This year, Ducournau is back at Cannes with her highly anticipated second film, Titane, the first trailer for which dropped this morning. Julia Ducournau’s debut feature, Raw, used cannibalism as a metaphor for puberty but went so hard on said cannibalism that some early audience members passed out. The whole thing feels very Joachim Trier’s Thelma meets Gaspar Noe’s Climax meets Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings”; hopefully, it will induce unconsciousness yet again as it competes for the Palme d’Or on the Croisette this summer. Neon describes the film in Webster’s Dictionary terms: “TITANE: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due to its pronounced biocompatibility.” The trailer, which is somehow even more opaque, stars Agathe Rousselle as a woman who, hmmm, once had titanium (?) plates implanted in her skull (?) and now grinds up on cars, eats paper napkins, beats people up on her couch (?), stabs people to death with a long metal implement, is being violently pursued and/or is violently pursuing a man played by Vincent Lindon, and also enjoys dancing in basement clubs. Tags: Both the teaser and the plot synopsis are almost unbelievably vague in a way that only a director of extreme French body horror could pull off. Even so — or perhaps as a result — the French writer-director walked away from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival with a Parallel Sections Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics and a fledgling reputation as a brilliant, stone-cold freak.

With the emergence of cord-cutting came a small selection of curated streaming services, but those days are long gone; suddenly, we’re all staring down a seemingly never-ending list of platforms that demand our attention. Watching things was once a click or two away, but it’s now fraught with confusion and questions. Enter Streamliner, a new section dedicated to covering all (and we mean all) the streaming services out there and the products you use to access and enjoy them. Granted, cable subscriptions are overpriced, the user interfaces are poorly designed, and consumer choice is all but nonexistent, but something about the lack of options made it easy to slip into a simple, “no think, just watch” viewing routine. Is the service I want available on a given device? It’s here. Related

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Which Free Streaming Services Should You Be Using? Why can’t I fast-forward or rewind? What’s with this test email that I just received? And that’s just HBO Max. The 10 Best DVD Box Sets to Buy Right Now

The Hottest Streamer (Right Now)

Tags: That’s why we want to help. Say no more. We’ve got ’em. Can we ask a quick question about your relationship with streaming services and devices? Yes

No

Of course you don’t, nobody does. Here. Streamliner

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Photo: Vulture. For the full experience, follow along on Twitter as we all untangle this streaming mess together. Don’t lie to us. Trying to figure out which of the services you’ve never heard of are actually pretty good? We’re here to help. Looking for deals on subscriptions and devices? Want intel on new features and hacks? lol no you don’t, nobody does. Hi there, streamer person. Do you, attractive entertainment consumer, feel confident navigating the vast array of available streaming platforms and gadgets? Streamliner launched today. In our collective zeal to cut the cord and swear off cable, it turns out we forgot how user-friendly cable actually was.

Engine troubles force the bus to stop at an interstate diner, and when one passenger is found stabbed with a screwdriver, everyone is a suspect. “Murder on Madison Avenue” (Season 8, Episode 22)

For many kids, games like Clue gave them an appetite for murder mystery, and in this episode, Jessica is meeting with executives of the Marathon Toy Corporation to design her own mystery board game. “Murder Takes the Bus” (Season 1, Episode 18)

There’s a long tradition of locomotive-based thrillers, from Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express to the book turned movie Strangers on a Train. Luckily, the surviving KGB officer happens to be a big fan of J.B. “Who Killed J.B. “Nothing serious,” the priest tells the guests. Was it the loan shark’s wife? loads into the backseat of her airport chauffeur, she’s greeted by her very much alive cousin. Along the way, Jessica herself gets trapped in the dungeon, and she turns out to keep a surprisingly large supply of Werther’s caramels in her purse. While recovering from an injury and under her nephew Grady’s care, Jessica’s phone lines are crossed and she accidentally hears the plot of a murder. When the loan shark ends up dead and a witness spotted someone in Eva’s checkered coat leaving the scene of the crime, Jessica has to prove her friend’s innocence. Grady and Donna also stay married throughout the rest of the series, so the episode doesn’t end with an arrest but with a somewhat happy ending (depending on your opinion of Grady). Jessica heads to the auction house to win the journal of the young starlet, Evangeline, which is already attracting the attention of a sleazy director, Evangeline’s former producer, and her old psychiatrist. The episode features a whole cast of J.B. Because this mystery was originally conceived of as the series finale, it’s melodramatic, suspenseful, and full of twists that encompass everything to love about Murder, She Wrote. They get just a taste of dessert when Seth gets a phone call and disappears. It’s in this workshop that Jessica will later discover the body of the toy CEO, struck in the head, squeezed into the petite car of a kid-size train whirling around the room. A chef who tries to wiggle out of his contract by showing up drunk on the job, the owner of a rival diner, the victim’s husband, who arrives suspiciously soon, and the victim’s road-trip companion. The mistress’s daughter who may be another one of his mistresses? The second segment is packed, untangling the personal dramas and jealousies that Eudora’s family has unleashed upon Cabot Cove. But what happens when someone is killed and she can’t get out of bed? And then there’s Jessica Beatrice Fletcher, one of the most recognized TV sleuths. When she is found stabbed with a meat thermometer, the wedding is delayed. Emma MacGill’s appearances also usually mean allusions to Lansbury’s own theater and film career. Turns out it’s under new management and may now be a mob front. “Family Doctor” (Season 7, Episode 11)

Jessica is in Boston with her doctor friend Seth, who just wants to visit his favorite seafood place. “Crossed Up” (Season 3, Episode 13)

When Jessica isn’t invited somewhere, she finds a way in. 2” (Season 12, Episodes 6 & 7)

Murder, She Wrote only occasionally tread into supernatural territory. When one patron who dipped his spoon in the jam collapses in the parking lot, diners rush out, and suddenly more and more people are dropping to the pavement. With her friend in the hospital, J.B. This episode may have broken into our top 15 for the inspector’s Pepé Le Pew–level French accent, but aside from dramatic voice work, there’s still a lot to enjoy: outdated ’80s fashion, on-site Paris shots, and Edith Piaf covers. With a pounding rain storm and a score styled after Psycho, Jessica’s eyes suspiciously scan the passengers. Even without a car, she’s constantly buzzing through Cabot Cove or her latest travel destination. As anticipation builds for the diary to enter the auction floor, an armoire is presented for bidding, only for the body of Jessica’s friend to fall out. 1 & 2” (Season 5, Episodes 21 & 22)

Murder, She Wrote viewers know Jessica Fletcher is famous. “One Good Bid Deserves a Murder” (Season 2, Episode 17)

Jessica Fletcher has no shortage of rich friends. Their overexcitement at the twists of the mystery is also a reminder of the delight in watching the show. As the death of the impersonator unravels into three different murder investigations, including one man allegedly killed with a rifle by his dog, J.B. At the mansion, we soon meet the brash housekeeper who has plenty of enemies. “A Fashionable Way to Die” (Season 4, Episode 1)

One of Jesscia’s old friends, Eva, is working as a designer and finds herself unable to pay back the financier of her latest collection. McGraw, who speaks like the lead detective of a 1930s noir film, is the tough, Boston-based private eye Jessica often works with. But it’s not until the finale of season five that we find out Jessica is so famous that she has a nemesis who may be willing to kill. “Sing a Song of Murder” (Season 2, Episode 5)

The scientific consensus is that identical cousins don’t exist, but we’ll take any excuse to see Angela Lansbury play Emma MacGill, the eccentric British relative of J.B. Daniel Craig’s cartoonishly accented Benoit Blanc will continue his crime-solving career in a Knives Out sequel. Photo: CBS

There are not many television shows where one character can carry a series. Fletcher mysteries and lets her tag along in the investigation. Murder, She Wrote is streaming on Peacock. Jessica becomes a suspect, but a lucky run-in with private investigator Harry McGraw keeps her free. This diner doesn’t do jelly packets, but single bowls of homemade preserves travel between tables (definitely not COVID safe). I’m not a pragmatist. A good-natured widow who lives in the small coastal Maine town of Cabot Cove, she’s hardly the caricature you expect to lead a mystery. But who was desperate enough to kill for it? And in a dog kennel of all places. Related

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Tags: She’s a former schoolteacher, she rarely turns down requests for help, and nearly everyone is willing to give her a ride when she needs it; certainly not the type of woman you expect to accidentally become the madame of an Oregon-based brothel. In this episode, she reprises “Good-bye, Yellow Bird,” which first appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and reminds us that Lansbury is endlessly talented. My imagination runs riot. In this season four episode, a friend asks Jessica to travel with her to investigate the sudden death of her sister — could there be foul play? Beyond Angela Lansbury’s charm, there’s also a delight in seeing many old Hollywood stars, decades past their prime, parade through the TV show’s sets — as well as the many not-yet-famous guest stars who appeared, like George Clooney and Courteney Cox. McGraw and the other characters are all tempted by the diary, lured by the magazine-worthy gossip it may contain and the paranoia of what it may reveal. But the one-character bit lends itself perfectly to the mystery genre. Jessica gabs with the cockney-accented, red-haired version of herself, and the plan is to fake Emma’s death until they can figure out who wants to really kill her. The only way to save themselves is to prove who really killed Carmine. A police lieutenant with a questionable haircut shows up thinking it’s robbery-related, but Jessica and viewers know better than to believe that. Her independence, calmness, and analytical tendencies make the weekly whodunnits thoughtlessly watchable. The whodunnit is clever, and passengers turn out not to be the strangers they originally seem. The drama of an approaching hurricane adds to the tension, as does a thriller-style scene of a break-in at J.B.’s home. 1 & Pt. But almost as soon as we meet Emma, Jessica, back in Cabot Cove, is invited to her funeral. This is the only episode with a primarily female cast, and the characters’ bold confrontations, its themes of corruption, and Jessica’s calm amid chaos make it an early season classic. I’m not like her. Fletcher. The first segment opens up doors to poisoned apples, drugging plots, stolen manuscripts, extramarital affairs, private investigators, and, of course, murder. Under suspicion of murder, the ballet dancers go undercover in Cabot Cove until Jessica and her new secret police friend can find the true killer. The cast of inmates, including over-the-top performances by Adrienne Barbeau and Margaret Avery, seize the weapons from security and hold the warden and prison guards hostage. Grady, awkward yet endearing, seems like an odd match for Donna, who is the type of rich that she still refers to her father as “Daddy” in conversations. Jessica, of course, doesn’t flinch when she gets involved in harboring the two fugitives, even if it may have resulted in the murder of one of the traveling KGB officers. Luckily, when J.B. It wouldn’t be a corporate-set episode without office affairs, vague talk of securing accounts, and pantsuits with heavy shoulder pads. The investigation is now more than a case of poisoned preserves, but murder. Jessica is.”

As a mystery writer, Jessica writes about murder for a living, and her book research has prepared her to solve the most outlandish murder plots, whether or not the local authorities want her there. But it’s her demeanor and the extravagance of the characters she encounters that make Murder, She Wrote the perfect balance of coziness and camp. If you can stand Grady’s bumbling interrogations, this episode’s structure is an engaging departure that shows Jessica’s cleverness even when she can’t leave her room. Jessica heads down to clear up the case of mistaken identity, but when her impersonator turns up dead, her trip becomes more than a weekend errand. At the hospital, one woman on a road trip with a friend dies. In this season one episode, Jessica is visiting Boston with a friend to see a touring Soviet ballet company only to get dragged into the defections of the show’s leads. Fletcher aboard this cultural tradition, albeit on a less glamorous journey than the heyday of train travel — a bus to Portland. Jean Simmons breaks out her transatlantic accent to play Eudora McVeigh, the once premiere mystery writer who has lost the favor of critics (or as she calls them, “That simpering cadre of barnacles, ticks and other parasites”). “Jessica has extreme sincerity, compassion, extraordinary intuition. These episodes feature over-the-top story lines, compelling mysteries, scenic destinations, and amusing performances by guest stars. The premise, though silly, makes it hard to know who the poison was truly intended for and who would have wanted to spike the jam. Emma, an aging actress, owns a theater on the verge of financial ruin that a group of seedy investors want to buy. When someone won’t answer her calls, she’ll show up at their house. His instructions: Buy it and destroy it. “Jessica Behind Bars” (Season 2, Episode 9)

Jessica is teaching a writing class at a women’s correctional facility, and she is only a few minutes into her lesson when murder disrupts it. Watching the show chronologically could be a yearslong endeavor, but here are 15 standout episodes across the show’s 12-year run. “Something Borrowed, Someone Blue” (Season 5, Episode 9)

