Entertainment
Criminally Overlooked 90s Comedy Is The Ultimate Life Reset For An Iconic Sitcom Star
By Robert Scucci
| Updated
Faking your own death in order to start a new life is complicated by the fact that there aren’t any real resources out there to educate yourself on the process. Think about it. If somebody disappeared without a trace successfully, they’re not going to host an AMA on Reddit explaining how they did it because that would leave a digital footprint and defeat the entire purpose. George Wendt’s (or, Norm from Cheers) Warren Kooey in 1994’s Hostage for a Day finds himself in such a predicament, but instead comes up with an insane plan to kidnap himself so he can escape his unfulfilling marriage, move to Alaska, and finally live life on his own terms.
Complications arise along the way in this Canadian made-for-TV movie, which also happens to be John Candy’s first and only directorial effort, released posthumously one month after his death. As a low-budget TV feature, Hostage for a Day leaves a lot to be desired, but its premise and acting talent carry it further than its 15 percent audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes would lead you to believe. It won’t change your life by any stretch of the imagination, but if you want to see one of the dumbest life escape plans imaginable pushed into increasingly absurd territory, it’s a solid, low-stakes watch with a healthy amount of genuine laugh-out-loud moments.
Don’t Let The Promo Material Fool You
John Candy is given top billing in the promotional material for Hostage for a Day, but he’s only seen in a couple of scenes since most of his work here was done behind the camera instead of in front of it. The real star of the show is Warren Kooey, our hapless, hopeless, middle-aged protagonist who feels completely trapped in an unfulfilling life. Warren works as a clerk at his father-in-law V.D.’s (John Vernon) copy shop, and as a result has to bend to his will at the drop of a hat.
Warren experiences similar treatment from his wholly unsatisfied stay-at-home wife, Elizabeth (Robin Duke), who uses her father’s influence to get whatever she wants on the home front, including exorbitant home renovations from world-renowned handyman Hondo (Currie Graham). It’s clear that Elizabeth is having an affair with Hondo, as he’s always gutting Warren’s property under the guise of a professional working relationship. Warren, being the pushover that he is, just lets it happen.
After confronting his existential dread by talking to his own reflection on various flat, shiny surfaces, Warren finally hits his breaking point when he learns that Elizabeth has stolen $40,000 from his credit union account in order to fund her illicit affair with Hondo. Around this same time, Warren has a welcome run-in with his old flame, Diane St. Clair (Christopher Anne Templeton), with whom he once made elaborate plans to move to Alaska and live off the fat of the land.
With no money to his name and desperate to start fresh, Warren decides to act on his midlife crisis in the most extreme way possible. He straps road flares and an alarm clock to his chest, tells Elizabeth that he’s been kidnapped by Russians, calls the SWAT team, and demands a ransom for the exact amount of money that was stolen from him.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Hostage for a Day earns its namesake when the criminally underfunded SWAT team shows up, woefully unprepared to handle the situation. To make matters worse, Russian terrorist Yuri Petrovich (John Candy) conveniently breaks into the Kooey residence and actually holds Warren hostage for real. As you’d expect, Warren, who was only trying to orchestrate an elaborate ruse in order to start a new life, suddenly has to deal with genuine danger as his house gets pumped full of lead and he digs himself deeper into his self-kidnapping plot than he ever intended.
While you do have to settle for mid-90s made-for-TV production values, Hostage for a Day still has its moments, even if it ultimately plays like a middle-of-the-road comedy of errors. The main issue I had with the movie, and the thing that took me out of it the most, was how conveniently unlikable every single person in the film is. You can’t blame Warren Kooey for wanting out when his wife is a cold-hearted scorpion woman who robs him of his solitude while offering zero companionship. She’s also clearly testing out the new bedroom with Hondo faster than you can say, “Can I pour you a beer, Mr. Peterson?”
