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Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Ricky Stanicky (Amazon MGM Studios movie streaming on Amazon Prime)

John Cena’s naked Oscars jaunt might inspire you to keep seeking out his comedic timing, and you can’t go wrong with this film co-starring Zac Efron. “Ricky Stanicky” is an alibi for childhood friends’ ridiculous behavior, and now they must produce a “real” actor to cover their butts with their grown-up families. Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb And Dumber) directs and stays on brand with the humorous side of his career.

TIE: 10. Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix series)

The masses have spoken, and Netflix duly answered by renewing this live-action adaptation for two more seasons to give the story a full run to completion. As a result, this show that was conceived with at least three seasons in mind can take Aang’s story much further and on a fast-tracked schedule to make sure that the younger cast doesn’t age out of their roles. This show isn’t as celebrated of a success as the recent One Piece, but it did clear the low bar set by the M. Night Shyamalan movie, which is a relief. Next challenge? Whatever the next iteration of Death Note brings.

9. Oppenheimer (Universal film streaming on Peacock)

Christopher Nolan’s cinematic return to prominence cleaned up at the Oscars, and now, you can formally enjoy the entire Barbenheimer phenomenon in your own home. Cillian Murphy’s Oscar winning eyes speak volumes in this film, but luckily, he does not stop his job there, and Robert Downey Jr. took home gold, too. Nolan as well! This film cleaned up, and you can also enjoy performances from Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Alden Ehrenreich, and Matt Damon while awaiting word on what Nolan shall direct next.

8. The Gentlemen (Netflix series)

Guy Ritchie’s confusing habit of issuing variants of “gentlemen” titles could not please him more, apparently, because there’s a lot of gentlemen-dudes in this series, too. As well, he continues the theme of the weed-kingpin empire in this show, which stars Theo Rossi (although not Matthew McConaughey), who inherits the empire, only for hijinks to set in. Sadly, there is no Charlie Hunnam or Henry Cavill to be found in this Ritchie project, but we can’t have everything we want, so settle down and dive into his latest crime caper.

7. Supersex (Netflix series)

Netflix’s newest scintillating selection is inspired by true events, which is a wild thought to consider when those events were dramatized in the most salacious way. However, this series traces humble beginnings for Rocco Siffredi, who somehow became the world’s most renowned adult film actor. Allegedly.

6. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (AMC show streaming on AMC+)

Rick and Michonne’s love story will reach new heights in this week’s episode, so get ready for devoted viewers to have an intense reaction. Will the pair ever make it home to Judith and R.J. without endangering their whole family? And will Daryl Dixon ever make it back from France to have a grungy hug with his favorite bro? If Jadis’ hairdo has anything to say about this possibly impending happiness, then that answer would be negative. Still, the spirit of the (arguably) most tolerable coupling in this world is too strong to be weighed down forever by the worst character of this series. If only Rick could get out of his own head, though.

5. The Tourist (BBC One/Stan series streaming on Netflix)

Finally, Jamie Dornan has strapped into an ongoing project that fully decimates his Fifty Shades era, and his character has hopped across a few ponds from the Australian Outback to Ireland, where he’s still attempting to make progress against those ultra-bad dudes who want to take his also-bad dude self off the map. The show continues to be a hit overseas and has firmly crossed over into the Netflix streaming audience in the U.S., which bodes well for its longevity, if Dornan’s character lasts that long.

4. Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures streaming on Hulu)

Emma Stone clearly did not expect to win the Best Actress Oscar, but she is transfixing in this film that is available as part of Hulu’s streaming package. Stone portrays Bella Baxter, who is resurrected in a Frankenstein way in the victorian era, and the film is a little saucier than initially portrayed to be (surprise!). Yet audiences have gotten lost within Bella’s whirlwind ride around the globe, in which she achieves true liberation.

3. Shōgun (FX series streaming on Hulu)

The mid-season power rankings have not been kind to goons, but John Blackthorne is positioning himself well in more ways than a solitary reason. Although a second season doesn’t appear to be in the cards, viewers can still get lost within lush surroundings, world-building, and a wealth of character depth where it matters. Several reasons exist for why this adaptation of James Clavell’s most famed novel succeeds, but it cannot be stated too much how well the show does at presenting a sprawling set of events that are steeped in history but also glide so well between authentic-seeming exposition and nonverbal cues that viewers do not need to do any homework to understand and appreciate this epic production.

