Autism Awareness Month is in April and a theatrical trio wants to help spread the word about the condition. The Blue Man Group is partnering with Autism Speaks in an effort to help “Light It Up Blue” around the world next month on Autism Awareness Day. 

Autism Speaks posted a video of the group on its YouTube page Monday. The video shows the three mimical blue men plugging up blue light bulbs. The video encourages viewers to join the pledge and wear blue on Autism Awareness Day, April 2. Companies and institutions participating in the pledge will shine blue lighting on their buildings to support the cause. Hundreds of organizations have participated worldwide. 

Light It Up Blue started in 2010 in order to spread international awareness about the still-ambiguous condition. 

Rih gave a man in the front row the opportunity of a lifetime by handing him her mic during the chorus of "Four, Five Seconds," and he seriously delivered.

Fans on Twitter are pointing out that the moment has an equally-awesome Beyonce counterpart, where an audience member was given the mic and changed some lyrics to, "Beyonce I can see your halo." 

H/T Buzzfeed | Screengrab via Rihanna/Instagram

While we’re sad to see content leaveNetflix each month, we’ll always have even more movies and shows to obsess over.

April

April 1

16 Blocks (2006)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Season 5

The Ascent of Woman: A 10,000 Year Story

Beat Bobby Flay: Season 1

Best in Show (2000)

Bob's Burgers: Season 5

Boogie Nights (1997)

Breathe (2014)

Chaplin (1992)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Codegirl (2015)

Colegas (2012)

Cujo (1983)

Cutthroat Kitchen: Seasons 3­-4

Deep Impact (1998)

Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang (2015)

Dolphin Tale (2011)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Explorers (1985)

Fixer Upper: Season 2

Frank and Cindy (2015)

Giada at Home: Season 7

The Great Food Truck Race: Seasons 1­-2

House Hunters Collection: Collection 3

House Hunters International Collection: Collection 3

House Hunters International Renovation: Season 1

Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer (2015)

Kids Baking Championship: Season 1

Looking for Richard (1996)

Lost & Found Music Studios: Season 1 ­­*

Love It or List It, Too: Season 4

The Mask You Live In (2015)

Morituri (1965)

My Girl (1991)

Mystic River (2003)

The Next Best Thing (2000)

The Perfect Storm (2000)

The Phantom (1996)

The Princess Bride (1987)

Property Brothers at Home: Season 1

The Ranch: Part 1 ­­ *

Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers (2014)

The Right Stuff (1983)

Rising Sun (1993)

The Running Man (1987)

Say It Isn't So (2001)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Scrooged (1988)

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Transporter 3 (2008)

Uncommon Valor (1983)

Under the Same Moon (2007)

V for Vendetta (2005)

April 5

Walt Before Mickey (2015)

April 8

God's Pocket (2014)

Hush (2016)

April 9

Look Who’s Back (2015)

April 10

Girl Meets World: Season 2

April 11

TURN: Washington's Spies: Season 2

April 12

Ajin: Season 1­­ *

April 14

Moonwalkers (2015)

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

April 15

Belgica (2016)

Cuckoo: Season 3 ­­ *

Kong King of the Apes (film, episode 1; series, episode 213) ­­ *

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 2 ­­ *

April 16

How to Get Away with Murder: Season 2

April 17

Lost Girl: Season 5

The Messengers: Season 1

April 22

Catching the Sun (2015)

Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping (2016) ­­ *

April 24

Minions (2015)

April 27

Begin Again (2014)

The Fosters: Season 3

April 29

Danger Mouse: Season 1 ­­ *

Hellion (2014)

Special Correspondents (2016) ­­ *

Team Foxcatcher (2016) ­­ *

April 30

Sensitive Skin: Season 2

March

March 1

Adult Beginners (2015) 

Ahora o Nunca (2015) 

Aldnoah.Zero: Season 2 

American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007) 

American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006) 

Before We Go (2015) 

Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland (2016) 

El Desconocido (2015) 

Frog Kingdom (2013) 

Good Burger (1997) 

Groundhog Day (1993) 

Heaven Knows What (2015) 

Hot Sugar's Cold World (2015) 

Midsomer Murders: Series 17 

Narcopolis (2015) 

Road Trip: Beer Pong (2009) 

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) 

Scarface (1983) 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) 

The Young Kieslowski (2014) 

March 2 

For Grace (2015) 

March 4

House of Cards: Season 4 (2016) *

Lab Rats: Season 4 

LEGO Friends: The Power of Friendship (2016) 

LEGO: Bionicle: The Journey to One: Season 1 (2016) 

Louie: Season 5

March 5 

Hell & Back (2015) 

March 7

Cuckoo: Seasons 1-2 

Halo: The Fall of Reach (2015) 

Sin Filtro (2016) 

March 8

Digimon Fusion: Season 2 

March 9

The Returned: Season 1 

March 10 

Comedy Bang! Bang!: Season 4, Part 3 

Hateship Loveship (2013) 

March 11

Dinotrux: Season 2 *

Flaked: Season 1 *

Netflix Presents: The Characters: Season 1 *

Popples: Season 2 *

March 12 

Shelter (2015) 

March 15 

Saints (2015) 

4GOT10 (2015) 

The Falling (2015) 

Final Girl (2015) 

Finders Keepers (2015) 

Power Rangers Dino Charge: Season 1, Part 2 

War Pigs (2015) 

March 16 

Are You Here (2014) 

Charlie St. Cloud (2010) 

Gridiron Gang (2006) 

Happy Valley: Season 2 *

Larry Crowne (2011) 

Promised Land (2012) 

March 18 

He Never Died (2015) 

Jimmy Carr: Funny Business (2016) *

Marvel's Daredevil: Season 2 *

The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show: Season 2 *

My Beautiful Broken Brain (2016) *

Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016) *

March 22

The Art of Organized Noize (2016) 

The Ouija Experiment 2: Theatre of Death (2015) 

March 24 

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) 

A Promise (2013) 

March 25 

VeggieTales in the House: Season 3 

March 28 

Trailer Park Boys: Season 10 

March 31 

Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation (2007) 

Fright Night 2 (2013) 

Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders (2015) 

Sunshine Superman (2015) 

Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time (2011) 

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal: Seasons 1-2

February

Feb. 1

A Picture of You (2014)

Armageddon (1998)

Better Call Saul: Season 1

Charlie’s Angels (2000)

Collateral Damage (2002)

Cruel Intentions (1999)

A Faster Horse (2015)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Game Face (2015)

Jennifer 8 (1992)

Johnny English (2003)

The Little Engine That Could (2011)

The Lizzie Borden Chronicles: Season 1

Losing Isaiah (1995)

Masha’s Tales: Season 1

My Side of the Mountain (1969)

Para Elisa (2012)

Pokemon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction (2014)

Pokemon: XY: Season 1

Scooby-Doo (2002)

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)

Sin City (2005)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Stardust (2007)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Teen Witch (1989)

Tin Man: “Search for the Emerald” (2007)

The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom (2011)

Feb. 2

Land Before Time: XIV: Journey of the Brave (2016)

Feb. 3

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)

Feb. 4

Love (2015)

Feb. 5

Care Bears & Cousins: Season 2 *

Hannibal Buress: Comedy Camisado *

Mad Men: Season 7: Part 2

Turbo: F.A.S.T.: Season 3 *

Feb. 6

Lila & Eve (2015)

Feb. 10

Dope (2015)

The Girl in the Book (2015)

Feb. 13

The Face of Love (2013)

Feb. 15

Open Season (2006)

XXY (2007)

Feb. 16

Asthma (2015)

Atonement (2007)

Feb. 17

The Returned: Season 2

Feb. 19

Cooked: Season 1 *

Love: Season 1 *

Feb. 22

3rd World Cops 2 (2015)

Feb. 23

Bare (2015)

Feb. 24

Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight! (2015)

Feb. 26

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) *

Fuller House: Season 1 *

Theo Von (2016) *

Feb. 27

Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

Feb. 29

Ashes and Embers (1982)

January 2016

Jan. 1

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Along Came Polly (2004)

American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success (2015)

Angry Birds Toons: Season 1

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)

Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007)

Catwoman (2004)

The Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills: Season 1

Constantine (2005)

Forensic Files: Collection 2

Friday Night Tykes: Season 1-2

The Good Road (2013)

House of Wax (2005)

How to Change the World (2015)

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Journey to Le Mans (2014)

Loins of Punjab (2007)

Meet the Fockers (2004)

Meet the Parents (2000)

Nanny McPhee (2006)

Piku (2015)

Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

The Rundown (2003)

Shout Gladi Gladi (2015)

Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball (2009)

Something New (2006)

Stephen Fry Live: More Fool Me (2014)

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle: Season 3

Swordfish (2001)

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Under Arrest: Season 1: “Put Some Clothes On”

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

The Wedding Date (2005)

The Whole Ten Yards (2004)

Jan. 2

30 for 30: Four Falls of Buffalo

I'll Have What Phil's Having: Season 1

Jan. 3

Sofia the First: Season 2

Jan. 4

Blunt Force Trauma (2015)

Training Day (2001)

Jan. 5

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 10

New Girl: Season 4

Jan. 8

Adult World (2014)

Dragons: Race to the Edge: Season 2 *

Tom Segura: Mostly Stories (2015) *

Jan. 10

Dos Hermanos (2010)

El Hombre de al Lado (2009)

Esperando La Carroza (1985)

The Marziano Family (2011)

Rosario Tijeras (2005)

Un Oso Rojo (2002)

Jan. 11

Littlest Pet Shop: Season 4

Jan. 12

The Ladykillers (2004)

Jan. 13

Parks and Recreation: Season 7

Jan. 14

The Testimony (2015)

Jan. 15

Degrassi: The Next Class: Season 1 *

The Last Five Years (2015)

Moonwalkers (2015)

Occupied (2015)

