Category: Worldwide

Russia’s failure of an ongoing invasion on Ukraine continued to be bloody throughout Orthodox Christmas, given that Putin declared a ceasefire and then launched strikes anyway. Ukraine is keeping their message of vigilance and hope alive, and part of that mission included sending a Miss Universe delegate, Viktoriia Apanasenko, to New Orleans for the annual competition.

The Daily Beast dug into Ukraine’s preparations that ran a full eight months in the costuming department. Apanasenko wore black for an evening wear segment as well as a white, winged “angel” dress.

Even her swimsuit stayed on theme when she unfurled a “Be Brave Like Ukraine” cape. Miss Universe Ukraine branch director Anna Filimonova told The Daily Beast that they “learned about Miss Russia’s participation only one week before the competition, so we had two options: not to take part in the competition, or to go to the United States and carry our important message, our angel.”

Whereas Russia dressed their delegate, Anna Linnikova, in multiple red costumes.

Apanasenko declared this event to be “painful,” given that she attended while Russian shelling continued in her nation. She also disapproved of the chosen color from Russia:

“I am more than grateful to Miss Universe for their support, but I am not sure the organizers understood what it felt like for me to be standing and smiling on the same stage with Miss Russia who was wearing a red dress, the color of blood,” Apanasenko told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Putin is still insisting that he’s on a sure path to winning his war while claiming victories that Kyiv says didn’t happen. His soldiers loathe this conflict so much that they’re drunkenly shooting each other, so Miss Ukraine makes more than a fair point (regarding tragedy on both sides) about blood-red costuming at the Miss Universe pageant.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Sometimes I feel like it would be a lot easier to enjoy bacon without the internet trying to fetishize it. I don’t know who’s to blame for this, maybe Ron Swanson? He seems like one of those outdated memes Facebook uncles can’t let go of, like Chuck Norris and “winning!”

Anyway, bacon has its place. I like bacon too, just please calm down (and maybe get some exercise). In fact, I would go so far as to say that one salient bacon law too often glossed over in the internet’s bacon hagiography is that how good it is really depends on how it’s cooked. I’ve had at least as much bad bacon as I’ve had good (not to mention bacon unnecessarily shoehorned into dishes that didn’t benefit from it). I would even go far as to say that American bacon* has the highest ceiling and lowest floor of all bacon subcategories.

Good bacon is magical; bad bacon is garbage. (*as opposed to Canadian or back bacon, cut from the loin; or British rashers and Australian middle bacon, which have both belly and loin).

Certainly, the way you prefer your bacon is a personal preference, not to mention a cultural one. I remember going to a Subway in Russia in the late aughts, and after ordering a sandwich with bacon on it, watching the sandwich maker just put white, ungrilled, streaky bacon on there like it was prosciutto or something. Most American bacon is cured and smoked, so depending on the type it might be possible to eat “raw,” but I was too squeamish for that and picked it off. (For the record, the friends I was with ate theirs and they were fine).

Anyway anyway, the obvious question with streaky American bacon isn’t so much whether to cook it (yes), but how. In a pan? In the oven? On a grill? What’s the best way? I tried to compile every method I’ve heard of and compare them, as best I could, head to head.

PART I — The Method

Here are the cooking methods I used:

• Dry Pan
• Pan With Oil
• Pan With Water
• Baked On Parchment Paper
• Baked On A Rack
• Microwaved
• Sous Vide
• Grilled Over Open Flame

This was almost everything I could think of, short of deep frying (I didn’t feel like wasting a quart of oil on a few strips of bacon) and the air fryer. I didn’t include the air fryer method for a few very simple reasons: firstly, I don’t own an air fryer. Secondly, I’ve seen an air fryer, and what’s the most bacon one could even conceivably fit in in an air fryer? Two, maybe three strips of bacon? That seems like an extremely narrow use case. Besides, if you’re the type of person who swears by making two pieces of bacon at a time in your air fryer, I doubt anything I say here would convince you otherwise. In fact, I imagine you’re only reading this insofar as it validates your choice in buying an air fryer.

So to those people, I say: Great job buying an air fryer! You are seen.

For this test, I used regular-cut bacon. It seemed a bit much to try every cooking method with both thin and regular cut. And then what was I going to do, have two separate rankings for each? I probably would say I prefer the thick cut kind, but every grocery store I’ve ever been to seems to have five times as much regular cut as thick cut, leading me to assume that regular cut is more popular (me calling it “regular cut” is another clue). For the most part, I don’t think they cook up that much differently.

I used Farmer John brand reduced-sodium bacon, because my grandfather used to drive a Farmer John truck, and because I actually like less-salty bacon (I’ve bought a lot of salt-bomb bacon that I ended up throwing out lately). Anyway, it seemed like a fairly standard, middle-of-the-road grocery store brand bacon that made sense as a control group.

