Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Ray Romano

Ray Romano announced the exciting news on Sherri in March 2026 that he’d recently become a first-time grandfather. The Everybody Loves Raymond actor and wife Anna Scarpulla’s daughter, Ally Romano, and her husband, Zachary Wilezol, welcomed a baby boy named Rex Roman Wilezol on February 25, 2026.

“He was a big boy at 9 lbs, 11 oz. Yeah, a big guy,” Ray revealed to host Sherri Shepherd. “My daughter had our first grandchild.”

Asked if he was willing to be a “hands-on grandpa,” Ray pointed out, “I have four kids, myself! I had twin boys so I’ve done my share of diapers. I haven’t done it in a while but it’s good that I’m going to get back in practice because soon I’m going to have to change my own!”

The comedian hinted that he would be called “Papa Ray” as an homage to his own children calling his father “Papa Al.”

A few weeks later, Ally shared the first photo of Rex to celebrate the one-month anniversary of his birth.

“One month with my guy, Rex Roman Wilezol,” she wrote via Instagram on March 25, 2026. “He (begrudgingly) arrived on 2/25/26 with very long legs, massive hands, a full head of hair and the most perfect lips.”

Ally went on, “Although it wasn’t the start to parenthood we imagined, our strong, very big boy has shown us a new meaning to love. He’s given us a run for our money, but he’s my new bestie and a trooper!”

Imagine if Jack Reacher settled in one town, then took it a step further and assumed the identity of a newly arrived, freshly murdered sheriff, whose life he tried to save. Sprinkle in a hefty amount of grit and crime, along with a provocative romance, a revenge-seeking crime boss, an extremely dangerous ex-Amish mob boss, and a tomahawk-wielding female warrior, and that’s exactly what you’ll get out of Banshee, a need-to-binge action series full of crime and thrills.

A masterpiece of the action-thriller subgenre, Banshee features The Boys’ psychopathic villain Homelander, Antony Starr, in his first major American lead television role. While the New Zealand-born actor previously appeared in a string of memorable roles, it wasn’t until Banshee that he had the opportunity to showcase his true talent, much like Alan Ritchson with Reacher. If you’re a fan of the massive, lethal ex-soldier and find yourself looking for a series to keep you just as entertained, settle in for this righteous binge of one of the most exciting action-crime series you’ll ever see, and get a peek at a whole other side of Antony Starr while you’re at it.

‘Banshee’ Features Antony Starr in a Career-Defining Role

Antony Starr turned heads as an ex-con-turned-sheriff when Banshee debuted on Cinemax in 2013. The action-crime series follows the master thief, who is fresh off a 15-year prison stint for stealing $15 million in diamonds, as he sets out in search of his former lover and partner in crime, Anastasia (Ivana Miličević). See, after their heist, the police were on their tale, so he gave her the diamonds and told her to run, sacrificing himself in the process. When he finds her in the small Amish town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, he’s shocked to learn she now goes by Carrie in her new life, which includes a husband and kids.

Heartbroken, he stops off for a drink at a local bar, and that’s where we first see Starr in action as the badass he is. After he thwarts a robbery gone wrong and realizes the new town sheriff is left lying dead on the floor, with no one to know but himself and the bartender, our ex-con assumes the sheriff’s identity and stays in town, much to Carrie’s surprise and hidden delight.

Life in Banshee isn’t easy, though, especially when you’re trying to stay hidden from the Ukrainian crime boss you ripped off, and even when you’re the one enforcing the law. As Sheriff Lucas Hood, our anti-hero soon finds himself continuing his criminal activities and going head-to-head with former Amish mob boss Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), now an intimidatingly wealthy businessman who believes himself to be above the law. There are also clashes to be had with a nearby Native American reservation. Our protagonist, however, has zero qualms about using his position to impose his own unorthodox, often brutal brand of justice rather than follow traditional law enforcement methods, and this is where the series really gets interesting.

