A pelvic floor doctor from Boston, Massachusetts, has caused a stir by explaining that something we all thought was good for our health can cause real problems. In a video that has more than 5.8 million views on TikTok, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas says we shouldn’t go pee “just in case.”
How could this be? The moment we all learned to control our bladders we were also taught to pee before going on a car trip, sitting down to watch a movie or playing sports.
The doctor posted the video as a response to TikTok user Sidneyraz, who made a video urging people to go to the bathroom whenever they get the chance. Sidneyraz is known for posting videos about things he didn’t learn until his 30s. “If you think to yourself, ‘I don’t have to go,’ go.” SidneyRaz says in the video. It sounds like common sense but evidently, he was totally wrong, just like the rest of humanity.
on vacation and remembering #vacation #tips #bathroom #travel #tipsandtricks #todayilearned #todayyearsold #islandlife #traumabrain #roadtrip #inmy30s
“Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas began her clip. “And here’s why you shouldn’t go ‘just in case.”‘
In the video, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explains the three levels of feeling the need to pee.
“The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,” she said. “The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, ‘Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.’”
Then she made her case by giving a visual explanation of how going when we don’t need to teaches our bodies to prematurely send signals that it’s time to pee. The simple explanation has a lot of people wondering if their pee sensor is still working correctly.
#stitch with @sidneyraz I know it sounds counterintuitive and goes against everything your momma taught you – just out here trying to save your bladder 🤍
In a rare display of humility on the internet, Sidneyraz saw the video and thanked the doctor for the correction. “Oh hey thanks for correcting me!” he wrote.
The video shocked a lot of people who feel like their entire lives have been based on a lie—at least when it comes to something most of us do six to eight times a day. “TikTok is basically just a bunch of videos telling me I’m doing life wrong,” joked one commenter. “Like Jesus, really? I’m peeing wrong?”
Yes, you are.
“Who else hears their mom in their head say ‘go just in case’ when you’re out and about and near a bathroom?” another commenter asked.
The good news is that if you’ve always been the type to go “just in case” and you constantly feel like you need to go pee, there is hope. With the help of a doctor, you can retrain your bladder so that you only feel the need to go when it’s time. Now, who’s going to be the first brave person who doesn’t go when they feel the need, just to see if their body’s pee sensor is off?
The 74th Emmy Primetime Awards are nearly upon us (the broadcast airs on Monday, Sept. 12) with the nominations stacked to the gills. The Creative Arts list of winners already rolled out with one key victor who is thrilled. Colman Domingo (who’s already been doing fine work on Fear the Walking Dead) received his first Emmy (in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category). In the process, he defeated another fan favorite nominee (Tom Pelphrey for his tragic Ozark turn), and Colman is understandably pumped as a result, given that he won for his performance on Euphoria, in which he plays the Narcotics Anonymous sponsor of Rue (played by Zendaya).
“Thank you to my colleagues in the @TelevisionAcad for this honor,” Colman tweeted. “Tremendous.”
As Deadline reveals in an interview with Colman, he wasn’t opposed to using this opportunity to chat up Euphoria Season 3. He and Sam Levinson have had “really deep conversations” about the show taking “really big swings.” In other words, prepare to be destroyed again (by depictions of tragic teens, drug use, abuse, and more) when the HBO show returns. Still, it’s fantastic news that Colman Domingo shall be back to help Rue navigate her way through that thing called life, which (like the show) can be triggering in and of itself.
With the live-action remake of Disney’s Pinocchio making its streaming debut, the reviews are pouring in, and it’s not looking pretty. Despite boasting the powerhouse team of director Robert Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks, this latest addition to Disney’s ever-expanding library of remakes is not winning over critics. According to critics, Pinocchio fails to recapture the art and soul of the animated classic, which is ironic for a film whose central tale is about wanting to give a heart to a lifeless object.
You can see what the critics are saying below, and maybe pour one out for Hanks, who was already dragged earlier in the summer for his odd performance in Elvis. Dude’s having a rough year.
