Month: January 2022

Jack White made a real splash towards the end of 2021. After debuting his new blue hair, he dropped “Taking Me Back,” his first solo single since 2018. Not long after that, he revealed that 2022 will bring a pair of new White albums, Fear Of The Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive. The latter is out first on April 8, and today, he has offered another preview of it with his first 2022 single, “Love Is Selfish.”

While some of White’s recent material has been of the hard-rocking variety, “Love Is Selfish” is in softer territory, a space where White has also done well over the years. The gentle song is mostly just guitar and vocals, and the new video for the track, which White directed himself, is similarly simple, as it’s mostly footage of White performing the song in an empty American Legion hall, albeit with some cinematic shots and pleasing use of color throughout.

The release of Fear Of The Dawn will also mark the beginning of White’s “The Supply Chain Issues Tour,” which runs from April to August.

Watch the “Love Is Selfish” video above.

Fear Of The Dawn is out 4/8 via Third Man Records. Pre-order it here.

Entering Heaven Alive is out 7/22 via Third Man Records. Pre-order it here.

TV’s most smoldering lawman is coming back.

FX announced on Friday that Timothy Olyphant will reprise his role as U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens in Justified: City Primeval, a Justified spin-off based on Elmore Leonard’s crime novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. (Space Raylan was a warm up.)

The series takes place eight years after the events of finale, with Raylan pulling a reverse Dexter and moving to Miami. He’s now a “walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 14-year-old girl. His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind,” according to the official plot description.

Here’s more:

A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, a.k.a. the Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell’s lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.

No other casting information has been revealed yet, including whether any other Justified favorites, like Winona (Natalie Zea) or god-tier character Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns), will return. There’s also the Boyd Crowder of it all. It might cheapen Justified‘s near-perfect finale for Boyd to misbehave again. Then again, the more Boyd, the better. I have already checked Google to see if there are Dairy Queens in Detroit (there are).

Justified: City Primeval does not have a premiere date.

Following the tragic news of actor/comedian Bob Saget‘s death, CBS Mornings has released the final interview with the late Full House star, who opened up about how his sister’s death pushed him into comedy. He also became a fierce advocate for raising awareness of the rare disease that took her life.

In the interview recorded in early December, a candid and at times emotional Saget spoke to chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook about losing his sister, Gay, to scleroderma in 1994. Via Entertainment Weekly:

“We were all in the room when she let out her last breath, and I don’t know how to explain it, and I’m going to go woo woo here, it felt like the soul going past us, literally felt my hair kinda move,” he recalled. “You know being an actor, that’s a very important thing if your hair gets out of place.”

Following her death, Saget used comedy to cope with the grief. “It was a defense mechanism and it truly helped me survive,” he said. “It helped keep me mentally alive rather than letting [grief] destroy me.” The America’s Funniest Home Videos star also dedicated himself to battling the disease that took his sister by joining the Scleroderma Research Foundation’s Board of Directors where he raised millions for the organization. It was a cause that was dear to Saget’s heart, and he was still actively raising awareness just weeks before his death as seen in this Instagram post from December.

Saget’s death caused an outpour of tributes to his kindness and generosity, which left Jimmy Kimmel in tears while attempting to eulogize his late friend. Saget’s dedication to helping others not suffer the same loss as his family is another example of those positive attributes that caused so many emotional reactions to his passing.

(Via CBS Mornings)

Ten days ago, I hadn’t seen a single episode of Yellowjackets. Ten days (and 10 episodes, including this Sunday’s excellent finale) later, I am all caught up, and it’s the only thing I want to talk about. I’m not the only one: Yellowjackets has become a word-of-mouth sensation for Showtime. It’s not bringing in the same number of viewers as Dexter, but did you know the Dexter finale was last week? There’s a good chance you didn’t (although you can read about it here — it’s better than the OG finale!). Meanwhile, Yellowjackets is all over Twitter, and Tumblr, and Reddit; there’s even a “which character are you?” BuzzFeed quiz, the true sign of a show’s success.

Since binging Yellowjackets, I’ve had multiple people ask me if they would like it, maybe more than any other show in recent memory. If you’re wondering the same thing, these 10 questions should help you decide whether to make it your next TV obsession.

(There will be some light spoilers, but I won’t discuss the juiciest details.)

1. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if… wait, what is Yellowjackets about?”

