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Dark Matter Season 2 is refusing to neglect the multiple versions of its characters.

We already had a very strong standalone episode that tracked the lives of several of the Jasons (Joel Edgerton) who leave their family behind at the end of Season 1, and episode 8 has just delivered more of the same.

This time, we have the backstory to new character Laurel (Margo Martindale), who we met back in episode 7, and an answer to the question of who Charlie saw come through the doorway at the episode's end.

SEE ALSO: The 41 best Apple TV shows, ranked What happens in Dark Matter Season 2, episode 8?

Episode 8 goes back in time, tracking the history of Laurel and her relationship to the box, starting with her saving the life of a version of Amanda (Alice Braga) after she's carried in by another Jason (Edgerton) with a tree branch sticking out of her chest. Laurel, who is something of a paranoid recluse due to the political climate in her world, nurses Amanda back to health, then sends Jason and Amanda on their way. But she's not done helping people.

Soon, she's visited by a version of Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi), who tells her he'd like to make her home a kind of way-station for travellers in need. Blair (Amanda Brugel) is next to visit, and then ultimately Amanda and Jason make another stop when they're running low on vials. First, Amanda decides to stay put in Laurel's world, and then Jason — having given up hope of finding his original family — decides to join her. Like the other Jason in episode 5, he finds his own version of happiness.

Who does Charlie see at Laurel's house?

All of which brings us up to the present day, and Charlie's visit. Episode 7 left us on something of a cliffhanger, with Charlie seeing someone in Laurel's house that made him stop in his tracks.

At the time, based on his reaction, we thought this was likely someone he knew well — and sure enough, it turns out to be the version of his dad that's now living with Amanda in Laurel's world.

In a bittersweet moment the two share a heart-to-heart, with Jason learning what became of his old family before offering his son some advice for his own future.

"Life, it'll take you this way and that way. It'll toss you round. It'll knock your teeth in," says Jason. "But if you choose the genuine real life that you want, you won't need to look back."

Dark Matter Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping every Friday.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier for those who've been to an NFL game.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, 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 the latest 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: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. The sports 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 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 before 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: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Rule enforcement

• Green: Announcer sounds

• Blue: NFL fields

• Purple: Cross

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Soccer Referee Decisions After a Foul

• Green: Onomatopoeias

• Blue: First Words in NFL Stadium Names

• Purple: Can Be Preceded by "Cross"

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: Sports Edition #753 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Soccer Referee Decisions After a Foul: ADVANTAGE, CARD, FREE KICK, PENALTY

• Onomatopoeias: BLOOP, CLANK, DOINK, SWISH

• First Words in NFL Stadium Names: BANK, LINCOLN, LUCAS, RAYMOND

• Can Be Preceded by "Cross": BAR, CHECKING, COUNTRY, OVER

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

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's 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 yesterday's Connections.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalog.

Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 15, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for October 16, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for October 16 Pips

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically; 3-5, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically; 5-4, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 4. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically; 4-6, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for October 16 Pips

Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. The answer is 0-1, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically.

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 0-4, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.

Less Than (1): Everything in this space must be less than 1. The answer is 3-0, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for October 16 Pips

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-4, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically; 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically; 0-3, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically.

Greater Than (8): Everything in this space must be greater than 8. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically; 4-5, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically; 4-5, placed vertically; 5-5, placed vertically.

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

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.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

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

Vital organ.

Hurdle Word 1 answer

HEART

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Breezy.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 16, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

WINDY

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Verdict decider.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for October 16, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Meanings for each word for Oct. 16, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

JUROR

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Elevated toilet.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

BIDET

Final Hurdle hint

A sheep's call.

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

BLEAT

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

Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers.

Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need.

While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself. Connections frequently includes clues that involve words within words and other visual clues.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for October 16, 2026 Bulgari meaning

A luxurious jewelry retailer.

Cyrus meaning

An Old Persian name meaning sun or throne.

Hungry meaning

Feeling a natural urge or an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach from lack of food.

Span meaning

The physical distance between two points, supports or limits.

Chip meaning

A tiny fragment or flake broken off from a larger object like glass, wood or stone

Mark meaning

A stain, scratch, scar or smudge on a surface.

Nick meaning

A small cut, notch or groove on a surface.

Scratch meaning

To cut, scrape or mark a surface or skin lightly with something sharp, jagged or pointed.

Chicken meaning

A feathered bird, often kept on farms for eggs and meat.

Coolidge meaning

The 30th president of the United States.

Hippo meaning

A large, semi-aquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

Smarties meaning

Compressed sugar tablet rolls, typically in shades of pink.

Chad meaning

A landlocked country in central Africa.

Hungary meaning

A landlocked country in central Europe, with the capital city of Budapest.

Laos meaning

The only landlocked country in mainland Southeast Asia.

Paraguay meaning

A landlocked South American country.

Have you learned the meanings and still want the things? Check out the hints and answers for today's NYT Connections puzzle.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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 yesterday's Connections.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're well-traveled.