The Overnight (2015)

Sirens: Season 2

Jan. 16

Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)

Jan. 17

Z Nation: Season 2

Jan. 19

Curve (2015)

Jan. 20

Drone (2014)

Jan. 21

When Calls the Heart: Season 2

Jan. 22

Sharknado 3 (2015)

Jan. 23

Chelsea Does (2016) *

Jan. 25

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season 2

Turbo Kid (2015)

Jan. 28

Frozen Planet (2011)

Frozen Planet: On Thin Ice (2011)

Frozen Planet: The Epic Journey (2011)

The Making of Frozen Planet (2012)

Jan. 29

Ever After High: Dragon Games *

Jan. 31

Words and Pictures (2013)

December

Dec. 1

#DeathToSelfie (2014)

30 for 30: Chasing Tyson (2015)

50 Shades of THEY: Season 1

A Christmas Star (2015)

A Genius Leaves the Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay Z (2014)

Amnesiac (2015)

Broadchurch: Season 2

CBGB (2013)

Christmas Wedding Baby (2014)

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004)

Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

Darkman (1990)

Detectorists: Season 1

I'm Brent Morin *

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

Las mágicas historias de Plim Plim: Season 1

Ray (2004)

Real Rob: Season 1 (2015) *

See You in Valhalla (2015)

Sensitive Skin: Season 1

Starting Over: Season 1

Stir of Echoes (1999)

Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming (2007)

That Touch of Mink (1962)

Tyke: Elephant Outlaw * 

Winning Life’s Battles: Season 1

Dec. 2

Stations of the Cross (2014)

Tangerine (2015)

Dec. 3

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine (2015)

Dec. 4

A Very Murray Christmas (2015) *

Comedy Bang! Bang!: Season 4 (more episodes)

Dec. 5

A Case of You (2013)

Dinosaur 13 (2014)

Inside Man: Season 3

Dec. 7

Vampire Academy (2014)

Dec. 8

One & Two (2015)

Phoenix (2014)

Xenia (2014)

Dec. 9

Phineas and Ferb: Season 4

Trailer Park Boys: Drunk, High and Unemployed Live in Austin (2015) *

Dec. 11

The Adventures of Puss in Boots: Season 2 *

The Ridiculous 6 (2015) *

Dec. 14

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Dec. 15

Drown (2014)

Hart of Dixie: Season 4

High Profits: Season 1

Time Out of Mind (2014)

Dec. 16

Fresh Dressed (2015)

Helix: Season 2

Dec. 18

F Is for Family: Season 1 *

Glitter Force: Season 1 *

Making a Murderer: Season 1 *

Mike Epps: Don't Take It Personal *

Dec. 19

chloe and theo (2015)

Dec. 20

Leo the Lion (2013)

Magic Snowflake (2013)

Santa’s Apprentice (2010) 

Dec. 21

El Señor de los Cielos: Season 3

Dec. 22

Queen of Earth (2015)

Dec. 23

Invisible Sister (2015)

Dec. 24

Dawn of the Croods: Season 1 *

Dec. 25

Black Mirror“White Christmas” Episode

Dec. 28

Maron: Season 3

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Season 5

Dec. 30

Parenthood: Season 6

Dec. 31

Battle Creek: Season 1

Manhattan Romance (2014)

Violetta: Season 3

Nurse Jackie: Seasons 1-7

November

Nov. 1

Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure

Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce: Season 1

Idris Elba: Mandela, My Dad and Me

Last Days in Vietnam

Pasion de Gavilanes

Robot Overlords

Seven Deadly Sins: Season 1*

Smithsonian Channel: The Day Kennedy Died

The Last Time You Had Fun

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

Thomas & Friends: The Christmas Engines

Twinsters

Worst Year of My Life, Again: Season 1

Nov. 2

Last Tango in Halifax: Season 3

Nov. 3

Do I Sound Gay?

Julius Jr.: Season 2

The Midnight Swim

Nov. 5

Amapola

Amour Fou

The Runner

Nov. 6

Care Bears & Cousins: Season 1*

Master of None: Season 1*

Nov. 7

LeapFrog Letter Factory: Great Shape Mystery

Nov. 12

Anna Karenina

Nov. 13

Atención Atención: Season 1

Call Me Lucky

John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid*

With Bob and David: Season 1*

Young & Hungry: Season 2 (new episodes)

Nov. 14

Blue Caprice

Dior and I

Nov. 15

Continuum: Season 4

Jessie: Season 4

People, Places, Things

Soaked in Bleach

Tengo Ganas de Ti

Nov. 16

Cristela: Season 1

Nov. 18

Black Butler: Season 3

River*

Nov. 20

LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu: Season 3

Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Season 1*

Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso

Nov. 23

The Red Road: Season 2

Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 3

Nov. 24

Liv and Maddie: Season 2

Nov. 25

Gringolandia: Season 3

Home

Switched at Birth: Season 4

Nov. 26

Zipper

Nov. 28

A Perfect Man

Best of Enemies

The Best Offer

Nov. 29

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

October 

Oct. 1

A Christmas Carol

About Alex

Alexander: Theatrical Cut

American Pie

Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics Collection: Collection 1

Batman Begins

Boogie Nights

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Curse of Chucky

Dark Was the Night

Design on a Dime Collection: Collection 1

El Tiempo Entre Costuras

Extreme Homes Collection: Collection 1

Genevieve's Renovation: Season 1

Glass Chin

House Hunters Renovation Collection: Collection 1

Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Rooms Collection: Collection 1

Monkey Thieves: Seasons 1-3

On the Town

Pal Joey

Pepe

Pressure

Property Virgins Collection: Collection 1

Reasonable Doubt

Richard Pryor: Icon

Robin Williams Remembered - A Pioneers of Television Special

Some Came Running

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

The Bourne Supremacy

The Devil at 4 O'Clock

The Great Food Truck Race Collection: Collection 1

The Navy SEALs: Their Untold Story

The Nightmare

Throwdown with Bobby Flay Collection: Collection 1

Uncle Grandpa: Season 1 (more episodes)

Vanilla Ice Project: Seasons 1-4

Wakfu: Season 1

White Rabbit

Wild Horses

Worst Cooks in America Collection: Collection 1

Oct. 2

Anjelah Johnson: Not Fancy*

La Leyenda de la Nahuala

Reign: Season 2

The Vampire Diaries: Season 6

Oct. 3

Alpha and Omega 5: Family Vacation

Oct. 5

Team Hot Wheels: Build the Epic Race

Oct. 6

American Horror Story: Freak Show

iZombie: Season 1

Last Man Standing: Season 4

The Flash: Season 1

The Originals: Season 2

Tremors 5: Bloodline

Oct. 7

Arrow: Season 3

Flor Salvaje: Season 1

Legends: Season 1

Supernatural: Season 10

Oct. 8

American Heist

Strangerland

Oct. 9

Mighty Med: Season 2

The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show: Season 1*

Winter on Fire*

Oct. 10

Lalaloopsy: Band Together

Oct. 11

Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me

Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Season 3

Oct. 12

Jane the Virgin: Season 1

Oct. 14

Lazarus

Oct. 15

Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery: Season 1

Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno Live!

The Five People You Meet in Heaven: Part 1/Part 2

Oct. 16

All Hail King Julien: Season 2*

Anthony Jeselnik: Thoughts and Prayers*

Beasts of No Nation*

Circle - NETFLIX EXCLUSIVE

Some Assembly Required: Season 2*

The Principal: Season 1

Oct. 18

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Oct. 20

Lego DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered

Marvel's Avengers Assemble: Season 2

Oct. 22

Results

Oct. 23

Hemlock Grove: Season 3*

Oct. 24

Jack Strong

Oct. 25

Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection

Oct. 27

August: Osage County

Manson Family Vacation - NETFLIX EXCLUSIVE

Oct. 28

Chasing Life: Season 2

The Gunman

Oct. 29

Return to Sender

Oct. 30

Popples: Season 1*

* denotes Netflix Original

Screengrab via Jampaa6/YouTube 

Take a look and plan accordingly. And if you’re curious about the comings and goings on Amazon or Hulu, we’ve got you covered there, too. 

April

April 1

101 Dalmatians (1996)

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Along Came a Spider (2001)

Along Came Polly (2004)

Amistad (1997)

Bad Johnson (2014)

Bandslam (2009)

Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics Collection: Collection 1

Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)

The Butcher’s Wife (1991)

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

Chuck’s Eat the Street Collection: Collection 1

Craigslist Joe (2012)

Dear Genevieve Collection: Collection 1

Eureka: Season 4.0

Flashdance (1983)

Hook (1991)

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

House of Wax (2005)

I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1989)

The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson (2013)

Léon: The Professional (1994)

M*A*S*H: Seasons 1-11

Nanny McPhee (2005)

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)

Nine to Five (1980)

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Remember Me (2010)

Rock Star (2001)

The Rundown (2003)

Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball (2010)

Something New (2006)

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Starship Troopers (1997)

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Throwdown with Bobby Flay Collection: Collection 1

Vanilla Ice Goes Amish: Season 1

The Vanilla Ice Project: Seasons 1-4

The Wedding Date (2005)

The Whole Ten Yards (2004)

April 2

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

Around the World in 80 Days: Special Edition (1956)

The Devil at 4 o’clock (1961)

High Society (1956)

On the Town (1949)

Pal Joey (1957)

Some Came Running (1958)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

April 3

Short Poppies: Season 1

Space Dogs (2010)

April 6

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

April 10

Let the Right One In (2008)

April 15

All American Christmas Carol (2013)

Bill Cunningham New York (2010)

New York, I Love You (2008)

April 16

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

April 17

Lord of War (2005)

April 20

Half Baked (1998)

April 22

Freakshow: Season 1

April 25

A Royal Affair (2012)

April 30

Sordid Lives (2000)

March

March 1

Switchmas (2013) 

