Category: News

For as long as they’ve resided at the top of the trap world, it’s surprising that Future and Lil Uzi Vert have worked together on just a few occasions. Their first collaboration arrived with 2016’s “Too Much Sauce,” the standout single from Future and DJ Esco’s Porject E.T. tape. The single was widely celebrated by fans and became one of the anthems of that summer. A month later, Lil Uzi Vert would return the favor and all on Future for their “Seven Million” track which appeared on Lil Uzi’s The Perfect Luv Tape project. Since then, their collaborations have come far and few, but tonight the hip-hop stars deliver a new batch of songs to fans.

The two songs, “Over Your Head” and “Patek” arrive a week removed from the announcement of a joint project. In the trailer for their upcoming video, Future and Lil Uzi sit together and contemplate their next move before the video cuts out and reveals the newly-released video would be directed by Hype Williams. After seeing Future and Lil Uzi shooting a music video together, many fans were divided as to what would be arriving. Some believed it was a new collaboration, while others believed it was a visual for “All Bad” off Future’s High Off Life album, however, it was soon revealed that Lil Uzi Vert was simply making a cameo for Future’s “Posted With Demons” video.

The project also aims to continue the momentum Future and Lil Uzi Vert have carried throughout the year. Working together for “Wassup” as well as “All Bad,” both artists have landed No. 1 projects with Future’s High Off Life and Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atakedeluxe version.

Listen to the video for “Patek” and “Over Your Head” above.Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The New Orleans Pelicans gradually increased how many minutes Zion Williamson played when he made his NBA debut earlier this year following knee surgery. The team decided to take a similar approach during his first game in the league’s Orlando bubble on Thursday night, and apparently, the decision didn’t sit particularly well with the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who is down in the bubble, appeared on The Dan Patrick Show to discuss how things in the bubble are going. Patrick asked him about the lack of Williamson on Thursday — he played 15 minutes in a 106-104 loss and scored 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting — and as Haynes tells it, the youngster was “pissed.”

“I’ll say this, Zion was pissed,” Haynes said. “Like, he wanted to play. And obviously, I think members of the Pelicans feel like if he was able to go down the stretch or play significant minutes, that they would’ve got the win last night.”

Haynes explained the reasoning behind the decision. Basically, the team wanted to use Williamson — who had to leave the bubble for a good portion of the ramp-up to playing — in “3-4 minute spurts,” and that he was not on any sort of formal minutes restriction. This logic, we can probably assume, won’t be the case as the bubble goes on and the Pelicans play games against other teams with whom they’re battling for the 8-seed in the Western Conference. After a tilt against the Clippers on Saturday, four of their remaining six games are against other teams at the bottom of the West, while the other two are against the Orlando Magic and the hobbled Washington Wizards.

Murder hornets are doing their best to take back the apocalyptic spotlight in 2020, as officials in the state of Washington are apparently on the hunt for a Asian giant hornet nest before the invasive species can get a grip on life in America.

For at least a few days, murder hornets seemed to be the next great American catastrophe as the giant flying insects reportedly had been spotted on the North American continent for the first time. The invasive species is a huge threat to ordinary-sized bees and hornets, as it’s a terrifying predatory insect that can — as the name suggests, although it’s rare — kill humans if stung.

Given the state of everything else in the world, though, news of the murder hornets’ inevitable descent on America was barely a blip on the meme radar when the report that they had been spotted on the West coast made its way around the internet back in May. But Friday gave us a report from the Washington State Department of Agriculture that confirmed its employees had trapped an Asian giant hornet and were working to locate more of the huge predators:

The hornet was found in a WSDA trap set near Birch Bay in Whatcom County. WSDA trappers checked the bottle trap on July 14 and submitted the contents for processing at WSDA’s entomology lab. The hornet was identified during processing on July 29. This was the first hornet to be detected in a trap, rather than found in the environment as the state’s five previous confirmed sightings were.

“This is encouraging because it means we know that the traps work,” Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the department said. “But it also means we have work to do.”

In fact, the hunt is on for the nest where that hornet was from, which officials are hoping to find before more queens can breed and branch out to make new colonies. The next step in this murder hornet hunt is far more exciting: using special traps and infrared cameras to get the hornets alive, then tag them so they can follow the little buggers back to their home to destroy it once and for all:

WSDA hopes to find and destroy the nest by mid-September before the colony would begin creating new reproducing queens and drones. Until that time, the colony will only contain the queen and worker Asian giant hornets. Destroying the nest before new queens emerge and mate will prevent the spread of this invasive pest.

It’s odd to imagine that the gigantic hornet that can absolutely kill you isn’t as biologically significant as the one hiding away in said nest, but it’s true. If the murder hornet manhunt is successful before the fall, there’s a chance the species’ spread in North American can be slowed significantly. So many threats to existence, so little time.

(Via Wa.gov & CNN)

While the talk of the bubble has been the league’s efforts to center Zion Williamson as well as the Pelicans’ involvement as a way of giving fans exposure to a young star, but quietly, the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic are just as interesting and have far more of a chance to make a run in Orlando.

The Mavericks’ historic offense was one of the nicest things to behold in the NBA this season, as Doncic turned in a season that will earn him MVP votes and Kristaps Porzingis developed into an awesome copilot. The middle of the Western Conference is jumbled, leaving the Mavericks a path toward, potentially, a top-four seed. This will be our first taste of Doncic in the playoffs, and nobody should count Dallas out as a tough second-round opponent.

ROSTER

J.J. Barea
Jalen Brunson
Trey Burke
Willie Cauley-Stein
Antonius Cleveland (two-way)
Seth Curry
Luka Doncic
Dorian Finney-Smith
Tim Hardaway Jr.
Justin Jackson
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Maxi Kleber
Courtney Lee
Boban Marjanovic
Kristaps Porzingis
Dwight Powell
Josh Reaves (two-way)
Delon Wright

STANDINGS

1. Los Angeles Lakers: 49-14
2. Los Angeles Clippers: 44-20 (5.5)
3. Denver Nuggets: 43-22 (7.0)
4. Utah Jazz: 41-23 (8.5)
5. OKC Thunder: 40-24 (9.5)
6. Houston Rockets: 40-24 (9.5)
7. Dallas Mavericks: 40-27 (11.0)
8. Memphis Grizzlies: 32-33 (18.0)
9. Portland Trail Blazers: 29-37 (21.5)
10. New Orleans Pelicans: 28-36 (21.5)
11. Sacramento Kings: 28-36 (21.5)
12. San Antonio Spurs: 27-36 (22.0)
13. Phoenix Suns: 26-39 (24.0)

SCHEDULE

Friday, July 31 — 9 p.m. ET — vs. Houston Rockets
Sunday, Aug. 2 — 9 p.m. ET — vs. Phoenix Suns
Tuesday, Aug. 4 — 2:30 p.m. ET — vs. Sacramento Kings
Thursday, Aug. 6 — 6:30 p.m. ET — vs. Los Angeles Clippers
Saturday, Aug. 8 — 8:30 p.m. ET — vs. Milwaukee Bucks
Monday, Aug. 10 — 3 p.m. ET — vs. Utah Jazz
Tuesday, Aug. 11 — 5 p.m. ET — vs. Portland Trail Blazers
Thursday, Aug. 13 — Time TBD — vs. Phoenix Suns

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

Winning a playoff series. Despite Dallas’ historically efficient offense and MVP-caliber play from Luka Doncic, the Mavericks are still a young team, meaning there’s no pressure to barnstorm the league right away. In the short-term, they can look to climb the standings, perhaps as high as the fourth seed, if they steal games from Houston and Utah during the seeding round.

What’s most impressive about the Mavericks’ offense is that there’s no sorcery involved in making it go. With Doncic running the show and shooters and finishers at every position, Dallas has built a scoring machine that is hard to stop. While Utah or Houston is certainly more experienced and star-studded than Dallas, it would not be a shock for Doncic, Porzingis and a bunch of shooters to be precisely the recipe for the Mavericks to make a surprise appearance in the second round.

X-FACTOR

Kristaps Porzingis: Throughout February and March, Porzingis finally started to look like the player we all remembered, and the guy the Mavs thought they were getting when they gave up two first-round picks for him at the trade deadline in 2019. Porzingis averaged 24.5 points per game in 14 games after Feb. 1, and Dallas scored 130 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor in the month of February. If not for a cold shooting streak going into the hiatus, Porzingis might have even had some All-NBA steam.

Yet Dallas’ best lineup, which outscored opponents by 34.8 points per 100 possessions, has traditional rim-running big man Powell in the frontcourt in place of Porzingis. Sure, the same lineup with Porzingis instead of Powell is nearly as good, but head coach Rick Carlisle has not trusted to play as many minutes. Porzingis has long struggled to defend in the post because of his thin frame and injury history, which is why Powell is so useful to the Mavs. The team clearly made it work during the regular season, but to get the five best players on the floor at once and juice the offense even more, Porzingis will likely have to play center more in the playoffs. Whether he can do that right now will likely help decide how far the Mavericks go this year.

BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION

Will the small guards hold up? It’s Carlisle’s style to play two or three guards at all times, but with Doncic, typically under-sized lineups became more playable. Though Doncic isn’t a great defender, his size and play-making ability give Carlisle the freedom to tinker even more than he has in the past. The same is true of the front court, where the versatility of Porzingis and Kleber plus the athleticism and efficiency of Powell make the Mavs’ roster interchangeable and pretty fearsome.

That said, most of the team’s depth is made up of typical Carlisle pieces. Where physical, athletic forwards like Caron Butler and Shawn Marion used to be, now there is Finney-Smith, Jackson and Kidd-Gilchrist. And most intriguingly, Carlisle hasn’t strayed from his infatuation with extremely small guards, in this case Brunson and Curry.

Both had career years, with Curry scoring the post points per game of his career and shooting an insane 45.3 percent from deep. Brunson is about league-average from three but a smart play-maker and physical defender. Carlisle made it work in 2011 when Dallas won the title with Barea and Jason Kidd playing heavy minutes, but the league looked different back then, and Tyson Chandler was at the peak of his powers as a defensive anchor. This roster poses different challenges as well as opportunities, but Dallas’ 17th-ranked defense remains a question as long as Carlisle puts diminutive guys on the court as often as he does next to the defensively challenged core of Porzingis and Doncic.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

This week, Brandy emerged with her new album B7, Kehlani released a sexy visual for her song “Can I” and Pink Sweats hopped on the remix to Mahalia’s Isolation Tapes track “BRB” for the remix. Check out the rest of the best new R&B this week below.

Brandy — B7

It’s been over 8 years since Brandy released her full-length album Two Eleven back in 2012 and this week she has arrived with her long overdue project, B7. The Grammy Award-winning R&B behemoth returned with 17 songs in tow and bearing features from Chance The Rapper on the previously released single “Baby Mama” and her daughter Sy’rai on “High Heels.” As one of the best singing voices in the music business, B7 is certainly worth the listen.

Kehlani — “Can I”

Kehlani‘s song “Can I” off It Was Good Until It Wasn’t quickly became a fan favorite upon the album’s release and this week the singer shared the cyber visual for the track (sans Tory Lanez in the name of protecting Megan Thee Stallion at all costs). Kehlani handpicked Lily Isabella, Tori Duncan, Aaliyah Ei, Zamara Fullilove, and Draya Logan as some of her favorite sex workers for the video as a way to bring awareness towards the decriminalization of sex work movement. It’s sexy, it’s vibrant, it’s creative, and it absolutely gets the message out there.

Mahalia — “BRB” Feat. Pink Sweats

Rising R&B sensation Mahalia tapped in with Pink Sweats for the remix to her Isolation Tapes EP track “BRB.” Pink Sweats’ vocals seamlessly glide across the record so fittingly and naturally. Mahalia and Sweats’ harmonizations are like butter, making the remix to “BRB” a true musical wonder.

Jorja Smith — “By Any Means”

Jorja Smith is all for the Black Lives Matter movement on her latest track “By Any Means.” The talented singer beautifully sings about fighting for equality and croons about the woes Black people across the world face. It’s the lead single off Roc Nation’s upcoming social justice album Reprise which is set to feature various artists lending their voice in musical protest.

Ye Ali — “Right Time”

Talented sing-songwriter Ye Ali came through with the late-night vibes on his latest track “Right Time” featuring Reggie Becton. It’s a sultry track that charms with his voice and captivates with his words of promise. Ye is fresh off the release of the deluxe version of Traphouse Jodeci 2 which introduced to fans 10 new tracks of R&B goodness.

Abby Jasmine — “Stay With Me”

Up-and-coming singer Abby Jasmine recently inked a partnership with Cinematic and this week she unleashed the visual to her latest track “Stay With Me.” Abby laments between being alone or being surrounded by a starting lineup of potential lovers. “The video is me reminiscing on a past relationship,” Jasmine told Paper Magazine. “Speaking to the interspersed clips that look like hazy memories. The good times and the bad, featuring some good old breakup remedies: tea and Hennessy — not together, of course.” “Stay With Me” follows the New York native’s previously released project Who Cares?

Mariah The Scientist — “Always And Forever” Feat. Lil Baby

Atlanta’s own Mariah The Scientist and Lil Baby vibe together on the singer’s second release of 2020, “Always And Forever.” It’s an honest song that speaks to love’s complications and staying down through it all. Co-directed by Mariah herself along with Kid Studio, the visual is set in the parking lot of ATL’s strip club sanctuary Magic City.

Jaz Karis — All Eyes On U EP

South London R&B singer Jaz Karis’ latest EP All Eyes On U is definitely one of this week’s must-listens. Her soulful and calming voice leads every track as her lyrics help to navigate the raw, instrumental tone on the 5-piece project. “Hold You” and “Issues” are among the stand out vibes that live on All Eyes On U.

Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.

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

Gamers are still reflecting on the sprawling story woven by The Last Of Us Part II, which hit the PS4 earlier this summer to much fanfare, but HBO has its own apocalyptic story in the works based on the Naughty Dog classic. And according to the showrunner, it will be even more expansive than the story told in the first game.

For some fans, HBO picking up The Last Of Us as a TV show sounds almost too good to be true. With Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann writing and serving as executive producer, Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin in the same role also gives the prestige TV vehicle some serious experience in a dreary and compelling world.

There are a lot of questions about making the video game that’s more like a Peak TV show into just that, and we won’t know the result until we see it for ourselves. But Mazin did give some clues about what to expect when The Last Of Us finally happens for HBO. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Mazin said the show will “expand” on the plot of the first game, but it won’t “undo” anything that happened in the game itself.

“I think the one anxiety that fans of something have is when the property gets licensed to someone else, those people don’t really understand it, or are going to change it, or make it stupid,” Mazin said, via Den Of Geek. “In this case, I’m doing it with the guy who did it, and so the changes that we’re making are designed to fill things out and expand, not to undo, but rather to enhance.”

One of the obvious benefits about adapting The Last Of Us is getting to work with the one person who has had control over the series from the beginning. Mazin didn’t spoil anything from the original game, but one thing he noted was that, with the TV show, they would be able to include some things the game’s creators couldn’t manage to include, whether because it didn’t fit thematically or simply couldn’t be finished to their satisfaction due to the infamous crunch that comes with meeting deadlines for titles at Naughty Dog and the gaming industry at large. With a TV show and more time to make it happen, the show will inevitably see some different things brought to life:

“Neil, at one point, he’s like, ‘You know, there was one thing we were talking about for a while,’ and then he told me what it was. I was like, ‘Well, that’s going in. You couldn’t stop me from doing that.’ So we’re doing that,” Mazin said. “And there’s quite a few things like that where it’s not like, ‘Oh, we just decided, oh, wouldn’t it be cool if there was one episode where Joel and Ellie get on motorcycles and confront a motorcycle gang?’ That’s not what we do. There’s no episodic nonsense here. This is all pretty much curated. The things that are new and enhancing of the storyline we’re doing are connected in organic, serious ways that fans and newcomers alike will appreciate.”

Video games are a living art of sorts, and part of the experience of The Last Of Us was experiencing the game through its main two characters. Mazin said they don’t quite have an answer to that narratively, and he said that the experience of watching it all as a TV show will be very different. The interview is fascinating, and it seems like he and Druckmann are truly excited about the project. There are certainly a lot of gamers who are there with them.

(Via Den of Geek)

When All Elite Wrestling got its start last year, a lot of fans pinned their hopes on the upstart company, especially those fans who’d been frequently disappointed with WWE’s dated and uninspiring notions about wrestling (and, to be clear, most other things). “Here at last,” people thought, “is a company run by young people, with a young vibe. Maybe even, dare we hope, progressive.”

To some degree, those hopes were well-founded. AEW might not be an unabashedly left-wing promotion, but its politics aren’t as blatantly noxious as WWE’s. It crowned a transgender Women’s Champion — a black and indigenous woman of color, no less — and that’s no small thing in today’s climate. It certainly has some work to do with regard to race in its men’s main event scene, but those of us who’ve been watching AEW Dark are hoping to see Scorpio Sky pushed in that direction, at the very least.

