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Hallmark Channel Christmas movies are proudly predictable, full of cliches, and bland as virgin eggnog. But people love ’em. I mean they really love them.

According to Crown Media, the parent of Hallmark and its sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, an average of 3.5 million people tuned in to Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” during its nine-week run in 2018.

Laugh all you want at the sappy films, but Hallmark doesn’t care. In 2018, it brought in $600 million in advertising revenue.

Hallmark has a formula and it’s sticking to it. Even it’s movie posters are formulaic, Dave Addyey created a montage of Hallmark Christmas movie posters, and their similarity is pretty hilarious. Each one features a white woman in red holding a Christmas ornament and a white man holding her wearing green. Both are bathed in beautiful, golden lighting.

Designer Jessica Jones has even made a bingo card so you can play along with all of the clichés throughout the holidays.

Canceled flight? Check.

Woman who quits a successful job for life in a small town? Check.

Scene where they decorate a Christmas tree? Check.

Child makes a wish? Check.

Gift wrapping scene? BINGO!

And of course, the movie has to have a female lead who was on the TV show, “Full House.” It just wouldn’t be a Hallmark Christmas movie without Candace Cameron Bure, Lori Laughlin, or Jodie Sweetin. But, of course, we’ll settle for other ’90s teen TV stars like Danica McKellar or Lacey Chabert.

Comedian Elizabeth Kemp had some fun with Hallmark Christmas movie cliches by creating a hilarious video where she plays the typical “big city girl who comes to a small town for Christmas” character.

But unfortunately, even though she puts herself in the position to find love it never happens. Hence the title, “Hallmark Movies Lied to Me.”

“I am over the age of 30. I have multiple graduate degrees, I’ve definitely prioritized my career. I’m single, but I have been in Vermont for five days now, and not once has anyone approached me about saving an inn or planning a fall festival or even just asked me to reconsider my priorities,” she says in the opening of the video.

Kemp then visits a Christmas tree farm and utters the phrases that should attract her some attention from the male protagonist. “I hate Christmas, I hate the fall. Nothing about the holidays appeals to me,” she says.

She even sets a trap for a paramour by grabbing a hot cup of coffee and posting up in a classic, small-town gazebo. But nothing happens.

Kemp goes so far as to take to the road and hope for a traffic incident. Narrowly missing a pedestrian with your car is a great way for couples to have a meet-cute in Hallmark films.

Sadly, Elizabeth didn’t meet the love of her life in a cozy, Christmassy, Hallmark fashion. But, the good news is, she didn’t accidentally wind up as the female lead in a Lifetime movie. Then she’d be in big trouble.

“Cocktails are about relaxing, having fun, bringing people together, and, of course, enjoying something delicious.”

Those are the wise words of Ryan Chetiyawardana or Mr. Lyan, co-founder of the much-lauded Lyan bars and recent MasterClass bartending instructor. And while the “bringing people together” aspect of his statement doesn’t fit with life in the pandemic, the thirst for relaxation, fun, and deliciousness all certainly holds up. In fact, those elements are more relevant now than ever.

While it goes without saying that 2020 has not been an easy year for anyone, that’s especially true if you work (or worked) in the hospitality sector behind the bar or serving tables. Bars and restaurants were the first to close and have been the last to reopen as lockdowns sweep the globe. We’re talking about millions of jobs, plus a massive supply chain linked to dozens of other industries from farming to distilling and brewing to soft drink manufacturers to ice companies — all shuttered or reeling from a loss of demand.

In the wake of this massive upheaval, innovative bars have attempted to diversify — with takeaway cocktails, liquor and beer sales, and outdoor-only seating — to varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, many bartenders have gone online to teach those stuck at home (and craving a stiff drink). And while the economic viability of demoing recipes on social media is dubious, there’s certainly an eager audience.

You don’t have to look any further than Google Trends to see that the demand for cocktail recipes skyrocketed in quarantine. That very phrase — “cocktail recipes” — began spiking in March 2020 and content creators immediately stepped up to answer the call. Drinks tutorials released on YouTube are booming, and TikTok, Instagram Live, and Zoom tastings have all been embraced by both the industry and consumers alike.

While the social aspect of bars and restaurants can’t be recreated online, we’re 100% supportive of people gaining new skills and learning the ins-and-outs of what it takes to actually make a good drink. (Hopefully, it leads to better tipping, too!) To do our part in finishing the year of at-home bartending strong, we thought we’d break down the best ways to indulge in a little amateur mixology while also offering a few “must know” recipes.

Part I: Home Bar Equipment

“When advising individuals on the best way to make beverages in their homes, I always turn to utilizing items that they already have in their pantry or their fridge,” says Lauren Paylor, bartender at Silver Lyan in Washington, DC, and co-founder of Focus On Health.

The same goes for equipment. There’s this idea that you need a crystal mixing jug, fancy copper shakers, long bar spoons, the exact right glasses, dehydrators, smokers, etc… The truth is, you really don’t. These items are nice, but not a necessity.

“You could have a Mason jar or Tupperware container that you shake in and a shot glass you got for free to measure with yet still make a great drink,” Iain Griffiths, co-founder of the Lyan Bar Group.

Chetiyawardana adds, “Ice cube trays, a decent knife, and a means to measure — jigger, scales, tablespoon — are probably going to make the biggest impact.”

