Ty Watches "Golden Arm"

For date night this past Friday my wife and I watched the movie “Golden Arm”. This was my choice. I have wanted to see this movie for awhile. I am a big fan of the actors in this movie, and I was pumped that some of them were finally given a chance to shine.

I love Betsy Sodaro, and the first place I heard about this movie was via her Instagram. She, to me, is the leading star of the movie, and she nails it. She is so good. She’s so funny, but also has some very nice, very tender moments. She really takes the reins of this movie, and she is more than worth the price of admission. She has the best lines, the best jokes, the best flashback scene and she carries this whole movie. From the opening moment where she is arm wrestling in a dive bar, to the end when she is her best friend’s coach, she absolutely nails it. She was amazing.

Mary Holland plays her best friend, and she too is very good in the movie. She plays a down on her luck bakery owner, but she has a past with Sodaro and arm wrestling. I mentioned that flashback scene, she and Sodaro are college roommates, they’re both dressed goth and Holland wins all their matches, giving her the right to choose where they get dinner. She has what is known as the Golden Arm in arm wrestling circles. Sodaro goes and finds Holland because she’s broken her wrist and can’t arm wrestling in the big tournament. She tricks her into closing her shop for a bit so they can go on the road and Sodaro can see if she still has the magic. She does. They end up at some dive bar in middle America and Holland has to arm wrestle to win their money back. She tentatively agrees, then wins and that’s when Sodaro knows she still has the gift. This scene also features a great cameo from Kate Flannery, who you all may know as Meredith from the American “Office”. It was hilarious.

From this scene on out the movie follows typical sports movies clichés, but that is what I love about sports movies. They meet a trainer, Big Sexy played by Dot Marie Jones. She is the typical trainer that sees a no one, but gets the best out of her. My only critique is that I wanted more Big Sexy in this movie. She’s great. We get some great comedic scenes from Ron Funches. He and Sodaro have a past, their soft, sexual talking is a riot and he crushes as the big event’s announcer. Eugene Cordero gets to be the love interest to Holland, and he’s great. He’s funny and sweet. The baseball field scene with him and Holland is fantastic. Aparna Nancherla only has one scene, but it’s hilarious and memorable. And Olivia Stambouliah as the villain Bone Crusher, is phenomenal. She’s ominous and scary, but also very goofy and funny.

Overall, this is Mary Holland and Betsy Sodaro’s movie, and they make it great. I had a fantastic time while watching. It’s a breezy 90 minutes, and fun too. Also, when the two leads do their Robert Deniro impressions, holy cow is that hilarious. Of course I recommend this movie. “Golden Arm” is a gem.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches the Kid's Show "Bluey"

As many of you know I can be pretty hard on the shows my kids watch. I'm not a fan of many of them, namely "PJ Masks". The ones I do like, like "Teen Titans Go!" or "Yo Gabba Gabba" has many things for the adults watching. I just prefer when watching these shows with my kids when they have something for the adults to enjoy. I appreciate when the creators of the shows put in stuff like that strictly for the parents.

When my daughter told me recently she wanted me to watch a new show with her, a show called "Bluey", I had my doubts. My son has been watching more shows that I am on board with because he is nine now and his tastes are different, and in my opinion, better. My daughter is still pretty young, five, so the shows she likes are still pretty rough for me. She loves "Teen Titans", but she would prefer to watch "PJ Masks" or "Puppy Dog Pals" or that Ryan kid on YouTube. I am not a fan of those shows. She has been getting into some superhero stuff that revolves around strong female characters, and "My Little Pony" is pretty good, so that has been a nice reprieve. But I was still on the fence about "Bluey", and then I watched it with her.

I love love love this show. It is so well made, the animation has a sweet throwback look and it is an Australian show, and a little unknown fact about me until now, I usually like most things Australian. I think it is a mixture of the accent and all the cool looking trails and mountains and greenery that country has. I'm down with Australian for sure. It is on my bucket list of places to see in my lifetime. And while "Bluey" has the accents, that is the only real Australian thing about it. They say certain phrases that I do not get, which I am sure is an Australian thing, but that is about it.

The show is centered around a four person family made up of dogs. The family is made up of all blue heeler dogs, I think, and that breed is rad. They are rambunctious and playful and imaginative, and the show shows that tenfold. Bluey herself is a very energetic and very playful big sister. She always thinks of games to play and when she plays them she plays them rough. But so does her little sister Bingo. Bingo is younger, her voice shows that, but she is just as playful. She does have more moments of clarity or sadness, but she always ends up having fun with her family. The mom and dad are both working dogs, and their jobs are a touch of genius from the writers. The mom is a police dog, and according to some research, she is a drug sniffing dog. They never actually say that on the show, but it is implied. And she works hard and also is heavily involved in her family's life as well. The dad is an archaeologist, or more proper, a dog that sniffs and searches for bones. He is more of an at home parent, constantly being the adult figure in the home in most episodes. Which leads me to what I like most about this show. The show is about using your imagination and being playful, but it is also about family and how important it is to be close and enjoy one another's company. I love that message. In every episode of "Bluey" the family is always together. Even if it is just the dad at home during the day, mom comes home and they all enjoy some quality family time. Bluey also seems to learn a lesson in most episodes that revolve around being nice to her little sister and why it is important to spend time with her. I have been working on that with my own kids, so it is nice to have "Bluey" as a response to why I want my kids to play together. I also appreciate that each episode is about 11 minutes long. That means that my kids and I can watch three or four before it is time to do something else. It is also a perfect amount of time to keep my five year old's attention.

I cannot say enough good things about this show. I highly, highly recommend it to any parents out there, both new and old, that have kids that are still young. "Bluey" rules. Now I am going to go watch an episode with my daughter. I think you should too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Mortal Kombat"

I watched “Mortal Kombat” this afternoon. As you all know well by now I was very pumped to see this movie. The game was taboo when I was a kid, the first movie was kind of blah, later iterations of the game were rad, and this new movie had pretty much everything in its corner to be epic.

Sadly, it is not.

This movie is very cheesy and not very good. I am pretty bummed. I wanted to love this movie, but I just cannot think of more than one character in this whole movie that I actually liked. There were also times that I scoffed, complained how cheesy it was and just found myself bored. I cannot believe it. The first seven minutes of this movie, I wrote about it last week, were great. There were stakes, the fight scenes were dope and the actors nailed everything they did. Then it was just downhill from there for me. There was a quick explanation of what the world has become, and boom, we are introduced to the main character, Cole. The guy who played him was fine, but man he was just a cliché through and through. He’s an older fighter, he doesn’t know why he’s been picked to fight in this other dimensional tournament, he leaves his training, but finds a reason to go back. It is a story lifted right from a bad 80’s movie. Jax, who was my favorite fighter in the video game, doesn’t get enough screen time, and when he’s there, his lines are nonsense. His battle with Sub Zero, more on him in a minute, was rad, and his battle scene at the end had the best fatality, but every other time he’s on screen it’s very blah. Sonya should’ve had a much better backstory, and they could’ve delved deeper into her reason for being here, but they don’t. Her story is all wrapped up way too quick. Kano is an asshole through and through. He could’ve been the comic relief, but he was way too much of a jackass. He has zero redeeming qualities. The “bad guys” from the Other World were all stupid, except for Sub Zero. The two lady fighters have as little brevity as Sonya. One of them is in two scenes, and she gets brutally murdered. The other one was pretty sinister, but she gets zero backstory. We know literally nothing about her, other than she likes blood. The four armed monster looked cool, but that’s it. The iron lung guy was more of a dick than Kano. The dude with the sledgehammer has no lines, and he gets his head exploded by Jax, one of the cooler scenes. And the main baddy, he is so much of a cliché that I groaned whenever he spoke. When Raiden, who was solid in this movie, banished him, I said out loud to no one, “thank goodness”.

