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Fall has fully arrived, and with the colder temperatures soon to settle into the U.S., Netflix is settling into more heavy-duty bingewatching territory while also encouraging holiday-fueled escapism. You may not be doing the full-on family thing this year (and let’s face it, that’s probably a good thing), but you can still enjoy the togetherness of others right? Hey, you’ll be avoiding dinnertime arguments, so there’s something.

Plenty of original offerings are on the way, including the return of Netflix’s crown prestige jewel, The Crown, which has consistently captivated even the most hardcore non-royal-watchers among us. Meanwhile, Ron Howard’s stirring up Oscar buzz with a film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, who are both overdue for some gold themselves. Oh, and Shawn Mendes is doing the documentary thing, and Christmas is coming from both Kurt Russell and Dolly Parton.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in November.

The Crown: Season 4 (Netflix series streaming 11/15)

This batch of new episodes introduces two major newcomers to the ensemble: The one and only Gillian Anderson as Prime Minister Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher and newcomer Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. Of major interest to royal watchers will be how the show frames the royal entrance of Diana, who would become the People’s Princess amid her stormy marriage to Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor). And as this teaser suggests, the fairy tale certainly isn’t everything that Diana expected it to be. The events of the season threaten to cast a shadow upon both the House of Windsor and Downing Street through high-pressure situations and cracks in the royal veneer.

Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix series streaming 11/24)

Amy Adams and Glenn Close both transform themselves for an Appalachian-set drama and even more swings at those elusive Oscar wins. Directed by Ron Howard, this film’s based upon J.D. Vance’s memoir of the same name, and the story follows how Vance, a Yale Law student, returns to his hometown for a family crisis. In the process, he’s dealing with high drama amid his mother’s addictive struggles. It’s a modern-day exploration of the American Dream as fueled by complex dynamics and a multigenerational take on the common-yet-uncommon journey that each family member faces in different ways.

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder (Netflix documentary film streaming 11/23)

The floppy-haired heartthrob takes fans behind the scenes of his demanding rise to the top, which led him towards a reckoning of sorts. The film promises a heartfelt glimpse into the pressures experienced while coming-of-age in front of absolutely everyone. While charting his path from precocious troubadour to global superstar, the project also includes never-before-seen footage of his private life and worldwide travels.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (Netflix film streaming 11/22)

Everyone loves Dolly, so at least there’s one thing that you won’t be arguing about with your relatives this season. Featuring an album full of original Dolly music, this film (which co-stars Christine Baranski) revolves around how the coldest of hearts can melt in the face of family, love, and the enduring Christmas spirit of a small town.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (Netflix film streaming 11/25)

Kurt Russell’s hot Santa returns two years after Kate and Teddy saved Christmas. Kate’s now a cynical teenager with family drama, and for some reason, she’s not thrilled to spend Christmas in Cancun. The trouble truly begins when a mysterious toublemaker, Belsnickel, plots to destroy Christmas and make a ground zero out of the North Pole. Russell’s here to help save the day, and yes, Goldie Hawn’s along for the ride.

Here’s the full list of titles coming to Netflix in November:

Avail. 11/1
M’entends-tu? / Can You Hear Me?: Season 2
60 Days In: Season 5
A Clockwork Orange
Boyz n the Hood
Casper
Christmas Break-In
Dawson’s Creek: Seasons 1-6
Easy A
Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale
Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue
Elliot the Littlest Reindeer
Forged in Fire: Season 6
Jumping the Broom
Knock Knock
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Seasons 1-3
Little Monsters (1989)
Mile 22
Ocean’s Eleven
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Piercing
Platoon
School Daze
Snowden
The Garfield Show: Season 3
The Impossible
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Next Karate Kid
Wheels of Fortune
Yes Man

Avail. 11/2
Prospect

Avail. 11/3
Felix Lobrecht: Hype
Mother

Avail. 11/4
A Christmas Catch
Christmas With A Prince
Love and Anarchy

Avail. 11/5
A New York Christmas Wedding
Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?
Midnight At The Magnolia
Operation Christmas Drop
Paranormal