‘Banshee’ Is a Criminally Underrated, Must-See Gem With a 10/10 Cast

Much like Ritchson’s Reacher persona, Starr’s Lucas Hood is equally captivating. The show features a memorable cast of colorful characters, all of whom are mysterious with deep, emotional complexities in their own ways. Hoon Lee appears as the cross-dressing computer hacker Job, Frankie Faison as former boxer-turned-bartender Sugar Bates, Tom Pelphrey as former Aryan Brotherhood member-turned-sheriff’s deputy Kurt Bunker, Ben Cross as Ukrainian crime boss Rabbit, and Odette Annable as supremely skilled, close-combat tomahawk warrior Nola Longshadow.

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“Say my name.”

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The series breaks the knob off the action accelerator and gives viewers some of the most exhilarating action sequences seen on TV. The movie-quality fight scenes are top-notch and exceptionally choreographed, blending gritty realism with explosive stunt work. There’s no doubt that the crime series’ style is unique and its premise wild, and that’s what keeps viewers glued to their screens… well, that and all the “You’re not better than me” attitudes in the mix.

‘Banshee’ Works So Well Because It Cares About Its Protagonist

Image via Gregory Shummon / ©Cinemax /courtesy Everett Collection

The must-see series places a giant spotlight on its protagonist anti-hero and its unapologetic style of a raw, unfiltered fight for power. In merging high-stakes noir storytelling with pulpy action, creators succeeded in moving the series away from a crime drama procedural to focus on a relentless, highly stylized, adrenaline-fueled narrative blending crime, drama, and Western elements. Watching Banshee unfold is like flipping through the pages of a graphic novel then seeing it brought to life: jaw-dropping and utterly exciting.

Where Reacher features a largely invincible, duty-bound hero, Banshee’s anti-hero is scrappy, flawed, and emotional. He’s an ex-con who utilizes intelligence and sheer violence to make his way. Banshee is much darker and more intense, featuring graphic violence, expert-level fight choreography, and deeper, more curious character development.

Banshee ran for a solid four seasons before concluding in 2016. Currently boasting a 90% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score and a 93% audience rating, the engrossing series goes above and beyond to deliver on action, excitement, and no-holds-barred entertainment. It’s the perfect choice for fans of pulpy action thrillers, and for fans of Reacher.

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Banshee

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Release Date

2013 – 2016-00-00

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Showrunner

Jonathan Tropper

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Jonathan Tropper

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“If Carrie is horror’s version of a girl becoming a woman, and Rosemary’s Baby is the horrific version of a woman becoming a mother, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is horror’s take on a woman becoming a wife.” Netflix’s synopsis of its newest horror show says it all — and really, so does the title, as Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen plays with the timeless anxieties around marrying the “right” person. It’s not necessarily a new idea by any means, with the likes of Get Out or Ready or Not demonizing the already stressful scenario of meeting the in-laws, but Haley Z. Boston‘s eight-episode limited series takes this idea to a whole new level, while executing it in a pressure-cooker of a show.

What Is ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ About?

The week before the wedding is always a chaotic time, and that could not be truer for Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco). Kicking off six days before the fated “I Do,” the couple embarks on a road trip to Nicky’s family vacation home, covered in snow and surrounded by nothing but woods and foxes. However, on the way there, the superstitious Rachel is pummeled with an array of classic bad omens, from grisly roadkill to an abandoned baby in a car, which escalates the gnawing feeling of dread in her gut. As the title suggests, she senses that something very bad is going to happen in the days leading up to her impending nuptials.

Upon meeting Nicky’s family, Rachel’s paranoia mounts further, especially when she is plagued by suspicious looks and spooky stories about danger lurking in the woods. We meet the utterly captivating Cunningham matriarch Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), her withdrawn, taxidermy-enthusiast husband Boris (Ted Levine), Nicky’s pedantic and slightly off-putting sister Portia (Gus Birney), his jaded, sarcastic brother Jules (Jeff Wilbusch), and Jules’ steely wife Nell (Karla Crome), who also happens to be Nicky’s ex-girlfriend. With such an eclectic group of people hiding their own secrets and motivations, Rachel is thrust into an isolated world of marital mayhem. And just when you think it can’t get any worse, it inevitably does.

‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ Is a Masterclass in Atmospheric Tension and Body Horror

Image via Netflix

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is easily Netflix’s creepiest horror show since The Haunting of Hill House, with the same atmospheric terror, mind-bending reality, and scenes so gruesomely twisted they’re impossible to look away from. The story knows exactly where it’s going from the beginning, and wastes no time putting the viewer’s nerves through the wringer. Like in Mike Flanagan‘s hit show, the narrative twists and turns through red herrings that form a larger, far more terrifying web, forcing the audience to question everything. Even when the real threat is uncovered, the storytelling’s momentum never falters, and the fear of the unknown is successfully translated into another kind of reality-bending tension.

In terms of visual language, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is a masterpiece. The most striking part of the show is its cinematography, which is brilliant in its creativity and its ability to build tension through handheld cameras, disorienting angles, stalking shots, and even some found-footage segments. These are accompanied by incredibly long takes that make the mundane act of walking through a crowded house undulate with anxiety and pressure. These hair-raising shots are just as provocative and enduring as the skin-crawling scenes of body horror, ones that are just subtle enough to unsettle at a subconscious level — well, perhaps apart from the impeccably repulsive visuals in the penultimate episode’s closing sequence.

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Everything is cinched together by the precise sound design of the series, which deserves its own applause. Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen maintains its perpetual tension and suspense by applying the same creativity used in its visuals to the viewer’s auditory experience. It indulges in sharp staccato notes and electric buzzes that are just as frenetic as the atmosphere. Amid this is its frequent use of drowning out characters’ voices, bringing them in and out of focus to echo panic attacks, disorienting us just as much. Altogether, the show is ambitious in how it achieves the anxiety around weddings and delivers on its ultimate vow.

Netflix’s ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ Is Stacked With Volatile Performances

What’s a good horror series without the most subtly twisted cast you’ve ever seen? Even though Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is mainly Rachel’s story, she is surrounded by characters who fight for the spotlight with unnerving demeanors and eccentric idiosyncrasies. No character stretches too far from the realm of realism, especially as our psychologist protagonist ruthlessly psychoanalyzes them all, yet they are all distinctly uncanny due to a combination of the cinematography and their individual performances. There are standout performances by Leigh as the overbearing, narcissistic mother, Wilbusch as the brother we surprisingly find ourselves rooting for, and Birney as the breezy sister whose high-pitched voice is as daunting as the dread in the air.

Morrone bears the weight of the lead well, even as her character’s personality can sometimes intentionally veer into grating. She plays Rachel’s paranoia and anxiety convincingly, dropping hints of it in the beginning through her deep breaths while she smokes, or the desperate glint underneath her playfulness when Nicky fails to hold his breath when they drive through a tunnel. But when the spiral begins, Morrone captivates with her wide, horrified eyes and trembling lip, making even a dress fitting feel like nightmare fuel. Even though this is a show about marriage, her chemistry with DiMarco (which is both steamy and comforting) is simply secondary to the weight Morrone gives to Rachel’s experience as a bride-to-be, dinner parties from hell and all.

Netflix’s Something Very Bad is Going to Happen transfixes the audience with the same dread that haunts the soon-to-be hallowed halls of the Cunningham vacation home. It’s such a visually stunning watch that effectively employs all the camera tricks at its disposal to tell a tale as old as time, one where the uncertainty around soulmates takes on a more sinister form. The show will leave you writhing in discomfort at every moment, whether it’s because you’re cringing at all-too-relatable interactions or are lost in the dizzying kaleidoscope of too-wide smiles and palpable fear. It’s the perfect maelstrom of white and red, where “until death do us part” means something very bad indeed.

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Release Date

March 26, 2026

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Netflix

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Haley Z. Boston

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Haley Z. Boston

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• 
• 

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Pros & Cons

• The show is visually and acoustically ambitious and captivating, leaving an enduring impact.
• The story’s play on the theme of soulmates is clever, confident, and precise.
• The cast delivers magnetic performances, each contributing to the mind-bending reality with their own twisted flavors.

