Category: News

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Avatar (20th Century Fox/Disney movie streaming on Amazon and VOD)

The sequel has already racked up over a billion dollars at the global box office. I’m both pleased (because the box office needs help) and surprised (same reason) that this has happened, and if you’re down to get down with the Na’vi some more, the original movie will take you back to a more innocent time at theaters. Perhaps this edition won’t make you sh*t your pants like the sequel meant to do, but James Cameron is still “king of the world,” as Leonardo DiCaprio once shouted from within a massive water tank.

TIE: 10. The Recruit (Netflix series)

Noah Centineo is probably ready to shake his notoriety as one of the Internet’s Boyfriends, and this espionage-loaded show might do the trick, even the Netflix audience is probably tuning in because of that sweet romcom trilogy that he did. He portrays a fresh-faced CIA lawyer who (as is the case in all these stories) ends up being pulled into a web of international intrigue. Bourne Identity director Doug Liman also directed the pilot, and Centineo gets to stretch his action legs.

9. The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix series)

This prequel series should have been the toast of Christmas-New Year’s week, but that hasn’t turned out as planned. Franchise completists will want to watch, even though this show’s admittedly a meandering mess, even as the first Witcher prototype emerges, and we receive some background lore on the Elven golden age. A few pluses do exist: this won’t swallow up too much of your time since it’s only four episodes long, and at least we get some Jaskier, although not nearly enough of him.

8. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime series)

John Krasinski recently stepped behind the camera with great success for the A Quiet Place sequel, but that doesn’t mean that he’s abandoned acting. Rather, his espionage-heavy turn as the CIA’s finest continues to drive a heavy audience with one more season in the cards. This time around, Tom Clancy fans should enjoy our protagonist following up on his Venezuela stint by running from the Russians. If there’s ever a time that we needed more Russian-villain content, it’s now.

7. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX series on Hulu)

The season finale delivers a pretty good punch to the gut while wrapping up what, exactly, is going on with Rachel after a tour de force performance from Claire Danes. As a bonus, Jesse Eisenberg’s Toby takes on more dimension before the story ends, and god only knows if Lizzy Caplan’s Libby will get her sh*t together. Author Taffy Brodesser-Akner (who adapted her own novel) did the tough job of adding and subtracting elements to fit the TV medium, and this is so much more than a sad-marriage story or (as the first few episodes suggested) an Eisenberg-as-Hot-Single-Dad show.

6. 1923 (Paramount+ series)

The cowboys, they cannot be stopped and are taking over TV, courtesy of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe. In this latest prequel, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren play early Duttons who are dancing through a whole array of historical difficulties. That includes the Great Depression and Prohibition, and then on a more individual level, they must defend their ranch and preserve their legacy for posterity. This franchise can’t seem to miss, so expect plenty more of the Western resurrection.

5. Bullet Train (Sony movie streaming on non-basic Netflix and VOD)

The streaming audience cannot resist clicking “play” on a good, old fashioned Brad Pitt actioner. He’s accompanied by Joey King and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in this story about five assassins on (as the title suggests) a train to Kyoto. These hired guns figure out that their missions might be more related than they’d like, for comfort’s sake, and that should clue you in to this not being a remake of the 1975 Japanese film of the same name. Co-stars include Bad Bunny, Sandra Bullock, Michael Shannon.

4. Alice In Borderland (Netflix series)

In a post-Squid Game TV landscape, one had best not sleep on dystopian Asian Netflix series, and this show now arrives for a second season. The story bases itself upon a popular survival manga book series and follows a gamer who wanders out into parallel, ghost town version of Tokyo. There are games with the highest of stakes to be fought, and mysteries compound atop each other while they hope to find their way back to reality, if that even exists anymore.

3. Emily In Paris (Netflix series)

Lily Collin’s blissfully non-French speaking protagonist persists with audience success, and I think (at this point) her French class may have helped? She continues to inexplicably charm Europe, including Hot Chef Gabriel, and that love triangle gets truly nuts this season. It’s hard to resist or even deny enjoying this show, which is really a stress-free sugar cookie, and everyone could use a treat like that on occasion.