The other facet that seems to really pull people back from diving into home cocktail mixing is the actual booze. While you may have an old jar and spoon hanging around your kitchen, you probably don’t have a bar’s worth of liquor on your shelf. Our best advice when buying bottles is this: Don’t break the bank with expensive expressions when you’re learning.

A $20 bottle of whiskey goes a long way when you’re practicing your old fashioned game or tinkering with your Manhattan. Paylor, Chetiyawardana, and Griffiths all agree: when mixing at home, balance is what makes a good drink, not spendy equipment or even the most pricey alcohol.

SEE ALSO: Build A Home Bar Without Breaking The Bank

Part II: Easy Cocktail Recipes To Try Right Now

When you’re making cocktails, it’s key to stick to the classics. Develop a solid baseline before riffing and experimenting too much. Three of the five cocktail recipes below are pulled from our own cocktail recipe list from November 2020, “Easy Cocktail Recipes For The Blossoming Home Bartender.” The other two are stone-cold classics that we wish had made the cut last month. We’re adding one vodka and one rum cocktail since those are some of the most searched cocktails right now (also because we really dig both vodka and rum cocktails).

White Russian

The Drink:

This is the ultimate dessert drink that’s a bit of an eye-opener thanks to the coffee-liqueur base. It’s also super easy to make. It’s a three-ingredient drink that just takes a little finesse to nail.

Supplies:

• Rocks glass
• Jigger
• Stirrer

Ingredients:

• 2-oz. vodka
• 1-oz. coffee liqueur
• 1-oz. heavy cream (36 percent milkfat)
• Ice

Method:

• Fill your rocks glass with ice.
• Add the vodka and coffee liqueur and stir until well blended and the glass starts to get cold.
• Pour the heavy cream in a slow and steady stream against the inner edge of the glass so that the cream floats.
• Drop in the stirrer.
• Serve.

Dry Gin Martini

The Drink:

This is the one cocktail everyone should be able to make. A dry gin martini is simple yet overflowing with subtle nuance. This is the sort of drink that you need to stir up a couple of times to get exactly right.

Once you hit a stride, you’ll be whipping these drinks up non-stop.

Supplies:

• Cocktail glass or Nick And Nora glass
• Fruit peeler or cocktail stick
• Barspoon
• Jigger
• Mixing jug
• Strainer

Ingredients:

• 2.5-oz. dry gin
• 0.5-oz. dry vermouth
• Ice
• Lemon peel or green olives

Method:

• Add gin and vermouth to a mixing jug.
• Top with ice.
• Stir until the outside of the mixing jug is ice-cold to touch.
• Strain the drink into a pre-chilled glass.
• Garnish: Either spritz lemon oils over the drink and drop in the peel or spear a couple of olives and drop them in the glass.
• Serve.

Manhattan

The Drink:

If you can make a dry martini, you can make this classic. It’s the exact same concept only with whiskey in place of gin, sweet vermouth in place of dry vermouth, and a dash of bitters to give it a little more color.

Supplies:

• Cocktail glass or Nick and Nora glass
• Fruit peeler
• Cocktail stick
• Barspoon
• Jigger
• Mixing jug
• Strainer

Ingredients:

• 2-oz. rye whiskey
• 1-oz. sweet vermouth
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• Ice
• Orange peel
• Luxardo cherry

Method:

• Add the bitters, whiskey, and vermouth to a mixing jug.
• Top with ice.
• Stir until the outside of the mixing jug is ice-cold to touch.
• Strain the drink into a pre-chilled glass.
• Spritz the drink with the orange oils from the orange peel and discard.
• Spear one cherry (two if you must but not more than that) and drop it into the glass.
• Serve.

Champagne Cocktail

The Drink:

Okay, this is technically the easiest cocktail on this list. You really aren’t “mixing” anything with this one. There’s no stirring, no shaking, no measuring. Yet, if you have a nice and dry Champagne (think Bollinger or Roederer), this cocktail can really take it to the next level by basically amping it up with a touch of bitters and sugar.

Supplies:

• Champagne flute
• Barspoon
• Fruit Peeler

Ingredients:

• Champagne
• 1 white sugar cube
• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
• Lemon peel

Method:

• Balance the sugar cube in the bowl of a barspoon and hit it with four dashes of bitters.
• Let the cube soak in the bitters for about 20 to 30 seconds.
• Drop the sugar cube into the bottom of a pre-chilled Champagne flute.
• Top with ice-cold Champagne.
• Spritz the oils from the lemon peel over the drink and drop in the peel.
• Serve.

Rum Old Fashioned

The Drink:

Do you know what’s better than a regular old fashioned? A rum old fashioned!

Supplementing rum for bourbon or rye adds a funkier and fruitier dimension to the classic cocktail while still offering the oompf of a pure alcohol drink. It’s the same easy cocktail just with a little more going on. The added benefit of this drink is that, like the first one of this list, you can make it in the glass.

Supplies:

• Rocks glass
• Knife or fruit peeler
• Jigger
• Barspoon

Ingredients:

• 3-oz. Caribbean dark rum
• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 barspoon white sugar
• 1 barspoon water
• Orange peel
• Ice

Method:

• Add the sugar, water, and bitters to the rocks glass and stir until sugar starts to dissolve.
• Add in the rum and stir until sugar has completely dissolved.
• Add in the ice and stir until the glass is ice-cold to touch and the volume of the liquid has doubled in size.
• Top with ice.
• Spritz the oils from the orange peel over the glass and run the peel around the rim and outside of the glass then drop it in the drink.
• Serve.