2. 3 Body Problem (Netflix series)

HBO’s Game of Thrones creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, left Westeros for sci-fi territory, and the head into this gripping series that spans time and continents and space to detail humanity’s protracted response to an impending alien invasion. Instead of bending knees, the duo is bending genres, and this series is geared towards multiple seasons while adapting Liu Cixin’s bestselling novel trilogy of the same name. Astronomy watchers will know that title references three stars orbiting each other, and as with physics, the solution to the ensuing problem won’t come easily.

1. Damsel (Netflix film)

Millie Bobby Brown’s Netflix reign continues to exist beyond Stranger Things. Here, she kicks some dragon (and royal) ass after discovering that she’s marrying a prince whose family decides to sacrifice her to a dragon as part of an enormously screwed-up ritual. This twisted fairy tale arrives in conjunction with Evelyn Skye’s novel (based on the film) and revolves around more than a plucky heroine. As well, do attempt to figure out the mystery of the baby dragons while Millie fights her way out of a predicament in which several other unfortunate princesses found themselves trapped too.

As the history books reflect, Bruno Mars is a diamond single-making machine. However, according to reports, the “24K Magic” singer has a problem with the color green.

According to NewsNation, Mars has allegedly racked up over $50 million in gambling debt at MGM. A source close to the matter spilled the chips with the outlet. “He owed millions to the MGM,” they said.

“[MGM] basically owns him,” they continued. “He makes $90 million a year off of the deal he did with the casino, but then he has to pay back his debt. [He will] only make $1.5 million per night after taxes.”

Mars has become a staple in Las Vegas’ entertainment thanks to his residencies (including a solo run and one as part of Silk Sonic). But, based on NewsNation‘s report, the Grammy Award winner’s forthcoming series of shows at Park MGM isn’t about fan demand but more about making good on his supposed outstanding balance.

Although Mars and none of his representatives have commented on the allegation, he’s been candid about his love for casinos. For example, in 2016, he and James Corden jammed out during his “Carpool Karaoke” segment on Late Late Show, and Mars joked about his gambling kick.

With the allegations out, Mars’ 2013 story with GQ has resurfaced. In the interview, the singer reflected on how his love for gambling started back when he was 19 years old. “I used to be like a loudmouth,” he said. “You know the guy, people would want to take his money. If you do get them to lose, they’re out for you, they’re gunning for you. And that’s when they’re weak. And that’s when you jump or pounce on them.”

Mars went on to detail his first major loss of a hundred dollars. “I remember my first bet,” he said. “My hand was shaking, and a guy called me out on it and embarrassed me,” he said. “You gotta lose. You just have to lose to win, to understand.”

Bruno Mars has not addressed the claims.

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

We are just three years removed from Justin Fields being selected 11th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, and even though he is coming off of the best season of his young career, the Bears could not find anyone that was particularly interested in trading for him.

With the No. 1 pick in the upcoming 2024 Draft in April, the expectation is that Chicago will replace Fields with USC star Caleb Williams. However, as this year’s free agency went along, quarterback opportunities quickly dried up around the league, and with four QBs expected to go in the top 12 in April, Fields quickly found himself waiting on a trade without there being a clear starting job available to him.

However, a team finally decided they wanted to at least bring Fields into their QB room and give the former first round pick a chance to compete, as the Pittsburgh Steelers, long considered a Fields suitor, traded a sixth round pick (that could become a fourth if Fields plays a lot this year) to set up a Fields-Russell Wilson competition.

The Steelers have had a very busy offseason reshaping their QB room, letting Mason Rudolph walk, signing Wilson after his release from Denver, trading Kenny Pickett to the Eagles, and now trading for Fields. Fields threw for 2,562 yards, 16 TDs, and nine INTs last season, rushing for another 657 yards and four touchdowns. While the expectation will be that it’s Wilson’s job to lose, Fields could very well get himself an opportunity to showcase his skills at some point next year, as it’s not a guarantee Wilson thrives in Pittsburgh.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith star Donald Glover has crafted a rather impressive resume of onscreen work (which he doesn’t mind bragging about). But what most people tend to forget is he’s also a musician. So it looks as if Glover plans to gently remind the public of his musical talents quite soon.

