GoneTrending

On this week’s Blind Whiskey Taste Test we’re diving deep into single malt Scotch whiskies. Specifically, 12-year-old expressions.

Why that age? Because 12-year-old single malt whisky is an excellent entry-point into the wider and often much older world of single malt scotches. They’re accessible but not bottom shelf. And they’re quite often incredibly tasty — with diverse flavors depending on where they’re from and how they’re barrelled.

For this tasting, I was given eight pours of 12-year-old single malt whiskies. I blind tasted them and ranked them from least to most favorite. While most of these whiskies showed great nuance, in the end, there was one that really rose above the rest.

Let’s dive in!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1:

Tasting Notes:

There’s a subtle spice next to sweet, almost toffee malts with a touch of honey. There’s some nice dried fruit next to a mild nuttiness. This is definitely a sherry cask finish. A touch of spicy orange and dark chocolate comes in late as those sweet malts linger.

Taste 2:

Tasting Notes:

Honey, dried fruit, light malts, and a touch of vanilla … hello, Aberfeldy! That honey drives the taste towards more light malt. On a second nosing, a hint of fresh raw beef comes through that leads back towards the dried fruits and honey.

Taste 3:

Tasting Notes:

This is very enticing, with hints of very soft wood next to berries steeped in honey with a light vanilla edge. The taste dips into a slight black pepper with a note of brie rinds or, maybe, a cheese cellar. The end is slow and leaves you with a nice, warm buzzing in your senses and a real sense of velvet roundness.

Taste 4:

Tasting Notes:

This is very interesting. It’s creamy like a vanilla pudding with a bright pear orchard and some mild toffee. That leads towards a very easy and soft woodiness with a touch of candied pear and more vanilla cream. This is good stuff.

Taste 5:

Tasting Notes:

There’s a mix of Band-Aids next to chocolate and, almost… sandalwood? The taste holds onto that Band-Aid aspect as chocolate oranges and slightly bitter citrus pith arrives with a touch of earthy peat that’s more like cold ashes than smoke.

Taste 6:

Tasting Notes:

Woah! Fennel! That leads to some dried fruits and fresh apples on the nose. The taste, on the other hand, leans into sweet oak, figs, pear candies, and a softness that’s almost hard to believe. This is amazingly easy to drink, full of sweet fruits, and has just the right touches of oak, vanilla, and savory greens.

Taste 7:

Tasting Notes:

This is a malty sip with touches of lemon pudding next to a hint of tart apple. There are notes of orange rinds still studded with cloves next to a touch of honey and vanilla. But overall, this is very… well… standard.

Taste 8:

Tasting Notes:

First of all, it’s crazy that this is a 12-year-old whisky and still this light!

The nose has an old beach campfire vibe that’s followed by hints of Band-Aids still fresh and in the pack. There’s a light fruitiness that leads towards a little sea spray saltiness. There’s more earthy peat than billows of smoke (Hi there, Lagavulin). The end is light and easy, leaving me with a buzzing on my tongue.

Part 2: The Ranking

8) Balblair 12 (Taste 7)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $70

The Whisky:

This entry-point single malt from the Highlands is an easy drinker. The juice is aged in a combo of ex-bourbon casks and “double fired” or charred used American oak barrels. The results are touched with a little water to bring it down to proof and then bottled.

Bottom Line:

This was a perfectly nice pour of whisky. There were no rough edges and it hit every mark exactly. There was just not that … special something to make it stand out in this crowd.

Still, I’d 100 percent enjoy this on the rocks or in a highball without question.

7) BenRiach The Smoky Twelve (Taste 5)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $72

The Whisky:

The base is a mix of unpeated and peated malted barley. Those juices are then mellowed for at least 12 years in a combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-Marsala wine casks. The results are then blended by whisky icon Dr. Rachel Barrie into this arresting whisky.

Bottom Line:

This really is a great entry point to peated whiskies if you’re afraid of the peat and smoke monsters from Islay. The core tenets of peaty whisky are in play — those Band-Aids, for instance — but it’s way more earthy than smoky. Still, it wasn’t the best peated whisky of the day.

6) Lagavulin 12 Rare By Nature 2020 (Taste 8)

ABV: 56.4%

Average Price: $250

The Whisky:

This is last year’s Rare By Nature special release. The juice was aged exclusively in refill American oak and blended to dial in those Islay flavors. The whisky is then bottled at cask strength with no extra fussing.

Bottom Line:

Okay, the lightness in both the body and color of this whisky for an expression that’s both 12-years-old and cask strength (meaning no water was used) is kind of wild. You don’t even need water or a rock to cool it down, it’s that smooth. Still, the peat just wasn’t doing it for me today with all that Band-Aid in the sip.

