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  • Something Is Rotten in the State of New Jersey. Plus, ‘Summer House,’ ‘Vanderpump Rules,’ and ‘The Valley.’

    Something Is Rotten in the State of New Jersey. Plus, ‘Summer House,’ ‘Vanderpump Rules,’ and ‘The Valley.’

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    Bravo

    Rachel, Callie, and Jodi dish on the past week in Bravo world

    Rachel Lindsay and Callie Curry open today’s Morally Corrupt with a chat about the sad conclusion of Sonja Morgan’s townhouse auction, Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard being put on pause, and the imminent return of The Real Housewives of Dubai (1:57). They then move on to briefly debate what’s wrong with this current season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey (8:58) and examine where they ultimately fall on the Carl-Lindsay meter after the intense Season 8 finale of Summer House (21:23). Later, Rachel welcomes Jodi Walker on to discuss where the cast goes from here after the depressing conclusion to the Vanderpump Rules Season 11 reunion (40:57), and whether or not they’ve soured on Danny following his shocking heel turn in Episode 11 of The Valley (1:05:05).

    Host: Rachel Lindsay
    Guests: Callie Curry and Jodi Walker
    Producer: Devon Baroldi
    Theme: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Rachel Lindsay

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  • Where in Neomuna is Archie in Destiny 2?

    Where in Neomuna is Archie in Destiny 2?

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    Archie returns to Destiny 2 with a trip to the Neomuna following the May 28, 2024, weekly reset.

    This is the final step in a series of “Where in the System is Archie” quests in the wake of the Into the Light update — which have been staggered out week-by-week in the lead up to The Final Shape.

    Note this quest expires on the June 3 weekly reset — a full day before The Final Shape launches on June 4. This is because Bungie will take Destiny 2 down for 24 hours ahead of the expansion.

    Remember, provided you complete any Archie quest before the arrival of The Final Shape, you’ll get your hands on the Blue Steel shader, while the lore for all Archie quests will be available from June 4 on.

    How to start ‘Where in Neomuna is Archie?’ in Destiny 2

    To start the final “Where is Archie” quest, head to the Tower’s Annex and find the paw prints.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    You can reach this location by using the southwest-most fast travel point, then traveling straight ahead down the corridor. The paw prints will appear on the ledge to your right.

    Investigate the prints and go talk to Ada-1 (found in the Annex proper opposite) to start the latest quest.

    Starting the “Where in Neomuna is Archie” quest in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Now, head to Neomuna, and speak to Nimbus at Strider’s Gate. Once done, the search begins.

    Speaking to Nimbus about the Archie quest in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    All Archie Neomuna locations

    Here is where to find Archie in Neomuna, clue-by-clue.

    ‘Archie stopped by Nimbus’ post hoping to snap an action figure’ location

    A Guardian finds Archie’s footprints in Nimbus’ gym

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    This clue refers to Nimbus’s gym room, which is also where you place all the action figure collectibles on Neomuna.

    From Nimbus, jump directly down and to the right, off the platform. The building will be right in front of you. Go inside and you’ll find Archie’s footprints between the coffee tables.

    Now you’re in for quite a journey to visit the Veil.

    ‘Archie wanted to get caught up on everything we know about the Veil’ location

    This clue refers to the Veil Containment and Irkalla Complex areas, which are the two southeastern-most points on the Neomuna map.

    A map of Neomuna in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    To reach this place, you can’t just launch Veil Containment, as you’ll need to be outside. Instead, you need to go through the Zephyr Concourse and then the ESI Terminal. Keep left the entire way there and you’ll eventually find a portal, which will take you to the Veil Containment area.

    A Guardian prepares to enter a portal in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Continue up to the door, where you’ll be attacked by a bunch of Cabal and a Tormentor. Kill everything, including the Tormentor, and return to the door. You’ll find Archie’s footprints just outside of the door to the Veil.

    A Guardian finds Archie’s footprints in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Now you’ll need to go on another long walk near Liming Harbor.

    ‘Archie wanted to check out the views from where Guardians mastered Strand’ location

    This clue refers to Maya’s Rest, which is the sandy area to the east of Liming Harbor.

    A map of Neomuna in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Land at Liming Harbor and take the path east through the rocks. This is basically a straight shot to Maya’s Retreat, but it takes a bit to get there. Continue on until you reach the sandy area.

    A Guardian looks for Archie in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    You’ll have to kill a lot of Cabal here, including a Colossus boss. Once you kill the boss, all of the other enemies will disappear and you’ll be able to collect the footprints, which are overlooking the city.

    A Guardian finds Archie’s footprints in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Mercifully, Archie’s final stop is a much shorter run.

    ‘Archie’s last stop. Archie wanted to try and win a prize for you’ location

    This final clue refers to the Thrilladrome Lost Sector in Liming Harbor.

    A map showing the Thrilladrome lost sector in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Land in Liming and make your way north to the Lost Sector entrance. Walk inside and just do the normal version — as-in don’t launch the Legend or Master version if they’re available — and eventually you’ll find Archie waiting by a claw machine. Do not go through the Vex portal at the end. If you do, you’ll miss Archie, who is to the right of the portal.

    A Guardian finds Archie in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Go give him some pets and you’ll finish the exploration portion of the quest. Now it’s time to head back to Ada-1 in the Tower. She’ll give you an Archie Plush Toy and 10 Trophy of Bravery tokens — useful for getting more Brave weapons. Whether you keep the plush is up to you. Archie will be sad if you don’t!

    A Guardian receives an Archie plush in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    The Archie quests will disappear entirely with the weekly reset of June 3, so this is your final chance to find Archie.

    If you’re looking for more to do in the Into the Light update, you can take on Pantheon bosses, complete “Zero Hour,” and for “The Whisper,” find Oracle locations, and upgrade Whisper of the Worm with Taken Blights.

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    Ryan Gilliam

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  • Everyone Hates Ticketmaster, but Is It a Monopoly?

    Everyone Hates Ticketmaster, but Is It a Monopoly?

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    Matt is joined by Puck’s Eriq Gardner to discuss the U.S. government’s monopoly lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation

    Matt is joined by Puck’s Eriq Gardner to discuss the U.S. government’s monopoly lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation (02:58). They briefly go through the history of the Ticketmaster–Live Nation merger, what led to the eventual lawsuit, why concert prices won’t go down even if the two companies split, whether this lawsuit is just a PR attack against Ticketmaster, what impact this could have on the secondary markets, what a broken-up Ticketmaster–Live Nation would look like, and more. Matt finishes the show with a prediction for this weekend’s holiday box office (27:00).

    For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, What I’m Hearing …, click this link: puck.news/thetown.

    Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com

    Host: Matt Belloni
    Guest: Eriq Gardner
    Producer: Jessie Lopez
    Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Matthew Belloni

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  • Kevin Costner Wills His Own ‘Yellowstone’ Into Existence With ‘Horizon: An American Saga’

    Kevin Costner Wills His Own ‘Yellowstone’ Into Existence With ‘Horizon: An American Saga’

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    There might not be a more appropriate and straightforward way to open an American Western than with a scene of a white settler tracing the foundations of the house he wants to build on some seemingly available plot of land. The colonial question at the heart of the genre is thus immediately introduced in Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1, the first film in Kevin Costner’s epic four-movie series (the second installment has already been shot) that he produced (at great cost to himself), cowrote, directed, and starred in. Costner’s perspective on that question, however, isn’t entirely clear in that opening sequence, but it does end with the settler and his young child being killed by Apaches who are defending their territory, highlighting their rightful anger. In this sequence, a rousing old-fashioned score, plenty of cross-fades, and an orange sunset give the brutal encounter the look of a monumental, foundational, almost elemental event, like a big bang—a natural, terribly meaningful catastrophe.

    It is through such small yet symbolic stories that Costner starts to paint his very large and detailed picture of pre– and post–Civil War America. Jumping from one setting to another, the filmmaker introduces us to various archetypes of the American West, from the English settlers too posh and sophisticated to do any work while traveling on the Santa Fe Trail (Ella Hunt and Tom Payne), to the housewife with a dark secret (Jena Malone) and her naive husband (Michael Angarano) hoping to get rich through gold, to the foulmouthed sex worker (Abbey Lee) whom everyone despises, except for the hero (Costner, naturally), who finds himself protecting her. In a series of extended vignettes, their personal dramas unfold and sometimes intersect, with occasional time jumps to speed things up and show the consequences of their decisions. None of these stories are particularly original or compelling, retreading old tropes and recalling television both visually and structurally. (It’s hard not to think of Yellowstone, the Western series starring Costner; it was during that show’s hiatus that he made this film.) For instance, the past of the housewife, Ellen, comes back to haunt her when we learn that she once was a sex worker herself and killed a powerful criminal who had abused her: The idea that the Wild West allowed for self-reinvention but was also fueled by the exploitation of women is a staple of the genre—and could still be interesting to explore—but Costner struggles to keep all his plates spinning at once, offering only a quick glance at one prototypical story before moving on to the next one. Instead of making us feel the unbearable weight of history through this amalgamation of survival tales—or creating at least a sense of time and place—this first “episode” indeed functions as a technically efficient but not very appealing series pilot, setting the scene but not giving its protagonists enough room for us to get invested in them.

