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Cardi B has always been open about her thoughts, even when they turn out to be controversial. Sometimes, that means defending herself when her words are used against her, as she did on Instagram, addressing her criminal past of “drugging and robbing” strip club customers following her tweets responding to a news item involving some questionable behavior on the part of the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan spiritual issued an apology to a young boy’s family that showed him kissing the boy and allegedly telling him to suck his tongue. Cardi B seemingly responded to the news by tweeting a warning that “this world is full of predators.” In it, she gave some advice to parents: “Constantly talk with your kids about boundaries and what they shouldn’t allow people to do to them.”

However, after she tweeted this and the story was picked up by Instagram gossip accounts, the comments were apparently riddled with users cutting her down for admitting to robbing drugged men when she worked at a New York strip club years ago (a la the Jennifer Lopez film Hustlers — which Cardi also had a cameo in).

Cardi went Live on Instagram to address the commentary, pointing out the difference between sneaking cash from sleazy customers and urging small children to commit inappropriate acts. “Y’all not gonna keep doing this,” she said. “For y’all to said that I’m some predator… because n****s wanted to buy some p*ssy from me? … These weren’t no vulnerable men… Did I touch their body?… No. Robbing and raping is two different type of sh*ts.”

She also shot down people calling her “the wrong messenger,” due to her experiences with motherhood and being abused as a teen. Meanwhile, over on Twitter, Cardi offered her final thoughts on the subject: “Wow all this support I’m getting at the same time is beautiful. It was deep in my heart to talk about this cause me & my friend was talkin last night & then the dalai lama thing happen this morning …Thank you everyone..I just have to realize the people attacking me are just projecting.”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Netflix’s The Night Agent took off so quickly after its March 23 release date that the effect is almost dizzying. In short order, the series hit people’s queues and started rising towards the Top 10 English-speaking series list, where it should soon join the likes of Wednesday, Dahmer, and Stranger Things. So of course, fans quickly wondered if Netflix would renew the show, and somehow, those hopes have already been answered.

Yes, The Night Agent has been renewed for a second season. The Gabriel Basso-starring spy series (with a side of romance) therefore managed to buck the current trend of Netflix hanging back for awhile to make sure shows are sure things before opening the production wallet for more. So, we’ll get to see more of the story based upon Matthew Quirk’s bestselling book, and this goes to show that espionage will never get old for viewers. Heck, all of those Tom Cruise movies prove as much.

As well, the streaming services have never stopped cranking spy-involved shows out with Jack Ryan and Slow Horses landing among other recent successes. As far as timing goes, it’s far too soon to predict a landing date for more of The Night Agent, but Basso recently sat down with Collider (before the renewal news) to discuss how his character, Peter Sutherland, will handle his increased confidence in the next round:

“Yeah, he was thrown in above his head, and he had to look to Rose and all these other people to help him out. But I think if there was a Season 2, his MO would almost shift completely because he’d now be a Night Agent. I’d have to talk to Shawn about what that mission would be. I’m sure it all depends on the context of where you’d see him next, but I’m sure his training would shift from, “I’m an FBI agent,” to killing people. Whatever he’s being asked to do, I’m sure the emphasis would shift and the goal would shift, significantly. He’d probably feel a little out of his depth again.

Hopefully, this one is fast tracked, and fans will see more concrete plans soon.

(Via Collider)

SPOILERS from this week’s Succession will be found below.

Save for a last bit of psychological warfare with Roman and a few obscured body parts as his character lay dying, we barely got any Brian Cox magic last night as we bid adieu to Logan Roy on Succession. Weird as it is to say, it might be the first time in history that less Brian Cox was the right decision in a show or movie. But series creator and episode writer Jesse Armstrong and director Mark Mylod knew exactly what they were doing — they were turning their toxic nepobabies into relatable and sympathy-worthy characters.

