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Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

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10. (tie) The Resort (Peacock)

What if there was a show from the people who made Mr. Robot and Lodge 49 and it was set at a spooky tropical resort and it starred Cristin Milioti from Palm Springs and William Jackson Harper from The Good Place and the whole thing hinged on a mystery they uncovered because one of them crashed a four-wheeler in the jungle and discovered a mangled old Motorola Razr? Well, guess what: there is. Watch it on Peacock.

10. (tie) Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu)

The first season of Reservation Dogs was a revelation. Just a group of foul-mouthed Native American teens living on a reservation in Oklahoma and getting into trouble and being little rascals. It was also, sometimes, sweet and, also sometimes, heavy, and sometimes there was a mystical figure who would show up and giggle a lot and kind of just screw with everyone for five minutes. It’s a hard show to describe. But it’s a heck of a ride. Watch it on Hulu.

10. (tie) Little Demon (FX/Hulu)

Aubrey Plaza is in everything these days, and no one is mad at that development. In this animated series (which is so FX that it hurts in a good way), she voices the mom of a teenager who discovers that she’s got demonic powers. Dad happens to be Satan, and not only that, but he’s voiced by Danny DeVito. And you thought your life was surreal, right? Watch it on FX/Hulu.

10. Industry (HBO Max)

Popularly and positively referred to as Euphoria and Succession‘s love child, Industry returns for season two, focussing again on the realm of global finance through the lens of the 20-somethings who are consumed by it and the realities of survival and success in a world post panny where satisfaction seems like a hindrance. Watch it on HBO Max.

9. Harley Quinn (HBO Max)

The good news here is that Harley Quinn is back, finally, after a multi-year break due to, well, everything. The delightfully profane animated series remains one of our finest television programs, between Harley and Ivy being a couple now and chaos descending upon Gotham and this show’s version of Bane continuing to be a hopeless goofball. It really is a blast, a beam of sunshine in a world filled with bleak dramas. You deserve to have fun. Watch it on HBO Max.

8. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney Plus)

Alison Brie didn’t get to portray this “Allison Brie type” role, but hey, we’re getting Orphan Black‘s Tatiana Maslany, who has so much fun relishing this role. She’s smart and silly and she Hulks out like a pro while also being the MCU’s very green attorney for superheroes. Expect a lot of cameos, and Mark Ruffalo is on hand as Bruce Banner. There’s no word on whether we’ll eventually see the Hulk Butt like we received in Thor: Ragnarok. Admit it, that’s on your wishlist, too. Watch it on Disney Plus.

7. The Sandman (Netflix)

Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic book series finally lands on the small screen (while the successful Audible epic keeps cranking with a different cast). The story picks up with Morpheus (the King of Dreams) angry as hell at those who imprisoned him. Tom Sturridge takes on the lead role and guides us through space and time on a cosmic trip. Let’s hope this show is worth the extensively long wait (the project has the unenviable task of piecing together a tapestry of sometimes free-standing stories), but no matter how it turns out, we’re getting Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. That ain’t nothing. Watch it on Netflix.

6. See (Apple TV Plus)

Settle in for the final season of Warrior Jason Momoa In Fur Coats, and whose Warrior Good Looks are wasted in a world where no one can see him. Baba Voss is back for one final round of post-apocalyptic fighting while nature is starting to heal itself, and a new generation begins to see again. This ratchets up the intensity with the existing battle for superiority in the kingdom, and yup, the Masturbating Queen is still around. This show is nuts! Watch it on Apple TV Plus.

5. Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)

Welcome to Wrexham is like Ted Lasso, if Ted Lasso was about Deadpool and Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia buying a soccer team. Other than that, it’s identical. The documentary series follows Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as they purchase and help run the Wrexham A.F.C. football club. Welcome to Wrexham looks sweet and sincere, which is a nice change of pace from getting mad at [your favorite sports team here] blowing it AGAIN. Watch it on FX/Hulu.