Wedding episodes often earn high ratings. As greed motivates more killings, Jessica, alongside her Irish friends with accents of varying quality, must uncover the trove to stop the murders and find out who is responsible. Everywhere she goes, at least one person seems to recognize her, people make snide comments about the quality of her books, and she often speaks at conferences and events. His mistress? Episode 18 of season one puts J.B. “Nan’s Ghost Pt. Like Jessica, the group of older women are warm, sincere, and unabashedly nosy. enthusiasts, including guest performances by Betty Garrett, Marie Windsor, Janet Blair, and Margaret O’Brien. Delightfully villainous, Eudora decides the way to win back her success is to take down the now leading mystery writer: Jessica Fletcher. In Boston, one such friend gives her $1 million to win the auction of his famous ex-girlfriend’s diary while he films a movie in Barcelona. Jessica represses her curiosity and says no until her friend is literally mowed down by a car at a crosswalk. But it wouldn’t be Murder, She Wrote if a real killing didn’t occur, and when one character is struck by a yellow car, Jessica and Emma get to tag-team as detectives. The suspects? While most episodes take place exclusively in Cabot Cove or another location, this mystery features exciting geopolitical drama typically found in destination episodes paired with floundering Cabot Cove characters navigating their role in an international conspiracy. The secret to the girl’s mysterious death may be found in a buried horde of ancient treasures. With a crowded cast of notable guest stars including Rue McClanahan, Michael Constantine, and Linda Blair, this locked-room mystery features twist upon twist upon twist. She can narrate with her facial expressions, and her sassiness is a side-eye to the viewer about whatever ridiculousness the episode is unravelling. As Jessica investigates, another murder happens, and a stakeout develops between local police and the incarcerated women. But in this spooky episode set in the Irish countryside, somebody wants Jessica to believe a medieval castle is haunted by the ghost of a dead girl trapped in a dungeon. The rest of the episode is filled with secrets, blackmail, tacky décor, and a sketchy cast of locals who want the lucrative brothel for themselves. The wedding between Grady, Jessica’s chronic job- and girlfriend-hopping nephew, and Donna, a rich heiress from upstate New York, certainly didn’t garner the same excitement as other TV-famous weddings, but it did make an entertaining mystery filled with snobby rich antics, disapproving family members, and a disgraced childhood sweetheart. The prison’s physician is found dead, and the warden, who has ambitions for state senate, immediately accuses an inmate found near the scene of the crime. Fletcher was a departure for Angela Lansbury, who gained fame in The Manchurian Candidate, The Harvey Girls, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and countless theater roles. There’s the sailor in full sea-captain regalia, a librarian who is a fan of J.B., a man boarding from a prison stop who seems afraid of someone else onboard, and a guy with a gun tucked in his jacket. She explores the wonderland workshop of the “eccentric” designer, which has a life-size, nightmare-quality sheriff toy as well as some other trinkets kids would seem more inclined to run away from than to play with. Fletcher?” (Season 7, Episode 14)

Jessica is ready to relax after a book signing event — until she turns on the news to find out that in the little town of Bremerson, Texas, she was arrested for breaking and entering. packs up and heads to Oregon, impersonating the injured friend who is supposed to inherit her sister’s business of ill repute. “Slight problem with the help.”

The humor in this episode borders on slapstick, with the housekeeper’s body being dragged around the estate contrasting the gossipy chatter of the rich attendees. The townspeople think her death was an accident, but Jessica doesn’t buy it. Agatha Christie created Hercule Poirot to journey through different destinations and lend his meticulous eye to crime scenes. A Murder, She Wrote regular, when Jerry Orbach appears as a guest star in the opening credits, you can expect a treat. After a round-trip, blindfolded commute to a country estate, Seth thinks his job is done; but one hour later, Carmine dies, and the family thinks Seth killed him. To get revenge, Jessica and Seth are kidnapped and held hostage. works with her fan club to solve the cases. Scorned lovers, desperate heirs, and ambitious businesspeople are much easier to believe as killers than ghosts or witches. Grady, who in his 12 appearances is often suspected or sometimes arrested for the week’s murder, now gets to play detective. Their demands: Drop the charges against the accused and improve the food and living conditions. Jessica, still unafraid to stick her nose even in the highest level of law enforcement, isn’t making fast friends with the FBI agent in charge of the investigation. His wisecracking, cynical approach contrasts Jessica’s earnestness, and the episode becomes an unexpected buddy-cop mystery. “Trouble in Eden” (Season 4, Episode 9)

In Cabot Cove, Jessica is well-respected. When Jessica is reunited with Seth, she finds out he had been whisked away to treat the gunshot wounds of mob patriarch Carmine. Beyond that, Evangeline’s potentially salacious diary is missing. “Keep the Home Fries Burning” (Season 2, Episode 14)

A new diner opens up in Cabot Cove, and it has everything that no one could want: waitresses in colonial-era garb, punny menu items (One If by Land, Two If by Sea Surf and Turf Platter; Benjamin Franklinfurter; Eggs Benedict Arnold) and a potentially poisoned strawberry jam. Murder, She Wrote delivers melodrama, mystery, and comfort neatly packaged into one-hour slots. “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall Pt. “Mostly, I’ve played very spectacular bitches.” Lansbury told the New York Times in 1985. People love to see characters whose relationships developed onscreen finally tie the knot and fuel the fantasy that true love is out there. The role of J.B. “Death Takes a Curtain Call” (Season 1, Episode 10)

Murder, She Wrote premiered in 1984, so it makes sense that the show treaded into Cold War territory for some of its mysteries.

Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All)7. She also announced that she will embark on a World Tour in February 2022, beginning in Christchurch, New Zealand, and working her way through Australia, the U.S., Canada, and Europe, before ending in Berlin on June 23. Fallen Fruit6. I’ve learned to breathe out, and tune in. Leader of a New Regime11. This is what came through.” Sounds beautiful, although as a total indoor kid, this smacks of betrayal. Photo: Lorde/YouTube

Ah, “Solar Power.” Lorde’s first new song in four years was the aural equivalent of an out-of-office email on a sunny summer Friday, a flighty beach jam inspired by Cazzie David’s rich dad’s vacation house. Dominoes9. We’re especially ready for Track 4:

1. Regarding the album, Lorde says in a statement, “The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors. Oceanic Feeling

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Tags: Mood Ring12. Big Star10. Solar Power3. California4. In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. Stoned in the Nail Salon5. Best of all, Lorde shared her tracklist for the 12-track album. The Path2. The Man with An Axe8. Today, Lorde announced that her third album, also titled Solar Power, will be released on August 20, finally ending our Lorde drought. It was a departure from the moody, profound Melodrama, and we can officially declare it’s not just a one-off single but Lorde’s whole new era.

HBO Max is downright vital, equipped with one of the most substantial archives on the internet (The Sopranos, True Detective, Silicon Valley) and a ton of Zeitgeist-y event programming (Mare of Easttown being the most recent example). They’ll be hosted on the app, so you don’t have to trawl through the index to find whatever piqued your interest. Obviously, we all know that we’ll be meaning to get to most of that content until we’re dead and buried. Sometimes you’re stuck on a bus, ambiently watching Big Mouth on your phone, only to get a rude awakening a month later when your data charge is in the four figures. 4. Set Up a Child Filter

Pretty much every streaming service has some childblock apparatus, but those concerns are perhaps most pressing when it comes to HBO. Take the Steps to Keep Your Phone Bill Manageable

Look, we’ve all been there. From there, customers can kick off the random iPads and Androids that are siphoning off John Oliver episodes. Streamliner

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It’s pretty remarkable that HBO — a longtime subscription-based television network specializing in prestige, occasionally porny dramas — has entered the monoculture. And like every other streaming apparatus, Max has a bevy of features unique to its own format, so we’ve detailed a few tips that everyone should know to get the most out of their subscription. 1. Keep Your Account Clean of Interlopers

Did you go over to a friend’s house and sign into your HBO Max on their Firestick? 2. Make Sure HBO Max Knows What You Like

Speaking of which, HBO customers can also tap the “Add” (or “+” button on mobile devices) to keep tabs on all the shows and movies they’ve been meaning to get to. But it’s a nice thought, nonetheless! But go ahead and select the lower tiers if you want to fit more space on your tablet, or if you simply want to relive HBO’s ’90s peak in its original format. “Highest Quality” will ensure that you’ll get the full HD cuts of each episode you save. Voila, now you can avoid some of the cringeworthy American voice-actor mewling that embarrassed millions of kids in front of their parents during their afternoon Toonami binge. 5. Always Know What’s Coming and Going

Is there anything worse than jumping back into a streaming service, only to see that whatever you were watching has been pruned from the platform? Download Episodes for Later

Pretty much every streaming service comes equipped with the ability to download episodes for offline viewing. Related

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Tags: Are you tired of seeing Kate Winslett’s steel -eyed look in your “Continue Watching” bar on the homepage? Watch Anime in Japanese

Not to wade into the eternal subs versus dubs debate, but all of the anime on HBO Max defaults to the versions recorded with English voice actors. Just bring a book or something next time. Tap the “Switch Profiles” button, and then select “Add Kid.” From there, you can set up a pin that allows users to switch to a kinder, gentler version of HBO at any moment. (Downloads automatically expire after a 30-day period.)

6. Never again will you be shocked by the sudden disappearance of A Star Is Born! And Make Sure They’re in HD! Between Sex and the City and Euphoria, there’s plenty of content on the platform that elementary-age kids don’t need to be watching. If you want to be a grown-up, click the language tab on the episodes and switch to Japanese with English subtitles. Don’t fret, simply navigate to “Manage Devices” and take sight of every device currently signed into your account. Did you forget to sign out before coming home, thereby giving another household free access to your hard-earned content? Don’t worry, smash that “Edit” button and customers can finetune the back-catalogue to their liking. Admit it, you weren’t ever going to finish that Sopranos rewatch anyway. On HBO Max, you’ll see the option listed prominently on each episode’s menu. 9. 7. In HBO Max’s settings bar, you can adjust the quality of those downloads. It’s kinda like trying to go to Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday. Purge Your “Continue Watching” Section

Did the first episode of Mare of Easttown not grab you? Click it, wait for the transfer to complete, and enjoy season one of Succession on your next cross-country flight. 3. Thankfully, if you go to the settings bar and enable HBO Max’s newsletter, you’ll receive ticker-tape updates on the comings and goings of the catalogue. If you’re not disciplined enough to only stream when connected to Wi-Fi, the HBO Max’s “Video Options” menu lets any customer restrict the app from playing content while roaming the planet. 8. Someday the juveniles in the household will acquaint themselves within the many different types of guys that populate Carrie Bradshaw’s New York, but not yet.

In a statement, the awards committee hailed The Late Show’s “remarkably successful transformation of the late-night television model” during the coronavirus pandemic and Colbert’s “gentle spirit” as a host; Ted Lasso, on the other hand, was praised for its “charming dose of radical optimism” and “the perfect counter to the enduring prevalence of toxic masculinity” in our culture. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by CBS and Apple TV+

Hot Nice Summer is off to a great start. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Ted Lasso are among the 2021 Peabody Award winners, with the shows, which air on CBS and Apple TV+, respectively, winning in the Entertainment category for their contributions to the medium. Related

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Tags: (No mention of Ted’s ’stache, though.) Also winning Peabodys this year are Asian Americans and Time for Documentary; Floodlines for Podcast/Radio; Full Disclosure and China Undercover for News; The Owl House for Children’s & Youth; and, presumably, Coach Beard for Best Man.

