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What exactly is a winter beer? While there’s no legal definition of what a winter beer is, you probably have a general idea of what one will taste like when you crack it open. Winter beers cover a broad range of styles, but they are generally higher in alcohol than their summery counterparts, utilize more malts, and (on some occasions) have wintry, seasonal spices included. Under this umbrella, you’ll find double IPAs, barleywines, stouts, winter warmers, brown ales, and various other styles.

Like with all beer styles (especially seasonal), more well-known examples seem to pop up every year. We found eight of these classic gems and decided to rank them based on quality and flavor. Below, you’ll find winter warmers, lagers, IPAs, and even Christmas ales. Keep scrolling to see them all.

8) Samuel Adams Winter Lager

ABV: 5.6%

Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This festive, wintry spiced wheat bock starts with Hallertau Mittelfrueh & Spalt Spalter Noble hops. The addition of lager yeast, 2-row pale, Caramel 60, Carafa, Munich 10, and malted wheat give it a toasty, sweet, slightly spicy flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is fairly light with caramel malts, wintry spices, orange peel, and not much else. The palate follows suit with more like vanilla, caramel, bready malts, orange, and cinnamon. It’s an okay beer if you like light wintry spices, but nothing to get excited about.

Bottom Line:

Samuel Adams recently changed the recipe for this beer and it has more wintry spices and orange peel flavor. Clearly, it’s designed to be more of a festive beer, it just misses the mark.

7) Hop Works Abominable

ABV: 7.3%

Average Price: $11.50 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This 7.3% ABV winter ale is brewed with 2-row, C40, C60, Black Malt, and Black Prinz malts. It gets its snappy, floral flavor from the addition of Chinook, Centennial, Cascade, Simcoe, and Cryo Chinook hops. It’s a well-balanced, citrus and spiced winter ale you’ll look forward to every year.

Tasting Notes:

This beer starts off in an unexpected way for a winter ale. There’s a ton of citrus and pine up front with aromas of vanilla and caramel following closely behind. Drinking it reveals more caramel malts as well as pineapple, citrus peels, and piney, herbal hops. It’s a fun beer, but a little hoppy for some winter beer fans.

Bottom Line:

While the hop presence is nice and it’s a highly drinkable winter beer, we’d just prefer that the malts and hops were a little more balanced.

6) Full Sail Wreck The Halls

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

Sometimes you just want to deck the halls by drinking something that seems out of place during the holidays. This award-winning beer is referred to as a double IPA, but it’s more like you mixed a winter warmer and a bold Crystal malt and Centennial hop-based IPA together.

Tasting Notes:

Another beer that has floral, herbal pine right off the bat, Wreck the Halls also has a ton of bready and caramel malt aroma. The palate is surprisingly bitter for a winter ale with a ton of pine needles, grapefruit, and tangerine, as well as bready and caramel malts. It’s very hop-forward but has a nice balance to it.

Bottom Line:

As wintry double IPAs go, this one is fairly well-balanced. This finish is dry and a little sweeter than we’d prefer in a double IPA though.

5) Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome

ABV: 6%

Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack

The Beer:

Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome is just that. It’s a seasonal, limited edition beer that helps to usher in the start of winter. It’s malt-forward with a nice kick of Fuggle and Goldings hops to tie everything together nicely in one neat, holiday package.

Tasting Notes:

Caramel malts, freshly baked bread, dried fruits, vanilla, and lightly herbal hops aromas are prevalent on the nose. The palate continues this trend with toffee, honey, raisins, floral hops, and gentle holiday spices. Overall, it’s a little watery, but surprisingly flavorful.

Bottom Line:

To really live up to its name, we wish this winter warmer had a little more oomph to it. The ABV is a little low and the palate is a little watery.

4) Deschutes Jubeleale

ABV: 6.7%

Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This aptly named beer is referred to as a “festive winter ale”. Its complex flavor profile of chocolate, caramel, and winter spices comes from the addition of Pale, Crystal, Extra Special, Carapils malts and roasted barley as well as Bravo, Cascade, Delta, Us Tettnang, and East Kent Goldings hops.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is dried fruits, caramel candy, and chocolate fudge. It doesn’t seem like much, but it really draws you in. Drinking it reveals a nice mix of toffee, milk chocolate, wintry spices, and lightly floral, herbal hops that tie everything together with an earthy, spicy flavor.