For most of the cooking methods, if it seemed right I went with the first cook. If something seemed off or improvable, I tried it again. I detailed those below.

PART II — The Ranking

9. Pan With Vegetable Oil

For most of my life, I cooked bacon in a dry pan. But after I discovered how good hot dogs were cooked in a little oil in a pan, I figured the same method was worth a shot with bacon. For the first run, I just grabbed a bottle of “vegetable oil.”

Time: 11 minutes.

Original Notes

Nice even cook, though darker. Lots of curling. The texture is nice, though pretty similar to a dry pan. The main issue is that I can taste all that vegetable oil, and it’s pretty gross. Much, much worse than I expected. The bacon is distinctly redolent of soy beans (which is what “vegetable oil” is generally made from) and it’s an unexpectedly terrible combo. The texture is great, but the taste is by far the worst of any other method. Of course, I could probably solve that by using lard or maybe even just a different type of oil… which is why I’m going to retest this method that way.

Bottom Line

I knew the type of oil would have some effect on the outcome, but not this much. The cook was even but the flavor was terrible. Not just side by side, everyone at the table would notice if you did it this way. My main takeaway here: keep vegetable oil away from your bacon.

8. Sous Vide

So this one probably requires some explanation:

I have a sous vide machine (water circulator); I have bacon. It honestly never occurred to me to use said sous vide (water circulator) to cook said bacon. That suggestion came from Uproxx Life food and whiskey maestro Zach Johnston, who suggested “Leave it in the original package. 147 degrees (Fahrenheit) overnight then one side on the grill.”

Seems wildly elaborate for bacon, but hey, we’re trying to test out all methods here, right?

Time: 24 hours, plus about 7-8 minutes on the grill.

Original Notes:

Light in color, the lightest of the group. The fat looks well rendered and very evenly cooked overall. Relatively flat. Putting it my mouth… the taste is too crumbly for me. It’s insubstantial and kind of crumbles all away. The second strip I picked up actually broke in half when I picked it up. Great for bacon bits but not for breakfast.

Bottom Line:

There was some trial and error to this one. I took a second crack at grilling the sous-vided bacon and found that if I pulled it when it was only just started to brown, it was less crumbly, but also a little less crunchy/rendered. The pre-rendering process definitely makes the pan cook go faster, but not that much faster, and doesn’t solve the crowded-pan problem.

After I grilled the three or four slices from the pack for this test, I put the rest of sous-vided pack back in the refrigerator. If I could pre-render with a water bath and then shorten the cook time the next time I wanted to grill it, I could see that being an upside. Trouble with that was, after I refrigerated them, I couldn’t get the strips back out of the package in one strip. They just tore into little pieces. Maybe if I had drained all the liquid fat from the package as soon as I pulled it it might’ve worked? I don’t know.

Seemed far more trouble than it was worth at that point.

Keni Lopez-Alt over at SeriousEats (where he apparently heard about it from someone else…) broke down this method, but noted “you want to do this with thick-cut bacon,” which makes a lot of sense. Regular-cut bacon is just too flimsy for this.

7. Microwave

I couldn’t not include microwave among the cooking methods. While the microwave mostly earns its reputation as a gross way to cook things (most people I know use it strictly for reheating these days), bacon is one thing microwaves actually do relatively well. If you’ve ever had a breakfast sandwich from coffee shop, you’ve probably already had microwaved bacon. Having worked at a deli, I’ve probably microwaved thousands of bacon strips in my life (you think your deli is griddle-cooking that bacon for your sandwich every morning? extremely doubtful). Even with that life experience, even I forget that you can microwave bacon at home.

Now that you know you can, presumably the bigger question is, should you?

Time: 90 seconds.

Original Notes:

Super curly, and the bacon seems to have shrunk the most of any method. The color is actually nice though, more golden. Texturally it’s the toughest, the *hardest* as opposed to the crunchiest. You know what though? Still pretty good. The fat is nicely rendered, but there are a few meat parts that are hammered to the point that they’re pretty stale tasting.

The main downside of the microwave method is that while it does give you nice rendered crunchy fat insanely fast, in order to get that you tend to have to overcook the meat parts.

Bottom Line:

The microwave is, obviously, extremely fast, and as you can see from the picture, it actually looks mostly like any other cooking method. As for the taste… it’s not terrible, but certainly flawed. It renders the fat beautifully but hammers the lean bits in the process. If you were making an elaborate breakfast and didn’t have stove or oven space to cook the bacon, and needed it timed out just right, and the bacon you were using was particularly fatty, I could see going microwave. I think you could probably fool your guests with this.

But under most circumstances I don’t know why you’d want to.

