Year: 2024

Each week our staff of film and television experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

15. Fallout (Prime Video)

Fallout is an adaptation of Bethesda’s behemoth franchise, a story set within the retro-futuristic world that’s captivated console users for years and years. Yes, there are delightful little nods to in-game storylines – Pip-Boys and Nuka-Cola and Radaway, but they either serve a larger purpose or don’t linger for too long, ensuring that the show stands on its own two feet. Long-time gamers should have little to gripe about while those craving better genre fare amidst the streaming glut should come away satisfied. Whether you know its history or not, Fallout is a f*cking blast of a sci-fi show that defies expectations in the most unconventional of ways (and turned Walton Goggins into a sex symbol).

Watch it on Prime Video

14. Hacks (Max)

To quote Kimberly Ricci’s glowing review: “Through a skillful turn from the Hacks writers, the third season does something different than its two predecessors and succeeds mightily. Is the power struggle completely over? No way, but there is no question that these two women are meant to be together, and that they enhance each other professionally. As well, they somehow begin to really connect on a personal level and — wait for it — make each other better humans. It sounds sappy, but it rolls well.”

Watch it on Max

13. The Iron Claw (Max)

Zac Efron gives an Oscar-worthy performance in this A24 drama from writer and director Sean Durkin about the Texas-based Von Erich family of wrestlers. The Iron Claw, which also stars Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, and Lily James, is definitely worth watching, but fair warning: it’s a heartbreaker.

Watch it on Max

12. Doctor Who (Disney Plus)

Doctor Who is separated into two eras: the original run from 1963 to 1989 and the current relaunch, which began in 2005. The new season is the 14th since it was revived, but it’s officially referred to as “Doctor Who Season One.” Got all that? If you’re a Doctor Who fan, of course you do. But to everyone else who is probably very confused, it’s never been easier to watch the iconic British series now that it’s on Disney Plus with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion, the wonderfully-named Ruby Sunday. Is it too soon to dream of a TARDIS at Disney World? (It’s not!)

Watch it on Disney Plus

11. Outer Range (Prime Video)

Season 1 of Outer Range careened down an illogical hill with abandon, but it did so gracefully. It’s such a delicate balance that I wondered if a second season could maintain that same feat. Fortunately, my worries were unfounded. Outer Range is still kind-of a mess and sometimes feels like a full-on identity crisis, but the package is skillfully combined. It also considers enormous questions about human existence but doesn’t take itself seriously by claiming to have every answer (you can our full review here).

Watch it on Prime Video

10. The Beach Boys (Disney Plus)

There are three ways to experience the full history of The Beach Boys:

-Stream their entire discography, including the album released without any involvement from pop music genius Brian Wilson

-Listen to the Podcast: The Ride deep-dive episode about the group (yes, there are references to the Full House cameos)

-Watch The Beach Boys, a new documentary on Disney Plus that’s described as a “celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound they created that personified the California dream, captivating fans for generations and generations to come.”

Or better yet, do all three (minus listening to “Kokomo”).

Watch it on Disney Plus

9. South Park: The End of Obesity (Paramount Plus)

Skinny Cartman can’t hurt you, Skinny Cartman can’t hurt you, Skinny Cartman can’t…

Watch it on Paramount Plus

8. Bridgerton (Netflix)

One of Netflix’s most popular shows is back for a new season (well, a new half season) of high society drama, “f*ck you” nude scenes, and orchestral covers of pop songs. Season 3 of Bridgerton focuses on Penelope, who has “finally given up on her long-held crush on Colin after hearing his disparaging words about her last season. She has, however, decided it’s time to take a husband, preferably one who will provide her with enough independence to continue her double life as Lady Whistledown, far away from her mother and sisters.” There’s at least one scorching scene to look forward to.