Avail. 11/6
Citation
Country Ever After
La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench
The Late Bloomer

Avail. 11/9
Undercover: Season 2

Avail. 11/10
Dash & Lily
Trash Truck

Avail. 11/11
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun
The Liberator
Nasce uma Rainha / A Queen Is Born
What We Wanted

Avail. 11/12
Fruitvale Station
Graceful Friends
Ludo
Prom Night

Avail. 11/13
American Horror Story: 1984
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
The Life Ahead
The Minions of Midas

Avail. 11/15
A Very Country Christmas
America’s Next Top Model: Seasons 19 & 20
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Crown: Season 4
Hometown Holiday
Survivor: Seasons 20 & 28
V for Vendetta

Avail. 11/16
Loving
Whose Streets?

Avail. 11/17
The Boss Baby: Back in Business: Season 4
We Are the Champions

Avail. 11/18
El sabor de las margaritas / Bitter Daisies: Season 2
Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas

Avail. 11/19
The Princess Switch: Switched Again

Avail. 11/20
Alien Xmas
Flavorful Origins: Gansu Cuisine
If Anything Happens I Love You
Voices of Fire

Avail. 11/22
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Machete Kills

Avail. 11/23
Hard Kill
Shawn Mendes: In Wonder

Avail. 11/24
Dragons: Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor Holiday
El Cuaderno de Tomy / Notes for My Son
Hillbilly Elegy
Wonderoos

Avail. 11/25
The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two
Great Pretender: Season 2

Avail. 11/26
Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated
Mosul

Avail. 11/27
A Go! Go! Cory Carson Christmas
The Call
Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
Don’t Listen
Sugar Rush Christmas: Season 2
Überweihnachten / Over Christmas
Virgin River: Season 2
La Belva / The Beast

Avail. 11/28
The Uncanny Counter
Wonderoos: Holiday Holiday!

Avail. 11/30
The 2nd
A Love So Beautiful
Finding Agnes
Spookley and the Christmas Kittens

Coming Soon
Mismatched
Supernatural: Season 15
Trial 4

Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in November:

Leaving 11/1
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
Olympus Has Fallen
Shark Night

Leaving 11/4
Death House

Leaving 11/6
Into the Forest
Krisha

Leaving 11/7
Hit & Run
Hope Springs Eternal
The Sea of Trees
Sleepless

Leaving 11/8
Bathtubs Over Broadway

Leaving 11/11
Green Room

Leaving 11/14
Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States: Season 1

Leaving 11/15
9
Abominable Christmas
The Addams Family
Drive

Leaving 11/16
Santa Claws
Soul Surfer

Leaving 11/17
Sour Grapes

Leaving 11/22
End of Watch

Leaving 11/23
Bushwick
Shot Caller

Leaving 11/26
The Lincoln Lawyer

Leaving 11/27
Jeopardy!: Champion Run I: Gilbert Collins
Jeopardy!: Champion Run II: Rachel Lindgren
Jeopardy!: Champion Run III: Ryan Fenster
Jeopardy!: Champion Run IV: Josh Hill
Jeopardy!: College Championship III
Jeopardy!: Producer’s Pick
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Leaving 11/30
Anaconda
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl
The Bachelor: Season 13
Bad News Bears
Diana: In Her Own Words
Gridiron Gang
Hostage
National Security
Lakeview Terrace
Moneyball
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Twelve
Ocean’s Thirteen
Priest
Stand and Deliver
The Tribes of Palos Verdes
West Side Story
Y Tu Mamá También
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
Zodiac

Atlanta’s Deante Hitchcock and Oakland’s Guapdad 4000 reunite on “Déjà Vu” from Hitchcock’s upcoming deluxe version of his debut album, Better. Over a chilly beat, the two rappers reminisce on past paramours, lamenting the mistakes that cost them chances at happiness. Hitchcock sums it up in his verse, theorizing that “‘Fallin’ in love is bad for your health,’” as a statement, is “cap.”

