By Robert Scucci
| Updated 40 seconds ago

There’s a time and a place for one-note humor, and more often than not it’s used wrong. South Park’s most recent seasons proved you can only stretch “the President has a small wee-wee” jokes so far before they fall apart. There are only so many punchlines that can land before the humor goes stale.

Speaking of wee-wees, I expected that same kind of thin delivery when I fired up the 2018 Netflix Original, The Package, which does the unthinkable by taking a one-note joke about somebody getting their wiener chopped off and trying to get it reattached, stretching it across 94 minutes, and somehow keeping things fresh the entire time.

I went in fully prepared to hate-watch it. I wanted to channel my inner old man and say, “They don’t make raunchy teen comedies like they used to,” right before complaining about how restaurant menus are all QR codes now. The Package is a perfect example of a one-note joke done right because it constantly escalates, pushing itself from one extreme situation to the next.

Knowing full well, as a 37-year-old father, that my days of regularly enjoying movies like The Package are well behind me, I’m glad the next generation of young adults still gets raunchy comedies like this one. Had it come out around the same time as Road Trip (2000) or Without a Paddle (2004), everybody my age would treat The Package with the same level of reverence, because it’s just that funny.

The Worst Kind Of Whoopsie

Here’s the plot to The Package. Sean (Daniel Doheny) is planning a bros only weekend in the woods with his best friends, Jeremy (Eduardo Franco) and Donnie (Luke Spencer Roberts). At the last minute, Jeremy announces that his twin sister Becky (Geraldine Viswanathan), who has a crush on Sean, and Sarah (Sadie Calvano), who Donnie used to date, will be tagging along for the camping trip.

The kids head deep into the woods and start drinking and doing spring break stuff, which is par for the course in your typical teen comedy, and then everything goes to hell. Jeremy, who’s been practicing party tricks with his razor-sharp switchblade, accidentally lops off his penis while peeing over a cliff because he’s having just a little too much drunken fun slicing through his own stream. That’s the joke.

Rightfully panicked, a now penisless Jeremy goes into shock and is airlifted to the hospital, his member packed in a cooler after Sarah and Donnie find it in the bushes. For a brief moment, all is right in the world. Until the hospital staff learns that the cooler handed to the first responders was actually the one full of food and drinks, meaning Jeremy’s unit is still with Sean, Donnie, Becky, and Sarah, who are miles from their car and without cell phones because Sean accidentally dropped them off the cliff while searching for service.

The Package Goes Hard

The reason this one-note setup works so well in The Package is because of how fully it commits to the bit. And in this context, “bit” means “Argyle from Stranger Things’ severed dong.” I can’t remember the last time I crossed my legs and winced while watching a comedy, but they truly go all out here.

Bit by a rattlesnake? Someone has to suck out the venom. Covered in dirt and wilderness debris after a chaotic trek? Don’t worry, the gas station clerk will rinse it off in the soda fountain and buff it clean because, strangely enough, he was a military combat medic previously, and this isn’t his first rodeo. Finally make it to the hospital with the package, only to find out it was sewn onto Redneck Reginald (Blake Anderson), whose girlfriend Sheryl (Sugar Lyn Beard) landed him in the hospital at the same time by cutting off his pee pee and “flushing it like a poo poo”? Don’t worry, the gang will figure it out.

The Package will make you want to gag. It will make you cringe and wince. You’ll throw your hands up and yell, “Oh, come on!” to nobody in particular. But nearly every joke lands. It’s juvenile and vulgar in all the right ways, and I give The Package serious credit for taking a one-note joke and committing to it so hard that it keeps paying off.

The Package is a Netflix Original, and you can stream it if you’re a member.

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 5 seconds ago

Rick and Morty is one of those shows that even if you’ve never seen a single episode, you’ve seen the memes: Pickle Rick, “20 minute adventure, quick in and out,” “What is my purpose?” It’s a show packed with jokes that range from the absurd to the multilayered, which makes sense since it shares a creator, Dan Harmon, with the equally acclaimed comedy Community.

