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If you’ve never heard of Bell’s Brewery you probably don’t drink much craft beer. The Comstock, Michigan-based brewery has been around in some iteration since 1983 and gaining an ever-expanding cult following for its high-quality brews along the way. From IPAs to lagers to stouts, Bell’s has grown synonymous with craft and quality.

To help you spend your beer money wisely, we re-tasted the nine year-round staples Bell’s Brewery makes and ranked them. Our ranking is based on taste alone (obvi). Armed with this knowledge, you can make your first forays into the Bell’s lineup wisely.

9) Light Hearted Ale

ABV: 3.7%
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

When it comes to ranking beer from an award-winning brewery, it should come as no surprise that a light beer wouldn’t land too high on the list. This 3.7% sessionable IPA is brewed with Centennial and Galaxy hops.

As a light beer, it’s great. As an IPA, it’s a little lacking.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is pretty bland with hints of fresh-cut grass, light citrus, and even lighter pine. Not a bad nose, just a bit thin. The palate is dry, crisp, with hints of sweet malts, citrus peel, and just a note of hop bitterness at the finish.

Bottom Line:

This is a totally crushable beer if that’s why you’re looking for. It’s light, dry, and refreshing. Fans of dank, piney IPAs need not apply.

8) No, Yeah

ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Even if you’re a craft beer fan, you’ve probably never heard of Bell’s No, Yeah. This 4.5% sessionable, crisp golden ale is only available in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota. If you live anywhere else, you’re out of luck.

Tasting Notes:

Aromas of wet grass, bready malts, and sweet grains are prevalent, but not much else. The taste reveals more sweet malts and grains as well as some citrus zest, tropical fruits, and light hops. Fairly well-balanced but not good enough to drive to the Midwest to taste (I got mine shipped — there are some perks to beer writing).

Bottom Line:

Similar to Light-Hearted, this is an easy-drinking session beer. It’s reasonably well-balanced but not very exciting compared to the brand’s other offerings.

7) Porter

ABV: 5.6%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Porters are great winter warmers but a little too sweet and rich for much of the year. This award-winning porter is a reasonable 5.6% ABV and is the brewery’s lighter take on the classic style. It’s basically a chocolate and coffee-flavored sipper.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is highlighted by scents of caramel, coffee, and light chocolate. It’s got a decent nose but it’s not the most exciting porter we’ve ever tried. The palate is more of the same with espresso beans, bready malts, toffee, and a nutty sweetness throughout.

Bottom Line:

When it comes to easy-drinking, sweet, chocolatey porters, this is a pretty good choice. But it’s against some stiff competition.

6) Amber Ale

ABV: 5.8%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

The first beer ever brewed by Bell’s, this Amber Ale is a balance of caramel and toasted malts. It’s sweet, rich, and slightly bitter. It’s the kind of beer you crack open and share with friends. We get why this was the brand’s first-ever beer.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is everything you hope for in an Amber Ale. It’s loaded with sweet caramel malts, slight cereal, and just a hint of floral, slightly bitter hops. The flavor is extremely malty, sweet, and ends with a nice complimentary touch of piney bitterness.

Bottom Line:

If you’re a fan of slightly sweet, caramel-filled, and nicely hopped amber ales, this is perfect for you. It ticks all of the amber ale boxes and does them well.

5) Official Hazy IPA

ABV: 6.4%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Hazy IPAs have been trending for the last few years, so it should come as no surprise that Bell’s got in on the scene with its Officially Hazy IPA. This double dry-hopped beer is brewed with Mosaic, Azacca, Amarillo, Citra, and El Dorado hops.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is all citrus and tropical fruits with tangerine, grapefruit, pineapple, and peach taking center stage. The palate is slightly bitter with hints of sweet wheat, orange peel, grapefruit, tropical fruits, and a bit of dank pine to finish it all off.

Bottom Line:

This isn’t your average hazy IPA. It’s more like a mixture of a wheat beer and a New England-style IPA. It’s sweet, fruity, and has a nice, gentle bitterness.

4) Hopsoulution Ale

ABV: 8%
Average Price: $12.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This 8% ABV double IPA doesn’t get as much hype as Two-Hearted Ale and that’s likely because it’s only available year-round in a few midwestern states. It’s a combination of multiple different hop varieties and ticks all of the IPA boxes. It’s high in alcohol and filled with citrus, tropical, and piney notes.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is a cacophony of citrus peels, tropical fruits, and caramel malts. The palate reveals dank pine, guava, mango, grapefruit, and a nice kick of bready, sweet malts at the very end. Overall, a very well-rounded IPA.

Bottom Line:

This is a great double IPA. It’s fresh, fruity, juicy, and perfectly dank. If its availability was greater, it might become the brewery’s other globally-known double IPA.

3) Kalamazoo Stout

ABV: 6%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

If you’re a fan of a classic pint of Guinness, you’ll love this 6% ABV American stout. It’s mellow, rich, and filled with hints of chocolate fudge, sticky toffee, and freshly brewed coffee. It’s even richer and bolder than its ABV would dictate.

