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Fried chicken is dominating fast food. With the abundance of chicken sandwiches, tenders, and full-on hot chicken chains popping up across the fast food landscape, there is no doubt that fried chicken is just as popular (or maybe even more popular) amongst the masses than the mighty cheeseburger. But don’t forget, we wouldn’t live in this world if it wasn’t for the chicken nugget.

Back in 1983, McDonald’s dropped the heavily processed Chicken MgNugget and took the nation by storm, starting an obsession similar to what Popeyes’ chicken sandwich did in 2019. Now, forty years later, chicken nuggets are better than they’ve ever been — even McDonald’s chicken nugget is composed of all-white meat chicken, and for every heavily processed mystery meat nugget out there, there are whole pieces of chicken battered and fried on-site (shout out to KFC and Chick-fil-A).

Chicken sandwiches and tenders, with their bigger cuts of meat, might be more satisfying but the nugget still holds its own as the best fried chicken snack and the easiest to dip. So we’re going to help guide you to the best chicken nuggets in all of fast food by launching the biggest chicken nugget ranking on the internet. We tasted and ranked over 20 different chicken nuggets in search of the very best. Here is how they rank and which dipping sauces serve them best.

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21. Dairy Queen — Rotisserie-Style Chicken Bites

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Yeck! Whose idea was it to make these? The word “rotisserie” is used very generously here — this chicken is dry as a bone with a salt and cheap onion powder flavor with an overly fragrant rosemary aftertaste.

Part of what makes rotisserie chicken special is the bone-in roasting, which leads to a tender and succulent perfectly cooked chicken. I guarantee there is none of that here.

Luckily, most Dairy Queen locations don’t even offer this snack option, which means there is less of a chance of your curiosity tempting you to give this a try.

The Bottom Line:

Go with the fried tenders instead. These aren’t even worth tasting for curiosity’s sake. They may just be the worst nuggets of all time.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Country Gravy. It makes the most sense with this non-fried chicken.

Find your nearest Dairy Queen here.

20. Jack in the Box — Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

This chicken nugget has a few good things going for it — the breading is light and super crispy (think cornstarch-based rather than flour), it’s well seasoned, and it features a mix of garlic and pepper. But the actual chicken meat itself is weirdly flavorless.

It has a spongey wet texture, but no real flavor. So I wouldn’t exactly say these nuggets are tasty, but I can’t say they are gross either.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Frank’s Red Hot.

The Bottom Line:

Great batter, weird texture, flavorless chicken. If you like the breading of fried chicken more than the chicken itself, you might like these.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.

19. Sonic — Jumbo Popcorn Chicken

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Crispy, moist enough to not be off-putting, with a strong black pepper-forward flavor. True to its name, these nuggets are pretty jumbo, big enough that you’ll need to at least take two bites before you’re finished. That makes it a bit more tough to dip, so make sure you ask for extra sauce with this one.

Here is the issue though, as fine as these are, Sonic has a lot better finger food — mozzarella sticks, chili cheese tots, and jalapeño poppers among them. Order those instead.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Sonic Signature sauce. It’s a little bit of lemon, a little bit of mustard, a little bit of mayo, and a little bit of BBQ resulting in a whole lot of flavor.

The Bottom Line:

Not bad but easily one of Sonic’s weakest snack offerings.

Find your nearest Sonic here.

18. Sonic — Honey BBQ Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Better than Sonic’s non-sauced popcorn chicken but I find the level of sweetness here a bit off-putting. There is a slight sense of smokiness that pairs well with the black-pepper-forward flavor of the chicken, but the sweet aftertaste makes even a single nugget overwhelming.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Doesn’t need one. Any other sauce added just puts a stronger emphasis on the sweetness.

The Bottom Line:

As I said before, Sonic has plenty of better snack options. Get mozzarella sticks!

Find your nearest Sonic here.

17. Burger King — Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Dry with a soft texture, a strangely dusty breading, and an enjoyable black pepper-forward flavor. This nugget’s weak point is its spongey texture and the weird appearance of the meat. It looks like something you shouldn’t be putting in your body.

This tends to be the problem with Burger King. The chain’s food has some great flavors, but the quality always holds it back.

Best Dipping Sauce?

BBQ. Not only is it Burger King’s best sauce, but it’s also the best BBQ sauce in all of fast food. I know, I’ve tried them all.

The Bottom Line:

I’m always rooting for Burger King to up its quality. They still haven’t, but I’m hoping this fast food chain can turn itself around one day. At the end of the day, I’m going to suggest you skip these.

16. Sonic — Buffalo Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A huge improvement over the non-sauced version, these nuggets are tossed in Sonic’s Buffalo sauce adding a spicy tangy dimension to the flavor profile. Sonic’s buffalo sauce is great offering a nice balance between acidic, spicy, and savory flavors.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Ranch, or your wing sauce of choice.

The Bottom Line:

I still think Sonic has better side options than the chicken, but these are a huge improvement over the non-sauced and Honey BBQ version of these chicken nuggets.

Find your nearest Sonic here.

15. Rally’s — Chicken Bites

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Crispy and dusty breading dominated by pepper and garlic powder housing tender white meat chicken. These are good but Rally’s only sells them as a half-pound box with fries. That’s too many chicken bites!

An order of this just comes across as overwhelming, spend your money instead on a Mother Cruncher chicken sandwich.

Best Dipping Sauce?

An even split between Frank’s Buffalo Hot Sauce or BBQ. If you want spice, hit the Frank’s, if you rather have smokey notes with some sweetness, do BBQ.

The Bottom Line:

Good, but we wish Rally’s offered a smaller side order so we wouldn’t have to treat this box of food as a meal.

Find your nearest Rally’s here.

14. White Castle — Chicken Rings

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A medley of pepper, onion, and garlic flavors with heavily processed white meat chicken. Do these Chicken Rings count as nuggets? I think so. Sure, they don’t have the iconic shape, but it’s still processed chicken that is battered and fried, so this is essentially a nugget.

It disturbs me that these are shaped like rings though. Why, White Castle? Did you somehow think that would be appetizing?

Best Dipping Sauce?

Zesty Zing Sauce. This mustard-based sauce is tangy and sweet and pairs well with the flavor of the chicken rings.

The Bottom Line:

Good, but barely mid-tier. If you can’t look past the shape we don’t blame you.

Find your nearest White Castle here.

13. Carl’s Jr — Chicken Stars

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A bright buttery flavor with a heavy sharp textured breading and weird spongey chicken “meat.” These are disturbing on every level, the way they’re shaped like stars, the weird light color, and the strange meat slurry texture. And yet… I kind of like these?

Hear me out, sure they don’t exactly taste like chicken, but the flavor the crunch are good enough that ordering these as a side to any meal is an easy way to elevate said meal. Having said that, ordering this as your meal, that’s not something we can suggest.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Buffalo sauce, hot, buttery, delicious.

The Bottom Line:

If you can look past the star shape, these are a fine addition to any meal.

Find your nearest Carl’s Jr here.

12. Arby’s — Premium Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

I don’t love the breading here as much as what Carl’s Jr or White Castle are doing, it’s powdery, dry, and pretty one note (black pepper) but the quality of the chicken is a significant cut about the cheap processed stuff.

True to its name, the chicken comes across as premium here, it actually tears, tastes, and looks like actual white meat chicken, rather than a slurry of meat.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Bronco sauce. It’s a mix of fruity apple and cherry notes. It’s an anomaly amongst dipping sauces, and for that novelty alone, we like it!

If you’re looking for something a bit savory, go for the Horsey Sauce, which is like a spicy mayo.

The Bottom Line:

Good, but from Arby’s, a place that “got the meats” we expect a little better.

Find your nearest Arby’s here.

11. Arby’s — Buffalo Boneless Wings

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

I’m not sure where Arby’s gets off calling these things “boneless wings,” they are, as far as I can tell, Arby’s chicken nuggets tossed in sauce. It’s an improvement, sure, but calling it a wing is misleading.

Yes, I’m aware that boneless chicken wings are essentially just chicken nuggets, but boneless wings tend to be a lot larger than these tiny bite-sized nuggets.

The buffalo sauce adds a buttery quality to this chicken, but it underdelivers on the heat you might expect from buffalo.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Ranch, it’s a natural pairing with buffalo sauce.

The Bottom Line:

They’re only available for a limited time so if you’re a fan of Buffalo sauce and Arby’s, we think this is worth a pick up.

Find your nearest Arby’s here.

10. Wendy’s — Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A bit buttery but the nugget itself is strangely airy as if actual air was pumped into the weird meat slurry to make the nuggets appear thicker. I find that off-putting (who wouldn’t), but the buttery and black pepper flavor and crispy texture are enjoyable.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Ghost Pepper Ranch, it’s creamy with buttermilk elements, black pepper, and a hint of heat for a kick of spice on the backend.

The Bottom Line:

Good, but it’s hard to justify ordering these when Wendy’s has a better nugget option.

Find your nearest Wendy’s here.

9. Arby’s — Hot Honey BBQ Boneless Wings

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A slight improvement over the buffalo version, Arby’s Hot Honey BBQ is tangy and spicy, with floral sweet honey notes.

Best Dipping Sauce?

No sauce is necessary, the BBQ is more than enough.

The Bottom Line:

If you only have time for one limited-time-only chicken order from Arby’s in your life, this is the one.

Find your nearest Arby’s here.

8. Chick-fil-A — Grilled Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

No, these aren’t ranked too highly — they’re f*cking delicious. Sure, grilled nuggets aren’t anyone’s first choice but what you have here is a nugget of chicken that is juicy and flavorful with charred notes, a hint of lemon, and a dose of black pepper.

They’re also relatively healthy, ordering an 8-count box of these feels like cheating they’re so tasty. Are they as good as Chick-fil-A’s fried nuggets? No way, but they’re damn good and will not disappoint.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Polynesian! Sweet, tangy, citrusy — a perfect pairing with chicken.

