People close to Hayden Panettiere told Page Six that the actress was suffering with severe back problems and anxiety in the months leading up to her untimely death at age 36.
Panettiere, known best for her roles in &#8220;Nashville,&#8221; &#8220;Heroes,&#8221; and &#8220;Remember the Titans,&#8221; was found unresponsive Sunday afternoon at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had been temporarily staying. An investigation into the death is ongoing, but authorities say there are currently no signs of trauma.
Erick Orellana, Panettiere&#8217;s close friend and hairdresser, told Page Six that the actress was dealing with severe back problems earlier this year, which left her using crutches.
“I know she suffered earlier this year with her back,” Orellana said, describing the pain as “really severe.”
“At one point, it was even hard for her to move her legs,” the hairdresser added.
Back in March, Panettiere was photographed using crutches while traveling through the LAX airport with her boyfriend Brian Hickerson.
Orellana said she thought Panettiere appeared to be &#8220;on the mend&#8221; from the back issues before she died.
Another source said Panettiere, who was a &#8220;night owl,&#8221; seemed extremely tired at times and suffered from anxiety. The 36-year-old would take medicine for her anxiety that could “every so often&#8221; impact her speech, the source added.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy was completed and found no signs of trauma that would have contributed to her death.
“The decedent has been identified as Hayden [Lesley] Panettiere, 36, of California. Panettiere was found unresponsive inside the residence, where she had been temporarily staying. An autopsy was completed today,&#8221; the office said in a statement. &#8220;At autopsy, no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death. This investigation remains active and ongoing.&#8221;
First responders were dispatched to the apartment where Panettiere had been staying with Hickerson on Sunday afternoon. A 911 call indicated that there was an unresponsive woman who may have suffered cardiac arrest. Hickerson was reportedly at the apartment at the time.
TMZ has reported that Narcan, a medication commonly used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, was found at the scene.
On Tuesday, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who was in a relationship with Panettiere for nine years, shared an emotional statement following her death. The former couple have one child together, an 11-year-old daughter named Kaya.
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“Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief,” Klitschko posted to social media. “The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.”
&#8220;She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives,&#8221; Klitschko wrote. &#8220;To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.&#8221;
&#8220;I extend my deepest condolences to Hayden’s parents, her friends, and her fans, who are also grieving today,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Young and talented people like Hayden should not leave this world so soon. I ask everyone to please respect our family’s feelings and privacy during this incredibly difficult time. For now, this is all I wish to say.&#8221;
&#8220;Thank you to everyone who is supporting my family and expressing their sincere condolences,&#8221; Klitschko added. &#8220;Rest easy, Hayden. May you find eternal peace.&#8221; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief.
The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.
She built… <a href="https://t.co/etL169NOmB">pic.twitter.com/etL169NOmB</a>
— Klitschko (@Klitschko) <a href="https://x.com/Klitschko/status/2089609887076503934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/actress-hayden-panetierre-dead-at-36">Actress Hayden Panettiere Dead At 36</a>

Hayden Panettiere Portrait Session

Troubling Details Emerge About Hayden Panettiere’s Life Before Her Death

Revealed: Hayden Penettiere’s Mounting Health Problems Before Her Death 

Death

Hollywood

Movies

For fans of “Game of Thrones” dismayed by the expository second season of “House of the Dragon,” the spinoff’s third and penultimate season has just wrapped with a great deal more drama. Though this latest season, and the series more broadly, has never soared in the same rarefied air as its predecessor, even in its middling moments, “House of the Dragon” boasts a sense of scale and escapism that dwarfs most of what is on television.
We return to an unstable Westeros, ravaged by the whims of rival claimants to the crown. Bolstered by her new dragon riders and having dispensed with delusions of a pacifist ascent to power, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) swiftly takes King’s Landing and finally assumes the Iron Throne.
Among my gripes with this franchise is its broad lack of favorable characters to root for. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) remains an obvious favorite antihero, though this is more a testament to Smith’s arresting charisma than to anything the screenwriters have given him.
The series also has a curious knack for pushing women into positions of immense power only to have the weight of the crown scramble their senses — Daenerys, Cersei, now Rhaenyra — much like whoever runs the WNBA.
And Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) is somehow even more vexing. Even from captivity, she continues playing her own children like pieces on a chessboard, though her motivations become increasingly difficult to follow. Early in the season — slight spoiler — she helps engineer Rhaenyra’s capture of King’s Landing, manipulating Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) into flying to Harrenhal and leaving the capital vulnerable. She presents the betrayal as an attempt to avert further bloodshed and salvage what remains of her family, only to spend much of the season thereafter conspiring against the very children she professes to protect.
The prevailing wisdom that proximity to power maddens and corrupts continues to writhe through the series. In business school, we had a popular elective called “Power and Influence,” devoted to understanding organizational structures, individual motivations, and how people accumulate enough leverage to get their way. Westeros would make for a fine case study. Authority here is almost entirely relational: kings depend on dragons, dragon riders depend on armies, armies depend on lords, and every alliance lasts precisely as long as the incentives holding it together.
Late in the season, one of Rhaenyra’s powerful new allies is wooed by the enemy after discovering that, under her rule, he cannot simply wander off to the pub for a pint during work hours. The particulars of his 401(k) are not discussed onscreen. The show is set in a fantasy realm a thousand years in the past, but competitive benefits remain an unwavering means of poaching talent.
The season’s most intriguing practitioner of this game is Ormund Hightower (James Norton), portrayed with chilling psychopathy as he grooms the young Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) into a pliable Hightower claimant to the Iron Throne. After conquering Tumbleton, a trading town loyal to Rhaenyra, Ormund strategically embeds his forces among the civilian population, effectively daring the queen to unleash dragon fire and massacre scores of innocents along with his army.
It is only reasonable to assume that Hightower’s great military inspiration is Yasser Arafat. I will spare the particulars for those who have yet to watch, but to drive the point home, the culminating battle finds bound and captive children lining the fortress walls as human shields.
This also underscores the folly of Rhaenyra’s reluctance to intervene decisively once the Hightower incursion becomes clear. Throughout the season, Ormund orchestrates stabbings and murders among Rhaenyra’s command in King’s Landing. Even when Daemon captures one of his operatives, the prisoner apathetically invites Daemon to kill him, warning that they “will never stop.” Ormund’s strategy is simple: keep escalating until Rhaenyra either responds on his terms or loses control altogether. A “Hightower Intifada,” if you will.
This is also where “House of the Dragon” can become maddening. Otherwise clever characters periodically lose all strategic sense when the screenplay needs another reversal. Rhaenyra repeatedly ignores obvious opportunities to exploit her overwhelming advantage in dragons, while supposedly seasoned political operators make decisions whose principal justification appears to be that another episode remains.
Despite her intentions, Rhaenyra’s restraint does not prevent bloodshed; it merely postpones it, while allowing her enemies to make the eventual confrontation considerably worse. By the time she acts, Ormund has entrenched himself among civilians and transformed Tumbleton into precisely the humanitarian catastrophe she hoped to avoid.
Here, George R. R. Martin’s fantasy politics become remarkably grounded in reality. Foreign policy rarely affords leaders the luxury of choosing between violence and peace; more often, the choice is between exercising force now and confronting considerably greater violence later. Deterrence works only when an adversary believes there are consequences for crossing the line.
Rhaenyra approaches her foes with something of Neville Chamberlain’s logic that restraint today might purchase peace tomorrow. Instead, her adversaries treat every hesitation as permission to escalate — a timely lesson in geopolitics she will have to carry into the fourth and final season of &#8220;House of the Dragon.&#8221;
Peace is not always preserved by the ruler most reluctant to fight. Sometimes it is preserved by making it sufficiently clear that the fight will not end well — or, in more contemporary parlance, would-be assailants can “f— around and find out.”
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

