Mashable

Sorry to disappoint, but if you're looking for a quick list of foolproof ways for detecting AI-generated videos, you're not going to find it here. Gone are the days of AI Will Smith grotesquely eating spaghetti. Yes, there are some tells, but AI video makers are getting better all the time, and the latest tools can create convincing, photorealistic videos with a few clicks.

Right now, AI-generated videos are still a relatively nascent modality compared to AI-generated text, images, and audio, because getting all the details right is a challenge that requires a lot of high-quality data. "But there's no fundamental obstacle to getting higher quality data," only labor-intensive work, said Siwei Lyu, a professor of computer science and engineering at University at Buffalo SUNY.

In the past six months, AI video generators have become so good at creating realistic videos that they often dupe the casual scroller. Telltale artifacts that used to give the game away, such as morphing faces and shape-shifting objects, are seen far less frequently. There's not much fakery in evidence in the viral AI-generated videos of the emotional support kangaroo, bunnies on a trampoline, or street interviews made with Google's Veo 3 model (which can generate sound with videos).

The key to identifying AI-generated videos, as with any AI modality, lies in AI literacy. "Understanding that [AI technologies] are growing and having that core idea of 'something I'm seeing could be generated by AI,' is more important than, say, individual cues," said Lyu, who is the director of UB's Media Forensic Lab. 

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Navigating the AI slop-infested web requires using your online savvy and good judgment to recognize when something might be off. It's your best defense against being duped by AI deepfakes, disinformation, or just low-quality junk. It's a hard skill to develop, because every aspect of the online world fights against it in a bid for your attention. But the good news is, it's possible to fine-tune your AI detection instincts.

"By studying [AI-generated images], we think people can improve their AI literacy," said Negar Kamali, an AI research scientist at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, who co-authored a guide to identifying AI-generated images. "Even if I don't see any artifacts [indicating AI-generation], my brain immediately thinks, 'Oh, something is off,'" added Kamali, who has studied thousands of AI-generated images. "Even if I don't find the artifact, I cannot say for sure that it's real, and that's what we want."

What to look out for: Imposter videos vs. text-to-image videos

Before we get into identifying AI-generated videos, let's distinguish the different types. AI-generated videos are generally divided into two different categories: Imposter videos and videos generated by a text-to-image diffusion model.

Imposter videos are AI-edited videos that consist of face swapping — where a person's entire face is swapped out for someone else's (usually a celebrity or politician) and made to say something fake — and lip syncing — where a person's mouth is subtly manipulated and replaced with different audio.

Imposter videos: why regulators are cracking down

Imposter videos are generally pretty convincing; the technology has been around longer, and they build off of existing footage instead of generating something from scratch. Remember those Tom Cruise deepfake videos from a few years ago that went viral for being so convincing? They worked because the creator, Chris Ume, looked a lot like Tom Cruise, worked with a professional Tom Cruise impersonator, and did lots of minute editing, according to an interview with Ume, via The Verge.

These days, there are an abundance of apps out there that accomplish the same thing and can even — terrifyingly — include audio from a short sound bite that the creator finds online.

That said, there are some things to look for if you suspect an AI video deepfake. First of all, look at the format of the video. AI video deepfakes are typically "shot" in a talking-head format, where you can just see the heads and shoulders of the speaker, with their arms out of view (more on that in a minute). 

To identify face swaps, look for flaws or artifacts around the boundaries of the face. "You typically see artifacts when the head moves obliquely to camera," said digital forensics expert and UC Berkeley Professor of Computer Science Hany Farid. As for the arms and hands, "If the hand moves, or something occludes the face, [the image] will glitch a little bit," Farid continued. And watch the arms and body for natural movements. "If all you're seeing is this," — on our Zoom call, Farid keeps his arms stiff and by his sides — "and the person's not moving at all, it's fake." 

If you suspect a lip sync, focus your attention on the subject's mouth — especially the teeth. With fakes, "We have seen people who have irregularly shaped teeth," or the number of teeth change throughout the video, said Lyu. Another strange sign to look out for is "wobbling of the lower half" of the face, said Lyu. "There's a technical procedure where you have to exactly match that person's face," he said. "As I'm talking, I'm moving my face a lot, and that alignment, if you got just a little bit of imprecision there, human eyes are able to tell." This gives the bottom half of the face a more liquid, rubbery effect.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

When it comes to AI deepfakes, Aruna Sankaranarayanan, a Research Assistant at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, says her biggest concern isn't deepfakes of the most famous politicians in the world like Donald Trump or Joe Biden, but of important figures who may not be as well known. "Fabrication coming from them, distorting certain facts, when you don't know what they look like or sound like most of the time, that's really hard to disprove," said Sankaranarayanan, whose work focuses on political deepfakes. Again, this is when AI literacy comes into play; videos like these require some research to verify or debunk.

In April 2025, Congress passed the Take It Down Act, making it a federal crime or post or share nonconsensual intimate imagery. Another bill called the NO FAKES Act is making its way through the Senate; this aims to provide legal protections against AI-generated replicas.

How to spot text-to-image videos

While regulators are cracking down on imposter videos, text-to-image generators have exploded in popularity. You can now generate AI videos directly within ChatGPT and Google Gemini. And Luma, Kling, and Freepik are just a few of the other alternatives of easy-access video generators that have proliferated online.

With a short text description, you can generate any kind of video your imagination dreams up. The majority of AI-generated videos shared online fall into the category of, "Hey, look what I can do with this cool new technology." This can range from the absurd, like a cat jumping off an Olympic diving board, to the downright misleading, like fake videos of hurricane damage. But all of it contributes to a confusing, dystopian experience, where it's harder and harder to separate AI-generated fiction from reality.

What's more, many accounts circulating AI-generated videos are profiting from the clickbait by deliberately deceiving users. On TikTok, it's practically impossible to know whether that creator selling you the latest skincare product is AI-generated or not. AI-generated videos made with TikTok's tools are automatically disclosed, but that doesn't stop users from uploading AI-generated or edited videos made with tools outside of the platform.

You can try looking for context clues, the experts say. Farid said to look out for "temporal inconsistencies," such as "the building added a story, or the car changed colors, things that are physically not possible," he said. "And often it's away from the center of attention that where that's happening." So, hone in on the background details. You might see unnaturally smooth or warped objects, or a person's size change as they walk around a building, said Lyu.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. SEE ALSO: AI actors and deepfakes aren't coming to YouTube ads. They're already here.

Kamali says to look for "sociocultural implausibilities" or context clues where the reality of the situation doesn't seem plausible. "You don't immediately see the telltales, but you feel that something is off — like an image of Biden and Obama wearing pink suits," or the Pope in a Balenciaga puffer jacket. 

The artifacts may change, but good judgment remains.

But relying too much on certain cues to verify whether a video is AI-generated could get you into trouble. 

Lyu's 2018 paper about detecting AI-generated videos because the subjects didn't blink properly was widely publicized in the AI community. As a result, people started looking for eye-blinking defects, but as the technology progressed, so did more natural blinks. "People started to think if there's a good eye blinking, it must not be a deepfake and that's the danger," said Lyu. "We actually want to raise awareness but not latch on particular artifacts, because the artifacts are going to be amended." 

Building the awareness that something might be AI-generated will "trigger a whole sequence of action," said Lyu. "Check, who's sharing this? Is this person reliable? Are there any other sources correlating on the same story, and has this been verified by some other means? I think those are the things the most effective counter measures for deepfakes."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

For Farid, identifying AI-generated videos and misleading deepfakes starts with where you source your information. Take the AI-generated images that circulated on social media in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Most of them were pretty obviously fake, but they still had an emotional affect on people. "Even when these things are not very good, it doesn't mean that they don't penetrate, it doesn't mean that it doesn't sort of impact the way people absorb information," he said.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Be cautious about getting your news from social media. "If the image feels like clickbait, it is clickbait," said Farid before adding it all comes down to media literacy. Think about who posted the video and why it was created. "You can't just look at something on Twitter and being like, 'Oh, that must be true, let me share it.'" 

If you're suspicious about AI-generated content, check other sources to see if they're also sharing it, and if it all looks the same. As Lyu says, "a deepfake only looks real from one angle." Search for other angles of the instance in question. Farid recommends sites like Snopes and Politifact, which debunk misinformation and disinformation. As we all continue to navigate the rapidly changing AI landscape, it's going to be crucial to do the work — and trust your gut.

How are AI companies labeling AI-generated videos?

Some AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, have ways of labeling their AI-generated videos as such. With every video generated by Veo, Google has embedded an invisible watermark called SynthID. After the launch of Veo 3 caused a wave of concern, the company also added a visible watermark labeling it as AI-generated.

OpenAI, Adobe, and other companies label their AI-generated videos and images with invisible watermarks using a technical standard developed by the nonprofit Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).

While visible watermarks may seem like an obvious solution, they can also be easily removed. And there's the question of whether they even matter. A study from Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) recently found visible labels indicating AI-generated content "may not change its persuasiveness." After all, we're used to all sorts of meaningless logos on viral videos; it's easy to visually tune them out.

Invisible watermarks, on the other hand, are baked into the metadata. This makes them harder to remove and easier to track.

Standards like C2PA are a step in the right direction, but right now, it's up to the companies to voluntarily adhere to these standards. Perhaps one day, those standards will be enforced by regulators. In the meantime, our best bets are still sound judgement and strong media literacy.

A new study has returned to a popular Milky Way attraction, formed by a fast-spinning dead star core that scientists say is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the galaxy. 

At the heart of this colorful nebula is a so-called pulsar, a type of neutron star that blasts streams of high-energy particles through space as it revolves like a lighthouse beacon. This thing is what remains of a massive star that suffered a supernova explosion. 

By adding radio data to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory image, astronomers can now see that some of the features don't match up at different light wavelengths, suggesting scientists still don't fully understand how the pulsar wind interacts with the leftover supernova debris.  

