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HBO’s Lovecraft Country is ambitious and astounding and will undoubtedly blow your expectations away. Created by Misha Green, who’s working with Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark-fantasy novel as source material, the show counts horror visionary Jordan Peele and sci-fi maestro J.J. Abrams as executive producers. The show is full of literary and musical references, along with monsters, both in-your-face and and figurative; we’ll discuss the resulting symbolism on a weekly basis.

From the start, Lovecraft Country has gone gloriously overboard with the “episodic” label: the monster-chomping and cult-ritual episodes, the Poltergeist and Indiana Jones send-ups, and now, the deal-with-the-Devil story. It’s not an anthology series, but the episodes kinda feel that way while joyously jarring us with rapid tonal shifts. Hey, no one can accuse this show of not keeping viewers on their toes. We can guess at some of the reveals on the way, yet the presentation of those reveals end up being something else.

This week, the “Strange Case” episode follows up on Ruby’s apparent partnership with William and emerges with some consequential revelations, in addition to what’s going on with Montrose. I will get a little bit spoiler-y about the Lovecraft Country novel, so be forewarned, but let’s get on with the two most WTF transformations — oh, those gory visuals and sound effects — of the week.

Yep, Christina and William are the same person.

A lot of people guessed the blonde duo’s oneness along the way. It could be argued that this was a poorly kept secret, but I don’t see it that way because, even after about 800 hints, the writers delivered this transformation in the most unexpected (and graphic) way: with Christina emerging from the sloughed-off skin of William.

We knew that Christina was into the spell-making thing, so the magic potion seems (by the standards of this show) logical enough. But a magic potion with a transformation that forces one to literally tear their way out of their host-skin? Jesus.

A lot of stuff’s happening here. Ruby’s finding out that she’s actually been sleeping with Christina, for one thing. Yet the nature of William’s existence remains a semi-mystery. That’s where the show heads off into some uncharted territory because neither Christina nor William exist in Matt Ruff’s novel. Instead, Samuel Braithwaite had a son named Caleb, who did a lot of what Christina does (the ceremony rigging, the transfer of money/the Winthrop House to Leti), but the gender-flipping adds new elements to the cult dynamic. Christina’s got an ax to grind for being held down due to being a woman, and she’s clearly a feminist. She’s not overtly racist like her father and the cult, but Atticus suspects that she wants to decode the missing Book of Names pages to wipe out Black America with nefarious spells, much like Titus did with Yahima’s people.

As for William? He may actually exist as a separate entity (I’ll get to that theory soon) when Christina’s not inhabiting his body. What’s also interesting about William being inserted into this series is that the real-life William Braithwaite was an African-American professor, author, and critic who helped helm the revival of American poetry in the early 20th century. He focused upon publishing Harlem Renaissance poets by founding his own publishing house, and his business partner happened to be romantically involved with (the virulently racist) H.P. Lovecraft.

This history may or may not tie into William’s real nature (enemy, ally, or something else?), or that of Christina, but it suggests that their intent isn’t cut-and-dried. And as for my further theory on William, yeah, I suspect he exists as a separate entity. After all, Christina told Ruby that Chicago PD Captain Lancaster tried to kill William. We could view that as Christina simply manipulating Ruby into planting a relic in the captain’s office, and hell, that might be true. But there’s a good chance that William is somewhere else, and we simply don’t know where yet. Here’s why…

Ruby is Hillary, who is Dell.

Remember Dell, the Dog Whistle Lady from the village near Ardham?

She’s back (as I guessed that she would be), but she’s no longer Dell.

Weeks ago, Leti knocked Dell out in the cell that imprisoned Montrose. Her body is now — through the power of that funky potion — the vessel for Ruby to appear as “Hillary” in Chicago. Through Hillary, Ruby receives confirmation that whiteness is the only currency she needs to gain almost anything she desires, and the show makes that case well. Yet in the book, Dell was still alive (although incapacitated, which might tie into Ruby wondering what’s happening in William’s basement). And that’s why I suspect that the “real” William is hanging around somewhere as well.

Wouldn’t it be a total trip if Christina’s whole plan to decode the missing pages was to whip up a spell where the transformations weren’t quite so excruciating? I realize that Lovecraft Country has bigger fish to fry, but damn, I still think that spell would be worth chasing down as well.