Watch it on Netflix

7. Gaga Chromatica Ball (Max)

Lady Gaga’s The Chromatica Ball tour was only 20 shows long (compared to over 150 for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour), so if you weren’t able to experience Mother Monster sing the hell out of “Born This Way” in person, Max has you covered. Gaga Chromatica Ball is a filmed performance of one of Gaga’s sold-out Dodger Stadium concerts from 2022. She performed many of her greatest hits, including “Shallow,” “Bad Romance,” and “Rain on Me.” There’s no “Hair” (my personal favorite Gaga song; please do not ask me to defend why, it just is), but I won’t hold that against the future Harley Quinn.

Watch it on Max

6. Evil (Paramount Plus)

Evil does not exist – or at least the show Evil won’t after this season. This is the final season of the Robert and Michelle King-created series, which made the successful leap from CBS to Paramount Plus. Evil is frequently called the “best show you’re not watching,” and it’s got a The X-Files-ish premise to back that up: “A skeptical female psychologist joins a priest-in-training and a contractor as they investigate the Church’s backlog of unexplained mysteries, including supposed miracles, demonic possessions and hauntings. Is there a logical explanation, or is something truly supernatural at work?”

Watch it on Paramount Plus

5. Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount Plus)

Following a near-death experience, Jeremy Renner is back for season 3 of Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown. When the town of Kingstown, Michigan, is overrun by a Russian mobster and drugs, it’s up to Mike McLusky (Renner) to keep things under control, but “things get complicated when a familiar face from his incarcerated past threatens to undermine the Mayor’s attempts to keep the peace among all factions.” That’s nothing compared to what Renner went through in real life.

Watch it on Paramount Plus

4. Dune: Part Two (Max)

Let Dune: Part Two lead you to paradise. The highest-grossing movie of 2024 so far makes its streaming debut on Max, where you can watch Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya ride sandworms as many times as you want. The Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel takes everything great about 2021’s Dune and makes it, well, just as great. But now with more Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux (although sadly less Oscar Isaac and Stephen McKinley Henderson). In short: Dune: Part Two rules.

Watch it on Max

3. Jim Henson: Idea Man (Disney Plus)

It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to watch Jim Henson: Idea Man tonight (well, May 31 when it premieres on Disney Plus). The documentary explores the life and career of the Muppets creator, including “never-before-seen personal archival home movies, photographs, sketches, and Henson’s personal diaries, as well as interviews with those who knew him best.” Prepare to cry.

Watch it on Disney Plus

2. The First Omen (Hulu)

“Oh great, another unnecessary horror prequel,” right? Wrong! Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, The First Omen is one of the most visually striking horror movies in recent memory. Nell Tiger Free (Myrcella Baratheon from Game of Thrones) gives a stellar lead performance as an American who gets sent to Rome to work with the church. But once she arrives, “she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.” Hate it when that happens. But you won’t hate watching The First Omen. 

Watch it on Hulu

1. We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)

We Are Lady Parts is the kind of show that makes a streaming service worth the cost of subscription. If you don’t have Peacock, you should sign up for creator Nida Manzoor’s rowdy, Peabody Award-winning comedy about an all-female Muslim punk band in the UK. The cast — led by Lady Parts members Anjana Vasan (guitarist Amina), Sarah Kameela Impey (singer Saira), Juliette Motamed (drummer Ayesha), and Faith Omole (bassist Bisma) — is great, and the soundtrack rips. Have a taste with “Bashir With the Good Beard.”

Watch it on Peacock

Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest rappers of the past few years, but on her road to the top, the journey was different than those of her male contemporaries. Megan discussed that some in a new interview.

In a fresh feature from L’Officiel, Meg explained:

“For female rappers, there’s a line that you don’t want to cross. You want to be Miss Congeniality. You want to be well liked by everyone. You want to be the baddest, you want to be the best, but you want to do it the right way. I did have to learn that there is no right way. Whoever you are, be that. If you crazy, be crazy. If you nice, be nice. If you mean, be mean. If you sad, be sad. Whatever your lane is, just be that. Be your real true self.”