Yesterday (March 15), on his Instagram page, he decided on his film, television, and production work. He shared an update on his next body of work. The screenshot seemed to tease that Glover’s rapper persona, Childish Gambino, has a new album titled Atavista on the way.

The supposed project’s name wasn’t the only thing revealed in the photo. Based on the graphic, the run time for the forthcoming album and the entire tracklist was displayed for followers to comb over.

Glover’s last project, 3.15.20, dropped in 2020. Since then, he’s been relatively quiet on the music front, leaving fans to believe he would retire. However, Glover has put that rumor to bed. Continue below to view the working cover artwork and tracklist. As of today (March 16), the official release date is unknown.

Childish Gambino’s Atavista Unofficial Cover Artwork

Childish Gambino’s Atavista Tracklist

1. “Atavista”
2. “Algorhythm”
3. “Time”
4. “Psilocybae (Millenial Love)”
5. “To Be Hunted”
6. “Sweet Thang”
7. “Little Foot Big Foot”
8. “Why Go To The Party”
9. “Human Sacrifice”
10. “Violence”
11. “Final Church”

The line separating fact and fiction has always been a blurry one on Curb Your Enthusiasm. How much of the real Larry David is in the small screen Larry David? When Larry and the dearly departed Richard Lewis spar, is that how they really talk to each other? And what about Susie Essman‘s frequent antagonist, also named Susie? But recently life really started imitating art, i.e., Curb.

On last Sunday’s episode, entitled “The Gettysburg Address,” Larry got into yet more legal trouble after he was blamed for defacing a billboard hawking Susie’s business “Catch as Caftan.” How was it defaced? With a bunch of d*cks hovering around her mouth, of course. That billboard, or a version of it, was real, and guess what some chuckleheads have since done to it?

Per TMZ, said billboard wound up also being decked out with similar graffiti, with two giant schlongs levitating near the real Essman’s head. Near the annotations bore the signature of the alleged culprits: the activist art collective INDECLINE.

As it happens, costar/occasional real-life chaos agent Jeff Garlin is at least partly responsible for this. In an Instagram post earlier last week, he wrote, “Someone should put a d*ck up there. Maybe two.”

And so they have — two, in fact. Garlin was chuffed, writing in a new post, “Whomever did this, I give you my deepest gratitude. A big bowl of love.”

INDECLINE explained their motivation to TMZ. “A few nights ago, we watched in awe as one of our favorite pastimes, ‘billboard liberation, was incorporated into the latest episode,” they said. “We received a flood of texts and DMs about the existence of the billboard in Los Angeles and even saw that Jeff Garland (sic) was on Instagram calling for it to be altered.”

They added, “So, as a thank you to Larry David, for his contribution to the field of art imitating life, we give you our contribution to the practice of life imitating art.”

Curb still has another four episodes left in its final season, meaning there’s still a chance for it to wreak some more real-life havoc.

(Via TMZ)

Late last month a bunch of children were likely scarred for life by a little event called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience.” Who’s Willy? Wonka, of course — the subject of the recent hit movie Wonka. The Glasgow, Scotland-held event, with its carefully-worded title, wasn’t actually an official spinoff from the estate of Roald Dahl. Far from it. Instead it was a modestly festooned cheapo cash-in that left kids crying and parents instigating such a revolt that police had to be summoned. The fiasco has already inspired a forthcoming horror film. Now it’s getting a musical.

Per the BBC, theater producers are amassing a team of writers for Willy Fest: A Musical Parody, which will do just that. Among the creative team is Riki Lindhome, one half of Garfunkel and Oates (with Kate Micucci) as well as an alum of the Knives Out franchise. (She was one of the suspects in the first one.)

Much like the as-yet-untitled horror film, the musical will be arriving sooner rather than later. Producer Richard Kraft, whose CV includes a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory concert at the Hollywood Bowl, said he amassed his creative team in “less time than it takes for someone to sing the first verse of ‘Oompa Loompa Doompa-Dee-Do.’” It appears Kraft doesn’t want the “Chocolate Experience”’s infamy to be forgotten by the time the show is mounted, saying it will arrive some time this year.