A Netflix Basic Plan, which includes standard-definition streaming on only one screen at a time, comes free with a T-Mobile Magenta Plan with two or more lines or a Magenta MAX plan with a single line. Typically priced at $13.99 per month, the Disney Bundle includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, so you’ll get your Baby Yodas, your Handmaid’s Tale and your sports, sans the usual monthly payment. Read through the options and then go claim that free service! You’ll also get a 12-month subscription to Discovery+, as well as Apple’s gaming service, Apple Arcade. Let’s quickly break it down. (HBO Max is $15 a month!!) If you’re on a budget but still want to catch up on Netflix’s The Circle one day and watch Disney+’s Loki the next, you might want to look into your mobile plan. Tags: Metro by T-Mobile

While Metro is under T-Mobile, don’t expect to get a Netflix deal as well. We’ve put together this guide to give you the gist of what streaming deals are available through your phone plan. It’s a bit of a caveat, of course, but you even get Tidal for free, too. In addition to streaming on Amazon Prime Video, the Amazon membership includes the whole shebang: free shipping, exclusive deals, free music, free books, and access to Prime at Whole Foods Market. Sprint

If you’re a Sprint user who has been itching to watch the new season of Love, Victor or just need a place to watch The Bachelorette, we’ve got good news. Whether you’re a new or current user, Sprint provides a free (ad-supported) Hulu plan to anyone who is part of their Sprint Unlimited Plus plan. Which Streaming Service Do You Actually Want? AT&T

Who knows what will happen now that AT&T sold Warner Bros. to Discovery, but as of this writing, AT&T still offers HBO Max free with most of their unlimited plans. From Verizon to T-Mobile, a lot of the major carriers have deals with streaming services, offering free subscriptions as a perk. T-Mobile

T-Mobile is the only wireless carrier on this list to offer a partnership with the granddaddy of streaming — Netflix — but of course it comes with a few contingencies. Streamliner

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Nowadays you’d be hard-pressed to find someone without at least one streaming service, but multiple streaming services can add up. Verizon Wireless

An unlimited phone plan with Verizon gives you not one, not two, but three streaming services. Related

Which Free Streaming Services Should You Be Using? If you want something a little better though, T-Mobile users can get a Netflix Standard plan (which includes HD and simultaneous streaming on two screens) if they bump up their Magenta MAX plan to two or more lines. And even if you don’t have a phone plan under AT&T, you can still get a free year of HBO Max with their internet and TV packages. Hell, even one can be a splurge depending on the service. Instead, Metro users get a whole Amazon Prime membership with an unlimited plan.

Glowing on a lavender-lit stage blooming with flowers, Grande leans on her natural talents: delivering vocals and looking like a fairy. The flawless 27-year-old released an official live rendition of “pov” with Vevo on Monday, marking her very first performance from positions. Related

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Tags: Grande previously worked with Vevo to give us performances of “Dangerous Woman,” “Be Alright,” “Leave Me Lonely,” “Greedy,” and “Into You.” Her “pov” live performance marks the singer’s return to 2020’s positions after taking a little time to do the wife thing following her marriage with her quarantine boo, real-estate agent Dalton Gomez, in an intimate home wedding in May. Frankly, I think we all married Ariana Grande that day. Ariana Grande sings “for all of my pretty and all of my ugly too,” but let’s be honest, what ugly? Celebrate the beginning of Cancer season with the June 26 baby above.

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Terms of Service apply. Kalani was honest with him and he followed the steps they agreed on. Kalani told Asuelu she did one of the worst things she could do in their relationship, and the truth only brought them closer. Also, we all know a The Family Asuelu spinoff would provide way more conflict than anything The Family Libby could do! It’s not that Yara did anything wrong — she was wearing her mask and following the rules — she just got tired of living with her mother-in-law. I hope these two spend the rest of their days zig-zagging and rock-and-rolling together. Obviously, Low told Asuelu that Kalani was considering divorce, but he didn’t know how real that threat was. My previous favorite couple, Jovi and Yara, are back this week. Angela wonders why he doesn’t seem to care about her anymore, and it doesn’t appear to occur to her that Michael might not like being called a son of a bitch every minute of the day. She wanted her own space, and that probably made her more susceptible because she had to interact with Uber drivers and delivery people. 90 Day Notes

• Libby’s sisters yelling over Andrei hitting the smallest of yard signs was such bad reality-TV acting. I honestly gave him a standing ovation. VULTURE NEWSLETTER
Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows! This whole family is bad at pretending for the camera. He put in a TV! He painted the walls! So what Ronald put together is basically a castle by 90 Day standards. This was manufactured to produce TV drama, and that’s exactly what happens. Move over, Loren and Alexei. As soon as she started insulting his mother, Mike was like, “Go play with your rat!”

Andrei and Libby are doing everything in their power to get their family a spinoff, and that includes going forward with this silly family RV trip. I think Mike went along with it because it’s a way to get her to stop talking and leave him alone. Jovi and Gwen don’t seem mad at her, just really worried. When I saw Ronald was building a room for Daniel, it didn’t look great; I could already hear Tiffany complaining about Daniel sleeping in a garage with walls. For the first time, I really want Tiffany and Ronald to work, but the sad thing is, Ronald is proud of the home he created in South Africa, and America doesn’t interest him. I really think this trip has helped Asuelu mature. • Angela really said Michael lied about his penis. I love Yara and will defend most of her decisions, but she really did look helpless and tired while video chatting. Not So Silent Partners

Season 6

Episode 9

Editor’s Rating

5 stars

*****

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Photo: TLC

Last week featured some of Happily Ever After?’s crustiest, tastiest trash, but “Not So Silent Partners” was enjoyable because it actually gives me hope for some of these couples. We know how many times they’ve broken up and gotten back together. If this really is the end, it’s a beautiful goodbye to a mess of a relationship. Finally, we get to see how Ronald is really doing. Tiffany might appreciate this apartment for a vacation, but she isn’t interested in staying there long term. There have been air mattresses and apartments with no toilets. I think we all wish Jovi were there to take care of her. Then there’s Angela and Michael, who have “officially” broken up. Terms & Privacy Notice
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. We know Andrei is manipulating their dad, and Libby doesn’t care because she also manipulates her dad! Gwen’s house to go back to New Orleans and promptly caught COVID-19 while caring for her daughter alone. You can see how proud Ronald is to have both his kids in the home he created. Since his accident, these two have genuinely reconnected. In 90 Day’s long history, we have seen a number of men fail to provide these basics for their wives and kids. Tags: • I get that people have pet rats, but don’t they get them from pet stores where they’ve been given shots and stuff? Yara left the safety of Mrs. He even has nice bedroom and living-room sets. It’s Jovi’s worst nightmare, and there isn’t much his parents can do to help since they’re in a high-risk demographic. We also know Libby’s family is still the worst, so who cares? 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? I’ve been incredibly pessimistic about Tiffany and Ronald, but we’ve really only heard from Tiffany’s side of the family about their issues. Since the season premiered, we’ve only seen him via video chats and sitting in weird empty rooms with his friends. • Seriously, I’m so happy for Asuelu and Kalani! The final product is actually really great, though! Asuelu and Kalani are still the MVPs of the season, though. I don’t believe that this is really the end of their relationship. He used their safe word, walked away, and came back when he could be calm. That being said, if their relationship was meant to end in a computer-security store as a confused IT guy looks on, then it was worth it for the entertainment that moment provided. From Andrei hitting a perfectly placed, tiny, unimportant “Do Not Step on the Grass” sign to ignite the conflict to their arguments over suitcase space, it’s all just empty yelling that doesn’t amount to much. Not feed stores? The producers clearly wanted to play up the drama of whether or not Ronald would build a functional home for Tiffany, and the reveal really does work. There’s so much at stake, and Ronald seems nowhere near ready to leave South Africa. We might have a new 90 Day power couple, as far as I’m concerned. That’s one way to end a three-year relationship. It’s obvious right away that the RV can’t comfortably fit ten people, and the idea that traveling in one car is more COVID-safe than separate vehicles doesn’t make much sense. That’s the exact type of pet a secret reptilian would buy so no one would suspect them of being a secret reptilian! Additionally, watching Daniel and Ronald is so sweet; they truly have a great father-son connection. Now that the sentimental and sweet couples are out of the way, let’s get back to the trash heap: Angela and Michael, Natalie and Mike, and Andrei and Libby all provide some great reality-TV fare in “Not So Silent Partners.” Look, I have been making a joke for weeks about how Natalie is some sort of secret reptilian alien studying the ways of humans in order to mimic them in a relationship. I do not know why Angela insists on telling this poor man the details of her failing marriage, but he just sits there and takes it as she tells him Michael got his dick sucked. Michael doesn’t really do anything wrong in the conversation except ask Angela to respect him. Then she forces Mike to buy her a pet rat so she can save it from being used as food?! It’s easy to think these two won’t make it when we’re listening to Tiffany’s mom list Ronald’s issues every week.

Another only has shows about wedding cakes and wedding dresses. Enjoy it now, because it feels like channel surfing before the days of content burnout, and it won’t ever try to gaslight you into thinking that an iCarly reboot is worth watching. To turn it on and be immediately greeted with some sort of content in progress — maybe it’s Pawn Stars, maybe it’s Urban Legends 2 — really feels like cable. But there’s a joy to happening upon them mid-episode and riding them out. I didn’t want to pay for cable or even one of those live TV cord-cutting alternatives that end up being just as expensive as cable, and I didn’t want to sign up for any more streaming services due to the Cheesecake Dilemma. That’s the part that feels like it comes with a catch. There are plenty of comforting obscurities that lend themselves to background viewing, too. But to just happen across it? I feared the TV. Related

Happy Days (and a Whole Bunch of Other TV Oldies) Are Here Again on Pluto

Which Free Streaming Services Should You Be Using? (Is The Queen’s Gambit actually any good, or is it just new and expensive?) Pluto TV, on the other hand, has an entire channel devoted to Naruto. It’s ad-supported, but commercials only add to the verisimilitude of the cable-adjacent experience. Why would a streaming service named after the cutest planet provide a platform for such malice? There are close to 20 separate classic TV channels, including one that plays wall-to-wall Carol Burnett Show, and a TV Land feed where I’ve personally been watching Designing Women all day to educate myself about the Complete Unabridged Works of Jean Smart. It wouldn’t matter if it was all free, or if you didn’t need to reset a password every few months, if the content was ass. Another time, I tuned in to one of the movie channels just in time for the Milaga Cooler scene from Elaine May’s A New Leaf. If you’re a cord-cutter in the real, no-live-TV-streaming-substitute sense, Pluto will fill a hole in your screen-time-tired heart that you didn’t even know was there. At the rate other streamers release new, buzzy series, you can feel constantly pressured to keep up with a bunch of original programming that’s really only a 6 out of 10 at best. And where other streaming services have a dearth of programming from earlier than the 21st century, Pluto benefits from Paramount’s library of classic films. I missed the days when it was my friend and not my enemy, when I had unlimited access to free cable by dint of being a dumb child living at my parents’ house. I should’ve known that because there’s a streaming service for everything, there’d be a streaming service that offered exactly what I was looking for. No log-ins, no password sharing, no newsletters spamming your inbox making recommendations you didn’t ask for. Now that ViacomCBS has its shiny new Cheesecake Dilemma–adjacent streamer Paramount+, I fear this scrappy and strange free option may get lost in the shuffle. Why would the warm nostalgic tide pool that is Pluto TV harsh our streaming experience like this? There aren’t DVR or pause functions, but this just adds to the pre-TiVo nostalgia. This isn’t just a free substitute for cable, it’s possibly an improvement: There are four separate niche MTV channels on here, and all of them have music videos and a much-needed lack of Ridiculousness. On any given day, the Comedy Central channel will be running episodes of Kroll Show, Nathan for You, and Key & Peele; IFC will have Portlandia and Comedy Bang! For those moments when you find there’s truly nothing on TV, Pluto also has an On Demand tab, and while you browse, you can keep watching whatever it is you were watching. So, because quarantine was a time for betterment, I found a used flat-screen smart TV on Craigslist and set it up in my bedroom like a real muckety-muck. It’s, quite simply, the most frictionless experience in streaming today — a no-commitment affair. There’s an entire channel dedicated just to Tiny House Nation. But reader, this content is anything but. Could you seek out any one of these shows individually on another streaming service? I had been meaning to watch it, and suddenly there it was. Considering how many barriers are set up for online experiences these days, to access streaming video content without a log-in feels like a FastPass. How come, ViacomCBS? Why more streamers don’t have window-in-window we don’t know. There’s zero pressure to keep up with a constant rollout of new prestige series; Pluto’s just vibes. To actively search for and hit play on season two of ANTM is a chore. I ended up rarely turning on the TV. The first thing you’ll notice upon downloading it to your smart TV or opening it in your browser is its single best feature: It doesn’t require you to make an account. I worry about the future of Pluto TV. If there’s any downside to Pluto, it’s that you can find far-right outlets Newsmax, Blaze, and OAN among its news offerings. ( If music videos don’t speak to your own personal MTV nostalgia, there’s also an entire Jersey Shore channel). That’s a gift. (Unless you are, in which case, let’s start some sort of fan club.)

