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The Rundown: The Characters On ‘Succession’ Simply Will Not Stop Wearing Plain Black Hats

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 – This is a fashion blog now

Succession is a show about power. Power in business and power in relationships and the way one wields that power to get what one wants, whether it’s by strong-arming someone weaker or flattering someone stronger and using it all to achieve your almost exclusively personal and selfish ends, collateral damage be damned. It is a show about manipulation and domination and crushing your enemies and even your friends if their interests do not align with your own at the moment. It is, to be sure, all of that. But it is also a show about hats.

Bad hats, specifically. Weird plain black ones that have no logos or markings on them. Hats that you almost never see a person wear on the street in real life. They love these hats. They wear them all the time. Especially Logan, the patriarch played by Brian Cox, and Kendall, the doofus failson played by Jeremy Strong. I am not the first person to notice these hats. Everyone notices the hats. But I am the one writing this paragraph, so let’s press on.

Here is Kendall in one of the stupid hats.

HAT
HBO

Here is Logan in one of the stupid hats.

HAT
HBO

It is, to put a reasonably fine point on it all, a whole thing. And it’s something you can’t stop noticing once you notice it the first time, or once some stupid guy on the internet brings it to your attention. (Sorry.) (Kind of.) They look like hats you would wear to try to go undercover or blend in but would result in someone looking at you and your weird black hat and being like “that guy over there in the weird plain black hat sure looks suspicious.” They look like hats you would wear to scope out a bank you plan to rob the next day. They look like hats a creep would wear in a live-action kids’ movie. They’re not good hats.

And guess what: They’re back. The first teaser trailer for the upcoming fourth season dropped this week, and if you were wondering how long it would take for someone on the show to pop up in a plain back hat, you got your answer pretty fast. Like, right away. Because this was pretty much the first shot of that sucker.

HAT
HBO

And then moments later, Kendall and his siblings were shown striding across the runway of a private little airport and, yes, there he is in his weird spy hat.

HAT
HBO

It’s important to note here that other stuff happens in the teaser. Lots of it. The last season ended in chaos with the family splintering and various members declaring war on each other and my sweet boy Cousin Greg getting yoinked around by everyone like a gangly little ragdoll. This teaser… well, teases how that’s all going to go down. I’m legitimately very excited to see how it all plays out when it comes back.

But… I mean, come on. How can I be expected to focus on any of that when Kendall has on his stupid plain black hat and is doing whatever the heck he thinks he’s doing here?

HAT
HBO

Three notes in conclusion:

  • It is my position that Kendall wears the plain black hats because he has seen Logan wearing them and he is so desperate to be respected by/like his father that he has adopted this aspect of his personal style either by choice or subconsciously
  • I hope they introduce a charismatic and powerful new character this season who wears plain unmarked hats that are bright red, if for no other reason than to see if Kendall starts wearing plain red hats, too
  • Hats

Thank you.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – Shoutout to Lloyd Morrisett

Lloyd Morrisett passed away this week. There’s a decent chance that name doesn’t set off any bells in your head. But even if you weren’t familiar with the man, you definitely knew his work. Lloyd Morrisett is widely recognized as being the driving force behind making Sesame Street, like, a thing. He was a psychologist who worked for a big-money non-profit and he went to a dinner party in 1966 and basically pitched the framework of the show to a producer of public television named Joan Ganz Cooney. His idea went something like this: Kids can memorize crappy ad jingles when they’re fun and set to music, so why can’t we do that with stuff that actually promotes education and other useful stuff? Lloyd was a smart dude.

“I said at one point in the conversation, ‘Joan, do you think television can be used to teach young children?’” he said in an interview on “BackStory,” a podcast about history, in 2019, “and her answer was, ‘I don’t know, but I’d like to talk about it.’”

The idea was intriguing enough for Mr. Morrisett, along with Ms. Ganz Cooney, then a producer of public affairs television programming, and others to begin brainstorming about creating a program for preschoolers, particularly poor children who were likely to fall behind in the early grades, that would educate and amuse them.

Even if that’s all he did, it would have been something. That’s… it’s a really good idea. Especially for the 1960s, when half of the ads on television were for cigarettes. But that wasn’t enough for Lloyd. This guy had the follow-through. He and Joan Ganz Cooney saw this sucker through with a combination of fundraising and savvy political maneuvering.

