Category: News

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

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10. (tie) 1899 (Netflix)

Imagine if Lost took place on a transatlantic steamboat and you’ve got the gist of this mystery-drama. Made by the same twisted geniuses that gave us Netflix’s Dark series, this show follows a group of passengers hailing from all over Europe who find themselves stuck on a cursed ship bound for America. After the recent disappearance of another company ship months earlier, everyone on board is a bit on-edge and the tension only escalates when passengers start dying, weird time loops start popping up, and a boy who should be dead arrives with an ominous-looking pyramid that makes everything go haywire. Watch it on Netflix.

10. (tie) Interview With the Vampire (AMC Plus)

You’ve surely seen the 1990s movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst, and now, Anne Rice’s most popular gothic novel gets the small-screen adaptation. Great news: this version is better than the film for several reasons. Jacob Anderson of Game of Thrones gives us a very different Louis while Sam Reid swaggers about as Lestat de Lioncourt, and Claudia’s story gets expanded with Bailey Bass giving us a brazen and tragic performance and a secondary narrative framing device. The leading duo takes their sexual tension out of the closet, too, which adds a lot of layers (and fun) to this update. Watch it on AMC Plus.

9. Tulsa King (Paramount Plus)

Sylvester Stallone portrays a mafia capo who’s not swimming with the fishes. However, he might as well be on Mars in this Taylor Sheridan-created series that takes him to Route 66 and the land of the Golden Driller. Tulsa’s experiencing a hotspot-like effect these days in the midst of Reservation Dogs and following Watchmen, but it’s going to be quite pleasurable to see him as the O.G. who’s dropping a “nice little place you got here” in a weed dispensary. This show looks to be full of 1980s-style one-liners that could put the Sly and Arnold movies of yesteryear to shame. Watch it on Paramount Plus.

8. The English (Amazon Prime)

Emily Blunt can kick some butt even while wearing a ridiculous array of aristocratic-type dresses. That’s not the main highlight of this series, believe it or not. Rather, we’ve got a worthy Western story that pairs two well-matched contenders as they battle the nefarious forces that be. Cartoonish villains rear up in this parable, which tells a tale of power and destiny and what America does when it digs inside of one’s soul. Also, the show is stunning to look at and incredibly well-lit, unlike plenty of other movies and shows that will give you a squint-induced headache. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

7. Dead To Me (Netflix)

How do you end a show the “right” way? Do you try to say something profound, pay off longtime viewers with fan service, or end with a shocking twist? For Dead To Me‘s just-released final season, the answer is an emphatic yes to all of the above as creator Liz Feldman delivers a triumphant close, leaning on the otherworldly onscreen chemistry of stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as they lead us through the twisty chaos of the show’s central story while dealing with heavy matters of life, family. love, and death before ending on high with a tear and a tease. Watch it on Netflix.

6. Mythic Quest (Apple TV Plus)

It’s easy to think of Mythic Quest, now in its fourth season, as Rob McElhenney’s “other” show, but that would be a mistake. Yes, sure, he’s best known for the incredibly long-running Always Sunny, which is fair because that show rules. But this one is great, too. It’s sweet and mean and funny and everything a workplace comedy — this time in a video game studio — should be. No television show did a better job of grasping the pandemic while it was still new and really scary, too. Do not miss this because you relegate it to second-tier Mac status. This is the good stuff, too. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.

5. The Crown (Netflix)

Revenge dresses. Extramarital affairs. Royal yacht refurbishments. The Crown’s fifth season ramps up the melodrama to deliciously enjoyable levels as Elizabeth Debicki channels Princes Diana and Dominic West steps into Prince Charles’ (less desirable) shoes. Though the conflict between the couple spurs much of the action this season, there’s still room for Imelda Staunton (who plays Queen Elizabeth II this time around) and Lesley Manville (as Princess Margaret) to give some spectacular performances that ground the soap opera vibes a bit. If anything, this season draws a clear line between the supposed pros and very apparent cons of the British monarchy, showing how the fallout of their familial squabbles had very real consequences for their subjects. Watch it on Netflix.