Launched in 2014 and snapped up by ViacomCBS in 2019, Pluto is a streaming service that mimics the experience of channel surfing. Pluto’s ads strike a middle ground between the repetition you find on Hulu or YouTube (the algorithm seems convinced that I own a multitude of homes and cars in need of insurance) and local spots that aren’t far off from what you’d expect on cable, including plenty of campaign spots for the New York City mayoral race. More than you’d think. Streamliner

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Photo-Illustration: Photo-Illustration by Vulture; Photos by CW, CBS and HGTV

During the pandemic, I finally bought a television. Sure. On the Black Cinema channel, I’ve watched everything from I Am Not Your Negro to Eddie Murphy’s Raw. It’s also free. Thing is, so many of the major streaming services operate on Cheesecake Factory logic: They offer vast menus of mostly mediocre options, and it all leads to decision paralysis. Do you know how many reality shows are made about backcountry fishing? Bang!; and one of the reality stations will be running a top-tier America’s Next Top Model season, one episode after the other. And I, for one, welcome those ad breaks during my Survivor: Cook Islands marathons. It’s not that I didn’t watch things constantly prior to this — “I don’t own a TV” went from just a snobbish thing to say to a diagnosable marker for sociopathy years ago — but co-workers who review content for a living declared it unthinkable that I watched everything on my 13-inch laptop screen. Pluto TV’s 200-odd channels are divided by genre, with sections including News, Sports, Movies, Reality, Comedy, and Home/DIY, which makes for easy navigation. Maybe you did too. It’s called Pluto TV, and it’s the best streaming service you’re not using. And because it’s owned by ViacomCBS, the bench of content runs deep. There’s a Paramount movies channel, a cult movies channel, a classic movies channel, a ’70s Cinema channel, and dedicated channels for every genre you can think of. Channel surfing, versus an algorithm feed, leads to joyful, spontaneous discovery that makes you feel like a more participatory viewer. Tags:

Now A-Rod is a three-minute drive away from her place, where the two spent last summer with their kids before they broke up in April. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Getty Images

This is the first and only time we will ever express sympathy for someone renting a multimillion-dollar house in the Hamptons. Related

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Went to Montana Alone for a Week, As Exes Do

A-Rod Posts a Very Coldplay Tribute to J.Lo

Tags: Today, “Page Six” reported that Alex Rodriguez has rented a mansion in Bridgehampton for the summer, a mere mile from his ex Jennifer Lopez’s own mansion in Water Mill. Making your employees hang out with you on a Friday because you don’t want to spend the night alone in the seven-bedroom mansion you bought near your ex’s place? Bummer vibes. To make the story sadder, A-Rod was spotted dining in Sag Harbor on Friday with … the employees of his company, A-Rod Corp, and his nephew.

“Next time you go in for just a basic exam or your yearly checkup, please ask your doctor for a PSA test. “There are other options available to men if they catch it before me,” Tyler advises. Now, however, Tyler feels optimistic that sharing his illness will create good. Photo: NBC

On Monday morning, Friends actor James Michael Tyler opened up about his lengthy cancer battle to Today. Tags: So eventually, you know, it’s gonna probably get me.”

Actor James Michael Tyler (@slate_michael) played Gunther on “Friends” for 10 years, but he was unable to attend the recent cast reunion in person because he’s been battling a serious health issue. James Michael Tyler on Friends. So, I knew immediately when I went online and I saw the results of my blood test and blood work that there was obviously something quite wrong there.”

“Nearly immediately, my doctor called me and said, ‘Hey, I need you to come in tomorrow because I suspect that you may have quite a serious problem with your prostate,’” the actor explains. pic.twitter.com/272tg4Sbvc— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 21, 2021

While hormone therapy “worked amazingly” at first, says Tyler, the cancer soon spread to his bones and spine, leading to paralysis of the lower body. Tyler, who played Central Perk manager Gunther on the beloved sitcom, shared his stage-four prostate-cancer diagnosis for the first time since being diagnosed in September 2018 following a routine physical. “I was 56 years old at the time, and they screen for PSA, which is prostate-specific antigen,” he told Today’s Craig Melvin. It’s easily detectable.”

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How Deadly Was Friends’ Coffee Consumption? After additional testing, prostate cancer was confirmed and it was determined that the illness was genetic, not environmental. Now he’s sharing his news for the first time with @craigmelvin. The actor notes that he missed a test, “so the cancer decided to mutate at the time of the pandemic, and so it’s progressed.” He is currently undergoing chemotherapy, which affected the”bittersweet” decision to “not to be a part of [the Friends reunion] physically and make an appearance on Zoom, basically, because I didn’t wanna bring a downer on it,” he added. “Late-stage cancer. “For my specific prognosis, it’s of course stage four,” said Tyler. “That came back at an extraordinarily high number.

Describing the Girardis’ lavish lifestyle, attorney Brian Kabateck summed it up: “We represent people that are victimized by big corporations and rich people, and here you’re putting it out there that you’re super wealthy, and that you’re basically The Man. I ran into these situations a lot when I was going through my studio art minor, and I kind of got disappointed and anted up myself. The Sun reports that Aikisha Colon, who would be the franchise’s first Black cast member, may also be in the mix. This seems to me to be the “dog ate my homework” of case dismissals. This one is from last week’s RHOBH. Okay, so, as a guy, I have to ask, what happens when you’re nude modeling and a certain body part decides to come to attention?That’s the first question everyone asks, even women. This whole article is nuts and definitely worth your time. You have to let people be people and engage and have fun. I was a lacrosse player, and I was in the best shape of my life. One person who will not be bothered by any of this is Austen’s ex, Madison LeCroy. That night, people spotted them out at Republic, Leva Bonaparte’s club, making out. But that doesn’t mean she’s closed off. I want to see the rest of the cast and Bravo identify the impact of the Girardis’ actions, rather than getting lost in the wealth and rumors. Danielle is the first interview we hear, coming into focus as she sits down on a starched chair, wearing a white blazer. What I thought was cool about the episode, you get to see them work out what they were holding onto that was distracting them. An erection demands action, and if the action isn’t appropriate, which it is not in this circumstance, the erection is unwelcome. Danielle, there are people who are dying. Let’s talk about the husband …

I Said What I Said

“To this day, I do not know what Harry Hamlin sees in me, but I do give a darn good blow job.” —Lisa Rinna

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Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for dedicated students of the Reality Television Arts and Sciences. Oh, sorry. But it’s not looking good for Erika. These are all of their Instagrams, so let the stalking commence. I’m excited for the show and Eboni coming on to have fun and start kindling these conversations. Did Erika know and did her money come directly from these survivors? I think it was Leah who called it an “inbetweenie,” which is one of those things I hear and take and put it in my pocket of phrases. She’s just such a wonderful bitch. A Real Housewives Nude Model Bares — and Tells — All

Photo-Illustration: Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by Nicole Nadeau, courtesy of Kurt McVey

We all got to see a lot of Kurt McVey (not to be confused with Kurt McVeigh, Diane Lockhart’s husband on The Good Fight) on the fifth episode of this season of RHONY, when he was the naked model for the women’s life-drawing class. I drew a little thing on my drawing and made my buddy to my right laugh, and the model got mad at me. I thought the Countess was such a gracious host. I think there was one moment on the show where someone asked if I was cold and I said, “You tell me.” If it was ice-cold out there, I might ask for a space heater, but it wasn’t necessary. I thought Sonja was just so fun; she killed the reveal. I’m sure all of this happened while she recklessly flirted with the buff 30-year-olds in attendance, because that is how Ramona rolls. What’s the difference between doing a formal art class and doing one like you did on RHONY?The gaze. Even though you were more clothed. The documentary follows the same timeline from the Los Angeles Times’ investigation in December with a weaker critique of Real Housewives franchises. The Sun obtained the divorce filing Fernanda’s wife Tessa Rocha made seeking to dissolve their six-year marriage because Fernanda and Braunwyn are now entangled. Both of these women have had their own troubles with the law — Danielle was arrested for extortion and cocaine possession in 1986, and Dana/Pam surrendered to the FBI in 2014 for fraud. It was clear the model was working through a lot of stuff; they were trying to surmount some insecurity or something like that. There are a couple of clips that will live rent-free in my mind for the rest of eternity. Like Danielle Staub. Yes, I’m talking about the lesbian trainer who was Tamra’s “friend” back on season six of the show. I am so grateful to the Countess. When I showed up, I didn’t know what we were doing, and I told the instructor I forgot to bring a towel or a sarong. I have received many requests, many of them dubious in nature, and I usually say, “Take a minute to think if you can afford me.”

So how much does a gentleman get for a nude-modeling gig? Gay men are equipped with an uncanny ability, much like these Housewives, to deliver one-liners that I think are amazing. They wanted to do something fun and special for her when she was sick. I’m bored with intellectuals yelling at each other. INJURY, BUT MAKE IT FASHION: Everyone has been obsessed with the photo shoot that super-hip fashion designer Telfar did with the Real Housewives of Potomac cast, outfitting them in the clothes for his new collaboration with UGG. Fashion Highlight of the Week

Graphic: Bravo

Lisa Rinna and Kyle Richard were both feeling single and seeing double when they showed up to a party at Sutton’s house wearing the exact same polka-dotted dress. WELCOME TO MIAMI?: The gossip around who has been cast for Peacock’s Real Housewives of Miami revival is heating up like the sunburn I got hanging out by the pool with fellow Bravo nut FacesByBravo a few weeks back. Most of the drawings were not great.There is nothing funnier than a hilarious caricature done in earnest. Email

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Terms of Service apply. She wants to explain how upset she is and how she feels Crystal is abrupt with her, and Crystal is just looking at her dead in the face and saying, “Okay.” She is ice-cold. Drawings can be funny and it’s okay to laugh at them and interrogate the nature of good and bad. I found myself not being able to make eye contact with these 12 sculptors; they’re picking you apart in a different way. Who drew the best pictures?I don’t know if she’s a Housewife, but Heather [“Holla” Thomson]. I was only guy in the stable when they started, and the New York Times did an article called “Bachelorette Parties Where the Naked Man Doesn’t Dance.” I was the second nude butt in the Times, or something like that. Dry contacts. In fact, she seems like a very open and honest person who is willing to own her struggles in a way that the women of Beverly Hills rarely do. This is so much worse than Ramona Singer calling the staff “servants” or Dorinda Medley derailing a charity for rape survivors. You shouldn’t meet it anyway. Speaking of him, he posted the news that the returning Housewives would be Lisa Hochstein, Alexia Echevarria, Adriana de Moura, and Larsa Pippen. Even if Erika escapes without being implicated in Tom’s crimes, she’s made it clear she doesn’t give a damn about his victims. If Fernanda thought this was her way back on the show, this was clearly not the move. Sign up here to be the first to read the next edition. NEVER HAS SHE EVER: According to her Instagram, Ramona recently crashed a party thrown by some 20-year-olds at the house in the Hamptons next door to hers. She is colder than the Zima that is lodged in the corner of the Igloo. I feel if I can open people up in that way myself, I am happy about that. She is colder than the best “yo momma” joke you ever heard. Well, HBO Max doesn’t release ratings, but if Housewives fans aren’t even talking about it, then what hope did this show have? YOU’RE FIRED: Bethenny Frankel announced on her podcast that she has left the deal she struck with reality titan Mark Burnett after she departed the Bravo family. Caughter than Bethenny’s texts to “Page Six.” The fans don’t like you and using a rapist as an analogy to the Denise situation from last year? If you don’t know about the chaos that ensues when a Real Housewife starts selling real houses to wives, then you need to check out Kelly Killoren Bensimon’s TikTok. Looks like someone finally let her out of her closet, much like Braunwyn! You are so “caught.” Caughter than an 18th century parlor maid with the Lord. Artful Bachelorette spread to 11 cities, and I was Johnny Appleseeding around the country with the other amazing staff members. Were you worried about your, um, stature? But I expect the same consideration if you’re a huge organization. Since then, I’ve done probably 2,500 nude modeling things. How did you end up with this gig on the Housewives? She didn’t tag him or name him, but I bet his name is Hot As Fuck, because, well, that’s what he is. What did the Housewives show you of their true colors?I think Leah and Ramona had some stuff to work out, which we saw. Naturally, I had a bunch of questions about how he ended up on the show, his work as a professional nude model, and if there were, ahem, height requirements for the job. We sue The Man. What some people think is incredible, I think is barely mundane. A capital “L” Lawyer. Tags: I just did a weeklong intensive at the Art Students League with them sculpting my head. She doesn’t get much time onscreen, but why was she there at all? THE HILLS HAVE EYES: The rumors around Southern Charm star Austen Kroll’s dating life are getting hotter than a Thomas Ravenel in church. The first is Tom in 1996, with a head of hair and a face free of liver spots. There are some Housewives fights where both parties are wrong. They taught her how to play beer pong and flip cup, which she had never heard of before. Not only did we lift our mask mandates (as a nonphysical space, it was weird that we had one, but whatever), but we’ve also had lots of news and new research to go over. Even a Google search would have been enough to know they aren’t the most reliable narrators. While most of this is speculation, Larsa has confirmed that she is returning. Their firing must be devastating news to all of the women, but I also feel like it might be devastating for Fernanda Rocha. Did you know that she’s dating Braunwyn now? Once that came out, every news agency did a thing and it blew up. That was the whole bit. The Housewife and the Hustler Sheds Light on Tom Girardi Scandal, Danielle Staub’s New Face