Researchers hope that by further probing the mysterious object, MSH 15-52, they can learn how this type of event creates high-energy particles, some of which may become cosmic rays that could eventually reach Earth. 

SEE ALSO: NASA spacecraft snaps photo of Earth from across the solar system

The Chandra observatory took an image of the nebula more than 15 years ago. Recently, scientists used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to make detailed radio maps of this region in space, then combined them with the X-ray data. The findings from that work are published in The Astrophysical Journal. 

At about 1,700 years old, MSH 15-52, sometimes called the "cosmic hand" or "hand of God" for its unusual shape, is one of the youngest-known nebulas formed by pulsar wind. Located about 17,000 light-years away in the constellation Circinus, it's also quite large, dwarfing the famous Crab Nebula. The hand stretches about 150 light-years.

That's hard to imagine, given that the pulsar itself — the thing responsible for this scene — is only about 12 miles wide. But, make no mistake, it's fast and powerful. The pulsar spins seven times per second. For the millennials out there, that's about as fast as a CD revolves in a Discman. And the pulsar's magnetic field is about 30 million times stronger than the most powerful steady magnet ever built on Earth.

In the new composite image, gold represents hydrogen gas in visible light, red represents radio waves, and blue, orange, and yellow represent X-rays. The "fingers" look purple where radio and X-rays overlap.

Particles from the pulsar form a bubble of glowing gas. The system is also linked to the surrounding supernova debris, RCW 89, the remains of the massive star explosion that created the pulsar. The new radio data reveals threadlike filaments that could result from the collision of the pulsar's wind with the supernova's debris.

Threadlike filaments revealed in new radio data trace the directions of the nebula's magnetic field. Credit: NASA / CXC / S. Zhang et al / ATNF / CSIRO / ATCA / UK STFC / Royal Observatory Edinburgh / SAO / N. Wolk

Some bright X-ray features, like the pulsar's jet and fingerlike shapes, don't show up in radio waves. This means the particles that produce them are a higher-energy source.

"Highly energetic particles are leaking out from a shock wave — similar to a supersonic plane's sonic boom — near the pulsar,"  according to the Chandra X-ray Observatory, "and moving along magnetic field lines to create the fingers." 

For the supernova remnant, the radio waves match up with bright knots seen in X-rays and visible light. But surprisingly, that radio glow extends much farther, leaving the researchers somewhat baffled.  

To get to the bottom of the mystery, scientists will likely need more detailed computer models.

In ye olde days of the early internet, porn was genuinely hard to come by. The rise of ASCII porn in the '80s (seriously, look it up, if you dare) gave way to early peer-to-peer networks, sharing grainy imagery. Then, the World Wide Web helped early cyber-pornstars mint a fortune with their own web pages — but you had to get to grips with modems first.

When broadband got faster, tube sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube began to spit out free (often pirated) content in the mid-'00s, before smartphones saw people switch to the smaller screen. OnlyFans, launched in 2016, changed the game by removing the barrier to entry of making adult content and popularizing the subscription-based model.

SEE ALSO: Porn censorship is going to destroy the entire internet

Still, Pornhub dominates in terms of traffic, with over a billion site visits last month compared to around 280 million for OnlyFans, according to Similarweb. Now, the floodgates for explicit content will open even further with Pornhub Shorties, a brand-spanking-new feature that's still being tested.

What is Pornhub Shorties?

Pornhub Shorties is a lot like Instagram Reels, but for porn: fast, dynamic videos presented in a vertical, scrollable format. Think cutdowns of longer videos, snappy jerk-off instructions, and instant money shots. It's something that users on Reddit have been predicting for the last few years (and, as many have lamented, it should really have been called "Quickies," right?).

It quietly launched in beta in March 2024 and has been gradually appearing on users' and creators' devices since. While Pornhub is hush-hush about a hard launch date, it's likely coming soon, considering the feature is already accessible.

Shorties' launch is no big surprise. After all, vertical content is now king. People hold their phones vertically 94 percent of the time, and the vast majority of all Pornhub traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices, so ensuring it's optimised for phone viewing is obvious stuff. 

Plus, for years, Pornhub's content has been lagging behind; many of its videos are uploaded in landscape format, meaning you have to turn your phone around (and, crucially, use two very precious hands) if you want to watch in full screen.

More portrait porn, then, is clearly the way forward. "Porn reflects and shapes the media environment. It makes sense that Pornhub would have its own TikTok dupe of vertically filmed videos that are easy to view on your phone," says Hallie Lieberman, a sex historian and journalist. Especially, when it uses a scrolling mechanism that we've been so accustomed — and addicted — to. "Scrolling allows us to titrate for potency and novelty. The result is a state of hypnotic lassitude that is hard to break free from," says psychiatrist and Dopamine Nation author Anna Lembke. Doomscrolling is now firmly ingrained in our collective consciousness.

Ironically, all this vertical content encroaches on our horizontal time. According to a recent YouGov survey, 87 percent of Britons look at their phone or tablet within an hour of going to sleep. With many of us spending time thumbing away in the bedroom — and porn frequently consumed at night — it makes sense that Shorties is now vying for our increasingly atrophied attention and tapping into our desire to keep scrolling.

But what's the payoff? Well, for creators, it's supposedly just that. With Shorties being increasingly promoted, engaging with the platform could reward people with better reach and revenue (also like Reels). But Pornhub's track history in the industry isn't rosy; the tube site laid the groundwork for the porn "gig economy" that OnlyFans and others foster. And, as of February this year, the average amount earned per 1,000 streams is just $0.69.

Lola May, a 23-year-old adult content creator who also goes by the alias Saint Bunnie, has seen some early (dollar) signs of success. "I first came across Shorties a few months ago when one of my vertical videos had the option in the upload screen and I thought I'd give it a try," she says. Her Shorties portfolio, so far, features short blowjob scenes and stripteases. "Based on the views on my videos comparatively, I can't really tell how much the algorithm is pushing them, but I feel like they're definitely doing better than just uploading as a normal video in the vertical format."

The bonus, she says, is that they offer a platform for "low-pressure" vertical videos and "additional cell phone footage" that might not usually perform well. But to make money via ad revenue, you really need a money shot. "I think the key to Shorties is: action, action, action. I've tried teasing style videos, but it's Pornhub, so they never do as well as straight action."

This instant excitement is part of the attraction for viewers. Shorties promises tailored, quick-fix content that can be shuffled through without the need to hit up the search bar. Unlike a self-curated Pornhub Playlist, there is no end to Shorties; it's an unlimited buffet of all-you-can-view porn. A quick flick through Shorties, on a newly-registered account, reveals a focus on the most popular porn categories: Milf, Amateur, and, unnervingly, a lot of Teen. Size matters, too: "Big Ass" tags and "big tiddy" captions abound. And as expected, it's all about in media res action; until, that is, my scroll is briefly interrupted by a full-size ad for AI porn.

The traction for vertical seems, so far, surprisingly slow. According to Pornhub's Year in Review 2024, Vertical was the shortest-watched category, with the average view time clocking in at four minutes and 14 seconds. "They pop in to get the job done and they're out, no time for browsing!" chirps the report. However, it seems to be chiming with younger viewers. Pornhub's statisticians found that 18-24 year olds were the most likely (+392 percent than other age groups, apparently) to view Vertical videos. 

A spokesperson for Pornhub shared more positive thinking: "Our new vertical platform, Shorties, is currently in beta, but early feedback from both users and creators has been very positive. We are excited about the creativity and engagement it is already generating, and we look forward to sharing more information when it officially launches later this year." 

The spokesperson didn't answer a follow-up question asking to clarify the positive feedback. But if it is hooking in viewers, could their growing engagement turn into indulgence?

Will Pornhub Shorties encourage gooning?

Pornhub will likely be banking on Shorties to make its website even stickier thanks to the power of short-form video. As Lembke explains, short-form "activates our brain's reward pathway, providing 24/7 access to potent, frictionless pleasure with minimal up-front work."

There's a chance that Shorties will also feed into another growing phenomenon: gooning. To goon is neither a bag of wine nor a synonym for "idiot" in this case. Instead, it means spending an extended amount of time masturbating, sometimes without climax. It's edging on steroids (or, Viagra, maybe). Online, gooning has become an entire subculture, where proponents try to enter a meditative "goon state" and share experiences, a little like Erowid if you swapped trips for death grips. 

Could goonscrolling become a thing, combining two pathways to compulsive behaviour?

Lembke thinks so, and that it could exacerbate issues for people who can't stop watching porn. "Pornhub is copying the same short-form video format that has been so successful for other digital platforms. The experiment has already been done...the short form videos adapted to pornography will only increase the potency and risk of addiction." 

SEE ALSO: I wore out my swiping finger to find the best hookup apps

The anti-masturbation NoFap community is similarly concerned. "This is sad. They're attacking us with all the powers they have in them. We're truly cooked," reads one top comment on a Reddit thread about Shorties.

May, the Pornhub creator, is also anxious. "I definitely think that Shorties can have some negative effects on those who already struggle to moderate their porn intake. Porn addiction is beginning to become a huge issue, especially for young people, and it can lead to some pretty serious problems in relationships," she says. 

"I would like to see some kind of moderation on the length of time spent on Shorties in a future update." She pointed out TikTok's pop-up if a user has spent a "concerning" amount of time scrolling, and believes it would benefit Pornhub to add something similar. 

"It's easy to get lost in doomscrolling, and it can be even easier to get lost doomscrolling porn," May says.

Porn addiction, though, isn't a medically accepted diagnosis. Many scientists believe that moral incongruence surrounding porn use (in other words, feeling guilty) is the best indicator of self-diagnosed issues surrounding porn use. Lieberman agrees with this thesis, and she also doesn't think the new feature will lead to wild, unadulterated masturbation sessions. "I'm not afraid that Shorties will transform America into a country of gooners with an endless stream of porn," she says.

