GoneTrending

LaKeith Stanfield has emerged as one of the best actors working today. Hands down. No doubt about it. When he’s on the screen, he’s got … well, he’s got “it,” whatever “it” is. He’s got an acting style that we might have seen in the ’70s, when auteurs ruled the screen, with a unique grit and gravitas that’s impossible not to notice. Think of a movie like Knives Out (when I bring this movie up in the interview, Stanfield immediately says how much he wants to work with director Rian Johnson again), where there’s an entire all-star cast, by design, hamming it up for the camera. Yet there’s Stanfield, as the erstwhile detective, just doing what he does, laying the groundwork of a character we could all latch onto, surrounded by eccentric weirdos. It’s remarkable how he still stands out, even in a hyper-stylized situation like that. (TL;DR: No matter how good your movie might be, if you want your movie to be better, put LaKeith Stanfield in it.)

As you’ll read below, Stanfield struggled with playing William O’Neal in Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah (which premiered at Sundance this week). The movie is casually referenced as “the movie about Fred Hampton” (played by Daniel Kaluuya), but that doesn’t tell the full story. The movie’s main character is William O’Neal, the man who infiltrated Hampton’s Black Panthers as an FBI informant (an option given to O’Neal instead of jail time for a crime he committed), later giving the feds the information that would get Hampton killed. Stanfield personally found O’Neal’s actions “reprehensible,” but still found a way to give the character some empathy. Stanfield scoured old interviews with O’Neal and, believes, he found the man to have remorse. Also, as Stanfield points out, the fact O’Neal later committed suicide on the night a documentary about his actions aired is a telling sign that he was battling the demons. But what if Stanfield is wrong? What if there wasn’t remorse? What if he’s giving some humanity to a man who doesn’t deserve it? Stanfield admits this question haunted him and made this one of the toughest roles he’s ever had to play.

And that’s the thing that makes Stanfield great. He’s such a thoughtful actor. It’s obvious how much this responsibility weighed on him, which we see in his electric performance. By the end, I’m left a little awestruck, basically just asking, “Hey, man, why are you so good?” Of course, there’s no good way for an actor to answer that, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s just remarkable what he can do. Again, if you want your movie to be better, put LaKeith Stanfield in it.

What is your personal opinion of William O’Neal?

I didn’t know the man when he was alive. I mean, he died in 1990, right before I was born.

Right.

But I never could have known him, so I really can’t say my actual opinion about him fully. My opinion about some of the things that he did, I find him reprehensible. Although, in my studies, I’ve become a little bit more empathetic to the human being than I was before. I sort of opened up my awareness and allowed myself to view him more as a human being instead of casting judgment based on some actions that he’s done. I guess I should have just kept this short and said I ended up feeling sorry for him a little bit. It’s really tragic thing the way his story ended and the way that it unfolded for him. I want better for my fellow humans, all of them.

That’s why I was really curious what your position on what he did, because there is some empathy there in your performance. I kind of got the sense it’s hard to say you feel empathetic for someone who did what he did. But at the same time it does feel like they put him in a situation where there were not a lot of good options.

Yeah, it made me reflect on what I might do in that situation. It’s easy to say I’d take 10 years. I’m not going to put someone like Fred Hampton in a compromised position. But the way things unfolded, you may not even have known that’s the decision he would end up having to make. It was a snowball effect, apparently, where he made a couple bad decisions and now you have to continue along this line or things just get worse for you. So you have to do more and more extreme things. This may very well have been the case. My interpretation was that this was how it went down. Now, I can’t be completely sure about that, even given the information that I had because it’s just simply not enough to know whether or not this is how it went down. In my mind, that’s the only way I could rationalize it.

Right.

