Category: News

Back during the early aughts, Geraldo Rivera was handing out U.S. troop coordinates on late-night cable news and getting kicked out of Iraq in disgrace. A lot of time has passed since then, but still, it’s sobering to see Geraldo stand as the voice of reason. He’s repeatedly attempted to talk some reason into his Fox News colleagues over Trump’s election loss, and some of them still aren’t accepting reality. On Monday night, Geraldo had pretty much had enough, and he came with metaphorical guns blazing on Fox News while talking with Charlie Kirk and Brian Kilmeade.

“The president is wrong. There is no avenue left. There was no legislative avenue, there’s no constitutional avenue, there is no judicial avenue,” he (accurately) declared. And Geraldo wasn’t thrilled to see a Mark Meadows tweet that described how Trump was meeting with GOP members of Congress and “preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud.” Given that voting officials across the U.S. have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and Joe Biden has been certified by the Electoral College, Geraldo blasted Trump’s maneuvers as “reckless and irresponsible.”

Charlie Kirk stayed pretty quiet, but Brian Kilmeade stood up for Trump, and Geraldo called him out: “That’s bogus! There’s no way to turn it around! It hurts to say but it is true.” He wasn’t gone yet: “And ‘mounting evidence’? Come on, Brian. There’s not mounting evidence.” Watch below.

Geraldo’s been on quite a mission lately, delivering a snow-bound rant about GOP “knuckleheads” who are still rooting for Trump as president, and then delivering another snowy reckoning (“are you sh*tting me?”) about the “lunatic fringe” who essentially wants Trump to start a civil war. And the Fox News personality is no longer afraid of offending Trump, who won’t take his calls anymore after Geraldo became one of the first prominent conservatives to declare that Trump lost the election. As Trump himself would have said back in the day, the president’s looking “sad!” while kicking and screaming his way out of the White House. That might actually be literal on January 20, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Charlie Brooker could have made a Black Mirror episode about the pandemic, but instead, he’s wishing Death to 2020, a cathartic response to this train-wreck and sh*t-show of a year. But, hypothetically speaking, what would the COVID episode of the Netflix dystopian series look like? Brooker recently answered this very question.

“A weird thing I’ve noticed, and this is maybe just me — and you wouldn’t tell this from Black Mirror — but I’ve always been a very paranoid and worried person who is neurotically concerned that the worst thing possible is about to happen,” he said during a virtual panel for Death of 2020. “And oddly, when this happened, I think on some levels I pivoted to a strange kind of almost optimism, in a way. Because that dread and anxiety of something terrible happening, once something terrible is happening it’s suddenly a real and going concern and you’re not worrying about some great unknown, you’re dealing with an actual situation.” He then laid out his Black Mirror pandemic episode:

If I’d been writing the Black Mirror version of a pandemic unfolding across the panic, it would have been incredibly violent and incredibly — like, society would have collapsed into dust in a thrilling opening credits scene. And actually, generally speaking at the moment thus far… your neighbor is more likely to help you with something than they are to fight you for a bottle of water.”

Hm, no thanks. Samuel L. Jackson saying “f*ck you” to 2020 is a better use of everyone’s time.

(Via the Wrap)

For better or worse, AMC has become The Walking Dead network, especially of late. There are currently three different scripted The Walking Dead series, an after-show devoted to The Walking Dead, an unscripted reality series devoted to Norman Reedus, and during the pandemic, they even had Friday Night with the Morgans, a living-room chat show starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his wife (who will be playing the wife of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character on The Walking Dead soon).

In other words, if you are a subscriber to AMC+ — AMC’s premium streamer — there’s a good chance it’s because you wanted commercial-free early access to The Walking Dead series. Unfortunately, there’s no new The Walking Dead until February 28th, but there’s still plenty of content to keep one entertained over the next two months. AMC+ promotes itself as streaming “only the good stuff” from AMC and its sister networks (IFC, SundanceTV, Shudder, & Sundance Now). It is, however, accurate to say that the streamer carries the best of what those networks offer, and among the offerings on those other networks, there are a lot of hidden gems, great series that have gone under the radar.

Here’s a taste of what AMC+ has to offer in terms of television series.

Orphan Black

Orphan Black, a Canadian sci-fi series that actually was on BBC America, is easily the most recognized on this list, in part because its star, Tatiana Maslany, has three Emmy nominations and one win for playing several characters on this show. The show is a mystery about a woman who is pulled into a conspiracy when someone who looks just like her winds up dead. As she soon discovers, there are several other characters who look just like her, as well. Some are friend, and some are foe. What’s so remarkable about the series is the performance of Maslany, who gives each of these iterations such distinct personalities that it’s often easy to forget they are all being played by the same person. The first couple of seasons are fantastic, although the series does wane as it gets closer to the end of its five-season run.