Tasting Notes:

The nose delivers aromas of vanilla beans, butterscotch, chocolate, and light oakiness. The taste is melted milk chocolate, toffee, buttery caramel, and gentle coffee bitterness at the end.

Bottom Line:

This is a great stout. It’s the kind of beer we’d crack open literally any time of the year, but especially in the middle of winter.

2) Two-Hearted Ale

ABV: 7%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Two-Hearted is by far Bell’s’ most popular beer, and for good reason. This highly drinkable, refreshing, 7% ABV double IPA is made with 100% Centennial hops. The result is a dank, citrus-filled, malt-fueled IPA you won’t soon forget.

There’s a reason it commonly makes lists of best IPAs in America.

Tasting Notes:

Fresh cut grass, clove, citrus zest, caramel malts, and tropical fruits lead the way in the aroma department. The palate is heavy on guava, mango, pineapple, and dank, resinous pine. That’s balanced by a lightly sweet malt backbone.

Bottom Line:

When it comes to double IPAs, this is one of the most well-rounded, complex beers around. It’s piney, filled with citrus, tropical fruits, and has just the right amount of sweet malts to make you forget some of the other IPAs on the market.

1) Lager of the Lakes

ABV: 5%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Never had Lager of the Lakes? You don’t know what you’re missing. This Czech-style Bohemian pilsner is well-known for its combination of bready malts and bitter hops. It’s refreshing, highly crushable, and the perfect beer for a day at the lake.

Tasting Notes:

The aroma is all caramel malts, Noble hops, and light corn sweetness. Some fruity, citrus notes arrive late. The flavor is crisp, thirst-quenching, and filled with sweet wheat, corn, biscuit-like malts, slight fruit, and pleasing, bitter hops.

Bottom Line:

This should become your new go-to summer beer (and literally any other time of year). It’s light, refreshing, and highly crushable.

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As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Last spring, Live Nation, Snoop Dogg, and Bobby Dee announced the Lovers & Friends festival, a massive showcase that would bring some of the best singers and rappers of the 1990s and 2000s to one stage. The festival flyer was equipped with names that included Lauryn Hill, Usher, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Ciara, Nelly, Ashanti, Ja Rule, Ne-Yo, Trey Songz, Brandy, and, Monica — and that’s just on the first two lines of the poster.

Then the pandemic arrived and forced the postponement of the festival, as it did for many other big name showcases. Luckily Lovers & Friends announced that the festival — with all the artists that appeared on the original flyer — would return on May 14, 2022. Now, the showcase has unveiled a second date for the show.

Lauryn Hill, Usher, Lil Jon, Ludacris, and the rest of the crew will take the stage for the festival in Las Vegas for an added show on May 15, 2022. Those who signed up for access to presale tickets for the May 14 date will now have access to the “First Dibs Presale” for the May 15 date which begins on Saturday, August 7 at 3 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. PST. Another presale for the second date will begin on Monday, August 9 at 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST while tickets for the general public will be made available starting August 9 at 5 p.m. EST / 2 a.m. PST.

For more information, check out loversandfriendsfest.com.

Summer 2021 is flying by! We’re now in the final full month of the season. So before we launch our big yearly roundup of the best new ice cream flavors on the market, we have to finish paying tribute to the classics. We’ve hit vanilla, found the best chocolate ice cream your money can buy, and now it’s time to take on that sweet fruit adored by gods and lovers: strawberry.

For some reason, strawberry is a lot more polarizing a flavor than vanilla and chocolate. When people don’t like Neopolitan ice cream (note: these people’s taste buds are broken) it’s more often than not the strawberry that they take issue with. And you’ll never find a dessert menu that has just strawberry ice cream. Not even the super hipster places that churn it themselves. A shame because strawberry ice cream is amazing.

I didn’t always feel this way — I’m a recent strawberry ice cream convert. As I child I hated the stuff but as my palate grew more refined and appreciative of nuance (just check my fast food rankings for evidence of that!), I began to see that strawberry ice cream offers an uplifting and bright burst of flavor that vanilla and chocolate just can’t match.

In a quest to find the very best strawberry ice creams on the market, we put 10 brands to a blind taste test then power ranked them.

Part 1: The Taste

For this ranking, I grabbed 10 brands that are commonly stocked at grocery stores and asked my girlfriend serve them to me unmarked, one at a time, to keep optimal frozen consistency. She constantly questioned whether this was really my job or just a way for me to eat a whole lot of ice cream in one sitting. I’m still not sure she’s convinced.

Taste 1:

Wow, this scoop isn’t messing around. The first thing that jumped out to me was the consistency — it’s thick and creamy with small bits of strawberry spread throughout. The strawberries are so small that the frozen texture doesn’t distract or take away from the luxurious mouthfeel.

Small strawberry seeds add an interesting texture to this scoop.