So, I tried to put that on the character. So, that way, it could make sense to people and make sense to me. Because I couldn’t understand the character that just would be just a complete villain who is just like, “Fuck these people.” Okay, I’ll put it this way: There’s no way you can sit at a Fred Hampton speech and not be moved by the words that this guy was saying unless you’re just a complete lizard. And I don’t think that William O’Neal was that. Because I saw his interview, Eyes on the Prize, full-length interview. You could see, even though he was attempting to try and be tough and not let his interior show, you could see, in little slivers in-between, what he didn’t say that he felt very guilty about what he did. You could see it in the interview! “I felt bad about it, but I had to continue to play the role.” The fact that he felt bad about it, that’s all I needed to know. Now I know that he’s a human being and, okay, now I can play you. I can’t play anyone that’s just not a human. But if you’re a human, I can play you.

But if he is this villain, you don’t want to portray him as something who’s sympathetic. Did you worry about giving him too much credit?

You know what? That’s exactly right. No one’s even asked me that. But yeah, I did worry about that. I was on set the whole time, I kept asking Shaka, “Am I doing this right?” I didn’t want to do it too much. I definitely did not want to do that. So I was trying to find the balance, but it was really difficult. So I was telling Shaka every day, I would be like, “Is the tone okay? Am I keeping steady? I’m trying to keep balanced. I need perspective.” It was really tough to try and find a balance. Shaka would reassure me all the time, “Okay. Boom, boom, this and this.” Try to help me find the right energy balance, but it was really hard. I didn’t want to make him too sympathetic. And because I don’t know if he was at all, it’s a risky thing. But I was just like… I don’t know. I don’t know.

It looks like a hard needle to thread…

I saw it in the interview in the moment and I just wanted to take that and expand upon it. I thought that, at certain points, that it might be beneficial for the story for me to play him as his tough exterior. But I knew that he wasn’t acting like that every day, the way that he was acting in the Eyes on the Prize interview. He’s not acting like that every day. This is after he’s much older and he’s had time to sit with things and come up with his responses for the interview and put his suit on and the lights are on. So I wanted to tap into the unseen parts, the part that people didn’t see in him and bring that to life, if that makes sense.

It does make sense.

I know it was risky, but I thought it might be worth it.

And for a lot of people, this will be one of the records of what happened. So it does make sense why this was tough. Like you said, this is really difficult.

Yeah. But also isn’t it informed by the way he went out?

I wanted to bring that up. That’s a good point.

And we can speculate about why he committed suicide. But if you look at his record, even outside of Fred Hampton, he went on to continue working with the FBI and being their footman for locking up a whole bunch of different people, getting a lot of people in a lot of trouble, and hurting a lot of people. If this didn’t mess with his psyche? And the way that he went out was so violent, running into traffic. To do something like that, you have to be in a mental state of just disarray completely. So you can’t convince me that he was a stone-cold lizard that didn’t feel anything.

Because it was the night the documentary aired, right? And he watched it, and this is just me guessing, but it’s almost like didn’t even realize all of the terrible things he did. And then it was just spelled out to him and then he ran out into traffic. Am I over-reading it?

That’s a good interpretation. That’s just as valid as anyone else’s speculation at this point. One thing is for sure, he was going through something. And the fact that he did it on that night meant that maybe it was that he didn’t even want to deal with even watching it. Or the fact that it was aired to millions of people and that he knew in that interview he was lying about saying, “Oh, I did whatever I needed to do. My kids, they’ll be fine with it.” He knew that wasn’t the truth, and he couldn’t stand, perhaps, one more lie. It was like, “I’m not going to do this.” Actually, he had tried to commit suicide several times before that, and it was thwarted by his cousin. I read in a book, actually, he tried to do it many other times. So he had been going through mental trauma and stuff for years and you can’t battle with those things if you’re just a straight lizard. You just don’t care. But I think, yeah, there was something there. So I got an indication of that in the interview and wanted to use it. I hope that we found some nice little balance with it all.

Because there are definitely moments in the film where he’s like, “I just don’t give a fuck about what you’re talking about.” He’s like, “I don’t care about the Black Panthers.” Or, “What are you talking about? The Martin Luther King guy? I guess. I don’t know.” There are those moments, because I don’t think everybody back at the time who was Black was either like, “I’m a Black Panther,” or like, “Fuck Black people.” You know what I mean?