“Willy’s Chocolate Experience” lasted but one day, on February 24, promised patrons a “chocolate fantasy like never before.” It was even pricey, about $45 American. Actually, it didn’t even last a full day. By the afternoon it was shut down after severe backlash over its sparsely decorated warehouse, unedited AI scripts, and an ostentatiously adult-sized Oompa Loompa.

One could easily make a delightful musical out of this, just as one could easily take the same idea and milk it for a terrifying horror movie — or, failing that, a Razzie-Hoovering piece of crap like that movie where Winnie-the-Pooh is a murderer.

(Via BBC)

The road to Cardi B’s long-awaited sophomore album hasn’t been smooth. At one point, the “Enough (Miami)” rapper even contemplated quitting music. But with the warm reception from her latest tracks, including the Missy Elliott-approved “Like What (Freestyle),” things are taking shape.

With several collaborations (Shakira, Megan Thee Stallion, Latto, GloRilla, Flo Milli, and more) already under her belt, supporters are curious about what else she might be working on. Well, during Cardi’s recent appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast, she opened up about one of her dream collaborations—Rihanna.

“I love Rihanna’s music,” she confessed to host Gillie Da Kid and Wallo. “But, I don’t [make] music like that. I sound kinda stupid trying to sing like that. I sound stupid trying to make music like that.”

Even though her fear has held her back from reaching out, Cardi hasn’t given up on the possibility. “So, if I ever get that perfect record…I can not wait until I feel like, ‘This song…I know she’s going to like it,’” she said. “I don’t want to send her nothing like, ‘Ho, what the f*ck is this sh*t? Take this thing out of my face.’”

Watch the full interview above.

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

Kids can seem pretty unappreciative at times. Parents often sacrifice a lot to give their child the best, just to have it thrown in their face, or in the bin. This is something that Haley Hassell recently discovered when she went to three different stores to get her daughter the latest trendy pencil case.

When Hassell gave her daughter the pencil case, she threw it in the bin complaining that everyone already had it. That’s when Hassell decided to teach her daughter the perfect lesson.

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In a Facebook post, Hassell explained:

“[Daughter] learned a tough love lesson today… I went to 3 different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic) she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door. She yelled ‘that’s stupid, everyone in my class has that..I don’t want it anymore!'”

“OK So by this time there was probably smoke coming out of my ears and I’m trying real hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own & make sure she always gets what she needs and then some. BUT I thought I had always taught her to be grateful & know how lucky she was but apparently sis needed a small wake up call!”

“SO before completely going Madea mad on my child I check myself and say, ‘okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use.’ Came back with her new pencil box, which is the Ziploc bag. She lost her mind! Suddenly the LOL Box she just trashed was good enough and the Ziploc bag was horrible…but it’s too late for all that.”

Yes, Hassell gave her daughter a Ziplock bag as a pencil case since she didn’t appreciate the LOL one.

“I told her to get the LOL out of the trash and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow..one whose mommy and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy.”

“I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special and she is taking for granted how lucky she is. So for now she will be using a Ziploc bag & will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child. I truly believe changing your perception & just being grateful can turn around any situation in life.”

Commenters seemed to love the punishment, with one user writing: “I’m down for this. Yes it’d be easier to give in, but sometimes you gotta teach them the principle of the matter.”

While another added: “I think you responded appropriately. Maybe she can earn the one she decides she wants at some point.”

Others were less receptive of the idea, with a commenter writing: “I guess I pretty much interact with my child on a regular basis, you know, take them with me when buying stuff for THEM so I know what they want. I talk to my child and care about their feelings. I don’t fear monger them. But hey, good job being a monster mom!”

Personally, I fully support mom on this one and think it’s important to teach kids to appreciate what they have. If you don’t, they’ll most likely turn into terrible adults.

This article originally appeared on 8.24.19

I’m pretty positive that Edgar Allan Poe had (has?) the power to travel through time. Hear me out on this one.

It’s not just the well-known circumstances of his life — orphaned at a young age, father of the mystery novel, master of cryptology, maestro of the macabre. Nor am I referring to the head-scratching details of the days leading up to his death: how he was found on the street near a voting poll wearing someone else’s clothes, and during his subsequent hospitalization, he was alleged to babble incoherently about an unidentified person named “Reynolds.”