This is a good place to start. Yellowjackets takes place in 1996 and 2021. The 1996 section follows the members of a high school girl’s soccer team who get stranded in the woods when their plane crashes on the way to nationals. The show doesn’t specify exactly where they crash, but it’s somewhere in Canada. The 2021 portion of the show follows the survivors as adults, although not everyone makes it out of the woods.

2. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if I can’t handle gore?”

Yes, although, fair warning, it is extremely violent. Within the first two minutes of the premiere, you see someone get impaled by spikes in a pit. There’s also cannibalism, a bone poking through someone’s flesh, and so much blood. The violence can be upsetting, but it’s not exploitative; not under the guiding eyes of creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson and Jennifer’s Body director Karyn Kusama, who helms the pilot.

3. Should I watch Yellowjackets if I’m trying to fill the Lost-shaped hole in my heart?”

Yes, because say what you will about the finale (I certainly have!), Lost is still one of the most compelling, exciting, and deeply weird shows to air on TV. It didn’t invent modern-day fandom, but it changed the way people engaged with shows, where every small detail, every twist and turn, was discussed among strangers on the internet; I’m still not sure whether I’m disappointed or relieved that it came out before Reddit culture was a thing. Yellowjackets isn’t a Lost clone, even with the plane crash and time-hopping framing, but it scratches the same fan theory itch. There are thousands of tweets and Reddit thread comments about the identity of the Antler Queen (a fan term that has become canon), an impressive achievement for a show that premiered two months ago.

Yellowjackets also smartly understands that for these kind of mystery shows with supernatural elements to work, they need memorable characters who are more than plot devices. As horror maestro Stephen King put it, “YELLOWJACKETS is a hell of a good survival story, a hell of a good mystery story, and has its fair share of horrifying moments. What it’s also got — so many current shows don’t — is sharp characterization and a mordant sense of humor.” That’s why generic Lost knock-offs like The Event and Flash Forward failed, and Yellowjackets is thriving.

It’s also worth mentioning that the creators have a multi-season plan. “When we were formulating and developing the idea, we always saw this as a multi-season story and our goal in the first season is to very much answer certain questions, because I personally get very irritated with shows that drag everything on forever and don’t give you any answers,” Lyle told E! Online. “So, we wanted to answers some questions and ask some new ones, so that is hopefully what we accomplished over the course of this season.”

4. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if I’m looking for a show with a dance sequence set to ‘This Is How We Do It’ by Montell Jordan?”

Yes, and buddy, you’re in for a treat. Other artists on the extremely mid-1990s soundtrack: Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Belly, Collective Soul, Mazzy Star, the Prodigy, the Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Salt-N-Pepa, Portishead, the Cranberries, Dinosaur Jr., and “Mr. Mistoffelees” from Cats (not the one with Taylor Swift). It’s an eclectic mix.

5. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if I like free trials?”

Yes, because Showtime offers a 30-day free trial. (This is not a paid promotion. I just like free stuff.) It will not take you 30 days to watch Yellowjackets. You will be tempted to watch the whole thing in a day (never skip the theme song), but I would suggest stretching it over a week. Maybe two episodes a night. And definitely don’t watch if you’re eating steak. Or chicken. Or any meat, really. Once you’re caught up, you’ll have time to watch other Showtime shows before the trial runs out.

And that gives me time to finish writing, “Everyone Won’t Shut Up About Californication, But Is It For You?” Finger on the pulse over here.

6. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if I’m sick of comparing myself and other people to Sex and the City characters?”

Yes, because “you’re such a Carrie” is out and “you’re such a Laura Lee” is in.

One tweet that I think about a lot is: “Part of the appeal of Succession is doing the math on which character you’d become if you gave your personality disorder a billion dollars.” The same goes for Yellowjackets, except instead of money, it’s stranding your personality disorder in the middle of the woods. Are you a love sick lone wolf? You’re Nat. Did you peak in high school? You’re Jackie. Do you still think the “sweet-ass butt cut” is a good look? I’m sorry, but you’re a Travis. Do you have upsetting premonitions? You’re Lottie. Also, you may want to seek some professional help.

7. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if there’s no book club?”

8. Should I watch Yellowjackets if my favorite movie is Addams Family Values?”

Yes, and it’s time for Christina Ricci to get the Emmys recognition she deserves. The Casper actress gives a delightfully unhinged performance as the grown-up version of the show’s most Ma-like character, Misty. She’s as smart as she is scary, and Ricci plays Misty as a chipper-but-dangerous weirdo with a pet bird named Caligula. Never trust anyone with a pet bird named Caligula — or maybe anyone with a pet bird, period.

