Entertainment
Lightning McQueen Is A Cold-Blooded Serial Killer In R-Rated 90s Thriller
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Thanks to my incessant Tubi scrolling, I now know that Owen Wilson can competently and convincingly portray a serial killer. Whenever I think of Wilson, I think Zoolander, Cars, and Shanghai Noon. He’s so great at being silly that I didn’t think he had it in him to go this dark. It’s not that I thought he couldn’t, I just never saw him do it. Admittedly, I’m not the type of guy to say, “Man, Owen Wilson is so great that I have to go through his entire filmography.” This is why we need to consider our blind spots, because 1999’s The Minus Man is a great psychological thriller that I completely overlooked until this week.
Owen Wilson At His Most Sinister
The Minus Man tells the story of a nomadic serial killer named Vann Siegert (Owen Wilson). When we’re introduced to him, we’re made privy to his primary M.O., which involves meeting people in unassuming places and poisoning them with the contents of his flask. It’s a simple enough operation. He meets a girl named Casper (Sheryl Crow) at a bar, learns she has a heroin habit, leaves with her, shares his flask, waits for her to expire, and stages her body to look like she died of an overdose before moving on to his next victim.
Deciding to lay low for a while, Vann skips town and rents a room from Doug (Brian Cox) and Jane (Mercedes Ruehl). Jane has her reservations about treating a tenant like a guest, but Doug, clearly searching for a friend in Vann, encourages him to stick around and tells him the Post Office is hiring seasonal workers ahead of the holidays. Vann gets the job, where he meets a mailroom clerk named Ferrin (Janeane Garofalo). They hit it off in an awkward way, and all signs point to them becoming an item. The problem is that Vann is itching to kill again.
As Vann proves himself a competent employee at the USPS, he begins to lay down roots in town, which directly conflicts with the two rules he lives by, “don’t murder people you know, and don’t do it in the town you live in.” He poisons a local high school football star named Gene (Eric Mabius) and buries the body at the beach, but only before similarly killing a diner patron using the same method. Keeping up appearances with his otherwise friendly demeanor, Vann continues seeing Ferrin, but things at home take a sinister turn. Doug starts unraveling for reasons never fully explained, and his behavior draws too much attention to the household, which worries Vann.
As Vann’s killing spree ramps up, he has a psychological break of his own, involving multiple confrontations with Detectives Blair (Dwight Yoakam) and Graves (Dennis Haysbert). They mock his M.O. and question him until he breaks in these sequences. It’s up to you, however, to decide whether these exchanges are real, imagined, a sign of what’s to come, or simply a manifestation of Vann’s guilt.
No Easy Answers
What’s most enthralling about The Minus Man is how it plays with reality versus imagination. It’s clear that Vann isn’t all there. It’s also clear that he’s a maniac who knows how to put on a pleasant face, allowing him to blend in seamlessly with society. We only catch glimpses of his life before settling down, and the film ends with him leaving town forever, so we never get a full picture, which only adds to the mystery.
Owen Wilson brings something here that I haven’t seen in any of his other films, and his portrayal of Vann is commendable to say the least. His quiet restraint and ability to present himself like a regular guy make for a genuinely unnerving character study, and it’s a testament to his range outside of comedic roles.
If you’re interested in seeing Wilson in one of the most against-type roles of his career, I strongly recommend checking out The Minus Man, currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for March 22, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re simple.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Trademarked no more
The words are related to common items.
Mashable Top Stories
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe everyday objects.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is diagonal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Generic Term.
NYT Strands word list for March 22
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Zipper
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Escalator
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Thermos
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Generic Term
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Aspirin
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Dumpster
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Upcoming Firefly Reboot Will Feature Weird Animation And Activist Showrunners, Fans Divided
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The announcement of a new Firefly season at AwesomeCon on March 15, 2026, was eagerly anticipated by fans of the show. When Firefly was canceled in 2002, it was abrupt and even traumatic because we had all quickly grown attached to the quirky crew of the Serenity. The movie, named after the smuggling starship, delivered both excitement and heartbreak, giving fans what we all thought was one last look at Malcolm Reynolds and his associates. So when lead actor Nathan Fillion started teasing a cast reunion, Browncoats took notice.
On the surface, the cast announcement, made via Zoom, sounds awesome. There’s a new season in development and it’s going to be animated. It’s going to take place between the end of the single television season and the movie. This means Alan Tudyk’s wisecracking Wash is still alive, and also that Shepherd Book, previously played by deceased actor Ron Glass, can be taken “out to the black” and live on.
Same Cast, Different Style
Some fans are happy because the rest of the cast is reuniting for this project and finally answering their hopes. An animated version also avoids trying to explain why the characters look older than they did in the Serenity movie, while providing the fan service we’ve all been asking for.
The animation is being produced by award-winning studio ShadowMachine, which also inked BoJack Horseman, Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning Pinocchio, the vanished Final Space, and a fair portion of Adult Swim’s content, including Robot Chicken. The animation style isn’t to everyone’s taste, though. Some people, beyond just those who only wanted something live action, aren’t warming up to the artistic concepts shared so far.
