'Wednesday,' 'The Bear' and all the TV shows you don't want to miss this summer

'Wednesday,' 'The Bear' and all the TV shows you don't want to miss this summer

USA TODAY and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change. Need something to cool you down this summer? How about an ice-cold shot ofWednesday Addams' death glare? The warmest months of the year are typically a time of outdoor fun and frothy beach reads, but spare an eye and an ear for TV this summer, considering all the major series debuting between June and August. This crop of new and returning TV series has everything to help you beat the heat, including sci-fi,MarvelandLena Dunhamcringe for a new generation. You could travel to the frigid vacuum of space via the"Alien"franchise or"Star Trek."You could break out into a cold sweat (instead of a hot one) at the sight of the harrowing final chapter of Netflix's"Squid Game."You'll shiver with embarrassment at Lena Dunham's new comedy"Too Much"or shiver with fear at the horrors of Nevermore Academy in Netflix's"Wednesday."No matter which of these shows you choose to enjoy on your comfy couch with the sweet relief of air-conditioning, you'll be entertained and removed from the risk of sunburn. What more could you ask for on a hot summer's day? Here are seven TV shows worth watching this summer: Disney+, (June 24; streaming Tuesdays) Teen genius Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) was first introduced to Marvel fans in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and now gets her own show as a new kind of Iron Man for a younger crowd."Ironheart" takes place in Chicago after the events of the film, where Riri's research for her iron suit brings her together with the oh-so-charming Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos, "In the Heights"), who may have more nefarious intentions and powers than he initially admits. Produced by "Wakanda" director Ryan Coogler, the series also stars Lyric Ross and Alden Ehrenreich ("Solo: A Star Wars Story"). Hulu (June 25) In a different part of Chicago, we find our motley kitchen crew of everyone's favorite beef-sandwich-joint-turned-gourmet-dining-establishment inSeason 4 of FX's "The Bear."Season 3 had more than its fair share of road bumps, both for its characters and its critical reception, but producer Christopher Storer and the extremely talented cast have the opportunity to turn it all around again. The staff of the restaurant, including Jeremy Allen White's Carmy and Ayo Edebiri's Sydney, have only a limited amount of time to turn around the business before their money runs out. We might suggest a more peaceful working environment, but then how much fun would the show be without the chaos? Netflix (June 27) Did you finish the second season of Netflix's monster South Korean horror hit "Squid Game" last December with a strong sense that the story just stopped in the middle? The series broke records on the streaming platform when it debuted in 2021, and last year's second season was just as bloody and tragic as the first. It ended on a devastating cliffhanger in which (spoiler alert!) Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) led a rebellion that was instantly quashed, and the evil Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) captured him just in time to kill his best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). And then the credits rolled.Fans are expecting resolutionof that moment, the return of the wealthy "VIP" spectators of the violent games and answers to the many questions about the whole dystopian setup. Netflix (July 10) Lena Dunham's latest comedy is, as the kids would say, high "cringe," but in the best way possible. Starring "Hacks" breakout Megan Stalter as a timid and messy TV producer on assignment in London, the comedy uses the best of Dunham's sardonic writing and Stalter's emotional comedic persona in a happy marriage of form and function. With appearances from comedic greats like Rita Wilson, Rhea Perlman and Dunham herself, the series has a cozy, familiar feeling even though it's set in a foreign country. Paramount+, (July 17; streaming Thursdays) The best and most fun of Paramount+'s "Star Trek" series is back for a rollicking third season that somehow has to top a second that included a musical episode. But we trust the crew of the USS Enterprise in this prequel featuring young versions of "Trek" favorites Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Chapel (Jess Bush) and Kirk (Paul Wesley). Season 3 sees the intrepid explorers donning retro costumes, grappling with the Gorn and even solving a murder mystery. Be on the lookout for more "Trek" Easter eggs and characters, including more of Scotty (Martin Quinn), first seen in the Season 2 finale. And get excited for more than just Season 3: "Strange" has already been renewed for a fourth installment. Netflix (in two parts: Aug. 6 and Sept. 3) Without a smile in sight, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is all set to return to Nevermore Academy for another year of deadpan wit and solving supernatural mysteries. The blockbuster series, still the most popular English-language show of all time on the streamer, promises more of everything you loved about the first season, with bigger expectations, hype anda Lady Gaga cameo. What more could an Addams girl want? FX and Hulu (Aug. 12; streaming Tuesdays 8 ET/PT) It's alive, and it's on Earth this time. "Fargo" producer Noah Hawley takes his talents to the "Alien" universe in this creepy series, set on our own planet in the year 2120, in which mega-corporations have invented hybrid humanoid robots with human consciousness amid a race to discover a path to immortality. A group of these hybrids, led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler) makes a distinctly otherworldly discovery after crash landing in Earth's Prodigy City. The sleek and long-gestating series also stars the great Timothy Olyphant and counts original "Alien" director Ridley Scott among its producers. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Summer 2025 best TV shows: 'Wednesday' to 'Bear'

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June 02, 2025

'Wednesday,' 'The Bear' and all the TV shows you don't want to miss this summer

'Wednesday,' 'The Bear' and all the TV shows you don't want to miss this summer USA TODAY and Yahoo may earn commission ...

