Category: News

The Better Call Saul Lie Detector Test is a weekly recap of the major events of the final season, separated out by their apparent truthfulness at the time. This is not one of those recaps that gets into granular detail about things. It will miss the occasional callback or foreshadowing. But it will be fun. Sometimes, that’s what’s important.

Season 6, Episode 13: “Saul Gone”

Saul Goodman will run out of tricks at some point

The thing about a guy like Jimmy/Gene/Saul is that the brain never stops working the way it works, even if sometimes he might want it to. Even this episode, when he was caught in a dumpster and plastered to the wall by various branches of the government for all of the various crimes we’ve seen him commit over multiple seasons of two television shows, he still was gaming potential outs for himself. A career-obsessed prosecutor’s fear of losing a big case, a potentially sympathetic story about big bad Jesse Pinkman hunting him down and getting revenge (lol), information about Howard Hamlin’s murder (whoops), all of the angles he sees and plays, all of the pressure points he knows how and when to push, just instinctively and almost involuntarily. He’ll still be doing it all in one way or another until he dies as a superstar in that supermax prison, and yes, I would also watch that show, too. I’m not innocent in all of this either.

Even his big Coming Clean moment in the courtroom, where he strapped on a shiny suit one last time and declared it showtime, as he was blowing up the sweetheart deal he had wiggled himself into, he was still running a con. He wanted Kim there to hear his big speech, to be in the room as he owned up to a lifetime of stuff he’d been running from, but the only way he knew to get her there was to raise the specter of more harm to her via his potential testimony. It worked out for him, kind of, to the extent anyone talking themselves into an additional 80 years of maximum security prison can be considered “things working out,” but he did get that small smile out of her and one last shared cigarette. All things considered, that is substantially more than nothing.

It was also a nice touch, this business of continuing to remind us who this dude is, for better and worse. He’s a charmer, a manipulative weasel, but also a sweetheart, kind of, which is how he survived so long being those first two things. Look at both of the speeches he gave about his first meeting with Walter White, the one when he was trying to get a shorter prison sentence and the one where he was tossing that sentence straight into a toilet. Neither of those sets of facts were entirely true. Both were spun and tweaked to play a specific hand the way he wanted to play. I don’t even know if he could tell it straight if he tried. It would make him a deeply frustrating dude to know and associate with (please look at Kim’s face throughout this entire final season for confirmation), but it also made him a fascinating television character.

Saul Goodman has been in my life in one way or another since the second season of Breaking Bad. We’re going on 13 years here, real time. And I could easily go for more. I was serious about that jail show. Then give me a prequel about one of the characters he meets there. Chain Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould to a wall and force them to make product for me like the meth-Nazis did to Jesse Pinkman. It’s not an unreasonable ask.

The people who make this show are bad at their jobs

Speaking of Gilligan and Gould… damn. Just a killer one-two punch of closing episodes. They did the thing a lot of shows do where a lot of the heavy action goes down the week before the finale — bus crying, Life Alert pendants, etc. — and then the last hour or so is spent sifting through the wreckage of the things that got broken, but still, man, I don’t know how you could have done it much better. I did not even expect to get a little emotional from one character doing finger guns at another and yet, there I was, a little misty as Kim walked away one last time after one last shared cigarette.

Speaking of that smoke… what a cool little moment. The shots line up really close with the first time they shared a cigarette way back in the first season, which really slams home just how much has changed for both of them in the time between those puffs. These two…

became these two…

… and ruined any number of lives in the process, most notably their own. It all created a cool bookend for the series, a sweet little moment brought back in new circumstances, with everyone changed in exciting and worse ways. The lesson here is that we should all start smoking cigarettes.

Wait. No. That’s not the lesson. Give me a second. I’ll figure out where I was headed with that.

Bill Oakley had a lot of fun

Poor Bill. Look at this from his perspective:

• Agreed to come on as advisory counsel in the hopes of making a name for himself with a big case
• Had his advice repeatedly ignored
• Watched his client talk himself into almost a century of jail
• Got a mean look from a U.S. Marshal on an airplane
• Got yelled at by the judge a little bit when he tried to quit in the middle of the hearing

Tough run for Bill.