Bottom Line:

This is an interesting winter ale, to say the least. It’s not all hops and it’s not all spice. There’s a nice caramel and chocolate component that make it a truly special beer.

3) Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

ABV: 6.9%

Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This eagerly awaited seasonal beer is brewed with house yeast, Pale 2-row, Crystal, and Munich malts as well as oat flakes, Northern Brewer and Chinook hops. It’s known for its bold, caramel, toffee, and spiced flavor profile that needs to be tasted to be believed.

Tasting Notes:

Cinnamon, nutmeg, toffee, dried fruits, and light, earthy hops are prevalent on the nose. Toasted malts, wet grass, dried fruits, more wintry spices, brown sugar, caramel candy, and lightly bitter hops round out the palate nicely. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness.

Bottom Line:

There’s a reason this is such a beloved, eagerly awaited holiday beer. It’s well-balanced and flavorful with everything you’d want in a winter brew.

2) Sierra Nevada Celebration

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

There aren’t many winter seasonal beers as eagerly awaited as Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. This winter favorite is brewed with ale yeast, caramelized, and 2-row pale malts. It gets its bright, hoppy flavor from the addition of Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.

Tasting Notes:

The nose starts off with light cereal grains, toffee, and bready malts and moves onto aromas of grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel, and herbal, earthy pine. The palate continues this start with flavors like caramel candy, honey, grapefruit, tangerine, and spicy, floral, earthy pine needles. The finish is a nice mix of malt sweetness and citrus and piney bitterness.

Bottom Line:

This is an extremely complex, complicated beer. This one and the beer that took the top spot could easily be interchanged based on your beer preference. This is the holiday beer for the hop fans.

1) Anchor Christmas Ale

ABV: 7.2%

Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

There aren’t many winter beers (or any beers for that matter) as beloved and eagerly awaited as Anchor Christmas Ale. Brewed since 1975 (you read that right), Anchor doesn’t release the recipe. But you can bet that year after year it will be loaded with caramel malts, wintry spices, and light hops.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of cocoa powder, sticky toffee pudding, molasses candy, cinnamon, nutmeg, and floral, herbal pine greet you before your first sip. The palate is loaded with bready and toasted malts, caramel, toffee, honey, molasses, fudge, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lightly bitter, earthy hops. The finish is a mix of roasted malts and bitter, floral hops.

Bottom Line:

The folks at Anchor have had a long time to perfect this beer and they definitely have. It’s an amazingly balanced beer with caramel malts, wintry spices, and hops playing together nicely.

TikTok is a weird place full of bad ideas, but the app didn’t get massively popular by solely feeding people content about mysterious sauces or by trying to convince people to cook chicken in NyQuil, the platform is also full of well-intentioned people who present functional hacks that can improve your life and save you some scratch in the process. In a viral TikTok content creator and comedian Elyse Myers let people in on a skincare hack that won’t just save your skin, but save you some money in the process.

“Before you spend a lot of money on skincare products just hold on,” Myers begins in a video that has now been viewed over 12 million times, “Just go buy Head & Shoulders and wash your face with it and see what happens. I have been using the Wal-Mart version of Head & Shoulders, since I was in middle school because I had a dermatologist tell me the zinc in it is incredible for your face.”

Myers claims that for as long as she’s used the shampoo facewash hack she’s had clear skin and only began breaking out once she stopped using it in lieu of the fancy products that were being sent to her for free. We don’t blame you if you watch a TikTok telling you to smear stuff on your face that isn’t explicitly intended for your face with a healthy dose of side-eye but it turns out Myers is right about zinc’s beneficial effect on the skin.

According to Healthline, pyrithione zinc — the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders and most other dandruff shampoos — is effective at treating skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema, and acne due to its antimicrobial, antibacterial and anti-fungal properties.

If that isn’t enough to convince you, a few TikTok dermatologists have weighed in on Myers’ hack, adding a bit more context as to why the product can be beneficial.

While it doesn’t sound like Head & Shoulders is the cure-all for every skincare woe, it looks like it’s worth a try if you’re suffering from the sort of skin condition caused by bacterial and fungal growths on the skin.

Also, a bottle costs under $5 so if it doesn’t work for you, you can just pass it on to a friend. Christmas is coming up after all.