    Making an American Western in 2024 means coming after a long line of films, the first succession of which established the genre’s often white supremacist and pro-colonial codes. Later, revisionist Westerns adapted these tropes to suit different eras, taking into account changing mentalities about the romanticization of America’s violent past and materialistic tendencies (think of The Wild Bunch and its explosive, balletic, devastating gunfights, or the spaghetti Western For a Few Dollars More), and, eventually, the oppressed were put at the center of the narrative, be they women or Indigenous people themselves. (Killers of the Flower Moon is the most recent example, but Soldier Blue from 1970 may be the most strident.) Costner, however, doesn’t seem all that interested in looking back with a critical eye, and he’s also not trying to tell a story about the past that could be relevant today. Instead, he’s aiming for the timelessness of myth and adopts a centrist approach: Colonialism was an unstoppable engine that everyone, Indigenous or white, was simply caught up in. After a deadly Apache attack, First Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington, who seems determined to act in projects that will be made over several years or decades of his life) has to remind the surviving white settlers that this land is not, in fact, simply where they live, but that it belongs to Indigenous people; still, the pioneers refuse to leave. Costner spends time on the unwelcome inhabitants and their sorrow and helplessness but also cuts to the Apaches—they, too, are having internal disagreements about whether this attack was ultimately necessary. Yet if these two points of view could allow for some interesting ambiguity, revealing the moral dilemmas and doubts of people on both sides, in Costner’s vision, the two parties are stuck in a dynamic that is completely outside their control and has a will of its own—rather than one born of the colonizers’ endless thirst for more land. (Costner’s production company is in fact called Territory Pictures Entertainment.) No one is really responsible. Playing a blasé colonel, Danny Huston puts it bluntly: “Let this place do what it’s done since time immemorial.” But isn’t this time still relatively fresh in the Apaches’ memory?

    This idea of a manifest destiny that pushes for colonization, whether its participants approve of it or not, appears as much in the film’s aesthetics as it does in its narrative. Costner’s camera repeatedly focuses on and emphasizes old-fashioned and at times offensive clichés of the genre: a dying white man refusing to let an Apache take his violin, thus defending civilization against barbarism until his last breath; a priest solemnly digging graves for fallen pilgrims on Apache ground; men working hard to build infrastructure where there was once only nature; a teenage son choosing to fight back against the Indigenous alongside his father rather than hiding with his mother and sister. To quote Vampire Weekend: “Untrue, unkind, and unnatural, how the cruel, with time, becomes classical.” If his old-school conservatism wasn’t apparent enough, the filmmaker also gives his actors cheesy dialogue that even John Wayne couldn’t have made cool. (“It’s what drove us across the ocean to this country in the first place: hope.”) Whether they’re full of threat or flirtatious (as between Sienna Miller’s widow, Frances Kittredge, and Gephardt), conversations tend to be tedious exchanges of witty comebacks, with no one saying what they really mean until they’ve exhausted all possible innuendos and the scene just cries out for a resolution—an unintentional parody of the typically charming repartee of the best cowboys of the silver screen, from Wayne to Jimmy Stewart to Montgomery Clift. So far in the film series, only Luke Wilson and Michael Rooker come across as believable men of the time, the former thanks to his Southern drawl and natural ease, the latter because of his ability to find depth and emotion in the otherwise one-dimensional, obedient, and kind sergeant he must play.

    But what about Costner the actor? Naturally, he plays the strong, silent type—always his strongest suit—as Hayes Ellison, a straight shooter who accidentally gets involved in the revenge campaign that threatens Ellen because of her past rebellion. Although he only appears after about an hour of exposition, the humility of that delay vanishes almost instantaneously. As he gets off his horse, Marigold (the sex worker played by Lee) lays eyes on him and, for no apparent reason other than the fact that he’s the film’s protagonist, decides to try seducing him again and again—despite his repeated rejection and almost offensive disinterest—instead of trying her luck with any of the other men who just got into town. In one of the film’s most successful and enjoyable scenes, however, Ellison lets Marigold do all the talking, his silence pushing her to almost turn double entendres into just plain sex talk. Here, Lee is showing much more range and playfulness than she’s ever had the chance to as an actress, so it’s particularly disappointing that Costner later gives the two of them a completely lifeless and preposterous sex scene in which she tells him, word for word, “You just lay there,” and he does so, looking almost bored as this beautiful woman half his age does all the work.

    With its hubris, traditionalism, and sprawling, messy structure, Horizon feels like a relic of the 1990s, back when Costner was at his peak and he could indeed almost just lay there and be perceived as the masculine ideal. There is still a chance that Chapter 2 will reveal a deeper questioning of the American past and, by the same token, the more toxic aspects of masculinity tied to colonialism and violence. Still, considering how far and with how much conviction Costner has pushed it here, it seems unlikely that the cheesy style of this opus will be abandoned for something that’s more grounded and that spends less time glorifying both its star and conservative ideas of property, national identity, women, and progress. After all, the horizon always appears to stay at the same place.

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    Manuela Lazic

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  • This remastered 4K Star Wars Phantom Menace trailer is pure hype

    This remastered 4K Star Wars Phantom Menace trailer is pure hype

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    At this point, 25 years after its release, there’s no reason to debate the quality of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. A catastrophe for boomers and Gen Xers forever entranced by the spell of the original trilogy; a defining tentpole moment for millennials who rode the high of the 1997 Special Edition rereleases only to hit the turbulence of George Lucas’ bubbly new vision; a bedrock of a new era of storytelling for Gen Zers who have more love in their hearts for The Clone Wars TV show than anything in live action — it’s a film that means something different to everyone and, almost objectively, an inflection point for blockbuster moviemaking. Or, to put it another way: The Phantom Menace is.

    But The Phantom Menace trailer… a masterpiece. And Lucasfilm is rightfully treating 1998’s biggest two-minute hype video, a preview that helped the notorious bomb Meet Joe Black make what little money it made back in the day, as an equally important part of the Star Wars legacy: With the movie back in theaters for a 25th anniversary rerelease, the studio has remastered its original trailer, which was produced and released so early that it was simply called “Episode I” instead of The Phantom Menace. LeAndre Thomas, project manager for video & digital assets at Lucasfilm, said on X that he and his team rescanned an original 35mm print of the trailer in order to remaster it in 4K. The new version was posted to YouTube on Sunday night, and was immediately watched by people who enjoy a good nostalgia trip.

    In honor of a pristine new version of the Phantom Menace trailer arriving online, here are the top five moments that still make me think, Hot damn, this movie is going to be absolutely sick, Star Wars is so back, baby, hell yeah!!!!, despite knowing that it is not exactly a perfect movie.

    5. The 20th Century Fox logo

    Image: 20th Century Studios

    I will never age as long as the Phantom Menace trailer is watchable with the click of a button. When the 20th Century Fox logo pops up in silence at the beginning of the trailer, I am a child in a dark movie theater, barely breathing. That logo is Star Wars to my brain, with an additional hit of dopamine arriving when Lucasfilm’s logo sparkles onto the screen a second later. Ah, to be young and alive at a time when getting fired up over a corporate logo was not only acceptable, but welcome! I still hold a grudge against Disney for acquiring Fox and opening The Force Awakens with just the Lucasfilm logo — at the end of the day, I am now a grumbly adult.

    4. Darth Maul firing up the dual lightsaber blades

    Darth Maul lights up his lightsabers in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

    Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

    Who is that guy????? Tell me everything about that guy. Everyone in the old movies had one lightsaber, but he has two. Holy hell. (Equally important to the Sith presence in this trailer: Mace Windu’s laser stare bringing balance to the badassery of the Force.)

    3. The cockpit of the podrace

    a POV shot from inside Anakin’s podracer in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

    Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

    There’s no reason to debate the quality of The Phantom Menace, but… the podracing sequence is unimpeachable. The first taste we get of the No. 1 best action sequence in all of the Star Wars movies (fight me) is from Anakin’s POV — a complete adrenaline rush as John Williams’ theme kicks in. The other images race by like scenery witnessed out the side window. Truly, I had no memory of how many times we see Jar Jar doing Jar Jar shit in the trailer, because it’s cut like the podrace. Spectacular.

    2. Padme standing in front of a window, fade to Darth Vader exhaling over ‘every saga has a beginning’

    Padme in her regal wear looking out a giant window in her Naboo palace in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

    Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

    Chills. Finally, Darth Vader’s tragic story will be told.

    1. Gungans emerge from the fog of Naboo’s swamps

    Gungans walk on bipedal beasts through the fogs of Naboo in The Phantom Menace

    Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

    The greatest opening shot in a movie trailer ever. Lucas doing Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood with a brand-new alien race. Star Wars is art now. Nothing could possibly go wrong with any of this.

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    Matt Patches

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  • The Vibe is Off for Logan Square Farmers Markets Vendors

    The Vibe is Off for Logan Square Farmers Markets Vendors

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    On the first official weekend of farmers market season in Logan Square, a report about food and produce vendors being shunned in favor of non-food vendors has many questioning the direction organizers are taking the massively popular event which returns Sunday, May 12 at a new site.

    In years past, many non-licensed non-food vendors, or vintage sellers, have set up shop outside the boundaries of the market, capitalizing on the crowds without paying the Logan Square chamber vendor fees. Police fielded complaints about these unsanctioned vendors, as neighbors cited traffic and safety concerns. Quietly, many farmers market vendors questioned if it was fair for them to pay fees while the vintage vendors — selling goods like clothes and art — took advantage.

    Block Club Chicago’s story from earlier in the week shared publicly what many Logan Square vendors had thought for years, that market organizers cared more about creating a summer festival vibe. This distorts the focus of a traditional farmers market. For example, Green City, the not-for-profit organization that holds markets in Lincoln Park, West Loop, and Avondale (in the winter), has a mission statement in which they pledge to secure “the future of food by deepening support for sustainable farmers, educating our community, and expanding access to locally-grown food.”

    But not every shopping mall is upscale with a Coach store. The neighborhood often defines a shopping center or farmers market. That philosophy is consistent with responses from the Logan Square chamber. Eater sent questions to Nilda Esparza, executive director of the chamber — she also organizes the market. Esparza, with the aid of the chamber’s board, emailed responses.

    “We love our farmers, and we serve more and more farmers every year,” a portion of the chamber’s emails reads. “While there may be a broad-based understanding of what farmers markets are supposed to do in general, the Logan Square Farmers Markets specifically is organized by the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce.”