It's easy to get lost in doomscrolling, and it can be even easier to get lost doomscrolling porn. - adult content creator Lola May

And there's no certainty that Shorties will even be able to harness the mindless scrolling of other social media platforms. "I'm not sure if people will end up being sucked into Shorties in the same way they are sucked into Instagram Reels and TikTok," Lieberman continues. After all, even the horniest of us are unlikely to start scrolling through quickfire bukkake while simultaneously "watching" telly.

Perhaps the fate of Shorties lies in the power of its secret algorithm. Again, Lieberman isn't too worried. "If it's a choice between algorithms driving people to masturbate more versus algorithms driving people to crazy conspiracy theories, I'd choose the masturbation." 

But there is already widespread concern surrounding other platforms' shadowy algorithms and how they serve provocative content to keep users hooked. Earlier this year, for example, Meta had to apologise after Instagram users were suddenly flooded with extraordinarily graphic Reels. It's unclear whether the same could happen with Shorties. 

Or maybe Shorties will prove to be a damp squib due to deeply-embedded porn habits and go the way of that freaky ASCII stuff: straight into the deleted history of the internet.

KPop Demon Hunters is a phenomenon that's only growing. 

The Netflix release focuses on a trio of K-pop idols called HUNTR/X who not only lay down devastatingly catching songs but also battle deadly demons, including the dastardly alluring boy band called Saja Boys.

The combination of enthralling action, swoon-worthy romance, total squad goals, and a banging soundtrack has made the film massively popular on the streaming service. Since its June debut, KPop Demon Hunters has become Netflix's most-watched animated movie ever, and is currently the second most-watched Netflix movie of all time. (Watch out, Red Notice; HUNTR/X is on your tail!) 

Meanwhile, the soundtrack for KPop Demon Hunters debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart. And as I write this, "Golden," a HUNTR/X track from the film, is currently number two on the Hot 100 Chart, while Saja Boys' "Your Idol" is at number four and "Soda Pop" is at number 10.

There's no escaping KPop Demon Hunters, and this is the perfect weekend to give in, because the movie that's got Netflix users hooked is coming to theaters for a special series of sing-along screenings. 

To get a feel for what this experience would bring to KPop Demon Hunters fans, I attended a press preview of the sing-along screening in New York City, at the Netflix-owned Paris Theater. Here are my five takeaways from the experience: 

1. KPop Demon Hunters sing-along screening is as close as you'll get to a HUNTR/X concert.  HUNTR/X faces demons. Credit: Netflix

Watching this movie at home is a joy, sure. But in a theater with advanced surround sound, the soundtrack just hits different. The opening battle scene, where Rumi, Mira, and Zoey kick off "How It's Done" while pummeling demons and skydiving from a destroyed plane into their arena show below? It's epic on the big screen. 

It's the feeling of being at a real concert. The music is marvelous and enveloping. The audience around you is geeking out with you, dancing in their seats (or out of them) and singing along with their full chest. In this way, KPop Demon Hunters brings together the sublime community vibes of concerts and moviegoing with the cost of one ticket. 

2. People will have their phones out, unless you go to the Alamo.  HUNTR/X carbo-loads ahead of their concert. Credit: Netflix

Yes, we know people love pulling out their phones in theaters. But the expectation of this controversial behavior is higher when the audience is offered a chance to perform too. 

SEE ALSO: Why is everyone using their phones in movie theaters?

Personally, I was a bit shocked to see at a press screening how many attendees were pulling out their phones. From my seat, I could see several filming the screen (weird, when the movie is already online?). Some filmed their party singing along, and one guy appeared to film his own reactions to watching the movie. 

Arden Cho, who voices Rumi, shared her own footage from her preview screening on TikTok, which includes viewers dancing and singing along excitedly. This is reminiscent of footage from theaters that showed Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

However, if you don't want the distraction of other people's phones, you might want to favor an Alamo Drafthouse screening. Famously, the Alamo doesn't put up with talking or texting in their theaters. But Mashable wondered if the rules might be bent for a sing-along.

A rep for Alamo Drafthouse answered our inquiry with: 

"Policy will remain and phones will not be allowed at these screenings. Lyrics will be on the screen for audience to sing along." 

Alamo also has party screenings, which come with some sweet KPop Demon Hunters merch. However, you can also buy your own merch online at Netflix's shop.

3. The sing-along subtitles aren't really needed for KPop Demon Hunters.  Zoey, Rumi, and Mira, the members of HUNTR/X Credit: Netflix

Ahead of the movie, the Paris Theater piped in the soundtrack as people took their seats. Already, the excited fans — many of whom were young girls — were singing along. They were beyond ready, knowing the words by heart.

When the movie played with lyrics subtitled on the screen, the level of enthusiasm and volume from the audience boomed — even over the sections of songs that are in Korean. Then, when some snippets of song — like Rumi struggling to get through "Golden" on a solo moment on a rooftop — are not offering the lyrics onscreen, these fans sang with her, every word, without a missed beat.

4. Fan reactions go beyond singing at KPop Demon Hunters sing-along.  The Saja Boys Credit: Netflix

If you're a Rujinu shipper, scandalized that Rumi and Jinu do not kiss in the film, you're not alone. And you'll likely learn that if you go to the sing-alongs. 

In my screening, every time the hot demon and the heart-struck huntress came remotely close to kissing, a girl or several girls would cry out, "KISS!" 

Sure, we know their kisses got cut from the film. But there's something deeply heartwarming about being a part of a crowd willing this romance to take that next step. 

Girlhood is alive and well. 

5. Newbies are welcome to KPop Demon Hunters sing-along.  Derpy Tiger offers an invite in "KPop Demon Hunters." Credit: Netflix

Look, this audience will be mostly fans who are already deep into loving the soundtrack, swooning over their favorite Saja Boy or HUNTR/X girl, and manifesting the announcement of a sequel. However, those new to the movie are totally welcome too. 

This was clear in the moment of a major revelation from Jinu. IYKYK. And if you don't know, you'll be like the woman behind me who gasped hard and loud in genuine surprise. In response, the crowd around her laughed and cheered, realizing they had a new member to their ranks. 

That's all you need to know, outside of how to get tickets: KPop Demon Hunters sing-along is a limited theatrical event, which occurs on Aug. 23 and Aug. 24. across the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. 

To view the full list of theaters and showtimes in your area, and to download tickets, check out the following links: U.S. and Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Kpop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.

This month, Threads announced that it reached 400 million monthly active users — nearly as many as X (née Twitter). That’s almost half a billion people.

Threads is the Big Bang Theory of social media. Bland, boring, largely unoffensive, and somehow, it was the most popular show on television for years. Game of Thrones got the cultural and critical attention, but Old Sheldon retained a steady audience of nearly the same size. At any given time, "Twitter" and "X" are searched somewhere between 12 and 30 times more than "Threads" on Google, according to the search engine's Trends data. Threads is a popular platform without much of an identity. And maybe that's a good thing: X's cultural relevance is inseparable from the constant churn of Elon Musk drama — just like how Game of Thrones' cultural legacy is forever tied to its spectacularly bad final season.

SEE ALSO: Threads apparently just passed another massive milestone for monthly users

Meanwhile, Big Bang Theory delivered consistency: viewers' expectations were met each week, even if those expectations didn't reach the heights of what a television show can, or should, be. Threads, likewise, is consistently good at one thing users really want from a social media platform: for their posts to be seen and engaged with. Threads might be boring in comparison to its competitors, but its users say it might be the only place on the internet right now where they don't feel they are screaming into the void.

And despite Threads' connection to Meta's universe of social media platforms, it is a relatively new app — and after speaking with a few Threads power users, I'm convinced its newness and ever-slow rollout of features is where its success lies. This is far from X, which is in a constant state of change and seems to be hemorrhaging users.

It's more than just "not X"

Meecham Whitson Meriweather, a 38-year-old writer in Brooklyn, decided to join Threads when it launched in 2023. He posted on both X and Threads for a while before, in February of this year, he was kicked off of X entirely. He's not entirely sure why he was suspended from the social media platform — he was an active user with 58,000 followers at the time — but has a suspicion it was tied to a post he made about X's owner Musk needing to be "locked up."

He's not the only person who left X — by choice or not — after Elon Musk took over the site in 2022. Like other users who fled the platform, he considered alternatives like Mastodon and tried out Bluesky but found his home in Threads, largely because of Meta's interconnected ecosystem. 

"It also just felt more authentic as a text-based app because they already had everything that they needed," Whitson Meriweather told Mashable. "That was the main draw for me. I'm already seeing people I know here. I can already talk about what I feel like talking about. There's no weird balance in the feed."

Not only are all your Threads followers connected to your Instagram or Facebook accounts, but Threads is integrated with ActivityPub, a decentralized protocol that also powers Mastodon, which pushes the platform into federated, open social networking.

He's since started an on-platform interview series he calls "Loose Threads," where he interviews people — including Martha Stewart and Pam Anderson — on the app.

Reach without followers

Whitson Meriweather, who writes a Substack newsletter and has published work in Vulture, GQ, and New York Magazine and has 41,500 followers on Threads. But one reason users seem to appreciate Threads is that, much like TikTok, you don't actually have to have thousands of followers to find decent engagement on the app.

One user, commenting in a Reddit forum questioning who actually uses the app, said they "find it worthwhile" because "you can just say stuff on there under a tag and people will find it and respond."

"Engagement on [Threads] is really good, and it doesn't feel like screaming into a void," the user wrote. 

"Screaming into a void" is often a complaint for social media users without significant followings. David "YoRush" Rushing, a 37-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, didn't have much of a social media presence before coming to Threads. He was on X, but found it to be "toxic" and none of his posts really made an impact. When Meta launched Threads, he was one of the first adopters — and one of his first posts immediately took off.

SEE ALSO: How a Threads post helped me find community and beat loneliness

It was opening night for the NBA, and Threads was new and lacked key features — for instance, a way to search for posts about opening night for the NBA. So he posted asking if there were any NBA Threads users, and it "took off."