5) Aberfeldy 12 (Taste 2)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

This Highland malt is the cornerstone of the much-beloved Dewar’s Blended Scotch. This whisky is a very accessible single malt that spends 12 years resting before it’s married and proofed with that soft Highland water and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This was nice today. It wasn’t quite as welcoming and smooth as the first taste, but it really hit the spot as a subtle sipper with a good honey/fruit edge.

4) Glenmorangie The Lasanta Sherry Cask Finish (Taste 1)

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $55

The Whisky:

The 12-year-old expression from Glenmorangie spends most of those years maturing in old bourbon casks. The juice is then transferred to Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks for a final maturation. It’s then proofed with Highland water and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This tasted like really goddamn good whisky. A little water or a rock would be well suited to this dram. Though, as I think about it, I really want to use it in a Manhattan.

3) Glenkinchie 2020 Distiller’s Edition (Taste 3)

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

This limited edition expression from last year’s Diageo Distiller’s Editions is expertly crafted whisky. The juice has a finishing maturation in a specially made barrel which is constructed from used and new American oak that’s then filled with Amontillado sherry for a month. Once that fortified wine is dumped, the whisky goes in for its final maturation.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those whiskies that just works. And that made it hard to place the top thre. That old Scottish cheese cellar vibe really sang to me in this tasting. I’m definitely coming back to this whisky as a cheese pairing dram.

2) Glenfiddich 12 (Taste 4)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $50

The Whisky:

This is an entry whisky not only to Speyside but to single malts in general. The juice is aged in a combination of used American and European oak before it’s married, rested, proofed with Speyside’s iconic water, and bottled.

Bottom Line:

I was shocked that this was Glenfiddich. I rarely ever order this because I see it everywhere. But this was just so well-rounded and accessible. I’m definitely going to start using this more in highballs and cocktails and the odd pour every now and then.

1) Cragganmore Distiller’s Edition 2020 (Taste 6)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

Cragganmore is an iconic Scottish distillery. The whisky is matured in sherry casks for 12 years. It’s then transferred into American oak casks that held port for a final maturation phase before proofing and bottling.

Bottom Line:

Nothing really came close to the nuance, accessibility, and just … niceness of this dram. I was thinking about all that fruit and softwood and that fennel nose for a while after this tasting. A wonderful sip.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

The Cragganmore really blew me away. It’s so easy to drink with zero off-putting edges.

That being said, I did dig the two peated whiskies but they just weren’t as inviting as the sweet malts today. Now that it’s been a while since I drank these, I’m gravitating back to the Balblair as a highball mixer, the Aberfeldy as a good end-of-the-day dram, and that bloody Glenfiddich. That was the biggest surprise. I don’t know if I simply forgot I liked it or how easy-drinking it is?

Regardless, that stuff really stood out today as a solid sipper.

With the COVID-19 health and safety protocols in place this season, there are no longer postgame scrums in locker rooms or even postgame press conferences at the podium. As has been the case for most every aspect of business over the last year, they are instead conducted via Zoom with the players and coaches at a seat with a monitor in front of them and questions asked by reporters, sometimes from elsewhere in the arena and sometimes from home.

On Wednesday night, as Doc Rivers answered questions from the virtually assembled Philly media one of our very own Dime contributors, Jackson Frank who covers the Sixers for Liberty Ballers, began his question but was interrupted by Doc, who had an important question to ask of his own: “Are you in bed right now?”

The “Jesus Christ, Jackson” from Doc at the end of the clip has just maximum disappointed dad energy, and the entire Zoom breaking into laughter was great. It’s certainly not the first time a reporter has handled postgame interviews from bed, but it’s the rare occasion where they’ve been called out for it.

As a capital J Journalist, I had to reach out to my colleague to get his side of the story and, sadly, the man tried to deflect with semantics.

“I was laying ON my bed, not IN my bed, to be clear,” Frank told me, in his defense. He would continue to explain why this happened, noting he was not at his apartment but instead at his parents, where a bedroom without a desk was the only option.

“I’m visiting my parents and my mom was cooking dinner. They live in an apartment, so I don’t have a workspace anywhere,” Frank said. It’s a perfectly valid and reasonable explanation, but it won’t stop this from being an exceptionally funny moment.

Meek Mill has been involved in a fair amount of controversy over the past few months. From multiple interactions with Tekashi 69 and being extremely cheap to a group of kids to getting into arguments on Clubhouse and holding a packed-out show in Houston, the rapper has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of headlines. He’s at it again, this time thanks to something he said on an upcoming collaboration with Lil Baby.