    The chamber also argues that having more non-food stalls better serves the community.

    “The Chamber supports farmers by connecting them to the city dwellers in Logan Square — and many other Chicago neighborhoods — because it believes that this in turn supports businesses and residents in our community,” the chamber’s email continues. “The inclusion of non-food vendors serves the dual purpose of bringing more business to farmers and exposing more people to all that Logan Square and Avondale have to offer.”

    While acknowledging the effort to put on the market, vendors feel Logan Square could still be better organized. Vendors tell Eater they feared retaliation for criticizing Esparza’s decisions, including seemingly being arbitrarily moved around the market to give up prime space to non-food stalls. Hunting around for a stall is hard in a crowd, which impacts sales: “It’s hard to scramble last minute,” one food vendor says.

    Several vendors shared frustration with Esparza about erratic scheduling and said she should take cues from what other markets do. A vendor mentioned they’d like to trade dates with other vendors, but felt they couldn’t even propose the idea thanks to Esparza’s demeanor. Vendors echoed Block Club’s report, that vendors were told not to speak with the media with any concerns. They weren’t threatened with retaliation, but say it was implied.

    The loss of the nearby Discount Megamall, razed in 2016 to make room for a building that includes Andros Taverna and Target along Milwaukee Avenue, may have impacted the farmers market. “Vintage sellers,” or as the chamber calls them, “bazaar vendors,” lost space to sell their wares. Some who might have found a home at the Megamall set up shop in the park next to the market.

    The chamber found itself in a tricky position with safety and traffic concerns mounting. The market was already congested enough. The city’s licensing departments, often criticized in the restaurant world for being slow in recognizing a problem, aren’t helping.

    “We believe that the safest and most productive way to operate the farmers market in the neighborhood, in which we all live and work, is by including non-food vendors under the Logan Square Farmers Market umbrella,” the chamber board responds. “We intend to do this at least until the city provides a licensing rubric for these informal economies.”

    The Megamall situation resembles the plight of local food vendors after the sudden closures of Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market. Vendors like Pretty Cool Ice Cream and Kyoto Black lost their biggest accounts and are looking for ways to compensate.

    Chef Sarah Stegner is a co-founder of Green City and recalls the story of Judy Schad, who founded Capriole Goat Cheese. Schad sold goat cheese at Green City Lincoln Park about seven years ago but found a home at Dom’s — customers can also find the cheese at Whole Foods and other retailers. The farmers market served as an incubator for Capriole.

    The role of incubator is one that Logan Square’s farmers market wants to play, but not just for food vendors. One vendor disparagingly compared the market to a “glorified food hall.”

    Back in 2008, legendary chef and writer Alice Waters visited Chicago and heaped praise on Green City’s mission. Chef Art Smith remembers Waters’ words, particularly her mention of Paris, and the impact the moving of its massive outdoor market, Les Helles, had on the city and its food culture. American dynamics are different, but he sees a similar transformation taking place in Fulton Market, where development has long displaced the meatpacking industry. There’s danger in rupturing connections with foodways in favor of so-called neighborhood revitalization.

    The Logan Square chamber, in a news release, said it’s thankful for Block Club’s report and tried to save face with the public.

    “We can’t comment on the accuracy of peoples’ feelings,’’ a portion of the chamber board’s emailed response to Eater reads. “We trust that they feel and believe that the market is fundamentally unfair. While this saddens us, we remain optimistic. We do know that while we strive constantly for both fairness and transparency in pursuit of our mission to support the business and community of Logan Square and Avondale, we will inevitably disappoint some people along the way.”

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • TikTok is a great way to experience the Fallout games now

    TikTok is a great way to experience the Fallout games now

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    Ever since watching the Fallout show, I can’t get enough of it. The show was my introduction to its world, and the ending only inspired me to dive deeper in the worlds of the video games that inspired the show. Everything from the evils of Vault-Tec to the eccentric characters fascinated me. Clearly I’m not alone — the game series received an influx of players following the release of the show — but not everyone can commit to playing the games. It can be a massive time investment and even require hundreds of mods to play. Luckily for me, I’ve found a great way to experience the games without actually playing them: Watching clips on TikTok.

    I can already hear the groans from seasoned fans — that’s valid! — since watching short videos about specific quests, locations, or characters doesn’t at all replace actually playing the game. But now I get to see a highlight reel from the people who put those hundreds of hours into the game and learn about the series in way that’s tailored towards the viewers of the show. For example, the video below shows an undetonated bomb in Fallout 3’s Megaton and discusses theories on who first dropped the bombs — which the show directly addresses.

    Clips like the above allow me to learn about the world as it’s presented in the game series and can also give additional information about the lore of the game. Sure, I could go and read Wikis on the game, but that’s just not as fun. In the below clip, we can learn about a guy who runs the radio — a role played by Fred Armisen in the show — and what happens if you kill the radio guy in the game. (Spoilers: It’s funny.)

    Even if I were to put the time and effort into the games, it wouldn’t guarantee that I’ll get to go and see everything I want in a perfect way. Like, I could play, but I might not know how funny the result would be if I killed the radio host. In other examples, people have just been really good at highlighting goofy moments. The clip below talks about a mysterious cult that formed around the Gravitron theme park ride.

    People also just pull hilarious stunts in the games that I wouldn’t have the time or patience to pull off. Like this person, who collects dozens of Protectrons to defend against an invasion from the The Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 4.

    Prior to the show, I might have scrolled past these videos, and TikTok’s algorithm might have taken that as a sign I wasn’t interested in that content. However, now, the show has given me just enough knowledge to contextualize the big moments shown in the clips. The videos hit a sweet spot where I know enough to understand the clips and can recognize certain sects or recurring characters, but I don’t know so much that none of it surprises me. All in all, it’s been an enjoyable way to learn more about the games, and I’d recommend poking around on TikTok if you’re looking to scratch that Fallout itch.

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    Ana Diaz

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  • The Death of Journalistic Swagger, Apple Is Crushing It, ‘The Office’ for Newspapers, and “The Revenge of the Homepage” With Julia Turner

    The Death of Journalistic Swagger, Apple Is Crushing It, ‘The Office’ for Newspapers, and “The Revenge of the Homepage” With Julia Turner

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    Hello media consumers! On the Final Edition, Bryan is joined by Julia Turner—one of the hosts of Slate’s Culture Gabfest! They get into the following topics:

    • Jack Shafer’s story in Politico about “journalistic swagger” (1:20).
    • Ben Smith of Semafor’s interview with New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn regarding the 2024 election (20:26)
    • The Apple ad about the new thin iPad (32:56)
    • An Office spinoff, but for a newspaper company (35:26)
    • Reggie Miller has learned something from Bryan and other podcasters (40:00)
    • Kyle Chayka’s, of The New Yorker, story: “The Revenge of the Home Page” (42:59)

    Then, David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline.

    Host: Bryan Curtis
    Guest: Julia Turner
    Producer: Brian H. Waters

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

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    Bryan Curtis

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  • A Scottish Pub Known For Premier Fish and Chips Is Moving After 35 Years

    A Scottish Pub Known For Premier Fish and Chips Is Moving After 35 Years

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    The Duke of Perth, home of one of the city’s best plates of fish and chips and a rare Chicago pub that highlights Scottish cuisine, is moving from its original home where it has stood since 1989. Later this month, they’ll wrap up a 35-year stint at 2913 N. Clark Street. Work has already begun at their new home, 2827 N. Broadway, the former Renaldi’s Pizza. It’s about a five-minute walk southeast.

    Coincidentally, the Renaldi’s space has sentimental value for the Duke’s co-owner John Crombie. When he first emigrated to America from Dundee, Scotland, he met the woman who would become his wife. After a visit to Scotland, he flew back to Chicago where she picked him up from O’Hare International Airport and they drove directly to Renaldi’s: “It’s always been a soft spot for us,” Crombie says.

    That nostalgia didn’t fuel the move. Operating a restaurant is tough, and Crombie and his partners thought they were stuck in a rut at the original space. They weren’t making money and their lease was about to expire. Crombie feared if they renewed their lease, say for three years, they’d find themselves in the same predicament in three years. The choice was either to close or take a chance and move. Meanwhile, Renaldi’s was caught in limbo after 50 years. Though closed since September, cryptic signs left in the window left hope that a reopening was possible. That never happened and Crombie says he made an offer around Thanksgiving in November.

    The new location won’t have a lot of new bells and whistles or a new menu: “Good whisky, good beer — wonderful [all-you-can-eat] fish and chips,” Crombie reiterates. The Duke is a place for conversation and there are no TVs; that philosophy will carry over as they’re trying to recreate the Clark Street space on Broadway. Crombie says started the process of “heavy redecorating.” Out went Renadli’s old pizza oven. The Duke’s history dates back to the ‘80s when Crombie and company owned a store, International Antiques, at 2909 N. Clark Street, across from the Century Shopping Center. They purchased the building and decided to open a pub.

    Renaldi’s is closed as Duke of Perth is moving inside.
    Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago

    But in the early years, they struggled and as the market for antiques sagged, they decided to sell the building. Crombie says two months after the sale, Chicago magazine published a story praising the Duke’s fish and chips. The positive press ignited business and the Duke was saved. The ownership also is behind another Lakeview icon, Le Creperie, having purchased the French restaurant in 2014. The original idea was to move the Duke into Le Creperie’s space, but after their landlord lowered the rent and hearing the community outcry to save Le Creperie, John and Jack Crombie changed directions.

    The plan is to close around May 25 on Clark Street, to give some of the musicians who frequently performed over the years a chance to say goodbye and to open on Broadway in early June. As Crombie and his partners, including Colin Cameron, get older, operating a bar continues to be a daunting task. Despite the temptations to close, Crombie was matter-of-fact in their reasoning to keep going.

