Month: October 2021

Netflix‘s Diana: The Musical is what happens when a global pandemic inadvertently causes the world to forget what good musicals really look like. It’s the kind of circus sideshow, lit in jewel tones with dozens of background dancers flailing flamboyantly to cringe-worthy lyrics about sex, bulimia, and rock-and-roll that your conservative uncle in the Midwest believes graces every Broadway stage. It’s a glorious trainwreck, fueled by the familiar royal drama that veers off track anytime it chooses fiction over fact.

It is, in a word, a mess.

But, like Marie Kondo, messes often spark joy for me, which is why I volunteered to bear witness to this musical monstrosity.

Filmed in an empty theater (another consequence of Covid), the show charts Princess Diana’s rise to popularity, her ascension to the ranks of royalty, and all the pain, trauma, and heartbreak that comes with it. There’s nothing new hidden within the Rock of Ages-like melodies, though perhaps you will come away with a healthy distaste for ’80s pop ballads. Diana’s story is so well known at this point that the show and its actors — all of whom perform admirably given the material they’re working with — have to rely on fictitious blow-ups and fantasized interactions between main characters.

For instance, Charles and Diana’s first date to the opera ends with her crowd surfing to a song that touts Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys as hopeful musical influences on her boring, older beau. Charles prefers celebrated cellists; she wants him to get down to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It should’ve been the first red flag of their relationship.

Things only get more outrageous as the musical wanes on — from paparazzo vultures comparing stalking the princess to the downing of pints of Guinness and the joy of a good wank to a lyrical showdown at a dinner party thrown by Charles’ mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, to an entire burlesque routine that introduces Diana’s sidepiece, James Hewitt.

And look, you could experience the whole thing yourself, but I’m betting you just finished watching Squid Game and… really? Do you need to torture yourself further? Whether the masochistic curiosity wins out or not, please, prepare yourself before entering the theatrical arena. Your love of musicals may still die, but your spirit doesn’t have to. Here’s every thought you might have while watching Diana: The Musical.

You’ve been warned.

Act I

Despite an empty theater giving production more time to perfect how this show is filmed, you’ll still suffer through shaky cam footage that calls back to the ’90s handheld recordings that your dad once loved. Try not to be too alarmed.

Jeanna de Waal, while a lovely, accomplished actress and singer, is a grown woman. She is introduced first as a teenaged Diana. She’s sporting the Hillary Clinton haircut, post-Bill’s public affair. That’s the cut of a woman who’s seen things, not a naïve 19-year-old girl.

Perhaps the only thing this musical has in common with every other royal re-telling: they’ve made Prince Charles entirely too handsome.

On more than one occasion, Charles calls his mother “mummy.” Will the most unbelievable part of this whole show be the idea that Queen Elizabeth lets her son be that familiar with her in private? Stay tuned.

A whole song dedicated to Charles’ love of a particular cellist feels the most on-brand.

“He’s only happy when he hears music by dead white men.” Okay, this number is starting to win us over.

Why yes, this is exactly what Hell looks like.

Of course, Diana is a fan of Dame Barbara Cartland – who isn’t? But blaming her unrealistic expectations of love on Cartland’s romance novels is skirting dangerously close to historical romance vilification. We won’t have it.

“Charles is a jealous b*tch” — pretty much every song theme after the wedding.

There’s a song titled “Te amo, Te quiero.” So… Diana speaks Spanish now.

Olivia Rodrigo’s sour clearly had an influence on some of these angsty break-up songs.

Poetry.

Act II

There’s horny, and then there’s whatever the person writing this number was going through.

James Hewitt is a ginger-haired himbo, pass it on.

The fantasy that Diana had a gay footman who picked out increasingly revealing dresses for her to stick it to Charles in the press is… not an unwelcome one at this point.

Diana and Camilla duking it out at a dinner party might be the most nauseating number but this viewer has a point:

Yes, that is one way to reference the AIDS epidemic in your musical.

The moral of Diana: The Musical is… certainly a statement that someone has now said.

‘Diana: The Musical’ is currently streaming on Netflix.

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

ITEM NUMBER ONE — This is important

The conversation about television is dominated by shows on premium networks and streaming services. This is fair because that’s where the best shows are, the buzzy ones that attract eyeballs and A-list talent and nominations for various gold-based trophies. But it is good to remember, sometimes, that network television is still cranking out procedurals every week, one hour at a time, and they are occasionally as nutty as a pecan pie.