The two rappers last linked up on “Orgasm Full Of Pain,” from Guapdad’s amusing Falcon Fridays series of single releases. The pair likely linked up in Atlanta at the star-studded recording sessions for Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III, to which both were invited and where Guapdad became a breakout star, and since then, they’ve developed smooth working chemistry that has delivered some spectacular results.

After originally dropping Better in May and supporting it with videos for “Attitude” and “I Got Money Now,” Hitchcock allowed a few months to go by before announcing its deluxe version, joining the ever-growing list of artists utilizing the strategy to extend the lifespan of their projects in lieu of touring this year. Hitchcock shared the tracklist on Instagram, revealing a wealth of new songs with appearances from TDE’s Reason, fellow Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason, and R&B star Ro James.

Listen to Deante Hitchcock’s “Déjà Vu” featuring Guapdad 4000 above.

The deluxe version of Better is due 10/28 via RCA/Bystorm. You can pre-save it here.

Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

LeBron James, like the many other NBA players, is focused on voting as Election Day nears. Through his More Than A Vote Campaign, James has worked all summer to return the franchise to Americans who are often disempowered, and has partnered with Win Black to battle misinformation directed at Black voters.

In an interview with Astead W. Herndon of the New York Times, James explained his work this fall. Focusing on voting rights and community education is James’ plan rather than engaging in a war of words with President Donald Trump, with whom he has butted heads in the past.

“I don’t go back and forth with anybody. And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with that guy,” James said. “But we want better, we want change in our community. We always talk about, “We want change,” and now we have the opportunity to do that.”

The reigning NBA Finals MVP sees too much at stake this election cycle to get caught up in a controversy with the president. Data from 2016 shows millions of Black Americans did not vote in the presidential election after turning out in record numbers in 2008 and 2012. Organizations like More Than A Vote and Win Black are hoping to reverse that trend in 2020. The potential of that work, according to James, is far greater than whatever he might gain from spending his energy bashing the president.

“You know, there’s so many stats out there, you can see it every time,” James said. “Who didn’t vote? What counties didn’t vote? What communities didn’t vote? And a lot of that has had to do with our Black people. So, hopefully, we can get them out and educated and let them understand how important this moment is.”

With about two weeks to go until Election Day, James is hoping one last blitz aimed at empowering young Black people about the power of their vote can make a difference in the outcomes for local and national politics.

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.

“It just feels extreme,” Kevin Morby said of the political divide between his Kansas City, Kansas hometown and his former LA dwelling. “Moving back here, it’s interesting when you’re faced with someone who you might love, but then suddenly their politics are the complete opposite of yours.”

Morby was forced to get used to extremes in the past two years. Little did he know it at the time, but the singer had a “weird precursor to quarantine” while recording his cinematic slice-of-life album Sundowner. Isolated at his new home in the suburbs of Kansas and far away from his life in the big city, Morby was overcome with a poignant sense of nostalgia as the sun set each night across the boundless country. While he struggled with seclusion, his newfound free time allowed him the opportunity to contemplate the bigger picture: Death, divisive politics, and why he found himself ceaselessly chasing the sun’s setting rays.

These are themes Morby delicately depicts in Sundowner. He captures the vastness of the American landscape, both political and otherwise, through hushed pleas in “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun” and samples of groaning thunderstorms on the fully-instrumental number “Velvet Highway.” In this way, Sundowner speaks to the stark contrast between rural and city life and casts an auspicious prayer for the future of American children in a time where hope feels as fleeting as ever.

Speaking over Zoom from the same studio where the album was recorded on his 4-track Tascam, Morby and his life-sized cardboard cutout of Elvis Presley broke down Sundowner from its overarching themes to its most personal tracks.

