The unpopular spinoff series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” has been canceled after airing just one season, per <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/">Variety</a>.
The show was picked up by Paramount+ in 2023 and was renewed for a second season before the first one premiered, the outlet noted. “Starfleet Academy” earned high praise from critics but was largely trashed by the audience, in part due to its outlandish leftist elements.
This included the first-ever gay Klingon in “Star Trek” history and a drag queen, among other elements that made it off-the-charts woke. 
Unsurprisingly, the series never gained traction and failed to capture the audience it needed to survive. Variety noted that “Starfleet Academy” never cracked Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings during its debut season earlier this year. The second season is already filmed and will be released on an undisclosed date.
“People hated it because it was an attempt to shove more woke nonsense down our throats. It takes a special kind of stupid to ruin Star Trek,” one commenter on X <a href="https://x.com/h2av8tor/status/2036280551137747082">wrote</a> in response to the cancellation news.
“Damn, they managed to check all of the woke boxes, which of course creates a show few people will want to watch. And no, it&#8217;s not because people are racists or don&#8217;t like gay people, it&#8217;s because these types of shows are contrived, preachy, and insult the intelligence of millions of viewers. Why anyone invests in this garbage is beyond me,” a second person agreed.
Even some leftists said it was terrible. 
“I&#8217;m a dirty woke liberal and I didn&#8217;t watch it/am glad it&#8217;s dead for one simple reason: It&#8217;s just not Trek,” another reply <a href="https://x.com/isthisnessicary/status/2036444933658198431">said</a>. “Trek has always been woke: first interracial kiss, the right/left black side racists, Riker and Soren, Measure of a Man. The fact that it&#8217;s ‘luxury gay space communism.’”
Series co-showrunners and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau reacted to the cancellation with an open letter. 
“Whether you’re working on ‘Star Trek’ or part of the marvel that is ‘Star Trek’ fandom — its very heart, soul, and conscience —the joy comes from adventuring across boundaries of time, space, and the humanly possible in service to Roddenberry’s transformative vision of the future,” they wrote in part. 
“That incomparable vision was fueled by an inexhaustible optimism. ‘Star Trek’ places its bet on the best in human nature. It dares to imagine a society of ‘infinite diversity in infinite combinations,’ free of war, hate, poverty, disease, and repression, and dedicated to the spirit of scientific inquiry and respect for all life, whether carbon or silicon-based, green-skinned or blue.”
CBS Studios and Paramount+ also released a joint statement. “We’re incredibly proud of the ambition, passion, and creativity that went into bringing ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ to life,” it said. 
“The series introduced audiences to a bold new group of characters, welcomed familiar faces, and expanded the ‘Star Trek’ universe in exciting new ways. We’re grateful to Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau, Gaia Violo, and the entire cast and crew who pushed storytelling boundaries in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry’s vision. We look forward to sharing the upcoming second and final season with everyone, and continuing to celebrate the cast, crew, and all that was accomplished with this series.”

Starfleet Academy

Another Ultra-Woke Spinoff Series Just Got Canceled

Entertainment

Paramount

Star Trek

Television

U.S.