"A lot of conversations jumped off" as a result of that post, he told Mashable. "I was being really intentional about [creating community]. If someone engaged with me, I engaged back."

After a few weeks, he noticed that it was still really difficult for users to find each other on Threads with its limited features. "So I made a really big community-oriented post and was just like, 'Hey, this is our opportunity for a fresh start for NBA Threads. These are all the people I've met this week who are really into the NBA."

Now, with more than 87,400 followers, he's one of the most influential voices in the NBA Threads community.

"NBA Threads is [a] really special [community]," he said. "It's seen a couple of different iterations because that's just normal with these platforms. As time goes on, things change. But I really do think it's still a very unique place where you can go, and you can be the passionate sports fan you are. You're not constantly facing a barrage of toxicity when you share your opinions or when you jump into a conversation that's happening."

Driven by community

According to consumer research company GWI, while users signed up for Threads because of its integration with Instagram, they're staying because Threads users are "community-focused," noting there's a strong overlap between Discord users and Threads users. That's why Whitson Meriweather loves it for pop culture; Rushing loves it for sports; and Tina Mars, a 36-year-old book marketer and author in California, loves it for the book community.

"Threads is very community-driven," Mars told Mashable. She really enjoyed Instagram — Bookstagram is a huge community on that platform — but never felt particularly drawn to text-forward platforms like X or Bluesky. She checked out Threads because of its integration with Instagram and immediately found her people. After a year on Threads, Book Threads was one of the top three micro communities on the app. 

View on Threads

Book Threads "has its own drama, as these kinds of platforms do, but I do feel like it's very much community-driven. It's very chill," she told Mashable. "[It's] easy to share your authentic thoughts. It doesn't have to be curated; it doesn't even have to be well said. It can be very much in the moment, unplanned, and I think a lot of people really love a space to do that. And a lot of people also were finding a lot more interaction and connection on there than on other platforms as well." 

Will Threads continue to grow?

Meta is a beast. Threads, while relatively quiet, should have been the expected winner of the X replacement battle all along.

It just doesn't have the same flair as X or Twitter, which could be because Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, went out of his way to ensure politics was downplayed when Threads first launched. (Meta has since backtracked slightly by phasing "civic content" back into Threads "with a more personalized approach.") The vibe was calmer, and the site was kind of easy to forget. Unless, of course, you logged into your Facebook or Instagram account.

It's easy to see why Threads picked up so many users in the beginning. Meta has mastered the art of baiting people onto Threads. On Instagram, you're met with the most viral Threads posts, but the last few words will almost always be cut off, convincing you to click through, and there you have it — an account on Threads, and with that one click, you're one of the 400 million monthly users of the site. But that was two years ago, and users not only stayed, but more have joined, all while the distance between our cultural obsession with an app and the reality of its use seems vast

Threads is still in its adolescence. It lacks the media ecosystem that made Twitter indispensable for journalists, politicians, and celebrities. But it has something else: sheer scale and Meta’s backing. With Instagram’s 2 billion users as a feeder system, Meta can keep funneling people toward Threads whether they like it or not. And with ActivityPub integration, it has the potential to tap into the wider fediverse, giving it a future that even Twitter never had.

There are still plenty of things users want from Threads, and the Meta team promises they're working on solutions. But Threads isn't the X killer. X is the X killer — Threads is just the replacement.

All of the creators I spoke to said since community is so important on the app, they wish there was a way to zone in on it tighter — with something like Circles on X or Close Friends on Instagram. Threads is developing group DMs for this, which isn't quite the same thing. In all, there's a lot that creators want from the platform.

"The Threads community, especially the book community, is generating these vibrant, engaging, real conversations," Mars said, adding that, while she'd love a new Circles-like feature, she's been elated to see what the Threads community has already built. "I've seen this community get a lot of cool opportunities from just posting on Threads. I think it is amazing."

UPDATE: Aug. 22, 2025, 11:35 a.m. EDT This story has been updated to accurately reflect the timing and number of followers Meecham Whitson Meriweather had when he was suspended from X. We have also clarified Threads' current approach to political content.

TL;DR: Get Windows 11 Pro for $15 before Microsoft cuts support for Windows 10.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Windows 11 Pro $14.97
$199 Save $184.03 Get Deal

With Microsoft preparing to end support for Windows 10, millions of users will soon face a choice. Stick with an outdated system that no longer receives security patches, or upgrade to Windows 11 Pro and keep your computer protected.

For now, you can make that upgrade for only $14.97, far below the regular $199 price.

Is Windows 11 Pro worth it?

Yes.

Windows 11 Pro has improvements across the board, from gaming to basic things like navigating tabs. The interface is cleaner, with a simplified taskbar and updated design that feels more modern. Features like Snap Layouts let you organize multiple windows quickly, and virtual desktops help separate work, personal projects, and entertainment into different spaces. These tools make multitasking less of a hassle and keep everything within easy reach.

Performance is another reason to consider upgrading. Windows 11 Pro is optimized to handle multiple apps at once while using system resources more efficiently. The result is faster response times and a system that feels less bogged down, even if you keep a lot open at once.

Security has also been improved. BitLocker encryption keeps your data safe, while Smart App Control reduces the risk of downloading harmful software. Support for biometric login, such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, adds another layer of protection.

SEE ALSO: Windows 11’s latest update may be bricking some SSDs, users report

For advanced users, Windows 11 Pro includes DirectX 12 Ultimate for gaming, Hyper-V for running virtual machines, and Windows Sandbox for testing software in a secure environment.

The system also introduces Microsoft Copilot, an AI-powered assistant built directly into Windows. Copilot can help with writing, editing, and navigating your computer, making everyday tasks faster without the need for extra subscriptions.

This upgrade is a one-time purchase that provides a lifetime license for your device. You will continue to receive updates and security improvements for as long as the hardware is supported.

Right now, it’s only $14.97 to get Windows 11 Pro, but it’s not going to stay that way.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Score a lifetime subscription to Curiosity Stream for $199.99 (reg. $399.99). That’s 50% off for unlimited access to thousands of documentaries and nonfiction shows — no subscriptions, no strings.

Opens in a new window Credit: Curiosity Stream Curiosity Stream Standard Plan (Lifetime Subscription) $199.99
$399.99 Save $200 Get Deal

In a world where even your heated car seats now come with a monthly fee, it’s rare to find a streaming deal that doesn’t nickel-and-dime you. Enter Curiosity Stream — a nonfiction streaming service that trades true crime fluff for deep dives into science, tech, nature, and history. And right now, you can lock in lifetime access for $199.99 (reg. $399.99).

That means no subscriptions. No annual renewals. No fine print. Just documentaries, docu-series, and brain-boosting content you can stream forever.

Thousands of Documentaries, One Flat Price

Whether you geek out on particle physics or just want something smarter to stream while you eat lunch, Curiosity Stream has your back. Explore titles like:

• Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places

• Polar Bears

• The History of Home

• Deep Time History

• Into the Jungle

With new content added regularly, your “what to watch” problem just turned into a “what to watch first” situation. Who knows? You might just never wonder what to stream, and you may find yourself eager to learn something new every time you watch TV.

SEE ALSO: How to watch the NFL online for free

You’ll get high-definition streaming across all devices, download options for offline viewing (which is perfect if you’re planning to travel), and a clean, user-friendly interface. Think Netflix, but for documentaries… and without the revolving door of fees, logins, or content vanishing overnight.

This is the rare kind of streaming deal that actually gets better with time — because you only pay once, but the content keeps coming.

Curiosity Stream’s lifetime plan is $199.99 (reg. $399.99) for a limited time, and this price isn’t available anywhere else. No code is needed, just a one-time payment for a lifetime of knowledge.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: The Deeper Connect Mini is a plug-and-play decentralized VPN and firewall on sale for just $179.99 (reg. $229) with free shipping through Sept. 7.

Opens in a new window Credit: Deeper Connect Deeper Connect Mini Decentralized VPN and Firewall Hardware $179.99
$229 Save $49.01 Get Deal

When most people think about enterprise-level cybersecurity, they imagine bulky equipment, complicated installs, and maybe even monthly subscription fees. The Deeper Connect Mini throws all that out the window.

At just 0.8-inches high and less than half a pound, this sleek little box packs a seven-layer enterprise-grade firewall, decentralized VPN, ad-blocker, parental controls, and even a way to earn passive income by sharing bandwidth — all in a plug-and-play design.

SEE ALSO: Get a two-year Proton VPN Plus subscription for $2.99 a month

Unlike traditional VPNs, the Deeper Connect Mini uses decentralized VPN (DPN) technology. That means no central servers watching your traffic, no single point of failure, and complete control over your encrypted data. It quietly runs in the background, giving you unrestricted access to the internet while shielding you from malware, phishing, and trackers.

Want fewer distractions? It blocks ads across all browsers (even YouTube). Need to protect your kids? One-click parental controls let you instantly filter dangerous content. And if you’re into the blockchain side of things, it can even mine a little passive income while you surf.

The best part is that there are no subscriptions. You pay once, plug it in, and enjoy worry-free browsing on up to all your home and travel devices.

Get the Deeper Connect Mini for $179.99 (reg. $229) with free shipping through Sept. 7 at 11:59 p.m. PT while you can.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

If you've ever jammed out to Paul Simon's "The Obvious Child," then Netflix's Long Story Short is for you.

Mere minutes into the show's first episode, Avi Schwooper (voiced by Ben Feldman), consummate music nerd and eldest Schwooper sibling, plays "The Obvious Child" for his girlfriend Jen (voiced by Angelique Cabral).

SEE ALSO: 'Long Story Short' review: 'BoJack Horseman' creator's family comedy delights and devastates

"There. Did you hear it?" he asks her while listening along.

The section of "The Obvious Child" that has Avi so excited is one line in particular, where Simon sings, "We had a little son and we thought we'd call him Sonny / Sonny gets married and moves away."

That line break blows Avi's mind.

