Jimmy McGill got the happiest ending (no, not that kind of happy ending) possible in the Better Call Saul series finale. But that almost wasn’t the case. In an interview with TVLine, co-creator Peter Gould, who wrote and directed “Saul Gone,” shared some of the other concepts for the final episode, one of which was deemed too “cold.”
One pitch had Jimmy and Kim “meeting in Albuquerque before he went to prison, and the last scene was him in prison by himself, thinking. And I liked that a lot, but it seemed a little cold,” Gould said. “I think ultimately, we all felt like ending with the two of them felt like the strongest way to go.” This version also had Jimmy being “fearful about what was going to happen to him in prison, and it was a lot about the fear.”
Gould also admitted that he “was on the bubble about the very last scene in the prison yard,” with Jimmy shooting finger guns at Kim as she leaves. “There was a version that didn’t have that, that ended with the two of them smoking, and I went back and forth on that for a while. Then ultimately, having watched them both, I felt like it was right, and it felt more honest to end with the two of them apart rather than the two of them together.”
Every decision Gould made was the right one. What a finale.
Next month is a pair of events Foo Fighters fans have been anticipating for a while: the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts. The first event honoring the late drummer goes down at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3, while the second takes place at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on September 27. Naturally, not everybody who’d like to see those shows will be able to attend, but now they’ll still be able to enjoy the performances: The London concert will be broadcast on multiple platforms.
Billboard reports that Paramount has teamed up with Foo Fighters and the Hawkins family to air the Wembley Stadium show live on its various platforms, including CBS, MTV, Paramount+, and Pluto TV. A one-hour special will air on MTV’s global network, starting in Latin America on September 3, before an extended two-hour cut will air later on in the month.
The show has a stacked lineup, as taking the Wembley stage are Blink-182’s Travis Barker, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, The Police’s Stewart Copeland, Oasis’ Liam Gallagher, Omar Hakim, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Kesha, Rush’s Geddy Lee, Queen’s Brian May, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, and others.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Three decades after author Neil Gaiman brought The Sandman to comic book stores near you, the show finally debuted on the small screen at Netflix and with great timing. The series follows the pandemic-fueled arrival (and still-running) Audible rendition of the long-running saga that spanned 75 issues and a smattering of standalone stories. And the series is a straight-away runaway hit with at least 69.5 million hours streamed in the first weekend alone.
Will those numbers continue to stack up? Only time will tell, but the people that loved The Sandman really loved to see it, which is an astounding feat after such a build up and with dark fantasy not being the easiest type of story to translate onscreen. So much could have gone wrong in retelling how Tom Sturridge’s Dream goes about repairing his domain, but it didn’t, so let’s fly like Patton Oswalt’s Matthew the Raven and explore the questions left open by Season One, which only covers the Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House volumes with plenty of material to go.
Will Season 2 of The Sandman happen? With any luck, yes. If not, fans will likely faux-rage after waiting so long for a first season to finally happen, especially after Gaiman delivered on his promise to avoid any The Sandman adaptation if it was in danger of being a “bad” version of The Sandman. And make no mistake, there are tons of lore left for several more seasons of this series. Maybe even a Death spinoff! I’m only half kidding on that last note, but let’s get real: Netflix is riding some choppy waters, so they’re the wild card here. Hopefully, they’ll prioritize more of this show, and they’ll be rewarded with fans of The Endless, happily streaming into oblivion.
Who is “The Prodigal”? Season One made multiple references to this member of The Endless, who’s not on the scene yet. But his siblings, Despair and Desire, mention him, and there’s the sense that he will definitely materialize onscreen if given the chance. He’s missing from the current action for a reason: he decided to get the heck out of dodge, meaning that his duties as Destruction were bound to fall by the wayside. Don’t let that name label fool you, though. Just as Death is great with humans, the Prodigal is a family favorite and great at getting along with his siblings. Fingers crossed that we’ll see him onscreen, but at this point, we have no clue who might play him.
What exactly are the Sunless Lands? We do not hear too much about this place, if you can call it that, when Death references where she escorts departed souls. Humans obviously aren’t happy to go there, and the differentiating point is that Death is different from the rest of her siblings in that she does not rule the Sunless Lands, and in fact, things are left very vague throughout The Sandman‘s comic book run. One can only imagine that Neil Gaiman wanted to leave conclusive details open, so that readers could revisit them later and infuse them with their own meanings, according to what they need to gather from the series. I can’t imagine that the Netflix show would actually decide to take on some visual representation of this place, but rather, follow Gaiman’s lead. In turn, the Sunless Lands can be interpreted for an allegory of how we, in our own lives, choose to view what happens (in our own reality) after literal death.
