Month: November 2020

His Dark Materials (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — The Dust-filled fantasy series picks up with an unlikely ally surfacing after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lee digging for Grumman. Meanwhile, Lyra and Will face dangerous consequences following Lyra’s decision to ignore the alethiometer, and the witches want some answers.

Industry (HBO, 10:00pm EST) — The Succession-esque series for the younger crowd sees Harper’s very bad workday growing even worse after a wild night out. Her entire team might face up for major losses after Harper’s trade work leads to a discrepancy, but she might find support from an unexpected source, along with some trouble.

Filthy Rich (FOX, 9:00pm EST) — The Kim Cattrall-starring series reaches a season finale with an explosive secret coming to a boiling point, while Mark and Rose are ready to get serious with their budding relationship.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — President Barack Obama, Part. 2

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Natalie Portman, Russell Dickerson

In case you missed these recent picks:

The Flight Attendant (HBO Max series) — Kaley Cuoco busts away from the The Big Bang Theory with a fun flight of (darkly comedic) fancy. She plays portrays an airline stewardess whose international jet-setting lifestyle includes falling into bed in various countries with various handsome men. During the course of one particularly fateful encounter, Cassie wakes up next to the dead body of a one-night stand. She spends the rest of the series attempting to clean sh*t up. Surrender to this madcap ride.

Saved By The Bell (Peacock series) — Here comes the official reimagining of the original series with a lot of the O.G. crowd on board for more neon-tinged adventures. Zack Morris is now (a terrible) California governor, Kelly Kapowski’s his first lady, and Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez are back as Jessie Spano and A.C. Slater, respectively. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the return of Zack Attack. Screech is sitting this one out, but prepare for some (still lighthearted) social commentary.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (Netflix film) — 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.

Season two of Euphoria doesn’t premiere until next year, but HBO is releasing two specials to bridge the gaps between seasons, the first of which premieres this Sunday. In the Otis Redding-soundtracked trailer, Rue, played by Zendaya, is sitting in a diner, while snippets of dialogue from the season one finale (“What if we just f*cking left?”) echo in her mind. It’s the first new footage from the HBO series since Zendaya made Emmys history by becoming the youngest person ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, beating the previous record-holder, Killing Eve icon Jodie Comer, by two years. She’s come a long way from her Kidz Bop dayz.

No wonder everyone is losing it over one moment in the trailer.

HBO have should gone all-out with the Emmy love, and included “Emmy Award for Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) winners Doniella Davy, Kirsten Sage Coleman, and Tara Lang Shah” in the trailer, too. (Seriously, half the fun of watching Euphoria is the makeup.) Not much is known about the first special, other than it will follow “Rue as she celebrates Christmas,” according to Deadline. “It was written and directed by series creator Sam Levinson and also stars Colman Domingo, who appeared in season one. Both episodes were produced under COVID-19 guidelines.”

Euphoria Part 1: Rue airs on December 6 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, then on HBO Max.

“Would you like to build a snowman?” If you asked five-year-old Brantley from Texas this question, the answer would be a resounding “Yes!” While it may sound like a simple dream, since Texas doesn’t usually see much snow, it seemed like a lofty one for him, even more so because Brantley has a congenital heart disease.

On Dec. 11, 2019, however, the real Macy’s Santa and his two elves teamed up with Make-A-Wish to surprise Brantley and his family on his way to Colorado where there was plenty of snow for him to build his very own snowman, fulfilling his wish as part of the Macy’s Believe campaign. After a joy-filled plane ride where every passenger got gift bags from Macy’s, the family arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado where Santa and his elves helped Brantley build a snowman.

Brantley, Brantley’s mom, and Santa marveling at their snowmanAll photos courtesy of Macy’s

Brantley, who according to his mom had never actually seen snow, was blown away by the experience.

“Well, I had to build a snowman because snowmen are my favorite,” Brantley said in an interview with Summit Daily. “All of it was my favorite part.”