4. Andor (Disney Plus)

George Lucas has frequently insisted that, like Wu-Tang Clan, Star Wars is for the children. But Andor sure looks like it’s geared more towards adults. The Rogue One prequel starring Diego Luna, reprising his role as Cassian Andor, is gritty, mature, and other words you use to describe movies and TV shows that aren’t messing around. And with this being the first Disney-era Star Wars show to be filmed in real-life locations, Andor isn’t messing around. Watch it on Disney Plus.

3. Fleishman Is In Trouble (Hulu)

I hear what you’re thinking here. The title of this show doesn’t sound particularly fascinating. Maybe it even sounds a little bit pretentious. Yet this show’s actually a satiric little jaunt that turns marriage-divorce drama on its head. Jesse Eisenberg plays the dude whose wife, played by Claire Danes, leaves him and then quite literally leaves the building. He’s suddenly in the midst of parenting and awful dating experiences, and all of this wouldn’t be as fascinating if Eisenberg wasn’t so good at being awkward. He’s flanked by Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody (there are worse companions out there) while trying to find his way. Watch it on Hulu.

2. Abbott Elementary (Hulu)

The first season of Abbott Elementary was a feel-good network sitcom that caught a massive wave of popularity and won a bunch of Emmys in a time when feel-good network sitcoms are kind of not supposed to do that. Credit for this goes to creator and star Quinta Brunson, who realized that an underfunded inner-city public school was exactly the right place to show us people with good hearts working inside a system that can be cold. Kind of like Parks and Recreation but in Philadelphia. The second season is underway and does not appear to be missing a beat. This is basically a miracle, all around. Watch it on Hulu.

1. The White Lotus (HBO Max)

The first season of The White Lotus took the world and the internet by storm with its combination of misery and drama and beautiful Hawaiian scenery. Season two takes the action to a new resort in the White Lotus chain, this one in Italy, and replaces almost the entire cast. “Almost” being the key word here because Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya. Which is good. More shows should be about Jennifer Coolidge going to fancy hotels around the world. This is a nice start. Watch it on HBO Max.

So you know how Sony has been making movies about Spider-Man characters like Venom and Morbius, but they don’t actually have Spider-Man in them due to a convoluted rights-sharing agreement with Marvel? Well, surprise! Sony is bringing that whole mess to streaming.

Starting with the new live-action series, Silk: Spider Society, Amazon will become the new home for the confusingly expanding Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which again, does not actually have Spider-Man in it. (For now.) The series will feature Marvel Comics character Cindy Moon, a classmate of Peter Parker who also got bitten by the same radioactive spider and became the similarly spider-powered hero, Silk. Angela Kang (The Walking Dead) will act as showrunner with Chris Miller and Phil Lord (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) executive producing. Still with us? Okay. Great.

Via Variety:

“We can’t wait to bring the adventures of Cindy Moon to life, thanks to the creative dream team of Chris and Phil, Angela and Amy, along with our partners at Marvel and Amazon,” said Katherine Pope, president of Sony Pictures Television Studios. “We know this exciting series with new and never-before-seen characters and storylines will wow audiences watching first on linear MGM+ and then around the world on Prime Video.”

Oh yeah, that’s right. Before the live-action Silk series hits Amazon, it will first premiere on MGM+, which is apparently a thing that exists. Although, in fairness, that additional step does add an extra layer of confusion to the whole process, which is entirely on brand for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe that does not have Spider-Man in it.

(Via Variety)

As Taylor Swift fans curse out Ticketmaster, let’s take a moment to appreciate a service (mostly) working like it’s supposed to. House of the Dragon was a hit, with viewership in the tens of millions, but HBO’s streaming service HBO Max held up pretty dang well with the traffic surges on Sunday nights. It took months of tests to get there.

“Preparation for something as big as House of the Dragon starts like six months before,” Avi Saxena, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Chief Technology Officer, told The Streamable. “We do a lot of events on our platforms, like the Olympics in Europe, and every time we have a very big tentpole event, we start like six months before to make sure the teams and the platform are ready for it.”

