Category: Worldwide

If you haven’t learned anything from SZA’s latest album, SOS, then you know that the “Ghost In The Machine” singer is comfortable in her skin. It hasn’t always been this way. On past projects, the songwriter shared that she struggled with body insecurity. But that’s all a thing of the past, and to showcase her newly found confidence, the recording artist teamed up with clothing and shapewear company Skims.

SZA joins the likes of Brooke Shields, Juliette Lewis, Cassie, Indya Moore, Becky G, and Chelsea Handler in lending her likeness to the brand. As one of the newest models for the company, SZA stripped down to her undies in promotional shots for its new Fits Everybody campaign.

In a statement shared with Variety, SZA raved about the collaboration saying, “I’m excited to be in Skims’ latest Fits Everybody underwear campaign and to align myself with a brand that strives to make women feel both comfortable and sexy.”

The company, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has been working to incorporate more pop culture figures in its marketing campaigns. When asked about tapping the singer for the campaign, Kardashian said, “SZA’s honesty, confidence, and dynamic energy are unparalleled. She’s truly the woman of the moment, and I’m so honored for her to be featured in Skims’ latest campaign.”

In her song “Conceited,” SZA sings, “I just got my body done, ain’t got no guilt about it / I just heard your opinion, I could’ve did without it,” and that investment in self surely paid off in this campaign.

For more information about Skims’ Fits Everybody collection, click here.

We made it to springtime, finally, but if those April showers are about to come your way, then Netflix has a boatload of new content to offer. And the better news is this: standup comedy is finally back in fuller swing. After a double dose of Chris Rock and Jim Jefferies, John Mulaney is back with his third Netflix special later this month. As well, the streaming service is bringing back the sweetly funny and charming Sweet Tooth, which does have some amusing moments amid the peril. For more comedy (with bite), Ali Wong and Steven Yeun team up for their own series, and Keri Russell returns to TV, too.

The library also receives fresh infusions of goodness, including the shattering Better Call Saul conclusion and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in April.

John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix comedy special streaming 4/25)

John Mulaney has been through some stuff lately, to put it mildly. He’s now sober, and a relatively new father, and he’s ready to be funny again onstage. So, he filmed a new special, Baby J, to follow up on 2018’s Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, which is on our list of Best Comedy Specials on Netflix, and 2015’s The Comeback Kid. In other words, he’ll be back in his element after taking the stage at Boston’s Symphony Hall, so put this one on your calendar.

Sweet Tooth: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 4/27)

This savory slam dunk from Team Downey starts Christian Convery as the title character, also known by his proper name of Gus. He’s sadly been separated by Jeppard (Nonso Anozie) as of the first season finale, and now, Gus must gather strength to push back against the Last Men along with his fellow hybrids. Also on tap this season: discovering why the Great Crumble happened and curing the ill. He’s got more gumption than the entire ensemble of The Walking Dead, alright.

BEEF (Netflix series streaming 4/6)

And speaking of The Walking Dead and its alleged shortcomings, former Glenn (RIP) actor Steven Yeun stars alongside Ali Long as two road ragers whose feud goes to one of the darkest places imaginable. This series is allegedly vegan-friendly despite the title. (It’s been a long day, forgive me.)

The Diplomat (Netflix series streaming 4/20)

Keri Russell is back in espionage mode again, sort of. The Americans star plays a career diplomat who ends up over her head at work, and this leads her entire professional and personal lives to implode. Let’s hope that she receives some sort of visit from former co-star and husband Matthew Rhys because a cameo would not be unwelcome, and please let her kick some butt, too.

Better Call Saul: Season 6 (AMC series streaming 4/18)

It’s all come down to this for Slippin’ Jimmy. Prepare to possibly have your spirit crushed as this show approaches the Breaking Bad timeline with a cameo or two to offer along the way. Everyone stressed the heck out about Kim Wexler for good reason, so if you didn’t catch up live, this is your time to binge to your heart’s content.

