Buying Pokémon cards used to mean picking up a few packs while you were already at the store. Now a new release can mean watching restock accounts, arriving before the doors open, and finding an empty shelf anyway. The cards haven’t lost their appeal, but getting them at retail price has become an entirely separate challenge.

Collectors have learned to pay close attention to when stores receive shipments. A timely tip can mean the difference between opening packs that afternoon and paying a reseller several times the retail price. One man took that search for information well beyond a group chat or a social media post. A Pokémon card collector placed a GPS tracker on a woman’s vehicle to follow her delivery route, according to local news in Ohio. The driver found the device in June and contacted Wooster police. Kent Kubasta, 72, admitted placing it there to learn where and when Pokémon cards were being delivered, according to the report. He pleaded no contest to illegal use of a tracking device in Wayne County Municipal Court and was found guilty.

Pokémon Cards Have Become Harder to Buy Than They Should Be

Image via the Pokémon Company

Pokémon TCG has spent years growing beyond the audience that played it as children. Some fans build decks, some collect their favorite Pokémon, and others want sealed boxes they can keep or sell later. They’re all looking at the same limited stock when a popular product arrives in stores, which helps explain why information about restocks travels so quickly. Stores have tried to manage that demand with purchase limits, but a limit only helps if there’s still something to buy when a customer arrives. A shipment can bring a line of collectors, and sealed products may disappear before fans who weren’t watching that particular store even know they were available. That leaves people choosing between waiting for another restock and paying more than they planned to spend.

The rush has continued into the TCG’s 30th anniversary. 30th Celebration looks back at the game’s history with its Classic Collection while introducing new Mew cards, day-and-night artwork, an entire lineup of Pikachu rares, and more. It gives longtime collectors plenty of reasons to want packs, whether they’re chasing a card they remember from childhood or trying to pull one of the set’s new illustrations. Opening packs is part of the fun, but it isn’t the only way to collect the set. Fortunately for fans and unfortunately for scalpers, the 30th Celebration cards also have some of the best pull rates Pokémon has ever provided, so buying singles of cards online is currently a very attainable option. Someone looking for a specific Pikachu or Mew can buy that card directly without paying an inflated price for sealed packs and hoping it turns up.

The tracker was discovered months before 30th Celebration launched, so the anniversary set did not cause this case. It does show why the story matters to Pokémon fans now: The scramble for cards did not end with one release, and finding them at a normal price remains frustrating. Collectors have more ways than ever to enjoy the TCG, but walking into a store and buying a few packs shouldn’t be the hardest one.

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Release Date

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1997 – 2023-00-00

Network

TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC

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Directors

Shigeru Omachi, Koji Ogawa, Fumihiro Ueno, Hideki Hiroshima, Maki Kodaira, Makoto Ooga, Ayumi Moriyama, Keitaro Motonaga, Shigeru Ueda, Fumihiro Yoshimura, Minoru Ohara, Yoshitaka Makino, Kiyoshi Egami, Makoto Sokuza, Bjarne Heuser, Naoki Murata, Kenichi Nishida, Tomoe Makino, Masahiko Watanabe, Hiroaki Takagi, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Ryohei Horiuchi, Yoshihiro Oda, Hiromichi Matano

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Writers

Junki Takegami, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hideki Sonoda, Yukiyoshi Ôhashi, Yuka Miyata, Takeshi Shudo, Shouji Yonemura, Shinzo Fujita, Michihiro Tsuchiya, Deko Akao, Reiko Yoshida, Aya Matsui, Junichi Fujisaku

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Pokemon

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• 

  Rica Matsumoto

  Satoshi (voice)

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  Ikue Otani

  Pikachu (voice)

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After Layla Taylor fought to retain the pricey Cartier ring she purchased for ex-boyfriend Mason McWhorter, her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives costar Dakota Mortensen is somehow now in possession of the bauble.

“[I] shouldn’t have this, I have no reason having a ring like this in my life,” Dakota, 33, quipped in a Friday, September 25, Instagram video, addressing his ownership of the silver band. “I go to this scene [and] I can’t remember who gave me the ring … to give it to Layla.”