Why does Desire have beef with Dream? One would think that Desire would be happy to see their brother after he was imprisoned by mankind for over a century. Nope. And to be perfectly honest, most of the siblings aren’t exactly crazy about Dream, whose personality can (generously) be described as rough around the edges. Death handles him best, but even she knows that he’s not easy to warm up to, as evidenced in her verbal, bread-wielding dressing down of him during her introduction. Destiny could do without Dream either way, and both Delirium and Destruction aren’t fans of his unapproachable ways, but damn, Desire outright cannot stand Dream. She actively f*cks with him at every opportunity and wreaks havoc on those who he falls in love with, so look for more to come on that end with more explanations of Dream’s long-standing vendetta (which definitely had something to do with the imprisonment) against Dream.
What did Gregory’s story mean? At first glance, it was difficult to see how adorable Gregory (a Gargoyle) was just fine with knowing that was going to die when Dream arrived to reabsorb his energy, so that Dream could gain the power to recruit the Fates. And it must be mentioned that Dream had initially created Gregory, and he’s been entrusted to Cain and Abel. Yep, those are Biblical references, but Cain and Abel were already established in the DC comics realm and, yes, Cain kills the hell out of Abel on a regular basis. In short, it was fantastic to see these two characters onscreen, if only in passing, but more to the point, Gregory serves to help fuel Dream’s power to a point where he can repair the destruction to the human realm, which was left in tatters due to his extended absence. Fortunately, Dream did leave a little gargoyle egg behind, so we got to meet wee Goldie.
Why is Lucifer so bored? The simple answer to this question: because that’s how Neil Gaiman wrote Lucifer Morningstar to be. This is the case not only in The Sandman but also in Gaiman’s Lucifer comic book series, recently brought to delightful life with Tom Ellis as the title character — who was so bored after doing the same job of ruling Hell (for thousands of years) that he decided to pop onto Earth’s surface and do detective work. Makes sense! In The Sandman Season 1 finale, Lucifer vows to take down Dream after failing to do so in their big head-to-head moment earlier in the season. That’s one way to make things more interesting, and Gwendoline Christie’s the most regal Lucifer.
What happens to Rose Walker next? She ends up in New Jersey, but at least she’s not dead. This poor young woman never asked to be a dream vortex, and Dream is faced with the inevitability that he’ll have to take her out in order to save not only his kingdom, The Dreaming, but also the Waking World. She was attempting to find her brother, but she was also up against the Corinthian, who also (like a lot of entities) has beef with Dream and wants to harness Rose’s abilities to take out his foe once and for all. Rose was actually the granddaughter of Unity Kinkaid, who was impregnated by Desire after she fell into a century-long sleep during Dream’s disappearance. In the end, Dream did not kill Rose, whose powers (long story short) end up within Johanna Constantine.
Will we meet Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death again? If we’re sticking with the comic, then we should definitely plan on seeing Death again, since she has plenty of ongoing business as written by Gaiman in both the graphic novels and in spinoffs including The High Cost Of Living. And Netflix’s collaboration with Gaiman brought us a different Death than fans are accustomed to seeing, given that Gaiman wrote her as a perky, eternally cheerful little goth. In contrast, Kirby gives us a Death (upon arrival in Episode 6, “The Sound Of Her Wings”) who’s warm and endearing and charismatic and full of emotional gravity while escorting human souls to the Sunless Lands. Her performance is a stunning one and should prepare us to expect more of the unexpected in Netflix’s The Sandman, should we be so lucky for it to continue for several seasons.
Where does this leave us? We’re hoping that Netflix makes an announcement in the coming months about a future for Neil Gaiman’s greatest work (and that’s a tough call to make, given his other successful TV adaptations, not only including Lucifer, which Netflix resurrected, but also American Gods and Good Omens). The streaming realm has been good for Neil Gaiman fans, and now, we’re finally getting to know Death, Dream, Desire, and the rest of the Endless in all their anthropomorphically personified glory. In all likelihood, we’ll never hear a “peachy keen” from Kirby’s Death, but it sure would be peachy keen for Netflix to continue this dark fantasy saga.