A snippet of the untitled song made its way onto social media on Wednesday and people are furious with him for the way he rapped about the late Kobe Bryant. “I’ll go out with my choppa it’ll be another Kobe,” Meek raps on the song. The line was seen as highly insensitive, being as it’s been just over a year since Kobe tragically died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. Upon hearing the line, people took to Twitter to condemn Meek for the line.

It was just days ago that Meek engaged in a parking lot altercation with Tekashi 69 after a Miami club event. Shortly after, he previewed a new diss track for Tekashi on Instagram.

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

Since the weekend, Texas and neighboring states have succumbed to a freak winter storm, bringing snow and the coldest temperatures in decades, if not longer. Millions haven’t had power in days; almost two dozen have died. And yet the Republican response to the disaster has been downright surreal. It was the fault of the Green New Deal — which hasn’t been voted on, let alone enacted — said Governor Greg Abbott and Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert. And then there’s former Governor Rick Perry, who had an even more deranged response.

“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry was quoted saying in a blog post from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as per The Houston Chronicle. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”

Translation: It’s more important to stop the purported spread of socialism than to help people who are freezing. Socialism has been a popular bugaboo among conservative circles in recent years, as the oft-inhumane actions of the Trump administration forced people to see the inequalities in American life more clearly than before.

Will falling back on typical right-wing fearmongering work on people who’ve been forced to take sleeping bags out of mothballs just to stay warm at night? Only time will tell. But for now, many on social media took Perry — one of the most gaffe-prone presidential candidates in recent American history — to the woodshed.

In the meantime, all the best to Texas and neighboring states dealing with a most unusual weather catastrophe.

(Via Houston Chronicle)

Last Updated: February 17th

Hulu is more than just a place to catch network TV’s next-day airs. The streaming platform has ramped up its original content, going all-in on thoughtful and entertaining storytelling with its line-up of TV shows. There’s a genre for everyone here — dystopian sci-fi, family drama, fantasy-themed horror, etc. — so there’s really no excuse not to add at least one of these shows to your watchlist.

Related: The Best TV Shows On Hulu Right Now

1. The Handmaid’s Tale

3 seasons, 36 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

Based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, Handmaid’s Tale is set in a dystopian future run by a fundamentalist government renamed Gilead. The fertility rate has bottomed out, women have been deprived of their rights, and the men have turned them into reproductive vessels. This future, however, is so recently removed from the present that the misery of the women — forced to be submissive through electroshock and other forms of torture — is compounded by haunting memories of their most recent past. Top-lined by the exceptional performance of Elizabeth Moss, the series also boasts strong supporting turns from Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, Joseph Fiennes, and Alexis Bledel, whose character attempts to rebel against the autocratic government and suffers excruciating consequences. It’s a harrowing series, often so bleak that it’s difficult to watch, but in our current political climate, the themes of The Handmaid’s Tale resonate loudly, and the second season is even darker and more powerful.

2. Normal People

1 season, 12 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

3. Castle Rock

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Stephen King experienced a bit of a renaissance this year, at least on TV, but out of all of the adaptations from different streaming platforms, Hulu’s Castle Rock felt like the most realized, and most terrifying, of the lot. The show, which stars Sissy Spacek, Andre Holland, and Bill Skarsgard, follows the story of Henry (Holland) a death row attorney summoned home after a young man is found imprisoned beneath Shawshank prison. Henry’s got a murky past too, one that involves the unsolved murder of his father –- an event he has no memory of — and the strange happenings around town intensify as The Kid (Skarsgard) is set free and must figure out how he’s connected to Henry, his family, and the history of the town. It’s equal parts brilliant and terrifying, all you could ask for in a King adaptation. The show’s second run feels just as compelling, with Lizzy Caplan stepping into the orthopedic shoes of nurse Annie Wilkes, before her Misery days. She still troubled and causing trouble for the town of Castle Rock while trying to keep to the shadows with her daughter played by Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher.

4. Casual

4 seasons, 44 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10

Michaela Watkins stars as Valerie, a forty-something Mom whose husband just left her for a grad student in one of his classes (it’s a cliche for a reason). She and her daughter move in with her layabout brother, Alex (Tommy Dewey), an independently wealthy co-creator of a dating website. Alex is caddish but intensely likable, especially once viewers realize that his womanizing is a pretense, that he’s simply too afraid to reveal his true self for fear of rejection. Like Transparent, with which Casual shares some DNA, there’s an organic, improvised feel to the series, which alternates between funny and heartbreaking as it seeks to find the humor in the devastation of loss and the awkward challenges of finding someone new. It’s a tremendously good show that only gets better in its later seasons.