As with so many of the director’s previous CGI extravaganzas, all the meticulous surface detail in the world can’t compensate for the core emptiness of the film’s digital creations. Pinocchio’s naïveté, Jiminy Cricket’s avuncular haplessness, even Figaro the cat’s mischief – all have lost a noticeable degree of humanity and soul in the transition from ink to pixels. There may be no strings on this Pinocchio, but there isn’t much of a heart in him either.
Casting Hanks as Geppetto is one of those creative decisions that makes perfect sense on paper, but his performance is just another addition to his recent cold streak. The actor gives what is essentially a kid-friendly version of his “Elvis” performance, playing a puppet master with an unconvincing European accent. It’s not good, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s also hard to blame Hanks when he was given so little to work with.
Creatively, it clearly wrestles with adhering too closely to the superior 1940 version while awkwardly trying to force the old-fashioned story to dip into a jarring, modern voice that is incongruous with how it firmly embraces a 19th century setting and aesthetics. The result is a schizophrenic, bland watch that feels like a big-budget movie made only for 6- to 12-year-olds.
Live-action Disney remakes are best seen as the equivalent of Broadway musical versions: they add a few new songs, toss in some contemporary jokes, and throw a ton of money at special effects. Expecting the same kind of timelessness a second time is mostly a futile exercise: the state fair might book a talented cover band, but we’re listening to the original artist in our car or at home.
Zemeckis has more than enough experience in blending live actors and digital technology with past films such as The Polar Express and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But the new Pinocchio lacks soul, no matter how hard Zemeckis and his co-writer, Chris Weitz, try to will it into being through leaden dialogue where characters talk about what truly makes someone real.
Regardless of how great these live action remakes have been, few people would say that they match the beauty, power, or overwhelming magic of the original films. With Disney finally bringing Pinocchio to live action, the gulf between the quality of the original and the live action version has rarely been this massive.
Often, it’s hard to know what to blame when the Disney live-action remakes fizzle. Is it that animation allows for a suspension of belief that human actors can’t sustain? An issue with the source material? An air of corporate strategy to the whole thing? In the case of Pinocchio, it’s a combination of all three.
Like the titular puppet at its center, “Pinocchio” lingers in an existential purgatory. The latest live-action remake of an animated Disney classic occupies an uncomfortable creative middle ground between remaining true to its beloved roots while also aiming to be fresh for modern audiences. Familiar lines share space with snarky one-liners. It’s not just a block of wood, but it’s not a real boy, either.
Pinocchio is available for streaming exclusively on Disney+.
California’s Bay Area and Detroit have always been spiritually linked in hip-hop. Because of a mid-80s migration pipeline that sent frozen-toed Michiganers west for the sunnier climes provided by the Golden State coastline, the two music scenes share a lot in common. From a love of car culture to the off-kilter swing flow that has become common in both cities’ regional sounds, the Bay and Detroit have provided plenty of artists whose origins could just as easily land in one or the other — think MC Breed or any number of newer Motown rappers like Icewear Vezzo and Payroll Giovanni.
Soon, though, those two sides will find themselves embroiled in a friendly competition, courtesy of Red Bull and the Red Bull SoundClash. The fan-favorite battle event is returning this year with a traveling schedule that’ll see two rising rappers — Detroit’s Babyface Ray and San Francisco’s Larry June — face off in each other’s hometowns. They’ll each have an opposing stage and the winner will be determined by crowd reactions via a decibel reader. The cool part is, because of the Bay/Detroit connection, there might not be much of a hometown advantage for either.
In addition to those two battles, a third will take place in Houston featuring a unique cross-genre clash between modern-day blues man Gary Clark Jr. and chopped-and-screwed aficionado Paul Wall. That should be interesting in its own right, thanks to the odd blend of music styles from both Texas natives.
The schedule can be found below, and you can find more info here.
