Month: May 2023

It’s often said that we live in the “Golden Age of Television,” also known as “Peak TV” or “Prestige TV.” Although some say this era goes back to the turn of the millennium, since 2010, we have had the joy of watching shows such as “Game of Thrones,” “Girls,” Better Call Saul,” “Ted Lasso,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Stranger Things,” just to name a few.

Over the past decade, there has been so much good TV that people’s biggest complaint is that they don’t have enough time to get to it all.

A viral Reddit thread started by a user named Head_Hauncho may give you some ideas to choose the next show you’d like to binge. He asked the online forum, “What is the single best episode of television you’ve ever seen?” There were responses from shows as old as the ‘80s, but most of the responses were from the past 20 years.

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What criteria does one use to choose the best TV series episode? It gets complicated when one considers how much television is produced yearly. A record 599 original scripted drama, comedy, and limited TV shows were aired in 2022 and Americans have produced regular content for broadcast television shows since 1939.

How do we choose one episode of one show?

To rank the responses on the Reddit post, I looked at the number of upvotes each suggestion received on the Reddit thread and then ranked them in order. It’s not the most scientific way of doing things, but it gives us a pretty good idea about who people think should make it to the monument.

Here are the top 20 most popular responses to the burning question: “What is the single best episode of television you’ve ever seen?”

1. Chernobyl – “Vichnaya Pamyat” (Memory Eternal)

“When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.” — KinmdaQuixotic

2. Band Of Brothers — “Bastogne”

“It came out the weekend before 9/11. I had never been looking forward to a TV series like that. There was football (the Saints beat the Bills), then Band of Brothers, then high school the next day, and all the guys hyped over BoB. Then 9/11 on Tuesday… and I remember watching the rest of the episodes but it wasn’t really the same.” — TheresA_LobsterLoose

3. The Simpsons — “You Only Move Twice”

“You Only Move Twice had the best Simpson one-off, Hank Scorpio.” — Graehaus

4. The IT Crowd — “The Work Outing”

“When Jen turns around to Moss. I know it’s coming every time and it breaks me.” — Bi_gone_era

5. Doctor Who — “Blink”

“I’m not a fan of the series, I haven’t watched all episodes, I’ve seen this very episode accidentally, years ago and it is stuck in my head ever since. It is based on one of the most creative, original, and disturbing ideas I have ever seen in my life.” — Canred

6. Haunting of Hill House — “The Bent-Neck Lady”

“This absolutely gets my vote. It’s an example I use all the time when talking about excellent television. No explosions, no action, no insane stakes…Just a family sitting in a room confronting their trauma. The tail end of that episode had me in tears.” — Vengeance2All

7. Community — “Remedial Chaos Theory”

“ROOOOOXXAAAANNNEEE.” — Nathan Collier14

8. Arrested Development — “Top Banana”

“First non-pilot episode nails so many of the characters down and introduces an inside joke I repeat in nearly every scene.” — Stuebbins

9. Scrubs — “My Lunch”

“Bill Lawrence said something that really stuck with me and that’s that the guiding principle of the show was that everything could be goofy aside from the medical side. Made for a show that could do some great tone shifts on a dime.” — Patrickwithtraffic

10. The Sopranos — “Pine Barrens”

“Mayonnaise! MAYONNAISE!” — PrincessBucketFeet

11. The Simpsons — “Marge vs. The Monorail”

“It’s probably been almost 20 years since I saw it last, but I can still remember the entire ‘See My Vest’ song.” — Racer_24_4evr

12. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 — “In the Pale Moonlight”

“I can live with it… I can live with it.” — Coffeehousebum

13. Firefly — “Out of Gas”

“Some of the love for Firefly on Reddit is a little overblown, but this episode, in particular, was spectacular television.” — whitedevilwhitedevil

14. BoJack Horseman — “The View from Halfway Down”

“BoJack Horseman is, I can confidently say, the only cartoon about talking animals that can make me absolutely inconsolable. Seriously, seriously amazing show.” — Poopiverse