While Logan will return for a couple of flashback scenes, as Cox confirmed to Vulture, we know that his active presence on the show is basically complete and that he will be missed in ways that are hard to comprehend right now as we face a stretch run that could get quite ugly without him at the center.

Logan was intimidating, ferocious, frustrating, enthralling, dryly comedic, and even vulnerable on rare occasions. Brian Cox gave us a maximum performance that’ll be studied among the best in TV history. But following that tour de force last week with his seeming renewed vigor and his meager efforts to tie up loose ends on the family side before showing a peek of heart with his bodyguard/pal, what more was there to say?

How do you top this?

Or this?

Sure, Armstrong could have flipped Cox another slab of red meat to tear into with a big attention grabber of a death scene that would have overshadowed everything else with its actorly brilliance, but he and Mylod wanted to avoid cliches (as Mylod confirmed on the Succession podcast). They also wanted to put the audience and the Roy kids on the same footing during the chaos of that 28-page one-shot scene as the kids speedily ran through the stages of grief, their poses from the karaoke bar and smugness shattered with the hammer of hopelessness and loss.

This season began with Shiv, Roman, and Kendall perched in a luxurious lair, toying with the idea of a new media company like the bored Gods that they are. For all of their endearing ridiculousness, the power of the show’s amazing writing and tremendous acting, and the real trauma of being raised and crushed by Logan and his toxic demands and actions, the kids are, at their core, rotten. They’re entitled brats. But last night, none of their power or money made a bit of difference as they sat all alone on a crowded superyacht. And seeing them reckon with those limitations mattered because we all feel that way and all confront our limitations in that moment.

“No, I can’t have that.” – Shiv Roy

This show about billionaires tugged on a relatable thread, recreating the nightmare that is being caught in the moment between finding out a loved one is likely and definitely gone, especially when that nightmare happens from a world away with only the hollow substitute of technology to act as a bridge. Something many of us have had to deal with.

“My dad is dead and now I feel old.” – Connor Roy

Death is sudden even when it isn’t. It’s messy, destabilizing, and forces people to confront their own mortality and call upon instinct even when they spend their lives trying to suppress it. Note the reflexive “I love yous” and Kendall standing firm in his conviction to not forgive while also, basically undercutting that same statement in his own farewell call. Look at Connor, falling into the habits formed by a lifetime of self-blame, missing the latest instance of his siblings treating him like an afterthought while costing him the chance to say goodbye to his father.

It would have been interesting to see Brian Cox get to play being on the other end of those calls, reckoning with the end and what it meant for his character’s relationship with his children. Same as it would have been powerful to see Logan bowed, pale and panicked while brought to the gates of his own mortality with all the fear and questions that brings. But we’ve seen those things before across the expanse of this amazing show, or at least moments that conjured those same feelings. How many times do we need to see the magic trick to be sufficiently amazed?

We haven’t seen the Roy kids this helpless, this shaken, this human before. I’m at a loss trying to think of another show that has ever delved into grief so intensely in such a concentrated dose before. That one-shot scene is as jaw-dropping as it was uncomfortable and resets this show in a way, challenging Kendall, Shiv, Roman, and Connor to react to and be changed by this in ways that are sure to be compelling, wrongheaded, possibly ruinous, or maybe profound.

Last night, Succession stopped being about the giant that was Logan Roy. Next week, it’ll be about the world without him and how sycophants scatter and scrape as industries, governments, and economies move on. The kids will be front and center, for better or worse. But for a pocket of time last night it was about the loss of a father – a surprising reminder that all these treasures, rivalries, and games are utterly meaningless in the end.

The Super Mario Bros Movie hit theaters last week, but you are probably hoping to watch Bowser serenade Princess Peach in the comfort of your own home, and who could blame you? Luckily, you can watch that music video right now, here.

But if you want to watch the full movie (what a concept!) you’ll have to wait a little bit longer unless you want to take the rainbow road back to the theaters. Nobody would blame you for that, though.

