Month: December 2021

Netflix’s The Witcher did the overperforming thing in Season One. It genuinely had no right to be as good as it turned out to be, what with Henry Cavill in a Fabio-esque wig and the grunting and the monster hunting, all of which could have careened off a cliff of campiness. Yet no, the show played its card seriously (for the most part) and churned out a mutant-powered loner — powered by Cavill’s honest-to-god video game cred — who’s worthy of more respect than he receives on The Continent where he resides. Sure, the show could have simply given us a bathtub-dwelling beefcake hero fueled by swashbuckling sequences from stuntmen, but that’s not how things went down.

Cavill threw himself into the game, and he did all the stunts and brought authenticity and (dare I say) gravitas to Geralt of Rivia. In the aftermath, we found out that showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich made Henry wait forever for the role. She explored hundreds of prospective Geralts and circled back to him, realizing that he’s The One and apologizing for the slight, and the dude who didn’t really need this role took it because he wanted it. He’s no mere hired gun, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why he convincingly embodies this underappreciated hero, who does his thankless duty without complaint.

Hat tip to ol’ Jaskier for previously coaxing an unspoken admission from Geralt to let us know that there was more under the surface (so it’s not such a surprise this season, when he does less grunting and more talking). Speaking of the humble bard, I will not spoil his new look or location, but everyone knew he’d pen a new anthem for this season. That was obligatory, and I’m here to tell you that it’s a banger (oh boy, this guy is a salty one). I already can’t get the song out of my head. I loathe and love it.

Alright, so The Witcher‘s first season launched a Netflix franchise. Atop the already existing book series (by Andrzej Sapkowski) and video games, there’s a prequel TV show (Blood Origins) in the works. Heck, an animated prequel movie already happened, and everything is coming up Witcher with (let’s face it) the pressure for a second season to be as fan-satisfying as the first one. It does so in numerous ways:

(1) By cutting out those confusing timelines. The only real complaint that I ever heard about The Witcher is that it was difficult to figure out the “when” of it all. And that’s true. Geralt was in the present and the past and seemed to be wearing the same damn wig, and that added some unnecessary work on the audience’s behalf, just to stay “with” the show. At times, figuring out what the hell was happening was more work than it should have been. That requirement, fortunately, is no longer a thing. The timelines unite, and it’s straightforward, and the three main characters (Geralt, Ciri, and Yennifer) are all embracing their destiny and moving into the future. Whew.

(2) The time has now come for us to really get to know Geralt of Rivia. And that’s a delicate prospect, given that the close-to-the-sleeve version of this guy was such a hit and so understatedly funny. For this switch to happen, changes needed to happen to keep things fresh while also retaining, at its core, his vibe from the first season. His demeanor needed to shift in a believable way, so the show switches up the context. Geralt’s no longer confined to traveling to different towns to take out monsters. Instead, he spends a great deal of time at Kaer Morhen, a witcher winter refuge of sorts. We get to see him interact with other witchers, to whom he’s much more forthcoming. As well, he’s now a father figure to Ciri, and boy, that could have backfired, but the writing’s done so well that we’re not seeing a The Punisher situation here (I still can’t get over that). Geralt is not softer; he’s still Geralt but with a few more layers. It works.

(3) Some familiar faces portray key additions. As forecast, we get to know Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir. In the animated prequel, he was much more of a swaggering dude than a grumpy Geralt-type witcher. For this live-action season, he’s obviously been through some sh*t over the decades and is played by Kim Bodnia. If you watch Killing Eve, then you know how much of a twinkle in his eye this guy can communicate. Bodnia uses that ability to delightful effect here, but he’s not the only treat in this season. Kristofer Hivju (Game Of Thrones‘ Tormund Giantsbane) portrays Nivellen, an old friend (with a great laugh) who Geralt barely recognizes at first, and I’ll leave it at that.

(4) Princess Ciri turns into a badass, and Yennifer stays one. This show loves to hammer home the concept of “destiny,” and that doesn’t change. These two young women and Geralt are tied together in ways that we were not aware of when the show began. Especially in the case of Ciri, her true purpose in life unfolds in a way that one would never have imagined during her sheltered original life. It’s not a spoiler to say that Ciri has some serious powers that are going to go somewhere major, and when all is said and done, she might even be more fearless than Geralt. Let’s just say that what she does is vital to the very fabric of The Continent, and Freya Allan must have had to train like hell ahead of Season 2. Likewise, Yennifer shifts into a different gear. Rather than being an all-powerful sorceress, she’s lost much of what’s important to her. Things did not end well for her at the Battle of Sodden, and there are a lot of obstacles in her way. Anya Chalotra adds a sweetness to Yen this season, too.