15. Severance — “The We We Are”

“Unbelievably suspenseful the entire duration. So good.” — the_pain_train24

16. M*A*S*H* — “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”

“Honestly this show ended almost a decade before I was even born and yet it’s single-handedly the best show I’ve ever watched.” — rebelxghost

17. WKRP in Cincinnati — “Turkeys Away”

“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” — Silent-Revolution105

18. Mindhunter — “The Lone Wolf”

“That Ed Kemper hug scene.” — westzod

“The beauty of that scene is that Kemper hadn’t really shown himself. Sure, he talked about his crimes. He was crazy. He performed theatrics. They knew his history. But, in that moment, Kemper was making him aware of the Pantheon and his sister wives. He was showing how incredibly, batshit crazy he was. He was being intimate the only way he knew how.” — Canterbury Terrier

19. Buffy the Vampire Slayer — “The Body”

“‘But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens, how we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she’s…There’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore.” — Campmoore

20. House — “Three Stories”

“It’s so good…I love when they delve into the who/why of House, it really helps make him more than pill-popping Sherlock with a doctorate.” — Deathsblade2002

When people adopt an animal, we rarely imagine how that process looks from the animal’s point of view. We’re so focused on rescuing a pet that we don’t often stop to think about what the pet is experiencing. But lucky for us, a cheeky yellow lab puppy named Gilligan gives us his POV in a viral TikTok, and it’s a pretty wild ride from start to finish.

One of the most important details of the video is that Gilligan is adorable. If you take nothing else away from his recounting of events, store that knowledge in your pocket for future use. The TikTok video of the fuzzy pooch posted by Anna Molinari uses a voice effect to make the storyteller sound like a toddler, giving the impression that we are hearing straight from the “kidnapped” puppy’s mouth. Gilligan’s interesting retelling has racked up a massive 30.9 million views and over 5.5 million likes.

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The video starts strong with the introduction, “Apparently, my name is Gilligan and this is a day in my life of getting kidnapped.” Gilligan is sitting in a pen with other puppies, spinning a truthful yet hilarious tale. He details every moment, including all of the naps he took before meeting “my mother” (or at least that’s what the puppy thinks her name is).

“This is my new sister. She has red hair, which is confusing. We don’t look anything alike,” Gilligan says.

The dog doesn’t leave out his own dealings in mischief when spinning the tale about his day. He explains that he gets crazy after he sleeps and he can’t control it. After Gilligan reaches his new home, he introduces “my dad.”

“I met this guy that calls himself my dad. He told me we’re going to go on long walks, but he’s old and has a limp, so I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” he laments.

Watch the cute retelling below:

@annamolinstinct

I didnt even cry ONCE. #labpuppy

If you thought Gilligan was done sharing his view of events, you’re in for a fun treat. The sassy puppy gave everyone an update one month after his “kidnapping.” See what he’s been up to below:

@annamolinstinct

Back by popular demand #gilliganthab #labpuppy #dayinmylife

Taryn Delanie Smith might have won the title of Miss New York in 2022, but these days she is repping her hometown in a whole new way. Over on TikTok, Smith plays Denise, a gum-chewing, white bathrobe-wearing receptionist ushering folks to the pearly gates—all with a quintessential New York accent and nonchalance.

As you can probably imagine, most of the videos in this delightful series lean toward comedy. I mean, Smith’s receptionist impression is 100% spot-on, and many of her greatest hits involve talking about ghost outfits, for crying out loud. However, after one fan’s heartfelt request, things took a deeper turn.

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The request was fairly simple. A viewer asked if Denise could greet their late mother Geraldine in the afterlife. Smith obliged, and according to Insider, she emailed the viewer asking for more details. A few days later, Denise was seen giving Gerry the warmest welcome into heaven. It’s really the sweetest thing.

Watch:

@taryntino21 Replying to @jennifertavernier13 for you and your mama ❤️ she absolutely qualified for angel premium plus btw! #heaven #receptionist ♬ Somewhere Over The Rainbow_What A Wonderful World – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

The sincerity of Smith’s video left viewers touched, (and maybe a bit wrecked).

“This just made me cry sitting in my car in a drive thru. That was so sweet of you to make this video,” one person commented.

“This is a moment of genuine humanity. The love you’ve shown to someone I assume you have never known and take the time to help a soul heal. Beautiful,” added another.

