Warm up your credit card: Target is throwing a mid-summer bargain-palooza to compete with Amazon Prime Day. Target Circle Week runs from Sunday, July 7 through Saturday, July 13, and the company promises savings of up to 50% on thousands of things you totally need and want. Plus, the company is rolling out a new paid subscription service, Target Circle 360, for half-price during sale week. Target's old loyalty program, Target Circle will remain free.
According to the company, a year of Target Circle 360 will cost $49 instead of $99 if you sign up between July 7-13. 360 members can use Target's same-day delivery as much as they'd like, with no delivery fees on orders over $35.
I think saving should be a complicated and aggressive nightmare, and shopping should be a source of misery, but Target disagrees. According to Cara Sylvester, Target's executive vice president and chief guest experience officer, "We believe saving should be simple and shopping should be fun." I guess that's why Target is worth a billion dollars and I'm barely a thousandaire.
"Is Circle Week really going to be as awesome as I imagine?" you're probably asking yourself. Well, buddy, check out the early Circle Week deals below and make up your own mind.
Buy one, get one 50% off food and beverage summer favorites, including ice cream, all chilled juices and chilled coffee beverages, all fresh berries and more
Spend $40 on select products at Ulta Beauty at Target and receive a $10 Target GiftCard
How to sign up for Target Circle
It’s almost comically easy to join either the Target Circle or Circle 360 program and they will accept anyone, even total jerks. Simply visit the Target Circle signup page, click “create account” and give ‘em your name, email, and phone number.
The perks of Target Circle membership go beyond the admiration of your peers. You’ll also enjoy access to members-only deals, 1% rewards on non-RedCard purchases you can use at Target, 5% off an item purchased during your birthday month, and the chance to influence how Target focuses its charitable giving.
What should you do if an errant piece of space junk lands in your yard or crushes your two-car garage? And who is legally on the hook for damages to your property or person?
It's an astronomically unlikely occurrence, but it happened at least once. In March, a piece of the International Space Station tore through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida, and narrowly missed homeowner Alejandro Otero's 19-year-old son.
"We weren't sure if there had been an earthquake or what," Otero reported. "When [my son] saw the hole coming through the house, he realized something fell through." After some sleuthing, experts determined the mystery object, about the size of a soda can, was a battery pallet from the International Space Station.
Who's responsible for falling space junk?
The aftermath of the incident raises some interesting questions, the most immediate being: How dangerous is it? Determining this should be the first thing you do in the astonishingly unlikely event that some space junk hits your house. The Oteros followed sensible space-junk protocol and contacted their local sheriff after the incident. Eventually, NASA determined that this piece of space junk wasn't toxic or radioactive, but you never know, so exercise extreme caution. Don't put your lips on it.
The second question is more complex: who is responsible for the estimated $15,000 in damage to the Oteros' property, and any emotional and mental anguish the Oteros suffered as a result of the incident?
The first payee is likely to be their insurance company, so if this happens to you, give them a call. Homeowner's insurance policies generally cover property damage from anything that falls from outer space, manmade or natural. Responsibility for damages above what your insurance covers, and for non-property claims like emotional distress, has a more complicated answer—you'll need to hire a lawyer to sort that out.
According to the United Nations' Office of Outer Space Affairs' 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1972 Liability Convention, the government of the country where a launch took place is responsible for the financial compensation for any space junk damage from that launch, no matter what other country it might land in, even if a private company launched the satellite.
If the debris had landed in another country, the liability would be clear under the UN rules, but this was NASA junk that landed domestically, so international law no longer applies, according to space law expert Mark Sundahl.
"It becomes a domestic legal issue," Sundahl told NPR. "A homeowner would have to bring a tort action against the federal government."
According to the family's lawyer, the Oteros have filed a claim with NASA. A spokesperson for the space agency said NASA won't comment on a pending claim, so stay tuned as this unique case works its way through the legal system.
Who owns the space debris that lands on your property?
You might think that the Oteros would get to keep the space junk that fell into their home—what a conversation piece, right?—but the rule of "finders keepers" doesn't apply here. The debris belongs to NASA and it has already retrieved it.
If a meteorite or asteroid lands on your house, it's a different story. In that case, the law is clear in the U.S.: you own it in all ways. You (well, you and your insurance company) are responsible for any damages, and you get to keep your space rock. Just be careful the meteor isn't full of invasive alien plant matter so you don't end up like Stephen King in Creepshow.
Who is responsible for damages if a flying saucer crashes into your house?
If a flying saucer or other interstellar alien spacecraft crashes through your roof, you would probably have a valid claim with your insurance company. Policies cover damage from falling "spacecraft," which presumably includes flying saucers.
It's unlikely you would be able to collect anything above whatever homeowner's insurance coverage you carry though; suing Gleepzorp from Romula V would probably be impossible: "As far as I know, only human beings, and those specifically granted personhood status by state legislatures or other laws, are subject to being parties to a lawsuit," Chicago-based attorney Wesley Johnson told me. (Full disclosure: Wesley is my brother—I'm embarrassed to contact an attorney I'm not related to with this question.)
"Space aliens would probably be judgment-proof anyway, as they don't have any money, at least money that could be exchanged for U.S. money," Johnson added, displaying impressive patience.