The Bottom Line:

Way more delicious than they look.

Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.

7. Popeyes — Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

I wanted these to be better, but they’re just not that great. The flavor and texture of the breading is significantly better than most of the competition. It’s crispy, light, crunchy, and the blend of garlic powder, salt, and pepper is perfect. The chicken inside is also very very juicy, offering one of the best mouthfeels of any chicken nugget in the fast food universe.

So what holds them back? The texture of the meat. It’s awful, biting into it breaks up the meat into cubes, it has this artificial texture to it that comes across as rubbery, making it Popeyes weakest chicken offering on the entire menu.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Honey if you like sweetness, Blackened Ranch if you’re like some heat and tang.

The Bottom Line:

It has that familiar Popeyes flavor that makes the brand so delicious and iconic, but the texture of the meat is so awful that we couldn’t put this chicken in the top 5.

Find your nearest Popeyes here.

6. The Habit — Crispy Chicken Bites

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

The breading here is that boring powdery black pepper-heavy flavor, but where this nugget excels is the chicken itself. It’s tender, flavorful, minimally processed, and super meaty — which makes up for the sub-par breading.

Pair this with your favorite sauce and it makes up for the lack of interesting flavors in the breading.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Classic BBQ for some smoke and tang.

The Bottom Line:

They are the sort of nuggets that need sauce, but once paired they become a high-quality chicken nugget.

Find your nearest The Habit here.

5. McDonald’s — Chicken McNuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Airy and crispy batter with a salty flavor and a hint of white pepper. I like the texture of the breading a lot, but this nugget sort of falls flat. It desperately needs sauce to elevate it.

McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is one of McDonald’s top sellers, and I think a side of these things is a must-order. But nuggets have come a long way since these first paved the way and in 2023 they come across as a bit lacking compared to some of the competition.

Best Dipping Sauce?

The Sweet and Sour adds some nice tang and sweetness to this otherwise flat-tasting nugget. The texture of the airy breading is nearly unbeatable though.

The Bottom Line:

The nugget that started it all is still very delicious, but there are better options out there that are significantly less processed.

Find your nearest McDonald’s here.

4. Wendy’s — Spicy Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Truly spicy at first bite. This nugget will ignite your palate with a strong cayenne pepper kick that finishes with some earthy black pepper notes. Even if you have a strong tolerance to spice, these nuggets come across as pretty damn intense.

The texture is crispy with a great mouthfeel. The big issue with these is that they are heavily processed. If you can look past that, these are some of the best nuggets in the game.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Ghost Pepper Ranch. It helps to emphasize the heat while adding some buttery and tangy counter notes that keep it from spinning out of control.

The Bottom Line:

The best heavily processed nugget in all of fast food.

Find your nearest Wendy’s here.

3. Shake Shack — Chick ’n Bites

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

A crispy light cornstarch-based breading that is akin to McDonald’s with tender juicy chicken that is minimally processed. The breading is seasoned with a mix of onion powder, garlic, and a gentle dose of black pepper. Altogether, these nuggets are great and high quality — being made from antibiotic-free whole-muscle chicken that is sous-vide cooked.

Unfortunately, as good as these are, in my experience, the quality is incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes I order these nuggets and they’re the best in all of fast food, but a majority of the time they’re a soggy mess with a breading that falls off the chicken too easily. For that, we have to knock it back a few spots.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Shack Sauce. It’s wonderfully flavorful with some sweetness, savory elements, a bit of tang, and a hint of spice. A natural pairing with chicken.

The Bottom Line:

Great when they’re great, but more often than not they’re soggy and dry and travel worse than any other nugget in the game. Once enough time hits these nuggets, they fall apart in the worst way.

2. KFC — Original Recipe Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

I love these. The meat is tender and juicy, and the breading is crispy with that familiar 11 herbs and spices flavor profile that made KFC famous. There is a hint of garlic, onion, thyme, and black pepper all joining forces to produce a wonderfully flavorful result that takes the tastebuds on a journey.

KFC’s chicken nuggets were released this year and they’re easily our favorite new fast food chicken item

Best Dipping Sauce?

Honey BBQ. It adds a sweet counterpoint to the flavor profile which enhances the experience.

The Bottom Line:

Easily one of KFC’s best new menu options. I hope the brand adds Original Recipe tenders to the menu instead of forcing us to eat the less delicious Extra Crispy flavor profile.

Find your nearest KFC here.

1. Chick-fil-A — Chicken Nuggets

Tasting Notes & Thoughts:

Meaty, juicy and tender with a strong blend of onion, garlic powder, and pepper flavors with an earthy floral paprika smokiness at the aftertaste. Chick-fil-A’s chicken is marinaded in pickle brine which helps to add a dark sort of tang to the flavor that makes the whole thing come across as more savory and also helps to lock in the juiciness, putting these nuggets in a different class than everything else in the fast food universe.

The nuggets are also fried in peanut oil which has a high smoke point and helps to get the chicken crispy and golden brown, without drying the meat out. If these nuggets were just a bit crispier, they’d be significantly better, but there is no real need to improve upon these already near-perfect nuggets.

Here is to hoping Chick-fil-A drops a spicy version of these soon.

Best Dipping Sauce?

Polynesian for some interesting fruity tang or Chick-fil-A sauce to up the savory qualities.

The Bottom Line:

Easily the best chicken nuggets in the fast food universe. Chick-fil-A is so far ahead of the competition that it’s… kind of crazy.

Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.

The NFL season is upon us, and Steven and Ian are marking the occasion by launching their first ever Fall Albums Fantasy Draft. Here’s how it works — they each pick five albums that are coming out this fall with the object of accumulating the highest overall Metacritic score. In this scenario, Olivia Rodrigo is like Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift is like Justin Jefferson. Does that make sense? No? It will when you listen!

Before that, Steven gives a recap of his weekend in Dayton for the 40th anniversary Guided By Voices shows. Was the line for the men’s bathroom a disaster? Of course it was! Also, the guys delve into the online dust-up between Jeff Rosenstock and Steve Albini — and the Canadian punk band Propagandhi (?) — over music venues that take a portion of artists’ merch sales. Finally, they pay tribute to the recently fallen icons Jimmy Buffett and Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth.

In Recommendation Corner Ian talks up a new posthumous album from Sparklehorse while Steven recommends the latest power-pop gem from Cory Hanson.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 153 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

For weeks, the music was divided after a way of AI-generated songs began circling online. Rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne verbalized that they weren’t in the least bit worried. However, things quickly took a turn when The Recording Academy, the organizers behind the Grammys, announced that these works would be eligible for awards during the 2024 season. At the center of these landmark decision is a viral AI track using Drake and The Weeknd’s programmed vocals.

Although the song “Heart On My Sleeve” has been removed from streaming platforms, rumors began circulating that it had been submitted for a highly sought-after Gramophone trophy consideration. Grammy’s CEO Harvey Mason, Jr., fanned the flames by telling The New York Times on September 4 that it did meet the eligibility requirements. But today (September 8), Mason took a moment to clarify his original statement.

“I’m sorry, but I have to clear up some of this bad and really inaccurate information that’s starting to float around. This version of “Heart on My Sleeve” uses AI voice modeling that sounds like Drake and The Weeknd, it’s not eligible for Grammy consideration. Let me be extra, extra clear, even though it was written by a human creator, the vocals were not legally obtained, the vocals were not cleared by the label or the artists, and the song is not commercially available, and because of that, it’s not eligible,” Mason remarked to The Hollywood Reporter.

He continued, “I take this [AI] stuff very seriously. It’s all complicated, and it’s moving really, really quickly. I’m sure things are going to continue to have to evolve and change. But please, please, do not be confused. The Academy is here to support and advocate and protect and represent human artists, and human creators, period.”

Musicians such as Meek Mill and Grimes have responded relatively positively to the track. Drake, on the other hand, hasn’t been as approving. In April, when a fan recreated Ice Spice’s song “Munch” using Drake’s voice (via AI software), he immediately declared his disdain for it. The next Grammy Award ceremony isn’t set to take place until next year, so there’s no telling what the future has in store.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

UPDATE: Legal affairs reporter Meghann Cuniff has published the letters written by Kunis and Kutcher along with others including Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Giovanni Ribisi, and Billy Baldwin. You can read them here.

After narrowly escaping a mistrial, Danny Masterson was convicted of multiple counts of rape in a second trial, which resulted in the actor being sentenced to 30 years in prison this week. However, that sentencing has now brought a wave of blowback for his That ’70s Show co-stars and longtime friends Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.

According to Good Morning America, both Kutcher and Kunis wrote “letters of support” for Masterson ahead of his sentencing. The full content of those letters has not been disclosed, but Kutcher reportedly called Masterson a “role model” while Kunis cited his “exceptional character.”

ABC7 reporter Lisa Bartley corroborated the existence of a letters in a tweet following Masterson’s sentencing.

“I just picked up the letters from Masterson’s family and friends sent to Judge Olmedo ahead of today’s sentencing,” Bartley tweeted. “Still going through them but actors @aplusk and @MilaKunisv both speak highly of their friend, now convicted rapist @dannymasterson.”

Niesha Trout, one of Masterson’s victims who testified in the trial, also confirmed the letters from Kutcher and Kunis.

“The letters will be leaked soon,” Trout tweeted. “But I want you all to know that post Danny Masterson’s conviction & after they read all of the gruesome sworn-under-oath testimony of 5 of Danny’s victims, Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis submitted letters to the judge asking her for leniency on Danny.”

Despite his well-documented friendship with Masterson, Kutcher has been reluctant to publicly comment on the rape allegations ever since Masterson was pulled from The Ranch in 2017. However, Kutcher slightly broke his silence earlier this year in an interview with Esquire.

“Ultimately, I can’t know. I’m not the judge. I’m not the jury. I’m not the DA. I’m not the victim. And I’m not the accused. And so, in that case, I don’t have a space to comment… I just don’t know,” Kutcher said. “I wholesale feel for anybody who feels like they were violated in any way.”