emma-d-arcy_3

‘House Of The Dragon’ Proves Appeasement Always Fails

Culture

Entertainment

Upstream

How far would you go to save your son? That is the question David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) must confront in Netflix’s “I Will Find You,” an eight-episode adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller.
It is refreshing to see Worthington apply his talents to a role that does not involve portraying a Native American Smurf alien (&#8220;Avatar,&#8221; for the uninitiated). Convicted of murdering his three-year-old son, Matthew, Burroughs has spent five years in prison, and Worthington convincingly embodies the defeated posture of a man who has accepted his penance and no longer imagines a life beyond his cell.
The prosecution argued that Burroughs, suffering from night terrors, bludgeoned Matthew to death with a baseball bat and buried the weapon without remembering either act. The body was mutilated beyond visual identification. The legal logic is questionable at best, and the supposed night terrors strangely never recur. If Burroughs committed the killing unconsciously, his criminal responsibility would hardly be straightforward, and the series never explains why he is serving his sentence in a federal penitentiary. Still, the setup produces some of the most gripping fugitive suspense since “Prison Break.” Both series revolve around innocent men discarded by corrupt authorities, though “I Will Find You” carries greater emotional weight through its father-son relationship.
The plot kicks into gear when Rachel Mills (Britt Lower), Burroughs’s former sister-in-law and a disgraced investigative reporter, visits him with a photograph discovered on social media. In the background is a boy who looks uncannily like Matthew might five years later, down to the birthmark on his cheek. Taking an abducted child to a crowded amusement park without concealing such an obvious identifying feature is an extraordinarily careless plot contrivance, but it gives Burroughs his first reason in years to hope. Resigned to dying in prison, he suddenly has renewed resolve and a reason to escape.
Lower brings a harried, quick-thinking energy to Mills, whose motives blend guilt, familial loyalty, and professional ambition. Matthew’s possible survival offers Burroughs salvation; for Mills, it may resurrect her career. These competing motivations give them engaging chemistry as they improvise their way through the conspiracy.
Like “Prison Break,” however, a story powered by conspiracy must keep adding layers to sustain itself. “I Will Find You” piles on police officers, trial witnesses, prison officials, FBI agents, mobsters, wealthy benefactors, and compromised medical personnel whose connections to Burroughs remain obscure. By the midpoint, the plot begins to resemble a Candace Owens podcast, minus the monologues about Jews.
Among the expanding cast is sharp-witted, tech-savvy FBI investigator Greer (Logan Browning). There is also Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia), Rachel’s extravagantly wealthy former boyfriend, whose affluence the series emphasizes by having him place a $1.5 million bid at an art auction and stroll out as the gavel falls, like an action hero walking away from an explosion. Other characters arrive with similar fanfare, hover suspiciously, and then evaporate.
The series also depends on its characters failing to ask obvious questions. A neighbor’s testimony that she saw Burroughs bury the murder weapon helped secure his conviction. Once it becomes clear that she lied, the case should begin collapsing. Why did she lie? Why does law enforcement display so little curiosity about perjury in a child-murder prosecution? The revelation becomes another clue in an overcrowded scavenger hunt, and the series rushes onward.
Despite its Swiss-cheese plotting, the holes never overwhelm the suspense. Hull and the series’ directors maintain such relentless forward motion that Burroughs seems one mistake away from capture. From rooftop pursuits to Scorsese-style street shootouts, the series packs so much action into eight episodes that there is scarcely room to breathe. Whenever the conspiracy threatens to buckle under scrutiny, the show accelerates. You may get lost in its web of corruption, but you will never be bored.
Amid the pulp machinery, “I Will Find You” raises a more serious question: What happens when institutions entrusted with maintaining order are corrupted?
As a criminal-justice hawk, I support tougher and longer prison sentences, more restrictive bail policies, and capital punishment in at least some cases (brutal child murder being one). That makes the series’ subtle warning especially relevant. Conservatives distrust government in nearly every other sphere yet often grow deferential when the state puts on a badge. We all want safe cities. But the same power used to punish the guilty can be corrupted and turned against the innocent.
Midway through the series, Burroughs is urged to question his assumptions about those closest to him: “Start asking yourself questions you’re too afraid to ask.” Beneath eight episodes of unnerving tension, this becomes the story’s lingering libertarian lesson. Institutions wielding coercive power demand scrutiny, and families cannot outsource their duty of protection to systems vulnerable to corruption. We cannot blindly trust institutions to keep us or our children safe. That is what fathers and families are for.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