Look, I get it, another entry in the MCU. I mean … they just keep coming. I do wonder if the onslaught of MCU stories is trying to make up time from the gap created by the pandemic. Though, whatever the reason is, it’s a lot. Which is why, initially, I wasn’t exactly stoked about She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. It’s weird: overall, I feel overwhelmed by the MCU. But on a case-by-case basis I do usually wind up enjoying each movie or series. Even Thor: Love and Thunder, which was polarizing, I found to be … fine. So, whether we like it or not, here comes She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. And, admittedly, because of everything I just said, I went into She-Hulk: Attorney at Law with kind of a bad attitude. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law won me over almost immediately. So far, at least through the first four episodes, it is a breath of fresh air. Also, it’s very funny.
(I’ve decided to get into some specific details of the series to make the case this show is something you will like. These aren’t the normal superhero-type spoilers – “there are three Spider-Mans!” – but more just some plot points that I found clever. Anyway, this is all “for your information.”)
Up front, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters tells us this is not a superhero show. I mean, she literally tells us because she often breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to us, the audience. (I do imagine, down the road, a future meeting with Deadpool as the two trade off breaking the fourth wall stories.) We are told this is a show about a lawyer. Okay, sure, it’s a lawyer who has the ability to turn into a Hulk, but, nevertheless, this is a show about a lawyer. So, yes, when the show starts, Jennifer already has She-Hulk powers, and she assumes we want to know how that happened, so we are given a flashback explaining all that, which involves her cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is surprisingly meta for an MCU series. Outside of Deadpool (who hasn’t, officially, joined the MCU yet) this is the most self-aware entry into the MCU. Jennifer is quick to point out the show’s faults before the viewer even gets a chance to do so. After a third cameo from an MCU character we already knew, Jennifer swears to us this won’t be a show just about all the cameos every week, then starts listing all the cameos and realizes, well, maybe it is.
But at its heart, She-Hulk is a procedural lawyer show that owes a lot to Ally McBeal with the blend of law drama, comedy, and the frustrations of a woman trying to make it in a male-dominated field. And, on top of that, early in the first episode, she’s forced to reveal her powers during court in order to save some lives from Titania (Jameela Jamil) … which results in a mistrial; her being fired; the media dubbing her “She-Hulk,” which she hates; and all the bros of social media complaining that the new Hulk superhero is a woman. (“Um, I’m fine with a woman being a superhero, but why not just make someone new?,” was a personal, familiar, favorite.)
We meet her parents (finally, Mark Lynn Baker has joined the MCU), who seem happy with their daughter’s new powers because now she can do some tasks around the house. She tries dating, and no one seems to care much about Jessica, even when she explains she has superpowers, the men don’t seem to listen. She tries dating as She-Hulk, which gets her a lot of interest, but those people are not at all interested in Jennifer. Jennifer is not having a good time.
The structure of the episodes are interesting in that they do kind of follow a procedural. There’s the court case of the week – one of these involves a hack magician using trademarked sorcerer techniques, so Wong (Benedict Wong) sues – but then there’s the overarching case that spans multiple episodes. Jennifer is eventually hired at a white-shoe law firm to run the new superhero law division. And the first case she’s assigned is the release of Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) from prison. You know, the guy who turned into Abomination in The Incredible Hulk and destroyed a good part of Harlem. This is interesting because from Blonky’s point of view, he was working for the government and thought he was on the side of good. He thought he was the hero. I won’t get into this further, but let’s just say Tim Roth looks like he’s having the time of his life in his return to the MCU after 14 years. (I asked him about all this a few months ago and, yes, he was surprised when they asked him back.)
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is coming at the right time for the MCU. Like I said earlier, it feels like a breath of fresh air. Look, I get it, every new MCU show we hear, “Hey this is completely different.” But, you know what? Love or hate Moon Knight, but is is different. Ms. Marvel and WandaVision are different. Though the problem is with a lot of these shows, the initial reviews are based on early episodes (like this one) and, by the end, even something like WandaVision kind of devolves into energy beam fights. (Ms. Marvel is the rare example of a show that got better as it went along.) Which is why I’m hoping She-Hulk just kind of maintains what it’s doing. Jennifer being a lawyer for superheroes opens up endless possibilities for cameos (sorry, Jennifer) and kooky storylines about the legal stuff that happens after we see the big battles. At one point Jennifer and her paralegal and best friend Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) wonder if Avengers get paid or have benefits. Well, right there, that could be an episode: maybe an Avenger sues because he or she didn’t get health benefits? I’d watch that all day long. But it is setting up Titania as the “big bad” of the series, so I was a little wary of that. But there is a moment we think Titania is about to show up and challenge Jennifer to an all out battle … but, instead, she sues.
‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ will begin streaming via Disney+ on August 18th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
A few days ago, Snoop Loopz, a new cereal from Snoop Dogg’s Broadus Foods brand, was unveiled. Now, the Froot Loops-like cereal (or more specifically, its packaging) has left Jack White with some major questions.
Yesterday, White took to Instagram to share an image of the Snoop Loopz box and reveal that he’s put a lot of thought into it. His post begins, “I would like to personally congratulate Snoop Dogg on his new cereal release and a pat on the back for its charitable benefits that it will be producing, nice one. But i do have a couple of important questions about the box that the cereal is delivered to customers in.”
Then, he gets into the nitty-gritty, continuing:
“In the press release from Broadus foods, the photo of the cereal box contains the words ‘MORE MARSHMALLOWS’. More than what? if this is in fact a brand new cereal, it can’t be more marshmallows than ‘before’. Is it a statement that this cereal has more marshmallows than say…a bag of sand, or a typical caesar salad? Or, is it a DEMAND from Snoop Dogg himself that we just have more marshmallows in this world in general? That last theory is my hope. Lastly, the photograph on Master P’s instagram shows a DIFFERENT phrase, an un-plural ‘MORE MARSHMALLOW’ without the ‘S’. Photo attached, answers demanded.”
Snoop has yet to publicly provide the demanded answers.
Since then, Grohl hasn’t made many public appearances. In June, he got up on stage for the first time since Hawkins’ passing, during Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury set. Now, he has popped up again, this time at a benefit concert.
As Variety reports, last night (August 16), Judd Apatow organized a benefit show for Victims First, which donates to families of victims of mass casualty events. This took place at Los Angeles’ Largo At The Coronet, which has a capacity of 280 people. Beck was the only announced performer of the night and during his set, Grohl took the stage to join Beck, Greg Kurstin, Tenacious D (Jack Black and Kyle Gass), and John C. Reilly on a rendition of Seals And Croft’s “Summer Breeze.” While the others carried the performance, Grohl emerged towards the end of the song to sing a guitar line.
Nothing kicks off the day like a satisfying breakfast. Whether you’re into crushing breakfast burritos, love a seriously elevated pancake, or are all about a well-crafted omelet, few meals satisfy the way breakfast does. Maybe it’s the hours of sleep proceeding the meal, but breakfast just hits in a way that lunch doesn’t.
Alas, sometimes you just don’t have the time to put together a really good breakfast. On those occasions, fast food has your back.
Fast food breakfast isn’t nearly as good as the real thing. But it does have a certain allure to it and if the long drive-thru lines at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Chick-fil-A are any indication, it’s that these big chains put as much care into their breakfast offerings as they do their burgers. And fast food can make some pretty great burgers.
Since we don’t want you to spend your precious time in long drive-thru lines only to end up disappointed, we’re breaking down the best fast food breakfast item from all the big chains. We tried every fast food burrito and sandwich we could find, and have spent a considerable time with the side options too, just in case. Follow our guide, and never have a bad fast food breakfast experience again.
It won’t taste like homemade (or compare with your $70 hipster brunch). But it will still hit the spot in that way only an AM meal can.
Burger King — Fully Loaded Croissan’Wich Bacon, Ham, Sausage
Burger King
Tasting Notes:
We’ve got to give it to BK’s Fully Loaded Croissan’Wich with Bacon, Ham, and Sausage — it is hands down the King’s best breakfast offering. It’s also so substantial that you won’t need the side of hash browns or French toast sticks to make it feel like a meal. (That’s sort of a double bonus because those sides are awful.)
On a flakey and buttery croissant bun, you get layers of bacon, smokey and sweet Black Forest ham, and a pepper forward sausage patty topped with melted American cheese sitting atop a big dry, porous egg. Taken all together, it’s pleasingly smokey and salty — though that egg seriously weighs it down.
The Bottom Line:
Flakey, salty, smokey, and hearty, this sandwich packs a meaty and satisfying punch. Though the egg is certainly the weak link.