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By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 4 seconds ago

My relationship with Starfleet Academy has been, as Facebook would call it, complicated. It’s a show I absolutely despised at first, but I grew to like more as Season 1 progressed. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the show was doomed from the start. That’s because it never cracked the Nielsen Top 10 Streaming list, and it very rarely made it into the top 10 for Paramount +, its own streamer. The network is cagey about releasing any actual viewership numbers, but from the outside looking in, it never seemed like enough people were watching to justify this show’s rumored per-episode price tag.

Schrödinger’s Fans (noun, plural) — A paradoxical audience state in which a fanbase is simultaneously dismissed as too small to matter and blamed as large enough to determine a project’s success or failure, depending on which argument is more convenient.

Now that the show is dead, the fandom has been conducting its inevitable autopsy. Equally inevitable is who they have chosen to blame for the show’s failure. Those mean, older fans who criticized the show from the start. Those haters warned of SFA’s doom from the beginning, but were always told they were simply a vocal, hateful minority. Now, these haters are being blamed for the death of Starfleet Academy, which has revealed these harsh critics to be Schrödinger’s fans; a group so small their opinion don’t matter, but so big that their lack of interest can ruin an entire show.

Cultural Collision

When it comes to Starfleet Academy, the division between Star Trek fans is pretty obvious. Most of the show’s biggest defenders skew younger, and the formative sci-fi of their youth was things like the Star Wars prequels (or, God help us, the Star Wars sequels). Conversely, most of the show’s biggest critics skew older, and they grew up watching shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation. A collision between these groups was inevitable: older Star Trek fans wanted Starfleet Academy to be more like older Star Trek. Newer fans wanted the franchise to do something new.

Paramount obviously chose to tailor Starfleet Academy to younger viewers. It’s an understandable impulse, of course. As the franchise warps to its 60th anniversary, the majority of the fandom isn’t getting any younger. The network decided to address this problem fairly directly by creating a show filled with young people speaking in modern slang and constantly enjoying sophomoric humor. Unfortunately, this decision ultimately drove away the older fans that, as Paramount found out the hard way, were more important than anyone could have guessed.

Understanding Schrödinger’s Fans

In case you need a quick refresher, Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment in quantum physics. It refers to the idea that particles exist in every possible state until they are directly observed. This idea (known as “superposition”) works well in theory, but the thought experiment shows how silly this notion is when applied to something as simple as a cat in a sealed box. You see, until you open the box and check, quantum mechanics tells us that the cat is, paradoxically, both alive and dead.  

What does this have to do with Star Trek? Fans of Starfleet Academy have been looking for someone to blame for the show’s cancellation, and many of them are blaming the older fans who have hated the show from the beginning. These superfans seemingly believe that if the haters had tuned in or simply stopped saying anything negative about the show, SFA would still be around.

To these fans, I must make a blunt request: pick a lane! Before Starfleet Academy was canceled, critical voices were dismissed as a vocal minority who just didn’t understand the subtle genius of this new Star Trek show (the one with the dick and fart jokes).

Now, haters are being told that their refusal to watch SFA somehow screwed the show. Just like that, older Star Trek lovers became Schrödinger’s fans. There are so few of us that our thoughts and opinions don’t matter, yet there are so many of us that our opinions can either save or doom a show.

An Expensive Lesson, But Will Paramount Learn?

It feels self-serving saying this (since I’m a middle-aged, lifelong lover of the franchise), but the clear lesson here is that Paramount needs to give older Star Trek fans what we want. We are not some tiny minority group to be ignored. We are the group that has kept this franchise alive for 60 years. Ironically, most of us started watching The Next Generation at a young age because, get this, it was a slick update to The Original Series!

Star Trek doesn’t have to radically change direction to gain younger fans. Instead, creators need to work on updating the classic formula for modern audiences. This is why Strange New Worlds has proven popular with younger and older fans alike. Aging Trek fans like its homages to The Original Series, while younger fans enjoy the humor and jokes. Hindsight is always 20/20, but there was no need to make Starfleet Academy so radically different than what came before. As it turns out, if a show is Star Trek in name only, not that many Star Trek fans will tune in.

