All posts tagged: entertainment

The Dropout lineup that is redefining modern entertainment

The Dropout lineup that is redefining modern entertainment

Published by skeptic

Born from College Humor, Dropout is a comedy streaming platform that’s got a bevy of wildly funny shows in its library, including Crowd Control, Dirty Laundry, Make Some Noise, and Smartypants. However, the three pillars of the groundbreaking TV studio are Dimension 20, Game Changer, and Very Important People. As Dropout is growing out of what CEO and Game Changer host Sam Reich calls their “awkward teenage years,” these three very different shows are making the biggest strides in popularity and pop culture moments. SEE ALSO: Dropout-curious? Here’s where you should start watching. In separate interviews with Reich, Dimension 20 creator Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Very Important People host Vic Michaelis, Mashable uncovered the scrappy beginnings and defining moments of these shows, as Dropout approaches its next steps. Dimension 20: An unexpected hit  Brennan Lee Mulligan is the creator and game master on the set of “Dimension 20: Cloudward, Ho!” Credit: Kate Elliott / Dropout TV One of the first show’s Dropout debuted on its launch day in Sept. 2018, Dimension 20 debuted in a …

How to Outsmart the Online Outrage Machine

How to Outsmart the Online Outrage Machine

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday. Just over a week ago, The New Yorker published a story, “What’s Missing from Belle Burden’s Strangers,” that sent a certain corner of the internet into an absolute frenzy. The story probed the financial side of Burden’s hit divorce memoir and turned Twitter and Reddit into a battleground of amateur multi-generational wealth analysts, hotly debating money dynamics in relationships, prenuptial agreements, and the eternal question of memoir’s relationship with objective truth. Did Burden’s ultra-rich ex-husband have a crisis PR person leak sealed court documents to a writer at The New Yorker? We will probably never know how the nooks and crannies of a divorce settlement were made public, but the online debate on Sunday night was raging, on both sides: those who called her a fraud and the book a lie, and a more measured “Who cares, this book rocked” contingent …

Inside the Making of ‘The Odyssey’—With Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Christopher Nolan

Inside the Making of ‘The Odyssey’—With Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Christopher Nolan

Published by Jenni Sidey

He also knew, early on, precisely how he wanted to shoot the film. For The Odyssey, Nolan asked IMAX to design a camera that could capture not just big sweeping shots but intimate scenes of dialogue, something that was previously thought to be impossible, due to how loud IMAX cameras are. At Nolan’s behest, IMAX devised a kind of blimp covering to get the effect he wanted while still allowing the actors to hear themselves over the sound of the camera. And then, because the covering often blocked the actor’s eyeline, Nolan himself improvised a workaround, a system of mirrors that would allow a second actor’s face to be projected just left of his lens. “Chris doesn’t fake anything,” Holland told me. “Everything’s real. Everything you’re reacting to is what he wants your visceral human response to.” Pattinson once had to shoot a scene in The Odyssey responding to a far-off sound. “I can’t see anything, apart from the camera,” he recounted, “and I was just asking Chris, because I’m supposed to react to this …

‘Euphoria’ Finale: Darrell Britt-Gibson on Bishop’s Decision and That “Cathartic” Shootout

‘Euphoria’ Finale: Darrell Britt-Gibson on Bishop’s Decision and That “Cathartic” Shootout

Published by Jenni Sidey

Throughout the third season of HBO’s Euphoria, Rue (Zendaya) has escaped death’s grasp like the protagonist of a Final Destination movie, surviving a series of chaotic, near-fatal encounters by pure cunning, good luck, or divine intervention. But in the 93-minute series finale, “In God We Trust,” Rue’s Houdini act succumbs to her greatest temptation: she ingests a fentanyl-laced Percocet, given to her by strip-club owner and drug kingpin Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) in a sinister act of revenge for her working with the DEA. Instead of reuniting and reconciling with her family and friends, Rue dies facedown on a couch, another statistic of an unrelenting addiction. But like any great Western, creator Sam Levinson’s Euphoria ends with catharsis in the form of retribution. In the finale’s penultimate sequence, he stages an old-fashioned showdown inside Alamo’s grimy kingdom, The Silver Slipper, transforming the nightclub into the setting for one last reckoning—not with rival Laurie, but with Rue’s surrogate father and avenging angel, Ali (Colman Domingo). He enters in full military garb, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, …

‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Won the Weekend. Here’s What That Really Tells Us About the Future of Movies

‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Won the Weekend. Here’s What That Really Tells Us About the Future of Movies

