Category: Worldwide

A great stoner once said, “why smoke it, when you can eat it?” That stoner was me, just now. The popularity of edibles has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic as an increasing number of stoners opt for edibles over flowers and concentrates. Since edibles have all of the anxiety-reducing, pain-alleviating, hunger-inducing, and euphoria-producing qualities found in a jar of fresh bud without any of the harmful effects of inhaling smoke into your lungs, they are by far the healthiest way to get a dose of THC into your bloodstream.

Thanks to our new lockdown lifestyles, we need to be courteous in a way we’ve never been before with the people we share a space with. Your non-pot-smoking roommates who previously used to never be home may now be with you the majority of the day, and they might not appreciate you making the entire building smell like Snoop’s tour bus. So instead of taking your huge glass-on-glass bong outside to toke up, why not just pop an edible from the comfort of your own room?

To help you figure out which edibles are worth your time (and money), we’ve compiled a list of all the edibles that we’ve been munching on this summer with a particular emphasis on gummies and hard candies. Why gummies and hard candies? Because it’s summer, and we don’t need a chocolate-y mess on our hands or a pastry that’s going to sweat in its packaging into an unappetizing state.

So let’s dive into our favorite Cannabis edibles for some end of summer snacking!

Deli Nickels Gummy Rounds

THC Content: 100mg (5mg per gummy)
Price: $15

One of the major drawbacks of gummy edibles is that while they look almost identical to their non-THC containing counterparts, meaning you can’t exactly kill a handful of gummies as you would with a normal pack of candy. If you do, you’ll get way too high. But not being able to indulge your sweet tooth just doesn’t feel right when you’re dealing with candy, which is why we’ve really been digging California dispensary Caliva’s Deli Nickels Gummy Rounds. At just 5mg of THC per gummy, Deli Nickels feature a mild enough dose that they’re great for beginners. At 20 gummies per pack, they’re weak enough that experienced smokers can pop a handful of three to five and enjoy the best experience the candy and cannabis worlds have to offer.

The gummies resemble sugar encrusted coins — we’ll let you guess which coin — and come in your choice of Passionfruit, Mango, Sour Green Apple, and Mixed Berry. We highly recommend the Mixed Berry as the best of the bunch!

Kiva Blackberry Dark Chocolate

THC: 100 mg (5 mg per serving)
Price: $10-$20

We know we said we’d be focusing on gummies for this list, but we had to throw a bar-shaped bone out there for all you chocolate lovers. We included KIVA’s chocolate bars on our CBD roundup but where this brand really shines is in its THC bars. The full line consists of nine different flavors which include Toffee Crunch, Churro Milk Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate, Raspberries and Cream, Espresso, Blackberry Dark Chocolate, regular Dark Chocolate, and Milk Chocolate. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any of those choices. But if we had to choose just one, we’re going with the Blackberry Dark Chocolate every time.

The Blackberry Dark Chocolate bar has 54 percent dark chocolate infused with bright and rich berry flavors resulting in a harmonious explosion across your palate that will have you feeling stoned before you start to feel the effects of the full spectrum high.

MOXIE Pineapple Express Cannabis Infused Gummies

THC: 100 mg (10 mg per serving)
CBD 1mg
Price: $20

No, this is not the same MOXIE that makes that odd-tasting old fashioned cola — we checked. This MOXIE is a pretty well-known brand in the cannabis space. They produce flowers, mints, lozenges, and our favorite product Cannabis-Infused gummies. Made using the Sativa strain of the same name, what makes MOXIE’s Pineapple Express gummies so good is the fact that they are water-soluble, which should lead to faster absorption and therefore, faster effects. Anyone who is familiar with edibles knows the pain of waiting for the magic to kick in, MOXIE speeds that process up a bit and tastes good in the process. What more can you ask for?

Mindy’s Edibles Fruit Chews/Gummies

THC:100mg (2-5mg per serving depending on tin size)
Price: $18

Mindy’s edibles come from the mind of James Beard award-winning chef Mindy Segal. Mindy’s Edibles are serious business. As you chew through the gummies, fruit chews, hard sweets, or chocolates she crafts, you’ll seriously start to question whether or not you’re even eating cannabis. We recommend the Gummies only because they’re by far the easiest to find. But if you can get your hands on a fruit chew, don’t hesitate!

