Category: Viral

It is, somehow, time for the Emmys. Seriously. The Emmys are this Sunday night, September 20. That doesn’t seem right. Does that seem right? And it’s somehow not even the weirdest part. The ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, with no audience, and the nominees will be at home Zooming in. It’s going to be a whole thing. We don’t know, either.

There is one normal aspect of it all, though: there are still awards to hand out and snubs to get angry about. Below, our TV crew — Brian Grubb, Kimberly Ricci, Josh Kurp, and Jessica Toomer — attempts to make sense of the major categories to figure out what’s what. None of this is written in stone. We could be very wrong. Which would, in a way, be the most normal part of the whole experience.

Here we go.

Drama Series

Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Killing Eve (BBC America/AMC)
The Mandalorian (Disney Plus)
Ozark (Netflix)
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Succession (HBO)

OUR PICK: If I were a betting man, I’d toss a fiver or so on Succession. It’s not that I think Succession is that much better than the other nominees (more on this in a second), it has more to do with… well, scan through the rest of these categories. They are just littered with cast members of the show. Almost every actor who plays an important character on the show picked up a nomination, sometimes multiple actors in a single category. It’s like they’re trying to tell us something. It’s especially important because…

ANALYSIS: … Rhea Seehorn did not get a nomination for Best Actress despite turning in a performance for the ages in Better Call Saul, the show I would probably pick if they let me choose winners by myself, which is an option I have offered repeatedly and have yet to receive a response about. Still on the table. — Grubb

Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Dead to Me (Netflix)
The Good Place (NBC)
Insecure (HBO)
The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime Video)
Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

OUR PICK: Remember when Fleabag won this category last year? That was cool, and it gives me hope that the Academy will do the right thing again and give Outstanding Comedy Series to What We Do in the Shadows. “On the Run” is, I’d argue (and did!), the funniest thing to air on TV this year, but it wasn’t a one-off showcase for the vampire comedy — the entire season was great, from Colin Robinson’s “updog” jokes to Nandor checking his email for the first time since The Blind Side was in theaters. One human Emmy for What We Do in the Shadows, please!

ANALYSIS: Schitt’s Creek went from the obligatory “best show you’re not watching” to a genuine hit in its final season. The Emmys are less sentimental than you might think — previous winners 30 Rock, Modern Family, Veep, and The Office all failed to win in their final seasons — but I don’t think that will be the case on Sunday. (This could apply to The Good Place, as well.) — Kurp

Limited Series

Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)
Mrs. America (Hulu)
Unbelievable (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Netflix)
Watchmen (HBO)

OUR PICK: Watchmen, man. This isn’t a tough call but not altogether easy, since those limited series beginning with Un- put up a good fight. Unbelievable brought us a hard-boiled Toni Colette and an empathetic Merritt Wever, along with Kaitlyn Dever, who has been crushing every role since Justified‘s Loretta. She turned her portrayal of a rape survivor who was treated like a criminal upon its head. And Unorthodox gave us the absolute vision of Shira Haas in one woman’s flight from Hasidic Judaism. Both are very important shows to showcase young women fighting against institutions; however, no one can beat the clear master of this category.

ANALYSIS: It was always gonna be Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen. He wove an ambitious tapestry, which managed to convince even non-comic-book lovers that this story’s breathtaking relevance could not be ignored. He recontextualized Alan Moore’s “unfilmable” graphic novel with all the historical resonance from the Tulsa Race Massacre. He wrote Black characters into history instead of the other way around (how history customarily does it). This show was kickass and funny and serious and full of so many pieces to dissect. We also got to meet Lube Man and witness the sheer joy of a fart-squeaking Jeremy Irons. Sold. — Ricci

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman (Ozark)
Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us)
Steve Carell (The Morning Show)
Brian Cox (Succession)
Billy Porter (Pose)
Jeremy Strong (Succession)

OUR PICK: There are many good options here and I will not begin to argue with you if you want to give it to Brian Cox for his thundering performance as Logan Roy or Billy Porter for Pose or even Jeremy Strong, just for that painful rap performance (shoutout to his boy Squiggle), but I have this weird feeling bubbling inside me. Bubble bubble bubble. And as the bubbles rise and pop (I did not intend for this analogy to be gross when I started it but it’s too late to back out now) (sorry), a faint whisper escapes and floats into the air, and that whisper says “Steve Carell wins a make-up Emmy after getting snubbed for his entire run as Michael Scott on The Office.” Listen closely. Listen to the bubbles. The answer is in the air.

ANALYSIS: I really am sorry again for that bubble analogy. — Grubb

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston (The Morning Show)
Olivia Colman (The Crown)
Jodie Comer (Killing Eve)
Laura Linney (Ozark)
Sandra Oh (Killing Eve)
Zendaya (Euphoria)

OUR PICK: We love a good underdog story and that’s what Zendaya’s road to the Emmys feels like right now. The Euphoria star could become the youngest Emmy winner in history were she to beat out the rest of the talented actresses on this list, but that headline-making scenario isn’t the only reason we’re rooting for her. Euphoria is a show that stands on the shoulders of its lead and Zendaya carries that responsibility well, playing a drug-addicted teen sorting out her demons despite the pressures and temptations of youth. She easily teeters between an innocent, compassionate young woman and an angry, misguided kid willing to sacrifice anything for her next fix. She makes a “dislikable” character relatable, empathetic even, and she does it on a show that doesn’t carry the same kind of star-powered back-up the rest of these ladies enjoy.

