Category: News

The best part about a really good and universally acclaimed show being renewed for another season is the influx of guest stars that they get to add in for season two. Severance recently added a handful of fun new players for its sophomore season, and we all know how much fun everyone is having with fan-casting the third season of The White Lotus.

Another Really Good show, Yellowjackets, will return for its second season in March, and you bet that there will be some fun new faces, like a certain familiar hobbit (not Martin Freeman….yet).

Elijah Wood will reunite with Melanie Lynskey and make his Yellowjackets debut in season two of the series. Today Showtime released a first look at his character, Walter, who is being welcomed into the Bureau of Citizen Detectives, alongside Christina Ricci’s Misty.

Not much is known about Walter, though his character is described as an amateur sleuth who is trying to lead his own investigation regarding the girls’ time in the wilderness all those years ago and how it impacted the rest of their lives. The second season also brings in newcomers Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, Jason Ritter, Nicole Maines, and Nia Sondaya.

Wood and Ricci have also worked together before, over 20 years ago in 1997’s The Ice Storm, a coming-of-age drama about a bunch of teens trying to survive during an ice storm. Perhaps this is foreshadowing for an upcoming Yellowjackets plotline?!

Season two of Yellowjackets premieres on March 24th.

(Via EW)

If the end of the year is for looking back, then the start of it is for looking ahead. Music fans are gearing up for the 2023 music festival season, and now the biggest of them all has made a major announcement: Coachella organizers, as they tend to do around this time of year, just revealed the festival’s 2023 lineup.

Ahead of the official reveal, rumors indicated that Blackpink, Bad Bunny, and Frank Ocean — the latter of whom festival co-founder Paul Tollett said in 2021 would lead the 2023 event) would be headlining this year’s fest. It turns out that was true. Also on this year’s poster are acts like Gorillaz, Burna Boy, Rosalía, Boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker), The Kid Laroi, Charli XCX, Björk, Kali Uchis, Dominic Fike, Latto, Willow, Glorilla, Weyes Blood, Calvin Harris, Alex G, Mura Masa, Snail Mail, Earthgang, Pusha T, Wet Leg, Muna, Doechii, Benee, and Magdalena Bay, among many others.

This year’s event is set for the weekends of April 14 to 16 and 21 to 23, in its usual location at Indio, California’s Empire Polo Club. Pre-sale for tickets starts on Friday, January 13 at 11 a.m. PT, although organizers note, “Very limited Weekend 1 passes remain. For your best chance at passes, look to Weekend 2.” More information about tickets is available on the Coachella website.

Meanwhile, the 2022 festival was full of memorable moments: Arcade Fire was added to the lineup at the last minute, Hayley Williams joined Billie Eilish to perform Paramore’s “Misery Business,” Lizzo popped up at Harry Styles’ set, Kendrick Lamar made a surprise appearance with cousin Baby Keem, The Weeknd played an apology voicemail on stage, and 100 Gecs’ set was cut short.

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

A clip from Ja Rule’s Power 106.9’s Jingle Jam concert with Ashanti at Baxter Arena is now hilariously going viral again. Initially uploaded to TikTok on December 11, the moment captures what the rapper’s team does when you play 50 Cent’s hit, “In Da Club.”

“Stop this song,” one of the crew members says into the microphone. “Aye, cut this sh*t off,” another guy added, getting increasingly angry.

The several crew members wander around the stage confused as they try to stop the song, even talking to the on-stage DJ, but it continues playing. Despite Ja Rule’s crew clearly disliking the 50 Cent drop, some of the crowd did — as they can be seen singing along.

The video eventually made its way to 50 Cent himself, as the rapper shared the video on his Instagram.

“LOL, now this is some funny sh*t,” he captioned, complete with laughing and clapping emojis. “I wish I had something to do with it.”

Following 50 Cent’s post, fans on social media are having a field day reacting to the clip.

“Ja Rule out there 20 years later and still getting done in by 50 Cent,” one user tweeted.

The two rappers’ beef was first documented in 1999 after Ja Rule was reportedly robbed by one of 50 Cent’s associates, and the latter responded with a diss track. Over two decades later, the bad blood hasn’t settled down.

Continue scrolling for some additional reactions to the 50 Cent needle drop during Ja Rule’s show.