Republicans are in a lot of trouble with voters right now. They’re so extreme, so still in thrall to a guy who dines with anti-Semite bigots on Thanksgiving, that their beloved midterms “red wave” failed to coalesce. Have they read the writing on the wall and simmered down? Of course not! In fact, one of them is doubling down so hard he’s struggling to find hooch that isn’t woke and/or pro-Ukraine.

As per Rum Raiders, longtime fixer and Nixon tattoo-haver Roger Stone went on his podcast and ranted about…vodka. Specifically, he ranted about Roger Sterling fave Stolichnaya, which may be a Russian brand but which recently came out in support of Ukraine. Stone, however, is pro-Putin, like some others in his party, and he unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories to support his stance.

“That means the people who make Stolichnaya vodka support child sex trafficking, money laundering … and the arming of actual Nazis on the ground in Ukraine,” Stone railed. He declared that he will “will never drink another sip of their swill,” and that instead he’s “going all-American, Titos, made in Austin, Texas, is my new brand.”

Thing is, then he ran into another problem: His party is currently waging war on the LGBTQ+ community, despite the recent Club Q mass shooting in Colorado.

“I decided to switch to American-made Tito’s until I learned that they sponsored a drag queen show,” Stone fumed. “Now I have no choice but to use Russian Standard Vodka in my extra dry Martinis.”

Anyway, good luck to Roger Stone in finding a non-woke vodka, though he probably has more pressing issues to worry about.

(Via Rum Raiders)

Like other dark alcohols, rum starts as a clear spirit before it enters the barrel and begins aging. While there are various types of rum, dark rum is aged for an extended period in charred barrels. Just like with whiskey, the longer the maturation, the more pronounced, nuanced, and rich the flavors will be. Known for its sweet notes, dark rum can carry myriad flavors including molasses, vanilla, oak, coconut, and various baking spices.

A great dark rum is invaluable when it comes to holiday mixing. The time is right to stock up on all of the essential styles, but a great dark rum can be enjoyed neat (instead of your usual bourbon or single malt Scotch), on the rocks, or mixed into a dark ‘n’ stormy, Planter’s Punch, or even a hot, buttered rum.

To find the best bottles of dark rum for the holidays we asked a handful of well-known distillers and spirits experts to pick bottles for this party-filled season. Keep scrolling to see them all.

Montanya Oro Rum

Caley Shoemaker of Altar Spirits in Santa Fe, Mexico

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $31.99

The Rum:

When it comes to rum, I am forever a fan of anything that Montanya Rum from Crested Butte, Colorado releases. Their rums are interesting and complex, making them an absolute delight to sip straight. A great beginner dark rum is its Montanya Oro Rum.

Aged for one year in American oak barrels, it’s known for its flavors of vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and tropical fruits.

Real McCoy 5 Year

Jason Barrett, founder and master distiller of Black Button Distilling in Rochester, New York

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $24.99

The Rum:

Real McCoy 5 Year. It’s the real deal and what rum should taste like with no additives. Aged for at least five years, this favorite or distiller, bartenders, and drinkers alike is known for its notes of vanilla, candied orange, caramel, and oak.

Mount Gay Master Blender Collection Madeira Cask Expression

Meghan Ireland, head blender at WhistlePig in Shoreham, Vermont

ABV: 55%

Average Price: $236

The Rum:

We love supporting our female friends in the industry doing awesome things. There are a few we are geeking on right now. Mount Gay’s Madeira Cask (Maggie Campbell and Trudiann Branker) is a great expression. Being fans of Madeira finishing ourselves, this expression takes the cake with juicy pear, brown sugar, vanilla, and dried fruit.

Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva

Matt Chavez, brand ambassador for Beefeater Gin and beverage director at Ci Siamo in New York City

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $35.99

The Rum:

As a fan of rum, I tend to gravitate towards so many different producers depending on my mood. My most comforting and tried and true bottle may be Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva. I am a big fan of rum old fashioneds and Diplomatico carries all those notes inherently. Brown sugar, cola spice, toasted nuts.

A perfect sipping rum over a large cube of ice.

Lyon Dark Rum

Max Hames, distillery operations manager at Sagamore Spirit in Baltimore

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $48

The Rum:

Some phenomenal dark rums are being made right here in Maryland. Lyon Dark Rum from Windon Distilling in St. Michaels, Maryland embraces the Maryland eastern shore maritime rum tradition with a classic palate of caramel and molasses. Rum has a long history of production in Maryland, and that is carried out today across the state.

