Entertainment
Sydney Sweeney Has Been Raunchy On TV For Years, It's Not New
By TeeJay Small
| Updated
Now that Euphoria‘s long-awaited third season has finally arrived, it feels like a weekly ritual has formed around the show. With the release of every new episode, fans, critics, and haters take to social media to discuss how the HBO melodrama has gone completely off the rails. While I won’t argue that the show is sticking to its roots by any means, I would be remiss if not to point out the fact that Euphoria was a completely insane series long before Sydney Sweeney started eating out of a dog bowl. In fact, I’m not sure what being ‘on the rails’ would even look like for this bizarre teen sex drama.
Euphoria Was Always Over The Top
As early as the very first episode, Euphoria is a strange series. The show focuses on sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but does so through the lens of a Southern California high school. Personally, I’ve always felt that these stories would make way more sense in a college setting, because I don’t recall seeing a lot of briefcases full of heroin getting kicked around my AP lit class back in the tenth grade. Maybe I was just a square back in the day, but I also feel like stories of female empowerment through sexual sovereignty play better when the woman is above the age of consent.
In the first season, there’s a whole plot line about a young, heavyset girl discovering her worth by becoming a nude cam model. From her own perspective, this makes her a certified baddie, but watching it as an adult highlights the predatory nature of unchecked internet access among teens. She may not consider herself a victim, but she’s a teenage girl whose self worth is entirely determined by her value to gross creeps in weird chatrooms.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who had drug problems and sexual adventures in their early teenage years, but that should really be considered the exception, not the rule. It’s important to note that most high schoolers are still shouting “six seven” down the hallways and watching people open Pokemon cards on Twitch for some reason. Not every show needs to be hyper realistic, but Euphoria always struck me as predatory in the dark and dramatic way it depicts children.
Unhinged Since Day One
Of course, even the adult characters aren’t safe from Euphoria‘s madness. One of the strangest plot lines in the show (or perhaps in television history) centers on Eric Dane’s Cal Jacobs. Throughout the first season of the show, Cal is shown to be a domineering construction magnate responsible for building half the town. In season two, he is struck about the head by a child of a single-digit age with a sawed-off shotgun. The bludgeoning results in a concussion, which causes Cal to go home to his family and dramatically declare that he’s gay now.
While explaining that he’s a concussed homosexual, Cal pees all over the floor of his own foyer, in front of his children, as some kind of bizarre, animalistic show of dominance. He then departs his home to go live in an unfinished house in the middle of nowhere. Later in the season, we see that he has situated himself in a community of homeless gay men, who go around using unfinished houses as sexual meeting places. I cannot stress to you enough that my description actually makes this whole plot thread less absurd than what plays out on the screen.
From the perspective of a day one viewer, I actually think Euphoria is less insane today than it was back when Cal Jacobs was literally pissing away his familial legacy. Sure, Sydney Sweeney‘s character seems to exist primarily for series creator Sam Levinson to screen test his barely-disguised sexual peccadilloes, but at least she’s doing it as an adult character now, thanks to a time jump between seasons. Zendaya‘s character is similarly troubled with a major drug trafficking operation, but it makes more sense now than it did in season one, when she was supposedly playing a 16-year-old.
In fairness, I think that the main selling point of Euphoria has always been its absurdity. The show exists to ruffle the feathers of social media users, who then drive more traffic to HBO with their complaints. It just seems like people have forgotten that now that the series is less about high school plays, and more about Sydney Sweeney putting on a diaper and using ableist slurs.
Euphoria is streaming on Max.
Entertainment
Netflix Just Added The Extremely R-Rated Crime Thriller Secretly Made By Film's Greatest Director
By TeeJay Small
| Published
If you’re a sucker for a good crime thriller, you’re probably already aware of the hit 1993 movie True Romance. This genre-defining film is packed to the gills with foul language, graphic violence, and some supernatural themes that make the whole thing feel like a fever dream lost in time.
Though it was considered a box office failure in its day, True Romance has since garnered a massive cult following. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, or you’ve streamed it, now is the right time. Netflix just added True Romance.
Long before True Romance was dancing across the silver screen and upsetting the prudes at the MPAA, the film was being penned by a young, up-and-coming Quentin Tarantino. This is the very first feature-length screenplay the Pulp Fiction filmmaker ever wrote. Portions of the first act and some of the pop culture-focused dialogue were lifted right out of Tarantino’s own unreleased short film, My Best Friend’s Birthday, which he made while working at a video rental store in Los Angeles.