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 Pips hints, answers for October 16, 2026 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: Minor flaws

• Green: Inland

• Blue: Across the Atlantic

• Purple: Fashionable

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Surface imperfections

• Green: Landlocked countries

• Blue: European countries minus a letter

• Purple: Starting with words for "Stylish"

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 #1223 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Surface imperfections: CHIP, MARK, NICK, SCRATCH

• Landlocked countries: CHAD, HUNGARY, LAOS, PARAGUAY

• European countries minus a letter: BULGARI, CYRUS, HUNGRY, SPAN

• Starting with words for "Stylish": CHICKEN, COOLIDGE, HIPPO, SMARTIES

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

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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 yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints will be easy if you come in a small package.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 16, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Just a little bit

The words are related to size.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe exactly as the hint implies: Really tiny things.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Lighthouse.

NYT Strands word list for October 16

• Pinpoint

• Molecule

• Small World

• Atom

• Follicle

• Mite

• Amoeba

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and 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 yesterday's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're always up to no good.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. 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 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for October 16, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Suspicious.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SHADY

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

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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 yesterday's Wordle.

If you grew up in Spain or know your arts, you'll likely know Federico García Lorca. If not, be seated. The iconic, Granada-born 20th century poet and playwright — a friend of Salvador Dalí, and a gay man — lived during the Spanish Civil War, a time when political violence was rife and queerness was persecuted. 

Lorca began writing the play La Bola Negra in 1936, the first year of the war between Republicans and Franco's fascist Nationalists — and the same year he was murdered by the latter. And it's this piece of unfinished theatre that lies at the heart of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's extraordinary 2026 film, a magnificent epic that draws threads between Lorca's work and the Spanish men connected to it. 

SEE ALSO: 'Behemoth!' review: Pedro Pascal's cellist drama is (mostly) music to our ears

It's a devastating film that will leave you heartbroken, for sure, but it's a vital, transcendent experience. With exemplary performances, transfixing cinematography, and a non-linear narrative fuelled by a family mystery, La Bola Negra brings lost pages of queer, literary, and political history to life. And we won't be forgetting that musical appearance from Penélope Cruz anytime soon, either.

La Bola Negra humanises history, drawing threads from the Spanish Civil War to the present.

A film of three contexts, La Bola Negra connects gay men across time within Spain: Carlos in 1932, Sebastián in 1937, and Alberto in 2017. Here, Calvo and Ambrossi, with fellow screenwriter Alberto Conejero, run parallel to Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling, with both films weaving a complex tapestry of characters across time. But here, thanks to editor Alberto Gutiérrez, these men's stories are directly connected, and it's the puzzle of the film to bring them together.

We first meet Sebastián (an exceptional debut from Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, aka musician Guitarricadelafuente), who is forced into the Nationalist army. We meet this gentle trumpet player in a shocking opening scene in which his northern Spanish village in Cantabria is destroyed by Italian forces. It's a sequence visually reminiscent of Pablo Picasso's 1937 masterpiece Guernica, the nearby site of similarly devastating Civil War violence (and painted in the same year as Sebastián's storyline). Horses run in terror, homes burn, children mourn slain mothers, and soldiers surround the village, as Raül Refree's haunting choral score sounds.

Forced into the ranks of fascists, Sebastián is assigned to a Nationalist army hospital near key battleground Santander, where truckloads of wounded bodies arrive daily, very few alive. He's ordered to guard injured Republican lieutenant colonel Rafael Rodríguez Rapún (a wonderful Miguel Bernardeau), a prisoner of war peeled from the pile. No hate in his heart, Sebastián feels drawn to this beautiful stranger, supposedly the enemy. As for Rafael, he holds the key to the whole triptych, the heart of La Bola Negra itself.

Featured Video For You 'No Other Choice' skewers the job market. Here's why Park Chan-wook made it.

Second, we meet the young Carlos (talented newcomer Milo Quifes) in pre-war Granada, rejected from an aristocratic casino because of his homosexuality. Third, with a rattling cut to modern smartphone technology, we meet Alberto (an excellent Carlos González) in the near-present, a historian and playwright whose casual Grindr dalliances are interrupted by an unexpected family inheritance. Such a mystery sends him on a quest into the past — and into uneasy conversations with his chaotic mother (a flawless Lola Dueñas). 

How these three storylines connect is the true magic of La Bola Negra, with each tale shedding light on the other, and building a powerful portrait of queer identity across decades.

La Bola Negra weaves queer desire through decades.

Like Glenn Close's historian character in the film (she's in it!), La Bola Negra is more concerned with the people between the historical events, especially those of the LGBTQ community, existing surrounded by violent heteronormativity and political chaos. Each storyline simmers in the Spanish heat, with all three mainly set in the height of summer in Granada, Santander, and Madrid.

