News Jentry Chau vs the Underworld Netflix Offers Up a Cute—and Short!—First Look at Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld Which is worse: the SATs, or a demon king who wants your powers? By Molly Templeton | Published on October 10, 2024 Screenshot: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Netflix Just about sixty seconds of demon-facing and high school angst. That’s what’s on offer in the first teaser for Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld, the upcoming Netflix animated series from creator Echo Wu. In the series, Ali Wong voices Jentry, a teenager who is by no means normal; she’s facing a demon king who would like to relieve her of her powers. And also normal stressors like school and the mystifying challenge of choosing an outfit. Plus, as Wu tells Tudum, maybe having powers isn’t exactly the best thing to happen to her: “If a teenager had superpowers, I don’t think she would take it very well. I think she would actually hide it. She would think it’s social suicide to have powers in a time of your life where you’re trying to fit in and be cool. It was an interesting dynamic to play with.” Here’s Netflix’s synopsis: The series follows Jentry Chau, a Chinese-American teen living in a small Texas town, who finds out a demon king is hunting her for the supernatural powers she’s been working her whole life to repress. With the help of her weapons expert great-aunt and a millennia-old jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), Jentry must now fight an entire underworld’s worth of monsters while balancing the horrors of high school. Along with Wong (who also executive produces), the series stars the voices of Lori Tan Chinn, Bowen Yang, Lucy Liu, Jimmy O. Yang, Sheng Wang, A.J. Beckles, and Woosung Kim. The 13 episodes of Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld arrive on Netflix on December 5th.[end-mark] The post Netflix Offers Up a Cute—and Short!—First Look at <i>Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Agatha All Along Agatha All Along Solves a Teen Mystery in “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” Pair up and make your buddy’s broomstick! By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on October 10, 2024 Image: Marvel Television Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Marvel Television You should see him in a crown… Recap Image: Marvel Television, Photo by Chuck Zlotnick The Salem Seven have made it through to the Road because the coven left the door open when they summoned Rio. The seven turn out to be the children of the witches Agatha killed when she destroyed her coven, which Agatha claims is evidence that you should always finish a job. The group decide to get off the Road by enchanting branches of a tree to create “broomsticks.” They fly into the sky during a blood moon, but the Road eventually pulls them back down to the next trial. The new house is a cabin and everyone is dressed is ‘80s sleepover gear. The group knows this is Agatha’s test because of the blood moon, and the trial starts with a Ouija board. The Teen reads the instructions, making it clear that removing hands from the planchette will result in releasing a spirit. When the group starts, the spirit reveals themself to be “Mrs. Hart” and when Lilia accidentally releases the planchette, Agatha is possessed by Sharon… except she’s faking it. The group try again, but this time they are joined by Death, who tells the group to “punish” Agatha. Agatha backs away from the board, releasing a spirit. Jen insists that they do what the board told them and punish Agatha, and the group reluctantly agrees. The Teen protests, but she insists that familiars don’t get a vote. When she comes back with a rope, Agatha has vanished and the lights go out. Agatha appears on the ceiling and is possessed by a spirit for real this time, attacking the coven. The fight ends and Agatha disappears, and the spirit finally reveals themself: Evanora Harkness, Agatha’s mother. She tells them that her unfinished business is for the group to finish the Witches’ Road without Agatha—she wants them to leave her daughter with her. Rio suddenly protests; she won’t allow them to leave Agatha with her mother. When Agatha asks her mother why she still hates her, Evanora tells her that she was born evil and that she should have killed her daughter the moment she left her body. She possesses Agatha again, and Alice moves to protect Agatha, knocking Evanora from her body, but the moment she manages this, Agatha begins sucking the power from Alice’s body. The Teen rushes to the Ouija board to see another name being spelled out over and over again “Nicholas Scratch.” He calls it out and Agatha breaks her connection to Alice, hearing a young boy pleading with his mother to stop. Alice is dead and the Teen demands that the others do something, but the trial is over and they leave. The Teen asks Agatha why she did this and she tries to tell him that she couldn’t stop, she couldn’t help it. He doesn’t believe her, and insists that he wants no part of the way she does things, how she interacts with magic and gains power for herself. Agatha laughs at him and asks if he’s sure… after all, he’s so much like his mother. She moves to leave, but Lilia and Jen are being controlled by the Teen and hold Agatha, bringing her to the side of the Road to be absorbed by mud. The same then happens to the two of them as power sparks in the Teen’s hands and a circlet of magic power appears on his head—looking much like the one worn by the Scarlet Witch. Commentary Image: Marvel Television There is