This consideration of the rum roots of distilling in Maryland is in part what inspired our Rum Finished Rye Whiskey.

Ron Centenario Fundacion

Jared Adkins, founder and master distiller at Bluebird Distilling in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

The Rum:

Centenario Rum from Costa Rica. I travel there to surf several times a year, and I always make it a point to pick up a bottle of their 20 — the Ron Centenario Fundacion — or 25 year at the start of my trip. It’s chock full of brown sugar, spice, and dark fruits.

New Liberty Distillery Dreadnought Dark Rum

Robert Cassell, CEO of Millstone Spirits Group in Philadelphia

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $34.99

The Rum:

New Liberty Distillery Dreadnought Dark Rum. It’s got a rich velvety sweetness with notes of molasses, chocolate, and cherry, sugary caramel, as well as a touch of oak and spice. It’s a great, bold rum that’s great for drinking neat, on the rocks, or as a base for your favorite seasonal cocktail.

Ten To One Caribbean Dark Rum

Eli Servance III, bartender at Cedric’s At the Shed in New York City

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $51.99

The Rum:

Ten to One Caribbean Dark Rum. Its palate is dominated by two of my favorite things: toffee and apples. Plus, a slight hint of oak with baking spices. This highly complex rum is a combination of 8-year-old Barbados, Dominican, Jamaican, and Trinidadian rums matured in ex-bourbon barrels.

Denizen Vatted Rum

Beau Gaultier, bartender at Bay 6 in Nashville

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $32.99

The Rum:

Denizen Vatted Rum is the perfect bottle to have at the house. This blend is well-balanced, fruity, and funky, and it doesn’t break the bank — perfect in stirred and shaken cocktails. A good portion of the blend is made in Guyana and this award-winning rum is known for its flavorful palate featuring hints of caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, plantains, and tropical fruits.

Rhum Barbancourt 5-Star 8 Year

Andrew Hueston, bartender at El Vez in Philadelphia

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $26.99

The Rum:

5-Star Rhum Barbancourt 8-Year. The perfect daiquiri dark rum. Made from sugar cane juice, this unique rum is matured for at least eight years in oak barrels. Flavors include chocolate, barrel-aged stone fruits, oak, vanilla, caramel, and dried fruits.

In 1971, Melissa Highsmith was kidnapped from her home in Fort Worth, Texas. Her disappearance has been one of the oldest missing person cases in America. Now, she gets to celebrate a long-awaited reunion with her family in what she calls a “Christmas miracle.”

As ABC affiliate WFAA reported, Melissa’s mother, Alta (who now goes by Alta Apantenco) had put out an ad for a babysitter to watch over her then 21-month-old while she was at work. A white gloved, well-dressed woman going by the name of Ruth Johnson responded to the call, but she was no babysitter. After Johnson picked up baby Melissa from Apantenco’s roommate, the two were never seen again.

As any parents would do in this situation, the Highsmiths worked tirelessly to find their little girl, involving the Fort Worth police and even the FBI. Sadly, it was all to no avail. The only glimmer of hope remaining was that there was no evidence of harm, so maybe, just maybe, their Melissa was being well taken care of. And for 51 years, the family held onto that possibility.

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Meanwhile, Melissa—who never remembered being kidnapped—led a hard life with the woman who claimed to be her mother. “I didn’t feel loved as a child. It was abusive, and I ran away at 15 years old. I went to the streets. I did what I had to do to get by… I worked the streets,” she shared in a one-on-one interview with WFAA.

Then in September, everything would change. After receiving a failed tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Melissa had been sighted, her father Jeffrie Highsmith (now divorced from Apantenco) decided to try his luck with DNA testing. DNA testing service 23andMe came back with a match linking him to Highworth. Their son Jeff (Melissa’s brother) then found her on Facebook and reached out.

Even though Melissa was skeptical, she was shown a baby picture by the Higworths which she admitted looked like her “twin.” According to Good Morning America, Melissa had a special birthmark and celebrated a birthday very close to the child taken all those years ago.

Any remaining shadows of doubt immediately disappeared when Melissa confronted the woman she thought was her mother. “The person that raised me, I asked her is there anything you need to tell me and it was confirmed that she knew that I was baby Melissa so that just made it real,” she told FOX 25.

Mother & daughter reunited after 51 YEARS!