Still Looking For A Proper Platform
Another source of dissatisfaction is that the show doesn’t actually have a home. It has almost everything else it needs: a studio, a returning cast, and creator Joss Whedon’s blessing, but no streamer or network. The cast announcement struck some viewers as begging for help, and others as a false promise, since a show without a network is no good to fans.
The biggest red flags about the show for some fans have surrounded the show runners, both past and present. Whedon may have given his blessing, but he is not involved. Many believe that he is the heart of the show’s tone and humor, and that it wouldn’t be the same without his involvement.
Fans Approach With Guarded Enthusiasm
This has been amplified for a lot of viewers by the involvement of Marc Guggenheim and wife Tracy Butters, both alums of superhero shows but also outspoken activists. Guggenheim, responsible for the CW Arrowverse, has never shied away from using Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow to make political statements favoring specific talking points, and has already been noted for attacking Firefly fans who voted for President Trump. Such fans are concerned that yet another beloved property they enjoy will be used to attack and scold them with political messaging rather than good storytelling.
Every fandom has its slop eaters who will eat up a show, no matter how bad, just because it exists and bears the name of their favorite franchise. The Firefly fandom has hope that the combination of the cast reuniting and the show being animated compensates for its physical limitations. But a lot of fans, who have spent the past decade being burned by bad reboots, sequels, and spinoffs from their favorite franchise, are wary that Firefly is about to do it again.
Entertainment
One Of Star Trek's Best Episodes Was Created Out Of Spite
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Ever learn about someone for the first time and feel an immediate kinship with them? Recently, I learned about the late, great Evan Carlos Somers, someone who wrote for the best Transformers show ever made: Beast Wars. He also wrote the episode “Melora” for Deep Space Nine, which just happens to be the greatest Star Trek show ever made (I said what I said, haters!).
What intrigued me most about Somers is that he wrote “Melora” out of spite. Part of that spite was for the Paramount production offices and the DS9 set itself. As a man in a wheelchair, Somers discovered how tough it was to get around the studio, and he made sure the wheelchair-bound Melora faced the same difficulties navigating the most famous space station in the quadrant. On top of that, he wrote “Melora” largely to wave a middle finger at the writers of “Ethics.” That’s the TNG episode where a paralyzed Worf wants to (as the kids on Starfleet Academy might say) unalive himself with the help of Commander Riker.
The Best Parking Spot On The Station
This tale is gonna need a double dose of context, so buckle up. The most notable thing about the “Melora” is that even in the 24th century, the titular Starfleet officer must use a wheelchair to move around the station. This is because she comes from a low-gravity planet, and her fancy hoverchair is incompatible with the station’s Cardassian technology. The episode was pitched and originally written (it got later rewrites) by Evan Carlos Somers, who felt that his life as a handicapped person would help him more authentically write for a wheelchair-bound character.
The big emotional thrust of the episode comes when Dr. Bashir develops a “cure” for Melora that would allow her to easily walk in Earth normal gravity. However, it would keep her from returning to her homeworld. It would also fundamentally change who she is, and she eventually decides not to go through with it just to make Bashir happy. In this way, the handicapped Somers wrote a quintessential Star Trek episode in which a character refuses to be defined by her disability and, instead, fully embraces it.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
While he was motivated to write “Melora” largely out of his desire to honestly portray the lived experience of a handicapped person, Somers also wanted to write a response to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Ethics.” This is the episode where Worf gets paralyzed by some falling barrels, and he considers committing ritual suicide because of Klingon cultural customs. They believe if you can’t walk, you can’t fight, and if you can’t fight, you might as well be dead. Worf is unable to convince Riker to help with his assisted suicide and is unwilling to ask his son, so he reluctantly agrees to an experimental medical procedure that allows him to walk again.
In an interview with The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine, Evan Carlos Somers revealed that “Ethics” was an episode that “had gotten a little under my skin.” While acknowledging that Klingons have their own cultural values, he still felt that “we’re making statements with Star Trek” and that “messages and values are being broadcast loud and clear.” In this case, he “reented the message in ‘Ethics’–that Worf is worthless now that he’s disabled and therefore must kill himself.” This motivated the writing of “Melora” because “I always thought it would be nice to create a disabled character who’s accepted for what she is and doesn’t have to change.”
In retrospect, “Melora” did have a nice message, but I find it personally hilarious that this progressive episode was written out of spite for the writers of an earlier TNG episode. Even funnier, “Ethics” was written by Ronald D. Moore, the Klingon expert who later went on to create the acclaimed Battlestar Galactica reboot.
He’s considered one of Star Trek’s best writers, but that didn’t keep a young intern-turned-writer from calling him out with one of DS9’s craziest episodes. Somers was powered by spite the same way the Enterprise is powered by the warp core, and like Scotty, he was giving it all he’s got with “Melora.” Real talk? As a cranky writer myself, that’s the kind of motivation I can get behind.
Report: Syracuse hero Gerry McNamara returning as coach
NYT Strands hints, answers for March 22, 2026
