Category: News

Along with Coachella, San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival is easily the most comprehensive music fest on the West Coast. While last year’s heavily-costumed edition took place over Halloween weekend as pandemic precautions delayed it a few months, Outside Lands 2022 is back to its usual early-August weekend and the newly announced lineup has a little bit of everything. Green Day, SZA, and Post Malone are headlining the three-day affair, which goes down from August 5th to 7th at one of the greatest venues in country, Golden Gate Park.

The first batch of artists on the lineup following the primary headliners is likewise stacked with Jack Harlow, Phoebe Bridgers, and Weezer coming next. Also performing are Lil Uzi Vert, Ilennium, Kali Uchis, Disclosure, Mitski, Anitta, and Mac DeMarco. And while this is looks like a top-heavy affair on the surface, there’s a seemingly endless list of diverse acts that standout like Pusha T, Kim Petras, Dominic Fike, The Marías, Larry June, Wet Leg, Pussy Riot, Robert Glasper, Griff, Cassandra Jenkins, L’Rain, Duckwrth, and more.

The SOMA Tent also makes its return this year, making it so that the indoor dance music tent seems to be here to stay. While it’s a bit antithetical to the concept of “outside” lands, it was obvious that the festival needed to bring this type of element into the fold so this year’s acts like Claude VonStroke, Tokimonsta, Dixon, and others could play in the club-like atmosphere that their music is best suited for.

Tickets to Outside Lands 2022 are on sale now here and check out the same link for the full lineup and additional details.

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

Phil Collins and ex-wife Orianne Cevey, Collins’ third wife, have had a long and complicated relationship. They married in 1999 and divorced in 2008, with Cevey receiving a $47 million settlement from Collins. However, they reunited in 2015: Collins told Billboard in January 2016, “I bought [a house in Miami] about six months ago. I’m actually back with my third wife — I haven’t really talked about it. We’ve been together for a while, and nobody’s noticed.”

Things soured after that, though, when Cevey eventually took over Collins’ mansion with her then-new husband. Speaking of the husband, there have been fascinating developments there, too. Cevey married Thomas Bates secretly in 2020 but they’re now in the midst of divorce proceedings. That process has been enlightening, as Page Six reports Cevey found Bates (while still living with Collins) on a male escort site called Cowboys 4 Angels, where Bates described himself as a “sexy intellectual.”

Divorce paperwork reads, “At the time the parties met, Husband was employed by an escort service. […] The Wife selected Husband through the escort service and insisted on dating him. The parties’ relationship rapidly progressed into a meaningful romantic relationship. Wife persuaded Husband to leave the escort service to marry her.”

The situation took a turn after they left Collins’ home. The paperwork notes of an incident in which Bates returned to his and Cevey’s shared home after spending Thanksgiving with his family:

“Wife, who has a ferocious temper, threatened Husband with bodily harm (by cutting off his private parts) when he asked for his clothes and personal property. The Wife, who has earned a 3rd degree black belt designation and is trained in boxing, previously physically assaulted Husband on several occasions prior to separation. On one occasion, Husband had to scream for the housekeeper to help him exit the house to avoid Wife’s assault. […] Husband voluntarily vacated the marital residence for his safety.”

The divorce was made public in December 2021, when Cevey wrote on Instagram of the dissolution of her marriage, “I believe the emotional distress of the COVID quarantine caused me to act in ways and do things that were out of character.”

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, Episodes 1 and 2: “Wine and Roses” and “Carrot and Stick”

Everyone is doing great

Let’s round these up via bullet point first and then dig in more later. There is so much to get to and to remember. Efficiency is important:

• Lalo and Nacho are both on the run, headed in different directions, with bounties on their heads from various sources in the wake of Nacho setting Lalo up to be assassinated and Lalo going full Kevin McCallister in his compound to thwart the killers
• Gus doesn’t believe Lalo is dead and is, like, weirdly intense about it
• Kim is fixated on destroying Howard and is playing the heavy in other ruses and just all-in-all is kind of going jet black in the eyes when she talks about it, not entirely unlike a demon
• Saul is slipping up and calling Lalo by his real name in front of the DA he lied to about it all

A reasonable argument can be made that Mike is doing the best of anyone, which is saying something because Mike had to talk Gus out of kidnapping Nacho’s dad and just generally has not smiled since the mid-90s, if even then. What a wonderful show. I’m so glad it’s back.