To make sure HBO Max wouldn’t crash with every new episode of House of the Dragon, a team was assembled (I’m picturing dragons in glasses and lab coats). The “special operation” was called the “Project House of the Dragon Reliability,” or “Project HODR,” which Saxena called “appropriate for the project. I think these project code names are very important to get the teams excited to rally behind the project.” It’s a fitting name, even if it brings back a flood of emotions, but, I would have gone with Operation HotD.

From there, they turn their attention to making sure that their systems are able to handle the volume of viewers that will be tuning in on a weekly basis. “Load testing basically creates the simulated load on our services,” Saxena said. “Every time you run load [testing], you identify a bottleneck, [or something that] did not work. We go back, fix that, rerun it… And this exercise continues until we successfully run the test end-to-end for all the services.”

If that’s too much techno-babble for you, maybe this will help:

Hope that clears things up.

(Via the Streamable)

Watching someone dance usually means watching their legs and feet move in creative, graceful or rhythmic ways. Dance steps are called dance steps for a reason, after all.

But for nearly 75 years, Russia’s Berezka dancers have delighted audiences with their dance skills without anyone catching so much as a glimpse of their legs or feet. Berezka dancers’ dance steps are clearly impressive when you see what they do with them, but no one gets to see the steps themselves.

How can that be?

Berezka dancers’ floor-length dresses (called sarafans, the traditional female dress of the Russian peasant class, according to ARTpublika Magazine) hide what their feet are doing as they seem to “float” around on the stage. But make no mistake, they really are moving their feet themselves, without the use of wheels or treadmills or hoverboards or whatever else it might look like they’re using.

You’d be forgiven for not believing it, because check out what they look like in unison:

u201cIn the Russian dance Berezka, women move with short steps, so short that they look like they’re floating.u201d

— Historic Vids (@Historic Vids)
1668618792

What the heck kind of sorcery is this?

The original choreographer of the “floating step,” Nadezhda Nadezhdina, described the method to The New York Times in 1972. “You have to move in very small steps on the very low half-toe with the body held in a certain corresponding position.” It is apparently very difficult to perfect.

If you prefer to keep the floating dance steps a mystery, stop here, but if you want to see a tutorial showing how these dancers manage to move around the stage without their heads bobbing so much as an inch, this tutorial shows what their feet are doing. (Skip to minute 4:20 to see her doing the steps quickly.)

lezginka (female) workshop (easy way)

Here’s the problem with starting an argument with someone who’s clearly wrong. People with opinions that are not based on facts or logic have trouble with critical thinking, which also makes having a discussion with them terribly tricky because they don’t know the rules of engagement.

The first step to avoiding these situations is not having an argument. But if you have to settle a disagreement, it’s best to frame it as a discussion instead of an argument. The difference? “A discussion is a respectful exchange of information. An argument is a coercive attempt to be acknowledged as right or smart or sensitive,” Steven Stosny, Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today.

“In arguments, we invalidate feelings and undermine perspectives. In discussions, we validate feelings and expand perspectives,” Dr. Stosny continues.

One of the keys to having a good discussion is to listen to the other person and ask plenty of questions. This makes the other person feel heard and more likely for the two of you to find common ground. It can also reveal how much they know about the topic at hand.

But if you wind up getting into an argument, there are some telltale signs that you won the debate because the other person has been thrown from their facts and talking points and has to save face. A Reddit user by the name ViForYourAttention asked the forum, “What statement screams ‘I just lost the argument’? And they received a ton of great tactics and sayings that people turn to as a last resort.

The discussion wasn’t just full of great “gotcha” moments but a frank discussion on how to have an honest debate by learning to spot cheap tricks and personal attacks.

Here are 17 statements that scream, “I lost the argument.”

1.

“Pointing out a small discrepancy in an otherwise factual statement and pretending that invalidates their whole argument. ‘I saw you get in a blue car and drive off with your secret lover when you said you were going for a walk.’ ‘You’re completely wrong. It was a blue SUV, and I did go for a walk after.'” — jiyida8112

2.