4. The Patient (FX/Hulu)

Steve Carell is back on television once again, this time not so much to make you laugh as to… well, creep you out. He plays a therapist who is held captive by a serial killer who desperately wants help curing his murderous urges. It does not exactly sound like light/fun viewing but it does sound intriguing. And it’s from the creator of The Americans. And he has a pretty righteous beard going on. While we cannot in good faith support kidnapping Steve Carell and holding him hostage in real life, this all could be worth checking out. Watch it on Hulu.

3. What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu)

The good news here is that the vampires are back. The bad is that… well, there’s not really any bad news. How could there be? This show remains relentlessly fun and silly in a way that almost feels like they’re getting away with something, like someone in charge stopped paying attention and they’re just running wild in their own little sandbox. This is, to be clear, a compliment of the highest order. One of our best shows is back and still humming along in peak form. This is worth celebrating. Watch it on FX/Hulu.

2. House of the Dragon (HBO Max)

On the surface, a prequel to a cultural phenomenon like Game Of Thrones seems like the easiest greenlight in the world. How could a sister project miss even with the mixed reception to the original’s finale? But House Of The Dragon is the second attempt (with one pilot failing to generate a series order) and it starts with one particular question hanging over its head: was it the world or the characters that inhabited it that made the original so widely adored? We’re about to find out as a new creative team tries to walk a line between old and new, creating fresh stories with a ring of familiarity. On their side: dragons, face-smashing combat, and Matt Smith’s good kinda bad energy. Watch it on HBO Max.

1.

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

(Amazon Prime)

Jeff Bezos is finally getting his version of Game of Thrones, and this even more enormously expensive franchise looks to be worth the price tag to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age to the screen. A young Galadriel will be one of the bigger highlights of this series’ exploration of relative peace that’s shattered when evil reemerges. Expect stunning visuals that leap from the Misty Mountains to an island setting to majestic forests. Between this and House of the Dragon, we’re sure getting our fill of epic fantasy shows these days. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

When Doechii joined the TDE Records roster, she was the first female artist on the label besides SZA. Doechii has been on the up ever since, dropping her debut EP she/her/black b*tch last month, which features appearances from Rico Nasty and Just Ray, along with SZA on the record’s crowning moment, “Persuasive.”

The SZA-featured version of “Persuasive” is one of those tracks that should really be getting more talk as a potential song of the summer and now the pair have dropped a video that’s sure to get people talking about the collab between the ladies of TDE. Both Doechii and SZA flash multiple head-turning looks in the clip. It’s a masterful display of hair styling, Doechii gets wrapped in glitter at one point, and SZA even twerks and pole dances underwater.

“I created “Persuasive” to uplift people and bring communities together, so having SZA jump on the song was a perfect fit because I’ve always connected with others over her music,” Doechii said in a statement. “Knowing that SZA is with TDE was what originally got me most excited about being on this label, so now that we have a song together it’s a full-circle moment. She really ATE! This collaboration is everything I always imagined it to be.”

Watch the video for “Persuasive” above.

OnlyFans is reporting record profits for 2021 and revealing that its creators pulled in almost $4 billion, which is a heck of a lot of money. The platform, which has been making headlines recently thanks to Denise Richards and her daughter, posted its financial results, and it seemingly backs reports that its top creators are making huge bank. Particularly, Blac Chyna, who reportedly locked down the number one spot for the year while facing some pretty stiff competition.

Via Variety:

In 2021, model and TV personality Blac Chyna was the top-earning creator on OnlyFans, pulling in an estimated $20 million per month, according to research service Statista. Bella Thorne took the No. 2 spot with an estimated $11 million per month followed by rapper Cardi B with $9.34 million per month, per Statista.

If we’re doing the math right and these numbers are actually correct, Blac Chyna not only pulls in twice what superstar artist Cardi B makes, but the former Kardashian family member makes $240 million a year just from OnlyFans? Whoa, if true.