On the good side, Sub Zero and Scorpion were the only two characters I cared about at all. They had the best fight scenes. They had the best stories. I would watch an entire movie just about the two of them. That would’ve made for a far better movie. Sub Zero is a great, great villain. He was the only one, well he and Scorpion, that I actually liked. I enjoyed their scenes. I was worried every time Sub Zero was on screen. His visual effects were the best. They should’ve done a series of movies, or a TV show about each character individually. That would’ve been so much better.

The makers of “Mortal Kombat” just tried to stuff too much into a 90 minute movie. And that ending scene, with Cole, that was rough. I really do not want them to make a sequel, especially one focused on Johnny Cage, who was lame as hell in the video game. Just make a stand alone Sub Zero origin movie. I’d much rather watch that. Sub Zero and the fight scenes were good, but everything else was pretty bad in this movie. I wish I was wrong. I wish this was better. But oh boy is this movie a clunker in my opinion. And that really stinks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Godzilla vs Kong"

Based on RD's high recommendation, and seeing the positive feedback the movie got online, my wife and I watched "Godzilla vs Kong" on our Friday date night. This was her pick too. I am not a Godzilla guy. I do like King Kong, and I have enjoyed most of the movies they have made about the ape, but I was by no means psyched to see the new movie. I have been fooled by the whole "versus" franchise. "Alien Vs Predator" was not good. At all. I did not watch "Freddy vs Jason" because I thought even the trailers looked dull. I guess monsters, or bad guys, facing off is not that big of a deal to me. But much like RD, my wife does enjoy monster movies, and she was pretty excited to watch. So we did and I have some thoughts.

First, I enjoyed parts of the movie. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be, and that was good. I liked that I could actually see the monsters. Even when they fought at night time, the scene was lit so we could see the monsters in full. I also thoroughly enjoyed the battle scenes, especially the final battle scene. I liked the built in relationship Kong had with the scientist and the little girl that the scientist watched over. I thought Brian Tyree Henry was solid in what is a very different role for him. And the monsters themselves, they looked great and the motion capture stuff was done very well. Godzilla and Kong looked as realistic as ever. Spoiler alert, Mechagodzilla was totally rad. I loved the look of this robotic monster. When Kong would fight something other than Godzilla, I loved the ripping apart and drinking of their juices, mainly from the animal's head. Seeing Godzilla swim in the ocean was very cool. The stuff that this movie got right, they nailed.

I do also have a few, minor complaints. I did not need the story lines they shoehorned in this movie. As much as I enjoyed Tryee Henry, his whole thing with Millie Bobby Brown and the kid from "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", both actors who I really enjoy, was pretty pointless. Also, the stuff with Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler held zero weight with me. Maybe I needed to see the previous "Godzilla" movie to be more involved, but I didn't. And their whole thing was totally pointless to me. And the stuff with Kong, the scientist and the young deaf girl and the Skarsgaard guy and the girl from "Baby Driver", really nonessential to what I wanted from this movie. Yeah it was cool that Kong learned to sign from the little girl, and the world the scientist created for Kong was dope, I quite frankly could have cared less about any of them. Also, for as solid an actor as Skarsgaard is, his whole storyline was completely pointless. And to give him a hero moment was very blah to me. I also did not care for the villains. The two guys that created Mechagodzilla were so cliché and so scenery chewy and just, again, nonessential to what I wanted to watch in this movie. I also wanted all of the movie, the whole hour and 40 minutes to just be a fight between monsters. They gave me that for 40 minutes at the end. But to have to wade through back stories, some new stories and stuff like Hollow Earth, I just did not care at all about any of that. I get why the writers and director added it, it just felt unneeded to me. But, the movie is totally redeemed in that last 40 minutes, and the few fights we get between Godzilla and Kong in the first hour. For a movie that is based in total science fiction, and wild fights between behemoth monsters, they delivered tenfold in that final 40 minutes. That was more than enough for me to recommend this movie. That battle scene at the end is so awesome and so cool and I found myself heavily involved when the main monsters were fighting each other. The movie is also a breeze to watch. It is less than two hours, and for a movie of this magnitude, I appreciate the hell out of that.

So yes, watch "Godzilla vs Kong". The fight scenes are more than worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Superstore" Series Finale

My wife and I decided we were going to watch "Superstore" about two months ago. We were looking for something new, something we hadn't watched yet, and we wanted it to be light and funny.

I had heard good things about Superstore, I am a big Colton Dunn fan and Justin Spitzer, the creator of the show, did some very wonderful things on the American "Office". So we started it and we couldn't stop watching. One episode a night turned to two, then three, then we were clocking five or six a day. Since she has been working from home, we would watch an episode during lunch, then one at dinner with the kids, then sometimes four more after they went to bed. The episodes are 22 minutes long, so we could blow through five or six a day with ease we found out quickly. In doing this we got caught up very fast. We found ourselves waiting to watch new episodes on Hulu very fast. We got to a point where we could watch it in real time if we wanted. We still opted for Hulu.

“Superstore” was so well done. It was funny, but also poignant. The way they tackled issues, issues that come from working in a big business with big corporate people that may or may not even know who their employees are, it was done very well with much needed humor. The stuff with unions and strikes, that was relatable. Having a character being undocumented, and going through his journey, that was eye opening. The inter store politics and fights and hook ups, I loved it all. I found the show so easy to watch because it was so well made. They even tackled systemic racism and the pandemic nearly perfect. Their racism episode was dynamite. The way they handled the last season, all of which was during this pandemic that is still raging, was very well done. My family finally decided we were ready to finish the show a few days back. They had their series finale and we were putting it off because I did not want to stop watching. I know I can always go back, but I will never get the first time viewing ever again.

So we sat down and watched the two part finale. I loved it. I think the way they tied everything up, the way they pretty much finished everyone's story, it felt right to me. For people that watch the show, they know what I am talking about. Glenn reopened his hardware store and hired Mateo and Cheyenne. That was so fitting for so many reasons. Jonah and Amy got back together after Amy quit and moved back home. I was hoping this was going to happen, they were the best couple, and they should have ended up together. The show made us wait, but it was worth it. Dina took over the fulfillment center that Cloud 9 turned into, and hired her five best workers. She had Marcus and Sandra and Justine among the five, and it was nice to see them all still together. Dina also ended up with Garrett, which was super fitting. Hell, they may even beat out Jonah and Amy as the best couple. Garrett's speech that he gave, as the original Cloud 9 was closing, that was a perfect summation of the greatness of this show and I loved the moments they replayed for all of us to see and remember. It was so fitting that Garrett gave the speech too. I liked seeing everyone's interview when they first got their jobs at the store. I like the flashback stuff. I like seeing the characters before they became the people the show wanted them to become. And that barbeque scene at the very end, where everyone is together was so sweet and made me optimistic for the first time in a long time during this pandemic. They were all together hanging out, having fun, their kids were playing together, they were eating food together. It made me opine for the time before COVID when we could do it. It also made me realize that we will get to that point someday soon, hopefully.

I thought this was a great way to end such a great show. I will miss it. I will also most definitely be watching the Cheyenne and Bo spinoff show that is apparently in the works. "Superstore" was an under the radar show that I think will find a great second life on streaming services. It will become like "Friends" or "The Office" when more people, younger people, find it. "Superstore" was a classic, and it ended almost perfectly. I was very pleased with it all.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Bad Trip"

This past Friday was my turn to pick the movie for date night with my wife. We have managed to keep this up while we are staying with my folks, and it has been great. We go down in our room, close the door and my parents hang with the kids until we put them to bed. Awesome. So since it was my turn, and I have been in a comedy mood lately, I picked the movie "Bad Trip".