Better Call Saul should stop doing montages

See, there’s confidence in storytelling, in knowing your characters well and then things that motivate them, all of which Better Call Saul does and has done and presumably will continue doing. But please, imagine the bravado it takes to come back after a two-year absence and roll right into a wordless five-minute montage of a mansion getting emptied out at some point in the future. Five minutes! I counted! That’s incredible to me. As is the fact that it was riveting. A more eagle-eyed viewer with a better memory of the various developments in this universe could probably have a party picking out the various items and their various significances. I’m stuck on the gold toilet. I’m a simple man.

It’s a good reminder that no show does montages like this one. There’s an art to it, really, to telling and furthering a story like this. You probably thought we were going to check in with Gene at that Cinnabon. Joke’s on you, buddy. We are doing five minutes — FIVE MINUTES — of treasure hunting before anyone says a word. Buckle in.

Gus Fring’s biggest problem is his natural inclination to trust people

Gus is so cold. He’s not happy with “everyone is dead and the authorities say the charred body is Lalo.” I’m not sure exactly what would satisfy him here I mean, he’s right, as usual, because Gus is extremely good at crime, but still. Living life with your radar tuned that sensitive can’t be fun.

Picture Gus at, like, Chili’s, as the waiter brings him a quesadilla with onions on it even though he asked for none. I have this image in my head of him burning a hole with his eyes through some poor kid, like, “Samuel… why have you done this? What is the meaning of these onions? Was I not clear? I always attempt to be clear. Is this… some sort of message, Samuel?”

My point here is that the people at the table with Gus probably leave an extra big tip. Poor Samuel.

Betsy Kettleman seems happy and well adjusted

Heyyyyyy it’s the Kettlemans! I missed these rascals. Look at Craig just bopping around like a dope and Betsy shooting venom through her two front teeth when she says their children have to go to public school now. Awful people. Miserable through and through. But I still got all smiley when they popped back into the action and got hosed once again. Give me a whole show about them getting walloped with karma. I’m barely joking.

This is one of those things Better Call Saul does better than most shows, this dipping back into its own lore to mine gold. The Kettlemans, Kevin Wachtell in the country club, all of it. The whole universe is stuffed with these perfect little characters they can pull out of the bullpen to fire heaters for a few minutes. Yes, sure, I might need to Wiki it all a little to remember the significance of each person in the story, but whatever. I have time. I’m not a very busy person.

Howard Hamlin has a cocaine problem

What I mean here isn’t so much that Howard has an addiction to cocaine as it is that people are starting to think he has an addiction to cocaine, thanks to Saul and Kim and their various ruses and/or antics. It’s not easy to convince someone you don’t have a cocaine problem, even if you really don’t, because the more excited and paranoid and defensive you get about it, the more you come across as a person who has been doing a lot of cocaine. Real dilemma here.

Also, not really the point here, but… imagine Ed Begley, Jr. asking you if you’re doing drugs. That would be so weird. I do not think I would like it. No thanks.

Kim is heading down a dark path

I’m still kind of torn on this one.

On one hand, again, the demon eyes and the thing where she says “enough carrot” and almost ruins the Kettlemans and the thing where she seems to be getting a kind of sicko pleasure out of all of it that not even Saul gets. Like, he does this stuff as a means to an end. She’s doing it… kind of for kicks? It’s strange. She’s teetering toward becoming the Joker.

But.

On the other hand, I still refuse to believe this all ends with Kim dying or falling victim to various cartel-related retribution. I think the most likely thing is that she gets caught screwing around and gets in trouble — possibly disbarred — and moves back to the Midwest to get away from it all.

Still. Kim has a lot going on. She’s going a little Walter White here. We will continue to monitor this.

It would be cool to know a safecracker

Mike and his crew busting into Nacho’s safe and swapping in a new one to plant evidence for the Salamancas to find raises an important point: Do you think it would be fun to know a safecracker?

I’m on the fence. It seems like it would be cool because you could call him up and crack safes and find jewels and things, but also… what if you have a falling out one day and he cracks your safe? That’s where your stuff is. It’s too risky. Kind of like a Scorpion and the Frog situation. Please do not crack my safes.

