Month: January 2023

The Chiefs and Bengals played in another instant classic on Sunday night in Arrowhead, but this time it was the home team that came out on top. After dominating the first half, the Chiefs could only get to a 13-6 lead going into the break, which set up yet another opportunity for Joe Burrow to lead a comeback win as they looked to reach back-to-back Super Bowls.

It looked like we might be headed that way after the Bengals got a stop with just over two minutes to play, with Kansas City making the rather shocking decision to punt the ball on 4th and 8 from the Cincinnati 37. However, the defense (eventually) stepped up, with Chris Jones picking up a huge sack on third down to force a Bengals punt with 40 seconds to play.

That punt was not a good one, as it was a line drive down the middle of the field, giving Skyy Moore the full field to work with and lots of runway to pick up a head of steam. He would take advantage, getting the Chiefs to midfield with plenty of time to get into field goal range.

The Bengals defense bowed up initially, as they had all game, but Mahomes still managed to produce some magic on his sprained ankle, taking off for a first down with eight seconds to play. Joseph Ossai ran him to the sideline, but then gave him a two-handed shove after he had taken two steps out, tacking on 15 yards at the worst possible moment.

You can see Mahomes clearly with feet on the sideline before Ossai makes contact, which is an auto-flag with quarterbacks especially.

Harrison Butker would step up and drill the kick from 45 yards out, punching the Chiefs ticket to a third Super Bowl in five seasons with Patrick Mahomes as the starter.

Ossai, who was shaken up initially after stepping wrong after the hit but got up and went to the bench, was distraught afterwards, as teammates tried to console him after just a brutally timed penalty.

It was a game filled with, well, let’s call it interesting officiating decisions. With a few plays being blown dead but still running, only to be called back after the fact, and some questionable calls and no-calls. Still, it was nothing short of an incredible game from both teams and both quarterbacks, who weren’t without flaws on the night but showed why this was billed as a heavyweight QB matchup. Mahomes and the Chiefs avenged their loss last year and shut down the “Burrowhead” talk, with Travis Kelce delighting in that in the CBS walkoff interview with Mahomes.

Up until episode three’s “Long Long Time,” HBO’s The Last of Us walked a fairly treacherous tightrope between fan expectation and creative independence. When you’re adapting a video game as seminal and beloved as Neil Druckmann’s action-adventure role-playing epic, you’re both beholden to its self-generated nostalgia and freed from the constraints of its original medium. You must achieve gaming fans’ obscure vision of what this show should look like while challenging them (and newcomers) with originality that pays homage and pushes its storytelling forward in ways that entertain and delight, but never anger or disappoint.

It’s an impossible ask, one the show has fielded well so far, but episode three gives us hope that Druckmann and showrunner Craig Mazin won’t always feel that need to both appease and surprise fans in equal measure. Because, as interesting as the side-by-side comparison shots are, as fun as the easter egg hunting undoubtedly is for gaming mainstays, it’s only now that HBO’s answered the question, “Why do we need this show?” It’s not for the callbacks or the verbatim dialogue or for those point-to-screen recollective moments. It’s for this – a deep dive into a Queer post-apocalyptic love story that had no space to grow and flourish within a pixelated RPG world. A bottle episode amidst a fungal nightmare scape that’s quiet and beautiful and reason enough to keep trying when it comes to these “world’s ended, now what?” narratives.

New World Order

Of course, before we get to the Hallmark-but-make-it-more-horrifying romance at the center of the episode, we’ve got to catch up with Joel and Ellie. They’re backpacking through a forest reserve in Massachusetts on their way to meet Joel’s contact, Bill. They hope he’ll have a battery for them, maybe a car too, so that the pair can make their way west. Joel is mourning Tess in that somber, silent way of his and Ellie is refreshingly unapologetic about her part in the woman’s demise. These smugglers were experienced and intelligent enough to know the risks of their mission better than a child fresh out of the QZ so Tess’s death can’t be laid at Ellie’s feet, no matter how much Joel might wish it.

They trek to a gas stop where Joel is sure he stashed some supplies. (Note: a key skill to hone should a zombie apocalypse break out is the ability to remember where you hid things years later.) While he “zeroes in” on his goods, Ellie goes exploring, scoring a stale box of tampons before running across an Infected in the shop’s basement. She marvels at it, carving its face with her trusty knife before ultimately putting it out of its misery. Is this the first time she’s killed one? It’s not clear, but her curiosity, reluctance to harm, and eventually gratification in ending its existence harks back to her conversation with Joel earlier this season. If she finds it hard to put these creatures to death because they might hold a shred of their humanity, that internal dilemma is fading, and fading fast.