As for Ruby, she did a number on Mr. Hughes. While transforming, she executed a rape-avenger manuever akin to Lisbeth Salander’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo revenge on her rapist. This takes Lovecraft Country into dicier territory. Yes, Mr. Hughes did attempt to rape Tamara, a Black employee, while (disgustingly) insisting, “Just let me smell it.” And Ruby, uh, succeeded at raping Mr. Hughes with a high-heeled shoe, which was quite visceral. I expect there to be discussion on whether the scene went too far (with people feeling more conflicted than while watching monsters-eating-baddies).

Enough gore; here’s another transformation.

Montrose v. Himself:

Montrose is nursing a few head wounds, but other than that, he’s physically fine. Internally? That’s another matter, but he’s feeling (overall) better than last week. We receive confirmation of Montrose’s repressed homosexuality, which is something that Tree had suggested. Of course, Tree also (falsely) claimed to have slept with Leti in high school, but Tree’s gossip ended up being true on the Montrose end. We see him with a lover, and he attends a drag show — all after Atticus nearly beat his dad to a pulp.

That Montrose killed Yahima now takes on new layers, when his motive last week appeared to be one of two things: (1) Protecting Atticus; (2) Carrying out some sort of spell while possibly possessed. At this point, we can probably discard the latter angle, but Montrose is clearly traumatized by what he’s witnessed throughout Black U.S. history. Seeing him start a fire and snarl about how it “smells like Tulsa” takes things back to his suggested witnessing of the 1921 Race Massacre went down, including the bombing of Black Wall Street. Montrose also clearly nurses a hefty dose of self-loathing, which may have given him additional fuel (beyond Yahima’s ability to translate the scroll) to murder Yahima, given that the Two-Spirit entity presented as a trans person.

Loose Ends:

– What’s up with that woman who Atticus keeps contacting in South Korea? And on a related note, who’s paying for those long-distance charges? Series writer Shannon M. Houston is wondering the same thing.

– How will the police shenanigans further develop? Did you catch this moment, by chance? Also, Christina pushed Ruby to plant that relic in Captain Lancaster’s office (he worked with Hiram), and Ruby discovered far more than anticipated. That man in the closet might have been the most vomit-inducing part of the episode. That’s saying a lot.

– When will we see Hippolyta again? George’s widow is searching for answers, and she’s also got Hiram’s orrery, which is apparently the key to unlocking his time machine. Hopefully, we’ll find out more answers to that soon. In the meantime, Atticus is feverishly working to decode the scrolls (in a house that sits above the tunnels) in between getting it on with Leti and punching his dad. “Strange Case” was a very strange episode!

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ airs Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

Since breaking free of the “that guy from Twilight” label, Robert Pattinson has played a lighthouse keeper, an explorer looking for a lost city in the Amazon, a bank robber on the run, and a… scarf tycoon in Tenet? (I have not seen Tenet.) In The Devil All the Time, his new Netflix movie co-starring Tom Holland as a good ol’ boy turned sinner, he was cast as a reverend. That sounds normal compared to a space criminal, but because this is Robert Pattinson we’re talking about, there’s nothing normal about his performance.

When asked by Esquire UK where Pattinson looked for inspiration to play Reverend Preston Teagardin (fantastic name), director Antonio Campos replied, “We looked at a lot of different YouTube videos of evangelical preachers and also the pop-stars of the time, like listening to interviews with Elvis and hearing the way he would talk. Then Rob’s own madness; he had his own process and was on his own consuming a lot of different references. I didn’t really hear the accent until we started to shoot, he showed up in character and showed me Teagardin for the first time.” Pattinson didn’t stay in character throughout the entire shoot, but “it was like he would kind of zero in and be in it. The performance is almost closer to a possession than it is a performance,” Campos said.

Boyd Crowder would be proud.

The Devil All the Time, which also stars Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, and Mia Wasikowska, premieres on Netflix on September 16.

(Via Esquire)

By now, you’re most certainly aware of how Chris Evans’ weekend went. He accidentally posted a very private photo (and a puzzlingly-included meme including his face) onto Instagram. Who knows if that image was actually of Chris Evans, and the photo swiftly disappeared. Yet the damage was done, and the Internet was “Oh Captain, my Captain”-ing all over the place. This has gone on for a few days and will eventually pass, but oh boy, you gotta feel for Chris Evans in the aftermath.

Fellow Avengers star Mark Ruffalo attempted to make his friend feel better about the mishap with a “silver lining” tweet, which may have made things more awkward. He really was attempting to give an assist, but as TV writer and podcaster Ira Madison III pointed out, Ruffalo certainly could have texted Evans rather than publicly publish the sentiment. And he even tagged Evans, which was double-awkward. In contrast, Chris’ younger brother, Scott, emerged on Sunday with a more subtle reaction.