2. Violent Night (Universal Pictures film on VOD)

David Harbour’s Santa one-ups the bad-boy version from Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa here. The film arrives courtesy from producers of John Wick, Deadpool 2, and Nobody, so you know that you’re in for a wild ride, and Santa has no patience for mercenaries that decide to ruin one family’s Christmas Eve. Don’t f*ck with St. Nick, y’all, and if you’re itching for another fix of Edi Patterson (while we’re in between Righteous Gemstones seasons), there’s yet another reason to give this a whirl.

1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix film)

Daniel Craig is having the time of his career as Benoit Blanc, and he and Rian Johnson pick right up to deliver another hit. Another stellar cast — including Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn — pick up as potential murdermakers, and there’s an endless buffet of cameos (including Hugh Grant) up for grabs. The film runs long (over 2 hours), but you’ll barely mind, especially since you’ll be watching at home. You’ll also get to see one of TV’s greatest murder detectives make an appearance. It’s a near-perfect followup film, and there’s another one coming.

The Houston Rockets dropped to 10-26 on the season with a dismal performance against the Knicks on Saturday night, closing out 2022 with a 108-88 loss.

While it was expected to be another year out of playoff contention for the young Rockets, the hope was to see some steps forward from the players they hope will make up their core of the future. Instead, they’ve continued to play inconsistent ball featuring a number of mistakes that Rockets fans (and the organization) hoped to see cleaned up over the course of the year. After the loss to the Knicks, one of the lone veterans on the roster, Eric Gordon, was asked what improvements he’s seen over the course of the season and he gave a very brief (and blunt) answer.

That’s not great! You don’t normally get this kind of brutal honesty from someone on the team, but Gordon is likely on his way out of Houston, as trade rumors swirl for the third straight season, so he has no reason to sugarcoat things right now. Compared to other teams in similar situations like the Magic and Thunder, the Rockets have felt fairly disappointing even considering low preseason expectations, and it seems Gordon is among those frustrated with the lack of progress shown by his young teammates. There’s still time for things to improve, but for now, there aren’t exactly great vibes in Houston going into 2023.

Avatar: The Way Of The Water, James Cameron’s years-in-the-making Avatar sequel, only arrived in theaters about two weeks ago, yet it’s already become the second highest-grossing movie of the year, with a global box office of about $1.2 billion (less than $300 million shy of Top Gun: Maverick’s nearly $1.5 billion). While critical reviews of the film have been mixed, audiences have readily reimmersed themselves in the plight of the Na’vi, a.k.a. those Blue People. But there’s one plot point in particular that has caused some discord and anger amongst fans: Spider’s (Jack Champion) decision to save his father, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

While fans of the original 2009 film undoubtedly remember Quaritch as the villainous chief of security for Earth’s Resources Development Administration (RDA), Spider — Quaritch’s human son, who was abandoned on Pandora and taken in by Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) — is a new character in the film.

Though he has spent his life living among the Na’vi, Spider is forced to work against them when he is kidnapped by his father’s unit to act as a guide and translator. Ultimately, this complicated familial dynamic causes problems for both men, which leads to a life-or-death moment where Quaritch is drowning and his son is forced to choose whether to save his tormentous pops or let him die. After some deliberation, he opts for the former — a decision that has angered many viewers. In an interview with Variety, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, The Way of the Water’s husband-and-wife screenwriting team, explained why they love that the moment had such an emotional impact on viewers — even if they disagreed with their decision.

“The movie allows Spider to explore these ambivalent feelings he’s having,” Silver told Variety of the moment where he must decide whether to let his father live. “I mean, I think it’s fine that the audience is like, ‘Don’t rescue him!’”

Still, both writers stand by their decision from a storytelling perspective. “[T]he idea that Spider is compelled to rescue Quaritch is interesting from a character point of view,” said Silver.

“It’s this father-son theme that we dive so deeply into,” added Jaffa, “no pun intended.”

(Via Variety)

December 28th would have marked Stan Lee’s 100th birthday. And while it has been just over four years since the ultimate comic book hero passed away, his impact on pop culture has never felt more relevant. To mark the occasion, Marvel Entertainment announced the upcoming release of a documentary about the legendary comic book writer and longtime Marvel Comics publisher.

As Variety reported, Marvel teased the upcoming project via Twitter, with a 25-second teaser video:

The video included clips from some of Lee’s famous cameos throughout the MCU (he made 22 in total), as well as an illustrated likeness of the perpetually bespectacled artist. No real details on the documentary were given beyond that it will be an original Disney+ project and will stream some time in 2023.

