Picture this: it’s the evening of April 26, 2019, and even the most remote theaters across North America are packed to the brim with Marvel devotees of all prestige. You and your momentary brethren have taken breath after shaky breath as the current situation (namely, Thanos’ attack on the Avengers compound) seems to escalate in favor of the Mad Titan with every passing moment. Then, the staticky voice of Sam Wilson reverberates around the theater, and indeed, the world; “on your left.”

It’s now every patron’s heartbeat that’s escalating as the Guardians of the Galaxy, the warriors of Wakanda, and just about every Infinity Saga mainstay leaps into the fray behind Captain America. With everyone—not least of whom Sam—now back at his side, all it took was one, herculean whisper of “Avengers, Assemble” to fan the flames sparked by Sam into one of the most sensational blazes of a cinematic battlefield the world has ever seen.

And now, five years after the theatrical release of Avengers: Endgame, “on your left” has cemented itself as one of the most kinetically definitive quotes in the history of the MCU, and it’s not at all difficult to see why.

“On your left” belongs to the MCU

It is, of course, easy to mark “Avengers, Assemble” as the major tentpole of a soundbyte prior to that final confrontation with Thanos (and by golly, did Chris Evans ever sell the moment to perfection). The thing is, though, Captain America has been rhyming off that call to action since before the majority of the MCU faithful had been conceived (the Avengers first appeared in comics in the fall of 1963). In no way does this diminish the quality of the line, but the weight of the moment effectively wrote itself, given the historic, pre-MCU reputation of the declaration.

“On your left” didn’t have that same foundation; the quote was a beast of Marvel Studios’ own making, and it has no one but itself to thank for nailing this callback so succinctly, subtly, and evocatively. “On your left” was, of course, the first words that Sam and Steve ever shared with one another on-screen after encountering one another on a public running track in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While they were both using the track to exercise, the profoundly-roided Steve lapped Sam several times over, marking each instance by calling out “on your left” whenever he was about to pass Sam; a friendly jest that was just the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper trust between the two men.

With friends like Sam…

While no one can quite replace Bucky in Steve’s heart, the friendship he shares with Sam is of equal—if not greater—importance to Steve’s character arc, and subsequently the wider themes that the Avengers encapsulate as a team. When the world quite literally turned against Steve during the events of The Winter Soldier, Sam was a crucial lifeline for him to turn to, later aiding Steve, Natasha, and Nick Fury against a then-brainwashed Bucky and a largely compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. agency.

From then on, Sam remained one of Steve’s most readily steadfast allies, sticking with him through Ultron, the Avengers’ in-fighting, right up until the last breath he would breathe for five years in Infinity War. And while everyone needs a great friend, Steve—the perennial man out of time who left everything he knew back in the 40s and therefore certainly dealt with a unique breed of loneliness—was perhaps in need of someone like Sam more than anyone.

How appropriate, then, that it’s Sam who’s the first to greet Steve when he and the rest of Earth’s newly-revived champions begin to portal themselves to ground zero of Thanos’ attack, the fire in each of their eyes screaming that they’re all but ready to stand behind Steve’s leadership once more, united together—bonds of all shapes and intensities between them—against the most impossible odds yet. And at the heart of this maze of allies sat Sam, whose bond with Steve knew very few equals; a bond that began with “on your left.”

If Marvel Studios is smart, they’ll have worked overtime to ensure that “on your left” didn’t make its way into the script of Captain America: Brave New World, where Sam is set to carry the legacy of the star-spangled shield in the biggest way yet. It’s one thing to wink at the audience with a callback, but it’s quite another to make that callback mean something so deeply important to the characters as well; that was the homegrown strength of “on your left,” and was but one piece of the masterfully-crafted conclusion that Avengers: Endgame was to the undisputed golden era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s been just over two weeks since it first reared its head on Netflix, and Baby Reindeer still seems to be the unequivocal talk of the town, and for good reason. Between its intelligent writing, digestible length, and a slew of actors whose careers will hopefully soar after this, Richard Gadd’s miniseries is a not-so-hidden gem.