“Was off social media for the day yesterday,” Scott wrote, fully knowing what he was doing. “So. What’d I miss?”

Simple and effective. And as one Twitter user put it in a response, this might be “the MOST ‘little brother’ tweet of all time.”

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” has proven to be a tremendous success, and now it is racking up even more achievements. Today, Billboard announced their new Global 200 chart and revealed that its first No. 1 song is “WAP.”

Alongside the Global 200, Billboard is also introducing the Global Excl. US chart, which is similar to the Global 200 but, as the name suggests, excludes US streaming and sales data. Maluma’s “Hawái” has the honor of being the first track to top the Global Excl. US chart.

Billboard describes the charts in a series of tweets, writing, “For the first time, @billboard is launching two authoritative charts ranking the top songs globally. The new weekly charts, the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US, are based on worldwide streams and download sales. The Billboard Global 200 is inclusive of all songs worldwide, while the Billboard Global Excl. US focuses on all territories outside the United States. Both charts collate sales and streaming data from more than 200 territories, with rankings based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading digital platforms, and downloads from key online music retailers.”

“WAP” previously enjoyed a run at No. 1 on the Hot 100, although it was taken down by BTS’ “Dynamite.”

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

Donald Trump generated enough support nationwide to win the last presidential election, but based on the general tone of conversations surrounding the POTUS, the hip-hop community at large isn’t on board with his reign. At the very least, DaBaby isn’t about it. He made that clear with an Instagram post over the weekend, in which he shared some explicit words regarding Trump’s re-election campaign.

The rapper got a text from an unrecognized five-digit number, which began, “Reply YES to join Trump and receive important messages.” Well, DaBaby wasn’t interested in receiving any messages from Trump, regardless of their supposed importance, so he did not reply “YES.” Instead, he went with, “F*CK YALL.” The automated Trump campaign texting system must have heard that one before, because it responded, “Donald J. Trump For President: You have been unsubscribed and will not receive any more messages.” In the caption of his post, DaBaby wondered, “Who gave bruh nem my number?”

Meanwhile, his other recent Instagram posts have been more celebratory. One of them shows off the fact that his and Roddy Ricch’s “Rockstar” finished at the top of Billboard‘s Songs Of The Summer chart. In another post from earlier this month, he commemorated the track achieving 4-times Platinum certification.

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

Before actor Deon Cole became known for playing Charlie Telphy in both Black-ish and its spin-off Grown-ish, as well as DJ Tanner in Angie Tribeca, he was a longtime writer for Conan O’Brien. As he explained to Conan O’Brien on this week’s Conan Needs a Friend podcast, Conan hired Cole after he’d done a stand-up set on the show, and Cole almost didn’t take the job because he didn’t like waking up that early. After some brief growing pains, however, Cole became a huge on-camera hit for Conan’s old show.

In fact, Deon Cole was such a hit that when NBC pulled Conan off The Tonight Show and Conan decided to go on tour before accepting a job with TBS, he brought Cole along with him. It was during that tour when Deon Cole came up with a terrific minibar life hack for those among us who drink too much, come back to a hotel and hit the minibar too heavily, and wake up the next morning and realize we don’t have the money to pay for all the minibar charges.

Enter Deon Cole. “We kicked it so hard after one of the shows that we closed a bar down.” Cole told Conan. “We left the bar, went to my room, opened up the minibar, and drank everything in the minibar. I woke up that morning and was like, ‘Yo. We drank this stuff.’ I looked at the bill on it, and the bill was, like, insane. I was like, ‘Yo, I cannot pay that.’”

So what did Cole do? “So, I was thinking: What’s the difference between this liquor, and the regular liquor in stores? So, I got up and I went to a whole bunch of liquor stores and I bought a whole bunch of the little mini bottles. I went store to store to find the matching mini bottles [until I recreated] everyone last one of those, including the M&Ms. I replaced all that sh*t.”

“That’s insane,” Conan told Cole. “That’s a criminal mastermind at work. It’s a genius move.”

It really, really is, and I don’t know why more people have not thought to pull off this perfect life hack. Why pay $28 for a pack of M&Ms you pulled out of the minibar at a weak moment when you can replace them for $.75 at the 7/11 down the street?

Source: Conan Needs a Friend

Even the most pessimistic person could not have predicted the hellscape that 2020 has become, and yet some new movies and television have proven eerily prophetic. That’s not always a good thing: How will people react to the forthcoming new miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which kicks off with a grisly pandemic? On the other hand, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 — about the protests that engulfed the nation half a century ago, and which were arguably even more impassioned than the ones happening right now — may have perfect timing.