Avail. 4/1
28 Days
A League of Their Own
American Hustle
Battleship
The Birds
Born on the Fourth of July
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Charlie Wilson’s War
Conan the Destroyer
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Friday Night Lights
Hatfields & McCoys: Season 1
Hoarders: Season 12
Hotel Transylvania
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
How to Train Your Dragon
I, Frankenstein
Inception
Inside Man
The Land Before Time (1988)
Marnie
Matilda (1996)
The Negotiator
Not Another Teen Movie
Psycho (1960)
Puss in Boots
Shark Tale
Shrek Forever After
Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit II
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Thomas & Friends: The Mystery of Lookout Mountain
Zombieland
Weathering

Avail. 4/2
War Sailor: Limited Series

Avail. 4/3
Magic Mixies: Season 1
Surviving R. Kelly Part III: The Final Chapter: Season 1

Avail. 4/4
My Name Is Mo’Nique
The Signing

Avail. 4/5
Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now

Avail. 4/6
BEEF
The Last Stand

Avail. 4/7
Chupa
Holy Spider
Kings of Mulberry Street: Let Love Reign
Oh Belinda
Thicker Than Water
Transatlantic

Avail. 4/8
Hunger

Avail. 4/10
CoComelon: Season 8

Avail. 4/11
All American: Homecoming Season 2
Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman

Avail. 4/12
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing
CELESTE BARBER Fine, thanks
Operation: Nation
Smother-in-Law: Season 2

Avail. 4/13
The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib: Season 2
Florida Man
Obsession

Avail. 4/14
Phenomena
Queenmaker
Queens on the Run
Seven Kings Must Die

Avail. 4/15
Doctor Cha
Time Trap

Avail. 4/16
The Best Man Holiday
The Mustang
The Nutty Boy Part 2

Avail. 4/17
Oggy Oggy: Season 2

Avail. 4/18
Better Call Saul: Season 6
How to Get Rich
Longest Third Date

Avail. 4/19
Chimp Empire
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always

Avail. 4/20
The Diplomat
Tooth Pari: When Love Bites

Avail. 4/21
A Tourist’s Guide to Love
Chokehold
Indian Matchmaking: Season 3
One More Time
Rough Diamonds

Avail. 4/25
The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight: Extended Version: Season 1
John Mulaney: Baby J

Avail. 4/26
The Good Bad Mother
Kiss, Kiss!
Love After Music
Workin’ Moms: Season 7

Avail. 4/27
Firefly Lane: Season 2 Part 2
The Matchmaker
The Nurse
Sharkdog: Season 3
Sweet Tooth: Season 2

Avail. 4/28
InuYasha: Season 6
King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch

And it’s your last chance to stream these titles:

Leaving 4/1
Turbo FAST: Seasons 1-3

Leaving 4/3
What Lies Below

Leaving 4/7
Hush

Leaving 4/9
New Girl: Seasons 1-7

Leaving 4/11
Married at First Sight: Season 10

Leaving 4/12
The Baker and the Beauty: Season 1

Leaving 4/18
Cuckoo: Seasons 1-5

Leaving 4/20
The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show: Seasons 1-4

Leaving 4/23
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Leaving 4/24
Bill Nye: Science Guy

Leaving 4/25
The IT Crowd: Series 1-5

Leaving 4/27
Señora Acero: Seasons 1-5

Leaving 4/28
Ash vs. Evil Dead: Seasons 1-3

Leaving 4/30
Den of Thieves
Empire State
Leap Year
Road to Perdition
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

The sports of baseball and softball have produced plenty of memorable moments over the years that revolve around a player being hell-bent on not getting tagged out at the plate. While you don’t see catchers get steamrolled all that often anymore, there have been plenty of examples over the years of baserunners having to find creative ways to get past a catcher who is standing between them and scoring a run.

All of that is to say that we have a new entry into this genre, and it could not be any more perfect. Ryan Silapan, a reporter with the Texas-based newspaper the Panola Watchman, posted a video to his Twitter account of Jada Walton, a senior at Carthage High School, scoring from second base on a line drive up the middle. She ran into the problem of a good throw in to the catcher which should have led to her getting tagged out, but she managed to avoid a tag on a few separate occasions.