“As soon as someone shifts the goalposts. It is important to be able to identify this. It is also important to know the difference between this and someone wording their initial argument poorly. … But in general shifting goalposts means that they were losing an argument because of a unstable basis, so they’ll shift their previously dogmatic basis to something more broad or they’ll change their entire opinion midway through a conversation. The way to combat it is simply to always keep in mind the original intent of the conversation. Know what the initial claims were and move on from there always keeping those in mind.” — Sovreign_grounds

3.

“I concede.” — Southern_Snowshoe

4.

“You spelled ‘x’ the wrong way.” — GustavoAlex7789

5.

“I know you r but what am I?” — MineDamnBrain

6.

“Any personal insult. As soon as you comment on the person and not the topic, you’ve lost.” — Aunt_Anne

7.

“[The moment someone says] ‘I don’t even care’ or ‘this is dumb.”‘ — KarlaKaress

XXXSimply unstable added:

“‘Whatever’ or ‘I’m over it’ or both combined into ‘Whatever, I’m over it!'”

8.

“You just lost a customer.” — Sucros

9.

“When my husband sits there with that look on his face. That look that says he is waiting for me to put together some obvious pieces that I missed. I always find those pieces eventually. And then I concede, with an air of torture because he’s always right. Always! As soon as I see that look, I lost.” — gecepix937

10.

“Saying something completely irrelevant to the argument that they found on your post/comment history.” — PM_ME_UR_FEET_69

11.

“‘Oh yeah? Well, I know someone else who thought that way. Adolf Hitler!'” — hawt_pawket

12.

“Do your research.” — Orenge01

13.

“‘You always have to get the last word.’ A statement made exclusively by people who are trying to have the last word, but are out of points.” — ScruffyTuscaloosa

14.

“‘I’m not talking about it anymore!’ Yeah, because you know youre making absolutely no sense.” — WRA1THLORD

15.

“Bringing up an entirely different topic. Whataboutism as they say.” — TDeath21

16.

“When they start projecting. For example, they start accusing you of something that they’re doing – like being bigoted. Or they start threatening to report or block you even though they’re in the wrong.” — HyperDogOwner458

17.

“You just always have to be right.” — sugabeetus

Jeopardy! is a world where there are right and wrong answers. In a reality full of misinformation and denials of the truth, you either answer correctly or incorrectly with the occasional clarification from the judges. The folks behind Jeopardy! work incredibly hard to make that the case with lots of research and debating how questions are phrased, but it doesn’t mean that things won’t fall through the cracks. And in Wednesday’s episode, the Final Jeopardy question left some fans claiming the show got it wrong.

The Jeopardy! Tournament Of Champions has featured some impressive play from Amy Schneider, Andrew He and Sam Buttrey. Tuesday’s episode featured a comeback for Schneider in Final Jeopardy, a tough question no player actually got right. And Wednesday’s episode featured another comeback, with Schneider faltering on a Daily Double in the second Jeopardy! round and He betting big to take a lead he lost before the last question.

That question was about a Jeopardy! mainstay: the bible. But it involved a question some New Testament scholars say doesn’t have a clear answer.

“Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations,” the question read.

But!

As CNN detailed, the answer got a number of scholars talking about the question on Twitter, and there’s been plenty of formal discussion about the subject in the past.

All of the answers refer to books in the Bible that are collections of epistles, or letters, ostensibly from Jesus’ apostle Paul to different groups in the formative days of the Christian church. However, experts have varying opinions on whether Paul actually wrote the letter to the Hebrews – and thus, whether the answer was actually correct. In fact, there are bitter divisions among different schools of Christian thought regarding Paul’s Biblical influence and authorship.

Many “Jeopardy!” viewers thought Buttrey’s answer should have been the correct one, since scholars generally agree Paul was the author of the book of Romans.

Both Buttrey and He’s answers were deemed incorrect on Wednesday, with a big bet from the former making He the champion for the day. But as many scholars weighed in online, a different ruling would have given Buttrey his first win of the tournament and evened the matches at one win apiece.