Their hike also gives us a bit of needed background on the cause of the Cordyceps outbreak courtesy of Ellie’s unrivaled ability to pester the hell out of her walking companion. As we suspected, tainted grocery store items like flour, bread, and pancake mix were the culprits for the original infection. Once people ate enough of them, they began looking for uninfected bodies to bite. What’s more disturbing than how quickly the old world went to hell – a weekend seems both too short a time and also, a generously long wait for the world to end considering how we’ve handled our own pandemic – is the mass grave Ellie stumbles upon despite Joel’s warnings to avoid the road. It’s here that the military rounded up residents of neighboring small towns, promising them a place in a Quarantine Zone that was already filled to capacity. Rather than leaving them be and letting them fend for themselves, the government executed them because, as Joel puts it, the dead can’t be infected which means they can’t be a threat.

Lone Survivor

That chilling scene bleeds into a flashback of a mother and her baby being loaded into a military truck, unknowingly riding to their death as boots on the ground raid homes, looking for any stragglers before abandoning a small town called Lincoln. This is where Bill (Nick Offerman) waits, in a secret bunker under his colonial-style home, watching CCTV footage of his own country turning on its people in panic and self-preservation. It’s likely proof of some long-held beliefs he’s had – we’ll learn later he’s a bit of an eccentric survivalist – but it’s hard to dismissingly shake your head at his ramblings when you see the end results. Within just a couple of years, Bill has his town fortified via a steel fence, with traps laid for both the Infected and any raiders looking to steal a piece of his pie. He siphoned gas for his generator, opened up a line that runs directly to town, grew gardens, raised chickens, and found a way to keep the hot water on.

He’s essentially created a fungal-free Utopia for himself, which feels both impressive and pitifully lonely. I’ve often wondered what the point is for survivalists, especially in situations like this. Yes, you beat mother nature at her own game, yes, you’re the last man standing. But what’s the point when there is no one to share the life you’ve fought so hard to keep? It seems Bill has had some of those same thoughts too because when Frank (Murray Bartlett) falls into one of his massive man-holes, he doesn’t just shoot him on sight as you might expect. In fact, after making sure he’s not Infected, he invites him into his home, for a chance to bathe and fill his stomach before he sets off for the Boston QZ. (Note: another skill worth cultivating in the apocalypse is the ability to swindle your way to a free shower and a homecooked meal. Frank is a swindling savant.)

Bill impresses the drifter with his wine-pairing knowledge and his rabbit-braising know-how. Frank fails to do the same with his turn at a Linda Ronstadt ballad on Bill’s antique piano. While Bill is cautious and shy and clearly out of his element interacting with strangers, Frank is surprisingly at ease. He’s lived in a QZ, sardined amongst all kinds of people for years. His social skills are as sharp as Bill’s survival ones and he quickly discerns that, not only is Bill lonely, he’s been that way for quite some time. His whole life, even, because he’s never had the freedom to exist as he is. The pair sidestep the weeks of flirting and sexting that might normally come with this kind of romantic blossoming – we’ve got serial killing fungi on the loose, there’s just no time to give these two the Nancy Meyers treatment – but their eventual coupling never feels forced. Just sweet and awkward and innocent – all of the things you wouldn’t expect in a show like this.

One More Good Day

We eventually learn that, a few years after they first meet, Frank and Bill have become partners, though Bill’s strict management of his tiny quarantine zone begins to grate on the extroverted Frank. Game fans know this dynamic mirrors the fairly vague backstory given to the couple but it’s treated differently here. Instead of letting their personality quirks divide them – Bill is a paranoid loner while Frank is a person who craves attention and affection – the men work through their differences. Bill makes concessions. Some small – like paint for the fence and gas for the lawnmower. Others are bigger and more telling of his feelings toward Frank. When Tess and Joel show up for a midday lunch – Frank’s been chatting with her on the radio, hoping to broker a trade agreement in secret – things are tense and uncomfortable, not in the “these people are here to kill us and take our things” way but in the way any blind double-date between two couples is. There are always two partners who click right away, and two whose gruffness and distrust (or just plain disinterest) make them natural offenders to the social order of things. Joel and Bill bond over that shared commonality and while you wouldn’t go so far as to call them friends, they leave each other on friendly terms.