A profound, steamy connection in the aftermath of violence, the forbidden love story between Sebastián and Rafael simmers with longing, melancholy, and inevitability, with director of photography Gris Jordana exquisitely crafting a glimmer of desire in a hopeless place. In the film's sparkling musical highlight, a dazzling Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a cupletista who performs for the rowdy Nationalist troops and opens Sebastián's perspective to the queer experience. (This performance feels deeply linked to Marlene Dietrich's performance in Witness for the Prosecution as the military crowd grows more and more aggressive). 

In Granada, the socially rejected Carlos finds solace with fellow outcasts in sweaty tavernas with his friends, the openly queer Lorenzo (Mario Silva) and painfully tempting Enrique (Hugo Welzel). And in the 2010s, Alberto's queerness is inextricable from his everyday existence, living a full life in Madrid with his beloved Juan Pablo (a wonderful appearance from Problemista's Julio Torres), a historian hesitant to investigate his own story.

And while you're figuring out the connection between all three storylines, and surviving the tragedies within them, the film thrives from some of the most jaw-dropping production design you'll see onscreen.

La Bola Negra boasts exquisite historical (and surreal) production design.

Giving you a complicated glimpse into Spain during the Civil War, art director Roger Bellés and costume designer Ana López Cobos have crafted something truly staggering — particularly within the two storylines set in the 1930s. The bloody halls of wartime in Sebastián's narrative are set against cocktail-abundant Granadan casino parlors in Carlos' story, the spilt blood and festering wounds of the army hospital contrasting with pure pre-war decadence. The film also plays with surrealism through some stunning sequences, particularly in Carlos' storyline.

And beneath all of this, Lorca's poetry and prose burns, the inspiration for such an ambitious triptych. In La Bola Negra, Calvo and Ambrossi not only pay tribute to the Spanish icon, but examine common threads through queer history, ask important questions of inheritance and secrets, and craft a love story so real and devastating you'll be unlikely to forget it. It's probably best expressed by Lorca himself, who makes an appearance in the film courtesy of the magnetic Alberto Cortés. "This country has too many love stories buried in the fields," he says of Spain, but really, you could be anywhere. 

La Bola Negra was reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival. It will open in NYC and L.A. on Oct. 16.

Yet another major privacy issue has hit a Meta-owned company.

This time it's a Meta product that certainly could not afford to have any privacy issues: Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

According to numerous reports from users, Meta's smart glasses have been making audio recordings of their conversations without the user's permission. 

Meta has since confirmed the issue and have said it's been fixed.

"This issue has been resolved," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Android Authority. "People can manage, review and delete voice logs of their interactions with Meta AI via settings at any time."

In a post on Reddit earlier this week, one user explained that Meta has been recording and making transcripts of their conversations without activating the smart glasses to do so via the "Hey Meta" prompt. The setting to activate recording without that prompt was also turned off when Meta's smart glasses recorded the conversations. The user said that they noticed the white light on the smart glasses that indicate activation turn on during their conversations.

Even worse, this wasn't an isolated glitch on a single device. The user shared that they observed the issue occur on three different pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which included both second- and third-generation models.

Users in the comments also chimed in sharing their own similar experiences. 

Earlier this year, an investigation uncovered that videos recorded by Meta smart glasses were being sent to offshore Meta workers in Kenya for data labeling used to train AI models. These videos included disturbing clips and intimate moments including bathroom footage of users who likely did not realize that their recordings were being viewed by third-parties.

While Meta says it has since fixed the problem, the company did not share what caused the issue.

Smart glasses are already criticized for their ability to covertly record people. Devices recording without even the product owner's knowledge is are certainly not ideal.

American writer/director Rian Johnson awed audiences and critics alike in 2019 with Knives Out. The hilarious murder mystery not only laid out a curious case in the style of Agatha Christie's works, but also stacked it with stars who brought bite to the in-fighting Thrombey family. Whether you were swooning over Chris Evans in that chic sweater, cackling over Toni Collette's flighty socialite, or rooting for Ana de Armas' put-upon nurse to survive her brush with this toxic clan, Johnson had you hooked.

By the film's end, audiences were demanding more adventures with Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), and Johnson would oblige with 2022's Glass Onion and 2025's Wake Up, Dead Man. But perhaps you want more movies in the vein of the Knives Out universe?

Here are Mashable's picks for the best movies like Knives Out, and where you can stream them.

Clue

Written and directed by Jonathan Lynn, this clever comedy was a box-office bomb that confounded critics upon its initial release in 1985. But over the years of TV broadcasts, Clue became a cult classic, revered for its madcap humor, beguiling stars, and a TV edit that added more fun with alternative endings, playing one after another.

Based on the board game of the same name, Clue is set in a secluded mansion, where six strangers convene to meet a blackmailer known as Mr. Boddy. When he turns up dead, it's up to Miss Scarlet, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, and a butler called Wadsworth to discover the murderer before they kill again. Along the way, there'll be plenty of macabre humor, wordplay, double entendres, and pratfalls, along with some blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos. Like Knives Out, Clue is a funny, sexy, and satisfying murder mystery that's a joy to rewatch over and over.

Starring: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren

How to watch: Clue is now streaming on Pluto TV.