This was a happy ending

I mean… kind of? It was kind of a happy ending? Maybe as happy as any of us could have expected. I don’t even know what would count as “a happy ending,” now that I type this all out. These are people who did bad things. People are dead. More than a few. This was never going to end with Jimmy and Kim on a beach on some little island sipping mai tais. It couldn’t have. It shouldn’t have. It would have been deeply unsatisfying. Actions have consequences. Walter White died at the end of Breaking Bad because he was always headed in that direction, cancer diagnosis or not. Jimmy ended up in prison because he was always headed in that direction, too, dating way back to his days as Slippin’ Jimmy. That cigarette and finger gun and smile is as close as any of them — or any of us watching at home, considering we knew what we were getting into here — deserve in the direction of happiness.

I do wonder what all of this means for Kim, though, going forward. She seemed to find joy in her brief moments volunteering at the Legal Aid office, even just answering the phones. I don’t know if there’s a future there beyond that for her, if only because admittance to a state’s bar usually includes a Character and Fitness assessment and “recently wrote a sworn affidavit confessing to a number of crimes and ethically dicey activities done in cahoots with a current SuperMax inmate who is so infamous that fellow prisoners chanted his catchphrase on a bus” might torpedo that pretty fast. And there’s also the thing where none of what Jimmy said in court undid anything she said in that affidavit. She’s still going to get sued into oblivion by Howard’s widow and will forever be tied to Saul Goodman by anyone who knows how to operate a search engine. It’s not ideal.

But she did get closure. And she’s moving in a better direction. And Jimmy seems to be doing okay in prison. So… happy ending? You could spin it that way if you really tried.

Better Call Saul will go down as a better show than Breaking Bad

CASE FOR:

• I liked it more
• It took the comic relief from one iconic show and twisted it into a dramatic tour de force of its own, which is kind of impossible
• Introduced us to both Kim Wexler and Lalo Salamanca, two of the best television characters of the past decade for very different reasons

CASE AGAINST:

• Better Call Saul only exists because of Breaking Bad, which actually counts as another point for the original
• Breaking Bad had more shots of a violent meth kingpin running around in his underpants, which I enjoyed
• If you don’t say “Better Call Saul was better than Breaking Bad” out loud to anyone, they won’t start yelling at you about it

VERDICT

Please do not yell at me. I am doing the best I can.

I would watch a whole standalone movie about just the news coverage of the events from this episode

Hmm. I think I would. Probably. Just two hours of breathless news anchors with $800 haircuts recounting the story of the New Mexico attorney who helped a drug lord build an empire and then disappeared and was arrested in a dumpster in Nebraska sometime later. Interviews with Marion about how she figured it out. Whole primetime specials with the employees at the Cinnabon who only knew him as their manager, Gene. Shots of Marion at home watching that primetime special and doing a smug little smile because she went all Murder, She Wrote on the whole thing. Clips of comedians doing bits about him getting arrested in a dumpster. Marion watching those clips. And so on.

The takeaway here is that maybe I just want a movie about Marion. One where she catches the investigation bug and goes around looking into another crime. Put her on a cruise ship and let her solve a murder. I am increasingly serious about this.

It was nice to see old friends one last time

A slew of familiar faces in the finale. Just a parade of them. Mike was there in the beginning with a flashback to the desert for the first time machine conversation, one in which he once again lamented the course of his life after taking his first bribe in Philly in 1984. Walter was there later, being a huge prick about the time machine hypothetical because Walter is a man of science and also just kind of a prick in general. Marie was there to remind everyone that Hank and Gomie had died just a year earlier and there is still real hurt out there from the things Walter and Saul did. Chuck was there to center everything once again and drive home how that relationship is one of the things that set Jimmy on the course to Saul and then Gene. It was cool.

It also, like, worked. There’s a fine line between doing these things to drive home a point or a theme through callbacks and doing these things just as a blatant attempt at fan service. Running out a bunch of major characters from the shared universe like this could have teetered over into that second thing on a lesser show. Easily. You’ve seen it happen. But here, it felt… I don’t know, right? The Jimmy —> Saul —> Gene journey is fascinating and it sent him hurtling through a bunch of different worlds. He brought up the time machine a lot because it’s a fun conversation to have but, also, as Walter identified, it’s a good way to play back regrets and redo them to make yourself the victor. It all set up the speech in the courtroom where he got to hop in a metaphorical time machine to try to atone for the things he did, for Kim more than the judge.