10/15: Babyface Ray vs. Larry June – Detroit
11/3: Larry June vs. Babyface Ray – San Francisco
11/10: Gary Clark Jr. vs. Paul Wall – Houston
This year, Pete Davidson began his transformation from subpar late-night comedian (sorry) to full-fledged movie star, just over the course of a few months. After vaping his way through the Gen Z horror flick Bodies Bodies Bodies, the former SNL cast member is now venturing into romantic comedies…with a fun time-travel twist!
Meet Cute features The Flight Attendant’sKaley Cuoco as Sheila, an enthusiastic woman who pursues Gary, played by Davidson, while at a local bar. The two hit it off exceptionally well, off before Sheila comes clean about who she really is: someone from the future who is determined to keep having the perfect first date with Gary. So it’s like a romantic Groundhog’s Day situation, but on purpose! What could possibly go wrong in this scenario? Why does Sheila keep coming back? Why is his name Gary?!
Here is the official synopsis:
When Sheila (Kaley Cuoco) and Gary (Pete Davidson) meet, it’s love at first sight – until we realize their magical date wasn’t fate at all. Sheila’s got a time machine, and they’ve been falling in love over and over again. But when the perfect night is never quite enough, Sheila travels to Gary’s past to change him into the perfect man.
Meet Cute will premiere on Peacock on September 21st. Check out the trailer above.
September is a bit of an in-between time. It’s not fall but it really doesn’t seem like summer either. The weather is all over the place from humid, sunny heat, to wet, chilly rainy days. While it still is technically summer until the 22nd, because of the weather and the feeling that autumn is already here, many beer drinkers have already shifted their focus to darker, maltier beer styles.
Well, we don’t subscribe to that. We say enjoy the summer (especially the summery beer) while you still can. Jeremy Flounder Lees of Flounder Brewing Company in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey agrees. He even has an idea about the type of beer to enjoy in this last month of summer.
“I cannot narrow this down,” he says, “but any clean craft beer, on the lighter-bodied side, that still gives me wonderful flavor profiles of malts and hops.”
While Lees didn’t feel ready to list any potential beers, other craft beer experts and brewers did. If you’re not yet ready to crack open a barrel-aged stout, keep scrolling to see their picks for the last of the summery brews.
Here in the Bay Area, we typically get a late summer – and nothing says summer like a couple of nights under the redwoods, where you’ll always find some Russian River’s Blind Pig IPAs in our cooler. When it comes to flavor, you’ll get a bit of grapefruit, pine, and floral notes, with some light grassiness. Nice bitterness in the finish. A great brew to kick back on the hammock and stare up at the trees.
3 Fonteinen Fromboos
3 Fonteinen
James Bruner, director of production at The Bruery in Placentia, California
While September is fairly warm in Orange County, we are still less seasonally dependent on beer consumption here in Southern California than in most places around the country. That being said, the beer that I could drink in August and September, and year-round for that matter, is fruited lambic, more specifically Framboos from 3 Fonteinen in Beersel, Belgium. The raspberry is punchy and in your face without being over the top jammy, and the acid from the fruit helps play off the bacteria of their spontaneous culture, offering a great compliment to the nuanced and complex funk of the wild yeast, just enough oak to give you some vanilla undertones, with a dry finish, leaving you refreshed and craving more.
If they made more of this beer I would not complain as it might help availability and maybe even bring down the price. Luckily, we make some decent examples of spontaneous beer here at The Bruery to tide me over.
Toward the end of August into September, fresh hop season is in full swing, which is why I like to go to my local watering hole and see if they have any fresh hop beers to try, some can be outstanding. A Wayfinder Hell from Portland is always an excellent choice. Crisp, flavorful, and perfect to ride out the end of summer.
Ayinger Jahrhundert Bier. A Perfect beer for September when summer is coming to an end, but you still have some warm days left. It has round maltiness, a hint of flowers on the nose, and is balanced by the perfect amount of bitterness. I’ll wait until late September for those Oktoberfest-style beers, thank you very much for the seasonal creep.