5. The Act

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

Patricia Arquette and Joey King star in this painfully measured series that follows the true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Gypsy Rose was a young woman living with her mother, Dee Dee, in a small town in Missouri when police found her mother murdered in their home, and Gypsy nowhere to be found. The mystery surrounding the case soon spiraled into a story about the complicated bonds between mother and daughter, chronicling one woman’s descent into madness. Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition that caused her to fake many of Gypsy’s “illnesses” — from cancer to brain damage. When Gypsy finally realized the truth, she concocted a plan so outrageous and heinous, it had to be given the TV treatment.

6. PEN15

2 seasons, 17 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle write, direct, and star in this cringe-worthy coming-of-age comedy about two preteens entering the 7th grade. The twist here is that both Erskine and Konkle, actresses in their 30s, play their middle-school-aged characters alongside actual 13-year-olds, elevating their comedy about awkward firsts and embarrassing pubescent mishaps to new heights. The show is full of humor while also covering some relatable, real-life issues that normally don’t make it to the small screen.

7. Ramy

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 8.1/10

Comedian Ramy Youssef stars in this semi-autobiographical dramedy, playing a version of himself, a character named Ramy Hassan. Ramy navigates life growing up in New Jersey while straddling the line between the millennial generation he’s a part of and the Muslim community he belongs to. He wrestles with the constraints of his religion and his upbringing, while searching for meaning in more modern pursuits — drinking, partying, and hooking up. It’s heartwarming, eye-opening, and never takes itself too seriously.

8. Letterkenny

9 seasons, 61 episodes | IMDb: 8.6/10

You’ve probably found yourself asking, “What the hell is Letterkenny?” That question has probably come after yet another friend/co-worker/stranger on the street has stopped you to demand you watch the Hulu original. Well, here’s the answer: Letterkenny is a snappy comedy about a group of small-town folk just trying to get by. It mainly centers on two bros, Wayne and Darryl, and the schemes they come up with to make a buck, have a good time, and stir up their boring old town.

9. Catch 22

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Christopher Abbott star in this re-telling of Joseph Heller’s classic novel. Abbot plays young recruit, Yossarian, a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II. Yossarian hopes to dodge having to serve in combat after the military ups the number of missions required before one’s service can be considered complete. He’s forced to face off against a truly sadistic colonel while fighting for his life on the front line. It’s ridiculous that Abbott isn’t a bigger name than he is, but he leads this farcical troupe with A-list swagger, and Chandler is surprisingly wonderful playing against his normal, lovable-dad typecasting.

10. Veronica Mars

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

The cult teen drama returns after a years-long hiatus and a successful Kickstarter-funded film to re-open the case. This time, Veronica (Kristen Bell) is investigating a catastrophic bombing of a popular spring break destination for college kids: Neptune, her hometown. She’s also struggling to balance her career and her tumultuous relationship with Logan (Jason Dohring) while pushing her ailing father to come clean about his health issues. This season, which is intended to be a continuance — so you should definitely check out Rob Thomas’ original work, also available on Hulu — marks a return to the show’s noir crime roots, and it’s so much better for it.

11. The Looming Tower

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

This historical drama starring Jeff Daniels and Peter Sarsgaard charts the build-up to 9/11 as seen through the eyes of agents in both the FBI and CIA. Daniels plays John O’Neill, the chief of the New York FBI’s Counterterrorism Center in the 1990s, who is convinced that a terrorist attack on the U.S. is imminent. He butts heads with Martin Schmidt (Sarsgaard), the CIA head of counterterrorism, who believes his agency is better equipped to deal with the threat of Al Qaeda and keeps valuable intel from the FBI. The action in this comes from watching Daniels and Sarsgaard, two incredibly talented actors, go head-to-head, chewing up every scene they’re in and obviously having fun doing it.

12. Shrill

2 seasons, 14 episodes | IMDb: 7.4/10

SNL breakout Aidy Bryant headlines this comedy series based on the best-selling book by Lindy West. Bryant plays Annie, a young writer living on the West Coast who struggles with body image issues, a floundering career as a journalist, and a family health crisis. Over the course of six episodes, she manages a toxic relationship with her sometimes-hookup, confronts an abusive boss, and takes on internet trolls, all while learning how to love her size. Bryant shines here and though there’s not as much in-your-face comedy from her as SNL fans might be used to, her quiet, reserved style better serves the story, which is a refreshing one.

13. Runaways

3 seasons, 33 episodes | IMDb: 7.1/10

Adapted by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage from Adrian Alphona and Brian K. Vaughan’s Marvel comic, Runaways is a slick, briskly paced teen soap featuring high school students discovering and coming to terms with their burgeoning superpowers. Runaways finds that happy space between the heaviness of Marvel’s Netflix dramas and the more lightweight nature of their network series (Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter). It’s a potent combination of compelling mystery and coming of age tale. The teen characters here are fantastic as they grapple with their own powers while investigating the dark history of their parents. Runaways takes a lot of cues from Schwartz and Savage’s The O.C. and Gossip Girl, respectively, although the series is not half as interesting when it’s exploring the conspiracy surrounding the parent characters, who are essentially the series’ supervillains. That storytelling deficit, however, is more than made up for by the existence of a dinosaur!