Kutcher did confess to Esquire that he keeps in touch with Masterson and hoped he would be found innocent. It did not go that way.

(Via Decider)

Olivia Rodrigo‘s sophomore album Guts is out today, serving as the fiery follow-up to 2021’s Sour. To celebrate, she gave a triumphant performance on Today and talked a little bit about the record.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “I’ve been working on it for so long and living with it for so long. Today’s just so cathartic and I’m so happy to be amongst all of you guys and it’s just really exciting.”

She also spoke about taking a poetry course recently. “I took a college class last year because I was homeschooled my whole life so I really wanted to have that kind of experience,” she explained. “It definitely aided my songwriting a lot. I felt lucky that I could’ve done that.”

The pop star sang “Vampire” and “Get Him Back” from her new LP as well as “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U.” About “Vampire,” she previously stated, “I was upset about a certain situation and went to the studio alone and sat down at the grand piano, and the chords and melody and lyrics just poured out of me — almost like an out-of-body experience.”

Watch her talk about the album above; check out clips of her performance below.

Guts is out now via Geffen. Find more information here.

The true crime fixation has always been somewhat real for TV viewers, but the obsession grew more real with the rise of the streaming realm. Netflix, Peacock, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Max, and Paramount+ have all joined in with the “fun,” and we’ve done our part to round up the 50 best true crime shows. So true crime fans: lock the doors, draw those blinds, and pick a show to watch from the list below.

Last updated September 8, 2023.

1. The Staircase (The O.G.)

Year: 2004-2018
Starring: Michael Peterson
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (14 episodes)
Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Trailer: Watch here

This doesn’t technically qualify as the O.G. true crime series of all time, but one would be hard-pressed to find a more notoriously bingeable classic than Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s The Staircase. The story of Michael Peterson emerged in this simmering series that delved into the part he played in his wife’s 2001 death. Kathleen did, of course, die under mysterious circumstances, and theories still abound that might reveal a cause more extraordinary and downright bizarre. Michael has been already been convicted and released for time served, but follow-up episodes happened, along with an HBO dramatization that appears further down in this list.

Watch it on Netflix

2. Under The Banner Of Heaven

Year: 2022
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Gil Birmingham, Daisy Edgar-Jones
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (7 episodes)
Director: David Mackenzie
Trailer: Watch here

Now for something completely different. This series will hit the spot for who’s still salty about how True Detective‘s second season shook out. The story is based upon Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction bestseller, for which A Story of Violent Faith is a subtitle, so you can accurately guess that things don’t go well for the character played by Daisy Edgar-Jones (who also had quite an ordeal in this year’s Fresh). The story presents a husband-as-suspect to a double murder, but it swiftly becomes apparent that there’s much more going on, and Andrew Garfield shines as a detective who’s also a devout Latter Day Saints member. Those lingering Spidey senses do still come in handy for him, as well as for this show’s audience. Cue some swirling conspiracies that the Mormon church hasn’t enjoyed IRL, which means that this one strikes a chord on multiple levels. That’s a hallmark of an enduring true-crime show, for sure.

Watch it on Hulu

3. Chernobyl

Year: 2019
Starring: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Jesse Buckley, Paul Ritter
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (5 episodes)
Director: Johan Renck
Trailer: Watch here

Nuclear crimes (and their cover ups) are definitely crimes, so this show counts for the list. Showrunner Craig Mazin (who is now masterfully helming The Last Of Us in a completely different realm for HBO) did the thing here, long after his work on The Hangover franchise, to give us an unflinching look at one of the most devastating man-made disasters in history. Not only that, but this series proved that event TV could still exist on HBO even after Game of Thrones. Through five rollercoaster episodes, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion yielded heroic sacrifices and catastrophic f*ckups and the horrifying, heartbreaking story that one won’t find in the history books. Mazin and director Johan Renck left no detail unturned in their quest for authenticity, and the dynamic duo of Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård can’t be beat for an all-encompassing portrait of the best and worst that humanity has to offer.

Watch it on HBO Max

4. The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst

Year: 2015
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Trailer: Watch here

In early 2022, Robert Durst died while incarcerated, but it took a hell of an effort to put him behind bars in the first place. During the production of The Jinx, no one knew whether he’d ever pay for his fatal crimes, given that Durst had been repeatedly been accused of murder but never successfully convicted. His luck did eventually run out, but when this series debuted in 2015, this limited series highlighted the wild history of its subject while pointedly noting his long-standing status as a suspect in his wife’s disappearance 40+ years prior. And as it turned out, his ultimate conviction involved Durst killing someone who knew too much about that old crime. This project dives into police files and archival footage just like many other true crime docuseries tend to do, but the end result is wholly unique and hits even harder after his conviction.

Watch it on HBO Max

5. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark

Year: 2020
Starring: Michelle McNamara, Patton Oswalt
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (7 episodes)
Director: Liz Garbus
Trailer: Watch here

The life and work of the late Michelle McNamara — citizen investigator, blogger, and admitted developer of a “murder habit” — takes center stage in this revelatory series. At the time of her death, Michelle’s husband (Patton Oswalt) decided to do everything possible to complete the book that became the subject of this limited story, which emerges as a “portrait of an artist” who also happened to live for the pursuit of justice. Michelle’s book led to the arrest of her biggest obsession, the Golden State Killer, and this led to closure for the victims (and their families) who suffered for decades after the perpetrator’s 50 rapes and 12 murders. Following Joseph James DeAngelo’s capture, he pled guilty on the day after this series’ debut, and the entire shakedown followed miraculous efforts by McNamara and her post-death collaborators, investigative journalist Billy Jensen and crime writer Paul Haynes. It’s a story of obsession, yes, but one that thankfully led to progress.

Watch it on HBO Max

6. Narcos/Narcos Mexico

Year: 2015 – 2021
Starring: Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, José María Yazpik, Alejandro Edda, Michael Peña, Diego Luna
Genre: Crime dramatization
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 3 (30 episodes)
Creators: Carlo Bernard, Chris Brancato, Doug Miro
Trailer: Watch here

First, the franchise tangled with the sometimes comically sad yet inherently destructive saga of Pablo Escobar (Wagner Maura) and associated drug lords. Then it took on fresh legs with a spinoff. As such, Scoot McNairy guided this explosive saga home, years after Narcos introduced us to his brother from another mother, the rough-and-tumble Agent Murphy (Boyd Holbrook). The spinoff began with Michael Peña’s wild-eyed Kiki Camerena’s ill-fated dive into taking down drug cartels that, as we later learn, never truly fall but end up sprouting hydra heads. Scoot picked up the story as a fictionalized character with plenty of demons of his own while he sought to carry on Kiki’s legacy and realize that this is a never-ending war.

Watch it on Netflix

7. McMillion$

Year: 2020
Starring: Agent Doug
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Directors: James Lee Hernandez, Brian Lazarte
Trailer: Watch here

Agent Doug Matthews, who is vital to the appeal of this miniseries, remains a fantastic character despite being a real-life person. It’s also really something that a popular fast-food Monopoly game became the subject of a decade long, fraudulent ring that inspired one of the most entertaining true crime series in existence. This is a simple story, really, but it’s wild to behold the sheer audacity of all involved. The mob surfaces, yes, and there’s a hefty dose of Florida going on, along with almost unprecedented glee in this retelling of events, and you can’t help but get swept up in the madness. What a fun story that you don’t have to feel even guilty about gawking at while watching. A win-win in a genre that could often (pardon the pun) use a little life.

Watch it on HBO Max

8. The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Year: 2016
Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Sterling K. Brown, David Schwimmer, Nathan Lane, Sarah Paulson, Kenneth Choi, John Travolta, Courtney B. Vance
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV14
Seasons: 1 (10 episodes) of a larger anthology series
Directors: Ryan Murphy, Anthony Hemingway, John Singleton
Trailer: Watch here

The trial of the century transformed into an adapted horror tale through the deft hand of Ryan Murphy, who might (after Dahmer and The Watcher) now be the real godfather of the more exploitative wing of the true crime genre. Cuba Gooding Jr. stealthily stepped into those gloves, and David Schwimmer uttered “Juice” so many times that I nearly forgot about Ross Geller’s own reign of terror. Further, we’ve got another look at how Robert Kardashian not only helped to engineer O.J.’s (temporary) freedom following the death of Nicole Brown Simpson, but also how he inadvertently changed the very nature of fame throughout this televised trial (and by extension, through his family following his death). The nostalgia runs heavy here, obviously, because O.J.’s Bronco-bound chase turned out to be one of those moments where you always remember where you were when it popped up on TV. If the TV show fits, you must acquit (?), or something like that.

Watch it on Hulu

9. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Year: 2022
Starring: Evan Peters, Niece Nash, Molly Ringwald, Penelope Ann Miller
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (10 episodes)
Directors: Carl Franklin, Clement Virgo, Jennifer Lynch, Gregg Araki, Paris Barclay
Trailer: Watch here

Ryan Murphy and Netflix continue their long-running love affair, even when things get seriously grody as in “cannibalism.” This series not be my cup of tea (because I do like to keep my appetite intact), but the masses quickly racked up over a billion hours of viewing time. Obviously, things got icky with Evan Peters as the infamous cannibalistic serial killer who carried out his shocking crimes from within his Wisconsin apartment. Make sure that you don’t eat too much before settling down to binge this selection, and get ready because Monster will return in anthologized form while focusing upon a different serial killer.

Watch it on Netflix

10. The Case Against Adnan Syed

Year: 2019
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-14
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Amy Berg
Trailer: Watch here

Devotees of the Serial podcast climbed aboard this followup series from Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil, Phoenix Rising), who follows up with exclusive Syed access and new revelations that throw all kinds of legal proceedings into disarray. As listeners already know, Syed served two decades in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. Various motives from other parties do rear their heads, and no matter how you felt about the podcast’s accounting of events, get ready to relive and reassess them. As a late-breaking update, Syed’s conviction was actually vacated in September 2022, which has prompted an additional episode to go into production. Look for that installment in 2023.