Magic Hat #9. Our team of brewers loves the simplicity of this apricot-forward ale. It is a long-time favorite that we just can’t seem to find in Asheville but will continue to pursue. It’s a throwback beer from when we were all learning about craft beer and was one of the most approachable pale ales with a distinct apricot top note that lured us in.
Rogue Dead Guy
Rogue Ales
Jeremy Marshall, brewmaster at Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California
For a very unpredictable answer, not everywhere is hot and muggy in September, including coastal Oregon and California, where the cool Pacific can moderate the inland heat. Every September, I seek out a Rogue Dead Guy Ale. I honestly don’t know what style this beer is, other than good and delicious. It’s relatively heavy and hoppy, and has been referred to as a Maibock, or strong beer you drink in May, but I don’t know if a German would agree, so I’ll go ahead and drink it in August and September. When I homebrewed, over half of my bottles were the old painted Dead Guy 22oz “bomber” now defunct and essentially a dinosaur of early and middle craft. Luckily, you can find Dead Guy in a signature black and white can now.
The flavor is rich, and malty but not sweet with assertive bitterness and no perfumy hop aromas. It goes down smooth and is perfect for later in an August day, or maybe early on an August or September Saturday, with some seafood like crab or clam chowder.
There is often a hint in the air that Fall is on its way. I want a beer that is light and refreshing but it can be a bit more ponderous than the beers of July. For that, I look for a German light lager with a bit more malt character. Andechs Helles Lager fills that space perfectly. Rounder and softer than some other pilsners, it is still light and sessionable but carries a bit more body and flavor and it fits nicely for a warm afternoon or a cooling September evening.
Oberon Ale by Bell’s. It’s still incredibly hot in Miami during September, so I crave this since it’s thirst-quenching. The citrusy, orange zest in this wheat ale is perfect for warm weather and sunshine. September is the last month its available (and in limited quantities) so you’ll want to grab a few six-packs.
I’m reaching for a Kölsch. It is light and crisp like a pilsner but has just a touch of lemonier biscuitiness to it that is a perfect foil for the heat. They are low in alcohol and pair great with late summer fruit and vegetables that I’m gobbling up from the farmer’s market. My favorite that we don’t brew is Contee Kölsch by Definitive Brewing Company. It checks all the boxes and goes down easy.
Drekker Prrrt The Rainbow
Drekker
Garth E. Beyer, certified Cicerone® and owner and founder of Garth’s Brew Bar in Madison, Wisconsin
Check out the Drekker Prrrt series. Chances are you’ll get to experience a few different flavors showcased in the month of September alone. At the time of writing this, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the “PRRRT The Rainbow” which is loaded with skittles and all the flavors you associate with the classic candy. Every variation is basically liquid nostalgia and deliciously refreshing to boot.
Summit Oktoberfest
Summit
Caroline O’Halloran, area sales director at Sprecher Brewing in Glendale, Wisconsin
Is it weird that I am in the mood for Oktoberfest already? It creeps earlier and earlier every year but I don’t mind. It is fun to see the traditional seasonals popping up in stores. I love Summit Oktoberfest and pick it up every year. Malty, sweet, lightly hoppy, this one ticks all the end-of-summer boxes.
In late June, the Houston Rockets dealt Christian Wood to the Dallas Mavericks, shipping their starting center from last year to their divisional rival without getting a replacement in return. The Rockets didn’t address that vacancy in the Draft or free agency either, and it’s almost entirely because of Houston’s confidence in second-year big man Alperen Şengün.
As a rookie, the then-19-year-old largely adhered to a bench role but impressed throughout his 1,489 minutes (20.7/game). Despite not garnering an All-Rookie Team nod — that class is loaded! — he averaged 9.6 points (55.2 percent true shooting), 5.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. He laid the groundwork to potentially be an integral member of Houston’s core, now spearheaded by Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. At the very least, the organization’s interest is piqued, a testament to the campaign Şengün authored in 2021-22.