Taste 2:

Very light on the strawberry flavor here. It almost tastes like vanilla ice cream with the lightest drizzle of strawberry sauce mixed in, Cold Stone style. The strawberry flavoring is pretty weak, but overall I’m really enjoying this flavor.

This is a great subtle iteration of the flavor, especially if fresh strawberries in your vanilla ice cream is more your speed than straight-up strawberry.

Taste 3:

The flavor here is the polar opposite of the last tasting. Where that one was light and subtle, this one bashes you over the head with the strawberry flavoring. It’s sickly sweet, like strawberry Nesquik. This one also has chunks of strawberries like taste 1, but they’re much larger here and provide an icy popsicle-like bite that I found distracting.

Taste 4:

This one also goes heavy on the artificial strawberry flavor but it’s not nearly as intense as the last taste. Rather than chunks of fruit, this one provides the tiniest bits of strawberries that add a nice bright flavor and don’t force you to chew through ice cubes.

Overall pretty solid, but nowhere near as good as the first two tastes.

Taste 5:

This one presents a good balance between strawberry and cream flavors but it’s a bit watery on the finish. The flavor doesn’t really linger on your palate at all — it hits your tongue and mellows out into a neutral aftertaste. The chunks of strawberries in this one are huge and deeply frozen, which makes them last longer than the ice cream itself.

The ice cream melted away while I was still busy chewing on that frozen berry, which I didn’t love.

Taste 6:

Really interesting consistency here. It’s light and pillowy without being watery, presenting a creamy texture that melts in your mouth in the most sublime way. There is a lot of depth to the flavor here, it hits you with sweetened strawberry notes, mellows out into something resembling vanilla, and then finishes with a nice natural berry flavor.

From my notes: “The perfect balance between real and artificial strawberry.”

Taste 7:

This was a shock to the system after the perfection that was that last scoop. It tastes leagues different than all the other brands so far, it’s highly artificial and not in the least bit creamy, tasting more like a strawberry flavored popsicle than it does a scoop of ice cream.

I’m calling it here — this is my bottom pick.

Taste 8:

This one has a great consistency, it’s thick without being too dense, presenting a luxurious and creamy mouthfeel, but the flavor just doesn’t wow me. It’s way too sour and tangy with a tropical quality to it that kind of reminded me of a strawberry banana smoothie.

That doesn’t sound bad, but it’s not what I’m looking for in a strawberry ice cream.

Taste 9:

This scoop’s strawberry bits were perfectly distributed and I could taste actual strawberry in every bite, which is appreciated. The consistency is slightly pillowy, close to what Taste 6 offered, but the overall flavor is not nearly as delicious. While I feel like this scoop was refreshing, it tasted just a bit too watery to me.

I want ice cream, I’m not over here trying to get hydrated.

Taste 10:

My girlfriend must think she’s funny bringing me what is clearly the dairy-free brand last, what a weak close! I have a lot of sympathy for the people who have to opt for dairy-free ice cream brands because this stuff is just so far from tasting like actual ice cream. From the icy consistency to the bright flavor, this just straight up tastes like a frozen chunk of strawberry. What I really didn’t like was how it kind of sits on your tongue in a pile of slush — it doesn’t have that buttery quality that every other scoop had.

Having said that, it’s still preferable to Taste 7, which is probably the worst iteration of the flavor I’ve ever experienced. If this ends up not being the dairy-free brand, feel free to roast me in the comments.

Part 2: The Ranking

10. Kroger Deluxe — Strawberry (Taste 7)

Average Price $1

The Ice Cream:

You can grab Kroger Deluxe’s Strawberry ice cream for just $1 dollar a quart — but you couldn’t pay me to eat this ice cream again. I don’t have anything against store brands, I’m sure I have a few dozen Kroger branded products in my kitchen right now, but this experience was enough to convince me to never give their ice cream a shot again.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t buy it — hell, don’t even look at it, it’ll poison your mind with its horribleness.

9. Whole Foods 365 — Strawberry (Taste 3)

Average Price $5.99

The Ice Cream:

I swear to you, I’m not against store brands, but uh, Whole Foods 365 brand is also pretty bad. And at $6 a quart, it’s almost infuriating to me just how bad it is. At least Kroger knew to price their sad attempt at ice cream accordingly. Whole Foods charging you this premium price feels like a hard slap in the face.

Don’t let this admittedly nice packaging convince you to pay Bezos for this trash.

The Bottom Line:

For this price, you’re better off going to a nearby ice cream parlor and getting their house strawberry. You won’t get as much value, but at least you’ll actually enjoy the thing you spent money on. This will just remain in your freezer like a frozen block of sad.

8. Eclipse — Strawberry Fields (Taste 10)

Average Price $11.99 (per pint)

The Ice Cream:

Eclipse is a dairy-free, non-GMO, plant-based ice cream brand that claims that they’ve created an ice cream that is indistinguishable from dairy. That’s… just not true. But flavor-wise Eclipse really delivers. It’s bright and undeniably tastes like actual strawberries. In a ranking of non-dairy ice creams, I’m sure it would rank highly.

