Category: News

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s first feature film together as directors was 2015’s Vacation. A movie that, today, a lot of people have come around to, but at the time earned itself a Rotten Tomatos score in the 20s, but actually did wind up doing okay at the box office. (For the record: I am a huge fan of their Vacation.) But for Daley and Goldstein, there was a disconnect because they thought they had made a really funny movie, so why was it being savaged by critics? The pair, ahead says their followup, Game Night, was a response to the criticism levied at Vacation. Game Night was a critical success and the film earned about what Vacation did, against the same budget, but now the optics completely changed. They did a stint on The Flash before finally settling on a huge IP that has no real established characters, so it can be anything really, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

The reason for the history lesson of a first paragraph is the fact that Vacation also informed how they approached Dungeons & Dragons, as it pertains to IP. They feel it’s the IP and nostalgia of the prior Vacation movies that got them into hot water with that project and they aren’t going to go down that road again. Again, a property like D&D let them do basically anything they want – in this case they decided to make it a heist movie – but are still careful to respect the rules of Dungeons & Dragons. And what they made was a really funny movie, in their style, that isn’t a parody of what a movie like this should be.

Chris Pine plays Edgin, a bard and thief who leads a ragtag bunch to steel treasure, with the rule that no one gets hurt. He and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) are captured and imprisoned. A member of his crew, Forge (Hugh Grant), agrees to raise Edgin’s daughter, which he does, but also has turned her against her father and, with the help of an evil wizard, Sophina (Daisy Head, who is great and legitimately sinister) has amassed great power and fortune. Now Edgin must put together a new crew to break into Forge’s lair and win back his daughter and in the process, steal all Forge’s treasure. This movie is the definition of “good fun.”

But as we went on, it’s apparent the reaction to Vacation still bugs Daley and Goldstein. (To be fair, I don’t blame them. It’s a very funny movie.) But, then again, there’s nothing wrong with having a chip on one’s shoulder about a perceived slight to use for greater success. And they have an idea for a Vacation director’s cut that I do hope they get to do.

Before we start, I have to mention I am a big fan of your Vacation. I’ve written about this.

John Francis Daley: I remember that. Thank you for defending it. I think each of our movies that end up doing well will give retroactive legitimacy to Vacation.

Which brings me to my point, since this is before Game Night, I want my credit.

John Francis Daley: Okay!

Jonathan Goldstein: You were probably the only pull quote the trailers could use.

John Francis Daley: “UPROXX calls it amazing.”

I saw it again in theaters and made my girlfriend go…

Jonathan Goldstein: Oh God. I thought she was going to break up with you.

No, she’s just in the other room right now.

John Francis Daley: Oh, good. It all worked out.

Okay, so what was both your relationship with Dungeons & Dragons before making this?

Jonathan Goldstein: If you make this all about Vacation, I’d love it.

John Francis Daley: Yeah, me too.

Trust me, I could. I don’t think the good folks at Paramount would be very happy, but I could definitely do it.

John Francis Daley: Okay, the relationship with D&D? Well, I first discovered it as a teenager on Freaks and Geeks. My character was supposed to be a big fan of it. So we played a quick campaign with the cast.

Oh yeah, James Franco plays it and winds up liking it. Am I remembering this correctly?

John Francis Daley: That’s the episode. That’s right. And it was called “Discos and Dragons.” It was my favorite episode, not because of the Dungeons & Dragons component, but because we got to see Jason Segel do a disco dance. Then I picked it back up as an adult about two years before we started on this movie. And I played a campaign with my adult friends and I played as a kid. I remember the game was so different from anything I had played. My older brother’s a Dungeon Master. Just that you make it up, you do things on graph paper, you create a dungeon. It was really cool to me.

I always thought it was a video game until I was invited over to play once and I was lost. Though I loved the Saturday morning cartoon in the ’80s, and they’re in this movie.

Jonathan Goldstein: They are! Yeah.

How many people get that reference? It took me a second but I was like, “Oh, there’s Eric.”

John Francis Daley: Everyone in Brazil…

Jonathan Goldstein: 30 million people in Brazil and 12 million in the UK and a handful here.

Wait, what does that mean?

John Francis Daley: Well, we did a Comic-Con in Brazil, in San Paulo, and it played like gangbusters because we showed the scene in the maze where we revealed those ’80s characters. I guess it was huge there. Don’t ask me why, but I don’t think it has that same resonance in America. I think it’s a little more fringe out here for whatever reason.

Jonathan Goldstein: We knew it meant a lot to a certain piece of the audience so we wanted to give a little visual shout-out.

I’m going from memory, but I think Eric was voiced by Donny Most? Is that right?

Jonathan Goldstein: My gosh.

John Francis Daley: We’re the wrong person to ask.

Jonathan Goldstein: That sounds about right.

Their leader was Willie Aames.

Jonathan Goldstein: The All-Star team.

It was a Saturday morning staple.

John Francis Daley: That’s right. But it’s tricky when you’re trying to depict cartoon characters in an otherwise semi-grounded-looking world. And so we muted the colors a little bit.