In the press materials for Sundowner, you talk about how you came up with the term after feeling really nostalgic whenever the evening time came and you were watching the sunset over the landscape. Do you think that returning to your hometown played into that nostalgic feeling at all? Especially since you were actually living there and not just visiting, did you find yourself surprised, disappointed, or excited about any of the ways that it changed?

Yeah, absolutely. It played into it. I lived in New York for so long and I lived in LA for so long, and those are two places where I would get home from tour or I’d get home from recording and my life in the music industry would just continue. I was very social and constantly going to shows or going out with other friends who were also songwriters, and the night sort of represented this different thing. I really looked forward to the night and I was really anticipating it. It’s kind of when my day began in a lot of ways. And then coming back here where there are none of those things and there is none of the temptation or opportunity to go out and be as social as I was, I was really faced with myself. So the nightfall really represented this different thing. That seemed to be when it became most apparent that I was really just isolated. I was left to my own devices to keep myself entertained, and then later my girlfriend Katie [Crutchfield] moved in. But then it was the two of us isolated and the two of us left to our own devices to keep one another entertained. It took on this whole new meaning, like the sunset and my life in LA or New York meant one thing — the day’s kind of beginning — and then here, it means a whole different thing. And the product of that was me becoming very reflective and looking out at this whole other part of my life from this different vantage point.

That’s really interesting because obviously New York City is known as the city that never sleeps. Things are open until all hours of the night, but I’m sure that in your hometown things close at eight or nine p.m. and there’s nowhere to go that you can stay out late.

There are some lyrics where I literally depict that on this record because it was just a sort of jarring experience, especially when I got back and I was still a night owl and I was staying up late. It just became a very strange experience. There’s a weird sports bar near my house that no one like us would ever hang out at. But I found myself going there alone and it was an isolated experience and a completely new world. […] I think the biggest thing is that there was no one really to relate to about my “bigger” life — “bigger” in terms of being on the road and having a name for myself in music. Whereas in LA, all my friends are songwriters and in New York, all my friends are songwriters and can relate to that sort of lifestyle, but here, I just kept those thoughts to myself.

Do you have the experience in your hometown where there are a lot of people who just stay there and don’t travel?

Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a totally fine thing to do, but it makes it hard for me to relate to those people. But, in the same breath, I really enjoy being around people who are out of the music industry. I think in its own ways, the music industry can be its own small town. It can be its own form of claustrophobia. So it felt really good to step away from that and gain a new perspective on things. And during this fucking reign of Trump, I think there is something to be said about being an artist who exists outside of this liberal bubble in both California and New York. I took some pride in moving back home where I was out of that bubble and I was reminded that it’s everyday people who maybe have never met an artist or who maybe just have never learned about a different way of life.

I like being back in a place where my vote is going to count more in a state like Kansas than it would in a state like New York or California. And I think that’s important too. When I moved here, I was sort of wondering why I was doing it. And the whole thing now feels like a weird foreshadow of the situation we’re all in now. And I see a lot of friends leaving New York or LA or bigger cities and coming back to their hometowns. I think ultimately that’s good because I don’t think that creative people, progressive thinking people, should necessarily be all in hubs. I think it’s good sometimes to spread that out so that the country feels a little bit more evenly divided. It’s been an interesting experience being faced with a lot more Trump flags. Though I will say, I’m very surprised — and I really hope this is significant of something — but I see a lot of Black Lives Matter and a lot of Biden signs, way more than I ever saw any Hillary signs. So I’m taking that as a good omen, hopefully, for November.

You speak about praying for America in certain songs, like in “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun,” you say “pray for our American daughters and sons.” What specifically did you have in mind when you were writing that?

The one water lyric (“Pray for our American water and sons”) pertains to the environment and everything that’s happening. Speaking to then the Dakota pipeline or the pollution, the rising oceans, the wildfires. And I know that’s a global problem, but just more specifically, I think the pipeline stuff was really happening at that time and the California wildfires. Also, speaking to the youth and thinking about what the youth are going through. I think about the stark difference between kids who grew up with Obama as their president and then now, people growing up with someone like Trump is the president. And also that stark difference in terms of things like social media. I think we’re in such an interesting and sort of scary and exciting time in history. And to be a kid right now — my heart goes out to them. I’m very grateful to have grown up without a lot of these things. Growing up with a president that, even if I didn’t agree with, I could make sense of, and growing up without an iPhone. So now, it just seems like the wild west out there.

