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Frank Ocean’s Coachella headlining set has received a less-than-warm reception from fans. After starting over an hour late, fans were disappointed by what turned out to be a meandering, disjointed set in which he only performed a handful of songs before a DJ played a string of mashups and remixes. While he did tease a new album, after burning fans so badly with his first-weekend set, they might not be looking forward to it as much as they were on Saturday.

Fans left wondering just why Frank’s set turned out the way it did may have gotten an explanation on Twitter, though. The Festive Owl, an independent journalistic outlet that covers festivals around the country, spoke with multiple sources about the disastrous set, reporting their findings in a long tweet that revealed much of the behind-the-scenes finagling that sparked the hour-long delay.

The stage production was supposed to (and did) contain an ice rink that was constructed and ready to go.

Frank decided at the last minute that he no longer wanted it at all. All of the people walking around him at the start of the performance were actually ice skaters, had been practicing for weeks, and were supposed to be skating as part of the production. Coachella had to deconstruct the approved stage (that had been planned and signed off on for months in advance) + melt the entire ice rink and then set it up how Frank decided today with no warning. Which is what you ended up seeing, and caused the hour-long delay. This all happened when doors had already opened for Sunday, and people were securing their spots to see him. If the last-minute changes weren’t made he wouldn’t have performed at all — leaving the festival without a closing headliner.

Frank also personally pulled the plug at the last second on the live stream which left a very sour taste in many inside Coachella’s mouths.

Ultimately, and I quote — “It just didn’t seem like he wanted to be there but was obligated to be. Everything (including him) fell apart last minute.

Don’t expect to see any coverage from the festival about the set. Something that is unprecedented in the history of Coachella. The relationship is not in a good place right now.”

What this means for Weekend Two of Coachella remains to be seen… but don’t be surprised if big changes are announced sometime this week.

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of Succession. The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 4 – “Honeymoon States”

Shiv

Shiv is not doing great, in a handful of ways, all of which are screaming ahead at an alarming rate of speed. She got kind of railroaded by Kendall and Roman into stepping back during the CEO chat, she’s grieving Logan’s death in a weird and self-defeating way — like, weirder and even more self-defeating than the way everyone else is, which is saying something — where she’s wondering if she’s the only one who actually lost something, she’s shouting at people a little bit and storming out of rooms, and all-in-all just taking a series of high-profile losses in front of everyone and herself and that Secret Service dog that showed up to sweep the room. Again, it’s not great.

Also… uh, she’s pregnant. With, one assumes, the child of a man she’s divorcing and hates and would not let comfort her for even five minutes despite all that stuff in the first paragraph happening while a bunch of friends and strangers paraded around in her dead dad’s luxurious home. She fell down, too. Just fully wiped out on the floor, which is always bad but doubly so when you have a baby inside you. Shiv is doing real, real bad.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: It’s understandable given the circumstances but it’s generally a tough look to shout at people to stop smiling

Tom

Not really much I can say here that will sum things up more clearly or eloquently than the little speech my beloved Karl gave about why Tom was unsuited to be CEO and how he’s maybe even on his way to being shoved out of the company completely. It is rarely a great thing when someone looks you dead in the eye and tells you you’re a joke whose career is headed for the toilet, even if that person claims to just be playing devil’s advocate, as a friend

Oh, and there’s that thing we just talked about where the wife who hates him is pregnant with a child he does not yet know about, which is also not super ideal, just as a general life thing.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Interloping

Kerry

Kerry has three problems here, as far as I can tell:

• Logan’s death has stripped away any authority she had within the company, to the degree she ever had any, as we saw with the audition tape debacle
• She is massively outmatched by Marcia when it comes to any of this business
• She’s also, like, sad her boyfriend died

I know I gave Shiv and Tom an F, too, but Kerry is doing so much worse than anyone here. I’d give her an H if that was a thing.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Bag holding

Undated addendums written in pencil

It is deeply funny to me that the show titled Succession spent three seasons showing all the ways all these people were angling to take over for Logan when he stepped aside or died and then, when it came time to actually do it, to select the person or persons who would take over after he’s no longer there to captain the ship, the whole thing was thrown into chaos by a previously unknown addendum and a squiggly line that was either an underline or strike-through. Just perfect writing and character development all paying off in a single moment.