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by ABC News

I live in London, so I was unable to watch The Housewife and the Hustler, the ABC News special that debuted on Hulu last week about the unfolding scandal involving Erika Jayne’s lawyer husband Tom Girardi and his misappropriation of client funds. Maybe this is all an elaborate ruse to dispel the rumors that he’s dating Summer House Winter Charm co-star Ciara Miller. I knew [Housewives] would be a good fit. I am hesitant to give you a number. Come with something that is reasonable and appropriate for the circumstances. In most Housewives fights, both parties are wrong. I will never forget Big Ang saying [affects a Staten Island accent], “A-big saus-eege.” I did one for Telemundo. This time around, it’s freshly out-of-the-closet Braunwyn Windham-Burke, cult survivor Elizabeth Vargas, and the very controversial Kelly Dodd, whose politics caused many people to boycott the series. According to an “insider” (probably Tessa herself), Tamra introduced the two and they started dating back in October 2020, though they didn’t go public with their relationship until April of this year. According to beloved gossip Instagram DeuxMoi, the new friend is Caroline Rauseo, another realtor friend of Teresa’s, which probably means that Realtor Michelle from this past season has officially taken a job on Fox Business where she belongs. I’m there to pull out those funny things. Our Pride exhibit exploring the life of the one full-time openly queer Real Housewife, Braunwyn Windham-Burke, had to be put into storage after she was axed from the show in a cast shake-up. I think what I do and what the show can do and the conversations that are happening on the show can reach outside of these coastal-elite echo chambers. This past weekend, she posted a picture of her new boyfriend. You know, Tom Brady’s favorite boots. That was just me. So it was fascinating to hear his peers describe their shock at seeing Tom and his wife on the show. She is colder than Princess Anne next time she runs into Meghan Markle at a family reunion. Former cast member. No, I take that back. Ramona is trying to get her realtor’s license with Michael’s sponsorship and, know what, this is actually an excellent idea. Erika Jayne took the wealth on RHOBH to a whole new level when she joined the cast, yet her lifestyle cost more than any trial attorney could sustain. Apparently, Austen’s newest conquest is The Hills star Kristin Cavallari. Was this the first time you were nude on TV?No. I am your sister from another mister, Dame Brian Moylan, president and founder of the Housewives Institute. He really learned from that one season and still probably hates Ryan Serhant like bees hate Jameela Jamil. They were interviewing them behind the scenes and the women said, “It just can’t be comically small.” I thought, You’re giving the impression that is the case here! There was no inbetweenie. I’m interested in seeing someone’s true colors. Pippen was fired from the show after the first season, but has since enmeshed herself in the extended Kardashian universe, which netted her 2 million Instagram followers and a face by the exact same surgeon that all of the sisters go to, based on, you know, her face. I did one for Meredith Vieira. I think with Eboni, her bravery to step into that space was amazing. Nicole and Victoria, they have art skills. Sometimes people try to elicit it, and I have a no-touching policy. What is more interesting to me is, over the course of an hour or two hours of building people up with sexual potential energy, without being a sexual threat, taking people up to that line is what I enjoy. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 11, Episode 5: Crystal is now my second-favorite Crystal, just above the Dark Crystal but right under Crystal Pepsi which, God willing, will one day return to confuse our taste buds and eyeballs once more. Joining Dolores Catania, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin, Melissa Gorga, Jackie Goldschneider, and (ugh) Teresa Giudice is one new “friend of” that Dolores brought in. Have a lot of people tried to book you after the show? Of course, we won’t know who is on the cast for real until Peacock makes the official announcement, so, until then, grains of salt. Sutton is wearing a pair of giant square mint-green sunglasses that are so brilliant they should have an HGTV series where they go into the Magnolia store in Waco and tell everything in it that it sucks, and she’s just flailing. The news comes from Variety’s Kate Aurthur, who breaks the best news in the Bravo-sphere. GOOD NIGHT, GRACIE MANSION: RHONY one-season friend Barbara K. That is natural, for people to bow out. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 11, Episode 4: On the boat, Sutton pulls Crystal aside for a chat, and it is one of the craziest conversations I have ever seen on reality TV — and I watched all of both seasons of Joe Millionaire. (Yes, I have tried every VPN and, yes, Hulu is smarter than all of them.) Luckily, I have recent journalism-school graduate, Housewives superfan, and the Real Housewives Institute’s inaugural Journalistic Fellow for Very Important News Catherine “Caity” Henderson to watch the program for me and report back with all the news and gossip, including an update about Erika’s legal representation that quit immediately after the special aired. has dropped out of the race for NYC mayor. I guess we’ll find out at the reunion. There is a wavelength with women who are smart and intense and wild; they can settle into a place where they’re a little mischievous, but also protective. I want to bring out the best part of that person, so it’s a seamless synergy. Just eating their lamb, just being in the house as they are graciously feeding me. I knew him as Erika’s much older husband who was in the Erin Brockovich case. Real Housewives of New York City, Season 13, Episode 7: Not much else happens in this episode. But in this fight, there is only one person who is wrong and it is Luann, and she does not deserve an apology. We meet Joe Ruigomez, who survived an explosion due to Pacific Gas & Electric’s negligence; Josie Hernandez, who filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of an implant that wreaked havoc on her health; and Bias Ramadhan, whose mother died in the 2018 Lion Air crash. I was just doing this sculpture class, but the gaze of serious artists is much more intense. So why didn’t we notice? I’m surprised you didn’t melt in the heated waters upon Lake Taco. I just want people to give it a try. I didn’t want to have no freedom in my podcast.” This comes after the deal’s only product, The Big Shot With Bethenny, wrapped up on HBO Max to little fanfare. By the way, I want to add that I have done many parties for the LGBT crowd. Classy. Photo: Photo by Nicole Nadeau, courtesy of Kurt McVey

Hello and welcome to the Housewives Institute Bulletin. It was a drink-and-draw as an alternative for a bachelorette party, and they would joke, “Are you the dude?” when they arrived at the space. If a young, cool artist came to me and said, “I love what you do,” and approached me in a way that honors me but is honest about what their resources are, that’s fine. They try to snake-charm you with their eyes, and it’s fun to be put to the test. The second is California governor Gavin Newsom on Watch What Happens Live, telling Andy Cohen that the Girardis have been “extraordinarily generous” to his campaign and, therefore, “[Erika Jayne] is my favorite Real Housewife.”

The only two Housewives in the documentary are Danielle Staub and Dana/Pam Wilkey, who wasn’t even technically a Housewife but a friend-of. To see them work it out on the episode was cool, because I don’t usually get to see that. Leah and Ramona bailed. Her rationale? I started doing traditional modeling for different brands and stuff, then around 2012 when I was managing an event space on the Lower East Side called Culture Fix, two Australian women booked out the event space for the company called the Artful Bachelorette, and that was live drawing classes with a nude dude. I met [Luann’s daughter] Victoria de Lesseps, [Luann’s niece] Nicole Nadeau, and the Countess in the 2019 Watermill Gala. Is being more well-endowed a prerequisite for the job?I would consult the ghost of Big Ang. As has been rumored for some weeks, one of the new Housewives is actually an old Housewife: Heather Dubrow, who was holding an orange for seasons 7 to 11, will once again be back full-time. But it is something to see Tom’s alleged crimes unfold onscreen. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by Bravo

ORANGE YOU GLAD I’M BACK: There’s been a huge cast shake-up on RHOC, a bloodletting we haven’t seen since the end of RHONY season four, when Jill Zarin, Alex McCord, and Cindy Barshop all got axed in one fell swoop. Caughter than one of Sonja Morgan’s interns expiring under a pile of Wesson Oil in her basement. To add even more intrigue, Erika’s lawyers dropped her case the day after the special aired, citing, “The relationship of trust and confidence that is essential to a properly functioning attorney-client relationship has broken down …” There wasn’t much new information in the documentary, so the timing could be a coincidence. “I left a very big, high, seven-figure contract recently with my partners at MGM and Mark Burnett because I had a good relationship with them, but I didn’t want to be locked up. This seems like a Slade Smiley situation. But being accountable for their role in “real issues” has never been a strength of the Housewives universe. Mention It All

Not all the news, but all the news you actually care about. No, for realsies. After spies noticed they were hanging out in Nashville together, Kristin added fuel to this particular fire by posting a picture of her, Austen, Craig Conover, and another woman to Instagram on June 6 when she was visiting the SC boys in Charleston. Is this because she had an injury, or is this the world’s cruelest styling choice? Ramona meets with former Million Dollar Listing: New York cast member Michael Lorber, who looks thinner, grayer, hotter, and generally richer than he did the first time he was on television. YES! She says she’s seen Erika on the show and met her “one or two times.” She also claims that Erika is “the best [casting] since me.” Every time I saw her stretched-out face and two-toned hair, I cringed. Her (former) lawyers seem to think she’s lying about the answer. KimmyLane: Oh Lisa Rinna. [Laughs.] The women who run Artful Bachelorette were doing a segment for ABC and I was their model. I’m inviting sassy one-liners and I want that energy. Dean’s List for Best Vulture Comment of the Week

Highlighting the best comment of the week for our lovely Institute members. Luckily, we had the new modern classic The Housewife and the Hustler to show in its stead. Here’s Caity: 

In The Housewife and the Hustler, Erika Girardi’s first tagline plays twice in 68 minutes: “I’m an enigma wrapped in a riddle and cash.” If that line confused me in 2015, it certainly keeps me up at night these days. She was doing really beautiful stuff. It’s usually because they’re holding onto something. I wasn’t, but then I did it. I did one for Mob Wives a couple of years ago for Big Ang. I think organically, the people who do it probably do have to have some requisite level of confidence and swag, and I think to some degree that is tethered to the answer to that question. You don’t want to be The Man.”

This was the greatest strength of The Housewife and the Hustler, providing faces and names to go with the “widows and orphans” that Dorit is worried about in this season’s trailer. She is firmly who she is, she doesn’t care about others’ opinions of her, and is not going to take shit from anyone. It’s true. She was fishing around. She signed, but couldn’t read the paper because her contacts were dry, her vision was blurry, and she didn’t have her reading glasses. Of all the people in Orange County to date, she’s going to go for another cast member? There’s no word yet on Tamra Judge, who was also rumored to be back, but it doesn’t look likely. I’m really grateful to Nicole and Victoria. What’s most important to me in doing this is you show me your true colors. It’s been quite a few weeks here at the Institute. (This conversation has been condensed, much like a nude model standing out in the cold.)

How did you get into nude modeling?When I was a freshman at Stony Brook University, I took a studio art 101 class as a requirement. Recap Highlights

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by Bravo

Real Housewives of New York City, Season 13, Episode 6: Luann has her hackles up and says that she needs to have a conversation with Eboni, but Eboni needs to “meet her halfway.” The thing about racism, though, is that you can’t meet it halfway. It really caught on. You might want to help your husband.”

The Housewife and the Hustler definitely explores the big questions on this season of RHOBH. Tom owes all of them millions after (allegedly, but come on) pocketing the money they won in court for his own use. She has a good hand. GOOD TO HAVE FRIENDS: RHONJ started filming on June 6 and the cast is exactly the same as it has been for the past three seasons, which has to be some kind of record. Let’s get right to it, because, with the rate they’re axing Housewives, there might not be any left by the time you’re done reading. To see what my work does, it opens people up to have tough conversations with themselves and with others. Speaking of boots, many fans are tickled by the fact that Gizelle Bryant is splayed out in all the pictures wearing a surgical boot that one gets at the hospital as the result of a broken foot. THE EYES HAVE IT: Jen Shah wants to have the case against her dismissed. Did anyone bother to watch the show before bringing them on? There will be two or three other women joining Shannon Beador, Emily Simpson, and Gina “You Can’t Spell My Last Name Without Google” Kirschenheiter. I’ve done formal classes, but my favorite are these crazy, irreverent drink-and-draws where people can speak to me directly. As Karen Huger would say, “Clankity, clank. This column originally appeared in Brian Moylan’s newsletter, The Housewives Institute Bulletin. Just watching RHOBH, I never thought of Tom as someone who represents disaster victims. I feel more exposed. The courts will have to pry every sparkling ring off of her cold, manicured hands. In papers filed in court, she claims when the arresting officer read her Miranda rights, he also asked her to sign a paper stating she was waiving her rights, in particular the right to remain silent that everyone who has ever watched an episode of Law & Order: SVU can recite by heart. Terms & Privacy Notice
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. You were modeling nude outdoors in the fall in New York. So, how can I ask this delicately? At least we’ll always have Bethenny’s podcast! According to FacesByBravo, the women in the running to be added to the cast are former Miss Haiti Kiki Barth, musician Paulina Rubio, designer Guerdy Abraira, doctor Nicole Martin, and Julia Lemigova, the last Miss USSR, which is the most badass thing I have ever heard and I feel like she probably made out with Dolph Lundgren at some point. Then this fall, Nicole slid into my DMs and said jump and I jumped. Eboni did some good stuff. There was a friend of ours, this guy John Gordon Gould, who specializes in still-life painting, and he is aware of me as a writer and model and he recommended me. He said, “Kurt, you don’t have to get naked,” and he saw a look of disappointment on my face. There was no backstage fluffing going on.