In other words, Warren is too likable, everybody else sucks, and it’s a little too convenient as a setup. I personally would have found it funnier if Warren’s life was simply average and he took these extreme measures because he was blowing everything else out of proportion. What we get instead is still funny, but you can only escalate a ridiculous setup so much before it starts to lose its luster.
Hostage for a Day is streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
The Best New Show Of The Year Is A Supernatural Comedy Horror On AppleTV
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The 2026 television season has been a little lackluster so far when it comes to original, new series. The Boroughs was a fun binge on Netflix, Margo’s Got Money Troubles was a good comedy, but nothing can compare to the surprising success of Widow’s Bay on AppleTV. It’s a horror comedy, which might be the hardest combination of genres to pull off, that plays out like Twin Peaks meets Parks and Recreation. No show will leave you laughing so hard in one episode, before traumatizing you in the next.
Widow’s Bay Is The Most Original Show In Years
That odd mix of shows makes sense since Widow’s Bay was created by Katie Dippold, a writer for Parks and Recreation. The series takes place in the island town of Widow’s Bay in New England when Mayor Tom (Matthew Rhys) decides to boost tourism to the small community. The catch is that the community, primarily Wyck (Stephen Root) believes the island is cursed.
It’s not a spoiler to say that yes, yes it is cursed, and yes, there are real horrors at work on the island. That’s not surprising. What is surprising is the dry humor and Matthew Rhys’ perfect facial expressions, as the town’s residents will deliver the most absurd lines with a perfectly straight face. If you vibed with the humor of Parks and Recreation, you know what you’re getting into with the odd residents of Widow’s Bay, especially Kate O’Flynn as Tom’s assistant, Patricia. There’s a sequence with her involving a shotgun that is destined to be a social media hit for years to come, and one of those moments that you’ll think, “I’d do the same thing.”
Slapstick Comedy, Horror, And Amazing Sight Gags
Before starting your binge of the first season, avoid as many spoilers as you can. Widow’s Bay sets up mysteries early on with the chained church bell, the strange basement room, a rolling fogbank, and, while it’s not a supernatural mystery, how many Diet Cokes can Town Hall employee Dale consume? His desk is filled to the brim with cans. That can’t be healthy.
Keep your eyes peeled while watching Widow’s Bay as the production team was heavily influenced by The Simpsons usage of sight gags. Some are called out with blatant shots, others exist in the background of a conversation, but put together, they make the town of Widow’s Bay an absurdist version of Twin Peaks.
No one had supernatural slapstick down on their 2026 Bingo card, but here we are. While Netflix pulled the plug on The Boroughs, Widow’s Bay has already been confirmed for a second season, which is good considering the stakes-raising season finale ends by revealing a whole new layer to the mystery of the island. We have a long wait until Season 2 premieres, giving you plenty of time to watch the show of the Summer, and you can still convince your friends you were a fan of Widow’s Bay before it was cool. ]
Widow’s Bay Season 1 is now streaming on AppleTV.
Entertainment
Don’t pay $199 for Windows 11 Pro when it’s currently just $13
TL;DR: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro is down to just $12.97, giving users an easy OS upgrade with advanced security, productivity tools, gaming features, and Copilot AI.
Some upgrades just feel right. This is one of them.
If your PC has been running a little sluggish or you’ve been meaning to bring your system up to speed, Windows 11 Pro is just $12.97 (reg. $199) — a rare, time-sensitive offer that rewards quick, savvy decisions.
Mashable Deals
This isn’t about chasing trends; it’s more about giving your computer the modern foundation it deserves. Windows 11 Pro brings a sleeker UI, better multitasking, and enhanced security — all in a one-time lifetime license.
Think of it as the difference between driving a reliable car and suddenly upgrading to one with a smarter dashboard, smoother handling, and built-in security features.
For professionals, creators, and power users, this upgrade also unlocks features like Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, BitLocker encryption, and seamless Azure AD integration — tools that make a real difference when you’re working across projects or managing sensitive data.
