GoneTrending

There has not been a shake-up at the top on Fear the Walking Dead, and it doesn’t appear that the writer’s room had a major overhaul between the fifth and sixth season. However, through the first two episodes of the season, at least, the series has hit its highest gear yet, as it continues to tell narrowly focused, stand-alone stories that will eventually connect all of the disparate characters and storylines.

This week’s episode, “Welcome to the Club,” zeroes in on Alicia and Strand, who have been sequestered together in what appears to be villainous Ginny’s home community, where they have been relegated to latrine duty. Cleaning up people’s sh*t does not suit them, however, and when Strand pops off on one of the rangers, he and Alicia are reassigned to another task in a separate community: They are forced to clear scores and scores of zombies trapped in a factory and covered in molasses. The molasses is an interesting wrinkle because it is both slippery — causing people to fall — and sticky, making it difficult to escape the grasp of the zombies (the storyline also reminds me, vaguely, of the Great Molasses Flood that killed 21 people in Boston in 1919).

Relocated to what appears to be a sort of prison colony, Strand and Alicia also reunite with Charlie and Janis (and if you only vaguely remember Janis from Season 5, leave it that way. The less said about her and Tom, the better). Strand decides, however, that he’s had enough, and he initially tries to orchestrate a break-out with the help of Dakota, Ginny’s younger sister, who seems to revere Strand and Alicia. He eventually allows Alicia to talk him out of the reckless plan, but Strand does manage to lead Alicia, Charlie, Janis, and several of the other prisoners toward completing their mission of clearing the molasses zombies. It requires that Strand make a ruthless human sacrifice of one of the prisoners in order to lure the zombies away from two rangers who were killed by zombies, allowing Janis and Alicia to take possession of their guns and mow down the zombies. It’s a Season 1 Strand move to throw an innocent at the wolves to save himself, and I love it: we have all very much missed this Strand.

Meanwhile, his plan is the sort that probably should have gotten them executed. Instead, Ginny admires Strand’s ingenuity In fact, she promotes him to lead an army of his own, though the purpose of the army remains vague and unclear (Ginny’s motivations, however, seem to mirror those of Elizabeth in the CRM). Surprisingly, he chooses not to include Alicia in that army and instead to send her away, because Alicia brings out Strand’s humanity, and Strand decides that his humanity is getting in the way of his ability to escape and save the rest of his people (Strand without his humanity is also a far more interesting character). Mostly, I think, it means that Fear will be able to do a stand-alone episode where Alicia and Strand are paired with other characters.

Meanwhile, we also get to see Daniel, who works as a hairdresser in Ginny’s community. He puts on the act of a doddering old man whose memory of the last several years has been erased, and he maintains the act for Charlie, Strand, and Alicia, despite their attempts to trigger his memory. However, in the episode’s final scene, the act finally falls in truly dramatic fashion when the newly reborn Morgan pays him a visit outside the community in one hell of a crowd-pleasing reunion. “You look like you could use a haircut,” Daniel says, dropping the ruse, as newly bad-ass Morgan peers out from beneath his cowboy hat.

Six seasons in, and maybe Fear the Walking Dead has finally found its stride. Let’s hope that it can maintain it as the series shifts focus to stories about some of the other weaker characters. Next week, it appears that Morgan is going to get that haircut, and we’ll also see a story unspool with Dwight (and maybe the return of Sherry!) and Althea, who hopefully will finally have dropped the video camera act. Next week’s episode is directed by Colman Domingo, and it’s also worth noting that this week’s excellent episode was directed by Lennie James, who has fully become the Rick Grimes of Fear, and it’s never been as good as it is right now (knock on wood).

Though it has its detractors, the film of The Notebook remains one of the more popular sudsy romances of the modern age, so powerful that it turned the source’s author, Nicholas Sparks, into a cottage industry for far longer than he had any right to be. But it was almost very different. Instead of starring Ryan Gosling as Noah, the lowly lumber mill worker who catches the eye of Rachel McAdams’ heiress, the film was nearly headlined by no less than George Clooney.

The former Batman let that tidbit slip while speaking to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming film The Midnight Sky, which, like The Notebook, features two actors playing the same character at different times. “I was going to do a movie years ago called The Notebook, that Ryan Gosling actually did, and I was going to do it with Paul Newman,” he told the publication. There was one problem, though: Both actors were too famous.

“Paul and I talked about doing it, and we were sitting there one day and I was looking at him and I go, ‘I can’t do this movie, Paul … He was like. ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old. You got blue eyes, I got brown eyes. You’re too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30, it’s never gonna work.’ And he’s like, ‘I guess you’re right.’”

Mind you, this was an early incarnation of the project, which had been in the works since the novel’s publication, in 1996. It was already known that one version was to star Tom Cruise and be directed by than Steven Spielberg. Clooney told EW that “10 years later they made it,” so while the math is a bit off, it’s safe to assume his involvement came very early on.

But it all worked out just fine: The older Noah wound up being played by the legendary James Garner and Gosling, then a scrappy up-and-comer, was elevated to the A-list. And then, in 2011, Gosling made The Ides of March for Clooney, who also co-starred. But next time you watch it, try to picture From Dusk Till Dawn-era Clooney doing the moody cross-class love stuff.

(Via EW)

New York Jets safety Marcus Maye used his butt to pick off an attempted deep ball by Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don’t have much more to say here, let’s get to the video, because it is wild.

Beyond the … let’s call it unusual circumstances under which Maye reeled in this pass, this is some extremely good defensive backing by the Jets safety. Right as he began covering Dolphins receiver Preston Williams, Maye made it a point to be physical with him — although nowhere near overzealous to the point that he could tempt a flag — and got his head around to see where the ball was in the air. Then, as Fitzpatrick underthrew it, he made an excellent play on the ball and did everything he could to stay between Williams and the ball.

And then, of course, there was how he made this pick happen. Dude pinned a football with one hand against his butt! This is insane! He ultimately popped it up into the air, needing to fend off a teammate who looked like they really wanted to get credited with the pick on this one, and finished the job by corralling the ball with his left arm. This is, unquestionably, the second most famous play in Jets history that prominently involves a butt.

It’s been over seven years since Bruce Willis last played John McClane, the terminally unlucky yet resourceful cop of the Die Hard series, the first of which rebranded him from wisecracking TV star to action god. Given our current movie-scape’s love of revivals and reboots — as well as society’s yen for AARP-aged a*s-kickers, like Liam Neeson — another big screen spin with McClane isn’t out of bounds. Till then, you’ll have to subsist on this most leftfield return: As caught by Variety, Willis has exhumed the character for a super-sized commercial for batteries.

Somehow it’s taken 32 years for the DieHard battery brand, first established in 1967, to put two and two together — and fork over what looks like a generous amount of money — and get John McClane to hock their wears. The new ad, which runs some two minutes, begins mundanely: Willis’ McClane needs a new car battery. It’s not long for some unnecessary window breaking, and from there things quickly escalate.

Willis isn’t the only original Die Hard vet who returns. The bad guy is played by Clarence Gilyard, who appeared as Theo, the sarcastic techie and the only member of Hans Gruber’s thieving faux-terrorist cell that doesn’t die. Instead, he’s incapacitated by De’voreaux White’s Argyle, John’s limousine driver who, incidentally, also returns. There’s a chase, there’s a big explosion, there’s some Willis smirking, and it all looks incredibly expensive.

The commercial was shared by Willis’ daughter Rumer, whose hashtag, “DieHardIsBack,” may have been a touch misleading to people who may not have been expecting a commercial for car batteries.

Does this mean a Die Hard 6 is on the horizon? Who knows? But maybe if enough people buy car batteries, capitalism will help the pushing-70 actor to lean more on the McClane who can figure out headache-inducing puzzles.

(Via Variety)

Many hip-hop fans have spent the last year anticipating the early release of Bobby Shmurda from prison, knowing that if the rapper’s parole was approved he could be freed about a year shy of his December 2021 release date. In early August a court date was revealed for his hearing, which was subsequently delayed nearly a month. It finally took place in mid-September, but unfortunately the rapper’s parole was denied. The reason was not revealed until now thanks to court documents obtained by TMZ, which show that the decision is based on the rapper’s turbulent time in prison.

Members of the parole board reportedly denied Shmurda of his parole due to “multiple” violations he received during his prison stint, which include allegedly possessing a shank, fighting, and drug procession. However, the documents do shed a light on the improvement Shmurda believes he’s made during his sentence. They reveal that Shmurda doesn’t view himself as impulsive anymore and that he walks out of bad situations when they present themselves, saying that he feels too “grown” to be fighting. The documents also show Shmurda’s desire to continue his music career and engage in outreach programs aimed at troubled youths in need of guidance. Transcripts from the court documents show that Shmurda now views himself as a “leader” and not a follower.

(via TMZ)

It took barely a week after it was revealed he’d tested positive for the novel coronavirus still running roughshod over the country he leads for Donald Trump to return to the campaign trail. He’s held rallies just about every day, and though most of them have leaned on his greatest hits (locking up enemies, xenophobia, dog whistles, mispronunciations), he’s added one thing to his repertoire: dancing. His rallies now often conclude with him busting a move, sometimes to The Village People. And while his base seems to enjoy it, his dancing has its critics.

Among them is Jason Alexander, who, while re-tweeting another Trump dance critic, former vice presidential candidate John Kerry, couldn’t help but note an unflattering similarity. Indeed, to the former George Costanza’s eyes, Trump’s moves are scarily reminiscent of ones by another Seinfeld character: Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes.

The President is apparently a fan of @OfficialJLD‘s famous I can’t dance for s*it moves,” Alexander wrote, referring to a video clip of the president dancing to “Swing” by Savage, his arms stiffly trying to keep in time with the beat. “Julia was working hard to be that awful. I feel like these are his best moves.”

You can judge for yourself, but once you see the comparison between Trump’s moves and the ones Elaine busted out in the Season 8 episode “The Little Kicks,” you can’t un-see it. Maybe he can hire another NBC character, Joey Tribbiani, to give him some lessons, as he did in that Friends episode where the super needs to learn how to dance for a hot date.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

It’s been a little more than five years since Key & Peele went off the air, but the beloved Comedy Central sketch comedy show starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele still pops up every now and then. The latest example of this came on Sunday afternoon while the Green Bay Packers took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Packers signal caller Aaron Rodgers made his way into the end zone on what, at first glance, looked like a seven-yard scamper for a score.

Rodgers then took some inspiration from Hingle McCringleberry, a football player depicted by Key who appeared in a handful of pigskin-related sketches. One was an excessive celebration sketch when McCringleberry kept pushing the limit on how many times he can pump his hips in celebration of a score.

After he scored on Sunday, Rodgers made sure to learn from McCringleberry’s mistake and only pumped twice.

The issue that popped up here had nothing to do with the number of pumps — as the rule book says, two is fine — but rather with where Rodgers went down. Upon further review, it was determined that he was down just short of the end zone, meaning the six points got taken off the board. Aaron Jones ended up punching it in on the next play, but he didn’t dive into the Key & Peele bag of tricks to celebrate or anything.

Having Derrick Henry is quite the ace for the Tennessee Titans to have up their sleeve. The team’s standout running back toted the rock 22 times for 212 yards on Sunday afternoon and ended up being the hero in the team’s 42-36 overtime win over the Houston Texans.

The thing that makes Henry such a difficult running back to beat is his ability to turn on the jets despite being 6’3 and 238 pounds. That was on display in the fourth quarter when Tennessee had the ball on its own 6. Ryan Tannehill turned around, handed the ball to the big man, and watched him shoot out of a cannon for a 94-yard score.

The bad news for the Titans is the other team had Deshaun Watson, who is really, really good. Watson threw for touchdowns on each of the Texans’ next two possessions — a 53-yard strike by Will Fuller, then after a Tannehill pick, he marched Houston down the field and found Brandin Cooks in the end zone for six, putting the Romeo Crennel-led squad up, 36-29.

Tannehill atoned for his mistake on the ensuing possession, picking apart the Texans secondary and eventually finding AJ Brown for six.

Stephen Gostkowski drilled the extra point, setting the game up for an overtime period. The Titans won the toss, and Watson seemed to have a pretty good idea of whether or not he was going to get the ball back.

Tennessee got the ball into Henry’s hands on the first two plays of the extra period. One, a run, didn’t go for much, while the other was a simple dump off that he took 53 yards and deep into the heart of Houston territory.

The Titans kept chipping away from there, and facing a third-and-goal from the Houston 5, they decided to do something a little unconventional. Tannehill was sent out wide, Henry lined up alone in the backfield, and they made it clear that they were going to try to win this game by challenging the Texans to prevent him from picking up five yards. Here is how that went:

In what might go down as the NFL’s game of the year, Tennessee came out on top, 42-36, to move to a perfect 4-0 on the season.

Just hours removed from the third episode of their new season, Saturday Night Live has announced the host and musical guest for their upcoming October 24 episode. Dipping into the musical world for both positions, Adele will serve as the show’s host while R&B singer HER will be the musical guest for Saturday’s episode. Overflowed with excitement, Adele took to Instagram to share the news and her reaction to the late-night opportunity.

“Bloooooody hellllll I’m so excited about this!! And also absolutely terrified!” Adele exclaimed in an Instagram post that revealed the news. “I’ve always wanted to do it as a stand alone moment, so that I could roll up my sleeves and fully throw myself into it, but the time has never been right. But if there was ever a time for any of us to jump head first into the deep end with our eyes closed and hope for the best it’s 2020 right?”

She also used the Instagram post to celebrate a dozen years in the music industry. “Itll be almost 12 years to the day that I first appeared on the show, during an election,” she said further down in the post’s caption. “Which went on to break my career in America, so it feels full circle and I just couldn’t possibly say no!” She also commended HER for the talent the promising R&B singer is.

“I am besides myself that H.E.R will be the musical guest!! I love her SO much I can’t wait to melt into a flaming hot mess when she performs, then confuse myself while I laugh my arse off in between it all.”

The announcement comes after Justin Bieber stopped by the show’s most recent episode, one hosted by Issa Rae, to perform and “Holy” and “Lonely.”

Check out Adele’s Instagram post above.

Unless you’re a fan of the Buffalo Bills, this NFL season has been pretty bleak for people in New York. Both the Giants and the Jets have been quite bad, as neither squad picked up a win through the first five weeks of the season. In what might be a good omen for the Jets, which have a game in the mid-afternoon window this week, the Giants were able to break the tri-state area’s season-long losing streak on Sunday afternoon.

New York played host to Washington, with the two sides playing one of the less dynamic games you’ll see. Still, the Giants were able to come out on top, 20-13, thanks to a big play in the fourth quarter by rookie linebacker Tae Crowder.

Washington signal caller Kyle Allen dropped back on a third-and-9 late in the fourth quarter. He was swarmed by the New York defense and lost control of the ball, putting it on the deck right in the vicinity of Crowder. The guy who had the distinction of bring Mr. Irrelevant in the 2020 NFL Draft scooped it up, took off in the other direction, and despite nearly getting chased down at the very end, made his way to the end zone.

Because this is the Giants we are talking about here, they did manage to make things interesting regardless. Washington was able to find the end zone on its final drive of the game when Allen dropped a dime into the arms of Cam Sims.

They decided to go for the win, but New York’s defense held up and prevented them from converting. Washington’s attempt at an onside kick failed, and as a result, the final pick of the 2020 NFL Draft is a hero in the Big Apple.