14. Future Man

3 seasons, 34 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

From creators Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir and executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the team behind Sausage Party), Future Man is basically a mash-up of The Last Starfighter, Back to the Future, and The Terminator. Josh Hutcherson stars as Josh Futterman, a loser-ish janitor at a science lab who becomes the first person ever to finish a nearly impossible-to-beat video game. The game, it turns out, is a training application sent back from the future to find humanity’s savior. Characters from the video game recruit Josh to travel back into the past to kill the head of the science lab (Keith David) where Josh works in the present to prevent his boss from developing a cure for herpes that somehow ends up wiping out humanity in the future. There’s a lot to unpack in its premise, but once Future Man gets to its feet and finds its heart, the character evolves into more than mouthpieces for quick-fire pop-culture riffs. Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings) is fantastic as a fast-talking badass with an arsenic-laced “rathole” and a fondness for hand-to-hand combat. It’s Preacher’s Derek Wilson, however, who proves to be the scene stealer. He’s basically Firefly’s Jayne Cobb plus an obsession with ’80s pop culture, cooking, and two-hit wonder Corey Hart, who also makes a cameo appearance. It’s a fast-paced, filthy, and hilarious homage to time-travel movies that boasts a hysterical hatred for James Cameron, who is the target of a lot of the series’ best jokes. What Future Man lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in laughs and season two of the series doubles down on that philosophy, thrusting characters in even more bizarre situations and tighter spandex costumes.

15. Harlots

3 seasons, 22 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Written and directed by women (Moira Buffini and Coky Giedroyc, respectively), Harlots is set in 1763 England where one in every five women is a prostitute. The story concerns two competing brothels operated by Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville) and Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton), the latter of whom reluctantly pimps out her two daughters, one of whom is a popular courtesan (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay) and another whose maidenhead is being auctioned off at a hefty price. There’s plenty of sex in Harlots, as one might expect from a series about competing brothels, but it’s not a sexy show. It’s more of a serious family drama about hardscrabble women using the only card they have in their 18th-century deck in an effort to maintain some sense of control over their lives. There’s power in sex, but as Harlots reveals, it only gets them so far. The series is a thoughtful costume drama that can be bleak at times (the corpse of a prostitute is used as a gruesome prop in the ongoing war between the brothels), but there are moments of crackling wit and a few stand-out performances, particularly that of Samantha Morton. Unfortunately, as the series’ first season progresses, it loses some of its momentum as it gets bogged down in its more soapy elements.

16. 11.22.63

1 seasons, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10

Produced by J.J. Abrams and created by Bridget Carpenter (a writer on Parenthood, Friday Night Lights), 11.22.63 is adapted from a Stephen King novel and stars James Franco as newly divorced high school teacher, Jake Epping, who finds a portal that takes him back to October 1960. There, Jake decides to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, though doing so will upend the life he has made for himself. It’s an exhilarating premise, and it’s nearly impossible not to get hooked by the pilot. Unfortunately, once Epping finds himself in the 1960s, the series drops many of the time-travel elements and settles into a more conventional — and often tiresome — conspiracy thriller. Franco is solid in the lead role, but the series is derailed by its devotion to the source material. It’s not one of King’s best books, and while it does provide viewers with a satisfying, heartfelt pay-off, the slow pace makes the journey more of a chore than the destination ultimately warrants.

17. Chance

2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 7.7/10

Based on the Kem Nunn novel of the same name, Chance stars Hugh Laurie as a forensic neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Eldon Chance. Chance — who is going through a divorce — becomes romantically involved with a patient named Lucy (Greta Lee). Pulled into her troubled life, Chance finds himself embroiled in a dispute between the femme fatale and her abusive husband, a violently jealous police officer who has his sights set on Chance. It’s a moody, psychological noir with heavy doses of intrigue and mystery, but the pacing here suggest that it would have been better told in half the number of episodes. The series too often drifts and seems more preoccupied with mood setting than telling a story. Hugh Laurie’s compelling performance keeps it afloat, while Ethan Suplee — who plays a street-smart assistant in an antique shop — steals every scene he’s in, delivering occasional bursts of violence to stir viewers awake.