I’m going to be first in line to see Fly Me to the Moon when it opens on July 12. Judging from the trailer, the movie tells a lighthearted, but believable tale of how and why NASA might have faked the moon landing. The clip even offers a tongue-in-cheek nod to the conspiracy theorists who are going to eat this movie up like buttered popcorn.
By creating fictional characters based on real people and mixing actual details of the governments’ attempts to “sell” the moon landing to the public with fanciful elements and a “they faked the whole thing” conclusion, Fly Me to the Moon will keep soft-headed people saying “That’s exactly how it happened!” for years, even if the movie is clearly intended as a joke. (Conspiracy theorists are not famous for their senses of humor.)
Five movies that have shaped conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theorists usually aren’t very creative either, so they’ve always borrowed heavily from movies when it comes time to build out their paranoid worldviews. Where you and I see entertainment, they see veiled revelations and covert agendas—confirmation that their weirdest ideas are the truth. To get ready for next month's disinformation campaign, let's delve into five science fiction films that have significantly influenced conspiracy theorists and explore the connections between these cinematic tales and real world beliefs .
Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s vision of a world where the careless elite live in glittering skyscrapers while the lowly proles toil in misery below has been influencing conspiracy theorist for nearly 100 years. While I don’t imagine most modern conspiracy theorists are actively checking out silent German cinema from the 1920s, Metropolis influenced every science fiction film that followed, and the whole conspiracy theory blueprint is laid out in the movie: There's the way robot-Maria controls the citizenry’s minds, the simplified portrayal of the class system meant as illustration but taken as literal truth, the use of esoteric imagery of the Tower of Babel and the Whore of Babylon—fringe thinkers love connecting things to misunderstood antiquity. It's all there.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, Kino Film, digital rental
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This 1962 film heavily shaped the public’s idea of “brainwashing." Shadowy actors covertly influencing the minds of innocent people through nefarious mechanisms is present in just about every conspiracy theory, usually because it’s the only explanation for why the SHEEPLE don’t see the TRUTH that’s right in FRONT OF THEM. (All-caps is another dead giveaway.) But The Manchurian Candidate’s portrayal of brainwashing and mind control isn’t especially accurate or useful. How people’s thoughts can and can’t be manipulated is way more complex and nuanced than the film portrays. It’s a shame that the CIA destroyed (or HID) most of the results of its (very real) research on mind control, because if you do a deep dive on “Project Paperclip” and other covert influence programs, it starts to feel like the research actually came to the depressing conclusion that esoteric methods like hypnosis, “truth serums,” secret LSD dosing, and similarly gross human rights violations don’t work as well as just beating confessions out of people.
Where to stream: MGM+, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, digital rental
Capricorn One (1978)
Moon landing conspiracy theories began with the publication of Rockedyne employee Bill Kaysing's pamphlet “We Never Went to the Moon." It was popular enough to inspire the release of 1978 O.J. Simpson vehicle Capricorn One, a movie in which the government fakes a mission to Mars to ensure the space program will continue to be funded. (A quaint idea; why would they even care what the public thought?) The film went on to inspire further moon landing conspiracy theories in an unholy feedback loop, including one that posited the film The Shining was Stanley Kubrick's covert admission that he'd helped NASA create the footage of the astronauts bouncing across the lunar surface. Capricorn One is cheesy treat for fans of 1970s science fiction, but seen through modern eyes, it disproves moon landing conspiracy theories by demonstrating how impossible it would have been to convincingly fake footage of a space mission—this was a big budget production where they really tried for realism, but Capricorn One’s Mars mission looks fake as hell.
British pseudo-documentary Alternative 3 is another conspiracy theory blueprint movie. Not many people saw the original broadcast—it was only aired in the U.K. and Australia— but its ideas are still resonating in conspiracy circles. The film begins with an investigation of the mysterious disappearance of 24 British scientists and ends with a shadowy secret government program that sees the elites running off to colonies on the moon and Mars to escape global warming. In Alternative 3, the moon landings are legitimate, but are only undertaken as a smoke screen to cover up the real space program. So Alternative 3 has secret space programs, a shadowy cabal of rich people pulling the strings, slave colonies on the moon, and even aliens, all of which became gospel to a certain variety of fringe thinkers. It’s easy to see why it's been so influential. It’s a really well done film (check out how this movie brilliantly faked a Mars landing.) Here in the U.S., the “novelization” of the film was released in the form of (fictional) secret documents and quickly became a bestseller. Due to an error involving the publication date that affected some bookstore chains, it was put on store shelves early, then quickly removed, leading to hysteria among the fringe newsletters and reactionary radio shows that made up the pre-internet conspiracy theory community. It sure looked like the government censored the book’s release.
Unlike Alternative 3, few people believe 1999’s The Matrix is literally a documentary, but if you accept the premise of the film—that reality itself is suspect so you can’t trust even your own senses—that doesn’t matter. The idea of alternative realities wasn’t invented by The Matrix, but the movie packaged it so attractively that it spread even among people who normally wouldn’t be considering such esoteric ideas. The idea that you have “taken the red pill” and can see the real reality where the rest of us are stuck in our pods being fed a stream of fake sensory information is intoxicating to some, both because it removes the cognitive dissonance that comes from having your beliefs challenged, and it helps explains why everyone backs away from you when you start telling them about how they faked the moon landing.