    “Just because the Duke is the Duke and everybody likes it,” he says.

    Crombie is also amused as they purchased Renaldi’s old liquor license. The name of the license? “Shorty O’Toole’s.”

    “It’s a Scottish place buying an Italian place with an Irish name,” Crombie adds.

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • Drake and Kendrick Lamar Is the Last Great Rap Beef. Thank God.

    Drake and Kendrick Lamar Is the Last Great Rap Beef. Thank God.

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    Editor’s note: This piece was published about an hour before Kendrick dropped another Drake diss—“Not Like Us”—his fourth in four days and third in 36 hours. We can assume it won’t be his last—in fact, he raps on the latest track: “How many stocks do I really have in stock? / One, two, three, four, five, plus five,” so that means we may be getting 10 … total? Ten more? You have to admire this level of dedication to pettiness, even if it’s running our copy editors and production team ragged.

    Rap isn’t the NBA. There’s no Anthony Edwards or Jamal Murray capable of sending our washed stars to Cancun. Bronny’s biggest opps are bored NBA writers and the ESPN ticker tape. Meanwhile, Adonis has witnessed two generational MCs scold his father for his child-raising abilities while taking buzz saws to his family tree before the age of 7. Commercial hip-hop—like most of the modern music industry—has become too fat, old, neutered, and niche to launch a new household name and thus more desperate and existentially bloody. This is what happens when the old guard becomes the only guard.

    In 2024, with Kanye solely devoted to harvesting Ty Dolla $ign’s life force, only two rappers are capable of hoarding this much cultural real estate. Over the past month, Beyoncé dropped a country record, Quavo and Chris Brown are beefing over who terrorizes women more, and Taylor Swift tried to drive her DeLorean to the 1830s (apparently without all the slavery). Yet all of these moments pale in comparison to what unfolded Friday night when two members of rap’s “Big Three” finally unleashed their Trinity test.

    After weeks of threatening theoretical nukes, Drake finally donned the Oppenheimer hat with “Family Matters.” On the seering, seven-minute diss track Aubrey says that Kendrick assaulted his wife, while Kendrick’s close friend and label cofounder Dave Free sired a child with her. Seeing the mushroom cloud from Lucali’s, Kenny S. Truman said “bet” and immediately dropped a bomb on Drake’s head with the deranged and highly cursed “Meet the Grahams.” The top-level notes are brutal: In Kendrick’s telling, Drake is hiding another child and is the head of a Toronto child sex-trafficking ring. Meanwhile, Drake says that Kendrick hired a crisis-management team to hide the fact he physically abused his partner. If you’re asking why two of the biggest pop stars of their generation are debasing themselves in a bossip beef—all of the details of which, as of press time, have not been verified—while throwing women and kids on the front line, in the words of Kendrick: “I’ma get back to that, for the record.”

    In terms of size, scale, and capital, we’re witnessing the last rap beef of this magnitude. And while too much critical ink is wasted on the monoculture—or lack thereof—it bears mentioning there will never be another rapper that occupies the same cultural space as Drake or Kendrick. There probably won’t even be another J. Cole. (Some subscribe to the belief that Jermaine belongs in the same conversation as Drake and Kendrick … I don’t.) As hip-hop becomes more diffuse and hyper-regional, Drake and Kendrick represent the last artists popular enough to suck up this much oxygen, even as the quality of their music has dipped to the point of feeling irrelevant next to their all-consuming celebrity.

    The shenanigans started in March, when Future and Metro Boomin dropped their first of two albums this year, We Don’t Trust You. The main headline from it was Kendrick finally emerging from the therapy haze of Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers with a feature on “Like That,” in which Kendrick proceeds to do to Drake what the Canadian has done to his peers and well-endowed exes: turn a barn-burning diss into an inescapable smash hit. “Like That” spent five weeks atop the Hot 100, becoming Kendrick’s longest-running no. 1 in the process. It wasn’t long before an emboldened Metro Hoffa unionized the aging vets of the blog era against Big Drake and OVO industries. A$AP Rocky, the Weekend, Kanye, and Rick Ross happily jumped in.

    J. Cole was the first to take the Kendrick bait on the underbaked “7 Minute Drill.” Over two rushed and wonky beats, hip-hop’s resident laundry man got high off the fumes of his overhyped feature run and claimed he wasn’t that jealous of Kendrick before mentioning that 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly is trash. But just days later, Jermaine decided to Summer Jam–screen himself at his annual hometown festival by admitting to a crowd of thousands that he was tossing and turning at night over the entire debacle. After (prolly) letting Nas and the general public down once again, Cole smartly ceded his time and the floor to the Big Two.

    Since then, Drake and Kendrick have traded six records back and forth of varying degrees of quality and lucidity. Drake called Kendrick a short, hobbit-sized cuck, so Lamar lobbed back that Toronto’s finest has his braids pulled too tight and isn’t allowed to say the N-word anymore. One man desecrated Tupac’s grave with AI, while the other pissed all over a timestamp record while reportedly getting fed information from Roy Woods and OB O’Brien. “Push-Ups” and “Taylor Made” bled into “Euphoria” and “6:16 in L.A.” But after Friday’s squabble, all of them have been rendered inconsequential. To continue with the nuclear analogy: With “Meet the Grahams” and “Family Matters,” the Doomsday Machine has been activated, so maybe it’s best to hide underground. (J. Cole certainly agrees.)

    If this all sounds exhausting, it should. Drake is 37 and Kendrick is about to be. Both these men have kids and families they could be tending to, but instead we’re treated to a beef that started over essentially nothing—if we’re to believe Kendrick, over Drake and Cole linking up in “First Person Shooter” and invoking the idea of a rap “Big Three.” But not a single song released since “Like That” lives up to the expectations each of these men stoked through their years-long Cold War. Nothing measures up to the base-level quality of “Control,” “Back to Back,” or “Stay Schemin.” Instead, we’re treated to two aging rappers squabbling over … who’s cornier? Or maybe it’s about who is or isn’t Kobe? Or even who should be able to buy Tupac’s ring at Sotheby’s for a million dollars?

    Even the beef’s most damaging revelations are disingenuous at best—and outright craven at the worst. Drake’s faux-outrage over the account of Kendrick’s treatment of his partner doesn’t mean much when Drake was cosigning Chris Brown’s gang ties a few bars earlier and was caping for Tory Lanez to be freed a few months ago. Similarly, if Kendrick is so concerned with sexual assault and protecting young women from the OVO compound, why did he spend his last album crying about cancel culture and propping up Kodak Black?

    Drake and Kendrick don’t have the politics to be doing all this. Is Drake wrong that Kendrick, “always rappin’ like you ’bout to get the slaves freed?” Not really. But also Drake stands for nothing and has never committed an interesting political thought to record in his life. And if Kendrick knows incriminating information about Drake, why has he withheld it until it was this advantageous? As with most hip-hop beefs, we’ve ended up where we were always destined to—men using women, wives, baby mothers, parents, and children in increasingly gross and depraved ways to satisfy their rabid egos.

    The microaggressions, subliminals, and shots that got us to this moment date back to a time when GQ still had enough juice to terrorize rappers into dressing like Williamsburg hipsters. What person under 30 even recalls that Drake invited peers like Kendrick, Rocky, Cole, and Meek to open for him on tour in 2012 and then spent the next decade treating the aforementioned like his sons for taking him up on the offer? How many people still remember all the blog mainstays Kendrick shot at on 2013’s “Control”? If Drake is still upset because Compton’s resident good kid threatened to “tuck him into his pajamas clothes” during a BET cypher, there’s no helping my man. The only entities profiting from this scuffle are Universal Music Group, the Joe Budden extended podcast universe, a bunch of teenage streamers I refuse to Google, and the collection of rap publications that haven’t been nuked by private equity firms.

    The most straightforward and generous read of this entire beef is that Drake and Kendrick are rappers lost to time. They’re formalists in a genre that’s moved past the tradition. They came up in a time when cosigns were necessary (Lil Wayne, Dr. Dre), radio runs were crucial, and albums still mattered. Drake belongs to a long lineage of rappers turned pop stars (e.g., LL Cool J, Nelly, 50 Cent), while Kendrick is marketed as a conscious alternative (e.g., Nas, pre-MAGA Kanye, Tupac). Even the duo would love you to believe this is Michael Jackson vs. Prince—numbers vs. “real” art.

    Perhaps that’s why the beef feels so toothless. Drake and Kendrick aren’t fighting the same war; they’re two grown men arguing past one another because there’s no one left to challenge. One views dominance—via streaming numbers and celebrity—as inextricable from the art, while the other envisions himself as a purist responsible for upholding a grand tradition. And yet, each rapper has ended up in a similar place.

    There’s very little compelling about two men who signed to major labels in their 20s debating who got extorted when the most obvious answer is both. Drake mocking Kendrick for his cringeworthy Taylor Swift and Maroon 5 features doesn’t mean much when he was spitting water-carrying lyrics like “Taylor Swift the only nigga that I ever rated” a year ago and starring in Apple commercials with the pop star. Similarly, can Kendrick really talk about Drake running to Yachty (the recovering “King of the Teens”) for swag, when he found his own nepo-version of the Atlanta rapper in Baby Keem?

    At the time of publication, Kendrick is in the lead in this battle, even if that distinction feels hollow. Drake has dropped 13 projects in 13 years, compared to Kendrick’s six. Of course when Cornrow Kenneth descends from his Pulitzer perch to wrestle in the mud with the other aging degenerates it’s going to mean more. But Kendrick is also beating his rival in a way that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

    When Drake triumphed over Meek Mill in 2015 it was because he understood the internet better than any of his peers. Meme culture was new and novel. The impact of “Hotline Bling” and the dancing Drake GIF apocalypse was still months away. Meek was having an argument about authenticity when his own label boss triumphed over 50 Cent years priors despite being outed as a correctional officer. A ghostwriter reveal and an alleged incident in which a T.I. associate pissed on Drake’s leg should’ve been enough for the Philadelphia rapper to eke out a win, but Meek wasn’t ready to accept that the internet (and by extension the nerds) won.