"'Sonny gets married and moves away'? He was just born! How did he... It's because that's time, right?" Avi explains. "Like, one moment, you're young, you're free. Next thing you know, 'Sonny gets married and moves away.'"

Avi's analysis doesn't just apply to "The Obvious Child." It's also true of Long Story Short itself, a show that, like "The Obvious Child," is greatly concerned with aging and the passage of time.

Each episode of Long Story Short hops around through time, usually kicking off with a vignette from the Schwooper siblings' childhood before jumping into the future. The show's sweet title sequence serves as the divider between the two, acting in a similar way to the line break Avi loves so much in "The Obvious Child." Both collapse years and years of time into just a moment. Sonny goes from being a baby to growing up and getting married. The Schwoopers go from children to adults with families of their own.

The Schwooper siblings in "Long Story Short." Credit: Netflix

In both cases, Simon and Long Story Short allow listeners or viewers to fill in the blanks between point A and point B. Simon doesn't have to say "Sonny met someone he loves" — that's something we can infer from the mention of marriage. Likewise, in Long Story Short, the series doesn't have to spell out everything that's happened to the Schwoopers between the past and the present. Through just a few meaningful lines of dialogue, we're able to pick up on years' worth of story, including major life events like divorces and deaths.

While Avi doesn't dive further into the lyrics of "The Obvious Child," the rest of the song is just as relevant to Long Story Short as those earlier lines. Later in the song, an older Sonny reminisces on his youth as he looks through his high school yearbook, not unlike how Avi, Shira (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (voiced by Max Greenfield) often reminisce on their own childhoods as they grow up.

Long Story Short's connection to "The Obvious Child" reaches its emotional peak at the end of the show's first episode. In 2004, Avi and Jen cuddle on the plane ride home from Yoshi's chaotic bar mitzvah. The drums of "The Obvious Child" kick in, and the show cuts to 2022. Avi, 18 years older now, sits alone in his car, gazing thoughtfully out the window, perhaps remembering that airplane conversation with Jen. What happened to the two of them in those 18 years?

Long Story Short reveals the answer piece by piece throughout its first season, but just that first image of Avi by himself is enough to clue you into his and Jen's separation. Paired so closely with their younger, loving selves, the reveal of Avi alone is an emotional gut punch, and a perfectly melancholy teaser of what else Long Story Short has in store.

That's time, right?

Long Story Short is now streaming on Netflix.

Ron Howard is on something of a survival thriller kick. After returning to his Apollo 13 roots with In the Heart of the Sea in 2015, and the more recent Thirteen Lives, his newest film is Eden, a story in a similar vein also based on real events. Unfortunately, the fourth time isn't a charm, and only proves the Howard haters correct in their assertion that the Solo: A Star Wars Story helmer is largely a journeyman, with little style (or substance) of his own.

The star-studded drama is a dud. It has little by way of theme or rigorous meaning, and is told with one of the most offensively dull color palettes digital cinema has to offer. The cast certainly gives it their all, making commendable strides toward fleshing out Noah Pink's screenplay (from a story by Howard and Pink), but too much visual and emotional detail is lost at every turn, making Eden something of a curio. It's hard not to wonder how it ended up being presented in its final state.

What is Eden about?

Based on the accounts of several survivors who formed an impromptu commune in the Galápagos, the film is set on the (in)famous Floreana Island, and adapts the broad strokes of real events — the who’s who, and who died and survived — but adds dramatic speculation to exactly how everything went down. Floreana was uninhabited until 1929, when the pompous Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his partner Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) arrived from Berlin to set up camp on the tiny volcanic landmass. World War I, the ensuing economic crash, and Germany's resurgent fascism had sent Ritter looking for not just a new place to live, but an isolated stronghold where he could write a manifesto to guide humanity toward a harmonious new beginning. The film also hints that Strauch's multiple sclerosis may have been a reason she accompanied him, perhaps in the hopes of recovery, but her needs are secondary to the desires of her narcissistic beau.  

SEE ALSO: 'We Live in Time' review: Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in the biggest cinema disappointment of the year

The film is set several years into their residency on Floreana, when a family of three — having read, in various newspapers, the letters Ritter sent back to mainland Europe — arrives in hope of a similar escape. Daniel Brühl plays Heinz Wittmer; Sydney Sweeney plays his pregnant, younger wife, Margaret; and Jonathan Tittel plays Heinz's teenage son (and Margaret's stepson), Harry. The Wittmers are curious and well-meaning, though Ritter — an isolationist, despite his egalitarian principles — wants nothing to do with them, so they set up camp several miles away. Minor tensions start to simmer between the two houses, but these don't fully explode until a third, more chaotic group arrives and begins sowing seeds of dissent between Ritter and the Wittmers.

Sydney Sweeney in "Eden." Credit: Vertical

Led by the self-proclaimed heiress Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas), with her two helpers and lovers in tow (Toby Wallace and Felix Kammerer), this hedonistic trio plans to set up an island resort on Floreana, where they hope to welcome wealthy guests. Their intrusion on Ritter and the Wittmers' (admittedly uneasy) paradise is ripe for allegory concerning the way wealthy classes historically extract resources at the cost of peace, but this is just one of the movie's many hints that go practically nowhere.

What is the meaning behind Eden's survivalist tale?

As rivalries ensue and factions form, Eloise proves a master manipulator, and becomes the movie's most (and perhaps only) entertaining character, courtesy of de Armas' bravura. She feels like a typhoon whose only purpose is to shatter the existing status quo. However, that status quo is seldom interesting on its own. The closest it comes to intrigue is when Howard's camera zeroes in on Ritter's attempts to write in isolation. Law's temperament betrays a fidgety impatience, but his posture always is regal, creating a magnetic pull-and-push about his character.

Unfortunately, few characters in the story are either drawn to or repelled by him, let alone in the same breath. He simply exists as a temperamental figure whom everyone accepts from a distance as he makes grandiose claims about fixing the world. Eloise is his counterpart in a sense — equally, if not more, fraudulent — but rare are the moments in which Eden takes advantage of this thematic twinning. For the most part, the film treats survival in the most technical, linear, and literal fashion, despite a setting that is functionally purgatory (the film's Biblical title invites such reading, too).

Survival, for the likes of Heinz and Margaret, is about collecting food and water, and getting through pregnancy intact, but it's never about any underlying questions that test their beliefs or their resolve. And unlike the great island stories of modern culture — The Lord of the Flies and Lost first spring to mind — the characters' (and society's) larger problems don't travel to Floreana, leaving only Eloise's individual quirks as sources of incitement. Had the movie's setting been radically different (a train, a cruise ship, perhaps a hotel), it's unlikely things would have played out much differently.

The struggles in Eden stem not from mistrust or inner folly, but the question of how best to grow vegetables, or how to most efficiently ward off wild dogs, and yet the film isn't particularly invested in the process of survival, either. Instead, it maintains an air — a pretense — of greater significance, when no such thing exists. Part of this disconnect is also owed to how Howard and cinematographer Mathias Herndl capture the island itself, and the characters and their world at large, which makes the movie especially tough to watch.

The cinematography in Eden works against its story. Ana de Armas, Toby Wallace, and Felix Kammerer in "Eden." Credit: Vertical

Eden is a ugly film, though not in a way a survival saga ought to be. There’s a visual unseemliness that suits such a story, the kind that emphasizes the murky, the solemn, the dangerous — like in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Here, it's not the ugliness of oppressive surroundings that defines Floreana, but the ugliness of the texture itself, and its noncommittal nature.

The film's gloomy desaturation works at times, though it’s applied as a constant filter from start to finish, and never evolves alongside the characters' perspectives on the island — even when they first see the place as a heavenly abode, rich in resources. When the characters eventually turn on one another, there’s little sense that their surroundings have contributed to this in any way. 

SEE ALSO: 'Better Man' review: All hail Robbie Williams, a chimp for all seasons

Even taken at its word, as the depiction of a theoretically omniscient and dramatically ironic viewpoint, the movie's aesthetic issues don't end there.

Perhaps a greater problem than the amount of color in each frame is the amount of contrast, or the sheer lack thereof. Characters' faces constantly fall into muddy grays, rendering anything resembling the drama of shadows completely null. Every tint begins to look and feel the same, from tree barks to human flesh (with not so much as a hint of how people might become one with their environments). It's ghastly to look at, and swallows up any sense of detail.

For instance, a stray line about Ritter's teeth early on gestures toward an element of his character. Heinz makes mention of the doctor having yanked out his own teeth for medical reasons, leaving one to assume the extent of this procedure; perhaps it’s a molar or two, in the back of his mouth. However, when he’s seen putting on metal dentures well into the runtime, it turns out that all of Ritter’s teeth are missing. This is the first time any real attention is drawn to his mouth, but the film isn’t trying to hide this fact, or present it as a major reveal. It’s simply one of the many dramatic details (and character idiosyncrasies) obscured by the movie’s haphazard color-timing approach. 

Similarly, scenes that should be flooded with intensity are instead awash in blandness. Nothing about the human face and the human eyes, and thus human soul, can be fully hidden or properly accentuated when every part of the frame looks equally dull, and feels equally lifeless and bloodless in the process. 

To add to this, the movie goes on well beyond its natural endpoint: a moment of mistrust made manifest, which seems to push several characters beyond their brink, and makes them wrestle with their moral spines. But in its need to capture real events as they happened (albeit with its own spin on some of them), Eden far overstays its welcome, like an unwanted, unpleasant houseguest who just won't take the hint. Ironically, that's as close as the movie gets to embodying any of its characters' points of view.

Eden is now playing in theaters nationwide.

UPDATE: Aug. 21, 2025, 5:26 p.m. EDT Eden was reviewed out of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. This article, originally published on Sept. 18, 2024, has been updated to include the film's theatrical release.

You've never seen a movie quite like Ne Zha II before. More accurately, you've seen dozens of movies that might remind you of Ne Zha II, but each in a different way. 