Creed frontman Scott Stapp is known for a lot of things. His long flowing hair (though it’s been cut since the band’s initial popularity), his incredibly deep voice, the ever-present chorus of “Higher,” one of Creed’s most popular songs. Additionally, he’ll soon be known as an actor, as Billboard reports he’s recently been tapped to portray none other than Frank Sinatra in an upcoming biopic about the life of president Ronald Reagan. The choice may seem a little surprising to some, as Stapp doesn’t particularly look like Sinatra, and he definitely hasn’t sung in a similar style… at least, he hasn’t yet.

Entitled Reagan, the film will feature Dennis Quaid as the titular former president, and apparently includes a scene at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove club in Hollywood with of Stapp as Sinatra performing for a fundraiser in 1970 for Reagan’s second California campaign for governor. “Sinatra in performance mode was an exercise in restraint,” Stapp told Billboard in a statement. “He had this steely, stylish swagger and his sheer presence commanded a room. I was excited to join the cast and blown away by the on-set attention to detail, style, and overall production.”

Creed fans and beyond will definitely be eager to see Stapp in his silver screen role, and the film is coming in 2021.

The saying “elections have consequences” has never rung more true than it does right now, and in more ways than one. Right now, the consequence of the 2016 election is that we currently have a sitting president who refuses to accept the outcome of what state election officials have verified as a free and fair election, instead claiming that the election was “rigged” with “rampant fraud,” insisting that he actually won in a landslide, and continuing to peddle falsehoods in an attempt to remain in power.

We’ll get to those claims in a minute. But first let’s look at a story that highlights how the consequences of those claims are growing more and more dangerous.

A former Houston police captain has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a police investigation into an incident that occurred two weeks before the 2020 election.

According to ABC 13 News, Mark Anthony Aguirre had spent four days surveilling a man who he thought was heading up a huge voter fraud operation. Believing the man’s truck was transporting 750,000 fraudulent ballots, 63-year-old Aguirre rammed his SUV into the back of the truck, forcing it off the road. When the driver got out to check his truck and the welfare of the person who had struck his vehicle, Aguirre pulled out his pistol. He held the truck driver at gunpoint on the ground with his knee in his back until the police arrived.

The truck was not full of ballots. It was full of air conditioner parts and tools, and the man was an innocent air conditioner technician.

But it gets even darker and unhinged. Aguirre explained to police that he was part of a private citizen group called “Liberty Center” who were “investigating” an alleged voter ballot harvesting operation that the truck driver was supposedly running out of his shed behind his mobile home. Aguirre said he and some friends had set up a “command post” at a Marriott hotel and had been conducting 24-hour surveillance of the driver’s home for four days. He claimed the driver was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots. He claimed they were using Hispanic children to sign them because their fingerprints wouldn’t show up in a database. He also claimed that Mark Zuckerberg had paid the man $9.37 million to conduct the illegal voting operation.

None of this was true, of course. Police searched the truck driver’s home, shed, and truck, and found no ballots. His home and shed contained normal home and shed things. And his truck contained exactly what you would expect an air conditioner repairman’s truck to contain. The poor guy thought he was being robbed at gunpoint when Aguirre confronted him after ramming his truck.

So what of this “Liberty Center”? A grand jury subpoena of Aguirre’s bank records show that he received three large payments from an organization called Liberty Center for God and Country—two for $25,000 in the month prior to the truck-ramming incident, and $211,400 the day after it.

The police officer who investigated the incident wrote in his affidavit that Aguirre told him he could be part of the solution or part of the problem, adding “I just hope you’re a patriot.”

Apparently, being a patriot means going along with someone being paid huge amounts of money to conduct bizarro “investigations” based on cuckoo conspiracy theories and committing felonies in the name of overturning a free and fair election.

We are so far past the point of “perusing legal channels” for ensuring the election was legitimate it’s not even funny. Every state has verified its election results, including states with Republican Secretaries of State that ended up blue. Trump’s legal team and other allies who have brought court cases have lost spectacularly. Every court case that has been put forth alleging either fraud or unconstitutionality of election changes due to the pandemic has been lost or dismissed except one, making Trump 1-59 in court. That includes rulings from Trump-appointed federal judges, the Supreme Courts of various states, as well as the SCOTUS itself.

There’s a widespread claim that all of these cases have been dismissed on technicalities, but that’s simply not true. You can read the court rulings here. There has been an unfortunately successful attempt at convincing a good portion of the public that there is evidence of widespread fraud, but multiple judges have been clear the evidence isn’t there. The vast majority of “evidence” that has been presented are affidavits from people either misunderstanding normal election processes or describing normal processes in suspicious ways. Some of it has been flat out false information (such as the “expert” who mixed up counties in Michigan and Minnesota) and some of it has been flat out wrong assumptions based on a lack of relevant knowledge.