At Mr. Morrisett’s request, and with money from the Carnegie Corporation, Ms. Ganz Cooney traveled the country interviewing educators, animators, puppeteers, psychologists, filmmakers and television producers to produce a study, “The Potential Uses of Television for Pre-School Education.” That study became the blueprint for “Sesame Street.”

This is really cool. What a legacy. Think about this the next time you’re having dinner with your friends. Some crazy idea one of you has might end up changing the freaking world. I say “you” and “your friends” here because me and my bozo cronies are usually just talking about various ways the Philadelphia Eagles have brought us joy and/or wronged us. We can’t leave this one up to me.

There was probably a better video to put at the top of this section than the one of Elmo freaking out on his nemesis Rocco. I don’t know. I really like it. Even today. As a fully grown adult. So… there it is. Thank you to Lloyd for that, too.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – Good show doing special episode

We have discussed Harley Quinn a few times now. There’s a simple reason for that: It is so good. It’s an adult animated series on HBO Max that takes everything you know about the world of Batman and smashes it in the face with a pie. Harley and Poison Ivy are a couple. Joker ran for mayor on a platform somewhere to the left of socialism. Bane is a big dumb idiot and I love him a lot. It’s a good show.

This is the teaser for its upcoming Valentine’s Day special. I watched the screener for this thing earlier in the week and I feel confident telling you that it is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen, which I mean as the highest compliment I know how to give. I really need everyone to watch this just to see the journey Bane goes on. Watch the rest of the show, too, if you haven’t. There are three seasons so far. You can bang through the whole thing in a week or two if you commit a little bit. You will not regret it. Jim Gordon and his Bat Signal bits have taken up residence in my brain in a way very few things from very few comedies have. I know I post these screencaps every time I mention the show but I’m going to do it again anyway.

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HBO MAX
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HBO MAX
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HBO MAX
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HBO MAX

I feel great about it.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR – More like craptocurrency, in my opinion

Cryptocurrency never made sense to me. It always seemed like this weird nebulous concept that people got really excited about for… like, reasons? I tried to wrap my head around it a few times. I’m a reasonably bright dude. I have a law degree in a closet around here somewhere that has about an inch of dust on it, which I realize as I say it does not do a great job of making my case that I’m a reasonably smart guy. For a couple reasons. But whatever. I’m not the one on trial here. Cryptocurrency is.

Which brings me to this clip of Bomani Jones on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Bomani Jones is one of those guys who is so smart and good with words that he can make weird nebulous confusing stuff sound simple. That’s what he’s doing here. He’s explaining cryptocurrency through the lens of its sudden flooding of the sports world via endorsements and naming rights and all of it. Watch it now. It’s maybe the best explanation of the whole thing I’ve ever seen. It makes it all seem so obvious now. Which it probably should have been all along. And he uses the word “dorks,” which more people should do while discussing boring economic principles.

Very useful and informative. I know I just said this is a fashion blog now but it is also educational. A blog can be two things.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – THIS IS IMPORTANT

money
QUIVER

So here’s what happened.

I saw this tweet earlier in the week…

… and it changed my entire life. Look at that cast list. Look at the character names. Look at, like, all of it. It’s incredible. It was one of those things where I simultaneously needed to know everything about it at once and nothing else about it ever. Real risky situation. Because there was a chance of more gold being out there for me to find with a little sifting… but there was also the chance I could ruin something perfect by researching the fun out of it. That happens to me sometimes. I get too excited and I start clicking and everything goes to hell. A dilemma.

But I pressed on and I am glad I did because I saw this entire paragraph on the Wikipedia for the game.

In May 2002, The Starlight Children’s Foundation, chaired by Steven Spielberg and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf announced the educational CD-Rom. It was developed using input of an advisory team of national pediatric asthma experts. The making, funding and distribution of “Quest” was assisted by Home Shopping Network, Technicolor, Ivy Hill Corp., ImagEngine Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline, and it was described as “widely distributed”. It was made available for free at the National Library of Medicine’s Virtual Asthma Exhibit. In November 2002, the developers received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) adolescent and school health program, allowing them to distribute the game to school nurses at more than 30,000 elementary, middle and high schools free of charge. Due to a grant from The California Endowment, the game was included in a distributed Asthma Tool Kit. In 2007, Starlight converted the game to a web-based platform.

Steven Spielberg and Norman Schwarzkopf teamed up in 2002 to make a CD-ROM game about asthma and they got Shaquille O’Neal and Kelsey Grammer to voice characters in it. This is… it’s remarkable. I’m kind of speechless here. I’m also kind of angry that I did not know about it until now. How did I not know about this until now? Where was I the last 20 years? Where were all of you? Why didn’t any of you tell me about this? Why isn’t this the only thing you told me about? Why isn’t it a live-action movie that was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred this exact cast? I’m so mad at everyone now.