Dispatches from Elsewhere

Dispatches aired earlier this year on AMC, and it’s such a bizarre (though infinitely compelling) series that it would have had difficulties finding a large audience at any time, but this one also happened to come out during the height of pandemic anxiety. Still, it’s hard to completely overlook a series that stars Jason Segel (who also created the series), Andre 3000, Richard E. Grant, and Sally Field, although it’s the least well-known Eve Lindley who steals the series. It’s a mystery show — basically, an incredibly elaborate scavenger hunt orchestrated by a mysterious entity. It’s trippy, but it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a shame it was so little seen during the pandemic because it is ultimately an incredibly life-affirming show.

Slings and Arrows

One of my all-time favorite shows, Slings and Arrows, is another Canadian series, this one about a Shakespearean festival. I understand why that might sound like the least interesting series on television, but in reality, it’s essentially just a phenomenal workplace drama set behind-the-scenes of a Shakespearean production. It is funny, it is heartwarming, and it is completely intoxicating, and if you need another enticing hook, a young Luke Kirby and Rachel McAdams also star in the later episodes.

DES

In DES, David Tennant plays Dennis Nilsen, a real-life Scottish serial killer and necrophile, who killed at least 12 men between the years of 1978 and 1983. For a show about a serial killer, it’s unusual in that it’s not about the investigation — Nilsen, in fact, confesses in the opening minutes of the series. The rest is an exploration of psychopathy through the police interrogations of Nilsen. Nilsen is remarkable as a prolific serial killer and necrophiliac because (as a person) he is so profoundly mediocre, an ordinary civil servant who would not have otherwise left a smudge on the world had he not killed so many men.

The Cry

Another Doctor Who alum, Jenna Coleman, stars in The Cry, which is about the mystery behind the disappearance of a baby. It’s one of those shows where, every time you think you are about to witness the worst thing that could possibly happen, it comes at you with a revelation that is even worse, something akin to a fictional Dear Zachary. It is very much a show about a situation that is not what it seems, but it’s also not for the faint of heart. It’s a series that delivers one devastating emotional blow after another.

Gangs of London

In the United States, Gangs of London is currently exclusive to AMC+ (it hasn’t even aired on AMC yet). As the logline suggests, it’s the “story of the city being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of the international gangs that control it and the sudden power vacuum that’s created when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated.” That doesn’t tell you nearly as much about Gangs of London as knowing that Gareth Evans is the creator behind it. Evans directed The Raid, and Gangs of London is something akin to a massive, nine-hour iteration of that set in London. In other words, it’s fast-paced, there’s a lot of stylish blood and brutal violence.

Channel Zero

Channel Zero is a creepy, unnerving little anthology series from writer and creator Nick Antosca based on creepypastas (horror-related legends that have been copied and pasted around the Internet, i.e., The Slender Man). Its four seasons originally aired on SyFy so I’m not sure how they found their way to AMC+, but they’re must-watch for horror fans and the first season, especially, should be reserved only for the bravest of souls.

Soulmates

Fans of Black Mirror will also love Soulmates, which comes from one of the writers of Black Mirror. The first season of the six-episode anthology series revolves around a computer algorithm in the future that predicts someone’s soulmate with 100 percent accuracy. Each episode explores how such an algorithm upsets the balance of things, while also investigating whether being with the one you’re meant to be with can actually provide happiness.

Katy Perry’s new video for “Not The End Of The World,” in a way, has been years and years in the making. Towards the start of Perry’s career, she and Zooey Deschanel drew a lot of visual comparisons to each other, so Perry made terrific use of her famous lookalike in the new video, which involves a mix-up between the two. This isn’t the first time Perry used her resemblance to Deschanel to her advantage, as Perry told Deschanel in an Instagram Live chat following the video’s premiere: Perry admitted that before she was famous, she used to pretend to be Deschanel so she could get into clubs.

Perry told Deschanel:

“I have to admit something, Zooey. When I came to LA, I was pretty much a nobody, and you were like just getting so huge at that time, it was like Zooey Deschanel ran the world at that particular moment. Your star was really being born. You have always been everything to me, but in that moment, I was so complimented to look like you. But I have to admit something to you on a Live: When I first got to LA, I went to the club a lot. And I wanted to get into the club, and I had no money, and I had no clout, I had nothing, and sometimes I would pose as you to get into the club.”