Now, a few things. I am a big time Eric Andre fan, my wife is not. I liked almost every iteration of "Jackass", my wife did not. I am a big fan of prank movies, my wife only likes a hand selected few. I was in dangerous territory, at least I thought. I picked the movie because I really wanted to see it. I have been wanting to see it since I saw the trailer. This was a movie, in pre COVID times, that I would have watched in a theater. And add in the fact that Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish were in it with Andre, I was fully on board. Obviously the movie did not make it to many theaters, but it was purchased by Netflix. So, I clicked on it and fully expected to love it, and fully expected my wife to be bored by it.

Well, we both loved it. This movie is absolutely hilarious. The fact that they were able to pull this off is amazing. That they could stage these pranks on unsuspecting people, people that did not know a movie was being made, incredible. Then to add a coherent story, a tip of the hat to everyone involved. The moment I knew that my wife was in, that she was going to enjoy herself, was when Andre appeared out of a bathtub to an unsuspecting plumber and he got freaked out. She was cackling, I was howling and she said, "this movie right here, this is my kind of prank movie!". I was even more smitten than I thought I could be with her. From there on out the movie is wild. The pranks are nuts. The people being pranked are very real getting pranked. They don't suspect a thing. We have the plumber, but there is oh so much more. They do a whole song and dance number in a mall that is wild. The stuff in the juice bar is great. When Howery and Andre steal Haddish's car, the guy working behind the counter just lets it happen.

The story of “Bad Trip” is a simple one too, but I should mention it. Andre and Howery are life long friends that are stuck in their middling jobs in podunk Florida. Andre's high school crush comes into the juice bar one day and invites him to her gallery opening in New York and he decides he needs to go and bring Howery with him. Haddish is Howery's older sister who has been in and out of jail and they take her car to New York. She tries to track them down. All the while these pranks are being played. There is a scene where Howery gets stuck in a porta potty that was outrageous. Andre and Howery get their members stuck in a finger trap. Haddish steals a cop car by ripping the door off the hinges. She fights people who will not give her any info she needs. At one point they superimposed a gentleman into a picture with Howery and Andre, and her interaction with this man is gold. Andre and Howery go to a country bar in the deep south and they are the only two African Americans there. Some hilarity ensues while they are at said bar, and a lot of it has to do with alcohol. The zoo stuff, that was just wrong and hilarious at the same time. This movie was everything I hoped it would be. I mean the very first scene involves Andre getting his clothes ripped off by a car vacuum cleaner, and he convinces the patron to give him his sweatshirt and to try and get a phone number for him. That is quintessential Eric Andre stuff.

I have nothing but good things to say about this movie. Yes it is cheesy and weird and goofy, but it is supposed to be. It is better than any "Jackass" movie in my opinion as well. This movie works. It is short and fast. It is hilarious. And it is coherent. Check this movie out. I think it will give Eric Andre the much needed respect he deserves for the humor her does, and Howery and Haddish totally commit to their roles. I loved it and I think you will too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Coming 2 America"

For date night this week my wife picked "Coming 2 America".

Two weeks ago we watched the original movie because she had never seen it, and she enjoyed herself so much that she wanted to watch the sequel. This worked out well for me because, as a big fan of the original, of course I wanted to watch the second one. Eddie Murphy is also on some kind of come back tour, if he even needed one. "Dolemite is My Name" was one of the better movies I saw last year, and he crushed when he finally came back to host "SNL". It seems like he is finally having fun again being funny. He isn't doing the family comedy stuff or the big paycheck stuff. He is more in a "Tower Heist" groove, a very underrated movie I might add, and that is the perfect Eddie Murphy mood for me. He is so funny, and when he has really good material to work with, he usually crushes it. And I did not care at all what the critics were saying about the movie. I know it didn't get the best marks, but hey, neither did "Hot Rod", or the myriad of movies RD and I talked about on the pod a few weeks back, and I like those movies very much.

This is the category "Coming 2 America" falls into for me, the "Hot Rod" category. I had an absolutely delightful one hour and forty minutes watching this movie. There were call backs that were great. They had everyone who is still alive from the original in the sequel. Arsenio Hall was dynamite as Semi, and all the heavily made-up characters he played. I loved the newer character he played, the old man that lives in Zamunda, that guides Prince Akeem after his father passes. I could say the same for Eddie Murphy. Prince Akeem is a classic, but so is the sexist minister and the barber and the infamous singer from Queens. Murphy returned all these characters, and they all made me laugh just like I did when I first saw "Coming to America". Murphy really nails this, or these, roles. Shari Headley, as Lisa, is just as strong and confident and beautiful and proud as she was in the original. James Earl Jones, in his maybe five minutes of screen time, was awesome. His funeral was one of the silliest, yet saddest, and most choreographed things I have ever seen in a movie, and I loved every single second of it.

In the movie, Akeem and Lisa have three daughters, one of which is played by Murphy's real life daughter. They are all strong willed, tough and have the best qualities of their mom and dad. The oldest daughter, Meeka, played by KiKi Layne is almost a replica of her father from the original movie, except she may be tougher. Her story arc is one of my favorite things about this whole movie. She was awesome. They even brought back John Amos, Louie Anderson, Clint Smith and Paul Bates to reprise their roles from the first movie. It was nice to see them all acting and all doing a great job in these very memorable roles. The new additions were excellent as well.

The main story of the movie is that Akeem has a son who was fathered while he was in Queens in the first movie. He is the rightful heir, so Akeem and Semi go back to retreat him. The son is played by Jermaine Fowler. His name is Lavelle. I am a Jermaine Fowler fan. I loved his role in "Sorry to Bother You", he was one of the only things I liked in Pete Holmes' HBO show, "Superior Donuts" was decent because of him, and he does a great job in this movie. For him to keep pace with Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy is a triumph on its own. Add on that this movie also put Leslie Jones in it, as his mom, Tracy Morgan, as his uncle and Luenell as his aunt, and he kept up with all of them. Leslie Jones was hysterical, and she made me laugh any time she was on screen. She is so consistent. Luenell is quietly hilarious in everything she does. And Tracy Morgan, he is my favorite actor of all time, and Fowler kept up with all of them. This had to be a dream for him. They also put Morgan Freeman in this movie as the narrator at the funeral, and that ruled. Trevor Noah was a newscaster from Zamunda, and he was great, and so was his fake mustache. And Wesley Snipes, much like he did in "Dolemite is My Name", nearly stole the show as the rival king from Nextdooria, a great name by the way.

Look, this movie works on a few different levels. It is great nostalgia, it is fun, it gives Eddie Murphy another starring role, it gives some up and comers a real chance and it allows great comedic actors to do funny things over and over again. This movie is good. I definitely would ignore the critics reviews and check this movie out. It is more than worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Promising Young Woman"

For date night this past week I chose the movie "A Promising Young Woman" for my wife and I to watch. I hadn't heard much about the movie, but Adam Brody was on "Comedy Bang! Bang!" promoting a different movie, and Scott Aukermann mentioned how much he liked "A Promising Young Woman", and how cool he thought it was that some comedy actors had bit parts in the movie. That piqued my interest. Then my wife kept talking about how much she wanted to see it. Then it got nominated for a bunch of Oscars. I was already getting on board, and then all this other stuff put it over the top for me. So we rented it on Amazon and watched.

We both loved it. This movie does have some comedic elements to it, but make no mistake, this is a thriller. And Carey Mulligan is so good as the lead actor. I bought her from moment one. The movie, no spoilers, is about a lady who loses a friend, and then kind of goes on a revenge tour in her honor. We come to realize that the friend was assaulted, and she is turning the pages on guys, and messing with their heads. This is where some of the comedy actors show up. Brody plays a guy at a bar that picks her up and brings her back to his house. You think he is being nice, but it is all a ruse to get her more drunk and take advantage of her. But this is what she wants. She wants these guys to think they are in the clear, that they can take advantage of her, and then she reveals that she is not drunk, and chastises these assholes for the punks and scum they are. It is great. She does this same thing to Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Sam Richardson. She does start to date a gentleman in the movie, a very solid performance from Bo Burnham, but that has quite the twist in the end as well. Laverne Cox is very good in this movie too as her overbearing but well meaning boss and only friend. Molly Shannon is very good in her very small role too.