Watch it on HBO Max

11. When They See Us

Year: 2019
Starring: Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Freddy Miyares, Michael Kenneth Williams, Felicity Huffman
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Ava DuVernay
Trailer: Watch here

This unsettling but valuable watch retells the Central Park Five case, in which five teenagers (ranging from ages 14-16) of color were arrested and charged with a host of crimes, including the rape and attempted murder of Trisha Meili, in 1989. All five defendants were convicted, and this series follows the ghastly mechanisms of corruption by police and prosecutors, who not only crushed these young men but also their families. You may not recognize the wrongly accused — Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise — by name, but Ava DuVernay (who created, co-wrote, and directed here) made it her mission to imprint their journeys upon viewers.

Watch it on Netflix

12. Dirty John

Year: 2018
Starring: Connie Britton, Eric Bana, Julia Garner, Jean Smart
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director: Jeffrey Reiner
Trailer: Watch here

This adaptation of a popular podcast (hosted by Christopher Goffard of L.A. Times) brought John Meehan’s psychopathic tendencies into full view through a wild-eyed portrayal by Eric Bana. Likewise, Connie Britton doled out a convincing version of Debra, who was swept up by a charismatic “anesthesiologist,” who seems to be the ideal catch but soon casts an intricate web of con-man tactics. This is a cautionary real-life tale, but it’s also an indictment of a system that allowed a manipulator to flourish. Progressively, John’s backstory disintegrates, and he terrorizes those who challenge him. This show might actually make you feel better about your own dating choices because damn, this John wasn’t simply dirty. He was downright filthy.

Watch it on Netflix

13. Dopesick

Year: 2021
Starring: Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, Peter Saarsgard
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Directors: Danny Strong, Barry Levinson, Michael Cuesta, Patricia Riggen
Trailer: Watch here

Tough subject comes to light here with Michael Keaton (executive producing) taking on the massive Oxycontin epidemic from the inside out and also (as the star) portraying a doctor who plays his own role in the mess. Big Pharma’s a big bad guy here, and this series is an intense adaptation of Beth Macy’s New York Times bestseller full of heroes and villains and a wide-spanning set of crimes staring down justice. Keaton clearly relishes being able to tackle such complex stories, and it’s a personal story for him, too, given that he lost a nephew to addiction.

Watch it on Hulu

14. Murder On Middle Beach

Year: 2020
Starring: Madison Hamburg
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Madison Hamburg
Trailer: Watch here

This project arrives as an intensely personal one for director Madison Hamburg because it charts his own search for his mother’s killer. If that doesn’t sound harrowing enough, consider that Hamburg felt driven to do so because law enforcement’s trail ran absurdly cold. There’s also a point in the docuseries where he may have interviewed his mother’s killer on camera. And if that still doesn’t intrigue you, consider that Madison put himself into some incredibly risky situations to capture audio footage, and although Barbara Hamburg’s murder remains unsolved to this day, if there’s anyone who can possibly solve this crime, it’s this fearless filmmaker. Quite simply, Hamburg wasn’t afraid to get raw and dangerous in a project that upends the genre.

Watch it on HBO Max

15. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

Year: 2022
Starring: Sarma Melngailis
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Chris Smith
Trailer: Watch here

This project charts the fall of celebrity NYC restauranteur Sarma Melngailis, who wasn’t exactly thrilled with this show’s ending, which she called “misleading,” but block out a handful of hours because once you start watching this, you don’t be able to stop. Vegan beefs will abound while viewers will wonder how, exactly, Sarma fell under the spell of shifty Anthony Strangis (who previously operated as “Shane Fox”). Before anyone really knew what was happening, he’d convinced her that dog immortality could exist, and the two had shafted her employees for paychecks and soon began living the fugitive life. Her fall from grace led to hard time at Riker’s Island, and the show explores how it went down under the most bizarre of circumstances.

Watch it on Netflix

16. Making A Murderer

Year: 2015-2018
Starring: Steven Avery, Brendan Dassey
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 2 (20 episodes)
Director: Laura Ricciardi, Moira Demos
Trailer: Watch here

This series helped to kick off the current avalanche of true-crime streaming content, and for good reason. Viewers relished the chance to offer input while sleuthing their way to new clues on the Teresa Halbach murder. The Steven Avery and Brandon Dassey trials captivated millions upon millions of Netflix users who dove into a rabbit hole over old and new evidence alike, and the genre would never be the same again. As well, this series inspired filmmakers and streaming services to consider and execute several spins on true crime, and we’re seeing the results spread far throughout his list.

Watch it on Netflix

17. Murder in Big Horn

Year: 2023
Rating: MA
Seasons: 1 (3 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon may be running far behind the original schedule, but this series adopts the same somber theme. This three-part docuseries charts the longstanding epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Big Horn County, Montana. Through in-depth interviews of Native families and local law enforcement, Native journalists persist in seeking enough information to secure a rare arrest in these cases. What emerges is a powerful and stirring portrait of communities that hopes to heal long-lasted wounds of grieving families, who have been attempting to seek the truth for centuries on end.

Watch it on Paramount Plus

18. Unsolved Mysteries (Revival)

Year: 2020-2022
Starring: The ghost of Robert Stack
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 3 (21 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

Obviously, we’re dealing with a revival here (the original series ran for 14 years and bounced between networks), and this series hasn’t made a huge headline-making splash like other entries on this list, but this is still true-crime bread and butter and impossible to ignore. These quietly-executed episodes stay compelling like the original while inviting audience participation by anyone who has clues on how to solve these crimes. The ghost of former full-time host Robert Stack looms large, and the original creators (Cosgrove/Meurer Productions) teamed up with the Stranger Things production company (21 Laps Entertainment) to bring us a product that feels both fresh and faithful to its predecessor.

Watch it on Netflix

19. Wild Wild Country

Year: 2018
Starring: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Directors: Maclain Way, Chapman Way
Trailer: Watch here

Mark and Jay Duplass helmed this limited series that dives into a 1980s Oregon ruckus between ranchers and a cult leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Actually, this series revisits the first bioterror attack on U.S. soil, in which over 750 people were poisoned with salmonella, and that’s only the beginning of the madness that transpired. In the end, the show digs into the FBI’s crusade to stop the Rajneeshees and their thousands of followers from causing more mayhem with comparisons to the Jonestown Massacre flying along with incidents of sketching wiretapping. It’s just nuts, man, but the limited series offers a lot of insight into future church-and-state collisions and honestly makes the Heaven’s Gate happenings seem moderate in comparison.

Watch it on Netflix

20. The Staircase (Dramatization)

Year: 2022
Starring: Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Sophie Turner, Patrick Schwarzenegger
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director: Antonio Campos, Leigh Janiak
Trailer: Watch here

This dramatization of the Michael Peterson story (previously covered in Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s docuseries, which is our #1 pick) had a lot to prove, and it justified its own existence in spades. Colin Firth taught a master class in keeping the audience wondering about his character’s motives, which were seemingly muddled by his contradictory personality traits and his slightest of wavering expressions. Toni Collette went to extreme lengths to reenact speculative theories on how Kathleen could have died, and so much could have gone wrong during the most brutal scenes. However, the HBO series managed to respectfully wrap its hands around her memory while also considering the forensics of Kathleen’s autopsy report. The owl theory also receives its day in the sun, but ultimately, this series does well by treating Kathleen as a person, and a wife and a mother, not a chalkboard drawing in a crime scene.

Watch it on HBO Max

21. Pam & Tommy

Year: 2022
Starring: Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Nick Offerman, Seth Rogen
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director: Craig Gillespie
Trailer: Watch here

As much fun as this show was — and it was overall a freaking blast — it’s easy to forget that the central crime of this show led to a lot of emotional devastation. Pamela Anderson endured many years of ongoing public humiliation after real intimate moments got captured on tape and stolen and distributed to the masses. Director Craig Gillespie had the unenviable task of balancing the rock-and-roll spirit of this project with showcasing all of the Pamela fallout during this dramatization. And although the subject herself was not onboard with this project, Lily James rightfully earned accolades by going to a dark place to dredge up those feelings as the show also frivolously tossed mullets around like it ain’t no big deal.

Watch it on Hulu

22. Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile

Year: 2019
Starring: Zac Efron, Lily Collins
Genre: True crime dramatization
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 110 minutes
Director: Joe Berlinger
Trailer: Watch here

Before Evan Peters was skewing the hell out of the Netflix audience in Dahmer, Zac Efron delivered a disarmingly charming performance as Ted Bundy. Joe Berlinger, who subsequently turned the true-crime genre on its head with Netflix’s Crime Scene series, directed this dramatization about a serial killer who flourished underneath everyone’s nose, and that includes his own family. Seeing Efron fully out of his usual element will spook you, and Lily Collins similarly treads into disturbing territory as Ted’s girlfriend who goes through hell in her own way.

Watch it on Netflix

23. Atlanta’s Missing And Murdered: The Lost Children

Year: 2020
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (5 episodes)
Director: Maro Chermayeff, Sam Pollard
Trailer: Watch here

This one’s a necessary exploration of the 1979 to 1981 years in Atlanta, where 30+ African-American children/young adults either went missing or were discovered to have been murdered. Law enforcement swiftly pinned down a suspect and declared the case to be closed, but they moved far too rashly. Dozens of families never received the answers they sought, and racial tensions quickly rose to a boil during a time when the city hoped to become a Southern mecca of commerce and culture. This case’s twisted legacy unfurls at the hands of filmmakers Maro Chermayeff and Sam Pollard.

