Month: February 2022

Last week, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine reached a fever pitch when the former launched a “full-scale invasion” into the neighboring country. President Vladimir Putin might have believed that invading the nation would be an easy feat, but that has not been the case, as Russian soldiers have been met with strong resistance. Ukraine has made it clear that they won’t go out without a fight and the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is leading the charge on that front, having chosen to fight with his people instead of escaping.

The support for Ukraine has been strong. One example was on full display during last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Rather than their usual comedic cold open, the cast and crew of SNL welcomed the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka Of New York to begin the show. Following an introduction by SNL cast members Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, the choir sang “Prayer for Ukraine.” The chorus also performed in front of a table with candles that spelled out “Kyiv,” Ukraine’s capital.

The somber cold open was reminiscent of the first SNL episode, which also featured little in the way of humor, following the September 11 terrorist attacks back in 2001.

You can watch the performance in the video above.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Power Book IV: Force will be found below.)

Despite his hopes to start fresh and new in Chicago, Tommy Egan’s past in New York City has caught up to him on multiple occasions in Power Book IV: Force. This first example came with his first run-in with Liliana, who tried to kill him after she assumed he came to the city to kill her. Thankfully for both, Tommy and Liliana are still alive and well, but the same cannot be said for a few members of the Serbian Mafia who came to attack not only Liliana but Tommy as well.

What Happens Between Tommy And The Serbs In ‘Power?’

Tommy has a long history with the Serbs, which dates back to the original Power series. He and the now-deceased James St. Patrick, a.k.a. “Ghost,” are responsible for killing two of the mafia’s members: Jason Micic and Milan. Liliana also has a long history with the Serbs as she stole a batch of cocaine from them. They eventually track her down to retrieve their product, but soon enough the Serbs learn that she reconnected with Tommy and they set their eyes on getting revenge for the deaths in the group. The Serbs kidnap Liliana, but she’s rescued by Tommy after he frees her and kills two of their members.

Eventually, a meeting between the Serbs and Tommy occurs. Here, he returns the batch of cocaine to the group, and while Tommy sees that as being enough, they desire to kill either him or Liliana in exchange for Tommy being responsible for 4 deaths in the Serbian Mafia. As expected, Tommy rejects their wishes but he goes a step further and kills three additional Serbian Mafia members, including the woman in charge of the drug pipeline in Chicago.

New episodes of STARZ’s ‘Power Book IV: Force’ are available to watch on Sunday at 12:00am EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Power Book IV: Force will be found below.)

Tommy Egan has rubbed nearly everyone he’s met the wrong way since he moved to Chicago in Power Book IV: Force. One person that’s not included in that group is Diamond, the leader of the CBI gang that was recently released from prison after serving a 15-year sentence. After successfully completing drug deals together, Diamond and Tommy continue working together as they aim to create a situation that will bring in more money for both of them. Things are smooth sailing between the two until Tommy suggests a plan that Diamond isn’t down to participate in.

Are Tommy And Diamond Still Working Together In ‘Power?’

For now, after episode 4, the answer is no. After Liliana is kidnapped by the Serbian Mafia and nearly killed, Tommy comes to her rescue and saves her life. Tommy himself has a long history with the Serbs (this dates back to the original Power series). Keeping this in mind, Tommy comes up with a plan to remove the Serbs’ position in the Chicago drug game and runs the idea by Diamond in hopes of receiving help from him. Unfortunately, Diamond wants no part of Tommy’s plan, leaving him to get the job done with Liliana who’s turned into a sidekick for Tommy.

New episodes of STARZ’s ‘Power Book IV: Force’ are available to watch on Sunday at 12:00am EST.

SNL has been on the air for almost half a century. In that time, what was once an elite group — namely the “Five-Timers Club,” aka the group of performers who’ve hosted the show at least five times — has became quite a bit less exclusive. At this point, there are about 25 members. So when John Mulaney was finally inducted into its ranks on Saturday’s episode, his colleagues wound up questioning if it’s even special anymore at all.

Mulaney — who was once a lowly staff writer before he became a stand-up deity, emerging with some very good stories, including one about Mick Jagger — was joined by a smattering of fellow five-timers, including Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Tina Fey, newbie Paul Rudd, even Elliott Gould, who hosted six times in the first five seasons alone.