As you’d expect from a James Beard level chef, Mindy’s edibles come in fancy flavor names like Glazed Clementine Orange, Lush Black Cherry, and Cool Keylime Kiwi, providing a sensory experience that pairs a little too well with your heightened senses. When the high does come on, you will be tempted to eat more. Not for increased effects but because they’re so tasty.

Atlas Edibles Nimbus Dark Chocolate/ Pecan and Hazelnut

THC: 80mg (10mg per serving)
Price: $20

We couldn’t resist the chance to recommend just one more non-gummy snack on this roundup. We had to pick these Nimbus dark chocolate and pecan hazelnut cannabis-infused granola clusters. Made using a hybrid strain, Nimbus’ small granola clusters offer all the uploading effects of Sativa and the calming and relaxing properties of Indica, striking a perfect balance between stress relief and feelings of (sometimes) intense euphoria.

The only thing we don’t love about this brand is that the clusters come 8 to a bag, you’re going to be left wanting more. Every. Time. If hybrids or Dark Chocolate Pecan isn’t your thing, Atlas also makes an Indica infused Mexican chocolate and a straight Sativa with cashew and cayenne.

Stiiizy BIIIT Sour Straws

THC:: 100 mg (10mg per serving)
Price: $20

If sour candy is your jam, you can’t go wrong with Stiizy’s Sour Straws. They resemble chopped Sour Punch Straws but are better in every way. Instead of causing a headache a half-hour after eating them, these babies get you high. Stiizy makes their sour straws in Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Strawberry, and an assorted pack with all three. It really does pull you straight back into any nostalgia you might have about hitting up the corner store for some candy in your youth.

Heavenly Sweet Sriracha Crackers

THC: 100mg (10mg per serving)
Price: $14.99

If the chocolate bars, granola, and gummies on this list just aren’t scratching your edible cannabis itch, we’ve got one last option for you. Heavenly Sweet’s Sriracha Crackers are one of those edibles that suffers from the fact that it’s an edible responsible for delivering THC into your system, and not just a fun snack that you can grab a handful of. Heavenly Sweet’s crackers are like Cheez-Its … only they’re actually good. You’ll be absolutely tempted to throw a handful in your mouth, chomp away, and call it a day. Please, do not do that, no matter how hard it is to just have one.

Pro tip: keep this out of the pantry, away from the actual Cheez-its in order to avoid a lost day (like I might’ve) that’ll leave you feeling nauseous, confused, and make the room spin. In the event that you do go too hard on these, remember (as is the case with all edibles) the experience will pass. Just drink water and try to relax.

It’s been a rollercoaster morning for rideshare drivers and passengers in California today after Lyft announced in a blog post that it would abruptly suspend service in the state on August 21st at 12:00 am PST and then reversed course by the afternoon. The decision comes in response to a court decision that requires both Uber and Lyft to reclassify their drivers as employees, a move that both rideshare companies have said would lead to a suspension of service in the state as they restructure and rehire their respective workforces. According to CNBC, the lawsuit was filed by California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra and alleged that both companies had dodged certain expenses for workers by falsely classifying them as contractors rather than employees, despite not meeting the requirements laid out in the state’s Assembly Bill 5.

A judge ordered that both companies would immediately have to classify their workers as employees, but an appeals court decision from this morning granted a brief extension and now both Uber and Lyft have until 5 p.m. PT on August 25th to file written statements agreeing to the procedures required by the order.

“While we won’t have to suspend operations tonight, we do need to continue fighting for independence plus benefits for drivers… that’s the solution on the ballot in November, and it’s the solution drivers want because it preserves their ability to earn and use the platform as they do now.” a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement following the appeal’s court order.

Both Uber and Lyft are supporting the passage of Califonia ballot initiative Proposition 22, which would exempt rideshare services from the requirements laid out in Assembly Bill 5, while still offering benefits to their drivers. Critics of the ballot initiative argue the Prop 22 hurts rideshare workers by not guaranteeing them the state’s minimum wage for hours worked, and enables Uber and Lyft to avoid paying into social security or offering health benefits.

While both Uber and Lyft will continue operating until at least August 25th, it’s unclear if service will remain uninterrupted in the state prior to Prop 22’s fate.

The Houston Rockets dominated Game 1 of their first round series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, as James Harden went off for 37 points and the Thunder’s offense stalled out. The expectation was things would be closer in Game 2, and that was the case, as the Thunder hung around but were never able to take control of the game, as Houston’s ability to get hot on offense let them make enough runs to pull away for a 111-98 win.