The sequel to China's 2019 smash hit Ne Zha is many, many, many things — including the highest-grossing animated film of all time, thanks to its box office success abroad earlier this year. While its predecessor blended action, fantasy, and comedy, this sequel takes all that to a mind-blowing new level.

Ne Zha II is an action movie, a fantasy epic, a martial-arts comedy, a coming-of-age drama, and an animated marvel, all in one. Prepare to be knocked out of your seat, because this sequel delivers more than you could imagine — and that includes some truly horrifying elements that keep this from being totally kid-friendly. 

Do you need to see Ne Zha before Ne Zha II?  Shen Gongbao goes to fight dragons. Credit: A24

To the credit of writer/director Jiao Zi, who helmed both films, the sequel does begin with a recap of the key events of Ne Zha. However, that's a lot of key events. I'd wager that unless you're already familiar with the Chinese mythology on which these films are based, the opening voiceover won't be enough for you to navigate the film's first hour. For instant, you might be bewildered when a pig turns into a set of flaming wheels, with no one blinking an eye.

Good news: Ne Zha is currently streaming on Peacock and Kanopy.

Broad strokes background: Ne Zha centers on a young boy who was supposed to be blessed with the powers of the heavenly Spirit Pearl. However, treachery leads to Ne Zha being born instead with the powers of the Spirit Pearl's counterpart, the Demon Orb. This means the boy born to a respectable family has demon powers, which they feel compelled to hide so he'll not be ostracized.

Meanwhile, the Spirit Pearl was bound to Ao Bing, the son of the Dragon King, whose family is kept chained up by a powerful army of sky-high immortals. The first film is about these two sons fighting monsters, becoming friends, and finding their inner heroes despite what the world expects of them because of their secret Demon Orbs or cursed family backgrounds. For a Western comparison, think The Iron Giant or this year's Superman.

Ne Zha II picks up moments after the climax of the first film, in which Ne Zha and Ao Bing have used their combined powers heroically, which results in both becoming disembodied spirits in need of new bodies. And the themes of the first film only cut deeper.

What's Ne Zha II about?  Dragons Ao Run, Ao Guang, and Ao Qin, ready for war. Credit: A24

Rare magic is required to create proper corporal forms for both boys to resume their lives. So, their parents become unlikely allies in a quest that requires Ne Zha, who is in a fragile body, to not only let Ao Bing share the form — so he won't disappear — but also to complete a series of trials to achieve a magical serum that would restore the flower that would build back Ao Bing's body. Got all that? Basically, their closeness is tested when they have to actually share Ne Zha's body, meaning this becomes a sort of body-swap comedy for certain actions scenes. (Freaky Friday meets Shaolin Soccer?)

But that's not all. 

There's also a brewing war between the grinning head of the immortals and the dragons long tired of being trapped in lava pits. But once more, at its core, Ne Zha II is about two boys from different worlds who are the greatest of friends. And in Ne Zha II they're dealing with bigger personal issues, like guilt and grief. 

Ne Zha II is uniquely exciting and funny. Master Taiyi and his pig look confused in "Ne Zha II." Credit: A24

There are elements here that will seem familiar to Western audiences. For one, Ne Zha's mentor Master Taiyi, who is plump and silly, has shades of Po from Kung Fu Panda. He even has some shenanigans with a side-eying pig companion. Moreover, Ne Zha, full of demon energy that is more Dennis the Menace than The Omen, is a terrific comedic character, whether he's joshing his affable mentor or accidentally using a sacred fountain as a urinal.

There are actually a lot of gross-out gags in this sequel. Alongside a rousing story of fate and faith, Ne Zha II features gag-worthy jokes about urine, vomit, and more vomit. Kung Fu Panda could never. 

When it comes to action, Jiao Zi and his army of animators have crafted a dizzying array of battles. Some are hand-to-hand fights, but ones which involve martial arts warriors who sling magic and shapeshift. Then there are the dragons. A relatively smaller part of the first film, now Ao Bing's scaly father, uncles, and aunt are flexing in their full glory, and each dragon warrior is a visual wonder. And there's more. The trials Ne Zha must endure mean a barrage of showdowns, ranging from a comedic melee with a mischief of talking rodents, a tense battle with a menacing master to a chaotic brawl with a vain rock giant. And then there's the climax. 

In a word: Wow. Ne Zha II puts superhero movies to shame, delivering a climax that not only has major twists but also big character moments and even bigger battles. I struggle to think of another animated movie that offers such a epic war scene. Truly, legions of monsters versus white-robed immortals clash, looking like swarms of warring birds, beautiful and terrifying. Then, as the movie pushes into individual battles, the physicality, humor, and pathos of these heroes and villains facing off is so electrifying that I was literally gasping for air. But be warned, Ne Zha II hits hard. 

Ne Zha II contains genuinely shocking violence, but a powerful lesson.  Ne Zha's mother embraces him. Credit: A24

Within the film, a village is destroyed by lava, leaving the ruins to look like Pompeii. Not only are the streets and buildings charred and ashen, but so too are the people. In particular, there is a haunting trio: a mother, curved protectively — but futilely — around her two children, all of them now burnt charcoal. Death is not a vague vanishing in Ne Zha II. So, if you're thinking of taking kids, consider if they're ready for such stark realities. 

Not only are minor characters' corpses shown, but major characters must grapple with mortality, as the climactic battle takes a heavy toll. Death doesn't just happened, it is dreaded and lingered on. Action will resume, but not until after the loss sinks in.

Thus, the cheery, chaotic child hero Ne Zha must face that death — even in his world of immortals — is something he can't just fireball away. Here's where the coming-of-age of it all comes into play. Ne Zha is forced to cope with grief, rocketing through stages like denial, bargaining, and anger. But more than that, he and Ao Bing's quest make them realize the world isn't what their parents told them, or even believed. Reflecting their own journeys, they begin to realize that who is labeled good and bad is not always a matter of character, but politics. And here, Ne Zha II becomes a ferociously fascinating tale, alive with color, energy, passion, and rebellion.

With so much in one movie, the film does feel disjointed. Some might even say overstuffed. However, I felt this major shift in tone, from goofy kid-friendly prat falls to jaw-droppingly alarming life-or-death battles, to be purposeful and powerful. Jiao Zi captures the feeling of chaos that is growing up. Some days get to be silliness and joy; some days are tragedy and trauma. Some days are both in a dizzying swirl. And as you get older, it doesn't let up, does it? So, in a way, this movie about monsters, demon seeds, magic serums, dragons, and shapeshifters is more real about human experience than a lot of live-action offerings.

Simply put, Ne Zha II is a righteous and riotous epic that's equal parts hilarious, heartfelt, and thrilling. See it on as big a screen as you can. You won't regret it. 

Ne Zha II opens in U.S. theaters nationwide on Aug. 22.

Want something sexy, silly, and scandalous? Then you'll treasure Honey Don't!, the latest collaboration between married filmmakers Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. The pair, who've been collaborating since the 1990 Coen Bros movie Miller's Crossing, brought audiences the madcap mayhem of Drive-Away Dolls just last year. Now they're back, with another tale of lesbians caught up in a curious crime. 

Drive-Away Dolls star Margaret Qualley reunites with Coen and Cooke, playing a title character once more. Honey O'Donahue is a small-town private eye who keeps her cards close to her chest. When a new client turns up dead in a suspicious car crash, she quips to the crumpled police detective on the scene (Charlie Day, perfectly cast as an affable dope), but won't give up a single observation. Unspoken, this is her mystery to solve. 

Over the course of this murder investigation, she'll cross paths with a moped-riding femme fatale (Lera Abova), a surly sapphic cop (Aubrey Plaza), and an ultra-vain cult leader (Chris Evans). It's a wild ride with twists, sex, and murder! 

Margaret Qualley is dynamite in Honey Don't!

While this is the second offering in Coen and Cooke's proposed lesbian trilogy, Honey Don't! doesn't share the same broad-comedy energy as its peppy predecessor, Drive-Away Dolls. The key to both films is Qualley, who sets the tone.

In the first film, she was a chaotically comical masc with a Southern accent as thick as molasses and a libido as powerful as the sun. The movie followed her frenzied energy through pacing and plotting, taking wild turns with madcap energy. 

In Honey Don't!, Qualley shakes off the loony looseness of her limbs. Her stride is confident but no-nonsense, like the fast-talking dames of '30s screwball comedies and '40s film noir. Her look — click-clacking heels, pencil skirts or tailored flowing slacks with tidy but never bland dress shirts — reflects these old-school inspirations. So does her frankness; she carries a Katharine Hepburn attitude without the Mid-Atlantic accent. So when the aforementioned police detective flirts with her, she says, smooth as butter, "I like girls." (To which Day replies with a cheery bemusement, "You always say that!") 

Whether playing the cool gay aunt to a small army of nieces and nephews, uncovering a kinky clue, or hooking up with a one-night stand, Honey is suave and sharp, but also warm. This temperament sets her apart from the fleets of male detectives who've come before her, all swagger and steely glares. Plus, her attitude reflects the atmosphere of Honey Don't!'s setting: Bakersfield, California, a sunny place with a dark appetite.  

Honey Don't! is a raw and refreshing caper.  Writer Tricia Cooke, actor Margaret Qualley, and writer/director Ethan Coen on the set of their film "Honey Don't!" Credit: Karen Kuehn / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

The screenplay by Coen and Cooke is committed to dark humor, offering gleeful jokes about kinky sex, gruesome death, and the general idiocy of crooks and con men.

As Coen directs Honey Don't!, it's tempting to look for comparisons in his shared filmography with his brother, Joel. Is Honey Don't! more Raising Arizona or The Big Lebowski? Burn After Reading or No Country for Old Men? But engaging in this debate risks overlooking the exciting exploration of crime stories that Coen and Cooke are building with their trilogy. Her stamp is clear and important here as the film's co-writer, producer, and editor.

