This weekend, sit down with Cheddar recommendations for found family feels, fake band drama, small town laughs, and a travelogue about the jewel of the Pacific Northwest.
Rain Dogs - HBO Max
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
It wasn't on my radar, but this dramedy from the UK caught my eye on the HBO Max home page. It's about a single mum and her daughter navigating life after being evicted from their flat. Add in her gay best friend with anger management issues who stands in as the daughter's father figure, and the series seems to be winning the hearts of reviewers who call it a warm and darkly funny story about a found family. The first episode released this week, and I'm looking forward to giving this one a good look.
The trailer is NSFW for language:
Daisy Jones & The Six - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Growth Associate Keara O’Driscoll
Riley Keough stars as Daisy Jones in this highly-anticipated book-turned-movie that just hit Amazon Prime Video last week. The three-episode miniseries follows a Fleetwood Mac-type of band giving their first (fictional) interview since their final performance, recalling what led to the band's hostile breakup. If you gave the book a try but found it hard to follow due to its writing style, I’d suggest watching it for a better take. It's a Hello Sunshine production (Reese Witherspoon's production company), so if you liked Big Little Lies or Little Fires Everywhere you will for sure enjoy this one.
Welcome to Flatch - Hulu
Picked by Senior News Editor Dina Ross
Welcome to Flatch Season 2 is currently available on Hulu. Not Season 1 ... just Season 2 of the sitcom, but tbh, it's fine to jump in there. Barb Flatch (Jaime Pressly) returns to her namesake town, a sleepy suburb that is a far cry from her beloved Pompano Beach, and is ready to zhuzh things up. The wacky residents of Flatch welcome the platinum blonde, pink-clad babe with laugh-out-loud funny lines. I can't wait to figure out where to watch Season 1.
CityBeautiful - YouTube
Picked by Newsletter Writer Graison Dangor
I recently visited Vancouver for the first time, and apart from the ridiculous beauty of the surrounding ocean and mountains, the city felt pleasant in a way that I couldn't put my finger on. So I was excited when my wife came across City Beautiful, the YouTube account run by urban planning professor Dave Amos. His explainer on how Vancouver was planned to be so relaxed and walkable was endearingly nerdy but also not too in the weeds for someone who, like me, has no urban planning knowledge. He's got dozens of other videos I'm looking forward to. First up: "Should cities expand into the sea?"
For more What to Stream picks, check out our recent suggestions:
What to Stream This Weekend: Mando Back, Chris Rock Live & Cunk Documents Everything
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What to Stream This Weekend: NBA All-Stars, Picard's Final Trek & Monstrous Romance
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday Jan. 31, 2019.
Rapper, entertainer, and activist Michael Santiago Render, a.k.a Killer Mike, is helping rival gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, start rival soda brands ー and he says there's no shame in that. The conceit that outlandish stunts can lead to teachable moments is the basis for Render's new show, "Trigger Warning with Killer Mike," on Netflix.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Hallmark Channel will be home to the sixth annual Kitten Bowl, the annual matchup of cat-letes held to benefit the North Shore Animal League. Beth Stern, host of the Kitten Bowl and spokesperson for North Shore (and wife to Howard), brought a pair of 12-week Siamese kittens to Cheddar Thursday to help promote a new event this year: the first-ever Cat Bowl.
'Empire' star Jussie Smollett is receiving an outpouring of support from Hollywood and beyond following news that he was the victim of a horrific attack in Chicago. Everyone from Ellen Degeneres to John Legend took to social media to offer their well wishes to the actor. Chicago Police say they are still investigating the attack as a "potential hate crime," but entertainment correspondent Micah Jesse says, "call it was it is: a homophobic and racist attack."
Filmmaker and commercial director Lauren Greenfield spent the early part of her career critically examining how media and advertising shape youth culture. But it wasn't until she was hired to do her first ad ー a Nike campaign ー that she realized marketing can actually change public perception for the better. "I realized if you do something positive or different in advertising, you can have this incredible effect," she told Cheddar.
As digital advertising is increasingly beholden to the Google/Facebook duopoly, Glamour is experimenting with what it sees as the future of the industry: a multi-faceted revenue model that uses a combination of traditional ads, metered or niche paywalls, events, audio and e-commerce, even as it kills off its one-time moneymaker, the monthly print edition. Samantha Barry, Glamour's editor-in-chief, told Cheddar in an interview Wednesday that she sees the 80-year-old iconic brand as a "service for women."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.
Young Americans face a double burden from crushing student debt and the ballooned federal deficit that is the result of President Trump's tax cut, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin in an interview that aired Wednesday. Pelosi called the economic position many millennials find themselves in, even as the economy remains strong, "unconscionable." "Republicans foisted onto future generations [an] economy that is unfair, that is not really lending itself to growth in a strong, predictable, confident, certain way," Pelosi said.
Oregon has too much pot. In the three years since cannabis became fully legal in the Beaver state, deliberately lax regulation and a confluence of outside factors have created a glut of product that is threatening small businesses across the state.
The cannabis business is budding across the United States, and one company is hoping to take hemp mainstream. Socati just announced a new $33 million round of funding. The company's CEO Josh Epstein talked to Cheddar about how that investment will help Socati expand is business.