Houston did so without much help from James Harden, making the victory all the more impressive as their superstar guard had just 21 points (thanks to a late flurry to put the game away) to go along with nine assists and five rebounds. With Houston taking firm control of the series with the win here are our takeaways from Game 2.

No Team Has Bought Into A System More Than The Rockets

I don’t know if there’s a coach who is better at getting a team to fully buy into what he wants them to do more than Mike D’Antoni. It takes commitment from the front office to give him the right players, but he’s proven, whether with the Seven Seconds or Less Suns or here in Houston, that when allowed to do his thing without interference he will get complete roster buy in.

Houston’s small-ball experiment was laughed at initially, but there’s no denying what the Rockets are doing right now. On offense, it’s a lot of what they’ve done for years, just taken to another extreme, with nothing but drives to the rim and kickouts to the three-point line with their five-out sets. It’s the defense, however, that is most impressive to me. The only way for this to work is for everyone on that team to sell-out totally with the effort they give on the defensive end, and they’ve done exactly that.

Houston isn’t a great defensive team by any stretch, but they are as high energy on that end as you can ask for. Look at this possession, where P.J. Tucker makes me tired just watching him tag in and out of the paint, putting Luguentz Dort under pressure and leading to a Nerlens Noel midrange fadeaway at the shot clock buzzer — always a good result for a defense.

It’s one thing to get guys to agree to hoist threes and watch James Harden cook. It’s another to get them to commit to 48 minutes of flying around on defense in order to make things work in even the slightest way. Their switching and blitzing and pressure they apply to every pass makes initiating offense against them tough, even if you can eventually get to a relatively good look.

OKC Has A Gem In Luguentz Dort

This isn’t exactly news to Thunder fans, but in case anyone needed a national showcase of Dort’s defensive abilities to be sold on him as a top-level defender, you got it on Thursday afternoon. Dort gave Harden everything he could handle and managed to not only limit his shooting but also kept him off the free throw line, which is maybe the most impressive contribution any defender can make when checking Harden. The Thunder might have to tinker with lineups that remove Steven Adams when Dort’s on the floor because it gives the Rockets two guys to kind of hide on defense, but playing Dort against Harden is a must the rest of the way in this series after a Game 1 where Harden shredded every other Thunder wing when Dort was out with injury. It’s not always going to lead to as poor of a shooting night for the Rockets star, but the pressure he was able to apply to Harden made him uncomfortable and forced the others to beat them. The problem for OKC is, that happened.

Houston Has That Extra Gear

While there are times where the Rockets can go cold and things can get ugly, what separates them from the rest of the mid-seed contenders in the West behind the L.A. teams is that they have the highest ceiling when things are going right. The Thunder desperately need to find some offensive consistency in this series because they can’t get into the vaunted “game of runs” with a team that thrives on hot streaks like Houston. There were multiple times in Game 2 where the Thunder would be close or even have a slight lead and the Rockets would explode with an 11- or 13-0 run to suddenly take control. That happened in the fourth quarter with Harden on the bench, and once the star entered the game it became closing time and he helped Houston put a nice bow on the win.

The Rockets may have the biggest gap between their floor and ceiling of any of the teams most consider contenders, but that’s also what makes them so dangerous. If you cannot take advantage of those cold spells they’ll absolutely run away once they get hot, because make no mistake, the run is always coming and if you haven’t put some distance between you and them, they’ll take firm control of the game.

A video created by Global Democracy in 2011 shows how a female model with a normal, healthy body can be quickly transformed into something physically unattainable with just a few mouse strokes.

The video was part of a campaign to have mandatory disclaimers on all airbrushed photos of models because of the negative psychological effect the images have on young girls.

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Body Evolution – Model Before and After

www.youtube.com

Although the video is almost 10-years-old, the issue has only become worse with the advent of social media platforms such as Instagram that present unattainable images of Photoshopped women to young girls.

Instagram draws young women to “compare themselves against unrealistic, largely curated, filtered and Photoshopped versions of reality,” Matt Keracher, author of a 2017 report on social media’s effect young people’s mental health.

Although new media platforms have created a tidal wave of Photoshopped images of unattainable beauty, there have been some efforts to help curb the amount of digital manipulation in the media.