Layla, 25, revealed in Mormon Wives season 5 that she purchased a luxe Cartier ring for Mason, also 25, while they were in a relationship. After the now-exes split in February, the content creator asked to have the jewelry piece returned.

As for Dakota, he claimed on Friday that he attempted to hand over the ring during a Mormon Wives scene that was ultimately cut from the hit Hulu series.

“She goes, ‘I don’t want the ring,’” he alleged. “I was like, ‘OK, well, what do you want me to do with it?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t care, you can have it [or] pawn it off. Whatever you want. I don’t want it.’”

Dakota, who asserted that he’s “not a big ring person,” decided to store the Cartier accessory inside a drawer at his house for safekeeping.

“It sits in my drawer … for months,” he added. “One time I was going through my drawer, cleaning it out [and] found the ring. I was like, ‘Huh? You know what?’ [I] put it on, popped it on my finger and then I was like, ‘I actually don’t mind it, pretty cool ring.’”

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Dakota further stressed that he did not steal Layla’s ring and would be willing to return it to the MomTok star.

Related: Mormon Wives’ Layla Addresses ‘Toxic’ Coparenting With Ex Amid Mason Romance

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Layla Taylor opened up about finding love with boyfriend Mason McWhorter while still juggling a difficult coparenting relationship with her ex-husband. Before Hulu released season 3 of the show on Thursday, November 13, Layla, 24, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about her thoughts on getting married again. “[I […]

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“I’m taking very good care of the ring, OK?” he stated. “But, Layla, if at any point, you guys want this ring back, you just let me know. It is yours, but for now, I will keep very good care of it, you have my word.”

Layla, who has not publicly shared whether she wants the ring back, publicly came out as bisexual in June and is now dating a woman.

Called an “unrivaled cinematic spectacle” in Joe Schmidt‘s review for Collider, Christopher Nolan‘s ambitious adaptation of Homer‘s ancient Greek epic The Odyssey is one of the biggest movies of the year. Following the Toronto International Film Festival 2026, the discussion surrounding next year’s Academy Awards has kicked off in earnest, with The Odyssey considered a favorite to not just win in several categories, but predicted to even break Sinners‘ nominations record set earlier this year.

During an extended and hugely popular box office run, The Odyssey became Nolan’s highest-grossing movie in his filmography, surpassing both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, his only other billion-dollar movies. In total, the film has sailed past the $1.7 billion mark at the box office, becoming the 11th highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. Key to The Odyssey‘s success was its typically star-studded Nolan cast, which included Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, and Zendaya.

Starring in The Odyssey as the King of Ithaca and finally getting his chance to lead a Nolan movie was Matt Damon, who delivered one of his best performances in recent memory. Following his headlining of this summer’s box office, many Damon fans are heading back into his catalog, especially those entries packed with action. Of course, with this in mind, his genre-altering spy movie The Bourne Identity is proving a hit once again. At the time of writing, The Bourne Identity is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Starz in the U.S., a list topped by Henry Cavill‘s In the Grey.

How Much Did ‘The Bourne Identity’ Make at the Box Office?

With a $60 million production budget thrown its way, The Bourne Identity was considered a big risk at the 2002 box office. Thankfully, the risk paid off, with The Bourne Identity scoring a $214 million haul at the global box office. Split between $121 million at the domestic box office and a further $93 million from overseas markets, the film finished 2002 as one of the 20 highest-grossing films in the world, and spawned a successful franchise.

The Bourne Identity is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Starz in the U.S. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.

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Release Date

June 14, 2002

Runtime

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119 minutes

Director

Doug Liman

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Writers

Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron, Robert Ludlum

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Producers

Patrick Crowley

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Claressa Shields is back in her TikTok bag, coming through with another viral dance video to remind fans that she’s got moves in AND out of the ring! This time, folks online are eyeing more than Shields’ moves. Papoose popped up in the video alongside her, and chileeee, their chemistry quickly stole the show. Now, fans are eyeing their playful connection and weighing in on the couple’s vibe.