Being followed by a mysterious car is probably fine

The second episode ended with a mysterious car rolling into the frame all ominous-like. This seems bad. But, also, we don’t know who is driving it, so… it could be good, too. You don’t know. What if it’s Santa Claus? No way to rule anything out just yet.

You should be nice to Lalo Salamanca

There is almost no limit to the amount of time I could spend watching Lalo Salamanca do, well, anything. Eating, running, giving grooming tips, holding scissors in a way that implies murder, reciting the alphabet in Spanish one letter at a time to translate a message from Hector, all of it. He fascinates me, this charisma bomb of a man who goes dark sometimes and becomes the most efficient killer since John Wick. “Be nice,” he says, moments before you hear tussling and gunshots and see him emerge with a wad of cash to be redistributed among travelers. A perfect television character. I love him.

I am also terrified of him and what his next steps are. Everyone but Gus and Hector thinks he’s dead. He’s driving back into Mexico for proof Gus called for the hit. We know Gus survives into Breaking Bad, so Lalo isn’t getting revenge soon. I don’t know. I would kind of be fine with this entire season just following him on his various missions. No Saul, no Kim resolution, nothing. Everyone else would be so mad.

Mike is the best… even when he’s being the worst

Look at Mike stare at people. Look at him refuse to let Gus go after Nacho’s dad. He’s old and not that strong in physical combat anymore, one assumes, but he gives off the single most “Do not screw around with me” energy of any character on the show and maybe on all of television. He’s the best. Even when he’s being awful. Mike Ehrmantraut remains a land of contrasts.

This was an important episode for air conditioners and toilets

I’m still not over the gold toilet and I probably won’t be for a while, but it was somehow not even the most important toilet-related moment of the two-part premiere. That honor goes to Saul flooding the toilet in the country club as part of the cocaine ruse. That was a fun sentence to type.

And yet, with that said, the toilets weren’t even the most important Home Depot-related product from the action. That honor goes to air conditioners, both the one in Nacho’s room that was malfunctioning and the one in the shack across the yard that tipped him off to the dude in there spying on him. That was a nice piece of business. I didn’t even get it at first. I thought he was just staring at it in envy because it looked cool and nice compared to his sweltering room. Because I am an idiot.

It did not go too great for Nacho after that. There was a shootout and various Salamanca cousins and all of it. He’s going to have a rough stretch here. I worry about him. Maybe more than Kim. Which is weird. I have much to consider.

We are on the verge of chaos

Hell yeah, buddy. We sure are. And I love it. Better Call Saul was gone for too long and is only back for a bit before it leaves us for good. We must savor this. We must not take it for granted. We must embrace the coming chaos.

Let’s ride.

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

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got new music by Kurt Vile, Phoebe Bridgers, Faye Webster, and more.

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

Kurt Vile — Watch My Moves

It’s been four years since Kurt Vile last released an album, which is pretty unusual seeing the former War On Drugs guitarist typically drops a new project every year or two. But with his latest LP Watch My Moves, Vile shows it was worth the wait. The sprawling album is packed with laid-back tunes and meandering melodies. “I think my records are always enough of something new in my evolution,” Vile told Uproxx in a recent interview. “I’ve always got new things to say.”

Alex G — We’re All Going To The World’s Fair

Alex G just dropped his first new collection of songs since his 2019 album House Of Sugar. The singer’s project is the soundtrack to the upcoming film We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, and as such, it’s not your typical Alex G album. For one, the album is almost entirely instrumental besides the album closer “End Song.” Some songs like “Stitch” feature jarring ambient chords while others like “Are You In Trouble” sound more like the rest of Alex G’s tender catalog.

Prince Daddy & The Hyena — Prince Daddy & The Hyena

Albany, NY-based four-piece Prince Daddy & The Hyena has quickly emerged as one of modern emo’s buzziest bands, and their new self-titled album shows why. The 13-track LP moves between relentlessly ripping tracks and passionate power ballads, drawing inspiration from vocalist Kory Gregory’s fear of death, which was worsened by a scary car accident in 2018. “I think the record as a whole, as a journey, feels bittersweet and hopeful in a way,” Gregory said about the self-titled effort.