Lee, who died in 2018, co-created some of the comic book world’s most iconic superheroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, the Avengers, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. In 2020, Genius Brands International acquired the exclusive global rights to Lee’s name, voice, signature, and physical likeness, and will co-executive produce the upcoming documentary.

Earlier this month, according to Variety, the company kicked off its Stan Lee Centennial at Los Angeles Comic-Con, where fans of the late artist signed a birthday card with personal messages about how Lee and his work impacted their lives. The company also launched a new online shop to celebrate 100 years of Lee.

“We are thrilled to celebrate Stan Lee’s 100th birthday today with multiple initiatives that pay tribute to this true cultural icon starting with creating a marketplace for his fans and with telling his fascinating story in the upcoming film premiering on Disney+,” Genius Brands’ chairman and CEO Andy Heyward said in a press statement.

(Via Variety)

Another year, another end-of-year list. I promise this one is different and fun though. 2022 was filled with incredible performances, perhaps more great performances than there were great shows or films. It was a near impossible task to narrow down to just a few, but this list of the best performances of 2022 is both series and unserious with two categories: film and television, plus a couple of bonuses if you’re strong enough to stick around until the end.

My criteria was simple: I narrowed this down to lead performances but included supporting performances with those who also made the cut for lead performances. I selected performances that I loved and that felt fresh both for acting as a whole and fresh from the actor themselves. From Cate Blanchett to Jon Hamm to Jon Bernthal, here are the best performances of 2022, according to me, someone who watches film and television and writes about it:

FILM

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Every choice Cate Blanchett makes in the Tár leads to Lydia Tár’s fate. Blanchett has been acting for decades and has won two Oscars. Throughout those decades she’s played a versatile array of characters including Queen Elizabeth I, an elf from Middle Earth, Katherine Hepburn, and Bob Dylan. But none of those performances were as transformative as Blanchett’s performance as Lydia Tár, a famous composer having a bit of a psychological breakdown on the brink of the end of her illustrious career. Blanchett disappears behind Lydia Tár’s mannerisms, posture, delicate hands, and piercing eyes. Her menacing demeanor brings the character to life, to the point that many people were convinced that the completely fictional character is a real person that they somehow never heard of. The power of acting!

Austin Butler, Elvis

Before I saw Elvis, I wondered “who is this Austin Butler guy and why is everyone so obsessed with him.” It doesn’t take long into the film to understand why Denzel Washington fought for this guy. He has the natural charisma of an Old Hollywood actor, the right look and body language for Elvis, and, most importantly, the modern, uninhibited edge required to appear in Baz Lurhmann’s weird and busy movies. It’s also a testament to Butler that Tom Hanks’ chaotic, so-bad-it’s-good performance works.

Colin Farrell, The Batman and The Banshees of Inisherin

In the first quarter of 2022, Colin Farrell delivered a performance no one knew he had in him in The Batman. In the very serious and sexy film, Farrell was neither serious nor sexy. Farrell played the iconic villain Penguin as if he was a Muppet version of Joe Pesci (this is a compliment). In the latter half of the year, Farrell delivered the opposite: a subtly rigorous, emotionally vulnerable performance as a simple animal-loving Irishman whose BFF suddenly decides he doesn’t want to be friends anymore. His expressive eyebrows are more expressive than ever. It’s Farrell’s best acting to date, and all the more impressive in contrast to his performance in The Batman.

Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh had a lot to do in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Her performance required meta-awareness because pretty much the entire film called back to her decades-long career as an action star. She also had to be the emotional heart of a busy, complex, unpredictable script. If neither of those worked, the entire movie wouldn’t work at all. Yeoh delivers both to the highest level possible, with a grounding emotionally vulnerable but physically strong performance that gets more interesting and more complex every time you see it. Oh, and she also had to take the hot dog fingers seriously. Only the greats can do that.

Jon Hamm, Confess Fletch

Jon Hamm’s post-Mad Men career has not gone in the direction anyone expected, most of all, probably, Jon Hamm. The Emmy-winning leading man of one of the best television shows ever made has, shockingly, had trouble translating his unique, slightly sly charisma and undeniable handsomeness in other leading roles, until Confess, Fletch. Hamm is the perfect match for the smarmy but charming (even when he is being rude) investigative journalist, and has, at last, discovered his sweet spot: Hamm is at his best when he gets to be funny and kind of mean.