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Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Support

Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Support

Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Supportoriginally appeared onParade. The last surviving member of the hit 1960s groupThe Monkeesrecently made a plea to his fans for support for "a cause that's near and dear to [his] heart." Micky Dolenz, 80, sharedon Instagramand Facebook that fans can show their support both for the Monkees andthe Make-A-Wish Foundationby buying some of his Monkees merchandise. "Hi, friends - if you've been looking for a way to show your support (or just want a cool shirt or two), check out the official merch store at MickyDolenz.com," writes Dolenz. "We've got everything - music, t-shirts, even personally signed drum heads - perfect for fans, collectors, or just treating yourself. And here's the best part: a portion of every purchase goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a cause that's near and dear to my heart. 💙 "Thanks for the love - and for helping make a difference. MickyDolenz #TheMonkees #MakeAWish #OfficialMerch #ShopForACause #StillMonkeeingAround." 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 In the accompanying photos that show a young Dolenz interacting with children, the singer is holding a thank you card from the Make-A-Wish Foundation that reads, "You continue to help wish kids replace fear with confidence, sadness with joy and anxiety with hope. We deeply appreciate your generosity and are honored to recognize you as a committed supporter of Make-A-Wish." Fans in the comments are so excited about the opportunity and praise Dolenz for giving back. "I love you, Micky, you're the best for this ❤️," wrote one fan. Another added, "You're so amazing, Micky!" "This is the most wonderful photo of you I've ever seen. I am so happy that I got a chance to meet you a few years back. Micky, you're absolutely positively the best artist ever. I love you. ❤️," wrote a third fan. A fourth wrote, "Micky, I know you heard this thousands of times, but to me, yes, you are like an old friend. I can only wish the best in your amazing life." AtDolenz's official site, you can indeed purchase signed or unsigned photos, CDs, T-shirts and even Monkees logo drum heads. Dolenz isalso on Cameo, which is a video message service where people can buy personalized messages from their favorite celebrities. Dolenz is the last remaining member of the music group The Monkees, which took the world by storm in the late 1960s. Lead singerDavy Jonesdied in 2012,and bassistPeter Torkdied in 2019. In 2021, drummer Dolenz and guitaristMichael Nesmithwent on a farewell tour, and Nesmith tragically passed away from heart failure just weeks after the tour concluded. In a recent interviewwith The Observer-Reporter, Dolenz joked that he's just "glad to be above ground" at this point. "So far, so good," said the 1960s heartthrob. Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Supportfirst appeared on Parade on Jun 2, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.

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June 02, 2025

Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Support

Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Support Last Surviving Member of The Monkees Asks For Fan Supportoriginally appeared onPar...

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The Real Life Tech Execs That Inspired Jesse Armstrong’s 'Mountainhead'

The Real Life Tech Execs That Inspired Jesse Armstrong's 'Mountainhead'