All the acting is great. but this is a tour de force from Mulligan. She is so goddamn good in this movie. The way she manipulates these low lifes, the stuff she lets them get away with before calling them out, the thing she does to the dean of her college, Mulligan pulls it off so well. There were moments where I was like, damn she is cold blooded, but then I remembered why she is doing what she's doing, and I am instantly back on her side. Even when she tries to give it up, to move on if you will, that's when things kind of crumble in her everyday world, and she goes on a truly vengeful trip after that. But that works in her favor. She finds a bachelor party of the guys who did horrible things to her friends, and that is when she takes over. Even when it looks like she may have been had, she finds a way to turn the tables in the best possible way. Mulligan more than deserves her Oscar nomination. She is that good in this movie. I also like the message of the movie. Hopefully some frat boy idiots will see it and think twice before they try to take advantage of a seemingly drunk person. I love the way they did the thriller stuff in the movie too. There is no jump scares or blood or gore, it is all mental, and it still has me shook and thinking about it almost five days later.

I highly recommend this movie. Watch it for Mulligan's performance alone, and in doing that, I think you will really end up liking the movie, or at the very least it will leave you thinking about it. This movie is good. Watch it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Sound of Metal"

Tuesday mornings have become my time to catch up on movies that I have wanted to watch, and haven't gotten around to for one reason or the other. This morning while both my kids were at school I watched "Sound of Metal". Let’s discuss.

This movie has been on my radar for awhile now. And, last night when my wife and I watched an episode of "The Boys", the ad beforehand was for the movie. I said right then that I was going to watch it this morning. I did and I was blown away.

“The Sound of Metal” is one of the better movies I have seen in quite some time. It is also very sad and dire and gut wrenching, but kind of uplifting near the end. For those that may not know, "Sound of Metal" is about a drummer in a heavy metal band that loses his hearing, and the trials and tribulations he faces when he realizes he is losing his hearing. Riz Ahmed plays the drummer, his name is Ruben, and he is amazing. His performance is right up there with Daniel Kaluuya from "Judas and the Black Messiah", and Delroy Lindo from "Da 5 Bloods". He is also better than Sacha Baron Cohen from "Trial of the Chicago 7". The difference here is, Ahmed plays a fictional character. He and Lindo are the only two that do that. Cohen is exceptional as Abbie Hoffman, and Kaluuya is magnetic as Fred Hampton. I come from the school that thinks awards should be given to original characters, and not someone playing a real person. This year is the exception, because Kaluuya is so great, but Ahmed is right up there too. He is tremendous. I fully bought in and believed he was Ruben and he was going deaf. Ahmed played the role to absolute perfection. He is also a recovering addict, and he pulled that off as well. He showed the grief and terror and frustration and willingness to do what he felt he wanted to do so well. The first couple scenes, when you can watch him begin to lose his hearing is relatable. He is trying to unplug his ears thinking that they may be popped. Or he tries to clean them out. All of the stuff we all do when our ears feel weird. When that doesn't work, he skirts getting the problem checked out because he has a show that night. The show is not great, and the lead singer of the band, and his girlfriend, exceptionally played by Olivia Cook, notice something is wrong. He gets help from a doctor, and this doctor sends him to a place for addicts that happen to be deaf. The scenes that take place here are wonderful and sad and touching and moving all at once. From when he first gets there, he doesn't want to be there, he feels it is a waste of time, to him figuring out sign language, to him helping the staff and students, and even him leaving to go get surgery, it is played and shot so well. Even with the surgery, spoiler alert, which doesn't work out like he hoped, it is done perfectly. I think what helps it work so well is how they use sound in this movie. This movie goes from very loud to silent to small noises, and at times, it hurts to listen. But this was done on purpose. The writers and director want us to go through this journey with Ruben. They want us to feel the things he feels. Now, I do not know what it is like to be deaf, I thankfully have my hearing, but there were times watching this that I just could not imagine how hard it would be, especially to go deaf later in life. But they do show some things that are moving for deaf people. The way musical vibrations are used in this movie is absolutely terrific. I assume this is how deaf people enjoy music, and it is done so well. When Ahmed and a young student go outside and play drum beats on an aluminum slide, I could have watched that for hours. Or when he teaches the kids how to drum, that made me tear up. When they all stand around a piano with their hands on it to "hear" it, it was truly amazing.

This movie is going to stay with me for a long while. The stuff after he gets the implant, how it doesn't go the way he hoped and wanted, that was stunningly made. The way they used sound for that, the sound engineers deserve all the accolades in the world. This is a tough movie, but it is also a very, very good movie and well worth your time. It is on Amazon Prime right now, and I cannot recommend this movie enough. Go watch it. It is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches Brian Regan's New Special "On the Rocks"

The other day I sat down, in between the movies I have been watching, and I watched Brian Regan's new Netflix Special, "On the Rocks". Brian Regan is one of my all time favorite stand up comedians. He is a lightning bolt. He is a force on stage. His facial gestures, the way he uses his body for his comedy, the way he uses his voice, it all works. He is also clean, which is an accomplishment, although it shouldn't be, and he still seems to absolutely crush every time he is on stage. He also keeps politics out of his act, which is smart and endearing of him.

Again, Brian Regan is simply one of the absolute best, and this special is fantastic. It is quick, funny, moving and perfect. It was also shot during the pandemic, which is wild. Apparently they made it in Utah, and there seemed to be about 100 or maybe 200 people in the audience, all of which were masked, and it is probably the first of its kind, with more of them to come. It was crazy to see all the masked fans, but I will say, it actually made me feel oddly comfortable. This is the new reality we live in, and this is as safe as a performer can make a stand up show now, and most definitely in the future.

This special was filled with classic Brian Regan bits, facial gestures and all. I was a bit on the fence about this special, I haven't heard much from Regan in the past few years, but he showed why he is one of the greats. From the moment he walked on stage with a full head of gray hair, to talking about his newfound OCD and anxiety, to his social anxiety, to his love for mayo, all the way to his impression of the person who invented the bagpipes, it was all hilarious. The gray hair was a perfect start. He mentioned it right away, talked about how COVID forced him to stop dying his hair, which made for a great bit inside a bit, and got it immediately out of the way, and did it very funnily. I loved the OCD and anxiety stuff. As a person who has both of those, it was nice to hear someone make a joke about it, to not take it so seriously but to recognize it. I loved the stuff about bookshelves. I have taken the exact tests he mentions in the special. I feel the same way about things that he talks about. I check the stove every night for example. The social anxiety was just as good. Hearing him try to shoehorn his way into conversations is exactly how I felt pre COVID. Those party going situations with strangers make me so uncomfortable, and to hear how Regan deals with it, I was rolling. When he talks about the lady who says that animals are smarter than people, that was my absolute favorite part of the special. The mayo bit I feel like was written for my wife. He loves mayo so much that he had to make a resolution around it. I have made that joke to my wife before. And when he described how he dealt with this, it was gross, but also one of the funniest things I have heard. And that closer about the bagpipes, it was classic Regan. He did facial stuff, he used his body, he used his limbs. When he performed this joke it was talking, but also very visual, and it worked like a charm. It was funny and goofy and silly and classic.

It was nice to see a new stand up special from one of my favorites, and one of the best stand up comedians of all time. Go check it out. You can watch it with your kids, and they will find it funny. You will also get to see one of the all time greats crushing at their profession. Watch this. It is well worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Trial of the Chicago 7"

Continuing my quest to watch historical movies, last night I finished “The Trial of the Chicago 7”.