The champion of this category is 9-1-1, which came back a few weeks ago with a plot about hackers shutting down Los Angeles and zoo animals running loose in the street. (It’s a good show.) But there are dozens of them out there, often on CBS, usually named after some letter-based government agency. CSI, NCIS, etc. This brings us to their newest offering, FBI: International.

FBI: International is somehow the second spinoff of the original FBI series, all created under the supervision of Law & Order mastermind and great-name-haver Dick Wolf. I could try to explain it all to you, but I think you would be better served by reading this actual paragraph from its Wikipedia page.

The series follows the elite operatives in the FBI’s International Fly Team which is headquartered in Budapest. They are charged with locating and neutralizing threats against Americans wherever they may be. The Team includes Scott Forrester, a tough and hard-core FBI agent who is the team leader and is very tough on his team, Jamie Kellett, a career FBI agent and second in command of the team, Andre Raines, a young and very smart FBI agent who is a expert in Accounting and Cameron Vo, The newest member on the team who was formerly with the Seattle FBI office and a Interrogation expert. They are assisted by Katrin Jaeger a veteran Europe FBI agent who deals with the Politics side for the team.

“Tough and hard-core” agents? Random capitalization? A show so forgotten that its Wiki entry still reads like this three weeks into its run? Yes, this is a show I will check out. And I’m glad I did. Because in this week’s episode, I promise this is true, a dog thwarted a crypto heist.

A few things you need to know:

• The dog is a former drug canine who was adopted by the team leader after the DEA was ready to retire him
• The dog is a big fluffy boy named Tank
• I love him very much

The plot of the episode plays out pretty much the way you would assume a CBS procedural about crypto thieves would play out. A couple driving a convertible through the Alps get hijacked by dudes in vans who are after the crypto in their trunk. The guy gets killed. The girl gets away by heaving herself down a hill. The next time we see her she looks like a plaintiff in a commercial for a sleazy local personal injury attorney.

Perfect. No notes.

The crypto belongs to a Dallas billionaire who is a cowboy hat away from being the most Dallas billionaire you’ve ever seen. Is he a jerk to the agents trying to get his money back? Yes. Is he hiding his crypto in Switzerland to shield it from his wife in divorce proceedings? Of course. Does the nerdy agent explain crypto to the team in basic terms so the audience will understand and describe the super-secure facility it’s stored in as “the Fort Knox of crypto”? Baby, you know he does.

Anyway, this all happens over the course of an hour, and eventually, the team tracks down the crypto thieves. Does the lead female agent get shot? Yup. Is she in a secret relationship with the team leader? You know it. Do they crack the case by discovering a license plate number she scribbled on her hand before slipping into a coma that she emerges from by the end of the episode? I am pleased to report they do. A high-speed chase through a Swiss town begins but is complicated by traffic. The thieves jump out and make a break for it on foot. The lead agent opens the back door of his car and Tank the Fluffy Boy leaps out after the villain. And then this happens.

The Swiss crypto thief was captured by the dog. That happened in the third episode of the second spinoff of a Dick Wolf CBS procedural. I’m still not entirely sure what to do with this information but I sure am glad I typed it all into this box. I needed to tell someone. So, thank you for that.

The big takeaway here, to the extent there is one, is probably this: Check in on network television every once in a while. They know you’re focused on streaming and fancy cable shows. They’re working hard to get your eyeballs pointed at them again. And apparently, sometimes those efforts involve a fluffy dog thwarting Swiss crypto thieves. It’s a noble attempt, if nothing else.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — Are we doing this again or nah?

This is the first trailer for House of the Dragon, the first of HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoffs and/or dragon-adjacent programs. None of the characters from the original are in it, although there are a mess of Targaryens, which is fair, because all the events in this show take place 200 years before anything in the other one happened, back when the Targaryens were running things. This is about the extent of my analysis on the subject so far. A lot of blond people and some dragons. Okay, great, fine.

Here’s my question, though: Are we doing this again? I promise I ask this without judgment. Without much judgment, at least. It’s fine if we want to. I did not expect to get into all of this the first time around (I am not, by nature, a “read long medieval-type fantasy books about magic and serpents” person, although I am happy for you if you are), and yet, there I was, shouting opinions about various Lannisters and Starks. I can get on board if we want to do it. I swear I can.