The rest of the adult cast includes Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), and Tawny Cypress (Heroes), while you may have seen the younger Yellowjackets in The Kid Detective (Sophie Nélisse, young Shauna), The Leftovers and Scream (Jasmin Savoy Brown, young Taissa), and The Book of Boba Fett (Sophie Thatcher, young Nat). Also, Lottie is played by Courtney Eaton, who was also one of Immortan Joe’s wives in Mad Max: Fury Road, along with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee, Riley Keough, and Zoë Kravitz. The wives rule Hollywood.

9. “Should I watch Yellowjackets if I love horror movies, teen dramas, mysteries, survival thrillers, suspense, chaos, soccer, wolves, blackmail, While You Were Sleeping, Canada, orgies, drugs, eating dirt, and/or cult rituals?”

Yes.

10. “Should I watch Yellowjackets…?”

That’s enough questions. Yes, for the love of god, watch Yellowjackets. You can start now.

Growing up in Chicago, Saba had, as many Midwestern kids did, a fascination with the melodic double-time flow of the five-piece Cleveland rap band Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Their relative proximity and mid-90s radio dominance would have contributed to that, but also, Saba just seems like exactly the kind of rapper to have rooted out every single example of the genre to absorb and learn from — you can occasionally hear the influence in his flows on projects like Care For Me and Pivot Gang’s You Can’t Sit With Us.

Now, with the release of his third album, Few Good Things, just over the horizon (it drops on February 4 on Saba’s own Pivot Gang imprint), the Windy City MC gets to link up with one of his musical heroes on his latest single from the album. “Come My Way,” produced (as usual) by Daoud and daedaePIVOT, features none other than Bone Thugs member Krayzie Bone, who once won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance with another disciple, Chamillionaire, and recently participated in his band’s Verzuz with Three Six Mafia.

In the press release for the single, Saba said, “When I think back on first discovering Bone Thugs-N-Harmony as a child, it immediately stood out to me as unique. I started paying attention and really learning how to rap from listening to them and trying to recite it. It felt honest and completely true to themselves — authentic in a way that doesn’t come around very often and in a way that will be impossible to recreate. Their mix of melody and rhythms that I had never heard is what connected with me in a way that other music just didn’t. It inspired me to be more creative.”

Meanwhile, the inspiration for the song itself is “nostalgia and growing up, and I think ‘hopeful’ and ‘soulful’ are accurate descriptions of the song… I’m describing many things that are normal on the westside of Chicago so that it plays like just any other day — pretty stagnant but having so much life. ‘We ain’t got no time to relax’ is a harsh reality for so many people experiencing this type of poverty where the focus is on work and survival.”

Listen to Saba’s new single “Come My Way” featuring Krayzie Bone above and check out the dates for his Back Home Tour here.

Few Good Things is due 2/4 via Pivot Gang, LLC. Pre-save here.

To hear comedian Eric Andre tell it, we’re witnessing something quite special with his appearance in season 2 of Righteous Gemstones as a televangelist with great big intentions. And he’s not talking about his ascension up the style icon ranks with the hurricane of denim and cowboy swag that he’s rocking. (Though shouldn’t we all be talking about that?) Andre, the star and driving force behind The Eric Andre Show and Bad Trip simply isn’t used to having other people put words in his mouth, preferring to call his own plays in an effort to best get the “musicality” of a moment. It’s an understandable preference, especially when you think about how successful Andre has been at building his “brand” as the “hardest working man in comedy” (to quote our Bad Trip review).

But for Danny McBride‘s satire of American largesse and family dysfunction, he’s making an exception. Why? We spoke with him about that, the weird similarities between preaching and comedy, what’s next for him, and the Eric Andre Show super fandom of one particular Oscar-winning director.

So this is an interesting role for you. What’d you think when this came across your table?

I love Danny McBride, and I love Rough House [Productions] and everything they do. So I was coming into it like a super fan. I usually don’t pursue just regular acting gigs, but I trust them creatively.

What is it about regular acting gigs that you’re not feeling at this point?

