Category: News

Ahhh, Spring. A time of renewal, a time of rejuvenation. A time to get outside and enjoy the warmer weather. To soak up the sun after a long, cold winter stuck indoors … unless that is, you’re a TV fanatic. Then Spring is a time to use your chronic allergies and the onslaught of dormant cicadas as logical excuses for why you’re spending most of your free time staring at a small box.

Look, nature’s overrated but this lineup of upcoming TV shows landing on streaming platforms and cable networks sometime this Spring isn’t. So craft whatever ridiculous excuse you need to in order to binge these comedies, dramas, and steampunk fantasy series dropping in the next few months.

Loki (Disney+ series streaming June 11th)

WandaVision got surreal, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is getting real, and Loki will likely live up to his Trickster reputation and be entirely unpredictable. Presumably, he’s still in possession of the Tesseract, and time travel will be an element of this series, but where he goes from there, one can only guess. What we know for sure is that a prison jumpsuit is involved, Loki’s still got daddy issues galore, and naturally, he’ll always be burdened with glorious purpose. Tom Hiddleston sliding back into mischief-making mode is always a pleasure, so June 11 can’t come soon enough. — Kimberly Ricci

Made For Love (HBO Max series streaming April 1st)

A nightmare relationship scenario is run through a sci-fi filter with Made For Love, kicking up fears of tech overreach, the loss of privacy, and the erosion of what makes us singular beings when we’re paired off. Add in the suddenly relevant scenario of being locked in with one person and one person only for a long-assed time, and Made For Love may feel a little too real. But as terrifying a cerebral sci-fi horror as it seems, there’s also the potential for absurdist comedy in this latest showcase for the talents of Cristin Milioti, who with this and time loop sci-fi comedy Palm Springs, now becomes the unquestioned Queen of unintentionally relevant quarantine entertainment. — Jason Tabrys

Shrill: Season 3 (Hulu series streaming May 7th)

The important thing to know about Shrill is that Aidy Bryant is the best. There are other things to know, sure, like how the first two seasons navigated issues about body positivity and the journalism industry and the difficulties of navigating both of those first two things when you are a woman who is not proportioned like a Barbie doll. The show returns for a third and final season this May and, while all of it is worth mentioning for any number of reasons, the thing you’ll probably end up taking away from it is the same thing that led this blurb: Aidy Bryant is really, really good. It’s great she got a shot at a lead role and it would be great if this leads to another shot soon, too. — Brian Grubb

The Nevers (HBO series streaming April 11th)

If you look past the Joss Whedon of it all — and hopefully, you can — The Nevers is a terrific fantasy drama. Set in Victorian Era England, this steampunk period-piece sports major X-Men-but-with-corsets vibes. Picking up a few years after a mysterious event leaves a select group of Londoners with extra-ordinary abilities, the show centers on two gifted women running an orphanage that provides sanctuary for these “Touched” individuals. There are underground orgies galore, plus a handful of kick-ass action sequences and some intricate world-building, but it’s the show’s leads — Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly — that really make this thing worth watching. — Jessica Toomer

Invincible (Amazon Prime series streaming now)

This animated romp will please both fans of The Boys and The Walking Dead, and the latter reference has everything to do with the source material penned by Robert Kirkman. Invincible is an ultraviolent and somehow fresh-feeling deconstruction of the superhero, and yes, we’ve seen plenty of dismantling already, but this story has heart, not to mention a stellar voice cast. Stephen Yeun makes a fantastic leading man here, and the rest of the cast (J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Zazie Beetz, Zachary Quinto, Mark Hamill, and several TWD names) is ridiculously good. — Kimberly Ricci

Mythic Quest: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series streaming May 7th)

The first season of Mythic Quest was a blast. The show followed the development of a fictional video game from creation to completion, but it was barely about that, really. Co-creator and star Rob McElhenney turned the whole thing into an occasionally sweet, occasionally touching, always fun look at a kind of found family of weirdos. And that was before the show got to its quarantine episode, which premiered very early in the COVID panic and still somehow hit every aspect of it right on the head. Mythic Quest is good. The cast is great. Charlotte Nicdao puts on an acting showcase. And there’s even a surprise Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti sighting. What’s not to like? If season two is half as good as the first, it will still be twice as good as most other shows on television. — Brian Grubb

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 4 (Hulu series streaming April 28th)