One of the biggest reasons the show has blown up as much as it has is its fundamentally provocative material. The compassionate way in which it handles its subject matter is second to none, but the sheer bluntness of the events themselves make Baby Reindeer impossible for anyone to look away from, and that includes Stephen King. The legendary horror author has never been shy about sharing his Netflix adventures with us all, and his Baby Reindeer plunge was no exception.

So, what exactly did King have to say about it?

What did Stephen King think of Baby Reindeer?

With a momentary flick of his thumbs, King offered up his sentiments on Baby Reindeer with just two words, and it’s the only two words anyone really needs to get their point about this show across.

Holy s***, indeed. It may not be clear whether King is talking about Gadd’s raw vulnerability, the grounded, explosive-yet-simmering fear factor of it all, or the grotesquely unsettling beauty we bear witness to as Donny comes out the other end of this story. But then again, he doesn’t really need to be specific, does he?

Baby Reindeer is currently streaming in full on Netflix.

Ah, April 26; the designated national day for honoring pretzels, kids and pets, and historic markers of all time-specific prestige.

The theatrical releases of Challengers and Boy Kills World are happening today, marking two of the latest inductees into the pop culture sphere of “on this day” observances, but what else does this fine spring morning have to offer up from its past?

Avengers: Endgame releases to theaters

Don’t let yesterday’s Twitter/X trend fool you too much. It’s true that Marvel Studios’ peerless juggernaut dropped in UK cinemas yesterday, but the film would arrive a day later in the United States and India on this day, April 26, in 2019.

With a worldwide box office gross of $2.799 billion, Avengers: Endgame shot to the top of the world as the highest-grossing movie in history, a title that would be taken away in 2021 when James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi film Avatar re-released to theaters in China (at the time of writing, Avatar‘s total gross numbers $2.923 billion).

To this day, Endgame remains both Marvel Studios’ greatest achievement, and a symbol of its greatest weakness. Having been armed with 22 movies’ worth of character development that served the characters first and the continuity second, Endgame thrived on organic emotional weight combined with its much more visible, unprecedented crossover factor. Post-Endgame, however, the MCU has made the fatal mistake of serving its continuity first and its characters second, perhaps in hopes of fast-tracking to another Endgame-sized event as though under the false pretense that the cameos drove the franchise’s power during those first couple phases.

Here’s hoping, then, that the MCU quits looking at Endgame with envy and instead uses it as honest inspiration for the next Endgame’s foundation.

Channing Tatum’s birthday

Today marks the arrival of one Channing Matthew Tatum into the world back in 1980. The now-44-year-old actor has since gifted us numerous memorable performances, from his debut in 2005’s Coach Carter as Jason Lyle to what will no doubt be a captivatingly insidious turn as Slater King in Blink Twice, due in theaters this summer.

Perhaps Tatum’s most prolific roles were Greg Jenko in the Jump Street film series, where he starred alongside Jonah Hill as the muscle-headed half of the outrageous undercover cop duo, and the eponymous Mike Lane in the Magic Mike film series. The original Magic Mike, of course, was inspired by Tatum’s own experiences working as a male stripper, and the actor has since starred in and produced all three films in the trilogy (Magic Mike XXL followed the original 2012 film in 2015, while the final entry, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, hit theaters in early 2023).

Seven Samurai came along, and the world forever changed

Today, Akira Kurosawa is known as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in history. Back in 1954, Kurosawa was known as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of that time, and “of that time” officially became “in history” following the release of Seven Samurai on this day, April 26, later that year.

Despite a tumultuous, year-long shoot, Seven Samurai would go on to become one of the most revered works in cinema, topping the BBC’s 2018 international critics’ poll of greatest foreign-language features of all time and informing the language employed by an innumerable number of films that came after it (including Rebel Moon, according to Zack Snyder; luckily, Kurosawa isn’t around anymore to see those movies).