Yes, Honey Don't! pulls from film noir inspirations, as do several previous Coen Bros movies… and hundreds of other movies before that. But this crusty California setting gives fresh air to tropes like the femme fatale or the double cross. Where Drive-Away Dolls dug into the rich Americana and queer culture to be found in road trip attractions and lesbian bars, Honey Don't! embraces a less-familiar clutch of gnarly characters, sunbaked and deranged.

Chris Evans is hilarious, freed from Disney constraints. 

Thank goodness that Chris Evans' MCU era has ended. Now the actor who has proven to be a sensational bastard in Knives Out can cut loose with characters who aren't remotely role models. 

In Honey Don't!, he plays Reverend Drew, a preacher who leads a congregation of dedicated minions who will grant any wish of sex or violence his twisted heart desires. Honey Don't! offers an array of beloved character actors, like Plaza, Day, Billy Eichner, and acclaimed theater performer Gabby Beans. And they are all game for whatever damned thing Cooke and Coen throw their way. Where Qualley plays the straight man to this cluster of kooky clowns, Evans is a ringmaster of his own circus. 

From the moment he flashes a comically insincere smile, there's a thrill of excitement. Playing punchlines with a gleeful obliviousness, Evans creates a sharp satire of a certain brand of religious leader who believes too much in his own bullshit. His physicality is suitably absurd. Whether he's barking orders in the nude or giving the most hysterical delivery of the word "oui" ever committed to screen, he moves like a cartoon caricature of an arrogant buffoon. Props to Evans for finding a new and fantastic way to continue being America's ass. 

What's most thrilling about Honey Don't! is perhaps also what's most frustrating about it. Coen and Cooke set up a mystery with a form that seems vaguely familiar at the start. But as Honey chases down the suspects and confounding clues, this story is anything but what you'd expect. And that comes down to the finale, which is sure to divide critics and audiences.

Personally, I relished the final surprise of the film, as it suggests this story is bigger than one movie and maybe even one setting can contain. Instead of closure, Honey Don't! offers a taste of something sweet and wild, with the potential for more. And I'm not mad at that. 

"Honey Don't!" is now playing in theaters nationwide.

UPDATE: Aug. 21, 2025, 5:12 p.m. EDT "Honey Don't!" was reviewed out of the Cannes Film Festival in this article, originally published on May 23, 2025. It has been updated to include current viewing information.

SAVE BIG: Amazon’s $1 flash deals are live right now — limit 3 per customer, with hundreds of products across categories including fashion, home, pets, stationery, and more.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon $1 Flash Sale Shop Now

Amazon is no stranger to flash sales, but this latest bombardment of huge bargains on practical buys or fun little extras makes this the most tempting sale yet. For a limited time, you can snap up a wide variety of products — all marked down to a single dollar each.

The sheer spread of categories doesn’t include high-profile items like iPads or Nintendo Switch 2s, but you’ll find an endless amount of handy impulse buys for yourself or your home. In pet care, for instance, you’ll find everything from cat collars and cooling mats for dogs to quirky bearded dragon harnesses. If you’re more of a home organiser, there’s a treasure trove of handy buys like under-cabinet lighting strips, silicone grip tape, storage binders, and spiral notebooks.

SEE ALSO: The best Apple deals to shop this week feature plenty of impressive back to school savings

Crafters are spoilt for choice too, with diamond art stickers, tracing paper, colourful splash stationery, and googly eyes all sitting pretty in carts by the hundreds.

Fashion finds are also in the mix, ranging from women’s tank tops and shapewear to men’s t-shirts and swim shorts. And if you’d rather treat yourself to a practical kitchen upgrade, you can nab things like espresso tampers, glass droppers, and reusable dinner napkins. There’s even a touch of novelty with items like “I Suck at Golf” notebooks, battle cat towels, and birthday blankets.

The catch is that stock is moving rather fast, and Amazon is capping the deal at three items per customer. Judging by the thousands of carts filling up already, you won’t want to hang about.

Whether you’re topping up your craft drawer, adding convenience to your home, or simply chasing that dopamine hit of bagging a bargain, these $1 flash deals are an easy win. Just be quick — they won’t hang around for long.

If you’ve got a bit more in the budget but still want to save, check out our list of the best cheap 4K TVs you can get in 2025. There are also some great wallet-friendly Apple deals that we’ve found this week that are still going at the moment — including $799 MacBooks and $299 iPads.

FREE LEGO: On Aug. 24, build a Lego Crayons model at participating stores and take it home with you for free. Find participating stores here.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Free Lego Crayons Model Learn More

Lego make and take events are back, and the latest edition is timed perfectly with the back-to-school season.

Following on from popular events like the Steering Wheel, Valentine's Day Heart, Mother's Day Bouquet, and Grogu giveaways, you can now build a Lego Crayons model at participating stores and take it home with you for free. Free Lego? In this economy?

SEE ALSO: The best new Marvel Lego sets dropping this month

Visitors to select Lego Stores on Aug. 24 (from 12-2 p.m.) can take part in this special event. The giveaway is intended for participants aged 6+ years, and the model will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis while supplies last. You can check participating stores in the U.S. and Canada here. Don't head out to your nearest store without proper planning. We don't want you to be disappointed.

This Crayons model is not available for purchase, so by taking part, you're getting your hands on an exclusive item for absolutely nothing. The only catch is that you can't stock up. You are limited to one build per participant, but we don't think you can argue with that. This is free Lego — don't get greedy.

This is your chance to build and take home an exclusive Lego Crayons model for free on Aug. 24. Don't miss out.

Long Story Short creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg is an expert at pairing a belly laugh with a gut punch. Look no further than his work on the critically acclaimed comedy BoJack Horseman, which combined ridiculous gags with poignant examinations of depression, addiction, and trauma.

Now, Bob-Waksberg serves up a similar cocktail of hilarity and heady topics in Long Story Short. The series, which Netflix has already renewed for Season 2, centers on a Jewish family in Northern California. The Schwooper siblings — a hybrid of their parents' last names, Schwartz and Cooper — burst onto the screen as a fully fledged, instantly lovable crew. But it's Long Story Short's nonlinear structure that truly takes it over the edge, crafting a tender look at all the ways our families can help or hinder us over the span of our lives.

SEE ALSO: 'Long Story Short' trailer: 'BoJack Horseman' creator's new show is a colorful family comedy Long Story Short's Schwooper siblings are an instant classic TV family. The Schwoopers get quite an introduction in "Long Story Short." Credit: Netflix

Meeting the Schwoopers is like being wrapped in a hug that goes on just a tad too long: It's warm and fuzzy, but a lot all at the same time.

That's because Bob-Waksberg throws us into the Schwoopers' dynamic headfirst, hitting us with a barrage of fast-paced dialogue, inside jokes, and a complex web of interpersonal relationships that feel lived-in from the jump. After just a few moments with the Schwoopers, you'll think you've known them for years. (By the end of Season 1, you will have known them for years, as the series spans decades.)

The eldest of the Schwooper siblings is Avi (voiced by Ben Feldman), the nerdiest of the crew and the child who eventually becomes the most distant from the family's Jewish faith. Middle child Shira (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) navigates the chaos of being the only Schwooper daughter, all while hoping her negative experiences with her own family don't influence the family she plans to start with her partner Kendra (voiced by Nicole Byer). Youngest Schwooper Yoshi (voiced by Max Greenfield) is the black sheep of the family, misunderstood by his parents and still trying to find himself out, be it through new work ventures or religious shifts.

SEE ALSO: The best Netflix TV shows of 2025 (so far)

Presiding over it all are parents Naomi Schwartz (voiced by Lisa Edelstein) and Elliot Cooper (voiced by Paul Reiser). The two couldn't be more different. Naomi is overbearing as can be, and always ready to guilt-trip her children over the smallest perceived wrong. The kind, yet deferent Elliot often fades to the background by comparison.

With these five pieces, Long Story Short builds out a TV family that manages to be both grounded and the right amount of absurd. Each backseat sibling scuffle or chaotic family dinner feels pulled from real life, albeit heightened for comedic effect. Even if your experiences don't mirror the Schwoopers' one-to-one, chances are you'll still see grains of your own family in theirs.

Long Story Short's time-hopping structure is quietly brilliant. Just one of many awkward Schwooper family dinners. Credit: Netflix

On top of cementing the Schwoopers' distinct characters and familial ties right from the jump, Long Story Short also crafts a rich shared history for the family that unfurls in revelatory fashion from episode to episode.

Long Story Short's episodes don't play out sequentially. Instead, each episode presents two vignettes from the Schwoopers' lives. The first serves as a cold open, often taking place in the Schwoopers' childhoods in the '90s and early 2000s. Then, once the show's charming scrapbook title sequence wraps up, Long Story Short rockets us into the future for the main focus of the episode. These range from key life events like bar mitzvahs to character-centric deep dives.

Years may have passed between vignettes, but Long Story Short's magic trick is gradually revealing how the events of the cold open have stayed with the Schwoopers for their entire lives, and how they continue to impact their adulthoods.

For example, Long Story Short's second episode opens with a family beach trip. As kids, Avi and Shira playact lifeguard rescues. However, when it's Shira's turn to be "saved," Avi decides to run off and play with their older cousins instead. His abandonment and unreliability in that moment is why, many years later, Shira struggles to ask him to be a sperm donor for her and Kendra.

That's just one of the many ways in which Long Story Short resurfaces old family wounds. Each episode collapses the past into the present, until the Schwoopers' adult and child selves may as well be co-existing on screen. (In some poignant sequences, they actually do.)

Hopping between the past and present isn't a new tactic in TV. In fact, I wish some shows would rely less on it less! However, in Bob-Waksberg and his team's hands, Long Story Short's non-linear chronology becomes a gutting weapon, one that explores how small moments from our childhood — even those that anyone else might find inconsequential — can have a long-lasting, sometimes traumatizing impact.

Long Story Short surrounds its portrayal of a deeply dysfunctional family with enough absurdity to keep things on the lighter end. Wolves invade a school campus, and no one bats an eye. Yoshi gets roped into selling mattresses that come in tubes. Each storyline is ridiculous, but ultimately winds up revealing a deeper truth about the Schwoopers.