I_Will_Find_You_n_S1_E3_00_16_24_04_R

Netflix’s ‘I Will Find You’ Outruns Its Own Absurdity

Netflix

Americans are obsessed with true crime. &#8220;Crime Junkie&#8221; is still one of the biggest podcasts in the world. The Idaho murders documentary just hit number one on Netflix.
When I was growing up, true crime was my favorite genre. I would sit inside with my friends on hot summer days to watch the latest episodes of &#8220;SVU&#8221; and all things Olivia Benson. I’d be embarrassed to count up how many hours of my life I spent listening to true crime podcasts. Name one, and I’ve probably spent 10 hours of my life learning all about it.
But if you pause and think about it, the idea of saying, “I love true crime,” is actually bizarre. The real world is heavy enough without going out of our way to seek out even more darkness just for the sake of entertainment. Just a scroll through TikTok and I will see stories of girls talking about how someone stalked them or questioning if a weird encounter they had was a sign of human trafficking. Flip on local news, and the top stories will be last night&#8217;s shooting. 
After listening to true crime podcasts and books almost daily during my early twenties, the concept of what I was really consuming dawned on me. How much is this affecting my health and how I see the world?
Considering the TV true crime demographic is 80% female, I know I’m far from the only one facing this dilemma. Psychology Today cites women&#8217;s need for understanding the murderers&#8217; motives as a means of making them less scary, as a reason for our morbid curiosity. Experts also say we want to be more aware and informed if we are ever to find ourselves in a similar situation. It makes sense. Often, the girls who get out of bizarre scenarios cite their true crime obsession as a lifesaving tool.
The education component is indeed a useful tool for an otherwise senseless matter. I think some shows glamorize and monetize other people&#8217;s suffering for the sake of entertainment, while there are better options that seek to educate and inform rather than harp on every gory detail of a crime.
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My biggest concern with our undying love for dark subject matter is how it seems to desensitize humans to real-life suffering and evil. It reminds me of the way people attribute video games to desensitization. Whats worse about true crime is it&#8217;s true crime. Real people&#8217;s lives.
Mix in our obsession with the internet&#8217;s need to comment on every single detail, and a crime will quickly turn into everyone&#8217;s next conspiracy theory on TikTok. Every viewer now needs to become the entertainer: sharing her insights into the possible perpetrators of the crime even when there is no evidence to suggest it.
Take the Idaho murder case, four students slain in their off-campus house. The now infamous house was also home to two young women who survived the horrors. Within hours of the details reaching social media, the innocent roommates became prime suspects in the eyes of TikTok sleuths. No decorum or empathy displayed toward real survivors of a real horror. In reporting on real-life evil, we partake in downright evil gossip ourselves.
The online activity around Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassination follow eerily similar patterns as well. Just because the salacious content scratches the itch of a generation obsessed with true crime, that doesn&#8217;t make the content right, morally or factually.
When I took a step back from the true crime gossip, a striking question filled the void. Isn’t there anything better you can fill your brain with? The answer, of course, was yes. You become what you consume. If I&#8217;m consuming darkness, how do I plan to shine the light?
Now I ask myself, is this just gossip and gore? If so, I steer clear. And so far, the switch-up has done wonders for my health, the way I view the world, and the way I can still operate joyfully within it.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

young woman scrutinising safety of her online data

The Dark Truth Behind Our True Crime Obsession

Crime

Media

True Crime

CBS News unveiled its first major slate of &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; hires under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss on Tuesday, tapping New York Times columnist Ross Douthat as the network presses ahead with its overhaul of the iconic news magazine.
Executive producer Nick Bilton announced in a memo that Douthat will join the program as a correspondent, while bestselling author and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, former VICE News and CNN journalist Gianna Toboni, and British broadcaster Trevor Phillips will serve as contributors. Former CBS Evening News anchor Norah O&#8217;Donnell, who has contributed to &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; for more than a decade, has also been elevated to full correspondent.
&#8220;An exceptional lineup of journalists will be joining &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221;, carrying on its tradition of fearless, independent and impartial reporting,&#8221; Bilton wrote. &#8220;I can&#8217;t wait for them to get started.&#8221; 
The hires are the first major on-air additions since Weiss took control of CBS News and began restructuring &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; after several longtime correspondents and senior producers departed earlier this year.
Douthat joined the Times in 2009 and has become one of the paper&#8217;s best-known conservative opinion writers. Bilton praised him as &#8220;one of the preeminent public intellectuals in America today, a thinker of uncommon rigor and a journalist of deep empathy.&#8221;
Bilton also announced that Junger, the author of &#8220;The Perfect Storm&#8221; and co-director of the Oscar-nominated Afghanistan war documentary &#8220;Restrepo,&#8221; will join the program as a contributor
Toboni, whose reporting has included investigations into ISIS, Mexican cartels, mass shootings, and the death penalty, will also join as a contributor, while Phillips — recently hired as CBS News&#8217; senior global affairs correspondent — will contribute to 60 Minutes from London. 
Bilton praised the whole group as &#8220;entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences.&#8221;
Earlier this year, Weiss removed longtime executive producer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/28/bari-weiss-ousts-tanya-simon-60-minutes-favor-nick-bilton/">Tanya Simon</a> and several senior producers before dismissing veteran correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/longtime-60-minutes-reporter-fired-after-attacks-on-new-leadership">Scott Pelley</a>. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/celebrating-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/">Anderson Cooper</a> later departed the program voluntarily.
The personnel changes followed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/longtime-60-minutes-reporter-fired-after-attacks-on-new-leadership">years of criticism</a> that &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; had abandoned its reputation for impartial journalism, including backlash over its heavily edited 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which ultimately contributed to CBS parent company Paramount settling President Donald Trump&#8217;s lawsuit for $16 million.
Since taking over, Weiss has pledged to restore trust in the network while broadening the program&#8217;s appeal. Bilton, a former technology journalist and author who was tapped to lead &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; has likewise promised to modernize the nearly six-decade-old broadcast without sacrificing its journalistic standards.
&#8220;My responsibility is not just technological transformation,&#8221; Bilton previously told staff. &#8220;It is also our trust with the public. Above all, that means a commitment to fairness—in story selection, in the edit room, and in the broadcast.&#8221;
Season 59 of &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; is scheduled to premiere September 13.