ANALYSIS: If you’re forcing us to acknowledge reality – which, shame on you – the truth is this is Laura Linney’s to lose. She did terrific work in the latter half of Ozark’s drama-filled third season as the Byrde family matriarch began to spiral thanks to the arrival of her estranged brother. Although we wouldn’t count out Aniston, who’s come a long way from her Friends days playing a news anchor fighting for recognition in a sexist industry. It’s a little on the nose, but academy voters like that. — Toomer

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson (Black-ish)
Don Cheadle (Black Monday)
Ted Danson (The Good Place)
Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method)
Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek)
Ramy Youssef (Ramy)

OUR PICK: Ramy is a great show, my favorite of the bunch, but the best episodes of Ramy are the ones where Ramy (the character) cedes the spotlight to his sister Dena, or parents Maysa and Ahmed, or his uncle Naseem. Is there a category for Outstanding “Deepest Sympathies” Cake-Eating in a Comedy Series? Because Naseem should win that. Anyway, that leaves Ted Danson as the should-be winner for his performance as a reformed demon (a fun combination of words) Michael. That would almost make up for Danson — who has more nominations in this category than any actor ever — not winning for his [evil laugh] back in season one. Almost.

ANALYSIS: Anderson, Cheadle, Danson, Douglas, and Levy were all up for Lead Actor last year, and they all lost to repeat winner Bill Hader. That tilts the scale towards Youssef, but I bet that Levy wins in an upset. Everyone loves Eugene Levy! He’s won an Emmy for his writing (Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program along with his SCTV buddies in 1983), but not for his acting. I’m sure Ramy and Ted wouldn’t mind losing to Jim’s dad. — Kurp

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate (Dead to Me)
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me)
Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek)
Issa Rae (Insecure)
Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish)

OUR PICK: Christina Applegate takes this one for me. Yes, Catherine O’Hara fans are gonna throw things at me, I realize, as well those who (most deservedly) appreciate Issa Rae, but I believe that this category should come down to the two nominees from Netflix’s wildly popular showcase on female friendship. That means I’m setting myself up for even more failure because it’s almost impossible to choose between Dead To Me‘s two leads, who are both integral to the show’s success and play off each other so beautifully while rolling around in pitch-black humor. This show has mastered the fine art of captivating an audience despite an endless supply of chain-yanking cliffhangers. I adore it and want it to win things.

ANALYSIS: Yes, Linda Cardellini is often the best part of any given project, but she’s met her endearing match here. Even more amazing is that Applegate’s performance manages to be more endearing despite how she’s playing an abrasive, unlikeable character. The audience still empathizes with her and admires that scrappiness, and I also want to see Applegate get her due. For too many years, she’s been Kelly Bundy to everyone, despite all her work in Hollywood, and frankly, it’s overdue for people to finally recognize her not only for being damn funny but a fine dramatic actress as well. — Ricci

Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Irons (Watchmen)
Hugh Jackman (Bad Education)
Paul Mescal (Normal People)
Jeremy Pope (Hollywood)
Mark Ruffalo (I Know This Much Is True)

OUR PICK: Again, we’re going to vote against the insider crowd and crown Paul Mescal as the unofficial winner in this race. His breakout role in Hulu’s beloved Normal People elevated the story of a young couple’s doomed romance to something more than just your garden variety soap opera. Mescal played a young man tortured by anxiety and depression, forced to choose between a public persona and who he genuinely wanted to be. And his chemistry with co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones (who was robbed of recognition this year) was off the charts. Men’s mental health is a topic rarely treated well, if at all, on TV so it’d be nice to see Mescal get the credit he deserves for such a grounding, emotionally wrought performance. And for rocking the hell out of that gold chain.

ANALYSIS: Sadly, HBO knew what it was doing when it recruited Mark Ruffalo to play a pair of twin brothers – one a paranoid schizophrenic – in a drama about the effects of generational trauma. This kind of heavy-handed, exquisitely-acted tearjerker is like Emmy voter catnip. — Toomer

Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett (Mrs. America)
Shira Haas (Unorthodox)
Regina King (Watchmen)
Octavia Spencer (Self Made)
Kerry Washington (Little Fires Everywhere)

OUR PICK: Ahhhh, this is a gut-wrenching category to call, but I’m going with Regina King for her commanding performance as Sister Night. Yes, it’s entirely wrong that Kaitlyn Dever didn’t get nominated for Unbelieveable, and Shira Haas put in emotionally grueling work, while both Cate Blanchett and Octavia Spencer owned their roles with the star turns that we always expect from them. Yet Watchmen should sweep this category along with most of its other nominations.