The Thursday Murder Club

Adapted from the first novel in Richard Osman's book series of the same name, this cozy crime thriller begins in a charming retirement village of Cooper's Chase in rural England. But don't underestimate its pensioners. When chatting over tea, it's not the news or grandchildren they're discussing, but unsolved homicide cases.

Named for their curious weekly activity group, the Thursday Murder Club is made up of former firebrand union leader Ron Ritchie, semi-retired psychiatrist Professor Ibrahim Arif, retired trauma nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, and former MI6 agent Elizabeth Best. Together, they are a force that rivals even the local police. So, when a murder happens on their grounds, they're on top of it with a fearsome intellect and hilarious wit. Director Chris Columbus' star-studded cast brings Osman's novel to such vivid life, you might be tempted to dive into pages of his book series too. (Do it!)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Richard E. Grant, Tom Ellis, Geoff Bell, Paul Freeman, and Ingrid Oliver

How to watch: The Thursday Murder Club is now streaming on Netflix.

The Sheep Detectives

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin channeled his softer side with this cozy crime movie based on Leonie Swann's novel Three Bags Full. As you might gather from the title, The Sheep Detectives centers on a flock of sheep who set out to discover who murdered their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman).

While the premise is ridiculous, director Kyle Balda and his cast plumb surprising emotional depths here. Sure, on the surface there's a lot of silliness about all the ways that sheep — even those nurtured with nightly readings from mystery novels — misunderstand the ways of mankind. But beneath the charming surface of this rural English village, they discover not only a dark underbelly, but also a deep grief they must confront to move through. The result is a movie that presents a satisfying puzzle in an unexpected form that's winsome and a tad heartbreaking.

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Emma Thompson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, and Brett Goldstein

How to watch: The Sheep Detectives is now streaming on Prime Video.

Murder on the Orient Express

I was tempted to add several Agatha Christie adaptations to the list. Even beyond direct adaptions of her work, this legendary dame with 66 detective novels to her name was a seminal influence on many movies. But if we had to pick just one, it'd be Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express. (Yes, yes, Kenneth Branagh adapted the same novel in 2017. This one is better and not an eyesore!)

Christie's iconically mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot is traveling on the eponymous train route, when American businessman Samuel Ratchett is killed in the night. Long before Knives Out, Christie mastered the storytelling method of setting up a murder mystery in a confined space, where all eccentric suspects are interrogated as fear of more murder hangs heavy like a guillotine's blade. Bringing together a cast of critically acclaimed stars, Lumet draws out the suspense and dark humor of Christie's works with a timeless appeal.

Starring: Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Rachel Roberts, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Denis Quilley, Colin Blakely, and Wendy Hiller

How to watch: Murder on the Orient Express is now streaming on YouTube.

The Last of Sheila

Johnson has cited this under-appreciated film as a big influence on his Knives Out franchise. Written by Psycho star Anthony Perkins and Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, this curious thriller explores the sordid underbelly of the filmmaking industry.

The film begins with gossip columnist Sheila Greene fleeing a Bel Air party, only to be fatally rundown in a hit-and-run. One year later, her husband, movie producer Clinton Greene, reunites the revelers from that night on a boat named Sheila. What begins as a swanky getaway for Hollywood elites becomes a dastardly game, as the secrets of this group float to the surface with deadly consequences. Scandalous and surprising, it's a must-see for murder mystery fans.

Starring: Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch

How to watch: The Last of Sheila is now streaming on YouTube.

Warning: This article discusses self-harm.

Five episodes into Peacock's Crystal Lake, Friday the 13th fans come across a familiar sight.

With all of Camp Crystal Lake's campers asleep in their beds, their counselors gather by a fireplace for some late-night singing. Couple Claudette (Danielle Kotch) and Barry (Phoenix Parnevik) make eyes at each other throughout the song, then ruin off to a shed to fool around. It's an uncanny mirror to the opening sequence of the original Friday the 13th, right down to foreboding shots from the point of view of an unseen figure stalking the pair.

SEE ALSO: 'Crystal Lake': What is Argonaut?

Anyone who's seen Friday the 13th would think that that figure is Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), camp line cook and mother to the late Jason Voorhees (Callum Vinson). In the original movie, she admits to killing Claudette and Barry to get revenge on them for shirking their counselor duties and running off to have sex. When they did, they left campers unsupervised, meaning they weren't around to save Jason from drowning.

However, Crystal Lake switches up this defining moment from the franchise, handing the kill over to an entirely different character.

Who kills Barry and Claudette in Crystal Lake?

The culprit in Crystal Lake is actually Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom), a young camper who was Jason's only friend. Due to her closeness to Jason, Grace becomes a fixation for Pam. She obsesses over protecting her, even killing her abusive mother, Valerie (Tonya Glanz), in a diner beatdown. In a twist, it turns out that the cigarette burns Pam thought Valerie gave Grace were actually from Grace herself, who was self-harming.