(5) Mightier monsters. For a show about monster hunters, it feels awfully strange to say that the monsters in this show come secondary to the human and elf characters. Like, the show is compelling enough without showing off these vile and deadly creatures. And I do think that even if the producers decided to save some dough and not show all of the monsters, people would be good with this. Yet The Witcher is committed to giving us those monster-money shots. Lemme tell you, the monsters this time around are more frightening and elaborately rendered, and I don’t even want to know the CGI budget on these episodes. They spent a ton of dough, and the effects are nuts.

Yep, this show does not take shortcuts, and again, Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich and company didn’t need to pull out the stops. A few corners could have been cut with such a pandemic-interrupted season. Fans really would have understood if the episodes were less “epic,” yet somehow, that feeling still comes across even without a ton of group battle scenes. Toss a coin to this season of The Witcher, it’s a banger and a rager.

‘The Witcher’ returns to Netflix on December 17.

As someone who grew up occasionally taking the trip to my local Casa Bonita “eatertainment” venue, I remember the food being pretty terrible but the experience (of dining near fake waterfalls and volcanoes and arcade games) still being so much fun. Unlimited sopapillas were pretty rad, too. That’s why it’s been an enjoyable experience (from afar) to see how the South Park guys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are making one of their childhood dreams come true by purchasing the last remaining Casa Bonita restaurant (from a chain originally founded in Oklahoma City) in in Lakewood, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.

This is no mere nostalgia trip, either. The duo made it clear that they’re serious about resurrecting the monolith. In the interest of a full-on revamp with more than edible food, they hired a renowned chef who will develop a new menu, meaning that the culinary part of the experience will go much further than deciding whether you want to eat beef or chicken. Now, Axios is reporting that Parker has purchased some nearby property, which suggests he might be an on-hands co-owner.

Also, his new address? South Park Ave in Morrison, Colorado, which puts him within a quick drive to the restaurant. From Axios, it’s happening:

The property sits at the intersection of Canon Street and South Park Avenue — a coincidence, we think not — and is currently zoned for a personal residence.

It’s also less than a 20-minute drive to Casa Bonita.

Meanwhile, Parker and Stone remain busy on a plethora of South Park specials that will eventually release on Paramount+. Recently, the duo really killed Kenny, so god only knows where Kyle and Stan (oh, and Cartman) will go next. Parker, however, is literally going to South Park.

(Via Axios)

This weekend is going to be a big one for Billie Eilish, as she is set to be both the host and be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live tomorrow. This is especially big for a couple reasons: It’s not every day that an SNL guest pulls double duty, and Eilish will be the first person born in the 2000s to host the show. Now, she has partaken in the time-honored tradition of teaming up with a cast member to film a promo for the episode.

The video starts with Eilish noting that her 20th birthday is coming up this month (on the 18th), which got McKinnon excited, as she noted that this means Eilish is about to learn “the big secret about the world that’s been passed down from generation to generation.” Eilish asked if she could just know it now, so McKinnon whispered it in her ear, which left her dejected enough to respond, “That’s horrible.” McKinnon replied, “I know! Happy birthday, Billie Eilish! Welcome to the world!”

Fans may have also noticed that this promo is one of Eilish’s first public appearances with her new black hair. She unveiled the look on Instagram earlier this month, and as posts about Eilish’s hair tend to do, it blew up and the pic currently has over 13 million likes.

Watch the SNL promo above.