TELEVISION

Jon Bernthal, We Own This City and The Bear

In 2022, Jon Bernthal was bursting with energy. Bernthal can play big personalities that are borderline caricatures so precisely that they are as big as possible but authentic and subtle at the same time. On We Own This City, Bernthal plays the loud and hot-headed Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bernthal plays him with all personality and no judgment, and this relentless energy is necessary to the limited crime series. For his extremely small and all-too-brief appearance on The Bear, Bernthal brings so much energy that it feels like he will somehow set your screen on fire. It’s painful how small his role is, but his presence looms large and will never leave the series, whether he shows up again or not.

Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout

Saying Seyfried’s performance in The Dropout is good is not the most original take: she did win the Emmy, after all. But the performance is so good that repeating how good it is is absolutely necessary. Television shows based on recent events are unavoidable at this point in Peak TV (everything is adapted) but Seyfried’s frenzied, funny, empathetic but slightly judgmental (and perfectly so) performance as disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes makes this ripped-from-the-headlines story essential viewing. Essentially, if you avoid this, you are missing out.

Olivia Cooke, House of the Dragon

On House of the Dragon, Olivia Cooke plays the adult version of Alicent Hightower. Cooke assimilates into the role naturally, but her best trick is her restraint. Although Alicent certainly experiences some trauma throughout the season including but not limited to her son losing an eye at the hands of her nephew/her best friend’s son, in the penultimate episode, Alicent lets it all out. Cooke delivers an explosive emotional performance when she is convinced she is about to die by Dragonfire, and in her face and body, you can see and feel years of Alicent’s trauma and pain, from being forced into being queen by her father, to being on the outs with her best friend Rhaenyra and the closest thing she had to a sister.

Everyone, The White Lotus

This one does not need much explaining: from Jennifer Coolidge shooting a bunch of gays then falling off a yacht to Tom Hollander’s quiet menace to Theo James and Meghann Fahy somehow making Cameron and Daphne perhaps the most likable characters in the end, everyone on The White Lotus delivered a memorable performance worthy of getting a new season revolving around their character.

Everyone, The Staircase

The entire cast of the masterful HBO Max series which includes Toni Collette, Colin Firth, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Turner, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey (who describes gay sex in a Southern accent), and Rosemarie DeWitt should get EGOTs for what they did.

BONUS

The Donkey, The Banshees of Inisherin

Jenny the donkey is Pádraic’s (Colin Farrell) best friend. Huge spoiler here, but Jenny dies after choking on Colm’s (Brendan Gleeson) finger. When this happened I was screaming at the television and so distraught that I was sincerely rooting for Pádraic to kill Colm’s dog in retaliation. An Oscar to this donkey, please.

Jen Shah and Lisa Barlow, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

For the unacquainted, there is a performance element to reality television, and two of the cast members on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City have made it an art form, albeit for very different reasons. Last year, cast member Jen Shah was arrested and criminally charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud for her involvement in a telemarketing scam. Shah plead not guilty to both charges days later, and, for over a year, she claimed she was completely innocent on the show to cast members and to the public. Her tagline that plays before every episode of the show’s current season is, “the only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing.” In July 2022, Shah plead guilty. If you want to catch up with her legal drama, Vulture has an excellent guide. Shah’s sentencing is on January 6, 2023.

Lisa Barlow, on the other hand, was simply born to be a reality TV star. The self-appointed “Queen of Sundance” and Vida tequila CEO knows how to deliver storylines and prioritizes giving the audience good television rather than making herself look good. Barlow has also established herself as a fast food influencer. If you, like so many have been bombarded with Wendy’s ads in which a brunette white lady promotes a peppermint Frosty, you have seen Lisa Barlow’s influence without ever being aware of her existence.

The first of the two College Football Playoff semifinals on New Year’s Eve was the Fiesta Bowl, where TCU and Michigan dueled in a shootout in Glendale, Arizona.

As has become customary every year during the CFP, ESPN had a number of alternate broadcasts, including a Field Pass broadcast that had Robert Griffin III, Cole Cubelic, Taylor Lewan, and AQ Shipley roaming the sidelines calling the game from field level. In the late third quarter as the game began going crazy, RGIII took a phone call on air, which Cubelic noted was a bit bizarre, when a giant grin came over his face. Griffin popped his headset back on and told his co-hosts “I gotta go!” dapping them up before literally sprinting off the field while explaining his wife had gone into labor.