Jonathan Goldstein: We also cast a small muscular man instead of a boy as Bobby.

I feel Dungeons & Dragons is an interesting piece of IP because you can do anything. There are no real characters, but people know what it is.

Jonathan Goldstein: It gave us a way in to making a movie that we could retain our, sort of voice in, but on a great big scale. So it’s almost, in some ways, a Trojan horse for us to do what we do elsewhere, just in a great fantasy world.

John Francis Daley: That’s not to say we’re just slapping the Dungeons & Dragons title on this movie. It is very much D&D to players of D&D, who are in the know of the unique sensibility and tone of the game.

Jonathan Goldstein: But you don’t have to know anything.

John Francis Daley: Yeah, so we’re not adapting anyone’s story, but we’re definitely adapting the rules and the magic and the bizarre locations and creatures as well as that sense of fun and whimsy that you don’t often find in the fantasy space.

So take me through this. After Game Night, was this something you wanted to do? Or were you approached?

Jonathan Goldstein: Someone came to us. I mean, we had left The Flash movie looking for our next thing. We questioned it first because there has been stuff connected to D&D that is not necessarily considered the finest onscreen adaptations. But then we read the script that Michael Gilio wrote, and we saw the potential of what it could be. He had fashioned it as a heist movie, which was really appealing to us. And we thought, all right, that’s a way into this world.

John Francis Daley: Yeah if people aren’t familiar with fantasy movies, they are at the very least familiar with heist films.

I am curious what you two were feeling after Vacation. Were you worried? I’m assuming it didn’t get the reaction you were expecting.

John Francis Daley: It certainly didn’t get the reaction we wanted [laughs]. But look, you’ll learn from each of these experiences. “You never stop failing because the moment you do you fail.” [Note: This is a quote from a big moment during Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, that you probably haven’t seen yet.]

Right, but you made a funny movie, then didn’t get the response I’m sure you expected…

John Francis Daley: We’re incredibly proud of it. And the thing is, it taught us that you have to treat IP like that with great care.

Jonathan Goldstein: Great care.

Okay, so is that where you feel some of the negativity came from? The IP?

Jonathan Goldstein: Oh, I think people brought to the movie resentment that we had touched this franchise. And when you go back and you watch the original Vacation movies, they’re pretty raunchy.

John Francis Daley: And mean-spirited.

Jonathan Goldstein: Totally mean-spirited in a lot of ways. And that’s what they accused us of – of being raunchy and mean-spirited. And I don’t know that it was.

John Francis Daley: Not necessarily any more than the original, which we, by the way, we revere and were paying homage to in every way. But Game Night was kind of our reaction to that. We had no gross-out jokes in that movie because apparently some people don’t like those.

Jonathan Goldstein: Critics don’t.

John Francis Daley: Critics namely. And we didn’t want to get beaten up, honestly. And so we were like, all right, let’s do a hard pivot and let’s make this thing look really different from your typical comedic fair. We love both movies in different ways, but it was funny to see how the perception of Game Night was so vastly different from Vacation when we both love each of those movies in their own way.

Everything that comes out of Chris Hemsworth’s mouth is gold in Vacation. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the guy with a “pet rat” on his shoulder who doesn’t know it’s there gets me every time.

John Francis Daley: I do want to go on the record though, and say that if we were to do a director’s cut of Vacation, it would probably be a little bit shorter than the theatrical cut, because we took a lot of swings and admittedly, some of them are hit-and-miss.

Don’t cut the rat.

John Francis Daley: Not the rat! But it’s kind of what you have to do with that kind of movie. And so, obviously there are parts that we…

Jonathan Goldstein: We’d do differently, but we’re proud. We’re really proud of the movie. When I watch it now, I laugh. I still laugh a lot.

John Francis Daley: Me, too.

Jonathan Goldstein: I think it’s as funny as many movies that have come out during that time that got a whole lot more acclaim.

John Francis Daley: Now it’s just sounds like we’re griping.

You’re preaching to the choir.

John Francis Daley: [Laughs] The one person.

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ opens on March 31st. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

“I know someday I’m gonna meet her, it’s a fever dream… She’ll know the way and then she’ll say she got the map from me,” Taylor Swift sings on her 2021 Red (Taylor’s Version) vault track, “Nothing New,” which feels like a current manifestation, despite it seemingly being written in 2012 — when she was just 22.

Now, at 33, Swift kicked off her massive The Eras Tour last week, after months of intense anticipation and a roller-coaster ride with Ticketmaster.

She’s also setting a serious precedent with the tour by shining a spotlight on entirely women-led, non-binary, and POC musicians as opening acts on a national (and, potentially, global) stage. While this shouldn’t come as a shock in 2023, many major music festivals still struggle to bill more than a few representational artists, especially in headlining spots.

Still, Swift is pushing things forward. In recent years, she has become a mentor of sorts to artists like Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter — the first of which is opening for her in New Jersey.