Harmon explained in an interview with The Independent that Season 4’s “The Old Man and the Seat” was originally a plot for Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) about shy pooping. True to the spirit of the absurd sci-fi series, the original concept ended up attached to a take on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, featuring one of the cartoon’s most heartfelt and emotional endings to date. 

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Shy Pooper

The Season 4 Rick and Morty episode starts with the reappearance of the butter-passing robot at breakfast, when Rick (voiced by Justin Roiland back then) announces he has to go. Summer (Spencer Grammer) explains to everyone that her grandfather’s a shy pooper, and she’s right. Rick uses his portal gun and works his way to a toilet overlooking a cliff on a picturesque alien world with no other humanoids for hundreds of miles, if not even further. Once he’s done, Rick notices a broken branch, which sets off a manhunt for whoever intruded on his poop sanctuary. 

Turns out that an alien named Tony (Jeffrey Wright) found the isolated toilet and started using it, since he’s also a shy pooper. Rick responds in his usual way, by building a giant robotic Rick mech to sit on Tony when he uses the toilet and then putting Tony in a vat of red goo that shows him his ideal version of Heaven (complete with his dead wife). Tony’s shocked, wondering why Rick can build a virtual Heaven but isn’t able to share a toilet? 

The question hits Rick like a ton of bricks and succinctly sums up the smartest man in existence. Soon after, Tony dies in a skiing accident from “living his life to the fullest” and Rick goes to use the toilet, revealing he rigged a series of holograms and a speech about how Tony is sitting there, all alone, because no one wants to be around him. It’s not subtle; it’s clearly Rick coming to terms with his own sense of loneliness and how Tony, against all odds, seemed like he legitimately wanted to be his friend. Rick sitting on his toilet, all alone, taunted by his own prank, hits even harder after his loneliness and lack of connection became a major part of the last two seasons. 

Rick And Morty Manages To Be Both Very Stupid And Very Smart

“The Old Man and the Seat” wrings the most emotion possible out of a storyline about pooping, but then there’s the other half of the episode. Jerry (Chris Parnell) agrees to develop an app for Rick’s assistant, Glootie (Taika Waititi, no, seriously), which turns out to be a dating app designed to distract the humans while aliens steal Earth’s resources. This is explained by the Monogtron Leader (Sam Neil, and yes, Rick and Morty has surprising stars drop by for cameos) and his Queen (Kathleen Turner, see the prior parentheses), until it all goes crashing down with the addition of a pay wall. 

Normally, the thought of a simple pay wall turning a wildly successful app into an instant disaster would be the highlight of an episode, but “The Old Man and the Seat” is all about Rick coming face-to-face with his own loneliness. The B-plot doesn’t matter, even if it has some good moments, notably Summer’s soul mate constantly changing, though it does raise the question of how a shy pooping storyline would have been handled on Community. Dan Harmon could never quite get it to work, but by leaning into Rick’s self-induced loneliness, he managed to turn shy pooping into an episode that was true to the character and revealed new depths to his narcissistic nihilism. Rick and Morty isn’t Shakespeare, but it gets close.

Ilia Malinin is reflecting on his “redemption skate” at the 2026 Winter Olympics after his shocking 8th place finish.

When asked by a reporter how “important” it was to be at the Gala Skate, Malinin, 21, replied, “It just was really important especially for what happened.”

“I mean, it’s just something that we go through as athletes, as people. It’s just all this constant voices, these attention, the pressure, just everything forced upon you,” he said on Saturday, February 21. “It’s very hard to deal with and honestly it’s what makes us very special, very grateful for what we can do. Really it’s just the reason why I wanted to go back out there. Just give it a redemption skate, just prove them all wrong.”

While looking back at the Olympics, Malinin — nicknamed the “Quad God” — noted that his experience has changed him in “many ways.”