Phoebe Bridgers — “Sidelines”

Ahead of her captivating Coachella performance last weekend, Phoebe Bridgers returned with the brand new track “Sidelines.” News of the new song promptly crashed her website thanks to excited fans, but the wistful single doesn’t point to an upcoming project anytime soon. Rather, “Sidelines” was written for the upcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends (she’s been a longtime fan of the author) and features Bridgers’ earnest reflections on mortality and emotional vulnerability.

Faye Webster — “Car Therapy”

Atlanta indie songwriter Faye Webster announced the new project Car Therapy Sessions, an EP of new and reimagined songs backed by a full orchestra. It’s lead single “Car Therapy” displays Webster’s versatile songwriting, transforming a contemplative ballad into a nostalgia-inducing and cinematic masterpiece.

Built To Spill — “Gonna Lose”

After several successful decades as a band, Built To Spill announced their eighth studio album and Sub Pop debut, When The Wind Forgets Your Name. The album isn’t out until September, but they’re keeping fans excited for the release with the new track “Gonna Lose,” a frenetic tune that combines catchy refrains with feverish guitar riffs.

Saya Gray — “Saving Grace”

Musician Saya Gray has positioned herself as one to watch with a pair of previously released singles. Now offering another look at her upcoming debut album 19 Masters, Gray drops the captivating track “Saving Grace,” a song that features intricate chords and Gray’s soulful vocals for an overall soothing single.

Bruce Lee Band — “I Hate This!”

Bruce Lee Band first made a name for themselves with witty ska-punk hits on their 1994 debut. Decades later, Bruce Lee Band are still kicking and a year after their EP Division In The Heartland, the group is back to preview the upcoming LP One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. The new track “I Hate This!” gives a taste of the raucous week-long session that the album was recorded in, featuring propulsive refrains and catchy lyrics over impressively fast-paced beats.

The Walters — “Million Little Problems”

Indie-pop band The Walters are making their Warner Records debut with Try Again, an album that marks a new direction for the LA-by-way-of-Chicago band. The lead single “Million Little Problems” shows what made fans initially fall in love with The Walters’ platinum-selling track “I Love You So,” boasting playful melodies and dreamy guitars.

Tomberlin — “Sunstruck”

Tomberlin is just over a week away from the release of her sophomore album I Don’t Know Who Needs To Hear This…, sharing one last look at the album with the serene and confident new song “Sunstruck.” Tomberlin explained the song holds similarities to a love song, but isn’t exactly a love song. “It is more a love song to forced distance, time alone with yourself, letting go, searching for yourself and the healing that takes place when you make those things an active focus in your life.”

Wild Pink — “Q. Degraw”

A year after Wild Pink’s most-acclaimed album A Billion Little Lights, the band is back with another captivating track, “Q. Degraw.” The pastoral track includes heavily distorted guitars and lyrics that mirror the warped instrumentals. “This song is about my experiences with some health problems and how an extremely stressful situation can sharpen your focus on what’s important in life,” vocalist John Ross said. “It’s also about how that stress can sometimes cause you to dissociate from yourself.”

Mt. Joy — “Orange Blood”

Five-piece indie group Mt. Joy announce their third studio album with the carefree title track “Orange Blood.” The impassioned song was inspired by a transformative trip the band took to Joshua Tree, which is reflected in the single’s sunny chords and airy melodies.

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

A federal judge has ruled that Georgia voters can proceed with legal efforts to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for re-election due to her alleged involvement in the January 6 insurrection, and she’s not taking the news well. Hours after the ruling on Monday, Greene popped up on noted testicle tanner Tucker Carlson‘s show to rail against the “progressive” and “leftists” seeking to block her campaign.

“It is not [democracy], Tucker, that is the thing. These people hate the people in my district so much,” Greene ranted.

Via Newsweek:

“They look down on them because they voted for me and sent me to Washington to fight for the things that most Americans care about, like secure borders, stopping abortion, protecting our Second Amendment, stopping the out-of-control spending in Washington, stop funding never-ending foreign wars.”

Greene also argued that the January 6 riot is “something I was completely against,” which is not entirely true. In October 2021, she was named in an explosive Rolling Stone report that linked Greene to “dozens” of meetings and planning sessions leading up to the MAGA rally. While Greene has gone on to denounce the “political violence” that took place, she publicly defended the January 6 attackers less than 24 hours after the Rolling Stone report was published.