I’m not an actor. I didn’t grow up in the theater. I’d rather perform something that I wrote rather than just reading a script and trying to be a mind reader and figure out what the writer wants and what the director wants. I don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable doing that. I’d rather be either on both sides of the camera or just behind the camera, except for something like this, or something I just did with Panos Cosmatos up in Canada. If it’s somebody that I’m a super fan of, like McBride and his crew, then I’ll pursue it. But I’m not a mind reader. I need to hear the musicality of it to know what the fuck they want. I don’t get it from a script if I didn’t help write it.

Bad experiences in the past? I know you did some stock… Not stock, but like “acting work” before.

Yeah. I did some stuff just to pay the bills in the beginning for sure. But it wasn’t as enjoyable as The Eric Andre Show or Bad Trip. It wasn’t until now that I’m having these opportunities where I… I love doing voiceover. That I’ll be an actor for higher forever. I love doing the cartoons, but I typically don’t just blindly audition for a bunch of willy nilly stuff like a regular actor.

The process with this, is it that it was just a totally different experience working with them? Or is it just the quality of the material?

All the above. I felt like I was in a very safe, nurturing, creative environment. I felt like I had the ability to improvise as much or as little as I wanted. The writing was so rock solid and strong and funny and well thought out that even if I just stick, fully committed, to the script, I would be just as happy im improvising my way through it. And yeah, they’re just a great group. And Charleston’s a really fun city. And I had a blast.

The spectacle of being on stage as a televangelist, what are you channeling there? Is there research as a part of that? Or are you just going?

When I first got to Charleston, Danny sent me a bunch of YouTube links of a bunch of televangelists that he thought were like really entertaining and hilarious. So I went down a YouTube wormhole. But it’s very similar to standup comedy, in a way.

That’s what I was thinking.

Yeah. It felt very easy to get into that.

You’re all over the place in a good way. On the stage there, it’s very, very much akin to what I saw you doing with the last special. So I imagine that feels right, which is a little off-putting, isn’t it? That stand-up comedy, the showmanship of standup comedy and the showmanship of televangelism are akin to each other.

Yeah. It’s kind of the same. It’s weirdly the same thing. It’s like you have to seduce and rope a herd of strangers into believing in you and liking you.

Saving souls. Because you’re saving souls with your comedy, obviously.

[Laughs] Saving souls. Yeah.

What about the central focus of the show? Is that something you’re into, obviously in certain ways, I think a lot of people mistake it as being anti-religion. I know Danny’s been really adamant about that not being the case. What’s your take on just the hypocrisy [that the show focuses on] and everything going on with people stuffing money into walls, et cetera?

Yeah. I think that like our art imitates live life. Life imitates art. But there’s nuance. There’s depth to the concept because there’s hypocrisy in all industries, and there’s dysfunction in all families. So it’s relatable in that respect, but it’s also calling it out in organized religion in these megachurch families that seduce a lot of working-class people and poor people into giving the last of their dollars over to God. And I think they thread the needle. I think whether you’re religious or not religious, or anti-religious, everybody can find enjoyment in it because everybody comes from a family with some level of dysfunction.

It’s interesting how this season in particular showcases what happens if you take somebody who’s very successful and you threaten to take everything away from them. And seeing how they react. It’s an interesting part of the family dynamic to see the levels that… people almost turn into animals, essentially, trying to defend what’s theirs.

Yeah. Yeah. We’re primates. I think that humans are flawed, and we’re basically glorified chimpanzees.

That’s accurate. I think that’s the takeaway from the article. We’re glorified chimpanzees.

A human being has more in common DNA-wise with a chimpanzee than an African elephant has in common with an Indian elephant. That’s how closely related we are to chimps and Bonobos.

Okay. I think we’re all primates is the headline. Do you have any alternate headline suggestions?

Hey, man. Then when you nail it on the first take…

What’s going on with you otherwise?

I just shot this thing for this Guillermo Del Toro anthology series for Netflix, with Panos Cosmatos directing. He’s one of my favorite directors of all time.

What genre is that?

It’s a psychological sci-fi thriller with comedic relief.

Is that a genre you’re specifically interested in?

Mandy was one of my favorite horror movies I’ve seen in the last 20 years. And I just called my manager and said, “Who is this director? I want to know everything about him. And I want to pester him until he gives me a job.” That’s what I did with McBride and Brandon James and all the Rough House guys. I just tapped them until they hired me.

Del Toro’s awesome. He crashed an interview I was doing at Comic-Com once. That guy has so much energy. It’s crazy.