It was a good piece of business. I also whooped a little when I saw Walter again, just because I am at heart a trained seal who will clap when instructed. I feel okay about it.

I am going to miss this show a lot

Yes, yes I am. Again, we’ve all spent over a decade in this universe. We know the characters better than we know some of our real neighbors. We met new ones in this show that might be the best ones of the whole endeavor. I am going to miss them all a lot. Mike’s grumbling, Saul’s scheming, Kim’s facial expressions, Lalo’s… well, everything about Lalo. I really loved that psychopath.

But it’s also the comfort of knowing you are in good hands. There are so many shows now. It’s hard to know what’s good and what’s worth your time and what’s going to go off the rails and what’s going to get struck down by the streaming gods after two seasons. These shows were just good, all the time, right up through the end, made with care by people who respected both the craft and the audience’s time. Go to a message board and look at all the callbacks this episode dropped into the action. These people loved making this show a lot and it came through on the screen. It was a hell of a ride. I’m glad I was on it but I’m sad it’s all over.

I need to know what color Jimmy’s outfit was

Legitimately hilarious that the last time Jimmy went full Saul was in the black-and-white timeline and the suit he was wearing — clearly shiny and loud in classic Saul fashion — was rendered moot to the audience at home. I laughed out loud. And then I got mad that I didn’t get to see what colors he wore for his last big speech. This will tear me apart. It’s probably not the appropriate note to end on for my final recap of the final episode of one of the best shows ever, but… like… come on.

I’ll get over it. Probably. Maybe. By the time Jimmy gets out of prison, at least.

Sometimes we just want a bit of laughter in our lives and this clip from “Celebrity Family Feud” where Kristin Chenoweth goes head to head with Kathy Najimy hits the spot.

The two women were competing against each other for their respective charities and the stage was set for some wholesome fun. But the round started off with an extremely awkward bit of hilarity when Chenoweth gave her first answer on “After the lips, what’s your favorite part of a man to kiss?”

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“Rhymes with heinous,” Chenoweth said to a stunned reaction from the contestants. It even momentarily left host Steve Harvey speechless and the show bleeped out her answer. Because, as the name clearly implies, this is a family show!

In fairness, Chenoweth’s answer wasn’t nearly as racy as it sounded. Harvey and Najimy’s faces displayed what everyone was thinking before the other contestants weighed in. Of course, the whole episode wasn’t about Chenoweth, it was full of chuckle-worthy moments as Harvey asked each contestant the same question. When Mona Najimy answered the question with “chest,” Harvey quipped back, “That’ll get you a new car Ms. Mona.” The fun didn’t stop there.

Watch the clip below:

While Chenoweth was the first to toss out an inappropriate answer for the host, Najimy did the same, leaving the host dumbfounded. But it’s all in good fun for a good cause. Najimy’s team won the round and thanks to the two actors, the internet won this hilarious gem.

Pigskin has already proven to be extremely useful for treating wounds, due to being genetically similar human skin. But can it cure blindness? The science seems to lead toward yes.

Giphy

A new study, published in Nature Biotechnology, revealed that 14 out of 14 blind patients significantly restored their eyesight—with a few even achieving perfect 20/20 vision—after receiving bioengineered implants made of collagen, a protein found in human skin, and, you guessed it … pigskin.

Each of the patients, all in Iran and India, suffered from a progressive condition called keratoconus, where the cornea (the transparent layer that covers the pupil and iris) thins and gradually bulges outward into a cone shape.

Corneal damage is one of the leading causes of blindness globally, and though it is currently treatable through transplants, there is a low amount of human donor corneas available, especially to those with low to middle income.

Being a food byproduct, pigskin is not only accessible, but a much more cost-effective transplant material. That’s what makes this study and its findings so potentially groundbreaking.

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How scientists created the implants is cool too. Pig collagen was first liquified. This in itself is no easy task, as the material is “prone to degradation.” But after using the same techniques that keep collagen-based skin grafts stable, researchers created a transparent, implantable hydrogel that can mimic a human cornea. On first glance, it could be mistaken for a contact lens.