6. Pan With A Water Bath

This one too probably requires a little explanation too. Having watched Jacques Pepin religiously, I’ve seen him suggest, on multiple occasions, to speed up the rendering of any sauce that starts with bacon or pancetta, by covering the meat with a little water and bringing the water to a boil. That way, so the theory goes, the boiling water starts the rendering, then the water boils off, leaving just the hot fat that then finishes cooking the bacon.

I thought, if it works for smaller pieces of bacon or chicharrones or pancetta, why not whole strips of bacon?

Time: 26 minutes.

Original Notes:

The main visible difference here is that it’s distinctly lighter in color than the other methods. Curling is slightly less than with oil pan. In my mouth, texturally this is a lot closer to the baked bacon, with melty fat and meat that isn’t as hard as the other pan methods. The salt level is also distinctly lower, not surprisingly, though that isn’t actually a bad thing with bacon.

Bottom Line:

The big surprise here was how much the water bath actually slowed down the cooking, when I thought it was sort of supposed to do the opposite. Sorry, Jacques? Maybe I did something wrong. The main upside here was the lighter color, with lean parts that were superior to the other pan methods. Of course, it taking so long to achieve this effect really undercut that advantage.

Since I was using lower-sodium bacon for this test, the water actually made it kind of bland, though I could see that being a bonus with saltier bacon. For the most part, though I can’t really see much point in using this one for your average bacon sesh.

5. Oil Pan (Peanut Oil and/or Lard)

I really only tested these methods because the vegetable oil tasted so bad. For one pan I used peanut oil instead of vegetable, and in another I used a bunch of bacon fat accumulated from the other methods.

Time: 11 minutes.

Bottom Line:

These tasted like normal bacon, and I couldn’t really distinguish between them, suggesting that it was the vegetable oil that was the outlier. The cook was maybe ever-so-slightly more even than with the dry pan method (which would turn into a bacon grease pan pretty quickly anyway if you’re cooking more than three strips of bacon in it). And while the fat was beautifully rendered and crunchy, the lean bits leaned a little stale and hammered tasting.

4. Dry Pan

This was the way I learned to cook bacon, and presumably, most people do too. Bacon in a pan, cook until finished on medium-ish heat. Some people flip a lot, some people flip a little; I haven’t noticed that it makes much difference either way.

Time: 11 minutes.

Original Notes:

Visibly a little more uneven than the oil pan and baked methods, with less curl. Mostly looks good though, the differences are fairly negligible. In my mouth, the fat is rendered nicely and melts in the mouth, though the leaner bits are harder and less melty. A lot of the lean parts fall into that awkward middle ground between chewy and crunchy, more like old tortilla chips.

Spice level is good, as you would expect.

Bottom Line:

The tried-and-true method earns a solid C+ from this reviewer. The upsides are that it cooks up pretty fast (one of the biggest surprises for me from this test was that adding water or oil didn’t speed up the cook time at all) and tastes pretty good. The downsides are that you’re limited by pan size and that you have to hammer the lean parts a little to get the fat nicely rendered.

Also, you have to stand there poking at it.

3. Baked On Parchment Paper

This was the method I switched to after pan frying once I learned that you could. Throw some parchment paper on a baking sheet (for easier cleanup), put the bacon on there, and set the oven to bake at 375 (Fahrenheit). It takes a little longer, but you can also fit more bacon on a sheet pan than you can a pan, and you can kind of set it and forget it.

Time: 21 minutes.

Original Notes:

In color, it’s slightly lighter than the dry and oil pan methods, with curling that’s a little more than dry pan and a little less than oil pan. Texturally it’s superior to both. You get the melt-in-your-mouth rendered fat that’s the same, but the meat is less hard and almost melts in your mouth. Taste-wise it’s good, with nothing in there to alter the original flavor of the bacon (like water or oil).

This is a very good method overall when you consider how easy it is to set up, cook, and clean.

Bottom Line:

Tasting them side by side, which I’d never actually done before this test even though I have made both often, the textural superiority of baked bacon to pan-fried was pretty stark. The fat rendered without the lean parts getting that stale-tortilla chip texture, and the whole thing became melt-in-your-mouth delicious. True, it takes almost twice as long, but you don’t have to really watch it at all, it’s more of a set-it-and-forget-it process.

And then you can just let the grease dry and chuck the paper out in one go.

2. Baked On Wire Rack

I’ve used this method a few times, but it seemed like a little more work than just putting down parchment paper and laying the bacon on the parchment paper. For this I used a sheet pan, covered it with foil (again, for clean up), put a wire rack on top and let the bacon bake on the wire rack. The main difference was that the fat would drain away from the bacon while it cooked rather than the bacon cooking in its own pooling fat like it does with the parchment paper method and in the pan on the stove.

Time: 24 minutes.