After surviving a raider attack at night, time jumps forward again. Frank and Bill are old men now, with one in a wheelchair and one playing caretaker. It’s Frank who wants to die first, after years of Bill apologizing for being older than him. Frank’s sick with some unnamed illness and tired of just existing. He plans one more good day for the couple, convincing Bill through tears to love him the way he wants to be loved with breakfast and a mini fashion show, an impromptu wedding ceremony, and a homemade dinner capped off with a glass of opiate-muddled red wine. He wants to die in their bed, asleep in Bill’s arms, which is terribly romantic and terribly sad and if you don’t cry at least once while watching this episode then, congratulations – you’ll probably make it through the inevitable apocalypse one day. Bill does as he’s asked with one amendment to the plan. He drugs himself too, determined to finish his life when Frank does because taking care of him was his sole purpose.

The way Bartlett and particularly Offerman play the couple’s final day is flawless, filled with emotion but never overstated to the point of melodrama. Enough jokes will circle around on social media comparing Bill to another Libertarian survival nut on a beloved workplace sitcom that we won’t subject you to our own. Still, while there is a touch of Ron Swanson in this guy, it reduces the actor’s work here to say he was a carbon copy or even a variation of the Parks and Rec employee. There’s soul and heart and a burning need to be loved and accepted for who he is that Offerman didn’t have to convince us of with his famous on-screen counterpart. And Bartlett, who can play over-the-top stereotypes as he did on The White Lotus, is equally impressive in how restrained he is as Frank, a man confident enough in his own sexuality that he recognizes when Bill needs to be guided and when he needs to be pushed out of his old ways.

If anything, this episode and this deep dive into two game characters who really had little impact on the overall storyline, prove that there’s more than one way to survive in a world trying its best to impose its will on you, and there’s more than one way to tell a survival story on TV.

Survival Odds

Joel (9 to 2 odds)
Joel’s lackluster memory shaved some percentage points off his survival score, as did every scene featuring Nick Offerman making the apocalypse his bitch this episode. Joel, baby, you’re making this look way too hard.

Ellie (4 to 7 odds)
This episode reminded us that, for all her bravado and blunt insults, Ellie is just a child – one that’s never ridden in a truck much less a plane. She’s wide-eyed and curious and reckless, maybe because the worst that can happen (in her mind at least) already has. She’s been Infected and she’s fine. She should feel like a god. But that sense of invulnerability needs to fade fast if she’s going to make it to season two.

The NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Eagles was supposed to be a slugfest, with two hard-hitting defenses and run-heavy offenses meeting for a trip to the Super Bowl.

However, after an injury to Brock Purdy on the second drive of the game (following a controversial Eagles TD on their opening drive), the Niners were simply overmatched and couldn’t produce anything offensively with Josh Johnson under center. Johnson eventually left in the third quarter with a head injury, and Purdy returned but couldn’t throw the ball, resulting in a painful 20-plus minutes of football where the outcome was never in doubt, but both teams had to keep playing.

Eventually, the frustrations of the situation crept in for the 49ers and some tensions that had been building erupted into a brawl. Deebo Samuel and K’Von Wallace got locked up after a third down run in the fourth quarter and when the two wouldn’t let go, despite players and refs trying to separate them, Trent Williams took matters into his own hands, absolutely slamming Wallace to the turf.

Wallace popped up and tried to throw some punches, as did some others, and the Niners bench ran onto the field, but luckily nothing further happened to escalate things any more in an already decided game. Williams and Wallace were both ejected from the game, with Wallace certainly getting the worst of the entire interaction, and it was a somewhat unsurprising end to a game where the Niners played most of the second half with little hope.

The recent death of Tyre Nichols has sparked outrage across the country. The 29-year-old died after succumbing to his injuries from being severely beaten by five Memphis police officers at a traffic stop. Several artists, including Moneybagg Yo, GloRilla, and more, have already commented on Nichols’ unjust death. The latest to show support is another Memphis native, NLE Choppa.

Choppa, whose real name is Bryson Lashun Potts, hopped on Twitter to share his thought on the devastating situation.

“Today, I felt it on my heart to turn a negative situation into a positive,” the rapper said in a video he shared. “I actually went to sleep dwelling on how I could wake up today and do that.”

The rapper encouraged his fans to join him for a peaceful march through the streets of Memphis, requesting that they bring their own kind of wheels, whether it be skateboards, roller skates, or wheelies.

“So, I came up with a hashtag, #SkateForTyre,” he said regarding Nichols, who was known as an avid skateboarder. “I came up with a location where I want everyone in Memphis that wants to be a part to meet me at for a peaceful march, a peaceful walk, and a peaceful skate through the streets.”