RELATED: Heavyweight Baddie! Claressa Shields Has Fans Gagging Over Her Face Card & Curves In Latest Look (VIDEO) 

Get It, GWOAT! Claressa Shields Hits Her Dance & Papoose Can’t Hide His Smile

Recently, Claressa Shields came through with another TikTok video, hitting a whole routine to a viral sound. The GWOAT was getting down while Papoose watched proudly from behind, looking happy to see his lady in her element. At one point, Shields even dropped into a lil’ twerk before hitting a two-step that had Pap smiling from ear to ear and giggling as she did her thing. Once fans peeped the vibes, they couldn’t get enough. Plenty of folks loved seeing Claressa stay true to herself and keep the same fun energy whether she’s with Pap or doing her own thing.

Fans Sound Off On Claressa & Pap’s Chemistry

Reactions kept rolling in over in The Shade Room’s comment section, with several Roomies giving Claressa props for being herself unapologetically. Meanwhile, others couldn’t get over Pap’s reaction, saying he looks happy right where he’s at!

Instagram user @suzieestyles wrote, “Y’all can’t make me hate her y’all just can’t! 🤷🏾‍♀️🤣🥰”

Instagram user @beautiful_dra wrote, “She be having a time while y’all mad 😂😂” 

While Instagram user @kaijmari wrote, “the butt pop was tea not gon lie.” 

Then, Instagram user @bosslauralee wrote, “Papoose there in the back admiring the f**k outta her. Papoose got cheated on and this girl is showing him the love and appreciation he wanted. It’s life. Everyone move on happily. Tired of the drama.” 

Another Instagram user @b.f.l.y wrote, “All I see is A smile on that man face.” 

Instagram user @passport2healthnwellnessllc wrote, “I love that she DGAF about what y’all haters say!!” 

Then, another Instagram user @visionvonent wrote, “Different women bring out Different results in a man. He winning 💪🏾💯” 

Lastly, Instagram user @bigback6182 wrote, “They look so unbothered ❤️❤️ beautiful successful couple 😍” 

Heavyweight Baddie! Claressa Shields Serves A Knockout Look

The GWOAT has been owning the internet lately, taking over timelines with her viral TikTok videos. Recently, Shields had fans calling her a heavyweight baddie after she popped out looking good while pulling up to Fade + Facet restaurant in Atlanta. She kept the fit cute in a black cropped tee and textured denim shorts that showed off her snatched figure, while her buss down tied the whole look together. Claressa was serving face, bawdy, and everything in between. Get into the slay below!

@claressagwoatshields

GWOAT TOK! Back at it 😂😂 IS U COOL BIHHH HUH #claressashields #GWOAT #fyp #GWOATTOK

♬ original sound – tim_bae

RELATED: Papoose Shares Alleged Texts Between Him & His Attorney To Shut Down “False Narratives” About His Divorce Remy Ma 

“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Brandi Glanville said she hopes to film another popular reality show soon. After being eliminated on Fox’s “Special Forces,” Glanville opened up about her time on the show, saying she was “so proud” of herself.

Brandi Glanville Says She Wants To Film ‘Mormon Wives’ After ‘Special Forces’

5

Glanville was a cast member on season 5 of Fox’s “Special Forces.” For those unfamiliar, the show brings together public figures who take on intense challenges based on the real Special Forces selection process.

Glanville was the first celebrity sent home in the latest season, which also features Mauricio Umansky, Cameron Candance Bure, and Collin Gosselin.

The former “Real Housewives” star is hoping to parlay her time on “Special Forces” into something else, though. “Maybe I’ll go on Mormon Wives,” she told Us Weekly. “I feel like I’ve done all the shows.”

The One Show Brandi Glanville Said She Was Unsure About Doing

5

Indeed, Glanville has appeared on several shows, including “Celebrity Big Brother,” “The Traitors,” and “Ultimate Girls Trip.” The one show Glanville said she was unsure about ever participating in, though, was “Dancing with the Stars.”

“I think that that show is so intense,” Glanville said, adding that she’s discussed the show with friends who have been cast and called it “the hardest thing” they’ve ever done. “And these people are in shape. So maybe 15 years ago I could have done it,” she continued.

According to Glanville, she’s a better fit on shows that feature an ensemble cast showcasing their lives. “Get paid to be myself? That’s fun,” she said.