Related: Ilia Malinin Had ‘Traumatic’ Thoughts Before Shocking 8th Place Finish

After a heartbreaking performance in the men’s free skate final at the 2026 Winter Olympics, figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin said he felt “overwhelmed” in the moment. “It was really just something that overwhelmed me, and I just felt like I had no control,” Malinin said on Friday, February 13, after his shocking eight place […]

“I think that now I’ve really understood my purpose in skating, and that is just to bring joy and happiness to the people that enjoy watching me,” he said. “So that’s what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my career.”

Earlier in the games, Malinin missed the podium after a series of mistakes during the men’s free skate on February 13. He ultimately earned eighth place despite being a gold medal favorite. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov ultimately took home gold, with Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama earning silver and Shun Sato, also from Japan, receiving bronze.

Malinin took the ice for one last time at the 2026 Olympics on Saturday for the exhibition gala, where there was no judging and no medals — instead, just an opportunity to entertain.

He sported a dark sweatshirt and distressed jeans, performing to “Fear” by NF.” Malinin previously shared that his routine would represent the negative impact social media has on the younger generation’s mental health. Malinin completed his signature backflip, which was illegal from 1977 to 2024, and became visibly emotional.

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Related: Figure Skater Ilia Malinin Speaks Out After Falling in Olympic Free Skate

Days after he stumbled during his 2026 Olympics free skate, Ilia Malinin is taking some time to reflect. “On the world’s biggest stage, those who appear the strongest may still be fighting invisible battles on the inside,” the figure skater, 21, captioned a montage of highlights via Instagram on Monday, February 16. “Even your happiest […]

“On the world’s biggest stage, those who appear the strongest may still be fighting invisible battles on the inside,” Malinin wrote after he failed to podium. “Even your happiest memories can end up tainted by the noise. Vile online hatred attacks the and fear lures it into the darkness, no matter how hard you try to stay sane through the endless insurmountable pressure.”

He continued, “It all builds up as these moments flash before our eyes, resulting in an inevitable crash. This is that version of the story. Coming February 21, 2026.”

While looking back at his performance during the men’s free skate, Malinin shared that he was “not expecting” it to go the way that it did. He also admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” at the moment.

“It was really just something that overwhelmed me, and I just felt like I had no control,” he said on February 13. “Honestly, I still haven’t been able to process what just happened. It’s a lot of mixed motions. Going into this competition, I felt really good. This whole day, I felt very solid, and I just thought that all I needed to do is go out there and trust the process that I’ve always been doing with every competition. But of course, it’s not like any other competition, it’s the Olympics.”

Paul Mescal and Gracie Abrams kicked off their romance with an epic summer of love — and they’re still going strong.

In between their busy 2024 schedules — he worked on the blockbuster film Gladiator II while Abrams opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras tour — the pair found time to make a special connection.

Mescal and Abrams sparked romance rumors in June 2024 when they were spotted enjoying a meal in London. It wasn’t until the following July that Abrams seemingly confirmed their relationship, posting an Instagram photo with Mescal from Glastonbury Festival in England.

In January 2026, Abrams professed her “love” for Mescal while praising his role in Hamnet, which came out in late 2025. The following month, Abrams shared a series of PDA-filled photos with fans in honor of Mescal’s 30th birthday.

Scroll down to see how Abrams and Mescal’s private bond unfolded into a special love story:

June 2024

Let the romance rumors begin! TMZ obtained photos of both Mescal and Abrams enjoying a meal together at BRAT Restaurant in London. In one picture, the actor reached over during the meal and stroked Abram’s cheek.

August 2024

In a profile for The Sunday Times, Abrams addressed the interest in her personal life. “It’s all spooky,” she said. “You hope for just privacy in your life as anyone else would. That’s just the truth.”

August 2024

Two months after first being spotted, Mescal and Abrams were photographed together again in London. This time, however, they were captured holding hands. According to the Daily Mail, the duo enjoyed a shopping trip before attending the All Points East Music Festival. While enjoying Mitski’s set, the pair were joined by Mescal’s Normal People costar Daisy Edgar-Jones and her boyfriend, Ben Seed.