It was great. I really enjoyed this movie. I know it may be weird to use the word “enjoy”, but that’s what I felt. There was a difference from this movie as compared to “Judas and the Black Messiah”. “Judas and the Black Messiah” was a better movie in my opinion, but it was bleak. That’s because it is more realistic, and it ended tragically. I know both movies are based on true stories, but “Judas and the Black Messiah” felt more real. But “The Trial of the Chicago 7” starts fast, moves fast, intertwines the multiple storylines fast and ends fast. It was a very quick 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I appreciated that.

The cast is great in this film too. John Carroll Lynch was dynamite as the conscientious objector and soft spoken father and husband. Yahya Abdul Mateen II was perfectly cast as Bobby Seale. He was a force. The three main lawyers, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ben Shenkman and Mark Rylance did wonderful. I appreciated that Gordon Levitt didn’t have a “white savior” moment either. He played a republican lawyer, and he didn’t really change his attitude too much throughout the movie. Frank Langella was a monster, a racist and mean. He nailed the judge, and this judge was truly a monster. Eddie Redmayne and Alex Sharp were very good, especially Redmayne, as the young and opportunistic student democrats leader. Michael Keaton was spectacular in his five minutes on screen. But for me the true stars were Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin, and especially Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman. They knocked their roles completely out of the park. Strong was a perfect hippy, who happened to be extremely smart. He had some of the best lines, he was funny at moments and he really sounded and looked and acted like a hippy. I totally bought it. Cohen, he was a revelation. I know he can act. I’ve seen both “Borat” movies. I’ve watched his shows. He is good in bit parts in other stuff. But here he got to show his dramatic side, and man was he great. His line, “I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts” was powerful. I was stunned at how great he was in this role. He brought Abbie Hoffman back to life. It helped that he got to be a bit comedic, but when drama was needed, he nailed it. Delroy Lindo or Daniel Kaluuya deserve the Oscar, but Cohen is a very close third. The movie was so well done too.

The actors were great, as mentioned, but so was the writing and directing and recreating of this pivotal moment in American history. They showed the good and bad. They put in real footage with their shot footage, and it worked. The recreation of interviews and meetings and court scenes was great. The stories jumping back and forth in time was a great way to keep the story moving. I have no bad things to say about this movie. It is worth the hype. It lives up to it. It is a very well made movie that hits all the criteria for an Oscar worthy movie.

As I said, I think “Judas and the Black Messiah” is a better movie about this time period. But, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is no slouch, just a different perspective. Watch this movie too. It is also a very important one.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Judah and the Black Messiah"

This morning while my daughter was in preschool and my son was in elementary school, I decided to finally sit down and watch "Judas and the Black Messiah".

From the moment I heard of this movie, and saw the trailer, it was on my must watch list. I am really into African American history, I have read a ton on The Black Panthers, and this seemed to be the most real story to date on Fred Hampton, and his importance in American history. The cast is also absolutely top notch. I am a humongous LaKeith Stanfield fan. Love him in "Atlanta", "Sorry to Bother You" is one of my all time favorite movies, he was excellent on this most recent season of "The Eric Andre Show", the dude can act. I enjoy Daniel Kaluuya as well. He first appeared on my radar in the "Black Mirror" episode "One Million Credits". Then I saw "Get Out", which was followed by his role in "Black Panther" and I most recently saw him in "Queen and Slim". He's great. I am a Jesse Plemons fan too. He is becoming one of the nicest creeps in Hollywood. He is a force. All three of these guys are the main dudes in this story, and they all absolutely nailed their roles. Sure, Martin Sheen is eerie as J. Edgar Hoover, Dominique Fishback is wonderful as Deborah Johnson, Ashton Sanders, from "Moonlight", has a nice and important part, and Lil Rel Howery is only in five minutes of the movie, but man is he memorable. Really though, this is Kaluuya and Stanfield's movie, with some nice spot duty from Plemons.

In the movie Stanfield plays former car thief turned FBI informant Bill O'Neal. He is so good as the rat. He is squirrely and squirmy and it appears at times he is going to be had, but he always finds a way out somehow. Stanfield nailed the nerves, then belief, then betrayal and looking out only for himself to perfection. I openly rooted for him at times, but in the end, I loathed him. I know Stanfield and Charlamagne the God have some kind of beef over this role. What Charlemagne needs to understand, Stanfield is acting. He is not this person he is portraying. Charlemange needs to get off his jock because Stanfield was incredible. He is a creep, and he deserves all the bad he gets in the end. Plemons is the FBI agent who convinces Stanfield to be his rat. Plemons plays this role very monotonous, but it is clearly on purpose. He is an officer trying to catch someone who he believes is a "bad guy". He is as creepily quiet, and almost endearing in this role as he was on "Breaking Bad", or the season of "Fargo" he was on. He is really good at playing someone who is sympathetic on the surface, but in the end, is a real bad dude. The scene where he sees O'Neal at the Black Panther rally speech is frightening.

With all of the great actors in this movie, Daniel Kaluuya is the absolute star of this movie. Every award and accolade he is getting is totally understandable. He nailed it. He gives a powerhouse of a performance. When he spoke as Fred Hampton in this movie, when he had an audience, I felt it. I would go to battle with this man. He was so impassioned and powerful and commanding and thoughtful and political and downright charming. For every Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr, we also had a Fred Hampton. Someone who isn't as well known, or studied, but needs to be. And Kaluuya brought this person back to life. I was moved by his performance. I watched him jaw agape because of his tremendous performance. His speech scenes were the best, but the prison stuff was very good, and his death, the day before, was brutal and heartbreaking. Kaluuya should be one of the frontrunners for Best Actor. I'd say it is Delroy Lindo for "Da 5 Bloods", or Kaluuya for this role. They are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack this year. I loved him in this movie and in this role.

I highly recommend this movie for everyone to see. It is important American history brought back to life by some really great actors, writers and a director. Check it out. It is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "WandaVision"

"WandaVision" might be one the best new shows to ever be on TV. I was going to watch this show no matter what. I am a Marvel fan, I like most of the movies, I fully believe that Marvel is better than DC and they have done some interesting stuff these past couple years. I like the direction they have gone with the "Thor" movies, "Guardians of the Galaxy" is super cool and most of the "X-Men" movies, especially "Logan", are pretty awesome. So I just assumed that "WandaVision" was going to be, at the very least, watchable.

It is so much more than that. This show is one of the coolest, most unique and interesting things that TV has ever produced. I will not spoil anything, at least not try to, moving forward. When I read about the show I was intrigued. Then I saw some trailers, very short trailers, I was even more on board. Then this past weekend, me, my wife and our son decided we were going to watch all four episodes that have been released. These four episodes are amazing. I love the concept of the show. My son was confused as to why the first episode was in black and white. We explained to him that TV back in the 50's was all black and white. Oh, by the way, the show is done like old school TV sitcoms. The first episode was the 50's, then the 60's, then the 70's. The fourth was where they shifted, to modern times, and that was one of the best, and most essential, episodes in modern TV. Wanda and Vision are barely in it, but we get a look at what is going on in the outside world, the real world.

Prior to the fourth episode though, we have been given three very cool, very eye opening stuff. I also think there have been plenty of easter eggs dropped in so far. I am not totally up on all the stuff I am sure I am missing, but knowing Marvel, they are dropping stuff in left and right. Anyway, in that first episode, we have the 50's set. Wanda and Vision live in a town called Westfield, and they are just trying to be everyday citizens. They still have their powers, but otherwise, Vision has a job, Wanda makes friends around the neighborhood, and they are trying to live a "normal" life. But weird things start to come up. There are moments when you can hear people talking to Wanda. There are splashes of color in the premiere. There are things that come up that make it seem like this world may not be real. That continues into the second and third. More and more things happen, but it is all underscored by some wild things that are happening. Wanda keeps hearing these voices. She keeps seeing things that make her snap. She suddenly gets pregnant out of nowhere. Vision is starting to ask questions. He wants to understand what is going on. The people in the town seem to be in on some weird plotline that we haven't been cued into yet. Speaking of the neighbors, Kathryn Hahn is really, really good on this show, and I am stoked to see where they take this character. I'm also very interested in what is going to happen next, after the fourth episode. A bunch of stuff came to light in that one, and it is going to make for a very interesting close to the first season.