Brandi Glanville Is ‘So Proud’ Of Herself

5

Glanville made her first appearance on reality TV during season 2 of “RHOBH” in 2011. 15 years later, Glanville is still working, having recently starred in season 5 of Fox’s “Special Forces.”

Her time on the show, however, was short-lived, considering she left the series in episode 1 after a medical emergency.

Despite her disappointing performance, Glanville said she was “so proud” of herself for taking the leap to film the competition show.

“I wanted to prove to my kids I could do it, but I had to go to the doctor. I was done. But I think that this still proves to the kids that I was kind of a bad*ss,” she said.

Elsewhere in her interview, Glanville opened up about the first challenge, in which cast members had to jump out of a helicopter into the water and then swim back to the dock.

“I over-rotated. I know it felt like my head hit the water, and it was so hard,” Glanville said about her experience. “It was like immediately I was dizzy, and I thought my whole body was in the water. Then my body hit the water after that. It was just like being run over by a truck.”

Who Else Is In Season 5 Of ‘Special Forces’?

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Glanville wasn’t the only “Special Forces” cast member who struggled on the series, according to The Blast.

Former New York politician George Santos is also on the show, and while he made it through the first episode, he said in a previous interview that he struggled socially.

According to the disgraced congressman, some of his co-stars seemed apprehensive about getting to know him because of his criminal past.

He was convicted of fraud and identity theft in 2025 and sentenced to 87 months in prison. However, President Donald J. Trump commuted his sentence after 12 weeks behind bars.

“You know, prison was hard. This was harder,” Santos said about the show. “This challenges you. I mean, prison tortures you … [but] this really demands you to actually show up all the time, whereas in our broken incarceratory system in this country, you’re just meat.”

Collin Gosselin Said Filming The Show Was ‘Healing’

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“Jon & Kate Plus 8” star Collin Gosselin is also part of the show, which aired just weeks before his bombshell memoir about his family, “In the Shadow of Eight,” is released.

Collin’s appearance comes years after his estranged mother, Kate Gosselin, was eliminated from season 1, but he says his time on the show has nothing to do with her.

“I’m an adult now, and there’s enough of my life that my mom took from me and [my] childhood that she robbed from me, and this isn’t about her — it’s about me,” he said. “It’s about growth. It’s about the amazing people I’ve met, and the amazing journey and adventure that we went on.”

Continuing, Collin called the experience “healing” and added that he felt connected to his younger self while he was competing.

Critics and audiences agreeing on anything is rare enough that when it actually happens, it’s worth paying attention to. Usually one side loves a movie the other side finds it overrated, or a movie makes money but gets torn apart in reviews, or it wins every award and nobody outside industry circles actually watches it.

These six pulled off the rare trick of getting nearly everyone on the same page at once, critics, casual moviegoers, award voters, people who don’t normally watch movies in these particular genres at all. Everyone, from different parts of the world, loved these when they were released and even now.

6

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) gets bitten by a radioactive spider in his own universe and then accidentally pulls five other Spider-people in from parallel dimensions, each one drawn in a completely different visual style from the others. Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), an out-of-shape, washed-up version of the hero, ends up reluctantly training Miles while dealing with his own midlife crisis. The animation team spent years building an entirely new visual pipeline just for this movie, mixing halftone dots, hand-drawn motion lines, and inconsistent frame rates to make it actually look like a comic book come to life.

It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, breaking a streak that had basically belonged to Disney and Pixar for over a decade before this. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) each get their own distinct look and tone within the same movie. None of it clashes despite how different every character’s art style actually is. Every studio making animated movies since has tried to copy at least some piece of what this film figured out first.

5

‘Paddington 2’ (2017)

Image via StudioCanal

Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), a vain actor obsessed with reviving his own career, frames Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) for a theft neither bear nor audience saw coming, landing him in prison for most of the movie. Grant has said in interviews that this role, gloriously over the top and clearly having a blast with every disguise, ranks among his favorite parts he’s ever played. The film held a rare, nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes for years after release, only broken eventually by one lone contrarian review.