This week, I'm starting things off with a look at Brawl Stars. I know the game has been out for ages, but if you're like I was as of a few days ago, you have no idea what it is. Seems that without our knowledge, this mobile game has become so widely played among young people that an obsession with it is nearly universal.
Meanwhile, putting green onions in coffee and "raw-dogging" plane flights remain much more niche pursuits. Read on to learn all about all of it.
Everyone is playing Brawl Stars, but what is Brawl Stars?
I was talking with my kid the other day about the lack of communal experiences in current culture. I thought I was being wise in pointing out there are no longer as many of those unifying pop culture things like Star Wars or Nirvana that everyone either likes, or is at least is familiar with. He said, “Not true. I can walk up to any kid, anywhere, and say, ‘wanna play Brawl Stars?’ And their phone is coming out.”
So here’s the deal with Brawl Stars: It’s a cartoonish, multiplayer online battle arena game featuring 3-player teams fighting each other while operating under a bunch of different rule sets. It’s available on both Android and iPhone, and it’s free to play, but you can buy cosmetics upgrades with real money. There are reportedly 376 million registered users (For reference, Nirvana’s Nevermind sold 30 million copies.) Brawl Stars was created by a Finnish company called Supercell and published in 2018. To sum up: It’s Angry Birds, but for now.
What is Man the Game?
Unlike Brawl Stars, Man the Game is not actually a game. Or it wasn’t, until someone made it in into one. The name and concept comes from a “brain rot” meme created by TikToker @alexlussy that explores the nostalgia a person living in 2027 might have for 2025. One of the things they are nostalgic for is a PS5 game called Man the Game. The original poster included box art for both the original game and eventually for the sequels, but offered no details.
Naturally, TikTokers started running with the idea, and people started posting reviews and editorials about the controversy surrounding Man the Game 9, basically creating a fictional mini-universe in which the game exists. It also inspired the creation of an actual point-and-click Man the Game that you can play online. (Spoiler: It’s really stupid.)
So what does it all mean? Nothing really—school’s out, so young people have a lot of time on their hands. But if you want to take a deeper dive, here's more info.
People are putting onions in coffee and they must be stopped
There’s a new TikTok trend in which people are flavoring iced lattes with green onions. The basic recipe: mix up milk, espresso, ice, and a generous helping of green onions, then drink it all down! (Shudder.)
While scallions add nutritional content to the beverage, taste wise it sounds uniquely unappetizing—but that may be the point. The drink supposedly originated in China, where it’s part of the larger “dark cuisine” trend of combining foods in unusual ways, like blue soda chicken wings. According to this TikToker, dark cuisine is often employed as a way to curb people’s appetites to help them lose weight. Mission accomplished—I’m sure I’d take one sip of onion-coffee and throw the rest in the bin—but if you left the milk and the onions out of the iced coffee to begin with, it would taste great and contain no calories, so I’m not sure the logic works. Either way, I’m not going to try it, but some people on TikTok have given it a shot, and the reviews are mixed. Some people "don't hate it", others are like: “I can’t even fake any redeeming qualities. This is horrific.”
Travel trend: Raw-dogging plane flights
It’s hard to say how widespread this TikTok trendlet actually is, but some people are bragging online about “raw-dogging” long plane flights—that is, sitting there with no headphones, no movies, no book, no nothing. They just stare at the flight map and wait. Some even book the middle seat on purpose.
The aggressive music choices on most of these TikTok videos, coupled with their braggadocios tones, serve up “ain’t I hardcore?” vibes that indicate it might all be a joke, but even so, it’s also an interesting look at the cultural reaction to the ready availability of things meant to distract and entertain us. My first reaction to hearing about this was a blanket “that’s dumb,” but I thought about it a little more, and I’m not sure. Boasting about sitting on a plane and not at least reading a book may seem like a pathetic flex, but there’s been a lot of consideration lately, both online and off, about what we’re actually doing when we’re doing nothing. How do the supposed hits of dopamine we get from video games or social media affect us, and what are we missing when we reach for them at every opportunity?
It might seem like we’re not missing much on an airplane, but the chance to do literally nothing is rare. Before the adoption of seatback entertainment centers, smartphones, and tablets, airplanes used to enforce that on us. You’re alone with just your thoughts, which used to be the default state for almost everyone, almost all the time, but is now something to brag about, give a name to, and, I guess, post about on social media so others don';t have to be alone with their thoughts.
Viral video of the week: "I made the worlds most powerful soccer shoe"
This week’s viral video comes to us from YouTuber I Did a Thing, and it’s part of one of my favorite genres of online video: mad engineering. In these videos, people make the kinds of ridiculous inventions you might have daydreamed about in homeroom, like a ceiling fan with machete blades, or an insanely dangerous giant Bey Blade. In this case, I Did a Thing is trying to make the world’s most powerful soccer shoe. His plan is to basically build a gun-shoe that uses blank rounds to force a steel toe to propel a soccer ball faster than anyone could kick it.