She did, however, find herself in an unfortunate situation where her back was to the backstop and the catcher stood between herself and the plate. To remedy the situation, she went with the most Bugs Bunny method a person could possibly use in that situation: She pointed at nothing and hoped it would work. Somehow, someway, it did.

The fact that this worked is nothing short of incredible. I hope every athlete can find a way to use this in their sport going forward.

We are a little over a month away from The National’s upcoming ninth studio album, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein. Today (March 21), the band has given us another preview of the album with their new song, “Eucalyptus.”

On “Eucalyptus,” lead vocalist Matt Berninger struggles with getting through a breakup. While he and his ex have done the hard part already, navigating the smaller parts seems to be just as challenging.

“What about the rainbow eucalyptus? What about the instruments / What about the Cowboy Junkies / What about the Afghan Whigs,” sings Beninger on one of the song’s chorus.

Upon the song’s release, Berninger revealed that the song tells the story of a couple deciding who gets what after a split.

“Throughout the record there’s a lot of looking into the abyss and wondering if a relationship has run its course,” Berninger said in a statement. “‘Eucalyptus’ is about a couple splitting up their possessions after a breakup — like, ‘What are we going to do with the spring water we get delivered, what’s going to happen to all these plants?’ It’s about all those little things you end up having to think about when you’ve become so connected to someone.”

The song’s accompanying music video features The National rehearsing at Long Pond Studio.

Listen to ‘Eucalyptus’ above.

First Two Pages Of Frankenstein is out 4/28 via 4AD. Find more information here.

Foo Fighters, Lana Del Rey, Green Day, Lil Durk, Weezer, and more are set to headline the 2023 Festival D’été de Québec. This year’s fest will run July 6 through 16, and is held in Québec City.

The massive lineup includes over 200 acts, with other additions being Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Zach Bryan, Illenium, Les Cowboys Fringants, Glorilla, Christine And The Queens, The Smile, The War On Drugs, Cypress Hill, Lamb Of God, Sudan Archives, among others. It also showcases that there’ll be a large range of genres, with something for everyone to enjoy, no matter your taste in music.

According to the Canadian festival’s website, they will also be hosting afterparties at The Armoury with DJ performances “for adults only.” Children are still allowed to attend the regular fest, as they note that kids “from 0 to 10 years of age accompanied by an adult don’t need passes for general admission, limited to 2 children per adult.”

Passes for the Festival D’été de Québec are $140 CAD (about $102 USD) for general admission of the entire eleven days and are currently on sale now. They are also offering various ticket types, including a Gold Front Stage Zone Pass starting at $920 CAD (about $670 USD), Silver Front Stage Zone, Bell Signature Zone (which goes on sale on April 12), and other travel accommodation packages.

More information on 2023’s Festival D’été de Québec is available here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Swarm would have made an excellent movie and an even better SNL sketch (or…). It’s got a stinging (sorry) premise: What if one of those zany online stans really carried out their constant threats against anyone who dares to criticize their favorite artists? After all, there’s just enough of a hint of real-world danger – online doxxing and stalkers showing up at celebrities’ homes – that a satire of stan culture is not only timely but also arguably needed in the current climate.

But Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’ seven-episode Amazon Prime Video miniseries misses its opportunity to really make a decisive artistic statement about the subject. Instead, it pursues the appearance of art, opting to focus on style and head-scratching creative diversions in surreality rather than substance. In doing so, it stretches the kernel of creative potential in its premise into a format that could have worked – but only with someone else at the helm.

In the show, Dominique Fishback – who gives an out-of-this-world lead performance — plays Dre, a Houston woman whose superfandom of Beyoncé stand-in Ni’Jah makes social interaction difficult for her. Initially, Dre presents as a kind of a tabula rasa, which could be useful for projections of crazed standom. After all, these folks often send their bee emoji-laden jabs from the safety of anonymity, using aliases and sock puppet accounts to protect their identities from their obviously problematic behaviors.