Between Jason's death and her mother's demise, Grace lives in a constant state of emotional turmoil. No wonder she begins to gravitate towards the hippies who are temporarily staying at Camp Crystal Lake. However, the hippies decide they can't take Grace with them to their commune in Maine, and Harmony (Manon Gage) shows more interest in having sex with Barry than in hanging out with Grace. From there, Grace's jealousy takes hold. She takes acid herself. Soon after, she's following Claudette and Barry to the shed.

For Grace, seeing Claudette and Barry hooking up again is a horrifying moment of déjà vu. She witnessed the pair having sex the day Jason died and has been haunted by the encounter ever since. Now, in her altered state, she believes she can prevent Jason's death if she can prevent Claudette and Barry from having sex in that moment. Cue the stabbing! Moments later, Pam rushes in and immediately sets about protecting Grace — but not before she drives the final stab home on Claudette, one last piece of vengeance for her abandoning Jason.

Pam does plenty of killing elsewhere in the show, including unleashing a full bloodbath in the very next episode. That doesn't change the fact that altering the fundamental kills from the first film is an odd move to make in a prequel series, especially one that hews so closely to the style of the original. Instead of adding depth to an iconic horror moment, Crystal Lake pulls a cheap gotcha twist that feels designed to spark outrage from diehard franchise fans.

There is no meaningful recontextualization here, just a surprise that Crystal Lake moves on from far too quickly as it zips towards unpacking Jason's (Callum Vinson) backstory. On top of that, the Grace reveal softens Pam's villainy, removing the stalker-like intention behind the original kills and turning it into her simply taking advantage of an accidental slashing. For a show that's all about putting Pam Voorhees back in the spotlight, Crystal Lake simply couldn't get her biggest moment right.

Crystal Lake is now streaming on Peacock.

Peacock's Crystal Lake conjures up a bloody backstory for Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), mother to horror icon Jason Voorhees and the killer behind the carnage of Friday the 13th.

SEE ALSO: 2026 fall TV preview: Every show you should know about

The prequel series also dives deeper into Jason's past, long before he drowned in Crystal Lake. At the heart of his and Pam's origin story is a mysterious program known as Argonaut, teased briefly in flashbacks towards the end of Crystal Lake's first episode.

So, what is Argonaut, and how does it shape Jason's journey to slasher fame? Let's dive into the muddy waters of Crystal Lake to find out, but beware: Spoilers lurk beyond this point.

What is Argonaut?

After six episodes of buildup, Crystal Lake's seventh episode, titled "Friday...," reveals everything audiences need to know about Argonaut.

Argonaut is a secret project carried out by Bellflower Chemical in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (While Jason originally drowns in 1957 in the film franchise, Crystal Lake pushes up the timeline so he drowns in 1971, meaning he isn't even born until 1959.) The project is named after the Argonauts, a group of heroes from Greek mythology who sailed on the Argo on the quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their leader was the hero Jason, giving extra meaning to Jason Voorhees' name.

SEE ALSO: 'Avatar: Seven Havens' review: The Avatar apocalypse is a bold, brilliant addition to the franchise

However, Bellflower's Argonaut has a much less shiny goal in mind than the Golden Fleece. Borne from Cold War anxiety, its goal is to prepare humans for inevitable nuclear war between the Americans and the Soviets.

To do this, Bellflower's scientists turn towards the cockroach, claiming it's the "one creature on Earth who can survive an atomic blast." (An assertion that is a myth.) They work to mimic cockroaches' resistance to radiation and nuclear fallout in a human subject. That subject is none other than Jason Voorhees, once known as Jason Whittering.

How does Jason become a part of Argonaut?

At the start of "Friday...," Pam is living the dream: Her singing career is on the rise, she appears to be in a fulfilling relationship with Bellflower employee Elias Whittering (Hamish Linklater), and she's pregnant with her first child. However, after she experiences a miscarriage during a TV performance, Elias whisks her away to Bellflower's state-of-the-art medical facility in Houston, where the company has hired the best obstetricians.

There, Dr. Valentine (Jeffrey Bean) informs Pam that she's actually still pregnant, but her placenta is having trouble staying attached to the uterine wall. In order to help her, he suggests she takes part in a clinical trial for an experimental new treatment.

The trial, however, is not solely to help Pam or her unborn child. It's part of Argonaut's plan, turning Pam and Jason into test subjects through compromised consent. The only other subject she encounters is Trish (Olivia Macklin), another wife of a Bellflower employee. After months of suspecting that her husband and the other doctors are lying to her, Trish's baby is stillborn, and she dies by suicide. Trish's entire life is a testament to the horrors of Argonaut, and a huge warning bell for Pam.

Jason is the first test subject to be successfully carried to term, and the effects of the Argonaut treatment begin to show from an early age. When he's still a baby, he drowns in an overflowing bathtub while an exhausted Pam falls asleep. However, once lifted from the water, he begins crying as if nothing had happened. The incident echoes Jason's later drowning in Crystal Lake, and his survival of such an impossible circumstance is why Pam is so sure Jason is still alive in the present day.

As Jason grows, so does Elias' status at Bellflower. He'd often tell Linda that he was taking Jason to the doctor for treatments, but in reality, the treatments were further experiments that pushed Jason's limits, making him sick with radiation poisoning.