What a lovely television program.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Binding legality

Gerri

GOOD NEWS: Logan’s death saved her job, seeing as she was just about to be fired and now appears to be hanging on by her fingernails.

BAD NEWS: Everyone kind of knows she was a dead lady walking and now she’s stuck working with and for all these bozos for who knows how long. One of her new bosses has sent her pictures of his penis. The other is Kendall. I’m not sure which is worse news here.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Exit strategies

Cousin Greg

Greg spent most of this episode shuffling into and out of rooms telling anyone who would look at him that he’s sorry for their loss. He hitched his wagon to Logan and Tom, one of whom is dead and the other of whom might as well be, from a business perspective. His career options are cooked and his naked leeching is becoming apparent to everyone and Frank straight-up laughed in his face when he suggested himself as a number two to Kendall because of a handwritten “Greg?” in Logan’s secret paperwork.

I am devastated at what my sweet boy has become.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: I’m sorry I wrote “naked leeching” earlier and put that potentially upsetting visual into your head

Colin

He’s wearing jeans now. It’s not ideal.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Knowing what to do with his hands and arms

Connor

Connor:

• Bought his father’s mansion from Marcia in a deal that was formalized with spit and a handshake instead of paperwork, which is hilarious but not legally binding and also the kind of thing that would end up screwing a dope like Connor eventually
• Getting shuffled out of rooms of the house he sort of owns by the younger siblings who hold more sway in the company and every social circle he’s in
• About to go on a honeymoon through various swing states as part of the doomed presidential campaign that is about to wrap up

I should be giving him a much worse grade. I don’t know. I’ve developed a soft spot for this doofus.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Negotiations

Stewy

He’s a slick little weasel and not someone I ever want to be in a room with but he might have been the person in that house who showed Kendall the most real compassion about… everything. Very conflicting. I still like him.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: I feel like it would be fun to see Stewy in a helicopter just once before this all ends, with the sunglasses and helmet and scarf and the whole shebang

Matsson

There are power moves and then there’s “have an extremely Swedish assistant answer the phone call from the children of a recently deceased business partner and then demand that those children fly across an ocean and come to you to settle a multibillion-dollar deal before their father is even buried because you are too busy with your corporate retreat.”

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: I really wish that phone call had been another video chat, if only to see Oskar’s face as he brushed them off

Various Karl, Franks, and Karolinas

ON ONE HAND: I could watch Frank and Karl do their little spineless power dance for hours at a time. I have joked a number of times about how much I would like to see a spinoff about their rise to power but, the more I joke about it, the more I actually want to see it. Same actors. We use makeup or CGI to make them look younger. Or we just leave them as-is and let two old men play young strivers in their early-30s. I do not care. Just make it happen.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Hugo is getting strong-armed by freaking Kendall, of all people, into doing dirty work on Logan’s reputation because his semi-estranged daughter used inside information to cash out of Waystar stock before Logan’s death was announced.

ON A THIRD HAND, WHICH WE ARE JUST GOING TO PRETEND EXISTS: Karl is so close to buying an island with his brother and I very much want that for him.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Hugo, if you mess this up for Karl, I swear to God…

Roman

Roman is now, against odds so long you could lasso the moon with them, co-CEO of the family business. That’s… incredible. Picture telling someone that this would happen back in… any of the previous seasons, really. And it’s actually, weirdly, almost deserved? Maybe. No one on this show deserves anything other than a swift kick in the shins, but as we’ve discussed every week this season, Roman has somehow grown into the most human and kind of these reptile people.