“Jan. 6 was just a riot,” Greene said during a Real America’s Voice appearance. “And if you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants.”

However, Greene’s “Declaration of Independence” quote was cited in the lawsuit seeking to stop her re-election campaign. With Monday’s ruling, it appears her words will be coming back to haunt her, and she won’t be able to wave them away like she does on Fox News.

(Via Newsweek)

Roseanne Barr is still on Twitter, but her tweeting has slowed down considerably since Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. The comedian is an avowed Trump supporter, claiming that she was fired from the Roseanne revival (which was later reworked into The Conners) because she “voted for Donald Trump and that is not allowed in Hollywood.” In actuality, she was axed from the sitcom for her “abhorrent” and “repugnant” tweet about Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarret.

In the new documentary, Roseanne: Kicked Out of Hollywood, Barr blames the reaction to her racially-charged tweet on the media and cancel culture and liberals, and everything and everyone but herself. “Witch-burning is what it is. Intellectual witch-burning, and arrogance and ignorance,” she said, via the Daily Beast. “All of the press of the United States and the world, how they interpreted my tweet without any knowledge of the fact that I was sending it to a journalist in Iran about what was happening to the people in Iran. We’re under such terrible censorship. It’s just terrible and frightening.”

Barr also said that around the time of the tweet (2018), “everyone was begging me to give up my Twitter. Everyone,” Barr recalls. “My kids were trying to lock me out, but I wouldn’t! Because it’s like, I just couldn’t. I’m a goddamn American, I’m not going to do it. I’m a comic, I’m a bad girl, I’m too rock ’n’ roll. I’m going to say f*ck it and f*ck you ’til I take my last breath.” How long before Roseanne opens for Kid Rock instead of Trump?

(Via the Daily Beast)

Iconic indie group Wilco have been celebrating the 20-year anniversary of their beloved opus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The band, led by amazing songwriter Jeff Tweedy, is currently on their special run of shows, celebrating the album in New York and Chicago. Last night they brought the sprawling track “Poor Places” to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert for its network television debut, inviting the Aizuri Quartet to contribute layers and make the sound even richer and bigger.

Along with this stunning performance, Wilco are releasing seven special editions of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, including a box set with 11 vinyl albums, one CD, and a book. It will contain demos, instrumentals, show recordings, radio interviews, and more.

This follows Tweedy’s confession last month that the band is working on a new LP: “It’s almost entirely because I’ve been in the studio with Wilco making some new music, chipping away at a new record. It’s been very, very fun and exciting and we’re having a great time,” he said. “Next time we should be able to get back to some normal correspondence. If I can get everyone in the Wilco braintrust on board, maybe I’ll share a snippet of a work in progress or something like that over the weekend behind the paywall.”

Watch Wilco perform “Poor Places” on Colbert above.

The latest season of Jaden Pinkett Smith’s candid talk show Red Table Talk, which she hosts with her daughter Willow and mother Adrienne Banfield Norris, will premiere this week with another round of intense, deep conversations. The long-awaited trailer just dropped, featuring a wide range of dramatic conversations about family, trauma, and, of course, scammers!

Noticeably absent from the trailer is any mention of the infamous Oscars Slap which brought an unwelcome amount of attention to the Smith family. It’s likely that the season was filmed months ago, and even if it wasn’t, it seems like the family will be dealing with that whole situation internally…for now.

Guests from the upcoming season include singer and actress Janelle Monae, who opens up about her father’s harrowing drug addiction. Monae is also joined by her mother Janet Hawthorne. Also featured on season five of the show will be Kim Basinger, ex-wife of Alec Baldwin, who emotionally retells her traumatic divorce. “I went through a very heavy-duty, out loud divorce,” the Oscar winner says. “I wouldn’t leave the house, I would no longer go to dinner. I had to relearn to drive.”

This season will also feature some tell-all conversations with the victims of some of the highly publicized recent scams, including one of the former girlfriends of the Tinder Swindler, Ayleen Charlotte, and one of Anna Delvey‘s ex-BFFs, Rachel ReLoache Williams.