“She’s as spectacular a person and friend as she is an artist, writer, director. She’s really that great,” Abrams told Billboard. “To be able to lean on her in any capacity really means a lot. The opportunity is so outrageous – it’s a funny thing to talk about, having not done it yet, because I feel like I don’t even really believe it’s real… To see her up close in that way and be able to study that is the greatest gift.”

Before announcing the opening acts, many fans had wondered who Swift would be bringing along with her, given that having a chance to open on a stadium tour for someone of her magnitude is a massive achievement.

By selecting artists like Gayle, known for her 2021 viral song, “Abcdefu,” Muna, and Girl In Red, Swift shows off her business-savvy nature once again. In recent years, TikTok’s impact on propelling new musicians to the top of the charts has been undeniable — with Gayle and others including Coi Leray and Bella Poarch being more recent examples.

This allows younger social media users to feel represented by seeing their favorite internet-influential performers as opening acts.

Gayle has recognized just how much this means as well. As she opened both in Glendale and this weekend’s shows in Las Vegas, she was overwhelmed at the opportunity. It gave those who might have doubted her abilities as a musician from her single the chance to be proven wrong — as her cover of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” from Arizona made the rounds online.

The two reportedly met in September, when Gayle performed the song at the Nashville Songwriter Awards. “She was just like, ‘You did a great performance — I’m gonna call you,’” Gayle also told the publication. “Now I’m here, and I can’t believe it. I feel like I’m lying. I feel like this is a dream. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Both Gayle and the other Vegas opener, Beabadoobee, received shoutouts from Swift during her three-hour performance. Swift and her opening act picks are so close behind-the-scenes that she even shared a conversation that she had with Bea, which led to her choosing her 2006 song, “Our Song,” as one of the surprise selections.

On the other side, Swift included her longtime friends and industry veterans in Paramore and Haim to join her as well. Her relationship with the former’s lead singer, Hayley Williams, goes back to their Nashville days — as they were two young female artists in the scene at the time.

“I was like 18 at the time, and it felt kind of lonely, to be that young and to be doing things, like the Grammys and all that.,” Williams said while on stage at Glendale’s opening night, including a touching moment from Swift’s mom, Andrea. “And I met someone as I was leaving. And she said to me, ‘My daughter, she just played, she’s just getting started and she doesn’t really know anybody in the business. And I just really want her to be around people her age that are doing the same thing, and so I got her number.”

The only man on the tour is Owenn — who also has years of trust in Swift as both a boss and a friend. He served as a backup dancer on her previous tours for 1989 and Reputation, and co-starred in her “Lover” music video, before making his foray into music. Swift had also helped him sign to his first record label.

“Honestly I have no words and I can’t believe I’m announcing this… I’m so blessed and grateful for this opportunity,” he wrote on Instagram.

Some fans, before the tour announcement, had thought that Swift might bring some of her recent collaborators. This has been partially true, as Phoebe Bridgers is set to open in Jersey, while also giving space for others like Aaron Dessner and The National or Jack Antonoff to join in other cities. (During Swift’s second night in Vegas, she brought out Marcus Mumford to perform “Cowboy Like Me” together.)

This representation also carries into other aspects of Swift’s tour, not only the openers. During her headlining set, the backup dancers come from a range of backgrounds. As one fan pointed out in a thread, they also have impressive and unique resumes, with past tours including Dua Lipa, Janet Jackson, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and work with Disney through TikTok.

Outside of The Eras Tour, Swift’s push for self-ownership in music has served as a warning to younger artists, especially re-recording her first six albums. The previously-mentioned Rodrigo made serious waves in the industry with her 2021 debut album, Sour. It was also entirely owned by her and her alone. As a certified Swiftie from childhood, Rodrigo cited seeing Swift’s battle to own her masters (and now re-recording her first six albums) as something she looked out for when signing her contract.

As Swift approaches being in the business for two decades, she has made it clear that her success and longevity aren’t slowing down anytime soon but have only gotten stronger — purely through her willingness to mentor new artists amid a changing industry and push for artist ownership to help rising musicians in all genres.

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

There is a lot of family drama and even a little bit of hoopla in the final season of Succession, though the off-screen method acting debate rages on! If you need a quick recap: Brian Cox has been vocally critical of Jeremy Strong’s acting approach over the last few years (he “doesn’t put up with that American sh*t” as he calls it). Strong doesn’t really mind Cox’s critiques (they’re family, after all), and now Kieran Culkin has gotten in on the dramatics, as all the younger siblings tend to do when they aren’t getting enough attention.

When asked if Strong’s approach affected their working relationship, Culkin shrugged it off. “We’re professionals,” he told Esquire. “We like to go to work and do the thing. I don’t think it affected the way he did his work at all. Wouldn’t have affected mine. I think it was fine.” Strong definitely has enough award nominations to prove that it worked out in his favor. The actor insists the whole thing is blown out of proportion, and he doesn’t really walk around as Kendall in his off time (yet!).

Earlier this year, Strong said that his acting approach is just a personal preference and anyone can think however they want about it, including his on-screen siblings. “I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the f**k he wants. There was no need to address that or do damage control… I feel a lot of love for my siblings and my father on the show,” he told GQ last month.

