Entertainment
The Dystopian Sci-Fi Thriller That's A VHS Era, R-Rated Classic
By Robert Scucci
| Updated
One of my favorite I Think You Should Leave skits involves a burnt-out cop named Detective Crashmore, portrayed by the late, great Biff Wiff, who doesn’t even care if he dies “because everything has sucked lately.” He kicks down doors and pumps rooms full of lead before rattling off catchphrases like “You f****** suck!” He’s overtly angry, constantly butts heads with his commissioner, and arms himself to the teeth with comically large weapons before getting back to business after tragedy strikes.
While there’s no definitive way for me to prove it, I have reason to believe that Rutger Hauer’s Harley Stone in 1992’s Split Second was the inspiration for Detective Crashmore, because it’s basically the same character, aside from the fact that Split Second isn’t meant to be a parody.
Billed as a dystopian buddy cop science fiction action horror film, Split Second is an over-the-top exercise in swift and brutal justice, as our hero searches for answers in a string of serial slayings that have eluded him for years. While Split Second isn’t necessarily a comedy, Rutger Hauer’s cigar-smoking, coffee-swilling, gun-blasting Harley Stone is so deadpan in his badassery that I can’t help but imagine Biff Wiff studying this movie while preparing for the Tim Robinson sketch I love so much.
“He’ll Need Bigger Guns”
Set in 2008 London, Split Second wastes no time establishing Harley Stone as a hardened homicide detective who shoots first, asks questions later, and operates so firmly in his own lane that nobody can keep up with him or keep him under control on their best day. Coming in hot after his suspension is lifted, Harley is forced to let rookie officer and psychologist Dick Durkin (Neil Duncan) tag along on his investigations and report on any unstable behavior that he exhibits.
Fortunately for Harley, his insane theory about a serial killer ripping the hearts out of its subjects is proven correct, allowing Dick to brush aside any psychological concerns he may have originally had. All they know is that the killer’s activity is linked to lunar cycles, and may have origins in the supernatural, extraterrestrial, or occult.
Haunted by the case because the killer claimed the life of his partner, Foster McLaine (Steven Hartley), matters are complicated for Harley when his widowed wife, Michelle McLaine (Kim Cattrall), reenters his life and becomes one of the killer’s targets. With no solid leads to pursue, but every single comically large gun known to man at his disposal, Harley embarks with Dick on a blood-soaked quest to find the killer and end his reign of terror once and for all, making sure there’s plenty of collateral damage along the way.
Extreme Buddy Cop Energy
Harley and Dick are the ultimate odd couple in Split Second, and their chemistry works better than it has any right to. You don’t get the usual fighting-over-the-radio-station trope here, but watching Dick slowly transform from idealistic rookie to chain-smoking, gun-toting, coffee-chugging badass under Harley’s influence is such a satisfying payoff. As they close in on the killer, they move as one in their efforts to keep Michelle safe and finally crack the case that has been tormenting Harley for years.
Split Second’s violence is my favorite kind of violence because it’s so gratuitous you can’t take it seriously. Blood is bright red and splatters everywhere, hearts are theatrically ripped from chests, pentagrams are carved into bodies, and coffee cups get chugged and tossed with reckless abandon. It’s pulpy and melodramatic, but played completely straight, which makes it impossible not to fall in love with these characters. They’re so accustomed to living in this world that everything they do feels second nature, with zero pretension.
A total VHS-era classic, Split Second is one of those movies you throw on simply because it’s so over-the-top in every conceivable way that you can’t help but love it. Marketed as “Blade Runner meets Alien,” it doesn’t really play like either film, but it’s unique enough in its execution to have real staying power as the low-budget B movie it was always destined to be.
As of this writing, Split Second is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
Instagram will stop recommending accounts that dont post original content
Serial Instagram reuploaders are about to be hit hard in the algorithm, as the platform announces new content ranking guidelines intended to boost original content creators.
Accounts that primarily aggregate content or repost others’ content without meaningful alterations or additions won’t be recommended to other users, Instagram explained in a recent Creators blog post. The platform announced the same algorithmic guidelines for Reels uploads in 2024. Now they’ll apply to photos and carousel posts, too.
“Original content” is defined as “work that you wholly created or reflects your unique perspective,” Instagram explains. That includes original photos and designs, as well as third-party content that is materially edited by the user. “Some examples include adding unique text on the content itself that provides more context than just describing what’s happening, adding creative graphics that offer new information, or using our remix feature to transform the original,” the blog post reads.
Mashable Light Speed
The platform recommends that accounts that frequently reshare content share other users’ posts to their stories, use the repost button, or enable collab posts to avoid being marked ineligible.
Aggregator accounts that are marked ineligible for recommendations under the new guidelines can regain their place in the feed by pivoting to original posts. Instagram says “most” of an account’s posts, carousels, and reels need to feature original content over a 30-day period to have the decision reversed. Users can also remove unoriginal content and appeal the decision.