She also said of the theme behind her upcoming album, “We don’t just stop at the snake. This is just what everybody sees right now. Renewal, rebirth: that is the whole concept of this [album]. We started with the snake because, first of all, I love snakes, but I feel like snakes are so misunderstood, especially in western culture. Snakes represent rebirth, spirituality. I’m not really a person that’s like, ‘Oh my God, sunshine,’ and just super bubbly, happy. I like darker things. I like things that are a little scary. I like things that are unique. I picked the snake because… it’s kind of like an antihero.”

Read the full interview here.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. DIIV, Frog In Boiling Water

DIIV’s excellent fourth LP melds the band’s cavernous, widescreen guitar atmospherics with lyrics that ponder a world in a permanent state of decline. On the title track — the titular metaphor’s meaning is self-evident — Smith takes on the persona of a fascist leader who extols the virtue of burning books. In “Everyone Out,” he wonders if the idea that the structures that undergird society can actually be changed amounts to false hope. In the luminous single “Brown Paper Bag,” he likens himself to tossed-off detritus “stuck on the ground / down, wasted.” While the words are frequently downbeat, they are paired with the most flat-out beautiful music of DIIV’s career. (The band is also funnier than they get credit for, as evidenced by the Fred Durst-starring SNL parody in the “Brown Paper Bag” music video.) After the more muscular and aggressive Deceiver, Frog In Boiling Water marks a return to the gauzy tranquility of their droned-out 2012 debut Oshin, which established DIIV as one of the finest bands to be associated with shoegaze in the 2010s.

2. Jessica Pratt, Here In The Pitch

“Timeless” is the adjective most often applied to Jessica Pratt’s music, but it’s not really accurate. Like all of Pratt’s records, Here In The Pitch is very much rooted in a specific era, which is the opposite of “timeless.” A better descriptor of her sound is “dated but in a good way.” (This retro quality is likely what attracted Troye Sivan to “Back, Baby,” which he sampled for his 2015 track “Can’t Go Back, Baby,” turning the Pratt song into her most streamed number.) For the new record, Pratt’s reference points are the melancholic pocket symphonies of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the emotionally sophisticated and musically immaculate compositions of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, especially the hits they created with Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon, and Dusty Springfield. On Pitch, understated orchestrations commingle with featherlight bossa-nova rhythms and Pratt’s own expressive croon, which hints at a well of emotion held in check by a stoic, enigmatic chilliness. It is the best album of 1966 released in 2024.

3. Amen Dunes, Death Jokes

One of the year’s true “grower” albums. I count the previous Amen Dunes LP, 2018’s Freedom, as one of the finest indie-rock records of the last 10 years. But that album was consciously constructed as an instant grabber with loads of driving, arpeggio-sprinkled guitar anthems. Death Jokes, on the contrary, is a glitchy curveball teaming with dark, off-kilter vibes. If Freedom is a warm embrace, then Death Jokes is a cold shoulder. But if you stick with it, eventually there’s solace amid the freeze.

4. Mdou Moctar, Funeral For Justice

Let’s start with the album title. As with all of Moctar’s music, there’s a strong political undercurrent to Funeral For Justice, with the Nigerian guitarist raging against the perpetual instability of his home country’s government stoked by decades of interference from the United States and other foreign actors. While American listeners might not pick up on the fervor of Moctar’s words, they will certainly recognize the ample amount of ass-kicking guitar shredding that conveys the depths of his passion. If Funeral For Justice is the most metal-sounding Mdou Moctar album title — it sounds like the lost Megadeth LP between Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction — then it accurately conveys the blistering speed and force of the music.