We will see how long that sibling love lasts throughout the final season of Succession, which airs Sundays at 9 pm.

(Via Variety)

For a time, it appeared that we’d gotten all the Mac Miller music we were ever going to after the rapper died in 2018. However, there was one project left that many fans still held out hope for: Maclib, a collaborative album with legendary Los Angeles producer Madlib, who has previously released well-received joint albums with the likes of J Dilla, Freddie Gibbs, and Talib Kweli.

Unfortunately, the likelihood of Maclib‘s release has been in doubt ever since shortly after producer Thelonious Martin revealed its existence. Although Madlib has occasionally played bits and pieces of the project in his live sets, he also noted that only about an EP’s worth of material was recorded and it wasn’t likely to see release.

However, Madlib restored hope this week when he and Kweli appeared on Sway In The Morning to talk about their latest album Liberation 2. In an aside during the interview, Madlib began listing some of the projects he has in the works including albums with Planet Asia and Erykah Badu. But it was the mention of Mac Miller that perked up Sway’s ears.

“Is that the same project that was mentioned years ago after he passed that was never released?” he asked. “Yessir,” Madlib confirmed. Sway, like the rest of us, couldn’t contain his excitement: “We ’bout to some new Mac Miller!” he exclaimed. Let’s all hope it’s sooner rather than later.

You can watch Madlib’s full interview with Talib Kweli and Sway above.

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got new music from The National, Fall Out Boy, The Japanese House, Sharon Van Etten, and more.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Fall Out Boy — So Much (For) Stardust

Fall Out Boy always come back with a bang. So Much (For) Stardust, which was first previewed with the singles “Love From The Other Side” and “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” bursts with that triumphant, cinematic energy that makes those two songs so infectious. Every song is a rollercoaster — from the disco-inspired “What A Time To Be Alive” to the Weezer-esque “So Good Right Now.”

Caroline Rose — The Art Of Forgetting

The Art Of Forgetting by Caroline Rose is not a casual listen. “Rebirth” is a bone-chilling exorcism; “Better Than Gold” is a heartwarming voicemail; “Love Song For Myself” is a bubbling ballad: “If I am a punching bag / Then I am here to get you fit / You are a heavyweight fighter / I am genuine cow leather,” she breathes.

The National — “Eucalyptus”

The singles for The National’s new album have been vulnerable and a bit heart-wrenching. This new track “Eucalyptus” is not different, with Matt Berninger narrating the split of two people, his voice full of aching and desperation as he sings: “It wouldn’t be fair, it’d be so alone / Without you there, it wouldn’t be fair.”

Sharon Van Etten — “This Is Too Right”

The opening chords to Sharon Van Etten’s “This Is Too Right” are instantly gripping, imbuing the song with a beautifully haunted energy. Her emotional, strong vocals only make the music more powerful. Over and over, she repeats the line “It’s too right,” making it sound like an incantation, the meaning seeming to change each time.

The Japanese House — “Boyhood”

The Japanese House’s “Boyhood” is a poignant new song. Against buzzing synthesizers, Amber Mary Bain gets introspective with painful, incisive lyrics: “I could have been somebody who / You wanted to have around to hold / I should have jumped when you told me to / I wanna change but it’s nothing new.”

Draag — “Demonbird”

“‘Demonbird’ was a major breakthrough in my personal journey unpacking spiritual abuse in my past,” said Jessica Huang about the new enthralling Draag single. It’s a sweeping spurt of shoegaze, reminiscent of Spirit Of The Beehive with its disorientating, cinematic texture. At almost three and a half minutes, the song builds with blazing, fuzzy guitars that lead into a staticky, jarring tape sample that feels like slowly waking up from a fever dream.

Hippo Campus — “Yippie Ki Yay”

“Yippie Ki Yay” by Hippo Campus is an inexplicably moving listen. With a jaunty rhythm contrasting eerie guitar riffs, the song has an unpredictable, compelling texture made even better by the intense lyrics: “Bullseye on the back of my head / Back home they’re thinking I’m dead / I’m wishing that I was instead, well, still not as bad as it gets.”

Black Country, New Road — Live At Bush Hall

Black Country, New Road are like a secret club. If you know, you know. And if you do know, then you’d know that they’re known for their idiosyncratic theatrics. So it only makes sense that the group put out a live album, and it’s as impactful as you’d expect. The songs take on a new life in this setting, making the listener feel immersed in the music.

Chat Pile — “Cut”

Chat Pile’s raucous instrumentation and deadpan vocals never lose their impact. This new song “Cut” from their new split with Nerver explodes with seething metallic riffs, though the band said in a statement that they wanted to “switch gears and fully lean into our more indie and alt-rock tendencies.”

Superbloom — “Head First”

From Soul Blind and Modern Color to Narrow Head and Fleshwater, there’s a lot of great grunge bands right now. Superbloom have joined the chat. This new track “Head First” rages with playful, caustic riffs and an infectious rhythm. The last line hits hard: “I can still crash my car.”