You mentioned the scene with you and Jesse Plemons when he asks, “What did you think when Dr. King was assassinated?” and you as William basically says he was sad, but that’s about it. That’s an interesting scene. The FBI feeling him out if he’ll be a good plant or not. At least that’s how I interpreted it.

Exactly. No, exactly. That’s my interpretation as well. He was just, yeah, trying to feel him out. Once he realized that he wasn’t connected to this in this way, it’s perfect. All right, good.

Since the pandemic started I’ve watched a lot of ’70s movies. A lot of Altman actually. And your acting style reminds me of some of the acting styles from those types of movies. What are your influences? What are you doing that is so unique? I know that’s probably an unfair question.

Well, thank you very much, first of all. Very kind words. I appreciate it so much. I love this. I love doing it. I’ve done it all my life in one way or another. I love it, man. I love telling stories. It’s my thing. I don’t know. I don’t know. I love it. I don’t know what else to say. I love it. I work hard at it.

Well, you’ve always got this kind of blunt, unique, to the point style. It’s always something I look forward to.

Thank you very much, man. I really appreciate that. I try to give it my all every time I go in. There’s a unique ensemble of people that it takes to make a movie, and I’m just one part of that. I just love doing it, so I appreciate you for appreciating the work.

I know with the next Knives Out movie it’s supposed to be Daniel Craig’s character going on different adventures. But I feel you could come back? Hopefully someday? Or is that it?

I love Rian Johnson. It was really fucking cool working with him. I’d love to work with him again. Who knows? It’s the story makers, story writers and stuff. I’d love to come back. That’d be cool.

This is weird, but he and I are on a Pokemon Go thread. Next time some Pokemon Go thing comes up about Kyogre or whatever I’ll sneak in a, “Hey, also, put LaKeith in another Knives Out.”

[Laughs] Yes! I appreciate you, bro.

Okay I’ll do that.

Hell yeah.

‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ opens Feb. 12th in theaters and on HBO Max. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Dua Lipa had a wildly productive year in 2020 despite the circumstances. The singer released her Gold-certified album Future Nostalgia, performed at award ceremonies and late-night television shows, and even dabbled in US politics. But per a recent announcement, fans can expect the same energy from the pop star in 2021.

Lipa released her “Levitating” remix with DaBaby back in October and it’s still dominating the charts. This week, the track landed at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated February 6, marking a new peak position. To celebrate her song’s achievement, Lipa made an exciting announcement. “Levitating is TOP 5 in the US,” she wrote on social media. “new music coming soooooooooooon <3:

Though the singer didn’t clarify the details of the upcoming release, fans were overjoyed at the news. Following Lipa’s announcement, it didn’t take her fans long to form the hashtag #DuaIsComing. They flooded timelines with their favorite photos of the singer in anticipation of a new release.

While the singer has been very present on social media this album cycle, Lipa recently opened up about how she couldn’t have written Future Nostalgia without taking a step back from the internet. “In all honesty, I don’t think I could have done my second record if I hadn’t taken a step back from social media,” she said in an interview. “When you first start, when I first started putting new music out, everything was super positive and I had lots of nice messages. I think the more stuff you do, then there is criticism and comments and it all comes in thick and fast, and for a while it was really getting to me. I just felt like people had nothing but mean things to say or I was being picked on. It did upset me, it made me feel I didn’t deserve to do certain things.”

See Lipa’s announcement above.

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

Pepsi recently revealed that for this year’s Super Bowl, the company plans to not air any ads during the game and focus on their halftime show, with Todd Kaplan, Pepsi’s vice president of marketing, saying, “We are going to double down on our existing 12 minutes in the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show in the middle of the Super Bowl, and we are going to build it out like we have never built it out before.” They’ve been getting ads out before the big game, though, and they’ve been about The Weeknd and his upcoming performance.