There’s a pop-up book sequence depicting London that took animators months to build by hand, and it stands out as one of the most purely charming pieces of visual craft in any comedy from that decade. The movie treats basic kindness and politeness as genuinely radical values worth celebrating, which sounds like it should feel corny but never does. It’s a kids’ movie that adults quietly love just as much, maybe more.

4

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Margaret Sixel, the film’s editor and George Miller’s real-life wife, had never cut an action movie before this and reportedly had almost no interest in the genre going in. That distance from typical action editing conventions ended up working in the film’s favor, since she built the cuts around emotional rhythm instead of the usual macho pacing most action movies default to. The wives Furiosa (Charlize Theron) rescues each carry specific, deliberate names, Splendid, Capable, Toast the Knowing, meant to work almost like character summaries on their own.

Many of the stunt performers came directly from Cirque du Soleil, trained specifically to swing off moving vehicles on long flexible poles during the chase sequences. Furiosa’s memories of the Green Place, a matriarchal home she was stolen from as a child, give the whole chase an actual destination beyond just running from danger. Sixel won the Oscar for Best Film Editing for her work here, a rare recognition for an editor working almost entirely against the grain of her own genre.

3

‘Parasite’ (2019)

Image via NEON

Mr. Park, the wealthy father in this story, keeps commenting on a specific smell that crosses a line he can’t quite name, a smell tied to people who ride the subway and live somewhere he’s never had to think about. Bong Joon-ho storyboards literally every single shot before filming even begins, a habit so thorough that his crew reportedly nicknamed the drawings “Bong-boards.”

The film swept four major Oscars in one night, Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and International Feature, an unusually complete haul for any single movie. Song Kang-ho, a longtime collaborator of Bong’s across several earlier films, plays the father of the family sneaking their way into wealthy employment one lie at a time. That smell, brought up once early on almost as a throwaway comment, matters more than nearly any other detail in the entire story.

2

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)

Image via A24

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a laundromat owner buried under an IRS audit, discovers she can pull skills and memories from infinite alternate versions of herself scattered across the multiverse. Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), her husband, gets played by an actor who’d mostly stepped away from acting for decades after starting out as a child star, and this role brought him back in a huge way. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert directed the whole thing, packing hot dog fingers, sentient rocks, and an actual bagel built as a stand-in for total nihilism into one coherent family story.

Joy (Stephanie Hsu), Evelyn’s daughter, doubles as the film’s antagonist, a fractured multiversal being named Jobu Tupaki who’s grown exhausted by the sheer weight of infinite possibility. The film swept five major Oscar categories, including acting wins for both Yeoh and Quan, a rare sweep for a movie this strange on paper. Underneath all the multiverse chaos, it’s really just a story about a mother and daughter trying to actually understand each other.

1

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)

Image via Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise returned to this role thirty-six years after the original film, and the production put its actors through real months of flight training and G-force conditioning so cameras mounted inside actual fighter jets could capture their real faces during real maneuvers rather than leaning on green screen. Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late partner Goose, carries a grudge against Maverick that changes most of their scenes together. The Navy’s cooperation gave the production access to real aircraft which is difficult for most films to manage.

COVID delayed the release multiple times, and Cruise reportedly pushed hard to keep it as a theatrical-only release even as other studios sent their biggest movies straight to streaming during the same stretch. It became one of the highest-grossing films of Cruise’s entire career, and plenty of critics credited it with helping pull the theatrical box office back from the brink after years of decline. The practical flying alone justifies the wait, since nothing digital has really matched what real G-forces do to an actor’s face on camera.

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Top Gun: Maverick

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Release Date

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May 27, 2022

Runtime

131 minutes

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Director

Joseph Kosinski

Writers

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Christopher McQuarrie, Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Peter Craig, Justin Marks

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Katie Holmes just found the shoe equivalent of pulling on your favorite sweater. Her stretchy knit boots have that same soft, cozy look we crave once sweater weather hits, only in a sleek knee-high silhouette that makes them feel decidedly more fashion-forward. Consider ‘sock’ boots our latest excuse to prioritize comfort this fall.