an art to the dreaded “reveal,” and damn if this one wasn’t flawless. Because they make it just a tiny bit confusing at the start, and then you’re plied with a set of cues, each sharper than the last, while your brain clicks together the pieces. Agatha taunts Teen for being like his mother, and anyone catching up might still wonder if she’s talking about herself after all this—if this is the long-lost son, even though we’ve technically just heard his ghost. But Joe Locke did his freaking homework, and the way power sparks to life in his hands, that exact crook of his fingers, is pure Wanda Maximoff. Then the circlet materializes in his curls, and it’s abundantly clear who mother is. Plenty of fan videos and projects want to use Billie Eilish’s “You Should See Me in a Crown” for the immaculate vibes provided, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt like it was earned. And this is so much more interesting than making him Nicholas Scratch, despite the fact that many already guessed his identity from go: the choice to make this Billy Kaplan is more exciting in every direction. First off, Nicholas Scratch is frankly a boring character in the comics, and there isn’t much to work with there. But more importantly, the idea of Agatha bringing Wanda’s son into this is simultaneously sweeter and nastier in all the best ways. We’re not sure how long Agatha has guessed at his identity, and how much of this is a desire to be a mentor/parental figure to someone versus the desire to get back at Wanda for leaving her in Westview under that spell. The idea that she gets the chance to know Wanda’s kid in her stead when that’s all the Scarlet Witch ever wanted is cruel, and a little petty to boot. But she still clearly likes the kid. So that hurts too. The new information we’re getting on Agatha’s abilities and history is… look, I’ve got an instant soft spot for narratives about parents who turn their children into monsters by treating them as such. And there’s very clear hallmarks of this in the way the Evanora talks about her daughter, the whole “born evil” schtick and her desire to keep Agatha to herself. The question of why it was so easy for her to try and kill her daughter in the first place, which never sat right from the first time we were shown that flashback to 1693. But really, it’s Rio who gives us the clearest indication here. The way she jumps to Agatha’s defense after being completely down for all the previous chaos because her mother “can’t have her” is full queer-partner-protecting-significant-other-from-their-abuser in a way that’s still making me choke up as I type. Rio has clearly needed to do this before. And if it turns out that Agatha’s propensity toward absorbing power is something she was born with, that she was blamed for, and has never been able to fully control, that’s a very different foundation for her villainy. Alice’s death and Lilia’s unmoored-from-time commentary makes me assume that there’s going to be significant backtracking and do-overs on this journey for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that you don’t bring Alice onto the Road where her mother believed she would be protected and then immediately off her after breaking the family curse. If Sharon had been the only one to die, I’d have bought it, but Alice’s story isn’t complete. And in many ways, the entire Road is Agatha’s trial, not just this piece of it. She’s in the process of learning so much, and there are choices she’s going to want to correct before this is all over. But for now we’ve got to contend with a Wiccan coming into his power, and all the trouble that brings with it. This episode was too short, of course. I really do wish they’d stop doing that. Tarot Readings and Witchy Thoughts Image: Marvel Television, Photo by Chuck Zlotnick There’s commentary here about how broomsticks have become a cliché where witches are concerned, with Lilia complaining that they’re also linked to women’s domesticity, but broomstick lore is a bit more complex and frankly more fascinating. There are some theories that claim that “flying on broomsticks” are rooted in witching pharmacological practices, with certain ointments and poultices producing that sensation of flying and creating the association. But my favorite piece of background is that broomsticks (along with pointy headgear and helpful cats) were the sign of brewsters and alewives who hocked beer to their communities. Putting up a broomstick was a way to indicate to the populace that the next batch of beer was ready. I adore that Rio goes full Wicked Witch of the West as they’re all plummeting back to the Road. Kathryn Hahn’s impression of Debra Jo Rupp gets all the awards. We’ve had single trial shoutouts to different television shows in the previous episodes, but this one went full vintage horror with references to The Exorcist and Poltergeist amongst many others. (I’m sure some folks are thinking Stranger Things, but Stranger Things is nothing if not a wholesale ripoff of all those narratives, start to finish.) I like that the Ouija rules were observed! To the point that the Teen made sure to move the planchette to “Goodbye” before they left. Next week, I assume we’ll find out what Rio is gonna do about the powered-up kid…[end-mark] The post <i>Agatha All Along</i> Solves a Teen Mystery in “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power” appeared first on Reactor.

Too Good to (Not) Check: Was IRGC Commander a Mossad Mole?

The face doesn't look too happy about being papped.

It’s more than 200 million light-years away from us, which is probably just as well.