At the end of the day, this is a numbers game, and Starfleet Academy just didn’t have that many viewers. Paramount tried to do something completely new, and it blew up in their faces. Now is the time to embrace the Golden Age of the franchise: kick Alex Kurtzman to the curb, bring back Terry Matalas for Star Trek: Legacy, and focus on capable, competent adults exploring strange new worlds. Otherwise, Paramount’s attempts to reach younger viewers will ultimately result in no viewers, finally killing the greatest sci-fi franchise ever made.

Sadly, in today’s television scene, sitcoms aren’t as popular as they once were. If you want a good laugh in under thirty minutes, many turn to shows from decades past, like Seinfeld, Friends, and The Office. However, there are a few comedy series from those eras still hanging on now because they exist in an animated form. The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park keep at it with characters who never age. Although those first two arguably aren’t as good as they once were, South Park remains as hilarious and important as ever. The topical storylines of 2025 proved that, but even before they took on the Trump administration, Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s little show had been a pop culture phenomenon for over a quarter of a century due to its masterful ability to lampoon controversies with a bunch of crudely made, foul-mouthed kids.

‘South Park’ Created Unforgettable, Hilarious Characters

When South Park debuted in 1997, it had one big advantage that similar shows didn’t. Rather than having the constraints of network television, South Park aired on Comedy Central, where it could push boundaries and get away with so much. Could you imagine how different Parker and Stone’s series would be if it was on Fox?

South Park is explicit, with fourth graders dropping F-bombs and every kind of offensive joke you could think of. Cartman is the worst offender of all, an angry, chubby little kid who hates everyone and everything, with Jews seemingly at the top of the list. South Park gets away with it though, because of the message. It’s not offensive just because it can be. Cartman, for example, isn’t the hero most of the time. Often, he’s shown to be very much in the wrong and gets his comeuppance in the end. He’s a symbol of real life people, who feels exaggerated because he’s in the body of a nine-year-old. Being so over-the-top though makes him funny, like a character in Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia turned up to 11.

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They can steal any scene they’re in from Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny.

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Fans love those early seasons of South Park because, despite the adult language, there is an air of innocence to it, with four kids named Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny (voiced by both Stone and Parker) going on adventures in their bizarre town and beyond. They look at a grown-up world through the eyes of kids, and they get themselves in trouble because they don’t understand it. Every episode could focus only on them and South Park would be great, but there’s also only so far that can go. South Park really took off when it expanded its scope.

‘South Park’ Evolved Beyond Its Early Formula

The South Park foursome works wonderfully together. Still, how many times can Kyle’s religion be mocked, Stan learns something, or Kenny dies? The series is timeless, with so many episodes feeling fresh and unpredictable, because it focuses on the whole town. Early seasons turned their attention to Chef (Isaac Hayes) or Officer Barbrady (Parker). However, as South Park kept chugging along, their teacher, Mr. Garrison (Parker), went through all sorts of wild changes. Later seasons gained criticism for focusing too much on Stan’s dad, Randy (Parker), a man so clueless that he gets such easy laughs, until whole arcs turned into subplots about Tegridy Farms.

South Park became the funniest show on TV when Butters Stotch (Stone) entered the picture. He’d been there since nearly the beginning, hanging around in the background, getting a few lines here and there. But as Kenny’s importance faded as he died and stayed dead for a while, Butters stepped in and grew into arguably the best character in all of South Park. He’s innocent, a good little kid who’s one of the few characters who feels really like he is a boy who just wants to play and have fun. With his mannerisms and voice, Butters is absolutely adorable. Putting him with the other kids, and especially Cartman, was a stroke of genius. Episodes like “Butters’ Bottom Bitch”, “Ungroundable”, and this writers’ all-time favorite, “Marjorine”, allowed South Park to elevate another character before we got sick of the other main ones.