We can’t get into every instance—and indeed, the absolute flood of b.s. is designed to make it virtually impossible to keep up with—but here’s one example from this morning’s Senate hearing. Much has been made of the forensic audit of the Dominion voting machines in Michigan, with countless breathless social media posts claiming a 68% error rate. Chris Krebs is a Republican who served as director of CISA—the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—until he was fired by Trump for fact-checking him about the election. He explained in two minutes what the real story is with that part of the audit report.

Watch:

And yet Trump is still claiming to have won the election in a landslide, his pet media outlets are peddling the same fraudulent claim, and millions are eating it up.

Let’s be perfectly clear. Fake voter fraud claims aside, the idea of a landslide Trump win is absurd on its face. Nearly every single poll of likely or registered voters leading up to the election had Biden favored to win. And despite the fanatic enthusiasm of his base, Trump has been a historically unpopular president. His approval rating at the beginning of 2020 was 42.6%, the lowest of any president since 1976—and that was before his handling of the pandemic led to hundreds of thousands of American deaths. Forty-one separate polls show that he has never even reached, much less exceeded, a 50% approval rating during his entire presidency.

So yeah. Cheering, adulating, superspreading crowds at rallies do not a majority make. The idea that Biden could only have won if there were fraud doesn’t even make basic logical sense, and the idea that Democrats would have rigged the presidential election and not the congressional races is just plain silly.

The longer these allegations continue to be pushed, the more danger American citizens and the country as a whole will be in. One man’s insatiable narcissism is not worth destroying democracy. Enough is enough.

There’s this outdated image of what a gamer looks like, a caricature that’s been held up by pop culture and social media. It trades in some of the more harmful stereotypes and myths about what gaming is and who it’s for. It usually centers on lonely, emotionally stunted men living in their parents’ basement whose worst instincts are emboldened by the anonymity of a keyboard and WiFi connection.

To whatever extent those types of gamers exist, they in no way make up the bulk of people playing online, especially not in 2020.

It’s almost ironic, how a pastime once mocked for being the reason so many people struggled to maintain a healthy social life is now the preferred mean of connecting with friends, family, and sometimes, complete strangers on the internet. Some are happy to point to the global pandemic (and the months-long lockdowns we’ve all had to endure because of it) as the reason why these multi-player spaces have become so popular. They look at mind-blowing numbers — Microsoft’s reported 130 percent increase in multiplayer engagement across March and April, and Nintendo’s 22 million sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons — and blame it on boredom and the side-effects of self-isolation. The most cynical might even predict that once vaccines become widely available and we’re able to frequent bars, restaurants, and friends’ backyards without the fear of a deadly virus looming over our get-togethers, these socially-minded gaming experiences will be discarded for the “real thing.”

But if 2020’s taught us anything, it’s that we should have more faith in, and a bigger appreciation for, co-op gaming.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the first sign that the multi-player gaming verse had crossover potential. Sure, titles like Fortnite and Halo had been around for a while. but it’s easy to pinpoint why they lacked broader appeal among first-time players. Expensive hardware, a certain level of experience and competitive drive, and an understanding of rules and objectives are a daunting list of prerequisites for even the most determined newbie. But in 2020, multi-player games, especially co-op friendly experiences like New Horizons, sidestepped the gatekeeping of better tech and skill-driven play for a more communal, collaborative, and frankly welcoming form of gaming.

Suddenly, buying turnips at a virtual market and picking up sticks on your personal island drove the discourse of multi-player gaming. Animal Crossing: New Horizons made it easy to create life-sim environments and share those experiences with others. And while New Horizons’ local co-op play drew controversy earlier in the year for limiting the number of shared islands per console to just one, the game’s multi-player promise paid off.

By introducing new designations and allowing up to eight players to visit an island at a time, the game created space for creativity and community to thrive. Friends could now invent virtual past times, create scavenger hunts, competitively net-bonk, terraform obstacle courses, dig up prizes together, and more. These weren’t traditional co-op experiences like the bank heists of GTA Online or beating back zombie husks in Fortnite: Save the World, but they managed to achieve the same end-game: a shared virtual adventure. They encouraged people to interact, to explore the social capabilities of gaming in a low-stakes setting, and it didn’t hurt that they added a bit of escapist whimsy to the whole thing.

Escapism has become gaming’s superpower this year, giving us all a needed distraction from the real-life chaos forcing us indoors. But while traditional single-player games can sometimes reinforce reality — or at least inadvertently reminds us that we can’t visit a bodega with a cat in our backpack a la Miles Morales or that Marvel hasn’t released a movie in theaters all year despite Earth’s mightiest heroes debuting a new title — multiplayer verses and co-op experiences, in particular, can offer a different kind of immersive experience. They require our full attention and participation, a level of engagement that comes from knowing others are counting on you, a social component that rewards communication and cooperation. When you’re hunting poltergeists in Phasmophobia or investigating a murder on your ship in Among Us, you’ve got to fully commit to living in the game to survive, to win. That opens up new channels for chatting and interacting with each other — it adds another dimension to play that encourages gamers to invest and spend time in this shared setting.

In a report from Flowplay, 36 percent of respondents (and almost half of Generation Z and Millennials) said they were most interested in the social community aspect of online games. One-quarter of respondents stated they rely on online games for social interaction, which means gaming has caught up to other forms of social media like TikTok, in terms of how younger generations connect. Online platforms like Roblox, where users can create their own games and invite others to collaborate on them, became a hit with younger gamers looking for ways to connect with school-friends once learning went virtual. Easy-to-play battle royales like Fall Guys took on new life with first-time players, letting them engage in single-player competitions while sprinkling in team dynamics with certain arenas.