Against the real thing, we’re going to have to keep this one near the bottom of the list.

The Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a dairy-free strawberry ice cream that tastes natural and delicious, this is your brand.

7. Favorite Day — Strawberry (Taste 5)

Average Price $2.99

The Ice Cream:

Favorite Day is Target’s store brand and despite its unimaginative name, it’s proven itself pretty solid in our ice cream rankings so far. This ice cream is made with a blend of nonfat milk and sweer cream buttermilk, which really gives it a luxurious consistency for such affordable ice cream.

Unfortunately, that lack of a lingering flavor is really holding it back from ranking higher for us.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t roll your eyes at Target’s store brand, Favorite Day delivers consistently solid ice cream for a low price.

6. Dreyers/Edy’s — Strawberry (Taste 8)

Average Price $3.48

The Ice Cream:

Dreyer’s/Edy’s is overall a pretty solid but unremarkable brand. The ice cream here is made with actual milk and cream (the great consistency reflects this) and contains no artificial colors or flavors, but the taste is a little lacking compared to some of these other brands. For the low price, you’re getting a lot of value here, but if you’re in the freezer aisle wondering why this is priced lower than Breyer’s, it’s because it’s not quite as good.

The Bottom Line:

A great option if you’re on a budget. This ice cream has the best consistency in this low price range.

5. Great Value — Strawberry Ice Cream (Taste 4)

Average Price $1.97

The Ice Cream:

See, I told you I don’t have anything against store value brands! Great Value occupies a similar prince point to Kroger Deluxe, only this ice cream is leagues better. I’ll admit that before I embarked on this blind taste test I had assumed that Great Value, Kroger, and even Favorite Day would likely land at the bottom of this ranking, but here is Great Value snagging that top-five spot!

The Bottom Line:

Great Value Strawberry Ice Cream really lives up to its name. For the price and with the flavor this delivers, it’s an excellent bargain buy.

4. Breyers — Natural Strawberry (Taste 9)

Average Price $4.49

The Ice Cream:

I was a little surprised that Breyer’s didn’t perform better. While landing in fourth place is nothing to scoff at, usually the brand nails these blind taste tests. Not this time, though — I found their strawberry flavor a little lacking overall. Breyer’s is made with real milk and cream, and they even use actual sugar to sweeten their ice cream, rather than corn syrup like most brands.

The quart advertises that the ice cream is made with “sun-ripened” strawberries, which is really more a case of smart marketing than anything you’ll actually pick up on in the ice cream itself.

The Bottom Line

A solid choice with great consistency and a good initial flavor but compared to the quality Breyer’s usually delivers, this one was surprisingly forgettable.

3. Blue Bunny — Double Strawberry Swirl (Taste 2)

Average Price $3.97

The Ice Cream

Another surprise for me — I know Blue Bunny has its fans, but generally, I feel like their ice creams are way too sweet. The brand also has a tendency to love putting swirls in their flavors and, generally speaking, I don’t like this (marshmallow swirl in rocky road? no thanks). With this strawberry flavor, it works! It introduces the strawberry in a really subtle way, approaching the flavor differently than every other brand in this ranking.

The Bottom Line

If you want a strawberry ice cream that doesn’t taste artificial, this is a really great and subtlety-flavored option.

2. Häagan-Dazs — Strawberry (Taste 1)

Average Price $3.79 (per pint)

The Ice Cream

I was really torn on this one. On certain hot days, I can see Häagen-Dazs hitting a spot that our number one pick can’t. This strawberry ice cream is dense and creamy, and smooth like butter and offers one of the best mouthfeels of any of the ice creams on this list. But it’s just a little too decadent. I can’t imagine myself having more than a spoonful, and where is the fun in that?

The Bottom Line

If you like to eat your ice cream sparingly, this is a great pick. The flavors are intense and the consistency is unmatched, but it’s incredibly decadent so a whole bowl or a proper full scoop might feel overwhelmingly rich.

1. Tillamook — Oregon Strawberry (Taste 6)

Average Price $5.99

The Ice Cream

Here we are at our number one pick! Tillamook uses real strawberries picked fresh from a farm in Oregon and sports an ingredients list that actually puts cream first, which trust me, isn’t the norm in the world of modern grocery store ice cream. Tillamook then uses skim milk (whole would’ve provided an even better consistency, but hey, you can’t have everything) sugar, strawberries, egg yolks, and red beet concentrate, which helps to give this ice cream its beautiful eye-catching color.

What really won me over with this one was that pillowy consistency. Sure it doesn’t have the luxurious butter-like quality that Häagen-Daz does, but it’s a lot more enjoyable to eat. The scoop might not be as indulgent, but this feels like a grocery store staple and invites pour-overs and mix-ins (make yourself a shake — you deserve it!).