    Almost eight years later, Kendrick has rendered Drake’s biggest advantage obsolete. The meme economy got a reality TV show host elected to the White House and almost toppled American democracy in the process. Our relationship in 2024 to hyper-online celebrities is no longer cute and interesting. It’s not just that Kendrick has been funnier—“is it the braids?” is an all-timer—it’s that he’s less accessible than Drake. Unless you have the comedic timing of Rick Ross, taunting another man over IG stories is never going to be as cool as someone who refuses to use the internet. The quality of the most recent diss tracks became irrelevant the minute Kendrick outmaneuvered Drake by releasing “Meet the Grahams” about an hour after “Family Matters” dropped. (And especially after Drake was left deflecting Kendrick’s “hiding another child” accusations on Instagram instead of taking a victory lap for his own track.)

    Barring a RICO case or something even more horrific—and potentially verifiable—coming to light, nothing released in the past two months will help or hinder either man’s legacy. Unless Drake and Kendrick are half as sick, perverted, abusive, and morally repugnant as these records claim, the most likely outcome is that UMG will cut both a massive check for the streaming boom this animosity fueled. But this is a post-truth beef. Kendrick stans will believe that Drake has a kindergarten class of unclaimed sons and daughters because it’s funny and convenient. And unless a more reputable source than The OVO Post finds that Kendrick does have a history of physically assaulting women, the chances of it impacting his sales and critical stature are practically nonexistent.

    Cover-art Ozempic receipts aside, most of the scars from this tantrum will be reserved for the family and friends who have now been immortalized in rushed and harried songs that have already begun to lose their luster. And the only rapper who has sustained real damage thus far did it to himself, and his stans are still convinced rap’s Charlie Brown will kick the football next time. But Drake and Kendrick aren’t held to the same standard as other artists. They aren’t just the most popular rappers of their generation—one could argue they’re among the most consequential musicians of the 21st century. A Canadian child actor and Tupac’s shortest stan went from the Zippyshare trenches to the last remaining superstars of a genre that’s going the way of rock. The perch seems lonely—two rappers bold enough to use their government names unable to connect with the only other person in the world who could relate. Call it poetic justice.

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    Charles Holmes

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  • Tour Sushi-San Lincoln Park, Lettuce Entertain You’s New Japanese Restaurant

    Tour Sushi-San Lincoln Park, Lettuce Entertain You’s New Japanese Restaurant

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    Last month, veteran Chicago food writer Titus Ruscitti made a stunning statement — that Lincoln Park “could be making an early case for the 2024 restaurant neighborhood of the year.” The North Side neighborhood certainly has its stalwarts in Alinea, Boka, and, yes — the Wieners Circle. But the area, that DePaul University inhabits also has its fair share of cheap eat stinkers.

    Lincoln Park has also been dominated by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises which counts five restaurants, including the original LEYE venue, R.J. Grunts, which opened in 1971. That number is about to increase with the addition of Sushi-san, joining locations in River North and inside Willis Tower. Sushi-san Lincoln Park opens today on Thursday, May 2 at 1950 N. Halsted Street.

    The new Sushi-san is inside a new building where gay icon Manhandler Saloon stood. The neighborhood has changed and Lettuce has had to evolve with competition with the likes of John’s Food and Wine, Esme, and more. LEYE managing partner Amarit Dulyapaibul says Sushi-san has new tricks up with sashimi additions like bluefin tuna with a wafu vinaigrette and dill: “They’ve hit some of the biggest, boldest flavors we have come from that section of the menu,” he says.

    Lincoln Park isn’t a neighborhood without quality sushi options from casual spots like Green Tea, to fancier options like Juno. But LEYE is ready for the competition. Sushi chef Kaze Chan spends most of his time in River North, where they serve omakase. Omakase won’t be a fixture in Lincoln Park, but Dulyapaibul is proud of the menu. He calls Chan “a generational sushi talent.”

    “We have this incredible chef and we think that we’re able to grow the brand and create an extension and an evolution of Ramen-san,” Dulyapaibul says.

    When Sushi-san opened in River North, it was more of a sushi spinoff of the ramen restaurant, but it’s found its niche. A popular and tasty item is vegetarian sushi made with Mighty Vine tomatoes. There are also chilled soba noodles made of buckwheat. Many restaurants and suppliers claim their soba is made of buckwheat when they’re actually made with a touch of buckwheat mixed with fillers. Sushi-san’s noodles should be more of a genuine article.

    There’s a six-table patio along Halsted Street and room for 130 inside. The interior includes an eight-seat sushi bar along with a 17-seat bar. There’s a basement where Dulyapaibul hopes will emulate what LEYE does next door at Ramen-san when they bring in a visiting chef from another restaurant for the occasional pop-up.

    A patio along Halsted is among the highlights.

    Dulyapaibul says Lettuce sees the Sushi-san brand as a neighborhood restaurant. They’ll have a kid’s menu with chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and miso salmon.

    “I think the way we always try to build them is just to be super kind of welcoming and responsive to the neighborhood that we’re in,” Dulyapaibul says.

    With Ramen-san (which opened in 2023), Summer House, and Cafe Ba-Ba-Ree-ba, all clustered at Halsted and Armitage, is that enough for LEYE?

    “Lincoln Park is such a special neighborhood in Chicago and means so much to us and the history of this organization,” Dulyapaibul says. ”I think we’ll continue to invest here heavily. We always are looking for more opportunity.”

    Check out some food photos below.

    Sushi-san Lincoln Park, 1950 N. Halsted Street, open 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • You really don’t know what you’re missing

    You really don’t know what you’re missing

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    Discworld is one of those strange series that you simply cannot explain to somebody who has not read it before. Sir Terry Pratchett was the greatest fantasy writer of his time, perhaps of all time, and reading his books while I was homeless was one of the few things that brought me enough joy to keep going some days.

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  • Is Bravo Forcing Kyle to Out Herself? Plus ‘Summer House,’ ‘The Valley,’ and ‘Vanderpump Rules.’

    Is Bravo Forcing Kyle to Out Herself? Plus ‘Summer House,’ ‘The Valley,’ and ‘Vanderpump Rules.’

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    Rachel Lindsay and Jodi Walker begin this week’s Morally Corrupt with a chat about the Bravo news of the week, then jump into Season 8, Episode 10 of Summer House (13:04). Then, Rachel and Jodi discuss Season 1, Episode 6 of The Valley (34:02) and Season 11, Episode 13 of Vanderpump Rules (49:20). Plus, Rachel guesses the zodiac sign for the problematic Bravo man of the week!

    Host: Rachel Lindsay
    Guest: Jodi Walker
    Producers: Devon Baroldi
    Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Rachel Lindsay

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  • ‘Challengers’ Is Sexy, Sweaty, and Undeniable

    ‘Challengers’ Is Sexy, Sweaty, and Undeniable

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    MGM

    Plus, Justin Kuritzkes joins to talk about writing the script, the power dynamics among the characters, and more!

    Sean and Amanda gather to discuss the 2024 film perfectly situated at the center of their respective tastes: Challengers. They discuss the thrilling trio of actors at its center, underrated director Luca Guadagnino, its pulsing score, and its thrilling ending (1:00). Then, Sean interviews Justin Kuritzkes, the writer of the movie, about writing this script on spec, the balance of power dynamics among the characters, why he chose to set it in the world of tennis, and more (1:35:00).

    Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
    Guest: Justin Kuritzkes
    Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

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    Sean Fennessey

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  • The Vibe at This New Logan Square ’80s Bar Is Totally Tubular

    The Vibe at This New Logan Square ’80s Bar Is Totally Tubular

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    The team behind Common Decency knew they had big shoes to fill inside the former Lost Lake space. Their response? Focus on food and cocktails that everyone could enjoy. That includes making sure the bread used in their Cuban sandwich is gluten-free (which accommodates beverage director Kelsey Kasper’s allergy) and giving partner Jason Turley a top-flight vegetarian option with the mushroom French dip, made with roasted portabella and gruyere.

    While Lost Lake focused on liquids and was often crowded with folks holding drinks garnished with umbrellas, Common Decency sports tables in the aisles where diners can enjoy small bites like skillet cornbread or thrice-cooked (baked, smoked, fried) chicken wings to more robust dishes like a hanger steak or dumpling cacio e pepe. Dumplings have been a signature dish for ex-Funkenhausen chef Mark Steuer since his days at Carriage House in Wicker Park. The difference in Logan Square is ensuring the gluten-free dumplings are airy.

    They’ve added a disco ball.

    The space feels wider and flashier thanks to the ’80s vibe which allows visitors to enact their Miami Vice dreams. But instead of fighting over who gets to play Crockett and who gets to play Tubbs, Steuer sees a welcoming atmosphere. There’s a disco ball and a photo booth, plus a new backroom for larger groups.

    Don’t look for banana daiquiri on the drink menu. There are frozen drinks, like frozen Key lime pie with rum and Greek yogurt. The drinks from Kasper, a partner in the bar who formerly managed Spilt Milk, showcase her gift of balancing acid, says Steuer, her fiance. A drink called Barbershop Celebrity uses sticky rice, mango, and Thai basil mixed with coconut-washed vodka. The Coffee Date is their answer to the espresso martini using Hexe espresso, honey, dates, and cacao. Steuer says they’ll eventually make seltzer and vinegars using citrus peels and other waste from fruit.

    Common Decency’s owners are offering workers profit sharing and health insurance co-pays after six months of employment as part of their way of raising the standards in the workplace for hospitality workers. Those benefits will be baked into the cost of food and drink. Steuer says QR codes and surcharges are pet peeves he’ll avoid.