Now, he’ll go from stand-in starter playing reserve minutes to first-string center for a team aiming to progress. The priority may still be youthful development, but presumably Houston would prefer to avoid the Western Conference cellar after two consecutive seasons there. Şengün, through his own contributions and evolution, can help achieve that.
The most remarkable component of Şengün’s rookie season was how he self-created fairly effectively amid poor floor-spacing and inconsistent decision-making from ball-handlers. According to Cleaning The Glass, half his buckets were unassisted, which ranked in the 97th percentile among bigs. Meanwhile, his 55.2 percent true shooting was just 1.4 points below league average, an encouraging number, given the aforementioned factors and his first-year status.
Playing alongside a dynamite shooter in the power forward Smith and maturation from young playmakers like Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Josh Christopher represent external factors that could spike Şengün’s efficiency, even beyond anything he addresses this offseason.
Şengün is an ultra-skilled post player, particularly fueled by his rarified flexibility and capacity to endure contact without being deterred. Most centers are not pliable like him, nor do they handle physicality or instigate it as he does. Each game, he was seemingly good for one bonkers bucket full of pivots, fakes, and gyrations. His footwork is deft.
The issue, though, is his physical limitations generally necessitated such genius creativity to thrive inside. He’s only 6’9” with a 7-foot wingspan and a rather poor vertical leaper. Most NBA centers hold clear advantages over him in those regards and that spurred various problems. He shot 61 percent at the rim, which ranked in the 19th percentile among bigs. Granted, fewer than half of his makes were assisted (47 percent, 96th percentile), so the creation burden shouldn’t be ignored.
But the tape reinforced these issues, while also confirming his immense savvy. I’m fascinated to see how he navigates this moving forward, as he just turned 20 and is highly talented. I don’t expect these problems to persist forever, though I do have some hesitancies about to what magnitude they can be resolved. Even so, the dude can look like a wizard on the low block.
One of the most enjoyable angles of analyzing young players, especially as rookies, is aiming to discern which skill flashes are legitimate launching pads for future consistency and which may always be stuck in that purgatory of flashes. With Şengün, his driving game meets this criteria.
Among 180 players to register at least 200 drives last season, per NBA.com, his 58.4 percent points rate ranked 68th. Yet his 41.6 field goal percentage ranked 154th. He went to the charity stripe a whole lot. I’m not at all here to rag on the merits or value of foul-drawing; it’s an excellent skill to tout.
However, in his 13 games as a starter, his free-throw was a mere .213. In 59 games as a reserve, it was a gaudy .522. That is a wide dichotomy, and one I think hints at some of the shortcomings in Şengün’s physical profile. From my view, he thrived exploiting smaller, ill-equipped bench bigs, whereas NBA-caliber starters proved thorny for him to exploit in a similar manner.
In fact, his true shooting percentage was 3.1 points higher off the bench (52.8 vs. 55.9). How he adapts to this shift will be a preeminent storyline for him this year. Foul-drawing was an essential facet in his offensive success.
Regardless of these specific numbers, I’m pretty optimistic about his long-term scope as a potent dribble handoff partner. He’s a master of establishing subtle contact to free ball-handlers. His flexibility and craft shine when he opts to fake the handoff and maneuver inside. I don’t know how menacing his pure driving prowess can become, but I do like it as a steady option out of DHOs. The rosy sequences surfaced intermittently.
The viability and potential of his dribble-drive weaponry could be considerably enhanced by growth as a long-range shooter. His 24.8 percent outside clip is uninspiring, but the strides he showcased in willingness were noteworthy. Throughout the first 3.5 months of the season, he regularly looked timid when afforded space and averaged about one three-point attempt per game. Over the final 2.5 months, that number spiked to about 2.5 per game.
At just 22.9 percent (16 of 70), the results were lackluster. Mind you, he launched 35 triples across 37 games with Beşiktaş Icrypex in 2020-21, so a heightened willingness at this age is a welcomed sight. Emerging as a viable stationary threat won’t occur overnight. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but the first step is at least taking them and Şengün did that much more confidently to close 2021-22.