“Let me be the first person to say ‘who are you’?,” joked Bergen, the show’s first-ever female host, whose five stints came between 1975 and 1990. Mulaney replied, “You wouldn’t know me but if you have a niece or a son who’s bad at sports, they might.”

Rudd spent the sketch lamenting his aborted fifth hosting gig in mid-December, which saw most of the cast and crew and musical guest staying home amidst a sudden spike in Omicron-related COVID cases. Martin, meanwhile, noted that the once tiny group had gotten too big. “What we’re all trying to say is that this has become not special,” he said.

At that point, Conan O’Brien burst into the room. Was he a five-timer? Nope! He was, like Mulaney, a staff writer but he’s only hosted once, back in 2001. “John, don’t listen to them, this is very, very special. I was in the very first five-timers special,” O’Brien said, noting that he had a bit part in the first sketch about the club, when Tom Hanks joined the ranks. “John and I were never supposed to be on TV. We’re hideous.”

You can watch Mulaney’s big moment in the video above.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Power Book IV: Force will be found below.)

After making the move from New York City to Chicago, it didn’t take long for Tommy Egan to find new love. In fact, he found it in the first episode of 50 Cent’s Power Book IV: Force. Gloria, who is a bartender at a local bar, caught Tommy’s attention and things between the two have been hot and steamy from the jump. However, their fling didn’t come without complications, since Gloria also has a romantic history with Vic Flanagan, who isn’t too fond of Tommy for multiple reasons. However, when Tommy and Vic set aside their differences to work together, it causes a change in Tommy’s relationship with Gloria.

What’s Tommy And Gloria’s Relationship Status In ‘Power?’

Halfway into this week’s episode, Tommy is forced to break things off with Gloria. While he certainly enjoys her presence, Tommy’s main reason for being in Chicago is to make as much money as possible. With a new deal in place between him, Vic, and Diamond, Tommy isn’t about to let the love triangle that is him, Vic, and Gloria mess things up.

Gloria is accepting of Tommy’s reason to end things, but who knows, maybe later on in the season, we’ll see Tommy and Gloria reconnect and pick up where they left off.

New episodes of STARZ’s ‘Power Book IV: Force’ are available to watch on Sunday at 12:00am EST.

The last time John Mulaney hosted SNL, back in October of 2020, the world — and his life — were very different. Donald Trump was still president (and Mulaney made a, uh, controversial joke about him). Vaccines were still a few months away. Jan. 6 hadn’t yet happened. And Mulaney was a matter of weeks from an intervention about his drug problems. He entered rehab and now he’s clean, sober, back on the stand-up circuit, and a father. He didn’t shy away from talking about his struggles on his fifth job hosting a show for which he used to be a lowly writer.

“For many, many reasons, I’m grateful to be here tonight after a very complicated year,” he told the crowd, joking, “It’s always great to be somewhere that’s always emphasized sobriety and mental health.”

Mulaney then acknowledged that since his last hosting gig, “different things happened.” He then discussed when he was confronted by loved ones, which he’s talked about before, back in December of 2020. “It was an intervention, for me — my least favorite kind of intervention,” he joked. “Do you know how big of a drug problem you have to have if you open a door and see people gathered, your first thought is that this is probably an intervention about my drug problem?”

He also talked about one of the key parts of rehab: when a counselor sits down with you and makes you break up with your drug dealers. That requires texting them first, informing them of your sobriety, and then blocking their number.

But when Mulaney tried to split with his dealer, he was too slow to block him, and he wound up having a bittersweet, if somewhat confusing exchange with him as they parted ways. Indeed, his dealer reminded Mulaney that he was his only client — that he’s a painter whom he somehow met, who wound up buying good drugs for him so he wouldn’t get bad ones. He also said he was going back to not dealing drugs, as he did before his and Mulaney’s paths crossed.

“There are many tales of drug dealers turning innocent people into drug addicts,” Mulaney said, “but I might be the first drug addict to turn an innocent man into a drug dealer.”

