The Daily Beast Obsessed

The first episode of Almost Family, the Fox drama that premiered last week, follows three women who learn that they are sisters, a collateral connection revealed after a renowned fertility doctor is found to have been secretly using his own sperm to inseminate more than 100 patients without their consent or knowledge.

About 25 minutes into his new stand-up special Cole Hearted, which starts streaming today on Netflix, comedian Deon Cole glances down at the piece of paper he’s removed from his pocket and asks the audience this question: “Should a dude hold a door for a dyke?” When the immediate reaction is a mix of loud laughs and uncomfortable groans, Cole proceeds to explain that he told that joke not because he thinks it’s all that funny—objectively, it’s not—but rather “to see what kind of audience this is.” He adds, “That’s...

At its worst—and I can speak from experience—divorce is simultaneously like death and war: an end to the life you had and the future you imagined, and a battle of unimaginable acrimony and anguish. Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story—the centerpiece selection of this year’s New York Film Festival, set to premiere in theaters on Nov. 6 and on Netflix on Dec.

Is your child misbehaving? Well, if you’re a demented mother and father interested in traumatizing your little one for years to come, you can follow in the footsteps of a shocking number of other American parents and dial 407-734-0254—the phone number for Wrinkles the Clown, a Naples, Florida, creep who, for a small cash fee, will lurk around your kid until they get the message and straighten themselves out.

Kyle MacLachlan has developed a certain spidey sense. When he spots fans approaching him, he can guess what project of his they’re going to gush about. That’s what happens after 35 years of an actor’s unicorn ideal of a career: an array of projects that, in almost comical fashion, couldn’t be more diverse. And each with a fan base armed with atypical encyclopedic knowledge and insatiable curiosity about almost every single detail.

Tom Green was never more famous that when he hosted Saturday Night Live on November 18th, 2000. Not only was his insanely popular talk show still airing on MTV, he was coming off a scene-stealing performance in the hit comedy Road Trip. Just weeks earlier, Charlie’s Angels, in which Green appeared opposite his new fiancée Drew Barrymore, debuted at no. 1 at the box office.

In some ways, Almost Family is a jaw-dropping series, in that it is truly spectacular that this is the direction the new Fox drama has elected to go in with this subject matter. It’s been a years-long contest on network TV to come up with the next This Is Us, the last major phenomenon to prosper amidst the broadcast TV ratings drought.

Joel Kim Booster knew he was gay before he knew he was Asian. It’s a great line. It got him on TV. As the 31-year-old stand-up and, now, sitcom star was first finding his footing in the comedy world, it was the perfect thematic centerpiece: a succinct, witty, and attention-grabbing identifier of his perspective—not to mention a great lede into talking about his atypical childhood.

After a weak third season that struggled to break free from a tedious, cyclical plot, the fourth season of The Good Place, which premiered Thursday evening on NBC, brings its characters back to the neighborhood where it all began, complete with candy-colored cobblestone streets and an abundance of frozen yogurt shops. Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto), the hip-hop dancing Blake Bortles superfan from Jacksonville, Florida, is back in his yellow robes, posing as the pensive Tibetan monk Jianyu.

Walton Goggins is a very good bad guy. Boyd Crowder on Justified is about as great as a bad guy gets, from a TV fan’s perspective. Shane Vendrell on The Shield was a standout in a murderer’s row of these kinds of characters on that show. Hell, he’s so good at playing the type that Quentin Tarantino, of all people, decided he was going to be the go-to actor for him when casting such parts, which Goggins played exquisitely in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.