Let’s be blunt: video game adaptations almost never work. A major part of that problem is you’re trying to take a story from an active medium (games) to a passive medium (shows/movies), and a whole lot can get lost in translation. Fortunately, The Last of Us seems to have overcome that major hurdle.

The first reviews for the HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are rolling in, and the critics are blown away. Again, video game adaptations do not have a stellar track record, so it’s a welcome surprise that The Last of Us manages to deliver across the board. Not only are the lead actors being praised for their performances, but the show’s visual effects are also garnering rave reactions thanks to the current landscape of over-CGI messes.

That said, there are a few quibbles about adapting the game’s award-winning story, but for the most part, The Last of Us appears to be another hit for HBO. You can see what the critics are saying below:

Daniel D’Addario, Variety:

What works about “The Last of Us” works well enough that one sees the near future in which the show winds up among television’s best. The raw material, including a poignant and thoughtful curiosity about what it might be like to live through catastrophe, is there.

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone:

In many ways, the show is a triumph of typecasting. Once again, Pedro Pascal is playing an action hero of few words who has to lead a cute young charge through hostile territory. He’s joined by fellow Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey, and if her Ellie is far warmer and funnier than underaged House Stark ally Lyanna Mormont, Ramsey is nonetheless again playing a girl who has had to grow up far too soon, and participate in far too much violence, due to the circumstances of the broken world around her. But even though the two of them are playing the kinds of roles they’ve handled before, they do it spectacularly well; both are compulsively watchable and almost instantly endearing.

Judy Berman, Time:

Now that so much of what we see on the big and small screens has a vaguely unreal aspect imparted by the overuse of computerized effects, it’s a particular pleasure to see a video-game adaptation that’s genuinely cinematic, immersing us in the majesty of snow-covered mountains at one moment and the grimy details of an abandoned shopping mall the next. The Last of Us is so skillfully, meticulously, and lovingly constructed—to call it TV’s best video-game adaptation would be to damn it with faint praise.

Stephen Kelly, BBC:

For fans of the game, it is an adaptation of the utmost skill and reverence, yet one still capable of surprise; for people who have never picked up a controller, it is an encapsulation of the game’s heart and soul – its full-blooded characters, its neat plotting, its mature themes of love and loss. It is, to finish Ellie’s joke, “outstanding in its field”.

Simon Cardy, IGN:

A brilliant retelling of one of video games’ most beloved stories that rebottles the lightning of what made it so special to many in the first place, letting it strike again to stunning effect. Thanks to a pair of phenomenal lead performances and a beautifully executed vision of what it is to find hope and love in a world hellbent on denying it, The Last of Us thrills from the first episode to the last.

Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge:

Because the show moves and can’t really afford to give you more time to spend with the cast of figures that come in and out of Joel and Ellie’s lives, it also ends up feeling like a much more condensed version of The Last of Us‘ plot, even though that’s not the case. It’s almost impressive just how much (and then some) of the first game HBO’s show manages to fit into this first season without feeling overfull.

Brian Lowry, CNN:

As is so often the case in these kind of stories (see “The Walking Dead” at its early best), the real threat isn’t the zombies, which aren’t particularly distinctive, but rather what people will do when the structure of society breaks down. From that perspective the storytelling here is absolutely fearless and unflinching, creating horrifying scenarios and moments that can be alternately touching and utterly tragic.

John Nugent, Empire:

The live-action The Last Of Us is a superb example of how to make an adaptation work, how to retain the elements of what worked while having the confidence to explore bold new avenues, to expand the universe, to make a thing that stands on its own two feet.

The Last of Us premieres January 15 at on HBO.

Twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner have kept fairly busy over the past few years. Aaron notably handled a fair portion of the production on Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore, and Bryce scored films like 2021’s C’mon C’mon and last year’s Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths. Today, the brothers, who are arguably most known for their work as members of The National, have announced that their newest musical project, Complete Mountain Almanac, is set to release their self-titled debut album later this month.

Complete Mountain Almanac is comprised of the twins, as well as their sister Jessica and composer Rebekka Karijord. Ahead of the album, they have shared a new single, “February.”