It is a potentially deadly project, and it’s probably illegal in many jurisdictions, but I Did a Thing is from Australia and has a delightfully casual style of pursuing the build. He’s not one of those DIY folks who create perfectly engineered gadgets (like the father of the genre, Mark Rober); I Did a Thing makes a ton of mistakes, rarely measures anything, and often injures himself while testing his gadgets. His projects rarely work out the way he planned, and it all usually ends up as a mess, but, damn it, he tries. I relate to his methods and the kludged together monstrosities he creates, as they remind me of too many of my own projects.
Just about everyone is wrong about sunscreen. On one hand, there’s a low murmur in online spaces questioning the safety and effectiveness of sunscreen, with people like Primal Physique, a "transformation coach,” posting TikTok videos claiming that sunscreens contain dangerous ingredients and should be avoided.
On the other hand, there are people like you and me thinking, “What a load of crap. Sunscreen is totally safe.” We’re wrong too (only a little wrong, but still). Surprisingly, some of what sunscreen deniers claim is true—most of it is wrong, but there’s real reason to be concerned about the safety of some types of sunscreens.
Before I sift through the TikTok bullshit for flakes of truth, here are the undisputed facts: Direct exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light causes 80-90% of skin cancers. The link between the sun and cancer was suspected as far back as the late 19th century and was proven conclusively in the 1940s. It’s settled science. Use of sunscreen that blocks UV radiation lowers incidents of skin cancer significantly. Dermatologists nearly universally recommend sunscreen if you’re going to be exposed to sunlight.
The case against sunscreen
Putting research aside for a sec, let’s look at the claims of sunscreen skeptics. The specifics vary from influencer to influencer, but the arguments against sunscreen usually include the following:
Humans have done without sunscreen for hundreds of thousands of years and we’re still around.
You can prevent sunburns and skin cancer through natural means.
Does sunscreen cause cancer?
The most compelling argument against using sunscreen is that it contains benzene, a cancer-causing substance. This is true—kind of. Beginning in 2021, there were numerous recalls of sunscreens and other skincare products based on the discovery of benzene in them. A study from independent testing company Valise showed that 29% of the sunscreen products tested contained the carcinogen, often in levels high above the safety threshold.
Sunscreen manufacturers weren’t adding benzene to their products, though, so how it ended up there is a bit of mystery. It's thought that the benzene was either a contaminant, or a by-products of aerosol propellants used in spray-on sunscreen. The research is ongoing, and ultimately the safety of chemical-based over-the-counter sunscreens that contain accidental benzene is not known. But it’s probably not good for you.
Benzene isn’t the only potential problem: The FDA is currently asking for research to determine whether a number of common sunscreen ingredients that are absorbed into the skin are harmful, but, again, we really don’t know what, if any, harm these ingredients do.
This is not to say you should stop using sunscreen. We may not know how harmful it is to rub benzene-tainted sunscreen into your skin, but we do know that exposing your skin to UV radiation without protection leads to skin cancer. If you're concerned, you can check your sunscreen against this list of brands that weren’t found to contain benzene.
Is sunlight is good for you?
People who question the use of sunscreen often point out that exposure to sunlight is natural and good for you. They are mostly wrong. Exposing your skin to sunlight is a way to maintain healthy vitamin D levels, and we need vitamin D to avoid rickets and other issues, so in that way, exposure to sunlight is “good,” but skin cancer is definitely bad, and a much bigger problem than rickets. Luckily, you can get adequate vitamin D from your diet or from supplements, and you’re probably exposed to enough incidental sunlight for vitamin D production without seeking it out. Endocrinologists and dermatologists generally agree that the risk of skin cancer from sunlight exposure is a way more compelling health problem than a potential Vitamin D deficiency.
People have been exposed to sunlight for thousands of years and we’re still around
It’s true that cavepeople didn’t wear sunscreen, but how many cavemen have you seen around lately? The argument that we naturally evolved to be able to handle sunlight without using sunscreen falls apart when you consider that evolution’s influence ends at reproductive age. Skin cancers tend to show up later in life, when we’re not spreading our genes around, so there’s no compelling reason why we would evolve to have UV-tolerant skin.
Can you prevent skin cancer through “natural” means?
On a recent podcast with sunscreen denier and reality TV star Kristin Cavallari, eastern medicine practitioner Ryan Monahan suggested that you eat "an anti-inflammatory diet” to build up "antioxidant reservoir" in the body, and develop a "base coat" through incremental sun exposure you won't need sunscreen.
Monahan’s advice about gradual exposure to sunlight is stupid and dangerous. It’s the worst advice possible for preventing skin cancer, because research shows that the risk of cancer from UV exposure is cumulative: Ramping up your sun exposure makes cancer more likely, not less so. A “base coat” tan might make you less likely to get a sunburn, but it’s doing nothing to prevent cancer, and it’s actually proof that your skin has already been damaged by UV light.
As for the “inflammatory antioxidant reservoir” song and dance, there’s someresearch that suggests there may be some link between nutrition and skin cancer, but it’s not particularly compelling. There’s no research anywhere that suggests your diet can “counter” the cancer-causing effect of UV radiation. UV light damages the DNA in your cells, leading to cancer. This will happen no matter how much broccoli you eat.
Bottom line: Wear sunscreen
As annoying as it is that online transformation coaches, reality TV stars, and wellness influencers are a tiny bit right about sunscreen (or anything), remember that they're mostly wrong. It's not actually a complicated matter: You should wear sunscreen if your skin is exposed to sunlight because skin cancer is common and very bad.