Jesse Armstrong loves to pull fictional stories out of reality. His universally acclaimed TV showSuccession, for instance, wasinspiredby real-life media dynasties like theMurdochsand the Hearsts. Similarly, his newest filmMountainheadcenters upon characters that share key traits with the tech world's most powerful leaders:Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and others. Mountainhead, which releases on HBO on May 31 at 8 p.m. ET, portrays four top tech executives who retreat to a Utah hideaway as the AI deepfake tools newly released by one of their companies wreak havoc across the world. As the believable deepfakes inflame hatred on social media and real-world violence, the comfortably-appointed quartet mulls a global governmental takeover, intergalactic conquest and immortality, before interpersonal conflict derails their plans. Armstrong tells TIME in a Zoom interview that he first became interested in writing a story about tech titans after reading books like Michael Lewis'Going Infinite(about Sam Bankman-Fried) and Ashlee Vance'sElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, as well as journalistic profiles of Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and others. He then built the story around the interplay between four character archetypes—the father, the dynamo, the usurper, and the hanger-on—and conducted extensive research so that his fictional executives reflected real ones. His characters, he says, aren't one-to-one matches, but "Frankenstein monsters with limbs sewn together." These characters are deeply flawed and destructive, to say the least. Armstrong says he did not intend for the film to be a wholly negative depiction of tech leaders and AI development. "I do try to take myself out of it, but obviously my sense of what this tech does and could do infuses the piece. Maybe I do have some anxieties," he says. Armstrong contends that the film is more so channeling fears that AI leaders themselves have warned about. "If somebody who knows the technology better than anyone in the world thinks there's a 1/5th chance that it's going to wipe out humanity—and they're some of the optimists—I think that's legitimately quite unnerving," he says. Here's how each of the characters inMountainheadresembles real-world tech leaders. This article contains spoilers. Read More:With Mountainhead, the Creator of Succession Targets a Group That's Beyond Satire Venis is Armstrong's "dynamo": the richest man in the world, who has gained his wealth from his social media platform Traam and its 4 billion users. Venis is ambitious, juvenile, and self-centered, even questioning whether other people are as real as him and his friends. Venis' first obvious comp is Elon Musk, the richest man in the real world. Like Musk, Venis is obsessed withgoing to outer spaceand with using his enormous war chest to buildhyperscale data centersto create powerfulanti-woke AI systems. Venis also has a strange relationship with hischild, essentially using it as a prop to help him through his own emotional turmoil. Throughout the movie, others caution Venis to shut down his deepfake AI tools which have led to military conflict and the desecration of holy sites across the world. Venis rebuffs them and says that people just need to adapt to technological changes and focus on the cool art being made. This argument is similar to those made by Sam Altman, who hasarguedthat OpenAI needs to unveil ChatGPT and other cutting-edge tools as fast as possible in order to show the public the power of the technology. Like Mark Zuckerberg, Venis presides over a massively popular social media platform that some haveaccusedof ignoring harms in favor of growth. Just as Amnesty International accused Meta of having "substantially contributed" to human rights violations perpetrated against Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic group, Venis complains of the UN being "up his ass for starting a race war." The group's eldest member is Randall, an investor and technologist who resembles Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel in his lofty philosophizing and quest for immortality. Like Andreessen, Randall is a staunch accelerationist who believes that U.S. companies need to develop AI as fast as possible in order to both prevent the Chinese from controlling the technology, and to ostensibly ignite a new American utopia in which productivity, happiness, and health flourish. Randall's power comes from the fact that he was Venis' first investor, just as Thiel was an early investor in Facebook. While Andreessen pensmanifestosabout technological advancement, Randall paints his mission in grandiose, historical terms, using anti-democratic, sci-fi-inflected language that resembles that of the philosopherCurtis Yarvin, who has been funded and promoted by Thiel over his career. Randall's justification of murder through utilitarian and Kantian lenses calls to mind Sam Bankman-Fried'sextensive philosophizing, which included adeclarationthat he would roll the dice on killing everyone on earth if there was a 51% chance he would create a second earth. Bankman-Fried's approach—in embracing risk and harm in order to reap massive rewards—led him to beconvictedof massive financial fraud. Randall is also obsessed with longevity just like Thiel, who hasrailedfor years against the "inevitability of death" andyearnsfor "super-duper medical treatments" that would render him immortal. Jeff is a technologist who often serves as the movie's conscience, slinging criticisms about the other characters. But he's also deeply embedded within their world, and he needs their resources, particularly Venis' access to computing power, to thrive. In the end, Jeff sells out his values for his own survival and well-being. AI skeptics have lobbed similar criticisms at the leaders of the main AI labs, including Altman—who started OpenAI as a nonprofit before attempting torestructurethe company—as well as DemisHassabisand Dario Amodei. Hassabis is the CEO of Google Deepmind and a winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; a rare scientist surrounded by businessmen and technologists. In order to try to achieve his AI dreams of curing disease and halting global warning, Hassabis enlisted with Google, inking a contract in 2014 in which he prohibited Google from using his technology for military applications. But that clause has since disappeared, and the AI systems developed under Hassabis arebeing sold, via Google, to militaries like Israel's. Read More:Demis Hassabis Is Preparing for AI's Endgame Another parallel can be drawn between Jeff and Amodei, an AI researcher who defected from OpenAI after becoming worried that the company was cutting back its safety measures, and then formed his own company, Anthropic. Amodei has urged governments to create AI guardrails and haswarnedabout the potentially catastrophic effects of the AI industry's race dynamics. But some havecriticizedAnthropic for operating similarly to OpenAI, prioritizing scale in a way that exacerbates competitive pressures. Every quartet needs its Turtle or its Ringo; a clear fourth wheel to serve as a punching bag for the rest of the group's alpha males.Mountainhead's hanger-on is Souper, thus named because he has soup kitchen money compared to the rest (hundreds of millions as opposed to billions of dollars). In order to prove his worth, he's fixated on getting funding for a meditation startup that he hopes will eventually become an "everything app." No tech exec would want to be compared to Souper, who has a clear inferiority complex. But plenty of tech leaders have emphasized the importance of meditation and mindfulness—including Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who often goes on meditation retreats. Armstrong, in his interview, declined to answer specific questions about his characters' inspirations, but conceded that some of the speculations were in the right ballpark. "For people who know the area well, it's a little bit of a fun house mirror in that you see something and are convinced that it's them," he says. "I think all of those people featured in my research. There's bits of Andreessen and David Sacks and some of those philosopher types. It's a good parlor game to choose your Frankenstein limbs." Contact usatletters@time.com.