Holmes was recently spotted wearing chocolate brown Vivaia Aida Square Toe Knee High Boots with black jeans, a soft gray crewneck sweater and a slouchy black bag. The stretchy, close-fitting shaft gave the $239 boots an almost sock-like appearance, adding texture to an otherwise simple fall outfit. Luckily, we found a similar style on Amazon for a fraction of the price.

Get the Viugjnex Knee High Platform Boots for $65 (Was $70) at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

The Viugjnex Knee High Platform Boots capture the same cozy look with a stretchy ribbed-knit shaft that pulls on without any zippers or buckles. The fitted material hugs the calf, while a roomy round toe and chunky platform wedge make them practical enough for days when you’ll actually be on your feet.

One shopper compared the stretchy material to “a compression sock,” adding that the boots “stay up” and “look great over leggings.” Better yet, they come in a rich chocolate brown reminiscent of Holmes’ pair, along with black, gray and several other neutral shades in sizes 6 through 11.

Another reviewer called them “a stylish addition to a fall and winter wardrobe” and praised their “everyday comfort” when wearing the “boots for extended periods.” Between the flexible knit material, supportive platform sole and easy pull-on design, they have all the makings of a pair you’ll reach for long after sweater season begins.

With their stretchy construction and walkable platform, these boots make cozy fall dressing feel a whole lot more stylish. The chocolate brown shade is especially easy to work into jeans-and-sweater outfits now and dresses and tights later. Snag the Holmes-inspired boots on Amazon and give your fall shoe lineup the sweater-weather treatment.

Get the Viugjnex Knee High Platform Boots for $65 (Was $70) at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

Looking for something else? Explore more from Viugjnex here and don’t forget to check out all of Amazon’s Daily Deals for more great finds!

UsNow Fall Sale Alert: These chic fashion finds are up to 60% off – plus free shipping

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Related: Jessica Alba’s Comfy-Chic Matching Set Style Is a Busy-Mom Must

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Some fall days call for jeans and a cute sweater. Others require an outfit you can throw on in 30 seconds and still look like you made an effort. Jessica Alba just reminded Us that a coordinated matching set is basically the ultimate cheat code for busy days — comfy enough for errands, but considerably […]

Bad things happen in Black Mirror pretty often, and even like clockwork early on in the show’s run. It’s an anthology series that mostly operates within the realm of science fiction, but some episodes lean more into thriller, drama, or horror territory, and then there are a few episodes that are honestly quite funny, or at least satirical/darkly comedic.

Not so much with any of the following episodes, though. It’s a show with a reputation for being bleak a good deal of the time, and these are perhaps the bleakest/darkest episodes of Black Mirror to date. Most of them come from earlier in the show’s run, with seasons 1 and 2 feeling especially cynical, but if you progress further into the show and its seasons, you’re still likely to run into some distressing stuff every now and then.

8

“Fifteen Million Merits” (2011)

Image via Netflix

What “Fifteen Million Merits” does with its commentary on having to sell yourself for very little while being pushed further and further mentally feels ahead of its time, because yes, this was a problem in the 2010s, but it feels like more of a concern online in the 2020s. Things in real life feel like they’ve tipped toward what happens in “Fifteen Million Merits,” making it feel a bit less sci-fi as the years have gone on.

Some of the satire here is pointed toward reality TV, though, and that does feel like more of a 2000s or early 2010s thing, at least regarding what sort of reality TV is explored. But if online exploitation has replaced reality TV exploitation, then hey, that’s not that much better. It might also be the sort of thing that’s more confronting to watch after the world went into lockdown for a while, making the confinement in this episode feel regrettably more relatable.

7

“Common People” (2025)

Image via Netflix

It’s not a particularly great episode of Black Mirror, because it belongs to season 7, and season 7 felt tired, but “Common People” is still notably dark, so here it is. It centers on a married couple going to further extremes to keep paying for a subscription service that one of them needs to stay alive, with things getting increasingly expensive as time passes, and fewer features being available on the “cheaper” versions.

The commentary is not subtle, because this happens to all sorts of services people pay for in real life, but while that clunky commentary keeps “Common People” from being great quality-wise, the premise does allow things to get very bleak. Black Mirror seemed to lose some of its edge from about season 4 onward, though “Common People” and at least one other soon-to-be-mentioned episode certainly keep that era of the show from being completely smooth sailing.