Original Notes:

The least curling of any method, it’s actually weird how flat this bacon stayed (which isn’t a plus or a minus, I don’t really have a preference on whether my bacon is curly or flat). Color-wise, it’s lighter than the pan methods but not as light as the water pan, microwave, or sous vide. The slice seems bigger than any other method too, like it somehow shrank less. Biting in… mmm, the fat on this is so crumbly and delicate. It seems almost aerated compared to the other methods. The meat is only slightly less crumbly than the fat. It falls apart easily but it’s very melt in your mouth. Easily the best so far.

Bottom Line:

Again, I’d baked on a rack and on parchment before, but having them side by side really highlighted the differences. The rack-baking method was noticeably, if only slightly, better than parchment. It also took slightly more time, and a little bit more prep. But on that note, was it really that much more elaborate than parchment? Parchment takes less time to set up, but once it’s done, you have to take the bacon off the parchment and put it somewhere to drain. Whereas with the wire rack it’s already draining so you can just pull it out of the oven and leave it there. I’ll be a rack man from now on.

Or I would be, if not for…

1. Right On The Barbecue Grill

When we’re cooking a hamburger, steak, or hot dog, going outside to the grill seems like the obvious play.Why isn’t that also true for bacon?

Okay, probably because we tend to want to stay indoors while cooking breakfast. But still! I’ll admit, even I didn’t think of this method right away, and I had a memorable grilled bacon experience. It was in Australia, at a Safari Camp, right after I got engaged. Our guide cooked us up a feed (in Australian parlance) using only a grill and it was one of the best breakfasts, and best bacon, I’ve ever had (engagement was pretty tight too). Granted, cooking bacon over a grill seemed especially Australian, and it was Australian bacon, which is different, which is probably why it generally didn’t occur to me before now.

Still, I thought, it had to be worth a shot.

For this method, I used my very cheap, not-very-clean crappy propane grill. If you have a nicer grill, a charcoal or a wood-pellet job, I imagine it could only be better than this. Roast me for my dirty grill if you must. But also, I’d contend, shouldn’t a grill be kind of dirty? Discuss.

Anyway, I know my grill tends to cook fairly hot and unevenly (remember, cheap), so I chose a cooler spot. I heated it nice and hot on high for a few minutes (the ol’ “Dudes Rock” sanitization method) then put the bacon on and immediately turned it all the way down (I also hoped getting it nice and hot first would keep the meat from sticking). Then I closed the lid and walked away for a few minutes. When I came back the bacon seemed to be cooking nicely so I basically just flipped it over once and pretty soon after that it was good to go.

Time: 14 minutes.

Original Notes:

Medium in color, slightly darker than sous vide, but lighter than pan or oven methods. Medium curly. The lean parts look less hammered while fat looks well rendered. There are some faint grill lines and light blackening at the edges. Biting into it, the taste is… shockingly excellent, actually. Melt-in-your-mouth fat plus chewier meat, and really good flavor.

And this was on a propane grill. With charcoal, I imagine it’d be even better.

Bottom Line:

I don’t know that the grill method was definitely better tasting than wire rack baking — it was probably even money. But considering how much faster it was, not to mention no real setup or cleanup to speak of, I had to give it the edge. Really they both benefit from the same phenomenon — that the fat has someplace to go while the bacon is cooking (not that I’m generally against meat cooking in its own fat). That, and in both cases, the fat rendered without the meat getting too dried out or hard. With the grill method, it actually had a nice chew to it that none of the other methods could match. The downside is that you do have to go outside for it. That being said, you don’t have a grease-filled pan to deal with at the end.

Final Thoughts

I did my best to consider all of the factors involved here — from ease of use to time of cook to labor to cleanup. The grill honestly shocked me, I had no idea it would turn out so well. True, going outside for it is kind of a pain in the butt, but if you’re not up for that, there’s always the wire rack method, which is also delicious.

Last year, Anitta broke many records thanks to the success of her global hit “Envolver.” In her new commercial for Lay’s that was released yesterday (January 17), the Brazilian superstar helped shatter another Guinness World Record.

Anitta’s new commercial with Lay’s features a remix of “Envolver” that was recorded in a studio, which was powered by the electricity from over 6,000 potatoes. Lay’s and Anitta set a Guinness World Record for the feat that was described in a press release release as “never-been-done-before.” Anitta’s “Beat Of Joy” commercial with the “Envolver” remix is a part of the potato chip brand’s “Stay Golden” campaign.

“As I continue to grow as an artist and a person, I do my best to focus on the positive and choose joy in every situation – to Stay Golden,” said Anitta in a statement. “This campaign captures that feeling that brings together all my passions and reflects the mindset I have in life at this moment. I hope it inspires fans to create joy and radiate that positivity every day.”