5. Blitzen Trapper, 100’s Of 1000’s, Millions Of Billions

You know how sometimes you’re into a band for a while, and then you lose track of them? Not because you no longer like what they do, but just because life goes on and you get distracted by other bands and life generally. Blitzen Trapper is a band like that for me. I loved their 2008 LP Furr and saw them play live a few times around that time. And then … I just lost track of them. Flash forward to earlier this year when I received a promo of their latest record, which updates the slyly knowing Americana of Furr with an older and wiser backwoods gentleness. And it put me right back on the bandwagon. If you wish Wilco had stuck with the sound of their Mermaid Avenue records — the meeting place between Being There alt-country and Summerteeeth power pop — you will want to hop on board, too.

6. Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, All This Time

Campbell is a musician’s musician, with a long resumé as a sideman for some of the biggest names in music: Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, and so on. As a duo with his wife Teresa Williams, he makes music that amalgamates a wide swath of American music, from rock to blues to gospel to folk. The partners’ latest effort, their first in seven years — Campbell battled a brutal case of Covid in the early stages of the pandemic — leans hardest on their shared country roots, with Campbell’s twangy guitar perfectly complementing Williams’ lilting southern croon. It is music made with the utmost care and skill.

7. From Indian Lakes, Head Void

The path from emo and post-hardcore to shoegaze was well traveled by legions of bands in the 2010s. From Indian Lakes was part of that pack, though it seemed like they might have been winding down. Their previous LP, Dimly Lit, came out in 2019, and the group’s mastermind Joe Vannucchi has spent the intervening busying himself with solo albums and side projects. But it turns out that a new From Indian Lakes album was lurking the whole time, and it’s a fine return at that. While Head Void can’t be considered a revival of their emo guise — the guitar tones positively scream “dream pop” — the songs do have a hooky propulsive quality that steers well clear of any atmospheric muck.

8. Chatterton, Fields Of This

“Slacker” seems to pop up in every review I read about this record, which is probably just a euphemism for “sounds like Pavement crossed with Modest Mouse.” But I’m not going to fall into that trap. I believe in clarity. Therefore, I’m just going to come out and say “this sounds like Pavement crossed with Modest Mouse” and add “in the best possible way.”

Much has happened in the Jonas Brothers universe since Joe, Kevin, and Nick served as Uproxx’s June 2023 cover stars, especially news of Joe Jonas’ divorce from English actress Sophie Turner.

Jonas and Turner, who share two children, publicly confirmed their divorce with a joint statement last September. After it brutally played out publicly, including since-resolved custody battle and Taylor Swift’s heroism, Jonas appears to be on the rebound.

On Wednesday, May 29, Jonas posted a 30-second TikTok showing him blissfully bicycling in some countryside while lip-syncing to an unreleased song that might be called “Even Baddies Get Saddies” because the TikTok is captioned, “Even baddies get saddies [smiley face with a tear emoji] #newmusic”

“Come on, Joe, you got so much more to be grateful for,” Jonas sings. “Stop being sad ’cause you’re makin’ the room uncomfortable / OK, I get it, right now, you’re feeling so miserable / Sometimes I wish I had powers to be invisible / Even baddies get saddies, and that’s the hardest truth / Call your mommy and daddy, they don’t know what to do.”

In March, Jonas posted a TikTok saying, “The way I would’ve bodied this trend if I weren’t in the studio working on something new [eyeballs emoji].” In the following weeks, Jonas continued to tease new solo music with TikToks — one showing Jonas in the studio with Alexander 23 and other collaborators — soundtracked by original sound.

As for Joe’s ongoing Jonas Brothers duties, the Jonas Brothers will perform Rock In Rio Lisboa on June 22. The iconic trio is scheduled to resume their headlining Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour. in Mexico City, Mexico on August 21. See all of their upcoming tour dates here.

Roddy Ricch had a huge debut album era with Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial: The project went No. 1 and spawned the chart-topping single “The Box.” Since then, he’s come through with the 2021 album Live Life Fast and the 2022 mixtape Feed Tha Streets III. Now he’s ready to add to his legacy once more, as he is gearing up to launch a new era.