Preparations Ahead Of Vice Presidential Debate

CBS News Shakeup Continues As ’60 Minutes’ Adds New Correspondents

60 Minutes

Bari Weiss

CBS News

Journalism

Legacy Media

Media Bias

New York Times

News

Scott Pelley

The New York Times

Mary Jo &#8220;MJ&#8221; Shannon, the matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner household and a fixture on the family&#8217;s reality television shows, died Thursday at 91, just days before her 92nd birthday.
Kris Jenner announced her mother&#8217;s death in an emotional Instagram tribute celebrating MJ&#8217;s legacy.
&#8220;My mom was the heart of our family. She taught me everything that truly matters… to love your family fiercely, to be kind, to show up for the people you love, and to never take a single moment together for granted,&#8221; Jenner wrote.
&#8220;Our hearts are broken, but we find comfort knowing that love like yours never truly leaves us. Your love will live on in our family, in our traditions, in every moment we are together, and in every life you touched. When I look at my kids and my grandkids, I will forever see pieces of you in all of us.&#8221;
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The highly successful &#8220;Momager&#8221; of six and grandmother of 13 credited her mother with shaping the woman she became, writing that everything she&#8217;s accomplished in life was because of MJ.
&#8220;I spent my life trying to live in a way that would make you proud,&#8221; Jenner said. &#8220;Every memory, every moment, every blessing, it was all because of you, and I will forever thank God every single day for making you my mommy.&#8221;
The Kardashian-Jenner siblings also grew up around MJ’s San Diego clothing boutique, Shannon &amp; Company. Kim Kardashian has often credited her grandmother with teaching her valuable business lessons and giving her her first job.
&#8220;You were the woman who showed me what it meant to be a hardworking businesswoman,&#8221; Kim said in her Instagram tribute. &#8220;You gave me my very first job at your store in San Diego and taught me lessons about work ethic, strength, and confidence that I’ve carried with me ever since.&#8221;
MJ became a fan favorite through recurring appearances on E!’s &#8220;Keeping Up With The Kardashians&#8221; and, more recently, Hulu’s &#8220;The Kardashians.&#8221;
One of MJ’s final appearances on the series came at her 90th birthday party, where she showed up in her quintessential black pantsuit and dark sunglasses, and toasted with a glass of wine before blowing out the candles alongside several of her great-grandchildren.
Known for her quick wit, MJ was frequently described by her grandchildren as the family&#8217;s jokester. Kim Kardashian even joked that her grandmother had a secret Instagram account used to stalk her family.
&#8220;I know you are up in heaven, looking at all of our Instagram posts of you from your sneaky finsta account you would always use,&#8221; Kim said.
Although many fans viewed MJ as a Cali girl through and through, she was born in Arkansas in 1934 before eventually moving west, where she gave birth to Kris, then a few years later to Karen, who unexpectedly passed away in 2024 at the age of 65.
In a 2025 episode of The Kardashians, Kris said MJ had become &#8220;frail&#8221; following the loss of her daughter.
Jenner did not disclose a cause of death or provide additional details regarding her mother&#8217;s passing.

Beloved Member Of America’s Most Famous Reality TV Family Dies

California

I have long felt that Barack Obama’s highest aspiration was always to become an adored celebrity, perhaps even an actor; he settled for president of the United States. Having completed his two terms, Obama wrote memoirs, started a production company, co-hosted a podcast with Bruce Springsteen, and, most recently, executive-produced a new HBO series starring Larry David.
Created by David and his longtime “Curb Your Enthusiasm” collaborator Jeff Schaffer, “Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” transplants familiar “Curb” sketches and stereotypical Larry-isms into various periods of American history, with a particular emphasis on the country’s founding. The result ranges from passable to downright dreadful.
In what amounts to a collection of loosely connected sketches, the writer and comedian behind “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” first portrays Robert R. Livingston, taking an early pass at the Declaration of Independence. He introduces his draft as “a declaration of common sense,” filled with such characteristically petty proclamations as, “After January 7, it is illegal to wish someone Happy New Year.”
The problem with sketches such as this — and there are far too many — is that David’s shtick works on “Curb” precisely because of its contemporary setting. The social conventions he obsesses over feel recognizable, and his grievances reflect real encounters we have all endured but are restrained by the norms of polite society from confronting. Recasting them in colonial attire creates the impression that David has sauntered onto the wrong set, like someone reciting Richard III’s “Now is the winter of our discontent” in a Michael Bay film.
The same problem recurs in a segment set during the Great Depression, when someone cuts into a soup-kitchen line after recognizing a friend near the front. David immediately launches into his “chat-and-cut” call-out, lifted almost wholesale from “Curb.”
Another sketch imagines David making Alexander Graham Bell’s historic first telephone call, only to become stuck on the phone with his assistant, played by the eminent Richard Kind, who subjects him to endless, numbing small talk until a frustrated David tosses the contraption in the trash. It is one of the better moments, though it ultimately drags on for too long.
A cleverer bit places David’s irritating disposition beside Rosa Parks on the Montgomery bus. He initially insists that she remain seated beside him, only for his intrusive questions and signature mannerisms to drive the beleaguered activist voluntarily toward the back of the bus just to escape him. There is a memorable interview in which Jerry Seinfeld explains that almost everything can be funny: “You just have to have a way of looking at it.” In that spirit, even a segregation sketch can be funny.
Seinfeld himself appears in another episode, reuniting with David for a sketch in which the pair play Lewis and Clark, leaders of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery following the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition is reimagined as an elaborate fishing trip devised by two husbands desperate to escape their wives. David’s Meriwether Lewis tries to assuage his suspicious spouse while the duo banter over politically correct terminology in the frontier. Can’t say “squaw” anymore — they can say it; we cannot. “Teepee? I think teepee’s cool.” Wampum? Kind of a gray area.
The series reaches its nadir when it abandons social comedy for political screeds marooned somewhere circa 2016. One dreary segment rehashes trite laments over Hillary Clinton’s Electoral College loss despite winning the national popular vote.
Samuel L. Jackson, the series’ narrator, drones on about how American democracy is supposedly unique because “a candidate can be elected president even if they don’t get the most votes.” Larry David, of all people, should know comedy’s golden rule: that a joke must be anchored in truth. Yet there is none to be found here. Parliamentary democracies including Canada and the United Kingdom routinely produce governments whose parties received fewer votes nationally than their opponents. Jackson then explains that the Founding Fathers enshrined the Electoral College in the Constitution for reasons that “defy logic,” before the camera pans to David throwing a tantrum over losing an election despite having won the popular vote. It is unclear what the series hopes to achieve here. Is Larry David trying to charm Obama with this tripe?
David’s talents have not disappeared entirely. Episode 3 brings back “Curb” favorite J.B. Smoove for a slavery sketch in which David, working with the Underground Railroad, shelters Smoove in his home. The scene moves from David attempting to relate to the experience of being chased by dogs to Smoove fantasizing about “tapping Northern ass,” complaining about the mildew stench permeating the safe house, and continuing to rant about a slave owner who named his slaves after pieces of furniture — “Ottoman” and “Armoire.” Their charming chemistry gives the sketch an energy missing from much of the series.
We also visit a trench on the front lines of World War I, where a frightened soldier confides in David: “I don’t think I can do this anymore. I’ve lost so many friends already.” David predictably responds, “At least now you don’t have to worry about staying in touch.” Short bits such as this can still wrest a chuckle.
Obama reportedly tried playing the “I was president of the United States” card while offering creative advice on David’s scripts. He is among the few people I can imagine mustering the gall to proffer comedy advice to Larry David. David responded, “I’m the president of this.”
But among the pitfalls of “Life, Larry…” is that there is simply too much Larry. He was effective in “Curb” because his idiosyncrasies were carefully balanced by a capable cast. Here, David drives every sketch with too little resistance and frequently drives them into tedium. This elaborate historical pageant seldom reveals anything new about either its star or American history. If David wished to continue portraying the same curmudgeon, he would have been better served writing another season of “Curb.” And if this is Larry David’s pursuit of unhappiness, he is getting us there.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