October 2024

When kicking off The Secret of Us tour, Abrams received some support from Mescal in the audience on October 5. According to People, the actor showed up at Radio City Music Hall in New York City to witness his rumored girlfriend’s set. And yes, he was spotted dancing and singing along to her performance.

Less than one week later, Mescal expressed his hopes that he can keep his personal life a bit more private. In an interview with GQ, the actor said that he’s “learned that there’s certain lines in the sand now for me that just are going to be impenetrable for the benefit of my own sanity.”

“The speculation has been kind of mad for the last x amount of years,” Mescal added about his relationship status. “I’m not comfortable inviting any access into that part of my life. How I am in my private life is so precious to me because I get very little of it, and it might be public interest, but it’s not public-obligated information.”

Swifties spotted Mescal attending Swift’s Eras tour on October 20 to watch Abrams’ opening set at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. He seemingly watched the show from one of the private VIP sections on the floor of the stadium. Because there were no tent covers on the VIP suites in Miami, fans have a better view of who was in attendance.

November 2024

Abrams supported Mescal at the Los Angeles premiere of his movie Gladiator II, according to social media footage. They were also seen hugging at the official afterparty.

December 2024

They made their respective Saturday Night Live debuts one week apart. Mescal hosted the December 7 episode, while Abrams served as the musical guest one week later. After Abrams’ December 14 performance, they were spotted holding hands in New York City.

Days later, Abrams made a rare comment about her private life. “Abrams keeps it brief when I ask how she’s found navigating personal relationships under this new public microscope,” Nylon’s Lauren McCarthy wrote in an interview published on December 17. “‘That has nothing to do with me,’ she says, straight-faced. ‘It doesn’t affect me.’”

July 2025

After Abrams’ set at England’s Glastonbury Festival, she shared a recap of her highlights via Instagram.

“❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️,” she captioned a carousel.

In one of the uploads, Abrams snapped a selfie with Mescal during a beach day.

Mescal’s sister, Nell, replied, commenting, “At any moment we can just say we’re so back.”

September 2025

The Normal People actor made a rare comment on his love life by explaining to Rolling Stone why the couple decided to go “Instagram official” over the summer.

“I actually do have an answer [as to the timing], but everything to do with that is deeply precious to me and I don’t want to. … This isn’t … I don’t really … umm … I want to protect those things fundamentally,” he told the outlet.

January 2026

“Also I love him surprise,” Abrams wrote via her Instagram Story alongside a photo of boyfriend Mescal wearing a “Will Power” T-shirt that had William Shakespeare’s face on it.

In the picture, Mescal smoked a cigarette and threw open his jean jacket so Abrams could properly see the witty pun on his shirt, which was a nod to his portrayal of the iconic playwright in 2025’s Hamnet.

Abrams also applauded Mescal and Hamnet his costars in a series of Instagram Story uploads on January 16, calling them all “singular.” She added, “Thank god for what they made. Go see it and you will be better off.”

February 2026

Abrams celebrated the birthdays of two very special people in her life via Instagram on February 2, including her longtime friend she calls “Clemmy” and boyfriend Mescal, who turned 30.

“P❤️Clemmy❤️ My whole heart!!!!!!!!!” the singer captioned a series of Instagram pictures of moments with both the birthday girl and birthday boy. “I love February 2 … Happy birthday❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️I love you both more than words could ever describe. Thank you for making everything better.”

Among the photos, Abrams gave fans a glimpse at her PDA-filled romance with Mescal. In one snap, the couple attended a Boston Red Sox game together, while another image showed them kissing in a photo booth.

Mescal was also spotted kissing his girlfriend at one of her gigs in a third photo, while Abrams shared a cute snap of the actor at a candlelight dinner in another.

February 2026

Mescal and Abrams made their official red carpet debut at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards in London, where they cuddled up in sweet snapshots.