It’s just… I don’t know, man. Between the way the first one wrapped up and the long delay before this trailer popped up this week, I’m getting a vibe that we’ve moved on. I know that’s how I feel right now, but again, my gauges are off on these things. I would be happy to leave this one to the diehards, to not have it become a global phenomenon, to stay focused on, like, watching more episodes of The Righteous Gemstones. That is more what I’m about, personally.

Which brings me to the other big HBO-related announcement from this week: The Righteous Gemstones is coming back. There’s no date yet beyond “the winter,” but as we know from that first season of Game of Thrones, winter is indeed coming. And thank God it is, because look at this description of the new season that Danny McBride gave to Entertainment Weekly.

“Things pick up an unspecified amount of time later, and we find the Gemstones in a pretty awesome place. I feel like the Gemstones have more to do with a massive corporation than they actually have to do with most Christians, and so like many corporations, COVID was very kind to the Gemstones. They were able to deliver to the world a streaming service that allowed people to stay at home and watch Gemstone broadcasts. So while everyone around them suffered, they’re in a better position than they’ve ever been in before.”

I am much more excited about this than the Game of Thrones show, at least right now. I think that’s where I’ve settled. Part of it is just how I’m wired, part of it is that description, and part of it is that this picture made me smile so wide it hurt my cheeks a little bit.

What can I say, Walton Goggins as a sleazy singing and dancing televangelist named Baby Billy appeals more to me than another dragon show. I don’t think I need to apologize for that. I think it’s fine. And I think it’s fine if you prefer the dragons. We’re all fine.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — The long and proud tradition of heroic Philadelphia natives using local news segments to trash their most-hated athletes continues apace

Okay. I understand that this video might not line up as perfectly in the overlapping parts of your Venn diagram of interests as it does mine. It might mean nothing to you. But I adore it deeply and I’m the one writing this sucker, so in it goes. There are really only two things you need to know to follow along. They are:

• There was a viral video last week in which a man in Florida trapped an alligator in a big recycling bin, and it turns out that man is originally from Philadelphia
• My beloved Philadelphia 76ers have a player named Ben Simmons who had a brutal playoffs last year and famously passed up a wide-open dunk and the whole situation has deteriorated to the degree that he now is refusing to show to play and wants to be traded

There. That should explain it. That’s what makes that video so funny. Because he was interviewed by the local Philly news and said this unprompted.

“I think my father instincts kicked in, because my daughter’s a risk-taker. She’s got a bike. We’re from Philadelphia, so we don’t have alligators, so she’d try to hit the tail with the bike, you know, with the alligator and all that,” Bozzi said. “So I just jumped into action and said, ‘You know what? I’m not gonna be Ben Simmons, I’m gonna go (grab) me this basket.’”

It’s perfect. I love it. And I love it even more because it is somehow not the first time a man was interviewed by the local Philly news after an act of bravery and used the opportunity to call out a professional athlete.

This one is even better because of the backstory. This guy was a homeless former firefighter who showed up at blaze to see if he could help and ended up catching actual humans that people were dropping from windows. He’s a legitimate, full-on hero. Look at this, from the damn New York Times:

Alongside firefighters he made his way to a roof at the second story of the building. One floor above him, he said, “the window busts open. The fire is fast. I see the dad hanging out the window screaming, ‘Please get my kids.’”

The father was holding his daughter, who Laws estimated was 7 to 10 years old. “The dad looked me dead in the eyes and said, ‘Please don’t drop her.’”

Laws made the catch. “She didn’t weigh enough to knock me down,” he said. He followed it up by catching the child’s mother as well.

And then he went on the news and called out an Eagles’ wide receiver, Nelson Agholor, who had an issue with dropping passes. And now a viral gator wrangler is calling out Ben Simmons. Philadelphia is full of the most loopy sickos you’ll ever see and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — My sweet boy

Succession comes back in just over a week, which is something I really enjoyed typing just now, mostly because it’s true. The show really is coming back. Finally. It’s still good, too, I am pleased to report. And because it’s coming back, we are all getting treated to big fancy profiles of the cast in big fancy publications, like this one of Nicholas Braun. It’s all very interesting and good and there is no limit to the amount of words I would read about my sweet boy Cousin Greg, but I want to focus on one specific part for now.

We pick things up well into the profile, where Braun is talking about his process of finding the character even though he’s not someone who understands the world Greg and the uber-wealthy Roy family inhabit.