The fifth season of Red Table Talk premieres this Wednesday on Facebook Watch (yeah, that’s still a thing) at 12 pm EST, with new episodes weekly.

When you think of all-time great beat’em up games a few names come to mind. There is of course Double Dragon, River City Ransom, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but for many the best of them all is Streets of Rage. SEGA’s beat’em up series received a trilogy of games in the 90s and each one was incredibly popular and well received. The story of former police officer vigilantes using nothing but their fists to fight off a corrupt government in a fictional city was just enough of a hook to bring in plenty of fans.

While Streets of Rage 4 wasn’t quite as popular as the originals, its 2020 release managed to hit a decent level of nostalgia that fans were yearning for. This, and also the recent success of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, may have been just the push SEGA needed to greenlight a reported upcoming Streets of Rage movie. According to Deadline, a Streets of Rage movie is in the works and it already has some notable names and quite a resume behind the production of it.

On the heels of its success with Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog films, SEGA has another franchise coming to the big screen with beat ’em up game Streets of Rage getting the film treatment, sources tell Deadline. Derek Kolstad, who created the John Wick action franchise and penned the Bob Odenkirk actioner Nobody, wrote the script on spec.

…

Sonic producer dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists (Equalizer franchise) will produce the film adaptation.

Streets of Rage will be the latest project under dj2 Entertainment’s belt, following Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s impressive box office performance.

It’s pretty cool that the success of Sonic has potentially created the opportunity for fans of other SEGA franchises to get movies made after their favorite games as well. Streets of Rage is a perfect candidate for a movie too, because its basic plot is open to interpretation. It’s also just an excuse to create a bunch of fun action set-pieces. With the right action stars involved this could be another fantastic video game movie — and maybe, just maybe, this is the video game adaptation The Rock was teasing as his next project.

On Russian Doll, death is like a box of timelines — you never know which one you’re going to get.

And sure, the comedy series from Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler asks plenty of existential questions and plays with some trippy metaphors in its first season but let’s be real: we’re here for the purgatorial Groundhog Day hijinks. Ranking all of the bizarre, gruesome, strangely humorous ways Lyonne’s Nadia kicks the bucket in season one may be a bit nihilistic, but it’s also the best way to recap all of the weird time f*ckery that went down before season two. Enjoy.

19. Shock to the Heart

Cause of Death: Alan is moping by the same river Nadia fell into earlier in the season after learning his girlfriend has been cheating on him with her professor. He throws her engagement ring in the water before a power box attached to a light pole sparks, sending an electric jolt through the wet concrete and into the steel railing he’s holding onto.

The Last Word: Is this the most exciting death sequence? No, but it does accurately illustrate how damn unlucky Alan is in life at the moment so, that’s something.

18. The Bees

Cause of Death: Nadia and Alan discuss their shared allergy to bees right before hopping on the subway – which explains how they both end up in their separate bathrooms after a swarm of them causes passengers to run screaming from the tracks.

The Last Word: A “Worst Death By Bees” ranking would likely have this scene in the top five. (Obviously, the number one spot goes to My Girl.)

17. The Ambulance Accident

Cause of Death: Nadia has told Ruthie about her death loop and, because she can no longer blame the drugs, the only reasonable explanation is that she’s gone completely insane. Ruth calls an ambulance to take her to the hospital but on the drive over, a trio of paramedic mama’s boys pisses her off to the point where she tries to jump out of a moving vehicle. The commotion causes the driver to crash and Nadia to land back in the bathroom.

The Last Word: Between the sexist jokes and the medic’s knee-jerk usage of a sedative to calm Nadia down, we can’t say we’re sad to see these bozos say the Big Adios for good.

16. Jay Walking

Cause of Death: After going on an epic tirade Alan gets himself kicked out of Nadia’s birthday party and drunkenly wanders the streets of New York. He pleads with Bea to realize that Mike is a sex addict but before he has time to really make his case, oncoming traffic intervenes.

The Last Word: This is a fairly mundane way to get sent home in a box but props to Alan for using the most of his final minutes on Earth by comparing his girlfriend’s lover to a steaming pile of garbage whose scent even the East River couldn’t drown out.