While the movie is currently available for pre-order on various VOD sites, the official release online date hasn’t been announced yet. This, in part, has to do with the fact that the movie is currently dominating theaters around the country, so we will likely have to wait a bit longer.

Thanks to a Universal deal, the movie should end up on Peacock at some point soon. In the past, Illumination films like Minions and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish hit Peacock about 80 days after their initial release, meaning that we can expect Mario to hit the small screen around June. On the other hand, other movies like M3gan and A Knock At The Cabin were streaming just six weeks after the movie’s initial release, so it really depends on how much longer people will pay to see Mario will reign out there.

It doesn’t stop there! After sitting on Peacock for four months, Mario will make his journey over to Netflix, thanks to another deal Universal cooked up in 2021. That will likely happen sometime this fall, just in time for you to don Princess Peach’s racing outfit for Halloween.

(Via Collider)

Rocket Raccoon. You know him, you love him. But can I interest you in Blurp?

The four-eyed brown alien appears midway through the latest trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and while I know absolutely nothing about him, I would pay $100 for a Blurp plush at Disneyland. Maybe even $150 if he’s holding hands (paws?) with a Lady Lylla.

“Probably the most important character to the Marvel Universe going forward is Blurp,” Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn joked to Empire. Please, Mr. Gunn, this is no laughing matter.

Blurp, who belongs to one of the Ravagers in Vol. 3, is “what’s known as a furry F’saki,” he continued. “In the very first movie, if you remember, there was that Orloni table that they were betting on, with that beast that was eating the animals. The bigger thing was eating the smaller things. That thing was a non-furry F’saki. Blurp is a furry F’saki. So that’s what he is. He’s a pet.”

Blurp is more than that. He is the moment. He’s also “a great character and offers a lot to the Guardians universe,” Gunn added. Your time is up, Groot.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens on May 5th.

(Via Empire)

John Oliver may have recently dragged Dick Wolf’s Law & Order shows for their unrealistically swift portrayals of justice, but that sure hasn’t stopped viewers from tuning into the franchise’s current three shows on the NBC airwaves. Law & Order: SVU leads the way with a total of 24 seasons (and more to come with both Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T) under its belt, and the original series is not too far behind after its recent revival. Then there’s Law and Order: Organized Crime, which has been cranking through its third season with plenty of Chris Meloni yet not enough octopus to go around.

All three shows have now officially been renewed for even more neatly tied-up yet vital stories on NBC. As Variety reports, 22 new episodes of both Law & Order and SVU are on the way with 13 more for Organized Crime. This isn’t surprising news, of course. This franchise has been the network’s prime-time bread and butter for decades, and Dick Wolf must see no reason to ever end this journey. Hargitay shared a statement with Variety:

“All of us at ‘SVU’ feel honored to be able to continue telling these essential stories… While we have seen significant changes in our culture, injustice persists and too many voices still go unheard. That cause is as much mine as it is Olivia Benson’s, and I gather strength from knowing that the longest-running drama series on television is one that elevates women’s stories, and the stories of those in our society who have been marginalized and harmed. To know that I get to be a part of someone’s experience of feeling less alone, less isolated, more in community, more connected, that is the true privilege and gift.”

Make no mistake, Hargitay walks the walk. She launched the Joyful Heart Foundation, which is designed to help society change the conversation around sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. She has also made a series of PSAs aimed towards raising awareness of the backlog in rape-kit processing across the U.S. And as Detective Olivia Benson, she continues to spread that same awareness across the airwaves.

(Via Variety)

If you’re planning a trip to Europe in 2023, you’re likely going to hit up the usual tourism suspects — the flea markets of East London, Berlin’s never-ending nightclubs, ancient Roman ruins, and so forth. In between all that site-seeing, you’re going to need a drink or three. Luckily, you’ll already be in Europe where a great brewery and beer are never too far away.

Finding a good beer in most corners of Europe is often simply a matter of following the locals, doing some research, and asking some experts for guidance. After all, you don’t want to waste your time or money on cheap, pissy beer on your vacation in Europe. Right?!