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

In a surreal fusion of science-fiction and the stark realities of war, Mark Hamill is now the voice of an app that alerts Ukrainians to incoming air raids. The Star Wars actor has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine as it continues to ward off Putin’s disastrous Russian invasion, and he’s happy to do anything he can to help the situation.

“A fairy tale about good versus evil is resonant with what’s going on in Ukraine,” Hamill told the Associated Press. “The Ukrainian people rallying to the cause and responding so heroically … It’s impossible not to be inspired by how they’ve weathered this storm.”

With his distinctive voice giving off the “gravitas” of a Jedi Knight, Hamill’s voice warns users when a raid is approaching and to seek shelter. He also lets them know when the alert is over and sends them on their way with the iconic Star Wars phrase, “The Force is with you.”

The app is already a hit with Ukrainian citizens who appreciate the actor giving them a morale boost with the iconic line.

“It’s a very cool phrase for this situation,” Olena Yeremina told the AP. “I wouldn’t say that I feel like a Ukrainian Jedi, but sometimes this phrase reminds me to straighten my shoulders and keep working.”

In addition to the air alert app, Hamill has also been raising funds for reconnaissance drones to help out Ukrainian forces on the front lines.

“Here I sit in the comfort of my own home when in Ukraine there are power outages and food shortages and people are really suffering,” Hamill said. “It motivates me to do as much as I can.”

(Via Associated Press)

I don’t get diet sodas. Don’t get me wrong, wanting to avoid the high sugar and high-calorie content of regular soda in favor of something that’s healthier — I get that. But diet sodas taste, well, how can I put this nicely? F*cking weird. There are plenty of sugar-free non sweetened beverages out there that taste delicious, and yet people choose to drink something that tastes like a cheap substitute just so they can drink more of it? That’s odd, right? An example of half-assed maximalism.

You want half the calories of Coke? Drink half a coke. That’s sure to be a far more satisfying experience.

Or… it would have been. But over the years, some people (a lot, in fact) have convinced themselves to like these flavors better. Aspartame is now preferable to these weirdos over real sugar. A few oddballs have even written articles about it, and clearly, the industry is healthy (as in sales, not actually healthy) because diet soda is everywhere — from fast food fountains to convenience store shelves. People do like this stuff, that’s undeniable… even if I don’t get it.

Which got me thinking — what if I didn’t know I was drinking the sugar-free version of my favorite soda? Is there a diet soda out there that tastes good enough to fool me? I set out to find out by blind test-testing all the diet sodas I could in search of the most delicious (and the one that could best match its own full sugar version).

Methodology:

In the past, we’ve blind taste-tested colas, cherry colas, fruit sodas, and root beer, and despite there being a lot of variety out there it doesn’t quite match the insane amount of sugar-free sodas out there. So in order to narrow our scope a bit, we decided to eliminate drinks that are solely designed to be sugar-free — La Croix, Zevia, and similar fruit-flavored “sparkling waters.” To make it on this list, the soda has to be a sugar-free version of a full-sugar soda.

If you want to find the best flavored sparkling water, hit up our flavored sparkling water taste test.

Here is our tasting class:

• 7-Up Zero Sugar
• Coca-Cola Cherry Zero Sugar
• Coca-Cola Move Zero Sugar (limited time Rosalía flavor)
• Coca-Cola Zero
• Diet Coke
• Diet Dr. Pepper
• Diet Pepsi
• Mountain Dew Diet
• Pepsi Zero Sugar
• Sprite Zero Sugar
• Virgil’s Zero Sugar Cola

I had each bottle/can of diet soda poured for me out of sight and brought to me at random. Because diet soda leaves a weird chemical stain on the palate, I drank lemon water between each new serving. My bladder has never been so full. Seriously.

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Wow, this is great. It’s fizzy and hits the tongue with a pronounced sizzle and has a deep rich flavor. It has an interesting cinnamon-like spice to it, but it’s different than a cola — the flavors constantly shift between dark and earthy and slightly fruity. It’s a bit hard to pin down. It’s very satisfying, and while the aftertaste lingers a bit too long, I don’t think I’d know this is diet soda if this wasn’t a diet soda blind taste test.

Was I wrong about diet soda?

I’d drink this over a real sugar version in a heartbeat.

Taste 2

Nope, I wasn’t wrong about diet soda. This is awful. It’s highly sweet on the tongue with a woody taste and a very syrupy body. It lays flat on the tongue and almost stains the palate. No fizz here.

Taste 3

This taste test is messing with my brain! This soda is amazing to me, I’m getting pronounced juicy fruit flavors with a perfect balance of lemon and lime. I wouldn’t know this was a diet soda at all, it’s been a few weeks since we did our fruit soda blind taste test, and this tastes just as good as anything in the top five of that list.

Taste 4

Unlike any soda I’ve ever tasted. A mix of kola nut and cinnamon with some sweet cotton candy and marshmallow notes and the faintest hint of coconut.

From my notes: “Good, but not great.”

Taste 5

Weird chemical sweet water. It tastes like someone mixed up Sweet in Low in water. There is a syrupy thickness to this drink, mouthfeel, and flavor-wise, it’s straight-up horrid. It’s flat, with absolutely no fizz.