According to the financial statement, OnlyFans saw a 160% revenue growth during 2021, which could’ve easily gone out the window after the platform made a highly controversial decision to ban adult content on the site. It was a move that came out of nowhere considering, well, that was the entire point of OnlyFans. However, after backlash from users and the adult entertainment community forced OnlyFans to reverse its decision within a week, and clearly, it’s been humming along ever since.

Particularly for Blac Chyna, who we seriously can’t believe is doing way more numbers than Cardi B. The internet is wild, folks.

(Via Variety)

Saturday Night Live, which Rob Schnieder is not a fan of anymore, is changing dramatically ahead of its 48th season, which begins sometime this fall (there is no confirmed premiere date yet). Beloved series regulars Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor are leaving the sketch comedy series, along with featured player Aristotle Athari, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Moffat joined SNL in 2016, and throughout his tenure on the show has played Joe Biden, Eric Trump, and The Guy Who Just Bought a Boat. Villaseñor also joined in 2016, and in her run became notable for her celebrity impressions including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Lady Gaga, and SNL alum Kristen Wiig. Athari was on SNL as a featured player for one season for the 2021-2022 run. He was cast alongside other featured players Sarah Sherman and James Austin Johnson.

Moffat and Villaseñor’s departures from the long-running NBC comedy indicate an even bigger cast shake-up than expected for season 48. At the end of season 47, stars Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney exited the show after many seasons. In August, it was announced that senior producer Lindsay Shookus would be leaving the series after working on the series since the early 2000s. SNL returns for its 48th season this fall.

(Via THR)

Joker 2, which has been given the fancy title of Joker: Folie à Deux just got more interesting. Brendan Gleeson has joined the sequel film alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Joker: Folie à Deux will be directed by Todd Phillips who also directed the first film, which won Phoenix the Oscar for best actor. The title of the sequel derives from a French term meaning “an identical or similar mental disorder affecting two or more individuals,” according to the Indian Journal of Psychiatry.

Deadline reports that Gleeson has joined the DC sequel, which begins filming in December of this year, with an expected release date of October 4, 2024. The Irish actor’s role is currently unknown, as are many details of the sequel. In addition to directing Joker: Folie à Deux, Philips co-wrote the script with Joker screenwriter Scott Silver. The film is rumored to take place at Arkham Asylum, which is where Arthur Fleck/Joker ended up a the end of Joker. Lady Gaga confirmed her casting earlier this month. Although it has not been confirmed, Gaga is rumored to be playing Harley Quinn, and the film is rumored to be a musical. Given Gaga’s involvement, the musical rumors are probably valid. I don’t have any theories about who Gleeson in playing, I just hope he gets to sing.

Brendan Gleeson’s notable roles include Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films, In Bruges opposite Colin Farrell, and Paddington 2. This fall, he stars in The Banshees of Inisherin, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival. In 2019, Joker won the top prize at Venice.

Will the Phoenix, Gaga, and Gleeson trio be even more iconic than Bradley Cooper, Gaga and Sam Elliot on the A Star Is Born press tour? We have to wait over two years to find out.

On The Up is back after a short break, once again highlighting five new artists you should be listening to this month. September’s picks jump from a surging Bay Area R&B singer to a new face on the Brazilian music scene signed to Stones Throw Records. Fans of Big Thief will be hyped on one of our picks, while a dizzying LA rapper and rising Aussie psych-pop group round out September’s group. Check ’em out and listen in below.

Zyah Belle

We’ve been featuring some of Zyah Belle’s tracks in our Best New R&B column dating back to when the Bay Area singer signed with Guin Records last year and dropped the silky Who’s Listening Anyway EP. She hasn’t let up in 2022 and has her album, Yam Grier, set to drop on September 9th. “Not The One” beams with some serious mystique from her and LA rapper Tempest, while “DND” is armed with a sultry, electro-R&B bounce. Named after ’70s blaxploitation film queen Pam Grier (who also starred in Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 cult classic, Jackie Brown), Yam Grier sees Belle channeling that alpha woman energy Grier made famous on the silver screen and she says the album is, “The embodiment of a woman who has finally come into her own, unapologetically.”