On Instagram yesterday (May 30), Ricch shared a new image gallery, photos of him wearing a suit and blankly looking at the camera. He wrote, “2024 is PERSONAL not business.” He also indicated his next project is called The Navy Album by sharing on his Instagram Story a post from a fan page declaring, “The Navy Album era has begun.”

In his 2022 Uproxx cover story, Ricch spoke about his biggest takeaway from the first chapter of his career, saying, “A lot of times, you may get distracted by trying to rekindle relationships with different things. I feel like just what I learned is just sometimes, even if it’s broke, sometimes it’s just better not to deal with certain things or don’t let certain things bother you — everything’s not going to be perfect. Sometimes when you sit down and think about a lot of sh*t, you try to make everything perfect, and I feel like the thing I learned is it’s okay to not be perfect. There’s perfect in imperfection.”

The internet was a better place when it was 80 percent cat videos and local news bloopers. If you want to go back there — to when things were simpler and Mr. Beast meant Hank McCoy, not “the Kidz Bop version of Jigsaw” — you can, at least for one clip.

Earlier this week, Shelby Cassesse, a sports reporter for WPXI in Pittsburgh, shared footage of when she realized that her shirt was on inside out. “Nothing knocks you down a peg like realizing your shirt has been inside out the entire day. This was after an interview, a breaking news live shot and a full day of OTAs coverage. Great!” she wrote, along with the thumbs up emoji.

The exchange — which thankfully wasn’t a live shot — went like this:

Cassesse: “I have this shirt on inside out. All day.”
Cameraperson: “You have time if you want to go…”
Cassesse: I mean, you can’t really tell…”

Here’s the clip:

In the replies, someone wrote, “Laughing at our minor mistakes is good for us and everyone else! Your credibility keeps growing!” to which Cassesse responded, “Nothing to do but laugh!” It’s a good mindset to have. Cassesse, who was reporting on the Pittsburgh Steelers OTAs at the time, must have laughed a lot covering the team’s quarterbacks last season.

(Via Awful Announcing)

With how ingrained shopping and doing other things online are in our lives, this means that a ton of companies have access to our personal data. Ideally, they’re taking care to keep it safe, but sometimes, things happen. Well, it looks like a thing just happened: As Consequence notes, the hacking group ShinyHunters claims to have stolen the personal data of 560 million Ticketmaster customers.

ShinyHunters says they’ve stolen 1.3 terrabytes of data from Ticketmaster, including a lot of sensitive information: usernames, contact information, order info, and partial payment info like the last four digits of credit card numbers and expiration dates. They are offering to sell their haul for $500,000.

Ticketmaster themselves have yet to acknowledge the supposed hacking, but a spokesperson for Australia’s Department Of Home Affairs told the Australian Broadcasting Department it’s “working with Ticketmaster to understand the incident.”

This news arrives while Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation is already not having an awesome time: It was reported last week that the US Department Of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, “accusing [Live Nation Entertainment] of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.”

Public sentiment really turned against Ticketmaster in 2022, when the platform had significant issues as tickets for Taylor Swift’s wildly popular The Eras Tour went on sale.

“The football-playing boyfriend of the world’s biggest pop star regularly wears a Happy Gilmore hat” is one of many reasons to like Travis Kelce. Also, his love of Uncrustables and “#chipolte.” With a sequel to Adam Sandler’s golf comedy in the works, has the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end heard anything from Happy Madison about being in the movie?

On a recent episode of the Kelce bros-hosted New Heights podcast, retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason brought up a Reddit fan theory that his sibling will be announced as part of the cast for Happy Gilmore 2. “I didn’t even know there was a job opening for a Happy Gilmore 2,” Travis replied. “But if there is, I’ll be a f*cking extra, anything to just get around Happy Gilmore or Adam Sandler set, count me in. Obviously, I’ve been a huge fan of the Sandman but, yes, this is exactly what it says it is – a conspiracy theory.”

If Travis is in Happy Gilmore 2, it would instantly become the best movie in the Kelce/Swift filmography.