Since posting that clip, other requests have flooded in asking Denise to help their loved ones who have passed on be welcomed into heaven. Though Smith told Insider that creating these personalized videos was an emotionally taxing and time-consuming process (since she wants to make sure they’re “special”), it’s a responsibility she gladly takes on.

Here are a few more:

@taryntino21 @michelleprice27 this one really weighed on my heart for a few days. Sorry it took me awhile. ❤️ #heaven #receptionist ♬ original sound – Taryn Delanie🤠

@taryntino21 Parts of this email were shared with permission from @Becca Darling ❤️ it took me awhile to be able to record this one without getting teary. Hugs becca. #grief #heaven #receptionist ♬ original sound – Taryn Delanie🤠

@taryntino21 Replying to @ashleynoelle29 #greenscreen ♬ Somewhere Over The Rainbow_What A Wonderful World – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Smith never expected Miss Denise’s popularity to take off in this way and has been moved by the overwhelmingly positive response. Something about the fictional character’s perfect blend of humor and heart have really helped people process grief and feel a little less anxiety towards death.

This is perhaps a bit of Smith’s own life philosophy shining through. “I think the best part of life is laughter,” she told her viewers. “I think the best part of life is finding joy and silliness in as many moments as you can and I cannot help but feel that the afterlife is gonna be the same.”

It’s true we have no idea what, or who, awaits us on the other side, but there is great comfort in imagining a possibility where our loved ones are never truly gone. God bless Denise for making that dream feel a little more real, one premium angel package at a time.

Catch even more of Denise doing heavenly deeds on TikTok here.

Cheerleading is supposed to be a team activity. Most squads have anywhere from 10 to 20 cheerleaders and some have even more than that. But one squad in Nebraska had just four girls, and less than two weeks before the Nebraska State Cheer and Dance Championships, all but one cheerleader had quit.

Most kids would’ve followed suit so close to a big competition and without teammates, but Katrina Kohel, a senior at Morrill High School, decided she was still going to compete—even if it meant she would have to do it alone. Talk about being brave in the face of disappointment. This girl decided she was going to cheer in the competition and she did, without much care for what others thought.

The competition wasn’t just the next town over. It was five hours away, so Kohel and her coach, April Ott, really had to mull it over before committing to making that drive, according to Business Insider. In the end, the teen decided that she didn’t want to just sit in the crowd or stay home; she wanted to perform the routine she spent so much time learning. But the routine required the entire squad, so before they could make the trip, they had to figure out how to make it a one-person routine.

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“I’ve put a lot of time into cheer. It’s just always been a part of who I am, so I didn’t want to end on that note. I wanted to go out on a high one. For that to come true, I didn’t want to end it just by going to watch state. I wanted to compete.” Kohel told Business Insider. So the lone cheerleader and her coach got to work redoing the routine so it made sense with just one person cheering.

The pair told the Omaha World-Herald that they had to rework the whole performance in a week and a half. It was really a battle of sheer will since Kohel was determined to do her best on the mat without her team. Kohel admitted to the outlet that she was nervous, but no one would have known it.

“She was completely confident the whole week that we practiced,” Ott told Business Insider. “It was just 100% confidence, and she just owned it.”

This cheerleader was absolutely unstoppable and she had her family’s full support. Even Ott’s daughter, who was previously a cheerleader at the same high school, tagged along to cheer her on. Kohel’s grandparents stood in for her parents because her brother had a state wrestling tournament and her parents are the coaches. But don’t worry, they were able to see her cheer through Facebook Live.

Support didn’t only come from her family and coach, as other cheerleaders piled into her section and cheered for the brave solo cheerleader. Darin Boysen, executive director of the Nebraska Coaches Association, told the Omaha World-Herald that this was the first time a cheerleader competed alone.

But she didn’t just compete—she placed 8th out of 12 squads, which is the highest Morrill High School has placed in the last three years.

“It’s almost overwhelming, the amount of support I got from all of them,” Kohel explained to Business Insider. “The whole arena was cheering me on. It wasn’t just one little section—it was the whole arena.”