So far, however, there’s been no correction from the Jeopardy! crew. And since the tournament has been pre-taped, the results are unlikely to change. But it’s certainly giving biblical scholars something to talk about this week, which is always fun.

You can watch the full highlights for Game 3 of the Tournament of Champions — including the final controversial question — above.

It’s always time for a classic Manhattan cocktail. But cards on the table, right now is when they really start to hit that perfect sweet spot. The mix of rye whiskey, herbal bitters, sweet and botanical vermouth, orange oils, and dark cherry just sings more brightly when the snow is about to break out in the air and the weather is cold enough for a crackling fire.

And with Thanksgiving just about here, now feels like the perfect time to break out the classic Manhattan. Like today. And tomorrow. And maybe all of next week.

The best part of this recipe is that you can dial it into your current palate and adjust it as you go. Some people find the whiskey a bit much. In that case, add a little more sweet vermouth. Likewise, if you like your cocktails on the stiffer side, dial back that vermouth and add a splash more whiskey.

All of that said, the perfect sweet spot (for anyone with good taste me!) is below. It’s a 5:1 mix of rye whiskey and sweet vermouth. That allows the whiskey to shine through clearly while adding just the right amount of herbal sweetness to calm things down and create something greater than the individual parts.

Okay, that’s enough preamble. Let’s get stirring up some cocktails!

Also Read: The Top Five Cocktail Recipes of the Last Six Months

• Our ‘Perfect Whisky And Coke’ Recipe Uses The Last Brand You’d Expect
• The Hemingway Daiquiri Is A Deeply Refreshing Summer Cocktail — Here’s The (Very Simple) Real Recipe
• The Godfather Is A Simple Scotch Cocktail To Power You Through Winter
• Recipe: The Amaretto Sour Is The Ideal Cocktail To Close Out January
• The Tom Collins Is A Classic Cocktail That’s Perfect For The Hotter Days Ahead

Manhattan

Ingredients:

• 2.5 oz. rye whiskey
• 0.5 oz. sweet vermouth
• 2 dashed of Angostura Bitters
• Orange peel
• Black cherries
• Ice

Naturally, the whiskey is the most important component here. I like to stick with rye and a good one at that. Per my own Thanksgiving tradition, I like to make what I call a “$50 Manhattan” with Michter’s 10-Year Single Barrel Rye. The rye really helps this cocktail sing. There’s a beautiful layer of soft green herbs that leads to creamy notes of cherry, vanilla, and apple fritter which all really meld nicely with the botanical and herbal notes from the bitter and vermouth. Yes, it’s a spendy bottle, but it’ll make the best damn Manhattan you can get.

When it comes to sweet vermouth, I’m using Noilly Prat. There’s a nice subtly to the French fortified wine. It’s not overly herbal or woody but has a nice sense of sweet spice next to tart red fruits and slight caramelization.

What You’ll Need:

• Coupe, Nick & Nora, cocktail glass, or lowball (pre-chilled)
• Mixing glass
• Cocktail strainer
• Barspoon
• Jigger
• Fruit peeler
• Garnish stick

Method:

• Prechill the glass in the freezer, preferably overnight but an hour or so is fine.
• Grab a mixing glass. Add the rye, vermouth, bitters, and a large handful of ice. Stir the drink until the glass is ice-cold to touch (about 15 to 20 seconds).
• Use the strainer to pour the cocktail into the pre-chilled glass.
• Peel off a thin orange peel and express the oils over the cocktail (bend the orange side of the peel toward the glass between your thumb and index fingers gingerly). Discard the peel.
• Spear two cherries. Place them on the rim of the glass. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is a truly phenomenal cocktail. The rye whiskey shines through and becomes a softer and more floral spirit with this sense of soft botanical sweetness. The orange oils, which are often skipped, help tie this whole cocktail together. They add a counterpoint with brightness and slight spice that’s very Christmas-time, especially with the woody botanicals in play.