Melissa was kidnapped when she was 21months old from their Ft Worth apt.

They both gave up on hope. Melissa: “I ran away at 15, & worked the streets.”

Family says 23andMe, DNA Genetic Testing matched them, living 20min away.@wfaa pic.twitter.com/Vsz9437pRf

— Malini Basu (@MaliniBasu_) November 28, 2022

In perhaps the strangest twist of fate, Melissa and her family had been so close, yet so far this entire time—living less than 20 minutes apart.

That discovery is not without its bittersweetness, but so far the family is focusing on making up for lost time and celebrating their reunion.

“I’m just elated, I can’t describe my feelings. I’m so happy to see my daughter that I didn’t think I would ever see again,” Apantenco told WFAA. “I feel like I am dreaming and I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I’m awake,” Melissa added.

On their shared Facebook Group page the family wrote, “the joy is palpable amongst all family members” adding that finding Melissa “was purely because of DNA, not because of any police / FBI involvement, podcast involvement, or even our family’s own private investigations or speculations.” They are not alone. Previously a man kidnapped in 1964 found his real family using different ancestry services. There are still miles to go in terms of diversifying DNA databases, but DNA testing has taken on an increasingly significant role in finding missing persons over the years, and continues to be a game changer.

As for the newly reunited Highsmith family, the plan is to simply take things day by day. According to WFAA, Melissa has officially adopted her birth name (she had previously gone by “Melanie”), and is even planning on remarrying her current husband so that her father can walk down the aisle. These are sure to be hard won memories the entire family will cherish forever.

Anuel AA will be releasing his LLNM2 album next month with 33 songs. On Friday (November 25), the Puerto Rican superstar also revealed the tracklist for the LP with features from Kodak Black, DaBaby, Lil Durk, and his wife Yailin La Más Viral.

In the past few years, Anuel AA rose up the ranks in the Latin trap scene alongside Bad Bunny. They have featured on each other’s albums. Now he is getting back into the game with his next album LLNM2, a sequel to last year’s Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren LP. Anuel AA has teased the album throughout the year with the hits like “La 2Blea” and “Malo” featuring reggaeton OGs Zion and Randy.

Anuel AA is branching out beyond Latin trap and reggaeton on his next album as evidenced by the tracklist. LLNM2, dropping December 9, will include a whopping 33 tracks. Among the many collaborations, French DJ Guetta will feature on the song “Vibra” and Kodak Black will join Anuel AA on “Sufro” with Ñengo Flow. DaBaby will appear on the track “Wakanda” and Lil Durk was enlisted for “1ro.” Anuel AA also released a prison-themed music video for his latest reggaeton banger “Si Yo Me Muero.”

Last week, Anuel AA announced the news that he is expecting a baby girl with his wife, Dominican artist Yailin La Más Viral. Earlier this year, they teamed up for the steamy love song “Si Tu Me Busca.” They will regroup on his album for the song “La Máquina” alongside Jowell y Randy and De La Ghetto.

Find the LLNM2 tracklist below.

1. “Brrr”
2. “Borracha & Loca”
3. “Vibra” Feat. David Guetta
4. “La Máquina” Feat. Jowell y Randy, De La Ghetto, and Yailin La Más Viral
5. “Hoodie” Feat. Bryant Myers
6. “Si Yo Me Muero” Feat. Mvsis
7. “Sufro” Feat. Kodak Black and Ñengo Flow
8. “Las Jordan”
9. “Wakanda” Feat. DaBaby
10. “Somo’ Así”
11. “Me Siento HP”
12. “Del Kilo” Feat. Treintisiete
13. “Contra la Corriente”
14. “Mintiendo”
15. “El Nene” Feat. Foreign Teck
16. “Diamantes en Mis Dientes” Feat. Young Chimi
17. “Teteo”
18. “Monstruo”
19. “Mercedes Tintia”
20. “1ro” Feat. Lil Durk
21. “Mientes” Feat. Nicky Jam
22. “40”
23. “La 2blea”
24. “Sin Ti”
25. “Airbnb”
26. “Ascensor”
27. “Anuel & Emmanuel”
28. “Tú Lo Sabes”
29. “Coroné”
30. “Tiene Novio”
31. “Nosotros”
32. “Malo” Feat. Zion and Randy
33. “Brother”

LLNM2 is out 10/21 via Real Hasta La Muerte LLC. Pre-order it here.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert can’t stop herself from sarcastically tweeting, and people cannot stop themselves from responding. It’s a cycle, for sure, and it runs up against Boebert’s own reported discussion of how she received her GED after dropping out of high school. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s no shame in taking that path, but Boebert also set herself up for ridicule by proposing longer reading times for legislative bills before it’s time to vote. She also pushed back hard against student loan forgiveness, which didn’t inspire critics to join her cause(s).