This is just one example of the more than 330,000 wishes the nonprofit Make-A-Wish have fulfilled to bring joy to children fighting critical illnesses since its founding 40 years ago. Even though many of the children that Make-A-Wish grants wishes for manage or overcome their illnesses, they often face months, if not years of doctor’s visits, hospital stays and uncomfortable treatments. The nonprofit helps these children and their families replace fear with confidence, sadness with joy and anxiety with hope.

It’s hardly an outlandish notion — research shows that a wish come true can help increase these children’s resiliency and improve their quality of life. Brantley is a prime example.

“This couldn’t have come at a better time because we see all the hardships that we went through last year,” Brantley’s mom Brandi told Summit Daily.

Brantley playing with snowballs

Now more than ever, kids with critical illnesses need hope. Since they’re particularly vulnerable to disease, they and their families have had to isolate even more during the pandemic and avoid the people they love most and many of the activities that recharge them. That’s why Make-A-Wish is doing everything it can to fulfill wishes in spite of the unprecedented obstacles.

That’s where you come in. Macy’s has raised over $132 million for Make-A-Wish, and helped grant more than 15,500 wishes since their partnership began in 2003, but they couldn’t have done that without the support of everyday people. The crux of that support comes from Macy’s Believe Campaign — the longstanding holiday fundraising effort where for every letter to Santa that’s written online at Macys.com or dropped off safely at the red Believe mailbox at their stores, Macy’s will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million. New this year, National Believe Day will be expanded to National Believe Week and will provide customers the opportunity to double their donations ($2 per letter, up to an additional $1 million) for a full week from Sunday, Nov. 29 through Saturday, Dec. 5.

There are more ways to support Make-A-Wish besides letter-writing too. If you purchase a $4 Believe bracelet, $2 of each bracelet will be donated to Make-A-Wish through Dec. 31. And for families who are all about the holiday PJs, on Giving Tuesday (Dec. 1), 20 percent of the purchase price of select family pajamas will benefit Make-A-Wish.

Elizabeth living out her wish of being a fashion designer

Additionally, this year’s campaign features 6-year-old Elizabeth, a Make-A-Wish child diagnosed with leukemia, whose wish to design a dress recently came true. Thanks to the style experts at Macy’s Fashion Office and I.N.C. International Concepts, only at Macy’s, Elizabeth had the opportunity to design a colorful floral maxi dress. Elizabeth’s exclusive design is now available online at Macys.com and in select Macy’s stores. In the spirit of giving back this holiday season, 20 percent of the purchase price of Elizabeth’s dress (through Dec. 31) will benefit Make-A-Wish.You can also donate directly to Make-A-Wish via Macy’s website.

This holiday season may be a tough one this year, but you can bring joy to children fighting critical illnesses by delivering hope for their wishes to come true.

It’s no secret that Travis Scott’s brand partnership with McDonald’s was a highly lucrative success. Not only did individual stores across the country actually run out of ingredients for Quarter Pounders, prompting the company to change the ordering process, but the sales also helped lift the fast-food giant out of a pandemic induced slump. Travis’s somewhat bizarre merch collections also sold-out in short order, driven by the popularity of one of the biggest entertainers in music today. Now, thanks to Forbes, we have a better idea of how much the deal made for Travis, along with similar ones with other brands.

As part of Forbes‘ extended 30 Under 30 coverage, a feature focusing on Travis and his successful ventures turned up some eye-popping numbers for each of his deals with McDonald’s, Nike, and Sony PlayStation. According to Forbes, McDonald’s paid Travis at least $5 million for the initial endorsement deal, while the Houston rapper reportedly grossed $15 million from the merch sales. Travis’s partnership with Nike is estimated to bring him around $10 million a year, while the article notes that the increased cultural cachet is incalculable and invaluable in netting new partnerships. One of those new partnerships was for Travis to help Sony introduce its PlayStation 5 console, which Forbes guesses has earned him “at least” $1 million, with more on the way as the deal apparently includes further opportunities from a co-branded console to even a potential Scott-designed game.