On Sunday, 21-year-old sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was deemed America’s fastest woman in the final trials for Team USA in the 100-meter dash; between her confidence, ability, and style, she’s single-handedly bringing star power to the Tokyo Olympics, which kick off on July 23. My family is my everything. In the lead-up to the sprint, an announcer proclaimed, “When you stand five feet one inch tall, you get told your entire life what you can and cannot do. My everything until the day I’m done.”

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Tags: For contrast, Usain Bolt’s top time is only a second and a third faster, and he’s six-foot-five. That chip on her shoulder is because every time she’s been told that, she’s been able to overcome those odds and get it done.” And Sha’Carri did, pulling ahead with 10.86 seconds, shooting past second- and third-placing future Olympians Javianne Oliver and Teahna Daniels. She also revealed something heartbreaking to an NBC interviewer, saying, “My family has kept me grounded. Going from just last week, losing my biological mother, and I’m still here.” She continued by expressing gratitude for her family, saying, “Without my grandmother, there would be no Sha’Carri Richardson. After winning the finals, Richardson ran up into the stands to embrace her grandmother. This year has been crazy for me.

Looking like a sunset on the summer solstice, Chlöe sings the 1965 Nina Simone classic with a fire that no fuddy-duddy haters could possibly extinguish. I TOLD YALL !!!” on Saturday. — astonishment as Chlöe Bailey of Chloe x Halle delivers an encore performance of “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone on Good Morning America. Watch Chlöe continue to make her sister, her internet aunties, and her ancestors endlessly proud above. Second, why’d your head turn, then? Singer @ChloeBailey talks about her new version of Nina Simone’s song “Feeling Good.”#ChloeOnGMAhttps://t.co/zlYb4zmugN pic.twitter.com/p5h9MdELNn— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 21, 2021

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Nina Simone’s Granddaughter Defends Chloe Bailey’s Slinky ‘Feeling Good’

Tags: “I still have scrapes and bruises from all the rehearsals. First of all, who asked? — delight — no! SOUND ON! @ChloeBailey performs ‘Feeling Good’ for our @Caesars_Rewards Summer Concert Series 🎶#ChloeOnGMAhttps://t.co/zlYb4zmugN pic.twitter.com/vAmxFr3W6E— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 21, 2021

Watch in awe — no! Quick, answer. I’m just so happy to see that her granddaughter loved it.” Ultimately, Chlöe got the approval from the one who matters, Beyoncé her sister, Halle, who tweeted “MY SISTER MOTHERFUCKING MURDERED THAT PERFORMANCE!!!!!!! Her original performance, part of ABC’s Together We Triumph — A Soul of a Nation special, turned heads for being too sexy. Nina Simone’s granddaughter had none of that, saying her grandma “would’ve loved that performance as much as I do!”

“The performance was inspired by her spirit and her confidence and her honesty, and I worked incredibly hard to put it together,” Chlöe shared on Good Morning America Monday. — mesmerization — no!

We … think it’s working? Maybe? Getting relegated probably wasn’t the best thing to happen to our dear Ted Lasso and his Richmond crew in the show’s season two trailer, and we’re not just talking about all those sad montages of missed goals and embarrassing streaks of draws. (It’s the opposite of what you’re thinking.) No, Ted (Jason Sudeikis, a hoot) has to unleash his very mean alter ego, Led Tasso, to whip his players into shape, even if that means calling them all “turd birds” and flipping over a few tables of sports drinks to get them to listen. Related

Ted Lasso Fails Upward, Cheerfully

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Tags: The 12-episode second season of Ted Lasso will debut on July 23. Anyway, they’ve got a lot of work to do if they want to make history and get back into the Premier League, but at least the legendary trio of Rebecca, Higgins, and Keeley are there to help.

Tuca & Bertie distinguishes itself by depicting all these dynamics seriously, without sacrificing the lightness and escapism the show also provides. This funny show starring an oversexed toucan and her dear, insecure aviary friend doesn’t provide all the answers or solutions. Bertie’s not the only one feeling scared and isolated, either. During Bertie’s first appointment with Dr. The style of the animation is especially evocative at rendering these feelings as art. In the same episode, Tuca suffers from more traditional insomnia and frequently finds herself wandering the streets of Birdtown at odd hours. (Example: Tuca’s decision to launch a “non-televised, non-filmed” reality show called Sex Bus, in which she commandeers a bus filled with potential sexual partners and eliminates them until she finds a winner.) But it also seems to be embracing its introspective side more openly, the way it did in “The Jelly Lakes,” the first season’s penultimate episode, which addressed a long-buried, traumatic incident in Bertie’s childhood. Because its world is so fantastical in nature, some viewers may feel more comfortable recognizing a kinship between themselves and its inhabitants — it feels like less of a personal attack to see a bit of yourself in a pretty cartoon song thrush who’s dealing with severe angst than in a live-action, flesh-and-blood human doing the same thing. In episode four, “Nighttime Friend,” Speckle gets a new fitness tracker and becomes so obsessive about racking up steps that he can’t stop — not even when he sleeps. Tags: Other shows have depicted strong female friendships, depression, and the need for self-examination both before Tuca & Bertie and since its Netflix cancellation; and therapy has historically been a regular feature on many comedies and dramas (although it’s true that a notable number of shows are homing in on that process at the moment). From the very beginning of the first episode, Bertie is on edge, a feeling that intensifies when Pastry Pete, the chef and mentor who sexually harassed her, reasserts his presence this season. She also tells Bertie to engage in “a total relationship detox,” a comment that suggests that Dr. Photo: Adult Swim

Roberta “Bertie” Songthrush has always been an extremely anxious bird. She even had a complete meltdown in a grocery store, presented via the musical number “I’m Losing My Shit,” several months before a global pandemic would cause many, many humans to have panic attacks in grocery stores. A newly posted Pastry Pete online cooking video starts to auto-play on the conference room screen behind her so that the famed chef literally becomes a large presence that looms over a distraught-looking Bertie. But in its idiosyncratic, sensitively rendered way, it makes you feel more okay about dealing with the doubts. Tuca & Bertie’s speciality is its depiction and normalization of stress, an element that feels even more valuable now than it did back when the show first premiered. During the first season of Tuca & Bertie, which debuted on Netflix in 2019, she got unnerved by work presentations and major life decisions that involved her boyfriend Speckle (Steven Yuen). It still qualifies as a comedy and certainly contains plenty of scenes and storylines that lean fully into the genre. As voiced by Ali Wong, Bertie has been both a reflection of our broader era of anxiety and a sneak preview of how much more anxious things would get. Tuca & Bertie’s speciality is its depiction and normalization of stress, an element that feels even more valuable now than it did in 2019. Animated birds: they’re just like us, but they’re also not like us, so we can relate without having the jarring experience of looking directly at ourselves through the mirror of our screens. Bertie may feel that pressure more consistently and acutely than others, but in the second season, there are moments that push every character to the brink. The same can be said of the show’s tone, which shifts between earnestness, dry comedy, dirty jokes, puns, and poignancy. But those bird BFFs are nevertheless dealing with many of the same issues affecting those of us emerging from COVID: uncertainty, sleeplessness, social apprehension, and questions about which people in our lives are doing us good rather than harm. And from the very beginning of season two, the audience is asked to question whether that relationship is healthy. While still overconfident and excessively horny per usual, Tuca (Tiffany Haddish) is dealing with her own insecurities as a newly sober toucan trying to figure out how her non-inebriated self fits into society and her pre-existing relationships. In the first episode, she’s wracked with such fear about what should be a fun event — an anniversary dinner with Speckle — that she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to find the perfect therapist who can magically give her the life hack she needs to achieve calm. Bertie first realizes that the allegedly cancelled Pastry Pete is making a comeback when she’s preparing to do a presentation at her job at Conde Nest. The sorts of themes addressed in the Adult Swim version of Tuca & Bertie — mental health, toxic masculinity in the workplace, the loyalty and limits of tight friendships — are pretty similar to those addressed in the Netflix incarnation. Series creator Lisa Hanawalt and her team understand exactly how to balance the light and the heavy on the same scale, a skill Hanawalt cultivated while working on BoJack Horseman, a show with similar emotional proportions. When Tuca goes on her late-night walks, the buildings in Birdtown are drawn in outline only, without details or colors filled in, capturing the dim eeriness and strange comfort that comes from being one of the few beings with their eyes open when everyone else’s are shut. The fact that it’s an animated series populated by anthropomorphized birds and plants is weirdly helpful in this regard. Joanne absolutely read this New York Times article. Joanne (Pamela Adlon), the therapist picks up on the co-dependency in their relationship and immediately advises Bertie to ditch Tuca. The core of Tuca & Bertie obviously lives right there in its title: the relationship between the two central characters is what defines the whole series. In the second season of Tuca & Bertie, now airing Sunday nights on Adult Swim following Netflix’s premature cancellation of the series two months after its premiere, Bertie is still struggling with a sense of unease. There was no pandemic in Birdtown during the months that passed while we waited for Tuca & Bertie to return. Based on the first four of the 10 new episodes, Tuca & Bertie 2.0 is slightly less aggressive about getting laughs.

And while both shows are streaming on Netflix, the Blu-ray treatment does wonders in highlighting the shows’ dynamic combat scenes in particular, giving the series a visual pop that longtime fans should find worth the investment. There’s a crispness to Batman’s fluidly animated movements that wasn’t there before, and a full color to the moody, “Dark-Deco” process that Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski used to shape Gotham City. $67

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Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra Complete Series Collection (Blu-Ray)

$60

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$60

Photo: Retailer

The pricing here alone is worth it: $37.99 for seven seasons of these shows together is, to put it mildly, fire. In HD, the first four seasons animated in the early aughts look great alongside the more-adult fifth season that debuted in 2017. $63

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$63

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Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray)

$27

$60 now 55% off

$27

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Nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents. HBO Max has the show streaming, but the highlights for hard-core animation fans are plentiful here: animatics from a score of episodes — providing insight into how the show was produced — and a documentary on how the movie was made, too, among a handful of commentary tracks. This collection is indeed complete, including the original series, Steven Universe: The Movie, and the follow-up series Steven Universe Future. The rest are considered “essential” Bugs cartoons like “The Rabbit of Seville,” “A Wild Hare” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?,” among others. Saddle up, space cowboys. This set, released last year, collects all 166 episodes, plus eight animated films and specials, in one set for the first time. Prime Day is offering some great deals on DVD or Blu-ray sets of animated series; we selected ten that are particularly worth owning. $60

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Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Mystery Mansion (Blu-Ray)

$50

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Okay, cards on the table: By modern standards, there are more complex and dynamic shows out there than classic Scooby-Doo. Animation historian Jerry Beck estimates that with this collection and others released, collectors could now own approximately 90 percent of the Bugs Bunny shorts. All are comprehensive collections with plenty of behind-the-scenes extras, easily justifying their (reduced) price tags. We update links when possible, but note that Prime Day deals can expire and prices are subject to change. Remastered in HD in its original aspect ratio. That’s a quarter of Bugs Bunny’s total 160 released shorts. is a historic television artifact for collectors — and had some of the most striking painted backgrounds of any television show of its era. While you can stream the show on Tubi and HBO Max, the set also includes featurettes, documentaries, and archival clips of William Hanna and Joe Barbera and their staff. (And water, and air, and earth.) Special features include making-of featurettes, audio commentaries, and animatics. That’s in addition to all the extras originally included in the DVD releases that were retained here, which aren’t available on Boomerang, HBO Max, and the other streaming services hosting Scooby-Doo. In both the English dubs and the subtitled Japanese. The Flintstones — originally inspired by The Honeymooners but so wildly successful with children that Jackie Gleason didn’t want to be the guy who sued its creators off the air — is still genuinely funny, even if its humor is decidedly grounded in laid-back nostalgia, laugh-tracked slapstick, and a 1960s vision of the Stone Age. And all of those discrete elements that make the show great are reflected in the extras on this release, which includes creator commentaries, animation tests, and “pitch movies” for the episodes, and a doc on the real-life martial-arts moves used in animating the show (which itself is currently on HBO Max). Above all, B:TAS — a show made up of intentionally self-contained mini-noirs — has never looked or felt more intimate. For the greatest anime series of all time. $27