He’s so sweet. He’s such a friendly teddy bear. He gave me a big hug in the parking lot. And he just gushed about the Eric Andre Show for 15 minutes with me. He’s awesome.

Now, I’m going to try to figure what his favorite Eric Andre bit is.

He knew specific bits. He was calling out. It wasn’t service speak. He was calling out specific little gags I did. So I was like, oh shit. He truly is a fan.

What about comedy? Are you back on the road yet?

Nah, I’m going to focus on the thing I’m working on that I’m not allowed to talk about, wink, wink. And yeah, I’m just writing right now, writing, prepping, shooting. And I’m just going to focus on that.

‘Righteous Gemstones’ season 2 is running Sunday nights on HBO at 10 PM ET

After the dearth of new music releases over the holidays, 2022 is officially in full swing and it seems like the docket of new music just keeps getting more and more exciting. To kick off a year of new music reviews, Steve and Ian are digging into Dawn FM, the latest album from The Weeknd that dropped without any preamble on January 7, but is simultaneously the biggest release of the year so far.

Before any of that, however, it’s time to break down the newly-announced Coachella and Bonnaroo lineups. After a two year hiatus, Coachella is finally back with a pretty stacked lineup. That said, are people still going to be writing “rock is dead because there are no rock bands at Coachella” thinkpieces in 2022? What bands in the indie world even have the reach to potentially headline future iterations of Coachella?

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging Little Green House, the latest album from Connecticut punk outfit Anxious, while Steve is getting excited for the forthcoming album from Guerilla Toss.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 72 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.

(Plentiful SPOILERS from Cobra Kai Season 4 will be found below.)

Cobra Kai‘s fourth season delivered a knockout punch and left the warring dojos in dramatic disarray with plenty of mini-cliffhangers. In other words, The Karate Kid spinoff series will continue with an already-wrapped fifth season, and the character of Miguel, portrayed by Xolo Maridueña, has left the building, sort of. Mind you, Miguel hasn’t left the show; he simply decided to bolt in the middle of the All Valley Tournament, leaving Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) to defend Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do’s honor in the male division. And Miguel has, unexpectedly enough, headed down to Mexico, apparently because he needed to find his biological father in the middle of a karate throwdown.

Hey, it happens. Xolo is no stranger to seeing his character take unexpected detours, which have included fighting his way back to karate form after a particularly brutal high-school hallway battle. Of course, Miguel’s quite nearly a son to both William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence and Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso. That’s yet more motivation for these two grown men to squabble, which is another reason why Miguel’s such a pivotal role in the series. Elsewhere, the 20-year-old actor’s preparing to star as Latino superhero Jamie Reyes in HBO Max’s Blue Beetle movie for the DC Universe.

Xolo was cool enough to talk with us about Miguel’s winding path and his challenges, past and future. Oh, and he’s very excited for Blue Beetle to happen.

Hey, Xolo. I am loving your shelves of memorabilia. What’s your favorite piece back there?

Umm, I have this one right here. [Points to a bottle.] You can’t really see it, but it’s a Coors Banquet right there. And I had the opportunity to film on the very last day of Season 5 filming, and they were passing them out, and Billy [Zabka] had a Coors Banquet, and he gave it to me, as like, “Here’s this gift!” I mean, it was empty. I didn’t drink any of it. He drank all of it!

Uh, of course he drank all of it!

And he gave me the empty bottle and I kept it because I’m a weirdo and a hoarder and hold sentimental value to everything. But I think it’s cool, it’s a little Coors Banquet from Johnny Lawrence, the man himself.

I just moved, so my Funkos are scattered, but you can see my Bucky Barnes.

Oh, nice!

It looks like you’ve got a Blue Beetle Funko over there?

They made one, it’s right there! They made like a whole line of them, I’m gonna show you [shoves Funko into camera]. So, because they did it for Dios la Muerte, it has some crazy looks, and they did a whole line of them, like with Joker, Batman, Harley Quinn.

Let’s start with Blue Beetle then. When that casting news came out, you said that your whole focus at that moment was that this is a Latino character, and that felt enormous to you.

That’s still something that’s at the forefront of my mind going into this, but I think the pressure that I once felt about how potentially big this can be to people come from where I come from, and even people who don’t come from where I come from but similar backgrounds, the reality is that I have to go into this project to have the most fun and make it the most authentic that I can make it. Because at the end of the day, that is gonna shine through with the already awesome writers that we have and the director that we have and the great stunt team that we have and the awesome visuals. I guess when you’re working with a studio of that caliber, all of that stuff is already gonna be great.