After surgeons make a small incision into the patient’s cornea, the hydrogel is inserted, which thickens the cornea and allows doctors to improve its curvature. The results, though varied, were dramatically positive. Meaning, at worst, some still had to use corrective lenses. And at best, some gained perfect vision.

Overall, this procedure could be cheaper, quicker and less invasive than traditional cornea implants. And perhaps safer, considering there were no adverse reactions experienced after two years following treatment. Neil Lagali, a professor of experimental ophthalmology at Linköping University in Sweden who co-authored the study, told NBC News, “There’s always a risk for rejection of the human donor tissue because it contains foreign cells. Our implant does not contain any cells … so there’s a minimal risk of rejection.”

There have been several technological advances allowing those with visual impairments to interact with their environment in new ways: apps that allow users to listen to, rather than view, a map of the world around them, smart glasses for both those who are blind and colorblind, even new legislation to make electric cars safer by mandating artificial engine sounds. Even Braille, arguably the oldest form of vision tech, has been given a modern spin with easy-to-use e-readers and electronic toys that teach Braille to preschoolers.

This innovation is yet another huge step for inclusion. According to CBS, Mehrdad Rafat, the researcher and entrepreneur behind the design and development of the implants, said in a press release, “We’ve made significant efforts to ensure that our invention will be widely available and affordable by all and not just by the wealthy. That’s why this technology can be used in all parts of the world.”

Science never ceases to amaze or move us forward.

Parenting is hard for just about everyone. You’re completely responsible for a small human that doesn’t come with an instruction manual, and it’s a case of trying to do the best you can with what you’ve got. Some people seem to think that celebrities should be infallible, so when Kevin Federline shared a video of Britney Spears being stern with her children there was always going to be negative feedback. But surprisingly, the video has, in fact, stirred up more support for the star and her parenting methods.

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If you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time you know that parent shaming is something that comes in like a tidal wave on an unsuspecting parent just sharing their truth. It seems especially vicious towards moms, so much so that the phrase mom-shaming was coined some time ago. Mom-shaming is the act of judging and attacking mothers for their personal parenting choices. But lately there’s been some push back on the normalization of mom-shaming that has been a part of internet culture since mom groups were formed. Parents are daring to show their messy houses and parenting failures on their way to getting things right for their children.

Federline’s reasons for posting the videos of Spears disciplining her children is unclear. Perhaps it was to embarrass her or show her as an unfit parent. But parents across the internet were having none of it. Sure there were a few here and there that criticized, but most comments were supportive of the pop star. Parents are owning that this parenting gig is hard and capturing a few minutes of out-of-context video doesn’t show the whole story and they said just that.

One Twitter user, Ask Aubry, posted the “damaging” video of Spears and said, “Wait, Britney Spears giving her kids clear boundaries, expectations and wanting them to know her worth & value like millions of other parents have in a highly out-of-context and edited video, is Kevin Federline’s ‘gotcha’ moment?” She wasn’t alone in her musing. The Twitter users’ comments were filled with parents agreeing with the sentiment.

Another person with the user name Arcane Saint commented, “I see not one thing wrong with this interaction. I am so upset & heartbroken for Britney 💔💔💔.” Under TMZ’s Twitter feed for the same video, the support was still overwhelmingly evident with many users echoing the same sentiment, that they saw nothing wrong in the video.

It seems the only parent being questioned in the comments is Federline, which may not have been what he was hoping for when he shared these private videos. It appears Spears has plenty of supporters who didn’t take kindly to Federline’s attempt to shame her.

There seems to be a noticeable shift from mom-shaming to mom-supporting on social media, and that can only be a good thing. Parenting is hard enough on its own and co-parenting with someone outside of your home can add an additional layer of hard, especially when things are less-than amicable.

After winning the fight to end her conservatorship in 2021, Spears is under even more scrutiny than the average celebrity. Seeing parents come to the defense of Spears as a fellow parent is heartwarming. Maybe the unintended result of all this could be the two of them working toward a more healthy co-parenting relationship, preferably outside of the public eye.

Kevin Federline Posts Videos of Britney Spears Arguing with Sons

Kevin Federline has had enough of Britney Spears’ public attacks on their two sons, Sean and Jayden, and now he wants to show the world just how contentious he says Britney’s relationship has been with the boys for years.

