| Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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My favorite ridiculous show caught your attention. The Wicked movie set leaks are sustaining me. A fix to one of Hollywood’s biggest problems. No actor deserves this. The worst character on TV. |
Welcome to the Wacky World of 9-1-1 |
Sometimes, when facing the flatlining blandness of content released right now, I need to feel alive again. So I turn to my defibrillator shows, my bonkers revitalizers and gonzo resuscitators. I am speaking, of course, of the heroically batshit twin “procedural disaster” series—I truly don’t know how else to classify them—9-1-1and 9-1-1: Lone Star. It seems that, this week, many of you caught on to what I’ve known for years: There is no greater way to brighten up an exasperating, exhausting week than to drop in and watch an episode of one of these series. And by “brighten up,” I of course mean “set off several dozen sticks of dynamite in the middle of a fireworks warehouse down the road from a spotlight testing facility.” If you’ve seen the Rob Lowe clip from Lone Star that went viral, you understand that this is no understatement. In it, Lowe, who plays a firefighter captain in the series, pulls a man out of a cryotherapy machine, which has seemed to freeze his body after the temperature plummeted and he was left in it for too long. (Mr. Freeze is also the husband of the woman with whom Lowe’s character had been in a steamy relationship, before he learned earlier in the episode that she was married, though “open.”) |
He inexplicably begins chest compressions on the lifeless body, but—trigger warning for gross stuff!—the chest cracks like ice when he pushes down on it, his hands plummeting into the man’s rib cage and popsicle organs. (Picture what happens when you step on a frozen puddle in winter.) He looks up in shock at what just happened. A panicked EMT rushes over and—this is what really broke me—puts her stethoscope onto the body to confirm that the man is indeed dead. People have been more useful blowing at a burning building with their mouths, trying to put out the fire like it’s a birthday candle. What I’ve learned from the clip is that my beloved 9-1-1 franchise hasn’t lost its touch, and, also, you’re all apparently brand new here. Since the original 9-1-1 series premiered in 2018 (the Lone Star spin-off launched in 2020), it has been the Holy Grail of disaster TV. Some might say it is audaciously creative in this regard (me); others might say is is ludicrously so (boring haters). It has reliably been some of the most entertaining television I’ve consumed over these last few years. It is from the mind of Ryan Murphy, proving how fun it is to infuse the formulaic and staid procedural genre with his maximalist carnival of wild and unapologetic ideas. In the early episodes of Season 1, emergency responders were called to incidents in which a mother flushed her baby down the toilet, or a reptile fetishist was being strangled by one of her snakes.
This is the kind of show that inspires round-ups of the wildest moments from over the years (like, for example, Riverdale). A bouncy house has flown away in a strong gust of wind with someone inside. An aspiring influencer got his head stuck in cement…inside of a microwave. A woman was hit by a meteor.
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Do not be confused: I do not regularly watch these series. But that’s part of what makes me cherish them so. On a bleak week, like one in which I can’t bear to read one more word about Succession and whether that guy’s name was crossed out or underlined, I can pop on one of my 9-1-1’s and know I am going to be met with preposterous delight. Inspired by the viral Lone Star clip of human crushed ice, I put on the most recent episode of O.G. 9-1-1 too, to check in on what’s happening there. I was not disappointed I was greeted by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays a dispatcher, calming down a music student having a panic attack by singing to him, loudly and in the middle of her dispatch office, Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.” He eventually joined in and started breathing again. Everyone at the office clapped for her. I cried a little. Everything about the experience was ridiculous. Thank God (Ryan Murphy) for it. TV has a long history of these kinds of series, with big, marketable Disasters of the Week. It’s well known at this point, that each doctor at the Grey’s Anatomy hospital has nine lives, like a cat. The ER helicopter crash is foundational to me. The plunge down the elevator shaft in L.A. Law! A classic! (I will not be citing older examples, as to protect my delusion of youth.) But these 9-1-1 shows aren’t only about these silly catastrophes. Angela Bassett is starring in 9-1-1, folks. Peter Krause plays her husband. Rob Lowe leads Lone Star. Connie Britton predated Jennifer Love Hewitt’s tenure in the dispatch office. There is acting on these series. The emotional stakes on these series are as intense as the action—and also surprisingly grounded and relatable. In the grand Murphy tradition, they are also exceptionally diverse when it comes to race and sexual orientation, and matter-of-fact about it, too.When battling earthquakes and pageant moms, who has the time to spar about identity? It’s all so refreshing. So to everyone who has discovered the joy of these series through a man’s shattered frozen chest, I say: Welcome. |
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We Have Been Changed For Good By These Set Leaks |