It’s been nearly two years since the last season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale premiered so you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Elisabeth Moss has become one of TV’s most watchable revolutionaries. She ended season three by shipping a bunch of innocent children across the border to Canada and resolving to destroy Gilead from the inside — well, her character June did anyway — and that plan hasn’t changed. Expect more political maneuverings and underground rebel factions and flashbacks for some characters who were sidelined a bit last season. — Jessica Toomer

Mosquito Coast (Apple TV+ series streaming April 30th)

Leftovers star Justin Theroux returns to series television as the head of a family on the run that’s trying to work through the kind of problem that seemingly can’t be easily solved. Adapted from a novel written by Theroux’s uncle, Paul, and adapted previously by Peter Weir with Harrison Ford in the lead, Mosquito Coast’s first trailer promises a whole lot of tension and globe-trotting adventure. — Jason Tabrys

Law And Order: Organized Crime (NBC series premiering April 1st)

Chris Meloni’s departure (and the way that Elliot Stabler was written out of SVU) always left an unsatisfying taste in the mouths of this long-running series’ fans. The good news, though, is that it’s all water under the Brooklyn bridge because Stabler is coming back to his old stomping grounds. The crossover episode with Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T will launch the show, and from there, it is all Stabler, all the time. Meloni’s movie and TV career outside this universe were worth the time blip, yet there’s no place like home for this ill-tempered detective, who will surely have to adjust his behavior in a TV-cop landscape that’s quite unlike the atmosphere of yesteryear. — Kimberly Ricci

Mare of Easttown (HBO series premiering April 18th)

We’re solidly in the age of Peak TV which means seeing god-like movie stars grace our puny small screens isn’t as shocking these days. But, come on! It’s Kate Winslet people! The premise for this crime drama centering on a small-town detective with her own dark hang-ups was good enough to get Winslet to do a TV show and that’s a good enough excuse for us to watch. — Jessica Toomer

Solar Opposites: Season 2 (Hulu series streaming now)

Season one of Solar Opposites featured one of last year’s single funniest (and best) episodes in “Terry And Korvo Steal A Bear,” the so-called wall episode where producers injected an epic life and death fight into a show about crash-landed aliens at once struggling to blast out of here and also fit in. And now the show is back, stocked with the same kind of big imagination that affords producers Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan an opportunity to grow a pandemic era surprise hit into the kind of cultural behemoth that they’re already familiar with, in their work on Rick And Morty. — Jason Tabrys

Chad (TBS series premiering April 6th)

Let’s explain the idea of Chad first. That will help. The show stars Nasim Pedrad — the female former SNL star — as a teenage boy named Chad. The show was originally ordered by Fox way back in 2016 and now is set for a first season at TBS five years later. It’s cool that the show has survived over this tumultuous half-decade of development, if only because it’s so ambitiously strange and sweet. It’s a grown woman playing a teenage boy who is trying to navigate high school and blend in while also understanding his Persian identity. Pedrad has a history of pulling off this kind of trick, though, at least in sketch form, so the show should be an interesting experiment at worst and a potentially eye-opening sweet little slice of life at best. — Brian Grubb

Rutherford Falls (Peacock series streaming April 22nd)

The absence of Parks & Rec and Schitt’s Creek leaves the quirky community comedy with a heart hole that Rutherford Falls is eager to try and fill. Whether people are ready to laugh at anything even vaguely connected to tense real-world conversations about heritage, relocated statues, and local politics is an open question. But with a talented cast (Ed Helms, Schitt’s Creek alum Dustin Milligan, and Jana Schmieding), Parks co-creator Michael Schur involved as a producer, and a clever first trailer, there are compelling reasons to see if Rutherford Falls can build on its potential and stick its landing. — Jason Tabrys

Ziwe (Showtime series premiering May 9th)

If we’re looking for bright-spots gifted to us by the last year or so in lockdown, multihyphenate comedian Ziwe has to be high on the list of things that got us through. A writer for Showtime’s Desus & Mero, the funny-woman gained an eye-popping following with her entertaining Instagram Live sit-downs last year before dropping an album early in 2021. So yes, she can really do it all and she’s out to prove that with her own variety series that leans on her improv roots and recruits some famous names — think Jane Krakowski, Jeremy O. Harris, Cristin Milioti, and more — to come play in her inventive comedic sandbox. — Jessica Toomer

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Disney+ series streaming now)

The wheel-O-nostalgia has finally reached The Mighty Ducks and pulled Emilio Estevez back into one of his most significant on-screen roles in years alongside the always fantastic Lauren Graham. But it’s really all about the kids, and this batch has the right amount of quirk and precociousness to connect in the way that the original cast did with their peers in the ‘90s. The show seems hyper-focused on the hazards of overparenting and crushing expectations in youth sports, allowing for a “let kids be kids” rallying cry that should resonate across the board, allowing this to be about more than seeing Gordon Bombay live to quack again. — Jason Tabrys

New England Patriots offensive lineman Justin Herron was enjoying a walk and a light workout at Kiwanis Park in Tempe Arizona on Saturday, March 20.