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The Flintstones: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray)

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Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty and the gang turned 60 recently and remain some of the most enduring cartoon characters of all time. This Blu-ray set is another steal at $19.99, and it comes with digital files as well. If not, the set comes with lots of audio commentaries — including from Faye Valentine’s iconic English-language voice actor Wendee Lee — and a handful of exclusive interviews, plus a handful of other extras that weren’t available outside of Japan until this set was released in 2014. (The set was released in 2019, so the spinoff miniseries Adventure Time: Distant Lands isn’t included.) Serious fans will surely enjoy the hour-plus of documentary material, along with one big physical media bonus: a 25-page storybook with a pop-up centerpiece. The HD transfer hugely improves on previous DVD releases, and it also comes with several newly produced featurettes that honor the franchise’s many iterations, voice actor Frank Welker’s contributions to the title character, and a mini-doc on its merchandising over the years. That should be enough to convince you, even if you have a Hulu subscription and can currently stream the show. $25

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Samurai Jack: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray)

$60

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Long ago, in a distant land, Genndy Tartakovsky created one of the liveliest American animated series ever made, a show centered on a man flung across time to a future where evil — embodied by the wise-cracking, shape-shifting wizard-spirit Aku — has won. Of the 60 included Bugs Bunny shorts, 40 have either not been remastered in HD or not been seen on DVD or Blu-ray releases at all. The included special features are limited, but the textless versions of original songs are a nice touch. Adventure Time: The Complete Series (DVD)

$67

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Adventure Time may be the most influential American children’s cartoon of the 2000s, and while the entire show is streaming on HBO Max, there’s plenty to appreciate in this collection of all the episodes from the original run. The fun will never end, the show’s theme insists, and while that isn’t true, strictly speaking, watching these 238 episodes should last you a long, long while. Many shows are available to stream, yet they also tend to bounce from service to service, or disappear altogether for stretches. The set is also packed with extras, commentaries, and documentary materials that you’re unlikely to find on HBO Max. Streamliner

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It takes real work to keep track of how to watch your favorite cartoons. The fate of Netflix’s live-action reboot of Avatar remains unclear but that shouldn’t stop you from revisiting the original, which remains one of this decade’s greatest feats of televised serial storytelling. $50

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Steven Universe: The Complete Collection (DVD)

$66

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Steven Universe has come to save the day, especially if it’s too hot or rainy out and you’re stuck indoors with time on your hands. Oh, and the soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, who’s set to return for the live-action series, remains perfect. Samurai Jack is legendary for its use of mood-setting music, eye-popping visual flair, sword-swinging action, and a stoic lead character voiced by the incomparable Phil LaMarr. On Blu-ray. $60

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Batman: The Complete Animated Series (Blu-Ray)

$45

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Seeing the shiny new HD transfer of this show a few years ago, after more than a quarter century of experiencing it via tube TVs, DVDs, and bootleg downloads, was thoroughly mind-blowing. $66

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Tags: One solution to that annoyance: Own something you can hold in your hand and cherish, or at least always know where to find. Just in time for a rewatch before Netflix’s live-action series hits the streaming service this fall. The episodes are available to stream on HBO Max, but the set comes with a wealth of episode commentaries and behind-the-scenes extras from Timm, Radomski, Paul Dini, and their many other collaborators (which were recorded for previous releases), plus a 60-minute documentary, Heart of the Batman, that was produced specifically for this set. That said, there’s no denying that Ken Spears and Joe Ruby’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! $51

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Samurai Champloo: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray and Digital)

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Champloo is anime maestro Shinichirō Watanabe’s second-most-beloved series after Cowboy Bebop, and it’s not hard to see why: The show takes a similar concept — a wandering crew of misfits trying to figure out how to survive and put food in their mouths each day — and sets it in an Edo-period Japan filled with beatboxing ronin and set to a sublime hip-hop soundtrack. And for those who just want to bask in the beauty of showrunner Rebecca Sugar’s original music, the set comes with five music-video performances of some of the show’s most iconic songs — including ending theme “Love Like You” and Estelle showcase “Here Comes a Thought” — and a sing-along version of the movie to boot. That’s a huge bonus, considering the show isn’t currently streaming on any subscription service, although you can buy it on Amazon or Apple TV — but why bother, when you can own it in multiple formats at this price? The stiff animation and repetitive plots weren’t made for bingeing, and plenty of its jokes didn’t age well. $45

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$45

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Bugs Bunny: 80th Anniversary Collection (Blu-Ray)

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This handsome box set was made with collectors and Looney Tunes aficionados in mind when it dropped last year.

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Jamie Foxx to Star in Netflix Sitcom Dad Stop Embarrassing Me

Tags: Foxx was “reportedly involved in the decision to end the series,” so he’ll finally stop Embarrassing the titular Me after all. Photo: Netflix

Academy Award winner and generally cool guy Jamie Foxx faced his most challenging role yet when he debuted the eight-episode first season of his Netflix sitcom, Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! as the titular embarrassing dad. The series, which premiered in April, was based on Foxx’s relationship with his daughter, Corinne Foxx, whose stand-in was played in this multi-cam by Kyla-Drew. Of course the premise would be tough: Foxx has to be one of the world’s least embarrassing dads. On Friday, Deadline reported that Netflix has opted not to renew the show, which also co-starred David Alan Grier and Porscha Coleman, for a second season.

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Writer of Viral Short Story ‘Cat Person’ Scores Tasty Treat: 7-Figure Book Deal

Tags: Photo: Getty Images for SAGindie

Imagine, if you will, catboy Nicholas Braun. Now scratch that thought, because even though that’s obviously what comes to mind when you see that Nicholas Braun will star in Cat Person, that’s not what it means. Margot will be played Emilia Jones, and The Flight Attendant director Susanna Fogel will direct the psychological thriller. Hopefully Cat Person has more action than Batman and Catwoman. Braun will play Robert, the older man who flirts with and eventually sleeps with Margot, a 20-year-old college student. Picture kawaii Cousin Greg with anime cat ears and a tail. Variety reports that Braun will star in the film adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s viral short story that basically invented the phrase “viral short story,” “Cat Person.” Remember “Cat Person?” It’s the 2017 piece of New Yorker fiction that lent words to the often terrible, anxiety-inducing experience that is Dating Men.

I ain’t retweet nothing but ’Ball If I Want To’ promo.” Megan then addressed the situation on Twitter, though she didn’t name DaBaby directly. I ain’t retweet that silly shit. Photo: Getty Images for BET

DaBaby has stepped in it yet again. 🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/F8AvTEudcx— TINA SNOW (@theestallion) June 19, 2021

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DaBaby Came for Jojo Siwa So All of Twitter Came for DaBaby

Tags: Days after the release of “Skat,” his new collaboration with Tory Lanez, DaBaby retweeted a fan’s joke about Lanez shooting Megan the Stallion last summer. We already spoke abt this in private and you specifically said ‘that ain’t even no good business move why would I promote that shit’ but now this ain’t your ‘beef’? pic.twitter.com/L8jafqONj2— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) June 19, 2021

support me in private and publicly do something different…these industry men are very strange. But you stay on ya ‘business’ my g.”

You done let these folks get the best of you thug. “This situation ain’t no damn ‘beef’ and I really wish people would stop down playing it like it’s some internet shit for likes and retweets.”

I guess @DaBabyDaBaby and @torylanez cool now bc the both shot somebody and don’t have to do no jail time 🤣😂😅😮‍💨🤷🏾‍♂️— Bo (@symeautomatic) June 19, 2021

Idk what type of Illuminati shit Twitter got goin on😂…I ain’t retweet nothing but “Ball If I Want To” promo. We already spoke abt this in private and you specifically said “that ain’t even no good business move why would I promote that shit” but now this ain’t your “beef”? “I guess @DaBabyDaBaby and @torylanez cool now bc the[y] shot somebody and don’t have to do no jail time,” the fan’s tweet reads. “Support me in private and publicly do something different…these industry men are very strange,” she wrote. The two in simpler times. u don’t ever gotta address her again— UNDER🎱ED (@pardi) June 20, 2021

😂😂😂“You must not know bout mee You must not know bout meeeeeh” https://t.co/n658873yp5— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) June 20, 2021

This matter ain’t about no public opinion or internet beef .. But you stay on ya “business” my g https://t.co/WeKAVD0xnu— TINA SNOW (@theestallion) June 19, 2021

DaBaby responded by downplaying his mistake and reiterating that the whole thing was none of his business. That ain’t real. so a nigga let a lot of that weak shit slide .— UNDER🎱ED (@pardi) June 20, 2021

YOU NIGGAS IS CORNY alotta you women is corny..ANY NIGGA THAT SHOOTS A WOMAN IS PUSSY ANY NIGGA THAT SIDES WITH IT ..CONDONES IT AFFILIATES THEY SELF WITH STANDS BESIDE THAT TYPE OF BEHAVIOR IS A BITCH ANY WOMAN THAT SUPPORTS IT FOR ANY REASON IS A FUCKIN SAD BITTER OR CONFUSED— UNDER🎱ED (@pardi) June 20, 2021

Megan hasn’t responded to DaBaby’s latest tweets, likely because she’s busy celebrating her newest single ascending the charts. nigga that’s what it is .. Then once ppl start tagging me & I saw it and tried to delete it and undo the retweet Twitter didn’t let me.🤔Type shit yall on? You a clown ass nigga doin doin clown ass shit then tryin to back pedal .. That ain’t real. DaBaby quickly claimed that the retweet was a mistake, tweeting, “Idk what type of Illuminati shit Twitter got goin on. Stay focused my g🖤💪🏾 https://t.co/EnbBvahHHX— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) June 19, 2021

My stance hasn’t changed at all YOURS has. Meanwhile, Megan’s boyfriend, Pardison Fontaine, joined in to defend Meg, telling DaBaby, “u don’t ever gotta address her again” and calling out his backpedaling. This situation ain’t no damn “beef” and I really wish people would stop down playing it like it’s some internet shit for likes and retweets.— TINA SNOW (@theestallion) June 19, 2021

Instead of simply apologizing, DaBaby doubled down, telling Megan not to “let these folks get the best of you.” He also added, “stand on what you stand on without feeling like I’m against ya.” Megan replied, “My stance hasn’t changed at all YOURS has. ion got no bad energy for ya. “This matter ain’t about no public opinion or internet beef,” Fontaine added in a later tweet after DaBaby laughed him off. You know like I know I ain’t no “industry” nigga , let em fool you into thinking that you trippin. Stand on what you stand on without feeling like I’m against ya.

And they kind of walk hand-in-hand.” DaCosta says that 2019 was a powerful time to film this thoughtful reimagining of the 1992 cult classic, and explains what made the story resonate. At once, it’s a place of this great hope, which I think Juneteenth represents in one way. Related

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Tags: “Horror’s just better in a room full of people that are just freaking out.” We can’t wait to freak out in theaters on August 27, when Candyman premieres. “Especially last year, I was thinking a lot about the duality of the Black experience in America. “The thing that I always came back to was the truth of the pain of the story that was at the center of Candyman. And if that discomfort is attached to explorations of race or gender, you have to then reconcile your feelings about race and gender.” DaCosta finishes the video by saying the film is about community, right down to her insisting it be watched communally. People are murdered. In the real world, we create monsters of men all the time. “On the other side, it’s incredibly difficult and there’s a lot of pain. Today, on Juneteenth, Universal Pictures shared a video of Candyman director/co-writer Nia DaCosta discussing the meaning of the holiday, and how it ties to her experience making the upcoming horror film. It’s a celebration of us, of life, of freedom, of possibility,” she says as clips from the film begin to play. The right function of it is to make you uncomfortable. They become either saints or they’re vilified.”

She adds, “Horror is a really effective tool when it comes to telling stories about things that impact us on a social level.

I feel like the mighty and horny cicada who has emerged from quarantine and I’m just lookin’ for a good time.”

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Tags: Lane also gives the single best quote we’ve ever heard about vaccines allowing America to reopen: “It is a thrill to be back. Broadway is back, which means Nathan Lane can crawl out from his bunker underneath the Nederlander and get back to work. I’m just one bad seafood dinner away from becoming the Boss!” Lane acknowledged that some people might not want to see him after paying hundreds for Springsteen tickets, but he deserves a shot because he’s been practicing really hard and “I’m putting my own special sauce on these ditties.” That’s the line that makes Colbert break. And with Stephen Colbert filming The Late Show from the Ed Sullivan Theater once more, it made perfect sense to celebrate the future of Broadway with Lane, who went on a hilarious riff on Thursday night’s episode about how he’s “the standby for Springsteen on Broadway.