Tarantino originally intended to direct True Romance himself, but by the time the script was gaining traction with producers, he had already moved on to a new project that would ultimately become Reservoir Dogs. So he sold the screenplay, used the money to finance his own debut, and let Top Gun director Tony Scott take the wheel.
This has become the subject of tons of debate among film nerds, as some fans believe True Romance is a shadow of what it could have been with Tarantino behind the wheel. Others, including Tarantino himself, have lauded Tony Scott for bringing the intense screenplay to life and offering a more saccharine ending than what was originally on the page.
The plot of True Romance centers on a young couple named Clarence and Alabama. They meet at a movie theater, quickly fall in love, and decide to skip town together after a whirlwind date. The only problem is, Alabama is a woman of the night, and her pimp Drexl Spivey doesn’t take kindly to the loss of revenue.
Prompted by the ghost of Elvis Presley, Clarence murders Spivey and snags a duffle bag of blow from his workplace, hoping he can sell it off to finance his new life. Predictably, the young couple’s troubles don’t end there, as they contend with gang members, police, and a world that seems to want to keep them apart.
The whole adventure feels like a very 90s take on the classic tale of Bonnie and Clyde, complete with some added racy elements. For many fans, True Romance represents the gold standard of crime thrillers.
Christian Slater gives a career-defining performance here, alongside top-tier showings from Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, and Christopher Walken. Several big-name actors appear in minor bit parts as well, including Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and the late James Gandolfini, of The Sopranos fame.
Whether you’re a die-hard fan or you’re looking to catch it for the very first time, you can watch True Romance on Netflix today. Just prepare to hear some really outlandish stuff, especially if you’ve got any Sicilian ancestry.
TRUE ROMANCE REVIEW SCORE
Entertainment
Why wait for Prime Day? The Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro by Anker earbuds are $30 off right now at Amazon.
SAVE $30: As of June 3, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro by Anker earbuds are back to their lowest price yet at Amazon for $149.99. This is $30 off their full price of $179.99.
$149.99
at Amazon
$179.99
Save $30
The Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro is a pretty special pair of earbuds. Not only are they open earbuds, allowing for more awareness of your surroundings while listening, but they also have noise-canceling features. Mashable’s Bethany Allard said they’re “the answer for people who can’t decide between open and noise-canceling earbuds” in her review. If they’ve been on your radar, they’re actually on sale right now at Amazon.
As of June 3, every color of the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro by Anker earbuds are discounted to $149.99 at Amazon. This saves you $30 off their full price of $179.99 and marks a return to their lowest price at the retailer so far. Ahead of Prime Day, this is a great deal to take advantage of.
Mashable Deals
Allard highlights in her review of the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro that if you’re someone who’s “interested in open earbuds, not quite ready to give up ANC buds altogether, and can’t reasonably see themselves carrying around two pairs of earbuds, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pros are the best option available.” However, she does mention that “you make some concessions: the ANC won’t be the best, and you’re locked into an ear hook design.”
Alongside its dual listening modes, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pros offer a battery life that lasts up to seven hours on a charge in Open-Ear mode or five hours in ANC mode. That’s a good amount of time to work with, and it’ll last you through a workout or a commute for the day. Of course, those times can be pushed up further with the charging case as well (up to 34 hours in Open-Ear mode or 24 hours in ANC).
Mashable Deals
On top of all that, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro by Anker earbuds have even landed on our list of the best open earbuds. So, why not scoop them up while they’re still on sale at Amazon?
Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories and Deals newsletters today.
Entertainment
Star Trek’s Biggest Star Will Never Return To The Franchise
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
To this day, William Shatner remains the face of Star Trek. It was his weirdly compelling performance that helped transform The Original Series into a breakout pop culture hit. Later, it was Shatner’s charisma that gave the TOS movies their charming mainstream appeal. Shatner’s Captain Kirk is such an iconic figure that the franchise has tried to bring him back to life with multiple actors. But for all their talents, performers like Chris Pine and Paul Wesley could never match Shatner’s iconic (and certainly iconoclastic) performance. Because of that, the producers of the most popular current Trek show did their best to put Shatner’s Kirk onscreen again.