Wokeness

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.
***
March Madness and baseball Opening Day may be blotting out the sun for sports fans, but for followers of televised competitive cooking, the next couple of months are the NCAA Tournament, the World Series, the BCS Championship, and the Super Bowl rolled into one, wrapped, covered in a mother sauce, and served on a platter to a panel of judges. Though I watch every cooking competition available, and always have, lately I’ve been trying to understand why. It’s not that they’re inspiring me to cook. They’re barely even inspiring me to eat.
The main event, as always, is the new season of &#8220;Top Chef.&#8221; But you also have a &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; knockoff, &#8220;America’s Culinary Cup,&#8221; hosted by former &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; doyenne Padma Lakshmi; &#8220;Next Level Chef,&#8221; Gordon Ramsay’s quarterly competition offering; and Guy Fieri’s &#8220;Tournament of Champions.&#8221; And that doesn’t include more quotidian feeder offerings such as Fieri’s &#8220;Flavortown Food Fight&#8221; and &#8220;Chopped.&#8221; Shows are eliminating chefs so quickly that culinary schools can’t produce enough replacements. 
&#8220;Top Chef,&#8221; now hosted by former winner Kristen Kish, has barely deviated from the formula. You put a group of accomplished but not famous chefs through a series of challenges, knock them out one by one, and let the survivor enter the pantheon. The show emerged around the same time as programs such as &#8220;Project: Runway&#8221; and &#8220;America’s Next Top Model,&#8221; and at this point, it is as much a part of the pop landscape as &#8220;Wheel of Fortune.&#8221; It’s reliable, comforting bourgeois entertainment. Becoming Top Chef means something. But what, exactly?
This is the question I find myself asking when I watch &#8220;Tournament of Champions.&#8221; Unlike the relatively buttoned-up &#8220;Top Chef,&#8221; which drives its contestants around in luxury SUVs and puts them up in nice hotel suites, &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; is a melée that doesn’t hide its Hollywood backlot underpinnings. Fieri presides over a bracket-style competition for 32 chefs (including 16 who need to win in order even to qualify for the main competition). There is a spinning wheel called The Randomizer that determines what the chefs will cook, how they will cook, and for how long. Then a panel of judges, many of them former &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; winners, taste and judge the dishes.
Fieri, in his typical hype-man style, touts &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; as the ultimate culinary competition. And there’s something to be said for the fact that nowhere else can you see Ming Tsai, longtime host of PBS’s &#8220;Simply Ming,&#8221; competing against (and losing to) Aarti Sequeria, host of the Food Network’s &#8220;Aarti Party.&#8221; But if you watch a lot of food competition shows — and I do — you start to see patterns. Some of the people competing in &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; are undoubtedly among the best chefs in America. However, many of them are just simply good chefs who are good on TV and who the Food Network has on retainer to compete and judge. 
Many of them are former &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; contestants, even &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; winners. This is the route available to them. The ones at the top are just building their brand. For others, this is literally, to borrow a term from &#8220;Top Chef,&#8221; their “Last Chance Kitchen.” One frequent &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; challenger lost her restaurant in the Lahaina Fire. Others admit to going through messy divorces. Another one, a number-three-seed, bounced from this year’s tournament early and was shot 11 times last year in a robbery. For some chefs, it’s a chance to go mano a mano, but for others, &#8220;Tournament of Champions&#8221; feels vaguely like a cooking-themed version of the old-timey game show &#8220;Queen For A Day,&#8221; where housewives traded sob stories for audience sympathy and prizes. 
The Gordon Ramsay shows, such as &#8220;Hell’s Kitchen,&#8221; &#8220;MasterChef,&#8221; and the currently-airing &#8220;Next Level Chef,&#8221; exist to promote Ramsay, whose visage presides over the Las Vegas Strip like some knife-wielding God. His contestants are mainly home chefs and TikTok food influencers who are literally leaping onto a rising-and-falling platform for the chance to grab ingredients so they can cook a “next level burger” or whatever. By comparison with the more elite cooking shows, Ramsay offers big cash prizes and actual jobs. But when you see &#8220;MasterChef&#8221; or &#8220;Next Level Chef&#8221; winners try to break into the Guy Fieri universe, they generally get clobbered. It’s a long way to the top if you want to cook and roll.
The Padma Lakshmi-run &#8220;America’s Culinary Cup&#8221; is the latest and strangest entry into the food TV competition wars. Lakshmi stepped away from &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; in 2023 to focus on her production company and because, she said, she was eating too much. Yet on an episode I saw this month, she watched 12 chefs butcher a side of beef and then sampled a dozen beef dishes. 
&#8220;America’s Culinary Cup&#8221; is essentially &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; with slightly different rules, and also a million-dollar first prize. There are some high-end contestants, but the &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; field is equally impressive. Strangely, the &#8220;America’s Culinary Cup&#8221; contestant with the highest Q rating is Buddha Lo, who has a Michelin Star and also won &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; twice, yet here he is again, cooking for our entertainment. The show has high production values, and is OK, but it’s also airing exactly concurrently with &#8220;Top Chef,&#8221; reminding us that it’s not &#8220;Top Chef.&#8221;
One of Lakshmi’s regular judges is Michael Cimarusti, executive chef and co-owner of Los Angeles’s Providence seafood restaurant, where my wife and I once ate an anniversary meal that was so expensive we still feel guilt about it more than a decade later. This, to me, is the main problem with cooking competitions. They’re not relatable to the average person or to the home chef. 
At the dawn of the &#8220;Top Chef&#8221; era, you could find a lot of cooking instruction for normal people on food TV. Rachael Ray, whose whole reason for being was teaching people to cook on a budget, had millions of viewers. Now she hosts a podcast. When my wife Regina and I are looking for cooking tips, we have to find episodes of PBS’s &#8220;America’s Test Kitchen&#8221; on the Roku Channel, and many of them are 15 years old. 
A couple of weeks ago, Regina and I went to a lecture by British-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi. He prepared simple dishes in a packed auditorium while also answering audience questions, and he showed us videos of himself preparing other, equally simple dishes, providing a QR code so we could all download all the recipes. 
Since then, we’ve cooked four Ottolenghi dinners from the downloads and also from the signed cookbook that we bought. We had many of the recipe items in our well-stocked pantry and fridge, but they were pretty basic: herbs and spices, canned beans, olive oil, and lemons. For the rest, we had to go to the store, but we spent maybe $50. Out of that, we got 10 meals, maybe more, and everything was perfectly delicious.
In contrast, I’ve never once cooked a single dish inspired by a cooking competition. I love these types of shows, and I’ll watch pretty much every iteration, but I also recognize that they’re kind of useless, self-absorbed, and snotty, even when Guy Fieri, the least snotty man alive, hosts them. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette: Watch them make cake.
***
Neal Pollack, &#8220;the greatest living American writer,&#8221; is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time &#8220;Jeopardy!&#8221; champion.

2026 South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Food TV Competitions Are Bigger Than Ever, But What They’re Really Offering Has Changed

Food

Upstream

In a society that loves to “blur the line” between man and woman, the result can be a strenuous casting process that might almost postpone production.
Take FX’s &#8220;Love Story.&#8221;
In the new show, viewers embark on the romantic yet tragic story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, America&#8217;s most beloved couple in the 1990s. Ever known for their iconic fashion and good looks, choosing the right actors was indeed going to be a high task at hand.
Executive producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson shared with <a href="https://people.com/how-love-story-cast-newcomer-paul-anthony-kelly-exclusive-11906585#:~:text=NEED%20TO%20KNOW,agreed%20there%20was%20something%20special.">People</a> that selecting Sarah Pidgeon to play Bessette was a swift and easy choice: she “jumped out and stole the role” and immediately “won our hearts.”
But the same could not be said for Kennedy.
“We were three weeks away from shooting and we still [had] not cast him,&#8221; Simpson said. &#8220;We&#8217;d seen every male actor between the age of 25 and 38.”
“We were about to shut down production and pause because we couldn&#8217;t find him,” he added.
The show’s creator, Connor Hines, admitted he even sought out people on the street and at the gym to come read for the role. 
But the problem wasn’t that they didn’t like their interviewees, Simpson said. There was something else missing.
“Part of it was just that sort of &#8217;80s, old school masculinity — a man with hair on his chest, sort of Richard Gere, Tom Selleck — the classic chiseled looks,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not making those guys anymore, for some reason, and he really needed to have that.&#8221;
In a GQ <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/how-love-storys-paul-anthony-kelly-became-jfk-jr">article</a>, Simpson elaborated further: &#8220;It’s these men with broad shoulders and they are in shape, but they’re in shape because they’ve been throwing a football around, not because they’ve been working on every muscle in their body for a Marvel movie.&#8221;
&#8220;We live in a world of electrolysis men, and it was a real challenge to find that sort of guy — a guy that women and gay men are attracted to, but also guys want to hang out and have a beer with.&#8221;
Something needs to be said if even Hollywood starts admitting there&#8217;s a masculinity problem.
The producers retraced their steps and considered the self-tapes they had already received, pulling out 13 new guys to come in and read. To their luck, Paul Anthony Kelly was among that group.
&#8220;You&#8217;re crazy if you don&#8217;t cast him,&#8221; Simpson recalled a makeup artist saying as she walked past.
Beyond his similar look to JFK Jr. — tall height, handsome, and yes, even chest hair — Simpson said Kelly had an &#8220;ease and charm&#8221; about him that was immediate. After a chemistry read with Pidgeon, there was no doubt the producers had found their Kennedy.
Now, Kelly is marking his first major debut and <a href="https://www.insidehook.com/style/actor-paul-anthony-kelly-oscars-best-dressed">becoming</a> his own American heartthrob.

FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” Red Carpet Premiere

The Difficult Task Of Casting JFK Jr. For ‘Love Story’ In The 21st Century

Hulu

John F. Kennedy Jr.

Masculinity

Actor Nicholas Brendon, best known as Xander Harris on popular 90s teen drama “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died at age 54.
Brendon died of natural causes on Friday evening, according to a statement from his family to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nicholas-brendon-dead-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-1236543090/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
“We are heartbroken to share the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He passed in his sleep of natural causes. Most people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years,” the family said before noting that Brendon was not only an actor, but a painter and artist.
“While it’s no secret that Nicholas had struggles in the past, he was on medications and treatment to manage his diagnosis and he was optimistic about the future at the time of his passing,” the family added, requesting privacy as they mourn Brendon’s passing.
Prior to his breakout role in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Brendon appeared in episodes of “Married… with Children” and “Dave’s World.” After playing Xander Harris in 143 episodes of “Buffy,” he continued acting in TV shows such as “Kitchen Confidential,” “Private Practice,” and in films like “Coherence.” He also served as a TV and film producer.
According to IMDb, Brendon has two upcoming projects that are in post-production.
Brendon&#8217;s &#8220;Buffy&#8221; co-stars responded to his death on social media.
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWJNWMnjllR/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<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/p/DWJNWMnjllR/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWIIzmkEdru/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<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/p/DWIIzmkEdru/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Alyson Hannigan Denisof (@alysonhannigan)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Emma Caulfield also expressed her grief in an Instagram Story, sharing a clip from the musical episode of &#8220;Buffy&#8221;: &#8220;I love you, Nicky. Let this clip of us giving it our best be a placeholder. Rest Nicky. Rest.&#8221;
Brendon suffered a heart attack in 2022, later revealing that he had been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition that caused tachycardia, or abnormally fast heart rate. The TV star also battled mental illness and substance abuse issues, and had multiple run-ins with the law.
Brendon entered rehab for the second time in 2010 after “being tasered by police and charged with vandalism, resisting arrest and battery against a police officer. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to probation and community service,” according to <a href="https://people.com/tv/nicholas-brendons-troubled-life-after-buffy/">People</a>.
He was arrested multiple times over the following years — twice for allegedly attacking his girlfriend — and entered several recovery programs. He was <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2020/02/28/buffy-actor-nicholas-brendon-palm-springs-court-2017-domestic-violence-charge/4905355002/">sentenced</a> in 2020 to three years&#8217; probation for one of the attacks, and given 20 hours of community service. Brendon had further run-ins with the law in the years that followed.

‘Buffy’ Cast

‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Star Dead At 54

Celebrities

Death

A spokesperson for Taylor Frankie Paul pushed back following the release of a video of her allegedly engaging in domestic abuse with her baby daddy.
“It’s sad to see the latest installment of his never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard for the consequences for their child. Releasing an old video, which conveniently omits context, on their son&#8217;s birthday is a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behavior. Thankfully, the public has seen this act before and knows who he is and sadly, many will recognize this pattern of manipulation, both in his actions on the show, and from their own experiences,” the spokesperson told People.
Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of &#8220;The Bachelorette&#8221; has been canceled by ABC following the release of a video of her allegedly engaging in domestic abuse with her baby daddy and former boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, per <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/19/abc-cancels-the-bachelorette-starring-taylor-frankie-paul/">TMZ</a>.
A Disney Entertainment spokesperson told the outlet, “In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of &#8216;The Bachelorette&#8217; at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family.”
The decision was made shortly after TMZ published a video of Paul getting into a physical altercation with Mortensen, the father of her child, Ever. Paul has the majority custody of Ever. She also has two children, daughters Indy and Ocean, 5, with her ex-husband, Tate Paul.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Taylor Frankie Paul repeatedly attacked Dakota Mortensen during the 2023 incident in which she pled guilty to aggravated assault; video shows that one of her children was struck during the fight.
Trigger Warning. <a href="https://t.co/77CKYpLxvn">https://t.co/77CKYpLxvn</a> <a href="https://t.co/avr49EacY3">pic.twitter.com/avr49EacY3</a>
— TMZ (@TMZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/2034673546341797906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
“This is called physical abuse,” Mortensen can be heard saying as he films their fight. Paul can be seen throwing chairs at him while her daughter, Indy, now 8, was in the room and crying.
Mortensen says at another point, “Your daughter just got hit in the head by a metal chair.”
Paul, made famous on the series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” was arrested for alleged domestic violence in 2023 following an argument with Mortensen, per <a href="https://people.com/taylor-frankie-paul-throws-chairs-at-dakota-mortensen-with-child-nearby-in-leaked-video-11930003">People</a>. She pled guilty in abeyance to aggravated assault, meaning that if she complied with the conditions of the plea, that charge would be dismissed. The show was also put on hold after the video surfaced. “The Bachelorette” was slated to premiere on Sunday, March 22.
Besides starring on “Mormon Wives,” she is also one of the creators of #MomTok, a group of Utah moms who create popular dancing TikTok videos.
Paul spoke with People on March 17 as she was still promoting her season of &#8220;The Bachelorette.&#8221;
&#8220;Honestly, just like, my heart hurts to see it, to go through it, especially at this time,&#8221; she told the outlet. &#8220;Just the timing is hard, and it’s a big deal. I feel like every premiere that I’ve experienced, I’ve never enjoyed fully, so this is another one&#8230; it’s extremely hard, and it took everything to get me here today.”
&#8220;It’s a heavy time, and it’s unfortunate,&#8221; Paul continued. &#8220;I’m struggling for sure, but also at the same time I feel like if I don’t show up, then I’m just giving these opportunities away and not enjoying what we’ve worked on and something super exciting that’s coming. I just feel like it was the right thing to do&#8230; show up even though it’s hard.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Taylor Frankie Paul

