by Devin McCue, Sumner Newscow – Happy Monday. If you listened to Lil Dickey’s debut album, Professional Rapper then you remember an excellent song called Pillow Talking feat. Brain.  Well, Brain is back with his very own EP called I’m Brain with heavy features from Lil D.  The EP follows Lil Dickey’s thought process as he’s ironically making an album, making the entire thing Meta as any Deadpool comic.  With Lil D’s (aka the independent variable/aka homicide/aka the time traveler’s wife/aka rap game Walter White) wit and trademark bars, The Brain is a must-listen this week.  Luckily for all of us, Dickey negotiates with Brain and gets the last song titled How Can U Sleep all to himself with a monstrous feature from The Game.

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Remember that war in the 70s the U.S. didn’t win?  Well Hollywood sure remembers and came out with two films this week analyzing it.  The first, Vietnam War: a Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, premiered on PBS last night as the first installment in a series extending through Thursday, every night at 7 p.m.

I haven’t personally seen it, but the Cow himself says it’s definitely worth checking out.  The second film came from Netflix named First They Killed My Father.  It’s Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut and it is HEAVY. 

The story is told from the perspective of a five year-old daughter of a government official during the Cambodian Revolution.  A pretty understudied part of American history, the Cambodian Revolution was a result of Nixon’s (illegal) bombing campaign against the communist forces in Cambodia that ironically only gained power because the citizens were mad at the U.S. for bombing them.

Since we see the conflict through the eyes of a child we aren’t privy to the major historical details of the war, only the tragedies the girl’s family is subjected to because of it.

First They Killed My Father is another critical slam-dunk for Netflix that was lauded at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year and marks the film debut for all six of the director’s children.

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On a lighter note, Netflix also came out with a new true-crime mockumentary called American Vandal.  The new show takes shots at shows like Making a Murderer, every first-48 type of show, and any other dramatized reality crime program.  The crime in question is a mass act of vandalism against the high school teacher’s cars.

I’ll leave the specifics of the crime to the show, but needless to say it’s a stiff crime.  Personally I think Dylan, the accused, is innocent, but I still have six episodes left to find out.  American Vandal is exactly what you’d expect if you gave Netflix-grade professional video equipment and a multi-million dollar budget to a group of high school students and it’s a riveting mystery for the ages.

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Returning for its second and final season, HBO’s Vice Principals is back with a vengeance. Literally.  Danny McBride’s character Vice Principal Gamby and his co-conspirator Principle Russell (expertly played by Walton Goggins) as they look for the shooter from the season finally of season 1.

If you haven’t seen Vice Principals before, cancel whatever you have to do for the rest of the day, call off work, tell the kids to walk home from school, and get caught up.  There’s only 2 seasons of this hilarious farce and we need to appreciate it while we still can.

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In rap/EDM fusion genre news: Goodish EP by Deraj dropped out of nowhere this weekend.  Dejraj and his several features (each of which I’ve also never heard of) sing and rhyme over definitively a EDM tracks, which makes it hard to nail them down to any one category.  The fusion is surprisingly very good and much better than the name of the EP implies.

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For those who really care about award shows, the 69^th Annual Emmys were last night.  The results were predictable, but another let down for network television.  Network shows haven’t won an Emmy for Best Drama since 2006 and some thought ABC’s This is Us had a real shot.

The Emmys at this point just further prove that network television is on the way out and streaming services are the future for the silver screen.  One notable win, however was Julia Louis-Dreyfus for her role in HBO’s Veep.  The win makes Dreyfus the holder of the most Emmys in a leading role and the champion of TV forever and ever amen.  Veep also won Best Comedy once again.  The results of the most important awards are as follows:

Best Comedy: “Veep” (HBO)

Best Drama: “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)

Best Limited Series: “Big Little Lies” (HBO)

Best Actress, Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” (HBO)

Best Actor, Comedy: Donald Glover, “Atlanta” (FX)

Best Actress, Drama: Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)

Best Actor, Drama: Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us” (NBC)

Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie: Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)

Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Riz Ahmed, “The Night Of” (HBO)

Meme of the Week

I unfortunately can’t look at every meme that dominates the internet every week, so if you see a meme and think it should be the meme of the week please send it to: SumnerCultureCow@gmail.com

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