Hubble And New Horizons are 9 billion kilometers (5.6 million miles) apart but they can still work together.

Don't ya just love space?

“The significance of the coastal change forecast for Milton’s impact to the Florida west coast cannot be overstated."

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff and ex-liberal mayor of Chicago, famously said you should never let a crisis go to waste. MSNBC's Morning Joe took Emanuel's words to heart today. On Thursday morning when people were desperately searching for information about the impacts of Hurricane Milton, the show gifted a big chunk of its opening hour to Kamala campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu to blast Trump. Under the guise of speaking about preparation and communication during hurricanes, Landrieu spewed a firehose of partisan shots at Trump. Co-host Willie Geist’s first question seemed innocuous: “What does a mayor do in preparation when they know a storm of this magnitude is about to arrive on your shores?” Landrieu unloaded: "Trump, when somebody tries to use whatever agency they have, whatever power they have to turn people's pain against them for their own political purpose, that is not the kind of person you want holding the wheel when you've got a Cat 5 storm barrelling against you....What Donald Trump said, which should not surprise anybody, that's the guy's character. The guy turns everything he touches to dirt." Geist must have seen Landrieu's decision to immediately go partisan allowed him to drop this faux seriousness of focusing on the storm to a segment you'd see on any other day, lamenting hurricanes in the social media age are far different than when Katrina hit. Landrieu bizarrely invoked a president having their finger on the button to trigger nuclear war (click "expand"): GEIST: Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I guess I was thinking about you and Katrina and the storms you experienced down there, kind of happened before this age of social media, when conspiracy theories could spread so quickly. Now, there certainly were many conspiracy theories about Hurricane Katrina. We won't give air to those here this morning, but how different is it today than when you were overseeing relief for Hurricane Katrina? Not just because of that, but because you now have a man at the top of the Republican Party, who tens of millions of Americans trust and listen to, who is pushing all of this bad information. And they may get that instead of the truth. LANDRIEU: Right. Well, a couple — just some very basic things. If someone's got bad character, and they’re making — they — can’t — it causes them to make bad choices, and those bad choices equal bad consequences and that's what Donald Trump has — has displayed since the day he came down that golden elevator [sic] and he's just getting better at being bad. And so it's a real problem and of course, you have social media, which can actually be the fuel to make it go faster and harder. It gets that much worse. But, I want to just caution, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, her team with FEMA, and the governors, have done an excellent job here of getting people ready. But they just have to be able to listen to the folks that are on the ground, that know the most, and hope that most of the people will listen to them. Because it does have long-lasting and damaging effects, but my question to the people of America is: why would you want a guy that doesn't tell the truth about something so serious as a storm, to be the guy that actually puts his finger on the nuclear button for the — for rest of the world? It just, to me, it seems to strain credibility. People know who he is. People need to make a decision about what pathway they want to go and the choice from my perspective is really, really clear.     PANIC! Cue the Daisy commercial! Trump had his finger on that button for four years, and if I recall correctly, never went thermonuclear. Before closing with a specific campaign question, frequent panelist Mike Barnicle interjected with more laments about the rubes he claims to care about: So, Mayor Landrieu, that question that you just posted. You also have a dual role. You're campaigning across the country for the Democratic ticket, for the Vice President to — to win the presidency in November. What do you say when you're confronted by people across the country — good people, ordinary people who lost faith in the government, who halfway believe some of the things, as preposterous as they might be, that come from the utterances of Donald Trump or people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. What do you say to them? Here's the transcript. MSNBC's Morning Joe 10/10/24 6:34 am EDT WILLIE GEIST: You’ve lived this. You’ve been through this. Any mayor of New Orleans has. What does a mayor do in preparation when they know a storm of this magnitude is about to arrive on your shores? MITCH LANDRIEU: Well, thank you for that. You know, I was Lieutenant Governor when Katrina hit then we went through Rita, then we had Ike, then we had Gustav, then we had the BP oil spill, and a host of other ones when I was mayor of the city. I can tell you that, if there was ever a time the phrase, out of many, we are one, is necessary and important, it's during a potential catastrophic event. Mike [Barnicle] made some really good points because people are at their most vulnerable state. They're scared. They need good information. They need to be able trust whatever it is that they're hearing. And the good responses involve clear command and control, clear communication, and really excellent coordination between whoever the president might be, the governors, the elected officials, EMS, fire, all these things have to hit in order for people to do the most important thing, which is to get out of harm's way. And, it looks like, really, all of the governors across the southern states and, of course, Governor DeSantis in Florida did an excellent job of making sure that, in working with the president, working with FEMA, people got