WATCH: Video Shows Taylor Frankie Paul Brutally Attacking Baby Daddy — ‘Bachelorette’ Axed

Reality TV

The Bachelor

The 98th annual Academy Awards on Sunday was the least-watched broadcast since 2022, attracting just 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, marking a 9% decline from last year. 
Hollywood’s biggest night was emceed once again this year by former late-night host Conan O’Brien. He mostly avoided hot-button political topics as promised, but did make some subtle political references, including a dig at the TPUSA Halftime Show.
Other presenters were more direct. Jimmy Kimmel, predictably, attacked President Donald Trump during the show, joking that Trump must be “mad” that “Melania” wasn’t nominated in the documentary category despite the film not being eligible this year. He also described “Melania” as being about “[walking] around the White House trying on shoes.&#8221;
Presenter Javier Bardem took a moment to <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/us-news/javier-bardem-faces-criticism-for-using-oscars-to-attack-israel/">virtue signal</a> from the stage, saying, “No to war and free Palestine,” while wearing buttons with identical messaging on his jacket.
Documentary filmmaker David Borenstein also had some thinly veiled criticisms of the Trump administration, which he expressed during his Best Documentary win for his critique of the Russian regime, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” 
During his acceptance speech, Borenstein said the film is about “how you lose your country,” which happens “when we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we produce it and consume it.” 
The blatantly political “One Battle After Another” was the night’s big winner, taking home six Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson.
“Sinners,” a horror film that tackled the Jim Crow-era South, also performed well, winning four golden statuettes, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.
It was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oscars-trade-abc-for-youtube-in-2029-because-fewer-people-are-watching-anyway">announced</a> at the end of last year that the Oscars will move from ABC, its broadcast home since 1976, to YouTube beginning in 2029, as part of an effort to reach younger and more global audiences.

Oscars

Politics Took Center Stage At The Oscars And It Didn’t Go Unnoticed

Academy Awards

Hollywood

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.
***
Many, especially those on the political right, are encouraging Americans to have more babies. Proposed policies aim to provoke more robust reproduction, including efforts to make the fertility drugs used in IVF more affordable. But what do we say in our current baby-focused political climate to those for who have tried and failed to do their part to reduce the downward-trending birth rates? How can the conversation around population show compassion for those who have tried to have children, sought treatment, and yet remain decidedly un-pregnant?
Enter a little help from popular culture: &#8220;Bridgerton,&#8221; the Netflix Regency-era romance from Shonda Rhimes, which features an infertility story line in its fourth and latest season. (It&#8217;s clear that I need to acknowledge that there are fans of the original Julia Quinn books upset with the change in this story line, from miscarriage to infertility, in the series. I see you. But I have not read the books, so my example will be drawn only from the Netflix series.)
In any case, I do appreciate and always have appreciated an accurate depiction of infertility from the entertainment industry, and especially the rare one that doesn’t ultimately end in pregnancy, so I was glad to see it.  Of course, we don’t know yet how Francesca’s story will end, but (spoiler!) with her husband dead, and an unsuccessful bid at motherhood while he was still living, Francesca may find herself redefining the infertile girl’s happy ending.
After her husband’s death and conclusion that she is not actually pregnant as she believed, her sorrow is at least doubled (though how can anyone measure such a thing?).  Francesca feels she has let people down and left a duty unfulfilled. She feels guilty and alone. It is tempting to think the way she feels way about her infertility is simply a product of her era. But I can tell you as a woman who realized, treated (unsuccessfully), and grieved her own infertility throughout the first 25 years of the 21st century that those feelings can befall even a modern woman. She, too, will find herself asking, “What is wrong with me?”
It is a challenge to know how to support an infertile woman. There are so many ways to put your foot in your mouth. I am thinking of the scene after the terrible physical exam Francesca is forced to endure to confirm that she is pregnant with her deceased husband’s heir. Her mother, also made a widow at a younger age, attempts to empathize with her daughter. Francesca becomes angry and perhaps resentful at her mother’s suggestion that they are the same when Lady Bridgerton has eight children and she has none.
That said, providing comfort is a thing worth trying, especially as time goes on. It is an easier thing to cheer a woman on through treatments, especially at first when it’s all new and hope-filled and ripe with the promise of a baby after her arms have been empty. They say a change is as good as a rest. And the change from navigating infertility on your own to being under the care of a doctor can’t be underestimated. With a new regimen there is also new hope, and hope is fuel we burn in our efforts to keep trying again.
The real challenge comes when the months, medications, and money start adding up and there is still no baby. Just as with that first year of “trying” when you know every month that passes means you’re one month closer to needing to see a doctor for help, with every cycle of treatment, you know that statistically you are less and less likely to find success. And while there are advances in fertility medicine all the time, there are only so many courses of treatment that may work for you. And with each unsuccessful month, you are now even older than when you began, and the undeniable reality of age and fertility only compounds the all-encompassing fears that all of this effort was for naught and it’s never going to happen.
Even with the many advances, doctors can still only do so much. Modern medicine often tries to ease or eradicate physical and psychological suffering, but what about the existential? I don’t think there’s a drug out there that can take away the pain of the unfulfilled desire to become a mother.
So, how should we talk about infertility right now? How do we speak about population decline and infertility with compassion? I’m not sure there’s any right way to do it, but we should try. Rally round, stay close, and listen. Agree that it is sad. Know that you can’t fix things for them. And speak with truth and love.
Remember, too, that the scars of infertility remain long after the possibility of a pregnancy disappears. While I am no longer, oh I don’t know, actively infertile, I still appreciate when babies, pregnancy, and fertility are discussed with charity and compassion. Like Francesca and her mother, it may well be that “we are not the same.”
***
Leigh Fitzpatrick Snead is a fellow with the Catholic Association and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWXXR28K?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_KSJX3RXM77XVPAYA9G6R&amp;ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_KSJX3RXM77XVPAYA9G6R&amp;social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_KSJX3RXM77XVPAYA9G6R&amp;bestFormat=true">&#8220;Infertile but Fruitful: Finding Fulfillment When You Can&#8217;t Conceive&#8221;</a> out now from Sophia Institute Press.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