He continued: “I just want to skate for Tyre and respect to him and know that’s how he would’ve wanted everybody to act.”

Later, the rapper posted another video on his Twitter account, but this time it was alongside a group of protestors, walking and skating in honor of Nichols.

“No justice, no peace, we’re gonna skate for Tyree,” protesters said in the clip.

Following Nichols’ untimely death, the five officers involved have since been fired from the Memphis Police Department and are facing impending charges.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It took him two-and-a-half months, but Donald Trump is finally out on the road, campaigning for president, again. It’s not like he’s making up for lost time, though: Instead of huge arenas, he kicked things off on Saturday by going to a…high school auditorium. He baby stepped to a slightly larger venue, namely the Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, at a still small event. Trump’s team scrambled to find anyone beside a few old cronies in the GOP to join him. (Yes, Lindsey Graham was there.) What he did, though, is make some claims that were bizarre even for his rotting brain.

As per Mediaite, Trump spent part of the event touting his record on keeping America out of wars, even ones that could lead to global calamity, like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “My personality kept us out of war,” he claimed, before adding that Russia’s invasion “would have never happened” had he not lost re-election.

But Trump didn’t stop there, adding, “Even now I could solve that in 24 hours.”

Trump is no stranger to outlandish boasts. Nor is he above spinning his crimes. After his tax records were finally, after years of blocking, made public, Trump claimed that not paying his fair share somehow created jobs. He repeated that claim nearly a month later.

“They said he’s very wealthy but he did not pay a lot of tax. But you know what we did? We created tremendous jobs because that incentivized us to pay and create tremendous amounts of jobs,” Trump told the crowd. “We have a country where it is all about incentives. You have to incentivize people and they are taking the incentives away.”

Oh, and remember Joe Wilson, the GOP senator who in 2009 heckled Barack Obama? He was at the event, and Trump made sure to praise him for acting like a child nearly 15 years ago.

“That voice was so beautiful as he called it out in Congress. I thought it was brilliant,” Trump said. “That was done from the heart…You took a little heat at the time. People love you for that because it showed love of your country.”

Anyway, after months of losing bigly (but winning golf tournaments by bending the rules), looks like the big guy is back and as nonsensical as ever.

(Via Mediaite)

Rap music and artistic beef go together like peanut butter and jelly. Rappers often take sublet jabs with foes with throwaway lines in their tracks to win the public over. While some hip-hop beefs are warranted, like Drake vs. Meek Mill, others, like Drake vs. Megan Thee Stallion, were completely uncalled for.

Chance The Rapper questions whether or not he is the center of a brewing conflict. As budding Bronx rapper Ice Spice continues to promote her new single, “In Ha Mood,” Chance is unsure if one of the bars in the song is a shot at him. The line in question reads, “In the mirror, I’m doin’ my dance / And he packin’, I know by his pants / He a rapper, but don’t got a chance / Stuck in my ways so I’m lovin’ my bands.”

The Chicago native took to his Instagram stories, sharing the video clip with the caption, “Is this a diss or a shoutout,” then tagging Ice Spice before placing a poll for viewers to give their opinion.

Before the poll could expire, Ice Spice shut down the beef option, writing in her Instagram stories, “never.” Chance The Rapper then replied, “just double checking.”

As the newbie on the rap block Ice Spice has shared, she’s here to have fun, not issues, even brushing off rumors of a falling out with Drake.

Ice Spice’s EP Like…? is out now via Capitol and 10K Projects. Stream it here.

Crown Royal has tapped Foo Fighters‘ frontman Dave Grohl to star in its upcoming commercial for Super Bowl LVII. In a pair of teaser trailers released on the Candian Whiskey company’s official YouTube account, Grohl can be seen in his element, in the studio, singing (well, sort of) the highest praises of the top-shelf liquor brand.

The “Crawl” singer softly approaches the mic after some essential (and hilarious) vocal exercises and, with varying inflections, utters two simple words: “Thank You.”

The singer’s comedic chops flow naturally throughout the short clip, which is sure to garner laughs. The ad will supposedly add “a whole lot of meaning” and be a “thank-you of epic, Grohl-sized proportions.”

In the second ad, Grohl is seen again in the studio, but he’s not behind the mic this time. Throughout the clip, the former Nirvana drummer reads a list of random words, from peanut butter and paint rollers to batteries and trash bags. Fans will have to tune into the big game to find out what it all means.