On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated December 14, 2019, The Weeknd’s “Heartless” claimed the No. 1 spot. That same week, “Blinding Lights” made its chart debut at No. 11. There has been a year of Hot 100 charts released since then, and “Blinding Lights” has been on every single one of them. On the latest chart (dated December 5, 2020), “Blinding Lights” is No. 9, meaning the song has stayed on the Hot 100 for an entire year.

The Weeknd took a moment to observe that achievement today, as well as the fact that the song now spends its 41st week in the top 10 of the chart, which extends the record it recently set. He shared a screenshot of a tweet revealing the news and captioned it with an emoji of a smiling face surrounded by hearts. Yesterday, he also shared the single art and commemorated the song’s one-year anniversary, writing, “Blinding Lights turns 1 years old today [heart emoji] it feels like yesterday….”

This is surely a bittersweet moment for The Weeknd, though, as it comes shortly after he was inexplicably excluded from the latest batch of Grammy nominations despite having one of the year’s biggest songs and albums. The artist responded by accusing the Grammys of corruption, writing on social media, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” He added later, “Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!”

Revisit our review of After Hours here.

The NBA 2K League will launch its first winter event on Dec. 4, with the NBA 2K League Winter Cla$h that will allow fans to create teams and qualify for a tournament featuring some of the league’s best players, top influencers, and a couple soon-to-be NBA stars, all for a $35,000 prize pool.

The tournament will take place in three stages, all live-streamed on the 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels, starting with a 5-on-5 Pro-Am match on Dec. 4 featuring some of the 2K League’s top players, influencers, and two members of the new NBA G League Ignite squad, top 2021 prospect Jonathan Kuminga and Cody Demps.

The second stage will start with eight fan teams for each console (PlayStation and Xbox) playing in a bracket-style 2-on-2 tournament in the NBA 2K21 MyPark game mode on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, with the winner of each of those tournaments earning $1,000 and a place in the Dec. 11 main brackets, where they’ll compete with teams made up of influencers, 2K League players, and the G League Ignite members. The winning team from each main bracket will get $5,000, with payouts for second to fourth place as well. Fans can register for a spot in the fan bracket here on the 2K League’s website this week.

Finally, the third stage will be another 5-on-5 Pro Am match with influencers and 2K League players will take place on Dec. 18, with the winning team earning $5,000. Among those participating in the Winter Cla$h are influencers like AnnoyingTV, StaxMontana, IpodKingCarter, Dominus, TyTheGuy, and ItsPikaaa, along with 2K League players like Alexander “Steez” Bernstein (76ers GC), Artreyo “Dimez” Boyd (Mavs Gaming), DeMar “Deedz” Butler (Heat Check Gaming), Dayvon “G O O F Y 7 5 7” Curry (Blazer5 Gaming), Brendan “Reizey” Hill (Magic Gaming), William “Strainer” Morales (Cavs Legion GC), Sten “SAV” Valge-Saar (Lakers Gaming), and Justin “Sherm” Sherman (Hornets Venom GT).

Snoop already has seemingly dozens of jobs on top of being a rapper and everyone’s favorite uncle, but it looks like he may be adding another — that is if the money is right. Fans went wild over his commentary during the recent Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition bout, prompting calls for him to add boxing analysis to his list of full-time gigs. Of course, Snoop’s a lot better tapped-in than most of our real uncles, so when he caught wind of these requests, he was quick to supply his conditions to do so.

Posting to Instagram where he’s usually most active, Snoop reposted a tweet with the profile and display name cropped out which read, “Here’s who won tonight: Snoop Dog, hands down. Someone sign @SnoopDogg to a multi-year contract.” The original poster also complimented Snoop’s (other) mic skills, saying, “He’s a natural commentator. He’s Barkley on steroids. He’s hilarious!” The tweet goes on to suggest “3 years for $15 million” as his fee — which Snoop clearly agrees with, considering he reposted the tweet on his Instagram.