Watch it on HBO Max

24. Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal

Year: 2023
Genre: Documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (3 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

This Netflix series timed itself impeccably, given that it released at around the same time of the real-life trial that ended with formerly prominent attorney and disgraced heir Alex Murdaugh convicted of murder. That trial recently ended, and a verdict came swiftly regarding the deaths of Alex’s son and wife, and this series aims to take a hard look at the evidence, along with damage control from the defendant, who may have been financially motivated, at the very least. The series also takes a grim look at the legal system and those who know how to (again, allegedly) manipulate it from within their own sordid stories.

Watch it on Netflix

25. Black Bird

Year: 2022
Starring: Taron Egerton, Ray Liotta, Paul Walter Hauser, Greg Kinnear
Genre: True crime dramatization
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Creator: Dennis Lehane
Trailer: Watch here

This limited series brings us one of Ray Liotta’s final onscreen appearances, and yes, you’ll soon see him in the flat-out crazy Cocaine Bear, but first, prepare yourself for six hours of flat-out intensity. Liotta portrays Big Jim Keene, a veteran cop and dad to Taron Egerton’s Jimmy in this Dennis Lehane-produced adaptation of Jimmy’s In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption memoir. The drug-dealing Jimmy does end up in hell, meaning that he takes an FBI deal to go undercover at a max-security prison, where he ends up tangling with Larry Hall, a suspected serial killer played by Paul Walter Hauser. Surely, you’ve seen his work before, and he’s at his unsettling best in this unyieldingly tense series that never takes its foot off the gas.

Watch it on Apple TV+

26. The Dropout

Year: 2022
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews, William H. Macy, Laurie Metcalf, Elizabeth Marvel
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director: Michael Showalter
Trailer: Watch here

Amanda Seyfried assumed the voice Elizabeth Holmes, and that was only the beginning of exploring this enigma wrapped in a Steve Jobs-style black turtleneck. Her performance was so thorough, in fact, that Jennifer Lawrence dropped out of a similar project while stating that her predecessor had everything covered. Although the series is oddly paced, the end result is an intriguing look at how (as dubbed by Forbes) “the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire” built a blood-testing empire upon a lie. As we now know, Holmes has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for various degrees of fraud, and this show charts the rise of a monster while posing questions on why, exactly, she got so far with her bad deeds.

Watch it on Hulu

27. John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise

Year: 2021
Starring: John Wayne Gacy
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-14
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Director: Rod Blackhurst
Trailer: Watch here

This docuseries is as disturbing as can expect due to subject matter, but more than that, director Rod Blackhurst (Amanda Knox, which is further down this list) made it a mission to also (slightly) drag the true crime genre while exploring a notorious serial killer. As Blackhurst told Indiewire, “I have always struggled with the way that true crime continues to be commodified.” He further made good on his intention to add something other than salaciousness to this project, which culminates after a full decade of work from a pair of independent journalists, Alison True and Tracy Ullman. What emerges is a wide-ranging exploration that, among other goals, exposes flaws in the justice system that led Gacy’s own victims to be sidelined in news coverage. Let’s just say that the end result is haunting in more ways than one.

Watch it on Peacock

28. Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story

Year: 2018
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Directors: Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason
Trailer: Watch here

This essential watch ends up being a portrait of the times that we live in today. The docuseries charts the horrible tragedy of Trayvon Martin’s death at the hand of George Zimmerman, and how the subsequent fallout launched a series of ongoing debates about how police responded and how the prosecution struggled against societal forces including race in America. As well, the project charts the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement and points towards much work to be done, including on the issues of gun violence and how much of an uphill battle is still faced by marginalized communities who seek justice with devastating results.

Watch it on Paramount Plus

29. The Watcher

Year: 2022
Starring: Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts, Margo Martindale, Mia Farrow, Jennifer Coolidge
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (7 episodes)
Director: Ryan Murphy, Paris Barclay, Jennifer Lynch, Max Winkler
Trailer: Watch here

This is not an objectively good series. Few people are arguing that point, but Ryan Murphy has (again) pulled together some compelling TV, and you gotta respect that game. Bobby Cannavale does the most as a patriarch who slowly comes undone as a mystery entity terrorizes his family with unsettling letters, and Naomi Watts keeps everyone guessing until the very end. Jennifer Coolidge is typically fantastic as a realtor who damn well should have known to disclose this house’s issues. The show is gloriously full of red herrings while adding flavor to the already mind-boggling investigative report from The Cut, and all of the potential suspects appear to have a delightful time with claiming and ducking responsibility. Despite the potentially triggering subject matter, this still happens to be a playful series with more to come.

Watch it on Netflix

30. Mindhunter

Year: 2017-2019
Starring:
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 2 (19 episodes)
Directors: David Fincher, Carl Franklin, Andrew Dominik, Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm, Andrew Douglas
Trailer: Watch here

Here’s an example of a guilty pleasure that true crime viewers don’t have to feel even slightly guilty about watching. If you haven’t yet experienced this David Fincher-helmed series, you have an array of (fictionalized) serial killers awaiting you. Damon Herriman picks up Charles Manson (he also portrayed the cult leader for Quentin Tarantino), and takes on Dennis Rader, David Berkowitz, Ed Kemper, Monte Rissell, Richard Speck, Wayne Williams, Jerry Brudos are also up for the sampling.

Watch it on Netflix

31. The Landscapers

Year: 2021
Starring: David Thewlis, Olivia Colman
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Will Sharpe
Trailer: Watch here

Will Sharpe (yes, the same dude who played pouting, stormy Ethan in The White Lotus) directed this offbeat “love story” about a pair of apparently ordinary Britons who may or may not have something to do with dead bodies found in their back yard. Olivia Colman and David Thewlis star in a story that’s anything but expected when it comes to tone. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the project’s collective talent (onscreen and off) is immense, and several of the parts end up being worth more than the total sum of where this story goes.

Watch it on HBO Max

32. Web Of Death

Year: 2023
Genre: Documentary series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

Online sleuthing has been ongoing since the inception of the Internet, and a few years ago, HBO’s We’ll Be Gone In The Dark captured the stellar work of one online-sleuth-turned-author, Michelle McNamara, whose dogged (and collaborative) determination led to the capture of the elusive Golden State Killer. In this Netflix series, an even larger village comes together to piece together digital footprints and come together through the (occasionally productive) social media realm to solve the most disturbing unsolved cases, including a murder that has stumped sleuths for a full 50 years.

Watch it on Hulu

33. Candy

Year: 2022
Starring: Jessica Biel, Melanie Lynskey, Timothy Simons
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (5 episodes)
Director: Michael Uppendahl, Jennifer Getzinger, Ben Semanoff, Tara Nicole Weyr
Trailer: Watch here

Jessica Biel’s got range for miles while playing a suburban churchgoer, Candy Montgomery, who bludgeoned her next-door neighbor with an ax. Melanie Lynskey also gets to dig into another juicy, acclaimed role (murder victim Betty Gore) in this series, and the show takes several turns that make the audience abandon any black-and-white approach to evaluating motives and exactly what happened here. It’s a hell of a set of performances and one that’s particularly unsettling because of exactly how the Candy and Betty dynamic shapes up and devolves.

Watch it on Hulu

34. Dateline

Year: 1992 –
Starring: Lester Holt, Keith Morrison, Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz, Ann Curry, Stone Phillips
Genre: News, documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 31 seasons (2720+ episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

One would be remiss to not consider this long-running series’ place within America’s fascination with the true crime genre. For nearly two decades, this mainstay always seems to be around when a true-crime junkie needs a quick fix, and the show has captivatingly shown the at-home audience what happens with the doors are blown off cold cases with drastic results. If you never did catch this show in its Friday night time slot, there’s always syndication and streaming to make Stone Phillips happen again.

Watch it on Peacock

35. Tiger King

Year: 2020
Starring: Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, a bunch of big cats
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 2 (12 episodes)
Directors: Eric Goode, Rebecca Chaiklin
Trailer: Watch here

Obviously, this show is not high art, but it did turn into a sensation during the early days of the pandemic. It also happened to be content that few could resist during a dearth of other fresh options, but the series was entertaining, Big Cat people are in a league of their own in terms of exploitative bad deeds, and the show dives into the world of Joe Exotic, rival Carole Baskin, and a dastardly murder-for-hire scheme that landed the former behind bars in real life. Also, there’s a whole array of odd supporting characters, and some really bad music videos to boot. Yeehaw.

Watch it on Netflix

36. The Lady And The Dale

Year: 2021
Starring: Liz Carmichael
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-14
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Nick Cammilleri, Zackary Drucker
Trailer: Watch here

Room 104 duo Mark and Jay Duplass stick with HBO to present the story of Elizabeth Carmichael, who promised the world with a fuel-efficient vehicle that was otherwise unheard of in the 1970s. From there, a mountain of intrigue eventually turned into an avalanche of exposed fraud that took her investors for a merciless ride. Interestingly enough, this series can be viewed as an auto-industry based precursor for what Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes later pulled off (at least for awhile) with blood testing.

Watch it on HBO Max

37. Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields

Year: 2022
Genre: True crime documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (3 episodes)
Creator: Joe Berlinger
Trailer: Watch here

Not too many bread-and-butter true crime series rose to the top of the crop this year, but the latest entry in Joe Berlinger’s Crime Scene made the grade. Berlinger’s anthology series revolves around settings as central characters that (arguably) aid and abet the flourishing of violent crimes. And as with the Cecil Hotel, there’s definitely a vibe that helps one understand why the so-called “Texas Killing Fields” were plenty spooky enough before bodies were discovered. In this case, Calder Road (part of the marshy surroundings between Galveston and Houston) turned into a focal point connected to the disappearance of four young women, whose murders remain cold cases to this day. This series traces decades of history tied to Calder Road’s ominous vibe, led by one grieving father who’s still searching for the truth.

Watch it on Netflix

38. Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer

Year: 2019
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (3 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

The title of this series sounds like an Internet meme gone incredibly wrong, but the real story runs darker. A major trigger warning is in order for instances of animal cruelty and, just like the title indicates, amateur sleuths do team up to take down a maniac. If you’re expecting something as (relatively) light as Tiger King, then you’ll be a little shook, but it’s certainly a different type of true crime series than you’ll find on the rest of the list.