I do hope they continue to make more and more because this, as I have said before, is one of the coolest TV shows ever created. This is showing how smart and interesting and willing to take chances the Marvel company is right now with the properties they have. I like this show more than the last two "Avengers" movies, which I love. I am more interested in the outcome of this season than I was for the season one finale of "The Good Place". which is one of the best finales ever. "WandaVision" has so, so much potential, they are realizing it early, which is great, and I am just so pumped to watch from here on out. Check out this show, you will not be disappointed. This show is truly, truly amazing.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Superstore"

Recently my wife and I decided that we wanted to watch a new show. We have time, what with this pandemic getting worse by the day, and we decided to try the show "Superstore".

I have seen commercials for this show a bunch. We watched a good amount of shows on NBC, I sometimes watch football on NBC, and occasionally I would see an ad or a preview for the show. I was intrigued, but prior to the pandemic, I never thought to watch it. I also had a bunch of stuff to do outside of the house, so I really prioritized what I would watch. But as I said at the top, I have extended time now.

So we turned on the pilot about a week ago, and when I type this today, my wife and I will most likely finish season three this evening. I wish I had watched this show much, much sooner. While NBC isn't at FX or HBO's level, they still make really solid shows. "Superstore" can be added to that list. For those that don't know, the show takes place at a big chain business, a la WalMart or Target, and the store is in Saint Louis, an added bonus for me. The show talks about the many lives of the people that work there, and it is very funny. It is your common workplace comedy, but it works like "The Office" or "Parks and Rec" did, but this show isn't the mockumentary style the other two were. This is a single camera show, with no studio audience. This is the classic sitcom.

The actors on the show are really solid too. America Ferrera is great as Amy the floor manager. She is about as real a big chain store worker can be on TV. I know that she is acting, and she is beautiful, but she does a very good job of seeming like a person that would have that job. She totally pulls it off. I cannot think of the actor's name that plays Jonah, but he is great as well. He is funny and charming and goofy and, much like Ferrera, I buy his story arc to this point. Dina, the assistant manager, is amazing. She is funny and rude and doesn't pull any punches, and I crack up every time she loses her temper. Garrett, played by Colton Dunn, is my favorite. He is wheelchair bound, we don't know why, but his dry wit and lack of caring make me forget he is playing a handicapped person. He has some great quips and makes some hilarious faces. His distaste to buy anyone else's BS is classic. He is awesome. Glenn, the manager, has this wild voice, and he is so nice and almost a total pushover. But when he gets mad, he lets it all out. He is real good at going up and down on this show. Cheyenne is the pregnant teen that seems to have wit beyond her years, even though she is kind of dimwitted, but on purpose. When she laughs because she is uncomfortable, that is one of my favorite things on this show. And I could go on and on about all the side characters on the show. They all have their place, and the way the show literally writes for everyone, it is great. They give the main characters their shine, but the smaller roles, they have their own place on this show, and the writers make sure we remember them from episode to episode.

If you are looking for a fun, breezy, 20 minute show that will make you laugh and enjoy yourself, I highly recommend checking out "Superstore". It is on Hulu, and it is really funny and really well made. I know they are currently on their sixth season, and if we keep up the pace that we are watching the show, we will be caught up in about two weeks. It is that good.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Rewatches "Chappelle's Show"

Another day and we are still awaiting election results. This seems like it will go well into the weekend, and maybe even next week. We all need to be patient and make sure that every single vote is counted. We are a democracy, and the millions upon millions of people that voted should have it count. Whether you voted in person, or mailed in your ballot, it should count.

On that note, I am going to talk about a great, great show, a classic, that was just put up on Netflix. Looking for something to watch on Tuesday afternoon after I voted and my kids were hanging in their rooms, their "quiet time" I call it, I popped on some Netflix looking for anything to keep my mind off the election results. In the trending category I spotted "Chappelle's Show", and I was stoked. I was such a big fan of his show when it was first on Comedy Central. I kind of came to Dave Chappelle in a roundabout way, first seeing him in "Half Baked", then watching his show and then getting into his standup. But "Chappelle's Show", that was my jam. And since it had been such a longtime, I haven't sat down and watched a full episode in well over a decade, I had forgotten how funny it was, even in its infancy.

This show started off with a bang. The very first episode gave us a very memorable character, in Clayton Bigsby, the Black White Supremacist. This was a little bit harder to watch, given what our country has become over the last four years. But it proved how far ahead of its time this show was. The sketches, I have watched the first four episodes so far, are so well made and written and acted. Along with Bigsby, we also get Tyrone Biggums in the first four, Mos Def is his first musical guest, they do the photocopy place sketch that I consider a classic, we get the Wrap it Up commercial, they have the sketch with black people getting reparations, it is a murderers row of stuff my friends and I still quote via text to this day. That is only four episodes too. I haven't gotten to any Charlie Murphy stuff yet. There hasn't been a player haters ball yet. Rashida Jones hasn't shown up yet. The spoof of MTV's "Making the Band" hasn't come up yet. I could go on and on and on.

"Chappelle's Show" is filled with so many memorable sketches, that people my age remember fondly. This was an absolute homerun find for myself, and I am sure so many others. The only bummer is, there is only, I believe, two full seasons. Dave Chappelle left, I understand why now, and the show went out while it was one of the biggest things on TV. But I am happy that Netflix has put it back up. I'm happy that Dave Chappelle said it was okay. And I am happy that I have this little distraction to keep my mind off things and to just sit back and laugh. I will definitely be watching more this afternoon, and until, and after, we have some resolution to this election. I suggest you do the same. Damn is it a funny show.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Eric Andre Show" Season Five Premiere

This past Saturday the season five premiere of "The Eric Andre Show" was on, and it was awesome, and weird and crazy and nutso and wild and what I have come to love and expect from his humor. I have been a fan of this show since a buddy of mine told me to watch it about five years ago. He knows that I like odd, weird humor, and he figured I'd like this different take on a talk show. He was right. I have watched every season of this show multiple times. When the pandemic first started, I ripped through the fourth season twice, and it took me about three weeks to do it. That is another thing I like about the show, it is twelve minutes long. It is an Adult Swim show, and the majority of their shows are weird and short. You can rip off five to six episodes in an hour. I love it. I had been anticipating the fifth season since I saw some ads for it appear on social media about a month or so ago.

One thing I really like, Andre sports a new hairdo and outfit each season. This season he is bald and wearing a full white suit. Hannibal Burress, his co host, calls him out on this, and Andre says he is doing a Vin Diesel thing this season. That made me laugh pretty hard. I also liked, in the premiere, there were two episodes, when Andre was going to do his monologue, he had people carry him on a pillow to the mic and proceeded to do some Street Fighter moves on them after they set him down. Buress called him out on this, and Andre said he was doing it for "opulence". That was the perfect word to use to describe what he was doing at that moment. Buress yelled at him, and made fun of him the whole monologue, and it was great. It was like slipping into some clean sheets. It made me comfortable to see this all again, especially now. From there on out, for both episodes, Andre tormented his guests and did cut away skits that made me laugh.

The first episode had Judy Greer and Adam Rippon as guests. Greer seemed freaked out the whole time, and Burress and Andre seemed to push her to the brink. They had errant hot dogs hit the set, Andre showed a video of his cleaning lady and asked her if she "ever punished herself". It was hilarious. With Rippon, Andre had a stagehand under the chair he sat on, and he had that stage hand continue to grab at him and scare him. Again, hilarious. With his cut aways, he did the Ranch guy, always a homerun, and played a UPS guy that had what seemed like a real rat on his shoulder and walked around the subway "looking for its owner". The musical guest was Anderson .Paak, who Andre had chugging a six pack and playing the drums. He called him Anderson 6 .Paak. I really liked it. This set the tone perfectly.