Taste 6

Wow, this tastes exactly like Cherry Coke to me. There is a lingering artificial cherry sweetness to it, with a balance of chocolate and cinnamon notes. Delicious!

Taste 7

Ew. It’s like fizzy Kool-Aid. This one hits the palate in a very weird way. At the start, it’s completely flavorless, and then it hits your tastebuds with the worst combination of lemon and lime flavors I’ve ever tasted. This might be the worst diet soda in existence.

From my notes: “It tastes like lemon-lime if a big rig’s tire squeezed out the juice and then served it in an empty bottle of lemonade from a landfill that has been sitting in the sun for too long.”

Taste 8

Another take on cola, there is a strong chocolate and cinnamon flavor to this one. It doesn’t have the fizz that I want it to have, but the flavor is great. I wouldn’t think this was a diet soda, tastes like some kind of variation on Coca-Cola.

Taste 9

Very sweet, sweeter than most non-diet sodas I’ve ever tasted. There is a pleasing hint of caramel with cinnamon and chocolate, but it’s ruined by a stale chemically sweet flavor that lingers on the backend.

Taste 10

Very crisp with a juicy lemon and lime flavor and a nice strong bite at the end. Another diet lemon-lime soda that tastes interchangeable with the real stuff.

Taste 11

Sweet with a sizzling fizzy body. There is a very faint cola flavor here, but it tastes noticeably brighter than any cola I’ve ever tasted.

Part 2: The Ranking

11. Diet Mountain Dew (Taste 7)

Price: $3.48 (6 Pack)

There is something very funny to me about the fact that Mountain Dew made a diet soda and somehow wasn’t able to make it zero calories. This is the only diet soda on the market that still has calories, and it’s absolutely not worth it! What are those 10 calories doing? Because this shit tastes horrible!

Mountain Dew has a reputation for being one of the most sugar-heavy sodas on the market, and even when it comes to diet, they still managed to squeeze more sugar in there than the competition. That’s dedication! There is a Mountain Dew Zero Sugar on the market and it’s calorie-free, but I couldn’t find it at any of the convenience stores I visited. So apparently those 10 calories matter to someone.

The Bottom Line:

Mountain Dew failed to make a zero-calorie diet soda, and those 10 calories don’t make it any more palatable.

10. Pepsi Zero Sugar (Taste 5)

Price: $7.19 (12 Pack)

Coming in just a hair higher than Mountain Dew Diet is Pepsi Zero Sugar, Pepsi Brand’s answer to Coca-Cola Zero. It’s awful. Pepsi apparently took out all the fizz along with the sugar, as this soda was completely flat.

My taste buds are geared toward Coca-Cola, I’ve always thought of Pepsi as the lesser soda, but even regular straight Pepsi tastes significantly better than this stuff.

The Bottom Line:

It tastes like poison.

9. Virgil’s Zero Sugar Cola (Taste 2)

Price: $27.75 (12 Pack)

I’d really like to know what’s keeping Virgil’s in business. From what I’ve tasted from the brand, they make some mid-tier root beer and straight-up horrible cola. The weirdest thing is, Virgil’s Cola has been discontinued and all that exists is this zero-sugar version. That means people like this more than the OG flavor!

And yet, it’s bad. It tastes like wood, when I’m trying to drink a soda, I’m not looking for a wood flavor. This leads me to believe that diet soda drinkers have painfully low expectations.

The Bottom Line:

Stay away from Virgil’s at all costs.

8. Coca-Cola Move Zero Sugar (Taste 4)

Price: $6.99 (10 Pack)

We’re officially in the tasty territory, as this new flavor of Coca-Cola, made in collaboration with the Grammy award-winning artist Rosalía, is delicious. What’s interesting about this flavor is that it’s brand new, and since I haven’t had the non-sugar-free version of it, I have nothing to compare it to, which makes it truly novel.

I’m a huge Rosalía fan (you could call me a Moto Papi) and a big Coke head so I’ve been watching this soda with great interest, it combines two of my favorite things. There is no advertised flavor for Move — its main inspiration is transformation, and as ridiculous as it sounds, that is exactly what the flavor does. It’s constantly shifting between marshmallows, cotton candy, and coconut. It tastes unlike anything I’ve ever had in the soda space.

Take that as you will!

The Bottom Line:

Rosalía’s Coca-Cola collaboration is interesting and worth seeking out. If anything it’s made me curious to try the regular version and compare them. I’ll get to that next!

7. Diet Coke (Taste 11)

Price: $7.49 (12 Pack)

Diet Coke was always going to be a tough one to appreciate for me. Considering Coca-Cola is my all-time favorite soda, my taste buds have a natural aversion to this flavor profile. I’ve been given Diet Coke at a fast food drive-thru by mistake before, and it’s enough to make me park my car and go back in to dump it out in place of Coca-Cola.