larry-david_0

Larry David’s New Series Is ‘Curb’ Without The Enthusiasm

Barack Obama

Cable television, the source you turn to if you’re looking for a veritable cornucopia of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/trumps-crackdown-on-drug-ads-could-sting-tv-networks-673c322a?st=jaKxKb&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">drug commercials</a> with bits of mid-tier shows aired between them, is <a href="https://x.com/RoadMN/status/2062598828889440556/photo/1">not doing great</a>. Of the top 10 programs for the 2025-2026 season, seven were available only on streaming platforms. The other three were available both on streaming and on broadcast television. None were solely on broadcast. 
This is a <a href="https://adwave.com/resources/cable-vs-streaming-viewing-share-q4-2025">generational trend</a>, with those 55 and older being more likely to choose cable and those under that age preferring streaming services. Factor in that 28% of Americans have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/01/83-of-us-adults-use-streaming-services-far-fewer-subscribe-to-cable-or-satellite-tv/">both cable/satellite and streaming subscriptions</a>, and it’s easy to see which offering is winning the battle. Cable is on the way out, and this represents a huge failing not just for the cable companies and pharmaceutical advertisers, but for America as a whole. 
Because, America, it’s time to admit that while streaming is great and gives us a whole host of options, it’s also terrible. When cable was king, we could turn on the TV, check the guide, and go to the on-demand offerings. It was all right there. It was one bill. There was only one company to have to deal with. Now, subscriptions rule our lives. 
Not only is the cost of cable-cutting a mirage because of all the subscriptions, but we also no longer have one-stop shopping when it’s time to watch. We have to figure out which service has the program we want. We have to remember to cancel that one service we only wanted to watch that one program on. We have to wade through a panoply of garbage just as we did when we had cable. And that doesn’t even get into sports. 
Sports used to be the reason that some of us got cable. Sure, there were add-ons. There were also market limitations. If you were a Tennessee Titans fan but lived closer to the Kansas City Chiefs, guess which AFC game you were getting on Sundays. At least you could watch games, though. 
Now, who knows? While there is a lot on the major networks plus ESPN and its satellite stations, to get everything you’re going to need a bunch of streaming services. Then you’re right back in the same problem the streamers give us when it comes to finding shows. And you still can’t get most out-of-market games without paying for upgraded streaming options. It’s ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong. I tuned in for “Stranger Things.” “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” was gut-wrenching but also admirable because Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is the pettiest man on earth and no one makes petty work better than he does. Those are the only programs from the top 10 I’ve watched, but I’m admittedly not the best example. I’m more the person you look to if you want to know what’s going to get prematurely canceled.
Still, when we get below the top 10 and realize that “Matlock” comes in at 13 and see “60 Minutes” at 27, we know where viewers are tuning in, and it ain’t on a streaming platform. It’s easy to hate on boomers. It’s more challenging to admit they were right about things. Television is one of those areas, at least in terms of medium, though maybe Bari Weiss can turn “60 Minutes” into a show that appeals to those whose age doesn’t start with the number six or higher. Getting rid of that insufferable <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scott-pelleys-glasses-were-a-prop-for-a-grown-man-play-acting-as-an-anchor">glasses guy</a> was a good start. (Maybe replace him with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYYhJDFx-S_/">Jordan the Stallion</a>?)
Regardless, if we stay on our current trajectory, cable is eventually going to stop slowly failing and collapse all at once. Then, all we’ll be left with is streaming. Will we have a world of choices at our fingertips? Sure. Will we have to spend way more per month than if cable had figured out a way to thwart and integrate the streamers for a slightly higher price than we were paying? Absolutely. 
And we have no one but ourselves to blame. We could have stood athwart our streaming services and yelled “stop,” but instead we embraced them, invited them into our homes, our lives, and our relationships. (Password sharing is a bond that outlives marriages, not because people want to see their ex’s name on the “choose profile” screen, but because they don’t want to add another monthly bill.)
 We said “no” to sticking with one monthly bill and a variety of programming all under one banner. Instead, we allowed ourselves to get greedy for content while satiating the greed of the companies that owned the intellectual property we were too lazy to pirate. Now, we’re barreling towards a future littered with seemingly infinite options, so many that we often fail to choose before it’s too late to finish our offering before we go to sleep. Alternatively, we find there&#8217;s nothing to watch other than the monthly payments leaving our bank accounts. 
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin’ Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/rcromwell4">@rcromwell4</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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We Thought We Beat Cable. We Were Wrong.