ANALYSIS: Regina King played a badass superhero who didn’t even have superpowers and was somehow still the most powerful being on this show. Yes, I’m placing Sister Night above even Doctor Manhattan; because hey, Regina gave us both the softer side of her character and the hardened one. She authentically portrayed a woman who’s getting the job done and juggling family responsibilities that a lot of shows with female cops let slide away. She also pulled off a fine portrayal of a good cop, which is something that’s sorely needed in our current times. And Regina gave us a true hero from a marginalized community while adding in all the layers that this show’s historical context demanded. Let her walk on water, I say. — Ricci

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul)
Bradley Whitford (The Handmaid’s Tale)
Billy Crudup (The Morning Show)
Mark Duplass (The Morning Show)
Nicholas Braun (Succession)
Kieran Culkin (Succession)
Matthew Macfadyen (Succession)
Jeffrey Wright (Westworld)

OUR PICK: Good God, what a stacked category. You could go any of about six ways here, and even the ways I probably wouldn’t go are reasonably defensible. Like, Westworld was weird and not great this season, but Jeffrey Wright is always awesome. Gus Fring wasn’t even the best villain on Better Call Saul this season (Lalooooooo), but Giancarlo Esposito rules. The Succession boys are very good and better when they are bad, and with all due respect to the masterful work Kieran Culkin has done in making Roman Roy a character I no longer want to heave into a stinky lagoon…

ANALYSIS: … let’s give it to my sweet boy Cousin Greg, as played by Nicholas Braun. There’s no big reason I have for this, no professional defensible explanation. I just like him and want to see him be happy. Sometimes that’s all it takes. — Grubb

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Laura Dern (Big Little Lies)
Meryl Streep (Big Little Lies)
Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown)
Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s Tale)
Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve)
Julia Garner (Ozark)
Sarah Snook (Succession)
Thandie Newton (Westworld)

OUR PICK: Me trying to pick a winner:

Let’s go straight to the analysis.

ANALYSIS: Meryl Streep and Laura Dern are the biggest names, but no one liked Big Little Lies season two; since 2000, only three actresses have won this category in back-to-back years, which likely leaves out Julia Garner (maybe she’ll win an Oscar for The Assistant as a consolation prize); Thandie Newton rules, but Westworld does not; and Helena Bonham Carter, Samira Wiley, and Fiona Shaw aren’t Sarah Snook, therefore the award must (and should) go to Sarah Snook. — Kurp

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
William Jackson Harper (The Good Place)
Alan Arkin (The Kominsky Method)
Sterling K. Brown (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Mahershala Ali (Ramy)
Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live)
Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek)

OUR PICK: We’re just going to say it: The 2020 Emmys belong to Dan Levy. He’s nominated for writing, producing, directing, and acting in the comedic critical darling that is Schitt’s Creek and the fact that the show’s final season is something of a Cinderella story – its brilliance was only just recognized by academy voters last year – means the Rose family will probably live on that (virtual) stage come Emmys night. Levy spent seasons crafting an iconic comedy that became both a meme-able oddball and a sort of comforting reminder that realistic, nuanced, “normal” queer characters do still exist on TV, and they have the power to change perceptions and promote more inclusiveness when given the chance. But really, David Rose’s sweater-game alone should be reason enough for Levy to walk away with some hardware this year.

ANALYSIS: Levy should (and hopefully will) win but if we’re playing devil’s advocate, David Rose didn’t feel like a supporting character in Schitt’s Creek’s final season. For that reason, we wouldn’t count out William Jackson Harper or Andre Braugher in this category. — Toomer

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Betty Gilpin (GLOW)
D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place)
Yvonne Orji (Insecure)
Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Marin Hinkle (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live)
Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live)
Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek)

OUR PICK: Sheesh. Another Murderer’s Row. I would be very happy if the award went to D’Arcy Carden or Kate McKinnon or Annie Murphy. I would be happy if they all tied. Give everyone a trophy! Trophies for everyone!

ANALYSIS: Ugh, fine. Let’s pick one person. I’m going to eliminate McKinnon just because the other two actresses were on shows that ended their runs, so they’re out of chances for these characters. Murphy was so good as Alexis Rose. So good. The arc that character went on was incredible. But I just realized I used a picture of D’Arcy Carden as Janet at the top of this section, so it would be weird if I didn’t pick her. There you go. There’s the tiebreaker. That wasn’t so hard. — Grubb

Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Dylan McDermott (Hollywood)
Jim Parsons (Hollywood)
Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend)
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen)
Jovan Adepo (Watchmen)
Louis Gossett Jr. (Watchmen)

OUR PICK: I, someone who has binged Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt a Billie-Eilish-watching-The-Office number of times, would love for Tituss Burgess to triumph in the same category as previous winners Marlon Brando, James Earl Jones, and the voice of Paddington. Titus Andromedon would love that, too. His acceptance speech would include a snippet of the National Anthem (the America’s Funniest Home Videos theme song). But that’s not going to happen. And honestly? It shouldn’t, because the award clearly belongs to…

ANALYSIS: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II should get two awards: one for his powerful and frequently naked acting, and one for keeping his character’s identity a secret. I would have blabbed to the first person who wondered why I had [redacted] paint on my fingernails (I don’t want to ruin it). — Kurp

Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Holland Taylor (Hollywood)
Uzo Aduba (Mrs. America)
Margo Martindale (Mrs. America)
Tracey Ullman (Mrs. America)
Toni Collette (Unbelievable)
Jean Smart (Watchmen)

OUR PICK: Merritt Wever and Kaitlyn Dever from Unbelievable might’ve been snubbed by Emmy voters but one, if not both, of them deserve to be on this list. For that reason, we’re siding with Toni Collette, who plays a tough-as-nails detective trying to get justice for the women under her charge. Collette delivered a solid, if not unsurprising performance against Wever’s emotionally-woke victim’s advocate and Dever’s hauntingly brave rape survivor, and a win for her means a win for all three ladies in our book.