18. The Path

3 seasons, 36 episodes | IMDb: 7.3/10

Set in upstate New York, The Path concerns members of a fictional spiritual moment (or cult) called Meyerism. The series primarily revolves around Eddie Lane (Aaron Paul), who has a revelation while on a retreat that leads him to question his faith. Eddie, however, won’t confess his doubts to his devout wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), who believes her husband is hiding an affair from her. Things are further complicated by Cal (Hugh Dancy), the charismatic and corrupt leader of the Meyerist Movement, whose ambitions are often at odds with the more altruistic motives of the movement. While featuring strong performances from its leads, The Path is an achingly slow burn that doesn’t catch fire until near the end of the first season only to fizzle out again when the second season kicks off. There’s a fascinating story being told on The Path, but it’s not currently one that warrants 10 episodes a season, and the series often labors to spread its thin story across a canvass that is too large. The magical realist elements of the series only exacerbate its problems. It’s not a bad show thanks to the strong efforts of its leads, but it is one that struggles to figure out what it wants to say. Unfortunately, it got the ax after three seasons.

19. High Fidelity

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10

Zoe Kravitz produces and stars in this departure from Nick Hornby’s beloved 1995 novel, playing a young record store owner who fights against the gentrification of her Brooklyn neighborhood while replaying a string of failed relationships to the tune of indie hits. The story feels like a more mellow version of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, and the soundtrack is fire.

20. Devs

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

The brains behind sci-fi thrillers like Ex Machina and Annihilation gives us another mind-bending drama, this time for the small screen. Devs focuses on a young software engineer named Lily Chan who begins digging into a secret division of the cutting-edge tech company she works for in Silicon Valley because, get this, they probably murdered her boyfriend.

21. Woke

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 6.2/10
New Girl’s Lamorne Morris stars in this imaginative comedy series about a Black cartoonist on the rise who suddenly has his eyes opened to the injustice and inequality surrounding him. Morris plays Keef, a talented artist keeping things light with his work — which is set to go mainstream — until a violent run-in with the police leaves him questioning his reality. It’s timely for sure, taking an inventive approach to the Black Lives Matter moment, but there’s still plenty of humor to keep it all grounded.

22. The Great

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.1/10

Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult star in this period dramedy that riffs heavily off the vibe of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated flick, The Favourite. Hoult has a hell of a lot of fun playing a sadistic sociopath who just so happens to be the Emperor of Russia. Fanning is his hopeful bride-to-be who comes to the palace looking for love and ends up launching a coup and a plot to murder her new husband. It’s a deliciously fun show filled with absurd characters and too many memeable quotes to count.

Add To Hulu Watchlist

23. Little Fires Everywhere

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington turn in riveting performances in this Emmy-nominated drama. The show, based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, follows Witherspoon’s character, the matriarch of the picture-perfect Richardson clan, as she desperately tries to hold onto her idyllic life. Enter Washington, a mother of a young girl, who exposes the family’s secrets and upends their small community.

24. Taste The Nation With Padma Lakshmi

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi takes her culinary TV talents to the next level in this hybrid travel/cooking show that introduces audiences to the rich, culturally diverse cuisine being created right here in the states. Lakshmi travels across the country, learning about indigenous and immigrant communities and taste-testing the delicious, inventive food they’re cooking. She’s also breaking down barriers and disrupting societal norms, but the food porn is just so good, most people probably won’t realize they’re learning something while they watch her snack on El Paso burritos and indigenous fry bread.

25. Dollface

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.3/10

Kat Dennings stars in this dramedy about a young woman named Jules, who returns to single life after her long-term boyfriend dumps her. After being coupled for so long, Jules resorts to using her imagination to literally (and metaphorically) re-enter the world of female friendships and the dating pool.

Recent Changes Through February 2021
Added: Normal People
Removed: The Wrong Mans

Lil Nas X’s rise to fame was a quick and momentous one, with one major record-breaker: “Old Town Road,” his break-out, spent 19 consecutive weeks atop the singles chart. The track would later become the most-certified song in music history, going 14x Platinum. But getting there wasn’t easy. In a series of TikTok videos, Lil Nas reflected on his rise to fame and what his life has been like post-“Old Town Road.”

In a series of four videos entitled “Life Story,” Lil Nas X opened up about his battle with depression and other struggles. “In 2017 I became the first [in] my family to get into college,” the video’s caption read. “During college I was depressed, had no friends and…. my grandmother passed. I started going to the doctor a lot in fear that I would die soon… hypochondria. In May 2018, I started making music.” He then moved in with his sister and dropped his first mixtape, Nasarati, in June 2018. However, things would soon take a turn.

“My sister kicked me out, my brother who was helping me left to the military, & my songs were no longer doing good,” he revealed. In the next two videos, he discussed releasing “Old Town Road” and having to find his own ways to promote the song due to financial struggles. He also spoke about signing to Columbia Records, working with Bill Ray Cyrus, coming out as gay, and making enough money to move into his first apartment and put his mom in rehab. Despite the improvements, he admitted that some additional hardships pushed him to the edge, making him contemplate suicide.