Gabriel Da Rosa

When Brazil’s Gabriel Da Rosa arrived in LA eight years ago, he was armed with a guitar, a backpack, a dog, and a rock and roll dream. Where he’s at today looks very different — well, at least musically. The latest signee to the always-eclectic Stones Throw Records label, Da Rosa is making music in the mold of the Brazilian samba, bossa nova, and tropicalia greats. On his debut single, “Jasmim Parte 1,” that uncanny breezy guitar, pairs with lush Wurly keys, bossa horns and a gorgeous Brazilian sidewalk flute. In the song’s video, the avid vinyl collector flips through records from legends like Joao Gilberto, Novos Baianos, Gal Costa, etc… and if any of those names mean something to you, you’re gonna want to press play on “Jardim Parte 1” stat.

Tenci

We’ve got a soft spot for so many artists on Austin’s indie workhorse label Keeled Scales. Acts like Sun June, Why Bonnie, and Katy Kirby are helping shape the label’s roster and now Chicago’s Tenci are pushing towards their second album on the imprint. A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing is due out on November 4th, and lead single “Two Cups” showcases singer/bandleader Jess Shoman’s imaginative arrangements and inviting vocals that harken to Adrianne Lenker’s distinct range.

Rhys Langston

LA’s off-kilter art rap scene has always rested on the foundations of MCs dropping stream-of-consciousness raps that in actuality, aren’t that at all. For these cats are just delightful, highly-intelligent weirdos with a microphone and a lot to say. Rhys Langston is one of these artists and the POW Records-signee has a sharp-tongued, verbose approach that comes across as trippily as smashing melons on the shores of the La Brea tar pits. The Sufjan Stevens-esque-titled “I Will Stop At Nothing (I A Magnetized And I Move!)” is a spiraling display of wordsmithery, as Langston spits in a controlled fury, “And my voice box full of stuffing, dressings, fixings / MacGuyver’d, Epoxy, aluminum wire. Ready-made, sculpted tableau portmanteau…” His album Grapefruit Radio is set to drop on September 14th and also features Jersey’s Fatboi Sharif, LA mainstay The Koreatown Oddity, and others.

Babe Rainbow

In a most unusual, but wholly welcome collaboration last year, Jaden Smith guested on the sunny, shore-break airiness of Babe Rainbow’s “Your Imagination.” It was another high-profile co-sign for the Aussie psych-y surf pop band following a release on Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Stu Mackenzie producing their debut. Now the group are pushing towards a new album as tunes like “Smash The Machine” have grown increasingly more psychedelic. It’s no surprise that their upcoming tour begins on Sept 30th at SoCal’s buzzy, psych rock-focused (but still eclectic) Desert Daze festival alongside Tame Impala, King Gizzard, and Sky Ferreira.

Last week, popular comedic Twitter account @NoContextBrits shared a terrific post, of some sort of old bunker that has been left neglected and has come to be surrounded by overgrown amber grass. It definitely looks like a certain somebody with a distinct hairdo and the account nailed it on the head with the caption, “Rod Stewart is looking well.”

The tweet has performed quite well, as it has racked up over 83,000 likes since August 24. The tweet even caught the attention of Stewart himself, who clearly got a kick out of it. He shared the tweet yesterday (August 31) and wrote, “F*ck sake [crying laughing emoji].”

As for what Stewart’s been up to, he’s currently approaching the end of a North American tour that has two shows remaining: September 2nd in Jacksonville and the 3rd in Tampa. He’s also preparing to bring the Rod Stewart: The Hits residency back to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for a handful of performances starting towards the end of this month. His latest album is 2021’s The Tears Of Hercules, which has done well commercially, achieving a peak at No. 5 on the UK chart.