“Dave just found out what these objects have in common. Tune in to the big game on 02.12.23 to find out too….” the video’s caption read.

The Diageo brand liquor is one of the spirits brands across the country. The 60-second ad, which was initially 30 seconds, will be the liquor giant’s debut.

The NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia did not take long to produce its first bit of controversy, as a 4th and 3 conversion from the Eagles that saw DeVonta Smith haul in a one-handed grab from Jalen Hurts helped set up the first score of the game.

While Smith was clearly inbounds, he did pop up and signal to the Eagles to go quickly so the Niners wouldn’t get too many angles to decide to potentially review it. The initial shots we got didn’t show anything clearly wrong with the catch, and Kyle Shanahan decided not to burn one of his two challenges as the Eagles rushed to the line and hurriedly got off a play.

The Eagles would go on to score a touchdown on a Miles Sanders run up the middle, taking a 7-0 lead, but it never should’ve been possible for Philadelphia because, eventually, we got the field side replay that clearly showed the ball get punched loose from Smith as he went to the ground.

That replay didn’t arrive until after the touchdown on the TV broadcast, but with how quickly Smith popped up and the Eagles rushed to the line, it was clear even they weren’t sure, which might should’ve suggested to the Niners sideline they should challenge it even without clear evidence. What made that even more painful for Niners fans was on the first series for San Francisco, the Eagles correctly challenged a missed call, where a Brock Purdy incompletion was clearly a fumble that got punched forward by the rookie QB, resulting in Philly getting the ball back near midfield.

In a game that’s expected to be as tight as this one (with the Eagles as 2.5-point favorites), those two coaching decisions in the first quarter of the game could very well play a massive role in the outcome — even if Philly went 3-and-out after the fumble. Making matters worse was Purdy was injured on the play, and Josh Johnson had to enter the game on the next drive.

Lady Gaga has transcended professional boundaries, but her love of music remained the center of it all. Despite losing out on Best Original Score for her song “Hold My Hand” (featured in the film Top Gun: Maverick) at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, that hasn’t stopped the pop star’s music from setting records.

Firstly, thanks to the popularity surrounding the Netflix series Wednesday, her 2011 song “Bloody Mary” landed on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart. Now, another hit from the songwriter’s past has reached another industry milestone. Originally released in 2018, her song “Shallow” featuring actor Bradley Cooper has crossed the two billion streams mark.

According to Pop Crave, this accomplishment makes it “the sixth most-streamed song by a lead female act on the platform.”

When initially released, the track was immediately met with praise. The song earned Gaga her first Oscar Award for Best Original Song. Written by Gaga, Andrew Wyatt, Anthony Rossomando, and Mark Ronson, “Shallow” blended elements of rock, country, and folk-pop, which was, before its release, considered to be a deviation from Gaga’s signature dance-pop sound.

As for Gaga’s song “Hold My Hand,” she still has a chance to win big at this year’s Oscars ceremony as she goes head-to-head with Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up.”

The War On Drugs are nearly twenty years into their musical career, and they still approach their art as if they are just getting started. After making their return to music after taking a brief hiatus, the band returned with rock vengeance.

Still riding the high from their 2021 album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, musicians Adam Granduciel, David Hartley, Robbie Bennett, Charlie Hall, Jon Natchez, Anthony LaMarca, and Eliza Hardy Jones returned to Austin City Limits to perform songs off of the project. Known for their stellar live shows, the group held nothing back as they performed the song “Harmonia’s Dream.”

Co-produced by Shawn Everett and co-written by frontman Adam and keyboardist Robbie, the track is a gentle guide through emotional yearning. As Adam delicately sings, “I was lost in the light that can’t be seen / Don’t move around in front of me / I’m on a scene, I’m overdrive / You lay awake, you know the way / You know the path I’m walkin’ on / Are we the cast you’re leanin’ on,” the audience becomes tethered to the rocker’s heartstrings.

In the stanza, “Well, I’m gone like a light that can’t be seen / Don’t look away, it’s just a dream / I’m out of touch, so out of reach / It’s comin’ back, and I’m movin’ fast / Just one more day, and I’m home at last,” the audience is prepared to enter into this emotional battle on behalf of the band.

Based on their on-stage chemistry and certainty in the delivery while performing the song, it’s hard to tell that the group considered the project to be an unrefined pile of creative ideas at one point as Adam told SPIN.

Watch the full performance of “Harmonia’s Dream” above. Click here to watch The War On Drug’s full Austin City Limits set.