Boomers

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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&#8220;Margo’s Got Money Troubles,&#8221; a novel-turned TV series about a 19-year-old single mom who turns to OnlyFans to get by, has attracted plenty of attention and acclaim — especially with its star-studded cast that includes Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Pfeiffer. 
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We’ve come a long way since “Pretty Woman,” but why is a story about a 19-year-old driven to OnlyFans by financial desperation so popular? 
Rufi Thorpe, the author of &#8220;Margo’s Got Money Troubles,&#8221; told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/14/entertainment/onlyfans-economy-margo-cassie-euphoria" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/14/entertainment/onlyfans-economy-margo-cassie-euphoria&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781272699067000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3hQeCv1SS_V5FcVFCnT1yk">CNN</a> she believes OnlyFan’s “rising cultural relevance” is because “people are trying desperately to afford their rent.” The article explains that financial struggles in a harsh economy have led OnlyFans to be more “accepted” and less “stigmatized.” Thorpe has also been clear that she supports the destigmatization of the sex industry, <a href="https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/mashable-epaper-mashable/to%2Bget%2Bmargos%2Bgot%2Bmoney%2Btroubles%2Bright%2Brufi%2Bthorpe%2Bhad%2Bto%2Bearn%2Bthe%2Btrust%2Bof%2Bonlyfans%2Bcreators-newsid-n709795228" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/mashable-epaper-mashable/to%252Bget%252Bmargos%252Bgot%252Bmoney%252Btroubles%252Bright%252Brufi%252Bthorpe%252Bhad%252Bto%252Bearn%252Bthe%252Btrust%252Bof%252Bonlyfans%252Bcreators-newsid-n709795228&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781272699067000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0CfR8xFnYN7goshQyHyeI9">saying</a> that her goal with the novel was to “explore sex work as work.” 
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But it is a failing position to accept that financial necessity should drive women to OnlyFans and that society should refrain from condemning OnlyFans as a result. 
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To be clear: I certainly don’t believe women who turn to OnlyFans out of economic desperation should be condemned; it is the systems and individuals who exploit their desperation that deserve our censure. 
Consider an analogy: A landlord approaches a woman in his building who is struggling to pay her rent. “If you send me nude photos a few times a week,” the landlord says, “I’ll forgive your debts. Otherwise, you’re out on the streets.” 
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Does it make your skin crawl? 
How about this one: A CEO arranges a private meeting with a female employee. Behind closed doors, he explains the offer: “Come into my office at the end of every workday and do a strip tease. If you do that, I’ll double your wages.” 
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In contexts like these, most people recognize that coercing sexual consent through financial necessity — or even financial opportunity — is exploitative and abusive. There’s a good reason for this. It’s because sexual consent is a uniquely sensitive type of consent, which must be given completely freely. Generally speaking, it is not wrong to pay someone to do a job that they may not really desire. But sexual consent warrants a particularly high standard of freedom and autonomy. As such, it is wrong to use money (or any other means) to pressure someone into accepting sexual situations that they do not authentically desire.
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As a society, we largely understand this — hence our reactions of repulsion to the landlord and CEO examples. But for some reason, when it comes to OnlyFans and the commercial sex industry, there’s a clear double standard. 
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Society is increasingly happy to accept and even celebrate the sex industry. Social media and mainstream TV are full of glamorized stories of women who went from making minimum wage to raking in millions on OnlyFans. And this, the popular narrative goes, is empowering to women. 
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But leveraging a woman’s economic need to coerce her into unwanted sex acts is not empowering. It’s exploitative. 
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It’s worth noting that very few women actually make good money on OnlyFans. In fact, the average creator earns only <a href="https://ofstats.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ofstats.net/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781272699068000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0l8V_pf2M2tpDa38eGNlPj">$131 per month</a>. However, even if it were true that OnlyFans was the answer to women&#8217;s financial problems, the question becomes: How did we end up with a society where accepting sexual exploitation is a woman&#8217;s best option to support herself? 
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As Thorpe and the CNN note, the struggling economy certainly plays a role. But it’s far from the entire answer. If it&#8217;s just the economy, why aren’t men flocking to OnlyFans to make money? Why are the vast majority of people selling content on OnlyFans women and the vast majority purchasing content men? 
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This is about much more than the economy. It’s about a society that has commodified women as sex objects. A society that tells women their primary worth is in their ability — nay, their obligation — to please men sexually. And a society that withholds or grants financial rewards on the basis of women fulfilling that obligation.
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I’m reminded of a man who once said to me, “Pornography is empowering to women because it’s one of the only jobs where a woman can make more money than a man.” 
At the time, I was simply rendered speechless. But I’ve long wished I could go back and say what I really thought about his absurd argument.
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A world where the only way a woman can make more money than a man is to strip for those leering men is not a world that’s empowering to women. That’s not a system that was created by and for women. It’s a system that was created by and for men. 
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The hard truth is that the sex trade has always been a misogynistic industry whose sole purpose is to cater to male sexual entitlement. It has never been about what’s best for women. 
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Even the glamorized OnlyFans is not exempt from that fact. Diving deeper into common experiences on the platform <a href="https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Proof-Compilation_2023-DDL_OnlyFans.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Proof-Compilation_2023-DDL_OnlyFans.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781272699068000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3cLJI5uYKuRHWXSWswjTXT">shows</a> creators face a <a href="https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Proof-Compilation_2023-DDL_OnlyFans.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Proof-Compilation_2023-DDL_OnlyFans.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1781272699068000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3cLJI5uYKuRHWXSWswjTXT">myriad of serious harms</a> at the hands of subscribers, pimps, traffickers, and even the OnlyFans corporation itself. These women deal with stalking, rape, abuse, threats of physical violence, financial exploitation, psychological manipulation, death, suicide, mental health harms — you name it. 