It doesn’t matter if you’re watching H3H3 videos on YouTube, random baseball games on ESPN+, or just looking for a free movie — the venerable curatorial hardware has your back. Little did you know that by tapping the “*” button on the remote when hovering over a channel, you can totally reorganize the Roku landing page into a catalogue that makes more utilitarian sense. Take a Look at the Roku Channel

I’m not sure why the Roku channel exists, exactly, but I do know that one lonely evening in quarantine, my girlfriend and I settled into You’ve Got Mail, which was inexplicably free on the app. Roku’s Universal-Search Tool Is Your Friend

The streaming wars have subdivided our entertainment systems into countless niches and enclaves. 4. You have to deal with some ads, but it’s certainly worth a perusal every now and then to see what’s new. Use Your Phone As a Remote

You’ve probably grown tired of the countless gadgets littering your living room. Also, this year, all of the Quibi-refugee content migrated over to the channel, which is especially fascinating. Normalize the Sound Output

Tired of constantly turning the volume up and down on a scene-by-scene basis? Inching over from the “S” key to the “K” key feels terrible. It’s year two, and the Yacht Network is still the first thing you see when booting up the TV. So to help you get the most out of your setup, here are ten easy hacks to make your binges a little more cozy and that Roku more navigable. The single worst thing about the streaming revolution is how we are forced to tap in whatever show we’re looking for with a big, clunky digital keyboard on the TV screen. Personally, I like to keep the digital fireplace front and center. That would be a tough bind, except Roku has generated an ingenious solution. A faint connection could be the reason you’re experiencing frequent buffering in your nightly binges, so go ahead and use the resource to position your Roku in a place where it’s receiving the most fidelity. Well, the Roku has an option called “Screen Mirroring” in its system options, which will allow anyone to cast their phone’s browser directly to the TV. 3. But they can be pretty useful for everyday usage as well. It keeps me grounded. Imagine renting The Big Lebowski for four bucks without knowing it was hosted on Netflix for free. Don’t Forget About the Headphone Jack

You might miss it, but there’s a headphone jack on the left side of the Roku remote. But Roku’s search bar, which can be found in the service’s main menu, does a surprisingly good job of paging through every player in the field — from Amazon Prime, to Netflix, to Vudu — to determine where, exactly, you can stream or purchase When Harry Met Sally. If you have an old-school pair of aux cans and you want to be considerate to your significant other who nodded off after yet another episode of The Great British Bake Off, go ahead and plug in, so that Mary Berry will not disturb their slumber. You’ll be teleported back 15 seconds, equipped with text at the bottom of the screen revealing what those damn Blinders are up to this time. Can all the streaming giants get together and determine a volume equilibrium? 9. 7. Related

The New Roku Remote Has a Fancy Apple TV Button

Tags: For instance, with your Roku remote, tap “Home” five times, and then up, down, up, down, and you’ll bring up a page detailing how strong the device is receiving the Wi-Fi signal. Mirror Your Phone to the TV Through Roku

Let’s say you want to watch the Logan Paul/Floyd Mayweather fight, but you’d rather die than give either of those two men money. (Totally understandable!) And then let’s say one of your friends passed along a sketchy bootleg stream that you’re currently piping through your Android. A terrible fate. After taking home a fancy new Roku, you immediately plunged into the channel store and started adding weird little niche media entities that you had no intention of ever watching, didn’t you? 5. Turn On Closed Captions, But Only After You Rewind

Let’s face it: You’re never going to catch everything being said in Peaky Blinders, but you also tend to find closed-captioning annoying. It’s absolutely vital and, honestly, one of the primary reasons to purchase a Roku in the first place. You didn’t miss out on one of the lamest boxing matches of all time. Streamliner

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Illustration: by Martin Gee

The Roku platform — whether accessed through one of the company’s smart TVs, streaming boxes, or sticks — serves as the hub for countless different entertainment properties. Thankfully, the Roku app lets anyone with the software consolidate the remote into their smartphone, tamping down the clutter a little bit. (Seriously, Marvel, what’s the deal?) In Roku’s “Advanced Sound Settings,” you can select the “Leveling” option to normalize the sonic output across an entire episode, but I tend to favor the “Night” variant, which bolsters the soft sequences and mollifies the loud setpieces. For whatever reason, the Roku Channel uploads a handful of movies and TV shows to its own in-house repository every couple of months for anyone who owns the hardware. Regardless, this is an issue that transcends Roku. It can be downright impossible to determine where a show is currently being hosted and how long it will be there. And Make Sure to Use Your Phone to Search for Content! 2. But when you sync up your phone to your Roku, all of those queries can be handled with the iPhone keypad, which is about a billion times more efficient. Check Your Wi-Fi Strength

The Roku comes packaged with a number of secret menus, accessible only through video-game-like button combinations, that are clearly intended for troubleshooting and diagnostics tests. In the “Captions Mode” menu, check the “Instant Replay” box, and now the dialogue will only be annotated after smashing the replay button on the Roku remote. 8. 6. That said, Roku’s many features and options can be dense to the point that it may be overwhelming to newcomers; a lot of recent adopters may not know what their little box is capable of. Want to bring it to the big screen? Congratulations! I’m so tired of getting my face melted off by some random Netflix documentary at 2 a.m. The app is also perfect for any streaming disputes with your significant other, when one person on the couch wants to slyly switch over to Bridgerton without the other’s knowledge. Reorder Your Channels

Let me guess. 10. 1. This is a must-have for all of you BBC America addicts out there. Once the app is downloaded, open it up to find a control pad, a pause button, a volume dial, and, most importantly, a selection of channels for easy navigation.

It’s unclear at this point if Patrick’s best friend and international icon SpongeBob will be involved with the show, or if it’s a Sex and the City reboot situation. This is just the latest in a long line of SpongeBob spinoffs, which includes Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, starring Keanu Reeves. As announced last year, The Patrick Star Show will follow Patrick (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, from the original SpongeBob cast) and his little sister, Squidina, as well as his parents, Bunny and Cecil, as Patrick hosts a talk show for his neighborhood from his bedroom. Related

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Tags: ET. Late night’s roster of Jimmys has some new competition in the form of one Patrick Star. Yes, Patrick from SpongeBob now has his own spin-off titled The Patrick Star Show, and along with its second trailer screening at the Annecy Animation Festival, it also has a premiere date: July 9 at 7 p.m. It seems the sun will never set on Bikini Bottom.

Over the past few weeks, no queen has shown versatility and star power like Kita, and, of course, no other queen shares a name with Australia’s favourite dissociative drug. air pollution.) In Scarlet’s sit-down, she opens up about the support she’s received from her mother and partner; in Karen’s, we hear about how her mother, who did actually work in finance, inspired her character; and in Kita’s, we learn about how her parents’ divorce, during which she was forced to live with her father and separated from her sisters, caused her lasting harm. During critiques, all three judges seem genuinely proud, and it’s an undeniable thrill to hear how talented they think the contestants are. Although it hasn’t been all highs, it’s been an honour to take you through this season, and it’s been lovely for it to end on this high. Drag Race. There was fun to be had, no doubt — these are undoubtedly some of the wittiest and nastiest queens to ever grace the Drag Race stage — but as we look upon our top four at the beginning of this grand finale, it’s hard not to think about how often this season felt like a missed opportunity. (Let’s chalk it up to the fact that Ru and Michelle don’t have to contend with all the L.A. This brings us to the end of a wild, weird season of Drag Race. Tags: This portion of the competition is always emotional, but rarely has there ever been an interaction as two-way as this one, where one of the judges actively counsels a contestant like this. Kita is a vision in white, looking like a Vegas showgirl (and the best she’s looked all competition.) Scarlet looks wonderful too, but it’s not necessarily my favourite of her looks this season; still, that’s probably just the curse of high expectations. The choreographer, a king and a legend, says more of the obvious — that Scarlet is clearly doing better than the other girls, but that “there’s got to be an underdog.” This man needs a podcast! After all, if there’s one thing that can take the edge off a bumpy ride like Drag Race Down Under, it’s a healthy dose of Kita Mean. Season 13 of Drag Race may have actually been the longest season the show’s ever produced, but Drag Race Down Under season one, despite having half the episodes, certainly feels like it’s been the longest season ever. Both have the same takeaway: It’s their fathers’ loss at the end of the day. In many ways, this grand finale feels a little like a vision of what this season could have been. During the musical number, everyone looks a little … random? Kita’s wearing another of her clownish bodysuits, while Art looks like someone’s mum attending her first pride parade. Terms & Privacy Notice
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Art can’t stop saying “noonie,” and is horrified that her sequence involves so much “noonie-touching,” while the choreographer gives Karen the decidedly unhelpful advice that “Karen is dancing like a Karen … Karen needs to dance like a Ka-RON,” which I’m not sure means anything at all. From Art’s elimination and speedy return to Elektra’s near-constant presence in the lip-sync to Ru’s polemics on cancel culture to Rhys Nicholson’s incessant anal sex jokes, this season has often felt like the Groundhog Day of Drag Race seasons, with me as the gorgeous, talented blogger forced to watch the same episode over and over. Kita can sing, she can dance, she’s funny, she’s camp, she’s glamorous, she’s Elektra Shock’s boss: It kinda feels like there’s nothing this queen can’t do, and it’s a total thrill to see her take the crown. I’m not sure why, but these conversations seemed more raw and, surprisingly, less produced than they usually do. Well, we’ve made it: After eight fun, sometimes infuriatingly convoluted weeks, we’re finally at the finish line of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under season one. Email

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Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows! The challenge, the obligatory Rumix and dance number, is a classic; there’s a little cattiness, but it never swerves into all-out bullying; the outfits are, by and large, gorgeous; and it genuinely feels like there’s a connection between the girls and the judges, which hasn’t always come through in Drag Race Down Under. But it’s Art’s interview that hits hardest: As she’s talking about being the main breadwinner of her family, Michelle cuts her off and tells her that she needs to start looking after herself. Still, there can be only one winner, and, in something a shock — although not at all an unwelcome shock — the wonderful Kita Mean is named Down Under’s first drag superstar!! That last element is, to me, what makes this episode feel so special. Art’s shimmering aquamarine ball gown, which matches the colour of her boy hair, is camp and unbelievably glamorous, while Karen’s pinstripe suit dress is a little like the most elevated tuxedo T-shirt of all time. Category on the runway is Best Drag, and these queens don’t take that theme lightly: All four look stunning. Where to begin? When it comes time for the queens to be coached through their dance moves, we get this episode’s requisite messiness. Afterwards, Art seems genuinely shaken for the better; it’s a sweet, tough-love moment from Ru and Michelle, the kind of un-produced interaction this season could have used a lot more of. Karen’s verse is particularly inspired, serving up big Glass Candy “Warm In The Winter” energy; Kita takes a risk in singing her portion of the song, but it pays off handsomely. RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under
Down Under Grand Finale

Season 1

Episode 8

Editor’s Rating

5 stars

*****

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Photo: WOW! As always, the top four queens get a chance to have a sit-down “lunch” — this time consisting of a Jaffa, a local spin on the traditional Tic Tac lunch — with Ru and Michelle. As the queens get ready for the runway, Scarlet and Art reveal that they both experienced similarly tumultuous relationships with their fathers, with both connecting with them late in life only to cut off contact upon finding out they were gay. In all, one of the better Rumixes we’ve had, and if you see me listening to it on the Spotify social feed post-show, no you didn’t! Still, we get some fun additional verses for “I’m a Winner Baby” that go beyond the usual “I’m gonna snatch that crown sis!”–style verse that seems to be endemic on U.S.

and Migos

Tags: In addition to taking home an Oscar for “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah earlier this year, H.E.R. Related

H.E.R. Ladies and gentlemen … it’s H.E.R.E. Almost exactly two months after taking home this year’s Academy Award for Best Original Song, H.E.R. has released her 21-track debut full-length studio album, Back of My Mind, featuring appearances by Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Baby, Thundercat, Chris Brown, DJ Khaled, Yung Bleu, YG, Bryan Tiller, and Cordae. Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images The Recording Academy

She already has the G and the O for her eventual EGOT, but no one ever said you couldn’t stack a few more Gs on top while working on your Tony and your Emmy. was awarded the Grammy for Song of the Year for “I Can’t Breathe,” not to mention receiving five other Grammy nominations each for her 2019 compilation album, I Used to Know Her. Has a Plan to Achieve Her EGOT

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