Warner Bros. ain’t no slouch when it comes to production values.

And getting to put some of myself into this and show kids out there that there’s someone that looks like them on camera that’s young, that’s the part I’m most excited about. It meant so much to me as a little kid to see someone who looked like me. With someone as simple as Manny from Modern Family, I was like, “Wow, this is so cool, getting to see this brown kid on camera, and it’s not the butt of the joke, and it’s not like the crazy drug cartel story, and these guys aren’t gangbangers.” It was like, “This is just a normal kid.” And I am just a normal kid, and that meant so much. And it was like a freaking comedy show on ABC or wherever it was on. I don’t think that was their intention, but that is my intention, and I don’t wanna get riled up over there, but I’m excited!

Speaking of representation, I was thinking about how Miguel had his accident…

[Laughs] Which one?

The big one, and Miguel was wheelchair-bound as a result. You obviously had no hand in writing this, but he was only wheelchair-bound for a few episodes.

I think the part, you know, that I wanted to tap into the most is that the circumstances of him being put into a wheelchair are very symbolic to the idea of being someone who is, honestly, I know there are a lot of politically correct terms, and I don’t want to use the wrong ones. Like, being someone who is not able to use their legs the way that they’d usually use them, I think that is very symbolic of Miguel having, truly at that point, having karate being the center of his universe. He is coming into a new school where he doesn’t know anyone. He has found his father figure, this role model who he idolizes in Johnny, and Johnny loves karate. So Miguel’s gonna learn to love karate just as much as Johnny does. And when that love that you have is, in a split moment, is just taken away from you, I think that was really like more of a mental block than a physical. I think, honestly, the physical aspect of it was a lot, at least as a character, was almost easier to deal with than the mental part of it. It really makes me fortunate to say that I have this ability to kind-of show representation, but I also maybe wish it was dealt a little differently? Maybe, I don’t know, with 10 episodes, you have to get through stuff so quickly, and I feel like with everything, you just have to keep the ball rolling, and sometimes, I wish there was more room for that.

Then it briefly seemed like Miguel’s injury recurred during the Season 4 All Valley Tournament. Did that feel like a “gotcha” moment to you?

You know what? The creators have done a really good job with, even when I feel like, “Awww, man, really? For real? Again?” They do a good job with surprising me and throwing things my way that are not only challenging as an actor and as someone who’s getting to portray a character for five years in a row, but things that are different and honestly, I’m like, “Damn, you guys are pretty smart because I would have never thought about what you guys are about to lead up to.” And because of that, even the accident in Season 2, I was like, “Me? Why not the other guy?” But all jokes aside, somehow they made it work and, somehow, even though I wasn’t able to do karate, people would root for Miguel. And now you’re rooting for everyone, and that’s the joyous part of the show, is that you really find yourself being attached to every single one of the characters.

I recently talked to Jacob [Bertrand, who plays Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz]. He said you guys are all super competitive about your characters. How far does it go?

That’s my brother! And I think there’s nothing like beating a sibling.

Oh yeah, ask my brother all about that feeling.

I think that Jacob and I have created this bond that is super special, and for that, we’re like, “We have a fight together! Who wins? I get the first point, and you get the second point.” And in this one, he took it, but at least I can say that I lost to the champion.

And now Miguel is onto a new challenge.. in Mexico?

A new challenge, and a new chapter, and now both of the brothers have a trophy.

Of course, one of the mysteries going into Season 5 is the identity of Miguel’s father. And you can’t say anything about that, right? But the journey is now an emotional one.

Yeah, yeah! I think that something that I’ve always loved so much about the character of Miguel is that he never needed a biological father to find that father figure. And I feel like that’s an experience that a lot of people know and are familiar with, whether that’s an uncle or a friend of your parents or someone close to you, and that’s something that I’ve resonated with. I think because of that, entering this new chapter of Miguel’s life where that validation is not enough, or maybe what he thought he needed is no longer the case, and he’s grown into his own, and now he needs a new sense of purpose, whatever that is. And I hope that in Season 5, he finds it, whatever that looks like, meeting his dad or not meeting his dad. The soap opera it is, because it can’t get any more wrong than right now [in real life], so I hope for Miguel, it’s clear skies ahead, but who knows?