On the raw, guitar-driven track, Karijord alludes to vivid imagery to describe a harrowing experience. “Near the hunter’s forest / Someone will take apart / My body / In order to save me,” she sings.

In a statement, Jessica revealed that she drew from her experience after being diagnosed with breast cancer to write the song, saying, “‘February’ is a song that began as a reckoning with the profound physical changes wrought by breast cancer, and how they threaten to dismantle every aspect of life, and yet, somehow the spirit rises, remains constant, immutable, a force, like nature.”

“To me, ‘February’ is like an ancient myth,” Karijord added. “A road trip dance, moving between vulnerability and resilience. It journeys through layers of odd meters, restlessness and mystery, and then lands in a musical landscape of acceptance and clarity.”

Listen to “February” above and check out the cover art and tracklist for Complete Mountain Almanac below.

1. “January”
2. “February”
3. “March”
4. “April”
5. “May”
6. “June”
7. “July”
8. “August”
9. “September”
10. “October”
11. “November”
12. “December”

Complete Mountain Almanac is out 1/27 via Bella Union. Pre-save it here.

Any time without Bob Odenkirk on our screens is much too long, though it seems even especially cruel that we have had to wait this long to see him again after he dominated the screen last year with his portrayal of Jimmy McGill on Better Call Saul. The actor has been open about wanting to explore different types of characters and projects, so hopefully, we will continue to live in an Odenkirk heyday.

AMC is already working to get Odenkirk back on the small screen, though, and we finally have a first look at his next series, Lucky Hank, (formerly titled Straight Man), based on the best-selling novel by Richard Russo.

The series will follow Odenkirk as William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the chairman of the English department (in an underfunded college in Pennsylvania) who goes through a mid-life crisis. In the teaser trailer, Odenkirk’s character claims he has “always been a difficult man,” which means that we might get some Saul Goodman-like antics for this series, perhaps involving the mysterious goose at the end of the teaser.

Lucky Hank stars Fear Street’s Olivia Scott Welch and Hanna’s Mireille Enos. The Office’s Paul Lieberstein and Damages’ Aaron Zelman are writing and producing the show. Lucky Hank will feature eight episodes beginning on March 9th on AMC and AMC+. Check out the teaser above.

Years after Rick Grimes left The Walking Dead with the helicopter people, AMC viewers will finally see his return to the zombie-bound universe. This wasn’t supposed to take so long, obviously, because ever since Andrew Lincoln left the show, we’ve heard about a movie trilogy, which would possibly arrived in theaters, but as everyone knows, the pandemic has changed everything. The landscape of entertainment has largely (even for movies) shifted to streaming with only a select number of projects motivating people to leave their home TV set up.

This isn’t the worst thing, really, because it’s provided for a wealth of content at our fingertips, and also, the Rick Grimes movie talk turned into a Rick Grimes TV show, co-starring Danai Gurira as Michonne. This was meant to be, perhaps, although we shouldn’t expect any Jesus walk-ins (RIP) in the future. During Tuesday’s AMC Television Critics Association presentation, the network announced (via The Hollywood Reporter) that this Rick-Michonne spinoff has a targeted arrival year: 2024.

That feels like a long time away, sure, but not so fast. In the interim, the Negan and Maggie spinoff (The Walking Dead: Dead City) will premiere in June 2023, and the Daryl show (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon or as it should be known, Daryl Somehow Travels To France) will follow. And before those shows arrive, the eight season of Fear The Walking Dead will get started. That will also be the last FTWD season, and here’s more from Variety:

In addition, AMC also announced that the final season of the “Walking Dead” companion series would consist of 12 episodes that will roll out in two six-episode blocks. The first block will premiere May 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. The second block will premiere later this year.

Eight seasons is quite a run. Sure, it’s not going to reach the eleven seasons of the flagship series, but the franchise is expanding elsewhere. Also, FTWD did hit its stride a few years ago and will certainly be more memorable to fans than The World Beyond.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter & Variety)

Former New York Knicks forward Jared Jeffries had basketball and The Price Is Right fans rolling after he recently won a car on the hit game show and proceeded to lose his mind that he pulled it off. The former NBA player kicked things off on Monday morning by correctly guessing the price of the car on the very first round of “One Away.” As host Drew Carey pointed out, Jeffries got exceedingly lucky because he had changed his answer at the last second, and it turned out to be the right call.