ANALYSIS: It’s likely the Mrs. America cast will cancel each other out in this category so really, Collette’s only competition is Jean Smart, who did good work on Watchmen but not enough to pull focus from castmates like Regina Kind and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and certainly not enough to challenge Collette’s amount of screen time and character growth. — Toomer

During lockdown, John David Washington, the very famous star of Tenet and BlacKkKlansman, was forced to do chores for his even-more-famous father, Denzel Washington and his mother, Pauletta. To be fair, they weren’t difficult chores (“How about cooking? There you go, I earned my keep that way,” he recently told Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host Samuel L. Jackson), but no 36-year-old wants to do busy work around the house for their parents. So when John David calls Denzel the “best actor in the industry,” and not “my mean old man Washington,” he must really mean it.

“I think the best actor in the industry, in the business, is my father,” the former-football player told People. “I’m inspired by the kind of career he’s had and what he’s had to do. Again, he’s been on the frontline for many years and what he’s done with it, with his opportunities, I just am so inspired and continue to be inspired by what he does and how he works and his approach to the craft and the business.” Washington also said that his mom “gives me inspiration. That’s my mother, the most consistent person in my life.”

Denzel does have a strong case as the best living actor, but it’s… I’m sorry, I lost my train of thought. I got distracted thinking about how I’m going to watch Inside Man tonight. Anyway, where was I? Oh, that’s right. Denzel Washington: good actor!

(Via People)

Foo Fighters has been a part of Dave Grohl’s life for nearly three decades, but there have apparently been times when he didn’t think the adventure would last that long.

Grohl recently sat down with AC/DC leader Brian Johnson for the aptly titled special Brian Johnson Meets Dave Grohl, which aired today (September 17) on the UK TV channel Sky Arts. During their chat, Grohl revealed that after Foo Fighters tours, he tends to convince himself that he will never hit the road with the band again. However, those phases are something he quickly talks himself out of:

“I don’t know what else I would do. It’s kind of a running joke with everyone in my life where after I’ve been on the road for a year and a half, I come home from tour and say, ‘I’m never doing that again. That’s it. That’s the last time. Never ever again. I’m going to take two years off.’ And all my friends look at me and say, ‘Bullsh*t. There’s no way.’ And after a month and a half, I’ve got a guitar in my lap and I’m writing songs and I call the guys and say, ‘Let’s make another record.’ Every time.”

An official synopsis for the program reads, “It’s a meeting of rock legends as AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson meets Foo Fighters lead singer and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl at the Foos’ LA studio to share stories about life on the road.” Johnson also said of the filming, “Dave Grohl’s passion for rock music is infectious, we had a ball reminiscing about the early days in our different careers. If he ever runs for President, he’d get my vote.”

A piss-poor response to the pandemic, a sinking economy, a country literally on fire, not to mention all the sexism and racism and allegations. And yet, there are still many people, millions of them, who will vote for Donald Trump this Election Day. Our nation’s greatest political mind, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, set out to investigate why.

During Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Triumph, performed by Robert Smigel, hosted a focus group with Trump supporters. “One wonders if anything the president says or does could cost him their ‘herd mentality.’ So we brought these actual Trump supporters to this actual focus group research center, where this actual moderator showed them a series of actual fake Trump campaign ads,” he said.

Triumph, who spends much of the video above behind glass, cedes the spotlight to the seemingly real but obviously fake ads with the voice of the president provided by Our Cartoon President star Jeff Bergman. The focus group participants are pro-electrified monuments (“The second they touch them, boom, whoosh”) and pro-“best of three election” plan, and while they did have hesitations about replacing adults in the workplace with child labor, they were fine with it as long as it’s 12 year olds at the factory, not five year olds. There’s also a whole thing about “putting a person in the microwave” to cure COVID-19, and the group’s defense of Trump, that needs to be heard to be believed.

“The people have spoken, occasionally in coherent sentences,” Triumph said at the end of the segment after sipping a martini and guzzling a bottle of bleach. “And in the end, no matter whom you support, we can all agree, America is blessed with an informed electorate, and the future is brighter than ever… for me to poop on.” Amen.

Kanye West has been a busy bee on Twitter recently, but especially yesterday. He spoke deeply about musicians not owning their master recordings, he shared his recording contracts page-by-page, and he posted a video of himself peeing on one of his Grammy Awards. He crossed the line with one of his tweets, though, in which he shared a journalist’s phone number. That resulted in him being temporarily blocked from tweeting, but it appears he found a way to communicate on the platform.

Last night, conservative political commentator Candace Owens shared a message that apparently came from Kanye himself, as she tweeted, “Kanye wanted me to let everyone know that his Twitter account has been locked out by the Twitter Gods.” She also included the hashtag “#FreeKanye.”

As for the offending tweet in question, it appears it had been deleted since yesterday afternoon. As CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy noted noted yesterday, in these situations, Twitter “hides tweets that break its rules from public view, and locks the account until the owner logs on and removes the tweet.” So, Kanye could regain his tweeting ability soon, if he hasn’t already. His most recent tweet was posted at 1:39 p.m. ET on September 16.

Having graduated in the top 10% of Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets nationwide in 2012, Pat Robinson was ready to take on a career in the Air Force full speed ahead.

Despite her stellar performance in the classroom and training grounds, Robinson feared other habits she’d picked up at Ohio University had sent her down the wrong tracks.

First stationed near Panama City, Florida, Robinson became reliant on alcohol while serving as an air battle manager student. After barnstorming through Atlanta’s nightclubs on New Year’s Eve, Robinson failed a drug test and lied to her commanding officer about the results.

Eleven months later, she was dismissed. Feeling ashamed and directionless, Robinson briefly returned home to Cleveland before venturing west to look for work in San Francisco.

After a brief stint working at a paint store, Robinson found herself without a source of income and was relegated to living in her car. Robinson’s garbage can soon became littered with parking tickets and her car was towed. Golden Gate Park’s cool grass soon replaced her bed.

“My substance abuse spiraled very quickly,” Robinson said. “You name it, I probably used it. Very quickly I contracted HIV and Hepatitis C. I was arrested again and again and was finally charged and sentenced to substance abuse treatment.”

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Two failed attempts to get clean later, Robinson knew she desperately needed to pick herself up. During her third stay at a substance abuse treatment facility, Robinson learned of Back on My Feet — a nonprofit that combats homelessness through the power of running — who was there to extend a hand.

After working through the 12-step program for 60 days, Robinson labored through running her first mile after joining Back on My Feet.

“I kept asking myself while I was running — am I trying to kill myself?” Robinson said. “I couldn’t remember the last time I ran. But the volunteers were all happy and wanted to get to know me. I was all skeptical and quiet and questioning why they were so happy.”

As she continued to run with Back on My Feet, Robinson realized that their joy came from a genuine sense of support and encouragement between the volunteers.

Courtesy of Back on My Feet

“Members were pushing each other beyond our limitations,” Robinson said. “I was still doing treatment for Hepatitis C and HIV and I had to just set my pain aside and push myself every single moment otherwise I would give myself an excuse to be stagnant and depressed.”

After she received treatment for Hepatitis C, Robinson’s energy level skyrocketed. She began studying to be a personal trainer, taking fitness classes and worked with Back on My Feet to rebuild her professional and financial outlook by creating a resume and going through credit reports and housing applications.

Back on My Feet also set Robinson up with financial literacy workshops at the Capital One Cafe in San Francisco.

“They definitely motivated me to see a financial life beyond my imagination but instead a reality of wealth,” Robinson said.

Capital One has partnered with Back on My Feet’s since 2017 and helps its members establish themselves financially. Back on My Feet members have the chance to sit with Cafe ambassadors for one-on-one sessions to answer their questions and go over personal financial necessities like balancing a budget, managing credit and making a plan for financial independence.

“They are people who are starting all over again from scratch and we are here to give them clarity for whatever questions they may have,” said Denza Young, a San Francisco Capital One Cafe ambassador. “Capital One truly is reimagining banking because everything they do: their belief system, their challenges… everything is connected to their money. When they can get clarity on whatever it is that gives them their hurdles it helps them set their goals and think about self-care differently.”

In addition to offering free workshops, Capital One provides grant support to Back on My Feet. In May, Back on My Feet awarded Capital One with its Corporate Pacesetter award.

“It is no surprise that this nonprofits’ values align closely with ours in bringing humanity to banking and empowering our customers in their journey to be financially successful,” said Nerissa Davis, West Coast Market Executive for the Capital One cafe network. “We are so proud of the people we are able to support through our partnership with Back on My Feet and look forward to continuing our journey together to make a difference in the community.”

This partnership has empowered members like Robinson to pursue personal, professional and financial goals that they once saw as unattainable.

Robinson began training for The Giant Race and received word just days before running her first half-marathon that she had been hired as a personal trainer at a local fitness studio.

With her new-found path, Robinson now had confidence to achieve a goal that once seemed unthinkable.

“To me, crossing that finish line meant the culmination of salvation,” Robinson said. “If you would have told me five years ago that my life was going to be spared and that I would be given the courage and ability to cross any finish line, I would’ve deemed you crazy, even though I was the one truly in psychosis.”

Her personal progress aside, for Robinson, it’s the impact she has on others that means the most.

“The accomplishment that I’m most proud of is being able to give back to Back on My Feet by leading Workout Wednesdays,” Robinson said. “People call this my career, but I call it a blessing.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic forced her fitness studio to close, Robinson continues to help those around her through leading socially distant runs with Back on My Feet members. She has also been creating a video for San Francisco Community Health to send to their clients so they can exercise at home.Since March, she has cooked and distributed hundreds of meals to support people in her neighborhood facing homeless — a challenge she knows all too well.

“I haven’t touched a harmful substance in three years and to me that means freedom,” Robinson said. “To anyone who is currently struggling with addiction or experiencing housing insecurity, ask for help, and know that help is on the way. Don’t be afraid.”

The Western Conference Finals are set, and after a couple of more days of watching the Clippers get eviscerated on social media, we can turn our full attention to a series that hardly any of us would’ve anticipated, one that is perfectly emblematic of the way chaos continues to reign supreme inside the NBA Bubble in Orlando.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the playoffs are all about adjustments, and teams that are unwilling or unable to fine-tune their rotations and/or their playbooks, no matter how talented or how well-executed, tend to find a one-way ticket home. The Los Angeles Lakers, for instance, understood this reality when they enacted their own small-ish lineup to counteract the Rockets in the second round.

It’s a move that helped earn them a spot in the conference finals, where they will encounter a different animal entirely, one led by a 7-foot play-making colossus for which there are no easy solutions. But Frank Vogel understands that he’ll have to demonstrate some flexibility once again if wants any chance of slowing Nikola Jokic and company, and that will likely require deploying some combination of JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard.

Via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:

“‘Joker’ is one of the most unique players in the world, and one of the most unique players ever to play the center position in this league,” Vogel said Wednesday. “He can basically hurt you in all ways. He can hurt you at the 3-point line, in the pocket, playing the 4-on-3 game in the post, and obviously with his passing. …

“It does make this series a little different — a lot different, actually — in terms of how much we’ll use our centers. I don’t want to get too much into detail, but obviously we’re going to be the L.A. Lakers, who we’ve been all year. We adjusted to a small-ball team last series, but I would expect us to return to form.”

Though Howard and McGee saw scant playing time against the Rockets, they’d both been a critical part of L.A.’s run to the No. 1 seed in the West during the regular season. They’ve each mostly taken it in stride, although Howard was candid during a recent interview about his struggles to stay positive during this stretch while also dealing with the isolation of the Bubble.

A lot to take in from Dwight Howard’s first public comments in about two months, but this stands out: “There’s really nothing to do to be honest with you. There’s nowhere to go. There’s no way to release anything.” pic.twitter.com/KJu1ndFV92

— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) September 16, 2020

Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals tips off Friday at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.

Earlier this week, the music world was met with the news that Cardi B filed for divorce from her husband Offset following three years of marriage, according to a report from TMZ. During their marriage, Cardi and Offset had one daughter, Kulture, who currently two years old. Looking to offer some consolation, Lizzo sent Cardi a bouquet of flowers with a warm message attached that read in part: “Flowers for a flower! Congrats on all your success this summer.” In the message, Lizzo also promised to send Cardi “something good this week” in addition to the bouquet.

Overjoyed by the gift from Lizzo, Cardi showered the “Truth Hurts” singer with praise in a video her to Instagram story. “Isn’t Lizzo like the nice person in the world? Look what she sent me!” Cardi joyfully said in the video while flaunting her new flowers. “She is just a beautiful ass person, I just love her so much. These are so pretty.”

Cardi’s gift from Lizzo serves as her second highlight of the week after her “WAP” collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion returned to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart following a two-week absence from the top position.

You can see Cardi showering Lizzo with praise for her gift in the video above.

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

“I’ll tell you a secret. The last act makes a film. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit.” — Script Guru Robert McKee, to Charlie Kaufman, in Adaptation.

Never has the “wow them in the end” adage been illustrated more effectively than in The Usual Suspects, directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie, which hit theaters 25 years ago in August-September of 1995. It’s a movie with plenty of flaws but the ultimate trump card: a home run ending that makes those flaws vanish from memory.

Singer and McQuarrie had worked together once before, on Public Access, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, despite fairly tepid reviews. The two had known each other from childhood — in Princeton Junction, New Jersey — where Singer’s mom and McQuarrie’s dad had run together on an unsuccessful bid for a township committee seat. Singer supposedly met Kevin Spacey at an afterparty for Public Access. The idea for The Usual Suspects came to McQuarrie, Finding Forrester style, title first.

While waiting in line for a screening at the festival, a friend asked McQuarrie about his next script. “I said, ‘I was reading this article in Spy magazine called “The Usual Suspects.” I thought that would be a great title.’” As for the story, McQuarrie said, “I guess it’s about…the usual suspects. The guys who always get arrested for some type of crime. I figure they meet in a police lineup and decide to work together. I told Bryan. He forgot about it a few seconds later.”

That this half-assed, barely formed kernel of an idea would go on to win two Oscars (one for lead actor Kevin Spacey and one for writer Chris McQuarrie) and be recognized by the WGA in 2017 as the 35th greatest screenplay of all time, is a perfect illustration of the adage “writing is rewriting.”

Of course, with its director and lead actor becoming varying degrees of unemployable in recent years (Spacey hasn’t been in anything since 2018) — not to mention one of its stars, Stephen Baldwin turning full MAGA grifter (as well as becoming Justin Bieber’s father in law) — The Usual Suspects feels a little like a time capsule of the recently canceled. But all that would come later.

In the first two acts, it’s easy to wonder if this perennial fixture of best-of lists is overrated. Christopher McQuarrie was 27 when it came out, Singer 29, and in certain ways, their youth shows. While Singer had gone off to film school, McQuarrie hitchhiked in Australia, worked first at his uncle’s detective agency and later as a movie theater security guard, and The Usual Suspect feels like McQuarrie tried to cram every oddball character and weird story he came across in the course of his peripatetic young adulthood into this one, impossibly dense script.

It’s a movie that’s as much of its time as it is of its creator. The dialogue, in particular, is smart-alecky, swear-filled, and slightly smug in that particularly early-90s-indie-movie kind of way, like an amalgamation of Tarantino, Shane Black, and David Mamet, where creativity counted for more than naturalism (it probably always does). When the police round up the titular usual suspects, to a man, each character has something casual and sneeringly cool to say to the arresting officers.

“Don’t you guys ever sleep? …F*ck you pig.” -McManus

“…Think you brought enough guys?” -Todd Hockney, as he tosses an oily rag directly at the camera

It’s all Shane Black snappy and Steven Soderbergh slick. The cool-guy sarcasm probably suits Kevin Pollak’s character (Todd Hockney) the best, but it extends to virtually every character. They’re slightly undifferentiated in that way, all in some way guys who would blow cigarette smoke in your face behind the minimart, a very specific Gen X conception of “cool.” No one flinches at having a gun stuck in their face, no one looks at explosions.

Lots of nineties crime films had that in common. You could draw a straight line through Hockney describing what he’s going to do when he goes to prison (“F*ck your father in the shower and then have a snack?”) to Samuel Jackson’s character in The Long Kiss Goodnight (“Nah, I usually sock ’em in the jaw and yell ‘pop goes the weasel‘”) to pretty much any Samuel Jackson line in Pulp Fiction. Where the Shane Black version is slightly more comic book pulp, McQuarrie’s tough guy swear nuggets tend more towards writerly, and slightly tortured. Think Ryan Philippe growling “shut that c*nt’s mouth or I’ll come over there and f*ck start her head” in The Way Of The Gun (McQuarrie’s follow up to The Usual Suspects).

It doesn’t sound like something someone would actually say, but it sticks in your head. Leather jacket guy masculine was just kind of how dialogue was written in the early ’90s, the same way arch self-referential shouting (with big, bugged-out eyes) is in favor now. You can watch The Usual Suspects, a movie that has exactly one female character (Edie Finneran, the “downtown lawyer” that Gabriel Byrne’s Keaton is “tappin’”) and consists of about 85% gay panic insults (you could make a drinking game out of how often a character derisively refers to a group of men as “ladies”) and see basically what Troy Duffy was attempting and failing with Boondock Saints. “What if there were some dudes who were really cool and also had guns, like a bunch of Andrew Dice Clays in a Ray Chandler novel?”

In a lot of ways, The Usual Suspects is the platonic ideal of the ’90s tough guy neo-noir. It’s far more about the idea of telling a crazy story — a crazy story within a crazy story, really — than it is about any one character growing or changing or learning something about life. The only thing anyone really learns in The Usual Suspects is who Kaiser Soze is.

Early on in the film, the characters feel more like “types” than people (as may happen in a heist movie format that grew out of the idea of guys meeting in a police lineup). Even if they don’t entirely come together as flesh-and-blood humans, Usual Suspect‘s characters get by on novelty value, and it some ways it’s driven by the cosmic synergy of oddball writing and oddball acting. Benicio Del Toro’s rendering of “he flip you, flip you for real,” is unforgettable, even if, upon rewatch, his overplucked hustler “Fenster” doesn’t contribute all that much to the plot. Later in the film, we meet “Kobayashi,” a character with a Japanese name, played by a Lancastrian actor, using an accent that could best be described as “vaguely Indian.” It’s a character that only someone with a face as singular as Peter Postlethwaite could’ve pulled off.

McQuarrie throws so much at you — the lineup, the ring of corrupt cops the gang torches in “New York’s Finest Taxi Service, the downtown lawyer with the ambiguous connections, the fence named “Redfoot,” another heist, a massive drug deal at a harbor, two drug gangs, and finally, Kaiser Soze — that you eventually just submit, letting the facts wash over you without trying to make the connections. Usual Suspects‘ narrative is so convoluted I can’t even follow the Wikipedia synopsis. You think, I must’ve been tricked the first time I watched this. There’s no way this comes together the way I remember. How many goddamn Macguffins does this movie have?

Upon my latest rewatch, I was again convinced, right up until the final five minutes, that The Usual Suspects couldn’t possibly hang together. That it was all an elaborate parlor trick, that we force it to make sense to keep from feeling dumb for not getting it, a Band-Aid that makes you feel okay about having watched it. And then, once again, Chazz Palmintieri and Giancarlo Esposito (the future Gus Fring), with an assist from Dan Hedaya, hit a last-second buzzer-beater, meticulously explaining away every conceivable plot hole. Hot damn, they really did pull it off.

In some ways, The Usual Suspects feels even older than 25. Despite the very nineties style of dialogue, as a narrative it seems to come from the classic, mid-century school of manufactured suspense, where revealing information in drips and delayed gratification were everything. Films rarely trust audiences to hang in there for the big ending reveal anymore. And as a viewer, I’m less accustomed to having to wait for it or being able to trust that my patience will be rewarded.

In The Usual Suspects, you can see the essential blueprint for every Christopher Nolan movie that was to come: keep the audience on their heels with endless subterfuge until you can knock them out with the final reveal. Nolan’s low-budget debut, Following, would debut three years later, and he would go on to (arguably) innovate more than Bryan Singer as a visual storyteller, but as a writer he still has a lot in common with McQuarrie (the other Chris).

To note the obvious, that “they don’t make ’em like that anymore,” is a bittersweet observation. For five or 10 years it felt like every aspiring auteur in Hollywood was trying to make The Usual Suspects, the same way every comedian in the late aughts and early 20-teens was trying to be Louis CK. Whether it was sex scandals or just changing tastes that brought them down (with all due respect to McQuarrie, who never had a sex scandal and seems to have successfully evolved), these were both styles that were widely imitated and rarely pulled off, a hyperspecific flavor of white male cool. 25 years later, we can be simultaneously glad that The Usual Suspects exists and relieved that fewer filmmakers are trying to rip it off.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The 2020 Emmys are going to look a bit different this year. Sure, our country is on fire, and a pandemic has forced people across the world to stay indoors — both robbing us of the pageantry of awards seasons past, and simultaneously saving us viewers from suffering through cringe-inducing red-carpet interviews. And the show, which last year boldly chose to go sans emcee, is once again tapping Jimmy Kimmel to host, this time virtually. But no, the most important change to the Emmys this year, one that might end up influencing future nominations and winners to come, has to do with the very bones of this decades-old trophy contest.