Watch it on Netflix

39. The Act

Year: 2019
Starring: Joey King, Patricia Arquette
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Adam Arkin, Christina Choe, Steven Piet, Hannah Fidell)
Trailer: Watch here

Oh, this was a painful series to witness in several spots (including that dental stuff), but what a set of powerhouse performances from Joey King and Patricia Arquette. The latter portrays Dee Dee Blanchard, who’s all up in the Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy while putting her daughter, Gypsy Rose, through torturous “treatments” for the entirety of her childhood. At a certain point in this stranger-than-fiction real-life story, Gypsy has had enough and puts an end to her own imprisonment with fatal results. All of that was already public knowledge to true-crime watchers, but the value of this production is how it exposes the obsession-fueled nightmare that led Gypsy toward such a drastic path that landed her with a 10-year prison sentence.

Watch it on

40. Unbelievable

Year: 2019
Starring: Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, Kaitlyn Dever
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Director: Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Dinner, Susannah Grant
Trailer: Watch here

A major trigger warning arrives for this series, which feels almost insurgent in its approach and delivers powerhouse performances from Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever. The two former ladies play detectives who uncover ties between sexual assault cases that could actually achieve justice in a world where less than 1% of rapes are followed by felony convictions. Meanwhile, Dever shines a light on how so-called “imperfect victims” fight the ultimate uphill battle to tell their true stories while also not-infrequently being treated like criminals themselves. Boy, her character goes through hell while confronted with a massive burden of proof, which ends up being a legal nightmare. Admittedly, this sounds god-awful as viewing material, but it’s a watchable paradigm-shifter of a series.

Watch it on Netflix

41. Friend of the Family

Year: 2022
Starring: Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks, Mckenna Grace,
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (9 episodes)
Director(s): Eliza Hittman, Rachel Goldberg, Steven Piet, Jamie Travis, Lauren Wolkstein
Trailer: Watch here

Man, do not tangle with Jake Lacy, who’s in the midst of his villain track following his douche bro portrayal in The White Lotus and his chilling role as Robert Berchtold, who manipulated his way into the good graces of the Broberg family and groomed young Jan. Berchtold actually ended up kidnapping the young girl twice, and this isn’t an easy watch, but it sure as heck shows Lacy’s range and should set him up nicely for a continuing career in TV. Maybe something lighter next time, through?

Watch it on Peacock

42. Love & Death

Year: 2023
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe, Krysten Ritter
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (7 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

The second Candy Montgomery series (see also Hulu’s Candy) proves that the ax murdering adulterer is having a bit of a moment. As well, David E. Kelley seldom misses, and this HBO Max series takes a more straightforward, linear approach to the horrific story, for which we already know what will come. Love & Death is a more immersive experience than the Hulu show in a way, but it also doesn’t bring enough new insight to the table to fully justify a binge for anyone who’s not a serious true crime junkie. That’s not for lack of trying or talent because there’s a ton of it on display here, especially with Elizabeth Olsen portraying the ennui-filled housewife who’s looking for that missing puzzle piece in life.

Watch it on HBO Max

43. The Vow

Year: 2021-2022
Starring: Keith Raniere
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 2 (15 episodes)
Director: Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer
Trailer: Watch here

Keith Raniere (referred to by many as a cult leader) now sits behind bars after a 100+ year sentence hopefully ensures that he’ll never see the light of day. This series takes some unsettling peeks behind the curtain of NXIVM, which professed to be a self-help group but ended up being anything but that. In the end, Raniere was convicted on a host of sex trafficking charges and while collar crimes, and this series delves into the emotional and legal fallout for not only the organization but Raniere’s former associates and followers. Especially with Season 2, the show takes an often uncomfortable look at the psychological manipulation happening behind the group’s so-called “secret sex sorority,” and the details are chilling to behold.

Watch it on HBO Max

44. Crime Scene: Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel

Year: 2021
Starring: One of the scariest hotels in the universe
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Director: Joe Berlinger
Trailer: Watch here

Joe Berlinger, who’s done everything from directing Zac Efron as Ted Bundy to helming a Metallica documentary, turns the true crime genre upside down with this inaugural season of a series that treats notorious crime locations as characters within their own story. This installment takes a peek behind the soiled curtains of a notorious Los Angeles hotel that’s known as a murder trap. It’s a place where Richard Ramirez once took refuge from his crimes, and it’s where a young woman named Elisa Lam met a mysterious end with plenty of eerie, viral footage that fueled speculation about what really happened to her.

Watch it on Netflix

45. How To Become A Cult Leader

Year: 2023
Starring: Peter Dinklage (as narrator)
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

Allow the docile tones of Peter Dinklage to carry you through several disturbing 30-minute journeys that illustrate how a handful of infamous cult leaders got it done. That is to say, you’ll learn how Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate leader Marshall Applewhite and more convinced their flocks to do their bidding, and that also meant the ultimate deadly sacrifices. This series hails from the creators of How to Become a Tyrant, so expect some dark humor to pepper what would otherwise be serious subject matter.

Watch it on Netflix

46. Inventing Anna

Year: 2021
Starring: Julia Garner
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (9 episodes)
Directors: David Frankel, Tom Verica, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Nzingha Stewart, Ellen Kuras
Trailer: Watch here

A whole lot of grifter-focused series surfaced this year, but Julia Garner raised all the eyebrows as the unusually-accented German-Russian-WTF fake heiress Anna Delvey. The dramatizations are hefty, and at least one of Delvey’s real-life victims sued over how this series portrayed her. In the end, however, Jessica Pressler’s original character study of Delvey receives the confounding adaptation that it deserves. People almost desperately wanted to believe in Delvey’s twisted version of the American Dream, and the rest is gravy-coated fallout.

Watch it on Netflix

47. Dr. Death

Year: 2021
Starring: Joshua Jackson, Grace Gummer, AnnaSophia Robb, Christian Slater, and Alec Baldwin
Genre: Drama series
Rating: TV14
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes) and more to come
Directors: Stephen Frears, Maggie Kiley
Trailer: Watch here

Joshua Jackson stars as real life doom-neurologist Dr. Christopher Duntsch, whose terrifying reign of medical terror became the subject of a successful Wondery podcast. All told, dozens of Duntsch’s patients never recovered from their seemingly routine spinal surgeries, and it was up to two fellow surgeons, Robert Henderson (Alec Baldwin) and Randall Kirby (Christian Slater), to sound the alarm. Before all was said and done, prosecutor Michelle Shughart (AnnaSophia Robb) fought like hell to stop Duntsch, and this docuseries takes a lengthy look at the man behind the surgeon’s mask and the tragic circumstances surrounding a system that potentially allowed a predator to flourish.

Watch it on Peacock

48. The Girl From Plainville

Year: 2022
Starring: Elle Fanning, Chloë Sevigny, and Colton Ryan
Genre: Drama miniseries
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Director(s): Lisa Cholodenko, Zetna Fuentes, Pippa Bianco, Liz Hannah, Daniel Minahan
Trailer: Watch here

This limited series set out to do the seemingly impossible: to dramatize an incredibly sensational true-crime story without heading straight into exploitative territory. To those who frequent the Internet, the story’s skeleton will sound familiar enough: Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the so-called “texting-suicide” case that involved the death of her boyfriend, Conrad “Coco” Roy III. The series takes its name and its basis from Jesse Barron’s 2017 Esquire same-named investigative report, which detailed how Carter admitted to instructing the suicidal Roy to “get back in” after he began to be overwhelmed by exhaust fumes from his vehicle. Elle Fanning takes on the tough role of Carter while the show dives into the real-life texts that filled their two-year relationship. It didn’t look great from the get-go and didn’t improve, but the show looks beyond the headlines and the messages themselves to dig into what brought Carter and Roy to that pivotal point and the wreckage that followed.

Watch it on Hulu

49. Killer Sally

Year: 2022
Starring: Sally McNeil and family
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (3 episodes)
Director: Nanette Burstein
Trailer: Watch here

Do not expect an easy ride from this series, which will likely lead one to run screaming at the mere mention of anabolic steroids. This project takes some decided turns while promising to unveil insight into why bodybuilder Sally McNeil killed her also-bodybuilder husband. The couple’s grown children take journeys back in time to provide insight into what they remember from that turbulent time as well as how they view their mother’s legal plight. Sally ended up serving 25 years beyond bars and unsuccessfully attempted to appeal her conviction. Although no all-encompassing questions get answered during the course of this docuseries, the end result of this Valentine’s Day murder illuminates plenty of red flags that, tragically, should have been noticed earlier.

Watch it on Netflix

50. D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?

Year: 2022
Genre: Docuseries
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (4 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here

You’ve undoubtedly seen a D.B. Cooper documentary or two, and you’ve probably caught wind of how much fun Justified and Loki presented their own versions of the story. This four-part series fills in a few more blanks about the legendary criminal who got away with all that cash over 50 years ago. To this date, the mystery of Cooper’s real identity has not been definitely solved, but nonetheless, the mystery of how he pulled off this heist continues to fascinate.

Watch it on

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE – Honestly, good for them

I am really enjoying the third season of Only Murders in the Building so far, which is a little strange, I think, mostly because I’m still not sure if it’s as good as the first two seasons. There is so much going on. Everyone is splitting up and there are hallucinations and marriage proposals and dangerous stalkers and maybe ghosts and it’s all going very Scooby-Doo all of a sudden. But I do love it. And I think the reason why I love it is because it seems like everyone on the show is having an absolute blast.