“Bridgerton” Season 4 Madrid Masquerade Ball

‘Bridgerton’ Just Told A Story Many Women Know Too Well

Birth Rates

kids

Netflix

<div>
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.
***
Impeccably tailored tweed suits, weighty wool overcoats, and vast, sprawling brick-laden estates that inspire sudden compulsions to sell all your possessions and relocate to the British countryside: These are among the enchanting hallmarks of filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of &#8220;Young Sherlock.&#8221; It&#8217;s a new Amazon Prime series based on Andrew Lane’s novel series inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s venerable detective.
Set in a gritty Victorian England, the show imagines what Holmes’s formative years might have looked like before he settled into 221B Baker Street with his flatmate, Dr. Watson. Portrayed by Hero Fiennes Tiffin — who previously appeared in Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) — the incipient and still uncouth Sherlock is plucked from self-inflicted trouble by his watchful older brother, Mycroft (Max Irons), already a neat and trim bureaucrat. Conan Doyle likely would not have envisioned his hero this way, but in Ritchie’s hands Sherlock emerges as something like a British Will Hunting. Like Matt Damon’s swaggering savant, the young Holmes, despite his glaring brilliance, lacks discipline, professional ambition, and any meaningful instinct for self-preservation. After reading a professor’s mathematics textbook overnight, he interrupts the man’s lecture the following morning to correct him, then proceeds to solve a complex chalkboard problem in a scene that borrows too bluntly from Good Will Hunting. Elsewhere, he pursues petty criminal amusements such as pickpocketing purely for the clandestine craft — the very stunt that lands him in jail at the series’ outset.
Though Conan Doyle never clearly elaborated on Holmes’s education, it is no stretch to imagine the Holmes brothers as Oxford men. It is in those august halls that Ritchie stages the opening stretch of the series, bringing his usual directorial flair to the university’s courtyards, corridors, and book-filled interiors. Tiffin and Irons exhibit a palpable chemistry as Sherlock and Mycroft, sharing precisely the sort of fraternal dynamic one imagines between the Holmes brothers: affectionate (calling one another “brother dear”) and intellectually respectful, yet animated by a competitive spirit tantamount to the Space Race, with Mycroft’s composure providing an elegant contrast to Sherlock’s disorderly eccentricities. Both are well cast.
But the real star of Ritchie’s origin story is Sherlock’s infamous future nemesis. We are soon introduced to an irresistibly charming James Moriarty (Dónal Finn), sporting a spry Irish accent and still an innocent inchoate. Finn plays him like a rebellious James Dean, quickly befriending Sherlock, drawing him out of his shell, and urging him to flirt with women, skirt the law, and scorn polite society — not that Sherlock requires much encouragement. A running joke early in the season is that Sherlock, despite his brilliance and tendency to wander into danger, does not know how to fight. Moriarty teaches him how to box and defend himself, among other streetwise lessons. There is something perversely fascinating about the notion that one of literature’s great rivalries might once have resembled an intense youthful friendship. Nearly as intriguing as watching the origins of Sherlock’s deductive gifts is observing the still-boyish Moriarty reveal early signs of sociopathy beneath the charisma, from his detachment from violence to the unnerving ease with which he regards — and dismisses — murder as a situational necessity.
Spanning eight episodes, the season’s overarching narrative revolves around what must be Sherlock’s first real case. Without divulging the cleverly concocted plot, I&#8217;ll say the mystery is set in motion when a Chinese princess, Shou’an (Zine Tseng), visiting Oxford with priceless ancient scrolls in tow, is nearly robbed. From that incident unfolds an intricate and multifaceted conspiracy entangling members of the British government, Oxford’s academic elite, and Sherlock’s own family, all operating as warring interests. Overcomplicated plots of this sort are among Ritchie’s specialties and have by now become something of a trademark cliché, but it is hard to fault the formula when executed so well.
Among the many enjoyable aspects of watching Sherlock’s earliest detective work is seeing how Ritchie visualizes his photographic memory. Sherlock will stand in a room with Moriarty and mentally reconstruct prior scenes within that same space, replaying conversations and reassembling visual evidence with startling precision. Conan Doyle described this faculty as Holmes’s “mind palace.” Through sheer concentration, Sherlock can retrieve such minute details as the design on a matchbox left on a side table. It is an effective way of dramatizing his amplified cognition without reducing Holmes’s intellect to the earlier cartoonish riff on Good Will Hunting.
Shou’an, meanwhile, makes for a compelling heroine. Drawn into the broader mystery, she is a gifted martial artist, and her fight sequences are among the series’ highlights. Ritchie has long liked to fuse Sherlock Holmes with hand-to-hand combat, as he did in his Robert Downey Jr. films, reimagining Holmes as a bare-knuckle boxer. Appreciably, Shou’an is not presented as some implausible superwoman who effortlessly flings aside men twice her size. Despite her Mulan-like prowess, she is bested more than once by a towering Turkish henchman (Numan Acar); the series wisely emphasizes that her greatest strengths are cunning, adaptability, and intelligence — qualities central to any serious Sherlock adaptation.
Colin Firth also turns up in a regrettably minor role as Sir Bucephalus Hodge, a facetious and affluent Oxford patron. Firth commands such effortless authority through even mere facial movement that it quickly becomes apparent how formidable a talent he is, especially among the younger cast. He constantly seesaws between affability and menace, making it difficult to tell whose side he is really on. That same sense of instability runs throughout the plot as the mystery widens and loyalties grow harder to parse.
Beneath Ritchie’s reliable filmmaking gimmickry lies an equally compelling thread about fatherhood and family. Sherlock deeply admires his father, Silas (Joseph Fiennes), but as he digs further into the case, he begins to uncover uncomfortable truths about both his family and his own assumptions, so much so that he briefly comes to doubt even his own deductions. Extending beyond the mere solving of a mystery, the central tension becomes deciding whether loyalty ought to reside with blood, the law, or some higher moral principle. That struggle gives Sherlock’s coming-of-age story greater weight. For all the liberties the series takes with his swashbuckling youth, he remains recognizably Holmesian in a sense that he is a moralist, even when morality makes his life more difficult.
Young Moriarty, by contrast, is portrayed as a scholarship student with little money and no real family to speak of. To the show’s credit, it resists the lazy modern temptation to gloss over evil as merely the byproduct of hardship or institutional unfairness — or, in the case of an Irishman, the bitter and corrupting pangs of British oppression. Moriarty’s emerging psychopathy is instead presented as an innate defect of character, making it all the more unsettling because it cannot be neatly rationalized as a social grievance.
Ritchie also retains his flair for music. A nice touch throughout the series is the way the soundtrack adapts to its various settings. As Sherlock’s pursuit carries him from Oxford to London to Paris — where the locals are found indulging in France’s national pastime of violent revolutionary upheaval — and onward to Constantinople, the jukebox shifts accordingly, playing upbeat rock covers performed in the respective local languages. It is a playful stylistic flourish, and an effective one.
Purists will inevitably object that innumerable details are wrong or that the Victorian gentleman of Conan Doyle’s stories could never plausibly have been such a bruised and brash rebel in his youth. But such objections are mostly beside the point. &#8220;Young Sherlock&#8221; is not attempting some canonical reconstruction of Holmes’s beginnings. It is trying to be a stylish, energetic, and entertaining prehistory of a beloved character, and on those terms it succeeds. Bolstered by strong performances, a beautiful and immersive world, a well-written script, and an engagingly unpredictable mystery, &#8220;Young Sherlock&#8221; is a polished and thoroughly enjoyable series well worth your attention.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/Harry1T6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at BetweenBottles.com.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
</div>