Not only could this possible maturation amplify his drives, it could also broaden his playmaking opportunities. Sometimes, defenders will sag off and curb passing windows for him. If he’s a shooting presence, even if from 18 feet and in, his facilitating impact will swell. Whirling feeds through narrow openings, flinging no-look reads and inventing openings, he’s already an intrepid distributor.
Since the Rockets traded Wood, Şengün’s offensive translation to a grander, more daunting role has floated around my brain. His rookie year warrants hope. The passing, post craft, and foul-drawing all popped. How he scales up in spite of his undersized frame, in-transit jumper, and cumbersome physical tools is critical.
I’m also curious to monitor how he handles an increased off-ball role alongside the starting unit, with Green and Porter presumably commandeering the majority of touches. Last season, the offense often ran through him in his minutes.
The NBA is unkind to stagnation. Şengün’s talent and season one production have justifiably earned him some rope and patience, but that rope can shrink faster than anyone anticipates. Whether it does is up to him, his teammates, and the coaching staff.
This season, the vampire comedy had Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) coming out to his family (and preventing them from killing his housemate); Nandor (Kayvan Novak) wishing for the world’s largest penis; Nadja opening a vampire nightclub with barely functional blood sprinklers; and Laszlo (Matt Berry) pronouncing “New York City” the way no human (or vampire) ever has. Guess what? Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) was there, too, first as an overactive child, then a moody teen, then his boring adult self, all the while smashing hammers into walls and other good-time f*ckery, as Laszlo might put it.
But that’s the main cast, all of whom deserve to win an Emmy this Monday (What We Do in the Shadows is up for Outstanding Comedy Series). The other reason season four shined brighter than Edward in the sun, however, is the recurring characters. The weirdos, if you will. These are the lovable freaks who pop by a few times a season, or maybe only once, and steal every scene they’re in. Think: Perd Hapley, Ethel Beavers, and Joan Callamezzo on Parks and Recreation, or Lionel Hutz, Hans Moleman, and Kirk Van Houten (who, much like Baby Colin Robinson, is the owner of a race car bed) on The Simpsons, the gold standard for TV weirdos. These characters probably couldn’t support a whole show (although I once thought the same thing about Saul Goodman, and we all know how that turned out), but it’s a joy whenever these oddballs show up.
This is an ode to some of those weirdos.
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Kristen Schaal’s The Guide was in nearly every episode this season, and she provided a fun (and often very aroused) counterpart to Nadja. There is also, as I recently discovered, an incredible amount of fancams online dedicated to those two, and fans wanting them to get together. Maybe now that the Wraiths have been shipped off to Universal Studios in Florida, there’s hope in season five.
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Speaking of: the Wraiths are the Minions of the Shadows-verse, except even less understandable. It’s mostly a lot of hissing. They’re faceless evil employees who are pro-union and pro-killing one of their own if they obtain the precious Water Lily of the Nile. They don’t ask for much, other than supply closets to sleep in. If the Wraiths don’t return, I hope they find work elsewhere. I hear the Lord of the Rings show might be interested.
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This post is dedicated to the weirdos of What We Do in the Shadows, so maybe I’m cheating by including the Djinn (Anoop Desai), the closest thing this show has to a “normal” (f*cking) guy. Guillermo used to be the show’s straight man, so to speak, but he’s as loony as the rest of his housemates. Meanwhile, the Djinn makes Nandor’s bounty of bizarre wishes come true with barely concealed exasperation. “The character first was described to me as very dry accountant vibes,” Desai told Vulture. “I was familiar with the show, and so as soon as I had that description, the character was fully formed in my mind almost immediately, with the glasses and the deadpan and all the things that have been hallmarks of the character this season.” I might start wearing my glasses on the tip of my nose, too. I’m sure it’ll look just as cool on me.