There was also the time that Boebert confused John Adams (the 2nd president of the U.S.) and Samuel Adams (who was also a founding father, but is also a brewery’s namesake), which resulted in more pushback. Now, Boebert has tweeted a “history lesson,” which is a move that’s not likely to turn out well for anyone, let alone someone whose red-leaning district barely voted her into a sophomore congressional term.

The “lesson” followed Alyssa Milano’s declaration that she “gave back” her Tesla in the wake of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. Subsequently, Milano “bought the VW ev” and tweeted, “I’m not sure how advertisers can buy space on Twitter. Publicly traded company’s products being pushed in alignment with hate and white supremacy doesn’t seem to be a winning business model.”

Elon Musk found this information to be hilarious for a reason that Boebert echoed. “.@Alyssa_Milano traded in her Tesla for a Volkswagen because she says @elonmusk enables Nazis.” She added, “Really quick history lesson below:”

Boebert then tweeted a screencap of the first paragraph of a History.com article. Of course, the first paragraph doesn’t tell the whole story, which has been detailed at length by Jalopnik and includes decades of Volkswagen’s post-war shifts and redemptive moves, including recently (as Reuters reported) cutting ties with a distributor who apparently showcased “a wall decorated with an image of a Nazi celebration of the Beetle car.”

Let’s just say that the history of Volkswagen is complicated and not easily boiled down to a screencapped paragraph wrapped in a tweet. And people had their own “history lessons” to offer Boebert in return.

My “lesson” for the day: we should all tweet less and have more naps. Our stress levels will thank us in the end.

Real Adam Brody fans have been with him through it all: seasons two through four of The O.C., Mr and Mrs. Smith, Thank You for Smoking, In the Land of Women, Jennifer’s Body, I could go on and on and on. Even more real ones went back and watched The Ring for his very small role as “Male Teen #1”. The actor made a significant splash in the early 2000s due to his role as Seth Cohen on the FOX teen soap The O.C. Seth was a comic book nerd who was adorable (adorkable, even, sorry to even say it) at the time but in retrospect, is kind of an insufferable whiner. Seth Cohen moans and complains when things don’t even slightly go his way, but Brody’s inherent charm made Seth seem like the most romantic guy on television, like the loneliest teenage boy in the universe who deserved the world when, in fact, he was pretty self-serving.

Fleishman Is In Trouble, the FX series based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel of the same name, follows Upper East Sider Alex Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), who is amidst a nasty divorce with his ex Rachel (Claire Danes). The newly single Alex finds himself in a modern dating culture far removed from the one he was used to before his marriage. Seth, an old friend Alex lost touch with during his marriage, serves as a guide. Seth is played by Brody, who bravely took the role despite the character having the same name as the character that defines him.

Brody’s innate ability to make even the vilest characters relentlessly charming manifests in Fleishman Is in Trouble. Seth isn’t exactly an asshole but he makes grand statements that, if made by someone less appealing than Brody, would come across as insensitive and ignorant. For example, Seth says that no women on dating apps are 39 or 29. “There’s only 40 and 30,” he says.

In his first scene in the series, he orders a dish called the lumberjack with a side of grilled cheese, a moment that deserves to be commemorated. Later, he is shown eating the grilled cheese while making grand statements about why women have choke kinks now:

While Brody was a 2000s heartthrob and while he has had a consistently respectable career, he didn’t exactly become a leading man. But over the past few years, he’s built up to a moment. In 2019, he appeared in DC’s Shazam!, and will return for the sequel early next year. Later that year, Brody was in the hit horror-comedy Ready Or Not, in a role that was perfect for him. In 2020, he officially became an FX boy with his small role as feminist Marc Feigen-Fausteau amongst some of the greats including Lydia Tár herself on the miniseries Mrs. America. Also in 2020, he led the extremely dark comedy The Kid Detective, in which he played a former child detective who in his adult life, comes across a missing person’s case and had a role in the Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman. Now, Brody’s back to being an FX boy on Fleishman Is in Trouble.