You can really taste the aspartame in this one, and the cola notes, which are expected to be dark and rich, are too bright here. I’ll give Diet Coke this: from a design standpoint, it is visually the best diet soda on the market. It’s as distinct as actual Coca-Cola. That’s not enough to get it ranked better than this, but I feel like it was worth mentioning for the design nerds out there.

The Bottom Line:

If you like Coca-Cola, you’re never going to be able to adjust to Diet Coke. It just tastes wrong.

6. Diet Pepsi (Taste 9)

Price: $7.19 (12 Pack)

As I said earlier, I’m not on team Pepsi, I’m a Coca-Cola guy, but Diet Pepsi is just as good to my tastebuds as the real thing. Pepsi OG is made with real sugar, and you can feel that on your teeth as it sticks to and strips away your enamel. This doesn’t have that problem, it’s much softer and for the most part, tastes almost exactly the same to me.

The Bottom Line:

If you’re a Pepsi fan, consider switching to Diet Pepsi, it tastes incredibly similar to the real thing and doesn’t eat away at your teeth.

6. Coca-Cola Cherry Coke Zero (Taste 6)

Price:

This one is very very interesting to me. I love cherry cola, but I’ve always preferred the combination of Coca-Cola and grenadine (pro tip, you can easily make your own cherry coke at home and it’ll taste better than every pre-bottled variety) to the actual Coca-Cola brand version of the drink. The brand just goes way too heavy on the cherry flavor that it comes across as sickeningly sweet. But Cherry Coke Zero, on the other hand, is a bit more subtle and because of that, I think it’s even better than the original.

The artificial cherry flavor isn’t as overpowering here, and it has a mix of dark chocolate, cinnamon, and vanilla flavors. Altogether those notes combine for something that is delicious while still managing to be calorie-free.

The Bottom Line:

If you love Cherry Coke, switch over to Diet Cherry Coke Zero immediately. It’s even better than the real thing.

4. Coke Zero (Taste 8)

Price: $7.49 (12 Pack)

There are two common things people say about Coke Zero: 1). Coke Zero is just Diet Coke marketed to men who are too embarrassed to drink Diet Coke and 2.) Coke Zero taste just like Coca-Cola. Both are bullshit.

It doesn’t taste at all like Diet Coke, it has a darker flavor with more pronounced cinnamon notes and a hint of rich chocolate tones. Diet Coke has none of that. If you can’t taste the difference, your taste buds are broken. Having said that, this stuff doesn’t taste at all like actual Coca-Cola. It’s a completely different formulation of cola nut flavors. It doesn’t taste noticeably like a sugar-free soda, more like the differences between something like RC Cola and Coca-Cola.

The Bottom Line:

A good alternative to Coca-Cola, but don’t listen to the people that say it tastes the same. It doesn’t. Not even a little bit.

3. 7-Up Zero Sugar (Taste 3)

Price: $4.98 (12 Pack)

By far the biggest surprise of this diet soda taste test was the lemon-lime flavors. They taste almost identical to their sugared counterparts, so much so that I’m not sure why anyone drinks the non-diet versions. Do they know how similar 7-Up Zero Sugar tastes to regular 7-Up? Well, I’m here to tell you, it’s just as good as the real thing.

The Bottom Line:

7-Up Zero Sugar is an easy replacement for 7-Up Classic. Without actively tasting them side by side, the flavors are identical, and that’s coming from someone who just did a fruit soda blind taste test and 7-Up a top spot.

2. Sprite Zero Sugar (Taste 10)

Price: $7.46 (12 Pack)

In my blind fruit soda taste test, I ranked 7-Up higher than Sprite so how do I explain ranking Sprite Zero Sugar above 7-Up Zero Sugar even though I said the sugar-free versions taste essentially identical to the sugar versions? Because for whatever reason, the 7-Up Zero Sugar tasted slightly salty to me on the aftertaste, and this Sprite Zero is giving me none of that.

Sprite Zero Sugar is crispy, juicy, and delicious

The Bottom Line:

Another Lemon-Lime soda that tastes as good as the real thing. The only major difference between Sprite and Sprite Zero is that the bite isn’t quite as strong. It doesn’t burn your throat in the way that OG Sprite does. For some people, that’ll be a deal breaker, but if you’re more about the flavor than the bite, try Sprite Zero.

1. Diet Dr. Pepper (Taste 1)

Price: $7.19 (12 Pack)

Far and above the best diet soda we tasted was Diet Dr. Pepper. A common assessment of this drink is that it tastes like regular Dr. Pepper and that tracks, this tastes almost exactly like the real thing. I will say that it’s less intense than OG Dr. P, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as the OG can sometimes taste too syrupy.

This is easily the most satisfying diet soda I’ve ever tasted, while 7-Up Zero and Sprite Zero taste as good as their sugary counterparts, there is something about the darker richer sodas that beat out the fruit-flavored stuff for me. The other diet sodas on this list failed to capture that though, as good as they are, I almost always rather have the sugar-packed versions over the diet stuff.

Diet Dr. Pepper is different. I actually think this is better than OG Dr. Pepper. It tastes nearly identical, and it doesn’t have sugar or calories, so why wouldn’t I opt for this instead? Getting actual Dr. Pepper over this offers no benefit; for that reason alone, this one is our winner.