“Young Sherlock” World Premiere – Arrivals

The Sherlock Origin Story That Skips The Modern Lectures

Amazon Prime

Mystery

In a stunning twist in the months-long war between Netflix and Paramount over which company would purchase Warner Bros., the streaming giant has <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-backs-out-warners-deal-paramount-win-1236516763/">bowed out</a>.
After Warner Bros. released a statement on Thursday saying that the company’s board of directors viewed Paramount’s latest offer as a “<a href="https://ir.wbd.com/news-and-events/financial-news/financial-news-details/2026/Warner-Bros--Discovery-Board-of-Directors-Determines-Revised-Proposal-from-Paramount-Skydance-Constitutes-a-Company-Superior-Proposal/default.aspx">superior proposal</a>,” and that Netflix had four days to respond, the streamer backed out of the bidding war.
&#8220;Under the terms of the Netflix merger agreement, this notice triggers a four business day period during which Netflix has the right to propose revisions to the Netflix merger agreement so that the PSKY proposal would cease to constitute a &#8216;Company Superior Proposal,'&#8221; Warner Bros. stated in their <a href="https://ir.wbd.com/news-and-events/financial-news/financial-news-details/2026/Warner-Bros--Discovery-Board-of-Directors-Determines-Revised-Proposal-from-Paramount-Skydance-Constitutes-a-Company-Superior-Proposal/default.aspx">press release</a>.
Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters responded in a <a href="https://ir.netflix.net/investor-news-and-events/financial-releases/press-release-details/2026/Netflix-Declines-to-Raise-Offer-for-Warner-Bros-/default.aspx">statement</a> of their own.
“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid,” Sarandos and Peters said.
The company heads added that they believe Netflix would have taken good care of the Warner Bros. IP (intellectual property) and “strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.”
“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” they concluded.
Paramount’s most recent bid raised the per-share price to $31, and featured a ticking fee, which would have paid shareholders if the deal took too long to come to fruition. Additionally, the company offered a $7 billion breakup fee, which would be paid if the deal were to fall through due to regulatory issues, and a nearly $3 billion fee that Warner Bros. owes Netflix as a result of their prior deal not materializing.
Netflix’s last offer was valued at $82.7 billion, and was aimed at purchasing Warner Bros.’ film and streaming divisions (HBO Max), as well as DC Comics. Paramount, on the other hand, would be purchasing all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its linear and cable TV networks.
There has been much consternation in Hollywood, especially following the Disney-Fox acquisition, over the Warner Bros. bidding war, with many in the industry voicing concerns that further media consolidation would do irreparable damage to the movie and TV business, with lost jobs and fewer options for creatives.
Though neither company (Paramount or Netflix) were favored by those in the industry, Netflix was viewed with a particularly skeptical eye as some questioned the streaming giant’s commitment to the theatrical experience. Others view Paramount CEO David Ellison&#8217;s apparently close relationship with the Trump administration as a reason for pause.