He also talked about his 10-week-old son, whom he had with his girlfriend, Olivia Munn. You can hear him open up, in his patented comical way, in the video above.

LCD Soundsystem is performing on Saturday Night Live, for the second time tonight following up an initial appearance back in 2017. After John Mulaney announced a few weeks back that he would be hosting, and James Murphy and his crew would be the musical guest, fans have been anticipating the set, unsure of what era the band would be pulling from. Turns out, they decided to go back in time in a big way. The band made the most of their night, kicking off with the deep cut “Thrills,” from their 2005 self-titled album.

Booking Saturday Night Live is a chance to start 2022 off on a high note, as the indie legends had a disappointing end to 2021 when the Omicron variant forced them to halt a much-hailed residency at Brooklyn Steel in New York. Though the band was willing to keep taking the risk of performing, eventually the threat of the new variant was so strong they had to shut down a few nights early. Watching them return to the SNL stage is a good reminder that live shows are what they do best, and hopefully there will be many more chances to see them perform in the coming months. For now, get your fix by watching their performance above.

A few weeks ago, John Mulaney decided to let the world know that he’d be hosting Saturday Night Live in the very near future — and that indie legends LCD Soundsystem would be the musical guests. This is just the second time James Murphy and co. are appearing on the late night show, which seems unbelievably given how intrinsically tied the are to music in New York over the last two decades. But they made the most of their time on the show tonight, kicking things off with a performance of “Thrills.”

The band definitely knows their audience will appreciate such a deep cut — “Thrills” is taken from their 2005 self-titled album, and they opted to go deep, for this first tune at least, rather than perform something newer. It’s nice for the band to have a high night in early 2022, since they had to end 2021 on a dismal note by canceling the rest of their residency at Brooklyn Steel due to the rampant spread of Omicron.

Back then, Saturday Night Live was just as impacted by the spread, canceling the studio audience for their last episode of the year, and also putting the kibosh on Charli XCX’s highly-anticipated performance. Luckily, they recently rescheduled Charli so she can have her main pop girl moment. For now, watch LCD have their Brooklyn indie moment up top.

A few weeks ago, John Mulaney decided to let the world know that he’d be hosting Saturday Night Live in the very near future — and that indie legends LCD Soundsystem would be the musical guests. This is the first time James Murphy and co. are appearing on the late night show, which seems unbelievably given how intrinsically tied the are to music in New York over the last two decades. But they made the most of their time on the show tonight, kicking things off with a performance of “Thrills.”

The band definitely knows their audience will appreciate such a deep cut — “Thrills” is taken from their 2005 self-titled album, and they opted to go deep, for this first tune at least, rather than perform something newer. It’s nice for the band to have a high night in early 2022, since they had to end 2021 on a dismal note by canceling the rest of their residency at Brooklyn Steel due to the rampant spread of Omicron. Back then, Saturday Night Live was just as impacted by the spread, canceling the studio audience for their last episode of the year, and also putting the kibosh on Charli XCX’s highly-anticipated performance. Luckily, they recently rescheduled Charli so she can have her main pop girl moment. For now, watch LCD have their Brooklyn indie moment up top.

There’s been a lot of ups and downs in Big Sean’s career, but rarely has a day on the internet been so #personal for the rapper. Namely: Fans now see exactly how the 5’8 rapper decided upon the moniker “Big Sean.” A photo is circulating that’s allegedly taken from Big Sean’s “Close Friends” Instagram story and then posted for the whole internet to see. And if it was real, that would be totally upsetting and not ok anyway. Even though, fans were definitely praising the pic because they thought his, ahem, endowment, was noteworthy.

After gossip publications like The Shade Room and others began reporting on the leaked nude, Sean made it clear from the jump that it’s not actually him, probably just another classic case of photoshop and posters wanting to post for clout. We get it. But since the world is descending back into hellacious chaos, and a pandemic is literally still going on, and some days it feels like these jokes are all we have, why not take a look at some of the reactions anyway, right? It’s a moment for all of us to gather together and celebrate the natural beauty of… someone? Hopefully whoever the member does belong to gets to see a few of these and have a laugh as well. Between this and Nelly, well, posting is getting out of control lately.