This article originally appeared on 3.2.23

For a brief while, The Bachelor was toying with making a spinoff that would focus on seniors looking for love. But then the pandemic happened, and well, you can do the math on why ABC put a pin in that one. (Yikes, right?)

Fortunately, conditions have improved, which means it’s time for The Golden Bachelor. Set to premiere in Fall 2023, the spinoff will celebrate the “golden years” of its contestants as “one hopeless romantic is given a second chance at love in the search for a partner with whom to share the sunset years of life.”

Via PEOPLE:

The women will be in the same boat — with a life full of family and stories to tell. “The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities. In the end, will our Golden man turn the page to start a new chapter with the woman of his dreams?”

While details are scarce, talk of a “Bachelor Senior” kicked into overdrive during Season 26 when viewers fell in love with “wingwoman” Holly. The 63-year-old retiree was a hoot as she loved to joke that she was on the wrong show and asked where the set was for the senior version.

If Holly doesn’t pop up on The Golden Bachelor, there might be riot on the shuffleboard court. Tread carefully, ABC.

(Via PEOPLE)

Beyoncé might be in the midst of her Renaissance World Tour, but that hasn’t stopped her from expanding her business empire. The “Wait Let Me Fix My Hair” singer appears to be on the cusp of launching her latest endeavor, judging from a recent post on her Instagram account. In the post, a handwritten note recounts her early career experiences performing in her mother’s hair salon, which has her BeyHive buzzing, believing that the next industry Beyoncé intends to takeover is hair care.

“How many of y’all knew my first job was sweeping hair in my mama’s salon?” she wrote. “Destiny’s Child got our start by performing for clients while they were getting their hair done. I was exposed to so many different kinds of entrepreneurial women in her salon. I saw firsthand how the ways we nurture and celebrate hair can directly impact our souls. I watched her heal and be of service to so many women. Having learned so much on my hair journey, I’ve always dreamed of carrying on her legacy. I can’t wait for you to experience what I’ve been creating.”

Because of the anecdote about her “hair journey,” Beyoncé fans on Twitter are sure that means she’s going to release either a line of hair care products or a line of wigs/hair for braiding/extensions/etc. “if beyoncé drops a hair line w wigs y’all are gonna hate who I become when I get a hold of one,” wrote one fan. “Okay let’s talk lace @beyonce,” joked another. “I would like a number of wigs and bundles. Give me some Bumble Bee Bundles pls.” Even more broke out the memes to express their excitement.

While some are skeptical, most are hoping that the new product lives up to the standards the singer has set with her music.

Fasten your seatbelts and make sure your hazards are on, because Fast X is on its way to a theater near you so that you and your loved ones can witness Jason Momoa wreaking havoc and taunting Vin Diesel on the big screen, which is something you’ve always wanted but never knew how to ask for.

But even though Fast X might seem like the final ride, probably because it was teased as such, fans are in for some more car shenanigans in the future. Oh? You thought they were done? That Dom Toretto would hang up his keys and trade in his car for an electric vehicle? He’s not one to be eco-conscious, even though he moonlights as a tree.

Diesel confirmed that this isn’t the final movie in the long-running franchise. In fact, there will be another part to Fast X. The actor told the crowd at CinemaCon last month, “This summer is only the beginning of Fast X. And with all of your effort and with all of your love and the fact that you are a part of our family, Fast X will continue. And after this explosive summer, I will have the privilege of coming to you for Part 2 in 2025.” This is a bad sign for anyone looking for a Hobbs & Shaw follow-up, but good news for everyone else.

The actor then said that he approached the studio about making the finale into a trilogy, though he didn’t provide any more details, probably thanks to attending the Marvel School Of Avoiding Press Questions.

It seems like Fast X is just the beginning of the next chapter in the Fast franchise, much like Marvel likes to have its movies in phases. Maybe Phase II of Fast will integrate more of the “furious” aspect of things. It seems like that side of the franchise has been left in the dust. The people want more fury with their gas-guzzlers!

