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.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress today, enough of changing our clocks for Daylight Savings, and the Eiffel Tower gets a few feet taller. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Food technology startup Tender Food raised $12 million in a seed round led by Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital. Tender says it specializes in creating alternative meats with an authentic texture and is on a mission to make alternative meats so delicious, nutritious, and affordable, that eating meat from animals will no longer make sense. Christophe Chantre, co-founder & CEO of Tender Food, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
With the number of Ukrainians being displaced due to the Russian invasion surging, two students from Harvard took it on themselves to develop a website to help connect potential hosts with refugees seeking housing. The co-founder of the website Ukraine Takes Shelter, Marco Burstein, joined Cheddar news to discuss working together with fellow freshman Avi Schiffmann to streamline the effort to aid Ukrainian refugees. "We basically worked for three days straight developing the website, and since then the response has been pretty incredible," Burstein said.
Over three weeks ago, WNBA player Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia on drug charges. According to reports, the Star arrived at an airport near Moscow where authorities found Vape cartridges and hashish oil in her luggage. Grindr faces serious charges that could carry a possible sentence of 5-10 years in a Russian prison. Experts warn that Griner's arrest could be used as a bargaining chip. Partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Thomas Firestone, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Image-sharing social media platform Pinterest is marking Women's History Month through its Pinterest Elevates program, designed to help grow 10 underrepresented businesses with monetary and strategic support. Alise Marshall, senior global lead for public affairs at Pinterest, joined Cheddar News to explain how the program is helping to uplift women and women of color with businesses of their own. “This was in response to issues that we saw happening in the community, and ways that we thought that we were uniquely positioned to respond," she said.
A new report from the Motion Picture Association highlights how the popularity of streaming services has helped the film industry recover from the pandemic. Matthew Belloni, the host of "The Town" podcast and founding partner of Puck News, joined Cheddar News to discuss the impact of streaming on Hollywood. "For all but the largest tent-pole style blockbuster movies, the future probably is streaming," he said.
In the new comedic film "Linoleum," an Ohio family faces the adventure of a lifetime after a mysterious satellite lands in their yard. The suburban dad, played by comic Jim Gaffigan, takes the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut by re-building the machine as his very own rocket ship. Gaffigan and co-star Rhea Seehorn joined Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo at South by Southwest 2022, to chat about the science fiction roles, with the actors noting that they didn't quite understand the jargon. "Jim and I had some late night googling sessions of what we were saying in the, in the scenes, but it was fun," Seehorn said.
The pandemic has turned the world of dating upside down. So what's making daters smile, and what are they looking for in a partner? Cheddar breaks down the findings from eharmony's 2022 Happiness Index study that break down the current state of dating.
Anna Sorokin, the convicted swindler who claimed to be a German heiress to finance a posh lifestyle in New York, is making a new bid to fight deportation, a lawyer said Tuesday.