So, if you’ve got six and a half hours on your hands today, go boot up an Avengers: Endgame/Seven Samurai double feature, and go buy yourself a birthday cake in honor of Channing Tatum to eat while watching. Happy April 26 from all of us at We Got This Covered!

Recently, the internet has played host to a now-viral video in which several women are asked the question of whether they would rather be alone in the woods with a man or with a bear, with all of the women in the video saying that they would prefer a bear.

With that gong sounded, TikTok quickly delved into a pretty severe debate, with a swath of mostly male TikTokkers arguing that it makes no sense to prefer being stuck in the woods with a bear over a man and ridiculing those who answered as such. Mostly women, meanwhile, have countered with statistics and personal accounts of how much more likely it is that a man will attack them over a bear, further pointing out that the worst a bear will do is kill them.

I’ll spare you the less-savory comments on the above videos; they’re exactly what you expect, and also entirely miss the point around why this video exists and has gone viral in the first place. Many such commenters, I presume, are looking at the question of “man or bear,” and hopping on a line of thought such as, “Well, anyone would stand a much better chance against a bear than a man, so why would anyone prefer the bear?” I direct you back to the second paragraph about how the worst a bear would do to a woman is kill them.

They may counter with, “But not all men would attack a woman, and how do you know the bear wouldn’t attack you?” From the woman’s point of view in this hypothetical situation, there’s no telling how likely it is that she’ll be attacked, regardless of whether the other party is a man or a bear. So once again, the deciding factor is that the worst a bear will to do a woman is kill them.

Further still, they may say something like, “I’m uncomfortable with my demographic getting generalized alongside serial rapists and murderers,” and while that’s a perfectly normal thing to feel discomfort over, it perhaps highlights the number one problem with these mostly male responses: they are taking the discomfort of women personally instead of asking themselves why women might feel this way.

Throughout these comments, you’ll find people telling the women in the above TikToks to go run to a bear and hug it, to go live with bears if they’re so much safer than men, and other such sentiments. The thing is, women don’t want to be stuck in the woods with either a man or a bear, hence the “hypothetical” part of this hypothetical situation wherein the woman is trapped in the woods and only has a say in who she’s trapped with.

And yet, the first response that those commenters seemed to have beyond interpreting female trauma as personal rejection is that the bears should be entitled to the women instead, not realizing that women don’t want anyone to feel entitled to them. This can be tied back to the fact that there is a 100% chance that a bear — any random bear — will not feel entitled to a woman either emotionally or physically; with any random man, that number is lower than 100.

Men, none of these women are saying that you, specifically, are a rapist. What they are saying is that history and personal experience has led them to be afraid of men, because at the end of the day, women have no way of knowing if they’re one rejection away from winding up dead in a ditch somewhere, or worse. It doesn’t matter how universally affable you may be as an individual, because it has nothing to do with you; it has to do with the experience that women have by just existing in this world, and they’re absolutely entitled to that fear just as much as you’re entitled to feeling uncomfortable about that aforementioned generalization (trust me, though, that generalization has existed in the minds of women decades, perhaps centuries longer than when you first learned of it, and with good, if tragic, reason).

So instead of taking women’s fear personally and feeling entitled to their comfort (be it comfort around you or receiving comfort from her), show compassion and empathy toward that fear, talk to the women in your life in the hopes that you’ll gain a better understanding of why they feel the way they do, and know that this has nothing to do with bears at all.

Indeed, it’s easy to get caught up in the sensationalist bait that Martha’s antics admittedly invite in some way, but Baby Reindeer‘s strength lies not in the entertaining shocks, but in the deconstruction of the nuances that surround said shocks. It draws us in with “I can’t believe that just happened,” perhaps, but it’s the “Why is this happening” that truly keeps our attention throughout.

If Baby Reindeer somehow didn’t keep your attention throughout, or you’ve made the wise decision of preparing yourself as firmly as possible before watching, here’s what happens at the miniseries’ climax.