Rod Stewart is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

“83 channels of ecstasy/I love my cable TV” – “Weird Al” Yankovic

A few days ago I got a text message from my friend Rob back in St. Louis. He and his family “cut the cord” some time ago and live fully on a streaming lifestyle. Recently, he’s been traveling around with his son for baseball tournaments and sent me this message:

So, we “cut the cord” many years ago and so all we do is stream and occasionally we will watch live over the air TV. But traveling all over the place this summer for my son’s baseball, and staying in hotels, I got back to my old channel surfing roots. So my question to you is this: why is it, in 2022 when most anything we would want to watch is available to us at any time we want to watch it, it is SO SATISFYING when you stumble across something on traditional TV? When we were somewhere waiting to find out if my son’s game that day would be rained out or not, Beverly Hills Cop was on Showtime and it was AWESOME!!!! But it shouldn’t be, I could watch that at any time.”

So, I’ve thought about this a lot. To the point that anytime it’s even considered to get rid of cable, I don’t, for these very reasons. (Also, our internet package is tied up into our cable bill and canceling cable, then getting internet service on its own, doesn’t really save that much money.) In fact, Brian Truitt at USA Today recently asked me for a quote about if I missed the days of video stores, specifically VHS, to the streaming model of today. My gist was: No. Driving (or getting my parents to drive me) to the video store only to find the pan and scan movie I wanted was rented was a pain in the ass. Streaming, in general, is much better. (Though, the streamers are a whole different subject.)

I’ve dabbled in this subject before because I find it fascinating. In that, so many of the movies we consider classics today from the ’80s and ’90s weren’t even big hits at the box office but found their lives on what seemed like never-ending cable television loops. And I truly believe that’s why so many movies over the last ten years have kind of drifted out of the cultural consciousness because these aren’t playing in front of as many people on those aforementioned never-ending loops.

So, I’ve put a lot of thought into my friend Rob’s question and I decided, well, why not just make the answer public since I think about this all the time anyway?

Rob used the example of Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that still plays a lot on cable (I know this from experience) and, yes, I usually watch it every single time if I’m flipping through channels. So why was he so excited to see Beverly Hills Cop, even though he could watch it anytime he wants with streaming? Well, Beverly Hills Cop is a good example because many, many people enjoy this movie very much. But it’s very few people’s favorite movie. So, with streaming, a person would have to make a conscious decision to sit down and watch Beverly Hills Cop from start to finish. Which most people aren’t going to do because, when choosing a movie, most people pick something new they haven’t seen, something old they haven’t seen, or literally their favorite movie.

It would take a surprising amount of effort to decide, “Yeah I want to watch Beverly Hills Cop right now.” Actually deciding to watch a movie is exhausting. A person has to do something. As opposed to coming across a movie on cable. This is the opposite. It’s a passive experience. A person gets to stop flipping channels. Instead of stressing about what movie to watch, instead it’s a relief to find something familiar.

Then there’s the aspect of picking up a movie we’ve already seen somewhere in the middle, but hardly ever at the beginning. People like this. We don’t have to waste time with the setup we’ve already seen numerous times. We basically get to start right in the middle of the action. And there’s nothing we can really do about it. There’s no guilt. “Well, this is when I happened to tune in.” But with streaming, no one is going to fire up Beverly Hills Cop and start it during the strip club scene when Axel, Billy, and Taggart bust a robbery. On cable, watching Beverly Hills Cop is a 45-minute, maybe hour-long experience. On streaming, it’s the full hour and 45 minutes.

I do think the communal aspect factors in too. The other day I watched a Blu-ray of Hal Ashby’s last film, 8 Million Ways to Die (which isn’t on streaming) and there is the sense that I might be the only person in the world watching this particular movie at this particular time. At the very least, I was the only one watching it on the exact schedule it was on. And that’s fine, but there’s something fun about knowing that when Axel and Bogomil take out Maitland, you’re watching that scene with a few thousand other people. Streaming feels lonely. Cable still feels like we are watching with others, and it’s an experience that can be shared with friends and strangers via Twitter, WhatsApp, texting, etc.

