In this Feb. 9, 2020, file photo, Kanye West arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
From laughs to thrills to in-real-life dramas, this weekend Cheddar recommends Season 4 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," the Steven Soderbergh cyberthriller "Kimi," and two Netflix Documentaries: "The Tinder Swindler" and "Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy."
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 4 - Amazon Prime
Picked by Sr. News Editor Dina Ross
Maisel is back, and I am here for it! If you haven't already gotten pulled into the charm of the Amazon Original series, it's time. The show follows a funny lady (played by Rachel Brosnahan) who is trying to make it as a standup comedian in the 1950s and '60s in order to put food on the table and a roof over her family's heads (in a sweet uptown doorman apartment). As you may recall, that wasn't an easy era for upscale women to work, divorce, or do many of the things we take for granted today. Add in a wacky family, a straight-talking manager, and it's a recipe for television success. I can't wait to see what Mrs. Maisel gets up to next when the new season drops Friday, February 18.
Kimi - HBO Max
Picked by Reporter Alex Vuocolo
Prolific director Steven Soderbergh (director of Ocean's 11 and its sequels) churns out movies so quickly that sometimes they just pop up on your streaming platform one day. That was the case with his latest, a cyberthriller called Kimi. After his excellent heist flick No Sudden Moves from last year, I was ready for whatever Soderbergh did next, and Kimi didn't disappoint. It's about an agoraphobic tech worker who hears a violent crime in the data stream but struggles to convince her company to do anything about it. If that sounds very zeitgeisty, it is, but Soderbergh does the material justice by delivering a tense, stylish chamber piece.
The Tinder Swindler - Netflix
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
Between 2017 and 2019, women throughout Europe might have found themselves matching with a handsome, jet-setting son of a diamond oligarch on Tinder. He seemed too good to be true — and he was. Simon Leviev, according to The Times of Israel, was running a Ponzi scheme on his lovers, swindling cash from one lady in order to party extravagantly with another lady in his life. I'm absolutely fascinated and disgusted by grifters, and Leviev used a crew of pretenders, spun high-stakes stories to create a bubble of paranoia around his victims, and created an entire fake history on the Internet, all seemingly out of the classic con man playbook. Netflix has put out a gripping documentary from the perspective of some of the women he bamboozled, who later aided in taking down his schemes, and now that we're past Valentine's Day, it's well worth the watch — especially since he hasn't exactly left the public eye.
Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy - Netflix
Picked by Producer Lawrence Banton
The first part of the highly-anticipated Netflix documentary Jeen-yuhs has finally premiered on the platform. The trilogy's three parts, to be released weekly, documents the early days of Ye West's music career with never-before-seen footage. The artist-formerly-known as Kanye initially became renowned for his work behind the scenes by producing records for some of the biggest hip hop stars, including Jay-Z and Scarface, but the documentary looks at the many obstacles he faced in pursuing his own rap career. It's sort of hard to imagine that Ye, one of the biggest megastars today, wasn't able to garner early support from the music industry given the multiple hits, moments, and classic albums he's put out since.
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Brian D. Avery, managing member at Event Safety Services joins Cheddar News to discuss how preventable the recent crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld was.
Former NBA star, commentator, and entrepreneur Baron Davis and Deluxe Corporation Chief Brand Officer Amanda Brinkman, joined Cheddar to discuss Season 6 of the reality show "Small Business Revolution," premiering Tuesday. The season will focus on helping six Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Davis noted learning about the lack of resources, connections, and opportunities for Black business owners during the show. "There are so many things we need to do as a society to address racial injustice and inequity, however, one of the ways for it is economic empowerment," Brinkman added.
Cryptocurrencies are getting off to a good week. Ethereum surged more than 4% in 24 hours on Monday, hitting a new all-time high above $4,700. Meanwhile, Bitcoin surged 7% to a price of $66,250. Haohan Xu, founder and CEO of Apifiny, joins Cheddar News with thoughts on the growing sector.
Two days after a deadly tragedy claimed the lives of at least eight Astroworld concertgoers and injured several others, the first lawsuit was filed against rapper Travis Scott. Criminal defense attorney Karen Felecia Nance joins Cheddar News to break down the incident.
The latest Marvel movie hit theaters with one of the biggest opening weekends of the year. 'Eternals' opened over the weekend with an estimated $71 million, the fourth-best domestic debut this year. Erik Davis, managing editor at Fandango, joins Cheddar News to talk about the state of box office sales.
Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, join 'Cheddar Reveals' to discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output.
On this episode of 'Cheddar Reveals', Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output; Ryan Lupberger, Sustainability Pioneer and CEO of Cleancult, breaks down how Cleancult is redefining cleaning products and solutions to reduce their impact on the planet; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
Figuring out how to reduce congestion and emissions has long been a thorny issue for the car-centric United States. One possible solution - high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV), or carpool lanes - have their own thorny history. Despite pushes from the federal government for more HOV lanes in the 1970s and 1990s, the math of how HOV lanes work may mean they relieve traffic only a little - or even make it worse.