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman (2000)

American Pie (1999)

American Wedding (2003)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (1992)

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

Hackers (1985)

Hamlet (1990)

Hannie Caulder (1971)

Hardball (2001)

Hart's War (2002)

Hitch (2005)

Indecent Proposal (1993)

Johnny Dangerously (1984)

Jumanji (1995)

Masters of the Universe (1987)

Men in Black II (2002)

Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

Paycheck (2003)

The Babysitters (2007)

The Chosen One (2010)

The Monster Squad (1987)

The United States of Leland (2003)

Wings (1927)

March 2

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams (2013)

March 3

Night Catches Us (2010)

March 4

Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013)

Private Romeo (2011)

March 5

I Am Divine (2013)

March 6

Le Week-End (2013)

Refuge (2012)

March 7

Deadfall (2012)

March 8

Holidaze (2013)

March 9

Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)

The Mistle-tones! (2012)

March 11

Geography Club (2013)

March 15

Best of TEDx: Season 1

I Killed My Mother (2009)

Lola & Virginia: Season 1

TED Talks: Life Hack 1-2

TED Talks: Sex, Secrets & Love: Season 1

TED Talks: The Best of TEDx in Español: Season 1

TED Talks: Ancient Clues: Season 1

TED Talks: Animal Voices: Season 1

TED Talks: Artistry and Illusion: Season 1

TED Talks: Beasts, Bugs & Bio-wilderment: Season 1

TED Talks: Body by Design: Season 1

TED Talks: Brave Neuro World: Season 1

TED Talks: Building Wonder: Season 1

TED Talks: Chew On This: Season 1

TED Talks: Cyber Awe: Season 1

TED Talks: Defying Disease: Season 1

TED Talks: Global Villages: Season 1

TED Talks: Head Games: Season 1

TED Talks: Hot Buttons: Season 1

TED Talks: How to Start a Movement: Season 1

TED Talks: Humanity's Future: Season 1

TED Talks: Inexplicable Connections: Season 1

TED Talks: Into the Abyss: Season 1

TED Talks: Let Your Mind Wonder: Season 1

TED Talks: Life Lessons & Confessions: Season 1-2

TED Talks: Love, No Matter What: Season 1

TED Talks: Music Revolution: Season 1

TED Talks: Numbers Speak Louder Than Words: Season 1

TED Talks: Rad Invention: Season 1

TED Talks: Rebel Design: Season 1

TED Talks: Robotic Machinations: Season 1

TED Talks: Smart Laughs: Season 1

TED Talks: Space Trek: Season 1

TED Talks: The Capitalism Paradox: Season 1

Waste Land (2010)

March 17

Elegy (2008)

March 18

Cosmopolis (2012)

Music for Mandela (2013)

Out in the Dark (2012)

Side Effects (2013)

March 23

Keep the Lights On (2012)

March 26

The Comedy (2012)

March 28

Gayby (2012)

March 31

Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006)

Garfield's Pet Force (2009)

The Sandlot 2 (2005)

Twelve Mile Road (2003)

Women Who Kill (2012)

The Writers' Room: Season 1

February

Feb. 1

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein

Asylum

Bad Santa

Benny and Joon

Big Fish

Blue Crush

Classic Doctor Who: Collections 1-18

Crocodile Dundee 2

The Dancer Upstairs

Daylight

Doctor Who: Seasons 1-8

The Firm

Fletch

Gifted Hands

Gothika

The Hurt Locker

The Naked Gun

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

Rain Man

Ray

Secrets and Lies: Season 1

Sorority Row

The Terminator

Terms of Endearment

Feb. 2

Pokémon the Movie: Black & White: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond

Pokémon the Movie: Black: Victini and Reshiram

Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened

Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice

Pokémon the Movie: White: Victini and Zekrom

Pokémon: Black & White: Seasons 1-2

Pokémon: Indigo League: Season 2

Feb. 3

Bottle Shock

Feb. 7

Compliance

Jack & Diane

Feb. 11

Bridezillas: Season 10

Stephen King’s Bag of Bones

United 93

Were the World Mine

Feb. 13

The Fourth Kind

Feb. 15

Kitten Party

Feb. 16

The Pitch: Season 2

Feb. 17

Violet & Daisy

Feb. 19

North Sea Texas

Problem Child: Leslie Jones

Side by Side

Feb. 21

Jesus Camp

Marriage Boot Camp: Bridezillas: Season 1

Nobody Walks

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Feb. 24

Chicagoland: Season 1

Death Row Stories: Season 1

Feb. 25

The Guild: 1 Season

Feb. 27

Crooked Arrows

Halloween: Resurrection

Feb. 28

Sabrina, The Animated Series: Seasons 1-2

The Sea Inside

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series

January 2016

Jan. 1

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Almost Famous (2000)

American Psycho (2000)

American Psycho 2 (2002)

The Bourne Identity (2002)

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Coach Carter (2005)

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Corpse Bride (2005)

Coyote Ugly (2000)

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior: Season 1

Four Brothers (2005)

Gladiator (2000)

The Graduate (1967)

Grandma's Boy (2006)

Harriet the Spy (1996)

Heartbreakers (2001)

The Hours (2002)

The Italian Job (2003)

Jackass: The Movie (2002)

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

Lawrence of Arabia: Restored Version (1962)

The Longest Yard (2005)

The Machinist (2004)

Max Steel: Seasons 1-2

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

The Patriot (2000)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Rambo: First Blood (1982)

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Rambo III: Ultimate Edition (1988)

The Rescuers (1977)

Risky Business (1983)

Rocky (1976)

Rocky II (1979)

Rocky III (1982)

Rocky IV (1985)

Rocky V (1990)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Serpico (1973)

Sesame Street: Animals and Nature: Season 1

Sesame Street: Classics: Vol. 1-2

Sesame Street: Cookie and Friends: Season 1

Sesame Street: Creativity and Imagination: Season 1

Sesame Street: Elmo and Friends: Season 1

Sesame Street: Everyday Moments: Season 1

Sesame Street: Music and Dance: Season 1

Sesame Street: Numbers and Letters: Season 1

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Trading Places (1983)

Trekkies (1999)

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Zoolander (2001)

Jan. 4

Dumbo (1941)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Pocahontas (1995)

The Aristocats (1970)

The Fox and the Hound (1981)

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Tigger Movie (2000)

Jan. 8

The Lying Game: Season 2

Jan. 14

Bad Ink: Season 1

Beyond Scared Straight!: Seasons 4-5

Dance Moms: Collection

Duck Dynasty: Collection

Hoarders: Collection

Intervention: Collection

Pawn Stars: Collection

Storage Wars: Collection

The Kennedys: Season 1

December

Dec. 1

All About Eve

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Season 1

Batman Begins

Beverly Hills Cops III

Brian’s Song

The Brothers Grimm

The Burbs

Cop Land

Damien: Omen II

The Dark Crystal

Employee of the Month

Forces of Nature

Get Low

The Great Escape

The Guardian: Seasons 1-3

The High and the Mighty

The Hustler

Insomnia

Juice

K-19: The Widowmaker

Labyrinth

Last Night

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force

Left Behind: The Movie

Modern Problems

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Necessary Roughness

The Omen (1976)

Omen III: The Final Conflict

The Paw Project

The Pink Panther 2

R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly

R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It

Shrink

Silence of the Lambs

Soapdish

Trek Nation

Two Can Play That Game

Dec. 4

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally

Dec. 6

360 (2011)

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

Dec. 9

C.O.G.

Dec. 10

Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 2

Dec. 11

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Season 2

Rescue Me: Seasons 1-7

Dec. 12

Why Did I Get Married?

Dec. 13

How to Build a Better Boy

Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers

Dec. 15

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

Dec. 17

Underclassman

Dec. 21

Red Hook Summer

Dec. 24

Una Noche

Dec. 30

Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony

November

Nov. 1

1492: Conquest of Paradise

America in Primetime

Bali: Season 1

Balto 3: Wings of Change

Batman & Robin

Best Kept Secret

Best Laid Plans

Changing Lanes 

Cleopatra

Conspiracy Theory 

Death Warrant 

Fargo (1996)

Fela Kuti: Music Is the Weapon

Funny Games

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide 

Hero and Terror 

House of Flying Daggers 

Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie 

Lunopolis

Move Over, Darling 

Norman

Pajanimals: Season 1

Rudy

Saw

Saw II

Saw III 

Saw IV 

Saw V 

Scream

Secrets of Mary Magdalene

Soul Plane

Stand by Me 

Taking Lives 

The Blues Brothers 

The Core

The Last Waltz

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Three Kings

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns 

Year of the Dog 

Your Inner Fish 

Nov. 3

Bratz: Good Vibes

Nov. 5

The Perfect Stranger

Nov. 7

Shanghai Noon

Nov. 8

My Hope America With Billy Graham

Nov. 9

The Road

Nov. 10

Bratz: Pampered Petz

Nov. 12

A Girl Walks Into a Bar 

Nov. 13

Stranger by the Lake

Nov. 15

Fleabag Monkeyface: Season 1 

Nov. 16

Teen Beach Movie

Nov. 17

Bratz: Diamondz

Nov. 19

Breaking the Girls

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus

Nov. 22

Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave

Bel Ami

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

Nov. 24

Art of Flight: The Series

Nov. 27

Burning Man

Leviathan 

Nov. 28

Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap

Nov. 29

Romanzo Criminale: Seasons 1-2

Salamander: Season 1

Nov. 30

Jesus Henry Christ

Virginia 

Screengrab via micahratchet/YouTube

The 27-year-old singer showed off her booty moves at a sold-out 02 Arena in London this week, exclaiming, "I think I just twerked!" 

"I can't do it that well," she said. "My whole body has to move. My bum could break my back it's so enormous."