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 — Look at everything happening here

It brings me great pleasure to inform you all that there is a new Guy Ritchie movie on the way titled Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre. It brings me so much pleasure for a few reasons, which I will show you now in bullet point form:

• It is titled Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, which translates literally from French into “ruse of war,” but which generally refers to all forms of trickery and subterfuge
• It stars Jason Statham as an assassin named Orson Fortune
• Wait until you see the poster for this thing

But first, the trailer:

Plenty going on here, all of it mostly ridiculous. Guy Ritchie appears to be doing some of the self-parody thing he did with The Gentlemen, which is fine. Jason Statham appears to be doing some of the self-parody thing he did in Spy, which is excellent because he rules so hard in that movie. And Hugh Grant appears to be playing a well-dressed billionaire arms dealer who is obsessed with an American actor played by Josh Hartnett, which is, I mean, just a lot of fun to type out. Good for them. And I’m still not entirely over the name “Orson Fortune.” I feel like Guy Ritchie started with that and built the film out from there. I respect it.

But more importantly, the poster. Look at this poster. Look at all of it, as a whole and as individual parts. It’s… it’s kind of perfect.

I was already borderline obsessed with this sucker and teetering toward writing 1000 words about it, if only because Hugh Grant looks like he’s still playing his villainous character from Paddington 2 (I don’t know why I acted like I don’t know the character’s name; it’s Phoenix Buchanan, I didn’t even have to look it up), but then I received this email from a reader named Justin and it tipped me right over the edge:

I’ve looked at it about 5 times and laughed at something new each time. It’s like a vision board of a teenage boy: private jet, Ford Mustang, guns, mountains, velvet smoking jackets. Is Hugh Grant cosplaying his version of Bond? Janet Snakehole is in this film? Josh Hartnett looks just as surprised as I am that Guy Ritchie is obsessed with him now. If they haven’t resurrected Boy Sweat Dave, what is the Ritchie Extended Cinematic Universe even doing?

True, all of it, especially the thing about Aubrey Plaza kind of playing her mysterious/fancy alter-ego from Parks and Recreation, Janet Snakehole. I imagine she’s holding a long cigarette holder in one or both of the hands we can’t see. Some other notes:

• God bless Cary Elwes for pulling off the “jacket draped over the shoulders with the arms inside and not through the armholes even a little” look, a look most often seen on wealthy elderly women and mafia bosses from the 1920s
• If you showed me nothing else from this movie — no trailer, no Cary Elwes jacket-draping, no “Jason Statham is playing a hitman named Orson Fortune” — other than Hugh Grant dressed like that and making that face, I would still go see this movie on opening weekend
• More movie posters should feature Jason Statham towering over all the other characters and action like some sort of bald and vengeful deity, and yes, this applies to Oscar-type movies, too, like, for example, Licorice Pizza

It’s lovely in almost every way. I only have two small complaints. The first is that it would all be a lot funnier if it weren’t already a little tongue-in-cheek. I’m happy we get to see Comedy Statham again and Lord in Heaven knows I love a self-aware smarmy Hugh Grant, but I don’t think I can describe to you how happy I would be today if this had been played dead serious, like a “Kelsey Grammer in Money Plane” or a “John Travolta in Speed Kills” situation. I might have just exploded like a can of soda in a campfire. Hot sugary syrup everywhere. Big gooey mess.

My second complaint is less with the poster or movie and more just a general issue I have with Hollywood that this whole thing has brought to the forefront once again: LET JASON STATHAM PLAY A PADDINGTON VILLAIN.

LOOK AT HIM

HE’D BE SO GOOD

HE AND PADDINGTON COULD DO MARTIAL ARTS

GIVE IT TO ME

PLEASE

THANK YOU

BYE

ITEM NUMBER TWO — I must have it at once

If you were to walk up to me on the street tomorrow and say something like, “Hey Brian, what are your two favorite things?” there’s a pretty good chance — unless I’m hungry, in which case my answers will be “pizza” and “a second pizza” — that I will say, “Basketball and star-studded prestige television series about notable real-world events.” This is an exaggeration, sure, but barely, as anyone who has ever heard me go on and on and on about the Philadelphia 76ers and the O.J. Simpson season of American Crime Story can attest. Which is why it brings me such great pleasure to share with you this trailer for Winning Time, the new upcoming HBO series about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers.

Variety has some basic information but please meet me after this blockquote to discuss further.

The show, now titled “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” will debut in March 2022 with ten episodes on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max. It chronicles the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties.

In the first trailer, team owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) says, “There are two things in this world that make me believe in God: sex and basketball.” It then delves into Buss building the Lakers into a major force in the NBA, beginning with the signing of Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah).