It's summertime, and you gotta fill the empty hours somehow, so young people are clicking bananas, creating imaginary shows on Netflix, and developing very strong opinions about Star Wars.
Why gamers are spending all day clicking bananas
Video game companies typically spend between $60 and $80 million producing a single AAA video game, but a free-to-play game that probably cost about six bucks to develop is currently sitting at the number two position on Steam’s online chart and threatening to take over Counter-Strike's top spot. There are around 800,000 people currently “playing” Banana, up from about 400,000 last week, so it’s going a little bananas. As for what it actually is, here’s the official description: “Banana is a clicker Game, in which you click a Banana!” That’s really all you do.
Many users seem to be into it because it’s dumb and ridiculous, but there’s another driver for Banana’s popularity. If you leave the program running for three hours, you “own” a digital banana skin. Leave it running for 18 hours and you own a rare digital banana skin. These assets can then be sold on Steam’s marketplace. Common bananas sell for pennies. Rare ones can sell for over $100. So gamers are making a little money by playing it too.
While there’s something unseemly about how Banana strips the “game” part away from selling gaming assets, it doesn’t seem like a scam or an NFT-style pyramid scheme. The developers aren’t making any untrue claims about their game. People are willing shell out the price of digital bananas (for some reason), so everyone makes a few cents—Steam gets its cut, Banana’s developers get their cut, and the banana-clicking user gets their cut.
As Banana’s popularity continues to increase, it seems possible that Steam will decide its doesn’t want to be the internet’s home of clicking bananas and pull the game, but for now, you can still click bananas all day, if you’re that kind of person.
What is Smiling Friends?
Smiling Friends is this year's must-watch program for the younger set. The first season of the animated series premiered on Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network’s nighttime programming block, in 2022, but it started really catching on this May, when season two began. Like Adventure Time before, it’s one of those shows everyone likes, to the tune of a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Smiling Friends combines traditional animation with stop-motion, live action, rotoscoping, and really any other technique, to tell the story of The Smiling Friends Corporation, a small business dedicated to making people happy. From that simple concept, Smiling Friends spins unexpected, innovative, and bizarre tales that are funnier, smarter, and more cutting than just about anything else on TV. Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel started on YouTube before collaborating on Smiling Friends, and they bring the online sensibility to every episode. Definitely check it out if you like watching things that are good.New episodes of Smiling Friends air on Adult Swim on Sundays at midnight, and are available to stream on Max the following day.
Is there a Netflix show called My Best Day?
If you’ve been seeing promos on Instagram, X, or TikTok for a Netflix series called My Best Day and thought, “I’d like to see that show,” you can’t. It’s not a real show; it’s a meme. Last week, Instagrammers, Snapchatters, Xers, and others started inserting pictures of themselves, artwork, and videos into a fake Netflix homepage preview screen for a series called “My Best Day.” Here’s the Snapchat filter if you want to make your own. And here are a fewexamples for inspiration.
New meme stock alert: internet bullish on Grindr?
In the middle of Pride Month, the financial wizards at Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets are hyping a new meme stock: Grindr. Late last week, a ton of posts started appearing on the subreddit, with users promising to put “everything I own + my mothers chemotherapy fund into this stock.” Grindr’s price jumped from $9.23 a share to $10.37 in a single day on Friday, but I don’t know how anything works, so who knows whether that was due to Reddit or not. Today the stock is sinking back to earth, for what that’s worth. Whether Grindr will go the way of GameStop and become a financial saga that goes on for years and inspire a feature film, or is just a flash-in-the-pan online joke that will not be remembered eight minutes from now remains to be seen. Note: please do not take any investing advice from Reddit.
Viral video of the week: The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage
This week’s viral video comes from YouTube channel Star Wars Theory. In “The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage,” Star Wars Theory gives their unvarnished opinion about the latest episode of Disney+’s new series Star Wars: The Acolyte. The verdict: It's really bad.
A negative review from a fan isn’t that interesting on its own—no one hates Star Wars as much as Star Wars fans after all—but the review is part of a larger trend within Star Wars fandom. The Acolyte is a critical hit. It’s got an 83% “fresh” rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics. But the fans are seemingly rejecting it: the audience score is only 15%, and there's a lot going on here.
Part of The Acolyte's bad audience score seems to come from that depressing "white dude" faction of the fandom that doesn't like "wokeness" in "their" Star Wars—the series' diverse cast and its "space witch" coven proclaiming that the galaxy doesn't welcome “women like us" is the kind of thing that rubs cretins the wrong way (as if science fiction hasn't always commented on current culture). Star Wars Theory raised some controversy recently by saying that women don't like Star Wars, but his gripe here (if we take him at face value) is about the show's lore not fitting in with the established Star Wars universe.
"This isn't what Star Wars is supposed to be" has been a common criticism of the franchise since the prequels were released in the 1990s. A lot of fans don't like The Acolyte for the same reason I thought the prequels were dogshit: The movie/show/cartoon that defines the series for each fan is the one they happened to have seen when they were 11.