To help you find the coolest breweries to visit, we went to the experts for help. We asked a handful of well-known brewers, beer professionals, and craft beer experts to tell us the European breweries you need to visit in 2023. Keep scrolling to see these monuments to beer that rival any leaning tower you’d want to stand near and pretend your holding for a novelty photograph you’ll never look at again.

Big Mountain Brewing Co. in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France — Charlotte Herndon, taproom and events Manager at Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing

The Brewery:

Big Mountain Brewing Co. is a must-visit brewery. It’s located in the Chamonix region of France, and regardless of the season the mountains and environment have so much to offer in terms of your experience. Mont Blanc is a premier skiing location and home to the world’s first Winter Olympics which really makes the location something special.

What To Drink:

The brewery has a great selection of IPAs spanning a wide range of percentages, including a 1.8% micro which is great as a post-hike refresher. The brand focuses on sustainability as well, which is very important in such a location and industry that taps into the environment.

Kellerwald Forchheim in Forchheim, Germany — Ryan Pachmayer, head brewer at Yak & Yeti Brewpub and Restaurant

The Brewery:

In Germany, I would really suggest visiting the Kellerwald in Forchheim. It’s about a 20-minute train ride south of Bamberg, and around two hours north of Munich. There are over twenty beer “kellers” (real underground beer lagers) dug into the hillside with over a dozen individual breweries represented. If you don’t go during summer’s Annafest, where all the breweries are represented, you may only get to experience a handful of these breweries during the warm season, but the atmosphere is second to none.

What To Drink:

They bill it as the world’s largest beer garden, and whether or not that is true, it is a special place to experience and drink the beer. If you’re there at a particularly slow time, ask for a tour of a keller. They don’t all connect to each other anymore, but in my experience, the hosts are plenty eager to show off these historic tunnels. The quality of beer will vary considerably here, so either do some research or just go in looking for beer from a smaller, local producer, such as Eichhorn. The larger Löwenbräu is also quite good.

Klosterbrauerei Andechs in Andechs, Germany — John Trogner, brewmaster and co-founder at Tröegs Independent Brewing

The Brewery:

Back in the very early days of Tröegs, my brother and I each trekked across Germany, hitting small breweries and pubs in regions known for specific beer styles. About an hour southwest of Munich is Andechs, a monastic brewery at the top of a mountain that’s been around for more than 500 years.

What To Drink:

The view from the beer garden was amazing and the beers were life-changing, but the one that stood out to us was a doppelbock. We were shocked that a beer could be so strong yet still be delicate and complex. Soon after we got home, Troegenator started taking shape. It’s the beer that built our brewery and it exists because of our experience at Andechs.

Tiny Rebel Brewery in Newport, Wales — Josh Bartlett at Learning to Homebrew

The Brewery:

If you find yourself on the other side of the pond in the United Kingdom, you should pop over to South Wales and visit the flagship location of Tiny Rebel Brewery. A positively brand-new bar by European standards (eight years ago to be precise), Tiny Rebel has won countless national awards not only for their beer but also their food and overall bar atmosphere. Head in for a pint and bring home one of their amazing souvenirs.

What To Drink:

If you visit Tiny Rebel, you’ll probably want to try everything (and you should). But you absolutely must try their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and Cream Stout. Other great choices include their take on the English IPA as well as a tropical fruit-filled IPA called CLWB Tropica.

Schlenkerla in Bamberg, Germany — Phil Markowski, brewmaster at Two Roads Brewing

The Brewery:

In many beer aficionados’ minds, Bamberg is all about rauchbier, or smoked beer. There is a lot of truth to that but that’s by no means the full story. The best known is Schlenkerla, in part because they export and because they’ve been around a long time. The brewery bierstube (tavern) in the center of town is a classic place.