    Earlier this month, partner and co-chef Felipe Hernandez suddenly died in an accident. Hernandez’s loss is felt on several fronts, including lost recipes that weren’t written down. Steuer and company have attempted to reverse-engineer some. Later this summer, a companion restaurant, Fever Dream, will open next door inside the space where Thank You, the Chinese American takeout spot that was once operated by Lost Lake’s owners. Hernandez was to play a large role in Fever Dream. Steuer says they’re still figuring out how to properly honor their friend at the bar. There’s a bit of push that the best way to remember Hernandez is to make sure Common Decency is successful.

    While Hernandez won’t be present for the next stop in their journey, he’ll remain in the staff’s hearts when Common Decency opens on Friday, April 26.

    Common Decency, 3154 W. Diversey, opening Friday, April 26.

    A cuban sandwich.

    El Cubano

    Dumplings on a cream sauce.

    Dumpling Cacio E Pepe.

    BBQ Chicken Roulade

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • Is ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Taylor Swift’s Most Controversial Album Ever?

    Is ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Taylor Swift’s Most Controversial Album Ever?

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    At midnight on Friday, Taylor Swift released her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department—a collection of 16 raw and vulnerable songs, partially about the end of her long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn, but mostly about the emotionally frenetic period that came next, including a high-profile and fraught tryst with the 1975’s Matty Healy, all while Swift was embarking on her massive Eras Tour. Then at 2 a.m. on Friday, Swift dropped another album: TTPD: The Anthology, with 15 more songs. The entire collection, written and produced mostly with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, runs just over two hours. On the latest Every Single Album, Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard discuss the entire project—their favorite songs, the tracks that didn’t land, her collaborations, and what could be coming next. In this excerpt, Princiotti and Hubbard discuss the midnight release, the huge 2 a.m. surprise, and their reactions to the 31-song album. You can listen to the full conversation here and subscribe for upcoming episodes discussing TTPD.

    Nora Princiotti: I think the thing that made me just feel a little bit, not glum, that’s too much—but where those feelings were coming from was this kernel of worry of, “Oh gosh, Taylor Swift album releases are like a holiday for me. It’s a high holy day on the calendar. Is this one not going to be fun or not going to be as fun?” And I am absolutely here to say to you that I had a really fucking good time.

    Nathan Hubbard: I agree. I thought the same way. And the reason, the pro case for releasing it so late is that all of the riffraff goes to sleep. The real ones are the ones who stay up. And that’s where the social platforms and just all of the back and forth is so much fun because it’s just this—

    Princiotti: The tweets were so good.

    Hubbard: Yes. Yes. As somebody who started at Twitter pre-IPO, whose heart has been broken into pieces, I’m going to write 31 songs about this, about the state of the platform. It served its purpose on Thursday night, early Friday morning. It was wonderful. And you know what? It makes you feel more connected to human beings. It makes you feel less alone. It’s a wonderful experience.

    Princiotti: No, people were getting their jokes off. It was so fun. It was also, it’s just silly that everyone’s up at 2 o’clock in the morning together. I am so happy to say that that experience, which really, since the sort of pandemic-era album, since Folklore, and through the rereleases to some degree but especially with Midnights, with this, the being up really late at night on the internet when everybody’s listening to Taylor Swift is incredibly fun, and it continued to be incredibly fun. So I think that’s a wonderful thing, and I’m very happy that it happened. Anything else in the way of just sort of a vibes check for you right now?

    Hubbard: Exhaustion. Look, Nora, this is her most controversial album since Reputation at least, if not ever. And it comes at a moment of unicorn-level fame and adoration. It comes at a moment where she has the biggest tour in the world; she’s still in the middle of it. Regardless of what critics and fans say, she now has the most streamed album of all time in the first day. She has probably the biggest relationship, most publicly facing relationship in the world right now. And it is kind of an unprecedented test …

    Princiotti: We’ll talk about Travis, don’t you worry.

    Hubbard: … of fame and fan base and critical reception and the music. It’s just this wonderful experiment, but I think what is most interesting about it is it’s not really what I expected, Nora.

    Princiotti: So talk to me about “most controversial,” what you mean by that. The reviews aren’t awesome.

    Hubbard: The reviews aren’t awesome. And I think the controversy starts for me within the fan base because this is a fan base that, much like this podcast, spent years trying to convince other people that this was not just a woman who wrote about breakups but an all-timer in the annals of musical history as a songwriter, as an artist, as a businessperson.

    And that defense gets—I mean, it’s the thing that you and I have struggled with, which is, “Hey, high fives everybody, we won. We were right. We bought Facebook stock early on, and it became the biggest company on the planet. We were in early on it. So now what is interesting about it?” And the fan base’s natural instinct, reflexive instinct is, “Taylor Swift is the best thing ever,” defense, defense, fight, fight, fight. And when she releases so much content, to me, that becomes white noise if you aren’t able to get into the nuance of talking about the actual reception to the art.

    There are a lot of people for whom Midnights was their favorite Taylor Swift album, but now, we’ve got a record that comes at the peak of everything when she’s clearly the best—

    Princiotti: There are a lot of people who didn’t feel that way about Midnights, but—

    Hubbard: There are. There definitely are. But she has been almost criticism-proof from the fan base over this intense period of escape velocity into a level of orbit that candidly has not really been seen before because of the confluence of technology and the internet and everything. So it’s sort of as we haven’t seen this before, and this is the first time that she’s put out music in that context.

    And I think I say “controversy” because when you read between the lines—and there were leaks of this album that came out, and there were fan base wars of the Swifties blaming the Ariana Grande fans for circulating it and MFing the record—it is clear that this is not everybody’s favorite album. And how they talk about it, how they support her and celebrate it while still receiving what I think in some corners is reasonable feedback and constructive criticism in others, is a social experiment in how to take shots at the biggest artist and biggest woman on the planet. How all of those things come together, I think, creates a lot of controversy: how you talk about it, how you criticize it, and how you celebrate it.

    Princiotti: Yeah, no, I mean, look, even definitionally, the most die-hard Taylor Swift fan on the planet, everybody’s got a favorite album. Everybody’s got, even if they wouldn’t phrase it that way, a least favorite album. We all love to rank them. We all have ones that we like better than others.

    I’ll get to how I feel about this one, and we will obviously talk through it. Talking to people over the weekend, I got a lot more, “OK, on second listen, on third listen, I’m getting more into it. Oh, this is interesting. I like this song.” Lot more of that than, “Holy crap, she’s done it again.” There’s a lot more talking yourself into this one.

    And to some degree, that’s because I think it is an album that sort of reveals itself in layers, and it rewards a close read, but it’s not an album that, at least in my group texts and from what I saw online and from how I processed it myself, went, “Oh, holy crap, this is an all-timer.”

    Hubbard: Right.

    Princiotti: That’s not how it struck people, even within the fan base, immediately. The thing that’s interesting to me though—and why I asked you about how you were framing the idea of it being controversial—is that I think the fact that it is so long and just the novelty and the Taylor Swift–iness of it being a double album release, to me, it ended up blunting a little bit of that because there was a moment when I felt like things were gearing up for, “Oh God, everybody’s going to be fighting, and it’s going to be knock-down, drag-out, ‘Taylor Swift is terrible.’ ‘Taylor Swift can’t write a song.’ ‘Taylor Swift is the greatest artist who’s ever lived.’”

    And then, I just think the fact that there’s so much to sort through and that the first two paragraphs of every story are, “Surprise, she had a whole second album ready,” it kind of blunts everything, which is probably for the better. But it’s an interesting dynamic where I feel like there’s so much. The context of how people talk about her on the internet and the inevitable backlash to being the biggest star on the planet, that felt so present. And I felt like a little bit of that got drowned in just the amount of content that’s here. Although maybe that’s because I had a podcast to prepare for in those two hours.

    Hubbard: Yeah. We had 35 hours to prepare for 31 songs; that’s a piece of it. The other piece of the controversy, for me, is, I think you’re right that in private, a lot of people are having these feelings. But in public, the way that the fan base has criticized has either been not at all or in the way that she viscerally strikes out against in multiple places on this record and chastises the fan base for overcontrolling her personal life … and for taking shots that are painful to her.

    Princiotti: Right. That’s the other big part of this: On this record, there is animosity—there’s clear animosity—from Taylor Swift to the people who adore her and who take it upon themselves to fight her battles, real or imagined.

    Hubbard: Correct. And then there is also the critical community that seems to be glomming on—and here, I’m talking about The New Yorker, New York Times, Paste magazine—that are glomming on to the fact that she’s a billionaire and on top of whatever mountain there is that exists of stardom and artistry, and that they’re the cooler-than-thou critics that can’t seem to shake that context and who are dismissing this work as a bit childish. Like, “How can she, at 34, with a billion dollars, still be singing about the same themes?”

    And I personally fall into a different place, and we’ll talk about it, but it is gratitude that we get such insight into the life of a unicorn. I mean, she tells us why she’s still framing the world a bit like this, like the girl in the bleachers from “You Belong With Me.” It’s right there in the pages of these lyrics. She grew up in an asylum. She was a precocious child, and sometimes that means you don’t grow up. She tells us that. But after six years of, as she referenced in “Bejeweled,” being in the basement, it’s helpful context around the profile of this antihero that we’ve been twittering about but who hasn’t actually given us that much insight behind the scenes into what’s been going on over those last six or seven years.

    Princiotti: In a while. I do think that there’s a distinction between some of the reflexive, “Well, she’s a billionaire. Why isn’t she grateful?” Which, I don’t even really begrudge people that response, I just don’t care. And a different version of it, which is a little bit more resonant to me, is, “For all that she has and all that she’s accomplished,”—and she did this with Apple Music as well; Spotify signs my paychecks, great service, use it every day—the fact that the logos are on every little piece of the rollout and the question of, “Why, when you have all this power, have all this ability, don’t you use some of it to not have to do this?” That, to me, is a much more fair question than, “When you have all you have, why are you still talking about your problems?”