Published by Jenni Sidey

The $80-million-plus debut of Backrooms, from 20-year-old first-time director Kane Parsons, coupled with Curry Barker’s low-budget hit Obsession increasing its take for the second weekend in a row, is essentially without precedent. As box office analysts sort through the data from this past weekend—the youngest director ever to top the box office; the first non-Christmas wide release to grow across three consecutive weekends since E.T.—excitement is building over the reality that not only is Gen Z going to the movies, they’re making their preferences known. The apparent generational shift provides an answer to what had seemed like a generational crisis: with Boomers and Millennials falling out of the moviegoing habit, Gen Z is more excited about going to the movies than ever. But there’s another, broader story to be told about the box office. Two horror movies chasing the same cohort of young people, both selling out theaters at the same time. Welcome back, Barbenheimer. Back in 2023, months and months of memes ballooned into an organic, audience-driven marketing campaign, turning the head-to-head counter-programming of …

7 (Actually Good) Things to Watch on Netflix in June

7 (Actually Good) Things to Watch on Netflix in June

Published by Jenni Sidey

We know what you’re thinking: summer weather is too nice to be spent indoors with a weekend Netflix binge. But you can only have so many bevs in the park before you need to chill for a couple of hours with the TV on and the windows wide open. Plus, the World Cup is inching ever closer, and we’ve got some (light) homework to get you ready. Netflix is bringing the goods this sunny June. There are a bunch of soccer docuseries to sink your teeth into—one looking back to a tournament of the past, another looking forward to the big one drawing closer. Alternatively, the live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender returns for its second season after a two-year wait, Michael B. Jordan steps into the ring and behind the camera for Creed III, and Paul Mescal vacations in Turkey in tender drama Aftersun. Here are our picks for what to watch on the streamer. Creed III (2023) June 1 The formidable director-actor pairing of Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan is right …

‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 is Upon Us. Here’s Everything You Should Remember About Seasons 1 and 2

‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 is Upon Us. Here’s Everything You Should Remember About Seasons 1 and 2

Published by Jenni Sidey

This story contains spoilers for the first two seasons of HBO’s House of the Dragon. What do you remember about House of the Dragon? The third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel hits screens in just a few weeks, on June 21, roughly two years after season two concluded way back in 2024. It’s been so long the entire first season of a completely different Game of Thrones spin-off happened in the gap between seasons! The civil war between the warring sides of the titular House of the Dragon is already a decidedly complicated affair, but that long layoff between installments hasn’t made it easier. During the first two seasons, a sibling squabble between two factions of the Targaryen clan has gradually expanded to draw in all of Westeros, as the opposing sides head toward a point of no return. Based on the trailers for House of the Dragon season three, that breaking point is finally here, with all-out war arriving after two seasons of table-setting and throat-clearing. But if your recollections of what …

Frankie Valli Cancels the Remainder of the Four Seasons’ Farewell Tour, Citing Health Concerns

Frankie Valli Cancels the Remainder of the Four Seasons’ Farewell Tour, Citing Health Concerns

Published by Sam Flores

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Frankie Valli, whose legendary falsetto defines the sound of the 1960s rock group the Four Seasons, has cancelled the remainder of the band’s 2026 tour dates, citing health concerns. “I’m so sorry to disappoint the folks who have purchased tickets to my shows, but I have decided to take the rest of the year off from touring to focus on my health,” the 92-year-old singer wrote on social media Friday. Valli, the frontman and only original member still performing with the Four Seasons, launched an extended farewell tour billed “The Last Encores” in October 2023. Shows scheduled for April of this year were rescheduled to dates in summer and fall. Now, all eight performances remaining for 2026 in cities from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Detroit have been called off entirely. The Four Seasons found fame in the 1960s, but the band’s hits –- from “Sherry” to “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)” –- span decades. The Four Seasons sold 100 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall …

Trump to headline 250th anniversary fair opening after performers drop out

Trump to headline 250th anniversary fair opening after performers drop out

Published by Sam Flores

A view of the National Mall during at sunset in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 04, 2025. Mehmet Eser | AFP | Getty Images President Donald Trump will headline an event commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary on the National ⁠Mall next month after several musical performers scheduled to appear in the celebration canceled, citing concerns about its ​association with him, organizers told ​the Washington Post. The concerts ​were planned as the opening ceremony of the Great American State Fair, a 16-day event running from June 25 to July 10, 2026. Organizers said the fair, organized by the Freedom ⁠250 ‌group, would stretch on the National Mall from ⁠the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument, with concert stages, state pavilions, exhibits, rides, and other attractions. But the musical lineup has been hit by a series of cancellations. On Friday, Bret Michaels, the lead singer ‌of the rock band Poison, became the fifth performer to withdraw from the concerts, saying that the event was not the nonpartisan celebration that he thought ​it would be. Organizers have not publicly …