So, three notes here, all equally important:

• The thing at the beginning about how the show is “now titled” Winning Time is because both the era and the book the show is based on we’re called “Showtime,” but HBO had to change it because that is literally the name of one of their biggest premium cable competitors, which is a little hilarious
• This is the show that drove a wedge through the McKay-Ferrell friendship/partnership, allegedly due to McKay replacing him in the cast with John C. Reilly
• That line that Variety quotes from the trailer is important because 1) it is straight-up the first line of the trailer, 2) you just look at John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss, and 3) immediately after saying it he looks right smack into the camera and addresses the audience

This is my favorite show now. It’s settled. I need it as soon as possible, preferably months before the premiere in March, possibly as soon as two months ago so I could have seen it all already. It looks like the most For You, Brian show ever made, even before it got to the thing in the trailer where Adrien Brody pops up as Lakers coach Pat Riley looking like this…

… and before the thing where one of the handful of promotional photos HBO released for the show was their version of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the set of Airplane!

Give it to me. Give me every bit of it at once. And then make a big expensive prestige series about Allen Iverson. For me. I need this. I deserve this. I’ve been so good.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Retta, please come roast my apartment

Home Design shows have never appealed to me. I’m very happy for people who like them and I wish everyone involved nothing but peace and happiness in the lives they have chosen to live, but no, not for me. Pass. It would take a lot for me to move off of this stance. I don’t know exactly what it would entail, though. Maybe something really wild, like, oh, I don’t know… comedian and Parks and Recreation star Retta going around the country roasting the ugliest homes in America. Something like th-…

What’s this?

An email?

Containing a press release for a show titled The Ugliest House in America?

Well well well…

Hosted by Retta, a home design enthusiast, as well as a comedian and actress known for her roles in Parks and Recreation and Good Girls, the new series will feature tours of 12 properties that were nominated by homeowners who believe their design-challenged home is one of the worst in the country. During the series, Retta will share her hilarious reviews of each unsightly home and comment on failed flips, gaudy designs and heinous hodge-podge horrors. Based on its ugly appearance, poor functionality and surprising design choices, one house will be deemed the “ugliest house in America” by HGTV and the network will award its homeowners a showstopping $150,000 renovation completed by Alison Victoria , one of its top stars.

“I am certain these were 12 of the ugliest houses in America. Trust. I had to walk through them all,” said Retta. “There were so many stunningly bad design choices. Why would someone WANT an oversized statue of Poseidon in their driveway? I don’t know, but God bless. I was just happy and, to be honest, relieved to help one family get the home of their dreams.”

Retta will kick-off her cross-country tour in the Midwest with stops at three homes where she will gleefully react to houses boasting a range of bad design, from wall-to-wall pink shag carpeting, mirrored walls and ceilings to over-the-top ocean themes featuring fish statues, room-sized murals and wall-mounted stuffed marlins. Throughout the series, Retta will see the best of the worst in every region of the U.S. In the end, the home deemed “the ugliest” will be transformed from a beast into a beauty.

I usually do not post press releases in large, unaltered blocks like this, but… yes. Yes, this will do. I don’t know if I’ll watch every episode of this show, but I’ll definitely check out one or two and see where it goes from there. That’s a big commitment from me. Especially with this whole Lakers show planning to commandeer 50-60 percent of my total brain capacity in the near future.

Good for Retta.

Good for me.

Good for us.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Your periodic reminder to always watch television with the captions on

A lot went down in the most recent episode of Succession, which is as to be expected considering the season three finale is this coming Sunday. Chess pieces needed to be moved. At least one character needed to be left in peril. Peril can mean multiple things in situations like this, ranging anywhere from, to choosing two examples completely at random, cliffhangers about main characters drowning to potential company-altering sexting fiascos. Again, just random examples there. Not sure what made me think of them. Could have been anything.

Anyway, this isn’t about that. This is about the screencap up there and the subtitle on the screen. I paused when I saw it, right in the middle of an important scene, just to stare in awe at the brilliance on display. They did not have to be that specific. They could have just gone with “[crickets chirping]” or even, like, nothing. But they did this. It’s beautiful.

I started watching everything with subtitles turned on a few years ago, mostly because I make lots of screencaps for work and fun, but I will never go back now. It’s too much fun. It’s even better with places like HBO that take pride in doing them well, which, between this example and these from the also very good show The Flight Attendant…

… they very much do.