Since then, France and Israel have both passed laws that require photos of digitally manipulated models in the media to have a disclaimer.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things to do because nicotine addiction keeps people in denial. Smokers either tell themselves they’ll be the lucky one who avoids the health consequences of smoking or they procrastinate, halfheartedly believing they will quit next week, next month or next year.

One of the keys to helping people quit, is to put them in a position where they are forced to take an honest look at themselves and their habits.

A 2012 anti-smoking ad made by Ogilvy Thailand for the Thai Health Promotion Foundation is known as one of the greatest ever because it uses the smokers’ love of children to help them confront their habit.

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In the video, two small children, armed with cigarettes, ask adults if they can borrow a light. Out of concern for the little ones’ health, the smokers tell the kids all about the dangers of smoking.

“If you smoke you die faster,” one man tells a little boy. “Don’t you want to live and play?” “When you smoke you suffer from lung cancer, emphysema and strokes,” another says.

The smokers cannot help but feel hypocritical talking about the dangers of smoking to a child while holding a cigarette.

The ad ends with a touching twist.

Smoking Kid – Best of #OgilvyCannes 2012 / #CannesLions

www.youtube.com

Welcome to Wednesday Night’s Alright, my Uproxx Sports recap of the big events from wrestling’s biggest night, when AEW Dynamite on TNT goes up against WWE NXT on USA. At least, that’s what usually happens. This week AEW was pre-empted by the NBA, so NXT was all we had.

Exciting Arrival: Jessi Kamea

Admittedly, Jessi just appeared to job to Dakota Kai as part of the build to Kai’s TakeOver match with Io Shirai. Still, she’s so much fun and has so much charisma in her appearances on the WWE Performance Center YouTube channel that I’m always happy when she shows up. She used to have a Nerd gimmick, but she’s traded it in for the standard WWE Women’s Division “hottie with colorful hair” deal, which is kind of a shame, but like, I get it. Nobody’s going to look at the post-NXT, pre-heel-turn careers of Bayley and Sami Zayn and think that being a nerd in WWE is a good idea.

Anyway, hopefully in time we’ll see more from Jessi, but this week she gets roundly pummeled by Dakota Kai, leading into a confrontation with Io Shirai and the return of Kai’s strapping henchwoman, Raquel González. I liked that Dakota has Raquel’s help against Io only after showing that she could defeat somebody like Jessi without any help. Kai exists outside the coward/capable dichotomy of WWE heels, which makes her a lot more fun to watch.

Nefarious Heel Behavior: Cameron Grimes

All Grimes really did this week was show up during the main event, act obnoxious, and sit atop a ladder. The thing is, though, Cameron’s very good at being obnoxious. Everybody makes fun of him, but I have to admit at this point I’m on board with his backwoods carny gimmick. He’s not just another simple hillbilly in wrestling, he’s the guy who runs a Museum of Oddities out of the back of his filling station. The guy who says, “Behold, the legendary unicorn!” and then shows you a goat with a missing horn. I don’t know what the future holds for him and his top hat, but right now I’m enjoying it.

Runners Up

Well of course Candice LeRae interfered with Johnny Gargano’s match against Ridge Holland. Although that didn’t keep Johnny from taking a really scary-looking bump in that mach, it did help him win. Then Johnny showed back up after Cameron in the main event, causing general chaos as the whole thing descended into that pre-gimmick-match Go-Home Show brawl that they love to do. There was another big heel on this show, but we’ll get to him in the next category.

Thing I Could Have Done Without: Still not feeling Pat McAfee

Look, I don’t want to be a jerk about this. Pat’s promo this week certainly wasn’t bad, nor was Adam Cole’s response. I’m just bummed out that they’re doing this angle at all. Non-wrestling athletes and personalities getting involved in angles and having matches on big shows used to be the exclusive domain of the Main Roster. It was the sort of thing we thought of NXT as too good for. NXT was the brand about wrestling, not guest stars from football and boxing. Now here we are: NXT’s on USA, there’s heavy competition for ratings, and the former longest-reigning champion in NXT history is fighting an NFL punter turned podcaster. It’s not what I want.

Runners Up

Speaking of bummers, we can see now for sure that Velveteen Dream is still a major player on NXT, despite, you know, all that. I want to believe that WWE knows more than we do, that it’s absolutely clear to them that the accusations against Dream are false. I want to believe that, but WWE has given me no good reason to trust them in these matters. So here I am watching Velveteen Dream, whose wrestling I used to really enjoy, and think “Gosh, I really hope he’s not a sexual predator, because if he is he’s definitely getting away with it.”