What To Drink:

Their rauchbier is arguably the most assertive. Dark, highly smoked with more than a hint of bacon-like aromatics and flavor. But, if you prefer your beer less smoky, Schlenkerla also brews other beers including a doppelbock and a lightly smoky helles lager.

Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium — Bryan Donaldson, brewing innovation manager at Lagunitas Brewing Company

The Brewery:

This one won’t be controversial, but Brasserie Cantillon (aka Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze) can’t be missed. The amount of history in that building is truly amazing. While gueuze is somewhat of a niche style, every fan of beer should be aware of what it is and how it is made because it shows a bit of the path to where we are today. Depending on when you visit and what is being harvested, you are likely to see a group of people sitting around cutting up fruit for one of the beers.

What To Drink:

A brief tour leads you to the tasting room (though you can skip the tour) where you can sample a number of beers or buy bottles to share (and share you should). On your way out the door, be sure to pick up some bottles for your cellar. If you are lucky, they will have a special release that day. I won’t stress a “best beer” because, honestly, they are all delicious — as long as you enjoy a good sour.

Herzoglich Barfishes Brauhaus Tegernsee in Tegernsee, Germany — Parker Penley, lead innovation brewer at Widmer Brothers

The Brewery:

Herzoglich Bayerisches Brauhaus Tegernsee is an incredible brewery on a lake right outside of Munich. Head out of the main city and try some beautiful Bavarian beer. Like many European breweries, this one’s history can be traced back to monks. While some claim that brewing was happening as early as 1050, official documents list it around 1675.

What To Drink:

They also just happen to make one of my favorite helles. Bready malts, yeast, herbal, floral hops, and totally crushable. This beer alone is worth a trip to the brewery. Not to mention all the other great beers made by this iconic brewery.

Warpigs Brewpub Mickkeller Brewing Company in Copenhagen, Denmark — Christopher Osburn, Uproxx

The Brewery:

This now world-renowned craft brewing company was founded by a former teacher named Mikkel Borg Bjergsø in 2006. It began as a bit of a nomad brand, collaborating with other breweries. Now, the company has multiple different breweries and brewpubs throughout the world, but its heart is in Copenhagen. This is where Warpigs Brewpub is located.

What To Drink:

It’s a place to eat Texas-style barbecue and enjoy IPAs, stouts, a rotation of locally made beers, and guest taps. It’s as close to beer paradise as you can get. It helps that Copenhagen is a pretty exciting city anyway.

As a hardcore fan of Coca-Cola, I have to admit that I’m loving the Coca-Cola Creations line. For the uninitiated, Coca-Cola Creations is a fairly new subsection of the brand that brings a steady stream of brand-new flavors and celebrity collaborations to the soda space. Now, I’m not one to be charmed by celebrity endorsements, I could care less what a celebrity likes, but a new flavor of soda? Bring it on.

So far Coca-Cola Creations has given us a collaboration with DJ and electronic producer Marshmello, which ironically wasn’t a marshmallow-flavored soda but a mix of strawberry and watermelon. Next came a flavor called Starlight, which came across as a mint cola. Another was called Dreamworld, which is a “Dream Flavored” soda that was inspired by M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali (unfortunately, it did not get you high). And yet another was called Byte and was a flavor inspired by pixels. Yes, pixels.

Now Coca-Cola has teamed up with multi-Grammy award-winning artist Rosalía for Coca-Cola Move, a flavor inspired by transformation.

What does “transformation” taste like? Does it taste like a “dream”? Will it ironically taste like marshmallows? We found out by grabbing both Coca-Cola Move and Coca-Cola Move Zero to give you the full rundown on this new flavor.

Coca-Cola Move/Move Zero

The Concept:

Before we dive into the flavor, let’s talk about the concept. From the outside, Coca-Cola Move sounds pretty f*cking random. If you’re a Rosalía fan (she was my most listened-to artist of 2022), it all ties in perfectly with her excellent 2022 album Motomami. Motomami is largely an album about transformation, both lyrically and visually with mariposa (butterfly) imagery. Sonically, Rosalía takes the familiar sounds of Latin music and deconstructs it via Virgil Abloh style, thereby transforming it into something that sounds radically brand new.