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The next time a friend asks you if they should watch What We Do in the Shadows, tell me, “Well, only if you enjoy shows where indie film legend Jim Jarmusch watches director Sofia Coppola and her rock star husband, Thomas Mars, get sucked dry and beheaded by vampires at a vampire night club, and he spends the rest of the episode wondering how they pulled off the ‘gag’ even though his friends are dead for real.” If they think Shadows isn’t for them after that description, find new friends.
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It’s rare for a comedy to surprise you, but I was in awe of the twist in this season’s Property Brothers spoof where we learn that Simon the Devious (Nick Kroll) has been the mastermind behind Lazlo’s favorite home renovation show — sponsored by Kohl’s — all along. The episode gave us the return of the cursed witch’s skin hat and Simon the Devious’ list of cronies, including Gunthrapple, Wesley Sikes, Evil Steve, Freakfest Tony, the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem, Elvis, Count Rapula, and He Who Shall Not Be Named… but it’s Greg. I’m going to need an entire episode about the Freak Sisters.
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Season four could have used more Marwa, but the way she was effectively written off the show was pretty great. The resurrected bride from the 1200s finds sanctuary in Nandor’s man cave (“I made a wish that we would like the same things,” he says, “now I think that wish has come true — I also think perhaps Marwa has been building this man cave for herself”) and gets turned into an exact copy of Guillermo’s English boyfriend, Freddie. Nothing to psychoanalyze there, nope, nothing at all.
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I love domestic bliss between an undead baron, an ancient vampire (who learned to speak English using flashcards), and their fire-breathing dog who all live together in a house in New Jersey so they can feed off Airbnb customers, don’t you?
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And now we come to Sean. Good ol’ Seanie, the only human that Lazlo considers a friend. Since making his introduction in the season two episode, “Brain Scramblies,” the one where he shows off the world’s largest collection of Ocean’s Twelve merchandise, Sean has become an essential part of Shadows. He invites the vampires to Atlantic City (“BAZINGA”), gets involved with a pillow pyramid scheme, and in season four, introduces his former-headmaster to Colin Robinson. And his “parents,” who believe their “son” is somewhere between the age of one and 42. I love Sean, kindhearted Staten Island goof that he is, and he provided maybe my biggest laugh of the season.
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Long live the weirdos of What We Do in the Shadows. Except for the Baron. He’s already dead.
On Friday, NBA 2K23 will release to the joy, and sometimes frustration, of basketball fans everywhere. NBA 2K is a franchise that in many ways represents the many different cultures of basketball all intertwined into one video game. From stats geeks that want to build the perfect franchise to the gym grinders creating the perfect character to take on other players in Blacktop or ProAm. This year’s edition will feature all of that as always, but it’s also going to include a tribute to one of the greatest to ever play, Michael Jordan. Not only is Jordan on one of 2K’s three covers, but with him is the return of The Jordan Challenges.
The Jordan Challenges were originally 10 challenges in NBA 2K11 where players got to play iconic moments from Jordan’s career, from his 63-point effort in Boston to his final shot against the Utah Jazz. In 2K23, they’ve taken it even further with more depth. The developers at Visual Concepts wanted to show a more complete story of Jordan’s career, starting in college, and were kind enough to chat with us about what it took to make that happen. Erick Boenisch, an executive producer at Visual Concepts, worked on not only this year’s Jordan challenges but also the original mode back in 2K11 so he’s very familiar with how it’s changed from the previous iteration to this one.
So 2K23 is almost out, how excited are you?
It’s incredibly exciting. I mean we have been working on this for a year now and to see it all come to fruition in the last two or three months. It’s a good feeling as a game developer. We spend all these months designing stuff and then it’s in a very broken state when you start and to see it kind of come all the way to where the Jordan challenge, in particular, is now, it’s breathtaking and amazing. It’s an incredible feeling mostly because I know what the public gets to play a week from tomorrow. They get to play an amazing experience, whether you are an old head, whether you are a kid, and never saw Jordan play. There’s something for everyone.
So what led to the decision to bring the Jordan challenges back?