out. And so, I just heard the mayor of Fort Myers say he doesn't think there was loss of life and that's critically important. The other side of that, when somebody tries to undermine that, When Trump — when somebody tries to use whatever agency they have, whatever power they have to turn people's pain against them for their own political purpose, that is not the kind of person you want holding the wheel when you've got a Cat 5 storm barrelling against you. And, of course, that's the great danger and the pain. All the people in Florida right now that are out of power, they don't know what happened to their house. They don't know whether they lost everything that they have. They don't really know how and when they're going to get back and they have to be able to trust the folks on the ground and that's why what Marjorie Taylor Greene said and, of course, what Donald Trump said, which should not surprise anybody: that's what the guy's character is. The guy turns everything he touches to dirt. That's the kind of leader we're going to have if we put him back in the Oval Office again. And it's going to hurt people a lot. GEIST: Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I guess I was thinking about you and Katrina and the storms you experienced down there, kind of happened before this age of social media, when conspiracy theories could spread so quickly. Now, there certainly were many conspiracy theories about Hurricane Katrina. We won't give air to those here this morning, but how different is it today than when you were overseeing relief for Hurricane Katrina? Not just because of that, but because you now have a man at the top of the Republican Party, who tens of millions of Americans trust and listen to, who is pushing all of this bad information. And they may get that instead of the truth. LANDRIEU: Right. Well, a coupl — just some very basic things. If someone's got bad character, and they’re making — they — can’t — it causes them to make bad choices, and those bad choices equal bad consequences and that's what Donald Trump has — has displayed since the day he came down that golden elevator [sic] and he's just getting better at being bad. And so it's a real problem and of course, you have social media, which can actually be the fuel to make it go faster and harder. It gets that much worse. But, I want to just caution, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, her team with FEMA, and the governors, have done an excellent job here of getting people ready. But they just have to be able to listen to the folks that are on the ground, that know the most, and hope that most of the people will listen to them. Because it does have long-lasting and damaging effects, but my question to the people of America is: why would you want a guy that doesn't tell the truth about something so serious as a storm, to be the guy that actually puts his finger on the nuclear button for the — for rest of the world? It just, to me, it seems to strain credibility. People know who he is. People need to make a decision about what pathway they want to go and the choice from my perspective is really, really clear. MIKE BARNICLE: So, Mayor Landrieu, that question that you just posted. You also have a dual role. You're campaigning across the country for the Democratic ticket, for the Vice President to — to win the presidency in November. What do you say when you're confronted by people across the country — good people, ordinary people who lost faith in the government, who halfway believe some of the things, as preposterous as they might be, that come from the utterances of Donald Trump or people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. What do you say to them? LANDRIEU: Yeah, there are a couple — there are people who are legitimately confused. They don't know who to listen to. And this is where the hard work of democracy takes place, person to person. You jsut gonna have to talk to people and convince them, and re-earn their trust. It just makes it harder if you're pushing a rock up a hill, instead of somebody getting behind and helping you push, they're on the other side, pushing it down. That is a matter of character. That’s a matter of someone who has either the best interest of the country at heart or their own selfish interest in heart. And the biggest point here, to make this as clear as possible, Donald Trump has always demonstrated that he is for himself. And if he has to use other people's pain for his purpose and his power, so that he can use it and help some of his wealthy friends, he's demonstrated time and again that he's going to do that. If he'll do it now, there is nothing he will not do and it's really — it’s a damn shame, to be honest with you. But to the credit of the governors in the south, many of them Republicans, they stood with Joe Biden. They stood with Kamala Harris. They told the people what needed to be done. And even though there's catastrophic damage, both from Helene and, of course, from Milton, we're going to pull ourselves out of this like we do, but we can only do it if we do it together. That's the big point. That's the big point here. GEIST: Yeah, the lies really are appalling always, but especially in this moment when so many people need so much help. Let me ask you, finally, mayor, just your sort of snapshot, your state of the race. Under four weeks to go, what is it important for the Harris campaign to be doing to get over the finish line? LANDRIEU: Everything everywhere. This is going to be a very, very close race. It's really not changed over the last eight, ten weeks, even before that. This is a fourth and goal with no time-out left on the clock and it's just going to be about who’s got the best team, who’s got the best message, who has the most money, who’s got the best ground game, who’s the best organized, who’s the best strategy? We believe that we do. It's going to be a very, very close race, but I think everyone would agree the Vice President has done a excellent job in the weeks she's been here, and I think we’re going to pull it out.