The campaign was also translated in Spanish to “Sigue Brillando.” Like the voceteo cars in the commercial, fans have a chance to win a voceteo kit signed by Anitta. By commenting with #StayGolden on the official Instagram or Twitter for Lay’s, they will be entered into the contest.

Last month, Anitta was named with BTS, Taylor Swift, Adele, and Harry Styles as Iconic Record Breakers by Guinness World Records. Thanks to her breakthrough single “Envolver,” she broke two records. On March 24, she was recognized for becoming the first solo Latin artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify. On August 28, she was later recognized as the first female solo artist to win Best Latin at the MTV Video Music Awards. Both records were broken by “Envolver.”

Today, Boygenius — an indie powerhouse band consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker — announced their official return today. The band are set to release their debut album, The Record, later this spring. However, the creation process of them reuniting (and making a record) has been years in the making.

According to a new press release, Bridgers was the one who set the gears in motion to bring the three close friends back into the studio together.

Back in 2018, Boygenius released a self-titled EP, but in the years since, each of the members have embarked on making solo records and finding success on their own.

Bridgers, who dropped her massive sophomore record, Punisher, in the summer of 2020, reached out to Dacus and Baker a week after its release. She sent them a demo of the band’s now-new song, “Emily I’m Sorry,” and everyone agreed that it was time for a return.

After making a Google Drive folder of potential songs, the three members entered the studio in January 2022 and spent most of the month recording for ten hours each day.

“We are all at least one type of the same psycho. The Venn diagrams overlap in ‘Every day for a month,’” Baker shared about their process.

The Record is out 3/31 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

Cate Blanchett might be taking home awards for her portrayal of a disgraced composer and titular character in the film “Tár.” But if she had it her way, there wouldn’t be an award to take home. While delivering her “Best Actress” acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards, Blanchett challenged the need for awards shows, calling them “televised horse races.”

She didn’t mince words. “I would love it if we would just change this whole fucking structure.”

“Why don’t we just say there was a whole raft of female performances that are in concert and in dialogue with one another?” she said to the audience, celebrating the “extraordinary” performances by her fellow nominees — Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler, Margot Robbie, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh.

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She continued, “because, can I tell you, every single woman with a television, film, advertising, tampon commercials — whatever — you’re all out there doing amazing work that is inspiring me continually. So thank you. I share this with you all.”

Watch below:

Cate Blanchett said to stop pitting women against each other and she’s so right!#CriticsChoiceAwards pic.twitter.com/L8gGuTEpvi

— Rina (@bbblanchett) January 16, 2023

To be fair, she kind of has a point. While it’s a good thing to recognize great work, art is subjective and unquantifiable. It’s not a sport, where there are clear cut rules as to what makes a winner a winner. Perhaps this system of picking one person above another in a creative field is outdated, not to mention unhealthy with the way it can inherently pit people against one another.

Competition is a natural part of the human condition. And clearly—as indicated by the widespread popularity of competition shows—it has its place in entertainment. However, what Blanchett seems to be arguing is that where competition largely divides us, creativity does the opposite, connecting us to our empathy and to each other. Not taking that into account largely misses the point of art altogether.

Perhaps it’s time to have a new system in place that does away with the shiny trophy and simply celebrates artists for their work. Odds are, they didn’t get into the industry for accolades anyway.

Meghan Smith is the owner of Melody Note Vintage store in the eternally hip town of Palm Springs, California, and her old-school Gen X advice has really connected with younger people on TikTok.

In a video posted in December 2022, she shares the advice she wishes that “somebody told me in my twenties” and it has received more than 13 million views. Smith says that she gave the same advice to her partner’s two daughters when they reached their twenties.

The video is hashtagged #GenX advice for #GenZ and late #millennials. Sorry older millennials, you’re too old to receive these pearls of wisdom.

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Here is some of the timeless advice that Smith shares in the video.

Perfection is bullshit.

You never be more good-looking than you are today.

Put your phone down and enjoy your life.

Don’t change for anybody.

Don’t worry about making mistakes.

Laugh at yourself.

If somebody shows you their true colors, believe them.

Travel.

You end up dating the people you think you deserve. Usually, you deserve better.

Don’t forget to always wear your sunscreen.

@melodynotevintage

This might only help one person and thats ok. Advice I wish somebody told me in my twenties. #genx advice for #genz and late #millennials #adviceforyour20s #lifeadvice #fyp dont be an asshat in the comments if you are older, its not helpful.

She followed up the video with a sequel with even more sage advice.

Know who’s on your side and who you can ask for help.

Don’t smoke.

Don’t spend longer than one year with the wrong person.

Find your own style.

Don’t stress over the small stuff.

Good manners don’t go out of style.

Do the work that it takes to be really good at something.

Your happiness is more important than other people’s disappointment.