Bummbershoot 2023 has made a few adjustments to its official lineup. To commemorate the arts and music festival’s 50th-anniversary, musicians Pussy Riot has been added to the celebration. Bumbershoot 2023 will be headlined by Sleater-Kinney (September 2), Brittany Howard (September 2), and The Revivalists (September 3) across the two-day event, marking its first showing since taking a hiatus due to the pandemic.

Set to go down at the Seattle Center this coming Labor Day weekend (September 2 and 3), the event presented by New Rising Sun and Third Stone focuses on highlighting talent from across the Pacific Northwest. Other notable acts slated to perform at the multiday festival include A-Trak, Zhu, AFI, Durand Jones, Jawbreaker, Fatboy Slim, Phantogram, Valerie June, and Benny The Butcher.

On the website, the event’s mission is listed as “to honor the essential characteristics of the festival’s rich legacy with a vision to realign with Seattle’s changing growth purpose and needs,” adding, “Artists shift perspectives, awaken curiosity and, in our shared passion for visual arts, performance, and music, help us realize we are all under the same umbrella.”

Tickets for Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival are on sale now. Find more information here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The (incredible) game hasn’t even been out for a week, but it’s reasonable to assume that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will go down as one of the best-selling video games of 2023, if not the best selling. You can see already its impact on the greatest signifier of any property’s influence, porn.

Nintendo must be so proud.

Beginning earlier this month, searches for “zelda” on Pornhub were up 236 percent. By May 12th, the day Tears of the Kingdom came out, they were up 399 percent. And it just kept rising: according to Pornhub Insights, “that trend continued, with May 13th seeing an increase of +759 percent, followed by +1,362 percent on May 14th and a massive +1,477 percent increase on the 15th!” Pornhub visitors were horny for one character, in particular.

Our statisticians wanted to know how the Zelda universe impacted search terms between May 12th and 14th when compared to average. It seemed the character Purah was at the top of the list, as the term, “purah zelda” saw an enormous increase of +42,257 percent! Second to Purah was “legend of zelda rule 34” which saw an increase of +22,067 percent. Coming in third, “zelda botw paya” saw an increase of +7,938 percent

Also more popular than usual: “zelda cosplay,” “legend of zelda hentai,” and “legend of zelda rule 34.” (If you don’t know what “rule 34” is, you might be the one person who spends too little time online.) Meanwhile, the most searched for Zelda characters are Purah, Princess Zelda, Paya, and finally Link. What? No love for Bokoblins? Oh wait. They’re number nine.

You can find the complete data here. For the SFW types, here you go:

It’s SFW compared to “legend of zelda hentai,” at least.

(Via Pornhub Insights)

(SPOILERS for Fear The Walking Dead will be found below.)

The Walking Dead was no stranger to time jumps, and the same goes for Fear The Walking Dead. The eighth season picks up (with yet another reinvention) seven years after the last time we saw these long-suffering survivors. And they are not having a great time with PADRE at all. This so-called promised society turned out to be an authoritarian nightmare full of kidnapped children, and things are going especially bad for June these days.

As for Morgan, he continues to hang with PADRE so that he can be near his daughter, Mo. She’s older now, obviously, and has no idea who Morgan is, and one wonders if this time jump was specifically done to line up with The Walking Dead. That would make it awfully convenient for, as the trailer kind-of suggested, a potential Rick Grimes sighting to be afoot when Morgan goes home. When Entertainment Weekly quizzed showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg about whether the timeline alignment was purposeful, Chambliss explained that this was a “happy accident when we sat down and did the math.” Hmm:

“That wasn’t the driving force behind it. It was really kind of a happy accident when we sat down and did the math. And then there were also some other, practical reasons, too. The two-year-old who was playing Mo was growing up way too fast for us. [Laughs] She was much older by the end of season 7 than the character should have been. So we were able to then cast a really talented young actor like Zoey Merchant, who could really bring the character to life. That was one of the other factors that came into play.”

See, there’s no denial there of a Rick-Morgan reunion. Then again, we don’t really know when the Rick and Michonne spinoff occurs, but one would hope that Michonne didn’t have to search for Rick too long after finding his possessions. I also want Daryl to find a crossbow in France, though, and that’s actually higher on my priority list. Give Daryl a Vespa too, alright?

(Via Entertainment Weekly)