Once Jefferies learned that he won the Toyota Corolla, he ran up to the car and started pumping his arms at the victorious win. The dude was into it because, let’s be real, winning a car on The Price Is Right is the dream of every contestant.

However, as Jeffries’ wild reaction started going viral, people started roasting the fact that there’s absolutely no way the exceptionally tall athlete is fitting inside the tiny sedan. According to the New York Post, the former forward is 6’11” and literally one inch shy of being seven feet tall, and Twitter had a field day pointing out that Jeffries just won a car that he can’t use. There were also plenty of jokes about how he finally ended the Knicks losing streak, too.

You can see some of the reactions below:

And then there was this observation, which seemed important to include:

(Via New York Post)

M83 (aka Anthony Gonzalez) officially announced that his new album, Fantasy, is dropping later this spring.

He unveiled the reveal by also releasing the lead single, “Oceans Niagara,” which offers listeners a psychedelic journey of synths and guitars. The music video for the song was directed by his brother Yann.

“I wanted to create this sense of friendship,” Anthony shared in a press statement. ” Listening to that song, I imagine people running, driving fast, or riding spaceships together. It’s this sense of going forward, like a magic potion that you take to discover new worlds.”

As for the rest of the forthcoming Fantasy album, he aimed to include a stronger lyrical presence — as an attempt to change the pace for a ninth studio release.

“I wanted this record to be very impactful live,” Anthony added. “The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of Before The Dawn Heals Us. The combination of guitars and synths is always in my music, but it’s maybe more present on this new record than on the previous ones.”

Fans will soon get the opportunity to hear songs from the record live, as he also dropped dates for a new North American tour. Tickets go on sale starting January 13 at 10 a.m. local time.

Listen to “Oceans Niagara” above. Below, find the Fantasy album art and tracklist, as well as M83’s upcoming tour dates.

1. “Water Deep”
2. “Oceans Niagara”
3. “Amnesia”
4. “Us And The Rest”
5. “Earth To Sea”
6. “Radar, Far, Gone”
7. “Deceiver”
8. “Fantasy”
9. “Laura”
10. “Sunny Boy”
11. “Kool Nuit”
12. “Sunny Boy Part 2”
13. “Dismemberment Bureau”

04/10 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
04/11 — Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater
04/13 — San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre
04/14 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
04/15 — Houston, TX @ The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall
04/16 — Dallas, TX @ House Of Blues
04/18 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
04/19 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
04/21 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
04/22 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
04/23 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
04/25 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
04/28 — Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
04/29 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
04/30 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
05/02 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
05/03 — St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
05/05 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
05/06 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Ogden Amphitheater
05/08 — Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
05/09 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
05/10 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
05/14 — Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre
05/16 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater

Fantasy is out 3/17 via Mute. Pre-order it here.

If there’s one thing a determined parent will do, it’s make sure their kid is getting their needs met. Even if that means they have to reinvent the wheel to do it. Rachel Griffin Accurso, or as parents across TikTok and YouTube know her, Ms. Rachel, found herself without any real options for additional resources to help her toddler who was diagnosed with a speech delay.

Accurso was looking for a developmentally appropriate show for her son but she wasn’t having any luck. That’s when she decided to take her teaching degree and get to work on creating her own show. It became a family business when she teamed up with her husband, Broadway composer Aron Accurso, who has been there every step of the way. He’s even in the episodes singing along.

“Songs for Littles” has infiltrated homes across America. If you have a toddler and internet access, you’ve likely heard of it. The show has more than a billion views on YouTube. Yes, that’s billion, with a “B.” Ms. Rachel also has more than 19 million likes on TikTok and has speech pathologists everywhere singing her praises.

Accurso is intentional with all of her videos, doing close-ups on her mouth when introducing new words and pausing to “hear” responses from her viewers after asking a question. In her interview with Today, Accurso admitted, “A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son.” She explained that everything she does is backed by research and is recorded in her small apartment in front of a green screen.

Parents on TikTok often upload videos thanking Accurso or showing off the skill their child learned from watching her show. The journalist who interviewed “Ms. Rachel” for Today even got to record an episode of “Songs for Littles” with her.

Check out the cute video below: