Members of One Direction spent some time a couple months ago reflecting on the group’s tenth anniversary. That was essentially all that came of that, as there was no announcement of new music, reunion performances, or any sort of new activity from the group. There are seemingly some fans who are desperate to see that happen, though, as they have taken some drastic measures.
The Late Late Show host James Corden, who has a good working relationship with the group and has had them and their members on his show multiple times, has apparently been receiving a lot of pleas from fans for him to kidnap the group and force them to reunite. This has been a big enough trend, it would seem, for Corden to address it on his show.
He began by saying he makes it a point to not read comments about himself or the show online, but that he couldn’t ignore the torrent of kidnap-requesting comments he received on various platforms. Corden said, in fact, that the show gets about 300 YouTube comments per week on its videos about him kidnapping One Direction.
The host laid out the logistical challenges of such a kidnapping (especially during a pandemic), and said the begging isn’t helping at all: “The more people ask me to kidnap the boys, the less likely I am to do it. You’re killing any element of surprise, and surprise is a major factor when kidnapping someone. In the history of kidnapping, I don’t think any of them have originated from a fan account suggesting that a crime take place.”
He continues to make his case and shares a highlight reel of the band’s visits to the show, so watch the video above.
Filming Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video seemed like a relatively low-stakes affair (especially since Cardi spent about $100,000 on coronavirus tests). That said, it wasn’t without its scary moments. There’s a scene in the video where Cardi and Meg are surrounded by snakes, and understandably, that can be an unsettling situation for some. The two definitely had their apprehensions about it, as is shown in a new behind-the-scenes video of the “WAP” shoot.
In the nine-minute clip, Cardi and Offset have a snake handler show them the reptiles, and there’s certainly some discomfort. “That’s a girl? That is a bad b*tch,” Cardi noted. Before that fateful meeting, Cardi and Meg talked about it, with Meg expressing her apprehension: “It was scary. The snake’s big as sh*t. What are we gonna do? When you see how big these snakes is, you’re not about to be doing all that.”
Cardi B previously spoke about a snake moment from the shoot that didn’t make this behind-the-scenes video: One of the snakes peed on her. She said in a recent interview, “One of the scariest parts was the snake scene. I was naked and one of them peed all over me.”
Watch the video above.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
During the second of three livestreams that UK post-punk quintet Idles were undertaking from London’s famed Abbey Road Studios to help stoke the fires of anticipation for their third full-length Ultra Mono, vocalist Joe Talbot looked each of his bandmates in the eyes and recited a single word.
“Logician. Mediator. Defender. Entertainer,” he intoned. “You ready?”
From there, the group set their collective teeth and claws into a rough, yet rollicking version of “Love Song,” a track found on their 2018 breakthrough album Joy As An Act Of Resistance. But I missed the first minute or so of the song trying to suss out what and why Talbot said that about his friends and collaborators. Nicknames? An inside joke?
“It’s all from Carl Jung’s 16 personality types,” Talbot explained a few days later, speaking over the phone from a rented flat in London. “We all did the test to see what kind of personality we were. I am an Advocate. It’s like reading a mirror. I discovered with the test that I’m introverted. I always projected that onto myself, growing up, that I was selfish. But now I realize I need a lot of time on my own to process certain things to fit among other people.”
This is the way conversations with the members of Idles tend to go. Talbot and his bandmates — guitarists Mark Bowen (Logician) and Lee Kiernan (Mediator), bassist Adam Devonshire (Entertainer), and drummer Jon Beavis (Defender) — would just as soon relay the details of how they create their blunt, scabrous rock as they would their experiences with cognitive behavioral therapy and meditation. Every word, whether that’s shouted in a microphone on stage, shared with one another, or told to a sleepy journalist dealing with an eight-hour time difference, is carefully and deeply considered.
Take, for example, how the group landed on the core concept of their new album. As with the previous two full-lengths Idles has released to date (2017’s Brutalism and 2018’s Joy), they began with a title: Ultra Mono. It was a phrase Talbot dropped as the band drove to Blackpool for a gig during the long promotional campaign they undertook for Joy. In the van, the five men were wrestling with how their next record would sound. “Would it be natural sounding, going down the routes of ’70s rock?” Bowen remembers. “Or we would head to a more heavy, industrial hip-hop kind of thing?” Talbot turned around in his seat and settled the issue with that two word phrase: ultra mono.
“It set the path forward for the creative process,” Bowen continues. “I think we work so much better when things get narrowed down. If we know we’re working toward a title, if we know we’re working toward these strict concepts, then anything we do, we can go, ‘Is this ultra mono?’”
Prior to Ultra Mono, the connection between title and content is pretty easy to suss out. Their debut is as rigid and imposing as the architectural movement its named for — and as violent and thrashing as its double meaning. And for all the fury and frustration found in its songs about toxic masculinity and the band’s critics, the follow-up feels like the endorphin high that comes after a good cry or a particularly impactful therapy session.
Ultra Mono is a little more difficult to explain. In part, it refers to the singularity of purpose of any band — various talents and personalities joining forces to create a unified sound. But it’s also, according to Bowen, distilling the music down to its essence. “Everything was written around one part,” he says, “so we can make that part as loud as possible. It changed what we do. If you listen to Brutalism or Joy, the guitars are all over the place. It gives it a kind of power and energy and presence. Whereas this new way, where we’re all locked in is a new form of power. We’re all unified. We’re this one engine that’s pounding on the door.” Or as Talbot sings on the album’s second single, “Grounds,” “Do you hear that thunder? / That’s the sound of strength in numbers.”
There’s also a lot of open space within Ultra Mono. Guitars and drums lock in for short controlled bursts rather than the slashing and pounding of previous recordings. That allows Devonshire’s bass to pull focus throughout, riding an upward trajectory on the vicious opener “War” or giving “Reigns” its Killing Joke-like pulse.
Though the band sounds entirely comfortable in this new mode, it took some time for them to get there. Working around their packed touring schedule last year, Idles stumbled at first to cohere around this ultra mono concept. It wasn’t until two weeks before the group was set to go into the studio that it all cohered. From there, the songs came in a flurry, with Talbot writing most of his lyrics moments before he was set to record them.
That first thought/best thought approach does help explain some of the more awkward lyrical turns on Ultra Mono, like “I wanna cater for the haters / eat shit” in “The Lovers” or the pop culture references that run through “Mr. Motivator” (“Like Kathleen Hanna with bear claws grabbing Trump by the pussy”). But it fits in well with the immediacy and discourteous quality of the music.
“I was questioning myself about this,” Talbot says of his writing style. “‘Why do I do that? What is it about that that works so well?’ And I realized it’s the momentary flow of it. I allow the song to write itself really. My subconscious is listening to it until it becomes a part of me. ‘War,’ to me, sounds like inner conflict. So, it’s called ‘War.’ Of course it is. And everything around it is written.”
As he’s proven over the band’s three albums, Talbot has a lot to shout about. His country is pulling itself apart in the wake of Brexit. Other bands and some critics have responded to Idles’ success by poking suspiciously at their sincerity and their middle-class backgrounds. Racism and sexism and homophobia are still running rampant around the globe. He sings about it all through gritted teeth and with clenched fists.
But while the band is part of a wave of other volatile British post-punk acts like Shame and Fontaines DC, what truly distinguishes Idles are those songs where Talbot is at his most revealing. “June,” a centerpiece of Joy, dealt with the stillborn death of the singer’s daughter Agatha. And on the closing two tracks of Ultra Mono, Talbot is unabashedly gentle. While the band fumes and spits behind him on “Danke,” he returns again and again to this couplet: “True love will find you in the end / You will find out just who was your friend.”
To see this duality in action, dial up the clip of Idles performing “Never Fight A Man With A Perm” at last year’s Mercury Prize award ceremony. As it begins, Talbot is stalking the lip of the stage, stomping down his right foot as if trying to crush the entire building under his boot. But he quickly stops and, with a small hand wave, quietly says, “Congratulations, everyone.” It’s a dramatic and amazing switch flip, and one that Talbot is entirely aware of.
“If you look at the most tender moments in your life,” he says, “when you’ve been the most sincere and loving to someone, they’re the most violent, potent, and memorable moments. People confuse tenderness with softness. Tenderness can be something that cuts through everything else like an explosion. Stamping my feet comes from love and empathy as much as it does anger and shame. I’m definitely violent on stage but that comes from all sorts of emotions. Sadness, loss, love, lust. Sometimes I’m just hungry.”
Talbot is certainly itching to stomp around a stage again — something he might not be able to do until next May when Idles set off for an already sold-out run of shows in the UK and Ireland — but he’s embracing this surplus of downtime with grace. Sure, there’s preliminary discussions about album No. 4, but more importantly, he gets more hours to spend with his daughter. And, true to his personality type, it gives him the chance to process how Idles spent nearly a decade building their collective muscles so they could weather the whirlwind of the past three years.
“That meant we weren’t making loads of mistakes under the microscope,” Talbot says. “We had room to breathe and to learn about what we wanted to do and who we were as a band. We just plowed through and worked really hard for our own sake. We only did it because we loved it and because we wanted to.”
Ultra Mono is out on September 25 via Partisan. Get it here.
If you’re anything like us, you probably spent most of the summer drinking IPAs, lagers, pale ales, and wheat beers. These lighter beers are well-suited for hot, hazy summer days. But fall is barreling towards us in a tornado of dried leaves and pumpkin spice. So it’s time to start thinking about transitioning to darker, heavier beers. But you don’t have to go from a juicy, hazy IPA right to a rich, malty stout. There are steps in between.
An easier transition is found by spending the few remaining summer days drinking double IPAs. These higher ABV, pungent, flavorful brews are the perfect beers to bridge the gap between light summer beers and heavy, dark cold-weather brews. But with heavily hopped beers like these, it’s easy to go wrong — so we don’t want you to grab the first six-pack you see at your local grocery store.
Instead, we decided to ask the professionals for help — hitting up a handful of our favorite bartenders to tell us their favorite end of summer double IPAs.
Sweetwater’s 420 Strain Trainwreck. It’s bright and citrus-forward with notes of vanilla that round out the mid-palate before an oddly familiar, herbaceous finish.
La Cumbre Full Nelson
Timmie Hoffman, bartender at Salt7 in Delray Beach, Florida
My all-time favorite double IPA is La Cumbre Full Nelson. It is jam-packed with hops (over ten pounds) a little bitter and also is juicy so it quenches your thirst. It’s everything that a double IPA drinker would want to sip on.
My favorite Double IPA is King Sue by Toppling Goliath. It’s hazy and juicy with a mean grapefruit bite at the end. It’s definitely hard to beat.
Russian River Pliny the Younger
Anthony Aviles, general manager of Jack Dusty in Sarasota, Florida
You won’t find it in Florida, and they’re very picky about who/where they ship to, but if you can get your hands on Pliny the Younger, you won’t regret it. For as light and crisp as it drinks (even at 11% abv), it packs some surprisingly well-crafted flavors and pairs well with just about anything you eat.
While in Napa, California, I drank PTY while eating Spanish tapas dishes one night and burgers the next, and it didn’t disappoint in either sitting. Pliny the Elder was also very good, but “The Younger” takes the cake in my personal opinion.
Fiddlehead Second Fiddle
Drew Reid, bartender at W Aspen in Aspen, Colorado
Fiddlehead’s Second Fiddle. Vermont beer is in my blood, and I always revert to a handful of Vermont breweries. Second Fiddle is everything you want in a double, with tropical fruit smells and tastes and big pine notes. It is far too easy to drink too many of these.
Pipeworks Ninja VS Unicorn
Meredith Barry, executive beverage chef at Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis
Ninja VS Unicorn from Pipeworks. Pineapple and pine. For a double/imperial IPA the bitter hop is real chill, with a perfect balance of tropical sweetness. Be careful, though — that 8% ABV will sneak up on you!.
Bell’s Hopslam
Benjamin Burch, bartender at The Nolen in San Diego
Bell’s Hopslam. It is just so hard to beat. Beer drinkers have been so lucky for so long because the market simply blew up and supply reached a point of total saturation. You can walk into any corner store in a lot of cities and grab a phenomenal beer off the shelf that you’ve never heard of before. They’re everywhere and widely available. On the flip side of that, that means it’s also not too hard to end up with a mediocre beer, either.
Cigar City Florida Man
Eva Al-Gharaballi, bartender at Datz in St. Petersburg, Florida
Florida Man Double IPA from Tampa Bay’s Cigar City Brewing Co. is my go-to DIPA. Extra hoppy with flavors of grapefruit, mango, and passion fruit.
My favorite double has to be Boulevard Brewing Co.’s The Calling IPA. I love the full body of this IPA. The strong malt balance of this beer rounds it off really nicely. There isn’t that in-your-face bitterness many go for. The biggest thing for me with this beer is the low ABV. At only 8.5%, I can actually enjoy more than one.
Bell’s Double Two-Hearted
Tommy Ergle, bar manager at Dr. BBQ in St. Petersburg, Florida
One of the best double IPA’s on the market has to be Bell’s Double Two-Hearted. Bell’s took their classic Two-Hearted IPA and added two-and-a-half times the amount of Centennial hops — which really brings out some serious pine and citrus notes that make this such a smooth-drinking DIPA.
I’m not a routine DIPA drinker but on occasion, I pick one out. It had been a while, so I got mixed six to take a flight of beer and the winner was Into the Wishing Well DIPA by Institution Ale Company out of Camarillo California. It felt like a pleasure and privilege to drink this 8.7% ABV big beer. It smells like fresh-cut grass and has lingering stone fruit with a crisp finish. Very nice.
We’ve been drinking a ton of M. Special Brewing Company’s Lazy Eye DIPA. Love it ‘cuz it’s not too sweet, ultimately pair-able and versatile, and gets the job done. Tiny little brewery with a bunch of personalities out of Goleta on the coast of California.
Alchemist Heady Topper
Damian Langarica, head bartender at a.bar in Philadelphia
My favorite Double IPA is definitely Heady Topper from The Alchemist, an awesome craft brewery from Vermont. It’s a great Double IPA, perfect balance of bitterness and fruitiness for those really into strong, bitter IPAs or DIPAs and for those are new to the game.
Against The Grain Citra Ass Down
Emmanuelle Massicot, beverage director of Kata Robata in Houston
Against the Grain’s Citra Ass Down – good beer and puns! Citra is one of my favorite hops for IPAs because it gives them a juicy quality that mitigates a lot of the hoppy bitterness and also sneakily masks the booze.
Modern Times Alien Radio
Dannika Underhill, bartender at Kindred in San Diego
Modern Times Alien Radio. It features a couple of my favorite styles of hops (Citra and Simcoe) for a truly in-your-face aromatic experience. Juicy tropical fruits and pungent pine intermingle for a truly ethereal drinking experience.
After the Clippers cruised to a win in Game 3, the Nuggets were looking to even the series on Wednesday night, but suffocating defense on the part of L.A. made it nearly impossible for Denver to get it going offensively, and now they find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to climb back from a 3-1 series deficit for the second time this postseason.
Neither team could get it going early, as they combined for the lowest-scoring quarter of the series, although L.A. was able to convert that to an early 17-point lead. The Nuggets went on a couple of runs in the second half to make it interesting, which coincided with some untimely foul trouble for Paul George and the Clippers, but the Clippers were ultimately able to hang on for 96-85 win and put Denver on the brink of elimination.
Here’s what else we learned from Game 4:
The Clippers’ Defense Is Dominant When Locked In
The Nuggets shot just 41 percent from the field overall and were 8-of-28 from behind the arc as the Clippers’ defense badgered them into their worst shooting outing of the series. Of course, this always starts with Kawhi Leonard, who was phenomenal on both ends of the court on Wednesday night, leading L.A. with 30 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists, while also making a case for why he maybe should’ve made First Team All-Defense as he came up with four steals and a pair of blocks on the night.
Jokic was just about the only Nugget who was able to find something of a rhythm in this one, leading his team with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. But overall, the Clippers’ defensive prowess on Wednesday night was a reminder of just how dominant they can be on that end and should serve as a wakeup call to any other would-be championship contenders.
Paul George noted after the game that the Clippers themselves seem to be coming to a realization of the importance of consistent defensive effort to making them a dominant team.
Paul George: “We’re finally figuring out once our defense is there, it creates everything for us.”
Murray had just three field goal attempts by midway through the second quarter and had just four points in the first half. Murray left the bench after checking out midway through the third quarter and went back into the tunnel, presumably to gather himself, but he was never able to find his rhythm in Game 4, finishing with 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Murray got it going a bit late in the fourth to make things interesting for a minute, but it was too little too late.
Much of the credit goes to the Clippers’ aforementioned defense, which targeted Murray early and took him out of his comfort zone. Still, Murray has to find a way to make an impact. He’s been spectacular this postseason, putting up some of the best performances we’ve seen in Orlando, and Denver will need him back to playing at the top of his game if they want any chance of overcoming a 3-1 deficit to the Clippers.
The Whirlwind Experience That Is Michael Porter Jr.
Despite the loss, Michael Porter Jr. showed more flashes of why he was once considered the top player in the 2018 Draft class before a back injury caused him to nearly drop out of the lottery entirely. The stakes were low when the Nuggets took a chance on him, and its paying dividends now and should continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
However, he was mostly neutralized in the second half, as were most of the Nuggets as the Clippers clamped down on defense. Porter also showed that he still has plenty of work to do defensively. The Clippers caught him sleeping on several occasions and took full advantage of his lagging response time in the pick-and-roll.
But inexplicably, that didn’t stop him from voicing his opinion on Mike Malone’s play-calling in the second half. Porter Jr. finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three, and after the game, he was openly unhappy that he didn’t get more opportunities as the Nuggets struggled to manufacture points.
It’s not a good look for a young player who is still trying to find his place on his team, but then again, Porter Jr. has never been shy about expressing unpopular (or unrealistic) opinions. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out as the series continues.
The Clippers will try to close out the Nuggets in a potentially series-deciding Game 5 on Friday night at 6:30 ET on TNT.
The Nuggets fell to 3-1 in their series with the L.A. Clippers on Wednesday night in a 96-85 loss, as they continue to struggle creating offense in the second half.
Denver was able to cut the L.A. lead to as few as two in the early third quarter, thanks in part to a run at the end of the first half spurred by Michael Porter Jr. off the bench in a 15-point effort. However, as the game wore on, Porter Jr. became less involved in the offense and the Nuggets’ two stars, Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic were not able to produce efficiently or effectively enough to keep pace with the Clippers. Whether Porter Jr. would’ve been able to fix all of their woes is far from a certainty, as the rookie has a tendency to fall in love with isolation and can be wildly inefficient himself.
That said, of everyone else on this Denver team, he’s the player most likely to create some offense outside of Murray and Jokic, and it might behoove the Nuggets to give him some more responsibility later in the game. After the game, Porter Jr. was not in the mood to brush aside questions of his involvement in the Nuggets’ late game offense, calling out coach Mike Malone for play-calling that went exclusively to Jokic and Murray and didn’t do enough to involve him and others.
Michael Porter Jr. on why he did not get shots in the second half:”That’s really up to the play call and the coaches. We kept going to Jokic and Jamal. They are amazing players but we need to find ways to get others involved.”
These quotes came after Mike Malone said the Clippers keyed in on Porter more in the second half on defense, which MPJ seemed to fervently push back against.
Asked Michael Malone why MPJ only was able to get two shots off in the second half after he had 15 points in the first. He pretty much said the Clippers keyed in on him more, were physical and that the ball didn’t find him within Denver’s offense.
His frustration was evident in his body language during his press conference, and that came out in his quotes as well. It’ll be interesting how this goes with Malone and the Nuggets’ locker room, because while Porter has become an important piece, he is a rookie and still has plenty in his game to work on to reach the level of star that his offensive ceiling shows he’s capable of.
There’s certainly something to be said for the Nuggets getting more creative offensively, particularly in trying to attack with different pieces than just Murray and Jokic. However, critiquing the coach publicly like this isn’t often something that goes over well for rookies, and his comment about how he’ll talk to the coaching staff soon likely should’ve happened before throwing him under the bus in front of a camera.
It’s been quite the day of offense in Major League Baseball, as the Brewers beat the Tigers by a score of 19-0 on Wednesday afternoon, but that was a defensive battle compared to what happened in Atlanta later in the evening.
The Braves took on the Marlins in an NL East matchup and proceeded to bludgeon the poor Miami pitching staff to the tune of 29 runs on 23 hits, including seven home runs. Adam Duvall accounted for three of those, with a grand slam capping off his sensational night in the seventh inning, as Atlanta teed off in an historic night at Truist Park.
The Braves scored 18 of their 29 runs via home runs
Travis d’Arnoud, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Freddie Freeman all also got in on the act with big flies, and Atlanta’s 29 runs set a new National League record for runs scored in a game. Some of the stat lines from the game are hilarious, with Duvall going 3-for-4 with five runs scored, nine runs batted in, three home runs, and two walks. Freeman was 3-for-6 at the plate with six RBI while Acuna was 3-for-4 with five RBI and three walks.
The poor Marlins managed nine runs on 13 hits and still got beat by 20 as it was a terrible night for pitcher’s ERA that will skew their numbers for the entire season given it’s shortened length.
The Houston Rockets fell just short in Game 3 as the Lakers shut them down in the fourth quarter to rally to a win and a 2-1 series lead over Houston. Rockets forward Danuel House, who has become an integral part of Houston’s rotation, missed that game for “personal reasons,” but was ruled out once again on Wednesday for Game 4.
That House was not playing but was remaining in the Bubble was a head-scratcher for many, and on Wednesday word broke of the reason for his continued absence from the team. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon, House is under investigation from the NBA for a break of Bubble protocol that has his status for the remainder of the series in jeopardy.
Reporting with @ESPN_MacMahon: Houston Rockets forward Danuel House Jr.’s status for the remainder of the Western Conference semifinals is in jeopardy as the NBA probes a potential violation of bubble protocol. House has denied any wrongdoing to the league.
As noted by Woj, House denies any wrongdoing, but until the matter is resolved, whatever it is, he will not be allowed to play. His absence is significant, particularly for a team that already runs a shortened rotation, with Ben McLemore and Austin Rivers having to step more into his minutes. What House did is unknown, but he wouldn’t be the first player to have to go under quarantine again for breaking Bubble protocol, as we saw Richaun Holmes of the Kings have to quarantine a second time after ordering delivery food that was not approved.
Per Woj and MacMahon, House did not leave the NBA campus, but is under investigation for “activity within the team hotel.”
House, the Rockets’ sixth man, has denied any violation on a matter that has the league probing House’s activity within the team hotel, sources said.
House did not leave the perimeter of the campus, sources said.
We’ll surely learn more as the situation develops, but for now the Rockets must move forward without a key piece as they try to claw back into their series with the Lakers.
If nothing else, at least I understand all the Wally Brando jokes now.
Late last week I tweeted something along the lines that, since the beginning of the pandemic, I had decided to marathon a beloved television show and, with five episodes to go, I was very much not enjoying the experience. But by the time I realized I wasn’t enjoying the experience, I was too far in. Now that I’ve finished, I was going to update that tweet thread and, about ten tweets in, decided I should probably just write about it, even though I was hesitant about doing that because I didn’t really feel like getting yelled at by Twin Peaks superfans. (Also, if you’re going to yell at me, at least wait until you finish this piece. There’s a twist at the end.)
As I was watching, I talked to a handful of other people about Twin Peaks, whose opinions I trust, and their reactions varied from, “I could tell early that show isn’t for me so I stopped,” to, “Oh, yeah, I’m a big fan.” What’s curious is I didn’t talk to anyone who decided, “this isn’t for me,” yet finished the entire series. I suspect I’m in a very small minority here.
So, I just want to be clear, I am not trying to claim Twin Peaks — which debuted in ABC thirty years ago in April of 1990 — is “bad,” or anything along those lines. Having now watched three seasons* of this show, I truly get the appeal. I’m not even saying this to diffuse the superfans so they don’t yell at me (I’ll explain later). I promise, I really get it. But I truly did get to a point where I did dread watching this show. And when I was watching I was wishing I was watching literally almost anything else. But I didn’t want to give up. I had to finish.
*I was texting with former Uproxx colleague Alan Sepinwall (now of Rolling Stone) and he, I think wisely, told me what episodes to skip in the second season. His warning was that if I tried to watch all of them, especially the shows that David Lynch has no involvement with, he knew I’d give up and never make it to the third season. So, during this marathon that started in April, I watched all of season one. I watched the first nine episodes of the second season, then the finale. Then I watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Then I watched all 18 episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return.
Why did I feel I had to finish this thing I wasn’t enjoying? Honestly, I’m not all together sure. I think that’s why I’m writing this. It certainly wasn’t a quest for “answers,” because I know David Lynch’s work well enough to know that wasn’t going to happen. (Spoiler: I was right!) My best guess is I needed something to look back on in 2020 and say, well, at least I did that. So, when I look back on 2020, at least I have this. I can say, “I watched all of Twin Peaks.” (Well, all of the Lynch Twin Peaks, which was the point.) Yes, I’ve also watched something like 220 movies since the end of March, but there’s something unfocused and random about that. But with Twin Peaks, it feels like structure, even though the show itself isn’t traditionally structured.
I’m generalizing a bit. There were a few more ebs and flows to the whole endeavor, as opposed to, “I didn’t like it from the beginning, but kept going.” The first season is a decent amount of fun. It’s eight pretty tight episodes. If nothing else, it’s good enough that it enticed me to want more. Yes, I was warned about the second season. Boy, were these warnings correct. Though, I just figured most the problems would happen after Lynch left after the Laura Palmer murder was wrapped up in the ninth episode. This was wrong. Even in those first nine episodes, scenes drag on and on, almost as time fillers. There are a couple good episodes in there, but this is when I started to resent Twin Peaks. But I kept going because I wanted to get to this mythical The Return, this “18-hour movie” I had heard so much about in 2017.
After finishing Fire Walk With Me (pretty good!) I started The Return. Okay look, again, I do see the appeal. But, watching all 18 hours of this, in a pretty short period of time, was not an enjoyable experience (hold that thought). By the time I finished “Part 13,” I had really reached a breaking point, which spawned that aforementioned tweet last week. Now, since that tweet, I did enjoy the last three episodes better than the others. So I don’t feel quite as harsh about it all. Though, on Monday night, after I watched the final scene, my first reaction was, “Thank god this is over. I’ll never have to think about Twin Peaks again.”
Then something weird happened. I started reading about The Return. I read all the crazy Reddit threads and fan interpretations. I read theory after theory for about five hours straight. I then realized I really like reading about Twin Peaks, even though I kind of hated watching it. I was not expecting this phenomenon. And then I realized this is what I was missing, especially with The Return: the weekly communal experience on social media, back in 2017, I was witnessing then as an outsider, not understanding all of your Wally Brando jokes. The crazy interpretations of this show are just as important as the show itself. That’s where the fun of Twin Peaks lies, as opposed to watching these episodes in a vacuum. And I usually don’t feel that way about television. After watching an episode of, say, Game of Thrones, the last thing I wanted to do was read about it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m still glad its over. But if you asked me a week ago, I’d tell you I regretted watching Twin Peaks. Many times I thought to myself, “I should have watched Billions instead.” And there are a few episodes that feel like they are still going. But, now, I’m not sure I feel that way. I do actually feel like I accomplished something this year. And I still want to read more and more interpretations. And later in the week I have a call scheduled with a friend to just talk about Twin Peaks – and I’m not dreading it. And, well, if nothing else, after 30 years, I finally understand all of your Twin Peaks references. Ah, yes, your references to coffee and cherry pie make sense now! And, most importantly, I know who Wally Brando is. (And, now, if you want to yell at me, you can yell it me.)
Aside from the Celtics blowout win in Game 5, the Raptors Celtics series has been a highly competitive and entertaining one, and it’s fitting that it will go the full seven games. Game 6 was a microcosm of the entire series as a whole, with both defenses shining, each team going on runs to seemingly take control and then giving it back, and two overtime periods filled with big shots, great defensive effort, and even some refereeing controversy.
In the end, the Raptors emerged victorious with a 125-122 win, following the lead of Kyle Lowry, who had 33 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and two steals to force Game 7. It was arguably the best game of the playoffs thus far, which given the level of play in Orlando is a high bar to clear, with incredible shot-making and defense from both teams. With Game 7 ahead on Friday night, we’ll look at three takeaways from a thrilling Game 6.
1. Kyle Lowry is incredible
The Raptors offense was dreadful for much of the first half. They couldn’t get anything going, Pascal Siakam continued to struggle mightily from inside and out, and things looked dire as Boston ran out to an early advantage. However, in the third quarter it was Toronto’s backcourt that took over. Fred VanVleet got hot with a few three-pointers and then Kyle Lowry took over the rest of the way, hitting some incredibly difficult threes, attacking the Celtics defense downhill to create for himself and others, and putting the Raptors up for good with a ridiculous turnaround jumper in the post on Kemba Walker.
It’s clear who is the most important player on this team, with all due respect to Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam’s abilities. The Raptors have to put the ball in Lowry’s hands — something they inexplicably didn’t do on key late possessions out of timeouts both in the fourth quarter and overtime — and let him make the decisions late. VanVleet hit some big shots in the third, but also took some horrific heaves down the stretch trying to be the hero. Siakam couldn’t buy a bucket aside from a very helpful baseline jumper in double overtime, and he likely needs to be tasked with doing less ball-handling if he’s going to press as much as he did late amid his struggles scoring.
Lowry was the one, unsurprisingly, that was more than ready to takeover and bring some calm to the frenetic energy of this game for the Raptors. They’ll need that again in Game 7, but hopefully Nick Nurse recognizes that and calls his number more in key moments.
2. Marcus Smart will do whatever it takes
Jaylen Brown dominated early, before waning late, scoring 31 points on 30 shot attempts, with 21 of those coming in the first half. Jayson Tatum had 29 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists, as he hit some huge shots, but did have six turnovers including a few very costly ones in the overtime periods. Daniel Theis was excellent with 18 points and seven rebounds on 9-of-11 shooting, but no one had a greater impact on this game for Boston than Marcus Smart.
Smart finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, hitting six three-pointers in 11 tries (and nearly tied the game with a late turnaround heave, to go along with his usual harassing defense that had the Raptors quite literally ready to fight him after the final buzzer sounded.
His ability to do seemingly whatever is needed at any given time is such an incredible luxury to have, and while he couldn’t get Boston to a win on Wednesday, there’s no way they end up in overtime without his contributions. His defensive ability made him first team All-Defense this season and deservedly so, but his improvement as a playmaker offensively might’ve been the biggest key on Wednesday night. He had some late passes that were simply sublime to go along with making some huge shots early and late. Game 7 is the kind of atmosphere one would expect Smart to thrive in, given the chaotic, nervous energy of a win-or-go home game.
3. Who will make winning plays in Game 7?
Both teams were sensational in Game 6, and the shot-making in double overtime was truly something to behold. In the end, it was the Raptors that made just enough plays, led by Lowry, but with significant contributions from Norman Powell and a timely three from OG Anunoby once again.
The Celtics had some big shots and big defensive stops of their own, but in the final overtime period it was Toronto that made more and, quite simply, that made the difference. The expectation for Game 7 is another close-fought game, and it’s going to come down to which team makes those plays down the stretch. Each of these teams have players capable of doing so on both ends, as Marcus Smart and Kyle Lowry showed in Game 6 with some key strips, rebounds, passes, and shots. At the same time, it will be incumbent on the two teams’ stars to avoid making critical mistakes.
Jayson Tatum, for as spectacular as he was scoring the ball, had some key turnovers late. Pascal Siakam was bailed out by his teammates, but his inability to put the ball in the basket looms very large going into a Game 7 where Toronto desperately needs him to find some kind of rhythm. Kemba Walker likewise struggled to score in Game 6, as the Raptors made him the focal point of their box-and-one when they decided to mix it up and go to that on defense.
There will be nerves and missed calls to work through for both teams in Game 7, whoever can find a way to make the right plays (and avoid the disastrous ones) down the stretch will earn a trip to face the Heat in the conference finals.
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