‘South Park’ Episodes Can Be Made in Only Six Days

Image via Comedy Central

South Park has one technical aspect which gives them an unfair advantage over other similar shows. While The Simpsons and Family Guy take months for one episode to be produced, a South Park episode can be written, animated, voiced-over, and put to air in six days! This has allowed them to comment on everything as it happens, from pop culture to politics. Parker and Stone have their thumb on the pulse of America. They became just as important as what Jon Stewart was doing on The Daily Show.

Watching some South Park episodes now is like stepping into a time machine and witnessing a twisted history lesson on what people thought about a presidential election or the war in Iraq. We can see when everyone was obsessed with Paris Hilton or the relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. “Quintuplets” brought more attention to the Elian Gonzalez case. 2004’s “Douche and Turd” was a knowing wink about America’s options for President that year. And “Best Friends Forever” satirized the Terry Schiavo case with so much uncomfortable truth and humor that it won South Park an Emmy!

South Park is filled with dick jokes and enough crude language to make some viewers blush. It’s certainly not for everyone. From the 1997 debut episode of “Cartman Gets An Anal Probe” to its sharply critical recent seasons, South Park has been controversial and never afraid. It’ll make you laugh so hard that you’ll cry while also making you think about societal issues in a way no other media can. Almost three decades later, South Park hasn’t lost a step.

By Chris Sawin
| Updated 8 seconds ago

Pom Poko is an animated fantasy film from 1994 written and directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday). The English dub of the film refers to the animals as raccoons, but they’re actually based on Japanese raccoon dogs, also known as tanuki. The tanuki are popular in Japanese folklore and are believed to be magical creatures with shape-shifting abilities, able to pass themselves off as just about any inanimate object, any other animal, or even human beings. The Tanooki suit in Super Mario Bros. 3 boasts a similar concept.

In Search Of A New Home

The film follows a group of raccoons (I watched the dub, so we’ll still call them raccoons from here on out) as they try to save their home in Tama Hills from deforestation and housing construction with the intent of a new suburban community meant to house up to 300,000. Up to that point, the raccoons had still lived near humans, but not to feast on their scraps. They had access to farm animals, crops, and other various forms of food that weren’t readily available in the city. They lived in an abandoned farmhouse in the country for a year, until it was demolished, and construction began on what is now referred to as New Tama.

The raccoons hunt and search for a new home, but all of the territories are already occupied by other raccoons. So naturally, they battle over who gets to stay. The raccoons have three forms in the film: the normal, most realistic version that just looks like a normal raccoon, a more caricatured version that walks on two legs and speaks, and a final, minimally detailed version that isn’t seen as often and also resembles rubber hose animation. The raccoons hide the fact that they can walk on two legs, speak, and shape-shift into humans. Their final form is reminiscent of the T-1000’s chrome form in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when it’s between forms. It’s like it only comes out when they’re overstimulated; a combination of that and someone who tried to draw The Berenstain Bears from memory.

A Big Bag Of Tricks

While the raccoons in the film are based on Japanese raccoon dogs and Japanese folklore, why their testicles are featured so prominently isn’t really explained. Even when the raccoons transform into something with clothes that isn’t human (a lot of the raccoons wear samurai-like attire in battle), the males still have their balls hanging out. Halfway into the film, a 103-year-old raccoon named Osho asks all the male raccoons to meet up in the garden.

Once gathered, he’s all like, “Isn’t this red blanket we’re all sitting on so soft and nice? Just kidding, it’s my raccoon scrote.” They refer to it as a “raccoon pouch” in the film, but this thing is 150 sq ft and somebody (or a team of somebodies. Can you imagine if there was like a “coon junk animation team” in the credits?) had to animate this giant red blanket turning back into a massive, wrinkled gray-ish brown elder scrotum that reverts back to normal size.

Raccoon nutsack physics get more intricate as the film bounces on. Its first form may be stretched into a blanket, but the pouches eventually evolve into becoming a huge bullfrog, a hot air balloon, a parachute, an Indiana Jones-sized boulder, and a ship chock full of treasure. To be fair, the last one involves a 999-year-old raccoon that goes senile, and transforms his ballsack into a big enough boat to house a bunch of fake treasure (these are all illusions powered by magic scrotums; nutsack ghosts, if you will) and dozens of raccoons sailing off to their deaths.