It’s rare that Carl’s Jr. can ever top Wendy’s but the Breakfast Burger absolutely dunks on the also delicious Breakfast Baconnator, and that’s a testament to Carl’s Jr.’s skill here. A burger isn’t typical breakfast food, but Carl’s Jr. makes it seem like the most natural thing by combining some classic breakfast bangers — crispy tater tots, crunchy bacon, and a folded egg topped with ketchup — with the always delicious combination of charbroiled beef and melted American cheese and it works better than a lot of their lunchtime burgers.
The combination of bacon and tater tots results in a really satisfying textural mouthfeel providing an audible crunch with every smokey charbroiled bite. Ketchup might seem a bit simple and boring on a burger, but the way it combines with the egg is a classic flavor combination, so don’t discount the classic condiment just yet.
The Bottom Line:
A meat bomb of smokey and charred flavors with a crunchy mouthfeel. This burger is big enough to cut in half and share with a friend, but it’s so good that you won’t want to.
If a nap after breakfast sounds good, this is your pick.
I know this choice is going to anger a lot of people who have a ride-or-die relationship with the very delicious Chicken and Spicy Chicken Biscuit, but we have our reasons. Chick-fil-A bakes their biscuits every morning at each restaurant, and sometimes the results are amazing. Flakey, buttery, just perfect. But in my experience, they aren’t very consistent. Sometimes the biscuit is a bit too dry and sometimes the chicken patty is weird and chewy, making this sandwich totally hit or miss.
That doesn’t happen with the Chick-n-Minis. These things are always perfect, taking Chick-fil-A’s delicious peanut oil fried, pickle-brined chicken nuggets, and throws ‘em between tiny airy yeast rolls that are brushed with a sweet honey butter spread. The result is a juicy and tender bite with a touch of sweetness that never comes across as dry or lacking in any way. There is also something so satisfying about knocking back a 10-count order of these and you still get that filling carb component from the yeast rolls — without any of the dry breadiness.
The Bottom Line:
I know, I know, the Chicken Biscuit is delicious, but the Chick-n-Minis are more consistent and way more satisfying. If Chick-fil-A ever gets wise and releases a spicy nugget, this might just be the best breakfast sandwich in the fast food universe, all while being bite-sized.
You’ve got two options with the Epic Scrambler Burrito: carne asada or bacon. This may come as a surprise given the typical quality of fast food carne asada (bad) but get the carne asada, it delivers! Unlike Taco Bell, and I know this is going to be hard to hear for the Bell heads, Del Taco carne asada is good. We mean actually good, not just so-bad-its-good like Taco Bell or Jack in the Box — making this burrito is easily fast food breakfast’s best.
Unlike a lot of fast food carne asada, you can actually taste some grill char on this meat, giving it a freshly prepared vibe. The meat is not too gummy or chewy, it has a nice tender texture to it with a salty meaty flavor. Del Taco loads this up with pico de Gallo, which gives each bite a nice layer of fresh, biting, and subtly spicy complexity, which pairs well with the nutty sharp grated cheddar cheese and scrambled egg. Since the cheese is freshly grated (take that Taco Bell) it melts perfectly, supplying you with an appetizing cheese trail with every bite.
The Bottom Line:
The best breakfast burrito you’re going to find in all of fast food.
If you’ve ever been in a Dunkin’ drive-thru in the morning you’ll know just how tempting it is to not order a donut alongside your probably-already-sweetened-to-hell coffee, but don’t give in to the sugar because Dunkin’s donuts suck. That’s right, suck. Look, there is a reason Dunkin’ dropped the “donuts’ from their name, and it’s because “America’s Favorite Donut” chain has never really been good at donuts.
What they are good at though is breakfast sandwiches, especially the Sourdough Breakfast Sandwich.
This thing piles five thick and crunchy strips of bacon with two fried eggs and a helping of white cheddar between two toasted slices of sourdough bread. The eggs taste like they’ve been fried in butter and the bacon is smokey and crunchy.
As much as I love cheese, it doesn’t feel like this sandwich really needs it, but my guess is the cheese is to provide a moister mouthfeel. It doesn’t really get that job done because it doesn’t melt all that well, but it does infuse some salty and nutty notes into the sandwich, so we can’t complain too much.
The only weak point is sadly the sourdough. Fast food places just don’t have a really good handle on sourdoug –, the bread is often too soft and sweetened, probably to increase shelf life. Even with the soft and sweet sourdough, it’s still leagues better than a Dunkin’ donut.
The Bottom Line:
Dunkin’ has a handful of truly delicious breakfast sandwiches but the Sourdough is our favorite for the way it combines buttery flavors with smokey-crunchy goodness.