Much to Perry’s surprise, Deschanel informed her that Perry’s reveal wasn’t news to her. With a laugh, Deschanel responded, “Well, I know this, because people were like, ‘I saw you!’ But I’m such a goody two-shoes, and as people kept going like, ‘I saw you out! I made eye contact with you,’ and I was like, ‘No!’ Then everybody kept telling me about this girl Katy, ‘Katy who looks just like you,’ and I’m like, ‘Who is this Katy?’ And then when I first met you, I was so relieved because you’re so pretty, and I was like, ‘Oh, thank God. She’s so pretty.’ You never know when people say you look like somebody, what they’re going to look like. But I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s so gorgeous, thank you, compliment.’”

Watch the full chat above, with the club story starting at 7:35 into the video.

It didn’t take long for Billie Eilish to become one of the most successful pop stars in the world. Aside from setting tons of records because of how successful she is at such a young age, Billie has taken all of her fame in stride, and seems to be hard at work on a follow-up to her tremendous debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.

Like most people, she’s had her routines disrupted due to the pandemic, and took to her Instagram stories tonight to tease fans back about how often they tease her over hair. After getting that out of the way, Billie also let fans know that she has lost of new material on the way, and a whole new era is going to begin.

“Ok, I have a fun story to tell you,” she says, kicking off her forward-facing monologue. “But first, f*ck you guys, stop making fun of me, oh my God. I’m f*cking making you an album. I will not put it out if you keep making fun of my hair, shut up! I’m changing it… it will be the end of an era, I’m going to give you a new era. I have announcements to make, I got some sh*t to put out. Anyway, doesn’t matter, leave me alone, let me live with my hair that I’ve had for way too long.”

Yes, let her live so she can stay focused on that new album. 2021 is looking up already.

Rumors about new music have been swirling around Playboi Carti since he teased a collaboration with Travis Scott yesterday, but now he’s firmed things up. Tonight Carti officially announced his latest project Whole Lotta Red will come out this week. Since albums usually drop on Thursday night/Friday morning, and that happens to be Christmas Eve/Christmas day this week, the album will be something of a holiday gift for fans. While there aren’t a whole lot of other details available, Carti did share the artwork for the project and made it available for pre-order on his website.

Here’s the artwork:

And a few tweets echoing the news:

Aside from the collaboration with Travis, not a lot else is known about the release. The artwork says “the wonderful world of red” on the side, along with the phrase “volume one, number one,” but it’s unclear if that has anything to do with a double album or is just for aesthetic purposes. Of course, fans will remember that back in April, Carti released a different image that was assumed to be the cover for Whole Lotta Red, which apparently has either been replaced or wasn’t intended for that in the first place. Unless he decides to drop new songs in the lead to the album release, guess we’ll have to wait until Christmas for more.

Lil Uzi Vert managed to have a very productive 2020, despite the pandemic, quarantine, and general chaos. Releasing his long-awaited Eternal Atake project to acclaim, he followed that up almost immediately with Luv Vs. The World 2, which was initially branded as the “deluxe” edition of Eternal Atake, but included fourteen new songs to basically become a follow-up album.

While Uzi’s contributions to a new hip-hop canon were especially appreciated during a year where a lot of us wanted to escape, the sheer volume of work he released, including a joint mixtape with Future, Pluto X Baby Pluto, had fans worried that his retirement threats just might be real. Well, a message from the young rapper tonight seems to contradict any signs of slowing down.

In an Instagram Live with fans, Uzi shared that his plans to release projects Forever Young and Luv Is Rage 3 are still in full swing. He even floats the idea of debuting both of those projects live first, before they even come out. As starved as fans are for live music right now, it wouldn’t be surprising if that tactic got picked up over the next few months as it becomes safe to go to shows again due to the vaccine. Check out Uzi’s assertion below, and look out for even more music from him coming soon.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Tory Lanez quickly took a nosedive this year after he was involved with the shooting of fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Initially, Megan didn’t disclose Tory was the one who shot her, leading to some confusion when she did confirm he was involved. For his part, Lanez has shown little remorse and been defiant — even going so far as to accuse Megan of framing him — while multiple artists and previous collaborators revoking their verses or features due to his behavior.

After releasing the project Daystar to little attention earlier in the year, Lanez has apparently now released another new body of work, this one called Loner. Ah, clever title. Despite the name, though, the tracklist for the new project is packed with guests, including big hip-hop names like Lil Wayne, Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd, Rich The Kid, and Tyga.