There’s A Winner In The Netflix/Paramount Bidding War

Business

Movies

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.
***
&#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,&#8221; which aired the final episode of its first season on Sunday, has become <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/ratings/knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-the-pitt-season-2-viewership-1236667803/">incredibly popular</a>, even among many conservatives who are otherwise critical of George R.R. Martin’s &#8220;Game of Thrones&#8221; universe. Movie reviewer The Critical Drinker <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRAoyJ493N4">called it</a> &#8220;probably the best show on TV right now.&#8221;
Many on the Right have long accused &#8220;Game of Thrones&#8221; of being dark and nihilistic and subverting traditional notions of heroism. Prequel &#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms&#8221; lacks those flaws: Its protagonist, Dunk, is a clearly good person who sets out on a hero’s journey. While he’s not perfect, he’s strong and good-hearted. As he travels throughout the world, he meets compelling side characters, overcomes adversity and danger, and becomes a better, wiser person in the process.
As is typical for HBO, the series is brilliantly shot, acted, scored, and so forth. The story is well written, and you get a real sense of the characters even when they have limited screen time. Some of the more childish humor doesn’t land well, but my primary critique of &#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms&#8221; is a good one to have: It was too short. The show is excellent, and its message is a lot more complex than it may seem. (Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of &#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.&#8221;)
After the death of Dunk’s mentor and surrogate father, Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk decides to compete in a tournament. On his way, he meets a boy with a shaved head who calls himself Egg. Egg, innocent but suspiciously well-informed about the world, wants to squire for Dunk. Dunk, however, encounters a problem: None of the lords remember who Arlan was, let alone will vouch for Dunk’s claim to be a knight — nobody, except for Prince Baelor Targaryen, the wise, even-tempered, and honorable heir apparent to the Iron Throne. With that settled, Dunk prepares to compete.
When Baelor’s nephew Aerion attacks a puppeteer over a play, Dunk leaps to her defense. Aerion’s guards subdue Dunk, but before they can do him any harm, Egg reveals himself to be Aerion’s younger brother Aegon. Dunk now has to fight for his very life: He must find six champions to fight in a trial by combat against Aerion and his six. Unexpectedly, Baelor takes Dunk’s side over that of the rest of his family because, despite the political considerations, he’s convinced of the righteousness of Dunk’s cause. Dunk prevails, only for Baelor to be accidentally slain by a blow to the head from his own brother, Maekar, the father of Aerion and Egg. In the aftermath, Dunk agrees to take Egg on as his squire, and the two head out on the road together to future adventures.
What complicates things is that Dunk’s story may all be built on a lie. The show strongly hints Dunk was never knighted by Arlan. That means that he had no right to take Egg on as a squire, no right to compete in the tournament, and no right to demand a trial by combat. Had he not told that lie, none of the events surrounding the tournament would have happened, and Baelor and the others who died in his defense would still be alive. I did not like this theory at first because I felt it besmirched Dunk’s character and the righteousness of his cause. And in one sense, it does. But in another sense, it makes the character all the more compelling.
It shows that heroism is not the sole province of the morally unblemished. If Dunk did lie, he did the wrong thing — yet it was his moral courage that got him into trouble. Regardless of whether he was one or not, Dunk still did what any true knight should have done by defending a woman from Aerion’s cruelty. Egg did the right thing by standing by Dunk and rallying men to his side. And Baelor did the right thing by putting his life on the line to defend Dunk against Baelor&#8217;s own family.
The prince’s demise is a blow to the royal family and to the whole realm, and Dunk personally feels guilt for his part in depriving the Seven Kingdoms of what would have been a great king. And yet, Dunk doesn’t take the understandable path of wallowing in his own culpability. He does the only thing he can do: try to live his life in a way that makes Baelor’s sacrifice worth it. And the best way he can do that is to shape Baelor’s good-natured but impressionable nephew Aegon into a virtuous man.
The message of &#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms&#8220; is this: A hero is not a perfect person. A hero is an imperfect person who chooses to do the right thing anyway. In the short term, heroes are not always rewarded, no matter if you’re Baelor Targaryen or Ned Stark of &#8220;Game of Thrones.&#8221; But even so, it’s still important to do the right thing — both for its own sake and because it inspires the people watching you to follow in your footsteps. In our own fallen, imperfect world, that’s a lesson that’s both aspirational and applicable.
While George R.R. Martin is no conservative, his writing speaks to timeless human principles and nature that conservatives accept and liberals reject. &#8220;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms&#8221; is doubtless a more traditional story than is typical for Martin. And yet, it still explores what he describes as the key theme of his work: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/george-rr-martin-on-sex-fantasy-and-a-dance-with-dragons/241738">the human heart, in conflict with itself</a>. On that topic Dunk the Lunk, thick as a castle wall though he is, has a lot to teach us.
* * *
Stephan Kapustka is a writer at the American Spectator. Follow him on X <a href="https://x.com/SteveKapustka">@SteveKapustka</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” Special Screening

Hollywood Makes A Story Where Doing The Right Thing Still Matters

Culture

A judge for the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) has resigned after a man with Tourette’s syndrome shouted the n-word during Sunday night’s televised ceremony, sparking backlash over how the incident was handled.
Jonte Richardson resigned from BAFTA&#8217;s emerging talent judging panel, calling the organization&#8217;s handling of the situation “utterly unforgivable,” Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/awards/bafta-jury-member-steps-down-over-n-word-incident-1236671070/">reported</a>.
The controversy began when Tourette&#8217;s advocate John Davidson shouted the slur while actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for Best Visual Effects. Both presenters are black, and the moment drew particular criticism given the word&#8217;s history and the setting.
Davidson has said Tourette&#8217;s syndrome includes <a href="https://tourette.org/resource/understanding-coprolalia/">coprolalia</a>, a vocal tic that can involve &#8220;involuntary outburst of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.&#8221; He and advocacy groups said the symptom was responsible for the slur shouted during the presentation. 
“I cannot and will not contribute my time, energy, and expertise to an organization that has repeatedly failed to safeguard the dignity of its black guests, members, and the black creative community,” Richardson <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/bafta-jury-member-quits-jonte-richardson-tourettes-awards-1236513461/#:~:text=Jonte%20Richardson%20posted%20on%20social,By%20Lily%20Ford">said</a> in a statement.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/friendly-fire?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_content=20260224_sotu_aa_desktop&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=banner" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Watch the State of the Union with The Daily Wire! Live coverage from the nation’s capital begins at 7:45 ET.</a>
BAFTA and the BBC, which broadcast the remarks, are facing backlash for initially airing the ceremony without editing out the slur. 
Following the incident, the event host, BAFTA, and Davidson each issued apologies. Davidson said he was “deeply mortified” by what occurred. 
“You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience. Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone,&#8221; host Alan Cumming said immediately afterward.
“I can only add that I am and always have been deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning,” Davidson said in a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tourettes-campaigner-john-davidson-statement-apology-bafta-1236512771/">statement</a> to The Hollywood Reporter. 
Davidson said he appreciated that the audience had been warned in advance that his tics are involuntary and not reflective of his beliefs, adding that he was &#8220;heartened&#8221; by applause that followed. He said he later chose to leave the ceremony early because he was &#8220;aware of the distress&#8221; the incident had caused.  
Davidson also said he has &#8220;spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette&#8217;s community&#8221; and remains committed to promoting empathy and understanding.
In its own statement, BAFTA acknowledged that guests &#8220;heard very offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many” and apologized for the &#8220;harm this has caused&#8221; while thanking Davidson for &#8220;his dignity and consideration.&#8221;
The U.K.-based charity Tourette’s Action also issued a statement stressing that Davidson&#8217;s remarks were involuntary.
In a statement <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVGnQbrjh2d/">posted</a> to Instagram, Tourette&#8217;s Action said it was &#8220;deeply sorry to the black community for the harm caused&#8221; while emphasizing that tics are &#8220;not a reflection of a person’s beliefs, intentions, or character.”
The organization added that people with Tourette&#8217;s might say words they do not mean or endorse because the symptoms are neurological, not intentional, and said media backlash over the incident &#8220;has been extremely saddening.&#8221;

Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo

Live Awards Show Racial Slur Ignites Firestorm And Debate Over Tourette’s

United Kingdom

World

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.
***
As a girl dad, I was horrified by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-sisters-were-abducted-by-a-man-who-groomed-them-on-roblox">recent story</a> about two girls in Florida who were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/grooming">groomed</a> online by a man they met through the gaming platform Roblox. He lured the girls into trusting him and then abducted them. Thankfully, law enforcement intervened before the worst happened. But the relief of a rescue should not blunt the warning embedded in this story.
It may be fair to direct our outrage at the platform, lax moderation, or the internet itself. But focusing only on the digital predator misses a deeper and more uncomfortable truth: Children who are guided at home are far harder to groom.
This isn’t to say the family in this case was negligent or uncaring. But if you’re a parent, the biggest thing you can do to protect your children online is not to buy new parental control software or limit their screentime. The best way to help your kids is to let them know that you’re present, you’re listening, and you’re there to provide guidance.
Our culture has lowered expectations for fathers, especially when it comes to vigilance, authority, and involvement. And when fathers retreat from those roles, children are left exposed, not just online, but everywhere.
Predators start with attention. They look for children who are bored, lonely, unsure, unsupervised, or unseen. They exploit curiosity and emotional gaps long before they exploit technology. Online platforms don’t create those vulnerabilities. They reveal them.
For decades now, we’ve told men, explicitly and implicitly, that fatherhood is unessential. Nowhere is that message reinforced more consistently than on television. The modern TV father is rarely a figure of authority or competence. He’s the lovable idiot or the well-meaning buffoon.
In Modern Family, one of the most popular sitcoms of the past two decades, patriarch Phil Dunphy is charming, enthusiastic, and affectionate, but he’s also chronically unserious. When real decisions need to be made, he’s not the one calling the shots.
Look at Homer Simpson, perhaps the most influential fictional dad in American pop culture. For generations, he’s been the butt of The Simpsons’ jokes. Sitcoms and movies treat fathers as nothing but punchlines. 
When our culture tells us fatherhood is unnecessary, we shouldn’t be surprised when real men absorb the message. You don’t have to be absent to be disengaged. You just have to believe that your presence doesn’t really matter.
An engaged father changes everything. I know what my kids are playing and watching because we talk about it. We discuss what brings them joy and what bothers them. Rather than judging their decisions, I start conversations about them. I am their content filter.
Predators rely on secrecy, isolation, and emotional manipulation to operate. When kids are seen, protected, and navigating life with their fathers, it rips the pages from that playbook.
When regular conversation and open communication between a parent and child, especially a father, is the norm, it becomes easier for kids to recognize evil. And when it’s revealed, the “I didn’t know who to tell” moment never arrives because someone has already been listening.
This is where modern parenting often goes wrong. We’ve outsourced too much responsibility to screens and software. We trust parental controls more than parental presence. We assume that because a platform markets itself as “safe,” our role has diminished. It hasn’t. It has intensified.
Fatherhood now requires engagement in spaces our fathers never had to patrol. That can feel unfamiliar. But discomfort is not an excuse for abdication. A dad doesn’t need to be a gamer to ask questions. He doesn’t need to understand every app to establish rules. He doesn’t need technical mastery to exercise authority. He needs willingness: a willingness to say no, to exert authority, and to ask questions.
One of those questions should be, “Who are you talking to?” Too many fathers fear this type of confrontation with their kids. But failing to engage opens up avenues of exploitation that far outweigh the consequences of an uncomfortable conversation. 
Children seek connection. If they aren’t finding it at home, they will find it elsewhere. The internet is not just a playground. It’s a marketplace of attention. And predators know how to sell.
Strong fatherhood fills that void before it opens.
Children are not equipped to navigate adult dangers alone, especially in a digital world designed to blur age, identity, and intent. We should absolutely demand accountability from tech companies. We should support law enforcement. We should aggressively prosecute predators. But we should also confront the cultural lie that says fathers are spectators in their children’s lives.
When fathers step up, visibly, confidently, and consistently, kids are safer — not perfectly safe, but safer.
The story of these girls should make us not only angry but also serious about supervision, involvement, and reclaiming the role of fathers as protectors. The internet didn’t create this danger. It simply exposed what happens when we pretend that presence doesn’t matter. It does. And a father’s presence matters more than he can ever know. 
* * *
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Illustration of father and child share a tender moment on a sunny terrace with plants and solar panel

Menu

TV