The second episode featured Burress actually quitting. The fans, we all knew this was coming and I was curious to see how they would do it. It was simple enough, with Buress simply saying, "I quit" and walking off stage. Not to be deterred, Andre took one of Buress' nose hairs, which he plucked and cloned him. His clone turned out a little wacky, and they called him Blanninbal Burress. The guests were a rapper named Saweetie, who they tormented by making the stage move without her knowing, and Shanola Hampton, who they raised in a chair and walked her around the room, like Bar Mitzvah style. They also scared her by making Andre literally fly when she gave him a high five. As for the pre taped segments, They did an ad for a psychoactive drug that "tastes like real lemon and lime" and Andre revised his Sprite daredevil guy. Both of these were funny and very well done. The episode ended with Andre's American Rap Ninja Warrior, where he takes lesser known rappers and makes them do a weird obstacle course while blindfolded. It was pretty damn funny.

I am glad that this show is back. I need this weird and wild humor in my life right now. It gave me twenty minutes of solid laughs. I am looking forward to the rest of the season, and I am pretty certain I will rewatch it the moment it is over. Hell, I have already watched the first two episodes multiple times. "The Eric Andre Show" is great, and I am stoked that it is back. Watch it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"

I, like most of the rest of the country, watched "Borat 2" this past Friday.

Right off the bat, this was a solid sequel. It wasn't as good as the original, most sequels aren't, but it achieved its main goal. There are parts of the US that are as terrifying as anywhere else in the world, and Sacha Baron Cohen, as Borat, proved that yet again. In fact, while this movie is a comedy in genre, I view it almost like a horror film. The people not named Borat, Tutar and 3 other ladies, legitimately have me worried about the country I live in. This was as eye opening as the first "Borat" movie, but in so many different ways, and in a very new, very racist light.

The main plot of the movie is simple. Borat is in prison for the first movie, he is let out to give a present to the current "government", to get in their good graces, things go awry and we meet some truly awful, awful people. The "present" is supposed to be a very popular monkey from Kazakhstan that is a movie star. Unfortunately for Borat, his daughter hides away in the cargo, eats the monkey, and then she becomes the "present". It is as simple as that. But, it just got worse and worse and worse from there. Again, I liked the movie, but the people we meet in it, with three exceptions, are the worst people I can imagine. When Borat realizes he has to give his daughter as a gift, this is when things get nuts. The first person we meet that is horrendous is an Instagram "influencer". I never understood that "job", but this lady seems to make money off of it. But the way she talks to Tutar, Borat's daughter, it is so demeaning and so misogynistic. She tells Tutar, "women have to be more submissive", or, "we kind of have to let the men do everything". It is pretty demeaning. The actress that plays Tutar does a great job of egging her on, trying to get more from her, and the other stuff she says is truly embarrassing. That lady should be ashamed of herself, for real. There is a preacher they meet later on, and Borat tries to get him to "get a baby out of her", "that he put in her". The "baby" is a plastic toy from a cupcake, but they don't tell the religious guy that. They make it seem like he actually put a baby in her. They try to get this monster to help them out, but he refuses to do anything, and says something along the lines of, "it doesn't matter how the baby got there, now we are here". Again, when these words came out of his mouth, I was stunned that someone could be that ignorant and stupid and disgusting.

It only gets worse from there. Tutar leaves Borat to be a journalist. We then cut to the US when the pandemic first hit. This is when the movie gets truly scary. Borat finds a few guys that let him stay in their home during the beginning of quarantine. The stuff that comes out of these guys mouths, on film, is some of the most vile and hurtful and horrible things I have ever heard. They say they are "sad" that "unfortunately democrats have the same rights as us". I mean, we are all people. Jesus Christ why is it that hard for people to see. They read QAnon constantly. They call the pandemic and COVID a hoax. It is really bad. It gets even worse when they go to an anti mask rally. This was the second scariest moment in the movie. Borat changes his outfit because he has to hide out. He proceeds to sing a song that the crowd sings along with, which is one of the most heinous songs I have ever heard. The lyrics are truly, truly horrifying. I don't even want to repeat them on my blog because I fear it will put me on some weird list. While singing the song, the cameraman cuts to maskless people in the crowd standing too close to one another, people holding AR 15's for some unknown reason and racist assholes doing the Nazi heil sign. I was so upset it made my stomach hurt. And this wasn't the worst thing in the movie. T

he worst thing happened next. Tutar gets a job doing fake journalism for conservative nutjobs. She is so beloved by these maniacs that believe what she is doing is real, she gets a one on one interview with Rudy Guiliani. He is a real, real, real dirtbag. I don't know if anyone has had such a hard fall as he has. He was considered an okay person after 9/11, and now here we are. He starts the interview off calling Tutar "sweetie" and "honey". Tutar is supposed to be 15 years old by the way. From there Tutar kind of sees how far she can go. She keeps laughing and touching his knee. Meanwhile, Guiliani is drinking a scotch, not wearing a mask and openly coughing while stating that "we've done a great job containing this virus". There is so much wrong with everything that is going on in this short little segment. He's openly drinking hard alcohol with a 15 year old. If you are not in someone's bubble, please, please, please wear a mask. The coughing, to me, is a clear sign that he has some form of COVID. And the statement is patently false. We have lost far too many lives, and still counting, because of the current "government's" lack of doing anything, and thinking this virus would "just go away". It is all wrong. From there, Borat storms in, pretending to be a boom mic guy, and messes up the interview. Tutar takes him to the back, and tells him she is fine. Then Tutar escorts Guiliani to her room in the hotel to "have some drinks". Then, in a wildly disgusting, disturbing and telling moment, Guiliani lays on his back and looks to be unzipping his pants. Borat storms in in a thong and bikini underwear and tells him to take him instead. He says that Tutar is too old for him, again, she is 15, and tries to get him to take him. Of course Guiliani takes offense to this and tries to make Borat look like the bad guy. Borat is not. He saved the actress that plays Tutar, although I am sure she would have saved herself too. This is, by far, the most heinous and gross and disturbing thing I have seen in a movie in quite some time. If it weren't for the babysitter and the two Jewish ladies in the movie, there would be no redeeming characters. They are the soul of the movie.

I recommend watching this movie if only to see how truly terrifying some people in this country can be. It is startling and upsetting, but this is who we need to fight and vote out of office. These people are monsters and just outright awful, and "Borat 2" proves that tenfold. We live in a weird and scary world, and this movie shows that. Now is the time to revolt and vote. Please vote. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Fargo" Season Four Premier

I'm back after a day away. I had some personal stuff to deal with, some tough stuff, and I needed a day to just vent and cry with my wife and kids. But, it is all good now, and I am back. And I am back to talk about the new season of "Fargo".

We have made no secret, RD and I, how much we love the movie and love the show. It is one of the best portrayals, or continuation if you will, or a great movie turned television show. They took this classic movie, and have now made four seasons of some of the most watchable TV out there right now. I was particularly excited for this new season because I am a humongous Chris Rock fan, and I also really, really like Jason Schwartzman. When I saw that they were cast for this new installment, I was pumped. And they are wonderful on the show. This is the first, of four, that doesn't take place in North Dakota or Minnesota. This one is in Kansas City. There is a character from Minnesota in the new season, more on her in a minute, but this is all about the Midwest.

