon said after Costa’s allegation that he wanted to kill Biden’s presidency before it began. “Just look at what this illegitimate regime is doing. It killed itself. OK? But we told you from the very beginning, just expose it, just expose it, never back down, never give up and this thing will implode.”

Ahh, to have the confidence of an aging white man who knows he’ll probably never have to face the consequences of trying to topple our country’s democracy.

After five years of being shuffled around various studios, the American television adaptation of Let the Right One In is finally seeing the light of day… or rather the dark of night. According to Deadline, the critically-acclaimed vampire drama has been welcomed into Showtime’s home and is currently in production for the network.

The ten-episode order and will go into production in New York City in early 2022 with Andrew Hinderaker (Penny Dreadful) aboard as the project’s showrunner and Seith Mann as the series’ director. In addition, Demián Bichir, known for his roles in The Nun, Land, and The Hateful Eight, is set to star in the series alongside Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls, The Princess and the Frog), Grace Gummer (Dr. Death, Mr. Robot), Madison Taylor Baez (Selena: The Series), Kevin Carroll (Paid in Full, Snowfall), Ian Foreman, and Jacob Buster (The Christmas Project).

Inspired by the best-selling 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and its 2008 Swedish film adaptation, the upcoming Let the Right One In series follows Mark (Bichir) and his forever 12-year-old daughter Eleanor (Baez) as they are forced to grapple with the young girl’s vampirism. Throughout the heartbreaking drama, Mark tries his best to give his daughter a happy and safe life, going to dark and drastic lengths to provide her with the human blood she needs to live.

Let the Right One In is being developed by Tomorrow Studios, the same studio that’s been working on the series since 2015 and throughout its moves from A&E and TNT to its final location at Showtime. As of right now, there is no set release date for the series, though filming is set to begin early next year.

Connecticut cult favorites Ovlov are back again. In 2018, Ovlov memorably returned with their first album in five years, TRU. Since then, bandleader Steve Hartlett put out another album under his Stove moniker. Now, Ovlov are circling back with a new album, Buds, which is set to drop in November. Along with the news is a lead single, “Land Of Steve-O,” an upbeat, antsy track that moves along with persistent percussion and sharp guitar solos.

Here’s what Hartlett had to say about “Land Of Steve-O.”

“I wrote this song after I got in some stupid argument with my father in the car, and once we got home I decided to go for a walk but ended up walking for about 2 hours and stopping to sit on a bench at the police station in the center of Newtown, CT, where my parents raised me and still live today. I texted my friend Steve-O who I had been hanging out with a lot at the time. Basically anytime I was feeling like I wanted to hang out with someone, whether I was in need of someone to confide in or just wanted to chill, Steve-O was always down. He’s been an extremely important and close friend of mine since we met in the 6th grade when basically we both wrote down that Papa Roach was our favorite band on a personality questionnaire our teacher wrote for us in order to more easily make friends with the weirdos from all the other elementary school. The song is basically just about how good a guy I think Steve-O is.”

Listen to “Land Of Steve-O” above and find the Buds art and tracklist below.

1. “Baby Shea”
2. “Eat More”
3. “Land Of Steve-O”
4. “The Wishing Well”
5. “Strokes”
6. “Cheer Up, Chihiro”
7. “Moron Pt. 2”
8. “Feel The Pain”

Buds is out 11/19 via Exploding In Sound. Pre-order it here.

This article originally appeared on 01.22.15

Trevor Noah, one of the newest correspondents on “The Daily Show,” hails from South Africa.

As a South African now living in the U.S., he wants to set the record straight about Africa.

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Noah invited his new boss and their viewers to see a different side of Africa by playing a game. You can play along too.

The instructions are simple: Guess which photo was taken in Africa and which one was in the U.S.

Round 1

Stewart gave a reasoned response:

“The beautiful highway there on the right is probably Silicon Valley. … The one on the left, clearly been shelled by rebels. I’m going to go with … Somalia, maybe?”