Despite their pro-democracy rhetoric, Democrats have worked tirelessly in recent months to rob Americans of a choice in this election and to silence Kamala Harris' opponent. Democrats and their fellow travelers have, for instance, attempted to remove President Donald Trump from the ballot; threatened to disqualify Trump should he win the election; demanded that the media adopt a "consistent narrative" against him; and engaged in lawfare in hopes of landing the Republican in jail. A pair of Democratic donors allegedly even tried assassinating Harris' opponent, which nearly 3 in 10 Democrats polled apparently thought was worth the try. New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a champion of keeping boys in girls' sports, further evidenced his party's hostility toward political freedom and the democratic process Wednesday, issuing a demand that Madison Square Garden cancel Trump's upcoming rally, equating the campaign event to a Nazi rally — and thereby smearing roughly half the electorate. "I've confirmed with @TheGarden that they signed an agreement with Trump to hold a rally on October 27 at 3 pm at MSG, which is in my Senate district," Hoylman-Sigal wrote on X. "Let's be clear. Allowing Trump to hold an event at MSG is equivalent to the infamous Nazis rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939." 'President Trump has faced two assassination attempts due to this type of unhinged language.' Blaze News senior editor and Washington correspondent Christopher Bedford noted, "A better comparison might have been Young Americans for Freedom's 1962 Madison Square Garden Rally, when those teenagers organized well over 18,000 attendees (and more outside) for a rally against global communism." "New York liberals were shocked then how many of the kids rejected their tired ideas, but guys like Hoylman-Sigal don't actually know any history so they just prove their own intolerant bigotries by calling for anyone who opposes their own tired ideas to be shut down," added Bedford. Hoylman-Sigal insinuated further that on the basis of imagined threats that it was necessary to compel a private institution to cancel a contract, thereby aiding the state in running roughshod over Americans' freedom of association and the freedom of speech. "This is a disastrous decision by Madison Square Garden that will endanger the public safety of New Yorkers and has the potential to incite widespread violence," continued the Harris booster. "For the good of NYC and its residents, I demand @TheGarden keep our city safe by cancelling the Trump rally." Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told the New York Post, "This is the same type of dangerous rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump's life and has divided our country." "This no-name New York State Senator should resign in disgrace over this egregious comment," continued Leavitt. "Meanwhile, President Trump will pack the house at Madison Square Garden on his nationwide tour to Make America Great Again." New Yorkers expressed great displeasure with Hoylman-Sigal over his attempt to shut down an event and effectively silence opposition to the ruling party. "This is a disgrace. If you had a shred of dignity you would remove this post and immediately apologize," tweeted the New York GOP. "Every elected Democrat should be asked on the record if they agree with this statement." 'This type of hateful, condescending speech from wealthy liberals in Manhattan is exactly why the silent majority will deliver a victory for [Donald Trump] on November 5th.' Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote, "Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries, and the New York Democrat Party must immediately denounce this dangerous and unhinged rhetoric from this radical Leftist who has also been inexcusably silent when it comes to condemning antisemitism. President Trump has faced two assassination attempts due to this type of unhinged language." Some critics noted that while Hoylman-Sigal is supposedly concerned about public safety and the good of New York residents, he was relatively silent in previous months when his fellow travelers were engaged in pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli demonstrations. "What a terribly disgusting thing to say ... and by the way it's members of YOUR party who are running around our city with Hamas and Hezbollah flags, terrorizing Jews on college campuses," wrote Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). Robert Holden, New York City Council member for the 30th district, noted, "We've got actual Nazis shutting down our streets, covering their faces, yelling antisemitic slurs, even chasing & assaulting Jews, but a lawful, organized political rally, working with law enforcement, is a 'Nazi rally'? This is reckless & dangerous rhetoric from an elected [official]." Even some of Hoylman-Sigal's peers in the New York Senate thought his remarks were beyond the pale. New York state Sen. Rob Ortt, for instance, responded with three tweets of his own, writing, "Referring to a peaceful rally for the leading candidate for President of the United States as a 'Nazi Rally' is not only a disgusting comparison, it is a gross escalation of the dangerous rhetoric in the wake of two direct attempts on President Donald Trump's life." "It is especially rich coming from someone who couldn’t find the courage to call out actual anti-Semites terrorizing college campuses and Jewish students in his district. This is the first time I recall Senator Hoylman Sigal expressing any concern for public safety," continued Ortt. "This type of hateful, condescending speech from wealthy liberals in Manhattan is exactly why the silent majority will deliver a victory for [Donald Trump] on November 5th." Hoylman-Sigal issued his demand just days after Trump joined Jewish Americans in New York City to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. Like Blaze News? 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