After smashing records with "Hello," Adele's been treating her fans to adorable moments since the fall, from carpool karaoke with James Corden to surprising a group of lookalikes, to hating the gym just like the rest of us. Twerking is only the booty-shaking cherry on top of an adorable Adele season.

Screengrabs via Jon Cover/YouTube | Remix by Max Fleishman

Joshua Malina and I have spent a lot of time in bed together.

He happens to co-star in both the shows I’ve recently binge-watched, The West Wing and Scandal. While it was my first go-round with TWW, for so many fans of the White House drama, the show is less of a TV phenomenon and more of a religion. That’s why Malina, along with friend and business partner Hrishkesh Hirway, have set out to relive it all on a new podcast that launches today.

The West Wing Weekly will follow Malina and Hirway as they pick apart each episode of Aaron Sorkin’s cult hit, which aired from 1999 to 2006. Malina first appeared on TWW in season 4, episode 5 as Will Bailey (then a campaign manager for a deceased California representative candidate, and later on—spoiler alert—a speechwriter for President Josiah Bartlet) and remained through the end of the show’s run. He joins forces with Hirway, a mega-fan of the show and the composer who launched the podcast Song Exploder more than a year ago.

To give you an idea of just how pumped people are, the podcast was already No. 3 on the iTunes chart before the first episode even went live.

On the ticket

A short teaser that dropped on iTunes last week revealed that other former stars of the show, writers, directors, and fans of the show from the worlds of comedy, news, and politics will also join Malina and Hirway to chat about all things TWW.

As for bringing fans on the show, Malina said they were inundated with followers vying for a coveted guest spot, desperate to prove just how many of the patented “walk-and-talks” they’ve watched. There’s a lot of talk about fandom for comic books and teen romance thrillers, but in terms of a mainstream network drama, TWW’s fan circles might have some of the most committed members. 

Even Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer and star of the Broadway smash musical Hamilton, could barely contain his excitement.

They also shared that Bradley Whitford, who played Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, would likely stop by once schedules line up. “I also talked to the big dog himself, Aaron Sorkin, and I think he’s game,” Malina said. But fans might be disappointed to hear that Allison Janney, who starred as universally adored White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg, is “not 100 percent guaranteed.”

“I’m gonna twist a lot of arms if I have to,” Malina said. “I feel confident that we’re gonna book a lot of great people.”

Malina and Hirway both attended Yale University, albeit 13 years apart, and when Hirway moved to L.A. 12 years ago, he reached out to his high-profile fellow alum for career advice. When Hirway pitched the idea of the podcast to his now-friend more than a decade later, Malina was ready to reflect upon his days in fake Washington.

While Malina certainly brings the behind-the-scenes expertise, Hirway provides insight into the world of podcasting and more technical know-how. “One rule you need to follow when making a podcast is just be really in love with your subject matter in order to commit to the time and regularity that it requires,” Hirway told the Daily Dot. “The other thing that I love besides music is The West Wing, so I wanted to figure out a way to combine these things.”

‘Warts and all’

The pair was quick to assure that this isn’t going to be an all-out celebration of the most perfect show in history. No, even Malina, who looks back on his time there with great fondness, will be looking at this rewatch through a critical lens.

“We’re discussing it as fans of the show, but it’s also not purely a lovefest,” Hirway explained. “We’re talking about everything about the show: things that we thought were successful, things we thought weren’t successful. But our love of the series is a warts-and-all approach.”

Speaking of warts, TWW is broken into two parts: before Sorkin and after Sorkin. The TV mastermind was key to the genius of seasons 1 through 4. But when he departed after the fourth season, fans say they noticed a considerable drop-off. But considering Malina’s character only hit his stride in the post-Sorkin era, what does he say to this criticism? And how will be address it on the show? The short answer: diplomatically.

“I’m not a huge fan of watching myself,” Malina admitted. “I can see my face in the mirror, I don’t need to see myself in hi-def. I haven’t thought about it [the transition] in many years. I think that, given the enormity of the task of taking over for an auteur like Aaron Sorkin, that John Wells and staff did a tremendously good job at continuing to make a very high-quality piece of television.”

He called it a “very unenviable task, taking over from Aaron—and trying to keep audience from revolting.” The show would last another three seasons, including through the campaign for President Bartlet’s successor.

Timing is everything

The podcast is making its debut during an undeniably politically tense time. During a recent TWW mini reunion, Bradley Whitford, reflecting on the 2016 presidential election, said: “This is horrible writing.” (He’s referring to what Hirway calls the “petty, horrible penis talk” of this election cycle.)

Malina and Hirway agree that the storyline playing out in real life would have never made it past TWW writers’ room. But they also agree that in some ways, the timing of the podcast couldn’t be better.

“Not even having really launched, just mentioning the podcast, we’ve had an incredible reaction. Rishi was very clever and prescient with the timing,” Malina says of his co-host. “For a lot of people, the original show functioned as a sort of alternative political universe to the [George W.] Bush years. And I think a lot of people, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, are getting tired and dismayed by the current political scene and the presidential campaign… I think the podcast and a revisit to The West Wing is going to function as a delightful respite from the real political world.”

Hirway believes there’s a sort of “double nostalgia” at play, in which people long for the Barlet years and also have a wistfulness about the end of Obama’s presidency, who he calls a great and “inspirational” orator.

“The nostalgia is for this imaginary universe as well as what we’ve just experienced, in terms of real-life politics,” Hirway says. “Hopefully re-watching is a soothing experience for people on both levels.”

The road ahead

If Malina and Hirway are truly committed to seeing this thing through, they have a long trail ahead. With 154 regular season episodes of the series, they’ll be talking weekly for roughly the next three years. But for Malina, it could serve as a welcome contrast: If TWW is Washington through rose-colored glasses, then his current show Scandal is the nation’s capital as told by the Grim Reaper.

Malina references the pilot of TWW in which Sam Seaborne, played by Rob Lowe, accidentally sleeps with a sex worker. Or, in 1999 speak, a “call girl.” While Lowe’s character goes to great pains to fix the mess, he also tries just as hard to make the young woman, played by Lisa Edelstein of Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, feel valued and important.

“In the world of Scandal, he would’ve had her killed by the end of the episode,” Malina says.

So has all this political acting—good and evil—inspired Malina to get in on the real action? 

“God, no,” he says. “The world of faux politics has been very good to me. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize any of that by getting into the real political world.”

That’s OK—all the more time for my Netflix queue.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Shandling is perhaps best known for The Larry Sanders Show, a satire of Hollywood and late-night TV that ran from 1992-1998 on HBO and starred Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development, Transparent) and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), among others. It was a precursor to entertainment business-based comedies like Extras, 30 Rock, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. His scenes with Tambor were some of the best. 

He was also recently on an episode of friend Jerry Seinfeld's webseries, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The title: "It's Great That Garry Shandling Is Still Alive." 

The cause of death has not yet been announced. 

Screengrab via Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee 

LeBron James mysteriously unfollowed the Twitter account of the Cleveland Cavaliers this week, leading many to wonder if he was planning on once again abandoning his hometown team after this season is complete.

Though the most likely reason is likely less odoriferous than that—reports out of Cleveland say he unfollowed a number of Cavaliers-related accounts in order to clear his mind for the upcoming playoffs—James also clearly wasn't happy to be asked about his decision on Monday.

H/T Awful Announcing | Photo via Keith Allison/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

What if young women in New York City lived their lives like they were waltzing through a Nora Ephron film?

Kelsey Bailey and Kelsey McLaughlin are a comedy team with a passion for rom-coms and a special place in their heart for Nora Ephron who dared to ask that very question.

Would it be all flirty emails and whimsical bobs? Or would cringe-worthy run-ins with public masturbators and muffin-induced orgasms rule the day?

In the world of The Nora Ephronicles, a smart new webseries from the two Upright Citizens Brigade performers, life is filled with all of the above and more.

Much like the stars of any good rom-com, their love story wasn’t without obstacles. “I sort of avoided investing in [a friendship] at first,” explained McLaughlin. “I just didn’t feel like I was going to become really close friends with another person named Kelsey. But then I just became obsessed with her.”

Last spring, when the two were dissatisfied with their comedy careers, they found themselves bonding over their shared love for all things Nora Ephron. McLaughlin recalled, “We’d meet up and get manicures and watch Nora Ephron movies. And then one day it was like, ‘What if we were in a Nora Ephron movie? And isn’t it sad that we’re not in one?’”

The resulting webseries is a darkly sunny walk in the park. Bailey and McLaughlin channel the optimism and cheer of Ephron’s protagonists and greet every failure with all the spunk of Meg Ryan. But their quips and observations bend absurd and grim. When they go back and forth explaining the events that have ruined their week, McLaughlin laments, “An air conditioner fell on me on the first day of my period!”

And like any good rom-com you’ll find yourself rooting for these two as they fumble from a rendezvous with Snapchat penpals to a disastrous date, to one very important haircut.

The series lovingly satirizes Ephron’s films as well as all the disappointments of wishing life were, well, a little bit more like a rom-com.

“We always laugh about how dichotomous our lives are compared to Nora Ephron films, so we throw a lot of the real awful stuff that happens in there,” McLaughlin laughed.

The public masturbator, for example, was inspired by a real encounter. “He was so unabashed about it, and he was wearing no shirt and openly masturbating while leaning against a tree,” recalled McLaughlin. “I was like, ‘You’re so openly doing this and not giving a fuck. I don’t get to do anything like that!’”

The series, which features an Ephron-esque soundtrack and soothing muted colors, is a fun escape from the grimness of daily city life—and simultaneously a smart nod at the pervs lurking around every corner.

Much like the writer they adore, Bailey and McLaughlin infuse their plotlines with wit and spunk.

Bailey explained her fondness for Ephron’s films: “Her movies are so much smarter than typical rom-coms. The dialogue isn’t cheesy… and the [intelligence] of the female leads is so much more respectable. Like I’d hang out with [You’ve Got Mail lead] Kathleen Kelly any day of the week.”