Speaking of soap operas, one of the best things about this show is that the kids have it together a lot more than the adults, who are all flexing about karate like it’s the only thing in the universe.

They’re all like tiger moms!

What’s it like to see those legends really going at it again?

So, I think the adult aspect is one that’s super unique to me because honestly I’m never really filming with all of the adults together. That rivalry never really happens in front of kids, so as an audience member, getting to experience that on Netflix for the first time is something fun. It’s like a little lucky charm in your cereal.

Finally, if you could take Miguel out of Cobra Kai and put him in another show, where would you want him to go?

Oooh, I’d want him to go into Nathan For You with a failed karate dojo.

‘Cobra Kai’s fourth season is currently streaming on Netflix.

Over the past few days, things between Britney Spears and her sister Jamie Lynn have reached a boiling point. After Jamie Lynn tearfully discussed Britney on Good Morning America, Britney shared a lengthy Twitter post criticizing the appearance and Jamie Lynn herself. Now, Jamie Lynn has offered a verbose response of her own.

On Instagram last night, Jamie Lynn started by showing her support for her sister before standing up for herself, saying, “Quite frankly, the things being said are absolutely not the truth. […] I hate to burst my sister’s bubble, but my book is not about her. I can’t help that I was born a Spears too, and that some of my experiences involve my sister. I’ve worked hard since before I was even a teenager, and I’ve built my career in spite of just being someone’s little sister.”

Her message concludes, “There are no sides, and I don’t want drama, but I’m speaking my truth to heal my traumas, so I can close this chapter and move forward, and I wish my sister could do the same. No matter what comes, I will always love my big sister, and be here for her. It’s time to put an end to the unhealthy chaos that has controlled my life for so long.”

Find Jamie Lynn’s full post below.

“Last thing I want to be doing is this, but here we are… It’s hard to see these posts, as I know the world also feels. I just wish her well. Brit, I am always here, you know behind the scenes I have always been here. It’s become exhausting when conversations, and texts we have in private don’t match what you post on social media. I know you’re going through a lot and I never want to diminish that, but I also can’t diminish myself.

Quite frankly, the things being said are absolutely not the truth, and I have to clarify that, because now it’s getting harder for me to rationalize to my oldest daughter why our family continues to get death threats, as a result of their aunt’s vague and accusatory posts, especially when we know she could tell the truth, and put an end to all of it in one second if she wanted to.

Sadly, after a lifetime of staying silent, I have come to realize this isn’t going to be a reality, and I may have to set the record straight myself in order to protect mine and my family’s well being.

That being said, I hate to burst my sister’s bubble, but my book is not about her. I can’t help that I was born a Spears too, and that some of my experiences involve my sister. I’ve worked hard since before I was even a teenager, and I’ve built my career in spite of just being someone’s little sister.

There are no sides, and I don’t want drama, but I’m speaking my truth to heal my traumas, so I can close this chapter and move forward, and I wish my sister could do the same. No matter what comes, I will always love my big sister, and be here for her. It’s time to put an end to the unhealthy chaos that has controlled my life for so long.

Jamie Lynn Spears Watson.”

Cordae’s new album, From A Bird’s Eye View, is out after an impressive rollout that included the singles “Gifted,” “Super,” and “Sinister,” a lively Tonight Show performance, and an eye-popping LA Leakers freestyle. Now, he puts the cherry on top with a mellow NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert covering both songs from the new album and some of the fan favorites that got him here in the first place.

Opening with “Coach Carter,” Cordae and his band smoothly transition from song to song, including a melodic performance of “Want From Me,” then his Lost Boy hit “RNP” and a loving medley of “Thousand Words/Thanksgiving.” He returns to the new project to close out the set with a three-piece sequence including the single “Sinister,” the nostalgic “Momma’s Hood,” and the vulnerable “Chronicles.” Throughout, he raps, sings, and speaks with an easygoing charisma that shows exactly why he was able to secure two Grammy nominations for his first album and such an enthusiastic fanbase that eagerly awaited his second.

Their patience was rewarded with a number of fun collaborations, which include “Today” with Gunna and “Parables” with Eminem. Stevie Wonder also appeared on the tracklist, with Cordae spilling a funny story about the musical icon to The Breakfast Club.

Watch Cordae’s Tiny Desk Concert above.