It's not a dumb criticism like "this is too woke," but the sheer volume of canonical Star Wars product, new audience expectations, and changing mores, make lore consistency impossible. Since Star Wars: A New Hope premiered in the late 1970s, twelve Star Wars feature films, six Star Wars live-action TV shows, nine animated series, and around 100 video game adaptations have been released, all at different times and aimed at different people. This isn’t generally a problem for critics or casual viewers, because it’s a just a show, so who cares, but if you’ve made your love of Star Wars part of your identity, and you have a lot of time to think about how it all fits together because you don’t have a job or family yet, it’s serious.
Lore creep isn't the whole problem, though. On the meta level, a critical mass seems to have been reached that is forcing Star Wars fas to confront the sausage-making behind the thing they love. Star Wars is special to the people who love it. It's personal. But whatever specialness is left in the series is being rapidly smothered under a mountain of mediocrity slapped with the Star Wars name. Along with the shows, books, movies, and video game tie-ins, there’s more official Star Wars merchandise—t-shirts, figurines, coffins, etc.—than anyone could collect in a lifetime. It's exhausting, and it's becoming impossible to ignore that whole thing is a money-grab, where fans are seen as walking wallets. See also, the backlash over the Star Wars Hotel.
The original films became merchandising opportunities after they became successful, but at least you could argue that the action figures and t-shirts were in response to people wanting them, not the other way around. Now the Star Wars cart is permanently before the Star Wars horse and selling dolls and shit is the entire point. The ruthless efficiency with which the intellectual property is managed is revealing an emptiness beneath the surface that's impossible to ignore.
If you’re anything like me, you woke up this morning to a calendar pop-up saying that Flag Day is tomorrow, June 14. You probably know as much about Flag Day as I know about JoJo Siwa—I’ve heard of her, I know she has something to do with music, but I assume she’s for other people, so I’ve never looked into it further. But read on if you’re curious about Flag Day—where it came from, who celebrates it, why it exists, and what it all means.
What even is Flag Day?
Celebrated annually on June 14, Flag Day marks the anniversary of the 1777 Continental Congress decree solidifying the design of the American Flag with these inspiring words that all school children know by heart: “Resolved: That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed June 14 to be Flag Day in 1916, and in 1949, Harry Truman made it official by signing the observance into law. A single day wasn’t patriotic enough though; in 1966, Congress declared that Flag Day falls in the middle of Flag Week. Take that, Communists.
Do I get to take a day off for Flag Day?
You don’t get time off for Flag Day (and don’t even think about Flag Week). Honoring the design of our flag is important for all Americans, but it is not important enough for a proper holiday, so the mail still gets delivered, federal offices and banks remain open, and there’s no three-day weekend. I think we can all agree that this is a rip-off.
Where did Flag Day come from?
In 1885, Bernard J. Cigrand, an 18-year-old teacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin assigned his students to write an essay about what the American flag means to them. Cigrand quit teaching soon after and left Wisconsin to become a dentist, but he never forgot his patriotic busywork assignment, and spent years lobbying the U.S. government to make the day into a holiday.
In a Flag Day speech in 1917, President Wilson tied the holiday to the necessity of sending American troops to Europe to fight in World War I. This was the first time the American military fought overseas, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think the real reason Flag Day exists is not due to a patriotic Wisconsin teacher’s writing assignment, but because of a campaign to sway public opinion to support America’s involvement in World War I.
How do people celebrate Flag Day?
According to military.com, “Flag Day is celebrated with parades, essay contests, ceremonies, and picnics sponsored by veterans groups, schools, and groups like the National Flag Day foundation.” I find this dubious. I love ceremonies and essay contests, but I have never attended any kind of Flag Day celebration, and neither have any of my thousands of friends, colleagues, and well-wishers.
The do celebrate in Waubeka, Wisconsin, ground-zero for Flag Day. This year, the town will be hosting a parade, a fireworks display, and a musical performance by Eric Barbieri And The Rockin' Krakens.
Who designed the American Flag?
We honor the flag on Flag Day, but we don't honor the graphic designer who invented it. The Continental Congress’ “here’s what our flag is going to be” proclamation doesn’t go into a lot of detail about how the alternating red and white stripes and stars should be arranged, so technically, you could put put ‘em anywhere, but someone came up with the design we all know and tolerate. We just don’t know for sure who it was.
It almost definitely wasn’t Betsy Ross. She did sew flags during the American Revolution, but the story that President Washington presented Ross with a rough sketch that she changed around to make our flag isn’t supported by any evidence beyond stories told in the Ross family, so historians are like, “nah."
The leading suspect for flag designer is Francis Hopkinson, a founding father, poet, playwright, and musician who also had an eye for design. Among other iconic pieces of Americana, he created the Seal of the United States (and by extension the logo of The Ramones).
Hopkinson wrote a letter to the Board of Admiralty in 1780 requesting payment for designing the U.S. flag. He asked for a “quarter cask of the public wine,” but the request was denied, partly because the board said other, unnamed, people also worked on the flag design, and partly because the nation was broke.
Don’t we celebrate the flag on July 4? Isn’t that enough already?
July 4 is for celebrating our nation’s independence and our nation’s general awesomeness. Flag Day is for celebrating the symbol of our nation’s general awesomeness. Don’t worry about mixing it up though; It's a free country so they won’t throw you in jail for it—YET.
If you're looking for a new show to watch this week, streaming has you covered. Some of them are even worth your time!