Try it if you haven’t. Put the subtitles on. The only times I’ve found it doesn’t work is for live broadcasts that run behind as the captions try to catch up and stand-up comedy specials where the caption might beat the delivery and step on the joke. Otherwise, a delight.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — The Stallone hat/boat kerfuffle is incredibly funny to me

Okay, stay with me. What we have here is some profoundly stupid but also deeply funny. I love things like that. I’ll try to explain it in a way that does it justice.

Earlier this week, Sylvester Stallone posted that image on Instagram along with a caption that now reads…

Heading into the Storm….As IN THUNDERSTORM!!! We are in a jet for god sake flying through the rain!

That wasn’t what it originally read, though. Originally, it just read “heading into the storm,” which is notable because:

• “Into the Storm” is a kind of catchphrase for the Far-Right Qanon believers
• The hat he has on has a big giant Q on it

And so, as will happen in these situations, people went nuts. Tweets, blogs, tweets about blogs, blogs about tweets, the whole deal. Just a heap of angry madness all over the internet. With me so far? Great. Moving on…

A day or two later, Stallone, who had presumably become aware of the chaos his post caused, logged back into Instagram and posted this…

… with this caption:

For those incredibly inquisitive individuals , let me state unequivocally that the Q on this hat stands for QUANTUM OF SOLACE , the name of the boat I was on, NOT anything else , ok? Relax…. So folks,The moral of the story is…Enjoy your lives and let other people enjoy theirs … So Keep Punching !

Here’s what I love about this story: There are exactly two possibilities as to what happened and they’re both hilarious. Either:

• He’s telling the truth and his innocent post about boating in bad weather caused a full-day of political bomb-throwing among the sickest and most internet-poisoned people alive
• He’s lying and the best story he could come up with to cover it up was “uhhhhh… it was the name of a boat?”

Either way, delightful. A great news story. And it gets even better because it allows me to post some classic early-2010s Stallone tweets. I love doing that. They’re so perfect. Like these two about the haters…

… and this one that is actually about politics…

… and this one that is both objectively true and maybe my favorite thing anyone has tweeted ever.

What a wonderful week. Again, for me. I assume it was less fun for Sylvester Stallone, between the bad weather and the yelling.

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 Joe:

As we’re getting into the holiday season, I wanted to make sure you were aware that you’re part of an all-time great Christmas movie, as your house is on Santa’s list in the animated intro of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You can clearly see Grubb right after Griswold as Santa checks the list. Fortunately he had already visited you before going through the ringer that is visiting the Griswolds.

I am pleased to report I am aware of this, and have been for a long time, mostly because my last name is not super common and it’s always kind of weird to catch it out in the wild. Here, see for yourselves…

… or just look at the screencap Joe helpfully attached.

There it is. My name. It’s almost as weird as the thing where there’s another dude named Brian Grubb who is a famous wakeskater and X-Games athlete. Do I find it deeply funny that the two most famous Brian Grubbs alive right now are 1) a decorated extreme sports pioneer and 2) some blogger in a wheelchair? Buddy, I really do. It’s like the athletic ability between us got distributed wrong, where he got 180 percent and I got 20. I should call the manager.

While I’m on the subject… this happened again this year. I was watching Mare of Easttown, a show set about an hour from my house (Go Birds), and I saw Kate Winslet say this…

Full-on DiCaprio pointing meme situation. I got excited. I called my dad. You don’t get these moments a lot when you have a name that isn’t, like, Smith or Jones. There’s no reason to try to act cool about it. Freak out a little, I say.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Australia!

A refrigerated truck filled with $20,000 worth of freshly made gnocchi was stolen from outside an Australian restaurant Sunday night.

GNOCCHI HEIST

IT’S A GNOCCHI HEIST

AN AUSTRALIAN GNOCCHI HEIST

And we’ll get into all of this, probably, if I can focus on anything other than the phrase “Australian Gnocchi Heist” and the general concept of $20,000 worth of gnocchi. I… I kind of just want to see it? Like, how much gnocchi is $20,000 worth of gnocchi? It must be so much. I’m fascinated by this.

The carb-craving crook fled in the Toyota truck as a delivery driver was carrying box loads of pasta into the Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers restaurant in Brisbane at about midnight.