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Embracing the sex industry as “empowering” does not erase its fundamentally misogynistic and exploitative nature. It simply obscures it.
***
Lily Moric is the communications and content strategist with the <a href="https://x.com/NCOSE">National Center on Sexual Exploitation</a>, the leading national nonprofit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking, and pornography.
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The OnlyFans Success Story That’s Missing A Dark Reality

OnlyFans

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Taylor Sheridan has discovered that his keyboard is a money-printing machine for both himself and Paramount+. From “Yellowstone” to “1883,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” and “Landman,” Sheridan has built a sprawling empire of gritty American archetypes: Montana ranchers, Oklahoma mobsters, Texas oil barons, and anyone else Hollywood might have deemed too working-class and out of touch with its consumer base of working-from-home metropolitans.
His latest work, “Dutton Ranch,” combines many of the best elements of “Yellowstone” without much of the whiny, self-aggrandizing nonsense that hampered the show in its later seasons. We get it, Monica: You are a proud Native American woman and think the loving multimillionaire ranching Dutton family you married into is a bunch of racist colonizers (thankfully, her character has not returned).
Kevin Costner’s gruff, commanding charisma is sorely missed, but the heart and soul of Sheridan’s cowboy universe was always Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser). I may be a stereotypical yuppie software engineer who has only once tried (unsuccessfully) to ride a horse, but most scenes with Rip leave me compelled to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-city-sold-me-the-dream-the-fine-print-changed-everything">sell the downtown condo</a>, buy a Stetson and a pickup truck, and move to a ranch.
Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), meanwhile, returns as formidable as ever, but with a renewed sense of purpose. In the final seasons of “Yellowstone,” Sheridan seemed to lose sight of how to write her, reducing one of television’s more compelling characters to impulsive tirades and alcoholism. Her drinking alone could have kept Tito’s running. Here, she remains profane and ferocious, balancing farm-girl tenacity with Christian Louboutins and investment-banker shrewdness, but her fury is now directed toward securing a new life for herself and her husband.
Following the events that ended “Yellowstone,” Beth and Rip, along with their adopted son Carter, move to Texas to start over. It is a classic American story of settling somewhere unfamiliar, staking a claim, and trying to build something of your own despite hardship and hostility.
And there is no shortage of hardship. At one point, their cattle contract foot-and-mouth disease, threatening the ranch’s survival and forcing Rip into the brutal necessity of rounding up and shooting an entire doomed herd. Beth laments the toll it takes on him: “That man has lost more than he’d ever admit,” she says, adding, “He devoted his life to the Yellowstone. This was supposed to be his time, his ranch.” There is an important and subtly conveyed lesson here, that life is not fair, and no one is owed a reward merely because he has suffered nobly.
Among the most welcome additions to Sheridan’s world is Ed Harris as Everett McKinney, a gregarious, salt-of-the-earth veterinarian. But Sheridan does not write twee HGTV television that is set in the countryside. Problems are not confined to veterinary and agricultural woes; sooner or later, we expect our dose of extortion, corruption, and murder. In contrast to the power Rip and Beth held by association on “Yellowstone,” here in Texas they are newcomers, pitted against the established and crooked Jackson family, led by the ruthless matriarch Beulah Jackson, whose deep pockets seem to reach everywhere from the state cattle industry to the police force.
Though Sheridan is thankfully reluctant to sermonize about politics, his work remains beguiling fodder for conservatives. In this sense, he is the conservative answer to Darren Star. Where Star built fantasies around cosmopolitan women in couture navigating careers, brunch dates, and fleeting romances, Sheridan gives us ranchers, oil workers, and cowboys who grow thick beards, wake up at 3:30 AM, work with their hands, and have no use for LinkedIn or ChatGPT.
Of course, most of us are more comfortable admiring this life from afar. There is a running joke among watch enthusiasts that most people who buy “tool watches” — Rolex Submariners built for diving or Daytonas built for race car drivers timing laps — only ever use them as aesthetic props in office jobs. Many city truck owners rarely haul anything more demanding than groceries or their kids’ hockey equipment. How many Yeti cooler owners have been backcountry camping? Some would call such people posers. But we buy these things because they offer us a connection to worlds we lack the courage, will, or circumstances to enter. Sheridan’s heroes are compelling because they inhabit such lives.
As Beth and Rip fight to establish new roots, a parallel storyline follows Carter (Finn Little), who, for someone raised by Beth and Rip, ought to have more common sense than to cut school in pursuit of a shortcut to cowboying while strutting around after a pretty young blonde. But then again, he is a teenage boy, and in any skirmish between brains and pubescent hormones, the former has little hope.
There is palpable hardship in Carter’s circumstances. With his adoptive parents too busy fighting for the ranch to tend to his teenage angst, he develops a budding friendship with Dwight White (Ray McKinnon), a downtrodden cowboy of questionable judgment who keeps an African leopard on his property. But Dwight offers Carter a job and proffers some much needed counsel. “Growing up fast is highly overrated,” he tells him. Carter may be eager to leapfrog adolescence and become the man he imagines himself to be, but, Dwight warns, “You don’t realize how young you are until you’re old and realize it’s too late.”
Sheridan’s wrangler epics are like “Game of Thrones” with cattle and cowboys. They are action fantasies about the sorts of characters we aspire to be, or at least aspire to have in our lives: loyal, brave, stubborn men of action. If you haven’t yet seen “Yellowstone,” I would recommend watching the first three seasons for Costner’s aura alone. But “Dutton Ranch,” streaming new episodes on Prime through July, can be enjoyed in isolation. Sheridan’s great strength is crafting myths of large personalities against larger landscapes, all in pursuit of the American dream of carving out a life through grit and sacrifice. At its best, “Dutton Ranch” understands why that dream still has power for those of us watching from the comfort of our living rooms, far from the hard and unglamorous work that makes it possible.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.

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Taylor Sheridan Saddles Up For Another Ride Through The American Myth

Amazon Prime

Taylor Sheridan

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Since it premiered in 2019, HBO’s gritty teen drama “Euphoria” has angered both sides of the aisle for being either exploitative and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/29/euphoria-season-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-feminist</a> or debauched and hedonistic. The show “appears to be overtly, intentionally, marketing extremely graphic adult content — sex, violence, profanity and drug use — to teens and preteens,” the Parents Television Council <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2629891/if-euphoria-is-meant-to-caution-teens-why-is-it-so-juvenile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> years ago. The anti-drug campaign DARE later <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/zendaya-responds-dres-claim-euphoria-glamorizes-drug-use-rcna15374" target="_blank" rel="noopener">weighed in</a> with a similar message.
In one episode alone, “Euphoria” infamously featured nearly 30 penises. I’ve <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2629891/if-euphoria-is-meant-to-caution-teens-why-is-it-so-juvenile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> the <a href="https://spectator.com/article/is-euphoria-too-bleak-to-be-good/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> for its gratuitous content over the years. But after inundating its viewers with bloodied faces and dick pics and heroin needles, the show’s third and final season takes the only unexpected turn left: It’s all about the Bible.
This season, everybody is talking about the Old Testament. Nate, the jock with violent anger issues-turned real estate developer, quotes it in a courtroom: “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Pimp and drug kingpin Alamo references the good book, saying he wants a Norman Rockwell, barefoot-and-pregnant-wife kind of lifestyle. “It’s biblical,” he says. Even our drug-addicted heroine, Rue, has a religious awakening while staring at a Joshua tree engulfed in flames like the burning bush.
There’s no doubt about it: An ancient religious text is driving the plot. But driving it where, exactly?
(Proceed with caution; spoilers abound).
Season 3 picks up five years after its predecessor, meaning the high school students are all in their early twenties. Indebted to her dealer, Rue is now a drug mule funneling balloons of fentanyl across the southern border inside her own body. One leaking balloon could kill her, and we watch as she checks, lubes up, gags on, and gulps down whole balloons to pay off her debts. Don’t do drugs, kids.
Meanwhile, she’s still meeting with her sponsor, Ali. She may be working as a drug mule, but she herself is getting clean. And thanks to his encouragement, she decides to get religious.
On her way back from a run in Mexico, Rue stays with a Christian homesteading family in Texas, and she can’t stop thinking about how happy they seemed.
“Religious people are happier,” Ali agrees. “That’s a fact.” (<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/31/are-religious-people-happier-healthier-our-new-global-study-explores-this-question/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It is</a>)
Rue raises the objection that she’s attracted to women; Ali, hoping to keep her curious about religion, says, “You could spend all day picking apart these books …. You either have faith, or you don’t have faith. Otherwise, you can argue about this sh*t forever.”
So Rue decides, then and there, to believe. Whether it works out for her is up to interpretation.
The show’s finale, which aired on Sunday, may have left viewers with more questions than answers. And some are infuriated with what they see as the show’s right-wing, MAGA turn.
“euphoria finale was good for the most part but i’m kind of floored by how wildly republican that last scene was,” one person <a href="https://x.com/legotrillermoth/status/2061300412242616590" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
“simply have to laugh at one of EUPHORIA&#8217;s big closing beats being an abandonment and rejection of Islam,” said <a href="https://x.com/roxana_hadadi/status/2061328497340293337" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another</a>.
“So did Euphoria just end on the point that Christianity, specifically the fundamentalist conservative kind, is the answer lol,” another <a href="https://x.com/jenny2x4/status/2061680427551920516" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wondered</a>.
Even before the finale, this season was overflowing with religious and conservative themes.
Nate ultimately dies from a rattlesnake bite, but more fundamentally, his death is caused by bureaucracy. He gets on the wrong side of some Armenian mobsters when he can’t pay back their loans after his construction project stalls. The reason? An endangered white fritillary flower was found on the site.
All he can do is hope the environmental impact study comes swiftly. He tries to propose working around the flowers, but Nate’s fate is sealed in a Los Angeles County courtroom with two words: “Motion denied.”
This season also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/onlyfans-creators-melt-down-after-euphoria-shows-what-it-really-looks-like" target="_blank" rel="noopener">angered</a> OnlyFans models who thought it made them look degenerate. One creator on the website <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tmz/video/7629147910449433869" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that scenes of Nate’s fiancée, Cassie, dressed up as a sexy dog are simply reflective of Hollywood drama — and beneath the dignity of a real OnlyFans star.
But they weren’t the only ones upset. Commentator Megyn Kelly latched onto a clip in which Cassie, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sydney-sweeney-trolls-critics-with-racy-euphoria-finale-photos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">played by Sydney Sweeney</a>, dresses up as a sexy baby, calling it “sick.” But the characters in the show find it sick too, which is why Cassie stops creating that kind of “content” — at least temporarily.
It’s hard to watch this season and not take away that bureaucracy is actively evil, OnlyFans is depraved, and the Bible is worth reading. After cracking open Rue’s copy, one character gushes, “It’s kind of incredible actually, like you think it’d be boring, but there’s a lot of violence and sex.” Cassie stares in disbelief. “So there’s a new Bible?”
On top of all this, the show’s final moments are a searing indictment of everyone involved in the fentanyl crisis. After Alamo discovers that Rue has been working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, he gives her Percocet laced with fentanyl. She dies, as was heavily foreshadowed in the penultimate episode, before she has the chance to reunite with her family and friends and make a new life for herself. When Ali finds her lifeless body on his couch, Rue’s name becomes just the latest entry in the leather-bound book where he remembers all the young people he has tried, and failed, to help get clean.
“I used to believe that the world would be a better place if people could empathize with addiction,” he tells a support group. But empathy can also extend to a dealer selling drugs to feed his children. “Maybe the real disease,” Ali suggests, “is that people no longer know the difference between right and wrong. I don’t care what your struggles may be. You poison kids for money, you’re evil. It’s plain and simple.”
Show creator Sam Levinson reportedly originally had a different ending planned. But after the death of Angus Cloud, who played the lovable drug dealer Fez in the first two seasons, Levinson changed his mind. He, a former drug addict himself, helped get Cloud to rehab <a href="https://ew.com/tv/euphoria-sam-levinson-staged-intervention-rehab-for-angus-cloud-before-death/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">twice</a> before his overdose in 2023 at the age of 25. “Once he passed away, I had to reconceive of the script,” Levinson told the New York Times, “and I thought, you can’t tell a story about addiction today without the very real consequences. Most people don’t get a second chance.”
But that doesn’t mean Rue doesn’t find redemption; in her final moments, she imagines embracing her father, her mother, and Fez. Her death may be sudden and anticlimactic, which is why it’s riling up some fans, but it’s not unlike what happens to thousands of others who die of fentanyl every year.
“Fentanyl can just take you out in an instant,” Levinson said. “It wasn’t like when I was growing up; you could literally take pills off the street and you might have a bad trip or something, but you’d be fine. This is something that hits close to home for a lot of people in this country. So it felt like the responsible thing to do.”
Though Ali admits that Rue’s death has shaken his faith and he doesn’t know what to believe, what follows is an immensely entertaining cowboy Western-style shoot-out between Ali and Alamo, who gets what he deserves. It is Ali, not Rue, who visits the El Paso homestead on Jerusalem Road — wearing a Zion National Park hat. The show ends with a single word — &#8220;Amen&#8221; — and a shot of an American flag billowing in the prairie breeze.
You can read the ending as a stirring call to faith or as a nihilistic shrug; Rue never made it back, and Cassie is doubling down on her OnlyFans career. But as Cassie’s sister Lexi notes, the Bible is kind of the story of a lot of people dying while the living choose to keep moving forward. Levinson has also rejected the latter <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/god-of-euphoria-sam-levinson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interpretation</a>, telling Tablet, “There’s plenty of nihilism in the world. I see ‘Euphoria’ largely as a rejection of it.”
After seven years, &#8220;Euphoria&#8221; is finally done flummoxing its fans and haters. We may continue to debate the finale for years to come, but it&#8217;s clear that the show isn&#8217;t glamorizing a lifestyle of limitless sex and drugs. And despite its many tragedies, it ends with a moment of hope.
“You know what I would find surprising?&#8221; the character Maddy says. &#8220;A little grace in this world.”
And surprise us, &#8220;Euphoria&#8221; has.

zendaya_5

Hollywood’s Most Sinful Show Ends With A Moral

Matt Brown, 42, the eldest brother of the &#8220;Alaskan Bush People&#8221; family, was found dead over the weekend in a Washington state river.
His brother Bear, 38, confirmed the loss in an emotional video on Saturday, sharing that the youngest brother, 33-year-old Noah, helped pull Matt out of the water and identified the body as his older brother. 
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&#8220;I would&#8217;ve never suspected he would&#8217;ve hurt himself,&#8221; Bear said in the video. &#8220;It does look as though the injury is self-inflicted.&#8221; The family is still waiting on the coroner&#8217;s report to confirm the cause of death.
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<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY_QL5Ngs9l/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Bear Brown (@bearbrownthekingofextreme)</a>
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Matt&#8217;s body was discovered after a search that lasted several days.
Last week, the Okanogan County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1422965179869181&amp;set=a.227153996116978">posted</a> a press release that detailed a 911 call describing a man sitting in the shallow water of the Okanogan River. When the caller turned away, he heard a noise, and after turning back around, he saw that the man was face down in the water, drifting down the current. First responders were unable to locate the man, though a firearm was recovered where he was last seen.
In another <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZBxxxVAuzD/?hl=en">post</a>, Bear shared a tribute on behalf of the whole family: &#8220;It is with broken hearts that we share the loss of our beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend, Matthew Brown. To millions of viewers, Matt was known as one of the original stars of Alaskan Bush People.&#8221;
&#8220;When we think of Matt, we will remember the young man who loved the wilderness, could navigate rough waters, draw for hours, lose himself in learning, make us laugh unexpectedly, and dream bigger than most people ever dared. He was imperfect. He was human. He was deeply loved. And he will be missed beyond words.&#8221;
The Discovery Channel&#8217;s “Alaskan Bush People,” which ran from 2014 to 2022, featured the Brown family and their unique lives off the grid in remote Alaska. 
Matt had reportedly grown estranged from the family in recent years and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DY0WjdBJnhc/?hl=en">According to Bear</a>, he &#8220;didn’t want anything to do with the family.&#8221;
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 by dialing 988.

Aerial photograph of alaskan river

‘Alaskan Bush People’ Star Found Dead In A River

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