We’re talking about the Outstanding Drama category. Earlier this year, the Television Academy announced they were lifting a long-standing rule that once limited the drama and comedy series categories to just five nominees, regardless of submissions. That meant that a more diverse lineup of worthy stories should, theoretically, populate those categories moving forward.

It worked, sort of. Currently, eight series are nominated in the Outstanding Drama list, and yes, they cover the entire spectrum of what the genre can do. They’re stories about businessmen descending into madness and dragging the people they care about off the metaphorical moral cliff with them. They’re high-brow soap operas about the complicated, toxic bonds of the one percent, complete with sausage parties and white-boy raps. They’re dystopias imagining the subjugation of women and the rise of radical theocracies; neon-drenched nostalgic odes to the ’80s with Demogorgons as villains; ancient monarchies trying to adapt to more modern times; money-laundering enterprises on lakefront casino boats; on-the-run road trips in space… you get it.

None of the Outstanding Drama nominees this year fit easily into their designated box, but what’s even more confusing for fans, voters, and critics cursing each other on their shared slack channels when one excitedly champions Ozark or questions the cuteness of Baby Yoda* is how disparate, and how immeasurably different, these nominees are from each other.

Even as someone who’s spent years tuning into these kinds of awards contests with a carefully curated ballot in hand, I’m questioning how reasonable it is to pit this current crop of nominees against each other. How does a voter look at The Mandalorian and find anything comparable to qualify with a show like Succession or Better Call Saul? How do we watch The Handmaid’s Tale, a feminist sci-fi series trading in heavy themes of fanatical religious oppression and climate change and bodily autonomy and hold Stranger Things, a fun ’80s romp about a group of kids fighting off fantasy-inspired monsters, as its mirror? And where in the hell does a show like The Crown, a stuffy-yet-beautifully-wrought chronicle of British history, get off fighting for a top spot against a dimly-lit crime saga like Ozark and the queer romantic espionage thriller, Killing Eve?

We’ve had this problem before of course. In 2015, the Television Academy outraged voters when it named Orange Is The New Black a drama instead of a comedy, crafting a completely inane rule that limited comedies to a 30-minute run time. And it’s not like the Outstanding Drama category hasn’t been diverse in the past, with shows like Westworld and Game of Thrones popping up over the years. But what’s puzzling now is how interested the Emmys seem to be in crowding its major awards categories in the name of “inclusion” without making the effort to actually honor the distinct, unique storytelling those shows are doing.

Is The Mandalorian a drama? Sometimes, but it’s mostly an action-packed odyssey with sci-fi roots. Is Stranger Things a drama? Sometimes, but it’s also a coming-of-age comedy wrapped up in a fantasy-adventure. The third season of The Handmaid’s Tale felt more like a thriller than anything else, as did the most recent installment of Killing Eve, but even then, it’s hard to compare the two. Of all the nominees, Succession (which should and probably will come out on top), Ozark, Better Call Saul, and The Crown feel like they share similar genomes, grounding their stories in reality, focusing their seasons on complicated, nuanced relationships. That’s not all a drama can be, but if we’re going to start vetting and validating the art form, it’s a helpful common denominator.

By opening up its drama race, the Emmys hoped to include critically approved, fan-favorite shows that would attract more viewers to counteract dwindling ratings over the past few years. When a show like The Mandalorian gets that kind of recognition, it brings with it a large fanbase that might tune in to see it take home hardware, which is fine. The Mandalorian was terrific even if its main draw was the adorable meme-generator that was Baby Yoda. But that means shows like Pose and Euphoria don’t make the cut, shows that might better face off against a Succession or Ozark because of their shared DNA.

This was always going to be an issue during the Age of Peak TV — the sheer amount of quality TV means we’ll continue to have genre-defying series appreciated and lauded by critics and academy voters. But if we’re going to start changing things, if we’re going to really embrace stories that aren’t traditionally honored during awards seasons (which I hope we do) can’t we simply take the extra step to create new categories or different scoring methods that give these shows their rightful due? Can we have races decided by fans, can we find ways to include specific sub-genres, can we appreciate what these shows do well with labels that match the stories they’re telling? I’d like to believe we can.

I’d like to believe one day we’ll have a sci-fi series category which might finally force older voters to watch and appreciate the merits of that genre. Or one that gives the many creative horror/thriller sagas on TV their deserved time in the awards show spotlight. We do it for other categories — the Creative Arts Emmys recognize everything from set design to costuming by separating them into contemporary, fantasy, and half-hour narrative programming — so there’s precedent. And even with the current pandemic halting production on dozens of shows, there’s no reason to believe that storytelling on TV is going to reign things in or slow down anytime soon.

So, shouldn’t the Emmys start trying to keep up?

* The events described above are purely hypothetical. Uproxx writers don’t use dark magic unless they’re forming a summoning circle for more seasons of What We Do In The Shadows.