Okay.

Great.

Fine.

But I need you to see these quotes from the owner of the gnocchi place. I love this guy so much. Look at this.

“It’s a shame for the gnocchi. I really feel sorry for the poor gnocchi. I know that sounds ridiculous but a lot of work went into making it,” one of the restaurant’s owners, Ben Cleary-Corradini, said.

AND THIS.

“I hope the truck is returned but for God’s sake I pray they treat the gnocchi with care,” Cleary-Corradini said.

Here’s the thing: I am, as readers of this column know, generally very much on the side of silly heists. I adore them. I was so happy back when I was typing AUSTRALIAN GNOCCHI HEIST a few paragraphs ago. But now… now that I read those quotes… now that I see how seriously Mr. Cleary-Corradini takes his pasta…

Guys. We have got to get this guy his freaking gnocchi back. This is a full-on John Wick situation. I’m barely joking. We must recover this gnocchi.

For a guy who’s allegedly not in the film, Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus has now appeared in two teasers for The Matrix Resurrections, which continues to set up a reality-bending mystery on par with the original film. In the latest teaser released during The Game Awards on Thursday night, Keanu Reeves‘ Neo gets his first taste of how things work in this current version of The Matrix as Jessica Henwick‘s Bugs reveals that hackers no longer have to rush to phone booths like in the first films. Instead, portals handle all of the traveling, and it allows the freedom fighters to move quickly from a moving train in Japan to a hidden building where they find Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpehus waiting for them.

However, there’s some notable imagery waiting for them. As Neo and Bugs enter the room, scenes from the first Matrix film are projected onto floating screens, and they prominently feature Fishburne’s version of Morpheus. Apparently, a prior meeting with Neo went south in the new film, and so this time, Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus tried a different approach.

“Nothing comforts anxiety like a little nostalgia,” he tells Neo before the clip ends.

Of course, this raises more questions than it answers, as these films are fond of doing. More specifically, there seems to be a weird blending of reality and fiction because it’s starting to feel like The Matrix Resurrections is aware that The Matrix movies exist? We could be way off, but the teasers have been leaning heavily on feelings of déjà vu, and it wouldn’t be surprising if this latest installment went buck-wild on the meta-commentary.

The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on December 22.

Mid-December is approaching and the stretch run of the NFL season is here. After a spotless performance in handicapping games during Week 12, the Week 13 slate wasn’t quite as kind. Still, it wasn’t a full-fledged disaster, and the process was reasonable enough to the point where 3-2, or even 4-1, seemed to be in play at times. Not to be outdone, the Week 14 slate is here with plenty of opportunity on the horizon.

Before we hand it off to a five-pack of selections, let’s see how the full season is going.

• Last Week: 2-3
• 2021 Season: 37-27-1

Come get these winners.

Cleveland Browns (-2.5) over Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore is going to be a popular “bounce back” play this week after a narrow loss to Pittsburgh last week. The Ravens are exceptionally banged up, however, and Cleveland is fresh off a bye week. The Browns are healthier on defense than they have been for a while, and buzz is that Baker Mayfield is feeling closer to himself. That isn’t everything, but this is a good buy point for the Browns with Cleveland laying less than a field goal.

Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers UNDER 20.5 points in the first half

There are trends here when it comes to divisional rematches, but the thing I like most about this is the two offenses in play. Carolina just fired Joe Brady and the franchise is openly talking about running the ball and grinding from a tempo perspective. Atlanta is without its top receiving weapon and they certainly aren’t flying high in terms of explosiveness. We may need a break or two in the red zone, but field goals are welcome.

New York Giants (+10) over Los Angeles Chargers

The Giants are still getting dinged for the injury to Daniel Jones, and I get that. New York may be playing Jake Fromm in this game and, if not, it’s Mike Glennon. Still, the Giants have a frisky defense, and the Chargers are in line to potentially miss both starting wide receivers. We’re also staying on-brand by fading Los Angeles at home and taking them on the road as we did last week. I wouldn’t buy this at less than 10, but godspeed to the Giants.

Buffalo Bills (+3.5) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Buffalo’s offense flopped in a prime time spot against New England last week. As such, we’re probably getting an extra half-point (or full point) of value here, and this is a more favorable matchup for the pass-heavy Bills. Can they stop Tampa Bay? Maybe not, but snatching the full 3.5 points is useful.