Streaming, which has exploded since the pandemic began, earned legions of newcomers. Some were looking for more personal interactions in their gameplay sure, but plenty more tuned in just to watch over-the-top personalities and talented gamers compete for fun. People scratched their heads at how Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could earn 400,000 views on a live stream of Among Us. Those people didn’t understand that co-op gaming extends past the people maneuvering inside a multi-player universe. There’s a second-life that co-op gaming enjoys — from memes to fanart to Reddit forums — that feels inclusive and inviting in a way single-player games just don’t.

Once you’ve been on a Phasmophobia team where members abandon you in the observation van, once you’ve gone into debt over turnips or watched a crewmate’s pet mourn over their owner’s body in Among Us, you want to talk about the experience, or tweet about it, or craft a TikTok in honor of it. Your experiences in co-op gaming aren’t solely your own, which fosters a sense of community that transcends whatever device you happen to be playing on. And these games tend to infiltrate pop culture because of that, in ways even beautifully rendered, story-rich titles like The Last Of Us Part II just can’t, which only furthers their popularity and invites more prospective players to their worlds.

We’re not claiming co-op gaming and multiplayer gaming is better than single-player modes — preference depends on what adventure you’re looking for — but in 2020, these experiences gave us things we desperately needed: Connection, the opportunity to work together towards a common goal, a way to bridge divides, meet new people, and interact on a different level.

That won’t just go away once this pandemic ends … and we’re thankful for it.

Since HBO Max launched in May 27, WarnerMedia’s streaming service slowly made itself accessible to platform after platform with Roku users sitting by, not-so-patiently, waiting for their turn. Soon enough, workarounds made it possible for some Roku devotees to climb aboard and watch original HBO Max shows including Love Life and The Flight Attendant, along with a vast back catalogue of content. Still, millions of users remained frustrated with the two services seemingly at odds over how to seal a deal. On Wednesday morning, even, word that even Sony PlayStation 5 users could now stream HBO Max made the Roku issue stand out even more, but finally, word has come down that HBO Max and Roku are friends.

Via a press release, WarnerMedia announced that, beginning on Thursday, December 17, Roku users can nab HBO Max from the Roku channel store and subscribe from there. As long as they’ve got HBO subscription credentials, they can access the entire HBO Max library for streaming. This deal arrives shortly before Wonder Woman 1984 lands on the streaming service at no additional cost. From a statement from Roku Senior Vice President Scott Rosenberg:

“Reaching mutually beneficial agreements where Roku grows together with our partners is how we deliver an exceptional user experience at an incredible value for consumers and we are excited by the opportunity to deepen our longstanding relationship with the team at WarnerMedia.”

As Rosenberg points out, this should make the over 100 million people with Roku devices pretty happy, just in time for the holidays and while waiting for those vaccines to start circulating in abundance.

The Art Of Political Murder (HBO Documentary) — George Clooney and Grant Heslov executive produce this doc film based upon Francisco Goldman’s book about the 1998 murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi. The act of violence piled upon decades of political turmoil with the bishop’s murder arriving mere days after he condemned the Guatemalan military’s role in the civil war. A team of young investigators then uncovered a web of corruption while fighting to uncover the truth.

The Ripper (Netflix series) — Make sure your windows are locked before you tuck into this docuseries that charts the 1975-1980 reign of terror by the Yorkshire Ripper in the North of England. Before all was said and done, over a dozen women lost their lives, and nobody felt safe. It’s a four-part series that promises to place the investigation into context to reveal exactly how he went unabated for so long.

Anitta: Made In Honório (Netflix series) — Brazilian iconic funk and pop singer Anitta gets her own docuseries to show her rise as a controversial artist, along with intimate looks at life on the road and her ways as a businesswoman.

Devils (CW, 8:00pm EST) — The Patrick Dempsey-starring series of international financial intrigue picks up with Massimo attempting to form an unholy alliance while searching for “smoking gun” evidence to use against Dominic.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Tom Hanks, Leslie Odom Jr

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Kawhi Leonard, Lewis Capaldi

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Tina Fey, Patty Jenkins, Marcus King

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington

In case you missed these picks from last Wednesday:

Alabama Snake (HBO 9:00pm EST and streaming on HBO Max) — With a subtitle like The Haunting Tale Of An Attempted Murder By Rattlesnake, how exactly can go wrong with this documentary film? The story follows a Pentecostal minister and serpent handler, Glenn Summerford, who attempted to commit murder-by-rattlesnake with the victim being his wife. These events rocked a sleepy community in Scottsboro, Alabama, and the trial was something else. Never before seen interviews and footage promise to give a rare glimpse at the culture of Pentecostal snake-handling churches while painting a terrifying Southern Gothic portrait of the accused murderer in question.

The Surgeon’s Cut (Netflix documentary series) — Four ground-breaking surgeons get the global spotlight to showcase their visionary methods. You’ll see innovative operations and procedures and follow each physician’s journey into the realm of surgery. In the end, the series will show everyone how human innovation is constantly reshaping how people understand the human body, including applications within fetal medicine, neurosurgery, transplant surgery and cardiology.