How does Baby Reindeer end?

After Donny’s candid act at the comedy show, in which he opens up about everything that’s been plaguing his life and emotions, a video of his performance goes viral, and Donny is fielding call after interview after festival invite shortly after. This new high crashes a bit after Martha manages to get Donny’s phone number, which leads to a whole new echelon of harassment that peaks when she threatens to tell Donny’s parents about his sexual trauma and out him as bisexual. Donny confides in his parents before she can do that, however, and they receive him warmly.

Donny begins recording and transcribing Martha’s messages, one of which includes a stabbing threat towards his parents. Armed with this, Donny is finally able to get the police to take his case seriously, and Martha is taken to prison. The last time Donny ever sees her is when she’s led out of the courtroom by police.

Donny’s mental health begins to deteriorate, mourning both his unsalvageable relationship with his ex-girlfriend Teri and the sense of perverted, kinetic normalcy that Martha’s presence had once offered him. He copes by listening to Martha’s voicemails in order to make a timeline for the last two years of his life, but finds another lifeline in Keeley, who asks him to move back in with her mother, which he does. After moving in, he goes to the apartment of Darrien — the man who sexually assaulted him — with the intention of confronting him about his actions. Instead, however, he winds up chatting nonchalantly with and accepting a writing job from Darrien. He leaves the apartment shortly after and has a panic attack on the street.

Finally, Donny goes to a nearby bar and listens to a voicemail from Martha explaining why she always called him “Baby Reindeer” and his heart breaks for her. He orders a drink, realizes he forgot his wallet, and is offered the drink on the house by an attractive bartender.

Baby Reindeer ending analysis

The series ends with the most overwhelming assertion yet, which it champions throughout; namely, the profound human complexities that inform how we behave, and how we respond to said behavior when we’re involved with it.

As Donny’s many narrated monologues make clear, the way that people behave have absolutely nothing to do with the people they involve in said behavior, and instead has everything to do with who they themselves are as a person. Furthermore, a person’s path to truly defining themselves is both informed and hindered by the experiences that they’ve had, depending on what stage they’re at in defining themselves. Prior to his aforementioned comedy act, Donny’s traumatic experiences (namely, the stalking and sexual abuse) were effectively controlling him with shame and fear, which damaged his relationship with Teri because of how those emotions caused him to act toward her (Teri, of course, internalized his actions, and that cycle continued). By giving language to his experiences in his very public act, however, Donny was able to take control of them for the first time and subsequently took the first step needed to rectify his relationship with himself; one where he wouldn’t feel ashamed of his sexuality, among other things.

Martha was not so lucky, however; her voicemail to Donny about why she called him “Baby Reindeer” indicates many a horrid experience in her past, ones that led her to behaviors that were not only harmful to herself, but quite severe to others as well. Donny, now intimate with that trauma-to-behavior dynamic, empathizes with Martha even more than he once did, even though he had to send her away for the safety of him and his family. Moreover, Donny seemingly wouldn’t have gone down this path of healing had he not met Martha and endured her behavior, so perhaps a small part of him feels grateful for Martha and wishes it never had to come to prison time for her given that she very clearly needs the help Donny inadvertently received.

It all comes to a front in that final scene, where Donny is given a free drink at the bar because the bartender felt sorry for him, much like how he became entangled with Martha because he gave her a free drink out of pity. It goes to show, then, that we’re all pretty much the same; we all do bad things because of bad things that were done to us, and we mistakenly make those bad things a part of who we are, rather than recognizing them as the emotional hurdles that stand in the way of who we actually are. Let’s just hope that Donny doesn’t become the new Martha now that a kindly bartender has extended an empathetic freebie.

In short, Baby Reindeer is important, and all seven episodes are available to stream on Netflix.

Those of you who went into Baby Reindeer expecting Rudolph’s origin story (spoiler alert: all the other reindeer, scoundrels that they are, used to laugh and call him names) may have been taken aback by what truly laid behind the promo card of Netflix‘s hit miniseries.