A theme that I noticed throughout the album is you talked about running. Either running from something, someone running ahead of you, or in “Sundowner,” talking about the sun running away from you.

In both situations, the sunset or the running, I’m speaking about a relationship. My girlfriend, Katie, and I had just started dating at that time. It was almost like we were existing in this incubator, like we had this force field around us when we were here. Then, we’d go back out into our lives. In the beginning phases of dating somebody, you never know what’s going to happen, but it felt like a very safe place. We had our own little world, but then we’d go out to the world and we’re subjected to any sort of danger. It just felt like we were existing in this life, but always running from it — running to the next tour or just the next thing that was pulling one of us away.

And then the sun running from me is the idea that I was never conscious of the sun’s patterns. In these other places, I didn’t have too much time to think about it or if I did, I really welcomed the night time. But it was here that I really became anxious. Once the sun goes down, I’m just faced with the night and it’s just me and my thoughts. So it just felt like I was always running or that I was trying to chase the sun, trying to get as much of the day as possible because I didn’t want to confront the night and all that it brought on.

Your song “A Night At The Little Los Angeles” is your longest song on the entire record. You moved to LA after being born in Kansas and you touch on a lot of different midwest states throughout the lyrics. I personally read the song as a way of describing the city through the eyes of somebody who grew up in a small town, especially when you talk about the sand looking like sugar and being buried underneath the concrete, but you also refer to Kansas itself as the little LA.

That song came about when I first moved back to Kansas from LA. I bought this house and I was decorating it. I totally made it look just like a California house and I had a friend comment, ‘Oh, you can’t decorate your house like this. You moved out of California, you got to decorate it with something different.’ It was all agave plants and cacti. It looked like I was trying to live in Joshua Tree or something. So, my buddy gave it that name and some creative part of me really ran with that. I really liked the idea of being in rural Kansas having a hotel that is Los Angeles themed. […] I think of a hotel as a brain. It’s got all these brains within it and there are so many stories to this one building. I’m actually working on a short novella about that — the song but a longform of that song.

Driving through Kansas, it’s just so flat and so boring. There are a couple of rest stops that have palm trees. They try to make it seem like a tropical resort. And there’s also this big billboard that’s in Manhattan, Kansas. It says, ‘We have flights to Los Angeles!’ It’s a big picture of LA, but it’s out in this ugly, barren place. I just love the juxtaposition of someone in the Midwest really romanticizing a place like LA, but perhaps never having been there.

Speaking about your song “Jamie,” it deals a lot with death and the afterlife — death of friends, death of musicians that you really idolized. And it seems like it’s your way of paying homage to those talented musicians. You write about both being sad and angry about death, but also acknowledge that that’s not always the best response — there’s even a sense of hopefulness.

Jamie’s a really good friend of mine and one of my best friends. When I was 20 and he passed away and his death made a very big impression on me. Up until that point, I’d never really lost someone close to me. It just changed my outlook on everything. Jamie has been a constant muse, probably once on every record I mention him or something that he inspired in some way. When I wrote that song, it’d been around 10 years since he had died. So in my own mind, he’d become this mythological figure in my life. He’d inspired so much and I feel like I was able to carry on and do all these things he never got to do, but I got to do them because of him. I wanted to finally give him a name as this person who had inspired stuff but whom I’d never explicitly named. It felt very personal when I was writing it into my 4-track and it was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’ll never release this — this is just too personal, it’s too explicit.’