@melodynotevintage

This might only help one person and thats ok. Advice I wish somebody told me in my twenties part 2 #genx advice for #genz and late #millennials #adviceforyour20s #lifeadvice #fyp

Skrillex has had a solid run of hot singles lately. Earlier this month, he released the dance-ready ballad “Way Back,” featuring PinkPantheress and Trippie Redd. Before that, he shared “Rumble,” with Fred Again.. and Flowden.

Today, the super-producer has shared a new single, “Leave Me Like This,” with Bobby Raps. On the new track, Skrillex delivers a groovy, house-inspired beat, where a voice singing “please don’t leave me like this” can be heard fading in and out. The track builds throughout, with exciting drops and thumping bass.

In addition to new music, Skrillex also debuted a new haircut this past week, wearing it buzzed, and noticeably shorter than he did in his many years with long hair.

Over the past year, Skrillex has kept it relatively low-key in terms of public appearances, mostly just focusing on his own performances, as well as production work for other artists. He took to social media to explain why.

“People ask why ‘I’ve been gone’ or ‘fell off,’ rightfully so,” he said, “Like I said, 22 was sort of my tipping point, I had to put everything on ice especially my projects/career.”

He continued, saying, “The truth is I didn’t cancel sunset and movement festival because of my albums. It we because I was working on myself. For the first time in 4-5 years I’ve found a new sense of peace. It took so much work and sacrifice to get here.”

Thankfully, it seems like he’s ready to get back and draw us back to the dance floor.

Check out “Leave Me Like This” above.

A week or so ago I was having drinks with a friend of mine who works for Late Night with Seth Meyers. In passing, I asked who was on the show that week and he mentioned John Larroquette and made a joke about maybe he’ll finally explain his character from the Carl Reiner directed, John Candy vehicle, Summer Rental. (No one actually cares but me, but his character, a man named Don Moore, is set up as a guy who will for sure be having an affair with John Candy’s wife. But then nothing happens. He’s just some guy. Obviously, his arc was cut out of this movie and I find it fascinating.) But then my friend said back, “He’s on to talk about Night Court.” And then I did that thing where you say the words “ha ha” out loud, in a slow, drawn-out way, to display sarcasm. But then he said, “No, really, there’s a new Night Court.”

After Googling this because I still didn’t believe him, it turns out this is true. There is a new Night Court. And I had to immediate reactions at the exact same time. Neither reaction on their own was unique, but combined together they created a feeling I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. One of the reactions was: Who on earth is asking for a new Night Court? Do people under, say, 35, even remember Night Court? It’s a show that, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t have much of a footprint in 2023 like say even a Cheers or Frasier still have. And when this has been done before, like Will & Grace and The Conners, both those shows still feel like they are in the zeitgeist. But who was asking for Night Court?

The other, simultaneous reaction was: Oh yeah, well of course I’m going to watch Night Court. (I came close to even asking NBC for screeners, but I didn’t want to be committed to writing about Night Court. Yeah of course I was going to watch Night Court, but I certainly am not going to write about Night Court. Anyway, here we are.)

As anyone who was a kid in the 1980s, I watched my fair share of Night Court. It was part of the powerhouse NBC Thursday night lineup that featured four actual “must see” shows that started in 1984: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court. (In 1983, NBC Thursday led off with the Nell Carter vehicle Gimme a Break, which became famous for launching Matthew Lawrence’s career. What would become the Night Court spot was a never-ending rotation of failed sitcoms. The acclaimed, but barely watched Dabney Coleman led Buffalo Bill and a show starring Jim Carrey called The Duck Factory were both in that spot the year before.

Night Court starred Harry Anderson (who had been on Cheers as a recurring character, a con man named Harry the Hat, who I loved as a character and wrote about) as a young, oddball judge named Harry Stone who loved Mel Torme and magic tricks. The show made John Larroquette a star, earning him four Emmy awards. As the sarcastic and crude womanizer Dan Fielding, Larroquette won so many Emmy awards in a row he finally took his name out of consideration. (Woody Harrelson would win the first year Larroquette didn’t participate.) Night Court would go on to be a ratings behemoth, at least until NBC figured out it could use Thursday as a lunching pad for new shows and siphon off established hits like Family Ties and Night Court to other nights. In 1988 Night Court moved to Wednesdays and still did okay, but it wasn’t on “the night” anymore. The Judd Hirsch comedy Dear John would take its place on Thursdays.

Night Court would wrap up in 1992. In the finale, Judge Harry Stone got a couple of enticing offers to leave his bench, but decided to stay. Public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post) is elected to congress. Larroquette’s Dan Fielding leaves his job as assistant D.A. to pursue a relationship with Christine. And bailiff Bull Shannon (Richard Moll) is literally abducted by aliens.