Answer:

Round 2

This time, Stewart was pretty confident:

“OK, this one’s easy. On the left there, that’s the Success Academy in Harlem. On the right there, we got … homeless kids. I’m going to go with, uhh, in Somalia again.”

Answer:

Stewart: “I hate this f%#king game.”

Last Round

Stewart thought he was starting to catch on:

“I get how this works now. The one on the right, that’s Detroit.”

Answer:

OK, so Africa isn’t just the giant mass of despair it’s often made out to be. But what exactly is Noah getting at?

So let’s stop paternalizing all of Africa. Our country has its own problems to deal with.

There’s more. And it’s really funny. Watch the video below:

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the more intriguing teams in the NBA ahead of the 2021-22 season due to all the buzz surrounding Zion Williamson’s future with the franchise, as some members of his family reportedly think the best thing for him would be to go seek greener pastures. This puts plenty of pressure on general manager David Griffin to put a team out there that convinces Williamson he can win in The Big Easy, but a new piece by Christian Clark of NOLA.com indicates that Griffin is entering this season with major questions about his ability to make that happen.

One of the major issues is, apparently, that Griffin presented an ultra-optimistic approach but did not always back this up. An example came early on in his tenure, where he gave a presentation that tried to make clear that a change in the team’s culture, with words like “Family,” “Accountability,” and “Love” popping up on screen. And then, his actions did not back that up, which led to him getting a nickname from folks within the organization that was pulled straight from The Last Dance.

Then-coach Alvin Gentry told several people around him, “This is going to be great.” Within months, however, Griffin began blaming Gentry for the Pelicans’ poor start. Once, on a road trip, Griffin was approached by someone he hadn’t spoken to in weeks. Unprompted, Griffin said: “I give Alvin all the answers to the test, and he still fails.” It’s unclear whether Gentry knew of this exchange. He declined to comment.

That Griffin sometimes contradicted his own sunny vision caused a segment of team employees to actively dislike him. When “The Last Dance” documentary aired in April 2020, some staffers began referring to Griffin as “Griff Krause” in a group text. It was a reference to Jerry Krause, the NBA executive who dismantled the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls after they’d won a third straight championship.

Krause was not exactly painted as the protagonist of the ESPN series, as he was oftentimes the butt of jokes from individuals like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen throughout The Last Dance. While Krause did plenty of good in assembling those Bulls teams, his reputation was more so for breaking them apart, and getting compared to him is rarely (if ever) going to be a compliment.

After sharing the dance-ready Dua Lipa “Cold Heart” remix, Elton John is taking things in a different direction with his latest collaboration for his upcoming project, The Lockdown Sessions. “After All,” the new joint single with Charlie Puth, is a fluttering ode to believing in love, and it all started when the two musicians met by a chance encounter at an LA restaurant in March 2020.

“After All” is the result of several songwriting sessions Puth and Elton had after discovering that they live fairly close together. It’s also the first piece of new music either of them completed during lockdown. Discussing the new collaboration, John praised Puth’s talent:

“Charlie is an amazing musician; we just hit it off. He’s become a friend and a friend of the family. Our children love him and he loves them. Everyone we’ve worked with on The Lockdown Sessions I’ve really gotten closer to them, it’s quite amazing. With ‘After All,’ Charlie and I were in the studio, just the two of us. He’s got a little home set up with his keyboards, synths, and Pro Tools. I played electric piano and actually wrote the song all the way through and then Charlie wrote the lyrics pretty quickly. He’s incredibly quick, Charlie. We just had an amazing chemistry in the studio.”

Echoing John’s statement, Puth gushed about how he’s looked up to John for some time. “As a songwriter, I have admired and looked up to Elton John my entire life,” he said. “It is truly incredible how the melodies and chords seem to come to him instantly whenever he sits down at the piano. I got to witness that firsthand when we wrote this song together. He is world class and the true definition of a musical genius. Being a part of his musical journey is a dream come true.”

Listen to “After All” above.

The Lockdown Sessions is out 10/22 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

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