This is what I mean about ruining something by researching it. I went and made myself furious. Jesus Christ.

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 Pete:

I have two questions about Poker Face that I need you to answer. The first: Did you create this show in a laboratory? The second: Assuming you did, how long until the Muppets show up?

Pete, this is a good email. Partially, because it allows me to link to my review again and partially because it allows me to link to my thing about how I want the Muppets to be in the next Knives Out. To be clear, though: I did not create it in a lab, even if “the Knives Out guy made a mystery of the week show where Natasha Lyonne plays a hard-drinking Columbo with a 100 percent accurate lie detector for a brain,” sounds like a thing I would make in a lab. You can tell because the Muppets would have already been in it. I wouldn’t risk wasting time like that. Too much can happen. You need to do the important things first.

It also lets me direct everyone to this thing Rian Johnson said about Natasha Lyonne’s cameo as herself in Glass Onion during an interview with Screenrant:

Well, you want to hear a twisted web? Try and untangle this. She is Natasha in that she’s in her trailer on the set of Poker Face. If you look at her background, it’s her trailer. She’s in between takes when we’re shooting Poker Face. I just said, “Get on the Zoom real quick and do it.”

So, I have no idea how you untangle that. I guess in the Glass Onion universe, Poker Face is a show that’s being shot. I’ll have an episode of Poker Face on the background in the next Benoit Blanc mystery, maybe.

I love all of this very much.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Hawaii!

One of the world’s most prestigious and storied surfing contests — dubbed the “Super Bowl of Surfing” — went forward Sunday in Hawaii for the first time in seven years with towering wave faces and a gigantic swell that was expected to grow throughout the day.

I need to be clear about two things here:

  • The fact that I am disabled and used a power wheelchair is about fourth or fifth on the list of reasons that I did not enter this big-wave surfing contest
  • You have to stick around to see where this goes

Moving on.

The event — alternatively known simply as The Eddie — is a one-day contest held in Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore only when the surf is consistently large enough during the winter big-wave surfing season from mid-December through mid-March. The wind, the tides and the direction of the swell also have to be just right.

This is just more context. Google “The Eddie” if you want more information. Mostly, I just need you to know that there are five full paragraphs like this before we get to… this.

On Sunday, the sets were already big, with the swell expected to grow as the day went on, and an estimated 60,000 people packed the beaches and surrounding area to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. One huge wave swept onto the beach and hit a family, sweeping a baby under a house, but the child was not injured, Hawaii News Now reported.

Two notes here:

  • It is funny to me in ways I cannot fully articulate that this article dropped “baby carried away by wave, washed under house, survived” like 60 percent of the way through a story about surf dudes riding tsunamis
  • There is a non-zero chance that this baby either was invincible before this or became invincible because of it, like maybe it’s an origin story for how he becomes a superhero eventually, with the power to control the seas and everything in it

Am I saying this baby is Aquaman? No. Of course not. That would be crazy. But am I saying this baby could become Aquaman?

I’m not not saying it.

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Vic Mensa And Thundercat Team Up On The Spaced-Out ‘Strawberry Louis Vuitton’

Vic Mensa teams up with jazz-soul superproducer Thundercat on his latest single, the spaced-out “Strawberry Louis Vuitton.” Thundercat offers a cotton candy backdrop for Mensa to pen a lyrical love letter to a woman who’s got a hold on him.

Singer Maeta provides backing vocals, bolstering Vic’s own sung chorus, and as the song progresses, the instrumentation grows more and more elaborate, culminating in Thundercat’s falsetto bridge and a crunchy bass breakdown. Check it out below.

Mensa is fresh off the success of his and Chance The Rapper’s Ghana-based music festival, Black Star Line Festival, which also created the opportunity for Vic to build water boreholes that will provide clean water to over 200,000 Ghanaians. Over the holidays, Vic also gave away $10,000 of gas money in his hometown, Chicago, continuing the streak of philanthropy and activism which has defined his career so far. Musically, his last collab was with Chance on The Rapper’s “Wraith (Writing Exercise #3),” the latest in a string of new collaborations they’ve created since reuniting a few years ago.