Entertainment
Apple discontinues cheaper Mac Mini, now $799
Apple just axed its cheapest Mac Mini option, a compact 256GB desktop brain that previously cost Apple shoppers just $599.
First reported by MacRumors, the tech giant’s new lineup starts with the Mac Mini at the company’s $799, 512GB option. The more expensive model runs on Apple’s M4 chip and offers 16GB of RAM, just like the $599 model, but with twice the storage.
Mashable Light Speed
Last week, Apple paused orders of the then sold-out 256GB Mac Mini, hinting at a lineup change. Apple CEO Tim Cook — who recently announced his departure from the company after 14 years — said on a recent earnings call that Mac Mini supply was currently constrained under global manufacturing squeezes and that meeting existing demand may be difficult. Tech companies and AI enthusiasts are weathering a global memory chip shortage, which is expected to worsen over the next year.
Cook himself attributed an increase in Mac Mini orders to the device’s AI capabilities, with the Mac Mini now advertised for its Apple Intelligence processing power. Users have flocked to the portable computer amid a surge in interest in agentic AI after the launch of the open-source AI agent framework OpenClaw (previously known as both Moltbot and Clawdebot).
Entertainment
Iconic Star Trek Character Was Written So Badly, The Showrunner Intervened
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Here’s a story that dates me (hey, it’s not like anyone else was dating me at the time): I was a high school student when Star Trek: Voyager was on the air. I watched the show with the rest of my geeky friends, and we generally enjoyed the wacky adventures of Captain Janeway and her misfit crew. We also spent hours (and I mean hours) making fun of Neelix. He was the ship’s cook, but he might as well have been its mascot because he was always written as the broadest form of comic relief. Why, we wondered, did Star Trek go out of its way to make a new character such a butt-of-the-joke oaf?
As it turns out, Voyager showrunner Michael Piller shared those same concerns. When reading the script for the Season 2 episode “Twisted,” he began to worry that the writers were transforming Neelix into nothing more than “the buffoon of the ship.” That’s when Piller decided to take definitive action. He didn’t make Neelix into a deadly serious character, but he decided to do the next best thing. In the very next episode, he removed the character’s growing jealous streak that he rightly assumed viewers would absolutely hate.
Orange Man Bad
This all goes back to the most problematic thing about Neelix: his extremely underage girlfriend. In the Voyager premiere episode “Caretaker,” Neelix goes out of his way to save Kes, his Ocampan mate, and they both join Captain Janeway’s crew. Kes presents as an attractive young woman in her early ‘20s, but her species ages at a different rate than those of us here on Earth. She’s only one year old when she joins the crew (no, really!), and the writers had to take care not to present Neelix as the dirtiest old man in the Delta Quadrant.
That’s actually how Michael Piller’s concerns about Neelix began. The previous episode, “Elogium,” dealt with Kes’s mating drive activating years ahead of time, forcing her and Neelix to consider whether they were ready for children. While it’s bizarre enough to watch the weird orange alien try to figure out if he is ready to breed his one-year-old girlfriend, “Elogium” also made Neelix into a jealous figure. Specifically, he started thinking Tom Paris was being too friendly towards her and that the pilot was secretly trying to put the moves on Kes.
Jealousy, That Orange-Skinned Monster
When Piller read the script for “Twisted,” he became concerned about an early plot point in which the crew was celebrating Kes’s birthday (she had finally turned two). Neelix made her a cake, but Tom Paris gave her a locket. Once more, Neelix felt jealous of the hotshot human pilot. According to Captains’ Logs Supplemental – The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, Piller was “terribly concerned about Neelix.” He was “afraid we were going to destroy this character if we made him the buffoon of the ship. If all he is is comic relief, we’re in trouble.”
For better or for worse, Piller decided to focus on only one of the ways the writers had transformed Neelix into the comic relief: his jealousy. “The jealousy he was showing toward Kes was becoming irritating, so we wanted to put that to bed quickly,” he said. Accordingly, Piller made sure that “Parturition” (the episode that came directly after “Twisted”) killed this particular character conflict. That episode begins with Neelix and Paris having a fight over Kes, but then they are sent on a mission where they crash land on a hellish planet. They must fight for their survival and take care of a baby alien, ultimately becoming friends who never fight over Kes again.
It’s a heavy-handed fix, admittedly, but Michael Piller’s decision is one that Gene Roddenberry would have agreed with. The Star Trek creator never wanted his main characters to constantly bicker with one another, but Paris and Neelix were constantly fighting over Kes. Thanks to “Parturition,” Piller effectively killed the conflict that was driving these two characters apart. If you think that kept Neelix from being written as bad comic relief, though, I’ve got a whole shipload full of leola roots to sell you!
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