The movie is due on Netflix on October 16, and the first trailer doesn’t remotely try to hide its topicality. Instead it leans into it. The trial itself involved activists accused of conspiracy, incitement to riot, and other charges in the wake of the fiery 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The all-star cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen as Abby Hoffman, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, and many, many more.

But the stars take a backseat to the protests, portrayed as fiery and right on, and filled with chants — e.g., “Whose streets?” — that have been heard in American cities since late May. Though the film won’t hit the streaming giant for another month and change, it’s clear it will be as vital then as it is now, or as it would have been had it come out right after the murder of George Floyd. In the meantime, if you haven’t been reading up on the antiwar protests of the late ‘60s, it would probably behoove you to do that.

TikTok was in trouble. Last month it was revealed the popular video and meme app, which has taken social media by storm, had enraged President Donald Trump, who had imposed a deadline of September 15 to find an American company to control their services in the U.S. Now they’ve found a new home, a mere two days shy of the fateful date.

The lucky company is Oracle Corporation, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, will soon be formally announced as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner.” Oracle beat out such competition as Microsoft and WalMart, the former of whom had been expected to win out. Part of the reason for Oracle’s success may be because its founder, Larry Ellison, is a strong supporter of the sitting president.

As the deadline loomed, there was much speculation whether or not Trump would extended it. He refused to do that, holding steadfast at a mid-September date. As per Deadline, negotiations wound up complicated by “technical aspects of disentangling TikTok’s infrastructure from ByteDance.”

Since 2018, TikTok has ballooned to 100 million users, proving one of the most popular and fastest growing social media apps in a highly competitive age. So, Gen Z, breathe a huge sigh of relief that the president didn’t kill your favorite spreader of memes.

(Via Deadline and The Wall Street Journal)

The Joe Burrow era in Cincinnati has begun, but unfortunately for the Bengals his first start ended in the way so many games have recently in Cincy, with a gutting, rather horrific loss.

With the Bengals trailing 16-13 in the fourth quarter, Burrow twice marched Cincinnati deep into L.A. territory, only to come away with zero points. The first time was a hideous interception from Burrow, as the rookie tried to do too much with a shovel pass that ended up in the arms of Melvin Ingram and snuffed out a chance at a game-tying field goal.

The Bengals defense would force a three-and-out and get their offense the ball back, and this time Burrow was sensational. He made some great throws, including this dart on third down to keep the drive alive.

They would get the ball down to the three and Burrow threw what could’ve been the game-winning touchdown with seven seconds to play, but it was called back on offensive pass interference on A.J. Green. With the penalty backing them up, the Bengals staff decided to try a game-tying field goal to force overtime, and what took place was something that can only be described as Extreme Bengals.

That is Randy Bullock shanking a 31-yard field goal wide right because he appears to pull his right calf muscle mid-kick, accompanied by an all-time call from the legendary Kevin Harlan. On the sidelines, Burrow had the appropriate reaction to his first real taste of Bengals football.

The good news is that Burrow looks the part of a stud, even factoring in that terrible interception that we’ll chalk up to youthful exuberance. The bad news is the Bengals now must go find another kicker, and enter Week 2 at 0-1.

There’s a chance American president and Fox News addict Donald J. Trump may win a Nobel Peace Prize, but if he doesn’t he can always comfort himself with all the fake awards he claims to have won. For years he’s claimed to have won “Michigan Man of the Year,” which is not a real thing. Nor is his latest “win”: On Sunday, he took to Twitter, alleging to have scored the thoroughly non-existent “Bay of Pigs Award.”

“Sleepy Joe Biden has spent 47 years in politics being terrible to Hispanics. Now he is relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders to help him out. That won’t work!” Trump wrote. “Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!”

But again, such an award, even one that’s allegedly “highly honored,” does not exist.

What Trump appears to be referring to is not an award but an endorsement, during his 2016 presidential campaign, by veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

(By the way, not only is the “Bay of Pigs Award” not real, but it would be, well, strange for any politician to want his name associated with a notorious failed operation, which found the U.S. government funding Cuban exiles who wanted to overthrow then-Prime Minister Fidel Castro. They were defeated by Castro’s forces after only three days and the humiliation was later name-checked for posterity in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”)

As he often is, Trump’s easily debunked claim was mocked online.

Others, though, reminded everyone of Trump’s well-documented racism as he tried to earn Latinx support.

(Via International Business Times)