The first one came about a month ago, and it featured people from various walks of life in various environments singing along to the inescapable hit “Blinding Lights.” Now Pepsi has unveiled a new 30-second, The Weeknd-starring spot, and it depicts The Weeknd in the moments before he takes the stage for his halftime show. In it, he walks down a hallway, looking at videos of himself from throughout his career as they’re projected on the wall. Finally, he reaches the end of the hall and takes the field. All the while, a voiceover speaks about creativity and big moments.

Watch the new ad above.

Doja Cat may not enjoy TikTok quite as much as she used to, but it looks like users on the app can’t get enough of her 2019 album Hot Pink. After TikTok members helped turn the album’s song “Say So” into Doja Cat’s first No. 1 hit single, they’ve revitalized another album cut, “Streets,” thanks to the risque “Silhouette Challenge.” According to Billboard, the song entered the Hot 100 in January and has since jumped to No. 25.

The challenge incorporates Paul Anka’s 1959 “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and Doja’s “Streets” into a quick-change video in which women (and men! and couples!) wear baggy clothes, often looking like they’re ready for bed, before the video slam-cuts to the subjects posing in silhouette form either nude or in lingerie with a deep red filter obscuring the NSFW bits. The switch is similar to that of the Buss It Challenge that uses Dallas rapper Erica Banks‘ song of the same name, although the song switch is actually built into “Buss It.” That song also hit the Hot 100 as a result of its TikTok popularity.

The original sound was cooked up by user Giulia Di Nicolantonio and the hashtag #SilhouetteChallenge has accumulated 217 million views while infiltrating other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. Numerous celebrities, including Tiffany Haddish and Common, have posted variations of the trend, and even Doja has considered returning to TikTok to post her silhouette to her own song. Check out Doja Cat’s response to the challenge and a few examples below.

It feels like not a day goes by where someone doesn’t speculate about what the future holds for Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal. One of the league’s most dynamic scorers and someone who would legitimately help all 29 other NBA teams win basketball games, Beal is on a Wizards squad that has the worst record in the NBA and fits the profile of being someone whose name will exist in trade talks so long as that’s the case.

The issue with all of this is that Beal has made clear on numerous occasions over the years that he has zero intention of ever seeking out a trade, something that has been the case a number of times this season. And on Tuesday morning, a report from Shams Charania and Fred Katz of The Athletic indicates that Beal has gotten frustrated about his situation.

The catch: Beal’s frustration stems from “the portrayal portrayal” of what things are like for him in D.C., not that he wants out due to how the Wizards’ season has gone.

Beal has so far expressed he wants to remain in Washington and has not indicated he prefers to be traded, sources with knowledge of the situation tell The Athletic. The Wizards, in turn, have no interest in trading him. Amid calls from the general public and even ones from around the league that a team at the bottom of the standings would be best off dealing its prized player, Washington has made it clear it has no plans to move him.

He is privately frustrated and confused with the perpetual portrayal of his situation, according to sources familiar with his thinking. After seeing other players take criticism for requesting to leave teams, those sources say Beal feels he’s getting nitpicked for choosing to stay in D.C., where he began his NBA career in 2012. He felt similarly when he signed an extension in October 2019. Speculation about his future has swirled since before then.

This does track with, well, everything that both the team and Beal have said about his future — while losing is something he does not like, he has developed incredibly strong ties to the franchise and the city during his tenure. Now, there have been situations where it has looked like Beal’s frustration has appeared to boil over, most notably in the first half of the Wizards’ game against the Nets on Sunday, but even with that specific case, he ended up playing an outstanding second half in which he teamed up with Russell Westbrook to take down Brooklyn in the game’s waning moments.

Barring something totally out of left field, it would appear that we could put to bed any notion that Beal wants out of Washington, even if that won’t stop fans of the league’s other 29 teams from taking to the trade machine and trying to figure out he can add them to their squad.