“I got news that my mom wasn’t doing so well in rehab with her addiction,” he wrote . “Also me and my boyfriend broke up. During this time old town road was still killing it while I was… spiraling. I found myself in a hotel room contemplating ending it all. But I didn’t.”

You can watch the TikTok videos above.

Donald Trump was quiet for a whole month. After the failed MAGA coup of January 6, he’d been kicked off much of social media, including Twitter, his favorite, and he appeared to spend his remaining days in office sulking, with only Lindsey Graham and Mike Lindell as company. But on Tuesday he began what looks like baby steps back into public life. Well, maybe not “baby steps”: He released a lengthy, ranty, blog-like statement in which he mostly slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now he’s back on Newsmax.

The occasion? The death of Rush Limbaugh, the conservative pundit and one of the chief architects of the current Republican Party, which Trump left in shambles. Being Trump, he didn’t talk too much about Limbaugh, mostly discussing him in relation to himself, such as his (alleged) belief that the election was stolen from him, which it was not.

Trump also discussed being in social media jail. He claimed that over the last month he “really wanted to be somewhat quiet,” which seemed legit. He did say that Parler, the seemingly on-hiatus “free speech” service that became a nest of oft-violent far-right talk, “wanted me very much,” though he also claimed that “mechanically they can’t handle” the amount of traffic he would bring to them.

He also slammed Twitter, who permanently banned him shortly after the failed insurrection even McConnell thinks he caused. “And I’ll tell you it’s not the same when you look at what’s going on with Twitter, I understand it’s become very boring, and millions of people are leaving,” he claimed. “They are leaving it because it’s not the same. And I can understand that.”

But he had a solution: “There is also the other option of building your own site because we have more people than anybody. You can literally build your own site.”

Of course, Trump has a habit of making bold announcements then not always following through. There was talk he was going to start his own network, to compete with Fox News. Would he — who is under numerous investigations and who owes money all over the world — even be able to start his own Trump Facebook or Trump Twitter? Then again, weirder things have happened.

There was also some to-be-expected baseless voter fraud nonsense.

But of course there was. It sure has been peaceful the last month.

(Via Mediate)

Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the brightest young stars in baseball, as the 22-year-old Padres shortstop finished fourth in NL MVP voting last year and won the Silver Slugger award at the shortstop position. His flair for the game has made him a fan favorite, but that swagger is matched by skill as he is one of the most talented players in the game, regardless of position, and that he is such a tremendous two-way player at a premium spot like shortstop makes him all the more valuable.

Despite heading into just his third season in the majors this year, the Padres, who invested heavily this offseason in upgrading their roster, made sure to lock down their superstar to a new contract extension. On Wednesday night, word emerged from numerous outlets that a deal had been reached between the two sides on a massive 14-year, $340 million deal that will keep him in San Diego, it seems, through his prime.

It is a huge amount of years for a deal and puts him in the ballpark with Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, and Giancarlo Stanton for the biggest contracts in baseball history. Those three make more on an annual basis, with Betts on a 12-year, $365 million deal with the Dodgers, Trout on a 10-year, $360 million deal with the Angels, and Stanton making $325 million over 13 years, but for a young player like Tatis it assures him a lifetime of financial security and has him among the elite in the game. On the Padres side of things, this deal will likely look like a bargain by the time Tatis is in his prime as we continue to see contract figures rise and it assures them of having one of the game’s best for a very long time. They keep their superstar happy as he continues to grow and develop, Tatis gets paid as he should, and San Diego will remain a focal point of the baseball world for years to come.

Jeezy took to Instagram on Wednesday to share some sad news:His mother recently passed away. Jeezy did not reveal the cause of death, but back in 2019, during an appearance on The Breakfast Club, he revealed she was battling an illness, though it’s unknown if it had any role in her death. The rapper also posted a heartfelt caption.

“You taught me to be a man when I was a boy. Made me man up be a father when I was a kid. Raised me to be a natural born leader when I was lost. You lifted me when I was down. Inspired me when I had no inspiration. Always told me I was Bigger than my circumstances,” he wrote. “My Super Hero. Feared nothing or no one.. No obstacle or set backs. One of the only people in the world I could trust. When I had nothing or no one, I had you Mamma. You was hard on me. I thank you for that. You gave me confidence when I didn’t have any. Made me feel like I can put the world on my back and walk barefoot. You never judged or down talked my dreams. Or my downfalls. You just encouraged.”