It’s an incredible live TV moment, as Griffin weaves his way through the sea of people on the sidelines to get to the tunnel and to the airport to fly back home to be there for the birth of his child. Kudos to the camera man for sticking with RGIII as long as he could, as the former Heisman winner still has some impressive speed, and put it to good use to hustle off the field for a huge life moment.

Each New Year’s Eve, millions of us have the annual urge to change our ways, make a fresh start, form new habits or otherwise transform into a better version of ourselves.

The problem is many of us kick off the new year with all the good intentions, only to be derailed from our goals after a few weeks—or even a few days. It’s disheartening to make New Year’s resolutions each year and fail at keeping them, but creating new habits is a notoriously difficult thing for humans to do.

Is there a foolproof way to stick with a New Year’s resolution? Probably not. But there are some science-backed ways to make it more likely that you’ll stick with whatever you want to achieve.

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Dr. Mark Jellicoe, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The University of Law in the U.K. who specializes in resilience and self-regulation, says that there are many reasons why people struggle to achieve goals. “Often goals can be too vague, or, in reality, the resolution might be a wish that we are just not that committed to,” he says.

If there are goals you really do want to achieve this year, Jellicoe shares five evidence-based tips for sticking to them:

1. Go ahead and ‘manifest,’ but understand what works about it

“Manifesting”—the idea being that if you envision something strongly enough and live as if it’s happening, it will happen—has been all the rage for the past few years.

“Some may be sad to hear this, but I’m not aware of any direct evidence to suggest manifesting will help to achieve a goal,” says Jellicoe. “However, there are several supported scientific approaches, which could be ascribed to the ‘manifesting’ approach. It makes sense that if we orient ourselves towards an outcome then we might be more motivated to achieve it, which would invoke the patterns of thinking and behavioral beliefs to help us do this.”

Jellicoe points out that people need to get tactical, whatever vision they have for themselves. “Don’t abandon all hope if you feel manifesting works for you,” he says, “just be sure to back it up with some solid goal-setting practice. Manifesting isn’t a magic bullet.”

2. Be strategic about who you share your goals with.

When we’re excited about making change, we might be eager to tell people about it. We might even feel like we’ll be more likely to achieve our goals if we share them with others.

“There are some schools of thought that suggest speaking your goal out loud or sharing it with others creates a sense of accountability,” says Jellicoe. “However, there is growing evidence that would suggest doing this can be detrimental.”

“Scientific evidence also suggests that the mere act of telling someone about our goal, and the congratulations or encouragement we receive, might lead to us deceiving ourselves that we have already achieved the goal, and as a result, we fail to move to the implementation stage,” adds Jellicoe. “This has led to some advising that we don’t tell others our goals.”

3. Be proactive and deliberate about goal-setting.

Setting goals sounds simple enough, but people in general are not very good at the mechanics of setting goals and working toward them.

“There are a couple of solid, research-backed approaches to goal-setting,” says Jellico. “Many of us will have heard of the SMART approach, which encapsulates some of these key ideas, where goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. This isn’t a bad place to start, but there are arguments that even well-set goals may not lead us to strive towards the outcome.”

Jellicoe suggests adding the WOOP model of goal-setting, which stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. “This approach encourages us to think about the reality of our situation and the likely obstacles that come between us and our ultimate goals, so we can plan ways to overcome them,” he says. “Pairing this with the SMART approach so you can monitor your progress could lead to success.”

4. Get to know your personality type and how it affects goal-setting

Jellicoe lists five well-supported personality factors using the acronym OCEAN: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (now often referred to as “low emotional stability”). These factors can influence how you approach goals and what might help you achieve them.

“This is a vast topic with lots to explore,” he says, “but one example would be those who are more conscientious typically tend to be more planful and organized—naturally this often leads to a higher likelihood of seeing goals through. This same personality, however, may also be more likely to stick with a goal even when circumstances change that make that goal no longer relevant.”

Jellicoe suggests learning more about your personality type online to gain a better understanding of yourself and your tendencies. “This understanding could give you a good grounding in learning how to adapt your strategies,” he says.

5. Utilize the power of small, clustered goals.

“Regardless of the resolution you set yourself, achieving small, clustered goals along the way could be crucial in building confidence and motivation to keep working towards your desired outcome,” says Jellicoe.