Los Angeles Rams (+2.5) over Arizona Cardinals

The world is on Arizona here, with Los Angeles kind of scuffling for the last month or so. The Rams did pick up the pieces last week against Jacksonville, but this is a different kind of test. I do think Los Angeles will be ready to go after a lopsided loss at home against Arizona earlier in the season, but mostly I’m buying low on a team I still believe in.

Lucille Ball, as depicted in Being The Ricardos, is a lot like Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs, Molly Bloom in Molly’s Game, Abbie Hoffman in The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, etc. Which is to say, a genius in her field whose uncompromising nature made her somewhat prickly and occasionally difficult to be around. Which is further to say: Aaron Sorkin does his Aaron Sorkin thing in Being The Ricardos, turning a public figure into an Aaron Sorkin sock puppet. When Aaron Sorkin dances with a famous character, Aaron Sorkin don’t change. Aaron Sorkin changes that character.

It’s not that this is especially unentertaining; the man always writes with a certain snappy rhythm that has become his trademark. It’s just that most of us have seen this movie before and we don’t get much from it that we haven’t already gotten from his other movies. One’s enjoyment of Aaron Sorkin movies at this point seems to have an inverse correlation with how many other Aaron Sorkin movies one has seen and remembers.

The central failure of Being The Ricardos is that it never offers us a sense of why Sorkin wanted to tell this story in the first place, other than that it offered the opportunity to apply “the formula.” Nicole Kidman plays the famous comedienne, beneath a mound of makeup and facial prosthetics that make her look a little like Robin Williams in Robert Altman’s Popeye movie. All that window dressing tends to give Lucy a Madame Tussaud’s quality, which tends to thwart any significant emotional attachment. Gee, would you look at that? Nicole Kidman SORTA looks like Lucille Ball when you squint from drunkenness!

The opening frame of the story is that there are two potentially damaging articles about to break (Aaron Sorkin loves impending bombshell articles): one about how Lucille Ball had been questioned by the House Unamerican Activities Commission about her affiliation with the Communist party; and another about how her husband Desi Arnaz liked to frequent prostitutes.

Of course, Lucy and Desi, business partners as well as spouses, also had to do a show to do that week. And Lucy’s only solution to the strife in her personal life was to absolutely nail it. This is the period during which the movie takes place, rehearsals for that week’s shoot, with the bombshell articles hanging over Lucy’s head, with frequent flashbacks to her earlier career illustrating how we got there. Places, people! Lucy gotta think about her WHOLE LIFE before we do this show!

The single biggest surprise of the movie is Javier Bardem’s weirdly compelling portrayal of Desi Arnaz. On paper, he seems like by far the worst casting, Bardem’s craggy face, baritone voice, and Easter Island bone structure an odd fit for the slick and boyish Desi Arnaz. Yet in practice, Bardem’s expressive face is oddly suited for externalizing Desi’s feelings, precisely in the way Kidman’s makeup is not. His voice also gives Desi’s songs a pleasing basso depth and the accent never feels like a gimmick. Bardem shows what stories about Desi would otherwise probably have to tell: that he was this incredibly charismatic masculine sex symbol.

JK Simmons is great as the gruff and curmudgeonly William Frawley (aka Fred Mertz), though in a much more expected way, as is Nina Arianda as the show’s perennially overshadowed middle sibling, Vivian Vance, aka Ethel. Sorkin scripts are always a gift to veteran scene chewers. The bigger issue is that after 125 minutes of movie, all we really get out of it is that Lucille Ball was an uncompromising perfectionist when it came to comedy, the most cursory, dull read on the material possible. Wow, you mean to tell me she was good because she practiced hard and cared a lot? Why doncha write a book about it, Malcolm Gladwell!

In a story that uses a political story as its central framing device, Sorkin’s politics are, as always, convoluted, slightly opaque, and most centrally, essentially shallow power worship. Why did Lucy register as a communist back in the thirties? Even Sorkin seems to know that the official story, that Lucy did it as a favor to her favorite grandpa, a committed leftist, almost certainly isn’t the whole one. At one point she says it was because he was “fighting for the little guy.” Desi pushes back on this point. “The ‘little guy!’” he scoffs. “these are the people who chased me out of my home!”