    Hubbard: Right. The corporatization of this rollout was a little eh, for me.

    Princiotti: Yeah.

    Hubbard: And that, I understand it. And look, to frame it this way, she has fought forever—

    Princiotti: And it’s not new, by the way. I mean—

    Hubbard: It’s not.

    Princiotti: Taylor Swift’s face was on the side of UPS trucks for years. It’s just that it takes on a different—

    Hubbard: Diet Coke, Capital One commercials. I frame it this way. She’s fought for years to get control of her business. She now owns her art outright. There is a Taylor Swift touring logo on the posters. She is a businessman, to borrow from Jay-Z. And when you have achieved that, it’s not just enough to control it. The point of controlling it is when you are one of the largest consumer-facing brands on the planet, it’s to actually then go be the businessperson that you are and make the most of that control and that ownership because you get to make choices about how you market your art.

    There is something to the fact that she’s marketing her art with those partners, but it’s not lost on me: She put out the YouTube Shorts video [Friday] night, interestingly, at the same time that she released her music video. The YouTube Short is this cute video of Travis mauling her while she’s cooking. And it was sort of an interesting choice to release that at the same time that she put out a self-directed video where we’re supposed to believe she might make out with Post Malone. I was like, I might not have put out the wonderful, sort of behind-the-scenes moment of you and your boyfriend at the same time that is clearly a very real moment and then try to get me to believe that you’re going to make out with Post.

    Princiotti: I thought she and Post Malone had some chemistry.

    Hubbard: Well, we’ll talk about that, fine.

    Princiotti: I also love the tweets where it has her with the face tats and not with the face tats and it says Pre Malone, Post Malone.

    Hubbard: But she did the Spotify thing. She did the Apple playlist thing. She even put her music back on TikTok and created a TikTok experience. … She’s entitled now that she’s fought for this control and gone through everything that she has to get that control to now show us when you are the CEO, you get to make these kinds of decisions, and here’s how you actually market your art. I mean, it is—

    Princiotti: Yeah, I don’t think that she’s not entitled to any of this; she’s totally entitled to it.

    Hubbard: It’s just ick. Is it ick for you? Does it rise to that level?

    Princiotti: It’s not really quite ick. It’s on the ick spectrum. I’m just like, … you have earned all this power; it is yours to exercise however you want. I am a little bit questioning why the choice of how to exercise that is to slap a bunch of logos on everything.

    Hubbard: There are two things that it indicates. I mean, either number one, she didn’t want to step on a lot of music that’s being released by her peers this spring. And I think the campaign and the shortness of it could be a reflection of not stepping on Maggie [Rogers], who put out her record [last week]; of not stepping on Ariana; of Billie putting something up; Sabrina Carpenter putting up “Espresso,” which is now going into the stratosphere. She kind of contained the promotion.

    It also might have been quietly a reflex from the criticism that we ourselves gave her about the way she introduced this album onstage at the Grammys that sucked the air out of the room. And it was a pretty commercial moment in what was ostensibly a celebration of creativity. So there’s that piece, which was, maybe this was as much optically about staying in a lane so as not to step on some peers that she cares about.

    But secondly, it also might just be a reflection of our attention span and the ever-scrolling, move-on, TikTok-ization of people’s brains that she just feels like, “A week is all I can do, guys. A week is the only amount of time you’re really going to pay attention to me. So I’m going to show up with Travis at Coachella. We’re going to support Lana and Jack and everybody else and then Jungle,” Travis’s new favorite band. “And then we’re going to do a week of a few installations. I’m going to send you on a snipe hunt around the world on a crazy scavenger hunt. But that’s all we’re doing. And that’s for the crazies. The rest of it’s coming, and popular culture is going to break through and put this in front of you. And you’re either going to like it or you don’t.”

    This excerpt was edited for clarity.

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    Nora Princiotti

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  • At This Chicago Dive Bar, Matzo Ball Soup Is the Malort Chaser of Choice

    At This Chicago Dive Bar, Matzo Ball Soup Is the Malort Chaser of Choice

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    Chris and Calvin Marty, the owners behind Best Intentions, say they “don’t make a big deal” that they’re Jewish. The brothers, who opened their Logan Square bar in 2015, grew up in Cambridge, Wisconsin, a village about 60 miles west of Milwaukee and with a population of about 1,600. Less than 1 percent of Wisconsin’s population is Jewish, per a 2020 study from Brandeis University.

    ”We probably experience a little private guilt that maybe we’re not the best Jews — we never went to temple, we never had bar mitzvahs,” says Chris Marty.

    The bar’s menu definitely contains some decidedly unkosher items like the Cuppa Shrimp with mild sauce, a gnarly cheeseburger, and red wine-braised short rib. The harissa chicken provides another nod to the Middle East. But tucked within the menu lies a surprise — matzo ball soup — and a great version at that, with a rich broth darkened by duck fat yet brightened by heavenly wafts of ginger and lemongrass.

    Yes — a place like this uses duck fat for its matzo ball soup.

    In Chicago, it’s not especially hard to find a bowl of matzo ball soup, as a basic version appears on the menu of every self-respecting Jewish deli in town. But in recent years, the dish has begun to spring up in some unexpected places, too, including while perched on a bar stool on a rainy Friday in Logan Square and double-fisting a dirty martini. Best Intentions manages to channel the best of Wisconsin dives and serve fun, well-executed bar food. It was immediately clear that whoever created Best Intentions had spent some time in Wisconsin’s many unironic watering holes like River’s End in rural Ontario.

    “In Jewish American food, the two big things are matzo ball soup and bagels – what’s more ubiquitous than the two of those?” posits Zach Engel, chef and owner of Michelin-starred Israeli and Middle Eastern restaurant Galit in Lincoln Park. Even his mother, an unenthusiastic home cook, makes a “pretty killer” version for family holiday meals: “As far as representations of Jewish culture, [matzo ball soup] makes us look pretty good.”

    Best Intentions reopened in 2023 after a three-year hiatus.

    A group of three women smile and talk at the bar.

    A dollop of burrata and beans.

    This burrata with white bean anchoïade shows the ambition at this dive bar.

    A griddled cheeseburger in a paper bag with fries and a can of pickle beer.

    Cheeseburger (Land O’ Lakes white American cheese, dill pickles, joppiesaus).

    Matzo ball soup was once on the menu at Galit, but Engel hasn’t served it since the pandemic began as the restaurant has shifted to a four-course menu of shared dishes; soup is difficult to share. Nevertheless, Engel says he’s watched with interest as more restaurants work to attract diners with unexpected food while simultaneously tapping into a feeling of cozy familiarity. “Matzo ball soup is a super straightforward way to get people to feel a level of comfort in their heart, but it’s still interesting,” he says.

    Though their exact origin is hazy, the proliferation of matzo balls — a simple mixture of matzo meal, beaten eggs, water, and schmaltz, or chicken fat — is generally attributed to German, Austrian, and Alsatian Jews who adapted regional Eastern European soup dumplings to suit Jewish dietary laws. No matter its history, the matzo ball’s simplicity also means that even unenthusiastic home cooks can deliver a version that will please a crowd.

    The mixture is formed into balls (as usual, there’s debate over the supremacy of fluffy “floaters” or toothsome “sinkers”) and simmered in boiling water or even better, soup stock, until they swell into spongy spheres. Given the relatively small number of American Jews — about 7.6 million, or 2.4 percent of the total U.S. population, and a mere 319,600 in the Chicago area, according to the same Brandeis study — Ashkenazi-style Jewish deli cuisine has made an outsized impact on mainstream American culture in general, from corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day to Meg Ryan’s infamous faux-gasm in rom-com icon When Harry Met Sally.

    A bowl of matzo ball soup.

    Best Intentions chef Bryan McClaran had never tried matzo ball soup before making it.

    As a child, Chris Marty was close to his great-grandmother, Hannah Westler, who fled antisemitism in Europe around the turn of the century and immigrated to Milwaukee, where she worked “14,000 jobs” to put her sons through law school. The brothers grew up eating her matzo ball soup, which she made from a recipe featuring a special twist: vodka. Years later, her boozy invention would inspire them to create a matzo ball cocktail for a local bartending challenge, an exercise that rekindled their connection to their family’s past.

    Though he’d heard of it before, Best Intentions chef Bryan McClaran, who’s worked at the Cambodian restaurant Hermosa and the Asian-influenced Bixi Beer, hadn’t actually tried matzo ball soup when his bosses pitched the idea. Research involved YouTube videos, cookbooks, and some New York Times articles from the ’80s, and in the end, the first version he wound up tasting was his own. Together, the brothers and McClaran worked to hone a recipe that would be worthy of the history it represented.

    “The big thing for us, other than nailing the consistency of the matzo ball, was not to goy it up with dill,” Chris Marty chuckles. “Anywhere we go with my mom, if there’s matzo ball soup, we’ll order it. She’s always like, ‘Why do the goys have to load it up with so much fucking dill?’”

    “Matzo balls aren’t going anywhere”

    It’s a Saturday in March at nearly 18-year-old deli Eleven City Diner, and owner Brad Rubin is holding court from a roomy booth inside his South Loop deli-diner hybrid. Founded in 2006 as an ode to casual midcentury hospitality, the restaurant, which at one point had a Lincoln Park location, has endured long enough to become a pillar of Chicago’s Jewish culinary scene while attracting non-Jews with a retro aesthetic and plentiful plates of food.

    Rubin bursts with pride as he recounts his family’s Ashkenazi immigrant history and explains the meaning behind each photograph, vinyl record, and painting on its walls. His clear, resonant voice rings out as he bids farewell to customers (he learns all of their names) and jokes with employees.