Screengrab via The Nora Ephronicles/Vimeo

Here’s a brief rundown of some of the highlights coming to the streaming service next month.

April

Coming April 1

American Pie

American Pie 2

Breach

Casper

Mean Streets

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Slither

The Fault in Our Stars

The Invasion

We Are Marshall

White Fang

Wild Wild West

X-Men

X-Men Days of Future Past

Ending April 30

Annie Hall

Battle of the Planet of the Apes

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Blazing Saddles

Carrie

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Hannah and Her Sisters

In the Heat of the Night

Mystic Pizza

Night at the Museum

Once

Planet of the Apes

Revenge of the Nerds

Superman Returns

Taken 3

Unbroken

Wild

March

Coming March 1

Ouija 

The Gallows 

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 

Antwone Fisher

Barbershop

Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Beauty Shop

Charlotte’s Web

Friday Night Lights

I Think I Love My Wife

Keeping the Faith

Kiss the Girls

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist

Raising Arizona

Remember the Titans

Saving Silverman

Snatch

Super Troopers

Tammy

The Birdcage

The Uninvited

Leaving March 31

Beetlejuice

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Burn After Reading

Kill the Messenger

Life Is Beautiful

Rio 2

The Departed

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Theory of Everything

Transcendence

Working Girl

February

Coming Feb. 1

Ali

Bad Santa

Camp Nowhere

Club Paradise

Coraline

Evan Almighty

Get Shorty

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience

Kung Fu Panda

Magic Mike

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Road House

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The Piano

The Wicker Man

Transformers

What Happens in Vegas

Leaving Feb. 29

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Blade

Blade Runner

Blades of Glory

Divergent

Dreamgirls

The Drop

Eragon

Get on Up

Ghost Town

Horrible Bosses 2

Manhattan

The Maze Runner

Mrs. Doubtfire

The Next Best Thing

Pootie Tang

Titanic

The Waterboy

V for Vendetta

January 2016

Coming Jan. 1

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Carrie

Cry-Baby

Down to Earth

Final Destination 3

Joe Versus the Volcano

The Rainmaker

A Knight’s Tale

Knocked Up

Lucky Numbers

Malcolm X

Milk

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Pretty in Pink

Troop Beverly Hills

Tropic Thunder (Director’s Cut)

Two of a Kind

Wonder Boys

Leaving Jan. 31

Snow Day

Flicka

The Lego Movie

Mulholland Dr.

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Alex & Emma

For Your Consideration

Because I Said So

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Gone Girl

Shallow Hal

This is Where I Leave You

The Judge

John Wick

Dumb and Dumber To

Far from Heaven

Superman Returns

The Last King of Scotland

December

Coming Dec. 1

10 Things I Hate About You

Annie Hall

Brokeback Mountain

Disturbia

Divergent

Girlfight

Home Alone

Less than Zero

Mystic Pizza

Robocop

Robocop 2

Robocop 3

She’s All That

Soul Plane

Spaceballs

Waitress

Coming Dec. 5

Get Hard

Coming Dec. 11

What We Do in the Shadows

Coming Dec. 12

The Divergent Series: Insurgent

Coming Dec. 13

Wish I Was Here

Coming Dec. 19

The Longest Ride

Coming Dec. 21

A Little Chaos

Coming Dec. 26

The Water Diviner

Leaving Dec. 19

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Leaving Dec. 28

Her

Leaving Dec. 31

An Officer and a Gentleman

Best in Show

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Draft Day

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Reno 911: Miami

Staying Alive

The Devil Wears Prada

The Faculty

The Fault in Our Stars

The Good Son

The Rock

X-Men

X-Men: Days of Future Past

November

Coming Nov. 1

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Don’t Say a Word

Double Jeopardy

Dreamgirls

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Field of Dreams

Good Burger

Once

Planet of the Apes

Ride Along

Satisfaction

Scream

The Last King of Scotland

The Thomas Crown Affair

The Waterboy

Throw Momma from the Train

Coming Nov. 21

Fifty Shades of Grey

Coming Nov. 28

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Leaving Nov. 24

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Leaving Nov. 30

Accepted

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Dances with Wolves

Godzilla

Hannibal

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Jersey Boys

Let’s Be Cops

Miami Vice

Neighbors

Rush Hour

Scooby-Doo

The Fly

October

Coming Oct. 1

28 Days (2000)

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

Bee Movie (2007)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blood Diamond (2006)

Brick (2005)

Burn After Reading (2008)

Ella Enchanted (2004)

Happy Feet (2006)

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

The Kid (2000)

License to Drive (1988)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Like Mike (2002)

Like Mike 2: Streetball (2006)

Lost in Translation (2003)

Magnolia (1999)

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007)

Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000)

Rumor Has It (2005)

The Rock (1996)

Shrek (2001)

Trick ‘R Treat (2007)

Leaving Oct. 31

A History of Violence (2005)

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Agent Cody Banks (2003)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Gothika (2003)

Escape from L.A. (1996)

Jarhead (2005)

Just Friends (2005)

Meet the Parents (2000)

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)

Queen of the Damned (2002)

The Lake House (2006)

The Skeleton Key (2005)

The Truman Show (1998)

Uptown Girls (2003)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

September

Coming Sept. 1

Beetlejuice (1998)

Blades of Glory (2007)

Blade Runner (1982)

Bring It On (2000)

Center Stage (2000)

The Departed (2006)

The Faculty (1998)

The Good Son (1993)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Her (2013)

How Stella Got her Groove Back (1998)

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Manhattan (1979)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Staying Alive (1983)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Titanic (1997)

V for Vendetta (2005)

Expiring soon

Sept. 15

Inside Man (2006)

Sept. 24

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Sept. 27

The Counselor (2013)

Sept. 30

Best Man Holiday (2013)

The Break-Up (2006)

Contact (1997)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Idiocracy (2006)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Pleasantville (1998)

Save the Last Dance (2001)

That Awkward Moment (2014)

The Wedding Planner (2001)

Working Girl (1998)

August

Say hello to cult classics Veronica MarsandSerenity, Oscar nominees Birdman and The Theory of Everything, and more.

But beware: All good things must come to an end, as fans of Ender’s Game and Eyes Wide Shut will realize when their time on the service comes to an end Aug. 31.

Coming Soon

Aug. 1

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence)

Charlie’s Angels

Dances with Wolves

A Fish Called Wanda

Four Weddings and a Funeral

John Tucker Must Die

Meet the Parents

An Officer and a Gentleman

Serenity

Veronica Mars

Aug. 4

Back on Board: Greg Louganis

Ramona (short) (en Español)

Aug. 7

Manos Sucias (en Español)

Aug. 8

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Aug. 12

Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans

Aug. 14

Bomba (en Español)

Aug. 15

The Theory of Everything

Aug. 16

Show Me a Hero: Part 1 & Part 2

Aug. 22

Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl, Interrupted

Dumb and Dumber To

Aug. 23

Show Me a Hero: Part 3 & Part 4

Aug. 29

Kill the Messenger

Aug. 30

Show Me a Hero: Part 5 & Part 6 (8/30)

Leaving Aug. 31

Broken Arrow

Ender’s Game

Enemy of the State

Enough Said

Eyes Wide Shut

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

The Other Woman

The Wolverine

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Comedy legend Garry Shandling passed away at age 66 on Thursday, but before his death he ensured the return of one of his most iconic shows back on the network it originally aired.

Many comedy fans flocked online to try and rewatch The Larry Sanders Show in honor Shandling’s memory, but they soon found that the show wasn’t streaming online, and a $20 DVD set on Amazon quickly went out of stock. The late-night TV parody aired on HBO from 1992 to 1998, but it wasn’t available on HBO’s streaming platform either—and there’s a reason for that. HBO didn’t own some of its earliest TV shows.

“I loved Garry,” he told The Wrap. “We were fulfilling his wishes to see the show move to HBO.”

The Larry Sanders Show is not yet available on HBO’s streaming services.

“Garry ushered in the modern period of original programming at HBO with his brilliant masterpiece, The Larry Sanders Show,” an HBO statement read. “All of us at HBO have a special place in our hearts for him not only for his enormous talent but for his kindness and decency. We will miss him terribly.”

Shandling and The Larry Sanders Show, which was a satire of late-night TV and Hollywood, had a profound effect on the people who work in late-night today. Both Conan O’Brien and Seth Meyers took time to honor Shandling, his legacy, and his influence on them.

You might not have known that Corey Feldman has been working on an album for 10 years, but thanks to a new Indiegogocampaign, you do now. 

And you know a lot about it, because the actor and musician, known for his roles in Lost Boys and Goonies, goes very in depth in the pitch to fund $105,000 for his 22-song double album, Angelic 2 the Core. As the A.V. Club suggests, this could be Feldman's version of Chinese Democracy, which is a sentence no one could have predicted.  

What will it sound like? As he says in the explainer video, "It's literally a sound of the ages." 

He's first reaching out to his #FeldFam, which inhabits Twitter and apparently guards his reputation with ferocity. Adding to the dramatic tension, there are allegedly impostor Corey Feldman accounts trolling him, which he addressed earlier this week.    

Feldman uses different metrics to illustrate his success: "I know from the track record I'm on my way 2 breaking into the Billboard charts, I BELIEVE with the right backing and financial support I have got what it takes 2 get my 1st official Billboard hit," he writes. 

As of Friday afternoon, the campaign has raised more than $2,300.

H/T A.V. Club | Screengrab via Corey Feldman/YouTube 

Streaming services were once decreed a death knell for the music business. But those very companies converged upon South by Southwest (SXSW) this month to try to mold the industry in their image—and, in the process, save it.