Fast food restaurants have a handle on making great breakfast sandwiches, but once they venture out to omelets, breakfast burritos, pancakes, and French toast, they just can’t capture the magic of what you can make at home or grab at a local greasy spoon. Farmer Boys is different, it’s the closest thing you’re going to get to a greasy spoon breakfast spot without actually going to one.
This is the fast food spot you want to get French Toast at. The toast is soft, sweet, and perfectly battered. Farmer boys drop some powdered sugar, syrup (it’s not maple, just your typical grocery-style sweet syrup), and cinnamon over this vanilla-forward toast and serve it alongside two eggs prepared any way you want and two strips of bacon or sausage patties. I can’t speak to the sausage, as I generally try to avoid sausage patties when I can, but the bacon is thick and smokey and well rendered.
The Bottom Line:
We’d suggest staying away from French toast and pancakes at just about every fast food restaurant BUT Farmer Boys. This is the closest thing you’re going to get to a basic diner-style breakfast.
Jack in the Box is a fast food chain that drives me up a wall. I have a lot of nostalgic love for JiB, it was my place growing up, but I’ve watched the fast food chain slowly deteriorate into mediocrity with every passing year. And no, this is not a matter of my tastes maturing — I know this for a fact because McDonald’s nuggets still slap at the right time of day. If age hasn’t ruined nuggets for me, I doubt it’s going to affect the way I feel about JiB.
In the past few years, Jack in the Box has ruined their chicken tenders and ditched their delicious mozzarella sticks too many times to count (stop bringing ‘em back, let ‘em die or live for f*ck’s sake Jack!) but god help us if they change or get rid of the Loaded Breakfast Sandwich, we will riot! This thing is one of my favorite fast food breakfast indulgences, it combines bacon with ham, sausage, and American cheese for a salty, savory, and slightly sweet mouthfeel of meat on some of fast food’s best tasting, butteriest grilled sourdough.
Jack in the Box lists “freshly cracked egg” in the sandwich’s ingredients lists, and while we generally ignore embellished descriptions like that, we’re going to let them have this one because I think that actually makes a difference. This egg is eggier (what can I say, it just tastes more like egg than the competition) and less dry and powdery than a lot of the other eggs you typically find in the fast food landscape.
The Bottom Line:
A savory, sweet, and smokey meat bomb of a breakfast.
I came pretty close to picking the hash brown as McDonald’s best breakfast offering because it’s a personal favorite, but if we’re being real we have to give it to the Sausage McMuffin, a near-perfect breakfast sandwich that has been imitated many times across many menus but never truly bested. This sandwich just works remarkably well, it delivers what fast food breakfast needs to be: fast, convenient, and easy to eat with one hand while driving, and still manages to deliver on big crave-able flavors.
This protein-rich sandwich features a salty, savory, pepper sausage on top of a slice of salty melted American cheese and sandwiched between a fried egg and two toasted English muffin buns. The buns are crunchy and craggy and serve as the perfect sponge for that addictingly greasy meat. Many people hack this with a folded egg but I like this traditional style best.
The Bottom Line:
McDonald’s best contribution to the breakfast scene. The Sausage McMuffin might seem like a safer and more basic choice than the sweet McGriddle or the biscuit sandwich, but unlike those two foods, this thing has no flaws. It’s perfectly salty and satisfying. Kick it up a notch by throwing a hash brown in there.
If this was pre-pandemic I’d strongly suggest the bacon, scrambled egg, and cheese on ciabatta, but in the past few years the quality of Panera has seriously dropped, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the breakfast menu. So the Bacon, Egg, &. Cheese on Brioche sandwich gets our pick not because it’s delicious, but because it’s hard to f*ck up this super simple sandwich.
The bacon has a great smokey-salty flavor, and it’s cooked well, crispy enough to provide crunch, but not stiff or burnt. The egg is cooked over easy and is pretty solid and nicely seasoned with some crushed black pepper and salt, with some white cheddar to bring in some sweetness and sharp qualities. But it’s the brioche roll that can be hit or miss, and that’s its weak point. Sometimes, it’s dry and when it’s dry it’s almost inedible.
Luckily, if the bun is stale (it’s either stale or just fine, it’s never soft and spongey like it should be) you can just disassemble it and eat this sandwich with a fork. It won’t be as satisfying, but that’s how bad the bread is, sometimes it’s better to just ditch it entirely by feeding it to the birds. If they’ll even eat it.