Lanez said on Instagram the project is a “capsule,” dubbing it the rap playlist version, and mentioning either the “island” or “R&B” capsules as potential future drops. Initially slated to come out last Friday, Tory pushed the release back to tonight. Given the reaction of the hip-hop community to Tory’s behavior in his situation with Megan, it seems likely these songs were recorded prior to the drama. But any commentary from the artists involved remains to be seen.

Not only is Rihanna a musician, beauty guru, and fashion icon but now, she’s trying her hand at being a chef. The singer is looking to bring traditional food from her Barbadian roots to the table with an upcoming cookbook.

Rihanna revealed her plans in an interview with the UK tabloid Closer this week. Apparently, the inspiration to start a cookbook came from having the time to make home-cooked meals in lockdown. The singer said she “loves food from my Barbadian roots,” primarily the use of fresh fish. But even with the healthy options, Rihanna said Caribbean cooking can also lend itself to comfort food like mac ‘n’ cheese, shepherd’s pie, and rum punch (which are among her favorites).

Elsewhere in the interview, Rihanna spoke about how quarantine offered her a much-needed break from her busy schedule. “I love what I do – but I am always busy and quarantine gave me the time to do things I wouldn’t always have been able to do – watch an entire box set in a day, cook, go for walk,” she said. “It’s important we do little things we enjoy and are kind to ourselves.”

With her newfound down-time, the singer added that she’s been able to unlock a new kind of creativity. “At first it was strange because I am not used to being still – but during quarantine you have no choice but to be still,” she said. “Then you start to realize during lockdown you are stuck there with your own thoughts and your imagination and it really helped my creativity blossom.”

Rihanna has yet to unveil more details about the cookbook project. Lately, the singer has been preoccupied with her new beau ASAP Rocky, but time will tell when the singer is ready to announce the endeavor.

It’s been almost two months since the 2020 presidential election was called for Joe Biden, which is to say it’s been almost two months since the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle — a clown show so ridiculous it almost dwarfed the day’s bigger news. At the time it was hard to get a straight answer on what happened. Was it a miscommunication? Was it Trump’s fault? Rudy Giuliani’s fault? A new piece by New York’s Olivia Nuzzi makes it seem even more chaotic than it did originally. But one thing’s for certain: Giuliani is somehow even more of a mess than we thought.

Nuzzi spoke with 37 sources for her report, and — understandably! — she couldn’t get anyone to confirm a clear story on how the Four Seasons mishegoss happened and who was to blame. Some say the now-notorious Philadelphia press conference was supposed to take place at the prestigious Union League; others at the United Republican Club. One staffer simply said, “Honest to God, I have no idea how that came about.” All that’s clear (or clearer) is the Trump administration is a chaotic shambles. Perhaps that’s the closest to an explanation we’ll ever get.

But Giuliani certainly doesn’t help. Nuzzi says that, shortly after Election Day, campaign staffers said that the former New York City mayor was, at that point, “becoming more and more of a problem.” (That is to say, even more than previously, of course.) As the Trump team tried to keep it together, both before and after Election Day, they found themselves distracted. By Rudy:

But in the final sprint to Election Day, managing the known unknowns of Giuliani’s endless capacity to f*ck up so much that he was often at the center of several personal and international legal dramas at once was consuming time and manpower at campaign headquarters when there was little left to spare. “We were spending hours each day trying to prevent Rudy from creating a disaster,” a senior campaign official said. “Hours and hours.”

And so staffers who had bigger fish to fry were instead, Nuzzi says, “focused on devising ways to distract the once celebrated mayor of New York City.” This description only adds to Giuliani’s embarrassing mystique: “In the office he was a nuisance, but out of sight he was a terror.”

Keeping Giuliani out of the office but in sight was one reason he was sent to Philadelphia, where absentee ballots — whose early counting had been forbidden by state Republican lawmakers — were slowly being tallied, and were clearly tipping the state towards Biden. But instead of keeping quiet, he wound up presiding — though perhaps not instigating — the first of many post-Election Day Rudy embarrassments. (Not even melting goo sliding down his head at another disastrous presser could top the Four Seasons one.)

It may take much longer into a post-Trump America — and, reminder, as of this writing he still has yet to concede — for us to get a straight answer on how the world came to know the name of an obscure landscaping business, located far from the heart of Philadelphia’s Center City. But the lack of a clear answer — and the continued presence of Rudy Giuliani — is its own explanation. Perhaps there will be no more damning takedown of what’s wrong with the outgoing administration than this turn of phrase from Nuzzi: “It’s hard to know what counts as a f*ckup when you work for Donald Trump.”

(Via New York)