The one area where AEW has fallen down again and again is in booking their women’s division, and indeed in treating women’s wrestling like an important part of the product. The COVID-19 pandemic has made things much worse, but the problem was already there. The pandemic just brought it into sharper relief.

Before the pandemic, AEW had about four women it treated like stars: Riho, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, and Doctor Britt Baker DMD. It had started building up a second tier of women, including Kris Statlander, Big Swole, and Shanna. Yuka Sakazaki had recently returned, and gave the impression she’d be making more appearances. Sadie Gibbs had been off TV, but was teasing a return, possibly with a new gimmick.

Then the novel coronavirus hit, and all the women who lived outside the U.S. became unable to appear. That means no Riho, no Shanna, no Sakazaki or Gibbs. Emi Sakura or Bea Priestley are sidelined, too. The pandemic and the travel ban were unpredictable events, but it still says something about AEW’s priorities that such a high percentage of its regular women’s roster members didn’t even live in the country where AEW runs shows.

As such, AEW was left with Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, and Big Swole, along with Penelope Ford, Allie, and Brandi Rhodes, who had all been doing non-wrestling stuff but were brought back into the ring by the pandemic. It also recruited Anna Jay and Abadon, as well as a bunch of trainees and guests from the indies, as it tried to keep the division running with so little regular talent. Things got even worse when Baker and Statlander were both injured, removing them from competition for the time being.

Again and again however, AEW has failed to fully take advantage of the women it has, regardless of how many or how few there are. Please forgive me the indulgence of some rhetorical questions:

1. Why was Allie in a non-wrestling role to begin with? She’s a solid worker, and was one of Impact Wrestling’s biggest female stars for a couple of years.
2. Whatever happened to Mel, the woman who shaved her head to join Brandi’s now-defunct cult? She’s still listed on the official roster, but when was the last time she had a match?
3. How come it took weeks to get the slightest follow up about the Dark Order recruiting Anna Jay, and we still don’t know the whole deal?
4. What’s Abadon up to? I get that she can’t have constant matches and retain her creepy mystique, but is there any reason she can’t be sneaking up on people backstage in the dark from time to time?
5. How come we’ve gotten videos from male wrestlers who were unable to make the shows due to pandemic or injury — like MJF, PAC, and Darby Allin — but we’ve never seen the slightest hint of any of the missing women?

After Baker’s injury, AEW made the smart choice to keep her on TV and continue her feud with Big Swole, which led to some really fun segments, but now it’s given Swole a kayfabe suspension, which removes yet another woman from the ring. Last week, AEW Dynamite was so bereft of relevant women and women’s storylines that the one women’s match was between Ivelisse and Diamante, neither of whom are signed with AEW. Diamante even returned this week to face Hikaru Shida, but there was still no announcement that she’s joining the roster. She (and by extension Ivelisse) were apparently just around to fill time, not to build for the future.

Even if AEW doesn’t have access to the female talent they’d like to book right now, there are still ways they can demonstrate a commitment to women’s wrestling. Just booking two women’s matches on one episode of Dynamite would feel like a huge step, especially if both of those matches had storylines to go with them. There’s also nothing stopping them from building up a women’s match to be the main event of a show. Treat women’s wrestling like it’s important, and it becomes important.

The rumor has always been that Kenny Omega books the AEW women’s division, and his defensiveness on social media backs up that theory. The biggest problem with that is that he’s a full-time wrestler, and clearly has a lot of things on his plate. The best thing that could happen for the women’s division would be if AEW hired a veteran female wrestler and put her in charge of the division.

When Nyla Rose announced she was going to have a manager, I briefly hoped that might turn out to be the leader the division needs. Of course, then it was revealed to be Vicki Guerrero, who brings a lot to the table as a heat-seeking manager, but isn’t known as a wrestler or a booker.

Meanwhile, WWE has basically been carried by its women’s division during this pandemic. Even with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair taking time away, Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Asuka have created some of the company’s most memorable moments of the last few months. In NXT as well, champion Io Shirai just faced Tegan Nox, with Dakota Kai and Candice LeRae looming large, and indie breakouts like Shotzi Blackheart and Mercedes Martinez on the rise. For all the problems WWE has had with women’s wrestling over the years (and all the problems it still has), it’s more likely to satisfy a fan of women’s wrestling right now than AEW, the company that was supposed to show them how it’s done.