But then, when I was sitting with a collection of songs, I thought it was good to put his name out there like this. And also the song mentions my friend Desiree, who passed away and who I wasn’t that close with at all. But she’s someone who I knew in passing and who was this popular person in Los Angeles when I was living there. She was a surfer and she died surfing. They were both two people who, when they died, I wasn’t able to go to their funerals. I chose not to go to their funerals because I had a tour plan and it was a kinda crazy thing you deal with as a touring musician. You end up missing a lot of funerals, weddings, and a lot of big life moments for a lot of people. Both of them were such influential people to the people around them and had such big personalities that both of their funerals, having not been there, sort of exist like these big parades in my mind.

You talk about the fire of one’s life “continuing to billow” after it goes out, does that relate back to your song ‘Campfire’ as well?

Yeah, absolutely. That’s the song, which I think about those other people. I never really made fires, but when I moved back here, I have a fire pit in my backyard. I was making a lot of fires in the winter. I was always blown away by how long it takes to put out a fire. You put it out, but it’ll keep smoking and you’ll think it’s out. Then you’ll come back there’s still some wood burning. I would look out my window and be like, ‘The fire is still burning, I don’t know how to put this thing out.’ But I like that as a metaphor for someone’s life — the embers burn on. People, especially those who leave us with music or arts, they really make an impression long after they’re gone.

Sundowner is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.

Musician and producer Finneas gained recognition with a handful of Grammys for his work on his sister Billie Eilish’s debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, but he also has an impressive catalog of his own. The singer recently released the powerful ballad “What They’ll Say About Us” and now, Finneas returns with an electric reflection on internet culture.

Finneas’ “Can’t Wait To Be Dead” opens with a folky acoustic guitar and the singer’s gentle musings before a driving beat takes over. “Somebody’s callin’ you out for somеthin’ you never said / Kinda can’t wait to be dead / Somebody’s wasting my time / F*ck your Confederate flag, you’ve got no reason to brag,” he sings.

Speaking about the single in a statement, the musician explained his inspiration comes from his complicated relationship with the internet: “I’m happy for this song to mean anything to anyone who listens to it, but, to me, it’s a song about my relationship with the internet. Especially in an election year. Especially during a pandemic. Sometimes, the internet makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cry, sometimes it makes me hopeful. But sometimes, it really makes me wanna be dead.”

Ahead of releasing “Can’t Wait To Be Dead,” the singer hopped on a number of projects with other big-name stars. Most recently, Finneas worked with Demi Lovato on her politically-charged anthem “Commander In Chief.”

Listen to Finneas’ “Can’t Wait To Be Dead” above.

Michael Keaton dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live last night where the late night host, who’s a big time comic book lover, couldn’t resist asking about Batman. Back in June, reports started coming out that Keaton is in talks to return as the Caped Crusader in the The Flash movie that’s now being directed by Andy Muschietti. Kimmel asked Keaton point blank if he can confirm the reports, and the two-time Dark Knight offered a fuzzy answer that’s not exactly a yes, but it isn’t a no.

“I can’t confirm anything,” Keaton responded. “We’re having discussions, as they say. We’re talking about it. We’ll see if it happens.”

However, while Keaton wouldn’t reveal any secrets about The Flash, including his own involvement, he was game for Kimmel’s next question: Who is the best Batman? “Me,” Keaton answered around the 4:00 minute mark without even hesitating.

Keaton’s reluctance to confirm his casting in The Flash is most likely the result of the studio playing things close to the vest as is standard with most comic book movies. That said, fans who have been waiting for a solo film starring Ezra Miller are aware that The Flash has gone through a revolving door of writers and directors, so some cause for alarm is warranted. That said, Warner Bros. seems much more confident this time around. The Flash was featured prominently during this summer’s DC Fandome event, and Ben Affleck has reportedly been convinced to come back for one last ride as Batman.

Interestingly, Kimmel mentioned Affleck also appearing in The Flash, and Keaton didn’t correct him. He nodded his head, and then cracked a joke that “all 127 Batman” are in the movie, which suggests that Keaton is well aware of the plans to feature multiple Batmen from different realities in the solo flick.