In Mean Girls, Amy Poehler memorably says that she’s not a regular mom, she’s a “cool mom.” That’s debatable, but in Moxie, her second movie for Netflix after making her directorial debut with 2019’s Wine Country, she’s an actual cool mom. Based on Jennifer Mathieu’s novel of the same name, Moxie is about a teenager (played by Hadley Robinson) who discovers her mom’s “rebellious past and anonymously publishes a zine that sparks a school-wide, coming-of-rage revolution,” according to Netflix.

“The ways in which people are encouraged to participate and lend their voice is so different than it was when I was growing up,” Poehler told USA Today about Moxie. “So much of my last decade of activism is about unlearning the ways in which I learned how to participate.” The trailer, set to Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl,” can be seen above.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Fed up with the sexist and toxic status quo at her high school, a shy 16-year-old finds inspiration from her mother’s rebellious past and anonymously publishes a zine that sparks a school-wide, coming-of-rage revolution. Based on the novel by Jennifer Mathieu. Directed by Amy Poehler.

Moxie, which also stars Lauren Tsai, Josephine Langford, Ike Barinholtz, Marcia Gay Harden, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, comes out on Netflix on March 3.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Alycia Bella’s music was meant to float peacefully in the summer sun. Its delicate texture makes for a sound that eases the body’s muscles and relieves the many headaches of the world. It has the potential to be a remedy for this tension-filled, nerve-racking society we currently inhabit. For someone who’s spent much of the last decade in close proximity to the music world, Alycia took her time creating this easily perishable world she resides in, one she presents on her majestic debut project, Muse.

As peaceful and serene as the world Alycia creates on Muse is, it’s one glaring flaw away from being perfect. Throughout the project’s 14 songs, the singer’s qualms with loneliness and her failed attempts to resolve it stand as a faulty canvas. No matter how she tries to paint love and its presence in her life, it ends up portraying a young woman who has yet again failed to secure the one and must return to wandering the hills and valleys of serenity without a companion.

The curtains for Muse open with soft echoes over the free-floating production of “Cue The Sun.” With the help of Westside Boogie, the singer seeks an end to the solo route she currently journeys. She and her partner have all but one thing in place to create the relationship of her dreams: commitment. Without it, the status of their partnership hangs by a weak, anxiety-filled thread that drives her as insane as a download stuck at 99%. Further into the album on “Something In The Water,” she begs her lover to take a moment to recenter their love as it currently lives on two separate pages. Unfortunately, her partner doesn’t seem to be interested in the idea. “You know I would walk with you / But you’ll just run,” she sings. “And tell me that I’m not keeping up with you.”

When her efforts to trade her loneliness for commitment come up short, it seems to only accentuate her displeasures with being the only character in her dreamland. As much as she has to offer, she’s left with individuals who cycle in and out of her life and display nothing more than the ability to run away faster than they ran to her. “You were never brave, good at runnin’,’’ she sings on “Mississippi Gun Rights.” Just like it would for any person might do after they’ve been run through the wringer of failed love over and over again, Alycia requests her wasted time be returned while labeling her old flame as selfish in the process. “I fucked with you like you fucked with you / You were never for me,” she sings on “Daylight Savings” in the pitched-down voice of her alter ego Muse 33.

Through the near successes at love and the confusion with one’s decision to waste her time, Alycia still strives for a companion to hold close when the day comes to an end. The world we currently live in is one that has been deprived of social interaction for the better part of a year, and that’s just on a platonic level. If intimacy hadn’t been found before the gates of normalcy were shut and locked up, the chances of obtaining it have only become riskier and more complicated. However, this only seems to make Alycia want a remedy to her lonely nights even more. “God, Drugs, And You” is an ode to the things mentioned in the title, with “You” being the only inconsistent item. “Dark Art” invites listeners to the dreadful drive back home to a bed colder than the winter nights Muse was released in.