That’s why we’re mostly left to guess their motivations. Who are they? Why do they do these things? What are their lives like? Are they dealing with unprocessed trauma? Are they just sociopaths? Dre functions in the story as kind of a repository for the possible answers to those questions, but because of this, she comes across as flat – at least, at first. Dre lives and works with Marissa, her “sister” who shares a love of Ni’Jah, but several orders of magnitude less intense (she’s played by Beyoncé protege Chloe Bailey, who is often on the receiving end of stan backlash, most recently over this very show).

When tragedy strikes, Dre makes an unconscionable decision that forces her to go on the run, adopting a string of false identities and temporary occupations across the nation. At the same time, she takes on a new mission: To defend Ni’Jah from online critics and trolls by any means necessary – which usually involves blunt force trauma to the cranium.

Along the way, a variety of cleverly cast guest stars including Billie Eilish, Paris Jackson, and the incomparable Cree Summer (hell, this show is worth it just for getting Cree’s actual face on TV again) get pulled into Dre’s orbit, prompting them to ponder her ever-present question: “Who’s your favorite artist?” The first four episodes play this way — about two hours of the show — which is why it seems like perhaps this could have been a movie instead.

If this sounds a lot like another buzzy murder-a-week mystery show, that’s because Poker Face operates on a similar premise, only in reverse. In that show, human lie detector Charlie (played by the delightful Natasha Lyonne) bounces from small town to small town taking cash jobs and solving murders. To be honest, if Swarm were a howdunit like this involving Dre just trying to lay low and blend in while getting close to her targets and working out angles for retribution, I’d have written one happy review.

Instead, the show crashes in the fifth episode, losing all its momentum and starting to veer irretrievably into the deepest valleys of its campy concept. Instead of continuing to unravel the character of Dre through her encounters with possible victims or would-be acquaintances, the show returns her to Houston for a confrontation with her past – one that fails to reveal anything truly interesting about the character, her motivations, or her internal world.

The penultimate episode attempts to do that excavation but from the perspective of a new character – and a new show format – that seems tonally inconsistent from what’s gone before. This is a Donald Glover trademark, which he employed in his prior prestige show Atlanta. I know a lot of people find those detours endearing and smart; I always felt they were kind of pretentious and smug.

Sure, it’s groundbreaking, but sometimes I wonder if Glover just gets bored and throws in one of these episodes to troll the audience. I’ve got a sense of humor, but with all the hundreds of other options for entertainment, challenging me to turn off your show and choose one of them is probably going to result in me doing just that. But there’s still one more episode of Swarm to get through: The finale.

Suffice it to say that in pursuing Glover’s typical narrative carelessness, the ending of this tale disappoints. It doesn’t satisfactorily wrap up Dre’s story, and it doesn’t deliver a solid thesis. It handwaves the audience’s concerns, leaving us to “figure it out” after refusing to give us enough solid information to do so. Ultimately, the show has no opinion on stans; it doesn’t know whether they are pathetic, whether they deserve empathy, whether they are just pranksters everyone takes too seriously, or serial killers just waiting for the right trigger.

It’s clear that a lot of craft and care went into the early episodes. They’re shot on film, and many scenes have such striking compositions that I literally went to sleep and dreamed about how beautiful this show looks. And the directors pull some truly magnificent performances out of Fishback and many of the guest stars. But Swarm eventually gets caught between style and substance, and given its creators, the former is going to win every time (this is America, y’all).

The ways in which Dre’s character fills in toward the end of the show are pat and staid. The revelations about her past are predictable and don’t truly explain her standom — or why that standom turns into full-blown psychotic rage. Dre’s mission gets muddied; is she a stan overzealously defending her Queen, or is she a traumatized sister lashing out at an unfathomable loss? And what does her journey actually say about the wider culture of standom?

We never see her engage with the Hyve (ha) as a whole, save for one episode that references that “Sanaa Lathan supposedly bit Beyoncé at a party” incident, and even then, her experience with the broader collective is solely through the screen of her phone. We never get the chance to contrast her behavior with any other example of the species to learn if she’s representative or beyond the pale. Instead, we get a cut-and-dry serial killer narrative that seemingly wants us to feel a little sorry for her, even as she makes wild, unexplained transitions and continues to commit ghastly murders.