It doesn’t hurt that the show just went ahead and added Paul Rudd and Freaking Meryl Streep this season. Or that it’s letting both of them chew up all the scenery they can cram into their mouths playing against type. I mean, we’ve got Paul Rudd as our murder victim playing a dipshit pretentious actor with a massive inferiority complex, kind of like if his character from Wet Hot American Summer was in a theater camp and wore a scarf instead of a leather jacket. And we’ve got Meryl Streep playing a struggling actress who sometimes bungles her way through an audition — yes, I consider Meryl Streep pretending to act poorly to be one of the best acting performances I’ve seen this year — and is also our most likely murder suspect so far. And Tina Fey showed up again this season but with blonde hair. It’s really just an embarrassment of riches for a show that already featured Steve Martin and Martin Short and Selena Gomez. It’s almost unfair, really.

And again, it seems like everyone is just having the best time of their lives, which counts for a lot in my book. Even in the small ways. Like, for example, in this shot where Selena Gomez is poking around Paul Rudd’s character’s apartment after the murder.

Do you see it?

Do you?

ENHANCE.

Paul Rudd’s character has a poster hanging in his own hallway for a fictional movie he starred in called Sex Panther, which is notable because, for those of you who never saw Anchorman or used the internet between about 2003 and 2011…

This is what I mean. They didn’t have to do that. Reasonable arguments can be made that they shouldn’t have done it. But they did it because… they wanted to. Because it made them laugh. And everyone involved has enough juice that no loser in a suit can tell them no. I kind of dig that.

Could all of this fall apart before the season ends, all the spinning plates crashing to the ground and everyone cutting their feet on the shards of glass strewn about the floor? (WHY ARE THEY SPINNING PLATES BAREFOOT?) I mean, sure. But it’s cool that they’re taking some big swings. And having fun. That really does need to count for something sometimes. Good for them.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – Hey, speaking of murder-related shows that are still unreasonably fun

The second season of The Afterparty shouldn’t have worked. The first season shouldn’t have worked either, probably, if only because the degree of difficulty on “a high-concept murder mystery where each episode is told from a different character’s POV using a different genre of storytelling in the silliest way you can imagine” is high enough that you could sprain your ankle leaping down from it. And yet, here we are. Sure, season two didn’t quite do it for me like season one, in part because this week’s finale — which I will not spoil here — somehow tied things up kind of messily and kind of too neatly, but still. I very much enjoyed the ride. And a big part of that was due to Paul Walter Hauser’s performance as Travis, a goofy Reddit bro in a fedora who was constantly doing stuff like, well, this.

Every moment he was on screen made me unreasonably happy. I fell down a Google trapdoor this week and discovered he actually has a history of appearing in shows I enjoy, like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Superstore, Key & Peele, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, and Cobra Kai. I also learned he’s up for an Emmy this year for his performance in Black Bird. And I learned I’m not the first person to be blown away by one of his performances, based mostly on this 2018 Newsweek article titled “Paul Walter Hauser Steals Every Scene as Harding’s Bodyguard in I, Tonya.”

What makes the actor stand out, though, in a film stacked with bravura performances (including Margot Robbie and the Golden Globe-winning Allison Janney) is his ability to turn Eckardt into something more than a caricature. Director Craig Gillespie praised Hauser, his “secret weapon,” for delivering “an entertaining performance with such humanity.”

Some of the Eckhardt’s best moments, the ones that made his loony tunes character relatable, were Hauser ad libs. At one point, Eckhardt, who naturally lives in the basement of his parents’ house, yells up to his mother to make a call: “It’s local, Ma!,” he screams. Later, he orders her to bring shortbread for the FBI agents interrogating him, improvising the line, “I shouldn’t even be saying his name… Derek.” It’s uncomfortable watching Eckardt because we all know someone like him.

There are two takeaways from all of this:

• Paul Walter Hauser should be in more things
• I meant for this to be more about The Afterparty but I am easily distracted

Moving on.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – THE TRUMPET

One of the cool things about living in the future is that there is so much information accessible to you all the time in so many formats that sometimes it feels like you have seen everything there is to see, and yet, once in a while, you’ll stumble across something new that will genuinely flabbergast you. Something like, to choose an example not so much at random, this excerpt from a new interview at Rolling Stone where noted horror novel icon Stephen King professes his undying love for the 1999 smash hit “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega.

Oh, yeah. Big time. My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot. I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things, and I played both sides of it. And one of them was just total instrumental. And I played that thing until my wife just said, “One more time, and I’m going to fucking leave you.”

I am honestly thrilled to have this information in my head now, and I suspect it will stay there forever, but I am a tiny bit disappointed that Stephen King hasn’t already used it as the inspiration for a book where a frazzled wife gets fed up and murders her husband for playing a song over and over and over and then is haunted by it for the rest of her life when she hears it in the supermarket or in a movie trailer or blasting out of a car that’s driving past her house, unsure each time if she’s really hearing it or if it’s all in her head.

I mean, come on, Stephen King. This is a layup. Pound it out in a month, call it “Murder No. 5” and let’s all move on. Here to help.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Keanu is so cool

A good thing to remember is that all news is local news somewhere. For example, for most of us, the big takeaway from the band Dogstar going on tour again this year is “holy crap, the band that Keanu Reeves plays bass in is going on the road.” But for the journalists at the New Haven Register in Connecticut, the story here is “local drummer continues to know Keanu Reeves.” Here, look:

One day in 1991, Robert Mailhouse, a drummer and New Haven native, decided to wear a Detroit Red Wings jersey to the store. What happened next can be summed up in one word — “whoa.”

Fresh off a string of hit movies like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” “Parenthood,” and “Point Break,” actor, musician and ice hockey fan Keanu Reeves noticed Mailhouse’s jersey.

Three notes here:

• I love that Keanu has starred in multiple billion-dollar movie franchises since the Bill & Ted movies but “whoa” will follow him around until he dies
• It’s kind of funny that the band where one of the biggest movie stars in the world plays bass has the most boring origin story ever
• This guy’s last name, Mailhouse, sounds kind of like what your brain would spit out some morning when you’re too hungover to remember that it’s called a post office

It gets better.

“It was mostly women, believe it or not,” Brian Phelps, owner of Toad’s Place, said of the crowd. “Basically, (Keanu) was playing bass guitar and anytime he looked up from the floor and onto the people, the women would start screaming and they would keep screaming until he would put his head back down.”

The thing I like most about Keanu is that, despite being a box office mega-draw for over 30 years now, and turning weird little action movies — “computers secretly control people,” “hitman’s dog gets murdered” — into worldwide franchise phenomena, he seems like he’s just… like, a dude. Like he’d be just as happy if he worked in a garage and tinkered with motorcycles all day. Like he doesn’t need all this in the way some actors very clearly crave it. The man plays bass in a rock band. Not lead guitar. Not lead vocals. Not even drums.

Bass.

He fascinates me deeply.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – I need to talk to Michael Imperioli and Paul McCartney at once

Two things are true here:

• If I had a magic lamp with a genie inside it and I had three wishes to burn, I suspect I would use one on like “the ability to wrangle any person on Earth for a conversation where they have to patiently answer all the questions I have for them, no matter how stupid”
• I bet I am the first person to ever type the words “I need to talk to Michael Imperioli and Paul McCartney at once” in that exact order

But, come on. Look at Michael Imperioli just casually talking about enlisting the services of a witch to get a movie made.

“I had just begun writing ‘Summer of Sam’ with Victor Colicchio — we wrote that script together,” Imperioli says in an exclusive clip from “Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel.” “I really wanted to get it made. So I met somebody who was living here who was a witch, who said she could help me get it made, but it wasn’t going to happen the way I thought it would. I was very ambitious at the time and wanted to get that made, so [I] resorted to tapping into otherworldly means to get it through the studio system.”

HOW

EXPLAIN

HOW

Imperioli did not elaborate on exactly what types of spells or rituals he may have cast upon the film, but “Summer of Sam” went on to be directed and co-written by Spike Lee and released by Buena Vista Pictures. Imperioli and Lee also played small roles in the movie.

This is what I’m talking about. I would pepper this poor man with 8000 questions about the logistics of a witch getting a movie made. It would span multiple days. I’d wake up with more questions and go back for follow-ups. Neither of us would ever get any work done ever again.

I’d have to leave him alone eventually, though, because I would need to talk to Paul McCartney about, well, this answer from a little Q&A he did with his own website about what he does to pass the time on the road.

PaulMcCartney.com: Do you plan the movies you’re going to watch?

Paul: No, I just go to ‘New Releases’ and unfortunately they’re not new – I’ve seen most of them! They don’t update them quick enough for me. I scan through and think ‘ah, I’ve been meaning to see that’.

On car journeys, I watch stuff on my iPad which can be films or series. I’m currently on Better Call Saul and it’s a good one.

I need to talk to Paul McCartney about Lalo Salamanca. This is serious. I am not joking. If you know or can put me in touch with him for like a 10-minute interview, I promise I will only ask him Lalo questions. It will be such a tremendous waste of a career-making interview opportunity and it would make me so happy I would float off into space.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Matt:

Please describe the exact set of circumstances it would require for you to willingly sit through a 4.5 hour historical drama.

Okay, first of all, I assume Matt is talking about this, which I joked about on Twitter last week.

Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” clocks in at a whopping 158 minutes, but even at over two-and-a-half hours a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor. In the September 2023 issue of Empire Magazine, Scott reveals that he has a “fantastic” cut of the movie that runs nearly four-and-a-half hours.

So, there are a few things at play here. One, as I’m sure all of you can tell from reading any paragraph I’ve ever written, is that I was a massive ADHD kid — scribbling on my desk, whipping pencils into the ceiling above my seat, all of it — and remain so in many ways as an adult. But I’m also the kind of sicko who can sit around and watch an entire extra-inning baseball game with no issue. And if anyone can make a 270-minute historical drama tolerable, it’s the dude who made Gladiator

With that said, the circumstances for me, personally, are as follows:

• At home, not in the theater, because I will need to pause at least twice for kitchen runs
• A snowy Saturday or Sunday afternoon in like mid-February when there is no sports to watch and it is too cold/slushy to go anywhere
• A low-grade fever that saps my energy to the degree that finding anything else to do feels like an insurmountable task

That said, under those circumstances, I could see myself enjoying an afternoon-long cut of a Napoleon movie.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Spain!