Further adding to the lightness is Long Story Short's animation style, whose vibrant colors and hand-drawn look recall illustrated storybooks, or even family drawings that would earn pride of place on any family refrigerator.

Of course, in Long Story Short's case, these drawings also come with their fair share of family trauma and thorny parental relationships. But that's family, the show seems to say: You're going to have a lot of wonderful, supportive experiences, and you're also going to get pretty messed up. And somehow, Long Story Short manages to roll that contradiction into one beautiful, heart-wrenching show.

Long Story Short is now streaming on Netflix.

Imagine Golden Girls meets Murder, She Wrote, and you'll have a sense of the immaculate energy that exudes from The Thursday Murder Club. 

Now, I realize those comparisons might sound dated. But I challenge you to find a modern, massively popular franchise that allows retirees to be seen as smart, lively, and cool without apology. Yes, Only Murders in the Building has some of that — but suffused with New York neuroses and self-deprecation. The Thursday Murder Club is steeped instead in dry English wit, and with comparable star power. 

Based on the popular book series by Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie as four pensioners who might be retired, but who don't count their best years behind them. Instead, using the skills they've acquired over a lifetime as a spy, union leader, psychiatrist, and nurse, this curious quartet investigates cold cases. Or — in the footsteps of Jessica Fletcher — they explore the source of fresh blood that turns up on their own doorstep. 

Ready for something you and your folks can watch together? Buckle up. 

The Thursday Murder Club delivers clever, cheeky, crime-ridden fun.  Pierce Brosnan, Tom Ellis, and Daniel Mays in "The Thursday Murder Club." Credit: Giles Keyte / Netflix

Osman's quartet of novels is new, with the first publishing in 2020, but they have a timeless feel. Set in a charming retirement village of Cooper's Chase — depicted here like a Downton Abbey-style estate — The Thursday Murder Club presents its seniors with a cozy scene and a vitality that is exhilarating. Rejecting ageist stereotypes, screenwriters Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote paint them not as dotty grandmothers or cantankerous grandpas. They're not out of touch or stagnant. They are intellectual, emotionally intelligent, and alive. Best of all, the Thursday Murder Club uses the ageist expectations of those who'd underestimate them against them, essentially masquerading as fretful, frail old biddies when it'll get them what they need (like access to a particular police officer, played by the splendid Naomi Ackie of Blink Twice). 

Celia Imrie, Helen Mirren, Naomi Ackie, Pierce Brosnan, and Sir Ben Kingsley in "The Thursday Murder Club." Credit: Giles Keyte / Netflix

Meet Elizabeth Best (Mirren), who is collected, chic, and no-nonsense as she casually interrogates cops and criminals alike. With a silver-fox beard and a flair for rowdiness, Ron Ritchie (Brosnan) is the rabble-rouser of the group, spurred into booming speeches whenever the need arises. By contrast, Ibrahim Arif (Kingsley) is more reserved, a deep thinker who takes great pride in his rigorous wellness routine. And new to the crew is Joyce Meadowcroft (Imrie), a recent widow who is fresh to Cooper's Chase and eager to make friends with her brilliant baking — and her capable assessment of crime scene photos. 

Together, they — like Sophia, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose — are a clashing collection of personalities who exude attitude, wit, and love. Across four books to date, they've become more than funny detectives to me. They're real and wonderful. And The Thursday Murder Club carries that torch by bringing them to the screen in bursts of charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent.

The Thursday Murder Club is a gift, albeit a bit toned down.  Celia Imrie, Sir Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan in "The Thursday Murder Club." Credit: Giles Keyte / Netflix

To condense Osman's first novel into a single movie, some of the more salacious plotlines are tamed (like Jason Ritchie's background) or dropped altogether (the priest got off light!). Likewise, some of the characters who certainly came off gruffer in the novel get a Hollywood makeover here; for example, tattooed tough guy Bogdan is played by the muscular but vaguely dapper Henry Lloyd-Hughes. Still, I have no major qualms with these changes because of what The Thursday Murder Club gets right: its heroes. They are heroes, brilliant and aspirational. 

A moment of confession: I began reading these books not long after I lost my grandmother. She wasn't a detective, a spy, a shrink, or a nurse. She was, however, one of the smartest and most compassionate people I knew. Which meant that in her eighties , she was prone to hollering at her loved ones (me included) about what she believed was right. She fought for the world she wanted to see, one argument at a time. And often, I saw others shrug, as if she didn't know what she was talking about — perhaps because her world had seemed to shrink as her mobility issues rose. But in this modern world, being informed is at your fingertips, and she was ruthlessly informed, opinionated, and not afraid to let you know about it. I miss her, and this energy every day. 

Watching The Thursday Night Murder Club, I cackled with glee as Elizabeth and Joyce went on a covert mission, or Ibrahim and Ron manipulated a cop by playing into misplaced pity. I cheered for their victories, gasped for their setbacks, and laughed at their jokes — but never at them. Sure, in Osman's novels, he addresses a certain fish-out-of-water element of being a senior in a world where technology moves like a flash flood. (Joyce joining social media proves very amusing in the books.) But his empathy for their experiences is deep and inviting. His respect for his characters is reflected in the casting. 

By bringing together three world-famous, highly acclaimed movie stars to play Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim, the initial trio is instantly granted gravitas from their first frame. When Joyce joins the crew, she's almost starstruck, and that also makes sense. Imrie, who has a long, long career in the UK and the comic timing to prove it, is pitch-perfect as their eager newbie. Mirren's confidence, Brosnan's boldness, Kingsley's sophistication, and Imrie's enthusiasm make for a perfect balance. And it's not that any of them remind me specifically of my gram, but they — like her — are wondrously alive, passionate, and dedicated to service in whatever way they can. And man, while I laughed watching this movie, I could almost hear my gram laughing with me. 

The Thursday Murder Club is a sensationally funny, warm, and smart crime-comedy with a crackling ensemble. If you're hankering for a new season of Only Murders in the Building, pining for the days of Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote, or you just miss the radiant senior in your life, this is a gift, a treat, and a delight — on par, I'd imagine with Joyce's Bake-Off-worthy pastries. 

The Thursday Murder Club debuts on Netflix on Aug. 28. 

The moon is almost completely dark tonight, thanks to where we are in the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

So let's see what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 22.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Friday, Aug. 22, the moon phase is Waning Crescent, and only 1% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

We're on day 29 of the lunar cycle, and with so little of the moon lit up, we won't be able to spot anything tonight.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

A show-off.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

POSER

Hurdle Word 2 hint

The devil.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

DEMON

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Courage.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 4 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

NERVE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

To sing.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for August 4 Hurdle Word 4 answer

TRILL

Final Hurdle hint

A rabbit.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

BUNNY

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for August 4 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Leaders of the Free World

• Green: Famous film stars

• Blue: Card games

• Purple: Rounded things

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: U.S. presidents

• Green: Actors whose last names are also verbs

• Blue: Kinds of poker

• Purple: Proper nouns after gerunds in '90s movie titles

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #804 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• U.S. presidents: ADAMS, FORD, GRANT, WASHINGTON

• Actors whose last names are also verbs: CHEVY CHASE, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, GEOFFREY RUSH, TOM CRUISE

• Kinds of poker: DRAW, OMAHA, STRIP, STUD

• Proper nouns after gerunds in '90s movie titles: AMY, JOHN MALKOVICH, LAS VEGAS, PRIVATE RYAN

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 4

Are you also playing NYT Strands?

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

SAVE $150: As of Aug. 21, you can grab the Sony XM4 headphones for just $199.99 at Best Buy. That's down from the regular $349.99 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony XM4 Wireless Headphones $199.99 at Amazon
$349.99 Save $150 Get Deal

Everyone waiting to finally grab a pair of Sony’s XM4 headphones at an affordable price can celebrate at least.

As of Aug. 21, Best Buy has slashed the price of the Sony XM4 headphones to just $199.99. That’s a massive $150 saving on the usual $349.99 list price, and one of the sharpest deals we’ve seen on Sony’s old favorites.

SEE ALSO: We put the top 10 headphones of 2025 to the test

The XM4s are renowned for their class-leading noise cancelation, powered by Dual Noise Sensor technology that adapts to your surroundings and shuts out distractions. Coupled with 30 hours of battery life (plus a quick charge mode that gives you five hours of playback from a 10-minute top-up), these headphones are built for travellers, commuters, and marathon work sessions alike.

Sony hasn’t just focused on silence, though; the sound profile is equally impressive. Thanks to DSEE Extreme upscaling (co-developed with Sony Music Studios Tokyo), compressed tracks are lifted closer to studio quality in real time. Touch sensor controls on the earcups let you skip tracks, adjust volume, or summon Alexa or Google Assistant with a tap.

A raft of clever extras adds to the appeal. Speak-to-Chat pauses playback automatically when you start talking. Adaptive Sound Control adjusts noise-cancelling depending on whether you’re walking, waiting, or flying. A wearing detection sensor pauses audio when you take the headphones off, while multipoint Bluetooth means you can stay connected to two devices simultaneously.

Designed for comfort as well as performance, the XM4s come with a slim carry case, USB-C charging cable, wired connection lead, and even an in-flight adapter. What’s more, these are built to last as well. 

I’ve owned my own Sony XM4s for almost four years now, and they’ve not only remained my go-to headphones for walks, travelling, and the gym, but have stood the test of time; including knocks, bumps, and a handful of drops; and still work perfectly.

At just under $200, these headphones tick the boxes for anyone after superb audio, intuitive smart features, and all-day comfort — without paying full price.

If you want to keep shopping around before pulling the trigger, be sure to also check out the top 10 headphones of 2025 we personally put to the test. For the ideal soundware just for blocking out external noise, we’ve also put together a list of the best noise-cancelling headphones we use and love from brands like Bose, Sony, and Apple.