“There’s all these things about ‘boost the bid’ that I didn’t understand how that fit in,” Braun recalled. “Is this a business show?” But when he read one of his first scenes as the interloping, underqualified Gregory Hirsch, that had him wearing a dog costume at a theme park and throwing up through its eye holes, Braun said, “I understood my piece of it.”

The character was “the guy in the room that doesn’t get it, who wants to get it, and wants to be there,” he said. “It was pretty easy to get into Greg’s, you know, thought patterns.”

I like that this was the part that made it all make sense for him. I like that he was lost and then read “puking through the eye holes of an amusement park mascot” and became found. I like everything about it, basically, but mostly I like it because it gives me a pretty terrific excuse to post screencaps of the scene he’s talking about.

I know the people who make Succession have a lot to get to this season. There’s betrayal and plotting and jokes and cussing that all needs to get sorted out, and I’m excited to watch them start to sort it all out. But, and this is just a suggestion, I don’t think I would be heartbroken if they took a one-episode detour to check in on the kid who pointed and shouted at Greg when he puked. I feel like that kid is a mischievous little rascal.

It would be funny if he ends up as everyone’s boss three decades in the future. Like if there’s a post-credits scene after the series finale where that’s revealed. I’m just going to go ahead and assume that’s what happens. I might even start a rumor. It’s good to have hobbies.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Let’s check in with Matthew McConaug-… oh dear

I don’t know why anyone who is already wealthy and/or famous would ever want to run for political office. It seems like a terrible idea, to give up what appears to be a lovely life and subject yourself to… all of that. It is my position that anyone who wants to run for political office should be disqualified immediately on those grounds alone. You cannot trust an ambitious striver. People should be drafted into it, like a lottery, and then be dragged to Washington kicking and screaming. Those people I would trust, if only because they want to fix things quickly and go the hell back home. This is how we fix democracy.

I mention this up now because Matthew McConaughey is toying with a run for Governor of Texas. It’s a terrible idea. He should not do it. He should just continue being Matthew McConaughey, as long as possible, for decades at minimum. Although that might not work either, as he explained this week to Kara Swisher on the Sway podcast.

O.K., I have a very last question. You talked about how your father died, and he predicted his death, he called it spot-on. Do you ever think how you’re going to die?

Yeah, I had dreams about it. [LAUGHS]

All right, what is it?

I got a feeling that I’m going down as part of the food chain.

What do you mean, a bear eats you?

It was— the dream was gators.

Oh.

There’s been one with a bear. There’s been one with a grizzly.

Oh my God. That’s terrible.

And I think there’s— I think— no, I don’t think so. I’d much rather go down that way than getting— getting shot down in a drive by. You know, I’ll take one where it’s part of the natural order. There’s some grace in that. It may be ugly and painful and bloody, but at least it’s part of the natural order. And for that, I’ll purchase. And after I’m gone, I hope to say I partook.

This is somehow both completely wild and also exactly what you’d expect Matthew McConaughey to say when asked how he thinks he’ll die. But what I really want you to do here is close your eyes and get a really good visual of the chaos that would break out if a headline like “Oscar-Winning Actor And Former Texas Governor Matthew McConaughey Killed In Joint Bear-Alligator Attack” popped up on your screen.

I don’t want this to happen, to be clear. I want him to live forever and keep giving interviews like this. But if he does have to go, I mean, that would work. Or maybe a bull attack. There’s already some history there, after all…

I hope the first debate is just him listing off animals he thinks might end up killing him, in order of likelihood. That would be fun. I’ve been thinking about it for less than 90 seconds and him saying the phrase “penguins are surprisingly feisty” in that voice of his already popped into my head. I hope it stays there for the weekend.

READER MAIL

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

From Kel on Twitter:

Let’s get you caught up via bullet point again, for efficiency:

• This tweet was in response to my most recent edition of the Ted Lasso Power Rankings
• In this week’s episode, Sam Richardson, who played Richard Splett on Veep and rules in general, appeared as a billionaire from Africa who wants to acquire a player on the team
• At one point in the episode, there’s a joke that an extra in the background was an actor from the show I Will Destroy You

Point being, it’s an excellent tweet, and it gets me to one of my favorite brain exercises. If HBO and I May Destroy You exist on Ted Lasso, then, presumably, Veep existed, which means Sam Richardson exists. In the Ted Lasso universe. Where Sam Richardson plays a Nigerian billionaire. It’s all quite brain-bendy.