The way the show started off, there were two new episodes, almost three hours of material, and it was tremendous. We got a back story from a young African American student, expertly played by Emyri Crutchfield, about how mob families have come through Kansas City since the early 1900's. It was interesting and cool to see how it was run by one family, a Jewish family, and they made a deal with an Irish family. Then the Irish family takes over and makes a deal with an Italian family. In each one of these deals, a child is traded from family to family too, making it seem that much more ruthless and wild, that people were willing to give up kids to have control over a town and city. After the Italian family takes over, this is where we get the African American crew, led by Rock, coming in to form an alliance with them. When they make the trade off, this is where the show totally takes off. The stakes rise so very much because Rock and his crew are, not only well formed and ready to fight, they are smart too, smarter than any other mob family that has come through. After the trade of children, things get pretty wild. The Italian family loses their leader, mini spoiler alert, when an errant pellet hits an artery in his throat. This pushes Schwartzman to the front of the line. He becomes the leader. He seems ready, but he is also a bit hot headed and hostile. He seems like a bomb that is ready to explode. When he is in the hospital, watching over his father, we meet this crazy nurse who relocated to KC from Minnesota. Jessie Buckley plays the nurse, Nurse Mayflower, and she is crazy. She has been getting compared to Nurse Rathcet, but I think she may be more crazy, and also smarter. She is an evil genius essentially. Her arc over these two episodes was wild, and I am completely in for her journey. As for Schwartzman, he was good, like he always is, and I want to see where he goes from here. He had some great scenes in the first two episodes. Rock and crew were my absolute favorite part so far. Rock is the poised leader of the new mob that comes to town. He is pointed and careful and smart and knows what he is doing and how to do it. It is so cool to see him in a role like this. This is like the stuff he did early on in his career, like his role in "New Jack City", or more in tune with what he did on his own with a movie like "Top 5". Chris Rock is a good, adaptable actor, and roles like he has in "Fargo", and the aforementioned movies before prove that. His crew is also pretty great. Again, they follow his direction, and Doctor Senator, played by Glynn Turman, is a great second in line. Again, he is calm, but he also seems like he has a very, very dark side.

I have enjoyed every iteration that Noah Hawley and crew have done with the "Fargo" TV series, but this one feels different. This one feels like it could be a classic. This feels like this could be the season where everyone is talking about it years and years from now. It has the potential to be that good. I was enthralled, didn't look at my phone and watched with intense focus the whole time. That doesn't happen much anymore, but this fourth installment has my undivided attention. I cannot wait to see where they go from here. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Last Chance U" Season 5

Being that this has been all sports, and mostly college football, I want to finish the week out talking about that very topic. But this time I am going to end on a higher note than what I have been coming with all week.

I just recently finished the fifth season of "Last Chance U". I am a fan of this show. I know that it is a bit over dramatic, it is the same story season after season and it follows a very paint by numbers thread. But, I love college football, I love watching these kids get a shot, I love watching the dynamic of the coaches at the junior college level and I love this show.

This final season, at least in the sense that they are doing football, rumor has it they are switching to basketball for the next season, and that would rule, was great. This was actually the first season where I didn't really find anyone I disliked. The seasons before, at that school in Mississippi and the one in Kansas, both of those coaches were straight up assholes. They played the villain role, and they played it too well. They, in my opinion, hammed it up when the cameras showed up on campus. The kids, they each had some interesting stories, but for the most part, they were castoffs. The two schools before were essentially farm systems for division 1 schools. The kids would either not have the grades to get into their dream school, they were cut from their D-1 school, they were told to go play at the junior college level to hone their skills, it was all about getting the best of the cast off athletes. The kids at these schools in previous seasons, I had heard of some of them. Hell, one was a running back I thought was going to be great at Michigan, but he simply refused to go to class and was kicked off the team. The kids at the school in season five, it's called Laney, are kids that have not given up on their dream of playing college football at a higher level. Laney College doesn't have dorm rooms. The kids on the team have to pay to go there. There are no scholarships. Sure, there is recruiting, and I am sure some kind of "allowance" type stuff takes place. But for the most part, these kids have to get themselves to and from school on their own, most of them have jobs and some even have kids that they take care of and show up to practice. They play to play. They love the game. And they know that Laney is their best shot at getting somewhere else. There is an exception. One kid on the team is a top flight cornerback. He was, at the time of filming, the fifth rated corner in the country as far as recruiting magazines claimed. But, he went to Laney because his brother went there, his cousin went there and he needed to get a little better before joining a D-1 program, which he does. Other kids, they were all so easy to root for. The little white receiver who I was not a fan of, when I heard his life story, I understood why he acts the way he acts. He won me over. The other receiver, the one that has to sleep in his car, that has no contact with his father, his story was crazy depressing, but the way that kid that keeps at it, the way he sacrifices and the stuff he does, I will root for that kid forever to make it. The lineman who is married with two kids was one of the gentlest giants I have seen on TV. He was a beast on the football field, but off it, he was essentially a stay at home dad trying his best to be there for his kids. I related to him the most. And the star of the season was the coach, John Beam. Apparently this gentleman is a legend in Oakland. He has stuck around for 40 plus years. He has had other opportunities, but he has declined them all because he loves what he does, loves working with juco kids and LOVES Oakland. He has his moments, like every coach does, but he is likable and goofy and funny and I found myself rooting for him and his team way more than the other teams featured in "Last Chance U".

This season was very solid. It was probably the best they have done to this point. If this is the way they are going out from the juco football standpoint, they picked the best possible way to do it. I recommend this show now more than ever since football is going to be very different, if it exists at all, this fall. "Last Chance U" is solid, and featuring Laney College in Oakland was perfect. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Umbrella Academy" Season 2

The past week my wife and I have been watching "Umbrella Academy" season 2. We watched the first season last year on a whim of hers and I thought it was fine. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. The fight scenes were awesome, the story was cool, the animation and CGI work was top notch and the ending was rad. The acting was hit and miss though, it got a little too melodramatic and it felt kind of slow at times. Like I said, it was okay. But, the ending to season one definitely made me want to come back to the show. I was curious to see where they would go with this story in a second season.

The second season came out at the end of July, and we have watched the first five episodes, with plans on finishing it by the weekend, and I have to say, the second season, so far, has been totally awesome. I liked the first season enough, but this second season has totally blown season 1 out of the water. The acting has been shored up. Everyone is good, not just Ellen Page and the kid who plays Number 5. The story, which has shifted to the 60's, and the assassination of JFK was the absolute right move. Each episode has told the backstory of the main characters so far, and what they have done in the two to three years they have traveled back in time to Dallas in the early 60's. The music has been so cool. They play old hits and set them to some of the most kick ass fight scenes I have seen on TV or in a movie. There was a fight scene last night that we saw that was almost, almost as good as anything I have seen in any of the three "John Wick" movies. The bad guys this season are so much more fleshed out, and frankly better, than what they had last season. No offense to Mary J Blige, she is a wonderful singer, but her acting cannot hold a card to the people they got this season as the villains. The Swedes are right up there with the Salamanca brothers from "Breaking Bad" for me. Kate Walsh is back, and she is the ultimate villain. She is so good in this role, her clothes are wild and dope and she is as bad as they come.

I have been so much more into this season of the show. I find myself thinking about what I think will happen next each day. I put my phone down when we watch and the show gets my 100 percent attention. I do not want to miss a thing. I don't want to miss any possible plot points that I am sure will come back in the last five episodes. The show has just been so much better. The writers seem to have really bought into this season's premise, and they have nearly perfectly fleshed out the characters arcs to this point. The way they start each episode, with a very important cold open has been so good in letting me know what to look forward to. The emotional changes from the first season are so much better. Luther, the big ape man, has become this sad sack of a person, and the actor is totally nailing the emotions. He is funny, but you also feel for him. Adding in the JFK stuff has also given us cool characters, including a guy that plays Jack Ruby. It has been so cool.

I'm very excited to see where they go with the ending. My wife has read spoilers, but I have asked her to not tell me anything, I want to be surprised. This might be one of the best sophomore seasons of TV I've seen in quite some time. I have really enjoyed season 2 of "Umbrella Academy", and I am almost certain they will end it with a bang, and it will totally hit. This show is very good, and I definitely recommend it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.