However, his beautiful day was thrown into chaos when he heard the screams of a 71-year-old woman. The retired school teacher was being accosted by a 30-year-old man who attempted to sexually assault her.

Herron was shocked to see such a horrifying act happening in an open field in broad daylight. Without thinking, the athlete jumped into action, by running over to the victim and screaming for help.

“I’m a football player, so I’m kind of a big,” he said according to CBS News. “I try not to be too aggressive knowing that I could hurt somebody. I do have a loud voice. I yelled, told him to get off of her, and then yanked him off and I told him to sit down and I told him to wait until the cops come.”

“All I could do was thrust myself over there and help the victim, make sure that I could comfort her and be the best person I could be to her around her,” he said.

Herron was assisted by Murry Rogers who was scouting locations at the park for his 15-year-old daughter’s birthday. He helped to detain the suspect, Kevin Caballero, while Herron got the victim to safety.

The two men forced Caballero to wait at the scene of the crime until police arrived. It’s safe to assume that Caballero didn’t try anything funny or attempt to run away. Who would mess with a 6’5″ 300-pound NFL lineman?

Herron moved the victim away from the scene of the crime so she could collect herself and begin to heal.

On Wednesday, the two men were presented with Outstanding Service Awards by the Tempe Police Department. “You see it in movies and TV all the time, but you never think it’s going to happen in real life until it does. In that moment, I was in shock,” Herron said at a press conference.

“It was terrifying to witness,” Rogers added.

“If not for the swift actions of Mr. Justin Herron and Mr. Murry Rogers, this vicious attack could’ve been much worse,” Tempe Police Detective Natalie Barela said.

The two Good Samaritans were briefly reunited with the victim before the press conference.

“It was heartwarming to see her, but also gut-wrenching to see how she responded to the trauma and how she’s dealing with it,” Herron said according to CNN. “No one should go through that.”

“She thanked us. She called us her angels,” said Rogers. “I’m a little bit of a crier, so it was very emotional.”

Caballero was charged with kidnapping and attempt to commit sexual assault, police said.

Herron played 12 games for the Patriots last season after being sidelined with an ankle injury. He was a sixth-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft out of Wake Forest College.

Since Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” ended its eight-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart a few weeks ago, the top spot has been more of a revolving door. Following Rodrigo, Drake and Cardi B have had No. 1 songs, and now Justin Bieber is adding his name to that list: On the Hot 100 chart dated April 3, his Giveon- and Daniel Caesar-featuring single “Peaches” is No. 1.

While this is the first chart-topper for Giveon and Caesar, this is Bieber’s seventh No. 1 song. This latest placement moves Bieber up some rankings of all-time chart prosperity. “Peaches” is his 23rd top-10 hit, which ties him with Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, and Whitney Houston for the 13th-most ever. This is also his fourth song to debut at No. 1, which ties him with Drake for second place on that list and puts him one behind Ariana Grande’s five. Since Justice also debuted at No. 1, Bieber is now just the third artist (and first male solo artist) to have a song and album debut at No. 1 in the same week, after Taylor Swift (who has done it twice) and BTS.

Naturally, Giveon is thrilled with his new achievement, as he tweeted, “Wow my first number 1! [trophy emoji] shout to my brother JB for letting me be apart of this moment. It feels even better cause I caught one with the bros.”

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

Add Russell Crowe to the ever expanding list of cameos for Thor: Love and Thunder. The Gladiator star has reportedly joined the film and has been spotted partying with the cast and crew in Australia. Crowe was seen as recently as Friday, March 26 with both director Taika Waititi and star Chris Hemsworth at a rugby match along with Natalie Portman, Isla Fisher, and Hemsworth’s wife Elsa Pataky. Via Deadline:

Crowe’s role is being kept under wraps and the hope was to surprise fans with this fun cameo when the film was released, but following recent photos of Crowe hanging out with the cast all over Australia, Deadline has confirmed he is in the movie. Insiders say Crowe is one of many surprises to come out of the film, with Matt Damon also confirmed to reprise his cameo from Thor: Ragnarok.