We can go further, too. If Veep exists in the Ted Lasso universe and therefore Sam Richardson exists there, too, then, again presumably, the show Detroiters exists. Detroiters was a great show that starred Sam Richardson and his best friend Tim Robinson, now of I Think You Should Leave fame and previously a castmember on Saturday Night Live. Which means, once again presumably, Saturday Night Live exists in the Ted Lasso universe. Which means former castmember Jason Sudeikis exists. Which means Richmond has a head football coach who looks exactly like a former SNL star if he grew a mustache.

Do you see?

Do you see what happens when I get started with these?

I’m going to stop here and move on for both of us, but please do believe I could go on much, much longer.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Connecticut!

Uncertainty about the species of a massive catfish that was eaten before it could be vetted by authorities in August has led Connecticut to withdraw its awarding of a new state record.

Oh hell yes.

We have a Connecticut Catfish Controversy.

Tell me everything.

“Without the ability to examine the actual fish, identification is left to still images and videos, which have proven to be ambiguous and inconclusive to definitively identify the species of catfish in this case,” state Fish and Wildlife wrote, adding that it is not disputing the weight of the catch that was made on Aug. 21.

This rules. I kind of want a whole big-budget docuseries about it. Like a Tiger King situation or a McMillions thing, but about Connecticut Fish and Wildlife officers refusing to verify a catfish record because the people who caught it ate it too fast.

All we need now are some interesting characters. Some people who are passionate about all of this business. What do we have on that front?

Ben Tomkunas, 25, of Coventry, who caught the 21.3-pound (9.66-kilogram) fish, said he gave it to his grandfather the morning after he caught it and it was eaten.

“I can’t believe that they think it’s OK to do this to someone,” Tomkunas told the Journal Inquirer. “It’s such an embarrassment.”

God yes. Send a camera crew to Connecticut at once. Interview everyone. I need eight episodes streaming on any screen in my house by the end of the year. Get Sam Elliott to narrate it. Give it a jaunty theme song. This is good. Someone write this down. Besides me, I mean.

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesperson Will Healey urged anglers to keep any potentially record-breaking fish until authorities have confirmed its species. He acknowledged, in an email to the Journal Inquirer, that the initial announcement of a new state record was premature.

I need it. Give me a whole dramatic recreation of the catfish being cooked and served. You can animate it terribly or hire actors. I feel like Nick Offerman would do this at a steep discount if we ask nicely. Tell me you wouldn’t click on a little rectangle on the Netflix Home Screen that just said “Catfish Fiasco.” You would.

Don’t lie.

Do not lie to me.

Not about catfish, at least.

Family Style Food Festival in Los Angeles (Sunday, October 10th, only) is one of those festivals that hits high marks for food obsessives and festival lovers alike. 20-plus food vendors from all over the country will convene in Television City, along with streetwear vendors, street artists, and DJs — in case you need to dance off a few of the calories you’re sure to enjoy.

Alas, we’re here to talk about the food. This year’s lineup includes some of our favorite spots from around the nation. Highlights include New York’s Russ & Daughters. The iconic Manhattan fish-forward deli is old-school European smoked and pickled fish done to such a high degree of perfection it might well change the way you think about pickled herring and smoked salmon forever (if you can’t tell, yes, I’m a pretty big fan of this joint and have been for decades).

Other highlights include L.A.’s famous hot chicken joint Howlin’ Rays (another Uproxx fav), which is sure to have one of the longer lines at the fest (if you like fried chicken sandwiches, it smashes Popeyes). L.A.’s equally famed and beloved Mariscos Jalisco will be in attendance, slinging some of the best fish-inspired dishes you can find north of Baja. If you’re into oysters, we highly recommend hitting up Malibu’s Broad Street Oyster Co. and eating your weight in raw oysters while washing them down with a nice, crisp white wine or lager.

Folks, that’s only scratching the surface. Nike and Crocs will be there in case you want to grab some fall and early winter SNX. There’ll be wine bars and cocktails bars aplenty. And, of course, there’ll be tons of music, art installations, and places to just chill.

You can grab a ticket for $75, which grants you access to the festival (food and drink are separate). From there, the world’s your oyster — for a price (but a pretty reasonable one!). Check out the full lineup here and review Family Style Food Festival’s COVID protocols here.

We’d like to acknowledge and honor the original peoples of Los Angeles, the Chumash, Tongva, and Kizh nations.