Song, Dance, And Sack-Driven Logic

Pom Poko has this crazy sack-driven concept that makes it seem as if raccoons should rule the forest and anything they set their eyes on. But the film is quick to point out how lazy they are and that they don’t take anything seriously. After every small accomplishment, they want to throw a party. Even if one of them is passionate about getting revenge on the humans destroying their homes, they’re quick to drop it at the thought of tempura or any other delicious food.

They’re also distracted by this particular song about raccoons. If someone sings it at them, they have to finish it. The Pom Poko title comes from the sound it makes when they drum on their bellies. Every Spring, they have to fight the urge to screw themselves stupid and make a hundred babies. For a film that prioritizes the prominent showcasing of raccoon balls, it may mention sex and being frisky in spring, but it never shows anything graphic. There’s suddenly a raccoon with nipples hanging out in the last half hour, though, which is crazy to think about.

The original plan in the film involves the raccoons researching humans over the next five years. This involves scrounging up a working TV from the dump to monitor humans, which the raccoons drop all forms of productivity in order to watch TV all day, and reviving the ancient raccoon art of transformation. There are elder transformation masters located far away that the raccoons have to search for in the film to teach the raccoons of Tama Hills, specifically the ones who know nothing about altering their form or how to transform.

Transformations Take A Toll

The way the film addresses transformation and holding forms is intriguing, as well. Chameleons may be able to change color, but in this world, foxes, raccoons (and some cats) are the only ones who can physically transform. I feel like Pom Poko wants to introduce the idea that some of the humans that walk among us may actually be raccoons, and that’s cool to think about, not so much that someone we know may actually be a raccoon. But some of the people we see every day aren’t what they present themselves to be. Maybe some are hiding this extravagant other life with magical creatures we can only dream about.

It takes a lot of energy to maintain transformations for a long time. Multiple raccoons often have to take the same human form and switch out when they get tired if they’re out in public. The bags under their eyes are symbols of their fatigue, and things like energy drinks are hinted at being invented because so many raccoons are out there pretending to be human and getting exhausted, so there’s this crazy demand for them.

What’s wild is that the war between raccoons and humans starts as mild vandalism and escalates into full-blown insanity. At one point, the raccoons force vehicles off the road and end up killing three people. Back at Tama Hills, they all want to celebrate but are convinced to have a moment of silence. The eulogy and gathering last maybe two sentences before the raccoons laugh about death and start partying.

Could Have Reached Further Into Its Bag Of Tricks

The film plays out like a mash-up of Beetlejuice and Fantastic Mr. Fox. The raccoons use their shape-shifting powers to try to scare the humans away. There’s a whole sequence where they scare a police officer while trying to be human, but they all pretend not to have a face and scare him repeatedly until he passes out. The deforestation storyline, combined with extreme measures to save their home, feels like a direct inspiration for the Wes Anderson stop-motion film because it’s so similar.

The crown jewel of shape-shifting in Pom Poko is Operation Spectre, a parade where they all turn into demons, monsters, and ghosts to try to scare the residents of New Tama away. But a lot of the creatures are famous yokai from Japanese folklore, and Totoro even makes a brief cameo. It’s an extraordinary sequence that ultimately fails its intended purpose, but it is so visually creative and memorable.

Up until these recent viewings of Pom Poko (I watched it twice for this article), I had always felt it was a lackluster effort from Studio Ghibli. I think I originally felt like they should have done more with their balls. I thought, “They bounce around on these things for two hours and do everything but their intended purpose. That’s dumb. This is dumb.” These raccoons have 101 uses for their balls. They treat their sacks like Martha Stewart does crafts. One of them jumps onto a moving vehicle and stretches their pouch across the entire windshield, causing the driver to lose control and drive off the road.