Some people swear by subbing the bun for a croissant, but I’ve been told multiple times at different locations that this is “impossible” so we can’t cosign that — I’ve never actually had it. Maybe try that hack on a morning when Panera is slow and the employees look bored.
The Bottom Line:
You’d think Panera, a restaurant whose logo is a woman cradling bread like a baby, would have better-tasting bread but something has happened in the past few years. The brioche bun is easily the worst part of this sandwich, but compared to Panera’s other breakfast options, this is your best choice.
The Avocado Egg White and Spinach deserves a shout-out, too. But that avocado is even more hit or miss than the bread.
Sonic — Ultimate Meat & Cheese Breakfast Burrito w/jJlapenos
Sonic
Tasting Notes:
Sonic is one of the few fast food chains that can make a decent breakfast burrito. I don’t know if other chains aren’t heating their tortillas on the flat grill or what, but generally breakfast burritos from drive-thrus come across as bland, overly salty, and incredibly dry — things a good breakfast burrito never is. At Sonic, things will fall a little more in line with what you’ve come to expect from your favorite breakfast burrito spot.
This burrito is decadent, combining smokey and salty sausage and bacon with spicy jalapeños, crispy tater tots, scrambled eggs, and a double dose of cheese wrapped in a warm tortilla. Fast food scrambled eggs have a tendency to be dry and over-cooked but Sonic strikes a nice balance between wet and dry, offering a fully cooked egg that still has some moisture to it and it makes all the difference.
In addition to shredded cheddar, Sonic also throws in some zesty cheese sauce, which I think makes the burrito a lot saltier than it needs to be. Ditch the sauce and sub in jalapeño peppers (which aren’t part of the OG recipe but are a free add-on) for way more heat and flavor.
The Bottom Line:
It’s hard to find a decent breakfast burrito in the fast food landscape, but Sonic has several. Start with this one and customize around until you hit on perfection. You’ll have fun trying.
If you’re at Taco Bell, you don’t get breakfast. Taco Bell knows this, it’s why their regular menu is available at all hours of the day. But if for some reason you do want breakfast from Taco Bell, you have to get the Bacon Breakfast Crunchwrap. Taco Bell’s eggs are weird, dry, and strangely grainy, which is why the Breakfast Crunchwrap will never be as good as the regular Crunchwrap, but what this has over the OG is a pretty delicious hashbrown patty.
It’s greasy buttery, and super salty with some smokey bacon in there to add more crunch and another dimension of flavor with a creamy jalapeño sauce to pull it together and add some subtle heat. My only issue with this dish is that it’s a little too salty, but by adding guacamole and pico de Gallo (aka ‘California Style’) you can add a lot of bright and vegetal overtones that offer a lot of complexity to the mix of flavors.
At one time Taco Bell also had a “Country Style,” which had sausage and gravy in it. That’s not hackable currently but hopefully they bring it back soon.
The Bottom Line:
Not as good as an OG Crunchwrap but it does offer a unique experience that can be further elevated with the right hack.
I know I’m going to get a lot of shit in the comments for picking potato wedges, which you could argue are just a side, but you know what? Bring it on. This IS Wendy’s best breakfast offering. The Breakfast Baconator is amazing, it’s got grilled sausage, fried egg, bacon, melted American cheese, and a gooey cheese sauce! It’s a salty, savory delight, but when I really think about what an essential breakfast item is at Wendy’s, it’s the wedges.
The Breakfast Baconator is good, and it’s definitely what you should order if you find yourself at Wendy’s during breakfast hours and crave a sandwhich, but the potato wedges are something that you need to experience. They’re worth waking up early just to hit the drive-thru for, and I can’t really say the same thing about the Breakfast Baconator. The wedges combine black pepper with garlic and onion powder seasonings with fluffy buttery potato that melts in your mouth. If Wendy’s offered these at all hours of the day, no one would order the fries.
The Bottom Line:
It might be crazy to pick potato wedges over the Breakfast Baconator but we’re doing it. This is essential, you need to try Wendy’s potato wedges before you die. Dramatic? Good! A fresh order right out of the frier even rivals McDonald’s French fries.
According to TMZ, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are suing the company Triller. The pair who made the rap battle show Verzuz sold the idea to Triller, but Triller never paid up. Now Swizz Beatz and Timbaland want $28 million.