When did you realize you were seeing the last of Bobby Axelrod? Was it when the walls started closing in on him, legally, as his various enemies from various pursuits banded together in an unholy alliance to cook him over an open flame? Was it toward the end of the Billions season five finale, as he was having long conversations with each of the show’s other main stars one at a time in a way that screamed “CLOSURE” pretty much right up until he pulled a little private plane misdirection to get himself to Switzerland? Or was it the next morning when the New York Times published a “Why Damian Lewis is leaving Billions” exit interview with quotes from him and the showrunners?

You can be forgiven if it wasn’t until that last one, which I say both because that’s how long it took me and because Billions has a long history of backing its characters deeply into a corner and then having them wiggle out. It’s one of the things that’s made the show such a blast to watch over its run. Everyone on the show is terrible, just the worst people you’ve ever seen — and hope to never meet — all trying to ruin each other through scheming and subterfuge, kind of like a soapier version of Succession, which I say with only love and admiration. It’s one of those things that shouldn’t keep working half a dozen years into a show’s run, and yet, here we are. I’m proud of everyone involved.

Damian Lewis, for his part, has a number of fair reasons for moving on, starting with a desire to play different characters and extending to the thing where his wife — Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory — recently passed away and he probably wants to spend more time in his native England with his family. (Years of hearing him do the Bobby Axelrod voice might have made you forget, but he is very British.) He’s already landed a role in a new BBC series with Guy Pearce. That’s good news for him and anyone who likes their television shows with a heaping of icy stares.

But the question this all raises is where, exactly, Billions goes from here, post-Axe, minus the character who pushed most of the action forward. The short, obvious answer is “to Corey Stoll,” who was introduced this season as Mike Prince, a nicer and kinder investor who turned (or revealed himself to be) shark-like as the season progressed. He’s already ticked off Paul Giamatti’s character, New York Attorney General Chuck Rhoades, which is a nice start. A perpetually ticked-off Giamatti is a winner for any show, really (and yes this is me backpedaling into a pitch for him to join, oh, let’s say The Righteous Gemstones, maybe just in this same role), but it’s especially important on Billions.

From the start, the thrust of the show has been Axe and Chuck circling each other like cobras. They would spend entire seasons trying to thwart and/or evade each other and it would all build to two or three scenes a year where they ended up in a room together with about four feet and a cloud of contempt between them. It made for pretty incredible television. With the rest of the cast sticking around and Corey Stoll’s character quite literally sitting in Bobby Axelrod’s seat (the finale had a nice little okie-doke with that, playing with the timeline to make viewers think Chuck was looking for Axe when he was really looking for Mike), I’m not super worried about the gears of the show continuing to turn. Some of it can be plug-and-play, especially since it has gotten away from Axe’s family life and was focusing more on him at work. Corey Stoll knows what he’s doing. And Dollar Bill left to open his own shop, which is something I would honestly watch an entire spinoff about. If you work at Showtime and are reading this, please consider.

The bigger thing I worry about is that Axe-Chuck thing. Lewis and Giamatti brought so much to those scenes. A lot of that is Giamatti giving the performance The Full Giamatti, which is always appreciated and probably my favorite part of the show. (I have well over a dozen GIFs of Paul Giamatti from Billions saved on my computer. It’s normal. Don’t worry about it.) But a bigger part, perhaps, was the work Lewis did with what should’ve been an unlikable character. From that New York Times exit interview.

That’s owed largely to Lewis, who from the beginning imbued a character that could have been a sneering caricature with emotional depth and a predatory physicality. (When he was developing the character, his acting exercises included moving about on the ground like a cheetah.) Much as Jon Hamm and Bryan Cranston made Don Draper and Walter White irresistible even when they were awful, Lewis made Axe’s financial marauding fun to watch.

“Damian Lewis is not an actor who’s scared the audience is going to dislike him,” said Brian Koppelman, who is a showrunner along with David Levien. “He is willing to play the character in as caustic a manner as the character requires, and he has faith that if he’s true to that, it will connect with the audience.”