Taking place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder will focus on Tessa Thompson’s character Valkyrie and her search for a queen as she takes the throne as King of Asgard. After sitting out Ragnarok, Portman will reprise her role of Jane Foster, but this time with a very significant twist as Foster follows in her comic book counterpart’s footsteps and becomes The Mighty Thor. In a major casting coup (besides Crowe, of course), Christian Bale will make the leap from DC Comics to Marvel as he takes on the role of Gorr the God Butcher, a character from writer Jason Aaron’s epic comic book run who does exactly what his name implies: Murders gods across all space and time.

(Via Deadline)

Things have been going great for upcoming R&B artist Fousheé lately. Last week, her breakout hit “Deep End” made history by being the first single by a Black woman to hit the top 10 of the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart in over 30 years. Now, she has a new collaboration with one of the biggest names in hip-hop history, as she and Lil Wayne have shared a video for the uplifting “Gold Fronts.”

Fousheé spoke about the track with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and explained how she and Wayne came to collaborate:

“I was like, ‘How did you find me?’ And he was like, ‘Well, I’m not really on social media. I don’t search for artists. I have two TVs in my skate room. One is on ESPN, one is on Revolt, and the TV just plays music videos back to back. It’s like, if you end up on that screen and I like you, then I know it’s meant to be.’ And then he was like, he was skating and he saw the video, the ‘Deep End’ video. And it stood out to him because he thought it was like a movie. […] Then he saw me pull out a guitar and he was like, ‘No, stop. Stop the music,’ because I guess he was playing music. […] And he stopped and he listened to it. He was like… he really liked what he heard. The guitar stood out. It’s crazy.”

Check out the “Gold Fronts” video above.

The Internet has been so very excited about the massive ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal (yeah, this is totally gonna be a movie someday) for a week. The thing got pried loose on Sunday night and stuck again and set free again, and no one really knows how this all happened, other than weather (blame everything on the weather). With all of the fuss (including a very interesting Kirstie Alley tweet) ongoing, Netflix tweeted about one of the biggest ‘ships known to its streaming service, and that would be Lucifer‘s will-they-or-won’t-they relationship between Chloe and the Devil himself.

“Love it when a massive ship gets back on its course,” reads a Netflix tweet.

Fans will recall that the detective and the fallen angel actually did hook up in the first half of Season 5 (the second half hasn’t been released yet), after Chloe got over being justifiably angry about being created as a miracle who’s intended for Lucifer. However, their official coupling-it-up moves actually messed sh*t up for Lucifer because Chloe gained Lucifer’s mojo ability (and could use it on him). Also, there was a faux-Lucifer running around at some point, and things got even messier than that after the hook-up, so long story short, it didn’t work out. Yet fans are still holding out hope (as they do), and with Season 6 being announced as the final run, fans started wondering when Season 5B would show up. After a flurry of replies and the rumor mill beginning, the official Netflix and Lucifer Twitter accounts made it official: May 28.

Co-showrunner Joe Henderson has weighed in, too, while thanking fans for the marvelous Twitter sentiment as the cast and crew wraps shooting on Season 6.

Hand modeling seems like a good gig. Just imagine having hands so beautiful that someone else is willing to pay you so that millions can see your paws in high def. But being a hand model probably isn’t all trashing hotel rooms, hanging out with actual famous people, and putting on velvet-lined gloves in slow motion.

It’s probably a lonely existence, as well. Each day you have to live in fear that something might happen to your moneymakers — ’til you end up carefully wrapping your meat hooks in oven mitts just to keep them safe.

If all that doesn’t sound too bad to you, well, we’ve got an opportunity to get you hyped on. It comes courtesy of the Spaghetti Western-referencing whiskey brand Fistful of Bourbon. The expression is a blend of five straight bourbon whiskeys with a name and marketing that offers a nod to the 1964 classic Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood.

Playing to their rough and tumble, dusty, western aesthetic, Fistful of Bourbon is in search of what they’re calling a “SpokesFist.” To track the right mitt down, the brand is holding an open casting call. If you meet their criteria of having a badass fist with great grip-ability, a very steady hand, and maximum clenching skills, you can grab yourself a $100,000 contract to star in a new media campaign.

If somehow you think your fist is worthy of this acclaim, you can apply beginning on April 13 here or by responding to the Fistful job posting on Indeed.com.