As these platforms, Web services, and apps jostled for footing in Austin, Texas, they also wrestled with an existential crisis: Forget royalty payouts or the perils of free on-demand listening—it turns out consumers are entitled, ever-changing clients whose needs and demands shift like a playlist on shuffle. How do you consistently serve that inconsistent audience?

For decades the music economy could lean on its “superfans.” They’d spread the word with friends, splurge for merch, and buy different editions of the same record. But yesterday’s obsessive import vinyl fetishist is increasingly becoming today’s monthly Spotify subscriber.

Yesterday’s obsessive import vinyl fetishist is increasingly becoming today’s monthly Spotify subscriber.

At a SXSW panel, former Rhapsody exec Jon Maples lamented the decline of these big spenders, who “used to buy a lot of content. And now they get it for a set price of 10 bucks a month.”

Increasingly, he said, Spotify and its lot are “more about what’s next” than finding bands and songs to explore and obsess over. The good news, he said, is the “data shows you have more variety of listening than ever before.”

Marisol Segal, who helped launch Rdio in 2010, blamed streaming music companies. “You introduce technology in this realm and it’s run like a technology company,” she said, and that’s made her check out from the Internet’s buffet of services.

And that’s the audience to monitor. “The labels and the music industry are watching very carefully what model yields the most money,” Pandora’s Chief Product Officer Christopher Phillips told the Daily Dot. “We all want to pay artists more money. … It’s not clear what model works best.”

If there was a consensus coming out of the SXSW void, that was it.

A crowded sandbox

Pandora isn’t sweating the uncertain times. It has a plan.

With that in its pocket, Pandora can move into stumping for artists and going head-to-head with Spotify. Phillips said the 16-year-old streaming giant is on the eve of debuting more bells and whistles, too: In the last year, it’s acquired international competitor Rdio, concert platform Ticketfly, and the predictive algorithms of Next Big Sound.

Phillips said Pandora is also pursuing direct deals for its own on-demand model. At SXSW, Pandora booked the Gatsby and livestreamed performances from trending and diverse names like Young Thug, Yacht, and Troye Sivan. In terms of curating exciting ideas, that’s a big tastemaking win.

But their sandbox remains crowded and contentious.

“It’s not a one-app-wins-all thing.” 

“It’s not a one-app-wins-all thing,” Phillips said, before noting the chasm between Pandora and Spotify: “[Radio] really does restrict, and if you want that control, you have to pay.”

Not everyone agrees. Spotify users are able to access a vast library and stream anything with the service’s free, ad-supported model. Overwhelmingly, most of Spotify’s users—as many as 75 percent—are fine with this version.

(It’s been, well, messy. On Monday Spotify announced it reached 30 million paid subscribers—just as it settled a $30 million lawsuit with the National Music Publishers’ Association for unpaid royalties during SXSW.)

“If other services are successful over the long run to keep the ability of free on-demand, we’ll have to address that,” Phillips said. “But we think the artist is going to demand more.”

A more perfect union

Music is a consumer’s game. If you’re a band or artist, that means building an audience is trickier than ever. Ten years ago you’d upload four tracks to Purevolume or Myspace and badger your Facebook friends to see a show.

Now you need a niche.

Bandcamp’s community-driven bazaar is where you probably want to start. Like SoundCloud—which is reportedly in financial trouble, planning a subscription streaming service, and unlike years past did not invest in a high-profile pop-up concert venue at SXSW—Bandcamp is vast acres of mp3s.

“At Bandcamp we see a slightly different point of view,” Bandcamp Chief Curator Andrew Jervis said during the “Ephemeral Now” panel. “We feel that the artist should be a little bit more in control, and as a fan you pay them directly.”

Jervis said that over at Bandcamp, CD sales were up 10 percent, vinyl sales up 40 percent, and cassette sales 50 percent last year. “We’re definitely seeing people want to buy something tangible,” Jervis said. (Indeed, vinyl sales outpaced streaming service income in 2015, according to recent data released by the Recording Industry Association of America.)

“Maybe platforms need to do a better job of tying things together,” Jervis said. “If you put your music on a streaming service where there is no option to buy… you’ve missed your 500,000 opportunities.”

He continued: “These companies that want to offer everything to everyone at the same time can’t have everything at the same time because they haven’t built that community.”

Beyond the album

For fans online, BitTorrent stirs warm, homely memories of using its transport protocol to steal albums from the Pirate Bay. But the company was at SXSW remixing the future of distribution.

At BitTorrent that means repurposing albums as downloadable Bundles. The company’s worked with artists like Thom Yorke, Moby, and Raekwon to deliver licensed art via peer-to-peer filesharing. Attack an Internet underground of BitTorrent’s 170 million users, director of content strategy at BitTorrent Straith Schreder told the Daily Dot, and you’ll find an audience as a musician.

“What is an album after the Internet? What is a label after labels?”

BitTorrent calls its pay-gated Bundle a “direct-to-fan publishing platform.” Here, bands and artists retain 90 percent of revenue, plus the digital metrics like email addresses needed to organize a base.

“Think about a bundle or a torrent as something that’s much more akin to vinyl: It can hold anything. It can be music, it can be art, it can be liner notes,” Schreder said, pointing to another business dilemma: “What is an album after the Internet? What is a label after labels?”

Among the big dogs, Pandora can also make a strong case for being the most artist-friendly. Its new AMP (artist marketing platform) service for bands offers analytics and helps indie artists upload music to its servers. Phillips said that with Pandora’s recent expansion, it’s become “one big A&R shop.” And he said that means it can organically “feed the ecosystem” through its various dispensaries, in addition to solving problems like getting people out to shows.

“We use humans for quality, machines for scale,” Phillips said. “We think the combination is what matters.”

Remixing the future

SXSW 2016 brought with it a reenergized focus on live music and making passive listeners go out on a Tuesday. Video-production apps like Baeable exist to document and stash live footage, then present it almost the way an ESPN app presents scores. Music startups like Festivus, Jamwar, Mix’d, Tipcow, and Tunesmap likewise work to augment the live circuit (and showed up to schmooze at SXSW).

Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and Mazda’s Hype Hotel invested in orchestrating must-see moments, then saving that footage to package and stream later. (Samsung, MTV, and even McDonald’s, of the all-day breakfast sandwiches, did so as well.)

“It’s not streaming; you have to go and do it.”

The YouTube concert by Future was downright essential: expertly curated as a pivotal showcase for one of rap’s most dominant krakens. I left wanting to immediately stream his live performance of subversively political anthem “March Madness,” which means I fell hook, line, and sinker.

But of all the ideas trying to convert streaming fans into an IRL economy, Jukely’s was the most intriguing: Netflix, but for concerts.

With a monthly subscription one gets access to a bank of tickets. You can theoretically go out every night of the month, and use it for any of the 17 cities the service operates in. You can upgrade to a plus-one option, and sometimes there are private members-only shows.

“It’s not streaming; you have to go and do it,” Jukely Head of Business Development Sarah Weiss told the Daily Dot.

That’s the hook, finding new music by having to go and see it: “We are trying to encourage people on the discovery side,” Weiss said. In that way, the industry’s almost come full-circle in its relationship with streaming—almost.

But big music streaming is an inevitable model, BitTorrent’s Schreder thinks. The real question for everyone in town—from the execs at YouTube, Spotify, and Pandora flexing their muscle with private concerts and open bars, to new kids attending seminars like “Your Music Startup Sucks” that may or may not be here next year—was how do you change the experience of listening?

“How do we make that meaningful?” Schreder said. “How does that become part of the vocabulary of streaming?”

For now, at least, the jury’s still out. 

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Nobody can know for sure who invented the jump shot. It's one of those elements of basketball that seems ubiquitous, because the most common way to get that round orange ball through that 18-inch diameter rim is to line up to face the basket, square your shoulders, bend your knees, and lift off toward the ceiling while firing the sphere in the general direction of the hoop.

It, after all, is so very obvious.

James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, and surely, one might think, the jump shot has been utilized since that wintry day in Springfield, Massachusetts, 127 years ago. That's what filmmaker Jacob Hamilton—and, probably, most people born after World War II—could have assumed, anyway.

But then Hamilton listened to a 2008 episode of NPR's StoryCorps that featured Kenny Sailors, the man most credited with inventing the jump shot. Hamilton grew intrigued. And why not? Sailors' explanation in that 2008 interview is wonderful, especially when he talked about how his talented older brother, Bud, helped him develop a shot that was born out of desperation.

"He'd work out against me sometimes even though he was five years older," said Sailors, who was 13 at the time of his invention. "The good Lord must have put it in my mind that if I was going to get up over this big bum so I could shoot, I would have to jump. It probably wasn't very pretty, but I got the shot off. And it went in."

This was in 1934, four decades after Naismith's invention, underneath a rim made of iron that was attached to the family's wood-shingled windmill in Wyoming. More than 70 years later, Hamilton sat transfixed listening to the interview and fantasizing about the possibilities. He searched around the Internet to see if Sailors' story had been told, and when he decided there wasn't extensive research on the man, Hamilton called Sailors to see if the nonagenarian would work with him on the project Hamilton had in mind—a short film that would re-introduce the world to one of basketball's most important figures.

"As I got to know him a little more, I realized there were more layers to him and that there might be something more than just a short film here," Hamilton told the Daily Dot. "I quickly realized he had become a forgotten figure. People didn't know who he was or what he did for the game of basketball. It's a great injustice that nobody knew who the man was. I needed to make sure the world knows. If I don't, I don't know who will."

That's why Hamilton expanded his short film, as seen below, and began working on a feature-length documentary called Jumpshot: The Kenny Sailors Story.

"I thought it was fascinating that he was forgotten by the average American citizen—even the basketball world didn't know he existed," Hamilton said. "We thought if we brought his story to light, we could make enough noise that the Hall of Fame and the NBA might recognize this man for what he did.