The show has a huge hole to fill now. Yes, some of that can be done with Corey Stoll coming at the situation from a new angle, replacing Axe’s cutthroat predator with a more thoughtful, quasi-benevolent figure. There’s fertile soil there to plant seeds in. And the show can lean more on its supporting cast, people like Asia Kate Dillon and Maggie Siff and Condola Rashad my beloved David Costabile as Wags, all of whom have been doing a lot with slightly less for a few seasons now. And Lord in heaven knows I am always at the ready for more Giamatti, even if he’s just cooking breakfast in silence. But it’s going to be weird. I’m going to miss seeing Axe doing Axe things, always in motion for fear slowing down will kill him, somehow vibrating with energy even while sitting in a chair, drinking water like this…

Television shows have survived the loss of the main character before. They will again. Billions has the tools in its shed to do that here, but it’s easier to say things like that than to do it. I’m rooting for the show, though. It’s been one of my favorites since it premiered, even as I sat there watching it hoping each of the characters got kabonged on the head with a frying pan. As long as that doesn’t change, and as long as it keeps giving me a series of the most jaw-dropping twists and diabolical scheming on television, I think there’s a decent shot at success.

After arriving on Netflix in September, Squid Game seemingly became an international smash hit overnight as it shattered records left and right. But according to its creator, the show’s production was nowhere near as effortless. While recently sitting down with CNN Film School, Hwang Dong-hyuk claims that filming the first season was so strenuous that he lost six teeth while finally bringing his creation to life. He’s still missing two molars on his left side and still hasn’t had time to get implants.

However, despite the physical toll that Squid Game‘s production inflicted on him, Hwang is not ruling out a Season 2, and he purposefully left the first season open-ended in case the show got renewed. Judging by the numbers the series has been putting up for Netflix, we’re guessing those talks have been happening with a quickness. Via IGN:

“There are some loose ends I’d like to explore if I were to make a second season,” Hwang admitted. “The Frontman’s unexplained past, detective Jun-ho’s story. Those are things I didn’t explain in Season 1. If I were to do Season 2, I’d like to explain those elements. And the man with the Ttakji in his bags, the man who was played by Gong Yoo.”

Squid Game has been a labor of love for Hwang. In a previous interview, Hwang shared that he’d been trying to sell the show for 10 years while living with his mother and grandmother, and the class struggles in Squid Game were deeply personal thanks to growing up in an impoverished neighborhood and going so broke while writing the show that he had to sell his only laptop. Now? The creator says he feels like BTS, the South Korean pop super group.

(Via CNN Film School)

Lil Wayne’s singles run in hip-hop is practically unrivaled — especially the singles from his fan-favorite album series Tha Carter, which are about to be collected into a 7″ vinyl box set, “Tha Carter Singles Collection.” Including every hit record from “Go DJ” all the way up to yesterday’s “Ya Dig,” the 10-disc collection is available for preorder at Lil Wayne’s online shop for $200.00. Included with the records is a booklet with rare photos, two lithographs, and an outer box covered in Wayne’s tattoos.

The release isn’t the first time Lil Wayne’s branched out creatively this year. In May, Wayne joined the growing fraternity of rappers with their own festivals, launching the Uproar Fest in Los Angeles. In August, Wayne partnered with Topps trading card company for a limited-edition collection of cards commemorating the 10th anniversary of Wayne’s album Tha Carter IV. In September, he lent his likeness to the Funko toy brand for the new Vinyl Gold collection, which also includes figures of Ice Cube, the Notorious B.I.G, and Tupac Shakur.

And while that’s all well and good, Wayne’s number-one focus in 2021 remained on the music. So far, he’s featured on tracks with Polo G (“Gang Gang“), Conway The Machine, Drake, Moneybagg Yo (“Wockesha Remix“), Run The Jewels (“Ooh La La Remix“), and Logic (“Perfect Remix“), while also releasing the Trust Fund Babies joint project with Rich The Kid.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again — also called “NBA YoungBoy,” to the chagrin of the sports league’s operators — has hit No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart once again with his new album Sincerely, Kentrell. It’s a feat made more impressive by the fact that he’s gotten little to no radio play, according to The New York Times, and that YoungBoy himself was unavailable to promote the album due to his March arrest on federal gun charges. However, his loyal fans, who helped stream the album to the top of the chart, have a plan to get him out.

A Change.org petition, “Joe Biden Needs To Free NBA YoungBoy,” has racked up over 100,000 signatures under the belief that “Mr. Gaulden [YoungBoy’s real name] would see this as a great opportunity to ameliorate himself as a person and an artist.” The petition’s writer, going by YB Supporter, contends that “the 21-year-old 79 RIAA certifications holder isn’t a menace to society but is instead a kind-hearted soul who was mistreated and targeted by the F.B.I and Louisiana Police Department.” Perhaps the petition was inspired by the recent Trump pardons of Kodak Black, Lil Pump, and Lil Wayne.