My choice for the must-watch show of the week should be The Bear—the third season of this prestige series about the restaurant biz is better than just about anything in recent TV history after all—but then I see there's a new season of Worst Roommate Ever streaming on Netflix, so I'm torn. I'm going to say it's a tie. And that's before I consider Wondla, My Lady Jane, and everything else listed below.
Here are most interesting new shows streaming this week.
The Bear, Season 3
Hulu’s critically acclaimed audience-favorite The Bear is returning for a third nerve-jangling, poignant season. Now that they’ve opened The Bear, their ideal high-end restaurant, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the rest of crew must navigate the treacherous, cutthroat Chicago culinary scene. Expect things to get stressful. The whole season has dropped at one, so you can binge it as fast as you like.
Where to stream: Hulu
Worst Roommate Ever, Season 2
Finding out a second season of Worst Roommate Ever was coming to Netflix was the best news I'd heard in months. If you're not familiar, this documentary series tells the stories of bad roommates through interviews with victims and animated re-enactments. If you're like, "Why would that even be interesting?" you're not grasping how monumentally, spectacularly, and unbelievably horrific these people are. Imagine your worst college roommate and multiply their awfulness by 100; these people are worse than that. If you like well-made freak show TV as much as I do, you hit "play" at midnight on June 25 too.
Where to stream: Netflix
WondLa
If you have a literate kid in you house, you're probably familiar with the massively popular Wondla series of children's science fiction/fantasy novels by Tony DiTerlizzi. Like the first book, Wondla, the animated adaptation has a perfect YA set-up: 12-year-old protagonist Eva Nine was raised in an underground bunker by a robot. She's never seen the sun, walked through grass, or seen another living being. With only a photograph of an unknown person labeled "Wondla" to guide her, Eva finally leaves her home in search of connections with other people who may not even exist.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
That 90s Show, Season 2
Set 15 years after That ‘70s Show’s ending, That '90s Show continues the comic adventures of parents Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), but now they're grandparents, and they have a new group of teenagers to wrangle, harass, and joke around with. But these are '90s teenagers, so expect lots of flannel shirts and Pearl Jam jokes. Season two sees the return of That '70s Show's Laura Prepon, reprising her role as Donna. (Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, and Ashton Kutcher will not be returning.)
Where to stream: Netflix
My Lady Jane
The real Lady Jane Grey was a Tudor noblewoman who became Queen of England in 1553 but only ruled for nine days before being beheaded. This Prime original series explores what might have happened if the Nine Days' Queen had kept her head. Based on the best-selling YA novel of the same name by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, My Lady Jane is "an epic tale of true love and high adventure set in an alt-universe of action, history, fantasy, comedy, romance, and rompy-pompy," according to Amazon's promotional material.
Where to stream: Prime
One South: Portrait of a Psych Unit
Max's two-part original documentary takes viewers insideZucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, a psychiatric hospital for young adults in acute crisis. One South presents a portrait of patients suffering from depression, anxiety, psychosis, as well as the dedicated mental health professionals dedicated to helping them get well. So it's not the most fun mini-series, but it looks fascinating.
Where to stream: Max
Last week's picks
House of the Dragon, season 2
A new season of House of the Dragon showing up on Max is cause for celebration all over. The first season was a banger, with critics giving it 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, and things are going to get dragon-breath hot in season 2 with Westeros on the brink of a civil war, and King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra locked in battle to sit on The Iron Throne.
Where to stream: Max
Hotel Cocaine
Hotel Cocaine was created by an expert in TV shows about drugs, Chris Brancato, the man behind Narcos, and Narcos: Mexico. Set in the 1970s, Hotel Cocaine the story of Roman Compte, a Cuban exile who managed the Hotel Mutiny on Miami's Biscayne Bay. The hotel is ground zero for the glamorous part of the drug trade, where celebrities rub shoulder with cocaine dealers, and Compte is in the middle of it all. Unknown to his low-life associates, though, he's secretly working with the DEA. Drugs, retro fashion, and a main character leading a double life—what more can you want from a crime show?
Where to stream: MGM+
Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown
This National Geographic docuseries examines the history, impact, and people behind Jim Jone’s terrifying People’s Temple cult. Told through never-before-scene footage and interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown explores the group’s rise and eventual mass murder/suicide in Guyana, shedding light on the causes of the grisly day that shook the world.
Where to stream: Hulu
Chopper Cops
If you've ever looked up at police helicopters surveilling the people who live in your neighborhood and thought, "what kind of person would do that for a living?" Chopper Cops has the answers. Along with profiles of the men and women who fly these buzzy aircrafts, this docuseries shows off the high-tech infrared cameras, augmented reality mapping technology, and other military style hardware that The State purchased with your tax money so they can oppress you. Wait, I mean, "keep you safe."
Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over the release schedules of major streaming services to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch right now.
My stream-of-the-week pick is Fancy Dance. This Apple TV+ original is the kind of thoughtful, quiet film you used to have to go to an arthouse to see. If you're like, "Dude, it's summer; what else ya got?" you could check out surprisingly good cartoon Kung Fu Panda 4, or do a diva-double-feature with documentary I Am: Celine Dion and biopic Judy.