And yes, Windows 11 comes with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant that can summarize pages, change settings, or even help you generate code on the fly. It’s like having a co-pilot (literally) inside your OS.
Mashable Deals
But you don’t need convincing — you already know a smart upgrade when you see one. Get Windows 11 Pro for just $12.97 (reg. $199).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Gene Roddenberry Secretly Fixed Star Trek’s Earliest Plot Hole
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Part of why that is so impressive is that this franchise has managed to maintain the same continuity for so many years. Sure, the Kelvinverse rebooted everything for a few movies, and we occasionally get glimpses of alternate universes with their own twisted history. But the main Trek timeline, from The Original Series through Starfleet Academy, has remained the same, which is an amazing creative achievement. But it also leads to something as annoying as it is inevitable: plot holes!
There are many seeming plot holes throughout the franchise. Heck, Starfleet Academy introduced more than its fair share in only one season. However, the earliest plothole goes back to William Shatner’s very first episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” This episode features a mock grave for James Tiberius Kirk that reads “James R. Kirk.” This weird screwup inspired decades of attempts by fans and creators to explain what happened. However, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a simple explanation from the very beginning. That is, the godlike character who created the tombstone was still fallible, meaning that this would be an in-universe screwup rather than a production error.
A Ghoulish Plot Hole
“Where No Man Has Gone Before” was actually the second pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It’s the episode that sold NBC on this new show, which isn’t surprising, because this is a great hour of television. Strange energy from the galactic barrier gives one of Captain Kirk’s best friends, Gary Mitchell, godlike powers. Those powers are getting stronger by the minute, so Kirk eventually has to make the difficult decision to kill his buddy in the name of keeping the entire ship (and quite possibly the entire galaxy) safe.
At one point, Mitchell uses his powers to summon a tombstone that reads “James R. Kirk.” It makes for a great threat, but there’s just one problem: the character’s name is James Tiberius Kirk. Incidentally, Gene Roddenberry seemingly knew Kirk’s middle name early on, even though it wasn’t officially revealed (outside of The Animated Series) until The Undiscovered Country. In the introduction to Star Trek: The Classic Episodes 1, Original Series writer D.C. Fontana claimed that once Roddenberry noticed the mistake, he came up with a quick and easy explanation. “Gary Mitchell had godlike powers, but at base he was human. He made a mistake.”
Powers Like A God, Mind Like A Human
Unfortunately, Roddenberry kept this plot hole explanation to himself. I say “unfortunately” because this mistake sent fans into a tizzy trying to explain the discrepancy. On top of that, various Star Trek writers tried their hands at providing explanations. One such explanation came from Michael Jan Friedman’s non-canonical My Brother’s Keeper series. In these books, when the future captain meets Gary Mitchell, he claims his middle name is “Racquetball.” Later, when Kirk steamrolls through a discussion, Mitchell says the man’s middle name should be “Rhinoceros.” Therefore, Friedman explained that the “James R. Kirk” on the tombstone is just an in-joke between former friends.
Additionally, the late, great Star Trek writer Peter David tried his hand at an explanation. In his novel Q-Squared, the events of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” take place in a parallel reality in which Kirk’s middle initial really is “R.” In this non-canonical book, we also find out that Mitchell’s powers came from briefly being possessed by Q, who had to pull himself together across all of time and space. Quick side note: while Marvel has really played out the concept of multiverses, Q-Squared is an amazing novel, and every Trek fan should read it at least once.
These writers did their best to explain where “James R. Kirk” came from. On top of this, fans have constantly debated this issue, all trying to one-up each other in coming up with a suitable explanation for this plothole. As it turns out, though, none of this debating and speculating was necessary because Gene Roddenberry had the perfect explanation ready. Namely, that having the power of a god isn’t the same as having the unlimited knowledge of a god. It’s short, it’s simple, and it’s effective. Most of all, it does what Star Trek has always done best: keep the sci-fi storytelling centered around humanity.
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The Best New Show Of The Year Is A Supernatural Comedy Horror On AppleTV