Ever since she first rose to prominence in 2017, HER has displayed an affinity for stripped-down, yet mysterious music videos, hiding her eyes behind dark shades and using moody, low lighting to almost obscure her identity as she bared her soul in song. However, over the past year, she’s begun to change that tendency, partly out of necessity, as she opened up with her Girls With Guitars live streams and had to rely more on social content to share her artistry as a result of the pandemic.

She continues that evolution in her new video for “Damage,” swapping out her usual shades for more straightforward specs and staging a live performance in what appears to be a hotel lobby with her band. The effect is a different kind of intimacy and a greater display of her confidence, which she built up with a string of performances for shows like The Grammys, The Roots Picnic, and The Tonight Show.

The next place she’ll demonstrate her newfound swagger is the Saturday Night Live stage, as she’s billed as musical performer for an episode hosted by Adele. While it’s been about a year since the release of her most recent album, I Used to Know Her, she’s got plenty of new music to choose from for the performance after releasing singles “Comfortable,” “Damage,” and “I Can’t Breathe” this year.

Watch the video for “Damage” above.

At first, it almost feels like a parody to watch Borat 2 (or, if we are doing the actual full title, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan). It’s hard to believe we’ve been living through 14 years of “my wife” impressions, but the first 2006 film became such a cultural moment that it eventually became “cool” again to quote the movie as irony. It’s like if Wayne’s World 3 happened today, and we were watching Mike Myers on screen saying “…not” again. It’s somehow both cringy and kind-of exciting.

Borat 2 the first movie of our new era I truly would have liked to watch in a theater. (There’s a chance I’ve said this before. But if I did, I’m changing my answer to Borat 2.) Do you remember watching Borat in theaters? It was a thing. It’s up there in the top two or three movies of “hardest I’ve ever laughed in a movie theater,” and an experience that could never have been recreated at home. The crowd I saw it with in 2006 was euphoric. Now, flash forward to 2020, and I watched the sequel by myself, in bed, on a laptop. (One disclaimer: to be fair, over the last few months, I’ve watched very few movies on a laptop. I’ve done a good job of feeding pretty much everything to a fairly large screen. But I sprained my ankle pretty bad over the weekend, and it just seemed easier this way because I didn’t want to get up. The only reason I bring any of this up is, of course, a plea for cheap sympathy. But also, even under these conditions, I still laughed a lot, which is pretty remarkable. This only made me miss seeing this in a theater even more.)

The screener came enclosed with instructions not to reveal any of the real-life people who Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), interact with during the film when it comes to Amazon Prime (on Oct. 23). And I’ll try to adhere to these rules because part of the “fun” of this movie are these interactions. But, of course, there’s one former mayor who “spoiled” his role in the film months ago. And his actions that we see here don’t quite match up with his assertion that he figured out he was being tricked and got out of there right away. It’s… a little more (okay, a lot more) nefarious than that.

Like the last film, there’s a “plot,” which was weird then and is weird now. This time, Borat returns to the United States from Kazakhstan (where he’s lived in exile after shaming his country with the first film) in an effort to deliver his daughter as a gift to Mike Pence, which would bring honor back to Kazakhstan. So, Borat and Tutar do what they do and mingle with a lot of people and, like in the first film, a bunch of pretty horrific things happen.

But there’s a difference this time. In 2006, Borat seemed shocking because we weren’t used to people being so open about their racism and prejudices. Whether or not it was actually the case then, it at least seemed a bit more fringe. It’s true that a lot of us were more naïve then and probably had greater confidence in our fellow human being to be “a good person,” but we certainly weren’t as accustomed to people coming out and saying these things on camera. Today, would it surprise you that Borat and his daughter can walk into a bakery and get a cake that reads, “Jews will not replace us,” with some smiley faces added? I’m guessing this won’t surprise you anymore. But the best part from this exchange comes when Tutar accidentally eats a small decorative plastic baby atop a cupcake, which leads the pair to a southern “woman’s health center” in an effort to “remove the baby.”