I mean, look at him comforting Kerry when no one else lifted a finger. Look at him berating — to the degree Roman berates anyone — Hugo and Karolina for the Bad Dad public relations pitch. To be sure, some of this is a product of being the baby and spending a lifetime spinning plates and making jokes to try to keep all the miserable people in his life happy, but still. Look at this guy.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: I don’t think pre-grieving is a thing

Kendall

Kendall:

• Catapulted to CEO despite trying to put his father in jail a few times, once in front of Congress
• Correctly identified that blackmailing Hugo into doing freelance dirty work is exactly what Logan would have done in a similar situation, which is… not a great lesson to have learned from a parent and maybe a troubling sign that Kendall is going to start cosplaying as Logan in his “temporary” new role
• Has a great grief guy

I’m only giving him this high of a grade because I can’t believe he finagled his way into the top seat. It’s going to ruin him in new and exciting ways, even for Kendall, but he did it.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: … not being a hopelessly broken little boy all the time?

Marcia

I missed her so much.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: I bet she could have squeezed an extra $10 million out of Connor on the house sale

Willa

The ink on her marriage certificate isn’t even dry yet and she’s already mentally knocking down walls in the mansion her dipshit new husband just sort of purchased in a saliva-sealed deal from the terrifying estranged wife of the man who would have been her father-in-law had he not died on an airplane while skipping her wedding.

Also, she stood up to Marcia a tiny bit with that little “we’re not so different” exchange where Marcia tried to put her down as a gold digger. Good for Willa.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Honeymoon destinations

Will Ferrell

One of the many good things about never skipping the credits is that, right there, every week, I get reminded that Will Ferrell has an executive producer credit on this show. Definitely take a minute this week and make sure more people know that. It’s a fun bit of trivia. I’m so happy for him.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Let him play the preacher at Logan’s funeral, just for me

Stephen Root, generally

I just want it noted somewhere that Stephen Root popped up in both this show and the season premiere of Barry last night, which is a kind of personal dominance of the primo HBO Sunday night programming block that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before. Good for him, man.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Let’s go ahead and digitally insert him into The Sopranos while we’re at it, maybe as a crooked FBI agent named, like, Rodney Orlando

Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery cemented its plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into some sort of super streaming app that it simply named Max. The rebrand did not go over well with subscribers, who were confused over why WB Discovery would ditch HBO, one of the strongest names in television. That sentiment was shared by Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, and he made sure to ding his parent company for the HBO slight.

“Our business daddy took its content purge up a notch and threw the whole HBO out,” Oliver quipped (via Deadline) in the opening moments of Sunday night’s episode.

Ever since Warner Bros. and Discovery merged back in Summer 2022, Oliver has not been quiet about the wild changes happening behind the scenes. Following the Batgirl fiasco, he rolled out the new nickname for Warner Bros. Discovery as he roasted the company for its streaming content purge that started almost as soon as the ink was dry.

“By the way, hi there, new business daddy!” Oliver said during an August 2022 episode. “Seems like you’re doing a really great job. I do get the vague sense that you’re burning down my network for the insurance money, but I’m sure that will all pass.”

It seems that it didn’t pass, since Warner Bros. Discovery is apparently running from the HBO branding instead of embracing it.

(Via Deadline)

House of the Dragon was notorious for its time jumps in season one, but season two will begin where the finale ended. “I’m excited to pick up where we left off,” showrunner Ryan Condal said at a Contenders TV event over the weekend (via Deadline). “Now we get to fall into the more traditional rhythms of storytelling and Game of Thrones.”

If there’s flashbacks so we can get more Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, that would be OK, too. Game of Thrones used them.

Condal said that the House of the Dragon creative team has “always talked about this particular tale, George [R.R. Martin] has too, of being a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy. This series is very much about a house tearing itself apart from within. Now that all those pieces have been set on the board, I’m really excited to tell the next chapter, to see what happens now that Viserys is gone and no longer keeping a lid on things.”

Speaking of Viserys, Paddy Considine was also at the event, and he expressed gratitude for his character’s arc. “The story was told,” he said. “I’m glad they didn’t drag Viserys out. The fact it was put into eight episodes, it just made his arc all that stronger.” Spoken like a true king.

House of the Dragon returns to HBO (and, uh, Max) in 2024.

(via Deadline

Last night (April 16), Frank Ocean took the Coachella stage as the first 2023 weekend’s closer. The consensus is that it did not go well (although there was talk of a new album, so that’s something). So, what did his set look like?