And I won’t even get into the confounding reports of a nameless figure who, for seven decades, would show up to Poe’s gravesite in the early hours of his birthday with a glass of cognac and three roses.

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Tragic and curious, yes, but hardly evidence that the acclaimed horror writer could transcend the limits of space and time. No, my time travel theory concerns the author’s creative output, which you’ll soon see is so flukishly prophetic as to make my outlandish claim seem plausible — nay, probable!

The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is a loosely linked map of flesh-eating floaters, crunched skull survivors, and primordial particles. OK, here we go…

Exhibit A: “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”

Published in 1838, Poe’s only completed novel details a mutiny on a whaling ship lost at sea. Out of supplies, the men revert to cannibalism, drawing straws to elect a sacrifice. A boy named Richard Parker draws the shortest straw and is subsequently eaten.

Now here’s where it gets weird(er): In 1884, 46 years after the novel’s publication, four men would be set adrift following the sinking of their yacht. Shipwrecked and without food, they too would go the survival cannibalism route, electing to kill and eat a 17-year-old cabin boy. The boy’s name: Richard Parker.

The extraordinary parallel went unnoticed for nearly a century, until a widely-circulated letter from a descendant of the real Parker outlined the similarities between the novel’s scene and the actual event. The letter was selected for publication in The Sunday Times after journalist Arthur Koestler put out a call for tales of “striking coincidence.” Striking indeed.

Exhibit B: “The Businessman”

In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage suffered a traumatic brain injury after taking an iron spike through the skull. Somehow he survived, though his personality would change drastically. These behavioral changes were closely studied, allowing the medical community to develop the first understanding of the role played by the frontal lobe on social cognition.

Except for Poe, who’d inexplicably understood the profound personality changes caused by frontal lobe syndrome nearly a decade earlier. In 1840, he penned a characteristically gruesome story called “The Businessman” about an unnamed narrator who suffers a traumatic head injury as a young boy, leading to a life of obsessive regularity and violent, sociopathic outbursts.

Poe’s grasp of frontal lobe syndrome is so precise that neurologist Eric Altshuler wrote, “There’s a dozen symptoms and he knows every single one… There’s everything in that story, we’ve hardly learned anything more.” Altshuler, who, to reiterate, is a medically-licensed neurologist and not at all a crackpot, went on to say, “It’s so exact that it’s just weird, it’s like he had a time machine.”

Exhibit C: “Eureka”

Still unconvinced? What if I told you that Poe predicted the origins of the universe 80 years before modern science would begin to formulate the Big Bang theory? Surely, an amateur stargazer with no formal training in cosmology could not accurately describe the machinery of the universe, rejecting widely-held inaccuracies while solving a theoretical paradox that had bewildered astronomers since Kepler. Except that’s exactly what happened.

The prophetic vision came in the form of “Eureka,” a 150-page prose poem critically panned for its complexity and regarded by many as the work of a madman. Written in the final year of Poe’s life, “Eureka” describes an expanding universe that began in “one instantaneous flash” derived from a single “primordial particle.”

Poe goes on to put forth the first legitimate solution to Olbers’ paradox — the question of why, given the vast number of stars in the universe, the night sky is dark — by explaining that light from the expanding universe had not yet reached our solar system. When Edward Robert Harrison published “Darkness at Night” in 1987, he credited “Eureka” as having anticipated his findings.

In an interview with Nautilus, Italian astronomer Alberto Cappi speaks of Poe’s prescience, admitting, “It’s surprising that Poe arrived at his dynamically evolving universe because there was no observational or theoretical evidence suggesting such a possibility. No astronomer in Poe’s day could imagine a non-static universe.”

But what if Poe wasn’t of a day at all, but of all the days?

What if his written prophecies — on the cannibalistic demise of Richard Parker, the symptoms of frontal lobe syndrome, and the Big Bang theory — were merely reportage from his journey through the extratemporal continuum?

Surely I sound like a tinfoil-capped loon, but maybe, maybe, there are many more prophecies scattered throughout the author’s work, a possibility made all the more likely by the fact that, as The New York Times notes, “Poe was so undervalued for so long, there is not a lot of Poe-related material around.”