The massive popularity of Game of Thrones — the TV show — has crested, crashed, and spawned a number of follow-up projects in the wake of a disappointing final season. And amid all of that, creator George R.R. Martin still hasn’t finished The Winds of Winter.

The latest book in his Song of Ice and Fire series has been the object of much interest among Thrones fans, and it’s generally thought that once Martin’s source material ran thin, the TV show lost its way. Fans eager to see what comes next in the book version of the Thrones universe, however, have been disappointed by a number of self-imposed missed deadlines.

There have been chapters and lots of chatter on his blog, but no real pages as of yet. The creative process, despite all those montages you see in movies, is far from linear. Progress comes in leaps and spurts and long periods of inaction are sometimes necessary to get things done. But fans are frustrated, and it turns out that Martin is, too. Which is why he’s done with updates on the project.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Martin lamented the continued questions about his books and said he’s “done” with giving updates until the next book is actually finished. The good news, he said, is that he’s “making progress” despite the lack of concrete proof.

“Oddly enough, although I hate having COVID here, the two years of enforced isolation enabled me to get a lot more writing done, because I was doing a lot less traveling and public appearances and speeches and all of that stuff,” the 73-year-old said. “I’m making progress, but I’ve given up on any hope of predicting the end. Every time I do, I don’t make it and everybody gets mad at me, and there’s no sense. It’ll be done when it’s done. Hopefully, COVID won’t kill me, so we won’t have that issue. I do find it a little grisly, people speculating online about what’s going to happen to the rest of the books when I die. I don’t like to speculate about that. I don’t feel close to dying.”

This is probably best for everyone, as Martin is likely tired of people asking him when he will finish the books and all that disappointment, to quote The Tragically Hip, was likely getting him down. And despite the nagging feeling that Martin sounds like a guy who is woefully behind on a project that may or may not have any real pages, you have to feel for him. All that pressure that’s already self-imposed is only exacerbated by expectations from the rest of the world. And it’s not like Martin isn’t doing other great work, too. Hopefully he’s really making progress here, but don’t expect to hear one way or another until it’s bound and up for sale.

[via Vanity Fair]

Rudy Giuliani‘s legal situation is not getting any better. On Monday, The New York Times broke the news that Georgia prosecutors informed Giuliani’s legal team that he’s now being targeted in a grand jury investigation that’s been probing Donald Trump‘s alleged election meddling. Trump was recorded asking state officials to somehow “find votes” to flip the state away from Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, and since then, his inner circle have been subpoenaed by the Fulton County District Attorney to determine who was involved.

According to Giuliani’s former aide, Ken Frydman, America’s Mayor knows that this is a “big deal” that won’t end well.

“Rudy flew too close to the sun, he got too close to Trump, he got burned,” Frydman told CNN on Tuesday morning. “He knows how the DOJ works. He knows how the FBI works. He knows these are meticulous investigations. I know he’s nervous.”

Frydman also had a grim prognosis for Giuliani’s current strategy. Via Mediaite:

While Frydman urged the media to wait and see how the case plays out, he explained that Giuliani is “nervous” about the investigation “because he knows he lied to legislators.”

“He knows that he concocted this scheme. He knows he lied for his client, and he knows we all know,” Frydman said. “I think, at this point in his life, his goal is to die a free man.”

Of course, the big question is whether Giuliani will roll over on Trump, and Frydman would not be surprised if that happens. “If this is a RICO case, Trump’s at the top of the pyramid and Rudy is one brick below, so they’re obviously squeezing him for anything that could incriminate the president,” he told CNN.

(Via Mediaite)

Earlier this summer, fans of Desus & Mero were heartbroken to learn that New York’s best comedy duo was on the rocks and that there was potential beef between the pair, who have been working together for over a decade. They later confirmed that they would be “pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward,” and Desus Nice seems to have landed his first post-Showtime gig as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night.

Of course, he couldn’t host an entire show without referencing his former stint on Showtime while making jokes about being on network TV. “Listen, it’s weird to be hosting a show on network TV because I was on Showtime for the past four years, where they pretty much let you say what the f*ck you want.”

Nice then went on to do a standard late-night monologue, touching on various hot-button topics like the FBI and Donald Trump. He then criticized Trump’s claim that he was able to take court documents with him to his golf club while taking a slight dig at himself. “When you get fired from the office, you don’t get to take the Xerox machine home with you. When I got fired from Showtime, they don’t let me bring home the cast of Shameless.” Maybe not Shameless, but he probably could have gotten a nice guest spot on Yellowjackets.