In total, there were 24 songs (as setlist.fm notes), but a significant portion of those came during a DJ Crystall Mess mini DJ set that was primarily Ocean remixes, not songs performed live. Beyond that, the set featured the live debuts of “Come On World, You Can’t Go!,” “Impietas / Deathwish (ASR),” “White Ferrari,” “Florida,” and “Godspeed.”

Check out the setlist below.

1. “Novacane” (new version)
2. “Come On World, You Can’t Go!”
3. “Crack Rock”
4. “Impietas / Deathwish (ASR)”
5. “Bad Religion”
6. “White Ferrari” (new version)
7. “Florida”
8. “Pink + White” (acoustic)
9. “Solo” (new version)
10. “Solo (Reprise)” *
11. “Chanel (Sango Remix)” *
12. “Lost (Jersey Club Remix)” *#
13. “Slide (Jersey Club Remix)” *#
14. “In Ha Mood” (Ice Spice song) *#
15. “Provider (Jersey Club Remix)” *#
16. “In My Room (Jersey Club Remix)” *#
17. “No Church In The Wild/Pyramids” (mashup) *#
18. “Godspeed”
19. “Wise Man” (new version)
20. “Night Life” (Aretha Franklin cover)
21. “Self Control” (acoustic)
22. “Nikes” *
23. “Nights (Mixed with Sango Remix)” *
24. “At Your Best (You Are Love)” (The Isley Brothers cover)

* played from tape, not performed live
# DJ Crystall Mess set

Frank Ocean did not livestream his headlining Coachella set last night, April 16, so you’re forgiven for not knowing what happened — and it was a lot. Ocean took the stage an hour later than expected, and outside of opening with “Novacane,” the shorter-than-expected performance was not one for the books, based on most reactions.

But there is some positive news. Sort of. Maybe.

“It’s been so long. Everybody talks about how long it’s been. It’s like, it’s been so long. It’s been so long. But I have missed you,” Ocean told the crowd. “I wanna talk about why I’m here because it’s not because of the new album. It’s because — not that there’s not a new album. But there’s not right now. Chill, chill, chill. It’s not right now. But, you know, these last couple years, life changed so much.”

Ocean’s last LP, Blonde, arrived in 2016. And by August 2020, Ocean’s 18-year-old brother, Ryan, died in a single car crash in Thousand Oaks, California (as reported by The Los Angeles Times at the time).

An update on Ocean’s productivity felt less importance once he mentioned Ryan in the second half of his speech to the audience.

He continued, “My brother and I, we came to this festival a lot. And I feel like I was dragged out here half the time because I hated the dust out. … I would avoid coming, [but] I would always end up here. One of my fondest memories was watching Rae Sreummurd — I don’t know what that stage is called, but watching Rae Sreummurd with my brother and Travis. We were just dancing in that tent to their music. I know he would have been so excited to be here with all of us, and I want to say thank you for the support and the ears and love over all this time. And I’m gonna get back to you soon.”

Netflix’s first live stand-up comedy special with Chris Rock was a raging success (emphasis on the “raging”) for everyone other than Jada Pinkett Smith and Will. Netflix’s planned live reunion for Season 4 of Love Is Blind, on the other hand, “did not turn out as we had planned,” according to a contrite tweet (which we’ll revisit soon) from the streamer.

Things got messy, alright, and yikes. Immediately before the planned Sunday live streaming event was due to launch, co-host Nick Lachey tweeted an enthused, “Who’s ready!?? #LoveIsBlindLIVE.”

This swiftly backfired when the scheduled airtime did not happen. A promised 15-minute delay then led to a longer wait, which turned into at least an hour. And that turned into the “Not Netflix” trend, which spread far and wide once it became apparent that the reunion would not make its advertised airtime.

As this happened, the Blockbuster social account took notice of Netflix’s original apology tweet when things began to go awry. Given that Netflix played a huge role in Blockbuster’s demise, they did not hesitate to cluck their virtual tongue: “Remember renting vhs’ from us. You could start it on time no problem… This is what we get.”

This was followed by a “solidarity, bro” from Redbox.