Best Promo: Johnny Gargano

I’m including an online-only promo this week, since we’re short on content. And anyway, this is great heel stuff from Johnny and Candice. I recommend watching it twice — once to focus on Johnny, and again just to watch Candice’s face as she reacts to every single word he says. There’s something about these two as a heel couple that’s different from Johnny and Taya in Impact or Miz and Maryse in WWE (or even Johnny and Miz in WWE), and I think I’ve put my finger on it. Johnny and Candice are a good-looking couple, but it’s never about that with them. They don’t present themselves as glamorous people we should be jealous of. They’re nasty little rat people who fight dirty and are too disconnected from reality to be enviable. You don’t want to be them, you just want to get away from them before they decide you’re in their way.

Runners Up

Tegan Nox clearly hasn’t figured out that she should stay away from Candice, since she gives a backstage interview about how she wants to spend time with her and try to patch up their broken friendship. I don’t think that’s going to go well for you Tegan, but I do look forward to the match it immediately leads to.

Dakota Kai also did a nice job of calling out Io Shirai, doing her best to refute what Io said last week about Kai still being a scared little girl. I love a heel who’s confidence is in question even if her bravado never lets up.

Best Match: Aliyah and Mercedes Martinez vs Rhea Ripley and Shotzi Blackheart

The biggest head-bangers of the post-Ruby Riott NXT Women’s Division teamed up to take on the Robert Stone Brand, and it was great. Rhea and Shotzi work well together, but the dynamic I’m really feeling is between Aliyah and Mercedes. Aliyah kind of fawns over Mercedes while Mercedes barely seems to notice Aliyah, or Robert for that matter. It’s clear that Stone and Aliyah realize that Mercedes is their ticket to wins and cash, and that they need her more than she needs them. This angle could be just the thing to build Mercedes up while justifying her losses, until eventually she beats up Aliyah and Robert and goes on a hell of a run by herself.

Anyway, this was a fun match with enough talent divided between three of its participants to more than make up for the fourth. NXT’s women’s division can seem overcrowded at times, but the matches and most of the storylines continue to be impeccable.

Runners Up

Breezango teamed up with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott to face all three members of Legado Del Fantasma, and that match was really good too. I’ve been a fan of Swerve since he was Killshot on Lucha Underground, and he meshes nicely with Breeze and Fandango, two talented wrestlers who are clearly thrilled to get to wrestle on a weekly basis. I assume this is leading to a singles match between Swerve and Santos Escobar (Killshot vs King Cuerno!), and I’m definitely looking forward to that one too.

That’s all for this one-show Wednesday. I know this isn’t the last time Wednesday Night Wrestling is going to be reshuffled by so-called “legitimate” sports, but we’ll figure it out as we go along

If you ever thought to yourself ‘this hat is great but it could really use some saddlebags” then New Era and TOMBOGO have the perfect collaboration for you.

San Francisco area designer Tommy Bogo has come up with a hat with New Era that will finally match the shorts your dad insists on wearing to Olive Garden when he wants to take those breadsticks to go. That’s right, we now live in a world where they make cargo hats.

According to Hypebeast, the $120 hats are part of a modular series of headware TOMBOGO has made with New Era that comes with removable cargo pockets. Here’s how the site describes these very bewildering hats.

Using the classic headpiece as a base, the multi-functional hat features an all-black colorway with a pair of matching detachable cargo pockets that can be snapped or unsnapped. The pockets can also be swapped for other utility attachments such as a storm Hood. Each storm hood was hand-tailored with Escobar Tailors in San Francisco, California.

What this actually looks like, though, is that you put cargo pockets on a New Era 5950. Most of these appear to be blank black hats, or with the TOMBOGO logo on them. But there’s also a “friends and family” version that are made with bay area teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics.

Considering there’s a group of purists that don’t even like keeping New Era logos on their baseball caps, there’s bound to be a cold reception from baseball fans. But this is a particular fashion choice that’s being marketed as such. The $120 hats will be available on StockX, for one, so they’re certainly being marketed to fans of a particular aesthetic rather than casual baseball fans. Either way it will pair very nicely with those new Yeezy basketball shoes that look like what’s left after a cartoon cat eats a whole fish with one bite.