First of all, I want to say that I could not be prouder of my four-year-old nephews for the work they’ve done as the on-set security for the Wicked movie. They are doing their best to prevent footage of Ariana Grande performing as G(a)linda from leaking, but, alas, it was nap time when the paparazzi arrived, so what are you going to do? For years, I’ve been mystified by the superhero fans that drooled over and dissected every element of “first look” photos of actors in costume for the first time, creating entire content cycles based on leaked production footage of those movies. It’s the actor you already know is playing the part, in costume as the character you know they’re going to play, shooting the film you’re going to see in the near-future. What’s the big deal? Well, I am “confusified” no more. They finally made that hoopla gay—so gay, we’re using the word “hoopla” to describe it. Now I get it. |
There’s been a treasure trove of new official photos, paparazzi snaps, and even drone footage of the Wicked movie coming out daily. Fans of musical theater, fans of Ariana Grande, fans of juicy media leaks, and the overlapping population at the center of that triumvirate—gays, in general—have been rabid, seizing on and picking apart every element. This is our Marvel moment. Rejoicify! Watch a clip here. And here! I have seen TikToks of dressmakers analyzing Grande’s pink, scalloping Glinda gown, comparing it to Kristin Chenoweth’s blue one in the original Broadway production. I have seen composers studying where Grande takes a breath in her version of “No One Mourns the Wicked,” compared to where Chenoweth would. I have seen people channeling the greatest early explorers in mapping out aerial shots of the whimsical-looking Oz set. There has been ugly discourse—like the onesurrounding Grande’s body—and silly observations, like the ones comparing her movement while performing to that of a Disney World animatronic. Some of the excitement, I think, stems from the astonishment that any of this content exists at all. It’s not normal for there to be this much footage coming from the set of a major production. There is clear footage of Grande performing the show’s opening number, along with previews of the ensemble dancing and what looks to be a major bit of stagecraft. That’s unprecedented. The conspiracy theorist in me laughs at this: Director Jon M. Chu released official first-look photos of Grande and co-star Cynthia Erivo that are so dark, they might as well not exist, and he was ripped to shreds for it. Days later, all this clear, bright footage from the set hits the internet. Coincidence? Either way, I’m full of gratitution. |
A Great Solution to a Problem That Shouldn’t Exist |
The scariest thing in my house is my television. God forbid, I try to spend a cozy night in, watching the latest blockbuster that’s available to stream. I’ll turn on a movie, realize that I can’t hear what the actors are saying, and turn up the volume. I’ll go back to my standard movie-watching habit—scrolling through Instagram, with occasional glances back up at the TV—and then, suddenly, an action sequence starts. A boom comes through the speakers with the magnitude of a plane crashing directly into my couch. I shriek, as my soul and seven-to-10 years of my life leave my body. |
The “why is the music and action so loud, when the dialogue is so soft” question has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. If we’re all being honest with ourselves, we’d admit that is not hyperbole. And so it is a thrill to learn that Amazon’s Prime Video just debuted a new feature called Dialogue Boost, which allows users to increase the volume of dialogue to match the louder elements of what they’re watching. It’s a godsend. I’m so thankful for it. BUT WHY DOES IT HAVE TO EXIST? I have a revolutionary solution: When making movies, maybe stop making this a problem in the first place? Hollywood, I accept checks and am on Venmo. |
Fans Continue to Be Outrageous |
There is a clip of Jodie Comer, the Emmy-winning former star of Killing Eve, doing the stage door after a recent performance of Prima Facie, the Broadway play she’s starring in. The stage door is a generous thing that actors participate in with gratitude for fans, who wait for them to come out after a performance to sign autographs, take photos, and chat. It’s intended as an act of mutual appreciation. But fans, as they are wont to do, have completely poisoned it. |
| In a video that went viral this week, Comer is seen interacting with someone who tells her, “I really didn’t like the ending.” “Of the play?” Comer asks. It’s an absurd thing to say to someone who just got off stage, but there is a world in which an artist would appreciate an opportunity to engage thoughtfully about a piece with an audience member. “No, Killing Eve,” the person says. “It was awful.” WHAT?! Watchthe interaction here. I don’t often feel bad for actors, but the brazen entitlement with which people have started to be cruel to them continues to blow my mind. This may not be the most egregious example, but it’s certainly emblematic. |
The Most Annoying TV of the Week |
If you have watched the recent season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, which wrapped its third season this week on Peacock, then this makes perfect sense to you, and you will applaud in agreement. If you haven’t, well… just trust me. This damn tequila bottle is the worst character of TV I have had to suffer through watching in years. |
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed |
That show that everyone on TikTok is posting about, Jury Duty, finished up its hilarious season. Here’s how they pulled it all off. Read more. There are few phrases that make no sense and perfect sense at the same time than: Betty Gilpin stars as an ass-kicking nun, who battles AI while searching for the Holy Grail and making out with Jesus. Read more. Here’s a Succession hot take for ya: Tom and Shiv should actually stay married! Read more. |
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