While it remains to be seen whether any network will ultimately pony up the funds to lock down Snoop’s unique perspective and fan-pleasing quips, it seems unlikely he’ll end up on any broadcast or cable television shows since his blow-by-blow was peppered with profanity and his presence might irritate the sorts of fans who carry on about flags during football games. ‘Til then, fans can hear more of Snoops hilarious remarks in NHL 20.

The way-better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be Saved by the Bell reboot features a new group of Bayside High students, as well as return appearances from Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley), Slater (Mario Lopez), Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen), and Lisa (Lark Voorhies). But where’s Screech? The real-life reason is too depressing to get into (rumors of Dustin Diamond’s death in a prison riot have been greatly exaggerated), but episode eight of the Peacock series offered a canonical reason for Screech’s absence.

“Screech is so lucky he and Kevin get to live on the International Space Station so he doesn’t have to deal with all this,” Slater tells Jessie in “The Todd Capsule.” So, there you have it: Screech is in space with his robot Kevin — Saved by the Bell basically Poochie’d him, minus the part where he dies (that’s more of a Fuller House move).

Screech not being part of the reboot was expected after showrunner Tracey Wigfield, who won an Emmy for her time writing on 30 Rock, told the Hollywood Reporter last month, “We talk about Screech’s character and there are little Easter eggs throughout the show of what he’s doing now, and you can find some if you look for them. And this season, he wasn’t tied to any of the new characters or anything. But that’s not to say it’s not open for the future, not knowing what stories will be or anything for a cameo maybe.”

Who cares about Screech? Bring back Johnny Dakota in season two.

(Via US)

Euphoria is back in early December, with an interlude between seasons that will come as two standalone episodes. And now we have a first look at what Part 1 has in store for us.

HBO shared a trailer for the first of these special episodes on Monday, a 50-second clip that featured Rue in a diner thinking things through while she’s waiting for something.

“What if we just go to the city?” an echoey version of Zendaya’s voice asks in a flashback. “What if we just f*cking left?”

The scenes then show an apparent change of heart, with Rue standing alone at what appears to be a train station. The final moments of the trailer show that she’s not alone at that diner, and maybe needs a bit of help in plotting what’s next.

Zendaya also shared the trailer on Twitter, the latest in a series of sneak peaks at the special episodes, the first of which will air later this week. She also showed a teaser poster that also made clear the focus of this episode would be on her character, Rue.

All of the marketing materials have stressed that it’s not the start of Season 2, but something in between. But the trailer makes it clear that there’s a lot to cover in these two episodes, at it may be starting with Rue thinking things over while she eats some diner food.

Four Seasons Total Landscaping must’ve already been booked because Trump’s legal strike force launched a Monday “hearing” at the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix, Arizona to keep pushing their voter-fraud claims.

In a press release sent out by Republican Rep. Mark Finchem, Trump’s lawyers laid out their latest ruse when it comes to arguing our fair election protocols, stating that they intended to hold a hearing which would be open to the public and live-streamed. This hearing, according to Finchem’s statement, promises to bring evidence of election tampering to light after Fox Business host Maria Baritromo didn’t press for any evidence from Trump. This comes after Trump’s legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, has lost countless suits in multiple states that petitioned for voting recounts and, in some cases, to toss out citizens’ ballots altogether. Last week, Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey publicly acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory in his state.

Finchem’s request for a meeting of the House Federal Relations Committee on the matter has yet to be answered, and despite calling this meeting a “hearing,” it’s not an official gathering of the State Legislature. Instead, it looks like Finchem, along with some GOP representatives including Giuliani and Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, will be presenting and judging their own self-supplied evidence. Why? We’re still not sure. Legally, Trump’s pretty much squandered any chance of taking back the presidency, but even though this whole thing is just a smoke and mirrors show, Twitter is still having a hell of a time with it.

To be fair, we can’t confirm whether Giuliani and company were regulated to the cafeteria because of a My Little Pony convention … but no one can rule it out, either.