So as basic as “Move” sounds as a flavor, it’s meant to evoke the same sort of sensation you get from listening to Motomami. This is dope because instead of it being a random and empty celebrity team-up (what the hell does Marshmello have to do with strawberry and watermelon flavored soda?), it seems like Rosalía actually put some thought into the concept around Move. From a flavor perspective, it sort of works.

Tasting Notes:

Move has a shifting and evolving flavor. It hits the palate with sweetened coconut notes before transitioning into cotton candy flavors and a hint of freaking marshmallows. As the name suggests, this flavor is always moving across the palate, offering up something new with each taste. There’s a certain spring vibe to this flavor, which ties into the butterfly imagery used on Motomami, but it still has that distinct chocolate and cinnamon flavor you’d associate with Coca-Cola.

The soda has a nice strong fizz but lacks that characteristic bite that Coca-Cola is known for. It’s a lot softer on the throat and the flavor lingers on the tongue like Cherry Coke.

The Zero version of the flavor tastes very similar, but it has even darker notes and comes across as a bit sweeter despite having no sugar. I prefer the full sugar version easily. But if you’re a Coke Zero drinker, the sugarless version is likely more up your alley.

The Bottom Line:

Unfortunately, as cool as I think this soda is from a conceptual standpoint, I don’t know that I need a coconut, cotton candy, marshmallow-flavored soda. Coca-Cola Move is interesting, and as a soda drinker, I appreciate that it’s a unique flavor that doesn’t exist anywhere else. For that reason alone, it’s worth seeking out. But at the end of the day, I rather just have a classic Coke.

Buy Coca-Cola Move and Move Zero.

While some members of the GOP might talk a big game about moving away from Donald Trump and embracing potential presidential candidates like Ron DeSantis, make no mistake: Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party. Case in point, the former president has routinely floated the idea of bombing Mexico, and he’s reportedly making it a key campaign promise.

“‘Attacking Mexico,’ or whatever you’d like to call it, is something that President Trump has said he wants ‘battle plans’ drawn for,” a source recently told Rolling Stone. “He’s complained about missed opportunities of his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second Trump presidency.”

Crazy stuff, right? Apparently not for the GOP. Some Republican politicians are actually trying to make Trump’s harebrained scheme happen by literally starting a war with Mexico. Via Politico:

Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he is open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target drug lords even without that nation’s permission. And lawmakers in both chambers have filed legislation to label some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move supported by GOP presidential aspirants.

Meanwhile, America continues to be plagued by mass shootings. What’s the GOP response to that? “We’re not gonna fix it.” (Nothing we can do about it?)

Bombing Mexico, however, that’s totally gonna work. What could go wrong?

(Via Politico)

A new Hulu documentary has social media losing its mind. Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told will focus on the HBCU picnic that exploded into a no-holds-barred, street party event in Atlanta during the 1990s. Just the mere mention that footage from the event might make it onto TV screens has older Freaknik attendees concerned about what kind of debauchery their relatives might see.

One “Freaknik auntie” already went viral with her understandably worried reaction to the Hulu doc below:

However, Freaknik’s popularity quickly became its downfall as citizen groups in Atlanta began condemning the event, which had grown considerably out of control after transforming from a modest picnic to a full-on rager. Via Complex:

By the late-1990s, Freaknik had sparked criticism from various groups, including the Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break, which called on the local community to no longer embrace the festival.

“We cannot support events that bring lewd activities, sexual assaults, violence against women and public safety concerns; firetrucks not being able to reach victims, and ambulances not being able to reach hospitals in a timely manner,″ the committee told the Associated Press in 1998.

Regardless of the controversy, Twitter began having a field day at the thought of people seeing what their parents and relatives were up to during their younger years. You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Complex)