Thundercat, meanwhile, has been working on some interesting projects of his own, including a contribution to a tribute album for Japanese jazz great Ryuichi Sakamoto and an upcoming tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea called ‘Cat his favorite modern bassist). He also popped up on the title track for Gorillaz’s upcoming project Cracker Island, kicking off his 2023 with plenty of high-profile appearances.

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Daryl Morey Thinks Joel Embiid Was ‘Completely Hosed’ In All-Star Starter Voting In The Least Surprising News Of The Day

Picking All-Star Game participants is hard. Picking All-Star starters is even harder. Unfortunately, someone is going to end up missing out who deserves a starting nod in the NBA’s mid-season showcase, and in the Eastern Conference, the player who has the most justifiable gripe about not starting in Salt Lake City next month is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. One of the frontrunners for the MVP award this season, Embiid lost out on a starting spot to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum.

Now, for a collection of words that will come to the surprise of absolutely no one: Daryl Morey thinks Embiid got “completely hosed.” Morey appeared on a Philadelphia radio show on Friday morning and touched on Embiid missing out, and blamed “the shameless Boston media” that is “way overrepresented” in the voting process.

We think Morey is having some fun with this for an audience of people — Philadelphia fans who listen to sports talk radio — who are very likely to get some joy out of jokes about Boston sports media. This is in part due to the fact that the media voted Embiid third, behind Tatum in first and Antetokounmpo in second. The players also put Embiid in third (Antetokounmpo and Durant were ahead of him), while the fans were the ones who put Embiid the lowest, as they had him in fourth behind the three dudes who ended up getting sporting nods. (Daryl, if we have an incorrect read on this and you are actually trying to wage war with Boston sports media, we will happily correct.)

Morey did go on to bring up the NBA’s resistance to making All-Star and All-NBA teams positionless and rewarding “the 5-best people” despite the fact that “there’s so many players that are unique to history that you can’t put ’em in a box of an F label, or a G label, or a C label.”

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Timothy Olyphant Got Real About The ‘Insane’ Experience Of Witnessing Real-Life ‘Machine Gun Fire’ That Crashed Onto The ‘Justified’ Revival Set

Look, I love Justified as much as you do. Top 5 show for me, really. Yet there’s still part of me that cannot help but hope that Justified: City Primeval arrived not only by the grace of Quentin Tarantino conversations but because of something that I’m totally imagining. I want to believe that Olyphant wanted to do revivals for both Justified and a certain Netflix show — which he vowed to keep showing up and filming even though the streamer cancelled it — and only one of them was possible, so he ran with it.

Yes, that’s silly, but I feel like Raylan Givens would appreciate that offbeat (and insurgent) sense of humor. On a more serious note, filming on Justified: City Primeval hit some dangerous hitches last year when real-life gunfire erupted from two vehicles that burst onto the Chicago set. Olyphant has had the opportunity to describe how things went down on that day, and this happened on Conan O’Brien’s very charming Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast.

By the way, there are few more pleasurable moments in talk-show history than when Olyphant and Conan have linguistically thrown down together. Let’s get to those podcast quotes, though. Via ComicBook:

“It went on forever. We started hearing cars, you can hear them driving and you realize they’re coming around the park, heading right towards us and there’s and if the gunshots and stuff didn’t already kind of give you a tip on what kind of people we’re dealing with, they completely ignored the road closed sign where it says filming don’t come this way. So they’re coming straight down the street that we’re on and they’re just you know this machine gun fire and it was just insane.

“I saw the first car go goes right by us I can hear the bullets hitting off the back of the car. Then the second car goes by, this muscle car… there’s a guy shooting a pistol out the window that’s clearly been modified and the other guys out the sunroof with a little machine gun and he’s shooting a machine gun. Those guys go by like 100 miles an hour …And then a third car went by and the crazy thing is then they kind of continued around the neighborhood.”

Fortunately, all cast and crew members were accounted for and safe after the incident. The production was, however, disrupted on a later date when someone tossed an incendiary device onto set. Has anyone seen Boyd Crowder lately? There’s another bad joke, but fortunately, the season finished filming despite the chaos, and we can expect to receive Justified: City Primeval on FX sometime in Summer 2023.

(Via Comic Book)

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Bad Bunny Hangs Out With An Actually Invisible John Cena In The ‘WWE 2K23’ Video Game Teaser Trailer

After conquering the music scene and appearing in movies, the next frontier for Bad Bunny is video games. On Monday (January 23), the Puerto Rican superstar appeared in the teaser trailer for WWE 2K23 alongside an invisible John Cena.