The part of all this that makes Swarm especially disappointing is that there’s another name attached: Janine Nabers. Because Glover’s name is naturally going to take top billing in most folks’ minds, Nabers’ contributions have been getting overshadowed in so much of the discussion taking place about the show. And because they’re billed as co-creators, it’s impossible to attribute the show’s issues and triumphs to one or the other. Is Nabers the real genius, hamstrung by attachment to the figurehead who doubles as an albatross, or were her ideas the ones that kept this flight of fancy so earthbound?

Unlike the questions that the show itself posits but refuses to unpack, answers may be forthcoming. Glover’s got a handful of other projects to look forward to. Nabers has productions in the works with both Amazon and HBO (hacking drama Syd at the former and a sports comedy with Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny at the latter). So, we’ll soon see how Nabers fares on her own. Fortunately for both, they shouldn’t have to worry about those pesky stans at their next gigs.

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 3, Episode 2 — “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”

HONORABLE MENTION: Mae (legit lol at her swapping humans instead of plates after mixing up the order); Rupert (charming snake); wearing a top hat (just do it one day next week and never explain it); Hallmark movies (“They suck but they’re great”); Jamie (“It called empath-eh you bloody old fart”); Isaac (need to hear more about body science); Shandy (congrats on the new job); Will Kitman (he’s going through a breakup and just wants to drink some fishbowls with the boys); having a vast network of lip reading massage therapists (useful); lamb poop (surprisingly funky); Rebecca’s mom (she and her psychic are just trying to help)

10. (tie) Barbara the CFO (LAST WEEK: 6)

There’s a thing this show does where they’ll introduce a character and make them look like a jerk and then humanize them a bit, either through backstory or a confession or, in this case, a whole mess of snow globes. I like that they do this, in part because it is my position in most cases that people are doing the best they can and their rough edges are there for a reason or as a result of things in their past. Also, that very few people view themselves as the villain in their own story. So, yes, Barbara is not just some penny-pinching creep who exists to make Keeley’s life hell every day. She’s a whole-ass person whose life and job require her to sometimes be a hardass, but who also has a soft side that collects snow globes of all the places she gets parachuted into to make the finances work. I like that the show does this. It’s a good reminder that the jerk you met in the grocery store last weekend might have been a decent dude who was just having a real crappy day.

It is a little funny that it only took them two episodes to do it, though. No time for dilly-dallying, I guess. Final season and all.

10. (tie) Higgins (LAST WEEK: Unranked)

Three things worth noting here:

• I need an extended little spy movie montage of his network of sources playing telephone to get information to him
• I loved the little misery face he did when Rupert showed up with Zava
• STOP JINXING IT

A lovely man.

9. Zava (LAST WEEK: Unranked)

Welcome to Richmond, Zava!

This is… going to get interesting. I don’t think Jamie is super jazzed about it, for one, if only because he was supposed to be the resident talented diva on the roster and Zava appears to have him topped in both talent and diva… ness. Is divaness a word? Autocorrect seems to think not. It just tried to change things to “divine mess.” Which also works, actually. Sometimes the universe gets it right.

But yes. This is going to get interesting. And it was fun the way it all went down, with Rupert turning on his charm and Rebecca getting fed up and proving herself formidable too by busting into a men’s bathroom and basically negging him into joining the team as he stood there and peed. I can’t decide who I’m most excited to see Zava interact with. The easy answer is Roy because, well, the growling. But don’t forget about Isaac. He takes pride in being a leader and a tough guy. I hope they have a nose-to-nose stand-off like Vin Diesel and The Rock did in Fast Five. Maybe they can do it in Brazil, too.

8. Trent Crimm (LAST WEEK: Unranked)

Three things here once again:

• It’s nice to have Trent back, mostly because he provides a good balance to the action but also because he has really wonderful hair
• I got a real kick out of the little “Who’s On First?” bit in the early-going where the team was worked up about the Roy-Keeley thing but Ted spilled the beans about Zava and Trent in a way that ended with people wondering why Zava would write a book about Trent Crimm
• I wonder if he still introduces himself as “Trent Crimm, The Independent” sometimes by accident

For the record: I would probably read this fictional book he’s writing.