Nice hasn’t confirmed what his next move will be, while The Kid Mero confirmed that he will be focused more on writing during the next phase of his career. Nice recently made a guest spot on the Derek Jeter documentary The Captain, and hopefully will get to do more late-night standup… although Showtime can’t be thrilled about this bit!

Cobra Kai‘s fourth season finale did not go too well for the good guys or, for that matter, the villains who aren’t quite as bad as the show’s ubervillain, Terry Silver. He had positioned himself as the most dastardly karate guy in existence, even putting John Kreese behind bars, so that Silver can launch a zillion Cobra Kai franchises after paying off a judge (to make a bad call) during the All Valley Tournament. As such, “No Mercy” is going to spread everywhere, and we’ve already heard that Silver will bring Mike Barnes back from The Karate Kid III obscurity. As this Season 5 trailer shows, Silver’s also recruited a female sensei, and one can only guess what havoc they will all wreak.

In the meantime, the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang guys, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, are picking up the pieces of their combined dojo, and as this trailer shows, it’s full-on war for the soul of the Valley. Sure, Silver has a ton of fresh recruits, but if we’re talking about the adult characters that we know/love, they’re all banding together against Silver. Hell, even Chozen is back and fighting alongside Johnny (!). It’s a sight that no Karate Kid franchise fan ever would have dreamed about after the O.G. movies, but subverting expectations is part of what this Netflix show does so beautifully. That’s in addition to harnessing a degree of almost unparalleled cross-generational appeal.

It’s almost time for Season 5. From the synopsis:

Following the shocking results of the All Valley Tournament, Season 5 finds Terry Silver expanding the Cobra Kai empire and trying to make his “No Mercy” style of karate the only game in town. With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence setting karate aside to focus on repairing the damage he’s caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend for help.

Netflix’s Cobra Kai returns on September 9.

Blackpink continues their rollout for “Pink Venom,” the group’s comeback single, with a thrilling teaser for the song’s upcoming music video. In typical Blackpink fashion, it appears to be colorful and high-concept, borrowing looks from postapocalyptic cyberpunk movies like Blade Runner 2049 and pairing punchy modern production with a traditional Korean zither. “Pink Venom” is set to drop this Friday, August 19. The single will precede the arrival of Blackpink’s sophomore album, Born Pink, due September 16. You can check out the teaser above.

In addition to releasing their sophomore album, the band is planning a 27-city Born Pink World Tour, kicking off with two nights in Seoul in October and running through spring of 2023. But first, they’ll be performing at the 2022 MTV VMAs, along with fellow performers Jack Harlow and Lizzo. The band appears to be going strong, even as individual members start to receive solo recognition. Last year, group member Lisa made her solo debut with Lalisa, which included a video for the title track, while Rosé garnered attention for a string of cover performances that earned her a spot on Variety‘s “Power Of Young Hollywood” list earlier this month.

But with all of that, fans still can’t get enough of Blackpink as a band, and can’t wait to see what they do on their next album.

Born Pink is out on 9/16 via YG Entertainment.

Singer and former One Direction member Zayn rarely mentions his days in the boy band, however, he took to Instagram yesterday to sing a fan favorite from the One Direction catalog. In a black-and-white clip, Zayn sings the chorus of “Night Changes” from the band’s 2014 album, Four, which was also Zayn’s last album with the group.

“Everything that you’ve ever dreamed of / Disappearing when you wake up / But there’s nothing to be afraid of / Even when the night changes / It will never change me and you,” he sings in the clip.

Zayn also revisited his 1D days back in June, when he sang a portion of “You & I” from the band’s sophomore album, Midnight Memories.

Could this mean a One Direction reunion is imminent? Given Zayn’s ex-bandmate Liam Payne’s recent comments about the singer during Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, it’s probably best we don’t hold our breath.

“Before we go too deep into this, there are many reasons why I dislike Zayn, and there are many reasons why I’ll always always be on his side,” Payne said. “….You can always look at the man for where he is and say ‘Oh yeah, whatever, that guy’s a d*ck. But at the end of the day … you understand what he’s been through.”