That surprise, of course, probably gave way to a whole other surprise in the blink of an eye; a surprise that haunts the mind, shatters the heart, and gains one’s respect in just seven, relatively brief episodes. Indeed, it’s no wonder that everyone’s bananas for Baby Reindeer.

So, who do we have to thank for dreaming up this serialized jolt to the nerves?

Who wrote Baby Reindeer?

Well, first of all, Baby Reindeer was only partially dreamed up; the series is based on the real-life experiences of comedian Richard Gadd, who created the series and wrote all seven episodes. Gadd also stars as the main character Donny, a fictionalized version of himself. Directing duties, meanwhile, were shared between Weronika Tofilska, who directed episodes one through four, and Josephine Bornebusch, who helmed the remaining three.

Baby Reindeer wasn’t Gadd’s first encounter with the streaming giant, either; the comedian also has a co-screenwriting for the thirteenth episode of Baby Reindeer‘s fellow Netflix darling Sex Education, which he shares with Laurie Nunn.

Gadd originally conceived Baby Reindeer as a one-man play, which would go on to win an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre. Netflix came calling shortly after, and now Baby Reindeer is known as that miniseries that’s shooting to the top of the world. There’s certainly a chance for that reputation to evolve by way of an awards season run down the line, too.

All seven episodes of Baby Reindeer are available to watch on Netflix.

Remember when Kevin Feige said he wanted the Marvel Cinematic Universe to still be going strong over 80 years from now? Now, Kevin, it’s bold of you assume that society, and by extension film franchises, will be going strong 80 years from now. Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful dream, even if most of us would be quicker to hope for 80 more years of X-Men ’97.

Indeed, while Earth-199999 continues to recalibrate itself, Beau DeMayo‘s mutant-centric masterpiece has been deadlifting Marvel Studios’ reputation for over a month now, and we’ve still got an epic, three-part finale to work through at the time of writing.

The question is, then; when all is said and done, how many of X-Men ’97‘s hearty creative calories will we have consumed?

How many episodes of X-Men ’97 will there be?

By the time season one of X-Men ’97 has concluded, 10 episodes will have greeted us. This is far from the final answer, however, as a second season is currently in production as we speak, and a third season stands by in development.

Whether or not the following seasons will also consist of 10 episodes is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t be a terribly unsafe bet. The real question is whether season three will be able to keep the show’s momentum — and, subsequently, the demand — going.

Indeed, with season one and two having been spearheaded by the now-fired Beau DeMayo (the reason for his firing remains undeclared), whose writing is entirely responsible for making ’97 as sensational as it is, time will only tell if his season three successor can pull off something similar. That assumes, of course, that Marvel Studios doesn’t welcome DeMayo back before then.

X-Men ’97 is currently streaming on Disney Plus, with new episodes releasing every Wednesday until the season finale on May 15.

With a year that seems to be flying by, the end of July will be on our doorsteps before we know it, and with it the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s lone bastion of 2024 in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Until that day, many questions will be begged; is the film really going to pull a Marvel Jesus and lead the Feigeverse to salvation? What are the implications of this influx of legacy mutants into the MCU? When will Cassandra Nova rear her head again (because if she’s a one-off villain, riots will ensue)? What could possibly await in the inevitable mid- and post-credits scenes when the whole movie is the most unprecedented cameo-fest as is?

All this and more will be answered in due time. Speaking of, how much time will we be spending with Wade and Logan over the course of their feature-length teamup?

How long is Deadpool & Wolverine?

While there’s no official confirmation on Deadpool & Wolverine‘s runtime as of yet, the popular scuttlebutt making its rounds on the web is that the film will clock in at just over two hours, which is a strong educated guess just as much as it’s a rumor.