"We definitely had hopes that it would turn the tide, but we wouldn't look at this film as a success or not if he didn't get in. Ultimately, we're trying to portray who this man is."

There's little question that the short film has bestowed at least some recognition on Sailors. Hamilton's two-minute clip below that advocates for Sailors' HOF inclusion has more than 156,000 views on YouTube, and Hamilton hopes that kind of online activity will make an impact with those who make the final decisions on the Hall of Fame.

But at least 10 others, including players like Glenn Roberts in 1930, have some sort of claim that either they invented or innovated the jumpshot. In fact, Ty Clark, Jumpshot's creative producer, put together a 99-page report detailing everybody's claims.

Not even Sailors was sure.

But when asked by fans throughout the years if he was the one who invented it, Sailors remembered a quote from longtime DePaul University basketball coach Ray Meyer.

"Sailors may not have been the first player to jump in the air and shoot the ball," Meyer said many years later, "but he developed the shot that's being used today."

Said Sailors to NPR: "That's the way he put it. And I like that."

But will the recent online attention and advocacy for Sailors be enough to get him into the Hall of Fame next month? Will Sailors finally be remembered in an institution that will celebrate him to people who otherwise would forget?

"With all the attention we've gotten, we're relevant," said Hamilton, who plans to complete the feature-length film later this year and have it ready for a festival release in spring 2017. "Now that we're relevant, Kenny is being nominated to get into the Hall of Fame. This is something people are talking about. This story was forgotten for a long time, but things are happening now. [A Hall of Fame induction for Sailors] would be a great thing for the film. But it would be an even better thing for Kenny's family."

Screengrab via Jacob Ryan Hamilton/YouTube

If you have some free time this summer (June 27-July 31, to be precise), Ben Affleck and Matt Damon may have a job for you.

The Oscar-winning duo is looking for 19 contestants for The Runner, the reality-competition series they’re executive producing for Verizon’s mobile-first entertainment platform Go90 through their production company Pearl Street films, in partnership with Adaptive Studios and the Pilgrim Media Group.

Interested parties can apply at TheRunnerCasting.com.

“At the moment, we’re talking to everyone who emails or calls in,” said Semi Aboud, SVP of talent development and casting for the Pilgrim Media Group. “We’re doing Skypes, we’re asking for home tape. The next step might be going out to actually meet people. If for some reason we can’t do that, it’s not a big deal. You can always send in video, and we’ll fly you out to meet us if you’re a finalist.”

In The Runner, an individual will attempt to make it across the United States unnoticed over the course of 30 days while eight two-person teams of “chasers” try to locate and capture him or her using all available technology.

It sounds cheap, but Aboud says it’s standard for competition series.

“The idea is we want people on the show who really want to compete for the grand prize,” Aboud said. “But we do, of course, understand that you’re going to be taken away from your life for several weeks, so there’s going to be an honorarium of several hundred dollars per week to help you out.” 

As is also standard for reality-competition shows, the finalists for contestant spots will be subjected to a background check, as well as a physical and mental evaluation to determine if they’re up to the rigorous demands of the show (running, climbing, lifting/carrying, operating equipment, sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements).

“There might be a skills test, as well,” Aboud said. “The game is going to be heavy with riddles, puzzles, clues, and codes, so we may have some small, fun game with the finalists just to see how they play and watch them as they strategize.”

While the prospect of appearing on a new, largely untested platform such such as Go90 doesn’t have the impress-the-folks-back-home cachet of a Survivor or The Amazing Race, Aboud is confident the show has what it takes to attract contestants and viewers alike.

“I think this hybrid chase/fugitive cross-country competition show with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck attached is extremely intriguing, especially with the fact that there’s over a million dollars in the game,” Aboud said. “Together, that should be really exciting to people.”

Screengrab via therunnercasting.com 

There’s more to YouTube than just vlogs, pranks, and pop song covers done on guitar. YouTube might be the source of your entertainment, but when you want to chill, there’s also a wealth of videos promising to help you relax with sounds and visuals. From sunsets to waterfalls to starry skies, we’ve gathered nine of YouTube’s most relaxing videos to help you find your zen after a day of watching makeup tutorials, jump cuts, and funny cats.

1) “Waterfalls of the World”

With high-quality shots of a variety of waterfalls and unobtrusive music, this video would fit right in at any spa across the country. If you want to turn your own computer into a spa experience for at least an hour, look no further.

2) “Forest and Nature Sounds 10 Hours”

What you see is exactly what you get: a solid 10 hours of trees rustling, birds chirping, and other woodland noises. The visuals alone are nothing to write home about—it’s just a static image of a forest—but if you’re looking for some auditory relaxation (perhaps enough to last an entire night’s sleep), this video is for you.

3) “Guided Sleep Meditation Talkdown - Insomnia - Relaxation”

Maybe music and images aren’t what you need to relax, but instead a calming voice and quiet meditation with relaxing visuals along the way. The Honest Guys produce many of these meditation and “talkdown” videos on YouTube, and it must be working: They’ve racked 435,000 subscribers and millions of views.

4) “Sunset”

If you need a quick relaxation and have no time for frills, this video hits the spot. Sunsets, peaceful beaches, and more sunsets help you get in the relaxation (and vacation) spirit.

5) “The deepest most relaxing music and video ever - Air (15)”

At almost 10 minutes, this cloud video featuring a song called “Air” might hit the sweet spot for relaxation: It’s just enough time to get you calm, but not a full hourlong commitment. It’s very bare bones, but to the point.

6) “Time Lapse: Beautiful Ocean Sunrises & Sunsets”

The shortest of the bunch, it’s like a jolt of relaxation watching time-lapsed sunset and sunrises. Maybe you only have a few minutes for calm, and this video can help you focus that time productively.

7) “Time Lapse with Sunsets, Clouds, Stars”

If you’ve got more time to spend, this 20-minute time-lapse video give a great variety of chill scenes, from fields dotted with animals and rolling clouds to desert starscapes. You can transport yourself to so many relaxing locations with just one video.

8) “The Most Relaxing ASMR Video I Ever Made”

We’d be remiss in a relaxing YouTube video roundup if we didn’t include at least one Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response clip, better known in the flourishing subculture as ASMR. This one says it’s the creator’s most soothing effort, but if the soft whispers help you stay calm, there’s a whole rabbit hole of other ASMR to dive into on YouTube.

9) “Ocean Sounds, 4 Hour Film with Nature Sounds, Relaxing Waves”

If the ocean is your zen spot, then four and a half hours of ocean sounds will lull you straight into a state of calm. Pair that with footage of surf rolling in, and you’ll feel like you’re actually at the beach, without the pesky sand.

It’s not every day that we hear about a gay lady couple with a 32-year age difference. So goes the story of actress Sarah Paulson and her much older lady love Holland Taylor, whose relationship first hit the Internet a few months ago. 

It was hard not to swoon over their adorable public tweets to each other. BuzzFeed picked up the story first, but they missed one crucial detail: It went down in the DM. The Twitter DM, man.

According to the New York Times, Paulson and Taylor met 10 years prior at a dinner party, back when Paulson was still dating actress Cherry Jones. They crossed paths again just a few years later, when Martha Plimpton asked them both to record videos for her reproductive rights organization A Is For. Paulson was filming American Horror Story: Asylum and Taylor was working on Ann, a one-woman play about former Texas governor Ann Richards. After that reconnection, they found each other on Twitter, which is really where it all began:

After that, they followed each other on Twitter and exchanged direct messages before finally deciding to go out for dinner. They have now been together for a little more than a year.

As we know from the article, the rest is a romance written in the stars, by the stars. Is it unusual for any sort of correspondence to begin in the DM, though?

Bob Saget recently tweeted the lyrics to Yo Gotti’s “Down in the DM,” which lays it all out: “It goes down in the DM.” Truly an inspiration for the sliding into DMs meme, we’ve all heard about weird dudes sliding into DMs as a form of harassment. There was that time Draketried to slide into porn star Mia Khalifa's Instagram DMs. And who could forget that time James Francotried to hit it with an underage girl via Instagram DM?

But with sweet stories like Paulson and Taylor’s, it felt strange to categorize sliding into DMs as a predatory straight-dude move. What if the DM slide-in is more of a pop-in, a hello, a question? A response to a moment of curiosity, friendliness, or a random act of kindness?

Artist, actor, and director Miranda July had an interesting experience on the DM not long ago.

“Someone named Abigail Stone tweeted that her mom was obsessed with a blouse I was wearing in a pic in the NYT,” she told the Daily Dot. “It is really my favorite blouse, black velvet vintage Ungaro, and I got curious if I could find it on eBay. I didn’t, but I found another one that I thought was amazingly similar and much cheaper than mine. So I DM’d the Abigail Stone woman back with a link to the similar blouse.”

“At the time, I just felt satisfied in the realm of vintage hunting,” she said. “Only later did I think how odd it must have been from her perspective.”   

A shared interest is just one of the reasons to exchange messages. Sometimes, a funny DM is the result of a random coincidence. That’s how it went down for me and Sarah Silverman, one of my favorite comedians. 

I was on my way to cover a Silverman event at LACMA, and I’ll admit that I was in a confused mood, which I can only describe as a combination of tiredness, thinking too much about a crush, and a tingling sense of excitement because I was on my way to see Silverman. Her talk was fabulous, and I wanted to go say hello to her afterwards, but was too tired and didn’t want to make a bad first impression. I went home, wrote the article, filed it, and tweeted it to her a few days later.  

I was ecstatic about the whole experience, but also felt like this was just a cool message from an awesome, inspiring lady whose writing I admire. And it all went down in the DM. (Silverman gave us permission to include a screengrab of the conversation.)