I’ve seen people bring up the idea of streamers having a “random channel.” Anytime I hear this idea I feel like Peter Gibbons in Office Space right after Bob Slydell asks him if he’d be interested in a hypothetical, “stock option, equity sharing program,” to which I reply, “I don’t know, I guess.” The problem with that is, it’s still just going to have whatever the streamer has to offer. Netflix isn’t exactly filled with a library of classic movies these days. Also, the streamers would want to promote their new stuff, so a Netflix “random” channel would be The Grey Man and Red Notice all day. Also, this would be one channel. There’s no flipping. It would be, “watch whatever is on our random channel or pick something else,” which defeats the purpose. And let’s say every streamer got on board with a random channel … sure, that sounds fun, at least a minute trying to navigate to a new app to “change the channel.” (Though, a friend of mine had a fun idea for HBO Max: a “this used to be played on a constant loop in the ’80s and ’90s” channel. Something like that I might be interested in, maybe.)

Combine all this with the fact cutting the cord isn’t the money-saver that it was promised to be once you add up internet charges and the price of every streaming service subscription. (And these streaming prices keep going up!) So now it’s some hodgepodge of cable, plus a few streamers, and most of them I get free … because I have cable.

So, as it all turns out, I am “stuck” with cable still for the foreseeable future, something I still enjoy.

Bob Odenkirk may have just finished up his stint as goofy lawyer Saul Goodman, but he is already prepared to begin his next chapter as the world’s most in-demand action star. Sorry, Chris Pratt! Your time is up!

In 2021, Odenkirk starred as a low-key guy who turns to violence after his house is robbed in Nobody. The film was a decent hit, despite being released mid-pandemic but pre-vaccine, and now Odenkirk wants to get back up on the action-thriller horse.

“I was very surprised by Nobody,” Odenkirk told the crowd at the Vence Film Festival. Odenkirk then cited Saul as an inspiration for the character. “I had initiated that project because I had a feeling that the character I was developing in Better Call Saul was the kind of character you see in an action film. He has earnest desires and he was willing to sacrifice himself.”

Despite the end of Saul, Odenkirk is still training in case the next big action movie comes along. After his near-fatal heart attack last summer, it seems like the actor has a new lease on life and wants to live to the fullest. And if living to the fullest is becoming the next John Wick, then so be it!

He added, “I still train multiple times a week and if I get my way you’re going to see me doing more action. I found the action sequences a great deal of fun and close to doing sketch comedy…I love the early Jackie Chan films which had humor in them. I’d like to get that in in future.” Odenkirk is no stranger to sketch comedy as he was an SNL writer for many years before eventually starring in his sketch show with David Cross.

So now, we beg, more scenes of Odenkirk running around and jumping into dumpsters! Thanks!

(Via Deadline)

Back in May, Danny Brown got into the podcast game by launching The Danny Brown Show (through YMH Studios, owned by married comedians Tom Segura and Christina P.) He’s put out new episodes weekly since then and on the latest one from August 30, he weighed in on AI rapper FN Meka. To put it simply, he’s not a fan.

Addressing the initial upset some hip-hop fans had about Meka signing with Capitol Records, Brown said, “Only thing I’m mad about is he’s an AI-generated rapper but they got him saying ‘n****.’ Now that’s racist, ’cause we know ain’t no n****s programming no f*ckin AI-generated rappers. He’s saying ‘n****’ and sh*t and that’s the weird sh*t because I mean, he’s an AI-generated program: He should be smart enough to say some other words. He should have a vast vocabulary.”

He continued, “F*ck FN Meka, I’m beefing with him. Tell him to drop the diss song on me, Danny Brown want all the smoke.”

Brown also brought up another point about competition in hip-hop: “So if he comes up and this does real good, and this is successful, […] other record labels are going to be like, ‘F*ck it, I gotta get me an AI-generated rapper.’ I mean, bad enough we competing with each other. You know how many rappers it is in the world? It’s too many of us! It’s definitely too many f*cking rappers. […] Now you’re telling me we gotta compete with computers, too? F*ck this sh*t, man!”

That Meka diss track is likely not coming any time soon, as the rapper was quickly dropped from its label following the backlash.

Check out Brown discussing FN Meka above or watch the full Danny Brown Show episode below.