Indeed, of the 33 released films within the MCU, 21 of them range between two hours and two-and-a-half hours, with just eight running for under two hours, and the remaining four (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Eternals, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Avengers: Endgame) either meeting or exceeding two-and-a-half hour runtimes. Suffice to say, then, that even though Deadpool & Wolverine‘s length isn’t officially confirmed, we can probably rest easy in the assumption that we’re in for 120+ minutes of red and yellow spandex in our faces.

Deadpool & Wolverine slices and dices into theaters on July 26.

By now, we all know Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Leta Lestrange, and Angel Salvadore once upon a time. Later this year, however, the actress will be taking on a new name; directorial debutant.

We all knew this was coming at some point, with news of her working title, Pussy Island, having made the rounds on the entertainment circuit for exactly the reason you’d think. That film, however, was given a brand new title (again, exactly for the reason you’d think).

And with a brand new trailer for the newly-titled Blink Twice having shuttered its way onto the internet, we’ve finally gotten a delectable impression of Kravitz’s prowess as a filmmaker. Couple that with such talent as Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum leading the acting charge on this one, and this summer’s psychological thriller slate may have just been beefed up in a big way here.

With that out of the way, here’s everything you need to know about Blink Twice.

What is Blink Twice about?

Blink Twice stars Ackie as a cocktail waitress named Frida who manages to catch the attention of one Slater King (Tatum), an elite tech mogul who owns a private island. Before long, she shortly finds herself whisked away to said island with a group of friends, becoming acquainted with Slater’s own inner circle shortly after. But when uncanny events and memory holes begin working themselves into the equation, Frida’s attraction to Slater quickly gives way to a sense of danger.

Who stars in Blink Twice?

Alongside Ackie and Tatum, Blink Twice‘s cast boasts such names as Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Kyle MacLachlan, among others.

In addition to directing, Kravitz also co-wrote the script with one E.T. Feigenbaum. She also produces alongside Rustin producer Bruce Cohen.

When does Blink Twice release?

Blink Twice drops into theaters in the United States on August 23.

We have once again been reminded that Deadpool & Wolverine is closing in on us as the only major theatrical release coming out of Marvel Studios this year. And by golly, the studio seems all but determined to make this one count like never before.

Indeed, whether or not the film will fulfill its glorious purpose as “Marvel Jesus” by paving the way to a less-disappointing future remains to be seen, but the hype factor in Deadpool & Wolverine‘s latest trailer especially is off the charts; gore, big-screen TVA shenanigans, and a swath of Fox universe characters await.

Of course, we probably won’t see every Fox character set foot into this cross-dimensional romp of a superhero flick.

Is Dafne Keen in Deadpool & Wolverine?

For those of you not in the know, Dafne Keen portrayed X-23 (aka Laura, aka Talon), the somewhat-biological daughter of Wolverine, in the 2017 film Logan. Interestingly, Logan would have been the last film that Hugh Jackman portrayed the Canadian mutant in had Deadpool & Wolverine not come calling.

Naturally, since Keen had such a major role in the single greatest Fox universe X-Men film, folks are wondering if she could pop back up as X-23 in Deadpool & Wolverine. All bets are off until the film actually releases, but you still probably shouldn’t count on it.

We know she isn’t among the confirmed cast members, but that alone is hardly evidence for her absence. However, among Deadpool & Wolverine‘s cast members who are confirmed is Elektra (yes, from those early-2000s movies), who has yet to turn up in any trailer despite us knowing that she’ll be there. All that to say it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep Keen’s X-23 as a major surprise cameo when Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, who would certainly upstage X-23 in that vein, is already confirmed to appear.

Furthermore, Deadpool & Wolverine seems to want to toy with the events of Logan as little as possible, and roping X-23 into the mix would probably bring that goal crashing all the way down; including Jackman’s Wolverine puts it in choppy waters as is.

The long and short of it is that Keen doesn’t appear to be part of the call sheet, and the reason for that is because she probably isn’t in the film.

Deadpool & Wolverine spices up theaters on July 26.