I can’t remember the last time I watched network television that wasn’t for sports or an awards show. But here I was, Tuesday night, ready to see what Night Court is like now. Sadly, a lot of the actors who were on the original run are now longer with us, like the aforementioned Anderson and Post. And the first episode is actually sad and almost a meditation of who Dan Fielding was and the relationship Larroquette had with his castmates. Dan now lives alone, mentioning he had a wife named Sara, and seems to just be happy keeping to himself. This new Dan is a shell of the Lothario he was in the original show. Which, actually, is kind of interesting.

When Dan first meets Melissa Rauch’s Judge Abby Stone, daughter of Harry Stone, he has a pretty interesting line. Dan mentions he’s sorry about her father’s passing, then says, “We lost touch over the years, but he was a great guy.” Later in the episode adding, “Say a lifetime ago, you worked with a guy. You had your ups and downs. But on the whole, you liked each other. Respected, even. The job ends and you go your separate ways. Life happens. You live. You love. And you lose … big time.” Look, I have no idea what Larroquette and Anderson’s relationship was in real life, especially back then, but it does seem like Larroqutte was speaking from the heart there about Anderson. Which is also pretty interesting.

Watching the two episodes of Night Court that aired on Tuesday night, this feels like a show almost designed so John Larroquette can get some stuff off his chest, wrapped up in a bundle that includes: sets that look like they were built in the ’80s, a multi-cam situational comedy setup, and a laugh track. Which kind of makes it all more surreal. Again, even while watching on network television on Tuesday, I still can’t figure out who wants this or why it’s even on. Also, I’m probably going to be watching every week. If for no other reason, to finally, hopefully, find out, after 30 years, how Bull Shannon is doing living on an alien planet. So far, shockingly, this has not been addressed in the first two episodes.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

As newly-elected Congressman George Santos watched his massive web of lies get exposed in mid-to-late December — with little to zero consequences from the Republican Party, we might add — the shady representative was called out for claiming on Twitter that his mom, Fatima, was killed on 9/11. It was later revealed that she actually died in 2015 from cancer.

Santos has since amended that story to now claim that her cancer came from being exposed to the “ash cloud” from the attacks while working in the South Tower. However, some new information has come to light, and it really should not surprise anyone at this point. That information? Santos’ mom wasn’t in New York on 9/11. In fact, she wasn’t even in the country.

Here’s what a search of immigration records for Fatima A.C.H. Devolder found, via Forward:

The records show that she wasn’t a bean counter, but a bean picker. As a young woman with a ninth grade education, she came to the United States on a Seasonal Agricultural Workers visa and worked on a South Florida bean and squash farm for $2.50 an hour. Later, she moved to New York and worked as a home aide and housekeeper.

The documents were released to a researcher named Alex Calzareth who requested them under the Freedom of Information Act, and shared with the Forward. They also place Devolder in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Niterói on Sept. 11, 2001.

This latest debunking arrives on the heels of another alleged Santos scam. The congressman reportedly defrauded a veteran by raising money for the man’s sick dog only to pocket the cash and vanish. Without the much-needed funds, the dog ended up dying. Despite the increasing amount of shady activities, House Republicans are sticking by Santos and even saw fit to appoint him to both the Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the Small Business Committee. Really neat, guys.

(Via Forward)

In 2022, Disney+’s Star Wars offerings were extremely mediocre disappointments (Obi-Wan, The Book of Boba Fett) to extremely good masterpieces (Andor, Ewan McGregor’s beard in Obi-Wan). In 2023, more additions will be added to the universe, with some stories that have been on a long break return. In January, things kick off with the second season of the animated series The Bad Batch. The Mandalorian returns in March, and at some undisclosed date, Rosario Dawson will return as Ahsoka Tano, this time in her own series. 2023 will also mark Jude Law’s debut in the Star Wars universe because once you go Disney, you stay Disney.

Here’s your guide to all the Star Wars shows coming out in 2023:

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 (January 4, 2023)

Starring: Dee Bradley Baker, Michelle Ang
Genre: Sci-fi, Animation
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: 16 episodes
Creator: Dave Filoni
Trailer: Watch here

This is not for casual Star Wars fans. This in-depth animated series from Dave Filoni, which follows a squad of clones with genetic mutations including Omega, a female clone, is heavier on the Star Wars lore than any film or live-action series. The show explores the sprawling galaxy, focusing on the years leading up to the Empire’s takeover of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. The show, which has a mix of serialized storytelling and stand-alone episodes is clearly building to something big, quite like its predecessor, The Clone Wars. The animation format allows the show to focus on the clone characters and stories that might be difficult, impossible, or, even for Disney, too expensive to pull off in live-action.