15. The Take-Out

Cause of Death: Nadia goes off the deep end when Alan decides to clean and organize her apartment after their drunken hook-up. She sends him packing and visits Ruth, snacking on some chicken wings as she opens up about her mother’s mental illness. Sadly, their heart-to-heart is cut short when Nadia chokes on a chicken bone.

The Last Word: Remind us to never order take-out chicken wings in the middle of a death loop again.

14. Swimming With The Fishies

Cause of Death: Nadia experiences her death loop for the first time but all of the deja-vu and existential panic is worth it because she finds Oatmeal again. This time she avoids getting railed by a taxi and ends the night petting her deli cat while perched precariously on a railing overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, as soon as she convinces herself it was the coke-laced cigarette that caused her to hallucinate her own death, Oatmeal vanishes, and she tips in the wrong direction, knocking her head on the way down before drowning in the very polluted waters of the East River.

The Last Word: We don’t know what’s worse: your beloved cat disintegrating Thanos-snap style before your very eyes or living with the knowledge that in some alternate timeline, your dead body is floating in that pit of sludge they call the East River.

13. A Menace

Cause of Death: Nadia is still clinging to the hope that her current mental meltdown has been sparked by whatever Maxine’s joint was laced with so she pays a visit to their dealer, War Dog. Their chat is interrupted by Nadia’s ex, John, who weirdly doesn’t have a great response to her admission that she’s f*cked up on drugs and thinks she might be dead. Go figure. When Nadia starts unloading on him – telling your former boyfriend he really needs to start f*cking other people is some next-level savagery – her rant is interrupted by an opened sidewalk cellar door that she dives headfirst into, knocking a few stairs on the way down before waking up in the bathroom once again.

The Last Word: We don’t care how long you’ve lived there, every New Yorker has an adversarial relationship with cellar doors. As Nadia proclaims, they’re a damn menace.

12. A Menace, Dammit!

Cause of Death: Nadia discovers her very hard, never-ending night might be due to some sh*tty ketamine, but her victorious moment is short-lived… literally. She spots her Bodega guy helping Alan, the man she saw take down a shelf of wine the night before, back to his place and runs after the two. Only problem? Those damn cellar doors are open again and she falls in.

The Last Word: Seriously, f*ck those doors. But also, this one might be on Nadia. If you’ve fallen down the hatch once in your death loop already, you need to be more observant of your surroundings.

11. An Eternal Nap

Cause of Death: After a fight with her ex, Nadia arms herself with a bottle of liquor and goes searching for Oatmeal in the park. She runs into Horse, a homeless man who offers to cut her hair. The two bond over their shared grievances with life and, eventually, Nadia cuddles up with him on the street with just a ratty blanket to keep them warm. She wakes up in the bathroom again, eventually sussing out that she froze to death.

The Last Word: One of the darker ways Nadia “restarts” her loop happens here. Also, the downtown Manhattan mission can, in fact, “eat a dick” for handing out such crappy blankets.

10. Gas Leak

Cause of Death: Nadia goes searching for her favorite book from childhood and ends up at Ruth’s apartment. The two have a loaded conversation about the duality of life with a small aside about a burglar terrorizing the neighborhood before Ruth offers to make Nadia some tea. As she goes to light the gas stove a massive explosion rocks the building sending Nadia hurdling back to the bathroom.

The Last Word: Another character reset that took us by surprise, this one also claims Nadia’s sweet “grandma” Ruthie which is just unacceptable. Do better universe!

9. Don’t Look Up

Cause of Death: After Nadia bails on a pancake breakfast, she meets Alan on the street. The two comically quiz each other on whether they died that day and, just as Alan asserts his theory that they’re dying at the same time, an air conditioning unit falls from a five-story building crushing them both.

The Last Word: Again, Russian Doll is tapped into the everyday fears of New Yorkers in a way that’s starting to feel like an attack on their way of life.

8. Rotting Fruit

Cause of Death: Nadia realizes that all of the rotting fruit is proof time is still moving in some kind of linear fashion which means their death loop likely has an expiration date. As she walks down the street with Alan she sees a vision of herself as a child before stumbling back and telling Alan she thinks she might be having a heart attack.

The Last Word: This marks the first time the deaths start happening because of changes inside the characters which feels monumental … if only we could figure out the reasoning behind it.