In January of last year, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland agreed to sell Verzuz to Triller, but Triller allegedly defaulted on the deal after just two payments. More information about this lawsuit is forthcoming and should unfurl over time.
The platform Verzuz was launched by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland that showcases beat battles held on Instagram Live. March of this year marked the two-year anniversary of the show. Since its inception, it has held numerous duels between the likes of The Lox, Dipset, Nelly, Ludacris, Keyshia Cole, Ashanti, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, E-40, Too Short, Gucci Mane, Jeezy, and many more.
To commemorate their success, Swizz and Timbo have partnered with Amazon Studios, Lena Waithe, her production company Hillman Grad Productions, and Good Trouble Studios for a special documentary titled Gifted & Black. It will highlight the rise of Verzuz, as well as the roots of Black music. According to Deadline, it will use “poignant interviews, gripping vérité and magnetic archival footage” to see how Black music impacts the culture.
Elon Musk may be the world’s most eccentric billionaire, but there’s one obsession he shares with others of the same wealth: He’s obsessed with going to space. No doubt he was peeved when Jeff Bezos, who’s not quite as unimaginably rich as he is, took one Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, to space. And no doubt he’s nonplussed that Shatner teamed up with The Daily Show to rip him a new one.
The Tesla honcho is the subject of the show’s latest Dailyshowography, which has previously treated the likes of Rudy Giuliani to unflattering life retrospectives. The one on Musk is no different. Shatner narrates, introducing his subject as “part Thomas Edison, part Iron Man, part annoying dude in the group chat.”
The video traces Musk’s upbringing in South Africa (with a little affectionate reference to the show’s own South African host) to a young, precocious inventor of, well, things that already existed, like a knock-off of Space Invaders. His first taste of extreme wealth came by more mundane means. “Like so many tech entrepreneurs, he earned his unimaginable wealth by doing something invaluable for society,” Shatner explains. “Selling a start-up you’ve never heard of to a company that doesn’t exist anymore.”
There are pit-stops at the mid-life crisis Musk had in his 20s, like when he bought a million-dollar car he couldn’t drive and later crashed, as well as starting a record label that produced powerfully lame electronic music. The most damning stretch covers his repeated promises that he and his team have licked self-driving cars — with repeated crashes followed by repeated goal post-moving. And of course, those unflattering vacation photos make a glorified cameo.
You can watch The Daily Show and Shatner drag Musk in the video above.
Things are not going especially well for Manchester United at the moment. Following a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Brentford over the weekend, United finds itself in 20th place in the Premier League. Even worse than a loss of that magnitude, or their current situation in the table (they’re in last), or the fact that they have to take on an angry Liverpool team this upcoming weekend, is the fact that the club seems to be completely directionless in just about every way.
It doesn’t seem to be the fault of recently-appointed manager Erik ten Hag, although some of his personnel decisions and hyper-commitment to a style of play that does not jive with the players he has at his disposal led to him receiving his fair share of criticism through two games. Those players have come under their fair share of criticism, too, as they looked listless last year and seem to fold mightily the second they get punched in the mouth. The team’s most prominent player, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been at the middle of a transfer saga for basically the last month or so. But still, they’re pieces in a puzzle that do not fit and don’t stand much of a chance to fit, while the rot that has made its way deep into the roots of the club in recent years has meant that the players are more a result of a larger issue than the single largest issue themselves. While not blameless — they could stand to run more — the current squad is the result of years and years of the club being poorly managed.
Instead, much of the blame has been laid at the feet of the Glazer family, the American owners of the team who have been excoriated for years for the myriad of ways they choose to run one of the biggest clubs — if you’d like to read some of why that’s happened, this piece and this piece get into it a bit. The Glazers double as the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and while the team has won a pair of Super Bowls under their stewardship, they aren’t exactly revered for their willingness to spend big to keep Tampa Bay at the forefront of the sport. Still, it is nothing like their situation in Manchester, where fans have quite literally broke into the stadium in an effort to express how little they regard the family that is famous for never showing their faces at Old Trafford (which, by the way, is on the verge of needing a monster renovation).
People have been calling on the Glazers to sell for years and give control of United to people who actually are interested in doing what it takes to keep up with clubs that are better run, something they have resisted at every twist and turn. There has never been any sort of indication that there is even a potential buyer who can meet whatever price the Glazers would need to even sit down at the table. Despite that, Elon Musk decided to get a joke off on Tuesday night and tweeted that he’s gonna buy them.
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