In a keynote speech at a Bellflower event, Elias explains that exposure to physical trauma accelerates Jason's growth and makes him physically stronger. That explains why, in the present timeline, Jason has grown so quickly and intensely after drowning in Crystal Lake.

What Elias fails to mention is that Argonaut treatment and repeated physical trauma could cause heightened aggression in subjects. When Pam sneaks into the Argonaut lab during Elias' speech, she discovers a subject whose head is covered, thrashing about like an animal — not unlike Jason's behavior in the woods around Crystal Lake.

Pam is able to flee Bellflower with Jason, but the impacts of Argonaut leave lasting scars on both of them. Jason can't escape his increased resilience or its unintended side effects, while Pam is forever haunted by the harm Elias and Bellflower enacted on her son. She vows to never let anyone hurt him ever again, and it's that same fiery protectiveness that later manifests in her killing spree around Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake is now streaming on Peacock.

TL;DR: Give your PC a total refresh with this lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows, now on sale for just $49.97 (MSRP $249.99) through tonight, Oct. 18, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows: Lifetime License $49.97
$249.99 Save $200.02   Get Deal

Sometimes you don’t appreciate how helpful an app is until you need access and no longer have it. That’s the case with Microsoft Office tools, and if you’re in the market for a fresh license for your PC, you’re in luck. You can currently snag a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows for only $49.97.

If you’ve been missing access to the Microsoft Office staples like Word, PowerPoint, and more, it’s time to get yourself a new license. Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows breathes new life into your PC with six new tools to help you tackle all your tasks.

With this Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus license, you only pay once and get permanent access to all tools. It’s a non-binding key with a download link sent right after your purchase. It links to your device and not your Microsoft account, keeping it more affordable and helping you avoid monthly subscriptions and recurring fees.

Own the classics like Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint, plus two new favorites with OneNote and Access. They have upgraded features such as data analysis and database management, as well as a dark mode option.

You’ll also enjoy enhanced security and compliance capabilities in Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows that help keep you safer.

Secure your own lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus for Windows for just $49.97.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Learn all 14 Babbel languages for life for $159 (reg. $540) with StackSocial code LEARN during this extended Deal Days sale.

Opens in a new window Credit: Babbel Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages) $159
$299 Save $140   Get Deal

Your next vacation might be months away, but your language-learning plans don’t have to wait. Learning a new language isn’t easy, but it also might not be as hard as some apps make it seem.

If memorizing vocab lists isn’t working for you, check out Babbel. They take a more practical approach to teaching, and there’s even an AI conversation partner who can help you practice your pronunciation.

Today’s the last day to get a Babbel Lifetime Language Learning Subscription for just $159 (reg. $299) during the extended Deal Days sale when you use StackSocial’s code LEARN.

What can Babbel teach you?

Babbel gives you lifetime access to courses in 14 different languages, and the format is designed to fit into real life. Each lesson takes around 10 to 15 minutes, so you can actually stick with it whether you’re commuting, traveling, or just squeezing in some study time between meetings.

Here are a few of the included languages:

• Spanish

• French

• German

• Italian

• Portuguese

• Swedish

Unlike other apps that focus heavily on word games or repetitive matching drills, Babbel centers its content around practical conversation topics. You’ll get lessons on travel, shopping, business, culture, and more, all developed by expert linguists and backed by academic research. Speech recognition helps fine-tune your pronunciation, while the new AI-powered conversation partner lets you practice speaking in real time.

Lessons sync across devices, so you can start on your computer and finish on your phone. There’s also an offline mode if you want to download lessons ahead of time. You can move at your own pace, revisit review sessions, and jump between beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels based on your comfort.

Use code LEARN to get a Babbel lifetime subscription for only $159.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Apple and Meta have found something they can agree on. Apparently, it takes a very large AI model.

The longtime rivals have teamed up to make Meta’s new Muse Spark Open model run locally on Apple’s M5 Ultra Mac Studios. Announced Oct. 15, the release lets developers download and customize the new open-weight model, though two connected Apple desktops are required to power it. "The result is two Mac Studios behave like one supercomputer," Meta wrote in a blog post.

"We're excited for mommy and daddy to be playing nice again," Meta’s AI chief Alexandr Wang told Axios.

An unusual way to describe a corporate collaboration, sure. But these companies do have some history. As recently as January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg was criticizing Apple on Joe Rogan’s podcast for its lack of innovation and restrictions on other companies’ products. Now, Meta is helping show off what Apple’s silicon can do.

Muse Spark Open builds on the Muse Spark model family Meta introduced in April. Meta calls it the most capable U.S. open-weight model available, a claim based on its own evaluations. "Open-weight" means developers can download the model’s learned parameters and run them themselves, subject to the model's license, rather than accessing it exclusively through a company’s app or cloud service.