6

“White Christmas” (2014)

Image via Netflix

Definitely not to be mixed up with the 1954 Christmas film of the same name, Black Mirror’s “White Christmas” is an anthology episode within an anthology show. There are three stories here, mirroring how the first two seasons of the show also had three episodes each, with “White Christmas” being independent of any seasons, at least officially, since it was a Christmas special that aired between seasons 2 and 3.

The stories here are all typically upsetting in their own ways, and the existential horror also stands out, particularly when it comes to the second story and the way the framing device is ultimately concluded. It’s a feel-bad Christmas special for sure, or like an anti-Christmas episode and all that, but also one of the better Black Mirror episodes overall, too.

5

“The Entire History of You” (2011)

Image via Netflix

The creator of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, was not credited with writing or co-writing “The Entire History of You,” which is surprising because he’s done one or the other with every other episode, and also, “The Entire History of You” was written by someone best known for their comedies: Jesse Armstrong. Of his other works, admittedly, Succession is more of a dramedy, but Peep Show and The Thick of It are certainly comedies.

It’s worth singling that fact out because there’s nothing funny about “The Entire History of You,” not even in a darkly comedic way. The premise here involves one man spiraling out of control emotionally because of a technology that allows a user to revisit memories, which he does obsessively and, eventually, self-destructively. Certainly compelling, and a striking episode visually and in terms of its writing, but it is also very grim.

4

“Beyond the Sea” (2023)

Returning to late-era Black Mirror one more time, “Beyond the Sea” is a little better than “Common People,” and was probably the best of the bunch when it came to season 6, for whatever that might be worth. The story here stands out for taking place in an alternate past, and it involves two astronauts who are able to continue their lives back on Earth, while in space, to some extent, thanks to inhabiting replicas who’ve remained on the planet.

Bad things happen, to put it mildly, and then that leads to an altered situation which prompts more bad things to happen. “Beyond the Sea” is very miserable on a couple of different fronts, and while it lacks the punchiness of some of the best hard-hitting episodes of Black Mirror, it does still hit pretty hard, faults and all.

3

“White Bear” (2013)

Image via Netflix

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“White Bear” is hard to talk about without going into spoiler territory, but that can be said about a bunch of Black Mirror episodes. Still, with this one, it’s fairly stressful for most of the episode’s runtime, and then the reveal near the episode’s end makes the whole thing more mortifying in hindsight, so any rewatch will undoubtedly prove particularly grim.

You can also think about what’ll keep happening without watching it again, and that’s horrifying enough. “White Bear” also ends up being more mundane than you might expect, with its sci-fi elements, but this is to the episode’s benefit, in terms of making it bleaker and not too far removed from real life and things that happen in reality that are reminiscent of what is eventually shown going down here.

2

“Shut Up and Dance” (2016)

Image via Netflix

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Another episode heavier on thriller elements than science fiction ones, “Shut Up and Dance” feels a little in line with “White Bear,” but without being a retread. Also, the one episode that ranks higher than it, for present purposes, isn’t too sci-fi-heavy, so that’s a bit of a pattern, maybe. Anyway, “Shut Up and Dance” is about two people being blackmailed into doing strange and dangerous things, seemingly as punishment for wrongs they’ve done.

Again, it’s disturbing for the whole episode, and then it ends in a way that intensifies what was already quite upsetting and highly suspenseful. It definitely scratches the itch the way those infamous and particularly intense earlier episodes of Black Mirror seemed to quite reliably do, and it stands out quality-wise to much of what came post-season 3 (it’s never really reached those heights – or crushing lows, depending on your definition – since).

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“The National Anthem” (2011)

Image via Netflix

It’s easy to talk about finales that were controversial, mostly because there seem to be a good many of them out there, but first episodes that are jarring or difficult in some way are less common. They’re not unheard of, however, as the existence of “The National Anthem” shows, which isn’t the first episode of Black Mirror you have to watch, given it’s an anthology show and all, but it is technically the first.