7. Ted (LAST WEEK: 5)

It doesn’t happen often but I do appreciate the rare occasions where Ted makes his Serious Dad Face and gets a little tough, like he did when he told Roy to go squash the beef with Trent. This is yet another good reason to try to be nice most of the time, if you can. The times when you actually do need to be a hardass about something important carry the appropriate weight. Nice little card to keep in your pocket for when you need it.

6. Headbutts, generally (LAST WEEK: Unranked)

While I do not support the general idea of using your head — the thing that houses your brain and eyes and many other of the body’s important holes — as a weapon, I will say that there’s something incredibly cool about wiping someone out by smashing your forehead into theirs. I’ve never done it and suspect I never will. I hope you do not ever either, both because I value your face and because I would be a little terrified of anyone who openly admits to doing this frequently. It would affect our relationship in a weird way.

Between the video of Zava headbutting a man in the grocery store and Roy threatening to headbutt anyone who talks to Trent, there are — at present, at least — single-digit odds that the two of them get into an argument and smash craniums together like rams battling over a mate. Something to keep an eye on.

5. Keeley (LAST WEEK: 8)

Three notes, yet again:

• I like that she seems to be figuring out work a little, even if Barbara did kind of have a point about maybe not just hiring your friends for positions that did not exist the day before
• It is funny that everyone assumed she dumped Roy instead of the other way around
• Please note the face she made while everyone was singing the Roy Kent song in the Chelsea stadium, which I have GIFed above

Keeley is going through some stuff.

4. Dani Rojas (LAST WEEK: Unranked)

Putting Dani Rojas at number four is admittedly ridiculous given everything else that happened in this episode, but I stand by it for a couple reasons. The first is that he scored a goal with his face, which is not easy and also not something that is usually recommended for many of the reasons set forth in the section about headbutts. The second reason is that he was either so scared of Roy or such a good teammate (or both) that he shouted the eff-word at Trent Crimm despite being one of the sweetest men on television.

Good for him.

3. Roy (LAST WEEK: 9)

Hoo buddy. Lot going on here. Roy is still dealing with the breakup he instigated, to the shock of every single person who hears about it. He went back to Chelsea for the first time since officially retiring, which had to be a lot emotionally (especially when the crowd started singing his song), even for a guy who tends to growl through his feelings. And he got a little blindsided by the business with his archenemy, Trent Crimm, which all led to that moment in the shower when he revealed that he’s the kind of guy who will carry around a mean newspaper clipping for many decades as a way to fuel the fire inside him that always burns at a low crackle. As a man who loves a good “we’re not so different, you and I” moment between adversaries, I did very much appreciate the thing at the end where Roy said they both thought they sucked at their jobs. That was a nice little treat for me.

We are learning a lot about Roy this season. So is Roy, actually. It’s the same thing I pointed out earlier in the section about Barbara and people doing the best they can given their circumstances. It’s kind of nice to see him softening up a little.

I said a little.

2. Rebecca (LAST WEEK: 7)

Big week for Rebecca, who kind of needed a big week. The Rupert business touches on something buried deep in her subconscious. There’s got to be some insecurity there, the thing where she’s the owner of a team only because she got it in the divorce from her rich and successful and suave ex-husband, who now owns a new team in the same league she’s ascended to and hired away her strategic mastermind and seems to take a sick glee in trying to remind her who both of them were before their marriage. It’s a lot.

Which is what made the bathroom thing so cool. (I realize that this sentence is ridiculous without any context. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever typed out the words “what made the bathroom thing so cool” in that order. Big week for both of us, really.) She really just barged in and trashed that man while his fly was open at the urinal, which is a vulnerable place and position to get yelled at by a tall angry woman. Or anyone. But especially a tall angry woman. I do not think I would enjoy that.

Also, it’s funny to think about Zava’s impression of Rebecca at this point. We know her as a sweetheart who is just trying to figure things out, but to him, if this is his only interaction with her to-date, she’s some slightly terrifying badass who goes where she wants and talks down to superstars and tells it like it is regardless of the consequences. Imagine him explaining any of this to one of his friends. If he has friends. I don’t know what to make of him yet. Either way, good for Rebecca.