Overall, this is the perfect cold-weather sipper that’ll last you through February. It’s spiced, herbal, full of orange, and has a wonderful whiskey depth with just the right amount of soft brightness, kind of like the sun cutting through the clouds on a snowy day.

Ticketmaster seems to really be doing their best to get everybody to dislike them. This past Tuesday, the ticketing giant’s servers were flooded with millions of Taylor Swift fans (and bots) who were attempting to purchase pre-sale tickets for Swift’s The Eras Tour. Ticketmaster grossly underestimated the demand for the stadium concert tour and the servers frequently crashed, booting users who were in the queue and worst of all, denying them the ability to purchase tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert. Fans were up in arms and even congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sounded the alarm.

Now the situation has gotten even worse. It seems as though there was so much demand for these pre-sales and priority access sales, that Ticketmaster has made the decision to cancel the general public on-sale window that was set to begin tomorrow altogether. “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been canceled,” read a cut-and-dry tweet from the official Ticketmaster Twitter account.

“Reality is, it’s a function of the massive demand that Taylor Swift has,” Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei said earlier in a feeble attempt to explain how the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster platform had failed to account for the supply and demand of the very industry that they appear to dominate (and nearly monopolize). “The site was supposed to be opened up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans. We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots — another story — which are not supposed to be there.”

So it seems as though there were so many pre-sale purchases, there was likely not even a need for a public on-sale to begin with. Business and political implications aside, the cancellation of the public on-sale leaves countless Taylor Swift fans out in the cold. This is not how fair market ticketing is supposed to work.

Bizarrap has finally released his highly-anticipated “BZRP Music Sessions #50” video. The Argentine producer teamed up with rapper Duki for his latest session that was released last night (November 16).

In 2019, Bizarrap launched the “BZRP Music Sessions” on YouTube, where artists spit rhymes or sing over his hip-hop beats with an electronic edge. This past year, his recent sessions have gone viral. In March, Puerto Rican rapper Residente used “BZRP Music Sessions #49” as a diss track against J Balvin. The video for that session has over 130 million views. Bizarrap achieved the biggest hit of his career with “BZRP Music Sessions #52” featuring Spanish singer Quevedo. In July, the song topped reached the top spot on Billboard‘s Global 200 chart.

Bizarrap notably held off from releasing “BZRP Music Sessions #50” and kept the collaboration a surprise up until last night. Instead of collaborating with more international artists, he kept it local by working with fellow Argentine act Duki. Duki is one of the leaders in Argentina’s Latin trap wave. Bizarrap backs him with triumphant trap beats as he raps about his come-up as an artist while proudly representing their country. “I accomplished my mission as a rapper / Bought my mom the house she wanted,” Duki sings in Spanish. “Session #50” feels like a victory lap for Bizarrap following his global success this year.

Bizarrap has yet to release “BZRP Music Sessions #42,” so it will be interesting to see who is featured on that track. When Bad Bunny‘s World’s Hottest Tour visited Argentina earlier this month, he brought out Duki as a special guest to perform their song “Hablamos Mañana” live.

It has certainly seemed a long time coming, but Brockhampton’s final album as a group, TM, arrives tonight after what was originally billed as that album, The Family, turned out to be more of a Kevin Abstract solo album. The group surprise-announced TM after fans were baffled by The Family‘s exclusion of most of the members of the massive, self-described boy band, leaving fans to wonder whether all of Brockhampton’s dramatic pronouncements over the past couple of years had just been theater. Some also wondered whether, with two new albums to promote, the group might head out on a farewell tour.

However, it appears that the answer is, conclusively, no. TM will apparently be an album of unfinished cutting room floor material, described in a press release as “an album made up of songs that were started by the group during a two-week stint in Ojai, California in 2021, but were never fully completed during those sessions.” And since The Family consists of Kevin Abstract’s solo tracks, it seems unlikely that he’ll need Bearface, Dom McLennon, Joba, Matt Champion, or Merlyn Wood around to help him perform them.

There is good news, though. The group will play one last show on Saturday, November 19, at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, and it will be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video’s Twitch channel for the world to watch as they take their final bow.