Pom Poko is one of the more unique Studio Ghibli films, with a ton of unpredictable WTF moments without straying too far from its mostly family-friendly reputation as an animated film. Seek it out, embrace the ridiculousness, and witness a bunch of raccoons adapt to life’s hardships by folding and stretching their teabags like a master origamist.

Pom Poko (as well as 21 of the 23 core Studio Ghibli films) is currently streaming on Max.

Chappell Roan has been the subject of headlines as of late after she was accused of ordering a member of her security team to deal with a young fan. The singer has repeatedly denied the claims, saying she had nothing to do with what happened.

Now, the security guard at the center of it all, Pascal Duvier, is speaking out, acknowledging his role in the incident while also offering his version of the story.

Pascal Duvier Said He Wasn’t Part Of Chappell Roan’s Security

On March 25, Duvier, a protection specialist, as noted in his Instagram bio, took to social media to address the security drama involving Roan, Catherine Harding, and Harding’s 11-year-old daughter, Ada.

In his post, Duvier wrote that he doesn’t generally comment on online rumors, but the ones circulating are “false and constitute defamation.”

“I take full responsibility for the interactions on March 21st. I was at the hotel on behalf of another individual, and I was not part of the personal security team of Chappell Roan,” he noted, confirming the singer’s claims.

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“The actions I took were not on behalf of Chappell Roan, her personal security team, her management, or any other individuals,” he said, adding that he decided to approach Harding and Ada “based on information we obtained from the hotel.” According to Duvier, there were “events” at the location that heightened the hotel’s security risk.

The Security Guard Claims The Interaction Was ‘Calm’

Before ending the post, Duvier wrote, “My sole interaction with the mother was calm and with good intentions, and the outcome of the encounter is regretful.”

His statement contrasts with Harding’s recollection of the incident. As previously reported by The Blast, Harding spoke about the incident on Instagram, saying Duvier was “aggressive and intimidating” when he approached them.

She also claimed the security guard berated her for not teaching her daughter proper manners and said they shouldn’t “harass” people. The confrontation reportedly left the 11-year-old in tears.

Pascal Duvier’s Past Resurfaces

Following backlash from the incident, the security guard’s identity was revealed. Per The Blast, Duvier was part of Kim Kardashian’s security team when she was robbed in Paris.

In 2016, two masked men wearing police uniforms entered Kardashian’s hotel room at about 3:00 a.m. The reality star was able to call her bodyguard before one man snatched her phone. The individuals then stole Kardashian’s jewelry, valued at $10 million. The robbers then tied Kardashian’s legs together before fleeing the scene.

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Duvier, who was head of Kardashian’s security at the time, was not at the scene because he was on security duty for Kardashian’s sisters, who were at a nightclub. According to reports, Kardashian didn’t blame Duvier for the incident, but he was let go a month later. Kardashian’s insurance company also sued Duvier for the security oversight.

How Did The Chappell Roan Controversy Begin?

On March 21, Ada’s father, Jorginho, called out Roan on Instagram Stories, accusing the singer of sending her security guard to talk to her wife and daughter. The mother and daughter were in São Paulo, Brazil, for Lollapalooza, and coincidentally, the singer was staying at the same hotel.

According to Jorginho, Ada didn’t bother Roan or ask for a photo of autograph despite being a big fan. She simply walked by her table to confirm that the person she saw was the singer and then walked back to her mom. Afterward, a security guard approached them aggressively, leaving Ada “shaken” and “in tears.”

Jorginho addressed Roan, writing, “Without your fans, you would be nothing.”

Chappell Roan Denied The Accusation

Roan addressed the controversy on Instagram Stories, saying she had nothing to do with the security guard and didn’t even see the mother and daughter. She said no one bothered her while she was having breakfast. Nevertheless, she apologized, saying, “I’m sorry to the mother and child that someone was assuming that you would do something, and if you felt uncomfortable.”

The singer doubled down on her stance, issuing a brief statement via a spokesperson. “Chappell was not aware of any interaction between this mother/daughter and a third-party security office,” the spokesperson noted, adding that Roan has a high standard when it comes to people who work with her and has “zero tolerance for any kind of aggressive behavior towards her or her fans.”

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