The Bottom Line

While our number one and number two pick both offer an amazing experience, I have to give it to Tillamook for its interesting pillowy texture and nice balance of strawberry and cream flavors.

Mare of Easttown was an unexpected television smash: a downbeat, grim murder mystery with at least one upsetting out-of-nowhere death and some of the saddest cheesesteaks ever committed to moving images. (On the other hand, it had lots of Jean Smart and Wawa.) But people loved it and once it ended, the demand for more hoagies and crazy regional accents was swift and passionate. It’s still unclear if Season 2 will happen, but apparently the show’s creator, Brad Inglesby, already has some solid directions it could head.

This comes from star Kate Winslet, who, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly (as sussed out by IndieWire), reiterated what she’s already said: that while she adored playing Mare Sheehan, the weathered Philly burbs detective, she was a bit reluctant to return. And she wasn’t the only one.

“At the end of shooting we were like, ‘Holy hell we can never do that again. If HBO brings up the idea of a Season 2, we all just have to say absolutely not. There’s just no way we could possibly do it,’” she said. But never say never.

“And then there was talk, like, could there be? Especially when the show was getting such good responses,” she said. “Creatively, Brad has shared some very cool ideas. We will see what happens. I also have to figure out if I can do it. Can I go through it again? It did cost me a lot emotionally to be her, and I have to figure out if I can summon it all up again and do it again.”

Winslet also discussed the reactions to Mare’s unkempt vibe. “People have been enraptured about how s*itty we made Mare look,” Winslet said. “That was very important to us creatively. We wanted to keep it real, and we were strict about it… Find the t-shirt that has a line that hits at the hip at the widest part. Don’t wear a bra, she just got up out of bed. Why would she have a bra on?”

She also had a theory about why her looks received such a warm reception. “Perhaps because of COVID and how much of a struggle that has been for people globally, there was something about how Mare looks that seemed to make people validated in a way,” she postulated. “That was very, very surprising. I did not think people would be so responsive and I’m grateful in a way that we would able to do that.”

So will Winslet once again don that stringy ponytail and chow down on some TastyKake? Only time will tell. But if there is a Season 2, they definitely need to send Mare to the Mütter Museum.

(Via EW and IndieWire)

The USA men’s 4×100 meter relay team entered the Tokyo Olympics trying to end what has been a dismal stretch of failure dating back to the London games in 2012 where they haven’t medaled despite being among the favorites each year.

This year, with Usain Bolt no longer anchoring the Jamaican team, and two top-5 finishers in the 100-meter final just days ago, the USA was the gold medal favorite on paper, but moreso than any other track and field event, the fickle nature of the relay proved to leap up and bite the Americans before they could even get to the final.

The second handoff between Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker proved to be the death knell, as Baker didn’t get up to speed in time and Kerley nearly ran past him, resulting in a disastrous handoff that set the Americans back too far to make up on the final legs.

Ultimately, Team USA finished sixth in their heat, getting edged out at the line by Ghana for the final spot in the finals.

For Olympic legend Carl Lewis, it was nothing short of a disgrace, as he torched the squad on Twitter for being a “total embarrassment” and looking worse than AAU teams he’s watched recently.

Lewis, twice a gold medalist in the 4×100 for Team USA in 1984 and 1992, certainly knows a thing or two about how to perform in that event and what it takes to make a successful team, so his comments have to sting far more than any other disappointed fan watching at home. After the race, the issues for the team were laid bare by Baker and Kerley’s brief post-race media comments about how much the team had practiced leading up to the opening heat.

The USA’s issues in the team event in recent years can be summed up by those quotes, as they put together an impressive group of individuals on paper, but the lack of work to become a team to nail the relay portion of the race — where they are won and lost — has been apparent far too often.

FBoy Island has been out on HBO Max for a few weeks now and I’m still not sure exactly where I stand on it. Whether it’s a must-watch trash reality show guilty pleasure, or just another trashy reality dating show that you can probably skip… probably your mileage may vary. Though it should be said that host Nikki Glaser is unusually good at zingers.

The concept, such as it is, is that three young women (all looking like varying degrees of Instagram model) go to an island with 24 hot, smooth-chested idiots to try to find love (what could go wrong?). The TWIST is that 12 of the men are self-described “nice guys” and 12 are avowed “f*ckboys.” Can the women figure out who is who BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE?

The central question is about how adept young women are at divining a potential mate’s motivations (spoiler alert: not very). Though there may be an even bigger unspoken one, about whether how young men see themselves, as either sweet romantics or as shark-eyed transactional sex pursuers, makes any substantive difference in their actions or their viability as mates. Leaving aside all those potential thesis topics (you’re welcome!), easily the best part of the show has been the broad cross-section of job titles.