I’ll leave you with this quote, taken from a letter that Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell in 1844, in which he apologizes for his absence and slothfulness:

“I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass… You speak of “an estimate of my life” — and, from what I have already said, you will see that I have none to give. I have been too deeply conscious of the mutability and evanescence of temporal things, to give any continuous effort to anything — to be consistent in anything. My life has been whim — impulse — passion — a longing for solitude — a scorn of all things present, in an earnest desire for the future.”

This story was originally published on HistoryBuff and first appeared on 8.16.16

Freddie Teer is a normal boy. He loves Legos, skateboarding, and horsing around with his older brother Ollie. But in March 2017, his mother faced every parent’s worst nightmare.

Photo via iStock.

Freddie was doing tricks down the stairs of his front porch when he fell off his bike — and his bike fell on him.

“[He was] just crying, wouldn’t let us touch his leg, couldn’t put any weight on his leg. We knew,” mom Ashley says.

Ashley rushed Freddie to the emergency room, where an X-ray confirmed the bones in his left shin were broken in half. He needed to be sedated, his bones set and put in a cast. It was an agonizing day for the Teers. But it’s what happened next that was truly inspiring.

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We’ve all seen heartwarming stories of communities coming together to raise money online to help people cover medical care for themselves and loved ones.

There was the Kentucky mom with stage 4 cancer whose family collected over $1 million. The New Orleans police officer whose unit banked thousands for her chemotherapy. The Colorado man who lost his legs and whose friends crowdfunded his recovery.

While Freddie’s injury required major treatment, none of Ashley’s friends raised any money for him.

No one from their town took up a collection or held a bake sale.

No GoFundMe page was started to help cover his bills.

Instead, Ashley and Freddie walked out of the hospital owing nothing. Because they live in Canada.

“You just leave,” Ashley says. “You don’t pay anything.”

Incredible.

Under Canada’s health care system, people like the Teers can see their doctors and go to the hospital when they’re hurt or sick, and they don’t get charged.

So heartwarming.

It almost wasn’t this way.

Ashley was born and raised in St. Louis in the U.S. where health care is expensive and complicated. Twelve years ago, she fell in love with a Canadian man and moved with him to Abbotsford, British Columbia, where they and their five children will enjoy heavily subsidized, affordable health care coverage at a low premium for the remainder of their natural lives.

“We’re able to go when we need help and we get help,” Ashley says.

Just amazing.

As Freddie recovered, no one showed up at the Teer home with a large check or collection plate full of cash.

Instead, Ashley and her family were “supported through meals and just that kind of care” — meals they were able to enjoy without having to decide between enduring the shame of hitting up their friends for money or facing the prospect of sliding into bankruptcy.

The most uplifting part? Middle-income Canadians like the Teers pay taxes at roughly the same rates as Americans and still get their bones fixed for free at hospitals.

Not everything about Freddie’s recovery process was smooth.

The first night, Freddie tossed and turned in severe pain, unable to sleep. Ashley, however, was able to call her family doctor — who she never has to pay since he is compensated by a public system that continues to have overwhelming public support to this day — to get her son a codeine prescription. Miraculous!

Canada’s public health care plan doesn’t cover drugs. But, inspiringly, because of price controls, medicine is way cheaper there.

The Teers did lean on their friends and family for help while Freddie got better.

“We were kind of just asking people to pray,” she explains — primarily to lift her son’s spirits, and not, thankfully, to ask God to provide sufficient funds to cover basic medical care that every human living in a fair and prosperous society should have access to.

Even though he wasn’t able to move around, friends and relatives eagerly invited Freddie to hang out during his recovery instead avoiding him out of guilt for not pledging enough to his GoFundMe campaign.

Just. Wow.

With support from his community — support that didn’t include a single dollar — Freddie’s cast came off six weeks later, right on schedule.

Healthy once more, Freddie went right back to enjoying extreme sports like BMX biking, skateboarding, and snowboarding, and Ashley is free to let him enjoy them without worrying about one fall wiping out their entire life savings and leaving her family destitute.

“Where we live, we’re not stressful when things happen to our kids,” Ashley says. “It’s not a stressful time financially, so the whole family is not anxious.”

It’s peace of mind that she — and the residents of virtually every other rational, wealthy, industrialized country in the world — share.

“I feel safe, and I feel like my voice is heard,” she says. “I can’t imagine living in a place that I didn’t feel that way.”

Inspiring.

This article originally appeared on 03.27.17