The Mandalorian: Season 3 (March 1, 2023)

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Katee Sackhoff
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action Adventure
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 8 episodes
Creator: Jon Favreau
Trailer: Watch here

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, The Mandalorian premiered on a brand new streaming service called Disney+. It was a different time: we didn’t even know about Baby Yoda yet. In 2019, The Mandalorian established an exciting tone for Star Wars shows, with an original story truly separate from the Skywalker Saga that honored the true spirit of the original trilogy with its western style action and storytelling. In its second season, which premiered in late 2020, the show became a sprawling Star Wars story, ending with an appearance from none other than a yassified, de-aged Luke Skywalker. Season three, coming out over two years after season two (Star Wars is expensive!) will hopefully dial back on the Skywalker stuff, and finally, introduce the world to Pedro Pascal’s mysterious face.

Young Jedi Adventures Animated TV Series (Spring 2023)

Starring: Emma Burman, Jmaal Avery Jr.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Animation
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: Unknown
Creator: Michael Olson
Trailer: TBA

Young Jedi Adventures promises to turn the youngest people on Earth into Star Wars fans. The first-ever full-length Star Wars series for pre-schoolers will follow Younglings in Jedi school and their various adventures as students at Jedi school and throughout the galaxy far, far away. Since this is a children’s show, the young padawans will learn life lessons along the way, with episodes tackling topics including compassion, teamwork, patience, and friendship. The series will not cross paths with the main Star Wars timeline: it is set in a period called the High Republic, an era set centuries before the events of The Phantom Menace.

Star Wars: Visions – Volume 2 (Spring 2023)

The animated anthology series returns at a currently undisclosed date this spring. The first volume of Star Wars: Visions, released in 2021, consisted of nine unrelated self-contained anime short films, produced by seven Japanese studios. The studios were given creative freedom, with stories existing outside the Star Wars canon: many of the films feature familiar characters and alternate histories, and stories exist throughout various periods in the galaxy ranging from before the Empire, during the events of the original trilogy, and after Rise of Skywalker. Volume 2 will feature short films from animation studios from multiple countries across the globe Japan, India, the U.K., Ireland, Spain, Chile, France, and South Africa.
Starring: Various
Genre: Animation, Sci-fi
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Nine episodes
Creator: LucasFilm
Trailer: Watch here

Star Wars: Ahsoka TV Series (2023)

Starring: Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Hayden Christensen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Adventure
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: TBA
Creator: Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni
Trailer: TBA

Ahsoka Tano, an original and deeply beloved character from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars made her debut in live-action form in season two of The Mandalorian, portrayed by Rosario Dawson. Her own live-action series will exist in the same timeline as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in the years following the fall of the Empire. As teased in the other two shows, Ahoska will be on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, an imperial military leader. Ahsoka was Anakin Skywalker’s padawan in the Clone Wars years, but abandoned the Jedi before the whole Order 66 thing after she was set up for a crime. Despite Anakin’s turn to the dark side, Ahsoka always saw the good in him. Given Hayden Christensen’s confirmed casting in the series, flashbacks to their much happier years as Jedi are likely.

Star Wars Skeleton Crew (formerly “Grammar Rodeo”) TV Series (2023)

Starring: Jude Law
Genre: Sci-fi, Coming-of-Age
Rating: TBA
Runtime: TBA
Creator: Jon Watts and Christopher Ford
Trailer: TBA

Set in the same post-Return of the Jedi period as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahoska, Skeleton Crew is a coming-of-age story starring Jude Law but we don’t know much more about it. Co-creator Jon Watts is best known for the Tom Holland MCU Spider-Man films wanted to create a Star Wars story inspired by Steven Spielberg films from the 1980s and coming-of-age films like The Goonies. According to reports from 2022, the series was looking to cast four actors to play teenage characters, and one 30-to 40-year-old actor. Filming began in Fall of 2022. This is a fun concept perfect for the Star Wars tone, themes, and world, as long as the show can resist integrating Skywalkers into it: Luke Skywaker does not need to assist in this coming-of-age story, he’s done enough.

Andor season two and The Book of Boba Fett season two (Probably 2024)

Andor, the best Disney+ Star Wars show by many parsecs, will return for a second and final season of Tony Gilroy realness. Cassian Andor’s adventures leading up to his death on Scariff in Rogue One will continue for twelve more episodes. season two is already underway, but it’s unlikely that it comes out in 2023. In 2022, Gilroy told Polygon, “This first half was about him becoming a revolutionary and committing to it, and sort of marrying himself to it, and sort of the blood oath,” he said. “If it was about him becoming a revolutionary, then the second half is about him becoming a leader.” The second season, which began production in November 2022 and will continue filming well into 2023, is expected to return in 2024.

The second season of The Book of Boba Fett, the series centering on the bounty hunter Boba Fett and then Baby Grogu and The Mandalorian for a couple episodes, has not officially been renewed. If it is not renewed, his story will liekly just continue in season three of The Mandalorian, because they are essentially the same show.