Honestly, I get the impression that Cohen also knows just getting people to say racist things really isn’t going to be that big of a shocking turn of events anymore. And the movie is at its best when it leans into current events, like Borat spending some time with a couple of QAnon believers. Or if they aren’t true believers, they at least are open to the fact that Hillary Clinton created the coronavirus and drinks the adrenaline-spiked blood of children for energy. This seems to be how most interviews with QAnon believers go: that they maybe don’t believe all of it, but who’s to say? (Also, I personally had never heard the “adrenaline” part of this conspiracy theory before now. That it’s the adrenaline that’s the key? Is it weird that this makes more sense now? Not in a, “maybe it’s true,” way, but more in a logistical, “Well, at least I can see why people might think people drink blood if they thought it gave them some pep,” way.)

But, of course, the real “get” here is the aforementioned former mayor that I’m not supposed to talk about. I’ve seen a lot of rumors floating around about what happens and.. some of them are pretty off-base. But the reality is that it’s still pretty gross what happens. And the craziest thing is that we’ve all become so desensitized to the things these people do, my initial reaction was “that tracks” more than pure disgust. But when you see this and really think about what was about to happen? Yikes.

And that’s the thing about Borat 2, it’s not shocking anymore. Because it certainly should be. There’s certainly a lot of hilarious things that happen, like the look on a computer store owner’s face when Borat learns he can look up porn on his new phone that he’s testing and heads to the bathroom, where his search results are still being displayed over the large monitor on the sales floor. But over the last 14 years, things have drastically changed enough where “shocking” is no longer a relevant emotion to these movies. But that’s where we’re at: where the reaction to a sequel to Borat is more, “yeah, that seems about right,” than either disbelief or disgust… which, when thought about, is maybe the most shocking thing of all.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Blackpink is one of the most esteemed groups in all of K-pop, which is why they’ve been on TV a lot over the past 24 hours: They were on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, then they stopped by Good Morning America earlier today.

On Kimmel, they performed “Lovesick Girls” on a colorful gas station-themed set and spoke with the host in an interview segment. Remotely from South Korea, they explained the meaning of their band name for Kimmel, with Rosé saying, “We kind of felt like those two colors represented us the most because we’re very girly, but at the same time, we’re very savage, too.” Jisoo, whose English isn’t as strong as those of her bandmates, revealed her favorite English phrase is, “That’s a pity.”

Then they made an appearance on GMA this morning. They also performed “Lovesick Girls,” although this rendition of it was set up to look like more of a concert environment. They chatted with Michael Strahan, and told the host they are surprised by the level of success they’ve achieved. They also explained why their new album is called simply The Album, saying, “We thought that our fans have been waiting for Blackpink’s album for such a long time that there was nothing better than to just name our album, Blackpink: The Album.”

Check out clips from the group’s TV appearances above.

Joe Biden shared his proposed tax plan this week. The candidate plans to raise taxes only on citizens making over $400,000 while cutting taxes for everyone making less than that — and 50 Cent isn’t happy. After finding out that the wealthiest people living in California, New York, and New Jersey could see up to 62% of their income taxed before deductions, credits, offsets, and loopholes under Biden’s plan, the rapper has decided to leave the US if the candidate wins the election.

50 shared his endorsement of Trump on Monday, saying he’s voting for the incumbent even if “doesn’t like black people.” Taking things one step further Tuesday, the rapper said he’s ready to pack up and move out of the US entirely if Trump loses his bid for a second term.

Announcing his plan on social media, 50 wrote: “explain 62% to me. I’m packing my bags everybody that has money is gonna move.”

While many of 50’s listeners have expressed their disappointment in his Trump endorsement, including his ex-girlfriend Chelsea Handler, Fox News host Tomi Lahren is welcoming the rapper to the Republican Party with open arms. After 50 said he would be voting for Trump, Lahren praise the rapper for joining her on the “Trump Train.”

Check out 50’s posts above.