As a longtime WWE fan, Bad Bunny made his wrestling dreams come true in 2021 when he started appearing on Monday Night Raw. This time last year, he participated in the Royal Rumble. Bad Bunny was one of the last five men standing until Brock Lesnar took him out the ring. Bad Bunny will return to wrestling via the WWE 2K23 video game, which will be released worldwide on March 17.

In the teaser trailer for WWE 2K23, Bad Bunny hangs you with Cena, who is invisible in reference to his of his “You can’t see me” catchphrase. Cena’s hat with his his signature message “hustle, loyalty, respect” is shown floating around and lifting weights with Logan Paul. While Bad Bunny is talking with Triple H, they greet a visible John Cena in passing. “Wait, they can see me?” he says.

Bad Bunny will also be a playable character in WWE 2K23. Pre-ordering any version of the video game will come with access to the Bad Bunny Bonus Pack. That pack will include Bad Bunny on the game’s roster and a Ruby Bad Bunny MyFACTION Card.

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Harry Styles Split His Pants On Stage In Front Of His First Celebrity Crush

Harry Styles had a massive 2022 with the release of the wildly successful Harry’s House, but he’s had some bad luck lately. The singer is suing multiple online sellers over fake merchandise, and one of his Love On Tour vans was hijacked at gunpoint in Brazil.

Now, another unexpected, unfortunate event happened. While playing a concert in Inglewood, California, he ripped his pants performing “Music For A Sushi Restaurant.” To make matters worse, Jennifer Aniston, who he revealed years ago in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres was his “first celebrity crush,” was in attendance. He didn’t let it hinder his performance — he finished with a towel. Other people in attendance include Kylie Jenner, Trevor Noah, and Ellen DeGeneres.

On a lighter note, Lewis Capaldi has been hyping Styles up. When he was asked about being nominated for the 2023 BRIT Awards, he expressed enthusiasm about being in the same room as Styles. “To be honest, I don’t think either of us has to worry ’cause ‘As It Was,’ Mr. Harry Styles, is in the same category,” Capaldi said. “So, I’m just looking forward to going along and seeing what regalia he turns up in and accepts the award in. I’m very excited, and hopefully, I’ll get close enough to him that I can smell him.”

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Rauw Alejandro Teamed Up With Daddy Yankee For His Freaky Single ‘Panties Y Brasieres’

Rauw Alejandro finally revealed “Track 7” on his latest album Saturno. The Puerto Rican superstar teamed up with reggaeton pioneer Daddy Yankee for his new single “Panties y Brasieres” which was released last night (January 26).

When Alejandro released his Saturno album last November, one of the songs was missing. “Track 7” originally played a “loading” message. Now that song has been unloaded as “Panties y Brasieres.” He let it be known that they recorded the collaboration before Daddy Yankee’s official retirement from music last month. Alejandro is known as “el zorro,” or the “fox,” while he calls Daddy Yankee “la cabra,” or the “G.O.A.T.”

“The last dance!!” Alejandro wrote on Twitter. “El zorro and la CABRA!! I’m not lying to you. The literal last dance. YANKEEMAN in Saturno.”

Alejandro and Daddy Yankee embrace reggaeton music’s roots in the freaky club banger. The song includes a sample of “Camuflash” from the ’90s Playero #40 mixtape that featured a young Daddy Yankee. Alejandro once again pushes reggaeton’s classic perreo sound into the future with his electronica touch. Alongside Daddy Yankee, he sings about the bras and panties that have flown their way during their concerts.

More bras and panties are going to hit the stage when Alejandro kicks off his Saturno World Tour on February 18. Alejandro is nominated for Best Música Urbana Album at next month’s Grammy Awards for his Trap Cake, Vol. 2 EP.

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Original ‘Firestarter’ Drew Barrymore Called Out The Razzies For ‘Bullying’ A 12-Year-Old: ‘I Don’t Like It’

This week saw the Razzies got raked over the coals for nominating 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for “Worst Actress” based on her performance in the Hulu remake of Firestarter. The backlash was so swift and justified that the “comedic” organization quickly walked back the nomination and enacted an age limit that will prevent anyone under 18 from being targeted by the awards show. Razzies founder John Wilson also apologized to Armstrong in a public statement.

Despite the Razzies making a quick reversal, the original Firestarter, Drew Barrymore had some things to say. The actress dragged the satirical organization not once, but twice on Thursday starting with an appearance on CBS Mornings where she called the nomination straight-up “bullying.”