Earlier this year, Sandler revealed that he wants the sequel to be a tribute to original cast members Carl Weathers, Joe Flaherty, and Bob Barker, who have all have passed away since 2023. “I would love [The Price is Right host] Drew Carey to be in this movie out of respect to Bob,” he said. “When we were writing stuff, Bob was alive. When we were writing stuff, Carl Weathers was alive. When we were writing stuff, Joe Flaherty was alive. It sucks, we love those guys. They were such a big part of the movie and just great people. But we’re going to get them involved somehow. They’ll be involved.”

Happy Gilmore 2 will be released on Netflix.

You can listen to the podcast below.

It’s been a long time since Selena Gomez fans have gotten to see her on tour: Her most recent tour was 2016’s Revival Tour, but Gomez ended up cutting the run short. At the time, she explained that anxiety, panic attacks, and depression are side effects of her then-recently revealed lupus diagnosis and said, “I want to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off.”

As for whether Gomez will ever tour again, that is uncertain.

In a new Time interview, Gomez said she’s “50-50” on whether she’ll hit the road in the future, explaining, “Nothing makes me happier than 90 minutes of being with my fans and just celebrating together, [but] it is very emotionally draining for me. And then you realize you’re just surrounded by a bunch of people that you’re paying.”

In that same interview, she also spoke about her pre-Benny Blanco plan to have children, saying, “I was alone for five years, and I got really used to it. A lot of people are afraid of being alone and I probably tortured myself in my head for like two years being alone, and then I kind of accepted it. Then I came up with my plan, which was I was going to adopt at 35 if I had not met anyone.”

Take a deep breath before diving into this one.

Last Thursday, May 23, Travis Scott, Tyga, Alexander “AE” Edwards, and Cher attended Richie Akiva’s annual amFAR The After party during Cannes Film Festival, where Edwards and Scott engaged in “a physical altercation,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Several outlets reported the fight. TMZ provided grainy video showing punches thrown between Edwards and 808 Mafia producer Southside, with Scott eventually getting involved. TMZ cited unnamed witnesses claiming “Alexander ‘AE’ Edwards was the instigator, as he ran up on stage and initiated physical contact with Travis Scott.”

On Wednesday, May 29, TMZ caught Edwards, a Universal Music Group executive who has been romantically linked to Cher since late 2022, at Los Angeles International Airport and asked him about the messy ordeal.

Edwards initially played dumb when asked about the “crazy incident” before shaking his head and saying, “It’s all good.”

“Shout-out Southside,” Edwards said during the two-minute TMZ video. “That’s my n****. I know he was defending his boy and doing what he was supposed to be doing as his boy. I don’t got no hard feelings. It is what it is. It went how it went. That’s it.”

The TMZ reporter asked Edwards to clarify what initiated the fight, but Edwards declined to go into detail, saying, “I don’t wanna fight. I don’t initiate that sh*t. […] But I’m gonna protect myself and my people. That’s it. That’s all it is.” Edwards said he hasn’t spoken with Scott and didn’t have any message for him. “They got the message,” he said.

Of course, Edwards was also asked whether Cher was upset about Edwards’ behavior, and he cited Future and Metro Boomin’s “GTA” in response: “Hell nah. Like Future say, ‘Whatever I’m with, my b*tch with it, too.” Edwards laughed and clarified, “My woman, but the lyrics are the lyrics.” Edwards concluded by confirming that he and Cher are “a happy family.”

Read an excerpt from TMZ’s original report below.

“Sources familiar with the situation tell us the fight started after both Travis and Tyga were on stage behind the DJ booth … and when Richie grabbed the mic he gave props to both rappers, saying something to the effect of, ‘We got T-Raww, AE and Travis in the building.’

We’re told Travis seemed pissed he was being lumped in with Tyga — possibly a Kylie Jenner exes thing — so, Travis snatched the mic out of Ritchie’s hand, prompting AE to say something to Trav. For context, AE and Tyga are besties.”