After all, what kind of job must a person have in order to be able to quarantine for two weeks on the Cayman Islands, and then shoot a show for four or six or however many weeks, all for a chance at fleeting reality show psuedo-fame? It, uh, attracts an eclectic sort, let’s say. The best part of the show has been, for me, reading the descriptions of the contestants’ pre-show day jobs. Which usually only flash on the screen for few seconds, as they share their innermost thoughts on what it means to be a f*ckboy.

I thought these were worthy of preservation. Here are some of my favorite:

10. Tariq, the Forensic Nutritionist

What separates a nutritionist from a forensic nutritionist? Is that where you look at old pictures of a dead guy and try to figure out what he ate to make himself so ripped? “And here we have a portrait of Frederick the Great, who as you can see even in his old age still had lats for days. My conclusion is that he ate a lot of pheasants.”

9. CJ the Content Creator

It should be noted that these men are all competing partly for the affections of CJ, a “content creator” from Los Angeles. This title is funny more in its sheer predictability than its exoticism. CJ never says exactly what kind of “content” she creates but she does give us a tantalizing hint in her introductory confessional. I have recreated that for you here verbatim:

“I like funny guys. I like silly guys, I like dumb guys, like dumb and fun. Like if you’re too smart you’re not gonna love me pranking you and, like, pretending I’ve been arrested.”

I sure hope this modern-day Cinderella finds her Prince Charming to do cruel pranks on for clout.

8. Divij The Talent Agent

“I dunno, bro, I think I’m gonna sign with Divij. He just has so many industry connections from being on F*ckboy Island.”

7. Peter the Child Care Influencer

I know that this technically says child care SLASH influencer, which I assume means that Peter is a professional babysitter with a spirited Instagram, but I prefer to interpret it as him being an actual childcare influencer. Like, “What’s up, guys, it’s Peter here and today I’m going to teach you how to burp a baby. Smash that like button, and don’t forget to subscribe and sound off in the comments.”

6. Cameron the Exotic Dancer/Realtor

Being an exotic dancer who also sells houses is almost quaintly old-fashioned in the context of this show. For one thing, both of those are real jobs (well, more the first than the second but still). Also, I imagine, pretty mundane in Las Vegas. Cameron rules. I hope Cameron wins this show and then twerks off into the sunset.

5. Chaun The Image Consultant

Chaun, who we later find out used to be a Chippendales dancer, is an “image consultant.” He is going to help the rest of these guys grow their influencer followings. (Incidentally, my browser redlines “influencer.” Oh to be that innocent again.)

4. Greg the TikToker

Of COURSE there’s a professional TikToker on this show. Of course.

I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m pro Tik Toker…
I mouth the music in my meeeeeeemes…

3. Israel the CBD Entrepreneur

I’m not ridiculing CBD as a profession, but I’d be really curious to see which part of the supply chain Israel works on. I’d like to think he makes the marketing materials “more edgy.”

2. Garrett M the Bitcoin Investor

Garrett M (yes, there is another Garrett on the show, a dead-eyed fireman who writes bad poetry) is one of the dullest human beings alive and I haven’t even heard him say the word “crypto” yet. The Libertarians should make him their next nominee for president. This screenshot was an accident, but I feel it’s the most accurate representation of Garrett M. Do you think he shaves that little patch of skin in the middle of his mustache or it grows that way naturally?

1. Paul the Fridge Deliverer

Paul is a blissed-out, weirdly jacked surfer bro with glorious hair from the north end of San Diego County, who delivers refrigerators for a living. Or so the producers would have us believe. There is a near-zero chance that Paul makes it to the end of this show, but the producers have included him for obvious reasons. He may get his own spinoff reality show on Discovery+.

Anyway, that’s it for my favorite job titles so far. It should be noted that I’m only about three and half episodes in at this point, so there could be more. Especially since the funniest thing about this show, behind the contestants’ job titles, is the way a guy will just randomly show up as a character two or three episodes in without any previous introduction or a second of camera time. –Vince, reality dating show job ranker

‘FBoy Island’ is currently available on HBO Max. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

There are a number of artists who are open about their marijuana use, among them Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Rihanna, and Miley Cyrus. Another used to be Kehlani. In a recent TikTok video, the singer opened up about her past experience with the drug after a fan asked about it. She also explained why she decided to stop smoking it.

“I used to smoke a lot of weed and now I speak on it in a past tense perspective,” she said. “People think I’m s*itting on weed, I’m not. I loved weed when I was involved with it. It’s a beautiful plant with very nice properties when used correctly. I don’t think that I was using it correctly. I think I was overusing it.”

She addded, “It really really messed with my vocal cords and it really took a lot of energy from my day … I stopped to regulate my body and myself… I got to a point where I couldn’t eat, sleep or be at a social gathering. I couldn’t kick it without smoking weed and I just didn’t want it to have that hold on my life anymore … And also my throat and lungs were tired of me.”

While marijuana was not a good fit for her, Kehlani doesn’t knock those who enjoy a puff or two. “I’m not judging the weed smokers!” she said. “Get it, girl.”