Via Variety:

“She is younger and it is bullying. We do want to be cautious about how we speak to or about people because it encourages other people to join in on that bandwagon. I’m glad to see people didn’t jump on the ‘let’s make fun of her’ wave and instead said, ‘This isn’t right.’”

Barrymore added, “You got to have a sense of humor but when you’re talking about children all bets are off. I don’t like it.”

Later that day, Barrymore used her own talk show to call out the Razzies again as she revealed that the whole situation “makes my blood boil.”

“I would just say to them, ‘Please don’t do this to people who are younger. That’s not nice,’” Barrymore said. “And I really like Ryan… don’t do this again.”

(Via Variety)

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The First Episode Of ‘The Last Of Us’ Is Now Available Stream For Free On HBO Max

You may have been on the fence about starting The Last Of Us, HBO’s latest hit series that follows charmingly grumpy apocalypse survivor Joel as he sets out to protect a young girl who might be the key to survival. You’ve probably seen the memes and Pedro Pascal’s various wholesome interviews floating around and thought, “Hey, maybe I should watch this guy,” but never really got around to it. Well HBO knows that, and they really want you to get hooked, so they are offering the first episode for free. Are you on board yet?!

Ahead of the next episode in the series based on the popular video game franchise, HBO is streaming episode one for free in hopes that some more people will want to join the Pedro Pascal hype train. Episode three of the nine-episode season will air Sunday at 9 pm, and that one won’t be free. Sorry.

You can watch the first episode in the series by simply going to HBO’s site and clicking play without needing to sign up. It’s truly never been easier to watch an unsettling post-pandemic zombie wasteland! Of course, to watch the next episodes, you’ll have to purchase an HBO subscription. But that also makes Succession available to you before season four premieres in March, so it might not be a bad idea. The choice is yours.

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Lil Yachty Enlisted An MGMT Member And Many Other Psychedelic Collaborators To Help Bring His New Album To Life

Fans are raving about Lil Yachty’s new album, Let’s Start Here. To some, the departure from his signature rap sound to the project’s psychedelic alternative rock core came as a surprise, but to the rapper and his die-hard fans, this was to be expected.

A year ago, as the musician discussed what he had planned for his next official studio project, he plainly told Atlanta jewelry store Icebox listeners should brace themselves because it would be “a non-rap album.”

Yachty went on to gush about the creative direction saying, “It’s alternative, it’s sick! I’ve always wanted to [do one], but now I’ve met all these amazing musicians and producers. It’s like a psychedelic-alternative project. It’s different, and it’s all live instrumentation. I’ve changed my entire dynamic. I’m telling you, with this album and on, I’m creating music a whole lot differently.”

Fast forward to today, and Let’s Start Here is available across streaming platforms, and the list of the musicians and producers that he worked with has been revealed. While Lil Yachty co-produced the entire album, the project features a list of heavy hitter guest producers, including Justin Raisen, Sad Pony, Patrick Wimberly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Nick Hakim, Magdalena Bay, and Jam City.

As far as writing credit goes, Lil Yachty has been the go-to rap pen for the new wave of rappers including the City Girls, but artists Mac DeMarco and Alex G are also given co-writing credit. During the initial announcement, Yachty did not list any guest vocal features. Still, after listening to the album, music buffs will recognize recording artists Foushée, Diana Gordon, Teezo Touchdown, and Justine Skye all made an appearance on it despite their names not being listed in the titles.

Details about the featured instrumentalist featured on the project are still being revealed, but one standout musical guest includes MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser, who played the keyboard on the album.

When discussing the inspiration behind the album and his robust approach, Yachty sternly replied, “I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper. Not some mumble rapper, not just some guy that made one hit.”

View the official tracklist with unlisted guests added below.

1. “The Black Seminole”
2. “The Ride” Feat. Teezo Touchdown
3. “Running Out of Time” Feat. Justine Skye
4. “Pretty” Feat. Fousheé
5. “Failure”
6. “The Zone” Feat. Justine Skye
7. “We Saw the Sun!”
8. “Drive Me Crazy!” Feat. Diana Gordon
9. “I’ve Officially Lost Vision!!!!” Feat. Diana Gordon
10. “Say Something”
11. “Paint the Sky”
12. “Should I B?”
13. “The Alchemist” Feat. Fousheé
14. “Reach the Sunshine” Feat. Daniel Caesar

Let’s Start Here is out now via Quality Control. Get it here.