Fancy Dance
I've been reading hot-takes about the death of small, smart, indie cinema for my entire life, but the spirit lives on in movies like Fancy Dance. Lily Gladstone stars as Jax, whose life on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma consists of caring for her niece Roki, played by Isabel Deroy-Olson, and searching for her missing sister. When custody of Roki is threatened by Roki's father, Jax grabs her niece and goes hunting for Roki's mother, a search that becomes a deeper investigation of the place of Indigenous women in a colonized world.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Kung Fu Panda 4
It seems impossible that the fourth movie in a series about a Panda who knows martial arts would be good enough to have a Rotten Tomatoes audience score 87%, but Kung Fu Panda 4 smashes through conventional ideas of cinematic quality like they're wooden planks at a strip mall dojo. Jack Black is back as Po, and this time he's looking for a protege to take over as Dragon Warrior so he can be promoted to Grand Head Poobah or something. To find the right animal, Po heads out on one last (yeah, right) adventure. The search puts Po and his pal Zhen in the crosshairs of the wicked sorceress Chameleon and tests the limits of his kung fu skills. If you have kids, they'll like it, and if you happen to catch a scene or two when you're not looking at your phone, you won't mind it.
Where to stream: Peacock
I Am: Celine Dion
This original Prime documentary explores singer Celine Dion's struggle with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disease. Described in a press release as an "emotional, energetic, and poetic love letter to music," I Am: Celine Dion takes viewers from the dressing room to the recording studio to the stage and captures an intimate look at the superstar singer's private life and struggles.
Where to stream: Prime
A Family Affair
Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King lead the cast of A Family Affair, a romantic comedy that begins with Zara (King) walking in on her mom (Kidman) and her ex-boss (Efron) in the middle of a passionate tryst. The ex-boss is an impossibly self-centered celebrity—so Zara is not at all sure how to deal with the new relationship. This exploration of love, sex, and identity is the kind of charisma-powered, crowd-pleasing movie that romantic comedy fans can't get enough of.
Where to stream: Netflix
Judy (2019)
Judy explores the oversized life of iconic movie star Judy Garland—specifically, her last years in London, when films like The Wizard of Oz were a distant cultural memory and Garland was too broke to pay her hotel bill. Trying to stage another in an endless series of "comebacks," Garland juggles her professional responsibilities with her fierce protectiveness over her children, all while battling alcoholism and drug addiction. Darci Shaw plays young Judy, but the movie really belongs to Renée Zellweger, whose portrayal of time-has-caught-up-with-her Judy is heartbreaking.
Where to stream: Prime
Breakin' On The One
This documentary tells the story of how the Black and brown kids from New York’s poorest neighborhoods spawned a worldwide musical and cultural revolution through dance, music, and fashion. On August 15, 1981, New York breakdance crews the Rocksteady Crew and the Dynamic Rockers appeared at the Out-of-Doors Festival to settle their differences through a breaking battle. Ripples from the showdown reverberated all over the world, and Breakin' On The One explores that epic breakin’ battle and the significance of breakdancing and hip-hop through archival footage and interviews with the dancers, DJs, MCs, and B-boys and girls who were there. If you’re into hip-hop, or fascinated with how cultural revolutions begin, check out Breakin’ on the One.
Where to stream: Hulu
Last week's picks
Monkey Man
Mumbai isn't usually associated with martial arts, but first-time director Dev Patel's Monkey Man is a punch-in-the-face action movie that may change minds. Patel plays the title character, named for the mask he wears, a scrapper who makes a brutal living in underground fight pits where he's beaten up nightly for money. When he figures out how to infiltrate the secret society of rich jerks who pull the strings, Monkey Man unleashes a torrent of rage and revenge so satisfying it earned an 83% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where to stream: Peacock
Oppenheimer (2023)
Christopher Nolan's biopic about the inventor of atomic weapons took home seven Oscars, including best picture, and it also made over $900 million at the box office. Cillian Murphy stars as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a complex, driven visionary tasked with creating the most destructive weapon in human history to fight the Axis powers during World War II. Spoiler: he succeeds, but Oppenheimer, both the movie and man, end up wondering if atomic weapons were actually such a great idea.
Trigger Warning
For her role as Parker in Netflix original action movie Trigger Warning, Jessica Alba learned Indonesian knife fighting skills to make the flick's intense hand-to-hand combat scenes extra real. Parker is a Special Forces commando who returns to her home town her father's funeral, only to discover a dangerous conspiracy that might be responsible for his death. Does she confront the evil men behind the plot with Indonesian knife-fighting skills? Goddamn right she does. Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso, and Anthony Michael Hall also appear in this treat for action movie fans.
Where to stream: Netflix
Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution
This Netflix original documentary tells the story of LGBTQ+ stand-up comedy through interviews, stand-up performances, archival materials, and verité footage featuring huge comedians like Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Wanda Sykes, Eddie Izzard, Hannah Gadsby, Tig Notaro, and Rosie O'Donnell. Outstanding explores the history of queer comics, the societal changes that came from their work, and the future of LGBTQ+ stand-up.
Where to stream: Netflix
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.
Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play was one of the most celebrated, provocative, and fearless plays ever staged on Broadway. In this documentary, Harris takes us behind the scenes of the groundbreaking production, showing us the actors workshops, run-throughs, and rehearsals that brought it to life. But Harris goes deeper and uses the documentary to comment on his own part of Slave Play's creation.
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