    It’s also impossible to ignore that at least a cup, if not a bowl, of matzo ball soup can be found on half the tables. The broth is light but not additive-yellow, with fluffy-yet-firm matzo balls noteworthy for both their ample size and distinctive green flecks of parsley, mostly for color. However one feels about parsley, the diner’s version serves well as a baseline matzo ball soup — uncomplicated, nostalgic, and reminiscent of a bubbe’s concoction with slightly more polish. There are no surprises in Eleven City’s bowl, and in this way, it’s a stark contrast to McClaran’s melange of elegant aromatics and ducky character at Best Intentions.

    People sit on stools beside a long, low-lit bar with checkerboard flooring.

    Rubin’s resonant tone, however, drops to a hush as he admits Eleven City hasn’t had kreplach since COVID began. The diners who used to order it have since moved out to the suburbs, he says. Kreplach are small and plump dumplings stuffed with fillings like meat and mashed potatoes — cousins to Polish pierogi, Russian pelmeni, Italian stuffed pasta, and Chinese jiaozi. The difference between matzo balls and kreplach is mostly negligible, but, according to Rubin’s numbers, the gap in sales was significant. “Matzo balls aren’t going anywhere,” Rubin affirms.

    Indeed, in recent years they’ve also cropped up on the menu at seemingly random spots like Armitage Ale House, Lincoln Park’s British pub from Au Cheval owner Hogsalt Hospitality. In West Town, chef Zoe Schor also served a pepper-laden matzo ball soup at Split-Rail, which she closed in late 2023. Schor isn’t shy about her Jewish American identity but the restaurant, a neighborhood hit known for fried chicken, was never positioned as a particularly Jewish spot. But for Schor, the soup was about something bigger than Split-Rail – its presence marked a broader movement among chefs seeking to connect with their own background.

    “I feel like in terms of the zeitgeist of becoming classically trained and cooking the food you grew up eating, Ashkenazi Jewish culinary traditions were a little later to hit the trends,” she says. She’s been happy to see the ripple effects manifest in spots like Russ & Daughters, the 110-year-old New York appetizing store that launched a wildly successful cafe in 2014. “I think it’s very cool and important that we continue these traditions and the conversation.”

    The early 2010s saw a matzo ball revolution of sorts, arguably ushered in by the 2013 debut of Shalom Japan, a Brooklyn restaurant where chefs Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi have made a major splash with their matzo ball ramen. In Chicago, some had the audacity to suggest adding jalapeno, and in 2020, the short-lived restaurant Rye in West Loop made matzo balls with blue corn masa. The dish has come a long way in, at least in the canon of Jewish culinary history, a very short time. But by its very nature, matzo ball soup is relevant not due to its ingredients, but rather, the sensory and emotional experiences it evokes.

    A ladle pours broth from a bot into a bowl.

    A bowl of matzo ball soup with carrots, parsley, and celery.

    It’s difficult to pin down why exactly matzo ball soup has risen to such a cross-cultural level of notoriety. But a look back at the soup’s lore in the U.S. may shed some light. Take Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller — please. It’s hard to imagine a worse pairing than the legendary Hollywood sex symbol and the Jewish Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who devoted much of his career to shedding light on the American everyman.

    As the story goes, the couple frequently dined at the home of Miller’s mother, Isadore, who served a lot of matzo ball soup. They ate it so much that at one point, Monroe reportedly quipped, “Isn’t there any other part of the matzo you can eat?”

    With that, a star was born and the humble, homely matzo ball was catapulted into American pop-culture history.

    In the wake of the Holocaust, the mid-1950s (the couple married in 1956) was an unusually optimistic era for American Jews, who began to enter the middle class and seek higher education. For the first time, the American public was exposed to stories like Oscar-winning 1947 film Gentleman’s Agreement, which starred cinematic icon Gregory Peck as a non-Jewish reporter who poses as a Jew to research an exposé on antisemitism.

    Despite ongoing institutionalized discrimination at universities and social hubs like country clubs, American Jews at the time saw broader social acceptance than perhaps in any other millennia of Jewish history. And suddenly, that cultural validation reached new heights. Monroe, the blonde bombshell herself, was eating matzo balls too, lending mainstream credibility to a tradition that’s endured in Chicago and across the country well beyond Miller and Monroe’s marriage, which lasted less than five years.

    Though reluctant to get “too high-minded” about what it means to serve Jewish food in a non-Jewish context, for Chris Marty, it points to a desire to push back on a national political shift toward exclusion. “I think society is pretty shitty right now,” he says. “People are highly intolerant and very insular… The beauty of the bar and restaurant industry — especially in Chicago — is that you have that willingness to just love it if it’s good.”

    A crowd clusters around a bar corner in a low-lit space.

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    Naomi Waxman

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  • Apple Gets Into the Franchise Business, the Penultimate Episode of ‘Shogun,’ and ‘Ripley’ Episodes 4 and 5

    Apple Gets Into the Franchise Business, the Penultimate Episode of ‘Shogun,’ and ‘Ripley’ Episodes 4 and 5

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    Chris and Andy talk about the news that Apple TV will be making a For All Mankind spinoff called Star City, and adapting another one of Mick Herron’s novels (author of Slow Horses) for a show starring Emma Thompson (1:00). Then, they talk about an article in Harper’s that looks at the role private equity firms have played in the TV industry over the past decade (13:38), before discussing the penultimate episode of Shogun (29:07) and Episodes 4 and 5 of Ripley (59:09).

    Read the Harper’s piece here.

    Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald
    Producer: Kaya McMullen

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

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    Chris Ryan

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  • Fallout’s violence and gore are part of its charm

    Fallout’s violence and gore are part of its charm

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    Fans of the Fallout games won’t be shocked to learn that Amazon’s new TV show based on the franchise is gruesomely violent. This is a franchise known for its Bloody Mess perk, and for the VATS system, which lets players target and blow off heads and limbs. But the violence of the Fallout TV series still has the power to shock; viewers can expect multiple severed heads and lopped-off extremities in this post-apocalyptic world where mutated monsters feed on human flesh.

    While the gore of Fallout may be uncomfortable to watch, it’s rarely (if ever) gratuitous. Instead, it’s done in the service of world-building. In many cases, it’s played for comedy and surprise, in the style of Sam Peckinpah or Quentin Tarantino films.

    The first few minutes of Fallout may give viewers the incorrect impression that the show treats violence only with deadly seriousness. The first episode of the series starts with the nuclear destruction of Los Angeles. It’s a chilling scene, and since young children are involved, it sets a grim tone.

    And yes, in later episodes, there are scenes that are difficult to watch. Puppies are incinerated at a research facility. Innocent Vault Dwellers are casually murdered. Body parts are sliced, crushed, and made into human jerky. In the show’s above-ground post-apocalyptic society, extreme violence is presented as a daily occurrence, and that society has the means to address it. Medicines that can instantly heal wounds are as commonplace as off-the-shelf replacement body parts.

    Some of the show’s instances of violence are nods to the games. One big shootout plays like a VATS-powered killing spree, in which viewers watch in slo-mo as a bullet rips through multiple poor wastelanders. The show’s creators highlight that bodies are squishy and life is cheap in this world, but that its residents have adapted accordingly. Death and violence don’t seem to bother anyone all that much. Hell, becoming a brainless zombie is treated as something of an inconvenience in Fallout’s world.

    Fallout also delves into body horror. One of the show’s more disturbing creatures, as seen in trailers, is a giant mutant axolotl covered in hundreds of human fingers. Adding an extra layer of grossness, we see one of those creatures vomit up the rotting contents of its massive stomach before it dies. It is extremely unpleasant! We see horrifying examples of human-mutant experiments. Giant mutant cockroaches run rampant, and they burst open with green gooey guts when stomped on.

    All of this is to say that violence in the Fallout show is fast, frequent, and unrepentant. But it isn’t dreary or humorless in the way other post-apocalyptic worlds, like The Walking Dead or The Last of Us can be. Instead, it borrows a page from the Mad Max movies. Like the Fallout games, Fallout the TV series isn’t for the queasy. But for fans of black comedy and copious amounts of fake blood, it’s a hoot.

    All eight episodes of Fallout season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.

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    Michael McWhertor

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  • WrestleMania Weekend Recap: Big Takeaways, Why We Love Wrestling, and Why Cody Rhodes Is a Grrreat Guy. Plus, Rhea Ripley Has Beef With Troy.

    WrestleMania Weekend Recap: Big Takeaways, Why We Love Wrestling, and Why Cody Rhodes Is a Grrreat Guy. Plus, Rhea Ripley Has Beef With Troy.

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    Back in their home studios following an unforgettable weekend in Philadelphia, Rosenberg and SGG are ready to react to what some are calling the greatest WrestleMania of all time. Here’s what to expect today:

    • Intro (00:00)
    • Troy the Goy has a confession to make (07:41)
    • An update on the Cheap Heat T-shirts (12:18)
    • Why Rhea Ripley has an issue with Troy (14:58)
    • Where this year’s WrestleMania ranks among the all-time shows (21:56)
    • The Undertaker instead of Stone Cold Steve Austin (27:18)?
    • Rosenberg’s takeaways from hanging out with Cody Rhodes (31:59)
    • The second-best thing to happen this weekend (40:22)
    • Damien Priest cashing in (44:22)
    • Mailbag (56:38)

    And guess what? The video of last week’s LIVE Cheap Heat drops on Rosenberg’s YouTube channel soon. For other updates from the podcast, please follow @cheapheatpod on Instagram, as well as @rosenbergradio, @statguygreg, @thediperstein, and @troy_farkas.

    Hosts: Peter Rosenberg and Greg Hyde
    Producer: Troy Farkas

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

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    Peter Rosenberg

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