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June 02, 2025

The Real Life Tech Execs That Inspired Jesse Armstrong’s 'Mountainhead'

The Real Life Tech Execs That Inspired Jesse Armstrong's 'Mountainhead' Jesse Armstrong loves to pull fictional stories out of r...

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Russia and Ukraine hold talks after drone strike hits Russian bombers

Russia and Ukraine hold talks after drone strike hits Russian bombers

Ukraine's shockdrone attack on Russian military air bases, including some deep inside Russian territory, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was secretly planned and coordinated from inside Russia over the past 18 months, seemed on Monday to have left the Kremlin speechless. Russia's state-run media cited the country's defense ministry as saying Monday that forces had struck Ukrainian drone production, launch and storage sites, and claiming to have shot down hundreds of Ukrainian-launched drones over the past 24 hours, but there was no direct public response from Russian authorities to the Ukrainian strike. While Ukraine haslaunched drones at Russia, including the capital Moscow, for months, as well as staging othercovert operations on Russian soil, the attack on Sunday was notable for its scope and scale. Ukraine claimed it had damaged or destroyed 41 Russian bomber aircraft at bases across the vast country. Ukrainian officials said the attack did not endanger any Russian civilians. It was also notable for its timing, a day before the two sides sat down face-to-face in Turkey for a second round of direct talks. Ukraine gains support as U.N. panel accuses Russia of war crimes The head of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency said in a statement on Tuesday that Russia "thought that it could bomb Ukraine and endlessly kill Ukrainians with impunity. But that is not the case. We will respond to Russian terror and destroy the enemy everywhere — at sea, in the air, and on land." SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk claimed in the statement that Ukraine had hit aircraft at four Russian bases, inflicting more than $7 billion worth of damage on Russia's bomber fleet. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow said Monday that Russia's air defenses had intercepted a total of 316 Ukrainian drones in 24 hours, which encompasses the time of Ukraine's attack. The Russian ministry said 205 of those drones were hit outside the "special operation zone," a term the Kremlin uses to refer to land it has seized since launching its full-scaleinvasion of Ukrainein February 2022. Ukrainian authorities said that, before dawn on Monday, Russia launched two ballistic missiles and a series of drones at the northeast city of Kharkiv, just miles from the Russian border, wounding at least six people, including a child. Separately, Russia's military claimed more than 1,400 Ukrainian troops were killed in northern Ukraine over the preceding day. Russia and Ukraine hold 2nd round of talks in Turkey Despite the sharp escalation in the war making any breakthrough appear even less likely than it had before, Russian and Ukrainian delegations did sit down opposite each other Monday in Istanbul for the second round of negotiations in a bid for peace. Ukraine's representatives, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, were expected to present a plan demanding a "full and unconditional ceasefire in the sky, on land and at sea as a necessary background and prerequisite for peace negotiations," the Reuters news agency said, citing a text of the Ukrainian proposal it had viewed. The proposed truce would last a minimum of 30 days, in line with calls made by the Trump administration previously. Ukraine was also expected to demand the unconditional return of all Ukrainian children and civilian hostages taken during the war, and that territorial gains made by Russia since February 2014, when Russia first invaded and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula, not be recognized by the international community. In return, Ukraine is open to the lifting of "some sanctions" imposed against Russia by the U.S. and its allies, "but in stages and only gradually, with a mechanism for resuming sanctions if necessary." The Ukrainians also want Russian sovereign assets frozen by Western nations to be used for reconstruction, or to remain frozen until reparations are paid. Moscow did not, going into the second round of talks on Monday, reveal any new conditions or terms for a hypothetical ceasefire. President Vladimir Putin's government has insisted for months that the only way to end the war is to address what it vaguely calls the conflict's "root causes." Russia insists the war, which Putin calls only a "special military operation," was caused by NATO's ambitions for further eastward expansion, and by Moscow's desire to defend Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the eastern part of the neighboring nation. Putin and his senior aides routinely dismiss pro-Europe, pro-NATO Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader of Ukraine. The Russian president has refused to accept his Ukrainian counterpart's challenge to hold direct personal talks, face-to-face. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Monday as the talks got underway that discussions over such a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting "will be considered." But there was no confirmation from either Ukraine or Russia that such a high-level dialogue was imminent. Instead, reports from Turkey suggested the second round of talks had concluded in just over an hour. Zelenskyy, who did not attend the negotiations, told reporters during a visit Monday to Lithuania, however, that a new prisoner swap between the warring sides was being organized. He did not say how far the planning for a swap had gone, but a significantexchange late last monthof about 1,000 captured civilians and prisoners of war was the only tangible result of the first round of talks between Russia and Ukraine. President Trump has voiced frustration with both Zelenskyy and Putin for failing to agree to a truce. During last year's election campaign, Mr. Trump vowed repeatedly to broker an end of the war within hours of taking office. The U.S. president recently issued rare sharp criticism of Putin,calling him "absolutely crazy"for continuing to hammer Ukrainian cities with missiles as the U.S. and its partners push for a peace agreement. Mr. Trump wondered in a social media post during the last prisoner swap whether it, "could lead to something big?" Russian officials were quoted by the country's state-run media as saying the two sides agreed on Monday to hold a third round of talks, but no date was set. The officials acknowledged that future prisoner swaps had been a key point of discussion, but Ukrainian officials said Russia had rejected the call for a broader 30-day ceasefire. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the second round of negotiations in Turkey on Monday, but the Trump administration did make it clear that Ukraine had given no advance warning of the Sunday drone attack ahead of those talks. The wonderfully weird world of artist Luigi Serafini Fans turn out for estate sale at home of Tom Petty Watch: Italy's Mount Etna volcano erupts, spewing hot ash and lava