If there’s one thing that Baby Reindeer has made more mincemeat of than Netflix’s viewership charts, it’s the tear ducts of all those viewers who helped make those numbers what they were. Indeed, Richard Gadd’s uncompromising adaptation of his autobiographical one-man show is poignant, devastating, intellectually compassionate, and, above all, brilliant; here’s hoping it proves to be a hearty springboard as Gadd and his collaborators continue their creative careers.

One such collaborator was Nava Mau, who portrayed the character Teri in the show; a character who was absolutely pivotal in allowing Donny — and, by extension, the audience — to both knowingly and unknowingly examine, intensify, and subsequently relax the grip that the main character’s profoundly woven trauma had on him.

Who is Teri in Baby Reindeer?

Teri is the name of the trans woman that Donny begins dating in private as the Martha situation begins to fan its flames. Their relationship over the course of the show is a tumultuous one, given that Donny initially gave her a fake name for himself, confides in her about the aforementioned Martha situation (which Teri gets dangerously roped into), and generally finds himself grappling with both his love for Teri, and the external shame and trauma that renders him unable to love her the way she needs and deserves. By the end of the show, Teri has broken up with Donny completely, and has moved on.

But here’s the kicker: Teri, a trans character, is actually a fully-fleshed out character; she’s sarcastic, confident, and hilarious, and also has trauma of her own that greatly conflicts with the way Donny treats her throughout the show; trauma that she isn’t afraid to acknowledge.

Herein lies the artistic prowess of Baby Reindeer‘s handling of a trans character; it neither haphazardly tosses Teri into the mix as a solitary object of Donny’s reluctant affection, nor does it meekly exclude Teri’s transness from its very real role in the show’s subject matter. Teri is attacked and told she looks like a man by Martha, and sends Donny running when she asks to be kissed in public, but at no point is Teri ever portrayed as an object of pity or the butt of a joke; we see and hear very clearly the harm that these things cause to Teri, and we empathize with her. And because of those experiences and what has no doubt been a long, difficult road for Teri over the course of her life, she of course assumes that Donny’s inability to make love to her is rooted in her transness rather than Donny’s own sexual trauma; a mistake on her part, perhaps, but also one that she was more or less forced to make given Donny’s silence on the matter. Toss in the fact that Donny specifically sought out a trans partner because of his unexamined shame only to meet the most singular woman of his dreams (who, again, he was unable to love properly because of his trauma), and it’s clear long before Donny’s episode six monologue that Teri offered perhaps the single most crucial push for Donny’s ultimate confrontation of his demons.

In other words, Teri is the trans woman character in Baby Reindeer, and she just might be one of the best there ever was.

Baby Reindeer is now streaming in full on Netflix.

The latest trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine has weaseled its way out of Marvel Studios and into our arms, yet again promising a particularly R-rated divergence from the Feige fare we’ve (mostly begrudgingly) grown accustomed to in the last year or so.

Indeed, Marvel’s cameo game may be stronger than ever this time around, but with its surplus of gore, naughty language, and a very vocal assertation that it will be the birthplace of many firsts for Disney, Deadpool & Wolverine will, at the very least, be unlike anything we’ve seen from Marvel Studios before.

In fact, some people seem to be wondering what that bold “LFG” in the closing moments of the trailer stood for, which implies that Deadpool & Wolverine may have a lot more innocence to shatter than expected.

What does LFG stand for?

As not so subtly alluded to moments before those three letters show up, LFG is an acronym for “let’s f***ing go.” If you’ve been frequenting the internet for at least a few months and have still somehow missed this memo, that’s a truly impressive feat, although I can’t say I envy you.

In any case, it certainly encapsulates the tongue-in-cheek, boisterous, blood-soaked confidence with which Deadpool & Wolverine is barreling towards its release date, and with any luck, we’ll all be screaming the exact same sentiments upon leaving the theater. Indeed, if Marvel Studios isn’t back in business after this one, a despairing curtain call may not be far off.

Deadpool & Wolverine slides into theaters on July 26.