For the past decade, the NBA had been effectively ruled by a pair of super teams in the Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors. Both teams boasted a trio (or, in Golden State’s case, a foursome) of superstars that, while proven to be beatable in the Finals by another great team, didn’t have glaring, potentially fatal flaws.

This season, however, the three top contenders in the league entered the playoffs with real question marks beyond health that could lead to their downfall, which feels a bit strange. The Lakers, Bucks, and Clippers — the three teams with the best odds to win a title — all have shown their respective flaws thus far in the Bubble. All are great teams, but all of them have legitimate question marks and points of weakness that have led all three to losing games already in their first round matchups. What’s resulted is the most fun opening round of the playoffs we’ve had in years.

The Lakers and Bucks mirror each other in many ways, and the biggest questions facing both regard the role players that surround their superstars. These are players that were excellent in the regular season but, to this point in the Bubble, have struggled to regain their rhythm or effectiveness on either end of the floor. These were once two of the top defensive teams in the league, but in Orlando have yet to find the cohesiveness on that end to lock down opponents in the same way. This has led to a lot of good looks for opponents, and in the empty gyms of Disney’s Wide World of Sports, that has led to teams being able to light them up at times.

For the Lakers, the offensive woes come down to two things: shooting and creation. The former has been dismal in Orlando, which is strange because most everyone has noted how the fanless environment has made them great shooter’s gyms. The hope is that those shots eventually start falling, especially for the likes of Danny Green, whose chief offensive value is the ability to knock down shots. As for creation, the load in that area falls almost exclusively on LeBron James, who set a new playoff career high with 16 assists in the Lakers loss in Game 1, while the rest of the team combined for just six assists total.

Rajon Rondo’s return may help in that area, but certainly won’t provide a lift with shooting, and it’s the biggest issue of roster construction for the Lakers. There isn’t a perfect lineup that exists for the Lakers, as every effort to fix one area of need only further exasperates another. You can add a facilitator but take away a shooter. You can add a shooter but limit your defense and offensive creativity.

For Milwaukee, the same questions from years past persist. They’re a team that gives up three-pointers by design, and in a gym that, as I mentioned, has been described as a great shooter’s environment, those shots are going down at a higher rate. Add in some rust and you have a defense that is no longer an impenetrable force you have to bomb from the outside, but one where you can probe and collapse to create legitimately great looks.

On offense, they can still become extremely stagnant in the halfcourt, and when opponents aren’t turning the ball over and aren’t missing threes, they don’t get the easy baskets in transition that can mask some of their halfcourt woes. Teams load up on Giannis to build a wall in front of him, with a secondary focus on keeping one eye firmly on Khris Middleton to contain him. This means that until Eric Bledsoe shows he can step up in the postseason, the Bucks offense can be contained in the halfcourt. A look down the roster makes you believe in the Bucks role players, but when their two stars aren’t getting to the rim and the free throw line, things can turn ugly.

The other contender is the Clippers, and they face two different key questions. One is whether Paul George can consistently give them what they need in the playoffs, as we know what to expect from Kawhi Leonard come postseason time but George has shown in recent years (and in Game 2) that he can sort of waver in and out of effectiveness from game to game. A lack of cohesion for the Clippers is the other chief issue they face, as they’ve yet to get their guys on the floor together a lot this season and, especially, in the Bubble.

While Leonard may not need consistent time with his teammates to be effective in what he does, the role players do in order to know what spots to be in around him to be most effective. That has reared its head in the form of a sloppy offensive performance against a Dallas defense that has been woefully bad, as L.A. has been unable to get consistently easy buckets against them. With Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams, and Patrick Beverley all in and out of the lineup recently, the lack of rhythm for a team with consistency issues makes for a real problem.

We’ve grown accustomed to being able to pencil a few teams into the Finals — or, at minimum the conference finals — in recent years. That has changed pretty dramatically this season, as the gap between the very top of the league and the “very good” teams has shrunk, and we’re seeing that play out in the playoffs. It’s quite possible we still get the Battle for L.A. in the West and the Bucks find their stride and steamroll through the East, but it seems increasingly likely that someone else spoils the party.

The layoff has exacerbated some of the issues these three teams face, as all three were knocked out of a rhythm they’d established going into the playoffs, and each one of them was an excellent home team who no longer has the benefit of home court advantage. Still, these were questions that persisted even before the hiatus and are rearing their ugly heads at the worst possible time. Part of what made facing the Warriors and Heat so difficult was knowing that in order to beat them, you had to play five near-perfect games of basketball, because even in one game where you played your best, they were still going to beat you.