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June 02, 2025

Russia and Ukraine hold talks after drone strike hits Russian bombers

Russia and Ukraine hold talks after drone strike hits Russian bombers Ukraine's shockdrone attack on Russian military air bases, includi...

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National Weather Service adding around 125 new hires after laying off hundreds

National Weather Service adding around 125 new hires after laying off hundreds

Afterlosing more than 560 employeesto layoffs and early retirement incentives earlier this year, the National Weather Service has received permission to hire about 125 new meteorologists and specialists for its forecast offices around the country, sources tell CNN, as anactive hurricane season looms. The temporary lifting of the federal hiring freeze for the agency could reduce the number of weather forecast offices that must cut back on their hours or no longer staff the overnight shift during periods of non-threatening weather. About half a dozen forecast centers are in that predicament right now, including facilities in Goodland, Kansas, and Sacramento, California. The news comes amid concerns that neither the NWS nor the Federal Emergency Management Agency are nearly as prepared for hurricane season as they have been in past years, and after a spate of deadly severe weather in the Midwest and South prompted speculation the staffing issues might have negatively affected tornado warning lead times. The new hires would not make up for all the personnel lost in the Trump administration's cutbacks to the NWS and its parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More offices are slated to transition to less-than-24/7 operations if additional staffing is not secured. The additional staff might allow the agency to boost the number of data-gathering weather balloon launches after a pronounced downturn due to the staffing shortage. Weather balloons are typically launched all over the world twice a day to provide crucial data for computer models used to help predict the weather, and fewer launches have sparked concern forecasts are being made less accurate. The weather service is also still moving forward with a stopgap measure of transferring meteorologists from well-staffed offices to ones that are down multiple meteorologists, radar technicians and other specialists. NOAA announced last month it was seeking 155 transfers to fill these "critical" positions. An NWS employee told CNN it is not yet clear if they will succeed in filling all the transfer positions, but they have received many applications. The new hiring will take place after the transfers are processed, the employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said. The new hires may include technicians, hydrologists and physical scientists in addition to meteorologists, according to Tom Di Liberto, a former NOAA employee with knowledge of the situation. The NWS is still seeking broader hiring authority under a public safety exemption, given the agency's mission to protect lives and property. Such a step, which has support among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, could allow for a more significant recovery in staffing levels. Hurricane season officially began on Sunday. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

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June 02, 2025

National Weather Service adding around 125 new hires after laying off hundreds

National Weather Service adding around 125 new hires after laying off hundreds Afterlosing more than 560 employeesto layoffs and early retir...

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