Not to mention a Little Fires Everywhere-themed reaction shot from Hulu.

The fiasco continued. As the tech troubles became apparent, the “Not Netflix” chorus duly began with viewers cracking jokes about “the true villain of season 4” and “the new Ticketmaster.” Ouch.

Finally, Netflix did air the reunion as a filmed version, and they apologized “[t]o everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon… we are incredibly sorry that the Love is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned.” Whew.

Just when Kendall thought he was out, a piece of paper pulled him back in.

In Sunday’s episode of Succession, “Honeymoon States,” Kendall and Roman become the new co-CEOs of Waystar Royco (poor Shiv, who has a lot of other stuff going on, too). How did Kendall go from suing his now-dead dad to replacing him? Logan kept a piece of paper in a private safe with some of his “wishes and disbursements,” including that his oldest son not named Connor take over CEO. Kendall’s name is even underlined. Or was it crossed out?

“What I love about the writing is, it’s left for the reader to interpret,” J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, said about the underlined vs. crossed out debate in a post-episode featurette. “To Kendall, it looks like, ‘Definitely, he meant for me to take over.’ To someone else, it looks like a grocery list that [Logan] has half struck through.” Jeremy Strong (Kendall) added, “I don’t even think it’s Kendall saying, I’m going to take the lead here. I think it’s Kendall saying, Let’s call this what it is. I am the lead here.”

Which team are you on: crossed out or underlined? (Underlined.)

Crossed Out

Underlined

The Real Winner of the Episode

The Other Real Winner of the Episode

I’d like to read the entire sheet of paper. So would Kerry. I’m sure there’s something on there about her and Logan getting married. Yup. Definitely.

Yesterday (April 16), Frank Ocean headlined the final day of Coachella’s first weekend. It was a highly anticipated performance, but for a number of reasons, it did not go well at all. One attendee summarized, “I’ve never seen so many people walk out of a show so upset and confused. The amount of anticipation for this was extremely high, and I don’t think anyone was satisfied. Not even the diehard fans.”

If there was one silver lining to be had, though, it was that Ocean spoke about his next album.

At one point during the set, he took a couple minutes to give a short speech, which he started, “It’s been so long, but I have missed you. I want to talk about why I’m here, because it’s not because of a new album. It’s because… not that there’s not a new album, just like… but there’s not right now.”

A new album would certainly be a big deal, as Ocean hasn’t released one since 2016’s Blonde, which topped the charts and was one of the year’s most acclaimed projects.

Back to Ocean’s speech: He went on to speak about how his life “changed so much” over the past few years following the 2020 death of his brother, Ryan Breaux, and about how much Coachella meant to them both and the memories he had of attending the fest with Breaux. He also thanked fans for their support over the years before resuming his set.

Per setlist.fm, Frank Ocean performed at Finland’s Flow Festival in August 2017. Until this weekend, that was his most recent live show, but now, nearly six years later, Ocean returned to the stage yesterday (April 16) to headline Coachella. It… did not go well.

Even before Ocean took the stage, things weren’t looking good. It was revealed that his performance would not be livestreamed online, unlike the majority of other Coachella sets this year. Then, Ocean only started performing an hour after his set was supposed to begin, meaning he only ended up starting the show at around 11 p.m. PT. Given that, as the Coachella website notes, there was a midnight venue curfew on Sunday, Ocean’s set ended up having to be cut short. As setlist.fm notes, the set features 14 actual performances and a lot of other pre-recorded songs, mostly remixes, played over the speakers.

As for when the show was actually going on, people weren’t happy. Rolling Stone‘s Tomás Mier summarized his take on the situation, tweeting, “No, I didn’t enjoy Frank Ocean’s set. It was confusing. It was odd. it was not a Coachella headliner-worthy performance. I didn’t understand it. Maybe it wasn’t made for me to understand. Idk. I have more questions than I do answers. I’ve never seen so many people walk out of a show so upset and confused. The amount of anticipation for this was extremely high, and I don’t think anyone was satisfied. Not even the diehard fans. (And if you weren’t there… don’t talk lol.)

Check out some more reactions below.