7. Asthma Attack

Cause of Death: When Nadia realizes that fruit isn’t the only thing rotting and disappearing because of time – people at her party start dropping like flies too – she takes Maxine and Lizzy with her to find Alan. They get as far as the sidewalk in front of Lizzy’s building before Nadia has a panic-induced asthma attack after seeing another vision of herself as a child.

The Last Word: “You’ve had asthma all this time?” A completely normal question to ask your friend who’s chainsmoked two packs a day for the past 25 years as she bites the dust in front of you.

6. Bodega Bye-Bye

Cause of Death: Nadia drags Maxine and Lizzy to the deli where she meets Alan. They both swap death stories and realize they seem to be dying because of internal issues. For Alan, he suspects his last death was caused by liver failure. Nadia’s was an asthma attack. As he answers Lizzy questions Nadia gets another glimpse of herself as a child only this time, blood starts pouring from the little girl’s mouth which sparks some sort of seizure in Nadia, who dies as Alana yells at her to meet him at his place next time.

The Last Word: Points to Alan here for being so fed up with the death loop that he’s impatient for Nadia to quit her flopping around so they can start this process all over again.

5. Mistaken Intruder

Cause of Death: Nadia still wants to find that damn book but this time, she calls in a gas leak at Ruth’s before commencing her search. She also fails to wake up the woman which might be why a disoriented and terrified Ruth ends up shooting her in the back while she’s rifling through the closet.

The Last Word: This was a brutal death to witness, not only because a gunshot to the back is likely painful, but also because Ruth was the one pulling the trigger – by accident of course.

4. The Elevator Meet-Cute

Cause of Death: Nadia’s late for work after spending the night in the homeless shelter. She gets on an elevator filled with random strangers and Alan who strangely doesn’t panic when the lift malfunctions and starts to crash. When Nadia asks him why he isn’t more freaked out over the likelihood that they’re about to die he replies, “It doesn’t matter. I die all the time.”

The Last Word: What makes this scene really memorable though is that it marks Nadia and Alan’s first official meeting with a cliffhanger ending that totally f*cks with your idea of what this show is up until this point.

3. A Pancake Passing

Cause of Death: Nadia relives some painful childhood memories and decides giving her favorite book to John’s daughter is the way to ensure good karma and maybe even escape the death loop. She pays the girl a visit at the diner, hands over the book, and, before leaving, drops dead. But not before choking on a shard of glass – an allusion to her mother’s mental breakdown – spitting blood all over the poor girl’s face, and once again hallucinating a younger version of herself ominously telling her it’s time they break free.

The Last Word: The only thing worse than seeing blood spurting out of Nadia’s eyes and mouth is the idea that not even a childhood classic by the woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables can save us from this time loop.

2. Stairway to Hell

Cause of Death: After confronting Maxine about the ketamine-laced joint, Nadia heads for the hills but gets as far as the stairs before death decides her time’s up. Thus begins a hilariously bleak montage of Nadia waking up in the bathroom, blaming Maxine (and the universe) for her current mental state, and then tumbling down the building’s flight of stairs, either because she tripped, she knocked into someone, or she was bulldozed over by an impatient partygoer with a high-pony.

The Last Word: The Israeli joint was initially this show’s breakout villain – we thought for a while it might’ve been why Nadia was constantly kicking the can. But after the stairway to hell montage in episode two, it’s pretty clear this whole series is a metaphor questioning the existence of stairs – likely funded by the elevator industry.

1. The Cabbie Drive-By

Cause of Death: Nadia’s birthday is going objectively well. Sure she’s stared down the barrel of mortality but she’s also enjoyed a quick hookup, an Israeli joint, and a birthday chicken. She ends the night by doing some coding on her latest video game before realizing she’s run out of cigarettes. On her way back from getting her nicotine fix she spots Oatmeal, her feline soulmate who has failed to come home for the past three days and makes the mistake no respectable New Yorker ever would – she crosses the street without looking both ways. Really, is it the cabbie’s fault she ends up flying a few feet in the air before slamming her head into the pavement and dying a tragic death, or is it her own?

The Last Word: As Sheryl Crow once crooned, “the first cut is the deepest” and on Russian Doll, the first death is still the best – mostly because you just don’t see it coming. Neither does Nadia.

Netflix’s ‘Russian Doll’ returns on April 20.