In the early days of quarantine, Taylor Swift plopped herself in front of the television and didn’t move for hours. Celebs: they’re just like us!

“I started watching lots of films,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “We would watch a different movie every night. I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth before. One night I’d watch that, then I’d watch L.A. Confidential, then we’d watch Rear Window, then we’d watch Jane Eyre.” Swift also called The Office, along with Dawson’s Creek, one of her “quarantine binge shows,” which make sense. She’s a Netflix subscriber (presumably) in 2020: of course she’s watching The Office (at least until it moves to Peacock). Swift even used a GIF of Dwight Schrute blubbering out “thank you” to respond to Spin calling her new album, Evermore, an “undeniable folk-pop masterpiece.”

The tweet caught the attention of the actor who played Dwight on The Office, Rainn Wilson. “I do not know who this is. Inventor of the Swiffer?” he wrote. Swift replied to the singer-songwriter with a GIF of Jim Halpert saying “touché,” even if Michael’s “Dwight, you ignorant slut” would have been more appropriate. The Office‘s official Twitter account also got in on the fun, tweeting, “Not to be confused with Justice Beaver.”

Swift and Billie Eilish need to have an Office trivia-off immediately.

While calling into The Howard Stern Show, George Clooney voiced his support for Tom Cruise’s tirade after the actor was recorded berating Mission: Impossible crew members for not socially distancing. As someone who takes COVID precautions very seriously and understands the ramifications of productions being shut down for not following safety protocols, Clooney told Stern that Cruise was definitely in the right even if Clooney would’ve maybe handled things a bit differently. Via E! News:

“I wouldn’t have done it that big. I wouldn’t have, you know, pulled people out,” he elaborated. “You’re in a position of power and it’s tricky, right? You do have a responsibility for everybody else and he’s absolutely right about that. And, you know, if the production goes down, a lot of people lose their jobs. People have to understand that and have to be responsible. It’s just not my style to, you know, to take everybody to task that way.”

While Clooney would’ve taken a different approach, he also stressed that he doesn’t know the full context of the Cruise situation. “I don’t know that I would have done it quite that personally, but I don’t know all the circumstances so maybe he had it 10 or 15 times before.” However, Mediaite reports that Clooney did have choice profanities for COVID deniers who thinking wearing a mask goes against their freedom. “That’s not how this sh*t works, dumbass,” Clooney said before offering some blunt instructions to the “freedom” crowd. “Put on a f*cking mask and we’ll get through this,” he said. “We’ve got vaccines coming — let’s save another 60,000 lives before the vaccines.”

(Via E!, Mediaite)

Some people tuned in every week for the topics, broken down into digestible chunks and accompanied with informative and oftentimes funny graphics on the gigantic video display adorning the wall behind the host. Some tuned in for the host’s jokes, the quick wit that he regularly turned on himself, his subjects, and even his in-studio audience but never with the intention to harm, only entertain. But some — the few and the proud — tuned in for the fits, and to see which pair of runway-ready kicks he’d matched with his collection of trendy sweaters and shirts as he lampooned world leaders and explained looming crises.

Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj may be “off the air” as of this summer, but the host himself has already found his next gig — and a way to continue the good works he often championed with the show, albeit one that is a bit more down-to-earth. The comedian, cultural critic, and television host can now be seen on Apple TV’s The Morning Show alongside Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell in a recurring role as a “charismatic, rising star who joins The Morning Show team,” according to Deadline. The new gig will help him fund his self-described “crippling” sneaker habit, but for those who don’t have the benefit of appearing on multiple streaming services, he put a twist on one of the tactics he used to great effect on Patriot Act.

One of his favorite “running gags” was to create websites to help viewers find workarounds to corporate shenanigans, such as a website that took users to free tax preparation software in an episode decrying Turbo Tax’s borderline false advertising of its own “free” site. Minhaj also created websites for users to buy merch with the proceeds going to protect the Amazon rainforest and other worthwhile causes. This past November, he partnered with financial lending startup Affirm for its “Gifts Not Gotchas” holiday campaign. The campaign was Affirm’s bid to highlight its differences from credit card companies and call out industry practices of hiding deferred interest, fees, and other tricks in the fine print of “special offers.”

The campaign gave away $1 million to users for videos of their best fine print readings, shining a light on hidden fees and other “gotcha” terms in confusingly worded blocks of text in credit card or recurring payment agreements. Minhaj partnered with Affirm to encourage fellow sneakerheads to use the service when shopping on sites like StockX and GOAT to help them avoid “gotcha” fees and stay within their budgets as they do their holiday shopping (and pick up one or two pairs for themselves, of course). In his own words, “This is a great way people can fit in gifts and shopping within their budget without regretting it later.”

He tells me as much over the phone as we discuss the partnership, his favorite episodes of Patriot Act, his future plans, the upcoming NBA season, and of course, our favorite pairs of sneakers to squeeze into our monthly budgets.

Why did you feel the need to educate consumers about fees, and traps, and fine print?

A lot of folks who follow my work, they’re our age, they’re our generation or younger. As we know with our generation, one of the things that we were not taught in school was financial literacy. With the holidays coming up, I know a lot of people are spending money on gifts for themselves and for loved ones.