Kind-hearted or not, though, the rapper’s lengthy list of legal issues certainly includes more than its fair share of accusations of violent crimes. In 2016, he was arrested on two counts of attempted murder, pleading guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault with a firearm and receiving a suspended 10-year prison term against three years of active probation. He was arrested again in 2018 on assault charges when a hotel camera caught him slamming his then-girlfriend to the ground and dragging her down the hall.

In 2019, his probation on the downgraded attempted murder charges ended with a 14-month ban on him performing, but he was sentenced to a year of probation in his later assault case. Then, in September of 2020, he was arrested along with 15 others in his native Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and charged with the distribution and manufacturing of drugs and possession of stolen firearms. His March arrest this year on federal charges stemming from the same case reportedly came after a car chase and foot pursuit in which K-9 officers tracked him as he hid out.

Justin Bieber has a new video for Justice highlight “Ghost” out today and it has some real star power: Aside from Bieber himself, the visual also features Diane Keaton.

In the video, Bieber’s grandfather dies. After that, he focuses his efforts on making his grandmother (Keaton) happy by trying on new outfits, going out for drinks, and otherwise living their lives.

Keaton spoke to Vogue about the video ahead of its release, saying, “He called me up and I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I thought the song was wonderful. This was just sheer fun. All my life, I’ve been an actress and had lines, and sometimes I’ve gotten to loosen them up a little — but this was just completely loose and relaxed. Nobody ever [told me to do] anything, which made it so much fun.” She also added, “He’s totally charming. He had to have his arm around me when we were walking into the ocean… If I felt like hugging him, I’d hug him. He was stuck with me. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, this poor guy.’”

As for Keaton’s outfits in the video, the fashion icon noted that a lot of them were actually hers: “The outfits were indicative of my style because they’re mine [laughs]. Some of the outfits are from my closet. I had some wonderful things from Gucci.”

Meanwhile, Bieber released the “Complete” edition of Justice today and it adds a trio of new songs to the tracklist: “Red Eye” featuring TroyBoi, “Angels Speak,” and “Hailey.”

Watch the “Ghost” video above.

This week marked the long-awaited return of Mitski, who has been more or less quiet since the Be The Cowboy tour wrapped nearly two years ago. Now, the acclaimed songwriter is back with “Working For The Knife,” bringing with it the always-insane discourse around her music.

The meat of this episode revolves around one of the biggest bands of the 21st century, Coldplay. With billions of streams on Spotify, Coldplay is almost a perfect poptimism-era rock band, in that they have no qualms with being a super pop band and doing whatever it takes to remain relevant (see: doing a song with BTS). After being nominated for Album Of The Year in 2019 with the double album Everyday Life, the band’s new Max Martin-produced album, Music Of The Spheres, is due out next week.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging Illusory Walls, the epic new album from emo legends The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die. Meanwhile, Steve is enjoying Seventeen Going Under, the new album from English singer-songwriter Sam Fender.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 60 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

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

Extraction is Netflix’s most popular original movie ever, with a reported (by Netflix) 99 million accounts checking out at least two minutes of the “smorgasbord of ass-kicking.” Star Chris Hemsworth called the response to the action film “absolutely mind-blowing” and he’s getting ready to the shoot the sequel, as the Thor actor revealed on Instagram.

“Huge wins for @extractionfilm at the Taurus World Stunt Awards. Massive thanks and congrats to the incredible stunt team for putting themselves on the line, making Extraction the massive success in continues to be. Shooting for the sequel beings soon and believe it not it’ll be bigger and badder than the first. Stay tuned for more chaos!” Hemsworth wrote. The headline-worthy news here is about the sequel, but I needed to know more about the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

Extraction won Best Fight at the 2021 ceremony (over Birds of Prey and The Hunt), as well as Hardest Hit and Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director. The description for Hardest Hit reads, “Two stuntmen fall together over a 2nd story railing. They fall 6’ and hit an awning, then another 7’ to the top and side of a truck, then another 8’ to the ground. No wires were used and the stunt was all practical. The truck was padded and CGI was used to smooth out the edges of a thin pad on the ground.”

The time for a Best Stunts Oscar is now.