1. Coach Beard (LAST WEEK: 1)

A relentlessly fascinating and mysterious man who sometimes shrieks a little and/or bolts into a room like a cartoon character when he gets startled.

I love him.

Undaunted by the backlash to his last cover song, Logic puts a low-key spin on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Weed Song.” The original song appeared on the group’s 2000 album BTNHRESURRECTION and finds Krayzie, Bizzy, Wish, and Flesh reflecting on their favorite vegetable over a hazy beat crafted by the group’s go-to producer DJ U-Neek. Logic’s version is likewise a hazy, melodic meditation on the benefits of smoking.

In the accompanying video, Logic dances around his property, showing off his cars, a wild wardrobe, and even his dad bod. Some cheesy, ’90s-era green screen effects and a cameo appearance from his pregnant wife Brittney Noell complete the carefree atmosphere of the video, proving he isn’t taking himself too seriously.

That’s a good thing for him, because the last time he did one of these, fans weren’t too happy about it. Earlier this month, Logic shared a live band cover of Ice Cube’s 1992 classic “It Was A Good Day,” prompting fans to declare their hatred. However, it seemed that Logic got a co-sign from the only person who matters: Ice Cube himself. Telling fans on TikTok that the OG rapper told him to “keep doing you,” he also intimated that he might do a whole album of covers. He’s now well on his way.

Watch Logic’s cover of “Weed Song” above.

Fans can’t get enough of those Yellowstone cowboys as of late, and it seems like they are not holding those horses anytime soon. The hit series has been churning out both spinoffs and prequels, thanks to its impressive success, and it seems like Paramount+ is looking to keep the roster expanding.

“Having these big mass franchises that are really becoming popular is something that is critical for us,” Marco Nobili, Paramount+ EVP told the audience at this year’s Series Mania in France. “We know how to create popular content the same way as we know how to make content popular. You will hear us saying that over and over again,” he added.

Paramount has been expanding some of its most notable franchises, including the dad-approved Yellowstone and Dexter, and Nobili says that fans can expect this to happen more in the coming years. But the exec insists that the multiple spinoffs will only help to create larger universes of familiar characters, instead of just throwing various new shows at fans every few months, as another certain streamer tends to do.

Nobili added, “Building franchises doesn’t mean taking away originality. If you do a sequel of a show, audiences go down, but a prequel amps up the franchise. You can watch the prequel without having seen the original. That requires originality.” Right now, Yellowstone has two other shows already on the map: 1883 and 1923, along with the upcoming 666 and whatever Matthew McConaughey is cooking up over there. Not only that, but the Taylor Sheridan universe is rapidly growing, so it seems like Paramount is pretty confident in its upcoming roster of shows.

Maybe the streamer can resurrect the short-lived CBS series Under The Dome but with some cowboys this time. Then it will really stick!

(Via Variety)

Another day, another legendary music festival lineup to announce. This go-’round is one of the most iconic festivals dedicated to jazz music lovers: the Newport Jazz Festival.

The multi-day outdoor event is set to celebrate its 69th anniversary, making its highly-anticipated return to Fort Adams State Park in Rhode Island. The Newport Jazz Festival will take place between August 4 and 6. Opening day, Friday, August 4, will be headlined by Kamasi Washington, DJ Pee .Wee (also known as Anderson .Paak), and Big Freedia. Whereas Jon Batiste and Thundercat are billed to headline the following day, Saturday, August 5. Closing out the festival is none other than jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Diana Krall.

Other notable acts include Grammy’s newest Best New Artist winner Samara Joy, Charles Lloyd, Vijay Iyer, DOMi & JD Beck, Arooj Aftab, Big Gigantic, Alfa Mist, Cautious Clay, Durand Jones, and The War & Treaty.

Tickets for the festival will go on sale to the public on Wednesday, March 22, at 1 p.m. est. The organizers are offering a student discount rate for those between the ages of 10 and 25. For more information, click here.

View the full lineup organized by day via the poster below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.