If you’ve been on any of the websites that I personally shop on, whether it’s StockX, or adidas, or GOAT, Affirm is just a way that people can pay for things in a manageable way that fits into their holiday budget without fine print or any “gotcha” language in there that will end up getting people caught up later. So your payment, your interest, and all that is upfront. You have no late fees, no hidden fees. And I figured, look, with the holidays coming around, this is a great way people can fit in gifts and shopping within their budget without regretting it later.

Ironically, my old job used to be the exact opposite. I used to work at Bally’s Total Fitness. So my job was trying to sign people up for these predatory contracts. I felt terrible every day.

You were using your forearm to cover up the fine print at the bottom. You’re just like, “Oh, just sign here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s all good.”

So you were talking about your favorite merchant retailers, StockX, GOAT, adidas, all those other guys. Which one’s your favorite? What was your last purchase on it?

My personal favorite is StockX and that is out of pure nepotism because I’m friends with Josh Luber, who is the founder of StockX. He was actually one of my first interviews at The Daily Show, in regards to the sneaker resale market. And at the time, he had launched this website called StockX, and I just needed the “expert” to talk to about reselling.

To me, it represented a huge, generational change between what we went through growing up. You will probably get it. You literally had to endure multiple hoops to jump through in order to get a specific shoe that you wanted. They became a third-party authenticator to be like, “All right, you can still be at home and try to get the shoe that you want.” And so I’ve used StockX a lot. The last shoe that I got on StockX was the Nike SB Dunk Parra, believe it or not. I got a feel for the Dunks. I think a low-top, chunky shoe is dope. I’m usually an Air Max 1 guy, but the Nike SB Parra was really cool. I’m really into collabs right now. I think that’s really dope.

I can’t do the collabs, because, well, one, they’re out of my price range, but two, it’s just so hard to get ahold of them. I remember when the Supreme SB Dunks with the stars on them came out in 2003. I tried to take the bus from my high school down to Proper in Long Beach, and it was right there. And I could just grab it and go.

This is actually my take on the whole sneaker, hype, resell. Is this hot, is this not? Honestly, you can still get really dope shoes. For me, it’s all about the connection you have with the specific shoe. I remember looking at StockX just the other day, and they had the Nike Shox BB4, which was one of the hottest shoes when I was in high school, the Vince Carter’s for $70. They were below retail. I almost wanted to get them, but I’m not hooping right now. We’re living through a pandemic.

But I realized so much of what we buy into is the Veblen good nature of the hype machine. And for me, if you think it’s a dope shoe, you should wear it. I think another shoe that was really dope that I liked that isn’t crazy, crazy on the hype list that I just saw recently where I was like, “Oh, this is a really cool shoe.” I thought Justin Timberlake in his Jordan 3 was really dope. I just think it’s cool that a lot of these brands are starting to do collaborations with athletes, non-athletes, female designers.

A big part of why I think sneaker culture got big was because of sites like Nice Kicks, Sneaker News, Kicks On Fire, and they would do the celebrity weekly roundups. And people just started picking their favorites. I think you would have definitely been one of those people had you been a little bit earlier to the game. Who would be some of your sneaker heroes from that era?

I’m going to say this just to plug my fellow comedians. I think Jason Sudeikis has a fire rotation and gets slept on a lot. People sleep on Sudeikis, man. If you just type in “Jason Sudeikis sneakers,” go to Google images, You’ll be like, “Whoa, I didn’t know he had these.” And he’s been doing the red carpet, sneaker flex. I think he wore Bred 11s to the Met Gala. He’s been around.

It’s cause he’s white.

It is because he’s white.

Speaking of, your Vanity Fair lie detector test recently resurfaced and went dummy viral. Did you think when you saw it, “Isn’t this two years old? Why is this happening right now?” And people were talking about how they could see the moment you made the decision, “I’m going in.” Did you really say, “F*ck it, I’m going in?” How did that work out?

The thing that it tapped into was definitely this feeling of, for a lot of people of color, there’s this feeling that we have to be extraordinary. To achieve the same opportunities, you have to work twice as much. And I think that’s the feeling that it really tapped into. I genuinely love Dax. That was the thing. Even on Twitter, I was like, “Yo, Dax looks great without a shirt, for the record.” He has an amazing body shirtless. Shout out to him. He’s had me on the podcast. He’s a good dude. So I’m not looking at life as a zero-sum game. He’s genuinely a great, talented dude.

I think the emotion that I hit was for a lot of folks, with people that are trying to break into Hollywood or break into these other industries, it tapped into that emotion of, man, I got to be extraordinary. Being ordinary is just a choice to make. And so I think that’s where people were like, “Yo, I feel that.”

Speaking of living down your viral moments, you actually just re-posted your NBA Awards prediction that LaMelo Ball will never make the NBA. You have to eat your words, sir. How do they taste?

Look, man, one of the things that I think is horrible is when a comedian cannot laugh at themselves. So if I dish it, I got to be able to take it. So I have gone on the record with some hot takes. If I’m willing to dump on people, I got to be willing to get dumped on. He pulled the John Starks, all of the Bulls on me.

Then you had to show your own hoop skills at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Honestly, I love hooping, but I also do not ever want to do that in front of people. What is the sense of playing on that level, in an arena with people watching you, millions of people watching you on TV?