Even Impact Wrestling, a company that’s all-too-often regarded as a throwback and even a laughing stock, currently has Deonna Purrazzo as Women’s Champion, with ongoing secondary storylines for Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary, Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz, Kylie Rae and Susie, and so on. When it comes to women’s booking, AEW is solidly in third place among the three televised wrestling companies.

Hope is an important part of being a wrestling fan. Hoping the babyface will one day get their win, hoping to see the heel get their comeuppance, and hoping that the company to which you devote so much energy will pay you back in joy. So with the lessons of the pandemic learned, here’s hoping the AEW Women’s Division only gets stronger and more spotlighted as the company continues to evolve. The recent announcement of a women’s tag tournament seems encouraging, while rumors that the whole thing will happen online instead of on TV are discouraging but hopefully untrue. Time will tell where all of that leads, but as we approach the first anniversary of AEW Dynamite‘s TV debut, it would be nice to see the women’s division finally find its footing.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Black Is King (Friday, Disney+) — Beyonce’s second visual album and fourth directorial project has arrived, so naturally, we celebrated Beyonce week to prepare for this momentous event. As with her other projects, Queen Bey’s visionary status will undoubtedly evolve further, even though this project has been shrouded in secrecy until go time. And that time is now, so go forth… and watch.

Umbrella Academy: Season 2 (Friday, Netflix Series) — This new batch of episodes is a twist-filled blast as this weird, superpowered family confronts another apocalypse, which is (of course) bigger because everything is bigger in Texas. Check out our interviews with creator Steve Blackman and actor Robert Sheehan, and then, let the 1960s good times roll.

The Last Narc (Amazon Prime docuseries) — If you’re a Narcos: Mexico fan, then you’ll want to dig into this docuseries about the notorious murder of DEA Agent Kiki Camarena, whose story gets the full spotlight here while exploring everything that he risked to uncover the drug-cartel truth.

The Speed Cubers (Netflix documentary) — If you’re looking for competition without the squeaking shoes, look no further than this true story of the rivalry/friendship of the two reigning Rubik’s Cubers (Max Park, age 17, and Feliks Zemdegs, age 23) on the planet.

The Secret: Dare To Dream (VOD) — Katie Holmes and Jerry O’Connell star in Lionsgate’s romcom film adaptation of Rhonda Byrne’s book of the same name.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

Room 104 (Friday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — The fourth season of the Duplass’ Brothers bizarre playground continues with Sam confronting her addiction history due to an unlikely source.

Shark vs. Surfer (Sunday, National Geographic 8:00 p.m. ) — Sharkfest continues while zeroing in on the most harrowing stories that hail from shark-infested surf beaches. They’re on patrol, and we’re just visiting, y’all, but at least they’re a visible threat.

P-Valley (Sunday, Starz 8:00 p.m.) — This new series, which revolves around a Mississippi strip club, already got a Season 2 renewal, and Episode 4 is titled, “The Trap.”

Perry Mason (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — Mason’s attempting to expose hidden links (between debt and ransom) by putting Herman on the stand while Sister Alice is feeling the heat about “resurrection” promises.

The Chi (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Ronnie’s dealing with a loss, and Keisha’s resigning to her fate while Douda and Camille clash over politics, and Jemma and Kevin deal with their feelings.

I’ll Be Gone In The Dark (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — The finale has arrived with serial killer/rapist Joseph DeAngelo’s arrest unfolding in real time in this revolutionary true-crime docuseries based upon Michelle McNamara book.

NOS4A2 (Sunday, AMC & BBC America 10:00 p.m.) — Charlie Manx must answer tough questions from Bing Partridge, and Charlie also revisits the past in a significant way.

Desus & Mero (Sunday, Showtime 11:00 p.m.) — The illustrious guest will be Stephen A. Smith.

When I was a kid, I’d do anything for a laugh. Run into walls, jump off of a stage straight onto my knees, do an interpretive dance to Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose” to win a dance contest. I don’t know if those laughs were for me or at me (yeah… I do), but the noise was the noise and it gave me purpose as an awkward, transient fat boy. Sometimes I think Tom Cruise is stuck in that kind of perpetual approval pursuit. Which sounds bad! But hear me out.