By Robert Scucci
| Published 11 seconds ago

I hate talking on the phone. When my parents call, my first question is, “Why didn’t you text me first to see if I’m even taking calls today?” Not because I don’t like my parents. Quite the opposite. I just don’t like filling awkward silences with small talk, and I’ve never been good at idle chit-chat, even with people I care about. Tom Hardy’s Ivan Locke in 2013’s Locke, on the other hand, can dial and talk with such urgency and fluency that if he hosted a seminar about proper phone etiquette, I’d probably pay $50 to attend.

Considered by many to be one of Hardy’s best performances, Locke is a tense thriller set entirely in his car as he takes a 90-minute drive to the hospital to witness the birth of the child he conceived during an extramarital affair. There are no cutaways showing what the people on the other end are doing. It’s just Tom Hardy in a car, shifting gears, barreling down the highway, dialing, and either confessing his sins or giving critical instructions, depending on who’s on the line.

A Tense, 90-Minute Drive

When we’re introduced to Ivan Locke, he’s tense but fully in control of his faculties. Though Locke is billed as a psychological thriller, there’s no unreliable narrator here. You have every reason to take him at his word. Is he stressed? Absolutely, and for good reason. A production foreman about to oversee one of the largest concrete pours in European history, his life is falling apart in every measurable way, and he’s trying to reckon with past mistakes as all of his stress points converge on this single evening.

The primary source of stress Ivan Locke faces is the premature birth of the child he conceived with former colleague Bethan (Olivia Colman). An otherwise faithful man, Ivan had a moment of weakness during a three-month job, and that lapse resulted in Bethan’s pregnancy. Though he hasn’t seen her since, he’s haunted by the fact that his own father abandoned him. Even without romantic feelings for Bethan, he refuses to let his child be born fatherless.

Because Bethan’s water breaks on the eve of the biggest job of his life, Ivan has to pass the torch to his trainee Donal (Andrew Scott), which understandably irritates his boss, Gareth (Ben Daniels), who promptly fires him for jumping ship at the last minute. Between phone calls to Donal, who is known to drink heavily after 5 p.m. and needs to ensure critical elements are in place for the pour, Ivan calls home, confesses his infidelity to his wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson), and attempts pleasantries with his sons Eddie (Tom Holland) and Sean (Bill Milner), who he hasn’t yet told the full story.

As the phone in his BMW lights up with voicemails, missed calls, and calls waiting on the other line while he navigates toward the hospital, Ivan Locke also lectures his absent father as if he were sitting in the passenger seat. It’s his way of confronting his demons and reassuring himself that although his life as he knows it is effectively over, he’s doing the right thing.

Top-Tier Voice Acting

While it may sound boring to watch a man talk on the phone in his car for 90 minutes, Locke is anything but. Whether he’s delivering life-shattering news to his wife, reassuring the mother of his new child, getting chewed out by his boss, chewing out his trainee, or comforting his sons, he remains calm and controlled while having conversations that would give any reasonable person a heart attack.

Tom Hardy doesn’t do all the heavy lifting alone. Everybody he speaks to carries their emotional weight through dialogue without ever appearing on screen, which is no small feat.

While critics often call Locke Tom Hardy’s best performance, the only thing that complicates that assessment for me is Mad Max: Fury Road. Sorry. I know it’s a completely different kind of movie and comparing them is apples to oranges, but if we’re talking about the singular best thing he’s ever done, I’m siding with the greatest action movie of all time. Coming in as a very close second, Locke, which technically doubles as a road thriller, is absolutely worth your time if you want to see how to handle the hardest conversations of your life without completely losing your cool in the process.

Locke is streaming on Netflix.

Kylie Jenner is sharing a new tribute to her friend Jesus Guerrero on the one year anniversary of the hairstylist’s untimely death at 34.

“222. I miss you,” Jenner, 28, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Sunday, February 22, over a black-and-white picture of Guerrero styling Jenner’s hair while she snapped a mirror selfie.