So I’m going to just put it this way, nothing’s more humiliating than doing stand-up comedy. If you’re in a basement at two o’clock in the morning trying to make drunk people laugh, you cannot fall off the floor. So there is no amount of humiliation that ESPN can do to me that I haven’t already willingly endured through life. So I live my life by the saying, “Life is short, wear your Jordans.” The window of me being “relevant” is only so long. There’s only going to be so many years that I can get invited to be a part of it. I’ve always wanted to wear NBA licensed material.

Back in the day, we used to get those Champion jerseys but when you play in this, they got the real patches. I was always used to buying replicas. So that feeling of being able to play with officially licensed products… You don’t have to wipe your shoes every three seconds because it’s not a dusty gym at a 24 Hour Fitness on the weekend. As you can see — you can go back to the footage — I shoot as many times as possible. I’ve been swatted before on live television, but I’ve also made some critical hoops too. And I think that’s a great life lesson, “stay in the game, and you can do it.”

I remember just sitting in the locker room and realizing, “Yo, it’s anybody’s game.” It’s JB Smoove, Bad Bunny. None of us are professional athletes. We might as well just launch every time. So shoot your shot, don’t pass, and have fun, man. That’s what it’s all about.

Coming back full circle, we were talking about how I would get excited about certain Patriot Act topics and I would re-post them on my social media and that was how we developed a give and take. What was the one that you were the most excited about? You got this topic and you were like, “Man, nobody cares about this, but I’m going in.”

I was thinking about this the other day. I was thinking about our student loans episode because that really popped. And then I had the opportunity to testify before Congress, in regards to the student loans, and financial industry, the loans industry itself. I thought that was just a really powerful thing, especially just for our generation. I think my generation is saddled with college debt, and it’s one of the biggest political issues. I would say one of the biggest issues of 2020 that I think is really important. Anytime you get to be a part of something that resonates beyond just someone’s laptop, or cell phone, and it actually touches the real world, those were really cool moments.

I know you’re going to miss your big video board. I know you’re going to miss the ability to just have the graphic pop up instantaneously while you’re giving things, but what was something about the show that maybe you’re a little relieved you don’t have to do anymore?

I think the thing I’m definitely happiest about with moving on is not having to live in the news every day. Now, I’m on the show called The Morning Show on Apple TV and that’s a one-hour drama, and we’re exploring narrative themes rather than being a news-driven show. I think that’s been really, really good for me. Living in the mire and muck of the day-to-day happenings of the White House or global news, it can take a toll on you mentally. So that’s one thing where I’m like, “Thank God, I don’t have to check the news 24 hours a day.” Or I’ll be midway through a script, and they’re like, “Oh, well, we got to change that because this has changed now.”

I’m used to interviewing rappers so there have definitely been a few where they feel like people are out to get them, but there’s a huge difference between rap beef and beefing with dictators.

Right, I’m not pissing off any dictators or autocrats. I’m doing big-budget, one-hour dramas. That’s great. I’m cool with that. I’m doing my scenes with Reese Witherspoon and Jen Aniston. They’re national treasures, so I’m set.

Do you have any thoughts or predictions about the upcoming NBA season? Who do you think is going to take it all? Who do you think is going to the playoffs?

I will say this: I’m excited the season’s coming back. And I know some players aren’t cool to coming back so quick, but as we still await the vaccine and we’re still living through quarantine, I’m so glad Adam and the league are bringing us basketball. Christmas Day basketball’s going to be great. I think, and I say this… My heart breaks as a Sacramento Kings fan, I think the Lakers will win again. They’ve stacked themselves up properly. That breaks my heart. But I think it will be interesting to see how other teams shape up, and they’re going to contest. But LA’s the team to beat right now.

I thought you’d be a Warriors fan (this is bait).

No, bro. Aaron, don’t insult me, bro. I’m a Sacramento Kings fan. There’s a big rivalry between Sacramento and the Bay area. It’s one-sided, but it’s there.

I am literally looking at the Sacramento Kings roster like, “How can I mess with him?”

Don’t sleep on us. Don’t sleep on De’Aaron Fox. Don’t sleep on us. And don’t sleep on Buddy while we still have him.

Ever since you explained how to say your name properly to Ellen, what would you say is the percentage of times people get your name right versus incorrectly now?

You know what’s been cool? I think I give it 70/30, but the coolest thing about it has been people have just doubled back and asked, “Hey, did I get that right?” And I appreciate the consideration.

You do so many interviews, and people are always asking you certain questions. You hear certain things over and over again. I’m sure you’ve probably heard a lot of these questions before. What’s one question you wish someone would ask you that no one ever has?

What is the one item that you can’t live without? I’ve been dying to talk about this.

I’m a big fan of the uni-ball Vision Elite pen, and not enough people talk about this. I’m a big pen fan. The uni-ball Vision Elite is a phenomenal pen. It’s great. I spent my entire life, 34 years of my life, writing with crappy BIC pens. Not trying to take shots at BIC, but the pens aren’t great. uni-ball comes correct. It flows on paper really great. It doesn’t smudge or grease, and I’m a huge uni-ball pen collector. I love them.

I can’t do it, man. They go right through the paper. I write too fast.

Look, man, when you write with the uni-ball Vision Elite, bro, it feels like you’re about to sign an important piece of legislation. You feel as important. I know it sounds small, but those little talismans… Those are the only things that you feel like you have control over, agency over these days. So I’m a fan of it.