There’s a certain vulnerability that’s needed for one to open about their desire for love as well as their seemingly never-ending road to finding it. Without a doubt, Alycia Bella possesses this attribute. One of the best qualities of Muse is its earthy, nonartificial aesthetic that blends effortlessly with Alycia’s ethereal vocals and earnest ballads. Even the most independent souls could use some love and here she proves that thought to be true. While others might leave their frustration of another day without love on the pillows they lay their heads on at night, Alycia keeps them pocketed throughout her days. Alycia needs love in her life, and it’s near arrival — all for it to slip out of the grasps of her hands — make it more of a nuisance and that much more desirable.

Muse is out now via Hurt People, Hurt People. Get it here.

Ted Cruz is getting roasted for a weirdly inaccurate take on Avengers: Endgame and Watchmen that’s so bad, the creative teams behind the film and HBO series are crawling out of the woodwork to basically ask, “Ted, what the hell are you talking about?” While trying to make some point about liberal Democrats and the Left telling people how to live their lives, Cruz went on a strange tangent about movie villains. “Have you noticed in how many movies how often rabid environmentalists are the bad guys?” the Florida senator said on his Verdict with Ted Cruz podcast. “Whether it’s Thanos or go to ‘Watchmen.’ The view of the Left is people are a disease.”

While there’s so many things wrong with Cruz’s hot take, starting with the fact that the demonstrably wrong villains hate humanity, not the heroes, Gunn would like to focus on Cruz pronouncing Thanos as “Thonnos” during his weird rant. “Maybe he can start with pronouncing Thanos correctly & then work his way up to making sense,” Gunn tweeted.

The Thanos take is just the most recent in a long line of bad takes that has seen Cruz roasted by everyone from Seth Rogen to Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, who delivered the most brutal burn last week during the GameStop meme stocks fiasco. After Cruz agreed with an AOC tweet calling for a hearing on the Robinhood investment app blocking users from buying GameStop stock, AOC fired back that she’ll gladly reach across the aisle with anyone but Cruz who stoked the flames of the assault on the Capitol building.

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” AOC tweeted at Cruz. “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

The realms of TV and film have undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic. Obviously, TV holds a strong advantage because the distribution method (your living room) is much friendlier to the process of avoiding a virus. Still, yes, production halted on all shows for awhile and for many shows for longer than awhile. Things got moving again last fall, and now, we’re seeing the resurgence begin. Yet this won’t be an overnight process. The schedule will really get rolling this spring with new endeavors like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and many returning shows, and heck, even Zack Snyder’s Justice League will technically be a miniseries, not a movie, but February is coming in with some early signs that TV will come roaring back full strength.

So, we’ve dug through the schedule and found the must-see selections for you. These might be, in some cases, “must-try” shows because, who knows, the charisma of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might only go so far for some viewers. Admit it, though, you are curious about how that show will turn out. That intrigue goes a long way, so here are the TV shows that you should at least consider putting on your list.

For All Mankind: Season 2 (Apple TV+, February 18)

Astronaut-Joel Kinnaman returns for what is is easily one of the streaming era’s best space-themed series, which brings alternate-theory twists aplenty, including a version of events where Russia beat America to the Moon. This batch of episodes goes down at the height of the Cold War while space exploration becomes ground central for the U.S. and Soviets as they race to stake claims upon resource-rich areas of the Moon. The characters must also maneuver through the militarization of NASA, which of course will cause tons of space-drama, which I reckon is the #3 most intense type of drama.

Tell Me Your Secrets (Amazon Prime, February 19)

Lily Rabe and Amy Brenneman star in this psychological thriller series about a trio of characters who each harbor a troubling past. There’s a woman who stared into the eyes of a killer, a serial predator who wants redemption, and a grieving mother who believes that she can still find her missing daughter. The series aims to explore the murky lines between victims and perpetrators, and it will need to thread a fine needle to pull off that feat while solving the show’s mysteries. This show has a Gone Girl vibe and promises to be as bingeworthy as HBO’s The Undoing (the presence of Lily Rabe, who played Nicole Kidman’s greatest ally in that show, helps that vibe), so get ready to hear a lot of buzz.