Guerrero’s sister Gris Guerrero confirmed the late stylist’s death on February 22, 2025, after she set up a GoFundMe page to cover the celebrity hairstylist’s funeral expenses. (In addition to Jenner, Jesus worked with numerous Hollywood stars including Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez.)

“My name is Gris, Jesus’s younger sister,” Gris wrote in the fund’s description. “It is with a heavy heart that we let the world know that Jesus Guerrero has gone to heaven. He is a son, a brother, an uncle, an artist, a friend, and so much more.”

Jenner took to social media shortly after news broke to honor her stylist and late friend, calling him “a light in my life.”

“Jesus was more than my friend — he was a light in my life, a source of laughter, comfort, love and unwavering support. I don’t know how I would have made it through the last almost decade without him by my side,” Jenner wrote via Instagram at the time. “He had a way of making even the heaviest days feel lighter. Thank you, Jesus, for always being there for me, for lifting me up, for being my friend. The pain of losing you is just unbearable and I don’t know how to move forward without you but I know great grief is born only of great love. And I loved you so much. You were the best person, with a talent that was unmatched. A true artist. You inspired so many, and you always will.”

She continued, “Your words, your laughter, your kindness, your beautiful spirit will live in my heart forever. I’ll cherish all our moments together. Every laugh and hug. I wish I could hug you again. I laid in your bed the way you used to lay in mine, talking for hours. I would give anything for one more deep talk. I’m going to miss you so much, more than any words can say. 222 my angel.”

Days later, People reported that the Kardashians star was covering the cost of her late friend’s funeral. “As upset as she feels, she knows it’s so much worse for his family,” a source told the outlet. “She doesn’t want them to stress about money. She’s taking care of expenses, including those associated with his funeral.”

Jenner attended the stylist’s funeral on March 30, 2025. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Gris praised Jenner and Lopez, who also attended the funeral, for their support following her brother’s untimely death.

“[Kylie] has told us anything we need. Jesus was family to her, and she was family to him,” Gris told Us. “She has kept an open line. Anything we need, any questions we have, she has been there for us. She wants his memory to be honored and wants to do as much as she can so he gets the farewell he deserves.”

Michael B. Jordan & Delroy Lindo
Tourette’s Activist Shouts N-Word During BAFTAs Telecast

Published
February 22, 2026
3:34 PM PST

Aww! Roommates, congrats are in order for NBA YoungBoy and Jazlyn Mychelle as they have confirmed the arrival of their third child together. NBA announced the news through a sweet video he shared of Jazlyn on social media.

RELATED: NBA YoungBoy Shares Family Selfies And Praises Wife Jazlyn Mychelle For Being His “Everything”

NBA YoungBoy & Jazlyn Mychelle Expand Their Family To Five

On Sunday, February 22, NBA YoungBoy hopped on Instagram and let fans know he and Jazlyn Mychelle have welcomed their third child together. The husband and wife are already parents to a son and a daughter, and now they’ve added another baby girl to their squad, making them a family of five. In the clip NBA posted on Instagram, he could be heard saying, “My gangsta had her baby,” before turning to Jazlyn and asking, “How do you feel?” to which she replies, “relieved!” 

NBA and Jazlyn haven’t dropped any pics of their bundle of joy just yet, but fans are already on standby to see who their baby girl will resemble. The couple’s newest addition reportedly marks NBA’s 13th child as TMZ previously reported that he shares a total of 12 kids with various women.

The Internet Reacts To NBA & Jazlyn’s Newest Addition

After TSR dropped NBA’s clip of Jazlyn, fans flooded the comment section with reactions. Some fans said they loving NBA & Jazlyn’s family vibes, while others joked they need a family tree to keep up with all of the rapper’s kids.

Instagram user @shaquisha.monroe wrote, “New diamond ring, new baby… they’re just doing it all and I love it!” 

Instagram user @zeethedoggydoula wrote, “Aww. Him sound so gentle w her.” 