The Brooklyn Nets have positioned themselves as the presumptive favorites in the East and, for many, have surpassed the reigning champion Lakers as the favorites to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy this summer. With Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving all on the roster and, in the brief spell they played together, bludgeoning opponents on offense, they are simply a difficult team to pick against in a seven-game series.

The Nets also have been the biggest winners on the buyout market this season, landing Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge to bolster their frontcourt rotation, which was their biggest question mark. Now, the efficacy of Griffin and Aldridge, particularly in aiding the Nets below average defense, remains to be seen, but if nothing else they have built a roster capable of deploying a tremendous amount of lineup options, depending on what their opponent does in a playoff series. They can go small or big and maintain their elite level on offense with the moves they’ve made, and while defense may still be the lingering question, it may not matter.

Some have seen Brooklyn’s acquisition of Griffin and Aldridge, former All-Stars who have maybe lost a step or two from their peak, as “unfair.” For Griffin in particular, he’s found that criticism amusing because, as he told reporters on Monday morning, he spent the last year plus hearing about how bad he was while in Detroit.

There’s something to both sides here, as Griffin has a point that he’d been effectively left for dead in terms of being considered a positive player, but suddenly by joining the Nets he’s tabbed as an All-Star talent again and makes them unfair. On the other hand, Griffin isn’t a superstar capable of carrying a team as a first option anymore, as his knee injury suffered the last time he dragged Detroit to the playoffs has taken some of his burst away, but when asked to be a fourth option, he’s incredibly overqualified for that role.

Griffin does have a very good point about how quickly perception flips of a player the moment they join a contender, as we’ve seen with Blake and his old running mate in Detroit, Andre Drummond, now that he’s joined the Lakers. This is in part because fans of those teams will overhype their new acquisition, but it’s also because the buyout world is, really, an overcorrection in terms of reassessing a player’s value. On a max deal, an older star on the decline is a negative asset, but to go from that to being on a veteran minimum contract makes them an overwhelmingly positive one, especially since they are almost always coming in willing to take a much lesser role just to be part of a winner. Griffin certainly falls into that category, and at least he can find the humor in how quickly he’s gone from being called washed with the Pistons to an unfair advantage for the Nets.

Mark Wahlberg claims that his “typical daily schedule” involves waking up at 2:30 a.m., multiple workouts, and going to bed at 7:30 p.m. So where he does find the time to make movies, run a burger emporium, and hang out with his entourage? We’ll find out in Wahl Street, an HBO Max series that offers viewers “a glimpse into global star Mark Wahlberg’s life as he juggles the demands of a rigorous film schedule coupled with an ever-growing network of diverse businesses including his clothing line, Municipal; his gym studio, F45; restaurant chain Wahlburgers; and his production company, Unrealistic Ideas.” I am exhausted reading that — and I didn’t even wake up at 2:30 a.m.

Along the way, viewers will learn powerful business and life lessons as he navigates the numerous challenges of a global pandemic, all while trying to maintain and expand his vast portfolio. Wahl Street will also introduce the cast of colorful characters that make up Wahlberg’s real-life entourage.

The trailer above for the six-episode series includes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams (that’s strong HBO synergy right there), or as I will call her from now on, the Direwolf of Wahl Street. (Sorry… but also not sorry.)

Wahl Street premieres on April 15.

Lil Nas X is very, very good at trolling his critics on the internet. Whether through direct responses to his detractors like Joyner Lucas and Dave East or more subtly calling out the hypocrisy behind negative commentary against him, Nas X has shown himself to be one of music’s most creative clap-back connoisseurs.

In the wake of his new song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” those critics are giving him plenty of ammunition. On the day of the song’s release, he gave a measured response to the complaints against the video, joking, “Y’all love saying we going to hell but get upset when I actually go there.” After five days of escalating attacks though, he’s going on the offensive.

“OMG if you roll down your window at Chic Fil A playing ‘Call Me By Your Name’ they give u a free sandwich and a lemonade,” he tweeted, slyly pointing out how the restaurant chain had reportedly spent millions supporting anti-LGBTQ groups such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Paul Anderson Youth Home. Nas, who is gay and pointed out how the “Montero” video was a commentary on anti-gay messaging in pop culture, warned his haters: “I had 9 months to plan this rollout. Y’all are not gonna win bro.”

Some fans are already taking his advice to heart, tweeting their own joking — and polar opposite — results after trying out his tip.

Nas also continued his campaign of mockery against the Satanic Panic by sharing an extended version of “Montero.” You can check that out here.