This image released by Peacock shows Natasha Lyonne in a scene from "Poker Face." (Sara Shatz/Peacock via AP)
Poker Face - Peacock
Picked by Growth Associate Keara O’Driscoll
If you're still riding the high of Glass Onion, the newest work from its creator Rian Johnson is a 10-episode "case-of-the-week" starring Natasha Lyonne. In the words of Cheddar News’ own Digital Editor Mike Nam, “So it's Columbo with Natasha Lyonne — why did it take so long for us to figure out that we needed this?” I’ll leave it at that.
National Geographic Investigates: LSD and Psychedelics - Hulu
Picked by Newsletter Writer Graison Dangor
The use of psychedelic drugs is still heavily restricted by federal law, but that is bound to change as more states decriminalize psilocybin, ketamine, and ayahuasca and more investors are willing to write big checks to companies that provide them as mental health treatments. Nat Geo's new documentary looks like a good primer on the criminalized history (and present) of these substances, and the growing list of benefits that researchers are ascribing to them.
The Legend of Vox Machina cast at New York Comic Con 2022.
The Legend of Vox Machina - Prime Video
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
The vulgar misfits who became heroes of the realm are back! The animated Amazon Prime series was adapted from the popular role-playing adventures of Critical Role, a group of professional voice actors hanging out and playing Dungeons & Dragons. In its second season, Vox Machina ups the stakes with a cataclysmic dragon attack that sends the heroes reeling and looking for a means to save the entire continent, possibly the world, from being destroyed. The fortunes of the Critical Role team have risen meteorically since they started recording their games together, including another animated show and a long-term, first-look development deal with Prime.
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker - Netflix
Picked by Reporter Lawrence Banton
This one is a wild ride and sort of sad. It's the story of Kai McGillvary's rise to stardom and near immediate fall into disgrace. McGillvary rose to viral fame in 2013 after he saved a man from being killed by a white supremacist in Fresno, California, by whacking him in the head with a hatchet in 2013. He became a media darling, had offers for his own reality show, and even appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Then, it all went downhill just three months later when McGillvary admitted to murdering a New Jersey attorney. It's a rollercoaster ride that ends tragically.
M3GAN - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Reporter Alex Vuocolo
M3GAN is the perfect January release. While cinephiles rush to their local arthouse theaters to catch up on all the Oscar-nominated films, the hoi polloi head to the multiplex to see what studios have dumped there for our winter-viewing pleasure. In this case, we were rewarded for our commitment to keeping up on the latest second-tier releases with a lightly satiric riff on the killer doll genre. Unlike Chucky, the doll in M3GAN is a robot, and the movie has a lot of fun skewering the tech industry. It's also well-paced and consistently surprising. See it with a crowd, if you can, but if you feel like staying home this weekend just look it up on Amazon Prime Video.
Last Night in Soho - HBO Max
Picked by Sr. News Editor Dina Ross
After watching Anya Taylor-Joy's darkly funny performance in The Menu, I turned on her 2021 flick Last Night in Soho. The psychological thriller jumps between present-day and 1960's London where Taylor-Joy, a bombshell of a different era, splits screentime with actress Thomasin McKenzie, a modern fashion student trying to find her way in the big city. Their lives cross paths in terrifying ways, even though they lived decades apart, but the bright and colorful directing is captivating. McKenzie just hit the silver screen with Anne Hathaway in Eileen during the Sundance Film Festival — I'll be looking forward to that one as well.
This June marks the 25th anniversary of the infamous 1997 "Bite Fight”, the iconic boxing rematch between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield when Tyson shockingly bit a piece of his opponent’s ear off. As a macabre tribute to the incident, the boxing legend’s line of cannabis products, Tyson 2.0, has released “Mike Bites", edibles in the shape of an ear complete with a bite mark. Tyson, the chief brand officer and co-founder, along with CEO Adam Wilks joined Cheddar News to talk about the unique gummies. "I just think this is just me owning what I did. I'm owning my responsibility. I've done that. That was pretty bad at the time, but I turned it over to make it pretty good," the former heavyweight champion said.
Donna Letier, CEO and Co-Founder of Gardenuity, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how gardening can improve your wellbeing, and why businesses are using this as a way to keep employees happy.
U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Famer and former Olympian Nancy Kerrigan spoke to Cheddar News about joining Ice Dreams, a national skating tour that connects legends of the sport with its next generation. Kerrigan spoke of the lessons she learned from the sport and how grateful she is for the opportunity to give something back. “I mean skating has taught me some of the greatest things in in my life," she said. "You know, you fall down, things get hard, but you get back up and you keep on trying. And if you're performing and doing something you love, I think you would actually do even better.”
Cheddar's Michelle Castillo reports on the activations for the streaming wars between HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+, and Paramount+ from South by Southwest 2022 — and returns with a souvenir.
The White House launches covid.gov, Meta is spreading rumors about TikTok, and Disney's got the hottest Easter drink - for adults only. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Thursday, March 31, 2022.
After two years of living in the pandemic, people are gearing up to travel for their summer vacations in 2022. Leigh Barnes, the chief customer officer for adventure tours company Intrepid Travel, joined Cheddar News to talk about the year’s top travel destinations and tips on how to prepare. Regarding COVID restrictions, Barnes discussed needing to do your own research to make sure you should be hitting a destination at all. "I think that the last thing is, making sure that where you're going is, the communities want you there. Because I think one of the things that we're seeing from possibly a Western lens is vaccine equity," he said. "We've got high vaccine rates across a lot of the Western nations. They may not have that same COVID normal that we're experiencing. So you've got to look for places that do want tourists to come in or ways that we can support vaccine equity."
If you have a minute, Protégé thinks it might be enough to get your talent noticed by stars and industry movers like DJ Khaled. Jackson Jhin, co-founder and CEO of the platform, talked to Cheddar about how the services might better democratize access to performing arts like music and acting. "You have 60 seconds to send a video to the best experts in each industry and send it to people who otherwise would have been inaccessible," he noted. For a wide-ranging fee, applicants can submit their work to garner feedback from folks like Jason Alexander or Scooter Braun — with a money-back guarantee, according to Jhin.
Jason Nichols, senior lecturer at the University of Maryland's African American Studies Department, joins Cheddar News to discuss the racial implications of Will Smith's slap at the Academy Awards.