Then Instagram user @dafemmefatale23 wrote, “Idc what nobody say SHE IS TOP TIER AND I LOVE THIS FOR HER😍🔥” 

Another Instagram user @aaliyahmelody2 wrote, “Congratulations blessings to you both please no more enjoy your young lives🙏👑”

While another Instagram user @love.jeynell wrote, “We need the chart , like how y’all do Nick Cannon.” 

Then another instagram user @icarlyshy wrote, “I’m not finna give yb too many more congratulations 😩” 

Finally, Instagram user @therealshundasia wrote, “Having your Man with you during The Birth of your Children is EVERYTHING 🫶🏽” 

Jazlyn Mychelle & YoungBoy Previously Celebrated Baby No. 3 With Sweet Gender Reveal & Maternity Shoot

Jazlyn kept fans updated on her pregnancy through plenty of cute moments. In October 2025, she shared a peek at their gender reveal, showing her, NBA and their daughter celebrating with family. Video footage showed Jazlyn and NBA by a pool, anxiously waiting to find out their new baby’s gender. After a countdown, fireworks and pink smoke revealed they were having a baby girl. Then in January, Jazlyn gave fans a look at her maternity shoot, posing in a dramatic pink ruffled robe while NBA stood behind her, gently holding her hand.

RELATED: Awww! Jazlyn Mychelle Gives Peek Into Her Maternity Shoot On Third Anniversary With NBA YoungBoy (VIDEO)

Chile! Dining out in Sydney took an unexpected turn when a well-known chef says his restaurant was targeted in a jaw-dropping scheme. Neil Nolan, who has led the kitchen at Pony Dining The Rocks for two decades, is speaking out after accusing a visiting family of staging an elaborate contamination complaint in an attempt to dodge a hefty bill.

RELATED: Say, WHAT?! Oklahoma Teacher Passes Away Years After Allegedly Consuming Drink Laced With Industrial Cleaner At Restaurant

$600 Steak Dinner Ends With Sudden Hair Complaint

According to reports from 7NEWS, the family—said to be visiting from Ireland—ordered some of the restaurant’s most premium offerings, including a nearly four-pound tomahawk steak, plus entrées and drinks, bringing their total to around $600. But after finishing their meal, staff say a complaint suddenly surfaced about hair found in one of their meals.

Restaurant Claims Man Planted Hair To Skip Bill

Footage reviewed by the restaurant allegedly shows a man reaching under his arm, pulling out a strand of hair, and placing it onto his plate after eating. Nolan described the situation as something he had “never seen…before,” calling it “another level of trying to scam.” He also pointed out that the hair in question was blonde—something that didn’t match anyone working in the kitchen at the time.

When confronted, Nolan claims the man became increasingly agitated, refusing to pay and raising his voice in the dining room. The scene reportedly escalated, with the man’s wife allegedly breaking down in tears as other diners looked on. To calm the disruption, management ultimately waived the entire bill.

Restaurant Warns Others After Alleged Scam Spreads

The situation didn’t end there. Pony later learned of similar allegations believed to involve the same family at another nearby venue. Nolan says he reported the matter to police but was told there was little immediate action that could be taken. Frustrated, he shared the CCTV footage on social media to warn other hospitality operators, noting that the booking’s contact details were allegedly false and that the family is believed to have since left the Sydney area.

RELATED: Prayers Up! Pennsylvania Olive Garden Cook Reportedly Dies After Dunking Head In Deep Fryer

By Joshua Tyler
| Published 15 seconds ago

In an era where Star Trek has become a televised disaster with embarrassing, franchise-destroying products like Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Discovery, you wouldn’t expect to get any good new Star Trek video games. But somehow, that’s exactly what’s happening. Star Trek: Voyager – Across The Unknown has just been released on most major gaming platforms, and it’s everything fans have been waiting for. 