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

DaBaby’s bizarre comments from last month’s Rolling Loud festival in Miami have resulted is heavy damage to his career. The rapper has received plenty of criticism from his peers, and while he offered an apology, it was too little too late. Just a week after the Miami festival, the North Carolina native was removed from Lollapalooza’s 2021 festival lineup. Others followed suit, including Governors Ball, Day N Vegas, and Austin City Limits, but none did what a Colorado festival was forced to do on Thursday.

According to 9 News, organizers behind Denver’s KS 107.5 Summer Jam were extremely disappointed by DaBaby’s homophobic comments, and as a result, they were forced to make a tough decision. “In light of various factors, including DaBaby’s recent comments, along with our concert partners, we have chosen to cancel this year’s Summer Jam,” a statement from the festival read. “We look forward to working on Summer Jam lineups for years to come with our love of music and each other.”

While many are still frustrated with DaBaby’s comments, some are looking to educate the rapper about his faults. In an Instagram post, Miley Cyrus tagged him and said she “would love to talk and see how we can learn from each other.” The singer also asked fans to “find forgiveness and compassion.”

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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1. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)

There are moments in the early stages of season two that feel like they’re doubling down on the show’s signature positivity and niceness, but there’s no such thing as sweetness overload here as the show grows our affection for characters that are clearly taking a step forward in their arcs. Especially Ted, even though it seems like there may be some challenges ahead. Watch it on Apple TV+.

2. Outer Banks (Netflix)

Granted, the stills from this show make it look like your typical (beachy) teen drama, but that’s not the case. This is a mystery-based action thriller with a soapy residue, and although the main characters are, in fact teens, beware: once you start watching this show, you’ll want to set aside some time to finish the two seasons. There’s tons of intrigue and a hurricane and buried treasure, and it’s like National Treasure, if the main character was Young McConaughey-lite with dreams of tasty waves dashed by goons chasing him for [spoiler] reasons. There are Kooks and Pogues and dramatic rivalries, all of it ultimately silly yet far too entertaining.

3. Dave (FXX/Hulu)

Dave is a lot of things all at once. It’s childish and sweet, gross and thoughtful, powerfully weird but also extremely human. Mostly, though, it’s just funny. The series follows an aspiring rapper (Dave Burd aka Lil Dicky) as he attempts to make it big. There are cameos from huge stars and urological issues and awkward moments galore. It’s kind of like Curb Your Enthusiasm if that show was about a 20-something white rapper who had a hype man named GaTa. This is a compliment. Watch it on FXX and Hulu.

4. FBoy Island (HBO Max)

HBO Max’s latest reality show takes a question womankind has been asking since the dawn of time and turns it into a dating competition that, if you can believe it, lowers our collective opinion of men to shocking depths. Who’s a nice guy and who’s a f*ck boy? That’s up to the single women bamboozled into participating in this courtship farce to figure out as they frolic about a tropical paradise with me who blow-dry their beards and wear one-strap overalls unironically. This is what the Suffragettes died for, people. Watch it on HBO Max.

5. Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami (Netflix)

If you’re missing Narcos, rest assured that there’s so much blow in this docuseries, which gives the documentary treatment to the excess-filled life of two childhood pals who transformed into billionaire drug kingpins. There’s a tiger and bullfighting and speedboats and money flying everywhere, it’s no wonder why “Los Muchachos” were so darn popular. They were also slippery fellows, due to their world-champ powerboat-racing status. Watch it on Netflix.

6. I Think You Should Leave (Netflix)

Sketch comedy as a medium is a bit like baseball in that if you’re hitting above .300 it’s considered a success. I Think You Should Leave season one didn’t necessarily bat much higher than that, but became an instant cultural phenomenon thanks to hits that were so glorious and memorable that they almost instantly became memes. In season two, ITYSL has upped its average without losing its power. There’s hardly a dud in the entire first three episodes, which serve up unforgettable characters like the guy at the “adult” ghost tour who keeps asking about giant horse penises and obscene things the ghosts might be doing, and a recurring bit about Santa Claus as the hero of a reactionary movie series. Even the sketches that aren’t laugh-out-loud funny are still fascinatingly weird. Imagining Robinson pitching some of these ideas to another human is almost an I Think You Should Leave sketch unto itself — fitting perfectly into Robinson’s most frequent motif, of a clumsy oddball trying desperately to stifle his inner weirdness and failing miserably. Watch it on Netflix.

7. The White Lotus (HBO Max)

HBO’s The White Lotus hails from Mike White, the School of Rock screenwriter who also created one of the network’s most brilliantly underrated shows in Enlightened. This limited series, about the staff and guests of a tropical resort starring Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Alexandra Daddario, and Steve Zahn, looks like another winner. Watch it on HBO Max.

8. Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (HBO Max)

Barack Obama turns 60 years old this week, which seems impossible. He’s the fresh-faced, young senator from Illinois! Another thing that seems impossible: that there hasn’t been a definitive documentary about America’s first Black president — until now. HBO’s Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union is a three-part series from Emmy-winner Peter Kunhardt that chronicles “the personal and political journey” of Obama. It’s impossible to contextualize the significance of Obama’s two terms as president in only six hours, but through interviews with author Ta-Nehisi Coates and professor Cornel West, among many others, the documentary is a notable (and highly watchable) effort. Watch it on HBO Max.

9. Gossip Girl (HBO Max)

Few shows have influenced the cultural lexicon of an entire generation the way this soapy teen drama did. The original Gossip Girl was a narrative rollercoaster filled with questionable hookups, designer drugs, and Blair Waldorf headbands. It delighted in its ostentatious antics, reveled in its misbehaving brood of well-bred socialites. It made Chuck Bass, an attempted rapist and sex club owner who might have murdered his father and definitely pimped out his girlfriend for a stake in a hotel, a romantic lead. The original Gossip Girl had balls, gilded storytelling balls. Its successor, this HBO Max contemporary shows shades of that same promise. It’s got a cast that’s both believably diverse and unbelievable gorgeous, tons of pop-cultured-skewed wit, a driving rivalry, and Kristen Bell once again narrating those welcome Upper East Side scandals, but it’s a little too self-aware and overly-earnest to be as enjoyable as its predecessor. Then again, it took the O.G. Gossip Girl a few seasons before it sent one of its own to Jesus Camp and brought characters back from the dead, so this new crew has time. Watch it on HBO Max.

10. (tie) UFO (Showtime)

Earlier this summer, the U.S. government’s so-called comprehensive report on Unidentified Flying Objects revealed, uh, nothing. Enter J.J. Abrams with this docuseries to dig into the cultural touchpoints of the very pressing UFO issue and who might be hiding the truth, if it’s “out there.” Since this is coming from Abrams (Cloverfield, Super 8), it’s difficult to know whether to expect a levelheaded tone or whether Fox Mulder would dig it. Watch it on Showtime.

10. (tie) Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (HBO Max)

The original Woodstock, held back in 1969, was an extended tribute to peace and love and extremely good vibes. The Woodstock held in 1999, 30 years later and featuring famously chill acts like Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, had… oh, let’s say “less good vibes.” But what it lacked in vibes it made up with, uh, more uncontrolled fires. And violence. And portable toilet fiascos. It was a mess, as you can see when you watch this HBO docuseries about the whole thing, featuring Uproxx’s music critic and fiasco expert Steven Hyden. Watch it on HBO.

10. (tie) Cooking With Paris (Netflix)

The skeptics among us might take one look at Paris Hilton’s new anti-aspirational Netflix cooking show and deem it just another entry in the “celebrities can’t cook” genre, of which Ludacris and Selena Gomez are ranking members. But those of us who remember that glorious moment in TV’s Golden Age, when Hilton used an iron to sizzle a slab of bacon, fry an egg sunny side up, and toast a cheese quesadilla before garnishing her brunch masterpiece with some boxed fruit loops know … this is a woman with a distinct culinary vision, and it’s on full display in this new series as she invites everyone from Demi Lovato to Kim Kardashian to witness her disturbed gastronomic genius. Ina Garten better guard her bag. Watch it on Netflix.

The Olympics men’s basketball tournament has reached its Final Four, with the action taking place overnight here stateside, starting with USA-Australia and followed by France-Slovenia, with plenty of big names headlining both games.

In the opener, Team USA will look to continue building on what has been steady improvement over the course of these Olympics, culminating in an impressive job closing out Spain despite the best efforts of Ricky Rubio scoring 38 points. Kevin Durant led the way with 29 points of his own, while Zach LaVine, Devin Booker, and others all came up with some big buckets when needed in the fourth. On the other side is Australia will be looking to extend their active win streak over Team USA to three games, having won both of their recent exhibitions in 2019 and earlier this summer in Las Vegas. Patty Mills, recently signed to the Brooklyn Nets, and Joe Ingles lead an Australia squad with plenty of quality NBA talent and enough shooting to give the Americans some problems if they don’t show up offensively themselves.

In the second semifinal, Luka Doncic will look to remain undefeated as part of the Slovenian national team, as they are 17-0 having won the EuroBasket title in 2019 with Doncic and have yet to lose since he arrived during Olympic qualifying. Doncic has been unbelievable in the tournament so far and will need to continue to do so to get by a France team that is rolling, having already beaten Team USA in group play behind the leadership of Rudy Gobert, Nic Batum, and Evan Fournier.

Neither game will be televised, as NBC continues to push people to Peacock with the men’s hoops tournament, but as always, those without Peacock premium but with a TV subscription (cable, satellite, or an online provider like YouTube TV) can still stream the action online.

USA vs. Australia
Tip Time: 12:15 a.m. ET
Stream: NBCOlympics.com (link here) or Peacock premium

France vs. Slovenia
Tip Time: 7:00 a.m. ET
Stream NBCOlympics.com (link here) or Peacock premium