So when we did that in 2K11, obviously the reception was huge, but for that generation of fans at that point in time Jordan had only been retired eight years. Everyone had him in their head, and most people who bought the game at that point watched Jordan play in his career. Fast forward 12 years later we’re kind of in a whole new generation of fans playing NBA 2K, most of our audience, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16 17-year-old kids, they weren’t even born when he last played. They just see YouTube clips, dad says Jordan’s great, take it for his word. This is a chance for us to retell Michael Jordan’s story to a whole new generation of NBA fans. And for me, I take great honor and being able to do that and in doing it, I only wanted to do it in the most robust way possible.
Obviously have the challenges from last time to pull from, and then you have the most iconic moments of Jordan’s career. The final shot against Utah, the flu game, 63 points, 69 points all that. When adding in new challenges, why did you choose those specific moments?
I really felt from a fan’s perspective, they help to better tell Jordan’s narrative from an earlier point in time. Our first game is that NCAA Championship game against Georgetown in 1982. And that’s really, I don’t want to say when Jordan first came on the scene, because he went to UNC, right? But that’s really when the star started to come out of nowhere. He made that shot over Patrick Ewing, Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd was on that team, and it’s just it’s a great way to begin our telling of Jordan’s narrative. You get to play him at North Carolina, in college, in our game, which is awesome. It’s just a really fun experience for that. We have his Team USA and 84 experience, which we didn’t have last time. You’re going to be on a team with Babyface Chris Mullin and you’re going against these NBA All-Stars, and that’s a lot of fun. And then from that point, it was adding things along the way to better fill out what we thought was the best narrative for his career.
When you were getting the mid-game interviews with everyone who was probably your favorite person you got a chance to talk to?
We did Kenny Smith and Kenny Smith is a super professional, right? He did an amazing job. He’s so polished. You know it’s like you’re getting a broadcast interview. Jeanie Buss was like raw, and just honest and open, and she comes across amazingly in the game because of that. So I love love that. Patrick Ewing was incredible when we did him for the double nickel game against the Knicks. Marv Albert, I had never spoken to Marv in my entire life. We talked for like an hour, we then had cut his interview down to like a minute – a minute and a half.
When you have a cut them down into a minute, what’s the greatest challenge of getting those interviews into the game itself?
So each one had two parts. There was getting their personality like, Bill Walton, you give him a question and it’s seven minutes to get the answer, right, and it’s a total side tangent. So it’s getting their flavor and their unique touch that you don’t even know to ask about, but then also kind of pairing it with the narrative of the game the users are about to play and what their impact was like, Bill Walton did the arrival game because he was on the Celtics in that game. So trying to craft all those into a piece that’s consumable for the user where they’re not just skipping it. We’d sit there and massage it, watch it, and add more flavor. This one’s too long, he talks too long here, and just really crafting it into something that they were proud of as well. There’s so much extra footage we can do with later in the year if we really want to spend the time on it. The Cutting Room floor, if you will, that I think people would love.
School is back in session (almost) and your favorite teachers are heading back to your favorite Philadelphia public school! This season, the lovable Emmy-nominated faculty of Abbott Elementary will embark on various shenanigans, including two new holiday episodes.
According to Entertainment Identifier Registry, this season will include multiple holiday episodes, based on their episode titles. “Candy Zombies” will presumably be the Halloween episode, which is set to air on 10/26. The winter finale will be called “Holiday Hookah” which will air on 12/7.
Abbott Elementary’s first season became a breakout hit and one of the few cable TV shows that stuck the landing with social media. The show received seven Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress for series creator and producer Quinta Brunson, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Tyler James Willians, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for acting veteran Sheryl Lee Ralph and Janelle James.
If you need to catch up, the first season of the series is now streaming on HBO Max thanks to a deal between HBO and ABC. On September 21st, the show will return on ABC, then new episodes will be available for streaming on Hulu the next day. Here are the rest of the episode titles for the first half of season two:
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