There’s a lot to unpack there: if you didn’t know the timeline, that I Love Lucy‘s heyday was in the 1950s, you could be forgiven for thinking that Desi Arnaz’s family was chased out by Castro when he took power in 1959, and not by the more politically complicated Cuban Revolution of 1933 that eventually gave Cuba Fulgencio Batista. Did Desi Arnaz (whose family was very wealthy before their property was confiscated) simply conflate all revolutions with Bolshevism? Or was that just the infamously uniform-worshipping Sorkin’s own simplification? There’s a lot of political chaff being thrown in Being The Ricardos, but mostly it seems to boil down to Sorkin’s evergreen political perspective on everything: “shut up and let the adults handle it.”

Sorkin’s theatrical contrivances work much better in handling the other article hanging over Lucy’s head, the one about Desi’s infidelity. There’s a scene in which Lucy confronts Desi with his lipstick smeared handkerchief, that works better than just about every other scene in the movie. Trouble is, it only comes in the last five minutes of the film. The infidelity issue gets about 90 seconds worth of exploration, in what seems more like cursory exposition.

Which makes you wonder, again, what are we doing here? We seem to be doing the same old Aaron Sorkin thing, and in the absence of any meaningful expansion of his skill set, that thing has become defined by increasingly diminishing returns.

Amazon Studios will release ‘Being The Ricardos’ in theaters on December 10, 2021, available globally on Prime Video December 21, 2021. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

It feels like we just celebrated the new year yesterday, but somehow, 2021 is already coming to an end. Steve and Ian already named their favorite albums of the year (and Steve went even further with a full list on this site), and what better way to further reflect on an eventful year for indie rock with another mailbag episode?

This week, Steve and Ian take questions from listeners all over the map about everything from their Mount Rushmore of music books, to bands they would watch an eight-hour docuseries about, and which band is better: TV On The Radio or Wolf Parade?

With so many questions to get through, they once again are skipping this week’s Recommendation Corner and encouraging listeners to revisit last week’s episode to discover some new albums from 2021 that they might not have heard yet.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 69 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.

In recent days, rumors have been flying about a relationship between Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian, and indeed, the two have been seen out and about together on numerous occasions. Now, Miley Cyrus has offered a musical nod to the apparent relationship while appearing on The Tonight Show alongside Davidson, with whom she will be hosting Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party Hosted By Miley Cyrus And Pete Davidson on NBC later this month.

On the show, Cyrus covered Yvonne Fair’s “It Should Have Been Me” backed by The Roots, and as the band started playing the song, Cyrus said, “Pete Davidson, this song is for you. When I saw those photos, this is what I played.” That got an “Oh, thank you” from Davidson off-camera. Later in the song, Cyrus visited Davidson, who was sitting next to Jimmy Fallon, and sang, “Should’ve been me in that Lamborghini leaving that nice-ass restaurant. I’m going to watch a movie in freakin’ Staten Island,” which got some face-covering laughs from Davidson.

Cyrus’ lyrics are an apparent reference to both Davidson’s Staten Island home and the time a couple weeks ago that Davidson and Kardashian were spotted leaving Giorgio Baldi, an upscale Italian restaurant in in Santa Monica before hopping in a Lamborghini SUV.

Watch Cyrus’ cover above and other clips from her and Davidson’s appearance below.

After “28 years, 38 countries, eight Olympic games, seven Presidential elections, half a dozen Presidents, a few wars, and one SNL,” Brian Williams has signed off for good.

Williams, who announced that he would be leaving NBC in November, concluded his nightly MSNBC show The 11th Hour on Thursday with a look back at his nearly three decades with the network — and his “biggest worry” for the future.

“After 28 years of Peacock logos on much of what I own, it is my choice now to jump without a net into the great unknown. As I do, for the first time in my 62 years, my biggest worry is for my country,” he said. “The truth is I am not a liberal or a conservative. I am an institutionalist. I believe in this place, and in my love of country I yield to no one. But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It is now at the local bar and the bowling alley, at the school board and the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for.”

Williams continued:

“Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution — elected by their constituents, possessing the kind of college degrees I could only dream of — have decided to join the mob and become something they are not, while hoping we somehow forget who they were. They’ve decided to burn it all down with us inside. That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman.”

You can watch the sign-off video above.