A group of thieves stole $500,000 worth of extra virgin olive oil from a Spanish oil mill, El Mundo reported, as the liquid soars in price.

$500,000 OLIVE OIL HEIST

The olive oil was stored in a warehouse waiting to be bottled when it was stolen, according to local newspaper Diario Córdoba.

Martin Parra, the manager of the company victim to the theft, told the outlet he believed the thieves must have used two large tankers to transport it, which take up to an hour to fill.

I would, no joke, watch a movie about an Ocean’s Eleven-style group of highly organized thieves acquiring two large tanker trucks and stealing half a million dollars worth of olive oil. Someone, please get Steven Soderbergh on the phone.

The price increase is largely due to droughts sparked by heatwaves across Spain, impeding the country’s agriculture industry.

Dammit, do not ruin my fun by bringing global warming into this.

Please.

Just let me have this one.

Please.

According to trade publication Olive Oil Times, estimates for production have been continually revised. Last August, agricultural associations predicted Spain would produce 1 million tons of olive oil in the 2022/23 crop year — a 27% fall from the previous year. But by the end of the harvest, there was around 680,000 tons; a 50% decrease, per Olive Oil Times.

Is it weird that, immediately after reading this paragraph, the most interesting thing about this story for me swapped from “a group of highly organized thieves acquired two large tanker trucks and stole half a million dollars worth of olive oil” to “there is a trade publication about the olive oil industry called The Olive Oil Times”?

Make that movie instead. The one about two investigative reporters at the Olive Oil Times tracking down leads in this case. Woodward and Bernstein but with olive oil.

Think about it.

Thank you.

Danny Masterson’s 30-year prison sentence follows several years of legal proceedings after his victims saw their cases frustrating languish in the court system, allegedly due to pressure from Scientology. Two decades later, Masterson is actually in prison — and will be for three more decades — after being convicted in May of two 2003 forcible rapes at his Hollywood home.

At the close of the sentencing hearing, the Judge Charlaine Olmedo told Masterson, “You are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice and choice.” Ex-second-generation Scientologist Leah Remini was in the court room, several years after she interviewed Masterson’s victims. Remini has long since vowed to never stop fighting against Scientology, and on Twitter, she reflected on Masterson’s sentence while going off on the L. Ron Hubbard-founded organization:

“I am relieved that this dangerous rapist will be off the streets and unable to violently assault and rape women with the help of Scientology, a multi-billion-dollar criminal organization with tax-exempt status.

“Hearing the survivors read their victim impact statements aloud in court while the man who raped them and some of the very Scientologists who terrorized them over two decades were just a few feet away displayed a level of bravery that I am in awe of.

“These women not only faced the living hell of being raped, having their rapes covered up by the very organization that promised to protect them, but they have also faced ruthless and criminal harassment by Scientology and its agents since they came forward to law enforcement.”

That’s less than half of Remini’s full statement, which you can read below.

The King of Queens star also asserted that this verdict and sentencing are “indictments” against the “criminal leader” of Scientology, David Miscavige, as well as the organization itself. In early August, Remini sued Scientology (and Miscavige) for the harassment, defamation, and emotional distress that she claims to have endured since the very day she left the organization a decade ago and was labeled as a “Suppressive Person.” Via Entertainment Weekly, here’s language from the suit:

“Defendants’ course of conduct includes, but is not limited to, following, surveilling, and stalking Plaintiff, sending Scientology operatives to break into Ms. Remini’s gated community, stealing her personal residential mail, vandalizing her mailbox, planting and/or attempting to plant spyware in close proximity to her home, sending harassing correspondence to Plaintiff and to others, including business associates and sponsors regarding Plaintiff, and creating a social media smear campaign against Plaintiff that includes false and malicious accusations made against Ms. Remini, and at times, her family.”

The lawsuit could bring groundbreaking results, long after South Park blew the doors off the OT-Level III “Xenu” fable. Additionally, Alex Gibney’s Going Clear documentary exposed the inner workings of the organization and laid out its many alleged human rights violations for the masses.

As for Masterson, he seemingly hasn’t ever wavered from Scientology, which strenuously backed him throughout his trial, but he’ll have to fashion his own E-meter to use for the next three decades. After all, he won’t be hitting the Celebrity Centre until he’s at least 77 years old.

(Via Leah Remini on Twitter & Entertainment Weekly)

Cardi B is back. Of course, she also never left. Over the five years since she released her groundbreaking debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, the Bronx rapper has been a near-constant force in the hip-hop/pop landscape. Her collaborations become instant classics. Her unfiltered observations on current events are the most salient commentary we’re ever going to get. Even her feuds dominate headlines — whether real, imagined, or just plain silly.

But with the release of her new single “Bongos” with Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi promises that she’s finally kicking off the rollout for her long-awaited second studio album. So, it seems important to say: Welcome back, Cardi (and if you sing it to the tune of the Welcome Back, Kotter theme song, it just resonates even better). And “Bongos,” Cardi’s second high-profile collaboration with Meg, seems like the perfect way to start the ball rolling, if only because it also represents a second chance for both artists.

In 2020, “WAP” was everywhere. Kids loved it, even if they didn’t understand it. Conservatives hated it, seemingly because they couldn’t relate. Everyone sang it, even if they had to adjust the lyrics in a way Cardi herself wasn’t too fond of. And it entered the social lexicon the way Judd Apatow movie quotes dominated dorm room conversations throughout the mid-aughts. The song was every bit as ubiquitous as Cardi’s first breakout hit, “Bodak Yellow,” seemingly presaging the inevitable release of another world-shaking full-length LP.

Cardi, though, had other plans. Despite the success of “WAP” and its follow-up “Up,” the outspoken artist decided to instead focus on her family and building her empire with a succession of endorsement deals, acting roles, and other business moves. Where many artists would have struck while the iron was white hot hoping to maintain the momentum, Cardi showed that she was perfectly confident that her brand would withstand taking a couple of years off.

She was right, of course, but mostly due to her own hustle. She maintained her iron grip on the public’s attention by releasing a string of high-profile collaborations. Smartly, she mixed it up; there were guest features from Cardi on songs from mainstream hitmakers like Normani, Lizzo, and Summer Walker, as well as a run of remixes to fan-favorite street hits from GloRilla, FendiDa Rappa, and Latto. In the meantime, roles in films like Hustlers and Fast And Furious sequel F9 kept Cardi’s face in front of appreciative audiences’ eyeballs until she was ready to return on her own terms, shaking off the anxiety that came from achieving so highly on her first musical outing.

“Bongos” displays that reinforced confidence deftly, while also expanding Cardi’s toolbox in fun and interesting ways. Back in 2018, I wrote in my review of Invasion Of Privacy that I wished Cardi had included more songs like the boogaloo-sampling, reggaeton-featuring “I Like It,” because the song’s Latin flair both evoked Cardi’s Dominican roots, giving listeners a better sense of who she is, and stood out from anything else in hip-hop at the time. She also sounded like she was having the most fun on the record, which resonated outward to the listener.

Apparently, audiences at least somewhat agreed with me; the song became Cardi’s second No. 1 hit and appeared at No. 7 on Uproxx’s Critics Poll in 2019. It was the sort of smash most artists can only dream of having. As far as hits go, I hope “Bongos” has similar success to “Bodak Yellow,” “I Like It,” and “WAP,” because it’s the sort of hard left turn that Cardi’s been executing her whole career, but at a higher level of performance. Not only has her flow improved — where it was once a locomotive, it’s now like a bullet train — but she also raps in Spanish, displaying yet another facet of who she is without needing to tell us.

The song also functions as a bit of a pick-me-up for her friend Meg, who’s had a rough go of it over the past couple of years. She could also use a fresh start, and what better way than with a reunion with the peer who helped her net her own first No. 1 hit? The song is certainly a departure for Meg, who has dipped her toes into the pristine disco-pop of Dua Lipa and house renaissance (sorry, not sorry) of “Her,” as well as a K-pop swing with BTS’s “Butter” remix. But so few of those songs have connected the way “WAP” did. “Bongos” offers her another chance for an inescapable ubiquitous hit like earlier singles “Big Ole Freak” and “Savage.”

I don’t know if it has record-breaking, culture-shifting potential like Cardi’s past big hits, but it’s a perfect place to restart her solo career and remind folks that she’s more than a “features artist” or a one-hit wonder. It reveals just enough of a peek at Cardi’s growth to leave us hankering for more. With its repetitive sample, quirky beat, and catchy lyrics (“he look like a brokie” is the one), “Bongos” is also guaranteed to get stuck in more than a few cerebrums as Cardi prepares her next album. Cardi never went anywhere, but now, it looks like she might never go away.

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

When Green Day isn’t poking fun at some of America’s biggest idiots by way of their merchandise drops, the band is causing great mischief with their music. Their forthcoming 30th-anniversary reissue of their album Dookie is a reminder of when the group’s rebellious spirit was birthed.

Ahead of the project’s release, Green Day has dumped out three glorious outtakes from their vault: “Walking The Dog,” “Christie Road,” and “409 In Your Coffeemaker.”

When the trio — consisting of Mike Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Tre Cool — first announced the reissue, they took to social media to share a touching note. On the group’s official Instagram profile, they shared the cover image to the pop-punk classic with the caption, “Sometimes you take a gamble, and luck’s on your side. Back in the summer of ’93, Green Day went into the studio to record Dookie and had no idea what their destiny would be. They were young, rebellious, and absolutely scared sh*tless. There was no telling if they were about to prove everyone wrong or make the biggest mistake of their lives.”

Take a listen to “Walking The Dog,” “Christie Road,” and “409 In Your Coffeemaker” above and below.

Dookie 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is out 9/29 via Reprise. Find more information here.

Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.