While Cruise is probably addicted to the sound of applause (and adrenaline, since his methods usually have him hanging off a plane or a mountain into his late ’50s), the world has enough people who make art for hollow critical praise, awards, and self-satisfaction. Sure, he gets PAID, but Tom Cruise is a crowd-pleasing pop culture factory and an enduring and seemingly tireless icon of the people (well, some of the people). It’s what he was put on this earth to be, but I do worry now that he’s gonna try to do it in space. Not because of him but because of us.

The report from Deadline says Cruise secured a $200 million dollar budget from Universal to partner with billionaire maybe Bond villain Elon Musk (and frequent Cruise collaborators Doug Liman and Christopher McQuarrie) on a literal space adventure that will result in the first-ever full-length movie shot off-world. It’s getting attention because, among other things, it’s Tom Cruise and Elon Musk firing a cash cannon at the stars in the midst of, to quote Dewey Cox, “a dark fucking period.” But is that interest going to hold when the initial buzz fades and this has to live on the merits of what it puts on a screen? Will eyes widen? Will jaws slacken? Will the next evolutionary step in production mean much down here on Earth? It’s hard to say sight unseen. I don’t know, but I’m not as optimistic as I thought I’d be.

When Jessica Toomer and I took a look back at the Inception hallway scene and forward to the expected practical wizardry of Tenet, we positioned that kind of creation as a rare but needed thing in an era of CG homogenization. And it is and you could argue that this is exactly what we were asking for: a studio, in full defiance of risk aversion, making a big move forward with boots on the ground (or in the vacuum of space, whatever) and imagination at the wheel. And yet…

When you’re swimming in the details of an arduous creative process driven by an uncommon commitment to excellence and innovation it’s easy to get romantic about every last bit of it including the finished product. It’s inspiring what these humans can do with a little elbow grease, imagination, and an airplane hanger. But distanced from that process you remember that people often see these scenes without knowledge of their impressive craft and compelling backstories. Do they stand up on their own visual wow? The hallway scene certainly does. It’s special for the reasons expressed in that article and from when you see it unfold. But a lot of the time, more and more, it feels like these things deliver a glancing blow before retiring to the pile of other amazing but forgettable moments. Blame it on outstretched minds.

I’ve seen lush planets, the ocean deep, and dinosaurs walking beside human beings. I’ve seen time go forward and backward and sideways. Believed a man could fly and that superheroes could save New York and avenge the whole of the universe. I’ve seen the splendor and terror of limitless space. It was all fake as fuck, cool as shit, and it all makes me feel like a bored God, bellowing to Hollywood to keep impressing me when I know that it’s becoming a more and more difficult thing to pull off. And it’s depressing because to bring it back to Tom Cruise space cowboy, how are we going to be impressed by the sight of him tethered to a space station floating above of us all without constantly repeating the phrase “this is real” in our heads?

Once, Alexander the Great wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. Tom Cruise isn’t gonna weep, he’s gonna smile that smile and leave the planet in pursuit of claps, thinking he has a beat on a legit new world to conquer. And we’re going to be mostly unmoved, shouting “Marvel did it! Marvel did it!” The pursuit of greatness, like technology, is a blessing and a curse.

New York City was the early epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States, but has since greatly flattened its curve and brought its daily death count to single-digit numbers. Part of the reason the city has been so successful is because of how seriously it’s enforcing safety guidelines. According to Patch, just this week seven bars in the city have had their liquor licenses suspended after defying rules and safety procedures meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 — including three bars on Brooklyn’s busy Smith Street, a dining hotspot in the borough.

One of the bars, Bar Tabac, had its liquor license suspended this week after city investigators performing a compliance check found seven employees on the premises without face masks, which included the manager, a bartender, host, and four kitchen staff members. In June, the bar had been found to be in violation of safety precautions related to the virus and had received non-compliance complaints. It also faced issues related to their outdoor dining set up.

“Noncompliance will lead us right back where we were just a few months ago — so we must continue to crack down on the bad actors who violate the law and risk everyone’s health and safety,” New York governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference, according to Patch.

To date, 1,966 compliance checks have been performed in New York with 96 recorded violations. Businesses who are found to be non-compliant face fines as high as $10,000 and the possible immediate suspense of liquor licenses. Currently, according to the New York State Health Department, there are 415,014 total cases in New York State and 25,150 people have died.