An example of this method is the ‘Couch to 5K’ challenge in which people start with running just a minute at a time, adding a little bit of running time each day. With small new goals being continually set, you find yourself able to run a 5K within just a couple of months.

“Often this approach to goal-setting can have a positive upward spiral into other areas of our lives too, such as health and wellbeing,” adds Jellicoe.

Whatever goals you want to achieve in 2023—or even if you don’t want to set resolutions at all—be kind to yourself as you enter the new year.

“This time of year can be stressful for so many of us, and we all have our own reasons for that. Any milestone event can bring about a mixture of positive and negative emotions,” says Jellicoe. “Like with any milestone—think birthdays or anniversaries—the new year can also be a time for reflection and renewal. At this time of year, many of us also have the time and space to engage in reflection, so it might be a good time to reflect, accept and move forward.”

Have you ever wondered why the eastern half of the United States is densely populated while everything west of Omaha, save for a few metro areas, is no man’s land?

Most people would assume that it’s because people first settled in the east and moved west. Or, they may believe it’s because of the vast desert that takes up most of the southwest. Those are some decent reasons, but it’s a much more complicated issue than you’d imagine.

A 20-minute video by RealLifeLore explains how topography and rainfall have created what appears to be a straight line down the middle of the country on the 98th meridian that dictates population density. Eighty percent of Americans live on the east side of the line and just twenty percent to the west.

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RealLifeLore is a YouTube channel that focuses on geography and topography created by Joseph Pisenti.

In the video, we see that several large cities border the American frontier—San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux Falls and Fargo, as well as Winnipeg up in Canada. To the west of those cities? Not much until you reach western California and the Pacific Northwest.

Why? Watch:

The major reason why the population drastically changes is rainfall. It rains much more on the east side of the line versus the west. The reason for the drastic change in rainfall is that the Rocky Mountains create a colossal wall known as a rain shadow that prevents moisture from passing from the Pacific Ocean. This has created a large swath of dry land that’s not conducive to larger populations.

Britney Spears’ husband, Sam Asghari, is once again setting the record straight about his relationship with the pop star. Specifically, Asghari recently spoke in regards to Spears’ social media after fan theories ran rampant on TikTok — with most worried for the singer’s wellbeing.

“I don’t even control what we have for dinner,” Asghari told photographers, according to Just Jared. “In the past, there has been a lot of stuff going on so I understand where they’re coming from. They’re just being protective. If anything they’re being good fans.”

He also previously spoke about his wife’s decision to post risqué selfies, following the dissolution of her conservatorship. “The only person in the world that gets bullied for posting things like this,” he shared on an Instagram story. “I personally preferred she never posted these but who am I to control someone that’s been under a microscope and been controlled for most of her life.”

Over the past month, fans had been concerned that Spears was missing after the singer posted she was going to NYC and no paparazzi photos existed. There were also claims that her voice was being edited. The rumors were fueled by Perez Hilton, who admitted that “concern was warranted.”

However, Spears and Asghari’s June wedding had Selena Gomez, Madonna, Drew Barrymore, and more as guests — who aren’t publicly expressing concern for Spears as people clearly closest to her.

The Top Dawg crew has had an incredible year. With incredible releases from Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, SZA, and Ab-Soul, TDE once again proved itself as one of the strongest labels in hip-hop. To close out the year, TDE’s R&B star Zacari has released a new single called “Restless.”

On the piano-and-string-driven ballad, Zacari reflects on his time in Los Angeles. Over the years, he’s maintained a love-hate relationship with the city, but now, it seems as though he’s ready to move on.

“Leaving downtown LA / This street only goes one way / It’s a dead end, this street only goes one way / That’s why I get restless, restless, restless / Keep the incense burning restless, restless, restless,” he sings.

Zacari teased the single on Instagram saying, “Closing the DTLA chapter of my life.”

Zacari has been an R&B force among the TDE crew since 2017, when he featured on Kendrick Lamar’s “LOVE” from his third major-label album, DAMN. He has since released two EPs, Run Wild Run Free in 2019, and Sol in 2021. While we’re not sure what the post-DTLA chapter of Zacari’s life will entail, it appears that a full-length album from Zacari may be on the horizon for 2023.

In the meantime, you can listen to “Restless” above.