As much as Trekkies enjoy Star Trek: Voyager, it’s also always been viewed as something of a missed opportunity. A show about a ship stranded far from home is the perfect opportunity for complex survival-focused storytelling. Star Trek: Voyager had the kind of premise that could have made it Battlestar Galactica-level engrossing, as each week the ship struggled to find food and energy while dealing with a malfunctioning vessel and the other problems inherent in being lost, with nowhere to refuel.

Across The Unknown Improves The Television Show

Unfortunately, with a few exception episodes like “Year of Hell,” Voyager mostly ignored its own premise and acted like any other Star Trek show. Stories about the realities of being stranded were rare, and such problems were easily resolved with hand-waving.

Star Trek: Voyager – Across The Unknown corrects that mistake with a game that lets you play through Voyager’s entire journey back to Earth, but from a survival perspective where you’re the one in charge of sorting out the difficult logistics, all the things the series glossed over, all the details of how to keep a ship flying when you’re lost and there’s no one to help.

Change Voyager’s Fate With Your Decisions

The game is structured like a space-faring version of the classic base-building sim Fallout Shelter. Instead of building and maintaining a bunker, you’re repairing and maintaining the USS Voyager as Captain Janeway tries to get her crew home.

Along the way, you help Janeway make critical decisions, with the ability to make totally different choices from the ones she makes on the show. My USS Voyager, for instance, currently has a Kazon tactical officer. And I could have kept Tuvix as part of my crew instead of splitting him back into Tuvok and Neelix, but screw that guy, I never liked him.

Better Ship Battles Than Any Modern Star Trek Show

The game’s graphics are well done. The map screen is beautiful, with the ability to seamlessly zoom in up close on ships and zoom out for a sector view. Cut scenes are rare but well executed when they surface. Battles are stunningly rendered, though don’t expect to do a lot of shooting yourself. Across the Unknown is an RPG, which means your role in both combat and away missions is mostly to make choices.

In space battles, you get to see those choices play out, with ships zooming around, firing torpedoes, and executing maneuvers you direct. On Away Missions, the results of your choices are reported back via text popups telling you the outcome of what you had each member of your landing party do.

Several Star Trek: Voyager actors lent their voices to the game. You’ll especially hear a lot from Tim Russ as Tuvok. Mostly, though, the game is about reading text and managing Voyager from a static side-view screen where you build, repair, and can zoom in and out on compartments.

That side-view screen is something of a wonder, though. Zoomed out, it’s just an MSD of Voyager. However, if you zoom in, you can see inside each room to watch crew members working, moving around, and living. It’s a detail they didn’t have to include; it has no impact on gameplay, but it does add to the game’s immersion and lets you feel like you’re really there, peering inside the ship as you decide whether to spend your resources on a warp core upgrade or on repairs to the aero shuttle.

Star Trek Sings When Freed From Alex Kurtzman’s Clutches

Across the Unknown works seamlessly and breathes new life into the seven seasons of Voyager you’ve already seen. It’s better, narratively, than anything Star Trek has produced since the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise and it’s exactly what Trekkies need, right now, in Trek’s darkest moment.

There’s a reason it’s good, and it’s probably because current Star Trek boss Alex Kurtzman had absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead, the game was developed by German studio gameXcite and published by Daedalic Entertainment. They licensed the IP from Paramount and then went off to do their own thing.

It’s further proof that the problem with modern Star Trek isn’t Star Trek itself, but the people in charge of it. When freed from their clutches, Star Trek snaps back to form.

A Pathway To A Bright Future For Star Trek

If this works, and I hope it does, they’ve established a perfect model to use on other Star Trek shows. Imagine playing through Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War arc, with the ability to change the fate of the entire Alpha Quadrant, should you decide to make choices different from the ones made by Benjamin Sisko.

There’s infinite potential in what Star Trek: Voyager – Across The Unknown has done here, but even if it’s just one off, be thankful it exists. The game’s a rare ray of light in Star Trek’s darkest of dark ages.

ACROSS THE UNKNOWN REVIEW SCORE