Meta says the model is designed for coding, multistep reasoning, and "agentic" work — using tools to complete tasks. In its tests, the company says it used Muse Code, powered by the new model, to make changes to the Mastodon app Ice Cubes and operate video editor DaVinci Resolve, reviewing footage and cropping clips vertically. (To learn more, read Meta's methodology.)

There is a sizable catch to the desktop pitch, however. This is an 816-billion-parameter model, and Meta's highlighted setup uses two M5 Ultra Mac Studios with up to 512GB of unified memory each. It runs through Apple’s MLX machine-learning framework. So, your everyday MacBook is sitting this one out.

The release follows Muse Glimmer, Meta’s smaller model designed to run on a laptop or PC. Both reflect the appeal of running AI on hardware you control, allowing local processing without sending each prompt to a hosted model.

That also gives Apple and Meta a way around a longstanding source of tension: privacy. Wang told Axios that Meta has no visibility into developers' local use of the model.

For now, the collaboration is about making Meta's AI work on Apple hardware. Whether that working relationship extends to the AI features most Apple users actually encounter is the next question.

Muse Spark Open is available now via GitHub, as is the MLX Adapter required to run it.

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Some people go to film school. Others watch Jujutsu Kaisen.

For Obsession star Inde Navarrette, anime became an unlikely screenwriting teacher during a period of uncertainty in her acting career. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress revealed that she spent the time between filming Obsession and its release studying movies and television, particularly anime, to better understand what makes a good story.

And she wasn't just watching for entertainment. She was taking notes. "What I like is anime, so like, why do I like that?" Navarrette said, explaining how she began comparing the storytelling techniques of popular anime Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer.

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

Her biggest takeaway? The way different anime series approach narrative structure.

"With Jujutsu Kaisen, they play with timelines, right? With Demon Slayer, they don't; it's very linear," she explained. "And what does that mean, and how does that affect storytelling?"

Navarrette became particularly interested in how Jujutsu Kaisen uses nonlinear storytelling to reveal information, sometimes planting seemingly insignificant details that don't pay off until several episodes later. The anime's second season, for example, opens with a five-episode flashback arc exploring the complicated history between Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, giving new emotional weight to a relationship viewers were already familiar with.

Navarrette began applying those kinds of observations to her own screenwriting. (Inde, may I also recommend Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?)

SEE ALSO: 'Witch Hat Atelier' is anime's next truly magical hit

It's a pretty good reminder that anime has plenty to teach us about storytelling beyond spectacular fight sequences and dramatic power-ups. And Navarrete isn't the only Hollywood star looking to anime for creative inspiration.

In a 2025 Vanity Fair video, Michael B. Jordan introduced fellow actors Austin Butler and Paul Mescal to My Hero Academia, using a pivotal scene from the series to explain his appreciation for anime's emotional storytelling. Jordan, a longtime anime fan, also revealed how he studied anime fight sequences while directing Creed III, looking for ways to translate the medium's heightened action and emotion into live action.

The actor and filmmaker drew inspiration from Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, and Hajime no Ippo for his directorial debut, incorporating anime's visual language and emotional storytelling into the film's boxing sequences. In particular, Jordan looked to the complicated relationship between Naruto and Sasuke when developing the climactic confrontation between Adonis Creed and Damian Anderson. The influence extended beyond choreography to the way the film visualized its characters' internal conflicts.

SEE ALSO: How social media changed what it means to be an anime fan

It's a familiar kind of enthusiasm to anyone who's spent time watching anime breakdowns on YouTube, where fans can spend hours analyzing a single fight scene, character arc, or narrative choice. But what's interesting is how that same curiosity is finding its way into Hollywood's creative process. What starts as fandom can become a way of understanding how stories are made.

For Navarrette, anime offered lessons in screenwriting. For Jordan, it became a visual reference for directing. The appeal isn't just what happens onscreen, but how a series structures its narrative to make those moments resonate.

There's something refreshing about seeing Hollywood stars talk about anime as more than a guilty pleasure. For decades, anime fans have used the internet to find community, share their enthusiasm, and make the case for why their favorite stories matter. Now, actors like Navarrette and Jordan are having similar conversations in mainstream entertainment spaces, openly discussing how anime has shaped their understanding of storytelling.

And Hollywood seems increasingly interested in taking notes. Just last week, Tom Cruise and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu visited an exhibition in Tokyo celebrating the 15th anniversary of MAPPA, the Japanese animation studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Attack on Titan: The Final Season. In the video uploaded to MAPPA's YouTube channel, it looks like Cruise took a particular interest in the original Jujutsu Kaisen animation drawings, even asking about the studio's use of traditional hand-drawn animation.

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

Between Navarrette studying its scripts, Jordan borrowing from its visual language, and Cruise examining its animation, anime is getting some serious attention from Hollywood.

Anime has long been a source of inspiration for filmmakers, but as more actors and directors openly discuss its influence on their work, it's clear that the medium isn't just shaping what Hollywood looks like — it's shaping how Hollywood tells stories. And really, isn't that the magic of anime?

SAVE $60.99: As of Oct. 15. the Shark Glossi 2-in-1 Blow Dryer Brush is on sale for the record-low price of $119 at Amazon and Sephora. That's 34% off its regular price of $179.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark Glossi 2-in-1 Blow Dryer Brush $119 at Amazon
$179.99 Save $60.99 Raspberry or lychee colorways. Get Deal at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark Glossi 2-in-1 Blow Dryer Brush $119 at Sephora
$179.99 Save $60.99 Lychee colorway only. Get Deal at Sephora

Dyson was very late to the game when it debuted its first-ever dryer brush this fall, the Dyson AirSmooth. When Mashable's Bethany Allard wrote about its launch, she noted that "dryer brushes have been an option from other brands for quite some time" (since the late 2010s). And Shark — perhaps Dyson's closest rival — came out with its Glossi blow dryer brush a year prior.

While the Glossi wasn't exactly a breakthrough, either, it stands out because it can double as a heat styling brush. That helps justify its $179.99 price tag, which is higher than alternatives like the Revlon One-Step and WavyTalk Blowout Boost. However, you won't pay that much for it right now.

The Shark Glossi is currently on sale for just $119 at Amazon and Sephora, which is a 34% savings and a match of its all-time low price from Prime Day in June. You could buy two of them for the price of one AirSmooth.

Here's the Shark Glossi in "lychee." Credit: Shark

Amazon has the Glossi on sale at this price in its raspberry and lychee finishes (hot and light pink, respectively), while Sephora just carries it in lychee. You can get it in juniper (aqua) for 99 cents extra on Amazon and at other retailers like Best Buy, Kohl's, Target, and Shark itself.

Suitable for use on wet or dry tresses, the Glossi never heats up past 302 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid frying your hair. Its teardrop-shaped head, which has a built-in ceramic hot comb on one side, makes it easy to get right up to your roots.

Who should get it? According to Allard, "anyone looking for smoothed, straightened, and volumized hair might find their ideal tool in the Shark Glossi."

Meta wants Muse to take errands off your hands. But if your to-do list involves your Chase account, you’re still doing the banking yourself.

JPMorgan Chase is blocking outside AI agents, including services like Meta's Muse and Instinct, from directly accessing retail customers' accounts and acting on their behalf, CNBC reported. Coming weeks after Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site, the restriction puts another dent in the idea of one assistant that can handle your everyday tasks.

Speaking during the bank’s Oct. 13 earnings call, CEO Jamie Dimon warned about potentially thousands of rogue agents.

"We’re not going to allow just any … outside agent to come in inside the company, because it’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan," Dimon said.

Dimon isn't the only financial leader worried about AI agents. Recently, Bank of America and other major banks issued a warning about AI agents and the potential fraud risks associated with them.

A Chase spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that third parties cannot obtain customers' banking credentials and log in on their behalf. There's no timeline for when the bank might allow agents to interact directly with customer accounts.

SEE ALSO: 10 ways to use Meta's Muse AI app, from flight credits to outfit ideas What does this mean for Chase customers?

An assistant might be able to help you figure out what to do with your money. Actually moving it is where Chase draws the line.

The bank still supports secure, customer-authorized data sharing through open banking providers, allowing an agent to access certain information, such as account balances, through an approved connection. That access does not extend to sending money or paying bills.

Say you ask an assistant to find a savings account with a better interest rate and transfer some money into it. It could help research your options, but you’d still need to complete the transfer through an authorized banking channel. The same obstacle applies to a bill payment that requires the agent to log into Chase.

That leaves users finishing precisely the kind of tedious financial admin they might have hoped to hand over. And for Muse, completing those tasks is a big part of the pitch. In its September launch announcement, Meta described an assistant that works across everyday apps, booking travel and sending emails rather than simply explaining how to do those things.

But an assistant’s ability to follow instructions only gets it so far when the service on the other end won’t let it through.

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Amazon has already pushed back on Muse SEE ALSO: Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent from shopping

Muse users encountered that problem at checkout last month, when Amazon began blocking the assistant from shopping on its site. The retailer said Muse failed to identify itself and raised concerns about its handling of customers’ credentials and account data.

"We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate," an Amazon spokesperson previously told Mashable. "Agentic third-party applications such as Muse have the same obligations, and we've requested that Meta remove Amazon from the experience."

Both Amazon and Chase, however, are making room for automation of their own.

Amazon is testing its shopping agent, Buy for Me. JPMorgan has begun a targeted pilot of Smart Cash, which CFO Jeremy Barnum described as a tool to forecast cash flow and move funds to maximize yield.

The bank had been laying out those ambitions well before this week's comments. In his April shareholder letter, Dimon described plans for Smart Cash to automate transfers between checking accounts and higher-yielding brokerage products, with AI eventually helping anticipate bills and budgeting needs.

That means Chase and Amazon are restricting outside AI assistants while developing their own tools to do some of the same tasks, raising questions about competition as well as security.

For users, that could mean keeping track of which tasks Muse can actually finish before handing them over. Until Meta secures more access, asking the assistant to do something may still leave you with work to do. The horror!

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