It aired first, and this was before Netflix and the model of dumping a whole season at once was taken on, so “The National Anthem” really did come first. It’s got very little that’s even close to science fiction, and is instead a very confronting psychological drama/thriller episode about a prime minister coming to terms with having to do something unspeakably disturbing on live television to save the life of a kidnapped royal family member. There’s more that can be said, but maybe you don’t want to read about it right now. If you know, you unfortunately know.

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Black Mirror

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Release Date

December 4, 2011

Network

Channel 4, Netflix

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Directors

Owen Harris, Toby Haynes, James Hawes, David Slade, Carl Tibbetts, Ally Pankiw, Bryn Higgins, Dan Trachtenberg, Euros Lyn, Jodie Foster, Joe Wright, John Hillcoat, Sam Miller, Tim Van Patten, Uta Briesewitz, Colm McCarthy, Jakob Verbruggen, James Watkins, John Crowley, Otto Bathurst, Anne Sewitsky, Brian Welsh

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Ella Langley left one hopeful fan singing the blues after he took a shot at asking her out. The country singer went viral after delivering a savage response to TikTok influencer Tiki, who yelled a romantic proposition through a parking lot fence following her Thursday night concert in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, Langley later jumped into the comments to explain that her cutting answer was supposed to be dark humor and admitted the unexpected encounter made her nervous.

Ella Langley Shuts Down A Fan’s Date Request

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The interaction unfolded as Langley stood on one side of a fence, surrounded by members of her band. Tiki attempted to get the 27-year-old singer’s attention before asking how much social media support it would take to secure a date with her. “Ella, how many likes to take you on a date?” he called out.

Langley initially appeared surprised by the question. After taking a moment to process what she had heard, the “Choosin’ Texas” singer gave him an answer that left absolutely no room for negotiation. “Not enough in the world,” Langley responded.

She then looked away and shook her head, appearing stunned by the bold proposition. Tiki could be heard reacting with a disappointed “Ahhh,” but he didn’t seem angry about being rejected in front of his followers.

The TikTok Influencer Took The Rejection In Stride

Despite Langley’s brutal answer, Tiki did not let the public shutdown ruin his night. He turned toward the camera and offered himself a little consolation for having the courage to make the attempt. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” he said.

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The line is famously associated with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and is often used to encourage people to take a chance, even when success is far from guaranteed. In Tiki’s case, the shot didn’t land, but the awkward exchange still gave him a video that quickly attracted attention online.

Langley addressed the viral exchange directly in the comments beneath Tiki’s video. “It was meant to come off as dark humor. You said that and it got quiet and I got nervous,” she explained.

Ella Langley Is Rumored To Be Dating Tucker Wetmore

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Langley has recently been linked to fellow country singer Tucker Wetmore. E! News reported that the two musicians are dating, although neither artist has publicly confirmed their relationship status.

Romance speculation began nearly a year ago and has continued as Langley and Wetmore have repeatedly been spotted together. On September 22, the pair were reportedly photographed subtly leaving the Nashville Songwriter Awards together through a side door at the Ryman Auditorium.

They have also been seen together on several other occasions in recent months.

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Langley And Wetmore Continue To Fuel Romance Rumors

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Last December, Langley and Wetmore appeared cozy while spending time at the Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands. The rumored couple fueled speculation again while performing a duet of Wetmore’s song “Sunburn” at the Heart Strings for Hope event on March 10.

According to the outlet, the singers exchanged warm looks during the performance, leading some observers to believe that their connection went beyond friendship. Still, neither Langley nor Wetmore has confirmed that they are a couple.

‘Choosin’ Texas’ Turned Her Into A Breakout Star

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The viral rejection arrives as Langley’s country music career continues to explode. Before becoming a chart-topping artist, she spent years performing in local bars and at festivals throughout Alabama.

Langley moved to Nashville in 2019, where she focused on writing music and building her name within the country scene. Her persistence eventually paid off with the release of “Choosin’ Texas,” which became a massive hit and topped the Billboard charts this year.

The song’s success reportedly allowed Langley to surpass Mariah Carey’s holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on the charts, marking a major milestone for the rising country star.

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