That same pressure doesn’t exist against the Bucks, Lakers, or Clippers right now. The Blazers were far from perfect in Game 1 and gutted out a win. The Magic, sure, played about as well as they can in Game 1, but for a Toronto, Boston, or Miami, they have to be looking at that game and thinking they’ve got more than a real shot to take down the Bucks. Dallas was able to win the bench battle against the Clippers with the likes of Trey Burke and Boban Marjanovic, despite L.A.’s bench once being the best second unit in the league.

If the opening rounds of the playoffs once felt like a mere formality, 2020 is offering us a rare reprieve in the form of a thrilling opening round that only figures to get more competitive in the conference semis. Parity isn’t always the best thing for a league, as nothing draws eyes quite like an elite villain. If the top teams fall early, that could lead to a Finals that doesn’t meet the standards we’ve seen in recent years, but for now it’s making these early rounds much more intriguing.

Shortly after the announcement that HBO Max will release Zack Snyder’s original version of Justice League — a.k.a. the infamous “Snyder Cut” — Cyborg actor Ray Fisher went online to vent his frustrations with alleged abuses committed by Joss Whedon after the director replaced Snyder and delivered the poorly-received theatrical version of the film. While Fisher’s allegations made for some interesting headlines and unearthed rumors of behind-the-scenes drama, it appears WarnerMedia is taking the issue seriously. According to a report in Variety, the studio has launched an internal investigation into the production that will focus on Whedon as well as producers Jon Berg and Geoff Johns, who Fisher also publicly accused of misconduct:

There have been no findings yet, and there is no specific timeline for the investigation. The source stressed that WarnerMedia hasn’t prejudged Whedon, Johns, or Berg, that the investigation is not limited to them, and that to preserve the integrity of the investigation, the company won’t conduct it in the public sphere.

Fisher was the first to announce the investigation on Twitter on Thursday.

The brewing Justice League scandal started in late June when Fisher retracted his support of Whedon in the lead-up to Justice League‘s theatrical release.

Two days later, Fisher alleged that Whedon was abusive on set after taking over when Snyder stepped away following the death of his daughter.

But as the story began to grow, Fisher pulled back on his public statements and warned fans during an Instagram Q&A that he had to tread lightly to avoid being sued into oblivion, although, he did promise that “we will get it done, and we will win.” From there, the issue seemed to die down until Fisher returned again in August to specifically call out Johns, who has been a top talent at DC Comics for decades.

That accusation came just over a week ago, and with the news of a reported investigation underway, it appears that Fisher is feeling more confident in naming names. The investigation appears to be in its early stages, but it will be interesting to see what unfolds as Whedon is still regarded as a powerful figure in the superhero genre thanks to his work directing Marvel’s Avengers and its sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

(Via Variety)

Space Force may have stumbled a bit in its first attempt to boldly go where comedies have rarely attempted, but another John C. Reilly-led space show will attempt to stick the landing a bit better on Showtime this fall.

Thursday brought news that Showtime had picked up Moonbase 8, an A24 project where Reilly will lead astronauts played by Tim Heidecker and Fred Armisen to space without completely losing their minds in the process. Much like Space Force, not much of the show is set in space itself.

As Showtime explained, Moonbase 8 will take place in Winslow, Arizona at NASA’s Moon Base Simulator. The show will feature Armisen’s Skip, Heidecker’s Rook, and Reilly’s Cap working together to qualify for their first mission. Apparently, though, things get weird and they’ll “question their own mental sanity, trust in each other and whether or not they’re cut out for space travel.”

“In a year when we have all been forced to come to terms with life in close quarters, we are happy to have landed this offbeat take on life in captivity with dreams of escaping to something grander,” Jana Winograde, president of entertainment at Showtime, said in a statement. “While the show was produced before the pandemic, its subject matter is timely – and thanks to Fred, Tim, John, and Jonathan, its humor is timeless.”

Considering the cast for the show it seems inevitable some very strange stuff happens, especially considering all three created, wrote, and executive produced the show along with Jonathan Krisel (Baskets), who will direct. No release information was given with the pickup announcement other than sometime this fall, but six episodes of the show’s first season are officially coming to a galaxy… well, this galaxy, very soon.