The Walking Dead: Season 10B (AMC, February 28)

Fans of this franchise haven’t seen an episode of the flagship series since last April, and even though Fear the Walking Dead picked up a lot of praise during the gap, there’s nothing like the original with crafty Negan and steadfast Daryl keeping the anti-zombie fires burning. The bad news is that the show will conclude with a super-sized Season 11 in 2022, but the good news is that Daryl and Carol are getting a spinoff, and there will be plenty more of this franchise to fuel Rick Grimes movies and the like. Here, we’ll see the extension of Season 10 with the return of Maggie and Negan’s late wife appearing in his backstory. Real life is colliding with fiction there, since Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s wife, Hilarie, will play Lucille, so that should be a good time.

Canine Intervention (Netflix, February 24)

Bridgerton, this ain’t, and it certainly differs from most of Netflix’s other offerings of late. I didn’t even expect to be reeled in by this series about a California-based K9 dog trainer, Jas Leverette, as he helps owners with their “problem dogs.” Instead, I imagined that this would be an unbearable watch that would make me weepy while wishing that I’d never clicked, but something about this trailer made me suspect differently, and I’m glad to have given it a chance. The charismatic Jas transforms the lives of several dogs, beginning with Lady MacBeth, a three-legged survivor who suffered a gunshot and stood as the very essence of Jas’ motto, “It’s never the dog’s fault, it’s always human error.” These are uplifting journeys for this dog and many others, who received their second chances and worked tirelessly to achieve stunning transformations in the process. Jas’ holistic approach to training works surprising benefits for the humans involved in these stories, too.

Young Rock (NBC, February 17)

Dwayne Johnson’s gotten very real in interviews while discussing his difficult adolescence and young adulthood, but this show will take a comedic stance while focusing on how he hustled his way into wrestling superstardom. Soon enough, he became a household name and rollercoaster-ed toward Hollywood stardom and earned that Franchise Viagra nickname. This series will focus on all of that, but also! Expect to see exploration of The Rock’s presidential semi-ambitions when his character decides to run for office in 2032 with the help of Rosario Dawson and Randall Park.

It’s A Sin (HBO Max, February 18)

This doesn’t promise to be the easiest watch, given that this is an account of the early-1980s AIDS health crisis in London. Still, the series not only examines the horror of the epidemic in an overall sense but, more specifically, upon two gay young men who left home with hope and joy in their hearts, only to confront terrible losses. Their families, friends, and lovers help galvanize the duo as they come together to fight against not only the virus itself but also the prejudices of society at large. It’s a series full of terrible happenings and wonderful people who come together to celebrate the lives of those lost.

Kenan (NBC, February 17)

The longest-tenured cast member on SNL (and he’s not leaving) now breaks into the family comedy business where he plays a character named Kenan, who’s attempting to do what we all do: balance every aspect of life (and usually, to some degree, make a mess while doing it). Luckily for Kenan, he’s so much funnier than the rest of us. It’ll be something to watch him dodge an overbearing father-in-law while staying sane with his family and work, so this should be quite the stress-relieving watch for anyone who wants to see Kenan Thompson painting everyday experiences in an absurd light.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (Netflix, February 10)

The Ted Bundy-obsessed Joe Berlinger — he directed Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy and created Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes — brings us a new docuseries that tackles a new mythology. Crime Scene is actually the launch of a documentary franchise that will dive into mysteries surrounding locations where infamous crimes took place. In this first season, the Cecil Hotel in Downtown LA becomes ground central for many untimely deaths and the housing of serial killers. In particular, this series digs into the 2013 disappearance of a college student, Elisa Lam, at the notorious hotel. Internet sleuths helped to mobilize and stir up a media frenzy, and what’s even more chilling is that this is only one of the hotel’s countless sinister happenings over the years.

Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine (Showtime, February 21)

This three-part documentary series tracks hip-hop artist Tekashi 6ix9ine’s rise to notoriety. The centerpiece of the series happens to be an exclusive interview with the rapper after his 2020 release from prison, and the show also hopes to provide a unique perspective on the artist’s mastery of social media and the culture of manufactured celebrity. One thing is certain: it won’t be boring.

Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready: Season 2 (Netflix, February 2)

Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready: Season 2 (Netflix series) — Netflix’s stellar run of stand-up comedy specials took a bit of a breather in late 2020, but there’s some excellent news on the horizon. Girl’s Trip star Tiffany Haddish will return with a fresh collection of half-hour specials and a diverse crop of comedians who are near and dear to Haddish. These players include Chaunté Wayans (Wild n’ Out), April Macie (Last Comic Standing), Tracey Ashley (The Last O.G.), Aida Rodriguez (Comedy Central’s This Week at the Comedy Cellar), Flame Monroe (Def Comedy Jam), and Marlo Williams (BET’s Comicview). This season won’t drop a moment too soon because we could really use the laughs.

Beartown: Season 1 (HBO Max, February 22)

This one looks terrifying. The story’s based upon Fredrik Backman’s bestselling novel of the same name, and it follows the domination of a junior ice-hockey team upon a small community. Given the show’s color palette on display in the trailer, I’m sure having a difficult time resisting Twilight jokes, but this looks more substantially chilling. The show promises to explore hope and secrets and courage to go against the grain.

Punky Brewster: Season 1 (Peacock, February 25)

Hear me out here on this one. Reboot madness won’t stop (no matter what we do), and after NBCU’s streaming service did the Saved By The Bell thing (which is already renewed for a second season), the progression toward Punky Power shouldn’t be too surprising. In this series, Punky’s a single mom who finds herself inspired by meeting a young orphan who possesses of all her old spunk. Both Soleil Moon Frye and Cherie Johnson reprise their roles, and Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Punky’s ex-husband. Did she go by “Punky” or “Penelope” while taking wedding vows? I kind-of need to know, and I also want some depth here. Of course, I’m not expecting this to be a crowd favorite like Cobra Kai, but there’s room here for Peacock to go a lot deeper than the original. Peacock is also making a lot of unexpectedly strong moves with content, so let’s just say that (as with The Rock’s TV show) curiosity is enough to make me check this show out, at least for a few episodes.

LeBron James has had quite the 7-game Eastern Conference road trip, leading the Lakers to a 5-2 record capped off with a win over the Hawks in Atlanta on Monday night. In the fourth quarter of that game, James found himself once again dealing with some courtside hecklers (after saying a Cavs front office member’s taunts fueled his monster fourth quarter in Cleveland), who ended up getting kicked out after yelling at LeBron with their masks pulled down.

James spoke after the game about the incident and said he didn’t think they should’ve been thrown out for anything they said, noting he and the guy both said their piece and moved on when his wife got involved as well and was the one tossed. The woman, Juliana Carlos aka Courtside Karen, posted a lot of Instagram stories from the night, including of the incident but also afterwards where she had all the bravado of someone with some added liquid encouragement yelling at a 6’8 giant of a human. In her explanation of what happened, she said she and LeBron exchanged profanities after she told him she’d “f*ck him up” and told him to “sit the f*ck down, bitch,” which are equally hilarious.

However, her claim that LeBron joined in cursing her out was looked into by Chris Kirschner and Jovan Buha of The Athletic and from all the videos of the incident from courtside, from Carlos and others, they could only find one thing LeBron said.

The Athletic reviewed courtside video from Juliana Carlos and others in close vicinity, and the only comment that is audible from James is him saying “Ol’ steroid ass.”

It is always great when folks embellish a story right after publishing video of what actually happened, and it’s also a hysterical response from LeBron to Carlos who, well, I mean, look at him.

The Hawks are investigating the incident and have pushed back on there being an issue with having fans seated courtside during a pandemic, saying they are given a rapid test that has to come back negative before the games and have a mask mandate — which seems to be the chief reason for their ejection from the game.