And suddenly, I find myself in a state of rewatching episodes of Fleishman Is in Trouble solely for Brody’s performance, and I am planning to see Shazam! Fury of the Gods solely for his performance. The power that he has. Adam Brody is having another moment, and I hope it never ends.

As James Gunn begins his tenure as the new co-CEO of DC Studios, the writer/director is continuing to be an open book when it comes to fielding fan questions on Twitter even while he’s busy promoting his second-to-last project for Marvel, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Over the holiday weekend, Gunn took some time to tease what he has in store for the DCU, which is apparently what we’re calling it now. RIP DCEU.

When asked if he and co-CEO Peter Safran are “planning to give more DC character tv shows that’ll add to the story for the DCEU,” Gunn made a pretty bold promise.

“Yes, most definitely,” Gunn tweeted. “The DCU will be connected across film and TV (and animation).”

That answer does cement Gunn and Safran’s recent promise that the DCU will deliver “one great overarching story” over the next 10 years and across several mediums including “film, television, gaming, live-action, and animation.” However, that is way easier said than done. To chagrin of Warner Bros. Discovery’s new CEO, DC Comics’ creative output has been wildly fragmented. The majority of its properties includes separate universes, and it will require some pretty sweeping changes to bring them altogether. It doesn’t seem like Gunn is ready to provide answers on that front.

Seeking a clarification, one user asked, “Will there still be some standalone animation or live-action shows that take place in separate worlds (like Harley Quinn)?” to which Gunn replied, “Yes, some.”

He had the same answer for DC’s fan-favorite slate of animated movies, which have existed in their own continuity. There was already a recent reboot in that realm, and it appears there may be another one coming down the road.

However, when it came to video games being directly connected to the DCU, Gunn gave a firm “yes.”

As for what all of this means, it’s hard to say at this point. Clearly, Warner Bros. Discovery wants a more connected cinematic universe like Marvel and has openly said as much. Gunn and Safran seemed poised to deliver on that front, but that could also involve making some sweeping changes like no longer allowing the animated projects to operate in their own universe. (Harley Quinn appears to be safe because, well, it’s freaking Harley Quinn.)

There’s also the issue of ongoing shows like The Flash, Titans, and Doom Patrol, which have all operated independently of each other. The Flash is already nearing its endpoints, but will Gunn’s plans involve winding those series down for more connected projects like Peacemaker?

Finally, there’s the elephant in the room: The Batman. The Robert Pattinson film and it planned spinoffs have also been operating in separate film universe, but will that be the case going forward? As the DCU goes for a more streamlined universe, will Battinson be left alone or will he have to shoulder being the Dark Knight to a wider franchise? It’ll be interesting to see as Gunn and Safran get ready to unveil their ambitious plans over the next few months.

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

Hugh Freeze is returning to the SEC, as word broke on Monday that the former Ole Miss head coach and current Liberty head coach was headed down to Auburn after the school was unable to poach Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss.

It doesn’t come as a significant surprise, as Freeze had been rumored as a candidate at Auburn for months, but considering how his tenure ended in Oxford, with him being resigning in disgrace after committing various NCAA infractions as well as calling escorts on his university issued phone, it certainly didn’t take long for him to return to one of college football’s top jobs. Freeze has, as many will be quick to point out, won everywhere he’s been, as evidenced by an 83-43 career record, but while programs have been quick to succeed under Freeze, maintaining the level of winning Auburn expects has not been something he’s done particularly well.

Ole Miss peaked in his third and fourth seasons, going a combined 19-7 and reaching a high of third in the AP Poll in both seasons, but the next year he went 5-7 (helping lead to his ouster). At Liberty he quickly got them to a 10-1 year in 2020 with an NFL prospect at the helm in Malik Willis, but has stumbled to 8-5 and 8-4 seasons since, most recently suffering losses to UConn and New Mexico State in succession to end his tenure with the Flames.

It’s not a surprise that Auburn would overlook the off-field scandals and NCAA violations committed at Ole Miss to hire a splashy name, that’s how college football works, but even accepting that as the way the world works, there’s still an issue with this hire in Freeze not a coach with such a great track record that you can feel confident he’ll get Auburn to the highs they want to reach for anything approaching a sustained period of time.