The Bottom Line:

Believe the hype, Diet Dr. Pepper is the best diet soda on the market, hands down.

(Spoilers from The Walking Dead will be found below.)

AMC recently delivered a bundle of news for The Walking Dead universe, and the immediate headliner there was that the Dead City spinoff will include walkers falling from the sky to make Maggie and Negan’s lives a little more interesting. However, the franchise also released the trailer for Fear The Walking Dead‘s eighth and final season, in which survivors are still dealing with hell on earth, even on an island. That’s the case not only because of the rule of PADRE but also because there’s no escape from walkers (everyone is infected, and everyone will eventually reanimate without blunt force to the head) anywhere on the planet.

The trailer is most notable, however, for Morgan making a clear reference to Rick Grimes, with whom he shared some time early in the series near the dawn of the outbreak. “I want to tell you something that a friend once told me,” Lennie James’ character declares in the trailer. “He said you can hide, but you can’t run…. he wanted me to know that hurt will follow you. It follows you wherever you go. He was right… don’t do what I did. Don’t run.”

This, naturally, feels timely, and the two were always fated to meet once again (this has happened before) for the long haul. James even previously fielded questions about whether he’d be onboard one of those Rick Grimes movies that never surfaced for various, partially pandemic-related reasons. Now that Rick is about to get bloody again for his spinoff with Michonne, the timing could also be right for him to cross paths with Morgan again.

In the trailer, Morgan does apparently go back to Georgia and thinks about Rick some more for good measure.

What next? No one would be upset about seeing Morgan surface on the Rick and Michonne show, or if Fear The Walking Dead wraps up with more clues if not an outright meeting between old friends. Whatever the case, the franchise is having a good time while teasing everyone, and for solid reason. Fear The Walking Dead has previously dropped hints about Rick’s whereabouts, and we also don’t know how Rick (presumably) ends up escaping from the helicopter people for his spinoff, given that we saw them recapture him at the end of The Walking Dead. However, we can guess that Michonne pieces together enough clues to find him, and hopefully, he never rides a horse again.

We should find out more soon, though. Fear The Walking Dead returns on May 14, and the Rick and Michonne party will debut in 2024.

As sports betting becomes increasingly prevalent and more states introduce legal mobile wagering, fans at games now have the opportunity to sweat out their bets in person.

For most, that increases the enjoyment, as there really isn’t anything quite like sweating out a bet live and in the building rather than on TV, but unsurprisingly, some fans get too invested and take things too far. That is what happened after a Wizards-Magic game, when a group of fans heckled Bradley Beal after a 122-112 Wizards loss, with one fan going at Beal for ending up on the losing end of a parlay. Beal, like so many other players, is very tired of complaints from sports bettors who have become very vocal in yelling at players online, and took the opportunity to send a message back in person, per TMZ Sports.

One of the guys in a group yelled at Beal, “You f***ed me [out of] $1,300, you f***!”

Beal then turned, walked toward the fans, and appeared to knock the hat off one of the guys’ heads in response to the heckle. Beal and the fans then jawed back and forth, with Beal calling the comment “disrespectful.”

“Keep it a buck,” Beal said. “I don’t give a f*** about none of your bets or your parlays, bro. That ain’t why I play the game.”

The fan then apparently filed a police report, claiming Beal hit him in the head when he smacked the hat off his head, and Orlando police told TMZ they’ll likely charge Beal with “simple battery.”

This is, of course, incredibly weak for a number of reasons, first being if you’re cussing a player out over a lost parlay, you absolutely deserve to get smacked upside the head. On top of that, instigating an altercation and then running to the police after slight physical contact is also fairly pathetic, but falls in line with the behavior of someone that would cry to a player about their lost parlay. It’s fine and normal to be mad and grumble about a lost bet, we all do it, but don’t do it to the players — either online or in person.

Over the past few years, Black Thought has been branching. Primarily known as the rapper and de facto frontman of The Roots, a growing number of recent releases, the Philadelphia MC has been collaborating with an expanding roster of producers, including Danger Mouse, El Michels Affair, 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and Sean C. While his new project, Glorious Game with El Michels Affair, is due April 14, frequent collaborator and DJ J. Period put together yet another compilation of Black Thought tracks to hold fans over ’til then.

On J​.​ Period Presents The Live Mixtape [JB Edition], the DJ utilizes Thought’s status as one of rap’s preeminent technicians of the craft, pairing live freestyles taken from Thought’s most recent Roots Picnic Live Mixtape performance. over instrumentals from the late, great funk and soul icon James Brown, as well as hip-hop beats that sampled his works. These include Nas’ “Get Down,” “Big Payback,” “Hot Pants Road,” and Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power.”

While Black Thought labored for much of his career with The Roots in relative obscurity, thanks to social media and a string of strategically placed freestyles, he’s finally received recognition from rap fans as a peerless rapper, and here, he puts that reputation to the test, freestyling for 35 minutes over some of the funkiest production known to man. Check it out on J. Period’s Bandcamp.