We first found out about this when Shatner himself mentioned being approached by some unnamed Star Trek producers. Recently, NuTrek guru Alex Kurtzman and some of his fellow producers gave an interview to Polygon where they admitted that they made an effort to bring Shatner back for Season 4 of Strange New Worlds. It would have been quite fitting: not only is SNW one big love letter to The Original Series, but this year is the 60th anniversary of the franchise. Unfortunately, Kurtzman and company couldn’t make it happen, which makes it official: after decades of producers trying to bring him back, William Shatner will never return to Star Trek, the franchise that made him famous.
Strange New Worlds And A Familiar Actor
Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series that focuses on the adventures of Captain Pike, who commanded the Enterprise’s first five-year mission. The show features several new actors playing familiar characters, including Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Spock. Paul Wesley plays the younger Kirk, which leaves the obvious question: how, exactly, was the show going to bring back the 95-year-old William Shatner to play the same character? Through the magic of the multiverse, of course!
In an interview with Polygon, Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman said that his biggest regret was that they never managed to bring William Shatner to homage the Original Series episode “City on the Edge of Forever.” This is the famous episode where Kirk falls in love with a woman whose activism keeps America out of World War II, allowing the Nazis to rule the world. To save the future, Kirk is forced to let her die. Goldsman wanted an SNW episode portraying Shatner as a version of Kirk who had stayed in the past to stay with the woman he loved, the future be damned.
Mirror, Mirror, On The Screen
According to Akiva Goldsman, the Strange New Worlds writers developed several scripts and tried to bring William Shatner each season, but it never happened. Now that Strange New Worlds has wrapped production, and no new Trek series is on the horizon, it’s unlikely we’ll see Shatner play Captain Kirk on the small screen again. Plus, given that Paramount wants to reboot Trek as a film with completely new characters, we’re equally unlikely to see Shatner’s Kirk on the big screen again. This is doubly sad because different Star Trek producers have been trying to bring him back for decades.
When Star Trek: Enterprise was first airing, William Shatner himself approached Trek guru Rick Berman with an idea. Over lunch, the actor pitched the idea of a two-part episode that returned to the Mirror Universe and showed the evil version of Captain Kirk as an older man. It was a great idea, but there was just one problem: Shatner was asking for too much money. While he didn’t name an exact amount, Berman told The Shuttlepod Show that “the number was probably 8x more than the studio had any interest in.” However, Manny Coto liked Shatner’s idea, which is why we did eventually get a two-part Mirror Universe episode, albeit without Captain Kirk.
He’s Not Dead, Jim!
After Enterprise prematurely ended, fans worried that the franchise might be dead. Fortunately, Star Trek (2009) brought everyone’s favorite Original Series characters back with new actors, new stories, and an entirely new universe (the Kelvinverse) to play in. Leonard Nimoy appears to help pass the baton to yet another new generation of Trek performers, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman originally wrote a scene where Spock had a pre-recorded “happy birthday” message from Shatner’s Kirk. But Shatner wanted a prominent role where Kirk was somehow still alive, suggesting the writers canonize his novels where Kirk is resurrected. Feeling that more Shatner would overshadow the younger performers, Orci and Kurtzman wrote him out of the film altogether.
Without William Shatner, Star Trek would likely have never become such an outsized pop culture phenomenon. Previously, his returns (first, in The Animated Series, and again in the TOS movies) helped reinvigorate the franchise, and he played a major part in helping the Next Generation cast transition their characters from TV to film. Clearly, Shatner never lost his love for Kirk: not only did he make multiple attempts to return via TV and film, but he wrote (along with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) an entire series of books about Kirk coming back to life and having more crazy interstellar adventures.
Outside of books, though, it seems like Kirk’s Star Trek adventures have come to an end. He won’t pop up in Strange New Worlds, and he’s deeply unlikely to make any kind of appearance in Paramount’s upcoming reboot film. That’s unfortunate for all of us who would love to see this iconic performer play his most famous character, one last time. Whether or not Shatner ever makes a triumphant return, though, we’ll always remember him for two things. First, boldly going where no actor has gone before. And second, letting generations of fans tag along for the ride!
NBA Europe closes in on 2027 launch despite EuroLeague uncertainty
Netflix Just Added The Extremely R-Rated Crime Thriller Secretly Made By Film's Greatest Director