He continued: “I thank GOD you got a glimpse of the Man and Woman you raised and all the good we gave to world all because you gave it to us. My faith is strong,” he said. “I know God has you now. We let heaven borrow our Angel. Kiss my brother Michael. Tell em we love him. And to take care of you. You are in a better place. Dancing and singing to your favorite songs. With that beautiful smile on your face. I will continue to make you proud. I LOVE YOU MOMMA. FORVER MY MOMMA’S BABY”

When the trailer for Sia’s directorial debut movie “Music” was released in November, the Australian singer faced intense backlash from people in the autistic community who felt that the portrayal of an autistic character played by Maddie Ziegler (who is not autistic) was problematic. Advocates also expressed concern about the use of harmful restraint techniques shown in the trailer.

At the time, Sia engaged in heated public debate with her critics on social media, ultimately ending with the statement, “I really hope you see the movie (s)o you can be less angry.”

Now the movie is out, and autistic people are commenting on the full film—and they are definitely not any less upset.

The Autisticats is a group of autistic young people who share their experiences with being autistic (among other things) online. On their Twitter account, one of them offered a “detailed & chronological review” of the film.

First they shared images and a clip from the film that show the exaggerated mannerisms of the autistic main character, in addition to a scene with strobing lights and overwhelming visuals that would be difficult for many autistic people to sit through.

Their explanation of what was problematic continued in the thread:

“This performance is a caricature of autistic body language. It’s unsettling, and insincere. And it is deeply reminiscent of the exaggerated mannerisms non-autistic people often employ when bullying autistic & developmentally disabled people for the ways we move.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the ways autistic people move, or the ways we make facial expressions. Some of us roll our eyes and put our teeth over our lips as a stim or just because it’s comfortable. But we do those things naturally. Maddie Ziegler does not.

The fact that Ziegler is not autistic, and the fact that her performance is so heavily exaggerated, turns the entire movie into one long display of mockery. I know that ‘wasn’t Sia’s intention.’ But it doesn’t make things any easier to stomach.

Two other things I want to touch on: 1. The strobing lights and colors in the dance scenes are extremely overstimulating, and could cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy (common in autistic people) 2. The restraint scenes are still there, without a warning.

I was under the impression, according to Sia’s apology and accompanying promise, that: A. There would be a warning at the beginning of the movie regarding the danger of restraint, or B. That the restraint scenes would be removed from the film entirely. That isn’t true so far.

If this thread prevents just 5 other people from watching this movie, it will have been worth it. I know people are curious. And I also know it’s not my responsibility to bear the burden of watching this film for the community. But I want to serve the greater good.

I want to be able to provide my perspective from as informed a position as possible, and I couldn’t do that without actually watching the film. I’ll be writing my review and posting it when it’s done. I don’t know if this was a good idea. I just want it to be worth something.”

With the film receiving two Golden Globe nominations—one for best motion picture, musical or comedy, and one for best actress in a musical or comedy (for Kate Hudson’s performance)—the controversy is extra heightened, and many people from the autistic and disabled community are weighing in. A petition requesting the Golden Globes to rescind the nominations due to the movie being “severely ableist” and contributing to “harmful stereotypes of autistic people” has been signed by nearly 50,000 people so far.

According to Vanity Fair, Sia has said that a disclaimer will be placed at the beginning of the film that reads: “MUSIC in no way condones or recommends the use of restraint on autistic people. There are autistic occupational therapists that specialize in sensory processing who can be consulted to explain safe ways to provide proprioceptive, deep-pressure feedback to help w meltdown safety.” She also said that future releases of the film will have the restraint scenes removed.

Though Sia has defended her good intentions in the casting and directing of the film, she has also apologized repeatedly for the film’s portrayal of autism. “I listened to the wrong people and that is my responsibility,” she wrote on Twitter, “my research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough.” She has since deleted her Twitter account.

More details about the making of the movie have come out that indicate there were some red flags even in the midst of filming. Sia said that Maddie Ziegler herself, who played the role at age 14, broke down crying one day and told Sia she was afraid people were going to think she was making fun of autistic people. Sia reassured her that she wouldn’t let that happen.

What Sia should have done is seen the teen’s discomfort as a sign that perhaps there was something problematic in the way the role was being played and sought more advocates in the autistic community to consult about it.

Though “Music” certainly isn’t the first movie to have a neurotypical actor portraying a neurodivergent character, the issue has been brought up so many times following other films and society has become so much more aware that it’s quite clear that the issues in this film could have been remedied with more meaningful inclusion of autistic people in the filmmaking process.

Grappling our way toward becoming a more accepting, respectful, and truly inclusive society is a messy process. Let’s listen and learn from these responses and conversations so that harm to already stigmatized communities can be avoided in the future.