Sometimes an actor or comic might follow back someone who looks cool, which opens up the chance for a DM. That’s what happened to Len Kendall, VP at Carrot, Vice’s digital agency, and more popularly known on the Internet as that guy who proposed to his wife by taking over BuzzFeed. An actor who was a regular on The Office (Kendall declined to name the actor) followed him back on Twitter, and so he took a risk and slid into their DMs. The two ended up chatting casually as if they'd run into each other at a hip Silver Lake bar.

“I wanted to play it ‘cool’ and not DM them immediately, so after three days I sent them a private message praising their latest project,” Kendall told the Daily Dot. “It turned into 10 back and forth messages where they solicited feedback and I was offering ideas.”

It’s pretty exciting to happen upon the chance of chatting with a celebrity through any social Internet platform, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or even Snapchat. But it’s also just a conversation online, because on social media anyone can talk with practically anyone so long as they’re granted access. Kendall sees this as part of the way communication is changing because of the Internet.

“I think that social media has become a great equalizer for celebrities,” Kendall said. “They're not these idols that you only see on TV. They use Twitter or Instagram just like you and me.”

Illustration by Max Fleishman

This article contains sexually explicit material.

Justin Bieber is in the middle of performing across the U.S. and Canada as part of the Purpose World Tour, but he found some downtime to relax and post a nude photo along the way.

At some point before he performed in Fresno, California, Saturday night, Bieber went off to an undisclosed location with Shots CEO John Shahidi and members of his band for a little bit of R&R. The trees surrounding the area and a big lake offered the perfect backdrop for plenty of great photos, as well as plenty of time to rest up on Bieber’s part.

But all mini-vacations come to an end and the show must go on.

YouTube is like pop culture’s attic: You climb up there looking for one specific thing and then, before you know it, you’ve rediscovered some dusty relic from your childhood. Buried among all the ancient viral videos and local TV commercials beamed in straight from your childhood, YouTube is also home to quite a few TV shows you forgot you ever knew about, and some you’ve probably never heard of at all—but should have. With that in mind, we took a deep dive into YouTube’s poorly lit corridors and found eight shows from the 1990s that you can watch in full on the streaming service (as of this writing, anyway). They range from the weird to the wonderful to the woeful, but they’re all preserved in digital amber by YouTube, just waiting for you to take a time jaunt back to the Clinton years. I mean, the original Clinton years…

1) Cop Rock (1990)

Co-created by Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues), Cop Rock was ahead of its time, but that unfortunately doesn’t save it from being kind of terrible. Still, it’s one of those pop-culture artifacts that still gets dropped as an occasional punchline even almost 30 years later, so if you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss was about, YouTube has the answers. The “ahead of its time” part is that Cop Rock was, as the name implies, a blend of cop show and musical, with everything from juries to suspect lineups interrupting the usual procedural beats with bouts of song. It even had an opening theme song performed by Randy “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” Newman.

Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Scrubs have successfully adapted the musical format for a single episode in more recent years, but Cop Rock tried to go all in a decade earlier… and the result had audiences and critics insisting that no, really, the show needn’t go on after all. At one point having been listed in the top 10 of TV Guide’s 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time, Cop Rock is easily the worst item on this list, but damned if it isn’t a memorable trainwreck.

2) Herman’s Head (1991)

Fox’s broadcast history is littered with the corpses of fascinating shows that never caught on or, more often, were never given time to find an audience. Herman’s Head probably wouldn’t have made it past the first season on modern Fox, but back in the early ’90s, the high-concept comedy managed to survive for three seasons, all of them now lurking on YouTube. Herman’s Head is about Herman Brooks (William Ragsdale), an ambitious go-getter working at a prestigious Manhattan magazine publisher. But Herman’s Head is also about the voices inside Herman’s noodle: The scenes of Herman’s life are interspersed with “head” sequences where his daily struggles are personified by Angel, Animal, Wimp, and Genius, each representing Herman’s various drives, impulses, and personality aspects. Yes, it’s Pixar’s Inside Out 14 years earlier (and considerably less likely to make you cry). But Inside Out never had Leslie Nielsen show up as God, so advantage Herman’s Head.

3) The Critic (1994)

The Critic remains a woefully underrated classic that, in a perfect world, would have lasted at least half as long as freakin’ Family Guy. Created by Simpsons veterans Al Jean and Mike Reiss, The Critic actually began life on ABC before jumping to Fox for season 2 after ABC dropped the axe. Jon Lovitz provided perfect levels of snark and condescension as the voice of Jay Prescott Sherman, a New York cable film critic who savages many an underwhelming flick with the declaration that “It stinks!” Like The Simpsons before it and Family Guy after it, The Critic was chockablock with film parodies and pop-culture references, including a particularly brilliant riff on Orson Welles’ forays into commercials that my friends and I are still quoting to this day.

4) Due South (1994)

Created by eventual Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash), Due South remains to this day one of the most underrated shows of the ’90s. Actor Paul Gross stars as Constable Benton Fraser, an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who leaves the Great White North and heads to Chicago on the trail of the man who murdered his father. Thoroughly out of place in the Windy City, he’s soon partnered with Ray Vecchio (David Marciano), a brash, tough-talking Chicago cop who would rather be doing pretty much anything other than escorting around an overly polite Mountie with no street smarts. With a little help from Fraser’s deaf wolf, Diefenbaker, Fraser and Ray soon prove the old adage that the Mounties always get their man.

Unfortunately, that man was involved in a scandal that embarrasses many powerful people back in Canada, resulting in Fraser getting reassigned permanently to the Canadian consulate in Chicago, leaving him free to keep pursuing bad guys with Ray. Due South coasts easily on Gross’s charm and the chemistry between him and Marciano, and it’s a great perfect example of the buddy cop genre done well. It also has a stellar soundtrack, endlessly quotable dialog, and a huge heart that ensures it’ll probably make you tear up more than once.

5) Strange Luck (1995)

Another Fox cast-off from a graveyard full of them, Strange Luck aired for a single season between 1995 and 1996. It starred D.B. Sweeney as Chance Harper, a man hounded by ill fortune beginning with a childhood plane crash that he survived but which killed his mother and sister. But the name of the show isn’t Bad Luck; Chance’s “strange luck” means he’s followed by peculiar coincidences both helpful and harmful, but which always seem to put him in the path of people who need help. In between following where his luck will lead, he continues searching for his brother, who vanished not long before the fateful plane crash that started the whole mess. Aside from being a fun little paranormal procedural in and of itself, Strange Luck also tied itself into one of the most iconic shows of all time thanks to an episode where Chance is referred to someone who might have insight into his unique situation: an FBI agent named Fox Mulder.

6) Muppets Tonight (1996)

The Muppets returned to primetime after a long absence this past year, but ABC’s latest incarnation is just the latest of television’s many forays into Jim Henson’s beloved world of felt. None have recreated the heights of the classic Muppet Show that ran from 1976 to 1981, but I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for this single-season outing from the mid ’90s. Like both the original Muppet Show and the current incarnation, Muppets Tonight is set behind the scenes of a Muppet show-within-a-show, with Kermit and company having abandoned the spacious theater of their first series in favor of a more modern TV studio. Now the Muppets are hosting a talk/variety show in the vein of Leno and Letterman, with the dreadlocked Clifford playing host and Kermit working tirelessly as a producer. Just like The Muppet Show, Muppets Tonight features a blend of skits and interviews from “on camera,” mixed with assorted chaos happening backstage and plenty of familiar guest stars. All your old Muppet favorites are here, along with tons of then-new ones, and you even get a recurring Pigs in Space sequel riffing on Deep Space Nine. What’s not to like?

7) Buddy Faro (1998)

The brainchild of Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, Buddy Faro stars Dennis Farina as the titular Buddy, a crackerjack private eye who vanished in 1978 while trying to track down the killer of the woman he loved. Buddy has become something of a legend among the flatfoot set in the years since his disappearance: There was even a Buddy Faro TV series starring George Hamilton. So, aspiring private dick—and Buddy fanboy—Bob Jones (Frank Whaley) is understandably thrilled when he discovers Buddy is still alive and kicking after two decades under the radar. Bob convinces Buddy to get back in the game and reopen Buddy’s old P.I. shingle in Los Angeles, and the two of them start cracking open cases involving everything from magicians to long-missing showgirls to George Hamilton himself, who thinks somebody’s trying to snuff him. If the price is right, Buddy and Bob will be on the case, and they’ll do it all with a dose of swinging, Rat Pack style.

8) Action (1999)

Yet another short-lived Fox project (there were just so many), Action starred Jay Mohr as hotshot Hollywood producer Peter Dragon, a ruthless power player whose star is on the wane after his latest project, the charmingly titled Slow Torture, proves to be box-office poison. His partner in crime is Wendy (Illeana Douglas), a fallen former child star turned hooker whom Peter appoints as Vice President of his Dragonfire Films production company after she impresses him with her blunt honesty. Like any self-respecting show about show business, Action is packed with celebrity cameos, ranging from Keanu Reeves to Sandra Bullock (who made a sex tape with Peter at one point, much to her chagrin). With its pitch-black sense of humor, gleeful amorality, and frequent bleeped profanity, Action would likely have fared much better a decade later and on a cable network, but unfortunately it landed on Fox… and we all know what that means.

"Famous," which famously included the line "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous," has made its way to Spotify and Apple Music. It's an updated version of the track, which apparently traded the line "She be Puerto Rican day parade wavin'" for "She in school to be a real estate agent." West informed his Twitter followers that he was still fixing the album, an ongoing act that appears to have no finish line just yet. 

Pay close attention to the multiple iterations and you hear an artist at work, as well as a celebrity tending his image. It’s everything bared — process as art.

New versions and edits of songs existed before West, of course, but he's taking the long way home with Pablo, and now by dipping a toe outside of Tidal—which was criticized for its handling of Pablo and has struggled with its social media presence—it appears he's taking even more feedback into consideration. On the Internet, is a product ever truly finished? 

Illustration by Max Fleishman